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?

My wife, Mia, and I were driving cross-country. It was our first attempt at the “Great American Roadtrip.”
Mia and I rented a small RV; more of a camper than a full blown RV. We packed up a couple suitcases with plenty of room for any souvenirs and we hit the dusty trail.
We started our journey on the “Mother Road”-- Route 66-- driving south from Chicago until we connected to i-70 and shot straight west through Missouri.
The goal was to see those parts of the country we had never seen before, stopping anywhere that seemed interesting. From the plains of Kansas up through the badlands of Wyoming and South Dakota.
In Missouri we saw the world’s largest cap gun. In Kansas we visited the Evel Knievel Museum and the World’s Largest Belt Buckle.
We love all those kitschy, tourist trap places.
Eventually, we made it to Colorado and after a few hours more of driving through amber waves of grain, we saw them... the Rocky Mountains.
We made an exit and headed north through the winding mountain highways.
The Rockies were gorgeous. Snow capped in the middle of summer, some of the peaks pierced through the white fluffy clouds.
We saw a sign that read “Traffic Tunnel - 3 Miles.”
A little further and sure enough, there it was, a large tunnel bored directly through the mountain in front of us.
A large sign read, “Pike Tunnel - Longest Traffic Tunnel in the Nation! - Please turn your headlights on now.”
“How long is it?” asked Mia.
“That’s what she said,” I quipped.
But she was right, there was no information beyond the detail that this was the longest tunnel in the nation.
“Can’t be more than a mile or two,” I said as I watched the little white car ahead of us slip into the darkness. A moment later we joined it.
The tunnel was lit by fluorescents that gave everything a greenish yellow tinge. On the left hand side was a raised walkway behind a railing for maintenance access.
Initially I was struck by the incredible amount of work that went into the construction of this man- made marvel.
“We’re under a million tons of rocky mountain right now,” I said.
“How many years before this caves in?” Mia responded.
I shot her a look--
“Let’s save the cave-in talk until we’re out on the other side.”
“I’m just saying, nature will take this back eventually,” she continued.
I scanned the empty road ahead of us.
“Where did the other car go?” I asked.
We were now alone in the tunnel, no cars ahead of us nor behind us.
“Huh... they must have sped off ahead. Maybe they’re scared of a cave-in?”
My Spotify playlist had stopped playing. Mia looked at the phone.
“No cell service.”
She turned on the radio and spun the dial only to find static.
“You’re not going to be able to pick up a station in here,” I said.
She turned the volume down.
“Just wanted to check... If only we had some CDs. This tunnel really keeps going.”
“I would have thought we’d be through it by now,” I replied.
I looked at the RV’s odometer, 45,600 miles. I picked up speed. I wanted to try and catch up to the little white car.
Up until this point, the tunnel was a straight shot, but now the tunnel started to curve to the right. It may have been my imagination but it also felt as though we were descending…
Mia felt it too and she started to get antsy.
“Where did that other car go? How long is this tunnel?”
There was an urgency in her voice.
I was getting nervous, claustrophobia was not usually a problem for me but when I looked down at the odometer and I saw that it had gone up by 3 miles, my mind began to wander to unsettling places.
We were descending in altitude. I could feel it. I could see a slope in the lights on the ceiling and the railing of the maintenance walkway. I could feel a pressure in my head, and I was getting cold.
“Could you grab me a coke from the back, Mia?”
I couldn’t have Mia getting anxious, that would only start a chain reaction and make me freak out which would then make her freak out.
She unbuckled and ducked into the back of the RV to where we had a cooler stocked with drinks and food.
Just as she stepped into the back, I saw something.
There standing on the side of the road was a MAN wearing a reflective safety vest and a hard hat. He was WAVING to me as I passed him by.
Something about him looked... strange…
I watched him in the side-view mirror as we passed and he was still watching the RV, still waving at the back of our vehicle as he faded into the distance.
Mia reappeared from the back of the RV, Coke in hand. She popped it and handed it to me.
“You look worried.”
“I’m fine,” I smiled and took a sip of the Coke.
“Eric, slow down!”
I slammed on the breaks as I saw what made Mia scream. In the road in front of us was a roadblock.
Two reflective traffic sawhorses blocked both lanes of the tunnel. Beyond the roadblock, the lights of the tunnel were dark. There was nothing but a void of blackness.
Standing in front of the roadblock was another man wearing a reflective vest and a hard hat, only this time his hard hat had a light on top which obscured his face.
We came to a jolting stop.
I turned to Mia
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “It’s a cave-in isn’t it?”
“God, I hope not.”
I rolled down the window, leaned out and yelled to the man in the hard hat.
“Hey! What’s going on?!”
The man was about 5 yards away. He took two steps towards us and then raised a hand to his mouth and yelled.
“Just doing some maintenance!”
“How long is it going to take?!” I yelled back.
The man made a hand gesture as if he didn’t hear me.
“How long is it going to take?!” I called again.
He made the same gesture. I unbuckled my seat belt and grabbed the door release.
“What are you doing?” Mia asked.
“I gotta know what’s going on.”
“Eric, just stay here, it might not be safe.”
“I’ll be just a second,” I said.
I pushed the door open and stepped down from the RV.
“Stay in your vehicle!” the man yelled.
He took a couple steps towards me with his hand out telling me to stop.
“What’s the hold up?!” I shouted.
The man was a bit closer now but I still couldn’t see his face through the shining light on his helmet.
“Please stay in your vehicle!” he shouted.
There was something off about him.
Then I heard it–
“EEEAAAUUUUUUGHHHHHHHH!!!”
A scream, or something, rolled from deep in the tunnel. The worker turned and looked into the darkness. Then he ran past the barricades and soon all we could see of him was the light on his helmet.
The light disappeared a moment later.
“What the hell was that?! Is someone hurt?” Mia asked.
“I have no idea,” I said.
“Should we do something?” Mia asked.
I just sat there and watched the pitch black tunnel in front of me. I had no idea what to tell her. I checked the sideview mirrors. There was still nobody behind us.
“Where are the other cars?” I asked.
“They must have gotten through before the roadblock... Or maybe they caused the roadblock?” Mia replied.
“I saw another worker a little ways back. We could try to go back and talk to him.”
“We’d be going straight into any oncoming cars.”
“There’s a maintenance walkway. We didn’t pass him that long ago. We can probably catch him on foot.”
“Maybe we should just wait for the guy to come back.”
She reached over and grabbed my arm. I squeezed her hand.
She was right.
I looked out at the tunnel ahead of us. I turned on the RV’s high beams but all I could see beyond the roadblock was more tunnel and more road.
I checked my phone. Unsurprisingly, there was no service still.
We waited, but the man never came back.
“It’s been twenty minutes,” Mia said, “How come there hasn’t been another car behind us?
I was having the same thought. I rolled down my window and stuck my head out. I looked back at the road behind us. It went back about 200 yards before curving out of sight.
There was no sign of that first worker I saw on the maintenance walk way. I looked at the roadblock ahead of us and clicked on the RV’s high beams. There was nothing beyond the roadblock but more tunnel. It didn’t look like it was under construction, just very dark.
“I think we should keep going,” I said.
“What about the roadblock?”
“We’ll move those sawhorses out of the way and just drive past,” I said as I opened my door.
Mia looked at me, then she cast her eyes to the dark tunnel ahead of us. I knew she was processing the same limited options that I was.
Driving backwards would be a huge risk in the instance of another car finally coming along.
Getting out and walking would take God knows how long, we could have driven 10 miles at this point.
Forward was our best option.
“Let’s do it,” Mia said.
We jumped out and quickly pulled the two sawhorses out of the right lane. I pulled the RV up past the barriers, then we jumped out again and put the sawhorses back where they were. We didn't need another car to come barreling through.
We were finally moving again, slowly. It was pitch black save for the high beams of the RV.
We crept forward at around 15 miles per hour. As the tunnel turned and twisted, my eyes started to play tricks on me. I kept seeing shapes at the furthest point of the tunnel.
I kept seeing something standing just at the end of the next bend but as we roll forward, there was nothing there.
“Where are the workers?” Mia asked.
“I don’t know.”
I was done rationalizing. This was all wrong. Traffic tunnels are never this long.
My mind started to wander to all the road trip urban legends I’d read about; The Killer in the Backseat, The Disappearing Gas Station, The Pale Man In The Corn Field.
Did we stumble into some strange outlier location? An in-between point on the endless roads that cross this country?
Then I saw it–
“Look! A person! Thank god!” Mia shouted.
As we rounded a curve in the tunnel, a group of maintenance workers entered our view.
The three of them stood on the left side of the road behind two more sawhorses topped with flashing lights.
Two of them faced towards us, the third was facing the other two.
The one with his back to us wore a light on his hard hat. Was this the same guy we saw earlier? How did he get this far away?
I approached slowly and rolled down the window.
“Hey! You left us waiting back there!” I yelled.
There was no response.
In fact, all three men were completely silent, and it was hard to tell in the flashing light of the sawhorses, but they looked to be standing COMPLETELY STILL.
“Hello?!” I yelled again.
I pushed open my door and stepped out onto the pavement.
“Eric wait--”
I held up a finger to Mia.
“Just a second.”
I slowly stepped towards the 3 men.
“Hello?”
No response… What the fuck?
The bright lights of the sawhorses obscured their faces.
I kept moving closer.
“Hey, what’s going on--”
Then I saw it.
Their faces... They were plastic.
In front of me stood three mannequins.
I backed away toward the RV, then I turned and walked hurriedly to the vehicle.
I was seriously freaked out but I didn’t want to alarm Mia. I climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed the door shut.
“They’re mannequins.” I said.
“What?”
“They’re mannequins.”
”Why?... What?...”
“I don’t know…”
I looked back over at the three figures and my blood ran cold…
The Hard Hat Mannequin had somehow TURNED AROUND to face us. All three figures appeared to be watching us now.
Then we heard it--
A loud resonant banging on the side, and then the roof of the RV.
“What the hell was that?” Mia whispered.
We listened, holding our breath. Then--
A shuffling sound--
Something was moving ON or IN the RV.
“Stay here.” I said.
I got up.
“Eric, wait!”
I moved to the back of the RV.
It was dark. I went for a drawer in the kitchenette space and pulled out a flashlight.
I moved to the rear of the RV, the bedroom. My flashlight illuminated an empty room.
“Whoever is back here, I have a gun…”
A shitty bluff. But I didn’t see anything.
I shone the light out of the windows of each side of the RV. Nothing.
Then I heard it–
A shuffling sound, from right above me.
I looked up and screamed–
“Fuck!”
On the roof of the RV, staring through the skylight was a woman with vacuous black eyes and a dead smile.
Her stringy black hair dangled down towards me casting thing black shadows across her horrible pale face.
“Mia, drive! Fast!” I screamed.
Mia JUMPED over to the driver’s seat, shifted into gear and STOMPED on the gas. The RV was clunky but it could move when it needed to.
We lurched forward and I fell back.
I trained my flashlight up onto the skylight again and the woman was gone.
I scrambled to my feet and looked out of the side windows.
Did Mia shake her off? There was no sign of the woman. I moved to the passenger seat, breathing heavily and sweating.
“What happened?” She asked, keeping the RV at a steady 50 mph.
“There was a woman on the roof,” I said flatly.
I realize now that I was in a kind of shock.
“A woman?”
“Her eyes were black.”
Mia just looked at me, then back at the tunnel ahead of us.
“There’s something wrong with this tunnel.” I whispered.
Mia pointed at the road ahead, “Look.”
I looked out at the tunnel. There were more mannequins. A LOT more mannequins. They were positioned on both sides of the road.
They were all facing us and even though I never saw them move, when I looked in the side-view mirror, they were somehow STILL facing us, turning to watch us as we drove past. Watching without eyes.
“Just keep driving.” I said.
As we drove on, the mannequins crowded the sides of the road more and more. There were thousands of them. Eventually they were so close that some of their outstretched arms hit the side of the RV.
They were closing in on us. Squeezing our path forward. One stood in the middle of the road.
“I don’t think i can get around it.”
“Run it over. Don’t stop.”
The RV smashed into the mannequin. Its head shot forward and bounced against the windshield and the vehicle shuddered as it rolled over the body.
Soon there were two in the road. Then three.
I could see where this was going. Pretty soon there would be too many for the RV to ram through, but goddammit we were going to get through as many as we could.
“Speed up, Mia.”
CRASH!
The sound was surreal, smashing into mannequin after mannequin at nearly 60 miles per hour.
Hands, legs, heads and torsos flew.
The windshield cracked, the RV shuddered and screamed and eventually slowed down, despite the screaming engine.
I’m certain the axle was jammed up with lifeless, plastic body parts. Eventually we came to a stop.
“She won’t move,” Mia said.
She pressed on the gas but it was no use, the RV just rocked a little bit.
“Try reverse.”
She shifted and pressed on the gas, we got some decent movement before running into another jam.
“Fuck.”
“Should we get out and look?” Mia asked.
“I’ll go,” I said as I grabbed the flashlight and popped the passenger door. Mia unbuckled her seatbelt.
“We’ll go together.”
We stumbled out of the RV on the passenger side. It was like stepping into Hell.
Countless, lifeless faces stared out at us from the darkness. The only light came from the headlights of the RV and my flashlight.
We clumsily made our way along the side of the RV. The ground was littered with mannequin pieces.
I thought to myself, if we could get a couple yards cleared out behind the rear tires, we might be able to back out and get enough momentum to reverse all the way back out of here.
Instead, when we got to the back of the RV, my stomach flipped and my heart sank.
I was expecting to see a trail of flattened mannequins, instead the RV was now surrounded by thousands of perfectly intact mannequins standing at attention. As if their ranks had some how been replenished after our vehicular assault.
“This is impossible.”
She started to cry. I held her close.
“We’ll keep moving.” I said.
“It will never end. The tunnel makes no sense. It only curves one direction.”
I looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“This whole time the tunnel has only been curving to the right. it would sometimes straighten out or go left for a few yards but before too long we were curving to the right again. We’ve either been driving in circles or spiraling downwards.”
“So we’ll go back the way we came and hope we’re not going in circles.” I said.
We had been driving for hours at this point. Walking back out the way we came would take days. But now that I thought about it, Mia was right, we’d only been curving to the right.
This tunnel seemed to be very gradually taking us downwards into the earth.
Going forward would not get us any closer to escape.
“We’ll need food from the RV,” Mia said.
I nodded and we stumbled our way back to the front of the RV, the mannequins’ lifeless faces watching us the whole time.
I stepped up to the passenger door and nearly fell back when I looked through the window.
“What the fuck?” I breathed.
What I saw were two mannequins sitting in the driver’s and passenger’s seat.
How they got in there? I have no idea, but what really made my blood run cold was that they were dressed EXACTLY like MIA and I.
They wore identical sets of clothes. The one in the passenger seat had my same New Order T-shirt and black jeans. The one in the driver’s seat had Mia’s green striped sweater and denim shorts.
Their plastic faces stared out through the shattered windshield at the endless crowd of mannequins staring back at them.
Mia stepped up and saw the uncanny display.
“What the fuck?” Mia echoed.
I pulled myself up into the RV and slowly stepped around my mannequin doppelgänger. I avoided looking into its face but I swear i could feel it watching me as I stumbled around it.
Mia followed and we made our way into the back of our dark RV. Luckily we had just stocked our cooler full of deli meat and water not long after crossing the Colorado state line.
I handed Mia the flashlight and pulled open the cooler. I filled a backpack full of food and water.
I turned and saw them–
My mannequin double had somehow moved. It was standing in the aisle watching us.
Mia’s doppelgänger was still seated in the driver’s seat but had turned to peer back at us with its eyeless gaze.
Mia saw the look in my eyes and turned. She screamed when she saw them and backed into me. I put my arm around her and we stood there a moment, letting our skyrocketing heart rates return to Earth.
“Let’s get out of here,” I said.
I slid the backpack onto my shoulders.
Mia joined me at the door. I looked into her eyes. “Are you ready?” She nodded. I kissed her.
“I love you,” I said.
“I love you,” she said.
The look on her face killed me. She was terrified. I’m sure the look on my face was similar.
I opened the door and we stepped out…
We again stumbled to the back of the RV. Once we were clear of the RV and all the crushed mannequin body parts, it became easier to find footing, though weaving through an endless crowd of lifeless people was a slow process.
It was pitch black. Without the flashlight we wouldn’t be able to see a foot in front of us.
As I walked, the beam of light created the illusion of movement in the crowd. At least I hoped it was an illusion.
The limbs of the mannequins seemed to stretch and turn, but the only sound was that of Mia and I shuffling our way through the crowded tunnel.
Things went on like this for what felt like hours. Mia and I were sweating and aching. I was about to suggest we stop and rest, but then I saw it and I froze…
Out in the crowd, beyond rows of blank faces I saw a pale face, black hair and a dead smile.
I saw two vacuous eyes staring right at me.
“Mia, do you see her?” I whispered.
“See who?”
I slowly raised my arm and pointed.
It was the woman, or whatever it was, that stared back at me through the skylight on the roof of the RV.
“Oh my god!” Mia squeaked.
I could see now that the Pale Faced Woman was tall. A few inches taller than the mannequins.
As I pointed, she stared back at me with that terrible grin.
“What do we do?” Mia whispered.
I raised the flashlight and pointed it right at the Pale Faced Woman. I thought maybe this would scare her off.
I was wrong.
The light only made her appear more unsettling as she stared back, unflinchingly.
“What do you want?!” I yelled.
She only stared back at me. She was as still as the mannequins.
“We have to keep going.” I whispered.
Mia didn’t respond. Her body was tense as she held onto me.
“We’ve come this far, we can’t turn back again,” I continued.
I pulled Mia’s hand and we continued on our way through the mannequins, keeping the distance between us and her as wide as possible.
As we moved past, she kept watching us. Though her movements were imperceptible to us, her eyes never left us. Like one of those portraits whose eyes appear to watch you no matter where you stand.
Finally, we got far enough that she was out of sight. But the thought of her being somewhere behind us only unsettled me further and I quickened our pace.
As the hours wore on, there was no sign of the Pale Faced Woman and the crowd of mannequins began to thin out. They still populated the tunnel from one end to the other, but there was more space between them, allowing Mia and I to walk more freely.
The mannequins on the maintenance walkway on the side of the tunnel seemed to thin out as well and I decided it would give us a better vantage if we were walking up there.
I helped Mia climb up the railing that bordered the walkway, then I climbed up behind her. The walkway was elevated 3 or 4 feet above the roadway. We could easily see over the heads of the mannequins in both directions.
There was, of course, no end to the tunnel in sight.
We kept walking.
The mannequins continued to thin out, but they were different now.
There were mannequins dressed as maintenance workers again, but also mannequins dressed as families and businessmen. There was even a group of mannequin nuns standing in a single file line, heads bowed in prayer.
Needless to say, we passed none of this on the way in to the tunnel. I was feeling very hopeless that we were going to be able to find our way out.
I was far beyond speculating how this was at all possible. It’s NOT possible. And even if it were, there is no good reason for someone to do this to us.
The only explanation was the supernatural. Then I saw Her. Rather, I saw THEM.
Arranged in the middle of the tunnel was a circle of mannequins with long black hair and tattered cloth.
They looked exactly like the Pale Faced Woman, minus any facial features. I kept a close watch on them as we passed to make sure they didn’t start following us.
“A door!” Mia shouted.
Mia pointed a few paces ahead of her. There was a door leading into the wall of the tunnel.
We ran towards it. Mia grabbed the handle, turned it and pulled. It was heavy and Mia had to brace her foot on the wall to get it moving.
The metal door groaned as if it hadn’t been opened in years.
Finally, it was open enough to see past.
It was a hallway. It went out about 5 yards then turned right at a 90 degree angle.
The strangest part was the design of the hallway.
It wasn’t cement or pavement like the tunnel.
The walls were wood paneled and the floor was covered in a thick carpet, like a house from the 1970s.
“I say we see where this takes us.” Mia said.
There was no reason to disagree, but I wasn’t going to get us trapped in there.
I opened up my backpack and took out a water bottle. I opened it and handed it to Mia. She drank half, then I drank the other half.
I slowly closed the door, shoving the empty water bottle in the crack to keep it from closing all the way.
I turned to Mia-- “Okay, let’s go.”
We slowly made our way down the quiet hallway. We got down to where the hallway cornered to the right and that’s when we heard it–
KA-CHUNK!!!--
I whipped around. The door had closed behind us. I ran back to it and tried to push it open, but it was no use. There was no way it closed on its own.
Someone had to have removed the water bottle. Our path had been chosen for us.
There was no turning back.
We continued down the hallway. We turned right. The hallway continued, then turned right again. That should have led us right back to the tunnel. But it didn’t. This part of the hallway went on far longer than was possible without running into the tunnel. Then it turned right again.
It went on like this. Sometimes a section of the hallway was 20 feet long, sometimes it was 20 yards long, sometimes it was 3 feet long. But it always turned to the right.
At first it was a relief to be somewhere other than the cold, dark tunnel. But the hallway very quickly became claustrophobic and before too long, I heard someone walking behind us.
We had stopped to take a break and I heard a third pair of footsteps on the carpet coming from behind us. I backtracked to the last corner.
I was terrified as I slowly peeked around the corner, tense and waiting to see the vacuous eyes and inky black hair of the Pale Faced Woman... but there was nothing there. I wasn’t about to backtrack any further.
“There was no one there.” I whispered.
Mia slumped against the wall and slid down to the carpet.
“I think I need to rest.” She said.
I put my backpack down on the ground for Mia to use as a pillow. She laid her head down and was passed out in seconds.
I had no idea how long we had been walking at this point. I stood leaning against the wall. My body was telling me to rest but I couldn’t risk falling asleep. I had to keep watch. I knew SHE was following us.
I took in the details of the hallway for the first time. The carpet was a dull brown and the walls a cheap wood paneling. The hanging lighting fixtures were shaded by stained glass, something you might see in an old diner.
Who built this place? Did someone pick out the carpet and the lighting fixtures? Did a team of workers blast these tunnels into the Earth? Or has this place always existed? Was this Purgatory?
I began to feel dizzy. I was panicking. My heart felt like it was trying to escape my chest. I slumped to the floor and tried to slow my breathing.
I closed my eyes... –
I SHOT up in a panic. I had fallen asleep while I was meant to be keeping watch.
I snapped to my feet and looked around.
Mia was still asleep on my backpack.
Then I noticed that the hallway had changed. A few paces away there was now a plain wooden door in the wall.
I slowly approached it. I put my ear to the door and I could hear what sounded like TV static and the low murmur of voices.
I discreetly grabbed the door handle and turned it slowly. I felt the latch bolt clear and I carefully cracked the door just enough to peek inside.
It was dark, so it took a second for me to register what I was seeing. I saw a small board room. A long table in the center was surrounded by seated men in suits.
At the end of the table stood another man next to an old CRT TV that was playing static. This was the only source of light in the room and all the men around the table were turned towards the tv.
Suddenly the screen flickered from static to a solid dark background. And some warped new age style muzak began playing.
Then the words appeared on the screen that terrified me like nothing else before. In plain text the words read–
“YOU WILL LOSE HER.”
I froze as I knew these words were meant for me I watched with terror as the men seated around the table slowly turned toward me in unison.
They were mannequins.
The TV screen then clicked off and they continued staring at me as I could barely make out their forms through the near pitch darkness.
I quickly pulled the door shut. And whipped around to look at Mia, I had a horrible feeling of dread that when I turned around she would be gone, like the message on the TV promised–
“Eric? What are you doing?” Mia was leaning up and staring at me.
Thank God. There was Mia, right where I left her.
I pointed at the door and said, “This door appeared and I--”
“What door?” she interrupted.
I turned and sure enough, the door was now gone.
I explained what happened to her, but I left out the message that appeared on the screen.
-- YOU WILL LOSE HER –
Those words still burned in my brain. I tried to force them out.
We drank water, ate granola and then got moving again.
Hallways. Endless hallways.
After a couple hours of walking we started to hear music. There were small speakers in the corners of the ceiling.
I recognized it as the same new-age muzak that played on the TV in the board room. The melody drilled into our minds. Combined with the dull aesthetics of the quiet hallways and the endless right turns, the music had a hypnotizing effect.
The lengths of the halls became more uniform. That is to say, the straight section of hallway was about 7 paces, then a right turn, then 7 paces and a right turn.
“I think we’re walking in circles... or a square,” Mia said.
I looked at her and took out a bottle of water. I peeled off the plastic label and dropped it on the floor.
Then we kept walking.
7 paces, right turn. 7 paces, right turn. 7 paces, right turn. And there it was... Mia was right.
The label from my water bottle lay in the middle of the hallway. Somehow we had been led into a loop. I lost it.
“FUUUCK!”
I kicked the wall repeatedly and screamed. Mia just leaned her back against the wall.
This was our dynamic. If one of us lost it, the other became zen and thought of a solution. More often than not, I was the one to lose it.
I finally stopped freaking out
“There has to be a way out. A door,” Mia said.
“We would have seen it,” I replied.
“A hidden door,” she said.
She turned around and ran her hands along the cracks of the wood paneling.
“Most likely on the outer wall,” she said.
She beat her fist on the wall, listening for a change in the sound. I exhaled heavily, sweating and tired, and I started searching the wall as well.
We checked the whole first wall, nothing. We checked the second wall, nothing. The third, nothing.
The final wall... Nothing. I gave up and slumped on the floor. Mia immediately went over to the other side of the hall and started checking the inner wall.
“What are you doing? I thought you said it would be on the outer wall?” I asked.
Then we heard it.
Mia beat the wall and instead of the dead thud, we heard a resonate BOOM –
A door…
I shot up and started tapping the wall with Mia until we found where the door ended. It was the width of about 4 wooden panels. I lined myself up in the center, lowered my shoulder and pushed–
IT MOVED! It barely moved but it was enough to confirm this actually was a door! I re-centered and tried again, lowering my center of gravity, I pushed as hard as I could. The door pushed inward about 3 inches, then Mia joined in. We slowly moved the door, 5 inches, then 10, then 15, then 20.
Then Mia slipped inside.
I had a moment of panic as she disappeared into the darkness and those haunting words came back into my mind, “YOU WILL LOSE HER.”
I darted past the doorway, falling through the threshold and hitting the concrete floor.
I looked up and there was Mia, thank God. I promised myself I’d never let her out of my sight again.
“The exit...” Mia said.
She looked and sounded as if she were a thousand miles away. I got to my feet and followed her gaze. What I saw nearly brought me to tears.
We were back in the tunnel, but there was light. About a mile down was the mouth of the tunnel, and daylight pouring in. Beautiful daylight. I grabbed Mia tight and kissed her.
“Thank God...” she cried.
We started moving. Nothing was going to slow us down this time. We sped up into a RUN down the maintenance walkway towards that beautiful sunlight.
As we approached, something else came into view. Parked in the middle of the roadway was a large vehicle…
It couldn’t be…
It was!
Our RV sat in the road waiting for us. We ran all the way to it, pulled open the passenger side door and climbed in. There were no mannequins to be seen.
I fell into the driver’s seat and Mia handed me the keys. I turned over the engine, the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. I shifted into gear and floored it towards the sunlight.
As we got closer, I could see the green of trees and the blue of the sky. We were maybe one hundred yards away.
I turned to Mia, tears in my eyes…
And what I saw turned my blood to ice.
Just beyond Mia’s window, that horrifying pale face grinned at me.
The Pale Faced Woman was somehow floating outside of the RV.
Before I could say anything, her hand smashed through the window and gripped Mia by the throat, then in one horrible motion the thing PULLED MIA SCREAMING THROUGH THE WINDOW AND…
Disappeared…
I SLAMMED on the breaks just as the RV passed through the exit of the tunnel and sunlight flooded the cab of the RV. I threw it in park and shot out of the door screaming.
“Mia!? Mia??!!”
I screamed over and over. I rounded the front of the RV and looked back at the tunnel –
-- and what I saw shattered my mind…
The tunnel was gone.
There was only open road.
I had lost her.

Date: 05/21/2024

Reading time: 10 minutes, 2056 words

🪖 Military

Armenia participates in NATO's Regex 2024 headquarters exercise in Moldova

Armenia is participating in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Regex 2024 headquarters exercise that have started in Moldova on May 20. The military exercises will be held from May 20 to 24. They are attended by about 30 representatives from NATO partner countries.

Armenpress

Armenian army factor is important for security guarantees, but it is not the only one - Security Council Secretary

Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said in an interview with Civilnet that having combat-ready and effective armed forces is very important for ensuring security guarantees. Attempts have been made over the past 6 years to expand the notion of security, he said.

ArkaAm

NATO and Armenia strengthen cooperation in defense education

Representatives from the Armenian Ministry of Defense met with their counterparts at NATO Headquarters at the end of April. Reviewed activities conducted within the framework of NATO’s Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP) for Armenia. Set out the plan of joint activities for the rest of the year and for 2025.

ArmRadio

Funeral procession of Iranian president Raisi starts in Tabriz

The funeral procession of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others killed in a helicopter crash began in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Tuesday morning. Another funeral service is scheduled to be held in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday evening. The president will be laid to rest on May 23 at noon in Mashhad in northeastern Iran.

Armenpress, The National Assembly observes minute of silence for Iranian President and staff lost in helicopter crash

🏛️ Politics & Government

Azerbaijani FM makes phone call to Iran's acting Foreign Minister

Jeyhun Bayramov and Ali Bagheri held phone conversation on May 21, Azerbaijani media reports say. Bayramv expressed condolences to Iranian government and people of Iran on tragic death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian.

Armenpress

Armenian, Slovenian foreign ministries address security implications of recent developments

Political consultations between the ministries of foreign affairs of Armenia and Slovenia were held in Yerevan. The parties emphasized the importance of further deepening the political dialogue between the two countries. The latest international and regional developments were addressed at the meeting.

Armenpress

Joint statement adopted at the International Conference on Nuclear Security; Armenia joins

A Co-Presidents’ Joint Statement was adopted during the International Conference on Nuclear Security held in Vienna on May 20-21. Armenia, among other participating countries, joined the Statement.

Armenpress

Alen Simonyan, Ruslan Stefanchuk discuss the security situation in the South Caucasus and Ukraine

The Armenian National Assembly President Alen Simonyan and the Speaker of the Verkhovna (Supreme) Rada of Ukraine Ruslan Stefanchuk held via video conference. The interlocutors discussed the security situation in the South Caucasus and in Ukraine.

Armenpress, Armenian, Ukrainian Parliament Speakers discuss situation in the South Caucasus and Ukraine

Armenia top security official receives CIA deputy director

Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan received a delegation from the CIA. Issues related to Armenia-US bilateral cooperation as well as regional security were discussed at the meeting.

Armenpress, Armen Grigoryan and Hamad Khamis Al-Kubaisi discuss prospects for Armenia-Qatar relations, Pashinyan holds meeting with CIA deputy director, Armenia, Qatar discuss developing economic relations, Pashinyan discussed issues related to the Armenia-US and international agenda with the deputy head of the US CIA, Armenian PM, CIA Deputy Director discuss international, regional issues, Armenia-Qatar ties discussed in Doha

Moldova signs security and defence partnership with EU

Moldova has signed a security and defence partnership with the European Union. It is the first country to sign such a deal with the EU. The deal will allow to jointly address common security challenges.

Armenpress

Mirzoyan and Floyd highlight comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty's role in non- proliferation and nuclear disarmament

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a meeting with the Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization Robert Floyd in Vienna. The role of the Treaty in non-proliferation and nuclear disarmament was emphasized on both sides.

Armenpress

Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development to be involved in Armenia’s infrastructure projects

Armenia's Vice Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan and Managing Director of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development (EFSD) Andrey Shirokov discussed the Fund's involvement in Armenia's infrastructure projects. The parties also pointed out the importance of Armenia’s participation in large regional projects.

ArkaAm

Security Council Secretary: Armenia ready to sign peace treaty with Azerbaijan ‘any day’

Armenia is ready to sign a peace treaty with Azerbaijan 'any day' Armenia’s Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan said he is hoping to sign the treaty “as soon as possible” Armenia”s officials mentioned the three basic principles it expects the treaty to be based on multiple times.

ArkaAm

Victory or concessions? Secretary of Security Council comments on delimitation ofborder with Azerbaijan

Armenian Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan declined to describe launch of border demarcation with Azerbaijan as a victory or concessions amid ongoing occupation of parts of the sovereign territory of the country by Azerbaijan. Armenia ceded 2.5 villages to Azerbaijan, but there are territories that were returned to Armenia.

ArkaAm

Armenia calls for prohibiting threats of attacks on nuclear facilities

Armenia has raised the need for a treaty prohibiting attacks on nuclear facilities devoted to peaceful purposes.

PanArmenian

Armenian lawyers protest against bill that will increase the cost of their services

Armenian lawyers have expressed dissatisfaction with a new bill on the parliament's agenda. From October 2024 they will have to pay 10% turnover tax instead of 5% now, and from 2025 they will pay 20% VAT. Head of the Armenian Chamber of Advocates Simon Babayan said that such a tax increase will lead to a significant increase in the price of lawyer services by 38%.

ArkaAm

Funeral procession moves to Qom, Iran

Caskets of Iran's President and fellow passengers are now being transferred from Tabriz to Qom. The city is considered the second most sacred city in Iran after Mashhad. State media are reporting that the bodies will be carried around the shrine. The bodies will then be taken to the capital, Tehran, where they will be laid to rest.

ArmRadio

💵 Economy

Armenia works on diversification of economy with an eye on Europe - Secretary of the Security Council

Armenia is working hard to diversify its economy with the prospect of increasing exports to Europe. Secretary of the Security Council Armen Grigoryan said the country has not yet achieved significant success in the economic sphere. Armenia's foreign trade turnover with EU countries in first quarter of 2024 reached almost $494.3 million.

ArkaAm, Armenia is working to diversify its economy with the prospect of exporting to Europe. AX:

Almost 100 taxpayers in Armenia fined 55.25 million drams for unregistered workers

In April 2024, about 98 business entities in Armenia were found to have unregistered workers. In particular, the fines imposed on 17 companies amounted to about AMD 29.8 million. These companies are engaged in the sale of flowers and seeds, furniture production, cosmetics, jewelry and perfumes.

ArkaAm

Armenia’s GDP grows by 9.2% up to 1.97 trillion AMD

Armenia's GDP increased by 9.2% in Q1 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. Manufacturing industry showed the highest growth, standing at 31.1%, repair of cars and motorcycles grew by 25.1% In nominal terms, the country's GDP in current prices amounted to 1,971,230.4 million drams at the end of the reporting period.

ArkaAm

Second tranche of loan for development of MSMEs provided to Ardshinbank by EBRD and EU

Ardshinbank signed an agreement with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Union (EU) for the allocation of the second tranche of financing to re-lending micro, small, and medium businesses. This lending is carried out under the “MSME Competitiveness in the Eastern Partnership (EaP SMEC)” program. The agreement will support MSME investments in sustainable technologies, as well as towards health and safety.

ArkaAm, The EBRD and the EU granted Ardshinbank the second tranche of the loan for the development of SMEs (PHOTO)

Ambassador sees potential for expansion of trade between Armenia and Brazil

Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Brazil were established more than 30 years ago. Ambassador Yeganian said that the trade between the two countries amounts to approximately $100 million dollars annually. Brazil is one of the largest economies in the world, and Armenia has seen impressive economic growth.

ArmRadio

Armenia an emerging destination for UK and global investors – Ambassador

Armenia’s Ambassador to UK Varuzhan Nersesyan writes in an article published by London Business Matters. He emphasizes that Armenia in recent years Armenia has made significant progress on enhancing its business environment, creating opportunities and favorable conditions for investment.

ArmRadio

🧪 Science & Technology

Surveying works underway in Armenia’s Kirants

Surveying works are underway in the Armenian village of Kirants in the northern Tavush province.

PanArmenian

IAEA’s Grossi to visit Kaliningrad May 28 to discuss ZNPP

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi will visit Kaliningrad on May 28 to discuss the situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov said.

Armenpress

IAEA supports Armenia’s nuclear program – Rafael Grossi

International Atomic Energy Agency supports Armenia’s nuclear program, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi wrote on X. Grossi presented the results of his meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

Armenpress, Effective cooperation is established between Armenia and IAEA

Tree Planting Results with My Forest Armenia: The Power of One Dram

During March and April 2022, AMD 10.757.867 was directed to the afforestation program of the "My Forest Armenia" NGO, 16,000 trees were planted. Representatives of IDBank and Idram visited Jrashen again to see the newly planted forest.

Armenpress

Mirzoyan: Armenia will extend lifetime of current nuclear power unit with smooth transition tonew capacity by 2036

The Armenian NPP is one of the main sources of electricity in the country, providing up to 40% of the total generation. Its service life has been extended until 2026, and work is underway to re-extend it for another 10 years. The construction of a new plant is estimated to take 8-10 years.

ArkaAm, Armenia has decided to extend the operation period of the NPP until 2036, with the ultimate goal of a smooth transition to the new capacity. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Armenia says ready to extend nuclear plant’s lifetime by 10 years

🎭 Culture

ARARAT Special Evening Dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Charles Aznavour

On May 20 ARARAT legendary Armenian brandy, celebrated the centennial of Maestro Charles Aznavour with a special event. The event took place at the "One & Only" theater within the Seven Visions Hotel. Guests of the event had the chance to reveal the brandy on the course of special tasting.

Armenpress, VTB Armenia general sponsor for Charles Aznavour 100th birthday tribute concert, VTB-Armenia Bank acted as the main sponsor of the concert dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Charles Aznavour., For you, Charles: Yerevan to host exhibition on Aznavour’s centennial anniversary, ARARAT special evening dedicated to Aznavour's 100th Anniv.

“Yerevan Ballet Festival” to host theater groups from various countries

The "Yerevan Ballet Festival" will be held on June 2-5 in the park named after Hovhannes Tumanyan. Admission to the outdoor ballet festival is free.

Armenpress

Aznavouriana: Album dedicated to Aznavour’s 100th anniversary released

The album “Aznavouriana” by Deutsche Grammophon is already released and is available since May 17, 2024, just ahead of the artist’s birthday. The album is a collection of exquisite interpretations of globally beloved iconic songs.

ArmRadio

⚽ Sport

Gymnasts left for Bulgaria

Gymnastics team will participate in "World Challenge Cup" to be held in Bulgaria. Artur Davtyan, Artur Avetisyan, Erik Baghdasaryan, and Artur Tovmasyan will represent Armenia in the regular round.

Armenpress

Hayk Martirosyan wins 7th round of Sharjah tournament

Shant Sargsyan, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Manuel Petrosyan shared the point. Hayk Martirosyan won the 7th round of the Sharjah Masters 2024 international tournament in UAE. The leaders are participants from India and the USA with 5.5 points.

Armenpress

Donations to Armenia:

Himnadram
ServicemenFund
Armenian Wounded Heroes
ArmeniaFund

I met a friend in 2012. We started university together. We grew close and considered each other sisters almost. She moved away a couple of years ago. This past summer she sent her “friend” to my place after she planned to come with but had to cancel last minute. I let him stay even though he was a stranger because we still had tickets to a show and she was vouching for him. While at my place he almost SA me and crawled into bed with me and groped me before I woke up and stopped him. She told me that it wasn’t his intention and that it was partially my fault for being friendly with him beforehand. I was upset but stepped back and didn’t talk about it anymore. She is still friends with him and this bothers me a bit. Today I messaged her regarding animals being euthanized instead of being re-homed. I said it was sad that this particular animal didn’t have a chance and she said that I was annoying and that she didn’t care. She said the animal would just be somewhere else and someone else’s problem. I understand some animals cannot be rehabilitated but I think it was unnecessary to say I was annoying for wanting to help instead of seeing the animal put down immediately. I’m sitting here considering blocking her on everything without explaining. I haven’t seen her in a couple of years and after almost being SA and not getting supported this opinion about euthanizing has left a sour taste in my mouth. Would I be the asshole if I cut her off cold turkey without a word about why?

I'm trying to get my check engine light to go away on my 1996 Ford F150 Eddie Bauer edition (5L V8). The trouble codes are P0135, P0141, and P0155, all indicating O2 Sensor Heater Circuit issues across all three oxygen sensors.
The first thing I did was replace all three oxygen sensors. After a few hundred miles, the codes are still there. From what I've read online, this could either mean a blown fuse, a grounding issue, or a bad PCM.
My fuses are fine, and the oxygen sensors are brand new. So before replacing the PCM, I should check for grounding issues. This is where my problem comes in.
How do I find a grounding issue? I bought a multimeter, and on some forums I found information like this:

1. If the fuse checks to be OK, check any O2 sensor for battery voltage on the Light Blue/Orange (LB/O) wire with the key in the Run position.
   
2. Check for battery voltage at Powertrain Control Module (PCM) pins 93 (Red/White (W) wire), 94 (Yellow/Light Blue (Y/LB) wire), 95 (White/Black (W/BK) wire) and 96 (Tan/Yellow (T/Y) wire).
   
3. If all 4 circuits indicate battery voltage monitor voltage on the circuits at pins 93 and 94 when the engine is started to determine if the PCM grounds the circuit.
   
4. If the PCM does not ground the circuits after the engine is started, replace the PCM.
   

Or on another one:

The DTCs P0135, P0141, P0155 are for the oxygen sensor heaters for each of the three oxygen sensors. There are two front, and one rear (downstream) oxygen sensor. On the wiring diagram, sensor 11 and 21 mean the front ones, and 12 means (bank 1) rear (2)sensor. ADDED: Your Bronco doesn’t show a code for the rear oxygen sensor heater. But, it does have a lean code (P0151).
The black/white wires don’t only ground the oxygen sensor heaters; they provide ground for all of the PCM. This is why you measure (ohms, or voltage drop) is made from one side (PCM pins 93, 94, 95) to the output (PCM pins 24, 38,51, 76, 77). If the PCM is in the Oxygen sensor heater-ON-mode, there won’t be any difference between the sides (across the PCM).

I'm not gonna lie, I don't really understand what they're saying. I get that they're suggesting to check voltage at some wires, but I've no clue what wires they're talking about. I also can't seem to find a wiring diagram for my specific vehicle. And all the wiring diagrams I do find I'm having a lot of trouble reading; they seem to be for parts of the vehicle that I do not need?
I'm very green to working on vehicles. Can someone dumb down what /where I should be checking for voltage on the O2 sensors or the PCM? I'm assuming it's the female connectors for the O2 sensors, but what should I check on the PCM? I just need a bit of simplification. I hope that's alright. Thank you.

TLDR

• CS graduate.
• Never worked in tech.
• But building web apps 7+ years as hobby and freelancer.
• Want to kick off my web dev career.
• What do I put on my resume?

I graduated in Computer Science in 2011, but instead of pursuing a career in tech I spent the next 7 years building and running a small travel agency with my brother. By 2018, I got burnt out, sold my shares, and with my savings decided to travel.
So with my savings, the privileged Westerner that I am, I relocated to Asia and Latin America where my Euro would go far, and went all-in on indiehacking.
My goal was essentially to build my own apps and make a living from that.
I was confident that within 2 years I'd be making a good living from this.
Well, 2 years pass. Still no money. Savings drying up. Picked up some freelance work on the side to pay the bills while continuing to indiehack..
2 years became 3, then 4, then 5... and now here I am 6 years later and I'm making less than $1k a month coding 50-60 hours a week.
Talk about sunk-cost fallacy...
The miserable money I am making is purely from my freelance work (which for the most part I hate... WordPress, or some frontend stuff, nothing backend heavy which is my real expertise).
So I've come to realise I suck at sales. I suck at marketing. And really all I want to do so is work on interesting technical problems.
And at the ripe age of 36, I can now understand why people get day jobs lol
And now to get to my question: How do I go about getting my first tech job?
I have 7+ years amateur experience (PHP, Python and JavaScript) But 0 years professional. So I understand I would need to start from the bottom as a Junior Developer.
I haven't applied for a job since I was 19. No idea how to go about writing a resume for someone in my circumstances.

Portfolio

I have a relatively large portfolio of personal projects (mostly apps and SaaS)
In terms of "real projects", my client work is either:

• not really relevant to the role I want (mostly WordPress, landing pages)
• something not so easily demonstratable
• under NDA and cannot disclose

Qualifications

• I hold a BSc Hons in Computer Science (graduated in 2011)

GitHub

• haven't contributed to open-source projects
• have 6+ years of commits (mostly Laravel) - more than happy to open-source a couple of big projects

Technologies

Laravel, Vue.js, SQL, Nginx, Docker, Ubuntu, Linux, git, Tailwind, JavaScript, PHP, HTML, CSS, Filament, Statamic, Alpine, Livewire, Nuxt, WordPress, Python, Django
Furthermore, I'm an EU national and open to relocating to a new country for work.
My biggest dilemma, is having no idea what to put in my resume since I have zero relevant work experience.
Should I just be upfront and say I have no professional work experience?
My gut feeling is that most employers aren't keen on hiring someone with my track record (i.e. being self-employed and freelance... ok fine... unemployed).
Furthermore, they might be concerned that I plan to open my own business in the future and go in competition with them. It's a reasonable concern.
So what to put on my resume as a 36 year old aspiring software/web developer with no relevant work experience?
No need to sugar-coat your answers. Be as blunt and direct as you want. I appreciate all advise.

I have this friend which I've known for 4 years and I realised I have a crush on her 3 months ago, so I'm probably on a deep friendzone but I'm trying.
The thing is as I've started flirting with her, she's started mirroring me. I have a very particular way of flirting that my friends easily recognise. So, this girl has stared sendimg me "flirting quotes" (kinda joking) that are quotes that could completely be mine. Then, I started sending stickers when she never did and she started sending them too (most of them were my own) and then I thought I'd look more "interesting" if I started typing better, as I usually use slang and bad written words, so I edited the messages. She asked me about it and I told her I corrected my sentences. And then she's started editing them too.
I don't know if that's good, that's bad or it's just nothing. Any ideas?

TW: Suicide thoughts
After I was retraumatized two years ago, I finally began this year to see through all the chaos that the person had left within me. I’ve started to learn more about my resources to manage the overwhelming pain after unwillingly breaking through the freeze state last year. Unfortunately, I find myself in a raw stage of fight/flight and old coping mechanisms like intense suicidal thoughts flooding through my mind daily. The emotional pain in my heart is so intense that I wish I could stab myself in the chest to release the pain.
There are moments when the trapped survival energy overwhelms me, rushing through my whole body. Heavy breathing, intense adrenaline rushes, the impulse to fight, seizures, and the feeling that my body is being torn apart. It’s unbearable. I tried to run, to scream and SE with a therapist, but wow, finding hope in this situation is nearly impossible. I’ve gone from an unwilling breakthrough of the freeze state to an unstoppable fight/flight state, and yea’ at times, I don’t believe that I’ll survive this because all I can feel is intense pain
Maybe someone could help or know something I don’t. Even a few kind words would mean a lot.
Thank you!

Let me just start by asking everyone to be gentle, I don't like to post about my life because I already know it's a mixed bag. This is a bit long and there's no way to sum it up with a TLDR so don't read if you're not prepared for a couple paragraphs.
I've 27F been with my partner 24M for 2 years now, and I admit our relationship has always been a bit chaotic. I love him, so very much. But he's left me and come back a handful of times, said some really hateful things, gone days without speaking to me without saying why. Refuses to communicate, ever, unless its rude comments or hurtful words. I don't want to necessarily get into it all because that's not 100% what this post is about. Long story short, I put up with a lot, but believe me when I say that he has a million great qualities as well and when his mental health isn't acting up, he's a joy and a blessing. So I try and be patient and understanding.
Our phones have never been an issue, he uses mine to look stuff up and his has always been at my disposal if I ever wanted to use it, which generally I don't. But I grabbed it yesterday to look someone up on Facebook, and when I hit the search bar, naturally his recent searches pop up. Several, not one or two, but several girls are in his recent searches. I click on one, thinking maybe it's someone we know. No mutual friends, nothing. Just a pretty woman. Same to the next. I stop and turn to him and ask very calmly what he was doing looking at these girls' profiles.
IMMEDIATELY he blows up. Very agitated and short with me. First he doesn't know what I'm talking about, then he says he just clicked on them from the "People You May Know," then he said they were girls he knew in high-school. Trying my best to ignore his borderline hostile attitude, I ask why he would be looking up girls he vaguely knew over 5 years ago that he wasn't friends with and instead of an answer, he asks why I'm even on his Facebook and he wasn't doing anything wrong and that I'm being an idiot.
Now, like I said, I put up with a lot with this man and his seemingly very bipolar and/or manic depressive moods, but lately it has been every single day. We have a 6 month old and I have a 7 year old from a previous relationship and he gets regularly agitated with both of them and more often than not I solo parent, even if he's there. I let him sleep all day sometimes. When I gave birth to our son, I had surgery in the hospital and simultaneously had a kidney infection and the flu and he still didn't help at all, would sleep for 12 hours a day, and get frustrated the moment I handed him the baby and the baby would cry. He's frequently short with my oldest son, very snappy overall.
I try my best not to say anything about him not helping with the kids very much or about sleeping all day or even his regular and frequent personality changes, though I admit when he's rude to either one of my kids I am snappy with him and tell him he can't behave that way to them or he needs to go away. Which generally he will choose to go away. And he will never communicate about any of this, I could talk until I was blue in the face and he still wouldn't respond, which is where the silent treatments come in.
Despite all of this I stay, because like I said, he can be a very wonderful, fun, loving and caring person and dad. But lately that side of him has been less and less frequent. He's distant unless he's excited about something that happened at his new job, or the book he's writing, or something that makes him happy. Otherwise, he's angry, snappy, or silent. And now the stupid facebook stalking women has come into play. And yes I do know it's not necessarily cheating, but it's very borderline, as if he's thinking about it. I don't know.
This post has turned into a ramble but I'm struggling to come to terms with ending the relationship and the life we've tried so hard to build. We're married now, we bought a house last summer, obviously we have a baby. The good parts are so amazingly good, which is why the bad parts always blindside me and leave me grasping at straws.

🩷Hi I’m Mani and Im looking for the Gomez to my morticia. I’m 22, black about 5’6 with brown eyes , I’m midsize / curvy bisexual and have piercings. I’m pretty goofy and extroverted . I do struggle with some mental health issues I go to therapy for them . I have my own car and job. Some of my current hobbies are reading , gaming , watching movies/animes . I occasionally take edibles/cbd gummies and I have a drink of every now and again. My plans for the future are ever changing but I do have specific goals and aspirations I am striving for .I’m willing to travel a reasonable distance to meet I’m from east coast Pennsylvania area though. My cons would be I get attached pretty quickly , I have trust issues and I can be pretty clingy .🩷
🩷What I’m looking for🩷 Someone who will want to talk on the phone/ video chat , play video games together or watch movies/ animes .I would like someone who would like to meet in person as well. I want someone who is comforting , sweet and caring . looking for someone who’s clingy / possessive (in a healthy way of course) because I am as well . My age preference is 22-34. I’m looking for someone who genuinely enjoys being romantic and loving on their girlfriends . I prefer someone with a job and a car. I don’t have many preferences but I do like country guys but you don’t have to be to messages me . I will not talk to someone who smokes cigarettes, who doesn’t support lgbtq/blm or women’s rights . I’m not interested in someone who lacks empathy or who is nonchalant .
🩷Okay now I’m done i know that all was very long but thank you for taking your time to read it ! when messaging me please leave a description of yourself what you are looking for and some things about you or I will not answer. I’m also looking mainly to talk on discord to start. 🩷

Hey y'all...so this has to be one of the craziest things that's ever happened to me and I really wanted to share it. Buckle up cause it's a long one...sorry in advance lol.
It started in 2019 I (26f but back then 21) met this dude (23m at the time) on kik from the Netherlands, let's call him...butthole. So, me and butthole hit it off, we're vibing, we're flirting, all that shebang.
We decide to date online long distance (cause I still lived in America at the time) so we text every day and we call a lot and it's just sooo nice. He was really sweet and nice to me. Well, August of that year I went on a trip to Ireland and got SA'd while there we'd been dating for 3 months at this point.
Once I got back home I finally worked up the nerve to tell him cause I legit had PTSD from that shit and when I did, he got mad at me. He accused me of cheating...I was like wtf?? So we broke up and went no contact and that was that.
Until
2020 it's lockdown....my diddly dumbass was lonely and bored and decided to text him! Like girl wtf was I thinkin? So I text him and he ends up apologizing for accusing me of cheating. He realized he was wrong and just like that, we went back to vibing and flirting. We're also making low key plans for me to visit him once lockdown is lifted too. After a few days of this I'm thinkin we're gonna get back together. But he says to me "I have something to tell you and you're gonna get mad at me".
And I'm like....ok? I didn't even know what to think like no clue what it could be (cause I'm dumb lol) And he goes "so I'm actually living with a girl who is (and I quote) officially my girlfriend". Oh man I was pissed and really hurt...like that fucking hypocrite!! So he goes on to explain they'd been dating for 2 Y E A R S!!
Anyway, so I'm dumb and was so in love and had no self esteem and thought he was the best I could get so I ask if he wants to leave her. He was like yea but we have a house together and I recently lost my job because of the pandemic so it'd screw us both over if I left now. I should've run right then and there but nooooo.
So I was like "you want to leave her and be with me right? Like, you will right?" And he said yes, I want to be with you, I'll leave if I can, blah blah blah." After a couple weeks of us acting coupley, sexting, sending pics, flirting and shit I woke up one day and realized, he's never gonna leave her for me. Ever. So....I decided I have to find this girl and tell her cause this is bullshit.
Problem is...I know nothing about her and apparently barely anything about him. He wouldn't tell me her name or anything. And he told me back in 2019 that he doesn't have social media (I should've known that was a lie cause who doesn't at least have facebook?) So I have nothing except his first and last name (later I find out he lied about how his last name is spelled and he gave me his nickname instead of his actual first name!...bro is a pathological liar I s2g!)
I tried looking for him on social media (obviously I didn't find him) I would try to ask about her name, but like in a really chill way, obviously he wouldn't tell me. I got desperate and googled Netherlands chat sites, and got on one and legit asked each person if they knew butthole mcbuttface from Rotterdam...I knew it was a long shot but I had to try.
That ended in a flop (well not entirely but I'll get back to that later) So then I get real crafty. I decide that I'm gonna play an adult fun game with him. I ask a question, he answers it truthfully and he gets a "reward". So I made sure to write out all the questions, starting with super innocent ones and I put the really revealing ones later cause I figured he'd be thinking with his other head at that point so he'd answer anything I asked.
We didn't do this over video call, we texted and I sent videos doing the thing (that way I could write down his answers) I did a lot of shit I'm not proud of. But I got the answers I needed. So I went all FBI and I got the specific area he lived from him and I ended up finding roughly where his house is, I was hoping I could find her name somewhere with that but it was a bust.
I tried to use the other answers to find stuff but I got nothing. I then decide to confront him over one of the answers (his brother's name) cause I legit thought he lied, it didn't sound like a name a Dutch person would have. He told me it was the truth. It's a really weird name for someone in the Netherlands so I looked him up on Facebook and I FOUND THAT BITCH!
That's how I realized he gave me the wrong spelling of his last name. So through his brother I found butthole's page and through butthole's page I found her!!! It took me weeks to find her! I was so shooketh! I couldn't believe I actually did it! So I go and look through her profile for a bit and I see that a few days before we played that game he FUCKIN PROPOSED TO HER!!!
I literally screamed when I saw that...I was so pissed and upset that he did that to her..... So I take a shit ton of screenshots and send her a message basically telling her everything. And she responded like "omg thank you for telling me". Like she wasn't upset at me or anything and that made me so sad. We chit chatted a bit and she was telling me all this shit about how she heard he was only with her for her money and blah blah blah...and she asked me for a few more specific screenshots which I gladly sent.
Then she said that she was at work and would confront him when she was home. I was in full support mode and was like I'm here for you and I'm so sorry this happened. And she was in support mode and she said she was sorry it happened to me too. So we exchange numbers and start texting. Later she texted me saying that she was off work and she was almost home and I wished her luck. At that point I texted him saying something like bye bitch good luck and blocked him lol.
So then I waited to hear from her...I check an hour later and saw that she blocked my number....I was so confused. I genuinely wish I could know what he said to her cause y'all...she ended up staying with him and getting married.I saw the pics on Facebook lol but yea....she could do so much better like...idk how this gremlin lookin ass bitch pulled 2 girls cause he's ugly inside and out. Idk if they're still together. I haven't looked in on them since I saw the wedding pics.
So yea, that's my story...but I said I would come back to the chat site not being a complete flop. I met a dude on there and we became friends and he introduced me to a guy who is now my boyfriend of almost 4 years and I ended up moving to the Netherlands to be with him lolol....I'm nowhere near where butthole lives so I'll never run into him but yea thanks for reading!

Hi, everyone. Okay, so I (26F) know that this is going to be a tall order, but if you had to organize foods based on their textures, how would you do it?
Right now, I’m dealing with PMDD symptoms, and the idea of eating just makes me think, “I have to eat, again? You’ve got to be kidding me.” My 27th birthday is next week, and I have no idea where I want to go out to eat with my family, or what I want to eat.
(PMDD is like PMS on steroids, for anyone who doesn’t know. I’m on an IUD implant since December for symptom management, but I still get some hormonal symptoms.)
Nothing is really appealing to eat right now, either mentally or physically, so I’m trying to make a list of food textures, starting first with food groups.
I’ve gotten a lot better and adventurous with food textures as I’ve gotten older, because I used to be hypersensitive due to autism. Now, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction, in part due to depression, and any kind of food is just “meh” to me, even if it’s cooked and seasoned perfectly.
So far, I have a few descriptions for animal meat, and that’s it. On the other hand, I’ve found white fish meat to be very “flaky” and much less of a “meaty” texture than animal meat. Albacore tuna has a texture that’s very similar to chunky canned chicken.

• Crumbly: Ground beef
• Chewy: Tough beef
• Stiff: Chicken breast
• Wet: Rare steak
• Dry: Baked turkey

Fruits are tricky, because so many of them are “wet” in some way, which makes organizing them difficult. And the only thing that I could think about for broccoli/cauliflower is “al dente” when cooked or “tender” if overcooked and “crunchy” when raw.
I’m keto, so I currently don’t eat traditional bread products, pasta/rice, or sweets/desserts, apart from special occasions. But I do know that low-carb bread has a denser, chewier texture than regular American-type bread.
I know that I’m definitely having some type of hyposensitivity issues right now, because I could eat a mixed-texture food, like salad, and have a difficult time noticing individual textures.
Now, I know that don’t like grape tomatoes raw, because they “pop” when they’re whole, but cut them into pieces and then they’re fine. Similar thing with avocado because I don’t like it mashed by itself, but it’s fine when mixed with something else.
I’m trying to see what my current level of sensory perception is, and it’s not going well. I don’t know if I’m losing mindfulness/awareness or what, but I’m going to talk with my therapist about it tomorrow. Still waiting on the practice to hire a new psychiatrist.
I also started taking some supplemental zinc (25mg) on 5/16 because I’m wondering if that will improve the lack of interest in food and lack of taste satisfaction. I already take a multivitamin, but I know that sometimes, your body needs more than that. If that doesn’t show any improvement after two weeks, then there’s no harm in stopping it.

Here is the description that I got: "A monoalphabetic substitution cipher has been used to encrypt a stanza/paragraph from a famous Dutch work. Decrypt the ciphertext and find the original work to solve this challenge. The flag format is THS{TitleOfTheWork_stanzaNumber}, where stanzaNumber is the number of the stanza/paragraph as an integer."
Below is the text itself: "
In Qzhfj opffj cf afofn
rfb im lacixh bfcplerc,
hllpzs bfn im ofphpfofn,
zs alnh, zs adih qfbplerc.
Sllp Qzh tla six pfqfpfn
laj ffn qzfh injcpdsfnc,
hlc im tla yfhfpmfpfn
in sixnfn pfqisfnc.
Iqnzpf crf kzaazyinq,
fxlp cjhcfp lzfln nflnd
naff folpin fffmchcn,
xhpzilc fzflc ncn zqcc,
ifknpqm zfcn hpfpff,
naji Ffscdr nrhm pthhlql
fln chnpc vaqp pyhcodc,
dl yfzalfc cbrc hffo.
Vcia nevf cliicoclqci
afzn qrka zjrlf nllzn,
ycjf rhlbvom jsfkni,
efy safnttnd pfhpo fsf
jzfhv Llffz oqsxfvjan.
Fi zbixm qnciqrr jfif,
bfhtllh ozlp ejlnnffi
hafhfo sriflf mnnlxf,
famzn jzlfffm qfpffocjh
llzmdh rdfsa, ihaifp
hlfcm thfpfzfc zdncqhmf
phfs oafc ffnm qffcza.
Pnc fhjdnqzlfjl iofbfn
cjnp ffzff tczc pfqz,
fjyl Jicdlzpc hhiils
jffn cjbmnxfhli crkefn,
iphj zffhvf if bsfln,
fldfrr fnpnmnpico lqzfl,
affo fhifhvr.
Fihlfpnk
ndvz inclv pqiayjhh,
azyn fpjnlmn tpcjltzt,
qiicz fpno efninfd lfy.
Bjtrc onfbxnz cilnn
cinfaq fjf fxrf nnzdve,
ffooe nrlfzfplff fnpaj,
zpqy fqfzf fzccfhha.
Cnpnapdvn ycanlp fhpfj,
nlmlqf nsfpyi, fnvzndjl
fpqzfb pfnqln zicfnnxff.
Ljfff amfe hlfjflpmhqe,
vdfz fopzif cfinpy hic
rznfiin znpp fzfl hoizxc,
vif foso infzhipz hsnn,
kop zhilc xknfzpiie,
cf lin conffnlp ffnjh
zzfyh najlib ljijasf.
"
I did the following : I calculated the letter frequency : "
[f=18.916155, n=10.224949, l=7.5664625, c=6.8507156, i=6.5439672, p=6.4417176, z=6.134969, h=5.828221, j=3.7832313, a=3.5787323, q=3.2719836, o=2.8629856, m=2.2494888, r=2.2494888, s=2.2494888, d=1.9427402, b=1.5337423, v=1.5337423, y=1.5337423, x=1.4314928, e=1.2269938, t=1.2269938, k=0.8179959]
"
and made a map with words and how many times they are used:
{naff=1, naji=1, qrka=1, affo=1, amfe=1, cjnp=1, ndvz=1, znpp=1, ffnm=1, nevf=1, foso=1, iphj=1, ozlp=1, qzfh=1, azyn=1, fxlp=1, zpqy=1, sllp=1, fzfl=1, zfcn=1, tczc=1, adih=1, phfs=1, vcia=1, afzn=1, jffn=1, vdfz=1, fxrf=1, fjyl=1, nrhm=1, fpno=1, oafc=1, vaqp=1, lfy.=1, cbrc=1, ycjf=1}
{zzfyh=1, ffooe=1, bjtrc=1, ljfff=1, famzn=1, qzhfj=1, zbixm=1, inclv=1, nflnd=1, zjrlf=1, zqcc,=1, zhilc=1, llffz=1, fzflc=1, hlfcm=1, qiicz=1, ffnjh=1, cilnn=1, jzfhv=1, pfhpo=1, alnh,=1, hffo.=1, hsnn,=1, lzfln=1, afofn=1, fqfzf=1, jfif,=1, ffzff=1, pfqz,=1, chnpc=1, opffj=1}
{six=1, fjf=1, hic=1, pnc=1, tla=2, fln=1, bfn=1, kop=1, rfb=1, ffn=1, lin=1, vif=1, laj=1, crf=1, ncn=1, fsf=1, efy=1, qzh=1, hlc=1}
{cf=2, fi=1, im=3, in=2, dl=1, zs=2, if=1}
I still can decode the message. Also, I found it weird that some words have 3 repeating characters one after another which is not typical for the Dutch language I assume this text is in neither English, also there are no predominant words like having, 4, 5 appearance for the same. Is the substitution alphabet changing every couple of uses? I would appreciate any idea you can suggest me. V sbyybjrq gur ehyrf

I'm working on the Navbar for this website and everything is mostly okay. I have two issues, one more my focus than the other at the moment. I am trying to make it so that the active tab has the white underline. At the moment the line only shows when hovered. I have tried other methods but it only shows a bar over the words or none at all. The other problem is having it so the bar stretches to fit the entire screen and the size of the nav selections adapt based on screen size. Nothing so far has helped or done anything with that.
Below is the CSS and in the image is the Html
@charset "UTF-8";
/* Body */
body {

font-family: source-sans-pro; background-color: #FFFFFF; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 200; display: block; text-decoration: none; 

}
/* main {

margin: 30%; 

} */
* {

box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0; padding: 0; 

}
/* Container */
.container {

width: 100%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; height: 76%; background-color: #960C22; top: 0; display: inline; justify-content: space-between; border-bottom: 1px solid #960C22; position: fixed; left: 0; padding: 0; align-items: center; z-index: 100; 

}
.logo {

width: 30%; max-width: 479px; float: left; margin-left: auto; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1%; display: inline; cursor: pointer; 

}
.logo_footer{

position: relative; z-index: auto; padding: 0px 0px 2% 2%; color: white; font-size: 150%; text-decoration: none; font-family: Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; 

}
p {

text-decoration: none; 

}
p.labname{

text-decoration: none; font-size: 20px ; font-family: Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; 

}
.labname{

clear: both; 

}
li, a, nav{

font-family: Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: #960C22; color: #FFFFFF; font-weight: 500; text-decoration: none; 

}
.about {

padding-left: 25px; padding-right: 25px; padding-top: 35px; display: inline-block; background-color: #FFFFFF; margin-top: 0px; 

}
nav {

float: center; align-items: center; width: 100%; display: flex; justify-content: space-between; /\* padding: 1em 0em 1em 0em; \*/ 

margin: 0 auto;
text-align: center;

box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; 

}
nav ul {

list-style: none; float: center; margin: 0 auto; padding: 0; display: inline-block; 

}
nav ul li {

float: left; font-size: 120%; text-align: center; margin-left: 25px; letter-spacing: 2px; font-weight: bold; display: inline-block; text-decoration: none; 

}
ul li a {

text-decoration: none; display: inline-block; padding: 25px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; 

}
ul li:hover a {

text-decoration: none; text-align: center; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; background: #820C1F; 

}
.active {

text-decoration: none; text-align: center; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; 

}
.navbar a {

position: relative; color: #FFFFFF; 

}
.navbar a::before {

content: ''; position: absolute; top: 100%; left: 0; width: 0%; height: 10px; background: #FFFFFF; 

}
.navbar a:hover:before {

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TW: abuse, animal abuse
I need some support here.
(I want to preface this by saying I would never tell my friends this, I know what they are going through is much harder than what I am going through, this is why I came to y'all!)
Background (you can skip if you want): When I first moved to my city I didn't know anyone. I had an abusive (soon to be ex) husband and was having some major issues with my disability (I could barely walk). I spent a year only hanging out with my stbx. Well, he abused me, and threatened to kill my cat and me, so I kicked him out. I started over on my own (I had no family or IRL friends at this point), and I moved into my own place and discovered I CAN take care of myself despite my disabilities. That I am capable and I don't NEED anyone.
Then I met my boyfriend who I now I live with and our friends. I met them at work and then we became fast friends, they then introduced us to their larger friend group. It was the first time that I'd felt like I belonged. They didn't judge me for being ND. There are 4 ND kids in their families and at least one other person is ND. And we all get along so great. I have NEVER had a community before and now I do. 😭😭😭😭 I'm sobbing as I write this.
Well, the initial 2 people we met have to leave for work. They are moving across the globe. I'm devastated. My autism doesn't know what to do and keeps trying to pull away. My ADHD can only think of a million crafts to start for them, which I have, and then I remember (again) that they don't have room and asked for no gifts.
I don't know what to do now. I know they aren't picking to move away, and that they love me, but I also feel abandoned a little bit.
I'm very worried our friendship will fizzle out too. They usually do ☹️

Several years ago, my BP cheated on me, physically with one person (a drunken one night stand) and an emotional affair with person (a "friend" I always had bad feelings about - texting inappropriate pics, sharing loving feelings with each other and talking badly about me). This was only a few months into us dating, but I didnt find out until 2 and a half years and moving in together. They were extremely remorseful, claimed they were planning on telling me, and ultimately did everything right as far as helping me heal and reconcile. I felt like it took about 2-3 months for me to decide I was ready to forgive and move on. But I did. I mean, I never really forgot it, and still would look at the both of the AP's social media accts and would compare myself to them constantly. But overall, I felt like we were in a good place after a few months and really did come out stronger. My trust in them was restored and we were good. We got engaged, got married, bought a new house. We were truly happy.
About 2 and a half months ago I had an emotional affair, texting and talking on the phone, with an old friend who lives in another state, that lasted a little under two weeks. This friend and I did share a history of hooking up, but this was years ago when we were teens/early 20's. They had reached out kind of out of nowhere, to tell me their marriage was on the rocks. I expressed sympathy and offered support. Then they went on to tell me they have always been in love with me, for 22 years. I was taken aback. In hindsight, I wish so badly I had just shown my spouse this text right away. But I stupidly thought I could just handle it on my own and avoid making them uncomfortable (again...huge regret). Anyway, I told them that I cared deeply for them, but that I was happily married and boundaries needed to be respected. They agreed. We continued to text, at first just innocent things about what we had been up to over the past few years since we last saw each other. Then they told me they had made a suicide attempt recently. This scared and upset me, so I went on to tell them how much I loved them. They then told me I "saved their life" by telling them this, because they had been in such a bad place. The texts just got out of control after that. I am not saying that to act like I had no control. I know I did. But I started to feel feelings for them (or I thought I did) and honestly, was eating up the ego boost they were giving me. Messed up, I know. I have serious insecurities and vulnerability when it comes to people from my past. Again, no excuse. Anyway, eventually it lead to us being really inappropriate, talking about our past sexual moments with each other, how much we wanted to see eachother, how great it would be, etc. I sent them a picture of me, no nudity, but definitely suggestive.
Shortly after that, the guilt consumed me, I blocked their number, and I confessed to my spouse. I admittedly trickle truthed at first, saying it was all the AP, but as the conversation went on, I admitted I also reciprocated, told them I loved them, talked about sex, and sent them a photo of me. Spouse was of course pissed and devastated.
The NEXT day, AP's spouse texted me. They said they knew all along. AP had been deleting our texts, but they still saw everything on their phone records. Shockingly, they werent flipping out on me. They actually said that their marriage was terrible for years, that this was mild compared to other things AP had done, and this was finally their "out". They actually even thanked me. But of course, also said this was real disgusting of both of us. They said that they could have reached out to my spouse several times but didn't. They said they had possession of Ap's phone (including the picture), and that everything they had would be destroyed after their divorce was final. They also told me that AP manipulated me (that they use threats of suicide all the time), and that even though I was wrong too, it was AP "who sunk their claws into me". They told me to show my spouse what they were saying so that maybe it would help. I did, and it did help a little bit. They also said they believe I am a good person. All of this was a relief to hear, even though I didnt feel deserving of such grace. They said that I could give my spouse their number if they ever needed to vent, but that they wouldnt pull up the facts they had because that is not helpful or healthy. Spouse didnt want to do that. All of my texts with them had already been deleted on my phone, which I had done in state of panic before confessing. So my spouse hasnt actually seen anything that was said and has only my words to go off of.
After about three days of talking and crying, and me telling BP how remorseful I was and that I would do anything to save us, BP said they wanted to work through this and stay with me. I was relieved of course, but still felt so awful, and honestly, still scared that they will leave. At one point, they even said they felt like they deserved this because of their cheating. And that what they did was worse because they actually physically slept with someone else. I told them that I didnt feel that way at all.
Flash forward, Dday was almost three months ago. We are in MC and our own IC weekly. I am still a wreck and consumed with guilt, shame, and fear for our future. BP, at least on the outisde, is seemingly doing fine. They said they already forgiven me (they are still "mad" but they are ready to move on). They believe me when I say I would never do this again. I know for a fact I would never. They dont talk about the infidelity, only if I bring it up (saying how sorry I am and asking if they are okay). Recently they said that they are tired of worrying about how i am doing (fair!). They are tired of the heavy conversations. They just want us to be "normal" again. I want that too, but... is this rugsweeping? Is their past cheating possibly the reason they seem so quick to forgive?
In everythig I am reading about affairs, it says reconcillation can take 3-5 years. Is it realistic that some people really do move on after just 3 months? I just dont want them to surpess their feelings. I want to be their for them and work through this together. But they are tired of talking about it. Again, this is totally fair. I just worry it isnt healthy. Then again, l felt ready to move on after just a few months.
I would really love to hear from successful reconcillors who maybe were the exception to the 3-5 year rule. Everyone is different, and of course as strangers, you dont know my spouse personally so you cant say for sure, but given what I have told you about our story, what are your thoughts?
I am looking for those who have direct experiences with this. Please refrain from negativity such as "No one gets over it that soon, things will be never be the same, etc" I promise I am aware of the harsh reality that not all marriages survive infidelity and that the road to recovery is long and really hard. I am willing to do the work, I am working on changing, and I will do anything to reconcille this and rebuild BP's trust in me (I know that also means forgiving myself, which is proving very difficult, but I am trying!) Thanks in advance!!

(This is a repost from 4 weeks ago.)
Hi everyone,
With VoG challenge starting I wanted to post this to hopefully help some people complete Atheon challenge easier. It’s a pretty long guide since it contains pretty much everything I know about this challenge.
The challenge is that every guardian needs to destroy exactly one Oracle every time before Time’s Vengeance starts. (The weird wording is intentional - this is important for one of the items below.) So you do need a full team of six guardians to do the challenge. (FYI, I tried doing it with three guardians destroying two Oracles each, and it didn’t work - the “challenge failed” message came up as soon as the last Oracle was destroyed.)
In this guide, I will use “Venus” for the green/past/right and “Mars” for the brown/future/left timeline. I also use “teleport” to describe the time shift. I know these are not correct, but that’s how most people describe the Atheon fight.

Weapons and Subclasses

Load out wise, the best weapons are (in order):

• Sleeper Simulant (use an exotic chest armor with heavy ammo perk to get 12 shots)
• High impact sniper (Ex Machina, Event Horizon, Devil’s Dawn, Black Spindle archetype)
• Machine gun
• Rockets (only if you don’t have any of the above, and be very careful - jump straight up in the air to shoot them)
• Primaries from this raid (for Oracles)

Do not use supers other than Weapons bubble and Shadowshot tether. Time’s Vengeance will reduce supers’ cool down but their damage will not be buffed like regular weapons. Unless you run out of ammo, even a Celestial Nighthawk Golden Gun is worse than Sleeper - the GG’s dramatic animation is too long. All Titans should switch to Weapons with Bastion and Illuminated. (If you don’t have Illuminated, and there is someone else who does have Illuminated, do not use your bubble unless the other person is not available, or you may cost the team 10% of DPS). All Hunters should switch to Nightstalker with Black Hole. The Titan and Hunter who gets to the middle first should call out “I’ll do the bubble/tether” so others don’t have to worry about it. Also, call out again when the Weapons bubble is activated (near the back edge of the island preferably) so people know when to go back to find it. For the tether, jump straight up and shoot it on the ground at Atheon’s feet (not hitting Atheon directly will make the tether last longer). Only one person needs to tether. Shooting three Sleeper shots then tethering is about the right timing. Warlocks should be on self-res, as staying alive is paramount in case you can’t one-phase Atheon. Do not try to throw grenades, you will have to jump high in the air to do so, which wastes time. I takes about 23 seconds with 5 max light guardians shooting Sleeper with Weapons and tether active the whole time to destroy Atheon.

The Challenge

To make portals opening as smooth as possible, put 3 people on Venus side and 3 on Mars side. Stay inside the circle so you can start building the portal immediately when teleport happens even while you are detained. Do not jump on the monolith before the teleport, as it will aggro Atheon and he’ll start shooting at you and cause a lot of splash damage to you and your teammates.
The ideal situation is that the “inside team” gets #1/#2, the “outside team” gets #3-#5, and Relic holder gets #6. Two people from the outside should go in as soon as the portal opens, and the last person goes in when someone comes out. One notable exception is that if nobody is on the correct portal, then Relic holder needs to get #3 and outside team will get #4-#6. Make sure you watch the kill feed (above your super bar) to confirm you have indeed destroyed an Oracle. After the teleport, avoid unnecessary emoting so you won’t clog up the kill feed.

The Inside Team

The main goal for this team is to have Oracles #1 and #2 destroyed and get the non-Relic guardians out as soon as possible. So if you’re not grabbing the Relic, this is what you need to do:

• Shoot Oracle #1 or #2 (#1 is straight ahead on Venus and slightly left on Mars, #2 is slightly right on both) as soon as they spawn. It may help to call out immediately (“I got #1” “OK then I’ll get #2”) to avoid any confusion.
• Run to the portal as soon as you destroy your Oracle. There will be no cleanse at the bottom. Once you get cleansed at the portal, get out and call out “I’m out, you can go in” to the last person outside.
• Do not ask for cleanse, it will just clog up the comms. If you need a cleanse, quietly stand next to the Relic. The Relic holder will cleanse you every now and then.
• If you are #2 and you are sure your teammate #1 will not need help with his Oracle, you can run immediately to the portal and turn around to shoot Oracle #2. Oracle #2 will spawn around the time you get to the portal.
• If you are #2 and you are shooting your Oracle from the spawn and someone else destroys it instead, don’t try to shoot another Oracle, instead immediately run to the portal. You should have enough time to get there to receive a cleanse before you go completely blind.
• Once you’re out, help clear Supplicants and go to the middle island to be ready for DPS. If you’re the Weapons bubble or tether, tell people that you got that role. There will be three Supplicants that spawn on the other side that should have made it to the portal ring by then, so make sure you shoot them while you’re waiting.
• If you get out and notice you were not cleansed at all, go back in and wait just inside the portal for another cleanse.
• One more thing for the inside team to watch out for is the Relic holder accidentally destroying an Oracle. #1 on Venus is halfway up the stairs, and #2 is on the floor level, both destroyable by a single Relic slam. If the Relic holder destroys Oracle #1 or #2 while trying to kill the adds, you need to notify him (he’s probably too busy dealing with the adds to notice). If this happens, the inside team should take #1-#3, and the outside team takes #4-#6.
• And as always, throw a grenade at the Minotaur at the bottom on Venus, and don’t do anything to the adds on Mars. In any case, do not shoot the adds. The Relic holder needs to kill all three adds to build his super quickly. Even if you don’t kill the adds, it will cause them to wake up early if you shoot them and cause all sorts of havoc (like Hobgoblins throwing up their shields on Mars, or the Minotaur running up the stairs on Venus).

The Relic Holder

If you are the Relic holder, you want 300 Intellect (for Relic super) and 300 Discipline (for cleanse). Do not pick up the Relic if you don’t have 300 INT and DIS. Also don’t pick up the Relic if you’re the only Weapons bubble or tether. As a Relic holder:

• Call out which side you are, and remind people about the grenade/no grenade.
• Run down the right side behind the short pillars, not the middle stairway. Make a mini double-jump at the bottom and smash the adds with the Relic slam. On Venus, if they are not clustered together, you want to make sure you take out at least one of the Goblins (smash the one that’s closer to the Minotaur). One mistake that can cost you is to attack the Minotaur only when they are spread out, and by the time you get rid of it, you’ve had two Goblins shooting at you the whole time and have little to no health left.
• Once you’re done with the adds, run to the portal. If the portal is still not open, that probably means the outside team are all on the wrong side, so use your Relic super to take out Oracle #3. This is the one that is floating pretty high in the air on the right side (looking back from the portal, it will be left if you’re facing the portal). If you take out Oracle #3, call it out (“Relic holder took Oracle #3, last person take #6”).
• Stand near the portal so that the cleanse shield overlaps the portal. This will make sure anyone who runs through the cleanse on the way out will not go blind outside. Face the portal and watch your radar. When you see a green dot or two catch up on you, cleanse them.
• After the first set of guys are out, call in the last person and turn around. Make sure everyone is shooting Oracles in order (they don’t have to be destroyed in order, but each of them will wipe you after a set time, so it is better to shoot them in order). Cleanse occasionally.
• Once Oracles #1-#5 are destroyed, do one last cleanse and tell everyone to get ready for DPS. If possible, do a 3-2-1 countdown before smashing Oracle #6 so everyone knows exactly when Time’s Vengeance starts. Rush to the middle and activate the shield.
• Watch Atheon’s health bar as time progresses. Assuming most people started shooting as soon as Time’s Vengeance started, if Atheon’s health is about half or less at the 15 seconds mark, you should be able to kill him in one phase. If so, tell people to “commit”. If not, when Atheon’s health is about 1/3 left, tell people to get out and start clearing supplicants near portals. Turn around with your shield and leave after everyone is gone.
• If you had to destroy Oracle #3, then cleanse and leave after #5 is destroyed to go to the middle. The last person in doesn’t need any cleanse; he can shoot #6 and turn around to get to the middle in plenty of time before he goes completely blind.

The Outside Team

This team’s job is more complicated because there are many variants. The key is to immediately elect who is going to be the last guardian out. So if you are left outside:

• Watch your radar while the teleport is happening. You will see an extra green triangle on your radar that indicates where the inside team went. If it shows up on top-right, that’s Venus, if it’s bottom-left, it’s Mars. (The little triangle directly left or right is probably outside guardians on the opposite portal.)
• First thing to do is to elect the person to go in last.
  • If you are the only one on the correct portal, tell people you are going in first. Build the portal and go in. Make sure you don’t leave the ring until you see the message about the portal being active.
  • If you are the only one on the wrong portal, tell people you will be the last one to stay out.
  • If everyone is on the wrong portal, tell the Relic holder that he needs to take Oracle #3.
  • In any case, make sure two guardians go in and one stay out.
• Remember that nobody needs to stay inside the portal ring once the portal is activated (and there are no Praetorians to steal the portal from you), but one person needs to be outside at all times. If you’re the last one outside going to the portal from the wrong side ring, you don’t have to go to the ring that builds the portal at all.
• If everyone runs in by mistake and see the “lost in the dark corners of time” message, the last person can immediately run out to avoid a wipe if you are quick enough (although by this time most likely the team has freaked out from the message and is on a way to a wipe anyway).
• Before going in, try to toss an AOE grenade to the Atheon side of the portal to keep Supplicants at bay to help the one guardian that will be defending the portal by himself for a while. You can also shoot a tether there.
• Oracle #3 will be the one that is straight ahead as you go through the portal, and pretty far away.
• On Mars, #3 and #4 are almost overlapping but #4 is much closer. If they are both up, make sure you shoot #3 first.
• On Venus, #4 is below your sight line to your left.
• On both sides, #5 is above your left shoulder and #6 is above your right shoulder.
• If you are the first one in from outside, do not shoot Oracle #2. You destroying #2 will likely confuse the inside team member who was trying to shoot it, and if he didn’t run to the portal first like one other tip above, he may go blind before being able to destroy another Oracle.

A Special Trick

Now, one last tip - if Atheon is almost dead after a DPS phase, but so are any of your teammates, the outside team should go all out to attack Atheon. You can complete the challenge by destroying Atheon this way if you have done the previous Time’s Vengeance correctly.

• Use whatever you have to destroy Atheon. Offensive supers (Nova Bomb etc.) are good again here since weapons are no longer buffed by Time’s Vengeance.
• Oracles will still wipe the team if you do not destroy them all. If you have already destroyed Atheon (and gotten loot) and get wiped this way, you will be waiting in the wipe screen for several minutes while the game searches for a checkpoint to restart. Finally the game will realize there are no usable checkpoints and dump you back at the beginning of the raid. X-D
• In the off chance that the outside team is still trying to kill Atheon, do not destroy the last Oracle (#6). Doing so will start Time’s Vengeance and you will fail the challenge.
• If you have fewer than 4 guardians left while doing DPS, then all Sunsinger Warlocks should jump off and kill himself just before Time’s Vengeance ends. Then resurrect yourself after the teleport and try to destroy Atheon.

That’s all, sorry for the wall of text. Let me know if you have any comments.
Have fun, PSN: Lightfoot (without the “one” at end)

Try using different characters, Emojis, vowel variations, asterisks, etc. Other people may have already noticed this and mentioned it. But ~, *, _, <>, /, will accentuate the word, or add effects to the song. I'm not sure how much this effects musical style when writing in the genre. https://www.udio.com/songs/cGL47FMZVMim15NAGZWmkz
"Chöcöläté äïrpläné tängö, Säsqüätch dïscö fändängö, Pänçäké cöökïé wältz!!!!!! Éléphänt $üpérnövä blüé$, Whïrlpööl märshmällöw sämbä, Stärfïsh öctöpüs föxtrött, Cätérpïllär pïnéäpplé mämbö, Mérmäïd spägéttï chä-chä!!!!!!!Mérmäïd spägéttï chä-chä!!!!!!!"
https://www.udio.com/songs/aKhsB9A2y2UGN51gYRfqLG
~*_?!
"The other one is a little bit of a ~beautiful~ day and I was going to be there at 10 and I was {going} to ask if you /wanted/ to come over and over the day to come up with me"
Not sure how these effects [chorus], [Breakdown], etc.
When writing I have found that starting in the middle of your song is best, but when making intro/outro, you should specify that, and sometimes an "add section" intro or outro will suffice. To improve your outputs, I usually spam the top 5 " vibes" of what subgenres I'm going for, plus I'll write: ", professional, cinematic, soundtrack, masterpiece, master tracks, platinum, top, best, movie score, _____ (movie name), life-like, believable, realistic, exhausted (or other variables)... " For fun:
"1950's , Christmas music, traditional Christmas music, radio broadcasting, radio broadcast, spoken word, am radio, 1940's retro commercials, oldies, the big Lebowski"
Lyrics: " [Verse1] Yo, mah bŕöddăz n' şîssăz, lîşşən tű đîş sîçk ƒlöū (flow) Ăz ăh spît đăt ƒâyăr, đău wîlt bë bĺöūn' åwëy, ƒöʳ şhöū (show), Ăh'mă lëš yă knöū, ăh'mă bë đë wûñ n' öñlēy (only) Tű tëyk đîş bëyč (beat) n' mëyk ît sūñ şměltēy" " [Chorus-Radio announcer] Ƒrūm đë dăp (top) tű đë bâttm', mâh rymmz r' hâttîñ' Wîđ đë śhârp wîć (witch) n' đë hârd hîč (hitch), n' đât'ś đë xXXX bîtçh"
https://www.udio.com/songs/sx4X8cHTGXe1fvyVzGNP4k

Nearly ruined it for myself! I was convinced my exam was at 2pm today, so I showed up at 1:15, had a drink and review my notes. Went to the proctor at 1:45 and she immediately gave me an annoyed “be on time next time”. Not knowing at the time that I was late, I have to admit I let it get to me, I’m pretty sensitive. I spent the entire exam being annoyed and wanting to get out of there. It was only after I was in the bathroom an hour later that I realized that I was lucky to be allowed to take the exam at all. I was even thinking of going to apologize to her, but I wasn’t rude to her or anything.
With that out of the way, I passed with a 761/900. No, I don’t like my score, but I went into this exam with a terrible attitude (which honestly started way before exam day because I’m feeling burned out from studying). I raced through all the questions in 25 minutes and had to force myself to review for another 20.
It felt easier than Net+, there are more questions that are straight to the point. Still, quite a few tripped me up. Can’t quite figure out when compTIA wants me to consider FDE or remote wipe. I’m thinking, remote wipe is only good as long as the device remains online. But I digress, I passed, I’m happy, I wanna move on.
Here are my study methods: - CompTIA Security+ Study Guide with over 500 practice test questions These practice questions are good! Sometimes their website doesn’t work so I’ve done the chapter practice questions and the two full practice exams on my phone. My scores for the full practice exams were: 98% and 84%. - Professor Messer’s Security+ 701 course and study sessions Can never go wrong with the Professor. Unfortunately I couldn’t afford his practice questions this time around. - Jason Dion’s practice questions set one. I didn’t like these questions. There were a lot of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors which resulted in making the questions harder than they were, because what are you even saying? My scores were: 76%, 77%, 82%, 76%, 81% and 72%. I didn’t make these questions the focus of my study. - Also didn’t really focus on examcompass much this time around, I took tests on exam day and scored 76% for test 3 and 60% on test 19. Please note that I didn’t take the percentage based on points, but the (lower) percentage based on questions that I answered correctly.
Just wanted to do another quick shoutout to Andrew Ramdayal, his “50 practice questions” video gave me the confidence I had enough knowledge to pass.
Shoutout number two goes out to Pete Zerger, his Security+ exam cram videos are absolutely fantastic. I learned some new things a day before the exam. His videos are not fully uploaded yet, but if you need a quick review, you can check out the completed modules. If you need to review a short topic, the completed modules are also available in smaller videos.
Okay, that’s the trifecta over and done with. From start to finish that took me a little less than five months. Though, I’m not done with compTIA just yet, I like this structured way of learning. I have to do Linux+ sometime this year and I’m definitely interested in moving forward with what I’ve learned so far.

hello!
i'm new to the indie community—i'm neurospicy (though i have two diff diagnoses across two diff countries) and have had a fixation on fragrances for a while; thousands of dollars spent on niche perfumes that triggered cascades of dopamine ejaculation from my neurons (sorry for the word choice, i wanted to be as vivid with my imagery as possible), i've decided to branch into indies after getting a bit bored with niche offerings :)
i'm also very picky choosy and almost never blind-buy when i buy niche, but obviously for indies, i don't have the luxury of being able to sniff and test out frags on my skin before pulling the trigger—and this applies for samples as well! indie or niche, i always did research into notes and compared reviews on fragrantica and even the fragrance/perfume subreddits before pulling the trigger. fragrantica isn't really an option for indies, unfortunately, so i turned to IMAM and read as many reviews on fragrances from different houses that caught my interest!
a few full sizes and sample orders later (i learned the hard way why it's important to sample before FSing...🫠) i've now grown my indie collection to at least 2 dozen? off the top of my head? and would love to contribute back to the community! there are some perfumes that i pulled the trigger on knowing they were gambles because i couldn't find as much information on them as i wanted, and i know how frustrating or lost-feeling it's like to need information and not be able to get it :( so i'd like to contribute to the review pool!
i've left reviews as comments before, but through my own searching journeys on the subreddit, i realized that it's easier to find posts with reviews rather than searching through terms in the comments in the subreddit and having to comb through buy/sell comments or whatnot... so i wanted to start writing review posts..! i'm just a bit lost on how to start, as i know indie perfumes especially smell different in different forms (oil/edp), different people's skins, even aging..! etc. so i was curious to how the seasoned indie perfumes consumers (and artists!) did their review process. i'm especially new to oil perfumes—was originally an oil hater, but now i'm discovering more and more of their advantages/benefits (i'm looking for the english equivalent of the korean word 장점)—so i'd really appreciate some feedback on how i should be testing these!
for example, one tip that i got after stalking one of the houses that i tried and fell in love with at first sight (sniff? first order?) was to not just to a sniff sniff whiff whiff, but also smell retronasally—it's really opened up how i smell ALL of my perfumes, and i've gone back to every scent in my collection just to smell retronasally. i got this tip off osmofolia's sab! it was on their tiktok—i consider it a personal flex that i am not a regular tiktok user, but sab had me opening the tiktok app three days in a row... and osmofolia is my heart eyes, heart-goes-LUB-DUB-really-fast, dopamine cascade house right now.
if you've read this far, thank you for reading my long word vomit ramble! i'd really appreciate some tips and tricks from the community so i can give back (intellectually? experience-wise?) as much information and knowledge as i have received (and hopefully help out future indie beginners like me)!

Okay, so I’ve been trying to get into historical romances/bodice rippers to see what the hype is all about and guys…I GET IT NOW 😭😭😭😭
The Conqueror by Brenda Joyce ripped my heart out, put it back, then ripped it out, and over and over again. The DRAMA! The SCANDAL! The BETRAYAL! Oooohhhh it was a roller coaster and I loved every second of it 🥹
The fact that Rolfe kept trying to protect Ceidre even though she kept betraying him?? Swoon 😭 and then when he stops protecting her and gives her to William, omg I thought I’d jump out of my seat on the airplane 😂 I was soooo freaking into this book.
I loved Ceidre’s character too, she took everything with such grace and pride omg. And when she hurt, I hurt too. I must be a masochist because I just love when the FMC goes through it and damn, she was traumatized beyond belief.
I loved that she didn’t give into Rolfe easily either, I may weird here but I just love when the FMC withdraws from the MMC and he starts to feel guilty. It’s totally my ultimate favorite trope (is that a trope?)
And honestly, this is the only book I’ve read that I actually liked the MMC’s groveling at the end! I loved that he came to terms with her betrayal because she was a patriot, just like him.
Edit: I forgot to say that I just LOVED the writing! Omg it was so beautiful and compelling, and I could easily picture those knights, the homes, the landscapes. I felt transported in time!
What did you guys think of this one? Is it anyone’s favorite? because I think it’s going to my favorite for a looooooong time now
(I’m afraid I’ll never read anything as good as this book again. So if y’all have any other reccs for a medieval romance/ bodice ripper with an aggressive MMC like Rolfe, an FMC that just can’t catch a break and withdraws, and tons of drama, please share them!)