Edheads virtual stomach surgery0
[PIL] #1307 5/15/2024
2024.05.15 21:04 Purtle [PIL] #1307 5/15/2024
Purtle's Internet Lineup for May 15th, 2024 3:05pm
Pics:
submitted by Purtle to Purtle [link] [comments]
Pics:
- Vtuber- "Thank you for adding new costumes. Anyway, for the next costume, I think it would be good if it shows his stomach. Please consider this. - Tokoyami Towa (Virtual YouTuber with > 1M followers) https://twitter.com/hifightth/status/1790642737336971699?t=-J3tu6ymibIDG1yparFIuw
- Difference I didn't expect to find between the east coast and westcoast. East coast makes roads in valleys around mountains, west coast makes roads over ridgelines???? [thread] https://twitter.com/KayinNasaki/status/1790585372994318846
- Pokemon news
- Entei Research Event - Entei is almost here and you have the chance to encounter it, along with other Fire-Type Pokémon, in our newest Research Event! And don't miss out on the x1.5 Drowsy Power bonus on the final day, June 2! https://twitter.com/PokemonSleep/status/1790783442067579187
- Missed your chance, happens to the best of us. https://twitter.com/Slaynman/status/1790257115044749457
- King Charles portrait of himself - this the type of shit you see hanging on top of a guy's throne in Elden Ring and then the dude's called 'Morgorem, Bloodrot Baron' and he lives in the 'Sanguine Temple of Decay' https://twitter.com/DemonfireTanto/status/1790499913379324250
- Game Boy games now on Nintendo Switch Online: -Super Mario Land, -Baseball, -Alleyway [1:37] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeYLP5uerGQ&ab_channel=NintendoofAmerica
- twitter version [1;37] https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1790548123128836558
- jpn got an extra game https://twitter.com/Nintendo/status/1790553105337397571
- Puzzle & Dragons News: May 2024 [6:22] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB2qluoH1fc
- Street Fighter 6 - Rashid, A.K.I., Ed, Akuma Outfit 3 Showcase Trailer [1:03] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bklcJ8uiuMY
- Netflix, Apple TV+ and Peacock will team up to form their own streaming bundle through Comcast. Will be offered at a “vastly reduced price” https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1790369668894519478
- aka - THIS IS JUST CABLE https://twitter.com/kiirobon/status/1790379494190076017
- Liz Cheney Drops the Mic on House Speaker Mike Johnson for Attending Trump's Trial: “Have to admit I’m surprised that Speaker Johnson wants to be in the 'I cheated on my wife with a porn star' club.’” https://old.reddit.com/inthenews/comments/1cry6hx/liz_cheney_drops_the_mic_on_house_speaker_mike/
- Trump investigated over $1 billion 'quid pro quo' deal with big oil https://old.reddit.com/inthenews/comments/1csi1nu/trump_investigated_over_1_billion_quid_pro_quo/
- Scientists have discovered that individuals who are particularly good at learning patterns and sequences tend to struggle with tasks requiring active thinking and decision-making. https://old.reddit.com/science/comments/1csh3eh/scientists_have_discovered_that_individuals_who/
- Google - We’ve launched a new “Web” filter that shows only text-based links, just like you might filter to show other types of results, such as images or videos. The filter appears on the top of the results page alongside other filters or as part of the “More” option, rolling out today and tomorrow globally…. https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/1790473952256786805
- In 2024: - C++ added a print function - Google added a web search https://twitter.com/Sosowski/status/1790622597194907769
2024.05.15 09:41 Chris_Thompson7951 Limerence. The Heart's Cocaine. Can it turn a casual dalliance into a life destroying addiction to chasing the un·ob·tain·a·ble?
It was late November 2015. I was 51 and one year past my divorce (which was not related to cheating) when I became so disgusted with myself that I knew I had to pick myself up. I was alone for the long holiday, and although I wasn't really sad or lonely, I felt empty. However, I had some extra time to consider how does one picks oneself up.
I made a list of potential New Year resolutions that were individually realistic. Some were really easy and stupid like “have your chipped front tooth fixed” and “take & post a selfie”. These smaller tasks fueled my confidence and provided the energy boosts needed to tackle the more challenging resolutions, like starting a weight loss challenge at work.
Skip ahead to March 4th 2016. I had a Friday lunch date with a married client that I met two weeks prior. Of course, it was not a real date, as I wouldn't impose myself on a married woman, nor would I risk my career or my ego, especially if the signals she seemed to be sending were just a product of my wishful thinking, stimulated by checking off some boxes on the list on the fridge dated 1/1/16.
The following is my thank you note to her for a great date as well as for helping me check a lot of boxes over the past few weeks. I sent her a link to it as it is in the form of my first ever online post (one more check box, YAY!).
************************************** We were only 1 minute in the hotel room; her jeans in a ball on the floor. She sat at the foot of the king sized bed and backed her way into the stack of oversized pillows lining the headboard. I followed as If attached by a leash. I landed somewhat awkwardly on my elbows between her legs finding myself squarely face to face with the tattoo. This tattoo, that she so shamelessly revealed just a week ago, the same tattoo that has been scorching my thoughts and the same tattoo that she promised me complete and unlimited access.
It’s been a long time since I have been here or anywhere near as nice as here, between the legs of a beautiful woman 20 years younger and far out of my league....even when I was her age. I took a second to drink in my fortunate situation. I admired her panties. All day I was so hoping she would wear those same panties as before. She didn’t. These were different but similar enough. The delicate lace and silk perfectly framed the tattoo on her hip. She did not disappoint. There is a fruity jasmine scent, intoxicatingly pleasant, and oh so subtle. It is not here. I’ll need to find its source. I want more of that. (I remember being thoroughly impressed and thinking to myself “This girl is good”.)
I briefly forgot that there was someone else here besides myself and the tattoo. How long have I been down here perving out on her? I wondered. I hesitated, and then apologetically looked up half expecting a well-deserved snarky glare. What I found instead was an ear to ear compassionate smile followed by a tilt of her head and an arch of her eyebrow that said “I like that you like that, carry on”.
With confidence restored that we were still in sync, I adjusted myself so that I was in a good position to thoroughly enjoy what I came to do. I kissed the tattoo hard and gave it a good lick. The challenge for today was “Taste the Tattoo” and I won. I did a small celebration gesture that she rolled her eyes to. I continued to kiss and taste all around until every freckle got some personal attention. As I got to the upper most reaches of her inner thighs, I looked up to check in as I was about to cross a new line. For the first time she was not looking back at me but had laid her head back deep into the pillows, her eyes closed. I took that as a yes!
I marveled at the softness of her inner thighs on my cheeks as I gently placed kisses up one and down the other. As I kissed her through her panties, her hips responded by arching her up in anticipation of each next kiss. Before long, those wonderful panties were just getting in the way. I stopped and pondered whether to just slide them aside or remove them or to risk interrupting the mood and attempt a complete wardrobe removal as we were both still fully dressed except for her jeans.
I didn’t have to ponder long as she knew what she wanted and it was not any of the options I was considering. Still lying back with her head semi submerged within the pillows, she held out her arms as if gesturing for a hug. I moved up her body and when I got close enough she pulled me in for a kiss.
Unbelievably, this was our first kiss. I found it odd that we had not kissed yet and was grateful she thought to stop for a moment to have a kiss. We kissed some and then I settled in to thoroughly enjoy it. However, the kiss to come was not the kiss I was expecting or a kiss I was ready for. It was a kiss that could ruin everything.
Technically, there was one kiss before. It was an awkward kiss 5-10 minutes earlier just after we entered the room. All in about the time it took for the hotel door to close behind us, she tossed her bag on the sofa, had her jewelry off and set on the nightstand while I emptied my pockets and silenced my phone.
We approached each other, and as we met I was looking at the place where the tattoo would be under her shirt and behind her jeans. They were higher cut and could not be pulled down that far to get to the tattoo. They would have to come off. To just reach in and do that would be an uncharacteristically bold move for me. But I did have unquestionable permission to have the tattoo in any way that I desired. I reached down with both hands and took hold of the waistband on each side of the button. I didn’t see her simultaneous move in at me at first. Just as I felt the metal of the button, I felt her reaching her arms around my neck and realized that she was tip toeing up for a kiss. It caught me unexpectedly and I think it showed on my face that it did. I tried to recover and moved back in to accept her lips on to mine but it turned into an awkward peck.
I scolded myself for the selfish moment and just as I was trying to formulate a recovery gesture, she, without missing a beat, gently dismissed my fumble and gracefully restored the momentum. “Oh” she said with surprise in her tone, while looking down at my fingers ready to release her button. Then, in a more playfully quizzical tone, she followed with “I guess you want to get right to THAT then” and she stepped back away from me where I lost grip of her jeans. She replaced my fingers on the button with hers, paused, maybe waiting for me to look up to her eyes, which I finally did, then flashed me a devilishly naughty smile and pulled her jeans down to the top of her boots. She then proudly announced, mostly to herself, “You really are going to let me have fun with you, aren’t you!” seemingly shedding any doubts in her mind that I would go through with this. She then sat at the foot of the all white linen king sized bed, removed her boots and jeans and backed her way into the stack of oversized pillows lining the headboard.
Back to our kiss. The kiss that from now on I will reflect on as our first kiss
Responding to her hug gesture, I moved up her body and when I got close enough she pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t flub it this time, but again, I didn’t know it was coming, and prolly I should have. It took only ten seconds to adjust and synchronize to each other’s kissing form. It was warm and succulent and sweet and was wonderful. I really was surprised at how nice this felt. I don’t recall married kissing being this enjoyable. I remember saying to myself “Damn, this girl can kiss”.
I was on top, in a position that wasn’t going to be comfortable for as long as I wanted this to last, so I backed away to reposition but she held tight indicating she didn’t want me to move. I gestured at the space next to her and she relented. We then settled in facing one another side by side; her smile confirming that this was a nice place. We were hugging and kissing, pulling each other closer and looking into each other’s eyes. Our legs intertwined and our hands were roaming, but not really in a sexual way, more like trying to make as much body contact as possible. I couldn’t get over how I felt so much more familiarity than there was. What I did not recognize at the time was that this was the physical intimacy catching up to match the virtual intimacy we have been sharing online.
Soon the intensity escalated and it was getting very hot very quickly. The intensity and passion that was building was not something I ever expected or planned for. This was the rare kind of making out where accidental hickeys happen and inadvertent “Oh god I love you’s” slip out. Not that either of those was going to happen but my safe, non-committal no emotional strings encounter was getting too hot to not risk introducing emotions into the situation. And that could happen.
At some point I was no longer kissing her lips and mouth but was kissing her.
I broke contact to catch a breath and maybe get some control of the fire. We stopped for a moment to breathe and cool off. She slid herself on top and I rolled over on to my back to accommodate her. She looked at me with eyes that appeared to agree that it was a good time to slow it down. She closed her eyes and she seemed to enjoy that I was rubbing her back with both hands that I slipped up under her shirt. She presented her lips for me to kiss and then her cheek for the same, then neck and ear and lips again. Her long hair had fallen down around us, surrounding our faces like a vail creating a tiny private and even more intimate space. Inside here it was darker and the temperature and humidity rose quickly. We were breathing each other’s breath between kisses. All of a sudden I noticed that Jasmine was back. Not subtle this time, but deep and fulfilling. I loved it.
This fragrance stuff really works. The next morning just after waking up, I caught an unexpected subtle whiff on my skin under my watch and my heart jumped by 20 beats. Who’d a thunk it possible?
The passion was building again but since I was aware and cautious now, I wanted to enjoy and go with it. I thought I could keep it measured and I did for a while as it does take two. The kissing slowed to half and so did the passion. However, the rest of our bodies started to make up for it and the touching evolved into the sexual. She was still on top of me and my hands were exploring and squeezing on her panty covered butt, then under and in those panties. Her body contact became more targeted as she was now very deliberately mashing her fun stuff all over my fun stuff. The kissing subsided but replaced with the audible accompaniment of her squeaks, moans and quicker breathing timed with her mashing I was no longer in control. The passion was under control but being replaced with something intimately erotic.
I abruptly escaped by gently rolling her over on to her back then getting up and knelling between her legs. I took a moment to catch my breath and wanted to say “That is getting WAY too intimate. Can we get naked and have sex now?” However, I tugged at her panties and said something dorky like “can we take these off now?” Yes, we were still both fully dressed except for her jeans
Since I am the kind of guy who doesn’t kiss and tell, (well, only tells about the kisses) and this is not the forum for it, I am not going to talk about the sexy part over the next 30 minutes. I will tell you that we did finally each get ourselves unceremoniously naked and then the sexy part finishes where it started, with me finishing all over that beautiful tattoo. Of course I did a small celebration gesture that she rolled her eyes to.
*************************************************
Cuddle time. Our snapchats leading up to this encounter were heavy on the anticipation and buildup but didn’t contain a lot of detail about or define what stuff would happen during our “fun” time together.
Me: “Ok then, tomorrow lunchtime, I’m in.”
Her: “OMG Are you saying that you are REALLY going to come here and let me have fun with you?
Me: “I’m REALLY going to come there. I am REALLY going to fully inspect that tattoo, as well as the neighborhood where the tattoo lives.
Her: “I so can’t wait to get my hands on you.”
Me: “WOW….Now that this is real and going to happen, my heart is beating so hard that I am afraid that people can see it through my shirt.”
Her: “You have to tell me, are you being SERIOUS right now? You can’t say this and not show up. It’s OK if you are teasing, but you have to say so that you are now….not tomorrow!!!”
Me: “I am SERIOUS and I PROMISE I will be there. You have gotten to me, BAD. All week with the way we have been talking..err..I mean snapchatting; I can’t get you out of my head. Then today with those tattoo snaps you sent; I can’t get up from my desk. LOL…..NOT kidding NOT teasing.”
Her: “I am BAD, and I like having FUN. I am going to have so much fun with you!!!”
************************************************
The only specific things I recall us acknowledging we would do with our “fun” was tattoo inspection and cuddle time. So as soon as cleanup from sexy time was done we both knew what time it was. For me, as good as the inspection was the cuddle was better. Just as during the sexy time we changed things up and we got to cuddle many ways. We started face to face full contact hugging just like our kissing time with some but less kissing and more being in the moment.
We were still hot (temperature hot now) and sweaty so that didn’t last long. She turned over and we spooned some. I was still craving full body contact but it was still so hot that we had to separate a bit. No contact spooning if you will, with just my one hand caressing her exposed shoulder and arm and hip with an occasional butt cheek squeeze.
It was about that time that we had our first ever personal conversation. On the project there were lots of flirty banter and some personal stories but almost always as part of a group. We had many phone calls and a few project meetings with just us two but never did the conversation get personal. Until now the only personal talks (Chats) we have had have been via Snapchat. I don’t recall who asked the first question of the other, but it was like a dam broke and we started filling in the details of our lives, our feelings and all the things we chatted about.
There was a lot to tell and we were giddy like children (child) best friends re-meeting on the first day of school catching each other up on our summer vacations. At one point she had something compelling to say and faster than a fish out of water she flipped back to facing me so she could gesture with her hand and punctuate through her expression. She landed close. Closer that I think she meant to at first and just a bit awkward I felt. But I was wrong. She didn’t back up an inch. I really couldn’t see her hand but I could feel that she was using it in the 2 to 4 inches of space between our chests. Her face was right into mine. She would lean back or up just an inch when she wanted me to see her eyes or smile or frown for emphasis, then settle back into the pillows with our foreheads or noses or cheeks touching. It was the farthest thing in the world from awkward.
If there was a recurring theme for the day it would be HOT; in every sense and synonym of the word. Again, it was getting too sweaty to remain that close. This time she broke contact to catch a breath and escape the heat. We stopped talking for a moment to breathe and cool off. She sat up, crawled to, and grabbed the (sexy time) clean-up towel that was at the far foot of the bed. She turned around so that she was kneeling facing me as she brought the towel up to her chest to absorb the beads and drips of sweat that had accumulated. As I watched, I again thought of my great fortune to be right here right now feeing what I feel and seeing the beauty before me. She pushed the towel down across her belly button and it fell into her lap.
I observed the soft sunlight reflecting off the white sheets, the white towel, and the white pillows bathed her in perfect light creating just a hint of subtle shadows in all of the right places on her angelic white skin. I started consciously taking photos with my mind. I wanted to capture every nuance and note every detail. I don’t know if I will ever be here again.
I don't recall if my next realization was comprehended in a split second, or if it took ten seconds to develop, but a terrible fear washed over me that for the first time in forever, she was beyond my touch and her next action might be to look for her panties or go jump in the shower. We were after all, deep into the second hour of her hour long lunch.
As I was preparing myself for the pain soon to come, I couldn't understand where it was coming from. I had the BEST DAY EVER, but I felt like an exhausted child who just watched the Disney fireworks finally and knows what that means.
What the hell? What is happening in my head? I don't even know this girl, let alone have feelings for her beyond she made my dick feel good at lunchtime.....and, I guess my ego is healthier since I met her. I have not cheated on my diet since she turned on the flattery the week before. I was sure it had to be somehow manipulative, but I hoped that if only a 5% chance it wasn't AND she liked me AND her mom was single, made it easy to keep my snacking to peas & carrots.
My self esteem has been skyrocketing too, as I have been checking a lot of boxes on my refrigerator. LOL, so many in fact, that I have been adding things to the list after they happened that I didn't dare put on it as they seemed pretty unobtainable just two months before. "Get sent a nude selfie, check. Have the confidence to send one back, check. Take a hottie 32 year old client out to lunch and fuck her brains out, check.
Did I just discover that I like girls who make my self esteem feel good more than I like girls who make my dick feel good?
Shit, that wasn't even on my top ten list. Smart, funny, pretty, Kind, whatever is the opposite of bitchy, fun in bed, boobs and/or an age appropriate figure is always nice, curious, someone you can trust to see you at your worst. Before today, "genuinely being a boost & support of my self esteem" was 10th.
Then BAM. I was hit in the face with the towel. Damn girl, I hope you can handle a spanking because I was just on the verge of making an interpersonal discovery of some importance over here, I thought to myself. I noticed the slightest or possibly mock look of concern on her face as she asks "you're not having any regrets or second thoughts over there are you?". I reflexively replied "Oh god no". Then with some emphasys, I continued "today was incredible. I REALLY needed this and you were PERFECT, thank you".
Again she did not disappoint. She crawled to the top of the bed on the far side and then to me over the pillows and laid down at a 90 angle to me on her stomach parallel to the headboard with her head nearly right on top of mine. She propped herself up a bit on her elbows and we kissed deeply. It was nice.
I made a few attempts to shake my internal drama, get out of my head and get back to my goal of picking my self up after my divorce. Oops, I mean back to pleasing a beautiful woman who clearly was not yet done having her fun with me. The emotional rollercoaster ride over the last hours, days & weeks completely blew out my brains ability to generate or absorb endorphins or whatever happens in a situation like this. Shortly after we had joked around while showering together, kissing goodbye (just like when I kissed my endorphin killing ex wife) and going on back to our separate lives.
I drove the hour or so home, brought my dog to the park and had healthiest and happiest cry I ever had. I don't know what I was feeling or why, but I was feeling again and it brought me much relief and contentedness.
We texted a bit that evening confirming that we each enjoyed our time together and agreeing that we should do that again sometime. The next day, Saturday, her husband took their 5 & 8 year old sons somewhere for the day. We checked in with each other again over text and chatted some about our lunch but the spark or excitement we usually had was not the same.
I reached out again that evening and asked if she was in a place that we could talk on the phone. She resisted but did call me (our first personal phone call). It took her 24 hours to let her cry bubble up. It turns out that our emotional experiences were remarkably similar, albeit from different perspectives.
She much later reveals that she felt emotionally dead for her hubby. She evolved to a bad place where she wanted fuck anyone but her hubby but still fucked him twice a week and had to appear happy to do it, killing her brain chemistry.
We rode the best and worst roller coaster in the world for 6 or 8 months....until the the Cocaine eventually wore off or the unobtainable became obtainable and it wasn't the the same rush for either of us any longer. She was the closest thing to a drug addiction that I ever felt. I never wanted anyone or anything like I wanted her.
My hope is that this story helps one person answer the question "Why the hell would he/she risk giving up their wonderful & loving family for an hour with a douchebag or a skank?"
submitted by Chris_Thompson7951 to cheating_stories [link] [comments]
I made a list of potential New Year resolutions that were individually realistic. Some were really easy and stupid like “have your chipped front tooth fixed” and “take & post a selfie”. These smaller tasks fueled my confidence and provided the energy boosts needed to tackle the more challenging resolutions, like starting a weight loss challenge at work.
Skip ahead to March 4th 2016. I had a Friday lunch date with a married client that I met two weeks prior. Of course, it was not a real date, as I wouldn't impose myself on a married woman, nor would I risk my career or my ego, especially if the signals she seemed to be sending were just a product of my wishful thinking, stimulated by checking off some boxes on the list on the fridge dated 1/1/16.
The following is my thank you note to her for a great date as well as for helping me check a lot of boxes over the past few weeks. I sent her a link to it as it is in the form of my first ever online post (one more check box, YAY!).
************************************** We were only 1 minute in the hotel room; her jeans in a ball on the floor. She sat at the foot of the king sized bed and backed her way into the stack of oversized pillows lining the headboard. I followed as If attached by a leash. I landed somewhat awkwardly on my elbows between her legs finding myself squarely face to face with the tattoo. This tattoo, that she so shamelessly revealed just a week ago, the same tattoo that has been scorching my thoughts and the same tattoo that she promised me complete and unlimited access.
It’s been a long time since I have been here or anywhere near as nice as here, between the legs of a beautiful woman 20 years younger and far out of my league....even when I was her age. I took a second to drink in my fortunate situation. I admired her panties. All day I was so hoping she would wear those same panties as before. She didn’t. These were different but similar enough. The delicate lace and silk perfectly framed the tattoo on her hip. She did not disappoint. There is a fruity jasmine scent, intoxicatingly pleasant, and oh so subtle. It is not here. I’ll need to find its source. I want more of that. (I remember being thoroughly impressed and thinking to myself “This girl is good”.)
I briefly forgot that there was someone else here besides myself and the tattoo. How long have I been down here perving out on her? I wondered. I hesitated, and then apologetically looked up half expecting a well-deserved snarky glare. What I found instead was an ear to ear compassionate smile followed by a tilt of her head and an arch of her eyebrow that said “I like that you like that, carry on”.
With confidence restored that we were still in sync, I adjusted myself so that I was in a good position to thoroughly enjoy what I came to do. I kissed the tattoo hard and gave it a good lick. The challenge for today was “Taste the Tattoo” and I won. I did a small celebration gesture that she rolled her eyes to. I continued to kiss and taste all around until every freckle got some personal attention. As I got to the upper most reaches of her inner thighs, I looked up to check in as I was about to cross a new line. For the first time she was not looking back at me but had laid her head back deep into the pillows, her eyes closed. I took that as a yes!
I marveled at the softness of her inner thighs on my cheeks as I gently placed kisses up one and down the other. As I kissed her through her panties, her hips responded by arching her up in anticipation of each next kiss. Before long, those wonderful panties were just getting in the way. I stopped and pondered whether to just slide them aside or remove them or to risk interrupting the mood and attempt a complete wardrobe removal as we were both still fully dressed except for her jeans.
I didn’t have to ponder long as she knew what she wanted and it was not any of the options I was considering. Still lying back with her head semi submerged within the pillows, she held out her arms as if gesturing for a hug. I moved up her body and when I got close enough she pulled me in for a kiss.
Unbelievably, this was our first kiss. I found it odd that we had not kissed yet and was grateful she thought to stop for a moment to have a kiss. We kissed some and then I settled in to thoroughly enjoy it. However, the kiss to come was not the kiss I was expecting or a kiss I was ready for. It was a kiss that could ruin everything.
Technically, there was one kiss before. It was an awkward kiss 5-10 minutes earlier just after we entered the room. All in about the time it took for the hotel door to close behind us, she tossed her bag on the sofa, had her jewelry off and set on the nightstand while I emptied my pockets and silenced my phone.
We approached each other, and as we met I was looking at the place where the tattoo would be under her shirt and behind her jeans. They were higher cut and could not be pulled down that far to get to the tattoo. They would have to come off. To just reach in and do that would be an uncharacteristically bold move for me. But I did have unquestionable permission to have the tattoo in any way that I desired. I reached down with both hands and took hold of the waistband on each side of the button. I didn’t see her simultaneous move in at me at first. Just as I felt the metal of the button, I felt her reaching her arms around my neck and realized that she was tip toeing up for a kiss. It caught me unexpectedly and I think it showed on my face that it did. I tried to recover and moved back in to accept her lips on to mine but it turned into an awkward peck.
I scolded myself for the selfish moment and just as I was trying to formulate a recovery gesture, she, without missing a beat, gently dismissed my fumble and gracefully restored the momentum. “Oh” she said with surprise in her tone, while looking down at my fingers ready to release her button. Then, in a more playfully quizzical tone, she followed with “I guess you want to get right to THAT then” and she stepped back away from me where I lost grip of her jeans. She replaced my fingers on the button with hers, paused, maybe waiting for me to look up to her eyes, which I finally did, then flashed me a devilishly naughty smile and pulled her jeans down to the top of her boots. She then proudly announced, mostly to herself, “You really are going to let me have fun with you, aren’t you!” seemingly shedding any doubts in her mind that I would go through with this. She then sat at the foot of the all white linen king sized bed, removed her boots and jeans and backed her way into the stack of oversized pillows lining the headboard.
Back to our kiss. The kiss that from now on I will reflect on as our first kiss
Responding to her hug gesture, I moved up her body and when I got close enough she pulled me in for a kiss. I didn’t flub it this time, but again, I didn’t know it was coming, and prolly I should have. It took only ten seconds to adjust and synchronize to each other’s kissing form. It was warm and succulent and sweet and was wonderful. I really was surprised at how nice this felt. I don’t recall married kissing being this enjoyable. I remember saying to myself “Damn, this girl can kiss”.
I was on top, in a position that wasn’t going to be comfortable for as long as I wanted this to last, so I backed away to reposition but she held tight indicating she didn’t want me to move. I gestured at the space next to her and she relented. We then settled in facing one another side by side; her smile confirming that this was a nice place. We were hugging and kissing, pulling each other closer and looking into each other’s eyes. Our legs intertwined and our hands were roaming, but not really in a sexual way, more like trying to make as much body contact as possible. I couldn’t get over how I felt so much more familiarity than there was. What I did not recognize at the time was that this was the physical intimacy catching up to match the virtual intimacy we have been sharing online.
Soon the intensity escalated and it was getting very hot very quickly. The intensity and passion that was building was not something I ever expected or planned for. This was the rare kind of making out where accidental hickeys happen and inadvertent “Oh god I love you’s” slip out. Not that either of those was going to happen but my safe, non-committal no emotional strings encounter was getting too hot to not risk introducing emotions into the situation. And that could happen.
At some point I was no longer kissing her lips and mouth but was kissing her.
I broke contact to catch a breath and maybe get some control of the fire. We stopped for a moment to breathe and cool off. She slid herself on top and I rolled over on to my back to accommodate her. She looked at me with eyes that appeared to agree that it was a good time to slow it down. She closed her eyes and she seemed to enjoy that I was rubbing her back with both hands that I slipped up under her shirt. She presented her lips for me to kiss and then her cheek for the same, then neck and ear and lips again. Her long hair had fallen down around us, surrounding our faces like a vail creating a tiny private and even more intimate space. Inside here it was darker and the temperature and humidity rose quickly. We were breathing each other’s breath between kisses. All of a sudden I noticed that Jasmine was back. Not subtle this time, but deep and fulfilling. I loved it.
This fragrance stuff really works. The next morning just after waking up, I caught an unexpected subtle whiff on my skin under my watch and my heart jumped by 20 beats. Who’d a thunk it possible?
The passion was building again but since I was aware and cautious now, I wanted to enjoy and go with it. I thought I could keep it measured and I did for a while as it does take two. The kissing slowed to half and so did the passion. However, the rest of our bodies started to make up for it and the touching evolved into the sexual. She was still on top of me and my hands were exploring and squeezing on her panty covered butt, then under and in those panties. Her body contact became more targeted as she was now very deliberately mashing her fun stuff all over my fun stuff. The kissing subsided but replaced with the audible accompaniment of her squeaks, moans and quicker breathing timed with her mashing I was no longer in control. The passion was under control but being replaced with something intimately erotic.
I abruptly escaped by gently rolling her over on to her back then getting up and knelling between her legs. I took a moment to catch my breath and wanted to say “That is getting WAY too intimate. Can we get naked and have sex now?” However, I tugged at her panties and said something dorky like “can we take these off now?” Yes, we were still both fully dressed except for her jeans
Since I am the kind of guy who doesn’t kiss and tell, (well, only tells about the kisses) and this is not the forum for it, I am not going to talk about the sexy part over the next 30 minutes. I will tell you that we did finally each get ourselves unceremoniously naked and then the sexy part finishes where it started, with me finishing all over that beautiful tattoo. Of course I did a small celebration gesture that she rolled her eyes to.
*************************************************
Cuddle time. Our snapchats leading up to this encounter were heavy on the anticipation and buildup but didn’t contain a lot of detail about or define what stuff would happen during our “fun” time together.
Me: “Ok then, tomorrow lunchtime, I’m in.”
Her: “OMG Are you saying that you are REALLY going to come here and let me have fun with you?
Me: “I’m REALLY going to come there. I am REALLY going to fully inspect that tattoo, as well as the neighborhood where the tattoo lives.
Her: “I so can’t wait to get my hands on you.”
Me: “WOW….Now that this is real and going to happen, my heart is beating so hard that I am afraid that people can see it through my shirt.”
Her: “You have to tell me, are you being SERIOUS right now? You can’t say this and not show up. It’s OK if you are teasing, but you have to say so that you are now….not tomorrow!!!”
Me: “I am SERIOUS and I PROMISE I will be there. You have gotten to me, BAD. All week with the way we have been talking..err..I mean snapchatting; I can’t get you out of my head. Then today with those tattoo snaps you sent; I can’t get up from my desk. LOL…..NOT kidding NOT teasing.”
Her: “I am BAD, and I like having FUN. I am going to have so much fun with you!!!”
************************************************
The only specific things I recall us acknowledging we would do with our “fun” was tattoo inspection and cuddle time. So as soon as cleanup from sexy time was done we both knew what time it was. For me, as good as the inspection was the cuddle was better. Just as during the sexy time we changed things up and we got to cuddle many ways. We started face to face full contact hugging just like our kissing time with some but less kissing and more being in the moment.
We were still hot (temperature hot now) and sweaty so that didn’t last long. She turned over and we spooned some. I was still craving full body contact but it was still so hot that we had to separate a bit. No contact spooning if you will, with just my one hand caressing her exposed shoulder and arm and hip with an occasional butt cheek squeeze.
It was about that time that we had our first ever personal conversation. On the project there were lots of flirty banter and some personal stories but almost always as part of a group. We had many phone calls and a few project meetings with just us two but never did the conversation get personal. Until now the only personal talks (Chats) we have had have been via Snapchat. I don’t recall who asked the first question of the other, but it was like a dam broke and we started filling in the details of our lives, our feelings and all the things we chatted about.
There was a lot to tell and we were giddy like children (child) best friends re-meeting on the first day of school catching each other up on our summer vacations. At one point she had something compelling to say and faster than a fish out of water she flipped back to facing me so she could gesture with her hand and punctuate through her expression. She landed close. Closer that I think she meant to at first and just a bit awkward I felt. But I was wrong. She didn’t back up an inch. I really couldn’t see her hand but I could feel that she was using it in the 2 to 4 inches of space between our chests. Her face was right into mine. She would lean back or up just an inch when she wanted me to see her eyes or smile or frown for emphasis, then settle back into the pillows with our foreheads or noses or cheeks touching. It was the farthest thing in the world from awkward.
If there was a recurring theme for the day it would be HOT; in every sense and synonym of the word. Again, it was getting too sweaty to remain that close. This time she broke contact to catch a breath and escape the heat. We stopped talking for a moment to breathe and cool off. She sat up, crawled to, and grabbed the (sexy time) clean-up towel that was at the far foot of the bed. She turned around so that she was kneeling facing me as she brought the towel up to her chest to absorb the beads and drips of sweat that had accumulated. As I watched, I again thought of my great fortune to be right here right now feeing what I feel and seeing the beauty before me. She pushed the towel down across her belly button and it fell into her lap.
I observed the soft sunlight reflecting off the white sheets, the white towel, and the white pillows bathed her in perfect light creating just a hint of subtle shadows in all of the right places on her angelic white skin. I started consciously taking photos with my mind. I wanted to capture every nuance and note every detail. I don’t know if I will ever be here again.
I don't recall if my next realization was comprehended in a split second, or if it took ten seconds to develop, but a terrible fear washed over me that for the first time in forever, she was beyond my touch and her next action might be to look for her panties or go jump in the shower. We were after all, deep into the second hour of her hour long lunch.
As I was preparing myself for the pain soon to come, I couldn't understand where it was coming from. I had the BEST DAY EVER, but I felt like an exhausted child who just watched the Disney fireworks finally and knows what that means.
What the hell? What is happening in my head? I don't even know this girl, let alone have feelings for her beyond she made my dick feel good at lunchtime.....and, I guess my ego is healthier since I met her. I have not cheated on my diet since she turned on the flattery the week before. I was sure it had to be somehow manipulative, but I hoped that if only a 5% chance it wasn't AND she liked me AND her mom was single, made it easy to keep my snacking to peas & carrots.
My self esteem has been skyrocketing too, as I have been checking a lot of boxes on my refrigerator. LOL, so many in fact, that I have been adding things to the list after they happened that I didn't dare put on it as they seemed pretty unobtainable just two months before. "Get sent a nude selfie, check. Have the confidence to send one back, check. Take a hottie 32 year old client out to lunch and fuck her brains out, check.
Did I just discover that I like girls who make my self esteem feel good more than I like girls who make my dick feel good?
Shit, that wasn't even on my top ten list. Smart, funny, pretty, Kind, whatever is the opposite of bitchy, fun in bed, boobs and/or an age appropriate figure is always nice, curious, someone you can trust to see you at your worst. Before today, "genuinely being a boost & support of my self esteem" was 10th.
Then BAM. I was hit in the face with the towel. Damn girl, I hope you can handle a spanking because I was just on the verge of making an interpersonal discovery of some importance over here, I thought to myself. I noticed the slightest or possibly mock look of concern on her face as she asks "you're not having any regrets or second thoughts over there are you?". I reflexively replied "Oh god no". Then with some emphasys, I continued "today was incredible. I REALLY needed this and you were PERFECT, thank you".
Again she did not disappoint. She crawled to the top of the bed on the far side and then to me over the pillows and laid down at a 90 angle to me on her stomach parallel to the headboard with her head nearly right on top of mine. She propped herself up a bit on her elbows and we kissed deeply. It was nice.
I made a few attempts to shake my internal drama, get out of my head and get back to my goal of picking my self up after my divorce. Oops, I mean back to pleasing a beautiful woman who clearly was not yet done having her fun with me. The emotional rollercoaster ride over the last hours, days & weeks completely blew out my brains ability to generate or absorb endorphins or whatever happens in a situation like this. Shortly after we had joked around while showering together, kissing goodbye (just like when I kissed my endorphin killing ex wife) and going on back to our separate lives.
I drove the hour or so home, brought my dog to the park and had healthiest and happiest cry I ever had. I don't know what I was feeling or why, but I was feeling again and it brought me much relief and contentedness.
We texted a bit that evening confirming that we each enjoyed our time together and agreeing that we should do that again sometime. The next day, Saturday, her husband took their 5 & 8 year old sons somewhere for the day. We checked in with each other again over text and chatted some about our lunch but the spark or excitement we usually had was not the same.
I reached out again that evening and asked if she was in a place that we could talk on the phone. She resisted but did call me (our first personal phone call). It took her 24 hours to let her cry bubble up. It turns out that our emotional experiences were remarkably similar, albeit from different perspectives.
She much later reveals that she felt emotionally dead for her hubby. She evolved to a bad place where she wanted fuck anyone but her hubby but still fucked him twice a week and had to appear happy to do it, killing her brain chemistry.
We rode the best and worst roller coaster in the world for 6 or 8 months....until the the Cocaine eventually wore off or the unobtainable became obtainable and it wasn't the the same rush for either of us any longer. She was the closest thing to a drug addiction that I ever felt. I never wanted anyone or anything like I wanted her.
My hope is that this story helps one person answer the question "Why the hell would he/she risk giving up their wonderful & loving family for an hour with a douchebag or a skank?"
2024.05.15 07:43 Leading_End_7274 Protest in PHOENIX ARIZONA to end cat torture in China
 | Hello fellow cat lovers, I am posting here because I felt it would be a great place to seek out folks from Phoenix, Arizona who are interested in helping me organize a protest to bring awareness to cat torture gangs in China. I’ve never organized a protest before, however, I am extremely passionate about this cause and after the research I’ve done, the images and videos I’ve seen of these heinous acts, I can not stomach it any longer and will not stand by as millions of cats suffer and die at the hands of depraved monsters who are doing this. As you may know, China does not legislate animal protection laws. Therefor, people who are doing these things are not being punished or receiving justice. It is also virtually impossible for Chinese citizens to protest in their own country and are basically powerless to the depravity these faceless cowards are doing. I am currently compiling flyers with information on how to write the Chinese embassy, contacting Arizona representatives, and locally bringing awareness as much as I can but I need help. I fully believe if we work together we can make a huge difference. I will provide a website link for petitions and for more information on this matter, but please be warned of the images. submitted by Leading_End_7274 to cats [link] [comments] |
2024.05.15 04:43 sunnydaize Help with feline X-rays showing calcifications
Hi there, never been to this sub before but I am very upset about my sweet baby (7, 8 in June, male shorthair orange cat, neutered, weight in post here, no significant medical history and we are in the Midwest US) who is very sick.
About 2.5-3 months ago he stopped eating his dry food, I stupidly assumed he just didn’t like it anymore, so I changed it out. He didn’t really like that one either. I started giving him wet food around 1x/day and brought him to a vet to see if he was ok (March 18). The doc said he had ear mites and dirty teeth and probably needed a teeth cleaning but gave him clavamox and bravecto as well as a FeLV/FIV test which were both negative. At this time I discovered he had lost 2 lbs out of his 12 lbs he had weighed two years prior at his last vet visit.
Second vet visit(April 9): he’s lost more weight, and now he’s having diarrhea which I had attributed to the medications and change to wet food. This time he was given kenalog, convenia and Albon liquid. They also ran a CBC which only showed elevated white blood cells, everything else was within range. He had also started scratching A LOT around his ears and neck and doing a weird leg shake with both of his back legs.
Third vet visit (late April): went to a different vet, this time they gave him a steroid injection and said they wanted to re-run bloodwork if he showed no improvement. The steroid injection seemed to help his itching but within a week his whole belly was hairless and the inside of his legs as well, and his neck looked like a lion cut there was so much hair missing. We also noticed his urine was dark brown so we took him in again.
Fourth vet visit(around 2 weeks ago): scratching is getting worse and urine is very brown, they did a urine pull (not sure what you call that) and said he had a UTI based on blood in the urine, started him on another round of antibiotics and prescribed a supplement to help his diarrhea (dasuquin) as well as revolution plus and douxos3 for his paws which hd a foul smelling greasy brown substance on them and are inflamed. They are still inflamed and virtually hairless :(
Fifth vet visit (yesterday): still getting worse and now he’s down to seven lbs. now they did X-rays and the vet is saying there are calcifications around the gallbladder and stomach region. My question is what does this mean exactly? Vet is saying we need to go to IM clinic which is 900 dollars for more X-rays and potentially a diagnosis which if it’s t-cell lymphoma (what she was leaning towards) would be 6k+ for a 50% shot at 2 years remission. I hate to make this about dollars and cents but I have spent 2k on vet visits and tests and everything in the last 2 months and that is an awful lot for us right now.
As it stands right now my poor Cheeto is basically on death’s door. He has been drinking TONS of water and I have been giving him canned food and scrambled eggs whenever he wants it. He still has a very voracious appetite, moreso than when this whole episode began. He was FINE in February. At least to my eyes. Now he is skin and bones and can barely move. We are discussing EOL care but I just wanted to see what anyone else thought of the imaging etc.
https://imgur.com/a/nsFz1J2
Any help or opinions would be really appreciated.
Thanks so much.
submitted by sunnydaize to AskVet [link] [comments]
About 2.5-3 months ago he stopped eating his dry food, I stupidly assumed he just didn’t like it anymore, so I changed it out. He didn’t really like that one either. I started giving him wet food around 1x/day and brought him to a vet to see if he was ok (March 18). The doc said he had ear mites and dirty teeth and probably needed a teeth cleaning but gave him clavamox and bravecto as well as a FeLV/FIV test which were both negative. At this time I discovered he had lost 2 lbs out of his 12 lbs he had weighed two years prior at his last vet visit.
Second vet visit(April 9): he’s lost more weight, and now he’s having diarrhea which I had attributed to the medications and change to wet food. This time he was given kenalog, convenia and Albon liquid. They also ran a CBC which only showed elevated white blood cells, everything else was within range. He had also started scratching A LOT around his ears and neck and doing a weird leg shake with both of his back legs.
Third vet visit (late April): went to a different vet, this time they gave him a steroid injection and said they wanted to re-run bloodwork if he showed no improvement. The steroid injection seemed to help his itching but within a week his whole belly was hairless and the inside of his legs as well, and his neck looked like a lion cut there was so much hair missing. We also noticed his urine was dark brown so we took him in again.
Fourth vet visit(around 2 weeks ago): scratching is getting worse and urine is very brown, they did a urine pull (not sure what you call that) and said he had a UTI based on blood in the urine, started him on another round of antibiotics and prescribed a supplement to help his diarrhea (dasuquin) as well as revolution plus and douxos3 for his paws which hd a foul smelling greasy brown substance on them and are inflamed. They are still inflamed and virtually hairless :(
Fifth vet visit (yesterday): still getting worse and now he’s down to seven lbs. now they did X-rays and the vet is saying there are calcifications around the gallbladder and stomach region. My question is what does this mean exactly? Vet is saying we need to go to IM clinic which is 900 dollars for more X-rays and potentially a diagnosis which if it’s t-cell lymphoma (what she was leaning towards) would be 6k+ for a 50% shot at 2 years remission. I hate to make this about dollars and cents but I have spent 2k on vet visits and tests and everything in the last 2 months and that is an awful lot for us right now.
As it stands right now my poor Cheeto is basically on death’s door. He has been drinking TONS of water and I have been giving him canned food and scrambled eggs whenever he wants it. He still has a very voracious appetite, moreso than when this whole episode began. He was FINE in February. At least to my eyes. Now he is skin and bones and can barely move. We are discussing EOL care but I just wanted to see what anyone else thought of the imaging etc.
https://imgur.com/a/nsFz1J2
Any help or opinions would be really appreciated.
Thanks so much.
2024.05.15 03:38 kitastrophe76 I stood up for myself today and am panicking. Seeking emotional support/affirmation so I have the courage to get out of bed tomorrow...
This can be deleted if inappropriate, I've been a long time lurker and honestly can't think of a more supportive and inclusive community that might lend some wisdom or affirmation to help me stay strong...
Creating boundaries as a homeschool survivor in the workplace as an adult is exhilarating and gut wrenching and has left me shaken. Like I've maybe made no progress at all in the last two decades.
I was the firstborn (and only) daughter in a fundamental Christian home by a covert narcissist mother who was the ultimate saint and victim and a traditionally narcissistic father who was absent unless he needed a punching bag, a role my brothers played.
Maintaining the peace and regulating everyone's emotions was an internalized responsibility I understood to be mine by age 7. A large part of my homeschooling involved cooking, cleaning, and parenting my two younger brothers who had gender roles of intolerance and head of household lessons of their own to learn. My younger brother backhanded me for the first time for mouthing off at ten, and I ended up asked to apologize for upsetting him with my attitude problems. For simply having opinions I was the problem child, the sinner. Long story short, lifetime conditioning that keeping people happy and changing myself to keep the peace is fully engrained.
I grew up, broke away, joined the military and thrived, then went to college for political science and then psychology, desperate to understand myself and those around me. I've virtually no contact with anybody in my family, and usually have pretty good personal boundaries. Or thought so.
New job, high stakes, first one that gives me confidence and a sense of fulfillment, the team overall has been amazing, professional, supportive, and doesn't play games. But there are two people that have bearing on this story.
My direct supervisor is a well-meaning but fairly absent and political creature. Highly intelligent, but more interested in everybody getting along than dealing with conflict. He assigned me a trainer when I first started.
She is a master manipulator who pushes all the DARVO, gaslighting, sweet as pie to your face and poison behind your back type who sees me as a pet and personal assistant rather than a coworker who mastered the job quickly and the more independent I become, the more diminishing, controlling, and manipulative she becomes. I almost instantly fell into good daughter behaviors even when I was fully aware I was doing it because she had power over when I could work on my own, even while knowing she was dragging it out because I could do her work as training.
Today she took over a conference I was supposed to be leading, a key step in progressing to being fully qualified, and she took every chance to discredit me in front of my team in the guise of remedial training I don't need and pushing buttons like implying I'm lazy or inattentive or shirking responsibilities.
Enough was enough, I sought advice from a coworker I trust and went to my boss with my concerns. I was articulate, I stood up for myself, let my work and credentials speak for itself. I requested a new trainer. His response was to joke about the honeymoon being over, promised to talk to her. Nothing will be changed except now she'll know I complained. Experience has taught me that "telling" is bad for me.
On the one hand, I'm an HR professional, I know that he can't discuss another employee without talking to them and there are a lot of steps between disciplinary or personnel action from a first complaint (that should have happened weeks ago if I'm being honest). On the other, life experience is viscerally guaranteeing me that I have just made a colossal mistake and that telling on "mom" to "dad" will only result in him brushing it aside and her raining hell on my daily life. I'm caught between being proud for finally standing up for myself, setting professional boundaries, knowing I've done nothing wrong, and anticipating the myriad of ways this could catastrophize. I'm sick to my stomach and that's after taking lorazepam to ward off the panic attack my actions have caused.
I'm expected to go sit in that conference with her again tomorrow. I don't trust her, can't learn from her, needed support and help, and I didn't get what I asked for. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Maybe there's movement in the background he can't divulge. But all I see right now is I don't have the confidence I'll be able to comport myself professionally if she's confrontational or acts hurt or sweet and gaslights me tomorrow into thinking I imagined it all, or that I'm crazy or being the manipulative one. I'm that damaged, it might just work. What the hell do I do with that? How do I go to work tomorrow, head held high? Can I even?
Any advice from people further along in their journey would be greatly appreciated. I feel very alone and pathetic at the moment, and frustrated with myself for feeling that way.
EDIT: you guys have been amazing with your words of advice and encouragement. I truly thank you for taking the time to prop up a complete stranger on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I passed out last night and was able to get out of bed and go to work with your emotional support, and it went about as well as I could hope for. I am no longer working closely with this person, at least in the short term, and we will be reassessing in a few weeks. There was no drama, and while she did spin it as her idea to help me because I "seemed overwhelmed" with the work, the important people recognize the facts. And as ever, I continue to document. Thank you guys so much for helping me stay strong. I'm completely emotionally drained at this point but I didn't want to zone out before letting you guys know how much I appreciated your kind thoughts!
submitted by kitastrophe76 to WitchesVsPatriarchy [link] [comments]
Creating boundaries as a homeschool survivor in the workplace as an adult is exhilarating and gut wrenching and has left me shaken. Like I've maybe made no progress at all in the last two decades.
I was the firstborn (and only) daughter in a fundamental Christian home by a covert narcissist mother who was the ultimate saint and victim and a traditionally narcissistic father who was absent unless he needed a punching bag, a role my brothers played.
Maintaining the peace and regulating everyone's emotions was an internalized responsibility I understood to be mine by age 7. A large part of my homeschooling involved cooking, cleaning, and parenting my two younger brothers who had gender roles of intolerance and head of household lessons of their own to learn. My younger brother backhanded me for the first time for mouthing off at ten, and I ended up asked to apologize for upsetting him with my attitude problems. For simply having opinions I was the problem child, the sinner. Long story short, lifetime conditioning that keeping people happy and changing myself to keep the peace is fully engrained.
I grew up, broke away, joined the military and thrived, then went to college for political science and then psychology, desperate to understand myself and those around me. I've virtually no contact with anybody in my family, and usually have pretty good personal boundaries. Or thought so.
New job, high stakes, first one that gives me confidence and a sense of fulfillment, the team overall has been amazing, professional, supportive, and doesn't play games. But there are two people that have bearing on this story.
My direct supervisor is a well-meaning but fairly absent and political creature. Highly intelligent, but more interested in everybody getting along than dealing with conflict. He assigned me a trainer when I first started.
She is a master manipulator who pushes all the DARVO, gaslighting, sweet as pie to your face and poison behind your back type who sees me as a pet and personal assistant rather than a coworker who mastered the job quickly and the more independent I become, the more diminishing, controlling, and manipulative she becomes. I almost instantly fell into good daughter behaviors even when I was fully aware I was doing it because she had power over when I could work on my own, even while knowing she was dragging it out because I could do her work as training.
Today she took over a conference I was supposed to be leading, a key step in progressing to being fully qualified, and she took every chance to discredit me in front of my team in the guise of remedial training I don't need and pushing buttons like implying I'm lazy or inattentive or shirking responsibilities.
Enough was enough, I sought advice from a coworker I trust and went to my boss with my concerns. I was articulate, I stood up for myself, let my work and credentials speak for itself. I requested a new trainer. His response was to joke about the honeymoon being over, promised to talk to her. Nothing will be changed except now she'll know I complained. Experience has taught me that "telling" is bad for me.
On the one hand, I'm an HR professional, I know that he can't discuss another employee without talking to them and there are a lot of steps between disciplinary or personnel action from a first complaint (that should have happened weeks ago if I'm being honest). On the other, life experience is viscerally guaranteeing me that I have just made a colossal mistake and that telling on "mom" to "dad" will only result in him brushing it aside and her raining hell on my daily life. I'm caught between being proud for finally standing up for myself, setting professional boundaries, knowing I've done nothing wrong, and anticipating the myriad of ways this could catastrophize. I'm sick to my stomach and that's after taking lorazepam to ward off the panic attack my actions have caused.
I'm expected to go sit in that conference with her again tomorrow. I don't trust her, can't learn from her, needed support and help, and I didn't get what I asked for. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Maybe there's movement in the background he can't divulge. But all I see right now is I don't have the confidence I'll be able to comport myself professionally if she's confrontational or acts hurt or sweet and gaslights me tomorrow into thinking I imagined it all, or that I'm crazy or being the manipulative one. I'm that damaged, it might just work. What the hell do I do with that? How do I go to work tomorrow, head held high? Can I even?
Any advice from people further along in their journey would be greatly appreciated. I feel very alone and pathetic at the moment, and frustrated with myself for feeling that way.
EDIT: you guys have been amazing with your words of advice and encouragement. I truly thank you for taking the time to prop up a complete stranger on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I passed out last night and was able to get out of bed and go to work with your emotional support, and it went about as well as I could hope for. I am no longer working closely with this person, at least in the short term, and we will be reassessing in a few weeks. There was no drama, and while she did spin it as her idea to help me because I "seemed overwhelmed" with the work, the important people recognize the facts. And as ever, I continue to document. Thank you guys so much for helping me stay strong. I'm completely emotionally drained at this point but I didn't want to zone out before letting you guys know how much I appreciated your kind thoughts!
2024.05.15 02:56 OkSteak551 I’m starting to strongly dislike my daughter… ( UPDATE)
A lot has progressed in the past couple of days and it would be only right to update you guys on what happened and get some advice from you guys regarding everything. but to answer multiple questions I received from my last post about why hasn’t maya been further punished. to put it quite simply Maya was arrested the night of Lia’s attack. She was charged with felony child endangerment & 2 misdemeanors. The judge was very nice to her and made her pay a 2,000$ fine, 60 hours of community service & 3 years probation. plus I took her car but after this update, I maybe should have given her a harsher punishment. but back to the update. TL;DR at the bottom.
On Thursday afternoon, me and maya got into a fight. The dispute happened because Lia came to me virtually upset and on the verge of tears. because 5 people messaged her that day, expressing condolences about her attack. Lia has been very clear she doesn’t want anyone that she knows to know that she was the victim of the attack. upon further investigation it turns out Maya told a group chat of 27 people that Lia was the victim. Lia vocalized to me how humiliated she feels and that she can’t ever go back to school next year. I of course then go confront Maya about it. she kept saying I was overacting and that Lia was being dramatic. I tried to reason with her to see how she hurt her sister and she did not see the issue. She stopped me off mid-lecture from me and said, “ jesus christ Mom, you need to let her deal with this shit instead of always rushing to her defense, lia is not different from other women in the world that deal with rape, at least they don’t make it their entire personality like she does. also, she’s fine I literally overheard her talk to a boy on the phone last night.” It just clicked for me at that moment that she was not actually remorseful at all and that I just witnessed her mask slip. I just responded with pack your shit up and that she will be staying with my parents until I allow her back. That’s exactly what she did.
but the next morning I got a text from Maya to meet her at her therapist appointment that was later that day. looking back I wish I had never gone because her therapist majority of the visit only saw her POV, But At the start of the appointment, it opened up with Maya apologizing and explaining her thought process of why she told her friends and it was because she was venting, plus she didn’t think of it as a big deal because its public case that was on the news and lia seems fine these days… (Lia is listed as a Jane Doe and not named nowhere but I digress. )
we then get into the nitty-gritty of it all, Maya then tells me in front of the therapist that she feels emotionally neglected by me and that I never seem to care about her trauma when it came to the situation. which is for her is having to stay in jail for a weekend and loosing one of her friends ( which is one of Lia’s literal rapist. ) I wish I can say I’m joking but I’m dead serious. we were talking about that for the first 30 minutes. her therapist was guilt-tripping me for not being more emotionally there for Maya and that I should try to see as her mom since their father is no longer with us. But Call me an awful parent but I don’t want to be emotionally there for Maya if it involves me having to help her mourn the friendship of the person that ruined her sister’s life. The therapist was on one especially since she kept referring to what happened to Lia as an accident or that Lia seems happier these days because that’s what Maya has been telling her, when Lia is quite literally high off antidepressants and still scores extremely low on the mental health evaluation…but I finally just had an outburst, (feel free to skip over the next paragraph, because there is a massive trigger warning, I get very graphic here. But I’m just reiterating what I said. )
what I said to both Maya and her therapist was, “ I think it’s kinda disgusting that the two of you are refusing to acknowledge Lia’s trauma in this and keep referring to it as an accident. You spent a weekend in jail, while your sister was in the hospital suffering from something YOUR friend did to her. Ironically enough if you ever listened to Lia, she has said that friend of yours was the most violent towards her during the attack and was the catalyst for the majority of injuries she sustained including strangling her. So for you guys to sit here and berate me for not caring that you lost your friend because of something terrible your friend did to your sister is absolutely disgusting. My biggest regret right now is helping you obtain a lawyer I should have let you rot in that cell and let you figure it out yourself. “
Maya started sobbing in the office at this point and saying it wasn’t fair that I blamed her for what happened to Lia, she told me the only thing she was trying to do was have Lia come out of her shell because she kept hovering next to her at the party. The therapist then interjects and asks Maya how did Lia respond to her when she apologized. Maya in such a defensive manner says, “apologize for what? I didn’t rape her”. Even the therapist was shocked when she said that and at that point, I heard enough and l stood up, threw my hands up, and left. I haven’t spoken to Maya since then and this was Friday afternoon.
Maya has been texting me and calling me begging to come home so she can apologize to both me and Lia. But I don’t know at this point, I never thought I would be that parent that will have to go no contact with my daughter. But I don’t know if I can stomach being around her, I can’t trust her and she’s not remorseful whatsoever about what happened. A part of me wants to try to make it work for the sake of Lia because she asked yesterday if she ruined our family. And that broke my heart. Lia loves and looks up to Maya and I don’t think she can comprehend at this time that Maya also failed her. I’m just stuck or tell me if I’m wrong for not understanding maya I’m sorry for the not-so-happy update..
TL;DR: Maya got kicked out from the house after she exposed Lia for being a victim in her group chat with friends and we then went to her therapist appointment together, where it was just a lot of gaslighting and them trying to hold me accountable for not being emotionally there for maya which involves me not feeling bad that she lost her friend that was one of Lia’s rapist or didn’t care enough she went to jail. By the end of the session, Maya vocalized she didn’t think she needed to apologize to Lia and showed zero remorse. I’m on the verge of going no contact with her.
submitted by OkSteak551 to TrueOffMyChest [link] [comments]
On Thursday afternoon, me and maya got into a fight. The dispute happened because Lia came to me virtually upset and on the verge of tears. because 5 people messaged her that day, expressing condolences about her attack. Lia has been very clear she doesn’t want anyone that she knows to know that she was the victim of the attack. upon further investigation it turns out Maya told a group chat of 27 people that Lia was the victim. Lia vocalized to me how humiliated she feels and that she can’t ever go back to school next year. I of course then go confront Maya about it. she kept saying I was overacting and that Lia was being dramatic. I tried to reason with her to see how she hurt her sister and she did not see the issue. She stopped me off mid-lecture from me and said, “ jesus christ Mom, you need to let her deal with this shit instead of always rushing to her defense, lia is not different from other women in the world that deal with rape, at least they don’t make it their entire personality like she does. also, she’s fine I literally overheard her talk to a boy on the phone last night.” It just clicked for me at that moment that she was not actually remorseful at all and that I just witnessed her mask slip. I just responded with pack your shit up and that she will be staying with my parents until I allow her back. That’s exactly what she did.
but the next morning I got a text from Maya to meet her at her therapist appointment that was later that day. looking back I wish I had never gone because her therapist majority of the visit only saw her POV, But At the start of the appointment, it opened up with Maya apologizing and explaining her thought process of why she told her friends and it was because she was venting, plus she didn’t think of it as a big deal because its public case that was on the news and lia seems fine these days… (Lia is listed as a Jane Doe and not named nowhere but I digress. )
we then get into the nitty-gritty of it all, Maya then tells me in front of the therapist that she feels emotionally neglected by me and that I never seem to care about her trauma when it came to the situation. which is for her is having to stay in jail for a weekend and loosing one of her friends ( which is one of Lia’s literal rapist. ) I wish I can say I’m joking but I’m dead serious. we were talking about that for the first 30 minutes. her therapist was guilt-tripping me for not being more emotionally there for Maya and that I should try to see as her mom since their father is no longer with us. But Call me an awful parent but I don’t want to be emotionally there for Maya if it involves me having to help her mourn the friendship of the person that ruined her sister’s life. The therapist was on one especially since she kept referring to what happened to Lia as an accident or that Lia seems happier these days because that’s what Maya has been telling her, when Lia is quite literally high off antidepressants and still scores extremely low on the mental health evaluation…but I finally just had an outburst, (feel free to skip over the next paragraph, because there is a massive trigger warning, I get very graphic here. But I’m just reiterating what I said. )
what I said to both Maya and her therapist was, “ I think it’s kinda disgusting that the two of you are refusing to acknowledge Lia’s trauma in this and keep referring to it as an accident. You spent a weekend in jail, while your sister was in the hospital suffering from something YOUR friend did to her. Ironically enough if you ever listened to Lia, she has said that friend of yours was the most violent towards her during the attack and was the catalyst for the majority of injuries she sustained including strangling her. So for you guys to sit here and berate me for not caring that you lost your friend because of something terrible your friend did to your sister is absolutely disgusting. My biggest regret right now is helping you obtain a lawyer I should have let you rot in that cell and let you figure it out yourself. “
Maya started sobbing in the office at this point and saying it wasn’t fair that I blamed her for what happened to Lia, she told me the only thing she was trying to do was have Lia come out of her shell because she kept hovering next to her at the party. The therapist then interjects and asks Maya how did Lia respond to her when she apologized. Maya in such a defensive manner says, “apologize for what? I didn’t rape her”. Even the therapist was shocked when she said that and at that point, I heard enough and l stood up, threw my hands up, and left. I haven’t spoken to Maya since then and this was Friday afternoon.
Maya has been texting me and calling me begging to come home so she can apologize to both me and Lia. But I don’t know at this point, I never thought I would be that parent that will have to go no contact with my daughter. But I don’t know if I can stomach being around her, I can’t trust her and she’s not remorseful whatsoever about what happened. A part of me wants to try to make it work for the sake of Lia because she asked yesterday if she ruined our family. And that broke my heart. Lia loves and looks up to Maya and I don’t think she can comprehend at this time that Maya also failed her. I’m just stuck or tell me if I’m wrong for not understanding maya I’m sorry for the not-so-happy update..
TL;DR: Maya got kicked out from the house after she exposed Lia for being a victim in her group chat with friends and we then went to her therapist appointment together, where it was just a lot of gaslighting and them trying to hold me accountable for not being emotionally there for maya which involves me not feeling bad that she lost her friend that was one of Lia’s rapist or didn’t care enough she went to jail. By the end of the session, Maya vocalized she didn’t think she needed to apologize to Lia and showed zero remorse. I’m on the verge of going no contact with her.
2024.05.14 22:43 Silver_liver The Ashtapadan, Ch. 19/43. SFW this time but shows how I imagine an RR society
Link to AO3
chapters 1&2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
The Academy looked normal enough from the distance but blew Gentry’s mind when she finally entered it. First of all, the way in lay through a massive winter garden full of the most luxurious botanical collection she’s ever seen. Not only that, but it seemed to be arranged in a way that offered spaces for hanging out as well as paths in and out. Here and there, G noticed little nooks with people’s voices coming from them and small murmuring streams gleamed in the sun that blazed through the transparent walls and roof. This place looked magical and invited to stay, enjoy the refreshing coolness and peace of mind. But Gentry had a good enough rest in her communal room the night before and was eager to start working on her first assignment that the System had spat out with a congratulating letter. Figuring out the controls of her new wristcomm was simple enough.
DEAR GENTRY!
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE THE FIRST CONTESTANT TO CLEAR ALL CHALLENGES AND OBTAIN THE STATUS OF AN ASHTAPADAN NEWCOMER! YOUR MEDICAL DATA HAS BEEN ANALYSED AND FOUND ACCEPTABLE.
IN THE ATTACHMENT TO THIS LETTER YOU WILL FIND A LIST OF RULES, RECOMMENDATIONS AND IDEAS THAT WILL DEFINITELY HELP YOU IN THE FIRST WEEKS IN OUR BEAUTIFUL CITY BUT WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND FINDING A BUDDY THAT WOULD BE YOUR MAIN GUIDE AND POTENTIALLY A NEW GREAT FRIEND! IT CAN BE ANY CITIZEN OR A MORE EXPERIENCED NEWCOMER.
YOUR CURRENT POINTS: 0
WHY NOT START EARNING SOME WITH YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT?
START ANY BEGINNER COURSE AT THE ACADEMY AND KEEP YOUR ATTENDANCE RATE OVER 80% — WORTH 50 POINTS
(OPTIONAL) FIND SOMEBODY WHO IS WILLING TO BECOME YOUR BUDDY — WORTH 20 POINTS
Without stopping to check if the vending machines offered anything good, G made her way through the dreamy garden and entered the inner yard that looked just like everything here: nothing too eye-catching at first glance but secrets hidden everywhere.
One thing she had already noticed was that most of the people had another piece of technology on their bodies besides the comm on their wrists: a sort of extendable visor that some of them kept engaged at all times. Those who were focused on the screen had a comical look on their faces, a thousand-mile stare, eyes wide even as they were talking to each other or going about their business. It was unclear yet why they would engage the screen for so long though. No one needed this much time to read a notification or check a map.
Take a group of young students by the fountain, for example. They seemed deep in conversation with each other yet their pupils didn’t focus on the person in front, but on the translucent screen over the top part of their faces. Was it some kind of virtual reality helmet?
If so, G needed one, too.
Perhaps she’d be able to make new friends this way.
There was something else that caught Gentry’s eye. Despite her initial disappointment about the severe lack of male hotness in the streets, people of both sexes seemed to really care about their appearance. Even those who probably weren’t naturally stunning were very interesting to look at not least because of the crazy fashion sense everyone here had. Never before had G seen so much variety in what everyone wore: countless variations on different national garments, some looking very traditional, like something one could see in a theatre, some — futuristic uniforms straight out of a sci-fi movie. It didn’t seem like anyone was concerned with gender norms here, too. At least in when it came to the outfits.
G hoped she didn’t look like a creepy stalker when her gaze lingered on a pair of very nicely shaped legs stretching from underneath a plaid skirt that belonged to a young man in the group sat by the edge of the water. A pair of snow-white knee-highs, flat loafers and neat raven hair with some blue streaks completed the image. His clothes fit him very well and weren’t inappropriate in the least: something an old money university student would wear.
A female student that is.
And he wasn’t alone. Here and there, among more conventionally dressed people, there were people wearing all sorts of things: a crazy mix of goth-like apparel but barefoot, men and women with heads covered with scarves, people in strange jewelery that looked like it weighed a ton and so on. Most importantly, no one seemed to care what the others looked like.
Was it paradise? Looks like the demo didn’t lie: it was heaven on earth.
The young man in the middle of the student gaggle caught her staring after all. With a dazzling smile, he waved in her direction as if they were great friends, and G waved back, face heating, hoping there wasn’t anyone behind her this tease was actually waving at. Thank god his shoes weren’t heeled, otherwise she would definitely have a heart attack right here, in the middle of the common area, on her first day.
Did he notice her ogling his legs? Judging by the giggles of his friend's entourage, they all did. The young flirt covered his mouth, eyes wide in mock indignation and pulled his knees in, as if hiding them from the improper attention, getting even more laughter from the rest of the company. G averted her eyes and tried to calm her breathing as she was on her way through the yard again, but before they all disappeared from her field of view, she noticed the coquette stretch his legs again and fall back on a friend of his, embracing the lucky man’s neck in an affectionate gesture, already forgetting G existed.
There was no way she wasn’t going to make some pretty boy do the same for her. Forget the assignment, put that in the list of her top priorities!
At first, Gentry was lost when she failed to find any kind of class schedule and there was no one to ask at the reception desk.
Why have a reception desk if nobody’s on duty?
Soon, however, it occurred to her that there was no schedule: each room within the wide marble corridors had a small display with a handwritten message scribbled on it.
Bachata for beginners
Product engineering (Tuesday class cancelled)
Colloidal chemistry (revision today)
None of these were the Communications course that Jey was talking about, but the variety definitely made G’s eyebrows go up.
Was she just supposed to barge into any class and sign up? Did she have to sign up later if she liked the subject? Was it ok to choose any?
After some wandering around, too scared to just walk in uninvited or ask others for directions, she finally stumbled across the door saying:
Communication & decision making course (Newcomers welcome)
With the desks arranged in a horseshoe and the people of various ages that were also apparently Newcomers, it all seemed comfortably casual. Everyone was chatting as she walked in, paying G no mind so she busied herself with the wristcomm that dinged at exactly the right time to save her the embarrassment of looking for a desk.
Would you like to enroll in this course? Scroll down to read the description.
Was this damn thing a spying device? Did it just know which room she was in? Jey didn’t joke when she said the little thing was going to be her primary aid!
“Are you looking for somewhere to sit?” called a young red-haired woman at one of the paired desks. “Here, this one is free.” She had the auglasses on, like everyone else, but they were off, showing her lively face and a pair of sharp green eyes.
“Thanks,” G said, gratefully taking the offer. “I’m new here, don’t know how things work yet.”
“It’s alright, the course is very engaging, you’ll love it.” — the woman held out a hand — “I’m Sereen, what’s your name?”
G shook the warm palm. “It’s Gentry. And by new I mean I’m new to Ashtapada, not just the course. Literally arrived yesterday.”
“Really?” — S looked surprised — “Everything must be very confusing!”
“You have no idea,” G smiled. “I’m glad someone understands. Everyone’s friendly but acts as if giant mechanical dogs in the streets and a moss garden in the lobby are the most normal things ever.”
“Don’t worry, I was just like you when I first arrived, you’ll get the hang of it soon.”
“Hope so! Is that the lecturer?”
“Shhh...”
Just like everything else in Ashtapada, the lecture started out normal enough only to unfold into something completely alien to how things were normally done.
Apparently, the Communications course involved learning rationality, debating, logic, etiquette and god knew what else. It was supposed to give the future citizens tools to, well, communicate. G was given a booklet with some ground rules for beginners that included entries that sounded like something Sun Tzu would say if he studied debating instead of warcraft.
“The purpose of any argument is not to win it and not to change the other disputant’s mind. It’s to find the truth.”
“Always argue in good faith.”
“Don’t attack your opponent.”
“If attacked, dismiss the attack as if it didn’t happen.”
Well, hopefully, it only meant verbal attacks! G knew too well that when it came to physical violence, it was hard to ignore it.
Most of the rules looked straightforward enough, some were confusing.
“Seek challenge to your convictions. Avoid echo chambers.”
“Don’t seek being right.”
“Be mindful of your audience including yourself.”
“Avoid “Empty arguments” that don’t bring everyone closer to the goal of finding the truth.”
The lecturer, a willowy man of about sixty that drowned in his tweed jacket, started the class with a bit of small talk with the regulars after distributing the booklets to all first-timers. He made sure to give it to G face down so that his photo under the “About the author” title didn’t go unnoticed. He also made most of the “talk” part himself.
“I never took part in a debate,” G told Sereen, who was patiently waiting for the class to begin. “And never seen anything like these rules. Is it actually useful?”
“Oh, believe me, professor Poe will be ecstatic to talk to you about them. He can’t not start discussing his subject at the slightest provocation. Look.” — she raised her hand — “Professor, how was your weekend?”
The man wearily smiled. “That might seem like a meaningless question, Sereen, but it’s actually very much related to the topic we are going to cover today.”
“See?” — S raised her eyebrows with a suppressed smile. G giggled. This promised to be interesting.
“Our friend Sereen is a very polite person, isn’t she?” — Poe smiled at the class but his eyes glided over everyone’s faces, gaze turned inwards like he was reading an invisible text written on the walls. “But as kind as she is, I don’t think she’s actually interested in how my weekend went. Small talk is just a social custom we engage in to strengthen our social relations. Why don’t we just start a day by saying “Hi! I value our relationship and would like to fulfill my societal role!” to everyone we know? I would definitely prefer THAT over the small talk! He-he!”
The audience laughed politely. The guy seemed alright.
“However, just as we use different tools to fulfill this role in different contexts, so can the context of a logical problem steer our thinking towards a rational, that is, right, and an irrational, that is, wrong, answer.”
“Well, that’s not a given,” Gentry mumbled under her breath but it went unnoticed by S, who was already immersed in the lecture.
“Consider the famous René Descartes’s quote "Cogito, ergo sum". Who can translate it from Latin?” — the board behind the thin, almost transparent man glowed, displaying the words.
“Is it really a Beginner’s course?” G asked Sereen in a low voice but her companion was already raising her hand, together with a dozen other students.
“I think, therefore I am,” she said after a curt nod of the lecturer’s permission.
“Very good,” he continued, pleased. “I taught you well. Those of you who attend my lectures regularly are familiar with the notion of solipsism, which states that the only thing we can be sure about is our own thoughts.”
Gentry looked at S with raised eyebrows.
If this is an introductory course, what was the advanced like?
Sereen didn’t seem to perplexed. She was fully following the thread.
“However,” professor Poe said. “I am going to challenge that notion by demonstrating that we can’t trust our own mind when it comes to perceiving reality.”
He looked at the audience with a quizzical eye, and pointed at Gentry with a long bony finger “You, new girl. I want you to close your eyes.”
Why her?
Gentry was only happy to hide behind her eyelids. No doubt the whole room was now staring at her.
Through the blood rushing in her ears, she heard the old man’s voice, “Who was sitting beside you before you closed your eyes?”
“My new friend Sereen,” G answered and heard a little gasp of appreciation from the woman.
“So you know she existed as long as you two were whispering behind my back. However, now that you can’t see or hear her. How do you know she exists?”
“Well, I can reach with my hand and touch her,” Gentry said, demonstrating.
“Yes, this is what most people answer,” Poe said. “You can open your eyes now. But let me ask you this: how would you know it was her, an not some other person that took her place?”
Gentry’s intuition was right: everyone was staring, as if waiting for her answer.
“Well, I suppose— ”
“Hush, it was a rhetorical question,” the professor cut her off. “The correct answer is that you can’t know that. We think we can trust our senses or at least our thoughts, but this is also false. Everyone, look out of the window.”
Everyone did.
The day was as fine as Gentry was annoyed.
What did this pops think of himself?
“I’d ask what you see, but I already know the answer,” he went on. “All of you would say “the sky”. And all of you would be wrong, because sky doesn’t exist. We only see the endless emptiness of the outer space, but perceive it as a blue dome. It’s an illusion, a phantom, born out of our collective unconscious.”
Sereen whispered, lost in the lecture, “Ah, yes, Carl Jung.”
What?
Was it supposed to be obvious?
“But listen to this,” he continued, voice booming like a demiurge’s in the completely silent room. “Listen to this. How many words is it? Listentothis. Our common sense says it’s three words while in reality it’s just a string of sounds I an producing with my mouth. I am literally making you hallucinate the spaces between the words I’m saying. With knowing that our perception is so flawed, how can we know that we even know how to think?”
“I’m sorry, professor, I disagr...” G started but got struck down by his serrated gaze.
“I’ll invite questions at the end, young miss,” he chopped out.
Sereen’s eyes were sympathetic. It looked like most if not all of professor Poe’s students had learned not to interrupt him.
He went on, “Anyway, the fact that you even understand what I am saying is in itself incredible and shouldn’t be possible.”
“But it IS possible, right?” G whispered to Sereen. “I mean, aren’t we understanding this as he speaks?”
“PLEASE refrain from talking unless asked!” professor Poe roared.
Impressive lung capacity for such a frail human being!
G begrudgingly did as she was told. The guy seemed to be enjoying this power trip a bit too much to her taste.
“Now, since most of you,” he put some emphasis on the word to shut up another pair of whispering students. “Most of you think you comprehend my words, you must know that there is a way to tell that something is real, even though we can’t rely on our senses for perception. I’m giving you a minute to discuss with your partners what it might be.”
G considered it. She and Sereen exchanged equally confused glances.
Like a dutiful student, S started summarising Poe’s arguments but Gentry listened with only half an ear. She felt that behind all this over-thinking was a clear and simple answer.
She watched the professor walk along the aisles, tuning into one or another conversation before leaving each with a smug head shake of disapproval.
What was there to think about? Even if they didn’t see the world precisely as it was, something was definitely real, right? The chair she felt under her buttocks, the air around, the low murmur of the students. The annoying professor that… looked a little too translucent.
Gentry waited for the man to approach their desks and tune into Sereen’s musings. As he came so near they could reach out and touch him, Gentry did just that.
To her utter shock, her hand went through the old jacket and sent a wave of static over the professor’s figure, his whole form glitching and flickering.
Professor Poe was a hologram!
Unable to help herself, Gentry said, “No wonder you don’t think anything is real, Professor, you are hardly real yourself!”
The whole roomful of people stared, transfixed, at the surreal scene of a student’s arm disappearing into the teacher’s abdomen.
Gentry looked back at Sereen in search of support.
Was it laughter in her eyes?
Poe’s blood drained from his face, the mouth slacked open, twitching as if trying to form some words, but none came out.
Sereen chimed in, “You never told us you were a simulation, Professor.”
“Out!” Poe gritted lowly so that no one really heard him.
“I’m sorry?” G asked, innocently.
“Out of my class!” he exploded, jumping out of Gentry’s reach with an enraged grimace. “I am as real as you are!”
G stood up and looked at her hand then back at Professor Poe.
How much rage could storm in those watery eyes?
Then, she winked at her new friend.
“Let’s go then, shall we?” she said.
Sereen looked lost for a second, her eyes darting pack and forth between Gentry and Poe. Then, her gaze seemed to cloud a little, as if she retreated into her own head, but when she resurfaced, she nodded with a mischievous smile.
Both young women left the room, the classmates’ sympathetic silence and Poe’s angry seething seeing them off.
***
“What a way to start my first day,” Gentry said. “My hands are still trembling a bit.”
She and S were calming their nerves in the green winter garden, the soothing sound of the little running streamlet at their feet a welcome distraction.
“Believe it or not, his course is actually quite useful,” Sereen laughed. “Who would have thought the old Poe is actually not human? I guess we never thought of poking him in the stomach before. This is going to be the talk of the Academy for the next month or so!”
“Is it? I feel bad now. I guess I’m not getting any points for attending this lecture, right?” — Gentry checked her wristcomm — “It says “zero progress” and something else… ad.. Honi… adhonim…”
Sereen laughed, “Yeah, you adhominem’ed good old Poe, no wonder you got zero credit!”
“What does it mean?”
“You’ve seen the rules of learning and discourse, right?” S said. “There are no-nos, things that aren’t allowed, especially when it comes to Rationality classes and the like. Ad Hominem means an attack on the speaker, not their argument. It isn’t exactly what you did, but I guess it’s the closest thing!”
“Ad Hominem, huh,” G said. “Well, I guess I deserve it then. Thanks for standing by me.”
If it wasn’t for Sereen, G wasn’t sure she would be going to return to the Academy any time soon!
“You just chose a wrong course as your first class, G,” — no doubt about that! — “But another lecturer who works here is much more open-minded and he also teaches Rationality. I think you’ll enjoy him more than our old Poe. His next class is in a couple of days. Wanna come?”
***
DEAR GENTRY!
CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING AN OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT! 20 POINTS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR STATUS COUNTER.
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chapters 1&2
chapter 3
chapter 4
chapter 5
chapter 6
chapter 7
chapter 8
chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
The Academy looked normal enough from the distance but blew Gentry’s mind when she finally entered it. First of all, the way in lay through a massive winter garden full of the most luxurious botanical collection she’s ever seen. Not only that, but it seemed to be arranged in a way that offered spaces for hanging out as well as paths in and out. Here and there, G noticed little nooks with people’s voices coming from them and small murmuring streams gleamed in the sun that blazed through the transparent walls and roof. This place looked magical and invited to stay, enjoy the refreshing coolness and peace of mind. But Gentry had a good enough rest in her communal room the night before and was eager to start working on her first assignment that the System had spat out with a congratulating letter. Figuring out the controls of her new wristcomm was simple enough.
DEAR GENTRY!
WE ARE DELIGHTED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE THE FIRST CONTESTANT TO CLEAR ALL CHALLENGES AND OBTAIN THE STATUS OF AN ASHTAPADAN NEWCOMER! YOUR MEDICAL DATA HAS BEEN ANALYSED AND FOUND ACCEPTABLE.
IN THE ATTACHMENT TO THIS LETTER YOU WILL FIND A LIST OF RULES, RECOMMENDATIONS AND IDEAS THAT WILL DEFINITELY HELP YOU IN THE FIRST WEEKS IN OUR BEAUTIFUL CITY BUT WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND FINDING A BUDDY THAT WOULD BE YOUR MAIN GUIDE AND POTENTIALLY A NEW GREAT FRIEND! IT CAN BE ANY CITIZEN OR A MORE EXPERIENCED NEWCOMER.
YOUR CURRENT POINTS: 0
WHY NOT START EARNING SOME WITH YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT?
START ANY BEGINNER COURSE AT THE ACADEMY AND KEEP YOUR ATTENDANCE RATE OVER 80% — WORTH 50 POINTS
(OPTIONAL) FIND SOMEBODY WHO IS WILLING TO BECOME YOUR BUDDY — WORTH 20 POINTS
Without stopping to check if the vending machines offered anything good, G made her way through the dreamy garden and entered the inner yard that looked just like everything here: nothing too eye-catching at first glance but secrets hidden everywhere.
One thing she had already noticed was that most of the people had another piece of technology on their bodies besides the comm on their wrists: a sort of extendable visor that some of them kept engaged at all times. Those who were focused on the screen had a comical look on their faces, a thousand-mile stare, eyes wide even as they were talking to each other or going about their business. It was unclear yet why they would engage the screen for so long though. No one needed this much time to read a notification or check a map.
Take a group of young students by the fountain, for example. They seemed deep in conversation with each other yet their pupils didn’t focus on the person in front, but on the translucent screen over the top part of their faces. Was it some kind of virtual reality helmet?
If so, G needed one, too.
Perhaps she’d be able to make new friends this way.
There was something else that caught Gentry’s eye. Despite her initial disappointment about the severe lack of male hotness in the streets, people of both sexes seemed to really care about their appearance. Even those who probably weren’t naturally stunning were very interesting to look at not least because of the crazy fashion sense everyone here had. Never before had G seen so much variety in what everyone wore: countless variations on different national garments, some looking very traditional, like something one could see in a theatre, some — futuristic uniforms straight out of a sci-fi movie. It didn’t seem like anyone was concerned with gender norms here, too. At least in when it came to the outfits.
G hoped she didn’t look like a creepy stalker when her gaze lingered on a pair of very nicely shaped legs stretching from underneath a plaid skirt that belonged to a young man in the group sat by the edge of the water. A pair of snow-white knee-highs, flat loafers and neat raven hair with some blue streaks completed the image. His clothes fit him very well and weren’t inappropriate in the least: something an old money university student would wear.
A female student that is.
And he wasn’t alone. Here and there, among more conventionally dressed people, there were people wearing all sorts of things: a crazy mix of goth-like apparel but barefoot, men and women with heads covered with scarves, people in strange jewelery that looked like it weighed a ton and so on. Most importantly, no one seemed to care what the others looked like.
Was it paradise? Looks like the demo didn’t lie: it was heaven on earth.
The young man in the middle of the student gaggle caught her staring after all. With a dazzling smile, he waved in her direction as if they were great friends, and G waved back, face heating, hoping there wasn’t anyone behind her this tease was actually waving at. Thank god his shoes weren’t heeled, otherwise she would definitely have a heart attack right here, in the middle of the common area, on her first day.
Did he notice her ogling his legs? Judging by the giggles of his friend's entourage, they all did. The young flirt covered his mouth, eyes wide in mock indignation and pulled his knees in, as if hiding them from the improper attention, getting even more laughter from the rest of the company. G averted her eyes and tried to calm her breathing as she was on her way through the yard again, but before they all disappeared from her field of view, she noticed the coquette stretch his legs again and fall back on a friend of his, embracing the lucky man’s neck in an affectionate gesture, already forgetting G existed.
There was no way she wasn’t going to make some pretty boy do the same for her. Forget the assignment, put that in the list of her top priorities!
At first, Gentry was lost when she failed to find any kind of class schedule and there was no one to ask at the reception desk.
Why have a reception desk if nobody’s on duty?
Soon, however, it occurred to her that there was no schedule: each room within the wide marble corridors had a small display with a handwritten message scribbled on it.
Bachata for beginners
Product engineering (Tuesday class cancelled)
Colloidal chemistry (revision today)
None of these were the Communications course that Jey was talking about, but the variety definitely made G’s eyebrows go up.
Was she just supposed to barge into any class and sign up? Did she have to sign up later if she liked the subject? Was it ok to choose any?
After some wandering around, too scared to just walk in uninvited or ask others for directions, she finally stumbled across the door saying:
Communication & decision making course (Newcomers welcome)
With the desks arranged in a horseshoe and the people of various ages that were also apparently Newcomers, it all seemed comfortably casual. Everyone was chatting as she walked in, paying G no mind so she busied herself with the wristcomm that dinged at exactly the right time to save her the embarrassment of looking for a desk.
Would you like to enroll in this course? Scroll down to read the description.
Was this damn thing a spying device? Did it just know which room she was in? Jey didn’t joke when she said the little thing was going to be her primary aid!
“Are you looking for somewhere to sit?” called a young red-haired woman at one of the paired desks. “Here, this one is free.” She had the auglasses on, like everyone else, but they were off, showing her lively face and a pair of sharp green eyes.
“Thanks,” G said, gratefully taking the offer. “I’m new here, don’t know how things work yet.”
“It’s alright, the course is very engaging, you’ll love it.” — the woman held out a hand — “I’m Sereen, what’s your name?”
G shook the warm palm. “It’s Gentry. And by new I mean I’m new to Ashtapada, not just the course. Literally arrived yesterday.”
“Really?” — S looked surprised — “Everything must be very confusing!”
“You have no idea,” G smiled. “I’m glad someone understands. Everyone’s friendly but acts as if giant mechanical dogs in the streets and a moss garden in the lobby are the most normal things ever.”
“Don’t worry, I was just like you when I first arrived, you’ll get the hang of it soon.”
“Hope so! Is that the lecturer?”
“Shhh...”
Just like everything else in Ashtapada, the lecture started out normal enough only to unfold into something completely alien to how things were normally done.
Apparently, the Communications course involved learning rationality, debating, logic, etiquette and god knew what else. It was supposed to give the future citizens tools to, well, communicate. G was given a booklet with some ground rules for beginners that included entries that sounded like something Sun Tzu would say if he studied debating instead of warcraft.
“The purpose of any argument is not to win it and not to change the other disputant’s mind. It’s to find the truth.”
“Always argue in good faith.”
“Don’t attack your opponent.”
“If attacked, dismiss the attack as if it didn’t happen.”
Well, hopefully, it only meant verbal attacks! G knew too well that when it came to physical violence, it was hard to ignore it.
Most of the rules looked straightforward enough, some were confusing.
“Seek challenge to your convictions. Avoid echo chambers.”
“Don’t seek being right.”
“Be mindful of your audience including yourself.”
“Avoid “Empty arguments” that don’t bring everyone closer to the goal of finding the truth.”
The lecturer, a willowy man of about sixty that drowned in his tweed jacket, started the class with a bit of small talk with the regulars after distributing the booklets to all first-timers. He made sure to give it to G face down so that his photo under the “About the author” title didn’t go unnoticed. He also made most of the “talk” part himself.
“I never took part in a debate,” G told Sereen, who was patiently waiting for the class to begin. “And never seen anything like these rules. Is it actually useful?”
“Oh, believe me, professor Poe will be ecstatic to talk to you about them. He can’t not start discussing his subject at the slightest provocation. Look.” — she raised her hand — “Professor, how was your weekend?”
The man wearily smiled. “That might seem like a meaningless question, Sereen, but it’s actually very much related to the topic we are going to cover today.”
“See?” — S raised her eyebrows with a suppressed smile. G giggled. This promised to be interesting.
“Our friend Sereen is a very polite person, isn’t she?” — Poe smiled at the class but his eyes glided over everyone’s faces, gaze turned inwards like he was reading an invisible text written on the walls. “But as kind as she is, I don’t think she’s actually interested in how my weekend went. Small talk is just a social custom we engage in to strengthen our social relations. Why don’t we just start a day by saying “Hi! I value our relationship and would like to fulfill my societal role!” to everyone we know? I would definitely prefer THAT over the small talk! He-he!”
The audience laughed politely. The guy seemed alright.
“However, just as we use different tools to fulfill this role in different contexts, so can the context of a logical problem steer our thinking towards a rational, that is, right, and an irrational, that is, wrong, answer.”
“Well, that’s not a given,” Gentry mumbled under her breath but it went unnoticed by S, who was already immersed in the lecture.
“Consider the famous René Descartes’s quote "Cogito, ergo sum". Who can translate it from Latin?” — the board behind the thin, almost transparent man glowed, displaying the words.
“Is it really a Beginner’s course?” G asked Sereen in a low voice but her companion was already raising her hand, together with a dozen other students.
“I think, therefore I am,” she said after a curt nod of the lecturer’s permission.
“Very good,” he continued, pleased. “I taught you well. Those of you who attend my lectures regularly are familiar with the notion of solipsism, which states that the only thing we can be sure about is our own thoughts.”
Gentry looked at S with raised eyebrows.
If this is an introductory course, what was the advanced like?
Sereen didn’t seem to perplexed. She was fully following the thread.
“However,” professor Poe said. “I am going to challenge that notion by demonstrating that we can’t trust our own mind when it comes to perceiving reality.”
He looked at the audience with a quizzical eye, and pointed at Gentry with a long bony finger “You, new girl. I want you to close your eyes.”
Why her?
Gentry was only happy to hide behind her eyelids. No doubt the whole room was now staring at her.
Through the blood rushing in her ears, she heard the old man’s voice, “Who was sitting beside you before you closed your eyes?”
“My new friend Sereen,” G answered and heard a little gasp of appreciation from the woman.
“So you know she existed as long as you two were whispering behind my back. However, now that you can’t see or hear her. How do you know she exists?”
“Well, I can reach with my hand and touch her,” Gentry said, demonstrating.
“Yes, this is what most people answer,” Poe said. “You can open your eyes now. But let me ask you this: how would you know it was her, an not some other person that took her place?”
Gentry’s intuition was right: everyone was staring, as if waiting for her answer.
“Well, I suppose— ”
“Hush, it was a rhetorical question,” the professor cut her off. “The correct answer is that you can’t know that. We think we can trust our senses or at least our thoughts, but this is also false. Everyone, look out of the window.”
Everyone did.
The day was as fine as Gentry was annoyed.
What did this pops think of himself?
“I’d ask what you see, but I already know the answer,” he went on. “All of you would say “the sky”. And all of you would be wrong, because sky doesn’t exist. We only see the endless emptiness of the outer space, but perceive it as a blue dome. It’s an illusion, a phantom, born out of our collective unconscious.”
Sereen whispered, lost in the lecture, “Ah, yes, Carl Jung.”
What?
Was it supposed to be obvious?
“But listen to this,” he continued, voice booming like a demiurge’s in the completely silent room. “Listen to this. How many words is it? Listentothis. Our common sense says it’s three words while in reality it’s just a string of sounds I an producing with my mouth. I am literally making you hallucinate the spaces between the words I’m saying. With knowing that our perception is so flawed, how can we know that we even know how to think?”
“I’m sorry, professor, I disagr...” G started but got struck down by his serrated gaze.
“I’ll invite questions at the end, young miss,” he chopped out.
Sereen’s eyes were sympathetic. It looked like most if not all of professor Poe’s students had learned not to interrupt him.
He went on, “Anyway, the fact that you even understand what I am saying is in itself incredible and shouldn’t be possible.”
“But it IS possible, right?” G whispered to Sereen. “I mean, aren’t we understanding this as he speaks?”
“PLEASE refrain from talking unless asked!” professor Poe roared.
Impressive lung capacity for such a frail human being!
G begrudgingly did as she was told. The guy seemed to be enjoying this power trip a bit too much to her taste.
“Now, since most of you,” he put some emphasis on the word to shut up another pair of whispering students. “Most of you think you comprehend my words, you must know that there is a way to tell that something is real, even though we can’t rely on our senses for perception. I’m giving you a minute to discuss with your partners what it might be.”
G considered it. She and Sereen exchanged equally confused glances.
Like a dutiful student, S started summarising Poe’s arguments but Gentry listened with only half an ear. She felt that behind all this over-thinking was a clear and simple answer.
She watched the professor walk along the aisles, tuning into one or another conversation before leaving each with a smug head shake of disapproval.
What was there to think about? Even if they didn’t see the world precisely as it was, something was definitely real, right? The chair she felt under her buttocks, the air around, the low murmur of the students. The annoying professor that… looked a little too translucent.
Gentry waited for the man to approach their desks and tune into Sereen’s musings. As he came so near they could reach out and touch him, Gentry did just that.
To her utter shock, her hand went through the old jacket and sent a wave of static over the professor’s figure, his whole form glitching and flickering.
Professor Poe was a hologram!
Unable to help herself, Gentry said, “No wonder you don’t think anything is real, Professor, you are hardly real yourself!”
The whole roomful of people stared, transfixed, at the surreal scene of a student’s arm disappearing into the teacher’s abdomen.
Gentry looked back at Sereen in search of support.
Was it laughter in her eyes?
Poe’s blood drained from his face, the mouth slacked open, twitching as if trying to form some words, but none came out.
Sereen chimed in, “You never told us you were a simulation, Professor.”
“Out!” Poe gritted lowly so that no one really heard him.
“I’m sorry?” G asked, innocently.
“Out of my class!” he exploded, jumping out of Gentry’s reach with an enraged grimace. “I am as real as you are!”
G stood up and looked at her hand then back at Professor Poe.
How much rage could storm in those watery eyes?
Then, she winked at her new friend.
“Let’s go then, shall we?” she said.
Sereen looked lost for a second, her eyes darting pack and forth between Gentry and Poe. Then, her gaze seemed to cloud a little, as if she retreated into her own head, but when she resurfaced, she nodded with a mischievous smile.
Both young women left the room, the classmates’ sympathetic silence and Poe’s angry seething seeing them off.
***
“What a way to start my first day,” Gentry said. “My hands are still trembling a bit.”
She and S were calming their nerves in the green winter garden, the soothing sound of the little running streamlet at their feet a welcome distraction.
“Believe it or not, his course is actually quite useful,” Sereen laughed. “Who would have thought the old Poe is actually not human? I guess we never thought of poking him in the stomach before. This is going to be the talk of the Academy for the next month or so!”
“Is it? I feel bad now. I guess I’m not getting any points for attending this lecture, right?” — Gentry checked her wristcomm — “It says “zero progress” and something else… ad.. Honi… adhonim…”
Sereen laughed, “Yeah, you adhominem’ed good old Poe, no wonder you got zero credit!”
“What does it mean?”
“You’ve seen the rules of learning and discourse, right?” S said. “There are no-nos, things that aren’t allowed, especially when it comes to Rationality classes and the like. Ad Hominem means an attack on the speaker, not their argument. It isn’t exactly what you did, but I guess it’s the closest thing!”
“Ad Hominem, huh,” G said. “Well, I guess I deserve it then. Thanks for standing by me.”
If it wasn’t for Sereen, G wasn’t sure she would be going to return to the Academy any time soon!
“You just chose a wrong course as your first class, G,” — no doubt about that! — “But another lecturer who works here is much more open-minded and he also teaches Rationality. I think you’ll enjoy him more than our old Poe. His next class is in a couple of days. Wanna come?”
***
DEAR GENTRY!
CONGRATULATIONS ON COMPLETING AN OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT! 20 POINTS HAVE BEEN ADDED TO YOUR STATUS COUNTER.
2024.05.14 21:24 Technical-Pie-5775 Trip Report: 10 nights from the UK (very long)
For context: we have two kids age 8 and 5.
Just back from 10 nights at POFQ, our first ever Disney trip. Overall really liked the hotel, it's a shame they had a pipe burst in their swimming pool and it was being repaired for most of our stay, but it was still a really nice place. Swimming pool at Riverside was only a 10 min walk away.
I had a good outline of our itinerary for the whole stay written up before we left with plenty of ADRs , however what we actually did was quite different.
Wrote up as much as I could remember, the exact order of events in particular is a bit muddy but I did my best.
Day 1: Arrive in the early evening, went to the pool, had inner in the food hall, went to bed.
Day 2: Genie + at Magic Kingdom. Totally screwed up EE that day because the park opened at 8am that day which caught me off guard, but aside from not rope-dropping Seven Dwarves as planned, we still got SO much done that day.
Arrived at 8am park opening.
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain x 2
Pirates of the Carribbean
Ariel
Barnstormer x 2
Dumbo
Genie + Peter Pan
Laugh Floor
Genie + Buzz Lightyear
Peoplemover
Cosmic Rays for lunch, chosen for it's close proximity and indoor tables. Fine but extremely boring.
Genie + Space Mountain/Speedway (in two parts since my youngest didn't go on it, I took both my kids to speedway while my husband had his turn)
Big Thunder again
Small World (but son needed toilet in queue so we left and husband and daughter stayed)
Then we went back into Smallworld while daughter and husband did Barnstormer again.
Genie + Winnie the Pooh.
Dinner at Skipper Canteen - so good!
We also watched the parade that day but it was sooo hot, we opted for a poorer view from a main street shop in the shade. Was not worth sticking out the heat for the length of time you would need to get an optimal view. I think trying to go our very first day was a mistake because we weren't acclimatised at all yet.
The longest queue we had that day was probably for Smallworld. Everything moved really quickly! Was also happy with Genie+.
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
Had entry issues and needed cards re-assigned at entry so kinda messed up FOP EE rope drop but husband and daughter persevered anyway. Son and I did Na'vi River and explored Pandora and stared Wilderness Explorers. Spent a LOT of time in Pandora gift shop.
Gorilla Trek
Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Festival of the Lion King (so good!)
It's Tough to be a Bug
Triceratops Spin
Had really nice homey feeling cookie and gigantic ice cream in Dinoland
Dinosaur (3 of us loved this ride, my son thought it was a bit too scary also it seemed like they should increase the height requirement because he could barely reach the bar to brace himself. I know it's being discontinued though.)
Safari
Dinner at hotel.
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Successful EE rope drop for Rise of the Resistance
Smuggler's Run
Met Donald Duck
Met Goofy and Max
Star Tours
Runaway Railway (queue was brutal in the sun but it was a great ride)
Indiana Jones Show
Star Tours again
Muppets 3d
Race Academy - did not know what to expect coming in. If we had known we would not have trekked all the way across the park in the heat for that. My son DID like it, but it really didn't feel like it was the same quality as any of the other shows or rides.
Went back to Galaxy's edge for Blue and Green milk + puffbread. All really good. We possibly did Star Tour again, I don't remember haha.
The wait times for everything else being very long + the heat had us going back to the hotel early.
Dinner at hotel.
Day 4: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tried to EE rope drop 7 dwarves but it was down and we decided not to wait it out (rookie mistake)
Teacups
Thunder Mountain x 2
Split up and did Haunted Mansion/ Smallworld (and got stuck on Smallworld for like 15 minutes)
Haunted mansion crew did Carousel while waiting for us, then we did Carousel after.
Took Daughter to meet Pooh and Tigger while the others did Speedway + People Mover .
Pinocchio Haus for lunch somewhere in there, really good flatbread!
Back to hotel early for dinner.
Day 5: Genie + Epcot.
Failed to get Guardians Boarding at 7am.
EE Test Track
Mission Space (Green)
Genie + Remy
Genie + Soarin
Moana water walkthrough
Genie + Living with the Land
Got boarding for guardians for about 6pm. Cancelled ADR because of it.
Spaceship Earth
Met Moana
Genie + Nemo
Genie + Figment
Met Figment
Met Joy
Nemo again
Quick Dinner in Mexico
Gran Fiesta Tour (honestly had no idea this was here, really cool building, kids liked the boat ride)
Finally boarding group for guardians called at nearly 7pm.
Really great day! I seemed to be able to book really quickly back to back for Genie +. Kids really liked all the chill dark rides .
Wanted to do Frozen that day but the Genie+ was sold out even before lunch.
At this point we are really just trying to get things we missed
Day 6: Magic Kingdom Day 3
Successful EE rope drop of Seven Dwarves. Said 75 min wait when we entered but it really wasn't too bad, maybe 30-45. This ride had amazing theming, but was lacking as a coaster.
Teacups
Split up and 2 of us did astral orbiter that had a wait time of 25 minutes, and the other 2 did space mountain with a wait time of 35 minutes. Space mountain finished first!
Carousel
Swiss Family Treehouse
Enchanted Tiki Room
Magic Carpet - this seemed to be my son's favourite of this style ride. He's been talking about magic carpets evey day since.
We actually had a boarding time for Tron but the kids got fed up of the heat so we gave up and cancelled or place in the virtual queue.
Took the train back to the entrance. Very pleasant.
Dinner at hotel
Day 7
Epcot Day 2
We really wanted to do Cosmic Rewind again and do Frozen since we missed it the other day.
We failed to get a 7am boarding so bought an ILL for 11:30
EE rope drop at Frozen, which was down and they tried to get us to go elsewhere but it was open by about 8:45.
Gran Fiesta Tour
Met Asha
We were going to go do Soarin but we got distracted by a giant Joffrey's donut and a squirrel that was fun to watch, and then there was a minor child meltdown so we had a long break before heading to our ILL for Cosmic Rewind. Totally worth the cost.
I tried one last time to see if the kids would explore the World Showcase but they voted to go to the waterpark instead.
We went back to the hotel, then off to Typhoon Lagoon where 3/4 of us got minor scrapes in the wave pool, but kids loved it and would have gone back a second day.
Went back to Disney Springs and got dinner at Chicken Guy. Probably the best fast food I have ever had.
Day 8
Animal Kingdom Day 2
This was a lot of running around chasing short queues. Genie + would have been really good for us at this park.
EE rope drop Everest x 2. Was really good but going backwards made my stomach a bit iffy.
Na'vi River
Safari (finally saw an elephant!)
Nemo Show
Lion King Show again
Met Dug (first character my son was actually excited to meet)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Back to Disney Springs for Dinner. Went to Pizza Ponte so we could all choose a different topping of pizza. Also walked around and heard live music before we left.
Took daughter to Happily Ever After fireworks that night. Stood above the railway station for a quick escape at the end.
Day 9
Last day :(
Genie + Hollywood Studios
Genie + didn't seem to work as well at this park, it seemed at Epcot I could always book after entering a ride and we used it a lot but at HS it seemed strictly 2 hours apart. Maybe I am just not seeing it clearly.
On reflection , next time I would probably do Slinky Dog at EE followed by Runaway Railway and buy an ILL for Rise and skip Genie + if I was looking to save some money. I would de-prioritise Toy Story Mania next time, but our first day we missed all of the Toy Story area.
EE rope drop Rise of the Resistance. Pretty sure we were on the ride before EE even officially started.
Smuggler's Run
Met The Mandalorian and Grogu (probably the best meet!)
Star Tours
Alien Flying Saucers
Droid Depot
Genie + Slinky dog
Beauty and the Beast show
Met Chewbacca
Met Pluto
Genie + Runaway Railway
Star Tours again
Genie + Toy Story Mania. Ride broke down while in queue. Waited for ages before the put us on the other side, almost missed our next booking.
Oga's Canteen. Tried 4 different non-alcoholic drinks and they were all good. It was super cool. Only downside is we had a high table (standing only) and my son couldn't see the top of the table/anything and he was pretty unimpressed by the whole situation. Flying Saucers Mama Melrose for dinner. Muppets 3d Fantasmic. I read 15 min early "at least" aimed for 30 minutes early, and the place was well more than half full by then. Took a really long time to leave. If there is a next time I would go much earlier and bring snacks just to make getting out easier. Overall I was hugely impressed with the level of detail in everything, and all the cast members were amazing. It was a really cool experience, and it's hard to imagine never going back. If there is a next time I really want to explore the world showcase and do more sit-down meals. We had a lot planned but the kids didn't have the stamina for being in the park all day so we cancelled almost all of them. We also ended up doing parks in a somewhat different order than I initially planned. Kids got really tired of travelling on buses, which is also why we didn't break in the middle of the day and then going back to the parks. Would look at skyliner options next time. Things we didn't get to do:
Try dole whip (never noticed a place to buy it, ice cream was often an urgent necessity so didn't seek it out specifically) Tron (too hot to wait for boarding group when it was already day 3 at magic Kingdom and basically felt done.) Explore World Showcase (too much walking for few rides, from kids' perspective) Eat for fun more (we ate more out of necessity but found fun snacks when convenient) Tower of Terror (queues too long and genie + bookings too late) Frozen Singalong (timing never seemed to work out) Luminous (son had no interest in late night shows so we only did a couple things at night.) Take ride on skyliner. Something that surprised me: queues for popular rides stayed long even at 9pm. Couldn't see a viable alternative to EE rope drop + genie plus to get all the big rides "done" except perhaps if you had extended evening hours, but that would not have worked with our kids. Number of beignets consumed during our stay: 12
submitted by Technical-Pie-5775 to WaltDisneyWorld [link] [comments]
Just back from 10 nights at POFQ, our first ever Disney trip. Overall really liked the hotel, it's a shame they had a pipe burst in their swimming pool and it was being repaired for most of our stay, but it was still a really nice place. Swimming pool at Riverside was only a 10 min walk away.
I had a good outline of our itinerary for the whole stay written up before we left with plenty of ADRs , however what we actually did was quite different.
Wrote up as much as I could remember, the exact order of events in particular is a bit muddy but I did my best.
Day 1: Arrive in the early evening, went to the pool, had inner in the food hall, went to bed.
Day 2: Genie + at Magic Kingdom. Totally screwed up EE that day because the park opened at 8am that day which caught me off guard, but aside from not rope-dropping Seven Dwarves as planned, we still got SO much done that day.
Arrived at 8am park opening.
Jungle Cruise
Big Thunder Mountain x 2
Pirates of the Carribbean
Ariel
Barnstormer x 2
Dumbo
Genie + Peter Pan
Laugh Floor
Genie + Buzz Lightyear
Peoplemover
Cosmic Rays for lunch, chosen for it's close proximity and indoor tables. Fine but extremely boring.
Genie + Space Mountain/Speedway (in two parts since my youngest didn't go on it, I took both my kids to speedway while my husband had his turn)
Big Thunder again
Small World (but son needed toilet in queue so we left and husband and daughter stayed)
Then we went back into Smallworld while daughter and husband did Barnstormer again.
Genie + Winnie the Pooh.
Dinner at Skipper Canteen - so good!
We also watched the parade that day but it was sooo hot, we opted for a poorer view from a main street shop in the shade. Was not worth sticking out the heat for the length of time you would need to get an optimal view. I think trying to go our very first day was a mistake because we weren't acclimatised at all yet.
The longest queue we had that day was probably for Smallworld. Everything moved really quickly! Was also happy with Genie+.
Day 2: Animal Kingdom
Had entry issues and needed cards re-assigned at entry so kinda messed up FOP EE rope drop but husband and daughter persevered anyway. Son and I did Na'vi River and explored Pandora and stared Wilderness Explorers. Spent a LOT of time in Pandora gift shop.
Gorilla Trek
Wildlife Express and Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Festival of the Lion King (so good!)
It's Tough to be a Bug
Triceratops Spin
Had really nice homey feeling cookie and gigantic ice cream in Dinoland
Dinosaur (3 of us loved this ride, my son thought it was a bit too scary also it seemed like they should increase the height requirement because he could barely reach the bar to brace himself. I know it's being discontinued though.)
Safari
Dinner at hotel.
Day 3: Hollywood Studios
Successful EE rope drop for Rise of the Resistance
Smuggler's Run
Met Donald Duck
Met Goofy and Max
Star Tours
Runaway Railway (queue was brutal in the sun but it was a great ride)
Indiana Jones Show
Star Tours again
Muppets 3d
Race Academy - did not know what to expect coming in. If we had known we would not have trekked all the way across the park in the heat for that. My son DID like it, but it really didn't feel like it was the same quality as any of the other shows or rides.
Went back to Galaxy's edge for Blue and Green milk + puffbread. All really good. We possibly did Star Tour again, I don't remember haha.
The wait times for everything else being very long + the heat had us going back to the hotel early.
Dinner at hotel.
Day 4: Magic Kingdom Day 2
Tried to EE rope drop 7 dwarves but it was down and we decided not to wait it out (rookie mistake)
Teacups
Thunder Mountain x 2
Split up and did Haunted Mansion/ Smallworld (and got stuck on Smallworld for like 15 minutes)
Haunted mansion crew did Carousel while waiting for us, then we did Carousel after.
Took Daughter to meet Pooh and Tigger while the others did Speedway + People Mover .
Pinocchio Haus for lunch somewhere in there, really good flatbread!
Back to hotel early for dinner.
Day 5: Genie + Epcot.
Failed to get Guardians Boarding at 7am.
EE Test Track
Mission Space (Green)
Genie + Remy
Genie + Soarin
Moana water walkthrough
Genie + Living with the Land
Got boarding for guardians for about 6pm. Cancelled ADR because of it.
Spaceship Earth
Met Moana
Genie + Nemo
Genie + Figment
Met Figment
Met Joy
Nemo again
Quick Dinner in Mexico
Gran Fiesta Tour (honestly had no idea this was here, really cool building, kids liked the boat ride)
Finally boarding group for guardians called at nearly 7pm.
Really great day! I seemed to be able to book really quickly back to back for Genie +. Kids really liked all the chill dark rides .
Wanted to do Frozen that day but the Genie+ was sold out even before lunch.
At this point we are really just trying to get things we missed
Day 6: Magic Kingdom Day 3
Successful EE rope drop of Seven Dwarves. Said 75 min wait when we entered but it really wasn't too bad, maybe 30-45. This ride had amazing theming, but was lacking as a coaster.
Teacups
Split up and 2 of us did astral orbiter that had a wait time of 25 minutes, and the other 2 did space mountain with a wait time of 35 minutes. Space mountain finished first!
Carousel
Swiss Family Treehouse
Enchanted Tiki Room
Magic Carpet - this seemed to be my son's favourite of this style ride. He's been talking about magic carpets evey day since.
We actually had a boarding time for Tron but the kids got fed up of the heat so we gave up and cancelled or place in the virtual queue.
Took the train back to the entrance. Very pleasant.
Dinner at hotel
Day 7
Epcot Day 2
We really wanted to do Cosmic Rewind again and do Frozen since we missed it the other day.
We failed to get a 7am boarding so bought an ILL for 11:30
EE rope drop at Frozen, which was down and they tried to get us to go elsewhere but it was open by about 8:45.
Gran Fiesta Tour
Met Asha
We were going to go do Soarin but we got distracted by a giant Joffrey's donut and a squirrel that was fun to watch, and then there was a minor child meltdown so we had a long break before heading to our ILL for Cosmic Rewind. Totally worth the cost.
I tried one last time to see if the kids would explore the World Showcase but they voted to go to the waterpark instead.
We went back to the hotel, then off to Typhoon Lagoon where 3/4 of us got minor scrapes in the wave pool, but kids loved it and would have gone back a second day.
Went back to Disney Springs and got dinner at Chicken Guy. Probably the best fast food I have ever had.
Day 8
Animal Kingdom Day 2
This was a lot of running around chasing short queues. Genie + would have been really good for us at this park.
EE rope drop Everest x 2. Was really good but going backwards made my stomach a bit iffy.
Na'vi River
Safari (finally saw an elephant!)
Nemo Show
Lion King Show again
Met Dug (first character my son was actually excited to meet)
Maharajah Jungle Trek
Back to Disney Springs for Dinner. Went to Pizza Ponte so we could all choose a different topping of pizza. Also walked around and heard live music before we left.
Took daughter to Happily Ever After fireworks that night. Stood above the railway station for a quick escape at the end.
Day 9
Last day :(
Genie + Hollywood Studios
Genie + didn't seem to work as well at this park, it seemed at Epcot I could always book after entering a ride and we used it a lot but at HS it seemed strictly 2 hours apart. Maybe I am just not seeing it clearly.
On reflection , next time I would probably do Slinky Dog at EE followed by Runaway Railway and buy an ILL for Rise and skip Genie + if I was looking to save some money. I would de-prioritise Toy Story Mania next time, but our first day we missed all of the Toy Story area.
EE rope drop Rise of the Resistance. Pretty sure we were on the ride before EE even officially started.
Smuggler's Run
Met The Mandalorian and Grogu (probably the best meet!)
Star Tours
Alien Flying Saucers
Droid Depot
Genie + Slinky dog
Beauty and the Beast show
Met Chewbacca
Met Pluto
Genie + Runaway Railway
Star Tours again
Genie + Toy Story Mania. Ride broke down while in queue. Waited for ages before the put us on the other side, almost missed our next booking.
Oga's Canteen. Tried 4 different non-alcoholic drinks and they were all good. It was super cool. Only downside is we had a high table (standing only) and my son couldn't see the top of the table/anything and he was pretty unimpressed by the whole situation. Flying Saucers Mama Melrose for dinner. Muppets 3d Fantasmic. I read 15 min early "at least" aimed for 30 minutes early, and the place was well more than half full by then. Took a really long time to leave. If there is a next time I would go much earlier and bring snacks just to make getting out easier. Overall I was hugely impressed with the level of detail in everything, and all the cast members were amazing. It was a really cool experience, and it's hard to imagine never going back. If there is a next time I really want to explore the world showcase and do more sit-down meals. We had a lot planned but the kids didn't have the stamina for being in the park all day so we cancelled almost all of them. We also ended up doing parks in a somewhat different order than I initially planned. Kids got really tired of travelling on buses, which is also why we didn't break in the middle of the day and then going back to the parks. Would look at skyliner options next time. Things we didn't get to do:
Try dole whip (never noticed a place to buy it, ice cream was often an urgent necessity so didn't seek it out specifically) Tron (too hot to wait for boarding group when it was already day 3 at magic Kingdom and basically felt done.) Explore World Showcase (too much walking for few rides, from kids' perspective) Eat for fun more (we ate more out of necessity but found fun snacks when convenient) Tower of Terror (queues too long and genie + bookings too late) Frozen Singalong (timing never seemed to work out) Luminous (son had no interest in late night shows so we only did a couple things at night.) Take ride on skyliner. Something that surprised me: queues for popular rides stayed long even at 9pm. Couldn't see a viable alternative to EE rope drop + genie plus to get all the big rides "done" except perhaps if you had extended evening hours, but that would not have worked with our kids. Number of beignets consumed during our stay: 12
2024.05.14 16:48 Bigdogsz19 33 [M4F] #Allen #Texas - Seeking new connections of all varieties
Heya! These posts/introduction messages always feel awkward and forced for me 😅 so buckle up 🤪…
Let’s get what I’m looking for out of the way, as no sense in taking up more of your time if it’s obvious that we aren’t a fit.
What I’m seeking:
As of current, my primary interests align most with a FWB situation, but I am open to any form of connection that develops organically between us (including simple friendship). I’m relatively open with regard to availability, though in an ideal world you would be open to seeing each other 1-2+ times a week. I’m attracted to a wide range of personalities and body types, so it can be hard to relay my interests there and is usually best just to connect and see if we click or not. I guess in the end, I’m pretty flexible in my interest and desires.
It’s also important to note that I do not smoke or drink at all. I don’t judge if you do either, but I will say that being around cigarette smoke is likely to be a dealbreaker for me. As for weed, I hate the smell, so I just ask that you please avoid smoking it around me. Vapes are fine, just please don’t blow them in my direction as I personally don’t care to breath that in. Alcohol I have no problem being around in all capacities lol get plastered for all I care.
A bit about myself:
It’s always hard to gauge what to share to the world in “bios” like this..I’ll try to highlight some of my most prominent characteristics and details 🤷♂️.
Let’s start physical. I’m 6’7”, definitely a dad bod with a bit of a stomach, 33 years young, long brown curly-ish/wavy hair (admittedly facing some male pattern baldness at my forehead hairline, so doing what I can with what I’ve got while I can 🤷♂️), brown eyes, wear glasses (if that matters to you at all), maintain a beard at all times (take the hair where I can, right? 🤪🤷♂️), and wear a size 19 shoe (putting that out there as it’s always a shocker 😆). No, I never played basketball for any teams growing up, but did play pickup games often after high school. The weather is just fine “up here” 🤪. As for style, or lack thereof 😆, you’ll likely always see me in some form of graphic or plain T-shirt with likely some form of shorts (I love the cold and hate being hot) year round, though every now and then I’ll change it up with pants and/or pollos 🤷♂️. I want to be more stylish tbh, but I don’t have the eye for good style, I’m colorblind, and often don’t feel other styles would suit my looks 🤷♂️. Speaking of looks, standard bearded Caucasian nerd looking dude lol, though when people see me, they might be quick to assume I’m the standard white conservative Christian type, when in reality I’m far from such (curse the genetics and looks I was born into 😭).
Kink friendly, so any questions or curiosity around such please feel free to bring up and discuss with me further.
I think that’s a good start on physical attributes, let’s move on to the internal ish…
Gah this section is much tougher to fill out 😅. Look, I just love just about everybody, will generally give everybody the time of day and benefit of doubt, can strike up a convo with just about anyone (though sometimes I need the other person to engage the start of that convo 😅), and would do my best to help and protect anyone around. I just want the best for everyone, ya know? I’d say i lean more extroverted, but do battle a moderate amount of social anxiety that im sure you’ve picked up on by now..you’d likely think im more introverted with how often I stay home and how little I randomly reach out to friends/others. It’s not that I don’t love getting out and about and don’t care to talk to my friends, I just get so caught up in my day to day life that it just doesn’t cross my mind, OR I get social anxiety (especially if I haven’t spoken to someone in a long time, I always worry they think I don’t care about them and our friendship).
Beyond this, it’s hard to list my other qualities, so I’ll just move on to interests and maybe that’ll help highlight more?
My Interests:
Can’t help but feel kind of boring and basic when filling out this section 😅. I feel like it’s a lot of what most people list as their interests and that my list is small/limited/boring. Travel Culture/language Food Music (very large and eclectic taste in music) Gaming of any form (video, board, etc) Puzzles/challenges/sports (I love a good challenge, so huge kudos if you are competitive) Technology (always fascinating what we are making in this world) I’d like to learn to dance but right now I’m very self conscious about my terrible dancing (I feel awkward 😔)
Disinterests: Low hanging ceiling fans and light fixtures 🤪
Details regarding my current Poly configuration:
I’m happily married with one child. If I do take on any new partners I never expect you to take on any form of relationship or responsibility for the rest of my family beyond just maintaining a safe space through proxy. My wife and I practice kitchen table Poly, so we are completely open to everyone happily interacting together, but if you aren’t comfortable interacting with the rest of my family no problem! Ask if you have any further questions on how we Poly ethically, happy to answer any questions!
Anyways, I’ve made this long enough…if you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read my post to entirety! Even if we aren’t meant to connect, you and your time are greatly appreciated! Sending my warmest regards and a friendly virtual hug ❤️.
submitted by Bigdogsz19 to polyamoryR4R [link] [comments]
Let’s get what I’m looking for out of the way, as no sense in taking up more of your time if it’s obvious that we aren’t a fit.
What I’m seeking:
As of current, my primary interests align most with a FWB situation, but I am open to any form of connection that develops organically between us (including simple friendship). I’m relatively open with regard to availability, though in an ideal world you would be open to seeing each other 1-2+ times a week. I’m attracted to a wide range of personalities and body types, so it can be hard to relay my interests there and is usually best just to connect and see if we click or not. I guess in the end, I’m pretty flexible in my interest and desires.
It’s also important to note that I do not smoke or drink at all. I don’t judge if you do either, but I will say that being around cigarette smoke is likely to be a dealbreaker for me. As for weed, I hate the smell, so I just ask that you please avoid smoking it around me. Vapes are fine, just please don’t blow them in my direction as I personally don’t care to breath that in. Alcohol I have no problem being around in all capacities lol get plastered for all I care.
A bit about myself:
It’s always hard to gauge what to share to the world in “bios” like this..I’ll try to highlight some of my most prominent characteristics and details 🤷♂️.
Let’s start physical. I’m 6’7”, definitely a dad bod with a bit of a stomach, 33 years young, long brown curly-ish/wavy hair (admittedly facing some male pattern baldness at my forehead hairline, so doing what I can with what I’ve got while I can 🤷♂️), brown eyes, wear glasses (if that matters to you at all), maintain a beard at all times (take the hair where I can, right? 🤪🤷♂️), and wear a size 19 shoe (putting that out there as it’s always a shocker 😆). No, I never played basketball for any teams growing up, but did play pickup games often after high school. The weather is just fine “up here” 🤪. As for style, or lack thereof 😆, you’ll likely always see me in some form of graphic or plain T-shirt with likely some form of shorts (I love the cold and hate being hot) year round, though every now and then I’ll change it up with pants and/or pollos 🤷♂️. I want to be more stylish tbh, but I don’t have the eye for good style, I’m colorblind, and often don’t feel other styles would suit my looks 🤷♂️. Speaking of looks, standard bearded Caucasian nerd looking dude lol, though when people see me, they might be quick to assume I’m the standard white conservative Christian type, when in reality I’m far from such (curse the genetics and looks I was born into 😭).
Kink friendly, so any questions or curiosity around such please feel free to bring up and discuss with me further.
I think that’s a good start on physical attributes, let’s move on to the internal ish…
Gah this section is much tougher to fill out 😅. Look, I just love just about everybody, will generally give everybody the time of day and benefit of doubt, can strike up a convo with just about anyone (though sometimes I need the other person to engage the start of that convo 😅), and would do my best to help and protect anyone around. I just want the best for everyone, ya know? I’d say i lean more extroverted, but do battle a moderate amount of social anxiety that im sure you’ve picked up on by now..you’d likely think im more introverted with how often I stay home and how little I randomly reach out to friends/others. It’s not that I don’t love getting out and about and don’t care to talk to my friends, I just get so caught up in my day to day life that it just doesn’t cross my mind, OR I get social anxiety (especially if I haven’t spoken to someone in a long time, I always worry they think I don’t care about them and our friendship).
Beyond this, it’s hard to list my other qualities, so I’ll just move on to interests and maybe that’ll help highlight more?
My Interests:
Can’t help but feel kind of boring and basic when filling out this section 😅. I feel like it’s a lot of what most people list as their interests and that my list is small/limited/boring. Travel Culture/language Food Music (very large and eclectic taste in music) Gaming of any form (video, board, etc) Puzzles/challenges/sports (I love a good challenge, so huge kudos if you are competitive) Technology (always fascinating what we are making in this world) I’d like to learn to dance but right now I’m very self conscious about my terrible dancing (I feel awkward 😔)
Disinterests: Low hanging ceiling fans and light fixtures 🤪
Details regarding my current Poly configuration:
I’m happily married with one child. If I do take on any new partners I never expect you to take on any form of relationship or responsibility for the rest of my family beyond just maintaining a safe space through proxy. My wife and I practice kitchen table Poly, so we are completely open to everyone happily interacting together, but if you aren’t comfortable interacting with the rest of my family no problem! Ask if you have any further questions on how we Poly ethically, happy to answer any questions!
Anyways, I’ve made this long enough…if you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read my post to entirety! Even if we aren’t meant to connect, you and your time are greatly appreciated! Sending my warmest regards and a friendly virtual hug ❤️.
2024.05.14 15:33 AdRight2467 When will the nausea stop
So I usually inject in my arm. I am a wimp with needles, even tiny ones like this. I have an amazing partner who helps me and presses the button and I don’t have to see it because it’s behind my arm. I have virtually no side effects in my arm. I don’t lose as fast as some people but I do lose 1-2 ibs a week which I am happy with.
After some research on GLP1s absorbing slightly better in the stomach, I decided to try injecting there for the first time. What a huge mistake. I have been nauseous and sick for a week now. It is now the next shot day and I am scared to take it now because I’m so tired of being sick, puking, and being nauseous.
Has anyone dealt with this? Does the nausea go away once I inject in my arm again? Thanks!
submitted by AdRight2467 to Zepbound [link] [comments]
After some research on GLP1s absorbing slightly better in the stomach, I decided to try injecting there for the first time. What a huge mistake. I have been nauseous and sick for a week now. It is now the next shot day and I am scared to take it now because I’m so tired of being sick, puking, and being nauseous.
Has anyone dealt with this? Does the nausea go away once I inject in my arm again? Thanks!
2024.05.14 15:10 idontreallyusethis7 Has anyone tried Coxolin (Etoricoxib) for flare ups?
My specialist gave me a giant box of this after I told him I was just taking paracetamol and dealing with the pain during a flare up and avoiding all NSAIDs due to past stomach issues/Gerd, 195 x 90mg Tablets to be specific
However I am now reading that the FDA didn't approve it for the US market and that it increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke? and to be honest id rather limp/deal with the pain and pop some paracetamol for bedtime than risk having a heart attack,
Has anyone got any experience with it? and can maybe shed some perspective on these risks (as in am I really rolling the dice for a little pain relief, or is it virtually non existent for a healthy person when used for 1-2 days max at a time)
Starting Febuxostat 80mg in a couple days (after Allo made me an insomniac) so hopefully this will be one of the last few times it's even a concern for me
submitted by idontreallyusethis7 to gout [link] [comments]
However I am now reading that the FDA didn't approve it for the US market and that it increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke? and to be honest id rather limp/deal with the pain and pop some paracetamol for bedtime than risk having a heart attack,
Has anyone got any experience with it? and can maybe shed some perspective on these risks (as in am I really rolling the dice for a little pain relief, or is it virtually non existent for a healthy person when used for 1-2 days max at a time)
Starting Febuxostat 80mg in a couple days (after Allo made me an insomniac) so hopefully this will be one of the last few times it's even a concern for me
2024.05.14 14:01 Zappingsbrew A post talking about 400 words
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enterprise, entertain, entertainment, entire, entirely, entrance, entry, environment, environmental, episode, equal, equally, equipment, equivalent, era, error, escape, especially, essay, essential, essentially, establish, establishment, estate, estimate, etc, ethics, ethnic, European, evaluate, evaluation, evening, event, eventually, ever, every, everybody, everyday, everyone, everything, everywhere, evidence, evolution, evolve, exact, exactly, exam, examination, examine, example, exceed, excellent, except, exception, exchange, exciting, executive, exercise, exhibit, exhibition, exist, existence, existing, expand, expansion, expect, expectation, expense, expensive, experience, experiment, expert, explain, explanation, explode, explore, explosion, expose, exposure, express, expression, extend, extension, extensive, extent, external, extra, extraordinary, extreme, extremely, eye, fabric, face, facility, fact, factor, factory, faculty, fade, fail, failure, fair, fairly, faith, fall, false, familiar, family, famous, fan, fantasy, far, farm, farmer, fashion, fast, fat, fate, father, fault, favor, favorite, fear, feature, federal, fee, feed, feel, feeling, fellow, female, fence, festival, few, fewer, fiber, fiction, field, fifteen, fifth, fifty, fight, fighter, fighting, figure, file, fill, film, final, finally, finance, financial, find, finding, fine, finger, finish, fire, firm, first, fish, fishing, fit, fitness, five, fix, flag, flame, flat, flavor, flee, flesh, flight, float, floor, flow, flower, fly, focus, folk, follow, following, food, foot, football, for, force, foreign, forest, forever, forget, form, formal, formation, former, formula, forth, fortune, forward, found, foundation, founder, four, fourth, frame, framework, free, freedom, freeze, French, frequency, frequent, frequently, fresh, friend, friendly, friendship, from, front, fruit, frustration, fuel, fulfill, full, fully, fun, function, fund, fundamental, funding, funeral, funny, furniture, furthermore, future, gain, galaxy, gallery, game, gang, gap, garage, garden, garlic, gas, gate, gather, gay, gaze, gear, gender, gene, general, generally, generate, generation, genetic, gentleman, gently, German, gesture, get, ghost, giant, gift, gifted, girl, girlfriend, give, given, glad, glance, glass, global, glove, go, goal, God, gold, golden, golf, good, govern, government, governor, grab, grace, grade, gradually, graduate, grain, grand, grandmother, grant, grass, grave, gray, great, green, grocery, ground, group, grow, growing, growth, guarantee, guard, guess, guest, guide, guideline, guilty, gun, guy, habit, habitat, hair, half, hall, hand, handful, handle, hang, happen, happy, harbor, hard, hardly, hat, hate, have, he, head, headline, headquarters, health, healthy, hear, hearing, heart, heat, heaven, heavily, heavy, heel, height, helicopter, hell, hello, help, helpful, hence, her, herb, here, heritage, hero, herself, hey, hi, hide, high, highlight, highly, highway, hill, him, himself, hip, hire, his, historic, historical, history, hit, hold, hole, holiday, holy, home, homeless, honest, honey, honor, hope, horizon, horror, horse, hospital, host, hot, hotel, hour, house, household, housing, how, however, huge, human, humor, hundred, hungry, hunter, hunting, hurt, husband, hypothesis, ice, idea, ideal, identification, identify, identity, ignore, ill, illegal, illness, illustrate, image, imagination, imagine, immediate, immediately, immigrant, immigration, impact, implement, implication, imply, importance, important, impose, impossible, impress, impression, impressive, improve, improvement, incentive, incident, include, including, income, incorporate, increase, increased, increasingly, incredible, indeed, independence, independent, index, indicate, indication, individual, industrial, industry, infant, infection, inflation, influence, inform, information, ingredient, initial, initially, initiative, injury, inner, innocent, inquiry, inside, insight, insist, inspire, install, instance, instead, institute, institution, institutional, instruction, instructor, instrument, insurance, intellectual, intelligence, intend, intense, intensity, intention, interaction, interest, interested, interesting, internal, international, Internet, interpret, interpretation, intervention, interview, introduce, introduction, invasion, invest, investigation, investigator, investment, investor, invite, involve, involved, involvement, Iraqi, Irish, iron, Islamic, island, Israeli, issue, it, Italian, item, its, itself, jacket, jail, Japanese, jet, Jew, Jewish, job, join, joint, joke, journal, journalist, journey, joy, judge, judgment, juice, jump, junior, jury, just, justice, justify, keep, key, kick, kid, kill, killer, killing, kind, king, kiss, kitchen, knee, knife, knock, know, knowledge, lab, label, labor, laboratory, lack, lady, lake, land, landscape, language, lap, large, largely, last, late, later, Latin, latter, laugh, launch, law, lawsuit, lawyer, lay, layer, lead, leader, leadership, leading, leaf, league, lean, learn, learning, least, leather, leave, left, leg, legacy, legal, legend, legislation, legislative, legislator, legitimate, lemon, length, less, lesson, let, letter, level, liberal, library, license, lie, life, lifestyle, lifetime, lift, light, like, likely, limit, limitation, limited, line, link, lip, list, listen, literary, literature, little, live, living, load, loan, local, locate, location, lock, long, long-term, look, loose, lose, loss, lost, lot, lots, loud, love, lovely, lover, low, lower, luck, lucky, lunch, luxury, machine, mad, magazine, mail, main, mainly, maintain, maintenance, major, majority, make, maker, makeup, male, mall, man, manage, management, manager, manner, manufacturer, manufacturing, many, map, margin, mark, market, marketing, marriage, married, marry, mask, mass, massive, master, match, material, math, matter, may, maybe, mayor, me, meal, mean, meaning, meanwhile, measure, measurement, meat, mechanism, media, medical, medication, medicine, medium, meet, meeting, member, membership, memory, mental, mention, menu, mere, merely, mess, message, metal, meter, method, Mexican, middle, might, military, milk, million, mind, mine, minister, minor, minority, minute, miracle, mirror, miss, missile, mission, mistake, mix, mixture, mm-hmm, mode, model, moderate, modern, modest, mom, moment, money, monitor, month, mood, moon, moral, more, moreover, morning, mortgage, most, mostly, mother, motion, motivation, motor, mountain, mouse, mouth, move, movement, movie, Mr, Mrs, Ms, much, multiple, murder, muscle, museum, music, musical, musician, Muslim, must, mutual, my, myself, mystery, myth, naked, name, narrative, narrow, nation, national, native, natural, naturally, nature, near, nearby, nearly, necessarily, necessary, neck, need, negative, negotiate, negotiation, neighbor, neighborhood, neither, nerve, nervous, net, network, never, nevertheless, new, newly, news, newspaper, next, nice, night, nine, no, nobody, nod, noise, nomination, nominee, none, nonetheless, nor, normal, normally, north, northern, nose, not, note, nothing, notice, notion, novel, now, nowhere, nuclear, number, numerous, nurse, nut, object, objective, obligation, observation, observe, observer, obtain, obvious, obviously, occasion, occasionally, occupation, occupy, occur, ocean, odd, odds, of, off, offense, offensive, offer, office, officer, official, often, oh, oil, okay, old, Olympic, on, once, one, ongoing, onion, online, only, onto, open, opening, operate, operating, operation, operator, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppose, opposed, opposite, opposition, option, or, orange, order, ordinary, organic, organization, organize, orientation, origin, original, originally, other, others, otherwise, ought, our, ours, ourselves, out, outcome, outside, oven, over, overall, overcome, overlook, owe, own, owner, pace, pack, package, page, pain, painful, paint, painter, painting, pair, pale, Palestinian, palm, pan, panel, panic, pant, paper, paragraph, parent, park, parking, part, participant, participate, participation, particle, particular, particularly, partly, partner, partnership, party, pass, passage, passenger, passion, past, patch, path, patient, pattern, pause, pay, payment, PC, peace, peak, peer, pen, penalty, people, pepper, per, perceive, percentage, perception, perfect, perfectly, perform, performance, perhaps, period, permanent, permission, permit, person, personal, personality, personally, personnel, perspective, persuade, pet, phase, phenomenon, philosophy, phone, photo, photographer, phrase, physical, physically, physician, piano, pick, picture, pie, piece, pile, pilot, pine, pink, pipe, pitch, place, plan, plane, planet, planning, plant, plastic, plate, platform, play, player, please, pleasure, plenty, plot, plus, PM, pocket, poem, poet, poetry, point, police, policy, political, politically, politician, politics, poll, pollution, pool, poor, pop, popular, population, porch, port, portion, portrait, portray, pose, position, positive, possess, possession, possibility, possible, possibly, post, pot, potato, potential, potentially, pound, pour, poverty, powder, power, powerful, practical, practice, prayer, preach, precisely, predict, prediction, prefer, preference, pregnancy, pregnant, preparation, prepare, prescription, presence, present, presentation, preserve, president, presidential, press, pressure, pretend, pretty, prevent, previous, previously, price, pride, priest, primarily, primary, prime, principal, principle, print, prior, priority, prison, prisoner, privacy, private, probably, problem, procedure, proceed, process, processing, processor, proclaim, produce, producer, product, production, profession, professional, professor, profile, profit, program, progress, progressive, project, prominent, promise, promote, prompt, proof, proper, properly, property, proportion, proposal, propose, prosecutor, prospect, protect, protection, protein, protest, proud, prove, provide, provider, province, provision, psychological, psychology, public, publication, publicity, publish, publisher, pull, punishment, purchase, pure, purpose, pursue, push, put, qualify, quality, quarter, quarterback, quarterly, queen, quest, question, quick, quickly, quiet, quietly, quit, quite, quote, race, racial, radiation, radical, radio, rail, rain, raise, range, rank, rapid, rapidly, rare, rarely, rate, rather, rating, ratio, raw, reach, react, reaction, reader, reading, ready, real, reality, realize, really, reason, reasonable, recall, receive, recent, recently, reception, recipe, recipient, recognition, recognize, recommend, recommendation, record, recording, recover, recovery, recruit, red, reduce, reduction, refer, reference, reflect, reflection, reform, refugee, refuse, regard, regarding, regardless, regime, region, regional, register, regular, regularly, regulate, regulation, regulator, reinforce, reject, relate, relation, relationship, relative, relatively, relax, release, relevant, relief, religion, religious, rely, remain, remaining, remarkable, remember, remind, remote, remove, repeat, repeatedly, replace, replacement, reply, report, reporter, represent, representation, representative, Republican, reputation, request, require, requirement, research, researcher, resemble, reservation, resident, residential, resign, resist, resistance, resolution, resolve, resort, resource, respect, respond, response, responsibility, responsible, rest, restaurant, restore, restriction, result, retain, retire, retirement, return, reveal, revenue, review, revolution, rhythm, rice, rich, rid, ride, rifle, right, ring, rise, risk, river, road, rock, role, roll, romantic, roof, room, root, rope, rose, rough, roughly, round, route, routine, row, rub, rubber, rude, ruin, rule, run, running, rural, rush, Russian, sacred, sad, safe, safety, sake, salad, salary, sale, sales, salt, same, sample, sanction, sand, satellite, satisfaction, satisfied, satisfy, sauce, save, saving, say, scale, scandal, scare, scatter, scenario, scene, schedule, scheme, scholar, scholarship, school, science, scientific, scientist, scope, score, scream, screen, script, sea, search, season, seat, second, secondary, secret, secretary, section, sector, secure, security, see, seed, seek, seem, segment, seize, select, selection, self, sell, Senate, senator, send, senior, sense, sensitive, sentence, separate, sequence, series, serious, seriously, servant, serve, service, session, set, setting, settle, settlement, seven, several, severe, sex, sexual, shade, shadow, shake, shall, shallow, shape, share, sharp, she, sheet, shelf, shell, shelter, shift, shine, ship, shirt, shock, shoe, shoot, shooting, shop, shopping, short, shortly, shot, should, shoulder, shout, show, shower, shrug, shut, shy, sibling, sick, side, sigh, sight, sign, signal, significant, significantly, silence, silent, silver, similar, similarly, simple, simply, sin, since, sing, singer, single, sink, sir, sister, sit, site, situation, six, size, ski, skill, skin, skirt, sky, slave, sleep, slice, slide, slight, slightly, slip, slow, slowly, small, smart, smell, smile, smoke, smooth, snap, snow, so, so-called, soccer, social, society, soft, software, soil, solar, soldier, sole, solid, solution, solve, some, somebody, somehow, someone, something, sometimes, somewhat, somewhere, son, song, soon, sophisticated, sorry, sort, soul, sound, soup, source, south, southern, Soviet, space, Spanish, speak, speaker, special, specialist, species, specific, specifically, specify, speech, speed, spend, spending, spin, spirit, spiritual, split, spoil, sponsor, sport, spot, spray, spread, spring, square, squeeze, stability, stable, staff, stage, stain, stair, stake, stand, standard, standing, star, stare, start, state, statement, station, statistical, status, stay, steady, steal, steel, steep, stem, step, stick, still, stimulate, stimulus, stir, stock, stomach, stone, stop, storage, store, storm, story, straight, strange, stranger, strategic, strategy, stream, street, strength, strengthen, stress, stretch, strike, string, strip, stroke, strong, strongly, structural, structure, struggle, student, studio, study, stuff, stupid, style, subject, submit, subsequent, substance, substantial, substitute, succeed, success, successful, successfully, such, sudden, suddenly, sue, suffer, sufficient, sugar, suggest, suggestion, suicide, suit, summer, summit, sun, super, supply, support, supporter, suppose, supposed, Supreme, sure, surely, surface, surgery, surprise, surprised, surprising, surprisingly, surround, survey, survival, survive, survivor, suspect, sustain, swear, sweep, sweet, swim, swing, switch, symbol, symptom, system, table, tactic, tail, take, tale, talent, talk, tall, tank, tap, tape, target, task, taste, tax, taxi, tea, teach, teacher, teaching, team, tear, technical, technique, technology, teen, teenager, telephone, telescope, television, tell, temperature, temporary, ten, tend, tendency, tennis, tension, tent, term, terms, terrible, territory, terror, terrorist, test, testimony, testing, text, than, thank, thanks, that, the, theater, their, them, theme, themselves, then, theory, therapy, there, therefore, these, they, thick, thin, thing, think, thinking, third, thirty, this, those, though, thought, thousand, threat, threaten, three, throat, through, throughout, throw, thus, ticket, tie, tight, time, tiny, tip, tire, tissue, title, to, tobacco, today, toe, together, toilet, token, tolerate, tomato, tomorrow, tone, tongue, tonight, too, tool, tooth, top, topic, toss, total, totally, touch, tough, tour, tourist, tournament, toward, towards, tower, town, toy, trace, track, trade, tradition, traditional, traffic, tragedy, trail, train, training, transfer, transform, transformation, transition, translate, translation, transmission, transmit, transport, transportation, travel, treat, treatment, treaty, tree, tremendous, trend, trial, tribe, trick, trip, troop, trouble, truck, true, truly, trust, truth, try, tube, tunnel, turn, TV, twelve, twenty, twice, twin, two, type, typical, typically, ugly, ultimate, ultimately, unable, uncle, undergo, understand, understanding, unfortunately, uniform, union, unique, unit, United, universal, universe, university, unknown, unless, unlike, until, unusual, up, upon, upper, urban, urge, us, use, used, useful, user, usual, usually, utility, utilize, vacation, valley, valuable, value, variable, variation, variety, various, vary, vast, vegetable, vehicle, venture, version, versus, very, vessel, veteran, via, victim, victory, video, view, viewer, village, violate, violation, violence, violent, virtually, virtue, virus, visibility, visible, vision, visit, visitor, visual, vital, voice, volume, voluntary, volunteer, vote, voter, voting, wage, wait, wake, walk, wall, wander, want, war, warm, warn, warning, wash, waste, watch, water, wave, way, we, weak, weakness, wealth, wealthy, weapon, wear, weather, web, website, wedding, week, weekend, weekly, weigh, weight, welcome, welfare, well, west, western, wet, what, whatever, wheel, when, whenever, where, whereas, whether, which, while, whisper, white, who, whole, whom, whose, why, wide, widely, widespread, wife, wild, wildlife, will, willing, win, wind, window, wine, wing, winner, winter, wipe, wire, wisdom, wise, wish, with, withdraw, within, without, witness, woman, wonder, wonderful, wood, wooden, word, work, worker, working, workout, workplace, works, workshop, world, worried, worry, worth, would, wound, wrap, write, writer, writing, wrong, yard, yeah, year, yell, yellow, yes, yesterday, yet, yield, you, young, your, yours, yourself, youth, zone.
submitted by Zappingsbrew to u/Zappingsbrew [link] [comments]
2024.05.14 07:13 New_Seaweed_6639 28f - cute alt stoner looking for night owl friends
About Me: - Proud Gemini with dual personalities - never a dull moment! ♊️ - Embracing the beauty of traditional relationships in navigating life's twists and turns 🖤 - Enjoying the laid-back vibes of cannabis culture while diving into the virtual world of Stardew Valley - let's cultivate our virtual farm together! 🌿🎮 - True crime podcast aficionado - let's solve mysteries and discuss conspiracy theories 🔍🎧 - Short, chubby, and rocking it with confidence - body positivity is my mantra 💁♀️ - Reality TV junkie - let's indulge in guilty pleasures and reality drama 📺 - Dedicated fur mom to 2 dogs and a cat - they're my world 🐶🐶🐱 - Passionate about cooking and exploring new recipes - food is love 🍳🍲 - Long hair and tattoos make me weak in the knees - bonus points if you're both 😍💉 - A witty sense of humor is my weakness - let's laugh until our stomachs hurt 😄
If you're ready for adventure, deep conversations, and cozy nights in, let's connect! Send a selfie and let's see if the stars align for us. 📸✨
submitted by New_Seaweed_6639 to MakeNewFriendsHere [link] [comments]
If you're ready for adventure, deep conversations, and cozy nights in, let's connect! Send a selfie and let's see if the stars align for us. 📸✨
2024.05.14 04:19 NPH25 Wellbutrin & severe stomach problems
Hey there! I (25F) just wanted to weigh in with my personal experience taking wellbutrin for 2 years to manage depression, for anyone else out there who may find this helpful.
Before going into details, I want to emphasize that for managing my depression, wellbutrin was absolutely incredible and saved me from a really dark and heavy period in my life. Further, while stomach issues with wellbutrin are not uncommon, I believe my reaction was likely exceptionally severe (so I don't want to fearmonger).
The Good:
Wellbutrin was a huge help for me. I was on 150 mg for ~5 months and then 300 mg for ~20 months. It helped my depression a lot (though not my anxiety). I noticed on 150 mg my mood was quite unpredictable in a way that was really uncomfortable for me, but going up to 300 mg leveled things out.
The Ugly:
How it Started
While I was on wellbutrin, especially after going up to 300 mg, I slowly started to develop stomach issues. I had struggled with IBS-like symptoms on-and-off for a long time, but after about 3 months on wellbutrin it started to get much worse, and within 1 year of being on 300 mg it became horrifically unmanageable.
Stomach Pain & Diet
I lost over 10 pounds within a month last summer and, for context, I am already someone who has been "underweight" my whole life. I lost the weight really rapidly, none of my clothes fit, and I had no energy. I would take my wellbutrin in the morning (as is generally advised) and by around 2 pm would start to feel really bloated, and it would just get worse and worse until the evening, to the point where I could never eat dinner, or even leave the house much, and would just sit on the couch with a hot water bottle. At one point the pain was so bad a family physician sent me to the ER thinking I had appendicitis! I had multiple ultrasounds that came back clear.
I became gluten intolerant (not even a bite of bread was okay) and developed a pretty severe intolerance to soy (even small trace amounts of soy lecithin in things like granola bars and chocolate would take me out for an entire day)
Ultimately, doctors classified it just as IBS and put me on the low-FODMAP diet. It certainly helped, and it helped me identify my 'trigger' foods, but with being vegetarian, on low-FODMAP, and unable to eat soy, my diet felt impossibly restrictive. But, I felt better and stuck to it.
Eventually, the low-FODMAP diet stopped working, and this past January I had another flareup. This time was even worse. No foods were safe foods, and I was constantly in pain and bloated (to the point of looking 6 months pregnant on a regular basis). Eating became something I feared, but not eating would trigger stomach pain as well. I couldn't eat so much as a salad without taking multiple IB-Guard capsules beforehand and ginger gravol after, and even then it was painful.
Menstrual Cycle
While my stomach issues were constant, they definitely became significantly worse around my period and around mid-cycle (ovulation) for about a week at a time (so 2 out of 4 weeks, rip), and it was debilitating. For 2 days before my period and around ovulation, it felt like I had the flu. I couldn't eat, I would have the chills, throw up, be nauseous, and virtually unable to eat. This lead doctors to think I may have severe endometriosis, despite the absence of period cramps or heavy bleeding (which is possible, but unlikely).
Figuring It Out
I went to yet another doctor and she sent me for some tests, but I live in Montreal, Canada, where the wait times for those specific tests were ~8 months each, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. So, I decided to do an experiment on myself. Keep in mind that because the stomach problems evolved slowly while I took wellbutrin, I never realized it could be what was causing my issues-and for some reason no doctor suggested that either.
I realized that I took my medications in the morning, and by lunch I would start to feel unwell. So I did a trial where one day I didn't take the other prescription medication I take (sprionolactone for hormonal acne)-no difference. The next day, I didn't take my wellbutrin. I had the best day I had had in well over a year. No stomach pain whatsoever. I thought it could be a fluke, so I skipped a second day. No pain. Day 3, I took half my usual dose (150 mg)-horrible pain. So, I did what doctors would definitely not recommend and went off it cold turkey. Stomach problems=gone. It was incredible, and I felt like I had my life back.
Today
Today I feel amazing. I have virtually no stomach problems at all, and I have started to re-introduce foods that I could not tolerate a small bite of before. My gluten and soy intolerances completely disappeared, which was shocking. Last week I had pasta for the first time, today I had tofu for the first time again. Having a restrictive diet was not super bothersome to me after I got used to it, and I know many people live their whole lives with eating restrictions like that. But it is nice to be able to expand my diet again (especially as a vegetarian, being able to eat things like tofu and seitan is sooo helpful). I don't feel horrible around my period at all. I feel like I have my life back-I can go out with friends at night and just enjoy myself and not be in pain, not have to take 3 different supplements to eat a meal, can eat whatever I want on occasional restaurant outings, etc. My stomach problems felt like they took up 90% of my thoughts and energy, and now I have that all back to put towards myself and the people I care about <3
Important: Now, for the first few weeks wellbutrin withdrawal was kind of no big deal. I was definitely tired, but it was manageable and went away after a short while. HOWEVER, a month after I had a full nervous breakdown that was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I was inconsolable for 4 days, and eventually went to the ER, and ended up taking Ativan to get through the couple days that followed. However, I was put on Lexapro (just 5 mg) and have been 100% fine and thriving since, and my anxiety is way better than it ever was on wellbutrin. I should also note that I left a very, very difficult relationship during this time, and it went quite horribly, and so while I would be amiss to not say quitting wellbutirn cold turkey didn't contribute to this "breakdown", I think context is really important.
I should also note that I have a history of having a hard time with prescription medications (so before anyone else says it first, myself or a doctor probably should have guessed wellbutrin was the culprit long before the 2 years). In any case... I had to stop taking Zoloft a few years back because it made me horribly nauseous and bloated, and the same was true for oral contraceptives (I tried 5 different ones over 4 years and all caused horrible nausea)-I now have a copper IUD.
TLDR: Wellbutrin help my anxiety but caused horrific stomach problems (severe and painful bloating, constipation, stomach cramping, nausea) and lead me to develop intense food intolerances (to gluten and soy) and made a strict low-FODMAP diet the only way to keep myself going. Stopping wellbutrin cured my stomach issues within a month, but quitting cold turkey lead to an intense emotional break.
Sorry this was so long, but I hope it helps someone
submitted by NPH25 to Wellbutrin_Bupropion [link] [comments]
Before going into details, I want to emphasize that for managing my depression, wellbutrin was absolutely incredible and saved me from a really dark and heavy period in my life. Further, while stomach issues with wellbutrin are not uncommon, I believe my reaction was likely exceptionally severe (so I don't want to fearmonger).
The Good:
Wellbutrin was a huge help for me. I was on 150 mg for ~5 months and then 300 mg for ~20 months. It helped my depression a lot (though not my anxiety). I noticed on 150 mg my mood was quite unpredictable in a way that was really uncomfortable for me, but going up to 300 mg leveled things out.
The Ugly:
How it Started
While I was on wellbutrin, especially after going up to 300 mg, I slowly started to develop stomach issues. I had struggled with IBS-like symptoms on-and-off for a long time, but after about 3 months on wellbutrin it started to get much worse, and within 1 year of being on 300 mg it became horrifically unmanageable.
Stomach Pain & Diet
I lost over 10 pounds within a month last summer and, for context, I am already someone who has been "underweight" my whole life. I lost the weight really rapidly, none of my clothes fit, and I had no energy. I would take my wellbutrin in the morning (as is generally advised) and by around 2 pm would start to feel really bloated, and it would just get worse and worse until the evening, to the point where I could never eat dinner, or even leave the house much, and would just sit on the couch with a hot water bottle. At one point the pain was so bad a family physician sent me to the ER thinking I had appendicitis! I had multiple ultrasounds that came back clear.
I became gluten intolerant (not even a bite of bread was okay) and developed a pretty severe intolerance to soy (even small trace amounts of soy lecithin in things like granola bars and chocolate would take me out for an entire day)
Ultimately, doctors classified it just as IBS and put me on the low-FODMAP diet. It certainly helped, and it helped me identify my 'trigger' foods, but with being vegetarian, on low-FODMAP, and unable to eat soy, my diet felt impossibly restrictive. But, I felt better and stuck to it.
Eventually, the low-FODMAP diet stopped working, and this past January I had another flareup. This time was even worse. No foods were safe foods, and I was constantly in pain and bloated (to the point of looking 6 months pregnant on a regular basis). Eating became something I feared, but not eating would trigger stomach pain as well. I couldn't eat so much as a salad without taking multiple IB-Guard capsules beforehand and ginger gravol after, and even then it was painful.
Menstrual Cycle
While my stomach issues were constant, they definitely became significantly worse around my period and around mid-cycle (ovulation) for about a week at a time (so 2 out of 4 weeks, rip), and it was debilitating. For 2 days before my period and around ovulation, it felt like I had the flu. I couldn't eat, I would have the chills, throw up, be nauseous, and virtually unable to eat. This lead doctors to think I may have severe endometriosis, despite the absence of period cramps or heavy bleeding (which is possible, but unlikely).
Figuring It Out
I went to yet another doctor and she sent me for some tests, but I live in Montreal, Canada, where the wait times for those specific tests were ~8 months each, and I just couldn't handle it anymore. So, I decided to do an experiment on myself. Keep in mind that because the stomach problems evolved slowly while I took wellbutrin, I never realized it could be what was causing my issues-and for some reason no doctor suggested that either.
I realized that I took my medications in the morning, and by lunch I would start to feel unwell. So I did a trial where one day I didn't take the other prescription medication I take (sprionolactone for hormonal acne)-no difference. The next day, I didn't take my wellbutrin. I had the best day I had had in well over a year. No stomach pain whatsoever. I thought it could be a fluke, so I skipped a second day. No pain. Day 3, I took half my usual dose (150 mg)-horrible pain. So, I did what doctors would definitely not recommend and went off it cold turkey. Stomach problems=gone. It was incredible, and I felt like I had my life back.
Today
Today I feel amazing. I have virtually no stomach problems at all, and I have started to re-introduce foods that I could not tolerate a small bite of before. My gluten and soy intolerances completely disappeared, which was shocking. Last week I had pasta for the first time, today I had tofu for the first time again. Having a restrictive diet was not super bothersome to me after I got used to it, and I know many people live their whole lives with eating restrictions like that. But it is nice to be able to expand my diet again (especially as a vegetarian, being able to eat things like tofu and seitan is sooo helpful). I don't feel horrible around my period at all. I feel like I have my life back-I can go out with friends at night and just enjoy myself and not be in pain, not have to take 3 different supplements to eat a meal, can eat whatever I want on occasional restaurant outings, etc. My stomach problems felt like they took up 90% of my thoughts and energy, and now I have that all back to put towards myself and the people I care about <3
Important: Now, for the first few weeks wellbutrin withdrawal was kind of no big deal. I was definitely tired, but it was manageable and went away after a short while. HOWEVER, a month after I had a full nervous breakdown that was unlike anything I had ever experienced. I was inconsolable for 4 days, and eventually went to the ER, and ended up taking Ativan to get through the couple days that followed. However, I was put on Lexapro (just 5 mg) and have been 100% fine and thriving since, and my anxiety is way better than it ever was on wellbutrin. I should also note that I left a very, very difficult relationship during this time, and it went quite horribly, and so while I would be amiss to not say quitting wellbutirn cold turkey didn't contribute to this "breakdown", I think context is really important.
I should also note that I have a history of having a hard time with prescription medications (so before anyone else says it first, myself or a doctor probably should have guessed wellbutrin was the culprit long before the 2 years). In any case... I had to stop taking Zoloft a few years back because it made me horribly nauseous and bloated, and the same was true for oral contraceptives (I tried 5 different ones over 4 years and all caused horrible nausea)-I now have a copper IUD.
TLDR: Wellbutrin help my anxiety but caused horrific stomach problems (severe and painful bloating, constipation, stomach cramping, nausea) and lead me to develop intense food intolerances (to gluten and soy) and made a strict low-FODMAP diet the only way to keep myself going. Stopping wellbutrin cured my stomach issues within a month, but quitting cold turkey lead to an intense emotional break.
Sorry this was so long, but I hope it helps someone
2024.05.14 02:50 avt2020 I'm getting so frustrated
I had a total hysterectomy the end of January and it's like every single month since then I've had a UTI.
The third time I went to urgent care about it, they gave me the same antibiotic even though I told them it hadn't worked for me before, and the antibiotics didn't feel like they helped at all this last time. They supposedly tested it for cultures yet they never gave me the results. (The first two times I did a virtual appointment for antibiotics because I didn't think anything of it and I know that was a dumb move. But at least those times it seemed to help).
Now I'm getting concerned by how I'm getting more noticable symptoms yet again just two weeks after finishing the antibiotics.
I even said this is the third UTI I had and they didn't care and just asked me "do you know how to wipe right"? It felt so insulting.
I tried to chug a lot of water this weekend and that seemed to help but of course that's not doable to just be going to the bathroom all the time. I tried my best though to drink as much as I could to follow the 8 cups a day, yet I STILL feel pain when peeing. Sometimes it still smells weird too (like bleach or sweet). I know drinking a lot of water helps and I really try to but sometimes it's just not doable. I feel like I get UTIs or worse symptoms the second I don't drink 8+ glasses a day.
And today I've been noticing some lower abdominal pain on the right side of my stomach (not pelvic pain). I'm just starting to get so irritated and concerned because I'm told "you need to treat your UTI" yet nobody seems to care that I've BEEN HAVING UTIS FOR 4 FUCKING MONTHS.
I can't be in the bathroom every hour for the rest of my life and I'd like to have sex again eventually (I'm cleared for it). This doesn't make me feel like I can even wear thongs again either because I know it can increase the risk of UTIs (from what I've heard).
submitted by avt2020 to utis [link] [comments]
The third time I went to urgent care about it, they gave me the same antibiotic even though I told them it hadn't worked for me before, and the antibiotics didn't feel like they helped at all this last time. They supposedly tested it for cultures yet they never gave me the results. (The first two times I did a virtual appointment for antibiotics because I didn't think anything of it and I know that was a dumb move. But at least those times it seemed to help).
Now I'm getting concerned by how I'm getting more noticable symptoms yet again just two weeks after finishing the antibiotics.
I even said this is the third UTI I had and they didn't care and just asked me "do you know how to wipe right"? It felt so insulting.
I tried to chug a lot of water this weekend and that seemed to help but of course that's not doable to just be going to the bathroom all the time. I tried my best though to drink as much as I could to follow the 8 cups a day, yet I STILL feel pain when peeing. Sometimes it still smells weird too (like bleach or sweet). I know drinking a lot of water helps and I really try to but sometimes it's just not doable. I feel like I get UTIs or worse symptoms the second I don't drink 8+ glasses a day.
And today I've been noticing some lower abdominal pain on the right side of my stomach (not pelvic pain). I'm just starting to get so irritated and concerned because I'm told "you need to treat your UTI" yet nobody seems to care that I've BEEN HAVING UTIS FOR 4 FUCKING MONTHS.
I can't be in the bathroom every hour for the rest of my life and I'd like to have sex again eventually (I'm cleared for it). This doesn't make me feel like I can even wear thongs again either because I know it can increase the risk of UTIs (from what I've heard).
2024.05.13 23:16 averagegirl89 Race Report: ING Night Marathon - Disappointed After a What I Thought Was a Great Training Block
Race Information
- Name: ING Night Marathon Luxembourg
- Date: May 11, 2024
- Distance: 26.2 miles
- Location: Luxembourg
- Website: https://www.ing-night-marathon.lu/en.html
- Strava: N/A
- Time: 4:00:48
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | PB | No |
| B | 3:45 | No |
| C | Don't hit the wall | No |
| D | Nail fueling | No |
Splits
| Mile | Time |
|---|---|
| 1 | 8:32 |
| 2 | 8:33 |
| 3 | 8:37 |
| 4 | 8:42 |
| 5 | 8:37 |
| 6 | 8:29 |
| 7 | 8:27 |
| 8 | 8:22 |
| 9 | 8:22 |
| 10 | 8:26 |
| 11 | 8:04 |
| 12 | 8:19 |
| 13 | 8:21 |
| 14 | 8:22 |
| 15 | 8:15 |
| 16 | 8:47 |
| 17 | 9:25 |
| 18 | 9:22 |
| 19 | 9:38 |
| 20 | 11:08 |
| 21 | 9:33 |
| 22 | 9:38 |
| 23 | 9:12 |
| 24 | 10:17 |
| 25 | 10:49 |
| 26 | 10:08 |
| 26.68 | 6:14 |
Training
I really have enjoyed the 80/20 method so I used the Marathon Level 2 18 Week training plan from Matt Fitzgerald's book. Stepping up to running 6-7 days a week consistently was daunting, but I found myself getting into a really good routine with it. I'm not really an early morning person, so most of my workouts were in the late mornings/afternoons. I generally feel the best when I workout in the afternoons, so I figured that the marathon being in the evening would actually work well for me. I only missed 7 workouts over the whole training cycle (mostly recovery runs and a few speed runs), and modified another 7 of them due to tune-up races or travel. I did a bit of strength training in the beginning of my training plan, usually 20 minute full body dumbbell sessions, but stopped those I would say around 1/3 - 1/2 of the way through the plan as the runs got longer and I had less time to add strength training on top. I had a 16 mile marathon simulator run at week 15 that went great -- my target MP was 8:32, and I averaged 8:05 during the simulator. Weather was 40s and rainy, and there were hills on this route. Overall I felt my training was leading me towards meeting my B goal, and at least beating my old marathon PB of 3:59 that I ran with less focused training.Pre-Race
I focused on carb-loading the few days before the race, and headed to Luxembourg on Friday to settle in the day before. Since this is a night race that starts at 7pm, I decided to do my shakeout run that morning, and in the afternoon I had a nap to really relax and be prepped for the night race.Race
I got to the venue 2+ hours before the start as recommended, and stayed out of the sun while waiting for the start. The sun didn't go down until about 9pm, so for the first half of the race conditions were sunny and temps in the 70s. Unfortunately they start the half marathon and marathon all together so the race was quite crowded, and I did spend a good amount of time weaving to make sure I could still keep my pace plan. The course is quite fun, running through lots of Luxembourg downtown, parks, and residential areas with people all over the course cheering you on. There are a lot of DJs with music set up and flashing lights, so it's a party atmosphere. I stuck to my fuel plan for about the first half of the race, having a gel every 25 minutes. As you can see from my splits, I felt pretty great until about mile 17. Cardiovascularly I felt fine, and looking at my heart rate zones I stayed in Zone 2 and 3 most of the time. What really hurt were my quads. It was a soreness I really had to push to overcome, and ultimately couldn't keep up with my goal mile paces. I couldn't believe it, but I drank my whole 1.5L hydration vest about 3 hours in! I stopped taking my gels because the thought of putting more flavored sugar in my mouth was very unappealing. My stomach wasn't upset at all, but I really craved cool water to rinse my mouth out. I have never had that feeling in my mouth during training, but I usually don't have that many gels during my long runs. During long runs I had a gel about every 45 minutes. I was really trying to push the last few miles to make sure I left it all on the course, and my official time is 4:00:48. I know virtual races are no comparison, but one positive is you get to stop running right at 26.2! I already knew this course was a bit longer, with the planned route on my Garmin at 26.38, but I ended up running 26.68.Post-Race
Of course I was disappointed post-race. I really thought my training supported a better time. I was wondering if I really gave it my all, but on the tram ride back to my Air BnB I felt lightheaded and my quads were just killing me so I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. It was sometime past midnight when I got back to my AirBnB, and with my appetite kicking in I got some dumplings from an Asian spot and crashed!I thought of a few reasons why I didn't hit my goal: the warm beginning to the race when most of my training has been in cooler temps; the hills on the course, especially since the last few miles are uphill; and lack of strengh training throughout the full training cycle to build stronger quads. Reading through my race report I'm wondering if the hot start to the race was really the prime factor, or if that's more of an easy excuse.
Anyway I'm wondering if I should repeat this plan for a fall marathon or if maybe cutting back the running days and adding a dedicated strength day would be better?
Thanks for all the great advice on this sub! Did anyone else run this one?
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.
2024.05.13 18:23 SweetChickita Is it silly to be this upset?
My husband apparently last acted out in December- D Day was December 6th, his clean date is the 8th.
Things were going okay, I thought. He has a CSAT, does book work, SA meetings virtually several times a week, group therapy with his CSAT… These past two weeks we made tons of progress and I was finally starting to feel happy in the first time in months and starting to trust him again, finally. We didn’t argue or have any bad days for two weeks and were just having fun together and he was being more affectionate and open and I felt like his recovery was finally working.
Well this morning I caught him fast-forwarding to bikini scenes in movies while he was alone. I was at work and got a really weird panicky gut feeling- I checked one of our blink cameras that faces the living room, which I honestly almost never do, and he was watching different movies and fast forwarding to scenes of women in bikinis. I freaked out. I felt like my heart dropped into my stomach. Like why?? He knows that is wrong and a slippery slope?
He claims it was a slip and he didn’t masturbate and this has only happened a couple of times. 5 months into recovery and he is still apparently flat-lining and we aren’t having sex. I feel so freaking unattractive… I can’t even vent to anyone either because people will just think it’s silly. But how can I believe he’s flat lining and has no sexual interest when he clearly does still if he’s seeking out any sort of content, just not for me?? I feel like I’m going crazy right now.
He is being so apologetic and says he fucked up and contacted his CSAT and saying all the right things, but I just feel so blind sided all over again, I was finally starting to trust him and our future again. He is also saying he is going to get a sponsor now and start step work, unprompted.
Is there any chance this was it? What are the odds I happened to catch his one slip? Like that sounds so unbelievable to me?
Edit: after getting home from work and discussing, he relapsed over a month ago to movie scenes like this including physically acting out to them. There is always more to find out, I guess. WTF. No wonder our sex life is still nonexistent. I guess I’ve earned my second DDay, which I honestly thought would never come. I got this information from hours worth of trickle truth so honestly there is probably even more. I feel so numb.
submitted by SweetChickita to loveafterporn [link] [comments]
Things were going okay, I thought. He has a CSAT, does book work, SA meetings virtually several times a week, group therapy with his CSAT… These past two weeks we made tons of progress and I was finally starting to feel happy in the first time in months and starting to trust him again, finally. We didn’t argue or have any bad days for two weeks and were just having fun together and he was being more affectionate and open and I felt like his recovery was finally working.
Well this morning I caught him fast-forwarding to bikini scenes in movies while he was alone. I was at work and got a really weird panicky gut feeling- I checked one of our blink cameras that faces the living room, which I honestly almost never do, and he was watching different movies and fast forwarding to scenes of women in bikinis. I freaked out. I felt like my heart dropped into my stomach. Like why?? He knows that is wrong and a slippery slope?
He claims it was a slip and he didn’t masturbate and this has only happened a couple of times. 5 months into recovery and he is still apparently flat-lining and we aren’t having sex. I feel so freaking unattractive… I can’t even vent to anyone either because people will just think it’s silly. But how can I believe he’s flat lining and has no sexual interest when he clearly does still if he’s seeking out any sort of content, just not for me?? I feel like I’m going crazy right now.
He is being so apologetic and says he fucked up and contacted his CSAT and saying all the right things, but I just feel so blind sided all over again, I was finally starting to trust him and our future again. He is also saying he is going to get a sponsor now and start step work, unprompted.
Is there any chance this was it? What are the odds I happened to catch his one slip? Like that sounds so unbelievable to me?
Edit: after getting home from work and discussing, he relapsed over a month ago to movie scenes like this including physically acting out to them. There is always more to find out, I guess. WTF. No wonder our sex life is still nonexistent. I guess I’ve earned my second DDay, which I honestly thought would never come. I got this information from hours worth of trickle truth so honestly there is probably even more. I feel so numb.
2024.05.13 14:07 OrlonDogger A Witch at Midnight - Chapter 11
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An old desk phone stands on a marble pedestal, lost in the middle of a dark room. A perfectly circular, dark room, dug deeply into the bedrock of a city far, far away from anywhere important to our story. Silence reigns in this room… until the phone starts ringing. It rings for such a long time, uninterrupted, insistent, inconsiderate even! It rings for longer than any person should be willing to wait, longer than anyone would stomach. A sane person would simply give up and call later… But this caller? No. This caller refuses to be ignored.
So it rings, even while a set of long, skeletal fingers stretch from the shadows. Knuckles and joints crack as the hand does a few stretches, taking the time to caress the nasty, annoying phone for a moment without picking it up.
“Oh bother… I wonder who that could be…?”
The voice was raspy, nasal and grumbly. It loved to complain, and it had done so for so long that even when it wasn’t complaining, it sounded annoyed and legitimately upset. The hand stopped uncomfortably caressing the vibrating phone for a moment to grab the caller ID. Its dim green light was perfectly reflected on the hand’s glossy white skin.
“Ah… G again, huh…?”
Understanding that it couldn’t simply ignore this annoying sound forever, and that the call may actually mean something important (and lucrative), the hand returned to the phone and finally picked it up.
“You interrupted my nap.” The raspy voice said.
“You shouldn’t sleep for so long. It’s bad for you.” The young boy’s voice answered, legitimately concerned.
“Oh yeah? You suggest I should go out instead? Take a shower, get dolled up, and then bask under the full concentrated power of the Sun?”
“Come on now, don’t be like that. You know what I mean.”
“You better mean something important, to interrupt my nap like that, you old bastard.”
The white, skeletal hand made a few sassy snaps, loud enough to be heard over the phone.
“Alright alright, I am done beating around the bush. Sorry.” The calm, youthful voice sighed over the phone, these conversations were enough to exhaust him.
“Yeah that’s right, bitch.”
“It’s just… we have a new visitor in The Forum, and I’d like you to give us a little check on who or what.”
“What, are you afraid of a few gremlins and jinxes finally finding their way over your precious forum? Or is this a troll hunt?” The raspy voice finally got up from the sea of cushions and empty bags, and with another snapping of his fingers, he activated the widescreens that covered every single spot of his walls with the exception of a single metal door. The lights were warm and orangey, designed to avoid straining the eyes.
The room had returned to life! It was an absolute disaster, pillows and empty bloodbags laid scattered around without a care, and the whole place had a disgusting aura of filth to it.
Blanco was fully illuminated now. His figure was enough to cause nightmares to a few children: a tall, lanky and wide-shouldered man, skin white as marble and cracked as an old dry cookie, full of darker spots and nasty scars. His arms were long enough for the knuckles of his free hand to feel the floor.
But what was worst of all was his face: a perfectly round, perfectly smooth face, lacking hair, eyes and ears, only showing a few dark veins underneath the glossy skin. His mouth was another crack in this otherwise flawless surface, showing myriads of sharp, black teeth.
“Now let’s see…”
The screens all showed the same picture of Blanco’s face, a toothy smile covering his visage. With a mere gesture of his hand, a wireless keyboard came floating to the creature, big and wide enough for his disproportionate hands. The keys were shining in beautiful purple, producing a hypnotic wave effect across its length.
After cracking his knuckles, the creature began typing and accessing one of the many screens, the one permanently connected to Dejima 08. Blanco stretched again, sitting in the air and crossing his lanky legs as he checked the analytics.
“Yep. You have a new visitor, and they immediately registered. ‘Tav’, huh? Too generic.”
“Can you give me a bit more info on them?” The young man asked.
“Are you officially commissioning me now? Because this is as far as our friendship will get me without pay.” Blanco smirked, a purple tongue licking his nonexistent lips.
“...I’ll have the payment sent immediately. I want an hour of your time.” There was hesitation on the old voice. He clearly didn’t feel good about this, but one could never be too careful.
“Oh boy!” The creature clapped rapidly, and before he knew it, there was a notification on another screen. Ka-ching! The sound of money going straight into his PayBud. “Ohhh Giovanni, you gotta be my best client, really. Most people whine about my prices.”
“You probably tell that to every client you get.” G chuckled, taking it like a good sport.
“I do!” Blanco admitted with a bright, big smile, and then slid over to face a cluster of 9 screens on a wall. “This will take just a moment…”
The screens would go to black at the same time, before glyphs of many sizes, shapes and forms began flooding them, spiraling to the center of each display. The lines that draw them were a pale, regular blue at first, before suddenly taking a bright octarine hue. Blanco’s fingers tapped wildly on his keyboard, while his mind focused on the seeking runes that took him straight into the second layer of reality.
Mages didn’t usually deal with the technology of the Sleepers. Not because they felt it was below them (even though many of them would certainly take that posture to protect their fragile egos), but for protection: Technology born out of the mundane rules of the natural world did not meddle well with magic, and even in a world that had lost 95% of its magical population, infusing magic on mechanisms and electrical circuits was a great way to attract pesky fairies.
Blanco, however, was not just any mage. After several lifetimes of work and study, he had mastered the art of using magic in conjunction with the power of the Internet itself, turning him into one of the most prolific hackers and trackers in the whole world of Jericho. Perhaps even the single most requested man in the business!
He, of course, didn’t accept just any job. He only took the work that interested him, that made him think outside of the box, or that paid particularly well. But Giovanni here? The old man was an exception. Giovanni had been good to Blanco in a time where no one else would even look at the creature, and as much as he hated showing gratitude for things, Blanco was a man of honor… to a certain extent.
He at least appreciated a friend when he had one.
The screens began changing one by one as the creature found information. A national registry page, a Vapor gaming profile, a VirtualZone profile…
“This one’s not dumb. They keep good opsec, rarely sharing personal information. That’s good.” Blanco smirked. “Sadly, that’s not enough to stop me.”
Soon a picture appeared on one of the screens, the face of a smiling, bright child. An honor student with many dreams and possibilities in the future.
Then, on a fifth screen, a grainy image stolen from an unsecured webcam. A burnout stares at the screen with dead eyes and no spirit in their posture.
“Oof. Growth has been rough on this one.” The creature commented sarcastically, taking a moment to stop and crack their knuckles. “This is your guy, G. Real name: Santino Belnades. A random kid from Wohl.”
“Wohl?” Giovanni was beyond surprised.
“Yeah, you know. The country in the north. The one that looks like a pen–”
“Yes yes, I know Wohl. I just… didn’t expect to hear from the mages of the north. It’s been a while.”
“Ah, no this is not a born mage. This is a sleeper.”
“Impossible. They passed the Le Guin test and made an account in the Forum.”
“Alright then, a Bastard Mage for sure.”
There was a moment of silence as Giovanni meditated on the implications of this… only broken by the camera feed’s catching Tav screaming.
“Spy Medic, Spy Medic! Kill that motherfucker!”
“Ahhh… TS2. I really should get back into it one of these days.” Blanco commented with a bit of nostalgia. “So? What do we do? You still have some minutes of my time, G! I could scare them real good if you want them out of the forum.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. It’s just another mage in the world…they’ll probably benefit from learning a few things.”
“Eighty Two will get really, really mad if she finds out you allowed a Bastard Mage in her precious project.”
“Mustafá will get angry no matter what, but she rarely shows up in the Forum anyways.”
“Hah. Old bastard.”
There was another moment of silence, interrupted by the heavy clicking and intense gaming from the webcam feed.
“... So.” Blanco finally spoke up. “What now?”
“I’ll just say hi to them and let them be.” Giovanni said, probably smiling. “They are probably scared and insecure, after all.”
“Are you serious? I mean, this is a Bastard Mage. They shouldn’t have had the means to find your forum and yet, here they are. Don’t you find that suspicious in the slightest?”
“Hmmmn…”
“And this is happening just as we had that Temporal Displacement alarm, remember? I really doubt that’s a coincidence.”
“Keep an eye on them, please. Just to make sure they don’t get in trouble.”
“That will cost you extra.”
“Fiiiine.”
“Yes, excellent.” Blanco rubbed his hands together, before stretching lazily and tapping a few keys. He would start a file on this ‘Tav’ person now.
“Whatever the case may be… I really hope this doesn’t get them in trouble. I mean, more trouble than they already are in.” With a heavy sigh, Giovanni finally decided that enough was enough. “I’ll leave you to it. I trust that you’ll inform me if anything happens.”
“If I can trust you to keep paying me, of course!”
Giovanni sighed again before finally hanging up. Blanco, now with something to do with his day, stretched in his invisible chair and looked at the webcam feed for another moment before turning it off. If he kept it on for too long, he risked Tav realizing that the webcam was suddenly on, and he really didn’t want to scare them.
For now, at least.
He wanted to pretend he wasn’t interested, and that this would just be another boring, fruitless job with nothing to show for it but a few factoids about a random mage’s life… but he had a strange feeling about this one. There was an odd trinkle in the dead, depressed eyes of that bastard.
“Let’s hope you know what you’re doing, kid…”
submitted by OrlonDogger to HFY [link] [comments]
An old desk phone stands on a marble pedestal, lost in the middle of a dark room. A perfectly circular, dark room, dug deeply into the bedrock of a city far, far away from anywhere important to our story. Silence reigns in this room… until the phone starts ringing. It rings for such a long time, uninterrupted, insistent, inconsiderate even! It rings for longer than any person should be willing to wait, longer than anyone would stomach. A sane person would simply give up and call later… But this caller? No. This caller refuses to be ignored.
So it rings, even while a set of long, skeletal fingers stretch from the shadows. Knuckles and joints crack as the hand does a few stretches, taking the time to caress the nasty, annoying phone for a moment without picking it up.
“Oh bother… I wonder who that could be…?”
The voice was raspy, nasal and grumbly. It loved to complain, and it had done so for so long that even when it wasn’t complaining, it sounded annoyed and legitimately upset. The hand stopped uncomfortably caressing the vibrating phone for a moment to grab the caller ID. Its dim green light was perfectly reflected on the hand’s glossy white skin.
“Ah… G again, huh…?”
Understanding that it couldn’t simply ignore this annoying sound forever, and that the call may actually mean something important (and lucrative), the hand returned to the phone and finally picked it up.
“You interrupted my nap.” The raspy voice said.
“You shouldn’t sleep for so long. It’s bad for you.” The young boy’s voice answered, legitimately concerned.
“Oh yeah? You suggest I should go out instead? Take a shower, get dolled up, and then bask under the full concentrated power of the Sun?”
“Come on now, don’t be like that. You know what I mean.”
“You better mean something important, to interrupt my nap like that, you old bastard.”
The white, skeletal hand made a few sassy snaps, loud enough to be heard over the phone.
“Alright alright, I am done beating around the bush. Sorry.” The calm, youthful voice sighed over the phone, these conversations were enough to exhaust him.
“Yeah that’s right, bitch.”
“It’s just… we have a new visitor in The Forum, and I’d like you to give us a little check on who or what.”
“What, are you afraid of a few gremlins and jinxes finally finding their way over your precious forum? Or is this a troll hunt?” The raspy voice finally got up from the sea of cushions and empty bags, and with another snapping of his fingers, he activated the widescreens that covered every single spot of his walls with the exception of a single metal door. The lights were warm and orangey, designed to avoid straining the eyes.
The room had returned to life! It was an absolute disaster, pillows and empty bloodbags laid scattered around without a care, and the whole place had a disgusting aura of filth to it.
Blanco was fully illuminated now. His figure was enough to cause nightmares to a few children: a tall, lanky and wide-shouldered man, skin white as marble and cracked as an old dry cookie, full of darker spots and nasty scars. His arms were long enough for the knuckles of his free hand to feel the floor.
But what was worst of all was his face: a perfectly round, perfectly smooth face, lacking hair, eyes and ears, only showing a few dark veins underneath the glossy skin. His mouth was another crack in this otherwise flawless surface, showing myriads of sharp, black teeth.
“Now let’s see…”
The screens all showed the same picture of Blanco’s face, a toothy smile covering his visage. With a mere gesture of his hand, a wireless keyboard came floating to the creature, big and wide enough for his disproportionate hands. The keys were shining in beautiful purple, producing a hypnotic wave effect across its length.
After cracking his knuckles, the creature began typing and accessing one of the many screens, the one permanently connected to Dejima 08. Blanco stretched again, sitting in the air and crossing his lanky legs as he checked the analytics.
“Yep. You have a new visitor, and they immediately registered. ‘Tav’, huh? Too generic.”
“Can you give me a bit more info on them?” The young man asked.
“Are you officially commissioning me now? Because this is as far as our friendship will get me without pay.” Blanco smirked, a purple tongue licking his nonexistent lips.
“...I’ll have the payment sent immediately. I want an hour of your time.” There was hesitation on the old voice. He clearly didn’t feel good about this, but one could never be too careful.
“Oh boy!” The creature clapped rapidly, and before he knew it, there was a notification on another screen. Ka-ching! The sound of money going straight into his PayBud. “Ohhh Giovanni, you gotta be my best client, really. Most people whine about my prices.”
“You probably tell that to every client you get.” G chuckled, taking it like a good sport.
“I do!” Blanco admitted with a bright, big smile, and then slid over to face a cluster of 9 screens on a wall. “This will take just a moment…”
The screens would go to black at the same time, before glyphs of many sizes, shapes and forms began flooding them, spiraling to the center of each display. The lines that draw them were a pale, regular blue at first, before suddenly taking a bright octarine hue. Blanco’s fingers tapped wildly on his keyboard, while his mind focused on the seeking runes that took him straight into the second layer of reality.
Mages didn’t usually deal with the technology of the Sleepers. Not because they felt it was below them (even though many of them would certainly take that posture to protect their fragile egos), but for protection: Technology born out of the mundane rules of the natural world did not meddle well with magic, and even in a world that had lost 95% of its magical population, infusing magic on mechanisms and electrical circuits was a great way to attract pesky fairies.
Blanco, however, was not just any mage. After several lifetimes of work and study, he had mastered the art of using magic in conjunction with the power of the Internet itself, turning him into one of the most prolific hackers and trackers in the whole world of Jericho. Perhaps even the single most requested man in the business!
He, of course, didn’t accept just any job. He only took the work that interested him, that made him think outside of the box, or that paid particularly well. But Giovanni here? The old man was an exception. Giovanni had been good to Blanco in a time where no one else would even look at the creature, and as much as he hated showing gratitude for things, Blanco was a man of honor… to a certain extent.
He at least appreciated a friend when he had one.
The screens began changing one by one as the creature found information. A national registry page, a Vapor gaming profile, a VirtualZone profile…
“This one’s not dumb. They keep good opsec, rarely sharing personal information. That’s good.” Blanco smirked. “Sadly, that’s not enough to stop me.”
Soon a picture appeared on one of the screens, the face of a smiling, bright child. An honor student with many dreams and possibilities in the future.
Then, on a fifth screen, a grainy image stolen from an unsecured webcam. A burnout stares at the screen with dead eyes and no spirit in their posture.
“Oof. Growth has been rough on this one.” The creature commented sarcastically, taking a moment to stop and crack their knuckles. “This is your guy, G. Real name: Santino Belnades. A random kid from Wohl.”
“Wohl?” Giovanni was beyond surprised.
“Yeah, you know. The country in the north. The one that looks like a pen–”
“Yes yes, I know Wohl. I just… didn’t expect to hear from the mages of the north. It’s been a while.”
“Ah, no this is not a born mage. This is a sleeper.”
“Impossible. They passed the Le Guin test and made an account in the Forum.”
“Alright then, a Bastard Mage for sure.”
There was a moment of silence as Giovanni meditated on the implications of this… only broken by the camera feed’s catching Tav screaming.
“Spy Medic, Spy Medic! Kill that motherfucker!”
“Ahhh… TS2. I really should get back into it one of these days.” Blanco commented with a bit of nostalgia. “So? What do we do? You still have some minutes of my time, G! I could scare them real good if you want them out of the forum.”
“No, that won’t be necessary. It’s just another mage in the world…they’ll probably benefit from learning a few things.”
“Eighty Two will get really, really mad if she finds out you allowed a Bastard Mage in her precious project.”
“Mustafá will get angry no matter what, but she rarely shows up in the Forum anyways.”
“Hah. Old bastard.”
There was another moment of silence, interrupted by the heavy clicking and intense gaming from the webcam feed.
“... So.” Blanco finally spoke up. “What now?”
“I’ll just say hi to them and let them be.” Giovanni said, probably smiling. “They are probably scared and insecure, after all.”
“Are you serious? I mean, this is a Bastard Mage. They shouldn’t have had the means to find your forum and yet, here they are. Don’t you find that suspicious in the slightest?”
“Hmmmn…”
“And this is happening just as we had that Temporal Displacement alarm, remember? I really doubt that’s a coincidence.”
“Keep an eye on them, please. Just to make sure they don’t get in trouble.”
“That will cost you extra.”
“Fiiiine.”
“Yes, excellent.” Blanco rubbed his hands together, before stretching lazily and tapping a few keys. He would start a file on this ‘Tav’ person now.
“Whatever the case may be… I really hope this doesn’t get them in trouble. I mean, more trouble than they already are in.” With a heavy sigh, Giovanni finally decided that enough was enough. “I’ll leave you to it. I trust that you’ll inform me if anything happens.”
“If I can trust you to keep paying me, of course!”
Giovanni sighed again before finally hanging up. Blanco, now with something to do with his day, stretched in his invisible chair and looked at the webcam feed for another moment before turning it off. If he kept it on for too long, he risked Tav realizing that the webcam was suddenly on, and he really didn’t want to scare them.
For now, at least.
He wanted to pretend he wasn’t interested, and that this would just be another boring, fruitless job with nothing to show for it but a few factoids about a random mage’s life… but he had a strange feeling about this one. There was an odd trinkle in the dead, depressed eyes of that bastard.
“Let’s hope you know what you’re doing, kid…”
2024.05.13 08:29 McditaBarista Need to rant about the amount of scammer in Fiverr
I am new to that platforms a bunch of friends work in there but in the music production gigs, I am on the other side trying to get gigs as a virtual assistant for payroll and dude... In a day i get over 40 messages of "request for work" with "2000+ budgets" and they want me to message them on telegram of give them my email and yes i already fell on one my first day like the big clown i am but dude this scammers srsly are working their a$$ off to set up scams just to get $50 from you.
For real this ppl sing me off to a whole page with Id and everything, a project manager, payroll department etc, reports on quality etc etc they even have a ghost bank page that is fake af and me being srsly the biggest fool on earth in big need of money to buy groceries spend an entire week working over 12 hours for them so they would pay me to this Ghosh bank app that requires me to make a $50 deposit to a random account? Like srsly try to make me pay that the minute you "hire me" not after you send me enough work for a month with extreme deadlines... Thank god i am so broke rn that i can't even loose money to this ppl but the amount of time i lost hurts and getting +30 messages with the same "offers" on Fiverr just feels like a kick on the stomach...
Just learn form me and never ever do freelance work outside the platforms without asking for at least a deposit first.
Also the gost bank is firstmarkS.online and the scam company is INGENTA.
Anyways
submitted by McditaBarista to Scams [link] [comments]
For real this ppl sing me off to a whole page with Id and everything, a project manager, payroll department etc, reports on quality etc etc they even have a ghost bank page that is fake af and me being srsly the biggest fool on earth in big need of money to buy groceries spend an entire week working over 12 hours for them so they would pay me to this Ghosh bank app that requires me to make a $50 deposit to a random account? Like srsly try to make me pay that the minute you "hire me" not after you send me enough work for a month with extreme deadlines... Thank god i am so broke rn that i can't even loose money to this ppl but the amount of time i lost hurts and getting +30 messages with the same "offers" on Fiverr just feels like a kick on the stomach...
Just learn form me and never ever do freelance work outside the platforms without asking for at least a deposit first.
Also the gost bank is firstmarkS.online and the scam company is INGENTA.
Anyways
2024.05.13 05:52 Ok-Independent-1992 I (20F) broke my boyfriend's (20M) trust in the worst possible way. Can you tell me your opinion?
I have been in a relationship with my ex for a long time. It was a wonderful relationship, but deep down I was trying so hard to maintain the feelings of love. Don't get me wrong, I loved him in a sense that he made me feel most comfortable and loved person in the world and he was that special someone I can always reach out and talk to. He was not just a lover, but my best friend. However, deep down it felt that I was convincing myself to reciprocate the intensity of those feelings back especially during intimate moments. I would not say that I didn't enjoy our private life, but I found myself often faking reaching peak to not worry or concern him. In an odd way, preventing him from not realizing that I wasnt as deeply in love as him was my own way of showing my love. Atleast until I was able to be as in love as he was anyways.
We starter being in a long distance relationship around a year ago, and things have been definitely difficult for us. I would often find myself prioritizing my self time, rather than our conversations. It was a time where I had to start somewhere completely new and relatively alone, so I was feeling more lonely than ever. Online conversations no longer seemed to cut it, and the small pit in my stomach grew when I realized I started garnerning feelings for someone new. This wasn't a new occurence honestly, we had a serious conversation with the same issue before. Of course it ended up with me insisting that they were just feelings of admiration and just cause they looked good (it couldn't have been anything else cause I never spoke to him). Well back to the main point, the person I started having feelings for (19M) was one of the only two people that I made a genuine friendship with. For someone who has been placed in this new place, they were people I was glad to have met and gotten to know. I often found myself comparing him to my newlyfound friend, and I am still ashamed of that. I told him everything on how I was feeling and he was most obviously uncomfortable with that and gave me an ultimatum: to cut off ties with him (the friend).
This essentially meant I'd also have to cut ties with my other friend (it would be unfair and awkward for me to just cut ties with one, I felt compelled to have to cut both if ever the situation arose). At this point I focused on the fact that I'd have to be alone and start anew in this foreign place all over again. I didn't want to go through it again so it was difficult for me to accept the ultimatum. Ultimately, I promised to him that I would because I didn't know what else I could've done that would not have disappointed him as much. At this point I wanted our relationship to end just as much as I wanted for us to still be together. Haha everything was slowly twisting and getting much worse.
A week ago he asked me if I pulled through with it and how I was feeling, and I honestly told him no. I couldn't pull through with it and it absolutely devastated him. At that time, I didn't fully understand the depth of what I did, and didn't consider what I had done to be a lie (the promise that I've made). At that point I was more relieved to had been caught, and neglected his feelings and responded to the situation more noncholantly and passively. I really sincerely regret it and regret hurting his feelings. Just recently we've had our final conversation and he didn't seem to care about it anymore. He was the more practical type so it wouldn't have made sense for him to care about something that no longer exists (the relationship) anyways. It hurt me deeply because no matter how horrible things went, I genuinely wanted our relationship to work and I genuinely did not want to let him down and hurt him. I know how he is when he's hurt. He shuts down, closes people out, and throws away his responsibilities. I didn't want that for him at all. Him not caring would mean that our relationship wouldn't have mattered and although my feelings have changed, I wanted it to. I wanted it to still have meaning and be meaningful.
Its hard to admit but when he first told me how none of my apology mattered to him, how I could just take it all back since I wasn't being sincere about it anyways, I felt nothing. My heart didn't crumble, nor did my breathing. Only when we had a really long discussion (mostly me, he was busy having a different conversation in our friend group), did I start experiencing guilt and pain. It was only when I knew I was definitively never seeing him again did I break.
I felt that the world was against me after our sudden breakup. I felt that everyone was going to be angry and disappointed at me for feeling the way I felt, and for doing the stuff I've done. This especially applied to my close friends (we share the same friendgroup). I felt compelled to leave because I didn't want to face them after what I've done to hurt their close friend. Even if they tried to convince me otherwise I felt that they were just lying or just tolerating my presence, or they just didn't want to seem too much of an asshole. So I did leave. And now, I am truly alone.
I am confessing in reddit because the thoughts of killing myself via overdosing have been too serious as of late, and I just wanted to say something to someone. I don't deserve it, but I'm selfish (sorry). Um to clarify, I would not say that I cheated on him, but I think emotionally I have. I think thats all. Haha. Feel free to ask questions or clarifications, I feel like a lot of what I said ended up jumbling together. What are your thoughts? Can you tell me how you feel about everything from a third point perspective? I just want to feel the virtual slap in the face to be honest. That's it I think, thanks.
submitted by Ok-Independent-1992 to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
We starter being in a long distance relationship around a year ago, and things have been definitely difficult for us. I would often find myself prioritizing my self time, rather than our conversations. It was a time where I had to start somewhere completely new and relatively alone, so I was feeling more lonely than ever. Online conversations no longer seemed to cut it, and the small pit in my stomach grew when I realized I started garnerning feelings for someone new. This wasn't a new occurence honestly, we had a serious conversation with the same issue before. Of course it ended up with me insisting that they were just feelings of admiration and just cause they looked good (it couldn't have been anything else cause I never spoke to him). Well back to the main point, the person I started having feelings for (19M) was one of the only two people that I made a genuine friendship with. For someone who has been placed in this new place, they were people I was glad to have met and gotten to know. I often found myself comparing him to my newlyfound friend, and I am still ashamed of that. I told him everything on how I was feeling and he was most obviously uncomfortable with that and gave me an ultimatum: to cut off ties with him (the friend).
This essentially meant I'd also have to cut ties with my other friend (it would be unfair and awkward for me to just cut ties with one, I felt compelled to have to cut both if ever the situation arose). At this point I focused on the fact that I'd have to be alone and start anew in this foreign place all over again. I didn't want to go through it again so it was difficult for me to accept the ultimatum. Ultimately, I promised to him that I would because I didn't know what else I could've done that would not have disappointed him as much. At this point I wanted our relationship to end just as much as I wanted for us to still be together. Haha everything was slowly twisting and getting much worse.
A week ago he asked me if I pulled through with it and how I was feeling, and I honestly told him no. I couldn't pull through with it and it absolutely devastated him. At that time, I didn't fully understand the depth of what I did, and didn't consider what I had done to be a lie (the promise that I've made). At that point I was more relieved to had been caught, and neglected his feelings and responded to the situation more noncholantly and passively. I really sincerely regret it and regret hurting his feelings. Just recently we've had our final conversation and he didn't seem to care about it anymore. He was the more practical type so it wouldn't have made sense for him to care about something that no longer exists (the relationship) anyways. It hurt me deeply because no matter how horrible things went, I genuinely wanted our relationship to work and I genuinely did not want to let him down and hurt him. I know how he is when he's hurt. He shuts down, closes people out, and throws away his responsibilities. I didn't want that for him at all. Him not caring would mean that our relationship wouldn't have mattered and although my feelings have changed, I wanted it to. I wanted it to still have meaning and be meaningful.
Its hard to admit but when he first told me how none of my apology mattered to him, how I could just take it all back since I wasn't being sincere about it anyways, I felt nothing. My heart didn't crumble, nor did my breathing. Only when we had a really long discussion (mostly me, he was busy having a different conversation in our friend group), did I start experiencing guilt and pain. It was only when I knew I was definitively never seeing him again did I break.
I felt that the world was against me after our sudden breakup. I felt that everyone was going to be angry and disappointed at me for feeling the way I felt, and for doing the stuff I've done. This especially applied to my close friends (we share the same friendgroup). I felt compelled to leave because I didn't want to face them after what I've done to hurt their close friend. Even if they tried to convince me otherwise I felt that they were just lying or just tolerating my presence, or they just didn't want to seem too much of an asshole. So I did leave. And now, I am truly alone.
I am confessing in reddit because the thoughts of killing myself via overdosing have been too serious as of late, and I just wanted to say something to someone. I don't deserve it, but I'm selfish (sorry). Um to clarify, I would not say that I cheated on him, but I think emotionally I have. I think thats all. Haha. Feel free to ask questions or clarifications, I feel like a lot of what I said ended up jumbling together. What are your thoughts? Can you tell me how you feel about everything from a third point perspective? I just want to feel the virtual slap in the face to be honest. That's it I think, thanks.
- R
2024.05.13 00:50 Pay_Exact Worried about my Chinchilla’s gastrointestinal health
Hi! I have had my chinchilla, Speedy, for about 4 years now (He was a few months old when I adopted him, so he is about 4 years old). He lives solo, but we have had a cat for about 3 years now as well.
He has a full size, 2 level, Critter Nation cage, with no exposed plastic to chew on and plenty of Chinchilla appropriate chew toys.
I feed him Oxbow pellets and Oxbow timothy hay. I used to feed him 1 (sometimes maybe 2) Rose hips a day. That is his entire diet, unless he happens to catch some uncovered plastic every once in a while.
For the first ~3.5 years of me caring for him, his stool appeared exactly as it should, firm, properly shaped, etc. Then, around this most recent Christmas, my family came to visit, and that’s when his stool started getting soft/inconsistent. We caught my niece feeding him more rose hips than she was supposed to, so we thought this was the culprit. We cut rose hips out completely and switched him to a hay only diet until everything cleared up. It cleared up a bit, so I added the pellets back into his diet, but it never cleared up enough for me to feel comfortable feeding him rose hips.
Then, his oxbow hay bag ran out, and was out of stock online. I got him a different brand of timothy hay, but this seemed to make his stool problems worse again. I took him to the vet, and at their recommendation, slowly switched him back to the Oxbow brand hay. This did virtually nothing, and his stool just continued to be a bit soft and irregularly shaped (even slightly tinged green sometimes). Some days his stool seemed normal, others it was not.
After a few months of this, I figured that it was not the rose hips messing with his stomach, as he hadn’t had one in months. I slowly reintroduced them, 1 every few days. This seemed to actually help! His stool regained shape and his energy levels seemed up, but it did not last. It got worse again after about 2 weeks of occasional rose hips. I’ve cut back on the rose hips again, but am at a complete loss for what to do.
Since this began, he has slowly become more and more lethargic as well. He does not run on his wheel anymore, and he seems to be wanting more attention than usual. It’s to the point where, last night, he jumped (for the first time in months) down to the bottom level of his cage, but got stuck. He was so weak that he could not jump back up to the top level of his cage, although he eventually managed after some difficulty.
When I had taken him to the vet, they said he looked completely fine, and that it was likely just the off brand hay causing issues, but that was a long time ago, and nothing is resolved. Taking him to the vet stressed him out incredibly, as he’s not used to traveling/being handled that way. Going to the vet again seems like an emergency resort as I’ve already done it and been told he was fine, even though the vet specialized in exotic pets.
I was very uneducated and inexperienced on Chinchilla care when he was gifted to me, but I have slowly/surely done my best to stay educated and provide him with a healthy/enriched life within my resources. I tried taking him out the cage to play with him quite a bit when he was younger, but this seemed to stress him out, as he would just hide behind the toilet (I’d let him out in the bathroom) And these days, whenever I try to let him out into my bathroom, he just does not come out at all.
I am kind of at a loss for what to do, or how to help him, especially since I do not have many financial resources to depend on, nor much time to dedicate to intensive care. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or possible solutions. Thank you for reading through this! I am located in Portland, OR if it at all helps.
submitted by Pay_Exact to chinchilla [link] [comments]
He has a full size, 2 level, Critter Nation cage, with no exposed plastic to chew on and plenty of Chinchilla appropriate chew toys.
I feed him Oxbow pellets and Oxbow timothy hay. I used to feed him 1 (sometimes maybe 2) Rose hips a day. That is his entire diet, unless he happens to catch some uncovered plastic every once in a while.
For the first ~3.5 years of me caring for him, his stool appeared exactly as it should, firm, properly shaped, etc. Then, around this most recent Christmas, my family came to visit, and that’s when his stool started getting soft/inconsistent. We caught my niece feeding him more rose hips than she was supposed to, so we thought this was the culprit. We cut rose hips out completely and switched him to a hay only diet until everything cleared up. It cleared up a bit, so I added the pellets back into his diet, but it never cleared up enough for me to feel comfortable feeding him rose hips.
Then, his oxbow hay bag ran out, and was out of stock online. I got him a different brand of timothy hay, but this seemed to make his stool problems worse again. I took him to the vet, and at their recommendation, slowly switched him back to the Oxbow brand hay. This did virtually nothing, and his stool just continued to be a bit soft and irregularly shaped (even slightly tinged green sometimes). Some days his stool seemed normal, others it was not.
After a few months of this, I figured that it was not the rose hips messing with his stomach, as he hadn’t had one in months. I slowly reintroduced them, 1 every few days. This seemed to actually help! His stool regained shape and his energy levels seemed up, but it did not last. It got worse again after about 2 weeks of occasional rose hips. I’ve cut back on the rose hips again, but am at a complete loss for what to do.
Since this began, he has slowly become more and more lethargic as well. He does not run on his wheel anymore, and he seems to be wanting more attention than usual. It’s to the point where, last night, he jumped (for the first time in months) down to the bottom level of his cage, but got stuck. He was so weak that he could not jump back up to the top level of his cage, although he eventually managed after some difficulty.
When I had taken him to the vet, they said he looked completely fine, and that it was likely just the off brand hay causing issues, but that was a long time ago, and nothing is resolved. Taking him to the vet stressed him out incredibly, as he’s not used to traveling/being handled that way. Going to the vet again seems like an emergency resort as I’ve already done it and been told he was fine, even though the vet specialized in exotic pets.
I was very uneducated and inexperienced on Chinchilla care when he was gifted to me, but I have slowly/surely done my best to stay educated and provide him with a healthy/enriched life within my resources. I tried taking him out the cage to play with him quite a bit when he was younger, but this seemed to stress him out, as he would just hide behind the toilet (I’d let him out in the bathroom) And these days, whenever I try to let him out into my bathroom, he just does not come out at all.
I am kind of at a loss for what to do, or how to help him, especially since I do not have many financial resources to depend on, nor much time to dedicate to intensive care. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or possible solutions. Thank you for reading through this! I am located in Portland, OR if it at all helps.
2024.05.11 22:54 VacuousWastrel Floyd Patterson: "The Next Heavyweight Champion"
I've just come across this fantastic article from Sports Illustrated, 1956. Aside from some wonderful 1950s prose, I think it also has quite a bit of interest to anyone interested not just in Patterson but in that era of boxing, its expectations and its place in society.
Do read it all, but for those who don't have time here's a few highlights:
On Patterson's Professional Position Prior to Winning the Title
submitted by VacuousWastrel to Boxing [link] [comments]
Do read it all, but for those who don't have time here's a few highlights:
On Patterson's Professional Position Prior to Winning the Title
- "it is now as clear as anything can be in the future books of boxing that a lithe young Brooklyn Negro named Floyd Patterson—who celebrated his 21st birthday this month by challenging Rocky Marciano—will be the next heavyweight champion of the world."
- recently "outclassed" the #5 heavyweight in the world to the point where the referee stopped the fight (a rarer thing back then!)
- had 9 fights in 1955, all of the KO or TKO wins
- Ray Arcel calls him "best young fighter of any weight in the world", and will "outclass" all heavyweights within a year
- Patterson's own trainer (who also trained Jersey Joe Walcott) speculates about a Moore fight (which of course ended up happening, after Marciano retired in part to avoid fighting Patterson): "It'd be no contest" (which was true!)
- Same trainer, about how older fighters get tired in the ring: "if you get tired in there against Patterson, then God help you... I've trained 500-600 fighters and I've never seen anything like this boy."
- "There is still a gangling, faintly schoolboyish air about him, but he fights with the expressionless eye and violent gracefulness of a large cat hunting its dinner."
- points out that Patterson's only loss was a close decision to former world champion Joey Maxim, when Patterson was only 19. Maxim says "he had my tail dragging after the fourth round".
- the biggest problem for Patterson is his weight. His handlers were "tormented" by the fear that he might stop growing too soon - "the awful struggle" for more poundage, requiring a diet of yams. By 1956 he was nearly 180lbs.
- Constantine D'Amato is cited as only his "manager", not his "trainer" (who is someone else, the guy who also trained Walcott). Given the mystique around Cus as this genius of boxing who personally devised and taught every facet of peekaboo technique to Floyd, Jose and Mike, I thought that was interesting!
- Patterson is "a fellow who sleeps a lot", according to D'Amato (which he approves of). He sleeps in the dressing room before fights (partly to deal with nerves) - something the writer says was also true of Louis and Tunney. He also sleeps every morning after his run.
- Patterson keeps in shape by running 2-5 miles in "heavy army shoes" in Prospect Park in Brooklyn (followed by a cup of tea and sleeping until noon). He then watches a movie every day, before training at D'Amato's gym.
- he also studies fights by use of "kinescopes" he replays on his home projector in his flat. He also has a film splicer, allowing him to study himself frame-by-frame.
- however, despite having been given free entry at will to Madison Square Garden, he doesn't watch live boxing, because he feels the crowd gets emotional and distracts him from the details of the technique on display
- "occasionally" he invites his girlfriend to a film on a saturday night. She's 3 years younger than him, and they've known each other for several years, having been "introduced". [spoiler: they married a month after this article, but divorced ten years later when Floyd refused to stop boxing; she took their four children with her. Floyd remarried and stayed married for another 40 years, with 3 more children by his second wife and one adopted. Fun fact: his first child, Seneca, was born the night he became world champion]
- "a shy and sensitive youth"
- not just few friends - few acquaintances. "You get an acquaintance and, the first thing, they start doing things for you—favors for you—and the next thing they want to borrow."
- he lives in "a lackadaisically furnished bachelor den in Brooklyn's rugged Bedford-Stuyvesant section, just a few hazy dreams away from riches and world fame, and just a few blocks from a crumbling Old Law tenement where his father, a hard-working garbage truck driver, and his mother live with nine of their 11 children."
- attends late mass on Sunday mornings. Otherwise "keeps to himself", mostly "holed up" in his flat
- "enjoys a heady solvency", and "contributes heavily to the support of his family"
- despite reclusiveness, he's "a youth with a secret inclination toward dudishness; he cultivates sideburns and treats himself to good clothes"
- owns a pet monkey called Connie, a "lively beast" that lives with his girlfriend, where it "runs up and down the curtains, takes the telephone off its cradle, turns on the family television set and, if not restrained, dabs itself with lipstick"
- occasionally attends a "rock-and-roll session" at the Apollo Theater in Harlem
- As a boy in the asphalt jungle, Patterson was a lonely, disturbed and defiant being—the third in a family of 11 children, whom his parents, for all their toil, could barely feed.
- broke into a store with a gang, truant from school, ran away from home
- "virtually refused to talk"
- "refused to learn"
- at 12, could not read or write (despite attempts of school). Something he had in common with Liston, who never went to school and never learnt to read.
- once stole a truck - he used to start the trucks parked opposite the school and sometimes move them back and forth a bit, but on one occasion a man started chasing him so he drove it all the way home
- liked to skip school to go to Coney Island. Not to go on the rides, but "to watch people going on the rides"
- his mother believed in early intervention: "the twig is bent early".
- his mother committed him to "an institution for problem children" (others say it was usually used as an alternative to jail for young offenders, but apparently they also took 'voluntary' students)
- Patterson thought the school would have bars on the windows, but instead he was allowed to "roam the woods" in an atmosphere of "kindness and understanding". This had a miraculous effect on him; he returned to New York two years later, by which point he had become a model student, a "star pupil and the school hero". At 21 he was still regularly phoning his teachers, and had donated a silver cup as a trophy for the students.
- fascinating that this sort of "enlightened", "modern" intervention was already being practiced by semi-penitential schools in the late 1940s. And Patterson, who went from criminal miscreant to pillar of the community, seems like a brilliant demonstration of how it can succeed. Fascinating to compare the lives of Patterson and Liston - both were introverted loners who felt marginalised, didn't want to attend school and got involved in petty crime. Patterson had that moment where he was put back on a positive track... and Liston didn't.
- D'Amato's gym happened to be a few blocks from his school. "There is a hole in the entrance door, patched by chicken netting, and when the gym is locked a vicious dog peers through, growling horribly at all callers. Only four people—D'Amato, two trainers and Patterson—are privileged to "know the dog" and the place cannot be entered until one of them arrives and ties the beast up in a back room. The space inside is bare except for a ring, two heavy bags, a light bag, a shelf with an opened jar of vaseline, a rubbing table, some cracked mirrors (for shadow boxing) a few folding chairs, a shower and some steel lockers. The grimy windows are kept tightly closed, the air is close and hot and the stench of sweat overpowering."
- ""I let any boy come in here and train," says D'Amato. "It costs them nothing. We teach them. They don't have to fight. But if they do, then they're my fighters. I'm like a prospector and here is where I look for gold—for a fellow like Floyd."
- Patterson boxed in the Golden Gloves (as a welterweight!) and was in for a shock: "I was surprised," he says. "I hit him and he fell down. I thought it was a lot harder to knock somebody out. I used to see lots of shoot-'em-up movies and those cowboys used to hit each other with their fists and break chairs over each other's heads and fall over the table and never seemed to get hurt. But it was easy."
- At the Olympics: "One boxer, a Frenchman of excessive caution, stayed upright for three rounds, but he all but decapitated a Rumanian, a Dutchman and a Russian. He was fully as sensational when he mounted a dais to receive the victory award—he put one hand on his stomach, the other against his back, and gave the crowd a deep dancing-school bow."
- So, it seems D'Amato trained him as an amateur, but after he turned pro he got a new trainer for "advanced instruction", Dan Florio. Florio is implicitly not impressed by D'Amato's training, as Patterson "had to learn everything". Aside from not keeping his hands up, he "hopped around all the time. He bounced like a kangaroo".
- Patterson recalls a nasty experience against a tough, bigger fighter (175lbs). The man bullied him in the clinch, physically and mentally, repeating "why don't you punch me?" every time they were close. Patterson narrowly won a decision, but immediately began training infighting for the first time. In the rematch, Patterson insisted on infighting the entire match, while D'Amato yelled at him to box. "In the tenth round I said something to him. I said, 'Why don't you punch me?' He didn't say anything. Then I knocked him out."
- D'Amato: "Floyd is learning—he went to a lunch with the Mayor of New York a few weeks ago and I was proud of him. I try to make him independent of me. He decides how much work to do now, when he is training, and I accept his ideas about how to fight, unless I know he is absolutely wrong. Floyd is usually right."
- Talks about the importance of Charles Schwefel, owner of the Gramercy Park Hote. Schwefel had helped set up the schools for "backward boys" that Floyd attended after he made it back from the semi-penitential school, and was so impressed by Floyd that he "all but adopted him". He pressured Floyd into working at his hotel between fights until he was financially stable, and in 1956 was still employing all Floyd's sparring partners so that they would always be available for him. He was also Floyd's PR guy - he pressured the borough presidents of Brooklyn and Manhattan to attend Floyd's 21st birthday party, along with other politicians, journalists and "telecasters".
- "Fighters, like most other athletes, do not reach their peak of physical efficiency until they are mature, grown men (an Irish fighter, according to ring legend, may not develop fully until 25, 26 or even 27—Latins and Negroes are generally expected to mature at around 23)."
- it is generally agreed that the "big men" of the heavyweight division at at their "most efficient" at around 185lbs
- when attending the Apollo Theater, he is given free tickets and always introduced to the (presumably Black) crowd, "which cheers vociferously".
- "professional boxing, for all its seamy background, its haremlike jealousies and its pitiful human flotsam, can be a power for good in shaping the character of young males—not all of whom are born for the ministry, atomic science or Wall Street" ["haremlike jealousies and pitiful human flotsam" seems like a great description of a lot of modern boxing social media...]
- ""He looks sloppy in the ring. But he is a good fighter, a real good fighter. There are lots of ways you could fight him. I could make him miss—but Joe Walcott made him miss for almost 13 rounds. I think there is only one way. They say Marciano is the fighter who can't be hurt. But if you want to beat him you have to fight him and make him back up."
- *"I think of Rocky Marciano a lot." He smiled, faintly. "Maybe," he said, "Rocky Marciano thinks of me." [Marciano retired three months later, leaving Patterson to demolish Moore for the title]
- He hopes to buy his father and mother a house in the suburbs and to get his younger brothers and sisters out of the slums; he also hopes to make a million dollars and buy a farm. "I want to raise horses," he says. "I'd like to have a farm and animals." [spoiler: he did all those things]