We are in love and are crazy about each other. But despite this I am not sure if this is a bad decision. We’ve been dating almost a year now, and spend a ton of time together. I was laid off back in January and have still been looking. I’ve been applying to full time corporate positions similar to what I was doing before nonstop and have had several interviews going all the way up to the final round, but never seem to make it all the way through. It’s been very disheartening. I plan on getting at the very least part-time retail job when my Unemployment runs out. The only reason I haven’t got one yet is that the hourly job would pay less than what my Unemployment currently is.
We have been talking about moving in together for a few months, even prior to me losing my job. I do think he thought I would have a job by now, but he has continued to be supportive. He even paid for my plane tickets home recently so I can visit my family to be at my sister’s graduation. He has also helped me with my food and groceries so I can focus on paying my rent and other bills. He has even said I can get on his insurance once mine runs out. I just have a feeling he is going to start to resent me. It’s looking like I’m not going to be able to make as much as I did before anytime soon. I’m confident I can get part-time job, but it will not be enough to help pay our rent in the high cost of living city we live in. He makes three times as much as I did, so he is very well off. He assures me he has no problem paying for the rent in its entirety until I can get something.
Our leases end in august so we have started looking at apartments now. My mom has told me to be cautious because if I rely on on him, he could take it away and ask me to leave at anytime. He has assured me he would never do this, that is in love with me and wants to marry me, but wants to see how we do together first. I’ve met all his family and friends. My lease and his lease end soon and I want to move in together, but it would be putting so much reliance on him and trusting he will catch me if I fall. The alternative is me moving back home 2000 miles away with my parents. What should I do?

I don't think you quite understand what having a fur coat fetish is .I have had one since before I could talk . My aunt picked me up when I was under a year old wearing a golden island fox fur with artic fox cuffs and tuxedo collar that ran the whole front of the coat and I can remember that like it happened five minutes ago.i was but naked she pickede up as soon as that soft fur touched my skin I went in to shock . Like 8 was having a siesure .and then 8 went limp .my mother said I had a look of pure Bliss . Like she had never seen on anyone's face before .I couldnt walk or talk and I'm 52 years old now. And to this day I see a fur coat at a party or event I will not even realizing I am doing it will find a way to touch that coat .and when I got a little older and found out what that fur did to my penis well it was game in then .I have done some crazy shit trying to get some fur on my dick .that's a fur fetish you people with your faux fur I wouldn't put that plastic to.my.penis it will run the skin off .you people have a fake fur crush .not a fur fetish .

So I bought a generator from them and when I registered my warranty they were bribing people into leaving reviews in exchange for a free generator cover. I thought this was pretty douchey, maybe a little unethical, but I did it anyway.
I left a 5 star review that said something to the effect of, "haven't used the product yet but it looks nice and they promised me free stuff if I say nice things about it."
I guess they didn't like that because they never sent me the cover lol.
So if anybody from Westinghouse is reading this, I wanted to let you know that you guys suck. Good product but questionable business ethics.

At first, do I have inferior se or inferior si ?
What I know about me is that I got big problems with sensation so I’m sure that I got my sensing function being low in my stack but I want to know if it’s Se or Si. Oftentimes I can forget my stuff at home and at times forgetting to give money to the cashier or then forgetting to take the change, and not taking care of my stuff in general, even breaking things sometimes and struggling with my physical surroundings, for example I’m pretty rigid with my moves, struggling to be attentive of the environment around me and zoning out is something not rare with me, slow time reaction, slow in my moves and because of that I already received bad feedbacks at some jobs where you gotta be dynamic, but it’s funny cause as a kid I used to be a lot energetic and chaotic, I think it started to change when I went to a psychologist when I was a really young kid. Let’s say that if I’m going to the beach, it will mostly be just for chilling on a towel and listening the waves noise instead of doing physical activities that I don’t specially enjoy except for some special stuff(but I’m still in a good shape), my friends saying that I’m slow cause of that lol
Also I’m really not punctual or organized, I’m only planning some goals on the long term but I’m never planning exactly what I’m going to do the day following the other one, even at the gym I’m going over there with no programs and all. I don’t really care about deadlines, schedules Of course there is moments when I’ll be in time and when I will organize some things but this is not what I’m going to do on the regular.
And I can have some insecurities about my looks also, I want to look the best in front of others and absolutely not looking bad, I actually want to take care a lot about my physics so I can spend a lot for hairs, clothes, etc and I will feel miserable if I’m failing to look good. In general, my biggest insecurities tend to give bad experiences to people like giving a bad sex and not being practical, it’s really something that I fear but I keep all of that to myself, I don’t wanna show weaknesses. I would also like to be more organized, more disciplined and all but it’s not where my biggest insecurities will come from.
Now let’s focus on Ti-Fe axis or Te-Fi axis
I don’t really like useless conflicts or dramas even if I love to joking around and being sarcastic a lot for the fun of it but at the end I want to treat people fairly and equally, not being personal. I can say some hard truths if I think it’s something needed depending the situation, if things are going too far but other than that I prefer harmony. I give nonchalant behavior that makes people think that I don’t care about anything but I’m emotionally expressive (not that I share what I feel but I’m smiling when talking to people) so it balance the thing. Also I tend to prefer working by myself, not having a boss always behind telling me what to do because he might not share the same vision that me on a project, but instead I prefer working with others if it’s for something less professional and more fun like preparing a party, where there is no leaders and where we are all equal. I don’t care that much about being validated for my emotions by the way, I tend to keep things for myself when I might not be good and not saying to everyone that I feel sad or some, I’m somehow secretive about me in general and I’m not telling other people about my life, what I like, my opinions on things, etc until they ask me for it (and I won’t even tell about everything). I got some values and principles of course but it’s more like a mark of respect for other persons, so they seeing me as a trustable person and they telling me about their secrets because they know that I won’t talk bad on them. I can be seen as a wise or intelligent person when I share to others my vision of things and the world, I’m just being cautious to balance logic and feelings with my ideologies and thoughts.
Also I got an hard time finding what I’m truly am, what I truly love in life but everyone going through that no matter the type.

As the title says, I haven’t been here is 316 days. The last time I posted was upon returning from a foreign holiday, expressing my desire to return to sobriety, after a week long binge that I hated myself for. Some good news is that I did. I spent the best part of 9 months sober, I enjoyed every day of it. As someone who has always had issues with mental health, achieving longer periods of sobriety, exercise and routine are the only things that keep my mind in check.
Well, if you view my last couple of posts here, you will see there’s quite the pattern. Drinking on holiday. Twice this month I have trips outside of my country and both times I have slipped up. The first time I was away for 4 days with my closest friends. None of them pressured me to drink, they understand and offer me support in my issues. However, I cannot expect them to stop me, as I am a grown adult apparently. I made it through the first day fine, the second day started amazingly, I got to tick off visiting somewhere special to me and despite it not being that interesting to my friends, they all tagged along and had a great time too. After that we went for lunch and around a few bars, I started getting the itch to drink. We were out for around 3 hours, them enjoying a leisurely drink, me feeling envious but not showing it. I walked to the bar and saw a selection of my old favourites and lied to myself saying I could just have a few afternoon drinks and be back to our hotel for the evening and all would be fine…
Obviously, we all know how that story goes. 4 hours later, I am completely blackout drunk, vomiting in a family friendly bar, ruining other people’s day with my obnoxious behaviour and getting kicked out. Most of my friends had returned to our hotel before this point to relax before evening plans, one friend had stayed with me, also someone who has an issue with alcohol. We walked for a while before finding somewhere else to let us in and continued drinking until I was vomiting again. You would think this would be enough to get me to call it a night but once back at our hotel after 9 hours of drinking, I proceeded to stay in the hotel bar until closing. Luckily my pace had slowed by this point but I was still acting extremely obnoxiously, the bar was empty and the only employee was very understanding when I apologised for my behaviour the next day.
My 3rd day away was ruined. I managed to get up for a few hours for prearranged plans, but other that I was bed bound. On one hand, at least I wasn’t drinking, on the other what a waste.
I got home, got back to normal life and hoped it was a one off. However, I was due a week abroad again, which I am currently 5 days into. It is a family holiday, no big drinkers, siblings, cousins and their children at a family friendly resort. Surely, I could manage this? Wrong, of course.
The first day, the first hour we arrive and I’m ordering alcohol. My excuse? I didn’t have much sleep, a few won’t hurt to take the edge off. As history repeats itself, 10 hours later I have been drinking all day and I’m asking if anyone wants a night out, by this point I can already taste vomit coming back up on me.
Well my brother in law, a notorious light drinker takes me up on the offer to go out. After drinking rum all day, we head out at 10pm, I continue to drink for another 4.5 hours (at an increasingly fast pace, like I always do) before he heads back to our hotel. I didn’t realise he was leaving at the time and I was quite angry when I figured it out. Looking back, we had a miscommunication and I forget that despite his limited time drinking, he was also very drunk. I felt he had abandoned me, drunk, somewhere I did not know and figured my only solution was to find a club that was open until morning. As it turns out, nowhere was open that late, so I wonder the streets asking people for an after party. During this period, I managed to lose my phone, my hotel key card and my credit card. I don’t realise this until I have found someone going back to party so my drunken mind says who cares, I may as well carry on now.
I got back to their hotel, where let’s just say we all indulged in other things beyond alcohol. I don’t usually do this and it caused me to go off at the deep end, they said I lost my mind a little, accused them of trying to keep me against my will and then start kicking all the doors on their floor until they calmed me down. Somehow these people were still fine with me afterwards and as the alcohol wore of we talked all night and I explained my issues with alcohol and how I’m so embarrassed by my behaviour. I was so grateful for these people taking me in because I could have ended up in a very dangerous situation without them. They helped me get home the next morning and I wasted another day of another holiday in bed.
I came round on the 3rd day and of course, I need something to take the edge off. I have 3 drinks, I start talking myself into going out again, just for a quiet one. Luckily my siblings called me on my bull shit and shut that possibility down. I stopped at 3 and now hopefully I can see the rest of the week out. My mindset has changed back to how it was before this month now, I am ready to get back disciplined and I feel like I have managed that in day to day life now but my next trip away is in 4 months and I know I need to improve my mental strength and discipline before then. I can’t not travel for the rest of my life, it is the thing I enjoy most each year but I need to find a way to stop it leading to these downfalls.
I appreciate you all and well done if you have made it this far. I mainly have wrote this to refer back to when I have any thoughts on drinking again, to hold myself accountable and remind myself how I behave when under the influence. It obviously has not helped the last few times but I suppose it does not hurt to keep trying. I can put previous successful streaks down to actively reading here everyday and that’s something I am going to commit to doing again.

Hey everyone. I study video game production and design and I use platforms like Autodesk Maya, Adobe Substance suite and most importantly UE 5. I recently (with the help of my dad) built a PC for school work, granted on a budget but I believe we managed. Besides this, I have found my PC to be incredibly slow at times for the tiniest things like opening a chrome page. It will take a few seconds to respond and then about a minute for the interface to show. Then its a repeat for each click that I make. Needless to say its incredibly frustrating after spending a good amount of money on it. I know some things needs updating but its definitely not normal for a modern computer to take so long to load a page. Before anyone asks, wifi isn't the issue because this occurs opening things that don't need wifi as well.
I would like to know if there are any tech people that know computers is what could be the cause of this so I know what to update in my PC. I suspect my hard drive and possibly my gpu. I'll list the specs that I know off below if someone could be so kind to check it out.
Feel free to ask questions I try to answer to the best of my knowledge. Thanks!
TLDR: My PC is slow, I need help to find out the cause.
SPECS:
Asus proart z790-creator wifi motherboard, CPU 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700K, 32GB RAM, GPU NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 (8GB), Disk: Seagate 4-TB 5.9K 3.5 6G SATA HDD (if im not mistaken)

Seven months ago, I reached out to a local rescue looking to adopt a dog. They said they would match me with a dog and asked me some questions. I live in a downtown apartment and told them I was looking for a largish dog with low to medium energy who would mostly enjoy relaxing on the couch and going with me to the dog friendly restaurants in breweries in the city.
They suggested the dog I have now. He was about 6 months old at the time. They knew he was mixed with a hound because of his howl, but said he was pretty quiet indoors and liked to cuddle.
I have had him now for 7 months and he's not exactly what the rescue advertised – which they may not have known! I found out pretty early on that he was really high energy. He does like to lay on the couch, but only after serious exercise! I got a DNA test, and he is 100% hound (a mix of a few different types of coonhound). 
I came here for advice from other coonhound owners.
I do a lot with him and for him. He goes to daycare for a half day twice a week, and on the other days, he has play dates with the other dogs in my complex. I take him on a few walks a day, probably about three or 4 miles a day total. And we do training sessions, but he's not nearly as easy to train has other dogs I've had.
I have reached out to two different behaviorists. The first because he had some separation anxiety when I first got him, which is understandable if he was abandoned, and then because he gets aggressive during grooming and sometimes during play. There have been a few incidences of biting, never hard enough to break the skin but it's still scary. And I will definitely need professional help with further training, because he's just as stubborn as I have read hounds can be. He's mostly good indoors, and sometimes good on the leash. He has zero manners meeting other people are dogs, and I've made zero progress in that area on my own.
I'm just feeling incredibly overwhelmed, and I'm not sure if I'm in the right home for him. I feel like he's so much work every day, and while I have made it work, I do sometimes find myself thinking I wish I never got him, and then I feel terribly guilty. More than anything, I wanted a companion who would fit into my lifestyle. I work from home, but I work long hours, and I'm not an athlete or big on hiking or outdoor adventures. I don't know if he's ever realistically going to be able to join me anywhere in public, because he's so hyper and wants to sniff and explore. And I'm not faulting him for that, but sometimes I can't help but think that we would both be happier with other situations.
I posted in another thread, and someone brought up that he's right in the middle of adolescence, so maybe some of this might change. But I also recognize that he is not like the lab mix I had before who, after year, basically wanted nothing more than to play fetch for a bit and then crashed. I took that dog everywhere with me, how to eat, I'm beach vacations, and right now, I can't imagine that with him.
I am incredibly heartbroken even considering this, so I just wanted to hear an honest opinion of what the next decade might look like. He and I have definitely bonded, like he loves sleeping in my lap and crawling up next to me at night, but sometimes I'm just very overwhelmed.

Hi all! I've been following some of the post regarding which degree is better, but I want to just give some backgrounds on my situation and see what some of you may suggest. I will keep it brief.
I currently have an MS in business analytics. I would like to maybe transition into cybersecurity/information systems management. At some level, I would like to be involved in cyber security. I am just looking for a career change that also has a little more stability for the future, long term. Currently I work in the financial crimes risk assessment an analytic areas. In general my area is pretty safe, but I am just looking for a change of pace I have been doing this for a little over 12 years.
I would love to get any help with suggestions from anyone working in his face, or anyone who has transitioned recently into their space from a similar area or background.
There are options where I could get a bachelor's on one of these areas, or I can just do a second MS for information systems or cybersecurity. Being that I have most of the prerequisites, I am leaning more towards the MS because it will be the same amount of time as doing the bachelor's. My job offers tuition reimbursement so i am not too concerned with the cost. But please let me know your thoughts on this as well.

I am looking for someone fun (age 25 min) to be friends and eventually grow close to over time. Someone who I can spend a lot of time with doing the following things on a daily basis:
-spam games (PC only): league (arams (big plus if you aram!)/tft/norms), destiny 2, last epoch, crab champions, pico park, fall guys, gunfire reborn, risk of rain 2, super animal royale, golf with friends, terraria, escape simulator, it takes two, minecraft, diablo 3, etc (happy to play other games if they seem fun). - Please, please play league and destiny 2 and carry me <3
-chill on discord when bored (we can do our own things - its completely fine or we can stream games for eachother). At the end of the day, we can wind down together until we go to sleep. If you have a nice voice, that's a huge plus!
-watch anime/movies/youtube videos/tv shows (I'll watch anything but horror - no scary pls lol)
-share/listen to music (ideally, we'd play some music as background while gaming. we could also share/trade music - i like doing this too) My taste in music: 80s, 90s, rock, alternative, pop, dance, electro, mix of everything else. Music I don't prefer: jazz, blues, most rap, most country.
-If you WFH (like myself) it would be great if we could keep each other company during the work days.
-winding down the nights together before we go to sleep and being a safe space for each other is super important to me.
Please reply with a bit about you and what games you have in common (at least 2 games in common)
Please have a sense of humor.
Please be willing to talk/put in effort into a conversation.
I prefer someone who wants to be close and look for something more down the line. Someone who likes clingyness and is a bit possessive is a plus.
Summary: I am looking for a consistent/meaninfuly/genuine friendship. Someone who becomes my go-to friend/gamer person and I become theirs. If this leads to something more down the line, that's fine but it's not a must have.
Based on the replies I got on the last post, it seems I have to set some basic human and personal standards:
-No married or taken guys - I do not mess with other people's relationships and I wouldnt want anyone to mess with mine. I have more respect that than - if you're not happy in your relationship, please talk it out with your s/o or seek help! I'm not your answer.
-PC Only!! Please don't message me if you don't even own a PC. This is straight forward.
-Please have a normal sense of your life together - working/can put in effort, know what you want in life, mostly positive attitude -- if you've been at home for 10+ years because you have anxiety and this affects the fact you cannot be on discord with me while we game because it causes you more stress, I'm not the person for you!!
-If you reply with just a Hey/Hello and nothing else, I'm not replying. This post has effort, you put in effort. You can send me angry messages all you want for not responding. This will not change the fact that if 0 or minimum effort was made as an introduction, I'm not responding.
-If you are below 25 and looking for a 'Mommy' type, I cannot help you. Please look elsewhere.
Best of luck!

So I have a problem. I'm a very ambitious person in terms of the things that I want to do. The problem is that I don't work on them enough.
Part of it that I don't want to overwork myself, but there other more problematic part is that I get stressed very easily from working on these things, so I usually work very little and then distract myself with social media or video games.
I don't want to completely stop doing stuff just for fun and to relax, but I hate the fact that I need to put so much effort into the things that I actually want to do.
I kind of came to the realization that if you are faced with a choice between two options, and then you pick an option in the middle, you will end up suffering the cons of both options without gaining the pros of either, and I think that what ends up happening to me. I don't enjoy my free time because I keep thinking that I should be working harder right now instead, and I can't bring myself to commit to what I actually want to do because it becomes a chore in my mind instead of a passion.
Despite this realization, I still can't bring myself to commit to one option, I want both. So those anyone have an advice about this? Am I looking at things in a wrong way? or should I just commit to one?

Look, however you want to spend your limited free time on earth is your business, you have the right to do what you want, but people also have the right to judge what that says about your character.
If you’re a successful person who makes 100k a year and wants to unwind by going into your big hot wheels track and race cars around the track like you’re still in elementary school, nobody’s stopping you, but most people are going to side eye you a little bit.
If you work 40 hours a week at age 32 and want to unwind by watching 3 hours of anime every night, that’s your right to do so but it’s a deterrent to most people outside of that specific niche.
We don’t “have to grow up” if we don’t want to but unless it’s something you’re doing with a child, niece, nephew - once you’ve fully hit the adult stage of life, most people you meet will look down on you a bit if you come into the office and reveal that you’ve spent your weekend watching someone unbox stuff in a video game, binging Pokémon, playing with your toy trains, or creating an epic party with your Barbie dolls

This is going to be long, apologies in advance… And thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this.
A few days ago, I approached my HM with my frustrations over not having a set schedule (my on-duty hours often fluctuate depending on the family’s needs on the day of). I am extremely disappointed in her response, and am seriously considering leaving early as a result.
Honestly, I also just really need to rant about this to anyone who might have some experiencing either hosting au pairs or participating in an au pair exchange who can provide some insight. For context, the au pair regulations of the country I am staying in do not allow au pairs to work more than 30 hours per week (6 hours maximum per day) and mandate 1.5 days off per week. While I don’t think any of these rules are technically being broken, I am really frustrated, disappointed, and upset at my current situation. Also important to note is that my contract does not specify exact hours of work (my own fault/oversight, apparently).
Without revealing any personal details about the HF for privacy’s sake, I want to share a little bit about what my agreed-upon versus actual duties were/are.
The household duties that were discussed during the video interview(s) were: * Assisting with breakfast in the mornings and helping the children get ready for school/daycare. * Accompanying the youngest to daycare. * Washing, hanging, and folding the children’s laundry. * Maintaining order in the youngest’s playroom (which is also the main living area). * Cooking lunch for the family twice a week. * Preparing a simple dinner for the children on a daily basis. * A weekly house-clean, together. * Groceries, as needed. * Tidying the youngest’s room with her at the end of each day. * Loading and unloading the dishwasher.
Additional household duties I have been tasked with since arriving: * Vacuuming mouse shit from behind bookshelves and inside the children’s play drawers (once). * Releasing caught mice into the nearby green space from the household live traps (three times). * Cleaning the cat shit from the outdoor sandbox (once). * Taking the recycling to the local depot (regularly). * Washing, hanging, and folding the entire family’s laundry (regularly). * Dropping off and picking up the family’s dry cleaning (seldom). * The kitchen has been assigned to me as “my area of responsibility”. This means that the family often leaves their dishes on the counter as well as pots and pans on the stove from when they cook, regardless of if I have eaten with them or not. I am also sometimes tasked with random kitchen-related duties. For example, taking out the pots and pans to vacuum the drawers, or cleaning the windows. * On a few occasions, the family has had guests on my designated lunch days. I have also cooked for these guests (1-2 extra adults).
My weekday hours are generally 6:30am to 8:30am and 4:00pm to 7:00pm. As I mentioned, these hours often fluctuate. For example, sometimes one of the parents takes the youngest to daycare, which means I’m only on-duty until 8:00am. Twice a week, the youngest also has programming, which I have come to understand does not constitute my “working hours” in their eyes. This mean that while I pick her up from daycare and walk her to her program, the hour that she is actually in the program is considered my “off” time.
Approximately twice a week, I also return home mid-day to cook lunch for the family. I budget about 1 hour for this, not including grocery shopping, which I often do on the way to/from the daycare. I also mop and vacuum the entire home, with the exception of the parents’ study rooms, once a week. By necessity, I do this when the children are out of the house (so also during the day).
This means that my weekdays include between 4 and 6 hours of “work” hours across a 12 hour window. I have been given the flexibility to complete the above tasks whenever I want, so I typically spread these out throughout the week in order to maintain some balance between my workdays. The days I am responsible for cooking on are decided on at the start of the week, and sometimes change mid-week if the parents schedules change (typically communicated on the day-of). Based off this, I’d say I typically work about 25 hours between Monday to Friday.
Now, weekends:
I have one day off per week. Up until now, this has been respected and I appreciate that. The family has noted that either Saturday or Sunday works well for them, as long as we consult with each other on plans before I choose the day to take. I feel that this is a really nice approach,
BUT…
Alongside my sporadic weekly schedule, I am really struggling with what is supposed to be my other half day “off”. For example, let’s say Saturday is my full day off and Sunday is my half day off. I am given little to no structure/expectation for when I will be watching the children beyond things like “a little in the morning” and “a little in the afternoon/evening”. I feel that I’ve really had to push for even a general realm of what hours I need to be on-duty for. Oftentimes, I am told that my start time is 8:00am and am asked to take the youngest to a park for the morning. If the youngest isn’t dressed/emotionally prepared to leave the house until 9:00am or 9:15am, that is when we leave the house and that is when my (for example) two hour childcare block begins. If we arrive home at 11:00am, and her mother hasn’t completed her morning tasks that require a child-free house, this means that I remain on-duty until these tasks are complete (ie. household cleaning, grocery shopping, work tasks, etc.). Once my morning shift is complete (whenever that ends up being) I typically make myself unavailable by leaving the house to study/read at a coffee shop. I always make sure to ask what time they would like me back, and I arrive when I am requested (because my half day on weekends is also almost always a split shift).
Sometimes this day might look something like this: -8:00am “start” that doesn’t seem to really begun until an hour later (so 9:00am to 11:00am) -2:00pm-3:00pm -5:00pm to 7:00pm
If the kids last minute have a play date, my 2:00pm-3:00pm might get cancelled, but this also means that it might extend the 5:00pm-7:00pm block.
This past Sunday I arrived home at 5:00pm, only to find out that at 5:15pm that the youngest was spontaneously joining a friend on an outing.
The morning shift is also often blocked off so that the mother can assist the eldest with homework, but if he sleeps in and they don’t start until later, this also affects my start and end time.
Obviously, this sucks.
I brought this up in a way that I feel was respectful and fair, and was more or less told that “this is how we’ve always done this, so I don’t see us changing. Our weekends aren’t scheduled ahead of time, and this is part of the flexibility of having an au pair. If we wanted someone to watch the kids for a block of time, we would hire a babysitter.”
I was honestly shocked at this response, because I personally do NOT see this as how an au pair should function. I reiterated that it is unreasonable and shitty to have someone on-call for a twelve-hour stretch for what should theoretically be a maximum of 6 hours of work. Her response was that they are only asking for one day of flexibility per week, and so I should plan to be home with the expectation that I won’t be working the entire day.
I also asked if there was any way to receive (at very least) a more specific timeline than “morning” or “afternoon”. Her response was that they can try to plan something ahead of time, but will have to reconfirm the morning of. She said that if I make plans and then my work hours change, it would be really shitty/look really shitty for me to cancel. This was presented as a compromise, but I feel like it’s no different than the current situation.
I am now less frustrated by the scheduling issue than I am by the blatant disregard for my personal time and life outside of my au pairing duties this shows.
TLDR: My contract does not specify exact work hours and host family will not provide a set schedule, expecting me to be available for the entire day until they decide when they need me on the day of. How would you proceed?

Am I the asshole? I (16F) got pregnant with my boyfriend of 4 months (19M) during February 2023 then had my beautiful son during October 2023 a month early. my son is now basically 7 months and it feels like I’ve fallen out of love with his dad. To give some background it’s taken me these 7 months to gradually grow father away from my boyfriend, and it’s only happened because I feel he isn’t being a father to our son and is continuously putting himself his thoughts his wants and needs before me and our son. During our first month home from the hospital we slept in separate rooms me on a twin blow up mattress in our son’s room with our son. And him in our room. At the time my boyfriend had no set career so he was only able to get about a week for paternity leave. However during his paternity week he made no efforts to be a dad. He quite literally played video games all day smoked weed and slept. As well as constantly complaining about having to be in the hospital and the toll the hospital couches took on his body. Mind you I’m wearing diapers along with our son. Waking and sleeping every 2 hours. Changing every diaper. Running every bath. Not able to shower or eat unable to take a moment for myself because I had to sleep or go and clean dishes, do laundry, clean the room my boyfriend solo trashed, cleaning my son’s room etc. fast forward to now our son is almost 7 months and he’s very alert has a amazing personality even for 7 months and very little has changed. His dad will occasionally “do the dishes”leaving them still caked with baby foods. Never gives our son a bath has changed a total of 4 diapers 1 poop, dosent do laundry, unless I’ve left it unattended for a few days, and then, when he does do the laundry he does it angrily complaining about needing to do the laundry. he rarely spends time with our son has no problem to watch our son while I step away to go to the bathroom but won’t voluntarily spend time with our son will never play with him while he’s doing tummy time or try to talk to him while he’s in his walker. And I feel that I’m very fair with giving him opportunities. I often ask him if he’d like to spend time with our son I often give him the ability to spend time with our son without the responsibility of it basically meaning him and our son can do whatever they want and I will be there so that way if our son is hungry, throws his toy or has a fit im there for him. And my boyfriend seems to have no want for any of that. recently me, and my boyfriend had gotten into a fight. As I was trying to get our son ready to bring him outside, and I turned around to grab him a pair of socks mind, you, my boyfriend is a few inches away from our son, and within the time it took for me to turn my back in order to get our son a pair of socks, he managed to roll off of the bed. And of course it was my fault. My boyfriend completely went off on me. We are currently living with his parents and he told me that he would kick me out that he was going to call the cops on me as well as numerous other things. Point being in this argument I finally got to say some things that I haven’t been saying like how I feel like I’m raising our son solo how it seems like he has no interest in our son how I am the one who’s doing everything. And since this argument, every day a feeling has been growing within me. I’ve never really liked the phrase ick and I’ve never really gotten one before but sense me and my boyfriends argument everything that he’s doing is irritating me. my birthday is coming up next month, and last month I asked him what my budget was so that way I could pick out a bunch of stuff online for him just to order for me and he initially told me $200 which is now dropped down to 75. Mind you since last month and this month my boyfriend has spent almost $800 on a single hoodie and a single pair of shoes and is constantly complaining to me about how expensive everything is. I could keep going, but am I the asshole

Am I wrong for soft ghosting one of my “friends”?
Wow, this one might me a long one.
So I moved to (undisclosed location) sometime in the beginning of last year. When I moved here I really had no friends but became heavily involved in this yoga studio I went to and slowly but surely started to make friends/acquaintances with the teacher that instructed me.
From afar she seemed super cool and I became pretty enthralled with her and her life. I would look forward so heavily to going to her classes every week and was quite intrigued by her. I thought she was funny, bubbly, spunky, cool, and always made jokes during class that made me laugh. As months went by I found myself wanting to get closer and closer to her, and she even invited me out one time to one of her “events” she was hosting. Here’s the thing;
It seemed like we had a lot in common and was just generally craving camaraderie and connection. I felt a sense of belonging with her and wanted to expand that energy in my life, and wanted to do anything I could to get closer to her for those reasons. But I guess this is where we have the first red flag;
One day after class, she extended an invitation to me to a meet up of sorts, (I’m being sparing with details just out of fear she might read this) and when she invited me it seemed like it was gonna be this big thing with lots of people invited, and just in general in talking to her it seemed as if she was very well connected and respected within her community, had lots of friends and connects, and I thought this was gonna be a huge thing that I was even lucky to be invited to. I was super stoked and exited about it.
However when the day of the event came, I was super tired and slow to getting up that morning. I figured I would just make my way over whenever I could since it seemed causal and like you could drop in whenever. I also figured there would be more than enough people that no one would really even notice my arrival or departure. (Plus, sometimes it’s chic to be fashionably late ;) ). Well…. I was most definitely wrong.
When I showed up I heard someone excitedly shout my name, which was her, and she waved me down to the “meet up”…. There was literally only one person there and it had been going on for 2+ hours. I was definitely a bit unnerved, but also didn’t want to be rude, and like I said I was just kind of happy to be there and be getting invited to things. But it was kinda like, damn…. Are these all the friends you have?
I had dressed up and looked cute but they were just kind of wearing whatever and I felt awkward and overdressed and also embarrassed now that I was even this late because it was clearly much more intimate than I expected and my arrival/absence was DEFINITELY felt. We had chatted a bit and that was cool but then I remember her confessing me that she had cried to her husband earlier that morning that she was scared nobody was going to show up and how thrilled she was that not only one, but TWO people had showed up and that it felt like she had friends. I wasn’t really sure what to say or make of that.
She also…. The whole time (and mind you, this is our first legitimate interaction out of yoga class) just kind of kept talking maniacally AT me, not to me, and was coming off almost even manic, and she had formed a white crust of spit around her mouth probably from talking so much that I couldn’t look away from. To say the least, I was a bit disturbed coming away from this interaction but I just kept telling myself that I was being too judgmental of her and to give it a chance and that maybe she was just hyper that day and that I had probably had unintentional embarrassing hygiene moments as well. So I keep going to class and that’s that.
There were several other red flag moments between this first interaction and the next one, mostly just her incredibly cringey social media presence that I genuinely almost couldn’t stand to see without feeling like I was withering away inside, but maybe I’ll save that for later. It’s almost like I couldn’t just see that the person I thought was so cool in class and the person I was seeing her be online and outside of class were the same people. But I digress.
She had actually ended up inviting me to go with her on one of her international yoga retreats, and I was actually very excited about this. I had very little time with her in between classes, and my attraction (but also repulsion) with her was growing stronger and I wanted to figure her out and see what she was really about and what the pull I was feeling towards her was about. Plus, I love travelling and just thought it would be fun.
I had a pretty good time, but we didn’t get to talk much, HOWEVER, I do remember this distinct point during the trip where it was myself, 2-3 other fiends I had made, her brother, and her “best friend” who had happened to be her brother’s Gf in a room together, talking. the brother, the best friend, and the other friend I made just all completely started talking shit about her and I was so confused.
I felt super hurt by this actually, bc I felt like I had a inexplicable bond with the teacher who had invited me, she was the reason we were all there in that beautiful place, and I just couldn’t understand why they were choosing to be so negative about someone I thought they had claimed (at least by title) to love. They would say things like “I can’t fucking stand your sister” (one of the friends I made to the brother) and everyone would just sigh and put their hands in their head and be like “I know…. I know. It’s a lot. She’s a lot”. And I didn’t have anything to add to the conversation because I was just so confused and I knew the girl would just be so upset if she heard them saying this. Anyway… that confusion stuck with me for a while after.
Fast forward maybe a month or two, I started hanging out with her more regularly myself outside of class. I would say this is when we became more “friends”. She would invite me to other teachers classes and we would talk a lot about our lives.
I learned how she felt about her close friend and family connections, and how she often felt hurt and betrayed by people close to her and how some of her friends were actually really shady. I just got a general sense of her feeling scapegoated and libeled against by ppl that got close to her and how she had walls up for that reason.
She also shared to me that most of her family was cut off, with the exception of her brother who she had recently rekindled a connection with, hence why he was on that trip. I felt very bad for her and wanted to be a source of comfort and support, and she would often comment on how she felt a sense of camaraderie with me since I also (LITERALLY) had no family and how we have to make our chosen family. This was a sweet sentiment, for sure, but I was still sussing out how I felt about her.
So one day, a mutual friend that had been on the trip with us was having a birthday party and I guess that she was invited to it, too. She sat down next to me and I was SUPER excited to see her as I was craving her energy and hadn’t seen her in some time. But then… idk. She had had a lot to drink. I’m fully aware that she’s kind of a quirky individual, and has a way of socializing which I can sometimes find a bit uncomfortable or even intense, (like the first meetup I spoke of) but this time it was even more and seemed to be heightened by the drinking.
Her husband was sitting on her other side and kept trying to interject and insinuate that maybe she was doing a bit much, but I think she was drunk enough to the point that she just found it funny and had no awareness of how she was coming off. There’s not even a way I can describe it really, but she just seemed a bit obsessive over me and kept making jokes that were literally not funny and seemed to have lost all ability to read the room. I also had noticed that she had only had TWO beers and was acting like this already which I found… really strange.
So at some point she goes to the bathroom, and I also get in line for the bathroom about 5 mins later. When I get up to the bathroom, she’s still in there, and there’s a line of about 2 or 3 people ahead of me. When she exits the bathroom she immediately spots me and rushes up to me and just starts… drunkenly spewing.
I can’t even remember what she was saying, but we were in a pretty high class establishment and I remember her gushing over me and was saying “I just want to let you know that I don’t really have friends or let people close to me in my circle but I just want to let you know that YOU are officially in my circle and you have earned friend status to me and I’ve let you in my circle…” or something like that. And I just kept thinking, who tf even says that??? I’m pretty sure the last time I checked that friendship is a two way street and it’s not just a title we bestow onto some “lucky” person and that’s that. Like girl… let ME decide if I want to be friends too first.
It was partially that, and also the way she was drunkenly spewing was so awkward and embarrassing bc I could tell all the other women in line were like who tf is this bitch and why is she saying all this weird stuff and like, does she even know you?? Lol. Just a very odd interaction which again, I kind of wrote off, but the unsettling feeling kind of just kept growing after that point.
Then, the time that I REALLY knew something was up came up about a month later, but there are still some key details of this story that are missing. Perhaps I will discuss them later.
SO. About a month later, she invited me last minute to this concert of sorts. When I got there, I was super excited to be there, the vibes were amazing and we were having so much fun. But she had definitely had a lot, A LOT to drink. I didn’t mind at first, because everyone there seemed severely under the influence, but she would just start randomly kind of lashing out at people in the crowd and she thought it was funny? She first loudly and audibly started making fun of some guys shoes in front of us, and was trying to laugh with me as if I would join in, but when his girl friend turned around and shot her a dirty look, she had the nerve to be self conscious and mad about it. She would loudly poke fun at other people in the crowd too, but not in a ha-ha way, just in a straight up mean and asshole way and I could not understand why she would even do that or why she thought that was funny.
Again, I kind of just awkwardly laughed and brushed it off. But when all was said and done and the concert was closing, she enthusiastically invited me back to go to her house and soak in her hot tub. I kept saying are you sure?? But she was like please, PLEASE come, we have weed, we’ll smoke you out and other things and I wanted to continue the vibes because it sounded fun. And then….. completely downhill.
I had arrived back at their place before she did, but as soon as I saw them go in I knocked. When I walked in, she was pale faced up on the floor, non verbal, pretty much motionless, and staring at the ceiling. I was like oh no… it seemed like she got a bit too much to drink. I waited patiently there for a few mins, unsure of what to do as I had just drove for 45 mins and I was still 25 mins in the opposite direction away from home.
I kind of just sat around, and hoped that she would sober up. I asked if she was drunk… she said no. She ran to her bathroom multiple times while her husband (a complete socially awkward case himself) tried to take care of her while she threw up. I asked her if she puked and she also said no. So I didn’t really know what to do. I was trying to offer support/ empathy but she just kept denying any claims of anything being amiss. Her husband left to pick up a pizza and I probably just should’ve left but I’m telling you I had no idea how to exit their house without making it weird or awkward. And I also was hungry. So I just stayed… and waited for the pizza.
What happened in those 20-30 mins, I don’t even know if I can fully explain. She just became… so FUCKING WEIRD. she clearly was embarrassed that I was seeing her drunk, and I think was trying to over compensate. But she just turned into an absolute freak show and I’ve never been more uncomfortable in my life.
She started hoola hooping in my face, and making these weird gremlin faces and noises at me, fell to the floor, rolled round on the floor while continuing to make the noises, convulsed on the floor, but tried to do it in a funny way, tried to make an interpretive dance for me… I’ve truly never experienced something so uncomfortable in my life. I probably do sound like an asshole, but I swear you would just have to be there to see how a) gross and b) weird and actually scary it was. I was genuinely frightened.
I’ve never seen anyone act like that and I didn’t want to make her more uncomfortable or weird by showing her how clearly uncomfortable I actually was. so I just sat there and tried to laugh. But it probably came off as more of a grimace. And for the record, this woman is 33. I am 26. It was just. Obscene.
And she’s tried to act like and say multiple times that she’s like my “big sister”. Now I’ve seen a lot of drunk behavior, but not this. I wolfed down my pizza, and so did she, and she started to get even more philosophical and weird on me, showing me songs and art which were quite frankly some of the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life, and I left as soon as I could.
I was so shaken and disturbed coming away from this, because like I said earlier, I thought she was a cool girl, but honestly her behavior and lack of control over herself completely terrified me. And it’s not like she was drinking liquor, it was just damn IPAs. And I just did not know what to do.
Some details I will try to add to this story, even though I know it’s monolithic at this point , is that 2 months prior to this she had gotten fired from the studio she worked at.
She had a mental breakdown during class because the manager was being mean to her, and he fired her on the spot. I remember being so angry with the owner, (honestly he IS a piece of shit human being) but I thought he was being sexist by calling her mentally unstable and I thought the way he handled things was unfair.
I went so far as to boycott the studio and completely remove myself from it in support of her and followed her to her new one. After the drunk #2 incident, I didn’t hang out with her very much, and only saw her during her class as I was locked into a certain number of classes I had paid for.
I remember her telling me that she had just started at ANOTHER studio, and got fired 3 days after on her birthday and she was talking about how unfair it was and how much of an asshole that new girl was for firing her… and I believed her. AGAIN.
I went so far as to block that girl on Instagram too, but deep down I kind of knew that she had probably just been fired bc let’s face it… as I was starting to discover, she WAS a lot. and the studio was in an upper class area , catered towards more upper echelon people, and I just don’t think she was fitting that image. I lent her an empathetic ear, because that’s all I would want in that situation.
But where she fucked up was sending me screenshot proof of the text exchange between her and that girl, thinking I would take her side, and later sending me screenshots of another conversation she had with the OTHER manager. She told me that this new girl fired her for bringing her husband to class. In my mind I was like, oh no, is she racist!?! Because her husband was black. But no, that’s not what I read at all.
It was the most reasonable, level headed response to someone ever, and laid out multiple offenses and reasons she didn’t want her at the studio. The reasons were honestly so embarrassing that I don’t know why she would send it to me and think I would side with her. She recently also sent me messages with the other boss and the last thing he says to her is “I hope you get help for your mental illness because whatever you have is serious and will impact all your relationships and business and things that you do”. And honestly I can now say in retrospect that those were the truest words ever spoken.
When I read these texts, I had a look back at my whole relationship with and how she would always paint everyone else to be the villain and how everyone is so mean to HER… and the whole time the common denominator was her. It was always her. And it made me rethink everything.
I’ve even had extensive conversations with some of the other people on her trip that were talking shit and couldn’t stand her and they all told me the same things. How it seemed like she was the coolest person ever and had her shit together and seemed like she was going places… but deep down she was just an absolute mess and pushed everyone away from her. And I no longer felt like I was going crazy.
But like I said, she formed a really close bond with me (I think from her perspective) and said she felt like my big sister and family, and shared all these stories about her feeling isolated and shut out by people, but now here I am, doing the exact same thing to her. Icing her out of my life. And I just wanna ask you guys…
Am the asshole?

I am a 33 year-old male. I met a 25 year-old female first-timer at a dive bar I am unfortunatetly a regular at (haha) a week earlier, and at some point in our text conversation she told me to stop being coy and be "straight up with her" about what I wanted [from her]. I told her I would "love it if she were naked in my bed." She told me that she would be at my place in an hour, and she came by. I was surprised at how quickly things escalated. She was pretty aggressive about meeting up, and I have trouble being forward with (and generally getting with) women so her approach was honestly very refreshing, albeit a little jarring and sudden.
I was a little nervous when she arrived, but I made her and myself a cocktail and we got comfortable with one another. We actually spent a good few hours talking with one another and getting to know each other, exchanging stories and viewpoints, etc., probably more for my comfort than hers honestly, but long story short, we were eventually naked together in my bed.
Things were going well - we made out and exchanged favors... Things naturally progressed and I was on top of her, and asked her if I could be inside her. The following verbatim exchange took place:
Her: "Do you have a condom..?"
Me: "No, I don't... I'm sorry..!"
Her: "I have one in my purse..?"
Me: "Is that really necessary?"
Her: "Oh my God, that's disgusting! Are you really one of those guys?! Are you serious?! [searches my face] You are serious! That's disgusting! Ew! Do you really want to have a baby with me?! Do you really want to have a baby with me right now?!" (sarcastically)
Me: [pretty shell-shocked by the disgusted, sarcastic response] "Well... no, I don't want to have a baby with you, no... I was planning to pull out...--"
Her: "--That doesn't work..!"
Me: "...well, I mean, I've been in probably 4-5 years worth of relationships with regular sex and no other form of birth control, and I've never had a pregnancy scare using only the pull-out method, so--"
Her: "--Do you really expect me to believe anything you're saying to me right now? I just can't believe you're pressuring me right now!"
At that point, I really didn't want to continue for a few reasons, but I honestly felt... pressured, I guess, ironically, to do so. Like, I guess I thought it would be rude not to have sex with her -- which in retrospect I think is bananas, haha. So I went and retrieved the condom from her purse, she put it on me, and we had sex. I was not able to cum or really feel anything with the condom, it honestly just felt like intimate manual labor. We proceeded. After a while, I think she realized I wasn't really into it and took the condom off and tried to get me off in other ways, but it didn't happen. I told her it was all good and I was going to sleep and she spent the night. She left early the next morning to get to work on time.
After she left, I processed the night before and came to the conclusion that I didn't really like the way that she spoke to me about the condom issue and I probably should have just asked her to leave at that time -- not because of our difference in condom preferences, but just because the vibe was really off and I felt disrespected. Of course, everyone has their own risk tolerance and I will be the first to admit that not wearing a condom is probably not the most prudent manner to go about having sex, especially a one-night stand. While I'm not ecstatic about someone expressing disgust to me about my personal preference, even that was not really what upset me.
What really upset me were the comments, and attitude encapsulated by the comments, "Do you really expect me to believe anything you're saying to me right now? I just can't believe you're pressuring me right now!" I mean, first of all, I wasn't pressuring anybody with my statements, in my opinion. My tone was really tentative, even. Not at all aggressive or domineering. But most importantly to me -- yeah, I do kind of expect you to believe what I am saying to you. Why wouldn't you? I get the feeling that the implication is that in that moment, I am a man trying to be inside a woman, and I will do or say anything to achieve my aim. Which is not my modus operandi whatsoever, and I feel like while we only met once before, I thought we had spent enough time together for her to know that I was not, I guess, a sleezy scumbag.
I broke it off with her the next day. When I told friends what happened in just the way I've just described here, everyone told me that I was the asshole in this situation. They said that I was in fact pressuring her for even bringing up my preference of not wanting to wear a condom, and for even responding to her concern that I would impregnate her. They told me that I did not have a say at that point, that I can't understand what she must have been going through as a woman in a strange place, that I lacked empathy regarding how vulnerable she must have felt or what she may have gone through with other guys before. My response is -- I have valid feelings as well in this scenario, don't I? I am allowed to have and to share my preferences with my partner in the bedroom as well, aren't I? It is just as wrong to pressure me to proceed with sex, on a personal and on an apparently societal level, isn't it? I can understand having empathy for others, but was it not her response that lacked empathy? I don't think I said anything particularly out of pocket, here.
Reddit, without lecturing me on the dangers of unprotected sex of which I am fully aware and can navigate on my own -- am I the asshole for how I treated this girl and/or handled this situation? Thank you for taking the time.

So nowhere in the place I’m trying to rent in likes couples for some reason and I recently got a job in that place and need somewhere in two weeks. So when I stopped saying I had a girlfriend in my rent enquiries I got more emails back. So what my girlfriend and I are planning is for me to move into the place first and my girlfriend will stay with me. It’s because I’m the only one who has the money to pay for everything upfront as my girlfriend isn’t paid till the end of next month
I’ll make it seem like we only decided to move in together and month after she moves in officially and if the landlord declines it, we’ll look for another place, sounds dumb but I don’t have a lot of time
the house is a shared accommodation

Ever-shifting Short Seller Claims

The short sellers attacking RILY in 2023-2024 have been relentless, with an ever-shifting list of wild accusations.
It's sickening to watch them compile a never-ending list of baseless wild theories and claims to support their short positions, which are demonstrably false. But as each is proved false, they pivot to new claims, and/or change the goalposts.
The sheer volume of shifting claims makes it hard to track how despotic they are with their "platform," and how many falsehoods they've spun. Even for someone who watched it in real-time, for almost a year

Compiled & Debunked

Sunlight kills vampires. To that end, I've compiled a list of (i) claimants (ii) claims (iii) reality (iv) definitive source proving reality.

Why Did They Target RILY?

One of the most vocal short sellers, Nate Koppikar (who also introduced Marc Cohodes to the "opportunity") has a fund Orso Partners. Based on their SEC registration document, this is their investment thesis:
"The Account’s investment objectives are to achieve capital appreciation primarily by identifying and selling short marketable equity securities of underfollowed and complex companies with misleading or corrective disclosures through a research-intensive process. The Account employs a short-biased investment strategy with an emphasis on primarily small to mid-cap companies that are underfollowed and complex (i.e., companies with market capitalizations of less than $5 billion which the market does not yet have a wellformed bull and/or bear perspective)."
RILY fits their description. The icing on the cake was the relatively large market cap, and the relatively small float. Given extremely high insider ownership (32.9% of shares per the proxy), and limitations on when and how insiders can trade, the "free float" of the stock (i.e., the shares that regularly trade) is very small for the size of the company. Moreover, the setup would only get better - given insiders have consistently used their free cash to buy additional shares hand-over-fist (further reducing the float).
That meant, with relatively small amounts of capital, the short sellers could shove around the stock price. That ability to move price opens another profit avenue - taking large derivative positions (buying puts, and selling calls), and shoving the price (or allowing it to drift up) to profit all along the way. It looked so good, the stock has been the highest-shorted on the US indices for several months. Even after the release of the 10-K, shares remain "hard to borrow" with elevated borrow fees.

Debunked Claims

The claims made by vocal short sellers could fill a book. Most were outrageous and fanciful when they were proposed. Virtually all have objectively debunked. This isn't a comprehensive list, as their claims are too numerous and varied. But it paints an illuminating picture.
With a track record this poor, one would expect the short sellers to exit - rather than continuing to spin new narratives. Perhaps the continued attacks are their exit strategy to avoid bankruptcy... Well, #Bullish.
With the highest short interest of all US stocks (albeit likely decreased from the highs of ~76% of the float), I think this is more than ripe for a return to fair value - or well above, if a short squeeze occurs.
Note that the list below deliberately excludes three types of posts/claims from the short sellers:
A) Juvenile personal attacks and attempts to character assassinate and dox a long list of people (RILY CEO, RILY new hires, RILY clients, Marcum the auditor, Marcum's lead audit professional, any firm or individual publicly posting a bull thesis on RILY, etc.).
B) Those that make no objective claims, but simply exist as a product of malicious degeneracy (like pictures of roasted pigs in ovens labeled Bryant Riley the CEO, photoshopped pictures of the CEO in prison chains next to convicted felons, video of an obese woman barely able to walk being gored by a bull labeled Mrs. Riley the CEO's wife, etc.).
C) Those that are impossible for short sellers to know, and impossible to objectively verify (e.g., Marc Cohodes claiming a single RILY trader front runs the CEOs personal short trades in front of clients taking following the firm's bullish advice on those stocks, to guarantee profits).

Claimant	Claim	Reality
1) Wolfpack	Wolfpack “RILY will record investment losses of up to ~$700 million in 2023” FALSE 10-K	FALSE
2) Wolfpack	“new loan to CORZQ will work out just as badly as the last and end in default (again) before June 2023”	FALSE Repaid in full, early, on 1/6/2024.
3) Wolfpack	“The coupon rate on RILY’s seven issues of baby bonds ranges from 5% to 6.75%, which we believe to be far too low to compensate investors for the existential risk that accompanies these securities.”	FALSE Full redemption of May 2024 came early. Far more than sufficient cash to cover debt payments.
4) Wolfpack	“According to our analysis, 4 of RILY’s largest 7 corporate borrowers with outstanding loan balances of $295.3 million are at a high risk of default, or in the case of CORZQ, is already in default.”	FALSE a. Core Scientific Inc. repaid early and in full ($111MM of the “risk”) b. Exela Technologies repaid term loan in full ($55.8MM of the “risk”) c. Arena Group Holdings debt retired in full ($99MM of the “risk”). Publicly disclosed in the most recent 10-K for each company (search for "Riley" in the filing)
5) Wolfpack	“RILY’s NAV is Far Below the $1.1 Billion Minimum NAV Requirement That Is Required for the Nomura Credit Agreement Putting RILY at Risk of Collapse in 2023”	FALSE RILY is in full compliance with the Nomura credit agreement. Moreover, reflecting the strength of the relationship, Nomura even granted a no-fee extension when the 10-K filing was delayed. Also see 10-K for current status.
6) Wolfpack	“Over $200 Million of the Goodwill and Intangible Assets on RILY’s Balance Sheet is Attributable to its Telecom Rollup, which is Centered on Dial-up and DSL Internet:” - criticizing them as dying businesses with no value	FALSE Segment is extremely valuable. From just 2020 to 2023, the communications segment has returned over $212.2MM in adjusted EBITDA.
7) Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	RILY committed fraud with loans and closing the FRG acquisition. "The fact $RILY closed the FRG deal while hiding the Kahn loan - an all PIK defaulted loan backed by $FRG shares - is a Hall of Fame worthy act of fraud. I thought after Enron/Sarbox we couldn't have something like this happen in US markets."	FALSE A law firm led an internal investigation, and an independent external investigation both found “The review confirmed what the Company previously disclosed: that the Company and its executives, including Bryant Riley, had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Prophecy.” “The results of the independent investigation confirmed that the Company and its executives had no involvement with, or knowledge of, any of the alleged misconduct concerning Mr. Kahn or any of his affiliates. This independent investigation was conducted subsequent to the Company's February 22, 2024 disclosure of the internal review performed with the assistance of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP as outside counsel.” Also see 10-K
8) Marc Cohodes (AlderlaneEggs), ParrotCapital, Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Various	The 10-K will never be filed. They can't produce audited financials.	FALSE Audited 10-K was filed. Delay was due to Audit committee fulfilling its responsibilities and proactively conducting investigations (internal and external).
9) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs) + Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear) + Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate) + ParrotCapital	Sullivan and Cromwell knew about Massive Fraud, and did a "sham investigation"	FALSE Sullivan and Cromwell is one of the most respected law firms, in the US and worldwide. "Sullivan & Cromwell continues to lead all law firm advisers in announced and completed global deals in 2023, according to Bloomberg and LSEG. The Firm advised on global announced deals totaling more than $345 billion, representing a 12.1 percent market share, per Bloomberg, and on completed global deals totaling more than $431 billion, representing a 16.9 percent market share, per LSEG." They're not compromising themselves for a relatively small client.
10) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Nate Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear), Bill Abbate Jr. (JrAbbate), Parrot Capital	Marcum is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Marcum is a respected audit firm, and 13th largest by revenue. "Marcum LLP advanced into the Top 15 in the 2023 Vault Accounting list of top-ranked accounting firms. Marcum climbed six levels to the No. 13 ranking overall and earned a ranking of 14 in prestige. The Firm also won Top 20 rankings across all Practice Area, Quality of Life, and Diversity categories, including several new classifications added this year."
11) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	Nomura is enabling Massive Fraud	FALSE Nomura is a global financial services company, and the oldest brokerage firm in Japan. They operate in a highly regulated industry. They're not putting themselves on the line for a relatively small client.
12) Parrot Capital	"The list of $RILY enablers is massive: Marcum LLP, Sullivan and Cromwell, Seeking Alpha, Holbrook Holdings, $AX Axos Bank, Many, many more."	FALSE There's no global conspiracy whereby these companies - all respected law firms, auditors, banks, and media outlets - are collectively colluding to enable RILY to commit fraud. Requires only two brain cells and one functioning synapse to know there's no grand collusion cabal between these disparate companies.
13) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs), Jonathan Weil at WSJ	Franchise Group shares used to secure Kahn loan: "It is unclear whether Kahn pledged the same shares twice—to both Prophecy and B. Riley."	FALSE As stated by the company, Simple UCC search disproves this. UCC # 202302295747
14) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	“Bryant Riley is on the Road, telling people the ‘audit partner at Marcum left’ and that ‘I have made mistakes’ “	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
15) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"So it turns out James La Rocca was Fired by MarcumLLP If nothing was wrong with prior $RILY Audits, why is he gone? This will be great in discovery of what exactly went on.	FALSE Marcum audit partner was working on the audit the whole time; the original audit partner had hit the 5yr SEC rule, so he was never working on this year’s audit.
16) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“So Bryant Riley did disseminate MNPI back in March” in response to Cohodes claim that he told people the Marcum partner left	FALSE Cohodes claimed Bryant Riley was telling people the Marcum auditor left. Koppikar called that disseminating MNPI. Cohodes statement was false (and thus Koppikar's derivate claim is also false). A different auditor worked on RILY, as Marcum follows the SEC rules; the lead auditor can only serve the client for 5 consecutive years. As such, Koppikar’s derivative claim of disseminating MNPI is false.
17) Koppikar (TheFriendlyBear)	“He appears to still not be familiar with the voting interest model of consolidation… why is a life science and tech partner signing an extremely complex investment company / broker dealer audit ???” i.e., auditor is unqualified	FALSE The auditor is fully qualified. Marcum is a highly respected auditor; they don't hire unqualified people, or assign them to clients they're unqualified to audit. RILY is continuing to use Marcum as the 2024 auditor.
18) Marc Cohodes (AlderLaneEggs)	"Now that the $RILY dividend is going away, this omission is serious stuff"	FALSE The dividend did not go away. It was reduced from $1.00/share to $0.50/share, to allow them to opportunistically allocate capital. 23Q4 and 24Q1

A sampling of the source claims listed above can be found in the images embedded in this post, with additional claims found here https://wolfpackresearch.com/research/rily/ and here https://friendlybearresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/RILY-Analyst-Day-Questions-12_11_13-Final.pdf and https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/2cpgaejc45gocvoqb1ngg/corner-office/how-b-riley-garnered-the-biggest-short-interest-of-2023 and https://www.wsj.com/finance/how-an-unremarkable-deal-became-a-big-threat-to-a-small-investment-bank-f819a169 . https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/304196 form ADV. Additional claims can be sourced on the various social media venues and websites utilized by the short sellers. This is not financial advice. All claim summarizations reflect my interpretation of the short seller claims, and should be verified against original sources, along with all counters. Due to Reddit image attachment limits, not all source images are included (but any missing can be found on TwitteX or other publicly available sources).
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I’m 18 and the assaulter was sentenced.
It’s been 1 year and 5 months since I was sexually assaulted or raped, I don’t know which it was.
I was 16 and I wasn’t doing well mentally. I met someone online who made me feel like I actually mattered. Long story short, he turned out to be a predator. He took me to a hotel and raped me. He was 32 years older than me.
I can’t stop thinking about it. I find myself thinking about how much I cared for him. I think about how I poured my heart and soul into our relationship, how much I confessed to him, and how I felt like I was in love. He even talked me down from a suicide attempt. I really did trust him. I thought I meant something to him because he was willing to drive 17 hours from his state to mine, just to be with me.
But I also think about what he did. He got me out of my house and drove me out of town. He got me onto the bed and assaulted me. I was too scared to say no and to frozen to fight back. I couldn’t do anything for 6 hours. I’ve never been in so much pain before. I’ve never been more afraid of anybody.
Even now I still think about it. When I’m in public, people’s voice me remind of his. When I hear a name that’s similar or the same, I’m reminded. Any time I see someone who looks similar, I feel the same. I’m in a constant state of panic. If my hand touches one of theirs or if someone touches me, I feel so panicked.
I feel like I can’t do anything without thinking about him or what happened. I can’t change clothes, shower, sleep, or really even speak without those thoughts.
I’m not allowed to be in therapy because it’s a waste of money. (Parents words not mine.) I talk in circles and don’t know how to have a proper conversation. I’ve been doing a lot of self-help though. I have some books, I journal, and exercise regularly. How can I stop thinking about these things?

Hi, first time having my own health insurance.
So for starters, I have UHC high deductible insurance and have met it already, if that helps.
Sometimes, when I go to a doctors appointment, they won’t bill me up front and sometimes they do. For the ones that don’t make me pay upfront, they say that I’ll get billed through my health insurance. So I go to my UHC portal to pay, and looked through all my claims. And in the claims in the portal, all it shows is the EOB and what I should’ve paid for the service. It also doesn’t have a way to know if you paid up front or not so it has a box that you can check that says whether you paid it up front already. Very unorganized and very confusing because like why wouldn’t they know if I paid it ?? idk?
For example, I got an order for a MRI at a hospital I’ve never been to before. The hospital never sent me a bill, and the portal had a claim that told me how much I should’ve paid for the mri. If the hospital never sent me a bill, and I have the ability to mark that I already paid it. Then is there a way to just not pay for things ??? (I paid it btw like a good citizen but still). And if I didn’t pay it would I just have random debt left and right and my social security score is going to tank? Like is there consequences to this? I’ve been on top of it so far but I’m human and will likely slip soon like will I go to jail? Or be denied a loan in the future because I didn’t pay a medical bill 10 years prior. Who’s keeping track of all this and what’s going on? How am I able to walk out of there without anyone making me pay anything that’s so weird?
Another example, I went to a new doctors office and presented my insurance. At the end of the appointment, they made me pay upfront like $100 or so. When I went to the portal to mark the claim as paid, it said that I should have only paid $75. ??? like ??? This really doesn’t make sense to me like I feel like everyone’s just making up numbers and going with it. I was able to get my money back from the doctors office but this same scenario has happened yet again with a different office where I paid more than I should’ve. And they never told me I paid more than I should’ve too I had to call them !!! Like they’re robbing me atp. Idk what’s happening guys. I don’t understand insurance.
I hope that explanation makes sense. Please help me with this if anyone has any experience.

******* I'll have a TL;DR at the bottom. *******
Basically, I got scammed buying a 2005 volvo v50 T5 AWD (with 109k) from the dealership. Car ran great on the test drive, everything seemed fine, car was overall in bad shape cosmetically but it is what it is, you know? We got a discount because of the cosmetic damage (like the sunroof being completely caulked off) and bought the car, thinking that it was perfectly fine.
A SINGLE DAY later, something is going south, the engine runs rough on idle for the cold start. Don't know why, this is literally the first time the engine is cold started after we bought it. Something isn't right, but I'm able to drive to work without any lights popping up on the dash. However, after work I had some time to show the car to a co-worker and we went for a drive around the lot, during which the check engine light popped on and started flashing yellow. There was some extremely choppy acceleration and just general shaking on idle. I put the car back in the nearest spot in the lot, and after work me and my co-worker go buy a code reader from O'riellys. Read the code, it states P0305 (misfire on cylinder 5)
So, I go call O'riellys to see if they have what I need, and drive over there again. after a second trip for a toolkit and 5 new spark-plugs, we're replacing all 5. The condition of all the old spark plugs was ok, they all looked old and crusty and all had some black on the tips but I'm not sure that anything was out of the ordinary (no white on each spark plug and overall the sparky bits look the right distance). I don't have pictures of them (posting this at home) but if needed I can go and grab photos of each one, just comment. The REALLY SCARY part for me was that one of the spark plugs had oil on the white ceramic part (not the actual sparky bit), and oil was also in the ignition coil (a pretty small amount on both). I didn't know what this meant but it wasn't related to cylinder 5 at all, it was actually cylinder 1, right next to the oil cap. Don't know if this means anything because it could just be someone spilling oil when putting new oil in, but I'm just letting everyone know.
At this point we replaced all the spark plugs and put everything back together, but the engine is STILL misfiring, but this time with the code P0300, so I decided it would most likely be the ignition coils. I haven't replaced those yet but they are on order and hopefully will get installed soon. I really hope this will fix the problem, but I'd like to hear feedback from a few people because I'm not great with engines and this is currently my first car :( and I heard amazing things about Volvos, especially the T5, so I wasn't expecting to have problems like this right off the bat.
My prediction, which I might be completely wrong on, is that the cam/valve cover gasket is leaking into the 1st cylinder hole which broke something. I haven't tested the fuel injectors but I want to, because the ignition coils look relatively new and don't seem like they would break. My friend told me to start off doing a compression test (which I'm scared of doing), is this a good idea?
For those who will ask if the dealer offered to help with anything seeing as the car lasted 1 day, they flat out refused by saying "we sold the car as-is" so I just told them to go f*ck themselves (not proud of that, but I did call them right after getting the P0300 code in the baking sun so it was just a bad decision overall. I'll call them back and apologize someday). BTW, I just got a cheap ass code reader so I don't know if the car has multiple codes, I only see one on the screen. There are 2 buttons, one that is red and erases the code, and the other button is still a mystery. Please send questions about stuff if you need to know, I have the carfax from the dealership so I could check when all the stuff has been replaced.
TL;DR Car misfiring with code P0305, after all spark plugs replaced code P0300. Found oil on ceramic part of spark plug 1 and inside ignition coil 1 (unrelated to cylinder 5), and I haven't tested any other components other than changing spark plugs. Any tips?

I'm midway through Act 3 (Honour Mode), and unfortunately I have to respec my Minthara out of Paladin because I accidentally broke her oath last night, and I killed the Oathbreaker Knights days ago because he aggro'd to my Astarion when I bit a hireling in my camp to get the lucky buff and I couldn't find a way to leave combat with him. I was playing an unconventional support Paladin build, so losing out on it isn't a terrible loss. I think based on what I need for my team currently, a combined Spore Druid/Abjuration Wizard is a good option for her replacement, Jaheira. I've been using her largely in a tanky support role with healing and buffs; Spore Druid allows me to double down on the tankiness with Arcane Ward and SI temp HP while also accessing all the great buffs from Wizard/Druid AND great summons. The biggest question to me, though, is where to make the level split.

1. 1 Wizard/11 Druid gives 6th level Druid spells and spell scribing, which is great. No Wizard subclass, though, which I'd really like, and I am cheesing it a bit with camp casting this run so losing out on Minthara casting Heroes' Feast isn't a huge loss. My main 6th level spell cast will be upcasted Conjure Elemental, which I can get through Wizard spell scribing.
2. 2 Wizard/10 Druid seems like the worst possible option. It gives Dilophosaurus Wild Shape, but I'd rather be using Symbiotic Entity as a Spore Druid, and you don't really get a ton of utility our of Arcane Ward maxing at four.
3. 3 Wizard/9 Druid gives 6 Arcane Ward and 5th level spell access from Druid, as well as 36 temp HP from Symbiotic Entity. I think 6 Ward is still a bit on the low end, but I could see a rationale for this.
4. 4 Wizard/8 Druid gives 8 Arcane Ward and 32 Temp HP, which seems like a nice sweet spot for protecting SI HP. It also gives 3 feats, though I'm not exactly feat starved on this build. Loses out on 5th Level spells.
5. 5 Wizard/7 Druid gives 10 Arcane Ward, 28 temp HP. I lose out on 5th level spells and 6th level spells, but this is my scroll/support/summons caster, and most of their higher level spell slots will be used for upcasted summons anyway so I don't think it's the end of the world. The major 5th level druid spell I lose is Conjure Elemental, which I get from scribing anyway. Importantly, this also gives Counterspell - something that my current party only gets from Bard Magical Secrets.
6. 6 Wizard/6 Druid gives 12 Arcane Ward, 24 temp HP, as well as both subclass abilities in Fungal Infestation (which all of the above get) and Projected Ward as a means to reduce damage for the rest of my party. Projected Ward does compete with Counterspell for my reaction, though, which is a small non-bo. This loses 4th level spells, and I actually do think losing out on double summons from Conjure Woodland Being is a bit of a loss.

Of these, I think 5 and 6 are probably the two best options, with 1 coming in third. I don't think 2-4 give enough Arcane Ward to really matter, though I might be missing something. I think I'm leaning towards 5 Abjuration Wizard/7 Spore Druid for access to Counterspell and Conjure Woodland Being, but I'm also struggling with the idea of being so close to Projected Ward and not being able to grab it. I'm interested in hearing other people's opinions, though!
I'm not considering any Druid level below 6 currently, though if I'm missing a combination there feel free to point it out!