I don't know what happened to this subreddit, but it's been infested by degenerates. It's getting so bad to the point that I'm considering wrapping it up and closing it. But before I do, I will try one more time:

• please be respectful to Miranda and the rest of the visitors. this is not a place to exercise your weird fetishes. I am not going to have a subreddit where 99% of comments are from incels fantasizing about various sexual acts with Miranda. from now on, NO SEXUALLY EXPLICIT COMMENTS WHATSOEVER! first offence will result with 7 day ban, second with a permanent one
  
• this goes without saying and will be STRICTLY ENFORCED WITH A PERMANENT BAN IMMEDIATELY. I don't know what kind of a degenerate you need to be to think that it's OK to insult an admin/mod in your comment, mentioning family or cussing me out. any user for that matter, let alone the freaking ADMIN. again, permanent ban immediately, no discussion.
  

If any of you don't like these rules, please feel free to unfollow or start your own subreddit for degenerates like yourself.
THANK YOU!

Alright, so… I (18F) kinda made this reddit account just to get some feedback about this situation, since I’m too ashamed to ask my parents. The girl in question is 16, and is probably one of the most annoying people I’ve ever met…
(TLDR: This girl I was pretending to be friends with in High School obsessively fantasized about murdering someone for an entire semester, is overbearing as a person, interrogates people on a daily basis and is nosy, injects herself into drama that isn’t her own, throws temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way, constantly touches people and makes unwarranted comments about girl’s bodies, asked me to draw CP for her, and MADE FUN OF HER SUICIDAL BROTHER. And I wrote a hate-letter telling her that all of this stuff is a problem, but now I feel bad about it because I think she might actually have mental issues. It’s a really wild ride and a long story, so if you choose to read it, you should expect to be here for a while. And it’s High School drama, so I’ll try to discard the boring details.)
At the beginning of this year, I ended up in a small Sports Medicine class with literally 8 students total in it. That made things quiet, which gave us some room to start talking and getting to know each other after the teacher was done with the lesson and we had our small hands-on tests and assignments out of the way. (The classes took about 20 minutes every day. Really quick and easy. Laid back. It met curriculum requirements actually, because there wasn’t constant bullshit from other students making the lesson longer.). There’s this girl, who… I’ll call her Storm. You’ll find out why. Storm quickly became the most annoying person in the class. Any time she talked, she didn’t have anything interesting to say, but just kept going on and on and on endlessly. It was annoying, but we just kinda played along to be nice. Well… Around a month into school, Storme started opening up and became comfortable talking about personal topics. She told us this story about how one of her other friends (I’ll call her Katie) “betrayed” her the previous year, and then went on to talk about how much she hated Katie and didn’t care if she lived or died. (Honestly, Katie’s offense was miniscule. At most, she replaced Storm with someone else as her best friend. You know… Regular High School drama that wasn’t that deep. I honestly forgot all of what Katie did because it was just so miniscule.) Then Storme started saying ludicrous stuff like “I hope she falls into a volcano”, or “I hope she gets eaten by sharks falling from the sky. Like Sharknado.”. But like… She kept saying it constantly, out loud in class. She ranted about how she wanted Katie to get kidnapped by the Mafia, be flown up to the moon, and be dropped into a black hole to become “Katie-spaghetti”. It was honestly really funny at first, so me and a few other people in the class joined in a little bit and added our own stupid, childlike scenarios. (Katie has a reputation for being… A slut. That’s why it was funny at first.) But then after this schtick got old, Storm just kept going and going and going… She ranted about Katie until it physically hurt to hear her talk anymore. She was back to being annoying and boring again, but it was worse this time because it was obvious that she was trying to re-kindle our intrigue without realizing that she should move on to something else. Instead of assessing herself, she just kept yapping until everyone rolled their eyes every time she opened her mouth, because we knew she would just keep going on and on about all of the stupid ways she wanted Katie to de. Even the damn teacher told her to stop doing that, but she never listened and the teacher eventually just gave up telling her off (And honestly, I think the teacher started zoning her out.). Katie then gradually started to get more morbid with the things she was saying, to the point where I genuinely considered calling the cops and getting this girl some grippy socks. She talked until she became red-faced, started tweaking, and laughed in a neurotic, nervous angry way while she started wringing out her trembling hands. She genuinely looked and sounded unhinged, and what didn’t help was that she started saying stuff like “There aren’t metal detectors in this school, right?”, and “I wish I wasn’t such a good person, because if I wasn’t, I’d be acting on my impulse to cave her skull in the next time I see her. One of these days I’m going to snap and then just do it..” …Yeah, so I was genuinely considering getting the police involved in this because of those two sentences. Thankfully Katie is safe and sound to this day and Storm never acted on these “impulses”. I’m so glad it worked out that I didn’t have to call the cops, but I was seriously worried for a minute… One of my other friends in that class, (I’ll call him Mark), eventually kinda snapped and called her out for being the annoying piece of crap she is. Quickly, Storm and Mark started getting into arguments just about every day and started throwing things like wads of wrapping-tape at each other, and I was becoming worried that they were going to start actually full-on fighting. It doesn’t sound logical in hindsight, but I ended up taking it upon myself to step in and start acting friendly toward her and listening to her (or pretending to listen to her) just to draw her attention away from him. Pretty soon she started talking mostly to me, and this was intentionally done on my part so that the other people in the class could relax a little bit and start doing whatever on their phones and zone her out instead of having to pretend to listen in agony. Ultimately, it was an exchange that benefited everyone, because after Storme got that angry energy out of her, she shut up for the day. She continued to talk about Katie, but mostly to me. She talked about this topic endlessly, her words getting increasingly violent until Christmas break. Yeah… 5 months. She ranted about the ways she wanted Katie to die for 5 whole months. Months. But then when she was done ranting, she finally shut up. …Oh God, the silence sounded like angels singing. I didn’t even really retain any of the information she spewed onto me, but holy crap, when it was over it was like heaven on Earth. So that’s what I did – I acted like the “lightning rod” for this Storm of a person until it passed (kinda). She wrote a note to Katie explaining “You hurt me really badly, but I’m a Christian so I forgive you and I hope you the best”... As if she didn’t rant about her for 5 months straight. Make it make sense. But enough about that. Here’s where my fck ups began. I gave Storm my number and we quickly started saying that we were friends, though I didn’t actually like her at all and just wanted to keep the peace. We had a few things in common, but I still didn’t like her whatsoever. She continued to rant to me nonstop about Katie, even over text, and I was burnt out listening after a while. So… To dampen the impact of this girl’s obsessive ramblings, I started sending her pictures of my drawings. (I’m an artist). I had characters that I liked to draw that are ocs of an anime fandom (all of which are underage), and she seemed to calm down a bit and hyper-focus on them. She even has a folder in her phone’s gallery completely dedicated to storing my artwork. That’s great and all, but… One day, the topic of Wattpad came up in one of our conversations. I, myself, was one of those cringy Wattpad 12 year olds who made the most illiterate fanfictions ever to be conceived by a human being (They’ve long since been deleted. Thank God, those were awful.) Then… The topic of “Wattpad smut” came up, because I admitted that I used to read those because of the awful grammar and I thought it was funny. I still do sometimes, actually. The way people on Wattpad can’t write to save their lives is just hilarious. Like the stupid “Shrek x Donald Trump” ones are the ones that make me wheeze. I don’t take them seriously, and I love it when the author doesn’t take it seriously either. It’s hilarious. …But then this asshole said: “I don’t like to read bad grammar, it makes me mad. But I do like to read that type of content… For a different reason”. So uhh… That’s… Weird. But then she asked: “Have you found any… Good ones? Do you have any recommendations? Asking for a friend.” …FCK NO. No thank you. Nope, I’m done. No jerkoff material for you, ma’am. Nope. You’re done. Seriously, I put down my phone for a little bit and went outside to go stare at some birds at the bird feeder until my sickness went away. I fell nauseous because of that (though in hindsight, that seems like an overreaction). When I came back, I didn’t answer that question and kinda skated past it, and that seemed to be the end of it. …But there is NEVER an end with Storm. She DID forget about the resolution to that conversation, but since we talked about smut to begin with, she started asking me some questions about my art. She asked if I had ever drawn p0rn in my life. Of course, I didn’t really admit to anything. I skated past it too, but then she said: “I think (character 1) and (character 2) are really cute together… Like… Really, really cute together.”. That’s great, she likes my characters… Cool, cool. And then my worst nightmare: “Have you ever drawn p0rn of them?” …Of course I didn’t, because that would be CP… Plus I’ve never thought of those characters as being “sxual”... They’re literally 14 and 15 years old. Then basically, she made an indirect “suggestion” for me to draw them together. I said fck no. Hell fcking no. She tried to convince me to draw them “aged up”, but again I refused. She eventually dropped it, but since then, she passively talked about things of that nature… Like if she saw a guy she thought was cute, she’d tell me she thought he’s cute or hot or gorgeous or whatever and allude to -other- awkward desires that I didn’t want to know about. She put me off from drawing those characters ever again. I haven’t drawn them since and I don’t take my sketchbook to school anymore because I don’t want her to see my drawings and be reminded of that BS.
But enough about that… Storm is a church-going girl, and so she has a few church-going friends. (This also makes everything I’ve said before all the more ironic.). One day when I was transitioning from my 5th to 6th period, I saw her talking angrily to one of her church friends (I’ll call her Isabelle) outside the school building. Storm was accusing Isabelle of lying about smoking weed/vaping and drinking, and she seemed to be so interested in it that you’d think it had an impact on her personally. Isabelle denied doing that, and they eventually parted ways to go to class. I walked with Storm to 6th period (the Sports Medicine period), and I asked her why she was so damn interested in Isabelle’s habits. Know what she said? Storm said “I just don’t like liars.”... So let me get this straight: She thought she had the right to interrogate someone half to death because she just “doesn’t like liars”? Make that make sense. I’ve heard many stories about how Storm interrogates other people, too. If she sees a guy/girl’s name pop up on the screen of someone she knows, she’ll pester them until they give her one of two answers: either “I’ll tell you later”, or the actual answer. She’s done that to me too, in front of everyone in class. The thing that upsets me about this is that she claims to be “nosy”, but thinks it’s a positive attribute rather than an annoying one. She brags about being “nosy” sometimes.
And the sxual assault… Since we were in a sports medicine class, our projects involved a lot of hands-on things. That didn’t bother me by itself, but with Storm, it was a nightmare. This girl, in the process of strapping an ice bag to my thigh, called my thighs “small”, and said that I have a “beautiful body”. We also did shoulder stretching stuff the next week, and I happened to fall under her care while she stared into my eyes and made weird faces at me, all the while she made sound effects and made the process much more uncomfortable than it needed to be. One week, we ended up as partners again and she ended up wrapping my shoulder. This shoulder-wrap wasn’t an issue for me, but having her as a partner made it an issue. As expected, she made sound effects, but this time she stated the obvious as if it was new information that nobody would have ever suspected: “Wow, this is squishing your boobies huh?”... Emphasis on the word “boobies”. Jesus Fcking Christ, it was already awkward as hell before she even brought that up, why would she say something like that?? I didn’t even realize that until she brought it up. In fear of being subjected to her uncomfortable BS again and feeling violated, I texted her and told her that she’s been making me feel uncomfortable, and to please stop being so…. Weird. I get it’s an awkward thing to wrap up your classmate’s thigh, but that’s a moment to keep comments to yourself. Her response? “I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY-” Just… Stop it. I didn’t introduce the topic as a big deal and told her not to worry about it, but she kept apologizing for it nonstop. Just endlessly, like everything else. Even when I tried to change the subject to something else, she just kept apologizing for it practically until she went to bed. (She has a bedtime at 9:30… At 16 years old.) All of this stuff contributed to my overall hatred toward her. I don’t like her at all, and it’s a wonder I didn’t explode and insult her entire personality and deplorable behavior to her face (Meg Griffin style). Things are just so awkward and awful whenever she opens her mouth, and it just doesn't ever stop. But because of all of this, when it came time for my Senior prom, I decided to secretly invite one of my friends from that class as a plus one, and NOT Storm. I was worried that if I told her that to her face, I would all of a sudden be the new “Katie” in her conversations, because the infraction Katie did was so miniscule that it seemed to be less like a “betrayal” than what I did. (In hindsight, it was probably the other way around.) So… I just kept the whole thing to myself and so did the friend I took to prom (I’ll call her Beyonce. Because… She loves Beyonce.).

If this wasn’t bad enough, strap in because not even three weeks ago, Beyonce was doing her usual schtick of making fun of random things. She once made fun of cool whip and the entire state of Texas at the same time and somehow made it make perfect sense. She should really have a comedy show, I swear. But this time, Beyonce was making fun of the name “Gage”, saying “Why would anyone name their kid after a 12-gage shotgun?” and “People named Gage seem untrustworthy. I wouldn’t want to be near one in a zombie apocalypse, because he’d just feed me to those f*ckers.”. Funny stuff. Storm then said “My brother’s name is Gage”, and in order to preserve the flow of the conversation (and also to tick her off a little, I’m ngl), Beyonce asked her: “Is your brother untrustworthy?” And then without a single millisecond wasted, she said, in a Disney Channel comedy fashion: “Welll… We can’t trust him with his own life, sooo…”.. And then she laughed as if it was funny. Like.. Rib-stitches type of laughing. ….So then the others (understandably) went quiet, which left only me and her talking for a moment after her laughter quieted down. She complained about how confused she is that nobody finds her joke funny, and said that her joke had the “perfect timing and everything”... So then my idiot ass decided to say what I was thinking at that moment: “You don’t seem to be taking it seriously. That’s your brother, but you don’t sound sympathetic at all.” She tried to “defend” herself, but Mark interjected into the conversation and changed the course of it entirely, which just left her to sit there in silence, pouting. I felt bad for that statement, so I apologized for it over text when I got home from school. Quickly, we erupted into an argument, (with me holding back), and she ended up saying “What does it matter to you? He’s not your brother. If Beyonce said that about her brother, you’d laugh. But when I do, it’s bad.”. Beyonce’s brother is 8 years old…. So no, that would be even worse. …So then I had to explain to her how human decency works, and how making fun of your s*icidal siblings isn’t funny whatsoever and how that joke could be considered to be in very poor taste, even for people who like dark humor. When me, Beyonce or Mark made “s*icide” jokes, it was about OURSELVES and it was usually in a statement like “I don’t want to take a test next period, I’m gonna kms.”... …Storm ended up getting so mad that we weren’t having a conversation anymore; we were just throwing sh*t around. I told her that if she was being livestreamed at that moment, she’d be bashed on the whole internet for a week or so and be called “evil” for that joke. In hindsight I shouldn’t have said that, but my goal was just to tell her how insensitive others might perceive her comment to be. She said that it wasn’t my business to tell her how to feel about her own brother, but I wasn’t doing that at all, that wasn’t my angle whatsoever – I was just explaining what people find funny. I even said repeatedly that I wasn’t trying to tell her how to feel, and that I know comedy can help lighten situations, but somehow she forgot about that part. And then she went on this whole thing about ending every massive text block with “Not that it’s YOUR business, or anything” to snap at me, despite me being in the room at the time of the joke... So I ended the conversation right then and there because it was pointless to keep going and I really didn’t want to spend any more energy on her. The next day, I apologized to her again. I retracted my statements and told her that I was sorry for talking out of line. She accepted the apology, and things went back to “normal”. She forgot about it, but I didn’t. …So here are the reasons why I feel bad, before I delve into the contents of the “hate letter” I wrote to her. Here’s a list of my crimes: 

I pretended to be her friend for an entire school year. I hid the fact that I was going to prom with Beyonce from her, and then lied to her face repeatedly whenever she asked if I went to prom or not. I got into business that wasn’t my own and criticized her. I wrote a hate-letter to her that I directed her to read at home on the last day of school.
…Here’s why I feel bad: Storm doesn’t seem to be emotionally intelligent and is unable to control her mouth whenever she feels strong emotions. She talks nonstop about her second cousin’s friend’s pet hamster’s wife’s sister’s drama, hoping we’ll find something funny or interesting or impressive, while seeming unable to understand that she needs to change her tune. All she wants is to be listened to and understood, but nobody can and nobody truly wants to. She feigns confidence and goes overboard with compliments in the hopes of catching the attention of people who want to be friends with her. She’s not used to change and is very naive, to the point where (just yesterday) she quit her job at a fast food restaurant after only the first day of working there. For the longest time she didn’t have access to the internet, so she doesn’t really have a means to connect with other people through sharing videos or memes or whatever. …I feel like a bad person because I knowingly, intentionally played into all of this just for the pathetic reason of making her shut up in class. It’s despicable what I did, and I’m beating myself up for it every day. I was just originally going to leave the school, block her and never talk to her ever again in my life, but when she made that joke about her brother, I decided (stupidly) to take it upon myself to be the bearer of bad news. I gave her a letter. Within the “hate letter”, it isn’t actually hate, per se. It’s more like… A report on the behavior she needs to fix, as well as an admission to my lies over the course of this whole year. I told her the awful truth. I told her about everything I mentioned in this post and tried to keep it “professional”, though I did end up going as far as to say “you have all of the attributes of an obnoxious piece of stale bread”........... And what’s worse is… I told her to read it on the last day of school, and my reasoning is pathetic at best. I told her to read it on the last day of school because I didn’t want her to burden the class with her nonstop ranting about me, since she, Mark and Beyonce are sophomores and I’m the only senior in the “friend group”, which means that I left the school an entire week earlier than them. I’ve been intentionally delaying her pain and still talking to her over text acting like things are “normal” so that she doesn’t read it early, knowing damn well that on that last day of school, my words are going to hurt her so badly that she might not be able to recover for a while. In the letter, I told her that by the time she reads it, I would have already blocked her because I don’t want any more conversation with her due to me feeling so bad and having nothing more to say. If the plan goes right, she’ll read it on May 23rd, and on that day I will block her.

I feel awful for all of this. I feel like a monster for this. It’s painful knowing that I’m going to cause her pain and that I planned when it’s going to happen, but at the same time I feel like she deserves it. But at the same time, I know damn well that it wasn’t my place to do that. I should have left everything alone. Nobody I can talk to irl would even hear me out; they’d just stop at the words “hate letter”, which means my only option is to seek advice from people on Reddit. Do my motives for doing things make sense? Am I actually a bad person for this? Am I the asshole? Does she deserve what she’s getting? 

DAY: MAY 20 2024
5-20-2024

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5-20-2024 How are asthma and heart health linked?
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5-20-2024 STUDY EXPLORES PATIENT TRUST IN PHYSICIANS
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5-20-2024 LOW-DOSE IRON SUPPLEMENTATION HAS NO BENEFIT FOR BREASTFED INFANTS, SHOWS STUDY
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If you buy your olive oil in bulk, you’ve likely been in for a shock in recent weeks. Major supermarkets have been selling olive oil for up to A$65 for a four-liter tin, and up to $26 for a 750 milliliter bottle. We’ve been hearing about the health benefits of olive oil for years. And many of us are adding it to salads, or baking and frying with it. But during a cost-of-living crisis, these high prices can put olive oil out of reach. Let’s take a look at why
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. What is the main focus of your thesis? Relapse following initial treatment efficacy remains a major clinical challenge for many cancers. The focus of my thesis has been to explore the therapeutic impact of immune cells in patients with blood cancer (leukemia), by first investigating which cells
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A certain biological pathway—a set of linked reactions in the body—drives the inflammation seen in the skin disease psoriasis, a new study finds. The work could lead to improved therapies for all inflammatory skin diseases, including atopic and allergic dermatitis and a type of boil called hidradenitis suppurativa, say the study authors. The findings are published in the journal Immunity. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to irritation and infection, but when out of control, it can lead to the reddish, flaky, itchy lesions that
5-20-2024 Prescription co-payments linked to more hospital admissions in New Zealand, study finds
A new study from researchers cautions that bringing back the $5 co-payment for prescription medicines could see a jump in hospital admissions. The study analyzed health data for 71,502 people and found those who didn’t pick up a prescription because they couldn’t afford the $5 fee had a 34% higher rate of being admitted to hospital.
5-20-2024 How a simulation is informing COVID-19 vaccine policy after our ‘return to normal’
As the saying goes “There is no such thing as normal” and this has been especially true after the pandemic. Before the emergence of the omicron COVID-19 variant, countries like the U.K. had high vaccination coverage along with widespread exposure to COVID-19 in the population. This combination of vaccine and infection-derived immunity is termed hybrid immunity and is different to vaccine immunity or infection immunity alone. In contrast, other countries, including Australia, New Zealand and those in the Western Pacific, had a very different pandemic experience.
5-20-2024 Researchers find intriguing connections between Alzheimer’s disease and other common conditions
A study has found that while some medical conditions appear to increase our likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease, others appear to decrease the odds. The study, led by Dr. Yijun (Nicholas) Pan and Dr. Liang Jin, analyzed data from 2,443 older Australians living in Melbourne or Perth who are part of the Australian Imaging, Biomarker and Lifestyle (AIBL) study, an internationally recognized cohort for dementia research. “We found anxiety and other neurological disorders are associated with increased likelihood of Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Pan said.
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The TLDConclusions

• If you need a small passive bookshelf for under $300 and/or can't run a sub, I still think the RB42s are very hard to beat. They are certainly not perfect but nothing in this price range and size is. They are beautifully made and have a very versatile sound that can be improved even further with some minor EQ.
• If you're really low on space, the MB42X G2s have a smaller footprint than the RB42, with a very similar, but not as refined sound.
• If you have the space and the extra $70, the Kanto YU5.25 are absolutely worth it over the RB42. Their balanced frequency response and low distortion make them great for both nearfield and small/medium room listening across all music genres. My only advice is to pair them with a sub.

About my setup
The way my desk is positioned I can't have my speakers on stands next to it or mounted on the wall. They have to be on the desk, and I only have space for maximum 8" deep cabinets, so that rules out other popular options, such as the KEF Q150. All speakers were positioned about 42" center to center, toed in at 45deg and angled on 15deg Monoprice wedges. Distance from my ears was roughly 30" and from the wall - about 12". They did not resonate with my desk but did with the wall behind them so after stuffing the ports with socks didn't work, I had to resort to applying a -8dB @ Q=10 EQ at 135Hz to eliminate it. Also, probably due to their interaction with the environment, all of them showed a slight broad dip around 90-100Hz, which probably caused me to miss the resonances in this area that ASR measured on some of these models. All speakers were driven by a Loxjie A30 connected via toslink to my PC, and for music were paired with an SVS SB-1000 sub with its volume and crossover matched to each speaker pair.
About the tests
As I mostly use these for nearfield (I aimed for 60dB at my ears, measured with my phone), the Loxjie rarely went beyond 1/3 of what it was capable of, and the speakers weren't pushed even close to their limits. I typically run multiple slow sine sweeps to figure out where the peaks, valleys, and any other weirdness are. As for the more subjective part, I went through various music genres including EDM, hiphop, classical, jazz, reggae, various heavy metal subgenres, rock, as well as some audiophile albums.
About me
I'm by no means a hardcore audiophile and I'm usually a value shopper - meaning I like to pay for quality but right up to the point where diminishing returns really kick in. I do believe in a lot of the objective features high-end audio offers, but I also think there is a lot of snake oil selling involved, and very often you're paying for quality you can't actually hear. I don't do anything professionally-related to audio but am a geek when it comes to specs and objective measurements.
I'm in my late 30s and I'd like to think my hearing is still pretty good - typically what my ears hear matches measurement graphs to a large extent, but I can't hear anything beyond ~15kHz for example. My preference for frequency response is somewhere between studio flat and the Harman curve, but that depends also on the music genre. Probably goes without saying, but don't take anything I claim here for gospel - listening experience is highly subjective.
THE MINI REVIEWS
Polk ES10 (black, $249 new)
I'll admit these were my first choice to try since they were hands down my favorite visually with the contrasting gold cone and tweeter. They looked good even with the grills on, but of course I opted to leave them off. They would've won best fit and finish too if it weren't for a tiny dab of glue visible on one of the woofers. They were the second smallest of the bunch, with their design contributing to making them look even smaller.
Alas, with regards to sound, I'll place these last out of the four even if they were to cost the same as the Miccas. Overall, they sounded somewhat boring and dry, particularly with female vocals. Noticeable bass rolloff happens all the way up to 100Hz, so you definitely need to pair them with a sub. I set my sub's crossover to 120Hz to blend them in well. I noticed only one resonance at 3kHz but multiple dips - at 280Hz, 1.4, 3.3, 6.6, and 8.3kHz, the latter 3 probably contributing to the boring-sounding female vocals and sparkleless highs. Speaking of the highs, they did extend quite well, and were not fatiguing or laid back. Male vocals also sounded great.
Micca RB42 (very dark brown, $149 new)
Love them or hate them, you can't deny these have a lot going for them. Visually, what struck me was how deep they were - as deep as some medium-sized speakers, like the Kanto YU5.25. On the other hand they are very narrow, so the overall impression is of a much smaller speaker. I love how they look, and they are the only ones that I like better with the grill on - it's a very light mesh, so everything behind it is still clearly visible. Fit and finish was good but not great on mine - everything was well assembled but there were some imperfections on the edges where the front veneer meets the sides. They also come with some foam isolator wedges, so the budget conscious can save some money on buying those separately.
Sound-wise I'd give these runner up out of the four and gold in the 4" category. Like most reviewers, the first time you hear them, they have a wow factor, particularly because of their low-end frequency response - I could hear a decent thump all the way down to 50Hz. If you don't listen to a lot of EDM or hiphop, they are the only ones out of the 4 you can run without a sub. In contrast to ASR's measurements, I didn't catch the midbass overemphasis (see my setup notes), and, actually, I only noticed one resonance at 3.4Hz and one dip at 1160Hz. Out of the 4-inchers the RB42s had the smoothest treble - smooth all the way to the limits of my hearing, with a slight overemphasis around 9.5kHz. The highs, however, were a tad too fatiguing - I had to resort to lowering the volume or adding -1 or -2dB on the Loxjie's treble EQ when listening to heavy metal because my ears would start ringning after an hour of listening.
Still, as a total package, I wasn't able to find anything that can touch these at $150 - they are gorgeous and have a very versatile sound that can make any genre (except maybe heavy metal without EQ) sound great.
Micca MB42X G2 (black, $99 new)
I'll admit I bought these after I already had the RB42 and after watching Zeos' review that claimed they did some things better than the RB42.
Visually, they don't have much going for them besides their small size. I dare say, with the wide front and small cone, they look a bit ugly, especially sitting next to the RB42s. Putting the grills on didn't make things much better or worse. But you can't expect much for $99, can you?
Sound-wise, my hearing disagrees with Mr. Zeos'. I would place their sound somewhere between the ES10 and the RB42. Yes, their bass extension is almost as good as the RB42s, and yes, you could run them without a sub depending on the genres you prefer. They also had a similar resonance around 2.9kHz. However, I did notice some weird inconsistencies in the 3.2-4kHz range - depending on slight variations of the position of my head, I'd hear parts of that range suddenly dip. After that the highs sounded very similar to the RB42's - maybe slightly more uneven, but still as fatiguing.
So my verdict on these is they are fantastic for the money, but I'd skip another Doordash meal and save another $50 to get the RB42s, even if it's just for the looks.
Kanto YU5.25 (black, $229 new)
Yeah yeah, I know these are not the YU4s, which would be a fairer comparison. There are three reasons for this - 1) after looking at ASR's measurements I decided the YU4 wouldn't be good enough to dethrone the RB42; 2) I randomly found these used less than a month for $190 so I couldn't pass them up. And boy am I glad I didn't; 3) They are only 8" deep so they still fit on my small desk.
Visually, the simple minimalist aesthetic works very well. I didn't expect to like them as much as I do. What contributes to this visual impact to a large extent is the great fit and finish - every edge and seam is flawless all the way to the felt-lined port. They certainly lack the cheap feel that the MB42X have.
Sound is where they really shine. It's not a coincidence ASR recommended their powered version. However what I hear slightly differs from their measurements. In the low end, they do roll off fairly early - I can hear noticeable rolloff under 100Hz. You could run them without a sub, but the low end won't be as good as with the RB42s. I did hear the slight midbass dip ASR measured but for me it's only between 200 and 300Hz, not all the way to 900kHz. I also didn't experience the 900Hz resonance they did. Moving up in the frequency range, I did notice the minor resonance at 2.6kHz ASR did but it wasn't bothersome enough to EQ out. After that it's all smooth sailing - the highs are smooth and extend into the limits of my hearing. They have the detail and sparkle of the RB42 but without the fatigue. As a result I can (and do) listen to the Kantos all day long (don't worry I take breaks :) without getting exhausted. I thoroughly enjoy them with every music genre I've tried.

Yeah... Just like the title says. So, two incidents I'd like to document so others can be mindful of when this occurs.
The first one took place about two weeks ago. I go to bed around 7/8 pm as I start work at 4 am. I laid down and was "put" to sleep immediately entering a dream state where I was already in a heightened state of anger. Only to be woken up enraged. The emotion I embodied in that dream state carried over into my awake state of mind within a matter of two minutes. I just laid in bed and repeatedly told them to, "fuck off," and "you're not going to get a reaction out of me."
Then last night, the same thing. Only a little different. The dream state of me being angry and anxious actually intertwined with my awake state this morning around 3:30am. While awake, I could still see the overlaying of an agitated dream version of myself wanting to flip out and scream while the voices where saying, "we're punching you in the face right now." But I said nothing until on my way to work. Then I let out a big grunty scream.
I don't wan't to scare my girlfriend and sleeping 14 week old daughter in the bed with me. It's 4:34 am now and everything is quiet. It's like they can't get to me anymore with words alone, so they've begun abrasively operating within ever occurring dream sequence just to have me experience the emotion of that state once dropped into it.
It was getting better for awhile. The past few weeks, I've been attempting to ignore them and move on in silence. This is either a test of some kind to see how I respond to anger or an act of disgust with me. Either way, I absolutely refuse to take medication or succumb to the temptation of relapsing. Fuck that. There's not a damn thing that anyone can do that will make me ruin the life I've created with my family.
They can astrally suck my nut sack. And in the end, I'm thankful. I'm thankful I'm strong enough to not respond in the moment. I'm thankful the words of others have no effect on me.

I don't play fifa often, probably like 50 hours total in my entire life, mostly at party's, but since it was on sale, I got it, and ive been climbing through the divisons in seasons, legit my best game ever, when the opponent was real madrid, and I'm beating him 7-1, it's 60 minutes in, and he leaves, I'm kinda sad cuz I wanted to see how far it can go, but not big deal.
Then the opponent leaves, and not only do I not get a record of the game, it doesn't even count as a win???? Literally the best I've ever played and it was for nothing.
I'm actually sad now.

AITA for cutting my brother off after he chose the mother of his child over me. A little back story. I, 30F, have been taking care of my brother, 31M, off and on for the past 7 years. I have let him live with me and my husband every time we have gotten a new place and paid him to babysit my child. We have never asked him to help pay bills or pay rent. About 4 years ago we moved into a new house and after 2 years of living in the new house my brother got a new girlfriend while he was living with us and ended up getting her pregnant. He ended up moving out and living with his GF and his GFs brother. They had a falling out with his GFs family. My brother had multiple cars and an RV on our property. We offered them to stay on the property in the RV and have them pay rent. From the moment they had moved into the RV his GF would just talking bad about her brother and his wife saying that they kept her stuff and wouldn't return it and called her sister in law a bad mother. I had called her out and told her that I would take her over to her brothers house to get the rest of her stuff because I was friends with her brother and his wife. She would automatically come up with excuses as to why she can't go over there or that they won't let her and they are never home. I noticed that my brothers GF loved to play the victim and blow everything out of proportion. Everything was always everyone else's fault and never her fault. She twisted every story she had in her favor and made the other person look bad. I even recorded her conversation one time and sent it to her sister in law cause it was the last straw for me I take full accountability for everything I did and the messages relayed back and forth but do not apologize for it. I tried to be nice to her and like her. I even let her move onto my property and made dinner for her and her kids every night while my husband and brother worked night shifts. She never did the dishes or helped clean up. After she had her baby her and my brother moved into my parents house. After a couple of months they got their own place. I took in her dog because she wasn't a service animal and we agreed that I would be the one to keep her. They had left a lot of their belongings on my property. Her and her sister in law ended up talking and sorting their issues out but in the process I'm the one who got blamed for all the shit that my brothers GF had said about her sister in law. I told her sister in law that she could tell her I told her things but she went as far as telling her everything that was said. I was not the only person that told her what was said or what was going around I'm just the only person that was blamed for all of it. My brothers GF ended up yelling at me for it and saying that everything was my fault and the reason everyone, including her mom, was mad at her was because of me. I never once lied about anything I told the truth when I was asked what she was saying. My brothers GF ended up cutting me off and I did the same because I was over all the drama that she brought everywhere she went. I still had contact with my brother. One night I had gotten a call from my brother that him and his GF had a huge fight and he needed helping getting all of his stuff out of the apartment. I packed up my kids and took them with me to help him pack up all of his stuff from her house. When I arrived my mom was there talking to the GF on the couch trying to calm her down cause she was crying and freaking out. At the time she was babysitting someone else's kid and that kid was crying. She was just ignoring him and having a little self pitty party on the couch with my mom. I ended up picking up that baby and comforting him and then handing him to the GF to help my brother finish packing. My brother had asked me to get garbage bags under the sink to pack his stuff in. As we were packing I had to get more bags but when I went to get more there was none. The Gf had taken them and hidden them. When we finally finished the Gf started freaking out and yelling at my brother and then yelled at me. I flipped out and tried to fight her but was pulled out by my brothers friend, not my best move but she was just yelling at me and getting closer to me. The GF ended up posting on Facebook about what happened accusing me of stealing her makeup and clothes, I have my own makeup and gave her half the stuff she has and we aren't the same size in clothes, and leaving the door wide open for her kids to freeze. Her kids were upstairs in their room no where near the door that we kept closed unless we were taking stuff out of the house. Fast forward and she is claiming I'm keeping all her stuff from her including the items she left on my property from when they moved in and keeping her dog from her. I told him that she isn't getting the dog back cause she surrendered the dog to us and she is more than welcome to come and get her stuff of my property and we don't want her stuff on our property, it's been a year and it's still on my property. She even called the cops on my parents for because they wouldn't give her her stuff out of their storage container right before the cops showed up she was screaming and yelling at my parents and as soon as a cop showed up she just started crying and saying they won't let her get her stuff. My parents told her that she could have her stuff back when they get back the phone that my parents gave her cause she broke hers. They were still paying on the phone and asked that she return it so that they wouldn't get charged she never did and ran the phone bill up to 1500. My brother decided to fix things with her and asked us to give the dog back again. At first we refused but in the end we decided to give her back to be the bigger person my husband ASKED in return, we never forced her to do it and we were already planning on giving the dog back. that his GF publicly apologize to my family about what she said about us. She ended up posting on Facebook again apologizing. That is when we told my brother we want nothing to do with them. We were over all the drama and the blame game. She tried to tarnish our reputation and lie about the kind of people we were. Now my brother is saying that we screwed him over and we owe his GF an apology for "making" her publicly apologize on Facebook just to get her dog back. We still have her stuff on our property and the RV and one of my brothers cars. My brother chose her over everyone in his life who has tried to help him. He only ever contacts my parents when he wants or need something. So AITA for cutting him off after all the drama and his GF trying to make us out to be bad people? Sorry for the long post. I can clarify or answer questions if needed. It's kind of all over the place.

``` In shadows cast by the moon’s soft glow (1) Where desire whispers, passion will grow (2) A dance of hearts in the night's deep thrust (3) Lust's flame ignites, consuming all, we combust (4)
"Where desire whispers, passion will grow," (2) A secret shared in the moonlit throw (5) As stars bear witness, a celestial lust (6) Lust's flame ignites, consuming all, we combust (4)
"A dance of hearts in the night's deep thrust," (3) A symphony of longing, in shadows, we trust (7) Two souls entwined, forbidden, yet just (8) Lust's flame ignites, consuming all, we combust (4)
"In shadows cast by the moon’s soft glow," (1) A clandestine meeting, an allure to show (9) A journey of senses, where inhibitions adjust (10) Lust's flame ignites, consuming all, we combust (4) ```
In this glosa, each of the four lines of the opening stanza (copla) is followed by a stanza (decima) that expands on one of the lines, maintaining the rhyme scheme and ending with the borrowed line. The borrowed lines are from the first stanza and serve as the anchor for the subsequent stanzas.

Some background. We had a massive fight a while ago because she put up a story and a bunch of guys flirted with her, she then texted me the next day telling me she felt guilty because she said she was receptive to the flirting.
I asked for screenshots and sure enough this guy was heavily flirting and instead of dropping the conversation or telling him she has a boyfriend she kept the conversation going and was in her own words "receptive to his advances" she didn't flirt back per se, but she laughed and joked with him while he was telling her how cute and hot she was, how he wanted to hug her.. I showed my friend the texts and he said he would consider breaking up with her over it. I lost a lot of trust that day.
Since then she seems to be getting close with a male co-worker. She has started walking home with him. They live in the same direction, but she used to take the bus. Walking with him adds 20 minutes at the end of her commute. She works insane shifts sometimes 10, 12 hour days and sometimes 7 days in a row and is often exhausted after work, so she must really enjoy their walks if she would rather walk 20 extra minutes instead of getting the bus home.
She tells me how funny he is and he is really nice. Every time she drops his name I feel a sting of jealousy and insecurity. Up until now I ignored it as paranoia, but now she asked if she can go to his house, the two of them to practice guitar for a party they will be playing at. Its not an official band thing, its a very casual party and they both just want to play some music for everyone.
When me and her were flirting before we got together we used to spend time after work like those two seem to do now, she loved me for my sense of humour, she thinks he is funny, and we discussed me coming over to her house for her to teach me guitar as a date. I see so many parallels between us getting together and her relationship with him. We also met at her work, I have since quit.
She also volunteered to do extra shifts at a festival with him because she is "curious about the festival." It would be just the two of them working together at the festival, there may be alchohol available too I don't know.
Again if she is so tired all the time is her curiosity about a festival enough to make her take on more work? Or is she curious about something else. Like her co worker..
She also told me before that one of her exes "stole her" from her previous ex.. She justified it be explaining how that ex was really not there for her in a lot of ways blah blah blah.
Well she was complaining that I'm not around enough and she feels as though I'm not there for her enough because I'm so busy with my masters. We had a huge fight about it because I was seeing her maybe 3 or 2 times a week and saw my friends once in 3 months because I was so busy but she felt I was not making her a priority..
I'm going over to hers today and I think I'm going to tell her I'm not comfortable with it but I'm not sure.
Should I express this to her? Or let her go to his house ?
Tl;dr - Gf seems to be getting close with male co-worker and asked me if she can go to his house to play guitar together 1 on 1, I'm feeling very insecure about it and don't know what to do.

So I've been in a relationship with this amazing guy for the last five months. My dating history is kind of intense; I was in a three year incredibly codependent relationship where I gradually lost all sense of self and independence. I buried my career and life disappointments into the relationship - which was good while it lasted - but then when I started to regain my sense of self my ex turned against me. We broke up, and six months later he passed away. Nearly two years after that I met my current bf.
Here's the thing: I am now very independent, and I have clear goals for what I want my future to look like. I learned from my past mistakes, and my attachment to my bf is genuine, it's not out of a need to fill any sort of void. He is a wonderful addition to my life, and he understands me in ways nobody could. I am a rock to him as well, we've had each other's backs already through some really tough situations. I love him so much, and we both work on making the relationship as healthy as possible. Especially on my end I try not to project any of my previous toxic patterns on him, since I am the first serious partner he's ever had. I sometimes fear if I slide into any unhealthy patterns that he would not object to it, since he was never in a (romantically) unhealthy relationship before and doesn't understand the warning signs as well as I do. I do communicate those fears to him, since my past experiences make me somewhat insecure about the effect I am having on him. I wish to only ever put smiles on his face and contribute positively to his life, and he reassures me that he has never been happier.
However, lately I've been feeling like maybe our love languages are just different... Or maybe he's just unaware of certain aspects of relationships in general. I have always loved the idea of morning/good night texts, but I rarely ever receive them from him. We talked about it once, and he said mornings are just really busy for him. Also more often than not he just dozes off at night, rarely making the actual decision to go to bed. I wasn't bringing this up as a complaint in any way, I just brought it up in a way to understand him better. He apologized at the end, but I told him to take it back and made it clear that I was not annoyed. He did say he will text more often (he's generally a horrible texter) and we left it at that.
Now my main insecurities in relationships right now is that I don't really trust my previous experiences to judge what to expect. I know that every person is different, and that no relationship is like the other. But as a result of a relationship where I gave too much of myself and received too much in return, I lost my confidence in setting my expectations, and knowing what to ask for - which leads me to have conversations where I understand more about my partner, but never ask for any accommodation to any specific needs I might have. I do enjoy him being his true spontaneous self, but I have lately been feeling... unsatisfied? Disappointed? Somewhere in between? Especially after I sent a very warm, heartfelt, long text message one night which he completely ignored, until I saw it and mentioned it to him. Apparently he wanted to reply in person but forgot to. I called him out on it and asked him next time to send any form of reply, any acknowledgement that the message mattered, that it was received and felt.
Don't get me wrong: he is simply wonderful, he is caring and warm and goofy and incredibly funny. We get each other so well, and I know that this is not out of him not caring. I'm just wondering: do I have the right to state it as a request that he texts me more often and pay more attention when I text him? Or am I sliding back into codependent territory?

Considerations on Sexual Immorality, Gender Identity, and my friends Non-Denominational Church.
A good friend of mine from a fairly conservative evangelical background is considering becoming a pastor at his non-denominational church. As part of the evaluation process, they asked him to write a paper on these topics that he is not an expert on.
He asked for my opinion and I offered to share it online to solicit constructive criticism, notes of encouragement, and or reading recommendations on these topics.
I believe his goal is to be faithful to the scriptures, loving to those outside the church, and challenging to those inside the church, as most of us could do better.
What he wrote is in the quotation marks below.
“1: Scope of the Issue
Sexual immorality has become a besetting and ubiquitous issue in our culture and in our churches. While many aspects of it are not novel or unique to this time and have clear scriptural input, there are others that bring challenges to our church for which we don’t have obvious precedent. The main point of these comments is to try and answer three questions with some degree of specificity: (1) how do we make ourselves a place where people who do not know Christ will feel welcome to come and learn of Him regardless of where they come from, (2) how do we pastorally care for people who have come in to the church with pre-existing circumstances related to sexual immorality, and (3) how do we equip our members to represent Christ to those in their lives that are dealing with these issues. We want to do this in a way that does not “walk a tight rope” or compromise to appease, but honors Scripture in its commands to both show compassion and exhort and correct. We must recognize that every individual circumstance is unique, and many will require careful and prayerful consideration, but this is meant to give a framework for that consideration.
2: Scriptural Basis for Corporate Response
There are many references we can point to that discuss and define sexual immorality throughout Scripture and many of these will be used below as we consider specific examples and situations. Let us start, however, by looking at passages that deal with corporate response rather than individual sin. It is clear that the Corinthian church had significant issues in this area, and much of Paul’s first letter was devoted to it. In chapter 5, Paul states that when sexual immorality is discovered in the church we should “mourn” over it and “not to associate with immoral people.” Importantly, he also makes clear in vv. 9-13 that these comments only apply to those “who bears the name of brother.” He explicitly writes, “not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world…for what have I to do with judging outsiders?” This is key in informing our response to those who are not members of the church. If it is our desire to see sinners come through our doors and come to know our Savior through our ministry, then we must be welcoming, accepting them where they are. This is not to say we hide or compromise the biblical position, but it is not an issue on which we want to filter people at the door. There are three categories of people in sexual sin that we need to form a response for. First, those just coming to the church who have not committed to it – these should be treated the same as any we are reaching out to with Christ’s love. They need Jesus, not behavioral change. Next, those who have recently joined the church but have pre-existing sexual sin patterns. This can and should be addressed with patience, dignity, and love. There are often many sin areas in the life of a new believer, and it is prudent to discern how and when to address each of them. Lastly, those who have been members in the church for some amount of time and fall into sexual sin. This is the group that Paul is primarily addressing in 1 Corinthians. While sex within marriage is a private issue, sexual sin cannot be a taboo topic. It needs to be addressed regularly and clearly. We need close enough relationships within the church that such problems do not fester in the dark. We must avoid the typical church pattern to vilify the first group, never see the second group, and pretend the third group doesn’t exist until it all blows up in scandal. May it never be.
3: Consistency Issue
There is a tendency in our Christian culture to treat some sexual sins as worse than others. Like the Corinthians, some things we seem to have accepted as just ubiquitous parts of our culture. Knowing the prevalence of promiscuity and fornication among teens and single adults and usage of pornography even within the church, we tend to address these as issues of indwelling sin, similar to anger or fear of man, with offers of accountability and understanding when someone falls. By contrast, when it comes to homosexuality or adultery, it is often a church discipline issue. We view homosexual marriage as a major problem, but remarriage after a non-biblical divorce is rarely addressed. These inconsistencies lead to stigmatization and polarization and should have no place in the church. The criterion for escalation should be unrepentance, not the nature of the sexual sin. It is clear from 1 Corinthians that all should be taken seriously, but none should be vilified above others.
4: Culture and Identity
The major underlying problem with many of the sexual sin and gender issues is that they have come to be culturally bound up with people’s identities. This is not a new phenomenon and is not unique to this issue. As far back as Acts 19, you see people becoming “enraged” because Paul had threatened the Ephesians’ cultural identity as worshipers of Artemis. People continue to find their primary identities in their employment, hobbies, sports teams, or families rather than Christ. None of these should be accepted, but none should be reviled either. If a person does not know Jesus, they are dead. How they identify themselves is of no concern. Once they have been made alive, they can be taught that “whose” they are is more important than “who” they are. All identity outside of Christ is not sinful, but if it takes paramount importance, it may become so. A person who recognizes a tendency toward same sex attraction may label themselves as gay or lesbian. This should not be considered a sin issue unless it becomes, for them, their defining characteristic or leads to sinful actions. We should recognize the difficulty of this struggle and support such a person rather than get hung up on labels. There must be clear distinction between identifying same sex attraction and engaging in homosexual behavior. These should be the guiding principles underlying everything that follows are regards individual cases.
5: Public Facing Information, Guests, and New Attendees
Considering what we have discussed, and Paul’s assertion in 1 Corinthians 5 that we ought to reserve judgment on sexual immorality to those we call brother, I would submit that public facing information regarding the church (i.e. website, app, etc) should not publish a position on sexual immorality, marriage, and gender identity. Doing so effectively places the filter at the door so that people who do not know Christ may be turned away from it. This is not tantamount to tacit approval. In appropriate contexts within the church, these topics should still be discussed and addressed, but I do not believe it is consistent with a biblical treatment of unbelievers to place it in a public facing forum. If we have guests or new regular attendees who appear to be engaged in a cohabitating or fornicating relationship, a homosexual relationship, or other sexual sin, this should not be a priority to address unless we have discerned that they are believers and join the church. Even then, it is important to draw a distinction between someone who deals with same-sex attraction and someone who engages in homosexual behavior. The next seven points are meant to discuss, in broad terms, how we should address those who join the church with pre-existing relationships or identity issues:
6: Promiscuity, Cohabitation – Hebrews 13:4, 1 Cor 7:1-2, Ex 22:16
Much of the biblical discussion on promiscuity is by inference. Clearly, sex was meant to be inseparably linked to marriage and outside of that context should be considered immoral. For those who join the church already in a sexual relationship who are unmarried we should apply Exodus 22:16 and encourage them to marry as soon as possible. If they do not wish to marry, they should be encouraged to separate. Paul acknowledges in 1 Cor 7:2 that marriage is the best remedy for “temptation to sexual immorality.”
7: Adultery, Divorce and Remarriage – Matt 5:32, Matt 19:9, 1 Cor 7:10-11
This issue is given much more explicit biblical instruction but is often glossed over in our Christian culture due to the messy landscape of divorces and remarriages. In cases where non-biblical divorce has occurred, if reconciliation is possible, this should be pursued. If reconciliation is impossible because one or more parties have remarried, it would not be sensible to divorce again in order to achieve reconciliation. The principle to apply here, I believe, is from 1 Cor 7:17-24 summarized in verse 20: “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.” This is not an ideal circumstance, but it is the best way forward in an imperfect world. Of note, polygamy was common in the culture of the early church, and while not ideal, was accepted by the church, as evidenced by the qualifications for elder to be “a husband of but one wife.” We have polygamous cultures even within our local community and if they came to Christ, we should not counsel them to divorce all but one wife and thus disrupt their social structure. It is not ideal and would disqualify them from eldership, but they should remain as they are. Whether marriage after unbiblical divorce in the past disqualifies a man from eldership is a case-by case question for the eldership.
8: Pornography, Sensuality, and Lust – Lev 18:6-18, Matt 5:28
As mentioned above, use of pornography has reached a high saturation point within our culture and within our church. While once thought of as simply a male issue, there is a growing trend toward gender parity in pornography usage. It is an issue that should be discussed with some frequency within our church. For those that join the church and view pornography regularly, it needs to be made clear that while the world has largely destigmatized it, it is still sexual immorality. Furthermore, this isn’t just limited to nudity and pornography, but any sensuality that leads to looking at someone “with lustful intent” is the heart equivalent of adultery according to Matt 5:28. In our culture, it is not possible to avoid such things by just turning away. We need to address the heart issues of idolatry, selfishness, and satisfaction in Christ. Practically, how should we deal with those who have on-going struggles with pornography, sensuality and lust? Should this preclude them from eldership? From deaconship? Taken strictly, this would preclude nearly all men from eldership. These require individual evaluation from the elders, but a guiding principle should be, if the person is repentant and there is evidence of growth in their life, we should consider more responsibility and continued discipleship.
9: Homosexuality – Lev 18:22, Lev 20:13, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:8-11
From the above references and others, it is evident that homosexual behavior is sexual sin. We cannot equivocate on that point. As we have discussed above, if a person who is already a believer and in the church and struggles with same sex attraction, we should approach them as we would handle anyone who is sexually attracted to someone to whom they are not married. If such a person decides that homosexuality is not sinful and begins sexually immoral activity, we should deal with them in the same way as any member who falls into unrepentant sin and go through the processes of correction and, if necessary, of church discipline. It is important that we draw a distinction between same sex attraction and homosexual behavior. We can do tremendous harm by demonizing same sex attraction and creating a taboo around it. A person who is struggling to abstain from homosexual behavior should be supported and encouraged. I believe Paul’s strong statements about not associating with sexually immoral people applies to those who remain unrepentant. Much more nuanced is the issue of how we address those that join the church already in a homosexual relationship. What about the married homosexual couple who join the church with their adopted child? Should we break up their family? I believe, in this case, the same principle should apply as to those who have gone through an unbiblical divorce in the past. We should apply 1 Cor 7:20: “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.” We can recognize that this is not ideal, but it is the best we can do in a fallen world just as we do with someone who is married after unbiblical divorce. Whether should apply to a homosexual couple in a long term committed relationship who are not legally married would be an individual discussion with the elders. Again, these are nuanced cases that will need individual prayer, discussion, and discernment. I believe a great deal more patience is called for when a new believer joins the church that has a history or present reality of homosexuality, even if they are unrepentant at first, believing that homosexuality is not sinful, than we would demonstrate to a person who has been in the church for a period of time and then decides to pursue a homosexual relationship.
10: Bisexuality – Heb 13:4
Bisexual attraction is no more or less of an issue than anyone who finds that they are sexually attracted to someone other than their spouse. This is not a rare or unique circumstance, even within the church. Someone who is practicing bisexuality is, by definition, not confining sex to the marriage bed, and this, therefore, qualifies as sexual immorality. The issue, here again, is one of identity and cultural acceptance. If a person “identifies as bisexual,” the real issue is not the bisexuality, but the fact that they identify themselves primarily by their sexual desires, and not by Christ. It would be equally a problem if they “identified as heterosexual” and that was seen as their defining characteristic. If such a person were to join the church, our priority should be in helping them see their identity in Christ rather than focusing on renouncing their sexual preference.
11: Transgenderism/Non-binarism – Psalm 139: 13-15
It should be noted that the next two points should not be considered in the category of sexual immorality, but as they are connected to the same cultural moment will be discussed here. It should further be remarked that transgenderism is a modern issue with no direct reference in Scripture. It is a challenging issue that often falls prey to oversimplification and scapegoating. It is not sufficient to simply state that a person should identify with their born gender. There are those born with ambiguous genitalia and those born with sex chromosome abnormalities such that “born gender” is not necessarily accurate. These occur with a frequency of 1 in 448 births on average which is not particularly rare. The majority of people who consider themselves to be transgender do not fall into these categories, but the fact remains that these categories exist. Unless we plan to embark on genetic testing, we must be careful how we assert someone’s gender assignment. Furthermore, we must acknowledge that much of the gender confusion in our culture is due to a distortion of biblically accurate masculinity and femininity in our culture of which the church has been widely supportive for generations. Many transgender and non-binary individuals consider themselves so because they do not fit into the traditional boxes our culture has created for the genders. The church can start by recognizing that these boxes are incorrect. We can also acknowledge that gender differences and roles are far less important than most human cultures perceive. Christ himself challenged many gender norms in his ministry and Paul maintains “…there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28b) It is much more difficult to recognize this issue as a sin issue than many of the above concerns. If someone wishes to be addressed by different pronouns than they once did or dress differently than they once did, this does not amount to immorality. Once again, this can be an idolatrous identity issue if the person sees it as the central characteristic of their lives. There is often an inherent pride in asserting that such a person does not feel they fit in the body created for them, but if they come to love Jesus and understand and believe that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made” then this issue may become moot. Whether or not they revert to dressing differently or using pronouns they did when they were younger is largely immaterial. This also addresses the issue of people who may have undergone permanent physical changes. While we should not endorse such modification if it is being considered, there is no reason to reverse such a thing in order to return to a base state. We must recognize that this is a group that has a high propensity toward mental health concerns, instability, and suicidality. They need love, support and prayer, not scapegoating and extra-biblical expectations of conforming to a cultural norm. We must further note that this group as well as the homosexual group have often experienced psychological and even physical harm from others in our culture, sometimes in the name of Christ. We must foster an environment of champions physical and psychological safety for these people.
12: Asexuality – 1 Cor 7:25-38
Asexuality also should not be considered sexual immorality. There is, in fact, wide support in Paul’s letters such as in 1 Cor 7 for people, if they are able, to remain unmarried and be “anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.” We tend to champion the model of the nuclear family in our Christian culture, but Paul sees chaste singleness as a better way. There should be no pressure from the church to make sure that single people pair off and get married because it is expected of them. As this state has been culturally identified with the LGBTQIA movement, it is seen on the same spectrum as the sexual immorality and gender issues discussed above, but it is not. It can still fall prey to the same issue of an idolatrous identity as some of the above issues, but it need not be so.
13: Glass Ceiling
In the event that God sees fit to bring people from these subgroups into our church, there would inevitably be a glass ceiling. The question is at what point. The four logical points are: regular attender, member, deacon, and elder. Regardless of their background or position, all should be welcome to be a regular attender. It is also clear, from the biblical requirements for eldership, that on-going problems or engagement in any of the sexual sins would disqualify them from that post. The middle two are less clear. I would submit that the bar for membership should be very low. This step, in my opinion, is when they would “bear the name of brother” and not before. Even if they disagree about the sinful nature of homosexuality, this should not disallow them from becoming members as long as they agree to submit to the churches position and not cause division. Allowing them to become members gives us the pastoral authority to speak into their lives, and we would hope that over time the Spirit would work in their hearts to convince them of the truth. Putting such a person in a deacon role would probably not be wise but would need to be evaluated prayerfully on a case-by-case basis. The difficulty here is that, while a position on homosexuality is not a salvific issue and should not be considered a core doctrine in the same way as the deity of Christ, for example, it is a sin issue. There is a limit to how far we can “agree to disagree” and still uphold our duty to root out sin in our midst. Once again, we should also distinguish between a struggle with same sex attraction and engagement in homosexual behavior when we consider our response. There is also a glass ceiling when it comes to marriage. While I believe we should not break up existing homosexual marriages, we should not participate in creating them. The marriage covenant between a man and woman was created, in part, to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church (Eph 5). This should not be co-opted to excuse or normalize immorality.
14: Nuance and Edge Cases
The above outline is by no means meant to be exhaustive or definitive. It is meant to provide a lens, supported by scripture, through which we can view these issues and consider corporate and pastoral responses. It should inform how we view the people that walk through the door from a wide range of backgrounds and how we equip those in our church to be Christ’s ambassadors to those in our community. Every person and circumstance, history and baggage will be different, and any non-nuanced position would be inherently evil. I pray we have many opportunities to talk, think and pray through specific situations that God would bless us with the chance to be a part of. What an honor it would be to be used to reach into broken lives like these with the Gospel of Grace.
15: Action Steps
As we consider practical and philosophical ways of responding to the above, I believe we should start from a position of corporate repentance. If we wish to truly reach out and touch the lives of broken people in need of a Savior who live a life of same sex attraction or gender dysphoria, we need to begin by recognizing that a great deal of harm, emotional and physical, has been inflicted on this group by the Church for generations. There are homeless people living in our area who were kicked out of their homes by parents holding a Bible. There are those who have been subjected to horrific methods that amount to torture under the guise of “Conversion Therapy” from Christian organizations. The only “conversion” we should concern ourselves with is to a regenerate heart. Attempting to change someone’s sexual attraction is very much beside the point. We cannot hope to be a place where such people can hear about Jesus unless they feel safe to enter our doors. We must also fight the tendency to consider sin in this area as something worse than others, even in non-Christians. James 2 says “…For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it….So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” As we consider corporate and pastoral responses to the argument above, we must start by removing our own planks and repenting for the historical actions of the Church.
Practical steps that we could consider taking would include: removing the statements from the website about marriage and sexuality, especially directly under our Core Beliefs. Again, this is not meant to hide or equivocate on the truth, but not to set such a barrier before someone even walks through our door. Secondly, we should consider how to address these topics within the church. A Sunday morning sermon is not ideal as it is time limited and a unidirectional conversation. A small group course format would be a consideration. We need to equip parents and family members of adolescents, teens, and adults with language to talk about these things in loving, humble, God-honoring ways. In the longer term, we need to consider how we can make our church a place where people would feel comfortable inviting friends and family who look, think and act differently than we do. We need to find a way of projecting safety and inclusion even in our public facing information. This isn’t a balancing act where we must make it clear early and often that we “love the sinner but hate the sin” as the saying goes. We just need to love the sinner. Dealing with the sin can come later God-willing. A third application point is to be mindful of what we say and what we allow to be said without being checked. Certainly, joking at the expense of those who are dealing with these issues is unacceptable, but we also need to work to avoid getting dragged in to pseudo-political discussions on bathroom issues, sports issues or other divisive concerns that have no bearing on the church.
I recognize that these proposals have the potential to divide the church. There are some who may leave the body over these sorts of changes. I would argue that it is our responsibility to them as well as to the unreached in our community to have those discussions and risk some of them leaving over it. These are not all things we should change overnight but after ample opportunities for discussions and prayer.
16: Conclusion – Mark 2:15-17
At its core, these are not issues of who someone loves, sexual attraction, or even specific sex acts. The core is idolatry and identity. When acceptance by others, self-determination, or physical pleasure become the central force driving our lives then we have become idolators. Though our idols take on different shapes, the struggles in this space are shared by all. Whether you are identified by your profession, your family, or your gender identity, you are not being identified by your Master. Building fences around or within the church because someone sins in a different way than us cannot be allowed. Making the excuse that we are somehow “protecting our children” by shielding them from people in our community who desperately need a Savior will not show our children who Jesus is. Within the church, we cannot be afraid to “speak the truth in love.” We need not and cannot shy away from sin in the church, but we must recognize that the Spirit works in each of our lives. Often this happens over a period of time. We should be prepared to walk alongside our brothers and sisters in this journey for as long as they need.
There is a significant correlation between this community and their relationship with religious groups, and the “tax collectors and sinners” that Jesus sought out in His ministry and their relationship with the religious leaders of the day. Our heart should reflect His. Jesus responded: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) If our church was filled with transgender people and gay families that loved Jesus, God would be glorified.”
Thank you in advance for any constructive criticism, notes of encouragement to and or reading recommendations on these topics that I can pass along.

Per title - super long shot here!
Hey all, I have a wheelchair access ticket + my carer ticket but missed out on blue badge parking at the London Stadium for 22nd June 2024 show.
Any chance anyone is selling their parking if I longer able to attend, or know if I can contact the Stadium for any last minute cancellations? Kinda weird that they have limited accessible tickets but apparently even more limited parking for those people with them tickets!
Thanks in advance!

Hello,
I had my lasik on 08/31/23. My eyesight was -7.5 OU prior to the procedure. Now I just had my appointment for 9 months post op and they are saying I can get glasses to help me drive at night and the prescription they gave me was -1.5 OU. I am very disappointed given it hasn’t been a year yet since I had the procedure and they are offering me glasses again which is what I was avoiding in the first place when I chose to get lasik.
I don’t notice any major vision changes, sometimes it does get hard to read PowerPoint presentations from far away or reading signs at the store. I thought the blurry vision that fluctuates was normal so I didnt think my vision was getting worse. Other than that i love my vision. I am just feeling sad that my procedure didn’t seem to last that long and may get worse through time.
Anybody else had the same experience?? Any thoughts or tips? Thank you in advance!!

I went to guruvaoor may 15 because it was maasapiravi I'm visiting there after many years. And for the people who visited there at that date will knows about the crowd at that day there
I started standing in the queue on 6:45 am and was able to pray at 11:30. So we all know mobile phones are not allowed in temple, so I had to stand there for that much hours counting every minutes. So as like every boys I was also checking on the collection and i layed my eyes on a girl standing 10 - 15 people ahead of me in the Q And after few minutes later the noticed me that I was looking her. After few minutes first eye contact happened
It continued for a long period. I was looking at her not creeply on every zig zag turns. And she was checking me if I'm really looking her. Time passed by at a certain moment I felt like 'asthikyu pidichu mone'
There will a moment at the temple we will be gathered in front of the temple not as a Q She was infornt of me but I was still incapable of starting a communication. But her facial expressions was made me clear that she knows that I fell for her. And the time goes on we entered the temple, then she was bit close to me. Still the crowd and pushing made it impossible to speak.
And the last option was to pray that to please make another opportunity to meet her along with the wishes to help me clear my n supplies.
Never saw her after that
Searched for her a bit ( I was with my parents)
In my 22 years of life never experienced a crush like that I done my part of reaserch by checking ig story on location tag and that was a dead end.
Enthayalum krishnande oro kalikale Also I even thought that if it was a njane kandollu njan maathram kandollu moment.
And if she's reading this ( 0.00001% probability) I was the guy wearing turquoise coloured shirt.

https://www.halowaypoint.com/news/combat-workshop-survive-the-undead
Header Image <sup>[Imgur]</sup>
“Survive the Undead is an all new, endless, round-based horde mode. Made with Halo Infinite's Forge tool, it takes full advantage of Halo's sandbox and gives players a PvE experience they haven't seen in Halo before.” – The Forge Falcons
Two multiplayer Spartans running from the enemy in Survive the Undead. <sup>[Imgur]</sup>
When your friend group is all strongly Forge-inclined and talented, you wind up with something like the Forge Falcons. Entirely community driven, this crew dreams big and makes magic happen with the power of Halo Infinite's Forge. If you can dream it up, they can make it happen—they are absolute wizards with Forge! Their hard work has earned them a well-deserved spot in matchmaking.
Objective: SURVIVE
The Forge Falcons’ exciting PvE experience, Survive the Undead, arrives in the Combat Workshop today! For the next two weeks, you’ll be able to jump in and put your survival skills to the test in this 100% community created mode.
Two Spartans facing off against an Elite in Survive the Undead <sup>[Imgur]</sup>
Survive the Undead meshes the Halo Firefight experience with the fan-favorite COD Zombies mode resulting in fast paced, intense, and sometimes spooky gameplay. As we learned in Reach, the objective is to “survive,” and you want to do that by any means necessary. Earn points to buy upgrades, grab perks, or chance it all on a mystery box. Maybe it’ll help, maybe it’ll set you back—the thrill is in the risk!
As a note, while waiting to respawn, make sure to wiggle your sticks and keep your thumbs ready for action.
The Combat Workshop is your one-shop stop to check out work-in-progress maps, modes, and other new experiences. This playlist allows us to test out new modes (BTB Heavies), new features (new networking model), and get feedback at scale before taking that information back and iterating on it. From there, we can address issues and community feedback to get things ready for primetime matchmaking.
Spartans standing in front of a white board denoting the Combat Workshop. <sup>[Imgur]</sup>
This playlist will be up for two weeks and we want your feedback. Check back later for the link to the survey, or follow the QR code that will appear in-game later this week.
If you experience any technical issues, please be sure to report them to us by using the Halo Support site at aka.ms/HaloSupport.
How long can you survive the undead?
This post was made by a script written and maintained by the Halo mod team to automatically post blogs from Halo Waypoint. If you notice any issues with the text output or think this was posted by mistake, please message the mods.

This is my 1st time posting to Reddit so please be kind!
I (25F) from the UK, am looking to pursue new friendships after coming out of 5 year relationship with someone I thought I spend my life with 7 and that relationship did some damage but I digress.
I'm really socially awkward so actually meeting people face to face sounds like a nightmare to me so I thought I'd give Reddit a try after being a long time lurker.
Likes & Interests: (Though I like learning about new things as well) ● Singing (and Music in general) ●Baking ●Doctor Who (I will talk your ear off if you let me) ●Animation (Movies & TV) ●Cats ● I love DnD but I don't know how to talk about to people, unless it's Critical Role lol
That's all I can think of at the moment so those are the main things that comprise my personality. So please drop me a message if you want to connect! 😊

I live in Bergen Aan Zee due to the housing crisis me and my wife had found a nice house that we rent for about 1200 euros per month. The first job I got which i started about a year and a half ago is with Thuisbezorgd as a hub driver in Amsterdam (you show up to their sloterdjyk hub, they give you an e Bike and you start your shift) My main issue atm is the effort required to do this job while living in Bergen /Alkmaar.. I basically have to cycle 30 plus minutes to Alkmaar station with a flooding bike then commute via NS to Sloterdjyk every damn day (which is heel duur).. this commute is physically exhausting and both existentially, after a long hard day doing deliveries in the rain, i still have to travel so long to get back, and most usually my shifts go overtime.. this is also affecting my marriage as by the time im home im physically exhausted to even consider time with my wife.. the only reason i do it like this is because its the first job ive had in this country and im so scared to even consider another option due to how expensive it is to live here without having a solid plan b.. should i try transfer to alkmaar ? I'd have to rent my own bike as there is no hub in Alkmaar .. thank you in advance for the help

Hi all! We (3 adults) are planning a half day at HS - 1PM until 8PM. We have been to the Star Wars rides in California many times. I tried to input this plan in TouringPlans, but am getting some errors. I am staying on-site at GF so I think I can start making my LL/LL+ reservations at 7AM. We are going end of October and our half day HS will be on a Saturday and we are flying in that Saturday AM arriving at 10:30AM.
Rides we are aiming for are ROTR (ILL), Slinky, Smuggles, TS Mania, MMRR, and maybe Rock n Rollercoaster if time allows. We are prioritizing waiting in line the least.
7AM - Book LL for Slinky and hope for an afternoon time or keep modifying and ILL for ROTR.
Arrive at MCO at 10:30AM, uber to GF and check in/drop off bags, book 2nd ILL for MMRR
12:30 to 1PM arrive at HS, get Ronto Roasters for lunch, book 3rd LL for TS Mania
1-4PM Ride ILL/LL booked rides, explore the park, book LL for Rock n Rollercoaster (not a must) and single rider Smuggler's
4PM Oga's Cantina for a break and some drinks and snacks
5-7:30 Shop, explore, ride more rides if wait isn't too long or its a late LL return.
7:30 Head out of park for dinner at Flying Fish or Jaleo (do you prefer one or the other?)
Is watching Fantasmic worth it? Is it worth the dining package for VIP seating?
Thank you very much for your help. Feel free to poke holes in this plan as you like. Suggestions very much appreciated.

My father had purchased "Long Term Infrastructure Bonds" from "India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited" back in 2012 Series-5 . It seems that there was a Rs. 20000 exemption under Section 80CCF back then for these bonds.
The bonds were issued on 26/06/2012 and they matured recently on 31/03/2024 after 12 years. My dad has a certificate from IIFCL, so I'm assuming that these bonds are held in non-demat form.
The bond certificate has "Instructions" on the backside, which says:
7.4 Payment on Maturity, Redemption or Buyback:
The procedure for payment in maturity, redemption and buyback is set out below:
...
7.4.2: Bonds held in physical form:
The company may require the Consolidated Bond Certificate(s), duly discharged by the sole holder or all the joint-holders (signed on the reverse of the Consolidated Bond Certificate(s)) to be surrendered for redemption on Maturity Date and sent by the Bondholders by registered post with acknowledgment due or by the delivery to the Registrar to the Issue or Company or to such persons at such addresses as may be notified by the Company from time to time. Bondholders may be requested to surrender the Consolidated Bond Certificate(s) in the manner stated above, not more than three months and not less than one month prior to the Maturity Date so as to facilitate timely payment.
I have some questions:
Instructions quoted above say that I need to surrender the bond certificate 1-3 months before maturity. But the bond had matured. If I surrender now, would this delay cause any issues?
How should I surrender? Shall I send the certificate by postal mail? Or shall I visit their office (either IIFCL or registrar Karvy) and surrender in-person?
Anything else I need to take care of?
Thanks!