Laptop hard cases

Sorry this is a bit long. TLDR: I generally really like the scooter, and love the ability to just rent it, but some of the limitations make it not preferrable scooter for a 9+ mile commute with some bumpy sections.
Take this for what it's worth, just one data point out of many, but I thought it would be good to at least provide a positive data point given that we all have a negativity bias when it comes to reviews. I mean it's understandable that we want to avoid being even an outlier case that gets a bad experience.
Anyway, I just rented an Unagi Voyager (last Saturday) - refurbished. It came just 3 days later, and set it up with no issues. It was not banged up at all, seemed very lightly used.
Unfortunately the weather here has not been great, and I was still waiting on my protective gear, so didn't really get to test it much until I did the full commute to work yesterday. I was particularly worried about the range of comments I've seen online and because I have a 9+ mile commute. I can charge at work, but I still didn't want it to too close to being empty.
When I first programmed in my weight of 140 lbs it was saying that the range would only be at most 13.7 miles. After weighing myself with my gear and laptop bag, etc., my weight went up to 160 lbs, which brought the range down to 12.5. However, despite their being some decent hills along my commute, my recorded trip in the app said that I went 9.4 miles and used 41% of the battery, so seemingly a 20+ mile range? This was at the 3rd speed setting that maxes out at 15mph, and my average speed for the trip was 11.8, but that includes a minute or so getting everything set after starting to record the ride, plus, obviously various stops at lights. I probably maintained 15mph for at least 65% of the ride.
As far as the ride, I would say that is probably the biggest con for me. While about 7 of those 9 miles are on a bike path with minimal bumps, the other 2 are on streets, and, well, I'm too much of a coward to ride on streets where the cars are going 45mph+ (this is in Northern Virginia, by the way), so opted to go on the sidewalk, and well, that was not the most pleasant experience with the tires and lack of shock absorption. It wasn't undoable, but this is probably the one thing for me that would prevent me from opting for one of these scooters as a purchase.
I do really enjoy the app and how it lets you record your trips and get stats on them, even if the range estimate is not accurate, and I like the ability to electronically lock your scooter although I haven't taken it anywhere that I've had to leave it outside and unattended yet. Still kind of nervous doing that without also a physical lock, especially given how light the scooter is.
Speaking of which, the weight is great, even for someone who is relatively weak, lol. I'm a short guy in his 50s who's never been very strong despite periods of working out with weights. I just don't have the build or whatever. I can take the Unagi up the flight of stairs in our 2nd floor condo without that much trouble. I wouldn't say it's "easy," especially after a long ride, but it's not hard either. The scooter is compact enough when folded to throw it in a corner of our 1,200 sq ft condo without being a big eyesore or really taking up any significant space, and I was able to fold it and put it under my desk at work without issue.
The battery, despite the range, does charge quite quickly. I think the stated charging time is 80% in 2 hours, and while I didn't get to time that, I did find that the green light on the charger would usually come on within an hour or two, although I was charging from 60% or more.
Other than the bumpiness of the ride, my main complaints were around how things got a bit uncomfortable at certain points. One is that holding the throttle down the entire time (since there's no cruise control), means that your thumb can get a bit sore, especially if you are cruising for long periods at a constant speed. The second issue may be something that may be particular to me vs. anyone else, but I do have something called Morton's Neuroma in my left foot, which is something like a pinched nerve that can get painful in certain situations. I'm right-handed, so my natural stance on the scooter is with my right foot forward, and it seems that the back foot ends up taking a lot of the weight, at least for me, but maybe my stance isn't good as I'm still very new to scooting. Having the weight on that back foot caused discomfort over a long ride, so I would have to occasionally slot down and lift that foot a bit to remove some pressure. I even tried switching my foot position, but when I did this it was in a more challenging part of the path and I didn't feel very confident, so maybe next time I'll try this on the more straight/flat sections that aren't challenging and hopefully that will help.
I'm new to scooters, as I mentioned, although I did ride one of my sister's in NYC a few years ago - she has some low-end GoTrax scooters - which I found enjoyable. So I'm sure there are a lot of things that more seasoned people might experience as "missing" or "inferior" which I don't, and that's fine. But given the somewhat negative stuff I've read online (right after I jumped and rented one), I was fearing the worst, but really nothing bad or unexpected given the inherent limitations (like the tires and lack of suspension). No issues with overall scooter quality and I was pleasantly surprised by the speed and convenience of delivery. Obviously, the support isn't something I've needed (yet), and so I know some of had issues with that, and if I do run into a problem, that might be where my opinion starts to change if in fact the support is as poor as some of the folks here have suggested. But for right now, everything works and so I fortunately haven't run into potentially challenging support situations.
I rented this scooter mainly because the service was available. I didn't want to toss hundreds of dollars at a vehicle that I had no idea weather I would actually enjoy using it on a commute (I go into the office 2 days per week). I didn't want to deal with the expense, or the time trying to research scooters to find something that might work for me without having actual experience riding. I figured that renting something for a month or two would give me a good enough perspective on both pain points and wish list items, and just whether a scooter was a viable commuting option for me. Given my current experience, I would definitely recommend this to others in my situation, with the caveat that it's been less than a week since I got mine and I have yet to cancel my subscription. Until I clock another few weeks at least and/or send my scooter back, my review is really just a "first impression" and so should be taken with a big grain of salt. If I do have further impressions over the course of weeks or months, I'll try to comment on this review to link them. My plan is to use this as much as I can (when the weather allows it) to get more comfortable overall and see if I can solve some of the comfort issues myself, but eventually I'm planning on sending this back and buying something as a permanent option that has a better ride for some bumpy roads/sidewalks and perhaps cruise control as well. Not sure if that will come in a package that is as light and compact, has as much range, and can go as fast as the Voyager, at least for $1000 or less, but we'll see...

It's getting annoying frankly because of how one-dimensional it all sounds. This post might get downvoted to oblivion.
First things first, she's an adult and she's 20 years old. She does pass off as much younger and not exactly how conventional 19-20 years old are supposed to look but if I was already told she was 20, I wouldn't go to lengths to discriminate against her and call her unfit to play a certain role.
I am also flabbergasted by this opinion in particular which is weirdly prevalant in western culture. A 20 year old isn't exactly supposed to always look like they've been through 20 years of war and given birth to 10 children. They're still young and barely out of their teen years. They will still look young because they are young.
I have seen similar criticism when it came to people like Max Caulfield from Life is Strange and even people like Ariana Grande. "They look like children"
In Max's case, she's just smaller but even then people were still like "she looks 13" when she's 18 and looks like many girls I know and am one of.
Ariana Grande goes through the same issue for being a smaller woman with a baby face. She puts on tons of make-up and still looks young. Her lyrics are very mature and her MVs too. But even then, people are somehow disgusted by her for looking younger than she is or disgusted by anyone attracted to her.
It's almost as if anyone who does not have a certain image that a 20 year old is supposed to have, they're ultimately labeled as too young or looking like a child when they're still young.
Even Ellie does not look much different from when she was 14. Apart from getting taller, she still looks the same.
It's kind of jarring to be frank. I feel like by a certain age, westerners are expected to act and look a certain way. Adulthood is idealized. By 15, every kid wants to look older and wants to do adult shit. So every kid is gonna act and dress older. I even read some criticism about how smaller women are unattractive because people prefer fully developed women.
But if you're 14 and look older then you'll get preyed on sometimes because you don't look like a kid??????
I know this is prevalent everywhere in the world, but in this particular instance about Bella Ramsay, i feel like nuking the west.
On the other hand, I feel like they could've aged her up a bit by maybe changing the styling. By either, giving her a buzzcut or some other hairstyle to make her look more badass just to avoid this sorta conflict.
My post might seem passive-aggressive because it's hard for me to not feel anger when it comes to this particular subject. So hopefully, people understand my perspective on this.
Thank you for reading. I might post this as well on the other sub.

Here's my story. I have been training for my first bodybuilding show since October 2023. For the first time in a very long time, I have fully committed myself to doing something new and have been pouring all of my energy and being into training for this show that's coming up the first week in June.
It was in February when a guy at my gym introduced me to Kratom extract shots. I have previously taken Kratom capsules to help alleviate withdrawal symptoms coming off a 5 year suboxone habit about 4 years ago. I used it daily for about 4 weeks, then stopped completely cold turkey without any withdrawals from the Kratom.
When the guy at the gym told me what it was, I was extremely skeptical about it helping me in my workouts, as I had prior experience with it. I took him up on it though and drank an entire feel free shot right before lifting.
Holy shit. I was amazed at how good it made me feel and how much it seemingly enhanced the entire gym experience. Not only did it help me lift more weight, it also helped me socialize. I'm normally very shy and reserved, especially at the gym. When I took this drink however, I wanted to talk to everyone, including the attractive females I was too afraid to approach before. I remember thinking very clearly that first day, ugh oh, this is too good and is going to lead to bad things.
The first couple of weeks I would take one of the feel free shots as a pre-workout and not redose again until the next day, and the next workout. I then decided it was such a performance enhancer, I could double my progress if I did two workouts a day, which meant drinking 2 shots a day.
Ultimately it led to taking a third shot in between my workouts because I liked the way it made me feel so much, I didn't want the feeling to stop. One day when my local smoke shop ran out of feel free's (likely because I had bought them all) he introduced me to OPMS shots, which were even more potent.
It was about 3.5 weeks ago that I woke up one morning feeling like absolute dog shit. I instantly knew exactly what that feeling was, and what it meant. It was withdrawal, and it meant that it had finally caught up to me and now I was physically dependent on it. Of course, like that addict I am, I went to the smoke shop and waited outside their door until they opened so I could get my fix.
It wasn't very long after this, that all the joy and dopamine rushes of drinking Kratom shots and working out vanished. There are no more enhanced workouts or social lubricant. Workouts have become boring and monotonous and I literally try my best now not to talk to anyone. I am lucky if I get 4 hours of sleep a night, and most nights I'm up several times changing my clothes and pillow case from being absolutely drenched in sweat.
It has turned me into a really mean, angry, irritable, impatient, asshole. Even if I drink 3 FF's at one time, I don't enjoy the feeling anymore. Dammed if I drink one, dammed if I don't. I hate the way I am now when I'm on it around my kids and the people who love me. I find myself being incredibly short and even annoyed at my beautiful kids when they try and talk to me, their dad. Just in the very short time I've been taking it, it has really affected my closest relationships the most. My wife is so angry with me, and all the money I've spent on Kratom, she's sleeping on the couch and legitimately thinking about leaving me and taking the kids with her. Needless to say, it's time for me to quit.
I have a few questions about quitting that I hope someone can help answer for me.
(1) How does the withdrawal from Kratom compare to withdrawal from Suboxone? How about Percocets and Vicodin? I have come off of these before, so I know what to expect for those, is Kratom withdrawal as intense?
(2) I still have my bodybuilding show coming up in 3 weeks. I have trained way too hard, and already paid way too much money to skip it.
If I quit cold turkey today, am I going to be through most of the ickiness by then, and be able to actually compete at high level?
Would doing a 3 week taper be better?
I was contemplating switching to the capsules instead of the extracts and then jumping off, has anyone had success in doing this?
The night sweats are the absolute worst side effect for me, what's the best way to minimize them during a taper?
Have I completely ruined the gym and the positive benefits I was getting from it, or can you go back to doing the things you loved before feel free after quitting them. My fear is that I will now always associate the gym with the feel free high, and not the natural high I used to get from working out.
This is such a wonderful community. I've spent the last few days reading the stories here of people who are just like me. It's very comforting to know that I'm not alone. This place has really pushed me into finally trying to quit and get this fucking monkey off of my back once and for all. Thank you all.

Hey guys, today my laptop fell from bed and i literally cried hard and i found its screw on the floor but idk why when i opened it its stuck on 30% update please tell me. :(

9 months ago, I started my "entrepreneur" journey. I'm still at the beginning but it's still amazing to walk down that path and witness a product comes to life. As you will see, it's far from being a straight path and we made many mistakes along the way 👇
After 3 years of startup experiences (BizDev, Product Management, Marketing) I decided to drop everything and went all-in developing what is now AirMedia - an AI platform for social media marketers. (now only available to close beta)
With no technical background but the conviction that everything can be learned, I started learning about design, no-code, ops, marketing and how to build a product that people want (still some work to be done there though).
September 2023 ($0 made, 0 waitlist)

• Made the first drafts of the platform which was very similar to what other competitors proposed at that stage
  
• Learned how to develop an MVP on Bubble
  
• Researched the current solutions of a tested and validated market
  
• Database structure first draft
  

I know most people here will crucify me for skipping the user research part and if I had to start from scratch again I would probably do it but I decided that I wanted to build a product for me (based on my startup experiences managing socials) one that I could use to spend way less time to post on socials as this part of the job was very boring.
October 2023 ($0 made, 0 waitlist)
- Learned how to develop on Bubble. At this point I had done a few pages e.g. dashboard, sign/log-in system, content creation workflow

• Learned more about first design principles and improved the first drafts on-the-go

-Database structure second draft
November 2023 ($0 made, 0 waitlist)

• OpenAI DevDay and realised it would be cool and innovative to have everything happen in a dynamic way within a discussion (creating posts, analysing them, get tailored marketing strategies). However, this wouldn't work on Bubble so partnered with my uni friend to have the chat on a subdomain while keeping the rest of the platform on Bubble
  
• Back to design
  
• Still learning Bubble on-the-go but getting better and more effective (pages done so far: dashboard, first landing page, settings first draft, my content)
  
• Decided the back-end needs to be on Django as it would go for a high-volume of users and bootstrap our way there.
  

-Incorporated the company
December 2023 ($0 made, 21 waitlist)

• Started focussing on marketing and getting user feedback on what would be the top priority features to implement (should've done that since the beginning). Seeing a good feedback for what we're building and focussing
  
• created waitlist workflows on bubble and email marketing (nurturing sequences)
  
• Main app is still being developed
  

January 2024 ($0 made, 36 waitlist)
- Testing out different organic methods to bring more awareness about our product. At this point, most of the work done is outbound sequences. I used to go Instagram and see competitors posts and DM one by one the people that commented their interest. LinkedIn outbound was what brought the best 1-to-1 conversions (and still the case until now).

• Realised most of the pages I did back in Sep-Nov weren't relevant for the product we want to get out anymore. Took away the dashboard, made another landing page, updated settings, new waitlist workflow to improve conversions
  
• Work hand-in-hand with my friend to have the custom-code page ready to deploy. Started diving into the third-party integrations I would need.
  
• Defined first pricing tiers
  

February 2024 ($0 made, 72 waitlist)

• Finished Bubble platform but still waiting on the main app from my friend. Decided that we need to be doing more organic content marketing before the launch but no budget to hire video editors so I'm gonna learn After Effects)
  
• Made a few videos to announce the launch - not sure it was worth the time. AT least I learned to edit videos.
  
• still 1-to-1 outbound
  
• It's getting too long We planned to launch in 3 months but was not realistic. Still improving every day
  
• Learned about all the platforms that allow SaaS to launch (PH, directories, HackerNews). Started to get familiar with these platforms and different strategies used to launch.
  
• Designed platform visuals on Canva
  

March 2024 ($0 made, 154 waitlist)

• Decided I need to start my personal brand as most early sales are founder-led at the beginning and it seems to be incredibly powerful. I'm big into personal development, reading about the brain and its power so I figured I would talk about this on my socials - had great feedback from friends and some waitlist from there but it's hard to be consistent when you juggle marketing, product development, waitlist nurturing etc...
  
• "Main app is almost there and I can't wait to get the platform out this month", at least that's what I thought... As we both (my friend and I started from a near beginner level, the learning curve was steep but the work was relatively slow as it involves back-and-forth to solve problems/bugs we've never encountered before). However, we still see the positive and the progress made starting from 0 and keep going.
  
• Still working on cold outbound as well
  
• Took care of legal aspects
  

April 2024 ($89 made, 214 waitlist)

• Decided we need to have some revenues and more funds to get the product out faster and hire to speed up the development. Implement lifetime deals for users that want early access from end of May.

- First Lifetime deal last week of April and sold on the first day of having this funnel !!!! My mind goes nuts and I expect many deals to be sold over the next couple of weeks.

• New pricing tiers (free tier, Plus users who can connect 10 social accounts and enterprise plan) still needs to be A/B tested though.
  
• Main app is getting there but still some bugs and UX is not great - more work needs to be done there.
  
• New landing page with higher conversion rates to the waitlist.
  
• Making 5 videos a day on instagram across several accounts for 2 weeks - gained around 20 users from there
  

-Still 1-to-1 outbound
May 2024 ($267 made, 413 waitlist)

• Organic videos start to bring more awareness - still no product so far but we started introducing it to dozen of testers before launching to our waitlist.
  
• Got approval from LinkedIn
  
• Awaiting approval from Meta
  
• Started again being more active on PH
  
• Still 1-to-1 outbound
  
• Realised the Bubble part doesn't really match with the main app so new design to make it everything coherent; new onboarding flow; connected the Django back-end with Bubble to retrieve user data; built a content calendar.
  
• Made sure security is on point.
  

We have now finally finished the first viable platform (many features to be added though) and awaiting Meta approval before launching to our lifetime users and our waitlist. In the meantime, I'm looking for some ways to sell the skills gained over the way to grow our marketing budget and have more impact.

• Could develop a Bubble platform for you in less than 2 weeks now with the skills gained over time 😄

Please keep in mind this does not represent the whole story but rather some highlights along the way as I can't possibly describe everything we went through these past 9 months in a Reddit post. Hope you appreciated this post and it was actually helpful!
Check out out work :)
https://airmedia.uk

Just want to be honest about things upfront. I've never been on a date in my life or had a kiss. I have arthritis in my ankles and psoriasis so I'm in pain a lot but managing. I'm 5'10 and about 230lbs. I've had a lot of anxiety growing up and I'm working on that. Right now my only real hobbies are chatting in discord groups, playing some video games(ps5/crappy pc) and watching anime but I'm also a big NBA/NFL/MLB fan. Honestly I'd really want to find someone I can give my everything to. Maybe rescue me? Someone that loves hugs like me but sadly I'm never able to get any. I'd prefer to find someone I could eventually meet but I don't mind trying long distance. I have a discord I can give if anyone would rather talk there than on reddit but don't hesitate to message me if you'd like to get to know me more :) All I ask is please don't ghost me. I can handle rejection if we don't click I promise. Also phone calls are really hard for me just being upfront about it in case that's a deal breaker. Either here or my discord is xenozfan

Just want to be honest about things upfront. I've never been on a date in my life or had a kiss. I have arthritis in my ankles and psoriasis so I'm in pain a lot but managing. I'm 5'10 and about 230lbs. I've had a lot of anxiety growing up and I'm working on that. Right now my only real hobbies are chatting in discord groups, playing some video games(ps5/crappy pc) and watching anime but I'm also a big NBA/NFL/MLB fan. Honestly I'd really want to find someone I can give my everything to. Maybe rescue me? Someone that loves hugs like me but sadly I'm never able to get any. I'd prefer to find someone I could eventually meet but I don't mind trying long distance. I have a discord I can give if anyone would rather talk there than on reddit but don't hesitate to message me if you'd like to get to know me more :) All I ask is please don't ghost me. I can handle rejection if we don't click I promise. Also phone calls are really hard for me just being upfront about it in case that's a deal breaker. Either here or my discord is xenozfan

So yeh the title explains it all, my laptop is overheating and thermal throttling hard and I would love to know how to undervolt my CPU so as to not kill my laptop. Any help would be appreciated.
Model: HP Omen 16 GPU: RX 6650M CPU: Ryzen 6800H

TLDR:
I started taking CPA one month ago and got scared about the rumors of CPA stalling breast development. Therefore, I started considering to switch to Bicalutamid, but then I also found rumors of muscle development not being reduced or even being increased under bica regymes. I want to take an informed decision of what is best for me and documenting this information for people with the same doubts in the future.
Q1. Do you have anecdotal experience about these two Myths? Q2. Do you know about more formal evidence, like studies on this regard?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here's a summary of what I've read so far in many subreddits and studies.
Muscle atrophy under HRT (and Bicalutamid):

• It is a consensus that people start experiencing strength lost around the 6 month on HRT or earlier (YMMV)
• Muscle mass however tend to become substantially visible much more later around the 1 and 2 year marks.
• Going into calorie defficit is recommended to speed up or even start (in some cases) the process of muscle atrophy.
• Reducing muscle activity is also a main factor for reducing muscle atrophy
• A negative nitrogen balance leads to muscle atrophy
• Testosterone in your blood influences your nitrogen balance positively.
• Bicalutamid does nos supress the production of T but blocks the T receptors avoiding them to be able to bind. Consequently levels of testosterone in blood tent to be higher with Bicalutamid compared to other antiandrogens
• Q3: Is the T on blood altering the nitrogen balance independently of Bicalutamid blocking androgen receptors ?
• Some studies show no symptoms of significant muscle atrophy in Bicalutamid consumers. However this studies are allegedly biased (for our interests) as they are based mostly on elderly cancer patients with rather low upper body muscle mass to begin with.
• There are a couple of posts in MtF sureddits reporting muscle mass increases after moving from CPA to Bicalutamid, but it's hard to tell of those cases are due to abrupt transitions between antiandrogens as Bicalutamid takes time to build up causing a peak on masculinization for a short period of time.

Breast development stall under CPA: - Some studies show that progestins at an early development stage, do objectively stall breast growth, as the breast proceed to create alveoli which can jeopardize the development of milk ducts by turning them into a terminal stage too early, however those studies are based only on rats and the dosages were very high. - CPA is a progestin, however transfem patients consume it in rather low dosages, and are usually not rats. -There is variety of examples and counter examples in the subreddits for breast timelines. -There are success stories with CPA, but it's hard to those individuals were genitcal outliers, and we cannot tell if results could have been even better without introducing progestins so early - Q4: Do you have statistics or further evidence of CPA stalling breast growth?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sources:
(1) [Link to study on x...]
(2)....
(3)...
(4)... .... * (I'll add the links to studies and reddit posts later on by the first editing this post as I do not have them now at hand)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My personal story:
I was on low dose E monotherapy for the first months which was not very effective, and started recently including CPA.
My body is mesomorphic and my genes give me muscle mass very easily. I've been tryng ineffectively to loose muscle mass for almost two years by consuming low protein and reducing exercise.
In the last weeks with CPA and a very agressive calorie defficit I have seen finally some progress but I'm very afraid to loose it when switching too Bicalutamid, however I do not want to jeopardize my breast growth on the long run.
Q5. Would you swiitch to Bicalutamid in my position, considering that reducing upper body muscle mass is very inportant for me but of course breast development is of course a huge source of euphoria?
I would be grateful to read a response to any of my three questions 😊
P.S.: As you might have noticed I have no clue of human biology, medicine, farmacology, biochemestry or microbiology, and of course no formal background on those topics, and any feedback about misconceptions I have made, false impressions and corrections are very welcomed and I'll edit it for future readers.

I’ll always feel guilty for the loss of a potential family, but I desperately want this man off my mind. I don’t even know where to begin. I just have a lot to say and no one who really has the time to listen. I’ll try to stay vague but our social circles don’t really intermingle and I don’t think I know anyone on here in real life. I can barely remember specific moments or map together periods of time cohesively but I’ll try my best. I used bullet points on my notes app to try to organize the important parts. So if it reads weird or blocky, I apologize. Trying to post multiple places for multiple opinions.
I hate to admit that I think I 23/F still love my baby’s father 30/M. That may not even be true. I’m hoping it’s just the drastic hormone changes after having a baby. I don’t want to reconcile or get back together, I just want a genuine opinion from anyone that bothers to read the entire thing or advise from anyone that may have been in a similar situation. It was a very toxic and abusive relationship due to both parties. I toyed with his feelings until it was too late and he would drink and get physical. I was always accusing him of cheating or wanting to cheat because my ex had cheated. Meanwhile I was in fact projecting in a way because I was still messaging said ex. Ex and I were friends before we had dated and were together for 2 years. He had cheated on his other relationships so I should have seen it coming, but he ended up trying to cheat on me and I ended things. I was 19-20 at the time and joined tinder. Experimented a little but ended up hooking up with a guy that had a crush on me in HS. We only hooked up 2-3 times but it started getting weird and I chickened out. Then I got an apartment and a better job and started casually hooking up with the ex again. I think he had a gf at this time but I didn’t ask. At the new job is where I met BD. He started a few weeks after me. I was 20 and he was 28 at the time. We started hanging out after work to smoke. It’s not something I would normally do with just one person and he wasn’t really my type. But the hangouts got longer and more frequent. And I ended up cutting the ex off again. A couple months in, I moved in way too soon because my roommate and I didn’t get along. My ex would still message me occasionally for some reason. He definitely had a gf at this time. Some would be nudes. I didn’t encourage the behavior but I also didn’t discourage it. Bd saw the messages while we were on vacation and was understandably upset. I was upset with myself for responding. I justified it to myself by claiming I was trying to waste his time. In reality he was wasting mine and not suffering in the slightest. There couldn’t have been a worse moment for him to find the messages. The week was supposed to be a huge step in our relationship and I could see how crushed he was. If I were him I would have left me in the hotel states away and gone home that morning. The whole ride home I was sick. I couldn’t imagine how he was feeling, over something I so easily could have avoided and someone I had no interest in romantically or sexually anymore. I believe this is the first time Things got physical but as I said, the timeline is super blurry now. Regardless, if it was the first time, it should’ve been the last. No one should put up with being hit. And No one should feel that their only option is to put their hands on someone. This was when we were finally getting back to his house in our own state. He had picked up a few beers before hand, and that was generally his fuel to either argue or get violent. He had slapped me, choked me and spit in my face, all to which I gave him no reaction. I just sat on the bed silently, or tried to lock myself in the bathroom. He would walk away to smoke a cigarette and immediately come back to fight some more. He told me to pack up my shit but got more pissed off when he came inside to see me packing up my shit. I eventually got a few things packed up and made it to my grandmas’s house. We both calmed down and after a few calls and texts. he wanted to see where I was staying. I picked him up and brought him to my grandma‘s house. (Note: I should probably add that right before we got together. He got in a car accident that totally totaled his car and got a DUI. Since then I had been his ride and always joked That that’s all he kept me around for) We arrived at my grandma’s house, where she had a guestroom ready for me. He just sat on the bed with his head down and cried. He said that it looked like it was so easy for me to move on without him. Looking back, this should’ve been another red flag. All I had was a place to stay after being kicked out. He couldn’t accept that I would land on my feet without him. Most of my belongings were still at his house, and I didn’t want to burden my grandmother any further So I ended up going back with him. At this time I was still apologizing to him for what I had done and how I had made him react. One night after an argument, and a rough day in general. He walked out to grab a case of beer from the gas station and didn’t come back for hours. When I finally went out looking for him, he was at the spot that we had first kissed. There He told me I was holding him back From what he envisioned for his future. It was a lot more drawn out, less cohesive and not so nice (he had been well into his beer by then) but that was the gist of it. One of my biggest fears is being a burden, or anyone holding some secret resentment towards me. Him drinking only let me know how he truly felt and how he wanted to react. I could never put the same effort into the relationship after that. I felt like it was already over and had been over for a long time. A while later, he had seen that my ex reached out again nothing flirtatious this time, but he was still upset, understandably. He got violent again, and I locked myself in the bathroom. He took my keys and my phone and said he was going to go find him. I packed up a few things again and tried to walk over to my dad‘s house. His mission was futile and he ended up finding me walking and brought me back home. The whole night was tense and I didn’t feel safe in the morning before he woke up. I started quietly packing up my things. He woke up and immediately flew into a rage and started dumping my things out onto the ground. I called my mom to help me get out all the big things because I wanted to be all out in one trip. As I was leaving, he was screaming at my mother and I about how much a piece of shit I was, but was right back to begging for me back as soon as I was down the road. This was a reoccurring cycle for us. I’d always keep my phone and keys together in a designated spot in the house so I could get them quickly if I needed to leave. The ex no longer reached out, but we were both still suspicious of one another. Sometimes I would be gone for days sometimes weeks my belongings no longer came back because it didn’t feel like home anymore. It didn’t Feel like a safe or stable place for me. This also made him upset. Every time I would leave we would still text every day. It was an extremely toxic situation. During one period of time that i was gone He had one of our coworkers over for about a week sleeping in my bed with my cats. Throughout our entire relationship and our brakes I never met up with another person. I did leave so I didn’t have the right to be too upset. But He wasted no time having her over for an extended period of time while still begging for me to come back every day. Then I had to coax this information out of him after finding her clothes all over the house. I couldn’t get over the feeling that he had her and others lined up for when I was gone and him wanting me back meant nothing. By this time the dude I had gone to school/hooked up with had started at our job (This would seem like a cruel joke but we were in the same trade and this was one of the only decent jobs in our town.) I guess we had had a silent mutual agreement to keep out past between us because they became friends. Well, After finding out about his coworker, I told him about mine. It didn’t matter that the dates didn’t overlap. He went nutts. I don’t remember exactly how it all went down after that, but I left of course and he ended up going to this 20 year olds apartment. His roommate answered and BD demanded to know where this dude was and ends up slapping the roommate. (I have no idea why I kept going back. Typing this out, I feel so stupid. He was clearly fucking crazy and my brain was telling me to get the fuck out.) I was already suspicious of him because of how we both acted before we got together, but all of this just made it so much worse. I wanted to know why he felt the need to intimidate me into staying with him and calling it “crazy love” when he could so easily move on and leave me alone. (Why did infidelity have to be the dealbreaker and not everything else?) Bringing up my suspicions or insecurities, just made him defensive and occasionally violent. I never got any reassurance and my reasons for staying were few and far between. Then we found out I was pregnant. We found out when I was about seven weeks pregnant. The last time we had gotten into a physical fight I had been about 4 to 5 weeks pregnant. I was scared. Bd seemed happy. He said he wanted to be a family. Over the next few weeks, I was having extremely bad morning sickness I was in and out of the hospital on an IV for fluids and couldn’t leave our bedroom or bathroom. I still had to drive him to and from work which was only about 30 min round trip but I’d always have to stop on the side of the road to puke. (Note: There were five cats living in this house that I was Feeding and cleaning up after. We inherited two from the homeowner and three were ours) The house started to smell because I could no longer keep up with the cats, and this just made my morning sickness even worse. On top of this, I was having extremely bad back pain that I thought was just a symptom of pregnancy. After one of my trips to the hospital for fluids, they informed me that I had a UTI. I was about 10-11 weeks pregnant by then. I tried to tell him that I needed help with the house and that it was making me miserable. He just expressed that I would be complaining regardless. Whether it be about him spending enough time with me, helping clean, or working. This wasn’t even the worst of the treatment that I had received, but being pregnant, This was the last straw. I knew I couldn’t bring a baby into the abusive cycle that we were putting each other through. I don’t remember exactly how it happened. At this point I was looking for any reason to leave. But it happened and again I started packing up my shit. This time he barely put up a fight. He tried to dump my stuff out on the floor once, but I said if he tried to put his hands on me, I’d call the police this time. He sat in the kitchen on his phone until I was done packing. As I was carrying my belongings out to my car still weak and sick, we were screaming back-and-forth about how much we hated each other, and how I would never give him the chance to put his hands on my child. He shouted that he didn’t think the baby was even his, to which I replied, “Good, then I’ll never have to fight you in court”. That was our last face to face interaction. I filed for a civil protection order. It’s been about a year and since then, he has been claiming to his coworkers and his mother that my ex is the father. His mother doesn’t seem to believe him as she had kept in contact with me throughout my pregnancy, and since the baby’s been born. She requests a paternity test just to be sure, but I have no doubts that the baby is his. I am almost positive that he knows the baby is his too. His claims of me cheating are only his way of justifying me leaving and making it my fault. I sent her the information to reach out for a paternity test, but she hasn’t shown me any indication that he wants to be part of the baby’s life. Any time she brings up the situation to him, he gets angry with her and hangs up. I don’t know what’s going on in his life and I don’t want to. I’d only obsess over it and make myself upset if I did. I assume he’s living his dream and chasing his goals without me there to hold him back, especially with a child. Even after typing all this out and rereading and editing, I still miss him. I shouldn’t. I can’t tell if it’s the cycle calling me back or the drastic changes in hormones. I can’t even think of a reason that I should miss him. I don’t even think I miss him, just his presence or energy? It’s so hard to explain and I don’t want to feel this way. I have nightmares about trying to get away from him and out of the house but try to force myself back into the same dream just so I can see him. Is this normal? Do any other moms feel this way? Only attracted to the baby’s father even while split up? I have no sex drive when I used to be a fiend. I heard this can be a side-effect of the drastic hormone changes, but I don’t even feel an attraction anymore. Unless they’re a very specific type (My BD). I have no desire to move on or find a romantic connection. I do more harm than good and I’d rather focus on being a mom (which I’m loving aside from this issue).I know there’s no way of going back even if I wanted to. The damage has been more than done. I just want to make moving on easier and forget him. Do I just have to wait?

Rex growled at the evil house demon, lying on its back in its usual spot, plotting its next act of mischief in that volatile household.
Not that much effort was needed to make the family erupt. With Nala in the toddling terrible twos, and both parents, Max and Sima, desperately trying to work at home while keeping up with chores, everything was always teetering at the edge. The house demon only needed to give a little nudge now and then. A misplaced item here, a chore undone there, and a merry hour or three of hell was bound to break loose.
Rex did his best to control the damage, but he was the only one who could see the demon. He barked and tried to show the unplugged fridge to Max, or lead Sima to her lost keys, but it was like they enjoyed being frantic.
And, what was worse, these pranks were no longer satisfying the demon. It was not enough to shut down Max’s laptop causing the loss of hours of work, or make Nala smush her mother’s favourite lipstick, sparking a full-on breakdown. Rex caught him watching Nala thoughtfully as she toddled around, and knew he was plotting something nasty.
In desperation, Rex devoted himself to watching the demon. Max and Sima could barely drag him away from his spot, even for walkies, unless Nala was coming too. They joked about Rex’s obsession with Nala, his relentless watching over her and that empty spot in the living room. But what could they do? They were only human, after all.
Unable to get at Nala, the demon escalated his pranks against the adults. He left the cabinet doors open, so that Max bashed his head against them, yelled at Sima and almost hit her. He dragged Max’s shoes and left them lying at the top of the stairs, so Sima tripped over them, almost falling down the stairs. She jokingly accused Max of trying to kill her. Max jokingly told her she was mad. But the demon hardly got any pleasure from the kerfuffle, as he was plotting furiously to destroy that brat, Nala, the only one oblivious to his pranks.
Then one day, the demon had its chance. Max and Sima had a fight, and Max stormed off for a walk “to clear his head” dragging Rex with him.
Sima sat down crying on the couch. Neda was toddling about. The demon grinned. Perfect moment to kill Neda and frame Sima. He drew all his power together and summoned a kitchen knife.
Just before he struck, Rex came bounding back in. Max had decided to return, thinking of more things he needed to say to Sima, and Rex kept whining to go back.
Max never said anything. The couple watched horror-struck as Rex leapt on Nala, protecting her from the knife that was directed to her heart. As Rex was stabbed repeatedly while guarding Nala, the demon flickered into view. At last, they saw and understood.

Sometimes the way a language comes out from a native speaker, the whole way you have to move the mouth to get that feels really odd and unnatural (in my case it's Arabic I am learning). It's not just the diffrent sounds but the combinations, the way you go between them, it almost feels like their'e throats are structured diffrently, it's hard to get something similar out of my mouth.
How have people here overcome this in the languages their'e learning and actually re-taught their'e mouth how to speak? Any advice?

Well, praying that I didn't fail my last two classes💀 I’m finally done with my degree. So why not share my unfiltered opinion/experience that I’m sure Faculty has been eagerly waiting for? Ranking wrt:
Course Content / Instructor / Organization / Exam/Pset Difficulty. Copying most recent post's format. Major congrats and shoutout to all graduating this semester and beyond, it's been more than real.
A lil motivation: don't give up, don't ever give up...
live look at brain having bruh moment during exam (is this a record?)
S-TIER:

1. CS 1110 - Intro CS Python: Will always be goated course for me. After switching majors, was very intimidated by CS. Prof Lee/Bracy & staff were godsent, course was very enjoyable and beginner friendly (duh) while remaining very fulfilling and challenging. Projects/Labs were very helpful and plenty of resources for help, enjoyed studying for exams and material thoroughly. Thank god I did not stick w Matlab (unbiassed opinion why do you ask)
2. ORIE 3500 - Prob & Stats II: An out of whack sequenced class took during summer but love how Goldberg teaches. Not sure if still applicable but grading was very friendly and not a lot of tedious course work but learned a lot and enjoyed class. Exams were challenging but fun and grade cutoff made learning pressure-free. Shoutout D Goldberg one of my favorite professors
3. ORIE 4580 - Simulation Modeling: Took this course w/o prereqs so was unprepared but Henderson is amazing person & Professor and will help you out. Really enjoyed Simio and project/assignments were fun, interactive, interesting. Shoutout Henderson: great guy award helped me through rough spot super approachable/easy to talk to. Decent amount of work and I didn't understand half of it but tools and info still relevant

A-TIER:

• HD 3620 - Human Bonding: Not only easy and straightforward class but content was captivating and enjoyed studying for exams. I recommend this course to anyone, insightful and lends some underappreciated good advice/knowledge🧢
• ORIE 4160 - Topics in Data Sc: Not to meat-ride Goldberg🍔 but top 3 prof I had. Class not tedious BS work; approaches high level topics with colloquial-like speech (not always) and I find learning easy with him. If only he would change his lecture notes format so its not formatted in size 1.5 pt font and jumbledtogetherinasingleboldedsentence, but looked forward to class. Relaxed classroom environment, would sometimes spend entire lecture on one proof but can't complain, was prob important lol
• ORIE 3120 - Tools for OML: liked this class, Frazier is cool and material is well encompassing and useful outside of classroom. cool project; recommend to anyone interested in DS/OR
• PSYCH 1102 - CogSci: Probably my most thoroughly enjoyed class I took here. Honestly would switch majors to this if I had the chance, fascinating stuff and was like exam only easy A
• ORIE 3300 - Opt I: fw'd this course and instructors heavy. Had hard time initially but after time gained decent understanding. Shoutout Ishan/Varun, awesome instructors and great people. Made me like ORIE, f simplex.

B-TIEUSEFUL:

• AEM 2011 S/S Modeling: Took during Summeasynch and was good intro to basics of data analyses/Excel. Fair grading/don't know if ever saw Prof but sure he was coo
• AEM 4060 Risk Sim: Super chill class w Turkey who is sweetie. Another "real world" application class where you gain usable skills so can't go wrong. Very low workload no one showed up, only 3 assignments including Final so def recommend for ENG major requirement. I <3 AEM
• PHYS 2214 III - Waves/Q&M: Prob fav science course taken. Textbook was helpful plenty of recitation/lab help. Amazes me how ppl managed to figure stuff like that out lol. Grade cut off was stupid, a 37 was lower bound for C on exams so ya boy fit in for once. Didn't feel like I was reading out of textbook, felt exploratory
• ENGRD 2700 - Intro Prob & Stats: Took with Callister → My Guy. Interesting character, enjoyed his sarcastic/rude ED responses 😂 Very straightforward course, wish I retained more
• ORIE 3150 - Accounting: Now we're talking. Yaddi know OG Callister got me right. Was nice breaking from OR curriculum and actually useful course. Lecture optional, just read textbook; could get a lil tedious
• MATH 1920 - Multivariable: Zoom math ≠ learning. Not bad think was fav math.

MIDDLE-UPPER-LOWER-TIEGEED:

• ORIE 4340 - Modeling and Computation: Okay didn't exactly give this course a chance due to scheduling but moved pretty fast and Prof severely understated amount of work it would take to catch up. Endless lecture notes and material but still cool class/learned little AMPL but def didn't get what I could have
• CHEM 2090: Took this so long ago i doubt the periodic table is still a thing. Don't remember much except always walking out of exams stunned and lab partner who rightfully hated my ass. Barely passed but in hindsight didn't prepare well as wasn't that hard. Look for better sources
• MATH 2940 - Lin Alg: zoom math smfh. probably the most important/relevant math course and still comes back and haunts me in every OR class so pay attention. Don't take during pandemic or you'll be learning from Youtube
• ORIE 4600 - Financial Eng: Thought I would enjoy more than I did. Struggled with understanding content but also didn't go to class or try so perhaps could have something to do with it🤷 Very forgiving and chill grading scheme, wish I actually payed attention it was super hard to learn from lecture slides
• PHYS 1112 M&H: Don't really remember much tbh, dropped it first time but eventually got the hang of it. I like physics textbooks
• ORIE 3310 Opt 2: Just relearning 3300, boring and already learned material. Grading nice

EASY/CREDIT:

• ECON 1110 - Micro: Covid sem. took online and was pretty easy.
• ECON 1120 - Macro: Exams were more difficult, content is impressively boring and dull. Easy online credit tho
• ORIE 4152 - Entrepreneurship for Engineers LMAO: Don't know how this course got approved/became legit tbh. easiest class on course roster i think there was one HW and just final project as a joke. Got to enjoy a bit more Callister, this semester was a my fav lol
• PSYCH 2940 - Better Decisions: I might need to retake💀
• PE 1430 - Yoga: Odd instructor pretty sure later got fired but loved class lol nice mid-day bool + good for the soul. Best PE credit. Pranayama 🧘
• PE 1420 - Intro to Meditation: over zoom lol.

BUNS:

1. MATH 1910 - Calc I: Did shitty after prelim 1, not bad course but possibly recommend taking CASE exam if you already know material, kind of waste
2. ENGRD 2110 - Obj-Oriented Prog: Took in summer, was hopeful after enjoying CS1110 but class and content not as fun. Liked VanHattum, call me?
3. PHYS 2213 - EM: Imma be 100p here and not even pretend I deserve credit hours for this course but was available online (ilovecovid) so that was no brainer. Least favorite stem class. Dont cae
4. PSYCH 2350: Don't remember taking this. typical canvas credit course

FEVER DREAM / C&B TORTURE:

1. ORIE 3510 - Stoch Proc I: Second class I failed 😎 Somehow made less sense 2nd time. Cursed course its hard to recognize when you are fully wrong/using wrong intuition but you might not realize this until you get a 31 on the Final. Must attend in person. Thought it would cake retaking but had Scully who is great guy/genius but taught it almost entirely different format than previous year. Info seemed to go in one ear (wp= u/λ) and out the other, not a fan of his notes/material organization. Scully is huge improvement from Dai nonetheless.
2. MATH 2930 (First time😉)- DiffEq: My first failure!🤓 (took it when it was hard i swear) Even though 1st time through was rough, enjoyed solving equations and remains my central to major, def most involved of required math courses. Restructured version was an actual joke compared to previous year, legit had the option to retry & submit everything you turned in until you essentially got it right via brute-force submitting every possible answer.
3. FWS: (Challenges of Modernity): Sigh
4. ENGRI 1160 - Modern Structures: cool project but prof was hard to understand and psets were way too hard for sem1 intro eng course. TA could barely help, made me switch out of civil
5. FWS(Anthrop Persp. of Tech Worlds)?: Now they invent ChatGPT, sick

O-H

1. BIOG 1250 - Biology Seminar (The Rise and Fall of Viruses): Went to class for 3 weeks and learned ab Kentucky bluegrass and rocks, realized class wouldn't count towards major so dropped but figured I'd throw it in here.

I've been eyeballing a 14" M3 Pro MacBook for use with adobe (mainly video editing) products, Audio software's, and 3d software's. I'm a big fan of the portability as I'll be recording a lot with musical instruments, and outdoors with GoPro's and Drones. But it seems I can get some really good, if not better desktop computers for the same price of the MacBook, I don't want a bulky gaming laptop though, and a desktop beats the purpose of it being portable, and I already have an ok PC (i7, 2080 Ti) that does gaming and whatnot just fine. But again for the price of the MacBook I can significantly upgrade that PC, and at the same time I've got a 2016 Mac that the MacBook will be significantly better than lol. But I think with the use case of making videos it would be awesome to get the Apple laptop, what's everyone's thoughts?

Yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose above 40,000 but then dropped back below it; today it closed above 40,000 for the first time in history, ending the day at 40,003.59. This extraordinary performance means investors have confidence the Federal Reserve will get inflation under control without throwing the country into a recession. It is a triumphant vindication of the financial policies advanced by President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
In comparison to the breathless coverage of the stock market during Trump’s administration, this milestone is getting very little coverage. Under Trump, the stock market had the highest annualized gain of any Republican president since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s, but at 11.8%, that annualized gain was lower than the annualized return under Democratic presidents Barack Obama (12.1%) and Bill Clinton (15.9%). Biden’s annualized return passed Trump’s in April 2024, as well.
The stock market’s performance is being ignored partly because Democrats tend to underplay the role of the stock market as an indication of economic health because they recognize it is not the only important way to think about the economy. But since he took office, Biden has also had to contend with the constant stream of outrageous news coming from the radical right.
Today is no exception. Indeed, today’s news is among the most shocking that we’ve had since Biden took office.
Yesterday evening, Jodi Kantor of the New York Times reported that in the days before Biden’s inauguration, an upside-down American flag flew in front of Supreme Court justice Samuel Alito’s home. A U.S. flag flown upside down is a universal symbol of distress. In the days after the January 6, 2021, insurrection, Trump loyalists flew the upside-down flag as a symbol of “the impending death of the nation and a call to arms,” according to American studies professor Matthew Guterl.
Leading scholar of the American right Kathleen Belew explained on social media that the upside-down flag was “not just signifying that the election was ‘stolen.’ The inverted flag means the country has been overthrown (to many, if not most, on the right). This is a profound act of symbolism and appalling at the home of a Supreme Court Justice.”
For Alito to fly it was an indication that he was part of the insurrection.
In September 2021, Trump loyalist lawyer Sidney Powell, who was part of the team trying to get the results of the 2020 presidential election overturned, told a right-wing talk show host that while rioters were attacking the Capitol, she and her team were trying to get an emergency injunction to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s victory.
“We were filing a 12th Amendment constitutional challenge to the process that the Congress was about to use under the Electoral Act provisions that simply don’t jive [sic] with the 12th Amendment to the United States Constitution,” she said. “And Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that.”
The plan was thwarted, she said, when then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) reconvened Congress and certified Biden’s win that night. “[S]he really had to speed up reconvening Congress to get the vote going before Justice Alito might have issued an injunction to stop it all, which is what should have happened,” Powell said.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin (D-IL) said today that “Justice Alito should recuse himself immediately from cases related to the 2020 election and the January 6th insurrection, including the question of the former President's immunity in U.S. v. Donald Trump, which the Supreme Court is currently considering. The Court is in an ethical crisis of its own making, and Justice Alito and the rest of the Court should be doing everything in their power to regain public trust.”
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) also called for Alito to recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and Trump.
The potential for Alito to destroy our country in order to restore Trump to the presidency has continued. Along with Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, whose wife Ginni was in both sympathy and communication with the others trying to overturn the results of the election, as well as the three extremist justices Trump appointed, Alito has been part of a court that has delayed its decision about whether Trump can be tried on criminal charges for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election for so long that Trump likely has won his gambit to avoid trial before the 2024 election.
When Trump claimed last October that he could not be prosecuted, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing his trial, rejected the argument in December. Trump appealed, and Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to decide the case immediately. The Supreme Court refused. Then, after a three-judge panel of a federal appeals court unanimously affirmed Chutkan’s ruling in a February 2024 decision that legal observers praised as “thorough and compelling,” Trump appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court then accepted his appeal and scheduled oral arguments for late April, more than a month after the original trial date set by Judge Chutkan.
The result of all this delay, former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori wrote in Politico last month, is “that a question whose answer was obvious back in December is unlikely to get that answer from the Supreme Court until its session ends in June.” “If the Court hadn’t intervened, we would already have a verdict in the January 6 case,” political strategist Michael Podhorzer wrote, “and we don’t know whether the Court would have decided to intervene without Thomas and Alito.”
When the story of Alito’s misuse of the flag broke, the justice explained himself to Fox News Sunday host Shannon Bream. He blamed his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, for flying the flag, saying she had hung it up in response to a “F*** Trump” sign that was “within 50 feet of where children await the school bus in Jan[uary] 21.” He said that the neighbors are “very political” and had had “words” with the Alitos that had upset Mrs. Alito.
While Justice Alito blamed his wife for the flag, he could hardly have missed seeing it above his house. Former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob wrote: “When I was an editor at the Chicago Tribune, I would’ve been in trouble if I’d let my wife put a political bumper sticker on our car. But a Supreme Court justice’s home can fly a flag of insurrection and he’s still allowed to rule on whether the head insurrectionist has immunity.”
The deputy chief of staff for Representative Don Beyer (D-VA), who represents the town in which the Alitos live, noted that the local schools were all remote in January 2021 because of the pandemic. “No children were waiting for buses,” he noted. Legal analyst Elie Mystal added: “Sam Alito running to Fox News to explain how…he’s not politically motivated at all…is an under-appreciated part of this ongoing ethical disaster.”
It would be bad enough for a Supreme Court justice to announce a partisan preference. But, as David Kurtz wrote this morning at Talking Points Memo, Alito’s embrace of the insurrectionist flag “was a bold declaration of affinity for and alignment with the smoldering insurrection led by a president of the same party that had just been put down but which still loomed as a threat to civic order, the peaceful transfer of power (which at that point had still not yet happened), and the rule of law.”
The call is coming from inside the house.
—
Notes:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/17/dow-jones-average-40000/
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/stock-market-performance-under-president-donald-trump-dow-jones-sp500-2021-1-1029987163
https://www.usbank.com/investing/financial-perspectives/market-news/stock-market-under-biden.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/us/justice-alito-upside-down-flag.html
https://www.newsweek.com/sidney-powell-drags-justice-samuel-alito-supreme-court-january-6-mess-1632896
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/06/politics/trump-immunity-court-of-appeals/index.html
https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/02/supreme-court-takes-up-trump-immunity-appeal/
https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/12/court-wont-hear-trump-immunity-dispute-now/
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/1AC5A0E7090A350785258ABB0052D942/$file/23-3228-2039001.pdf
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/04/24/trumps-crazy-argument-for-immunity-heads-to-the-high-court-00153954
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/17/us/upside-down-american-flag-alito.html
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/morning-memo/the-insurrectionists-in-our-midst
(X):
bresreports/status/1791487198182703348
bresreports/status/1791574545754710428
RonFilipkowski/status/1441958869442260994
kathleen_belew/status/1791538901435220063
mike_podhorzestatus/1791568604682391969
ShannonBream/status/1791483561675022624
Fritschnestatus/1791530635502239985
ElieNYC/status/1791616565697241566
markjacob16/status/1791479696661631337

Dear all,
Most recently I have been researching about what Gaming Laptop I should get myself. Since my early childhood I have been using playstation systems and my ignorance towards PC and Laptops and all jargon associated with this systems is making it hard for me to find a suitable Laptop to buy.
I have been doing research on my own and I came up with with the LENOVO Legion 5 15ACH6H and the ASUS TUF507ZU4-LP110. Now I believe these two fit in my criteria of being a future-proof Laptop,be able to run almost every game (at least single-player ones), within a budget of more or less 1000€ and that is able to be used professionally (for context I'll be taking a Master's soon and I expect this purchase is able to cope with basic office needs and research). Basically, I am hoping to strike a balance between gaming and work.
However the amount of research I make, however, simnce it'll be the first time I will be buying a new 'system' and that there is so many variants, options, devices and whatnot, I thought I should run this decision for people who are more understood than me in this subject.
As such, I am asking you if there is any possibility of someone guiding me towards what is the best to buy given the features im looking for.
Thanks in advance for all your replies.

I '28 M' am in a relationship with '28 F' since 10 months, it started as something casual but I wanted a real relationship and I told her that not long after. She took some time before she expressed the same envy as me, but I was not rushing it, I was sure we would be good together. We talked a lot, about everything, we had a good synergy, we wanted communication and to build up something solid, a real relationship that you don't throw away after the smallest problem because in this world it's easy to do so and to find something else. We talked about mental stability, the importance of it and the fact that, seeking help was always and for everyone no matter the problem, was always a good thing. We agreed on so much thing. I am in love, this was for me a revelation because after my past long relationship I could not find that again, the passion. But we now have issues, I'll describe each one of us so you understand better.
I'm a very positive person, I made the choice a long time ago to be happy and to see things as positive, if something bad or hard or not good happens to me I find a way to make it better, and then I go forward. I'm also very rational (not saying it's good it comes with difficulties), I see a couple as a team, the ultimate support from the outside, two people (for me it's two but it can be more, you do you) that chose each other every day, two people that are one each with lives and dreams and everything of their own but that sublime each other like a sunny day sublimes life. I'm convinced that two people can't be happy together without being happy with themselves. Or at least not in a beautiful equal relationship. I have absolutely no problem to tell when I'm wrong it is for me a good thing to be able to be wrong because it's a sign of progress and I'm always going for that.
She is very emotional and lives her emotions for the good and the bad. She can be immensely happy like I don't know if I can reach that state and/or very upset for small things like while driving. She is intelligent and open-minded about a lot of things. She does a lot of things like all the time, creativity and all. She sees the couple as the ultimate commitment, and comes from "failed" (her words) relationships, and for her things like marriage are really really a commitment to the end, she's afraid to waste her time and says it a lot, she made a lot of choices not for her but for the people she was with before and it made her career and her vision of her life be now far behind in the schedule she had for herself (she saw herself at 25 married, 27 kids and accomplished in her work). In my eyes she's an amazing woman that had to go through hard family stuff and relationships, she is smart and a beautiful person but that's in my eyes, not in hers.
Today I'm in pain, a lot of pain because every time something happens she tends to think for me and because she's afraid (that's what I'm thinking, I'm not sure and I'm not in her head so I can't know for sure) she makes me the bad guy. For example since month 5 she wants us to live together, I am right now living with her for most of the time (4-5 days a week) (she has a dog so it's easier if I'm at her place than the other way around) but for her it's not enough, she wants commitment and for her commitment is in living together all the time without what she calls "backup", I told her it was not my case and that for me committing to someone was in the small gestures every day, (bringing her tea when she works, offer massage when she had back pain, leaving small nots hidden in the apartment so she has some love shots, cooking things she likes, tender gestures and all. Not much but you see what I mean / do) I tried to make her see that I showed my love in other ways and she sees it and loves it but it's not enough, I asked about her and I found some things that I would be happy to do even if it was not my way of showing, but because it was what she wanted and the way that she did it, a couple is 2 people so I can also adapt and I told her that I was sure that one day I would be enthusiastic at the thought of co-signing a paper to live with her but right now I had to fight my urge to do it only to make her happy and make this choice for her and not for us or for me, I want it to come from me so it can mean something. The first time she told me to take my time that it was important and she would wait. But since then on each time I'm not here and there is a problem it comes back the "don't make me waste my time, you talk about this or that (like the house I would see us in one day, or kids or anything) but you can't even live with me" she's accusing and every time it destroys me, she is sure that if I'm not living with her right now it's because I'm not committed to us and I want a small romance. I'm all in the talking and sharing and I tried to reflect on that to see if I was the one in the wrong and it was as she described it and ended in a no, I know what I want for us, I want a solid relationship based on communication and love. Don't get me wrong I found myself to be clumsy sometimes with my wording and apologies about it when it leads to her misunderstanding me, communication is 2 ppl so it's as much my fault as her when the sentiment or the meaning of what I'm thinking and expressing through words don't get to her. Incomprehension is bound to happen, but if asked, I can always clarify because it is very clear in my head, when the incomprehension is on my end I ask, she clarifys, I understand and we continue. When it's her she builds up something in her head, she thinks for me it's escalading from that. 99% of our arguments start from her and 99% of our arguments are from misunderstandings (both our fault because communication is 2 ppl).
I see conflict as a failure in communication and I always try to talk through conflict because in my bones I know we love each other. When this happens, I can't reach her and she thinks for me again, and I try to clarify but it ends in arguments of authority like "it is what you think you just don't see it" or "you make excuses" when I don’t, and I know I don’t because it’s literally my head and everything is really simple for me.
I talked a lot about the bad stuff, but moments together are really amazing and I feel I'm living a dream, one day she woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me she had think and that she understood, it was her fault for not being able to "think" when she was in an emotional overflow, we discussed a bit about what I could do in the process to help her, she started reading a book about emotions and how to not being bullied by them and I'm also reading it to be a part of that and understand what she goes through. Since this night we had 2 arguments again on the same type of stuff, misunderstandings leading to thinking for me leading to overflow leading to conflict. I talked about the fact that I would see a therapist and if she wanted to find one to talk and take care of herself like we said it was important to do, and that it might help us. But she responded that she had no time for that, am I right to see it as a "I have no time to find a solution for us" or is it bad from me to want her to get help and firstly to assume that she needs it?
My mom is in depression right now and I'm helping her in the realization of it and in the getting help part I reassured her a lot about her self-esteem and all. I see some similarities in their behavior but I'm not a therapist and I don't want and can't be one for her.
I don't know what to do, I'm hurt, I'm sad I'm in pain every time we have an argument and I don't see any ladder to grab. Am I wrong for wanting her to not be aggressive toward me in her emotions? Is that wanting her to change and so it's wrong or is that wanting her to get better for her and by extension for us so it's good?
I'm lost. I'm sorry for the long post but I needed to write it, it is only my side of things so of course she must see it differently, she is a good person and she is in pain as much as I am, she has no control over all this I'm sure of it.
Thank you for the time you took
Not convinced on this tldr but here it is.
TLDR : is it legitimate for me to want my girlfriend to stop thinking for me and being accusatory based on what she think I'm thinking and not the real sentiment in my head. And to ask if she could as I am see a therapist to take care of her mental health so we can be better and move forward together?

So yes, I did it. I finally did it. I am now 29 years old and I have been fighting this thing since I am around 22 or so (I have been addicted to it since about 12, but I only actively started trying to get free from it later in life). Nobody can count how many times I tried, how many promises I made to myself, how many methods I used, how many books and articles I read, only to end up relapsing sooner or later, with the accompanying feelings of depression, hopelessness and failure. I've been through it all. I went to therapy. I had accountability buddies. I worked through the 12 steps with the help of a sponsor. I joined online sex addiction meetings. I took up a regular meditation practice. I went to the gym. I followed the SMART recovery method and attended online meetings. And yet, no matter how hard I tried, I. Always. Ended. Up. Relapsing. And for me, relapsing meant wanting to die. Feeling so down and so discouraged that it took weeks to go back to my "normal self". It meant affected relationships with my family and friends, and my job performance, not to speak of my interactions with women.
So if 5-6 months ago you had told me that in a few month's time I would be 100% PMO free, pursuing a dream that before seemed impossible (solo traveling through Asia), and forming dozens of meaningful relationships with attractive women who seemed attracted to me and my newfound confidence, I would have thought you were mad. Yet this is exactly what happened. (Now, obviously quitting PMO wasn't the only thing that led to this transformation, but it was definitely the catalyst without which none of the other things could have happened).
I want to share with you the method I followed to finally break free from this, because so far I haven't heard of anybody else discussing a similar approach. I really hope that what I have to share may be useful for some of you.
DISCLAIMER: This is the method that I followed, and for me it worked where nothing else had, but this doesn't mean that it will work for everyone. There's no such thing as a one-size-fits-all cure. You have to get to know yourself, get to know your own particular strengths and weaknesses, and work from there.
But before discussing the specifics of the approach, I think it is very important to understand the psychology behind it. This is the most important part. In other words, you have to understand why the method works in the way it does. It has to make sense to you. Otherwise you'd be just blindly following a recipe, which is no good.
So allow me to suggest a thought experiment. Now, the premise of it may sound a bit extreme, but it's just meant to illustrate a point. Please bear with me, and really go through it in yourself. Please for the moment set aside any objections you may have, and just try to imagine as vividly as you can the situation. Otherwise, the rest of what I have to say will not be very meaningful.
Imagine you were to insert a small device in yourself (just use your imagination) which, as soon as you intentionally watched pornography or ejaculated to masturbation, would release a poison that would instantly kill you. There's no way to remove this device, and it is completely infallible. It will know, as soon as you intentionally watch porn or orgasm to masturbation and just kill you.
Now, ask yourself this: would you, in this case, be tempted to watch porn or masturbate? Don't answer rationally, really take a moment to construct the scenario in your mind, and imagine how would it feel. How would you feel if you knew that porn would literally, instantly kill you?
If you're like me, the answer is obvious: I wouldn't even be tempted to watch porn anymore. In a way, it would cease to be a problem altogether. There wouldn't be a struggle anymore. It would be a no-brainer. No matter how many urges I had, I wound't for a second consider doing it. The problem would be over.
This realization for me was a game-changer, because thinking about it in this way showed me that in truth, I do have the capacity to stop watching porn (since in an extreme situation I would be able to do it without a problem). The problem, of course, is that in real life my urge to watch porn could always find that little window of space to insert itself into my thought patterns and lead me down the old path, no matter how much my rational self knew how bad it was for me.
So in a way the problem for me become how to engineer a situation where the consequences of watching porn and masturbating would be so dire and immediate, that the thought of it would simply cease to occur to me. The practicalities of it are quite straightforward, and in a sense the least important part of it all. Very simply, what I did was to make a solemn promise to my best friend (who already knew about my struggles) that if I ever watched porn or orgasmed to masturbation, I would tell him what had happened in detail, and donate a substantial amount of money to the charity of my choice. This arrangement would last for an entire month, after which I had the option of discussing with him a different strategy or changing the approach.
Knowing myself, I knew that once I had made this promise, I would definitely honor it. And so, from that point on I was in a very interesting psychological state, in which in a way I had ceased to struggle against pornography. It's almost as if before I was telling myself: "don't do it! You shouldn't do it!" and then having to fight against the resistance this created in myself, whereas now, I was telling myself: "You want to do it? Fine! Go ahead and watch porn. Do it if you want. Just know that when you do, you will have to pay a substantial amount of your savings to your friend." And after this, I simply wasn't tempted to do it anymore. Now, of course for the first weeks I had urges, but resisting them was not a problem anymore. It took away the charge of doing something "forbidden" from it.
I have stopped counting how many days I have been PMO free. It's been since mid-december 2023 and honestly, I don't really care. I can truly say that my life has been completely transformed, and this has been one of the most meaningful things I have done in my life. I am extremely grateful at this new opportunity for living.
I hope any of what I have said makes sense to you, and if it doesn't, I hope you find something else that does. I'd be happy to answer any questions in the comments. I left out many details because otherwise the post would have been even longer.
May you achieve your goals and live free and happy!

Juelz cancelled her Siwa live and deleted her Siwa comments on other's lives. Siwa is a witness for Flea in his case against Brooke and he can't have Liability messing it up so she has to stay quiet for now. Meanwhile Kendra, who went hard for Juelz, will be the easy target thrown under the bus! So it's Siwa vs Kendra with Juelz relegated to covering Gen and Kooch.