Birthday of deceased loved one quotes

I (28F) have been engaged for around 2 years and have been in the relationship for 4. We have a generally healthy, happy relationship. I have 2 elderly great aunts who are the only two surviving siblings of my grandma (I was extremely close with her until she passed away). The eldest sibling is 100 and is currently in a care home, she has no kids or husband.
My fiancé has never met her and the last time I travelled to see her she asked when she would be able to meet him and made a point of writing down that she needed to get us a wedding gift so she wouldn’t forget (before moving into the home she was extremely confused and sometimes aggressive due to her health, since moving into the home she has calmed down a lot and seems to recognise us more, which we think is due to her having the correct support as she lived on her own previously). I told her there was no need to buy us anything and whenever she would like we will be there and her face lit up. She seems to live for visitors currently.
Once I got back home I told my fiancé about the visit and how my great aunt would really like to meet him (she won’t be able to make the wedding due to her health and the distance she would have to travel). Suddenly his face dropped as said “well as long as we’re not doing anything I guess I could but we’ll have to see” with very little enthusiasm. Bare in mind here, we had not set a date or anything, I literally told him she asked to meet him and that I was personally really excited about it.
I explained there was no set date but was disheartened that it seemed like a chore for him and since he never got to meet my grandma, meeting her eldest sibling (he has already met the younger sibling) would mean a lot to me.
He then started to get defensive and told me how selfish I am and that I should consider his feelings more. His grandad has recently suffered with some health complications and has been back and forth to the hospital. May I point out that my fiancé has known this all the way along and has only seen him once in the past 6 weeks or so. Fiancé reminded me of his grandads illness and told me that he would never prioritise my family over his own.
I told him I didn’t mean to across as selfish and I would never ask him to do that but since he has only been to see his grandad once in the past weeks, I didn’t think meeting my relative for the first time would come under prioritising my family over his. He then went on to tell me that watching upcoming sports games was more important to him and “it couldn’t be a date where an important game was on” - I was getting so confused.
He told me I was twisting things and over reacting. I suggested him to choose a date since these games were so important for him to watch. He told me I was unreasonable for even thinking he could pick a date since it’s my family and now I’ve made him look like an asshole. I told him that I didn’t know what else to do since he seemed to be coming up with different excuses and that he cannot use his grandads illness as one of those excuses when he lives 15 minutes away and he’s visited him once in the past 6 weeks. He then called me an asshole for saying that.
I asked him if anything bigger was troubling him or is there anything else I’ve done to be deemed an asshole and he said no, but I shouldn’t have over reacted and made it a “thing” about visiting my great aunt with him. For the record he has no bad memories or past traumas with care homes and has never been adverse to the idea of meeting my great aunt previously so I have no idea what’s changed. He also loves going to see the younger sibling, she’s kind of been adopted as my surrogate grandma and she loves seeing us and lives the same distance away as her sister, so, AITAH?
P.S I would also like to point out that our relationship is generally healthy and we rarely have full blown arguments so this isn’t a regular occurrence, I’m so confused about the whole thing though.

Hi all,
I adore my kitty that I just adopted 2 months ago, he’s a neutered 11 month old, rescued as a kitten. He’s so loving and gentle with kids, even when they over-pet him. He hasn’t had the best introduction as we have had many guests over during his stay and they would shoo him away and stomp their feet (I wasn’t aware they did that, so then I kept him in my room when they were around).
Now the house is a lot calmer and it’s just me and my mom and two young brothers. He’s OK and keeps to himself, walks around the house feeling ok, still gets startled if someone hangs a towel next to where he sits.
Recently, my mom (63 year old) wakes up at night to get herself a snack or water from the fridge, and he would growl at her and wouldn’t budge, he would hiss and arch his back. She said she shoo’d him with her newspaper and he’d run to my room. This happened twice and my mom would just walk to the kitchen and not mind him or even do anything, but he would block her and act aggressive.
I understand this might be due to the guests we had over, but we usually hang out around my mom and he’s ok with her. Obviously I love my kitty, but my mom has had a heart attack last year and she and her health really matter to me the most. I’m worried one night he’ll jump at her or scratch/bite her.
Can this be corrected or should I just lock him with me in my room during night? I tried to bring one of her clothes with us in my room so he could identify her smell but I’m not sure if it works.
Thank you all.

I 21F am dating my coworker and best friend M25 and i don’t know how to break it off.
So back in fall of last year i broke up with my long term 4 yr boyfriend (M21)and since then i feel like my life’s been falling apart. he was really the only boyfriend i’ve had longer than a month or so, so we kinda went through all of highschool and our young adult life together. he was my person, i had no doubt i was going to spend my life with him and never really imagined what i would do if we broke up. i just knew we had resentment in the relationship from past stuff he did and i wanted a break to heal from it so i didn’t just take it out on him. in that time at the beginning i had people in my life i thought we’re helping me do that the right way, but if anything all of them just led me away from him and i made rlly poor decisions. i know i’m a bit blind to what he’s done and i have good people in my life now that show me that but i feel like everyone makes mistakes and i did too. i feel bad cause i said some hurtful things when i found out some stuff and everyday i wish i could tell him i’m sorry for it. i know i shouldnt feel the longing i feel for him while i’m in a relationship but my current boyfriend was one of the people i had in the beginning. the people i thought knew best cause they had life experience. although he was always by my side and held me through my hurt, i told him i wanted nothing like that with him and i was still healing. eventually i had to move out of my ex’s and i’s house and one of those friends at the time wanted to move out aswell. we roomed after my lease ended and pretty immediately this guy i’ve never met in the ten years i’ve known her starts living there. not just visiting all the time or sleeping there, living. mind you this home was 90% furnished with my stuff cause she wasn’t moved out on her own for the past few years like i had. he home while she’s not, constantly showering, cooking with my food and dishes, and i’m an open book i love sharing my home and life plus he was nice to her so i didn’t really care. but after the bills shot up a combined 200+ since the month before he wasn’t living there i asked if he couldn’t maybe clean and pay maybe 2-300 w month. she wasn’t happy with that and it caused some other fights, her threading me, putting photos of my neck slashed on the walls. i eventually had to get her mom involved cause she would block and unblock me to send nasty texts and we agreed she needed to live back home since she couldn’t qualify on her own anyways. i had to get another roommate and take over and atp my now boyfriend insisted. now i’m in a lease living with him.
i know it sounds horrible but i don’t know what to do. he’s great to live with and him helping me around the house has been such a huge stress reliever. but it doesn’t make my feelings just go away. everytime i would mention how i don’t feel comfortable being in a relationship he would say “it’s ok i understand” then invited me to his grandparents. i would say i need more time but then he would ask why he wasn’t enough. after a while everyone kept shitting on him for moving in with me while not being in a relationship. it wasn’t him ever “not being enough” it was me just not over my ex. and i keep trying to tell him that. little by little i tell him im unhappy, im miserable, i don’t want to live in this house. but every time he says we will get though it together and i just need more time. but i’ve been feeling like this for months. i have no one to really talk to about it and i’ve just been trying to wait it out, for it to get better, but it’s not.
so i I know what i need to do and what i want to do i just don’t know how. there’s so many thoughts and possibilities going on in my head. if i break up with him we work together so i see him everyday, we live together so i’ll either have to have him live in the other room or move out, but i don’t have the money to live by myself so i can’t even afford for him to move out. oh and he also doesn’t drive so i don’t know how he would afford all the ubers home, and i would most likely just take him to and from like i’ve been doing out of empathy. and what if he moves out and we are still working together? how would he ever get another job if he doesn’t have a car? i also just feel really bad. i think about how to let him down easy so he can be ok with it but there’s just no way. i know why people in movies act like jerks before so the other person isn’t so hurt but i know from experience that doesn’t work. he’s a great guy and rlly sweet i just didn’t want this.
i feel trapped. i don’t know what to do

My son, 11, has been playing golf since he’s 5/6. He’s good for his age but not a phenom or anything. It’s just the only sport he has ever really loved and wants to get better at. We signed him up for some tourneys where a parent could caddy for him. Well this weekend he ended up in a group with two other boys and one of the other Dads was giving weird energy out the gate, yelling about Democrats ruining everything (with people he has never met before and for no apparent reason/trigger.) His kid hits a bad shot and he decides to go apeshit on the other Dad for “making too much noise.” That dad apologizes but asks him to stop cursing in front of the kids which leads to more arguing. My son is panicking as they are shouting and he thinks the crazy dad is going to hit someone, so he leaves. Burst into tears when he got home.
All this to say—my son has literally never experienced behavior like that on a golf course before. To me it’s one of the defining characteristics and values of golf that you maintain good sportsmanship and honesty and respect when you play. And in a weird way this aberration made me appreciate so much more the ethos and culture of golf.

I was so excited when this game came out. I was having a blast playing it everyday, all day. Loved the story. Still do. Then got burnt out, stopped playing in December of 2022... they kept pushing out content without even fixing the bugs and glitches they had already. This game had real potential. So this year. I started a new game... i still love it... but the devs went with the wrong choice. dont want in game purchases. Just have a DLC we have to pay for and be done. So everyone gets a fair chance. The stuff with the starpath, the shop, and even this dreamsnap crap.. like no one asked for it... and dont even get me on the moonstone crap.. you barely have any to buy anything.. and most of us dont have $100 to spend on the moonstone itself. They might have thought it was a good idea but thats what makes your content suck.. you arent fortnite. Stop trying to be. Or at least make the content at least achievable without having to pay real money. The dreamsnap stuff.. like no one could have thought of a different idea? New biome? New characters? Anything but taking stupid pictures. I swear this game has so much potential if they make it playable even... half the time, the game crashes, stuff goes missing, quests bug out. Like seriously, fix the problems you have then, work on new content for the game. I swear these devs dont know what they are doing development wise. I hope they return to the old game stuff where everyone could at least get the content. I guess it helps that most of the items they put in the shops or starpath look so stupid and not even a bit interesting. SOMEONE really sat there and was like " yes, a picture taking contest brilliant" 🤦‍♀️ and from what i read and a lot of others have confirmed.. the "Lost in time" DLC or whatever its called, is crap. Or its really bugged. Which is upsetting. Maybe dont development a game, you guys are to un equipped to handle. It has so much potential if they just stop messing around with stuff and actually make an awesome game. Not, " lets give them 20 moonstone but, the item they really want, lets make that worth 5,000 moonstone" like? 🙃🫠 still love the gathering, taking care of the village, helping characters and getting new characters part. This game is so batshit crazy. It could really be a good game. But they are to busy not listen to their audience🙄 so stupid.

This is a long one. And a bit of a doozy, so stick with me lol.
I don’t really know what is and what isn’t relevant to this situation, so I’ll give as much back story and such as I can. But feel free to ask further questions or for clarification also.
So I (28F) started nannying for a single dad (31M) in November of 2023. And when I say single dad, I mean only parent single dad. The girls’ mom left 3 years ago and signed away her rights. They haven’t seen her or talked to her since. For reference, the girls are (almost) 5 and (newly) 6.
Everything started like a normal job. We didn’t text or talk unless it was to confirm me coming to his house at a certain date and time to watch the girls. Then in December, he started texting me outside of things related to nannying. He just wanted a friend. He moved states to get away from his ex and start his life with the girls over. Then those friendly texts started getting flirty and suggestive. To the point that eventually in January, we crossed those lines one night (the girls were asleep in their room and had no idea. Still don’t as far as I know)
We’ve been doing this back and forth off and on friends with benefits thing since January. We keep that stuff completely separate from nannying. Or as separate as we can.
Well anyway, the girls have really imprinted on me and have started calling me mom. We correct them. But it’s hard.
When I started nannying, it was just for the weekends. But in February I also started getting them ready in the mornings and taking them to school 3 of the 5 days a week. (He works Friday through Tuesday 6AM-2PM). I am also in charge of holidays that fall on days he works. We also do birthdays and stuff together. Sometimes the girls and I do overnights if he has to work early the next day. I also help out any other time he needs me. He has also stated he would like us to be on the same page with everything, especially discipline. Which sounds a lot like coparenting to me.
I like him. Like I really like him. And we’ve had this conversation. Recently. He doesn’t feel the same way. I’m continuing to nanny. The girls are the most important and come first always. I wouldn’t quit just because things between me and him are messy, confusing, and maybe a little awkward right now. I don’t believe in punishing children the decisions of adults. They wouldn’t understand this.
Then my pay is all sorts of fucked up. But that’s another thing entirely.
Anyway, I don’t really know what advice I’m asking for. But some guidance would be nice.
Feel free to ask questions and I’ll answer them as best as I can.

It was Motzei Shabbos, and Shloimy and his chaverim decided to check out this new club that opened up in the city. The chevra was curious, having heard reid about the mamesh vild scene there.
As they walked in, Shloimy couldn't believe the sights and sounds around him. The music was leibedik, the lights were flashing, and there were maidelech everywhere, with their shabbes clothes half off and dancing.
One of his friends nudged him. "Shloimy, look at that group over there. Let's go over and shmooze with them."
Shloimy, feeling a bit shemevdik, followed the chevra over to the group of maidlech. They introduced themselves, and soon enough, Shloimy found himself shmoozing with a maidel named Rivky. She had a vareme smile and seemed to have a geshmak for talking to him.
"So, Shloimy, what do you do when you arent in the beis midresh?" Rivky asked over the loud music.
Shloimy hesitated in his charatah, trying to think of something groys to say. "Oh, you know, just hanging out with the chevra, shtaging Toireh… Whatever the Aybishter wants. What about you?"
Rivky laughed. "I taka just like getting railed." Her eyes were dead.
As the dvorim beteilim flowed, Shloimy couldn't help thinking about what a Zona she was. He tried to keep his kavona on the sichas chullin, but his friends kept shtupping him to make a hishtadlus hoping he could be matsliach.
"Come on, Shloimy, ask her to dance!" one of them whispered.
Shloimy glanced nervously at Rivky. "ad kdei kach. Um, I don't do mixed dancing. ."
The Chevra shtooped him with their ainfal which was kitzer to do it davka, lshem haOilam. Shloimy said he’d do it lshem shomayim, to learn hilchos pilegesh. And he was maskim to walk by Rivky to be Mcayem the Mitzve against the averiah of bittul toireh. The Chevra wished him Hatzluche that Rosh won’t globb any loshon hora about it when the Chevra did Chozara on what happened tonight tomorrow
So Shloimy walked up to Rivky and asked to go to the yichud room. Rivky asked Shloimy a shaileh if it was kosher even if she didnt go to the mikveh. Lmeisa Shloimy had some hirhurei tshuva but came to the maskana that pru urvu was a more choshuva mitzvah. Since Rivky was mechadesh that there wasnt eppes a yichud room in the club, Shloimy and Rivky went to the beis hakise instead.
“Youre mamish a gor nisht Rivky, do you even care about your chelek in oylam haba?”
“I love it when you’re moichiach me, beledikht me more tattty”
“Tatty is maskim with the tnai that this isnt giluy arayes” said Shloimy
“Have some Rachmones. Pull my panties down already.”
“I’m Shomer”
Shloime walks away, and his Chelek in Olam haba was spared.
The Chevra all took turns with Rivke after Shlomie left. Shloime massered them to the Rosh and they were all kicked out. Im yirtseh hashem they did teshuva and stopped wearing jeans. Rivky is now a kolel wife very veit out of town. Her husband sometimes wears a blue shirt to the bais midresh and only wears his hat on Shabbes. She still goes to the club sometimes wearing a laced top sheitel. Her einiklach will mistoma go to chofetz chaim.

Hello Redditors, my first home is approaching soon! I fell in love with three homes, and I was hoping you guys’ and gals’ could help me make the right choice. I have two German shepherds and some other animals. I have a truck and a bike. Very into the rustic type feeling. These three are the top of my budget, and I can see myself living in all of them. I canceled my build with Toll brothers to go with one of these three. These are all new builds…
House one: I canceled my deposit from Toll Brothers, and put my deposit on this one.
Pros: - Cozy Vibe - Barn door to hide the mudroom - Nice rustic chandeliers - No back yard neighbors (as my back yard backs up to a huge open field (school property). - Nice master bathroom - Love the hardwood floor! - Medium sized covered patio - Finished garage - Most affordable by $200 a month cheaper than other two.
Cons: - Smallest @ 1817 sq feet - Smallest garage - Walkthrough noticed some items that needed to be addressed - Feel of smaller space compared to to other two
House Two:
Pros: - Largest 2060 SQ ft - Most open lay out, big ceilings - Chandelier in the living room - Bigger Garage - Prefer stained cabinetry - Larger master bathroom - Right next to the common are walk way and pool - Large covered patio - Bigger windows more light - Finished garage
Cons: - Fence is iron gated for common area, so could be problem for dogs? - Next to the pool - One of the subdivision streets literally goes into driveway - Most expensive by +200 over the home 1
House Three:
Pros: - Biggest back yard - In between 1989 sq feet - Guest room upstairs (Bonus room) could work really well for office, gaming/animal room - Still have all the main bedrooms on the main floor - Prefer the exterior look the best - Like the appliances and built in Microwave - Prefer walk way into home - Corner lot really nice landscaping on the corner - Energy efficient certified house
Cons: - Unfinished garage - backyard will go against another back yard - Not as “rustic” as the other ones - not as big as a patio covering - Don’t like the hardwood choice, or the mudroom counter top - Smallest master bathroom
Any advise from fellow home owners what to do would be appreciate it’s a big step!

New listener of a few months, and also Invent Animate are also my favorites. These two, Currents and Silent Planet. Thornhill is alright but Northlane and Invent Animate are two of my absolute favorite metalcore bands.
Also I have a ticket to see Currents in my small city too. Northlane, Invent Animate, Thornhill July 14, Mastodon on my birthday on July 25 and Currents on August 1.
Got to see Erra and Make Them Suffer last month, was a great show!
Fukn love metal and you all too! 👽💨

I love listening to Burnie's opinions on sci-fi, and I love this book and feel like it would be something he'd be into. Just wondering if he's ever spoken about it.
For those who haven't heard of it, it's about a nuclear apocalypse that shatters America into a medieval wasteland with a reaction against science and knowledge and a return of feudalism, tribalism etc etc. The only people with any real knowledge of the before times and technology are Catholic monks, and the story traces their journey to help rebuild society. Very great book on faith and science and the relationship between the two and their relationship to society. I have nothing to back this up, but it feels like it was a big influence on the Fallout games, especially the isometric ones. Definitely recommend it.

The title says it all, vote with your conscience fellow VXers and share in the comments what you love about your chosen system!
Plot twist - all VX systems are great regardless of version! Enjoy whichever one you like! 😊
View Poll

I’m very tired mentally (I’ve anxiety and panic attacks issue when they ignore me, I lost my appetite) because literally every guy find me clingy because of my jealousy obsessive affection toward them. At start they’re the one trying to get my attention and show me a lot of care respect and make me feel like they really want to have future with me, they literally agree for have kids to have a warm family with me but when i started to trust him and feel like I should give him my heart so I texts them more like so much texts and they started to lose feeling because of they get love by me so much and they turn into a very different person their conversation start to dry and they get bored of me to not care anymore like if I text or not. I don’t understand men nowadays that but I think it’s better to have someone with mutual obsession? is it the right thing?

• I would like to be inside my own head without having to do this (responsibilities).
  
• I just feel that there are things I don't achieve because I'm flawed.
  
• I like to write down things about myself and it's not something I ever do, but I'm enjoying doing this rn.
  
• I always need some time to process things before doing them because I always want a mental break between tasks, and to have time to mentally prepare myself.
  
• In the end, I realize that sometimes I avoid pain like everyone else, and sometimes when I don't avoid pain it's because I know there's a possibility that this feeling won't sink me further, although paradoxically, sometimes I provoke it to confront it, and I'm not afraid, but I don't want to keep feeling this(? But, at the same time I'd rather feel pain than nothing at all (three days grace reference(?). Like, yesterday I knew that remembering him and playing our songs would make me cry but I did it.
  
• In the end, what your instinct tells you is what never fails.
  
• To what extent is what you feel real?
  
• I get sudden gut feelings that are always right.
  
• Why have I been treated so badly?
  
• How can everything be so complex?
  
• "If you were such a good mother, then why the hell am I feeling like this?"
  
• I focus on the personality of the person I love and adapt it to mine to avoid the emptiness I feel with myself. When I didn't do this, I sometimes felt disoriented, but this only activates when the person I love abandons me. But ngl, sometimes I don't feel good doing this, sometimes I do. Depends on my mood, but it makes me feel bad, in some way.
  
• If you want to feel the intensity of your emotions, just do it. (But then sometimes I think it's better to keep things to yourself)
  
• Sometimes I don't overthink, it makes me feel lazy when thinking about it (but other times I do, and a lot).
  
• Why does everything make me feel so lazy?
  
• "You do everything wrong." From: me To: me
  
• I like days of doing nothing.
  
• I'm interested in the unknown and once I know it, I'm less interested, that's why I change interests so much and don't specialize in anything, but at the same time, I'm interested in many things.
  
• What if I'm never right?
  
• I feel envy for those who can be free. (But not an insane envy, I just want to be like them, being free).
  
• I used to be happier before.
  
• A part of me tests people, pushing the limits of their patience to see how far they'll go with me, only to end up seeing that they got tired of me again and that I was obviously right, but I self-sabotaged to confirm it under the question: how long will it last?
  
• No one will accept me the way I am.
  
• I don't want to do anything.
  
• The way my opinions can change so much is crazy.
  
• It's better to keep some people emotionally as far away as possible.
  
• I feel like I don't belong.
  
• I feel misunderstood.
  
• I want to get away from all of this.
  
• Nowadays, talking about what's happening to me makes me feel bad because it makes me feel uncomfortable, dramatic, and ridiculous, as I tend to overthink whatever is happening to me.
  
• I find it hard to connect with others, often not having a response to say, or leaving my mind blank. That makes me feel mediocre, insufficient.
  
• I don't feel comfortable/safe with others, so I keep to myself. I think they will humiliate me or they will belittle how I feel.
  
• I don't know what kind of delusion you've created about yourself.
  
• Do I feel this way or am I just self deceiving me to protect myself?
  
• Sometimes just want to see if I get attention when posting something on instagram (not about attention seeking because I post normal things, for example: a selfie(? I hope this not be misunderstood.)
  
• I let myself be carried away by my desires at the given moment.
  
• My defense mechanism might be pretending I don't care from the outside until I can't stand it anymore and then I won't pretend because it will make me feel worse (on the inside I constantly think about how much I care).
  
• I don't maintain intimate relationships with others, aside from the fact that it's never mutual, because I feel I'll be judged, so I withdraw and avoid it.
  
• I love this calm of no one coming in this room.
  
• Dramatic.
  
• Although it hurts to feel it, I cling to this feeling and want to feel it because it frees me from feeling empty (not being able to get over my ex but prefers experimenting that pain rather than feeling emptiness).
  
• I don't want to express myself anymore. (But probably at some point I will).
  
• I like being in my own head.
  
• I want to escape.
  
• The part I enjoyed most about making polls on instagram was because he liked them too (so that means he answered them and I knew more about him).
  
• You know when you feel you can't rely on others, so you decide to keep everything to yourself?
  
• I feel like I'm letting others walk all over me again, like when I was a kid and never defended myself.
  

P.S. I know many of my thoughts are intense, immature and can be judged, but I share them because I think it can be useful for self-discovery and growth from there. I know I need to heal.
You can also add tritype/wing and/or instinctual variant if you have it clear

Minor OMNIA campaign spoilers - Elim, Li, Tsubaki and Zen STAY OUT!
Next session, my players will mostly be travelling to another village. Last session was extremely combat heavy and I'd prefer next session to be much more relaxed and RP focused. That's why they're going to spend one night at a roadside inn, meet some people, play some games...
My initial ideas were arm wrestling, knive throwing, pie eating, card games or other forms of gambling... I'm happy about any suggestions! And if anyone has any card game or gambling rules, that'd be greatly appreciated as well.
I'd love to have at least one game for each party member's strengths:

• Fighter - arm wrestling
• Divination wizard - gambling
• Ranger - knive throwing (?)
• Druid - pie eating (Yes, her strength is eating. She loves meat.)

i don't listen to enough rookies. but i feel like there's so many of them and i have so little time to discover them, title tracks and bsides altogether. so i'd like your recommendations. i literally love everything. it just needs to be catchy. thank y'all so much!
My ults: ateez, ive, twice, bts. (if that helps)
Rookie groups i follow and LOVE already: xikers, kiss of life and ampers&one.
Edit: i know opinions are suvjective but i dont care. I literally know like 5 rookie names so i need names and recs so that i cab make a playlist and just let it play when I walk in the morning and when i have time off.

After waiting over half a year for my Framework 16 to finally get here, and after using it for the past 2 weeks as my daily driver I can't help but say that I'm a bit underwhelmed by the whole experience and the Framework laptop itself. The overall stability/driver maturity of the device, as well as the build quality have me feeling more like a glorified beta tester than the owner of a cutting-edge and well-designed premium product.
Look, don't get me wrong as I love what the Framework team is trying to do here, as the modularity of the device is a breath of fresh air in a world in which right-to-repair and upgrade capability is dying a slow and painful death.
But for a device I spent over $2200 of cash on after taxes, it simply does not feel like a $2200 product or premium piece of electronics hardware for that matter. The build quality simply feels cheap. Somewhere between the mushy keyboard, the trackpad layout and uneven spacers it employs (Why couldn’t they just sell a non-modular one-piece trackpad as an alternative?), the underwhelming screen (this has to be one of the least vibrant IPS panels I’ve used in a long time) and the tinny/near-silent speakers I feel like I’m using a cheaper $1200 Thinkpad from 2016 and not the future of modular laptops.
I could forgive most of things and accept these caveats as the cost of adding modularity and upgradability/repairability for a gen1 product, if the software-side of things were a pain-free experience. But unfortunately, they are not and this laptop has been nothing but a buggy mess of a device. Despite having updated to the lastest drivers, BIOS, and others and trying out 2 distinct installs of Windows 11, the so-called ‘hot-swappable’ nature of the modular ports work correctly about 50% of the time. I have seen this computer hard lockup, blue screen, or simply become completely unresponsive from say simply swapping one port on the side from a USB-C to a USB-A or Ethernet more often than not. Sometimes it works fine, sometimes it crashes, and other times it doesn’t crash but the specific port stops working altogether which warrants a reboot.
On top of that, on a pretty much daily basis I have been seeing some sort of catastrophic USB event in which all or most USB devices connected to the laptop either crash or disappear, which only a full reboot of windows will resolve. This has lead to multiple issues while on conference calls in Teams/Zooms, in which my audio stops working and I have no idea that it’s actually not that the meeting has gone quiet but that the laptop has stopped working, as my USB headset/mic will still show as connected/working, they just will not actually be and either a meeting restart or reboot of the laptop is needed to clear it up.
Could these issues be quite easily resolved through a driver update, bug fix or similar? Absolutely! Do I have the time and patience to go off on a deep-dive troubleshooting escapade for a device that I just started using with a fresh install that should simply work out of the box? Absolutely not, especially when considering that the same hardware in terms of audio, USB devices, etc all has worked and continue to work flawlessly on my older Thinkpad laptop.
At this point, I’m thinking that between the value and the build quality it just doesn’t make sense to keep the Framework 16 at least at the current price point, for the subpar hardware and software this first generation is providing. The fact of the matter is, that you can get identical hardware to the F16 at around the $1100 range, which wasn’t quite the case when I pre-ordered it almost a year ago. I’m okay with paying a small premium for modularity, but I don’t think it’s worth doubling the price of the device or paying another $1100 for the privilege of being able to do so, as for that amount of money I could just buy 2 laptops and have a ‘hot spare’ to handle every single possible hardware failure I might experience in the next 5 years. If the Framework 16 was priced at around the $1300-1400 mark, I think it would make a lot more sense to most people. As it stands right now though, it’s at a hefty premium to be a gen1 early adopter because that’s simply how economies of scale work.
Has anyone else had a similar experience and is debating if it's just worth returning the laptop and going to something different in the same price range? I mean, if I’m going to spend $2200 on a laptop I might as well have a dedicated OLED screen, discrete GPU, and aluminum frame for that kind of cost, modularity be damned.
I have high hopes that a few years down the road, when the Framework 16 gen2 or gen3 is out, that most of these build quality and value issues can be resolved. But I can’t afford to be an early adoptebeta tester for a laptop which will be my daily driver for work as I need something that’s reliable and dependable. If this was a true Gen1 early adopter device, like the first gen Framework 13 I could forgive them, but this is their 3rd time around the block releasing hardware-- build-quality/reliability issues should be sorted out by now I'd hope.

Hi friends! Just want to start off with letting you know that I have been in close contact with my cat's vet throughout this entire process, and we do have another appointment scheduled. Just looking for some info and insights in the meantime:
My 16-year-old cat Rocky (also the love of my life) was diagnosed with moderate chronic kidney disease (CKD) in November 2019, which retreated to mild 6 months later. He has fluctuated between mild and moderate over the years but has retreated in the disease 3-4 times because he is a tenacious little nugget. Last year, he suddenly lost 4 pounds in six months, but tests revealed that his kidneys were stable and there was no sign of cancer. It turns out he has IBD. We changed his food accordingly and he put some weight back on. No matter what health issues come his way, he continues to defy the odds, showcasing his incredible strength and resilience. One wouldn’t know he has any health issues at all; he has always maintained a high level of energy, appetite, and affection, and has stayed as healthy as one could be with these ailments.
Rocky has always been a dry food guy and SO food-motivated, maintaining a weight of 17-18 pounds most of his life. A couple of weeks ago, I noticed he stopped eating his dry food, but devoured wet food when given to him. My hypothesis was that he maybe had a tooth that was bugging him. A vet visit indeed revealed a possibly diseased tooth, but we also discovered a 2-pound weight loss in 3 months. Blood tests showed his kidney numbers were through the roof, despite being stable at his last check up in February. However, his blood pressure was PERFECT, which doesn’t quite gibe with those kidney values.
His vet has been taking care of him for almost half his life, and she is almost as emotionally invested in Rocky as much as I am! She felt that, even though CKD can move fast, it didn’t feel quite right to her. She theorized it could be kidney stones or an infection. They obtained a urine culture to determine if bacteria was present, which would indicate an infection. They ruled out kidney stones with an x-ray, started him on antibiotics, and gave him an IV drip (this is last Wednesday, 5/15). Throughout the day, his appetite improved, and his creatinine levels dipped. His blood pressure remained perfect. I continued his treatment at home with antibiotics, anti-nausea meds, and subcutaneous fluids while we waited for the urine culture results. His appetite and energy increased quickly, and he even gained 0.3 pounds. He’s not only back to his old self, but it almost seems like he’s better, with even more energy and more appetite than I’ve seen in some time. So of course this has to be an infection, the antibiotics are doing their job, right?
Here is the kicker: we got the urine culture results back today, and they showed no bacteria, ruling out an infection. So we’re a bit baffled. The vet says his kidneys might be failing, but the sub-Q treatment is perking him up. But wouldn't his blood pressure be high if his kidneys were failing? And how would his creatinine levels and weight improve so quickly? We have a follow-up appointment next Tuesday to do another blood panel, and of course I’ll bring him in sooner if he appears to decline before then. His vet says that his behavior is our main gauge in the meantime. I'm wondering if it could be his thyroid, which was checked and found normal a few years ago. I rang his vet back earlier today with that question, and I’m just waiting to hear back from her.
Has anyone experienced something similar or have any insights into what might be going on? The test results don't seem to align with his symptoms. Thank you!
https://preview.redd.it/qg8acx5fus1d1.png?width=2622&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4ba8e8597f9508227c3d460cd7c42490a65092a

I love comic books with all my heart and soul, it's a medium that has affected me deeply over the last year. Now that I'm neck deep in stacks of classics, I have to say, Events and almost everything about them is my least favourite thing the medium often does.
Thankfully, Indie comics rarely have them. But the big two and some other exceptions often craft stories that don't feel like they are saying anything at all other than just doing cool looking stuff.
For the most part, if an Event is contained, I don't find it that bad. It often means I can ignore it and move on without much hassle. If it had event tie ins though? Oh baby.
The one big stumbling block of Chip Zdarsky's Daredevil run is that his carefully crafted story was interrupted by a king in black event that threw off the structure so badly, no one has stopped talking about it since it happened. Similarly, I'm sick of reading tie in issues where the writer is just making the best out of a bad bunch because they're just been told to make it happen. It often breeds boring, uninspired stories that would serve better as fire lighters then actual stories.
There are some exceptions though. Legion of X issue #6 is my favourite tie in of all time mainly because it took the opportunity to flex it's creative muscles and use the unique situation to say something about both the characters and the macro story at play. Events in this issue are considered formative for Legion later down the line in the series for instance. But most of the time, I rarely have hope for an interesting story to come out of these events since so many of them are generic and happen way to often.
I do have some hope that the upcoming FF Blood hunt issues are actually worth the read however, I want to see what a clever sci-fi writer like North actually does with Vampires. Since he also has 2 tie ins too, I'm hoping that he can craft a story that is actually contributing something to the artist canon. It also helps that his general throughline in this run has been insanely loose so the detour should hopefully not be too distracting either

Found out he watched porn while I was at work a week before my birthday & birthday holiday, decided to forgive him, going against EVERYTHING in me, and we decided that I would come back to the decision after our holiday since everything was already booked and non refundable. Something in my gut just knew he had no intentions of changing. Even after the last 50 times🤦🏻But just got a massage on my last day of my holiday, he asked to use my phone while I did since his was back at the villa, I told him to screen record the entire time since there’s no restrictions on my phone, he agreed. Suprise, there is only a 3 minute recording started right before I finished the massage, he denies anything and tells me that it must still be saving, ignoring my questions of why there’s a seperate 3 minute one. I walked off and found what he was watching in my Google account history.
I think I’m finally done. Something feels different this time, I really think I’m done with him