Hello!
My name is Reed, I'm a 28-year-old guy from Orlando Florida looking for someone to enjoy life with, as far as what I'm looking for. I'd say a meaningful connection, I am happy with the idea of being friends but also very open to it blooming into something much more should we both be on the same page. I am certainly not interested in rushing anything and anyone getting hurt due to miscommunications. Transparency and communication are key for me.
As far as who I am, I work a 9-5 (technically 9:30-6) and have a side gig writing that I really enjoy. I've been described by friends as a goofy optimist with a serious side. I am an increasingly casual gamer but would love to meet someone to pull me back into it, I used to be really big into online games but have been more so interested in exploring and immersing myself in cool single player experiences lately.
I love thrift shopping/going to random local markets and finding cool and unique trinkets/pieces of clothes, my all time favorite shirt actually came from a thrift store. I love going out and exploring new things and trying new restaurant, I consider myself a life time learner so always deep in some kind of new rabbit hole learning about who knows what.
I'm a big fan of high fantasy universes in nearly any medium, written, animated, really whatever. I don't really have a specific 'favorite' genre but I love anything that is unique and well thought out, and of course just movies that will make me laugh. (There is a special place in my heart for the Shrek series.)
I don't really subscribe to any specific belief system/ideology outside of 'do whatever you want as long as you aren't hurting anyone else.' and it has served me quite well.
here's some recent pictures of me
As far as who I'm looking for, I'm looking for someone who is capable of communicating and wants someone to share life with, as mentioned above what that ends up being is entirely up to us and where we go with things. I want someone I can genuinely look forward to talking to, someone that makes my day to day life a little less tedious, someone that can enjoy the small things and most certainly someone that doesn't take things too seriously. I want someone who isn't afraid to tell me the things they're passionate about, share your fire with me, tell me what gets you out of bed (as hard as that is some days lol) the things that keep you up at night.
If this stands out to you I'd love to talk and at the very least see where things go. I'd love to meet someone also in Orlando but quite open to anyone located in North America.
Thanks for your time and have a great evening.
Reed

I (27m) had a close friend (27m) from a few years back. We're essentially clones. We both do crossfit, we both love video games, we both went to a Catholic school (of which both of us abandoned the teachings shortly after leaving). We both love racing (legally), we both have a job in tech and here's the kicker... We both have the same birthday.
Here's a second kicker, our partners are also clones. They're both taller than us, did Mathematics in uni, and both enjoy dissecting movies and literature and discuss them at length.
I cannot stress this enough, me and him are so similar, and the partners too, that I started to believe that the Sims is real life and this is a case of copy pasting a couple sim. He even said at one point that i meant a lot to him, like a twin brother he never had. I felt the same way, but, I'm just saying, the Sims theory is big if true.
The only difference is, I was in a better socioeconomic status than him when we first met him (at a crossfit gym). When we hung out for the first time, he was complaining about how low he was paid and that he deserved more. He was making ~$40k.
Now, I believe in wage transparency and it sucks that he was making that much. At this point, I knew that he was a driven person and more driven if he had a clear goal to work towards, much like me.
So I told him my life story - I was making $30k when I first started working. After 2 years of job hopping, continuously learning, I ended up at a job as an engineer making $100k. He said "I want that too". I told him that he could do it and shared with him what he needed to do (Upskilling and pivoting).
He took my advice and within a month, he managed to pivot and was then making $60k. He was very happy and I was proud of him. What I found odd, however, was that I didn't feel appreciated because he didn't say thanks.
This thing where I help him out with something but he didn't express his gratitude repeated more. For example, a friend of mine and I sponsored his application to an elite crossfit gym. It's a hard gym to get into and to even start your application, you need to have two sponsors who are also members of the gym. When you apply to this gym, you also need to do a series of tests to prove that you are capable.
I motivated him and helped him get over his mental barrier, because he used to think he's not good enough. He passed the tests and got his membership. He paraded his card around his partner and friends, and I remember following him around both being happy for him and also waiting for that moment where he said thanks. He never did.
We planned a trip together, it was sort of a double date but a few days. We paid for a 2-room Airbnb at a nice location in advance and it was pretty expensive. My partner and I got COVID, and we had to forfeit the trip, but encouraged him and his partner to go. We didn't ask for our share of the booking fee back, we only asked them to enjoy the trip and send us pictures. They only sent two.
We didn't mind all of this because at that point, we still saw them as great friends. But the next series of events was when we started questioning. I'll just list them out because this post is getting pretty long

• My partner was at the gym with his partner, and she was wearing lululemons. According to my partner, his partner really loved lululemons and wanted to own one, but said they were not ethical, in a way that made my partner feel bad
  
• In a car ride, when my partner said she wanted to buy a house, he made it about him and said "I don't think I want to buy one"
  
• When we tried lobsters, I sponsored the lobsters and they were bad. I spent a lot of money on this and was very disappointed, and his partner said in a joking, snarky way "you got scammed!"
  

Cutting to the chase of the mouse bit, my partner expressed to the group that she wanted to go to a theme park together. My partner and I have been there before and she wanted to share the experience with them.
If you know my partner, you know that when she expresses something, she expresses with her whole heart. This is a moment of vulnerability and trust for her. This had been established to them in a previous conversation. We were all in on the theme park but he said he was broke. So we planned for next month and we were all excited.
Next month came and we asked them again, but they asked to do it the month after because they were broke. We were fine with it, until my partner saw on his Twitter that he bought a Logitech MX Master 3. Now, where we are, an MX Master 3 is more expensive than the price of tickets for TWO at the theme park. We were like wtf we thought he was broke? I was determined to find out more.
After our gym session, I pulled him aside and asked him about his mouse, to see if he had any awareness of the theme park thing. I admit, this was me testing him, it's not great and I need to work on it. Self-reflection aside, he said the mouse is awesome and kept on talking about it without ever mentioning the theme park.
From our perspective, we're cool with him buying the mouse(we both have one and we think it's awesome for productivity) and needing to push the theme park thing back. What was not cool was he didn't give us the heads up nor did it seem like he remembered about the theme park. It sucked more that we found out via Twitter.
He eventually reached out to ask what happened to us after I went low contact. I told him our perspective and that it wasn't cool because we felt blindsided. He apologised but it wasn't good enough to me. This is because he explained that the broke thing is true, and he borrowed money from a friend to buy the mouse. Which is not what this is about. It would've been nice if he said "yeah dude I could've let you know that I bought this mouse so we need to delay the trip or tell you first that I bought this mouse with a friend's money"
I talked to my partner about this at length. We realised a few things:

• Whenever we share something good that happened to us, they would say something along the lines of "I want that too" without saying "I'm happy for you!"
  
• He keeps on saying stuff like I'm his best friend. When the confrontation happened, he said he'll do anything to fix things. To me it felt like he was love bombing
  
• He liked to flex his wealth. When he got a Steam Deck, I commented on how this must've been a big investment. He smirked and said "yea man, it's expensive" like he was flexing
  
• When we shared our perspective and worldview that doesn't align with theirs, it felt like they didn't try to relate. Instead they'd say "nah not for me"
  

So yes, after this conversation. We realised that this friendship was one-sided. All that thing about us being best friends and what not was just performative and superficial. Because we felt blindsided and overall used, we cut him off completely.
So Reddit, AITA for cutting a friend off because he bought a mouse?

We've known each other more than half of our lives. No one cheated or anything like that, I (30F) was completely blindsided. I am a skeptic but really considered this person my soulmate and forever person. The connection is like nothing else l've experienced, the kind of deep, long love that seems to only exist in stories.
We casually dated long distance for a year in the past and that ended when he (31M) was travelling overseas - for over 3 years we were apart and that entire time was so painful for me, I thought about him every day, I wrote poems, journaled and still regularly cried myself to sleep for those three years to manage the grief, I tried to move on but nothing can compare to the connection we share. The thing that kept me going was the thought that in another time and place we would reconnect. That was how it felt when it ended after being casual - this time, we have dated while living in the same city for 3 years.
At the outset we set a lot of clear boundaries around protecting each other in the relationship so that if things started to go badly we could maintain our friendship and still be in each others' lives. We both agreed we couldn’t really take losing one another in the same way again. We've been trying to move into our own place for the past 6 months. We just got back from an overseas trip that my mother got us for my 30th. I am struggling to accept that this is real and I have no idea how to move forward with this loss. He said he sees no future with me, and due to the way he handled it, this isn't something I think we can maintain a friendship after or come back from even if he now regrets saying this. I can't hold out a hope that it was wrong place wrong time, or that he will ever want this again, because it's clear he doesn't.
After leaving my house he has said he didn't mean to break up and just intended to talk about his feelings because he's had doubts about us long term due to a need to 'go do stuff' which is making him feel that way. He’s going on a solo hiking trip that I got him for his birthday and a solo university trip to Malaysia in the next six months so I don’t really understand what part of being in our relationship is preventing him from living his life, or what ‘stuff’ he feels he needs to do. We are both mature age students and there is a cost of living crisis in my country, I have three jobs and have been struggling so hard to make ends meet the past few years but we both finish our studies in six months and we have spoken a lot about how much better life will be when that happens and how things at the moment are tough but temporary.
What he said to me in person was that he didn't see a future with me and when I said ... what do you mean? He said he sees himself doing all of the 'things' in his future alone. Every time I try to speak to him about his goals and the future, the most he can give me is that he wants to live overseas at some point. I also do and we talk about this a lot. Afterwards in a text he still said I am his future and he has always seen us together. I really don't understand but some of it must be untrue because none of it makes sense to me.
For the past few weeks he's refused to kiss me longer than a peck, he would turn his back to me in bed and go to sleep early and wake up late so he could avoid any opportunity for sex. Before this, he was usually pretty all over me and we have always been this way. Up until this point we weren’t absolutely perfect, but it was as close as I think it can get, it has always been so clear to me and everyone else around us that we were both deeply in love. Our friends often comment that they wished their dynamic was like ours or that it’s rare/beautiful to see.
I am ending my lease and selling most of my stuff, my mother is coming to help me move back in with her in the small rural town she lives in because I can't stay in this city. I am leaving my job at the university I study at and varying my enrolment to online studies so at least I don't totally destroy everything in my life. Leaving is a permanent decision because the rental crisis in my city (a 2 day drive from the town I am going back to) it is so bad it would be impossible to get a rental again, so it is a huge life altering decision. I will say l'm scared to make the first move on that because then it is real. I have to give notice today. I don't want to go, I just can't stay here. My friends are so shocked and can't understand it either and therefore can't really provide me with any useful advice.
I just don't really want any of the things l've been working towards in my life if he isn't part of it in some way, I have no drive to continue. Right now I feel like I'll just stay alone in this small town for the rest of my life. It's too hard fighting for more when you don't have a light at the end of the tunnel.
He's quite inept at communicating around emotional topics or discussing his feelings so I really don't imagine l'll ever get more of an explanation or closure from him.
I know this might sound stupid, for a break up to be so world altering, and l've lived through genuine trauma that should have felt so much harder and more painful than this, but those things gave me drive me to live happily in spite of them. This has taken away my will to find or build happiness.
This truly feels like the worst thing that's ever happened to me. Every single thing in my life is connected to him and I feel like I can’t ever go anywhere it won’t be.
How do I move forward? How do I survive this? What do I do now?

Context: I, 25(NB), have worked in a supermarket for the past 5 years. I'm physically disabled and cannot heavy lift, and that + me being a big people person has resulted in me being the stores most experienced customer service employee. I'm also Autistic (Important for later).
Let me tell you about this customer.
Big/Beefy (6'3?), older guy. Comes up to the desk with a gift card & receipt - Says he wants a refund because the gift card is damaged. I look at it, and you know the little bar code with numbers you're supposed to scratch off with a coin? He had peeled it off instead. Easy mistake to make.
Now, our policy is black and white - We cannot refund or exchange gift cards at all. The company whose gift card it is hold that power, in this case, it was a Spotify gift card. However, I try to see if I can compensate the customer if I can. So, I apologize & inform him of our policy, and tell him I'll call over my manager to see if we can figure something out for him.
He says, no, it's damaged and I have the receipt - I want a refund. Again, I remind him of our policy, and that my manager will see what we can do. In the meantime, I inspect the card further, and recognize what he's done. So, while I wait for my manager to arrive, I get a coin from the till and start scratching the code - It was potentially salvageable, and I tell him he might be able to use it after all!
For some reason, this guy just wasn't having it? He started repeating himself, saying, no, I'm saying it's DAMAGED! I mirror back at him, yes, it is damaged, I can see that? (A little confused as to what he wasn't understanding).
At this point, my manager arrives in time to witness the customer stop, stare at me, and go - You're being incredibly rude right now. To which I go.. No, I'm not? I just repeated what you told me, it's damaged. He goes, no, you are being rude, you're saying I damaged it.
Now.. At no point did I say to him that he damaged it, despite it being obviously clear the mistake he'd made. I repeated his own words back to him - "It's damaged" not.. "You damaged it". I didn't accuse him of anything, he jumped to conclusions.
Think it's important to note - I do get accused of being "Rude" sometimes due to my being Autistic. I have resting b*tch face, and a very monotone voice - When I'm not masking, which, I usually am when working, I've been accused on multiple occasions of "Acting/Sounding like a robot". It really sucks, which is why I tend to mask unfortunately at work, so perhaps this is why he thought I was being rude? Continuing..
During this back and forth, my delightfully useless manager interrupts to repeat what I already told the customer regarding our policy. As I'm defending myself, I attempt to tell the customer I was not insinuating anything and didn't mean to offend, however before I can even get the words out, this pig of a man turns back to me, raises his finger to his mouth, and goes: "SHHH!".
HE. SHUSHED. ME.
I was completely shocked. Not only is that insanely disrespectful and totally uncalled for considering I was still trying to help him, but he sprayed spit in my FACE?? EW.
So of course, I go, excuse me??
AND HE DOES IT AGAIN.
I used to be such a pushover when I started.. 5 years ago, something like this would have given me a panic attack. For some reason this time though, I just snapped.
I told him, how dare you disrespect me, what makes you think you can treat people like that? And this time, he actually yelled at me to "Shut up".
My manager, who was standing right there, of course said and did absolutely nothing to defend his 5ft disabled employee from this pathetic excuse for a respectable individual. Because of course.
So, I say, no, no I won't shut up. And you won't be getting a refund, nor being served in this store again - You can leave. I then turned, and called for security on my headset to come back me up.
This idiot then had the gall to scoff and go, "You're seriously calling Security, you lunatic?" And I go, yeah, of course I am, you're harassing me?? Of course he insists he's not harassing me.
Your spit on my damn face begs to differ.
Thankfully, Security came and intimidated him into leaving (lol). I later wrote up an incident report, and security got a recording of the incident too. One of my coworkers later identified him as a repeat thief , which doesn't surprise me.
Sidenote: Same coworker witnessed & assisted in de-escalating the situation, then kept me company while I got some air afterwards. Props to him, he said he was proud of me for standing up for myself, but.. I don't know. I don't feel proud, I feel embarrassed.
I'm just.. So beyond angry with the way I'm treated both by customers like him, and by management who are so incredibly spineless they'd allow jerks like this to keep doing what they do. By the end of it, despite this happening incredibly quickly, I was left physically shaking all over my body from stress - I had to walk away & take 15 minutes to get some fresh air and calm down.
I feel like I very well could have handled this better, but I'm just sick of being treated like this. Guarantee you, he will be back - And there will continue to be no consequences to his actions.
How would you have handled it? Thanks you reading my little rant if you made it this far, curious if anyone else has had a similar incident!

Greetings Redditors! It's been 10 Months since my last post on Reddit and only now saw a few people actually contacting me on Reddit chat so sorry that I forgot about my post 10 months ago. So again I know that someone wouldn't like what I say, like, don't like, what my views are on specific topics, but I couldn't care less, because there are actual people who think similar. This is maybe as well going to be my update + new stuff included, but I'm gonna treat this more or less as a first Post.
(Warning: Grammar errors included)
I'm not a talkative Person (but Extrovert), but If something interesting is happening or I'm happy I can be a completely different person, but most of the time If I'm around people I keep to myself and listen more. I was born in Germany 2002 and since then still live in a russian household with my parents. I love gaming to this day but still have periods of losing touch with it, because of not finding people to play with or just to talk to. I'm a very curious person and look into new hobbies all the time, but haven't found much holding me to it. Still love Graphics design. Don't have a Girlfriend, never was in a relationship and have little to no experience of talking to women, so yeah much didn't change. Something that did change is that I have embraced the Christian Faith due to many signs I have now recognised and experienced stuff (I try my very best to be a good Christian).

• I've always tried finding other methods to make money online but almost always got turned down by people I care about or turned myself down. So I hope I find someone who can push me up in life and I can do to you as well.
• My political views didn't change much and pretty much a Centrist, close towards Right-Liberalism (political compass). I like taking Ideas from other Political directions and figuring out how it's best implemented for everyone.
• I love history, conspiracy theories, military and politics
• I am a man who sticks to his words and doesn't let himself get down that easily

If you are interested of knowing more about me or thinking about a potential friendship, hit me up with a DM/PM and I hope I don't forget it again. It's 3:26 in the morning and I'm tired. I don't know if anything up there made sense in any way, but still thanks for reading this far. Take care

So my mom is not close to anyone in her family. Ever since we moved to this city 10 years ago she has no friends here as well. She says everyone in her family is jealous of her that’s why she doesn’t talk to them often. None of them live in our city. I think there’s a deep trauma there that she’s not telling me so I didn’t really push.
She also doesn’t want to befriend any of the Somali people in this city because she says Somali people don’t know what friendship is, they only treat their cousins well. Well my mom has a couple first cousins in my city that she doesn’t speak to either. She doesn’t want to get to know them, she says their mom (grandma’s sister) is not a good person so they probably are the same. So needless to say, we never have visitors over.
If she was happy the way she is then I wouldn’t mind but I can tell she’s miserable. She never leaves the house. Every time I go out to see a friend she gets angry that I have a friend that I’m seeing. I think she wants friends deep down as well.
My father is also equally antisocial and doesn’t talk to anyone. He works a lot so he doesn’t really have time for friendship anyway.
I really feel like our family is super isolated though and it bugs me a bit. How do I get my parents (especially my mother) to get out there a bit more?

Greetings Redditors! It's been 10 Months since my last post on Reddit and only now saw a few people actually contacting me on Reddit chat so sorry that I forgot about my post 10 months ago. So again I know that someone wouldn't like what I say, like, don't like, what my views are on specific topics, but I couldn't care less, because there are actual people who think similar. This is maybe as well going to be my update + new stuff included, but I'm gonna treat this more or less as a first Post.
(Warning: Grammar errors included)
I'm not a talkative Person (but Extrovert), but If something interesting is happening or I'm happy I can be a completely different person, but most of the time If I'm around people I keep to myself and listen more. I was born in Germany 2002 and since then still live in a russian household with my parents. I love gaming to this day but still have periods of losing touch with it, because of not finding people to play with or just to talk to. I'm a very curious person and look into new hobbies all the time, but haven't found much holding me to it. Still love Graphics design. Don't have a Girlfriend, never was in a relationship and have little to no experience of talking to women, so yeah much didn't change. Something that did change is that I have embraced the Christian Faith due to many signs I have now recognised and experienced stuff (I try my very best to be a good Christian).

• I've always tried finding other methods to make money online but almost always got turned down by people I care about or turned myself down. So I hope I find someone who can push me up in life and I can do to you as well.
• My political views didn't change much and pretty much a Centrist, close towards Right-Liberalism (political compass). I like taking Ideas from other Political directions and figuring out how it's best implemented for everyone.
• I love history, conspiracy theories, military and politics
• I am a man who sticks to his words and doesn't let himself get down that easily

If you are interested of knowing more about me or thinking about a potential friendship, hit me up with a DM/PM and I hope I don't forget it again. It's 3:26 in the morning and I'm tired. I don't know if anything up there made sense in any way, but still thanks for reading this far. Take care

Personally, I want to share some opinions and questions and hear what yall have to think about any of them!
• My top ten in order are: Switzerland, Norway, Spain, Ireland, Estonia, Finland, Ukraine, Georgia, Portugal, Croatia
•Switzerland 100% deserved to win; incredible song and best performance by far imo
•Norway easily should've been at least top 10, and was my #1 after my initial listens to all songs
• Ireland finishing 6,6,6 was the best possible outcome
• if San Marino had a lead singer that could actually sing, the song could've easily been top 10
•Greece finished way too high; it's the only song in ESC history that I straight had to turn off bc I couldn't listen to it anymore.
•Estonia was so good, but could've benefitted from a better dance sequence
•Europapa was mediocre at best; performance seemed staged and ingenuine, vocals were underwhelming, only part I liked was the second rap sequence.
•Croatia was good, but way too repetitive. Not enough showcase of impressive vocal moments to be a winner to me. The performance carried this average song
• though Finlands song was a bit repetitive and corny, the performance and vocals were great and it should've placed higher.
•what was it about songs like France's, Italy's, and Israel's that people like so much? They were good songs, but I don't feel like they fit Eurovision as much as other entries
•what was it that made Croatia a winner for so many people?
•I see so much support for Norway online, what happened to their support when the actual competition came around? I've heard people say it was simply too good for Eurovision and that it combined more musical aspects than Switzerland, thoughts?
• I've seen minimal support for Spain online after personally finding their song, performance, and story incredible. I mean, cmon, she's 56 singing a banger modern 80's-esque song, having the entire crowd yell back at her?!?!! Where's her support??
• any other unpopular opinions?
Don't hold back on what you have to say! I'm American and this is your song contest after all 😆

Modern day society and corporate life is so similar to Candyman farms in the 1800s. We thought we are free but think about it; cities and downtowns are so freaking expensive to live in, in the olden days they’d build slave huts around the farm. But today you have to pay for it. They used to feed slaves, treat them if they get sick, feed them, allow them to reproduce and pay them nothing. Now they pay corporate slaves close to nothing to do all that. And if you are a little higher in the corporate ladder, say no more we will make you spend that money on unaffordable mortgages, expensive cars, phones and designer clothes. Anyone has more examples of how similar today’s slavery to Candyman’s farm?

I had a childhood friend, we have been particularly close to each other. Since I was a child I have been fat, but she has been attached to me, I don't know if she saw me as someone special, or an older brother. In preschool she showed affection towards me, which attracted me to her in response to her affection.
We grew up until one point (we were kids still) she had to leave the country, I didn't feel any sadness, but she did. I consoled her when she was in the other country where she lives, she missed the school, her friends, etc... we talked on calls, and we sent messages from time to time.
As I grew older, those memories remained in my head, I couldn't get rid of them, and yes, I was in love, but not with that same girl (you'll understand why). Well, our conversations were... not so close. One conversation I told her what she liked, I realized that her tastes and mine were two sides of the same coin (I mean they were the same, but different. Example, You: "I like action manga." Her: "I like manga morbidly").
And why I didn't said those memories before? Because I was afraid that she would think of me as a creep or something, I imagined a situation like this:
Person 1: "Hey! Do you remember the time you kissed me in preschool?"
Person 2: "What? No! I don't remember any of that!" Person 2 thoughts: "What a creep."
☝️This was an example that indeed occurred, but she doesn't remember anything of it, leading her to think that never happened, and of me as a creep, this is what I thought at that time and yes it doesn't mean that's what will happen, this was my fear at that time.
Continuing with the story.
One day she wanted to make a call with me after so long (She had those anime profile photos that are shared with couples from a long time), She told me that she was going to add a person to the call that she met in that country, and she was going to introduce him to me. I joined the call, and saw the guy's photo, I realized that it was the remaining piece of the photo that she had, then came to the conclusion that it's her boyfriend (I confirmed it after she gave me her instagram, saying in the description that she loves her boyfriend).
Continuing the conversation, it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either, I endured the emotional pain, but I was able to make that pain not impact me so strongly, since I was expecting something like that (She had that photo for a long time, it just hurt me because I didn't want it to be true or the simple fact of confirming it, hurted me), the pal left the conversation, left me talking to her (He was a good person, really, he even offered me talk to her alone in the first minutes of the call, which I denied, I wanted him to be in the conversation). I realize that she had a life, and me too, both separated and different, it's no one's fault.
Moral of the story: Don't set your expectations too high for that person, because in the end that person is not going to be what you thought. Just because she's a friend from your childhood doesn't mean she's your soulmate (It could be, but in my case it wasn't). Get to know her, talk to her, and confess (If it's really what you thought) your feelings before it's too late.
(At least I didn't confessed my feelings, because if I did then I would feel that embarrassment of her having a boyfriend, lol.)

A few years back, I shared about my struggle with loneliness and how I felt like was impossible to make friends. I would put myself out there; bars, groups, clubs, every online app and website, but the results remained as if I was a ghost. The few friends I did make were extremely selfish and toxic. But I was told that if this is a reoccurring issue I must be the problem. So, I went away, focused on myself for years, really gutting my interior. Thoughts, behavior, the words I speak, facing my shadow -- a journey that continues to this day.
Through this, I realised I wasnt the best person. I had trauma based habits that I needed to address. But ultimately I learnt that I'd simply had a bad hand and these people very much were to blame for how they treated me. I come back to similar feelings now, having grown tremendously but still finding it impossible to make authentic connections. Most of the time, people don't even give the chance to get to know me, but the few that have truly have been some of the most egotistical, emotionally unavailable folk. I'd changed my vibration, so why am I still attracting these people?
In the spiritual and psychological community, everything is a mirror. The people who believe this often make everything a YOU issue. This can become incredibly illogical and victim-blamey. Yes, we all have blinds spots and should be self reflecting and challenging ourselves. Perhaps we do have behaviour that has negative influence. But that isn't always the case!
You can't discredit someone and just automatically assume they must be at fault. I hate that outlook. I learnt the hard way that sometimes, it's dumb luck and playing roulette. There are so many variables. It may be an individuals fault, in some ways, but it isn't inherently. I trust that I will find the right people at the right time, but for Liliths sake, I wish people would stop the "no matter what it must be your fault" angle.
I can't help but feel that this sort of stereotypical answer spits on all the hard work I've done, and makes me feel that my hardest simply isn't good enough. I take every hardship as an opportunity. I got to learn independence, how to set boundaries, and was given so much space and pain that my spirituality was put on the fast track. It could be what's needed to get me to a place where I can truly help to heal and guide people.
I don't hate the people that use or hurt me; I see they are human with their own struggles too, but I do not have any control over their treatment of me. Nor can I force people to want to talk to me, or care about me. I can only be authentic and know that when they don't, it doesn't change my worth.
Welcome to my TedTalk. Needed to get this one off my chest. It's so aggravating to open up and people would rather blame you than listen to what you're saying.

I’ve been separated from my ex for over 2 years we’ve hammered out all the financials and custody issues when we separated and are reasonably amicable. Needless to say it will be an uncomplicated divorce.
However, I saw an attorney because we have too many shared assets to do it ourselves. I am going to looking for a house as soon as we finalize. I planned to withdraw money from my 403b/457b as a hardship withdrawal to come up with the down payment. While talking with him he said that I do it as part of the divorce settlement I could keep the money and avoid the 10% penalty that comes with a hardship withdrawal. Typically I file my own taxes using Turbo Tax I’m not opposed to hiring a tax preparer but I’ve never needed and would prefer to avoid it.

1. Is this true?
2. How do I note this in my taxes so the IRS doesn’t come knocking in April next year?

I randomly catch myself thinking about how I acted for so long without knowing in ways that turned people off, how much silence passed before it all blew up, but somehow these things are also entirely apparently not personal. How in the end I was treated like these were not my friends to have, even after being together for more than 10 years, having spent so many trips and weekends and life events together, having loved them myself with time spent and thoughtfulness.
People make mistakes or people grow apart. This break up taught me that to some people I ntentions don’t matter, the entirety of a person’s character does not matter. Change needs to be had to remove all points of friction.
I’ve come to the other side of grief and shame and I’m angry. And hurt. And ultimately scared.
This break up teaches me to be afraid of fucking up with people. Of wishing that I could disappear the parts of me that they told me they hate.
Not every day the last 8 months has been this bad. Most of them have been, but lately it’s been mostly ok, interrupted only once or twice a week now with these intrusive thoughts.
Does it ever fully go away? I want to hope so. But until then I am grateful for this space to share.

Hey everyone,
There has been an increase in the amount of inquiries into the state of the project due to a lack of updates for an extended period of time, and I wanted to quickly address it. Below is a copy of a comment left in this thread asking if LunaSea is still being developed that I wanted to share in its own post as a status update regarding LunaSea and its future:

tl;dr: development focus has shifted to a successor to LunaSea and is slowly being worked on. No timelines at this time, as I’m working on it when I have the drive to spend time on it. LunaSea is in maintenance mode and won’t be receiving any updates unless there is a major breaking issue discovered due to one of the supported modules having a breaking change.
—
LunaSea was started over 5 years ago and in truth has a really poor code base. Mix of inexperience at the time with good design patterns alongside rapid feature releases has grown LunaSea to a point of being a huge time investment to make any major changes to the project.
Mix that in with a few other things, I have lost a lot of interest in working on LunaSea. Some things include:
– A tale as old as time in the industry: major burnout. This has triggered me to spend a lot more time investing in hobbies outside of coding and my computer in general – Getting married late last year and spending more personal time with my wife – Planning a cross-country move later this year and preparing for that – Taking up a higher seniority position in my professional career (also as a software engineer) which has me committing more time to my career
You also pointed out a really good fact, LunaSea does not really have any income. As it is now, donations are about equal to the infrastructure cost for maintaining LunaSea. Between donations on all the different platforms and Ko-Fi, I average approximately $40-$50/month.
It’s increasingly difficult to want to invest a lot of time into something that isn’t really garnering any financial gains. I would probably estimate at least 3,000 hours have been spent working on LunaSea, and while I am a huge proponent of open-source and free applications, and I don’t regret making LunaSea FOSS, I do wish that I had more financial gains to show for how much time was invested working on the project over the years.
All that being said, I’ve slowly been chipping away at working on a successor to LunaSea. LunaSea is no longer being worked on but I will publish a fix for any major breaking bugs if they occur. As it is now, LunaSea does have minor non-breaking bugs but is in a state where all intended functionality works, so there is no need for any updates.
The successor will remain fully open-source, but will charge for the client application when installed from a monetization-supported platform (such as the App Store, Play Store, etc.). However, free copies of the binaries (IPAs, APKs, etc.) will always be available officially.
This will be a complete rewrite that shifts to a server-client approach where the user would install/run (via Docker) a server component and the client application connects only to that. It allows me to start fresh away from all of the technical debt while having a much improved experience across the board.
However, I’ll admit I’m not overly focused on this either. I work on it when I want to, and I’m not putting any pressure on myself to meet any timelines or release in any timeframe. I really love software engineering and want to avoid burning out again.
I made the mistake of giving general timelines before regarding this project and have missed them all, so at this point I can only say it will be ready when it’s ready. Progress is still being made (albeit admittedly slowly), and I will remain monitoring feedback and giving support for LunaSea when I can.

https://ms-knives.com/products/caimano-natural-micarta?variant=45996065718566 On sale for $200 plus $8.51 shipping
OEM is Kizer. More info here:
https://youtu.be/BluiWhDJOO4?feature=shared
A new take on the classic American Tanto. Aggressive, yet refined, angular yet elegant; it is the perfect expression of the Manganas Steel design philosophy. The S35VN steel blade has been heat treated to between 60 and 62 HRC, the ideal range, and hollow ground for maximum slicing performance while the tip has been reinforced for puncturing. In addition, extreme attention has been paid to ergonomics, ensuring maximum comfort no matter the grip. The Caimano is a tool, designed to be extremely useful, no matter the job or situation.

FEATURES:

• 6AL4V Titanium Bolster Lock Construction
• Fat Carbon Purple Haze Scales
• Ceramic Ball Bearings
• Flipper and Hole Opening Mechanisms
• S35VN Blade at 60-62 HRC
• Blade Grind: Hollow with Reinforced Tip and Harpoon
• Blade Length: 93.98mm / 3.7in
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• Overall Length: 219.2 / 8.63in

Hello. I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading stuff on Reddit regarding the carnivore diet. Here are some questions I have.
Question 1: I'm not overweight and don't have any autoimmune issues. My biggest "illness" is depression and passive suicidal ideology. I want to start carnivore for mostly mental, not physical reasons. Is it worth it to treat depression? Or should i try alternative, less extreme diets?
Question 2: I don't know too much about electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium, and such. Do any carnivores not worry about these things? Or should you always try to supplement? If so, what is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure I don't get ketogenic flu?
Question 3: How is exercise on the diet? I've heard some people say they feel weaker and some say they feel stronger. Would it affect my gains?
Question 4: Would it be okay to slowly transition, or is it better to go all out when starting? I'm thinking of eating normally for breakfast and lunch, while keeping dinner fully carnivore. I want to do this until I have a handful of go to recipes when I go all out. Are there any downsides? I'm wondering if this will increase the chance of a heart attack or something. I know the consensus is that red meat and butter doesn't clog artieries and cause heart failure,, but I'm wondering if that still persists with sugar and processed foods in the diet.
Thanks!

I 19F am moving out in a couple of months because of a job opportunity I got in the city. And my brother who is turning 21 soon wanted to put me down. I find it hilarious that this hating ass creature that resides in our parent's basement wants to talk shit about everyone else but can’t ever look in the mirror. He never leaves the house to hang out with friends or go anywhere he just stays in the basement. Ever since he graduated, he just plays video games and works jobs on and off. In every job he had he’d always shit-talk his coworkers. He would say they were losers for being okay with working there & they were okay with being mediocre. He thinks he is superior because he wants better for himself. He quits jobs fast as fuck too. Once he and I worked at this job, I kid you not he made fun of one of the workers for being happy they provided a 401k calling him old, etc. He was making fun of another worker for pursuing music and saying his song was ass. He also criticizes our parents for their job/life choices. He criticizes people that go to college saying it’s useless and a scam. He never talks about what he’s going to do with his life, but always asks me what I’m going to do. He belittles me all the time, calls me dumb & makes fun of my intelligence. He makes fun of me because I got a GED instead of a high school diploma. Even though he had to go to school for an extra semester. I may not be school-smart, but at least I’m self-aware and have empathy. Btw he’ll call some of the most beautiful women ugly or mid. He called Marilyn Monroe hideous. He says he needs to see them without makeup or they have too much plastic surgery.
I said I wanted to save up 2.5k before I moved out (not including what I already have in my bank account) & he was saying that’s not enough. Saying I don’t understand the cost of living and I have to have an emergency fund and all this other shit. And I have to take into account what if I get fired…. saying “good luck” being sarcastic. And he and my little brother just laughed. I asked him when he’s planning on moving out and he said by the end of the year. Mind you, he said he was going to move out by the end of last summer. I asked what was he gonna do for work and he said he was gonna do this thing and he’s getting the license. And it takes 3 to 4 months. I very much doubt he’s getting the license right now. He just said that because I pressed him on it. He then asked me how my acting going because I’ve been taking acting classes. I said it’s going well and I’m going to take some more once I move to the city. Then he tried to ask me have I acted with Dwayne Johnson yet. Like trying to insinuate I’m a failure because I haven’t been in a movie with him..? I asked does he even act in movies anymore because I hadn’t seen him in a minute. Then he goes on this whole tangent and insinuates that I’m dumb because I didn’t know he was still acting.
Off topic but on the way to our old job, I would listen to music on my AirPods while he would play his music on the car speakers. He asked me to show him what I was listening to since I thought it was “better”. Then he said, I was saying that his playlist sucks because I was listening to music on my AirPods?? He was salty because of that. One day he asked me to play my playlist which was a playlist full of the Weeknd songs. Then he made fun of me because I was listening to that instead of his songs. Saying that the Weeknd is overplayed & too popular. Pressing me to play an underground song by him. He made fun of me because I don’t listen to any underground artists just popular artists. Saying my taste in music “sucks”. Okay…. He thought he was the shit because he has a bunch of underground nobody’s in his playlist that nobody fucking listens to. And he never plays their songs fully through just 30 seconds then skips to the next song & it’s so annoying.
Anyways quick rant. That’s annoying. I don’t know why every time I try to do something good my family tries to say something or put me down. Or treat me like I’m dumb or some shit. Like they really don’t want me to do good that’s crazy.

My boyfriend's mother is beginning to show signs of possessiveness over him and act weirdly controlling over him. Mind you, he's 24 but she's starting to treat him like a misbehaving young teen. Before I came into the picture, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. Go out, hang out with his guy friends, stay out late, go to clubs, see other girls, that was all totally fine.
We've been together 7 months and she's imposing more and more rules on him. Now he has to be in the house by 9 p.m., he isn't allowed to use his phone in her presence... even though the rules don't apply to his 16 and 21 year old sisters, she wants him to clean after the whole family and be the man of the house even though she's got a husband who lives with them too and the other kids get off scot free and do whatever they want. They don't have partners either, FYI.
She doesn't allow him to text or communicate with me on "family days" including movie nights or going to the county fair, but the girls get to post their Instagram stories all the time. It's like she's forcing him to pay attention to her.
We had plans to all go to the LA county fair together, then at the last minute she decided to take them all on a Sunday when I was working because she wanted to go on Mother's Day so I couldn't come, and she said he and I could go together another day. That never happened. (He bought me a cute little trinket from there to let me know he was still thinking of me.)
She said she "never gets to see him anymore".... THEY LIVE TOGETHER. He gets off work at 1:30 p.m. and she sees him every day of the week, I don't know what she's talking about because I come over more than I bring him to my house or we go out (trying to save $). Sounds like a jealousy issue or insecurity to me because apparently that's not enough, I guess me being in the picture takes attention away from her and she has a little issue with that.
He never had a curfew before, but as of last week he has to be home by 9 p.m. "so she can still see him". He's passed out on the couch any time after that because he works early-early mornings. One time he accidentally left something at my house so my mom and I drove by to return it just as he came from work, and she and my mom were chatting away and when he hugged me, his mom said "young love..." in this whimsical voice that lowkey came off as patronizing and that gave me the ick. It's been 7 months, why the comment when she's used to me by now? This "I never get to see you" stuff.
Oh, and as a gift celebrating 7 months he got me a beautiful, big bouquet of pastel pink (my favorite color) roses. I got him a half-pound box of See's Candies chocolates and truffles, including his favorite kind. His family waited until he was at work, went into his room, stole them and ate them all and he only got to have one KNOWING IT WAS A GIFT FOR HIM FROM ME. And he fought with them when he found out, and nobody would own up to who did it even though his mom has plenty of candy bars by her desk for everyone to get but they wanted THOSE. Hmmm.
Today, we planned for me to come over for half the day and spend the other half with my parents so that we didn't have to miss each other since this is a rare day he has Monday off (Memorial day) and still spend time with our families. But as soon as we made this plan, his mom threw a tantrum and yelled at him - because this family has poor communication skills and no consideration - because his dad wanted to visit his father's grave, which they hadn't done in 12 years even though it isn't far away. This resulted in a fight. But he tried to be his own man and stand up for himself, asking why that's sooo important now since they haven't cared about going to the grave for 12 years and she got PISSED. He stormed outside and called me anyway despite the stupid "no phone" rule.
I actually kind of sensed she would have a problem with me coming over today, like my presence would be inconveniencing her.
Yelling and getting angry at him for his plans to see me when she dropped the cemetery thing on him at the very last second isn't his fault. He didn't do anything wrong when both his parents just chose not to tell him or give him a heads up. It sounds weird and personal. And it really irks me that they don't allow him to use his phone or text/call me in their presence. You can't force someone to pay attention to you. They should give him more age appropriate autonomy, seeing as he's 24 and not 13. But she basically wants him to act like I don't exist when I'm not there. Out of sight, out of mind.
WTF is going on here? Am I getting a little delulu or is mama trying extra hard to be the main and make me the side chick here?

Let me try to give every detail of the story that I can remember.
For example if we’re both involved in cooking something at my place that we’re both going to eat and I bought the ingredients. Cookies.
How our relationship looks esp on my end: I give kind comments, praise all the time in the relationship in general, compliments all the time, I’m always smiling to let her know I care, I make sure to be mindful and considerate all the time, I always have good intentions.
but like gave one constructive criticism in a long time? I said, “Oh there’s huge butter chunks don’t forget to smash those up before we put them in to mix everything well!” I said neutrally/nicely ig? Along the lines not verbatim, and they accuse me of abuse for it?
When we’re cooking cookies and it wasn’t mixed too well so when it came out of the oven many parts were burnt and bitter and dry flower and butter that just melted away the cookies didn’t exactly come out in a way I liked when I tasted it so I said “it’s okay! I just don’t like the taste but mistakes happen love.” She goes “will you eat them?” And I said ”no sorry I don’t think I’m going to eat it” and she got extremely offended by that as well and said I treated her like shit and made her feel like shit for not eating it. But I was nice about it as best as I could be I just really didn’t like the taste.
And I said “it’s okay! Mistakes happen! We’ll do better next time together. Everyone makes mistakes it’s okay love! I’m just not gonna eat any…”
And she said I was abusing her and promised to eat cookies together but I felt bad. She does this often by cooking or doing something “badly” and I never say anything I’m just nice and quiet or politely decline whatever we made. I often just smile and go mute a lot with her bc of fear of Accidentally abusing her or setting her off.
That’s the whole thing I can think of.

Hi everyone,
I wanted to share an experience I just had recently at a restaurant. The bill came to $144, and I decided to pay in cash instead of using a card. I left a $19 tip because that was all the smaller change I had. I was wishing I had enough change to give at least 15%, but I didn't think it was a big enough deal to ask her to break my $100s. So I just left the $18. I know some people might think this is cheap, but that's fine—you can call me cheap.
As we were leaving, the waiter stopped us and said the tip was a bit small, asking if we could give more. I am confused, shocked as I stared at her smiling face while she counted my tip in front of me and my group. Then someone in my group told her, "No, that's all we have," and walked off. I awkwardly followed. She wasn't even our main waiter. The restaurant didn't have designated waiters; they shared tables. We met this girl when she came to the table for the payment.
Having worked as a waiter myself, I understand the importance of tips, but I never confronted a customer like that. I was thankful to ever receive a tip, and I also experienced tables that didn't bother to tip at all, daily. No matter how smooth the service. So I know for a fact she gets tables that don't tip, and I am not the only "small tipper." It all adds up give and take. This experience made me uncomfortable; it felt unprofessional and awkward. At the table, she already counted the money in front of us, so I don't know why she didn't say something then.
I am going to carry extra change when I go out to eat but I don't want to go back to this place again.... because after what she did I didn't feel bad about not leaving enough. I wanted to take it all back. The service wasn't above and beyond and she just met us in the end. Just wanted to get your thoughts on this situation and see if anyone else has had a similar experience. How would you handle it?
Thanks!

I found a build from this guy here https://youtu.be/TCdPDBwZbZ0?feature=shared
He found that build from a Chinese player who pushed pit 110. He shows a picture of the build and says he has a link for it but the link just goes to his mobalytics page.
So I guess what im asking is what website did this guy use to find this Chinese persons build?
It says build vault > my builds at the top but there is no URL.
Is there a diablo 4 repository for builds like this that I'm unaware of? If so does anyone have the link?