Udemy Free Courses for 22 May 2024

Note : Coupons might expire anytime, so enroll as soon as possible to get the courses for FREE.

• REDEEM OFFERHow to sell like a pro (Business and Service Course).
• REDEEM OFFERLearn Complete Facebook Ads And Grow Your Page Now
• REDEEM OFFERHTML 5,Python,Django And Flask Framework Full-Stack Course
• REDEEM OFFER Machine Learning Primer with JS: Regression (Math + Code)
• REDEEM OFFER Social Media, Digital Marketing: ChatGPT + Content Marketing
• REDEEM OFFERMastering 3D Sketch-up Building, Basic To Advance Level Now
• REDEEM OFFER Graphic Design Using Canva beginner to Advance level Now
• REDEEM OFFER CURSO CSS MODERNO – DOMINA LAS NOVEDADES DE CSS AVANZADO
• REDEEM OFFER ChatGPT for Product Management
• REDEEM OFFER Agile Fundamentals Certification
• REDEEM OFFERPython Demonstrations For Practice Course
• REDEEM OFFERProfessional Diploma in Digital Products Management
• REDEEM OFFER The Git & GitHub Bootcamp: The Complete-Practical Guide
• REDEEM OFFERC++ Training Crash Course 2022
• REDEEM OFFER Javascript For Beginners Complete Course
• REDEEM OFFERCurso de HostGator 2024: El Hosting Ideal Para WordPress
• Personal Branding Mastery ( Personal Branding Essentials )
• REDEEM OFFER
• REDEEM OFFERProfessional Diploma in Project Management
• REDEEM OFFER DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals – Simulados em Português
• REDEEM OFFER Flask Hacking Mastery
• REDEEM OFFER Diseño de Conductos de Aire Acondicionado (Software Incl.)
• REDEEM OFFER GRE Quantitative Prep Master Math Course 2024 Updated
• REDEEM OFFER Professional Diploma in Omnichannel Sales&Service Management
• REDEEM OFFER Microsoft Excel – Beginner To Expert
• REDEEM OFFER Mastering Excel Data Analysis & Dashboard Reporting
• REDEEM OFFER Executive Diploma in Consumer Lending Business
• REDEEM OFFERChatGPT & Copilot for Python & R Data Science Projects
• REDEEM OFFER Effective And Efficient Emails
• REDEEM OFFER Navigating Financial Crime
• REDEEM OFFER Phonetics and Phonology
• REDEEM OFFER Fundamentos de IA Generativa para profesores
• REDEEM OFFER Managing Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS): Strategies & Technique
• Free Tutorial – System Design: Ultimate Course for Cracking Tech Interviews
• REDEEM OFFER
• REDEEM OFFERFree Tutorial – Coding Challenges: The Ultimate Course for Programmers
• REDEEM OFFERGoogle Professional Cloud Architect – The Complete Guide
• REDEEM OFFERDP-600: Implement Analytics Solutions using Microsoft Fabric
• REDEEM OFFER[NEW] Ultimate AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02
• REDEEM OFFERPIC Microcontroller: Everything you need to Know
• REDEEM OFFERInvestigação em Estratégia e Desenvolvimento de Produtos
• REDEEM OFFER Certificate in Public Relations and Communication Management
• REDEEM OFFERWordPress expert qualification
• REDEEM OFFER Executive Certificate in Company Direction
• REDEEM OFFER Web3 & Cryptocurrency Market analysing Tool Using WordPress
• REDEEM OFFER CSS, Bootstrap ,JavaScript, Web Development Course
• REDEEM OFFERUpwork Beginner Course: Win Freelance World
• REDEEM OFFERMaster Landscape Photo Editing From Scratch
• REDEEM OFFER Java And PHP Complete Course
• REDEEM OFFER Make a WordPress Website with Elementor

GET MORE FREE ONLINE COURSES WITH CERTIFICATE – CLICK HERE

My husband and I had been dreaming of starting a family for a long time. We’ve been together for 10 years, married for 3 years. We were so happy when it finally happened, especially me. To give more background, my husband's frequent travels for work, at least four different countries per month.
Last night, while browsing through his phone to see his travel photos, I accidentally deleted one and went to the recently deleted folder to recover it. Then I found screenshots of three Japanese girls with their names, taken from an escort hiring website. So I digged deeper. I discovered similar photos with names and schedules in his recently deleted notes, corresponding to the days he was in Japan. I also saw thr location of the escort place in his recent searched on his maps app.
Though I can't confirm if he actually engaged in such activities, the fact the he was looking for somwthing liked that hurts me. And to be honest, my concern isn't primarily for myself but for our innocent newborn. I feel devastated by the situation and overwhelmed by the responsibility to protect my child. Dealing with this while still recovering from a C-section has left me feeling depressed and drained of energy and strength.
I’m so ready to leave since i have pretty stable work from home job and i know I can raise my baby alone. But i’m thinking about my child and fear of making wrong decisions. i want to take a break for now so I can think but i don’t know where to go, because I don’t want my family to know. At least not for now. 😭

When I was 4, in 2008,I went to Disney land for three days. One day we went to holy wood studios I rember going to the muppet theature and then visiting galaxy edge. I rember seeing kids build drones and looking at them on the sheleves when they were done. I rember seeing the drodes out side of where you build them but I especially rember a picture of me with the drodes. On my first day on the trip I got a disney notebook from magic kingdom. I filled that notebook with drawings and pictures of me and my family on our trip. I rember having a photo of me and te drodes being glued to one of the pages.
When I turned 18 I asked to go to disney land as a graduation/birthday/Christmas gift and me and my famliy went. I heard that the star wars part of the park just opened then and I thought it was just renevated or something but then we got there and it was exactly how I rembered it. I was getting serious dajavou the whole time and it felt kind of creepy. I saw the drode building table and the larger ptop drodes again knowing that I have saw them before. I brought this up to my family and they just told me it opened recently so I must be miss rembering. I was thinking about this experience the other day so I found my old disney note book and searched for the photo only to see it wasnt there.
I am not a disney park or star wars nerd so I think theres a posibilty of them reusing a smaller part of the park into the larger star wars experience but with minimal googling I havent found anything on this. I just find this creepy its not the only personal mandela effect I have experienced but it is the one that drives me the most crazy.

Equipment: Breville Bambino, DF54, Crema 54mm bottomless portafilter with stock basket, WDT, 53.3mm tamp
Beans: Dark Roast (Espresso blend from my local coffee shop)
Puck prep: I begin with weighing out 18g of beans, RDT, and hot starting my grinder as it grinds I run a blank shot to warm up my bottomless and cup. I do some pre-WDT to my grind while in the dosing cup before adding into my portafilter. I WDT again and distribute (no tool just use my WDT) I give a couple taps and I tamp. I regularly have to pull off my dosing funnel and swipe in some grind left on the rim and give a quick press again (I don’t mind). What I did new this time was do a “pre” pre-infusion by taking a dropper and wetting my puck (saw on a yt video and though f it let’s try it).
End result: 18g in, 40g out in 30 sec
My shot had some spurting in the beginning (I can’t seem to get away from it) and I know my yield is a little high that’s mostly from letting the last drips fall in.
Taste: I think this was my best tasting shot while dialing in today, slightly watery I’ll attribute to letting it run a little longer I’d cut it short before hitting my 1:2 ratio so my last drips get me to my goal but I noticed a balanced shot, full bodied, not much clarity but I like nutty and chocolate notes which I think the lack of clarity emphasized that for me.
Question: I loved the taste I got and trying some new things I think played a factor but I’m still cleaning up a squirting shot do I just deal with it since I’m happy with the result?

Goal: Create a heartfelt animated music video Song: TheFatRat - Still Here With You Tone: Happy, Sad, Sweet, Touching, Moving, Inspiring, Beautiful, Spiritual Style: 2D cute cartoon/anime Length: About two and a half minutes to fit the song (more is fine, adding a short intro/outro to fit the story is welcome) Deadline: 2 Months (flexible) Budget: $3,000 (flexible)
​
Sorry if the deadline/budget seems unreasonable. I am very flexible on both and am more than willing to work with someone on a fair price.
​
I would like to have a music video created for my fiancée, Emily, starring her and one of our cats, Fawkes, who we helped cross the rainbow bridge in February 2023. We always get the feeling he's still here with us, watching over us, spreading his love and joy. I want to imagine what that would look like if it were indeed true. On a spiritual level, they were/are truly soulmates, and I want to create something really special for her to remember him by. These last few years have been really tough for her, and we have been abandoned/betrayed by some friends and family mainly due to drama around our caring for Fawkes.
​
I am looking for someone passionate who truly wants to help me make this a reality. I will do everything in my power to get whatever you need to make this work. This is probably way too much info, but I'm trying to get my thoughts out if it can help the creative process for anyone. If you're interested, please send me a message.
​
Factoids:

• Me: 33M
• Emily: 34F
• Emily and Fawkes slept on the couch together during his sickness (he would always lay on her, face to face)
• Emily likes to paint as a hobby (shapes, flowers, birds, owls)
• Emily likes to play PC games (Overwatch, World of Warcraft)
• Emily is usually up at night while I'm asleep
• Emily has been free of work since before he got sick
• I work during the day, Emily is at home alone (she does not drive)
• We still randomly find his fur on our clothes that have been washed multiple times since he passed. It makes us smile and think of it as a gift from him.
• Fawkes and Freyja didn't get along unsupervised, so we kept them separated when we slept or had to go somewhere
• Freyja sometimes acts like Fawkes did (belly rubs and lots of snuggles). We feel as though it's Fawkes visiting us through her.

​
Thoughts, ideas, notes:

• Possibly starting from when we are at/leaving the vet when we said goodbye
• Fawkes depicted as an angel/spirit cat
• Centered around Fawkes and Emily
• Emily doing day-to-day things like watching TV, painting, playing games, chores
• Emily looking at pictures and feeling sad
• Emily feeling hopeless and alone
• Freyja and I can be part of making her feel better sometimes
• I go to work and she's all alone
• Fawkes finding ways to cheer up/help Emily, somehow interacting with things around her
• I want it to express feelings of sadness at points but also happiness and joy
• Locations closely based on actual places we went/live (I can provide pictures of where we live or addresses of locations for Google Maps for satellite views)
• Ending: I would like to show Fawkes with her family dog (who passed away in September 2021) and her grandmother (who passed away in January 2024), all happy together and watching over Emily

​
backstory below
​
Beginning:
Fawkes came into our lives in July 2017 from the streets after his previous owners were taken away from him a few weeks prior. We immediately brought him to the vet to get checked and tested for anything. The vet found that he was chipped and five years old. As a result, they couldn't really do much besides try to contact the previous owners. We took him home and kept him separated from our other cat, Freyja, since we did not know if he could spread anything to her. He was pretty lethargic, hardly eating, and couldn't really keep much down. We honestly thought we would wake up the next morning and he wouldn't be with us anymore. Luckily, that was not the case.
​
He wasn't doing so well the next day, so we called the vet and they had us come in again. Since the previous day, he went from over seven pounds down to about six and a half pounds. Our vet decided it was necessary to medically intervene or he was likely going to die. They hospitalized him on the spot and started giving him subcutaneous (SQ) fluids and other medications to help with his nausea and stimulate his appetite. We left him under the care of the vet and all we could do was wait to hear back. He pulled through like a champ. He was eating, moving, jumping, playing, snuggling, and loving life. It was as if he was reborn, like a phoenix from the ashes, so we named him "Fawkes" after the phoenix from Harry Potter.
​
Over the following years, Fawkes and Emily became pretty much inseparable. He was such a lovebug and radiated that classic "orange cat energy" wherever he went. If he wanted to get into something, he'd either find a way or keep trying until we could stop him. He absolutely LOVED belly rubs, and not once was it ever a trap (unless you felt "trapped" rubbing his belly for hours). In all the time we had him, he never hissed at, scratched, or bit (non-playfully) anyone. He just wanted to love everything and everyone he met. He didn't have any enemies in his eyes, just others who may not have cared for the level of love and joy he wanted to share.
​
Later:
Fawkes was diagnosed with stage 1 chronic kidney disease (CKD) in October 2021, which quickly progressed to stage 3 by early 2022. We were giving him medicine a few times a day, SQ fluids every couple of days, and going to the vet every other week to have his levels checked. He became a regular at the vet and even a few employees confessed to taking breaks just to go snuggle him because they loved him so much. We almost said goodbye to him in May 2022, as his symptoms were worsening and he no longer wanted to eat. He was a fighter, though, and told us he wasn't done fighting yet by finally eating on his own just as we were trying to make that difficult decision. We took him to the Animal Emergency and Referral Center (AERC) that night.
​
The vet told us that he had developed anemia and our only options were either to take him home and start end-of-life care or do a blood transfusion (which might not even work) and keep him hospitalized for a few days to be monitored. We opted for the blood transfusion. The procedure went well and we were able to come and visit him a day later, though they still had to keep him for another day or two just to be safe. We were also able to have his case looked at by a specialist, and they adjusted his meds to better suit his needs. They were estimating he maybe had a few weeks to a month or so before we ended up back where we were before the transfusion. We were now giving him less medicine a few times a day, SQ fluids every night, and going on walks through our apartment building every night before bed.
​
A few weeks became a few months, and he seemed to be doing even better than he was all of 2022 before his transfusion. We would take him on trips to Petco every week or so, so he could walk around and meet new friends. We would bring him to the park while we played Pokémon GO, even if we ended up just sitting in the car. Starting around September 2022, my boss even let me bring him to work with me on days he wanted me in the office. Vet appointments were few and far between, sometimes a couple of months apart. This pretty much continued all the way into February 2023 until we started to notice more significant symptoms again, and his CKD values were getting much worse. He didn't want to eat, he was hiding more, and he would often seek comfort by laying in his litterbox. We could tell our little warrior was ready to be done fighting.
​
Goodbye:
On the night of Tuesday, February 14th, 2023, Valentine's Day, we decided we couldn't make him fight for us any longer. We called our vet and made an appointment for Thursday, February 16th, 2023. We spent the whole day together on Wednesday, February 15th, 2023, snuggling on the couch and finished with our nightly routine of SQ fluids and a walk. We all spent the night together on the couch, staying awake as long as we could. On Thursday, February 16th, 2023, we brought Fawkes to the vet, and he was excited to walk around and explore the new space for a short while before needing a rest. It was nice to see him perk up and act like how we remembered him to be. The doctors took him away to be prepped and brought him back after a short while. We were petting him, kissing him, and told him he was a good boy and how much we loved him as he peacefully passed. We left there with the heaviest pet carrier ever. An empty one.

I initially had planned on coming June 30th so got hotel reservations starting from then, but plane tickets wound up being way cheaper if I came a day early so I got a random hotel reservation, before anyone asks. I'm going with my best friend who invited me to go with him to Vegas for his 50th birthday last year.
June 29: Arrive at 4 pm, Four Queens for one night. I don't have a whole lot planned for this day except dinner which is undecided. I do want to try and hit Neon Museum that night though. Also plan to visit the Art's District.
June 30: Comp 2 night stay at Aria. Criss Angel in the evening.
July 1: Hoover Dam VIP Tour in the morning. Piff the Magic Dragon in the evening.
July 2 (my birthday): Got myself a room at Signature of MGM balcony suite which is 900 square feet. It'll be the nicest room I've ever stayed in (except maybe Aria the previous 2 nights). Thing only cost me $100 when I looked 6 months ago; it's $600 now. Vegas Speedway in the morning. Rouge in the evening.
July 3-6: The D downtown. Red Rock tour on the 3rd. No big shows planned this day but I'm still looking into it. We plan on going to Chinatown on this day also.
July 4th is currently wide open. We plan on finding a good spot to watch fireworks and that's it.
July 5th: Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon day tour
July 6th: Home
I haven't figured out where I wanna eat but I do know I want to eat at the major buffets like Wicked Spoon and Bacchanal. Also want to hit Herbs & Rye for their half off happy hour.
What does everyone think?

My best friend of 15 years completely cut me off and began a smear campaign about me when she realized her brother in law (her husband's brother) and I had feelings for each other. This happened almost a year ago, when she told me that she, her husband, and her BIL were coming to my city for a baseball game, and I told her I always thought her BIL was attractive. She immediately responded with, "OMG me too! I've always wondered how big his dick is!". Odd response, but ok. From then on, she kept pushing me to sleep with him so she could live vicariously through me and to spare no detail, but I told her over and over that I wouldn't do that, since I was very close to her, her family, and her husband's family and felt things could get messy if it was purely physical. In between that visit and another, her BIL and I started texting and talking all day every day, and we quickly realized our feelings for each other. He and I had all the conversations regarding how to tell her and his family, how we'd navigate a long distance relationship, what would happen if things didn't work out, etc, but we didn't even get a chance to talk to my BFF or his brother because as soon as she caught wind of our feelings, she completely blew up on me and said, " You were allowed to fuck him! You weren't allowed to catch feelings!" When I asked her why, she couldn't give me a straight answer except she thought it would ruin our friendship because it would never work out anyway. She says me being with him is “disloyal” to her.
She immediately cut me off altogether, and this has led to several months of her desperately trying to get his parents on her side by trying to use my past against me and telling his mom that I wasn't good enough for him. She divulged secrets said in the confidence of a best friendship to his parents, and even gone so far as to make up outright lies about me.
I'm still struggling to process this, as I was her best friend for 15 years, the Maid of Honor in her wedding, and was asked to be her son's Godmother...so how am I not good enough for her brother in law? It's been almost a year now, and his parents are so furious with her and her husband (their oldest son) for causing a rift in the family, and they fully support our relationship. Now there's conversations surrounding family get togethers, holidays, birthdays, and what will happen since she and her husband have openly said I am no longer welcome in their home.
I do not know how to move forward with the betrayal, nor have I responded to her actions in any way in 8 months. I’m not sure how much she knows about what I know she's said about me…I have been silent since she cut me off and blocked me on all channels. I feel terrible for his parents and how they're in the middle, and she never should have involved them.
For context, her BIL and I are extremely happy and have moved in together with his parent's support and blessing. He and I are best friends and have such a healthy, loving, supportive, fun, and trustworthy relationship, but my former best friend will not back down and will not let go of her feelings and claims I owe her an apology. I, my boyfriend, and even his parents feel I have nothing to apologize for. I tried talking to her several times when this all first went down and begged her not to end our friendship, but she cut me off, so I stopped reaching out. Now she’s claiming she feels it’s time to reconcile (probably because she couldn’t get anyone but her husband on her side), but wants an apology from me.
So, am I the asshole for falling in love with her brother in law?

**TL;DR;** : BFF moves to different city, starts to act differently, wears our friendship down over a series of slights, plans trip to my dream locale without telling me, during my birthday. Now wants to talk and hang out since I've gone low contact.
TW: Infidelity.
General Warning: Long AF, and this is the abridged version if you can believe it.
So my closest friend since High School, someone I considered closer than a brother, that I have been through so much with, worked with, traveled with, lived with, cried with. My kindred spirit, who's been by my side for over half of the total time I have existed. A person who shaped my growth, and I his (or so I thought), in the past 3 or so years has become borderline unrecognizable to me, and it has eaten my spirit alive.
So...essentially I could write a book about my relationship with this person, but I'll try to keep things pointed and brief. I'll refer to him as Dan. Things between us had been solid for years, and we enjoyed a closeness and camaraderie on par with the likes of Troy & Abed, or Frodo & Sam, until after a period of rising tension between him and his first wife. He divorced her for "not having enough direction in life" is essentially how he put it, which, fair enough, I knew she wasn't perfect and likely needed some therapy to improve her mind set and outlook, but I did consider her a friend, and was remorseful that they couldn't make it work. During this time I let him stay with me and my gf (I'll refer to her as Lisa) for about a month rent free while he and his ex were sorting everything out,
Eventually he moves to the next city over and condemns our hometown as being some worthless crime-infested rathole, which I assume stems from the animosity of his divorce so I let him have that. Only he started to mention some version of that every time he came to visit, now I'm not smitten with this place or anything, but what he describes is a gross exaggeration, there are tons of worse places to live and this is where my career is, so I don't love the idea of constantly being down on it. Ironically the city he moved to is considered our "Sister City" and I personally do not see much of a difference between the two.
Anyway, eventually he meets a nice girl (I'll refer to her as Amy) and they begin dating, Amy, Lisa, and I actually develop a great rapport over shared interests pretty quickly, and while I'm happy to have a new friend, I begin to resent how little effort Dan's ever put into getting to know Lisa. Lisa admits to me privately that she occasionally feels excluded by him sometimes, but she says she gets enough attention from myself and Amy that it's no big deal and we're able to do many things as a 4-person group for awhile.
This dynamic would regrettably sour during a trip to a major city for a few days, just the 4 of us again. Where a singular innocuous interaction between Lisa and Dan would apparently cause him to cultivate resentment for her, the trip itself would go fine, but upon our return Dan would tell me he doesn't think Lisa likes him, and how he didn't appreciate her insulting his driving. Though the "insult" he was referring to was a harmless tease about some minor detail that both myself, Amy, and I'm pretty sure he himself had laughed at, at the time.
I explained how I felt he was misinterpreting some things, and to his credit, he did relent over that specific instance, but he and Lisa still have no relationship to speak of and hardly communicate when they're around each other at all, whereas, in stark contrast, I'll get the occasional random text from Amy about our shared interests, and she has become almost like a sister to me in the 3 years she and Dan have been together. Dan and Lisa are both aware of our rapport, and both encourage it, but I still try to keep out casual chats to a minimum (but I never just outright ignore her either), because I dislike how Dan refuses to even try to really befriend Lisa. Yet paradoxically he almost demands that I try to cultivate a friendship with Amy on par with the one I had with his Ex-Wife, and was visibly disappointed when I said I didn't know if it was possible initially. Seems like hypocrisy that should be obvious to even him.
And I wish this was the extent of it, but it gets much worse unfortunately. After returning from a business trip about a year and a half ago, he insists that he needs to confide something in me, and goes on to confess to making out with and feeling up one of his coworkers after the two of them split a number of drinks and she invited him back to her apartment. Evidently he wasn't the only one doing any cheating because she stopped it before it went any further and changed into large, unflattering loungewear, evidently indicating she was done with their liaison.
Now this I laid into him over, lambasting it as one of the worse, if not the actual worst thing he's ever done. I think he expected me to ease his conscience, but he encouraged me to befriend Amy, so I did, so effectively he cheated on a good friend of mine, and it pissed me the f*ck off. He eventually said he'd had enough, he knows it was stupid and he'd never do it again, and I just felt absolutely lost. Burdened with this horrific knowledge by someone I cared so deeply for, to the detriment of another person I care for, not to mention the horrible optics I feared from Lisa discovering that I'd be willing to conceal such a thing. Despite the utter shock, and beginning to question whether or not I even truly know this man, I choose to conceal it. I did not think it was my place to tell Amy, if she were to even believe me in the first place.
Between the hostility directed at Lisa, and now contending with the questionability of his moral character, I began to wonder if our relationship was doomed, and seeds of resentment likely began to take root in me at this time. Shortly after this he was accepted to an MBA program and began prioritizing socializing with his classmates over me, side-lining and blowing me off again and again in favor of these people who were essentially strangers. I'll admit, I used to be a little covetous of his attention, even amongst our mutual friends, but I never openly displayed this, as it's wrong to try and dictate who a person can spend time with, but the level of "social demotion" he began to put me through was absurd, to the point it arguably warranted ghosting him on it's own.
For example: Somehow we both managed to acquire multi-day passes to this theme park we both enjoy, and have a handful of good memories of attending together in HS, around the same time. However, he could not be bothered to try and arrange an outing with me to it, because his was apparently an MBA-related thing, and he wanted to save the last couple days for his classmates because they might want to go later, and he'd have to make sure that wasn't happening before he'd deign to waste them on me. Even the few times he actually invited me to go to MBA related events, he'd spend the entire time seeking out his classmates to talk to, and would not introduce me to anyone, even if I was hovering nearby, leaving me with Amy and Lisa (not that I'm complaining, I much prefer their company to that of strangers, though of course we did a decent amount of our own mingling, the 3 of us just stuck together for the most part.)
Finally, on to the latest nail in the coffin, the one that has caused me to go low contact with him and even sent some mild reverberations through our extended friend group. Since some of the earliest days of our friendship, we have discussed going to Japan together one day. About mid-March of this year, I saw some YT Short on how the exchange rate between the Yen and my home country's currency has become very favorable, and I forwarded this to him hoping to maybe broach the topic of planning to go, I think to myself maybe finally taking this trip can help us get our relationship back on track, only for him to reveal he'd already planned a trip there for himself and Amy, next month, right on top of my birthday. My birthday being something we and our extended friend group have done for whole weekends almost ritualistically at my family's lake house that they're kind enough to let me use for the past couple of years.
At that moment I felt broken. I felt utterly betrayed, and my resentment finally boiled over. All of the callousness and selfishness I felt I perceived from him drove me into a rage and after I was finished reciting multiple, vulgar, Sophia Petrillo-style curses upon his name, I calmed myself, and text him back, "Sounds like fun. Hope you guys enjoy." and went completely low contact from there. I also decided to not arrange my party from there, I knew I would be too consumed with negativity to enjoy it. Our other friends found this odd, but I just rattled off some weak excuses as to why it wouldn't work out this year.
So now all that has come and gone, and he apparently proposed to Amy while they were over there. Of course she said yes, and honestly I wish I could be happy for them, I really do. But the relationship is founded on a profound lie, and I finally revealed the truth to Lisa when I felt that the damage to Dan and I's relationship pushed it beyond ever being fully repaired again, knowing full well what she might think of me for it, but I was at a point where I decided I don't deserve to be happy, and I have failed her, I have failed Amy, and I let Dan lead me to all this. I'm sure I've failed him in some way too, probably by not forcing him to hold himself accountable, and by not calling him out on the Japan trip. He comes off so ignorant sometimes, like he's completely unaware that his actions affect anyone else, but that's not an excuse for me.
So now...I'm stuck as to what to do next. Lisa has forgiven me for my idiocy and secret-keeping, luckily that's literally the only thing I've ever kept from her, and she was understanding about the complexity of the issue. Ultimately as long as she still loves me, everything else is a bonus from my perspective.
But now I've got our extended circle pushing us to get back in contact, and he recently text me after not reaching out for a month. They know there's some kind of rift, but they've no idea the extent of my grievances, and to reveal his infidelity in particular would likely lead to a dramatic upheaval of some kind, and it also doesn't feel like it's my place to do it. I really only told Lisa because I cannot stand to keep anything from her, and she's very trustworthy with sensitive information, in addition to being far more understanding and sympathetic than I deserve.
I really want to avoid as much drama and turmoil as possible, and my father has advised me to "quietly fade out of his live" by continuing to limit contact, but reply when he reaches out, and even be open to attending any large gatherings I know he'll be at if I have other friends there, and eventually he'll take the hint and move on without a whole volatile episode. This doesn't feel like an insane approach to me, based on his treatment of me for the last year and half or so, and him reaching out like it's business as usual after a month of no contact, seems to suggest his interest in hashing anything out is minimal.
However, I have heard from other friends that he's lost contact with most of his classmates now that they're several months past graduation, and he's apparently struggling to land a job due to how picky he is over every detail, he's had like over a dozen interviews with noteworthy entities and none of them are good enough for one reason or another and so he remains at the place he's been since prior to being accepted by the MBA, and apparently out hometown isn't such a cesspit because now he's apparently been returning to go to the local hobby shops with some of our mutual friends. It kinda feels like he anticipated some grandiose move to a large city with a high-paying, low-demand job, while retaining all his upwardly mobile MBA buddies.
Oh, and now unbelievably, he's reached out wanting to hang out just the two of us. Clearly wanting to address my recent distance from him, and likely drag me through the details of that godforsaken trip.
Any advice or insight on all this would be appreciated. In my heart of hearts I still love him, I probably always will, but what he has become only seems to bring me pain.

Here is the official link that shows how to calculate eligibility: https://www.dshs.texas.gov/hivstd/policy/policies/220-001#:\~:text=Half%20Birth%20Month%20–%20Half%20birth,half%20birth%20month%20is%20July).
TLDR verion: I'm trying to create an Excel formula to determine if someone is "Eligible" or "Not Eligible" based on their birth month and the last date they completed eligibility. Clients need to come twice a year: once in their birth month and once in the half birth month (6 months after the birth month). Here are the rules:
Find the client's birth month. Determine the half birth month (6 months after the birth month). If eligibility is completed on time, the client remains eligible until the next due month. During the next due month (either the birth month or half birth month), the client remains eligible but must complete eligibility within that month to continue being eligible. For example, if the birth month is April and the last eligibility was completed in January, the next eligibility is due by the end of October.
How can I set up this calculation in Excel to output either "Eligible" or "Not Eligible"? Any help with creating this formula would be greatly appreciated!
More derailed explanation:
Eligibility Updates:
1. Birth Month Update (BMU):
· Clients must come in for an update during their birth month every year.
· If they complete this update on time, they remain eligible.
· If they miss this update and don't come in during their birth month, they become "Not Eligible" until they complete a late BMU.
2. Half Birth Month Update (HBMU):
· Six months after their birth month, clients need another update.
· If they complete this on time, they stay eligible.
· If they miss this update and don't come in during their half birth month, they become "Not Eligible" until they complete a late HBMU.
Late Updates:

• Clients who miss either the BMU or HBMU and do not complete them within the designated months become "Not Eligible" immediately after the designated month ends.
• They have up to six months from the missed month to complete a late update and regain eligibility.
• Completing a late update results in a shorter eligibility window. This means they become eligible again only from the day they complete the late update and this eligibility will last until the next required update (either BMU or HBMU).
• If a client comes in for a late HBMU just before their next BMU, they will only be eligible for a short period, as they must update again in their birth month.

Key Points to Remember:

• Clients are required to update their eligibility within their birth month, meaning they can come any day during that month to retain their eligibility. If a client's birth month passes without them coming in for an update, they become "Not Eligible."
• Similarly, clients must update their eligibility within their half birth month, which is six months after their birth month. They need to come any day during this month to stay eligible. If this month passes without an update, they are switched to "Not Eligible."
• Clients cannot do these updates earlier than their designated birth month or half birth month.

Examples:

• If a client's birthday is in January, they need to update in January (BMU) and then again in July (HBMU).
• If they miss the January update and come in February for a late BMU, they are only eligible from the day they complete the late update and will need to update again in July.

This structured process ensures clients regularly update their information to maintain eligibility for services.
Below are examples of the calculation with different scenarios:
+ABCD 1LastEligibilityDOBNotesManualStatus 21/3/20241/17/1994Did eligibility right on timeEligible 32/11/20242/20/1938Did eligibility right on timeEligible 43/9/20243/25/1975Did eligibility right on timeEligible 54/5/20244/26/1953Did eligibility right on timeEligible 65/11/20245/11/1979Did eligibility right on timeEligible 712/2/20236/12/1994Did eligibility right on timeEligible 81/4/20247/21/1979Did eligibility right on timeEligible 92/4/20248/23/1978Did eligibility right on timeEligible 103/12/20249/5/1984Did eligibility right on timeEligible 114/13/202410/11/1987Did eligibility right on timeEligible 125/13/202411/13/1934Did eligibility right on timeEligible 1312/12/202312/6/1958Did eligibility right on timeEligible 1411/10/20235/20/1991Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 1511/26/20235/9/1937Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 1611/4/20235/22/1958Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 1711/7/20235/14/1935Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 1811/17/20235/20/1958Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 1911/20/20235/7/1956Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2011/13/202311/23/1989Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2111/16/202311/24/1970Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2211/25/202311/9/1958Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2311/21/202311/3/1936Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2411/13/202311/22/1967Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 2511/28/202311/23/1952Eligible but needs to complete an update by the end of this month to stay eligibleEligible but due this month 266/20/20231/20/1937Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 277/11/20232/11/1984Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 288/20/20233/20/1986Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 299/1/20234/1/1996Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 3010/13/20235/13/1943Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 3111/10/20226/10/1995Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 3212/1/20227/1/1968Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 331/2/20238/2/1971Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 342/19/20239/19/1982Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 353/6/202310/6/1962Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 362/17/202310/17/1934Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 375/1/202312/1/1978Missed half birth month updateNot Eligible 3812/1/20211/12/1976Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 391/24/20222/2/1980Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 402/25/20223/22/1964Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 413/17/20224/20/1939Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 424/4/20225/5/1955Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 435/3/20226/1/1981Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 446/26/20227/9/1960Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 457/25/20228/11/1940Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 468/4/20229/12/1988Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 479/8/202210/5/1995Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 4810/1/202211/8/1981Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 4911/14/202212/19/1934Missed birth month updateNot Eligible 503/30/20241/14/1983Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 514/30/20242/6/1976Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 525/10/20243/13/1971Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 535/17/20244/7/1958Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 544/30/20241/17/1972Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 552/8/20246/7/1969Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 563/23/20247/12/1937Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 574/6/20248/15/1935Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 585/28/20249/7/1990Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 596/10/202410/15/1993Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 603/8/20246/5/1999Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 612/28/202412/3/1939Eligible, client did eligible very late *has a gap in eligible since they did it late*Eligible 624/3/20245/22/1995Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 634/1/20245/15/1976Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 644/18/20245/28/1975Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 654/11/20245/3/1999Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 664/19/20245/16/1956Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 674/21/20245/22/1967Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 684/10/202411/28/1979Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 694/11/202411/28/1957Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 704/1/202411/12/1970Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 714/3/202411/11/1950Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 724/11/202411/23/1934Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 734/24/202411/10/1946Eligible, Client did eligblity EXTREMELY late but is still due THIS monthEligible but due this month 745/1/20246/23/1984Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 755/2/20246/25/1976Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 765/3/20246/28/1983Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 775/4/20246/1/1936Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 785/5/20246/21/1948Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 795/6/20246/24/1966Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 805/7/202412/12/1981Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 815/8/202412/5/1962Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 825/9/202412/19/1995Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 835/10/202412/25/1985Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 845/11/202412/12/1978Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible 855/12/202412/13/1949Eligible, Client did eligibility EXTREMELY late but is still due NEXT monthEligible
Table formatting brought to you by ExcelToReddit

Good afternoon!
To all my fellow Ithaca residents, please make sure to take to the polls today, to vote in the Ithaca City School District Board of Education election. If you believe in public education, making sure our students, teachers and support staff are getting the resources and tools they need to thrive and succeed, you will make time to get to the pools, between 12pm and 9pm. If you don’t have access to transportation, I am happy to transport folks (send me a message on Facebook or email)
As many of you know, I spent 6 years on the Board of Education, until I made the difficult decision to resign two years ago. After receiving many Facebook messages, text messages, and phone calls in the past 24 hours from friends and community members asking me who they should vote for and if they should vote yes/no to the budget, I have decided to share my thoughts publicly so I can get back to my 9-5 job for the day . As a single mom of three and a homeowner, I empathize with the sentiment of people feeling like they can no longer afford to rent or own a home in Ithaca. However, Ithaca has been becoming unaffordable for quite some time, I say this as someone who has lived in this community for 21 years. This feeling did not start with our assessment that increased this past year or the rollout of the BoE budget. Voting NO to the budget will not change your assessment, it will not “stick it” to administrators, who will get their raises along with other unionized ICSD employees as part of contractual negotiations. Voting NO will punish and hurt children, teachers and supporting staff. Teachers and support staff will have less resources and support to educate and inspire our children if we have to adopt a contingency plan. And our most vulnerable students will suffer the most. “How a society treats its most vulnerable is always the measure of its humanity” – Ghandi. In this context, how ICSD cares for and educates its most vulnerable students is an indication of how well the school district fares in educating its school community.
As we have all read about four of our schools losing “Good Standing” status with NYSED, and our Black and Brown students feeling the impact of this the most; how can we as a community in good conscious, say that we will provide our children, our future leaders with less than they deserve to overcome the many obstacles that the pandemic has created. For all the caregivers, educators, mental health workers out there, we all know - no one is okay! Some of us were not okay before we were forced into a few years of isolation, so to expect our educators to be able to reconcile the damages that the pandemic created with fewer resources is setting our educators up for the impossible. And yes, taxpayers should not have to bear the weight of this alone when we live in a town with college/university campuses. So instead of glorifying the problem, why don’t we talk about structural solutions? How many of us know Anna Kelles and Lea Webb personally, socially or professionally? Why don’t we bring in our state representatives to help us think about structural long-term solutions of state aid and university contributions? And while we are at it, invite Governor Kathy Hochul who sits on the Board of Trustees of Cornell University to this conversation; why are we not thinking strategically about those who hold power to shift this paradigm? I know this will take time, and folks are concerned with the now.
What can we do now? We can do an inventory of what ICSD offers and provides our students and staff from academics to extracurricular activities. We can ask the questions of, what is the district allocating funding for and is it effective and for whom? The district has an Evaluation Officer, we need to hear from her on what are the impacts of our initiatives, programs, and the curriculum offerings. Our teachers and support staff have unions and union leaders. We need to hear from the union leaders, not just during budget season or when chaos is amiss, but throughout the academic years so we know how best to support teachers all year long.
I will be voting yes to the budget. Yes, it is a huge increase. But guess what folks? We have 12 schools in our very small city, and we are living during a time of high inflation so the services needed to support all these 12 schools have increased. A typical classroom in our building has many adults. I bring this up because I constantly hear the comparison of salary of ICSD teachers to teachers outside the district who are making more than ICSD teachers. 9/10 times these teachers in other districts are making more money because they don’t have co-teachers, teachers assistants, teacher aides, 1:1s, etc. I am in NO way making the argument to have less support in the classroom or to eliminate positions, I am pointing out that our district has a larger supporting staff than many other districts. Teachers and supporting staff deserve a HIGHER wage without question. But this is not an ICSD only problem, this is a nationwide issue. Our country has not put anywhere near enough funding into public education that is needed. And this is not an excuse for the Board or the highly paid administration team. But we have to be real about what are the root causes vs. symptoms of the problems. Give this article a read if you have time: Schools are bracing for widespread teacher layoffs. Here’s why CNN Politics
Now the tricky part of this post, who I am voting for. I am going to be brutally honest because that is just who I am. After attending the public forum with all seven candidates, I left with very very strong opinions of what I witnessed and heard. I plan to vote for Barry Derfel, Moira Long, and Eldred Harris. I know Barry Derfel very peripherally from sitting on the BoE, as well as when I worked for the Multicultural Resource Center, and he was supporting teachers with culturally responsive teaching as well as participating with the Talking Circles initiative. What I know of Barry, is that he is a supporter of equity and inclusion, meaning NO CHILD GETS LEFT BEHIND. Barry has been a teacher, an administrator, and is a parent – he understands the many facets of public education and how we are thriving as a district and how we are failing as a district. Two truths can stand side by side.
I was on the BoE with both Eldred and Moira during my tenure, and it was not always cordial and a walk in the park between us. But what I can say, is that in those behind the door conversations, heated debates, I rarely ever questioned their commitment to children and teachers and support staff. Moira has always championed for teachers and retirees; she understands their plight and struggles as a former teacher herself. Eldred and I both grew up in NYC (though he is my senior by maybe a couple decades) and understand the struggles of being hyper visible yet unseen, overcoming adversity, attending underfunded schools, and taught by teachers who were tasked with the impossible. I know Eldred to be someone who is going to champion for what is best for every child, someone who is going to tap into their radical imagination to think of another way forward, someone who has institutional knowledge and knows how far the district has come, and someone who is willing to ask the hard questions.
I’m going to close this long monologue by saying I believe in creating space for new voices at the table. However, some of these new voices are advocating for changes that will hurt specific populations of children, like candidates who are advocating to bring back policies such as "tracking", while research shows tracking has a disparaging outcome for students and frankly is a racist policy. I said it. There are also candidates who have flip flopped on their support of the budget, telling ITA they would vote yes and after receiving the teacher’s union endorsement telling community members, they would vote no for the budget. Misleading your constituents is never a good sign and not a good way to build community trust and engagement. If I had to vote for a fourth candidate, it would be Todd Fox. He was honest and transparent about his talents and his lack of knowledge of the processes within public education. However, he spoke with passion and authenticity when speaking about his experiences in the school district as a student, and the support he wished he had as a former ICSD student. What I hope for in a school board member, is someone is not afraid to ask the hard questions, someone who listens with compassion and empathy (even if they disagree), someone who takes the time to get to know their constituents and can be honest with themselves and their fellow board members when they are individually or collectively are missing the mark. And most importantly, someone who is is always thinking about equity, and who is at the table and who is not. Our district is in need of school board members who are looking beyond what their individual child needs and instead is looking at what all of our children need in order to receive an equitable education that allows them to more than survive but to thrive within ICSD.
(excuse my typos I don’t have the energy to edit this another time, apologies)
Nicole LaFave
Nicole LaFave Interim Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Office of Diversity and Inclusion Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management Cornell University

I am so happy there will be a class action lawsuit against Tmobile. I hope they get a huge fine for their bullshit buyout of Sprint. In the end we all see how this merger decreased competition and prices are going up. This merger was not good for the consumer.
On another note, it would really help if we all wrote to the FCC regarding the lies that were told to us. Tmobile never kept their promise about keeping our plan and cost locked in. It’s funny how they change verbiage and state that if the price goes up you don’t have to pay your last months bill. That was not what was initially told to us. If you have a new phone and owe $500 for example, you cannot just get up and leave. You need to pay it off before leaving. I don’t think my plan will be affected but for the others this is going to be a shit show.
The FCC is itching to lay out an unprecedented penalty. Let’s see if Tmobile is the lucky suitor.
If anyone has the email address for the FCC to voice our complaints please post. The more people that voice their concerns, the more this blows up in Tmobiles face.
To the retail employees, I feel horrible for you guys. I did your job 20 years ago and it was not easy……

First Previous Next
Patreon Official Subreddit Royal Road
92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance (HSR) - Shuttlecraft - 01. En Route to the New Lorisa Forests LZ.
Lysara
“Touching down in ten seconds.” I announced, my voice emanating from the encounter suit’s speakers in a language that, until just days ago, was an enigma.
Yet in a matter of days, this deceptively simple translation suite, a triumph of xenolinguistics, was now able to match my tone perhaps better than ever before.
Which explained exactly why Evina had responded in the way that she did. “Nervous, Lysara?” She offered in a snide, yet well-meaning jab.
I didn’t respond, not yet at least, as the last five minutes on approach were more often than not the most dangerous aspects of aeronautics; that much I learned from the pilots and armed service members I worked with over the years.
It was only after we’d touched down, and the final safety checks were complete, that I finally turned towards Evina. “I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t at least a little bit unnerved about this whole situation.” I offered, gesturing towards the back of the shuttle, as the both of us unbuckled and left our seats. The whole mission was already memorized in our minds as we’d already run through every plan and backup plan we had over the entirety of the flight time down here. “And to be quite frank, I’m surprised you’re taking this whole thing so incredibly well.” I continued, going through the final checklists on the deployment of this platoon’s worth of combat drones as I did so.
“I think we’ve long since sailed past the point of no return the moment you told me that there was an intergalactic, eons-long war going on, Lysara.” The felinor offered with a shrug. “A bunker with potential ties with that aforementioned malevolent cosmic entity is nothing compared to that bombshell.”
“I’d have assumed that the nature of the bunker, and this mission being issued by said interloper, would’ve been the sticking point here.” I offered, genuinely curious as to the nonchalant attitude projected by the felinor.
“Eh. When you’ve lived in the wastes for this long, you’re bound to have heard the whole ‘the aliens did it’ conspiracy more often than you’d like. Now I’m not saying I believe every wastelander with a conspiracy theory… but I can’t admit the fact that the bunker has always been something that radiates a really weird aura about it. I mean, compared to literally everything else out there in the wastes? It exists in almost this time capsule of complete isolation. The beasts that roam the area, preying on anyone that gets close, don’t really help out much in that whole weird vibe either. So yeah, ever since my first iteration tried to drill her way into it, Far-Reach Point has been a point of great mystery amongst the survivors of the waste. Which lends itself really well to the possibility that your alien enemies could actually be behind it.” Evina shrugged once more, before adding a cheeky self deprecating comment. “The fact that it’s been broadcasting all this time should also be a dead giveaway to be honest. Because you definitely won’t see anything felinor-made still functional without constant maintenance after a few years into its lifespan.”
I chuckled at that statement, if only because it seemed to be made in genuine jest. “Well, we can’t say for certain that interloper tech is involved in its construction. What we do know is that the interloper has some vested interest in the facility.” I shot back, attempting to temper the felinor’s expectations and keeping everything to the limited facts we had on hand. “Or more specifically, the individual living within it.”
“And you got all of that just by putting two and two together huh? Your mission to find this person-of-interest, and the weird anomaly that is this signal station.” The felinor shot back with a disquietingly critical stare.
“It’s our one and only lead.” I shrugged. “It’s either that, or we comb through every living felinor on this planet. So in light of this massive lead, my hypothesis is that our person-of-interest, is in fact, somewhere within that facility.”
“Eh.” Evina once more shrugged. “A better conspiracy theory than the nutjobs. Or rather, good enough that I’d buy it.” She grinned, baring her teeth in the process which, at this point, I’d become accustomed to. If anything, it was after hours of ‘cat videos’, as Vir called them; that I finally started to become accustomed to these fangy grins. Moreover, it was becoming a point of endearment more than anything.
“In any case, drones are online and ready to go.” I continued, moving the conversation out of speculation and back into action, as the rear of the shuttle opened to a charred and lifeless forest floor.
“Man, Vir really did a number to this place, didn't he?” Evina whistled out.
“I… do apologize for all of the collateral damage we’ve incurred on your world-”
“Are you kidding me?!” The felinor interjected with a devious grin. “I hate forests! Heck, maybe it’s a carry-over from my perpetually-indoors first iteration, but forests have always been a place of danger and death lurking over every corner! So yeah, nah, don’t worry about it. If anything, Vir did us a favor by doing this; so be sure to like… let’s make sure to grab him a souvenir or something when we come back.”
The felinor’s frankly erratic behavior worried me sometimes.
But then again, this was to be expected given the nature of cultural barriers. As such, I simply ‘smiled’ back a smile of my own, bearing my blunt teeth as best as I could. “Noted, Evina.”
It was around that point where Evina finally donned her helmet, clasping it into place as she began testing the communications suite with surprisingly little difficult.
“Alright. Can you still hear me through this thing?”
“Loud and clear, Evina.” I nodded.
“Right, let’s get this party started.”

92 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. New Lorisa Forests LZ, En Route to the Signal Station (Far-Reach Point).
Evina
We were parked approximately seven hundred or so meters from the signal station.
Though that distance was measured from point to point, and definitely didn’t account for the obstacles and terrain that stretched from here to the station.
Despite that, and what my memories had warned me was a treacherous trek through dense and uncompromising foliage, the world outside was now anything but.
However, despite the constant mission briefs and the logical part of my brain telling me that what awaited outside was nothing like my prior iterations recalled… the power of several lifetimes were just too powerful to overcome.
That was, until the exit ramp opened, and I saw the flattened devastation that awaited me. The charred forest, and the open landscape, quickly sent any doubts incurred by my prior iterations back to whence they came from.
So with one of the greatest obstacles out of the way, and the raw and unbridled power of human-driven alien technologies at our disposal, our deployment out of the shuttle and into the forest was a piece of cake.
More than that, I now had front row seats to the shock and uncompromising efficiency of automated combat.
Needless to say, I was more than happy to be on the other side of the barrel when it came to this engagement.
Four distinct squads of robots formed up and ran out of the back of the shuttle, forming into cohesive units comprised of ten or so felinoid bots, accompanied by a whole host of flying, crawling, slithering, and galloping machines that secured the perimeter for us within a matter of seconds.
Upon a single urging from Lysara, we walked out, flanked on all sides by a remaining detachment of bots, consisting of five felinoid units and a flight of five more drones.
For the first time in any of my prior iteration’s lifetimes, I finally felt like I was on the winning side.
It was a good feeling.
And one I hoped continued as we made our leisurely march through the decimated forests and up towards the station.
The whole scene was just so… jarring.
Especially as memory after memory came to the forefront of those trials and tribulations from the lives of my first, second, and third iterations that had all made this trek several times over.
The massive tileroot tree that dominated the area next to the station… was now just gone. The same could be said for the thick pipewood vines that obstructed the path every couple of steps, and even the earltail moss that kept growing thicker and thicker on the front entrance of the bunker.
Most importantly, the air around me was now silent and still, interrupted only by the near-silent whirrs from the robots and the crunching of ashen foliage beneath our boots.
This was perhaps the first time in my life I actually enjoyed the devastation, a thought that was both ironic as it was troubling.
Regardless, we eventually made our way to the front of the facility in a staggering seven minutes; arriving in front of a circular door with gear-like cogs that were sunken into the facility itself.
“So… why didn’t you try blasting through the walls or the other surfaces of the facility?” I inquired bluntly, pointing at parts of the facility that weren't built into the hillside.
“Countermeasures.” Lysara responded, his voice resonating into my ears, a weird and alien sensation that still sent shivers down my spine. “Our scans were incapable of determining the detailed makeup of what was inside. And as a result, we have the be on the lookout for potential countermeasures against unauthorized entry. In addition, given the fact the facility still has enough power to maintain that broadcast, we can be certain that we not only have to worry about passive countermeasures, but active ones as well.”
“Makes sense.” I nodded. “Is this why you wanted my expertise to begin with? In the hopes that I might have some intel on this place?”
“Correct.” Lysara nodded.
“Well thankfully, you’re in luck.” I responded with a cocky grin, pointing towards a not-so-insignificantly sized hole drilled into one of the door’s massive cog-like edges. “Like I told you in the briefing, my first iteration had tried her hand at breaking into this place. It didn’t work out, obviously, but she did have some theories as to how the whole door system works.” I began walking towards the hole, as a flood of memories from my first iteration slammed into me hard. “So, just beyond this hole should be an emergency release mechanism. Apparently most fallout shelter doors have this as a failsafe or something; accessible only from the inside but capable of being accessed from the outside if you're willing to dig through twenty or so meters of solid metal and rock. This is the mechanism I’m talking about here, so not actually the door itself. My memory’s a bit fuzzy on the specifics but… I’m sure that if we drill deeper into that, angling the hole sideways so we don’t actually go through the door itself, we should hit a mechanism that can be manipulated. Now if you have some fiber optic camera wire and a master lockpick or something, I’m sure you can do it in a few days. But considering we have the power of artificial intelligence on our side… I’m sure we can do it in five minutes.”
That vote of confidence for Vir was rewarded with a ping and a notification in front of my visual field. The existence of a HUD was again, just as jarring as literally everything else right now.
With a heavy breath from Lysara, who at this point was scanning the hole with a whole host of scientific instruments, I received my answer as to how it was we were going to proceed. “One of the bots can be repurposed as a multipurpose drone.” He gestured towards a combat bot that was quickly switching from its main weapon, to what looked to be a seriously well-kitted out multitool kit masquerading as a hand. “We should be able to bore through this in about five minutes, from there… I’ll switch things over to Vir, and I’m sure we’ll be inside that bunker in under fifteen.”
The confidence was palpable in Lysara’s voice, giving me hope that today was the day that the burning curiosity in my first iteration’s memories would finally be addressed.
First Previous Next
​
(Author’s Note: We arrive on the planet, and make our way towards the signal station! All the while, we observe the tireless preparations Vir has made in ensuring that the landing zone is cleared of threats! Evina elaborates further on exactly what her first iteration had done in order to try to get in, let's just hope that this time around, they can make more progress than her first iteration! :D The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 97 of this story is already out on there!)]

Hello, everyone. How are you doing?
Around the time of the announcement of Bokuben' multiple routes, specifically the time around the 3rd route, I've been elaborating a way to reveal the what I believe to be the greatest secret this manga holds. No, it's not who is best girl, or the one true route, or how the girls' stories have parallels with certain fairy tale characters. It's actually the greatest achievement when it comes to hidden aspects that I've ever seen a manga pull off, done in such a way that pretty much nobody has talked about it, to my limited knowledge.
The greatest secret contained in this manga is how every single one of its elements has some parallel to the TAROT. No other manga I've read contains so much inspiration hidden in plain sight as this one.
Number of volumes, symbolism, character traits and interactions, plot progression, route themes, character birthdays, years it was serialized in (2017 to 2021), pretty much everything can be linked in some way to the Tarot. It's so beautiful I laughed like never before when I connected the dots. The hint was the Rizu color page during her route, showing the moon, and her route being the 18th volume. From there, my overthinking brain went into overdrive, and I had an epiphany. For example, did you know the hamster on the cover of volume 9 is named HAMI-chan, which is a reference to HAAMITO (Hermit), the 9th arcana, which is represented by Sawako, whose birthday is on August 3rd (8 = HA, 3 = MI)? That kind of connection is everywhere. Like, volume covers, we have:

• Fumino = Magician, Justice, Sun
• Rizu = High Priestess, Temperance, Moon
• Uruka = Empress, Strength, Devil (also the headmaster, with his "horn" hairs, who coincidentally has a chapter on vol 15), Star
• Mafuyu = Hierophant, Hanged Man, World
• Asumi = Chariot, Death, Judgment
• Sawako = Hermit
• Multiple = Lovers
• School = Tower

How about the first 22-23 chapters? Each one has some relation to the major arcana, in order.
Also, so many small elements on each cover relating to its respective arcana, like the stuff characters are holding (Fumino on vol 1, Rizu on vol 2, etc). The first (Star) and last (World) routes being depicted on the cover of volume 10 (Wheel), possessing a symbolic connection to the "mermaid" when it comes to the Tarot and alchemy, Alchemy itself having the Rizu and Sawako duo represent it (Rizu = psychology, Sawako = chemistry), Nariyuki (Fool) only appearing in person starting from the 4th volume cover, volume 7 (Chariot) having a scooter, and so, so much more.
Don't think the minor arcana were forgotten, either. Each route has some relation to it (Fumino = Pentacles, Rizu = Cups, Asumi = Swords/Scalpels?, Uruka = Wands/Brooms?, Mafuyu = little bit of each), and there are nods on vol 14 (Rizu with a golden ball, representing a pentacle, Fumino's minor arcana) and vol 11 (Fumino holding a cup, Rizu's minor arcana) to them as well.
Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I probably won't be able to finish compiling everything I've gathered into a cohesive file like "Of Ribbons and Lies", so I leave here the notes I did write down. At the very least, I wanted to be the one who tells everybody about the thing that brought me the greatest joy in my life.
Finally, if there's one thing I could ask for, it'd be for Rizu's birthday to be revealed as the same as mine, February 6th. Not only does it relate to her Tarot aspect, it's also the day the first chapter officially came out.
Cheers to everybody! Enjoy!
Peace out.
Notes:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Biav9sbouzziCM7fqA03gMoYhnwuVy0v/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CgGQw5fU88bXbs6_Tf2JTU_lK5JmPAxC/view?usp=sharing

Heya. I'm going to give a very quick and dirty rundown on me and what I'm looking for.
I'm Robot, 28 M, CST, with a lot of free time on my hands. I can write anywhere from three to 15 paragraphs, depending on inspiration and the scene. NSFW will be an aspect of this story, but the plot will always be the primary focus. I value rich and nuanced characters/dynamics, as well as different ways of approaching stories, such as through mixed media, transcripts, therapy notes, etc. Any sort of creativity along those lines would be really excellent.
What I'm looking for in a partner: any gender, but over 21. My current preference is for someone with the availability to do 'rapid-fire' style replies, but I'll also be happy with longer and less frequent replies. Must be comfortable with 'darker' content along the lines of addiction, self-harm, and abuse.
I'm looking to write a specific OC of mine in a dysfunctional relationship with your character. I'm more than happy to give a lot more detail on him if asked, but as a quick and dirty explanation: he's a mid-20s Chinese sex worker, illiterate, with the fairly severe mental condition of Cotard's Delusion, wherein he believes he is dead. He's very sweet and sociable, and he tends towards polyamory or open relationships.
If anything about this interests you, please don't hesitate to reach out and DM me! I'm more than happy to provide a writing sample as well as more information about my OC.

As the title goes I’ve been happy with my X-T30 for about the 1 year I’ve had it. Got it refurbished through Fujifilm and it’s been an amazing power house. I have a couple gripes with it but nonetheless love the camera. Lately however with my birthday coming in October I was thinking of maybe upgrading to an X-T3. I was wondering what’s a good price or really what used prices are acceptable 2nd hand for an X-T3. Any help or tips would be appreciated!

TL;DR My ex cut herself because I fucked up, and it didn’t stop even after she got with another guy. Need help fixing it.
So basically, due to circumstances out of my control, I lost contact with my girl almost completely for about two months, only being able to talk to her on the weekends before losing contact completely for the latter part of that time frame. Shit with my family went down that I’d rather not get into.
Either way, by the time I DID re-establish contact, she wouldn’t answer my texts and my friend informed me that she had moved on to get with her friend, which sucked because of the circumstances: She had broken up with me over a week before I’d managed to re-establish contact, and I was being informed of what happened by my best friend. She said that her friend had helped her when she felt lonely and I wasn’t there, and she had started Robin Williams-ing, and he had asked her out, so she left me. Which, side-note, sucks a lot, because we were really close and made a lot of promises, which I guess were never meant to be fulfilled because they’re just air, but still. I ended up getting to talk to her again, and we made up, kind of, and we’re still friends. It sucked to hear she was doing it with another guy already, kinda put me on a Mr. Brightside arc, but I was at least happy that she was happy.
Or at least I thought she was happy, because I then learned that the cutting had gotten worse. She had gotten deep enough that it spurted pus, and that shit is nasty, so of course I felt like shit because it’s almost entirely my fault it happened in the first place. I tried getting her to stop, because it hurts to see it, and I don’t want her turning out like the Dawn of the Black Heart album cover, but I don’t know how to convince her. Thoughts? Advice? What do I do? And sorry for the whole-ass story time, I just want there to be context.