Drawing conclusions and making inferences worksheets

Hey All, I have been testing many CEDH decks to bring into tournament play with an 80 min timer for consideration. I've narrowed it down to 4 decks with their pro's and con's. I would love to hear thoughts from vets and new cedh players alike on my thought process. The moxfields don't have primers made yet since a lot of the lines take inspiration from already made lists. I'll make rounds of this post in a couple reddit/discord groups.
Tasigur Broodlord; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/mnfcR1cMaUy5HvKgW_Jx7g
Pros
-Extremely Fast Combos, Potential to win turn 2-3 consistently
-Plays through stacks pretty well being more creature heavy with different lines available
-Commander can grind and manipulate through a table pretty consistently
-Easy fixing off 3 color manabase, no difficulty casting spells
-Large interaction
-Slightly off meta, mindslaver effects are ineffective unless opponent has piloted before
Cons
-Susceptible to graveyard hate
-Thoracle line available to praetor's grasp players
-Broodhoard line is interactable and non deterministic
-Slower and less card advantage than meta decks without Nezahal/Rhystic
Derevi Flicker Tempo; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/dE09DZy4uUekq_H-SRXFwA
Pros
-Cheats Commander Tax/Casts, ability to turn off an attack or turn on a land for politics can be relevant
-Stax Interaction can beat out breach and consultation decks pretty strong, plays through its own stax well
-Attack plan is strong against ad nauseum players, toolbox creatures lets creativity into deck plan
-Evades removal using blinks and taxes, allowing it to snowball easily
Cons
-Meta/Well-Known, lines can be predictable
-Susceptible to Wipes/Removal from Value Commanders like Niv-Mizzet
-Flying creatures don't play well into kraum decks
-Possible to turn off interaction from other decks at table but doesn't pack a lot of interaction on its own, will likely lose counterspell battles
-Decks win condition is non-deterministic and slow, will just lose to a table with 2 or more turbo decks like Rogsi/BlueFarm
Hermit Pod; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/tb_hmrXsREODeXOK6q4cRA
Pros
-Premier Toolbox/Stax Deck with strong interactivity despite being non-blue, a card exists for every situation
-Card advantage always available with Tymna
-Stax pieces are extremely strong against Breach Lines
-Strong Recursion available, card removal rarely effects the decks ability to win
Cons
-Extremely Linear Gameplan, Graveyard hate and removal of Kiki makes winning difficult
-Double Pip spells in 4 color deck can make for awkward color fixing situations even with perfect mana base
-Deck's win lines are slow and involve multiple interactible pieces fitting together, making winning in an 80 min setting possibly difficult
-Is meant to be the anti-blue deck at the table, off meta decks are sure to beat it
Maelstrom Wanderer; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3KFo3A_72EKA7J-1wgKMrQ
Pros
-Extremely Fast, can win out of nowhere and take advantage of opponents board states easily
-Offmeta, unlikely that players will interact with anything that isn't so obviously problematic
-Beatdown plan is super relevant despite not having the Slicer clock.
-Creative ways to avoid breach loss, large creatures scare off Tymna/Kraum/Najeela
-"Biorhythm" Win available with ease in CEDH due to big evasive creatures being able to get through 9 life.
Cons
-Interaction is typically saved for game losing situations
-Draw power is pretty minimal, Rhystic, Fish-Stick, Library
-Cascade RNG can cause a fizzle and wasted resources
-Loses steam and gameplan to meta stax pieces (Drannith, Rule of Law Effects, Interrupter) without decent removal options.
-Dead cards in hand once the linear gameplan is executed

Hi im a 29 yr old male 5'6 and weighed at 182 lbs as of today. i had a check up with my pcp after not seeing one since 2019. i had some blood work done and i got the results on the patient portal and my heart dropped once i saw my results for my liver enzymes with them at 150 ALT (range 12-78) and my AST 54 (range 5-37). my doctor told me shell follow up with an ultrasound to check things out if they were high , this was before she sent me down the hall to get my blood drawn. i assume she hasnt even checked the results yet. im so damn anxious i came here to reddit to get a piece of mind. im googling all sorts of stuff about fatty liver and liver cancer. i started a low dose of suboxone for kratom use back in december 2023 and in january i switched to a new doctor and he had me go get my blood drawn , i guess suboxone can cause issues with the liver. so the results for that test were sorta high also with my AST being 45 (range 10-40) ALT 69 (range 9-46 ). the sub doctor scared me saying they were a little high and i could have fatty liver disease , this is where this all started . so i actually went to the ER a few days later out of panic and had the doctors draw my blood and my levels came back normal , the only thing the doctor saw was that my blood sugar was a little high and to follow up with my pcp and it took me a long time to get that apt with my pcp. had to wait months! also with todays results it showed my triglycerides levels were high and i know nothing about them but they were 445mg (range 40 - 200 MG/DL). my glucose levels are high also at 129 (range 74 - 106 MG/DL). my glucose wasnt this high back in january at all. im thinking about going to straight to the ER again and try to see if i can get a ultrasound or something done to make sure im alright. i cant stay off google or worrying myself sick. im so depressed that something more serious is going on. the last decade since i left child protective custody ive been on my own. i dont eat any veggies and rarely fruits (these past few weeks ive been eating fruit everyday , grapes, bananas and a apple). anyways the past decade ive ate alot of ramen, microwaved foods, chips and fast food. which are definitely, if not the cause of the high liver enzymes and high blood sugar. the thought of eating veggies grosses me out and makes me gag like it always does. this is gonna be a battle and if feel like its God telling me to take care of myself before i develop something more serious if it already isnt. i wanna live a long life. this is gonna be tough to adjust and change my diet. i come home after work at night and eat alot of crap . pizza rolls , ramen , frozen chicken bites etc. if anyone has any advice , or any words to calm me down so i dont stress myself to death that would be awesome. also is there any subreddits i could join to help fix my diet and where to start ? i plan on making green smoothies to get my greens in and lose weight

I know this is such a cliché question, but finally, after 19 years living on this earth, I finally know what I want to do. For context, I am currently studying about AI. The reason I chose this field is because of part of my friend's advice, my lack of direction after I'd finished high school, and because I think that since AI is basically everywhere now, it would open up many job opportunities for me in the future. But in the middle of my FIRST semester, I fell into this kind of depression phase? Where I would just stay at home all day and just do nothing, I just stop caring like I wasn't even taking care of myself anymore for awhile..., I just watch a bunch of YouTube videos all day. I just feel hopeless and directionless, the major that I blindly chose just isn't for me at all (shocking, I know), it had gotten to the point that I often make up excuses just to not go to class, and as a result, I failed 2 subjects. So fast forward to 1 day while I was mindlessly watching some YouTube videos I came across an animation channel that makes me realize how much back in the day I always wanted to start an animation YouTube channel like Jaiden Animation, TheOdd1sOut, or Domics since these are some of my favorite channels that I grew up with. I know that whoever reads this might roll their eyes or find it cringe (it's me, I'm just self-projecting), but I feel like I have a purpose to keep living now and It's been 2 weeks since I started learning how to draw, and I know it's too early to say anything, but after realizing what I truly wanted to do gives me life now, I even go to class regularly now. But now I face a dilemma since the major that I'm currently pursuing still sucks the soul out of me. I wanted to know what should I do? Should I focus on my passion or just forget about it since it's just delusional, or should I just keep studying while focused on what I wanted to do, but then the time and money I put on my college degree would be wasted... So I would like to know what you guys all think
edit: sorry for the long paragraph it's my first time posting anything on Reddit since I'm just mainly a lurker, if there any further question you guys wanted to know more you guys can just comment. edit 2: if some of you guys wanted to know the channel that inspired me ,it's "Cận Thị TG" he's an vietnamese story time youtuber who has a fire art-style and animation if any of you guys can understand vietnamese I highly recommend watching him !

Just a random list of thoughts that I would have found helpful or interesting before heading out!

1. Suica (or other IC card) on the Apple Wallet is a godsend. I preloaded with 2000 yen while I was in the US to make sure that my credit card would work with it.
2. Coins and a coin pouch were good but not as necessary as I thought. There were some places that they were much more useful in, such as during our day trip to Mashiko to buy street food.
3. Japan is not as strict as people make it seem. Locals at night are rowdy on the train and people have low conversations even during quieter times of day. I got the sense beforehand that if you make a peep you'll draw the ire of every person on the train, but that was never the case.
4. Bringing your own water bottle does not make sense. The mymizu app is available but the water is so spread out that it felt much easier to just buy the plastic bottles at the vending machines everywhere. A lot of the machines even take IC card, so you can keep your coins for other things.
5. Eating vegetarian is very challenging. My wife generally eats vegetarian and gets grossed out a little by fishy tastes, so we tried to use Happy Cow, but even that was hard. A lot of dishes that seems vegetarian aren't. Tamago sometimes has shrimp paste and inari is sometimes filled with squid. Google Lens only gets so far when the ingredient labels are obscured. Onigiri was our best option, but there's only so much rice one can have, so she branched out to pizza by the end. That being said, a few of the restaurants on Happy Cow were EXCELLENT. Vegan Gyoza Yu in Tokyo and Tofu Sorano Minami Senba in Osaka were highlights of our trip.
6. Walking is the absolute worst. No one consistently walks on one side of the sidewalk or the other, even in smaller towns where there are less tourists. Bikers also ride on the sidewalk and never use bells, so don't swerve while walking or you could be trampled.
7. Do the random stuff that might not be on the main itineraries. We skipped kinkaku-ji due to being templed-out in Kyoto, instead riding the Sagano Romantic Train and taking the Hozugawa River Boat experience. We went out of our way to go to Naoshima Art Island, which was well worth the detour! We went to a pottery fair in Mashiko which was 3 hours of trains one-way, and that was awesome.
8. Every hotel provided amenities, so if you want to save space, you can avoid bringing toothbrush/hair products/pajamas.
9. Restaurants generally opened later in the morning, even coffee shops (other than the chains), so if you're a breakfast person it's a little harder to get going early if you like to start your day with breakfast and good coffee. Japanese breakfast is a whole other thing and for reasons above we did not opt to eat them haha.
10. Using the Airalo app and buying data worked perfectly. With my unlocked Verizon iPhone, I turned off roaming data on my primary sim and was able to use iMessage and WhatsApp to communicate with everyone I needed to.
11. Navigating the metro can be difficult. Some stations not only have tens to hundreds of exits, but there are also different types of lines. For example, there might be JR lines and local lines in the same station, and there might be a local platform 2 and a JR platform 2, which is something to watch out for. The Google Maps directions often say which exit to go for, so you can try and spot that quickly when getting off the train. It also says which car is quickest for transferring, which could be helpful for a quick transfer.

That's it I think! Happy to answer any more detailed questions.

Hello everyone, I'm here not as the mind, not as the soul but just as me. Please know that I am not speaking from a place of judgment nor do I mean to discourage anyone from continuing their practice and meditation. I don't want to mince words here either so I'll get straight to the point. Ever since the beginning of this semester I had been trying my best to stay dettached from my peers since I'm a psych major and I struggle with ADHD and rejection sensitve dysphoria (RSD). For those of you who do not know Psych is a predominantly female major and RSD is a very difficult thing to deal with especially when you're surrounded by attractive females. I had problems with oversharing and getting attached too easily which quickly lead to my suffering time and time again. This time while using a mushroom coffee which helped me stay focus and memory I was able to refrain from becoming attached to my team mates for my research paper, however I soon learned recently that while trying to detach from my mind and negative thoughts that come with it I inadvertently started to detach from love itself. I had a "clear mind" for some time and I was getting closer and closer to Buddhism as I read more about it and practiced dettachment from my desires.
Now, just yesterday I realized that I couldn't feel anything really. I felt like love and empathy had disappeared and my efforts to be non-self or a soul was just creating what I now call a "luminescent alter-ego". This ignorance was becoming my undoing and now after making that realization I hope that others can also realize that nothing other than love is important. What I mean by this is that love should ALWAYS come first and then whatever else you learn from nonduality or whichever Spiritual philosophy should come after. You are not the mind, you are not soley the spirit, and you are most certainly not soley the body. You can choose whatever you identify with but in truth you have to be all of these things together to be a human being. You will gain nothing if there is no balance between these things and being a body does not mean the same thing as being a pleasure seeking animal. Being the mind doeos not mean being a selfish egotistical maniac or calous person. These are not equivocal. As long as there is classifications then it will never be the true way.
Love is the only thing that cannot truly ever be classified or measured so it can never be separate from YOU. This is because truly we as human beings are LOVE. That is why you see the heart chakra symbol (hexagram) repeat in all different sorts of religions like Judaism, Christianity, and the same hand gestures or mudras in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Chrisitanity. You are that which you are. "I am that I am". L-O-V-E. The mind cannot tell the truth because it only sees itself as what it believes itself to be, the heart does not need to believe if you have faith in yourself as a loving entity and a spiritual being that shares that love with others. What is the point of all these efforts to quiet the mind and be non-self if you get hurt in the process? Nothing good will come of it. It may hurt and it may be painful but it is true that love conquers over all. I believe it was U.G. Krishnamutri that was talking about how both the West and the East are just as equally mistaken. Nothing can truly be stated other that what you intepret it as. What I think he means by this is that there are no conclusions. Only your own experience and understanding from within can show you the truth. That truth comes from your own inner wisdom and love.

I hope this letter finds you well. To begin, I was drawn to this topic through social media posts that shared dozens of records detailing the abuse and deaths of hundreds of children in these therapy programs. I have often wondered, how can these programs be allowed to cause this amount of trauma to teens and children? This inspired me to look deeper into the troubled teen industry and understand why paid “caregivers” have put so many in danger. If we want to protect the wellbeing of these teens, we must find a solution to regulating these industries. Without increased laws and regulations we continue to place America’s children into potential death traps. Now what is a wilderness therapy program? Wilderness therapy programs, on the surface, seem like a promising solution for troubled teens, offering a blend of nature immersion and psychiatric support. However, the roots of the troubled teen industry date back to the 1970s, with reports of abuse surfacing early on. Shockingly, despite decades of outcry and documentation of fatalities, political inertia persists, and federal oversight remains lacking. It is understandable that parents want their children to be happy, respectful, and well-mannered. However, in an attempt to do what is right for their struggling child, parents may turn to the troubled teen industry. Currently, according to the American Bar Association, there are thousands of teenagers in these programs within the U.S, programs that often induce trauma and abuse, even causing the deaths of their children. So, why do parents continue to put their children into these programs? Is the fear of losing the “perfect” family leading parents to enrolling their children into these troubled teens’ wilderness programs? So why do parents enroll their children in these awful facilities? Simple answer: manipulation. The troubled teen industry (TTI) often manipulates parents through a series of insidious tactics. For instance, leveraging fear by exaggerating the risks associated with a child's behavior and creating a sense of imminent danger. Isolation tactics further reinforce this urgency, convincing parents that the facility is their sole recourse. These industries hire workers framed as “education consultants” that utilize high-pressure sales strategies to exploit parental anxiety, and present their TTI program as the only viable option. In an article by USAtoday, reporters held interviews of parents and teens who experienced a TTI program at Evoke, a Utah facility. "I was just an anxious mom. I loved (Katelyn) to death," Tessie, Katelyn’s mom, says, "I was so desperate and desperately wanting to save my child from herself" (USAtoday). Programs offer promises of rapid transformation and they prey on parental desperation for quick, easy fixes. Emotional manipulation adds another layer, playing on a parents guilt and insecurity. By showcasing selective success stories and controlling information flow, they obscure potential risks and alternatives. Stigmatizing the child's behavior further pressures parents into compliance, painting their facility as the sole refuge from societal judgment. "’[Evoke] just made it seem like (she was) such a rotten kid and that she couldn't come home after the wilderness program,’ Tessie says, instead [Evoke suggested] Katelyn go to an aftercare program” (USAtoday). In this web of manipulation, parents often find themselves coerced into decisions they later regret, unaware of the nuanced realities obscured by these tactics. In an article from the “Cafemoms” blog titled My Daughter Was a Victim of the 'Troubled Teen' Industry & It Haunts Me to This Day, a mother recounts her perspective of the tactics used by Island View (IV) treatment center to send her sixteen year old daughter to their facilities. “We trusted the [education consultant] when he said IV was the best program in the country and the best fit for Colleen. What the [education consultant] didn’t tell us was that the reason so many IV grads did so well after graduation is because nearly all of them went straight from IV to another residential treatment”(Cafemoms). Despite this, there is still hope for change. Imprint News wrote an article that focused on recent protests and youth advocates who were pushing congress to introduce new laws. Specifically, they discussed the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act. A main advocacy group aiming at these lawmakers is Breaking Code Silence, a group dedicated to advocating for young people who had experienced harm in a youth treatment center (Imprint News). Their main goal is to pass a Bill of Rights for all children in youth treatment centers (Imprint News). The article also mentions that Breaking Code Silence wants children to have guaranteed protection from physical restraint and monitored phone calls. They further require that children are provided with all the basic necessities (Imprint News). Paris Hilton, a well-known celebrity, discussed in a Washington post article when she was 16 years old when she was taken from her home by two men. This was a result of her parents signing her up for a teen wilderness program (Hilton). Hilton describes that she was beaten and malnourished throughout her time at a Utah Facility. In October 2021, she partnered with Breaking Code Silence and pushed for a reform that was signed into law last April (Hilton). In Utah, it is now mandatory for treatment centers to document any time that staff used physical restraint (Hilton). Immediately following they have to submit these reports to the Utah Office of Licensing (Hilton). It also prohibits programs from sedating residents or using mechanical restraints, such as handcuffs and chains (Hilton). Therefore, this proves that reforms can be implemented and that it is important to continue the fight for more. Without regulations these programs can run rampant and place hundreds of children in danger. Continuing to protest, collaborate with government officials, and raise awareness can, and will, eventually stop the persistence of these programs. Enforcing reports and proper care through the law is the only way to give teens struggling with mental illnesses in these programs a fighting chance to recover. On the other hand, supporters of the troubled teen industry have used studies and research to prove the effectiveness of these programs, one example being RedCliff Ascent. RedCliff Ascent is a wilderness therapy program that claims the effectiveness of wilderness therapy. In 2005, this company hired a researcher to study families and adolescents 2 years after the program. The results found that over 90% of adolescents found wilderness therapy as effective and 83% of adolescents were doing better. In another study by Dr. Steve Aldana, it was found that 91.4% of children experienced clinically significant improvement six months post program. The counter argument presented by RedCliff Ascent is not only biased as the research was initiated from a wilderness therapy company, but they do not provide a sample size. This is important because when making conclusive statements such as “Over 90% of adolescents contacted perceived wilderness therapy as effective” they could be talking about six out of seven children or two hundred out of two hundred twenty (RedCliff Ascent). Through further research, the same results can be presented without the use of wilderness therapy. An article by the American Psychology Association (APA) titled “Better options for troubled teens” presents a series of studies and programs that was created to help adolescents. These programs focus on community-based activities, activities to help connect teenagers with their parents, and activities that align with the teens interests. This includes computer labs, dance studios, and machine shops. These programs have found significant success in decreasing the amount of juvenile offenders from 50% to 4% in an area of Connecticut (APA). It did this by helping teens take accountability and understand their actions. It utilized role play, writing assignments, and guided discussions between the teens. Overall, the troubled teen industry has caused abuse, trauma, and death to many children across the United States. It is a trap for children and a trick for desperate parents. Through the personal stories from teens and parents, reports of mistreatment, and protests it can easily be seen the impact and the importance of preventing this industry from expanding, instead increasing regulations and transparency to protect America’s children. To keep these children safe it is imperative that everyone works together to enact legislation. Your support matters to keep America’s children protected.
Sincerely, A high school student trying to make positive change
Works Cited Brennan, Caleb, et al. “Youth Advocates Again Push Congress to Crack Down on ‘Troubled Teen’ Industry.” The Imprint, 19 Aug. 2022, Date Accessed Mar. 2 imprintnews.org/top-stories/youth-advocates-congress-troubled-teen-industry/67243.
DeAngelis, Tori. “Better Options for Troubled Teens.” https://www.apa.org, www.apa.org/monito2011/12/troubled-teens. Accessed Feb. 19
Hilton, Paris. “America’s ‘Troubled Teen Industry’ Needs Reform so Kids Can Avoid the Abuse I Endured.” Washington Post, 22 Oct. 2021, Date Accessed Feb. 5 www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/10/18/paris-hilton-child-care-facilities-a Buse-reform.
Krebs, Catherine E. Five Facts About the Troubled Teen Industry. 22 Oct. 2021 Date Accessed Apr. 23 www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/resources/newsletters/childrens-rights/five-facts-about-troubled-teen-industry.
Moniuszko, Sara M. “Wilderness therapy was supposed to help these ‘troubled teens.’ It traumatized them instead.” UsaToday, 8 Dec. 2022, Date Accessed Apr. 15 www.usatoday.com/in-depth/life/health-wellness/2022/12/08/wilderness-therapy-troubled-teen-industry/9890694002.
Parenting, baby names, celebrities, and royal news CafeMom.com. 14 Oct. 2022, Date Accessed Apr. 19 https://cafemom.com/parenting/troubled-teen-industry-island-view
RedCliff Ascent. “Does Wilderness Therapy Work?” Wilderness Therapy for Teens Needing Mental Health Treatment RedCliff Ascent, 10 Jan. 2023, Date Acessed Feb. 21 www.redcliffascent.com/wilderness-therapy-program/does-wilderness-therapy-work

Just graduated high school trying to decide on a major. I have loved architecture my whole life and spend all of my time drawing and making models and think I'd enjoy taking it in school. What worries me is all the posts talking about how competitive it is. Given that I am going to a no name not accredited school what are my chances at getting a job in architecture after graduating with a degree in architectural studies. Or should I just start towards mechanical engineering which I'm not super drawn to but it sounds like more guaranteed stability and money later on. I'm okay with underpaid as long as it's liveable but as I understand it demand is already low and declining.

Hey All, I have been testing many CEDH decks to bring into tournament play with an 80 min timer for consideration. I've narrowed it down to 4 decks with their pro's and con's. I would love to hear thoughts from vets and new cedh players alike on my thought process. The moxfields don't have primers made yet since a lot of the lines take inspiration from already made lists. I'll make rounds of this post in a couple reddit/discord groups.
Tasigur Broodlord; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/mnfcR1cMaUy5HvKgW_Jx7g
Pros
-Extremely Fast Combos, Potential to win turn 2-3 consistently
-Plays through stacks pretty well being more creature heavy with different lines available
-Commander can grind and manipulate through a table pretty consistently
-Easy fixing off 3 color manabase, no difficulty casting spells
-Large interaction
-Slightly off meta, mindslaver effects are ineffective unless opponent has piloted before
Cons
-Susceptible to graveyard hate
-Thoracle line available to praetor's grasp players
-Broodhoard line is interactable and non deterministic
-Slower and less card advantage than meta decks without Nezahal/Rhystic
Derevi Flicker Tempo; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/dE09DZy4uUekq_H-SRXFwA
Pros
-Cheats Commander Tax/Casts, ability to turn off an attack or turn on a land for politics can be relevant
-Stax Interaction can beat out breach and consultation decks pretty strong, plays through its own stax well
-Attack plan is strong against ad nauseum players, toolbox creatures lets creativity into deck plan
-Evades removal using blinks and taxes, allowing it to snowball easily
Cons
-Meta/Well-Known, lines can be predictable
-Susceptible to Wipes/Removal from Value Commanders like Niv-Mizzet
-Flying creatures don't play well into kraum decks
-Possible to turn off interaction from other decks at table but doesn't pack a lot of interaction on its own, will likely lose counterspell battles
-Decks win condition is non-deterministic and slow, will just lose to a table with 2 or more turbo decks like Rogsi/BlueFarm
Hermit Pod; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/tb_hmrXsREODeXOK6q4cRA
Pros
-Premier Toolbox/Stax Deck with strong interactivity despite being non-blue, a card exists for every situation
-Card advantage always available with Tymna
-Stax pieces are extremely strong against Breach Lines
-Strong Recursion available, card removal rarely effects the decks ability to win
Cons
-Extremely Linear Gameplan, Graveyard hate and removal of Kiki makes winning difficult
-Double Pip spells in 4 color deck can make for awkward color fixing situations even with perfect mana base
-Deck's win lines are slow and involve multiple interactible pieces fitting together, making winning in an 80 min setting possibly difficult
-Is meant to be the anti-blue deck at the table, off meta decks are sure to beat it
Maelstrom Wanderer; https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3KFo3A_72EKA7J-1wgKMrQ
Pros
-Extremely Fast, can win out of nowhere and take advantage of opponents board states easily
-Offmeta, unlikely that players will interact with anything that isn't so obviously problematic
-Beatdown plan is super relevant despite not having the Slicer clock.
-Creative ways to avoid breach loss, large creatures scare off Tymna/Kraum/Najeela
-"Biorhythm" Win available with ease in CEDH due to big evasive creatures being able to get through 9 life.
Cons
-Interaction is typically saved for game losing situations
-Draw power is pretty minimal, Rhystic, Fish-Stick, Library
-Cascade RNG can cause a fizzle and wasted resources
-Loses steam and gameplan to meta stax pieces (Drannith, Rule of Law Effects, Interrupter) without decent removal options.
-Dead cards in hand once the linear gameplan is executed

Last June, I [27M, 26 at the time] was being medically discharged from the Army. I decided that going back to school would help me further my passion for a career in sports. 4 weeks until my discharge I was accepted into a top 25 uni; one of my top choices. The day I got out of the Army, I hopped on the road and went started to make my way to campus for orientation (I had less than 36 hours before it began).
The summer and fall semester was great, I actually felt as if I belonged and for once in my life, I was starting to enjoy school. Until I was hit with a major bump in the road. During winter break (first week of January) I was hit with a No Contact Order by a Title IX, out of nowhere. Apparently, a classmate was told by another classmate (gossip) that I referred to her as a b word (which I never did, anything I said about her was out of love and respect) but all of this year I was treated as if I were some “demon”. The cohort ostracized me and Title IX was treating me like I committed some crime. My program directors said they were going to support me but every time I spoke to them I felt as if they hated me and that I was not welcomed. I knew this feeling all too well for I had just experienced it not even a year ago. All of my friends had been given orders to be stationed all over the world and I was the only one of my training class still stateside; I was alone.
Fast forward, I’ve had to relieve this experience yet again. I graduated this past Saturday, my struggle had finally met its conclusion but I still feel this anger and betrayal. That girl nor my former classmates never apologized for what she and they did, how I was alienated from social gatherings. Despite me trying to apologize to her before the order was given she said she didn’t care, so I left it as it was. I had a meeting with Title IX in late April, they had told me this order was meant as protection for both of us but I expressed my pain and frustration, stating “this was never protection, it was retaliation”. My experience was ruined, trust in the university was eviscerated. They asked if they could initiate some restoration conversations with my cohort but I told them “damage is done, we’re 3 weeks from graduation; they don’t give a sh**”.
Sorry for this lengthy thread but I’ve had to fight this grueling battle since January, my question is should I try another 1 year program somewhere else to cancel out this bad experience? Also, how do I not hate my alma mater when it was mainly the students and faculty who I had a problem with? Thank you all in advance.

I'm genuinely asking, I don't know 😭 Honestly when I did the 2.1 trailblaze mission it was like 4 am when I finished it and the only thing I remember from it was Aventurine's past, Kakavasha, the ten stonehearts, Dr. Ratio betraying Aventurine and giving the stones to Sunday, Archeron, and Aventurine's boss. Honestly I don't know if I missed something or need to do another mission or complete the 2.2 trailbaze mission or sum, but I honestly didn't saw much things or connection between them for me to ship. Honestly I kinda dislike it not for the ship itself but for the people drawing NSFW art and making Dr. Ratio say stuff to aventurine like "Are you provoking me?" In a sexual way when it's probably that Aventurine MIGHT be implied to have been SA since he was a slave, but that can also not be case since it's not confirmed. Anyhow... Could y'all explain it to me the ship or why do people ship them and if there's a reason? I mean I know you don't have to have a reason to ship them, but I'm just confused..

I havent played magic since duels of the planes walkers came out on the xbox 360 and i can tell the games changed alot. I also spent like an hour making a deck that seemed like it was good only to draw 2 land cards the entire game and lose. I googled and it said keep 1/3 of your deck for mana. Would love some advice or anything to help me get back into it because i loved it back in the day and want to try again

The stress of the last six months has nearly killed me. Besides the general cratering of the outside world—political strife, climate change, inflated rents, corporate greed, and the baffling resurgence of crew socks—my internal life was falling apart, too. I'm at the point where I can't see a way out of the darkness, and that feeling has only grown in the last few days.
My struggles ramped up exponentially in the last two weeks. It started when my long-term girlfriend and I called it quits after five years. There was no definitive relationship-altering fight or infidelity. It was simply the boring banality of the "roommate-ification" of our lives together. We both felt the shift but never talked about it. Turns out communication is important.
Truthfully, we'd stayed together for so long because we couldn't afford to live apart. Our rent had nearly doubled the last time we re-upped our lease but even that was a bargain compared to what was out there currently. We were trapped by our need to have a roof over our heads.
My job had stagnated, and I couldn't find anything better. I was stuck. Like me, she'd been job hunting as well. Unlike me, she had a master's, and her prospects should've been higher. They weren't. For five months, she applied to hundreds of jobs and couldn't break through. If she got a rejection email, it was a win. Most of the time, the companies never responded.
Finally, she found a great opportunity at a Fortune 500 company. It was an involved process. She nailed the five interviews, and her "test project" was well received. She was offered the position, and it came with a massive pay increase—double her current salary. I was proud of her—she needed a win. We celebrated with pizza and beer that night.
Two days later, she dropped the bomb that she was breaking things off. The relationship ending wasn't a surprise. The timing was. The discussion was brief, and there was zero chance of reconciliation. She declined when I asked if she could stay until the lease ended. Mentally, it would've been too much for her. Two days after that, she moved out, taking half the rent with her. I was stuck in a lease I couldn't afford on my salary for the next six months.
My free time evaporated as I took on two extra gigs to help make ends meet. In addition to my office nine to five, I drove for a delivery app on the weekends and took a part-time night job stocking shelves at a local grocery store. When I wasn't hustling for housing, I slept or ate. I did nothing beyond that. Nothing brings me joy. There is no spark.
This drudgery has become my daily routine, and it's killing me.
To help cover some cost gaps, I've started selling off some of my stuff online. It was just me here, and I decided that the Spartan lifestyle would have to work for now. Anything I could fetch a decent amount for went up for sale. My apartment is so empty now every noise causes an echo.
Before my shift at the grocery store, I agreed to meet someone who wanted to take a look at my kitchen table. It was a lovely table – my ex had obsessed over it – but I didn't see a need at the moment. Now that I was a bachelor, my TV trays became my default kitchen tables anyway. I wasn't planning on any dinner parties in the future anyway.
A couple showed up later than they said they would. It was a bored-looking guy and a fastidious young woman. She made friendly small talk as she looked over the table. Her boyfriend (I think) stayed quiet and played bodyguard. I gave him a friendly nod at one point, and he just looked away. She said they'd take it without trying to talk me down. I took the small win.
She asked if I could help carry it down to their truck. I was running late, but feeling helpful, even for a fleeting few seconds, was worth it. Her silent boyfriend and I hauled the table through the hallway and even managed to avoid hitting the walls the entire way down.
I placed it in their truck, got my money, and turned to leave. The girl said thanks, and the boyfriend finally returned the nod. I gave a weird half-wave to them both and started to walk away when I heard the passenger window being rolled down.
"Hey man," the boyfriend said, his voice higher pitched than I thought it would. "What was up with your brother giving us the evil eye in the lobby when we got here?"
I turned around, "Huh? I don't have a brother."
"A cousin then?"
"My family lives about a thousand miles away. What happened in the lobby?"
"A dude that looked just like you was hiding in a dark hallway in the lobby and staring at my girl's ass."
"Jacob, really," she said.
"I'm sorry that happened, but I had nothing to do with it. We do have the occasional homeless guy meander in. Maybe you saw one of them," I said. "Did he say or do anything bad?"
"Jacob, I asked you to not say something," the girl said, burying her head in her hands.
Jacob's frosty attitude to me made sense now. "He said something about running up that ass. I dunno, he was mumbling. I told him I'd beat his ass if he didn't stop staring. Seemed to shut him up."
"Oh. Well, congrats," I said. "I'll tell the manager. Thanks for letting me know."
"You should do a better job keeping jokers like that out of the building."
"Jacob, he's not a security guard."
"He should still be a man and protect his home."
"Have a good night," I said, ending the conversation and heading back up to my apartment. I had about five minutes to change and head out before I'd be late. Last thing my ego needed was to be fired from my backup job.
Thankfully, I was able to slip into work and not get spotted by my boss. That was the last of the good news, though. We had a massive weekly order come in, which meant I'd be there late, plus someone had called out. Worse, our hand truck had a flat tire, and I spent the next few hours torturing my muscles, schlepping heavy boxes around the store. I soldiered on, counting down the minutes until I left and fantasizing about going to bed for the night.
If wishing for sleep wasn't a sad statement to my mental well-being, nothing was.
I came home after my shift at the grocery store and plopped down on the couch. I had contemplated selling it, but it was an older Ikea number, and I didn't think the value would replace my desire to sit. I could feel my body sink into the cushions, and the day's tension seep out. I was beat and tired to the point that turning on the TV was a chore.
I picked up my phone and thought I'd doomscroll until sleep overtook me. I didn't expect it to be a long scroll, as even the methadone that is my phone has failed me lately. As I lowered myself from a slumped position to a supine one, I heard footsteps outside my apartment door. This was not unusual, but the noise I heard sounded like kid footsteps. That was unusual, as nobody on our floor had kids, and it was almost midnight.
Despite my body screaming at me to not move, my brain suggested I check it out. I rolled myself off the couch and eventually stood up. I listened again and heard the kid running down the hallway. I walked over to my door and looked out the peephole. I didn't see anyone.
"Maybe I'm dreaming," I said to myself. "Maybe I'm not staring out a peephole, expecting to see a kid running down the hall at midnight, but instead, I'm cuddled up in my bed, snoozing." I pinched my arm and felt the pain. I was definitely in the waking world.
I turned to head back to the couch when I heard the running again, this time louder. I opened my door and peeked out into the hallway. Nobody was there. The door from the apartment across me opened up, too. Gloria, a young at heart grandma who was friendly/constantly buzzed in a wine mom kind of way, gave me a once over.
"You heard that, too?" she asked.
"Kids?"
"No rugrats around. I assumed it was some drunk assholes stumbling home from the bar."
I laughed. Gloria was, as always, blunt. "I didn't see any assholes," I said.
"Then you're not watching the right kind of internet videos," she said with a wink and a hoarse cackle.
I blushed. How do you respond to that? I just kind of nodded in agreement and shrugged.
"Gotta get your jollies while you can," she said before adding, "You need some rest, dear. You look like hammered shit." She shut her door and went back inside.
She was right. I felt like hammered shit. Since I wasn't going to solve the case of the mysterious runner and was sure it wasn't some lost kid, I decided to call it a night. I went back inside, shut down the apartment, and crawled into bed.
I thought about watching one of the "right kind of internet videos" but fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.
***
"Your problem is you think the world owes you something."
John, my elderly coworker at the grocery store, was standing by while I unloaded a pallet of cereal. I liked John, and when I first started, we instantly clicked. He's quick with a joke and fun to talk to. He's also about thirty years older than me and speaks with the Boomer combination of accumulated wisdom, backhanded compliments, and fringe conspiracy nonsense. Still, regardless of how couched the kindness is in gobbledygook, he's usually coming from a good place.
"What?" I said, putting a box of Captain Crunch on the shelf.
"You're complaining about your situation, right? Saying it ain't fair. The world took a paddle to your hind quarters? Hey brother, that's the way the cookie crumbles. Gotta just pick yourself up and start over. You're smart enough – figured this job out right quick – you can do it."
The job was wheeling pallets around the store and stocking shelves. It wasn't much to figure out, but I understood his meaning. The other stuff wasn't necessary, though. "I'm just in a funk. I don't see a way forward."
"Hey, so you've bottomed out. No shame in that. Happens to us all. Silver lining, you can only go up," he said before adding, "Unless some other bad shit happens to you like your car dies or your apartment building burns down. But after that, it's only up."
"The apartment building burning down would be a blessing," I said, hoisting another little Captain on the shelf. "The rent is killing me."
"Have you tried negotiating a lower rent? They used to do that when I was your age."
"I think they'd evict me if I even asked."
"Hell, then you'd have at least thirty days, maybe forty, before they'd kick you out. Plenty of time to turn things around."
"Uh-huh," I said, "Any chance you could give me a hand here?"
"My back is screaming like a pretty young thing after prom," he said, holding his back for emphasis.
I didn't push. "Hey, I meant to tell you about some weird shit that happened the other night."
"Lay it on me. I love the strange."
"So, after my shift the other day, I got home around midnight and was flopped on the couch. I heard someone running down the hallway outside my apartment. I wasn't the only one. A few other neighbors heard it, too. When we checked, though, nobody was there."
"That ain't strange," John said, waving his hand, "that's a man who's plowing another man's wife running for his life."
I laughed. "That's not the weird part. So, for the next two nights, it's the same thing. Around midnight, someone runs down the hallway. Only this time, they're trying the door handles as they pass. So, I asked the front desk to check the security cameras, and they do."
"They see a man running away holding his clothes?"
"There wasn't anyone running down the hall," I said, "But the weird thing was, you could see the door handles turning on the video."
"Damn, that's a good one," John said, "You sure it wasn't just a camera glitch. These new ones from overseas aren't as reliable as they want you to think. Chinese probably using them to spy on you, too."
He continued as my brain tried to reconcile John's two opposing comments. "Weird shit happens at night, man. Before working here, I only worked the day shift. Even when they offered me more money to work nights, I turned it down. Even when they promised me a promotion, I turned them down."
In a previous life, John had worked as a paramedic. He came by it after serving in a medical unit in the army. He'd told me he loved the rush of the job, but after a while, the death and hurt in people's eyes got to be too much to handle. But he worked there for almost twenty years. So, the man had a tolerance for shenanigans and odd occurrences.
"Why'd you agree to work nights here?"
"Shit, we're home before the witching hour. This is like late afternoons, at best. But if it was overnights, hell no. Captain Crunch can anchor his own ship to the shelves. I'd take my ass to 7-11 for a day shift before agreeing to work an overnight."
"Something happen to you during the army?”
“I got the clap,” he offered.
I sighed. “What turned you off nights?"
"Oh. I heard enough stories from coworkers to know I didn't want to experience any of that hoo-doo shit," he said, "trying to save someone's life is hard enough without adding in demon kids and ghosts."
"Did your coworkers see demon kids?" I asked, moving on from the good Captain to the Trix rabbit.
He nodded, "They saw too much. I find it odd, even with all the surveillance we have now and all the science we know about these days, that the night still scares us. You ever know someone who worked a night shift?"
I had. My ex. During college, she worked the overnight desk at a hotel for a while. She quit because the job gave her bad vibes. I told John as much.
He pointed and laughed, "See! Don't you find it odd that every person who works at night always has a story of something eerie happening to them? Every person, buster. That's what they call an irrefutable fact."
"Maybe the ghost running down the hallway is an old employee still doing his rounds."
"In that case, keep that door double locked. I'd even wedge a towel under the door just in case."
"Maybe they're friendly? Casper-like in that way."
"You ever heard someone tell you about a friendly ghost outside the funny papers?"
"I'm sure it happens," I said, "The scary ghosts are more popular though."
“We think we know everything there is to know but we are just babes in the woods when it comes to night things.” John shook his head. "Imma tell you one or three things that happened to a guy I worked with back when I first got hired on to chase after corpses in the ambo. Guy's name was Gil. Quiet man, kept to himself. Didn't rock the boat or demand a bigger paddle. Just rowed with us. Good cat to learn under," John said, finally handing me a cereal box.
I took it, and he kept going, "Now, Gil, ya see, he had a little wifey that would pester him about working days. She was a cop and worked evenings at that time, so they never saw each other. When married people can't align their genitals every now and then, it spells doom."
"A little too much information but sure," I said, shelving another box of Trix.
"Probably part of what happened with you and yours," he said. He wasn't wrong, but that didn't mean I wanted to hear it.
John kept on, "Gil finally got approved to move to nights. Little pay boost and a happy, 'fulfilled' wife should've made that man happy. But it didn't. I saw him a few months later, and he had changed. He might've been quiet when he was working with me, but he'd talk to you if you engaged. When I saw him that time, though, oh boy. He looked sick."
"Wasn't a fan of working nights?"
"Wasn't a fan of living anymore is the feeling I got," John said, "After some prodding, he got to talking with me some. Told me he missed days because the nights were messing with him. I thought it had to do with the schedule change, but that wasn't the case. He said he saw things in the dark he couldn't explain. Things that would turn James Brown into James White, ya dig?"
"I...dig," I said.
"Told me they got a call to an abandoned apartment building one night, around three in the morning. Wasn't unusual. Old buildings in the city are where hop-heads congregate and share drugs. Sometimes, the drugs are too much. Sometimes, they find a person passed out or, worse, dead. When you work in the ambo, you aren't scared of death like a civilian. You've been around it. Probably seen a few folks take their last breaths. It doesn't bother you the way Mother Nature intended it should."
He handed me another box, continuing his assist streak, and kept going, "Ambo pulled up, Gil stepped out and looked for someone to talk to. Nobody there, though. Not uncommon. Some people want to help but not be involved. There's not a soul around. He calls out, but nothing comes back. Tells me he turns to get back in the ambulance when he hears a scream from inside the run-down building. They're calling for help. He's gotta go in the abandoned building in the dark."
"No thanks," I said.
"But it don't bother a medic like that. Gil's done a million of these calls. No big deal. He runs into that building but doesn't come back out until twenty minutes later. Just goes missing. After five, the crew heads in to back him up but can't find him. Gil tells me his crew called the cops. It was like he had vanished."
"What happened?"
"I asked him and he got real quiet. Said he fell into some place that looked like here but wasn't here. Said he felt their eyes on him. Judging him. Told me they followed him home and wouldn't leave him be."
"Who?"
John shrugged, "He didn't say. Shut down after that and left. Just walked past me like I was shit on the sidewalk. He quit about a week later. Heard he had a stroke a year later and was a tombstone owner three months after that. Good guy, though."
"Your aversion to overnights makes a little more sense."
"Never in a million years. You don't want something like that coming after you."
"In my case, could it get much worse?" I said with a half-smile.
"Man, I wouldn't even joke about that," he said, making the sign of the cross, "You don't want that shit attachin' itself to you. With your luck, you'd bring him in here, and it'd hop over to me. I can't have a ghost crimping my style."
After a bit, he got called away to sign off on a delivery. I finished out my shift and headed out to the parking lot. When I exited the building and spotted my car, I froze. My doors were all open, and the interior lights were on. Someone had broken in.
I glanced around the lot to see if the thief was still around, but there wasn't another person near me. I walked over to the car and peered inside. My glovebox had been ripped open, and my registration was pulled out, but nothing else was missing.
I found little hand prints in the dirt all along the body and the windows. I held mine up for comparison, and they were about half the size. It must've been some tweens or teens who did this. Maybe they were going to steal some things and got cold feet. I contemplated calling the cops, but since nothing had happened and they wouldn't do anything anyway, there was no reason to delay sleep any longer than I had to. I closed all the doors and climbed inside.
I started the car and heard something rattling in the AC vents. I pulled out my phone and shined the light at the vent. There was a small piece of paper inside. I looked around my car for some tool to pull it out and only found an ink pen and a bent-up paperclip. After McGuyvering the vent for a bit, the paper finally came out.
I held it up and unfolded it. There was a handwritten note. It simply read, "I know you're here. I know you're hiding him. I will find you both, and then it'll be your turn to run the race. We all have to run at some point."
I had no idea what that meant, but my body still provided goosebumps. Who was trying to find me? Who was the second person? Why leave a note in my AC vent? What the hell did run the race mean? I hadn't run a race since elementary school and wasn't planning to do so any time soon. Did they mean the rat race? Because I was basically marathoning that motherfucker already.
"Jesus Christ," I said, shaking my head. "What else, universe?"
As if it were a well-practiced comedy routine, the universe responded. My back passenger door swung open, and I heard footsteps running away from my car. I sprung up and scrambled to get out. There wasn't anyone else in the lot that I could see, but very clearly, someone had been hiding in my backseat.
My nerves were shot already, and this was not something I wanted to deal with at the moment. My brain decided that to avoid a breakdown, I needed to shift into automatic mode and just get back to the safety of my apartment. I'd be more prepared to deal with this – whatever it was – in the morning.
Either that or I'd jump in front of a bus. Both sounded satisfying, albeit in different ways.
***
"There he is," Gloria said as soon as I turned down the hallway. I looked up and noticed a small cabal of my neighbors standing in a semi-circle, waiting for me. They all look displeased.
"Hey guys," I said, confused. "I miss an invite for a block party?"
"What do you have to say for yourself?"
"About?"
"Don't play dumb," another neighbor said, jabbing their finger in my direction.
"I'm not playing," I said, realizing the self-burn only after the words escaped my lips.
Gloria showed me the screen on her phone. It was a static shot of her door from across the hall. She pressed play, and nothing happened for a beat until something darted across the screen. That was the whole thing. I looked up at her, my face twisted up in confusion.
"Well," she said, "What do you have to say?"
"What was that?" I asked.
"That was you!" the pointing neighbor said, pointing harder than I thought possible.
"What?" I said, laughing. "Are you all serious?" They didn't laugh, and I realized they weren't joking. "How can you even tell it's me? It's a blur. Never mind the fact I've been at work for the last five hours. Plus, this blur is half my size. I get we're all weirded out about the Phantom Runner, but it's not me. I swear to God. I don't even have the energy to think about running, let alone the physical desire to."
"Then explain this," Gloria said, slightly swaying from the half bottle of Pinot Noir coursing through her blood. She rewound the video and froze it on a specific frame. I couldn't believe my eyes, but I was looking at...me. Or, rather, something pretending to be me.
"What the fuck?" I said, my jaw dropping.
"Still think we're lying?" the pointer said smugly.
"No, but, guys, this isn't me. I... I've been at work. Wanna see my schedule?"
I reached into my phone and pulled it out. There was an email with my work schedule that confirmed what I was saying. They relaxed, and, for the first time, anger gave way to fear. Their very plausible explanation was suddenly invalid. It left two implausible answers floating in the ether: either I had a pint-sized doppelganger terrorizing the hallways of my apartment, or a ghost was haunting the building.
"I'm...gonna go inside," the pointer said, walking back to their home. Everyone else drifted away until it was just Gloria and I standing alone in the hallway.
She looked at me and sighed, "I feel like an asshole," she said. "Sorry I accused you of causing the racket."
"If I had seen the video, I would've thought the same thing," I said. "We're good."
"What do you think it is?" she asked.
I shrugged and let out an exhausted sigh. "Honestly, Gloria, I've had a screwed-up night already, and this is the cherry on top of the shit sundae; forgive my language. I don't have the mental bandwidth to even comprehend what's on the video at the moment."
"Think it's after you?" she asked, though I suspected the wine had forced her to put that idea out into the universe. As I had already seen, the universe seemed to take requests on my behalf.
"Maybe it's after you?" I said, coming off a little meaner than I intended, but I didn't care. I left her there to contemplate that scenario and went into my apartment.
As soon as the door shut behind me, I felt on edge. Just because I didn't have the mental bandwidth to discuss the doppelganger didn't mean it wasn't dominating my thoughts. I saw the frame of the video. The damn ghost looked exactly like me. What could that possibly mean? I know I had wished for death, but I was very still alive. I had rent due to prove that.
Did I happen to live in a place haunted by a ghost that looked strikingly like me? Was it some kid with a passing resemblance just causing chaos? Was it something else I couldn't even comprehend – an alien? A clone? A secret government project?
There was a thumping coming from the hallway. The mini Usain Bolt was at it again. I knew the neighbors would ignore it. Since they had all thought it was me, which was proven to be untrue, they would avoid the running man from now on. While curious and confused by the creature, they'd never put themselves in harm's way to discover what it was. They were not a brave lot.
Neither was I, but maybe my life crumbling around me had forced my hand. I walked over to my door and swung it open. I hit record on my phone, stuck it out like a periscope, and glanced around the hallway. Nobody was there. No neighbors were looking. No person was running.
"You gotta stop, man. I need to go to sleep," I said to the empty space. No response, not that I was expecting one.
I turned to walk back in, and I caught something out of the corner of my eye. A face at the end of the hallway peeked around the corner. For a quick second, we locked eyes, and it was like I was looking into a mirror. This thing was me. But...how?
I tried to get it on video, but it ducked back into the shadows. I took that as a cue to shut and lock my door. My heart was racing, and I didn't want to think about this anymore, but I couldn't help it. There was a me in the hallway who enjoyed pestering my neighbors. Worse, they liked to run for some ungodly reason.
I put my phone on the counter, the video still rolling, when there was a knock at my door. It echoed in my near-empty apartment. I tried to ignore it and convince myself it was something else, but it wasn't. The ghost was knocking on my door. Even with my brain paralyzed, I couldn't help but think that it was awfully polite to knock.
Another knock, this one more forceful. I wondered if the neighbors thought I was making this up?
"I know you're in there," a voice said. It sounded just like me. "This is about the race. We all have to run the race. It's your turn now."
I froze. My legs went wobbly like a boxer on the brink of a blackout, but I stayed tall. I opened my mouth to speak and found the words dying in my throat. I grabbed a nearby bottle of water and took a chug.
"We all have to run the race."
"What race?" I choked out, "What are you talking about?"
"Open up. They're in there already, and I need to get them."
I glanced all around my empty apartment. I didn't see anyone else in here. I didn't hear anything. Whatever this thing was, it was lying. I grabbed my phone and held it in my hand. I wanted to document this to prove that I wasn't crazy.
“Did you leave the note?”
“I know they’re in there with you,” it repeated.
"There's no one in here," I said.
"They're hiding. I think I know where. I can hear them."
"You've gotta get out of here," I said. "There's nothing here, and you're scaring people."
"I'm scared, and you should be! You have to run the race, man! Open up, and I can show you."
The handle started to shake. I peered through the keyhole and only saw the top of the other me's head. They began to shoulder the door, and it crunched against my nose. I screamed out in pain and stumbled back. I tripped over my feet and landed hard on my ass.
The thing slammed into the door two more times, shaking the walls. The strength seemed unnatural. On the third hit, the door burst open. I finally got a view of the thing. It was me. Scaled down by half, but it was me. We both seemed shocked.
"You're so much taller up close," the other me said.
"Who the fuck are you?"
I felt a buzzing in my feet that seemed to climb up my body until it reached my brain. There was an intense pain that rippled through the folds of my mind. Through the pain, I could hear a disembodied voice whisper, "We all must run the race. We all have to run. Chase it. Chase yourself." It felt like my skull was going to split in two. I clutched the sides of my head and let out a primal scream that hurt my own ears.
Then it was gone. But I could still feel the echoes in my mind. "We all have to run the race. We all have to run." The thought would waver between making no sense and making complete sense. One second, I was questioning what was happening to my mind, and the next, all I felt was the desire to continue the race.
"There he is!" the other me yelled, pointing at the hallway.
I glanced over and saw another version of me standing in the hallway. It was half the size of the other me that had broken into my place. When tiny me locked eyes with my intruder, he ran for the open hallway closet.
The other me followed, screaming that it would catch the little bastard if it was the last thing he'd do. I pushed myself up to my feet and felt queasy. I watched as the other me ran head-first into the closet without slowing. I expected to hear a loud thump as it hit the back wall but none came.
"We all have to run the race," the voice in my head said, soothing my nerves. "It's your time to run the race."
I moved down the hallway, each footfall echoing loudly in the empty apartment, each step bringing me closer to the closet door. Something was drawing me there. The voice's words echoed in my mind as well: "We all have to run the race. It's your turn now."
I grabbed the door and stopped. Something was compelling me to move forward. To go into the closet. To chase myself. To run the race.
"No," I whispered and yanked my hand from the door. I pulled out my still recording phone, and stared into the camera. My face was devoid of color, and you could see the fear etched into me. "I'm freaking out because...because…"
I stopped. I felt an invisible hand grab my body and tug. "Because...because if I don't run the race, something bad will happen. I have to chase it. I...I have to."
My phone dropped from my hand, and I didn’t care. The force pulling me forward stopped but my body kept going. I could feel the last strands of my rational mind splintering. My thoughts became focused on one thing: I had to catch myself, find out what was happening, and run the race. If I ran, maybe I'd win.
I needed a win.
I walked into the back of the closet and felt a door handle sticking out of the wall. I'd been in that closet a million times before and never had seen this. But a sense of calm washed over me. This….this was supposed to be here. This was perfectly fine.
I turned the handle and pulled open the invisible door. In front of me was a hallway that looked strikingly like the one outside my apartment. At the end of the hallway, I saw Gloria step out of their home to leave for the night. She was huge. Twice my size, easy.
Another door opened, and I saw...me—a giant version of me. The Hulk version of me was getting ready to go to the grocery store for work. I watched as the giant Gloria and giant me joked and laughed. I was stunned.
I stared, and a new thought came to me. I have to find the smaller me and talk to it. I needed to find out if there's a way out of this...this….
"It's your turn to run," the voice said.
Calm embraced me. "It's my turn to run," I repeated. As the giant me took off and the giant Gloria re-entered her apartment, the hallway beckoned.
"We all have to run the race," I said softly, "It's my turn now."
I started running.

It seems before the pandemic I had no trouble impressing women with my music, even drawing some tears (we gotta show off our medals) and they would often still hang out with me after we might date and ask me about any songs that I wrote about them. I thought it was kinda selfish, wanting to be around me just because I could adore them with my talent, but then again I biologically am attracted to women who are also genetically gifted so to me, I take it as a blessing that I could have attracted friends and romance just because I was born a certain way.
But today that sentiment seems to be all but gone- I would bring my ukulele on a bus and sing pre-pandemic and everyone would be hollering and clapping along, feeling as if they were in a real-life tik tok or something, often phones would come out. Even busking I would encounter phones coming out at least once every time I did, and could expect an average of 40$ an hour and plenty of praise. Nowadays? 15 dollars, tops, and while people were eager to give before and often apologized they had no money, 100% of my givers are right-lipped and seem reluctant. I play on the bus now and nobody says a word, not even looking at me and smiling. For an experiment yesterday, I told a girl I was sitting next to that I just was wanting to practice and set a musical ambience and started to play the ukulele and she left almost immediately.
So ladies, would you be impressed by a good street performer or even open mic player who hasn’t figured out how to make it professionally yet, or perhaps never will even but still is passionate? And I mean, with music that personally moves you, and you could see it moving a lot of people personally if there was good collaboration for, say the arrangement. Is music appreciated as a passion even if it might not make full-time money? I think the average male doesn’t have enough money to live independently in the US if I am not mistaken so let’s just say for this scenario, the wage is “average”.

I can't be seen by others and tell them much about anything unlike any extrovert because I've never had any trust in most of the people, and mainly my family
I hate talking with them, they only repeat and clarify their actions on me again and again, and question any of my thoughts or acts that deviate from theirs and ask again why I'm so weird and so different from others
and this sequence of events just repeat in one session so much, and always futile to teach any conclusions
Why they can't be aware of themselves being a complete fogey forcing their own desires on others about things they totally don't understand and do themselves
and I just need to get involved in this vicious circle with them, making futile arguements only to get them repeat themselves again and again
Like I'm just being pressed down to listen to a series of braimwashing ever badly done in the worst way to my face just by clarifying and justifying their actions and intentions again and again, and in the end no point could still be made
can they just die

Item #: SCP-7022
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7022, known by its stage name "Luca Lush," is to be contained in a standard humanoid containment cell at Site-17. The cell must be equipped with soundproofing materials to prevent the spread of any auditory anomalies. SCP-7022 is permitted supervised access to musical instruments and recording equipment, provided they are not connected to any external networks and all content is reviewed by Level 3 personnel.
Interaction with SCP-7022 is limited to research personnel with Level 3 clearance or higher. All personnel interacting with SCP-7022 must undergo regular psychological evaluations to monitor for any anomalous effects.
Description: SCP-7022 is a male human of approximately 30 years of age, identifying himself as "Luca Lush," a well-known electronic music producer and DJ. SCP-7022 possesses the ability to create music that induces various anomalous effects in listeners. These effects vary depending on the composition, including but not limited to:

• Euphoria: Listeners experience intense feelings of happiness and contentment.
• Hyperactivity: Increased physical activity and energy levels.
• Altered Perception: Distorted sense of time, space, and reality.
• Compulsive Behavior: An uncontrollable urge to dance or move rhythmically.
• Hallucinations: Visual and auditory hallucinations directly related to the music being played.

These effects can manifest within minutes of exposure and have been observed to persist for varying durations after the music has ceased. The intensity and duration of these effects appear to be correlated with the complexity and tempo of the music.
Addendum 7022-A: Discovery
SCP-7022 was discovered after reports of unusual behavior at several of its live performances, where attendees exhibited extreme reactions to the music. Foundation agents embedded in the music industry flagged SCP-7022's activities, leading to an investigation and subsequent containment.
Addendum 7022-B: Incident Log
Incident 7022-1: Date: ██/██/20██ Details: During initial containment, SCP-7022 was provided with a synthesizer to demonstrate its abilities. The resulting composition caused researchers to experience intense euphoria and compulsive dancing, leading to minor injuries. The experiment was terminated, and all affected personnel were administered Class-B amnestics.
Incident 7022-2: Date: ██/██/20██ Details: SCP-7022 produced a track that induced a state of hyperactivity and aggression in D-Class personnel, resulting in a containment breach. SCP-7022 was temporarily sedated, and stricter supervision was implemented during subsequent testing sessions.
Interview Log 7022-3:
Interviewer: Dr. █████ Interviewee: SCP-7022

Dr. █████: Good afternoon, SCP-7022. Can you describe how you create your music?
SCP-7022: It’s all about the vibe, man. I mix sounds and rhythms that resonate with people on a deeper level. It’s like tapping into their emotions directly.
Dr. █████: Are you aware that your music causes anomalous effects in listeners?
SCP-7022: (Nods) Yeah, I’ve noticed people reacting pretty strongly. But it’s all about the experience, right? Music should make you feel something.
Dr. █████: These reactions can be harmful. Do you understand the potential dangers?
SCP-7022: (Frowns) I never meant to hurt anyone. I just want to share my art and make people feel alive.

Addendum 7022-C: Current Status
SCP-7022 remains a valuable research subject due to its unique ability to influence human emotions and behavior through music. Further studies aim to understand the mechanisms behind these effects and explore potential applications or countermeasures. All testing involving SCP-7022’s music must be conducted under controlled conditions with appropriate safety measures in place.
Conclusion:
SCP-7022, "Luca Lush," represents a complex case of anomalous influence through auditory stimuli. Containment and study of SCP-7022 require careful handling to prevent unintended consequences. Continued research is necessary to unlock the full potential and risks associated with SCP-7022's musical abilities while ensuring the safety of Foundation personnel and the general public.

Im not playing games or stuff my phone never overheat or never get dropeed hard
Couldnt do anything after opening video in background mode my phone is in last update everything is updated ,never got a singl lag on my phone never happened something like this since September when i bought this phone ,question is why this happened ?maybe i need to worry? My phone is working same right now i just restart my phone. Home screen was black i could only see that navigation line , when i blcok my phone i could see everuthing like in my lock screen but when i try to unlock after unlocking it goes black as i said. And before this black thing my buttomn of the phone started to not react to any my touch,i tried to draw and it worked so problem was kinda different i gues . Sorry for this long explanation i just want to make sure my phone is ok cuz i paid money that is a lot for me . Thanks for help

Hi! I feel like a lot of the discourse about people not liking this season is in part due to people not really understanding what friends to lovers is, specifically the trope as it applies to Colin and Penelope, so I thought I might share my thoughts :)
Now I haven’t read the books - this is all based on what I gleaned from the show on multiple rewatches and as someone who has been the Penelope in a friendship for a longggg long time. Hopefully this makes sense.
Romance tropes can often boiled down to their immediate, basic truths. The popular enemies to lovers, for example: Enemy 1 + Enemy 2 + sexual tension = Lover 1 and Lover 2. Not to say enemies to lovers can’t be complex, but generally the starting point for enemies is an essential lack of trust between the parties and moments of connection (via fights) fueled by intense feelings of hatred/rage/whatever which can, in turn, translate to sexual tension. Due to the lack of trust, when they do get together it’s an explosion of that intense energy, highlighted even more-so by the knowledge that they don’t truly trust each other but they need each other which makes the heart race all the more and the passion all that more explosive.
Let’s look at Kate and Anthony as this trope. When they meet there is an immediate spark, fueled by a race in which they’re in competition. Once she hears him at the ball she decides she will do everything in her power to stop him from marrying her sister, and since he is determined to marry Edwina every interaction they have from that point on, until they have their happily ever after in the last episode, can be considered a fight. Moments like the bane of my existence and you vex me are such high intensity because it’s two people fueled by anger and sexual/romantic tension. They need each other like air but will do everything to fight it because of the anger, making the onscreen affections super intense for the viewer (especially as viewers who have just been introduced to Kate and are getting to know her through the lens of Anthony).
Now friends to lovers is, if I may say, quite a bit more complicated. A basic boiled down is Friend 1 + Friend 2 + romance/sexual tension = Lovers. But all friendships are different - if you’re new friends your pipeline to lovers is likely entirely different than old friends to lovers. If one party is in love with the other that changes the dynamic entirely; are they long distance or close? Were they childhood friends? Are they both likeable and popular or is one more nerdy and quiet or both? Do they know each other’s families? Are they best friends or just friends? All of these and more create new dynamics and emotions that can lead to love in different ways. My point is that friends to lovers is not as easy to pin down as something like enemies to lovers. So that’s why a couple like Polin may seem like they don’t have as much chemistry on screen - because their intensity shines in a different way than what we’re used to in Bridgerton.
Going into season three we know that Penelope has been in love with Colin for a long time, but during that time the two also formed a close friendship. When Colin proposed to Marina, yes Penelope whistledowned about the pregnancy to stop him from marrying her for love reasons, but also because he is her friend and she didn’t want to see him trapped in a loveless marriage. We also know that when Colin traveled between seasons one and two Penelope most often responded to his letters. Even during a scene in season two Pen specifically asks to hear more about his travels, even though everyone else in Colin’s life had asked him to stop talking about it. Pen’s crush and friendship don’t cancel each other out, they exist side by side as two parts of Penelope that often overlap but are most importantly separate entities. And she knows that.
Colin does not. In season three when Colin is talking about when they first met, Penelope looks away with anxiety when Colin suggests he knows why Penelope was so forward in making fun of him for falling off his horse and starting their friendship. She knows it’s because she had a crush on him. He states that it was because they were kids. This means it’s canon that Penelope had a crush on him since the moment they met. As a result, Colin has never experienced a friendship with Pen that doesn’t also have an underlying crush. He doesn’t know that Pen doesn’t respond to everyone’s letters all the time, or hangs onto their every word, or goes out of her way to talk to them. How Pen acts around him is how he assumes she acts around everyone - that’s why he doesn’t pick up on her crush.
It’s also why, I argue, he doesn’t realize that he loves her until the kiss in season three. He truly and genuinely takes her affections, her friendship, for granted because he doesn’t understand that someone so loyal and loving like that is rare. He doesn’t appear to have much else in the way of friends; outside of his family we don’t really see him interact with other men, and in season three the “friends” he does spend time with make comments to suggest they only started hanging out with him after his personality change to be more like his brothers - a rake who doesn’t care much for real affections. It’s why he said he would never court Penelope Featherington, or why he said “You are Pen, you do not count” when asked why he was still talking to her if he swore off women. He was super young when his dad died, so the only male role models he has for what love means are Anthony and Benedict. So, as he understands it, a man courting a woman is about sleeping around until the man finds a suitable match that pleases the family regardless of the man’s happiness. Even though he saw that Anthony fell in love by the time Colin said he would never court Pen, he didn’t see Anthony’s journey to understanding that love is not something to run from but something to cherish like we, the viewers, did. Anthony’s arc was just background noise for Colin, so it wasn’t like that would change his outlook on what Anthony’s actions in season one and beginning of season two loudly called out: choosing love over meaningless sex is idiotic and weak. It is explained in a letter that the reason Colin decided to try being like his brothers is BECAUSE Penelope stopped responding to him during his travels between seasons two and three. He decided to start guarding his heart, throwing on the rakish armor we see him dawn in the first half of season three, because he didn’t have that relationship that made him feel stable and loved anymore.
This is why Colin is genuinely distressed when Penelope walks away from him at the garden party in the first episode of season three, and why he went after her to explain that he missed her. He loves his relationship with her, not understanding that what he feels is actually love for her because he has never been aware that true love feels the way it does when he is with Pen. He sees Penelope as his best friendship, rather than the love of his life, because he literally can’t see it any other way based on how everything in his life played out to that point.
———
Okay this is way longer than I intended this to be already, but to finally make it to my main point! The Friends to Lovers trope as it plays out in Season Three Part One: Polin Do Be Polining.
What does all this mean for how Polin’s intensity shines as a couple? Due to the way their friendship has played out things like Colin taking Pen to the dance floor (not small social feat btw) in season one when Cressida bullies her, seeking each other out at social events, Pen asking about his travels - all of these are part of their relationship! It’s all part of the slow burn; it’s just less slap-you-in-the-face noticeable, to a viewer of a show about specified romance, as Kate and Anthony and even Simon and Daphne because acting like friends is an implicit part of Polin’s love story. Because they are best friends as well as eventually lovers!!
This is in full display in Season three, though put more on blast since it’s their season to get together. Colin saying he’ll teach Penelope how to get a husband isn’t a pity thing, it’s a real moment of genuine care that Colin is extending towards her.
—— “Pen wants to get a husband to be happy? Great! I’ll help to make her happy because her happiness means everything to me. Because I am her friend. Duh :)” - top ten photos taken ten seconds before disaster. ——
And it works! They start spending all this time together, and Pen has always looked gorgeous but is finally wearing clothes that she feels gorgeous in and you can see it in the way she acts, and suddenly Colin’s heart starts doing all these weird jumps around her like when she’s in the drawing room and when she wraps his hand because he has always loved her, so he doesn’t understand what these feelings that are coming up during these scenes are because they are not new feelings, just more intense ones of what he believes is pure friendship.
Penelope, on the other hand, has had her brain decide to give up on Colin Bridgerton (even though her heart hasn’t). As someone who’s been there, being in unrequited love with your friend is brutal but you can never really let go. No matter how many people they date, or the hours you spend together talking about their new crush, or the life moments share together where they do everything but love you there is always that small spark of hope in your chest that you can’t let go of lest they ever possibly realize they love you back. That chance is too precious to give up - that’s why Penelope can’t give Debling a real answer when he asks her if she would like to be with Colin in episode four. Logically she knows she should give it up but her heart just can’t. She is a hopeless romantic and her life has been spinning around Colin Bridgerton since she was 16 like the earth around the Sun. There is no other way to live, for her, if she isn’t in love with Colin. And that’s what breaks her heart the most.
It’s also why, I believe, she asks him to kiss her in that garden. She had just written about herself in Whistledown that she did the upmost embarrassing act of taking Colin’s assistance on the marriage market, and her mother dressed her down about being a spinster for the rest of her life. All of Pen’s plans, of marrying and getting out, are utterly gone for her in that moment when she goes out to the garden. She doesn’t have her prospects. She doesn’t have Eloise. She doesn’t have safety in her own home. The only thing she has left is Colin. That’s why she asks him to kiss her, because he might grant her this one kindness of making her feel alive for just this one moment before the rest of her life ends. That moment is the culmination of all of her feelings up to that point in the show. She’s given up on Colin - she wouldn’t have asked him to kiss her had she any hope left. This was her last ditch attempt to just be a girl and be kissed regardless of what he actually meant to her. It wasn’t out of desperation, it was staring down the barrel of the gun with societies’s finger on the trigger.
When she asks him Colin is taken aback. Not because he doesn’t want to kiss her but because he has never considered it before. Kissing was reserved for women you are looking to sleep with at a bar, for prostitutes in alleyways, not for his caring Pen. I’ve seen some upset over not including more of Colin’s writing in the show, as he becomes quite the writer in the books apparently, and the writing we do see is just about sex but given the way they paced the show they provided the most important piece of context for Colin’s understanding of intimacy in the writing they did use. He wonders how one can feel, despite sleeping with every kind of woman across Europe, such intimacy in physical closeness and yet such distance emotionally. It’s some level of satisfying for him to sleep around, but it doesn’t fulfill him in the way it seemed to fulfill his brothers. He cannot equate the idea of kissing to Penelope because he feels such emotional closeness to her. But when she brings it up, suddenly everything clicks into place for him. All the emotions he feels towards her, what he thought was just friendship, is so much more. Yes she is his friend, but by god he wants to kiss his friend; not out of the need to search for something but of the overwhelming feeling of going home.
Their kiss is sweet, and soft. Unlike Daphne and Anthony’s first kisses with their respective partners it isn’t this immense clashing of bodies and teeth. It’s two friends who love each other finally meeting each other as sparks fly.
———
Colin is left speechless, and confused. The kiss was amazing to him because he finally unlocked that part of him that made him realize he was in love with Penelope. The kiss was amazing to Penelope because she has been in love with him for so long, but it was also tinged with her own doubts and feelings of hopelessness. That’s why she runs away, and thanks him, because this was her last stand and he was just her friend helping her out as she believes.
But as always, a night of sleep helps clarify things. The next time Pen goes into society she is awkward but still well intentioned about getting a husband because that kiss was a long day’s worth of self pity followed by, in her terms, a moment of weakness. But it clarified things for her too. Now she can’t die without ever having been kissed, so that ultimatum she set up in her own mind was gone and everything seems much more manageable from that point on. Colin, as we know, is a wreck who is absolutely bamboozled at these feelings and we love to watch him flounder!!!
———
Now the tables have been turned. To those of who are think Penelope should have chosen Debling, this part is for you. This is when Debling really starts to court Penelope as she goes after him. She literally fights Cressida for him, because he seems like the most amenable husband for her to be able to continue Whistledown and be provided security. She isn’t looking for love in Debling because she already has love in Colin (love she believes will always remain unrequited, but that kiss can be a memory she cherishes for the rest of her life and that be that); she basically did what Anthony did at the beginning of season two. Find a suitable match that makes the most sense for her and leave searching for a love match out of it. She likes Debling, for sure, and he’s a rly nice guy!! He cares about her in a way that a suitor might, and I’m certain had they gotten married he wouldn’t have been mean to her or anything. But she would’ve been lonely. As remembered she is a romantic, someone who craves the love she reads about in her romance books. She’s spent most of her conscious life in love - marrying Debling would stop that in its tracks. In his own words, Debling tells Pen that he could try to maybe love her but that it was far too unlikely to find any room in his heart her for over his passions (aroace Debling stand rise). He specifically mentions that he is choosing her to marry because she has her own passions, separate from his, that can keep her company while he is gone both physically and emotionally from her. She doesn’t realize this until it’s too late, when her focus on the chase is over, and Debling asks her mother for her hand. It’s only then that she thinks that maybe she could hold out for love, and that power is strong enough to make her actively not want to ensure her security through Debling.
Love is treacherous, and yet we yearn for it like a sailor who cannot help but smile at the beauty of the raging sea at it comes crashing down upon him. Penelope would rather a thousand lifetimes of the chance to be in love with Colin over one lifetime married to Debling in safety.
That is why Debling breaks it off with her. Because she loves Colin, Debling knows she would choose Colin over him, and he sees Colin’s interest in her even if she does not. Like girl…. Colin literally found out she was going to get engaged, ran to the ball, interrupted the dance wherein Debling was going to ask Pen to marry him, ran after her carriage just to know if she was engaged because he couldn’t fathom letting her get away in a loveless marriage, and when finding out she was not engaged telling her he loved her even if she did not love him back because he simply had to express to her how much he loved her as he owed her that as his friend. Colin got in his knees in that carriage because he was genuinely splaying out his heart to her for her to dissect as she chose. He put himself at her mercy because that is where he believes his place to be - hers.
———
The carriage scene is, of course, the moment of highest intensity from the viewer standpoint of what we think love should appear to be. Other scenes could be Colin’s dream, and the moment in the sweets tent, etc. But those moments aren’t all of Polin’s love story. They may be the most visceral to witness, but they are just as important as the two of them laughing together in the corner of a ballroom. Their romantic trope is defined as Friends to Lovers, but that isn’t quite right - they are both. There is no big “or” between the two. Colin and Penelope are friends and lovers, and all of it is a beauty to witness.
Okay that’s it! If you’ve made it this far thanks for sticking around to hear my obsessive little thoughts. I wish you a very happy Bridgerton rewatch :)

When I was but a sprout of a potato I had a miserable teacher. We'll call her Mrs. B. I was in the first grade and around seven years old.
One day Mrs. B finishes up her lesson earlier than she anticipated and she needed to fill time until recess. So she hands out paper to each of us and instructs the class to draw a picture of the two people we love the best. Once we finish we have to have her check it off before we could go out to recess.
Context: My parents were never married and young when they had me. Recently, I had been trying to get them back together. In my little seven year old mind I thought this picture would be it. If I drew a picture that showed them how much I loved them they, in turn, would realize they love each other and we could be a family.
Excitedly, I get my chunky crayons out and proceed to draw and color as carefully as I can. It has to be perfect.
I wanted to put them in a field of flowers, but my flower skills were limited. Tulips and sunflowers. That was it and they were NOT good enough. Then I came up with the best idea. Heart. Shaped. Flowers. Pink and red ones. As many as I can fit. By the time I finished, recess had already started and I was the only one left in the classroom.
I sign my name on the back, put away my crayons, and walk up to get my smiley face stamp from Mrs. B. I'm so proud and cannot wait to show my picture to my mom and dad.
Mrs. B looks over my picture, turns to me and stone cold says, "there's no such thing as heart shaped flowers." She proceeds to rip my picture in half, right down the middle, and THROWS IT IN THE TRASH!! Mrs. B hands me a new piece of paper and says I can't go out to recess until I draw a new picture.
I am shocked. The kind of shock where you don't know what to say or do. I'm not even heartbroken yet. Meekly, I take the paper, sit at my desk and just stare at the blank paper.
Mind you, the only rule Mrs. B gave was to draw a picture of the two people we loved. No other requirements, no other instructions.
As I'm realizing that I didn't break any rules or do anything wrong I get pissed. It was like a fire was lit inside of me. This was completely unjustified and I was not about to allow that to happen.
I grab my black crayon and scribble a big black circle in the middle of the paper. I take out all of my anger scribbling as hard as I can. Making it as dark and angry as I felt.
Once I felt better, I calmly put my crayons away, walked over to Mrs. B's desk and SLAMMED that paper onto her desk. Before she has a chance to say anything I litterally skipped out the classroom door and down the hall to enjoy my recess.

Hello,
I'm 26F living with a male housemate(30M). He(30M), his friends(27M, 31F) and I(25F) went on a 2 day trip and on the car ride back home, I called him stupid indirectly, and I regret it alot now.
This weekend, we went for bungee jumping on the trip, nobody except me did it, because everyone(this guy too) said they were scared. This guy went on to add, "I would do anything, river rafting, skydiving, cliff jumping, but I wouldnt do bungee jumping" and right after I finished the jump said, didnt look that hard, I think i could do it as well. I was annoyed but because I knew that he always does, i ignored that comment.
Later in the car, his friend(31F) was telling how she doesnt want to conceive, and the topic shifted towards feminism... and I said Society has been designed in a way, that makes men more privilaged than women and society also puts a lot of pressure and expects women to be perfect... and his friend(27M) said, "but things changed, its no more like that" to which I gave them a few examples... here the conversation was completely between me and his friend(27M), but this guy came in between saying "but why should I care, I live my life and dont care much about society", I was angry because he was not even trying to understand that he comes from a place of privilege(men have it a little easier than women)... that conversation was a little intense, so we all decided its for the best to leave it..
Later the topic moved to most hated qualities in a person and I said, "i find people who cant draw boundaries stupid and spineless, because they go with anything anyone says", and my housemate immediately said, "isnt that good", for which i replied "it shows they are foolish, because they have zero opinions, and care too much about other people, that their decision making process involves everybody but them"... and he didnt argue but one of his friend said "but isnt that selfless" and I retorted with "i think its the most selfish thing, because they want everybody to like them"... the guy was silent for a bit and said "u called me stupid, without calling me stupid" and i said "but how does it matter, what i think because you dont care about anyone, which is what you shud do" and now I regret calling him out, because I saw he actively ignored me for the rest of the trip(which I probably deserved).
Also, this guy proposed to me a few weeks ago, and I rejected him almost immediately, because the thought of getting into a relationship with him made me nauseous, because of a couple of reasons. He thought therapy was for weak, called a girl he hung out with, a gold digger(when she wasnt even in a relationship with him), is a people pleaser and has no boundaries whatsoever, he's a blatant misogynist and constantly tries to one up people(he has a story for EVERYTHING, and most of it, seems like a lie, bcoz the details change a lot), says he never gets offended, but gets offended even at the slightest remark on him, has an excuse for everything, and believes, he can only learn from his experiences(never learns from anyone's experiences). He also said "you never sent me any wrong signals, but if most male friends you have, proposed to you then maybe you are doing something wrong", when I shared "most men i do friendship with, end up liking me so i dont have male friendships anymore, but I thought since we have an age gap, i thought you'd be more mature to have a friendship". He said this right after he proposed.
I've been mean to him, because of his traits, but now I feel I might be just as bad, because I said mean things and I actively tried to put him in his place (before his friends), by bringing up the things he keeps changing in his stories.
I feel like I'm a bad person on one hand, and on another, feel he deserved it.
Should I apologize to him?

I've always been a pretty reserved, non-confrontational person. When I was a kid, I was very shy and well-behaved-- I never wanted to draw attention to myself or go against the grain, so to speak. My parents were very religious/conservative and older, so they adopted the mindset that children should be seen, not heard, etc. In many ways, I feel like the way in which I was brought up contributed to my confidence issues.
As an adult in their 30s, however, I've come to realize that my self-confidence has been basically non-existent. I recognize that there could be many reasons for this, especially within the last few years, since I've been struggling with almost debilitating anxiety and depression.
However, since coming out to my wife recently, there have been lots of conversations that make me think being closeted contributed to my insecurities in many, many ways. I've always felt a disconnect between my body and my mind/self. I don't think there is a picture of me that exists where I didn't feel incredibly awkward or uncomfortable because I didn't like to be "seen". I always looked at myself and hated my appearance because the person staring back didn't seem like me.
It got to the point where I couldn't even look at myself in the mirror. It's still a little like that... but honestly... since being out to myself and my wife, I feel slightly... hopeful? Content? I'm not sure what it is, but I think my confidence has increased somewhat and I haven't really even started to transition yet. Even my wife has commented on it.
So, I'm curious-- how did coming out and starting your transition affect your confidence and sense of self-worth? Was it gradual? All at once?
For the first time in a LONG time, I think I'm allowing myself to be... happy. Kinda excited for what's to come... but also nervous.