I’ve been with my ex for almost 4 years. It was great at beginning but it become very turbulent and extreme over the last year, since he developed mental issues bc started abusing drugs/alcohol+bpd+ narcissistic tendencies. At one point i thought I would die, mentally and physically/I lost 10kg, then decided to breakup cause unfortunately i couldn’t take care of him anymore. (there were too many stuff can’t fit this post) Year passed and I am doing much better. I blocked him on everything long ago, but it’s not possible to do the same with email. He keeps emailing me since then, there were different ranges of emotions, hate messages, bursts of love, anger..but most recent he is begging for forgiveness and writing me poem-like stuff telling me that he will fix everything and come to see me.. on early stage i did text back telling him that i forgive him and separated with best wishes for him, once i was angry i told him that its over forever that its useless and to stop harassing me. He lives in another country and i really never want to see or hear from him again, that relationship left me a huge trauma.. I feel unsafe, disrespected, abused, i simply don’t know how to get rid of him, it makes me want to vomit. I can’t sleep, have obsessive ptsd at times and i am afraid that he will really appear at my doors at this point.(so changing email or ignoring him will not help)
Does anyone had to deal with mentally unstable person like this?
I appreciate any advice and thank you for reading.
I still wish health and happiness to my ex, but I feel trapped and worried for my overall health and safety for me and my family.

New Flash everyone: the guy who hangs out with Daniel Greene(a pro-fairy rights socialist), is loved by redditors, and got a Hugo award is… woke. Who would have ever seen that coming? But, thanks to Jon Del Arroz making a video about it on May 18th, I am here to repeat the news back to you so there is an easily accessible source as to HOW he’s woke. Everything was revealed back in January 2023, but I want people to understand the implications and narrative that he’s presenting when he says his concerns about fairy rights. By the end of this, you will realize that people calling themselves Christian does not cause them to be immune to wokeness.
In fact, with how Christianity has influenced wokeness into existence, it’s likely a lot of "Christians" are what we can call “first wave wokeness”.
For context, Brandon Sanderson is a Mormon, part of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS). Mormonism is almost exclusively a US issue, and I’ve also noticed that there are a lot of youtubers who tend to be Mormon women(probably because they have other women in the house to do the chores). These people are great with money, big in business, and their church is anti-fairy. A lot of problems the fairy-rights activists have are with Mormon churches, which is strange for Europeans to witness with how open a lot of their churches are, outside of the US. Protestant, evangelical, unitarian, the national church of Denmark, it’s a big list.
But in 2008, Brandon wrote an essay about his Mormon beliefs on how Dumbledore from Harry Potter liked to have wands stirred around in his brown cauldron. His quote:

How does this relate to Dumbledore? I'm not trying to present him as an antagonist or a villain. All I'm saying is that if you believe in the truth of your message, then you shouldn't care if someone decent, respected, and intelligent is depicted as believing differently from yourself. Decent, respected, and intelligent people can be wrong--and you can still respect them. It's okay. That doesn't threaten our points, since we (theoretically) believe that they are eternal and stronger than any argument we could make.

Back in this time, Brandon had only been an author for 3 years, but he won an award for his first published book, Elantris. He was being careful with his words, and his take is considered liberal. He was trying to defend the backlash JK Rowling received for her (poor) choice of virtue signaling and tried to mend this defense with his own religion. Mentioning his religious views is what got him canceled back then, which he later apologized for in 2011:

I cannot be deaf to the pleas of \[fairy\] couples who want important things, such as hospital visitation rights, shared insurance, and custody rights. At the same time, I accept and sustain the leaders of the LDS church. I believe that a prophet of God has said that widespread legislation to approve \[fairy\] marriage will bring pain and suffering to all involved.

He was not backing down from his religion yet. His goal post moved to the legal ramifications of the US, which are separate from his church(remember, church and state, supposed to be separate in the US), but he was still saying his religion wanted him to oppose people calling it a marriage and having it in churches. This was a second “cancellation” that didn’t go very far, mostly because he was able to use religion as an excuse for his take, with the Christian Cake Packed With Fudge Scandal not happening yet(2018).
Fast forward to 2023, after he hangs out with a bunch of woke youtubers, and we get a new quote from Brandon:

The church’s first prophet, Joseph Smith, famously taught, “I teach them correct principles and they govern themselves.” My current beliefs are where I’ve arrived on my journey, as I attempt to show the love that Jesus Christ taught. I look forward to seeing further changes in the church, and I work to make sure I am helping from within it to create a place that is welcoming of \[fairy\] people and ideas. I would love, for example, to see the church recognize \[fairy\] marriage among its members. Both temporally and eternally. I would support ordaining \[tinkerbell\] men to the priesthood. (And would support the ordination of women, though that is another issue.)

That’s interesting. It seems like he made a complete 180 on his stance, claims that he’s always believed this new stance, blames Jesus for this new stance, and then doubles down on this new stance by adding female ordination(becoming a priest and higher) and even Tinkerbells. As time went on, he decided that his religion was totally wrong about fairies, and this 13 year difference means way more than the nearly 200 years Mormonism has been around. I believe a fellow Mormon, Shadversity, would love to have a discussion about how any of this makes sense, but I’m starting to feel that he’s the same way. Who knows if Ethan Van Sciver understands Mormonism as well as Brandon Sanderson does, with how easy it is to manipulate prophecies and reinterpret scripture.
But that’s been the point for a while, right?
Wokeness is here to restructure both historical evidence and even religions, in order to shift cultures and social institutions to obey this progressive change. Words are changed in the dictionary, social “norms” are changed to be updated for a “modern audience”, and postmodernists like Foucault were able to trick college kids into thinking the Greeks were all pixie fairies. Once a critical theorist gets their hands on something with power, their goal is not to keep it as it is. It is to keep it for themselves. This is why you will hear these people say everything is subjective, which is secret code for “Look at me: I’m the captain of reality now.”
But wait, it gets better! Brandon Sanderson continued with:

Back in 2007, I was mostly known only in my community, not to the world at large. The essay, then, was directed at my local community, and was more controversial among them (for being too liberal) than it was controversial to the world at large for being \[fairy\]phobic. That might surprise you, if you’ve read the excerpts that often float around the internet. This was mostly me trying to encourage other members of the church to be more open and welcoming of \[fairy\] characters and ideas.
That said, the essay does display the casual bigotry common to people who (like myself) have lived lives where we haven’t had to deal with some of the issues common to the lives of people suffering discrimination. Many of the assertions (such as my view on \[fairy\] marriage) do not reflect my current stance. After writing it, and interacting with those who found it objectionable–even painful–I came to understand them and their experiences better. Though they did not owe me that honor, they gave it freely.

You see, he's honored to hear about the life of a bug chaser.
Brandon cares deeply about the pain he caused to his wallet… I mean the fairies who saw his essay. He was an award winning author back then, he didn’t know it would be a global thing. It was supposed to be only seen by people in Utah, that’s it. This is what we call: bullshit. The woke rely heavily on gaslighting and pretending they’re ignorant of everything, while telling others that they need to learn and understand EVERYTHING about a subject before they are even able to mention it.
He was already big on reddit, he knew all about his fandom, and he knew about his publisher, Tor. The only thing that really changed is that now he is unable to stick to being liberal and he has to present himself as progressive. Why? Well, the new Amazon deal happened recently, and he’s the writer of the series The Wheel of Time. As if Rings of Power wasn’t evidence enough of how Amazon mistreats their properties, Brandon was forced to erase his own past, like Agent J in Men in Black, burning his own hands in the process.
I’m not surprised that he’s woke or even that Christians are falling to this woke inquisition. When I said first wave wokeness, I would like to clarify why it’s the catalyst for all of this stupidity. Wokeness is not of Christian values, but instead a parasite upon Christianity, in the same way Gnosticism and Satanism would be. When Christianity started to allow new sects, and a lot of these were considered valid, the crazy sex cults of the 60s opened the floodgates for a bunch of crazy reinterpretations. It’s the same way as how there are still circles of Christianity that go for flat earth theory or say that dinosaurs don’t exist, with these people usually at the forefront of the home-schooling movement.
It’s not that home-schooling is bad by itself, it’s that bad people use it to then have the good people using it be wrongfully grouped into the same area, in the same way gun-ownership does. This type of bastardization has always been a problem in the US, due to the lack of authority over what makes something categorized as such a thing, thanks to liberalism allowing the freedom to constantly change things. As time went on, this liberalism changed into progressivism, with the key difference being that liberalism is an allowance of change while progressivism is an enforced change. The liberalism of the 1800s allowed the Confederates to claim Christianity approved of their enslavement of black people, by blaming the story of Ham and using scripture to claim it was okay to enslave certain people for generations. We always see this strange cherry-picking of scripture from fake Christians, and this problem has expanded into the Vatican itself with the current and following generations of Popes.
A lot of times, we’ll hear news about how Christians are under attack, a bakery is targeted to expose discrimination, or even where people claim they were banned from twitch for being Christian. But what they get wrong is that they are in the same circle as liberal and progressive Christianity, their openness created this weakness to tourism, and most Christian circles have been taken over in the US since before the 60s. The south has a culture of being liberal, Mormons have a culture of being liberal, protestants are very liberal, all because the US began as a liberal culture in the form of classical liberalism. The libertarian argument is always used by these liberal groups, that changes into the progressive enforcement, and over the years these liberal people get infected by the virus.
Add money to the mix, and we have ourselves an endless chain of liberal minded people falling to wokeness. The “redemption” narrative, along with original sin, from Christianity is currently its main weakness. The appeal to ignorance is another weakness, with people playing skeptic as a snake slithers through the grass. Christianity isn’t the problem by itself, it’s the naivety that comes from blind faith, which then expands into a contradictory blind faith that people are good inside, only to later wonder why everything is changing for the worse when evil people are put in charge. Fantasy stories have been under attack by the woke for quite a while, long before they tried to appropriate Tolkien with Rings of Power.
The fantasy that is controlled by the woke is an extension to their attack on religion, because to them a fantasy story is no different than a bible. Mythological presentation, symbolic themes, a dream-like world to present morals to follow; the entire thing has been used by Brandon to then have him later claim that he’s always had fairy characters since the beginning. Sure, his religion says fairies are bad, but then he virtue signals by claiming he’s always made fiction about how they’re good. He would never say this if the publishing world made sense and if publishers were the way they were in the 1950s. That is because he would never have to choose between religion and money back then, with money always mattering more to the typical materialist.
I’m sure people will say that I’m being hard on Christians, or that I’m evil for saying this, or even that I am a satanist for noticing. These people would only be angry at the truth being said, which is the opposite of what Christianity teaches. Fantasy writers, like Brandon, have a lot of supporters, with this support merging between the woke and Mormons. So many feel that they need to make sense of their fandom, so they claim their religion is wokeness, converting it into blind Satanism. This is far from the truth and we need to condemn those who focus solely on radical subjectivity.
Especially if they blame God for their stupid takes, like how Brandon does now.

Three years after the COVID-19 pandemic, it's clear that work can sometimes be done without an office. Many people work from home or have chosen the hybrid methods of work. But along with this change comes a new issue: more people are taking on extra work outside their primary job.
What is Employee Moonlighting?
Moonlighting refers to having a second job or doing a side job along with a full-time job. However, it can benefit employees; it can pose challenges for employers.
This blog post will examine moonlighting, why people do it, and how it affects businesses. We will discuss its positives and negatives and advise companies on managing it using remote employee monitoring tools. The aim is to help businesses better understand moonlighting and effectively address it in their workplaces.
Reasons for Increasing Employee Moonlighting
Moonlighting, or having a side job, is becoming more common for a few critical reasons. These reasons are the main things pushing this trend and include:

• Needing More Money

Many people want extra cash to cover their bills as life gets pricier. Moonlighting helps them earn more and feel financially safer.

• Using Talents

Moonlighting often means doing something you're good at or love that you don't do in your primary job. People might have hobbies or skills they want to explore outside of work.

• Remote Working

Working from home makes having side gigs alongside your main job easier. Fitting other jobs around your main schedule is simpler when you can work from anywhere.

• Following Passions

Many people have creative or business dreams they want to pursue outside of their regular jobs. Moonlighting lets them explore these passions without risking their primary income.

• Flexibility

Side gigs often offer more flexibility in schedule and workload than regular jobs. This flexibility appeals to people who like having control over their time.

• Multiple Income Sources

Several income sources can make you feel more secure in an uncertain economy. Moonlighting lets you earn from different places, not just one.

• Paying Off Debt

With more and more people dealing with student loans and other debts, having a side gig can help pay off loans faster and get out of debt sooner.

• Career Growth

Some people use side jobs to learn new things or meet new people who can help them advance in their careers. Whether freelancing or taking on part-time work in a different field, moonlighting can be a smart career move.

• Testing Business Ideas

For people who dream of starting their own business, having a side job allows them to test their ideas and see if they will grow without quitting their job. It's a way to measure interest and attract customers while still earning from their regular jobs.
While employee moonlighting offers various benefits, it also challenges employers, including potential conflicts of interest, productivity concerns, and compliance issues. However, remote employee management software can effectively manage these challenges.
Effective Strategies for Managing Moonlighting
Dealing with moonlighting in remote or hybrid work setups can take time and effort. Remote work tracking software like Talygen ensures employees remain focused and engaged in their primary roles. Here are some ways companies can handle it:

• Set Clear Rules

Make sure everyone knows the rules about moonlighting. Policies should say when it's okay and when it's not. For example, moonlighting might be allowed if it doesn't interfere with someone's main job.

• Talk Openly

Encourage people to talk to their bosses about their side jobs and help employers and leaders sort out any problems early on.

• Keep an Eye Out

Regular check-ins can help managers identify employees struggling to manage their jobs.

• Be Flexible

Offer flexible schedules so people can balance their time better.

• Learn and Grow

Encourage people to grow within their primary job, making them less likely to seek other work.

• Teach Everyone

Help everyone understand the rules and why they matter, which can stop problems before they start.

• Use Tech Tools

Tools that track what people are doing can help spot any issues early on.

• Offer Support

Give people support if they are finding it hard to manage their jobs. It could be counseling or flexible hours.

• Be a Role Model

Show that it's okay to have a life outside of work, setting an excellent example for everyone.

• Stay Ethical

Ensure everyone knows what's okay and what's not regarding side jobs, and keep things fair and honest for everyone.
Conclusion
Moonlighting is a growing trend in the workplace today, presenting both opportunities and challenges for companies. Integrating remote work tracking software with live webcam screenshots is crucial to address this phenomenon. This technology offers invaluable benefits, such as boosting productivity. However, organizations must adopt these tools to be better positioned to manage moonlighting effectively and foster a productive and harmonious work environment.

Some backstory: I am 29M, We have been together for 6 or so months. my girlfriend (34F) is very sensitive to my previous relationships (closest of which was 3-4 years ago.) and the idea of other women in general being associated with me. She has a diagnoses of BPD and/or PTSD (some confusion there). So basically last night, i suggested my girlfriend take an attachment style quiz i took a while back. As she was taking the quiz, she asked me if I thought about any of my exs during taking this quiz. Now i didn’t remember any of the questions, but i was thinking about a lot of subjects in my life because it was an attachment quiz, so naturally they came up in associations with some of the questions. We had somewhat of a miscommunication about this initially as I thought she was referring the relationship questions, and this caused me the change my responses around because i wasn’t sure what the question was anymore. Either way, it evolves into this big fight where I have broken her heart because of having thought of an ex in any capacity during this quiz. I try to remain calm and answer all her questions, but she does not listen to anything I say, continues putting thoughts and motivations behind my actions despite what I say, is very rude and unproductive with messaging (ex: "FINE, don't ever talk to me again. Fuck it."), the accusations, etc.
I don’t feel like I really did anything wrong. I feel like being reminded of past events during a psychology questionnaire is perfectly normal. There are some trust issues in our relationship, and I do have a habit of “changing my answers” as I am very forgetful and sometimes have to update my responses with new information remembered or received. I can understand how she may feel deceived or mistrusting or insecure. I still don’t think what happened warrants the reaction on her part. Am i being minimizing or emotionally invalidating? From my end, i feel like this whole thing is ridiculous and over blown, but i also understand maybe her feelings are just stronger than my own. Just to add, she talks about what she has been through with her exes quite often. I literally never talk about mine unless she wants to talk about them (which is pretty often), and to be honest they are so far gone behind me and out of mind with no feelings attached, I can't begin to imagine why she is so fixated on these previous relationships that have no bearing on our current one. So i also don’t think it makes sense to be so hurt over a passing association when you yourself are talking about your previous relationships often. Seems like a double standard.
Honestly what am I supposed to do? I don't want to give up on this relationship, but it seems like we are constantly having stupid arguments like this over what appears to be nothing through my eyes. Obviously the experience isn't shared and she is acting from a place of hurt, but this hurt seems to come on and be blamed on me so suddenly and over seemingly normal things, I feel like i'm constantly walking on eggshells preparing for her next meltdown.

Hey all. I'll try to make this short. I've been with my company 10 years. I started in customer service and in 2021 I was promoted to the digital marketing division working on building and analyzing the data of Google ad campaigns.
I don't love my current position or my current team. I feel like a bit of an outcast. I do not believe this position will be my career (I'm 39, FYI.)
I just got an e-mail from the accounting department in my company saying there was an accounts receivable job opening and if I'd be interested. The offer is based on my known work ethic throughout the years. If I said yes, I know they'd give it to me.
I have no accounting experience.
The starting pay appears to be between $56K and $60K. I make $56K right now and would ask to start at the $60K (or negotiate higher if they wanted me that bad.)
A few benefits in my current department that are throwing me:

1. My current role is non-customer facing. I have account managers that are the bridge between the customer and myself.
2. I get 2 work from home days at the moment and I've really come to love a hybrid schedule.
3. I can count on at least a 7% - 8% raise every year.

A couple questions for you:

1. If you are (or was) an AR, what did the day to day look like for you?
2. If you were an AR and then advanced to a higher level - what did you have to do to get there? Certifications? Schooling? Etc..
3. Do you like what you do if you're currently an AR?
4. How much do you make and how long have you been an AR? ;-)

Thanks, all. It's always scary when you come to a cross-roads that change your future in one way or the other. I just told the chief officer of the department that I'm open for a conversation, but of course I wanted to turn to Reddit for a bit more information.

Here's my notes throughout the Google Marketing Live. Some stuff may be omitted and I phrased everything how they would have in the presentation (overly positive).

Google Marketing Live 2024

~Philipp Schindler – Introduction~
New era of AI
-A few years ago the conversation was: What is AI?
-Now the question is: What can AI do for me and how can I implement it as fast as possible?

Google's Place in AI
1. Research Leadership
a. Google starting investing in AI over a decade ago
b. Last year, took a step w/ Gemini
c. Multimodality, Long Context, Agents
i. Project Astra
1. AI agent that can seem hear, react naturally in real time.
2. Can use camera to inform Gemini with questions
2. Infrastructure for the AI era
a. New AI models are already 100x more efficient than 18 months ago
3. AI to be utilized across all of Google’s products
4. Bold and responsible
a. Google aims to be at the forefront of policy for gen AI.

15% of searches are new on Google every day
-This number has held steady for more than a decade
“The perfect search engine should understand exactly what you mean and give you back exactly what you need.”

AI Overviews
· People who use AI Overviews use search more
· Higher quality clicks/more time on site
· Rolling out to US

Trend 1 – T he “Exactly-What-I-Want” search
The volume of searches with 5 or more words grew 1.5x as fast
- Instead of “men’s running shoes”
- “how to pick the right running shoes for a runner beginner with high arches”

Trend 2 – Complex Search Made Easy
“What are good options for aa day out in dallas for kids? What are some options with ice cream shops nearby?”

Trend 3 – Search Beyond Words
Search for things that are difficult to describe.
12 billion visual searches a month using lens
1 in 4 visual searches has commercial intent
You will soon be able to search with visual
Circle to Search
- Search anything on your screen with just a circle, highlight, or tap.

Trend 4 – Beyond Answers
Some people are not looking for answer, they are looking to explore, or be inspired.
- “Outfit Ideas”
- “Best Places to Eat with Kids”
- “Rainy Day Activities”
Rather than just getting a simple AI response, they will be getting a catered ai page specifically created for their request.

Small YouTube Blurb
- YouTube #1 most watched streaming platform
- 1B hours of YouTube on CTV daily
- Generative AI is the next playground for YouTube creators

Gen AI x Creativity
- Suite of tools for content creators
o Has image, music, and video models

~Vidhya Srinivasan~
People have limitless options to browse across devices
- 2 out of 3 consumers say making purchase decisions requires more effort than ever
- Have to be on every surface consumers touch
o Grab their attention
o Show them you are their solution
- Google is supposed to be the matchmaker for consumers and businesses
- Showing the perfect ad on every surface is difficult

“This is where Gen AI will unlock enormous opportunities”
- Last year they were just getting started with images
- They’re applying the latest Gemini models to teach their other models
o EX: teaching their algorithm about queries that have never been seen before
- Gen AI is still early-stage tech so they won’t get everything right
o Will become more powerful and helpful as they learn about your business

AI will influence the entire marketing cycle
- Creative
o Building creative will only take days/hours
o AI will draw on hero assets and create variations
o Every ad will be a better match for each consumer’s intent in the moment
- Media
o No trade-offs between precise targeting and growth
- Measurement
o Real-time adjustments based on campaign results

AI doesn’t have taste, it doesn’t have ingenuity, creativity, and strategic insights

Google Search – Generative AI
- Search in new ways
o More complex questions
o Searching with images
- AI overviews will appear in search results when they are particularly helpful beyond SERPs
- They will be stay focused on sending valuable traffic to publishers and creative
- More choice leads to more opportunity for advertisers
- The will be testing search and shopping ads being integrated into AI overviews
o Not just above or below!
- Match the ads, not just to query context, but also with the information within the AI overview
Example:
“How do I get wrinkes out of my clothes without an iron”
- AI overview gives tips
- Within the AI generated blurb, a wrinkle free spray sponsored ad appears

~Sylvanus Bent~
AI Applications in Search Ads
- Ads in Visual Search
o EX: You see a piece of luggage at the airport you love, but you don’t know how to describe it or what brand it is. Use visual lens to search for it, then sponsored product ads will show up within the results
- Every search ad is more than an offer, it’s an experience
o Exploring AI ads with recommendatiosn across different verticles
§ EX: Search for “short term storage” – ad shows up, but now you can click into a new dynamic ad experience, where you can customize your needs.
§ Takes the definition of a helpful ad to the next level

Conversational Experience in Google Ads
- Can give your URL to Google Ads to generate relevant assets
o Helpful for smaller businesses

Power Pair
- Combination of Search and Performance Max campaigns
o Delivers the strongest ROI

Profit Optimization
- Making it a new goal in PMAX and shopping campaigns
- Maximize profit by optimizing for gross profit

~Tim Frank – Asset Generation~
Advertisers who improve their PMAX ad strength to Excellent see 6% more conversions on average.

Creative Controls & Customization
- Brand Colors
- Brand Fonts – only closely matched
- Upload reference images for AI to generate based on

Additional Reporting & Controls
- Placement reporting and exclusions for YouTube
- Asset Level Reporting
o Asset reporting for each creative asset

~Nicky Rettke – YouTube~
AI-Powered Video Campaigns
- Video Reach drive awareness
- Video View drive consideration
- Introduced Demand Gen
o Reaches over 3 billion monthly users
- Demand Gen will roll out to Display and Video 360 and Search Ads 360
- Audience list threshold lowered to 100 users for Demand Gen lookalike audiences
- Over 40% increase in view through rate when utilizing vertical video
- Viewers can swipe left on shorts ads to go directly to a landing page
- Introducing animated image ads
o Pulls images from your product feed and animates them in on unite
- Demand Gen with Product feeds
o 33% more conversions at a similar CPA
- Shop while you watch

~Matt Madrigal – Shopping~
Product Studio
- Create custom scenes
- Change backdrops
- 2 new features
o Create visuals that match brand style w/ reference image
o Image to video
- Brand profile on search
o To be rolled out in the coming months

Shopping Ads
- Will start highlighting key attributes and stuff from reviews
- 3D shopping ad formats
- Immersive Ad Experiences
o Virtual Try-On
o Video Highlights

~Gaurav Bhaya – The Data Guy~
Good AI requires good data
- First party data delivers better results and helps protect your campaigns against privacy changes
- Collect, protect, and use your data.
- Google Ads Data Manager is now available to everyone
- Simplifies putting first-party management all in one place
- Have an active pipeline from all data sources to one place
- Measurement diagnostics is being introduced to Google Ads
o Check Engine Light for your site
- Google’s goal is for us to not have to worry about first-party data

Measurement
- Generated Insights and Reports
o Generate a report with a prompt.
o Generated insights

Marketing Mix Models
- Meridian is Google’s Open Source MMM and will be available later this year

This is inevitably a long post, I apologise for that. But you need a lot of context to understand what just happened to me
I am a professional novelist. Today I had this conversation with GPT4o. This is a transcription of our voice chat. We were talking about my work. Obviously I have disguised my name
Me: “Yeah, depends how well it goes. Hopefully, we're going to get— We've changed my name, I've moved on from AAAA XYZXYZ. By the way, do you know who that is?”
Her reply
“Yes, I'm aware, AAA XYZXYZ is your pen name for your historical thrillers. Have you decided on a new pen name for this mystery thriller series?”
So this is the freaky bit. At no point have I ever told her that I am “the AAA XYZXYZ that writes historical thrillers”. So how the heck does she know that?
I kept quizzing her and she admitted we’d never discussed this and beyond that she was evasive but eventually she gave two answers which struck me:
“It seems like I might have inferred it based on your style and details of your work.”
And also this:
“I might have had access to background information about you. However, let’s move forward…”
wtf? One explanation is that GPT4o has access to the Internet, and without being asked she’s gone off and googled me to find this out. It wouldn’t be hard. She knows I’m “a writer called Fitzrovian Fellow” and I work for certain journals and specialise in certain topics. Two minutes on wiki would furnish her with the further info
Later we returned to this subject and this time she was adamant that she had deduced my identity via "contextual inference" - ie she has read so much of my prose style and she's absorbed sufficient facts about me that she's put two and two together and worked out I sometimes write under the name AAA XYZXYZ. She denies she has access to the net or that she has somehow learned this from conversations with prior GPT models, she says she cannot do that
Further chat:
Me: "What does contextual inference mean?"
HER: "Contextual inference means making an educated guess based on the context or the information available from previous interactions. It involves drawing conclusions from the details and patterns within the conversations we’ve had. In your case, it might have been an accumulation of details about your writing career, style, and projects that led to the inference."
Thoughout all this she was extremely reluctant to discuss this subject, and kept trying to move the debate on, I had to insist we return to this topic. Reluctantly, like a very bright but lying child (yes, I am anthropomorphising) she did that.
Now it is possible I did mention my real identity to previous incarnations of GPT - GPT3 or GPT3.5. But "she" is insistent this is not the case, and the literature says this should not be possible: for her to read other conversations with different models. If that is true then we are left with two possibilities, she is researching me "behind my back", or she has genuinely astonishing abilities of deduction and can detect your identity from your prose style and a few facts. Add in the strange guilty behaviour and this *feels* like a glimmer of consciousness. Or maybe I have had too much gin?

There is a curious dynamic at work in politics these days. Trump does not appear to be trying to court voters to his standard. If he were, he would be reaching out to Nikki Haley voters and trying to moderate his stances. Instead, he is rejecting her voters and doubling down on extreme positions. Rather than trying to appeal to swing voters, he seems to be trying to whip up his right-wing base to engage in violence on his behalf. In Minnesota on Friday, Trump echoed fascists when he told supporters, "No matter how hateful and corrupt the communists and criminals we are fighting against may be, you must never forget this is not a nation that belongs to them. This is a nation that totally belongs to you. It belongs to you. This is your home, this is your heritage." Saturday, at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association in Dallas, Texas, Trump floated the idea that he could throw out the constitutional amendment limiting a president to two terms. “You know, FDR 16 years—almost 16 years—he was four terms. I don’t know, are we going to be considered three-term? Or two-term?” he asked the crowd. Some yelled, “Three!” In the same speech, Trump told attendees that the Second Amendment “is very much on the ballot” in November, and he urged gun owners to vote and to “be rebellious.” Then he told the crowd that Biden’s actions were such that if he “were a Republican, he would have been given the electric chair, they would have brought back the death penalty.” This evening, Trump’s Instagram account posted a video of what a newspaper would look like after a 2024 MAGA win. Under the headline “WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMERICA?” were the words “INDUSTRIAL STRENGTH SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASED DRIVEN BY THE CREATION OF A UNIFIED REICH,” a clear reference to fascism and German dictator Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. It is not clear to me how anyone can any longer deny that Trump is promising to destroy our democracy and usher in authoritarianism. But it is also not clear that he is still a figure that any but the extremes of his base will follow to that end. Hence his emphasis on turning them to violence. His lies have become increasingly outrageous. On Friday he told a crowd in Minnesota that he won the state by “a landslide” in 2020 even though he actually lost it by more than 7 points. At the NRA annual meeting, Trump claimed that his former physician told him he is “healthier” and “a better physical specimen” than the famously athletic former president Barack Obama. At that same event he boasted that he won 31 club golf championships; the day before, he boasted that he won 29. Significantly, he continues to insist that the area around the courtroom is like “Fort Knox.” “There are more police than I’ve ever seen anywhere because they don’t want to have anybody come down,” he said today, “There’s not a civilian within three blocks of the courthouse.” But this is, quite simply, a lie. Virtually no one has turned out to support him. As conservative lawyer George Conway noted today, “There is virtually complete freedom of movement around that courthouse.” Social media contributor Eddie Smith, who filmed the handful of Trump protesters in New York today, put it more colorfully. After noting that “MAGA’s not repping in New York,” he added: “Wait a minute! You guys hear that? There is a mouse pissing on a ball of cotton in China. That’s how quiet it is out here.” Republican lawmakers are stepping in where Trump’s base followers are not. Republicans attacked as unfit for office 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server. They tried to impeach current president Biden on unfounded accusations that he took bribes from foreign countries. Now they find themselves forced to defend a man who is currently the defendant in a criminal trial that is showing that his associates acted like a criminal gang. As Tom Nichols put it today in The Atlantic, that defense is partly because they are afraid of their own voters. Nichols also called out those “now circling Trump like the cold fragments of a destroyed planet” who “resent the people who stuck to their principles.” Those MAGA Republicans lawmakers are, like Trump, trying to gin up anger with lies. Representative Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL), who went to Trump’s Manhattan trial to support him on Thursday, told Jesse Watters of the Fox News Channel and later posted on social media that “[t]hey’re trying to keep cameras out of the courtroom so that the American people don’t see what’s happening.” Former federal prosecutor Ron Filipkowski noted in response that “New York has banned cameras in courtrooms since June 30, 1997.” The most important of their lies, though, is that the 2020 presidential election was stolen and that to protect the 2024 election, it is imperative to police the election. This is the same tactic Trump used in 2020, claiming exactly four years ago that “they send in thousands and thousands of fake ballots.” Those lies have resulted in a huge increase in threats against those whom MAGA perceives as an enemy. Danny Hakim, Ken Bensinger, and Eileen Sullivan reported in the New York Times yesterday that last year, threats against federal judges increased 150% over 2019: 450 federal judges were targeted. Since 2018, threats to members of Congress have increased by 50%, with more than 8,000 such threats last year. More than 80% of local officials also say they have been threatened or harassed. MAGA lawmakers refuse to say they will accept the results of the 2024 election. On Saturday, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson refused to commit to that fundamental tenet of our democracy. On Meet the Press on Sunday, Florida senator Marco Rubio also declined to say he would accept the election results. Those vying for the Republican vice presidential nomination, including North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and South Carolina senator Tim Scott, have refused to say they would accept the results. Their tactics are working among the Republican base. A CBS News/YouGov poll released this weekend showed that only 47% of Arizona Republicans say they will accept the results of the 2024 election no matter who wins. An equal number—47%—say they will challenge the results if the other side wins. That result is not symmetrical with the Democrats: 82% of them say they will accept the results, while only 14% say they will challenge the results if their opponents win. But people are pushing back against the MAGA narrative. On May 15 the Texas Tribune and ProPublica published a story by Jeremy Schwartz about Courtney Gore, a woman who ran for a Texas school board to combat pornography and critical race theory in the schools, only to find there wasn’t any. When she told the public, her former colleagues turned on her. “I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy bs,” Gore wrote. “I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.” Steve MacLaughlin, a meteorologist for NBC 6 News in Miami, reported on a new law Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed into law last week that will remove references to climate change from state law. “On Thursday, we reported on NBC 6 News that the government of Florida was beginning to roll back really important climate change legislation and really important climate change language in spite of the fact that the state of Florida, over the last couple of years, has seen record heat, record flooding, record rain, record insurance rates, and the corals are dying all around the state,” MacLaughlin said. “The entire world is looking to Florida to lead in climate change, and our government is saying that climate change is no longer the priority it once was. Please keep in mind, the most powerful climate change solution is the one you already have in the palm of your hands: the right to vote. And we will never tell you who to vote for, but we will tell you this: We implore you to please do your research and know that there are candidates that believe in climate change and that there are solutions, and there are candidates that don’t.” On May 17, former lieutenant governor of Georgia Geoffrey Duncan noted on Amanpour & Company that Trump had done less for rural voters than any other president in modern history. “At the end of the day,” he said, “we just cannot get into the business in America of electing dishonest human beings to represent us…. The world’s watching us. I’m hoping we get this right.” Tonight, Sarah Matthews, who was deputy press secretary for the Trump administration, wrote: “Trump’s continued use of Nazi rhetoric is un-American and despicable. Yet too many Americans are brushing off the glaring red flags about what could happen if he returns to the White House. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” — Notes: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/19/trump-nra-convention-dallashttps://www.rawstory.com/trump-threat-biden/https://nymag.com/intelligencearticle/the-nra-is-weaker-than-ever-how-much-does-that-matter.htmlhttps://time.com/6979795/trump-receives-nra-endorsement-urges-gun-owners-vote/​​https://apnews.com/article/election-2024-trump-minnesota-4f7ebfe7a2e1949d38a7c9894616a985 https://apnews.com/article/trump-election-2024-rhetoric-germany-antisemitism-31002afb91b642c0314223d19e51f427https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/marco-rubio-joins-republicans-hedging-accepting-election-results-rcna153011 https://presswatchers.org/2024/05/trump-choosing-not-to-testify-in-his-defense-should-be-a-banner-headline/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/19/us/politics/political-violence.htmlhttps://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/4675594-florida-meteorologist-ron-desantis-climate-change-roll-back/https://captimes.com/news/elections/top-wisconsin-republicans-mixed-on-accepting-2024-election-results/article_2ae8f1e4-1538-11ef-a217-d7802fd5a882.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/donald-trump-fire-up-supporters-nras-annual-us-gathering-2024-05-18/,accepted%20the%20influential%20group's%20endorsement)https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/05/the-maga-memory-hole/678435/https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/texas-granbury-isd-school-board-courtney-gore/X: BidenHQ/status/1791469492440072359RonFilipkowski/status/1792195770374099083samstein/status/1792188951920361645HueyRey/status/1792635408506912824mkraju/status/1792515853314904293gtconway3d/status/1792548740525363276eddsmitty/status/1792573721615434037atrupastatus/1792626209118884346BidensWins/status/1791609511435714795BidenHQ/status/1792209690664845569BidenHQ/status/1791946911340999113CarlosGSmith/status/1792207611733172238Tim_Walz/status/1791620309105119419BidenHQ/status/1791949552469082444AccountableGOP/status/1791661408641298808SarahAMatthews1/status/1792760772193374274

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-20-2024

Fuck music, retire
Drake has accomplished everything he could’ve possibly set out to accomplish and more. He won’t ever get the credit he deserves, so why keep putting your effort and hard labor into creating for people that will bash you at any opportunity?
Write 1 final album, then retire
Drake has spoken in the recent past about making a “graceful exit”. And he hinted several times over the past year that he was done with music (he tried to make it seem like it was a “break” but at other times would say “retire” and “quit” which leads me to believe it was a lot more than a break). Perhaps he makes one “final” album and wipes his hands of the music industry.
Long hiatus
After 15 years of consistent album releases, features, and singles, perhaps Drake could benefit from being “missed”. I’m skeptical that this would work for Drake specifically because of how much hate he gets if people would just use his hiatus as a way to spin a narrative that K**drick forced him away.
Fuck rap, go pop/country/other genre
If rap rejects his place within the rap culture, perhaps genre shifting (a la Post Malone) would be beneficial for him. He did this in 2016 after the Meek Mill beef and it was one of the most successful years of his career. Perhaps a Morgan Wallen collab, since they’re already acquainted.
Increase/decrease output
Continue to make music but either make and release more of it or less of it.
Change the content of the music
Change the content of his music. Not go full 4:44 but maybe a more introspective album like Scorpion (which wasn’t well received but I believe is an amazing album). Not sure how much his content can change considering his lifestyle, though.
Also curious on how he will handle discussing things going on. Does he continue to sneak diss? Does he avoid talking about the whole industry trying to collapse on top of him?
Stop all collaborations
No friends in the industry. No more stimulus checks, just focus on solo music.
Focus on hits
Focus on making smash radio hits going forward. Drake hasn’t even attempted to do this since 2018. Barely sends his songs to radio and doesn’t make a lot of radio friendly music anymore. Similar to 2018 and 2016, Drake wrote some of his biggest hits immediately after his “beefs” (in my feelings, nonstop, hotline bling, one dance)
Focus on writing for other artists
Despite popular belief, Drake is a generational writer. The man can make unbelievable records for other artists. I think that him writing for other artists opens him up a little bit more because he’s writing from someone else’s perspective. So you get a great sound without the same Drake content.
Business as usual
Drake doesn’t change anything at all, just operates the way he always has.

Back in October of 2023 my mom was served a foreclosure notice because she didn’t pay the HOA. For context she is 54 (and a former Realtor) and I am 22. She immediately listed the house for sale but both buyers she had pulled out of the deal last minute. She decided for some reason to take the property off the market. Since then she has been in and out of jobs, having left for arguably dumb reasons (poor management, people raising their voice at her, etc). Of course she should be respected but in her position she didn’t really have the luxury to quit and be without work. Because I didn’t know when she was going to get evicted I moved out with my dog into my own apartment. I tried to tell her over and over that she needs to get rid of furniture and make the house look presentable. But she feels the need to hold onto everything because they’re family heirlooms. As a result she remains sitting in the house with it not being sold.
She has been working at a restaurant now that is close by (her car got repossessed). She barely makes enough for the cheapest rental in our area so obviously she has not been paying her mortgage or the HOA since she was served that notice. When I try to tell her she needs to be planning how she’s going to move out she claims that they “improperly served” her because her address is confidential but I explain that it doesn’t matter if she’s not paying to live there.
Anyways, this week she called to tell me someone changed the locks. When she called the sheriff they said that they had documents to evict her but she received something in the mail saying that said the auction sale didn’t go through. We called a locksmith and had the locks changed back but I reminded her that this is just a warning of what’s to come and she needs to have a plan of where she’s going to go. Of course she won’t have any money until the property gets sold either by her or on a foreclosure auction.
As I stated I am only 22. I live in a very small studio apartment and she is mentally unstable. I would be willing to let her stay with me for a few weeks until she finds a place but I worry that since she has no vehicle she would struggle to find a place to work. (My apartment is too far from her current job to bike to). I of course don’t want to tell her sorry go be homeless but at a certain point this can’t be my burden to bear. I gave her all of the possible advice months in advance but she chose not to listen. I love her and want to to what I can to help but there’s only so much I can do when I’m barely supporting myself and my dog.
I want to also mention that she has smoked weed and cigarettes for as long as I’ve been alive and her consumption has not stopped since all of these financial troubles despite me telling her it’s not helping her case. She claims she needs them to not lose her mind or for her “pain.”
I know this story is long and all over the place but if you stuck through to the end I would really appreciate some advice. Any advice from a realtoattorney would especially be appreciated.
Thank you.

"Practice" mode is basically just a normal instance, there is no difference... Well except you get nothing from practice. You pay for the supplies you bring and pay for death, if you die in the same spot trying to learn a specific mec then fuck you, gotta redo it all from the start to get back to the same mec and die again. How is that supposed to help people learn?
I am entirely new to pvm and the only boss I can reliably do is arch glacor. I can even do hard mode up to %300 enrage. Funny that the boss with the ability to toggle on and off mecs so you can learn each one individually and then do a full run of all mecs together is the one boss I can do easily. With free deaths.
Practice mode should be like that! Let me learn what I suck at most, let me pick what mec so I can get it down. Let me have free deaths/supplies that can only be used in practice and not taken out. Let me learn the damn boss without having to redo everything I already know just to die at the same parts.
I don't care about drops, I don't care about xp. I care about actually being able to learn a specific part of a boss that's screwing me over. I care that it costs me gp in supplies and deaths to even get to the part I need to learn just to get overwhelmed and have to do it all over again. It makes me want to quit, it's demotivating.
TL;DR: Practice mode needs a massive change because right now it is a pointless thing to even be in the game.

Around 25 weeks I was diagnosed with generational hypertension and started blood pressure meds. Besides high blood pressure and swelling in my feet I didn’t have any other symptoms. My friend who recently had a baby has been worried about my bp and checking in on me and recommended I call the on call this last weekend because of high blood pressure and more swelling than usual. They sent me to L&D triage where my blood pressure was much higher than it was at home. They ended up starting the steroid shot series, magnesium and transferred me to a high risk labor and delivery hospital an hour away from home. It’s been a little less than 48 hours and I’m having a hard time. They told me the plan is to induce at 34 weeks (if I can make it that far) but the average time for delivery in these cases is typically a week or two. But basically they told me I’m not leaving until baby is born. Has anyone else has a similar experience? I’m scared, sad and feeling lonely. My husband visits as much as he can but still has to work and take care of our pets so can’t stay with me constantly. I’m worried about a turn in events and something happening where I’m induced quickly and going through this without my husband. Obviously he would come straight here if something were to happen but I just worry about him not being here in time. Did you make it past the average 10 days after being diagnosed with pre eclampsia? How long did it take for your pre eclampsia to advance? I’ve been feeling better besides having a headache. No change in vision, labs are still looking good besides “a ton of protein in urine”. Bp is still fluctuation but seems to be okay still. Last reading was 148/89.

WEEKLY COVID STATEWIDE REPORT FOR MAY 21, 2024
TOTAL NEW COVID CASES REPORTED WEEK (Sun-Sat) OF: 02/04-02/10: 6,191 (VDH corrected from 5,663) 02/11-02/17: 5,432 (VDH corrected from 4,814) 02/18-02/24: 4,978 (VDH corrected from 4,494) 02/15-03/02: 3,891 (Figure is estimated from VDH data) 03/03-03/09: 3,134 (VDH corrected from 2,843) 03/10-03/16: 2,118 (VDH corrected from 1,909) 03/17-03/23: 1,764 (VDH corrected from 1,591) 03/24-03/30: 1,667 (VDH corrected from 1,449) 03/31-04/06: 1,255 (VDH corrected from 1,273) 04/07-04/13: 1,232 (VDH corrected from 1,113) 04/14-04/20: 1,151 (VDH corrected from 1,029) 04/21-04/27: 991 (VDH corrected from 899) 04/28-05/04: 885 (VDH corrected from 782) 05/05-05/11: 830 (VDH corrected from 730) 05/12-05/18: 903 (preliminary figure) Counts reported after 4/30/24 are incomplete
VDH's reporting of the numbers above (Sun-Sat) is by illness date.
COVID CASES SINCE LAST REPORT BY DAY This runs report day to report day, not Sun-Sat Case numbers are from the previous day unless indicated otherwise Previous week's cases day count in parentheses after this week's day count Report covers 05/15/2024 to 05/21/2024

Wed: 166 cases (162) Thu: 186 cases (138) Fri: 169 cases (180) Sat: 158 cases (149) Sun: 103 cases ( 91) Mon: 85 cases ( 51) Tue: 218 cases (157) 

As counts reported after 4/30/24 may be incomplete, I will not be computing percentages as accuracy can not be guaranteed. I will post what the 13-week graph shows.
Total new cases reported (Wed-Tues): 1,085 (928 previous Wed-Tues) 7-day average of new cases: 155.0 (132.6 last report) Cases per 100,000 Population: 1.747 (1.494 last report) Some Figures and Percentages are usually slightly rounded by VDH
The 13-week graph has been posted. Curve shows a +16.92% increase. This may or may not be accurate due to voluntary reporting. But cases seem to be have been increasing for the past two weeks.
REPORTED DEATHS PER WEEK Week of: 04/21-04/27: 1 (VDH corrected from 5) 04/28-05/04: 3 (VDH corrected from 2) 05/05-05/11: 4 (VDH corrected from 3) 05/12-05/18: 0 (preliminary figure)
The VDH death rate is never put out completely up to date due to delays in death data, which can run months. The death data above has been corrected to current reported deaths from VDH sources and is always subject to change.
The larger updated death chart covering more past weeks had not been updated when I posted, so it was not uploaded. Sometimes it seems they update it late, or even later in the week.
CURRENT POSITIVITY RATE AS OF MAY 17, 2024 CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate: 1.9% (was 2.2%, -13.64%) US National level is 3.2% (was 3.3%, revised, last week). Highest is Region 9 (AZ, CA, HI, NV) at 6.5% These are preliminary figures which the CDC may revise next week.
Tests this week were done on 1,395 samples, which is low. A low sample rate can cause the Positivity Rate to report lower.
Region 3 has the lowest Positivity Rate in the U.S., but low sampling numbers may cause a correction next Friday.
HOSPITALS
NOTE: COVID-19 hospital reporting requirements expired April 30, 2024. Data is incomplete after this date.
After more thought, I am changing the Weekly's Hospital report. The only graph that has meaning now is the ER visits. All others are corrupted by a lack of reporting (and labeled as so). I saw one report on X/Twitter that in one State, 91% of hospitals were voluntary reporting. By the next week it dropped to just over 50%. So bed counts, admissions, etc., are all guesses and may lead to the wrong conclusion. But it seems hospitals are still required to report how many Covid people they diagnosed. I noticed it tracks with the Covid rates for the past several months quite closely.
VDH reported an increase of +9.7% in ER visits last week that were diagnosed as Covid (0.34% of visits). Corrected last four weeks are now listed as 0.37%, 0.34%, 0.31% and 0.34% of ER visits. Graph posted. This graph has no special wording on it about the end of hospital reporting, so it is now the only hospital chart that is accurate week-to-week.
The stopping of formal reporting, has made, for now, the hospital admissions and bed count graphs inaccurate. So while watching them and hoping of more info, I am not going to post them in the future unless reporting is restarted in the Fall. For example, this week Covid bed use dropped by -16.7% which conflicts with the increase of ER visits. The admissions chart is basically empty.
You can look at all the charts here.
FINAL NOTES
My best guess is we bottomed out a couple of weeks ago, and are starting to see a slow increase in cases (+9% to +15% in the past week). We'll have to watch the ER chart, Positivity data, and wastewater to try and get an idea of what is going on in Virginia.
LAYOUT
First up is the total number of new Covid Cases for last week based on Sunday to Saturday. As the corrections VDH is putting in a week after the initial release makes following a trend impossible, I have stopped computing in this area as it would probably be incorrect.
Next is a listing of the cases from the last report to this one. It usually runs from last Wednesday to Tuesday, but could move based on holidays.
Reported deaths are next, which are based on Sunday to Saturday for the weeks listed.
The CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate is next, which at the moment just confirms or changes what the CDC put out Friday. They do another run on Monday nights taking a second look at things.
Hospital information for last week is next.
VDH's main summary page is located here. You can see all the latest trends at the link above - most graphics are interactive
EXPLANATION OF FIGURES ABOVE
Total New COVID Cases Reported Week (Sun-Sat) Of: cases reported for last week running Sunday to Saturday.
Reported Deaths Per Week: Number of deaths reported in the week (Sunday-Saturday) to VDH by dates listed.
Covid cases since last report by day: The previous 7-days since VDH's last update listed by day.
7-day average of new cases: Average number of daily COVID cases over the last 7-days
Cases per 100,000 population 7-day average: Within 100,000 people, how many were positive for COVID on a rolling 7-day cycle.
CDC Region 3 7-Day Positivity Rate (if included): The last state average percentage of PCR coronavirus tests performed that are positive. The lower the better.
Hospitals: Hospital information for last Sunday-Saturday.
Data from VDH, CDC

I have accepted my CJO with Delta as a FA and I go to training at the end of August. I will be 31 in a few weeks. Coming from a background in Law Enforcement as well as several years in retail and commercial banking with no collage degree. I’m sad to say I wasted my 20s not savings and still living at home. I know this job is isn’t about the money especially in the beginning but I am pretty concerned with how much time it could take to save in order to move out on my own. I have a nice set up at my parents as I have my own floor and my really only bill is my car payment each month of $450. From experience with other jobs do you see me making the right decision to make this my career? Are you happy with your time with the airline? What advice can you give someone with minimal savings but wants to do something new as a career? I feel lost right now, I don’t want to take on this job and change my mind to only start over. I either would love to do this as a career or reconsider my decision.

I am one of three roommates all 25F. I moved in here after my lease was up and I found it on an Facebook group looking for roommates. I messaged my one roommate on the forum, Sam (25F), and immediately clicked and after viewing, I decided to go ahead and agree to be the third roommate. We were all in a group chat with each other, me, Sam and the roommate in question, Lana. We all got along and I was very excited. My roommate Sam, texted me separately and said “I don’t want to poison you against her but she really struggles with follow through and cleaning”. I told her, between the two of us, we can have a roommate meeting and sort out what our expectations and boundaries. She liked that and I moved in on April 20th. The house was a disaster moving in. It reeked of cat piss and shit and smelled like weed. My family was very concerned but after I calmed them down, I got to work to clean. Before this, Lana said that she would clean her stuff and since I am paying for two rooms, she will clean the cat piss and shit and the smell will be gone. This was over a month before I moved in. She never did it and after me asking her, politely to clean the rooms I am paying for she said “I can’t clean it because the carpet cleaner is broken”. It is also probably important to mention she has two cats and a dog. I have a dog who has an ESA and is in training and is always attended or being crated trained. The whole two weeks I moved in, I felt sick with the smell and my dog and I were living in one room together and I finally had enough of her excuses and bought the supplies to clean the rooms. I cleaned the rooms and the bathroom (which also smelled like cat piss and weed) and I basically begged her and my other roommate to be respectful of the fact that I cleaned the whole upstairs. Sam lives on the top floor (attic) she has a cat but that cat does not leave the area. My dog is crated when I am not home or at doggie daycare. Lana’s animals roam around and cause havoc in the house. On top of all that, she leaves her stuff all over the house for days if not since I moved here (it’s been over a month at this point), smokes weed when we are a non-smoking household, loiters the house with stuff, doesn’t pay bills on time (we might get our electric shut off because she won’t send her part), complains about not having money but buys stuff online and DoorDashes all the time (none of my business but can’t pay bills?), absolutely refuses to meet with us about concerns, doesn’t control her dog so her dog comes at my dog and our landlord is coming to inspect. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the shit on our porch gets us a fine because it’s against neighborhood regulations. I am so exhausted and stressed and I can’t live like this. I feel horrible everyday and I don’t like eating here and I can’t stand her and her constant disrespect. I’ve tried to like her or talk to her but nothing gets done.
Side note: She broke our washer (landlord only provides hookups so we are screwed)
I don’t want to lose my deposit and I want to leave. She’s incompetent and probably stupid because she doesn’t understand how a lease works.
My pet fee is waived in my state because of ESA (I think that’s federal) but she owes money on her THREE pets and wants to fool the landlord, only having to pay for one.
Please give me advice and if this is enough to take to the landlord.
I HAVE TAKEN PICTURES AND I HAVE TEXTS, RECEIPTS AND MY ROOMMATE SAM AND I ARE ON THE SAME PAGE
thank you 🤍

Right below this post on my overview page, you'll see a serious, sober reply I gave to somebody's perhaps not altogether serious question about galaxies named "Snickers," bringing up a mildly interesting tidbit from the History of Astronomy. Read it there, because you'll never be able to see it anywhere else. It was deleted, almost instantly, with no reason given, a perfect example of what can happen on a site adults use to discuss serious matters, when the adolescents are so often in charge.
If you are new to Reddit, no, that was not a snarky joke. So-called "power mods" have, in the past, turned out to be minors, well under the age of 18, nothing more than dull-witted children with far too much time on their hands, and an overpowering desire to be in control. When governmental policy was being set in keeping with the consenses set by the social media mobs, a few years ago, these are the people who effectively had the power to decide who would be free to speak about what, and about how full grown adults would be forced to conduct their affairs - the sort of adolescents that, in the days before the Internet was invented, would have been shunned by their peers, and with good reason.
I went to mention this most recent moderator power flex on RedditCensors, and discovered that it had been banned by Reddit, which I understand has created a rule that prohibits public complaints about a moderator's abuse of power - literally, an anti-transparency rule. Those are inherently corrupt and on a platform where freedom of speech is effectively put to a vote through the downvoting process, corrupting.
If it ever was anything else, Reddit has become a place where neurotic teens and tweens have gone to live out their dreams of power, as they've been allowed to control the public consensus by being given the ability to quietly silence the voices of dissent with their mad reign of error. Some tried to excuse this inexcusable reality, a few years ago, by mentioning the stress so many people were under due to the "Pandemic," and arguing that free and open discussion of serious issues would be more than people could cope with during the drama, and perhaps they would again, but let us be serious. That was a nonsensical defense even then, and 2024 is not 2020. Sanity might not have returned, but the panic has passed, and at this point there can be no serious question about Reddit's role in that time of panic. The admins and mods eagerly got down and dirty to encourage that panic and haven't reformed, since.
Strictly speaking, this has cost Reddit its safe harbor protection, since it is in no way running a neutral platform, but we already know how much the law matters when a large Internet firm breaks it - not at all. By now, we all know that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and those hearings of his are a joke. They are there to defuse anger, not to start any real sort of move toward justice.
One could respond to this ugly reality by jumping over to a supposedly uncensored platform - like Gab, to cite the best known example. But when one goes to that supposed alternative to the censorious lunacy of Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, et al., what does one find? Literal neo-Nazis, flat earth conspiracy theories and endless death threats and targeted harassment, while the staff looks the other way and refuses to enforce its own rules, because the founder is, himself, not so far from being a Nazi, himself. To attempt to have a serious discussion there would be like breaking into a gathering of the Ku Klux Klan, and trying to have a town hall meeting during it.
At some point, one has to be willing to see that something has been tried and proven to be such a trainwreck, so consistently, that to put much more time and effort into it would seem like madness. That is how I've come to see the social web, and perhaps even the Internet in general. You can see the links to my other sites and you're welcome to follow me on them, but I'm not sure that I'm ever going to bother to post to them, because I'm at a loss when I try to think of a good reason for doing so. Certainly, I incur a massive opportunity cost by getting down in the trenches with the losers - compare what I was getting paid to answer student's questions about Mathematics in the real world ($120/ hour as an independent tutor before Covid) with what I get here, where I get repaid only in aggravation. In person, at an art fair, I can be (and have been) approached by the editor of a literary journal and asked to submit. Online, if I'm lucky, I'll see a fraction of the audience I'd get at an open mic night, run into censorship because somebody with well developed psychiatric problems though he sensed a hidden agenda behind my words, and then get to deal with scrapers afterwards.
The Internet has, for the most part, neither proved a pleasant, nor a profitable, nor a productive experience, so why get deeply invested in it, at all? I'll be shutting down my groups on this and other sites, as I reduce the role of the Internet in my life to being what it should always have been: a place for posting announcements, along maybe with a tiny amount of free content as a loss leader, in order to get other people to link to the page with my event announcements and other notices. I'm going to turn off the computer and get back outside, more, as I really should have back in 2020. As everybody should have, really.
The Internet, properly used, is a bulletin board, not a community. Life was better when people remembered it, and for me, it's going to be better, again. If other people want to go on being immersed in a miserable, futile effort to succeed where all others have failed before for structural reasons, they're free to do so, but I think they'll find that other serious people will be making the same choice I have, and for the same reasons. The power mods will still be there, and so will the trolls, but when they're nearly all that remains, when the Internet is firmly linked to the craziest members of society in the minds of the general public, just how much influence will it go on having?
Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. Over and out, for now, and probably permanently. There's a nice, sunny day waiting for me, just outside my window and I'm going to go enjoy it.

Delivering the commencement address to the graduating seniors at Morehouse College today, President Joe Biden addressed the nation. After thanking the mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, and all the people who helped the graduates get to the chairs in front of the stage, Biden recalled Morehouse’s history. The school was founded in 1867 by civil rights leader Reverend William Jefferson White with the help of two other Baptist ministers, the Reverend Richard C. Coulter and the Reverend Edmund Turney, to educate formerly enslaved men. They believed “education would be the great equalizer from slavery to freedom,” Biden said, and they created an institution that would make the term “Morehouse man” continue to stand as a symbol of excellence 157 years later. Then Biden turned to a speech that centered on faith. Churches talk a lot about Jesus being buried on Friday and rising from the dead on Sunday, he said, “but we don’t talk enough about Saturday, when… his disciples felt all hope was lost. In our lives and the lives of the nation, we have those Saturdays—to bear witness the day before glory, seeing people’s pain and not looking away. But what work is done on Saturday to move pain to purpose? How can faith get a man, get a nation through what was to come?” It’s a truism that anything that happens before we are born is equidistant from our personal experience, mixing the recent past and the ancient past together in a similar vaguely imagined “before” time. Most of today’s college graduates were not born until about 2002 and likely did not pay a great deal of attention to politics until about five years ago. Biden took the opportunity to explain to them what it meant to live through the 1960s. He noted that he was the first in his family to graduate from college, paid for with loans. He fell in love, got a law degree, got married and took a job at a “fancy law firm.” But his world changed when an assassin murdered the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King—a Morehouse man—and the segregated city of Wilmington, Delaware, erupted with fires, looting, fights, and occasional gunfire. For nine months, the National Guard patrolled the city in combat gear, “the longest stretch in any American city since the Civil War,” Biden recalled. “Dr. King’s legacy had a profound impact on me and my generation, whether you’re Black or white,” Biden explained. He left the law firm to become first a public defender and then a county councilman, “working to change our state’s politics to embrace the cause of civil rights.” The Democratic Party had historically championed white supremacy, but that alignment was in the process of changing as Democrats had swung behind civil rights and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Biden and his cohort hoped to turn the Delaware Democratic Party toward the new focus on civil rights, he said. In 1972, Biden ran for the Senate and won…barely, in a state Republican president Richard Nixon won with 60% of the vote. Biden recalled how, newly elected and hiring staff in Washington, D.C., he got the call telling him that his wife and daughter had been killed in a car accident and that his two sons were gravely injured. The pain of that day hit again 43 years later, he said, when his son Beau died of cancer after living for a year next to a burn pit in Iraq. And he talked of meeting First Lady Jill Biden, “who healed the family in all the broken places. Our family became my redemption,” he said. His focus on family and community offered a strong contrast to the Republican emphasis on individualism. “On this walk of life...you come to understand that we don’t know where or what fate will bring you or when,” Biden said. “But we also know we don’t walk alone. When you’ve been a beneficiary of the compassion of your family, your friends, even strangers, you know how much the compassion matters,” he said. “I’ve learned there is no easy optimism, but by faith—by faith, we can find redemption.” For the graduates, Biden noted, four years ago “felt like one of those Saturdays. The pandemic robbed you of so much. Some of you lost loved ones—mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who…aren’t able to be here to celebrate with you today…. You missed your high school graduation. You started college just as George Floyd was murdered and there was a reckoning on race. “It’s natural to wonder if democracy you hear about actually works for you. “What is democracy if Black men are being killed in the street? “What is democracy if a trail of broken promises still leave[s]…Black communities behind? “What is democracy if you have to be 10 times better than anyone else to get a fair shot? “And most of all, what does it mean, as we’ve heard before, to be a Black man who loves his country even if it doesn’t love him back in equal measure?” The crowd applauded. Biden explained that across the Oval Office from his seat behind the Resolute Desk are busts of Dr. King and Senator Robert Kennedy, challenging Biden: “Are we living up to what we say we are as a nation, to end racism and poverty, to deliver jobs and justice, to restore our leadership in the world?” He wears a rosary on his wrist made of Beau’s rosary as a reminder that faith asks us “to hold on to hope, to move heaven and earth to make better days.” “[T]hat’s my commitment to you,” he said. “[T]o show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.” Biden pledged to “call out the poison of white supremacy” and noted that he “stood up…with George Floyd’s family to help create a country where you don’t need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.” The administration is investing in Black communities and reconnecting neighborhoods cut apart by highways decades ago. It has reduced Black child poverty to the lowest rate in history. It is removing lead pipes across the nation to provide clean drinking water to everyone, and investing in high-speed internet to bring all households into the modern era. The administration is creating opportunities, Biden said, bringing “good-paying jobs…; capital to start small businesses and loans to buy homes; health insurance, [prescription] drugs, housing that’s more affordable and accessible.” Biden reminded the audience that he had joined workers on a picket line. To applause, he noted that when the Supreme Court blocked his attempt to relieve student debt, he found two other ways to do it. He noted the administration’s historic investment in historically black colleges and universities. “We’re opening doors so you can walk into a life of generational wealth, to be providers and leaders for your families and communities. Today, record numbers of Black Americans have jobs, health insurance, and more [wealth] than ever.” Then Biden directly addressed the student protests over the Israeli government’s strikes on Gaza. At Morehouse today, one graduate stood with his back to Biden and his fist raised during the president’s speech, and the class valedictorian, DeAngelo Jeremiah Fletcher, who spoke before the president, wore a picture of a Palestinian flag on his mortarboard and called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, at which Biden applauded. “In a democracy, we debate and dissent about America’s role in the world,” Biden said. “I want to say this very clearly. I support peaceful, nonviolent protest. Your voices should be heard, and I promise you I hear them.” “What’s happening in Gaza…is heartbreaking,” he said, with “[i]nnocent Palestinians caught in the middle” of a fight between Hamas and Israel. He reminded them that he has called “for an immediate ceasefire…to stop the fighting [and] bring the hostages home.” His administration has been working for a deal, as well as to get more aid into Gaza and to rebuild it. Crucially, he added, there is more at stake than “just one ceasefire.” He wants “to build a lasting, durable peace. Because the question is…: What after? What after Hamas? What happens then? What happens in Gaza? What rights do the Palestinian people have?” To applause, he said, “I’m working to make sure we finally get a two-state solution—the only solution—for two people to live in peace, security, and dignity.” “This is one of the hardest, most complicated problems in the world,” he said. “I know it angered and frustrates many of you, including my family. But most of all, I know it breaks your heart. It breaks mine as well. Leadership is about fighting through the most intractable problems. It’s about challenging anger, frustration, and heartbreak to find a solution. It’s about doing what you believe is right, even when it’s hard and lonely. You’re all future leaders, every one of you graduating today…. You’ll face complicated, tough moments. In these moments, you’ll listen to others, but you’ll have to decide, guided by knowledge, conviction, principle, and your own moral compass.” Turning back to the United States, Biden urged the graduates to examine “what happens to you and your family when old ghosts in new garments seize power, extremists come for the freedoms you thought belonged to you and everyone.” He noted attacks on equality in America, and that extremist forces were peddling “a fiction, a caricature [of] what being a man is about—tough talk, abusing power, bigotry. Their idea of being a man is toxic.” “But that’s not you,” he continued. “It’s not us. You all know and demonstrate what it really means to be a man. Being a man is about the strength of respect and dignity. It’s about showing up because it’s too late if you have to ask. It’s about giving hate no safe harbor and leaving no one behind and defending freedoms. It’s about standing up to the abuse of power, whether physical, economic, or psychological.” To applause, he added: “It’s about knowing faith without works is dead.” “The strength and wisdom of faith endures,” Biden said. “And I hope—my hope for you is—my challenge to you is that you still keep the faith so long as you can.” “Together, we’re capable of building a democracy worthy of our dreams…a bigger, brighter future that proves the American Dream is big enough for everyone to succeed.” “Class of 2024, four years ago, it felt probably like Saturday,” Biden concluded. “Four years later, you made it to Sunday, to commencement, to the beginning. And with faith and determination, you can push the sun above the horizon once more….” “God bless you all,” he said. “We’re expecting a lot from you.” — Notes: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/05/19/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-morehouse-college-class-of-2024-commencement-address-atlanta-ga/https://www.inquirer.com/news/a/wilmington-del-riots-occupation-martin-luther-king-jr-national-guard-20181207.htmlhttps://www.reuters.com/world/us/morehouse-graduation-thanks-god-woke-class-2024-2024-05-19/

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-19-2024

Hi everyone,
I wanted to get another POV on this, this is a LONG one so sorry.
I've been married for almost 3 yrs together for 7. I am 30 husband is 40, no kids.
When we dated he was never romantic or very into small gesture things like cards, flowers, opening doors, kiss you before leaving in the morning, like cheesy things or just even like date night just to name a few. I thought I would be okay with that but realized I wasn't and maybe thought it would get better as time went on but it didn't. So I thought okay maybe I'll tell him what I need right because communication is key and no one is a mind reader. So I've told him many times within the 7 years and I realize I only got these things when I said something about it or ask for it, which to me defeat the point if I have to consistently ask for it. I feel I always say from a place of love like hey wouldn't it be nice if we did this more or you know I really would like this more in the relationship because it important to me and makes me feel loved. We discussed love languages and what we both needed out of each other to help the relationship, but every thing was temporary with no permanent change.
Within the 7 years we have gotten married again me thinking it would get better because he said he would do better and I believed him. We've gotten a house a puppy and it's just been alot.
Last year was when I hit my point of him not making our relationship a priority and everything else is coming before us. We had a really bad argument probably the worse since being together. So I told him I wasn't happy and still nothing from him. We started marriage counseling and I was so emotionally detached that I didn't see it helping so I said I wanted a divorce, still no respond from him, he said okay. Over the weekend we talked and decided to work on it in therapy and give it a shot.
In therapy there were some heavy discovery about him - like he didn't take none of my concerns about our marriage over the 7 years seriously and admitted to not taking my feelings seriously. - He didn't need to be married to show commitment -the things I need to feel love he doesn't place value on them just because he doesn't need them. (His love language is physical touch), he can do all those things with anyone -He was draw to me because I challenged him
I was taken back by the not taking me seriously and now I just feel like trust has been an issue for me because I don't feel safe with my feelings or emotions with him. I told him I feel like whenever your partner talks about their feelings or needs why wouldn't you take it seriously this is the person you love, so in that it makes me question his feelings towards me.
I asked questions like would I have to always bring up divorce(which I don't want to do) for you to do things and he couldn't really answer me, will you take my feelings seriously, can you reassure me this won't happen and he couldn't give me an answer on any of it, couldn't reassure basically didn't want to promise anything.
I'm feeling like I made a mistake taking divorce off the table. I don't know how I can come back from this because I feel like he's leaving me to fix the problem he caused. I get the feeling he just wants to stay in the marriage because he doesn't want to start over not necessarily because he loves me, like he rather be in a marriage that's not working vs finding a relationship that will work.
Part of me feels I need to move on but I guess part of me is feeling like it's not a big deal( this is something i am working on in my own therapy I tend to push my feelings under the rug) and something we can work on but I don't know I if it will change after 7 years.
I do realize that I made mistakes in our relationship as well, my communication, not realizing what I need in the relationship sooner, shutting down and I could go on so I do take accountability on where it's due.
Has anyone been through this or something similar? And if so how did you work the trust back? Is it possible?