Free worksheets for the schwa sound
Dashcam videos in Gif form!
2013.10.04 15:07 shittyartist Dashcam videos in Gif form!
The craziest crashes in gif format. Gif'd content from a dashcam, rear dashcam, a cell phone, helmet cam, or go pro that was taken in any vehicle. Reddit has a gif checkbox if you want to upload your content that way. But MP4's with no sound are accepted. NOTHING LONGER THAN 40 SECONDS.
2013.05.31 02:49 if_only_i_knew /r/SynthRecipes
Where sound designers / synthesizer enthusiasts come to share and grow their skill set. Check our Wiki for the Synthrecipes Cookbook!
2011.04.05 21:43 soundeziner Audio Post Production
We are sound for picture - the subreddit for post sound in Games, TV / Television , Film, Broadcast, and other types of production. * Dialog / Dialogue Editing * ADR * Sound Effects / SFX * Foley * Ambience / Backgrounds * Music for picture / Soundtracks / Score * Sound Design * Re-Recording / Mix * Layback * and more Audio-Post Audio Post Editors Sync Sound Pro Tools ProTools De-Noise DeNoise
2024.05.01 05:04 Depressed_Dick_Head Regular Show
So I've been watching this show that I really like called Regular Show. It's about two guys that work at a Park and have really intense and exciting adventures per episode. I've also noticed that both of them and many of the Park staff form really close friendships and have fun together, not just work together to defeat creatures or complete an extremely hard challenge.
Watching this show made me realize that I'd absolutely love to have a life and friendships similar to these characters (minus working minimum wage jobs, not having college degrees, and the supernatural and extreme stuff). I wish I could be chill and relaxed and having fun like these characters while being a responsible adult and safe and sound in the real world, but nowadays I'm really stressed, anxious, and sad. I'd probably be much happier if I could form friendships like those in Regular Show, have a decent dating life, do fun activities together with my friends and/or bf/husband every other weekend, be child-free with no judgement, be buff & strong and enter bodybuilding/powerlifting competitions without hearing others in the Indian community and in my family bitch and moan about how I look like a man, no man would marry me, and I wouldn't be able to have babies, support and volunteer for causes that others wouldn't approve of (ex: LGBTQ+ organizations), attend a queer-affirming church without fear, love my job, enjoy drinks and food without fear of judgement, wear whatever clothes I want, style my hair however I want, and more.
Overall, I just would love to have these things while maintaining a healthy, loving relationship with my parents without fearing or disliking them, also like most of the characters in Regular Show. With how things are, I know it probably won't become a reality, which makes me really sad. Now I'm just stuck at home job hunting, taking care of things at home, and only hanging out (like every 2 weeks, 3-4 weeks if there isn't much going on) with people from Church and/or the Indian community (my APs' family & friends and their kids), all while having no life (dating or friendship) outside of my family.
IDK, sometimes being born into an Asian family sucks, even more if you're female and/or LGBTQ+, disabled, etc.). I also think that shows like Regular Show show (pun not intended) that my life doesn't have to be this way.
What other shows/movies made you want to live life like the characters in these shows/movies?
submitted by Depressed_Dick_Head to AsianParentStories [link] [comments]
Watching this show made me realize that I'd absolutely love to have a life and friendships similar to these characters (minus working minimum wage jobs, not having college degrees, and the supernatural and extreme stuff). I wish I could be chill and relaxed and having fun like these characters while being a responsible adult and safe and sound in the real world, but nowadays I'm really stressed, anxious, and sad. I'd probably be much happier if I could form friendships like those in Regular Show, have a decent dating life, do fun activities together with my friends and/or bf/husband every other weekend, be child-free with no judgement, be buff & strong and enter bodybuilding/powerlifting competitions without hearing others in the Indian community and in my family bitch and moan about how I look like a man, no man would marry me, and I wouldn't be able to have babies, support and volunteer for causes that others wouldn't approve of (ex: LGBTQ+ organizations), attend a queer-affirming church without fear, love my job, enjoy drinks and food without fear of judgement, wear whatever clothes I want, style my hair however I want, and more.
Overall, I just would love to have these things while maintaining a healthy, loving relationship with my parents without fearing or disliking them, also like most of the characters in Regular Show. With how things are, I know it probably won't become a reality, which makes me really sad. Now I'm just stuck at home job hunting, taking care of things at home, and only hanging out (like every 2 weeks, 3-4 weeks if there isn't much going on) with people from Church and/or the Indian community (my APs' family & friends and their kids), all while having no life (dating or friendship) outside of my family.
IDK, sometimes being born into an Asian family sucks, even more if you're female and/or LGBTQ+, disabled, etc.). I also think that shows like Regular Show show (pun not intended) that my life doesn't have to be this way.
What other shows/movies made you want to live life like the characters in these shows/movies?
2024.05.01 05:02 TheWhistlingWarrior The greatest secret is that the spirit world is real. I have spent 20 years researching conspiracies and hidden information on the web, and it led me to this. This is the first two years of my spiritual awakening, and how I came to know that God, Jesus, Satan, Thoth, and Angels and Demons are real.
I'm sharing this knowing that I will likely be ridiculed, and that's okay. I am willing to bare it.
I will eventually write all of this into a book, but this is where it's being shared for now because I have been on this forum for a long time, and want people to know there is more to the story of this world than just what you see, even beyond the hidden information and conspiracies, there's information that people aren't talking about.
There is a spiritual component that a lot of people are missing when they look at the world and all the suffering here. I didn't know about any of it until I lived through it myself.
Most people who come to know God or Jesus have stories where they end up happier in the end, but I unfortunately don't think that's my path... I guess I am happier overall, but I have suffered a lot.
"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." - Ecclesiastes 1:18
I will say that I am better off knowing the truth, and am probably on a much better path than I was before, considering I was on a path of total self-destruction with no self-control, but the suffering has been awful, and I have endured a lot, and been through a lot of pain. I struggle to see the light amidst all the darkness at times because I am very alone on this journey.
Anyways, if you have any questions, or you just want to talk, feel free to reach out to me. I am here for you too.
I wish you all the best. God bless.
My agnostic atheism left me without a guiding light, and the mundane realities of life, from my dozens of failed jobs to my ongoing struggles with addiction, weighed heavily on my heart. I found solace instead in the company of strategy games and online communities, and suffered deeply in the rabbit hole of conspiracies and hidden information on the internet, searching for the truth.
My addictions had become an ever-tightening grip on my life. I found myself reaching for cannabis, alcohol, video games, fast food, and pornography to fill the void that had grown in my heart over the years. My life had become a series of hollow habits, each one leaving me feeling emptier than before. I could no longer deny that something was deeply wrong.
One day, while browsing online, I stumbled upon a post that claimed Thoth, the ancient Egyptian deity of knowledge and wisdom, could help those who asked for his assistance. I wondered if reaching out to Thoth could provide me with the help I needed.
Weeks passed since reading the post, and as I stood in my shower, my thoughts drifted to the crossroads my life seemed to have come to. I asked myself why I was stuck in a cycle of self-destructive behaviors and why I felt such a profound sense of emptiness. The steam from the shower enveloped me as I said aloud, "Thoth, if you are real, I really need your help right now. I don't want to live like this anymore; I don't want to die yet." As I spoke the words, my hand moved from the side of my body, and then to my forehead and heart, while making a hand-sign and I felt at peace.
I was stunned, realizing the hand-sign I had made was eerily similar to ones I had seen in paintings of Jesus. I was stunned but felt an unusual calmness wash over me. As I dried off and dressed, I pondered what had just happened. I went to the full-body mirror in my room, looking at myself. I saw someone I no longer recognized, someone I no longer wanted to be.
Once more, I said, "Thoth, if you are real, will you help me? This isn't who I want to be anymore." I stared at myself in the mirror, and slowly a vision began to form in my eyes. It wasn’t Thoth I saw, but Jesus.
(DISCLAIMER: I suggest one does not ask Thoth for help to fix their life. I had no idea what I was doing or how dangerous this was. I had Jesus and angels on my side during my struggle, and I think without Jesus there, Thoth probably would have either tried to take me over completely, or kill me. I had to be delivered from Thoth around 2-3 years ago, and it was awful. That's not covered in this, but I just want you to know this to warn you against going to Thoth for anything. With that being said, I'll continue...)
Jesus appeared with long brown hair, a brown beard, brown eyes, and light brown skin. Half of his face was illuminated by light, while the other half was cast in shadow. The vision of Jesus was so vivid that it left me both in awe and at peace. As the vision of him faded, I remember reaching out to him because I didn't want him to go, I could tell he was here to help.
As night fell, I lay in my bed, lost in deep contemplation. I revisited the events of the day, focusing on the vision of Jesus. The clarity of the vision was imprinted on my mind, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it held a deeper meaning. I pondered the nature of good and evil, and how they were intertwined in a complex dance of duality. I found myself questioning whether the traditional view of evil as something to be hated and shunned was truly the right approach. Instead, I began to entertain the idea that perhaps evil people and perhaps even evil itself, could be understood with compassion and empathy, instead of hatred and disgust.
As I continued to ponder, I experienced a peculiar sensation in my head. It was as though something shifted in the center of my brain, around the area of my third eye or pineal gland. There was a slight pop like a tearing or crunching sound, it was not painful, but surprising nonetheless. I then felt a fluid movement from the left hemisphere of my brain to the right hemisphere, using the third eye as a bridge or something. This shift brought me a sense of balance and calmness I had not felt before. I realized I had been living predominantly in the logical part of my brain, instead of emotional side.
As I embraced this newfound state of relaxation, I began to see another vision in my mind. This time, it was God who appeared. God had long white hair, a white beard, and wore white robes and sandals. Then God began dancing, moving with joy and lightheartedness.
Before I could fully process what I was seeing, another figure appeared alongside God. It was Satan, with red skin and horns. Satan seemed curious and playful, attempting to imitate God's dance moves with enthusiasm. The sight of these two seemingly opposing forces dancing together struck me as surreal.
As I watched them dance, I found myself smiling, and really enjoying the moment. Then, my mind wandered to the Russian squat dance, a thought that seemed to come out of nowhere. To my amazement, God began performing the Russian squat dance, his movements precise and fluid. I couldn't help but laugh. It was awesome and hilarious.
Slowly, they both faded away, leaving me in a state of awe and wonder. I realized that my third eye had opened, granting me access to a deeper level of perception and understanding.
I lay in my bed for a few moments, attempting to grasp the profound implications of the vision I had just experienced. The reality of the spiritual world was undeniable now. God, Jesus, Satan, and other spiritual beings were real, their presence deeply embedded within my new understanding. This stark realization overwhelmed me, and I felt an immense fear wash over me, it was like the Eye of Sauron was upon me, or the eye of Satan.
I began pacing frantically around my room, gasping for air as I tried to process the magnitude of my new awareness. My mind felt as if it were on the brink of shattering; I couldn't comprehend what was happening. The very foundation of my reality had shifted, leaving me teetering on the edge of my sanity.
Despite my racing thoughts and heart, I managed to steady myself using deep breathing techniques I had learned in the past from Wim Hof. My frantic pace gradually slowed, and I returned to my bed, trying to make sense of everything.
I deduced that the condition commonly known as schizophrenia might not be what people thought it was. Instead, it could be an individual's heightened sensitivity to the spirit world, a world most people never perceived.
As I lay in bed, still reeling from my panic, I suddenly saw a vision of Satan. He had red skin and horns, and spoke directly to me, expressing admiration for my deduction. Satan confirmed that what I thought was true: many people were speaking to demons, believing themselves to be schizophrenic. This deceptive world was, indeed, a harsh reality.
I tried to take in Satan's words, but a sensation of energy leaving my body started to become my main focus. It felt as though my soul was being drained from my body. My energy depleted rapidly, and I was overcome by a sense of impending doom. I lost control of my bodily functions, believing that I was going to die.
At the moment when I thought I was succumbing to death, I saw an Easter lily I had bought earlier that day with my family, sitting on my desk. The sight of that beautiful lily sparked a powerful desire to live within me. With a newfound will to survive coursing through me, I leaped out of my bed, and began pacing back and forth in my room once more, deep breathing for air to combat the fear and panic.
As I walked, I experienced a series of visions featuring characters I admired and found inspiration from—Master Yoda from Star Wars, Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Neo from The Matrix. I realized that God had shown me these characters because they were a source of moral guidance and strength in my life.
My thoughts then turned to the physical pain I was experiencing. My awareness of the spirit world had heightened significantly, causing my brain to start heating up, and I felt a piercing pain and ballooning sensation near my right temple, which deeply concerned me.
Every time I had a thought, I could feel my brain stem wiggle and I would feel pain in my right temple, so I had to learn to still or quiet my mind. Recognizing that I needed to take action to cool my head and relieve the pain, with a sort of just knowing of what I had to do, I resolved to get a large bowl of ice water and head to the basement.
At this point, I was able to rest my consciousness in my third eye, and the Holy Spirit, Thoth, or Jesus could help me and move my body or help me breathe to keep me alive. There was no way for me to survive this full-blown spiritual awakening without help.
I was shown a specific breathing technique by moving my mouth above the water and inhaling, and then exhaling through my nose in the water. The vibration of exhaling through my nose into the water would cause my brain to feel soothed for a little while, likely stimulating my vagus nerve too, and I believe it was doing something with the fluid in my brain. When I was able to not be at the water, I had to keep pressure on the center of my forehead to rest in my third eye so they could help me.
I remember pacing between the two sections of my basement, and Thoth was helping me breathe just to stay conscious. One half of the basement was bright with light with concrete floors, which is where the bowl of water was, the washer and drier, a sink, and four litter boxes. On the other side of the basement was dark with a carpeted floor and a wood fireplace. The basement's light was painted in the duality of light and dark.
I remained in the basement until the sun rose, soaking my head in icewater, and pacing back and forth between the dark and light rooms because I would become overly sensitive to one particular room, and I was just trying to breathe to stay conscious. I was battling the spirit of fear the entire night. The fear from my initial awakening and the fear of death over and over again, hundreds if not thousands of times.
I soaked my head in the ice water all night, getting momentary breaks from the water, and certain I was going to die hundreds of times from a brain hemorrhage, I stood on the hard pavement for hours, I remember Jesus was my legs at one point, I could feel him focusing through me to keep me standing. I continuously soaked my head in the ice water to combat the piercing pain and ballooning sensation in my right temple. Throughout the night, I heard voices speaking to me—some belonging to what I would call demons and others to angels.
The demons tried to instill fear in me, convincing me I was going to die. While the angels offered comfort and reassurance, telling me I would be okay. Despite the torment I endured, I found profound inner strength and refused to give up. I remember squeezing my Celtic cross necklace so hard during this time.
The sun rose on the second day, I had been awake all night, I was beyond exhausted. I don't remember all of the specifics of this time, my awakening was very traumatic, but several hours passed and I remember being told that I needed to grab a book and go outside down the street and sit by a tree. I refused, and Satan said, "Do you want to die?" I said "No," and grabbed a book and went outside and walked down the street to a tree and sat with my back leaned against it.
I read my book for about 10 minutes when two women carrying their babies in slings approached me, and asked me what I was reading. I told them the name of the book, Inner Engineering by Sadghuru, and they said that they were doing a prayer walk, and wanted to share the gospel message with me. I knew this was a divine appointment. This was meant to happen.
They shared the gospel message with me, and then offered to let me join their community of house churches, and gave me the number of one of their husbands so I could call and get connected with them.
I spent the rest of the day relaxing, but was unable to sleep and barely ate anything, and once the night fell, I was in the basement again, soaking my head in ice water. I would often get relief during the days when the sun was out, and then at night, it was a brutal spiritual battle all night in the basement where I was fighting for my life.
On the second day, I was in the kitchen, and I had the right side of my head in the ice water, and was moving my head up to breathe in through my mouth, and then I would tilt my head back down and exhale my entire breath out through my nose. I didn't know what I was doing, I was just listening to guidance from what I believe was the holy spirit.
After around 15-20 minutes of intense exhaling through my nose, a ton of white viscous liquid started coming out of my nose, and filling the bowl, it wasn't painful at all, it was a massive relief, and the excess fluid in my head was somehow being drained out. When the process was done, I remember I felt amazing, incredible actually, like my head was clear of all confusion, and I was so very much alive and conscious.
I went outside and was swinging a stick like a sword and having fun, and I think I got a little overzealous and jumped the fence behind my house, and started going on an adventure. After around 3-5 minutes though, the fluid started building back up, and I had to soak my head in a puddle to keep my brain cool. When I returned home, I went back to the water to soak my head. I still hadn't slept.
That night was brutal, and I was suffering badly, and I remember I was sitting on the dark side of the basement, but I had turned on the lamp. I was sitting on pillows, and I had just been soaking my head in the water. Satan then told me that in order to save the world, I would have to die by popping my third eye. I don't know why I believed him, I didn't have discernment at the time, and I was just following whatever guidance was coming my way, but I know that I had to do that to find my true strength.
I sat for a moment and contemplated. I grabbed a wooden walking stick that was nearby, and I moved it to my forehead, and pushed it into the center of my head as hard as I could until my arms literally gave out. I thought of my mom and sister, and I wanted the world to be free from suffering, but I wasn't meant to die that day. I cried very hard, and I learned that the human skull is very strong. I got up and went back to the ice water, and my forehead was numb.
Eventually, after three days and nights of this suffering, following the path God laid out before me, I reached my complete breaking point. I declared to the spirits that I had had enough. I was done soaking my head in ice water and I slowly and bravely removed my head from the bowl of water.
I was shivering so badly. These weren't just cold shivers, these were spiritual shivers, they shake you to your very core. I felt awful. Those who have been delivered will know what I am speaking about when I saw spiritual shivers. I spread out pillows on the floor, and lay down to rest. As I settled in, I pulled the blanket over me, and I remember I felt the comforting presence of Jesus, he was tucking me in.
I slept for just a few hours and awoke up early on Saturday morning. I remember my head hurt and it felt like the left side of my head was full of fluid. I grabbed the bowl of ice water, and this time, however, I decided to sit outside. The pain in my head was still excruciating, and I thought I might die.
My mother saw me outside, and concerned about my well-being, approached me to check if I was okay. I told her to call the ambulance because I needed help, and she quickly complied. When the paramedics arrived, they took me to the hospital, where I hoped I would receive the medical care I desperately needed, but that wasn't what was in store for me.
I got to the hospital, and the medical establishment, unfortunately, has no empathy or concern for people's mental sufferings. I asked them for water to drink because I was so dehydrated, and they wouldn't give me water.
Then, I got admitted to the hospital, and they finally gave me some juice and a snack, and I was starting to relax, but then a voice came into my head, it was Satan, and he made me think I needed to soak my head in the icewater again and expel the white viscous fluid again, so I started panicking a bit and had them bring me a bowl of ice water, and I began soaking my head.
They had probably never seen anything like what I was doing, and thought I was just crazy, because they basically came after me and tied me to the bed, and forcefully injected me with something to make me calm down or sleep, and then they didn't talk to me at all anymore throughout the night.
I am claustrophobic, so being tied down was absolute torture for me. They left me in the dark hospital room suffering all night, tied to the bed, thinking I was going to die the entire night, and then finally the sun rose on the horizon, and when the nurse came in to draw my blood in the morning, I asked them to request security to release me from the restraints. They have no empathy for people. Something is deeply wrong with the medical system.
Anyways, they finally sent me to an in-patient mental health clinic which is honestly just a warehouse for people to take meds, sleep, and eat, away from society. It was honestly a welcome respite, but there's no therapy available at these places. Which means no real internal healing is taking place for people suffering.
Once I got to the in-patient mental health clinic, I spent the first day mostly just relaxing, but there was a man there that was definitely possessed by a demon. He would be shouting a bunch of biblical verses about the kingdom of God, and a lot more, and then he would be on the floor the next, flailing around, being tortured by a demon. One of the other patients there told me he is being tortured by something, and I see what she means now.
I spent the rest of my time there recovering the best I could, and just taking the meds to calm down, and try to get some sleep, and spent time listening to people's stories. One of the girls there told me that the wound on my forehead from when I pushed the wooden staff into my forehead, looked like a cross, and she was right.
When I got out of the in-patient mental health clinic, I called the number that I had received during my three days and nights dark night of the soul.
I joined their community of house churches, and was studying the Bible with them for several months and meeting with them frequently, and I thought I had found my forever friends. We would go on prayer walks, and I was eventually baptized at a lake, and thought that I had a new life of faith waiting for me with new friends.
They were concerned about my well-being and cared about me, but a small part of me felt like I was being controlled by them too, like they wanted me to conform to all of their beliefs and everything in the Bible as fact, and the word of God, and I have always been very sensitive to manipulation since I was a child, and I could tell they were manipulating me. They never left room for me to be myself, and share my beliefs without condemnation, which is a major red flag.
Recognizing this, I distanced myself from them, and went on my own spiritual journey where I spent months conversing with the spirit world in my backyard. walking in circles. I spoke to God and Satan/Lucifer and was trying to come to understanding why Satan would reject God's will.
After some time, I realized I was just being tortured, and I needed help. I was suffering from a lot, and I needed deliverance. Satan had taken up a seat in my mind because I let him, and I had demons hurting me. I reached out to the Christian group again after several months of being distant from them, and they said there was an opportunity to move in with some Christian brothers and live with them, so I jumped on the opportunity. I was so excited. I was on fire for God.
I got to the house, and moved my stuff in, and then the night fell on the first night, and the enemy was not having it. The demons and Satan were not having it. They did NOT want me living with my brothers in Christ because they knew I was detached from all the boxes of thought control, and I was living in the spirit, wasn't a slave of mind or spirit. They wanted to destroy our relationship, between us, the brothers of Christ, and they did.
I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but I was entirely in the spirit at the time, I was detached from my body in a way, and just following the path laid out before me. I could feel that I needed to go outside and walk the neighborhood as a part of my spiritual path, so I left the house, and walked barefoot throughout the neighborhood.
While walking the neighborhood, I was in full spirit mode, I was communicating with God and Jesus, and they were guiding me on my path. I saw visions of them sitting beside a tree and trimming off rotten fruit, which I think was symbolic of them removing rotten fruit from my mind. I also saw them sweeping out a room and cleaning it, as if symbolic of my mind, and them cleaning my mind and purifying it. I also remember seeing a symbolic vision of myself holding up a golden gemstone encrusted goblet to God.
During that night, I declared war on the principalities of darkness. Against the forces of darkness. I saw skulls in the clouds, and could tell they were communicating with me as they are spirits of the air.
My feet were bloodied from walking around the neighborhood barefoot, I was completely lost all night, I was new to the neighborhood too, and had no idea where I was, so I wandered for hours throughout the night, so hungry, tired, and thirsty, and just physically and mentally exhausted, but I endured. That night made me realize how strong I really am when I let go of everything and trust in God. When I completely become the spirit instead of the body. The human body is incredible and capable of withstanding far more than we know.
Finally, I found my way to the house, and my footsteps were spilling blood on the front porch. The door was locked, and I knocked, and one of the brothers let me in, and I went to my bedroom. I couldn't sleep at all, my mind was very active, it was very similar to when I had my spiritual awakening, I was just unable to sleep because of how active my mind was. I spent the whole night awake.
The next day, I was suffering horrible spiritual attack, my head was in pain and I was holding my head just to feel comfortable, and one of the brothers called a friend of theirs to come and do a deliverance. I remember them being very bold, but gentle... firm, but kind to me, as they expelled some of the demons through prayer. It wasn't a painful deliverance or too exhausting, it was gentle by comparison. I felt much better after the deliverance, hungry and thirsty again, and wanted to nourish my body. I spent the rest of the day relaxing a bit, and listening to the other believers talk about the Bible, and their beliefs.
That night, I was delivered again, and it was awful. My brothers in Christ shouldn't have done the deliverance, but I don't know if I even would have made the rest of the night it if they didn't. I think the holy spirit guided them to do the deliverance, but it went out of control.
I was in my room, suffering deeply, holding my head, and all three brothers who lived there came up to my room to check on me, and pray for me. Their prayers turned into a full blown deliverance, and demons were screaming out of me for around half an hour straight. They were casting them out in the name of Jesus, but it was awful, it's one of my most traumatic memories. I was suffering so badly, and honestly I could tell the demons were suffering so badly, and my brothers in Christ had zero empathy for me.
After speaking with demons, the brothers wanted to speak with me again, so I came to, I asked them for water, and they denied me, and they just continued the deliverance without giving me a break. I had been suffering for around 45 minutes straight, with demons screaming out of me, and I was beyond exhausted, I was so dehydrated, and I just needed to stop. They didn't care, they kept going.
They kept shouting at these demons in the name of Jesus to leave, and eventually after another ten minutes, I realized, nothing was happening, we weren't getting anywhere, the demons weren't coming out, and they asked to speak with me again, and I came to the forefront and regained control, and tried talking to them, but they were gone. The demons had got into them somehow, and they were filled with hatred and revulsion for me. They all had the same facial expression of hatred and revulsion for me.
I went around the room and pleaded with them that it was me, but they didn't believe me, they were gone, checked out, I tried bringing up memories of what had happened between us that were specific to each person to bring them to understanding that it was me, and in fact not a demon speaking, but they thought I was a demon speaking... :'(
They all grabbed ahold of me, and pinned me down on the bed, but I knew where this was going, the demons in them were going to flood me with fear to try to fill me with demons again, and I wasn't going to have that, I wasn't going to let them win.
I flailed out of their grasp, told them to get off me, and ran down the stairs and out of the house. I remember as I was running out, Satan told me, "You are the most free person on the planet."
I ran outside, and even the weight of my clothes felt like too much, I was panicking from the trauma of the deliverance and the attack from my brothers, and I stripped off all my clothes and ran down the alley way in the middle of the night and got away from the house.
There were no light, and no one around, and no one followed me, so I just ran down the alley way, and found an abandoned car to sit on for a few minutes until I got a message from God that it was time to go grab my clothes and put my clothes on.
I put my clothes back on, and started walking away from the house because I needed to get some air. That is when one of the other brother's in Christ, the one that I had called initially to join their community of house churches, was there. I think he was guided by the holy spirit to show up there that night.
Anyways, we walked back to the house, and when we got there, there was a police car and an ambulance there. I guess the brothers had called for a wellness check on me. They wanted to bring me to the hospital to have me evaluated. I said no to the cop, but they wouldn't back down, and I just wanted them to leave me alone, so I went with them, and went to the hospital.
Much to no one's surprise, they did nothing for me at the hospital. They just put me in a room where I waited around for 6-8 hours, until I was finally released. I didn't go back to the brother's house though. When they offered me an uber, I went back to my mom's house. I wasn't going to live with them anymore after what happened.
A couple weeks passed and two of the brothers tried reaching out to me, and they came to my house, to supposedly minister to me, where they just told me that I still have demons, and lied to me and said that they didn't have a problem with me at all while I could see it on their faces.
I confronted the other brother about the situation that happened, and when I poured my heart out to him and told him that I was claustrophobic from a traumatic childhood memory and that what they did to me was very traumatic, and he just said, "Does that make you feel better?" In a sarcastic tone, with no empathy or concern at all for what he had done, and this made me disconnect from them even more...
To be continued...
Thus ends the first two years of my spiritual awakening. I know that I am leaving it on a down note, but this isn't all a happy story as you can clearly tell if you made it to this point.
This is all I feel like writing for right now, I know that was very long, but I'm also exhausted from writing... if you want to know more that happened, I will share more in direct messages, however the chronology of events over the last two years is blurred for me, and I have been through so much over the last two years spiritually, that I still haven't processed and made sense of everything yet. It has been very traumatic.
If you spent the time to read all the way to this point, thank you for taking the time out of your day or night to read my story and what happened to me.
If you wish to chat about anything, I look forward to hearing from you in a comment, or in direct messages.
Reach out to me if you want to talk, or need help.
God bless,
Adam.
submitted by TheWhistlingWarrior to conspiracy [link] [comments]
I will eventually write all of this into a book, but this is where it's being shared for now because I have been on this forum for a long time, and want people to know there is more to the story of this world than just what you see, even beyond the hidden information and conspiracies, there's information that people aren't talking about.
There is a spiritual component that a lot of people are missing when they look at the world and all the suffering here. I didn't know about any of it until I lived through it myself.
Most people who come to know God or Jesus have stories where they end up happier in the end, but I unfortunately don't think that's my path... I guess I am happier overall, but I have suffered a lot.
"For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." - Ecclesiastes 1:18
I will say that I am better off knowing the truth, and am probably on a much better path than I was before, considering I was on a path of total self-destruction with no self-control, but the suffering has been awful, and I have endured a lot, and been through a lot of pain. I struggle to see the light amidst all the darkness at times because I am very alone on this journey.
Anyways, if you have any questions, or you just want to talk, feel free to reach out to me. I am here for you too.
I wish you all the best. God bless.
My Spiritual Awakening: How I Came to Know That God, Jesus, Satan, Thoth, and Angels and Demons Are Real.
Four years ago, I was a 29-year-old man whose life had become defined by isolation. Once curious and engaged with the world in my youth, I had slowly withdrawn into myself from depression, retreating into the comfort of my room in my mother's house.My agnostic atheism left me without a guiding light, and the mundane realities of life, from my dozens of failed jobs to my ongoing struggles with addiction, weighed heavily on my heart. I found solace instead in the company of strategy games and online communities, and suffered deeply in the rabbit hole of conspiracies and hidden information on the internet, searching for the truth.
My addictions had become an ever-tightening grip on my life. I found myself reaching for cannabis, alcohol, video games, fast food, and pornography to fill the void that had grown in my heart over the years. My life had become a series of hollow habits, each one leaving me feeling emptier than before. I could no longer deny that something was deeply wrong.
One day, while browsing online, I stumbled upon a post that claimed Thoth, the ancient Egyptian deity of knowledge and wisdom, could help those who asked for his assistance. I wondered if reaching out to Thoth could provide me with the help I needed.
Weeks passed since reading the post, and as I stood in my shower, my thoughts drifted to the crossroads my life seemed to have come to. I asked myself why I was stuck in a cycle of self-destructive behaviors and why I felt such a profound sense of emptiness. The steam from the shower enveloped me as I said aloud, "Thoth, if you are real, I really need your help right now. I don't want to live like this anymore; I don't want to die yet." As I spoke the words, my hand moved from the side of my body, and then to my forehead and heart, while making a hand-sign and I felt at peace.
I was stunned, realizing the hand-sign I had made was eerily similar to ones I had seen in paintings of Jesus. I was stunned but felt an unusual calmness wash over me. As I dried off and dressed, I pondered what had just happened. I went to the full-body mirror in my room, looking at myself. I saw someone I no longer recognized, someone I no longer wanted to be.
Once more, I said, "Thoth, if you are real, will you help me? This isn't who I want to be anymore." I stared at myself in the mirror, and slowly a vision began to form in my eyes. It wasn’t Thoth I saw, but Jesus.
(DISCLAIMER: I suggest one does not ask Thoth for help to fix their life. I had no idea what I was doing or how dangerous this was. I had Jesus and angels on my side during my struggle, and I think without Jesus there, Thoth probably would have either tried to take me over completely, or kill me. I had to be delivered from Thoth around 2-3 years ago, and it was awful. That's not covered in this, but I just want you to know this to warn you against going to Thoth for anything. With that being said, I'll continue...)
Jesus appeared with long brown hair, a brown beard, brown eyes, and light brown skin. Half of his face was illuminated by light, while the other half was cast in shadow. The vision of Jesus was so vivid that it left me both in awe and at peace. As the vision of him faded, I remember reaching out to him because I didn't want him to go, I could tell he was here to help.
As night fell, I lay in my bed, lost in deep contemplation. I revisited the events of the day, focusing on the vision of Jesus. The clarity of the vision was imprinted on my mind, and I couldn't shake the feeling that it held a deeper meaning. I pondered the nature of good and evil, and how they were intertwined in a complex dance of duality. I found myself questioning whether the traditional view of evil as something to be hated and shunned was truly the right approach. Instead, I began to entertain the idea that perhaps evil people and perhaps even evil itself, could be understood with compassion and empathy, instead of hatred and disgust.
As I continued to ponder, I experienced a peculiar sensation in my head. It was as though something shifted in the center of my brain, around the area of my third eye or pineal gland. There was a slight pop like a tearing or crunching sound, it was not painful, but surprising nonetheless. I then felt a fluid movement from the left hemisphere of my brain to the right hemisphere, using the third eye as a bridge or something. This shift brought me a sense of balance and calmness I had not felt before. I realized I had been living predominantly in the logical part of my brain, instead of emotional side.
As I embraced this newfound state of relaxation, I began to see another vision in my mind. This time, it was God who appeared. God had long white hair, a white beard, and wore white robes and sandals. Then God began dancing, moving with joy and lightheartedness.
Before I could fully process what I was seeing, another figure appeared alongside God. It was Satan, with red skin and horns. Satan seemed curious and playful, attempting to imitate God's dance moves with enthusiasm. The sight of these two seemingly opposing forces dancing together struck me as surreal.
As I watched them dance, I found myself smiling, and really enjoying the moment. Then, my mind wandered to the Russian squat dance, a thought that seemed to come out of nowhere. To my amazement, God began performing the Russian squat dance, his movements precise and fluid. I couldn't help but laugh. It was awesome and hilarious.
Slowly, they both faded away, leaving me in a state of awe and wonder. I realized that my third eye had opened, granting me access to a deeper level of perception and understanding.
I lay in my bed for a few moments, attempting to grasp the profound implications of the vision I had just experienced. The reality of the spiritual world was undeniable now. God, Jesus, Satan, and other spiritual beings were real, their presence deeply embedded within my new understanding. This stark realization overwhelmed me, and I felt an immense fear wash over me, it was like the Eye of Sauron was upon me, or the eye of Satan.
I began pacing frantically around my room, gasping for air as I tried to process the magnitude of my new awareness. My mind felt as if it were on the brink of shattering; I couldn't comprehend what was happening. The very foundation of my reality had shifted, leaving me teetering on the edge of my sanity.
Despite my racing thoughts and heart, I managed to steady myself using deep breathing techniques I had learned in the past from Wim Hof. My frantic pace gradually slowed, and I returned to my bed, trying to make sense of everything.
I deduced that the condition commonly known as schizophrenia might not be what people thought it was. Instead, it could be an individual's heightened sensitivity to the spirit world, a world most people never perceived.
As I lay in bed, still reeling from my panic, I suddenly saw a vision of Satan. He had red skin and horns, and spoke directly to me, expressing admiration for my deduction. Satan confirmed that what I thought was true: many people were speaking to demons, believing themselves to be schizophrenic. This deceptive world was, indeed, a harsh reality.
I tried to take in Satan's words, but a sensation of energy leaving my body started to become my main focus. It felt as though my soul was being drained from my body. My energy depleted rapidly, and I was overcome by a sense of impending doom. I lost control of my bodily functions, believing that I was going to die.
At the moment when I thought I was succumbing to death, I saw an Easter lily I had bought earlier that day with my family, sitting on my desk. The sight of that beautiful lily sparked a powerful desire to live within me. With a newfound will to survive coursing through me, I leaped out of my bed, and began pacing back and forth in my room once more, deep breathing for air to combat the fear and panic.
As I walked, I experienced a series of visions featuring characters I admired and found inspiration from—Master Yoda from Star Wars, Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Neo from The Matrix. I realized that God had shown me these characters because they were a source of moral guidance and strength in my life.
My thoughts then turned to the physical pain I was experiencing. My awareness of the spirit world had heightened significantly, causing my brain to start heating up, and I felt a piercing pain and ballooning sensation near my right temple, which deeply concerned me.
Every time I had a thought, I could feel my brain stem wiggle and I would feel pain in my right temple, so I had to learn to still or quiet my mind. Recognizing that I needed to take action to cool my head and relieve the pain, with a sort of just knowing of what I had to do, I resolved to get a large bowl of ice water and head to the basement.
At this point, I was able to rest my consciousness in my third eye, and the Holy Spirit, Thoth, or Jesus could help me and move my body or help me breathe to keep me alive. There was no way for me to survive this full-blown spiritual awakening without help.
I was shown a specific breathing technique by moving my mouth above the water and inhaling, and then exhaling through my nose in the water. The vibration of exhaling through my nose into the water would cause my brain to feel soothed for a little while, likely stimulating my vagus nerve too, and I believe it was doing something with the fluid in my brain. When I was able to not be at the water, I had to keep pressure on the center of my forehead to rest in my third eye so they could help me.
I remember pacing between the two sections of my basement, and Thoth was helping me breathe just to stay conscious. One half of the basement was bright with light with concrete floors, which is where the bowl of water was, the washer and drier, a sink, and four litter boxes. On the other side of the basement was dark with a carpeted floor and a wood fireplace. The basement's light was painted in the duality of light and dark.
I remained in the basement until the sun rose, soaking my head in icewater, and pacing back and forth between the dark and light rooms because I would become overly sensitive to one particular room, and I was just trying to breathe to stay conscious. I was battling the spirit of fear the entire night. The fear from my initial awakening and the fear of death over and over again, hundreds if not thousands of times.
I soaked my head in the ice water all night, getting momentary breaks from the water, and certain I was going to die hundreds of times from a brain hemorrhage, I stood on the hard pavement for hours, I remember Jesus was my legs at one point, I could feel him focusing through me to keep me standing. I continuously soaked my head in the ice water to combat the piercing pain and ballooning sensation in my right temple. Throughout the night, I heard voices speaking to me—some belonging to what I would call demons and others to angels.
The demons tried to instill fear in me, convincing me I was going to die. While the angels offered comfort and reassurance, telling me I would be okay. Despite the torment I endured, I found profound inner strength and refused to give up. I remember squeezing my Celtic cross necklace so hard during this time.
The sun rose on the second day, I had been awake all night, I was beyond exhausted. I don't remember all of the specifics of this time, my awakening was very traumatic, but several hours passed and I remember being told that I needed to grab a book and go outside down the street and sit by a tree. I refused, and Satan said, "Do you want to die?" I said "No," and grabbed a book and went outside and walked down the street to a tree and sat with my back leaned against it.
I read my book for about 10 minutes when two women carrying their babies in slings approached me, and asked me what I was reading. I told them the name of the book, Inner Engineering by Sadghuru, and they said that they were doing a prayer walk, and wanted to share the gospel message with me. I knew this was a divine appointment. This was meant to happen.
They shared the gospel message with me, and then offered to let me join their community of house churches, and gave me the number of one of their husbands so I could call and get connected with them.
I spent the rest of the day relaxing, but was unable to sleep and barely ate anything, and once the night fell, I was in the basement again, soaking my head in ice water. I would often get relief during the days when the sun was out, and then at night, it was a brutal spiritual battle all night in the basement where I was fighting for my life.
On the second day, I was in the kitchen, and I had the right side of my head in the ice water, and was moving my head up to breathe in through my mouth, and then I would tilt my head back down and exhale my entire breath out through my nose. I didn't know what I was doing, I was just listening to guidance from what I believe was the holy spirit.
After around 15-20 minutes of intense exhaling through my nose, a ton of white viscous liquid started coming out of my nose, and filling the bowl, it wasn't painful at all, it was a massive relief, and the excess fluid in my head was somehow being drained out. When the process was done, I remember I felt amazing, incredible actually, like my head was clear of all confusion, and I was so very much alive and conscious.
I went outside and was swinging a stick like a sword and having fun, and I think I got a little overzealous and jumped the fence behind my house, and started going on an adventure. After around 3-5 minutes though, the fluid started building back up, and I had to soak my head in a puddle to keep my brain cool. When I returned home, I went back to the water to soak my head. I still hadn't slept.
That night was brutal, and I was suffering badly, and I remember I was sitting on the dark side of the basement, but I had turned on the lamp. I was sitting on pillows, and I had just been soaking my head in the water. Satan then told me that in order to save the world, I would have to die by popping my third eye. I don't know why I believed him, I didn't have discernment at the time, and I was just following whatever guidance was coming my way, but I know that I had to do that to find my true strength.
I sat for a moment and contemplated. I grabbed a wooden walking stick that was nearby, and I moved it to my forehead, and pushed it into the center of my head as hard as I could until my arms literally gave out. I thought of my mom and sister, and I wanted the world to be free from suffering, but I wasn't meant to die that day. I cried very hard, and I learned that the human skull is very strong. I got up and went back to the ice water, and my forehead was numb.
Eventually, after three days and nights of this suffering, following the path God laid out before me, I reached my complete breaking point. I declared to the spirits that I had had enough. I was done soaking my head in ice water and I slowly and bravely removed my head from the bowl of water.
I was shivering so badly. These weren't just cold shivers, these were spiritual shivers, they shake you to your very core. I felt awful. Those who have been delivered will know what I am speaking about when I saw spiritual shivers. I spread out pillows on the floor, and lay down to rest. As I settled in, I pulled the blanket over me, and I remember I felt the comforting presence of Jesus, he was tucking me in.
I slept for just a few hours and awoke up early on Saturday morning. I remember my head hurt and it felt like the left side of my head was full of fluid. I grabbed the bowl of ice water, and this time, however, I decided to sit outside. The pain in my head was still excruciating, and I thought I might die.
My mother saw me outside, and concerned about my well-being, approached me to check if I was okay. I told her to call the ambulance because I needed help, and she quickly complied. When the paramedics arrived, they took me to the hospital, where I hoped I would receive the medical care I desperately needed, but that wasn't what was in store for me.
I got to the hospital, and the medical establishment, unfortunately, has no empathy or concern for people's mental sufferings. I asked them for water to drink because I was so dehydrated, and they wouldn't give me water.
Then, I got admitted to the hospital, and they finally gave me some juice and a snack, and I was starting to relax, but then a voice came into my head, it was Satan, and he made me think I needed to soak my head in the icewater again and expel the white viscous fluid again, so I started panicking a bit and had them bring me a bowl of ice water, and I began soaking my head.
They had probably never seen anything like what I was doing, and thought I was just crazy, because they basically came after me and tied me to the bed, and forcefully injected me with something to make me calm down or sleep, and then they didn't talk to me at all anymore throughout the night.
I am claustrophobic, so being tied down was absolute torture for me. They left me in the dark hospital room suffering all night, tied to the bed, thinking I was going to die the entire night, and then finally the sun rose on the horizon, and when the nurse came in to draw my blood in the morning, I asked them to request security to release me from the restraints. They have no empathy for people. Something is deeply wrong with the medical system.
Anyways, they finally sent me to an in-patient mental health clinic which is honestly just a warehouse for people to take meds, sleep, and eat, away from society. It was honestly a welcome respite, but there's no therapy available at these places. Which means no real internal healing is taking place for people suffering.
Once I got to the in-patient mental health clinic, I spent the first day mostly just relaxing, but there was a man there that was definitely possessed by a demon. He would be shouting a bunch of biblical verses about the kingdom of God, and a lot more, and then he would be on the floor the next, flailing around, being tortured by a demon. One of the other patients there told me he is being tortured by something, and I see what she means now.
I spent the rest of my time there recovering the best I could, and just taking the meds to calm down, and try to get some sleep, and spent time listening to people's stories. One of the girls there told me that the wound on my forehead from when I pushed the wooden staff into my forehead, looked like a cross, and she was right.
When I got out of the in-patient mental health clinic, I called the number that I had received during my three days and nights dark night of the soul.
I joined their community of house churches, and was studying the Bible with them for several months and meeting with them frequently, and I thought I had found my forever friends. We would go on prayer walks, and I was eventually baptized at a lake, and thought that I had a new life of faith waiting for me with new friends.
They were concerned about my well-being and cared about me, but a small part of me felt like I was being controlled by them too, like they wanted me to conform to all of their beliefs and everything in the Bible as fact, and the word of God, and I have always been very sensitive to manipulation since I was a child, and I could tell they were manipulating me. They never left room for me to be myself, and share my beliefs without condemnation, which is a major red flag.
Recognizing this, I distanced myself from them, and went on my own spiritual journey where I spent months conversing with the spirit world in my backyard. walking in circles. I spoke to God and Satan/Lucifer and was trying to come to understanding why Satan would reject God's will.
After some time, I realized I was just being tortured, and I needed help. I was suffering from a lot, and I needed deliverance. Satan had taken up a seat in my mind because I let him, and I had demons hurting me. I reached out to the Christian group again after several months of being distant from them, and they said there was an opportunity to move in with some Christian brothers and live with them, so I jumped on the opportunity. I was so excited. I was on fire for God.
I got to the house, and moved my stuff in, and then the night fell on the first night, and the enemy was not having it. The demons and Satan were not having it. They did NOT want me living with my brothers in Christ because they knew I was detached from all the boxes of thought control, and I was living in the spirit, wasn't a slave of mind or spirit. They wanted to destroy our relationship, between us, the brothers of Christ, and they did.
I don't remember the exact sequence of events, but I was entirely in the spirit at the time, I was detached from my body in a way, and just following the path laid out before me. I could feel that I needed to go outside and walk the neighborhood as a part of my spiritual path, so I left the house, and walked barefoot throughout the neighborhood.
While walking the neighborhood, I was in full spirit mode, I was communicating with God and Jesus, and they were guiding me on my path. I saw visions of them sitting beside a tree and trimming off rotten fruit, which I think was symbolic of them removing rotten fruit from my mind. I also saw them sweeping out a room and cleaning it, as if symbolic of my mind, and them cleaning my mind and purifying it. I also remember seeing a symbolic vision of myself holding up a golden gemstone encrusted goblet to God.
During that night, I declared war on the principalities of darkness. Against the forces of darkness. I saw skulls in the clouds, and could tell they were communicating with me as they are spirits of the air.
My feet were bloodied from walking around the neighborhood barefoot, I was completely lost all night, I was new to the neighborhood too, and had no idea where I was, so I wandered for hours throughout the night, so hungry, tired, and thirsty, and just physically and mentally exhausted, but I endured. That night made me realize how strong I really am when I let go of everything and trust in God. When I completely become the spirit instead of the body. The human body is incredible and capable of withstanding far more than we know.
Finally, I found my way to the house, and my footsteps were spilling blood on the front porch. The door was locked, and I knocked, and one of the brothers let me in, and I went to my bedroom. I couldn't sleep at all, my mind was very active, it was very similar to when I had my spiritual awakening, I was just unable to sleep because of how active my mind was. I spent the whole night awake.
The next day, I was suffering horrible spiritual attack, my head was in pain and I was holding my head just to feel comfortable, and one of the brothers called a friend of theirs to come and do a deliverance. I remember them being very bold, but gentle... firm, but kind to me, as they expelled some of the demons through prayer. It wasn't a painful deliverance or too exhausting, it was gentle by comparison. I felt much better after the deliverance, hungry and thirsty again, and wanted to nourish my body. I spent the rest of the day relaxing a bit, and listening to the other believers talk about the Bible, and their beliefs.
That night, I was delivered again, and it was awful. My brothers in Christ shouldn't have done the deliverance, but I don't know if I even would have made the rest of the night it if they didn't. I think the holy spirit guided them to do the deliverance, but it went out of control.
I was in my room, suffering deeply, holding my head, and all three brothers who lived there came up to my room to check on me, and pray for me. Their prayers turned into a full blown deliverance, and demons were screaming out of me for around half an hour straight. They were casting them out in the name of Jesus, but it was awful, it's one of my most traumatic memories. I was suffering so badly, and honestly I could tell the demons were suffering so badly, and my brothers in Christ had zero empathy for me.
After speaking with demons, the brothers wanted to speak with me again, so I came to, I asked them for water, and they denied me, and they just continued the deliverance without giving me a break. I had been suffering for around 45 minutes straight, with demons screaming out of me, and I was beyond exhausted, I was so dehydrated, and I just needed to stop. They didn't care, they kept going.
They kept shouting at these demons in the name of Jesus to leave, and eventually after another ten minutes, I realized, nothing was happening, we weren't getting anywhere, the demons weren't coming out, and they asked to speak with me again, and I came to the forefront and regained control, and tried talking to them, but they were gone. The demons had got into them somehow, and they were filled with hatred and revulsion for me. They all had the same facial expression of hatred and revulsion for me.
I went around the room and pleaded with them that it was me, but they didn't believe me, they were gone, checked out, I tried bringing up memories of what had happened between us that were specific to each person to bring them to understanding that it was me, and in fact not a demon speaking, but they thought I was a demon speaking... :'(
They all grabbed ahold of me, and pinned me down on the bed, but I knew where this was going, the demons in them were going to flood me with fear to try to fill me with demons again, and I wasn't going to have that, I wasn't going to let them win.
I flailed out of their grasp, told them to get off me, and ran down the stairs and out of the house. I remember as I was running out, Satan told me, "You are the most free person on the planet."
I ran outside, and even the weight of my clothes felt like too much, I was panicking from the trauma of the deliverance and the attack from my brothers, and I stripped off all my clothes and ran down the alley way in the middle of the night and got away from the house.
There were no light, and no one around, and no one followed me, so I just ran down the alley way, and found an abandoned car to sit on for a few minutes until I got a message from God that it was time to go grab my clothes and put my clothes on.
I put my clothes back on, and started walking away from the house because I needed to get some air. That is when one of the other brother's in Christ, the one that I had called initially to join their community of house churches, was there. I think he was guided by the holy spirit to show up there that night.
Anyways, we walked back to the house, and when we got there, there was a police car and an ambulance there. I guess the brothers had called for a wellness check on me. They wanted to bring me to the hospital to have me evaluated. I said no to the cop, but they wouldn't back down, and I just wanted them to leave me alone, so I went with them, and went to the hospital.
Much to no one's surprise, they did nothing for me at the hospital. They just put me in a room where I waited around for 6-8 hours, until I was finally released. I didn't go back to the brother's house though. When they offered me an uber, I went back to my mom's house. I wasn't going to live with them anymore after what happened.
A couple weeks passed and two of the brothers tried reaching out to me, and they came to my house, to supposedly minister to me, where they just told me that I still have demons, and lied to me and said that they didn't have a problem with me at all while I could see it on their faces.
I confronted the other brother about the situation that happened, and when I poured my heart out to him and told him that I was claustrophobic from a traumatic childhood memory and that what they did to me was very traumatic, and he just said, "Does that make you feel better?" In a sarcastic tone, with no empathy or concern at all for what he had done, and this made me disconnect from them even more...
To be continued...
Thus ends the first two years of my spiritual awakening. I know that I am leaving it on a down note, but this isn't all a happy story as you can clearly tell if you made it to this point.
This is all I feel like writing for right now, I know that was very long, but I'm also exhausted from writing... if you want to know more that happened, I will share more in direct messages, however the chronology of events over the last two years is blurred for me, and I have been through so much over the last two years spiritually, that I still haven't processed and made sense of everything yet. It has been very traumatic.
If you spent the time to read all the way to this point, thank you for taking the time out of your day or night to read my story and what happened to me.
If you wish to chat about anything, I look forward to hearing from you in a comment, or in direct messages.
Reach out to me if you want to talk, or need help.
God bless,
Adam.
2024.05.01 05:00 Effective_Bar_6098 STORY: The Ex-girlfriend
16 months ago
Mark laid in bed in a dark room as the morning slowly turned to the afternoon. His feelings were still raw since Steffi broke up with him a few days ago. He was lacking any motivation and still nursing his emotional wounds. As the clock turned to noon, a chime sounded on his phone. He picked up the phone and saw a familiar notification that stared at him, taunting him. It was the monthly reminder he had set up for himself a long time ago.
“Pay Steffi’s phone bill.”
For the past year when they were together, he paid her phone bill. It became an unspoken and routine part of their relationship. It was one of his ways of being an attentive boyfriend. Obviously that’s over, he thought. For him, this felt like the real end of the relationship.
He swiped his phone and opened the PayPal app. He sent her $80 maintaining the monthly routine.
*****
“$80 – phone bill”
A notification chime alerted Steffi. Picking up her phone, she noticed $80 had been sent by Mark as if nothing unusual had happened. She was confused considering she was pretty brutal during the breakup. But at the same time, she wasn’t completely surprised and assumed he was trying to win her back. She was tempted to text him and ask what was up, but her stubbornness won out—she did not want to talk to him. She immediately transferred the funds to her bank account and quickly forgot about it.
*****
15 months ago
For the next two months, the regular monthly phone bill payments from Mark did not even phase Steffi. She came to expect them to keep coming at the first of every month. It barely became a blip in her thoughts.
*****
13 months ago
On yet another first of the month, Mark finally had an epiphany. He was being an idiot. Steffi had been ignoring all his messages and calls since the breakup. But apparently, she had no issue accepting his money. So he let the day pass without making the usual payment.
The next day he noticed his phone was ringing with her name coming through. He couldn’t hide his excitement as he picked up the phone and uttered a hello.
Right off the bat she verbally assaulted him and asked if he was stupid. She was absolutely livid that he had forgotten her phone bill.
“I didn’t forget. I’m not doing this anymore.” He stood his ground, but the shakiness in his voice exposed his unease.
She didn’t say anything.
“Look, it’s weird that you still expect me—”
“Well I think it’s weird I had to put up with your shit for so long!” She went on to berate and gaslight him. “So, when can I expect the money?”
“I mean, I don’t know…”
She cut him off. “Today is the right answer.”
“Yes today,” he meekly replied.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’ve upgraded my phone plan last month. But since we’re talking, I think you should cover that. It’s $120.”
“Ok, Steffi.”
*****
Steffi’s boyfriend, Nate, walked in from the next room. “Hey, what was all that about? You fighting with someone?”
“Yeah, that was my stupid ex.”
She explained how Mark suddenly stopped paying her phone bill, which upset her. Upon hearing the story, Nate was in disbelief.
“Wait, what the hell? Your ex has been sending you money all this time?”
“Well, yes. Until he stopped yesterday.”
“How can you be talking like that? Are you still seeing him?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
He was clearly threatened by the strange situation. But she calmly reassured him there was nothing going on—she had no feelings for Mark. She genuinely felt she was entitled to this after all she had to put up with during her time with Mark. Eventually he was convinced and relented.
“Fine,” he sighed. “It’s a moot point anyway. It’s not like he’s going to send you money again.”
Coincidentally it was then her phone chimed.
“$120 – phone bill”
She gave him a wicked smile and showed her phone. “You were saying?”
*****
12 months ago
The familiar chime went off as they were eating dinner together.
“Seriously? Again?” Nate looked bewildered.
“Why are you so shocked?” Steffi asked. “I told you he was a loser.”
“I understand about the last time—you were screaming at him like a banshee. But this time? Were you two talking?”
“No,” she reassured him. “I don’t know why he keeps sending me money, but I’m not complaining.”
“Maybe he’s trying to win you back,” he half-joked. “Should I be threatened?”
“Well, it’s not going to work,” she said definitively. And to reassure him further, she switched to a flirty voice. “Don’t be threatened. When we break up, I won’t make you pay my bills.”
They both had a long hard laugh as the tension eased.
“You know, maybe he’s into findom,” he wondered.
“I heard about findom,” she seemed a bit puzzled. “Isn’t that where a bunch of weirdos send money to random girls? I doubt it.”
“Well, I don’t know. He seems to fit the bill—no pun intended.”
She brushed it off as they spent the evening engaged in more interesting matters.
*****
Nine months ago
Instead of opening his PayPal app, Mark opened his chat and texted Steffi.
Mark: “Hey, I won’t be paying your phone bill today or anymore. Hope you understand.”
Steffi: “Call me. Let’s talk about it.”
He was tempted to hear her voice again. But he knew he’d get sucked in by her persuasiveness. No, text was safer for him.
Mark: “No. I just texted you as a courtesy.”
Steffi: “Ok I understand.”
Steffi wasn’t angry and didn’t have the motivation to fake it. If anything, she felt a little respect for him even though the easy money flow was over. She closed her chat. She opened her Instagram and proceeded to block him.
*****
Six months ago
After a long day of apartment-hunting, Steffi and Nate settled in for the night at their current apartment.
“I really like that complex along the waterfront,” Steffi said. “Can’t you picture us living there?”
“We already talked about this. You know we can’t afford it,” Nate countered. “It’s $1200 more than our current rent, plus whatever crazy fees they have.”
They spent the evening casually talking about their options, as they were planning on moving out of their current apartment.
Somewhat playfully, he joked, “Hey, why don’t you have your ex chip in for rent?”
“Don’t be silly.” she rolled her eyes at him.
“Actually, why not? He didn’t have a problem with it before,” he reasoned.
“That was for a phone bill! He’s not going to cover rent. And look at you! Now you’re fine with my ex paying for things?”
They continued to joke about the idea for a while. They humored themselves with different scenarios imagining how such an arrangement would play out. Each subsequent scenario became more farfetched, absurd, and heated. Any moral qualms they may have had at the beginning disappeared as it was no longer a conversation—it was foreplay. They ended up having the most mind-blowing sex they’ve had in a while.
After a few nights of using the idea of living a luxurious life as an aphrodisiac, Steffi and Nate finally had a sober and serious discussion about it. Beyond the eroticism, they had convinced themselves it was a good idea to use Mark to help fund the apartment they wanted. They knew he could afford it and they had very little sympathy for him to begin with.
*****
Steffi: “Are you free to chat?”
Mark was confused by the text. He never expected to hear from Steffi again. He had reluctantly learned to move on.
Mark: “Hey?”
After exchanging a few lines of obligatory pleasantries, she got to the point. She explained her move to a new apartment and her need for financial help.
Mark: “You’re kidding me.”
Steffi: “Normally I wouldn’t ask you. But Nate and I broke up, which is why I’m moving. And you’ve been so generous in the past, even though I was a bitch to you.”
Mark: “I don’t know.”
Steffi: “It’s not even that much. It’s $1500 more than I can afford at the moment. Once I get my bonus from work, I can pay you back.”
Mark: “Why would I do this?”
Steffi: “Well, I’ve been thinking about us again. And I know you’ve been trying to follow me on Instagram. I’ve unblocked you.”
He quickly checked his Instagram and saw that he had indeed been unblocked. He quickly scrolled through all her new pictures and all the old feelings washed over him. He also noticed that all traces of Nate had been deleted.
Mark: “Really?”
She convinced him that she missed their previous times together. But at the same time, she needed time to figure things out in the immediate aftermath of her breakup.
Steffi: “Seriously, this would help me out so much to get back on my feet.”
*****
Four months ago
After the new apartment lease was signed, Mark sent $1500 every month to Steffi for his contribution to the rent. She was careful to keep Nate off her Instagram to maintain the illusion that she was single. While she didn’t devote a lot of attention to Mark, she did at least acknowledge him each time she received the rent money. Maybe a couple times a month, she would randomly throw him a bone with a text or quick phone call. Little by little, he felt he was winning her back.
After the first two months he inquired about her bonus. But she replied she hadn’t received it yet and was vague about when it was coming. She had in fact, already received her bonus.
After the second month, they quickly fell into a routine. While she still acknowledged his payments, she rarely spoke to him at other times. He felt they were straying further apart rather than growing closer together. Doubts about what was really happening started to creep into his thoughts.
After another two months, she finally told him she received her bonus. She offered to partially pay him back. She also let him know that she didn’t need him anymore to cover the rent. However, he declined the offer to be paid back—he was just happy she was back on her feet. He asked if she wanted to get together for drinks to celebrate. She did not respond to him.
*****
One week ago
After several weeks of silence, Steffi knew it was finally over with Mark. She was fine with it. She no longer needed Mark’s money and it was no longer worth the effort of stringing him along. So convinced that he was gone for good, she put pictures and videos of her and Nate together back on her Instagram.
*****
Today
Scrolling through her phone, a PayPal notification pops up. It’s from Mark.
“$1500 – rent”
submitted by Effective_Bar_6098 to paypigsupportgroup [link] [comments]
Mark laid in bed in a dark room as the morning slowly turned to the afternoon. His feelings were still raw since Steffi broke up with him a few days ago. He was lacking any motivation and still nursing his emotional wounds. As the clock turned to noon, a chime sounded on his phone. He picked up the phone and saw a familiar notification that stared at him, taunting him. It was the monthly reminder he had set up for himself a long time ago.
“Pay Steffi’s phone bill.”
For the past year when they were together, he paid her phone bill. It became an unspoken and routine part of their relationship. It was one of his ways of being an attentive boyfriend. Obviously that’s over, he thought. For him, this felt like the real end of the relationship.
He swiped his phone and opened the PayPal app. He sent her $80 maintaining the monthly routine.
*****
“$80 – phone bill”
A notification chime alerted Steffi. Picking up her phone, she noticed $80 had been sent by Mark as if nothing unusual had happened. She was confused considering she was pretty brutal during the breakup. But at the same time, she wasn’t completely surprised and assumed he was trying to win her back. She was tempted to text him and ask what was up, but her stubbornness won out—she did not want to talk to him. She immediately transferred the funds to her bank account and quickly forgot about it.
*****
15 months ago
For the next two months, the regular monthly phone bill payments from Mark did not even phase Steffi. She came to expect them to keep coming at the first of every month. It barely became a blip in her thoughts.
*****
13 months ago
On yet another first of the month, Mark finally had an epiphany. He was being an idiot. Steffi had been ignoring all his messages and calls since the breakup. But apparently, she had no issue accepting his money. So he let the day pass without making the usual payment.
The next day he noticed his phone was ringing with her name coming through. He couldn’t hide his excitement as he picked up the phone and uttered a hello.
Right off the bat she verbally assaulted him and asked if he was stupid. She was absolutely livid that he had forgotten her phone bill.
“I didn’t forget. I’m not doing this anymore.” He stood his ground, but the shakiness in his voice exposed his unease.
She didn’t say anything.
“Look, it’s weird that you still expect me—”
“Well I think it’s weird I had to put up with your shit for so long!” She went on to berate and gaslight him. “So, when can I expect the money?”
“I mean, I don’t know…”
She cut him off. “Today is the right answer.”
“Yes today,” he meekly replied.
“I wasn’t going to say anything, but I’ve upgraded my phone plan last month. But since we’re talking, I think you should cover that. It’s $120.”
“Ok, Steffi.”
*****
Steffi’s boyfriend, Nate, walked in from the next room. “Hey, what was all that about? You fighting with someone?”
“Yeah, that was my stupid ex.”
She explained how Mark suddenly stopped paying her phone bill, which upset her. Upon hearing the story, Nate was in disbelief.
“Wait, what the hell? Your ex has been sending you money all this time?”
“Well, yes. Until he stopped yesterday.”
“How can you be talking like that? Are you still seeing him?”
“No, it’s not like that.”
He was clearly threatened by the strange situation. But she calmly reassured him there was nothing going on—she had no feelings for Mark. She genuinely felt she was entitled to this after all she had to put up with during her time with Mark. Eventually he was convinced and relented.
“Fine,” he sighed. “It’s a moot point anyway. It’s not like he’s going to send you money again.”
Coincidentally it was then her phone chimed.
“$120 – phone bill”
She gave him a wicked smile and showed her phone. “You were saying?”
*****
12 months ago
The familiar chime went off as they were eating dinner together.
“Seriously? Again?” Nate looked bewildered.
“Why are you so shocked?” Steffi asked. “I told you he was a loser.”
“I understand about the last time—you were screaming at him like a banshee. But this time? Were you two talking?”
“No,” she reassured him. “I don’t know why he keeps sending me money, but I’m not complaining.”
“Maybe he’s trying to win you back,” he half-joked. “Should I be threatened?”
“Well, it’s not going to work,” she said definitively. And to reassure him further, she switched to a flirty voice. “Don’t be threatened. When we break up, I won’t make you pay my bills.”
They both had a long hard laugh as the tension eased.
“You know, maybe he’s into findom,” he wondered.
“I heard about findom,” she seemed a bit puzzled. “Isn’t that where a bunch of weirdos send money to random girls? I doubt it.”
“Well, I don’t know. He seems to fit the bill—no pun intended.”
She brushed it off as they spent the evening engaged in more interesting matters.
*****
Nine months ago
Instead of opening his PayPal app, Mark opened his chat and texted Steffi.
Mark: “Hey, I won’t be paying your phone bill today or anymore. Hope you understand.”
Steffi: “Call me. Let’s talk about it.”
He was tempted to hear her voice again. But he knew he’d get sucked in by her persuasiveness. No, text was safer for him.
Mark: “No. I just texted you as a courtesy.”
Steffi: “Ok I understand.”
Steffi wasn’t angry and didn’t have the motivation to fake it. If anything, she felt a little respect for him even though the easy money flow was over. She closed her chat. She opened her Instagram and proceeded to block him.
*****
Six months ago
After a long day of apartment-hunting, Steffi and Nate settled in for the night at their current apartment.
“I really like that complex along the waterfront,” Steffi said. “Can’t you picture us living there?”
“We already talked about this. You know we can’t afford it,” Nate countered. “It’s $1200 more than our current rent, plus whatever crazy fees they have.”
They spent the evening casually talking about their options, as they were planning on moving out of their current apartment.
Somewhat playfully, he joked, “Hey, why don’t you have your ex chip in for rent?”
“Don’t be silly.” she rolled her eyes at him.
“Actually, why not? He didn’t have a problem with it before,” he reasoned.
“That was for a phone bill! He’s not going to cover rent. And look at you! Now you’re fine with my ex paying for things?”
They continued to joke about the idea for a while. They humored themselves with different scenarios imagining how such an arrangement would play out. Each subsequent scenario became more farfetched, absurd, and heated. Any moral qualms they may have had at the beginning disappeared as it was no longer a conversation—it was foreplay. They ended up having the most mind-blowing sex they’ve had in a while.
After a few nights of using the idea of living a luxurious life as an aphrodisiac, Steffi and Nate finally had a sober and serious discussion about it. Beyond the eroticism, they had convinced themselves it was a good idea to use Mark to help fund the apartment they wanted. They knew he could afford it and they had very little sympathy for him to begin with.
*****
Steffi: “Are you free to chat?”
Mark was confused by the text. He never expected to hear from Steffi again. He had reluctantly learned to move on.
Mark: “Hey?”
After exchanging a few lines of obligatory pleasantries, she got to the point. She explained her move to a new apartment and her need for financial help.
Mark: “You’re kidding me.”
Steffi: “Normally I wouldn’t ask you. But Nate and I broke up, which is why I’m moving. And you’ve been so generous in the past, even though I was a bitch to you.”
Mark: “I don’t know.”
Steffi: “It’s not even that much. It’s $1500 more than I can afford at the moment. Once I get my bonus from work, I can pay you back.”
Mark: “Why would I do this?”
Steffi: “Well, I’ve been thinking about us again. And I know you’ve been trying to follow me on Instagram. I’ve unblocked you.”
He quickly checked his Instagram and saw that he had indeed been unblocked. He quickly scrolled through all her new pictures and all the old feelings washed over him. He also noticed that all traces of Nate had been deleted.
Mark: “Really?”
She convinced him that she missed their previous times together. But at the same time, she needed time to figure things out in the immediate aftermath of her breakup.
Steffi: “Seriously, this would help me out so much to get back on my feet.”
*****
Four months ago
After the new apartment lease was signed, Mark sent $1500 every month to Steffi for his contribution to the rent. She was careful to keep Nate off her Instagram to maintain the illusion that she was single. While she didn’t devote a lot of attention to Mark, she did at least acknowledge him each time she received the rent money. Maybe a couple times a month, she would randomly throw him a bone with a text or quick phone call. Little by little, he felt he was winning her back.
After the first two months he inquired about her bonus. But she replied she hadn’t received it yet and was vague about when it was coming. She had in fact, already received her bonus.
After the second month, they quickly fell into a routine. While she still acknowledged his payments, she rarely spoke to him at other times. He felt they were straying further apart rather than growing closer together. Doubts about what was really happening started to creep into his thoughts.
After another two months, she finally told him she received her bonus. She offered to partially pay him back. She also let him know that she didn’t need him anymore to cover the rent. However, he declined the offer to be paid back—he was just happy she was back on her feet. He asked if she wanted to get together for drinks to celebrate. She did not respond to him.
*****
One week ago
After several weeks of silence, Steffi knew it was finally over with Mark. She was fine with it. She no longer needed Mark’s money and it was no longer worth the effort of stringing him along. So convinced that he was gone for good, she put pictures and videos of her and Nate together back on her Instagram.
*****
Today
Scrolling through her phone, a PayPal notification pops up. It’s from Mark.
“$1500 – rent”
2024.05.01 04:44 thedingusenthusiast I’m at the potential end of my wireless earbud gamble.
I’m not sure if I should quit or not. I have been at this for scene months and I’m not sure what to do. I’m not sure whether the ANC as well as sound on some of these earbuds aren’t able to please me either due to how my ears are (both shape and how they take on sound) or some other reason that hasn’t occurred to me. I suppose I’m still willing to give it a chance and that’s where you, the awesome people of this community, come in.
My simple requirements are this:
$25 to $70
JLab GO Air POP Price: $24.99
JVC True Wireless Headphones Earbud Style Price: $24.99
Soundcore P25i Price: $29.99
JLab Go Air Sport Price: $29.99
JVC Gumy Price: $29.99
JLab JBuds Mini Price: $39.99
JVC Fitness True Wireless Headphones Price: $39.99
Sony WIC100 Price: $34.99
JBL Vibe Beam Price: $49.99
JBL Vibe Buds Price: $49.99
JLab JBudsAir Pro Price: $59.99
Beats Flex Wireless Headphones Price: $69.99
JVC True Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones Price: $69.99
$100 to $200
JLabs Air Sport Price: $69.99
JBL Tune Flex Price: $99.99
Jabra Elite 4 Price: $99.99
Samsung Galaxy Buds FE Price: $99.99 Exchanged Buds FE due to lack of iOS App.
JBL Endurance Peak II Price: $99.99
JLab Epic Air Sport ANC Price: $99.99
Google Pixel Buds A-Series Price: $99.99
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Price: $99.99 Exchanged Liberty 4 due to subpar ANC.
Jabra Elite 4 Active Price: $119.99
Apple AirPods Price: $129.99
Beats Studio Buds Price: $149.99
Beats Studio Buds + Price: $169.99
Jabra Elite 5 Price: $149.99
Sony LinkBuds True Wireless Open-Ear Earbuds Price: $179.99
Google Pixel Buds Pro Price: $199.99
Sony LinkBuds S Price: $199.99 Exchanged LinkBuds S due to terrible in-app adaptive noise cancellation at the time.
Beats PowerBeats Pro Price: $199.99.
Beats Fit Pro Price: $199.99 Exchanged Beats Fit Pro due to questionable construction quality.
Poly Voyager Free 60 Price: $199.99
$230 to $300
Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro Price: $229.99 Exchanged the first time due to assumed crackle of death and the second time due to lack of iOS app.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 Price: $249.99 Exchanged due to failure of ANC, unsure if due to a bad part, bad fit, or both.
Jabra Elite 10 Price: $249.99 Got ride of these because I was fed up and angry with what I had been through.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 Price: $279.99 Exchanged MTW3 due to quality control issues that caused rapid chirping that hurt my hearing for a second pair that I never used due to fear of the same issue happening again.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Price: $279.99 Exchanged due to terrible connection issues.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Price: $299.99
Sony WF1000XM5 Price: $299.99 Exchanged partly due to the fact that I didn’t care for the foam warps and I didn’t want to buy additional ones. The other reason I add kit was due to potential paranoia of the exploding battery issue the XM4’s had despite no evidence that the XM5’s had this issue.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 Price: $299.99 Currently suffering a fire alarm-like single chirp when removing and putting these in my ears. Both pairs had this happen.
I apologize if all of this sounds a bit ranty. I just feel that I’m at the enemy proverbial wireless earbud rope after searching for seven months. I don’t want to totally give up but I’m tired and I’m hoping someone out there can help me. Thank you for listening and thank you in advance for the assistance.
submitted by thedingusenthusiast to headphones [link] [comments]
My simple requirements are this:
- Sound must be good to great (I know that’s subjective, but still)
- ANC must be good
- Comfortable and/or good fit
- Must be available for sale at my local Beat Buy. If the wireless earbuds you suggest aren’t available they might as well be on another planet. I prefer this because of the ease of potential return/exchange and availability of the extended accident warranty.
$25 to $70
JLab GO Air POP Price: $24.99
JVC True Wireless Headphones Earbud Style Price: $24.99
Soundcore P25i Price: $29.99
JLab Go Air Sport Price: $29.99
JVC Gumy Price: $29.99
JLab JBuds Mini Price: $39.99
JVC Fitness True Wireless Headphones Price: $39.99
Sony WIC100 Price: $34.99
JBL Vibe Beam Price: $49.99
JBL Vibe Buds Price: $49.99
JLab JBudsAir Pro Price: $59.99
Beats Flex Wireless Headphones Price: $69.99
JVC True Wireless Noise Canceling Headphones Price: $69.99
$100 to $200
JLabs Air Sport Price: $69.99
JBL Tune Flex Price: $99.99
Jabra Elite 4 Price: $99.99
Samsung Galaxy Buds FE Price: $99.99 Exchanged Buds FE due to lack of iOS App.
JBL Endurance Peak II Price: $99.99
JLab Epic Air Sport ANC Price: $99.99
Google Pixel Buds A-Series Price: $99.99
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC Price: $99.99 Exchanged Liberty 4 due to subpar ANC.
Jabra Elite 4 Active Price: $119.99
Apple AirPods Price: $129.99
Beats Studio Buds Price: $149.99
Beats Studio Buds + Price: $169.99
Jabra Elite 5 Price: $149.99
Sony LinkBuds True Wireless Open-Ear Earbuds Price: $179.99
Google Pixel Buds Pro Price: $199.99
Sony LinkBuds S Price: $199.99 Exchanged LinkBuds S due to terrible in-app adaptive noise cancellation at the time.
Beats PowerBeats Pro Price: $199.99.
Beats Fit Pro Price: $199.99 Exchanged Beats Fit Pro due to questionable construction quality.
Poly Voyager Free 60 Price: $199.99
$230 to $300
Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro Price: $229.99 Exchanged the first time due to assumed crackle of death and the second time due to lack of iOS app.
Apple AirPods Pro 2 Price: $249.99 Exchanged due to failure of ANC, unsure if due to a bad part, bad fit, or both.
Jabra Elite 10 Price: $249.99 Got ride of these because I was fed up and angry with what I had been through.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 3 Price: $279.99 Exchanged MTW3 due to quality control issues that caused rapid chirping that hurt my hearing for a second pair that I never used due to fear of the same issue happening again.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II Price: $279.99 Exchanged due to terrible connection issues.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra Price: $299.99
Sony WF1000XM5 Price: $299.99 Exchanged partly due to the fact that I didn’t care for the foam warps and I didn’t want to buy additional ones. The other reason I add kit was due to potential paranoia of the exploding battery issue the XM4’s had despite no evidence that the XM5’s had this issue.
Sennheiser MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 Price: $299.99 Currently suffering a fire alarm-like single chirp when removing and putting these in my ears. Both pairs had this happen.
I apologize if all of this sounds a bit ranty. I just feel that I’m at the enemy proverbial wireless earbud rope after searching for seven months. I don’t want to totally give up but I’m tired and I’m hoping someone out there can help me. Thank you for listening and thank you in advance for the assistance.
2024.05.01 04:41 Cel-747Live Nuebe Gaming: Charting New Territory - Online Casino Games: The New Frontier of Digital Fun
The digital landscape is constantly evolving, and the world of entertainment is no exception. Online casino games, once confined to desktop computers, have undergone a remarkable transformation, emerging as a pioneering force in the realm of digital fun. Platforms like Nuebe Gaming are at the forefront of this exciting shift, offering a captivating blend of classic casino thrills, innovative features, and unparalleled accessibility. This comprehensive guide delves into the exciting new frontier of digital fun unlocked by online casino games at Nuebe Gaming.
Beyond Physical Limitations: The Rise of Digital Entertainment
Traditional brick-and-mortar casinos have long held a place in the entertainment world. However, online casino games at Nuebe Gaming offer a compelling alternative that caters to the modern player:
Nuebe Gaming understands that online casino games are more than just gambling – they're a form of digital fun. Here's how they elevate the entertainment factor:
The new frontier of digital fun powered by online casino games at Nuebe Gaming offers a multitude of benefits for players:
Nuebe Gaming is a leader in shaping the future of online casino games as a form of digital entertainment. They are constantly innovating, integrating new features, and prioritizing player experience. As technology continues to evolve, Nuebe Gaming is well-positioned to embrace advancements like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, further revolutionizing the landscape of digital fun. So, embrace the new frontier of digital entertainment. Nuebe Gaming awaits, offering a world of thrilling casino games, innovative features, and the potential for significant wins – all wrapped in a captivating and fun online experience.
submitted by Cel-747Live to u/Cel-747Live [link] [comments]
Beyond Physical Limitations: The Rise of Digital Entertainment
Traditional brick-and-mortar casinos have long held a place in the entertainment world. However, online casino games at Nuebe Gaming offer a compelling alternative that caters to the modern player:
- Unmatched Convenience: Gone are the days of traveling to a physical casino. Nuebe Gaming allows you to access your favorite casino games anytime, anywhere, from the comfort of your home or on the go with their mobile platform. A few clicks or taps unlock a world of entertainment, revolutionizing accessibility in the digital age.
- Diversity of Games: Nuebe Gaming boasts a vast library of games, often exceeding what brick-and-mortar casinos can offer. From classic slots and table games to live dealer experiences and innovative new releases, there's something for every player's preference. This vast selection ensures endless entertainment possibilities, keeping the digital fun fresh and exciting.
- Enhanced Features: Online casino games at Nuebe Gaming leverage the power of technology to offer unique features. Bonus rounds, free spins, progressive jackpots, and even gamification elements contribute to a more engaging and potentially rewarding digital entertainment experience.
Nuebe Gaming understands that online casino games are more than just gambling – they're a form of digital fun. Here's how they elevate the entertainment factor:
- High-Quality Graphics and Immersive Sound Design: Nuebe Gaming prioritizes creating an immersive experience. Their games boast stunning visuals, captivating sound effects, and smooth animations, transporting you to a digital environment that rivals the excitement of a real casino. The focus on quality graphics and sound design enhances the overall fun factor and keeps you engaged for extended periods.
- Social Features and Interactive Elements: Nuebe Gaming might offer features that foster a sense of community and friendly competition. Leaderboards, chat functionalities, and even the ability to participate in tournaments can add a social element to your digital entertainment experience. Additionally, gamification elements like quests, achievements, and loyalty programs can transform online casino gaming into a continuous and engaging journey, keeping the fun alive session after session.
The new frontier of digital fun powered by online casino games at Nuebe Gaming offers a multitude of benefits for players:
- Endless Entertainment Options: With a vast library of games and new releases added regularly, Nuebe Gaming offers endless entertainment possibilities. There's always something new to discover and explore, keeping your gaming experience fresh and exciting. This variety ensures that you can find games that align with your mood and preferences, maximizing the digital fun factor.
- Flexibility and Control: Play your favorite casino games whenever and wherever you please. The flexibility offered by online platforms like Nuebe Gaming is unmatched, allowing you to squeeze in a few spins or a quick tournament even with a busy schedule. You have complete control over your digital entertainment experience, letting you play for fun at your own pace.
- A Social Aspect (if applicable): While online casino games can be enjoyed solo, Nuebe Gaming might offer features that foster a sense of community. Leaderboards, chat functionalities, and even the ability to participate in team-based tournaments can add a social element to your digital entertainment experience. This can make playing online casino games more interactive and enjoyable.
Nuebe Gaming is a leader in shaping the future of online casino games as a form of digital entertainment. They are constantly innovating, integrating new features, and prioritizing player experience. As technology continues to evolve, Nuebe Gaming is well-positioned to embrace advancements like virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence, further revolutionizing the landscape of digital fun. So, embrace the new frontier of digital entertainment. Nuebe Gaming awaits, offering a world of thrilling casino games, innovative features, and the potential for significant wins – all wrapped in a captivating and fun online experience.
2024.05.01 04:36 SeedyboyUK Do I need a receiver with WHARFEDALE DIAMOND 225s?
Im sure I will get ripped out for my noob question (and fair enough).
A friend gifted me a free Yamaha R-S202.
Im about to move into a new place and was considering purchasing WHARFEDALE DIAMOND 225 .
Do I need the receiver with these? Will it help the sound at all? What is the meaning of life?
Cheers
submitted by SeedyboyUK to BudgetAudiophile [link] [comments]
A friend gifted me a free Yamaha R-S202.
Im about to move into a new place and was considering purchasing WHARFEDALE DIAMOND 225 .
Do I need the receiver with these? Will it help the sound at all? What is the meaning of life?
Cheers
2024.05.01 04:34 edgiscript [F4M] I Win [Humorous] [Comically Obsessed Yandere] [Clueless Listener] [Escape Artist]
Title: I Win
Note: For any questions about monetization or the like, please see this: An Introduction To The Book That Is Me : ASMRScriptHaven (reddit.com)Girl: (Laughing gleefully.) I got you, I got you, I got you. I finally got you. After all of this time, the planning, the preparing, the waiting, it’s all boiled down to this moment. You’re finally mine, all mine.
There you go, darling. Yes, yes, keep walking down the stairs, darling. Right down the stairs.
(Pause.)
Yes, darling, I know it’s more difficult with your hands tied behind your back, but you can do it. You’re such a good boy. It’s not much farther now.
(Pause.)
Oh, you like this game, do you? (Giggles.) Well, I’m enjoying it very much myself.
(Squeals with glee.) And we’re here. Let me set you down on the nice, soft, comfortable bed I’ve prepared just for you, my sweet darling, and get a good look at you. Ok?
(Laughs as she’s overcome with emotion.) Ohhhhhhh. Oh my. Look at your beautiful face. Just look at it.
(Pause.)
Well, I know you can’t without a mirror. But I can, dear, and I just want to look at your adorable face.
(Pause.)
It’s ok. You don’t have to look at yourself. I want to look at you.
(Pause.)
(Mild confused annoyance.) What do mean, then why did I tell you to look at yourself? I didn’t.
Look, darling, it’s just an expression. It’s like if I say, “I’m all ears.” I just mean that I’m listening intently to what you’re saying. I’m not saying that I’m really made of nothing but ears.
Or if I said that bringing you here was a piece of cake. I would be saying that it was really easy, (Matter-of-factly.) which it wasn’t, by the way. Getting you here took a lot of effort, let me tell you.
(Pause.)
Yes, that certainly would be a strange sight to see, wouldn’t it? Me being made up of nothing but ears. How would I eat the cake? Yes, I agree. That would be very odd indeed.
(Pause.)
(Mild annoyance.) No, there’s no cake down here, honey. It’s not what I meant when I was trying to explain… Sweetie, honey, I think you’re missing the point here. The point is that you are very, very special to me.
(Pause.)
How are you special?
(Enraptured.) Oh, darling, everything about you. You’re so kind and gentle and caring. You’re intelig…
(Stops and decides against finishing that word,) you’re charming, and (Gasp.) beautiful, oh so beautiful. Your lips, so tender. You’ve got such a cute little nose. And your eyes, (Moans.) those precious eyes of yours just look right through me with a penetrating gaze that melts my heart.
(Pause.)
(Mild annoyance.) No, um, heh, heh, sweetie, I don’t believe you have laser… heat, vision, or whatever. I’m not saying you literally look right through me and melt my heart into a pile of… goo? I suppose. Is goo right? Or would a heart burn up if it were struck with a laser?
What am I saying? That’s not the point. The point is that it’s another expression. I’m saying that when you look at me, you make me weak in the knees. There are butterflies in my stomach.
(Pause.)
(Slightly greater annoyance.) No, darling, EXPRESSION, remember? Ugh.
Ok, ok. It’s apparent that I have to do this literally. And that’s ok. It’s just one of the many, many ways that makes you so… wonderful.
Let’s see. When you look at me… um, I… uh… I get tingles, yes, tingles, up and down my spine. It’s such a wonderful feeling. And my chest feels very… warm. Warm is a good word. Another good feeling.
(Pause.)
Yes, that’s right, a good warm, not an overheating, burning like I’ve been thrown into a fire, warm. No, it’s like I’ve been wrapped up with snuggly blankets, kind of warm.
(Pause.)
(Happily.) Yes, yes, you know what that feels like. Good. GOOD. Hee, hee. Now we’re getting somewhere.
(Pause.)
How else do you make me feel? Ok. Um, let’s see, um…. Oh, oh, oh, you make my stomach feel… all… knotted up inside.
(Pause.)
Sick? No, no, no. You don’t make me feel sick.
(Pause.)
(Annoyed.) Maybe I ate some bad sausages? Look, sweetie, dear, why don’t we just say that you make me feel wonderful when I see you look at me and leave it at that, ok?
(Pause.)
(Smiling and happy.) Ohhhhh, that caused you to smile. I love your smile so much. That makes me feel even more wonderful. (Giggles.)
(Pause.)
If you make me feel so wonderful, then why have I tied you up? That is a very good question, darling. It’s because you make me feel so wonderful that I’ve tied you up. You’re all mine now. I wanted you all to myself, so I tied you up in order to bring you here.
(Pause.)
Why? (Seductively.) Well… let’s just say that I want to do all sorts of wonderful things with you, and I didn’t want you to leave before I could.
(Pause.)
What kinds of things? Oh, my sweet darling, all sorts of things. We’re going to have so much fun, you and I. (Giggles seductively.) I’m going to play with you all… night… long.
(Pause.)
Play games? Well, yes, I suppose. We’re going to play lots of games. A lot of… one-on-one games, if you know what I…
(Remembering previous confusion.) Oh, wait. You probably don’t know what I mean. I forgot. Keep it literal. Sorry, honey. Just trust me, ok? We’re going to have so much fun together.
(Pause.)
Good. Good. I’m so glad you like games. Because I am going to…
(Pause.)
(Confused.) What do you mean, you get to go first? No, honey, it doesn’t work like that. You see, I’ve got you tied up. I’m the one that gets to decide what… “games” we play. Ok?
(Pause.)
(Bemoaning his adorability.) Oh, don’t give me that sad, puppy-dog face. You know how I can’t stand to see you sad like that, even if I do know you’re doing it on purpose.
(Determined.) Errrrrrr. No. No, I won’t look. I won’t. This is my time. I’m the one who put forth all of this effort to get you here and to…
(Relenting.) Oh, how can I not look at your beautiful face. Ok, fine, darling. You get to go first. What is it that you want to do? But don’t ask me to let you out. That’s not how this game is played. All right?
(Pause.)
(Bewildered.) You just want me to close my eyes and count to ten? That’s it? Then what?
(Pause.)
You can’t tell me? That would be cheating? But, darling, I have to know what’s going to…
Ok, all right, all I need to know is what you’ve told me.
Well, I don’t see how it could hurt. You’re all tied up in the locked basement of my extravagant gated mansion, after all. With all of the security that I have in place, closing my eyes for ten seconds isn’t going to hurt anything.
Ok, I’ll play your game, sweetie, if that’s what you really want. I just cover my eyes, right? Like this? Ok, now I just count to ten.
(Deep breath of mild exasperation.) I really don’t see what… ok, ok. I’ll play. One, two, three…
Sweetie, why am I counting to ten? Just keep counting? Ok, I’ll finish counting.
Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ok, I’ve finished and I’m uncovering my eyes. Now, sweetie, what was supposed to happen…
(Shocked and panic stricken.) WHAT THE HELL!?! YOU’RE GONE!! SWEETIE!?! SWEETIEEEEEEEEE!!!!???!!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?! HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU GET OUT OF YOUR ROPES!?! WHERE DID YOU GO!?! WHERE ARE YOU!?! SWEETIE!!!!! SWEE…
(Confusion.) Wait, is… is that… giggling… coming from inside the closet?
(Opens the closet.)
(Relief.) Sweetie, there you are. What are you doing hiding in the closet? Come out of there, now! You scared me to death. I thought you’d gotten away.
(Pause.)
Yes, you did get away. But I meant I thought you’d gotten out of the house. Now come here.
(Pause.)
Girl: Because I need to tie you up again. This time I’ll do a better job. Your hands were behind your back last time where I couldn’t see them. You must have been able to untie the ropes somehow in a way that I couldn’t monitor. This time I’ll tie them in front of you so I know where they are and what you’re doing.
(Pause.)
Yes, I… I suppose that’s right, honey. I won the game.
(Pause.)
Uh… thank you? I guess. I suppose I am very good at this.
(Pause.)
Yes, I did catch you right away. Well, I certainly tried to plan ahead for everything. But I have to admit I didn’t plan on you being a little Houdini.
(Pause.)
Oh, yes, you did get out of your ropes, but, thank goodness, you didn’t get out the door.
And how could you have done that? You may be able to get out of your ropes, but I’m the only one with a key to unlock the door.
(Pause.)
(Increasing comical gentle frustration over the next few lines.) No, that wasn’t your goal, sweetie.
(Pause.)
No, it’s ok that you didn’t know that. It wasn’t part of the game.
(Pause.)
No, sweetie, I am not obliged to tell you all of the rules and ways that you can escape.
(Pause.)
Because that’s not how this works, sweetie. My only goal is to keep you down here safe from anything that would try to hurt you out there.
(Pause.)
No, you don’t get another chance. Sweetie, you’re not understanding what’s going on here. It’s… uh… It’s my turn to… um… to choose what game we play. Ok?
(Pause.)
(Growing excitement.) Sweetie, darling, why are you leaning in? Oh, you kissed me on the cheek. And you’re taking my hands and kissing them too. Oh my, darling, does this mean...?
(Pause.)
(Disappointed annoyance.) Oh, you say you’re enjoying this game. It is fun, like I said it would be. Ok, sweetie, um, I’m glad you’re enjoying this. Really, I am. Because I wanted you to truly enjoy this whoooooole experience. Yeah, I did. But, not… quite in this way.
(Pause.)
No, honey, we’re not going to play best two out of three.
Uh, look, sweetie, I think, for right now it would be good if I gagged you for just a bit. That way I’ll be able to explain how this all works uninterrupted, ok?
Now, let me see. Where did I put that gag? Oh, yes. It’s in the dresser over there. Let me just walk over and get that out. There we go. Now, sweetie, this won’t hurt, but it will keep…
(Sound of door unlocking and opening.)
WHAT THE HELL!?! SWEETIE!?! YOU GOT OUT OF THE ROPES AGAIN!?! HOW DID YOU OPEN THE DOOR!?! I’VE GOT THE ONLY KEY RIGHT… YOU PICKPOCKETED THE KEY WHEN YOU KISSED ME!! YOU SNEAKY LITTLE… GET BACK HERE!! NO!! NO, SWEETIE!! DON’T GO!!
(Sound of girl running upstairs.)
(Stalking the victim. Slowly moving forward getting ready to jump.) Hah, you can’t get out of the front door. It’s a biometric lock with titanium bolts. All of the windows are closed with bulletproof glass. They’re completely unbreakable. The only window that’s open to offer any ventilation is that tiny one in the corridor over there. Yes, that’s the one. And that’s way too high to…
HOW IN THE HELL!?! YOU LEAPT FROM WALL TO WALL UP TO THE WINDOW AND DOVE THROUGH!?! WHAT WAS I THINKING POINTING THAT WINDOW OUT TO YOU!?!
(Running to the door.) Holy hell, I fell in love with Jackie Chan. Oh, hurry, hurry.
(Beeping followed by glitch sound.) Oh, come on, door. Come on. Recognize my thumb print.
(Beeping then click of door unlocking.) Finally.
(Door opens.)
(Calling out pleadingly.) SWEETIE!!! SWEETIE!!! COME BACK!!! PLEASE!!!
(Sadly giving up.) Oh, he’s made it to the front gate. No, no, no! Now there’s no way I’ll be able to…
(Confused.) to…. He’s… he’s turning around. He’s coming… he’s coming back.
Sweetie? What are you doing? You… you made it out. You’re coming back to me, and smiling.
(Pause.)
(Disbelief.) You won that one and I won the first one, so now it’s best two out of three.
Sweetie, look, I told you before, it’s not… That’s not the way this game is played. I mean, it’s not a game at all. It’s… Look, just come with me, ok? Let me take your hand and let’s go back downstairs. Ok?
(Pause.)
Yes, that’s right, darling. You are good at this.
(Under her breath.) A little too damn good at this.
(Out loud.) What’s that darling?
(Pause.)
Yes, I did say something quietly. I said that you were a good boy. Yes, such a good boy.
(Pause.)
I’m glad that makes you happy to hear that. Now, come along. Come with me.
(Pause.)
Yes, you were amazing.
(Honestly impressed.) Really amazing.
(Pause.)
No, I’m not just saying that. You… well, that was genuinely incredible. I didn’t know you could do that.
(Pause.)
(Smiling.) Oh, look at you. You’re blushing.
Yes, you are. You don’t have to hide it, darling. It’s cute.
But now we’re here again in the basement. And this time you won’t be getting away, because instead of tying you up, I’m going to use this chain around your ankle. You won’t be able to get away from me anymore.
(Pause.)
Oh, yes. I know I’m going to win this one. There’s no way that you will be able to get away from me now.
(Pause.)
No, I don’t want to double the bet.
Wait a minute? What bet?
Oh, never mind. Just let me… (Sound of a click.) There we go. The chain is on. Now you won’t be able to get away from me.
(Pause.)
Yes, sweetie, that is what I think.
(Pause.)
What do you mean, I haven’t considered what’s on that side of the room? There’s nothing on that side of the room. Look, honey, I’m turning around to show you. There’s nothing over there that…
(Clicking sound of chain.) Oh, bloody hell. Did what I think happened actually just happen?
WHAT THE HELL?!? THE CHAIN IS NOW ON MY ANKLE? HOW DID!?!... HOW COULD!?!... WHY WAS!?!...
(Starts to sob deeply.) Oh, I give up. This isn’t going to work. I just can’t do it.
(Pause while crying.)
Yes, dear, yes. You win. You win the freaking game.
(Pause while crying.)
Yes, that’s why I’m crying. You keep getting free. I can’t keep you here. I just can’t. That’s obvious to me now. I tried so hard to keep you here, but it’s just not working. I can’t do it.
(Pause.)
(Snaps irritatedly.) No, I am not a sore loser. That’s not why I’m crying.
(Pause.)
(Sniffling.) Then why am I crying? Because I love you, that’s why. Because now you’ll leave me and I just wanted you to stay so I could love you.
(Pause.)
Yes. That’s what I said. I love you. This wasn’t a game. I was… I was kidnapping you, ok? Kidnapping you.
I’ve fallen in love with you over these last few months and I wanted to bring you down here so I could have you all for myself and show you just how much I love you.
(Sweetly.) I love your smile. I love your tenderness. I love your perfect face and shining eyes. I love your joy. I love your sensitivity. I love your chiseled good looks and your firm little ass. Oh, God, do I love your ass.
I love your sense of adventure and fun. I love that everything is a game to you. I love you.
(Softly crying.) I love all of you, and I just wanted to hold you and squeeze you and kiss you, and have you all to myself. I love you.
Oh, the way you’re looking at me right now makes me feel so ashamed. I’m just going to bury my face in my hands for a while.
I should have just told you all of this a while ago, I know I should have, but I was so afraid of how you’d react if I was that forward with you.
I mean, how do you think you would have reacted if I had just walked up to you and told you that you made me feel like Heaven had opened up and blessed me with you. That every time I was around you, you made me feel like I was in the presence of pure joy. That your smile brightened my day, and any time I saw you sad I just wanted to wrap my arms around you and kiss away your blues. That if I could magically have one wish granted to be anywhere in the world, I’d choose to be snuggling up with you, resting in your loving arms. That what I wanted most in the world was to care for you with everything I had; to do everything in my power to make sure that you knew that you were loved each and every day; to keep you here with me so that I could kiss those sweet lips over and over again to my heart’s desire. That…
(Click.)
(Confused.) Darling, you… you’ve taken the chain off of me and placed it back on yourself.
How do you do that? No, don’t bother answering that. That’s not the point.
The point is that I just admitted to you that I wanted to tie you up and keep you down here for myself. I was trying to kidnap you, but you were free. I couldn’t stop you. Why are you doing this?
(Pause.)
(Overcome by what he’s saying.) Because I’m the most beautiful girl you’ve ever seen? Because I’ve been so sweet and so gentle, and I’m always so nice to you? Because you have more fun being with me than with anybody else? Because seeing me cry hurts you like nothing else? Because you want to care for me and make me happy too? Because… because you love me too?
You do? You really mean that?
(Pause.)
(Shyly and weakly, still with some sniffling from the crying.) Yes, I suppose you wouldn’t stay otherwise, would you?
Well, darling, I guess there’s not really any point to the chain anymore, now is there? You can take it off now. I don’t think we’re going to need it anymore.
(Pause.)
(Laughing gently.) You say no, that’s not how the game is played. That I’ve won by capturing your heart and now I get to claim my victory.
Oh, my dearest, darling love. Come here and let me hold you while you hold me back. We both win, darling. We both win.
2024.05.01 04:27 ExperienceNorth2701 Update
Hi!
I come from the previous post https://www.reddit.com/exmormon/s/59e0PUG1Wd
First of all, thank you for all of your support and kind comments.
Today I had a talk scheduled with the missionaries at the church. Latter, there was a movie and popcorn and stuff. I didn't attend. I was tired today, needed to rest and above all, follow my instincts.
Later, I replied to them:
"Hello guys, how are you? I want to tell you that I am not going to attend again. I am not going to convert, that is the reality, and it is a waste of valuable time for me and for you. Also, today they put in the group that we should solve tomorrow's lunch and talk directly to them, then they deleted those messages, and then they sent a calendar of each day assigned to each person who is going to make your food. I'm glad you're going to have food every day! But I think that it had something to do with me bringing something to you. Anyway, I don't want to be part of it. I've heard, I've read, I've observed, but it's all very gloomy. Likewise, I became very fond of both you and other people from the church and I appreciate the time shared with everyone. Nothing is random, everything happens for a reason. I appreciate it, I learned a lot and I will keep it. When you return home, if you want to keep in touch, we can do so. But the best thing is to be honest with myself, I'm not going to convert. Huge greetings, you can count on me just like ... and her family and just like anyone who needs it.
I don't want to sound rough, sometimes I write in a hurry. You can count on me! 🫶🏼
Thanks for everything, I'm just a message away. For food, medicine, any help! Good luck guys in your mission, whatever it may be in life! 🫶🏼"
For context, I gave them rice with vegetables and pizza on sunday because I saw they were hungry. I am like this even with my neighbors. We help each other out. With food, clothes, whatever it may be. I went to the church later because a kid needed a medication that I had and I'm not longer taking.
It was not fair to continue to attempt, as I'm not going to convert, not even for have fallen for a missionary, it will only bring confusion on both ends. Let's be real. As I said in my previous post, he probably comes back home and marries someone who mets the standars of his family and religion. Regardless, I am gratefull to have met them, to have met the other members, and I'm grateful for the learning and time. It's good to have free will and to be able to make decisions after exploring things, I'm not going to lose that.
It was good. Gonna miss all those people. Gonna miss the missionaries and gonna miss him. But hey, if you love someone, let them go, right?
This has been a great teaching. I'm glad I have not converted for a man, but at the same time I'm glad I met him, and all of them, I think they are good people (the majority of them), just trapped. I just have gratitude and best wishes.
The bishop's wife told me she loved me, I grew so fonder of her too, she's an amazing, compasionate woman, and invited me to lunch someday.
It has been a journey, but I think it was the most responsable thing to do. To not interfere with their missions, to be truthful with myself, and above all, to no lose humanity in any of those process.
Thank you all in advance. I am always reading you guys.
submitted by ExperienceNorth2701 to exmormon [link] [comments]
I come from the previous post https://www.reddit.com/exmormon/s/59e0PUG1Wd
First of all, thank you for all of your support and kind comments.
Today I had a talk scheduled with the missionaries at the church. Latter, there was a movie and popcorn and stuff. I didn't attend. I was tired today, needed to rest and above all, follow my instincts.
Later, I replied to them:
"Hello guys, how are you? I want to tell you that I am not going to attend again. I am not going to convert, that is the reality, and it is a waste of valuable time for me and for you. Also, today they put in the group that we should solve tomorrow's lunch and talk directly to them, then they deleted those messages, and then they sent a calendar of each day assigned to each person who is going to make your food. I'm glad you're going to have food every day! But I think that it had something to do with me bringing something to you. Anyway, I don't want to be part of it. I've heard, I've read, I've observed, but it's all very gloomy. Likewise, I became very fond of both you and other people from the church and I appreciate the time shared with everyone. Nothing is random, everything happens for a reason. I appreciate it, I learned a lot and I will keep it. When you return home, if you want to keep in touch, we can do so. But the best thing is to be honest with myself, I'm not going to convert. Huge greetings, you can count on me just like ... and her family and just like anyone who needs it.
I don't want to sound rough, sometimes I write in a hurry. You can count on me! 🫶🏼
Thanks for everything, I'm just a message away. For food, medicine, any help! Good luck guys in your mission, whatever it may be in life! 🫶🏼"
For context, I gave them rice with vegetables and pizza on sunday because I saw they were hungry. I am like this even with my neighbors. We help each other out. With food, clothes, whatever it may be. I went to the church later because a kid needed a medication that I had and I'm not longer taking.
It was not fair to continue to attempt, as I'm not going to convert, not even for have fallen for a missionary, it will only bring confusion on both ends. Let's be real. As I said in my previous post, he probably comes back home and marries someone who mets the standars of his family and religion. Regardless, I am gratefull to have met them, to have met the other members, and I'm grateful for the learning and time. It's good to have free will and to be able to make decisions after exploring things, I'm not going to lose that.
It was good. Gonna miss all those people. Gonna miss the missionaries and gonna miss him. But hey, if you love someone, let them go, right?
This has been a great teaching. I'm glad I have not converted for a man, but at the same time I'm glad I met him, and all of them, I think they are good people (the majority of them), just trapped. I just have gratitude and best wishes.
The bishop's wife told me she loved me, I grew so fonder of her too, she's an amazing, compasionate woman, and invited me to lunch someday.
It has been a journey, but I think it was the most responsable thing to do. To not interfere with their missions, to be truthful with myself, and above all, to no lose humanity in any of those process.
Thank you all in advance. I am always reading you guys.
2024.05.01 04:25 AggroFug 22 [M4F] Chill Cuddle VC?
Been really wanting to just get comfy and cuddly with someone lately over a call. We talk about our days, our lives, our interests, anything the vibe calls for. I love music(especially rock and metal), video games(been replaying GTA5 lately), and deep talks about life. In the last year I’ve also picked up more on watching shows again from cartoons to live action comedies and action/drama shows. I also love a good laugh and hopefully you share the same sense of humor as me.
Truly I’d only expect this to be a one-time thing, but if the vibe is good then perhaps it could be an on-going thing and we could be online cuddle buddies.
Anyway if any of this sounds interesting to you and you’d like to chat or possibly even call then feel free to message me. I only chat with people who are 19 or older.
submitted by AggroFug to LetsChat [link] [comments]
Truly I’d only expect this to be a one-time thing, but if the vibe is good then perhaps it could be an on-going thing and we could be online cuddle buddies.
Anyway if any of this sounds interesting to you and you’d like to chat or possibly even call then feel free to message me. I only chat with people who are 19 or older.
2024.05.01 04:24 AggroFug 22 [M4F] Chill Cuddle VC?
Been really wanting to just get comfy and cuddly with someone lately over a call. We talk about our days, our lives, our interests, anything the vibe calls for. I love music(especially rock and metal), video games(been replaying GTA5 lately), and deep talks about life. In the last year I’ve also picked up more on watching shows again from cartoons to live action comedies and action/drama shows. I also love a good laugh and hopefully you share the same sense of humor as me.
Truly I’d only expect this to be a one-time thing, but if the vibe is good then perhaps it could be an on-going thing and we could be online cuddle buddies.
Anyway if any of this sounds interesting to you and you’d like to chat or possibly even call then feel free to message me. I only chat with people who are 19 or older.
submitted by AggroFug to VoiceChats [link] [comments]
Truly I’d only expect this to be a one-time thing, but if the vibe is good then perhaps it could be an on-going thing and we could be online cuddle buddies.
Anyway if any of this sounds interesting to you and you’d like to chat or possibly even call then feel free to message me. I only chat with people who are 19 or older.
2024.05.01 04:17 unknownnnnn___ Terrifying Sleep Paralysis: When Nightmares Invade Reality
Ever been paralyzed, awake but unable to move, feeling an oppressive weight on your chest while shadows dance in the corners of your room? You might have encountered the spine-chilling phenomenon known as sleep paralysis.
Imagine lying in bed, feeling vibrations as you drift off, only to find yourself trapped in your own body. You're fully aware of your surroundings, but you can't move a muscle. You try to scream, but no sound escapes your lips. Your eyes strain to open, revealing eerie figures lurking in the darkness.
As you struggle to break free, you gasp for air, feeling as though something is suffocating you. The more you fight, the tighter the grip of paralysis becomes.
It's a bone-chilling experience that leaves you questioning reality. Are you awake? Are you dreaming? Or are you caught in some twisted limbo between the two?
Sleep paralysis is a haunting blend of the waking world and the nightmares of sleep. It's a reminder that the line between reality and the supernatural is sometimes frighteningly thin.
Have you ever faced the terror of sleep paralysis? Share your spine-tingling experiences below... if you dare. 😱💀 #SleepParalysis #Nightmares
submitted by unknownnnnn___ to Sleepparalysis [link] [comments]
Imagine lying in bed, feeling vibrations as you drift off, only to find yourself trapped in your own body. You're fully aware of your surroundings, but you can't move a muscle. You try to scream, but no sound escapes your lips. Your eyes strain to open, revealing eerie figures lurking in the darkness.
As you struggle to break free, you gasp for air, feeling as though something is suffocating you. The more you fight, the tighter the grip of paralysis becomes.
It's a bone-chilling experience that leaves you questioning reality. Are you awake? Are you dreaming? Or are you caught in some twisted limbo between the two?
Sleep paralysis is a haunting blend of the waking world and the nightmares of sleep. It's a reminder that the line between reality and the supernatural is sometimes frighteningly thin.
Have you ever faced the terror of sleep paralysis? Share your spine-tingling experiences below... if you dare. 😱💀 #SleepParalysis #Nightmares
2024.05.01 04:06 asianmanbunguy 36 [M4F] - US #california #sanfrancisco - ayoo who's out there? :)
Hey there! Currently moved back to California after years away! I am looking for genuine connections and/or a long term partner. Some things I like to do are tv binging, anime, huge foodie, sneakers, travel, hike, swim, museums, and go on long walks. I am currently in the special education field! Working two jobs but it doesn't sound as strenuous as it sounds right now! I'm a pretty chill dude, easy going, and down to earth! I don't know what to add tbh but feel free to send me a message and connect! :) Hope to hear from you!
submitted by asianmanbunguy to AMXFs [link] [comments]
2024.05.01 04:05 Dry-Piece4288 Chat2Video model for million sellers OureaAi
Ourea AI Revolutionizes Video Editing with New Chat-Powered Video Editor Feature
Single/multiplayer video creation can be accomplished through chat mode, greatly simplifying the manual steps of operation editors, entering commands to obtain high-quality video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R57awoZJPOs&t=1s
Introducing ourea ai’s new Feature: Chat video Editor
In an innovative leap forward for video editing technology, Ourea AI has announced the launch of its new feature, the Chat Video Editor. This cutting-edge tool allows users to create engaging e-commerce product promotion videos and apply sophisticated AI video effects through simple text commands, transforming the video editing landscape. By typing commands such as "make video by Amazon link" into the Chat Video Editor, users can generate compelling content in just one minute, with all content assets provided for easy optimization and modification.Designed to democratize video editing, the Chat Video Editor caters to a wide range of applications beyond e-commerce, including faceswap, video translation, and dubbing, all accessible via a user-friendly chat interface. This innovation stems from Ourea AI's commitment to overcoming the steep learning curve associated with traditional video editing. By integrating natural language processing with editing commands, Ourea AI enables users to execute complex video editing tasks effortlessly, paving the way for more creative and diverse video content.For example, users can quickly replace the face in a certain video file with the face in a new image with the help of the /faceswap function without the need for complex pointing and editing operations.Next Generation Conversational Video Editing Products
[Rapidly realize descriptive video editing with the help of completely natural language + semi-commanded input], this is the original intention of ourea ai's ourea chat function which was first launched in March 2024.Ourea ai has observed that a large number of users have a folding rate of 80% or more in the process of learning video editing to applying editing skills, which means that a large number of video editing techniques are difficult to be learnt and mastered. The current alternative to this problem is templated creation, where a large number of editing commands are bypassed by preset templates to achieve preset results. However, the biggest problem with this solution is homogenization, as the templates focus the attention of a large number of users on a certain number of templates, thus losing the diversity of videos and the ability to create innovative combinations. After observing this huge problem, the ourea ai team has trained a large language model in combination with editing commands, which can process natural language parsing for a large number of editing-style commands, so as to complete one or more video editing operations with the help of the identity of an Agent instead of the user. Ourea Ai Chat is equipped with the following three powerful features:- traceability (current experience): every step of the AI process, output, and decision is displayed to the user, and the user can make adjustments to the display results;
- auxiliary instructions (introduced after version 2.0): the user's natural language input process can be assisted in determining the type of instructions, the user can instantly make adjustments;
- composite input (introduced after version 2.0): Users can perform multiple interdependent tasks in a single command, enhancing efficiency and creative freedom.
How to create Sellers video?
Creating a stellar seller video involves capturing attention, showcasing your product's value, and prompting viewers to take action. Here's a breakdown of the process:Pre-Production Planning:- Target Audience: Identify your ideal customer. Understanding their needs, wants, and pain points will guide your video's content and tone.
- Video Goals: Clearly define your objectives. Do you aim to educate, generate excitement, or drive sales?
- Product Knowledge: Be an expert on your product. Highlight its unique features and benefits that address your target audience's problems.
- Scriptwriting (Optional): Craft a concise script to ensure a smooth flow and keep key messaging on point.
- Storyboarding (Optional): Visually plan your video's sequence, including shots, transitions, and text overlays.
- Filming:
- Quality: Use good lighting and sound for a professional look. Consider using a decent camera or smartphone and an external microphone if needed.
- Shot Variety: Incorporate various shot types like close-ups, product demos, and lifestyle shots featuring the product in use.
- Authenticity: Maintain a natural and engaging presentation style.
- Content:
- Hook: Grab attention within the first few seconds with a question, surprising fact, or captivating visuals.
- Problem & Solution: Clearly identify the problem your product solves and showcase how it does so effectively.
- Benefits & Features: Highlight the key features and benefits that make your product stand out.
- Social Proof: Include testimonials, customer reviews, or influencer endorsements to build trust.
- Call to Action: Tell viewers what you want them to do next, whether it's visiting your website, making a purchase, or subscribing for updates.
- Editing: Assemble your footage, incorporate music and sound effects, and add text overlays for emphasis.
- Optimizations: Keep your video concise and engaging, ideally under 2 minutes.
- Platforms: Tailor your video for different platforms (e.g., shorter format for social media, longer form for YouTube).
- Analytics: Track your video's performance and adjust your strategy based on audience response.
- Showcase Personality: Let your brand personality shine through to connect with viewers on an emotional level.
- Focus on Benefits: People buy benefits, not features. Explain how your product improves their lives.
- High-Quality Visuals: Professional-looking visuals significantly enhance your video's impact.
- Clear Call to Action: Don't leave viewers guessing what to do next. Tell them clearly how to learn more or purchase your product.
How to create Sellers video by ourea ai chat2video model?
- Click the button below:
- Choose the Seller type you are:
[To make Dropshipping video]: 1.Copy Your shopify website product detail page url. 2.type: Make video by {paste your website/shop page url here.} 3.SENDwait for the Ai automatic generate finish.
[To make Amazon video]: 1.Copy the amazon product detail page url. 2.type: Make video by {paste your amazon product detial page url here} 3.SEND
2024.05.01 04:05 Embarrassed-Version4 Euthanized My Dog Today
Today I euthanized my aggressive and reactive dog. I don’t want to get very in depth about the series of events that got us to this point but we’ve had him for 5 years and we’ve spoken with a behaviorist and tried training but there was no improvement. The only thing we didn’t try were medications and I had actually booked an appointment for next week to discuss behavioral medication options. Unfortunately, the final straw was the fact he bit my mom today. She was leaving for work and he attacked her. There was no trigger and no warning signs. He just went after her and did not back down for an extensive amount of time. She was terrified, her dress was bloodied and torn. She told me it was time to let him go which led us to where I am now. As bad as it sounds I thought maybe after the euthanasia id feel a tiny bit of relief…but I don’t. I feel more burdened then I ever have. The amount of guilt and sadness I feel is soul crushing. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a beloved pet die but this is by far the most traumatizing. He was fighting to live throughout the entire thing. There was no peaceful passage, he didn’t want to go but I forced him. I’ve cried so hard and reliving the events in my mind makes me sick. I hate myself for this and I miss my dog. I don’t feel free or safer I just miss my baby boy with every fiber of my being. There are so many things I wish I’d done differently. I didn’t even give him one final great day. I was too scared to handle him so didn’t give him one last walk which he would’ve loved. I thought I was the kind of person who loved and understood animals but now I feel like a fraud. I feel like a horrible person/ pet owner and I can’t imagine owning another dog after this.
submitted by Embarrassed-Version4 to reactivedogs [link] [comments]
2024.05.01 04:05 retro__- team tomato soup! [camp littleton]
![team tomato soup! [camp littleton]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/9skvb45rJw_6bYRCCnLiC1iD5M_3eva1oNDR5sYq6QE.jpg "team tomato soup! [camp littleton]") | in order: Jed Morrison - The Boy Scout. - A sensible, honorary member of the Boy Scouts. Jed is very shy yet very brave…or so he thinks. He isn’t exactly the smartest page in the book, but he knows everything about adventurous things and survival instincts. He is willing to give people a second chance, and may have a thing for the tall hoodlum he knows of. submitted by retro__- to Totaldrama [link] [comments] Arizona Whitfield - The Hoodlum. - Coming from Red Deer, Alberta, Arizona isn’t one to mess with. She is very tough and doesn’t let her guard down. Growing up with a somewhat absent military father and 5 younger siblings, she’s used to being in charge. She knows alot of knife tactics and survival skills. Her only weakness? Compassion. Which is something the small little Boy Scout has for her.. Sidney Wallace - The Streamer. - Sidney is a big streamer with over a thousand viewers every day. He is a mega fan of all things Total Drama, but never expected him to actually be apart of it. Despite his obnoxiousness, he is very nice and loves hanging out with everybody. He refers to everybody as “brah” and “brah-ette.” Andrew Plepler and Jackson “Jack” Rodgers - The Theater Kid and the Champion. - Two best friends, complete opposites, staying by each other’s side. Andrew is more of a reserved, nerdy bookworm, while Jack is an outgoing all-for-it high school football champion. They’re like a perfect match of Brains and Brawn. Walter Thompson - The Teacher’s Pet. - You thought Andrew was nerdy? Check out this guy! He has all A’s in every class, even in sitting in chairs. However, being a teacher’s pet is very stressful for him, which caused him to developed tremors in his hands. Despite that, he’s still learning how to control his anxiety and twitches by going on TDR. Joey Anderson - The Sunshine. - Joey was born with scoliosis, speech impediments, and strabismus, but he always kept a smile on his face. No matter what situation he’s in, he’s always smiling and laughing. He really wants to make friends with everybody he sees, and give everybody free hugs! He’s also really fond of the giant ginger girl whose name he never remembers.. August O’Riley - The Female Giant. - Born with a strange condition that causes her to be 7’8, have a manly voice, and extra body hair, August is very sensitive and is overall just a soft brickhouse. Born to short parents, she has always been uncomfortable with her body and usually got flushed whenever somebody complimented her. Maybe she can learn from the pale brown-haired boy.. Biscuit Cook- The Pessimist. - Not much is known about Biscuit. He is a shut-in, going on for 5 years, before deciding to compete in Total Drama. He believes the worst can happen to him and others, never looking up to the future and staying in the past. Allen White - The Human Android. - Same as Biscuit, none much is known about Allen. She suffers from a condition where she has no emotion in her face or voice, constantly staring and sounding like a robot to everybody. Sawyer Kota Milton - The Retrogamer. - Sawyer is the child of a certain gamer geek and fame-monger-turned-monster we all know. He loves playing on his GameGuy Colored, and loves fashion, especially stripes! After seeing his parents compete in Revenge of The Island as teens, he knew he wanted to fulfill his dream of becoming like his parents! constructive criticism is welcome, and other ways to fix this are accepted! give me your ideas, i’ll take them with proudness. |
2024.05.01 04:01 loudchartreuse Wife [28F] and I [25M] are separated. We want to try again. Her anxiety over not having had a "puppy love" phase with me and worry she may regret not being with other people is scuttling this. Is there anything I can do to assuage her fear and save this relationship?
This will be a long post. It has been re-written from a previous post on BreakUps because that night I was fucking losing it and it’s nigh incoherent. This is still scattered and not well structured, but I’m trying to follow a rough timeline and add information mostly as I became aware of it. Feel free to ask for clarification about anything. This is my main account, so I’ll try to reply as fast as possible.
My wife [28F] (let’s call her G) and I [25M] had been having issues with our marriage for a decent while. June the 27th will be our 4th anniversary, if we even make it there. We married very quickly due to some outside situations that the pandemic also contributed to. This is, I believe, the root cause of a lot of these issues. I was her second partner ever, she was about my 6th. Even without the external circumstances that prompted us to marry quickly, we progressed into a serious relationship very quickly. I knew I didn’t want to date casually, and was complete and utterly smitten with her from the go, so we basically jumped from talking to engaged in a few months, and we married during the height of lockdown.The issue that is destroying our marriage is that she says that she never felt “butterflies” for me. Never felt a “spark”. That I didn’t make her feel the way that the crushes she had had during her teen years had made her feel. She also stated that she didn’t feel physically attracted to me, and that she did not really desire me in a sexual way, but that had kept up appearances in hopes that it would “fix” itself. I found all of this out piecemeal last year, from February to around Thanksgiving.
G and I are flawed people. We knew going into everything that we had hangups and trauma, and baggage. I come from an abusive home and suffered greatly from anger issues for the majority of my life. She comes from a more outwardly functional home, but was emotionally neglected due to the majority of the attention going to her disabled brother and had a religious upbringing, as both her parents are in ministry. We both have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety, and when we met she was on medication for both (Lexapro) while I had discontinued medication and was doing well through talk therapy. Her mother has OCD and I maintain that she does as well, but she has not sought a diagnosis for it. On my end, I have had really bad coping mechanisms and severe insecurity surrounding abandonment. Throughout our time together I have noticed distinct instances of her getting intrusive thoughts that we have discussed in a lot of detail. She fixates on not feeling the right way about things and it brings her to despair. It is the reason she originally lost her faith - in her own words, she was going insane because she hyperanalyzed her thoughts about Jesus and wondered if she loved Jesus enough or in the right way - that the fact that she doubts at all is indicative of some taint that poisons the whole thing - the way she described it is that at some point she experienced religious fervor to the point of ecstasy, but that it wouldn’t come back, and the fact that she had to think about faith at all and couldn’t effortlessly summon the rapturous joy other people seemed to be feeling made her feel guilty about a perceived lack of love for God. The pattern of the worries about our relationship is much the same as this - as we talked, we reached points where I felt I understood where she was coming from - she doesn’t know that she doesn’t desire me, she’s not sure of anything. And that uncertainty and the fact that there is doubt makes her severely upset. It sometimes feels like her mind never stops telling her that if it’s not effortless - if there’s no religious ecstasy overwhelming her system, then it’s not real because there could always be someone who does that for you.
I finally got my anger under control the first time she said we should consider divorce in February of last year. I am deeply ashamed that it took me so long to address it. Whatever excuses I can put forward, it was unacceptable of me to behave in that way. It never involved any physical contact, but I would do the common bullshit awful thing where you slam or break things in frustration, and I would yell a lot. I’m disgusted with myself that it took such a severe and drastic wake-up call to finally fix that behavior. Nevertheless, I have made good progress and even she has said that she’s proud of me. I haven’t had an anger incident since then, but this is neverending work. Due to financial constraints I haven’t been in talk therapy for a few years, but I did my best with what I had.
The issue of sex runs deeper. Neither of us is in the best shape. I’m reasonably athletic (I’ve been involved in sports most of my life) and when we met I was in alright shape - I’ve always been overweight, but I was near my lightest and fittest, probably 200lbs. However, during the pandemic I let myself go really severely. I ballooned to 250lbs (I’m 5’11” for reference) by far the heaviest I’ve ever been, and stopped going to the gym or doing athletic things. She also gained some weight, but I’m unsure how much, because I never paid attention to that. She also stopped wearing makeup because it would make her break out, was environmentally unfriendly, and was expensive. I supported her in this. When she brought up that she wasn’t physically attracted to me, I took it really hard, but I understood. However, in one of my many mistakes, I didn’t really do anything about it. We started eating a bit healthier, but mostly both of us maintained a steady weight. I didn’t start going to the gym again. We were going through a lot with work, and were in the middle of trying to move to a new city, and I was in the middle of an ultimately unsuccessful career change… so this fell by the wayside when it really shouldn’t have. We had more frank talks about sex, but it essentially just remained the same. My sex drive is higher than hers, and I did have an issue with simply not having sex, but I felt like I was getting enough at least while we tried fixing our issues.
After these crises happened, we had long, hard, and heavy talks. We agreed that we loved one another too much to let go. I promised I would be better, and she did too. I started taking measures to that end, but nothing too radical. There was a sort of morosity to it. We never really got into couples therapy, but she was regularly going to individual therapy. That at least made me happy. We maintained and maintain that we love each other deeply, that we could never find anyone else in the world that could make us feel the same way, that our love is special and worth preserving. It soothed things for a while.
We made a move to another state in order to pursue my ultimately unsuccessful career change with the help of her mother, who let us board for free at her huge house. In retrospect, this was a very bad idea. G and her mom had never had the best relationship (in fact oftentimes she spoke of her mom in very dismissive and adversarial terms - and I wasn’t really super friendly to her mother already) but I had hoped that closeness would improve that relationship and allow her to have some measure of a social circle, since her severe social anxiety has basically prevented her from having friends since she got out of school. It didn’t really work. Stress piled up and up, and the same issues cropped up again. While visiting her father on Thanksgiving, G and I had another talk. She was still worried about her attraction to me and ever being able to have a normal sex life or feeling that spark.
I had felt increasingly anguished during all this. I felt like it was just a matter of time before she threw me away. The pressure of her not being attracted to me affected me, obviously. I felt like I wanted to be desired. I don’t know why, but I developed tunnel vision around those issues. They were very dark days for me. I talked to all of my closest friends, who had been kind of against her since the first divorce scare, and they kind of unanimously declared that this wasn’t it, and that I should end it. In the state things were in, I agreed.
On December 7th, we had our last date - we went to see the Remake of Evangelion at a local theater. I had a lot of fun. And yet the wonderful time I had with her only made me sad, because I felt like the wonderful moments we had shared were inevitably going to come to an end. 4 days later, I broke it off with her. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. For her sake, I put on a brave face and tried to not show myself being affected by it. My plan had been to go back home to Mexico after saving a few paychecks so that neither of us would cause any hurt in the other’s life, and we could focus on rebuilding ourselves. We communicated this to her family (who was understandably very upset, though supportive), and I tried to focus on that. At the insistent advice of my friends, I opened a Tinder account and set my location to Mexico City. I also started talking more with an acquaintance of my friend group who had told them she was romantically interested in me. I wasn’t seriously trying to date. I got a lot of Tinder matches and some very positive attention. I felt desired. In mid-January, I visited Mexico City for a friend’s graduation and had sex with someone off Tinder. The sex was good. I made her orgasm. She was really taken with me and wanted to continue seeing me as friends with benefits. I also talked a lot with the acquaintance that was romantically interested in me (L for convenience), and found we had a lot in common, but didn’t do anything physical. I found that I was very popular while there, and didn’t really have a shortage of suitors, which was almost the opposite to when I had been a teenager in the City and had struggled to get dates. I ended up extending my stay in Mexico City twice and spent a total of three weeks there, in order to go to L’s birthday party in a somewhat remote mountain town. Throughout those three weeks, even with all the attention and constant partying (I think I only spent three or four days our of 20 not drunk), all I could think about was G. I constantly missed her, and I couldn’t stop comparing everyone else to her. I was in severe distress for a lot of the time that I was sober.
When I came back to the US from that trip, G and I didn’t do a good job of staying away from each other. We had sex multiple times and started sleeping in the same bed again. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best sex we had ever had. G acknowledged this. It was bittersweet - I wish we had had that kind of sex from the beginning. We were very comfortable with each other. But there was a terrible finality to it. Like doing the dishes during the apocalypse.
During this time, she revealed something to me about an incident that had taken place a few months prior: One day during the summer of last year she got uncommonly dressed up to go to the cafe across the street. This by itself wouldn’t have been anything that I’d be concerned about, but about a half hour into her outing, the Life360 app (it’s a family circle with her parents, and mostly because we drove a lot visiting her family) pinged that she had left the home area. This wouldn’t happen while going to the cafe, because it was too close to register. I had a terrible, awful, aching hunch, and against my best judgment, opened the app. She was not at the cafe, obviously. I texted her asking about how her coffee was and she didn’t indicate that she wasn’t at the cafe. She was at the library branch up the street. This was the first time that she had directly lied to me about this sort of thing. I’ve been cheated on before, so I jumped to conclusions and headed over to the library, where I “coincidentally” bumped into her while checking out a book. She seemed unfazed. We had a fight about it, but it didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t catch her doing anything bad, but I was very upset about being lied to. It all seems like a nonsense reason to be upset, but my gut was screaming something was wrong. What she revealed was the reasons she had done it - she had gone out, and specifically gotten dolled up, in order to invite propositions. She wanted to be hit on, according to her “because she wanted to feel beautiful and like a woman”.
A lot of my childhood trauma comes from my father being unfaithful to my mother and the subsequent breakup of our family over it. For this reason, I cannot stand cheating or cheaters. I take loyalty extremely seriously and have never (in our relationship) considered or desired the attention of anybody except for G. She knows this. We’ve both had celebrity and work “crushes” on other people that we’ve told the other about, because that’s only human nature, but fidelity and not taking any kind of action that could jeopardize it was part of the tacit understanding that allowed us the freedom to be that open. I consider her actions, unfruitful as they were (she says she felt ashamed almost immediately and ended up going to the library to look for events for us) to be pretty much as close as you could get to cheating without actually doing it. In my mind, she had the intent, and she took action to make it happen. Finding this out in December made me spiral really hard. It is probably the only red mark I can give her, but it is such a severe one that it made me consider cutting her out of my life completely, the way I’ve done to every other cheater in my life. It still haunts me that the only thing that kept me from being cheated on again was sheer luck and the decency of the men who happened to be out that day. On her part, she says that she had no intent to cheat, and that if a man had hit on her she would have immediately rejected them and probably run home in a panic. This strained our relationship to the point where I seriously considered going back home and just cutting her completely out of my life, like I’ve done to previous partners that have cheated on me. Damnatio Memoriae. And yet I still wanted to forgive her. I have tried to put the incident out of mind.
Out of the blue, I got a job offer in New York City. My sister and G highly encouraged me to take it rather than go back home, so I did, and now I’m here. I last saw G in person on February 22nd, but we continue to text. Or we did until a few nights ago.
Being in New York has been great. A lot of the stuff on my mind that prevented me from being my best self in the Midwest lifted right off my back. Having access to public transport and a city that doesn’t shut down at 9pm on the dot has genuinely done wonders for my mental health. I’m exercising regularly thanks to the convenience of my local gym and eating much healthier than I have in years - to the point where I have to tighten my belt an extra two holes already. I tried to date for the first few weeks of being here but it really didn’t lead anywhere. A couple speed dating events for the novelty, a couple bar chats and numbers exchanged, a couple friends made 6 pints deep. And yet nothing is more poignant to me in this moment than how fucking much I miss my wife. It is excruciating, searing pain. I miss her every single moment. I can’t focus at work. When I come home and she’s not there it sends shockwaves of grief through my heart. The time we’ve spent apart has made me realize just how irreplaceable G is. She’s my best friend, my closest confidante, someone that I can talk to about anything and nothing seemingly forever and never get tired of it. Her presence, her quiet love gives me such peace and joy that I am now lacking - it just drove home how immense our problems must have been back then, that they had worn through that shield of comfort that we had in each other. She has expressed much the same feelings. We both want to try again.
And yet, the problem of the butterflies.
We were so excited. We talked for days, on the phone, over text, I thought long and hard about every single thing I could do to fix us. I was never going to be found wanting again. By damn, I will give her that puppy love, I will make her fall in love with me every single day for the rest of my life. I’ve read books, online guides, blog posts about people who reconcile from everything from infidelity to incompatibility. I was 110% in it. All I want is for us to work, and for me to get another shot at making her happy. She’s all I want out of life. I want to grow old with her. I want to make sure that she never goes another day in her life without feeling cherished. Couples therapy, sex therapy, medication, a change in lifestyle and diet, a commitment to dating again. She sounded at times as excited as I was.
Yet a few days ago she called me and said that she doesn’t think she can go through with it. She’s worried, she says. She doesn’t know if I can ever give her what she wants. Being with me unsettles her because there’s a voice yelling at the back of her mind about the possibility that someone else could be giving her the goodfeel that I’m currently not giving her, and the uncertainty that anything we try could work. She says it makes her feel guilty and awful that we could do all that shit and still not work out. She told me over text that she fears she will regret not having dated other people. That she has this desire to be a good person, yet deep down has a drive to wander and explore. I begged her to reconsider. She asked for one month to think. I have cut contact to only replying if she engages first.
I am destroyed. I’m made into dust. This uncertainty is killing me. We stuck together through two almost-divorces and we came out the other end of both of those better off. I believe, I KNOW, that we can keep improving. I will spend my last breath trying to give her what she wants from us, from ME. I want to be the man to give her those butterflies. Being apart from her and after getting all that worthless attention just confirmed to me that there is nobody I want in my life except for her. She’s the love of my life. I don’t want to lose her.
I don’t really know what kind of advice to ask for. Is this a lost cause? Is there a chance of changing her mind? Should I even try? My father and my friends want me to be angry at her, and to use spite to dig myself out of the funk that this whole thing has caused me, but I’m just so tired. All I want for the rest of my life is to hug her tight and kiss her goodnight every single time I go to bed. I don’t want anyone else, yet it feels like I’m losing her to a hypothetical, to the concept of an upgrade. I’m beside myself to the point where I’m completely phoning it in at work. I feel like I have gotten next to nothing done since last Monday.
I don’t even know how to TL;DR this: Separated Wife (who has severe anxiety and may have undiagnosed OCD) obsesses over the concept of the “spark” or limerence, and thinks that it not coming naturally to her in our relationship means we’ll never work out. We love each other and want to be together, but she can’t feel at peace with her own mind and worries she may regret not dating around more to find that spark. I want to preserve our marriage no matter what I have to do. I would give everything to spend my life with her because I just can’t see myself without her. Is there a way to assuage her fears? Can this work out?
submitted by loudchartreuse to relationship_advice [link] [comments]
My wife [28F] (let’s call her G) and I [25M] had been having issues with our marriage for a decent while. June the 27th will be our 4th anniversary, if we even make it there. We married very quickly due to some outside situations that the pandemic also contributed to. This is, I believe, the root cause of a lot of these issues. I was her second partner ever, she was about my 6th. Even without the external circumstances that prompted us to marry quickly, we progressed into a serious relationship very quickly. I knew I didn’t want to date casually, and was complete and utterly smitten with her from the go, so we basically jumped from talking to engaged in a few months, and we married during the height of lockdown.The issue that is destroying our marriage is that she says that she never felt “butterflies” for me. Never felt a “spark”. That I didn’t make her feel the way that the crushes she had had during her teen years had made her feel. She also stated that she didn’t feel physically attracted to me, and that she did not really desire me in a sexual way, but that had kept up appearances in hopes that it would “fix” itself. I found all of this out piecemeal last year, from February to around Thanksgiving.
G and I are flawed people. We knew going into everything that we had hangups and trauma, and baggage. I come from an abusive home and suffered greatly from anger issues for the majority of my life. She comes from a more outwardly functional home, but was emotionally neglected due to the majority of the attention going to her disabled brother and had a religious upbringing, as both her parents are in ministry. We both have been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder and Anxiety, and when we met she was on medication for both (Lexapro) while I had discontinued medication and was doing well through talk therapy. Her mother has OCD and I maintain that she does as well, but she has not sought a diagnosis for it. On my end, I have had really bad coping mechanisms and severe insecurity surrounding abandonment. Throughout our time together I have noticed distinct instances of her getting intrusive thoughts that we have discussed in a lot of detail. She fixates on not feeling the right way about things and it brings her to despair. It is the reason she originally lost her faith - in her own words, she was going insane because she hyperanalyzed her thoughts about Jesus and wondered if she loved Jesus enough or in the right way - that the fact that she doubts at all is indicative of some taint that poisons the whole thing - the way she described it is that at some point she experienced religious fervor to the point of ecstasy, but that it wouldn’t come back, and the fact that she had to think about faith at all and couldn’t effortlessly summon the rapturous joy other people seemed to be feeling made her feel guilty about a perceived lack of love for God. The pattern of the worries about our relationship is much the same as this - as we talked, we reached points where I felt I understood where she was coming from - she doesn’t know that she doesn’t desire me, she’s not sure of anything. And that uncertainty and the fact that there is doubt makes her severely upset. It sometimes feels like her mind never stops telling her that if it’s not effortless - if there’s no religious ecstasy overwhelming her system, then it’s not real because there could always be someone who does that for you.
I finally got my anger under control the first time she said we should consider divorce in February of last year. I am deeply ashamed that it took me so long to address it. Whatever excuses I can put forward, it was unacceptable of me to behave in that way. It never involved any physical contact, but I would do the common bullshit awful thing where you slam or break things in frustration, and I would yell a lot. I’m disgusted with myself that it took such a severe and drastic wake-up call to finally fix that behavior. Nevertheless, I have made good progress and even she has said that she’s proud of me. I haven’t had an anger incident since then, but this is neverending work. Due to financial constraints I haven’t been in talk therapy for a few years, but I did my best with what I had.
The issue of sex runs deeper. Neither of us is in the best shape. I’m reasonably athletic (I’ve been involved in sports most of my life) and when we met I was in alright shape - I’ve always been overweight, but I was near my lightest and fittest, probably 200lbs. However, during the pandemic I let myself go really severely. I ballooned to 250lbs (I’m 5’11” for reference) by far the heaviest I’ve ever been, and stopped going to the gym or doing athletic things. She also gained some weight, but I’m unsure how much, because I never paid attention to that. She also stopped wearing makeup because it would make her break out, was environmentally unfriendly, and was expensive. I supported her in this. When she brought up that she wasn’t physically attracted to me, I took it really hard, but I understood. However, in one of my many mistakes, I didn’t really do anything about it. We started eating a bit healthier, but mostly both of us maintained a steady weight. I didn’t start going to the gym again. We were going through a lot with work, and were in the middle of trying to move to a new city, and I was in the middle of an ultimately unsuccessful career change… so this fell by the wayside when it really shouldn’t have. We had more frank talks about sex, but it essentially just remained the same. My sex drive is higher than hers, and I did have an issue with simply not having sex, but I felt like I was getting enough at least while we tried fixing our issues.
After these crises happened, we had long, hard, and heavy talks. We agreed that we loved one another too much to let go. I promised I would be better, and she did too. I started taking measures to that end, but nothing too radical. There was a sort of morosity to it. We never really got into couples therapy, but she was regularly going to individual therapy. That at least made me happy. We maintained and maintain that we love each other deeply, that we could never find anyone else in the world that could make us feel the same way, that our love is special and worth preserving. It soothed things for a while.
We made a move to another state in order to pursue my ultimately unsuccessful career change with the help of her mother, who let us board for free at her huge house. In retrospect, this was a very bad idea. G and her mom had never had the best relationship (in fact oftentimes she spoke of her mom in very dismissive and adversarial terms - and I wasn’t really super friendly to her mother already) but I had hoped that closeness would improve that relationship and allow her to have some measure of a social circle, since her severe social anxiety has basically prevented her from having friends since she got out of school. It didn’t really work. Stress piled up and up, and the same issues cropped up again. While visiting her father on Thanksgiving, G and I had another talk. She was still worried about her attraction to me and ever being able to have a normal sex life or feeling that spark.
I had felt increasingly anguished during all this. I felt like it was just a matter of time before she threw me away. The pressure of her not being attracted to me affected me, obviously. I felt like I wanted to be desired. I don’t know why, but I developed tunnel vision around those issues. They were very dark days for me. I talked to all of my closest friends, who had been kind of against her since the first divorce scare, and they kind of unanimously declared that this wasn’t it, and that I should end it. In the state things were in, I agreed.
On December 7th, we had our last date - we went to see the Remake of Evangelion at a local theater. I had a lot of fun. And yet the wonderful time I had with her only made me sad, because I felt like the wonderful moments we had shared were inevitably going to come to an end. 4 days later, I broke it off with her. It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. For her sake, I put on a brave face and tried to not show myself being affected by it. My plan had been to go back home to Mexico after saving a few paychecks so that neither of us would cause any hurt in the other’s life, and we could focus on rebuilding ourselves. We communicated this to her family (who was understandably very upset, though supportive), and I tried to focus on that. At the insistent advice of my friends, I opened a Tinder account and set my location to Mexico City. I also started talking more with an acquaintance of my friend group who had told them she was romantically interested in me. I wasn’t seriously trying to date. I got a lot of Tinder matches and some very positive attention. I felt desired. In mid-January, I visited Mexico City for a friend’s graduation and had sex with someone off Tinder. The sex was good. I made her orgasm. She was really taken with me and wanted to continue seeing me as friends with benefits. I also talked a lot with the acquaintance that was romantically interested in me (L for convenience), and found we had a lot in common, but didn’t do anything physical. I found that I was very popular while there, and didn’t really have a shortage of suitors, which was almost the opposite to when I had been a teenager in the City and had struggled to get dates. I ended up extending my stay in Mexico City twice and spent a total of three weeks there, in order to go to L’s birthday party in a somewhat remote mountain town. Throughout those three weeks, even with all the attention and constant partying (I think I only spent three or four days our of 20 not drunk), all I could think about was G. I constantly missed her, and I couldn’t stop comparing everyone else to her. I was in severe distress for a lot of the time that I was sober.
When I came back to the US from that trip, G and I didn’t do a good job of staying away from each other. We had sex multiple times and started sleeping in the same bed again. This was, without a shadow of a doubt, the best sex we had ever had. G acknowledged this. It was bittersweet - I wish we had had that kind of sex from the beginning. We were very comfortable with each other. But there was a terrible finality to it. Like doing the dishes during the apocalypse.
During this time, she revealed something to me about an incident that had taken place a few months prior: One day during the summer of last year she got uncommonly dressed up to go to the cafe across the street. This by itself wouldn’t have been anything that I’d be concerned about, but about a half hour into her outing, the Life360 app (it’s a family circle with her parents, and mostly because we drove a lot visiting her family) pinged that she had left the home area. This wouldn’t happen while going to the cafe, because it was too close to register. I had a terrible, awful, aching hunch, and against my best judgment, opened the app. She was not at the cafe, obviously. I texted her asking about how her coffee was and she didn’t indicate that she wasn’t at the cafe. She was at the library branch up the street. This was the first time that she had directly lied to me about this sort of thing. I’ve been cheated on before, so I jumped to conclusions and headed over to the library, where I “coincidentally” bumped into her while checking out a book. She seemed unfazed. We had a fight about it, but it didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t catch her doing anything bad, but I was very upset about being lied to. It all seems like a nonsense reason to be upset, but my gut was screaming something was wrong. What she revealed was the reasons she had done it - she had gone out, and specifically gotten dolled up, in order to invite propositions. She wanted to be hit on, according to her “because she wanted to feel beautiful and like a woman”.
A lot of my childhood trauma comes from my father being unfaithful to my mother and the subsequent breakup of our family over it. For this reason, I cannot stand cheating or cheaters. I take loyalty extremely seriously and have never (in our relationship) considered or desired the attention of anybody except for G. She knows this. We’ve both had celebrity and work “crushes” on other people that we’ve told the other about, because that’s only human nature, but fidelity and not taking any kind of action that could jeopardize it was part of the tacit understanding that allowed us the freedom to be that open. I consider her actions, unfruitful as they were (she says she felt ashamed almost immediately and ended up going to the library to look for events for us) to be pretty much as close as you could get to cheating without actually doing it. In my mind, she had the intent, and she took action to make it happen. Finding this out in December made me spiral really hard. It is probably the only red mark I can give her, but it is such a severe one that it made me consider cutting her out of my life completely, the way I’ve done to every other cheater in my life. It still haunts me that the only thing that kept me from being cheated on again was sheer luck and the decency of the men who happened to be out that day. On her part, she says that she had no intent to cheat, and that if a man had hit on her she would have immediately rejected them and probably run home in a panic. This strained our relationship to the point where I seriously considered going back home and just cutting her completely out of my life, like I’ve done to previous partners that have cheated on me. Damnatio Memoriae. And yet I still wanted to forgive her. I have tried to put the incident out of mind.
Out of the blue, I got a job offer in New York City. My sister and G highly encouraged me to take it rather than go back home, so I did, and now I’m here. I last saw G in person on February 22nd, but we continue to text. Or we did until a few nights ago.
Being in New York has been great. A lot of the stuff on my mind that prevented me from being my best self in the Midwest lifted right off my back. Having access to public transport and a city that doesn’t shut down at 9pm on the dot has genuinely done wonders for my mental health. I’m exercising regularly thanks to the convenience of my local gym and eating much healthier than I have in years - to the point where I have to tighten my belt an extra two holes already. I tried to date for the first few weeks of being here but it really didn’t lead anywhere. A couple speed dating events for the novelty, a couple bar chats and numbers exchanged, a couple friends made 6 pints deep. And yet nothing is more poignant to me in this moment than how fucking much I miss my wife. It is excruciating, searing pain. I miss her every single moment. I can’t focus at work. When I come home and she’s not there it sends shockwaves of grief through my heart. The time we’ve spent apart has made me realize just how irreplaceable G is. She’s my best friend, my closest confidante, someone that I can talk to about anything and nothing seemingly forever and never get tired of it. Her presence, her quiet love gives me such peace and joy that I am now lacking - it just drove home how immense our problems must have been back then, that they had worn through that shield of comfort that we had in each other. She has expressed much the same feelings. We both want to try again.
And yet, the problem of the butterflies.
We were so excited. We talked for days, on the phone, over text, I thought long and hard about every single thing I could do to fix us. I was never going to be found wanting again. By damn, I will give her that puppy love, I will make her fall in love with me every single day for the rest of my life. I’ve read books, online guides, blog posts about people who reconcile from everything from infidelity to incompatibility. I was 110% in it. All I want is for us to work, and for me to get another shot at making her happy. She’s all I want out of life. I want to grow old with her. I want to make sure that she never goes another day in her life without feeling cherished. Couples therapy, sex therapy, medication, a change in lifestyle and diet, a commitment to dating again. She sounded at times as excited as I was.
Yet a few days ago she called me and said that she doesn’t think she can go through with it. She’s worried, she says. She doesn’t know if I can ever give her what she wants. Being with me unsettles her because there’s a voice yelling at the back of her mind about the possibility that someone else could be giving her the goodfeel that I’m currently not giving her, and the uncertainty that anything we try could work. She says it makes her feel guilty and awful that we could do all that shit and still not work out. She told me over text that she fears she will regret not having dated other people. That she has this desire to be a good person, yet deep down has a drive to wander and explore. I begged her to reconsider. She asked for one month to think. I have cut contact to only replying if she engages first.
I am destroyed. I’m made into dust. This uncertainty is killing me. We stuck together through two almost-divorces and we came out the other end of both of those better off. I believe, I KNOW, that we can keep improving. I will spend my last breath trying to give her what she wants from us, from ME. I want to be the man to give her those butterflies. Being apart from her and after getting all that worthless attention just confirmed to me that there is nobody I want in my life except for her. She’s the love of my life. I don’t want to lose her.
I don’t really know what kind of advice to ask for. Is this a lost cause? Is there a chance of changing her mind? Should I even try? My father and my friends want me to be angry at her, and to use spite to dig myself out of the funk that this whole thing has caused me, but I’m just so tired. All I want for the rest of my life is to hug her tight and kiss her goodnight every single time I go to bed. I don’t want anyone else, yet it feels like I’m losing her to a hypothetical, to the concept of an upgrade. I’m beside myself to the point where I’m completely phoning it in at work. I feel like I have gotten next to nothing done since last Monday.
I don’t even know how to TL;DR this: Separated Wife (who has severe anxiety and may have undiagnosed OCD) obsesses over the concept of the “spark” or limerence, and thinks that it not coming naturally to her in our relationship means we’ll never work out. We love each other and want to be together, but she can’t feel at peace with her own mind and worries she may regret not dating around more to find that spark. I want to preserve our marriage no matter what I have to do. I would give everything to spend my life with her because I just can’t see myself without her. Is there a way to assuage her fears? Can this work out?
2024.05.01 04:00 karenvideoeditor Do No Evil
Sequel to Speak No Evil
Most kids find out their superpower when they get into their teenage years. I was a late bloomer at sixteen, but it was less ‘bloom’ and more ‘boom’. I know the answer to any question asked of me, which includes any question I ask myself aloud. The two minutes sitting in the lunchroom with my friends and thinking of the good I could do, before I called the Guild, were the most wonderful and most delusional minutes of my life. It took six hours for the government to declare me the deadliest super villain alive.
Had I done anything supervillain-y? No. It seemed they just weren’t going to take any chances. On the contrary, my life was currently treading along a path that would check boxes of taking down bad guys.
Day one was sad, stressful, and still somehow boring. Once my brothers had been picked up from school (Steven is eleven and Nathan is seven), and my parents had left work early, they met me at home. Or what used to be home, considering I’d be staying on the seventh floor of the Guild’s headquarters from then on.
After a long talk in the living room, with superheroes Fusion and Trailblazer there as security, my parents decided to take up the Guild’s offer of bodyguards and tracking devices rather than moving. It wasn’t that surprising. If I’d had the option, I would’ve gone with that alternative. Living at Guild HQ was a prison when you got right down to it.
Nathan seemed to take the news the hardest, which wasn’t surprising, considering he was seven. “Who’s gonna help me with my math?” he asked, close to tears. His red face and puffy eyes weren’t helping me feel better, but I’d cried my eyes out already once that day and wasn’t keen on a repeat performance.
Steven, answered the aggravating voice in my head. I’d told Nathan not to ask me questions, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. He was seven. He didn’t get it.
“I’m not a genius,” Steven said, indignant, “but I think I can manage helping you with adding and subtracting numbers.”
“But you don’t explain it like Joan does,” Nathan whined.
“Hey, it’ll be fine,” I told him with a small smile, crouching down so I was looking up at him. “Worst comes to worst, we’ll set up a playdate. You can come over once a week and hang out at my new apartment, and I’ll help you with math.”
When it came down to it, it felt like I was leaving for college a year and a half early. Packing up boxes and being told what kind of furniture was already there and what I might want to bring. Trailblazer was handy to have around, I’ll say that much. Superstrength is incredibly useful when it’s moving day.
My parents fussed over me as we packed the U-Haul, and I let them. I’d never wanted to be fussed over more in my life.
They all drove with me, which left the house empty for the Guild’s security people to put in the alarm system and cameras. Mom had said as long as they didn’t put cameras in the bathrooms, she was fine with them. Also, it wasn’t as if someone was watching them 24/7; the cameras were for emergencies, if there was a break-in, to let the police and heroes know what was going on inside.
The apartment I got was pretty awesome, actually. The tub/shower was big, the mattress was comfy, and I had a flatscreen on the wall both in the living room and one in the bedroom. There were two bedrooms, and one functioned as an office, with a desktop computer. I had my laptop, but I suppose the desktop might come in handy if I needed one for a job when I was older.
That was the thing that hung over me. The impending possibility of being there forever. There were some moments of weakness I had where I asked questions out loud, even though I knew I probably shouldn’t. The thing was, I had to be really specific in some situations, and it was nearly impossible. I asked, “Will I stay here forever?” And “Am I stuck living here until I die?” The answer was, of course, no, and that was comforting in a small way. But those answers didn’t really give me what I wanted, because obviously I’d leave the premises at some point.
One I did ask was, “Is the Guild the safest place for me?” That answer was yes.
I used my power as little as possible, though. Its presence had already started to feel like a cinder block on my chest, having anxiety that was both pressuring me into asking questions out of desperation and wanting to stay blissfully unaware of anything. However, it wasn’t long until I figured out that I’d be using my abilities often.
The day after I moved in, I started work with a group run by Valerie, a group that had already generated a list of questions to ask me. Valerie was assigned as my ‘handler’, which wasn’t horrible since I ended up quite liking her. But it was surreal, sitting in an office with her and other powerful heroes, a PowerPoint presentation educating me, or at least reminding me of, some of the news articles that I’d seen when the incidents had occurred. Then when I had that background knowledge, they’d ask a question.
The biggest one, and the first one, was whether Goliath was dead or still alive. He was a supervillain who was responsible for the destruction of a building downtown and the deaths of dozens of people when he’d set explosives and demanded a ransom he did not receive. They’d been incredibly relieved when it turned out that, as they’d thought, he’d perished in the explosion, which had been set off prematurely.
Then there was a question of whether Nocturne was still in the United States. There was a warrant out for her arrest for frequent kidnappings for ransom, and we were able to pin down her location precisely. I literally rattled off an address for them and they sent two heroes off to arrest her and bring her into custody.
This went on for an hour or so before I started getting a headache and feeling short of breath. “I think this is starting to affect me,” I said, putting a hand to my head.
“That’s fine, this is plenty,” Valerie said emphatically. “You’ve done incredible work today, Joan. You should be very proud of yourself.”
I didn’t feel proud. Mostly I felt tired. Of course this ability was amazing, but it was just something that had happened to me, not anything I’d accomplished.
Returning to my room and kicking off my shoes so I could fall onto my comfy bed was a relief. The headache was still there, though, so I kept the lights off.
A few hours later, without having meant to take a nap, I woke up. My head wasn’t pounding anymore, just sore, and I was breathing easier. Going into my little kitchen, I turned on the oven to preheat it for a frozen pizza. There was a food court on the third floor, but I liked my alone time too. Then I went into the living room and pulled up Netflix, starting an old standup routine from Jim Gaffigan.
Aside from that, things were pretty boring. My education continued, once my boss had found tutors who were willing to commute every day to Guild headquarters. That was actually pretty cool, having a team of teachers just for me. We worked one-on-one, so they knew how much of the material I was grasping, and I probably did only half as much homework as I used to. That took up a majority of my time.
But keeping in touch with friends was harder than I’d thought it would be. The four girls I’d been sitting with when I’d discovered my powers were my best friends. They had been told to keep it a secret, and their parents had actually signed NDAs on their behalf, since minors couldn’t sign NDAs. I had no idea how that worked, but I was a junior high student, not a lawyer. The fact was that they swore up and down that they wouldn’t tell anyone, and the Guild had to take their word on it. They were protecting me, though, so just keeping it amongst themselves was what good friends did anyway.
Not that they had the temptation to tell anyone. From their end of things, it was completely anticlimactic. I made the discovery, went to the nurse, and was never seen again, not even to clean out my locker. Someone else did that for me. After I’d moved into the Guild’s headquarters, I’d asked if they could visit like my family did, and Valerie pointed out that it would be safer if we stuck to social media and texting. We didn’t want them to get too close to me, in case they could be used as leverage.
Either my mom or my dad came to visit me every weekend for the first couple of months, staying overnight, and also an afternoon or two during the week. I think they wanted to make sure I was settling in well and wasn’t struggling. It had, after all, been a huge change in my life, literally overnight. Also, I saw a psychologist once a week, so I had someone to vent to. At least, someone to vent to who knew how to help me, since my family and friends were always willing to lend an ear. They just didn’t have control over my circumstances or any helpful advice.
The days passed by quickly, and I got into a routine, feeling like I was in a boarding school. Five days a week, I had my tutoring sessions, which included history and language arts in the morning and then math, science, and Spanish in the afternoon. Then, once I did my homework, I was free to spend my time however I wished. Sometimes I went to the gym, and I ended up scheduling self-defense classes twice a week with Hurricane, and I ended up really enjoying those. Then every evening, I’d spend an hour answering questions.
One thing did change. Valerie went to bat for me with the higher-ups, and they took the supervillain label off my file. I was unspecified now. Not a hero, but it was progress.
We spent a little time getting used to what kind of results we could get. Using my ability as a prophetic one worked best. Philosophical questions in general would get so complex that they turned into Möbius strips and we wouldn’t even get any responses to them. Just silence. But more than that, there were some questions that we never wanted answers to, which sounds strange, until you think about it for hours and hours like I’ve been doing.
Do any gods exist? Is there an afterlife? Is there sapient life in our galaxy? Or in the universe? Will the human race die out in the future? If so, when? Those were staggering concepts to get a yes or no answer on. And on top of not wanting the answers, so many people would reject them out of hand if they contradicted what they believed. Who was to say I really was all-knowing? Maybe there was some god that gave humans powers and wouldn’t let us find out about it?
Then we also had the possibility that answers to big questions could change if we knew the answers. Questions like, when will the next pandemic occur? How will it start? Obviously we’d take precautions, but then the butterfly effect would kick in. If we stop that pandemic, how does that change things, and when is the next one? Then we prevent that one. What about the one after that?
Also, how much of my energy did we want to focus on things like that? Natural disasters happened every day and we needed to decide how many questions a day we wanted to ask. For something like daily tornado watches in America, we didn’t want to ‘waste’ questions on something that would only save two people. And was it really worth it to know those things? If there was an earthquake coming that was going to completely demolish Los Angeles in, say, three years, what would we do? Evacuate everyone? How many people would even go along with that?
Some things didn’t qualify as questions, gratefully. That would have driven me crazy. Like, “How about this weather?” What even is that? It’s not a question, that’s for sure. Or if I said “What the hell?” if something surprised me, there was no response to what the hell it was. There was, “Are you busy?” or “Can I come in?” if someone was at my door, neither of which gave me answers. Presumably that was because they were subjective and just on the edge of rhetorical. I was always busy with something, but was I too busy? And yes, they literally could come in, but was that what they were asking?
It was three months in that my headaches started building up faster, and we couldn’t make it to an hour. I started to worry, as did Valerie. One day, about half an hour into our session when I apologized and said I couldn’t continue, my eyes closed and my head in my hands, we scheduled an MRI.
That’s when we found the tumor.
Sitting in a little room, on the exam table on paper that crinkled every time I moved, I got hit with that like a brick to the face. “We found a tumor.” How was I supposed to react to that? Well, the first thing I did was ask if it was cancerous. The oncologist, Dr. Corbett, said he didn’t know. My brain said yes. All that had to happen was my face crumpled and I averted my gaze and then he knew as well.
In the moment, I both wanted to ask all sorts of questions about it, but also I didn’t want to know the answers. If I got answers and they were horrible, I’d ask how to change the outcome. But what if it said I was going to die no matter what we did? Did I want to know that? If we were going to operate on it, could I ask if the operation would go wrong?
It turned out that when it came to my own life, the questions my brain wanted to ask my all-knowing ability were infinite. How ironic that they would make my condition worse.
In the end, Dr. Corbett told me that he wanted to have my parents come in to discuss it. I wasn’t even seventeen yet, so as a minor, my mom and dad had the decision-making power when it came to medical issues. They had a Guild car go fetch them at work, calling ahead, and by the time they got there, I saw visible evidence that my mother had already been crying.
My mom started asking what kind of treatment was available and my dad asked when we could do it, how long it took, what the risks were, which echoed answers in my ear. Answer after answer. They were so distracted that they didn’t even notice. By this point we had a system, like they’d say, ‘I want to know possible treatments,’ but it had gone out the window.
“Would you shut up?” I cried, propelling myself off of the chair and down to the floor. “At least let me leave the room.”
They fumbled apologies, but I didn’t care for them. They were just panicking, I know, but I had no patience for it with the weight of what had just been dropped on me. I stormed down the hall to the elevator, hitting the button hard repeatedly.
It wasn’t fair. As if this ability hadn’t already grabbed control and taken away almost everything I had, now it wanted to take my life too. I wanted to go back to before that day at lunch, before that first question had been answered. Before I’d given months of my life to an organization that ended up giving me a tumor. Sure, they hadn’t known, but shouldn’t they have guessed? We always stopped when I started to get a headache, but were the so stupid that they didn’t wonder when I was getting headaches? Hindsight is 20/20, but I was just a teenager. They were the ones in charge, the ones with knowledge, the ones with expertise.
I needed someone to blame. But when it came down to it, my anger fizzled out and left me soaked in cold despair. Going back to my apartment, I locked the door behind me and went into the freezer for ice cream, settling with the pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the couch. After eating about half of it, I sighed and stuck the spoon in, putting it on the table.
Pausing for a long moment, the tension in me pulling like a guitar string about to snap, I asked, “Is this tumor definitely going to kill me?”
No.
Relief flooded me. That was all I’d needed. A possibility. After all, we could take the path my ability showed us to get to the best conclusion. And if it meant medical treatments or surgery, the Guild would spare no expense on letting their golden goose die, I was sure. If anything, it would mean I could only use my powers sparingly, or not at all. I’d be an elite superhero, taken out of the china cabinet for special occasions.
Leaning back into the couch cushions, I took in and let out a deep breath. My only worry was that the Guild would be irritated with the fact that said golden goose was producing fewer eggs. I didn’t want them cutting me open in their haste to get them.
After fifteen minutes or so, I felt myself drawn back to the fifth floor, where Dr. Corbett had been talking to my parents. He stopped mid-sentence as I walked back in.
“There’s a chance I’ll be okay. I asked,” I told them softly.
My mother’s shoulders dropped as tension left me and my dad walked over, taking me tightly in his arms. “We’ll figure this out,” he muttered in my ear. “We will. We’ll kick this thing’s ass.”
“I know,” I answered. I didn’t, not for sure, but I knew we’d fight as hard as we could.
submitted by karenvideoeditor to storiesbykaren [link] [comments]
Most kids find out their superpower when they get into their teenage years. I was a late bloomer at sixteen, but it was less ‘bloom’ and more ‘boom’. I know the answer to any question asked of me, which includes any question I ask myself aloud. The two minutes sitting in the lunchroom with my friends and thinking of the good I could do, before I called the Guild, were the most wonderful and most delusional minutes of my life. It took six hours for the government to declare me the deadliest super villain alive.
Had I done anything supervillain-y? No. It seemed they just weren’t going to take any chances. On the contrary, my life was currently treading along a path that would check boxes of taking down bad guys.
Day one was sad, stressful, and still somehow boring. Once my brothers had been picked up from school (Steven is eleven and Nathan is seven), and my parents had left work early, they met me at home. Or what used to be home, considering I’d be staying on the seventh floor of the Guild’s headquarters from then on.
After a long talk in the living room, with superheroes Fusion and Trailblazer there as security, my parents decided to take up the Guild’s offer of bodyguards and tracking devices rather than moving. It wasn’t that surprising. If I’d had the option, I would’ve gone with that alternative. Living at Guild HQ was a prison when you got right down to it.
Nathan seemed to take the news the hardest, which wasn’t surprising, considering he was seven. “Who’s gonna help me with my math?” he asked, close to tears. His red face and puffy eyes weren’t helping me feel better, but I’d cried my eyes out already once that day and wasn’t keen on a repeat performance.
Steven, answered the aggravating voice in my head. I’d told Nathan not to ask me questions, but there wasn’t anything to be done about it. He was seven. He didn’t get it.
“I’m not a genius,” Steven said, indignant, “but I think I can manage helping you with adding and subtracting numbers.”
“But you don’t explain it like Joan does,” Nathan whined.
“Hey, it’ll be fine,” I told him with a small smile, crouching down so I was looking up at him. “Worst comes to worst, we’ll set up a playdate. You can come over once a week and hang out at my new apartment, and I’ll help you with math.”
When it came down to it, it felt like I was leaving for college a year and a half early. Packing up boxes and being told what kind of furniture was already there and what I might want to bring. Trailblazer was handy to have around, I’ll say that much. Superstrength is incredibly useful when it’s moving day.
My parents fussed over me as we packed the U-Haul, and I let them. I’d never wanted to be fussed over more in my life.
They all drove with me, which left the house empty for the Guild’s security people to put in the alarm system and cameras. Mom had said as long as they didn’t put cameras in the bathrooms, she was fine with them. Also, it wasn’t as if someone was watching them 24/7; the cameras were for emergencies, if there was a break-in, to let the police and heroes know what was going on inside.
The apartment I got was pretty awesome, actually. The tub/shower was big, the mattress was comfy, and I had a flatscreen on the wall both in the living room and one in the bedroom. There were two bedrooms, and one functioned as an office, with a desktop computer. I had my laptop, but I suppose the desktop might come in handy if I needed one for a job when I was older.
That was the thing that hung over me. The impending possibility of being there forever. There were some moments of weakness I had where I asked questions out loud, even though I knew I probably shouldn’t. The thing was, I had to be really specific in some situations, and it was nearly impossible. I asked, “Will I stay here forever?” And “Am I stuck living here until I die?” The answer was, of course, no, and that was comforting in a small way. But those answers didn’t really give me what I wanted, because obviously I’d leave the premises at some point.
One I did ask was, “Is the Guild the safest place for me?” That answer was yes.
I used my power as little as possible, though. Its presence had already started to feel like a cinder block on my chest, having anxiety that was both pressuring me into asking questions out of desperation and wanting to stay blissfully unaware of anything. However, it wasn’t long until I figured out that I’d be using my abilities often.
The day after I moved in, I started work with a group run by Valerie, a group that had already generated a list of questions to ask me. Valerie was assigned as my ‘handler’, which wasn’t horrible since I ended up quite liking her. But it was surreal, sitting in an office with her and other powerful heroes, a PowerPoint presentation educating me, or at least reminding me of, some of the news articles that I’d seen when the incidents had occurred. Then when I had that background knowledge, they’d ask a question.
The biggest one, and the first one, was whether Goliath was dead or still alive. He was a supervillain who was responsible for the destruction of a building downtown and the deaths of dozens of people when he’d set explosives and demanded a ransom he did not receive. They’d been incredibly relieved when it turned out that, as they’d thought, he’d perished in the explosion, which had been set off prematurely.
Then there was a question of whether Nocturne was still in the United States. There was a warrant out for her arrest for frequent kidnappings for ransom, and we were able to pin down her location precisely. I literally rattled off an address for them and they sent two heroes off to arrest her and bring her into custody.
This went on for an hour or so before I started getting a headache and feeling short of breath. “I think this is starting to affect me,” I said, putting a hand to my head.
“That’s fine, this is plenty,” Valerie said emphatically. “You’ve done incredible work today, Joan. You should be very proud of yourself.”
I didn’t feel proud. Mostly I felt tired. Of course this ability was amazing, but it was just something that had happened to me, not anything I’d accomplished.
Returning to my room and kicking off my shoes so I could fall onto my comfy bed was a relief. The headache was still there, though, so I kept the lights off.
A few hours later, without having meant to take a nap, I woke up. My head wasn’t pounding anymore, just sore, and I was breathing easier. Going into my little kitchen, I turned on the oven to preheat it for a frozen pizza. There was a food court on the third floor, but I liked my alone time too. Then I went into the living room and pulled up Netflix, starting an old standup routine from Jim Gaffigan.
Aside from that, things were pretty boring. My education continued, once my boss had found tutors who were willing to commute every day to Guild headquarters. That was actually pretty cool, having a team of teachers just for me. We worked one-on-one, so they knew how much of the material I was grasping, and I probably did only half as much homework as I used to. That took up a majority of my time.
But keeping in touch with friends was harder than I’d thought it would be. The four girls I’d been sitting with when I’d discovered my powers were my best friends. They had been told to keep it a secret, and their parents had actually signed NDAs on their behalf, since minors couldn’t sign NDAs. I had no idea how that worked, but I was a junior high student, not a lawyer. The fact was that they swore up and down that they wouldn’t tell anyone, and the Guild had to take their word on it. They were protecting me, though, so just keeping it amongst themselves was what good friends did anyway.
Not that they had the temptation to tell anyone. From their end of things, it was completely anticlimactic. I made the discovery, went to the nurse, and was never seen again, not even to clean out my locker. Someone else did that for me. After I’d moved into the Guild’s headquarters, I’d asked if they could visit like my family did, and Valerie pointed out that it would be safer if we stuck to social media and texting. We didn’t want them to get too close to me, in case they could be used as leverage.
Either my mom or my dad came to visit me every weekend for the first couple of months, staying overnight, and also an afternoon or two during the week. I think they wanted to make sure I was settling in well and wasn’t struggling. It had, after all, been a huge change in my life, literally overnight. Also, I saw a psychologist once a week, so I had someone to vent to. At least, someone to vent to who knew how to help me, since my family and friends were always willing to lend an ear. They just didn’t have control over my circumstances or any helpful advice.
The days passed by quickly, and I got into a routine, feeling like I was in a boarding school. Five days a week, I had my tutoring sessions, which included history and language arts in the morning and then math, science, and Spanish in the afternoon. Then, once I did my homework, I was free to spend my time however I wished. Sometimes I went to the gym, and I ended up scheduling self-defense classes twice a week with Hurricane, and I ended up really enjoying those. Then every evening, I’d spend an hour answering questions.
One thing did change. Valerie went to bat for me with the higher-ups, and they took the supervillain label off my file. I was unspecified now. Not a hero, but it was progress.
We spent a little time getting used to what kind of results we could get. Using my ability as a prophetic one worked best. Philosophical questions in general would get so complex that they turned into Möbius strips and we wouldn’t even get any responses to them. Just silence. But more than that, there were some questions that we never wanted answers to, which sounds strange, until you think about it for hours and hours like I’ve been doing.
Do any gods exist? Is there an afterlife? Is there sapient life in our galaxy? Or in the universe? Will the human race die out in the future? If so, when? Those were staggering concepts to get a yes or no answer on. And on top of not wanting the answers, so many people would reject them out of hand if they contradicted what they believed. Who was to say I really was all-knowing? Maybe there was some god that gave humans powers and wouldn’t let us find out about it?
Then we also had the possibility that answers to big questions could change if we knew the answers. Questions like, when will the next pandemic occur? How will it start? Obviously we’d take precautions, but then the butterfly effect would kick in. If we stop that pandemic, how does that change things, and when is the next one? Then we prevent that one. What about the one after that?
Also, how much of my energy did we want to focus on things like that? Natural disasters happened every day and we needed to decide how many questions a day we wanted to ask. For something like daily tornado watches in America, we didn’t want to ‘waste’ questions on something that would only save two people. And was it really worth it to know those things? If there was an earthquake coming that was going to completely demolish Los Angeles in, say, three years, what would we do? Evacuate everyone? How many people would even go along with that?
Some things didn’t qualify as questions, gratefully. That would have driven me crazy. Like, “How about this weather?” What even is that? It’s not a question, that’s for sure. Or if I said “What the hell?” if something surprised me, there was no response to what the hell it was. There was, “Are you busy?” or “Can I come in?” if someone was at my door, neither of which gave me answers. Presumably that was because they were subjective and just on the edge of rhetorical. I was always busy with something, but was I too busy? And yes, they literally could come in, but was that what they were asking?
It was three months in that my headaches started building up faster, and we couldn’t make it to an hour. I started to worry, as did Valerie. One day, about half an hour into our session when I apologized and said I couldn’t continue, my eyes closed and my head in my hands, we scheduled an MRI.
That’s when we found the tumor.
Sitting in a little room, on the exam table on paper that crinkled every time I moved, I got hit with that like a brick to the face. “We found a tumor.” How was I supposed to react to that? Well, the first thing I did was ask if it was cancerous. The oncologist, Dr. Corbett, said he didn’t know. My brain said yes. All that had to happen was my face crumpled and I averted my gaze and then he knew as well.
In the moment, I both wanted to ask all sorts of questions about it, but also I didn’t want to know the answers. If I got answers and they were horrible, I’d ask how to change the outcome. But what if it said I was going to die no matter what we did? Did I want to know that? If we were going to operate on it, could I ask if the operation would go wrong?
It turned out that when it came to my own life, the questions my brain wanted to ask my all-knowing ability were infinite. How ironic that they would make my condition worse.
In the end, Dr. Corbett told me that he wanted to have my parents come in to discuss it. I wasn’t even seventeen yet, so as a minor, my mom and dad had the decision-making power when it came to medical issues. They had a Guild car go fetch them at work, calling ahead, and by the time they got there, I saw visible evidence that my mother had already been crying.
My mom started asking what kind of treatment was available and my dad asked when we could do it, how long it took, what the risks were, which echoed answers in my ear. Answer after answer. They were so distracted that they didn’t even notice. By this point we had a system, like they’d say, ‘I want to know possible treatments,’ but it had gone out the window.
“Would you shut up?” I cried, propelling myself off of the chair and down to the floor. “At least let me leave the room.”
They fumbled apologies, but I didn’t care for them. They were just panicking, I know, but I had no patience for it with the weight of what had just been dropped on me. I stormed down the hall to the elevator, hitting the button hard repeatedly.
It wasn’t fair. As if this ability hadn’t already grabbed control and taken away almost everything I had, now it wanted to take my life too. I wanted to go back to before that day at lunch, before that first question had been answered. Before I’d given months of my life to an organization that ended up giving me a tumor. Sure, they hadn’t known, but shouldn’t they have guessed? We always stopped when I started to get a headache, but were the so stupid that they didn’t wonder when I was getting headaches? Hindsight is 20/20, but I was just a teenager. They were the ones in charge, the ones with knowledge, the ones with expertise.
I needed someone to blame. But when it came down to it, my anger fizzled out and left me soaked in cold despair. Going back to my apartment, I locked the door behind me and went into the freezer for ice cream, settling with the pint of Ben & Jerry’s on the couch. After eating about half of it, I sighed and stuck the spoon in, putting it on the table.
Pausing for a long moment, the tension in me pulling like a guitar string about to snap, I asked, “Is this tumor definitely going to kill me?”
No.
Relief flooded me. That was all I’d needed. A possibility. After all, we could take the path my ability showed us to get to the best conclusion. And if it meant medical treatments or surgery, the Guild would spare no expense on letting their golden goose die, I was sure. If anything, it would mean I could only use my powers sparingly, or not at all. I’d be an elite superhero, taken out of the china cabinet for special occasions.
Leaning back into the couch cushions, I took in and let out a deep breath. My only worry was that the Guild would be irritated with the fact that said golden goose was producing fewer eggs. I didn’t want them cutting me open in their haste to get them.
After fifteen minutes or so, I felt myself drawn back to the fifth floor, where Dr. Corbett had been talking to my parents. He stopped mid-sentence as I walked back in.
“There’s a chance I’ll be okay. I asked,” I told them softly.
My mother’s shoulders dropped as tension left me and my dad walked over, taking me tightly in his arms. “We’ll figure this out,” he muttered in my ear. “We will. We’ll kick this thing’s ass.”
“I know,” I answered. I didn’t, not for sure, but I knew we’d fight as hard as we could.
2024.05.01 03:58 Document-Curious 58 Year Old Bro for NBB
58 year old white married guy. I have three grown sons and four grandchildren all under 4. I’m a suit and tie professional.
I live in the south and am looking for a new bro(s). Age doesn’t matter but commitment does. I tend to jump in with both feet if I feel like I click with someone.
I’ve posted before and got some good responses. The problem is after a day or two of regular communication everyone fades away. I understand being busy but it takes no time to shoot a message to someone that you are busy but will communicate when you free up.
It would be nice if you were close to South Carolina because I would ultimately like to meet my bro in real life. That’s probably a dream so don’t let that deter you, but that is my goal. Besides I’m not afraid to travel. Indeed a travel bro would be great.
My interests vary from hiking and camping to literature and art and everything in between and beyond. I’m a good cook and enjoy good wine. I’m naturally very curious.
I’m a nice guy. I have a lot of life experience and generally offer good advice.
If any of this sounds interesting and you have some time in your life to make a new, good friend then hit me up.
I am generally amenable to talking about anything and everything but I want a true bromance.
Please don’t contact me if you can’t stay in touch more than every few days. Not what I want. Want a bro to talk to every day.
submitted by Document-Curious to NextBestBro [link] [comments]
I live in the south and am looking for a new bro(s). Age doesn’t matter but commitment does. I tend to jump in with both feet if I feel like I click with someone.
I’ve posted before and got some good responses. The problem is after a day or two of regular communication everyone fades away. I understand being busy but it takes no time to shoot a message to someone that you are busy but will communicate when you free up.
It would be nice if you were close to South Carolina because I would ultimately like to meet my bro in real life. That’s probably a dream so don’t let that deter you, but that is my goal. Besides I’m not afraid to travel. Indeed a travel bro would be great.
My interests vary from hiking and camping to literature and art and everything in between and beyond. I’m a good cook and enjoy good wine. I’m naturally very curious.
I’m a nice guy. I have a lot of life experience and generally offer good advice.
If any of this sounds interesting and you have some time in your life to make a new, good friend then hit me up.
I am generally amenable to talking about anything and everything but I want a true bromance.
Please don’t contact me if you can’t stay in touch more than every few days. Not what I want. Want a bro to talk to every day.
2024.05.01 03:57 Sea-Mud-7292 Hello
Seen a few people post their 100k milestone so thought Id share mine. Gonna be a long story sorry lads but will try to share as much of my journey as possible
23 male living in Leicestershire
Short story: worked take away from 15 to 18 at max £4.50 and hour, did deliveroo from 18 to 21/22ish on a bike and then started a business, as of today net worth of around £138k
Long story:
Moved to uk 11th june 2016
3 days later my mom walked me on an adjacent road to where we live and asked takeaways if they needed workers. One of them said yes and literally took me in right away. I was 15 at the time but still remember the odour of oil and grease with in. Having moved from a country where take away is not anywhere as big as in the UK, that hit pretty hard. 2 weeks later the manager, which paid the staff on a sunday night, pulled out a £20 note from his jeans back pocket and handed it to me, first money I had ever made in UK. From june 2016 to September 2016 (ehich is when I started college) I worked there 10/11h a day every day, 11am to 11pm with a 1 or 2h break in between depending on how busy it was. Was getting paid £2 an hour at the start and slowly creeped up to £4.50 an hour by summer 2018 which is when I quit. To get to 4.50 an hour I had to quit a few times but they didn't want to let me go so would show up to my house begging me to come back offering a little pay rise. Went from 2 to like 3 to 3.50 ecc. Also I used to open on most weekends ecc, basically a valuable staff member, not the manager but pretty much a manager role. I admit this was cash in hand and I admit the although I made money, I could have done better, but I was young and new to the country and didn't know any better
I didn't have a bank account until late 2017/ early 2018, everything I made went to my parents (my dad really, my mom didn't have much of a say in the house, dad was abusive). At this point I used to ride to college as bus was pricey and it literally took longer on the bus than on the bike. Around September 2017 I seen a beautiful shiny yellow voodoo bizango 2017 mountain bike locked in town next to my piece of scrap of a bike, I kinda fell in love with it, took a photo, went home and researched it, it was £500 new. Asked my mom if I could buy it she said ask dad, asked my dad and he basically said if I ask again he'd beat me up. I gave him everything I made up until then and he refused to let me buy a £500 bike, I admit that was a lot of money for us back then but back then I spent less than £20 a week and made over £200 a week at this point but wasn't allowed to get a 500 bike. I of course decided to open my own bank account and picked up extra hours for a few weeks so that I could still pay my parents but could save up something on the side, few weeks later got myself that voodoo bizango for £450 (got 10% off through uk cycling membership that cost me £26 so essential paid 476 on the bike, saving me £24 overall). Also the takeaway job was cash in hand all through
Summer 2018 applied for uber eat delivery to work on a push bike, I hadn't quit the take away job yet as wasn't sure how uber eats was gonna be but few weeks later quit the take away and did uber eats "full time". I was still in college until summer 2020 but was making good money on deliveroo, like £300/400 a week
Got my licence in November 2018 which I paid for myself that probably cost mr about £1200
Summer 2019 uber eats closed my account for some reason and I applied for deliveroo instead.
Got a £700 car in November 2019, I paid in full, I didn't like having money coming out of my account every month so paid for insurance in full £1800 but I had to borrow £1000 from a friend to do this. Basically November 2019 I was in £1000 debt to a friend.
Net worth November 2019= -£1000
Anyway ere I set myself a goal of making £1000 a week every week on deliveroo, which I managed to achieve, managed to keep this up for 6 weeks, most I managed to do in a week was £1051.
I guess start of 2020 my net worth was about £2000, after paying back my friend and frickin fuel and road tax and this and that, car was a money pit and I loved driving so🤷♂️ ahah
Car went kaput in march 2020 (clutch failed) so thats a loss and got £1400 back from insurance, that had gone in moms bank account as I had paid from her bank account for some reason and never seen that money again, mom kept it. To befair glad it went kaput, was a money pit, haven't had a car since and probably saved me loads of money. I just cycle everywhere.
I also mention, alongside all this, I tried several other ways of making money. As soon as I turned 18 I tried forex trading, no good, lost around £1700 in total which I made back all in once thanks to stacking short on gold on a £20 balance, got up to 3.5k in the trading account, and then started coming back down and I told myself as soon as it hits 1.7k I am closing everything and never looking back, it hit 1.7k balance and I closed all trades, withdrew my money and never traded after that. Was a loooong and painful lesson tho, lots of stress ecc. I have learned a lot and met a great friend online, charlie, we still friends 4+ years later. That friend thought me about matched betting which I did and made about £700 in sign up offers and then didn't persue the reload offers but my friend been since doing this full time and been doing it for others. After I done my sign up offers he asked me to borrow my betting accounts (yes its not really legal for someone to use your betting accounts) and hes been paying me 50% of his profits using my accounts since. That has been consistently between £50 and £110 a month every month. To put that in prospective, other than rent I dont spent more than £80 a month I will explain this better further down.
No college after May 2020, I did electronics level 3 in college that I barely got through, thanks to covid, they took my previous marks and gave me a qualification based on them but was otherwise welllll behind on my assignments, if covid didn't hit I would have probably failed lol. From now on just did deliveroo full time. About 10h a day every day.
*June 2020 net worth £5000, I dont remember it but I had messaged my online friend Charlie saying I had hit 5k sum"
Loads of deliveroo, here I was using my own deliveroo account, my own just eat account and a deliveroo account I had opened for my sister all 3 simultaneously so I was busy all the time and I had a diy fast ebike so wasn't getting late either.
ended 2020 net worth £20k, again messaged Charlie about it thats how I know otherwise wouldn't remember
Used the money I had made to start importing things from china and reselling.
Untimately setup a company in march 2022. It consists in importing mainly electronics from china and reselling or assembling and reselling on ebay, my own website and facebook marketplace. Its a niche products and I am now quite known in facebook groups of that niche both nationally and globally so a lot of my sales are through word of mouth. Have not spent a penny advertising and I have some other smaller UK sellers that buy from me and resell themselves.
Didn't do deliveroo anymore but had 3 accounts which I rented out (not illegal but somewhat against ruled of the delivery platforms, deliveroo didn't care to be fair, just eat did). Rented for 40 each a week so thats £120 a week across the 3 accounts so thats around £500 months. Plus what Charlie was paying me a months £60 to £110 about £550 a month passive income here. My sister had uni and student loan ecc so she didn't want me to use her deliveroo accoun anymore so by September 2022 so now delivery account rent went from 120 a week to 80 a week. Jeat died around start of 2023, wasn't busy anymore so no one wanted to rent account so now only had my own deliveroo account for rent for 40 a week, thats still 160 a month cant complain so including what Charlie pays me thays aroun 200 passive income since start of 2023.
Its summer 2023 and I had around 70/80k in my bank and only now I opened a savings account at 4%. Such a fool, could have made so much money thanks to interests in all these years. One of my biggest mistakes for sure lol
*Overall lost track of net worth but today I have £118473 in savings account. About half in a 4% easy access, other half at 5.08% in a triple access and thats making me about £14 in interest a day (4% pays interest daily, 5.08% pays monthly). Around £5000 in current accounts (bank account just not a savings one). Will be paying myself around £15k in dividents after tax from my company to add to a house deposit
Total net worth as of today around 138k
Also I have been too generous to people and now I am owed around £4500 between 12 "friends"
Few more points. -I only had a car for a few months otherwise just cycle everywhere -I work from home -I rarely buy clothes (somewhat because I dont care and somewhat because I dont like going shopping, like I could go to buy some clothes but go to the store and hate being there and having to choose clothes so just walk out with either the first thing I see or with nothing) and if I do buy clothes they ll be really really cheap. -I rarey eat out, I just make myself sandwiches every day lol. I also collect free food from th app Olio and been doing so for over a year, saves loads of money, get to eat nice tasting food sometimes and saves the planet I guess. -I do live with my mom, dad moved out few years ago, I currently pay £500 to my mom every month for rent and bills. Our rent is currently £900. Other than that I cover wifi and thats it (and my own phone bill) up until last summer ish I paid my mom £400 a month -most of my hobbies are free, hiking, volleyball, football, cycling, exploring abandoned places, calisthenics (got the rings at home, would like an actual pull up bar and other equipment but no space), only paid hobby is airsoft currently and I guess fuel split 3/4 ways when we go hiking but thats really cheap. -I have never smoked or drinked. I hate pubs and clubs and crowded places. -I have never been in a relationship. Up until I was 19 I wanted a gf but I am really picky, dont want a relationship just for the fun of it, had opportunities and although they were pretty, they just were not my type. After that I just didn't really have time, I have never actively looked for a gf like going out all dressed up ecc and now I am more of a "I hope the first women I get with, I eventually get married to and live happily forever after" sort of thing, I am patient and will only settle for the right women really, dont want to hop from one relationship to another at all so wont rush anything. -I have worked pretty much every day since 20yo (2020) Even on a day where I go on day trip with friends ecc I still come home and work for the rest of the day. Max I have taken off is 3 days for a hiking trip in summer 2023. -I am pretty handy, I like to fix things, I would rather spend money on buying a tool than pay someone to do it for me. Only jobs I would not touch are plumbing, gas snd home electrics (I mean like mains ecc, if an appliance breaks I will still try to open it and see if I can spot something broken or loose to fix myself). Everything else I give it a go myself. -I get cheap haircuts pay about £6 currently. I tried more expensive places (up to £18) and honestly noticed no difference. - no netflix, amazon prime ecc. Only had netflix for a couple of months but found out that I was spending too much time on it.
MISTAKES I HAVE MADE
-lending money to people, never again, sorry. I will no trust anyone again, only person I am okay with lending money to is Charlie as we have lended each other up to 10k, he's lended me it when I was starting my business and I have lended that to him during an event called Cheltenham to ude as bank roll for his matched betting. Never met the lad and lives 180 miles from me but trust him more than anyone else, of course outside my own family (mom). -forex trading, not because of the potential money loss, but because of the stress that comes from it -not opening a savings account early on. Definitely missed out on several thousands becaue of this. - this is an ongoing mistake, I have taken my business seriously but for some reason I have not yet managed to rent a unit and move my business outside my home, which would be beneficial as more space= more stock and wider range of products= more profitable. Currently I run out of stock of a certain product often. Also if I move my business to an actual unit I could hire someone. I dont know, unfortunately not had any support along the way nor from friends (I have lost all the friends I had before I started my business, even tho the 2 closes friends I tried to get involved so we could make money together, would have loved to be working with a close friend) nor from family (only go my mom and she hasn't got a clue, doesn't even speak english) so just been on my own and for the most part still am. -I am definitely not tax efficient. Been paying myself a high salary (mainly to have a higher deposit for a house) and infact been declaring less expenses so that I could afford to borrow more mortgage wise. This is I guess a mistake my choice but still a mistake.
I love learning, thanks to being self employed I have given myself time to learn new skills. I have learned cad, 3d printing (got a 3d printer), lathework (got a lathe in the shed), rc related stuff (made my own rc 6 channel plane, main body made out of pizza cardboard boxes lol). Next up is welding and woodworking, these will hage to wait until I move place.
Curren plan:
I have run my business from home and by myself until now. We are renting a 3 bed house and honestly most of it is filled with my work stuff. The plan at this point is to get a bigger place, I am looking at buying a property with ideally a double garage an a big garden, cant get both for my budget so going for big garden, I will buy 1 or 2 shipping containers and put them in th garden and use them as stoage facilities rather than using the bedroom (they are about £1500 each and, as the other option is to rent a self storage facility or a unit, the containers will definitely pay themselves off in a fairly short amount of time (under 18 months, maybe even under 12 months). I dont like having money coming out of my bank every month and dont like debt and mortgage is exactly that, I will he paying off the property in under 5 years and then think ahout extending and renovating properly. Also want to move my business completely online and soon after make it into a dropshipping business as its a niche and I am well known, this IS feasible. I would not deal with physical product myself, just with the customers service side. And will start social media accounts to promote my own products.
TIPS FOR OTHERS
I may be only 23 but believe I have learned a lot but still have far more to learn so tip number 1 is 1) LEARN LEARN LEARN. The more you know the more flexible you can be. If my business goes burst today for whatever reason, I can start something new tomorrow becaude my knowledge and skills stretch well beyond my business main role 2) the more you work, the less time you hage to spend money. It sounds stupid as I am basically telling you to not live your life but Id rather be 30 and not worried about my rent and bills an actually have a life than be living paycheck to paycheck. Plus I am doing something I like doing (okay dont exactly love it, mostly because I have no space, but I will once I move, but I am nowhere near disliking it). I go to sleep with no alarm, can take a few hours off whenever I want (for example when we pay volleyball its usually a short notice and I can just go without having to ask anyone) listen to music whenever and honestly most of the time dont feel like I am working at all. 3) dont get a car unless you really need it, probably biggest unnecessary expense out there. 4) you dont need expensive clothes, clothes are clothes 5) eating out is expensive, you can cook nice tasting food at home and it ll cost you a fraction of what you pay at restaurants. 6) shop in cheaper supermarkets, aldi is my favourite, followed by lidl. 7) PUT WHATEVER SAVINGS YOU HAVE IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT. I kept everything I had up until I had like 70k in a normal bank account, so stupid, no clue how I didn't realise that I could have made so much money from interests 8) the purpose is to be and feel rich, not to look rich (at least for me) 9) this one is pretty important too, a lot of people move out of home as a CHOICE! If you have the option to stay at home and save up, DO IT!! At least until you have figured things out. I could move to a nice house on my own and this and that but I know for a fact that I wont be able to save anywhere near as much as I am saving now
Overall hoping to him 1M net worth by 30
submitted by Sea-Mud-7292 to FIREUK [link] [comments]
23 male living in Leicestershire
Short story: worked take away from 15 to 18 at max £4.50 and hour, did deliveroo from 18 to 21/22ish on a bike and then started a business, as of today net worth of around £138k
Long story:
Moved to uk 11th june 2016
3 days later my mom walked me on an adjacent road to where we live and asked takeaways if they needed workers. One of them said yes and literally took me in right away. I was 15 at the time but still remember the odour of oil and grease with in. Having moved from a country where take away is not anywhere as big as in the UK, that hit pretty hard. 2 weeks later the manager, which paid the staff on a sunday night, pulled out a £20 note from his jeans back pocket and handed it to me, first money I had ever made in UK. From june 2016 to September 2016 (ehich is when I started college) I worked there 10/11h a day every day, 11am to 11pm with a 1 or 2h break in between depending on how busy it was. Was getting paid £2 an hour at the start and slowly creeped up to £4.50 an hour by summer 2018 which is when I quit. To get to 4.50 an hour I had to quit a few times but they didn't want to let me go so would show up to my house begging me to come back offering a little pay rise. Went from 2 to like 3 to 3.50 ecc. Also I used to open on most weekends ecc, basically a valuable staff member, not the manager but pretty much a manager role. I admit this was cash in hand and I admit the although I made money, I could have done better, but I was young and new to the country and didn't know any better
I didn't have a bank account until late 2017/ early 2018, everything I made went to my parents (my dad really, my mom didn't have much of a say in the house, dad was abusive). At this point I used to ride to college as bus was pricey and it literally took longer on the bus than on the bike. Around September 2017 I seen a beautiful shiny yellow voodoo bizango 2017 mountain bike locked in town next to my piece of scrap of a bike, I kinda fell in love with it, took a photo, went home and researched it, it was £500 new. Asked my mom if I could buy it she said ask dad, asked my dad and he basically said if I ask again he'd beat me up. I gave him everything I made up until then and he refused to let me buy a £500 bike, I admit that was a lot of money for us back then but back then I spent less than £20 a week and made over £200 a week at this point but wasn't allowed to get a 500 bike. I of course decided to open my own bank account and picked up extra hours for a few weeks so that I could still pay my parents but could save up something on the side, few weeks later got myself that voodoo bizango for £450 (got 10% off through uk cycling membership that cost me £26 so essential paid 476 on the bike, saving me £24 overall). Also the takeaway job was cash in hand all through
Summer 2018 applied for uber eat delivery to work on a push bike, I hadn't quit the take away job yet as wasn't sure how uber eats was gonna be but few weeks later quit the take away and did uber eats "full time". I was still in college until summer 2020 but was making good money on deliveroo, like £300/400 a week
Got my licence in November 2018 which I paid for myself that probably cost mr about £1200
Summer 2019 uber eats closed my account for some reason and I applied for deliveroo instead.
Got a £700 car in November 2019, I paid in full, I didn't like having money coming out of my account every month so paid for insurance in full £1800 but I had to borrow £1000 from a friend to do this. Basically November 2019 I was in £1000 debt to a friend.
Net worth November 2019= -£1000
Anyway ere I set myself a goal of making £1000 a week every week on deliveroo, which I managed to achieve, managed to keep this up for 6 weeks, most I managed to do in a week was £1051.
I guess start of 2020 my net worth was about £2000, after paying back my friend and frickin fuel and road tax and this and that, car was a money pit and I loved driving so🤷♂️ ahah
Car went kaput in march 2020 (clutch failed) so thats a loss and got £1400 back from insurance, that had gone in moms bank account as I had paid from her bank account for some reason and never seen that money again, mom kept it. To befair glad it went kaput, was a money pit, haven't had a car since and probably saved me loads of money. I just cycle everywhere.
I also mention, alongside all this, I tried several other ways of making money. As soon as I turned 18 I tried forex trading, no good, lost around £1700 in total which I made back all in once thanks to stacking short on gold on a £20 balance, got up to 3.5k in the trading account, and then started coming back down and I told myself as soon as it hits 1.7k I am closing everything and never looking back, it hit 1.7k balance and I closed all trades, withdrew my money and never traded after that. Was a loooong and painful lesson tho, lots of stress ecc. I have learned a lot and met a great friend online, charlie, we still friends 4+ years later. That friend thought me about matched betting which I did and made about £700 in sign up offers and then didn't persue the reload offers but my friend been since doing this full time and been doing it for others. After I done my sign up offers he asked me to borrow my betting accounts (yes its not really legal for someone to use your betting accounts) and hes been paying me 50% of his profits using my accounts since. That has been consistently between £50 and £110 a month every month. To put that in prospective, other than rent I dont spent more than £80 a month I will explain this better further down.
No college after May 2020, I did electronics level 3 in college that I barely got through, thanks to covid, they took my previous marks and gave me a qualification based on them but was otherwise welllll behind on my assignments, if covid didn't hit I would have probably failed lol. From now on just did deliveroo full time. About 10h a day every day.
*June 2020 net worth £5000, I dont remember it but I had messaged my online friend Charlie saying I had hit 5k sum"
Loads of deliveroo, here I was using my own deliveroo account, my own just eat account and a deliveroo account I had opened for my sister all 3 simultaneously so I was busy all the time and I had a diy fast ebike so wasn't getting late either.
ended 2020 net worth £20k, again messaged Charlie about it thats how I know otherwise wouldn't remember
Used the money I had made to start importing things from china and reselling.
Untimately setup a company in march 2022. It consists in importing mainly electronics from china and reselling or assembling and reselling on ebay, my own website and facebook marketplace. Its a niche products and I am now quite known in facebook groups of that niche both nationally and globally so a lot of my sales are through word of mouth. Have not spent a penny advertising and I have some other smaller UK sellers that buy from me and resell themselves.
Didn't do deliveroo anymore but had 3 accounts which I rented out (not illegal but somewhat against ruled of the delivery platforms, deliveroo didn't care to be fair, just eat did). Rented for 40 each a week so thats £120 a week across the 3 accounts so thats around £500 months. Plus what Charlie was paying me a months £60 to £110 about £550 a month passive income here. My sister had uni and student loan ecc so she didn't want me to use her deliveroo accoun anymore so by September 2022 so now delivery account rent went from 120 a week to 80 a week. Jeat died around start of 2023, wasn't busy anymore so no one wanted to rent account so now only had my own deliveroo account for rent for 40 a week, thats still 160 a month cant complain so including what Charlie pays me thays aroun 200 passive income since start of 2023.
Its summer 2023 and I had around 70/80k in my bank and only now I opened a savings account at 4%. Such a fool, could have made so much money thanks to interests in all these years. One of my biggest mistakes for sure lol
*Overall lost track of net worth but today I have £118473 in savings account. About half in a 4% easy access, other half at 5.08% in a triple access and thats making me about £14 in interest a day (4% pays interest daily, 5.08% pays monthly). Around £5000 in current accounts (bank account just not a savings one). Will be paying myself around £15k in dividents after tax from my company to add to a house deposit
Total net worth as of today around 138k
Also I have been too generous to people and now I am owed around £4500 between 12 "friends"
Few more points. -I only had a car for a few months otherwise just cycle everywhere -I work from home -I rarely buy clothes (somewhat because I dont care and somewhat because I dont like going shopping, like I could go to buy some clothes but go to the store and hate being there and having to choose clothes so just walk out with either the first thing I see or with nothing) and if I do buy clothes they ll be really really cheap. -I rarey eat out, I just make myself sandwiches every day lol. I also collect free food from th app Olio and been doing so for over a year, saves loads of money, get to eat nice tasting food sometimes and saves the planet I guess. -I do live with my mom, dad moved out few years ago, I currently pay £500 to my mom every month for rent and bills. Our rent is currently £900. Other than that I cover wifi and thats it (and my own phone bill) up until last summer ish I paid my mom £400 a month -most of my hobbies are free, hiking, volleyball, football, cycling, exploring abandoned places, calisthenics (got the rings at home, would like an actual pull up bar and other equipment but no space), only paid hobby is airsoft currently and I guess fuel split 3/4 ways when we go hiking but thats really cheap. -I have never smoked or drinked. I hate pubs and clubs and crowded places. -I have never been in a relationship. Up until I was 19 I wanted a gf but I am really picky, dont want a relationship just for the fun of it, had opportunities and although they were pretty, they just were not my type. After that I just didn't really have time, I have never actively looked for a gf like going out all dressed up ecc and now I am more of a "I hope the first women I get with, I eventually get married to and live happily forever after" sort of thing, I am patient and will only settle for the right women really, dont want to hop from one relationship to another at all so wont rush anything. -I have worked pretty much every day since 20yo (2020) Even on a day where I go on day trip with friends ecc I still come home and work for the rest of the day. Max I have taken off is 3 days for a hiking trip in summer 2023. -I am pretty handy, I like to fix things, I would rather spend money on buying a tool than pay someone to do it for me. Only jobs I would not touch are plumbing, gas snd home electrics (I mean like mains ecc, if an appliance breaks I will still try to open it and see if I can spot something broken or loose to fix myself). Everything else I give it a go myself. -I get cheap haircuts pay about £6 currently. I tried more expensive places (up to £18) and honestly noticed no difference. - no netflix, amazon prime ecc. Only had netflix for a couple of months but found out that I was spending too much time on it.
MISTAKES I HAVE MADE
-lending money to people, never again, sorry. I will no trust anyone again, only person I am okay with lending money to is Charlie as we have lended each other up to 10k, he's lended me it when I was starting my business and I have lended that to him during an event called Cheltenham to ude as bank roll for his matched betting. Never met the lad and lives 180 miles from me but trust him more than anyone else, of course outside my own family (mom). -forex trading, not because of the potential money loss, but because of the stress that comes from it -not opening a savings account early on. Definitely missed out on several thousands becaue of this. - this is an ongoing mistake, I have taken my business seriously but for some reason I have not yet managed to rent a unit and move my business outside my home, which would be beneficial as more space= more stock and wider range of products= more profitable. Currently I run out of stock of a certain product often. Also if I move my business to an actual unit I could hire someone. I dont know, unfortunately not had any support along the way nor from friends (I have lost all the friends I had before I started my business, even tho the 2 closes friends I tried to get involved so we could make money together, would have loved to be working with a close friend) nor from family (only go my mom and she hasn't got a clue, doesn't even speak english) so just been on my own and for the most part still am. -I am definitely not tax efficient. Been paying myself a high salary (mainly to have a higher deposit for a house) and infact been declaring less expenses so that I could afford to borrow more mortgage wise. This is I guess a mistake my choice but still a mistake.
I love learning, thanks to being self employed I have given myself time to learn new skills. I have learned cad, 3d printing (got a 3d printer), lathework (got a lathe in the shed), rc related stuff (made my own rc 6 channel plane, main body made out of pizza cardboard boxes lol). Next up is welding and woodworking, these will hage to wait until I move place.
Curren plan:
I have run my business from home and by myself until now. We are renting a 3 bed house and honestly most of it is filled with my work stuff. The plan at this point is to get a bigger place, I am looking at buying a property with ideally a double garage an a big garden, cant get both for my budget so going for big garden, I will buy 1 or 2 shipping containers and put them in th garden and use them as stoage facilities rather than using the bedroom (they are about £1500 each and, as the other option is to rent a self storage facility or a unit, the containers will definitely pay themselves off in a fairly short amount of time (under 18 months, maybe even under 12 months). I dont like having money coming out of my bank every month and dont like debt and mortgage is exactly that, I will he paying off the property in under 5 years and then think ahout extending and renovating properly. Also want to move my business completely online and soon after make it into a dropshipping business as its a niche and I am well known, this IS feasible. I would not deal with physical product myself, just with the customers service side. And will start social media accounts to promote my own products.
TIPS FOR OTHERS
I may be only 23 but believe I have learned a lot but still have far more to learn so tip number 1 is 1) LEARN LEARN LEARN. The more you know the more flexible you can be. If my business goes burst today for whatever reason, I can start something new tomorrow becaude my knowledge and skills stretch well beyond my business main role 2) the more you work, the less time you hage to spend money. It sounds stupid as I am basically telling you to not live your life but Id rather be 30 and not worried about my rent and bills an actually have a life than be living paycheck to paycheck. Plus I am doing something I like doing (okay dont exactly love it, mostly because I have no space, but I will once I move, but I am nowhere near disliking it). I go to sleep with no alarm, can take a few hours off whenever I want (for example when we pay volleyball its usually a short notice and I can just go without having to ask anyone) listen to music whenever and honestly most of the time dont feel like I am working at all. 3) dont get a car unless you really need it, probably biggest unnecessary expense out there. 4) you dont need expensive clothes, clothes are clothes 5) eating out is expensive, you can cook nice tasting food at home and it ll cost you a fraction of what you pay at restaurants. 6) shop in cheaper supermarkets, aldi is my favourite, followed by lidl. 7) PUT WHATEVER SAVINGS YOU HAVE IN A SAVINGS ACCOUNT. I kept everything I had up until I had like 70k in a normal bank account, so stupid, no clue how I didn't realise that I could have made so much money from interests 8) the purpose is to be and feel rich, not to look rich (at least for me) 9) this one is pretty important too, a lot of people move out of home as a CHOICE! If you have the option to stay at home and save up, DO IT!! At least until you have figured things out. I could move to a nice house on my own and this and that but I know for a fact that I wont be able to save anywhere near as much as I am saving now
Overall hoping to him 1M net worth by 30
2024.05.01 03:54 No-Peace3986 Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World - Interested in a Rewatch?
Re:Zero - Starting Life in Another World
With Re:Zero's Season 3 incoming (Oct/24), this might be the perfect time for us to plan a massive group rewatch for this masterpiece of a serie! Of course, this is also the perfect opportunity for you, that have been postponing this serie for too long, to finally start it!! This is your chance!
- Hey, OP, what is Re:Zero about?
For more information, please check the following links: MAL AniList Crunchyroll
- How big is Re:Zero?
- Is the story over?
- What makes Re:Zero special?
- Voice Acting, Re:Zero VA cast is amazing. Yuusuke Kobayashi has won awards for his role as Natsuki Subaru. We also have Takehito Koyasu as
DIORoswaal, Rie Takahashi as Emilia, Inori Minase as Rem and Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Betelgeuse, in a performance that made our jaws drop in astonishment. - Soundtrack, Re:Zero's OST is so memorable that many people that have never watched the show will be able to recognize THIS, and after you watch this serie for the first time, I can assure, you will never forget it. Jokes aside, the series is filled with EPIC tracks. It is, in my opinion, one of the most consistently good OSTs in all of anime.
- Unpredictability, good luck trying to guess what is gonna happen next.
- Rewatch Value, due to the nature of the show and how it is constructed, each time you rewatch you will be able to notice many details here and there that will completely recontextualize certain scenes, foreshadow future events or just leave you with a smile on your face for being able to notice it. On my 10th rewatch I'm still noticing new details.
- Lore / World / Mystery, the world of ReZero and its story is very dense and mysterious. Slowly, in each episode you will learn more about it. There is still a lot to come, the Author always leave us wanting for more.
- Version to Watch (Normal or Directors Cut):
- The normal one, with 25 episodes
- The Directors Cut, with 13 episodes.
That being said, Crunchyroll has removed the 25-Episode normal Season from their catalog, and only the Directors Cut version remains. Therefore, to watch it legally, it has to be the DC Version.
- Watch Order:
I've also considered the Directors Cut version, because, at the moment of this post, its the only one available at Crunchyroll.
That being said, here is my proposal:
Season 1:
| Episode Number | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 2 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 3 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 4 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 5 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 6 | DC E1 | TBD |
| OVA | Memory Snow | TBD |
| 7 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 8 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 9 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 10 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 11 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 12 | DC E1 | TBD |
| 13 | DC E1 | TBD |
| OVA | The Frozen Bond | TBD |
| Episode Number | Title | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | S2E1 | TBD |
| 2 | S2E2 | TBD |
| 3 | S2E3 | TBD |
| 4 | S2E4 | TBD |
| 5 | S2E5 | TBD |
| 6 | S2E6 | TBD |
| 7 | S2E7 | TBD |
| 8 | S2E8 | TBD |
| 9 | S2E9 | TBD |
| 10 | S2E10 | TBD |
| 11 | S2E11 | TBD |
| 12 | S2E12 | TBD |
| 13 | S2E13 | TBD |
| 14 | S2E14 | TBD |
| 15 | S2E15 | TBD |
| 16 | S2E16 | TBD |
| 17 | S2E17 | TBD |
| 18 | S2E18 | TBD |
| 19 | S2E19 | TBD |
| 20 | S2E20 | TBD |
| 21 | S2E21 | TBD |
| 22 | S2E22 | TBD |
| 23 | S2E23 | TBD |
| 24 | S2E24 | TBD |
| 25 | S2E25 | TBD |
- Dates
If we start with the 1st episode on June 15th, we will have the last thread on September 1st, only a month before Season 3 airs. Sounds like a good timeframe.
------------------------------------------------
Please, voice your opinions, let us know that there is interest in this rewatch, so we can make it happen!
Also, leave suggestions and lets keep this discussion SPOILER FREE.
Have a good evening!!
2024.05.01 03:31 deepsunday98 2 weeks ago my cat didn't want to eat her dry food and now she only wants to eat dry food. Has anyone dealt with something similar?
I have an 8 month old torbie. She's picky with everything treats/dry/wet food. I was free feeding her and she never wanted to eat the dry food I had out unless I didn't give her wet food at her usual time, then she'd resort to the dry food within the next hour.
I got her one of those timed feeder things specifically to try to get her to eat the dry food. I thought the sound of it dispensing into the metal bowl would be stimulating for her, which it is, but now she's obsessed. She used to sit and complain if I wouldn't give her wet food, and now she's doing the same thing with the dry food. She'll eat a few bites of the wet food and walk away.
I know the answer is maybe a vet visit, but we just went a month or so ago, and have another appointment coming up in two weeks. I'm thinking it might just be her being picky? Also I think she is teething right now? She's been very chewy with all of her toys and her cat tree and I thought maybe she wants the dry food because of her teeth coming in?
Thought I'd ask if anyone had dealt with something similar. I'll definitely check with the vet when we go, but any advice is appreciated in the meantime!
submitted by deepsunday98 to cats [link] [comments]
I got her one of those timed feeder things specifically to try to get her to eat the dry food. I thought the sound of it dispensing into the metal bowl would be stimulating for her, which it is, but now she's obsessed. She used to sit and complain if I wouldn't give her wet food, and now she's doing the same thing with the dry food. She'll eat a few bites of the wet food and walk away.
I know the answer is maybe a vet visit, but we just went a month or so ago, and have another appointment coming up in two weeks. I'm thinking it might just be her being picky? Also I think she is teething right now? She's been very chewy with all of her toys and her cat tree and I thought maybe she wants the dry food because of her teeth coming in?
Thought I'd ask if anyone had dealt with something similar. I'll definitely check with the vet when we go, but any advice is appreciated in the meantime!
2024.05.01 03:30 kayfitzart 3d clay modeling tips
hi all!!
i am looking for some tips / exercises to get better at 3d modeling air dry clay! i am normally a 2d artist with both traditional and digital, so this is a new area for me. i do have some fundamentals in building(idk if that’s the right word lol) though since i have done paper mache before.
i have been doing a wet type of method. 50 / 50 water and rubbing alcohol. that’s what i looked up and found to do. feel free to suggest anything better if that sounds wrong! i also have used aluminum foil as like an inner base. i smooth (or try to smooth) with silicone brushes and the metal ball shaper things as well.
this is my first and recent piece.
https://imgur.com/a/L28VXrt
a bit bumpy and clunky looking…. phallic shaped…. lmao!! just unfortunate but not TOO incredibly bad i don’t think…. body is a little bigger than the size of my palm.
submitted by kayfitzart to ArtistLounge [link] [comments]
i am looking for some tips / exercises to get better at 3d modeling air dry clay! i am normally a 2d artist with both traditional and digital, so this is a new area for me. i do have some fundamentals in building(idk if that’s the right word lol) though since i have done paper mache before.
i have been doing a wet type of method. 50 / 50 water and rubbing alcohol. that’s what i looked up and found to do. feel free to suggest anything better if that sounds wrong! i also have used aluminum foil as like an inner base. i smooth (or try to smooth) with silicone brushes and the metal ball shaper things as well.
this is my first and recent piece.
https://imgur.com/a/L28VXrt
a bit bumpy and clunky looking…. phallic shaped…. lmao!! just unfortunate but not TOO incredibly bad i don’t think…. body is a little bigger than the size of my palm.