99 cute things to say to your boyfriend

I (22 F) recently have been having a really hard time feeling enjoyment in my life when things come up, my bf of 3 almost 4 years (28 M) lives in his own house about 5 hours away. He allowed his parents to move into his house about 9-10 years ago and they have refused to move out, his mother hates my guts and we were only able to live together for about 8 months before the mental and verbal abuse from her because to much for me to handle so I left. Before I get into my rant just know he is actively trying to get his parents to leave, he has offered them money to help afford a house (they did buy a house in the Provence they moved from without letting my bf know and the reason they left that Provence in the first place was because his moms family was extremely toxic and she went through a lot she didn’t deserve) that being said they (I say “they” when it’s really just his mom, not so much his dad) have been purposely making his life a living hell and refusing any help and his request to move out. He even found them a perfect rental 5 minutes down the road and they did nothing but tare it apart verbally and get mad at him. It’s a very very long story but we’re actively working through it as best as we can, the law is most likely going to be involved.
Anyway… Lately I have been finding it very hard to feel happy when things happen. Through my work my manager offered me an amazing position where it lets me travel around my Provence to help animals in need. Obviously I shared this with my bf but all I could think about the whole time was how much it’s going to suck ti have the leave this job to move back in with him when/if his parents decide to leave. His job doesn’t really allow him to move unless it to major cities as he works for a railroad company and their ports are usually in main/vital city locations. Where he lives my job isn’t available as they have a voulenteer ran rescues so my rescue wouldn’t be able to be placed there and there is also one about two hours away.
Not only has getting this job opportunity felt bitter sweet but our 4 year anniversary of coming up this August. This relationship has been my longest, the last couple of anniversary’s I’ve been living in my parents basement and we don’t really get to celebrate these things much as he can only come visit once a month. I can’t visit him as his mom still hates me and after being diagnosed with BPD & PTSD from the mental abuse and trauma. That being said, we have worked trough a lot together, both me and my bf have seen counseling and therapy and we’re working through it. We’ve found out she is extremely narcissistic so after finding that out it’s been easier to deal with things she says. He is the one who mainly deals with everything about her and his mental health has also started deteriorating because of this. He’s started to gain weight (despite going to the gym and eating healthy) and he’s just always frustrated.
Due to how he’s feeling it makes watching him leave that much harder. He leaves and he always gets so angry and upset on his drive home because he just wants nothing but to have me going back with him. I’ve agreed once his parents are out that I will move back in (despite not having a job for me where he lives) but after receiving the new job opportunity I just felt immediate dread cause I have no idea how long it will be before I have to leave. I understand this may sound really dumb but it’s my decision to move back in with him and we’ve talked about me maybe going back to school to upgrade some things and figure it out as it comes.
It’s getting so heart breaking to watch him leave and see how upset he is. It’s starting to really bug me that things that should be exciting and happy are just becoming neutral and sad. I’ve started to see my PTSD symptoms coming back and I think this may be contributing to how I’m feeling. But I just want to know if it’s common to feel this way? I just want to celebrate things with him, I want to walk in the door and just get excited and tell him about things but he’s not here. Sometimes it feels like I’m in a better relationship with my phone than with my bf. Does anyone have any coping mechanisms they use to help them when this feeling comes? I do yoga, I do breathing exercises, lately I’ve been feeling really down so I’ve been slacking on my self care and workouts.
Any help or suggestions would be great. Thank you for your time.

Gravediggers. Corpse Grinders. Skull Takers. Every unit that shared his profession had a name that was like that. As Corporal Brandy floated silently, his body suspended in a dense salt water based solution alongside eleven of his peers, he once again thought how he liked the name of his unit the best. Ghouls. His arms were stretched out, as were his legs, secured to four corners of the hull leaving him splayed open. His wrists were tethered, his ankles were tethered, all to keep him from drifting. The water was cold, felt even through the suit even though it didn’t touch him. It was only appropriate they called vessels like the one he was in Coffins. It was long, with seven feet between floor and ceiling when one could stand in it.
The patch of his unit was a zombified corpse, walking towards the one viewing it, with their arm outstretched, a large 17 behind the shambling figure. It was laser etched on the left shoulder guard of his SVS51 body suit, the symbol of the Terran Front of laser etched on the right. Right now, Brandy knew he was flying through the void, heading towards the wreck of a Vral Light Cruiser, his unit’s speciality. A countdown on the upper left corner of his vision was reaching the single digits. No one talked, not even the squad leader. Not even command. Brandy liked it like that. He had been selected for special operations early on in his life, as most operators were. Sure, you could volunteer to join if you joined the Fleet and decided to test yourself, but most humans were already training for something like this by the age of thirteen. Jesup, one of his squadmates, he was a joiner, one that had volunteered when he was signing up. Brandy though? Brandy was a lifer.
Lifers like him were singled out in school and made aware of their tentative selection. Lifers were trained harder, tested harder. No one really minded Jesup not going through what they had been through, but it did mark him out. Hence the term, but lifers and joiners all got the same specialized training. Five seconds left. Brandy knew his job well, knew the layout of the ship well. Four seconds. Brandy clenched his fists. He felt the liquid shift, knowing their craft had hit the hull. Suddenly he was free of his constraints, floating free in the dense salt water. There was a bright light from the front of the craft, the plasma torches already burning into the Vral light cruiser hull. Three seconds. The dense salt water solution suddenly was sucked into the floor, drawing him down. He tapped his heels together, hearing an automated voice call out ‘Maglocks Engaged’, just before his feet touched the deck. He was already yanking the protective cover off of his rifle, slinging it back over his back. Two seconds. Those in the front of the line had their rifles up and ready. Brandy on the other hand, reached to his sides and drew out two long blades from sheathes locked to his thighs.
One.
He felt the compression in his chest as the breaching charge detonated, and the segmented doors of the Coffin opened. The first four Ghouls entered, no shots fired as they cleared the room. He heard a soft whisper saying, “Depressurized.” The entire deck was without atmosphere. Brandy looked to his left, and nodded once. Jesup nodded back. The pair in front of them sprinted out. Jessup and Brandy sprinted out immediately after them, Brandy drawing his blades. The interior of the Vral ship was a dismal place, and within just seconds Brandy knew what kept their grav plates powered was already down. The difference in design priorities from the Vral to the Terran Front could be seen even from the hallway they were running down. The Terran Front fleet was designed to maximize the space they had, to deliver the most punch possible for the weight class the ship in question could hit with. The chua had lent their practicality to that level of ship design. It was why the standard Terran corvette could fight completely out of it’s weight class. Brandy knew that the standard Terran corvette was more than a match for any variety of Vral destroyer, it was even said that a light cruiser would have to go blow for blow with one.
Most who heard that wouldn’t understand until they saw what Brandy was seeing now. Terran hallways were built narrow, the space an artery for personnel to move through in a very direct way. The ceilings would be laced with piping and joists, covered by protective layers of material just in case an impact threw the crew against the ceiling. Standing shoulder to shoulder, even battleship halls on Terran ships only allowed two large humans to stand shoulder to shoulder and extend their elbows halfway to touch the walls. This hallway was broad, four, no, five times the width. You would never see such a waste of space onboard a Terran fighting ship. The only exceptions to this were the larger logistics ships, the carriers, and the Antares herself. Terran ship tonnage was dedicated purely to what the ship in question was made to do. Vral ships, on the other hand, seemed to be built to not just fight space conflicts, but carry the troops for ground assault. The Vral sacrificed tonnage meant for fighting for transport. They did not have dedicated troop ships, or even dedicated logistics ships.
Brandy guessed it made sense when you never had to worry about someone being able to really hit back.
The map of the light cruiser was laid out in wireframe in the upper right of his HUD, a pulsing arrow pointing his way. As they reached the first door it was clear that whatever powered the lights also powered the doors in this section. He sheathed the blades and raised his rifle as Jessup pulled his breach bar. A moment later Jessup applied the handheld pneumatic and nodded once to Brandy, who gave an almost imperceptible nod back. Jesseup pressed an activation stud, and Brandy breathed out as the door began to open. A brief glimpse of chitin was all it took for Brandy to immediately put two shells through the door, the only audible evidence of the shots being two ticks from the recoil traveling along his armor plate. .
“Contact.” Brandy whispered even as the shells tore through the Vral floating behind the door. The Vral flew away from the impact as the door opened further, revealing more Vral, all floating, all already dead. “KIA Vral.” He whispered into the mic within his helmet. A small tone let him know his information was received. Brandy and Jessup moved into the hallway and saw why the Vral were all already dead. There was a gash in the hull almost three meters long and a meter wide. The deck had been exposed to the vacuum, and judging by the hole further down the hall which Brandy glanced through as they passed, a railgun round from a cruiser had lanced straight through the entire hull. Brandy slung his rifle and began the halting half run, half jog of moving quickly on magnetized boots. Brandy cleared an adjoining hallway before looking back to the door. The Vral dead were everywhere, floating in the vacuum, and Brandy kept having to shove the floating corpses aside as he moved. The dead didn’t stop him. They didn’t stop Jessup either.
Jessup was already setting the breacher, and Brandy’s rifle was unslung and readied. As this door opened a forcefield came to life in front of it, and a sliver of light began to show through. Brandy’s thumb flipped his rifle from semi-automatic to full. He didn’t need to speak, Jessup was already pulling his own rifle. As the door was suddenly shoved open by the pneumatic Brandy’s entire body snapped forward. The Vral that was standing by the door, who had even watched it open, made it clear that the Vral didn’t even know they had been boarded. Brandy’s rifle butt slammed into the head of the Vral, and sound returned as he moved fully through the forcefield meant to keep atmospheric integrity but not keep him out. Beyond it, Brandy saw at least twenty milling around. A damage control team. The Vral turned to the sound of one of their own skulls caving in, chitin cracking, just to see Brandy’s barrel come down. He was already moving left to give Jessup room to enter, as he squeezed the trigger. Chitin and ichor erupted, the Vral leapt at the sound, some freezing in place, some charging. Jessup came around the corner, raising his rifle, taking single shots at individual Vral who reached for weapons even as Brandy’s fully automatic spray swept the hall. Brandy was the scythe, Jessup was the surgeon.
Brandy’s ammo counter quickly was cycling down, but he hadn’t been simply praying and spraying. As his counter read zero the last of the Vral was spasming violently on the floor. He thumbed the magazine release, the hand on his grip already having reached for his right hip to draw up a fresh magazine even as the empty one slid out and began falling to the floor. “I’m close.” He said. He slammed the new magazine into the rifle, racked the slide, then slid it behind his back. He drew his blades, then began to sprint.
“I’m far.” Jessup began sprinting behind him.
The next set of doors opened automatically this time, but to a familiar scene, but the Vral were already aware of them due to Brandy having firmly announced their presence in the previous hall. Brandy never stopped his full sprint, carving through the Vral with the edges of his monomolecular blades. Every so often a shot rang out, taking one of the Vral down just out of Brandy’s reach or one that was pulling up a weapon. Brandy used the suit’s speed and strength enhancements to their fullest, barely slowing as he tore through the group, both blades cutting. Suddenly he heard the retort of full auto and spun to decapitate one of the remaining Vral to look as Jessup was emptying his magazine into an open door. Brandy let both blades drop, popping his hip to the side and curling his waist, letting the weight of his rifle carry it around his body into his hands. As the Vral tried to come into the hall they were cut down, caught in a fatal funnel of fire by their own hatchway.
“Reload.” Jessup said, tucking himself back against the wall. “Control, need sweepers. My location.” A tone was the only reply to Jessup’s words. Twelve men, organized into six teams. That was the boarding party. Each had a part to play, and as Jessup made the call for sweepers Brandy was already preparing to move. As Jessup slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle Brandy was still covering the door. The other doors in the hall remained closed. Jessup reached to a small bandolier of grenades and pulled one of the X-04 flashbangs, throwing it hard through the door against the opposing wall. A second later a dull pop sounded. Brandy and Jessup continued their run, but now both had slung their rifles. Both had blades out.
Following the skeleton map on his HUD, Brandy led the way through the next door to find the hallway empty. He didn’t mind that state of affairs at all. A dull klaxon began to sound throughout the crippled ship, and neither Brandy nor Jessup needed to be told twice that the Vral were now more than aware they had been boarded. Brandy turned down a corridor, instinctively lashing out and taking the head off a Vral had been moving towards him. “Breaching bridge.” He said into his microphone, hearing the tone of acknowledgement from Control as he saw the large bay doors that marked the command and control center of the Vral vessel they intended to take. He sheathed a blade as he came to a stop beside the bay door, out of range of the motion sensor that would open it automatically. Jessup was right behind him, freeing a hand of his own. They both reached up, yanking X-04 grenades off their pins banded to their armor. Brandy and Jessup looked at each other and nodded. As Brandy kicked out his foot to trigger the motion sensor, the door slid open. A torrent of laser fire erupted from the doorway, painting the floor and wall beyond. Brandy snapped his arm around, exposing only his hand as he threw the flashbang around the corner. Jessup’s own flashbang flew past Brandy towards the other side of the room. They both immediately pulled a second, even as the first detonated in the room beyond. Almost instantly the weapon’s fire stopped, and wails of chittering echoed into the hallway. They threw the second set of flashbangs into the door.
As the second pair of dull crunches sounded, Brandy and Jessup breached the bridge. The bridge was arrayed like a bowl, stations arranged orbiting a center divot in the deck where the captain would stand. None of the Vral in the room were standing. While flashbangs disoriented humans, essentially stunning them into stupfication, the same flashbangs had even more pronounced effects on the Vral. Most of them were simply laid out on the ground, completely insensate, and screaming incoherently in their chittering tones. Brandy and Jessup had entered having expected at least one of them to have donned protection, perhaps even a warsuit, but their boarding had caught the Vral completely by surprise. Jessup turned to the door, tapping the control panel and closing, then locking it. Brandy had already begun moving from station to station. Jessup joined him as they quickly and methodically dispatched the crew. Brandy turned and moved down into the captain’s pit, coming to the Vral that had commanded the ship.
“Attempting to access.” Jessup said, stepping to one of the panels even as Brandy reached the side of the Vral commander. Brandy watched dispassionately as the Vral’s body curled and spasmed on the ground. Without replying to Jessup, Brandy was already securing the commander. He flipped the commander over on it’s back, yanking it’s limbs together and zip tying them together.
“Control. Commander secured alive. Bridge secured.” Brandy said, and he glanced over to Jessup. Jessup looked over to him and grinned, his teeth showing through the dark tint of the armored glass of his helmet. A tone of acknowledgement came into his helmet. Brandy moved to the panels, just as Jessup was moving. “Anything yet?” He asked, letting his suit’s speakers carry his voice.
Jessup moved to another panel. “Nope. Wiped.” He said.
Brandy brought the panel to live and was already moving on, and cursed silently under his breath. Several times teams like his had breached the bridge of a Vral ship only to find what they were finding now, wiped computer cores, dead panels. Brandy continued to move panel to panel, as did Jessup, moving up the bowl. Brandy heard Jessup muttering as he went, his voice carrying because of the speakers in his suit. Brandy glanced up at the other man, then continued with his work.
“Doesn’t make any sense. We still know nothing about these bastards. Nothing.” Jessup said as he was working on the last panel on the row he was on. “Aside from the fact they melt their cores down really well.” Brandy smirked behind the tinted glass of his helmet as Jessup balled up a fist. Jessup moved up a row, then started work on another panel. “I’m beginning to think the only thing they exist for is to piss off the universe.”
Brandy couldn’t argue with that, and Jessup stopped his grumbling, continuing to check the panels.
“Control, Sweep Two is down. I repeat. Sweep Two is down.” Brandy stopped in his checks and looked up, the voice of Talb in his ear from possibly the same location he had called for sweepers to come in. He hadn’t heard a call for sweepers from anywhere else.
“That’s Vlad.” Jessup said, his voice flat, having paused himself to listen in.
“Confirm.” A woman’s voice hit Brandy’s ear, and Jessup began walking across the bowl towards him. Brandy settled his hands on the panel that he had paused midway through working. The woman’s voice keyed back into his ear, their Control, and Brandy listened intently. “Prep Sweep Two for extraction. Sweep Three and Four enroute.”
Jessup reached his side and put his hand on Brandy’s shoulder. The silence in his ears now was deafening, and he knew he should be continuing on, checking the rest of the stations, but he couldn’t move his feet right now. Brandy and Vlad were close, they had gone through basic together, they had gone through Advanced Infantry, as well as Weapons and Tactics, hell, all of their advanced training schools. When orders had come through, they had both been delighted to have twin assignments to the 17th Breacher Corps “Ghouls.” Vlad had met Brandy’s family, his mother, his father, even his ice queen of a sister who was serving as a Drone Cutter pilot. Vlad was his friend, the brother that he had never had, and now Vlad was down, somewhere on this hellhole of a ship, unable to even communicate that he was injured.
Jessup stood by him, saying nothing, and Brandy’s eyes were focused on something far in the distance, something he couldn’t even see right now. Suddenly, like his mind was pulling itself from mud, he forced himself to continue working. Jessup stayed by his side. There was nothing he could do for Vlad right now, nothing at all, and he had work in front of him that needed to be finished. Jessup went back to the stations he was working through. Brandy finished the sweep of the panels on his side. Nothing, as was usual.
He walked down the bowl shape of the Vral bridge, standing next to the Vral commander, who was now very much aware and awake, not struggling as it lay on the floor of the carnal house that was the bridge of it’s ship. He ignored it, placing his hands on the hilts of the twin swords at his sides. Jessup continued his work, a little slower than Brandy was, but then again Jessup was newer than Brandy himself was to this sort of thing. Brandy had already served for nearly eight years, and had done the tear down from the sixth Vral war, alongside Vlad. Brandy grunted and pulled up his arm, opening one of the armor plates to reveal the communications controls for his suit. He set up a private channel to Control.
“Control, BT One. Status of Sweep Two?” He asked, and he heard two clicks in response. He was being transferred to another operator. Brandy felt his entire body tensing up. He didn’t know if being transferred was a good or a bad sign.
“Bridge Team One, this is Secondary. Sweep Two is stable. Sweep One is prepping him for extraction. He took an indirect hit by a plasma round to his left shoulder. His suit took the majority but he’s going to be in the burn unit.”
Brandy breathed out, and then nodded once to himself. “Thank you Secondary.” He heard a tone in response, then he set himself back to team communications. Vlad was alive. That was good enough.
“The void will take you.” He heard the chittering sound translated, and he slowly looked towards the prone form of the commander. Brandy turned and walked over, and purposefully stepped over, the Vral. He then knelt down next to the figure. “You will not survive. We will bathe in your ashes.”
“When.” Brandy said, a dark bit of amusement in his tone. “Come on. When. Daylight’s wasting.”
“The void will take you.” The vral repeated, then went silent again as Brandy stood up and stepped over the commander once more. Jessup was coming down to meet with him in the center of the bowl.
“Good news, Vlad’s going to make it.” Brandy told him, “He’ll be in the burn unit for a bit, don’t know where he got hit, but the suit saved him.”
“Good. What’s the word from the local moral officer?” Jessup said, motioning to the vral, who was laying again in silence.
“Same as normal. We’re gonna die. Void’s gonna take us. Ashes. Dancing on my grave.” Brandy shrugged. “You know, what they normally say, that friendly little conversation.” Brandy could actually feel Jessup’s eyes rolling.
“Control, Bridge Team. Secured and detailed.” Jessup said, and they both heard the click of acknowledgement. “Another two hours maybe?” Jessup asked, and Brandy nodded. “Welp, two today, that makes six boardings for me, how many for you?”
“Fourty.” Brandy replied, and Jessup whistled low. “And that’s just these types. I was actually put on a team as a standby sweep for a battleship or two, but mostly light cruisers. No corvettes or destroyers though. They normally just send the heavies to take those. The cruisers though? Heavy cruisers? Carriers? I’ve done a few of those too, but mostly this.”
Jessup leaned against the back of one of the panels that he had checked. “What kind of team do they send to a carrier?” He asked, and Brandy laughed.
“Put it to you like this. They send units of chua war machines, and what’s called a kill team. They don’t even bother sweeping like we do with these ships, they just punch holes in every room and open them to vacuum, and the kill teams go in to make sure none of them got into a warsuit.” Brandy tapped his chest, “We barely do anything. They just turn the entire ship into swiss cheese then call us in to check panels. Kill teams are just different, but it’s an experience. You don’t get to really do much though. Go in, stay behind the kill team, and check elect…”
Brandy stopped talking and both of them listened as a tone sounded from Control, then they heard her speak. “All objectives secured. Stand by in location. Prepare for tow and extraction.”
The two of them reached out and grabbed hold of a panel, and Brandy looked over at Jessup. “Well, quicker than I thought.” Just as he was finishing that sentence the entire hull seemed to shake, and he felt a small surge of negative g force before his body adjusted. “A lot quicker.”
“What do you think they’ll get out of this?” Jessup asked as he let go of the panel.
“Oh hell.” Brandy said, motioning to the ship they were in. “Three destroyers easy. Maybe a corvette added in. Couple of fighters. Ever seen the reprocessors?” Jessup shrugged at the question and Brandy pointed at him. “When we get back, if you have some downtime, just ask to watch. It’s some impressive shit. I watched one of those crews break down a corvette in two hours.” Jessup raised his eyebrow and Brandy held up two fingers. “Two. No shit. Something like this is going to take them maybe a day, probably less than that. It’s absolute magic.”
“I was raised on the Los Angeles flats.” Jessup said, and it was Brandy’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “You know, where they had one of the landfills. They said they used a reprocessor for that too.”
“Yeah, the chua know how to make the most out of everything. Did you know there used to be a floating island of plastic in the Pacific Ocean?” Brandy placed his hands on the hilts of his blades as Jessup shook his head no. “Yeah, when the chua got set up, first thing they did was clean up all of that. Tons of plastic, centuries of fuck ups, and they fixed it in barely a month. Earth was trashy, real trashy. Now we just reprocess everything.”
“I never looked into how that works.” Jessup said, then laughed when Brandy raised his fingers and wiggled them in the air. “PFM?”
“Yeap. Pure fuckin’ magic. At least that’s how it looks to me.” Brandy sighed, then he motioned to the panels. “We had the technology centuries ago but we just never refined it like the chua did. I asked how it worked and I felt like I was an ape. They felt the same way about our computers the way we feel about their reprocessors though, so I guess it evens out.”
“What do you mean?”
Brandy glanced over at him and smirked, then he motioned to his suit’s right chest pauldron, where his suit’s electronic suite for his HUD was kept. “This here has more processing power than the chua had on one of their battleships. They just didn’t focus on it like we did. The concept of a microprocessor blew their minds. We know how to store a hundred terabytes on a fingernail, they know how to break down a landfill into bars of material.” Jessup leaned back against the panel again and grunted. “Seriously, ask to watch what they do to this thing. They are going to slice it up, put the pieces into the reprocessors, and by tomorrow it’s going to be raw materials. No waste, it’s crazy.”
Brandy turned his head back to the vral laying on the floor, hearing it muttering to itself. He narrowed his eyes for a few moments, listening to the sound of the clicking, then he looked back to Jessup. “Wish that thing would just shut the hell up.” A moment later he said a bit louder, “We get it asshole. The void is coming, it’s going to take us. Ashes, death, suffering. We get it. Shut the hell up.” He pushed himself off the panel and walked to the edge of the bridge nearer to the door. “Non-stop with them.”
Jessup gestured to the commander with his head. “What are we doing with him.”
“Well, he’ll get to tell an interrogation team about the void, bet he’s got a hard on for that.” Brandy replied, then paused and glanced at the upper right of his HUD, seeing a few green dots moving in their direction. “Then they’ll just toss his ass out of an airlock. Ready to go?”
“Yeap.” Jessup pushed up from the panel he was leaning on and joined Brandy near the door and waited as they both watched the dots approaching the door. Brandy reached over and toggled the lock, and the door slid open. Four humans in construction harnesses with atmospheric suits rated for vacuum were just coming to a stop. Behind them Brandy could already see the two other members of the team coming to relieve them.
“Is that Vodka?” One of them said, a hard feminine voice coming from one of the suits. Brandy’s eyebrow perked up, and so did Jessup’s entire body. Both of them knew Janet Shippen’s voice. Janet was what Brandy’s mother would call a feral tomboy. Short, muscled, her brown hair cut in a pixie cut, who felt more at home covered in engine fluid than anything else. She was also what his father would call an absolute knockout. Jessup had met her three times and was in love. Brandy’s relationship with Janet was a private affair, but Jessup wouldn’t find out about it, no sense in breaking his heart after all. Not to mention that Brandy looked at Jessup as a friend.
“How the hell are ya Shipwreck.” Brandy said with a smirk, “I got you a nice one here. I even got you a local to keep you company, ask him about the void. He’ll tell you all you want to hear.” The two figures in the back, clad in all black with no identifying markers, looked to Brandy, who simply pointed towards the vral commander laying on the floor.
“By the way. Ran into Vlad before I came over here.” She said, coming closer to the two Ghouls. “They got him out of his suit before they sent us over. He’s got an ass of a burn on his shoulder, but he said he’s going to be a bitch about it so they’ll give you fuckers some down time.” Brandy smiled, knowing if Vlad was joking around he was more than ok. Janet motioned to the bridge, “Lot of nothing?” She asked, and both of the Ghouls nodded. “Figures. Fuckers.” All three of them watched for a moment as the two black clad humans knelt over the vral commander. “Alright, I’ve got to prep this bitch for breakdown, then I’m done for the day. Salvagers are just putting most of the wrecks in orbit.”
Jessup glanced to Brandy before speaking, “Think they want to move again soon?”
“Bet your ass.” Janet reached for her side and pulled out a data pad. “Way I see it we’re just topping off right now, waiting for some of the boats out there to get their shit together, then they are going to move us out. Speaking of moving out, bounce your asses, I’ve got shit to do so I can get off once we pull back into Antares.”
“Call us a cab?” Brandy asked, using the slang term for the shuttle that had delivered Janet’s team that would take his own back to Antares.
“Yeap. We made entrance right next to where you did.” Janet started moving into the bridge, towards a grouping of panels hard mounted to the wall. She stopped and glanced back at Brandy. “It’s been a hell of a day, almost eighteen hours. I’m going to get a stiff drink in my quarters.”
“You do that. I’m going to check on Vlad and get him settled in before I do anything else.” Brandy said, and she turned and went to the panel. Brandy was glad for the tint of his helmet’s visor or else his smirk would need explaining from Jessup who was none the wiser. Once he went through debrief and turned over his gear already knew what he was going to be doing. Straight to engineering deck C, where Janet would be waiting.
Kukat was miserable, or at least was acting like she was. Vicky was rigidly standing at attention, as was Jess, standing stock still beside Kukat’s bed. The loud exclamation that had brought them to their feet of, “What the chicken fried fuck?!” had come from the man standing in front of them. Vicky wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Jess was trying to keep herself from laughing. Kukat reached out a three fingered hand towards the man wearing a captain’s eagle on his flight jumper, a hand that had two small bow tie stickers on it.
“Torture. Help.” Kukat said, as weak as a newborn kitten, and Jess’s breath escaped her in a buzzing of her lips from someone desperately attempting to keep in her laughter. The small sheet containing bow ties, smiley face, stars, and other cartoonish stickers fell from her hand that was clenched firmly at her side. Kukat was wearing half of them. Captain Yang stared in an expression of one who is seeing something for the first time when they had believed they had seen it all. “Help.” Kukat said again, holding out her other arm which had a line of stars stuck to it all the way down to the back of her hand. Yang slowly brought his fingers up to squeeze the bridge of his nose, and then he turned on his heel and faced away from the trio. Vicky just wanted to die. The captain of the cruiser had visited them a few times in the past three days since they had been brought onboard by the Barrowmore. Kukat had been immediately rushed to start receiving medical care, Victoria Brandy and Jessica Anders had been by her side from the second they were allowed back, barring short periods where either woman needed to file their reports. The problem was, every time Captain Yang had come back to visit them, it was always at the most inopportune time. The first time he had walked in to Jess cuddling the small chua in a bed that was almost a meter too small for her. The second time Vicky had taped Jess’ hands and feet to her chair. The third time Jess had been singing a nursery rhyme to Kukat. Each time Yang had walked in, Vicky had felt like crawling in a hole, Jess had desperately tried not to laugh, and Kukat had acted like a prisoner of war. Vicky was getting the feeling the captain was enjoying these trips down to see her and her crew.
“Can someone explain to me why the three pilots that I’m supposed to award the Terran Star to are acting like toddlers in my medbay?” He said, then he turned back to face them. Vicky didn’t want to die anymore. Jess stopped laughing. Kukat’s hands fell to the heated blanket that covered her. All three of them were to awarded the highest honor in the Terran Fleet. Now it was the captain’s turn to laugh as he stepped forward and grabbed Vicky’s hand, which almost knocked her off balance as he began vigorously shaking it. “Congratulations.”
Vicky stared at him for a few long moments, trying to parse through the entire scenario in her head. None of them had paid much attention to news outside of the medbay, Vicky had barely even been back onboard the Thumper aside from downloading nav data to be included in her flight logs. “Captain…” She said, sounding to even her own ears a bit disjointed, “What did we find out there.”
“First off at ease.” Yang said, then he smirked as Jess began to self consciously pluck the stickers off of Kukat, her eyes on him, he turned his attention to her. “Your flight records and the reserve drone data is being sent back to Earth to be implemented into training.” His attention turned to all of them in turn. “You really don’t know do you?” All three shook their heads, and Vicky took a step back to stand side by side with her crew.
“We haven’t been paying much attention to what’s been coming in.” Vicky said, and she placed her hand on Kukat’s medical bed. Yang nodded, understanding. This crew was a very tight group, and he could see that even from the small amount of time he had been around them.
“You scouted out the entire Vral fleet, they were evacuating. I don’t think they expected us to move as fast as we did on them, so when we jumped into the system they were barely organized into battlelines.” Yang interlocked his fingers in front of his belt. “Because of what you got on those scans, we knew exactly what we were jumping into. We knew exactly what we would do the moment we landed and…” He paused for a moment, letting his words stand out. “... we eradicated their entire fleet.” Vicky looked to Jess. Jess’s mouth hung slightly open.
“I knew it was a fleet!” Jess said after a moment. When she had been asked by Vicky a few hours after they had gotten Kukat settled, Jess had insisted she had been trying to evade fire from point defense and laser batteries from at least twelve ships. What she didn’t know, and what would be reflected on the citation for the award she was yet to receive, was that she had been evading around thirty individual vessels weapons fire.
“Not a fleet.” Yang said, and Jess looked back to him. “It was ‘The’ fleet.” Jess looked at him in confusion for a few seconds, as did Vicky.
“Shit!” Kukat chirped, and all three humans looked down at the small, sticker covered chua. Kukat’s mouth hung open slightly. Jess looked up to Vicky, and both seemed to realize what was said at the same time. Jess’ hand shot to her mouth, covering it, her eyes wide as Vicky stepped back to lean against the wall.
Yang waited a few moments then stepped forward. “Well, I hope you three are ready.” He said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Drone Cutters are supposed to cut and run the second they get in trouble. You three…” He motioned to them with a wave of his hand. “... you stuck around, and because you did, you handed us everything we needed to go after them.” Jess’ hand came down on Kukat’s small shoulder, and one of the smiley face stickers peeled off as Kukat wrapped her hand around Jess’ pointer finger. Vicky slowly pressed her back against the wall and started sliding down it. “Basically, to be blunt, now that this has broken, every news feed in the Terran Front wants pictures of you, details on your status…” He motioned to Kukut. “... and to be honest I’ve had to keep them from taking over the ship to get to you.”
Jess and Vicky exchanged a glance, and then looked back to Yang. Kukat had not looked away from him even for a moment. Yang shrugged his shoulders and turned to the display panel on the wall, and activated it. He tapped the panel for a few moments, then the sounds of cheering came through. On the display was a live news feed, and they could hear the reporter’s voice barely above the cacophony of the crowd around her.
“... action. The news of the destruction of the fleet has sparked widespread celebrations of joy. The foot of the enemy that we have all felt over us has been cut off. Thermopylae Station, for the first time in nearly a century, is standing down from Condition One to Condition Three.” The reporter was almost shouting, and Vicky breathed out, even as she heard a low tone from Kukat, and a sob coming from Jess. Yang had his back turned to them watching, and without saying another word he turned and walked out. “Once Condition Three was set at Thermopylae, the information began to pour in from the Zzisma system as well as the planet Zvitia located there. Fleet Marshal Simmons of the Antares battle fleet will be continuing to press into former Shesvie Accordance territory once consolidation is completed.” The reporter paused, the moment she had said Antares a chant had begun, and it was overwhelming. The thunder of uncountable human voices yelling, ‘We’re Still Here’ drowned her out entirely. The reporter eventually just held up her hands helplessly as the chant overwhelmed the microphone’s input threshold, turning the people’s chanting into a dull roar. The feed cut over to an image of man behind a news desk, the ticker at the bottom of the screen citing off ship names.
“Again if you’re just joining us the Vral have been soundly beaten in the Zzisma system. The enemy’s losses have been stated as total. Fleet Marshal Simmons, commander of the Antares battlegroup, will be holding a press conference at a later date to discuss the events of today, but has released a few names to us as well as their roles within the conflict.” Jess, Vicky’s, and Kukat’s individual service portraits slowly appeared on the screen while the reporter spoke.
“Holy shit.” Jess whispered. “That’s us.” Vicky stared at the screen, even as Kukat squeezed Jess’ finge
“Lieutenant Victoria Brandy, Drone Operator Second Class Jessica Anders, and Drone Operator Third Class Kukat were conducting a routine drone sweep of the Zzisma system when they sighted the Vral. The three managed to gain enough intelligence to warrant the immediate redeployment of the Antares battlegroup which had been in rescue and recovery efforts above the chua homeworld.” Vicky just stared at the man as he continued talking on the display. “From the feeds that we have managed to confirm, the crew of the scout ship stayed while exposed and under threat and under fire until such time as the information was confirmed transmitted. All three of the scout’s crew made it back safely, although Drone Operator Third Class Kukat was reported as needing medical attention, the reasons of which are unknown, but it is reported that she is in stable condition.” Their portraits fell away from the screen as another image came up, of a chua in a captain’s uniform came up, grayed out.
Vicky just stared at the screen, Jess breathed out a breath that she didn’t even know she had been holding. Kukat leaned back into her pillow.
“We famous.” Kukat chirped.
The news reporter was still speaking, something about a battleship that had engaged the Vral, some new story of heroism. The three of them sat in silence. Vicky wanted to look to Kukat and Jess, but both of them were quiet. Suddenly Vicky and Kukat flinched as Jess erupted out of her seat. “Yeah! That’s right! What do you think now Rick?” Jess said her ex-boyfriends name with vitriol. “Who’s not photogenic now huh? Galaxy wide baby!” She whooped and Kukat stared up at her in amazement as Vicky buried her head in her hands and laughed.
“You problem.” Kukat chirped low.
“I told you you suck at picking men Kukat!” Jess proclaimed. “You still suck Rick!”

i just finished queen of tears yesterday and i need time to collect my thoughts and process the feels but. just. oh my god. i have so many thoughts. the romance. the raw emotions. the complexity of the relationships, not just between the leads but all the characters. the realness of it all. the character developments. the willingness of the characters to rekindle, to rebuild, to recommunicate. to admit they were wrong. the realisation that you can resent a person deeply and still be able to hold a deep love for them. the tendency to promise, to forget. to remember. my favourite part aside from the romance was probably the way the company falling apart was what truly mended the family. that in the end, when they lost everything they had, they realised what was truly important, and who truly had their back. they had to turn to people who had nothing, and yet still gave them everything. the bonds formed between hyunwoo and haein's family just. AGH. i love it so so so much. there's so many elements to it, and yet above all else, it is ultimately a story about love. not just romantic love, but platonic love, familial love, and self love. it's about cherishing the people you have. and i just LOVE how even though they were already family, it felt like a found family. despite all the scheming and infighting and resentment, they managed to find their way to each other again in the end. when everything is stripped bare, and you are left with nothing but yourselves. a mother and a daughter. a husband and a wife. your life is not just defined by you, but by the relationships you have. the people who love you. who want you to stay, not because they need you to, but because they love you. how lonely of an existence it is to think that nobody will mourn you. how beautiful it is to want to live, because you don't want to let go of the people you'll leave behind. the way haein only wanted to live when she knew one person would mourn her, but when she lost it she gave up. and when she wanted to die with her memories, it was the fact that so many people loved her and would grieve her death that made her decide to stay. ITS TOO MUCH FOR ME I AM GOING CRAZY RIGHT NOW. i feel like i have so many things to say but its 3am and i have no ability to articulate it. i just rly needed to get this off my chest. it was SO good and i feel hollow inside. time to have withdrawal symptoms for a week i guess. is anyone else losing their mind because i cannot afford to bedrot over this drama i have uni assignments due. thanks to whoever read this far LOL

Atheist here. I’ve been an atheist for about 2 years now. Over this time I’ve debated Christians. Some I’ve trounced, others I’ve gone even with, and others I’ve definitely lost to. However one thing that almost all of them share in common is this one simple, braindead phrase.
Just keep an open mind
I honestly become more baffled every time I hear it. They have been Christian their whole life, born and raised. I was born and raised Christian and now I’m an atheist. So somewhere along that path, I had an open mind, and it allowed me to switch from Christianity to atheism. I have now searched for 2 years for an argument for God that I consider more convincing than the problem of evil and I have found nothing.
And I think there’s good reason to search for arguments for God. If there really is a God who somehow died and was risen from the dead for my transgressions in the way Christian’s say it happened I would certainly like to follow that God, assuming he somehow didn’t introduce evil into the world through some form of desperate mental gymnastics.
What have these people done? They have decided to accept young earth creationism, because that’s what the Bible teaches (a quick Google search will reveal that not even Aquinas thought the earth was young). They have recommended a book written by Ken Ham in which he basically tries to make up for his terrible performance in the Ham v Nye debate. They have stated that Jesus was in an air locked tomb for three days without even providing a Bible verse, let alone an actual credible source, for evidence. They have tried to guide my spiritual life when I confide physical and mental problems to them. I would like to ask then: whose mind is really closed?
Christians reading this, if you want to not convert your atheist friend, say “Just keep an open mind”. Not only will they no longer take you seriously, they will think worse of you as a human. Thanks for reading.

It's been a few months now since I started playing WT and I don't really get why this game is so popular. I was a WoT player for 12 years and I wanted to try something new. I have seen many people saying " yeah WT is so much better than wot because its realistic ". So is realism so much better ? I don't think we can really compare both games since they are very different but we can at least us the fun factor. And for this, I have a few questions. Here's the problems I have with the game rn : - Why is spawncamping allowed ? I don't know how this is a thing at all, what's the point of it ? Apart from even more snowballing effect. - Why is the MM so bad ? For " fun " I written down all the uptiers and downtiers games I had on a post-it. I counted everything above 130 SP as a downtier game and I got ..... 145 uptiers for only 18 downtiers battles. Like what the actual fuck. Is there something to know that could explain this or am I very unlucky ? ( And is was at various BR between 6.7 and 10.3 ) - Why is there no limits to the number of planes flying or even the price of SP you need to get in one ? I feel like after just 2 or 3 minutes of gameplay there's already someone killing everything from above. Do people grind planes in GB because AB suck or something ? I've never played planes yet so idk the best way to grind planes. - Why do so many people leave games early ? Well, I think I know why but its sad to leave your team behind jsut because you only want to play one tank only... I've noticed that level 100 players tend to do that more than others. Don't they technically have more tanks to use ? Is it more interresting to spawn one tank than trying to win more by using all your lineup ? - Why Is germany facing russia all the time ? Is that the same when you play USA for exemple ? That's also something that I don't get. Is 70% of the playerbase playing russia or what ? I know its a strong nation to play because they have a shit ton of tanks at every BR so you can respawn 26 t72 if you want but it feels like its the only nation you can play against. - Why nobody use the chat or giving info with pings ? People die near your location and they don't give any info about where they got shot from. Or they don't give the location of an enemy when they see one. Like, why ??? Maybe it doesn't come in mind of everybody to use the ping but at least a message in chat ? Maybe I'm asking to much idk haha
I have more questions in mind but I don't want to write the next Silmarillion so I'm gonna stop there. This post is not a crying type of post. I'm really trying to understand why all these things are made this way because I want to give a chance to this game. I agree that realism can be quite fun sometimes but its not always good either. Dying to someone who spawned a plane just to kill you while you can't do anything about it is not really fun and it should not exist, or at least not in this form, this is just toxic. And since its still a " video game ", I want to know why it has such a bad balanced gameplay.

Hi ! Here is a new script :
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First of all, some information about the script :
I don't mind monetization, but I'd like to be credited.
If certain elements written in the script cause problems during recording, I'm fine with minor adjustments (rephrasing sentences, adding reactions), as long as they preserve the original meaning of the script. All actions involving sound additions (noises, music, etc.) are not obligatory, but they can contribute to immersion in the story. The important thing is that the listener understands what's going on.
Also : English is not my first language, so don't hesitate to let me know if the script contains any errors, either in the writing or in the construction of the story.
-----
Context :
You are dead. Hmm... sounds a bit violent when put like that, but don't worry ! Here you are in purgatory. The owner of the place is here to judge your actions, whether they be good or bad. So, he must choose to send you either to heaven or to hell. But this judge seems to appreciate you, and struggles to remain impartial... Will you go to the skies among the angels, will you join the demons, or perhaps you'll go somewhere else ?
Estimated audio length : 6-15min
-----
[Quiet atmosphere, silence]
Speaker (sighs) : What a day...I'm sick of it already...
(…)
Speaker (nonchalant) : I'm so done with this job... Always having to judge stupid, ugly, or cruel people... or sometimes all three at once.
Speaker : And most of all, I'm bored here alone all day...
(…)
Speaker (yawning) : Can't wait to take a vacation.
[He flips through his file, page turning noise]
Speaker (tired) : Alright... let's see the next profile...
Speaker (pleasantly surprised) : Oh ! This one's rather cute...
Speaker : This promises to be interesting...
(...)
(…)
Speaker : Next !
(The listener enters)
Speaker : You, step forward please.
[He begins writing]
Speaker : Okay, we can start. As you can see, I—
(The listener interrupts)
(...)
Speaker : Wait a moment... I-
(...)
Speaker (slightly annoyed) : Could you please not interrupt me ? I understand you're panicking and wondering where you are.
Speaker (gentler) : But if you'd give me a minute, I could explain all of this to you.
(The listener nods)
Speaker : Good. So…
(...)
Speaker : You're dead.
(Listener is shocked)
Speaker : A…are you okay?
(The listener staggers)
Speaker : Here... lean on me, don't fall !
(...)
Speaker (worried) : There... sit down.
(...)
Speaker : Do you want something to drink ? Perhaps a glass of water ?
(Listener accepts)
[He hands the Listener a glass of water]
Speaker : There you go.
(...)
Speaker : Feeling better ?
Speaker (relieved) : Good.
(...)
Speaker : No, no, don't apologize. I'm used to this kind of reaction.
Speaker : In fact, sometimes it's even worse. People are often disturbed when they learn of their own death.
(...)
Speaker : Your reaction isn't even the worst I've seen in my career, believe me. I've seen it all : crying fits, people screaming, those who vomit...
Speaker : I even had a guy roll on the floor when he found out. It wasn't exactly the most enriching experience...
[He chuckles a bit]
(...)
Speaker : But let's move on.
Speaker : As I told you, unfortunately, you're deceased.
Speaker : And now you find yourself in Purgatory, between Heaven and Hell.
(...)
Speaker (catching himself) : Oh, how rude of me ! I haven't even introduced myself.
Speaker : My name is Hadeon, judge of the dead. Nice to meet you.
(...)
Speaker : By the way... do you remember your name ?
(Listener nods and says their name)
Speaker (pleased) : Very well. What a charming name.
[He writes]
Speaker : I think you've figured it out, but if you're here, it's because I have to evaluate all the actions you've taken throughout your life.
(...)
Speaker : That means your sins, but also your commendable acts.
[Sound of flipping through papers]
Speaker : This is your file, with details of your life on Earth. It contains just about everything.
(...)
Speaker (confused) : Hmm ? You seem panicked... are you okay ?
Speaker (gentle) : Calm down ! Everything will be fine, I promise you.
(...)
Speaker (continues) : Anyway, before I review this file again, I need to know the reason for your death.
[He reads, scans a part of the file]
Speaker : Hhmm..let's see... it must be written somewhere around here...
Speaker : Oh, I found it
(...)
(Listener is uncomfortable)
[Speaker tries not to laugh but lets out giggles]
Speaker : Did... did I read that correctly ? Really ?
Speaker (laughing) : Oh my god... this can't be real.
(...)
Speaker (trying to remain professional) : So... this record indicates the following reason: « the subject died after listening to an ASMR roleplay on the street without paying attention to their surroundings, resulting in a fatal collision with a car ».
(...)
Speaker : Is that correct?
(...)
Speaker (composed) : Very... very well, I validate this reason then.
Speaker (reassuring) : I won't pass judgment, you can enjoy whatever you like. As long as it makes you happy...
(...)
Speaker : Let's move on.
(...)
Speaker : Of course, I won't be able to debrief on all your past actions. However, I'd like to go over the main points with you, okay ?
Speaker (content): Very well ! That's just fine ! And don't worry, I'm sure someone as nice as you has very little to be ashamed of.
[He flips through several pages]
Speaker : Hmm hmm...
Speaker (reading) : So, during your early childhood, you were quite energetic. Oh, and here I see that you used to fight with other children ?
(Listener is confused)
Speaker (laughs) : No problem, this kind of thing is rather common, it doesn't make you a bad person.
Speaker : As long as it doesn't escalate and continue into later childhood, there's nothing to worry about.
(...)
Speaker : The rest of your childhood is rather calm, good grades overall and decent behavior.
[He continues to browse the file]
(...)
Speaker : Adolescence now !
(The listener looks at him)
(...)
Speaker (tenderly) : Ohh don't give me those puppy eyes.
Speaker : I know this particular period can be difficult, so I'll be less strict !
(...)
Speaker : Let's see this!
[He turns the pages]
(...)
(...)
Speaker : So, here I read about a revenge story that took place during high school.
Speaker : It involves your ex who allegedly cheated on you with a friend of yours.
(...)
[He tries to remain serious, laughs]
Speaker : You... you supposedly « made cupcakes containing insects and made your friend and your ex eat them ».
[He tries to remain serious]
Speaker (not convincingly) : That's... that's very wrong, you know ! They could have been poisoned.
(...)
Speaker : Anyway, I don't understand your ex. How could anyone cheat on someone as adorable as you ?
Speaker : They're really dumb...
(...)
Speaker : Luckily, I see some good deeds that offset this... unfortunate incident.
(...)
Speaker : Here it's noted that you volunteered for an organization... can you tell me more about it ?
(The listener responds)
(…)
Speaker : I see...
Speaker : Ah, a charitable soul, I love it ! There's nothing more attractive than someone who gives their time for a good cause. It says a lot about you, you know.
[He leans in]
Speaker (flirting a bit) : it could almost make me fall in love with you...
Speaker (laughs lightly) : But maybe I'm already succumbing to your charm.
(...)
Speaker : Let's continue !
Speaker : Well, I'll quickly go through your adult life. Firstly, because it was, well, quite short...
(...)
Speaker : But also because after reading your file, your actions were all more or less neutral. And regarding your few bad actions, they are balanced out by the good ones.
Speaker : But besides that, you haven't really done anything cruel but not particularly honorable either...
(...)
Speaker (pondering) : It's quite bothersome, I rarely encounter people as neutral as you...
(...)
[He closes the file]
(The listener asks a question)
Speaker : Hm ?
Speaker : Well, you're right... being neutral isn't reason enough to send you to Hell...
(...)
Speaker : And to be honest, I quite like you. So, I would have had a hard time sending you there...
Speaker : I guess I can allow you to go to Heaven then...
[He thinks]
Speaker : Wait! I have a better idea !
(The listener is surprised)
Speaker : Haha, I see you're curious, that's cute!
(...)
Speaker : How about becoming my assistant ?
(...)
Speaker : What ? Did I say something weird ?
(Listener makes a remark)
Speaker : Is it possible ? Well... I don't see why it wouldn't be !
(…)
Speaker (thinking) : Hmm... I'll probably have to discuss it with my superior, fill out some paperwork, start some administrative procedures...
(...)
Speaker (pleased) : But I'm willing to take this time for you.
Speaker : The idea of having you by my side at work delights me. I'm sure you'll be of great help.
[He gets closer, more flirtatious]
Speaker : Plus, it would make for excellent company... so what do you say ?
(...)
Speaker : It's decided then!
Speaker : Welcome aboard, my lovely assistant !
(...)
Speaker (laughs gently) : I can't wait to carry out my soul ferryman duties with you !
(...)
Speaker (mischievous) : I have a feeling we're going to have a lot of fun…
(End)
------
Author's note : Insects are proteins in themselves... they can't be that bad to eat, can they ?

Hi guys, just got today my email that I passed my CAPM exam.
I got Above Target in all domains except the Predictive part. I knew it was my weak point but I focused mainly on the areas I knew I was good at so I could get the highest score there.
So first things first, my company paid for the prep course to get 23 hours directly from PMI. To be honest not so much worth the money, it's extremely detailed so you lose the meaning & view of the big picture. I should have done more research as I am sure there are much better resources there to prepare.
So once I got my 23 hours. I got 3 things at the same time and gave myself a month to prepare for the exam.
1. Pocket Prep: worth it. some questions were somewhat similar to the test but not many. I also got a much better understanding of the concepts and terms than I did from the 23h PMI course lol. I did all 1000 questions and averaged 80% when I went to take an exam across all the domains. But keep in mind that I did it for 1 whole month. https://www.pocketprep.com/exams/pmi-capm/
2. Get a Landini e-book instead of ordering one as you can go ahead and practice those tests online and the code you will get from the book: https://testmoz.com/q/12927898#student. It's like 10 EUR and you get a lot of practice. The format here is very similar to what you going to see on the exam. Some of the questions too. The formula questions and critical path questions were so much more difficult here than on the exam lol but you do learn a lot of new terms here as well. I spend a lot of time using this source.
3. Tiaexams: after reading that so many ppl said that exam questions were the same as on the test I got there a subscription too. I did all 4 Mock tests of 50 % of questions and the average was 76% across all of them. I did not do a simulator test there but to be honest, despite that I paid for the subscription, I did not spend too much time there as I did not feel like I was learning enough from it. But you can say that some questions were indeed somewhat similar but not identical. https://tiaexams.com/course/capmsimulator
Also, I did not use the book at all and I did not feel like I needed it.
EXAM: I scheduled my exam 3 weeks before and it was a great push to start studying more. I do recommend that approach. For the last 2 weeks, I have been studying every day for 3-4 hours per day including the weekend. It was very challenging as I am also full-time employed so I had to do a lot of time management from my side.
On the day of the exam, I was super mega stressed. I took it from home so I was crazy worried something could go wrong technically vise haha. But actually, it went pretty smoothly. Just like they said in other posts, I had to take pics of the area where I was taking the exam, present my ID, etc.
The questions were still very unique as they do not test your terminology, they test how you understand those concepts and how you can implement them in real-life situations. So I watched many YouTube videos & cartoon explanations as they were the best for my understanding. I can also send a few links in the comments, just let me know.
The congrats message: After I took the exam I got a congratulations message but then it took more than 1 day to update my dashboard so I was feeling a bit anxious about it bc I read many forums they were saying that maybe it's not the final score and stuff.. So if this happened to anyone do not panic - you passed it just take time to transfer your scores over.
To sum up: For those who are about to take an exam, do not over-study and over-stress like I did. Focus on understanding rather than memorizing. I would suggest you get Landini and prep for practicing and watch a lot of YouTube videos on topics you don't understand. Also don't stress too much about the formulas, there was only a few on the test and the were not hard - you just need to know the main concept of them.
Hope it helps!!

I have been working at a place i love. absolutely love my job. They say find a job you love and you never work a day in your life. This is true. A while back one of my co workers started giving me sweet compliments, pure, innocent things. I started feeding into it a little more each time. I love the attention. He is not my type at all. I don't even find him attractive. But i kept on feeding. It got like an addictive game, dressing up a little more, wearing nice perfume while standing close etc. today, i had a drink for the first time in years and it went straight to the head. I had to go back to work to lock up and he was there... He said something and i poured gasoline all over that fire, we kissed.... Under the cameras, pinning me against the counter, almost getting caught... In that moment i knew i f...cked up. I am his boss, this is so wrong. For many many reasons. Why am i like this... Why could i not just be the bigger person and stay away. He scared me a bit, and i am nervous to have him alone with me again. Ugh, why do i do this. I knew the risk, i know he only wants to be the guy who "got" with me, i know we are both from opposite parts of life, culture and so much more... But i just had to jump in. I might lose my job, and dignity... And it wasn't even worth it.

Yesterday I hang out with a good friend of mine who I even consider her my best friend. We’ve known each other for two years now but it wasn’t as intense as last year. She’s a very extrovert person, constantly meeting new people and networking. Since I met her I felt so lucky because she opened me so many doors when it comes to finding jobs and stuff. We’re just two girls in our early twenties who want to explore the world. It’s this kind of girl you can call anytime you have some excio news/gossip to share but we don’t really meet in person that much (which I don’t mind btw)
The thing is yesterday she texted me saying she wanted to go partying with me so then she can have somewhere to sleep. After me saying yes, (she knows I always say yes to everything) she invited me to go see a football match with her and her new girlfriend. Even tho I had to study I thought it would be a great plan. There were a couple of friends of her from work as well I didn’t know. She was talking with them about work and stuff and I felt a bit left out, which I understand if I don’t belong in the conversation but I was sitting down on the benches in between them and I didn’t know if I should’ve try integrate myself into the convo or keep watching the match. After that, she went to talk with her girlfriend who was a few benches away and spent halftime of the match away from me. Of course she can go wherever she wants but I was getting more anxious during time and the only reason I went was to spend time with her since we barely meet in person as much, in fact I don’t ever watch football lol.
After leaving my friend wanted to grab a hoodie from her girlfriend’s house so we went there and I was not just only awkwardly third wheeling but I said I was falling asleep and couldn’t wait to get home almost as a joke and she whispered “or you could just leave now…” and that made me completely worthless even tho she may wanted to mean it as a joke I felt so shocked I didn’t say anything. Little did she know I was there so she could come sleep at my house…
Once we got into the party I started caring less about this whole situation as I was drinking. I tend to feel more extrovert and outgoing after a beer or two. The night was decent let’s say, also because her coworkers were really nice. This morning after sleeping at my house I went to the bus stop with her. The bus got so delayed we spent almost an hour waiting. She told me to go home if I wanted to but I didn’t want her to stay by herself especially because it was her first time coming to my town and I wanted to make sure she picked the correct bus. After chatting for a bit, she called one of her friends by phone and talked for roughly 15min until I decided to leave because I couldn’t handle feeling disrespected. I said goodbye to her politely (she didn’t even end up the call during that time). I texted afterwards to make sure she arrived to her destination well but haven’t respond to any of her other messages yet.
I would like to know what do you guys think. It’s the first time this has happened with her. Maybe it’s her girlfriend, maybe this has happened before but I wasn’t aware until now, maybe I’m overthinking, maybe I’m an excessive people please. Maybe it’s all combined…
Thank you for taking your time:) (and sorry English is my third language)

I was on a call with my friend yesterday and she was telling me her new “adult” job, said she was “the healthiest and happy version of herself.” I was talking to another friend the other day and she was complaining about how some other people are doing all these insane fun things then saying “I’m still stuck in second year of college in an apartment” blah blah blah complaining about being a college student saying her life sucks and she’s doing nothing with her life right now. My other friends are accomplishing great things to always sharing it. They know my situation and I just find it so insensitive even thought they don’t realize it and I don’t at all expect them to tip toe over me but it just makes me feel so bad about myself. When they are home I can’t talk about anything they all talk about their college friends and college life. I haven’t even started. I was housebound for two years couldn’t do anything couldn’t go to college. I’m in outpatient right now and they know I’m struggling. I’m slowly getting on track but there’s no way to make them understand how insanely difficult it is to hear these things it makes me feel terrible about myself when I think of my position. And I’m not going to say stop sharing your successes with me or complaining about things you should be so grateful for like I’d be a terrible friend but I just can’t listen to it anymore I t’s just really really hard to listen when I would do anything to be in that position and rubbing it in talking about how well they are when I didn’t even ask in the first place lol. Can anyone else relate? I don’t go on Instagram snap any social media because I just don’t want to see others thriving as bad as that sounds it just make me feel so down and sad that I can’t. Hope other people can relate it’s just a terrible feeling

Hi again everyone, I first want to start off by thanking you for all of your comments and especially to the ones who have similar siblings, knowing that I'm not alone really helped.
I'm going to try and answer the most commonly asked questions, so to start off with all of this happened over a year ago now, I thought I mentioned that in the post, that's my bad, and my grandfather has since sold his house and at the time took Mike's key away, Mike did have a drug problem during the time we rarely spoke, I'm pretty sure that is why he wanted to reconcile in the first place, I don't know if he is back on them and frankly don't care, he's not my problem anymore, now the most brought up question "the checks" The reason why I didn't press charges/report was because my family talked me out of it and I also didn't want to start drama in the family, if they want to live with a snake then who am I to stop them, now to answer if he could cash them or not, I have no clue I've never needed to use insurance for anything in my life this was my first time ever having to deal with that and it was all very confusing plus it wasn't my insurance it was the woman who hit me insurance, and I have never used checks before either, so both of these things being my first time using them I was just glad they worked, I had to sign a lot of things while I was in the hospital, and when I got out, half of the time I could barely read it because I didn't even understand the words they were using, I'm saying all of this because I don't know what he did with the checks maybe he found a way to cash them or maybe he realized he couldn't so he just threw them out instead, I have no clue and I don't think I ever will because the only person who knows is Mike and I don't plan on talking to him again and even if I did I'm pretty sure he would just lie, and to answer why I didn't report them "missing" well like I said at the beginning I didn't want to start drama and I don't feel like lying to the insurance company, I would rather not commit insurance fraud I had enough problems at the time.
(Now for the update) it's not really an update but more of "I'm adding more information" plus a small update, so I saw some comments asking about my parents and I figured I would just do a new post because do I have a lot of things to say about them, so as any good story goes we need to start from the beginning, and that starts with my Mother, she is no monster but she definitely did have her flaws, I can only speculate what she was thinking but I'll give it my best shot.
So going back to when I was young, the reason why she let Mike get away with so much, my best guess she thought he could do no wrong and just kept making excuses for him, my dad during that time well he's a different story, we lived in the same house but I rarely saw him, he would go to work come home help make dinner then go up to his room to eat and watch sports and workout, I don't know if he was going through something or if he was just content with life being like this, he eventually woke up but only after my mother divorced him, after that he changed, slowly but he was changing, he only had me every second weekend but I have a lot of good memories of those weekends, now back to my mom, during this time we would move out of the house sell it and if you read my original post you would know what happened during this time, but I'll go more into some of the details.
Not even a year after the divorce she started bringing this guy around, I later find out he was her boyfriend, she never even asked me if I was ready to meet someone she was dating even though I'm still trying to wrap my head around my parents getting a divorce, after I find out who he was she asked me to not tell my father because he was still trying to get back together with her and because she my mom telling me not to do something I listened, well I'm not sure if anyone guessed it but Mike makes a special appearance, I don't know how it came up but he ended up telling my dad that she was seeing somebody and that he only recently found out but that I knew before him (BS I knew before him), my dad came to my room (it was my weekend with him) and went on this long speech about how could I not tell him how could I do this to him and a few other things I would rather not say because after he left I just started crying, I was so upset with him for saying what he said, with my mom for putting me in this situation, and with Mike for being Mike, my dad ended my weekend early and brought me back to my mom's, they got into a fight outside I just went in to my room to the only thing that brought me happiness my PS3, video games were my only escape from the hell that is my life, I'm bringing up my 3 bullies from my original post, I'm not sure if they could sense it or if I just got unlucky, but they decided to go the extra mile this week, after the hell of the weekend and then the hell of a week I just went the through I couldn't do it anymore, the weekend came and went and Monday morning I just couldn't get out of bed I just lied there, and before I knew it my mom left for work and I missed my bus but I didn't care I actually felt relieved, so I stayed home and played video games and I waited for my mom to come home and scold me but when she got home she just asked how my day was, I told her it was fine and that was that, at that very moment it felt like there was a break in the storm and I could see the blue sky, so now thinking that I could just stay home and she wouldn't find out that is exactly what I did, but after a week my school called her asking where I was and why I haven't been in school, she came home that day and asked how my day was, me not knowing that she knows, I told her it was fine and then she started yelling about how the school called her about how embarrassing it was about why I did it even tho she knew I was being bullied because I went to her when it all started and she just told me it was a part of life, I told her why but she didn't believe me she thought I just wanted to stay home to play video games, so she took my PS3 and I begged her not to but she just went on about how CPS could take me away and I would go into the foster care because of what I did (I now know this was a load of BS because why would CPS take a child out of a home for ditching school) after hearing that I just thought about how much worse everything could get if I went into foster care, I begged her to not let them take me but she said it wasn't up to her anymore that we would just have to wait and see what happens, she sent me to my room and I just cried for hours I even tried praying hoping that all of this was a dream, everything got so dark my room started spinning and it felt like I was about to have a panic attack and I started to feel sick like I was going to throw up, so I went to the bathroom but nothing came out and the room just kept spinning it felt like the world was ending, (I want to give a warning now because I'm about to get very very dark) my eyes landed on a pair of scissors on the bathroom counter and everything stopped, it felt like the world just gave me the answer I was looking for, that I could make it all stop rate now, I had a feeling of clarity, like everything made sense, I picked up the scissors and just stared at them in my hand for what felt like forever, I got into the bathtub and started getting ready, I opened up the scissors closed my eyes and then a knock on the door, it was my mom asking how much longer I was going to be in there because she needed to use the bathroom, so I got out of the tub put down the scissors wiped away my tears washed my hands and went back to my room, I have only ever told two people how close I was to ending it all that night, my therapist and my best friend, after that night I stopped caring about everything I stopped talking unless someone asked me a question and I just existed, you'll be surprised how easy life gets when you truly stop caring about everything, I felt like a Hollow husk of who I used to be, summer came and I started feeling again because I could finally breathe, I no longer saw Mike, me and my dad were on good terms again, my mom eventually got over what I did and I got back my PS3 and could start escaping again, after summer I was scared about going back to school but I was ready, I got to class and waited to for them to walk through that door but that time never came, my best guess is they went to a different school, after that everything started getting better.
You guys know what happened from here, now I'll get into a little bit more detail about what is certainly happening, me and my dad are great he has disowned Mike, me and my mom are pretty good to but we still have a lot to talk about, now I need some advice, I want to tell my family about what I went through but I don't know how, my dad should be easier it's going to be hard but I think I could do it, my mom is the reason why I need advice, I don't even know how I'm going to start the conversation or even what I'm going to say, so please any advice will help and I'll do my best to answer any questions you guys have.
Well I that's my life story, sorry it's so long, I didn't plan on writing all of this but after I started typing I couldn't stop, I hope it didn't get too dark, and to end things on a happy note because I know how we all love a happy ending, life rate now for me is pretty great, I'm in animation school and working towards my dream job, I'm in my first serious adult relationship with my girlfriend who I love, I have a group of great friends in college and back in my home town, the only way life could get better is if I won the lottery.
TLDR I had a very shity childhood that made me want to end it all, but life couldn't get better now even if I wanted it to.

eFootball could be fantastic if Konami would listen to ideas, criticism and improve. Here is my wishlist. Feedback based on me and the kids playing on PS4 and PS5 offline and online.

1. Reduce the heavy AI assistance / game-balancing / handholding / Auto defending / Dynamic Difficulty / momentum / whatchamacallit (scr...). I understand its for getting new players staying in the game, having a chance getting coins in the events and winning games. And perhaps make games more non-predictable "anything can happen, maybe". With the current AI handholding level its "anything will happen, constantly". The amount of goalpost hits and missed open goals is just silly currently, until the last minutes of each match. Please reduce it, or even remove it from Co-op and other game modes where skill should be rewarded. I'd rather get smashed 15-0 and learn from a good player. Than having to play another game with added input lag and your players turn, react with 0,5sec delay / 1 team loses every header / 4 shots in goalpost / own goals / missed open goals from 2-3m consequently, instead you have to run the ball into goal!!! / hide n seek players / every ball intercepted / misdirected passes / every pass straight to other team / passes goes through "invisible" player / player freezing or even running wrong direction vs your stick / ball glued to opposite player / every attempt clearing the ball goes short distance straight to other team, even goalie high punt / all stunning shots 3m over the goal before 85min + all the other crap that's in there. This gameplay on rails is so unrewarding. If I manage to do something skillfull the AI assistance just kills the opportunity with any means. When the AI assistance takes a break, I get an easy goal with no effort from a random through pass + tap in. Many times I can't tell if I am playing well or the game has decided I should win/loose, it kills the joy for me and it's just boring. If Konami could tone down all the weird punishments I'd be very grateful.
2. Passing and interceptions. Currently worst ever IMO. Game just decides your pass from a player in balance is 90-180 degrees of straight to opponent. Even on Beginner AI and no matter PA1, 2 or 3😂 And the constant interceptions. No flow in the game. Please work on this Konami.
3. Remove the artificial input-lag. Stop punishing one side with artificial input lag which make the gameplay feel heavy, unresponsive and your players turn & react with 0,5sec delay. This is not from server lag as it's there in AI matches and local Trial matches as well, just switch controller between team 1 & 2 and feel the difference. For me this is one of the worst things in the current game, when it kicks in your players don't respond to inputs in time and gameplay just feels awful.
4. Fix the player freezing. Example: after losing a header to last defender suddenly your attacker just freezes. What's going on here? Have Konami added to much AI handholding and broken the game? 😂😂😂
5. Reward different playstyles like build up play. Currently most games seem to be high press, interception ping-pong, quick pass and no dribbles. Gameplay is getting boring with the lack of variety.
6. Create a game mode free from AI assistance & artificial input lag. Just pure skill. It could be beta, division free or whatever just let us play without the heavy AI handholding. And maybe eFootball will be esports ready 😉. To be honest if another football game is released without momentum/game-balancing /added input-lag and with gameplay based on pure skill. I think eFootball will lose a lot of players.
7. Add Dream team into Trial match. We have 2 kids who love the card collecting and building their team. But playing online is of no interest to them, and won't be in many years. They want to play local PvP or co-op but with their own Dream team. By now we are very tired of playing the same local play Trial match Argentina Vs PSG. The kids have almost stopped playing eFootball, since they cant play against each other with their own team. In addition this would be a great way to test out new players, builds and game mechanics together with a friend. Much more fun than training mode. This mode is what my family is missing most from this game. And if it would be a "pure" mode without any momentum/game-balancing things would be fantastic. Just pure skill, best player wins.
8. Please add Dream team to Trial match local co-op Vs AI. Would be so much fun to test your Dream Team against the AI together with the kids or a friend on the couch beside you. Would love this mode if it would become available.
9. Add local co-op in Events. Would be great if me and the kids could take on the events together. At least add it to the AI events. Then we would actually play them and not just sim them.
10. Myleague local co-op. Add both local and online co-op into Myleague please. A reason to play it and win the league together with the kids 😀
11. Make My League worth playing. 100.000GP for completing 38 matches and winning the league is very poor IMO. Add some skill trainers and raise the GP perhaps?
12. Add all Goal Scorers and Assisters to Half Time and Full Time game stats. So we can quickly get the overview of who performed well in both teams. That information would be highly appreciated.
13. Contract renewal is way too expensive. Considering many players have paid plenty in real money to get the favourite players, and you only get to keep your player for 1 year. We are paying for this digital football Pokémon and we can't even use it as long as we would like. There should be more ways to get contract renewals, the periods should be longer, 3/6/9/12months and the price should be lower. Currently it's just irritating and another killing the fun factor.
14. Make each playstyle worth using. And reward playing different type of formations. Instead of everyone using META 4 defenders and no wingers/LMF/RMF.
15. Better & more expensive Point shop players. Can we please have some decent players? I'd gladly spend 50000-100000 pink points for a player if his stats are good. IMO there hasn't been an interesting player since Ferrer & Pires. Currently I don't see any use for points except contact renewal.
16. Remove the GP cost for player reset. Having to wait for 2-3 months and then stressing for a few free weeks to retrain and test new builds doesn't make sense. GP is too valuable for me, I use it for Legacy Transfer and Contract renewal, and the few occasional GP buys for Events or hidden gems. I enjoy training players and trying out new builds, if free it would keep me logging in even when there is nothing else to do in the game.
17. Reduce the cost for Legacy transfer. Getting your wanted skills and then transferring to your favourite player is one of the game aspects I really like. But 257,000 GP for one transfer is a lot and takes away much of the fun in Legacy transfer. You get 1 Mbappe for less than 2 Legacy transfer. I am always low on GP these days, and I think 100,000-150,000 GP would be reasonable for Legacy transfer for 1 skill.
18. Legacy transfer of skills to POTW cards. If we could add 1-2 skills to the POTW the cards would be more interesting and I'd spend more coins spinning. We would get more varied and unpredictable squads instead of everybody using the same players. Most players know the good cards, what to expect from opponents cards and how to counter. Lets say you add some strong passing or shooting skills to a player usually weak in that aspect. The unpredicability would be awesome!
19. Replace/delete added skills. Building players would be much more fun if I could replace a trained skill with another one using legacy transfer. Or just be able to delete an added skill. Perhaps my playstyle changes and I want Neymar to have Through passing instead of the previously added Long-range shooting.
20. GP an option for pack spins. But it shouldn't be easy. Hard grind should be rewarded as it gives a reason to play the game. I am thinking 7,5M GP you get 75 spins in a 150 pack. That takes perhaps 6 months to grind. And perhaps the remaining 75 spins is coins only. Lower thresholds like 10 spins för 1M GP would be great but I understand its not gonna happen, as it would hurt the coin sales.
21. Remove the 500 player cap or reduce cost of adding player slots. If you are grinding skill trainers with 0GP players and training players the 500 fills up quite easily. Or reduce the 500.000GP for an extra 50 players to maybe 100.000GP. This 500 player limit is very annoying and seems unnecessary.
22. Add skill trainers and position trainers to each match pass. Would make the Match Pass way more interesting and I would spend coins.
23. Make it worthwhile playing League / divisions. Currently I don't see much reason to play it. A few skill trainers and low GP reward can't motivate me spending the time.
24. Find a way to prevent players from forfeiting games, at least events and co-op. Maybe if you are down a few goals sometimes add a random bonus like score with player X to receive 1 skill trainer, 10000 GP or something. Just to motivate players completing the match. Or create a non forfeit streak, like 10, 20 or 30 games without forfeit and you get an free extra POTW spin. (Part of this idea is from efootball universe originally)
25. 1st celebration should also be skippable. It's just time consuming in online games. Not adding any value to except maybe noobs who scored their first goal ever.
26. An option to make Sub tactic clearly visible in Game plan if activated. I played to many games now without knowing I had sub-tactic activated 😂
27. Matchmaking. This was good for a while after the matchmaking update, but not anymore. There must be something seriously wrong here. When playing in Division 9 to 7, we constantly get division 1-2 opponents in the events. Had top 120 and top 200 in a row even. 750M downloads and nobody else playing. Really?
28. The daily penalty needs an upgrade. Suggestion: More fun If I could choose player from my Dream Team. And add random Epic goalies to spice it up 😉
29. Add statistics of headers, penalties and free kicks scored on each player card. This would add value and make it more interesting building squads. Konami you have the data, use it!
30. More variety in Events. BBVA, Turkish, Brazilian Italian, English, Japan league. Over and over and over... Cmon Konami create something different so we can rotate our squads more. Suggestion: An event where only max 4 star players are allowed? Or higher GP rewards the weaker squad you use? (idea is partly from Rockchok)
31. More Beat the Clock type of events. Both me and the kids enjoyed this one. Create something similar for skill moves. Example: Perform 5 Double touch + 5 Marseille turn across pitch with fixed dummies or defending players. Or a sequence where you have to perform skill move x and y before scoring.
32. Objectives with extra bonuses. Add weekly objectives or similar. Score a hat-trick, win on penalties or score 5 times using skill move. And get some type of rewards, GP, Skill trainers, Position trainers, avatars, whatever just variety and something to play for.
33. Co-op events. So much potential but the gameplay on rails, AI assistance and the constant random AI punishments kills the fun for me. You feel almost instantly if the AI assistance is on your side or against you. Either everything goes your way and it's too easy or Epics can't make a simple pass, the input lag kicks in and your player is even dragged out of position so the other team can score. Every game feels pre-decided with almost every touch being a mistake or fumble by the team who is supposed to concede a goal. Or its 1 goal back and forth with short sequences where the conceeding team can't touch the ball. In my experience the AI assistance is at its worst in the Co-op games. Quite easy to spot as players regularly just drop the controller. And game continues to auto defend like prime AC Milan, the non-active player is forcefielded holding the ball, every ball in the box is magically sucked to defenders feet and passes and clearings going 90-180 degrees off straight to opponent. Recent example which has happened in several co-op games: Goalie makes several stupid run outs to a perfect 4 man defending line, leaving the net wide open. Changing goalie doesn't help. Same thing with 2nd goalie until opponent gets his 2 goals. Sorry but when my player, gameplay and result is controlled by AI instead of me and my teammate I lose interest.

/ Cheers and thanks for reading

I'm looking for alternatives to get tech jobs that don't require a bachelors degree. I do have an associates in business management, but I don't think a management associates is useful for tech jobs besides retail management.
For background, I was attending university for Information Systems (it's basically computer science but with business classes instead of math classes) but I can't afford to go to college anymore, my school is hiking up their tuition this fall to around $800 per credits now. That means I would have to borrow federal loans around $10-14k per semester because I do not qualify for grants or aid and I don't have the money to pay out of pocket... I really do not want to go into debt, my projected graduation date is actually late 2026 because of this weird thing they offer specific classes once a year that I missed out on... I rather start my career as soon as possible this year rather than in 3+ years since I'm 26 now, feels weird being in classes full of 18 year olds. I'm classified as a Junior at my college because I have 80+ credits from transferring from community college but I'm taking sophomore CS classes so basically I'm a freshman because it'll take me the same 3 and a half years to complete my bachelors.
For context, I live in west Michigan where the tech jobs here are typically the IT management for businesses like computer repairs, cyber infrastructure or something, not exactly Web Development which is what I'm trying to get a career in. The jobs here aren't really that friendly for non traditional tech people as in people who don't have a formal traditional bachelors degree are usually not interviewed for tech jobs, I know this first hand from college talking to professors, the career center and classmates. I use to be a popular Roblox Youtuber from 2015-2021 with 3 million subscribers on a different channel which is what I was doing ever since before trying to get into tech, can't really put "content creator" on a resume and have it be taken seriously. Before I tried getting into digital marketing by showing my social media portfolio but they all want a marketing degree as a minimum, and Roblox content is seen as unprofessional by most people...
I did a coding bootcamp in 2022 to upskill myself and it definitely helped me learn web development a lot easier. I have portfolio projects like games built with Lua that are actively being played by thousands of users and I made website templates as open source projects with over 10+ github stars and forks each, so instead of having a bachelors degree I'm using projects as an alternative which is what a lot of people suggested to me. I'm continuing to make projects but these are not paying the bills, which is the main reason why I'm trying to get an actual web development job but I have had no luck so far
I'm applying to entry level tech jobs but I keep getting rejected because it seems like its due to not having a bachelors degree, I'm not even getting an interview at all from these tech jobs. I mean, why would they interview someone who didn't finish a bachelors degree when they have other resumes that do have one? Projects seem completely useless to get interviews, they're just used as talking points it seems like. I'm positive I can pass these technical assessment screenings since they're all still fresh in my head, I took 3 semesters of purely CS classes like DSAs, CS 1 &2, OS, SQL, GUI dev, and other classes
I modify my resume with a template I made for each job postings using keywords the job description has, and it doesn't seem to make a difference because the only thing I can think of is because of the bachelors degree these jobs all seem to demand to get your resume through HR filters, when the job itself does not require one because they just want you to do CRUD work on their website in all honesty. I took a part time retail job at Walmart last year and previously had it on my resume but my college career center told me not to put it on it if I'm trying to get into tech because it has nothing to do with technology. This is my resume: https://singharaj.com/static/media/Singharaj-Usai-Resume2023.8e985497.pdf
I did do a contract with Revature (WITCH company) they contracted me to Bank of America for 3 months but I'm not sure if that even counts reading all of these Reddit posts from HR people who say doing a job for less than a year is a red flag and shows you can't stick to something. I only did it for 3 months because it was conflicting with my college classes schedule but now that I don't think I'll be returning to school I can do WITCH again but even WITCH companies aren't hiring, but I don't have a chance to explain that because I'm not getting interviews at all. Revature isn't going to contract me back because they claim they no longer have any openings... I applied to other WITCH companies like Infosys and Accenture but nothing as of yet. I'm out of luck on those apprenticeships like Capital One's CODA and Microsoft Leap programs because those are for people who have not attended a stem degree
Anyone got tips please? I feel like I dug myself into a hole that I can't get out of. And before suggesting networking, I don't know anyone in tech to give me a referral. There are legit no web dev events in Grand Rapids, the tech events are for stuff like mechanical engineering or robotics.

CONTEXT: Me, F 19. Him, M 19 turning 20.
My boyfriend and I recently broke up and we decided to try to be friends. Because of our past, which was successful in being friends, I wanted him to be my date for my sorority formal. Just as friends, not alternative motives. I bought his suit, dressed him, and we went to a pregame one of my sisters was hosting. Very quickly, he was approached by a drunk girl, one of my sister's dates, and they began talking. No biggie... I thought. Very quickly, I realized she was HEAVILY flirting with him and he, in my interpretation, was heavily flirting back. I, being extremely uncomfortable and honestly kinda pissed, walked away cause I felt icky.
Although not my boyfriend anymore, I still expect him to respect my presence and to know not to flirt with other girls when I'm present, especially at my sorority formal. The flirting became so bad that my sister, who brought the drunk girl, came up to me and asked if she should stop it, I said yes. NOT out of jealousy but rather, I was simply very uncomfortable.
Following the formal, which was quite fun and filled with dancing, I saw he was TEXTING HIS MOTHER about the situation on the bus ride back... right in front of me. He is turning twenty and was texting his mother about how crazy I was acting. Which again, makes me SO uncomfortable with the fact that his MOTHER knows my business. Also, they exchanged phone numbers and snapchats.
After, I waited in his dorm lobby for uber. It said my uber arrived and expected him to walk me to the car, as he normally does even when we were just friends. Instead, he high-fived me and walked away. Turns out, the uber was NOT there and I waited in the dark at 2 am for twenty minutes. I was at my breaking point and started to break down. After getting back to my house, I sent him texts about how I felt and that his actions were NOT okay.
THIS MORNING, I received a LONG text from him defending himself.
Key Points (This is VIA text):
-"You didn't introduce me to anyone at the party"
-That is true and that does fall on me. He didn't know anyone at the party so that is 100000% my fault.
-"Did you expect me to follow you like a puppy dog"
-No. BUT I expect you to stick by me and to mingle with my sisters and the dates. NOT flirt with girls at MY FORMAL and not IN FRONT OF ME.
-"I thought your uber was here. It's not my fault it wasn't there"
-TBH, it's not his fault BUT I am a very petite girl who can't protect myself if someone were to attack me. I was alone. Before, he would wait with me to make sure I got home safe. In fact, almost ALL of my guy friends wait for me because that's the gentleman-like thing to do.
There are a ton more quotes I can pull but I genuinely feel like I'm crazy. I'm positive in the things I see, even though I was intoxicated but how he speaks to me makes me feel like I'm always in the wrong. I just need to know if my feelings and reactions were justified.
PS: We broke up because I cried to him about feeling insecure in comparison to other girls at my college (they all look like the stereotypical "soft look". I have very strong features and look older than most my age). He then lost feelings.
Mind you, we have broken up twice. The first time, we went completely back to normal and stayed friends. Now, most likely due to the fact we become intimate, he has taken a full 180. I to have things I need to work on, but I have distanced myself in order to work on it.
Was it the best idea to bring my ex to my formal? No. But all of my other guy friends have girlfriends and that would be weird for me to take them. However, although my ex and us not being together, I still expected him to have respect for me in MY space (a sorority function). And sadly, I can't cut him out of my life because we are all in the same friend group and that's not fair for everyone else fo me to completely leave.
PLEASE someone tell me if I am rational in my actions.

So my bf(31m) and I(30f) are moving in together soon. Yay! We’re moving into his house which is definitely nicely arranged and not your typical gross messy guy house. It’s definitely more masculine decorated but it’s not horrible. Hes definitely handed over creative control when the time comes but with some compromises on my end.
One being, we’re keeping his black leather couch. Not what I like but it’s fine I can definitely work around it and have some Pinterest boards for it.
Another being he wants his Lego’s to be displayed still. Okay fine. But how?? I’m thinking a nice shelf? But even then it’s just legos on a shelf 😩
I have no idea how to make this work with my style (more eclectic/antique-ish/cottage core almost style).
I’m worried it’s just going to look like a kids room especially because he’s buying more wall display Legos. Which he sent a pic of and asked if I’d be okay with it being on the walls when it’s done. How am I supposed to say no don’t buy something that sparks joy?? I can’t!!
I don’t want to take away what makes him happy but omg how do I make it look cute and blend with what I like too?

Hello! I'm a 23 year old university student from Central/Eastern Europe.
My interests include sports, watching shows, listening to music, learning languages, fashion, discovering new places, etc. I am also experimenting with cooking and baking. I manage to defeat the laws of physics with that one sometimes, but things end up being mostly edible, so I might have a hidden talent after all (I most definitely do not, the only thing I have is delusion). It's also a goal of mine to learn how to make some clothes myself, but considering my procrastination tendencies and absolute lack of fine motor skills, that one's probably gonna take a while lmao. I also work retail part-time, so if you do too then we can bond over costumers blaming us for the clothes they want being sold out or something.
With regard to my personality, I'd say I'm quite open minded and understanding. I'm happy to talk about basically anything, be it some random philosophical question, or just our daily lives. I'm also quite talkative, and enthusiastic about learning new things! My special talent would be... idk, horrible puns.
So if you are around my age and from a similar time zone (and especially if you're a woman lol) feel free to DM me!

Raul, my friend
At the age of twenty-five I found myself in Las Vegas with a friend that I had met while touring Nevada's Black Mountain. Already suffering from a fractured limb for which I had no painkillers, we attempted to hitchhike the forty minute drive back to the city, but due to my new companion's appearance, folks were reluctant to pick us up. Raul was an older Mexican fella, though you'd never be able to tell by the severe burns that marked his face. I knew his story. His life, much like mine at that point in the game, was not easy. We walked for nearly seven hours and The Mojave was very unforgiving. By the time we reached the city I was being told that I was dying of thirst.
Surrounded by the thoughts of death and dehydration we came upon the outskirts of town. Already struggling to survive I was quickly bombarded by petty thugs who wanted to extort me for money. I refused their requests for my currency and they immediately took to violence. Fighting back would have surely caused my own demise. I was in no condition to brawl. I needed water or I was going to bite the dust. And then it happened. Raul pulled out a six-shooter and fired several shots. The gang took off running. I don't know if he hit anyone or if he was even aiming for them, for their sake I hope he didn't. I'd never thought of myself as malicious...at least not then...
Several more shots rang out. I watched as Raul turned around and tucked the pistol back into his belt line. He didn't say anything. I didn't say anything. Down the way, my eyes caught a vendor. I limped my way to it and bought some water. Raul followed closely behind.
We spent the night at a shady hotel just off the strip. I gambled some in the lounge downstairs. Raul just watched and made little quips here and there. He had the potential to be a grumpy old man, but managed to stay in good spirits considering what had happened earlier in the day. I was still reeling from it. I would be reeling from it for some time.
Towards the end of the night I had a decent payout from a one armed bandit. I figured it was a good time to cash out. Raul seemed to agree and we went back to the room to sleep. As soon as my head hit the pillow it was lights out. The last thing I recall was Raul staring out the window, and when I awoke it appeared like he hadn't moved at all. Almost as if he had spent the entire night awake, keeping watch.
The next few weeks Raul and I spent more time touring the Nevada and the Mojave checking out famous landmarks and architecture. I made other friends along the way, but none so trustworthy as Raul. If I was in a jam, Raul could get me out. If he was in a jam, I could get him out. He wasn't afraid to ask me if what I was doing was a good idea. We had each others backs in a place where you seldom found loyalty. But I didn't yet know the extent of my loyalty to my friend, Raul.
Finally, after weeks of dodging the main drag, I decided I wanted to go and win some real money at the tables on the strip. Raul would accompany me and watch as he usually did when I gambled. Everything seemed fine with me that day. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
We got to the strip and the first thing we noticed among the regular denizens of prostitutes and tourists was the amount of military personnel. There must have been fifteen fully dressed officers walking around with rifles and pistols. Some of them even had grenades! I thought this was kind of out of the ordinary because this is the Vegas strip, not the Gaza strip, right? Anyways, we just keep on our way. We hit up one of the casinos, I play some cards, make a couple of bad calls, and just like that I'm down to my last few hundred. Screw it, I think to myself, I'll put it all on red. I walk over to the roulette table and put it all on red. "Boss, you really think that's a good idea?", Raul asks me for the umpteenth time. I don't say anything and just go with it.
Luck was with me that day. I was able to bank ten thousand chips and score a high roller suite before the casino brass threatened to beat the piss out of me. They kicked us out and barred us for life. I didn't care. I was ten grand richer. It was turning out to be a really good day for us.
It was late in the afternoon when we stepped outside the casino. Military police officers still crowded the streets. Raul and I were just going to grab some water and food before we went out again on the Mojave. We walked down the street past some military men and women crowded along the corner. Raul trailed behind me slightly. I turned around to see where he was at. When I looked back I could see he was trying to get around one of the men in uniform, and then that officer said something that forever changed my life.
"They let ghouls into the strip now?", referring to Raul's appearance. Raul said nothing in return. I saw red.
To this day, I don't know why I did it. I'd never been one to try and be on the wrong side of the law, but I'd never been one to stay on the right side of it either. I preferred a neutral stance. Now, I'd heard people make comments about Raul's appearance before, but never from a man of the law. Raul was a man who had saved my life on several occasions. A man who I had grown to respect and admire. A man who lived a life much tougher than yours or mine. I wasn't going to tolerate it. Not today.
I walked up to the officer and before he had a chance to react I had already pulled an assault rifle from my pack and targeted his head. I shot him in the face twenty-six times before he hit the ground. There wasn't much left of his dome after that. I then turned my attention to the two other officers standing with him. They had pulled their weapons from their holsters and had begun firing on me. I swapped out my assault rifle for some grenades and started battering them. Pieces of the soldiers went flying everywhere. Next to nothing was left. One of the perks of using grenades.
Meanwhile, Raul had already pulled out his piece and was firing on some military down the way. He didn't need me to tell him what to do. I ran for cover and positioned myself behind the steps of the casino we just got kicked out of. I was looking through my arsenal when I remembered I had a mini-gun with several thousand bullets. I heaved it out of my bag and went heavy on the trigger. Bodies started falling over. People were screaming. Things were exploding. What seemed like hours of pure chaos was little more than thirty seconds. The battle was over, but only I remained standing.
As the smoked cleared I was able to account for the dead. In the end, thirty-six people lost their lives that day. Scattered amongst the dead, my best friend, Raul. He lay lifeless between the decapitated head of a tourist and the severed leg of a strip prostitute. He had likely died by my hand. I was a fool. I had killed my own friend while trying to defend his disfigurement from a pompous military police officer. Tears streamed down my cheeks. This wasn't my intention. I turned away to loot the dead for whatever weapons and caps they had on them.
"Petro Chico boy! Petro Chico boy is here after my chicharrones!" It was Raul! He wasn't dead! He was just knocked out from the blasts! My tears of sadness turned to tears of joy. My best friend wasn't dead and we could once again explore the wasteland together. We trekked the Mojave for many weeks, until one day I got tired of hearing the same old shit from Raul and I told him to take a hike. I was sad to see him go.
I had several more companions in the weeks to follow. I think I was actually dating that girl from the Brotherhood of Steel for a bit. She had a really great personality. Super smart and techy. None came close to Raul, though. He'll go down in history as the greatest companion ever. Except for Fawkes. Fawkes was the shit.
The End.

I've been replaying Prime 3 in hypermode difficulty, and today I beat Mogenar. I knew from past playthroughs that he's an awful boss, but I always forget just how awful he is and I'm surprised people don't bring it up more when talking about this game's flaws. Yeah, it's just one boss, but when it's arguably one of the top 5 most important bosses in the game, I think him being this bad is a significant problem.
Let's get the superficial out of the way: I like the other war golems you find throughout this area, but the visual differences between Mogenar and all the other ones are exclusively bad. He looks really ugly with this yellow-brown-ish color, and not even ugly in a creepy way, I think he doesn't look scary at all. He doesn't sound scary either: his evil laugh is incredibly silly and doesn't fit his massive size. From a team that usually makes such good art and sound design, this is disappointing.
As for the gameplay, first, he is too difficult for a boss that you fight long before the halfway point. This isn't a skill issue moment, I first tried him in this playthrough, but it doesn't change the fact that he hits way too hard for how few energy tanks are available at that point in the game. The low number of E-tanks is also a problem because you are forced to spend one for each of the four red orbs. That means that if you aren't getting any hp back, you have to play essentially perfectly to win.
The obvious rebuttal to this argument is that there are ways to get back hp during the fight, but that just makes the other big problem with this boss worse: he is SO tedious! Each red orb has about two times more hp than they should have, and there are so few windows of opportunities to hit them. I think the mechanic where he switches the red orbs around is pretty cool, but the switching time should be the only time when the orb is invulnerable. Instead, during most of his attacks he covers the orb.
If those attacks were interesting to avoid, that would make it more acceptable, but most of them are brain-dead easy to avoid, at least when they work correctly. For example, the attack where he jumps and creates a shockwave is usually no issue, except when he randomly decides to jump directly onto Samus, which can happen for some reason. The attack where he charges at you also seems badly programmed: sometimes he charges in the literal opposite direction of where you're standing, and other times he adjusts his trajectory several times to be in your direction before finally charging. The one attack that isn't easy to avoid is the one where he makes rocks fall from the ceiling. I have zero clue how you're supposed to react to this attack, I just jump around randomly and hope that I don't get hit. I've tried going into morph ball, but because Mogenar occasionally does the shockwave attack at the same time(only occasionally, sometimes he just stands around doing nothing. wtf is this AI?), I feel like it's not worth it.
Oh, right, I started this segment by saying that farming hp in this fight make it even more tedious. So that's because you get hp back only in his attacks where you can destroy something: when he shoots green balls, when he throws a magic floating hand in your direction, and when he heals his red orb. The first two are RNG and seem to appear less frequently than the other attacks, probably because they're helpful to the player, and so if you want to use that to heal, you just have to wait. The red orb heal is something that's under your control, but it obviously doesn't feel well to deliberately not even try to destroy the orbs with hypermode just to get some hp back.
That's another issue with this boss: it should either take much longer for him to start healing, or the red orbs should have less hp. If you get an unlucky pattern after getting a red orb to the state where it's vulnerable to hypermode only, it can feel impossible to destroy it in time(maybe it even is literally impossible sometimes? Probably not, but it's too close). Btw, during the healing phase, I've never managed to destroy both of the orbs that he grabs with his floating hands, at least not on hypermode difficulty, so I'm either missing something, or it's impossible which would be stupid.
Finally, during the phase where you have to bomb his feet, I think it's harder than it should be to approach the feet without getting hit by them.
I think that sums up my thoughts well. Do you agree or disagree? Are there things I don't understand about this boss that would make it more bearable?

I've got a name for another component of SSS: Demonstrative Performative Transmissions (DPT). Basically, this is when a person's actions, or evidence of their actions, create an additional layer of information within your thought process. I find this cognitive technology to be difficult to describe in its entirety because it seems to be utilized by people who are exceptionally robust in their social skills; my autism brain can experience these DPTs, but I wouldn't know how to go about creating one that I have not directly experienced. In essence though, a DPT occurs when someone wants to plant a thought in someone's head through subliminal means that has no recourse for the person in question to respond to.
The instance that triggered my awareness of DPT being a nameable phenomenon occurred in Walmart. I had stolen from there a bit, not enough to cause an escalation, but enough to likely be noticed. I went in to use the bathroom and saw someone see me and immediately text something, which seeded the awareness that I was being watched. After I finished my business, I exited the bathroom to find an employee waiting for me, who proceeded to walk in front of me and take her vest off, informing me that they have undercover employees there who simply don't have vests on. This is in conjunction with other synchronicities which were shaping my perception at the time.
Another example: when I was first spiraling into homelessness, I crashed on the couch of a friend. He did a number of things to help program me to be a better guest in his house. For instance, when I ate too much, as I would opt to stress eat under the pressure of my situation as I had done my whole life, he would stand up and “stretch” his back, usually making some remark that his back hurt. He literally only did this when I ate too much, and it quickly became a cheese cloth (classical conditioning) where I would feel shame for binge eating.
The cult I was in used a bunch of these. For instance, when I first got there, I would find a statistically abnormal number of dimes, which I would always pick up. At least, I did until the leaders of the cult cross-talked to me once when I was picking them up, saying something to each other to the effect of “how are you going to serve the community if you're always focusing on making money?” As I was under their spell, I immediately conformed to focusing on making the project take off.
Another example from the cult: when I was beginning to get sick of being controlled and was rebelling, the woman who was in charge took the chair in front of me and turned it around before sitting in it, functionally telling me that if I were to turn my back on the project, she would turn her back on me. This was continually used, as I would sometimes wake up to find a chair had been placed outside my window, facing away, which scared me into submission.
I could shit out examples of DPTs all day. What's important to understand though is that there are definitely some which are consciously orchestrated by a person/people, and the false positives that occur from observing the chaos of society while you are primed with the narrative structures of SSS. Let DPTs move you, but don't let them control you in order to achieve the most that you can from SSS, while being as safe and rational as possible