Word problems for 2nd grade

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. Shock is in trouble, Bonbon is nearing safety and a spot in the final eight. What can these marbles come up with? Has the power run out for Shock?
Thunderblog 98: Auld Lang Syne
Race 83:
Thunderbolts: 7th is just not going to do it. 7 points adrift, it will require a podium and then some to survive.
Sweet Section: Bonbon’s 5th place finish inches them closer to safety. It’s not done yet, but it should not be much of a problem.
Race 84:
Thunderbolts: It is officially over Shock has a promising start but gets caught up in the bottom section to finish 7th, again. She even had a little run in with the bell carousel for old times’ sake. It was a good run, but now it is over.
Sweet Section: 5th from Bonbon and it will be 6th overall. See you next week and yes, you will be covered in your own publication.
Eulogy:
Shock surprised me over the last 12 weeks. I feel like she surprised everyone by surviving for so long. Many people, including myself, lost faith in Shock after a poor Marbula 1 season and not-great performances in other competitions. Shock earned my respect back, and I hope she earned the respect of the greater Thunderbolts’ fanbase as well.
10th place after numerous escapes and a couple of podiums is a fantastic effort and one that we will look back on fondly. I look forward to seeing you in Marble League Qualifying and, Thor-willing, in the Funnels at The League itself. Until then, keep yourself in good shape, and be ready when you are next called upon. Thank you Shock.
Other News:
In other news, Mandarin joins Shock in elimination this week, as they could not catch Slimelime at the end.
Congratulations to the podium-sitters. Saucer finished 1st, Sea 2nd, and Swax in 3rd. Best of luck going forward.
That is all for Thunderblogs until Marbula 1, assuming we are invited. I will be doing an interview with Shock after the competition is over. I do not know if I will count it as a Thunderblog or as a “Thunderblog Presents”. It depends on if I want Thunderblog 100 to be the Marbula 1 preview or something else. As mentioned above, the Sweet Section will debut this week, much to the chagrin of u/PeskyBirb666. It will come out on Thursday and Sunday, covering 4 and 3 races respectively. Thank you for joining in for all these Thunderblogs for the last 12 weeks. 36 Thunderblogs in that time frame is a-lot and I would not have been able to do it without this community caring and reading about it. Thank you, and see you on the next THUNDERBLOG!

It started about 12 sec after the shot. I could feel the solution flowing into my heart -I had a definite perception that there was something else other than just blood flowing into it.
A few seconds of burning in my heart which peaked into excruciating heart pain and i was shouting obscenities and profanities. It lasted about 5 minutes. It started coming down after 3 minutes and with it hypersalivation started. The saliva tasted very strongly of blood.
My doctor said he has seen over 100,000 administrations of this IV B12 and never seen this kind of response.
Any docs on here know what it could be?
Only other medication i take is lamotragine 100mg and quietiapin sos for sleep (i had taken it the previous night). I have morbid obesity (pls lobby to change that word. Cant it just be called stage 3 or something?) but no other health problems
Appreciate a good response.

I don't think I suck as a DM, since my players enjoy my games and haven't complained (except for a couple of things I will get into), but I seriously find myself seeing other GMs have abilities that I just don't have and I believe I should have learned after about 4+years of DMing at least once a month.
I am playing a 5e campaing about the dream realm, where the players have to discover what is going on over there, why are the dream gods fighting and encounter "lucid dreamers", wich is basically a creature (like some of them) that has a special connection with the dreaming world. That makes those people a nexus where the two worlds collide and energy can be drawn from one realm to another. The big plot is that some gods want to destroy the dream realm, by pouring all of its energy into the material world; and some others want to destroy the material world by absorbing it into the dreaming.
My players have yet to figure this last part out, so they are just running around from town to town trying to find lucid dreamers and encounter a way to fight the god of nightmares, whom they believe is the sole villain. I have a couple others subplots, like the god of nightmares having warlocks that are also looking for lucid dreamers and other things that are not 100% related to the main quest, but still are a bit interesting to see.
My problem is that... we have been at it for almost 2 years now, they are only level 7 (leveled up last session) and have only fought a single boss, wich was a shapeshifter mage. They have aprox 500 gold and just have stupid magic items that were only introduced as a semi joke.
I should divide this between the things my players are complaining and the things I am freaking out about.
My players complained about:
Not having enough gold: I feel like this is 100% my fault, but I don´t really know how to fix it, since they are not going to dungeons or doing stuff in big cities that could get them some nice loot, + I have a hard time knowing how much gold I should give them, since finding a good loot table is kind of weird. That added to the fact that I don't have a very instinctive feel as to what they should be getting at which level (wich is something my other DM friends know how to do on the fly) makes it even harder.
Not having good magic items: This is a issue connected to the gold. Since I have almost no clue as what to give them, I don't know which magic items I should hand out, plus they are not going to a lot of places that could have magic items. And adding merchants is just falling into problem 1, wich is that they don't have enough gold x.x
Not being railroaded enough: They enjoy my sessions, but they have voiced their opinion that I should guide them more sometimes, wich I... quite frankly don't like doing and don't know how to do it without it being intrusive.
I am freaking out about:
Not knowing how to make encounters. They are absolutely demolishing every encounter ever. They are 4, paladin of vengance, monk way of the astral self, bard college of spirits and sorcerer aberrant mind. I go to dnd calculators, I make sure all of them are deadly and are more than 3 enemies and they still blast through them like it's nothing. I make sure to count HP correctly, always noting resistances and pack tactics and so on, but they still demolish them. I have watched videos, read the monster manuals, I even made a "colliseum" wich was just combat with them so I could try monsters and they could try builds, and even there they were just demolishing the encounters.
Not knowing how to "railroad": I have told them what to do (find more lucid dreamers), so they have to go out and look for suspicious things at different towns. There they found the shapeshifter's subplot and are now figuring out that some of the lucid dreamers are conjuring creatures, monsters from their nightmares into the real world as they sleep (just like some of them have been able to, like the college of spirits bard or the echo fighter that later became the paladin). My plan is to lead them to find the elven king is a lucid dreamers, and his nightmares and paranoia regarding his kingdom is materializing weird stuff. However, I feel like I have been too slow to introduce this stuff and I agree with the fact that THEY don't have much of a direction other than "go around, find shit and just hope that we find something".
Not knowing how to pace or structure sessions: Usually I plan a combat per session, even if the oportunity doesn't present itself in wich case I just save it, and some NPC's with a storyline that is happening in town, but when I look at my notes...
Not knowing how to make settings: I just find that my towns are empty, my monsters are boring and there is no fun in this world except for the weird things my players come up with. I use premade maps for Talespire and I have a hard time making a bunch of NPC's, so I just make like 6-10 and call it a day. The real problem is that I have a hard time coming up with taverns and military places and points of interest, since they are visiting small towns.
I am just now falling into the spiral of "It has been two years and almost nothing has happened", noticing all my mistakes and comparing myself to others campaigns I have played or watched and thinking "huh, 10 sessions in and they are already lvl 6... how crazy". Any advice for any of this? Any words of encouragement? Youtube videos? Music? Smoothies combinations?
edit: spelling (english is not my native language x.x)

Yesterday afternoon, I was driving east from Hellsinky and stopped in some town called Lovisa, where I asked if there were any good places nearby to boulder outdoors for a beginner. The locals said I should try a boulder called Biden of Dreams, which seemed like a weird name for a Finnish rock, but maybe he’s really popular here. The locals warned me the problem might be a bit airbagged. Having only climbed indoors before my first thought was, "wow, the chalk marks from previous climbers make it really obvious where the best holds are". My fingers felt fine, and I didn’t need much finger strength because the rock was nice, and the holds were very easy to grab. I had some trouble seeing the footholds, but I was generally surprised by how little I needed them because I was able to easily flash the problem by campusing. I heard that spotting might be useful for other boulders, but I don’t know what that has to do with climbing, maybe I’ll bring a maxi pad next time to deal with the spotting.
All that to say, outdoor climbing feels like a totally different sport. The theory remains the same but the implementation consists of an entirely different set of challenges. I found that this v17 felt like ~v4 in the indoor setting. I understand now why gym grades are different: These outdoor boulders are very welcoming to beginners.
I had few safety concerns. I had no crash pads (which are, of course, aid), the landing zone was level and clear, and generally safe downclimbs meant everything had a minimal element of danger. It makes me really appreciate gym setting and the thrill of higher risk indoors.
This post is meant as a show of appreciation for both types of boulder sports. Outdoors for the ease and forgivingness and as a fallback plan for when the gym is closed, and indoors for the creativity, longevity, and fewer mosquitoes.

We've been in our new home for about 3 years now from day one our neighbor pulls into our driveway all the way in to back in his car but the thing is if our car is parked there he can still back in no problem. We've started to think he is doing on purpose and this happens 4-5 times a day.
And he has two dogs that are always off leash and pee and poop in our yard. There are so many other things like this that we've putting up for 3 years and did not said a word about it until now. He acts like he owns the entire street
We finally told our neighbor we'd appreciate it if we did not use our driveway in a very polite way. He became very hostile and said "oh i pull in maybe 2 feet what is the problem if you want to live on this street you need to make sacrifices"
Can you please help me with your thoughts? I am afraid he'll become more hostile and do things behind our backs.
Thank you

Hi all. I'm on the verge of paying of my student loan (Finally) but as my estimated final payment looms closer, I've noticed that it's always a few more paychecks away.
Looking at MyIR, I can see fortnightly deductions to the balance coinciding with my fortnightly pay, however, at least 4 times over the last 12 months, I can see that there has been a period of around 4 weeks between payments.
As my employee takes care of my tax and SL obligations, and as I'm essentially on a salary, (I get the some wages every week whether I do my 40 hours or less), I can't see how there could be payments missing.
They aren't always listed for the same day as my pay day, but are usually within the next 2-3 days. In saying that though, looking at MyIR, I can see a payment for the 4th of April, then the next one on the 2nd of May. There should have been one in between these two dates as the amount is always the same percentage of my fortnightly wage. As I said before, this discrepancy occurs at least 4 times over the last 12 months.
Considering my balance is under $1000 now, would IRD not have a problem with this?
I'm really looking forward to the increased spending money that having my SL paid off will afford me, but having to wait another 2 months (at least) is kinda shit.
Are there other factors at play that could result in this infrequent payment schedule? I feel like if I ask my boss, he's going to tell me it all goes through automatically.
This isn't the only red-flag in my employment so I'm going to be skeptical regardless what he says. I just want to be sure I have my facts right first.
Cheers

• I think.

TLDR: Known each other for 5 years. Been together for over 2. He lied, I guess about me saying goodbye (the literal word goodbye) and then left me based on this.
I didn't actually say "goodbye". I asked if he was being metaphorical. He said no, insisted that I had actually said the word, and got all his stuff out of my place (which wasn't much stuff anyways,) said goodybe to me. I asked if he was trying to gaslight me, he got really sarcastic and was like "Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing," and left. It's how he said it. And how he left.
We were having a tense conversation... if you could call it a conversation, idk. It was more of a lecture. Where he tells me everything I "do wrong" emotionally. I cut in after about 4 minutes and said something along the lines of "yeah but it's not just me, like you also have a part in the relationship," and he got up and started getting his stuff at that point. So I was like, "what are you doing?" or some other similar question.
I'm used to this kind of thing with him, more or less. But I believe every time he comes back that he'll stay and every time he leaves that he won't come back. I'm tired of the whiplash. I love him so much. I spent so much time believing in him. He was the center of my universe. But I'm so numb now. I almost don't even care now. I just feel so raw and hurt, like when you scrape your knee and it keeps getting rubbed raw by some jeans or you keep falling on it, you know it hurts but you just kind of ignore it because it keeps happening. There's a lot of problems in the relationship, but for some reason I've always believed in him and he pushed me to pursue my dreams. I think he never knew that he was one of my two biggest dreams, a future with him. I just know that if he comes back some weeks from now I will be so relieved because I have no one else. I am alone. It's really really hard for me to make friends. And to keep them. And I don't know my family like that.
EDIT No I think I'm really messed up about this. I don't know if I want to be here anymore.

Hello everyone
First of all, I want to give some context to what exactly is going on and why I want to ask whether or not it is a good idea to relaunch my novel.
First of all, there is my novel, Valkyria Squadron, the link Valkyria Squadron Scribble Hub. I've been working on it for a long time, a project of many years, almost 7 years of planning in my head, 3 years of writing. So far there are 280 chapters, more than 750 thousand words, 354.6k views, 5782 favorites and so on.
So far so good, good numbers I think.
The problem I have is with the reviews. My novel has an average rating of 3.6 and dropping, which, based on the comments I've received, is turning off a lot of people, maybe too many. And while I wouldn't normally pay much attention to that, it's supposed to be a rating from the readers themselves.
The problem is that I've realized that my novel and its rating are currently in a weird loop that I don't think I can get out of unless I somehow reset the rating.
It all started in the first days of writing my novel, the illusion of being written, the initial adrenaline, the joy of knowing that there were people out there reading what was so personal to me. The problem is that English is not my first language, and the tools I was using were not the best, so those first chapters received very strong negative reviews, which I still agree with today, those chapters were a disaster, plus added to the already complicated plot of the novel made the first chapters look like a complete disaster.
Once again, I agreed with the criticism myself, so of course I tried to improve in that particular aspect. Time passed, I improved as a writer, I could organize my ideas and how to present each chapter better, the tools improved, I learned a lot more English and grammar. But I was always bothered by that rough start of my novel, so I worked tirelessly to improve those first chapters over time, during these three years that I have been writing the new chapters, I keep revising the first chapters to improve them a little more.
The real problem?
That the comments complaining about the grammar never stopped, and the negative reviews got even louder, indicating that the first few chapters were worthless garbage.
What happens is that the chapters they complain about no longer exist. New people are now reading what is essentially the 4.0 edition of the early chapters, and they are still complaining. They are still complaining about how horrible the first chapter of the whole story is, even though it is a completely different story now, even with different characters.
The only thing that has not changed over time has been the analysis of the novel and the comments of the chapters because I never deleted them. At the beginning they were more than deserved, but now after so much time and so many arrangements?
And I understood that new readers only saw the comments complaining about the grammar and they also started to complain about the grammar and how poorly written it is, without ever saying exactly what's wrong or how to fix it, they just "feel in the force" that something is wrong.
So I guess I'm stuck in that cycle right now. A new reader comes in, sees the novel with a low rating by Scribble Hub standards, maybe reads the synopsis and plans to read it. They see the reviews about the horrible grammar from people who never got past chapter 13 of 280. They read the revised 4.0 version of those chapters and then complain about the bad grammar too, leaving a negative rating because it's poorly written, not because of the story itself or sometehing else.
At first I was a conspiracy theorist. But recently I have received comments from new readers who have read a bit more and mentioned that they also believe that the comments and analyses they saw before reading it were much harsher than what actually happened, and that it put them off reading the novel in the first place because of the large amount of criticism it received from other people.

So I have been using mr salles as revision for my English literature gcse and came across a video in which he went over a grade 9 response from a past year (Around 5 years ago). I then took the ideas and structure that the student used and made a similar version. I memorised this essay as it fit all themes for the play and I used it in my exam. However I realised afterward that this might be plagiarism and I could get penalised for this. Is this a big problem for me or should I be fine?

Just finished farming everything; shackles and proofs were the worst as expected. I saw this post describing a rather elaborate scheme to increase drop rates, so I decided to test it with shackles.
Method: With an item discovery about about 400, I defeated the two gravewarden skeletons 100 times without reloading (got 10 shackles, ~5% chance per drop), then did the reloading method for 5 sets, defeating the same two skeletons 50 times (got 5 shackles, ~5% per drop). After this I had all 30 shackles (had done some invading before) so I stopped.
Analysis: I used Bayesian methods to analyze the data. I tested whether the reloading method works, but also whether the two skeletons had different drop rates (I got 6 from the 1st, 9 from the 2nd), as well as whether the time since the last shackle dropped affected the current drop rate, this identifies non random patterns in when shackles drop (i.e. they are clustered together in "lucky" periods or evenly spaced far apart).
Results: Nothing matters. There is no evidence that the reloading method helps. There is basically no evidence that there's a difference between the two skeletons. There is no evidence that time since the last shackle matters, so shackles are no more clustered (or dispersed) than chance would expect.
Conclusion: You might as well grind continuously rather than reloading. The reloading method probably originated in the tedium of farming items, as well as the human tendency to see patterns when there aren't any, as well as confirmation bias from other players being more likely to report successes than failures.
That said, the low drop rates also pose a problem for the analysis estimating the probabilities: the estimates are inherently uncertain and I can't rule out the possibility of the reloading method having a small effect. To do this I need more data. If anyone wants to collect more data I can add it to the analysis, but I need it in this format (with one row for each gravewarden skeleton):

1. method (1=regular, continuous grinding, 2=reloading method)
2. session (numeric id for each exit and reload, the regular method is basically 1 long session)
3. rep (numeric id for each visit to the bonfire within a session)
4. skeleton (1=the closer skeleton, 2=the more distant skeleton; sometimes its hard to tell)
5. shackle (whether the skeleton dropped a shackle, 0=no, 1=yes)

For instance, the first four rows of my data look like this:
session method rep shackle skeleton
1 1 1 0 1
1 1 1 0 2
1 1 2 0 1
1 1 2 0 2

My husband and I have a 5 y/o son. He's a good kid, but he's a handful, the way all young kids are. I for one am exhausted by parenthood and we definitely will not be having more children.
My husband loves to travel, and he still talks about our honeymoon to Europe on a regular basis. This was eight years ago, long before we had our child, and I admit that was a fabulous trip. But ever since we got pregnant, my husband daydreamed about taking our child along to Europe, showing them sights, etc. He never got that experience as a child and wanted our son to have that. I did travel as a young child, but it was definitely a lot for my parents to deal with and in hindsight, it would've just been easier to wait till we were older.
With the summer coming up, my husband is insisting on planning a trip to Europe for the three of us. He would've pushed for it sooner but COVID was a factor for the first couple years, and then after that it still didn't feel like the right time. We've taken small road trips with our son before, a few hours driving distance mostly to see family members. Last summer we did a trip to Disney World with my in laws and while that was fine, it was so draining and I think my son was a bit young for it and we should've waited a couple more years. I feel like for Europe, even more so. Maybe when he's well into grade school, 8 or 9?
I brought this up with my husband and he's begging me to reconsider, he misses traveling so much and hates that we never go anywhere. I reminded him that 'going places' is 5x more work now than it was pre-kids. He's a very involved dad but he tends to see things like this with rose colored glasses, while I'm more detail oriented and can foresee all the tiny little problems. In short, this wouldn't be a vacation at all.
AITA for asking my husband to postpone his dream once again until kiddo is older?

Hi,I 25(F) is in a relationship with my boyfriend "K" (M) 31 for 3 years. Their family has been going through a rough patch for quite a sometime regarding financial, personal and health related issues respectively.His immediate family has 3 members him along with his parents.
Recently his dog(Bruno) died and his family still isn't over the situation and Bruno is being remembered quite often. Amongst such situation his mother thought of adopting another dog and expressed it to his father this evening while we all were busy running our different errands. Suddenly he started shouting at her and we were taken by surprise by his behaviour.We started asking for such behaviour and his reason was " we just lost Bruno,we shouldn't adopt one as she is a patient of high BP and won't be able to maintain a dog,and he won't spend a penny on another dog".She got offended but didn't say a word cuz she is very introvert and generally is not standing up for herself of person.So I and my boyfriend stepped in and stood up for her and and that lead to a chaotic situation that included shouting, accusing, cursing amongst father and son,I tried to stop them and make them understand that we shouldn't do such,but it started to go out of control.
I requested both to not get riled up upon such topic,we will cross the bridge when we reach there, but nothing could make the situation come in control.Finally after a lot of convincing and shouting me and his mother could separate them and stop the heated conversation.Then I first went to my boyfriend to make him understand that this conversation is possible even without shouting and getting angry.He stated " The conversation is not the problem but his mentality of dominating his mother and shout at her is wrong and is still entitled to take decisions for her without him intervening.She is capable enough to bear the costs of the maintenance of the dog and she doesn't need to be dependent on him" with which I agree too. Next I went to his father to make him understand, he stated" She shouldn't get a dog because she has high BP and he isn't over Bruno yet and won't allow a new dog at home neither will spend a penny on it." So I said "Respectfully, listen it's her you are staying at because it my boyfriend's father's home which she got as a gift and secondly he can't take away her right to speak and right to have her opinions about herself and her life and he shouldn't assert it on her just because she is your wife".
His reaction stunned me,he literally slammed the table loudly and came near me with anger and irritation in his voice and features and shouted "I don't obey by those shitty rights,she is a house wife,what I say stays and you keep your trap shut" .It took me some minutes to overcome the trance of his behaviour.My boyfriend again stepped in and this time with stern voice said if you can't respect your wife atleast respect a girl from different household and she is here as my girlfriend.Respect that. He kept denying that he said nothing wrong and his opinions are right.He even mentioned that I am the one who insulted him by trying to teach him about his wife's rights and since he didn't use slang on me in reply, I am not disrespected.
This time I lost patience and told that enough is I am not keeping any connection with this family cuz if today me being his son's girlfriend can insult me in such a way then they will keep repeating the same if I join this family as his son's wife and will start treating me more badly and made my statement clear that I am cutting all ties with them including my boyfriend,then suddenly they all came together irrespective of their differences to convince me and my boyfriend broke down tears and started saying that why am I being left along while I was fighting for you.It was disheartening to see him cry but fear caught me what if in near days he turns out to be his father!!I literally can't think ahead of that fear.
Note 1 : I met his family at the first year of our relationship and I always felt that this type of domination works in their family but it wasn't so vivid like this time
Note 2: His father always showed a negligence behaviour towards his mother and she decoded it as his inexpressive ways to love her which I always objected personally but never showed the courage to talk between them before.
Note 3: In the past I had worst of experiences with boyfriends and I still fear that this turns out one of another worst examples of my life and lessons too.
Note 4 : It's a brown family problem with brown family mentality!!
So after me declaring that I want to walk out of the relationship his parents pleaded me not to do so,and his father promised not that he won't be doing so again; but I can't find the courage to believe that because firstly I feel like they are lying and secondly I don't have the courage to believe in him after that behaviour of his. They convinced me that my boyfriend should drop me home and on the way home he mentioned that "I fight for every one,they never think of doing such and selfishly thinks about themselves and work accordingly." So I asked back that "Is choosing my respect over a relationship a selfish thing?!" He didn't answer me and while leaving for home after dropping me,he with teary eyes and sad face said "I know you don't want me and won't keep me,but I do still love you" and went off.
Now am stuck between head and heart, because it hurts at the thought of a life without him and on otherside my self respect is soaring the sky that I shouldn't give in because if I let this situation slip and pass in near days and years situation will go south and beyond control that will lead to serious relationship and personal life turmoil.
Sorry for being ti elaborate and please help me understand the situation better with a third pair of eyes.
Thank You.

Hi! I'm a 24 year old female who is currently out of school. This post will be a bit rambly so bear with me.
I've become more aware of my struggles with reading as I've gotten older. I did pretty well in school up to 12th grade for the most part, but I struggled a lot with grammar and any reading assignments.
I HATED essay questions with a burning passion. There has been times in the 5th grade where I'd cry while doing homework because I struggled to put my thoughts on to paper. I've always been terrible at summarizing and never got the hang of it. I remember crying in school because our ridiculous school decided to give us work to do on spring/winter break and I was so overwhelmed by all the stuff we had to do.
Once I started community College, that's when I really started to struggle. I got Cs and Ds in most classes. The only class I got an A in was Art. I've tried several programs but couldn't finish any of them. It's something that still bothers me to thus day.
The final nail in the coffin was when I started an online program to become a Dental Assistant. Whenever I took notes I'd make a ridiculous amount of spelling mistakes. I've always been a terrible note taker, but this was worse than ive ever been. My biggest problem was that no matter how much I read and reread my notes or a text book, my stupid brain just could not retain most of the information. It gave me panic attacks just looking at the words.
My reading problems gives me so much anxiety because I feel like they'll hinder my ability to do well in a workplace. I'm a slow reader and it takes a long time for my brain to process a lot of information sometimes. I feel so stupid. I feel like something is wrong with me.

Hey there! As it says in the title, I'm 26 years old, and I live in the north of Scotland.I've never really been the best at advertising myself, so here we go.
I'm currently developing games for a living and have been doing so since 2018, meaning I'm usually at my computer a fair bit. Because of that I consider myself to be pretty good at quickly solving problems and coming up with creative solutions, most of which involving chewing gum and duct tape.
Despite being a developer, I don't really play as many games as I used to, and I usually play them with others rather than by myself, so if you're someone who likes playing multiplayer games, I'd be happy to tag along with anything really.
Whenever I'm not working, I'm usually working on something creative. I'm a big fan of tabletop games, mostly the painting side despite knowing all the rules to a few, I've not actually played one in person for a very long time. If you're also artistic or creative in any way, we'll probably get along pretty well!
Here's some extra brief info about me that I'm not really sure how to put into words.
-I'm roughly 5'9 and weigh around 59kg
-I don't smoke or drink and never intend to do either
-I have glasses and blue-grey eyes, with long brown hair.
-My favourite colours are what I'd describe as royal purple and magical blue.
-I think the Loch Ness Monster is real
-My favourite animals are cats, ferrets, and raccoons, in no particular order.
-My personality type, if you're into that stuff is ENTJ.
-I have a year old semi longhair brown tabby.
As for what I'm looking for, as it says in the title, I'm looking for a connection. Due to being autistic I've always struggled to actually make them with anyone, so I'm hoping I may finally be able to find one to actually prove that such a thing still exists.
If you feel the same way, please feel free to say hello! However, if you do, be sure to actually tell me a little about yourself. I won't be responding to people who just say 'Hey' or anything that's sort of low effort, bonus points if you've read everything and can tell me which cryptid is actually real, and ideally, please be from the UK.
Hope to hear from you soon!

For some context, bc I don’t know if it matters: 9 weeks ago, I had my 2nd and 3rd lobes done on my right ear. A week and a half ago, I went back in and got my 4th on my right and a 2nd and 3rd on my left. All done with implants grade titanium.
The problem is, a few days after getting them my left ear was head butted by my daughter, HARD. It hurt like hell and cause my ear to swell up for 4-5 days. The swelling has finally gone down, but the pain is still there. It’s not bad, but if it gets bumped even in the slightest it’s painful. No sign of infection present. I clean it twice a day with NielMed’s Piercing Aftercare spray, and the let warm water wash over them in the shower every night. I keep my hair back so it doesn’t get caught. None of my other lobe piercings hurt this long or for this long. Is it still painful because of them being hit? Anything I can do to stop it? Could there have been trauma caused by it being hit?

A week ago we hired a sleep consultant for help with short naps and independent sleep for my very stubborn 7 month old. Her strategy is essentially moms on call, focusing more on a schedule rather than wake windows. It has been a total flop. When his first nap is crap, the 2nd nap doesn’t come soon enough. When the first nap is long and restorative, the 2nd nap comes far too soon and it’s a total undertired screaming match. Ex: today he woke up at 6am (honestly too early for us) so he went down at his scheduled 9am nap. We put him down exhausted at 8:45am and he complained lightly and was asleep before 9. He slept until 11. So 1pm comes around and my son has been screaming for an hour+. Clearly was not in the slightest bit tired which is why the crying lasted as long as it did. My husband went in to soothe and assisted to sleep because my son was hyperventilating. Is this approach even effective? We’re on day 8 and he’s still not falling asleep independently and the only thing thats happened is bedtime has shifted insanely early, borderline impossible for us, because she wants us to always cap the last nap at 3pm. Her two cents on why things haven’t moved along faster are because adhering to the schedule to a T hasn’t quite happened. Advice?? Words of encouragement?

Any advice you guys can offer me on how to improve my application, or what schools I should apply to given my stats would be SO appreciated. I'm a little lost on how to win the whole college application game, so any words of wisdom would mean a lot <3
Demographics: Middle-class Caucasian Female from small-town Colorado, Small High School (150 kids per graduating class), Legacy at UNC Chapel Hill and The University of Oregon
Intended Major(s): Psychology or International Business
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1430 SAT - 750 Reading, 680 Math (plan on retaking over the summer for a good superscore)
UW/W GPA and Rank: 4.0 UW / 4.41W (Rank 1 in Class)
Coursework: Took every Dual Credit/AP/Honors offered at my school + AP Psych and AP Calc BC which were not offered at my school, so I took them online through UC Santa Cruz's Program. (Going to end up taking 12 APs total, and I've passed all tests so far with mostly 5s)
Awards:

• AP Scholar
• National Rural and Small Town Recognition Program Award (from BigFuture)
• 2024 Mines Medal of Achievement in Math and Science

Extracurriculars:

• Studied Abroad in Spain over the summer with CIEE to learn Spanish + ended up with credits from Tulane University
• Model UN, Co-President and Club Founder, also won 3rd at state (2 years)
• Knowledge Bowl, Vice President and 2-time Nationals Qualifier (3 years)
• NHS, President (2 years)
• Varsity Theater and Thespian Troupe, Academic Liaison - the office that basically tutors the other theater kids to help them keep their grades up and stay eligible (4 years)
• 100+ community service hours volunteering at the local professional theater as an usher
• Student Council, Class President(2 Years) and Treasurer (2 Years), (4 years total)
• Varsity Track, Team Manager (1 year)
• Mu Alpha Theta, President (1 year)
• Year-round job at Winter Park Ski Resort ~40hrs/week during summer and ~16hrs/week during winter (3 Years)

Essays/LORs/Other:

• Strong letters of rec from my school counselor and theater director, as well as the teacher who taught me AP World, APUSH, and also serves as the sponsor for my MUN club and Student Council
• My essay will probs be about how my mom tried to kill me when I was 10 and how I learned to forgive and let her back into my life

School List (as of now): Out of State: UMich (Dream School), UNC Chapel Hill (Legacy), Duke, Northwestern, USC, UCLA, UC Berkley, UCSD, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz (where I took some APs), University of Oregon, University of Washington, University of Florida, and Florida State. In State: CU Boulder, University of Denver, Colorado College, Colorado State, and Colorado School of Mines (where the mines award is from)

I'm not sure if anyone else has experienced this but I use the same description format to write my bots and recently they are interpreting simple words like "you" as a name not a pronoun to address someone. It's the same if I reword the description using "user" to how they should behave towards who is talking to them in character. They are also choosing to ignore exclusions in their behavior that otherwise is allowed in other senerios BUT NOT towards the users character or towards them in general.
A great example is writing: "You are allowed to cuss but not at user." Or "Towards you this bot is not allowed to cuss, but in general allowed to use vulgar vocabulary."
The bot suddenly reads this as they can't cuss towards a person named "you" or ignore it completely and do it anyway towards user.
Before this wasn't a problem. They would make the leap and assume when "you" is placed that is who is talking to them or using them. Same for using "user" instead of "you", they would adhere to their limitations.
Is anyone else experiencing this or have any idea on why this could be happening? Thank you in advance!

I hate myself kasi there's a high chance na bumagsak ako this sem. Not literally na singko but from flat unos to 2.0-3.0s. Bigla nalang nawala yung drive ko to aim high for my grades. Buong sem nawalan ako ng gana, nag-cutting class nang maraming beses, skipped quizzes, and hindi na nagco-comply ng school tasks or late na. I just realized this during finals week when I checked my inbox besides sa mga unread/ignored messages from the past few weeks, nabasa ko yung chat ng instructor namin sa gc. Nag-final exam na pala sa course niya and na miss ko yon kasi wala na kong pakialam. I was too busy battling with my crisis na naoverlook ko na yung studies ko. 3 weeks na pala akong hindi pumapasok, hindi narin ako nagpe-prepare sa finals unlike dati. This week, may 2 final exams and multiple quizzes akong na-miss at tambak na pending tasks pero di ko alam bakit wala akong drive na i-accomplish yon like I used to.
I'm now scared because I'll definitely dissapoint other people, baka matanggal ako sa scholarship, pano pag nagkabelow 2.0 grade ako? hindi ako makakqualified sa president's list and won't get latin honors. I really need help...
I'm still doing things that I love pa naman pero pagdating sa iba wala nakong gana. I feel like there's a hole in my chest, and I don't know what to fill it with. I have a mental health problem, disrupted sleep pattern, and a sort of an addiction I formed. I really feel lost. Can't even seek for professional help, not in good terms with my fam, not even one knows the battle inside me. :(((

So she has an A in math all year with about 1 month to go. She has turned in every assignment all year, asks/answers questions and is polite/well behaved. However, she has an IEP and has never passed a quiz or test on the first try. If you fail, you can make corrections to get back up to 65%, which she has done every time. She has cried during homework most of the year, and I have guided her through the assignments. She is diagnosed with dyslexia and is in ICS environment for the first year. Last week she questioned why she has an A if she’s failed or close to failed every test and has no idea how to start a problem on her own and is lost most of the time. She is smart enough to know she is not prepared for the next year if they don’t hold her hand like this. While I don’t expect her to have an F, nor does she, is it right that she has an A? It’s not even giving her a false sense of security, she knows it’s not deserved based on grading criteria.

Here is my experience getting an aqua peel treatment at Peum Global Clinic in Gangnam:
So Peum is definitely the most factory style but I think it's fine for less invasive treatments. I booked my appointment the same day as the other clinic I had an appointment for did not have any specials on aqua peels. I accidentally went to the wrong clinic so was super late to my appointment but was called pretty quickly for a consultation.
Consultation: During the consultation a translator take you the consultation area where a consultant asks you what problems you're concerned about and then recommended some treatments. I was wary of Peum due to past reviews of it being very factory style so I was very sure I just wanted an aqua peel. They weren't pushy with the other treatments and didn't seem to have a problem with me getting just a aqua peel. That might also be because they know it was my 2nd day in Seoul and I didn't want to look red for the rest of my trip so it wasn't practical for me to get anything invasive anyways.
Billing: There's another area for billing they took me to to pay for the treatment. They didn't cut the tax until I reminded them but they do have kiosks for duty free tax in the clinic if you wanted to do it after. I recommend making them take it out during the billing, cause those machines generally will give you a refund to your desired card after you leave the country, and that seems a bit unreliable. It costed me $23.80 in total for the aqua peel. The price was actually $14(19,000 won) but with taxes and some other clinic fees it came out to be $23.80. They do add some random fees(don't remember what they are) so the prices are a bit misleading.
Treatment: You first go to the "cleansing zone" where you wash your face before the treatment and can put your stuff in the lockers. Then they take you to the treatment area which basically a line of cubicles. The person who does the treatment usually does not speak english but they call someone if you have any questions. They did a pretty thorough job with the aqua peel and ended the treatment with a moisturizing mask. The only annoying part was that they left the mask for over 20 mins and didn't really check in to see if I'm done.
Post Treatment/Results: I didn't really see a massive change in my skin. It did feel a bit smooth, hydrated and maybe a bit glowy. Also, an active pimple did calm down a bit but thats about it. Even after a week later, my face looked pretty much the same as before. However, I was left with a red mark on my nose for 2 days, most probably cause they used too much suction on my nose.
Conclusion: I spent a total of 1.5 hours in the clinic and I think for the price point and overall experience, its worth it if you want to try out an aqua peel as a facial or a clean up. However, I would rather invest that time in another more invasive treatment that gives better results like a chemical peel that costs just a bit more. But if you are looking for something not invasive and safe, an aqua peel is a great started. Also, Peum as a clinic I think is fine, it wasn't as shady or unprofessional as I expected it to be, but I did only get a aqua peel so can't speak for any other treatments.

“The Impact of Relocating ESL Services”
A Community in Distress In a quiet corner of Pittsburgh, the borough of Brentwood, a storm is brewing over a decision that could disrupt the lives of many young students and their families. The School District of Borough of Brentwood School Board has recently announced the transfer of elementary English as a Second Language (ESL) services to Moore Elementary starting in the 2024-2025 school year. This decision, though perhaps intended to streamline resources, overlooks the profound impact it will have on the community it is meant to serve. For many families, the announcement has brought a wave of anxiety and uncertainty.
Consider the story of Maria and her two children, Diego and Sofia. (Names/identifying info) have been changed to protect identities. Diego, who is in the third grade, and Sofia, a kindergartner, both attend the same school and rely heavily on the ESL program to bridge the language gap they face in their new home. This program has been a lifeline, helping them navigate not only their academic challenges but also their integration into a new cultural environment. The transfer of ESL services means that Diego and Sofia will not only have to adjust to a new school but could also be separated, as Sofia might remain at their current school while Diego moves to Moore Elementary. The logistical nightmare of managing drop-offs and pick-ups at two different schools is daunting for Maria, who relies on public transportation and works a demanding job. Moreover, the commute to Moore Elementary will involve traversing over a mile on foot through a neighborhood with steep hills, a journey that is particularly perilous in Pittsburgh's harsh winters. This change poses significant safety concerns for young children, some of whom are already dealing with the stress of adapting to a new language and culture. Financial considerations add another layer of complexity to this issue. In June 2023, the district reported a $2.1 million balance, allocating $600,000 to technology upgrades and transferring $1.5 million to the Special Fund Reserve. This raises a critical question: Why can’t some of these funds be redirected to support the transportation and staffing needs for ESL services within the current schools? Are we valuing technological advancements over the well-being and stability of our children? The decision also raises ethical and legal concerns. The Supreme Court case Lau v. Nichols (1974) established that providing identical educational facilities and materials does not equate to equal treatment if it fails to meet the specific needs of language minority students. By relocating ESL services, the district may inadvertently create additional barriers for these students, compromising their right to a meaningful education as guaranteed by this landmark ruling.
This situation is not just about logistics or finances; it’s about the community’s values and priorities. Separating ESL students from their peers and siblings sends a troubling message about inclusivity and equality. It risks marginalizing a vulnerable segment of our student population and undermines our commitment to providing every child with the support they need to succeed. The community calls on the School Board to reconsider this decision. There must be alternative solutions that do not compromise the well-being of our students. Reallocating existing funds to hire additional qualified staff or investing in training for current staff could be viable options. Our children deserve better, and we have the means to provide it.
In one parent’s words, "This isn't just about moving to a different school. It's about the message we are sending to our children about their worth and our commitment to their future."
As the community rallies together, the hope is that the School Board will listen and take action that reflects the true values of Pittsburgh—supporting and nurturing all its students, regardless of their language or background.
Parents have started a campaign to collect signatures to oppose this decision. The school board meets again on Monday, May 20, 2024 where parents will be presenting the petition opposing this problematic, short-sighted decision.