That’s it! I love nerdy things. I love taking about them or things associating with them. I want to meet a woman who is excitable about some of the things I am or even partakes in some of the same hobbies. Of course, have your own life and interests but something like tabletop rpg's is such a big social thing for me, it would be nice to share for example some of the stuff I enjoy...
 
Dungeons and Dragons! I love it. I enjoy other tabletop rpg systems in general but it’s a big part of my life and it would be wonderful to meet someone who is into the hobby as well. I also try other systems as well like Cyberpunk Red and Call of Cthulhu. And so many more, I also really like showing people and teaching them.
 
I like reading. I’ve gotten back into reading since covid. It made it hard but I’m in a book club for less serious material. It’s once a month and I always look forward to it.
 
I LOVE Star Wars. Unfortunately i do, I can’t help it. I’m an Episode 8 defender but sadly most of the new shows aren’t kind of average. Andor is incredible nd I will love it for ever. Love the games, the TTRPG’s and everything about it. Someday I’ll go to Star Wars celebration. Video games! Naturally I play video games. Currently playing Helldivers and Cyberpunk 2077. I enjoy Halo infinite and other co-op stuff. I’m trying to stream on twitch now even but I still feel awkward.
 
More important stuff
 
Look, I am fat. Not chubby. Just fat. I’m not ashamed of it. I have no health issues but I am working on losing weight because damn, since quitting my career (yes I have quit) I realized I really wore myself out. I was mentally and physically exhausted from my career and it made me just well get up in weight. I like being with friends. I’m social but introverted. I like to call people. I like to hang out and watch movies. I like talking over a drink for hours. I have a great group of friends and we’re all a bunch of nerds.
 
And some more stuff central to me. I’m Latino, progressive/liberal, vaccinated, and just assume i support BLM, LGBTQ+, women’s rights, and Free Palestine. I love my city. While I don’t have plans to leave anytime soon I would for the right reasons such as a new career, partner, or Nintendo calls me up and asks me to advise on the next Zelda.
 

• I like animals.
• I prefer calling over texting but will text
• I enjoy music but I generally like it quiet near me if I am alone
• I am 420 friendly, I do like edibles and some other stuff but it's not really a habit I partake in regularly
• I'm mostly Child-Free, I am open to children but I am seriously considering getting snipped
• Love Languages: Spending time together and physical touch
• I generally don't like getting gifts (unless if the gift is food)...I just hate having too much stuff
• I am generally a homebody but if you are outdoorsy, like to be out, I will 90% of the time join you unless if I am feeling socialized out

Anyway, that’s me. If you message me, please actually say more than one sentence, give me your age, location, and a selfie and I will do the same!

Hi, I'm very much a visitonew guy here, and plus I'm pasty af and from Austin suburbs, so I very much have not been immersed in this environment or community before now. Ironically, as a kid I tended to avoid rap altogether bc 1, Texas suburbs, being covertly racist and weird about black art is kinda the norm even for kids (I know I still got problems on that front but I'm really tryna work on myself in that regard) and 2, I grew up in the 2010s and I could not STAND Drake or the folks that came off his wave. It was just boring and lame to me and I figured if those guys were mega popular that must be all there is to it. I was a dumb kid, what can I say, lol. SO, given all that, and I know that people in this fanbase tend to be both old guard hip-hop/rap fans and a healthy dose of my age, I figured asking some questions that've been bugging me about the beef, Kendrick, and hip-hop culture in general that Google isn't helping with. I'm sorry if I say something that ticks anybody off, I am simply trying to educate myself on this. Frankly I wish I could flair this both beef and discussion XD.
If there's a better subreddit to direct this to, please let me know!
Aight so:

1. Why is Drake hiding kids such a big deal? I know this came up with Pusha T awhile back too, so I'm particularly interested in this one. Cause like, we've seen what happens multiple times when kids get put in the limelight too early (hell just look at all those kiddie sitcoms from Nick and Disney Channel), and celebrities not sharing their children's faces and names with the world actually seems kinda responsible.
2. Why is Drake getting plastic surgery such a big deal? Idk maybe it's just cause I'm trans and my gut instinct is always "why do you care about what somebody else is doing with their own body," but I also know dude has a tendency to mock people who aren't conventionally attractive (particularly women) so idk.
3. As a white person whose experience is informed by a middle-class upbringing interacting with a predominantly black, impoverished art form and culture, how do I best avoid bringing harm to the space? Obviously you ask 3 people a question like that and you'll get 45 answers, but that's good, I wanna know.
4. Obviously, I've really been getting into Kendrick since all this (Auntie Diaries made me cry I ain't gonna lie, he sounds just like my mom about my own transness in that song XD), and I'm working my way through his discography. Honestly it seems a lot of people round here talk about him the same way we in the emo/rock scene talk about My Chemical Romance lol. Can y'all recommend some other artists, both old and new, that might work for someone coming outta the emo and metal scenes (also before anybody says it cause I mentioned being queer, yes I love Lil Nas X, M:CMBYN was actually one of the catalysts to my coming out as trans XD)?

(I know I had some other ones but my dumb ass completely forgot as I was writing. I'll ask any others in the comments)

For context I'm a 25(f) and I live in Australia with my Grandmother and my Mum. I'm really fortunate in the fact that I don't have to pay too much rent and I'm living in a little shack at the back of the house. My wife is a 26(f) who is American and stuck overseas and we've been apart for some time trying to organise visas. I had originally planned to move over there but there have been immigration delays, and now my wife is planning to come to Australia. The visa for Aus is quite expensive. And despite not having to pay much rent, I work in childcare and don't earn very much money and need to pay for therapy and groceries etc. It's been tough with this cost of living crisis. I have been struggling to find a higher paying job and with HECS debts for uni going up and not being able to afford higher education. I'm in a tough spot. Now, my relationship with my Dad is interesting. He was emotionally abusive growing up and I have a lot of trauma from him, which was exacerbated from living with him and his wife for two years in my early twenties. They've had a history of not being particularly nice to me to put it lightly and favouring her biological children. Now my Dad is a pilot and makes very good money and so does his wife. They own five properties and do well for themselves. They even bought my step sister a house. Now, when I was in my teens my Dad bought an apartment and he promised me that when he sold it, the money would go to me so that I could help support myself financially and potentially buy my own home. Which is a dream for so many young people. Now last year my Dad and his wife decided to buy another home and tore it down to build over it. They've been so distracted by this build that they didn't make it to my wedding and forgot to tell me they weren't coming much to my horror. I was beyond upset but not surprised as he's missed countless things throughout my life including musicals I've been in, my own formal, my high school graduation. So no surprises there.
Anyway, recently my Dad told me that they planned on selling the apartment and using all the money on building this "dream home" as they refer to it. I've been in shock about it for a few weeks now and don't know what to make of this. I'm hurt all over again. My Dad knows I have been struggling financially for some time and emotionally especially being apart from my wife. I messaged my Dad and told him that he's selfish and that he should give me some of the funds from the property sale as promised to at least go towards my wife's visa. He's ignored my message and doesn't want to talk about this.
Was I too harsh on him? Or not harsh enough? Because to me it felt justified to call him out on his behaviour. But there is also so much going on in the world and this feels like such a capitalistic white woman problem. But I'm mad. What do you think?

I sincerely hope that this post doesn't offend anyone, but even being a "low support needs" autistic person, I know fully that I gave my parents hell that my other siblings did not. And although my mom tries to sugarcoat how hard it was for her for my sake, I am slowly learning how hard it actually was piece by piece as an adult. Also, please kindly excuse any out-of-date language, I try to be aware and respectful of these things but I am still learning.
How do you, as a neurodivergent individual, cope with being a parent? Especially with an autistic child? I'm almost definitely going to have at least one autistic kid- I am autistic myself, and I am most likely going to pair up with another autistic person. As an autistic person, and having worked with autistic kids, I know for a fact that I can connect with, understand and help them in ways that NTs can't. It's the thought of the emotional regulation issues as they suffer through significantly more aversive experiences (than NT kids) when they're young, and the potential for one with really high support needs that needs more than I honestly can give (potentially for the rest of my time alive). My ability to take care of myself on a basic level goes out the window when I am badly burned out, and most families with HSN kids I know are mostly uninvolved-father families, so the chance of a partner 'noping' out and leaving me to do the job alone certainly isn't 0.
Do any of you have semi-regular hired help beyond weekly or biweekly respite work? Like,a private respite worker with lots of hours a week, or a nanny or something? What about a cleaner or a professional organizer for when housework becomes unmanageable? If I get money- could I effectively throw said money at all of the issues and lessen the severity of them? Like if they are a high support needs adult, is there a way to ensure that money I save and set aside for them to keep getting quality care for the rest of their life after I die goes only toward that, and have someone ensure that they aren't being abused since I would no longer around to do those things? How do these things play out irl, and what could I do to increase the odds of better outcomes?
I am in university and have a high chance of getting a job with a livable wage after graduation, and I have started forcing myself to get educated in real estate investment (ones for broke people, of course). If I acheive true financial stability in the next 15 years, I would strongly consider forgoing most wants to exchange for less burnout if spending money on a nanny would be helpful.
I really don't want to miss out on motherhood, but I also want to be realistic in terms of what I am capable of (in terms of balancing to have the bare minimum quality-of-life). Please share your experience so that I can have some fellow-autist insight to consider while I try to figure this out 👉👈
Otherwise, I would just foster, or try to adopt an older child or two.

Okay. Sorry if anyone saw this earlier, I accidentally posted it early.
If you dont want to read this whole backstory and get to the main point, scroll till the next bold text...or just scroll to the bottom.
I've always been good at math. I'm not Young Sheldon (though, maybe, to them, I seem like Young Sheldon...?) levels of good at math, but I'm reasonably above my peers–I passed calculus 3 in freshman year of college. I'm a data science student, which works with AI and stuff. I could talk about that shit for hours. But I'm not a super genius. I still studied like crazy. I spent an exhausting amount of effort into passing that class, I didn't instantly get concepts, I don't know. But that's what I'm good at, because how my autism works is that I think of the world in a very objective way.
I think about it so objectively, that I have a hard time handling emotional relationships because sometimes human thought just doesn't make sense. If I can't rationalize something, it'll distress me. Cue not understanding sarcasm, having little friends, etc. Generic "you have autism" symptoms. I also have many bad sensory problems, poor auditory processing (I need subtitles), and there's textures to food that I can't swallow–but I can get used to the taste. But come on, they say I'm low-empathy. I'm textbook genius, without the genius part.
Ever since I was a little kid, like maybe 10 or so, I was introduced to concept of autism and related to it. I'm 19 now, so I want to say it was around 2015 (as a time marker in relation to COVID). For 9 years, I've thought about having autism. I know self-diagnosis is valid is a rule, but remember, I think of things objectively–until a professional says I have something, I'm not sure if I do, by the book, have the disorder. It also has to do with stereotypes. As I said, I'm not a genius. I'm not completely dumb, either. I can tell when people are exaggerating and understand when there's a shift in tone. (But, I, actually, am pretty monotone actually. That's what they tell me, at least.)
But I've gone through a myriad of other disorders. SSRIs since freshman year of high school. But at the time, people were impressed enough with my math skills that they overlooked the other things. When COVID hit, things fell apart.
Another thing I live with is ADHD, inattentive. I know that AuDHD is very common. I like to think of my ADHD as being relatively bad. I have always had problems with executive dysfunction, and I often cannot get ANYTHING done without medication. As I got older, I was expected to do more things myself, and found that I couldn't. I had no self-discipline. I couldn't even be paid to do chores. Anyway, when I was 16, in early 2021, I was diagnosed. (before someone asks: yes, I'm a girl/ AFAB. ) It changed everything for me. Before then, I was simply a smart kid who got lazy. Now, with medication, I actually have a chance of being something worthwhile. After a few years of shitty grades, and constant guilt on your mind, the reward cycle that is academia really clicked in.
Apparently, another thing that supporting my ADHD has done, is reveal my autism to the world. Because I feel like I'm being driven like a motor, I could infodump for hours. Before now, just talking was exhausting. In a way, without me knowing it, my ADHD masked my autism for me. Without it, people start to notice. In college, they've noticed more. And there is a difference between telling yourself you might be autistic, and someone saying it to your face. The immediate reaction is to laugh–it's not funny, but it's what a normal person would do, so it's what you're doing right now. You should feel insulted–it's an insult! Obviously, I have some internalized ableism issues. Plus, my own autism can even clash with others'.
Still, I at least thought of myself as relatively able to be independent. I lived in a dorm, I managed to feed myself, I sleep. I do use drugs, but it's just weed. And sometimes drinking because it's college, but not too often. Basically, even if I am autistic, there's no benefit to actually confirming it. I've been through ADHD screening–it's hard, annoying, embarrassing, and expensive–and I don't want to go through it again if I don't have to.
Like everything else in my life, I also think of medical aid as a pros and cons system. I sacrifice having depression and ADHD on my medical record (military restrictions, minor stuff) for the medication I need, but I don't know how autism is.....treated? Managed? I don't know, my knowledge of the actual autistic community feels pretty minimal. I understand you can't take a pill to just make autism go away because it's so much more than that.
As a university student, I still need medication to help sustain whatever ridiculous workload I put on myself. I needed a new psychiatrist for legal reasons (I'm an out-of-state student) and the university health center provided me one. He's a really nice guy, funnier and more relatable than my last psychiatrist, and actually seems to care. I fall for it, as usual, and start talking more and more about myself than he needs to know. At our last appointment, I bring up my (aforementioned) sensory issues, and he asks me if I've thought about an autism diagnosis.
At that very moment, this almost killed me. This still doesn't truly mean I'm autistic, but it's a strong implication from someone I think of as much better educated in the field. It's close enough–it really is true. Without my prompting (I have this fear of psychiatrists and therapists thinking I'm full of myself/looking for pills/diagnosis so I pretend I've never googled anything on the internet), a psychiatric medical professional has asked about my potential autism. Then, I considered the question, have I thought about a professional diagnosis?
TL;DR, here's the real question:
My psychiatrist also recommended I get in contact with student disability resources for my [already-longterm-diagnosed] ADHD, so now I have to think, would an autism diagnosis benefit me at all? I feel like they pretty much overlap in accommodations. Also, I don't know what consists of "treatment" for autism, if there is any at all.
Additionally, I've heard that an autism diagnosis can keep you from having a job, consenting to surgery, just generally losing autonomy, and I want to avoid that. I'm a woman in the tech field, which is already overcrowded, and the misogyny in that community is still very strong. I'm not looking for any more disadvantages. So, I wanted to hear if anyone had any experience with something similar.
( End note: I'm truly, genuinely sorry if any phrasing is offensive, and I will change it called out. People have told me that I'm less sensitive to language than usual, and therefore can be blunt/rude on accident. )

It's been a while! This week brought us plenty of topics to discuss. Let's dive right in!
Updates
The anticipated second wave of the spam update has begun
But it’s a bit of a Schrödinger’s cat situation—it has and hasn’t started at the same time. Google is deliberately not rushing to notify us about anything, even though sites have already started getting penalized.
When asked why the update hasn't been announced on the dashboard, Sullivan replied that only manual actions are currently being issued, while the algorithmic part hasn't begun yet.
On the bright side, there are already cases where manual penalties have been successfully removed from sites, leading to their search visibility being restored.
To recap, this “part” of the Spam Update concerns the Site reputation abuse policy, which Google announced in March along with Scaled content abuse and Expired domain abuse. Another point that must be mentioned is that Google has recently emphasized that Site reputation abuse isn't about linking; it’s about using another domain's reputation for your own benefit.
Sources:

• Google Search Central
• Search Engine Roundtable

Interface
Product review summary labels
Brief highlights of product features on review cards. Google is now showing these short summaries of reviews by placing a label over the review with one or a few words. So the labels might show "low quality," "compact," "lightweight," "performs well" and so on.
(to come) Number of shoppers next to site
Google plans to display the number of recent shoppers on your site in its search results. We’re talking about labels like "1K shopped here recently," data on which will be pulled from your Merchant Center.
The idea is to "build shopper confidence in your business."
However, many users are unhappy with their sales stats becoming publicly available even in this format. For such users, Google provides an option to opt out. But keep in mind that even then, Google will continue to use your data "to power various annotations and features that benefit your performance."
Source:

• Search Engine Roundtable

Local SEO
(test) Only local listing for ‘near me’ queries
In an experiment, Google is showing only GBP listings for “X near me” queries. Not a single traditional snippet leading to websites.
Source:

• Search Engine Roundtable

Tidbits

1. Yesterday’s Google I/O presentation

The search giant has announced their new developments related to AI.
Here’s what stood out: SGE is finally going live this week under the name AI Overviews. For the time being, it will only be available to users in the US “with more countries coming soon”.
Danny Sullivan claims that the feature has almost fully been rolled out. He also mentioned that people use search more when this feature is available, and are ultimately more satisfied with the results. And all of this comes despite SGE’s earlier advice suggesting that users drink urine to treat kidney stones.
Oh, well.. ;)
A number of other new features were announced, which will be available only for the US market in English through Search Labs:

• Ask complex questions that require multi-step planning.
• Interrupt answer generation to refine or modify your query.
• Plan ahead, like meal plans for three days.
• For broad queries, AI will group results into subcategories (see example for clarity).
• Google Lens will now work not only with photos but also with live videos—you can film something and ask questions about what's in the frame.

We must mention that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman decided to steal some of Google’s thunder by releasing a new product that “feels like magic” just a day before the search colossal’s I/O.
Everyone speculated about what it might be—a search engine, a voice assistant... Altman said that the team has been working extra hard on the update, and it turned out to be quite the gem.
2) The super product turned out to be GPT-4o
What makes GPT-4o so gosh darn fantastic?
The big news is that the team over at OpenAI has improved its multimodal voice assistant. Now it clearly understands text, photos, and videos.
Moreover, you can talk to the model in real-time, get it to translate conversations, understand and explain code, share your camera and ask questions about what’s in the view. To boot, I was just blown away by its ability to sing, tell stories with intonation, and keep a conversation going even if I occasionally interrupt it.
The best part? Chat mode will be free for everyone!
Plus, the API will be available at half the cost of Turbo, with five times the usage limits and twice the speed. We'll start getting access to this amazing tool in the coming weeks.
They also hinted at real-time search features, but this wasn't included in the final demo.
3) By the way, Apple is considering a partnership with OpenAI
Their goal is to make ChatGPT available on iPhones, starting with iOS 18, which will open up a whole range of AI-powered possibilities for Apple smartphone device owners.
For context, there have already been discussions that Siri “doesn't measure up” by modern standards and needs a “brain transplant.”
Sources:

• OpenAI
• Bloomberg
• The New York Times

Admitting we have a problem is the first step in solving it! Author is a Eugenean talking about her experience with rising crime in the city, never saw this story but hey, still relevant today. Found this little gem by random chance. Title is a hopefully relatable quote from the article. You can agree or disagree with the author, but it's actually pretty well written with sources included. (just including the whole article, for people who don't want to click links!)

I Caught Two Men Stealing From My Home. The Aftermath Was Absurd—and All Too Typical.

This experience crystallized Oregon’s deeper problems.

BY REBECCA SCHUMANJUNE 21, 20225:40 AM
Typically, guys wearing power-company vests don’t leave the houses they’re working on laden down with backpacks—let alone power tools, a scooter, and a Nintendo Switch. But that was the scene I happened upon at 6:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in mid-April when I puttered into my driveway in Eugene, Oregon, my 7-year-old ensconced in the back seat.
For a second, my brain tried to normalize the incident: This is just my daughter’s dad stopping by—except there are two of him, and they’re dressed as electricians for some reason? Then, a second later, everything whooshed into place: Oh, wait, I’m being robbed. Or, rather, I was being burgled. I would get reminded of this distinction later, when I made the dubious choice to join the chorus of aggrieved buttinskies on Nextdoor, where my well-meaning post to warn the neighborhood would turn me into an accidental vigilante hero for a day.
Unfortunately, it’s true: My reaction to this burgle was the lived-out fantasy of many who have been on the business end of a property crime. As the two goons took off on foot down my street, I went into fight-or-flight mode—and I chose fight.
“Well,” I said to my confused child, “let’s go see if we can get our stuff back.”
I peeled my 2005 Subaru back onto the street and easily overtook my two targets, who then hurtled themselves into an alley, whereupon I cornered one by the driver’s side window as the other made haste across the adjacent parking lot.
“Just give it back, bro!” I yelled out my window. “Just give it back! I’m a single mom! Just give it back.”
I repeated this until either I reminded him too much of his meanest teacher or he realized he’d been caught in broad daylight. “Fine,” he said. “Just fucking take it.”
He shoved a backpack through my driver’s side window. Inside it was both my laptops and my daughter’s iPad from school. Back at home, I would discover these guys had used channel lock pliers to force open the back door, but that the general chaos of my home had prevented them from locating my passport, jewelry, or sole item of irreplaceable value: the Montblanc fountain pen that my father, who died in a bicycle accident two years ago, had gotten for his law school graduation. My cat was unfazed.
I can honestly tell you that this little caper of mine was thrilling and deeply satisfying. It was also the exact wrong thing to do. Even this fanatical open-carry gun website implores: “Don’t chase criminals.” What if these two dipsticks had been armed? As unlikely as that was—property crime in my town is often driven by addiction, and weapons are worth money, which can buy drugs—I put myself and my child in potential danger. And for what? Three grand worth of electronics. As any reputable expert will tell you, you’re never to give chase to a thief, because human life is not worth possessions. As much as I admit to enjoying being called a “badass” by everyone I told this story, plus the listeners of KLCC Oregon, I should not have done this.
I did call the police, on the nonemergency line, because the dudes were long gone and nobody was hurt. I declined the dispatcher’s offer to send two officers to fingerprint a bunch of stuff I’d already touched. At best, that would have just added two more sets of prints to my town’s burgeoning roster of perennially at-large property criminals.
There are larger issues here, issues much more important than my would-be cool story. First, it’s an example of how in Eugene, small-scale property crime is now de facto legal. It is largely nonviolent, so it’s rarely seen as worth police resources to track down the goods. At the same time, it is so prevalent that any time one vest-wearing bozo gets nabbed, three more spring up in his place. This was my house’s second break-in in six months, and my fourth property crime total in the three years I’ve lived here as an adult. Eugene is my hometown, so I can also add the four times my childhood house, where my mother still lives, has been burgled since the early 2000s. When I was little, we left our front door unlocked so regularly that I wasn’t aware front doors had locks on them until I was much older. By the time I turned 30, however, every door in my parents’ house had been pried open at least once. (“Time to finally get that alarm system!” said my dad for three straight decades.)
Still, it’s a mistake to treat this trend solely as a vexing crime problem. Eugene’s descent into its property crime epidemic has been concurrent, unsurprisingly, with two addiction epidemics: First, the methamphetamine nightmare of the 1990s—when pseudoephedrine pills were still unregulated—hit Oregon and other Western states particularly hard. That wave segued all too naturally into the opioid and fentanyl crisis of the present. Meanwhile, not only did meth never really leave, but its use in Oregon also surged with the pandemic, with three Oregonians per day currently dying a drug-related death.
Since our conversation was necessarily brief, I don’t know the housing or drug situation of the guys who broke into my place. But local statistics point to them as two more casualties of these plagues. (Granted, those statistics are from nearby Portland, and they are police-sourced, so take them how you wish.)
For all the ambivalent empathy that the opioid epidemic has engendered, the local property crime scourge has set off a fierce public backlash. My incident brought out an unsurprising chorus of bloodlust on Nextdoor and elsewhere, when I shared it because I wanted to give my immediate neighbors a heads-up: “You should have kicked their asses,” they wrote. “We need to rise up and defend our property.”
This town’s petty crime is often attributed, at least in the national conservative press, to our West Coast government’s decision to temporarily allow urban camping during the pandemic. (That policy has now officially ended, for what it’s worth.) Towns like mine have often been characterized in the popular imagination as unlivable crime-addled hellholes. I will be the first to admit that our tent cities are sometimes blatant open-air drug markets, but this is the case even as our property values inflate to absurd proportions—and our crime is actually on the decline. Still, Oregonians like me currently have about a 2.7 percent chance of being burgled, which, at almost 30 percent higher than the national average, is very high. I learned very efficiently how anecdotes like mine get around (I can’t help it if I’m a dynamic storyteller!) and attract the righteous indignation of other former victims, so many often feel, incorrectly, like we few honest vanguards are awash in a sea of riffraff.
This atmosphere, in turn, inspires my locality’s equally unreasonable political extremists to put forth and exacerbate their own untenable solutions. Even in a hyperpolarized American environment, Oregon is more polarized than most. For decades, our liberal enclaves have made Portlandia look understated, while our conservative areas make Texas’ look progressive.
For example, during the heyday of Eugene’s recently dismantled and infamous Washington Jefferson Park tent city, a larger break-in at a bicycle store was traced at least partially back to the encampment. The police swept the tents and made a flurry of arrests. Some of the bikes were found. This resulted in part in outrage over using resources to hassle the city’s most impoverished residents: “A stolen bike, yes, that sucks,” an advocate for the unhoused told a local news outlet. “But what are your priorities? And I’m sorry, but a stolen bike isn’t the priority.”
Well, trust me, in this town, it definitely isn’t. Recovering those bikes was an anomaly; in Eugene, most of these burglaries go unsolved. In fact, 87 percent of burglaries in the whole country do, too. The get-tough-on-property-crime proponents assert that statistically, this sends a message that stealing is fair game, and sure, that is a message I do not condone. But I also agree with a somewhat less rabid version of the opposing view: Property is replaceable, these crimes are nonviolent, and everyone currently rifling through houses and dealing drugs out of tents in my town is human. They deserve a chance to get their lives on track.
So, what should be the town’s priority? Fixing the addiction epidemics is a perilously long way away from happening, for reasons that are as polarizing as addiction’s consequences. In the sobering and excellent Dopesick, author Beth Macy goes into painfully exacting detail about opioids’ near-inescapable hold on the human brain. Macy argues that the true way out of this epidemic is “low-barrier treatment,” which includes supportive housing and medical interventions such as safe injection supplies, fentanyl testing strips, buprenorphine access, and supervised consumption sites. All of these options, however, are a tough sell even in a “progressive” town like Eugene, where supervised consumption sites are what NIMBY nightmares are made of, and low-barrier treatment can run up against deeply held moral stigma: Gas is $5 a gallon, and my taxes are going to some junkie?
In the meantime, while some admirably advocate and vote and wait for those breakthroughs, what should we do about the burglaries themselves? Should we pursue more law enforcement, or more compassion toward the burglars? More arrests that allegedly might deter this, or policies that might alleviate income inequality? Does—as approximately 83 percent of the suggestions from my Nextdoor thread contended—every house in town need a tripwire that handcuffs trespassers on sight? Or should all businesses be taxed at 500 percent, and the proceeds used to furnish every fentanyl dealer in town with a nice apartment and mad cash? The debate has degenerated such that these are the sorts of cartoonish positions each side believes they’re fighting—and, in fact, are the only available choices. Just check out Eugene’s Reddit section any day, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
The actual blight on small American towns like mine isn’t property crime. It’s that any tenable solution to it has been swallowed up into a churning abyss of extremism and perceived counterextremism. No one seems to have a convincing answer to the most basic question: So what should we do? What should I do?
Burglaries don’t have to be largely unsolvable, and more property criminals could be apprehended. But while I don’t want those dudes or any of their buddies to come back to my house, I also don’t want them in an American prison, where their “rehabilitation” will consist largely of learning better ways to commit even bigger crimes when they get out, and their options for alternative forms of acquiring money will be even more limited than they are now. Lacking any meaningful restorative justice program for petty thieves in my town (which would, in turn, necessitate locating and apprehending them), I decided my own problems could be solved, for now, with a padlock on my back gate.
And then, not long after the break-in, a Nintendo Switch appeared on my town’s Craigslist. Its included components and color combination were identical to the set stolen from my house. I debated, briefly, bringing my vigilante justice alter ego Super Annoying out of retirement, answering the ad and showing up to shrill my wrongdoers into returning what was mine. But this time, I thought better of it. My life is not worth much, but it’s probably worth more than Mario Kart. I can only hope the console’s new owners enjoy it as much as my daughter did—at least until someone steals it again.

This will be my first time ever openly sharing about my addiction; from the root cause to the effects and struggles that having a porn addiction has impacted my life to this day
So I just recently turned 21 and I'm beginning to look around and realize that for as long as I've acknowledged that I have a problem and need to quit, I keep feeding the addiction KNOWING that it's ruining my life. I'm going to split this post into 3 sections explaining the following stages: The root causes/early development, Progression of my addiction to current day, and Main struggles from my PA and how I go about everyday life to heal. Not exactly sure why I'm posting this but I just feel like it's something I need to let out. Hope someone can relate or give me their take on it.
The root causes/early development: So I believe that my PA manifested due to a few different reasons: Playing "doctor" with my sister as a child, early age porn exposure, and then using porn as a coping mechanism to deal with any negative emotions. So starting w/ "playing doctor", it first happened at a very young age, somewhere between elementary school to 6th grade. I think most people know what that is but to keep it short basically my sister who is a year older than me introduced my to basically role playing as doctor and patient. I wasn't sure if SHE even knew it was wrong but the point is, it happened. I genuinely don't think she was doing in an abusive way but I'll never know. I don't remember the small details of exactly how it happened but what leads me to think this was a factor that contributed to my porn addiction is that I know now as an adult that it's wrong, however as we "played doctor" I only grew to enjoy it and occasionally we took things outside of "playing doctor" - which is why I don't know what to make of it... Long story short it went from "doctor" to us making up our own games like "spy" where we pretended to fight each other as spy's, getting "knocked out" unconscious while she'd touch... and I specifically remember wanting to play these games in hopes that it led to that. But even outside of playing games I grew to wanting to touch her and act on perverted thoughts as a child that were NOT normal for my age or in general. And sometimes I would sneakily act on them - which as I'm reflecting on right now makes me think that me KNOWINGLY trying to be sneaky and act on perverted thoughts at that young of an age had to have carried on with me as I got older (contributing to my porn addiction).. And then the last thing that I vividly remember was when I was probably 10-12 years old is when again we were actually kind of aggressively play fighting, somehow ended up with each other's hands DOWN THERE mutually and we kept going on with each other until she made me.... yeah. And that was the last memory I had of what started out as us "playing doctor". Fast forward to current date since that last memory and we've never spoken about those experiences (more on that later). Going onto the actual exposure of pornography and WATCHING porn, I was exposed to it somewhere in between the same timeframe as when I'd play doctor and the last memory of us playing (somewhere between the ages of 8-12). I can vividly remember the scene that played late at night on the tv that my parents had left on (I shared a room with them). And then moving forward from there, somewhere in between I would find videos on YouTube of this "prank" channel where he'd go up to paid actors, bet that if he beat them in rock paper scissors that they'd have to make out with him. And as a young kid at the time seeing a girl in a bikini making out with a guy as he grabbed on her ass just made me horny and I learned to masturbate from there. And I cant think of a stronger dopamine hit for a 8-12 year old little me at the time than seeing those videos and pleasuring myself. After this, I'd hit middle school where I was bullied a lot, all while lacking social skills necessary to make any genuine friends or deal with the emotional turmoil of being bullied. Fast forward a few months and I think I just progressively began to normalize using porn as a coping mechanism - All the way from whenever I just got mad while dying repetitively on the videogame, to avoiding the fact that I hated my life everyday that I went to school. I'd use porn to receive that "good feeling" whenever I could. And I think my sexual addiction got worse when I began touching myself in the shower almost everyday in middle school to the imagination of the pretty girls that were at my school, even though I had neverarely talked to some of them. It was just a thing for me where every night I took a shower, I closed my eyes and fantasized about doing stuff with them. And then the cycles of me normalizing these things continued and eventually I found out about REAL porn sites.
Progression of my addiction to current day: So shortly after finding the real porn sites I entirely opted to use those as much as possible as the cycle continued. So by my freshman year of high school I was already using porn sites regularly. I remember during summer and winter breaks, sometimes I'd sleep at my grandmas and stay up all night switching from ejaculating to porn, to watching my favorite youtuber and streamers, to going back to jerking off. It was a multiple times a day/night occurrence OFTEN. Sometimes even during the middle of the day I'd pretend to use the bathroom but really I had a porn video pulled up and I watched until I was done. And as time progressed one video didn't exactly cut it for me. I don't think its that I couldn't get off to the first video, but more so that I just had the urge to see more and didn't want to nut yet. I didn't even know if I was purposely edging or not. I did not even understand that edging was a concept yet. Its just something that occurred naturally for me. And during all of this, I am still somewhere in the age range of 13-15. Consistently ejaculating to pornography, further exploring the more basic categories of porn like anal and lesbian. I think a notable memory was one of the first times I watched porn in the middle of work during summer break (extended family owns a construction company so I worked over breaks). It's crazy because in construction all we have are porta-potties that are always hot and nasty and the urge just came over me one day to pretend like I was using the bathroom and get one off before I went back... I don't think I even realized at the time that I had an addiction because this was still early high school. It was just something I looked at as a good feeling and whenever the urges came to me I took any chance I got to fulfill them. Even if I was sharing a room with a family member, I'd be as slow and quit as I could, touch myself under the covers, finish in my underwear and then showechange the next morning like it was normal. Moving forward, this type of behavior continues all the way throughout high school and the feeling of ejaculating just is not as intense as it use to be, so I look up ways to spice it up and I tried shit all the way from sitting on my own hand til it goes sort or numb so it "feels like someone else is touching you", to doing it in more risky places like my backyard outside when I was home alone and had my pants pulled down all the way, to whatever else I could try. Reflecting back, I just look at all these actions as the progressions of a sexual/porn addiction that is still developing. And this is how I rationalize the way I developed a porn addiction. Now it wasn't AWFUL in high school but it was getting bad. I realized that I had actually had a bad addiction that needed to be addressed a few months after graduating high school. From that point forward It was something that I had acknowledged was an issue but nonetheless, continued to do out of habit and as a continued coping mechanism. Whether it was from the lack of relationships, to my current life situation/direction I was headed in, or just any negative emotion - I used porn to release. Sometimes I'd even just do it out of boredom, not even because I had a dying urge to get one off. And then after that point of realization, I sat in "depression" for a few months still going about my everyday life until one day my dad mentioned that I should try therapy. He knew nothing about the addiction but I did let him know I feel depressed and the many struggles that I faced - which I believe is due to my porn addiction. So long story short, I go to therapy for about 3 sessions and end up dropping it because it just wasn't something I felt was helping or enjoyed (more on that later). From there to current day, I've gone at MOST one week periods attempting to quit porn and every time I relapse. From the age of 1 to-current day 21 years old, the progression of the categories of porn that I watch has grown and a few different fetishes like face sitting, femdom, and role play has increased. I don't NEED to watch these specific categories to get off, however these are ones I've found myself most recently watching and edging to, sometimes for 1-3 hours at a time, usually at night on weekends or before I fall asleep. And to take it a step further, I had started pouring money into camgirl sites, phone sex sites, only fans, etc.. I live with my parents still so it's not to the point that I'm broke and have no money, but still what the fuck am I doing putting my hard earned money into a porn addiction... (I'm a functioning adult on a pathway to financial freedom, more on this later).
Main struggles from my PA and how I go about everyday life to heal: So I believe that the main struggles with my porn addiction consist of: the inability/struggle to create and maintain healthy relationships, low self esteem, poor social skills, lack of motivation, and the cognitive dissonance of continuing my addiction to porn even though morally I believe it is wrong to lust over. I believe all of these struggles that come with porn are connected to each other - minus the cognitive dissonance. But everything else kind of stacks on top of each other. So my thought process is that I already dealt w/ low self esteem and confidence from a very young age, and porn just completely enhanced those problems and made it even harder to fix/work on. If you're anything like me and have watched videos on the sciences of porn on your brain, and possible struggles that we deal with, I'm assuming you know how it goes for the most part. I'd say I show symptoms of all effects of being a porn addict, however I've learned to "act normal" to an extent. Like YES I struggle to make friends and hold conversations with people in general but I can make it happen. Sure it'll be a little awkward depending on who I'm speaking to, but I feel like I act normal enough to not be a total outcast and all out weirdo around people. But I just feel like every relationship I have with anyone is extremely surface level or unfulfilling. I feel like as a person I lack so much substance and personality due to the fact that I never really put myself out there and learned social skills when I was coming up. My mindset was molded into something like "keep your head down and stay out the way" in order to avoid conflict. So I never really put myself out there to develop any type of super crazy/interesting personality. I work, play videogames, go to the gym, watch anime. I feel like there's not much else - which might also be a side affect of my porn addiction. Lack of emotion. And I refuse to call it depression. Kind of got red pilled by Andrew Tate Philosophy and it entirely HAS helped me. Maybe it's real, maybe it's not - because when I was fresh out of high school and hyper focused on the bad parts of my life, I felt depressed as shit. Legit like I couldn't do anything to fix it. And the more I identified as "depressed" the more I allowed myself to look for things in my life to confirm that belief. So eventually I went on a self improvement journey and just stopped allowing "depression" to hold power over me. Now I don't believe in it so it's not something that can hold me down in that crippling way. HOWEVER, I DO believe in just being in a shitty situation - which is what I feel like having a porn addiction along with it's effects and symptoms is. It's a shitty situation and I can either allow it to keep ruining my life OR I can get up everyday and attempt to fix it. And I refuse to play the victim card. Sure, I may have been exposed to some fucked up shit at a young age and used porn as a coping mechanism. There is no denying that it happened and that it may have been unfair and out of my control. YES, that's my problem. I may be a victim of pornography but I do not have to ALLOW it to continue to ruin my life. Easier said than done but it's definitely possible and I will not blame my lack of discipline or call it "depression" because I'm unable to quit. The way I see it is, there is a lot of shit that happened to me in the past that I have to come to terms with, and then I must come up with a plan to improve and learn how to be better. For example, struggling to hold eye contact with people, hold basic conversation with people (specifically women), find confidence within myself, become more social, etc... These are all skills that we can practice and learn. Simply by going outside and putting ourselves in uncomfortable situations that allow us to put the reps in. I believe that if I quit porn and start walking up to 10 strangers a day and try having simple conversations with them, in time I can only get better at being social and connecting with people. It's gonna suck and feel like shit at first, but I truly believe that it's a way to improve and get better. As I stand in my current situation I would say I have a lot of work to do but I'm still a functioning addict. I have friendships and relationships with family but they are very lack luster and I long for something deeper and more intimate. I know I'm not ugly and have the ability to pull a good looking girl, shit I've turned down this really pretty girl who always asks to hangout simply due to the fact that I feel like I'm gonna fuck it up and have bad social skills. And its getting to a point where friends and family are wondering why I haven't had a girlfriend in years. Overall its a lack of self esteem, which hinders me from being able to confidently put myself out there as a person who's deserving of love/companionship, which then makes me sort of self isolate and stray away from any type of connection or opportunity to be vulnerable. Which just leads me to feeling like a loser or someone that is undeserving of love because I'm just in a shitty situation. And yeah. Its kind of a self sabotaging cycle because I feel like I understand what's going on but I don't have the discipline and don't put the work in to get better. But that's just my two cents. This post was extremely long and I probably rifted off topic a few times and had my thoughts all over the place, and I still have a lot more I could give input about but this is the jist of everything
If anyone has a support group or needs someone to talk to, 1. I'd like to join the group, or 2. Feel free to message me for any support or conversation.

My name is Emily. I'm from the United States and I wanted to end my 20's with a bang, and I'm happy to say that I ended my 20's in Korea.Actually, Korea was not a country that I had much to do with.Originally, I was a person who was immersed in Japanese culture since college.Japanese anime became my friend. There's a lot of interesting things about Japanese anime, like the fact that they depict real places in Japan, and they depict real food, and so I fell in love with Japan, and I even traveled to Japan a couple times, and I thought that Japan was the sum of everything that I longed for.
But then, in my late 20s, I met a friend who would change my life. It was a simple meeting with a long-lost college classmate, Sarah, who had gone on to work at a large firm in New York City, and whom I had shared anime and Japanese food with in my dorm room in college. She told me honestly that she had recently traveled to Korea and was seriously thinking about moving there. Unfortunately, the large company she worked for in New York had recently gone through a business crisis, and she was laid off.
She said that she was confused by the sudden betrayal of a well-known company, and to clear her mind, she went to the airport with the intention of leaving anywhere. She thought she would go to Japan, but when she arrived at the airport, she changed her mind. When she thought back to the places and restaurants she frequented most often while working at the company in New York, she remembered that she often went to Korean streets and Korean supermarkets in New York, and she thought that going to Korea on an impromptu trip was a really good idea, so she chose to go to Korea rather than Japan, which she already knew.
And buying a plane ticket on the spot at the airport was more than twice as expensive as booking a ticket in advance, but Sarah said that she didn't care, because she was depressed after being fired from her job, and she went to the airport to leave, but the curiosity about Korea that came over her made her want to leave right away, even if she had to pay for the expensive plane ticket.
He expressed that although he went to the airport courageously, he knew that the plane ticket would be too expensive, and he thought that maybe he should just go back home again, but his curiosity about Korea came from somewhere deep inside him, and it exploded like a bomb, and he was naturally drawn to it.
Sarah, who likes emotional things like essays and poems in college and enjoys such poetic expressions, but even so, I wondered if it was a little overdone, but when she said that she had been to Korea, I became more focused on her story.
However, I was able to understand why she expressed herself in such an over-the-top way after listening to her Korean stories.
"Korea is an amazing place, the people are so kind and warm, and most of all, the employment system is very well organized. There are many programs and support for job seekers, which is very helpful for people who are in a difficult situation like me."
When Sarah started with this story, I realized that she was really traumatized by being laid off.Now, she had been through a big ordeal and was in the process of recovering from it through Korea, so I decided to focus more on her story."You said you traveled to Korea, so what else did you do?" I asked."For example, what kind of programs were there?" I asked her.
"I happened to visit a job fair in Korea," she said, "where job seekers can get free career counseling and get the training they need." "I got a lot of help there, and it gave me the strength to get back on my feet, and maybe even get a job in Korea." "And most of all, the work culture in Korea is really family-like," she said, "I was impressed by how much my coworkers cared about each other and supported each other."
Sarah said that she was curious about what Korea was like, so she visited a large convention center in Korea and participated in various fairs, one of which was a job fair, and she interviewed with several Korean companies, and the Korean companies were ready to accept her as a colleague if she applied as an American. I also learned that Korea has many companies with global reach, and they are open to foreigners with various experiences, but in Korea, unless it is a large company, people don't prefer them, so if it is a small company, they want foreigners, but there is a sad reality that no one applies.
Unlike in the U.S., where you have to report your performance every week, and if you fall short, you are threatened with termination, Korean companies are definitely not more performance-oriented than in the U.S. They value their employees and do everything together to grow together, not threaten them with termination. In the past, I knew that corporate culture in Asian countries such as Korea was more collectivistic than individualistic, and as a student, I thought that such a collectivistic culture was a bad culture with a high level of disease in Asia, but after experiencing social life in the United States, I heard that the tendency of companies to be extremely individualistic, talking about job insecurity, and treating people ruthlessly, caused me to be fired from a good job overnight, and the future plans I had planned in advance became uncertain, and I even talked about envying the Korean culture that does not have such disadvantages.
Sarah, who has never worked in Korea, but was always afraid of being fired, said that she learned a lot about Korean corporate culture by interviewing many Korean company officials.
She said that she even considered settling down and living in Korea because, besides the culture, there were so many other conveniences and benefits.
She talked about her experience of working in New York, being left alone in the office to get things done because of her performance, having to leave late at night and being afraid to go home, sleeping in the hotel next door, and having to live with the exorbitant rent in Manhattan and the two-hour round-trip commute to work, and how she realized that unlike in the U.S., where it is difficult to see a doctor, she would not have to worry about these things in Korea.
Sarah's story made me even more curious about Korea.The warmth, systematic system, and various charms that she experienced in Korea couldn't help but have a great impact on me.I've been experiencing a lot of stress every day due to the pressure of performance and the threat of being fired, and I've recently been undergoing expensive psychotherapy.I decided to learn more about Korea, and eventually decided to travel to Korea.
Of course, I didn't travel to Korea with the intention of moving to Korea or settling down in Korea, but rather to spend my last 20s in a new country, Korea, and to see a different world than the familiar Japan.
I made my preparations and headed to Korea sooner than I expected, arriving ten days before my birthday and extending my itinerary beyond what I had originally planned, staying in Korea until after my birthday and then flying back to the United States.
The first day I finally arrived in Korea, I started walking around the streets of Seoul.The first thing that greeted me was the warm spring weather in Korea.The sky was clear and the air was crisp.I was told that it is common for Asia to have very bad air quality in the spring due to the influence of China, but I didn't have to deal with that during my trip.
The streets of Korea are very different from the United States, and everything was new to me.There were many beautiful flowers in bloom, and the well-maintained trees were really beautiful.It has been a long time since the common people's neighborhoods in the United States have such beautiful landscaping because of people who destroy these trees and flowers for no reason, or secretly take them and sell them.But this was not the case in Korea.The streets were like a beautiful flower garden.
I was walking down a beautiful street lined with flowers, and I was looking at them, looking at the big big map that was displayed on the screen at the bus stop.I was just curious to see what my neighborhood looked like, so I was looking at the map and taking my time, and a middle-aged woman came up to me and said, "Where are you looking for?" She didn't speak fluent English, but I was so grateful that she was trying to help. I was too embarrassed to tell her that I was just looking at the map, so I told her one of the destinations I was planning to go to, and she gave me direct directions to the place I was looking for, and I was able to get there without any difficulty.This unexpected kindness opened my eyes to the Korean people and warmed my heart at the same time.
I was ready to accept everything in Korea with an open mind.The first impression was very good, I was touched by the kindness of the people.I couldn't ask for anything more from Korea.The food was so fresh and amazing to me.I visited Gwangjang Market, a famous traditional market in Korea.
Unlike a regular restaurant, it was a place where you could sit down and try a variety of food. As a traditional market, it was full of Korean food. There were no pizza, pasta, or burger joints, but I liked it better that way. It was a place where you could see the traditional look and feel curious about everything.
I also tasted foods such as tteokbokki sundae and hotteok.Everything else was fine, but I was a little worried when I first tried sundae because it looked so strange and a little gross, but I decided to give it a try and the moment I put it in my mouth, the rich flavor filled my mouth.Korean food often seems difficult to eat, but when you try it, you can see why it is so popular in Korea.
I stayed at Gwangjang Market for a long time and tried a lot of different foods, especially kimchi and pajeon, which I still remember because of their crispy texture and spicy flavor. I would recommend them to everyone.Experiencing the deep flavors of Korean food firsthand made me fall in love with Korean food.
And then there was a shocking thing that happened to me in Korea.I was having a lot of fun traveling around Korea and everything was interesting, because Korea is really the best place to be, you know, you're running around, you're busy, you're going from place to place, and I had the misfortune of losing my passport, which was really stupid.
I was traveling in Korea, and I got an international call. Someone was calling me from Korea, and when I saw the international call indicator on my phone and realized that the call was from Korea, I had a million questions.
I thought I shouldn't answer the call, but then I realized that it was an international call, and I thought maybe they were calling me because they had some business to take care of. I answered the call, and I was told a really crazy story, because I heard a calm English voice asking if it was Emily, and she introduced herself as a police officer and asked if I could come to the nearest police station.
I thought I had done something terribly wrong, because I had just eaten delicious tteokbokki and sundae, kimchi and pajeon, and I was so happy to eat them, and afterward I was just walking around the streets of Korea, smelling the flowers and seeing the pretty trees.
I started to check my belongings one by one and realized that my small pouch containing my passport and some of the money I had exchanged was missing.
I quickly headed to the police station, which was where I was told to go, and from the front gate, I was controlled as to what I was visiting.
The great thing about Korea is that even for someone like me who doesn't speak Korean, it's not difficult to navigate these government offices. Not all Koreans speak English, but at least the ones I've met have been able to communicate with me in a simple way. Even if they don't speak perfect sentences, they understand most of the words, so I was able to communicate the reason for my visit to the police station.
I had never been to a police station before, even in the U.S., but here I was in Korea, and I was greeted by friendly people.The pouch with my passport in it had my contact information written on the inside, and they said they would contact me with that.The bag was found in a marketplace, and the first person to report it was the stall owner of the place where I had my first sundae.It also had all of my clean, new Korean money in it, which I had exchanged separately.
I was so impressed with how conscientious Koreans are and how good they are that I was able to find the pouch, sign the paperwork, and walk out of the police station.
I went back to Gwangjang Market, and when I got there, the owner recognized me and looked like he was about to say something. I held out the bag and showed it to him, and he smiled and liked it.
I thanked the Korean boss, and we ate another snack on the spot. It was an experience that made me realize how heavenly Korea is.
And like Sarah said, I didn't just want to see how clean and pretty Korea is, I wanted to see what an American working in Korea could do and what life would be like.Through the Reddit community, I was able to get in touch with Americans working in Korea and even met some of them in person.
David, the American I met, works for a company that is not a large Korean company, but rather a small or medium-sized company. As Sarah said, Korea is a country where products are produced for the global market, and many things are actually exported overseas.
However, in Korea, unless it is a large company, every company is experiencing a job shortage, and because of the atmosphere in Korea, where foreigners are not welcome at all, it is not difficult to get a job in a company that specializes in exporting overseas, even if you are in the United States.
And David told me that he put all his passion into the first company he worked for in the U.S., and even made a lot of money for the company, but when he didn't perform, the company fired him without mercy, and he said that he was so shocked, not to mention the feeling of betrayal, that he took depression medication at that time, and it was so hard that he took depression medication, and then he found Korea by chance and settled in Korea, and now he is so happy. He told me that he was fired from his job because of the unrelenting treatment in the U.S., that he found a second chance in Korea, and that he is happy with his life here.
I'm not sure I have the courage to move to Korea right now, but I learned that there are a lot of people like Sarah and David who have been hurt so badly that they end up leaving the country. I'm scared that this could be my future, but I also learned that Korea is an option for me if it happens to me.My trip ended like this: experiencing the culture, food, and hospitality of Korea, and getting to meet and talk to Americans living in Korea, made my trip much more rewarding than my trip to Japan, which could have been an anime trip.
Korea has given me new perspectives and experiences, shattered my notion that Japan is only good, broadened my horizons, and opened my eyes to another gem that is Korea.
I now like to say to my friends, "Go to Korea, you'll see how good it is." Korea has taught me so much, and I will cherish my experience in Korea, which now holds a special place in my heart.
If Sarah goes to Korea and settles down, I will be there to congratulate her and support her in her new relationship in Korea.

hi all, i’m 23f & i’m with my partner of 1 yr now. I’ve been battling with my sexuality and mental health severely for a minute now. I am gay, I’m with the best most dedicated man ever, super intelligent, educated, goal driven has money & is loyal. I mean he’s enamored with me completely. I’ve just been hyper aware of women & daily thoughts of yeah I’m gay the second i wake up.
I broke down& told him my worries that i might be gay a few months ago& things were good for a bit. He was happy for me and supportive. He said he would be sad and upset obviously but not like a psycho . He’s going to make more money now that he’s teaching , my rent is split between 4 people so it’s really really cheap right now. i just have a deep sorrow in my chest for him. he’s so kind & soft, but he’s not a woman…i avoid close contact and we agreed that we should wait til i initiate sex (if i want to) bc of past traumas with exes& the uncertainty with my sexual attraction.
Yes i’m happy with him, but not fully i just feel like a chunk is missing i long for women. i long for feminine energy& the difference type of intimacy. I obsess over certain people& look at pictures of women on pintresr or other aesthetic sites.
i’m obsessed with drawing the female form, photography, unique features, like all the time. I hung out with my cousin a couple weeks ago (gayest man to exist) i asked him ‘be for real, girl you’ve always been gay!’ my heart dropped but i was like yeah! my therapist is confused why i don’t tell my bf since he’s understanding. My thing is that he is so attached to me, he already had a gf leave him bc she was gay too. i know we would still be in contact, i just know im my soul at this point. i can’t keep faking kisses& i love yous bc it’s not fair and it kills me. I have bp2 & borderline tendencies. i’ve come out as gay multiple times in my life each time the feeling of wanting to be with a woman has overtaken my mind completely. I came out to my therapist, my dad my mom (kinda) and all was good. I love women I love them all, I shouldn’t be fantasizing about a girl i saw once at a tractor supply who helped me carry pellets to my car. I shouldn’t still be hung up on my ex following her on insta wishing i could have ended up with her (not a good idea, good friend but toxic) I feel like i’m running away from the inevitability of me coming out bc it’s not the “right time “
therapist told me to read some books on human sexuality n stuff but yeah if anyone can relate please help out, idk what to do i feel broken and lonely.

I'll start by saying that I'm not going to talk about Ron's lines or moments being given to other characters because you already know about that. For myself, I love the Trio and one of the most important things that the new series has to take into account is that the characterisation of the Trio must be canonically accurate. Characterisation is important to me especially when it concerns the main three characters.
In the movies, I was always disappointed at the portrayal of Ron. There are people who would say they don't really see the difference to which I reply that means you don't really know Ron or you have already formulated an idea of who he is and just ran with it. Here are just some examples to point out how the movies depicted Ron.

1. Ron dealing with fears

Ron is a Weasley. In COS when confronted by the spiders, Ron responds with two ways, uncomfortable silence or trying to calm himself internally followed by a fierce response. This is seen in COS up until DH when Harry absentmindedly tried to enlarge a spider only for Ron to retort and tell him to stop it.
Ron DOESN'T whimper like a fool, stammer like an idiot or do some stupid panicky face. It's just not in his Weasley blood to do so. Even when confronted by the Horcrux, Ron was terrified but it is more a silent, internal fear that freezes you rather than screaming on the ground. Again after destroying the Horcrux, Harry is relieved that Ron did not throw off his arm which can be a Ron response after dealing with a fear.

1. Ron's personality

As mentioned above, Ron's personality took a nosedive in the movies. You get some scaredy-cat boy who is fearful of Sirius Black instead of the boy who was in pain yet still told off Sirius Black. Ron's outburst in class from blasting Snape to throwing stuff at Draco were all shoved aside. In OOTP, Ron is seen screaming like a fool after being blasted back in a duel with Hermione (again the whole I go easy on you is not Ron who knows just how powerful Hermione is). In the books, you see them bickering with Ron refusing to give Hermione an inch and vice versa. Ron's aggresive personality is very much Weasley-like as you can see the same thing in Ginny, Fred, George etc. Personally, I laugh whenever a fanfic has Ron as a bully magnet like Ron would allow himself to be bullied.
3 Ron's comic relief
From Uranus to "really breaking your leg", from describing the examiner's face to "hunting down Voldemort in a mobile library", Ron's range of humour typically remains the same. Like Harry, he is snarky and sarcastic. He uses humour to deal and his humour is what makes Harry laugh. Instead of that scared, silly face, Ron as a source of comic relief comes through his remarks and his personality.
There's so much more I could talk about but I'll leave it here for now. I'm just praying that whoever is in charge of the new series, please, please, please read the books and truly understand the character from the character's perspective and not what you want him to be. Ron definitely has flaws so put it in but don't change him into something else entirely.
I bet my hat that if Ron was depicted as he was in the books, you can pretty much guarantee there would be a few people who would be shocked as to see the differences between movie Ron and tv series Ron.

I think there’s something off about my campus
Hey everyone, I’m typing this on my phone so I apologize if there is weird formatting. Anyways, to get to the point, there’s something really off with some people on my campus. I have come seeking answers.I noticed it first walking home from my 7pm class last Wednesday.
To set the scene, most of the campus is tucked back into the woods a little, and my 7pm class is in the farthest building from the parking lot (further into the woods). I get out from that 7pm class around 9pm, so on cloudy nights like last Wednesday, the only lights on that long sidewalk are the lights radiating from the other buildings. Usually, there’s roughly 30 feet where it’s pitch black because the foliage is pretty dense. I usually walk back to my apartment with some classmates that live in the same complex as me, but I told them to go ahead of me while I finished the rest of the project.
After packing my laptop away, I started heading back home. It was roughly 9:30 at this point, and my brain was slowly shutting down preparing for the deep sleep that has yet to come.Walking down the sidewalk, I heard somebody not too far into the woods laughing like they’ve just heard the funniest joke ever. I immediately thought, “probably some Freshman walking the trails with their friends smoking weed”. Chuckling to myself, I put in my AirPods and picked a playlist for my journey back home.
When I looked up from my phone, there was the silhouette of somebody walking towards me. I have no idea how I missed them before, but honestly, it’s very possible they were just in a spot where the light wasn’t quite reaching them. A little unnerved, I shifted over to the left side of the sidewalk.
(Now I’m usually fine walking alone at night; I’m a 6’2 man who’s dabbled in the world of MMA. But something about this person gave me a primal feeling of unrest.)
When they shifted over to the left mirroring me, I felt my blood run cold. But alas, I had to keep walking because this was my only way back home. As I neared closer to the figure, I almost laughed at myself when I realized it was just some harmless girl walking towards the Murphy building. If anything, I’m the intimidating one to her.
This is where it really gets weird. She stopped as I was passing her and turned to me. Thinking she needed to ask me something, I took an AirPod out and asked “what’s up?”. After staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time, she opened her mouth, and I kid you not, mimicked the laugh I heard moments before perfectly. Before I could chalk it up to it just being her in the trails earlier, I noticed something. Her mouth wasn’t moving at all. If I had left my AirPods in, it would just look like she was just opening her mouth and staring at me. She then shifted into a deep raspy laugh. She did all of this without moving her mouth at all; I couldn’t even see her throat moving as you would expect if someone was laughing. It was almost like she was some fucked up human-shaped gramophone. The feeling of absolute horror that came over me is something I’ve only experienced in my imagination. Before I could think to do anything next, My body began to run off some sort of primal instinct. With my legs burning, it took me about 10 minutes to get all the way back to my apartment and lock myself in relative safety.
I’m coming on here now to ask if anybody knows what I experienced? I have been hearing that same laughter outside my window every night since that night, I am too terrified to sleep well and have refused to go to any of my classes. Please I just want answers, I don’t want to keep living in fear.
Part 2:
Hey everyone, I’ve gotten some DMs telling me what it may be. I’ve heard everything from banshee to skinwalker. After further research I pray to god it was neither of them. I’m praying it was just some girl with a speaker playing some sort of cruel joke. I mean yes there are people who don’t like me on campus, I’ve made some enemies over the past 4 years. But, I just don’t understand what could’ve brought it to this point. I had to stop hiding in fear and go to my classes before my grades plummet, I’m almost done with my degree and only have a few more weeks. If I let some sort of stupid prank ruin my career, It would be everything I swore against to my parents.
A lot of you guys in the DMs were also asking what college I go to and what my name is. First I want to say sorry for not providing that information in the first post, I’m sure you can understand where my head was at typing that. So let me introduce myself, my name is Nick and In order to keep my privacy, I will only provide that I go to a midwest university.
I’m sure you may be wondering, “so did it just stop?”. I would love to say yes, but really things have just gotten weirder. Though, I am pleased to say that there is no longer laughing out my window every night.
Ever since that night, I’ve been noticing more things off with the people on campus. Now you may just think it’s paranoia, but just be patient and listen.
Yesterday, I decided to muster up all of my courage and go to class. Luckily my first class is at 10AM, when the sun is well in the sky, so walking across campus seemed much less threatening. When I sat down in my first class, I noticed something off with the girl that sits in front of me. Usually she’s chatty and excited to be in class, but today she just stared blankly ahead. I tried to say good morning and ask about her weekend, as we do every Monday, but she continued to have that blank stare. She did turn her head towards be, but her eyes read “lights on, but nobody is home”.
Thinking to myself, she may just be hungover, or going through the bout of college student depression. I decided to shrug it off and turn to the front of the class and get my notes ready. But the moment I turned around, I could feel it. Her eyes burrowing deep into the back of my head. When I flipped around to see if I was just being irrational, I quickly learned I wasn’t. Her eyes went from the blank glare, to the most enthusiastic face I’ve seen on her. It was horrible, it almost seemed like she was trying so hard to pretend she was thrilled to be in class and to speak to me. It was inhuman.
I’ve been on the internet long enough to catch on to the term “Uncanny valley”, and what I witnessed In my first hour gives me that same gut feeling I got when I saw that girl last Wednesday.
I was right to be uncomfortable though, I texted her after class to make sure she was doing alright. But her response only reignited the flames of deep fear burning in my soul.
I’ll copy and paste the messages here:
Me: Hey Is everything good? You seemed off in class today.
Steph SCI 101: Uh yeah, I’m fine. but I was not in class today, I’m severely hungover from Tanner’s party last night.
Me: Haha, good one.
Steph SCI 101: No I’m so Fr, are you okay?
Steph SCI 101: Are you trying to fuck with me or something?
Me: Nevermind, I’m sorry to bother you.
(End Of Texts)
Okay so I’m sure that this gives you all the same feeling of dread that it gave me but I’m sure scaled down a bit. This is where I have started to doubt that it’s a prank, because me and Stephanie are cool. There’s no level of hate for either of us, and even if it was some joke, we don’t know each other on that type of level.
Not only did this seem to happen in my first class, but in between classes while I was walking across campus as well. I walk past hundreds of faces in my many treks across campus, and I swear to you, at least 1/4th of the people I walked past had that same dead stare look. And the way they walked, god I hate even thinking of it. It was like they were an alien trying out their new body suits for the first time. The steps and the bends of their legs just seem so meticulous, dramaticized, and puppeteered.
I’m going to try to investigate further, because at this point my fear for my life is more of a reason to try and figure out what it is so I can try to stop it.
I’m no hero, and I’m sure as hell nothing special, but If I can know what to expect for another encounter, maybe I can avoid meeting the demise I have imagined.
Part 3

First off I would like to apologize for my 20-day hiatus. For those who were worried that curiosity killed the cat so to speak, I appreciate your concern. On top of my investigation, I have also had to go through finals and work for a boss who didn't believe in life outside of work. So let's start where we left off. I had a feeling that this task was left for me to solve. it may sound stupid, but let me explain why. That night, after my last post, I had a dream that further solidified my need to solve the mystery. I tried to write all that I remembered down the morning after so here is what I wrote. 

April 4th, 2024
I had a strange dream last night, stranger than usual at least. I awoke in the woods, laying face down in the grass with someone looming over me. I heard their footsteps flee rapidly before I flipped over. I found myself just off the trail where the “incident” happened, on the trail laid a girl, bloodied and motionless. When I got up to approach her, she was quickly dragged into the parallel section of the woods. Seeing this I turned and ran into the section of woods I was in. When my legs gave out I found myself near an old supply shed, worn and long abandoned. Searching for cover, I tried the door, which luckily gave after a quick pull. There I found a trapdoor which emanated a blue hue through the cracks. The only thought on my mind, survival brought me to throw it open and climb down. I clattered down the ladder and right before my feet touched the ground, I was pulled backwards by my shirt. That’s where I woke up.
I have always trusted my gut and having a dream that vivid gave me a sense of courage I did not previously have. I know where to start my search now. I have decided my best course of action will be to record my findings on a tape recorder app. After I finish each entry it will be uploaded to a cloud that will ensure if anything happens to me, the story will get out. I am packing my backpack now with a flashlight, glow sticks to mark my trail, and a machete I was gifted by a local in Mexico. All of my recordings will be uploaded below and auto posted after 10 days. Wish me luck everyone, I’m going to need it.
Entry 1: I have started at the only place that makes sense, the trail. It is currently 1:45 PM and I have plenty of sun left in the sky. I just needed to find exactly where to start my journey into the woods. Strangely it was very easy to find. I recall one of the trees having a funky twist near the middle of the trunk. Probably just some two lovebirds trying to carve their name into the tree and realizing there were softer trees to carve into. Anyways hiking further into the woods I believe I can see the shape of the shed through the branches. I wish you guys could see how dense these trees are so you can understand my struggle.
Entry 2: I made it to the shed, but unfortunately the floor in here is concrete. This really sucks for me because I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. It’s identical on the outside but I just don’t understand. Maybe I’m just delusional, which in that case what a waste of time and energy. I’m going to head back home and just start packing for summer. Maybe it’ll be best if I just forget about all of this and leave it behind me. I am graduating after all. Wait hold on what is this?? there’s a button behind one of these shelves. I am going to press it, but idk how it would work because this floor is seamless. I’m just going to leave this recording so if anything does happen I don’t have to worry about holding the phone the whole time. Holy shit, the entire floor is lowering. It’s a fucking elevator.
Entry 3: Okay so I’ve been going down this elevator for like 30 seconds, how far down am I going?.. Oh wait hold on, Im stopped… There’s a metal door with a padlock. Ig since I have the machete there’s only one thing to do, break it. Im going to use the blunt side so I don’t ruin this thing, I like it too much. the lock clatters to the ground after 3 solid hits. Well ig there’s only one way to go now, there’s no button to get back up so I pray there’s another way up. The metal door creaks loudly. Fuck I regret this, It’s dark and I can tell it’s a big area because it’s so echoey in here. I’m currently praising my past self for thinking about the flashlight and glow sticks. I need to find out what in the hell this place is and most importantly, if there’s a damn light switch.
Entry 4: God this place is terrifying I’ve been walking around the sterile white halls of this place for like 10 minutes and have found nothing, no doors, no light switch. I feel like a rat in a maze. Also scratch what I said about being glad I packed glow sticks, because my stupid ass only brought like 20 of these things and I’m already down to 5. Also I feel like I’m not alone, every now and then I’ll turn a corner and the glow from the previous glow stick quickly vanishes. I feel like it might just be because the darkness seems to envelop everything like a blanket. But I have that feeling that I’m being followed. You know the one, where you know somethings wrong you just can’t pin point what it is. Oh shit no way, there’s light, I think there’s a door or something up ahead.
Entry 5: Holy shit… It’s a lab, and worse, there’s people strapped too tables, completely naked and unconscious. I know they are alive because each of them are hooked up with a million different cords, and one of those are plugged into a heart monitor. This place is huge, there has to be at least 50 people on these tables.
“Hey you, you’re not supposed to be in here” yelled a man adorned in a lab coat.
“What are you doing to these kids you sick fucks.” I yelled back at the man across the lab.
In a haste the scientist rushes towards a red button, setting off a loud alarm, turning the lights to a flashing red. With no exit behind me, I could only do one thing... Rush towards him. My training kicked in as I launched into a flurry of calculated strikes. My first hit connected, a right overhand clean under his eye. The doctor stumbled back, but I didn't give him a chance to recover. I pressed the attack, keeping him off balance with a relentless barrage of punches and kicks. He fought back ferociously, but I was one step ahead, anticipating his moves and countering with swift, efficient strikes. We wrestled, the room around us becoming a blur of pain and adrenaline. I used the environment to my advantage, improvising weapons from the scattered medical equipment and turning the empty tables on my opponent. Pinning him to the ground, I laid down a harsh barrage of final blows. His face was a bloody pulp, unrecognizable. But I didn’t walk away unscathed, somewhere in the tussle, the scientist buried a scalpel deep into my stomach. With my adrenaline wearing off, the pain overtook me, sending me into darkness as I fainted from the blood loss and adrenaline dump. I awoke with my arms and legs strapped to the cold metal operating table. Before I could try to struggle, a face overtook my field of vision.
“Quite a fight you put up, you turned poor Dr.Samson into a soup” the looming face said with a chuckle. “You are the first person to put the pieces together and for that I am thoroughly impressed Mr. Hayes”
“Who are you?!” I said fighting at my binds. “Let me go!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that Mr.Hayes. You have seen far too much, and I definitely can’t have you running around telling the world what you saw here. Although nobody would believe you.” “And to answer your other question, I’m surprised you don’t recognize me… really take a moment and look at me” He said pulling down his face mask.
“Dr.Blackwood?” I said as I looked back on my freshman year biology class.
“Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner!” He said in a maniac joy.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.
“Well Mr.Hayes, first I’m going to sew you up from your little tussle you had with my late assistant and then I will put you under and cut into that skull of yours and take out a small piece of what we call in the science world your hippocampus. Then I will draw from that all of the necessary memories to create the perfect clone of you.” He responded.
“Why? Why would you need a clone of any of us. Why can’t you just clone someone willing to be apart of this?” I asked
“Because that’s no fun Mr.Hayes, the hunt excites me. Actually you’re lucky I didn’t get you the first night. Unfortunately my creation had a little bit of a malfunction and formed a wee bit of an attachment to you. I’m sure you remember the ruckus outside your window? Anyways I digress, I do this because everyone of you lowly students will go onto do mediocre jobs where you waste away at a desk. I must also add that with having a clone of you under my control, I can do anything and get away with clean hands. My plan with you originally was to have you go into the admissions office and steal every last cent all for me. On top of that I like the power, because one day I will have a clone of every student on this campus and eventually I will cause a revolt against our comedy of a government. Who will stop me, when I won’t even be on the front lines?” Dr.Blackwood explained.
“I will” I said freeing my last hand from the binds.
What he didn’t realize is that with all of this monologue and the questions I had been feeding him, I was slowly loosening my binds with each wiggle and movement in retaliation.
Lurching forward I grab onto his collar, pulling him into a vicious headbutt. The impact sent Dr. Blackwood reeling backward, his grip on consciousness loosening as he staggered. Seizing the moment, I lunged off the table, adrenaline coursing through my veins despite the searing pain in my abdomen. With a swift motion, I grabbed a nearby surgical instrument, holding it in a defensive stance as I faced my adversary. Dr. Blackwood, recovering from the blow, snarled with rage, his once calm demeanor now replaced by a feral intensity. The room seemed to shrink around us, the tension thickening with each passing second. This was my chance to stop Blackwood's twisted plans. As he lunged forward, I met his attack head-on, the clang of metal reverberating through the room. Blow after blow, we fought with an intensity born of desperation and determination. Despite my injuries, I refused to yield, driven by a fire burnt under me to protect myself and others from Blackwood's actions . In a final, swift move, I delivered a powerful front kick, sending Blackwood crashing to the ground. The room fell silent, the echoes of our struggle fading into the darkness. Coughing he sat in the corner laughing with blood spilling down his face. “You know that it’s too late to save any of these one lying on the tables. I would’ve released you, you know that right? I would’ve simply taken your memory from today out of your brain and leaving you in your bed to wake up thinking you had a fun night” he said with final resolve as he watched me grab the scalpel from the ground taking slow steps near him.
Looking down over him, It was my turn to laugh. Kneeling down to eye level with him I grabbed him by his hair and delivered a final message to him “Fuck you and your little science experiment” as I sliced deep into his throat watching the life fade from his eyes.
I eventually found an exit door, which lead me to a storm drain deep in the woods far from my campus. It took me 2 hours to limp my way onto a main road and flag down a passing car. Pulling over I was rushed to the hospital and later interrogated by some men in suits, my guess is CIA. Here I am now, writing my final entrance. I think I heard them say something about trying a new medical process on me to help me heal quicker

So I am figuring out what position my F is in so here goes my traits
-I do enjoy dressing up, Latin dancing, travelling and experiencing anything physical, thrill seeking. But I do enjoy just chilling and being comfortable as well. I would adjust my environment to make myself comfortable and make sure my needs are met.
-I’m generally a lazy person, if I feel like it I would sleep more but I can still function with less sleep.
-Even tho I know smoking is bad for health, I still do it because I enjoy the kick of it.
-I don’t really care too much about being a foodie tho, I just usually eat what I feel I enjoy the most but if someone recommends me something new, I’ll try it and I usually know right away whether I like it or not. If I like it, I’ll add it to my meal rotation, if not I’ll avoid it at all costs.
-I do enjoy putting makeup everyday as a straight dude, like clean girl aesthetic “no-makeup makeup” style that most girls wear nowadays, it looks good and natural on me and I will never let anyone change my makeup style because im comfortable with it.
-But when I just started on makeup, I did initially ask for recommendations on shades/colors and a MUA friend to teach me how to do it. Once I figured it out what kind of color and shade I liked, I just kinda stuck to my preferred style. For example, I had a blush color recommended and tried on for me by my friend , it was a peachy pink shade, I was kinda alright about it at first, but then later I just felt that a full pink shade would be better so I bought that full pink shade. Same goes for my lip color, I did ask my friend for a shade that goes with my natural lip color. He gave me one (it was dark reddish brown), but I also found something better (similar color but with glitter ✨)for me and eventually bought it.
-So yeah when it comes to dressing style, I usually kind of experiment on my own and figure out myself what I like wearing best over many years. People always have complimented on my sense of style and I usually tell them to just figure out themselves what they like best when they ask me for advice.
-However, when it comes to perfume, I do have some strong opinions about it. For example, I do feel that perfumes have no gender and anyone can wear what they like regardless of these useless social norms dictated by designer brands. I’m more of a niche brand lover.
-Musicality in is basically second nature to me, though I need to work on my techniques more, people have complimented me for hitting the accents and breaks of the music while dancing. I make sure my dances with them are fun and cheerful so that they smile.
Okay that’s all my 2-hour sleep brain can think of right now. Let me know if theres any more questions or you can just type my F position based on this.

I think there’s something off about my campus
Hey everyone, I’m typing this on my phone so I apologize if there is weird formatting. Anyways, to get to the point, there’s something really off with some people on my campus. I have come seeking answers.I noticed it first walking home from my 7pm class last Wednesday.
To set the scene, most of the campus is tucked back into the woods a little, and my 7pm class is in the farthest building from the parking lot (further into the woods). I get out from that 7pm class around 9pm, so on cloudy nights like last Wednesday, the only lights on that long sidewalk are the lights radiating from the other buildings. Usually, there’s roughly 30 feet where it’s pitch black because the foliage is pretty dense. I usually walk back to my apartment with some classmates that live in the same complex as me, but I told them to go ahead of me while I finished the rest of the project.
After packing my laptop away, I started heading back home. It was roughly 9:30 at this point, and my brain was slowly shutting down preparing for the deep sleep that has yet to come.Walking down the sidewalk, I heard somebody not too far into the woods laughing like they’ve just heard the funniest joke ever. I immediately thought, “probably some Freshman walking the trails with their friends smoking weed”. Chuckling to myself, I put in my AirPods and picked a playlist for my journey back home.
When I looked up from my phone, there was the silhouette of somebody walking towards me. I have no idea how I missed them before, but honestly, it’s very possible they were just in a spot where the light wasn’t quite reaching them. A little unnerved, I shifted over to the left side of the sidewalk.
(Now I’m usually fine walking alone at night; I’m a 6’2 man who’s dabbled in the world of MMA. But something about this person gave me a primal feeling of unrest.)
When they shifted over to the left mirroring me, I felt my blood run cold. But alas, I had to keep walking because this was my only way back home. As I neared closer to the figure, I almost laughed at myself when I realized it was just some harmless girl walking towards the Murphy building. If anything, I’m the intimidating one to her.
This is where it really gets weird. She stopped as I was passing her and turned to me. Thinking she needed to ask me something, I took an AirPod out and asked “what’s up?”. After staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time, she opened her mouth, and I kid you not, mimicked the laugh I heard moments before perfectly. Before I could chalk it up to it just being her in the trails earlier, I noticed something. Her mouth wasn’t moving at all. If I had left my AirPods in, it would just look like she was just opening her mouth and staring at me. She then shifted into a deep raspy laugh. She did all of this without moving her mouth at all; I couldn’t even see her throat moving as you would expect if someone was laughing. It was almost like she was some fucked up human-shaped gramophone. The feeling of absolute horror that came over me is something I’ve only experienced in my imagination. Before I could think to do anything next, My body began to run off some sort of primal instinct. With my legs burning, it took me about 10 minutes to get all the way back to my apartment and lock myself in relative safety.
I’m coming on here now to ask if anybody knows what I experienced? I have been hearing that same laughter outside my window every night since that night, I am too terrified to sleep well and have refused to go to any of my classes. Please I just want answers, I don’t want to keep living in fear.
Part 2:
Hey everyone, I’ve gotten some DMs telling me what it may be. I’ve heard everything from banshee to skinwalker. After further research I pray to god it was neither of them. I’m praying it was just some girl with a speaker playing some sort of cruel joke. I mean yes there are people who don’t like me on campus, I’ve made some enemies over the past 4 years. But, I just don’t understand what could’ve brought it to this point. I had to stop hiding in fear and go to my classes before my grades plummet, I’m almost done with my degree and only have a few more weeks. If I let some sort of stupid prank ruin my career, It would be everything I swore against to my parents.
A lot of you guys in the DMs were also asking what college I go to and what my name is. First I want to say sorry for not providing that information in the first post, I’m sure you can understand where my head was at typing that. So let me introduce myself, my name is Nick and In order to keep my privacy, I will only provide that I go to a midwest university.
I’m sure you may be wondering, “so did it just stop?”. I would love to say yes, but really things have just gotten weirder. Though, I am pleased to say that there is no longer laughing out my window every night.
Ever since that night, I’ve been noticing more things off with the people on campus. Now you may just think it’s paranoia, but just be patient and listen.
Yesterday, I decided to muster up all of my courage and go to class. Luckily my first class is at 10AM, when the sun is well in the sky, so walking across campus seemed much less threatening. When I sat down in my first class, I noticed something off with the girl that sits in front of me. Usually she’s chatty and excited to be in class, but today she just stared blankly ahead. I tried to say good morning and ask about her weekend, as we do every Monday, but she continued to have that blank stare. She did turn her head towards be, but her eyes read “lights on, but nobody is home”.
Thinking to myself, she may just be hungover, or going through the bout of college student depression. I decided to shrug it off and turn to the front of the class and get my notes ready. But the moment I turned around, I could feel it. Her eyes burrowing deep into the back of my head. When I flipped around to see if I was just being irrational, I quickly learned I wasn’t. Her eyes went from the blank glare, to the most enthusiastic face I’ve seen on her. It was horrible, it almost seemed like she was trying so hard to pretend she was thrilled to be in class and to speak to me. It was inhuman.
I’ve been on the internet long enough to catch on to the term “Uncanny valley”, and what I witnessed In my first hour gives me that same gut feeling I got when I saw that girl last Wednesday.
I was right to be uncomfortable though, I texted her after class to make sure she was doing alright. But her response only reignited the flames of deep fear burning in my soul.
I’ll copy and paste the messages here:
Me: Hey Is everything good? You seemed off in class today.
Steph SCI 101: Uh yeah, I’m fine. but I was not in class today, I’m severely hungover from Tanner’s party last night.
Me: Haha, good one.
Steph SCI 101: No I’m so Fr, are you okay?
Steph SCI 101: Are you trying to fuck with me or something?
Me: Nevermind, I’m sorry to bother you.
(End Of Texts)
Okay so I’m sure that this gives you all the same feeling of dread that it gave me but I’m sure scaled down a bit. This is where I have started to doubt that it’s a prank, because me and Stephanie are cool. There’s no level of hate for either of us, and even if it was some joke, we don’t know each other on that type of level.
Not only did this seem to happen in my first class, but in between classes while I was walking across campus as well. I walk past hundreds of faces in my many treks across campus, and I swear to you, at least 1/4th of the people I walked past had that same dead stare look. And the way they walked, god I hate even thinking of it. It was like they were an alien trying out their new body suits for the first time. The steps and the bends of their legs just seem so meticulous, dramaticized, and puppeteered.
I’m going to try to investigate further, because at this point my fear for my life is more of a reason to try and figure out what it is so I can try to stop it.
I’m no hero, and I’m sure as hell nothing special, but If I can know what to expect for another encounter, maybe I can avoid meeting the demise I have imagined.
Part 3

First off I would like to apologize for my 20-day hiatus. For those who were worried that curiosity killed the cat so to speak, I appreciate your concern. On top of my investigation, I have also had to go through finals and work for a boss who didn't believe in life outside of work. So let's start where we left off. I had a feeling that this task was left for me to solve. it may sound stupid, but let me explain why. That night, after my last post, I had a dream that further solidified my need to solve the mystery. I tried to write all that I remembered down the morning after so here is what I wrote. 

April 4th, 2024
I had a strange dream last night, stranger than usual at least. I awoke in the woods, laying face down in the grass with someone looming over me. I heard their footsteps flee rapidly before I flipped over. I found myself just off the trail where the “incident” happened, on the trail laid a girl, bloodied and motionless. When I got up to approach her, she was quickly dragged into the parallel section of the woods. Seeing this I turned and ran into the section of woods I was in. When my legs gave out I found myself near an old supply shed, worn and long abandoned. Searching for cover, I tried the door, which luckily gave after a quick pull. There I found a trapdoor which emanated a blue hue through the cracks. The only thought on my mind, survival brought me to throw it open and climb down. I clattered down the ladder and right before my feet touched the ground, I was pulled backwards by my shirt. That’s where I woke up.
I have always trusted my gut and having a dream that vivid gave me a sense of courage I did not previously have. I know where to start my search now. I have decided my best course of action will be to record my findings on a tape recorder app. After I finish each entry it will be uploaded to a cloud that will ensure if anything happens to me, the story will get out. I am packing my backpack now with a flashlight, glow sticks to mark my trail, and a machete I was gifted by a local in Mexico. All of my recordings will be uploaded below and auto posted after 10 days. Wish me luck everyone, I’m going to need it.
Entry 1: I have started at the only place that makes sense, the trail. It is currently 1:45 PM and I have plenty of sun left in the sky. I just needed to find exactly where to start my journey into the woods. Strangely it was very easy to find. I recall one of the trees having a funky twist near the middle of the trunk. Probably just some two lovebirds trying to carve their name into the tree and realizing there were softer trees to carve into. Anyways hiking further into the woods I believe I can see the shape of the shed through the branches. I wish you guys could see how dense these trees are so you can understand my struggle.
Entry 2: I made it to the shed, but unfortunately the floor in here is concrete. This really sucks for me because I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. It’s identical on the outside but I just don’t understand. Maybe I’m just delusional, which in that case what a waste of time and energy. I’m going to head back home and just start packing for summer. Maybe it’ll be best if I just forget about all of this and leave it behind me. I am graduating after all. Wait hold on what is this?? there’s a button behind one of these shelves. I am going to press it, but idk how it would work because this floor is seamless. I’m just going to leave this recording so if anything does happen I don’t have to worry about holding the phone the whole time. Holy shit, the entire floor is lowering. It’s a fucking elevator.
Entry 3: Okay so I’ve been going down this elevator for like 30 seconds, how far down am I going?.. Oh wait hold on, Im stopped… There’s a metal door with a padlock. Ig since I have the machete there’s only one thing to do, break it. Im going to use the blunt side so I don’t ruin this thing, I like it too much. the lock clatters to the ground after 3 solid hits. Well ig there’s only one way to go now, there’s no button to get back up so I pray there’s another way up. The metal door creaks loudly. Fuck I regret this, It’s dark and I can tell it’s a big area because it’s so echoey in here. I’m currently praising my past self for thinking about the flashlight and glow sticks. I need to find out what in the hell this place is and most importantly, if there’s a damn light switch.
Entry 4: God this place is terrifying I’ve been walking around the sterile white halls of this place for like 10 minutes and have found nothing, no doors, no light switch. I feel like a rat in a maze. Also scratch what I said about being glad I packed glow sticks, because my stupid ass only brought like 20 of these things and I’m already down to 5. Also I feel like I’m not alone, every now and then I’ll turn a corner and the glow from the previous glow stick quickly vanishes. I feel like it might just be because the darkness seems to envelop everything like a blanket. But I have that feeling that I’m being followed. You know the one, where you know somethings wrong you just can’t pin point what it is. Oh shit no way, there’s light, I think there’s a door or something up ahead.
Entry 5: Holy shit… It’s a lab, and worse, there’s people strapped too tables, completely naked and unconscious. I know they are alive because each of them are hooked up with a million different cords, and one of those are plugged into a heart monitor. This place is huge, there has to be at least 50 people on these tables.
“Hey you, you’re not supposed to be in here” yelled a man adorned in a lab coat.
“What are you doing to these kids you sick fucks.” I yelled back at the man across the lab.
In a haste the scientist rushes towards a red button, setting off a loud alarm, turning the lights to a flashing red. With no exit behind me, I could only do one thing... Rush towards him. My training kicked in as I launched into a flurry of calculated strikes. My first hit connected, a right overhand clean under his eye. The doctor stumbled back, but I didn't give him a chance to recover. I pressed the attack, keeping him off balance with a relentless barrage of punches and kicks. He fought back ferociously, but I was one step ahead, anticipating his moves and countering with swift, efficient strikes. We wrestled, the room around us becoming a blur of pain and adrenaline. I used the environment to my advantage, improvising weapons from the scattered medical equipment and turning the empty tables on my opponent. Pinning him to the ground, I laid down a harsh barrage of final blows. His face was a bloody pulp, unrecognizable. But I didn’t walk away unscathed, somewhere in the tussle, the scientist buried a scalpel deep into my stomach. With my adrenaline wearing off, the pain overtook me, sending me into darkness as I fainted from the blood loss and adrenaline dump. I awoke with my arms and legs strapped to the cold metal operating table. Before I could try to struggle, a face overtook my field of vision.
“Quite a fight you put up, you turned poor Dr.Samson into a soup” the looming face said with a chuckle. “You are the first person to put the pieces together and for that I am thoroughly impressed Mr. Hayes”
“Who are you?!” I said fighting at my binds. “Let me go!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that Mr.Hayes. You have seen far too much, and I definitely can’t have you running around telling the world what you saw here. Although nobody would believe you.” “And to answer your other question, I’m surprised you don’t recognize me… really take a moment and look at me” He said pulling down his face mask.
“Dr.Blackwood?” I said as I looked back on my freshman year biology class.
“Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner!” He said in a maniac joy.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.
“Well Mr.Hayes, first I’m going to sew you up from your little tussle you had with my late assistant and then I will put you under and cut into that skull of yours and take out a small piece of what we call in the science world your hippocampus. Then I will draw from that all of the necessary memories to create the perfect clone of you.” He responded.
“Why? Why would you need a clone of any of us. Why can’t you just clone someone willing to be apart of this?” I asked
“Because that’s no fun Mr.Hayes, the hunt excites me. Actually you’re lucky I didn’t get you the first night. Unfortunately my creation had a little bit of a malfunction and formed a wee bit of an attachment to you. I’m sure you remember the ruckus outside your window? Anyways I digress, I do this because everyone of you lowly students will go onto do mediocre jobs where you waste away at a desk. I must also add that with having a clone of you under my control, I can do anything and get away with clean hands. My plan with you originally was to have you go into the admissions office and steal every last cent all for me. On top of that I like the power, because one day I will have a clone of every student on this campus and eventually I will cause a revolt against our comedy of a government. Who will stop me, when I won’t even be on the front lines?” Dr.Blackwood explained.
“I will” I said freeing my last hand from the binds.
What he didn’t realize is that with all of this monologue and the questions I had been feeding him, I was slowly loosening my binds with each wiggle and movement in retaliation.
Lurching forward I grab onto his collar, pulling him into a vicious headbutt. The impact sent Dr. Blackwood reeling backward, his grip on consciousness loosening as he staggered. Seizing the moment, I lunged off the table, adrenaline coursing through my veins despite the searing pain in my abdomen. With a swift motion, I grabbed a nearby surgical instrument, holding it in a defensive stance as I faced my adversary. Dr. Blackwood, recovering from the blow, snarled with rage, his once calm demeanor now replaced by a feral intensity. The room seemed to shrink around us, the tension thickening with each passing second. This was my chance to stop Blackwood's twisted plans. As he lunged forward, I met his attack head-on, the clang of metal reverberating through the room. Blow after blow, we fought with an intensity born of desperation and determination. Despite my injuries, I refused to yield, driven by a fire burnt under me to protect myself and others from Blackwood's actions . In a final, swift move, I delivered a powerful front kick, sending Blackwood crashing to the ground. The room fell silent, the echoes of our struggle fading into the darkness. Coughing he sat in the corner laughing with blood spilling down his face. “You know that it’s too late to save any of these one lying on the tables. I would’ve released you, you know that right? I would’ve simply taken your memory from today out of your brain and leaving you in your bed to wake up thinking you had a fun night” he said with final resolve as he watched me grab the scalpel from the ground taking slow steps near him.
Looking down over him, It was my turn to laugh. Kneeling down to eye level with him I grabbed him by his hair and delivered a final message to him “Fuck you and your little science experiment” as I sliced deep into his throat watching the life fade from his eyes.
I eventually found an exit door, which lead me to a storm drain deep in the woods far from my campus. It took me 2 hours to limp my way onto a main road and flag down a passing car. Pulling over I was rushed to the hospital and later interrogated by some men in suits, my guess is CIA. Here I am now, writing my final entrance. I think I heard them say something about trying a new medical process on me to help me heal quicker

Hello! I have got a PhD position at the Slovak Academy of Science (SAS). The salary is about 1100 euros/month. Me and my wife are planning to move there. In this regard, I need some information regarding the program and living there.

1. SAS provides a salary of about 1100 euros/month. How's that salary for two people?
   
2. Do they provide any accommodation? During the interview, the supervisor said they would provide accommodation which may cost 200-300 euros (I didn't understand exactly due to nervousness). However, on the internet, I didn't get much info about it. Could you please give me an idea about that? For example: room quality, rent, utilities, etc. My program university will be Comenius University.
   
3. What are the career prospects after completing PhD from there? I will be working on solar cells (material science).
   

Thank you very much for your time.

I think there’s something off about my campus
Hey everyone, I’m typing this on my phone so I apologize if there is weird formatting. Anyways, to get to the point, there’s something really off with some people on my campus. I have come seeking answers.I noticed it first walking home from my 7pm class last Wednesday.
To set the scene, most of the campus is tucked back into the woods a little, and my 7pm class is in the farthest building from the parking lot (further into the woods). I get out from that 7pm class around 9pm, so on cloudy nights like last Wednesday, the only lights on that long sidewalk are the lights radiating from the other buildings. Usually, there’s roughly 30 feet where it’s pitch black because the foliage is pretty dense. I usually walk back to my apartment with some classmates that live in the same complex as me, but I told them to go ahead of me while I finished the rest of the project.
After packing my laptop away, I started heading back home. It was roughly 9:30 at this point, and my brain was slowly shutting down preparing for the deep sleep that has yet to come.Walking down the sidewalk, I heard somebody not too far into the woods laughing like they’ve just heard the funniest joke ever. I immediately thought, “probably some Freshman walking the trails with their friends smoking weed”. Chuckling to myself, I put in my AirPods and picked a playlist for my journey back home.
When I looked up from my phone, there was the silhouette of somebody walking towards me. I have no idea how I missed them before, but honestly, it’s very possible they were just in a spot where the light wasn’t quite reaching them. A little unnerved, I shifted over to the left side of the sidewalk.
(Now I’m usually fine walking alone at night; I’m a 6’2 man who’s dabbled in the world of MMA. But something about this person gave me a primal feeling of unrest.)
When they shifted over to the left mirroring me, I felt my blood run cold. But alas, I had to keep walking because this was my only way back home. As I neared closer to the figure, I almost laughed at myself when I realized it was just some harmless girl walking towards the Murphy building. If anything, I’m the intimidating one to her.
This is where it really gets weird. She stopped as I was passing her and turned to me. Thinking she needed to ask me something, I took an AirPod out and asked “what’s up?”. After staring at me for an uncomfortable amount of time, she opened her mouth, and I kid you not, mimicked the laugh I heard moments before perfectly. Before I could chalk it up to it just being her in the trails earlier, I noticed something. Her mouth wasn’t moving at all. If I had left my AirPods in, it would just look like she was just opening her mouth and staring at me. She then shifted into a deep raspy laugh. She did all of this without moving her mouth at all; I couldn’t even see her throat moving as you would expect if someone was laughing. It was almost like she was some fucked up human-shaped gramophone. The feeling of absolute horror that came over me is something I’ve only experienced in my imagination. Before I could think to do anything next, My body began to run off some sort of primal instinct. With my legs burning, it took me about 10 minutes to get all the way back to my apartment and lock myself in relative safety.
I’m coming on here now to ask if anybody knows what I experienced? I have been hearing that same laughter outside my window every night since that night, I am too terrified to sleep well and have refused to go to any of my classes. Please I just want answers, I don’t want to keep living in fear.
Part 2:
Hey everyone, I’ve gotten some DMs telling me what it may be. I’ve heard everything from banshee to skinwalker. After further research I pray to god it was neither of them. I’m praying it was just some girl with a speaker playing some sort of cruel joke. I mean yes there are people who don’t like me on campus, I’ve made some enemies over the past 4 years. But, I just don’t understand what could’ve brought it to this point. I had to stop hiding in fear and go to my classes before my grades plummet, I’m almost done with my degree and only have a few more weeks. If I let some sort of stupid prank ruin my career, It would be everything I swore against to my parents.
A lot of you guys in the DMs were also asking what college I go to and what my name is. First I want to say sorry for not providing that information in the first post, I’m sure you can understand where my head was at typing that. So let me introduce myself, my name is Nick and In order to keep my privacy, I will only provide that I go to a midwest university.
I’m sure you may be wondering, “so did it just stop?”. I would love to say yes, but really things have just gotten weirder. Though, I am pleased to say that there is no longer laughing out my window every night.
Ever since that night, I’ve been noticing more things off with the people on campus. Now you may just think it’s paranoia, but just be patient and listen.
Yesterday, I decided to muster up all of my courage and go to class. Luckily my first class is at 10AM, when the sun is well in the sky, so walking across campus seemed much less threatening. When I sat down in my first class, I noticed something off with the girl that sits in front of me. Usually she’s chatty and excited to be in class, but today she just stared blankly ahead. I tried to say good morning and ask about her weekend, as we do every Monday, but she continued to have that blank stare. She did turn her head towards be, but her eyes read “lights on, but nobody is home”.
Thinking to myself, she may just be hungover, or going through the bout of college student depression. I decided to shrug it off and turn to the front of the class and get my notes ready. But the moment I turned around, I could feel it. Her eyes burrowing deep into the back of my head. When I flipped around to see if I was just being irrational, I quickly learned I wasn’t. Her eyes went from the blank glare, to the most enthusiastic face I’ve seen on her. It was horrible, it almost seemed like she was trying so hard to pretend she was thrilled to be in class and to speak to me. It was inhuman.
I’ve been on the internet long enough to catch on to the term “Uncanny valley”, and what I witnessed In my first hour gives me that same gut feeling I got when I saw that girl last Wednesday.
I was right to be uncomfortable though, I texted her after class to make sure she was doing alright. But her response only reignited the flames of deep fear burning in my soul.
I’ll copy and paste the messages here:
Me: Hey Is everything good? You seemed off in class today.
Steph SCI 101: Uh yeah, I’m fine. but I was not in class today, I’m severely hungover from Tanner’s party last night.
Me: Haha, good one.
Steph SCI 101: No I’m so Fr, are you okay?
Steph SCI 101: Are you trying to fuck with me or something?
Me: Nevermind, I’m sorry to bother you.
(End Of Texts)
Okay so I’m sure that this gives you all the same feeling of dread that it gave me but I’m sure scaled down a bit. This is where I have started to doubt that it’s a prank, because me and Stephanie are cool. There’s no level of hate for either of us, and even if it was some joke, we don’t know each other on that type of level.
Not only did this seem to happen in my first class, but in between classes while I was walking across campus as well. I walk past hundreds of faces in my many treks across campus, and I swear to you, at least 1/4th of the people I walked past had that same dead stare look. And the way they walked, god I hate even thinking of it. It was like they were an alien trying out their new body suits for the first time. The steps and the bends of their legs just seem so meticulous, dramaticized, and puppeteered.
I’m going to try to investigate further, because at this point my fear for my life is more of a reason to try and figure out what it is so I can try to stop it.
I’m no hero, and I’m sure as hell nothing special, but If I can know what to expect for another encounter, maybe I can avoid meeting the demise I have imagined.
Part 3

First off I would like to apologize for my 20-day hiatus. For those who were worried that curiosity killed the cat so to speak, I appreciate your concern. On top of my investigation, I have also had to go through finals and work for a boss who didn't believe in life outside of work. So let's start where we left off. I had a feeling that this task was left for me to solve. it may sound stupid, but let me explain why. That night, after my last post, I had a dream that further solidified my need to solve the mystery. I tried to write all that I remembered down the morning after so here is what I wrote. 

April 4th, 2024
I had a strange dream last night, stranger than usual at least. I awoke in the woods, laying face down in the grass with someone looming over me. I heard their footsteps flee rapidly before I flipped over. I found myself just off the trail where the “incident” happened, on the trail laid a girl, bloodied and motionless. When I got up to approach her, she was quickly dragged into the parallel section of the woods. Seeing this I turned and ran into the section of woods I was in. When my legs gave out I found myself near an old supply shed, worn and long abandoned. Searching for cover, I tried the door, which luckily gave after a quick pull. There I found a trapdoor which emanated a blue hue through the cracks. The only thought on my mind, survival brought me to throw it open and climb down. I clattered down the ladder and right before my feet touched the ground, I was pulled backwards by my shirt. That’s where I woke up.
I have always trusted my gut and having a dream that vivid gave me a sense of courage I did not previously have. I know where to start my search now. I have decided my best course of action will be to record my findings on a tape recorder app. After I finish each entry it will be uploaded to a cloud that will ensure if anything happens to me, the story will get out. I am packing my backpack now with a flashlight, glow sticks to mark my trail, and a machete I was gifted by a local in Mexico. All of my recordings will be uploaded below and auto posted after 10 days. Wish me luck everyone, I’m going to need it.
Entry 1: I have started at the only place that makes sense, the trail. It is currently 1:45 PM and I have plenty of sun left in the sky. I just needed to find exactly where to start my journey into the woods. Strangely it was very easy to find. I recall one of the trees having a funky twist near the middle of the trunk. Probably just some two lovebirds trying to carve their name into the tree and realizing there were softer trees to carve into. Anyways hiking further into the woods I believe I can see the shape of the shed through the branches. I wish you guys could see how dense these trees are so you can understand my struggle.
Entry 2: I made it to the shed, but unfortunately the floor in here is concrete. This really sucks for me because I have absolutely no idea where to go from here. It’s identical on the outside but I just don’t understand. Maybe I’m just delusional, which in that case what a waste of time and energy. I’m going to head back home and just start packing for summer. Maybe it’ll be best if I just forget about all of this and leave it behind me. I am graduating after all. Wait hold on what is this?? there’s a button behind one of these shelves. I am going to press it, but idk how it would work because this floor is seamless. I’m just going to leave this recording so if anything does happen I don’t have to worry about holding the phone the whole time. Holy shit, the entire floor is lowering. It’s a fucking elevator.
Entry 3: Okay so I’ve been going down this elevator for like 30 seconds, how far down am I going?.. Oh wait hold on, Im stopped… There’s a metal door with a padlock. Ig since I have the machete there’s only one thing to do, break it. Im going to use the blunt side so I don’t ruin this thing, I like it too much. the lock clatters to the ground after 3 solid hits. Well ig there’s only one way to go now, there’s no button to get back up so I pray there’s another way up. The metal door creaks loudly. Fuck I regret this, It’s dark and I can tell it’s a big area because it’s so echoey in here. I’m currently praising my past self for thinking about the flashlight and glow sticks. I need to find out what in the hell this place is and most importantly, if there’s a damn light switch.
Entry 4: God this place is terrifying I’ve been walking around the sterile white halls of this place for like 10 minutes and have found nothing, no doors, no light switch. I feel like a rat in a maze. Also scratch what I said about being glad I packed glow sticks, because my stupid ass only brought like 20 of these things and I’m already down to 5. Also I feel like I’m not alone, every now and then I’ll turn a corner and the glow from the previous glow stick quickly vanishes. I feel like it might just be because the darkness seems to envelop everything like a blanket. But I have that feeling that I’m being followed. You know the one, where you know somethings wrong you just can’t pin point what it is. Oh shit no way, there’s light, I think there’s a door or something up ahead.
Entry 5: Holy shit… It’s a lab, and worse, there’s people strapped too tables, completely naked and unconscious. I know they are alive because each of them are hooked up with a million different cords, and one of those are plugged into a heart monitor. This place is huge, there has to be at least 50 people on these tables.
“Hey you, you’re not supposed to be in here” yelled a man adorned in a lab coat.
“What are you doing to these kids you sick fucks.” I yelled back at the man across the lab.
In a haste the scientist rushes towards a red button, setting off a loud alarm, turning the lights to a flashing red. With no exit behind me, I could only do one thing... Rush towards him. My training kicked in as I launched into a flurry of calculated strikes. My first hit connected, a right overhand clean under his eye. The doctor stumbled back, but I didn't give him a chance to recover. I pressed the attack, keeping him off balance with a relentless barrage of punches and kicks. He fought back ferociously, but I was one step ahead, anticipating his moves and countering with swift, efficient strikes. We wrestled, the room around us becoming a blur of pain and adrenaline. I used the environment to my advantage, improvising weapons from the scattered medical equipment and turning the empty tables on my opponent. Pinning him to the ground, I laid down a harsh barrage of final blows. His face was a bloody pulp, unrecognizable. But I didn’t walk away unscathed, somewhere in the tussle, the scientist buried a scalpel deep into my stomach. With my adrenaline wearing off, the pain overtook me, sending me into darkness as I fainted from the blood loss and adrenaline dump. I awoke with my arms and legs strapped to the cold metal operating table. Before I could try to struggle, a face overtook my field of vision.
“Quite a fight you put up, you turned poor Dr.Samson into a soup” the looming face said with a chuckle. “You are the first person to put the pieces together and for that I am thoroughly impressed Mr. Hayes”
“Who are you?!” I said fighting at my binds. “Let me go!”
“I’m afraid I can’t do that Mr.Hayes. You have seen far too much, and I definitely can’t have you running around telling the world what you saw here. Although nobody would believe you.” “And to answer your other question, I’m surprised you don’t recognize me… really take a moment and look at me” He said pulling down his face mask.
“Dr.Blackwood?” I said as I looked back on my freshman year biology class.
“Ding ding ding ding. We have a winner!” He said in a maniac joy.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.
“Well Mr.Hayes, first I’m going to sew you up from your little tussle you had with my late assistant and then I will put you under and cut into that skull of yours and take out a small piece of what we call in the science world your hippocampus. Then I will draw from that all of the necessary memories to create the perfect clone of you.” He responded.
“Why? Why would you need a clone of any of us. Why can’t you just clone someone willing to be apart of this?” I asked
“Because that’s no fun Mr.Hayes, the hunt excites me. Actually you’re lucky I didn’t get you the first night. Unfortunately my creation had a little bit of a malfunction and formed a wee bit of an attachment to you. I’m sure you remember the ruckus outside your window? Anyways I digress, I do this because everyone of you lowly students will go onto do mediocre jobs where you waste away at a desk. I must also add that with having a clone of you under my control, I can do anything and get away with clean hands. My plan with you originally was to have you go into the admissions office and steal every last cent all for me. On top of that I like the power, because one day I will have a clone of every student on this campus and eventually I will cause a revolt against our comedy of a government. Who will stop me, when I won’t even be on the front lines?” Dr.Blackwood explained.
“I will” I said freeing my last hand from the binds.
What he didn’t realize is that with all of this monologue and the questions I had been feeding him, I was slowly loosening my binds with each wiggle and movement in retaliation.
Lurching forward I grab onto his collar, pulling him into a vicious headbutt. The impact sent Dr. Blackwood reeling backward, his grip on consciousness loosening as he staggered. Seizing the moment, I lunged off the table, adrenaline coursing through my veins despite the searing pain in my abdomen. With a swift motion, I grabbed a nearby surgical instrument, holding it in a defensive stance as I faced my adversary. Dr. Blackwood, recovering from the blow, snarled with rage, his once calm demeanor now replaced by a feral intensity. The room seemed to shrink around us, the tension thickening with each passing second. This was my chance to stop Blackwood's twisted plans. As he lunged forward, I met his attack head-on, the clang of metal reverberating through the room. Blow after blow, we fought with an intensity born of desperation and determination. Despite my injuries, I refused to yield, driven by a fire burnt under me to protect myself and others from Blackwood's actions . In a final, swift move, I delivered a powerful front kick, sending Blackwood crashing to the ground. The room fell silent, the echoes of our struggle fading into the darkness. Coughing he sat in the corner laughing with blood spilling down his face. “You know that it’s too late to save any of these one lying on the tables. I would’ve released you, you know that right? I would’ve simply taken your memory from today out of your brain and leaving you in your bed to wake up thinking you had a fun night” he said with final resolve as he watched me grab the scalpel from the ground taking slow steps near him.
Looking down over him, It was my turn to laugh. Kneeling down to eye level with him I grabbed him by his hair and delivered a final message to him “Fuck you and your little science experiment” as I sliced deep into his throat watching the life fade from his eyes.
I eventually found an exit door, which lead me to a storm drain deep in the woods far from my campus. It took me 2 hours to limp my way onto a main road and flag down a passing car. Pulling over I was rushed to the hospital and later interrogated by some men in suits, my guess is CIA. Here I am now, writing my final entrance. I think I heard them say something about trying a new medical process on me to help me heal quicker

I (25M) have known my best friend (25F) for about 8 years. We’ve been extremely close after studying abroad together and have seen each other go through many relationships. This kinda started when we went travelling together again after her breakup with a long term partner where she treated me poorly on holiday (ignored me at times, acted cold etc) and was being slightly reckless with her safety with the other people on our tour (telling them she gets drunk easily). Two things that stuck with me from that trip were her saying “you know nothing about heartbreak” and “well when you’re here you’re obligated to protect me”.
When we returned I kinda kept my distance and wasn’t as communicative and this resulted in her calling me attractive and her soulmate when I joined a Facebook call.
That kinda stuck with me and I guess I slightly caught feelings rather than feeling like a friend. We were hanging out and I bought her valentines flowers. We went running together for a bit and things were going ok until she kinda became very flakey on plans with everyone. Rather than being available to hang with our group or even one on one she will say she’s busy for the next two weeks/ month and can’t schedule us in. But she’ll be out with genuinely random people going to events? She just came back from Canada and she said she can’t see us for a month because she fully booked? Like we work in the same industry but different divisions and she always saying she’s bored on weekends yet is fully booked?
We had a set day to go running once where we agreed to go, and the previous night I had a farewell party for an old friend which she knew I was leaving early for to meet with her tomorrow but when I asked her to confirm whether we were going she took 8 hours to respond and told me she can’t. I ended up seeing her the next day where I just didn’t speak to her for a week which resulted in her driving to my house to explain what happened which ended up being personals family issues. The problem is she’s done this before two years ago where she flaked plans with me to go on a date and I ended up seeing her out only for her to claim she double booked. Usually she’d just tell me flat out what’s going on but she’s very secretive now and sure I’m not entitled to know but if it’s affecting plans surely I’ve known her long enough for her to be straight up and tell me?
Recently she’s being going on a lot of holidays but she seems to be promising certain friends to go with them on holiday together only to go with someone else or by herself. For example we have a mutual friend who wanted to visit Korea and she is half Korean and had been there numerous times had said “she’s not interested” only for her today to say that she’s now thinking of going for 2 months with another friend? I ended up just saying “oh I thought (friend) wanted to go this year” only for her to say “you guys can come too!” I have work obligations so I’m indifferent but it seems like I’m not the only one getting this treatment?
She just seems so fake and not the person who I was friends with before and I feel like every conversation is me just having to guess what she says is genuine and what isn’t? I just can’t tell if I’m ruining the friendship by expecting too much from someone. Or whether I’m being treated poorly?
tl:dr I can’t tell if I’m ruining my friendship with my friend of eight years for not being consistent or whether I am genuinely being treated poorly.

I (27F) last last winter (2022) wrote a long letter to my mom. I poured my heart into it, I cried the whole time writing it. I showed it to my husband to make sure I wasn’t being too mean in my writing towards my mom. I showed it to my stepsister to again make sure it was okay and made sense and to get emotional support (I’m Mexican and I didn’t want to push too far because i understand how deep generational trauma is and the parent child dynamic) I even showed it to my stepdad who immediately called me apologizing for the things I wrote in the letter (which I will get into in a moment) and was telling me about how he will divorce her (I didn’t want that and made me feel shitty) and explained why some scenarios ended up the way they did. Everyone encouraged me to send it. I was so confident that my mom was going to read it and drive over ? Write back? Call me. Something ! So I mailed it. (I mailed it because I instantly cry every time I try talking to her in person about not surface level things, it would of been easier getting words out especially when having to translate to Spanish)
In the letter I wrote about:
-Feeling emotionally neglected -the name calling my mom would do (calling me “retarded” and mimicking noises and movements of people with disability towards me among other things -My uncle being a pedo and scaring me into not saying anything to them, i later said something to a friend in HS who went to the counselor who called the police and I made up a person to protect my uncle, I was then grounded for over a year. -the carpet in my bedroom always being wet when it rained which is a lot where I live ruining my feet with a fungal infection that was just ignored (i understand it was a money issue but the hurt remains) -being blamed for high utility bills n being expensive for needing braces -my boyfriend in high school being suicidal when I would try to break up with him and hurting that I couldn’t go to them for help -saying that I tried to hit her to my step dad when I moved out of the way of her too quickly and making a scene about it leaving me confused -understanding that i understand she probably had a rough childhood and that all I wanted was a normal mother daughter relationship
That’s pretty much the gist among a bunch of other little things that really hurt me and I explained that it was hard to form a relationship with her in my adulthood and trust her with my kids until we addressed these things. I wanted to be acknowledged. Not even an apology really. But a conversation. I wanted to understand her more because I literally don’t know anything about her. We would never talk unless it was to eat dinner or clean something. I was always in my room during that time.
I waited a few weeks, my stepsister would visit them here and there and tell me how my mom appears sad? And maybe she needed more time.
A few months pass by I see my mom smiling in Hawaii having a good time.
At this point I’m in therapy because I’m losing hair from the stress of this and severely depressed.
Fall comes around and I finally go to visit with the encouragement of my husband, stepsister and stepdad. She acts like I’m not even there. This makes me angry. At one point my mom goes outside to smoke a cigarette im at the table with everyone and I start just talking about the hurts again, I say my mom is a narcissistic. My mom comes back inside. And for an hour. I’m complaining and she’s in the living room a few feet away saying absolutely nothing.
I leave feeling so weird. So lonely? We are now I’m 2024. I don’t have a relationship with her or my step dad really. I had to block her because she would go to Hawaii again and just living her life having a great time I was trying not to be bitter. Or angry. My step sister and step dad eventually started to question how legitimate my statements were it was so painful being misunderstood. Being told that that’s just the mom that I have. Being told that things were maybe my fault for having a problem with everything (I would always speak up when my parents would be racist and things)
I few months ago I did send her a text as a final effort. I asked why she never responded. If she wants to just leave this alone that’s okay and I will move on. And she told me that all that was on the letter were complaints. And told me about how when I was 20 I made a comment on a Facebook post about bad parenting and how everyone saw. About how embarrassed she was when people reached out to her. About how I wrote that I felt like I was in a dark environment. I didn’t know everyone saw it. I apologized for that. She told me to come over to talk because she personally has some complains about me. But she never acknowledged me. I didn’t want to go, to feel yelled at and again taken back to being a child getting yelled at.
I’m currently feeling grief. Mistrust to my family. Lonely. Jealous? About how my other siblings seem to be having a better time. How do I move on from feeling misunderstood. I feel like everyone is okay and I’m abandoned. I feel guilt for pulling my small family away from them from how hurt I am. Most times I’m okay until I see my stepsister at a family gathering that I’m never invited to. And then I’m back again to being a lonely child.

Democrats, Republicans, corruption, guns, abortion, healthcare, violence, racism, criminality, lack of respect... I can't think of a single problem/issue that has improved over the years, in fact they only seem to get worse.
Why doesn't anyone ever mention the quality of the people we create? The average American has a poor education yet arrogantly thinks he knows everything. Violence is funny for a lot of Americans and empathy seems to be nonexistent. Morals are a joke. Money seems to be all anybody cares about.
Here is my favorite example of how bad American people have become. When I was in Madrid, Spain and their team just won their equivalent of our superbowl, everybody just headed to the center of the city. Within an hour there were thousands and by midnight probably 100,000 people. Most were drinking, many had huge flares, bottles of whiskey and wine were shared by all ages. This went on all night until the team arrived and pretty much the rest of that night too. So much fun. Not one fight. Don't remember seeing cops except to escort the team bus. What a party!
In America it would be 2 days later for a few hours in the middle of the day with cops ready to beat you down. No booze. No fun. Why? Because if we tried to let people just have their fun it would devolve into murder, robbery, rape... The police would get blamed then lie, politicians would blame then lie...
Are we doomed?

Hi guys :) I have something cool to show you.
From my studies, mostly introspective, I believe I have come across a great discovery: that the ancient primordial language of man is METAPHOR (and possibly also for animals as well; this might be a bridge). In other words, pictures. But there is a catch: metaphors are not mere pictures. If I say "God is the sun" I am not saying that God is literally a sun.
How I came about this discovery: if you try really really hard to express yourself, to come up with exactly the right sentence -- or even exactly the right WORD, you hit a massive wall. The closer you come to perfection, the more tantalizingly far away becomes the prize. You think you've found exactly the right word to describe something, or to describe your feelings but nothing quite fits. You get really close. But then you look in closer and see if the word truly resonates with what you want to say, and it is amiss. It is a fun game to play, in a way.
For me, when I hit this massive wall, it is very frustrating. I cannot truly capture what I mean and feel. But then a vista opens up, the walls disintegrate into light dust. A picture appears to me. An image. A symbol, if you will. AND this picture/metaphor captures what I wanted to say, what I really mean, PERFECTLY. And that is what shocks me, that anything can be perfect. But this is.
So my hypothesis is: preverbal metaphors are translated into words. We are generally not aware of this process. That's why it may require introspection. In other words, there is meaning, which is invisible and empty (or so it seems) which then, when we want to speak or write or make it materialize, we convert into words. Like one energy being translated into another. This translation is not perfect. This invisible energy is actually the metaphor.
Metaphors, such as "God is the sun", trap an enormous amount of meaning into them. People say "A picture is worth a million words." But this is even better -- metaphors trap a trillion words within them. This metaphor can be unpackaged, but the resulting words will never fully reflect its original state.
Here's some dumb examples:
"There is electricity all over my body" (I try to find the word to describe what I am feeling. I try "anxiety", "nervous", "scared", "worried", "tense". None of them fits. It is very frustrating. Perhaps I am a perfectionist. But, then, like I said perfection can actually be achieved. The image comes to: my body with electricity zigzagging through my whole body. This fits the feeling exactly, it is a perfect fit. Just the right resonance.)
I had another example but I forget it 🙁 My memory is very bad. (If I think of it I will put it in a comment.) What I mean by "dumb" examples isn't really that they're dumb, but just that's it's hard to find an example that isn't super personal and embarrassing but not too boring either so that the example loses all vividness entirely.
A softer version of my hypothesis: This metaphor stuff is only true of me. But I doubt that. It is possible that I am more visual than most, because I am deaf. These days, since this discovery, I think of metaphors as my natural language, my mother tongue. It is beautiful. My second language is writing (I don't know why). And my third language, quite dusty, is talking.
What about you? Do you share this experience too? Are metaphors your primordial harbingers of meaning? (Do you believe in the preverbal? And if so, what is its nature?) Thank you so much! I would love to hear your experiences.
Note: in my other posts I said I wasn't going to reply to comments, but I change my mind. I will definitely reply to your comments. I don't have much to say/post anymore, so I have time to reply now.

Hello, Everyone.
I’ve built out what seems to be, yet another MVP, for me and another product to others.
Anyone that spends time making a product typically ends up having grandiose ideas relevant to that product but of course you would right? Who wouldn’t? It’s likely a product of your creativity, imagination, ingenuity and/or foresight. The grandiosity of your imagination making out the product to be all that it can be in its alpha form, takes away from what the product could be now: leaving it unfinished; shelved and or ‘too great to be released in a crude state.”
We as entrepreneurs hold our original products, concepts and ideas near to our hearts. Sometime forgetting to fail fast and remain nimble.
This all leads to you (or me anyway, for that matter) being trapped in a never ending hopeless spiral of iteration — chasing perfection.
Every product that has become successful and a part of the mainstream market, started with: a prototype, then a beta, thus, finally an alpha product. They may have launched their product years ago in an alpha state and nowadays, they just iterate upon it.
You know perfection doesn’t exist, yet, you still want to present the most polished product possible to your perspective customers. After all, you do want them to purchase from you… not run for the hills.
Well, I’m asking if you gracious people would be kind enough to give me some advice about my product.
Paive
It’s an MVP. There are some articles missing and all functionality is relatively limited.
Prior to me stating what my companies goal is and what we do, could you help me identify what’s missing — based upon where we are now.
How can we improve? Design, technology, user guides, descriptive copy that educates the user on our value proposition and purpose, SEO; you name it, I’m all eyes.👀 Hoping that you can help me identify an area of improvement.
I’m being intentionally vague about what we do because I’d like to know from your perspective what you think you’re getting from us.
I’d also like to note that when you attempt sign up and you generate passkeys, Electryt key files will automatically downloaded; there’s nothing malicious inside but if you don’t intend to become a user I figured you’d like to know that.
Ask any question you can think of and I’ll do my best to answer.
Thank you everyone, in advance, for your time.

I seem to be at an impasse and I just can't seem to figure out this game. I just came from finishing Fallout3 to which I had a great time. I hopped into FNV after recommendations from the Fallout community, but so far it's gone.. not well and I'm really close to just giving up.
1) The food doesn't heal and wears off in seconds. The books of various topics also expires in seconds. Sleep and stimpacks can't be the only way to heal up in the midst of a gunfight, not to mention that Stimpacks are rare! I've been looking in all the usual places, med kit boxes, random containers, dead people, etc...
2) The guns suck! All of them. Even if fixed to 100%! I have a variety of weapons and have even modded a few, but I can't seem to kill anyone or anything with any semblance of regularity even with using VATS. If I don't get that first headshot off on a crit (with or without VATS), I'm going to die. If there's more than one person I'm battling, I'm going to die. I even have the DLCs and supposedly start off with good guns but not that I can tell thanks to the amount of times I've had to reload.
3) The Karma system seems to be completely screwed up. Why am I getting bad karma for stealing from .... the powder gangers? The same a**holes that just tried to blow me up with dynamite. I don't give two sticks about how the powder gangers think of me, I thought I was supposed to destroy them after what they tried in Goodsprings?
4) I can't go ANYWHERE outside of Goodsprings without getting owned by the wildlife! Radscorpions, bloatflies, more scorpions, a couple of centaurs, cazadores, raiders, viper clan thugs, powder gangers, etc. just seem to walk all over me.
5) Everything wants level 50! I can't pick this lock without 50 lockpick. Can't hack that terminal without level 50, can't fart without being level 50, oh but I can die a lot at level 1.
6) The bad-guy-detector in the HUD (the lines that show the cardinal direction and whether or not a particular entity is hostile) is laughably narrow in some cases and extends to ridiculous lengths in others. Using the dry lakebed as an example, I saw three scorpions that didn't even register in the HUD, meanwhile the HUD will show me a neutral party that's two miles away that I don't even have line of sight to. At least with FO3, the red dots were bad guys, the green dots were good guys, and it was fairly consistent 1/4 mi radius from the player's position.
I really need some guidance. I want to get to the story but I can't even exist without something taking a chunk out of me. I've already rebuilt my character twice, do I need to do it again? Are there any guides available that are trusted that can at least get me buffed up enough to even consider going to NV?
Steam says I've played for 12 hours, there's at least two character recreations, and countless reload-from-saves due to random encounters going generally poorly. 12hrs into Fallout3 and I already had a pretty effective arsenal up and was up to at least level 8 or 9.
Preferred playstyle: Sniper, not that I can find a sniper rifle to save my life. Close quarters combat even with the caravan shotgun seems to be more miss than hit even at point blank range and CQC with the grenade launcher (see the Powdergangers jail shootouts) really just seems to be adept at killing me and me only.
My current stats: Level 6
Skills: Barter 15 Energy Weapons 22 Explosives 22 Guns 47 Lockpick 37 Medicine 25 Melee Weapons 21 Repair 45 Science 30 Sneak 40 Speech 35 Survival 15 Unarmed 15
SPECIAL: Strength 5 Perception 6 Endurance 4 Charisma 1 Intelligence 9 Agility 8 Luck 9
Perks: Built To Destroy Educated Run 'n Gun Small Frame Swift Learner
Suggestions, tips, guidance is appreciated! Thank you.