Good day y'all, I'm a student filmmaker from the philippines currently in film school! I do freelance sound work, primarily for short films as their production sound mixer.
In a recent internship with a production house I hung around with the sound team and learned more about how they do live sound for bigger productions in my country. I've learned a lot of the things i know about sound through online sources so I had a different understanding about sound and what they do on set which threw me for a loop getting more info about how they run sound in professional settings.
Here's some discrepencies that I noticed: - Metadata input is non existent, we still use paper log sheets or not log at all - They primarily dont use Timecode, most productions clap sync (even on high end productions) - Smart slates are very uncommon if not forgotten entirely - We use Leukoplast (the medical tape) and not use any lav foams/concealers to lessen clothing rustle - Boom operators dont usually have sound feeds/IFBs to hear what they are booming - A lot of the sound people have no formal live sound training - Sometimes they just have a random PA hold the boom - They dont really set up any sound isolation for ACs, echoey rooms, etc. or even try to reduce natural sounds (footsteps, etc.) - The workflow is usually: Get to set > Lav up > Wait to roll > Roll > Take Lavs back > Turn in for the day (Lavs stay on talent even during wardrobe changes because they apply the medical tape straight to skin - They dont do wild tracks/wild sound for lines with the actors in case of bad audio - Sound is more thought of in terms of post work instead of on site work so the editors have more work to do
I'm really curious as to what sound is like in other countries because I want to improve my work to help better sound in productions from my country in the future. I know that it starts with us the sound mixers to get better sound and i want to apply what I learned to projects i take!
So, What's production sound like in your country? I'm really interested in how your work is like!

William was just about to scoop another mouthful of porridge and berries into his mouth when someone scooted into the seat next to him.
“Marline.” He inclined his head before returning to breakfast.
A breakfast that, prior to his teammate’s arrival, had been blissfully free of noise or interruption.
Which made sense given that the ‘rise and shine’ bell wasn’t going to ring for another thirty minutes or so. To that end, the cafeteria was near empty, but for a few servants flitting around the place as they set tables or partook of their own breakfasts.
Breakfasts that were something of a step down from what was normally served at these tables, given that the usual heaped piles of hot sausages, crisp bacon and hearty eggs were still being prepared in the kitchens.
Still, on this occasion, that was fine by William. Sure, the main reason he’d told his team to rise a little earlier than normal was to allow them to dine in peace without being harassed by the rest of the rumour hungry student body, but it was also useful in that it somewhat limited some of his more… difficult teammate’s breakfast options.
“William,” the dark elf hissed as she leaned down. “We have a problem.”
Despite his early morning lethargy, those words managed to send something akin to a shiver up his spine.
“What!? What’s the problem?” he asked as he whirled around, remembering only at the last minute to keep his voice down.
Sure, the cafeteria was relatively empty of both staff and students, but it hadn’t escaped his notice that pretty much all of them had had their eyes on him since he sat down.
“What do you mean, ‘what’s the problem?’” Marline whispered furiously into his ear. “The fucking alchemy lab blew up last night.”
“Oh, that.” She’d gotten him all worked up for nothing. “Someone’s enchantment probably went awry after being kept in storage too long.”
That was a lie and they both knew it. He’d explained to Marline in great detail why trying to gain access to his storage room was a poor idea without him present. To that end, it was obvious that someone had attempted just that.
As such, the old alchemy building was now a smouldering ruin, with dozens of academy guards and at least one member of the palace guard sifting through the rubble when he walked past.
Or at least, they’d been watching over a dozen menial servants as they sifted through the rubble.
Still, no one had been too alarmed by it. It was hardly the first time the building had been destroyed after all.
Alchemy was by its nature a fairly dangerous art.
A form of homeopathic magic that attempted to imbue objects with magical abilities by combining them with conceptually similar items, it tended to both be prohibitively expensive and notoriously unreliable.
Left eyes from forty-year-old salamanders didn’t grow on trees after all. Nor testicles from albino bulls in heat. And that was the kind of specificity one needed to create a half-decent stamina potion.
There was a reason that alchemy was gradually being phased out in favour of the slower but more reliable art of enchanting.
“Yes, very unfortunate,” Marline said through gritted teeth. “But what about ‘our’ ingredients that were being kept in the building. It might be… dangerous of someone stumbled across them in the rubble.”
Dangerous? Gunpower couldn’t explode more than…
“Oh, you’re talking about the gift we were holding for your family?” He realized.
“Yes!”
“Why didn’t you check last night?” he asked.
“...I tend to wear earplugs when I sleep,” Marline admitted reluctantly. “Given… Verity.”
William glanced towards the young woman’s long elven ears and thought about their orcish teammate’s tendency to snore like she was trying to wake the dead. The inner walls of their dorm weren’t particularly thick and Marline’s room was right next to the other girl’s.
Yeah, he could see why she might have invested in some hearing protection.
A decent set of earplugs wouldn’t drown out the noise of the morning bell, but they’d be more than capable of drowning out the distant whumph of an alchemy lab going up on the opposite side of the campus.
He momentarily wondered if the noise had caused any of his other teammates to get up, before dismissing the idea.
Strange noises in the middle of the night were far from unusual in a military academy and usually best ignored unless you had a very good reason to think they might involve you.
“Well, it’s not a problem,” he whispered. “I moved it last night before heading back to the dorm.”
The look of relief on the dark elf’s face was palpable, before it gave way to confusion. “Why?”
He shrugged. “For the same reason I booby-trapped the storage room in the first place. Once it got out that I had a mithril core – and might have had something to do with Al’Hundra’s death, well it seemed like there was a decent chance someone might go snooping around places I might want to hide something.”
And the alchemy lab was just about the first place someone would think of right after their team’s dorm room.
Fortunately for him, there were a few places that were quite impractical for hiding something long-term, but pretty ideal in the short term.
And just so long as Marline’s aunts arrived before next Welday, the mithril core would be safe.
Though as he gazed down at the bowl of porridge in front of him, he found his appetite wasn’t quite what it had been just a few moments ago.
“So where’d you hide it?” Marline asked excitedly, clearly relieved that her family’s future wasn’t currently buried in rubble.
William paused as he considered how to answer that question. Something his teammate was quick to notice.
“William,” she prompted. “Where’s my family’s core?”
He gazed down at his bowl, still thinking.
“William!” she shouted as best she could while still whispering.
“The safest place I could think of. Somewhere it’d be covered completely and no one would voluntarily look.”
“Voluntarily?” Marline said. “Covered?”
Credit where credit was due, no one had ever accused his teammate of being slow on the uptake. At least, where politics wasn’t concerned. So it was that it wasn’t long before he witnessed her expression morph from confusion to horror… to rage.
“You buried my family’s mithril core in the latrines?!” she hissed.
William scratched his chin awkwardly as he avoided her furious gaze. “More like dropped. I didn’t need to bury it because it sank on its own. Which is good given I wasn’t quite sure of the relative buoyancy of mithril in… well… you know.”
In his defence, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. Indeed, if one were to be purely objective about the whole thing, it still was. The core was safely hidden at the bottom of one of the lesser used latrine pits. The bottom mounted… storage vats of which were pulled out and emptied into the bay once a week.
It was a fairly old fashioned system, given the existence of indoor plumbing across the rest of the academy. Indeed, he suspected the latrines were only kept around to serve as a form of punishment duty for any cadets that happened to royally piss off their instructors.
“They’ll be safe there until Welday,” William argued weakly. “At which point your aunts can collect them without anyone being the wiser.”
“Collect them from the latrine’s storage vats!” Marline hissed, slamming her head into the table. “Ancestors, the future of our house is now literally swimming in shit.”
Gingerly, William moved to pat the dark elf on the back. “Ah, but at least it’s safe.”
Once more he glanced away as two silver eyes peeked out angrily from between the girl’s arms.
Needless to say, he was rather glad for the eventual arrival of the rest of their team – even if Bonnlyn chose to complain at length about the fact that she was going to be forced to dine on ‘twigs and berries’ – as opposed to the gut busting pile of vaguely food shaped grease she normally chose to partake of in a morning.
Still, at least Marline had stopped glaring at him by the time they’d all finished eating – escaping just before the first of their fellow cadets piled noisily into the cafeteria.


It was actually rather amusing, that for all that the coming match had obvious implications for the country as a whole, in theory it was simply another practice match between two groups of cadets.
To that end, there was no great ceremony as the members of Team Seven made their way through the double doors leading to the Floats. There, as per usual, stood the members of the opposing team along with an Instructor from a ‘neutral’ house.
Never mind that the great bleachers to each side of the faux-ships were filled with eager spectators when they were normally all-but bare. Or that not one of the viewing orbs bolted to the gantries overhead was bereft of the ambient glow that signified they were in use.
Half the noble houses in the country were likely watching the events that were about to unfold through those crystalline orbs. Though William had to wonder if the Queen was one of them or if she was present in person, simply hidden behind whatever magic she used to render herself and her guards invisible.
Still, as he gazed upon the spectacle around them, William couldn’t help but be reminded of just how impressive a construction the Floats were, the stadium sized building hosting not just the ships that made up the field, but room for spectators, viewing orbs, staff and a myriad other smaller facilities that each worked to allow the practice matches to occur.
With that in mind, one notable absence from the building’s usual occupants was hard to miss.
“Where are all the sailors and marines?” Olzenya asked.
“I don’t know,” William said as they continued walking towards Tala and her team. “Maybe they’re already onboard?”
He doubted it though. He’d have been able to see people moving about inside the great vessels or marching across the deck.
No, something was amiss here.
Still, he’d known there was a possibility of House Blackstone attempting something. And the absence of the Float’s usual staff was likely to be related.
Nothing for it now, he thought. Whatever they’ve done can’t be too overt.
The Principal of the Academy might have been in New Haven’s pocket – which made her an ally of House Blackstone – but even her power had limits with the Crown and half the country watching.
“Ma’am,” William said as he came to a stop before the Instructor from House Summerfield. “Team Seven reporting.”
Instructor Halfin, ironically the woman who’d first introduced his team to the floats glowered at him.
“I don’t like this,” she said without preamble, her voice raised loudly enough that it was clear she was aiming her words not just at him, but Tala and the rest of the world besides. “The Academy and the Floats are supposed to be a training environment for the future leadership of the nation as a whole. Not a pissing ground for idiotic adolescents.”
“I didn’t choose the venue, ma’am.” Even as she spoke, Tala’s gaze stayed on William.
“And I didn’t ask your opinion, cadet.” Halfin’s words were biting as she turned towards the third-year. “The only opinion that matters here is mine. Not yours. Not his. Not your mummy’s. And not the rest of these upjumped cretins.”
Her hand flew out to encompass the veritable circus that were the stands. “So, with that in mind you can believe me when I say that my only concern is getting through this farce as efficiently and as fairly as possible. I don’t give a shit about what’s on the line or who doesn’t want to marry who. All that matters to me is whether or not you have wax or paint on your breastplate or enough harpy-venom in your system to put you down for the count.”
Both Tala’s and William’s eyes widened a little at that.
“Wax, ma’am? Paint?” Tala said.
The older woman grunted. “You heard me, and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. Let it be known I’m not happy about it. Nor about the fact that half the sailors on base have apparently come down with the shits.”
Ah, so that was why the float’s usual crew was missing. Clearly the work of House Blackstone, though to what end William was yet unsure.
Are they trying to delay the match? He thought.
That wouldn’t be ideal for a number of reasons – most of which centred around it giving House Blackstone more time to sabotage him and his team. There’d been a damn good reason he chose to have their match literally a day after he challenged her.
“This has naturally affected my ability to run a normal Float match. Normally that would be grounds for delaying this whole farce,” Halfin continued, tone darkening as she spoke the next few words. “But it has been ‘suggested’ to me by a number of parties that doing so would be impractical. So, we shall instead be making use of one of the scenarios available to us that does not require the use of regular crewmembers.”
She gestured towards the area between the two faux ships, the football field sized stretch of land normally empty but for a few overhead nets designed to catch falling cadets.
That wasn’t the case today. Instead, the area had been filled with a tangled mess of pre-fabricated structures and various other bits of paraphernalia.
“Airship down,” the Instructor said, and after a moment’s observation, William realized that the stretch of land really did look like what you might have seen if an airship crashed into it.
Assuming said airship crashed with enough force to scatter its component parts around rather than remain as a fairly battered single object. Which, given the heights said ships could drop from, wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility.
“Our third year cadets will be familiar with this scenario, but I will explain it briefly for our first years.” Again, there was no mistaking just how unhappy Halfin was with all of this. “In short, an allied or enemy airship has crashed in neutral territory. Both sides of the conflict have dispatched a mage strike team to search the wreckage for the ship’s core so as to deny it to the enemy. Unfortunately, neither side can effectively search said wreckage until the other strike team has been completely eliminated.”
Halfin’s gaze turned towards his team. “To clarify, do not let the flavor text of this scenario fool you. There is no core within the wreckage in this scenario. The only way to win is to completely eliminate the opposing team.”
Over the woman’s shoulder, William didn’t miss the small smile that flitted across his fiancee’s features.
Ah, so that’s her game, he thought.
Oh, he didn’t doubt she would have preferred this whole engagement be delayed so as to allow her more time to stack the deck, but on short notice simply changing the scenario to this still helped her.
Theoretically.
It reduced the number of ‘wild card’ factors that might benefit him or his team. No crew members. No orbs to collect. Just a straight up fight between the two teams.
Sure, said wild cards could have just as easily worked in Tala’s favour, but given the skill disparity between the two groups, it benefited her to reduce the number of random vectors present in the coming fight.
Plus, it also had his team attempting to navigate an unfamiliar scenario.
Well played, he thought.
“Any issue with that, cadets?” Halfin said as she finished her explanation.
“None at all,” William said before the rest of his team could interrupt, noting the small pout of disappointment that flitted across Tala’s face.
She’d probably wanted him to kick up a fuss and force the match to be delayed for the reasons he’d thought of before.
Alas, she wasn’t that lucky.
No, for better or for worse this was happening here and now.
Sure, it wasn’t an ideal scenario, but he could make it work for him. It simply required him to pull out another trick that he’d been hoping to hold onto for just a little while longer.
Amusingly, Halfin also looked a little disappointed. The woman had probably wanted the match delayed on principle. It was clear both his new weapon and Tala’s interference rubbed her the wrong way.
Though as he had the thought, he was pleasantly surprised to see there was at least one woman in the academy who placed her duty as an educator and impartial judge above politics.
Indeed, if she had a reputation for such, that was likely part of the reason why she’d been selected for this match as a compromise between the Crown and the Blackstones.
“Well, if that’s all, then you’ve got ten minutes to check out your weapons and get to your starting positions.” Halfin grunted, before she seemed to remember something. “And I suppose I’ll take possession of the ‘bet’ now.”
There was no missing the disdain in the woman’s voice, which actually made William feel a bit better as he gestured over to Verity.
Unslinging the backpack she’d carried all the way over, the girl still looked more than a little awed as she unveiled the glowing metal orb. It was actually a little amusing, the mixture of relief and reluctance that crossed her features as she handed it over to the Instructor.
An instructor who was apparently not entirely carved from stone, as she somewhat reverently accepted the object.
Even the distant stands hushed down a bit as the bowling ball sized core changed hands.
Of course, it was barely a second before the moment was interrupted.
“Of course you’d have the orc carry it,” Tala grunted, her tone resigned.
Verity flinched back at the words and every other member of his team – including Olzenya leaned forward to argue – but William forestalled them all with a simple raised hand.
“Of course I did,” he said simply. “She’s a valuable member of my team and I trust her. Far more than certain other individuals present.”
A core could also be deceptively heavy despite its ability to produce lighter than air aether and he had no real desire to carry it all the way across campus. It also went unsaid that Verity was best equipped to intercept any… opportunistic thieves.
Indeed, he’d have paid to see some enterprising moron attempt to wrestle the bag holding the core off his orcish teammate on the walk over here.
It hadn’t happened of course, the possibility had always been an outlier at best, but given the stakes it had seemed better to err on the side of caution.
…It had also been amusing to see the myriad emotions that had flashed across the faces of most of the team when he quite casually tossed the bag holding the core to the orc. One would almost think he’d just thrown a baby at her.
Indeed, the only one who’d not been affected had been Marline, who’d just looked quietly resigned.
Which was still fun in its own way.
It was a little childish perhaps coming from a man ‘his age’, but that same age was what gave him the experience to know that sometimes life was about being a little silly and enjoying the small things.
And what better silly fun was there than teasing a bunch of far too serious kids by throwing around a basically indestructible ball of magical space metal?
Of course, given the flash of irritation that shot across Tala’s face, it was clear she thought his smile was an accompaniment to his taunt.
However, before she could say anything, Halfin scooped up the core. “Well, I’ll be holding onto this until the match is over. At which point I shall hand it to whomever I deem to be the victor.” For just a moment, her expression softened. “You can rest assured, both of you, that I shan’t let it out of my sight or off my person for the duration of the match. This I swear – even if I’m irritated at this whole situation.”
William and Tala both nodded, accepting the solemness of the woman’s impromptu oath.
“Alright,” she said, slinging the thing under her arm as she returned to her previous acerbic personality. “You’ve got ten minutes to collect your weapons and be at your designated spots for the beginning of the match. Anyone not in the correct place at the correct time will be considered eliminated for the purposes of this match. Dismissed.”
With her bit said, she strode away, no doubt up to the judges tower - which had an eagle’s eye view of the entire arena.
Leaving two teams of rather combative cadets behind.
Ten minutes was more than enough time to collect their gear, so William allowed himself a few seconds to simply gaze at Tala’s team.
“Finally realizing how outclassed you are, William?” Tala sneered.
It was funny, normally that kind of open disdain was beneath her. Sure, she’d yelled at him before, but to his mind that was more of an expression of frustration than animosity.
Here and now though?
She hated him.
And he revelled in it.
Not because he hated her. He didn’t. Even if they were enemies. At worst he’d say he pitied her for her ignorance and worldview.
Much like him and his otherworldly views, she was a product of her environment.
She wasn’t evil. At least not in an intentional sense. Indeed, by the standards of this world she was actually a good person.
Loyal. Dutiful. Hardworking.
Simply in service to an institution that he abhorred.
With that in mind, the reason why he relished in her disdain was simple.
It meant that he was now worthy of it in her mind. No longer an irritating non-factor that refused to play along, his actions now had consequences.
He’d earned her animosity honestly.
He was a factor. A person.
It felt good.
“Just counting the numbers,” he said. “Some part of me wondered if you might be a team member or two short.”
Indeed, the fact that he’d hoped for the murder of a young man or woman last night was something he counted amongst the least of his sins. There’d be a great many more of those to come.
Still, ignorant of his thoughts, the girl stiffened, all but confirming his suspicions as her mind no doubt turned towards last night’s explosion.
It had been her people who’d tried to raid his alchemy storage room – though it seemed she’d not been so foolish as to send anyone on her team to accomplish the job. In all likelihood the unfortunate fools who’d run afoul of his trap had likely been little more than paid off servants or some other kind of catspaw.
Irrelevant in the scheme of things ultimately and chosen for that very reason. Unfortunate, but hoping that his enemy would be a teammate or two down had ever been a long shot.
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Tala said. “My teammates are all ready and eager to serve not only me, but to honour their family names as well through that service. Though I know that’s a concept most alien to you.”
Around her, four other members of the girls team stood up a little straight, animosity burning in their gaze as they silently regarded his team with disdain.
Disdain his own team was quite happy to level back – if only out of loyalty to him.
Still, it was funny; Tala was more right than she knew. The values of this world were in many ways alien to him despite having lived here for nearly two decades.
“I suppose you’re right,” he chuckled. “To that end, I’ll see you in the arena.”
He took a moment to enjoy the look of puzzlement on his foe’s face at his placid rejoinder, before he strode away, his team falling in behind him.
Though as he walked, he made sure to turn to each of them. “Make sure to double check all of our equipment. If Tala was able to give half the Float staff food poisoning last night, I wouldn’t put it past her to be able to tamper with our equipment.”
Each of the girls nodded seriously at his words, no doubt leery of discovering a razor blade or some other such implement in one of their boots. Or that their bolt-bow had a faulty intake valve.
Indeed, the only piece of equipment William could theoretically have been sure of was that which he was currently wearing and the spell-bolts that would have been delivered clandestinely at the last minute by either Griffith or a palace guard.
And even then, what the fuck is this about wax and paint rather than rubber? He thought.
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Another three chapters are also available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bluefishcake
We also have a (surprisingly) active Discord where and I and a few other authors like to hang out: https://discord.gg/RctHFucHaq

I consider myself to, but an outside opinion would help. Here’s my story.
Many months back, there was an infestation of spiders in my room, which were very tiny and very horrifying. Normally, before this, I had absolutely no fear of any sort of insect whatsoever, and I actually had multiple as pets. And then everything changed. You see, they climbed around my window, near my bed and that scared the heck out of me. So after many weeks of trying to kill them with various non-toxic to human sprays, I just moved to the floor and hoped that the spiders would sort themselves out. And eventually they did, which was at the time a good thing. And then after months, there was an infestation of carpet beetles. At the time my parents called them gnats, but they are not gnats, and it just terrified me to my wits end. They lived in the corners of my room on the fabric of my bed, and just scared the living daylights out of me, er, scares the living daylights out of me. See, I still keep insects and little creatures as pets because they’re just so much more appealing than others to me, however, it’s when they’re really tiny, and when they come in without my permission, without me knowing, that’s when I get truly horrified because I have no control. I have multiple panic attacks, just total fear and horrible paranoia.
So do you think I have entomophobia or not?

So that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in the world of electronic music. I had to scrape my jaw off the floor at the end of the set. So cool, I really can't get over it.
That was my first time seeing him so I have two questions. To anyone who has seen him do a regular DJ set, how did it compare to the live set? Also does anyone know what gear he uses? I believe he has a pulsar 23 drum machine and a mixing board of some kind but other than that I have no idea what he's using for the non percussive stuff. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Unless you are ready to handle the reaper cushions.

The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.
― Mark Twain

general information	additional information
name: Micah Di Santis	preferred name: Myka, Mike
d.o.b.: 10 June 20XX	age: 16
nationality: Sicilian	hometown: Sicily, Italy
gender identity: cis-male	gender expression: male
sexual orientation: Undecided	preferred pronouns: he / him / his

• Half-blood- and non-half-blood-related conundrums: ADHD (attention deficiency and hyperactivity disorder), Dyslexia

relation	name/s	age	relationship
divine parent	Charon, The Ferryman	old	Micah still has no idea what to think about his dad. Speaking with him during the visit to Olympus did nothing to clear things up. The man, or was it immortal, was blunt and yet, his son's opinion of him was still up in the air, though leaning more to the positive side. At least Micah has the connections to get himself an admittedly fantastic tailored suit.
mortal parent	???	???	Micah has no idea who his biological mother is. The only reason he knew who his father was before he came to camp was because the spirits told him.
mortal adoptive parent	Maria Di Santis	32 years old	If Marco was a saint then Maria was a saintess through and through. Everything she did, she did with someone else in mind. From the day she adopted Micah to the moment Marco died, Micah did not see her cry for herself at all. She'd cry when a little boy got hurt and would offer help or cry when she saw a cat get kicked by some drunk douchebag.
mortal adoptive parent	Vincino (Vinny) Bertelli	37 years old	Vincino is an absurdly rich man who was born and raised in Sicily. He found Maira through her singing on the side of the road to raise money for Micah's trip to the US. He offered to take her in because he liked her and sponsored Micah's trip by giving him some money and a ticket onto a transatlantic cruise ship headed to New York City. All things considered, he's a kind and considerate man who loves Maria.
adoptive brother	Marco Di Santis	14 years old, Deceased	Marco Di Santis was a saint. Ever since he learned the word 'kindness', he was absorbed and defined by it. He loved seeing the smiles bloom on people's faces when he shared some bread or helped them with something but what he truly loved more than anything else was sailing and playing the piano. He was handsome beyond reason, having pale blonde hair and clear blue eyes, though he never had a chance to grow into it fully.
dead guy	Chris	16 years old, Deceased	Like Marco, Chris is one big ball of sunshine. The only difference is he's a ghost. Micah met Chris on the cruise he stowed away on to get to the US and the ghost promptly joined him, though reluctantly because he was watching over his parents and little brother, due to finding him interesting. Like Marco, Chris is handsome though he had more time to grow into his looks. Framed by golden hair and chocolate brown eyes, Micah wouldn't have doubted it if the boy was very popular during his living days.
friend	Willow 'Will' Crest	16 years old	One of the more laid-back campers Micah had met, Willow became something of a friend to the son of Charon, though they started off more as discussion partners than anything else. And besides, being chill-buddies is pretty fun on its own. Who knows where things can go from there?
friend	Rachel 'Rocky' Williams	17 years old	Rocky was one of the first people Micah met upon arriving at camp and her enthusiasm, uncharacteristic for a child of a chthonic god, immediately made her stand out. Though he genuinely has no idea what goes through Rocky's head, Micah considers them close, and okay, maybe he has a minuscule crush on her.
friend/former cabin-mate	Ramona Herrera	16 years old	Being another camper who met Micah's criteria for friendship (i.e. Be chill and relax), Ramona is someone who Micah doesn't know too much about. Much like Kit, who Micah has seen around camp and the Hermes Cabin, she is a mystery to him. Though he does enjoy trying to spot which corner she's hiding in at any given camp gathering.
acquaintance (?)	Mathew Knight	15 years old	Matt is, as far as friendship is concerned, a work-in-progress. Micah's father had recommended getting to know the son of Hades and though he'd lost himself in school shortly after, Micah had made introductions.

appearance

faceclaim	height	weight	hair	eyes	skin
FC, Art by Charlie Bowater	5’11”	Doesn't care	Black	Amber, fiery like gold	Lightly tanned, peppered with a few more recent thin scars from his time at camp

description: Micah is a fairly restrained person when it comes to clothes. Usually, he'd only grab a long-sleeved shirt and some jeans, feeling content. Most of his clothing is fairly average, what with them being of all sorts of muted colors and sorts of clothing. He isn't used to expressing himself whether it is though clothing or other methods.
equipment:

• Folding Knife; The cleaver-shaped folding knife was a present from his brother and Micah has taken to using it for almost everything in his day to day. When his mother fell ill after Marco's death, Micah had to scrub the docks, cut rope to secure the boats, and even got to work on some boats during outings for extra cash. The knife became like a lifeline, being used for everything he had to do.
• Bead Necklace; Micah has been at camp for a year now.
• Monster Directory; Over the years, Micah has seen one or two monsters in their undisguised forms and has taken to keeping note of them by drawing them in as great a detail as he can remember in a separate notebook from the rest of his drawings while also making notes of tactics that worked against them.
• Sketchbook; Ever since he started drawing, Micah has had a good amount of sketchbooks, most of which he donated to orphanages in Sicily for the little kids to enjoy the drawings if they weren't destroyed by seawater or other kids. After he donated his last one with a few pages blank at the end, he got himself a new book, this one being leather-bound and practically a blank slate. He's glad to have an abundance of space to draw as his story unfolds.
• Art Supplies; A good amount of colored and uncolored pencils, all in different states of use, either dull or sharp, long or short, and an eraser in a dark brown leather box.
• Satchel; The over-the-shoulder bag Micah carries around with all of his items. It's nothing special, just an olive green bag with a good amount of compartments and space.
• Throwing Knife Bandolier; Micah's choice of weapon, the bandolier he carries is easy to hide under civilian clothes, fast to access, and easy to use. The knives are of standard make and easily replaceable with others from the armory, though Micah tends to clean and sharpen them himself after each use.

abilities:
* – modmailed / custom

godrent domain powers: 

a) Dead Communication; Ever since his close brush with death, Micah's powers surged. His father's connection to spirits and those who have died became his and as such he can now see and communicate with the spirits of the dead. They have been his only source of information on his father. He likes to build a network of spirits whenever he goes somewhere new so he can gather information as fast as possible.
b) Shadow Camouflage; From a fairly young age, Micah wasn't much of a social butterfly. Most of the time, he felt most comfortable in a shadowy nook where the lines of his body would be broken by shadows, using the ability unconsciously. After his near-death experience, Micah became more aware of his ability to hide in shadows and learned to use it more effectively than before.
c) Shadow Travel\;* After an unknowably long amount of time spent in Hades, Micah's father, Charon, was aligned with the underworld to which he led the souls of the dead. Similarly, Micah has inherited the ability to travel through shadows in short or long-range teleports.

godrent minor powers: 

a) River Step\;* The connection with the River Styx flows through Micah's veins as much as it does through his father's. The ability this connection granted him was the ability to walk on water, as long as there is no significant shift to the water, such as large waves.
b) Death Buff\;* Being a servant of the God of the Dead, it only makes sense that Charon would draw his own power from his master. As such, Micah has inherited a trait where he becomes stronger when around children of other deities of death, such as Hades, Melinoe, Zagreus, the Oneiroi, etc.
c) Aura of the Harbinger\;* Being a multifaceted deity, Charon passed down his multifacetedness in the form of an aura ability. Micah has the ability to project an aura with two opposite effects that work on separate targets. A calming effect affects any spirits within the aura while an imposing effect like that of Children of Hades affects living beings within the aura's range.

godrent major powers: 

a) Major Watercraft Manipulation\;* Being known as the Ferryman of the Dead, it only makes sense for Charon, and Micah by extension, to have dominion over watercraft. Micah's control over watercraft was one of the first powers he discovered and the power that is most intertwined with him in his entirety. He has inherited the ability to gain absolute control over any and all watercraft down to the rigging and ropes.

skillset 

Over the years, Micah has picked up a good variety of skills, including fishing and rope work. Still, there have been a great many learning experiences for the boy on the streets of Sicily. Free running came as a given to any child of below-average means in Sicily but Micah was significantly worse than most thanks to a leg injury he got at the age of thirteen. Drawing was the only real luxury he had during his time when he wasn't working. A young lady from a carnival that was passing through taught him how to use throwing knives after he helped her find her way around the city. He learned ballet by watching, sitting for hours outside a studio every day for weeks until he'd gotten good enough to practice independently, which led to his interest in gymnastics. One of the older neighborhood boys took to teaching Micah, his brother, and the other kids how to read and write in English. Micah's adoptive mother insisted on teaching him how to speak English from a young age. Now, he can speak English with a barely noticeable Sicilian accent.
personality
Micah is about as quiet as you'd expect from a Chthonic kid. That isn't to say that he is particularly serious or brooding, in fact, even when he's upset, he rarely does either. He mainly remains silent because he isn't particularly talented at talking. His reactions to most things tend to be a bit muted unless something is especially funny or angering. Any of the kids that liked him or trusted him in Sicily did so because they understood that when it was needed, Micah would talk as much as was needed and would do what needed to be done to keep everyone safe.
Fatal Flaw; Vengefulness
backstory
Micah's past year at camp had been simultaneously the most relaxing and confusing year of his life. There had been a unfamiliarity that Micah had with anything to do with relaxation or really anything but working that had slowly melted away. He'd made friends and discovered passions that might have otherwise gone ignored for the rest of his life (Art was definitely one of those).
So, when school started to take over his time, Micah barely gave it any thought, settling back into his old work mentality, though now focused on mental instead of physical labor. Before he knew it, it was summer, school was out, and he was back at the start, not knowing how to get himself to relax.
now
Micah stared at the ground around the Range target blankly, the celestial bronze knives scattered around it refracting light. He was jolted out of his mental haze when a camper a few rows down yelled at him for standing in front of the target for so long. Quickly finishing up gathering his throwing knives, Micah slotted them into his bandolier and left the Range.
For a while, he just walked, until he reached the pier. Boats had been a constant of Micah's life before coming to camp and when he was really out of it or off his rocker, the son of Charon liked to settle at the camp pier and imagine what sort of sea vessel he'd design for himself. Aesthetics might not have mattered to everyone but to Micah, they did. The ship would have to look as good as it sailed.
Now, he fell onto his back in the sand a few meters from the pier and stared up at the sky. Barely any clouds. Gods that was boring.
(Credit to u/FireyRage for the amazing intro format.)

Hey there! I've been reading through this sub for a bit, and thought I'd give it a shot.
Past:
I graduated in 2018 with a BS in Biology, minors in Chemistry and Social Science. I originally wanted to be an MD, but couldn't afford it at the time. I had a pharmacy technician certification, and have been using it ever since. Unfortunately due to recent health circumstances, I'm no longer able to hold retail positions as the physical strain significantly impacted the rest of my life; for one 8hr shift, I would require at least 2 full days of rest for the inflammation in my joints to calm. This means anything going forward must be remote or sedentary.
Current: I've been researching pivoting into tech careers, and heard mixed sentiments: available certifications don't really get you in the door, pivoting is difficult to land without major experience, etc etc. I considered Project Management for a while, as I prefer to be a generalist, hopping from interest to interest. I got the two starter Scrum certifications: PSM-I and CSM, took the Google Project Management course, and am casually studying for the CAPM. All this has taught me is that I really don't like the responsibility and stress of project management, but I think I could be good at it. Maybe I'm not giving it enough chance, or maybe by continuing I'm falling for the sunk-cost fallacy.
Future Goals: Very high salary and career achievement isn't a significant priority. I don't have many needs, am minimalist, and only need to support myself and my cat. I have no debts. I don't want children, however with the cost of living how it is, I know it's imperative I eventually be making at or above $100k USD for future goals. I'd like to eventually make enough to be able to take care of my aging parents(60s) who have adopted my estranged brother's child (5yo). Although my ideal lifestyle would be to save/invest enough to fund building a family compound, I know this is a stretch.
Target lifestyle:

• Presently, I'd like to travel; ideal suggestions are careers that can be remote.
• I'd like to settle down on some land to take care of aging parents/family eventually, but it isn't a current priority - only a future consideration.
• The thing I most enjoyed about university was putting together studying materials and organizing/ leading study groups (I've considered knowledge management, database management, but unsure of viability/suitability to goals).
• I don't want to deal with customers - no sales.
• I enjoyed creating small automation flows with MS Power Automate
• I have no coding experience, but am willing to learn: things on my potential list are Python, SQL, Javascript, R.
• I work well in environments where I have autonomy to creatively problem-solve and think outside the box, but with expectations and goals that are clearly defined.
• I don't want to stress too much, or take home work with me. Honestly, I don't want to work for corporate anything - I hate it. But my physical restrictions are more limiting, so here we are.
• I really like product management and coming up with cool solutions/new methods/combining existing things to make something new - but the field seems pretty vague in its requirements.

Comments:
What I need help with most is to sort through all the possibilities and narrow down potential options. I've looked at a lot: Data analysis, UX/UI design, Project management, AI&Machine learning, SEO and digital marketing, java developer, QA engineering, COMPTIA certs, cybersecurity, pen testing, AWS, cloud engineering, database admin...it's a long list that goes on, and I'm having trouble figuring out something that will fit.
I wish apprenticeships and shadowing were still available options. I feel like I don't have a good conceptual understanding of what each position/training stack entails, its difficulty level, and how it would fit into my goals, so I can't make an informed choice. Experience in each would help me determine that, but I don't have that kind of time.
Any other non-tech but remote suggestions are also welcome! Perspective would really be helpful. Thanks all!

^{In this episode of Q&Q with Cybersurf we take a look at another empty platitude folks will throw around under the guise of wisdom, awakening or - dare I say it - Truth Realization.}

"Stop hating yourself for guilt blaming others!"

Of course what this particular Patronizing Saint does not realize is that he is talking to (and at, and from) the very Self he is pretending to have transcended. It get's worse with gems like "Be compassionate to yourself. It is ok." but I digress. The gist of it is of course promoting self-healing and not self-transcendence under the guise of Awakening.
It cannot be done. It really pains me to keep repeating the same words but your skulls are literally that thick by this point in the whole self erected self perpetuated 'community driven' circus act of false awakening talk.
What folks hate (and fear) the most while dreaming their lives away is some real Truth Talk. On top of that they love to play these semantic games never realizing that 'Truth Talk' is all that is possible from within the dreamstate. That even as I speak/write/pontificate I am rubbing these throat noise together we have all agreed upon should mean this or that or the other thing.
The reading in between the line is actually where all the magic happens. Or - in the case of this sub - where it never seems to be happening at all. For the fast majority of non-so-serious seekers holding themselves and others down in a two dimensional graphite-like bond. Imagine trying to rip a piece of Graphite with your supposed bare hands. Good luck! ;;)

"letting go of this hate of other people is hard!"

It sure is, but nor for the reasons you might believe. Who is there letting go of what exactly? How many of you are in there. What is the mechanism behind this split identity talking to itself, holding shit tight.. with what!? hands? What? It is simply impossible to 'let go' of something you are not holding with hands it does not even have. You are investing everything in a case of mistaken identity and the Patronizing Saint is going to cater to it with his own case of mistaken identity he crowned 'wise'... or compassionate.. or 'understanding'. It's a self perpetuating circus act of tear jerking nonsense.
Well it is if your aim is to awaken. If you are actually discussing these things with the intent implied in the very words. To actually make an honest effort to get on top of Self not underneath it for a lifetime. What a waste. No really. To stop looking for crutches or that next pat on the back on account of your crocodile tear jerker.
THIS IS LITERALLY THE VERY BEDROCK OF NON-DUALITY YOU CHOSE TO IGNORE.
I'm not even trying to sell you about some proprietary version of Truth or Truth Realization or self inquiry here at all.. It is 'YOU' who are whipping up one. Acting all enlightened and claiming nonsense about the whole damn thing. You let ego run the show and so of course it will do you like that. With great fervor as well it will go about knitting that rug of illusion and pull it from under you 365 times a day. With giddy delight! It's not even evil as such. Just the way this reality works. It will go as far as feeling sorry for itself too if that is needed 'while doing it' ....this is the podium where the 'teacher-student' monkey dance of epic proportion is carried out actually... where one dreamer will tell the other to "chill out.." ;;)
HOW DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT IT IS YOU ARE ALL PRETENDING SO HARD NOT TO KNOW?
Just drop the fucking charade already. ;;)

"Be compassionate to yourself. It is ok!"

There it is; incessant patronizing. But are you even awaken yourself friend? No. Still you want to dole out these Mickey Mouse tips? I don't get it.
Keep patting everyone on the back with some soothing narrative of "it's okay buddy' this is exactly what Maya WANTS you to be doing.
There is no one there to hate another. Even when you manage to turn the Hate Ship around; that would still be the you that is not you at all. But now you have some virtues ...or so you believe. Now you are 'healed' or so you believe. Now you are ...A GOOD PERSON (as opposed to no-person at all).
Now you have another notch on the very belt that was already choking the life out of you.
It is no use. In the context of awakening we don't prop up the dream nor the dreamer.. Not before and certainly not 'after'. I'm looking at you 'Buddhists' ;;)
You don't prop up the dream nor the dreamer: we SLAY IT!
Then life will stand explained. Whatever is left there is simply the natural functioning and rhythm.. and 'righteousness' of the organism. It does not need 'you'. A name will do. A place 'to belong' will do. Food, clothing and shelter is all it ever needs. Anything beyond that is where the organism ends its sphere of influence and is actually the beginning of Self delusion. The birth of tumors on the ego. Outgrowths that WANT all kinds of nonsense. Believe all kinds of BS... NEEDS all kinds of things that are not needed at all. EVER.
It is ego that loves virtue, to preach to talk morals, ethics and whatnot. It is ego that exalts the guru and declares some teaching sacred. ALWAYS. You have no idea of how it is intertwined with Maya's power.
Her favorite puppets of them all is these spiritual puppets. Because they have 'the power' to drag other's down to their sub-level and beat them with 'spiritual experience' ..there. Collective 'Sue Icide' sold as a virtue. Lemmings headed for the cliff. In droves.
I don't understand how the gist of you are still talking the same nonsense in the context of awakening year after year in here. Why are you so stagnant? How come there is not a even a shoe lace dropping.. How many left turns do you have to make to see that you are lost in a maze of Self?
Just take the biggest L of them all on your so supposed chin and you may start to awaken for real.
Cheers

^{In this episode of Q&Q with Cybersurf we take a look at another empty platitude folks will throw around under the guise of wisdom, awakening or - dare I say it - Truth Realization.}

"Stop hating yourself for guilt blaming others"

Of course what this particular Patronizing Saint does not realize is that he is talking to (and at, and from) the very Self he is pretending to have transcended. It get's worse with gems like "Be compassionate to yourself. It is ok." but I digress. The gist of it is of course promoting self-healing and not self-transcendence under the guise of Awakening.
It cannot be done. It really pains me to keep repeating the same words but your skulls are literally that thick by this point in the whole self erected self perpetuated 'community driven' circus act of false awakening talk.
What folks hate (and fear) the most while dreaming their lives away is some real Truth Talk. On top of that they love to play these semantic games never realizing that 'Truth Talk' is all that is possible from within the dreamstate. That even as I speak/write/pontificate I am rubbing these throat noise together we have all agreed upon should mean this or that or the other thing.
The reading in between the line is actually where all the magic happens. Or - in the case of this sub - where it never seems to be happening at all. For the fast majority of non-so-serious seekers holding themselves and others down in a two dimensional graphite-like bond. Imagine trying to rip a piece of Graphite with your supposed bare hands. Good luck! ;;)

"letting go of this hate of other people is hard!"

It sure is, but nor for the reasons you might believe. Who is there letting go of what exactly? How many of you are in there. What is the mechanism behind this split identity talking to itself, holding shit tight.. with what!? hands? What? It is simply impossible to 'let go' of something you are not holding with hands it does not even have. You are investing everything in a case of mistaken identity and the Patronizing Saint is going to cater to it with his own case of mistaken identity he crowned 'wise'... or compassionate.. or 'understanding'. It's a self perpetuating circus act of tear jerking nonsense.
Well it is if your aim is to awaken. If you are actually discussing these things with the intent implied in the very words. To actually make an honest effort to get on top of Self not underneath it for a lifetime. What a waste. No really. To stop looking for crutches or that next pat on the back on account of your crocodile tear jerker.
THIS IS LITERALLY THE VERY BEDROCK OF NON-DUALITY YOU CHOSE TO IGNORE.
I'm not even trying to sell you about some proprietary version of Truth or Truth Realization or self inquiry here at all.. It is 'YOU' who are whipping up one. Acting all enlightened and claiming nonsense about the whole damn thing. You let ego run the show and so of course it will do you like that. With great fervor as well it will go about knitting that rug of illusion and pull it from under you 365 times a day. With giddy delight! It's not even evil as such. Just the way this reality works. It will go as far as feeling sorry for itself too if that is needed 'while doing it' ....this is the podium where the 'teacher-student' monkey dance of epic proportion is carried out actually... where one dreamer will tell the other to "chill out.." ;;)
HOW DO YOU NOT SEE WHAT IT IS YOU ARE ALL PRETENDING SO HARD NOT TO KNOW?
Just drop the fucking charade already. ;;)

"Be compassionate to yourself. It is ok!"

There it is again; incessant patronizing. But are you even awaken yourself friend? No. Still you want to dole out these Mickey Mouse tips? I don't get it.
Keep patting everyone on the back with some soothing narrative of "it's okay buddy' this is exactly what Maya WANTS you to be doing.
There is no one there to hate another. Even when you manage to turn the Hate Ship around; that would still be the you that is not you at all. But now you have some virtues ...or so you believe. Now you are 'healed' or so you believe. Now you are ...A GOOD PERSON (as opposed to no-person at all).
Now you have another notch on the very belt that was already choking the life out of you.
It is no use. In the context of awakening we don't prop up the dream nor the dreamer.. Not before and certainly not 'after'. I'm looking at you 'Buddhists' ;;)
You don't prop up the dream nor the dreamer: we SLAY IT!
Then life will stand explained. Whatever is left there is simply the natural functioning and rhythm.. and 'righteousness' of the organism. It does not need 'you'. A name will do. A place 'to belong' will do. Food, clothing and shelter is all it ever needs. Anything beyond that is where the organism ends its sphere of influence and is actually the beginning of Self delusion. The birth of tumors on the ego. Outgrowths that WANT all kinds of nonsense. Believe all kinds of BS... NEEDS all kinds of things that are not needed at all. EVER.
It is ego that loves virtue, to preach to talk morals, ethics and whatnot. It is ego that exalts the guru and declares some teaching sacred. ALWAYS. You have no idea of how it is intertwined with Maya's power.
Her favorite puppets of them all is these spiritual puppets. Because they have 'the power' to drag other's down to their sub-level and beat them with 'spiritual experience' ..there. Collective 'Sue Icide' sold as a virtue. Lemmings headed for the cliff. In droves.
I don't understand how the gist of you are still talking the same nonsense in the context of awakening year after year in here. Why are you so stagnant? How come there is not a even a shoe lace dropping.. How many left turns do you have to make to see that you are lost in a maze of Self?
Just take the biggest L of them all on your so supposed chin and you may start to awaken for real.
Cheers

Greetings my fellow procrastinators :)
So, I've been seeing a lot of chatter lately about the Pomodoro Technique. You know, the method where you work for 25 minutes straight and then take a 5-minute break? Rinse and repeat. I decided to give it a whirl for a couple of weeks to see if it really lives up to the hype of beating procrastination and boosting productivity.
For those who might not be familiar, the idea is pretty simple. You set a timer for 25 minutes, work non-stop, no distractions allowed, and then chill out for 5 minutes doing whatever you like—grab a coffee, do some stretches, check texts, etc. After four of these cycles, you take a longer break, around 15 to 30 minutes.
Here’s what I found out:

• Focus booster: Honestly, knowing that I only had to focus for a short period made diving into tasks less daunting. Instead of facing an endless day of work, I just had to deal with 25 minutes. Totally doable, right?
• Breaks are key: Those 5-minute breaks felt like a mini-reward. It was something I really looked forward to, and surprisingly, it stopped me from looking at my phone every two minutes while working.
• Task management: It also made me more aware of how I manage tasks. Breaking my workday into these small chunks helped me estimate the time things actually take, rather than just guessing and then wondering where the day went.

But it's not all roses. For tasks that need deep thinking or are super creative, sometimes it felt like the timer went off just as I was getting into the groove. It can be a bit jarring and mess with your flow if the task needs a longer, uninterrupted focus.
All in all I think it helped me to get started with my tasks because commiting to something for 25 minutes really isn't a lot of time and just getting started is definitely a lot better that further procrastinating,
But then again, I'm also very interested in what you think about or if you have a similar technique that also solves this problem, maybe different time caps or something.
Please share your thoughts and expiriences :)
Cheers, Luka

I'm 19 mtf and currently live with my parents, I'm out to my gf, friends, and brother. They all support me, my brother a bit less and my mom knows some of the details but not that I'm trans, she's been iffy about it. I haven't really transitioned in anyway but I came to terms with myself about being trans when I was 17 though I had feelings since I was 12.
For some context some serious personal stuff has happened in me and my family's life that I rather not share which has greatly affected my father. I love my father I always have but overtime I had grown distant during my high school/college years but the most damaging thing in our relationship was his comments about the LGBT. Now he hasn't said the worst things about us but it was still negative. My family especially my parents are close more traditional values. My dad believes in the whole being a man and masculinity thing, he's always tried to push it onto me but the older I got the more I fought back. Based off on this though I already know my father would most likely not be pleased to hear about me being trans. I don’t think he’d act horribly cause he’s a very civil person. My mom has wanted to me to get closer to my father and help him with what’s going on emotionally but I told her I can’t. I mean how am I supposed to emotionally support someone when I’m positive they won’t return the favor and might even see me as an “it” or treat me like his child if I came out.
Here’s the thing though, I told my mom about how I can’t because he isn’t aware of my queerness. He’s reacted negatively to me growing out my hair when I was younger he use to almost buzz me when it got to a certain length as a child, though now it’s been growing out since I was 16 ( it’s a bit below my armpits). My dad has reacted very negatively to me bringing nail Polish home, guess he found it. He woke me up at 12 am on a school day to give me a lecture about how men don’t wear make up and how I need to become more of a man/macho. He almost banned me from seeing my female friends because he didn’t want me to do anything girly but I was able to convince him not to. From previous reactions which compared to telling him I’m trans I’m VERY positive he won’t take it well.
Good news is though I feel like I can tell them and get on hormones/transition soon. My friend who is non-binary asked me less than a month ago if I wanted to move in with them during the fall semester of college far away from where we live rn, I said I’ll think about it and as of now it’s pretty dead set in my mind.
So overall I don’t feel comfortable really not do I think it’ll go well if I come out to my dad, my mom knows a lot of it but not me wanting to get onto hormones, I think she’ll be fine with it especially overtime. Im just being pressured by my mom to come out to my dad :/ so I can help him out emotionally with what’s going on rn. I want to help him I do show him love and before my feelings for my dad became a mess but like I said I can’t if he doesn’t continue to love and support me through my journey. Though part of me feels I should wait when I move out and come out. I have a place to crash if I get kicked out, one of my friends offered if it ever happens but if I can prevent it then that’s what I want to do.

My spouse is a US citizen and I am a French citizen (no dual citizenship). We will be living in France soon and wondering about taxes regarding dividends and capital gains, as we have a sizeable portfolio in the US.
After carefully reading the consolidated tax treaty on the French taxes website, I wanted to double check with Reddit (specifically american expats in France) that I understood things correctly.
The first few articles say that outside of US retirement accounts and US real estate, we would be subject to tax in the country of residence (France).
However, Article 24 (b) about "removing double taxation" specifies this:

En ce qui concerne la France, les doubles impositions sont éliminées de la manière suivante. b) Lorsque le bénéficiaire des revenus est une personne physique qui est à la fois un résident de France et un citoyen des Etats-Unis, le crédit d'impôt prévu au [ (a) (i) pour les revenus non mentionnés aux ii et iii, au montant de l'impôt français correspondant à ces revenus ; ] est aussi accordé pour : (i) les revenus qui consistent en dividendes payés par une société qui est un résident des Etats-Unis, ou en intérêts provenant des Etats-Unis (ii) les gains en capital provenant de l'aliénation de biens générant les revenus visés au i ; toutefois, cette aliénation est prise en compte pour la détermination du seuil d'imposition applicable aux plus values mobilières en France

This article seems clear that we would have to file in both countries, but there would be a full tax credit for all FRENCH taxes (the higher ones) due in France for US citizens who are residents of France (my husband), which led us to believe that we would be paying only the US tax and just have to submit the tax return to France along with our french tax form. We would be essentially paying our taxes in the US at 0% LTCG instead of 30% french flat tax.
Is that correct? And if so, how does that work when only one of the spouses is a US citizen (my husband) and the other is not? Does it change anything?
Also, if that is indeed how it works, what about the "cotisations sociales" ? Those are the majority of the flat tax (17.2%). Do these also get cancelled for US citizens?
What about PUMA (6.5%)? Would we have to pay PUMA if we have no employment income in France?
If anyone is a US expat in France with capital gains and dividends from US brokerage accounts, could you enlighten us, please?
Thanks!

My spouse is a US citizen and I am a French citizen (no dual citizenship). We will be living in France soon and wondering about taxes regarding dividends and capital gains, as we have a sizeable portfolio in the US.
After carefully reading the consolidated tax treaty on the French taxes website (https://www.impots.gouv.fsites/default/files/media/10_conventions/etats-unis/etats-unis_convention-avec-les-etats-unis-impot-sur-le-revenu-impot-sur-la-fortune_fd_1835.pdf), I wanted to double check with Reddit (specifically american expats in France) that I understood things correctly.
The first few articles say that outside of US retirement accounts and US real estate, we would be subject to tax in the country of residence (France).
However, Article 24 (b) about "removing double taxation" specifies this:

1. En ce qui concerne la France, les doubles impositions sont éliminées de la manière suivante.

b) Lorsque le bénéficiaire des revenus est une personne physique qui est à la fois un résident de France et un citoyen des Etats-Unis, le crédit d'impôt prévu au [ (a) (i) pour les revenus non mentionnés aux ii et iii, au montant de l'impôt français correspondant à ces revenus ; ]
est aussi accordé pour :
(i) les revenus qui consistent en dividendes payés par une société qui est un résident des Etats-Unis, ou en intérêts provenant des Etats-Unis
(ii) les gains en capital provenant de l'aliénation de biens générant les revenus visés au i ; toutefois, cette aliénation est prise en compte pour la détermination du seuil d'imposition applicable aux plus values mobilières en France

This article seems clear that we would have to file in both countries, but there would be a full tax credit for all FRENCH taxes (the higher ones) due in France for US citizens who are residents of France (my husband), which led us to believe that we would be paying only the US tax and just have to submit the tax return to France along with our french tax form. We would be essentially paying our taxes in the US at 0% LTCG instead of 30% french flat tax.
Is that correct? And if so, how does that work when only one of the spouses is a US citizen (my husband) and the other is not? Does it change anything?
Also, if that is indeed how it works, what about the "cotisations sociales" ? Those are the majority of the flat tax (17.2%). Do these also get cancelled for US citizens?
What about PUMA (6.5%)? Would we have to pay PUMA if we have no employment income in France?
If anyone is a US expat in France with capital gains and dividends from US brokerage accounts, could you enlighten us, please?
Thanks!

Popheads recently reached the 2 million subscriber milestone, thanks to your continued participation and support!
We wanted to celebrate, and tried to think of fun things that we could do as a subreddit. A well loved Popheads activity has always been our yearly Top 100 lists, where the community comes together to vote to create a list of our favorite 100 songs of the past year. The list reveal is always fun and one of my personal favorite days of the year, and these lists honestly provide a great representation of our community - a snapshot of our own personal taste, if you will.
Therefore, for this subscriber milestone, we will be doing another Popheads Top 100…but this time, of a throwback year: 2014!!!
2014 was chosen for two reasons: one, the obvious, is that this year is the tenth anniversary of that year. The second is that the annual Popheads Top 100 actually started with the year 2015, so 2014 is the most recent year without “coverage”, so to speak. (If this is a success, we would love to repeat this for other years - 2013, 2012, even earlier!)
Without further ado, the rules for participation are below.

How To Participate

NOTE: Thank you so much to raicicle, whose posts for the annual Popheads Top 100 form the basis of this post!
Like with our normal years, you can also vote in the entirely non-official just-for-fun survey: “What song would you remove a vote from?” You can fill that in optionally here even if you don’t submit an official ballot.

I. How To Send In Your Song Votes

Make a list of your favorite songs released in 2014 (January 1st 2014 - December 31st 2014). This list should have a minimum of 10 songs and a maximum of 25 songs. Please see II. Song Eligibility for more details on what you can and can't submit.

• Do not submit more than 3 songs from any one main artist. Songs where those artists are features do not count towards this 3-song limit on your list.^†
• The list does not have to be ordered/ranked. We are not weighting your votes, just tallying.
• PM your lists to our shared account u/Popheads100Throwback by June 16th, 11:59PM EST (03:59AM GMT).
• Songs should be listed in Artist - Song format with features listed with (feat. ____) after the song title. Try to stylize and capitalize artist and song names as closely to the official listing as you can (for example, Beyoncé should have the accent). The fewer discrepancies, the easier it is for us to sort the list later, so it's very much appreciated.
• You can change your list at any time! Just message us and tell us what you want changed.

^† There are always some weird discrepancies and edge-cases every year, so please DM us if you have any queries or post them in this thread to let people know!
We can be DM'ed here at this account, or at our personal Discord or Reddit accounts (@ bigbigbee a.k.a bigbigbee ; @ trailblazer_l a.k.a prettybirbkotori ; @ haobinist a.k.a MoonlightByWindow ; @ haobinfan a.k.a runaway1312 ).
And here's a few more important guidelines.

• Your songs do not have to be singles. Of course, if you're trying to get a certain song on the list, singles tend to get more votes than random album tracks.
• Your songs do not have to be 'pop' songs, nor do vocal songs have to be in English. Songs from any genre, and international songs, are all welcome. After all, no “best of 2014” list can be complete without Orange Caramel’s Catellena...
• We are not encouraging tactical or strategic voting, but we are not exactly discouraging it either. Obviously, some songs are more likely to make the list than others, and you should keep that in mind when making your list (whether that means you choose to stick to the big hits, or champion some lesser-known songs instead).

II. Song Eligibility

Your song must have been first officially available between the dates of January 1st 2014 and December 31st 2014. What does 'first officially available' mean? In essence, legally available to stream (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.) or buy online.

• If a single was released after January 1st 2014, but was first officially available on a parent album before that date, it is not eligible.
• Similarly, a song on an album released after January 1st 2014 is not eligible if it was released as a pre-album single prior to that date. Sadly, this means Azealia Banks’ 212 is therefore ineligible (probably for the best, we all know it would have won…).
• Official remixes are eligible for the list regardless of the original song's release date, provided that the remix was released between the same dates of January 1st 2014 and December 31st 2014.

If you are unsure on a song's eligibility, please use this thread to clarify or DM us and we’ll be happy to help.
If you would like a reminder of what songs were released in 2014, feel free to have a peruse through these links:

• Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 2014 (be careful, a lot of these songs were released in 2013!)
• Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 2015 (see above addendum)
• List of all albums released in 2014 on website AOTY
• User-rated best albums of 2014 on AOTY
• Pitchfork’s best albums of 2014
• K-pop releases of 2014

III. How We Will Make The Final Top 100 List

To make life easier for everyone involved, as was previously mentioned, you do not have to rank your song choices. Every submission counts as one vote, and the list is simply the 100 songs that got the most submissions in order. There are however caveats to this:
An artist will never have more than 3 songs on the list. Even if after the initial vote an artist manages to have 6 songs numerically in the Top 100, only the top 3 of those will be added. This is an editorial decision, based on the fact that it seems more popular to feature as many different artists as possible and showcase the breadth of the sub's music taste rather than dedicate huge chunks of the list to one artist, or one album (sorry 1989 fans!).
It is inevitable that many songs will get the same number of votes. Songs with the same number of votes will appear alphabetically in the list, but we will make the number of votes that every song received public. There may be some weird stuff happening if the list doesn’t end up being exactly 100 songs long, in which case there may be some discretional tie-breaks.

IV. Writeups

The final list will be presented as a Pitchfork-style Top 100 with small writeups to bring some insight and a bit of a story to the song. If you’ve been around for the yearly top songs lists, then you are likely familiar with the process.
We'll be writing the Top 15 to keep it under wraps. The remaining 85 songs will be given to other guest writers! If you feel like you’re a good writer and you’re interested, just mention it when you send in your list (we will assume that you're interested in writing for one of the tracks that you submitted in your votes).
Write-ups will ideally be 4-6 sentences long, though shorter or longer is completely fine**.** Feel free to talk about anything - its chart performance, its composition, your personal experience with the song, etc. There is no perfect writeup - this list is a collection of our thoughts as a community, not an official list from a music publication!
You can also message any of us on our personal Discord or Reddit accounts as listed above (Discord is slightly preferable) if you’re interested – we will try our best to find a writeup for you if possible!
In choosing to do writeups, you inevitably find out whether a song has made it onto the list to write for it, but to keep the surprise as much as possible, we will not tell you the position of the song if we send you a song to write for.
To get the general gist of what these writeups will be like, feel free to have a look at 2022’s Top 100 list.

V. The List Reveal

The list will be revealed on Sunday, July 7th, 2024 (exact time TBD). The live reveal will be on Queup https://www.queup.net/join/top-100-of-2014, where all 100 songs will be played in order from #100 to #1; as each song goes out, its write-up will be posted to a post on the subreddit.
VI. Other Fun Stuff
Join our discord to discuss this and other music: https://discord.gg/T97SkFNV
Do the currently open rates!

• 90s R&B Princesses Rate: https://redd.it/1bv0rl0 [Due May 24, Reveal May 31-June 2]
• The Popheads Rate Olympics (Mini-Rate): https://redd.it/1cfjmbm [Due May 31, Reveal June 8-9]
• 2023 K-Pop Essentials Rate: https://redd.it/1co3jct [Due June 15, Reveal June 21-23]
• Piano Men Rate: https://redd.it/1co3kcr [Due June 22, Reveal June 28-30]

Hey, all.
First of all the troublemaker: Acer Aspire 7 (A715-41G)

• AMD Ryzen 5 3550H
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
• 8GB RAM
• 512GB SSD NVMe

I've done pretty much everything I can think of but with very little results. I first bought a cooling pad since it's the lazy way to get things done. This worked for awhile. I then cleaned it up thoroughly without achieving much. Changed the thermal paste (which was pretty much solid at this point) with Arctic MX-4, cleaned it up again. It was sort of okay-ish for a week, a few degrees down. Also forgot to mention the Max Processor State is set to 99%.
It throttles in about 10 minutes of gaming, and not even resource heavy games. Also games that are much older than the laptop itself. Few examples Skyrim (Original release), Dragon Age: Origins, GTA V, World of Warcraft: WotLK (Private server and client, so that might not be a good barometer). HOWERVER, there are some games where this issue is non-existent. The laptop still heats up quite a bit, but it doesn't throttle or go over say 95C - FIFA 14, Grim Dawn, Euro Truck Simulator 2.
Any ideas on what to do next? I'll fiddle a bit with different drivers and possibly try undervolting the processor, but that's about all I can think of. Any other ideas?
Also, so there isn't answers that wont help much, the re-pasting and cleaning are done properly and there was no visible damage to the heatsink. The ventilators also seem to work perfectly fine.

Hi guys. Making another shot at this. Cut prices on a few things because I'm just running out of room for storing my new builds. Order multiples and I may cut you a deal.
This post is mostly for people interested in buying, but I love a trade! If you're interested in trading see my latest post in /letstradepedals. I post there every other week, usually on Tuesday. I got non-DIY stuff in the trade post, too.
What I got for sale is hand-built stuff that I made, mostly relatively unique or heavily tweaked designs built on vero or point to point. Many are housed in upcycled tins, a few in hammond boxes. I've also got small practice amps built inside whatevers that you can crank up and enjoy at low volumes. They all run on standard 9v pedal power.
PRICES DON'T INCLUDE SHIPPING -- I ship USPS priority using pirateship.com, so expect shipping to be between $5 and $15 depending on how close you are to Tennessee. Would prefer to not deal with international shipping, but if you want it bad enough to pay for it, I'm game.
I accept Paypal or Venmo.
MOBILE USERS: There are 4 columns in the table below: Name, Price, Links, and Notes. If you don't see all 4, scroll over or ask for more info.
Fuzzes

Name	Price	Links	Notes
Bazz Me Fuss You #1	$90	PIC DEMO	A bazz-fussified perversion of the Escobedo push-me-pull-you, featuring controls for octave and volume. This is the first unit I've built using my own custom PCB. Housed in a painted 125B with top jacks.
Space Fuzz	$80	PIC DEMO	This is a Hollis crash sync fuzz that I souped up with an LFO to modulate the filtesync frequency. Really wild flangery/phasey type gated fuzz sound. At the right settings you can get some octave-down effects as well. Housed in a ~3.5 inch square game tin reinforced with recycled plastic. Pretty pleased with this build.
SwirlFuzz	$75	PIC DEMO	Modulated octave fuzz prototype. It's an octave fuzz, but you can switch on an LFO to modulate the octave amount. Controls for Rate, Depth, Gain, and Volume, plus switches for waveshape and mode (Normal/Octave/Modulated). In a circular tin reinforced with recycled plastic.
Big Green Fuzz for Attractive Bass Players	$75	PIC Demo	Like my bazz-me-fuss-you circuit, but with a big muff tone stack, a clean blend, and optional clippers for more compression. Housed in a big round tin reinforced with recycled plastic and designed specifically for attractive bass players. Unattractive ones may not really gel with this.
Creature from the planet Chyowngg	$65	PIC Demo	Prototype of a unique fuzz I've been developing that I call the Chyowngg fuzz. It's a 2-stage octaver that gives a bright synthy tone with a distinctive envelope (hence the name). You can toggle each stage from octave to non-octave mode for a variety of interesting timbres. Also has a tone control, but the tone control is before the octave stages so it results in interesting behaviors depending on the switch settings. It's in a tin meant to be painted like an alien, though some say it looks more like a triceratops.
Baller Fuzz	$60	PIC DEMO	Another Bazz-Me-Fuss-You build with an added BMP-style tone control. In a slightly beaten-up heart-shaped basketball tin. Y'all ready for this?
Wiff Spwinkles on Top	$45	PIC Demo	This point-to-point fuzz lives in the same neighborhood as the Harmonic Percolator, but has a few differences. I altered the way the gain knob works, and added a switch to toggle bass cut. It's housed in an ice-creamity welly tin.
Dumbo's Bazzrite Fussrite	$40	PIC Demo	A bazz-fussified mosrite fuzzrite circuit I cobbled together in point-to-point wiring style. Housed in a little Dumbo puzzle tin with GLITTER! Controls are for balance (kind of tone-cum-gain) and volume.

Drives, Distortions, and Boosts

Name	Price	Links	Notes
Bronze Drive	$85	PIC Demo	This is a point-to-point, transistor based overdrive I designed based loosely on the Davisson Easy Drive. Good for low-gain crunchy tones and plenty of output volume on tap if you want it for a boost. Tone circuit is like a BMP stack but with a mid hump instead of a mid cut. Housed in a painted 125B with top jacks.
Copper ZenerMorph Drive	$65	PIC Demo	This is an experiment in zener diode clipping. Nice crispy drive that gets beefier as you turn up the gain, lots of good edge-of-breakup tones to be had. Housed in a decorated tin reinforced with some plastic.
GOOST	$65	PIC	A simple JFET boost vaguely based on the Runoffgroove Fetzer valve. Switch toggles bass cut for a treble-boosting sound. Point-to-point build housed in a small tin reinforced with recycled plastic.
B is for Beast	$55	PIC DEMO	This fun little drive/boost consists of two cascading MOSFET gain stages with optional clipping in between. It goes from clean and loud to massive wall-of-gain distortion nicely. Controls for gain, clipping, and volume. In a small heart-shaped tin about 4in by 4in.
Shining Hope Drive	$40	PIC Demo	Differential mirroring drive, gives a kind of overdriven-mixer-channel distortion. Controls for gain, tone, and volume. Housed in a star-shaped Christmas tin.
Green Sparkler Boost	$35	PIC	Just an Escobedo Duende JFET boost built point-to-point in a sparkly little round tin. Gives a little gain and a bit of warmth to the tone.

Non-Dirt

Name	Tier	Links	Notes
Gift of Chykka Wakka	$65	PIC DEMO	First build of an all-transistor envelope filter I designed. Built point-to-point style and housed in a little giftbox tin reinforced with recycled plastic. Controls for Q and Sweep, switch toggles envelope smoothing.
Vortex of Funk	$65	PIC DEMO	Second build of the Chykka-Wakka circuit, this one features attack, Q, and range controls. Built point-to-point and housed in a painted tin.
BZZZ BOOP BEEP	$50	PIC DEMO	A basic square wave oscillator on a momentary switch. Can go from bzzz to boop to beep with a sweep of the big knob. Also has tone and volume controls, and a 3-way switch for different decay amounts. Use it to simulate a spring door stopper or dying cow. Or bleep your foul-mouthed frontman. Or mess with the sound guy. Or send Morse code to the bar. I dunno. Housed in a painted tin reinforced with recycled plastic.

Little Amps

Name	Price	Links	Description
Ample iMank	$65	PICS DEMO	This is a Runoffgroove Ruby Amplifier built into this old multimedia speaker enclosure designed to look like an old iMac. Glows blue when you turn it on. It runs from a standard 9v pedal power. It's not terribly loud, nor terribly clean, but if you dig the classic mac vibe it might be fun. Controls for gain and volume, and a power switch on the back.
Nosy Amp	$75	PICS DEMO	Another solid-state amp based on the Ruby amplifier, housed in a repurposed bookshelf speaker. This one actually has pretty decent volume, even on 9V (can run on 12V as well for more), and can stay clean while getting loud enough for a quiet jam with friends.
Fleur-de-Lis Amp	$90	PICS DEMO	A tiny bookshelf speaker turned into a practice amp. This one features a class D power amp for lovely cleans, and a custom designed discrete preamp that gets punchy & crunchy when cranked. Runs on 9V but pretty loud nonetheless.

That's all for now. I just keep building and building, though, so there'll be more.

Being in healthcare, I knew that my life was going to change forever after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (which I suspected I had before I was even diagnosed). I also knew that I could take steps to limit the disease progression and its side effects. I already ate healthy and exercised regularly before my official diagnosis but afterwards I focused even more on cutting out excessive simple sugars/high-starch/fatty foods, moving more often even when I wasn’t ‘officially’ exercising during my regimen (which I upped in intensity and duration), eating a more plant-based and low-carb diet, and drinking water regularly. I also made sure to take my medications and have regular checkups. All of this to say? I managed to get my disease down to clinical remission. My CRP and symptoms are essentially non-existent.
So I should be ‘free’, right?
But when I was binge-watching silly, YouTube videos (think mom-like homemaking content just because I wanted to broaden my horizons for cooking and housekeeping and it's one of my entertainment, guilty-pleasures), one of the creators mentioned something.
“I can’t get access to a lot of new or specific things because I live in the middle of nowhere and so I have to special order it.”
And that hit me like a TON of bricks.
While I may be able to financially move anywhere I want to in the future with my career in healthcare? Realistically speaking for my overall health? With this disease? Where I am able to go is limited and will likely be confined to areas with 1) large populations as those are where dedicated specialists tend to be most readily available and 2) at least 45 min. within range of a major metropolis with the most essential of services.
Because how will I get my meds quickly if I somehow run out/lose them unexpectedly? What if I need emergency services from a complication? How do I keep my diet as regimented as I can without spending an arm and a leg and hoping that I can find what I need and move about safely without having to wait for months for it to potentially be in stock? For exercise, what if I need special gym equipment and a trainer and need safe, paved roads to move around? Where can I be so that I’m not waiting up to a year for the single specialist in a rural area to see me? What if I need a home-aid or house cleaning ASAP if I have a flareup even in remission? Specialized delivery also is limited in distant areas too.
I used to dream of living semi-off-the-grid rural area (not completely but just isolated) but now? Realistically that’s likely not going to be the case. Not if I want to maintain a safe, accessible, and decent quality of life as the disease inevitably progresses while I get older.
All of this to say? I’m happy with my life, truly. I’m so glad I’m technically in remission and doing well overall. But knowing that these complications are always lurking in the background and are something I have to think about is frustrating. Obviously we adjust and adapt but it just makes me realize
To be honest, I’m not sure why I wrote this all out. I guess it’s just because… even if you’re doing well, there’s always reminders of how this disease will be a constant and impact your life in so many different ways. So probably just an emotional vent and also a commiseration amongst those that get it.
And if you stayed and read this entire essay, thank you. I appreciate being able to vent to a community that gets it. RA (and other chronic diseases) can be so invisible and overlooked since it’s so ‘common’ in women and often brushed off as ‘just arthritis’ when it’s so much more.

(Only Europe, Please) - short note - If you're not into reading or receiving long messages,don't read any further + Please If you don't want to read everything because of my post being too long for you & instead of reading It all - ..skip some parts - find another person to talk to.Let's respect each other and our free time. All people criticizing/making fun of me & other people - will be blocked.Pretty much as people questioning my post and giving me unsolicited advice.I'm not here for any conflicts and I know I can't please everyone - I know I never will.. However It's me who should feel comfortable in my new potential friendship & obviously someone who wants to be my friend - not the whole world.. which is why I don't need any advice from people who don't even want to be a part of my life. The amount of rude people on Reddit always criticizing others and making fun of them is unbelievably high but let me tell you something - NEVER let anyone make choices for you and criticize you only because you're different! Always fight for your dreams and never let anyone make you think you're worthless! It's your life and you're the one deciding what's best for you - If you want to judge me despite not even wanting to talk to me or give me advice better block me! I'm an adult woman and I make all decisions on my own.I'm not trying to "fit in" and be like everyone else - just to get more attention.Accept me for who I am or let go - is my motto.
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Hello guys! 🙂 (read everything before you decide to send me a message) Please send me a message ONLY If you're in the same situation and If your expectations are the same as mine.I want to find like minded people from Europe (Why Europe? Read my post to find out) I'm looking for something permanent (remember - you can feel lonely even If you're surrounded by others - If there's no emotional bond) I'm fed up of meeting people who never make time for me & only text me once or twice a week to ask me "what are you up to?" Out of boredom.I don't want to meet people asking others a million of questions like "what's your favorite movie?" Just to give them one word answer and ask them another question "and music? Your favorite song?" I'm looking for something "deeper" & different 🙂
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What kind of friend would I like to find? Someone to talk to on a daily basis - Someone who needs It & wants It just as much as me
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What are my expectations? I would like to meet someone in a similar situation – why? Because I honestly feel like only a person with the same expectations and a similar outlook on life would get along with me & because I feel more comfortable talking to people like me..Friendless people who need a strong bond - people without friends and partners.. Don't get me wrong…Most people deserve to be happy and It's good to have friends but people who have friends or families in real life are usually more focused on them (which is completely understandable) & have less time for others + I simply don't want to be replaced by anyone..I kind of envy people who can call others , true friends given I don't have an emotional bond with any of my acquaintances. Please send me a message only If you're not In a relationship and don't have friends for the same reasons I've already mentioned before
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Whenever I hear that others have friends I simply get sad because (believe it or not) If I had to choose between 20 people to talk to (acquaintances) and one special person - I'd choose that one special person without any hesitation .
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I also want to talk to others every day because..I want to see someone’s effort & be someone's first choice - not another person to have random conversations with..some people ask me "Why do you want to talk to people from Europe?" Well..Because I would like to see someone I'd get along with - In the far future - face to face :) + I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to receive a message - waiting 6 hours to receive a message is more than enough
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I'm by no means criticizing people who don't want to talk to others often / People who really are super busy & People who want to find someone to have unimportant conversations with - I'm aware that not everyone has the same expectations which is why everything you're reading now - is here for a reason :) All I'm suggesting is - I don't want anything temporary and I don't want to be the one always giving more than receiving.Listen people - I used to ignore being..ignored by others..always being just an option to talk to during tough times or moments of boredom.I was too young to realize that I was never important enough for most people that were a part of my life. I don't know who needs to hear this but..No one is too busy to make time for you! People make excuses to avoid others because they prioritize everything and (maybe) everyone..over them. It's true that most people are busy - but It takes only a few seconds to start a conversation (If you're into short messages) and a few minutes (1-10/15) to type a long message . Don't let anyone lie to you.
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Truth is that most people either don't like you enough to make time for you or just simply - feel no need to talk to others often but are they too busy? No..You don't need to send me a message just to ask me and tell me "Do you really want to talk every day? I like long messages but I can't promise to contact you often" If you really are unsure please don't send me a message.I don't need more acquaintances aka people to talk to - occasionally.
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I'm not trying to sound rude but conversations once or twice a week wouldn't be enough for me and I don't need them... Let me tell you one thing – A true friend would never just give up on you for no reason :) It’s always possible to find someone to have a random conversation with – someone willing to send you one message once or twice a week..but..It’s almost impossible to find people willing to make more time for you.
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I’m not asking a busy person to make time for me by changing some plans! Absolutely not! I’m here to find someone who wants to talk daily (throughout the day or maybe even night) of one’s own will.Someone looking for the same kind of connection.Strong friendships are based on mutual support. One of the best things you can do for a friend in need, is just to be there for them when they want to talk.I often see posts from people who always say how friendless they are because they don't feel loved or appreciated by their "friends" remember! A true friend - someone who truly likes you or someone who wants to get to know you - will always find time for you.
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I'm not interested in small talk/short messages - I love long and meaningful conversations. It's so easy to find someone who loves abbreviations and questions like "How are you?" How was your day? Or what are you interested in? But so hard/almost impossible to find a person who knows how to keep a conversation going & show others some effort.Building and maintaining friendships takes time and effort.Never allow pursuits or possessions to become bigger priorities than your relations with other people.Close friendships are so important to us because they are so difficult to form + Having friends can help you feel as if you belong to something that brings purpose and connection to your life
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• I do NOT respond to any „Hey,hmu” or „u want to talk?” type of messages (super short messages or messages full of abbreviations – I literally can’t stand abbreviations and acronyms in text messages) ALL messages full of abbreviations will immediately be ignored.I also don't like it when people ignore everything I say in private messages just to focus on a random question or? When they start talking only about themselves and don't ever ask me anything. I love conversations with people referring to everything I say...I want everything I say and do - to be reciprocated
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• No NSFW profiles (checking mental health subreddits NOT included as I'm a huge empath and always try to understand others) - Please! I'm not looking for anyone to flirt with and I'm not looking for a partner either. I always check people's profiles (even comment history) - To avoid guys, trying to get inappropriate pictures from adult women or? flirt with them + I don't want to see you with no clothes on so If you're on Reddit only because you want others to see what's underneath your clothes - I'm not for you! I just simply don't want to see any s e x related activity on your profile If you want to talk to me.
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• If both of us (you and I) are from the same country (I live in a non-English speaking country) - I want to communicate with you in our first language! No - Not because I don't understand English - because as you see - I do. Why then? English is simply overrated and people don't appreciate other languages as much as they should. So.. If we're from the same country and you want to talk only in English (which is quite common on reddit) - Talk to someone else. I just don't want to talk to a person from the same country as mine - in a foreign language as It's just something I don't understand even If all you want is to improve your language skills
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• Please only adult people 18-36 (age range) It doesn't matter to me If you're younger or older than me (as long as you're not underage) So.. don't worry! I just want to have discussions with emotionally mature people :)
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• I don’t respond to messages I don’t find interesting even If they're long - If after receiving and reading your message I don't feel comfortable or think "I wouldn't get along with him/her" I simply do not respond (what I’m suggesting is that I don’t always respond to someone’s first or second message because..sometimes you just know If you’d get along with someone or not- I’d never ignore anyone after days or weeks of daily conversations though) just because I don’t want to do anything forcefully & because I don’t want to lead anyone on. I read all messages but I definitely don't respond to all of them! I want to make it clear because I don't want to be accused of not responding and not reading people's messages! - Some people don't message me back as well and even If It's a bit disappointing I'm ok with that! - as long as there's no emotional bond - Not responding to someone's first or second message Is completely OK! If people think they wouldn't get along with a stranger - is there a reason to start a conversation? I don't think so. I can't stand being ignored after days or weeks of daily conversations and seeing people changing priorities over time.. but that's something different - something I don't want to go through ever again for real. If I'm really interested in someone's message it's impossible to hear from me "I'm too busy" because I know myself and If I had no time for others - I wouldn't be here. I don't want to pretend someone I'm not and always try to find some cheap excuses to avoid others. (unlike most people who don't want to talk to others)
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• Don’t ask me “Can you tell me something about yourself?” If you really want to get to know me - you can ask me questions :) I'm an open book.
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• It would be better If you guys were into emojis - like me - to describe your emotions In text messages. Two emojis - 🙂 and 🙁 are completely enough! I just don't like emotionless conversations.I also don't like it when people say "yeah" or yea"as it sounds dismissively. First impression Is everything to me! I want to see your kindness even in a text message - Emojis are very helpful to express your emotions.I don't want to meet people who say "crying Is a weakness" - It's OK to cry even If you're a guy!
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• I want to talk on reddit first (just to make sure If I'd get along with you) before moving to Discord or some other app
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• I would rather talk to a homebody - not another person who always has something to do as people who are very busy don't even have time for daily conversations
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• If you're another person interested only in "childish conversations" such as "HEYOOO! I'M BORED! Ya like Pizza or cheese? xDDDD 🤣" I'm begging you! Don't send me a message.I'm not a child anymore and such messages don't make me smile or laugh.I'm looking for someone interested In serious discussions - not another person just seeking some entertainment out of boredom . Conversations with sarcastic undertones (even when It comes to some emojis such as 🤣😂) are not for me. Your typing style matters to me! Why? when It comes to online conversations with someone new - It's not always possible to know If someone Is laughing at you.. or with you. Let me tell you something else! Jokes about cancer, disabilities and death are UNACCEPTABLE to me. If you find joy In someone else's misfortune you are not a person I want to know.
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• Time response matters to me a lot! I would never ask anyone to be online all day long and I'm NOT asking any of you for any instant messaging as I'm someone who would rather wait an hour or two to receive a proper response instead of some short and pointless messages but I'm interested only in daily conversations and I don't want to wait any longer than 6 hours to get a message from you.I don't need unbelievably long messages either! Messages as long as the second paragraph of my post - are completely enough. If you like longer messages? you can send me a longer message, but If you want to send me one word or one sentence as a response to my post - don't expect a reaction from me. I don't want to come across as rude - I just don't want to waste your time
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• I'm strongly AGAINST picking on people you don't even want to chat with - and making fun of them! I can't stand people who criticize others publicly or make fun of them! (only because they disagree with someone they don't even know) There's no place In my life for someone using Reddit, to hurt other people
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• I'm not into foul language and I definitely don't want to talk to people who swear a lot...
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• I want to meet assertive people who know what they want and always stand up for their friends
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• I want to meet someone willing to call me In the future, someone spontaneously sending me pictures of animals or food, et cetera. I want more than just text conversations.. 🌻
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Why can’t you see any of my hobbies listed down below? Because what really matters to me is..who you are (If you’re honest, talkative ,understanding, caring and trustworthy – for example) just simply – It matters to me what you’re like! not what you like.Don’t get me wrong – you can tell me what your hobbies are but from my point of view - people's hobbies are important - If you want to find a gaming buddy or If you want to meet someone to hang out with in real life and..go bowling for example.What most people seem to care about are other people's passions – I don’t. I get along with other people despite having completely different hobbies but I absolutely don’t get along with people way different than me (different expectations and outlook on life – way different sense of humor or personality traits – It’s just an example) It doesn't make ANY DIFFERENCE to me If you're a gamer or? Someone interested in photography! It doesn't make any difference - > as long as you're talkative and kind and If you also want to find someone willing to stay in your life..for good - But If you're into small talk and all you want is to...type and receive super short messages or If you're here only because you're bored and don't know what to do + If you're a very sarcastic person - I'm definitely not for you! I don't get along with overly sarcastic people turning everything into a joke. Friendships should be natural – not forced. I wouldn't get along with people who laugh at everything.. In my opinion most people are way too sarcastic.. It's quite sad... Sarcasm can also be another form of passive-aggressive behavior.
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People who want to be to friends should feel comfortable and have something in common. No - not necessarily a similar taste in music or movies but something else..Most friendships don't fizzle out because of people not having the same hobbies but..because they just simply have different expectations when It comes to something important.I'm not here out of boredom and trust me - I'm not here to meet as many people as possible.I choose quality over quantity.I highly value myself and my time & Sometimes one person but a person who makes you feel comfortable and understood - is more than enough :) We ALL can choose what kind of people we’d like to talk to and maybe even become really good friends with and I? I don’t want anyone to be disappointed.We all have some expectations after all.I know that people don't have to talk as often as possible in order to become friends but I'm interested only in daily conversations. If you really need someone to talk to due to loneliness and If you have time to talk to me daily (throughout the day and maybe even night) I always make time for others.I'm literally always available.I could even stay up all night long only to talk to someone important to me. I’m ready to commit but only If there’s some chemistry between me and someone else.I don’t do anything forcefully.
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If you want to talk to me tell me your story - tell me why you're here, what kind of friend would you like to meet :) Et cetera.Such messages are way more interesting to me than...someone's long list of hobbies. I know! It's unusual on reddit but I don't make friends based on hobbies..I want to meet someone with the same mindset as mine to finally feel understood and get close to someone new. You can share your problems with me - I absolutely don't mind "complaining" as I've been through a lot in my life.What do people usually tell you when you tell them that something's wrong? "Don't complain" or "Life's not over yet - one day you'll be happy" or "There are worse situations than yours" and..obviously "Find a therapist" Life's not a fairytale and sometimes things don't go as planned.Emotions shouldn't be bottled up.I'm sick of people always telling others "everything's gonna be ok" move on " & more..Trust me people - not everyone wants to hear "Just believe in yourself and everything's gonna be ok" Some people take it as reassurance - but others? They would rather hear something different 🙁Imagine being told that things will be okay, only for them to get worse..Do you guys know why telling someone "everything's gonna be ok" Is wrong? Because you can't see the future.
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You can't guarantee others that one day they'll finally be happy + when It comes to social interactions - We're responsible only for ourselves - not others & as you guys know people let us down quite often (sometimes even when there's no reason) so instead of telling people how they should move on, forget everything and be happy or asking them to find a therapist - be there for them! Always be willing to listen to them If you really like them or want to get to know them & don't suggest everyone in a tough situation to find a therapist because even the best therapist won't ever replace a true friend + It's quite normal to be disappointed If people always do something to hurt you. Sharing your hardships with other people in a very similar situation or exactly the same one - is VERY helpful If the other person understands you & wants to start all over by just letting it all out! Feeling emotional support instead of always hearing some "positive quotes" or someone saying "Stop complaining let's talk about something else - Is very important! "Everyone needs a shoulder to cry on. I appreciate sensitive people who always try to understand others. If after hearing a sad story all you want to say is "forget the past and move on" you're not for me. It's important to be a good listener and provide emotional support to others
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Please - If you're a completely different person than the described type of person I'm looking for (If you love abbreviations,If you don't need a stable friendship, If you're sarcastic and quiet) or If you simply disagree with my post - don't force yourself to send me a message.I want my new potential friendship to be natural which is why I want you to contact me only If your needs are the same - I don't want you to pretend someone you're not - only to please me - Pretending to be someone you're not - is the worst.I want to finally be happy again & find someone "always" wanting to talk - sending me random pictures throughout the day - food pictures or pictures of some animals. What is the most important to me? I want to find people who value online friendships as much as they would value real life ones as there's another human being on the other side
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No comments please.Only Private messages and chat requests 🌺
I know It's possible to meet people with exactly the same expectations as mine but It's just not easy because most people are Interested In temporary and entertaining conversations. People like me are just "different" I really want to finally find someone who loves emojis as much as I do.. someone who loves sweet, warm and serious discussions at the same time. Emojis really do - change conversations 😊

Being in healthcare, I knew that my life was going to change forever after being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (which I suspected I had before I was even diagnosed). I also knew that I could take steps to limit the disease progression and its side effects. I already ate healthy and exercised regularly before my official diagnosis but afterwards I focused even more on cutting out excessive simple sugars/high-starch/fatty foods, moving more often even when I wasn’t ‘officially’ exercising during my regimen (which I upped in intensity and duration), eating a more plant-based and low-carb diet, and drinking water regularly. I also made sure to take my medications and have regular checkups. All of this to say? I managed to get my disease down to clinical remission. My CRP and symptoms are essentially non-existent.
So I should be ‘free’, right?
But when I was binge-watching silly, YouTube videos (think mom-like homemaking content just because I wanted to broaden my horizons for cooking and housekeeping and it's one of my entertainment, guilty-pleasures), one of the creators mentioned something.
“I can’t get access to a lot of new or specific things because I live in the middle of nowhere and so I have to special order it.”
And that hit me like a TON of bricks.
While I may be able to financially move anywhere I want to in the future with my career in healthcare? Realistically speaking for my overall health? With this disease? Where I am able to go is limited and will likely be confined to areas with 1) large populations as those are where dedicated specialists tend to be most readily available and 2) at least 45 min. within range of a major metropolis with the most essential of services.
Because how will I get my meds quickly if I somehow run out/lose them unexpectedly? What if I need emergency services from a complication? How do I keep my diet as regimented as I can without spending an arm and a leg and hoping that I can find what I need and move about safely without having to wait for months for it to potentially be in stock? For exercise, what if I need special gym equipment and a trainer and need safe, paved roads to move around? Where can I be so that I’m not waiting up to a year for the single specialist in a rural area to see me? What if I need a home-aid or house cleaning ASAP if I have a flareup even in remission? Specialized delivery also is limited in distant areas too.
I used to dream of living semi-off-the-grid rural area (not completely but just isolated) but now? Realistically that’s likely not going to be the case. Not if I want to maintain a safe, accessible, and decent quality of life as the disease inevitably progresses while I get older.
All of this to say? I’m happy with my life, truly. I’m so glad I’m technically in remission and doing well overall. But knowing that these complications are always lurking in the background and are something I have to think about is frustrating. Obviously we adjust and adapt but it just makes me realize
To be honest, I’m not sure why I wrote this all out. I guess it’s just because… even if you’re doing well, there’s always reminders of how this disease will be a constant and impact your life in so many different ways. So probably just an emotional vent and also a commiseration amongst those that get it.
And if you stayed and read this entire essay, thank you. I appreciate being able to vent to a community that gets it. RA can be so invisible and overlooked since it’s so ‘common’ in women and often brushed off as ‘just arthritis’ when it’s so much more.