Sticky eyes headaches

climb harder - ideas and structured training to get better at climbing

2010.10.18 19:53 climb harder - ideas and structured training to get better at climbing

Reddit's rock climbing training community. Dedicated to increasing all our knowledge about how to better improve at our sport.
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2012.04.23 05:58 ripples2288 CrossView: stereoscopic 3D using cross-eyed freeviewing of side-by-side stereograms

Cross viewing is seeing 3D with nothing but your regular screen! The pictures here show two perspectives, just cross your eyes and make the two sides overlap to see the image in 3D. Tutorials and helpful apps on the sidebawiki/menu/about. Accepting submissions of all forms (pictures, gif/gfys, videos). If things look 'reverse depth' then /ParallelView might be the place for you!
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2012.04.10 04:27 QuinnMallory Doug Loves Movies

Hi everybody, I'm a redditor and I love Doug Loves Movies. This is douglovesmovies coming to you live from reddit.com on the internet. #####[Doug Loves Movies](http://reddit.com/douglovesmovies)
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2024.06.10 22:11 h0bbyc0llector constant, sudden onset motion and cyber sickness as well as dizziness. what’s happening??

at the beginning of last week i began being unable to concentrate as anytime i would look at a screen or focus on anything whether that be reading or any other task which requires focus, i felt dizzy and sick.
it’s the kind of sickness you get when motion sick in the car, and it comes with a headache and extreme dizziness to the point of unstableness.
nothing significant has changed recently, and it doesn’t matter whether i have my glasses on or not. it’s constant and even walking around i feel crazy motion sickness. the only thing that stops it is covering my eyes and laying down for a while. this is severely affecting me.
i’ve never had motion sickness before in my life, or trouble with screens.
submitted by h0bbyc0llector to DiagnoseMe [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:50 Saorisius_Maximus Problem with the drifting reaper corpse in ME2:

Problem with the drifting reaper corpse in ME2:
I don't know, but does anyone else get a headache when you're here? I don't understand, I've had a bad headache since I came here, and yet, I don't want to leave this place, this place looks so nice and relaxing and pleasant... I feel like taking a nap, I don't think anyone would mind, right? Would you like to stay with me for a while? We'll have a sleepover if you like!
[left eye wanders to the side as she speaks and she becomes trance-like]
*Me waiting for more fucking reaper husks to come out. I hate them*
submitted by Saorisius_Maximus to masseffect [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:50 BudTrendz What Canadian Cannabis Products were Hot Over the Weekend? (June 7-9 Weekend Review)

June 10, 2024

As we check into the hot trends from the Canadian cannabis market over the weekend of June 7 to June 9, we've analyzed data from six popular cannabis subreddits. Using AI to assess sentiment, upvotes, downvotes, and comments, we calculate a "trend score" to measure the attention each product receives. Brands are ranked based on their cumulative trend scores, allowing you to see which products are buzzing on Bud Trends.
Here's a detailed look at the top 10 trending brands and their standout products:
1. BLKMKT 🔄🔥🔥🔥 (Trend Score: 105)
BLKMKT received mixed reviews with one neutral (🔄) and three positive (🔥) ratings, indicating a generally favorable perception.
2. Simply Bare 🔥💩🔥🔥🔥 (Trend Score: 67)
Simply Bare has mostly positive reviews with four (🔥) and one negative (💩), showcasing a strong positive trend.
3. Volo 🔄🔄🔥🔥 (Trend Score: 56)
Volo's mix of reviews includes two neutral (🔄) and two positive (🔥) sentiments, indicating a favorable reception overall.
4. Cloudy 💩 (Trend Score: 52)
Cloudy received a purely negative (💩) review, showing dissatisfaction among users.
5. 3Rd Coast Genetics 🔥💩💩 (Trend Score: 47)
3Rd Coast Genetics shows a mix with one positive (🔥) and two negative (💩) reviews, reflecting varied user experiences.
6. 1964 🔥💩🔥🔥🔥 (Trend Score: 36)
1964 has mostly positive reviews with four (🔥) and one negative (💩), highlighting user satisfaction.
7. Persy 💩 (Trend Score: 36)
Persy received a purely negative (💩) review, indicating dissatisfaction with the product.
8. Nugz 🔄 (Trend Score: 35)
Nugz received a neutral (🔄) review, reflecting a balanced perception.
9. Rosinstar Extracts 🔥 (Trend Score: 35)
Rosinstar Extracts received a positive (🔥) review, indicating high user satisfaction.
10. Mendo Select 🔥🔄 (Trend Score: 65)
Mendo Select has mixed reviews with one positive (🔥) and one neutral (🔄), showing varied user experiences.
These insights provide a comprehensive view of what's trending in the Canadian cannabis market. Keep an eye on Bud Trends for real-time updates on the hottest products every four hours. Whether you're looking for something new to try or a reliable favorite, this guide can help you make an informed choice.
https://budtrendz.com
submitted by BudTrendz to BudTrendz [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:42 SaneNormalPerson For christsakes, here's how you find a tattoo artist.

Seeing as this subreddit only contains posts about finding tattoo artists, here's a quick primer on how to find one. Hopefully, the mods can sticky this for a little bit and we can get back to the only things this forum is useful for- complaining about drivers and recommending restaurants.
I'm not saying that you shouldn't post questions about tattoos here, but instead of asking "best place too get tattoo" you should try something like "Looking for female artist who specializes in American Traditional". I'm probably going to edit this as more things come to mind, but you get the gist. Please do your own homework instead of relying on strangers on the internet.
submitted by SaneNormalPerson to winstonsalem [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:33 stringfellownian Threats to Trans People if Republicans Win: An Assessment

I've noticed a real rise in recent months of trans people posting frantically looking to get out of the US. As a transgender person myself who shares concerns about what has been happening and has his own exit strategy, I think it might be helpful to provide a realistic threat assessment for trans people in the US. In particular, I think it's easy to respond to a cynical political effort to scapegoat and mobilize against trans people with panic; it's far more useful to your life to think through the actual danger. I know that anxiety tends to operate most strongly in an undifferentiated fog of Bad Stuff, and it's useful to instead think through the forms of threats to your safety and what the best solutions might be. (Our enemies also want us to panic! They want us to be uprooted from our communities! Fuck those people!)
None of this is to dissuade people from seeking to emigrate (but do check accounts of what it is like to be trans in other countries, rather than assuming that a particular country is good on trans people because it has a progressive reputation). But you can make better plans with an actual assessment of what you are responding to.

The threats to trans safety

It's helpful to divide this into three categories: State actions; extra-state violence; and social discrimination. By 'state" I do not mean MS or AK or NY -- I mean the general "government," which could include both the federal government and state governments.
State actions: I'm going to get deeper into this in the next section, but this would include things like: preventing name or gender changes; denial of coverage for transition care or criminalizing transition care; legalized discrimination; changing family formation rights.
Extra-state violence: Hate crimes and vigilanteism. This is already a real concern for many trans people. There are some places (not necessarily rural, not necessarily red states) where it is not physically safe to be trans. It is indisputable that an increase in attention to and propaganda about trans people drives an increase in hate crimes, and that actions of the state can feed into this (e.g. a refusal to allow trans people to change our gender markers or names can make us more easily recognized by bigots, same with denial of transition care). We all know about the Club Q shooting. Because the U.S. is a very violent country compared to similar OECD countries, it's sensible to, if you have this concern, be interested in making a life elsewhere. And: Violence broadly varies strongly depending on location within the U.S., including being highly variable by neighborhood within cities.
Social Discrimination: Trans people are broadly discriminated against in society, which is a cause of poor economic and health outcomes. In many settings, this discrimination is illegal; that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. The unique threat of social discrimination under our system is all of the problems that come with being poor in America. Social discrimination against trans people also takes place around the world, but with a better social safety net, it matters less if your parents kick you out, you can't find non-menial work, etc.; while it's not easy to be poor in other countries, it's particularly hard in America compared to OECD peers. Much like extra-state violence, this also varies strongly across states and regions: In states that expanded Medicaid, you'll be much better off than in states that didn't. (And, it’s worth noting: emigration is very expensive particularly if you do not already have another citizenship. Countries want wealthier immigrants.)
But people aren't really talking about these latter two when they worry about the election this fall. Instead, they're worried about state actions. I'm going to take a little time now to go through those.

State Actions, or the Threat of the Next Administration

For this section, I'm basing my assessment off of a few things. One, tracking and reading things the right has discussed in their think tanks, media outlets, and more. Two, tracking what the right is actually doing on trans issues, including in the UK as there is a concerted effort by our opponents to try and model anti-trans politics in the US after UK ones (thus far less successful).
The first thing you need to know is that our rights are strongly partisan. Unlike in the UK, where the Labour Party has embraced anti-trans politics, the Democratic Party in the US -- at the federal level, at least, and in many states -- is fairly committed to trans rights. Whatever else you think of him, Joe Biden has actually been substantially ahead of the party on trans rights for many years. Everywhere that Democrats have power, they have rejected anti-trans legislation. (It's worth noting too that transphobia is an electoral loser!).
Because the U.S. has our bizarre federalist system, this means that states controlled by Democrats are currently much safer than states controlled by Republicans. Obvious point! It also means that many federal government actions could be curbed by progressive state governments.
For nearly everyone, moving to another state is easier than moving to another country. That's not to say it's easy, but if you can't move from Texas to Minnesota, you probably can't move from Texas to Finland. So definitionally, the reason trans people worried about transphobia should be curious about leaving America is because of federal government actions.
So let's talk through what I'm seeing and where people might see some concerns.
  1. Ending nondiscrimination protections. Even without a Republican president, it seems likely that the Supreme Court is interested in punching a massive "religious exemption" hole in nondiscrimination protections. This would include state-level nondiscrimination protections. At the moment, this applies primarily to anything they can find a way to call "speech." The Court ruled in 2020 that firing someone for being gay or trans is a violation of their civil rights and it was 6-3, so even with RBG replaced by ACB, the decision is likely to hold.
    1. Project 2025 wants the next Republican administration to “clarify” that it has only a narrow interpretation: that employers can’t refuse to hire you or fire you for being trans, but can make you conform to dress codes or use bathrooms that comport with your assigned sex at birth.
    2. We have also seen some deeply fucked up ways of trying to circumvent the court ruling in Iowa, where a state legislator introduced a law that would reclassify gender identity from a protected class to a "disability" under the ADA (which is less enforced and more easily circumvented than civil rights law). That particular state legislator is widely recognized as a weird freak (big raw milk guy) so TBD if it gets traction elsewhere.
    3. Additionally, laws mean very little without enforcement, and a Trump DOJ is not interested in enforcing the civil rights of transgender people.
  2. Restrictions on transition-related medical care. We don’t have an NHS, so there’s no easy “ban on care” that can be implemented universally. The worst-case scenario here is being tested in Missouri, where the Attorney General put out “consumer protections” that required extensive preconditions for receiving transition care including for adults. While this has been held up by a judge pending court review, the Republicans are absolutely trying out different ways of restricting medical transition across the country. The most likely steps a Republican administration would take right off the bat would include barring Medicaid/Medicare from covering this care; prohibiting VA hospitals, federal prison medical facilities, and other federally-administered healthcare providers from providing transition care; and a nation-wide ban on minors receiving puberty blockers and other medical transition care. We may also see some government harassment of transition medicine providers, such as federal “investigations” of different hospitals, clinics, and associations – this would attempt to convince these providers that helping with medical transitions is more of a headache than it’s worth. Finally, the Food & Drug Administration is responsible for classifying and regulating medicine; it's possible that they may seek higher restrictions on transition-related medicine (T is already a controlled substance, yes, and it's very annoying!).
  3. Restrictions on legal transition. Many vital documents, such as birth certificates and drivers’ licenses, are administered by states. States set the standards for altering the gender marker and name on these documents. Other documents, such as passports and Social Security cards, are administered by the federal government. The Obama administration made it much easier to change your passport to reflect your gender, and it’s very possible to undo those changes and make it very, very difficult. This means that you should change your passport now if you have not done so already. It’s unclear to me what power the federal government has to get states to follow different procedures for gendename changes, and I imagine that states like New York would fight any effort to do so.
  4. Attacks on trans families. Look: the Supreme Court probably has the votes to overturn Obergefell (the case that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide) if they decided it wouldn’t provoke a massive political backlash. One of the conservative justices actually invited a challenge to Obergefell in their ruling overturning Roe v Wade. Right now, support for same-sex marriage is quite high across the country, and the court is under fire – I doubt they’d take this step. But there are a number of signs that a hostile government would be particularly problematic for family law and trans people. In particular, Republican rhetoric about trans people has focused on trans children being victims of abuse, and on children’s exposure to trans people being inappropriate. Texas famously launched a child abuse investigation into the parents of transgender teenagers who were receiving puberty blockers (this has been stopped by the courts). The Right has gone full culture-war in a custody battle between a mother who affirmed her trans daughter’s identity (and allowed her to socially transition) and a serial fabulist, abusive father who did not; it’s likely we would see an effort by right-wing states to intervene in these kinds of custody disputes as they could be assured that the federal government would back them up. Similarly, it’s likely we would see custody discrimination against transgender parents and attempts to use the state power to investigate child abuse against them. This would start in Red states that are right now restrained by the fear that the federal government will enforce civil rights laws against them. There are zero doubts in my mind that the Right would like to take kids away from every transgender parent. Finally, the Heritage Foundation (among others) explicitly wishes to give “biological parents” more importance than “the wishes of other adults”; it is highly likely that the federal government could take steps to ensure that sperm donors, surrogates, etc. have parental or custody rights, as already happens in Germany and some other countries.
  5. Other concerns for trans minors: A Republican government will take every step possible to prevent minors from accessing transition and to criminalize it. It is highly likely that the federal department of education would issue guidance to all schools that they must “out” students to their parents. It is also likely that, through the federal DOE that has a large role in public schools across the country, they would issue guidance that kids must use the bathroom that aligns with their assigned gender at birth, and investigate schools that do not comply. Finally, there are many schools that are under federal jurisdiction (such as K-12 schools in DC, DoD schools, and Bureau of Indian Affairs schools) that would almost certainly be required to not recognize trans minors’ identities.
  6. Miscellaneous: Certainly, a ban on trans people serving in the military would be reinstated. The Bureau of Prisons would require trans people to be incarcerated in facilities that reflected their gender assigned at birth. Federal programs like NIH research and the Census would stop taking unique data on transgender people that could illuminate our needs. The right-wing policy agenda is interested in restricting “pornography” and including trans people within that description, so it is likely that they would coerce web providers to ban content dealing with trans issues. Finally, federal funding will no longer require social service programs to be nondiscriminatory so it is very possible that homeless shelters and other programs supported by federal money would be allowed to reject trans people.
I think it’s worth taking a moment on the actual mechanism for these different forms of state persecution. It’s likely that many of these scenarios would take months or years to implement. However, there is also the right-wing harassment machine (see: Chaya Raichik, Chris Rufo) that likes to find specific LGBT people to target. Any of these policy goals that can be enforced punitively by the state could be expedited for their targets – e.g. a Libs of Tik Tok “story” on a transgender parent could easily turn into that parent being investigated by right-wing state officials who are confident that the federal government will not take the side of the parent even if there is no actual policy in place.
Finally, I am assuming that much of this would take the form of quiet consent by a Republican administration. Trump has announced his intention to create a deportation regime that would involve a massive destruction of federalist norms, sending red-state National Guards to blue cities to put down protests and deport undocumented immigrants. It is not impossible that things get worse everywhere even more quickly, but this is also a highly telegraphed move.

So What?

I’m not trying to convince people not to plan an exit strategy, but rather to do so with clear eyes and diligence.
Think about what frightens you the most, and identify steps you can take right now that will help insulate you from it. For example: update your passport; prioritize starting medical transition (helpful if you move to another country anyways!); keep a “safe book” of your kid’s history of expressing gender nonconformity; move to a blue state if you can.
Assess intermediate signs that things may be heading in the very bad direction, e.g. that the FDA starts soliciting comments about whether or not to restrict hormone prescriptions.
Use the other advice out there on this subreddit and others to make an actual and realistic plan.
Emigration is hard. Do it out deliberately, not out of panic.
Also, if you aren't organizing or engaging in political work to try and stop this, you might find that that alone helps you feel less alone + freaked out.
submitted by stringfellownian to AmerExit [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:06 karer3is The Hopeless Legion

AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a passage in this story marked with a * that is written in German. The translation is in my comment.

Alfred

After a fourth year of poor harvests, our village had begun to starve. Our chief sent envoys to plead the neighboring tribes for food, but the only thing that came back was their heads. The elders demanded that we go to war over these brazen insults, but the famine had left our army too weak to even consider that. Months of squabbling followed, with more and more dying of hunger every day.
The “council meetings”- shouting matches if I’m being honest- dragged on and on until my cousin Harold spoke up.
“About two weeks south of here, there is a village of some strange folk. They speak another language and do not seem to follow Odin. Whichever god they worship, their harvests seem to have been good. Let us conquer it so that our village does not perish.”
The other elders began to murmur among themselves as our beleaguered chief looked down and rubbed his forehead.
With an exhausted sigh, he spoke.
“It seems we have no other choice. Gather those of our men who still have strength and send a party to raid the village. Take our last calves and sacrifice them. Perhaps the gods will finally hear us and grant us favor.”
Desperate as we were, nobody objected. As expected, he appointed his brother Albert to lead the party.
We knew it would come to that, but we also knew our fates had been sealed. The slovenly excuse for a man that our chief called a brother was not even fit to be called a warrior. Even as the chief made his announcement, Albert was lazily reclined by the fire, loudly scarfing the last of the dried meat we had and washing it down with what was left of our wine. We all despised him, but we knew we could not object.
The morning came and we left on our grim journey. Ever the fool he was, Albert was in high spirits.
“Why the sorrowful faces? The gods will surely will surely favor us! Not only did we sacrifice our finest calves, but we are on our way to offer them our certain victory!”
Most of us had barely received enough food to survive more than two days of travel, so we simply marched in hungry silence.
The long march through the mountains was a disaster. Two days into our journey, a man collapsed while walking, dead of starvation. A day after that, we lost two more when a bear attacked our camp. Led by the ever- foolhardy Albert, we pressed on.
Our numbers dwindled day by day, with one man succumbing to sickness and another falling from a cliff. Some simply went into the woods to fetch food and never returned.
By the time we reached the edge of the village, only five of us remained. Our “leader,” having seen the prize ahead, pushed his way through us so he could stand proudly at the front and make his determination. Seeing nothing directly in front of him, he faced us and shouted, “See what lies before us, men! The gods have seen our efforts and laid this treasure out so we may claim it! Do not hesitate and go-”
His words were stopped short as an arrow penetrated his head.
As he fell, men who appeared to be clad in silver came running toward us, shouting “Barbararon! Barbararon!”
Those of us still alive panicked. Gods be damned, village be damned! It was every man for himself!
All of us turned and ran for the forest, each going his own way. One of my comrades screamed in the distance, but that was of no importance. I ran deeper and deeper in the woods, not even looking to see if I was being pursued.
I stopped when I reached a small clearing. Safe. I thought to myself. I’m finally safe.
I scarcely had time to take a breath when I heard the pounding of footsteps behind me. Without a thought, I spun around and raised my axe in both hands, hoping to save myself from an untimely death.
There was just enough time to see one of the silver- clad men swinging his sword down at me. The blade connected and the old, rotten handle split right where it hit. Hoping fortune would favor me, I swung the half that was still in my left hand at my attacker.
Predictably, this did not happen. The axe missed its target completely and I lost my balance, spinning into the ground. Before I even had the chance to lift my head, I felt a sharp pain as my attacker drove his blade into the back of my neck. My body went limp and I found myself staring into the ground.
The world began to grow dark. As I struggled to keep my eyes open, it felt as though my tired and famished body finally had the chance to rest. In my last moments, I thought to myself, “At last, this fool’s errand of a journey has come to an end.”
Except it hadn’t.
I woke with a start, as if some force had thrown me from my bed.
It was dark, as if the heavens had been stripped bare. The ground was soaking wet, no doubt from the driving rain that was coming down around me. A small torch that had been tied to a pike was flickering, fruitlessly fighting to stay lit. All the while, I heard the sound of metal clashing against metal, interrupted only by the occasional scream.
My eyes began to adjust to the darkness when I noticed something. Next to the torch, a makeshift war banner was fluttering in the wind. As torn and faded as it was, I could make out the image of a woman with a sword driven through her chest.
Out of nowhere, someone grabbed my arm. Without a thought, I drew a fist back, ready to take on this unknown assailant. When I locked eyes with him, however, I froze. A flash of lightning illuminated his face to reveal a set of crazed eyes.
“MOVE, YOU FOOL!” he yelled. “THE INVADERS HAVE STORMED THE KEEP!” At that moment, I felt as though a fire had been lit in me. Not of bravery, but of fear.
Somehow, I still held a half- broken axe in my hand. Almost as if I knew how grave our situation was, my grip on it tightened.
I had no idea who these invaders were or why we had to fight them, but something inside me told me I must.

Richard

Like many before him, the newly- appointed pope stepped out to his balcony to address the sea of Crusaders standing before him.
“Now hear this! The Holy Land has once again fallen into the hands of the heathens! Even now, her streets run red with the blood of the innocent! As the defenders of Christendom, we cannot tolerate such injustice!”
After pausing for effect, he continued.
“Go forth and drive those savages from the land! Do not allow a single one to escape! God wills it!”
Roars erupted from the knights below as banners were raised and they prepared to make the gruelling march to Jerusalem.
Far to the rear of the multitude, a company of mercenaries wearing ill- fitting armor grudgingly raised their tattered banner. Hailing from a backwater region of one of the old Teutonic kingdoms, they had been sent to join this crusade so their lord could garner favor with the Vatican.
The pope's rallying cry rang hollow with them. Knowing their master, this was nothing more than a stunt to feed his ambitions of nobility.
Among their disjointed ranks was a young man by the name of Richard. Seemingly born under a cursed star, he had the misfortune of being the bastard son of a peasant who was executed for treason. To purge his father’s disgrace, he was driven out of his tiny village at an early age.
Regardless of where he wandered to, he never had a place to rest for long. Be it calamity or conflict, he found himself tossed from one place to the next, earning the unfortunate moniker of “Richard the Hopeless.” After being expelled from his latest “home,” he found himself driven to this misbegotten band of thieves, murderers, and drunks, seemingly the only ones who would accept a hopeless wanderer.
With broken weapons and almost no provisions to speak of, their group meandered behind the mighty armies of the Franks and the English, often stopping to rob whatever village they happened upon along the way.
Much like Richard, the company found itself bouncing from one misfortune to the next, their numbers thinning as they trudged eastward.
Whether through dumb luck or their desire to be as far from their lord’s keep as possible, those remaining eventually reached their destination.
Richard, expectedly, limped behind the group. Thanks to his characteristically bad luck, an arrow struck his foot during a spat with another group of mercenaries. Ever the worrier, he spent the remainder of the journey fretting over all the ways he might die in the foreign land. His comrades, however, were unconcerned; they were far too distracted by the treasures that they were going to “free” from the locals after the fighting died down.
Confident that the armies before them had cleared the way, they made their way into a valley, choosing to walk through it to escape the blazing sun.
By that time, the pain in Richard's foot had become so great that he could barely keep his compatriots in sight. Cursing his fate, he hobbled along, oblivious to his surroundings.
For what must have been the first time in his life, fortune seemed to smile on the wounded mercenary. Occupied with his raucous companions, the Arab archers perched on the cliff above took no notice of him and nocked their arrows. Intent on avenging their fallen comrades, they unleashed a flurry of arrows on their unsuspecting prey.
The arrows easily found their targets. Within seconds, most of the group fell without a word. Upon realizing that they had walked into an ambush, the few survivors fell into disarray. The thieves and murders among them, unaccustomed to facing opponents who knew how to fight, began to turn their swords on each other, attempting to secure a safe hiding spot for themselves. The few experienced soldiers present attempted to mount a counteroffensive, but found themselves cut down by attackers who had been lying in wait for the chaos to start.
Richard, completely unaware of what was transpiring before him, continued his miserable, lonely march. As he grew closer to the site of the skirmish, a lone man wielding a scimitar charged at him, bellowing at the top of his lungs. Like lightning, fear coursed through his body in an instant. No longer aware of the throbbing pain in his foot, he turned and ran.
As quickly as it came, fortune abandoned him. In his haste, he tripped on a small rock protruding from the sand. Before he could utter a word, he stumbled head over heels, landing hard on his back. As he attempted to regain his composure, he heard his pursuer running toward him. Drawing ever closer, he could make out others. While he groped blindly for his sword, the tip of another pierced his wrist. With a pained scream, he curled into a ball. His pursuer- and his friends- had surrounded him. The men shouted to each other in their strange language, seemingly laughing as they did so.
He heard the scraping of metal on metal as they drew their blades from their scabbards. In unison, they began driving them down into him, each stab piercing him clean through. He cried into the sky, his blood pouring into the sand below him. In a fitting end to his life of suffering, Richard the Hopeless died screaming and alone.
Or so he thought.
Richard woke in the middle of a dark forest. Between the pouring rain and the massive trees surrounding him, it almost reminded him of the home he had once been ostracized from. But his nostalgia was interrupted by an all too familiar sound. Blades crashed against blades and men cried out as arrows pierced their hearts.
The gravity of the situation began to set in as he fumbled to find something, anything, to defend himself with.
At once, he felt something cold run through him as a spear thrown from the darkness skewered his side. Still in a daze, he felt the spot where the spear hit, wondering what had happened. It felt warm.
Apparently snapped to reality by the sensation, his body quickly weakened as blood flowed freely from the wound. He quickly slumped to the ground, unable to even support the weight of his limbs. As he lay there, he noticed a tattered banner lying next to him. It bore the image of one of the pagan goddesses, a sword driven through her chest. Laughing to himself at the irony of the image, the dying Richard reached out with his bloody hand, hoping to leave some trace of his unfortunate existence. With the last of his strength, he wrote out a single word from his native language.
It was the name that so many had hurled at him during his travels: HOFFNUNGSLOS.
In a rare occurrance for that place, the battlefield went still. A lone man in a trenchcoat made his way to the spot where Richard lay, making sure not to soil his shoes on the numerous bodies lying near him. Using a torch to illuminate the ground, he looked amusedly at the banner Richard left his message on. "Hoffnungslos," he mused. "It has a nice ring to it... we'll have to make sure to put that on the next group's patches."

Klaus

Mud. Cold, sticky, stinking mud tainted with the blood and viscera of the dead men who lay in it.
For months, our battalion had been locked in a bitter stalemate with the British in some forgotten corner of a Belgian forest.
Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong and then some. Our laughable trips over the wire were bogged down by sudden storms, resulting in hundreds of our men being cut down by Herr Maxim's frightful new weapon; the meager rations we received from the rear were obliterated by a single mortar shell that must have been lobbed by the Devil himself; and the "Wunderwaffe" known only as "Weisskreuz" failed miserably when a shift in the wind blew its noxious vapors back to our position. Those who were spared from drowning in their own fluids were left burned or blind, bearing a closer resemblance to the corpses lying in No Man's Land than our comrades.
None of this mattered to the corpulent buffoons in Berlin. "Continue the offensive!" The telegrams read. "We must uphold our pledge to the Hapsburgs and emerge victorious!"
Another stormy night arrived. The sky was black as pitch, save for the occasional flash of lightning. Our Spandaus chattered away and the cannons roared in the distance, providing our nightly "concert" as our commander prepared to brief us. His "talks," as he often called them, marked the low point of the week- even more so than the bloody forays over the wire.
The spoiled son of a noble family, Captain Reichert represented everything we hated in our leadership. In every sense of the word, he was an officer in name only. On any given day, he spent more time yelling at his aides for forgetting to add sugar to his coffee or inquiring with headquarters about his promotion than he did on his responsibilities. His appointment to our company was nothing more than a political decision and it showed. Instead of carefully calculated tactical decisions, he favored foolhardy charges. He was convinced beyond all doubt that these "valiant" assaults would lead to a resounding, easy victory- of course leading to his promotion.
They did not.
Unable to comprehend that his "noble blood" did not translate into brilliant leadership, he naturally blamed us for the inevitable failure of these attacks. Those who survived could look forward to a merciless tirade about their "laziness" and "incompetence" and, if he was in a particularly foul mood, watch helplessly as he beat some poor young soldier with his riding crop.
Our sergeant waved us in and we gritted our teeth as we wondered whose turn it was to die tonight.
"Gentlemen,' he said, "we are going over again. The Kaiser is absolutely furious that there has been no progress in the last month. If we fail to break this stalemate, I will lose my last chance to be promoted and escape this hellhole! Someone of my station does not deserve to be trapped here with useless idiots like you and I will NOT allow any man here to stand in my way! Take your weapons and prepare to charge!"
A young man- or more accurately, a boy- spoke up in a timid voice. "But, sir," he protested, "The storm is worsening as we speak! Even if we go now, we'll never make it across!"
His face twisting into a snarl, our commander responded with a single shot from his pistol. Everyone turned to see a red hole between the boy's eyes.
"Does anyone ELSE have a complaint to lodge?" he hissed as he pointed his weapon at another man.
Silence.
"Then MOVE!!!" He shouted.
We grabbed our rifles without a word. Perhaps, we thought, this horrible place would finally do something good and guide a sniper's bullet to his head.
We lined up behind the ladders leading to No Man's land. When I found my spot, my heart sank.
I had "crossed over' plenty of times before, but something told me this would be the last time.
Our sergeants made their final inspection and signaled that we were ready. As we waited for shrill cry of Captain Reichert's whistle, time seemed to slow down. After what felt like hours, that unmistakeable screech signalled the start.
We climbed up and charged past the wire, yelling to steel ourselves for the hail of bullets that surely awaited us. They never came.
The charge continued, but we all became increasingly unnerved as the area remained still.
The first man reached the middle of that scarred stretch of land when it happened. The previously black sky turned a sickly green as flares descended, fired off by the enemy's cannons. As soon as we saw them, we knew we were doomed. Within seconds, we could hear the shells raining down. The first one slammed into the ground, disintegrating the man in front. Before we could even react, the ground erupted as countless more arrived on its heels.
The formation panicked. Men ran headlong into each other, only to disappear in an explosion. Some attempted to dig foxholes in the mud, only to be blown apart in the process. Those unfortunate enough not to die in the first impacts screamed, missing legs, arms, or even sections of their bodies. A few vainly attempted to drag themselves to safety with the limbs they still had, but they found themselves stuck in the mud, flailing and crying out for help.
Watching the chaos unfold around me only confirmed what my gut had told me earlier. With every passing second, the explosions came closer and closer to my position. At that point, I knew it was pointless to run. As if on cue, I saw the outline of a shell streaking towards me, lit by a falling flare. Unceremonious as it was, I was glad to know I would at least be spared from having to see our commander again. The world went black in an instant.
Instead of the quiet stillness I had expected, I found myself flying through the air, tossed by an explosion. My head was swimming and my ears were ringing as I hit the ground. A hand grabbed the back of my collar and I could feel someone dragging me. Possibly because of the ringing, the muffled voice that was shouting at me sounded completely unfamiliar. "-Get inside!" Was all I could make out.
Instead of the muddy trenches I had become so familiar with, I saw stone walls all around me. It reminded me of the old castles that were in my homeland. The room I was dragged into was lit by flickering torches and was full of men in old, tattered uniforms. A heavy wooden door in a dark corner creaked open and a man in what looked like an officer's uniform stepped in, followed by another in a trenchcoat. The man in the officer uniform stomped forward and slammed a large piece of paper- presumably a map- on to the table in front of him.
"Useless! You idiots are absolutely fucking useless!" He shouted. "How hard can it be to hold a single piece of ground?! Thanks to your incompetence, THEY have us by the belt buckle!"
Silence. The feeling of defeat in the room was palpable.
"What is your excuse this time?! That we don't have enough men?! That we're 'too low on supplies'?! That 'the men are too wounded to fight'?!"
One of the older soldiers spoke up in a weary voice. "Colonel," he said, "We don't even have bullets. The last supply shipment was destroyed when the transport was hit by an artillery round."
In an instant, the man in the officer's uniform picked up a loose stone from the floor and grabbed the soldier by the lapels on his coat. He dragged him forward and slammed his head on to the table. Without so much as a word, he brought the stone down on his head with a sickening "thwack". Grunting audibly, he struck the now- struggling soldier on the head again and again until his head split open with a sickening "splat". Apparently satisfied with the results, he let go of him, with the motionless body slumping to the floor.
"If you don't have bullets," he said while catching his breath, "then pick up a stone. Get back out there and prove that your miserable lives are worth something!"
The weary men in the room slowly turned to leave. As they did, the man in the trenchcoat whispered something to the "colonel."
While the first in the group made their way to the exit, the "colonel" gave them some parting words.
"I needn't remind you: any man who returns before sunup will be executed for desertion immediately."
I felt someone push my back. Not wanting to find out what would happen if I stayed, I joined the group. Just after we left the room, someone shoved me to the side, hard. I couldn't see who it was in the darkness, but I heard a low voice speaking to me. "Don't. The sun is never going to come up here and you'll be lucky if you come back at all." The exhaustion in his voice told me all I needed to know. I found a dark corner and tried to get some sleep. Just as I felt my eyes growing heavy, I heard a group of men yelling nearby. Seconds after, the night erupted with a cacaphony of machine gun fire as my unkown comrades were mercilessly cut down.
Just like I had been told, the sun never rose. I woke suddenly when the sound of thunder echoed in the sky. Rain was pouring down and another group of tired, wounded men made their way into the castle. At the same time, I saw two men struggling with each other. I couldn't see what it was, but I saw one of the men take out a bayonet and drive it through the other man's chest. He pulled it out and stabbed him again and again until he went limp. The victor, taking his prize, moved to a fire burning in a barrel to inspect it. From the size and the faint glimmer, it looked like one of our ration tins. With the tin's former owner lying a meter away, he tore it open and rapidly devoured the contents.
More yelling came from the room, followed this time by a single gunshot. A few minutes later, the tired men- now with one less in their number- trudged out. Some were holding rifles with broken stocks, others rusted knives, and some what looked like axes. Fearing there would be a repeat of the last night's events, I grabbed the last man in the group by the arm.
"What are you doing?! The British slaughtered the last group that went out there!" I shouted.
The man turned to look at me. His eyes were sunken and it looked as if he hadn't eaten for days. "Who?" he asked confusedly.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "The British! The enemy! Who else could I be talking about?!"
He shook his head. "Call them whatever you like. But we can't let them win."
My heart started racing. How could he not know something as simple as who the enemy is?!
"Then why?! What purpose could this possibly serve?!"
The tired man turned away and went to join his group. As he walked away, he shrugged and replied, "Don't ask me. I just know that we have to."
Minutes later, the night before repeated itself: Yelling followed by gunfire.
I felt sick; I had seen this plenty of times in the trenches, but never before had I seen such a hopeless group of men march off to their deaths. Instead of trying to sleep again, I waited to see who would come back.
I couldn't be certain, but it seemed that the figure limping in from the dark woods was the man I had spoken with before. As he hobbled closer to the clearing near the castle's entrance, a sharp "crack" rang out from somewhere in the castle. He staggered, then fell, no doubt executed for his "desertion."
In what seemed like a perverse divine revelation, a bright green flare lit up the clearing, revealing a tattered banner. On it was the image of a beautful woman with a sword driven through her chest. Her face reminded me of something I had seen in the trenches.
When we first arrived at that forest in Belgium, we were hit by a series of bitter winter storms. The weather was so bad that neither side could bring itself to cross over the wire and attempt an attack, so we spent months shivering in the snow and ice with nothing to do. While we were waiting, a young private- who had apparently been an art student before the war started- painted a mural in one of the bunkers. It was a beatiful woman, just like the one on the banner. Naturally, we thought it was his woman from back home and we cornered him one night, hoping to pry some salacious details from him. To our surprise, it wasn't that at all. "When I was a child," he said, "we had a book of Roman fables. In one of those fables, a group of soldiers who were preparing for battle made an offering to Spes, the goddess of hope, so that they might have a chance to win the battle they were about to fight. She was pleased by their offering and, in the battle's most desperate moment, she reached down to give them the strength to win. God doesn't seem to care about us, so I thought I'd try asking her instead."
I laughed at the irony of that memory as I looked at my current situation. My laughter turned to tears when I saw the motto stitched into the fabric: HOFFNUNGSLOS.
Drowning in my misery, my body grew tired and I fell into a fitful sleep.
I was woken by the sound of shells slamming into the ground. Still reeling from the previous night, my eyes opened just in time to see yet another group marching into the castle. More shouting and more shooting ensued. The group- this time significantly smaller than when it entered- lumbered out. One man in the group stopped for a moment, seemingly trying to find something on the ground. Another "crack" emenated from the castle and he dropped, dead where he kneeled. Someone else turned to see what had happened and he, too, was felled by another shot. One by one, this already- small group was wiped out, seemingly punished deemed "deserters" by the sharpshooter hiding in the castle.
As the last man fell, I could feel what little remained of my resolve break. What kind of madman could be in charge here?! We were apparently in a losing battle, yet whoever was in charge seemed to have no qualms about killing almost as many of his own men as the enemy did!
At once, I felt some strange energy in my hands. Despite the madness unfolding around me, I felt compelled to leave some kind of memorial to my fallen "comrades." I looked around for some kind of instrument to work with. Then I saw it: The man who had been killed for a tin of rations was holding a broken knife in his hand. The tip had broken off, so it more closely resembled a chisel than an etching tool. That was when I knew what I had to do. I ran to a wall that was lit by a torch and picked up a rock that was lying near it. With a hammer and chisel in my hands, I set to work.
Even as the barrage resumed, nothing could distract me from the task I had undertaken. Almost as if something was guiding my hand, the letters took shape in the granite one by one.
Before I knew it, I was finished. I stepped back to inspect my work when I heard that familiar "crack" ring out. What felt like a hammer blow struck me square in the chest. My "friend" in the castle must have finally spotted me.
My legs buckled as I coughed and a metallic taste filled my mouth. The landscape in front of me spun as I fell to the side, granting me a prime view of the wall I had been working on. My vision began to narrow as the energy drained from my limbs. In the last few moments, I had the chance to read my own epitaph, etched in stone for all who came after me to see*:
HIER KÄMPFT DIE HOFFNUNGSLOSE LEGION IHRE EWIGE SCHLACHT
WIR WISSEN NICHT, WER
WIR WISSEN NICHT, WARUM
WIR WISSEN NUR, DASS WIR MÜSSEN
DIE HOFFNUNG STARB ZULETZT
UND SIE STARB HIER

The Aftermath

The night's fighting reached a fever pitch.
A cloud of shells rained down on the castle, completely obliterating it along with its occupants. In a muddy cluster of trees to the north, a barbarian warrior brought his axe down on a Roman soldier, splitting his head open while he was run through by a sword. To the south, a mercenary Crusader and a Moorish warrior impaled each other with their blades, falling next to each other.
With those final deaths, the battlefield became eerily still.
Two men in coats walked in from the darkness, one carrying a torch and the other a journal. As they casually strolled along, they would occasionally stop to kick a random body or take a small trinket from one, finally stopping when they reached a tattered banner.
The man holding the torch turned to the other. "See? I told you the patches looked better with the motto."
The man with the journal grunted in agreement. "Fair enough," he said. "We had a good run tonight. There was a stubborn one by the castle, but it looks like we got him this time."
The two of them continued to the ruins of the castle. Miraculously, a single wall had survived the final shelling. As they neared it, they noticed that someone had chipped a message into the stone. Smiling as he turned to the man with the journal, the man with the torch commented, "I like that. We should keep this up for the next group."
In a rare display of emotion, the man with the journal smirked as he responded. "Excellent idea! Can't hurt to remind them where they are."
The man with the torch piped up again, wheezing with laughter. "They'll be in for a REAL surprise when they find out they're fighting for the other side tomorrow!"
submitted by karer3is to DarkTales [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 21:01 Big-Intention2213 how to remain hopeful if i don't have anyone to talk to but this illness makes it impossible to take risks in putting myself out there? just venting about isolation and my healing strategies. please say something supportive or give advise

i feel stuck in isolation loop. my stomach hurts all day every day and i have a headache all day every day. my eyes don't focus. i feel like throwing up when i plan possible ways to connect to people and on those rare occasions when it happens it likely puts me in some sort of suicidal spiral about how visibly i hurt and how i can't put so much pressure onto any person but now they suspect a list of disturbing things about me so i can't humiliate myself any further.
low histamine diet doesn't really work. and i can't afford being carnivore cause all affordable meat is agreed. i keep with something like just keto chicken soups but it's not organic. what are my next steps? i'm too brainfogged to plan possible strategies.
my biggest suspicion is something about my neck because i have a lot of tension there. but my doctor says i can't have pinched nerves because i don't experience any numbness or tingling. i suspect i may have fucked it somehow as a kid standing on my head idk. i'm so tired to deal with medical system so i don't make appointments and just try to research things myself but with no success.
i have these symptoms ever since i remember myself and it stunted my growth in more ways than i can imagine. i don't feel alive, i don't experience positive emotions, i can't really imagine good things happening to me in the future. i feel like a raw wound and like the best i can do is to hide but it's not sustainable, chronic loneliness makes me feel demented at this point.
and then there's a level of paranoia that i'm going to be abused again. the only reason my abusive family hadn't completely destroyed me in adulthood is because i went no contact. but if they knew i have chronic illness (caused by them) i would be completely destroyed by how in their eyes i did it to myself and also deserve it. it's the most horrible psychopathic shit someone could imagine.
and then there's a level of how just to survive while having no support system and needing to rest 22h a day. i just don't see any future. i have hope and then i waisted another day waiting for my fatigue and stomach ache to ease but it never happens
submitted by Big-Intention2213 to MCAS [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 20:40 FamousSurprise2024 QUEATION FOR ANY RADIOLOGISTS, WHAT IS THIS??

Is this a Haller cell? Is this what has been causing my left eye pain, swelling, headaches, and blurry vision?
submitted by FamousSurprise2024 to DiagnoseMe [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 20:13 trinier101 Visual Snow Experience

Visual Snow Experience
Hi everyone,
In this year - had COVID, neck surgery, lots of needed dental work, and most recently antibiotics. After tetracycline is when I started experiencing visual snow, along with anxiety and headaches. I went to my doctor. Pretty freaked out, I now remember having it when I was younger, and I've always had it in my eyes when they are closed or in low light. Now it's all the time. My doctor sent me to an optometrist who ruled out other causes, so I'm looking for ways to manage VSS and waiting for future Dr. Appointments.
This group has been a lifesaver! It's comforting to know I'm not alone. Seems acne medications and certain antibiotics as well as people having dental work trigger this. VSS actually bothered me when I was younger too, but it never impacted me this much and as I aged it needed to be in low light conditions or with my eyes closed. The picture is something that does look similar to what I see, there are floaters and there is a bit of swirl to the patterns at times.
I'm going back to my doctor to see what's next, maybe a brain scan?
Thanks for sharing your experiences - together we can learn more about VSS! And raise some awareness.
submitted by trinier101 to visualsnow [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 20:12 chal_nikall Advice appreciated!

This'll be along, apologies in advance. In February, a 3rd flatmate (let's call her A) moved into a 3 bedroom graduate student housing in which another female flatmate (B) and I (C), already lived. Flatmate A turned out to be really messy ( keeps smaller bags of trash all over the kitchen instead of in the dustbin for weeks, leaves crumbs on counters for days, hair and water on the bathroom floor post use, loud announced guests, etc). B and I addressed these multiple times in person, via text with photos or simply took care of it ourselves. Our (B's and mine) families were due to visit in May for our graduation, post which our mothers were going to stay with us, for a few weeks, in our respective rooms. We asked each other and A if this would be okay since the official university policy for an overnight guest is 4 nights but people regularly have family over and nobody bats an eye unless a tenant officially complains. A agreed and plans were made accordingly.
Some time later, A got into a whole thing with B about how she's uncomfortable with her having her bf over (they're very quiet and I've never had any issues) and was also not okay with her mother staying for a long time (mine was staying for lesser time). B made changes immediately and checked again with A, who responded with a long threatening message asserting her personal rules and hinting that she would complain despite previously agreeing to a 2 week stay. B decided to terminate her lease early and move out.
During the last days of B's stay, when both our mothers had been staying with us for about a week, something in the apartment broke, which A had been the last to use. The housing policy basically involves submitting a maintenance request online and someone comes and fixes it, no questions asked. I've done this multiple times even when the issue has been caused by someone else, because the system does not need a 'culprit'. This time, both B and I tried to submit a request online but since the system was down, we couldn't and asked A to. A immediately blamed us for causing the damage, made an excuse and left the apartment. B and I went to see if we could find maintenance people around and ran into A chilling outside the building. She then accused us very aggressively of breaking things and said she needed to report that our moms were staying because someone had to be held accountable.
This led to a whole thing where we told her she does nothing around the apartment, does not follow flatmate agreements herself and that we're sick of her trying to go back on her word and acting like she owns the place, including repeatedly asking B and me when we're vacating.
B and her mom moved out soon after. I was looking for sublets since I felt like A was not done and about a week after the argument, got an official mail from the university housing about my guest, meaning A complained. Mom and I moved out unofficially too. This whole process cost a shit load of money and tension since I am still paying the rent at an apartment I'm no longer living at. I've been back once since and the place now has flies and more open bags of overflowing trash in the kitchen.
I get that what we did was against the rules but I'm also sick of having covered for someone's messy ass for so long and then getting reported because, in A's words, she is a 'stickler for the rules' who agreed to a stay longer than the uni policy MANY times when she could have just said no and saved everybody the headache.
Should I complain about the hygiene concerns? Can't mention the bullying because we were technically wrong. Advice?
submitted by chal_nikall to Adulting [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 19:52 babyconan So I’ve been dealing with dizziness for about 8 months. I also get headaches a lot, and pain in cheeks and eye brow area had ct scan done of sinus’s and my sinuses are clear any idea what could be causing this?

submitted by babyconan to Dizziness [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 19:32 Outrageous_Stranger4 Nextstellis Experience

I have been on Nextstellis for 3 months. It’s a new birth control pill that has a different hormone, estetrol, that is apparently naturally occurring in the body and made from a plant source. I am 16 years old and this the first birth control pill I have ever been on. It was very important to me to have a low dose pill with minimum side effects, as my only goal is pregnancy prevention and I have a very manageable cycle in every way and would like to keep it like that. Here are the side effects I have experienced: 1. Breast tenderness & growth. My boobs hurt all the time, but have gotten bigger! I would say my boobs have grown from an a to a b. The pain is not the biggest inconvenience for me, as my boobs are pretty small so they only really hurt when I touch them, not when I’m running or anything. I can imagine having bigger boobs hurt like this all the time would be awful, so if you have them be warned if you’re going on this pill. 2. Headaches. This was a side effect that I was terrified of. I heard experiences other people have had with Nextstellis & birth control in general where they cited the TERRIBLE headaches they would have. In some scenarios, I saw that some people had even developed migraine. I had a singular experience which I know is most likely due to the birth control coupled with the hot weather and not eating enough, but I had my first migraine ever. It was at first only ocular, I had no pain but was having crazy vision distortion (could not write in a line while I was at school) which developed into a headache felt intensely in one part of my head. This subsided after about 6 hours and 2 advil, and never happened again. 3. Bleeding. This was extremely annoying. I had breakthrough bleeding for an entire month. Most days it was manageable with pantyliners, but others it was a regular to heavy flow (for me at least, enough to fill a regular tampon in 4-5 hours.) this subsided a bit after about a month and a half, and now my periods are all over the place. My last two cycles have lasted about 12 days, and all started a few days BEFORE I started placebo pills. I will admit I haven’t really been tracking them, as it’s quite difficult when they it stops for a few days, starts, then stops again. The randomness caused fear that I may have been ovulating, but the blood is always brown and thin, so I doubt it’s a real period. 4. Bloating. God. I don’t naturally bloat, if I do it’s very minor and to be expected after a day of good eating. I now wake up feeling like I have food in my stomach, and constantly have that feeling regardless of if I have eaten or not. It doesn’t worsen with food. This has caused me to eat less, as I’m just not as hungry (my 5th symptom has been a decrease of appetite) and admittedly, it makes me feel “fat” in my brain. I know that this doesn’t have any logic to it, but it just does. That means I have lost about 6 pounds on it, and since I was about 112 to begin with and 5’7, it doesn’t look good. I think the bloating is subsiding a bit with time and it’s a mental hump I’m getting over, but I know it’s just my brain telling me things. I have always had a great relationship with food and I don’t want to have weird thoughts surrounding it, so I’m doing my best to just ignore it and try to regain the weight I lost. 6. Mood swings. I had mood swings in the first month, which were in the middle of finals season, so I was not a great person to be around. This have gone away completely and I actually feel like my mood is so much more balanced than it used to be pre bc. 7. Acne. I have had acne since 7th grade. End of Freshman year I went on accutane, which completely saved my life (literally) and helped my skin quite a bit. It started coming back junior year (though not as intense), and I developed a really good skincare routine to keep it at bay and heal my scars. Nextstellis has really helped with it as well, and I don’t really get new acne anymore. This has made this entire experience worth it in my eyes. My skin is my biggest insecurity BY FAR (shockingly, I actually like the way I look despite being a teenage girl) and with it being so clear lately, I feel great about myself. Forgive the tangent, but info ab this pill is few and far between. Despite the ups and downs, I do think it’s a good drug that has not caused as many side effects as other bc methods my friends/family have used. I will probably explore a non hormonal iud in the future, but for now I am happy.
submitted by Outrageous_Stranger4 to birthcontrol [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 19:28 pleasantly_psycho The Summer of 2001

I see a lot of people sharing stories here; and although I have of few of them because I sought out the paranormal and did Paranormal investigations for a few years in my mid 20's, I'll share the one that started it all for me and created my lifelong obsession with the unknown.
It was the summer of 2001, I was a wild kid growing up in Panama City Beach, FL. I would've been 14 years old and like most kids raised in broken homes in the wild place PCB once was, I was already smoking and being a shithead. At the time I was a runaway, Staying at my "girlfriends" older brothers house in an attempt to grow up too fast and do what I wanted because I didn't like my moms rules. It was a typical evening for us. We were smoking cigarettes, skateboarding, hanging out and causing trouble in the apartment complex. An apartment complex that backed up to a set of woods, with my friends 18 year old brothers place being at the end of the building, closest to the woods. A sidewalk extended out from the front door connecting to the primary sidewalk which then wrapped around the building (between the woods and the building) and brought you to the parking lot. When the sun was starting to set, we smoked cigarettes outside on the sidewalk and when they were ready to go in I flicked the one I was smoking, a half of a cigarette because I started to get a headache and didn't care to finish it.
We went inside, played video games and eventually passed out. The next day I woke up around 11, everyone else was still asleep so I thought this would be a great opportunity to smoke a cigarette by myself because I knew we didn't have many left, I went to get one out of the pack and it was empty, I guess Chance, my girlfriends older brother had smoked the few remaining while we played games and slept. Then I thought, wait, I flicked that half a cigarette last night so I'll just go find it. I walked down the stairs, got to the sidewalk and started skimming the ground looking for it, I walked around the sidewalk, skimming and skimming for it and couldn't find it. When I looked up, I was roughly 4 feet from the parameter of the woods and right on the edge of woods kneeling behind a palmetto, I SAW IT! A large monster, covered in mangy brown hair, as tall as I was but I couldn't see legs, it looked like in was crouching, I saw teeth, and large solid black eyes, I was frozen in fear. I had no idea what to do, and it was quite literally, right in front of me, a mere 4-5 feet away. I finally got the courage to run, bolted up the stairs yelling "CHANCE" "CHANCE" "CHANCE", tripping over every step on the way up, He was my girlfriends brother we were staying with in the apartment. I told him what happened and of course he laughed it off and told me I must have hallucinated it. After convincing him to go look, we went right back down the stairs together and of course it was nowhere to be found. My "friends" now laughing and me panicking, adrenaline still pumping and brain still trying to process the whole encounter.
Like I mentioned, it was 2001. I was 14 and I had never heard the word cryptid, I don't think I knew what bigfoot was yet and I was completed shocked. I spent the next 2 weeks totally obsessed and I got chance to scour the woods with me and we found absolutely nothing. It was 11 in the morning, I knew exactly what I saw and now 23 years later I can still picture it exactly. As time passed, I thought I had just seen a demon, The teeth and the all black eyes just stuck with me. But, when I was roughly 22-23 I was telling what happened to a friend of a friend and she said, oh hell, you saw the Florida Skunk Ape. I had never heard of the Florida Skunk Ape, but eventually when the picture surfaced or when I first saw the photo (I can't remember) it was EXACTLY what I saw. Shit, The picture itself was almost identical to my account with only 1 exception, It was daytime and I could clearly see its top half. I was stunned, I finally knew what I saw years prior, and that 1 incident which lasted for probably just a minute, changed my life and perception of the world entirely.
But, Looking back now, over 20 years later. What I believe happened is we both weren't expecting to run into each other. I think it was just as shocked as I was, and we both didn't know what to do, Again I realized that it didn't do anything aggressive, never made a sound and it just crouched or knelt there, frozen in time just like I was.
-Thanks for reading. I have told this to friends throughout my life but have never shared it publicly. I'll tell you all what I tell everyone regarding this incident. Believe what you want, it doesn't effect me, what I saw or what happened. But, it was right in front of me, it was daylight and it certainly scared the shit out of me.
submitted by pleasantly_psycho to Paranormal [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 18:46 Glass_Oil_8761 Migraine pain with tinnitus help

So since 2018 summer roughly I’ve been having headaches almost everyday . It’s so bad I have to miss work . Family gatherings , appointments and even just days when I try to relax and go outside for once . Sometimes it’s pain threw my eyes sometimes the middle of my head and etc . It’s caused me to have a terrible memory , feel nauseous , and I even want to say effect my thinking / judgement. I’ve tried different diets , getting my eyes checked , cat scans , ultra sounds , specialists and still have never got an answer just medications that actually made my effects ^ worse . And since October of 2022 out of the blue waking up one day I felt as if I head a ear ache and my ears were ringing kind of and I thought nothing much of it then a simple ear infection . As the days went on the pain went away but not the ringing …. Oh how has the ringing been driving me sleep with lack of sleep from it . I’ve went to get a hearing test and them looked at two months ago if not 2 and a half and have heard nothing back . Does anybody have any thoughts of what could be going on or tips on how to cope with this pain ?
submitted by Glass_Oil_8761 to migraine [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 18:28 Able_Onion7103 No suh that’s not true

One day last week I woke up a little more than an hour before my shift started with a blinding migraine. That’s actually what woke me up; my alarm was set to go off about ten minutes later. And I mean, blinding as I literally could not see out of one eye and had aura. Got up to go get my medication, fell over, stood up again, and vomited on my bedroom floor. And so now on top of feeling like absolute shit, I have a mess to clean up. Decided to call off. By now it’s 45 minutes before the start of my shift. I called and told the SSV running the shift what happened, that I had a migraine and was throwing up, and I was told, “well since it’s less than two hours notice you’ll need to find your own replacement.” Bruh, what? Like I can’t even fucking see. I was only able to call the store because I asked Siri to do it for me. And not only that, I was scheduled to come in a half hour after we opened. There would’ve been no one there two hours before my shift started, even if I’d known two hours ahead that I couldn’t make it in.
Sometimes I have prodromal symptoms and can cut a migraine off at the knees with meds, but other times (not often, thankfully) they come on without warning - those usually are the ones that happen at night and wake me up like this one.
So it was either not come in on short notice or come in and get sent home. Either way I wasn’t gonna be able to work. And regardless of the scenario, I had sick time to use for it. Not enough to cover the whole thing, but most of it. Even still, I wasn’t thrilled to lose an hour of pay and would have much rather worked without a headache than stay home with one while cleaning the previous night’s partially digested dinner off my bedroom rug. Now I’m told I’ll probably get written up for a T&A violation because I gave short notice and didn’t find coverage.
Where is the fucking humanity anymore? What happened to “leading with kindness?”
submitted by Able_Onion7103 to starbucksbaristas [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 18:26 The_Mysterious_Soul Help with 6th team member

Help with 6th team member
Doing a National Dex Ubers team, but I'm restricted from using legends, mythicals, paradoxes, and ultra beasts. On the left is the team I built, and the right are what I am considering for my last party member. All help is appreciated! *I changed Ferrothorn's spikes to Leechseed
submitted by The_Mysterious_Soul to pokemonteams [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 18:08 britt7854 AFA role play

Hello, I have some starters that I am interested in trying out> They are a little strange and the character I play is disabled. I have a sample of the starter included
Aries, a 30-year-old construction worker, had been working in the industry since he was a teenager. He'd often visit job sites with his father, learning the trade by his side. Once he turned 18, he formally joined his father's company, Harper & Sons, as a construction worker. The family was tight-knit, and they spent a lot of time together. Aries was next in line to take over the company when his father retired, much to his older brother Jason's dismay.
Jason, who was a few years older than Aries, had always been bitter about being passed over for the top spot. He saw the company as his birthright and felt that his father was making a mistake by grooming Aries for the role. Jason didn't have the patience or creative mind to run the company; he was driven by greed and a desire for power. He spent hours trying to convince their father to change his mind, but it was no use.
Aries, on the other hand, didn't care about the money or the power that came with running the company. He just wanted to provide a comfortable life for his new wife, Rosalie, and their young child. He was practical and frugal, rarely buying anything new unless it was absolutely necessary. He'd squeeze every last bit of value out of an old truck, phone, or piece of clothing before considering replacing it.
But all this changed one morning when Aries woke up feeling off. He got up early and showered, noticing that his vision was cloudy and out of focus. He rubbed his eyes until it improved slightly, but it was still nowhere near what he was normally accustomed to. He brushed it off as exhaustion and overwork, attributing it to the long hours he'd been putting in to help cover for one of their coworkers who was out sick.
As he got dressed in his usual dark tee shirt and worn jeans, stained with paint and plaster from previous jobs, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. He laced up his work boots and sat down on the bench in their bedroom, staring at the clock. It was time to head out, but he wasn't sure what was happening to him.
He grabbed a cup of coffee from the kitchen and sat down at the table, closing his eyes and rubbing his head as he tried to fight off the lingering headache. He walked over to the counter and took a few Motrin with his coffee, then grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
As he climbed into his trusty Ford Raptor, he turned the key and tried to find his favorite station on the radio. But everything seemed fuzzy and indistinct, with black spots clouding his vision. He felt for his phone in his pocket and called his father, telling him he wouldn't be able to make it to work. He was nervous and unsure of what to do.
After trying Rosalie's number, he managed to get through to her on the second try. "Babe, please pick up," he muttered to himself as he waited for her response.
submitted by britt7854 to Roleplay [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 17:52 Mike12mt C3 after the first month

This TV is definitely colorful and HDR gaming looks amazing. The TV does have a few quirks. When apps crash, unplugging the TV doesn't reset the software.
Ive also noticed my TV doesn't handle blue hues very well. I'm reading up that QD-OLEDs render this problem away. However my room was too small for TVs with QD-OLED. Hell my 42" might be overkill for my room. So I'm happy I have a 120hz TV for my PS5. I've actually played around with my peak brightness settings and lowered the panel brightness to around the 70s and this seems to subdue the TV dimming itself on bright white and blue scenes. But on any dark scenes this tv pops!
If anything the screen dining on brighter scenes just helps my eyes from wincing and headaches. Has anyone else experiencing this behavior on their C3's? I wouldn't be able to capture this behavior on my phone as my TV looks overexposed on the lowest panel brightness.
submitted by Mike12mt to OLED [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 17:50 Rude_Aioli_9553 Neurolens vs. Regular/Prism Lenses?

My two appointments with the optometrist last week determined that I have both astigmatism and a misalignment (eye turning outward when focusing) requiring correction. However, after asking the office for the details regarding the misalignment, they gave me this:
Neurolense Value : Neurolens Value: 2.0 BI ( Neurolense OD: 1.00BI - OS: 1.00BI ) - Prism Value for Neurolense only
They stated that the misalignment is what’s causing most of the double-vision and headaches, etc. but that the regular pair of glasses I just bought from them won’t help the issue whatsoever. They are adamant that these values cannot be used anywhere except for their office for Neurolenses. I have health insurance, but the lenses alone will still cost $820 out of pocket.
What are your experiences with this? Have any of you used Neurolens values as prism values online for other brands? I may just save up money and deal with the double-vision and headaches in the meantime, but I thought it was worth asking.
submitted by Rude_Aioli_9553 to glassesadvice [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 17:37 HeyoWoopWoo Follow up 1: one month on 20 isotretinoin for rosacea

Hello all! As promised: the first update after being on 20/day isotretinoin (70kg bodyweight, 31F). I don't know how to refer to a previous post but my post history will show.
I have mixed type 1, 2 and ocular for years (unfortunately). Been on two rounds of doxy but wanted a more permanent solution. Scared to start iso but here we are.
The first update, after one month of being on iso: so far so good! I'm pretty relieved to say that my type 2 p&ps have reduced a lot. Seems to be very stable too!
Didn't notice any big changes the first two weeks but after that it has gotten steadily better. After two weeks I experienced slight headaches but nothing too bad. My skin started to dry out a bit more too. On the one month mark: I do feel pretty groggy in the morning, have sensitive eyes and if I don't slather my lips in vaseline they look like shit. My hair barely needs any washing now, I started doing hair masks for upkeep. My hands are also dry and I get tiny wounds on them easily. My (face) skincare was already on point before the iso so that's not a problem. My pore size has gotten a bit better lately so I hope that that will progress even further.
Overall I'm pretty positive after one month! My blood tests came back clear so my derm keeps me on 20/day at least for another month. Happy to say that my type 1 remains unchanged. I was terrified that the flushing would get way worse.
Talk to you next month when I'll post another update! Xoxo
submitted by HeyoWoopWoo to Rosacea [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 16:56 QuarantineQat [Routine Help]: My simple routine is mostly working for me, but now I want to address my forehead wrinkles - and find out if I’m paying for an expensive product I don’t need!

My skin is the best it’s been in terms of acne and dryness, but I’m wondering (1) if there’s anything I can add to my routine to help with wrinkles (I’m 35 and my forehead lines - the horizontal ones - are (faintly) noticeable all the time now, but I don’t want to do Botox on them for a few reasons including that I have sagging hooded eyelids and I’ve read that Botox for forehead wrinkles can worsen worsen drooping brows/hooded eyelids), and (2) whether I should cut out or replace the Shiseido serum now that I’ve added the Ordinary serum.
Reviews tell them the Shiseido serum is overpriced and, ingredient wise, shouldn’t be the magic pill it’s been for my skin, but I’ve been using it for 2 years now and my skin loves it. I used to get a few pimples a month, and now I get maybe 3-5 pimples a year. My skin also feels way less dry than it used to be. I’m somebody who when I wash my face with most face washes (or god forbid generic soap), my whole face instantly feels tight and uncomfortable - the Shiseido seems to moisturize well for me without causing acne, and switching to the HydroBoost face wash also helped. However, I got a facial 3 months ago and she told me that my skin was still dry and I should add in a serum or lotion with either peptides or Hyaluronic Acid (I can’t remembered which she said, because I got one with both?) and, after that, consider a retinoid. I added in the Ordinary serum identified below. I’m not sure I’ve noticed a difference, and I don’t like how sticky it feels on my face when it first goes on, but it hasn’t hurt anything or made my skin worse. It could be helping for all I know!
Any advice you could give me would be much appreciated! I do want my routine to stay fairly easy.
AM routine:
-If I shower in the morning, wash face with Neutrogena HydroBoost (with Hyaluronic Acid) Gel Cleanser. If I don’t shower, splash face with water or wipe with wet washcloth.
-Apply Ordinary multi-peptide + HA serum
-Apply Shiseido Ultimate Power Infusing Concentrate
-Apply something with SPF (often Cerave ultra-light lotion SPF 30; sometimes Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer light revealer SPF 25)
-sometimes apply mascara and brow tint (otherwise I don’t really wear makeup)
PM routine:
-If I shower in the evening (instead of morning), wash face with Neutrogena HydroBoost (with Hyaluronic Acid) Gel Cleanser. If I don’t shower, use ponds cold cream to remove any makeup. Splash face with water or wipe with wet washcloth.
-Apply Ordinary multi-peptide + HA serum
-If skin feels dry (usually, when I’ve washed it in the shower at night, or it’s winter), apply Ponds dry skin cream
-sometimes (when I remember) apply Cerave eye repair cream
-if any spots of suspected acne, apply Paula’s choice 2% BHA salicylic acid (use this less than once a month)
-apply prescriptiom Plexion cream to chest for rosacea (my derm only noticed rosacea on my chest, not elsewhere - I went in for what I thought was chest acne and she diagnosed it as rosacea)
Thanks in advance!!
submitted by QuarantineQat to SkincareAddiction [link] [comments]

2024.06.10 16:54 hiding_behind_smiles My head is a mess, I feel like bursting out crying all the time and just need to get this off my chest....

trigger warning: sexual assault and violence. First time posting and new to reddit. English is not my first language.
I (F 26) am experiencing some trouble as I am in the process of switching from one ADHD medications to another, where I have to withdraw from the one I am on at the moment because of side effects such as nausea and vomiting, but because of the low dosage my head is filled with thoughts I cannot register and I experience as white noise, this leads to me have thoughts of self harming, which I have done periodically since I was 13/14 years old.
other things that troubles my head is some of all the experiences I have had since I was little.
My parents separated when I was 4 yo, and all I remember from when they lived together is them fighting, my mom laying in their bed crying and I came with sticky notes with drawings on the (such as a smiling sun, her with me and my siblings all with smiles on our faces)
when they separated, my siblings (two older brothers and one younger brother) lived with our mom, my older sister lived by herself, because she always fought with my older brothers and our dad.
when I was 7 yo, I remember clearly my second oldest brother (then 12 yo) keep our mom in a strangle hold while he pushed her against a wall, after that he lived with our dad for a year, before being placed at some kind of a resort. When I was 8 yo, I was visiting my dad with my younger brother, and my second eldest brother (then 13 yo) asked me if I wanted to try something and because I was and can still be curious I said yes. That's how I lost my virginity.
my sister (F 36) has always had a bad temper, and gotten angry easily, so when she visited our mom, she would almost each time get angry for some stupid reason. Because she always wished for a sister, so she put me in a special place, and always wanted to do girly stuff with me, which I never have been interested in, but she would also pull me into a room where we were alone, and she would tell me all the things she thought about our brothers and/or mom, this would be done in a harsh tone and some really harsh words. I suspect that is why I don't like swearing or a harsh word use and also that I dislike yelling myself or being yelled at or nearby yells, I feel a physical discomfort.
from I was 12 yo, my mom with tell me all her worries about her own life but also my siblings, this has lead me to not be able to tell her about my troubles, and I stay quiet about things troubling me and have always tried to deal with everything myself. This has probably also to lessen her worries and mental burden, because she never really had anyone else.
I grew up with stomachache all the time and also a lot of headaches.
I got diagnosed with ADHD/ADD, social phobia and atypical autism two years ago and maybe (I am not certain) some kind of personality disorder.
I never spoke to anyone about all of these things before march 7th this year, and only then I realized and began to acknowledge just how violent many of my experiences have been, and I am in the process of getting the help that I need, but right now it is all messing with my head.
plus, this is not everything but just what I needed to get off my chest at the moment. sorry for the rambling, but just imagine how messed up my head is at the moment because the lack of medication I have been used to the last 1,5 years.
thank you for reading
submitted by hiding_behind_smiles to offmychest [link] [comments]

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