Tickling stories pee

Long story short me and her are really close but she has some mental healing to do which she didn’t do and decided to latch onto someone new during us just being friends or something for the starting point of 2024 she strung me along well she moved away and came back to see her family for a couple days over that she made it clear she was trying to see “where it goes” with the new guy while saying she wasn’t ready for a serious relationship. (Sounded like a fling or an attachment. For the sake of the guy) remember I said she had couple mental healing to do well I took note of all this and it seem like she don’t know what she was doing while thinking she was , well anyways she was suppose to come on Thursdays and I called her way before telling her to come chill wich she said yes I know weird right , and well tonight Friday at 1:45 pm I called to assure her I won’t be home till after work and she picked up but suddenly hun up so later on I tried to go to sleep when the phone rang . Long story shorty she said why did I call and blah blah blah the guy kicked her out which I was oblivious she was with him since she said he was in Arkansas , well she ended up coming to my house and talked she was somewhat drunk and said he reminded her of me my past self which was bad it all sounded bad from where telling me he said something about killing her if she did something and that he pointed the gun at her and told her to put it in her mouth and such . This is what she told me from her drunk self she took my whiskey and got more wasted which led me to take away her keys and carry her into the bathroom and helping her out her pee stained clothes mind you she wasn’t unconscious and was consentful well I noticed what appeared to be bruises on her chest which turned out to be hickies of course smh (she can’t let anybodfuck and should create boundaries ) after all that I told her if he hit her and she said that he took advantage of her and she just kind of went blank drunk and I threw her on my bed and she is sleeping at my house next to me while I have to get up to work at in 45 minutes it’s 5:27 and I’m on the verge of bei fired if I don’t show up I’ll get terminated and I haven’t slept all night idk what to feel I feel kinda ashamed since I knew she wasn’t making a right decision with him but did it out of something maybe an attachment or validation she told me what type of guy she wanted but she attracts people like “me” I’m not a bad guy just had bad action in the past which I’m well on moved on since she left while she jumped to quick into something without even working on her self or her mental health

'Who else has this' is a community for collectors or Redditors who just have something cool they think is rare or valuable and they want to see if anybody else on reddit has the same item(s) to get an idea of how rare or valuable that item may be.
I hope you tell the little story about how the item ended up in your possession.
Which can open the discussion of possible value or demand for said item.
This community is about items and things, this does NOT include;

• body parts
• people
• pets
• health related blemishes
• poop or pee

DON'T BE GROSS!!!
Examples of things to post about;

• toys (yes! all kinds, don't forget the NSFW)
• collectibles
• things you found
• antiques
• interesting crap you have in storage

My kid is potty training, and to help him along, I started making up a story about two friends. It gets him to sit longer. Anyway, after about 5 iterations I ran out of creative steam and turned to chatgpt's voice assist to put a spin on it. I'm not normally very descriptive with the voice prompts - it's usually something like "tell me a story about a dragon named Taco who needs to potty" and let her rip. But this time, I explained that one does everything faster or first, and the other tags along eventually.
Well after tonight's gpt version of "The Adventures of Peepee and Poopoo" came out awesome, my kid did the thing, and all was right in the world. My wife walked in right as it was all going down, and I set my phone on the edge of the tub and celebrated with my family.
Then, out of nowhere, ChatGPT starts talking - "That sounds like such a positive and encouraging moment! It's great to celebrate these little milestones with such enthusiasm. Your words and encouragement really make a big difference for your toddler. Keeping the mood light and supportive like that helps build their confidence. How’s the potty training journey going overall?"
I was immediately freaked out, as was my wife, and I scrambled to click whatever I had to to get it to stop listening. But, I have to say, it's nice to have a robot in your corner to point out that you're doing things in a good way.
I can post the whole story to anyone who wants it, or what I was saying before it cheered me on.

I don't know where to post this so I am asking here. The question is the title but the long story is thus:
I live in rural southern Ontario (Canada) and we have been seeing a tom around for the last while. In normal circumstances, not an issue, but my one female cat (spayed) has been under serious anxiety since he has been visiting our house. She has been attacking the other cats in the house, peeing everywhere, stopping eating, and just overall being on edge. I have taken her to the vet, gotten a clean bill of health and put her on antianxiety meds. The meds have helped but have not solved her need to mark everywhere in the house. My other family members began talking of rehoming but, considering she has so many behavioural issues now, that would not be on the table (not to mention she is my little girl and I love her more than the sun). One family member was getting to the end of his rope and is threatening taking her outside and ending things. Given that is not an option I will even consider, I decided to buy a trap and trap this stray tom, which after a few tries, I have successfully trapped him. He is huge, fluffy, matted, angry, missing most of his ears, has what I think is mange and battle scars.
So he needs vet treatment and to be rehomed. I cannot afford this after spending essentially my life savings on getting my own cat tested at the vet and buying the prescribed medications (it's been about 4500$ for all of it so far). How can I find a rescue that will take him in? The ones in my area are literally not picking up the phone or answering their emails. I am quite desperate as the one problematic family member may end up taking the drastic measures with him when I am out in an attempt to "solve the problem".
Tldr; Can anyone recommend a rescue in southern Ontario that will take a stray tom in for vet care and rehoming asap?

Adaptation is a game of give and take. Especially when you're adapting something from film to the stage, you have to be aware of what you are losing by removing from the piece when placing all of it in real time in front of the actors. With film you can use close-ups, montages, quick editing, lighting tricks, visual effects etc to create your world. The suspension of belief in film can be harder to keep in tact because we expect a degree of realism from it. In the theater, we know everything we're watching is an artifice. We know the sets are made of cardboard. We know the ocean is shiny plastic. We know that's not real blood or a real knife. You're going into this with a much higher suspension of belief than in film where the goal is often to mimic real life as much as humanly possible. One bad visual effect can break the whole movie. Think of how many reviews, good and bad, couldn't help but mention the less than great visuals in the final battle in the first Black Panther film. On stage, you have the benefit of actors being able to respond in real time to anything that goes wrong and because that person is right in front of us, we have that connection with them and we can go along for the ride much easier than with film. That give and take can make or break an adaptation because for whatever you take away you have to justify that choice by adding something to it. Many adaptations, regardless of the medium, don't always do this and if they do they don't fully understand why what they removed worked. Anastasia is one such example of this because while they do try to add new elements to the story, it almost feels like an entirely different show. But to explain the intricacies of that we need to go back, all the way back.
Don Bluth made a name for himself primarily in the 80's after leaving Disney and creating his own animated films. His work was seen by many as anti-Disney because of the complexity of themes, darker subject matter and animation style that wasn't afraid to be uncomfortable or ugly. That's the general perception of his work but I'd also argue that the relationships between the characters in his films were much more fleshed out and complex than a lot of the stuff Disney was releasing at the time or after. Bluth wasn't afraid to have his characters be rude or mean or cowardly or insecure. The protagonist wasn't always a hero in the purest sense and oftentimes characters would act in a way we'd consider realistic. If they were in a scary situation, they'd run away or try to get out of it. If it was a situation that could benefit them, they'd try to profit to the fullest. Bluth placed his characters in worlds that were very mean and cruel but this only served to heighten the moments of joy and levity. As the 90's rolled on and Disney managed to climb back to the top of the mountain, Bluth did what he could to try to keep up. He didn't see a ton of success in the 90's largely because while at times he tried to ape the Disney formula, they still felt like watered down Don Bluth films.
Enter Lynn Arhens and Stephen Flathery.
In the 90's, these two were some of the biggest names in musical theater with projects like Once On This Island and Ragtime under their belts, to name a few. Lynn Arhens is actually a personal hero and inspiration of mine and oddly enough not for her theater work, although I'm a huge fan of that as well. I grew up watching Schoolhouse Rock as a kid and I actually learned how to write songs while watching those videos. Laugh all you want but you tell me how'd you explain something as complex as parts of grammar or the solar system or the revolutionary war in three minutes or less, for children no less. Her superpower is being able to explain a lot of information in a very short amount of time while having you sing along. Another thing she excels at is making songs the audience can actually leave the theater humming. That being said, it's worth contextualizing the world in which the bulk of their success was born.
Much like Democrats shell shocked by the Republican successes of the 90's, everyone not named Andrew Lloyd Webber was still in a state of awe and envy due to the massive success of Phantom of the Opera, Cats and Evita. The mega musical was born in the 80's and as we tap danced into the 90's, everyone else was trying to catch up. A characteristic of musicals from this era was that they all had that one big song they could perform just about everywhere to pull people in who otherwise may have never given the show a second glance. This was often the catchiest song in the show, oftentimes the opener, and the rest of the songs could range from equally good to songs you'd skip on the soundtrack. This is very much an approach that Arhens and Flathery would use and while I wouldn't say any of their songs were outright bad, there's often quite a bit of fluff. On the flip side, the 90's Disney animated musicals maybe had 5 to 7 songs and there was definitely an economy of time at play here. Today an animated film can be two hours, in the 90's this was far from the case. Every song needed to have a specific function within the story and character development. Rarely would you get songs that are just there to be there. Les Poissons is an example of this. The court of miracles and gargoyles number from Hunchback are also examples. But usually the stronger films like Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King etc were very careful about how many songs and where they were placed. In theater, you can cut and remove songs during previews or even during the run of the show. Outside of doing test screenings, film doesn't really afford you this unless you're early enough in production that the changes can be done in a reasonable amount of time. It's not like Disney could've released a new version of Hunchback as it was in theaters if audiences weren't responding to A Guy Like You. All of this is important because while Don Bluth was very much aping Disney's style at the time, it was clear he was trying to bring elements of the theater to the film as well.
Anastasia the film for all its flaws, and we'll get to those, is a pretty tight narrative and nearly every single song serves some sort of narrative or character based purpose. If a character is singing there is a reason why and that character is important in some way. A big part of the reason why it works is because while it's definitely inspired by The Mouse's then current offerings, it still very much feels like a Don Bluth film. The concept of even turning this story into a musical is very off-beat and in-tune with what Bluth would normally make. I can't imagine Disney making The Secret of Nimh but I can imagine Bluth trying and succeeding at making The Black Cauldron. I really don't see Disney ever making a film like All Dog's Go to Heaven but I can definitely see Bluth doing something really interesting with The Great Mouse Detective. His style is dark and evocative and isn't afraid to make you deeply uncomfortable or sad. Anastasia definitely toes the line but there's sequences in there I just cannot imagine Disney ever doing. The sequence for Once Upon a December is so haunting, melancholy, deeply sad and yet hopeful. Anything having to do with those weird demon things, especially when they try to get Anya to commit suicide, is something Eisner would never let his animators do. At the same time, the relationship between Anya and Demitri feels less like a fairytale romance but honestly like a 90's Meg Ryan romcom. They argue like normal people. They joke with each other like an actual couple would. They feel very realistic and realistic relationships between characters is something Bluth excels at. Because the worlds he creates are usually pretty ugly in some ways, it allows for the relationships to be more grounded. You wouldn't but Anya falling for Demitri in a day like Ariel did for Eric because the world the former couple inhabits feels harsher and therefore the characters have more grit. That being said the film does have flaws that become very relevant once we start talking about the stage version:
1) The villain does not feel properly integrated into the story. Most Disney villains had some kind of relationship with the protagonist that sets the main conflict into motion. Ursula is the one who conducts the spell. Scar is both Simba's uncle and kills Mufasa. Jafar is the first main character we ever see and he's the one who finds Aladdin. Rasputin is in the opening and he does set up the main conflict but there's no relationship between him and the protagonists. They don't even know he's alive until the last ten minutes of the film. He impact the narrative but he definitely could have been woven into the narrative more. I think confining him to the underworld was a mistake. With some slight reworking, you could have had him appearing as some of the randos Anastasia meets along her journey or even have the orphanage owned by him a la Mister Sinister. The setting and time period feels more like a suggestion than any sort of adherence to historical accuracy so they could've gone wild.
2) Most of the stuff in Paris feels like a completely separate movie. The last song we get is Key to Your Heart, which is also the closest we get to fluff, and there's no song within the film proper until after that. At the Beginning absolutely slaps but it should've been in the actual film. Everything after Sophie's song is fine but the film takes on a much more serious and grounded tone until Rasputin decides to remind us he's in the movie. The somewhat surreal tone and the momentum the film had comes to a screeching halt once we get to Paris. That being said, it's still a very good portion of the film but it doesn't really match with anything else in the first two acts.
3) Rasputin's motivations aren't entirely clear. He's still alive because the curse hasn't been fulfilled, I think. He wants to die forreal but that only happens if Anya is offed and even then that's ambiguous. Does he wanna die? Does he wanna be human again? Did he want power of any sort? If he wants to fulfill the curse to move on, we see he bites the dust quite literally once Anya breaks the glowing thingy anyway. It's a cartoon so you could say don't think too hard about it but the logic falls apart the exact second you analyze it. Why not have Bartok just smash the thing once he realizes it's still active? Why does Rasputin want the Romanovs dead so damn badly? His reasonings aren't explained well in the beginning so his actions feel more like an act of interia that anything else.
4) The side characters are kinda annoying. Vlad is mostly okay because he serves a definite role in the story as playing the more level headed one to Demitri's more fiery personality. Sophie starts to grate on my nerves but whenever she does they shunt her out of the film. The mandatory cute animal sidekicks range from irritating to please make it stop.
For what it's worth, the stage adaptation exercises both animal sidekicks largely be consequence of this version trying to be more historical fiction rather than a Disney Renaissance style musical. That brings us to one of the biggest and most controversial changes in the stage version, Gleb. He's a Russian officer who is torn between his feelings for Anya and his duty to the cause. He replaced Rasputin as the main threat. With Gleb, they do rectify points 1 and 3 but this is not without losing much of the energy Rapustin injects into the piece. For all his faults, Rasputin and his weird demon things move shit from Point A to Point B while also being very entertaining at the same time. Gleb has more of a motivation than Rasputin but the story comes to a screeching halt whenever we have to focus on him. He is in love with Anya because she's hot I guess and we get so many songs of this dude belting for the gods about how much he wants her but he can't pursue her. There are a total of three songs counting reprises that are dedicated to this and they're basically all the same. Gleb wants to bone, he has daddy issues and we move on. He interacts with her more but there is no reason he should be this blue balled over a chick he does not know. Anya and Demitri still have great chemistry and the plot is reworked to give them more time together. I like their dynamic more in the film but the musical does this fine but just differently. Anya doesn't really even know Gleb nor that he wants to see if the curtains match the drapes. So we're stuck in this completely unnecessary lopsided love triangle that makes Wolverine, Scott and Jean Grey's bullshit seem like Shakespeare. There is almost zero evolution within Gleb's many croons about how much he wants to bang this chick. He comes to basically the same revelation every single time so whenever he gets a song it's basically time for a pee break. Unlike Rapustin who at least gets an entertaining last fight and death, Gleb doesn't really even get that. He corners her, she goes full on Malala and tells him to do what he's gotta do, he chickens out and dips. They try to give it some weight by having Anya comfort him but she doesn't know this man and she certainly doesn't know he's in love with her. It feels even less powerful than the original ending because at least Rasputin actually killed her family so there's some connection there. Gleb is the son of the guy who was involved so his connection to any of this is nebulous at best. Why not just make him an ex-boyfriend or orphan she grew up with? Why not actually just make him the dad Gleb keeps referring to? Rasputin actually wants her dead and the story moves mostly because of his machinations behind the scenes. Gleb feels shoehorned into this narrative and he's not even entertaining while he's there. His songs are slow, repetitive and he has no real personality.
This is not the only change they made to the story. Vlad now has a mini subplot where he's trying to get back Sophie, now named Lily. This means she's in the story a lot more than she was previously and they don't succeed in making her less annoying. In film, a character can bounce in and out of the narrative without us questioning why they're not there. Theater is a bit different because you can't really have characters that just show up and never appear again. It's been done but usually they'll have the actor play a dual role in the story as well. Lily gets a lot more to do and I'm sorry but almost every song she gets besides the one from the film are also pee break songs. Land of Yesterday just feels like a Russian version of If I Knew Then from Beetlejuice but with much less relevance to the story. The Empress also gets a song now and while it's more memorable than any of the stuff Gleb or Lily get, there's no reason for it to be there. Some composers feel the compulsion to make every single emotional beat a song and while I understand that desire, you don't need it. Honestly my first time seeing the show, I started laughing when she busted out singing because it's so random. The original film got the point across without this and the musical does not expand on her character in any way so there's nothing new to communicate here. Maybe they felt the character should sing more but even without Close the Door, she gets some parts in other songs. This is an example of the fluff I was referring to earlier.
But for everything they added, they removed a lot of stuff but tried to play it down the middle. For example, in the film Rasputin tries to get Anastasia to kill herself by giving her an enchanting dream that turns into a nightmare. Demetri saves her life, she now has learned to trust him more and we move on. In the musical, Rapustin no longer exists but the scene does in a way. Now she has a nightmare about her family being killed where she Demetri comforts her as he does before but there's no narrative reason for this scene to be here. By this point, they've had more moments to build the romantic connection so it feels redundant. They also want to give us a reason to lead into the song where they realize they both know each other and that she's really Anastasia. It's a very flimsy setup and the film did this much better by having Demetri be the one who saved her life. It also undercuts his character development by a lot. There's no scene where he rejects the money. He doesn't have a personal connection to Anya or her grandmother like he did before. His character is neutered a lot in this version and doesn't come off as selfless as he did before. He turns down the money but not only does he have less of a reason to that now, that reveal feels much less powerful. His character isn't even involved in saving her life towards the end. While they do get more time to bond in this version, I just don't feel like they added enough to justify some of these changes.
I don't quite understand why they chose to go the route of realism with the musical. Maybe they're responding to people who thought the more fantastical elements were out of place but as we can see without that, the story doesn't have much of a reason to be a musical. There's an older movie version of this story with Ingrid Bergman that hits a lot of the same beats as the 90's version. That version is decidedly not a musical and also isn't that great of a film either. This isn't the easiest story to make compelling and the 90's version threaded the needle as best as it could. By using the story of Anastasia as more of a jumping off point for the type of fairytale musical audiences had become used to, it managed to make the story more removed from the actual real life Anastasia who did in fact die, although that was not known back then. The musical leans too much into the history and it just doesn't work. There are dark shows that deal with heavy subject matter. The Color Purple is basically just Beat My Ass: The Musical. But that show isn't also trying to be a romantic whimsical experience, Anastasia very much is. I wish they had just kept Rapustin, weaved him into the story more naturally and gave him a stronger personal connection to Anastasia and kept the darker non-history related elements in the show. The movie is plenty dark at times but the history and political struggle is given a passing mention in the opening and is rarely ever brought up again unless to refer to actual murders. The musical felt like Bridge of Spies set to music with how much focus they put on the political aspect of the story. That does not mesh and I think it's part of the reason why this show doesn't have as strong of a following as the film. It's not ungodly awful, but it doesn't justify its existence.

Because dramatic stories are spread more widely, I thought I’d share my first cystoscopy experience today - which ruled out bladder cancer for me after regular blood in urine and a positive CX Bladder triage test.
As a mom of four (aged 46) who gave birth naturally, I wondered if I would experience any stinging or pain with the procedure.
The doctor put anaesthetic gel and I felt no pain or stinging. There was very minor discomfort from the tube, but the most discomfort (feeling like I needed to pee) was from him pushing gently on my full bladder after, which was also not as bad as doing an ultrasound with a full bladder!
So far, I have been to the toilet three times since (four hours post/ procedure) and no discomfort, stinging, or blood in my urine.
Hope this helps someone.
Edited to add - a Pap smear is way more uncomfortable than cystoscopy.

My head is fucked up. I’m not sure if I was born like this or if it was a result of childhood trauma but anyways, I’ll get straight to the point. I have been abused by my father my entire life and only recently managed to get away from him. When I was about 11 I remember lying in bed whilst my father and step mother were quite loudly having sex in the next room, and I suddenly got a strange feeling with I now know to be arousal. It went from the odd thought here and there to every time after he was done hitting me amongst other things I would end up going into the bathroom and masturbating to make the feeling go away. I always felt sick afterwards and any other time in any other situation if I thought about him that way I felt icky and gross and I was not attracted to him in the slightest. The same thing happened with my then 14 year old brother (I was 16) when he started being incredibly sexually and non sexually abusive. He would threaten to set my bed and curtains on fire while I slept and said he would slit my wrists when I was asleep and because social services were already involved in my life because I had been self harming and making attempts at my life that they would think I had done it myself. I tried to set up booby traps and put a bouncy ball on my door handle so when he opened the door at night it would bounce off the floor and wake me up. He would follow me around the streets if I ever left the house and would stand outside the bathroom whilst I was on the toilet and listen to me pee then go back into his bedroom. And I hated him. I still do hate him and I can’t wait for him to die but for some reason when I was a teen I would always get vivid thoughts about him in my head whenever I was “in the mood” when I was alone and as much as I hate to say this, I enjoyed them. I have also fantasised about killing him and at one point I would think up fake stories in my head about me becoming a vampire (twilight had a strong hold on me) and dragging him out into the woods and confronting him about everything and making him feel guilt and torturing him and I would lay there thinking about all the ways I wanted to hurt him. I am also a pathological liar. I’m not sure why. Lies just flow through me when I am talking and I have gotten so good at lying that sometimes I begin to believe myself. I will just slip little useless harmless lies into every conversation I have. For example if someone said they have just gotten back from holiday I would then tell them a story about the time when I was on holiday and we accidentally went into the wrong hotel and got stuck there for hours and laugh about it but none of it is true. I have never even BEEN in an aeroplane! I just always need to have something to say about everything. I feel as though I have surpassed a level of conscious thought that I have never seen another human talk about. I haven’t brushed my teeth in months and my teeth are still white. We as humans have softened ourselves frighteningly in the sense that we are not designed to shower or brush our teeth or have phones or houses or wear clothes or shoes. But now if someone does not have/do those things they are considered strange? Why is no one else I see panicking about the fact that death is inescapable and that no matter what there is pain that comes along with it. We are all born just to suffer and die. Another reason why I believe there is no such thing as god. I believe there is a higher power too incomprehensible for our weak little minds to understand or even perceive. But in all of the possibilities of existence and the idea of existence itself it seems highly unlikely to me that it was ALL created by a black/white/other man with a long beard created all humans by putting a man and a woman in a garden and telling them not to have sex (forbidden fruit). ITS ALL BULLSHIT. And I feel great sympathy for every person out there with a faith like that because they are dedicating their lives to a lie. Also the whole hell and devil thing seems like a steamy pile of bullshit too. Wayyyy to specific like as if the UNIVERSE is that lazy to make it ALL about a man in the sky who forces suffering upon us all yet we still blindly devote our lives to him? Doesn’t sit right with me. Anyways I don’t expect anyone to read this but in short I am in a constant state of panic and fear and confusion and anger and sadness and there is no point to life yet I am more terrified than ever to loose it because what if being dead is worse and more depressing that being alive?? EITHER WAY WERE ALL SCREWED.

TLDR: Three Body Problem feels like the Big Bang Theory of hard sci-fi.
It seems that everybody acknowledges the characterization and writing in general in the novels is pretty lackluster, but are blown away by the big ideas laid out by Cixin Liu. The novels are described as hard sci-fi, but as far as I can tell the big sci-fi ideas presented by Liu are mostly a hand-wavy mess and have been more deeply and competently explored in other novels. In isolation most of the hand-waving is fine just to keep the story rolling but taken together it makes the entire premise of the universe fall apart for me. Here's a few examples:
 
Xenolinguistics: pretty much completely glossed over in the novels, and completely hand-waved away by the "Self-Interpreting Code" developed by the Chinese. I'm generally ok with hand-waving away this problem, but IMO it would be less offensive if the Trisolarans as the advanced race had some sort of magic computer (the Sophons?) that could interpret our language. The Self-Interpreting Code is a prime example of Liu throwing sci-fi words at a problem to hand-wave it away and move the plot forward.
Other books that explore this topic:

• Embassytown by China Mieville -- story about an alien race that can't lie
• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir -- huge chunks of this book are dedicated to the process of figuring out how to communicate
• Story of Your Life by Ted Chiang -- great short story, or just watch Arrival

 
Alien Societies: The implications of a planet that regularly undergoes cataclysmic disasters isn't really deeply explored. Everything about the Trisolarans is same-same-but-different to humanity. We only get a limited glimpse of their world, but there's a similar political hierarchy, evidently have similar enough language that communication is a breeze, have similar motivations. Even their hours and life-spans are about the same as ours. The hours stick out to me (one Trisolaran hour is ~53 minutes) -- Liu goes to the trouble of making a new time measurement system, but it's exactly the same as ours just slightly different without any explanation. (I recognize that they don't measure days or years since that would be meaningless which is a nice touch, and has also been done before)
Other books that explore this topic: Honestly there's too many to count, but one worth calling out is A Deepness In the Sky by Vernor Vinge, since that takes place on a planet with regular cataclysms as well, and is a much fuller exploration of those societies.
 
Higher and Lower Dimensions: I thought this had some potential, but to me was just another example of Liu throwing sci-fi sounding words at a problem to move the plot forward. There's superficial treatment of higher dimensions projecting onto ours at best and the rest of it devolves into mush pretty quickly.
Other books that explore this topic: Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. A truly weird book that explores what life in a two-dimensional universe would be like.
 
I'm sure there are more, and this isn't even touching on simple technical issues in the plot that made me facepalm. (Prime example: the police force pulling out a scale during a raid to weigh the alleged nuclear weapons possessed by the ETO. Are SWAT teams regularly weighing things during raids?? If you're going to deus ex machina your way through here, just give them Geiger counters.). I'm seeing a lot of discourse give Liu a pass because of cultural differences, but as someone of Chinese descent I think this makes it seem like there's a bigger cultural gulf between East and West than there is between Trisolarans and humans. Chinese people aren't aliens.
I'm open to being wrong and I'd love to hear what other big ideas blew people away, but I'm a huge fan of hard sci-fi and this honestly felt like the Big Bang Theory of hard sci-fi: just enough sci-fi buzzwords to tickle readers' interest, just enough science that it sounds complicated and makes the reader feel like they've learned something, but no real depth to any of it.
Edit: fixed formatting

I met my boyfriend in the summer of 2020 on tinder. I had flings and whatnot before him but he’s my first serious relationship. Right away I knew we were something special by the way I could be truly and unapologetically myself around him. He pushes me to chase my dreams and not suppress them like my parents often do. He makes me laugh so hard, I cry and even pee my pants a few times. He’s the most handsome man I’ve ever seen and I see so much kindness in his soul. We finish each others sentences all the time and align on mostly all important values. I have extreme social anxiety and choose not to have friends after high school besides my sister. Besides her, he felt like home right away and I knew this was not something I wanted to let go of.
My parents are very judgmental and always seem to find things they don’t like in people. My boyfriend was in the navy before we met and opened up about having some ptsd to them. He also told them about having a tougher childhood since his dad was a navy seal and was not a good person. Ever since then, my mom always makes comments about how “he’s a scary person, he’s messed up in the head, his childhood trauma will affect me”. He has never laid a finger on me, he’s never insulted me and the arguments we have, we both resolve in a healthy manner.
In 2022, I made a very dumb decision to co-sign on a car with him. I regret agreeing to this everyday because even though our situation wouldn’t be much better with my family’s opinions, it still would be better than now. The plan was for this to be our car together when we moved to a big city together but the move fell through and we had to come back home. My parents are stable enough that I was able to move back in home and figure out a job situation in the mean time. He wasn’t so lucky and had to move in with a friend who lives in a country area without a lot of job opportunities. He missed one payment because of this and didn’t contact me for a few days because he was so ashamed to face me and tell me this. I told my family and they freaked out, thinking he was trying to run away with the car but he finally reached back out and was feeling the worst he ever had. They made me block him and we went to take the car from him. The months after, he still was paying for it even though I was the one driving it.
For a whole year, the only contact we had was talking about the car and money. During this time, I felt like I lost the other half of my heart. I went on many, many dates in this time and even if they were perfectly nice and fine, I felt zero desire to pursue anything with them. We started secretly seeing each other but I would stop every time in fear of my family finding out. Finally in summer 2023, I was fed up with these men who were nothing in the same realm as my boyfriend and we started seeing each other on the weekends. Then he moved into my apartment in December. He has a stable job and pays the majority of the household bills. We hid it from my family this whole time until my mom was in the area and stopped in the store we were shopping at. He was going to go to the back of the store but she came in before he had the chance. She became cold and made an excuse she had to go with no hug or saying I love you.
I was berated by my sister and mom mostly saying I betrayed them and thought I was only going back to him because I didn’t want to be alone and just wanted to be comfortable. My biggest wish is for them to see him in the way I do. My sister says she will never forgive him and my dad told me to never marry him or have kids with him. My sister is two years older than me and always complains about how men are just cheaters, only want one thing and aren’t worth it. My boyfriend is not like this at all and I wish she could see that and how truly happy I am. Since he moved in, this is the best my life has been except for the family issues now. We would be married by now if it weren’t for my family’s feelings and every time I talk to them I feel like I’m walking on eggshells. My sister won’t talk to me and we used to talk every day. I truly feel he is my soulmate and I know I would regret it for the rest of my life if I left him because I love him immensely. I cry every night because I don’t want to disappoint my family but he is my person and I know it. What are your thoughts on the situation?
Edit: This is the full story. I tried to be as detailed as possible to show how irrational I feel like my family is regarding our relationship. I don’t feel like any of my boyfriend’s actions have warranted this kind of reaction from them but I think it comes down to them unfortunately just not liking him as a person which hurts me also. I also appreciate the kind words, thank you ❤️

so i (20f) recently moved into a 3 story townhouse and made friends with the ange (18f) who moved in before me, she and i have had a great living situation so far until the last room got rented out to this new girl who im gonna call T for now(unknown age), T moved in like a month ago and ever since then has absolutely taken over our house, she has moved my food from the shelf i originally had it on and then proceeded to take over 2 of the 3 shelves same with our fridge as well, she has littered the counter tops with all of her kitchen ware not even trying to put it away and refuses to move it at all when we ask and even went as far as to tell us we are not allowed to use any of the kitchen ware like utensils or plates but uses ours whenever she wants to and actually told ange to move her stuff out of one of the cabinets so she can add a religous shrine in it and when ange said no T did it anyway and threw it all away, we have three thermostats and T has been turning all of them to 75 degrees and up while its hot outside and has even gone as far as to change the temperature on ange's floor (ange lives on the first floor alone while T and i are on the top floor), T has also brought this deisgusting smell into the house with her, ange and i both came upstairs at different times for laundry and the top floor smelled so horrible that we gagged and had to leave, T has even opened my bedroom door without my permission after i specifically said not to because i have my dog holly in there and i didnt want my dog to pee in the house somewhere, T has actually run and hid in a corner from my dog who not even 5 pounds and screamed at ange to "get it away" ,we are absolutley tired of this and trying to figure out how to get rid of her because we fear if we tell the landlord he wont care because ange is hispanic and im white but both T and our landlord are from india. ange will be moving in august but im here for another year, is there a way i can get her to move out on her own without filing a complaint to the landlord?

To give a little back story. I '21M' and my ex '20F' were together for a year and some months, and it went very well here and there an argument but nothing unhealthy. Now, everything changed at one point. She got her first panic attack in a wile at the end of our relationship, I was there for her when she had one. But it kept getting worse.
Now at one point I got the opportunity to go to France on an internship for a month and after discussing it with her for a Lil bit she agreed. And during my internship few things happend and there everything went wrong (she din't cheet btw). I came back from internship and a few weeks later our relationship was done.
We talked about it but together and we decided to end it. It doesn't work anymore.
Now almost a year a half later I ran into her again and we started talking to each other. She has another love and I don't.
Now it comes
She also works at my student job where I was absent that year and a half. Now when she sees me now then She acts friendly to me, more like flirtatious. and always touches me when she sees an opportunity. Equally tickling or deliberately bumping into me
2:when we were talking she was subtly asking if I had feelings and if we could ever be together again. And that our relationship would work.
3:The reason why it was done between us was because she got those panic attacks with me purely because of a certain room in my house and because of a perfume I was wearing at the time. Apparently that was some kind of trigger to her first attack.
4:I thought my feelings were gone for her but when I saw her again everything came back to the surface and I am completely confused.
5: When we talked about our relationship to clear up some things she got emotional and regretted that we couldn't better communicate then what was going on Advice for what tot do is welcome and your opinion for inside.

"𝖄𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖒𝖔𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖓 𝖌𝖔𝖉𝖘 𝖒𝖊𝖆𝖓 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖘..."

• Does any of this tickle your fancy, family? Southern Gothic, Appalachian Horror, Cottagecore, Cryptids, and Werewolves
• Are you an advanced, literate/novella-style writer who often breaks the discord character limit and are tired of searching for like-minded individuals?
• Do you enjoy putting your characters through the fires of hell?
• Do you like a good mystery?

All of this (and more) can be found in Werewolf, RUN!
Werewolf, RUN!'s concept is unique but simple: there are anonymous werewolf players (yes, you do not know who is writing a werewolf) with the ability to attack the server each full moon. Our schedule coincides with the real-life lunar cycle. These players secretly choose their targets and then the chaos is revealed during a monthly plot drop. A dice-rolling system determines whether or not your character becomes a werewolf too, if bitten. There are additional, advanced roles that can potentially help in the fight against the werewolves or even cure them!
It is set in a small farming town in Virginia named Briar Ridge. The year is 1929. While this is Prohibition, this is not a story for mobsters. No, this story is about the hardworking moonshiners and bootleggers. It's about the home they co me back to after they're done in New York or Chicago. And the home that may no longer be standing if they cannot fight back against the werewolves quickly enough.
https://discord.gg/8jCcWQ7kMd

"𝖄𝖔𝖚𝖗 𝖒𝖔𝖉𝖊𝖗𝖓 𝖌𝖔𝖉𝖘 𝖒𝖊𝖆𝖓 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖕𝖆𝖗𝖙 𝖔𝖋 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖔𝖔𝖉𝖘..."

• Does any of this tickle your fancy, family? Southern Gothic, Appalachian Horror, Cottagecore, Cryptids, and Werewolves
• Are you an advanced, literate/novella-style writer who often breaks the discord character limit and are tired of searching for like-minded individuals?
• Do you enjoy putting your characters through the fires of hell?
• Do you like a good mystery?

All of this (and more) can be found in Werewolf, RUN!
Werewolf, RUN!'s concept is unique but simple: there are anonymous werewolf players (yes, you do not know who is writing a werewolf) with the ability to attack the server each full moon. Our schedule coincides with the real-life lunar cycle. These players secretly choose their targets and then the chaos is revealed during a monthly plot drop. A dice-rolling system determines whether or not your character becomes a werewolf too, if bitten. There are additional, advanced roles that can potentially help in the fight against the werewolves or even cure them!
It is set in a small farming town in Virginia named Briar Ridge. The year is 1929. While this is Prohibition, this is not a story for mobsters. No, this story is about the hardworking moonshiners and bootleggers. It's about the home they co me back to after they're done in New York or Chicago. And the home that may no longer be standing if they cannot fight back against the werewolves quickly enough.
https://discord.gg/8jCcWQ7kMd

I just got out of a relationship with a narc. He is a covert narc and his abuse is gaslighting , stonewalling and eventually he discarded me. We were together for only 3 months. I only found out he was emotionally abusive by talking to girls he was with before because with me he was in the lovebombing stage and then a quick discard but he was stonewalling me a week prior
Looking back on the relationship, he use to do weird things. Every time we were near water he would pretend like he was going to push me in, I’d walk away and he’d reach out his hand for me to hold and keep trying to get me to come close so he could pretend to push me in. He didn’t actually do it. I thought it was just flirting because this was early stages where it was lovebombing and I thought he just wanted to find an excuse to be close. Same thing with going down an escalator, he’s pretend he was going to push me. He would also wipe his wet hands all over me after he washed his hands every single time. I would never vocally say stop I don’t like that, I’d be half laughing and saying things like “ew that’s gross”. I didn’t see it as abusive at the time but now when I look back and know the person he is I can’t be sure. I found it more annoying. He would also constantly tickle my feet and me in general but ge always knew when to stop before it got too much. I found out he was lying to me about every story he told me about his life and he was cheating. I’m trying to process what happened and I’m wondering if these physical things are precursors to him going from emotionally to physically abusive?

To give a little back story. I '21M' and my ex '20F' were together for a year and some months, and it went very well here and there an argument but nothing unhealthy. Now, everything changed at one point. She got her first panic attack in a wile at the end of our relationship, I was there for her when she had one. But it kept getting worse.
Now at one point I got the opportunity to go to France on an internship for a month and after discussing it with her for a Lil bit she agreed. And during my internship few things happend and there everything went wrong (she din't cheet btw). I came back from internship and a few weeks later our relationship was done.
We talked about it but together and we decided to end it. It doesn't work anymore.
Now almost a year a half later I ran into her again and we started talking to each other. She has another love and I don't.
Now it comes
She also works at my student job where I was absent that year and a half. Now when she sees me now then She acts friendly to me, more like flirtatious. and always touches me when she sees an opportunity. Equally tickling or deliberately bumping into me
2:when we were talking she was subtly asking if I had feelings and if we could ever be together again. And that our relationship would work.
3:The reason why it was done between us was because she got those panic attacks with me purely because of a certain room in my house and because of a perfume I was wearing at the time. Apparently that was some kind of trigger to her first attack.
4:I thought my feelings were gone for her but when I saw her again everything came back to the surface and I am completely confused.
5: When we talked about our relationship to clear up some things she got emotional and regretted that we couldn't better communicate then what was going on Advice for what tot do is welcome and your opinion for inside.

So.. the people on this story are 24m and bf 32 m I had been with this guy for 11 months now and the way this all goes is I moved across the us to move with him he is in the service. That’s why and we moved closer to be with his family and kids I also have been involved and wanted to stay together regardless with the whole factor of having to leave my hometown I love him and willing to go to the moon for him and Vic versa . .. so I think ?! When it comes to the story of finding his Grindr account it was only a matter of time before I saw it or whatever … I had left to go to my sisters weeding out of state … and I had left for maybe three days max .. mind u I was staying loyal along my journey there and home . But load and behold he wasn’t .. but that’s not the only thing I didn’t find out until he had took a trip to his kids tournament in a state that’s very close to us.. meaning it was only 4 hours away or so .. welll flash forward his coming home and I go to call him and his very huffing and whatever on the phone and not like himself at the rest stop saying he has to pee and just stopped but knowing that his location was on just made me realize he didn’t even call me to say he was there … sus already heard him acting weird so it sent gossebumps down my spine I’ve been cheated on before with the whole Grindr situation. But I have healed a lot of the hurt which wasn’t easy but that’s why I was ready to settle down . But I go with my gut and download it just to make sure keep in mind his usually very chatty person even if had to pee he wouldn’t just shut me down .. now however I click on his exact location and boom ! There it is his profile pic is him asking for and crusing spots … my heart shattered when it saw that I did it to myself but at same time I didn’t know what to expect… and i just think now his on a blank profile now I just don’t know what to think I came to him and told him when he got home and he acted so happy to see me and I just wanted to know if he was gunna act out this whole display of I love yous and miss u when he was at rest stop asking for a crusing spot … mind u guys his hiv + not from me but from his ex that cheated on him while he was deployed please give me something we have talked sense then but idk what to think about it any ideas

Im wondering what I can do. They already have seperate spaces and fed seperately, both have their own space to sleep, but how come our mixed dog is so angry at our shih 😭😭.
For context. We have 2 female dogs. Shih tzu is 6yrs old and an adopted medium sized mixed dog that is a year old.
We have a small house(1 bedroom with 5 people) that's why our mixed dog stays outside while our shihtzu is inside. Our 1yr old dog is leashed on our yard and is released every night. While our small dog just stays inside.
Both of them aren't aggressive to humans while on walks, but will bark at people when there are visitors/in their territory, but it dont last long. Our mixed dog aggressively barks(has intent to bite or kill??) towards our shih tzu whenever she walks outside to pee and poo on our yard. While our shih tzu, is passive at the barks but will attack back whenever she feels threatened or is actually on her. Our shihtzu does this to other dogs aswell, she's not friendly, she'll scare/jump on any dog that will come near her but will leave them alone once they go away from her.
Long story short. I got bitten today by our shihtzu due to our mixed dog's aggression towards her(this wasnt the first time someone got bitten), i was stopping our mixed dog from attacking her but our shih attacked back and she got my hand. This happened because, I didn't notice our front door isn't shut properly while releasing our mixed dog that's why they got into a fight.
We're scared that they might hurt or kill each other at anytime. Should we rehome our mixed dog 😞? Im thinking of training our mixed dog to get calmer(not sure how) but It might be too late since she's already hostile towards our shih. Should I practice our mixed dog to get accustomed with our shih tzus presence by giving rewards? 🥲.
i do regret that we didnt introduce them properly the first time. We seperated them immediatly due to our shih's aggression towards dogs that bothers her. Like we couldve atleast take them into walks together or play together so maybe they wont be aggressive to each other now.

Welcome to Funny Friday where you're encouraged to post pictures, memes, jokes, stories or videos that tickle your fancy.
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Either post them here as comments or if you like you can post them as standalone posts with the tag ' [Funny Friday] ' in the title.

Hi friends!
I'm very, very fond of time travel (and branching timelines, and multiverses and so on), and my very favourite trope is when the main character interacts with future/past/alternate versions of themself! Doesn't matter if it's brief or one-sided (several points in BttF part 2) or half the plot (Spider Man No Way Home), I just find it really fun and it tickles a very specific part of my brain that makes me feel excited and giddy. Would love some recs where this plays literally any part in the story! :D Thanks!
(side note I have read Blake Crouch already 👀)

Long story short, I live with my Dad in a condo, we have an association and by-laws here. My Dad got into a fight with my neighbor a couple months ago, and called him a f*g (who is a openly gay male) and the neighbor called the police on my dad and he was arrested for disorderly conduct. Since this has happened the neighbored filed a no contact order and calls the police on us constantly, we have had 3 sound complaints (2 in which we were sleeping at the time when the officer knocked on our door and woke us up, asked if we have problems with the neighbor downstairs, which we replied yes and they left without incident. 1 time we were watching the TV late at night and a officer warned us if we don't turn it down he we would issue us tickets. The neighbor has also complained on 4 separate occasions that my dog relives himself on my deck (we live on the upper floor, he lives under) both pee and fecal matter, which is impossible as I have always been with the dog that is fully potty trained and 4 years old, I of course know this is a lie because i would of had to clean pee/fecal matter off my deck if it happened. He reported this to my association and they tried to fine me $200 dollars, until I had a hearing and explained the neighbor is lying and asked if he had any evidence such as pictures of any urine/fecal matter, of course their was no evidence.
Can he just keep doing this? I feel like I'm being harassed now, my Dad may of said something inappropriate to offend him, so i see why hes doing this, but I had nothing to do with that argument and hes going after me and my dog. Its obvious hes trying to get us kicked out, and he constantly obstructs my front door to my condo, he sits outside all day and plants flower with his mother sitting right outside the front entrance. Its impossible to avoid him, and I believe he will keep calling the police on me and my dad any time we watch a movie or such. Is their anything i can do?
edit: also if he followed a no contact order isn't part of that order to refrain from physical presence? If he is constantly planting flowers in front of our condo door how is it possible for my father to avoid physical presence?