Morning evening and afternoon worksheets

hi all, my sister is visiting me this week and we want to do a lil "food tour" of portland- spend an afternoon/evening going to different restaurants around town and just ordering one little thing from each. so far our list comprises some of my favorites and some things she's loved the other times she's been in town: the bacon-wrapped mochi at izakaya minato, the green beans at empire, the chickpea fries at evo, a cheese plate at anoche.
where else would you add to our little tour for good vibes, especially delicious bites, or even a special drink?

My dr finally called me back. After having emailed her twice ...
She told me not to worry about fast taper cause the serious withdrawal only happened to ppl on really high doses for long periods of time.
I've only been on K - it will be almost 4 months including the taper. ( when it ends)
She wants me to take half a .5 pill till Saturday. ( I started this dose this passed Saturday. After getting my might pill cut Tuesday then just having .5 in the morning till Friday )
She's not gonna renew my script cause I want off and this is how she feels it should be done.

• I can't just change drs cause I go to a Clenic and it's the only place with in a reasonable distance that I can get to financially and that takes my state insurance . Plus they out source their drs so we're doing tell telahelth so I'm don't even know where she is .

She said since I haven't had too much trouble with the biggest cut and the cut to half a pill that I should be fine.
Since it's only been a few months she's not worried and neither should I be.
Assigned female at birth 45 yrs old

Hi there! First update. Last night I actually fell asleep while drafting my first post on this subreddit. Glasses on, phone on my face, battery uncharged.
Usually when I wake up I'm hit by a wave of anxiety as I'm transported back to every mistake I've ever made (many), every person I've let down (several), every course of action i've not taken, etcetera etcetera. This carousel of regrets is paralyzing enough that I often take more than a hour to get up, and the only thing I want to do once up is plug in my headphones and go to a place where i never fuck up, i'm revered by friends and foe alike, and i'm braver than ever. Once i peel off the heaphones, I'm usually late to work, with no time for breakfast, and no real plan for the day beyond getting through it. My god, this is sad to recount.
Anyway! This morning was alright. I posted that introduction as soon as I got up, gave in to the craving ONLY for half an hour, peeled the heaphones off barely in time for work, even had breakfast!
At work, what I struggle with the most is "passive daydreaming": my paras hanging around in the back of my head, no music or intensive absorption going on, but they are still there. Small scenes pop up, or maybe a longer sequence that i explore only lightly. Nothing emotionally intense, but that could change easily. I have to be careful to never have music on while driving (and I drive a lot). Grounding techniques are very helpful.
I came home at 19:00, and cleaned for a bit. I'm too tired to work on my drawing tonight. I'm going to meditate for 30 minutes and then fall asleep. Thank you for reading! I'll continue trying.

Hey everyone!
I'm thrilled to share that my blood sugar was at 5.5 again this morning! 🎉 This progress is thanks to better food choices and regular exercise. I'm now up to 30 minutes of exercise in both the morning and evening, which has made a huge difference. I've also come to the realization I need to keep this up. If I stop for a few days things go back to bad again.
I'm now focusing on reducing my weight. Does anyone have tips?I'd love to hear how you all stay motivated with meal planning and exercise routines.

I’m 9 weeks 1 day today and last Friday my HCG levels didn’t raise even close to the extent they should have (was 52k something the week before and they only went up to 61000). Ive had spotting throughout this pregnancy and lost my most prominent symptom (sore boobs) on Saturday.
I had an ultrasound this morning and where I live (Ontario Canada) the tech doesn’t show you the screen and can’t go over any of the details with you. I have to wait until tomorrow to go over the results with my doctor which I know isn’t a long time but the wait feels excruciating. Im so terrified to be told what I’ve been dreading but at the same time want to get it over with if that’s the case. How are other people coping with the wait to go over their (possibly not positive) results?

I know we sometimes post about different Gis, equipment, and brands. Just getting into BJJ from a middle school and high school wrestling background, I needed to buy some gear before I could participate. After this subreddit recommended a couple brands, I ended up getting two seperate Gis.

1. 93Brand "Hooks V6" (White A1XL)
   
2. Kitsune "Spectre" (White A1XL)
   

They are both fantastic Gis and very similar material and quality. Both were produced in Pakistan which leads me to believe they could both be made in the same factory. Between them, my favorite is the Kitsune Spectre just because of how sick the design is. If you're into traditional Japanese artwork and possibly anime.
After 2 weeks of use for both Gis, my Kitsune ripped along the bottom of the jacket. Not at a stresspoint either so it's a strange location to tear. I decided to reach out to Kitsune that night to see how I can remedy the situation including photos of the Gi and tear. I reached out at 8PM that night, and 6AM the following morning not only did they respond, but included a new UPS tracking number for a complementary replacement. They didn't even request the old damaged Gi.
I was able to sow the bottom of my old Kitsune Gi and it's held up in 2 practices so far. But will also have a brand new Kitsune Spectre in a couple of days for the replacement they sent me without asking. I really cant speak highly enough for them, the quality, team, brand, and customer service It seems this was a uncommon fluke and will continue to spread their name and brand. We need more companies like them.
If you're in the market for a new Gi, choose a Kitsune.

Hey everyone, just here for a question and maybe some advice.
I 27M matched with 30F back in Mid-End of April. We exchanged maybe a few texts a day as we both infrequently check the app. After about a week of this I asked for her number and we started texting.
We spent a day over text just sharing anything we felt comfortable sharing then set up our first date. First date went awesome, we met up for dinner and had an awesome conversation along with a lot of laughs. At the end we walked around town a bit and I walked her to her car and the night ended with a kiss. I offered a ride for this date but she wanted to drive instead.
We spoke a bit more and we communicate primarily in the AM to early PM. Nice Good Morning text, just a check in and that's about it.
We just had our second date this past Tuesday and it went even better. She even asked if I would be willing to give her a ride, to which I did. We had an awesome dinner, showed embarssing HS photos of ourselves. We then went hatchet throwing and were talking smack to each other the entire time and laughing. This date also ended in a kiss as well, and both of us expressing in the car that we're having a great time and enjoy it.
We've spoken about our goals and how we don't want to waste anytime because we're just getting "Older".
Oddly enough when I texted her about going on another date and if she wanted to see if there was something there between and keep spending time together. Absolute silence. Which is weird considering our communication patterns.
Is this a case of ghosting? I've been out of the dating world since my ex-fiancee left me in 2021 and jsut really started back up after getting my life in order (Job, Apartment, and Finances).
Feel free to let me know what you're all thinking!

I (21F) have been with my (23M) boyfriend for about two years. We fell madly in love, and he had treated me better than anyone I had ever been with. I also felt very safe and secure with him, and we got along as friends, not just lovers. Throughout our entire relationship, we have had to do long distance. We are from the same hometown. It wasn’t much of an issue in the beginning. He would drive 12 hours to see me sometimes. He’s in a really difficult engineering school, and I’m living at home working as a RVT. Since December, things have been different. He started to become very stressed at school, which I tried to support him through it the best I could. I mean, I tried really hard. He would communicate less and less and I would have no choice but to be understanding, because when I’d get upset or ask him about it, he’d get defensive and claim I didn’t understand and that I never could. He was so nice before and I’m so confused. He sent good morning and goodnight texts, would buy me beautiful gifts and tell me how gorgeous I was. I just felt so loved, and he became a big source of happiness during this really weird and hard time in my life. The more he seems to start pushing me away, I desperately try to keep him around. I can’t seem to help it. Well, he is graduating and he started to ask me about moving in with him. I was so excited because we wouldn’t have to do distance anymore. For a month, he let me believe that was the plan. I applied to a school out there to continue my education. I even started buying stuff for our apartment. Then, suddenly he didn’t want to. I don’t know why I didn’t make it a bigger deal because he completely changed my plan and flipped my life upside down. It was so embarrassing to tell everyone that he didn’t want me to come anymore. He rationalized it as that he had never lived alone before, and wanted a chance to settle into his new job, alone. And that he wants to read books??? He said he wanted to work on himself to be a better man for me. So, after mourning what I thought could have been I just dropped it. And then the texts starting to get even less. He won’t answer my calls sometimes, just because he doesn’t want to. One day, I drove to his school without telling him because I was so desperate to see and talk to him. He actually was so happy, and nice, and he held me and cried and we talked, and it all seemed fine. But after I left , he still wouldn’t talk to me much. He has a lot of family things going on and I can tell it’s been bad for his mental health. Anyway, though, what is making me write this is that I found a sticky note trying to rationalize and sort me into whether I’m going to be a good thing for his future. It said something about my hood qualities, but then said “Millions of women ahead of me, find spectacular one”. My heart broke. I asked him about it and he was saying he wrote it after a fight, and that it wasn’t really his feelings now. I just feel so stuck. I really wanted to be with him. He used to talk about us having babies, and he was so passionate. I miss the man he was so bad and I don’t know if holding out for him to get better as he says is the right idea. I just only want him. Currently, I am wildly jealous and sad because him and his friends (and their gfs) took a graduation trip and he didn’t invite me. It would’ve been my dream to go. I’ve been struggling so much here and I wish he cared so bad. He doesn’t text me while he’s on this trip. I see him active on social media, and he’ll occasionally throw me an i misss you before disappearing again. On Friday, I am driving to his graduation with his sister and mother. I don’t know how to act and what to do. I don’t want him to think it’s okay to be mean to me, but I don’t wanna fight on his graduation day. I guesss I’m just just miserable and need someone to talk to about it. I’m so embarrassed he’s even doing this to me. I could never to him. He says I’m the one making it a big deal that he won’t respond or communicate. I tried explaining how much it hurt. I just hate the idea that he’ll do everything for someone else that I have to beg for now, like he did in the beginning

Hello everyone (I hope this is allowed),
we're in a bind here. My Visa card has stopped working for a stupid tldr reason that my bank is apparently too slow to fix (called them yesterday morning and they were snarky about it being a bank holiday in my home country) and we used our last cash to check into our hotel on Monday. We leave tomorrow, but until then we're basically stuck here with absolutely no access to money. Our debit cards don't work outside of the EU. I have plenty of money on my account, I just cannot access it. Wanted to western union myself some but apparently there isn't a branch in Kyoto.
Would there be anyone here willing to meet up around Kawaramachi/Karasuma who could trade us some cash for a friends&family paypal transaction? It's literally the only thing I can come up with at this point. We don't have iPhones so we can't even top up our Suicas to actually go somewhere.
I'm super stressed out at this point and grateful for anyone who might be able to help or have an idea how to solve this. And yes, I now realize that it was stupid to rely on one single credit card, but in my home country they're very stingy about handing those out and I didn't expect this issue at all.

So I’ve been going really hard the last few weeks and am starting to push even harder.
36 M 5’9 current weight 223 lbs.
I’m eating about 1500 calories a day.
Working out like crazy: Morning jog with dog 1 hour (1 min jog/walk intervals) 45 min weights during lunch Treadmill/Rowing ifit class in the evening Constantly walking on under desk treadmill at work
It has me burning 2000+ active calories a day, with 2500+ calories deficit. Been doing this about 3 weeks and feel good and seeing great results but is it too much?

Hello!
As the new masterchef season approaches I just wanted to review some rules and regulations involving this community and spoiler rules.

1. Please mark anything including predictions or spoilers you see in the promo as such. I understand it is a community meant for spoilers however please be respectful of those who do not want to see spoilers.
   
2. Refrain from using spoilers in the title of a post. I usually don’t watch until around Thursday morning and i know many others don’t always get the chance to watch. So please do not include spoilers in the title of your post.
   

Example Of Inappropriate Title: I Can’t Believe Brynn got sent home!
Appropriate title:
I can’t believe this contestant got sent home!
I will not be looking at posts because i really don’t want to have the entire season spoiled for me before i even watch it.
Thank you!

Hi, new to Reddit here, but could use some advice. So I started going to the gym and eating 1500 calories a day 6 weeks ago, this being the 6th week of going to the gym 5 days a week. My workout routine is 20-30 mins running on the elliptical, and then push/pull/legs split with a fit friend of mine for 45 mins to 1 hour.
As far as eating, I am seriously eating/drinking 1500-1700 calories a day. I count every single calorie by weight, and have even switched to almond milk for my morning coffee. I take no days off, but I am doing a non-restrictive diet. Obviously not eating a ton of sugar, but I find that sticking to 1500-1700 calories a day and going to the gym 5 days a week is really helping me make smart choices for foods anyways. I.E. If I eat something not great for me, it affects how I perform at the gym.
I think I started around 470 lbs, probably more though because I took that weight that 2 months prior to starting. Now I've been stuck at 451 for like 6 or 7 days now.
Anyone know what I could be doing wrong? I know there are a lot of different metrics I can use, but why isn't my weight changing?
Any advice would be awesome. I am in it for the long haul anyways, but I have to say I feel a little discouraged today.
Thanks!

Me [26F] and my boyfriend [31M] have been together for 4 years. He has a female friend, let's call her X.
She and I have never met. He and X have been friends since college, so they have been good friends for long than I have been together with my boyfriend. I'm okay with my boyfriend having female friends, and he's okay with me having male friends.
He says that we're the same age and that we're into some of the same things and that we would get along. I have met some of his other friends where we have no similar interests, but we get along just fine, so I'm not concerned about similar interests and whatnot.
The problem I have is that, when I asked my boyfriend to watch a movie with me, he said he would, but wanted to wait until it was out online so we don't have to go to a theatre to watch it. Then, he goes and watches this movie in theatres with X and a few others, but X was the one who initiated it.
My boyfriend likes the outdoors and said he would like to take me out on a long hike with a good view. However, it's been 4 years and we have never been on a long hike or even gone camping like he said he wanted to do with me. I'm not a huge avid hiker, but I like going on hikes. I don't have the stamina for long hikes which would make it a longer trip, but I'm willing to do it still and I have mentioned this to my boyfriend. Then, last summer, he said he was going on a long hike with X.
X is more outdoorsy than I am, so he might have wanted to do this long hike quicker than it would have been with me. Of course I wasn't going to say no to him just hanging out with his friend. However, during that time, my boyfriend works a typical 9-5 job. if you include commute, it would be 8-6. I was in school monday to friday as well, and would work early saturday mornings. We wouldn't really spend time together on the weekdays because it was already evening by the time we met up (we did not live together at the time) and he likes to go to bed early. Our only time to meet up was on Saturday, because we were both available. Sundays are my family days, which he is invited to, but he also sometimes hangs out with his family on Sundays. I didn't like that he decided to use one of our hangout days to go on a hike with X, especially because that was our day to spend together, and he could have gone on another day, like Sunday.
Overall, I just feel like he chooses X over me. He has said that I am a priority and am the most important person, but it doesn't feel that way. His actions don't really match up with his words imo. He said he would do things with me, doesn't, and then does it with X instead. I have always felt like a second priority. Either with work, his friends, or his phone, I feel like I'm a second choice. He can't leave work early to go on a date with me, but tries to leave early for work to hang out with his friends. He's on his phone when we're out together. This is an ongoing struggle we go through, but we have talked about it and it's improving.
I told him that I don't feel comfortable meeting her, I dont want to meet her, I have no intentions of being friends or friendly with her, and that I don't want anything to do with her. This is because every time I hear X's name, I just think about all the times my boyfriend has chosen her over me. I asked why he's so invested in X. He says they've been friends for a long time, that she gives out good vibes, and is a good person. He still wants us to meet and to get along, but I am still not interested.
He says that it's unfair to pinpoint my anger towards her because she didn't do anything wrong. I agree, but that doesn't make me want to meet her or anything. I just don't feel the need to meet her at all. I also told him that I don't want to hear her name or anything around me. However, I don't want him to keep secrets from me...so I'm not sure what to do here.
We're at that stage where we're talking about getting married, and I told him that I didn't want her at our wedding, to which he was very offended. For some context, my boyfriend has a really close male friend, lets call him Y. my boyfriend was not part of the groomsmen or any wedding preparation, only part of the wedding as an attendee. my boyfriend was a bit upset that he wasn't a part of the wedding in a more involved way, and two years later got the courage to ask his best friend why he wasn't part of the groomsmen because they thought they were super close. Y then said that Y's wife did not like my boyfriend and requested that he not be involved. SO, if his close friend was able to do that, I believe it shouldn't be a problem for my boyfriend to not invite someone to our wedding, because why would you want your bride to be upset on her wedding day?
i told him that she is basically putting a wedge between us, and asked if she's that important to him that he's willing to allow this wedge between us. He doesn't think there's a wedge but clearly there is. Me not wanting to do anything with her, him still wanting to be friends and not hiding things from me. I told him that I would prefer if he stopped contacting and stopped being friends with her, but I'm not going to force him on that because he's allowed to have friends. We ended our conversation here, but nothing really resolved from that. I don't believe he's committing infidelity with her, but due to all these other reasons I still don't like her.
I know I am harbouring resentment towards her when she hasn't really done anything...but I can't shake off the feeling of being uncomfortable and feeling off about her.
Any advice on what I should do in this situation? Thanks in advance.

My six year old daughter befriended a little boy next door who is 5. They get a long well, and always want to play together from the morning until Sun down.
What bothers me is his mother wants my daughter over for lunch, and then supper. Every. Single. Day.
I also can't have the little boy over at our house for long because he's mean to our two year old. He kept telling him to "go away" and "don't talk to me" and even started yelling in his face to try and "scare him away" which I just suggested they both go play outside then because I don't want my toddler to be bullied in his own home. I told his mother and his mother scolded him and told me to tell her if it happens again.
The thing is I want to have my daughter home for supper. We have supper as a family. We have a bed time routine. It's exhausting having to say no every night to her eating at their house and then she comes home pouting because she wants to eat supper with them.
Today I went to pick daughter up and his mom told me how she "hides from her mom" everytime I pick her up, and tells her how she has to "hide from mom" and I just sorta awkwardly smiled and she like repeated herself to drive in the point I guess. How do I respond to that? :(
I feel so sad. I grew up with a severely toxic childhood and would always yearn to be ANYWHERE but my own house and now I worry that's the case for my daughter too. I thought because we went to the park, played together, how I kinda even spoil her, go on regular outings, and I'm not physically abusive like my own parents and I rarely yell unless I'm overwhelmed that I wasn't too bad. But I guess I can't compete with the not traumatized, lovely neighbor next door who I guess just wants my kid to move in with her suddenly.

A few days ago I met someone online and we connected in a very special way, I hadn't connected with someone in this way for years. At first, he told me he was from a specific place and I told him that I knew where it was because someone I know lives in those same parts... then he made a sexual joke out of nowhere but I've a dirty mind so I didn't care.
We started talking and he made me feel special but my alarms started to go off when he started asking me weird questions like “do I make you feel special?” and “do you feel loved?”, it was extremely weird because at least where I'm from nobody asks you those questions and even less formulated in that way so I told him to stop with the interrogation although I didn't judge him because I thought “maybe in his culture it's normal and in mine it's not”.
Although I liked him quickly everything turned into a flirtation and something s*xual... and when I say quickly I mean that everything was too fast to process. Then the second alarm went off and he told me out of the blue and in a rude way that I wasn't the only woman he chatted with that he didn't want jealousy shows, I didn't care because he wasn't my boyfriend but then he said something like “you are mine and I don't share what is mine”.
I started to suspect that he only approached women virtually to manipulate them and use them s*xually for his pleasure, so I told him that I didn't want us to touch the s*xual topic anymore and even though he said he was ok with it... he started to ghosting me. Last night, after convincing him he finally send me an audio because I already had suspicions that he was just selling lies and maybe he wasn't even from where he had told me he was from in the first place, so when I heard the first audio I realized that he had indeed lied to me because his accent wasn't even remotely from where he had told me.
This morning when I confronted him, argued with him and asked him for explanations he told me to go to hell and start to accusing me of being a racist because according to him I was judging him by where he was from so I, fed up with all this, blocked him from all the social media I have. AITAH for doing this?

Yesterday morning, my boyfriend and I were laying in bed. We were scrolling on instagram together, when I saw the profile of his ex on the stories. I was suprised, because since we’ve been dating (8 months), he’s always been VERY clear about what he does after a relationship: block the ex and cut off contact entirely.
So I was surprised, asked him if they spoke. He told me they spoke for an hour over text last week. Obviously, I’m surprised, because it goes against everything he’s told me.
In their conversation, they apparently talked about “everything”, he asked her if she got married (she posted a picture in a white dress, but wasn’t married), talked about their country, work etc. He now lives abroad.
Now, he’s always told me this girl was absolutely gorgeous, that he found her very attractive. Always an ick for me but it was maybe twice that we talked about it, but he had told me just how beautiful she was.
I asked him why he didn’t tell me, he told me he does block his exes for a little time, then unblock them.
???
I then tell him that he should tell me the whole information, because he’s been so anchored in this value of “when it’s done it’s done” in a relationship. Now I learn it isn’t true, because he left 50% of the information to himself. I told him that wasn’t okay, but he then told me he didn’t understand why he should tell me everything. I told him that if he decides to tell me one thing he should bring the rest. I said I couldn’t trust him about other things now.
My issue is not their talking, I trust him. I know their relationship wasn’t that deep. My issue is that he left after a screaming match, refusing to listen to my complaints, instead immediately attacking me or getting in defense mode.
I’m so hurt of not being heard. We haven’t texted since the fight which is highly unusual for us. I just want him to admit for once that he’s wrong, or even just listen to me instead of defending himself.
I’m overwhelmed and I don’t want to leave the relationship, because we really are happy together. He illuminates my life, everything feels easy with him, he makes me laugh and makes me feel safe.
This fight, and another one we had, really hurt me, and I just don’t know what to do. I don’t even know if I’m at fault.
Am I at fault, reddit? Should I still wait for him to make the first move? Since we’ve started going out, he hasn’t apologised to me once, about anything, and this time i just don’t want to be weak and stepped on.
TLDR; boyfriend 22M lied about cutting contact with his exes, thinks he didn’t lie, stopped talking to me.

Long story short, her (26F) and I (26M) went on one date about 8 months ago. It went decently but didn't lead to a second date which was okay.
Last week, I was sitting alone at a bar watching a game and I saw her and casually waved. She came up to me and didn't seem to recognize me- to which I kindly reminded her of our one date. We chatted for 5 minutes; then easily knew we were about to be practically inseparable. Which is exactly what happened.
We went out for drinks the next night, and REALLY got a sense of how strong the connection was. I crashed at her place after she offered and went to work early the next morning.
She texted me halfway through the day and said - "Would it be too bold to ask if you'd like to get dinner tonight? I want to see you again and don't want to have to wait until Sunday." (her friends were coming to town for the weekend, so she was busy)
I told her that it's not too bold at all and I'd love to see her again - so we did. And we had SUCH a great time again that before we knew it, it was already midnight and she had to pick up her friend from the airport. So, she asked me to join, and I did.
Then Friday, she asked me to join her and her friends at the bars - I did, and we all had an ABSOLUTE blast. Saturday morning she wanted me to come to brunch with them, and I did - obviously another great time. Then saturday night she was literally almost begging me to come again- so I did and we couldn't get enough of each other.
Not trying to jump the gun, but we both admitted to how awestruck with each other we are. It's now Tuesday and I haven't wanted to overwhelm her, so I haven't really pursued a conversation asking if I can see her one night this week - but we've been texting the entirety of the past 3 days.
How do I go about this the best way? I don't want to seem like I'm smothering her, even though she was the one who was insistent on me joining her over the weekend.
What's my next move?

I’m gonna lay out the whole context here, and it’s 2 years long so bear with me. A TL;DR isn’t really possible as there’s so much important context to whether or not IATA.
We’ve been married almost 10 years and she’s from overseas. She came here through our marriage. We were happy and doing extremely well for ourselves.
The problem started to 2 years ago. My friends wedding. Afterward we went out and then went to another friends house to continue partying. At the party one of the wedding guests started having a pity party about how he’s depressed because all these happy couples are around and he’s single.
For context. This guy is weird. He’s disrespectful to women, capitalizes on captive audiences (waitresses most often), and is overall a loser. He’s got a good job but that’s about it.
My wife, listens to his sob story and says “I have a sister!” and immediately starts FaceTiming her sister. This is something I’ve said isn’t okay. We’re not tinder, and we’re not matchmakers.
Beyond that her sister has a history of treating her poorly. She constantly told my wife she’s stupid growing up, well into adulthood. She blocked my wife for a whole year because my wife called her and told her not to go on boats with men she doesn’t know. Told my wife to live like she doesn’t have a sister. For a whole year I consoled my wife a couple times a week.
Anyways we were both drunk and with people so I’m not gonna start a fight right there. I figure I’ll talk to her about it maturely later. So I do. In the meantime, I switch to speaking Arabic with her sister and tell her this isn’t okay and isn’t what she wants.
Her and my wife to this day claim I was happy and supportive. They claim I was too drunk to remember. But there’s a few things wrong with this. I drove home, I take drinking and driving VERY seriously and would never, ever do it. In fact, if I know I’ve drank too much, I’ll hand my keys to a friend before the liquor starts hitting, just to avoid any possibility of making that bad decision.
Secondly, I switched to Arabic. I’m white. Arabic is a language I learned. When I speak it, I speak it very, very deliberately and remember the conversations perfectly. I know exactly what I said.
Anyways, when I talk to my wife later, I’m told how it’s wrong to prevent her from helping her sister and how her sister really likes this guy. A guy she talked to for 5 minutes. I told her it’s wrong to think of it as “helping” her sister in the first place and that her sister is a grown woman who can find her own partner.
So my wife says “okay I’ll tell my sister to stop talking to him”. That was the end of it. Or so I thought.
A few weeks later I’m at a different event and this guy let it slip they’re still talking. Immediately I’m upset and text my wife about how she lied to me.
She said her sister was really falling in love with this guy and separating them would be wrong. She said she did tell her sis to block him but when her sis went into a depression she told her she can unblock him and talk to him, behind my back.
Upset I told her we need to talk about going behind my back and how disrespectful of my boundaries this whole ordeal was. She said “it’s okay I’ll tell her to block him again”.
Over. Or so I thought for the next few months. A few months later I again am at an event with this guy and this time he’s smart enough to lie about them talking. But I’m a salesman and a bullshitter. You can’t bullshit me unless I trust you. I knew immediately he was lying but I let it go. I did ask my wife and she said no they’re not talking. So I believed her.
Well, a year and a half goes by. In that time her sister and her fought about how her sister could come to the US. We said we’d help her but it’s a lengthy process. At the time I had little animosity toward her sister and would’ve loved to see her come here and be near my wife again. She wasn’t happy with that and said it takes too long. This is her sister’s mindset.
Anyway. Her sister gets a B1 visa in the meantime, temporary business visitor and wants to come visit my wife. Lies through her teeth about her intentions to the immigration officer, telling them she wants to stay 90 days. They approve her for 60.
So we file for an extension ASAP so she can visit for 3 months. Staying with us the whole time. I wanted her to have fun on her visit so I arrange for my friends and I to go out. This guy shows up. She talked to him and told him our plans.
Immediately they disappear into the casino and come back holding hands and all kinds of PDA. I’m fuming because I know she’s a conniving word I won’t say here. I don’t say anything though and we go through the night and I let it go so I can have fun.
The next day he’s picking her up from my house and they’re out for the whole day. The next time my wife is off work, same story. Well, I thought you were here to visit her? And that’s where I put my foot down.
I got told it was wrong to try and control her, wrong to try and separate them, etc. etc. etc. Finally she blocks his number and he calls from a separate number. I turn off her SIM card because I’m not gonna support her going behind my back in my own home. He calls me and tells me he really loves her and just wishes I’d accept it.
I tell him very plainly I will never, ever accept it because it all stemmed from him, her, and my wife going behind my back. Primarily my wife, as she’s the only one of the three I should be able to trust is telling me the truth.
At this point, I feel as if my wife had an emotional affair, although it’s with her own family. She repeatedly chose to go behind my back, against a boundary I had told her repeatedly before this situation at my friend’s wedding after party ever transpired. If that’s not an emotional affair, I don’t know what is.
So I tell him bluntly to not call me anymore and I’m not going to change my stance, and his feelings don’t mean shit to me. He started to give me a sob story about how we’re friends and he I should be happy for him and I cut him off and told him to save his breath.
My wife is upset at me for how I talked to him. Another emotional affair. Trying to protect the feelings of this dude.
The next day, while my wife is at work I’m eating lunch at our dinner table and studying schoolwork her sister comes to the table and starts talking to me about this guy asking if I talked to him and I tell her plainly I did and what I told him.
She goes into a story about how she really loves him, she’s an adult woman and I shouldn’t be intervening etc. I told her I agree I shouldn’t ever have been involved and neither should my wife. I told her to save her breath with any talk of her feelings because I don’t care. She started crying telling me I’m cruel etc.
I told her at this point I’m done being nice. I’ve been lied to for 2 years and it’s over. I’m done being my laid back self and I’ve been pushed repeatedly and I’m standing up for my marriage and my boundaries.
I did turn her SIM card back on so she could call my wife and I, her hosts.
The next morning I wake up to my wife in tears calling me to her sisters room. Her sister is bawling her eyes out and packing her bags to go home. I talk her sister into coming for a car ride with my wife and I to talk things out.
Immediately in the car my wife starts berating her sister about how she’s selling her for a man and a whole host of other things. I calm my wife down and tell her that’s not okay to say to her sister. Because against what they thought I don’t want and would’ve never wanted this to cause a separation between them. I know how much my wife values family.
In the car her sister tells me she really loves this guy and that she can see them being a family one day etc. etc. etc. I tell her plainly don’t ever bring him around my house, if they do marry and have kids, don’t ever bring them around my house, and don’t consider me her brother in law because I will never do anything for her again after she goes home.
My wife is shocked, she’s shocked and they both wonder how I could be so cruel. I said I’m over it. I’m over hearing about this guy, I’m over being used, and I will never again trust her. She said she understands and resumes talking to this guy.
A few days later we’re in the car going to a family event with my family and I get asked if he can come. I said no, very politely. I said no, he’s not part of my family. I was told how terrible I am, and my wife and her sister both jump out of my car in a bad part of Chicago, an area neither of them know.
My wife calls my family and tells them I kicked them out of the car. So my family starts blowing up my phone screaming at me. Once I explained the situation my family said they’ll come pick them up but I hung around and kept driving by to make sure they were okay. Eventually my wife calls me and says they’ll get in.
So I pull over and they open the doors and my wife goes “I’m scared I don’t feel comfortable getting in the car with you”. So I drive away pissed off. This is a 85,000 car in a bad part of the city where carjackings happen every other day.
I go park somewhere but keep an eye on them to make sure they stay safe. A homeless guy passed them and my wife calls me to come get her. So I do and we go home.
Again her sister packs her shit and cries that she’s going home. I tell her to relax, sleep on it and we’ll talk in the morning. She does eventually and in the morning she decides she’ll stay.
A week goes by and I hear nothing about this guy from her. My friends and I all joked about him and made light fun of him. He caught wind of it and cried to my wife’s sister who told my wife, who came to me and aggressively told me to stop and leave them both alone. I got pissed off because this was a private convo between me and my friends and if he heard it and got his feelings hurt it’s on him.
This spiraled into a huge argument with me, my wife, and her sister. In the argument I asked her sister plainly if she planned to leave at the 90 day mark. She said no.
So I kicked her out of our house. Her and my wife went for a walk and I yelled out the front door to get her shit to the curb before the walk before I do, because if she doesn’t do it herself it’ll be thrown on the wet ground. They both thought I was joking before then I assume. Her sister comes in and packs her stuff and gets out. I said if you plan on staying here illegally it won’t be in my house. If the choose is between here or the streets, it’ll be the streets.
She went to stay with the boyfriend and his parents. His parents must not have liked her too much because within a couple weeks they made them both move out.
This was in January of this year.
Since then, I’ve been repeatedly goaded into accepting this. My wife has tried to get me to visit her sister, etc.
It came to a head recently at a wedding we went to for another friend. Her sister and this guy were there. I didn’t say a word to either one the entire night and all was fine.
Except my wife spent the whole night at their table because he wouldn’t dance or do anything to have fun. She can’t handle the idea that her sister might find something she doesn’t like about this guy. She has to be there just in case the relationship goes on life support.
This pisses me off, obviously. She’s more invested in their relationship than she’s been in ours for the past 2 years. Grown adults.
Well, today she was going to her sisters house. She had 2 bags. An ulta bag and a discovery bag. I asked what that is, and she said it’s for her sister. She pulled out taco shells and said it’s just small stuff she wants her to try. But I could see through the bag and saw beauty products. I’m not an idiot.
I looked in when she went to the bathroom and saw a fucking armoire full of shit. I looked at the receipt. $300. I was fucking livid.
I continued getting ready for work and said “her husband can’t buy her that?”. It’s confrontational, yes. But I said it politely, and was open to talking about it.
I get met with immediately hostility. I never raised my voice but I made it very clear I wasn’t being nice about this or anything anymore.
I told her “maybe she could pay you back and find you a new husband”. I’m going to give her a choice. Me or her sister now. Because this has gotten fucking ridiculous.
We pay for her to come here. She hired an immigration lawyer apparently, but doesn’t have money to pay me back for the flight or even pay for the Ubers they take or anything. My wife is trying to make up for this losers shortcomings. He’s too much of an idiot to see that her sister is using him.
By the way, this isn’t her first fiance. It’s not even her first western fiance. She’s been engaged to at least 3 different guys. One from France, another from Belgium, and a third from Canada before this guy. She was looking to immigrate. He’s a fucking idiot though so, oh well.
My wife’s sister is very materialistic. My wife is fortunately down to earth but is so far up her sisters ass because she thinks if she doesn’t do everything her sister wants that her sister will cut her from her life again. Which is exactly what would happen.
I told her that’s on her sister. I’m not asking her to never talk to her sister. I’m asking her to stop treating her sister like she’s a child and putting their relationship before ours. Stop bending over backwards for a grown woman who will throw you away the moment you’re inconvenient.
But it’ll never happen it seems and it’s the reason I’m strongly considering divorcing her. I’m over this fucking shit. Oh, and by the way, my wife claims that she’s scared of me etc. now when she tells the story to other people.
I have never and would never hit my wife. I’ve never given her any reason to be afraid of me. So to put that out there on me is absolutely fucking bullshit and I’ve lost all trust in her.
AITAH?

So Weekly shonen magazine, the biggest rival to jump, just produced a new “hit”, Mayonaka heart tune, that just got a LCP. Lets look at its stats.
-Mayonaka Heart Tune 3 — 9,443 (12 day sales)
It has gotten an LCP by chapter 30 and is considered a new hit
Lets compare this to a recent similarly performing series in jump
-MamaYuyu 1 10,480 (10 days sales)
It got axed by chapter 30…..
Now obviously they have different standards, and jump cares a lot about toc and survey results, but still this is pretty funny. The same sales performance in jump that would nab you a LCP in WSM, gets you axed in jump.
So most here will be familiar with the minimum requirements for staying in the magazine at present. Its….
Weekly Shonen Jump
1.Sell at least 20-25k in volume sales for the first month (Roboco does 20k, kill blue does about 25k) Gag manga have slightly lower standards though.
2.Avoid the bottom 5 of the TOC for consecutive weeks. Unless there is editorial reason for being put low, or other promotional/magazine related reasons something is low.
Also, You can start at around 15k for volume 1 but you have to grow.
Obviously there are other contextual considerations like whats in the magazine, whats ending etc etc, but right now these are the general standards.
People call this harsh, but shonen jump has gotten more lenient of late. Regardless, this method has served it well… to generate a higher proportion of hits than most other magazine for a very long time.
Lets compare it to the second biggest shonen magazine though.
Weekly Shonen magazine.
1.Sell at least 7-10k in volume sales for the first month (Akabane Honeko no Bodyguard, yowayowa sensei and blue wolves of miba all sell less than 10k)
2.Avoid the bottom of the toc consecutively, but the requirements are less strict. WSM has more discretion with what they put at the bottom, with hajime no ippo and to your eternity put low at times just for editorial reasons.
WSM has more leeway for the mangakas, with break weeks very often, and has less stringent requirement for axing and gives them more time. It is still fairly strict and you will get axed eventually if you don’t perform.
So superficially, jumps method produces bigger hits, and magazines gives more leeway more the mangakas.
Let compare the hits each have produced in the last 4 years .since 2020
Shonen jump (numbers rounded)
Ruridragon 118,000
Sakamoto days (116,000)
Blue Box #12 (110.000)
Mashle (90,000)
Kagurabachi 2 (70,000 est)
Akane Banashi #8 (50,000)
Witch Watch #13 (45,000)
The Elusive Samurai #13 (40,000)
Undead Unluck #20 (30.000)
Nue's Exorcist #3 (30,000)
Kill Blue #4 (25,000)
Me and roboco (20,000)
Weekly Shonen magazine
Shangri-La Frontier #15 + Limited Edition (110.000)
Four Knights of the Apocalypse #14 (62.000)
A Couple of Cuckoos #19 (48.000)
Seitokai ni mo Ana wa Aru! #4 (48.000)
Megami no Café Terrace #12 (41.000)
Amagami-san Chi no Enmusubi #12 (31.000)
Gachiakuta #8 (27.000)
Medaka Kuroiwa Is Impervious to My Charms #12 (24.000)
Sentai Daishikkaku #12 (14.000)
Kanan-sama wa Akuma de Choroi #4 (14.000)
Mayonaka heart tune (10,000)
Yowayowa-sensei #4 (9.700)
Ao no Miburo #11 (8.300)
Akabane Honeko no Bodyguard #6 (6.000)
Observations
1.Jump produced 12 hits since 2020. Shonen Magazine 14. This is by their own standards though.
2.Jump had 37 axes in the same period, shonen magazine had 23 axes.
3.Even though the aggregate sales are higher for jump titles, the highest ceiling is similar. Shangri la vs ruridragon/sakamoto. Shangri la does have an anime though, which only gave a minimal boost.
4.Jump is still better at producing better selling titles more frequently. Magazine axe less and give more time and breaks to the mangakas.
What about series in other magazines?
Monthly Afternoon
Monthly afternoon is a seinen monthly magazine by kodansha, that values quality and gives a lot of time. They let series even with a few thousand sales, have a lot of time to build up an audience, which they eventually do. No idea what the internal process is, but my guess is that they also evaluate for quality on top of popularity.
Here is a series skip and loafer, that started with low sales, but is now critically acclaimed and selling pretty well with an anime.
Skip and loafer
Volume 1/ 2 068
Volume 5/ 8 914
Volume 8/ 28 766 /4 weeks
Volume 9/ 59 996 /6 — anime
Volume 10/ 74 262 /7
https://x.com/al_mavivi/status/1558278403664535552
This method of dealing with new series gives them more time to develop and find an audience. It may not produce as many big hits, but it works for the prestige brand they are trying to cultivate at afternoon and is doing a great job at it. They obviously introduce less and axe less, but that comes with the territory of more curation.
Obviously there are a lot more magazines to go through, shonen Sunday and champion, shoujo and josie magazines, but the post would get too long for all that. The general gist is almost all of them consider a few thousand sales good enough to start, and aren’t anywhere near as strict when it comes to voter survey results. And of course, they dont axe or introduce as many series as jump.
What I also think is interesting is that there seems a clear set of ways in how a magazine can configure their axe methods for different objectives.

1. Do you want to produce the biggest hits?
   
2. Do you care about quality and critical prestige?
   
3. Do you want to give the mangaka more lenience and breaks?
   
4. Do you want to give manga more time to develop an audience?
   

….
Jumps method prioritizes 1 , but considers 2
Magazines method prioritizes 1 , but considers 3
Afternoons method prioritizes 2, but considers 3, 4 and 1
What jump can learn from this?
The question people will ask of course, is why cant you do all 4? If someone figured that out, im sure they would do it. Problem is physical magazines have a finite set of slots, keeping something for too long prevents other things from being cycled in, which is why jump axes so much. People always wonder why jump don’t keep more than 20 titles in the magazine like other magazines. Other magazines do this where they have 25+ series, with a few taking breaks every few weeks. Jump only gives breaks to one piece, jjk and mha. But newbies could do with them too.
Also, others can also produce big hits, Blue lock was the biggest selling manga of last year, and it comes from magazine. Its stats early on
blue lock
1) 25k
5 ) 45k
20/ 197, 494
21/ 278, 301 — anime
22/ 346, 180
23/ 445, 253
Before that there were successes in other genres like Tokyo revengers, quintessential quintuplets etc.
Moreover, since the demographics of jump are changing, prioritizing quality on top of hits is also a good way of transiting into a new era. Look at monthly afternoons lineup after using its method.
https://x.com/al_mavivi/status/1607031535760203776

1. Blue Period 12 — 154 652
   
2. Land of the lustrous 11 — 133 430
   
3. Yakuza fiancé 6 — 121 598
   
4. Big Wind up 35 — 97 861
   
5. Vinland Saga 26 — 80 278
   
6. Skip and Loafer 10 — 74 262
   
7. Darwin Jihen 4 — 66 211
   
8. Heavenly delusion 8 — 31 926
   
9. Medalist 9 - 30,000
   

No massive hits by jump standards, but lots of high quality, award winning, solid selling series….with mangaka who are certainly treated way better.

Where are the politics? The scenes of the public reacting to what's happening? Us learning the general opinion?
In the early parts of season 1 we get meeting other lords and listening to their opinions, and Rhaenyra bad talking them. All of ep 4 was basically around the public's feeling towards them, with us seeing the small folk's little play.
But later on??
We see no reactions to Aegon marrying Heleana
Aemond claiming Vhagar
Rhaenyra giving birth to obvious bastards or the death of the baby daddy
her MARRYING DAEMON AND HAVING KIDS WITH HIM
Instead, we just watch Alicent complain about it and nobody else besides her dad actually cares. It makes her look like she's making a bigger problem out of nothing. And literally no one seemed to actually care Rhaenyra married Daemon???
I miss scenes of Cersei surrounded by ladies and gossiping, or Margery winning them over and destroying Cersei with careful digs, "it's a little early in morning for us." or even her going to orphanages. Sansa comforting the ladies during the Battle of Blackwater are fantastic scenes of them winning over and influencing the public while learning of their reactions to what's happening.
Idk, I just think the later episodes are missing the public and the careful game of winning them over. Specifically, this hurts Alicent and even Rhaenyra because we can't see their strengths and weaknesses.
I love those scenes and it sucks we almost guaranteed won't see it in season 2 as its almost entirely a war season. But season 1 should have been heavy with these scenes ESPECIALLY later on, but oh well...