i dont know the full details because i never actually finished the book, but it was labeled as a teen fiction book (i think.) it was about this rebel kid who got sent away on a bus to this place where bad kids go in their country or city (idk.) he meets this girl named dani on the bus, and get sent away to some other world and are put in this giant school with dorms and whatnot. everyone in the city thinks that being sent away means the kids die, and no one knows about the other world. thats all i remember lol.

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

(please note that i can remove this if this is against guidelines!)
hi everyone! i wanted to post this here to possibly get publicity for my mom’s campaign (see below):
Currently, my family of 10 is in a contest called “SuperMom”. This is a public contest for $20k and the winner is decided through rounds of public votes - hence me posting this here!
My mom has made it to TOP 5 in her group so far, but for this new round and so on, she needs to maintain 1st Place to advance!
That being said, I would love any help at all to get votes in! (More information on my mom’s backstory and the contest itself can be found by pressing the link as well!)
You can cast a free vote once every 24 hours (so please refer back to this!). All you need is a facebook to verify that you are a real person and not votes bought by someone!
Thank you for reading, I hope you consider voting! Sincerely, any vote helps. Have a good day y’all 🙂 - Also, if anyone has questions, I’m free to answer anything!
(This contest is not a scam - it's run by Colosses who is a US registered fundraiser for non profits. Purchased votes donate money for Children's Miracle Network!)
https://thesupermom.org/vote/free/2024/christine-olea-aquino

(please note that i can remove this if this is against guidelines!)
hi everyone! i wanted to post this here to possibly get publicity for my mom’s campaign (see below):
Currently, my family of 10 is in a contest called “SuperMom”. This is a public contest for $20k and the winner is decided through rounds of public votes - hence me posting this here!
My mom has made it to TOP 5 in her group so far, but for this new round and so on, she needs to maintain 1st Place to advance!
That being said, I would love any help at all to get votes in! (More information on my mom’s backstory and the contest itself can be found by pressing the link as well!)
You can cast a free vote once every 24 hours (so please refer back to this!). All you need is a facebook to verify that you are a real person and not votes bought by someone!
Thank you for reading, I hope you consider voting! Sincerely, any vote helps. Have a good day y’all 🙂 - Also, if anyone has questions, I’m free to answer anything!
(This contest is not a scam - it's run by Colosses who is a US registered fundraiser for non profits. Purchased votes donate money for Children's Miracle Network!)
https://thesupermom.org/vote/free/2024/christine-olea-aquino

TCAP:
5 Marvin Lakhan: This guy is way more fucked up than people realize because he seemed completely normal. John Kennelly is more popular due to his iconic voice/phrases and getting caught at McDonalds but Marvin is seriously fucked up. He wanted the decoy to fuck the cat with him watching, had graphic instructions that he definitely knew from viewing bestiality porn, and wanted to have sex with the decoy on her parents bed and in every room so she would never forget how he violated her. He tries to play it off like he was just joking and even Chris calls him out on how explicit his bestiality thing was. Tried to claim he wasn’t gonna go ‘all the way’ despite stripping naked in order to fulfill a deal so the decoy would do sex acts with a cat. Kennelly seemed to have brain trauma or some developmental issues which I think helped contribute to his deviancy but Marvin is 100% aware the entire time what he’s doing and unlike Wunderler who might have had the slightly more explicit bestiality chat (the PJ decoy said she had nightmares for years due to how horrible it was and it’s like a top 5 slimy I think on the PJ website). Fucking weird guy who needed way more time imo. I don’t think he’s reoffended but he needed serious help.
4 Lorne Armstrong: classic Lorne, can’t even win a list he’s rightfully on. I think basically everyone knows mostly everything about Lorne but the fact he’s only 4 on this list should tell you how bad it gets. genuinely believed he was in a committed, serious, albeit highly toxic, controlling and unhealthy relationship with a 13 year old girl. His chat is fucking disgusting. He gets jealous over Kayla’s dad’s corvette stating it ‘didn’t have his penis’. Called his dick Mr. Penis, raged over a made up 13 year old ex boyfriend. It’s just so disturbing and so apparent Lorne is highly sick and still to this day has never fully accepted responsibility, resulting in him becoming the community lolcow.
3 Walter Babst: this may seem strange given it’s not Rutherford who actually taught the age ranges of the decoy, but something about Babst just disturbs me so much. His chat genuinely is one of the only ones that made me near sick to my stomach and I’ve read part of Wunderlers. It’s so gross how he de ages all of his terms, he seems genuinely upset she started her period, obviously implying he wanted to be able to cum in her without consequences which is fucking horrific. He treats her like a doll and commands her what to wear, and the worst part of all of it is Babst is a smart guy. He immediately knew he was caught and going to be arrested, and that what he was doing was wrong. He obviously had been tortured by these demons for so long and finally couldn’t resist and decided he was going to do it. What’s even more disturbing is the guy was highly over qualified apparently to teach high school and is one of the only predators to ever have a better life after getting caught. He works at still and I believe is a manager or upper management at an engineering/physics firm I think? So did he become a teacher to sort of sate the desire? Maybe he was at the phase were merely creeping on his freshmen female students and catching some inappropriate down shirt glances or gross butt staring was enough to get him off.
2 Chuck Harding: truthfully, this guy and the piece of shit at #1 are so close in how horrible and disturbing they are it almost doesn’t matter. The decoy said they’re glad Chuck is dead and most of society should be as well. He was a serial groomer, likely rapist of multiple unreported boys. He told the decoy that he could be his grandpa, he wanted to go to Disney with the decoy in public and pretend that Chuck was his grandpa. He lived in Anaheim near Disney and I can only imagine the depraved shit Chuck did living that close it was NOT a coincidence. A disturbing, completely child porn brain rotted husk of a human who seriously had no qualms with what he was doing and even gets defensive and almost confrontational with Chris. If that was it I’d argue he’s still in my top 10 but then they find not only did he have CSAM, he had tons of it, mountains of it. Not only THAT, but some of it was dated back like 35 years old. NOT ONLY THAT, it was discovered that basically for that length of time Chuck had been a part of a CSAM exchange and honestly probably creation ring. An absolute monster, truly probably the worst person they ever caught, and again you can swap Chuck with #1 if that’s how you feel. Chuck’s segment is almost not even funny just like the next guy because of how absolutely disturbing and sick these men were.
1 James Wiles: Who else. Now comes down to your individual morality of what’s more horrific, being a 40 year long pedophile participating in a CSAM exchange and again probably also creation ring, or allowing your own flesh and blood daughters to not only be raped by yourself, but your sick brother as well. It’s just beyond the pale for so many predators, because it’s real. His daughters have done interviews I’m pretty sure and they said when he died they celebrated, that one of them had to take a picture and she keeps it to know he’s actually dead. Just a complete and utter piece of trash who I am genuinely happy is dead and if hell exists he is there. Horrific, disturbing, he’s like Westerbeck the improved edition.
Dishonorable Mention slotting between #2 and #3 imo is JPW. He’s just too fucking funny for me to put here but his life is insane and he did some horrible stuff, definitely could be on here had some of these other guys not been worse.
HVP/Takedown
5 Brian: This one will be short because outside of the stuff I want to really talk about he doesn’t have a lot of personality but something so he’s going at #5 below the next guys. This dude openly admitted to having had sex with multiple minors prior to the sting and ultimately what gets him on here is he is wearing and always wears the necklace one of his victims gave him, and it definitely seemed like he wore it for his own sick pleasure.
4 Donnie: This interaction is a top 10 of all time in my book. Takedown has a lot of stinkers and boring interviews and stings because there’s no long form decoy work, but wow, this guy and Brian, also caught in this sting are just doozies to me. Donnie wanted a dad to basically pimp his own daughter out to him, have the dad watch him fuck his daughter, then engaged in sex acts with the father and then all three of them would have sex together. He openly admits in the decoy interaction to an undercover cop posing as the father he’d done this exact scenario before or something similar and is sickeningly smug and ‘kind’ to the decoy portraying the kid. He states that parents should ‘be more involved’ in their children’s sexual development and exploration that it was good the father was going to participate in the rape of his own 13 year old daughter. His interview with Chris is no less shocking as he just further admits that he’s done it before and enjoyed it. Absolutely insane interaction.
3 Michael Gentile (or Popovich): These guys are almost the same in my book, slightly different flavors of disturbing and perverted old men. I’ll focus on Gentile. Just a fucking creep pedo who definitely had done this before, wanted to film child porn in his hotel room, only lived an hour away so why did he need a room? Very, VERY adept at grooming and knew instantly it was a sting when he entered. Calls his wife the witch and expects her to bail him out. His texts and voice mails and phone calls are absolutely vile and just pure filth. Really disturbing. Perhaps could be swapped with Donnie but something about the way he speaks, his confrontational nature with detectives despite having one of the grossest chat logs and decoy encounters, his evasiveness, just makes me rank him higher.
2 Jesse Velez: a bit of a cop out because it’s disturbing how this interaction went and how fucking smug this dumbass was realizing that Chris wasn’t really prepared. He is disgusting also no doubt. He wanted a 13 year old boy to live with him and ‘no one would find out’. It’s so disturbing realizing just how manipulative and sick these guys are the second they aren’t 10000% nailed to the wall. He gets arrested and all still but I would kill to see the world where Chris has the full chat and can obliterate this smug, condescending idiot.
1 Steven Buchanan: Who else (again). A short one cause his chat isn’t super outrageous, he’s relatively young, but the most disturbing thing about him is the ‘what if’ scenario. This guy looked unhinged. I don’t know why, if it was the military, if it was just something else that broke him, but this guy was dangerous without a shadow of a doubt. I don’t believe the items that constituted the kill kit were together, like in a bag, but even having those items is highly concerning. Really disturbing to watch and think about the horrible possibility of a real girl had been persuaded to leave her house and get into this psycho’s car.

I have finished my observation hours and all of the courses/projects/exams for my alt certification program. Unfortunately, I was told that I wouldn’t need to take my content exams until after my first year as a teacher. Around a month ago they called me and told me I needed to take the content exams in order to be certified. I want to teach First grade this year. I have been studying as hard as I can but I don’t feel confident that I will pass if I take it now. I have heard from my teacher friends that people have been hired with a deadline to take and pass the content exam written into their contract.
For the districts that require a certification, what should I put on my resume or how should I let them know that I’m in the process of studying for my content exams? Also any tips for my applications would be appreciated!
I plan to take them by the end of this summer, I just want to apply now and not miss out on opportunities.

I am one full year out of college and was laid off of work on May 1st. I was recruited straight out of college so I never truly went through the pain of applications... Now I am shocked at how inefficient the hiring process really is.
Easy Apply on LinkedIn might be the worst thing ever. I can easily apply to 25+ companies in one day. If the application requires a cover letter, I can easily adapt my template and personalize it to the role with AI. The barrier to applying for jobs has gotten so low. While this is great for getting out volume, we lose quality.
LinkedIn continues to push AI features, such as using generative AI to draft personalized messages. This is only adding to the noise. A private equity firm with easy apply gets upwards of 1,500 applicants in a week. There is NO WAY a hiring manager can thoughtfully sift through resumes at this scale. There must be a better way.
I recently applied to a perfect-fit role with 300+ applicants and got radio silence after two weeks. Frustrated, I took a chance and DM'd the CEO. We ended up setting up a call that same day! It's baffling that a busy CEO is more responsive than the formal application process.
Networking seems to be king again. It feels like a return to the "who you know" days, not "what you know." Shouldn't skills and experience be the top priority?
There has to be a better way. We need a platform that cuts through the noise and connects qualified candidates with the right opportunities, focusing on skills, not connections.
What are your thoughts on the current state of job hunting? Have you encountered similar challenges?

GRADE 9 AND 10 MATTERS
My biggest regret in hs was letting myself create bad habits the first two years bcs I told myself “the grades really don’t matter anyway”
Last year for me was so much harder than it needed to be because I had to basically double my work ethic while trying to break bad habits
could’ve been avoided entirely. Like anyone in grade 9 or 10 reading this bruh ur grades rn might not end up “mattering”(depending on wht u apply for ) but u need to build a foundation on good habits.

I'm looking for tips and advice about what to do about my tax situation. I have been using the same tax preparer for 9 years and have never had something like this happen before. I moved across the country last year and my tax preparer said they could and would be happy to do my filing this past year.
I submitted all of my documents they would need by April 1st but my preparer did not file my taxes until May 3. They did file for an extension but I was never told they did this or that they were being filed late and had to pay state penalties. This year, they did not set up a meeting or call time to go over my taxes with me, which I thought was strange but given the lack of communication and delay, I was just happy to have them done finally.
Last week I received a letter in the mail stating there was an error on my taxes and that I owed more to my previous state of residence. I also revieved a voter ID card issued from my previous state. I only lived and worked in this state for 3 months last year before moving. I started reading through all of the paperwork I had received from the preparer and it appears that they filed my taxes stating that I am still a resident of my previous state and they filed a tax credit for the income tax I made in my current state with my previous state. It also seems that they may have used a copy of my expired drivers license from a previous year since I never had a chance to speak with my preparer and submit a copy of my new drivers license.
My vehicles, drivers license, voter registration, professional licenses, and home are all listed in my new state that I've lived in for over a year now. I recently applied to a graduate school program and in-state tuition. I'm worried how this mistake will affect my eligibility for financial aid and in-state tuition, as well as my profesional licenses, job, etc.
I left 3 voicemail and 2 emails last week and finally spoke to the tax preparer's secretary yesterday and she said to send then the letter stating I owe more to the previous state and my current drivers license and they would see what can be done. I have not been able to speak to the tax preparer, I can only speak with the secretary which is extremely frustrating.
The extreme lack of communication and professionalism has been very stressful and upsetting to say the least. I could understand a very technical error but filing someone's taxes in the wrong state entirely and screwing up thier college financial aid seem completly negligent. Should I even continue working with them to fix it or try to find someone else? My biggest concern is getting this fixed so that I can start college this fall and maintaining my licenses for my job.

I'm looking for tips and advice about what to do about my tax situation. I have been using the same tax preparer for 9 years and have never had something like this happen before. I moved across the country last year and my tax preparer said they could and would be happy to do my filing this past year.
I submitted all of my documents they would need by April 1st but my preparer did not file my taxes until May 3. They did file for an extension but I was never told they did this or that they were being filed late and had to pay state penalties. This year, they did not set up a meeting or call time to go over my taxes with me, which I thought was strange but given the lack of communication and delay, I was just happy to have them done finally.
Last week I received a letter in the mail stating there was an error on my taxes and that I owed more to my previous state of residence. I also revieved a voter ID card issued from my previous state. I only lived and worked in this state for 3 months last year before moving. I started reading through all of the paperwork I had received from the preparer and it appears that they filed my taxes stating that I am still a resident of my previous state and they filed a tax credit for the income tax I made in my current state with my previous state. It also seems that they may have used a copy of my expired drivers license from a previous year since I never had a chance to speak with my preparer and submit a copy of my new drivers license.
My vehicles, drivers license, voter registration, professional licenses, and home are all listed in my new state that I've lived in for over a year now. I recently applied to a graduate school program and in-state tuition. I'm worried how this mistake will affect my eligibility for financial aid and in-state tuition, as well as my profesional licenses, job, etc.
I left 3 voicemail and 2 emails last week and finally spoke to the tax preparer's secretary yesterday and she said to send then the letter stating I owe more to the previous state and my current drivers license and they would see what can be done. I have not been able to speak to the tax preparer, I can only speak with the secretary which is extremely frustrating.
The extreme lack of communication and professionalism has been very stressful and upsetting to say the least. I could understand a very technical error but filing someone's taxes in the wrong state entirely and screwing up thier college financial aid seem completly negligent. Should I even continue working with them to fix it or try to find someone else? My biggest concern is getting this fixed so that I can start college this fall and maintaining my licenses for my job.

Hey Folks,
First. I try to read-a-lot-post-very-little on this forum. Bogleheads has helped me/wife change our attitudes towards investment, savings, retirement. Just within the last two years of reading Bogleheads we have started maxing our 401k, Backdoor Roth, next year HSA when we can change our medical plans...So, thank you!
Here is my question. For personal reasons I need to set-it-and-forget-it for a few years. I have moved all of our 401k/Roth IRA from a FXIAX SP500 index to Fidelity's 2055 Target Date Fund. We have a new baby, life stress, job stress, may be moving out of state/out of country...It all fees like too much for me to investigate different U.S/International market funds, bonds, rebalance, etc. Is a 2055 TD fund appropriate for us to forget about, auto-contribute from our paychecks, and look back in 3-5 years? Should I have left everything in the FXAIX SP 500 fund?
For context... mid 30s, infant daughter, late start to my career due to typical (unwilful) underemployment of millennials of my exact era, post-graduate school debt, etc. Paid off all of our student debt by 32. Have a house with a lot of equity trapped in it, 2.9% 30 yr fixed (highly regret shoving all our earnings from our 1st home fixer into this place). Combined we currently have about $300k between both of our 401k/roth/traditional ira.
Edit: I guess I should add...always the added uncertainty/stress of guaranteed future gaps of 6mo-1year underemployment for me (just a reality of my career), and likelihood of us permanently leaving the U.S. for the EU end of year...making the entire Boglehead approach somewhat void if we do the move since we'd be contributing to an EU pension scheme instead of a 401k, etc.

Hello,
I am 11th grade student interested in teaching, so I read some of the discussions here. I see a lot of frustrating stories and wanted to (hopefully) lift you mood a little bit! So: Thank you for what you do!
I like school for the most part and my teachers definitely are the reason for that! I really appreciate your patience and interest in the students´ education. It feels great to be in a class and know that the teacher actually wants to teach you something and is not just there because they have to. The amount of extra material a student can get by just asking is amazing. I really, really admire all the work you put into teaching and hope that you will only get the best students imaginable next year! I consider myself to be a curious person mainly because my teachers managed to spark interest in all sorts of subject in me-even the ones I am not good at-just by being passionate about their field of teaching.
So, because I haven´t said it thee times already: Thank you! You are really doing a much more important job than you get credit for and the amount of bad things you go through is undeserved. I hope that in the future the general approach to education will change and it will get easier to deal with students (and parents). Maybe I will join this sub one day being a teacher, but till then, I go back to just reading.
I hope you have a nice day and I apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes, English is not my first language.

After going back and forth i decided to try Evra. I put the 1st patch after my period ended since reading side effects freaked me up a bit. I think it kinda messed my natural cycle a bit even though instructions say you can put it any day.
Thankfully after 3 patches only possible side effect is tender breasts. It started at the end of 2nd patch so kinda around of time I get pms smyptoms like tender breasts.
I'm on a fatch free week -2nd day and no spotting or " period" is that ok? It says i should put new patch after this week even if i get no "period"?
Is that normal, do tender breasts stop after new cycle begins?anyone else like this.
Side note this is 1st hormonal contraception i have ever used

Hello and welcome!

Before you trade with me:

1. Please be aware that all my trades are done by Paypal and invoice only.
2. Please get your RSI Flair and Paypal verification.
3. Send me a PM with the item you wish to get, your email and handle (please note that gifts will be sent at the same adress provided for the invoice).
4. Comment on my post with "PM'd".
5. Once we both agree, I'll send an invoice to the email provided
6. Once payment is cleared, item will be sent in your mailbox, please be sure to be logged into the right RSI account before claiming the gift !!

If you don't have a Star Citizen account yet, you can register a new one using my referral link STAR-JNR3-Y6RF to get 5000 UEC for free.

• NOTE : My Timezone is UTC+2, so please be patient if I don't reply immediately :3
• NOTE : Guide for new users
• NOTE : Gifts are permanent so cannot be returned to sender and refunded due to their nature.
• NOTE : All fees are included, what you read is what you have to pay. :)

Thanks for visiting!

BEST IN SHOW STANDALONE SHIPS 120m

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Standalone - Corsair - BIS 2953	$300
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Standalone - C8X Pisces Expedition - BIS 2952	$54
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IAE & ILW SHIPS 120m (please ask for other ships)

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Standalone - MISC Endeavor Master Set - IAE 2949	$1200
Standalone - CNOU Pioneer - IAE 2949	$1020
Standalone - MISC Hull C - IAE 2950	$300
Standalone - MISC Hull D - IAE 2950	$420
Standalone - AEGIS Redeemer - ILW 2951	$300
Standalone - AEGIS Redeemer - IAE 2949	$300
Standalone - DRAKE Corsair - ILW 2951	$258
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LEGACY CHAIRMAN'S CLUB PACKAGES LTI

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UEE Exploration 2948 Pack (SQ42 and SC included)	$834
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I'm currently in the 1st years of my masters program and I feel like my professors don't want to help me. I ask them politely to explain a situation slower or if they can help me a little bit more understand the subject. They all just act annoyed and make me feel like I'm stupid.
Now my grades are failing because I'm having a little bit of an issue understanding the assignments. I don't ask for help because the professors and administrative staff makes me feel like I'm bothering them or I am too stupid to be in the master program.
I just wish I could wake up one day and not be ADHD. I wish everything could just click in my head like it does for everyone else.
I just hate myself right now.
Sorry for the rant, I just need to vent somewhere.

Hello, fellow veterans.
My story goes back to December 2021 when I started submitting claims for all the issues I had been experiencing. I was initially awarded 10% for my wrists, but that was the least of my issues. My PTSD, which at the time I was claiming as Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia, was denied due to having no service connection.
I kept submitting supplemental claims and appeals because I knew that was wrong. I almost had given up, but in April 2024, I was finally rated 100% P&T for PTSD. My effective date was January 2024, so I immediately filed an HLR to review my effective date.
I used the links I found on this website to schedule my meeting. I used the conference ID that was all 9's (ex. 99999999). I logged in in the middle of the night and found many open appointments. I scheduled it for the next morning. They sent me a confirmation text saying I was scheduled. The next morning I received another text saying my "conference ID is invalid." They still sent me another message saying I was still scheduled for a call a few hours from then.
The reviewer called me right on time. She was very nice and told me she was having trouble finding me. After verifying my identity, she had me give her a little background and I told her I submitted a Form 21-4138 explaining the timeline of events and she read it with me. She agreed with everything and said she saw no issues with going all the way back to December 2021. She was going to do a little more research because I might not have been at 100% the whole time, but that it would be better than nothing. She also said she'd have a decision for me by COB today, or tomorrow at the latest.
I was very pleased with my interaction and how quickly it was processed. Thank you for all the knowledge in this sub and all of you. Don't lose hope. Keep trying. It is possible. God bless you all.

Just ranting here… my 13yr old son and his BFF since 3rd grade had a falling out a few months ago. This kid was such a part of our family I was literally looking at mattresses for him since he stayed over so much. He got very religious, and we are not. He started telling my son who struggled with his weight (pre puberty, he’s thinned a lot in the last few months) that “gluttony is a sin”. My kid started pushing back, and finally uninvited bestie from his bday.
They haven’t recovered yet. There’s a third friend in this group that is still friends with each individually and he told my son that while at the other boys house the mom said my son is “trash”. I have no clue what version of the story she knows, but I do know I keep a closer eye on my son than she does (reiterating here that my experience is from 3rd-7th grade. I 100% monitor my kid harder than she does) and my version is told through the text messages I read with my own eyes.
But either way, talking shit on a 13yr old to their friend feels so cruel. I’m so angry, and there’s nothing I can do besides continue to build my kid up and tell him how proud I am for him standing up for himself.
It’s not hard to be a grown-up, and I wish some of these parents were better at it.

Admittedly I'm a little angry right now since it feels like Stellaris let me put 20 hours into a game before yanking the rug out from under me, but I'll try to avoid ranting and instead just provide an AAR, my feelings, and maybe some suggestions on how this can be improved.
Anyway, in short, see the title. I have no idea how I was supposed to beat this with the information the game gave me. Spoilers for the new crisis, obviously, if anyone is still new to it like I was.
A (not so) brief recap of my experience: I always play to beat the crisis while balancing that with RP. That is, I try to beat the strongest version I can while sticking to my favorite empire build, which is far from optimal. Since I play on all crises mode to get the most bang for my buck on a full length game, I set the crisis difficulty to 2.5x since I knew I'd be facing 4 of them at 2.5x, 5x, 10x, and finally 20x that I've never experienced. I always play out a normal length game, and always on ironman to keep myself honest and for achievements. I figured I might lose to the last crisis, but that was fine.
Around 2460, I got Cetana as my first crisis, which I considered lucky since I didn't know how she worked at all and I was afraid I'd get her at the end at 20x power and she'd be impossible for me to beat. I went in blind on purpose. Anyway, when she spawned, I saw that she had several fleets of about 900K power. That struck me as way higher than I expected since it would put her normal fleets at 1x in the ~350K range. I remember struggling the first time I encountered the crisis on 1x mode many years ago when a fleet had 80K power. No way a new player encountering it for the first time would be ready to fight that. It doesn't matter if she only gets a few: if you can't beat one, you can't fight it.
I assumed, perhaps rightly, that I wasn't intended to fight those fleets since each one of them had about as much power as my entire navy. I was trying to overbuild for the first crisis and had 7 fleets of battleships and titans. The battleships were mostly equipped with ancient saturator artillery, kinetic artillery, and plasma cannons, while a portion were carriers with ancient driller drones and gauss cannons. I know this is a suboptimal build, but I wanted to test it out with the saturator artillery stripping shields and the driller drones killing ships. Each fleet had about 120K power, in the early repeatables. Total ship count was 168 battleships, 7 titans, and a juggernaut if I'm remembering right.
For what felt like a year or two, Cetana didn't seem to do anything. Her territory was unreachable to me since hostile empires separated us.
Eventually she contacted me and a situation started. The situation didn't really explain what it was building to and was paused. Eventually she gave me the option to host an outpost for her, which I denied, but the game spawned it anyway saying I didn't really have a choice. The only result was a decrease in her opinion. Cetana was still neutral to me.
From this, I assumed that the mechanic here was that once she hit negative opinion she'd attack me, and that by giving in to her demands I would be delaying that while wasting resources or letting her destroy other parts of the galaxy as a trade off. Since I still had no chance of fighting her, I went along with it for a while. The events telegraphed that she was a Bad Guy, as I knew, and I knew I'd have to fight her eventually. I still wasn't sure how or when I would be forced to fight her.
After a while, the situation went away and I was informed I was at war with her. Okay, guess it's go time. She has 2 of her 900K fleets in my territory now, and she's attacking one of my bastions. To my shock, my 250K bastion equipped with neutron launchers and kinetic artillery was actually trashing her fleet, so I assumed that meant the numbers were way off and she was maybe designed to bluff players? So I sent in my navy, and...
Not a scratch! Not a scratch! Not a scratch!
Three of my seven fleets are teleported back to their home base. I got a bunch of event spam, but... one of the events said I could fight her now, and the remaining ships were allowed to fight and finish off the fleet my bastion was almost done destroying anyway. I get an event notification saying I should destroy her outpost fleets while I can before they regroup.
So, I regrouped my fleet and sent them to fight the other guard fleet with the plan to fight the outpost fleets next. 168 battleships and 7 titans (1.2 million power at this point) lost to a titan and 16 escorts (~800K power). After the initial engagement, which destroyed the titan almost instantly, the escorts just kept flying circles around my ships while I'm doing almost no damage. I'm seeing kinetic artillery and plasma cannon blasts flying but I'm doing scratch damage to the escort shields.
Before I lose more than half of my navy to a fleet with 1/2 its power left, I retreat them all. I clearly need to change my ship designs, but I'm not sure what I can do at this point. I could replace my weapon loadouts with lasers on everything so they can keep shooting ships at short range, but her ships are heavily shielded so it feels very suboptimal. Her escorts have a ton of PD so I assume I shouldn't try missiles.
I rebuild my navy and send them off to destroy the outpost guard fleets that are stuck in my territory, since the game told me to do that. Fights with a mere 6 escorts are dicey and lead to heavy losses, but I eventually manage to eliminate them.
After rebuilding my navy again, I start sending my navy off toward her territory since I see a large federation is actually managing to destroy some of her fleets. I get my ships into position to help theirs, and the game hangs. I'm worried it'll crash when...
"You lose!"
Oh. Oh, that's it? There was a death timer going and I didn't know it? She had about 3 million fleet power camping in her home system, so there was zero chance I could beat her anyway, but I didn't even know I was being timed.
It feels like Stellaris took the last 20 hours of this game and flushed them down the toilet while telling me, "Get good, nerd!"
I decided to read up on what the heck I was supposed to do, and apparently you're supposed to use torpedo frigates to fight her, and the curators will hint at this. Okay, fine. I can accept that my fleets were the opposite of what they were supposed to be to fight her.
However, the game gave me almost no chance to learn and deal with this in game. I think I had about 2 game years after she declared war before she pushed her easy button and the game ended. I had no chance to really fight and learn from the engagements on what I should do, unless the game designers expected me to learn that I should be using frigates from that one fight, and to accept that I had to do that despite having focused on other techs and thus had no repeatables in missile tech. Was it even possible to build a big enough frigate force in the time I had, maneuver it to her home system, and fight her? I honestly don't know if I could have won on 1x crisis strength.
I read that the game is supposed to start an event or something that tells you that her convoys are the weak link. Destroying them and outposts supposedly set her back on her death timer some? I don't know, since I never got this event. I didn't get to fight her until after she dismantled her outposts, so they couldn't be destroyed. I did see some convoy fleets, but was never able to even reach them before I lost the game, much less destroy any. I guess if you're genre savvy or just decide to not cooperate with her you can declare war earlier and have a chance to fight her when it still matters?
I also read that apparently the death timer starts when she first shows up and you have about 6000 days until it triggers. She gave me a special project to dig up a data cache that ate up some absurd amount of that time, during which time she was neutral. Should I have understood I was making a mistake? Sure, the game told me she was evil. I didn't know I was going to burn away 80% of the time I had to deal with her by talking and deferring a war that looked impossible to beat still. I assumed I needed to spend that time building up to fight her, and honestly didn't know I had a choice. I thought that completing the situation might do something that made her OP fleets more manageable. I read that you're supposed to get a damage bonus against her? Don't know, since that didn't happen for me either.
Does the game even tell you how long you have to defeat her? I didn't see it anywhere. There was no situation left, and nothing in the situation log about it like for the other crises. Maybe I missed it, but checked a couple of times. I assumed the narration was just that: narration implying urgency but with no mechanical basis, like most games and events in Stellaris. Maybe I'm lucky I've never seen the AI get very far with the aetherophasic engine?
I can accept that some of this is my fault. I chose to play on 2.5x crisis difficulty, in iron man, and to use battleships. I chose to play to the battleship meta (kind of, since I don't use meta loadouts). I also chose to acquiesce to her initially because she looked unbeatable, under the expectation that during the narrative something would change and I'd be given a fighting chance.
I'm a bit less forgiving of losing when I didn't even know I was being timed, especially when it feels like the game tricked me into wasting so much of that precious time in a couple of ways.
Was any of this bugged? I didn't get two of the events I read I was supposed to, including one that gives like +100% damage against her. Based on what I read, I think this was working as intended. I waited too long to start the fight so I missed out on the explanation of destroying outposts and convoys.
Or am I really just blind / dumb? I admit I had a kitten vying for my attention when Cetana was talking to me. Did the game literally tell me I was about to lose and I missed it?
Not really sure what I suggest to improve this. I don't want to say get rid of the death timer altogether since that is at least a unique mechanic among the crises. Maybe make it more obvious how much time you have, and give more ways to deal with it? Special projects you can research to interrupt or roll it back partially maybe? Or if destroying the convoys is the only solution, maybe make that more obvious?
TL;DR - I spent 20 hours playing a long game with the plan to fight all four crises, only for the new crisis to declare that I lost after timing me in a way that felt hidden. The mechanics felt poorly explained, and I felt blindsided by the loss while simultaneously not knowing what I could have even done differently. Worse, I don't really even want to try again right now since it would mean another 20 hours in a typical game for me.
Whenever I play again, I guess I'll just metagame. I hate to do that but it felt impossible to win while playing the crisis out as it was designed. Cetana tricking you into wasting too much time until it's too late feels fine for a narrative, but kind of sucks for a game with this much time invested into it.