6th grade crct practice online

I’m a beginner myself, and almost all the scripts I’ve found online involve at least two characters. Acting for both characters just doesn’t seem to be cutting it. Do you happen to know anywhere I can find others to practice with? Like a discord for this purpose for instance? Thank you.

I'm trying to pick up German but there are so many different ways to learn nowadays, I'm kinda overwhelmed.
I've been looking at online courses like Babbel and Rocket Languages - anyone actually use those and did they help? Some of them seem pricey so I don't wanna waste money if they suck.
Also, what about apps? Duolingo, Babbel app, Clozemaster and others look super convenient for some quick practice here and there. But can you really get conversational just doing bite-sized app lessons?
Then there's the immersion method of watching German shows, movies, YouTubers to surround yourself with the language. Is that even doable for total beginners or will I just be completely lost?
I keep seeing ads for AI language tutors too. Has anyone tried that? Like how good can an AI really be for actual conversation practice compared to a human teacher?
Or maybe I should just buck up and take a real class somewhere. Does being in a classroom really make that much of a difference over self-study?

I'm using Allen Bradley PLC with Logix Designer. I'm programming a new machine, that has 18 identical programs. (program_01, program_02, etc). These program represent 18 identical stations on the machine.
If I make a few changes to one, I need to make those changes to all. Right now, the fastest way for me to do that is to make the change to one program, export that program, and then import it 17 times, incrementing the program number on each import.
This isn't a horrible method, but it can get tedious. It would be nice if I could simply, import many programs at once. Is there a trick to do this?
More Info. It isn't practical to have 18 instances of an AOI. Once production starts, maintenance will need online editing available to them, and the possibility exists for individual stations to develop uniqueness to them as time goes on, so not all programs will necessarily be identical in the future.

I am building up a 20" .223 Wylde AR-15. With price of ammo at an all time high I decided to start reloading my own for both blinking and target practice. I full length size my .223 brass with a Lee full sizing die. Question, is it worth it to full length size .223 with a Hornady Match grade die and a proper neck sizing bushing for neck tension. What I'm trying to get is better accuracy and thinking that neck sizing might be a step in that direction. Your thought would be appreciated.

Im kinda doing research on something and i was interested on how people who actually practice tarot and do tarot readings feel about it. Do you think that readings can be done over tiktok live or other impersonal sites? I get doing it online through zoom calls and what not, but do yall think that impersonal tarot card readings could work? Thank you so much in advance, i would love to hear your takes on this. Stay safe and take care of yourselves!

A common refrain I see on this sub is how BL is practically guaranteed from YSH. The general consensus seems to be that even if you're a really shaky applicant, ie. below median grades/maybe even near the bottom of your class, you can still land NYC BL at the very least so long as you show up to the interview and come off as a normal person (it might not be the fanciest/most prestigious firm or your first choice of firm/city but BL is BL). It seems that the only real chance of striking out is if you have terrible grades AND are a bad interviewer AND bid stupidly during OCI, like only going for the most competitive DC firms with below-median grades or something like that. I've even seen one person say that people at HLS get interview offers from firms before their grades are even published/sent to the recruiters. The employment data doesn't really provide a ton of insight on this since there's obviously a lot of self-selection out of BL in the T3 so I'm curious to know if people have any other evidence/anecdotes that support this pretty common perception of these schools, or if it's a bit exaggerated and there's still a real risk of striking out like at the other T14.

Original Post 3 Months Ago
I took over the course and I have to say, overall, it was a really good experience. It was an absolute massive amount of work trying to put together two, two hour weekly lectures. I was able to take 2-3 from prior presentations that I had done. I feel like I did a generally good job targeting it to undergrads when I'm use to working with grad students. As someone who has never taught a course (either graduate or undergraduate) I learned that I'm not bad at test creation. It had to be open book and open note given that it was being done online but making the answers multiple choice with multiple correct answers needed for any points made it a relatively fair assessment of their knowledge I hope. Grading paper took way longer and was sooooo much more tedious than I anticipated. Definitely see the benefit of doing just test or presentation based assessments. I have no idea how many were AI generated. They weren't flagged by TurnitIn at more than 10% or so. Probably too many A's given their actual knowledge but I'd rather err on that side given how little experience I have and the fact that they had a professor leave after several weeks and I can back up every deduction and where each score came from.
Teaching online was hard given only a couple would have their screens on but I felt that at least 5-10 out of the 30 or so in the class were paying attention. A few students reached out to thank me and there were a couple of good conversations in class and outside of class where it felt like I was able to give some good guidance. It felt great to be exposed to people just starting out on their career tracks. I'd like to do it in person but don't know if that's in the cards.
All in all, I'd do it again in the right circumstances (especially now that I have the lectures and tests already prepared). Really enjoyable overall. For the money, however, absolutely not worth it. I work a full time job already so for my side work, I charge appropriately. What I made from this class was approximately 10-12 hours of my billable time. Lots of respect to the full time professors out there. I know there are lots of problems facing academia (I've been following this sub now for a couple of months) and I have a much better idea about it. Anyways, I wanted to update the people who saw my last post and were probably shaking their head at what was, I acknowledge, a risky decision.

Recently I have been trying to teach myself deep-learning . I need some opinion or advice from pros . I have started to learn deep learning from this book "deep learning from scratch" by Seth Weidman . But I'm not understanding how should I practice . Should I just read the book and practice the given code or should I follow some additional tutorial from Youtube or other online platform. Also I need suggestion on Alexader Amini's deep learning course . Is this course beginner - friendly for me who literally have no basic idea of deep-learning ? Thanks in advance/

I wanted to share some of our failures and lessons learned while building our Webflow freelance practice.

1. Fail 1: Not taking Webflow seriously sooner - Basically, I've been discarding the idea going all in on Webflow bc I thought it would be a 'step back' in my career. I was very wrong.
2. Fail 2: Trying to skip a few steps ahead - Ads didn't work for us. Good old word of mouth did.
3. Fail 3: Making a customer happy at any cost - Don't undersell yourself, even if you're getting started. Scope the project as well as you can and stick to it.

But we also did a few things right I think:

1. Picking a business model that suits us - we have a subscription model. I know it get's hated on a lot, but for us it fits our needs. At least for the moment being.
2. Overdelivering - basically treat a $100 as a $1000 project.
3. Being active in the community - talk to people in the community, good things will follow.

I think it's a great time to be a Webflow (or web) developer. So many people around us are starting online businesses and they all need a website. We're here to serve them.

Hi everyone,
Long read ahead.
I wanted to share a bit about myself and ask for your insights on a topic that's been on my mind.
I'm a 31-year-old guy, happily married for two years to an amazing woman I dated for two years before tying the knot. We share our home with a small, mischievous cat. Life has been kind to us, and I feel incredibly fortunate.
I come from a humble background. My father worked hard to support our family of four, ensuring that my brother and I could attend a good school in Bhayandar, a suburb near Mumbai in Maharashtra (though I'm never quite sure if it's in Thane or Palghar district). Despite the financial constraints, my father prioritized our education, and I was able to go to reputed colleges for my higher studies.
I was always a book smart kid, consistently scoring good grades. Thanks to my father's support, I managed to complete my MBA from a tier-2 B-School without needing any student loans. At 23, I landed a job in management consulting straight out of B-school, which has been a significant turning point in my life. Financially, things have been stable, allowing me to save a decent amount and enjoy a comfortable life with my wife.
However, despite these blessings, there are a few things that keep me wide awake at night, and I will try to put them down here in some sort of structure:
Will I Ever Have Enough Money?
I know no amount of money is ever enough, but I also know that no matter how hard I work, I will never be able to afford a swanky apartment in Mumbai without plunging myself into massive housing debt. As a college kid, I would visit my affluent friend's farmhouse and dream of owning one myself. But that dream keeps drifting further away the more I earn. It feels frustrating, like no matter what I do, I will never be able to own a home I like in a city I love.
Having Kids
Being 31 now means I need to start thinking about a family. But the thought of having kids absolutely petrifies me. Beyond the medical expenses, supporting a child in a rapidly deteriorating world and ensuring they are safe, cared for, and have all their needs met seems so daunting that I can barely comprehend it.
Medical Emergencies
My parents are pushing towards 60 now. Although we have medical insurance, I always worry we are not prepared for medical emergencies. I constantly fear that if a medical emergency strikes my family, all my savings will be drained, and that thought worries me immensely. Plus I don't think I am emotionally in a state where I can become a carer.
Society in General
No matter the political, religious, or caste affiliations I have, I feel the Indian society in general is deteriorating. People are angrier, both online and in real life. Corruption and bureaucratic red tape are stifling. I have never dealt with a government official without paying a bribe, except when getting my passport made. My family and I can easily become collateral damage in someone's conflict. Recently, during the Ram temple inauguration, Mira Road saw a flurry of violence, and that’s where my parents stay. The absolute apathy of the progressive governments towards us is ridiculous, making it difficult for a tax-paying citizen to feel righted by the state while getting the bare minimum in return.
I know complaining is also a privilege, and I am aware that many are much less fortunate than I am. But I don’t want to compare. I just want to know from people here, who come from different backgrounds, income levels, and age groups—how do you cope? How do you wake up every day and think, "I must keep going for 30 more years" (in my case, as I assume I will work till 60), and hope to have made something worthwhile of my life by then so that I can have a few years of quiet before my time on this planet is done?
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this and how do you cope. Maybe there are more things that keep you up, do share.

As the title states, I currently have a 0% success rate out of 54 job applications. I've only had three interviews, two over the phone and one in-person, with no call backs or even a rejection email. My stats are below. I have also attached a screenshot of my current resume. It's a little blurry but it's still readable.
Applied: 54
Rejections: 19
Interviews: 3 (No offers, last interview was two weeks ago)
Not going to lie, I am kind of lost at the moment. I have no clue what to do going forward except keep applying with hope.
Possible reasons for no offers:

1. I am lacking finance job experience. I switched over to finance from neuroscience (pre-med) during my junior year of college. Internships didn't really matter for pre-med, and I didn't know that internships are one of the most important aspects of finance undergrads. That's on me, I should've done more research, but I can't change that now. My current internship is more data entry not really finance related. It was the only internship I could get so I thought that some experience was better than no experience.
2. No undergrad clubs or campus involvement. To be completely honest, I just did not have the energy nor desire to participate in clubs. I commuted to campus for classes and my commute was about 1.25 hours to and from campus. I usually got to campus around 8:30 am and didn't leave campus until around 5:00 pm. Once I got home, I had to study and do homework. I also worked part-time on days that I didn't have classes, averaging 24 hours per week.

Possible solutions for an offer:

1. Pursue a Master's. From the analytics I can see on LinkedIn, I am losing out on the majority of opportunities to master's and PhD holders (Yes, I am going for entry-level jobs and am shocked these guys are too). I have been accepted into an MSF program at a small university in Kentucky. It's not a well-known school at all, but it's pretty cheap and it's all online since I want to work to build experience and earn money. The total amount for the one I have been accepted to is ~$11k, compared to the University of Kentucky's ~$28k.
2. Pursue the CFA. I have been studying for the CFA but have not decided on an exam date. At this point, is it even worth going for?

My overall career goal is either fund management, financial analyst, investment analyst, or equity research. At this point in my job search, I will honestly take anything I can get. I would understand my struggle if I had a 2.8 GPA or only applied to mid-senior level positions, but I have a decent GPA of 3.64 and am only applying to entry-level roles that do not require a lot of experience. I am also very good at in-person interviews and personally feel that I nailed the (3) interviews I've had, which I studied and practiced for. I had some professors say we could expect to send out 100 applications before we got an offer, but I thought they were only half joking lmao. Naturally, I'm asking you all for help with the following questions:

1. Should I pursue a master's degree? MSF, MSACC, MBA?
2. Should I even pursue the CFA?
3. Should I look for internships to gain financial experience?
4. Should I add or omit anything to/from my resume?

Thank you all in advance.
https://preview.redd.it/ylcajd0pts1d1.jpg?width=456&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13258ac14b09abd80685e2e6169b3ac859b74e5e

PART 1:

 Every town has their own version of “The Boogeyman”. A monster, cryptid, phantom, whatever you want to call it, it’s all essentially the same thing- just a scary story they tell kids in an attempt to get them to behave. An urban legend is just a life lesson disguised as a horror story after all. For us folk living up in the tiny and once prosperous gold-mining town of Trillium, ours was known simply as The Locust Man. Now, let me start by saying, I realize how ridiculous that name must sound to you. “The Locust Man”?? Pftt…What’s he do, besides get stuck in the grill of someone’s pick-up truck. Destroy some crops? Oooh, he sounds real scary... yeah, I know. But yet, as I sit here today 20 years after the fact - a grown woman who’s wiser, stronger, and even more grounded in reality than she was at 12, I still hesitate to even write down that name. 

As a young child I had always thought it to be a little weird that our town was called Trillium, considering I had never seen a single one growing there. If you don’t know, a trillium is a small flower, usually white but they come in other color varieties as well, with three pedals and a bright yellow center. They sort of look like if you took a lily and tore off every other pedal playing “He loves me, he loves me not”. In school, about 2nd grade or so, we were taught everything about this elusive flower I’d never seen in real life, and told how proud our town was to be named after it. Trillium, Colorado was established in 1922 - A new town born in the wake of a great tragedy which befell the town that had previously sat in the same location. For us, and those that came before us, the trillium was supposed to be a symbol of hope. Knowing all that I know now, that sentiment almost makes me want to laugh - in a morbid way.

 Growing up in a small, mostly isolated town, there really wasn’t much for a kid to do. You’d have to drive 45 minutes to get to the closest mall and movie theater. The high school kids would usually all hang out at the roller rink downtown or at the old run-down burger joint called Slim’s that sat across it. But at that age, I wasn’t allowed to go hang out there by myself yet and for me, going with my parents tagging along wasn’t an option I was open to. My neighborhood was on a long dead end road leading up to a large patch of woods that separated the main part of town from the abandoned mine. The old trail the miners used was still accessible up until a point, and so me and the other kids from my street would hang out in those woods all the time. We had a “secret spot” which was, what we thought at the time, about half way through the woods, 10 steps away from a small shallow creek that pretty much ran the length of the area. Rain Creek, we called it. There was a small clearing there, and we had created our own little clubhouse using old milk crates as supports, half- broken wooden pallets as walls, along with some old lawn chairs one of the neighbors was throwing out one day. I made my contribution by bringing a tarp we had in our basement that served as the roof of our establishment. Our parents didn’t love the idea of five 10 to 12 year olds running around in the woods by ourselves, but as long as we stayed within earshot and made it back before the streetlights came on, they probably figured it was safer than us being across town galavanting unsupervised. 

It was me, Lacey, Devin, Mikey and Michelle. We were all best friends - pretty much inseparable, except the boys weren’t invited to the girls’ sleepovers and vise versa. Everyday after school, we’d get dropped off by the bus at the very beginning of our road, and it was a running joke between the Rain Street Gang (as we liked to call ourselves) for all of us to try and run off the bus as quickly as possible, while me, Lacey and Devin would all yell in unison ‘Last two home are some rotten eggs!!’, as Mikey and Michelle tried to push past us to get a head start. The aforementioned two were siblings, and lived in the very last house on our row right next to the woods, so they’d always get home last, regardless of their efforts. Although, the year that Mikey got a pair of Heelys for Christmas he finally got his edge over the rest of us, leaving Michelle to be the lone “rotten egg” until the next summer when one of his wheels broke off. The whole point of it all was just to get home and get our chores and homework done as fast as possible, so we could meet up at Mikey and Michelle’s house with enough daylight left to make our trek into the woods and back - together as a group. All five of us had made a pact to never visit the clubhouse without all members present, although us girls always had a sneaking suspicion that the boys thought themselves exempt from that rule. They, after all, were the ones that had discovered the spot in the first place, and not to mention, did most of the physical labor of dragging our provisions out there. Me and Lacey initially only heard about the spot a day after the boys found it; Michelle had walked into Mikey’s room in the middle of him and Devin talking about it, and immediately relayed the message to us. Michelle wasn’t necessarily more loyal to the girls than the boys, she was just the youngest among us and honestly couldn’t resist blurting out any mildly relevant information she thought she might have, in an effort to be included. But in that regard, if the boys had ever gone out there on their own, they would’ve had to be extremely sneaky about it, because Michelle’s number one objective in life was to gather any piece of intel she could. It was a seemingly normal Saturday morning when we learned our suspicions about the boys may have been warranted.
I had slept over at Lacey’s house the night before. We had just woken up and were still sitting on her bed discussing our possible plans for the day, when Michelle busted through the door with a look on her face that immediately told us she had finally gotten a hold of some juicy information, before she could even open her mouth to stutter out, “You-you-you guyssss, guess w-w-what!?!” Lacey gestured the nail file that was in her hand toward her, raising her eyebrows bluntly as Michelle tried to catch her breath. “So… Devin came to sleep over last night, annnnnd I was pretending to go to the bathroom so I could spy on them. Seeeeee, I was supposed to be sleeping but I -“ “Ughh come on Michelle, get to it! What’d you hear?” Lacey snapped “Ughh okay okay. So, I heard the boys talking, anddddd…. they’re planning to go explore the old mine today!!” “Alright Michelle! Good spying!” I chuckled, trying to encourage her after Lacey’s impatience. Lacey rolls her eyes, then immediately stands up. She takes the scrunchie off her wrist, ties her long blonde hair into a messy bun, and simply said, “Let’s go.” “Lacey..” I said “What??” She responds as if she hadn’t registered the tone of my voice at all. As I opened my mouth to begin explaining all the logical and practical reasons why even if the boys were stupid enough to go play around somewhere dangerous, we shouldn’t be, Michelle exclaims, “That’s where the Locust Man lives!!” I close my mouth in defeat, as I know Lacey will take this nonsense as a challenge, and because of that, no amount of my warnings concerning actual dangers would have any effect on her decision. Lacey dismisses her comment as she attempts to shove her foot into one of her new pink sneakers that she refuses to admit are too small for her. “Pshhh, don’t be such a baby Michelle, he’s not real, you do know that right?” Michelle crinkled her face and yelled back, “Yes he is Lacey! He is!! And th-th- that’s where he lives, and he eats kids that go there!” Lacey laughs at her and says “Oh yeah? You still believe in Santa clause too? What about the tooth fairy?” Michelle looked down at her shoes, and although she could admittedly be annoying, I found myself feeling bad for her. “Come on Lacey, she’s just scared.” Lacey shot me a look like she was expecting me to burst into laughter, but I just gave her a smirk and a shrug, and she rolled her eyes and said “Get dressed.”

 We walked in silence toward the end of the road, though the reasons for all three differed drastically. Lacey’s was determination and resolve, mine was comtemptousness and defeat, and Michelle’s was just fear. I found myself half-way hoping the boys had left already, but as we approached the driveway we caught them just as they were about to step off the porch. 

“Hey!!” Lacey yelled, in her trademark cheerleader cadence. “Where do you boys think you’re going without us?”. Mikey let a groan and rolled his eyes, while Devin said through a coy smile, “Well, we were actually just heading out to go to find you girls.” “Liar.” Lacey snapped, quickly wiping the grin off Devin’s face. “Michelle already blabbed- we know where you two are going and we’re coming too.” The boys looked at each other, then Mikey shot Michelle an angry look as she tried to shrink herself behind me, and said, “Fine, whatever, but no cry baby snitches allowed!!” Michelle then proceeded to prove both of his accusations correct by yelling back, “I am not a cry baby!! I’m telling mom if you don’t let me come with you!!” At that point I finally spoke up. “Alright, listen.” I said sternly, then once I had their attention I lowered my voice a bit to say, “Just for the record, I think us going to that grody old mine is a dumb idea and a big waste of time, but if one of us goes, we all go. That’s the deal, so make your decisions.” Lacey folded her arms in solidarity beside me, and with that we all had an unspoken understanding. So, with the boys out ahead leading the way, we headed toward the tree line.

 As we entered the woods, I felt a sense of dread wash over me - but to be fair, as a preteen emo kid who had already reached an adult level of cynicism, I felt a certain level of dread towards almost everything in life. So take my premonition with a grain of salt, but for some reason, this felt… different. I remember the woods being abnormally quiet that day. It took some time for me to even notice, but as soon as I did, I interrupted the mindless chatter going on to say, 

“Where are all the freakin’ birds?” Everyone turned to look at me as if I’d completely lost my mind. “Uhhh… What are you talking about?” Devin asked me. I pointed up toward the treetops. “Listen…. ” They all looked up, then looked around at each other in confusion. “Every time we’ve ever been in these woods, there’s always birds chirping back and forth. We’ve been walking almost 5 minutes now and I haven’t heard a single bird, have you guys?” “Damn, yeah, that is weird.” Mikey agreed. “They probably all just migrated!!” Devin goofily offered. “That’s stupid Devin, it’s spring. If anything, there should be more birds here, not less you moron.” Lacie argued. Devin flipped Lacie off, which was the best rebuttal he could usually come up with, and then turned toward me and said, “Okay whatever, what’s your point exactly?” “Just that - “ I looked over to Mikey, then back at Devin. “It’s weird.” I didn’t want to say what I was actually thinking. That the woods being too quiet was never a good thing. That when birds aren’t chirping, it could mean there’s a predator nearby. Besides, I was pretty confident that the boys, having both been in the scouts, knew what I knew, so saying it out loud would only serve to annoy Lacie and further frighten Michelle. Mikey broke his gaze that had been fixed on me, and while scanning our surroundings he said, “Let’s stop by the clubhouse on the way.” With a nod from me, we continued. When we arrived at our pit stop, Lacey hobbled over to the closest lawn chair and plopped herself down in it. “Ughhh, my feet are killing me!!” “I wonder why.” I mutter under my breath. “Excuse me, what was that?” “Just saying. Those shoes are gonna be the death of you Lace, you can barely walk in them.” “Pshhh, shut up. They just need to be broken-in okay? You’re just jealous cuz you’re still wearing your dirty old Vans from last year.” “Oooh yeah, you got me there. I am so sad I don’t have a pair of ugly pink Sketchers that don’t fit me.” She stuck her tongue out at me and we both laughed. I was just about the only person who could go toe to toe with Lacey’s sass. It’s part of the reason we ended up being best friends, besides being neighbors. In regard to style, personality and interests, we were almost polar opposites. But when it came to humor we were equals. And more importantly, we both had a mutual understanding when it came to our differences- I was me and she was her, and neither of us felt the need to try and make the other one be more like us. Besides, I was the only person who had ever really stood up to Lacey and didn’t take any of her crap, so I think she respected that. While that exchange had been going on, Michelle had started picking tiny pink flowers, and the boys were rummaging in the clubhouse for something. I yelled in their direction, “Hey! Big Mike and Dirty D!!” Me and Lacey giggled and she mouthed the word “big” with air quotation marks. They didn’t respond, so I walked over to the entryway and looked in. They were standing with their backs to me while looking down at an open metal box, and Mikey was reaching to grab whatever was in it. As he stood back up, I could see what it was. “What the fuck Mikey, seriously?” Hearing me cuss, Lacey and Michelle crowded in behind me. “Chill, it’s just a BB gun.” “I know it’s a BB gun Michael, what are you doing with it, and why is it here?” I was livid at the thought that he might be coming out here and shooting at animals just to be a shithead. I expected something like that from a goober like Devin, but not Mikey. Michelle butted in, “I’m telling mom!!!” “Nice try, dad knows I have it.” He looked at me and softened his tone. “It’s for protection, just in case we come across a black bear, or some weirdo creep out here. Seriously… it’s just to scare off something, not hurt it.” He knew how I felt about killing animals, especially for no good reason. A lot of people out here are poor and hunt for food, which I could accept as a reality. But hurting animals just for fun is psycho behavior, so I was relieved to hear him dispel my fear; I really didn’t want to have to hate him. “Do you even know how to shoot that thing?” Lacey asked. “Yeah, my dad showed me.” Devin clapped his hands together, making us all jump and himself laugh. “Well alright then, let’s get going!” I turned to Michelle, still holding the flowers. “You okay?” She nodded. “If you want me to walk back with you, I can.” I was slightly hoping she’d say yes so I’d have an excuse to get out of this excursion, but she just shook her head and forced a smile. I knew she was scared, but she was just too curious. Maybe I was too.

 We walked for what felt like half an hour. The trees had gotten more dense and the path narrowed from the overgrowth. Still no birdsong. I kept scanning the area in search of any sign of life other than us. Looking for movement of creatures scurrying away, listening for the sound of rustling as we passed, hoping for a squirrel, a lizard, even a bug. Nothing. 

“How much further is this damn thing?” Lacey groaned. Mikey answered without even turning around. “We should be coming up on it any time now.” “You said that like 10 minutes ago.” “Yeah, and now we’re like 10 minutes closer to it. And hey guess what, you insisted on inviting yourself - so suck it up buttercup.” “Hahahaha!” Devin laughed like a maniac at Mikey’s quip, while Lacey folded her arms and for once in her life didn’t have a snappy comeback. This time however, I did. “Well we really only came along to make sure you idiots didn’t kill yourselves.” “Oh, so you girls came out here with us to be our protectors, huh?” Devin laughed. “Ehh, more like babysitters.” Needless to say, I was flipped off for that statement. We rounded the next bend and suddenly all came to an abrupt stop one after another, starting with Mikey. Devin positioned himself beside him and let out a disappointed groan. “Shit Mikey!” A huge tree had fallen and was blocking the trail completely. There was no way we could climb over it because of all the leaves and branches - we’d have to go around it, which meant leaving the safety of the trail and crossing Rain Creek twice to get back to it. “Seriously???” Lacey exclaimed. “Maybe it’s a sign that we shouldn’t be going.” I shrugged. Mikey didn’t seem fazed by the obstruction at all. In fact, he seemed more confident. More calm. More sure of his intended mission. “It’s fine, we’ll just go around.” Michelle, who had been mostly quiet this whole time, finally broke her fear induced silence. “We are NOT supposed to leave the tr-tr-trail Michael! We could get lost!” “We aren’t gonna get lost Michelle, I have a compass. Plus, it’s literally just a few paces that way, then we cross the creek and circle back once we pass the tree and we’re right back on the trail.” “Oh you have got to be kidding me” Lacey said, “I’m not treading through that nasty water!” “Yeah Mikey, what about Lacey’s brand new shoes??” I laughed, and she playfully slapped me in the arm. Mikey’s patience was wearing thin with us. “Look, we already walked this far - if we turn back now, we’ve wasted the whole day for nothing. If you girls wanna be lame and turn around, then go for it - but me and Dev are going.” That’s all Lacey needed. A challenge to accept; someone to prove wrong. “I’ll show you lame.” She pushed past the boys and lead the way into the thick brush towards Rain Creek. It wasn’t very wide across, and there were lots of fallen limbs and large rocks spread throughout it. The current was barely that of a trickle, and the depth was no more than knee deep for us. It was definitely doable - just an inconvenience. And of course, one more ominous obstacle lying directly in our path. Another hint from the universe telling us to turn around. We didn’t listen. Lacey placed one foot on the closest limb and pushed down a few times to test its sturdiness. “I got this.” She stepped out onto it with both feet, then shimmied sideways until she was close enough to the large exposed rock in the middle of the creek, and hopped onto it. She turned around with a full grin and said, “Coming?” Mikey made his way across the limb as Lacey hopped onto a different limb which led her to the other side of the creek. Devin followed, then me, and then it was Michelle’s turn. “I’m scared to fall in!” Of course she is, I should have made her go before me. “It’s okay Michelle, it’s easy!” I reassured her. She didn’t look convinced in the slightest. “Come on Chelle, we’re leaving you!” Mikey yelled, already walking away. “Nooo!! I’m coming! Wait!” She made it across, but instead of just walking like everyone else did, she got down on her hands and knees and gripped the limb as if it were the only thing in between her and a 50 foot drop to the ground, which was funny to see but prolonged the whole process further. After all, we were about to have to do all of this again. Next go round went a lot smoother. The creek was more shallow here, and there were a whole lot more stepping rocks and debris built up. Having just crossed successfully a few minutes ago, we were all more confident in our abilities, including Michelle - who this time we made go first. “Just walk across like it’s a bridge! You got this!!”, we all cheered for her, and then clapped when she made it to the other side. Before we knew it we were back on the trail, and it wasn’t long after that we finally arrived at our intended destination.

 We all stopped and stared at it for a minute, carefully examining the dilapidated exterior of the place that had brought both prosperity and destruction upon our town. Mikey bent down, picked up a rock and threw it into the entrance. We heard it bounce a few times before it stopped. 

“Just to make sure nothing’s in there.” he turned around to clarify. “Did anyone think to bring a flashlight?” I asked. “It’s dark as hell in there.” I was hoping for just one more reason not to go. Devin reached into his cargo shorts pocket and pulled out a small keychain-sized flashlight, smiling with the satisfaction of finally being useful. “Okay, Mikey’ll hold the gun, I’ll shine the light and you girls follow behind us. Let’s go.” Mikey shifted the BB gun from its position of resting on his shoulder, to holding the barrel in his left hand and the butt in his right; trying his best to emulate a soldier’s stance. Something his dad had taught him I’m sure. We ducked down a bit to enter. “How far in we going?” Lacey asked. “Until we see something cool.” Mikey answered. I turned around to check on Michelle, still hovering in the doorway. “You coming?” I could see in her eyes that fear had finally gotten the better of her, and curiosity had taken a backseat. With wide eyes she shook her head. “The-the Locust Man lives in there.”, she tried to whisper. “I knew you were gonna be a baby about this!” Mikey yelled. I crouched down and put my hand on her shoulder. Against my better judgment, I say “How bout you just wait here for us and pick some more flowers. We won’t be long, there’s nothing in there, I promise. Just.. don’t move from this spot and we’ll be right back, okay?” I could feel her unease, but she seemed to accept my reassurance nonetheless. “Okay.” I smiled, then stood up and looked down at my watch to check the time. 12:46 PM. I turned and headed into the darkness, trying to catch up with everyone else. I didn’t feel good about leaving Michelle, but I didn’t feel good about letting the rest of them go in there alone either. And if I’m being honest, maybe a little part of me wanted to see what was in there too. When I caught up to Lacey she asked, “Where’s Michelle?” “Stayed behind at the entrance, she was too scared. I told her to pick flowers and wait there for us.” “Pshh, figures.” “Yeah. How’s your feet?” “At this point, numb actually.” It was so dark in there that even Devin’s rinky dink flashlight was illuminating the area enough for me to start taking a closer look at my surroundings. I looked around at the rock walls, they were covered in what looked like orange mold and green algae. There was a slight breeze coming in from the entrance, but the whole place just had a staleness to it. The boys stopped and turned around as we arrived at the first curve. “So ladies, what do you think? Cool huh?” Devin asked excitedly. “Smells like a fart in here.” I said.

 The most dangerous thing about exploring an old mine wasn’t getting lost in the maze of tunnels, or tripping on the rusted tracks and slamming your head against the wall - it was something simply referred to as bad air. Pockets of still air that have dangerously low levels of oxygen, the old men in town would call it “black damp”. There was also something produced from the old chemicals they once used called “stink damp”, which smelled like rotten eggs. Both were lethal. 

“I wonder if there’s dead bodies in here!” “Uh, Dev… we’re gonna be the dead bodies in here if we go in too far. I wasn’t just making a joke, you know that rotten egg smell can mean bad air.” Mikey interjected. “The entrance isn’t far behind us, there’s still enough fresh air coming in. We won’t go in too far, let’s just get to the end of this tunnel where it splits off and look around a bit, then we’ll turn around.” The fork in the tunnel really wasn’t that much further, and even though I knew once we rounded this curve I wouldn’t be able to see the entrance behind me anymore, I decided what the hell. Maybe a hundred more steps, then we can finally turn around and this whole dumb situation would be closer to being over with. When we got there, we looked down the length of the connecting tunnels each way. Everything looked unusually identical in its deterioration. I could see how someone could easily get disoriented and lost down here. “Hellooooo…” Mikey yelled to the left, his voice echoing through the corridor. Devin turned to the opposite direction and called out, “Hey yo, Locust Man!! You in here?” We all giggled, which made me think about Michelle, still waiting at the entrance for us, alone in the woods. I looked down at my watch. 12:46 PM. “Hey what the f-“ My cuss word was interrupted by a loud bang that came from the passageway Devin had just been hollering into. We all froze. I didn’t have time to process that my watch had stopped right as we entered the tunnel, or that Michelle had been left alone for who knows how long now, or that we had just heard what sounded like a support beam crashing to the ground, because next came a horrifying screeching buzzing sound. It sounded distant at first, but was quickly increasing in volume. We silently looked around at each other and backed away stunned at what we were hearing. Mikey never took his eyes off the tunnel though, and slowly he began to raise the BB gun to firing position. Without even thinking, I grabbed the barrel and pushed it downward. He quickly tore his eyes away from his target to look at me. I shook my head and managed to barely choke out the word, “Explosion.” He nodded and I let go. I looked down at the gun in his hands, and seeing his finger had already been on the trigger, I realized how lucky it was that I didn’t make him shoot himself in the foot. All of a sudden, the noise stopped. “What the hell was that?” Lacey asked. “I don’t know, nothing good.” I said. “Let’s just get the fuck out of here before this whole place caves in on us or something.” Another loud bang erupted from the right, extremely close to us. “Shit!!!” We all turned around and ran as fast as we could back toward the entrance. Devin tried to push past me, but as he did my elbow knocked the flashlight out of his hand. “My flashlight!!!” “Leave it!” Mikey shouted “The turn is right here, we won’t need it!” We rounded the corner, and using what little light there was illuminating from the entrance to guide us back, we ran like our lives depended on it. And they may have- none of us dared to look back, not like we would have been able to see anything anyway. When we finally made it out, we were all completely out of breath. I felt like I was going to throw up. I have to admit though, once we had made it back to safety I felt a rush of adrenaline like I had just had a near death experience. That feeling quickly faded into sheer panic when I looked around and realized Michelle was nowhere to be seen. “Uh, where’s Michelle?” Mikey asked me. “I told her to stay right here, she can’t be very far… Michelle!!!!” We all called her name, as loud as we could. No answer, no sign of her anywhere. “Alright look, she probably went off a little further looking for flowers to pick.” I tried to rationalize. “Let’s just split off in 4 directions and walk in a straight line while calling for her. She’s bound to hear one of us.” Everyone agreed, and even though I appeared outwardly as the level-headed calm person you need to take control in an emergency, inside I was petrified that something had happened to her, and that it would be my fault. I took the east, and headed out. It didn’t take too long before I passed a large tree and saw her sitting down behind it, looking at something on the ground. “Michelle! Oh thank god!! Didn’t you hear us calling for you??” She didn’t answer me, or even turn around. “Michelle, didn’t I tell you to stay by the entrance and not move?!?” My relief was quickly turning into annoyance as she continued to ignore me. I walked up closer to see what she was looking at, and my mouth dropped in awe of what she had found. It was a single white trillium.

 They say it takes 8 years for a trillium plant to produce a flower, and conditions have to be just right for it to bloom. That’s what makes them so special and rare. I stared down at it almost in a trance, like I was seeing a mythical creature. Michelle slowly reached out her hand towards it and I snapped out of it. 

“No!!” I grabbed her by the arm and she finally turned around to look at me. “If you pick the flower, the plant will die.” She ripped her arm away from my grasp and whined, “But I want to show my mom!” We heard Mikey calling from the north and I cupped my hands over my mouth to yell back, “I found her, she’s over here!!” I looked back at her. “No Michelle, come on, you can just tell her about it when we get back home.” I had enough, I was beyond ready to go and we still had at least another 45 minutes of walking to even get back to the clubhouse; an hour if Michelle kept up her crap. I grabbed her arm again and pulled her up to a standing position, looking back at the trillium as I walked her away. Mikey caught up to us, breathless but trying to hide his concern. “You little shit, we should have left you out here! What the hell were you doing?” I let go of her arm and she walked toward Mikey. “She was trying to pick a flower over there.” “It was a trillium!!” Michelle said, with the biggest smile on her face. “Wait, really?” He looked at me in disbelief. Before I could respond, a blood curdling scream echoed through the forest, coming from the west. It was Lacey. My heart dropped into my stomach and once again, every molecule in my body went into full blown panic mode. This time, I couldn’t contain my composure. “Laceyyyyyy!!!!!” A panicked shriek erupted from my lungs and I took off running. Mikey grabbed Michelle and sprinted after us. The trees became a blur; I didn’t even feel all the scratches and scrapes. Had she come across a coyote? A mountain lion? A bear? I didn’t even stop to think about the danger I might be about to come in contact with, I just ran. And then I found her. She was lying on the ground, holding her left foot. “Lacey!!” I said, trying to choke back the tears that were building up. “I think I twisted my ankle!!” “Oh god damn it, you bitch.” I struggled to catch my breath. “I thought you were dead.” “I might as well be, I have cheerleading practice on Monday!” Mikey and Michelle caught up to us. “What happened?” He asked “She’s being a drama queen, she just rolled her ankle.” I was angry. “Can you get up?” He asked her. She was able to stand, but as soon as she tried to put any pressure on her foot at all, she screamed in pain. We spotted Devin running over from the south as he was yelling out, “Hey yo, everyone alive and accounted for?” “Yeah, Lacey hurt her ankle.” Mikey yelled back. As he approached he looked concerned. “Can you walk on it?” He asked her. “No.” Without hesitation he replied, “Well alright then, looks like you’re gonna have to piggyback it all the way back home.” He lowered himself enough to where she could hop up onto his back, and we headed back toward the trail. Even though my nerves had begun to settle a bit, I knew we were still far from being out of the woods, in more ways than one.

Hey all, I read through the guidelines here so I'm hoping this is ok, but I've come up with an idea that I think can help some people who are tight on money moving forward. Full disclosure, this is for a business idea that I've been trying to build out to protect consumers, I just need some initial people to help me test it out.
The TL:DR here is this - A lot of online stores (and plenty of in person) take advantage of people who are looking for a "good deal". I've worked with countless lawyers to create the bones of a system that will do the following:

• Track your online orders (can't do retail, yet)
• Find and identify stores that took advantage of you and are high-value targets for lawyers
• Negotiate a refund on your behalf without a lawyer being involved

I'll make money by taking $5 or 10% of the money I can recover for you, whatever value is higher or selling leads to lawyers.
If that sounds like something you'd be interested in using as a test user, my site is GetPayback.com.
When testing this with a friend who helped by placing some test orders, I was able to get a 50% refund rate with no returns required: 1 for $45 and one for $256. Here's what my friend told me: "Getting that money back was actually a huge help with some bills we were behind on." After learning from that initial test, on orders that meet the criteria, I think I'll be able to get a 90% refund rate and the other 10% of cases will end up going to lawyers who maybe can help you by getting you more than a full refund - a max of $2,500 + refund if you meet certain criteria.
My goal here is to protect at-risk consumers from shady businesses who are looking to take advantage of you by selling you products that aren't the quality you think you're getting at a "great deal". I've spent the last year trying to come up with a solution for this. I've talked to almost a dozen lawyers on figuring out how to stop brands from using these deceptive practices, however, most of the lawyers didn't even know these things are illegal, which made me realize that the only real way to fight back was to protect consumers directly and help you Get Payback, which is where the name comes from - I spent $5,000 on that domain by the way, just because I'm that confident in this idea and I'm that passionate about protecting people like you, and protecting brands who simply don't know better.
When testing this, one brand that issued a refund fixed their entire website 30 minutes after issuing the refund and stopped using the deceptive practices against consumers, which to me was a huge win. My friend got a $45 refund and stopped other consumers from being taken advantage. Had the issue gone right to a lawyer, it likely would have cost the business $20,000+ in a lawsuit, so I saved them $19,950+.
I know this is a new account, but I can't use anything personal as I don't want the businesses I'm targeting for refunds to know who's behind this. But just know, this entire idea is a huge way to take advantage of businesses who are blatantly taking advantage of you.
The loophole here is that if I tell you what's illegal and you use that specifically to shop and get refunds on things, you'd be violating this Subs rule #3, so I'd prefer to not tell you. Just know that it's illegal, but it's not enforced well enough by the government, only by very specific lawyers. In researching this, many of the lawyers I spoke with didn't even know that what I described was illegal. I've seen comments on Quora saying, "Every business does it, so why does anyone even care?"
To that, I'd say that no, most businesses do not do it, but an alarming amount do. I see it myself all the time and I even fall victim to it every now and then. But, they do it because it works. As a business, the #1 goal is to get more money from more customers while spending less money on ads. These tactics do that using psychological tricks that are illegal. By using these tricks, you're more likely to buy from that business than from a competitor, which means that not only is that business tricking you and harming you, they're harming their competition by competing in a way that isn't fair to anyone.
I know this was a long post, but I also realize that if this goes well, this kind of could end up being a little historical post about how this idea and company got started.

Hy, i got diagnosed last year for sure but my condition was for at least few years before hand. I m 35 M.
I feel so tired and exhausted as everything seems like an up hill struggle most of the time.
I co parent with a BPD mother(my ex) in a 50/50 model and it can be draining, and i am just completing my first year of my apprenticeship as an electrician. Ofc finances are a mess and a source of stress, but we re doing our best to sort them out. Also living in a foreign country where the home accent is a bit harder to understand, and most people are borderline rude and cold (by my standards at least).
My doc said i wasn’t so bad to need meds, and my supportive and quite wise current wife as well, says i may not need them but i am not sure.
I try to focus on my training as best as i can, but it s throwing me for loops sometimes. Like i get it shut up and learn, but the dude is rude, and barely explains anything on a good day.
I look at my apprentice colleagues (4 of them) and they just shrug, keep quiet and just stroll on…. And i am like am i the crazy one? I know that all 4 need paid courses by the company to be able to get a passing grade in trade school, and by the previous trainers notes i got the highest practical work grades until now on the 1st year….
Like….being told you should know shit in this field because you are old, but any skills you know and experiences you have doesn’t translate to electrical…. Like just an hour ago by our head of training….
And at this point i don’t want to give a shit about any of those but my brajn rebels.
Like do meds help? Like stop making you care about the stuff that throw you in cognital loops or starting you to get up or down in your cycles?
Because only thing that works is to distract myself with something, and if i can it is just worse. My kid sees me just tired and restless, and i rarely have energy to play with him properly, since i am exhausted or when i do try it somehow just can’t come out like 100% out of me….

Hy, i got diagnosed last year for sure but my condition was for at least few years before hand. I m 35 M.
I feel so tired and exhausted as everything seems like an up hill struggle most of the time.
I co parent with a BPD mother(my ex) in a 50/50 model and it can be draining, and i am just completing my first year of my apprenticeship as an electrician. Ofc finances are a mess and a source of stress, but we re doing our best to sort them out. Also living in a foreign country where the home accent is a bit harder to understand, and most people are borderline rude and cold (by my standards at least).
My doc said i wasn’t so bad to need meds, and my supportive and quite wise current wife as well, says i may not need them but i am not sure.
I try to focus on my training as best as i can, but it s throwing me for loops sometimes. Like i get it shut up and learn, but the dude is rude, and barely explains anything on a good day.
I look at my apprentice colleagues (4 of them) and they just shrug, keep quiet and just stroll on…. And i am like am i the crazy one? I know that all 4 need paid courses by the company to be able to get a passing grade in trade school, and by the previous trainers notes i got the highest practical work grades until now on the 1st year….
Like….being told you should know shit in this field because you are old, but any skills you know and experiences you have doesn’t translate to electrical…. Like just an hour ago by our head of training….
And at this point i don’t want to give a shit about any of those but my brajn rebels.
Like do meds help? Like stop making you care about the stuff that throw you in cognital loops or starting you to get up or down in your cycles?
Because only thing that works is to distract myself with something, and if i can it is just worse. My kid sees me just tired and restless, and i rarely have energy to play with him properly, since i am exhausted or when i do try it somehow just can’t come out like 100% out of me….

So I (19F) have this friend (19f) and she constantly belittles me, we have known each other since 6th grade and she has been my best friend since but since we have been friends she always comments rude things to me and plays it off as our little (jokes) and it’s not “serious” I try to have actual friend to friend conversation with her and it’s like in every sentence it’s something that has to do with me I take care of myself I think I’m a NORMAL person but it’s like everything I do or say or wear or anything she is commenting on and again plays it off as a jokey joke and it’s getting frustrating and I’m starting to distance myself it’s been this way for years but she’s never been outright mean, she also is a bit over reactive especially when I can’t hangout. We usually hangout every two weeks or so and when I can’t call out from work she gets furious and just leaves me on read like SO mad when it isn’t my fault. I’m starting to dislike hanging out with her but she’s been my friend forever and idk what to do??

I've (16f) never had many friends growing up, and the few friendships I did have up until this point weren't exactly good ones. I've always had trouble making friends and because of this, not being as sociable enough as my peers has become a huge insecurity of mine, as well as simply feeling lonely. That was until this year, my 2nd year of high school, when I started hanging out with my now 2 closest friends. I was very close with one of them last year, but we weren't friends for a bit due to a misunderstanding. This year, however, we've formed this trio and they both genuinely mean so much to me.
Long story short, the problem arose today when I was talking to one of them, let's call her K. The other girl, let's call her P, wasn't in school today so it was only me and K. We were talking about how P is planning on transferring schools next year (cause she always says she hates this school and has some friends at the school she wants to transfer to) and we were talking about how we were a bit concerned how she would perform at the other school due to it being a public school and much more difficult than our private school, and P already having not very good grades and a poor work ethic. Then, K mentions to me that she's planning on switching schools too. Her parents currently aren't allowing her to do that, but her plan is that if a lot of people from our school switch schools next year (which I believe they will cuz most people don't like our school) she'll tell her parents how everyone is switching schools to convince them it's not a good school so they'd let her switch. Up until this point she herself had been against any of us in the trio switching schools, partly due to her own selfish reasons as well, so this was a huge surprise. She revealed she wanted to switch to another school cuz she had a friend there who (I believe) she recently started hanging out with, not sure though. Her parents certainly aren't allowing it as of right now, her dad even going as far as to convince ME not to switch, back when I wanted to, but I really don't know if her plan could change it.
I think my point is obvious, but I'm deathly scared of being alone. I don't know what I'll do if both of them leave me, knowing I practicaly have no other friends (I do have one other close friend but I practically never see her due to both of ours schedules and her strict parents). As I've mentioned, I've considered switching before but I have no idea where to go. Both of them have other friends they want to be in school with, but I have none. I'm also afraid of going to a school in which I know no one, cause by then it'd be my 3rd year of hs and eveeyone already has well established friendships by then and I feel like no one will want to hang out with me. Plus, I just genuinely love my friends so much and I don't know what I'd do without them and their jokes in class, our after school hangouts or our evening hangouts.
I'm secretly praying to God that at least one of them will stay, either P due to possibly not being accepted into her desired school due to bad grades (she had previously tried getting into the school at the beginning of this year and they told her she would be accepted but that they didn't have space in any classes, which I suspect might not be true because a few people who either go to that school or know someone who does, claim that they're pretty sure there is space, so the school may have been letting her down gently? Is that possible) or K not being allowed to switch due to her strict parents. I feel so selfish for thinking this and I'm a bad person, I know. I'll never try to talk them out of it cause, despite everything I said, I do wish the best for them and won't stand in their way. It just hurts though. I just can't be alone again, I couldn't be able to stand it. I don't think I'd have a reason to live if I were alone again.

Again, like the title says, please don't be rude. I am genuinely just looking to get answers - everything online is pretty conflicting.
I graduated from a top public college that is also in the t14 - but due to financially supporting myself starting around 17, so working full time in college, and being diagnosed with a chronic illness my first semester and having extreme mental health impacts from the full time work + chronic illness - I graduated with a 3.2. I had multiple internships, worked two jobs at a time, and my grades improved over time - so I started low and brought it up. I landed a job with TFA in NYC with early childhood but due to an extremely rare and tragic event involving a student I left the program, again this was early childhood so I am sure you can only imagine what a tragic experience involving a student was like.
I took some time to really consider why I wanted to do TFA and what I wanted to do with my life. I did TFA because I went to a low income public school and I felt immense internal pressure to give back and be a teacher for students that some of my teachers were for me - they were the only reason I had been able to go to the college I did, etc. etc. But I realized education was not my passion - it was just what I felt like I needed to do. I interned on a campaign and as a legislative assistant in college and ended up finding employment in a top campaign finance position, not gonna give a lot of details there, but pretty prestigious. And I LOVE the work, but more than that I became extremely interested in the legal work that goes on behind campaign finance, corporate law, litigation, etc. So, I started studying for the LSAT, I am taking it in June because I at least want the opportunity to take it with the games.
I plan to not apply to law school until I am at least at a 168-170. I will have had about 2, maybe 3 years, of work experience. Planning to connect with the firms that I currently work with, networking access I already have from undergrad with current lawyers, etc.
I am also going to start reaching out to schools right after I take the test in June and start exhibiting interest in their school, certain programs they have, current students and alum the admissions office can connect me with, etc.
I plan to write one addendum for my GPA, but have been told not to write two (the second would be for my TFA experience). I plan to tie that into my personal statement somehow.
By the time I apply I will be 3+ years past my undergrad gpa, and 2+ years past my TFA experience - hoping to display that my life is on an upward trajectory or that I at least have the health and tools in my life to be successful, as I am currently successful in my position. Additionally, I expect to receive a promotion prior to applying.
What are your thoughts on my possibilities? Do I seem like one massive red flag? Please please please be nice. I have experienced a lot of personal and health related trauma that has greatly impacted who I was and what I was able to accomplish. I have also worked my ass off to just pay to support myself - it was not easy, and yes other things fell into the backseat due to this. I Just want honest, RESPECTFUL opinions from people that know much more about the process.

I'm seeking planning advice to better understand our system.
Background: 1920s house with full basement, two full stories and a finished attic. Radiators throughout first and second floor. From what we've been able to piece together, the boiler was originally coal-fired and was later converted to a natural gas burner. The diameter of the horizontal pipe in the basement ceiling is large (apx 3" internal diameter) and we've been told this is because the system would have originally circulated by convection. System was later converted to pump-circulation. There are no zones like a modern system would have.
On the second floor there is a loop of exposed pipe with an access cap. It is higher than the highest radiator in the house. There are visible remnants of a deprecated pipe in a wall. We think this is from a feed and expansion cistern or possibly a hot water storage cistern, that were removed from the system several decades ago. We have lived in the house for ~15 years. We have never drained or topped up the system. I'm certain there is no glycol in the water.
Needs:
1) This loop of piping is in the way of an intended renovation to a bathroom and it needs to be removed or relocated.
2) If we need to open and modify the system, we might want to add radiators to the attic, or to the planned 2nd-floor bathroom renovation
3) Famous words "while we are at it": if system being modified, we would also want to turn the position of one main floor radiator.
Questions:
1) Do we need to maintain an access cap at the high point in the system? If yes, what is it used for? Air intake while draining system? Refilling? Or can you do those things from the basement as long as the access line has a backflow valve in it?
2) Any hints how such pipe loops are often designed in older homes? I can easily trace that the larger diameter pipe on one side of the access cap drops all the way to the basement and over to the bottom of the boiler. On the other side of the access cap, the pipe reduces in size, drops into the kitchen ceiling, and disappears somewhere; it is not visible in the basement. Does this mean I should expect that it tees into one of the pipes connected to one of the second floor radiators? Or is it more likely that it does connect back into the basement pipework and I just can't find it (yet)?
Thanks for any help you can offer online. I live in a sparsely-populated rural area with a real shortage of all tradespeople. Beyond that, there are few hydronic systems in our local and very few people who know how to work with them. Trying to figure out what we are in for and what might be possible/practical.

Hi there, I’m looking for a buddy to study (and provide moral support) for MCAT.
Looking to get online practice bundles and would like to share. Comment if you are interested!!
Sharing to lower the cost of this expensive exam 😭