Famous short speeches of all time |

Sana the choice that is available for others was given also to me.
It wasn't even my choice to be in this, umiwas na ko ng umiwas yet I eventually played with this situation, and I wore my heart on my sleeves. Pumasok blindly, as they say
Naging mabuti ang aking intention, all the things I've shown and did was out of pure intentions, and I've even lowered some of my inhibitions. Naramdaman ko ung lungkot mo, mga frustrations mo. Everytime na sinasabi mo ganito ka lang, in my eyes you are golden
Naiintindihan kita. Naiintindihan ko ung situation. Alam kong mabuting tao ka. This will always be my sentiment about you, I didn't asked for too much, I always played by what you want. Ang weird lang na hindi ko naman ginusto to pero I crashed and burned
Mabuting tao ka. I will never be tired in saying this. Sana nga lang sa circumstances na nilagay mo tayo parehas, ung mga options na meron ka, eh mga options na sana meron din ako. Sana maging patas ung situation. Sana the game was in equal footing. Sana it wasn't staged as something na sa simula pa lang, sure na matatalo ako
Thank you, I hope to see you around someday kahit na ung value ko, is just for short times. Ayoko lang ung feeling na parang pinaglumaan
It is what it is at the end of the day

Looking for a place to stay in Kauai. We will rent a car. I’ve been to Hawaii several times, but never to Kauai, husband never been at all. We are laid-back travelers, having spent a lot of time in developing countries, ie bougie shit doesn’t really matter to us, we don’t care if things don’t work perfectly. We’re outdoorsy. I dive and snorkel, husband likes to fish via kayak or shore, we both love kayaking, hiking, birding, driving around aimlessly and seeing where we end up. We have a mid level budget, we don’t mind paying a bit more for the stuff that’s important, like location and quiet, but typical American luxuries like spas and fancy dining aren’t worth the money to us. Being on a cruise is our worst nightmare.
Things we’d dig in a hotel:

be on or near a swimable beach, bonus if the snorkeling is good

- be locally owned, bonus if indigenous owned or gives back to the community (we know this is a long shot, but it would sure be ideal)
- small to medium sized
- a pool is nice
- kitchenette would be great, bonus if there’s a barbecue we could use
- local food or food carts within a short drive
- quiet spaces to read a book and listen to the ocean
- we love eco tour type stuff, so bonus if anything like that is nearby
Not our jam:

sprawling, huge resorts

- golf
- spas
- luaus that feel like a human zoo (authentic experiences appreciated though)
- screaming children at all hours, constant parties
- places where the only eating option are overpriced hotel restaurants
We plan to dive Ni’ihau, and do a lot of hiking. Recommendations for dive shops and hikes also appreciated or other activities you’d think we’d enjoy.
Thank you!

Hey there, as mentioned I've recently split from my long term partner and am in the middle of moving to a new apartment, I've been feeling a bit lost and lonely and would love to have someone to hang out with, chat watch movies play some games every now and then, short or long term works for me, I'm also open to anything more happening with the right person, preferably EU only due to time-zone differences but I'm happy to talk to anyone at all really, drop me a message and I'm happy to tell you more about myself, maybe give me a little introduction if you'd like, thanks!

So I’ve been nanny for a family for the past 5 years and I understand the way puberty affects on girls BUT on boys ? No clue. Lately we’ve (grown ups) noticed that the boy who just turned 11 has been having some weird behavior during shower time. I don’t think is him experiencing himself tho. He was caught showering with bathing suits on. But weird thing is he wears like 2-3 bathing shorts and 3 bathing Shirts on at the same time!! And when his mom asked him about he got all defensive and said it was something athletes do but didn’t want say what specifically. And he’s not the type of kid to hide stuff. He’s usually very open with me but he didn’t want to tell me either. After that conversation with his mom we thought he stopped doing it but just now I found 8 bathing shorts and bathing shirts all wet. Anyone has an idea of what he’s doing?
Ps: I couldn’t find any time of “trend” about it. HELP

I patiently waited for my stop. It was drizzling outside. The usual crowd walked the streets of Chelsea. The cab driver was from Senegal. He told me that he had 25 acres back in his country. In two years he would go back and retire at 50. I wished him well. I entered the bar. I didn’t know what to get, so I got something mixed with seltzer. There was a UFC fight on the TV. A Brazilian faced off against a Brazilian. Blood was spilled. I find fighting hard to watch, honestly. I guess I am a lesser man for it.
I got a text. It was from my sister. She told me that she would be arriving at the Purple Room very soon. I replied that I was on my way. On the subway, a woman approached me and told me that she was not a bum, she just needed some help. I gave her five dollars. Another woman got up and offered her some crackers. She said that she didn’t want any crackers. “Didn’t think so.”
Out on the street, some NYU freshmen discussed housing for the next year. That’s the one thing they had over us—location. At the Purple Room, the bouncer asked what my address was. I said it extra fast just to mess with him. The hostess directed me to the second floor where everyone was gathered. I ordered a Corona and saw my sister. She introduced me to the new guy she had been seeing. I imagined him hulking and imposing based on her description of him as “Stanford, hedge fund.” The guy I saw, in contrast, was scrawny and meek. He reminded me a bit of my father. All of her guys reminded me of my father.
I chatted with him a bit. He was super brainy. He was going back to his old job because he liked the work better. I respected that. It takes humility for a man to go back to the sell-side. I sat at a table with my sister, her guy, and her friends. Her roommate Camille walked in shortly thereafter. I had been trying to fuck her since I was in high school. She sat down at our table. “Where is your date tonight, Jack?” I told her she couldn’t make it. “Neither could mine.”
My sister’s friends were all young finance people, so they could afford the occasional limo. We took one to Robby’s in Hell’s Kitchen, famous for giving you a hot dog with your drink. I got another Corona and tried putting some moves on Camille. “You can’t put your hand on my back, you’re my roommate’s younger brother!” I asked her if it was bothering her. “I don’t care.” I finished my hotdog and everyone went out to the curb. Plans were discussed. My sister’s room was going to be occupied so I had nowhere to stay. “You can just sleep in my room,” Camille said to me. My sister went back to her apartment with her guy. I got into a cab with Camille and a couple to go to a club called the Drum.
Outside, the guy of the couple told me that it was a typical Manhattan club. I didn’t know what that meant. He told me that I could expect to see an object be inserted into an orifice or two. We were two girls and two guys. The girls went in front to make our case. The big bouncer looked at us, then went to deliberate with an associate and came back. “Not letting anyone else in tonight.” Immediately, another guy dressed in all black let in four girls dressed in all black. Since fourth grade I’ve been getting fucked by ratios.
The couple said they were getting tired. They were going to go back to their place on 96th. Camille said I could take the 1 back with them or stay with her. I stayed. Camille said she wanted pizza. I told her I couldn’t eat dairy because it made my throat feel like it was closing up. “Oh yeah, the same thing happens to me but with dick.” I was very green at that age so I said nothing in response. She quickly said she was joking. We got pizza and garlic bread. It was already three in the morning by then. In the taxi back to her apartment, I tried to flirt with her, but it was clear I had missed my chance. I thought I was doing alright, but at one point the driver sighed and rolled his eyes.
As soon as we got into the apartment I went and laid down in Camille’s bed, playing the fool. “Get out Jack. I have to get up for work tomorrow.” I reminded her it was Saturday. “That means nothing in private equity.” I came up with a couple more excuses not to move but eventually capitulated. She said I could sleep on the couch. The drunk baby that I was, I asked her to tuck me in. Amazingly, she complied. I laid and stared at the ceiling. I had struck out—it was time to go home.
The crowd on the 4AM 1 train is always the same—people who are there because they have no choice, or people who are there because they made a choice. I started falling asleep and felt the first inklings of a hangover. On the street back to the dorm, I waved to the guy in the halal cart and resisted getting a lamb over rice. After brushing my teeth and putting in my retainer, I spoke the usual few words before falling asleep. Among them: “lead us not into temptation.”

Hi all! I’ve enjoyed being a part of this group for a short time and wanted to come with an ask today. I joined a “SuperMom” competition and if I win I get a spread in Women’s Magazine. I will 100% be advocating through this platform if I win (I already am as you can see from my profile photo and questions)
There is a cut on THURSDAY- and if I am not in 1st place I won’t advance to the next round.
Please CLICK —> SCROLL DOWN TO THE FREE VOTE —> VALIDATE WITH YOUR FB account. It takes 1 minute and I am hoping it will push me back into 1st (I was in it for the last few weeks!) THANK YOU IN ADVANCE 🩸❤️
https://thesupermom.org/2024/jacqueline-rodriguez-2

Trying to keep it short. This girl and I used to be best friends, ever since she’s started dating, I’ve been put as her second option. Look, I get it, we have different priorities in life and I’m happy for her. I don’t think he’s the best for her but she’s happy (her bf lives with us too). Here and there I would catch some remarks he makes of me, making me think that she’s been talking behind my back to him. She has stopped checking up on me. The only time we talk or hand out now is when she needs something or needs to express her own feelings. When we’re in a deep conversation, she would just leave saying she needs to call her bf. So I stopped reaching out as well.
Recently, she lost her father causing her to move back home a few hours away. Very tragic so I tried to be there for her. Not too long after she invited me to his memorial service and bring her bf since he can’t drive. She told me it was okay if I couldn’t make it since it’s not the official funeral in our culture. Last week, I told her I wouldn’t be able to make it due to the conditions of my car from a trip (I had helped my sister in with my father in another state). She thanked me for letting her know. Then, a few days past, I received a long text from her saying how she’s hurt that I’m not going, if anyone should be there for her it should be me. For me to “find it in my heart” to make it and bring her bf (that’s what I was looking for. I felt like I’m being used to be her bf’s uber). As much as I feel bad and want to be there, I literally can’t. It just felt like I was being guilt tripped with the best friend card when she hasn’t been a good friend at all. Although, I can’t help but feel like selfish. Before this, every time I would check up on her, it would take days to get her reply. She didn’t reply back until I suggested a few solutions to the car situation. Regarding that too, I’ve had my own problems this year that were tough, the only person who’s been there for me is my bf and my sister.
I just want advice or inputs from others. Don’t be scared to tell me I’m in the wrong, if I am. I would appreciate it greatly, as I am a little lost and confused of all my friendships nowadays.

Throwaway account.
I’ve been so tired these past few weeks. I’m sorry for venting.
Me (28f) and my ex-bf turned stalker (32m) dated/went out for around a month - such a short period of time I know - in 2022.
I broke things up with him when he told me ON A CASUAL PASSING COMMENT that he’s sexually harassed someone from his past and stalked them for months, as if it wasn’t something serious.
In that moment I knew something obviously wasn’t right with him as he was so casual describing the situation and making HIMSELF the victim (complaining about his ex-gf to have left him), and not saying nor demonstrating he felt any kind of remorse from his actions. So naturally the next day I sent him a text saying we shouldn’t see each other anymore - I said it in a way to not trigger an angry response from him if I ended up bringing up his past relationship in which he harassed someone else. I was scared.
His reaction afterwards also scared me. He kept saying he shouldn’t have told me about his previous relationship, and that he was too intense, saying he didn’t understand why I was doing that. It took him 2 weeks to accept my decision and he was texting me the whole time to reconsider - while I ignored then blocked him (when he asked me to block him, I was scared of blocking him before bc he seemed very unstable).
Somehow he got my online banking information and kept sending me money with messages on the transaction (like Venmo), and I had to disable this bank account of mine in order for it to stop.
When the ‘Venmo’ comments stopped (because of the account being disabled), his friends started messaging me to unblock him because he had something very important to tell me, and I was firm to reply his friends that I wanted nothing to do with my stalker, and to leave me alone. I blocked them all.
Now, a year later from this whole shit situation, my stalker keeps sending me requests to follow me on social media and stalks my LinkedIn all the time (thankfully I never update it). It brings me a lot of stress to think about it, I feel helpless. Police won’t take me seriously here in my country, and I’m embarrassed by this situation. I can’t help but blame myself.
I was never too eager to date anyone, and had just a couple relationships that didn’t work out for normal reasons. However NOW I am completely scared and avoidant of meeting men in general.
I wish nothing but good mental health to my stalker. I want him to live his life normally and forget about me entirely.
I just want peace, but idk what else could be done to keep him away. Just yesterday he found one of my socials again. It’s so stressful.
I have deleted social media, but there are some that I can’t due to my work. We live in different states (but closeby) and he’s never been to my home, but he’s been to a nearby city for the few times we hung out (in public spaces).
Not replying nor engaging him has been my tactic to survive this. Sometimes all I want is to tell him to f—- off and leave me alone, but I guess that’s what he wants, a reaction out of me.
I’m sorry for venting here, and I wish you guys all the best. If there’s any helpful advice, I’m open to read your input as I’ve never told anyone else about it.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

A little disclaimer before I get fully into it: This was my first real, long term relationship so a lot of things still don’t make sense to me, but I will try my best to explain everything clearly and fully.
Me (19M) and my boyfriend (19M) got together in February of 2023. We met through our job, and even before dating we were good friends for about 6 months prior. During this time in my life, I had just turned 18 and was struggling heavily with my self image, self worth, and the idea that a relationship was even a possibility for me. In fact, I would say i was struggling the most with relationships and men in general. When my boyfriend came along it honestly seemed too good to be true. We hit it off instantly, got along very well, and shared a lot of the same morals and values when it came to dating. Except for when it came to sex, but i’ll go more into that later.
For the first few months, I would say the dynamic worked out well between us. Then, he moved out of his parent’s and in with his best friend and her family, which consisted of her mom, dad, and brother. Since the beginning of the relationship, I wasn’t too crazy about his best friend. I do care about her and have empathy for her, but for lack of better words, my boyfriend kind of let her walk all over him. This seemed to get worse after they started living together. And, it became apparent that they did not see eye to eye on most things and wanted different things out of their living situation. She would get jealous anytime we wanted to spend time together alone, and often times would not let us be alone when I was at their house. This eventually was talked about between them and i will say, in the regards of giving us more space, she did back off. However, their living situation was still toxic. They would have disagreements, but ones that would never be talked about or worked through. In turn, my boyfriend would talk/rant to me about her, and I always agreed with his POV, but that was the end of it. He always said that it’s extremely hard for him to confront people due to his own anxieties and past trauma. I 100% understood this, as I struggle a lot with confrontation too, but when it came to the point of his friend putting stress on our relationship/on me and I would talk to him about it, he would say he understood but nothing would ever be done about it. I could’ve very well spoke up for myself against her, but I was terrified that he would be upset with me and it would cause problems for us. I know that’s unhealthy now but in the moment it felt like I just had to get over it.
Then, around OctobeNovember last year, his friend’s mom ended up kicking both her daughter and my boyfriend out over a very small misunderstanding involving transportation. It was one night that I was taking him home from work, and her mom thought she had to pick him up, so we both showed up to get him. She absolutely flipped out over this and used it as justification to kick him out. Then when his friend tried to defend him against her mom, she kicked her out too. She ended up going to live with her current boyfriend and mine came to live with me. At this point, I had moved about 45 minutes away from our hometown with my dad and step family. I was (and still am) working in said hometown, because I do like my job and most importantly the people I work with. My boyfriend could’ve gone back to live with his parents, but honestly, neither of us wanted that. In hindsight, that’s what should have happened.
Up until this past April, everything was okay with our situation. We were living and working together full time and considering he didn’t have a car or his license yet, I was his source of transportation. Something shifted inside of me though. I found myself not being excited about his presence anymore and also not having sexual feelings towards him anymore, which is highly unusual for me. I felt like I had hit a wall that I couldn’t climb over in the relationship. In that moment, I chalked it up to being a “simple” change in feelings and that we were just growing apart. This did not go very well when I told him. I didn’t expect it to, but I know that he wasn’t even trying to fathom how I felt in the situation and ended up being pretty hurtful about it. The first night after it happened, we had a lengthy conversation over text where he was essentially saying that I ruined him and broke him and that I couldn’t possibly have loved him like I said I did since I was doing this. He also said, and I quote, “You built me back up and made me believe I was finally having the life I deserved and then you destroyed me and left me worse than when you found me”. This of course made me feel immense guilt but I knew it was coming from a place of hurt and I didn’t let it weigh me down too much. He also said that I would never find a friend in him and that this was goodbye, and blocked me on all social media and my phone number. Even though I was the one to break up with him, this still hurt a lot because I did and still do very much care about him.
The next day, he reached back out and apologized for how he reacted and asked me if we could try space instead of a full-on break up. I agreed to this because the relationship really did mean everything to me and I genuinely loved him. I did make sure to tell him that I couldn’t make any promises about my feelings returning but that I would try. And I have. Since then, we have still been working together, just not on the same schedule as before, and he is staying with his parents back in our hometown. We still text on the daily because we both made the agreement that we didn’t just want to go back to strangers. We mainly just talk about work and life and what not, but not much has been said about our specific situation on either end. We both agreed that we needed space. We both also agreed to not really see each other outside of work because we both know it would just complicate things even more, especially if we were to still act like a couple and even more especially if we continued a sexual relationship. This brings us to current day.
It has been about a month of space now and although it’s hard to admit to myself, I don’t want to be back with him. After I’ve had time to think everything over, I’ve realized that I may have put up with more than i deserve/disregarded my self and my feelings for him. Sex was honestly not that important to him, but it always has been for me. It’s not all that I care about of course, but I found myself being told no more often than not. I found myself suppressing my true sexual feelings for him in order to comply to what he wanted. I am also the type of person who likes to try new things, and he was almost always opposed to it. For a while I told myself this was the right thing to do in order for us to work out. With all this being said, our sexual relationship was good and we both enjoyed each other in that way, but it was just very inconsistent.
I also now feel like we just started to want different things out of the relationship. We both needed our own personal space which was impossible at the time, considering we lived and worked together on the same schedules and I was his transportation to and from work and also to hang out with friends when he wanted to. We also have conflicting love languages, as mine is primarily physical affection and reassurance while his are more along the lines of quality time, gift giving, and sharing his interests. As far as the love languages go, I knew early on that they were not the same but I thought we had come to a place where they could coexist. I know now that it was starting not work out that way, and I think he felt the same too although I’m not 100% positive as I found it very hard to understand him and his feelings sometimes, as did he with me.
Like I said previously, he struggles with confrontation. Any time I had an issue with something he did that would upset me, it was usually met with silence and a simple apology or “I don’t remember that/That’s not what I meant.” It seemed like he was taking things as a personal attack rather than trying to understand where I was coming from. One specific moment sticks out to me. One night after work, his best friend wanted to see us before we went home, but she got off of work later than us , which meant we would have to wait around for that. I was very tired due to a long busy day and just wanted to go home as did he, but we stayed and waited anyways because he was afraid of her reaction had we not. I did not respond to this well, and I told him straight up that she walks all over him and that I felt he was not considering how I was feeling about the situation either. All i got in response was confused silence and a simple “I’m sorry.” I was not satisfied with this, and after telling him so, he said how he doesn’t know what else to say/doesn’t know how to communicate how he’s feeling. I ended the conversation there because I could see that I was getting nowhere, but I was still very visibly upset. After we left to go back home, he wouldn’t talk to me and just fell asleep on the drive. This caused me to start crying and after he realized and I reiterated my feelings, I was met with a little more compassion and “i’m sorry”s but then the conversation shifted and no more was said about it on either end.
There were also multiple times that I knew that I had upset him over various things, because he would start acting different (short responses, dirty looks, spending more time on his phone etc). But , when I would ask him what I did, he would just say that he’s fine and to not worry about it. For example, on Valentine’s day this year, I made a very inconsiderate joke about his size (even though it wasn’t true). I was trying to be funny and we both knew I wasn’t being serious, but it still was wrong. It did affect him and eventually he opened up to me and we talked about it, and i apologized profusely and all was resolved. But before that, his demeanor and attitude towards me completely changed and he was treating me very differently. Before we talked about it, I was unaware that the joke I had made was the cause of it, but he told me that he was upset about something I had said but told me it was fine and that he’d get over it, while still treating me differently. I didn’t respond to this well because I knew I had hurt the person I loved, and wanted so desperately to resolve it and make sure it never happened again, but until he brought it to light I was stuck in an intense self-hate/guilt trip.
I will say I don’t recall him ever using any of that against me, but communication is extremely important to me and I just wasn’t getting it. It was like , we always were fine together until the more serious issues came about (differences in intimacy desires, communicating our issues with each other , etc.)
It’s worth mentioning that I also struggle with self image/self worth, and a lot of anxiety/uncertainty. I forgot to include it earlier, but another reason the space is happening is because we lost ourselves in the relationship. We still don’t really who we are or what we want from life. I was constantly preoccupied with how he was feeling and how my actions affected him, and he was constantly preoccupied by turning to me for comfort and safety. I don’t blame him for that though, as I know that we have to fully love and know ourselves/know what we want first before making a commitment to someone else. That’s why I struggle so much with knowing if I’m making the right decision or not. I’m also scared that once I tell him, he won’t want anything to do with me anymore similar to how he reacted the first time. I will forever be grateful for the love that we shared and all the good he showed me and would rather have him as a friend than nothing at all, but I don’t know if that’s the reality. And if it’s not that’s okay and I know that, but I haven’t accepted it. I just want us both to be happy in life and live to our full potentials even if that means it’s not together. If you made it this far I’m sorry for the novel but thank you for taking the time to read. I may be the asshole here and if that’s the case, I will do better and I will make the right decisions. I just need a little insight. Thank you again for anyone who took the time.

I realize there are lot more things to try out then just play only sorceress every season, but that is what I do, until I am done. I always think to myself that if I like it, then I will try out other classes more than just what I had experienced during the beta, but I never get to that point.
In short,
positives :

I have noticed much better performance which is the biggest plus for me
Codex - great rework, although I am still not a fan of the system itself, because legendary items are really not legendary as they do not represent anything unique or special about them
Masterworking - much better version of previous 5/5 blacksmith upgrades
Helltides - better collection radius of cinders, mob density, more random spawns, threat level system
Town adjustements - movement, vendor placement (I never minded this, but obvioulsy now it saves time)
Tormented bosses - didn't get to them, but I like the idea of something player can work towards
Tempering - I like this addition very much, but it brings problems with it. Most interesting are "secondary" effects such as chance to freeze, immobilize etc. which can diverse your build and allow it to function in a different way
Monster highlights - undermines a little the art direction the game took, but it helps
Visual clarity - not getting my screen covered with Necromancer's mud anymore is a great change
NMD - affix changes

negatives : (not necessarily related to season)

Tempering -
- presented to us as a feature where we make choice to further customize our build and make it specialized in some way. That is the impression I got from campfire chat, but not from what I have seen in the game. In the game I see one option which is the best, second best and that's about it.
- giving players tools to feel more powerful is understandable, but tempering effects together with masterwork are so strong that it makes most unique items (for sorc at least) unusable.
Rare and lower quality items - maybe I am just missing something but I didn't find any use for them
Chat -
- I want to talk to people, ask questions or just read what people say
- Finding a group for Duriel is almost impossible. Not finding a group and doing the boss solo makes no sense when I get 1/4 the reward from it. I will rather let those materials sink into the abyss of Eternal Realm than use them inefficiently
Leveling -
- it is so fast now that it definitely doesn't feel like a journey or something meaningful. I am getting D3 vibes and considering an upcoming DLC I don't see it changing the other direction. It's only going to speed up even more
- on the brightside, apart from collecting a few aspects, there is nothing I can get during the leveling so better just get through it quickly
Seasonal rewards - I have used one item (aspect) from all the rewards so I feel like the intention of giving us tools for specific builds is missing its mark. Even if I got useful item, it would be replaced during the leveling so fast that I don't see the point. And later on at a higher level, you don't need it, because you have everything and uniques are weaker than legendaries.
Skill tree - is in my eyes the weakest point of Diablo. I could talk about each individual skill point and say what's wrong with it, but I want to keep it simple. One good example are final sorceress talents. They got so specific that there is no choice to be made. And if I play burning then I get 20[x] burning damage +2[x] per unique source of burning. So am I supposed stop for a second to summon hydra which then might hit one of many targets to which it adds 2[x] dmg? Or am I supposed to use firebolt as an enchantment slot? Or does it benefit just from multiple firewalls. I don't understand
Paragon board & glyphs -
- Now that tempering effects are so strong, glyphs along with paragon points / nodes got that much weaker. It almost doesn't matter what you pick there as long as you use 6 glyphs with active bonus effects. Interesting is that with rare glyphs being much weaker, magic glyph Slayer (damage to elites) can be used now
Open world & Level Scaling - This might be one of those moments where you would say "you think you do, but you don't". But I would rather have places with locked difficulty.

Bugs -

Force move doesn't work while channeling incinerate. I have to let go of both keys to press force move key again for it to work. Imo Force move should override everything and if there are any settings for it in game options, it should be set by default
Flame shield enchantement should activate only upon recieving fatal damage but I think it activates everytime I lose 100% life in total. I am basing this on my feeling and observation. I did not care enough to test it

Final thoughts -

Itemization - fundamentals are the same as they were
When I play this game and there is a problem I want to overcome it by looking for a solution, but there usually is very little room for it. It feels like all is given with not much choice to be had. I don't use guides because I never needed to. I am not a youtube guide gamer. I am the gamer. My math skills are good and I want to use my brain and think about what is or isn't possible. To have something to think about when I am not playing. That is when I have fun.
The paragraph above (planning and figuring stuff out) along with a good execution creates a challenge for me. Not infinite Pit /GR levels. That is grind
I realize that what I want varies from what majority wants, but that is ok.

Still, S4 is overall a very good change. Best so far

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

The last few years I have lived in a branch in a large US city. Much of the area in our boundaries are very poor. Homes are dilapidated and squatters and homeless are common. My heart goes out to these people and I want to do something. I have learned to love the members of this branch and I appreciate their faith. I often think about Alma 32 when he turns his back on the prideful and preaches to the poor and those who have been humbled by their condition.
This Sunday I went to a Stake leadership meeting. The discussion was on missionary work, and during a lull in the conversation I expressed my love for the converts in the branch and how we needed more resources to reach everyone who could accept the gospel in the boundaries.
An older gentleman from one of the wealthy wards in our stake responded to my comment that we were “fishing in the wrong pond” and that we should only baptize those with transportation and financial resources. I was livid and didn’t say anything because I knew I would regret whatever came out of my mouth. He essentially said the people I went to church with weren’t good enough for the gospel because of the financial situation that many of them were born into.
The stake president said we needed to fish in all ponds. I appreciated the subtle correction. Another brother who joined the church 30 years ago talked about how converts need a friend. When they can’t make it to church because of a lack of a ride or some other hurtle they are still receiving negative feedback from friends about joining the church. Even if they can’t make it we still need to make sure they get some sort of uplifting treatment. Later in the meeting the RS president in one of the branches in our stake made a comment. She has been a member for less than two years and had a great perspective on conversion. She expressed what a blessing it was to receive the gospel for a short period of time. That even if someone only believed for a short time they still were better off than having never believed at all and their lives are made better and their children have a greater chance of finding the gospel. I loved this perspective. The stake president closed by saying something about how we take people where they are and bless their lives as long as we can.
I just wanted to share these views on conversion and say that everyone needs and deserves the gospel. I have seen many people be baptized and many have fallen away, but the labor was worth it. Even if many fall away, lives are still blessed and some stick around. In the last two years I have watched a convict become a gospel doctrine teacher who is excited by scripture. Don’t judge people as not worthy of the gospel. Only God knows them.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the hole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FECKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty hole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Feck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

The night was bone-chillingly cold. The slightest whisper of a breeze nipped at my exposed ears and drafted unpleasantly within my overly large winter coat. The black, barren trees stood unmoving like sentinels bearing ominously down upon either side of the sleet-slick street, which was lit only by dim street lamps that, other than creating a dull yellow reflection on the otherwise unlit pavement, seemed to do nothing against the oppressing dark of this fateful December night.
I had passed through a wrought iron gate twenty minutes before, the gate that separated a cozy subdivision from this eerie, undeveloped stretch of road that seemed to be dropped in the middle of the forest. I could think only of my warm, lively hearth and a nice, hot cup of tea between my palms, which now, instead of being pressed against warm porcelain, were being stabbed by my untrimmed fingernails as I tightened my fist onto the leash and plunged the other still deeper into my coat.
This night was the culmination of weeks of investigation on a missing person’s case turned sour. A man named Arthur Smith had reported his four daughters missing, then hung himself three days later when we couldn’t find anything. Oddly, Arthur’s body went missing from the morgue shortly after. The only trace left was an incredible amount of flies, and we were displeased to see that every drawer was leaking a mixture of blood and embalming fluid because the refrigerant pipes burst. When we opened them up, the neck of every corpse had been slit.
Eventually, through good detective work, we were able to connect some dots, and that led us to where we were now: We were now on a manhunt for a suspect that was last seen at a gas station about a mile up the road, not two hours earlier. We checked a network of cameras to see that he had headed for the woods, grabbed the hounds, and here we were.
My colleagues and I were spread around in different parts of the forest with the police force’s seven bloodhounds. I got stuck with Old Ben, the force’s droopiest and most seasoned canine. He was partially blind and notorious for not obeying commands. He didn’t even respond to a dog whistle, which was why some of my colleagues thought his hearing was shot. I doubted this theory, though, because sure enough, when somebody whispered the word “biscuit,” Old Benny perked up and started wagging his tail.
Another ten minutes found Old Benny and I at the end of the once seemingly endless street, with the streetlamps and pavement stopping abruptly at the edge of the woods, which had not entirely swallowed up a bulldozer. Old Ben stopped and sniffed the air for a moment, then plunged down a path in the woods to our right. It was a dirt path, not two feet wide, overgrown and partially washed out, making it an unpleasant and muddy journey from here on out.
…
My flashlight was now the only source of light illuminating our way. Its beam slid over roots and rocks that jutted out of the path at odd angles and briefly swept over the nearest trees, bringing them out of the shadow for a moment. I felt claustrophobic as they bore down upon me and upon the path. The only sound was my deep breathing, my sloppy footsteps, and Benny’s blundering in the mud about ten feet in front of me.
The path turned in such a way that I could see faint moonlight up ahead, but a cloud soon covered the moon and removed the slight comfort its light had provided. I continued following the curve of the path, and pointed my flashlight up ahead. Suddenly, everything was pitch black, as my flashlight had just gone out without a flicker. I was especially annoyed because firstly, I had just replaced the batteries earlier that week, and secondly, I caught a glimpse of the dark outline of what seemed to be a small cottage up ahead, which was now invisible in the darkness.
To my surprise, Benny stopped as soon as the light went out, which made it easy for me to replace the batteries with the ones that I always carried around in my service belt. To my dismay, Benny did not continue walking when the light flickered back on, even when I started tugging on his leash. He simply sat in the mud and peered at the cottage in the distance, which I knew for a fact he couldn’t see. The cottage was incredibly run down, but I couldn’t see much more, as it was just at the edge of my flashlight beam.
I began feeling uneasy when Benny started whimpering and backing away, tail between his legs. Our dogs were trained to bark when they found something, not stand still, and certainly not whine and back away. Old Ben had never been a skittish animal; I had never seen him act like this before. I peered back at the cottage, suspecting something more sinister than I was originally prepared for.
I tied Benny loosely around a nearby tree, so he could pull away if need be, pulled out my handgun, and continued on. Not fifteen seconds later, I was hit with the smell of blood and wet dog, and heard whimpering to my left. I told Benny to stay, and turned to find him where I left him, about twenty yards behind me, looking at me like I was insane. I bent down and examined the source of the noise, only to find one of our bloodhounds laying just off the path and covered in a mixture of mud and its own blood. It was missing its hind legs and was shivering badly. I cursed and dispatched it with a quick slit with my utility knife, then unclipped its collar and stuffed it into my pocket before turning away. I did not want to alert the suspect of my position. I grew worried about the location of my colleagues, as our dogs were trained not to run off. I also wondered what kind of predator would have taken only the hind legs of an animal. I tried not to think about it as I continued on.
As the cottage grew nearer, I was able to make out a few broken windows reflecting my light back at me. Through these I was able to see that the inside of the cottage was pitch black, the darkest black I had ever seen. I walked closer still, and I couldn’t stop looking into the darkness of the cottage. The darkness was so potent it seemed to be spilling over the window sill into the crisp night air. I felt consumed. My heart began pounding within my chest, and I felt colder than ever as I stepped toward the gravel path that led around to the left of the cottage. The sudden change in surface and the sound of my feet crunching upon the gravel seemed to break my trance, and I shuddered.
I didn’t know why I had felt so trapped, and I didn’t like it. Something was definitely wrong with this situation, and my feelings of dread intensified as I followed the gravel path around to the front of the cottage.
A dripping noise interrupted my thoughts and temporarily washed the dread from my mind. I paused. I determined it was coming from the direction I was headed, but I couldn’t see the front door yet as the porch was draped with ivy. I was suddenly hit with the putrid smell I knew all too well: the smell of death. It hit my nostrils like a truck and returned my feelings of dread all at once. I shined my beam to the front steps.
There was a dark, red liquid trickling gently down the steps, pooling under the porch: blood. I looked up onto the front porch, now visible, and saw the torso of a man hanging from his neck about three feet away from the front door. His legs were nowhere to be seen, though there was a blood trail leading into the house, and his glistening entrails swayed sickeningly with the light breeze. Blood was pooling below him, trickling down the steps, and down through the cracks in the porch. It had begun coagulating, and dark swirling orbs rotated in the puddle each time a drop splashed down. I looked up again at the carcass and recognized the man as our suspect. There was frost beginning to form at the edges of his mouth and over his glassy eyes, but his exposed entrails were still steaming. Furthermore, the blood dripping from his wound was still deep red in color. The back of my neck prickled and I knew this man had not been hanging for very long. No, not very long at all.
I raised my pistol and nudged the front door open. I was again hit with the smell of death, though now much stronger, so strong I could scarcely draw breath. The inside of the cottage was unbelievably dank, and the darkness seemed to eat the quivering beam of light I pointed out in front of me, so I couldn’t see ten feet forward.
I heard a sharp crack and I bolted my gaze to my feet. I had just stepped on a human rib. Suddenly the cottage came alive with creaking and shuffling. I heard flies buzzing all around me. I heard a raspy rushing noise to my right. I shined my flashlight to where I thought the noise was coming from, but all I saw was a bloodstained floor and darkness out in front of me. I took a step toward the noise, and the beam of light revealed the glistening mangled corpse of a man, missing most of his skin, hunched in the corner of the cottage. His whole torso was heaving, and I saw the rushing noise was coming from the base of his throat, where a large gash was opening and closing with every breath, spraying flecks of fluid. Maggots wriggled out of his wound, and black purge fluid trickled from his soupy eye sockets, his missing nose, and his gaping mouth. He was missing most of his teeth, and one of his cheeks was rotted through.
I was frozen in place with fear, until, to my horror, the man’s mangled arm rose and reached out to me. At this I aimed and put a bullet through his partially exposed skull, splattering a putrid mist on the wall behind him. Instead of slumping over, as I prayed he would, the man slowly levitated into an upright position as though controlled by a puppeteer. Skin began regrowing around his legs, his torso, and eventually his skull, which sprouted two bloody horns out of his forehead. This being had the likeness of Arthur Smith, though I sensed it was no longer him. I placed two rounds into his torso, and the being staggered, but the bullet wounds simply closed with sickening squelching sounds. I backed away slowly, and he simply stood in the corner and leered at me with burning black eyes and a disconcerting grin.
I continued to back away slowly, placing one more round between his eyes. His head jerked back, but still it healed and he seemed unbothered. I bolted around and headed for the door. I jerked the handle but it wouldn't budge. I tried kicking it down, which was something I was very practiced at, but still, the rotten oak planks held fast against my will. I turned around, back against the door, firearm at the ready, and stared into the blackness. Everything was quiet once again. Despite the temperature, cold sweat beaded upon my brow and dribbled down my neck.
Suddenly I felt a rumbling that seemed to come from the very depths of the Earth. A splitting and splintering sound came from what I presumed was the center of the cottage, and I was soon showered with bits of wood and stone that nicked my exposed skin and drew droplets of blood. I noticed my back was no longer pressed against the back of the door, though I was not moving. The floor seemed to be carrying me slowly in the direction of the noise. I was frozen in place, and found that I could not change my trajectory.
My flashlight beam found the edge of a large hole in the floor. I saw dark, root-like tendrils sprout from the hole and rush across the floor with the sound of scraping and splintering. They then returned to the hole, and they had within their grasp six bare human bodies, which I horrifically realized were those of my now former colleagues. I watched in horror as their pale naked bodies were folded, torn, ripped, and broken in the churning earth. The sound of tearing flesh and cracking bone was deafening and filled the darkness of the cottage. The mass of mangled flesh formed into one chunky, glistening mound in the center of the hole. It began pulsing and rising, and horrible screams rang in my ears. I watched in horror as the mass formed a humanoid figure that rose up ten feet out of the hole and bent over against the ceiling. It was facing away from me, but its raspy voice seemed to mix seamlessly with the screams directly in my ears.
“The churning of earth, the tearing of flesh, the cracking of bone”
At this it let out a booming laugh that reverberated in my skull and shook the foundation of the building. The cottage once again came alive, but now more than ever before. Shutters were opening and closing, floorboards were rattling, flies swarmed in a huge mass around and around the room, blocking the beam of my flashlight and obscuring my view of the figure. I felt my legs quiver along with the rest of the cottage. I looked down at a red book with its pages fluttering in the still air. I dove for it and slammed it shut, and the cottage grew still. I paused for a moment, but the giant figure began turning towards me. I bolted around to see that the door was now open, but the hung corpse was clinging to the top of the door frame, now very much alive. Its entrails were still swinging freely from its short leap, and the rope lay severed and frayed upon the ground.
I paced towards the door, dumping the rest of my magazine into the corpse, which to my relief fell to the ground with a squelch. I hopped over the body and sprinted out the front door, away from the cottage, down the dirt path. I could still hear the screams of the damned faintly in the distance, and the earth began rumbling once again underneath my feet. I continued running back along the path, trying not to think about what I had witnessed. I paused for a moment to catch my breath, and shivered in the now relentless sleet.
The pounding of the earth became the distant rumble of thunder in the distance. By the time I had gotten back to the paved road, I was soaked to the bone in cold sweat and freezing rain, and I was covered up to my thighs in mud from the path. My coat was snagged and torn in places from the splinters of wood and from branches along the path.
When I finally got back to my car, I saw a leash leading underneath it, and found Old Ben, crouched below, tail between his legs. I scooped him up and plopped him in the passenger seat, entirely disregarding the former cleanliness of my car, as it was now covered in mud and dog hair. I cranked up the heat and sped off towards the station to report what I had witnessed.
…
We never did find that cottage again. Other guys went back to where I was and failed to find the path, but they did find the dismembered bodies of my colleagues hidden under the bulldozer at the end of the street. I was charged with the deaths of my colleagues and was thrown into a mental institute, but I don’t mind it much. There are people here that are far more insane than I am. The worst part is my occasional perception of a distant rumbling, and during thunderstorms I’m a whimpering mess.
I have been disciplined three times for writing symbols on the walls that I can’t get out of my head. I draw them in my blood so they stand out more and resemble what I see. I have found that once they are on the wall, they stay out of my head. Unfortunately, I haven’t finished writing them all out yet. The first time I started I got really close to finishing, but then I found myself strapped to a hospital bed.
The worst part of my new existence is the nightmares. I am plagued by images of my former colleagues: their pale dismembered bodies, the sound of cracking bone, their blood on my hands, their shrieks of pain, and the taste of flesh.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

So we had our baby shower 3 weeks ago and I’m just now able to post about it without becoming full of rage all over again lol.
My SIL (hubby’s sister) is extremely self absorbed. The world revolves around her, we all just exist in it. If you do things differently than her, she lacks the emotional intelligence/maturity to understand that people are different and it isn’t her place to comment or “correct”. She will find a way to make ANYTHING about herself in some way.
She has not been involved in my pregnancy at all. She has not checked in, asked how I was feeling, given advice, asked if/how she could help with anything. Not a single word or text the entirety of the pregnancy.
Which honestly, is fine. I don’t like her anyway and hearing from her would no doubt just turn into being about her in some way. However, her complete lack of effort and care gives her ZERO right to then try to take over things with the baby shower, which was hosted by my amazing mother who had everything under control and who sunk a ton of time and money into planning a really special baby shower.
My SIL decided to confront me just days before the shower about my decision on not playing games. She said that people really enjoy playing games and like to see it, so we really should do so because people (meaning herself) would be disappointed with the shower if we didn’t. This threw me into a rage spiral because… the freaking audacity. To tell me what to do, days before the shower, when it’s absolutely none of her business and not about what she wants. My response to her was very short and direct and I made it clear we’d be doing things the way we wanted.
Then the day of the shower. Apparently the decor my mother was doing (minimal, because I don’t care about elaborate decor at a baby shower - especially outdoors like ours was) wasn’t good enough. SIL took it upon herself to essentially take over decorating. Which in theory sounds like a nice gesture. Except she’s extremely bossy and when she took over, she was rushing and was apparently in a bad mood from rushing where she stressed everyone else out and started commanding them on how to help her.
Why the need for the decor that WE didn’t care about or ask for? Why the need to rush around and stress/sour the mood? She took it upon herself so that she could get some pat on the back and make it about herself. And the decor was lovely, it looked great, but it was unnecessary and at the cost of her taking over and stressing other people out, it wasn’t worth it. My mother had it under control, and I think she felt a little hurt that her plans weren’t “good enough” for my SIL.
I’m just so irritated and tired of dealing with this kind of crap from my in-laws. My hubby totally understands and agrees with my frustrations and he’ll say things when he needs to, but honestly, I mostly tell him not to bother because his sister and mother completely lack the ability to step back and think about their actions, so it just turns into more unwanted drama.
Anyone else who can commiserate with similar experiences? Thanks for reading all of my pregnant rage word vomit lol.

I'll start with the questions, and leave the background waffle to the end if anyone's interested.
UK-specific
1. Where to learn, from zero? I checked out https://www.gliding.co.uk/club-finde - and three clubs are all around 45 minutes (1hr with traffic) from me in North London (Finchley).

Booker
Chilterns
Dunstable

Does anyone have any direct experience/feedback on any of those? If I go ahead, ideally I'm looking for something fairly intensive as I have 6 months off work. Dunstable is the home of London Gliding Club, and seems to be the biggest/most established of the three. https://www.londonglidingclub.co.uk/fixed-price-to-solo seemed tempting - but when I called, it seemed to not be particularly organised.
I also read several mentions of https://www.lashamgliding.com/ residential course, and one Redditor from UK said they learnt in Hawaii, for the dependable wind.
2. Related to the above - given my middle-age, I sort of want to kick start things. Would a club be able to help with that, or would a dedicated course be better? I'm totally fine (in fact, like the idea of) going a bit slower after that, and being around to help others the whole day etc. But I don't want to spend two years of sporadic weekends in the initial stages, especially when I have weekdays available.
General
3. In the title I say "pretty sure". I was totally sure until I started watching "Pure Glide" on YouTube, and began to understand some of the risks. Also, two of the top results for "gliding uk reddit" are:

It's not a deal breaker - but I guess I'm just looking to hear from (more) people how they rationalise that/deal with it. The Pure Glide guy seemed to be of the opinion some people managed it just by thinking it was never going to be them.
4. Looking for feedback on any folks that learnt in their forties/fifties? Did you find it manageable?
Background Waffle
I went for a glider flight on my 16th birthday, but it's only now, three decades later, I find myself having the time (or at least, the mental space for it). Part of me is worried I'm a bit too old to be starting, but hey ho.
I went for a trial flight out of Alford (Lincs Gliding Club), and even though conditions weren't great (apparently) for a winch launch, the kindly gentleman there happily took me up for two 3 to 4 minute flights. There was (understandably) no time for me to take the controls. Several other people helped prepare the glidewinch. Something about the community aspect appealed. I asked the instructor (who started flying when I was born), what he thought about gliding vs powered - and he said gliding is a sport, powered flight is transport.
Nonetheless I also tried a 1hr training flight from Elstree in a Cesna 172. On the plus side - the difference of just being able to fly for an hour was clear. But, there wasn't that community feel. And there also seemed to be a great deal more radio/taxiing process. Finally, my partner is scared of heights, and I have a dog. I don't imagine myself therefore actually flying anywhere in order to actually get there.
In short - I'm nearly ready to push the button on glider training, and looking, I guess, to hear some further opinions/ideas/suggestions I might have missed in my research thus far.

Hey guys! First of all, I would like to give some context of my arrival here. I spend a lot of my day "daydreaming", so to speak, having internal dialogues and even sounding them so that I can talk to myself when no one is around ( I believe a lot of people do this- I have no idea, haha ), this basically helps me get my thoughts out of my head in a simpler and more organized way.
I was here in the kitchen, sitting at the table, and I caught myself thinking about a kind of "strategy" that I unconsciously adopted a few months ago, and it has helped me value myself more. You know, I'm the type of person who dedicates a good amount of minutes and even an hour or two just to research different types of gifts for people I love, like, or have any kind of interest in getting closer, as long as it is already clear to me that that contact is reciprocal (another super important thing that I thought would be nice to emphasize, look for reciprocal relationships!! whether they are friends, lovers, etc. Men and women, ladies and gentlemen, do not accept less than you know (or will eventually discover) how much you deserve, and i tell you, this isn't some nonsense from a self-help book, it's one of the facts of life that I think we all miss having around us, strong bonds.
Returning to the subject, preparing gifts such as books, mugs, t-shirts, baskets of sweets and things like that are part of my love language, and I am very proud of this affection. However, last year, I realized that it was an exclusive language totally dedicated to other people, and I also realized that these were rarely relationships of simultaneous affection. Finally, I had the idea of giving myself a gift! And look, I'm someone who is very difficult to accept something positive from myself, and I don't just mean material things.
I noticed that during a good portion of my short life so far ( I'm nearly on my 20's ) I dedicated myself entirely to any grains of contact I got to have with people around me. I grew up as an insecure person with a huge lack of confidence in most of my attitudes, and this and much more are things that I have been striving to change since about two years ago. And for those who want to know, I have improved a lot! and I still have a lot more to change :))
Anyway, I'm monologuing excessively, what I want to say is that my schizophrenia has evolved in such a way that, in order to be able to make me feel like i deserve better, I have been talking about myself in the third person ( LOL ), so it ends up being something like this: "Hmm, i wonder what him ( me ) would like to receive as a birthday present"
Maybe this is the most ridiculous thing you'll read today, but believe it or not, it's a decent and functional way I found to start this task of improving my relationship with myself.
I think of it as if it were the same as riding a bicycle with training wheels, you know? At some point I will be able to think about giving myself gifts without having to think of myself as this other person I want to get closer with, ( which would mean removing the training wheels ) I mean, I want to get closer to myself lol, but not thinking of myself as someone else, y'know? ( I hope that wasn't difficult to understand ).
( Just making it clear that I don't go around talking to myself in the third person, capiche? )
Anyway, I think I need to improve my way of narrating, to avoid these unnecessary detours with too much information. As I said earlier, I started thinking about this to myself and then I did a quick research looking for a community here on Reddit that talked about each person's personal issues, because I thought it would fit well here. If my post doesn't relate to others posted here, I apologize! The same if I used the wrong tag for my post.
I'm a anxious person, and while writing the post, I got into thinking that the more mature audience of this sub might think of my advice as something that would only work for people of my age, but I also think that all of us, even adults over 30, are still kind of learning more and more about "adulting", I think there are no useless lessons, we just adapt and remodel those we learned previously in other phases of life, to make more sense with the current lifestyle we may be leading.
In short, value your time! Don't insist on relationships that only your side shows interest in keeping going, and take a deep breath before making decisions that cost a lot of your mental health. I know you all must know all this, but I think words like that are always valid as a way of reminding ourselves not to let nervousness or stress from other people's influence take away our sanity. And remember to give yourself a "gift" at some point, maybe it won't have a physical form, and it won't be bought with money, but it's definitely one of the things in this world that only you can give to yourself with a singular meaning.

Few facts about Canada from an American first Canadian second duel citizen.
Quick about me: I've lived in Canada most my life 22 years, and in the U.S. 11 years. I wish that were reversed anyways on with the show. First though I've asked way too many Canadians who their head of state is. If they know what that means at all they usually say Trudeau...... It's king Charles....yea not great, in fact the second in line is the governor general, prime minister is third. Onwards.
Canadas "constitution" if it can be called that technically isn't a legal document. Québec refused to sign it's ratification and to this day hasn't. That doesn't stop Québec from collecting equalisation payments of which Alberta pays the most. I like the fact that Québec is grifting the other provinces makes me smile. They could develop their resources and quickly become the wealthiest province but why not get welfare eh? And the language thing holy cow.......nuff said.
Which brings me to Alberta the wealthiest province overshadowing Ontario per capita. The weather there is by far the worse in the provinces (and I grew up in Winnipeg). We like to put Vancouver down due to the homelessness (worst I've ever seen) however Calgary and Edmonton have metro populations of 1.5 m each and the homeless issues have ballooned in recent years. It's to the point where it can be compared to places like Nashville TN, Tampa FL, and Atlanta GA, all of which are at least double the population where as ATL is quadruple. As car dependant a city I've ever seen, akin to LA. Calgary has become a mini Toronto and Edmonton a large Winnipeg.
Moving on to good ol' Winnipeg the asshole of Canada. Potholes, poverty, pessimistic, petty, predictable, and of course proud. It's like the old adage pride go before the fall, except in this case the fall came first. Winnipeg is isolated and has a Stockholm syndrome hovering over it's people. Being the only city in Manitoba, everyone flocks there from the small towns. Way too heavy on the sports, I'd imagine it's due to how little there is to do. Per capita Manitoba as a whole is statistically on par with Chicago in murder and violent crime rates (look it up). Winnipeg itself is up there with D.C. not great. It's so poor and corrupt the roads have crumbled and no one fixes them. It took like 3 years to put up the new "tallest tower" 300 main. For reference Toronto puts them up in half the time and twice the height. The tallest building in Omaha is 50 m taller, in Tulsa it's 60 m, 50 m in Des Moines, and 70 m in New Orleans. Not that that matters. Way over priced housing for where and what it is, and anything "affordable" is in areas akin to American ghettos. Lastly transit... Nuff said. Moving on.
The maritime provinces. They're poor, really poor, but mostly poorly treated by Ottawa, if they hadn't been so long they would've thrived much like Winnipeg would have without the coast to coast CN line. I digress, of all the places in Canada the maritimes are the friendliest, pretty on par with the stereotype of nice Canadians. There's nothing bad to say about this place. Moving on...
Saskatchewan would be good if not for the fuckin RCMP giving it a bad rap. Moving on...
Before we get into the meat I'll add a quick not about the territories. STOP IGNORING THE RESERVATIONS NEEDS FOR CLEAN WATER, AND LOWER THE FUCKIN PRICES UP THERE!!!. Next.
I'll start with Ontario the dirty asshole of Canada. Ottawa, Great little city ruined by over confident politicians walking around convinced they're better that you 🫵. The amount of investment into transit in and around the GTA from Montreal to Windsor is impressive and on the level of European countries. I don't see that kind of investment in the rest of Canada. Ontario is, was, and always will be, me first.... Fuck you. They literally stifle other provinces from becoming wealthier. Look at the bombardier contract as a perfect example. Carbon taxing Manitoba who has been green since before we all knew what that was. The actions against the trucker protest and all the scandals, that's all Ontario... Americans don't know much about Canada but they do know the "crack smoking mayor". What can I say. Toronto has been ruined by too much construction and lack of proper city planning. So over priced NYC is jealous. Next.
Last on the list we have the beautiful British Columbia. Right so, it is beautiful but the people are criminally rude. Vancouver is poised to be the best city in north America in all metrics, however they choose to follow Ottawa and now look at it. As I mentioned worst homeless issue I've seen including skid row in LA. The Okanagan is a bible thumping tax haven and stash for drug money and gang revenue. Despite these things and a few more I won't mention the lower mainland is a unique and interesting place. Good luck living there holy mackerel the prices..... Anyways O' Canada stop being what you are before you either dissolve and are annexed by the USA or get invaded by a modern version of the allied powers... Freezing bank accounts.... Whoa. Even D.C. isn't that tyrannical. Taking away legal gun owners guns. Whoa, while Toronto, Vancouver, and Winnipeg's illegal gun seizures skyrocket. No free speech, which is the backbone of any democracy.
Don't get it twisted Canada you aren't a democracy you are a dominion of the U.K. an archaic monarchy. Have fun with all that eh!! America has it's issues some starker than yours that's not lost on me, but for now in 2024 it's a better place to live, not best, better. Good day ladies and gentleman.
Sincerely Quirky Blurky 🥭

Famous short speeches of all time

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