Hey everyone I usually don’t post on Reddit but,
I wanted to share my experience working for Piggy Ship, a delivery company, to shed some light on some concerning payment practices.
Initially, I was promised a specific rate per package based on weight categories: $1.6 for the lightest ones, $1.7, $1.8, and $2.10 for the heaviest packages. However, I recently discovered that the company has been underpaying me by not adhering to these rates properly.
Firstly, for deliveries to the same drop-off location, they only pay the base rate for the first package and then $0.50 for each additional package. This wasn't communicated clearly initially, leading to confusion and lost earnings.
Secondly, Piggy Ship doesn't compensate me for unsuccessful deliveries when I can't access an apartment for drop-off, even though it's not due to any fault of my own.
Most alarmingly, I found out that they've been shortchanging me on the per-package rate for deliveries within the same building, citing it as part of the same drop-off location. This means I haven't been paid fairly for the weight categories as promised.
I'm sharing this to caution fellow delivery workers about Piggy Ship's payment practices. It's crucial to scrutinize the terms and ensure fair compensation for your hard work.
I remember one time I dropped 10-15 big ass packages like the large over stuffed temu packages weighing between 15-30 pounds each now only realizing I probably only was paid 6-10 dollars for.
Keep in mind gas was reaching 5+ dollars in LA during March-May.
Has anyone else encountered similar issues with Piggy Ship or other delivery companies? Let's discuss and share our experiences to support each other in navigating these challenges.

Some background information, I am not formally diagnosed yet but I've been through multiple doctopsychology/psychiatry/mental health nurse appointments and the outcome is 'most likely ADHD and autism' according to my psychiatrist. These appointments came after a horrific case of burnout which left me house bound and not able to even pick up the phone or answer texts without having meltdowns.
So I was off work for around 3 months, recently started back part time 25% and then 50% - it's been not super great but my main concern right now is how my work seems to be pushing 'after works' with food and drinks after what is already a very long day for me. They basically mean getting home and sleeping ready for work the next day.
The one that is planned next is 40m drive away from where I normally work, I don't have a car so I'm dependant on others driving me there...which means I can't just leave when things started getting too much for me.
I have a lot of food sensitivities going back to a young child and I've struggled so much to open up my diet but it is still super limited. The places they plan to eat food at either don't have a set menu and it is what it is on the day or we are not told the place we are going much in advance.
Not knowing the food that is going to be served gives me such anxiety, it's so embarrassing turning up and being given food that disgusts me and having people treat me badly over it. I also don't drink, just the smell can make me feel anxious.
Last year we had one where I was served food I couldn't eat, forced to sit outside where it was super packed and loud in the burning sun (I got sunburn, no one told me we would be outside in 12 noon sun) and then shuffled off to play mini golf.
Is there anything can be done in situations like this? My boss knows of my problems but I don't think they fully understand? Are events like this ever truly mandatory? I live in Sweden if anyone else here knows specifically.

Hi all! First off, so glad this sub reddit exists because it was a life saver when I was making decisions on my own ACLr and knowing what to expect from surgery. I'm a 2x cancer surviver, Paramedic, Rugby player, and now have been a caregiver to my partner who just celebrated 3 months from her own ACLr. I collected a bunch of advice and tips and tricks that I have used both during cancer treatment, my own experience with ACLr, and now through care taking my partner through hers. I know there have been guides before, but mine is a bit different and aimed at caregivers so I thought I'd post it here since ya'll helped me so much instead of it just circulating the rugby community every time a teammate or friend has to have ACLr or some other reconstruction. Hope it's allowed and helps!
A Cancer Patients Guide To Knee Reconstruction Recovery
A Comprehensive Guide To Surviving and Thriving In the Pre and Post-op Period Built From The Perspective of Caretaker and Patient.
Before The Date
__/__/____

Preparation

It is important to adequately prepare for surgery in the weeks and days leading up to the procedure. A significant period of immobility and reliance on support can be expected immediately post-op and will vary by procedure and personal experience. Physical modification of living space and thorough preparation allows for the immediate post-op period to be free of emergency store runs and the small inconveniences that can add up to big frustration. Not having food and drink nearby as well as other essentials may be a small deal now, but can turn into a big deal when you can no longer get those things for yourself. While physical preparation (home modifications, adaptive tools, meal prepping, etc.) are important, mental preparation is crucial to the long term success of the repair. Making small, achievable goals in the immediate post-op period and maintaining a long sighted view of recovery will make the pain and immobility that is initially experienced more bearable. Additionally, social support through a partner, family members, or friends is an essential part of recovery, as is maintaining contact with sports teams or other social groups during rehabilitation.

General PEARLs

• Pre-surgical rehab is an essential part of recovery and can improve immediate outcome so if it is a resource available to you- use it!
• Learn the basics of your procedure such as reconstruction technique, graft type, surgeons recovery timeline, where you will do your rehab, and what you should expect going into and coming out of surgery. Knowledge is power and can give a sense of control and set reasonable expectations in a situation that is otherwise out of your control.
• Seek out positive experiences and recovery stories from other people who have had your procedure and gather as much advice as possible from resources such as ACL. Know that some people will have negative experiences, everyone is an individual, and that much of your long term recovery is in your control.
• Expect and learn to advocate for yourself or the person you are taking care of. Be vocal and honest with any needs you may have and understand that issues may come up in the immediate post-operative time that you as a patient or caregiver may have to contact your surgeon to resolve. Familiarize yourself with who to call and when *before* you leave after surgery, as well as being quick to call with any questions or problems that arise. It is better to be told that what you are experiencing is normal than to sit with the anxiety of the unknown.
• Create a folder with all relevant information: Surgeons name, procedure information, follow-up appointment dates and times, phone numbers, emergency contacts, facility of choice in an emergency situation, and any other important information. Maintain this folder throughout your recovery and add paperwork as it comes.

Days Leading Up To Surgery

• Contact support people and confirm any arrangements that have been made including but not limited to: Who is taking you to/from surgery, child or pet care, transportation to first PT appointments, meals, etc.
• Recommended Items we found essential:
  • Ice Machine (Polarcube, etc) if at all possible
    • Recommend checking facebook marketplace or other second hand options, as they cost hundreds new but can be found for $40 or so used.
    • Studies have shown these do actually reduce pain and lend to earlier mobilisation and our experience has shown this to be essential not just immediately post-op but in the weeks and months afterwards so if you *can* obtain one you absolutely should.
  • Large sweatshirt and oversized shorts for surgery day, especially if you wear a bra, as putting clothes on after surgery can be a struggle and it’s easiest to just throw on a sweatshirt and shorts that fit over your post-op bandages and brace.
    • In particular, we found a blanket hoodie to be very useful both for going home and the first few days as it could stay on when moving around/when napping.
  • Neck Pillow
    • Helps with reading or other activities during long hours spent in bed or on the couch and really helped in the first two days to prevent neck strain and provide head positioning during napping.
  • Large pillows for body positioning and elevation of the leg
    • We found cheap, giant, dog beds from places like TJ Max or Marshalls to be more affordable than specialty products
    • A large, thin, dog bed (or blanket) rolled into a tube and secured with stretch bandage or tape around the surgical leg and brace helped significantly with comfort during sleep so that the leg was padded, comfortable, and the other leg didn’t get roughed up from the brace.
  • A shower chair
    • Can be found used at second hand stores like Goodwill, or cheap online
    • Easy substitute is a chair covered in a trash bag
    • Allowed showering the second day post-op which was a huge mental boost and relieved physical discomfort and achy muscles
  • Extra large leg cast cover
    • Can be found cheap online
    • Placed around outside of brace covering the entire leg initially, we then found it easier to place on the leg and place the brace outside of the cover for the remaining healing period for the incisions: We did this after the first PT appointment when it was safe to take off the brace for short periods while laying down. We acquired a second post op brace from a friend (you can find on eBay for cheap) and it was amazing to have, as we could let it dry after showering and immediately put her post op brace back on.
  • Foldable stool
    • Great for elevating the leg during transfers, while on the toilet, etc.
  • Lap Desk
    • Great for eating on the couch or in bed, but we also found it useful as a side table for holding drinks/meds/remotes/books that could be taken to whatever room they landed in at the time
    • A small table works as well, really just anything that can be used to set things on within arms reach
  • Assortment of sodas, water, seltzers, snacks, etc.
    • There is no way to know what you will want and when, but when you want it it’s nice to *have* it available
    • Appetite often decreases after surgery so make sure to have favourites on hand so that when you *are* hungry you have it immediately before your body changes its mind
  • A big bucket
    • We used a soft plastic beach type bucket from the dollar store, it was extremely useful to have to put small items in, a small towel, a spare water bottle, extra meds, baby wipes, etc.
    • Also doubled as an emergency puke bucket, as you never know when a sudden bout of nausea might hit in the first day or two after surgery
  • Extra reusable ice packs and bags of ice
    • Your home ice maker will not be able to keep up with the demands of constant icing the first week or so
    • Reusable ones are great for ‘hot spots’ and short trips where you can’t take the ice machine
  • Extra steri-strips and assortment of bandages
    • Sometimes there’s extra leakage, sometimes your steri-strips come off and you need to slap a new one on, sometimes you’re allergic to the ones they put on you at the hospital. Always consult a medical professional, but it’s handy to have these on hand just in case.
    • We also used a bulky padded bandaid to keep the brace off the healing incisions once the large post-op dressing was taken off which helped immensely.
  • Compression sleeves
    • Aside from helping with swelling these also provided a layer of protection under the post-op brace
    • We found cheap ones at Wal-Mart (copper brand) but also just bought a cheap pair of leggings a size down and cut off one of the legs to use before getting a more expensive one once swelling had fully subsided after a few weeks. Your leg will change so cheap works great at first, then you can get something a bit more substantial when you know what you’ll need long term. Now she wears high compression socks to sleep 3 months out.
  • Slide on shoes
    • Self explanatory, bending down to put on shoes becomes a chore after surgery. Avoid flip flops or other styles that can become a trip hazard.
  • Baby Wipes/Dude Wipes/etc.
    • Wiping down after you get home from surgery can help prevent that icky feeling and restore some sense of normalcy, then can be used over the next few days before you can shower more normally
  • Lotion and chapstick
    • Hospitals dry out your skin big time, and lips are often cracked post surgery from intubation/LMA placement
  • Small, easily labelled tupperware containers
    • Regular pill containers are too small to hold pain meds, OTC pain meds, anticoagulants such as aspirin, supplements, and edibles or other small things you take with your medication. We got small tupperware boxes with lids from the dollar store.
    • We found it very convenient to have six sets of meds set up and labelled with times which meant we never missed doses and could leave the next dose of meds at bedside, take them with us when going to appointments, and keep up with what had been given and when.
  • Small notebook to record med times and other important information
  • Two extra changes of clothes already setup and ready to go
  • Compression device
    • We are athletes so we already had leg compression sleeves but these days off brand versions can be bought online cheap. Studies have shown these lead to reduced pain, increased mobilisation, reduced the chance of blood clots, and there is even some evidence they help with bone healing.
    • We used it 3 days post op and beyond and her range of motion was significantly improved after the first time.
  • A yoga strap
    • Excellent for strapping to the brace and moving the surgical leg
• If possible, pick up post-op medications prior to surgery to prevent any unexpected delay in obtaining them. If this is not possible, verify that the prescription can be filled the day of the surgery by your selected pharmacy and that it has been filled prior to leaving after your surgery. Controlled substances cannot be transferred to another pharmacy without a new prescription sent directly from the provider. You do not want to be trying to get in contact with a physician in the hours after surgery, unable to manage pain, before the pharmacies close for the night.
• Do a thorough clean of your living area, it will make the time after surgery when you cannot independently do normal activities more bearable and a neat organised space is easier to function in when your body is not cooperating. Take special attention to removing tripping hazards and clearing a wide path from wherever you plan to spend your recovery and the bathroom.
• Plan to spend the first couple of days in one spot and on one floor and set up that area the day before surgery. If you have a downstairs bathroom a floor mattress or well setup couch can be your landing pad until you are more mobile and is the easiest during the immediate post-op period. That being said, if you don’t, it’s easier to get upstairs by sliding up on your bum immediately post-op when your pain is still well controlled than realise that you have no bathroom downstairs a few hours later when the pain has started to set in. Wherever you intend to land, plan on staying there at least a couple of days and bring all your supplies to that area. Plan to lay with your surgical leg on the outside of what you are laying on, this makes transferring easier.
• Have your recovery bed setup the day before surgery and prepared for when you return before you leave the day of, including blankets and your supply table setup.
• Meal prep, whether that means cooking or getting easy to make microwave meals is up to you. You won’t feel like cooking and neither will your caretaker the first few days. High protein, easy to eat meals are key! We had chicken and broccoli casserole, egg and sausage frittata, and lots of applesauce the first few days and it was a lifesaver not to have to think about meals.
• Spend some time mentally preparing for the long haul of recovery and make long term plans that fit within your timeline. For example, we planned to attend a rugby game five days after surgery *but* planned nothing else for that day and the next day. We also planned hiking trips the next fall, and other events appropriate for her timeline along the way that could be looked forward to and keep up morale. Remember that this is temporary and that it is okay to be recovering and resting, expect hard moments and days but keep things planned so you don’t get stuck in those down places.
• Eat your favourite meal and eat well the day before surgery. Your body needs fuel to recover and fasting the day of surgery sucks. As weird as it sounds, after multiple surgeries, the pre-surgery night meal of whatever I want is one shiny thing in a crappy situation to hold on to.
• Plan for what you want your first meal to be and consider making a playlist for the ride to and from surgery. Small things, again, help maintain a sense of control and comfort in a situation where you are largely out of control and these things can be done with friends or support people in the days leading up to reduce anxiety and pass time.
• Hit the gym, take a walk, do a hike, visit places or do things you enjoy but won’t be able to do in immediate recovery! We took my partners knee to one last tournament before her surgery, it helped pass time and kept spirits high.

Day Of And Immediate Post-Surgery Phase

• Maintain fasting starting at whatever hour you are told. Some people can drink clear liquids up to a certain point, others are completely nothing by mouth. Your instructions will guide you on this.
• Before leaving home double check that everything is set up how you need it and place a blanket, pillow, drink, and snack of choice in the car. You may or may not need it but if you do it is important to have. Make sure your ice packs are in the freezer ready to go!
• Bring your own post-op snack if you are picky or have food allergies, otherwise you’re stuck with whatever graham cracker and applesauce combo the facility gives you.
• Go with the flow, or as I always say “surrender”. Feel what you feel, have a cry in the car before you go in, listen to your playlist, bring your blanket or other comfort items into pre-op, tell your support person what’s going through your mind, tell your pre-op staff how you’re doing, ask all the questions, and most importantly just do what you have to do. For some people surgery can be overwhelming and the loss of control frightening, but fighting only makes it worse, so whatever you are just be it. I’m pre-op pacer myself, but some people just snuggle up under some warm blankets and wait. Either way, just let the waves take you where they go and know you’re along for the ride. Remember that future you with a healthy joint thanks you for what you’re doing today.
• Speak frankly with your anesthesiologist and utilise any pain control or anxiety control options given to you. There is no award for least meds taken or toughest patient of the day. If a nerve block is available, know that you can request sedation for its placement, and utilise that option if at all possible.
• Caregivers should bring something to keep them entertained and be prepared for a long period without update once surgery has started. Honour your feelings as well, it can be tough to watch someone you care about go through this! Consider having someone to act as a support person for you as well through text or phone, that way you can divert your own worries or struggles to them and away from the person having surgery while still making sure you are also taken care of.
• Make sure that pain is well controlled before leaving after surgery. You have more options there than you will at home and getting things under control once pain has become unbearable can be very difficult.
• Make sure you note when the next dose of medication is due, what medication they should be taking, and write it down.
• Double check contacts from your surgeons office and add any post op paperwork to your folder in case you need the information later.
• If your post-op meal requires picking up, or your prescription, try and do that immediately after leaving surgery even if you are not hungry yet. This is the most comfortable you will be for a while and your support person will be unable to leave for at least that day and night. I have been known to peruse the big gas station after surgery in search of snacks, my partner however simply waved to the nice people at the drive through and napped the rest of the way home before eating some hours later.
• Once you get home crash wherever you plan on spending the rest of the time. Don’t have friends or family over that first day. Just go ahead and sleep through the rest of the anaesthesia and get comfortable.
• Try and keep your home cool, and consider keeping the room dim for the first few hours if not days. Sleep is precious and pain meds can make you hot, and getting hot can lead to nausea. It is better to have the home cool and the person snuggled under blankets and comfortable than be trying to cool someone down who just had surgery and got too hot and is now dizzy, nauseous, and miserable. The least stimulation for the first little while the better, and naps will happen throughout the rest of the day and over the next few days. A cool, dim place lets this happen much easier than a bright, warm place where they might be overstimulated or awakened by noise or activity.
• If allowed, try and activate the quad muscle immediately after returning home and once every few hours by having them squeeze it and feeling for contraction while in the brace. Some people will be able to begin range of motion exercises immediately and if so, make sure to do them as soon as allowed even if that means just helping them by doing gentle manual range of motion movements in the brace.
• If it’s not already on, begin continuous icing as soon as you come out of surgery either by meticulously timing the replacement of ice packs or with the ice machine. Make sure to check the ice machine, replace ice as often as needed, and keep it on *continuously* for the next few days. For us this meant I checked it at every medication dose throughout the night and added ice during that time as well. We went through frozen mini water bottles and bags of ice like crazy the first week.
• Elevate the surgical leg as high as possible, placing support under the heel and calf but not directly under the knee to promote extension and prevent more headaches with gaining range of motion later on.
  • We found that icepacks directly under the knee helped tremendously with the discomfort associated with this.
• Anticipate that bathroom trips will not be fun or easy and take them extremely slow. As a caregiver allow the person to guide you on what they need and don’t need your help with and avoid grabbing or moving someone unexpectedly. Standing, acclimating to being upright, and then proceeding to the bathroom is the best way to do things and rushing will only result in frustration for both of you. A rolling chair or wheelchair can be helpful, but for some people standing up and sitting down is harder than just moving on to the bathroom. Pay attention as a caregiver and know that it is possible they may need your help getting off the toilet or back from the bathroom so be close by and available should that happen. For the first few days do not lock the bathroom door in case of an emergency.
• Place chairs or things to sit on around your path to the bathroom, kitchen, etc. And consider a small backpack or using a rolling chair to carry items around the house.
• Once you know when your next dose is, set alarms for each time your doses are due. If using the med boxes this makes doing meds and keeping track very easy, as they are each labelled with a time and all we had to do was open the box and take the meds instead of finding each bottle and dosing each med individually each time. As the days went on we were able to re-label and time the boxes as needed and remove meds as needed or adapt to what was needed when sleeping or up during the day.
  • For example day 1 would look like:
    • First post-op doses at 4pm box: 250mg tylenol, 10mg oxycodone, 5mg edible.
    • 8pm box: 250mg tylenol, 10mg oxycodone, 800mg ibuprofen, 10mg edible, 12.5mg diphenhydramine (itching and sleep), stool softener, and regular night time meds.
    • Midnight box: 250mg tylenol, 5mg oxycodone, 5mg edible.
    • 4AM: 250mg tylenol, 5mg oxycodone, 800mg ibuprofen, edible (if nauseas or restless).
    • 8AM box (preparing to get up): 250mg tylenol, 10mg oxycodone, 5mg edible, aspirin, stool softener, normal morning meds.
    • 12pm: 250mg tylenol, 10mg oxycodone, 5mg edible, 800mg ibuprofen.
    • Repeated on time, reducing pain med dose as tolerable, and refilling boxes 1x a day.
• If possible do scheduled tylenol (paracetamol) and ibuprofen (or another NSAID), alternating them on the dosing schedule, and take them religiously even through the night. This also goes for additional pain medications, which you will also need to wake to take through the night if you are prescribed for at least the first night.
• Staying on schedule might mean waking up in the night, but it’s better to be awoken to take meds than to wake up in pain and spend several hours trying to get it under control. You may find you seldom need them if your nerve block is in place, or you may just not need very much at all during your recovery. It is easier to trial run this after the first day by stretching out the time between doses from 4 to 6 to 8 and then potentially off entirely, but everyone will have their preferences.
• Eat a small snack with every med dose and keep emergency meds (extra pain med doses, nausea meds, etc.) at bedside as well as the next set of meds due so they can be taken when it is time.
• We found that edibles were a great addition to pain and nausea control after surgery. There are medication options available and having at least one option for nausea is advisable for the first few days after surgery when anaesthesia and medication can really make you want to puke.
• Expect absolutely nothing in the first few days post-op. Some people will feel well enough to move around, others will not be able to do anything but get up to use the bathroom. Expecting nothing is better than expecting more and being disappointed or frustrated. I would highly suggest not making plans until your first follow up 7 or so days after surgery.
• Be obsessive about icing, meds, any PT you have been given, and keeping track of appointments. Give yourself the best start to your recovery that you can and you will thank yourself later!

Long story, please bear with me because I want advice. May 19th was my 20th birthday. I wanted to go to Seattle and spend the day up there with my boyfriend (We’ll call him mark) and some friends. Anyway, we only had one set plan for the morning, and then the rest of the day was just exploring and doing whatever looked interesting. Anyways, I sent mark the link to a cafe in Seattle I wanted to go to so we could book reservations. He asked me what time I wanted it to be for and I said 10am, since the only times left were 9am, 10am, and 3pm. I told him 10am worked the best prior to him asking because our friends had to leave around 3pm for work. Anyway, when I replied, he had already made the reservations for 9am. He said “too late, it’s for 9”. Seattle is an hour and a half away from us so I was upset because I didn’t want to wake up that early. But I let it go and told him thanks for making the reservations because I chose to look at it at a positive way. Being there at 9am gave us all more time to be in Seattle.
Anyways, morning comes around, and my friend (We’ll call her Maria) texts me and asks if me and mark would like to meet up with her and her boyfriend zane at 7:45 at a local store. This was a plan made just that morning, but regardless nobody would have to wake up earlier to meet up with anyone. As time goes by I know my boyfriend isn’t awake because he hasn’t texted me, which he usually does. And I was alerted his phone was dead on Life360. I tell Maria we can’t meet them but we’ll see them at the cafe in Seattle. I drive all the way to marks to wake him up. Long story short I had to knock on his window because the back door was locked, which it NEVER is. Anyway i look in the window and his stepbrother wakes up from my knocking. For context marks stepbrother spends some weekends at marks house, they share a room. Mark opens the door and I follow mark to his bedroom door and I just say “Hey I’m sorry I woke you up”. I had no idea his stepbrother was there because his car wasn’t parked outside. He just says “kill yourself” in a super annoyed tone.
I was already kind of emotional that morning, because I took offense that my boyfriend didn’t wake up on my birthday and I had to come wake him up last minute. So the “kys” comment got to me, even though I’m good at taking jokes. Fast forward to the drive there, my boyfriend was buttering me up, which is super rare. He just took my hand in his and wished me a happy birthday and apologized for waking up late and kept telling me he loved me a lot. Anyway, the day kind of went downhill after the cafe. All of us were walking all around Seattle, and 90% of the time my boyfriend was walking ahead of me. Again for some context, my left leg is two inches shorter than my right, so lots of walking hurts my hips and makes me walk slower. My friend Maria noticed and would walk with me but after I would get back with my boyfriend and Maria with hers, I would fall back again. I said “Babe can you walk a little slower? Because my leg?” To which he replied “I’m trying to catch up with Maria and Zane. Also, every time we walk together you always fall behind anyways.” Also, he wouldn’t hold my hand. I saw how Zane held Maria and put his arm around her or his hand on her waist and mark maybe held my hand in 30 second intervals.
Anyway, nearing the end of the story, after we drive home, my friend comes over and drops off the presets she got me. It’s 5pm at this point and I still wanted to go home and spend my birthday with my parents. Birthdays have always made me feel a bit awkward because I’m not a fan of opening gifts while people are watching, I feel guilty for some reason haha, or like I’m spoiled. Anyways, I was looking forward to the gift my boyfriend mark got me the most, because a few days prior he told me he was leaving to buy me stuff. Anyways, I hated to ask mark this, but I was about to go home so I said “Can I have my gift now?”. He said “Seattle was your gift, it was expensive and you’re an expensive person.” He was smiling while saying this, so he was half joking, but I was a little taken aback. I didn’t wanna seem like a spoiled brat so I played off the awkwardness by saying “Oh ok, didn’t you say you went to the store though?” He said “Yeah but they couldn’t do what I wanted that day and I didn’t feel like going back any of the other days.” I said “Oh alright well are you going to get it?” His response was “Probably not.” I played it off really well, I wasn’t showing that I was upset in anyway really, I just got a quieter, because I really didn’t want to seem like a spoiled brat.
Also, on Saturday, the day before my birthday, my boyfriend mark went fishing with his friend and spent over 100 dollars on equipment and a fishing license. Saturday night was a bbq at his friends house and I attended. While all of us (friends and such) were sitting in the living room I told mark that we had two options for dinner, he interrupted me mid sentence and said in front of everyone “I’m not sure how much you’re expecting me to spend but it’s not much.” Again, I played it off, and said “alright well that’s okay I was just letting you know.” My boyfriend is an electrician and makes (I think) either 23 or 24 an hour. I feel like he shouldn’t have said that in front of everyone. It was indecent. Also, I heard from my friend (the one who dropped off the gifts) that when all of the boys were outside my boyfriend was complaining about how much he’s gonna have to spend on me, to which her boyfriend responded “dude it’s her fucking birthday shut the hell up.” Also, I’m sure other Washingtonians know that pikes place has a huge variety of flowers. It was my first time there, and I got excited and said “ooh I want flowers!” My boyfriend sighed and his friend Zane said “dude it’s her birthday you got that”. He in fact did not have that. I didn’t get flowers hahaha
Anyways, I was quiet a few minutes before I left. I asked if he wanted to come over for cake with my family. To which he responded “I mean I could.” I just left. 2 minutes away from my house, he called me and said he’d be over in an hour with gifts. Now this part makes me feel the absolute worst, because I don’t wanna sound ungrateful at all, but I saw on Life360 that he went to goodwill, I think a rite aid and a dollar tree for my gifts. This made me sad because I didn’t want a sympathy gift, especially one that wasn’t thought out at all. But when I got it I smiled and kept saying appreciative things. Like for example, he got me a book that says “100 things to do in Tacoma.” I told him “this helps a lot actually because I never know what to do thank you babe!” . I am grateful , I’m grateful that he still made an effort after I was sad, and I really do like the gifts he got me, because they weren’t bad. Just not thought out at all. Anyway he ate a slice of cake and left after that. I was talking to my friends about how sad I was about the day, especially because I cried on my birthday. Am I the asshole for talking to my friends about how upset I was about the gifts and the day in general?

1) The contract situation: If we get Saros we're most likely signing him to an extension. I can't see the Leafs trading him at the deadline nor can I see them just letting him walk at the end of the year for nothing. This likely means we're looking at a contract between 6-8 years north of 8 million. This is problematic for a number of reasons:
a) Goalies tend not to age very well. Even generational/hall of fame goalies such as Brodeur, Price and Lundqvist to name a few have trouble playing past 35 whilst being elite and living up to their contract. Signing Saros to a long term contract would mean we're primarily paying him when he's past his prime. This is a big concern.
b) We've been developing Woll for 8 years, and signing Saros to a fat extension pretty much means we've relegated Woll as a secondary option or a trade piece. For someone whose shown so much potential and come up big in key moments, this just doesn't make a lot of sense. Granted, Wolls injury concerns are totally valid but it still doesn't mean we have to give up on him as a Starter entirely.
2) Saros' track record: There's no denying that Saros is a high end goalie, but I think he's being slightly overrated. He's started more than 40 games 3 times in his career, 2 of which were very respectable (but not other worldly) and this past season which was below average. This is in conjunction with a playoff record where he's been below average: -1.2 GSAA and of his 16 playoff starts only half of them have been qualified as a quality start. Playing Goalie in Toronto is extremely challenging and so far in his career Saros just hasn't shown he can carry a team in the playoffs.
3) The benefits of getting Askarov: I've seen people say Nashville would never trade Askarov but they were shopping him last year, and they're looking for a high end forward, so I think it's very realistic they trade him. There would be a lot of benefits if we traded for him instead of Saros:
a) He's on an entry level contract for the next few years which means we'll have 30M this offseason to reshape the team. That would allow us to sign 2 top 4 RD and a 2C like Lindholm and still have 10M to play with to fill out the rest of the team.
b) You can let him and Woll share the net and see who emerges as the true starter. Woll has shown he can make huge saves and play in big moments so having him go 50/50 with Askarov in the regular season and then take the net in the playoffs would be a great short term plan while Askarov gets more experience.
c) If Askarov flourishes and wants a bigger role we own his RFA rights so there's a lot more flexibility in terms of what we can do with him. With Saros, we'd be signing him long term, relegating Woll to a backup and hoping Saros works out. With Askarov, if he outgrows his role we have a good problem with two capable goalies and can flip one for other assets. The flexibility here can't be understated.
4) You dont need a bonafide top 5 goalie to win the cup: This isn't to say having one is bad, just that it's not necessary. With Goaltending, its about getting hot at the right time. Vegas won the cup recently with what was originally a 3rd stringer. Binnington came out of nowhere and carried the Blues in '19, likewise with Matt Murray in 16/17 for the Pens. In his short time here Woll has shown a tendency to just come up huge and make big saves. I remember there was a point this year where he'd stopped like 18-20 shots in a row in 3v3 over multiple games which is impressive when you consider those are all essentially high danger chances. Take that in conjunction with how he played in the playoffs and you can see my point about how you just need someone to make big saves and get hot at the right time, Woll can do that.
Having Askarov and Woll as a tandem would allow for a cheap, flexible option in goal that allows us to spend on other parts of our roster. We don't need either of them to be Vezina winners to have success, just to make key saves and not let a shitty soft goal in. The amount of cap room we would have by taking on Askarov and dumping Marner would allow us to fill every hole we've been talking about for years. We would also likely get other pieces back with Askarov which would help us out even more. If you get a player like Luke Evangelista you've suddenly replaced 45 of Marner's 95 points for 800k.
From Nashville's perspective, they're trying to win a cup and given they can add one of the best RW in the league without moving any contracts out, or removing a player from their roster that finished with nearly 100 points is exactly the kind of trade they'd make. They've wanted a high end forward for years and now they can finally get one, and they'd be trading from a position of strength to make it happen.
For Marner, he can go to one of the most beloved markets for players, get paid as much as he wants, have a low profile and still be on a competitive team.

Just finished watching EoE and want to get some thoughts out.
First and foremost, both NGE and EoE are artistically phenomenal, if there is one thing to like about Eva it is in the music and visuals. The art design, cinematography, designs, and generally the whole direction of the show is across the board pretty inspired and it's my favourite part of the experience. I feel this is a fairly universally agreed upon take, so I don't want to go into detail about it, but yeah based on pure production value there is (quite surprisingly since it's been so long) nothing like it.
Moving beyond the surface level stuff, I decided pretty early on watching NGE that the show was something I was supposed to feel (like Tenet), but not necessarily understand (at least plot wise, I think you're maybe supposed to understand it on an emotional level), and whilst watching the show I felt I was doing a good job of that (at least until the last two episodes). Now, having finished EoE, I still maintain this to be the most optimal way to try and "enjoy" Eva, however, whilst I certainly did not understand EoE, I can't say I managed to truly "feel" it either. I think I kinda felt some of what what I was supposed to feel, and towards the end I was beginning to believe that the "message" was something along the lines of it being okay for us to not truly understand each other, and that we should strive to work together and love each other despite our differences, but then by the end I wasn't sure if that was the case at all. Overall, I am thoroughly confused.
I think the main issue is that there feels like something is missing between NGE and the events of EoE. I know that EoE takes place before the last two episodes of NGE, but it feels like a pretty big departure from the show. A lot of the characters suddenly feel quite different, as if their worst traits have been magnified. The biggest culprit here is Shinji, who right from the start is established to be "the worst". Whilst Shinji in the show is certainly troubled, I don't think he is ever this bad. I've seen it argued that it makes sense for him to suddenly become the most mentally fucked up child on the planet given what he went through in the last couple eps of eva, and I mean when you list what he went through it certainly does track that he'd go a little nuts, but my problem is that we don't actually see that in the show. He seems relatively okay, not that much different than usual, and then in EoE he's suddenly gone off the deep end. I feel like there needed to be a bridge between the show and the film, one which built towards the events and character development present in EoE, and because that doesn't exist I feel that EoE retroactively becomes more confusing, making it harder to "feel" what it is trying to say because I no longer understand the characters like I felt I did before. I can't help but feel like some of this is due to the film perhaps having a higher age rating (I'm assuming here), as it is significantly more explicit than the show, which I felt was somehow also applicable to the characters also becoming more "mature" in that they were just all more fucked up.
Also, I feel like the story and characters generally don't make much sense if you TRY to understand it. I came out of it unsure about what NERV or any of the big orgs were, why and how they knew what they knew, and how they operated. It felt like every character was clued in on something that another wasn't, to the point where I'm not even sure how the organisations functioned at all. It feels like everyone's plans were largely reliant on a shit ton of luck, yet by the end of EoE certain characters act as if everything going on was the logical endgame. Lots of focus is put on the children's mental health, Misato seems to care about the kids and want them to be okay, but nobody seems to think that maybe booking these kids some mandated therapy sessions could perhaps be beneficial? I just found it difficult to fully suspend my disbelief when it felt like the entire story hinged on our main characters just getting supremely lucky at every turn.
But fuck it I don't know. I'm sure there's a youtube video explaining stuff somewhere. Overall I enjoyed NGE a lot and found it pretty engaging, and whilst I can't say I enjoyed EoE the same amount I think it was artistically a lot bolder, and in some ways felt like a purer expression of what NGE was meant to be. I'll probably watch the other films at some point since I don't feel like I got much closure from the the show and the film, and am hoping the Rebuild films (I think that's what they're called) provide me with some of that.
Feel free to explain stuff to me if you want to, no presh though.

I found Reddit posts to be a good resource for each step of the Youth Mobility Scheme Visa application process, so wanted to make a post sharing some tips, timelines, and what to expect. For context, I am a 25M Canadian with an engineering degree, moving to London in the fall without a job lined up as of yet.
1. Application (60-90 mins)
The application process is not difficult, and took me about 60-90 mins. One thing it asks you about is your international travel history over the last 10 years, so it would be helpful to have that information handy. It also asks when you plan on arriving in the UK, so you should have an idea of that too. It doesn't have to be exact but you will have a 90 day window for entry from the date you select, so give yourself some buffer if you are undecided. You will also need to indicate the location (post office) you will pick up your BRP card once you arrive. I recommend picking a location that is easy to get to if you don't know where you will be living yet.
Towards the end of the application, you will be directed to a website where you will pay your application fee and NHS surcharge (charged to credit card in USD). Once you have paid, you can book a biometrics appointment at the location nearest you. For me, this was VFS in the Yorkville area of Toronto. The closest available appointment for me at the time was 3-4 weeks away. There are optional services such as expedited/primetime appointments, courier delivery, document scanning assistance, SMS updates, keep your passport during processing, etc. The prices for these options were insanely high so I don't recommend paying for any extras unless you are on a very tight timeline. I think the SMS text updates were only $5 if that gives you peace of mind.
2. Proof of funds documents and Biometrics appointment (3-4 weeks for appointment + 1 week for visa processing)
Once your appointment is confirmed, you can upload your proof of funds documents using the VFS online tool. You need to show that you had the minimum funds (£2,530) in an accessible account for 28 consecutive days, with the most recent of those 28 days being no earlier than 30 days from your visa application date. I was able to download a statement from my savings account showing the rolling balance for a certain month, so I used that. I had read online about bank statements being tricky as the immigration office wants a date of issue on the statement, so to be safe I went to my bank and got a letter of good standing, dated and stamped within the required timeframe, and uploaded that too.
On the day of your appointment, print and bring your appointment confirmation (has a QR code the immigration office scans) and document checklist. You will receive both in an email after your Visa application is submitted. You will get a number and be called for your biometrics (photo taken for Visa vignette, fingerprints) and submit your passport in a Fedex envelope which is provided to you. I was at VFS for about 25 mins. They also give you a SIM card that comes with 1 month free cell service in the UK which is helpful.
A few days after my appointment, I received an email notifying me that my Visa was being processed. A few days after that, I got an email saying my passport was ready for pickup. They had me open the envelope to ensure my Visa was there, then I was free to go. I did not pay for any expediting, and the time between my biometrics appointment and picking up my visa was 4-5 business days I think.
3. Once you have your Visa
Start the job search. It may be helpful to indicate on your CV that you have the right to work in the UK, especially if you have a Canadian phone number like me.
There are lots of things to consider before making the move. Pause/cancel any subscriptions you won't use, downgrade your phone plan to a cheap plan if you want to keep your phone number, sort out your finances. I was able to open a UK HSBC bank account from here in Canada quite easily, which should make things easier when I land.
Lastly, you have to pick up your BRP card within 10 days of arriving in the UK. I believe the BRP will get you in and out of the country, while the Visa is more of an entry document.

Firstly, I know that I am supposed to beware this place, but money is money and I need a new job because my current position is being dissolved. I’m trying to get my food in the door to eventually get my lvl3 licensing.
The entire scheduling process was a mess. I got multiple texts and emails from a bot. Some emails and texts would say it was a phone call or video call only to be followed up by an email and text that said it was an on site interview. I decided to just go in person because it made the most sense and if anything I can just take the call in my car if it was in fact a phone call.
We recently had a bad storm in my city so I left my home two hours before my interview because I knew the traffic was going to be bad despite whatever gps says. I made it to the supposed location twenty minutes before my start time. I wanted to check in early so I went in only to find that there are no way finding signs or maps for where offices were located in the building. The only signs were just laminated pieces of papers taped to the doors. Because of the storm the elevators were down I had to walk up the stairs and walk the each floor to find the company. Except it turns out that there are two building with the same street number and name half a mile apart.
Apparently when you search up that street address without the apartment/office number it reroutes it to the building I was in because the street was renamed or divided. I had to put Allied Universal directly into the gps search instead of the address I received via email. Because all the numbers I was given were bots who wouldn’t help me or redirect my call and no one would respond to my emails. I was told by the secretary when I got there that she also got lost when she first applied because the street numbers all are the same and you have to put in an office number to find the correct building.
By now I am 10 minutes late for my interview. I showed the secretary all the emails and texts that are giving me different instructions and locations. She apologizes and sends a message to my interviewer. They don’t respond. She asked if I emailed them. I told her I sent multiple emails and show her the email address I used. Thats when I realized that the email that the bot gave me had a typo in it. She makes me wait another 40 minutes just to say send an email to the correct address and text the number they were contacting me from, and a different number she gave me, to reschedule.
I don’t think I want to reschedule. Should I try again since now I know how to find the building or will this incident count against me? I feel like I was set up to fail.

Starting Off With The PROS!
1 - PROOF! A lot of these self proclaimed "hackers" dont really have shit to show for, besides lousy ass screenshots that were stolen by the next bloke. This was a bit different though, they had original work (reverse image searched to prove it) & had PLENTY of it. Any proof published were from members of their group, as well as people who participate in their community. I even spoke to a few folks before making my decision - some good / some not so great replies but I'll give points for transparency. You can see their work in their group ( ill add in the social link)
2 - TIME! So speaking to a few different "hackers" the time it takes to complete something like a my eyes only pull, would usually take from a range of 30 minutes to a few HOURS depending on who i spoke with. In "naequalityy's case , they stated upwards to an hour - shortest being 25 min. which isnt too bad if you're in a rush to get one in "ifywim". So bare in mind - its not like how movies potray where you hit some buttons & get right in. Seeing them do it shows its not just running some software / plug - ins and hoping it turns up anything. So patience is a must before going though with it.
3 - PRICES! Last but definielty not least - Is How much does all this cost? So there's an entire menu , with different options & multiple things to choose from. We went with a MEO pull, sent them in our target - & since we had a vouch from a member - our order was discounted. There's plenty ways to get your price knocked down from promotions, knowing staff , being active in their community m & more. Just beware if they dont have any slots available for the time being. Pricing IS flexible however
Now , it wouldn't be fair if i didn't add what CONS they had.
1 - Response Times - If its your first time, you maybe drowned out or pushed back if you're not messaging them consistently you maybe left on delivered. We had to punch through a few times before finally getting a slot reserved. So be aware of that before going in.
2 - No Vouch , No Order - So being a random , barging in trying to get something done doesnt really pan out to well. its not exactly some open shop for anyone to throw money at. We had to message around but you can try your luck, we messaged them at a pretty good time so we got ours in. Not exactly a bad thing but if its busy ive heard they only work within their group.
3 - Prices (Flip Side) - Can Be EXPENSIVE Depending on if you're not apart of their membership / group / community. Its not too bad if they offer deals on multiple but the average joe , might not be comfortable especially during their first time. Id recommend asking for any deals because risk DO matter!
So in conclusion, id rank their group a 7.3 / 10 > Not really open im guessing because of cat-fish, scammers , & content theifs they like to be reserved - but makes it a pain in the ass to order when you're ready to just go! Be aware of wait times / ordering times because they can change BUT they do AMAZING work - got my content in a swift even though we had to fight for our spot. neat little group not like arguing with the "hacker" that doesn't have much proof. So check out "naequalityy" on tele!

I have a personal Google calendar synced with my Exchange account for work. I would like my work calendar to reflect time as busy/out of office for some events on the personal (Google) calendar without having to create a duplicate appointment/meeting on the work (Outlook) calendar. Right now, if I look at my calendar on my phone, I end up having two entries for personal events that I want reflected on my work calendar (one in Google and a duplicate in Outlook). Is there a way to block off calendar time/status without creating an event? Manual entry would be fine; doesn't need to be automated.

My (22, lesbian) life is over i think. I live at home, with my parents. My mom discovered a weed vape i kept in my room. Shes extremely disappointed. I had a very rough past 4 years after graduating high school in 2020 due to my dad's sickness and I was doing community college, and got my associates. there is more context about my life on my page.
First, they are disappointed in me for not going straight to a 4 year university. Except i did, i just flunked out after 1 semester because of how bad my mental health was with my dad and covid. My parents dont know about my sexuality. They would be livid if they did. They also dont know about my atheism.
Im not muslim, and I dont know what my mom is gonna think. My dad will probably just beat my ass. My mothers reaction is gonna kill me. She's gonna sit and sob in front of me about how terrible of a daughter I am and how she doesnt know what went wrong. She'll probably say "i left my family when i was 14 and you do drugs?????" and god It will destroy me.
I try my best. She grew up in literal war and led a very hard life. Islam brings her comfort. It has only brought me pain. that is the reason she uses whenever i bring up why im acting out. I cant believe in a god the way everyone else can. I wish i could. If i could believe in Allah then i would.
For those who will tell me to move out: i am working on it. I need to finish my bachelors, and im going back to university in august, so that is still a ways away. my goal is to keep saving up and do well in school for the next two years so that I could leave for grad school. I love my parents but i just wish they werent so traditional.
Im at work right now and the dread is killing me.

When I open Waze on my phone, and I'm scheduled for some appointment, it will list that appointment in the "Where To?" popup when the app opens (or even will auto-start navigation to that location, I assume if it's within a certain window to it). However, Android Auto doesn't seem to have a similar function. Is that correct? It seems that there's literally no way for me to bring up those locations in the AA interface? This applies also to any kind of Planned Drive I've set up—not just calendar appointments.
While we're on the topic, is there a way to bring the "Drive Now" screen back up after it goes away? Sometimes I don't tap the screen fast enough when it first comes up, and then it disappears and I can't find a way to bring it back up. Along with the whole calendar appointment thing, Drive Now appears to be the ONLY place that planned drives will show up, so when it goes away I often lose the ability to bring up the drive I was going to be making.

I adopted Artemis around three months ago. She came from a house with four other cats then was moved into a shelter where she stayed for about two weeks before I adopted her. She lives in my apartment with one other cat, a less than 1yo kitten who’s very active. The two of them play a lot. The kitten has been gone for almost three weeks now since my roommate is out and will only be back mid June.
Artemis showed signs of missing him. She’s always been a loving cat but she’s doting on me a lot more recently, cuddling, being more vocal and meowing more. She has thrown up a couple times the past few days. Yesterday, I got home from work at around 5 and she threw up as soon as I was home. Then, this morning at 7, she threw up again and it was foamy like she hadn’t eaten anything. I checked the feeder and she indeed hadn’t eaten. I came to work and my other roommate just texted me saying she threw up the foamy substance again and she didn’t eat, the food dispenser dispensed more food and it’s untouched. She acts completely normal still, even after throwing up.
Should I get her checked? She has insurance but I have absolutely no money until Wednesday next week when I get my paycheck. I have not changed her food or anything at all.

Over the weekend, I went to my friend's new place. He's my best friend and we were neighbours for over 15 years. So I am already not too thrilled about it but I get it. It's completely fine.
The new place is a mess of boxes and all. My mate, let's call him Nate, knows that I'm not very handy in working with my hands. Pun intended. I can't bolt a screw or hammer a nail or drill a wall. I actually dislike all of that. A childhood thing. So he never asked me for my help. I'm more of a letters guy. I help him out with buearucratic stuff, permits, emails, computer stuff. That is my area and he gets it. We're totally cool about that.
A couple of our friends show up who are exactly what you need to hang the posters and assemble a shelf. Handy guys. One of them, Moe, as soon as he walks in and I haven't seen him in a long time. (Though, I recently helped him with some writing stuff up and such and he was very happy with the results) and starts berating me. "You've gotten fat, you're getting dumb" that kind of banter. I never appreciated it but sometimes I laugh it off if it is done in good spirit.
Now, I visited my friend early morning after I finished my graveyard shift so I'm pretty knackered and Nate knows that I can fall asleep on his couch at any given moment. That's completely fine.
So while Moe is cranking up the measuring tape and pencils and such, I'm falling asleep. I figure it is time to get back home. But he keeps piling on. "You're a useless bum, you can't even drill a hole in the wall" and other stuff like that.
It felt different from previous times. It felt disrespectful. Nate and the other guy are just laughing it away. I grabbed my keys and headed to the door. Moe rushes to me arguing that I shouldn't go, he was joking. It was just banter.
But I didn't want to engage him anymore. I told him it's fine. I just need to get home and sleep it off. He grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving. Nate came out and asked me to stay a bit. But I wasn't having any of it. I really dislike this childish locker room crap. I never engage in it. I ended relationships and friendships before over such things.
I asked Nate to lock the door behind me and I left. Nate and I have nothing between us. We're best mates. We talk everyday. But Moe didn't get back to me even though he showed a bit of remorse towards the end. Maybe his ego won't let him. But as far as I'm concerned, let bygones be bygones but I don't want to hear that crap again. Our friendship depends on it. It also made me relectunt to visit Nate in the coming future. It felt like such a negative environment to be in. It felt emasculating if I'm frank. Oh, and we are all in our late thirties. So I figured I didn't need to hear that crap in my age. I didn't have the patience for it.
Was I the asshole in this?

I've been a fan of PLL since I was 14/15 (I'm in my 20s now) and doing another rewatch. PLL is my comfort show and I'm active on this sub. I always pick up on new stuff everytime I watch especially as I get older and the show becomes more and more outdated (because let's be real some aspects of the show.. and book, have aged like milk) But something Im realizing it is how MEAN the girls are.
This is not a new concept and has been discussed here before. But like the girls especially Aria and Spencer were so mean to Mona, and and they wonder her motivation to be A?
Was it implied that Alison taught them how to do this and the continued to be a clique after? Because I always thought that they made it out to be that the girls were dragged along and were the little croneys of Ali but they were in a way just as bad.
Compared to the books they were always mean, even to each other and that they were sort of the heads of their own respective cliques. Actually in the books Aria was arguably the nicest and Hanna was the meanest- but then again Aria "stole" Sean from Hanna. But in the books- Emily was the head of the swimmers, Spencer was friends with the field hockey girls, Hanna ruled the school with Mona along with Riley and Naomi.... and Aria was a loner.
But in the show the girls quickly became a clique again but pretended like they weren't/that Ali was the big bad wolf and they were all innocent.
Season 2, Episode 2/2x1 highlighted this- when Dr. Sullivan separated the girls. They had like nobody else, no other friends except Hanna with Mona and Lucas and their respective boyfriends. But you would think that the other girls would at least befriend Mona and Lucas or at least be friendly but they were actively mean to them? But still claimed Ali was the meanest girl in town.
The other characters would consistently refer to them as a clique- when Toby asked Emily where Maya stood with the other girls and Emily says "Maya is more my friend than the groups" (the girls were very nice to Maya though I love how they were so supportive of her coming out which I do admire and love)
Any new person that came into their lives like Kate, Paige, etc (although these two deserved shit) the girls were cold and curt to them.
In the books this made sense honestly they were soooo wealthy, private school "Rosewood Country Day" instead of "Rosewood High"... But in the show it was like they pretended to be humble? Yet Aria's dad was a tenured college professor, Hanna's mom worked at a bank, Spencer's parents were lawyers... Emily's parents were the most normal but still Pam was able to afford to be a stay at home on Wayne's army (or was it Navy???) checks.
Anyways... their privilege was very much out and prominent in the books which made sense as to why they were so cliquey and popular.. it just made sense but in the show, they pretended to be humble yet came from obvious privilege and behaved like mean girls.
I wish the girls weren't so mean and entitled!!! They were the same in 6b-season finale. They never really grew. The show follows them ages 13/14-mid 20s you would think that they would grow up......
Thoughts?

I have moved three times over the last few years. All four states being different environments entirely ranging from rain forests to desert. As different as the environment was however, society doesn't really change much and you find most of the same things. Not really that different after all.
I've spent a long time thinking about why no where I go feels like home.
It hasn't felt like home because I've come to find that home is wherever my favorite person is. I don't really have one of those and haven't for about four years so no where has quite felt right. I love my friends and family but it just simply cannot fill the space in my heart for some romance.
I thought it might be LA recently and I came all the way out here hoping for love and a much better job when a girl invited me this way. I don't regret it and the job part was true and I am super happy about it but the relationship fell apart and now I am just in LA. Doing whatever and working and living on my own.
Maybe someone could show me around or give me an excuse to fly somewhere else you never know but I am always seeking some new adventure and maybe you could be the next one.
Being single for this time was useful and required to learn what I need and want out of life myself but I've never really cared for being single. Life just has a certain energy to it when you have a partner that you can't find anywhere else and my most cherished memories always involve someone else in one way or another. I was never meant to be alone and I am passionate in the way I love, and my life won't quite feel complete until I convince someone to journey through life with me.
As far as what you'd get with me - well I am nothing special. I'm relatively intelligent but no genius. I am not ugly nor would I call myself particular handsome. I'm just a dude who talks to much and has way to much energy for his own good and smokes pot like it's going out of style soon and still somehow manages to never procrastinate much.
I am always looking for a new thing to do, a new adventure to go on, another person to meet. I am not rich but I could be a lot worse off and enjoy the work I do even if it's nothing anyone would ever notice much. I am in decent shape as well, I actually leave the couch occasionally unlike most potheads...
Just kidding I love you guys and if a cute stoner girl shows up I'd be just fine with that. You don't have to be anything special either. I can't say looks don't matter at all but I'm not look for a super model or an actress.
They said there was a loneliness epidemic recently but maybe you and I could remedy that and at least solve it for each other.
Though I wonder why you're still reading this if you've decided I am not in fact that one.

Hi all! After a crazy, but incredibly fun and rewarding year earning my pilot certs, I wanted to make a write-up of my experience in hopes that it’ll be helpful for any other aspiring or current pilots. To summarize, I went from zero aviation experience to CFII in 13 months, Part 61, paying as I go and on the pretty cheap side. I do want to emphasize that I was ~incredibly~ lucky and had some very generous people who helped me out, and I could not have done this as efficiently and cheaply if it weren’t for them. I’m going to list all my takeaways below, but I think my biggest piece of advice is to network as much as you can because there are some amazing, generous people in this community that want to see us all succeed.
Background:
For context, I’m in my mid to late twenties and have been in the workforce for about 5 years. Through a combination of factors I decided to make a career switch to professional pilot but was hesitant because I did not want to take on debt. I have a family member who is an airline pilot who helped me devise a plan. I moved home and kept working my job remotely so I was able to put all my paychecks towards flying.
Private Pilot – 3 months, 75 hours TT, $12k
I did my private in a Piper Archer owned by my local FBO. The owner allowed my family member to be my instructor and gave me a small discount for pre-paying hours. We flew almost daily. I also took ground school at another local FBO in-person, and that was much more helpful than having to learn everything on my own because I was brand new to aviation. I took the private written exam as soon as my ground school concluded which was also the week of my checkride (bad idea in hindsight, but it worked out).
I solo’d around 25 hours and took my checkride with about 60 hours in the Archer (15 additional hours were in a friend’s airplane). The checkride was challenging, but straightforward and I was well prepared. The DPE said good things about me afterward and I was officially a private pilot! I’d be happy to answer questions or do a writeup in a separate post on any of my checkrides but for the sake of brevity I’ll skip that for now.
~Key takeaways from private:~
Fly as often as possible and make sure your instructor is aligned with that. Also stay on top of ground school. Also, don’t rush to take the checkride before you’re ready, it’s okay to have a lot of practice first. Lastly, I know DPE availability is a big issue in lots of areas and can cause people to have to wait on a checkride even though they’ve been ready for months. In my experience, if you try hard enough and call around, you will find someone. However, it might mean you have to travel a little bit which I know is not possible for everyone.
Instrument – 2 months, 150 hours TT, $14k
I was feeling a little fatigued after private so I was slow to start studying for instrument. I started by doing a lot of flying for fun, mainly flying in the Archer by myself on little cross countries to check off some of the requirements (in hindsight I should have found someone to split time with).
I did my instrument at a flight school in one of the adjacent states. This particular school specializes in accelerated programs, but they do not have a formalized instrument course. I went in-person and spoke with the director of flight operations to discuss my options. Since I had to take PTO to do this, the goal was to finish my instrument in one week with the checkride at the end. I paid a flat rate for the airplane and instructor time. I also stayed over there during that week so I had to pay for housing as well.
Before I went over there, I did some prep in the Archer that I did my private in and took the written exam (Sheppard air). I also purchased Sporty’s Instrument course and used that to prep and for the endorsement needed to take the written. The week I spent at the flight school was honestly a blast, and I was able to take my checkride on day 7 with 20 hours in the plane and about 4 hours of sim time. Again, happy to discuss the checkride in the comments or another post.
~Key takeaways from instrument:~
TAKE THE IRA, FII, AND IGI EXAMS AT THE SAME TIME. You only have to purchase the IRA Sheppard course and can take all 3 exams back to back. Also, again stay on top of ground school because instrument flying requires a lot of technical knowledge. But it honestly is really fun!
Commercial – 3 months, 263 hours TT, $8k
The biggest challenge for commercial was time building, of course. This is where networking saved me. I made friends with another instructor who frequented my local FBO who also owns a plane. He needed the time as well so we flew together a lot and I paid for the fuel. I also had another friend at the airport who owns a plane that he doesn’t fly often and offered to let me time build in that (again, I’ve been so lucky to come across some very generous people).
I did my checkride in the Archer that I learned in with my family member signing me off, and with the same DPE who did my private. Commercial was probably the easiest one I had done so far, but it still was no joke! I will say I was amazed with how much easier things came to me by this point versus when I first started, which was a great feeling.
~Key takeaways from commercial:~
Network, network, network. Spend as much time as you can at your local FBO or flight school and make friends with everyone. Like I’ve said, there are some very generous people out there who love to help out new pilots, and I could not have made it this far without them.
Also, in retrospect, it would have been a really good idea to have done commercial from the right seat. I’ve heard of a lot of people doing that and if I had, I would have been able to knock out CFI a lot sooner and cheaper.
Multi-engine add-on – 1 week, 298 hours TT, $4.3k
Shortly after getting my CPL, I had a week of PTO and decided to knock out my multi add-on. I found a flight school with a Seminole and got ahold of their MEI, and we figured we could knock it out during that week. I contacted the DPE who did my private and commercial and we scheduled my checkride for the end of the week. This flight school was about 2 hours driving from home, and I was able to stay with friends while I was there.
This one was a little challenging because this was in January in the midwest and we were seeing a lot of low IFR days. We ended up getting weathered out the first half of the week, but luckily the Seminole was an easy transition for me and we got me trained up in 3 days, 8 hours of flying. I took the checkride as scheduled and passed (I will say I have had extremely good luck with weather for all of my checkride days so far).
Sidenote: Prior to this checkride, I also took the AGI and IGI exams and asked the DPE who did my multi checkride to sign off on the ground instructor certificate at the same time. I did this because I’ve heard it helps when applying to CFI jobs (shows a little extra effort) and it was easier to do it this way versus having a FSDO issue the cert. Cost me $50 to the DPE.
~Key takeaways from multi:~
Do your research to find an airplane at a good rate. I paid $395 per hour which included the instructor, but I’ve seen some schools charging a lot more. Also, I looked into schools with accelerated courses that you pay as a package, and based on my experience I would not recommend because I was able to do it much cheaper my way.
My instructor did a good job of making sure I knew all the aircraft systems well enough to teach them in case I go for my MEI (which I would like to do soon). Since the MEL is light on material, I highly recommend this. Also, when I was doing research I was told to look for a Seminole or DA-42 because they’re easy trainers, which I would agree with based on my limited experience.
CFI – 1 month (on top of all my experience thus far), 316 hours TT, $5k
This was the scariest one for me. I had heard all along that CFI is the hardest and longest checkride and for the most part I would agree. I originally was planning on going to a school with an accelerated program for this, but after asking around I decided to do it on my own (with my family member signing me off).
This one was heavy on ground school. I got some lesson plans from various people as I heard that’s what everyone has prepared for the checkride, but I hardly ended up using them. I also had a friend send me PowerPoints he made for the technical subject areas. I edited them/made them my own and these are what I ended up using for the checkride along with a couple props.
As far as studying goes, the thing I found most helpful was watching random YouTube videos before bed every night. Although it was all review, I picked up a lot of tidbits that weren’t quite drilled into my brain as I still feel new to aviation overall. As the DPE described it, to be a good CFI you basically need to be a nerd about everything aviation and that’s what I tried to do. I would guess that I studied a few hours a day for a month and a half or so. As for the flying part, I had a little bit of right seat experience prior to buckling down for CFI (probably under 5 hours), so I’d guess it took me about 5 more hours to feel comfortable in the right seat. I took the checkride with the same DPE who did my private, commercial, and multi and passed! The checkride was 8 hours total so definitely a long day. As we were debriefing, I went ahead and scheduled CFII with him as well.
~Key takeaways from CFI:~
Start nerding out now (if you aren’t already). Keep a running collection of links and videos that explain concepts well or teach you something interesting, they will be useful for the checkride. Also, don’t buy lesson plans. As my DPE put it, there are really only like 5 lesson plans for any given topic and we all steal them from each other, so no need to reinvent the wheel or pay for them if someone else can give them to you. I’d also recommend really getting to know the PTS, because it lays out very clearly what you are required to do on the checkride (for example you know you’re going to need to teach runway incursions so it’s a good opportunity to be really prepared). I’m sure my last point is most applicable to those doing CFI on their own since you won’t have a school telling you exactly what to expect.
CFII – 1 month, 368 hours TT, $1.3k
CFII was possibly the easiest checkride to prepare for. I did this one in a friend’s airplane – a Mooney with a G750 and GFC 500 autopilot. It probably took about 10 hours of flying (I already have lots of time in this plane) to be ready. For studying, I reviewed Pilot Cafe, YouTube videos, and obtained some lesson plans from a friend. I did not use PowerPoints or anything for this one. I also had already completed the written exam back when I did my instrument rating. I’m not sure what else to say about this one, but I did it with the same DPE again and passed. It feels amazing to be done with checkrides for a while!
~Key takeaways from CFII:~
Select an airplane with a good autopilot. This made the flying portion of the checkride super easy. For the oral, I highly recommend working with instructors who send students for a lot of instrument checkrides. I feel like there are so many very specific questions that DPEs like to ask on instrument/CFII checkrides, so it helps if you have someone who knows what those questions are going to be. Also, FlightInsight on YouTube and Boldmethod were my favorite resources for this one. Lastly, make sure you know your avionics and autopilot really well, including reading and being able to teach all of the limitations that are in the user manuals.
Notes regarding cost:
I did a decent job of tracking all my expenses throughout this process. I noted in the title that the total cost to me was about $50k, which consists of the ~$45k that I discussed above plus some additional expenses. I also did my commercial ASES rating at Jack Brown’s seaplane base which cost me about $2.5K total (of course this was just for fun). The remaining amount consists of things like buying a headset, books, random accessories, and even some things I called “unnecessary expenses”. I temporarily paid for a membership at a flight school that I barely ended up using, so I put that in that category. While I did everything pretty cheap, I was definitely not perfect!
Here is a further breakdown of my expenses:
Airplane rentals/fuel - $36.9k
Instructor fees - $2.5k (bear in mind I got a lot of free instruction from friends & family)
Ground school - $1.3k (includes actual ground school and books)
Flight accessories - $1.2k
Written exam fees - $1.2k (8 exams total)
DPE fees - $5.8k (7 checkrides; this includes seaplane)
Medical fees - $290
Housing - $900
Misc/unnecessary expenses - $1.2k
Total: $51.7k
Overall Takeaways:
- For those doing Part 61/pay as you go, I highly recommend finding an independent instructor with a flexible schedule. This was key for me because I had a work schedule to work around.
- NETWORKING/MAKING FRIENDS. Go to every fly-in you can, always stop into the FBO to say hi to people, etc. etc. Having friends in aviation was monumentally helpful for me and saved me SO much money. Cannot stress this enough!
- If you are on a timeline, make sure you set specific milestones and when you are going to hit them. Make sure your instructor is on board too.
- Do your research! Reddit has been a fantastic resource for me throughout this process. Talk to people who have achieved the things you want to achieve. I really cannot thank you all enough for all your help and insights on your experiences!
Again, I am more than happy to answer any and all questions. I also apologize if anything is jumbled or confusing; this took a long time to write and I’m sure I missed things. I will also disclaim that while I did a good job of tracking all my expenses, I was not perfect and YMMV for sure. I just hope this gave a somewhat helpful picture for those hoping to do something similar to what I did.
As for next steps, I am aiming for the airlines one of these days! I have a couple interviews at flight schools coming up so I am planning to quit my job and finally start flying full-time soon. I want to do my MEI sometime soon as well but I haven’t figured out how I’m going to pay for the PIC time yet.
I also want to say that I absolutely love general aviation and hope to always be involved in it. I have made so many friends, had some incredible experiences, and learned way more than I could have ever imagined in the past year. For anyone thinking about flying, hopefully this is your sign to just do it! Feel free to comment with questions!

While Hazbin Hotel might have its flaws, I believe that it telled its story decently and was able to set up a base for season 2 and onward. The main problem I had with this show was Charlie's entire existence felt dull and uninterested compared to other characters.
looking through the cast of characters ( despite their overactive design's ) they still have depth and are fairly interesting to learn about.
For example Angle dust- a porn star who hides behind a broken happy facade, a drug addict, and is In an abusive relationship with his pimp boss.
Husk- a grumpy loner with a heart of gold, a overlord who lost his power to a much more malevolent force and is now forced to do his bidding.
Nifty- a gremlin...that's really it with this character besides being a maid.
Alastor- a shady overlord who thrives on the suffering of others, a true maniac who will most likely throw everyone under the bus and reveall his true intentions. He also has an ongoing mystery about his 7 year absence.
Sir Pentious- a brilliant inventor who creates machines of destruction, but behind his 80's campy cartoon voice and design he actually only wants the validation and appreciation of others. Only building his machines to hopefully become an overlord and escape his Public image of being a looser.
Vaggie- a fallen angle who realized the true nature of the exorcist and was left to die in hell, only being saved by Charlie and then decides to help Charlie's plan in debilitating sinners, while also protecting her from danger.
The most interesting part to these characters are their past lives and earth and how it will affect if they change or not ( excluding vaggie).
Charlie morningstar on the other hand is just the "princess of hell" who decided to make the hotel in the first place ( even though Charlie herself doesn't even know if rehabilitation can work ), a character who feels more like a wet blanket due to her naive and childlike nature, OTHER characters have told her to act more like a "princess of hell" but she replied with "that's so mean!!, she was also easily defeated by Adam OFF SCREEN nonetheless despite welding an weapon made of angelic steel, she had to be saved by her father ( who then whoops Adams ass in like under two minutes) .
One of the worst qualities of Charlie is one not even in her control, it's that we know almost NOTHING about her past, other characters at least have web comics or past Livestreams on their lore ( I hate this way of establishing lore by the way ), Charlie just has...well nothing.
I am hoping that season 2 gives us more character backgrounds, but please Viv give us something to work with.