Vmware esx host not responding state

I will give a real experience with hiring Arber, the owner, of Landstar Construction. We initially contacted him to do a roof repair. After some discussion we agreed to a new roof. We agreed to do it cash as he assured us that it would be much cheaper since I stated to him MULTIPLE times that we did not have much money and obtaining a loan would be very difficult. Well the day comes and they start tearing the roof apart. Halfway through Arber contacts me stating that all the plywood would have to be replaced because it was too thin otherwise we would not get the warranty (I looked it up and the boards that were on the roof initially were 100% ok to have). Not once in the initial estimate was there ever any mention of him stating that our boards were too thin (we needed to get a few replaced so he knew beforehand). So he shows the “new” estimate which is more than double the original estimate. Keep in mind we were doing this in cash for it to be on the “cheaper side” (I guess cheaper for him not us). He also started mentioning a ton of other things that were NEVER mentioned in the initial estimate (new gutters, roof ridge vent, etc). Now we obviously could not say no as the entire roof was taken apart and the fan that was initially in the attic to cool it off was already thrown into the yard. When he gave me the second paper with what else he was doing, 9/10 of them were on the initial estimate and whenever I brought it up he would say it was different but when asked to explain how he would try changing the subject. The entire time he would say “this will make your house 60k more valuable” which of course is bs. The entire time I told him I would see what I could do with getting a loan but there would be no guarantees. At first he would call 2 times a week asking how things were going and I would always respond with still working on it and I would call him which he never seemed to have understood. Well the end of the second week comes along and this is when the harassment starts. He would ask what time we would be done with work and when we would be home. He would try guilt tripping me and my mother (which never worked) saying he had to pay the dumpster which he decided to leave in our driveway 3 weeks after the job was done for some reason. It wasn’t until the third week when he called my mother and started cussing at here and stating he would start recorded every phone call. A day later he texted me and my mother he would “tear the roof down.” Like I stated initially to him we did not have much money. He knew this and still decided to proceed. I called him the end of that week and recorded our phone call since he claimed he was going to record us. I have recorded him claiming I never paid him the downpayment in cash (which I have the receipts and proof of) and him claiming he would “drag me out of my house, beat me up, and tear my roof down.” He knew he was being recorded and still said it anyways. If you would like to hear the recording feel free to reach out but do not hire this fraud. We got prices from other roofers and they were half the price of this scam of a company. If you thing his price is good, he will end up doubling it when the roof is taken apart.
If this is against TOS take it down but I felt like I had to post it incase anyone here has ever felt the need to hire this company, they will see this and go with any other company.

HOWDY Partners 🤠 I type this important message from the southern region of the United States. If your lookin for someone who will respond back to your messages in 1.2 milliseconds, well look no further. My interest include and are not limited too (if our hobbies are different please tell me about yours I’m always looking for new ones for my ADHD brain): •Gaming, of course who doesn’t game in this day in age. •Watching 10 movies in a row and not feeling bad about it. •Blasting music at night daydreaming scenarios in my head staring at the blank void filled walls. I have a ton more but I’d figured I’d save them for the meat of our chat. Hope to hear from whatever soul is reading this post. Peace and Love ✌️&❤️

Hi! I feel like a lot of the discourse about people not liking this season is in part due to people not really understanding what friends to lovers is, specifically the trope as it applies to Colin and Penelope, so I thought I might share my thoughts :)
Now I haven’t read the books - this is all based on what I gleaned from the show on multiple rewatches and as someone who has been the Penelope in a friendship for a longggg long time. Hopefully this makes sense.
Romance tropes can often boiled down to their immediate, basic truths. The popular enemies to lovers, for example: Enemy 1 + Enemy 2 + sexual tension = Lover 1 and Lover 2. Not to say enemies to lovers can’t be complex, but generally the starting point for enemies is an essential lack of trust between the parties and moments of connection (via fights) fueled by intense feelings of hatred/rage/whatever which can, in turn, translate to sexual tension. Due to the lack of trust, when they do get together it’s an explosion of that intense energy, highlighted even more-so by the knowledge that they don’t truly trust each other but they need each other which makes the heart race all the more and the passion all that more explosive.
Let’s look at Kate and Anthony as this trope. When they meet there is an immediate spark, fueled by a race in which they’re in competition. Once she hears him at the ball she decides she will do everything in her power to stop him from marrying her sister, and since he is determined to marry Edwina every interaction they have from that point on, until they have their happily ever after in the last episode, can be considered a fight. Moments like the bane of my existence and you vex me are such high intensity because it’s two people fueled by anger and sexual/romantic tension. They need each other like air but will do everything to fight it because of the anger, making the onscreen affections super intense for the viewer (especially as viewers who have just been introduced to Kate and are getting to know her through the lens of Anthony).
Now friends to lovers is, if I may say, quite a bit more complicated. A basic boiled down is Friend 1 + Friend 2 + romance/sexual tension = Lovers. But all friendships are different - if you’re new friends your pipeline to lovers is likely entirely different than old friends to lovers. If one party is in love with the other that changes the dynamic entirely; are they long distance or close? Were they childhood friends? Are they both likeable and popular or is one more nerdy and quiet or both? Do they know each other’s families? Are they best friends or just friends? All of these and more create new dynamics and emotions that can lead to love in different ways. My point is that friends to lovers is not as easy to pin down as something like enemies to lovers. So that’s why a couple like Polin may seem like they don’t have as much chemistry on screen - because their intensity shines in a different way than what we’re used to in Bridgerton.
Going into season three we know that Penelope has been in love with Colin for a long time, but during that time the two also formed a close friendship. When Colin proposed to Marina, yes Penelope whistledowned about the pregnancy to stop him from marrying her for love reasons, but also because he is her friend and she didn’t want to see him trapped in a loveless marriage. We also know that when Colin traveled between seasons one and two Penelope most often responded to his letters. Even during a scene in season two Pen specifically asks to hear more about his travels, even though everyone else in Colin’s life had asked him to stop talking about it. Pen’s crush and friendship don’t cancel each other out, they exist side by side as two parts of Penelope that often overlap but are most importantly separate entities. And she knows that.
Colin does not. In season three when Colin is talking about when they first met, Penelope looks away with anxiety when Colin suggests he knows why Penelope was so forward in making fun of him for falling off his horse and starting their friendship. She knows it’s because she had a crush on him. He states that it was because they were kids. This means it’s canon that Penelope had a crush on him since the moment they met. As a result, Colin has never experienced a friendship with Pen that doesn’t also have an underlying crush. He doesn’t know that Pen doesn’t respond to everyone’s letters all the time, or hangs onto their every word, or goes out of her way to talk to them. How Pen acts around him is how he assumes she acts around everyone - that’s why he doesn’t pick up on her crush.
It’s also why, I argue, he doesn’t realize that he loves her until the kiss in season three. He truly and genuinely takes her affections, her friendship, for granted because he doesn’t understand that someone so loyal and loving like that is rare. He doesn’t appear to have much else in the way of friends; outside of his family we don’t really see him interact with other men, and in season three the “friends” he does spend time with make comments to suggest they only started hanging out with him after his personality change to be more like his brothers - a rake who doesn’t care much for real affections. It’s why he said he would never court Penelope Featherington, or why he said “You are Pen, you do not count” when asked why he was still talking to her if he swore off women. He was super young when his dad died, so the only male role models he has for what love means are Anthony and Benedict. So, as he understands it, a man courting a woman is about sleeping around until the man finds a suitable match that pleases the family regardless of the man’s happiness. Even though he saw that Anthony fell in love by the time Colin said he would never court Pen, he didn’t see Anthony’s journey to understanding that love is not something to run from but something to cherish like we, the viewers, did. Anthony’s arc was just background noise for Colin, so it wasn’t like that would change his outlook on what Anthony’s actions in season one and beginning of season two loudly called out: choosing love over meaningless sex is idiotic and weak. It is explained in a letter that the reason Colin decided to try being like his brothers is BECAUSE Penelope stopped responding to him during his travels between seasons two and three. He decided to start guarding his heart, throwing on the rakish armor we see him dawn in the first half of season three, because he didn’t have that relationship that made him feel stable and loved anymore.
This is why Colin is genuinely distressed when Penelope walks away from him at the garden party in the first episode of season three, and why he went after her to explain that he missed her. He loves his relationship with her, not understanding that what he feels is actually love for her because he has never been aware that true love feels the way it does when he is with Pen. He sees Penelope as his best friendship, rather than the love of his life, because he literally can’t see it any other way based on how everything in his life played out to that point.
———
Okay this is way longer than I intended this to be already, but to finally make it to my main point! The Friends to Lovers trope as it plays out in Season Three Part One: Polin Do Be Polining.
What does all this mean for how Polin’s intensity shines as a couple? Due to the way their friendship has played out things like Colin taking Pen to the dance floor (not small social feat btw) in season one when Cressida bullies her, seeking each other out at social events, Pen asking about his travels - all of these are part of their relationship! It’s all part of the slow burn; it’s just less slap-you-in-the-face noticeable, to a viewer of a show about specified romance, as Kate and Anthony and even Simon and Daphne because acting like friends is an implicit part of Polin’s love story. Because they are best friends as well as eventually lovers!!
This is in full display in Season three, though put more on blast since it’s their season to get together. Colin saying he’ll teach Penelope how to get a husband isn’t a pity thing, it’s a real moment of genuine care that Colin is extending towards her.
—— “Pen wants to get a husband to be happy? Great! I’ll help to make her happy because her happiness means everything to me. Because I am her friend. Duh :)” - top ten photos taken ten seconds before disaster. ——
And it works! They start spending all this time together, and Pen has always looked gorgeous but is finally wearing clothes that she feels gorgeous in and you can see it in the way she acts, and suddenly Colin’s heart starts doing all these weird jumps around her like when she’s in the drawing room and when she wraps his hand because he has always loved her, so he doesn’t understand what these feelings that are coming up during these scenes are because they are not new feelings, just more intense ones of what he believes is pure friendship.
Penelope, on the other hand, has had her brain decide to give up on Colin Bridgerton (even though her heart hasn’t). As someone who’s been there, being in unrequited love with your friend is brutal but you can never really let go. No matter how many people they date, or the hours you spend together talking about their new crush, or the life moments share together where they do everything but love you there is always that small spark of hope in your chest that you can’t let go of lest they ever possibly realize they love you back. That chance is too precious to give up - that’s why Penelope can’t give Debling a real answer when he asks her if she would like to be with Colin in episode four. Logically she knows she should give it up but her heart just can’t. She is a hopeless romantic and her life has been spinning around Colin Bridgerton since she was 16 like the earth around the Sun. There is no other way to live, for her, if she isn’t in love with Colin. And that’s what breaks her heart the most.
It’s also why, I believe, she asks him to kiss her in that garden. She had just written about herself in Whistledown that she did the upmost embarrassing act of taking Colin’s assistance on the marriage market, and her mother dressed her down about being a spinster for the rest of her life. All of Pen’s plans, of marrying and getting out, are utterly gone for her in that moment when she goes out to the garden. She doesn’t have her prospects. She doesn’t have Eloise. She doesn’t have safety in her own home. The only thing she has left is Colin. That’s why she asks him to kiss her, because he might grant her this one kindness of making her feel alive for just this one moment before the rest of her life ends. That moment is the culmination of all of her feelings up to that point in the show. She’s given up on Colin - she wouldn’t have asked him to kiss her had she any hope left. This was her last ditch attempt to just be a girl and be kissed regardless of what he actually meant to her. It wasn’t out of desperation, it was staring down the barrel of the gun with societies’s finger on the trigger.
When she asks him Colin is taken aback. Not because he doesn’t want to kiss her but because he has never considered it before. Kissing was reserved for women you are looking to sleep with at a bar, for prostitutes in alleyways, not for his caring Pen. I’ve seen some upset over not including more of Colin’s writing in the show, as he becomes quite the writer in the books apparently, and the writing we do see is just about sex but given the way they paced the show they provided the most important piece of context for Colin’s understanding of intimacy in the writing they did use. He wonders how one can feel, despite sleeping with every kind of woman across Europe, such intimacy in physical closeness and yet such distance emotionally. It’s some level of satisfying for him to sleep around, but it doesn’t fulfill him in the way it seemed to fulfill his brothers. He cannot equate the idea of kissing to Penelope because he feels such emotional closeness to her. But when she brings it up, suddenly everything clicks into place for him. All the emotions he feels towards her, what he thought was just friendship, is so much more. Yes she is his friend, but by god he wants to kiss his friend; not out of the need to search for something but of the overwhelming feeling of going home.
Their kiss is sweet, and soft. Unlike Daphne and Anthony’s first kisses with their respective partners it isn’t this immense clashing of bodies and teeth. It’s two friends who love each other finally meeting each other as sparks fly.
———
Colin is left speechless, and confused. The kiss was amazing to him because he finally unlocked that part of him that made him realize he was in love with Penelope. The kiss was amazing to Penelope because she has been in love with him for so long, but it was also tinged with her own doubts and feelings of hopelessness. That’s why she runs away, and thanks him, because this was her last stand and he was just her friend helping her out as she believes.
But as always, a night of sleep helps clarify things. The next time Pen goes into society she is awkward but still well intentioned about getting a husband because that kiss was a long day’s worth of self pity followed by, in her terms, a moment of weakness. But it clarified things for her too. Now she can’t die without ever having been kissed, so that ultimatum she set up in her own mind was gone and everything seems much more manageable from that point on. Colin, as we know, is a wreck who is absolutely bamboozled at these feelings and we love to watch him flounder!!!
———
Now the tables have been turned. To those of who are think Penelope should have chosen Debling, this part is for you. This is when Debling really starts to court Penelope as she goes after him. She literally fights Cressida for him, because he seems like the most amenable husband for her to be able to continue Whistledown and be provided security. She isn’t looking for love in Debling because she already has love in Colin (love she believes will always remain unrequited, but that kiss can be a memory she cherishes for the rest of her life and that be that); she basically did what Anthony did at the beginning of season two. Find a suitable match that makes the most sense for her and leave searching for a love match out of it. She likes Debling, for sure, and he’s a rly nice guy!! He cares about her in a way that a suitor might, and I’m certain had they gotten married he wouldn’t have been mean to her or anything. But she would’ve been lonely. As remembered she is a romantic, someone who craves the love she reads about in her romance books. She’s spent most of her conscious life in love - marrying Debling would stop that in its tracks. In his own words, Debling tells Pen that he could try to maybe love her but that it was far too unlikely to find any room in his heart her for over his passions (aroace Debling stand rise). He specifically mentions that he is choosing her to marry because she has her own passions, separate from his, that can keep her company while he is gone both physically and emotionally from her. She doesn’t realize this until it’s too late, when her focus on the chase is over, and Debling asks her mother for her hand. It’s only then that she thinks that maybe she could hold out for love, and that power is strong enough to make her actively not want to ensure her security through Debling.
Love is treacherous, and yet we yearn for it like a sailor who cannot help but smile at the beauty of the raging sea at it comes crashing down upon him. Penelope would rather a thousand lifetimes of the chance to be in love with Colin over one lifetime married to Debling in safety.
That is why Debling breaks it off with her. Because she loves Colin, Debling knows she would choose Colin over him, and he sees Colin’s interest in her even if she does not. Like girl…. Colin literally found out she was going to get engaged, ran to the ball, interrupted the dance wherein Debling was going to ask Pen to marry him, ran after her carriage just to know if she was engaged because he couldn’t fathom letting her get away in a loveless marriage, and when finding out she was not engaged telling her he loved her even if she did not love him back because he simply had to express to her how much he loved her as he owed her that as his friend. Colin got in his knees in that carriage because he was genuinely splaying out his heart to her for her to dissect as she chose. He put himself at her mercy because that is where he believes his place to be - hers.
———
The carriage scene is, of course, the moment of highest intensity from the viewer standpoint of what we think love should appear to be. Other scenes could be Colin’s dream, and the moment in the sweets tent, etc. But those moments aren’t all of Polin’s love story. They may be the most visceral to witness, but they are just as important as the two of them laughing together in the corner of a ballroom. Their romantic trope is defined as Friends to Lovers, but that isn’t quite right - they are both. There is no big “or” between the two. Colin and Penelope are friends and lovers, and all of it is a beauty to witness.
Okay that’s it! If you’ve made it this far thanks for sticking around to hear my obsessive little thoughts. I wish you a very happy Bridgerton rewatch :)

Let me preface by saying I know this is long and very immature, and I realize that I could just do the big girl thing and ‘like’ his profile again but I’m still hesitant. To the guys of Reddit, I have a question for you.
I’m going to break this down in number format because I have a tendency to go on tangents: 1. Matched with guy, met at bar, talked for a couple of hours and went on a stroll around the block to talk. Woman is more talkative than guy but his profile stated he’s introverted so the air was fine. Kiss at end of date (woman thinks kiss was bland but was hoping for more experience another time). 2. Guy mentions even before exchanging numbers he will be out of town, and encourages date to happen before so meet because he’s enthused. Woman knows this and agrees. 3. Guy isn’t a big texter-also says in profile, and woman knows this. Guy goes out of town and woman doesn’t hear back from him for a week so she decides to text a friendly, “how is the festival going?” Guy never responds. Woman retreats and chalks this up to a not interested and tries to move on. 4. Guy comes back almost three weeks later and says hi. Woman has done some work on herself due to a ghosting that occurred a couple months prior and doesn’t want to just accept this and tells him she figured he wasn’t interested anymore. Guy says, well I said I’d be gone. Long story short, guy says he felt a connection and wanted to continue to see woman and eventually see where physical intimacy could go (bold move, bud). Woman declines nicely but also kind of cat-ily. 5. Woman feels good about decision but months later realizes she may have overreacted. She sees him on her Bumblebee account and is careful not to swipe left (lol). She doesn’t know if he’s very active on it but is hoping he notices her. She doesn’t know if he thinks she’s immature for what she said and is avoiding her because of it.
What would you do as the guy in this situation? Actively avoid someone who said she wasn’t interested anymore or shoot the shot one more time? I’m just lonely out here and I think that’s is clouding my better judgement…

I searched and could not find anything so I'm posting the question. I (34M) broke off my engagement with my fiance (41F) last June and we lived together until she could recover financially and she moved out in April.
Although I told her she needed to wait to sign papers for vendors for our wedding, she went ahead signed them anyway. So when I broke things off, she asked me to reimburse her for the deposits. She told me it was $4,500 and I agreed. After I started paying her back for the deposits she said $4,500 was the deposits but since she was moving out she would feel more comfortable with a little more for expenses so she told me $8,000 and I told her that I wasn't going to commit financial suicide but I will do whatever extra that I can.
We've been "trying to work things out" since she "had an epiphany" when she moved out that I did love her and that maybe she was focused on the wrong things and she'd like to work towards getting our family back together. So I've been slowly letting her back in but still holding boundaries in place.
Her sister had an event for May birthdays out of town and she asked me to attend and I chose to go. While in transit, she asked me to place an order for a bunch of things and I made the remark that she was ordering a lot and she was going to have to take it off her child support. She responded "potentially how much was it costing" then she pivoted to "when can I expect a payment this month". I asked if she was expecting me to send her a full payment and she said I could deduct the expenses from this weekend. And I made a comment that "you're about to make me compare you to someone you don't like" (my oldest son's mother that I pay state mandated child support to). I knew this was going to cause a problem but I needed her to understand how things were coming across.
Fast-forward to today and things blew up (which I should've expected). She brought the conversation back up and I told her how I felt about the situation. I don't feel it's ok for me to use funds on us, her, the child(ren) and still expect a full payment. She didn't understand why I felt it was a problem. She said "she just needed to know and if I didn't have the funds, just let her know". "She understands I just got my car fixed, or anything could've happened. Either way, I should give her the heads up". She also said that it feels like I "just don't believe in child support", and she went on to acknowledge that our son spends equal if not more time with me.
Background: She didn't want to move in before we were married. She lived about an hour away but ended up forced to move in due to a natural disaster that ruined her apartment. This lead to a lot of resentment plus other issues along the way. I wasn't perfect myself I admit, but I was also the first non abusive and somewhat decent relationship that she's had. This was our second time dating (6 years) and the first time we dated a year then she ghosted me. We loved together for 3 years and she was never required to pay bills nor did she have to put groceries in the kitchen except a handful of times. I ended up with financial hardship and even through therapy things were up and down but I was never fully able to get over the resentment. There was an incident on the 4th of July that finally made me say I was done.
More background: she has a (13f) daughter and we have a (3m) son. Both of the kids are mentally mine as the daughters father is not really in the picture. Our son was born with a congenital heart defect which led to speech delays (known issue). I take him to speech therapy in the morning then he spends the rest of the day with me. He used to go to daycare after school/speech but we're preparing for his next heart surgery so we took him out due to germ ridden daycares are (if you know, you know). Mom works in the office 3 days a week and from home 2 days a week. I'm self employed and work from home. I usually do the volunteering and chauffeuring the kids around, etc.
Let me know if there's more information needed.

I'm a little panicked atm so I'm looking for what might actually happen to me in the future.
Context: I'm currently with GenderGP, and they're not responding to my requests for a refill of my Testogel prescription (I'm in contact with an endocrinologist but that's taking some time to switch over). I've been on T for 3 years, had top surgery 2 years ago. I know p*riods will come back, but I've been having them anyway (I probably need an E blocker but I can't afford it with GGP). Is there any risk of tissue regrowth around my chest that will require a revision surgery? I really don't want to deal with that, as I already had another revision last year and they're expensive, and I found it harrowing being under a local anaesthetic. And what other changes could I expect? I've had very little hair growth on my face (sadly) and none on my chest, I expect those will stay the same? Anything else I need to worry about?
The thing I'm most worried about is my emotional state. I'm already in a very bad place mentally rn, the worst I've been since before transitioning socially ~6 years ago, and I remember being awful back then. I think T really helped my mental health as much as it could; the idea of going off it frightens me. I genuinely fear for my life. I recognise that nobody can give me any advice for this beyond getting help. More context: I can't afford a private therapist, the NHS is useless for mental health (I'd also be extremely concerned that they'd basically try conversion therapy and talk me into detransitioning), and I don't trust my GP with much for various reasons that are too numerous to get into here, so therapy and medication is pretty much out of the question rn.
Sorry for the incoherent nonsense. Thank you for reading and anything to put my mind at rest would be appreciated

I wanted to dive deep into a topic that's been close to my heart, especially this Mental Health Awareness Month—integrating mindfulness and meditation into leadership. It’s fascinating to see how these ancient practices, often relegated to the realm of personal development, hold immense potential to revolutionize leadership in the modern workplace. 🌿✨
Why Mindfulness Matters for Leaders
In the hustle of hitting targets and managing teams, leaders often find themselves in a reactive mode—responding to challenges with a high-stress mindset. Here’s where mindfulness changes the game. By fostering a practice of presence and awareness, leaders can shift from reactive to proactive, making decisions that are not only smart but also empathetic. This isn’t just good for business; it’s essential for building a culture of trust and psychological safety.
Meditation: The Secret Weapon for Emotional Resilience
Meditation, on the other hand, isn’t just about sitting quietly. It’s about developing a mental resilience that allows you to navigate through stress, uncertainty, and the constant demands of leadership with a sense of calm and clarity. The benefits? Improved focus, better decision-making abilities, and a significant drop in stress levels.
Starting Your Practice
If you're new to this, starting can be as simple as dedicating five minutes a day to sit in silence, focusing on your breath. Whenever your mind wanders (and it will), gently bring it back. This practice can help anchor you in the present, making you a more grounded and effective leader.
Incorporating Mindfulness into Your Leadership
Start Meetings with a Minute of Silence: A simple way to introduce mindfulness into your team’s routine. It helps everyone settle and be fully present. Mindful Listening: Practice fully listening to your team members without formulating a response in your mind while they’re speaking. This can significantly improve your communication and relationships. Regular Check-ins with Yourself: Throughout the day, take moments to assess your state of mind and body. This can help in recognizing stress signals early and addressing them. I believe that leadership is not just about the strategies and decisions but also about the mental and emotional fitness to lead with intention and empathy. Mindfulness and meditation are powerful tools in building that foundation.
I'm keen to hear from you all—have you tried integrating mindfulness or meditation into your professional life? Or are you curious about how to get started? Let’s share insights, questions, and experiences. Here’s to building not just a subreddit but a community of thoughtful, mindful leaders.
Looking forward to your thoughts and discussions!

This is my first reddit post and honestly it's a lot so please bear with me. I'm still trying to figure out how to process everything and make sense of it all. I guess we will start at the very beginning. My boyfriend,( we will call him michael) and I just passed 6 months together. Honestly, hes been great. We clicked pretty fast and have a great bond. I feel safe and comfortable around him and can communicate in a way ive never been able to before. It just kinda works. I definitely fell hard and fast for him and from what I could gather, the feeling was mutual. We had met on tinder in early October and went on our first date in November. We made it official shortly after our first date.
After we started dating, he had briefly mentioned that he had a friend who had a bit of a crush on him. I told him I didn't mind and I trusted him. As long as he kept things respectful to me, it didn't matter. He then explained that her crush was a bit obsessive and he actually wanted to push her out of his life and needed advice. Apparently, this friend, (we will call her beth) was pregnant and wanted Michael to be her baby's God Father. He said that she would follow him and got jealous when he was with other girls. I found this kind of odd but he swore they were just friends, so I told him the best way to let her down gently and let him do his thing. About two weeks later, he told me she was out of the picture. I didn't really care either way but the communication was cool.
Anyways, I pretty quickly forgot about all of that because it was irrelevant and I wanted to focus on our relationship. One night when we were hanging out, he got a snapchat notification. He turned away from me to respond to it but I didn't think much of it, just asked who that was. He said it was just a friend (we will call this one Jen) and they were catching up. I had never heard of her before but I didn't care, I just said cool and dropped it. Just like before, I quickly forgot about that conversation because again,it was irrelevant and I had better things to think about. I trusted him so why should I care who he talks to? He is his own person after all and I understand the importance of friendships.
Fast forward about another two weeks later, him and I had our first argument. I dont remember what it was about. Most likely something small and pointless because I had a stressful day at work but nothing too serious. We did not talk much that day. Later that night, I apologized and we talked it over. Everything was fine. He then told me that earlier in the day, an old friend that he had removed off social media readded him and messaged him. We will call her Molly. Apparently she had just noticed she was removed and was upset and wanted to know why. He told me that he sent her a message explaining that he didn't see her in his life long term and doesn't feel the need to keep someone around who won't be around forever so he didn't want to be friends anymore. He then removed her again. At this point I thought the way he acted was odd. I had never heard of molly before, he waited until he had already removed her before telling me about the conversation, she only came into the picture when we had our first argument and it got me thinking about the other girls who were just friends. I definitely started to over think a bit and was more than curious about who these people were and what their relationship to him was. But he swore they were all just friends. So I continued to believe him.
We went a long period of time without anything coming up so once again I forgot about it and moved on with my life. Him and I were doing great. We were young dumb and in love. I felt truly happy, something I hadn't experienced in a long time. I felt like I genuinely found someone who was right for me and I didn't need to second guess whether or not he was gonna cheat on me. He occasionally would ask to see my phone but I didn't have anything to hide so I allowed him. I had set a boundary with him that if he ever felt concerned or needed reassurance, he needed to bring it up to me first. After we talked it over then he could see my phone, but we would always go through it together. This seemed fair to me. My phone was never off limits, there just needed to be open communication. Anyways, he would always offer for me to see his phone in return but I would decline. I didn't feel the need to and I had learned from past experiences that if you go digging, you will most likely see something you can't unsee.
Then one day he needed to have his wisdom teeth removed. I dropped him off in the morning for his surgery and I was told I needed to hold on to his personal belongings and wait until the operation was over. No big deal. I know this is wrong and I shouldn't have but finally curiosity got the best of me and I looked on his phone. At first it wasn't malicious. I genuinely was just curious. But of course, I saw things I wish I could unsee. It started off on tiktok. In one of his conversations with a friend, he poured his heart out, explaining how he was still so in love with his ex and missed her like crazy. Of course it stung a little to see the things he said but I knew there was someone before me so it wasn't that surprising. That was until I saw those messages had been sent in mid October. So of course i was like huh.we started talking early October and dating early November. So clearly he wasn't over his ex when he met me. But I was willing to forgive it. It wasn't a deal breaker. But Instead of putting the phone down to protect my peace and his privacy, I kept looking. And boy did I find a lot. I found lots of old text messages from contacts that were not saved. Most of then were hard-core sexting and flirting. This dude literally acted like a dog.And yeah it was again hard to see but it was before me and he wasn't like that anymore. With me, he was gentle and respectful and never treated me like an object. Some people just go through a phase and that's okay. Again, it wasn't a deal breaker. But finally i found some very passionate, lovey, intimate messages with an unsaved contact. I was immediately drawn in by the kind words and heartwarming love messages. Whoever this was, they cared for eachother very strongly. I almost immediately felt heartbroken. Not because she was a past love interest, but because he had never spoken to me the way he spoke to her. I read all the way from the top of the conversation. Months worth of love confessions, paragraphs of strong feelings, longing to be with one another, etc. But finally halfway through in one of the paragraphs I see a name. Molly I was shattered. Molly was the girl who supposedly was removed months before him and I even met. The one that was "just a friend" who messaged him and he removed her because he didn't want to be friends anymore. Yeah clearly they were more than just friends. I was livid and felt crushed. Why did he feel the need to lie about something so unnecessary? I wouldn't have been mad if he had told the truth about who she was. But then it got me thinking. Was Beth truly just a friend? Was Jen truly just a friend? What was the actual relationship? I gathered up as much as I could but then the nurse came to the lobby to tell me he was awake and ready to go home. I kind of panicked and in my hurry, I forgot to delete the screenshots out of his phone.
We get in the car and I give him his phone, he's still pretty loopy. Obviously I had a million questions to ask him but I knew he wasn't in the right state of mind to have that conversation so I put my feelings aside and decided it could wait. Well he wanted to take pictures of his bloody swollen face and send it to his uncle. In the process, he sees the screenshots i had forgotten to delete off his phone and immediately screams what the f*** is this? I tried to talk calmly and explain that now wasn't a good time to talk about it and it could wait. He kept pressing "what the f*** did you do? Who the hell is this?" In my mind I thought "uh dude, you tell me." But didn't want to escalate it while he was drugged up. I decided the best option was to simply say that I wasn't mad , I stilled planned on taking care of him while he recovered and that we would need to have a conversation when he was in a better state of mind. He just started sobbing. Oh boy. I kind of ignored it as much as I could. I drove us to the store to get ice cream and other soft foods he could eat before taking us back to my apartment. I helped get him set up in my bedroom and he still was crying. So much so he started coughing out blood. It smelled awful and got everywhere. He was a wreck. I felt bad for everything. I felt guilty for going on his phone behind his back, for leaving the screeshots on his phone and for him crying. It took several hours but eventually I got him to calm down. I kept my word and continued to take care of him until he was recovered.
Finally when enough time had passed I decided it was time to sit down and talk about it. I explained that obviously I had found messages and i wanted an explanation. He told me molly was just a friend, and very clearly it was more than that. I also explained that I had a suspicion that he was not fully honest about his relationship with Jen and Beth either. He looked me dead in the eyes and said he had no idea what I was talking about and they were just friends. I remained calm and explained that I won't be mad at him or leave him. I told him I didn't want to fight. I just felt as though I deserved to know the truth if I was going to continue to be with him, especially since he was still in contact with Beth and Jen while we were dating. We continue to go back and forward for several hours with no progress. I decided then if he didn't feel I deserved the truth, I would find out for myself. I took the screenshots I had found and reached out to the contacts one by one.
Let's start with Beth. She was the quickest to respond. I briefly explained who I was and that I was hoping to ask some questions about my partner because I felt like i was being lied to and was hoping she could fill in some of the gaps. She texted back and simply asked "do you work at blank" I responded that yes, I did. She then asked if I lived at a specific apartment complex. I said yes and was creeped out. She knew where I worked and lived. She then asked if she could call me. I agreed. For some context, he told me that she was a friend he had met in school. He explained that she had gotten out of a rough relationship and he wanted to make sure she was okay when it happened. That's how they became close. He explained that they would hang out all the time and eventually she became obsessed with him. Well during my phone call with her, I heard a very different story. Yes, they met in school and initially started off as friends. But, slowly with time as they started to spend more and more time together, they started to catch feelings. He said I love you first. And she proved this with screenshots. She also sent me pictures of them holding hands and kissing. She explained that they never officially started dating but they definitely were more than just friends. Their relationship was much more physical and romantic than platonic. She also told me that they had hooked up about 3 times. She explained that they had eachothers location and pretty frequently they would make plans then he would last minute cancel. So she would see what he was doing and would see him at two very specific addresses. Visiting my work or my apartment. She eventually asked him where he was and he told her that I was his cousin and was trying to get out of a rough relationship so he was helping me. I felt sick. No wonder why she was "obsessed" he was borderline dating her, telling her he loved her, and then started to ditch her when he made things official with me. Then it killed me to realize that even though they never had an official title, he was dating the two of us at the same time. I didn't know what to do. I ended up apologizing to her for everything he did and told her I never would have agreed to be his if I knew he was entertaining someone else. Michael overheard this phone call between us and looked like he had seen a ghost after. All he did was started crying, said she was lying, and that she was only a friend. I asked "so....these screenshots and pictures are all made up?" No response. He knew he was busted.
I decided I needed to take some time to process that information and I didn't want to say something I would regret. I let him stay at my place because he had nowhere else to go and I went to stay with a friend. He kept calling and texting but I couldn't deal with it. I cried all night. I was a mess. I should have just accepted that I was cheated on and lied to but I couldn't leave. I needed to know the truth. So I kept reaching out. Next up was Jen. I never was able to reach her, but I found out through Michael and Beth that Jen was Beth's best friend. But even more than that, I found out the three of them had a threesome together. He had told me previously that he had never been interested in a threesome and would never want to have one. Then I found out not only did he have one and lied about it, but it was with two girls he told me were just friends.
I went back to my apartment the next day and tried to talk stuff out. He just continued to say they were just friends. I finally snapped. I screamed and cried and told him that I just wanted to know the truth. That I deserved the truth. He looked me in the eyes, pinky promised me no more lies. We talked for a while and basically he explained that he never had an official title with Beth. They were very close but he basically just used her to pass time because he had nothing better to do. He said he loved her because that's what she wanted to hear and he treated her like a partner without ever having any real feelings for her. He knew as soon as he met me that he wanted me but didn't want to hurt her so he just kind of pushed her to the side but kept her in the picture. I felt so sad for her. He used her. He led her on. He treated her like an object and then threw her to the side when he met me.I asked why he lied about having a threesome. He said he felt ashamed Apparently they started to do it and then he chickened out so he didn't really count it. That made sense to me. I was pissed that he lied but at least it made sense. Next I asked why he told me Beth and Jen were just friends instead of being honest about the relationship. He said he never had feelings for either and they never had the official title so he didn't think it was important and he did not want to scare me off. I explained to him that although I understand why he lied to me, I didn't forgive him. I warned him that I would not tolerate anymore lies and obviously for the time being I did not trust him. I told him I wouldn't break up with him but if I found out he lied again, he would lose me. I also told him I considered what he did as cheating since he was seeing us at the same time after him and I became mutually exclusive. After we concluded our conversation about Beth and Jen, I started thinking about molly and the messages I had seen. I asked him what their relationship was, he said just friends. I freaked and told him to give me his phone. I found their old messages and told him to read them. "Hey goofball, you awake? Well if you're not I have something impossible to say to you. You are my sun, my moon, and all my stars. I love you lots and want you to know that no matter what happens I will always care about you. To me you are perfect. Amazing. And attractive asf. You are also very sweet and caring and adorable. Don't think about the negative things about yourself that will drag you down. You are way more than that. This is an official goodnight and I love you goofball." This is just one of the MANY messages sent back and forward. He reads the conversation and just goes oh. He then says he didn't remember any of that happening. We began to argue and the story he tried to spin was that his life must have been so traumatic that his brain literally deleted his past memories and replaced them with false memories where he didn't do these things that he is ashamed of. He got caught in lies and after so long was just like...whoa I did that? I had no idea I didn't remember. Technically I didn't lie because I told what I thought the truth was the way I remembered it. I told him I wanted to break up and he cried and begged me to forgive him and stay. I listened.i tried to move on and make things normal again but I couldn't stop thinking about all the lies and what else he might have been lying about. Then randomly one day, Molly added me back on social media. She was the last and took over 1.5 months so honestly I figured I'd never get ahold of her. I was genuinely surprised to see her show up on my friend list and reached out. Once again back story, he told me that she lived in Wisconin and they had never met. He said he was also using her for nudes and to pass time, same way he used Beth. He had told me that he removed her off social media months before him and I even met and aside from that one night she reached out, he hadn't heard from her in forever. I found out from her that she did not live in Wisconsin, she lived in the same state as us That to her, they were definitely dating and in love. I also saw a messaged saved on snapchat where he had been texting her in October (after we met) and even sent her the same pickup lines he had sent me. he had cheated with not just one, but two (at least that I know of) other girls.
At this point I had been broken so bad I didn't even feel the pain anymore. I just went numb. I had no more tears left to cry and couldn't be bothered to care anymore. I stopped eating and taking care of myself. I just went to work, came home, slept and repeated. I had watched the man that I loved and adored, one that made me feel so safe and happy turn into a monster right in front of me. He wasn't him anymore. I finally could see him for who he was. But I still didn't leave. He told me that he had only ever slept with three girls. I later found out it was actually six. He told me he had never been in love before. I later found out he tells basically every girl he's ever talked to that he loves them AND genuinely was in love with his ex before me. He told me after his ex and him broke up, he had a rebound but he only hooked up with her once before ghosting her. I found out they actually dated for several weeks, hooked up several times, and she had taken cute couple pictures with him and posted them on social media. He said that he never wanted to take those pictures, she made him put his Hands on her and pose and if he didn't cooperate, she would throw a tantrum like a child. One last thing I think that is important to mention,when we went on our first date, I told him I don't do hookups. We stayed out late and hit it off really well so I offered for him to stay the night at my place. I said I was okay with cuddling and whatever but I did not want to have sex. He seemed okay with it. I went to bed and then when I woke up, my pants were off and he was inside me. He claimed he didn't know I was asleep and thought I wanted it because apparently my butt kept rubbing against him while we were spooning.
It's been about a month since all that and I'm still just meh. I haven't exactly forgiven him but I also don't hate him. Things are normal. I act normal we still do couple things. But I can't help but wonder if he is just using me the same way he used them. I mean after all, he lives in my apartment rent free and asked me to buy him a truck for his birthday. He says I should forgive him because he genuinely doesn't remember doing these things and he didn't mean to lie to me. He said he's so ashamed of who he was but isn't like that anymore. He doesn't associate with who he was and wants to be given a chance to show that he is different. But can I ever forgive him? Should I? Where do I go from here? I feel so lost and confused. I dont think I'll ever be able to trust his word again. I dont feel secure. He broke me so bad I can't even feel anymore. Am I crazy and somehow making this a bigger deal than it is? Can I ever have the man I fell in love with back? I'm sorry if this was confusing. I'm typing this all out in one sitting. Please help me because I genuinely am so lost and I don't want to tell any friends because I don't want them to hate him.
TLDR: My boyfriend cheated on me with at least two other girls that I know of at the moment and has lied to me about too many things to count. His argument is that It doesn't actually count as cheating because he technically didn't date these people and he didn't remember doing it.

This song has become a well loved track for me. DYWTYLM is a track that sounds the most poppie compared to the rest of their catalog. One of the reasons that I love this song is because it really gives that main character euphoria. I live in a major US City and rely on public transit. That means I walk A LOT. The walk-ability of this song is top tier. The way the beat goes is always right in time with my foot meeting the pavement as I walk through the big city. Aside from the feel of the song the lyrics, as per usual, are a treat to dissect.
Within the Lore of Sleep Token I choose rest my head on an acquired understanding that Sleep is just a personification of Mental/Emotional states of being/the Self and Death. Thus is the framework of which I consume this musical offerings. The songs structure (from out understanding) as encounters with Vessel and Sleep, making the lyrics very conversational even if only one sided at times. In this song ,however, it seems almost more to be breaking that third wall in addition to its tie to the sleep lore. The more I listen to this track the more I feel like I am getting a little peak into a more pointed aspect of the mental continuum of the man behind the mask; a insecurity perhaps? Behold my theory fellow worshipers...

1. Energy is shared and never ending. Everything that makes up the stars in the sky also makes up us. Many spiritualists adopt the understanding that we are simply the universe experiencing itself over and over in different incarnations. We are each other. I am it and it is me, a philosophy I think it is safe to say that Sleep Token shares. In 2017 the band even released a single line response on social media in res posting to an article that within its headline asked (possibly paraphrasing) "What and Who the Hell are Sleep Token?" To which the band responded "We are YOU" All this to say that any relationship or battle or communication with sleep is, to me, often just directed towards the darker facets of the artist himself. Additionally it is about creating a community that can dine in darkness together.
2. So why would I suspect that a fourth wall is broken? The perspective that I am viewing this song in lends itself to that suspension though the song still works regardless of POV. Either this song is reference towards a specific person or conversation or its directed at fans or both. DYWTYLM has come off of the most recent album Take Me Back To Eden. At this point the band has gained some following though it seems it didn't really explode until around the time of the albums release when the summoning blew up on social media. Regardless, when you have the talent that Sleep Token has, a large fan base is inevitable. I can imagine going from being relatively unknown to having strangers shout that they love you can be a heavy experience especially if one already struggles with self Image. To me, this song comes from the headspace of someone being interested in you in some way and wanting to build some sort of relationship with you, wanting to invest themselves in you. Despite this person saying how much they want you in their life, you feel like you should come with a warning label. I feel that's whats happening here. the question DYWTYLM is a interesting one because the inflection of that question is what can easily change the perspective. I view that question with a tone of disbelief and sense of "..but why?"

"Do you roll with the waves? or do you duck into deep blue safety? Is is always the same? DYWTYLM? Do you pull out the chains? or Do you push into constant aching each and every day? DYWTYLM?"
To me its as if someone has told him that they love him and that they want him to have a bigger role in their life in whatever regards the relationship is to. Friend, Lover whomever. He is trying to deter this person from getting to close. essentially it is say "My responses to negative stimulus is either on one side of the spectrum or the complete other side of the spectrum." Perhaps he is saying "I may be a bueden to you." As if to warn "I am too broken for you." If you look at the entirety of this song like this, you can see it easily. All of the questions seem posed as if/then, this or that. When he says DYWTYLM, is he really saying"You may wish that you loved me but behold, here is all the lists of the reasons we wont work out cause I am too complicated and mentaly ill. So, after all that, do you still want me? Do You Wish That You Loved me?"
Another reason I suspect that this song could be directed at fans is because of the in between parts toward the end of the song. During a interview style version of one of vessels messages he had said (again, paraphrasing)"I only see them smiling...I want them to smile" and during the end of the song you hear him sing "smile back.....at me..."
The band has always wanted it to be about the music. These are smart lads though, I am sure they expected and bit of a following from ....Hungry Eyes...if you will.... Perhaps this song gently address "hey, you think im desirable? If you really knew me..if you knew the man behind the mask..,maybe you would change your mind."
During the course of the song he also addresses "my reflecion wont smile back at me like I know it should and I would turn into a stranger in a minute if I could. There is something eating me alive I dont know what it is...."
He doesnt seem to like himself very much in the first place. Introspectively, The artist understands that sometimes there is a blind spot to see greatness within ones self. When he says he wished he could be a stranger it could be that he wishes he were able to look at himself more objectivly and not be weighed down by any preconceived notions or lies he has told himself. To say he doesn't know what is eating him alive it sounds like he is struggling with depression or some other mental/emotional health concern.
He goes on to say "I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself" This is powerful because its like he has been offered a way out of his lonleyness, out of some of the darkness but has refused it because he wont do it at the expense of anyone else. He is compassionate.
In summary I feel that the track DYWTYLM is about questioning what someone sees in you, and/or wanting to protect somone from yourself. I get a sense that this narrative is something that is perhaps a less metaphorical aspect and more a confession of something real that the lead singer has dealth with before.
So what do you think? Have you had similar thoughts? How do you feel it relates to the Sleep lore? There are probably as many variations of interpretation as there are Sleep Token Worshipers. Aside from whatever is truley cannon in Vessles mind, there is no right or wrong answers or interpretations. If something resonated with you then you explore that path and if it didnt thats okay too.
-Byte

At the world’s top college of magic and technology, every day brings a new discovery -and a new disaster. The advanced experiments of the college students tend to be both ambitious and apocalyptic, with the end of the world only prevented by a mysterious time loop, and a small handful of students who retain their memories.
Surviving the loops was hard enough, but now, in his senior year, Vell Harlan must take charge of them, and deal with the fact that the whole world now knows his secrets. Everyone knows about Vell’s death and resurrection, along with the divine game he is a part of. Now Vell must contend with overly curious scientists and evil billionaires hungry for divine power while the daily doomsday cycle bombards him with terrorists, talking elephants, and the Grim Reaper himself -but if he can endure it all, the Last Goddess’s game promises the ultimate prize: power over life itself.
[Previous Chapter][Patreon][Cover Art]
“Should I be worried?”
Why would you be worried?” Kim said. “Dean Lichman loves us.”
Dean Lichman had asked the two of them to stop by his office, though his brief message had not said what for. That left Vell to concoct nightmare scenarios in his head.
“He doesn’t love all of us.”
“Alex doesn’t count as ‘us’,” Kim said. She was a looper in purely a technical sense, mostly due to her own refusal to be a team player. “Besides, she’s been behaving lately. She’s only been an asshole, not an active liability.”
“That we know of.”
“If we don’t know about it, Dean probably doesn’t either,” Kim said. “It’s fine, Vell, he probably just wants to ask us for advice or deal with some problem he has.”
“That’s not much better,” Vell said. “How weird would things have to be that the Dean is asking us for help personally?”
“Only one way to find out,” Kim said. She gestured to the door to the Dean’s office.
Kim entered first, and found it in much the same state as it always was. The desk piled high with paperwork, a small bowl of assorted candies shoved into the corner of the desk, and Dean Lichman behind it, frantically tapping away on a laptop. Vell had not been in this office for several years, and it was vastly different than the last time he’d been here.
“Ah, there you are, come in, have a seat,” Dean Lichman said. “Unless you’d rather we have our conversation elsewhere, Vell.”
“Why would I want that?”
“Well, it’s my understanding you haven’t been in this office since my, uh, predecessor,” Dean Lichman said.
“Oh, right, the kidnapping,” Vell said. “No, I’m good, I don’t really get traumatized by things anymore.”
Vell had been killed too many different ways in too many different places to have a functional trauma response. A few days ago he’d gotten his legs chewed off by a vending machine, and still stopped by it to pick up a soda on his way to the office.
“That’s a very concerning response, Mr. Harlan.”
“Yeah. Anyway, what did you need?”
Dean Lichman gestured for the duo to take a seat, and both did so. He folded desiccated hands in front of himself before beginning to speak.
“I would like to ask you two to take a look at an experiment that will be occurring later this week,” Dean Lichman said. “I don’t have any reason to believe it poses a threat, but I would like to be assured it is a safe and ethical environment, and, well, you two have a knack for identifying trouble spots.”
“You could say that,” Kim said. It was more accurate to say that trouble had a way of identifying them -and then leaping at them and ripping their heads off.
“I’d appreciate it if the two of you could simply examine the laboratory and give it your approval, or disapproval, as the case may be,” Dean Lichman said. “Though if you’re too busy, I fully understand.”
“If you don’t think this is dangerous, why are you asking for our help anyway?”
“Simply for my own peace of mind, frankly,” Dean Lichman said. “The school’s policies on animal experimentation are...satisfactory, I suppose, but I do want to take extra precautions when the subject is a creature as smart as an elephant.”
“An elephant?”
“Yes, a resident of a reserve in Thailand,” Dean Lichman said. “An older elephant by the name of Mae Noi. She has cancer, apparently, and she is submitting to experimental treatment in the hopes it will be useful for younger elephants.”
Kim’s digital face briefly flashed with a facial expression of concerned skepticism.
“‘She’ is submitting to treatment? As in the elephant?”
“Yes. Apparently the elephant can talk,” Dean Lichman said. “No, I don’t know how it works, they said it was ‘more impressive in person’.”
“Well now I kind of want to go just to see the talking elephant,” Vell said.
“Same.”
“Well, do try to take a few glances at the experiment’s safety while you’re there,” Dean Lichman said.
“Sounds like a plan,” Vell said. “Thanks for the heads up.”
“I’ll be there too,” Kim said.
“Excellent. Thank you both, and I’ll try not to take up too much of your time,” the Dean said. He then bid them both a polite goodbye and returned to his mountains of paperwork. Vell took a step out of the office and then took a sip from the soda he’d recently retrieved from the evil vending machine.
“So, what do you think?”
“I think I really do want to see the talking elephant,” Kim said.
“Obviously, yeah, we all want to see the talking elephant,” Vell said. “I mean the whole situation. You think the elephant thing is going to be the daily apocalypse for that day?”
“Well, on the one hand, an elephant seems like the kind of thing that would kill us,” Kim said. “But on the other, I feel like the fact we have advance warning means it’s not going to happen.”
“True. The universe probably wouldn’t make it that easy for us.”
“Yeah, but the elephant thing still feels pretty threatening,” Kim said. “Only way to find out is to wait a few days, I guess.”
A FEW DAYS LATER
“Hello you two,” Dean Lichman said. “And Hawke.”
“Hey,” Hawke said.
“He also wanted to see the talking elephant,” Kim explained.
“Well, that’s not a problem, it was an open invitation,” Dean Lichman said.
“Thanks. Still, sorry for not saying I was going to show up in advance,” Hawke said. “It took me a long time to make up my mind whether I was more interested in or afraid of a talking elephant.”
“They are rather large, aren’t they? I suppose that could be intimidating.”
“I’m okay with elephants on their own, it’s the talking part that doesn’t sit right with me,” Hawke said. “What if the elephant doesn’t like me? What if I’m the first person to ever get insulted by an elephant?”
“You’re less afraid of getting trampled by an elephant than insulted by one?”
“I’m a little afraid of trampling, but elephants are chill,” Hawke explained. “They wouldn’t attack unless provoked. I kind of feel like one might call me a dipshit unprovoked, though.”
“You have oddly specifics fears, Mr. Hughes,” Dean Lichman said.
“Yeah.”
In spite of those fears, Hawke happily stepped through the door to the zoology lab. It did not take a long time to locate the elephant in the room, as it was a literal elephant. The towering pachyderm was in a makeshift pen in the center of the lab, with an ample supply of food and a strange pedestal in front of her.
“Dr. Chanthara,” Dean Lichman said, with a polite wave to one of the researchers in the room. “Good to see you. These are the students I told you about.”
“Hm. Nice to meet you,” Dr. Chanthara said. He was, perhaps not unreasonably, skeptical of why three seemingly random students were in charge of a safety inspection. The fact that one of the three was a robot made him even more skeptical.
“Hi, nice to meet you too, and, uh, don’t mind us,” Vell said. “We just have an eye for weird things other people might miss.”
“Sure. I- wait. Aren’t you that kid who got chosen by a god?”
“Yeah, that’s me,” Vell said. “And her too, technically.”
Kim shrugged. She didn’t care for any extra attention on that point.
“Right,” Chanthara said. He was beginning to see why these students might know their stuff. “I suppose we should start by introducing you to Mae Noi. Say hello, Mae.”
The elephant shifted on her feet and poked her trunk at the wide pedestal in front of her twice.
“Hello. Friends,” a synthesized voice droned. Vell stepped a little closer to the pedestal, just enough to see that there were an array of buttons on the side facing Mae Noi.
“Oh, it’s kind of like a keyboard,” Vell said. He’d seen similar things used with dogs, though usually in a much simpler fashion. Mae Noi seemed to have a few dozen buttons at her disposal.
“Smart,” Mae Noi said, with another prod of her trunk.
“We initially put it into our sanctuary as a bit of a novelty, something elephants could choose to interact with,” Dr. Chanthara explained. “Mae Noi took to it a bit better than most. Especially once she found out she could use it to ask for food.”
“Food. Pumpkin. Pumpkin. Pumpkin.”
“No, Mae, no food until after experiment,” Dr. Chanthara scolded.
“Experiment,” Mae Niko said with a prod. “Pumpkin.”
“Yes, experiment then pumpkin,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“That’s not really a talking elephant, is it?” Hawke said.
“It’s more talking than most elephants,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“Elephant. Smart,” Mae Niko said. “Smart.”
“Yes, uh, right, elephant smart,” Hawke said. He took a step back, to avoid any further offense and any further risk of being insulted by Mae Noi.
“You’re very impressive, Mae, don’t mind him,” Kim said. “How many words does she know?”
“Our platform back home has around three hundred words, though she’s still learning some of them,” Dr. Chanthara said. “The ‘travel’ version we put together only has a hundred, just enough to make sure she can get her basic needs met and communicate about the experiment.”
“Right, speaking of, I do believe we should put some time into our reason for being here,” Dean Lichman interjected. “You’re welcome to stick around afterwards, at Dr. Chanthara and Mae Noi’s discretion, of course, but we should get underway.”
“We probably should get to business, yeah,” Kim said. She tapped the side of her metal head. “I’m going to scan the lab. Vell, you talk to the elephant and make sure everything’s above-board.”
“Abov- oh, right,” Vell said. “Sorry, not exactly used to being able to ask animals if they agree to animal experimentation.”
“Experiment,” Mae said.
“Yeah, experiment,” Vell said, as he turned to Mae. “So, Mae Noi, this experiment might hurt, do you know that?”
“Experiment. Hurt. Elephant,” Mae Noi prodded. “Experiment. Help. Elephant. Help. Baby.”
“Help baby?”
“Baby. Baby. Elephant. Sick. Baby. Sick.”
“We’ve explained the nature of her condition to Mae Noi as best we can,” Dr. Chanthara said. “She has several children, and is concerned they might be similarly affected.”
“Help. Baby,” Mae Noi said. “Experiment. Help.”
The way Mae Noi frantically tapped the buttons tugged at Vell’s heartstrings, but he choked those emotions down.
“So you want to do this experiment to help baby, got it,” Vell said. “Even if it hurts you?”
“Elephant. Old,” Mae Noi said. “Hurt. Okay. Help. Baby.”
“Huh. Well, that does sound like informed consent to me,” Vell said. “Passes ethical muster, at least.”
The campus rules allowed students to be experimented on, with their consent, so Vell saw no reason not to apply the same standard to an elephant.
“You speak up if you change your mind about the experiment, okay?”
“Stop. Stop. Stop,” Mae said, mashing the same button a few times. “Yes.”
“You got it. I’m going to go help my friends check things out,” Vell said. “Good talking to you, Mae.”
“Good. Talk. Friend,” Mae said. She waved goodbye with her trunk, and Vell waved back. He wandered away from Mae Noi’s pedestal and found Kim and Hawke carefully examining rows of beakers and various other supplies.
“Nothing sus yet, boss,” Hawke said.
“Nothing caustic, mutagenic, or explosive?”
“Well, something mutagenic, but it’s supposed to be,” Kim said. She had scanners built into her body much like those that had once been in Vell’s glasses, allowing her to analyze the complex chemical formulas at a glance. “They’re going for some gene editing similar to what we’ve tried to do on human cancer patients. Low success rate, but not harmful. Some adaptations to work on elephants, of course.”
“Run it by any of our chemistry and biology student friends yet?”
“A few,” Kim said. “Haven’t gotten anything back yet, though.”
“Maybe run it by Skye, too,” Vell said. “She’d recognize anything that’d mutate an animal.”
“She does love to mutate things,” Kim said.
“Benevolently,” Vell insisted. “Just show her. I’m going to check for any stray equipment.”
The presence of an unusually large test subject had resulted in the lab being rearranged and reshuffled, so Vell did a quick scan for any misplaced equipment that might pose a threat. He found, to his surprise, a tidy and well-organized environment, with any and all extraneous materials securely locked away. There wasn’t so much as a shrink ray out of place. Vell did another loop just to be sure, but returned to his friends empty-handed.
“This place has less safety hazards than my lab,” Vell said. Hawke stared at him for a while.
“Why does your lab have safety hazards?’
“I do runecarving, there’s like, hammers and chisels,” Vell said. “Those can hurt people.”
“Mm, true,” Hawke said. “So you really didn’t find anything?”
“Nothing,” Vell said. “This place is secure as I’ve ever seen a lab be.”
“It’s like I said,” Kim began. “We got an actual warning about it, so obviously nothing’s going to go wrong. That’d be too easy.”
“Maybe,” Vell said. “Things can get teleported in, or someone could cast a spell, or something.”
“Yeah, but that applies to anywhere, at any time,” Kim said.
“Kim’s right,” Hawke said. “I say we go business as usual.”
“I guess,” Vell said. “We have to branch out a little, at least. Can’t keep an eye on one room all day.”
The trio stopped sulking around the outskirts of the lab and returned to Dean Lichman and Dr. Chanthara.
“Everything looks good,” Kim said. “Probably the safest lab I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ll choose to take that as a compliment,” Dr. Chanthara said.
“We have very high safety standards here at the Einstein-Odinson,” Dean Lichman said, defensively. “Relatively speaking. Innovation requires some risk.”
“I understand perfectly. So does Mae.”
“Hurt. Okay,” Mae said.
“Not that okay,” Vell said. “Nice meeting you, Dr. Chanthara. You too, Mae.”
“Wait.”
Mae prodded one of the buttons on her pedestal and then pointed her trunk at the three of them. Hawke looked deeply concerned, but stepped forward alongside Vell and Kim. Mae Noi appraised them with massive brown eyes, and then moved her trunk back towards the pedestal. Vell noticed a distinctive scar on the bridge of her long nose just as Mae Noi pressed another button.
“Joke.”
“...Joke?”
Dr. Chanthara sighed and rolled his eyes.
“Just go along with it,” he said. “She likes to tell her joke.”
“Uh, okay,” Vell said. “Let’s hear it.”
“What. Elephant. Favorite. Part. Tree.”
“Umm...I don’t know, Mae,” Vell lied. He’d heard this joke from a kid, once. “What part?”
“Trunk,” Mae said. She gave a loud bray of amusement and then slammed her trunk down a few more times to emphasize the punchline. “Trunk. Trunk.”
“Oh, ha, I get it,” Kim said, hoping her feigned laugh was convincing. She’d never tried to lie to an elephant before. “Good one, Mae.”
Mae Noi shifted from side to side, looking pleased with herself, while the trio took a step back and stopped their feigned laughter.
“Did you give her buttons just to tell that joke with?”
“She gets upset,” Dr. Chanthara said. “I’m not even sure she understands the pun, she just likes people’s reactions.”
“As long as she’s having fun,” Hawke said.
“We’ll get out of your hair now,” Vell said. “Good luck with the experiment, feel free to let us know if you need a hand with anything.”
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Dr. Chanthara said. Some of his earlier skepticism seemed to have softened, but he did not seem entirely onboard with three strangers mucking about with his experiment. Vell and his friends left before they stretched what little goodwill they had any further. Mae Noi waved her trunk goodbye as the three left the lab and stepped back onto the quad.
“I’m going to try and sneak some classes in,” Hawke said. “Later.”
“I’ll check some of our usual hot spots,” Kim said, before she too left. Once again alone, Vell headed to one of his own classes, and called up Samson.
“Hey, Samson,” Vell began. “See anything interesting while we were playing with the elephant?”
“Well, I thought I clocked someone acting suspicious, but it turns out he was only sneaking around to go see his boyfriend,” Samson said. “Nothing apocalyptic, but I did get called a homophobe, which is pretty emotionally devastating.”
“I’m sure you’ll recover someday,” Vell said. “Keep an eye out. Usually the safer things look, the more dangerous things end up being.”
“Will do,” Samson said, before saying goodbye and hanging up.
***
Vell got increasingly nervous the longer the day went without its daily disaster. He thought about checking in on Mae Noi again, but then recalled Kim’s warning about it being too obvious, but then remembered that nobody had seen anything suspicious anywhere else, but then remember that Mae Noi’s lab had looked perfectly safe-
“Vell.”
“Huh?”
“You’re spiraling,” Kim said.
“I’m not spiraling, I’m just,” Vell said, with a pause for contemplation. “Considering multiple options.”
“In a spiral fashion,” Kim said. “Eat the damn french fries. Honestly, what’s the point of ordering so many if you’re just going to let them get cold?”
“It’s not like they’re going to go to waste,” Vell said. The same time loop that allowed him to eat massive amounts of french fries without fear of gaining weight also allowed him to avoid food waste. One of the upsides of life in a time loop.
“Just eat, Vell,” Kim said. “You worry too much about all this shit.”
“I’m in charge, it’s my job to worry about it,” Vell said.
“It’s your job to handle it,” Kim said. “There’s no point thinking about this shit before it happens, you spend all day thinking about an elephant and then the universe drops, like, a bat with tentacles on your head. Just deal with as it comes, Vell.”
Vell leaned on the table and managed to chomp down on a french fry or two.
“You know, next year, when I’m not running the show anymore, I’m going to call and see if you still think it’s that easy.”
“I sure hope so,” Kim said. “I’m saying all this shit trying to make myself believe it too.”
“Oh good, you’re lying to both of us,” Vell said. “That’s cool.”
“Fake it ‘til you make it, Vell, that’s how it goes,” Kim said. “Eat your damn french fries.”
Vell rolled his eyes and returned to his fries, which were now starting to cool. Thankfully he would not have to worry about finishing them. A loud crash from across campus interrupted him mid-bite and nearly made Vell choke on his fries. He painfully swallowed the half-chewed food and then looked over his shoulder.
“Son of a bitch, finally,” Vell said. A few years ago he’d found it weird whenever he was relieved about a disaster, but now he was just genuinely glad to get it over with. The waiting was as killer as the apocalypse. He tossed his fries in the trash and headed toward the sound of chaos, with Kim right behind him.
“Already told everybody?”
“Well, I may or may not have left Alex and Helena out of the loop…”
“Kim.”
“They’d find out anyway,” Kim said. “I got to use my brain parts to get in touch with them, even over wi-fi that shit feels dirty.”
“Just get in- stop.”
Vell held out his hand. Kim froze in place and did not move. Not intentionally, at least. There was a small amount of unintentional movement. The ground was vibrating.
“Always love a good earthquake,” Kim said.
“That’s not a quake,” Vell said. “That’s...footsteps!”
Vell grabbed Kim and dove out of the way just in time for something to barrel through the walls of the dining hall and stampede across the room. Tables, chairs, and more than a few students were crushed under the feet of a hulking, brown-furred behemoth as it charged. Kim picked herself and Vell up off the floor and tried to trail its progress.
“That’s a- oh fuck me,” Kim said. “Please don’t say you told me so.”
Vell got his bearings and looked across the room at the titanic form of a woolly mammoth. Though it was definitely recognizable as an archaic mammoth, the ancient creature was also heavily mutated, unnaturally large even by mammoth standards, and with multiple curled, jagged tusks protruding from a slobbering maw.
“Well that could be unrelated,” Vell said. “Mammoths can come from a lot of places, cloning accidents, time machines…”
The mammoth reached a wall, and rather than barreling through, turned around, facing directly towards Vell. A prominent scar covered the bridge of its broad trunk.
“Oh, nope, that’s definitely Mae,” Vell said. The scar was in the same place and at the same angle. Even a clone wouldn’t have an identical scar.
Once the revelation had struck, Mae took her turn. Vell found himself staring straight down the barrel of a very angry mammoth coming right at him at Vell-squishing velocity. Luckily he’d been charged at by a lot of creatures over four years of looping.
Vell jumped up and to the side, and latched on to one of the curled tusks, which made for very convenient handlebars. Kim did the same on the opposite side of Mae, and punched her in the head.
“Wait, wait, hold off on the violence for a second,” Vell shouted. He tried to wave at Kim to stop, but Mae was thrashing so violently he had to grip the tusks with both hands.
“Good plan,” Kim shouted. “Can you get Mae on board?”
Another set of tables got crushed underfoot. Thankfully the other students were out of trampling range by now, but Mae Noi’s feet were still coated in the blood of earlier victims.
“Mae’s smart, maybe we can calm her down,” Vell said. He then ducked to dodge a swat from Mae’s mutated trunk.
“Call me crazy, Vell, but I think this is more than just a bad mood,” Kim said, as she climbed up Mae’s seven jagged tusks like a ladder.
“We have to try,” Vell said. The loopers rule against hurting other intelligent life forms had some flexibility for blood-crazed mutants on violent rampages, but they had to at least try to reason first. Vell climbed up on of Mae’s tusks and looked into one of her bloodshot eyes for any sign of recognition. “Mae! It’s Vell, do you remember?”
The only response Vell got was an enraged trumpet, which he didn’t think was a “yes”.
“Come on, bud,” Vell said. “What’s an elephant’s favorite part of a tree, right? The trunk?”
The massive brown eye staring at Vell blinked, and he felt a brief glimmer of hope. He then felt a brief glimmer of his lungs being crushed as Mae swung her head and slammed her tusks into the wall, and Vell along with them. Kim punched Mae in the throat and then jumped across the tusks to grab Vell and carry him to safety.
“You okay, Vell?”
He opened his mouth to respond, and a pint or two of blood came out instead.
“Apparently not,” he mumbled. “I might be down a few ribs. And a lung. Or two.”
Kim carried Vell a safe distance from the fight and set him down on the ground, where he promptly spat out another mouthful of blood.
“Okay, uh, you just lie there and try to die peacefully, I guess,” Kim said.
“Way ahead of you.”
***
“Was that last bit as funny as I thought it was?” Vell asked. “I think the blood loss was affecting my sense of humor.”
“It was kind of hard to appreciate in the moment,” Kim said. “But as far as dying jokes go, it was pretty good.”
Vell and Kim walked into the lair for their morning meeting and joined the loopers that had already gathered.
“Okay, what’d I miss while I was dead?”
“Well, after Alex was done getting herself killed,” Samson began.
“You’re saying that as if it’s something to be ashamed of,” Alex said. “Vell also died.”
“Yeah, but he got killed trying to do something good. You got killed trying to do something stupid.”
“Trying to eliminate a threat is not stupid,” Alex said.
“We don’t kill intelligent creatures,” Hawke said. “Sometimes we punch them into a coma, but we don’t kill them.”
“When a dog bites, you put it down, I don’t see why the same principle doesn’t apply to a mammoth that’s crushed seventy people.”
“That wasn’t Mae’s fault,” Vell said. “She got mutated, or something. On that note: did you guys figure out what happened to Mae Noi?”
“Nothing,” Hawke said. “Looked like Mae smashed up the entire lab, trampled everyone involved in the experiment too. Nothing left to investigate, and nobody left alive to interrogate.”
“Typical,” Vell sighed. “At least we have an easy out. Dean Lichman was really concerned about the ethics of that whole experiment. We raise some kind of complaint, we could probably get the whole thing shut down.”
“The problem is getting the complaint,” Hawke said. “That lab was airtight, Vell.”
“Apparently not completely airtight,” Kim said. “I can camp out in the lab and raise an entirely justifiable stink whenever something capable of making a murder-mammoth shows up.”
“And what if it happens so suddenly you can’t complain about it?” Samson asked. “For all we know that could’ve been some kind of dimensional rift, or time anomaly, or something. It might not be as simple as somebody just putting in the wrong syringe at the wrong time.”
“He’s got a point,” Vell said. “We might want to shut this down before it gets there.”
“Seems like our best option is to plant evidence, then,” Alex said.
Everyone else at the table spent a few seconds brainstorming ways to prove her wrong, and much to their frustration, could not.
“Okay, fine,” Vell said. “But it needs to be something incidental, not something anyone would get blamed for. We want to cancel the experiment, not get anyone in trouble.”
“I could have a seizure on some sensitive equipment,” Helena offered. “It’ll break something and nobody would dare get mad at me.”
“Can you fake a seizure?”
“No, but I’m allergic to elephants, so I’d probably have one anyway the moment I stepped in the lab,” Helena said.
“I don’t feel entirely comfortable sending you into anaphylactic shock for a bit,” Vell said.
“Offer’s on the table,” Helena said. “I’ll live. Wouldn’t have made it through that trip to the zoo otherwise.”
“Anybody have any non-medical emergency suggestions?”
“Seagull in the air vents,” Kim said.
“Will that work?”
“It happens now and then,” Kim said. “Seagull gets in, and Dean has to close down the whole lab for potential material damage and biohazard risks if they shit in the vents.”
“Really? We’ve never had to deal with anything like that,” Hawke said.
“It may shock you to learn that sometimes minor, tedious bullshit happens that we have nothing to do with,” Kim said.
“That is kind of surprising, actually.”
“Enough. Kim, can you grab a seagull?” Vell asked. He shouldered his bookbag, and stuck a hand into the extradimensional pocket that existed within it. “I can probably smuggle it in with my bag.”
“Yeah, I can get you a seagull,” Kim said. Since she did not need to sleep, she had to find ways to keep herself entertained at night, seagull-grabbing being among them.
“Alright, we’ll go grab one and put it in the bag,” Vell said. “The rest of you, be ready to meet us when I call.”
***
Roughly three minutes later, Vell put out the call and they reconvened in front of the biology lab.
“Yeah, that was much faster than I thought it would be,” Vell said.
“I’m great at grabbin’ birds,” Kim said. Seagulls were among the easier birds to snatch, even. They were suckers for food, and many of them were attracted to her shiny metallic body anyway.
“Let’s just get this over with,” Vell said. “I want this thing out of my bag ASAP.”
Even though the seagull was safely within a pocket dimension, Vell would swear he could still feel the bird thrashing and squawking inside his bag. He tightened his grip on the shoulder strap and led the way towards the zoology lab entrance. He grabbed the handle and held it as he froze for a second.
“Vell, what’s up? Is this bird escaping?”
“No, the handle’s vibrating,” Vell said. It was shaking the same way a wall near an incredibly loud speaker might. He pressed his ear to the door and listened closely. He opened the door immediately, and let all his friends hear the frantic trumpeting of a panicked elephant.
Inside the lab, Mae Noi was stomping her feet and trumpeting as loud as he long trunk would allow. She swayed from side to side in her pen, bumping against the walls not quite hard enough to damage them, but hard enough that it was clear she was doing it on purpose.
“What the heck is happening here?”
“Ah, Vell,” Dean Lichman said. He hustled over to Vell’s side and gestured to the entire room. “Maybe you can figure out what’s going on.”
Mae Noi stopped braying long enough to start mashing her trunk against her pedestal, mashing out the word “Bad” over and over again.
“Our test subject, Mae Noi, has been throwing an absolute fit ever since she got here,” Dean Lichman said. “Dr. Chanthara, these are the students I was telling you about earlier.”
While Vell reintroduced himself to Dr. Chanthara, Kim and Hawke stepped up to examine Mae Noi and her enclosure. It was a far cry from the peaceful, orderly scene they had examined on the first loop. They were half an hour earlier this time than before, but Kim found it unlikely that they had been able to calm Mae Noi down, clean everything up, and get back to work in such a short amount of time. They hadn’t mentioned any of this panic on the first loop either. They were soon joined in their confusion by Chanthara and Vell.
“We’ve tried everything; food, water, her favorite toys, even videos of her children,” Dr. Chanthara said. “We’ve even offered to call off the experiment, but she won’t listen.”
“She is an animal,” Alex said. “Sometimes they do things arbitrarily.”
“Not Mae,” Dr. Chanthara said. “Some of our sanctuaries residents from traumatic backgrounds can have outbursts, but Mae was injured in the wild. She’s never been like this.”
“Maybe some experiment on the island is upsetting her,” Vell said. “A sonic experiment only she can hear, or something…”
Vell stopped and thought about it. If there had been such an irritant, it would’ve been there on the first loop too. Everything always repeated exactly the same, except for-
“Could you, uh, take a step back for a second?” Vell mumbled. “I want to try talking to her.”
“Don’t get close,” Chanthara warned him.
“I’m not, I’m not,” Vell said. He didn’t need to get very close to tell a joke.
The massive brown eyes of Mae Noi stayed locked on Vell as he approached, and she continued to mash the “Bad” button on her pedestal.
“I know, I know, bad,” Vell said. “But, uh, do you want to hear a joke?”
Mae Noi stopped. She locked eyes with Vell for a few seconds, and then cautiously tapped a button on her pedestal.
“Joke.”
“Right, joke,” Vell said. He tried to recall the exact sequence of words Mae had used on the first loop. “What elephant favorite part tree?”
Mae didn’t blink.
“Trunk,” Vell said.
After a moment of contemplation, Mae Noi let out one final, fervent, trumpet, and then started mashing buttons on her pedestal again.
“Bad. Help. Help. Experiment. Bad. Help. Bad. Help.”
“Yeah, bad help, one second,” Vell said. He turned away from Mae Noi to look at Dean Lichman. “Hey, uh, excuse me, Dean? Hey, uh, if I remember correctly there are some pretty complicated rules on having intelligent animals on campus, yes?”
“Well, yes,” Dean Lichman said. After hearing of some questionable ethical practices involving an octopus back in first year, he had instituted a few clauses into the school’s ethical code of conduct regarding intelligent animals like elephants, octopuses, and dolphins. “Mae’s presence here is a bit of an outlier, but there were workaround, given her apparent consent to the experiment.”
“Yeah, about that, is she, uh,” Vell began. “Is she registered as a student?”
“Yes.”
Vell pursed his lips. It took a few seconds for his friends to catch on.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Samson snapped. He turned his back on the crowd and leaned against a wall while Hawke put his head in his hands.
“The first rule of looping,” Alex said quietly. “Loopers are randomly selected-”
She looked up and locked eyes with Mae Noi.
“From all registered students.”

A bit of a rant post, but also trying to see if its possible to report a seller for terrible customer service. I had ordered an item from this seller , my item was marked as shipped for roughly 2-3 weeks, with zero movement whatsoever. It had been pre transit the entire time.
I message them, asking for an update, I wasn't given one regarding any delays until I went and reached out myself. They state it's due to QA reasons and it will be another week or two, I had no issues with this. However upon another week passing with no updates. No change in USPS status, and the delivery window being well exceeded at this point, I opened a case with Etsy and got a refund.
Seller immediately messages me, saying that USPS had picked up the item already and that I will need to close my case with Etsy before the order is canceled.
I checked the status of USPS. STILL pre transit. I told the seller this, he says that the status does not update in real time and should update that afternoon (not true on any order I have ever ordered online, they even time stamp the updates, lol). Etsy was pretty quick to resolve my case so they refunded me, and let the seller keep what I paid, (they waived my klarna total for the amount of the item as it was part of a large klarna order with multiple sellers)
I let the seller know that they had already closed it, seller says that the only way to proceed is for them to send me a new custom order for the total of the item (which would effectively mean they would get paid twice for a bad job, as they were able to keep the total amount of the item already paid even though I was refunded) so that they can keep the same shipping label and have it delivered faster as the post already grabbed it.
Upon messaging them back asking how to do this, I get zero response.
I go ahead and leave a 1 star review. Which in my opinion is justifiable.
The seller responds and says I acted in bad faith, tried getting the item for free, that we had made an agreement to get the item shipped to me the day the case was opened, just blatant lies. Looking at their other 1 star reviews (which I should have done when ordering) it looks like this guy is a raging manbaby that will berate anyone that leaves him a bad review, gives excuses, and in short is nothing but "buyer wrong, I didn't do anything ". The whole experience has me peeved, and it looks like several other people had experiences similar to mine, never receiving their items, items marked as shipped for weeks with no updates, no communication, etc.
How do I report a sellers customer service? Or just report them in general? Or am I SOL on that front. I'm not usually a Karen when it comes to things like this, but the entire interaction kinda pissed me off.
Interactions with seller https://imgur.com/a/80WobDL
My review and the seller's response https://imgur.com/a/uayMkgY

Hey guys. So I'm pretty confident that I'm reading rule 17E in the flsa excludes helpdesk / repair techs from being OT exempt. But here I am. I didn't know about this before taking the job, and realistically it's not that much OT to pursue legal action, but long story short the ship has sailed on moving up in this company, I didn't get my promised career advancement framework, and other folks with less experience are getting hired in at higher rates even while raises are "temporarily suspended". I know job hopping right now is hard given the state of the industry, so I'm looking to cut back to a hard 40 limit, and protect myself from retribution, somehow, without telling them I know my rights, until I can find something better.
Basically the problem is this: they schedule us required to be on site from 8-5 with an hour lunch. This lunch break is not protected to be duty free - we have to keep all communications turned on, and are strongly discouraged from leaving our areas to take lunch. What this results in obviously is people walking in during our lunch needing something, and the expectation being to help them in emergency or submit a ticket for them. The workload is not so high that in any given week I cannot accomplish the job within SLA within 40 hours, even if they have an after-hours need. So when there's an after-hours meeting or event, I have to stay over, in unpaid OT, as well as still arriving at my 8am start, for the sake of availability. I feel that they can't have the employer benefit of not paying OT if they get to micromanage our hours just for availability, even if there are no pending tasks. Like if my SLA is 2 hours first response, and I had to stay 2 hours late so come in 2 hours late next day and immediately respond, I'm still within bounds of my metrics. Am I actually needing to go full throttle working for 40 hours a week? No. But I am definitely at minimum "engaged to wait" for this full 40+. Again this is not a super regular occurrence, just when you add it up over the course of a year it adds up to a non-negligible amount. Like I'd be very upset if I were robbed for this amount in any other way. Management has been known to check badge swipe timing and camera footage to make sure we're on time, and has written folks up for it (again even when there was no task scheduled).
One of the general conditions of being salary is flexible hours within business reason, but my scheduled hours are to start before everyone else, leave after everyone else, so there is time to +- 30 minutes without risking any business impact. It's literally just so they can have me available at the helpdesk just in case. "Just in case" scheduling doesn't sound like a very exempt type of workload. Of course if there's a big high prio issue like the network is down, I would get my ass out of bed and be there asap, as well as being on the horn with the other techs to consult. But... fires like that are so uncommon to pop up at random first thing in the morning without already having 50 reporting emails in my inbox that I'd already have seen. I don't have a problem telling them that I'm comping the time just so they know, but having to ask them, rely upon receiving a response (which is maybe 50% likely), and then told no a high amount of the time, or to provide proof that I worked over during the hours I was asked to, seems..... questionable.
What can I do besides play hardball and leaving at 40 at this point? I've never had a salary exempt job before this and just don't know how to navigate the politics of putting my foot down, as a powerless, low paid tech worker in a shitty job market, with managers like this? Best I can really do without anyone noticing is taking long periods of doing no backlog/project work. But that's not really the same as being home, on my own time.

Common themes emerge from industry comments preceding the issuance of the final NHTSA rule. Note, extracts below are from only the first 1/3 of the 300+ page ruling read so far:

Commenters raised potential technical challenges to effective implementation of the proposed requirement. For example, Honda was concerned about AEB and radar sensor limitations when operating at high speeds—mainly the complex interdependency between speed and the distance and accuracy at which objects must be detected to be avoided (or even to mitigate a crash). Honda noted that higher speeds mean that objects will need to be detected at greater distances, and at greater distances there is less image resolution, greater positional error, and greater impact from things like roadway geometry. Honda and Porsche stated that requiring braking to occur at unrestricted high speeds leads to misidentification of objects and increases false positive activations. Honda further asserted that camera resolution is limited by the pixel count on the image capture chip and that at longer distances, the number of pixels for an object will be reduced, resulting in blur that makes it difficult to detect objects (the blur can be further exacerbated by the designed focal length of the lens). Further, Honda stated that a higher resolution can be achieved only through new sensor hardware that would require further developmental work as well as more processing power, including a change of imaging processing electronic control unit (ECU). Honda stated that for camera-radar fusion systems, small errors in the fusion algorithm are amplified at higher speeds (due to the longer distances) and could compromise the system's performance. Additionally, according to Honda, these reductions in sensor accuracy significantly increase the risk of misidentification of potential objects and may lead to excessive false positive activations, potentially creating negative safety consequences. This could include situations where the system mistakenly recognizes the same lane as the adjacent lane or roadway objects as other vehicles. Other commenters also raised concerns about the potential for false activations caused by the need for AEB to operate at very high speeds. For example, Volkswagen commented that false activation becomes more of a risk as speeds increase, and that these risks are not controllable, as defined in ISO 26262. Commenters raised concerns about whether braking was the most appropriate avoidance maneuver in high-speed scenarios. Honda was concerned that AEB activation might interfere with other technologies such as the Automatic Emergency Steering. Mitsubishi, and Toyota echoed the Alliance’s concern that in some situations AEB activation while traveling at high speed may induce unstable vehicle dynamics. Mitsubishi stated that these situations may occur due to unfavorable interactions with road surface conditions, road curvature, or for other unpredictable reasons. Mitsubishi thought that such activation could also lead to unexpected outcomes for a vehicle following the subject vehicle.
...Commenters suggested a number of different solutions to resolve their concerns. Most requested that the all-speeds requirement be removed. Alternatively, Honda and others (as noted earlier) asked that NHTSA establish a maximum speed at which AEB detection performance is assessed according to an established test procedure. Volkswagen asked that NHTSA exclude activation against vulnerable road users at high speeds, believing it would decrease false positive rates significantly. Volkswagen thought this could be justified as pedestrians would not be expected on the roads with these higher speeds. p.59-
The Alliance, Honda, NADA, Porsche, and Volkswagen suggested that the agency should allow manual deactivation to mitigate consumer dissatisfaction. Honda and NADA also stated that not allowing deactivation may lead to substantially higher false positive rates, while AAA stated that allowing for automatic or manual deactivation could increase consumer acceptance and minimize the perception that the systems are overbearing. NADA also stated that AEB false positives are a significant source of consumer complaints about AEB systems and that only 59 percent of respondents to a Consumer Reports survey indicated that they were satisfied with their AEB systems ...
NHTSA is not persuaded by comments that suggest that not permitting deactivation would lead to substantially higher false positive rates. NHTSA recognizes that AEB false positives are a source of consumer complaints, but NHTSA does not believe AEB deactivation is the solution to the engineering challenges manufacturers with lower performing systems might face in meeting this rule’s requirements.
p. 92-95
In response to the NPRM, the IIHS, the Advocates, NTSB, AAA, Adasky, and Luminar, expressed support for the full collision avoidance (i.e., no-contact) requirement in all proposed AEB tests. IIHS stated that their evaluations of existing AEB systems indicated that some current systems are completely avoiding collisions at the highest speeds IIHS has tested, which is 70 km/h. Advocates stated that the vehicles are tested under nearly ideal conditions and, by requiring a no-contact condition for success, the benefits of the system will be stronger under less-than-ideal conditions in the real world. NTSB and AAA stated that the no-contact requirement is consistent with the need for safety, and potentially necessary to ensure test repeatability. Luminar stated that they were concerned that regulating some degree of contact in these scenarios presents significant concerns for test efficiency, integrity and cost related to compliance. Luminar stated that the no-contact performance is within the capability of existing technology. Several commenters, including the Alliance, Honda, FCA, Nissan, Volkswagen, SEMA, and MEMA stated that the proposed no-contact requirement in lead vehicle AEB tests is not practicable at the proposed test speeds. Many of these commenters suggested a hybrid approach of collision avoidance at lower speeds and speed reduction at higher speeds. Multiple commenters stated that the proposed test speeds will require earlier intervention by AEB systems to meet the “no-contact” requirement, which they state will cause various unintended consequences, such as false positives due to test speeds or AEB intervention at a time where evasive steering may still be possible. p. 101-
Many commenters stated that the expectation of no contact in the real world is not practical. The Alliance stated that while the research indicated that certain vehicles performed better under certain test conditions, the number of tests run, particularly at higher speeds, is insufficient to make any reliable determination as to the repeatability and reproducibility of testing and that the agency ran only one test per vehicle at each of the different speed ranges in each scenario. Many commenters also observed that no vehicle was found to have met all the proposed requirements ... Further, Honda stated that to meet the proposed higher speed no-contact requirements, current systems would be forced to provide braking intervention with significantly reduced recognition reliability and that current AEB systems would need to be completely redesigned. Bosch stated that its testing shows that when the speed reaches approximately 75 km/h, there are reproducibility challenges with multi-sensor fusion of the object in time to initiate AEB and avoid the obstruction, and considerations should be made on how these requirements align with current functional safety requirements. p. 102-
NHTSA does not expect that false activation would occur for well-designed systems. NHTSA recognizes that false activation could occur when an AEB system has low accuracy and reliability. As mentioned previously, we agree with Luminar and other commentors that no contact performance is within the capability of existing technology. For example, Honda asserted that an AEB system will likely intervene improperly when the road in front of a subject vehicle is curved to the left and there is a vehicle parked on the right side of the road that causes no risk of collision. If the subject vehicle is equipped with sufficient technology to detect the shape of the road ahead, the AEB system would not improperly activate based on the mere fact that a parked vehicle appeared in the middle of AEB’s field of view. There are manners in which an algorithm can assess the shape of the road. The system will also be continuously receiving more data as the vehicle gets closer. p. 109-
Another technical option is having redundant systems as suggested in the Alliance’s comment. Regardless of whatever technical solution manufacturers choose, NHTSA does not believe that it should lower performance to match that of poor performers. Rather, manufacturers with poorly performing vehicles should strive to resolve their systems’ deficiencies so that they can perform as well as the market’s better or best performing vehicles. Additionally, while this rule imposes performance requirements for AEB systems, it does not specify how manufacturers must meet the requirements. The agency is providing maximum flexibility to manufacturers in designing AEB system for their vehicles. NHTSA recognizes that different manufacturers have different economic and practical realities that face their businesses. NHTSA principal concern is with the safety outcome and not the path that a manufacturer chooses to take to get to the required outcome. Given the various technical options, selecting technology for their AEB systems and setting the level of accuracy and reliability are at the manufacturers’ discretion. At the same time, the manufacturers should be responsible for any safety-related defects in their vehicle products, in this case potential false positive activations. Therefore, we expect that vehicle and equipment manufacturers will mitigate and resolve any product defect issues including potential false activation in their AEB systems. NHTSA will continue to monitor complaints on AEB systems from the public, including those involving false activations, and will evaluate the risks they present. p. 110-

So for context and a little back story I am 26m my younger sister is 22f (bekks for reference), we haven't always had a great relationship she's diagnosed bipolar disorder with few other things been in and out of mental wards. She had a kid about a year and a half ago as well as me our kids are 21 days apart. I had to move back home due to some relationship issues and bekks was here already due to her own relationship issues and the fact our bio dad no longer wanted to foot her bills anymore. In our mom's house, while my son was eating solid food already, bekks was giving her daughter baby snacks and milk which caused some major digestive issues for her daughter. Our mom being the saint she is was trying to teach her how to get her daughter onto solids and sippy cups however bekks never listened. She ignored her daughter, left her for our mom to take care of, even let her daughter fall down the stairs 3 separate times because as bekks said herself she thought her daughter knew better. Her daughter was only like 9m-11m old. Eventually she gave her daughter to our mom stating she never wanted to be a mom anyway and left. The last time she had seen her daughter was back in February of this year. Her daughter has majorly struggled with mommy issues every time our mom leaves the room she screams and cries for momma. Bekks has had every chance to see her daughter, our mom hosts family dinner night every Sunday.
A few days ago bekks tried messaging my mom saying she wanted to keep her daughter for a few days or something along those lines. Our mother refused because she has not been around for her daughter, has not financially provided for her daughter, and every time her daughter goes with her she comes back in full tantrum mode and relives her mom abandoning her again basically (if she was around more she wouldn't be like this but she hadn't bothered). Now she is calling the cops lying and saying our mom stole her daughter and now today has tried to call the cops and say that I had SA her daughter back in February when bekks last saw her and saying she found SA evidence on her back then. The detective looked into her file of course and she has a history of falsely accusing SA. I'm thankfully not getting my life turned upside down because of the overwhelming evidence that she is lying however I'm getting tired of her trying to do this to me. She has tried accusing SA against me on her before in the past which had been crazy even got my youngest sister to do it.
My mom tells me not to worry about it but I've wanted to go on fb and just blast her with all the evidence and false accusations to friends and family publicly but I have chosen to vent like this instead. I apologize that its lengthy and if you read all this i thank you for your time. Legally speaking our mother has been handling it so far they haven't needed me. Our mom has also told me not to worry that karma will get her and that karma is momma so I'm sure our mom is fed up with her bs now

Age: 25 Sex: F
I have not been to the eye doctor for a standard exam in 5 years.
I waited 6 months for this appointment.
When I am called into the exam room, I am first asked to cover my left eye and read the letters from the slides that the tech is flipping through. She stops at the slide I start to have trouble with which is about 4 to 5 slides in. I repeat the same with my right eye covered.
I am then given some eye drops and she performs a pressure test.
Then, I am giving some drops to dilate my eyes, and I wait for the doctor to come in.
The Doctor looks at the health of my eyes using a series of bright lights and me looking in different directions. I had to rest my chin in some apparatus at one point. It was brief. He said my eyes look healthy.
I am then told that my tech will print out the prescription and that I'm good to go. The doctor leaves.
The tech prints my prescription. I try asking the tech while I was still in the room, why I wasn't giving a refractory test but she essentially ignores me, leaves the room, and I follow.
I then try to ask the receptionist if she might know why I was not given the test. She becomes a bit annoyed with me for asking, and says she'll call the tech back.
When the tech comes back, I just tell her that I was curious why I wasn't given a refractory test. She responds that I was just given the same as my previous prescription. I asked her, "wouldn't my eyes have changed in 5 years?" She responds, "not at our age." I stop pushing, say 'thanks,' and leave.
Is this standard practice to not be given a refractory test after 5 years of not having one?
I just don't see how they can know that my prescription is optimal. My insurance covers a refractory test. I've gotten one at every single one of my previous eye exams.
I have not been wearing my glasses for the previous five months because they're so damaged. I am unable to use them to gauge my vision in their current state.
I feel gypped, but I don't know if I should feel this way.
Thank you.

Hi all, I’ll try to give context and keep it not long. Throwaway because my real handle is obvious and could be easily figured out who we are.
As the title mentions, I (33F) have been in a loving, committed relationship with my partner (36M) for seven years. I never thought I’d be with someone like him, but since I met him I felt like we clicked. We got along amazingly, and we started a beautiful, loving relationship. Of course, like every relationship we’ve had our ups and downs, but we seemed to find a way to work out our issues in a healthy way.
Kinda early on on our relationship, while we took a weekend on the countryside, I asked him about marriage, if it was important to him, something he might consider in the future, because to me it was important and something I most definitely wanted to do if the right person came along. He told me that it could be, although he didn’t support the social construct behind it.
Through the years, we’ve had a conversation around it a few times. There was always a reason not to go through with it. He’s been working on a project for some years (it’s kind of like a long thing, don’t want to go into much detail), and that has always been a priority. I actually fully support what he’s working on; so much that I became part of the team (even though I had not studied anything related to that, but I’ve learned along the way). When he first started it, he told me: “I want us to be together, I love you, I think we are it. This thing might take some time, I just ask you to please bear with me on this.” I told him I would, that I also saw us that way. I’ve always meant what I said that day.
This project has taken longer that anyone anticipated. It’s being successful, and kind of close to being done, but along the way it has taken a huge emotional toll on all of us. It’s just so much time working on the same thing for so long that it’s draining. The problem is that I’ve also come to resent him some because I feel like he’s always put this (or something else) as a priority over us growing as a couple, or taking next steps in our relationship. It took us years to move in together (despite us already sharing our days together either at his place or mine anyway).
After a year of living together I figured, hey, it’s not like I need a proposal at all. I just thought, this feels so right, I’m excited to begin our life as a married couple and in December ’22 (after a year of living together) I proposed (no pun intended) we consider getting married by the end of next year. Seemed like the right time (we’d been together for 6 years) and most of our close friends would likely be in the city for the holidays, so great time to host some kind of party! He responded that it was maybe too soon, that he wanted to work more on himself first (physical and emotional, which I also fully support!), and that he wanted to actually propose to me at some point.
Not going to lie, it was a blow.
So we’ve been continued living together, moved to a different apt, travelled with our team for our project, and life has been ok. But I think I’ve been struggling with feeling inadequate and unappreciated (unloved?) for some months now. Seeing friends, and friends of his getting engaged to their partners (some having dated for way less, not judging, just puts me in perspective of time), just gets me sad. I do feel happy for the couple, just sad for myself.
Today I just had the worst morning imaginable. Sad, crying. I talked to my best friends, even my mom. And their reaction to me feeling like this tells me I might not be overreacting, that my feelings are valid and that I clearly need to figure out stuff.
Sorry for the clearly not short post, but I’m asking if anyone’s ever felt like this, and if so, can they suggest what to say to him to hopefully get a reaction? I love him and hope that this can work out, I’m just not sure I can stay in this limbo much longer for my own wellbeing.
TL;DR: I’ve been with my partner for seven years, and despite talking about the importance of marriage for me years ago, and throughout our time together, even kind of proposing a couple of years ago, there’s always been a reason not to do it. I want to say something to him that can make him realize that he has to take this into consideration or perhaps we should… break up? Feels like too small a concept for such a long, deep relationship. But that’s kinda it.
Thank you all for reading.

Noem isn't against cartels
Three years ago South Dakota was exposed as the US leader in helping people hide their money from their governments. Apparently South Dakota has been busy passing laws to protect banks from having to disclose the names of their clients, both from public requests and requests made by any court in the world. But thanks to a whistle-blower who was later killed, a collaboration of worldwide journalists was able to uncover a handful of clients using South Dakotas shady trust banks.
Amongst these were a number of prominent Colombian families who needed our states help to launder their drug money... cartel drug money. This revelation made local, national and world headlines in October 2020. No one knew South Dakota was allowing criminals from all over the world to hide their money.
But the big question is: Did Kristi know about these? Not only did she know, she helped craft and pass key legislation which created them. The lawyers who created these banks built them on legal exemptions and absurd extensions of privacy law. It was these lawyers, the congressional sponsors of these bills, and Kristi Noem as governor who created a permanent safe haven for money from drug cartels. Odds are these South Dakota Trust banks are full of drug money from cartels. Who else would need them??
After this news was exposed, South Dakota legislators had an impromptu meeting to discuss amongst themselves if having money from drug cartels was a problem. They decided it wasn't.
So how did Noem respond when asked to attend a meeting about cartel drug money being laundered in her state??? She declined due to undisclosed prior engagements.

Dilemma with Airbnb host treatment - no long showers allowed and dog peed on my suitcase and clothes - how should I respond? [Spain]
Hey folks just wanted to get your thoughts on this situation I had recently.
I booked a last minute Airbnb for 3 nights recently in a big Spanish city (Airbnb was outside city center for €40 per night). It was shared with the host (a boomer Spanish lady and her puppy dog). Nowadays, I filter with Guest Favorites and only look at listings where the host is rated over 4.80. This host had 50 reviews, was a super host and the listing was a guest favorite and had a rating of 4.92
I arrived midnight (prearranged well in advance with the host as check in is only until 23h according to the listing). I immediately go to bed without showering as I had one in the previous stay and was going to exercise the next day anyway. I spend all of next day outside and return at night and take a long shower (20-30 mins) before going to bed. I sleep in the next day and the host requests that I don’t shower so long (we communicate in basic French as she doesn’t know English and I don’t know Spanish)… I say all good, I’ll keep it shorter next time. I go inside and I’m in the bathroom for about 20 mins, brushing my teeth, taking a dump etc. and am careful to only take a shower between 5-10 max minutes. I get a message from the host later that evening (translated):
Host:
Hi Appliance7717, I wanted to let you know that tomorrow the departure is at 11 o'clock also because I have to leave, I also wanted to let you know that if you would take another shower I would ask you to keep it shorter, thank you Appliance7717.
Guest:
I showered for 5 minutes today. You want it to be shorter than that?
I did spend more time in the bathroom using the toilet, brushing my teeth etc.
Or I just can’t use the bathroom for long?
Host:
No please, if that's the case it's all right.
It's just that it's a huge expense for me.
I’m in the metro when I read this message and get all flustered and take the wrong train etc. and am a bit frustrated but whatever, I’ll check out sharp 11am tomorrow and get it over with. I’d booked a hostel for the next day anyway. I also missed out on seeing the meteorite (!) whilst all this was happening 😆 but I really think I shouldn’t be sweating about this shit on vacation and walking on eggshells over something so petty…
Anyway, next day rolls up and I scramble to get things packed up and ready so I don’t upset her by checking in after 11am. I’m basically on track to check out by 10:30. Now she has a dog, 🐕 which I didn’t mention - doesn’t seem to be well trained, barked quite a lot and woke me from my sleep earlier in the day but I didn’t make a fuss at all. I’m the 5 mins where I happened to be in the kitchen without closing my room’s door, it went and peed over my suitcase and clothes. It also took a sock, chewed it up and took it somewhere else. Mind you, the host didn’t mention anything about the possibility that the dog would be doing this. I’ve lived with dogs in airbnbs before and never had this issue. Nothing in the listing or house rules about taking long showers or what to do regarding the dog like keeping the door closed etc. She dabbed the pee with paper towels, and said that I should have closed the door but did say “Désole (sorry in French). I had to ask for disinfectant spray. I was upset and was banging my hand on the forehead and expressing regret but nothing more. She saw a pair of any shorts I’m soaked in urine but absolutely no offer to clean it, extend checkout etc. It seemed perfectly acceptable that this happened. It really rubbed me the wrong way. Super hosts are meant to go above and beyond in my view, and here she was struggling to be somewhat décent. We didn’t argue or anything there, if anything I was just a bit terse and we said au revoir and I left to go do the cleaning in my next place (took about 3 hours to get vinegar, bleach, hydrogen peroxide etc.)
Thinking of the Golden Rule, I’d never do this to somebody else if I were her. I’d offer compensation or something….
Anyway, my dilemma is that I wouldn’t have any hesitation going after a hefty compensation were it some young dude or couple as host. This lady doesn’t seem financially well off, seeing as taking a long shower has an impact on her profits. And I just feel kinda bad posturing me screwing over this old lady and her puppy dog for some cash. But I absolutely do not appreciate how I was treated and goes fundamentally against my sense of decency and fairness… I also hate how Airbnb has devolved to classify such hosts as superhosts.
What would you do if you were in my shoes? What do you think I should pursue? Should I ask for compensation? Leave a poor review? I see that she already left me a review on the afternoon that I checkout out. I have a feeling that she left a negative review - I noticed this from a previous guests review as well as what the host wrote about that guest.
Host’s review of Guest plus Guest’s response:
Guest, she is a polite and clean girl, but a great consumption of hot water and electricity, I am personally, these guests are not interested since for €134 I believe that as a host I am not interested , as a host I have not had any problems now, now I have only to wait for my electricity , water and gas bills, I am a person with very few resources, and from now on I do not accept promotions, because for it it is not profitable.
Dear Host, during my stay you didn't tell me anything. Other than that, I've never had any issues with other hosts. I was almost not at the house because I was visiting the city. I was just taking regular showers and was charging my phone and laptop when I needed it. What you wrote about me, I don't think it's true or fair and I'm really sorry to read that because I thought we had a great time the whole time.
Guest’s review of Host:
I had a nice stay at Host's place. It's good for 1-3 days since the room is very small and really suitable only for sleeping (no chair, table, ..). The location is okay, a bit far from the centre, but you can get everywhere by bus or by metro.

https://www.instagram.com/familiesforsafestreetssd/reel/C6rnaqsyjNy/
Good afternoon everyone. Families for Safe Streets SD is hosting a rally on the corner of Market St and 19 St on May 31 from 1pm-3pm. The purpose of the rally is to secure funding for the Fatal 15. You may have seen a post earlier this month that listed the intersections and the districts that they are located in. We will be there to channel support with signs and other means. We welcome you to join us.
Q: What are the Fatal 15? A: The Fatal 15 are intersections based on data from 2018-2022 with both more than 3 pedestrian and cycle involved traffic crashes and the most pedestrian and cyclist fatalities.
https://assets.nationbuilder.com/circulatesd/pages/7440/attachments/original/1715376960/2024-05-09_Fix_The_Fatal_Fifteen_-_Circulate_MAY_REVISE_Cost_Estimate_1.5M.pdf?1715376960
Q: What is Families for Safe Streets SD? A: Families for Safe Streets confronts the preventable epidemic of traffic violence by advocating for life-saving changes and providing support to those who have been impacted by crashes. We are one of 20 chapters. Feel free to follow us on instagram. If you want to join, support, or would like to stay informed about our group fill out the short form on the link provided directly beneath this answer. You can join even if you yourself or someone you know has not been impacted by a traffic fatality or severe injury.
https://sdbikecoalition.org/our-work/advocacy/safer-streets-san-diego/
https://www.instagram.com/familiesforsafestreetssd?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Current information provided to me states that there will be funding available for 8 of the intersections.
The Seven Deadly Leftovers are as follows; -Clairemont Mesa Blvd & Doliva Dr (District 2) -Rosecrans & Moore St (District 2) -Federal Blvd & Euclid Ave (District 4) -Mira Mesa Blvd & Black Mountain Rd (District 6) -Westview Pkwy & Mira Mesa Blvd (District 6) -Imperial Ave & 26th Ave (District 8) -Market St & 19th Ave (District 8)
Less than a month ago not a single intersection was going to be fixed. The work this group is putting in is making progress in our city. You have a voice and we here to amplify it. Everyone deserves to have safe streets in our city. Making our streets safe will benefit all users; pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers. Yearly we lose about 50+ pedestrians and cyclists to traffic violence. 2022 alone saw 60 deaths and over 570 injuries. This is something that can happen to any of us at any time.
If you have any questions do not hesitate to reach out. I will do my best to answer your question or lead you in the right direction.
Following are resources to view the scope of the damage we are experiencing.
https://www.sandiego.gov/vision-zero
Map of traffic violence in within San Diego city limits that can be filter by year, type, and severity.
https://opendata.sandag.org/stories/s/5f7y-nefe
Regional map of surrounding cities and areas with similar data as above.

I am hoping to get a little feedback about this.
Organization -1500 users
Environment: 1 Primary Data Center where most of the infrastructure lives. And a Secondary Data center with a small amount of hardware. We are primarily not in the cloud at this point but are currently working to get there.
Currently the 2nd data center (which is our failovedisaster recovery scenario) hosts our only physical Domain Controller which also currently hosts the DHCP role for that site. We have a ordered a new fully redundant and pretty good (overkill) piece of hardware to be our new DC over at this site.
I see that Microsoft has in stated that it is best practice to not have it on a DC. Other than stating that it is best practice, I am struggling to find actual security concerns.
My options are to put it on the brand new DC that will be going into the 2nd data center, or build a new virtual just for DHCP on a somewhat older virtual host.
I'm arguing with myself back and forth making arguments for both cases in the pros and cons but feel like there's something I may not be taking into account.
For context also we have 2 Domain Controllers in the Primary Data Center, and a 4th read only at another site.
Thanks for any feedback

Not looking for a fight or anything on the topic, so don’t be shocked if I don’t respond to any comments on this.
I’m getting real sick of friends telling me how beautiful Israel is, and how I really have to go there if I ever get the chance. Being of Palestinian descent, I cannot go there no matter how much I’d like to see the places where my grandparents were born and grew up. Not while there’s an apartheid state and a genocide going on.
My grandmother used to tell the saddest stories about the nakba and how that affected her family. How they became refugees and moved from country to country before eventually settling in the UK.
If I go to Israel and someone clocks me as anything other than the white passing person I look to be on the surface, what happens then? What happens if someone asks me about my grandmother’s maiden name or where my grandfather was born?
I’ll probably never be able to research that side of the family because the records of generations of people have most likely been destroyed. God forbid there’s evidence of families evicted from the homes of the European Jewish people who were displaced by the war before.