Will concerta show up as methaphetamine

Curious if anyone has had a similar experience to this - please note, mods, that I am not looking for medical advice! She has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow. Just wondering if anyone has dealt with the same thing. My toddler (2.5 years old) has had a slightly elevated temperature (between 99.6 and 100) for going on 3 weeks. At the very end of April, she spiked a high fever (103+) with absolutely no other symptoms - it was strange. She was back to her normal self within 24 hours, but her temperature since that time has seemed to stay slightly elevated.
I would have taken her to her ped much sooner, but she’s acting completely normal - normal appetite, drinking plenty of water, normal sleep and energy levels. She is maybe a bit more irritable than usual.
I’m torn on this one. My guess is teething and that her second molars will show up soon, but on the other hand this feels like a very long time to have an ongoing fever like this. Love our pediatrician but he’s pretty aggressive with diagnostics, and based on past experience, I believe he’d order a full blood panel with this (and an experience with my oldest daughter, having her blood drawn at about two years old, is still front of mind for me). I don’t want to subject my toddler to that unless necessary, and I plan on telling him as much to get his perspective. Appreciate hearing any similar experiences before our appointment tomorrow.

Hey BSC SubReddit! To celebrate the huge milestone of 100k members in the Brawl Stars Competitive SubReddit we have decided to host a huge tournament with a prize pool a prize pool of $125 on offer for teams with contributions being available!
We will be hosting a 3v3 tournament which will take place starting from Saturday 1st June over multiple days (for both the large scale of players and the different regions). (This tourney will be hosted through the brawl hub discord server, link can be found below).
To apply, all you need to do is go to matcherino https://matcherino.com/t/brawlsummerleague/overview and add your team details and the other requested information to register you and then when the time of the tournament begins for your region, we need you to check into the tournament through the Brawl Hub discord server to confirm you are here for the event. More info about the maps and brackets will be on matcherino.
Anyone who doesn’t show up for any reason or does anything that breaches the rules of the event will immediately be disqualified and will not be able to compete in any potential future competitions.
We have partnered with both the Brawl Hub and Power league prodigy discord servers to make this possible.
Brawl Hub is one of the biggest Brawl Stars scrim servers and even has Brawl Stars world finalists who use their server to find their own scrims! THE TOURNAMENT WILL BE HOSTED IN BRAWL HUB
Power League Prodigy is connected to an amazing site in which you can look at in depth guides for Ranked and Brawl Stars in general helping you get better at drafting, playing specific brawlers and knowing the weaknesses of who’s on the other team.
Go ahead and join them as we couldn’t do this tournament without their help! Brawl hub: https://discord.gg/brawlhub Power league prodigy: https://discord.gg/gahd83Em
With all that said though, we hope you all enjoy playing. Anyone can apply whether you’re a pro or just getting into the game competitively so just have fun!
(If there are any issues, message mikachuyt on discord for any further help and information)
The tournament will be streamed on Mikachu (link here): https://youtube.com/@mikachuonyt?si=29I3xnFjMrMa2u-u with more details to be given out closer to the event.
Please make sure you are in the brawl stars competitive discord server and brawl hub to compete BSC discord: (https://discord.gg/XGCpXKuMDB).

As a collection of like minded individuals we must start completely ignoring the existence of the masses (I.E women, inbreds). And not in a superficial way, we shouldn’t disagree with them, we shouldn’t look at them and we certainly shouldn’t talk to them. They simply shouldn’t have any existence within our minds and then, I am convinced of this, “they” will simply cease to exist.
I am not perfect, perfection is something we must move toward. But because I am not perfect I feel myself ponder the idiocy of others. Or trying to explain my position to women. I am going to stop this. I don’t need to explain myself any more.
For a long time I DIDN’T believe truth and objectivity was possible. Clarity was an impossibility.
You don’t believe in truth? you don’t know what truth is? You cannot define truth? questions like this plagued my mind for hours, teachers in school affirmed these thoughts. I was young and Impressionable. I’m not perfect.
You can define truth. Ignore the intellectualism, ignore the thoughts of others, ignore your environment. You are truth, everything you believe is the truth. The world and people around you demand you to view things through endless layers of nuance, you don’t need it. People believe that a greater depth of understanding is equal to intelligence. That being an “expert” is a good thing. It is not, you will only yearn for more. I have yet to meet a professional or expert I respect, they are shackled to their field of knowledge. Unable or unwilling to view things from a broader more truthful perspective.
Looking at things through the lens of collective groups or definitions is also reductive. The “haves” and “have nots” are arbitrary distinction. I can harp on for hours about how the modern age strips meaning from us, refusing to allow us to view things from our own perspective. Being the critic is easy, finding an alternative is hard. That is what my father says.
So here is alternative, lift weights and dominate others. Physically and mentally. Your will is the most important thing, disregard morals, they box you in. Others will try and box you in, why? You ask, I say, disregard their motives. It is not important to know others unless you, personally, deem them of value.
These concepts; equality, post modernity, ideas, consciousness. Waste of time. Strive for excellence, strive for intelligence. They hate that I disagree, they say I am morally bankrupt, they say I live a deeply sad life. Either are true, I feel stronger, I’m happier than ever. What you feel is important, your emotions are important. Base your morals off your emotions.
They created industrial war, it is no longer an art. The 20th century told us one thing, humans want to kill each and strip each other from history. Everything is driven by profit, stand against profit for it is how they control you, shackle you to community. To the collective. Money and success is not valued by the number you have in your bank account. Actually the number in your bank account is directly correlated to have much of yourself you’ve given away. How you have betrayed yourself. Given in.
Success is happiness, and I am happy.
David foster Wallace once said that
“If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on”
once I heard this quote I’d decided to value nothing. But I think I misunderstood the idea behind Wallace’s words. I am not perfect. Maybe you shouldn’t worship anything. Or maybe you should worship yourself, in totality. For you, the individual, is already perfect. I don’t agree with Wallace on everything, but unlike the people today he thought about things. Had original ideas, not the endless pseudo-intellectual rehashing and slight modification of ideas that have floated through the collective ethos for years. You already know everything you need to know to live this very moment, and that is all that matters.
But the truth is I want it all, yet I am told that I shouldn’t do that. Accept my weakness, let go of my childlike desires. They say; “truth is unobtainable and perfection is unobtainable”. And do you know who says that, ugly people. They shouldn’t have an opinion anyway.

I I guess I'm looking for validation that this is textbook, and I am looking at this correctly. I guess that is the effect of being gaslit - you don’t know your reality is really your reality. But I am here, and asking for help, because I will need to see him for the next 12 years (our kids go to the same school). This will be in passing and at events, but I am traumatized, still recovering, and just scared. I am looking for some insights because I spent about 2 months trying to fit my story into a box of emotional and narcissistic abuse…. But it's not that....I see that now. If you are able to share tidbits of knowledge, or point me in the direction of more clarity, I would appreciate it so much. Thank you so so much.
I am going to write out the cliff notes. I imagine a lot of you can fill in the parts I leave out as from what I read on here, it’s typical.
I met him walking my kid to school. He walked the same way every day. Over time, we became friends, and I learned he was trying to leave his marriage. Once he did, the relationship happened fast – too fast. He seemed so 100 percent sure of me and it was odd. I often looked disheveled walking to school and tired….I am not sure what he saw in me. But, I felt sure of him too, but wanted to go slower. I tried to slow it down, but at the same time, didn't. I am responsible for that. I felt like a hamster on a wheel after a few weeks and was able to tell him that I need the weekdays for myself, for my work, and for my kid. He seemed to respect that.
But he often romanticized the first few weeks together....even in the last days.
Quickly, I started to notice the emotional dysregulation. There was a lot going on for him: moving out, going through the divorce, parenting, work….so I understood it. I was also still getting to know him. Then severe trauma responses and triggers started happening. They would lead to these large child-like reactions with a lot of tears and anger. I didn't understand it but knew enough to know he had trauma to work through, and perhaps was feeling it for the first time. Each time this happened, there was nothing I could say to help or get him out of it, he would blame me a lot and say I was the cause, and he expected me (without saying it) to be there for him 110% even though I couldn’t. And truthfully, I didn’t want to….I wanted him to be able to handle that for himself or realize it was an issue. I didn't have the tools to deal with it and suggested he try deeper therapy. He agreed.
When he first met with the therapist, she told him it is like a virus takes over his brain and he is convinced in those moments. That was music to my ears at the time. But that is the last time I felt that way.
After a few months of this cycle continuing, I started detoriating. First my mental health, and then my physical health. I couldn’t breathe. I felt like we couldn’t go a few days without him reacting to something small. I wrote in my journal many times “there's no amount of validation I can give this person.”
I didn't point it to excessive adoration and validation, I could not see that really, but if he texted me 5 things and I responded to all 4 logistical ones and ended with "love you too" I was chastised. If I was driving and did not respond to an “i love you,” I was called out for it. At the end of October, I told him I needed the weekend to clean my apartment. It happened to be 60 degrees that day and of course, I would have preferred to be outside, but I am an adult and could not blow off my commitment to myself to clean. That day he messaged me 18 times that me missed me. He kept inviting me out. I kept asking him to stop, because clearly I would prefer to do something else than clean, but needed to. The missing was excessive. I didn’t even know what he meant. We lived next door to eachother. That night, I had to work, and he was upset with me because to him, it was optional and I should have chose to see him.
There were so many moments when he wanted so much comfort I couldn't provide. We were both single parents. That kind of affection goes to my kid....and I couldn't give it to him in that way. He would even want the affection when he hurt me.
He would see my daughter freak out at me and then say that I don’t love her enough, and he would joke they are the same….
It wasn’t a joke?
As time went on, and his therapy went on, and he felt validated by the therapist, the blame came on more and never left. It started in August, and even when I'd get an apology, it would be for the impact (what I'm responsible for) and not his intent. He'd argue with me over seeing his intent clearly. I'd say I don't care about your intent, you're killing me. It didn’t matter, nothing did.
I never felt like we could repair any incidents. As the blame went on, I really questioned myself. I wondered if he was right. What if I don't love enough? What if I don't receive love well? I've been in therapy for 20 years and know I have limitations but I'm not an asshole…
I felt coerced a lot of the time.
I felt he wanted me to change a lot....he wanted me to be less blunt, more loving, more balanced, work less even though he was awful with money, have sex when sick, injured or mentally dead from the day, always be happy to see him, don't be affected by the trauma responses and don't try to talk to him about it, don't take space and if I do, prepare for some kind of punishment, love him and miss him endlessly, do everything together, if I am dysregulated, he wanted me to regulate with him….
I noticed I started taking precautions to keep myself dafe. I didn’t realize I was setting boundaries to prevent the abuse but I was. I’d say I was busy when I wasn’t. I wouldn’t accept or ask him to get me from the airport, knowing I would not be 100% happy after a flight and that would cause a fight (as it did). I didn’t ask for help, and when I did ask for help, I would expect the help to not happen. I did not communicate anything he did “wrong” (like, you said you would drop off quarters for laundry on monday….do you have them?)
There were a lot of moments we would have deep conversations and I felt like we were getting somewhere, that he heard me.
I'll fast forward to the end because this is already way longer than I wanted….and it’s sad that I know it could be so much longer.
In the last month, he reacted and blamed me for everything. There were at least 5 major incidents. After the last one, I told him I was done. It was really bad and left me spending $50 to uber home in the snow, when I could barley walk as is (I had a herniated disc in my back and could barley walk). That month, I lost health insurance, and after begging for time to just take care of the injury, he told me we need intensive couples counseling. I had asked to just continue our therapist until we could change. That wasn't enough. The next weekend he asked me to go to a Gottman weekend. I said I couldn't leave my kid to do that right now and needed to take care of my help.
After that snow episode, that was really bad, laced with blame in the unpacking, I said I'm done, I can't do it. I was crying uncontrollably. I was scared. I really did not know who I was speaking to. After an hour, right when I needed to leave, he snapped out of whatever mindset he was in and told me he'd do anything, that he would work on anything, to please stay. I had to go, I could not think anymore. So in desperation, the only thing I asked for was to go alone on a trip with my daughter. He was scheduled to come with us. I said I needed time just with her. He agreed.
And honestly, he held up his end of the bargain....until he didn't.
3 days before the trip everything fell apart. I worked 12 hours that day and at the end of the day, went to pour water in a cup at home. It was the only time we had together before I left for the week. He hugged me from behind while I was pouring the water (....remember herniated disc in my back). I asked him to please stop and just let me have a second to pour the water.
He said "there's no turning back from this" and got his stuff to leave. I was floored. I was so upset because I knew where this was going - the blame game. He left, wouldn't come back, and then continued to blame me for the next 2 days about how I was an asshole the days before, only spent time with him out of obligation (not true), and rewrote history. I had a stomach bug all weekend and could not eat, but still tried to hang out as much as I reasonably could, and that was not enough.
The water incident was Wednesday, Thursday he had therapy and reinforced the blame, and I ended up leaving without saying goodbye. It was a week. I wanted to believe this relationship could survive a week. But I was clear with him days before: I am working up until I need to leave Friday so I can have real time off with my kid. He was upset I did not find him to say goodbye, even though he made no attempt to make peace earlier. But of course, my fault.
That night, he claimed down. Was nice. But it was a trap. After 12 hours of him being nice in text he said he was only doing it hoping I felt remorse and realized how wrong I was. He told me over and over he wouldn't see it differently. He said he read the transcript of our texts to 2 therapists and his friends and it’s clear: I am wrong. May be important to name here that we are both in our late 30’s.
I said that I want to work this out and I'll talk when we can actually discuss it and I'm willing to hear his side but not willing to blindly take all responsibility. He nailed me on every response, telling me how wrong my response was and what I should have done differently.
I was with my kid and could not talk. When I said "why are you doing this now, you know I can’t really respond" he told me to stop avoiding.
That night, he ghosted me for the first time in the relationship and I panicked. I called him a few times. No answer.
The next day, despite him never doing that to me before, he called me controlling for calling.
At 7am the next morning he told me our relationship was over in a text. This man, who 7 days before was professing his love and understanding of me ended the engagement in a text. This of course continued with a back and forth. I asked him to please stop. To please pause and talk to me when i'm back in 5 days. He told me to fight for the relationship or it was over. I said “I am just waking up with my 7 year old, in a hotel, please stop.” I asked him to attend couples therapy in 3 days to talk this out. He said “you accept all responsibility and change your behavior or we are done.” I asked if he was willing to talk and he said the problem was my perception and that it's wrong, so unless I change we are done. I knew this wasn't ok but I was so blindsided I did not know what to do. He agreed to go to couples therapy Thursday. We barley talked. There were a few more messages of him telling me he needs to know I can live a drama free life and celebrate his love and see it all as beautiful (almost verbatim). At this point, all I wanted to do is keep the dial down. I pushed back saying, “I cannot teach my daughter that someone can just tell her that her emotions and feelings are wrong, I hope you will be willing to talk and we can get on the same page.”
He agreed to go to couples therapy, and then didn't show up. He texted me 10 minutes before saying he was not going. I begged and pleaded. But he had the couples therapist to tell me he wasn't going to go. He had her tell me. I lost it. I lost my mind. I had been reeling for days. Not sleeping. Putting on a fake smile all day with my kid while I was dying inside. Staying up late to cry, process, read, figure out wtf was going on…
I called him about 10 times and of course, he told me it was inappropriate. He then picked up and gave me 10 minutes. He again wanted me to take all responsibility for everything. I was so shaken, I just fawned. I said ok. When I'm back I hope we can talk but if you want me to accept blame for now, fine.
Everything was calmer for 2 days until we were heading back and he texted me something along the lines of "don't fool me" I was like wtf? He said "there's no turning back. There's no other chances." I was like wait what? And then it was "don't make me look like a fool" I had no idea what was going on. I was like "um what is this?" He essentially was reinforcing his stance: I am to blame for everything in the present and past. If I try to talk to him about his side I'm wrong. I need to repent and one wrong move (defined by him) is a misstep and there's no room for error (his words). I was like....I will be in a relationship based in reality, and I will own my part and parts, but i will not be in something that i'm to blame for everything. That is not healthy. I have also been in abusive relationships before.
He then stopped messaging me. Didn't care that we got into flight issues. Didn't care we made the flight back. That night he came over and was a victim. Claimed in the 5 days I was gone he found himself. That he wasn't focused at work because of me and now he is. He wanted to try to be together. I had no idea what reality I was in. We slept together. He left. And told me we'd talk the next day. All of this felt so weird but I was just hoping he would snap out of this and back to reality and we would be able to talk. But I also knew this had to end at this point.
The next day, he didn't answer me all day. This was the opposite of behavior I ever experienced from him. Did not respond to texts or pick up the phone. We had a training appointment and he had the trainer tell me he wasn't coming. I broke down in tears. I begged him to just answer a text. He didn't. He drove by me while walking the dog and did not stop. I emailed him, expressing my confusion, telling him this is not what we agreed to. He blocked me. That night I got an email from him letting me know he was moving 10 min away. He lived next door in another apt building. He actually assured me the day before he “was not going anywhere.” In that email, he listed out the calls and texts I sent and how inappropriate it was. He never said we were done. He said taking space, needing space…so in my head I was confused but see it now.
I was inconsolable. I didn’t respond.
But here is the issue I am still in: I needed to see him dropping his kid at school the next day. I will need to see him for the next 12 years unless I move.
The following Friday he stood next to me at a school event. I purposely stood in the back to have space and be able to leave if I needed to. He went next to me. When I told him he should sit, he said he didn't want to make it obvious to his ex wife. I asked him to speak that Friday. He said ok but he was moving. I cried instantly. Already? I said ok.
On Saturday am, I saw the truck pull up and left the house. I called him that Saturday. I was blocked.
The next wednesday he asked me for a series of logistics in a text. None of which I handled yet. Wanting me to cancel flights and settle up money spent together. No mention or responsibility for all the money wasted on tickets we will never use. But then…in the text, asked for my engagement ring back.
I responded to logistics. Not the ring
He then called me 3 hours later because something went really wrong in his legal case. He wanted me to understand and validate him. I did....I just turned off my feelings for a moment. At the end he said, so about the flights. Can you handle it? "If i cancel it for you and your son i also have to do it for me and my kid. It's all on the same reservation" "well if you can go and not make sexual advances on me then we can try to go together.” I was like wtf? I could not have sex for months due to my injury. But he wanted to. Was this way of setting up blame that if we DID sleep together I would be to blame? I was like “I will cancel it for all of us.”
He then ran down more logistics and I said honestly you didn't seem done. I don't understand what you're doing. He said "im done" i hung up the phone.
He asked me for the ring again that night in a text. I said no, I need time to process this.
Everything since then has been a transaction. If i have a genuine emotion, he gets upset that i have it at all. He continues to sit next to me at school events because he claims he does not want his ex-wife to think we are done (this is insane to me….). I realize now that if it is a “good” interaction he is happy. If I am sad, then it is a “bad” one.
He never told his son we broke up, and shamed me for telling my daughter.
Recently he asked me a question and I was annoyed, and he said "can you not be mad at me?" I said “no, I can't not be mad at you…”
In the last 3 months, he’s said "I don't want to confuse things" has come up a lot. I don’t know if he is saying that to me or himself.
I have been so stuck trying to understand how I could not take space at all from him, to being totally discarded. I know he went back to spending, and drinking, but I don’t think he is seeing anyone.
He only responds when he wants to. He ignores other things. I never was able to get an MRI for my back because the claim went through a DR he set up for me and he never sent me the info when I asked.
I got the money back he owed me, but still lost so much money.
He told me he missed me one time.
I don’t know who this person is.
I will have to see him for the next 12 years while the kids are in school unless I move. I am not going to move just to avoid him, but I need to heal so I can be strong enough. I don’t know if he is going to try to come back. I have been in therapy and am getting clearer about what brought me into this in the first place.
Any clarity you can help me with, on this, and what may come from here, would be really helpful. It will help me direct some of my searches and begin to piece things together to process in therapy. I have severe anxiety when I run into him at school.
I have never had to heal from something like this before. At first, I thought it was healing from a narcissistic discard….this feels like so much more.
Does it sound like he will want to come back?
Is there ever closure?

Heya :) 28 year old dude in Sudbury looking for a lady who wants to play with a clean uncut cock. Let me know and I can show you a photo of it before meetup. I can host, or meet wherever via car. Please be clean/ddf as I am.
Stats:
Medium build, 5'8"
Penis: 6 inches, uncut, can be trimmed or not, up to you
We can keep things NSA and completely chill. No rush. I enjoy teaching as well, so if you're nervous but really wanting to try giving a blowjob to someone, I'm up for it!
Lastly, I'm not just limited to Sudbury. I'm willing to drive to surrounding communities.

So me (23f) and my bf (24m) have been together for going on 4 yrs and have been long distance the majority of the time. At the beginning of our relationship we use to have great sex multiple times a day (on the days we’d visit) but as of the last year, our sex frequency has decreased greatly to the point where we won’t have sex at all (and then not see each other for months) or we’ll have sex and one or both of us won’t finish. I shared this observation with him and he said he thinks we aren’t having good sex and he doesn’t look forward to sex, he doesn’t feel very engaged and said it could be for various reasons like us being long distance and feeling pressured or rushed to have sex knowing we won’t see each other for months, maybe the impacts of porn and how my identity (Black women) aren’t the most/best represented (he’s also Black), it could be depression, maybe the fact that he’s had no other sexual encounters outside of me, the possibility of him being ace or maybe even bi. He said he would like to have sex with me but currently he doesn’t look forward to it. He also said he doesn’t like pda and also isn’t a fan of kissing and doesn’t like dirty talk. I’m trying to be supportive as his partner and friend but my self-esteem and mental health is taking a hit. I know I shouldn’t center myself and the best I can do is be supportive, respect his autonomy, and learn to have better sex for if he’s ever interested but truthfully, I feel ugly and unwanted. It doesn’t help that words of affirmation is my thing and he doesn’t do that. He shows his love for me in acts of kindness and he has told me he loves me, he loves the person that I am but idk what to do. Like I’m suppose to be flying to see him in a few weeks and I can’t help but think when I get off the plane should I let him hug me? Will he be hugging me because it’s expected or to make me happy or will he hug me because he wants to? As a person with a high libido I so desperately want HIM to touch me, and I know this is a toxic mindset but the small unhealed part of me also wants to be petty and physically create space between us so he can’t touch me just out of spite. No one tell me to break up with him cuz I won’t, I need some advice outside of go to therapy bc that’s a given.
TLDR: my long distance bf of 4 years said he doesn’t look forward to having sex with me because it’s not good, hates pda and my feelings are hurt

I >assumed< Fubos 'dvr' would over write the oldest 'recotd' when the 'dvr' became full, because that's how every real DVR I used in the past like Tivo worked. Apparently not? We've been subscribed for ~ 4m and hadn't filled the 1000hrs.... Until we went on vacation. Literally an hour after we left, it filled and stopped recording. I returned to a notification showing all the records that never happened. Nice! I guess a warning to anyone else subscribing and expecting the 'dvr' feature to function as expected? Delete those 'recordings'! For us, were using up the don't quit discount this month and will be permanently Fubo free come June. It's alright, but for our use, YTTVwas while not ideal, a better cheaper experience . We tried fubo out only because it had a couple of sports channels that my son missed, but he complained about missed 'records' and general interface issues. We'll probably go back to YTTV when NFL season begins, but I'm open to finding a better fit for us. The constant loss of channels without decrease of cost along with the disingenuous and slightly scammy price structure where $90\m is really $105\m leave us .... Leaving.

I think one of the worst things that you see a lot of the big YEC speakers do is the misrepresentation of science and the scientific method. It's one thing to argue with the evidence, this I accept as it is at least an attempt to engage in actual scientific discourse (excluding those who just baselessly decry the science). Even Tomkins with his apparent inability to do genomics is at the very least attempting to perform scientific experiments. However, these attempts to re-define science in a way that is beneficial to a creationist agenda is insanely frustrating, since it totally ruins all form of good-faith debate, and heavily misinforms people without a scientific education, and who don't really know how scientific process takes place.
To bring this point to light - I'm going to discuss this article from AIG: https://answersingenesis.org/what-is-science/what-is-science/. It displays basically all of these claims, and I consider it to contain some of the worst of AIG's mental gymnastics.
The article opens with a spiel about how science originated in Christian Europe, and refer to how Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton and Galileo Galilei were all Christians who believed in a young Earth. Funnily enough, However - they fail to mention that Galileo was arrested by Christians due to his ideas contradicting a literal interpretation of the Bible - that being geostaticism (the idea that the Earth is stationary). I wonder why they excluded this piece of information?
They also state that "If the universe is a product of random chance or a group of gods that interfere in the universe, there is really no reason to expect order in nature". I could probably write an entire post on why this statement is false, so I won't go into this here. Maybe I'll do a follow up to this one just about this idea.
Now comes one of AIG's points that annoys me to no end - the ideas of 'Operational Science' and 'Historical Science'. AIG frames these terms as such:
Operational: "deals with testing and verifying ideas in the present and leads to the production of useful products like computers, cars, and satellites."
Historical: "involves interpreting evidence from the past and includes the models of evolution and special creation."
These terms do not exist in actual academia. They only exist within AIG's fantasy science land where they decide the rules, so that they can lend a fraction of legitimacy to their outdated ideas. The main reason they do this is to boil the argument down to one of faith. 'Evolutionism' vs Creationism is just a debate between two religions - same as Muslims and Christians arguing over which god is the real one. They present this in a slightly different way, but the meaning is the same: "The argument is not over the evidence—the evidence is the same—it is over the way the evidence should be interpreted." Essentially, 'we have different interpretations of the same stuff, so it's a matter of faith'.
What AIG are doing here is creating an unnecessary distinction. The worst bit is the reference to 'evidence from the past'. What they really mean here are things like the fossil record, radiometric dating, the geologic column - all the things that completely and utterly gut their belief in a 6000 year old created Earth. Instead of addressing them, they claim that it's a matter of interpretation.
Actual science doesn't create this distinction. Its purpose is to provide us with a method that lets us explain things we cannot observe directly, by looking at the things we can observe. No human has ever seen an atom with their own eyes - they are too small. Instead, we used observable evidence to figure out their structure, such as Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment - showing how most of the gold foil he was shooting the particles at allowed them to pass through, implying atoms being mostly empty space. Now Rutherford never saw an atom, but he inferred this about them through observation, as well as repetition of an experiment to minimise error. This is how science works. Of course, AIG would call Rutherford's work 'Operational Science', so we'll have to go somewhere else.
Let's use murder as an analogy (jolly, I know) - a person was killed 3 days ago, and their body was just discovered: we never saw them die, and we can never repeat their murder - because they are dead (truly groundbreaking stuff here). However, there is a gash across their neck, and a bloodied knife sat next to them. Moreover, this knife is covered with a person's fingerprints. We can then go to the house of the person who these fingerprints match, and ask them if they know anything - which they deny, despite lacking any alibi and having a definite motive. Do we have enough evidence to determine how the person died, as well as who killed them? Absolutely we do - there's a gash, and a knife covered in blood that matches the victim's: conclusion, they were killed with that knife. The knife is covered with fingerprints that lead to a person with no alibi at all, and a good motive: conclusion, they're the murderer. Now all of these data are from the past - the blood was put on the knife in the past, the wound was made in the past, the fingerprints were put on the knife in the past - by all metrics, this murder case falls into AIG's 'Historical Science'. As such, convicting this person is simply a matter of interpretation. We can only interpret that the fingerprints perfectly match those of the suspect. Who are we to say that they didn't somehow change over time? See how nonsensical this distinction is?
AIG then go on to the subject of theories - and again, they separated 'operational theories' from 'historical theories'. The idea is pretty much the same as discussed above, though there are a few points that I want to address. Firstly, they don't do the thing that I see many creationists (and other science deniers) state - that being the 'it's just a theory' thing, and draw a distinction between the colloquial and scientific definitions, though not without the prerequisite 'Evolutionists claim' line. This point has been beaten into the ground already, so I'll just leave it at that.
They go on to discuss how biological evolution is not an 'operational theory' as it contains 'interpretations of past events' and is 'not as well founded as testable scientific theories like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or Newton’s Theory of Gravity'. It seems that AIG don't know that while Newton's law of universal gravitation remains as a very well-substantiated piece of science, his actual mechanism for how gravity works was in fact supplanted by Einstein's theory. Good scientific knowledge from AIG, as always. The big part of this section is how they refer to predictability as a method of validating a scientific theory: "These theories offer predictable models and the ability to conduct experiments to determine their validity in different circumstances." Once again, they conveniently omit the immense predictive power of evolutionary theory, instead choosing to claim that it lacks such a property - even going as far to directly claim "Molecules-to-man evolution does not offer this opportunity because these events happened in the past", once again ignoring that one of the key tenets of evolutionary theory is that it both has happened, and is currently happening - considering that we've observed speciation events occurring in the wild: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0911761106; https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)01925-301925-3); https://evolution.berkeley.edu/evo-news/speciation-in-real-time/. The predictive power of evolution is immense, and we are only getting better at making evolutionary predictions as science progresses:
https://ncse.ngo/predictive-power-evolutionary-biology-and-discovery-eusociality-naked-mole-rat,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9850016/#:~:text=Evolutionary%20predictions%20are%20often%20based,will%20adapt%20to%20their%20environment.
There's also the brief bit where they conflate evolution and abiogenesis "molecules to man evolution". They're two different ideas - and YECs reading this post, stop conflating scientific theories, they are distinct ideas. Evolution deals with how life adapts and develops, it has nothing to do with how life on Earth began - that's abiogenesis. It's the same thing as the Big Bang: it only deals with how the universe formed, not what came before it.
There's a short aside about naturalism, but in order to stop this post turning into a thesis, I'm going to gloss over it and move onto the next bit. Here, AIG describe how "Evolution also relies heavily on the assumption of uniformitarianism— a belief that the present is the key to the past. According to uniformitarians, the processes in the universe have been occurring at a relatively constant rate.". Of course, they fail to consider that, as is the case with all other science, we have evidence to infer that processes do occur at a constant rate. They proceed to discuss rock formation erosion as one of these thing which we assume to have a constant rate - even though I'm pretty sure this is not the case - and that the rate at which these processes takes place is highly variable. To me, this feels like them taking the worst example - and borders on a straw man. Correct me if I'm wrong though - I'm not a geologist, so my understanding is limited here.
I have no doubt that the actual aim of this paragraph is also to sow doubt about other systems reliant upon constant rates of change - such as radiometric dating. Yes, if decay rates were not constant, the values given by radiometric dating would be highly inaccurate, and it would be a useless dating method. However, this would also require a total rewrite of fundamental physics - as the concept of constant nuclear decay rates is backed up by a literal mountain of maths and physical evidence.

However, the Bible makes it very clear that some events of the past were radically different from those we commonly observe today. Noah’s Flood, for example, would have devastated the face of the earth and created a landscape of billions of dead things buried in layers of rock, which is exactly what we see.

Another claim that would take up a post on its own - so I'll skip this and tackle it later. Honestly though, just watch Gutsick Gibbon's stuff on the Genesis flood - she gives a far better explanation than I ever could.

Just as evolutionists weren’t there to see evolution happen over several billion years, neither were creationists there to see the events of the six days of creation. The difference is that creationists have the Creator’s eyewitness account of the events of creation, while evolutionists must create a story to explain origins without the supernatural.

More totally neutral and unbiased claims by AIG, as expected. There is no 'story' being created - scientists observe the (sometimes literal - pun very much intended) mountains of evidence for evolution. The fact that they have to make up a nonsense distinction to split science in two, so that they can put the bits they don't like (Big Bang cosmology, fossils, radiometric dating, geologic column, etc.) in a separate spot to the bits they do like, such as technology and medicine.

Just because many scientists believe the story does not make the story true.

Ironic, considering how much Ken Ham loves to show his lists of creationist scientists. Practice what you preach buddy.

I fell for this girl about 9 months ago & after thinking for a couple months decided to propose to her. I wasn't looking for a fling & after seeing mutual interest from her too, I proposed her & promised to marry her. I asked my family about her before proposing to her & they all accepted my decision but the day I proposed to her, she told me that she's older than me and this was a deal breaker for my parents, I ended up fighting for my relationship & hurt my relationship with my parents but I was trying to handle it.
Now a couple months ago, her brother finally got a great job and asked me if I would go back home this weekend but I just recovered from a bad fever & said no to her plan but the day before weekend when I met her, I saw her pearly eyes & it made me ask her if she wants to go back to her home on weekend. (we travel by my car & I drop her at her place before going to mine)
We left after sunset and she didn't tell at her home about our plan as she wanted to surprise her family. The road isn't really great so it takes about three hours to reach her place but this day the cities we go through had multiple diversions & traffic jams so we were late by an hour & it was 9 already with a couple hours of journey still left. As I was fasting that day, we decided to eat & celebrate her brother's new job before continuing & the food didn't suit us. We discussed about it & canceled our surprise visit before starting our return journey but the return trip had me feeling nauseous & I had to suddenly stop my car to vomit. Now as I was done vomiting, a drunk cop came & started recording us, stating that we were doing shady stuff & we agreed to go to the police station. There they kept us waiting for a couple hours, took our phones away, kept threatening us to lock us up & then called her family members one by one, asking how their daughter is traveling with a guy etc. Her brother ended up calling his friend who knew the cops there & they left us without any bribe. (they inquired about our jobs, commented on how we earn more than them & asked us to give them cash, I was ready to pay but didn't have any cash, they didn't accept transfer to any guy known to them & they kept threatening me to lock her away etc)
When her family came to know about this, her dad was all blank & both her parents blamed her for not telling them about her plan to their place. Till this day, we feel like we'll lose each other due to this. She feels like she hurt her dad by not telling him about her plan to visit their place while I feel like I hurt my dad by going against his wish to marry her. Now we both have left it in our parents' hands to decide about us but her dad isn't even visiting my dad's place while I convinced my mom to meet them. His reason for this is that he feels my dad will be egoistic as we are affluent & he isn't. All this has taken a mental toll on both of us & I feel like I'm TA for stopping as I had to vomit while she feels like she's TA for not informing her parents about her plan.
We have tried a lot but her dad isn't showing any interest in it while her mom is saying mean things to her every time she visits home. She keeps reminding her how she let her dad down & is a disgrace to their family for being found at a police station late at night.
Sorry for any wrong usage of english, it's not my first or second language.

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A Brief Review of Trails into Reverie: Act One- Lost Freedom and Plans Laid byu/ACertainThrowawayTag inFalcom

Introduction- In this review, I will indicate where Rean and C's sections (C Section???) overlap, as they each share some really cool elements. Outside of that, pretty interesting Acts! Obviously you have the True Reverie Corridor, which I'll touch on briefly, but mostly won't mention unless there's anything in particular that's cool about it, and whose content I will mostly be reviewing in my separate review series about the Daydreams, which doesn't have enough content to be mentioned just yet.
Lloyd's act was probably my least favourite, it had some really sweet moments, especially Lloyd's pain right at the start of the act, as well as Lechter's appearance, but for the most part I think it has some pretty major issues which I'll go into more in the pros and cons. Rean's act was pretty standard fare for what we're used to with Class 7, nothing revolutionary there, but it was C's act that stands out for both its comedy and light nature, as well as the way it ties into Rean's act and makes it better as a result. Anyway, lets get into some specifics.
Pros (Lloyd's Route)- -The Opening Scenes The emotional impact of seeing Lloyd beat down and bedridden after the end of Act One, as well as Rixia's concern, and his foolhardy stubbornness in the face of everything that just happened was quite something. It really did remind me of how his character was during his best bits in Azure. Shame it kind of faded as the Act went on.
-Lechter Like with Claire, the fact that Lechter is one of the first people to rejoin your party after everything (ESPECIALLY given what's going on, and what he did to the SSS during Cold Steel 3 for example) is a really clever move in my opinion, and it adds a different dynamic to the party. That and he's just really cool here, kind of regaining his aloof but clued in schtick that he had in the original Crossbell games.
-Rixia Unlike Elie, whose emotional beats don't really hit (but that's an issue with her character as a whole), Rixia's emotion at the end of this act, as well as throughout it are just pretty well done. Not the best writing the series has seen, but it's consistent with her character, and adds some weight and emotional gravity that quite frankly wouldn't exist otherwise.
Cons (Lloyd's Route)- -Cao and Heiyue God I can't emphasise how much I hate Cao fucking Lee. Of all the 'all according' to plan characters he's by far the worst. Gets his shit kicked in every time, his plans never fully work, and then he fucks back off into the shadows. I appreciate morally grey characters, and scheming characters, if they're done well, and Cao is far from done well here.
-Ilya (and Shanshan as well I guess) Why? What does this do? Like sure I getting her dance hypnotises the population but why is this the story beat they decided to use here? More to the point why is Ilya the character at the heart of the plot beat? It all just feels a bit weak tbh. Also as much as I loved Rixia's appearance here, the stuff with Shanshan was just weak lmao I'm sorry.
Pros (Rean's Route)- -The investigation of Heimdallr It was great to be back in the old Eastern Districts we hadn't seen since CS1. Just seeing the old sights and going round the old places again really worked somehow. Kind of makes me wish we got more of the old CS12 cities like Bareahard and Roer. Hell, I'd love to have seen Celdic again. But I understand that probably wouldn't work for CS34 and Reverie.
-Millium and Altina Man I've missed these two. Their character relationship has certainly evolved since CS2 and early CS3, however it feels natural (to an extent), and it's just such a blast seeing them finally able to talk to each other as 'family' after all the stuff that happened in CS4. The bit with Millium figuring out how Lapis and Nadia were moving across the city because she also happens to be a massive foodie was great as well.
-The Big Reveal This goes for both Rean and C's routes, but the way the big reveal actually happened was brilliant. Jusis being the one to land the 'demasking' blow, Rufus showing his usual cunning, the demonstration of how far he can plan ahead when his back is against the wall, to just the atmosphere of the situation. Really well done in terms of the build up, reveal, and the events afterwards.
Cons (Rean's Route)- -Rean's party doesn't really do anything Sure they did do investigation things, but most of the time they were either being strung along by C or not being able to do much of anything due to plot reasons. I wanted to see them do at least a little bit of something for themselves before C's machinations started to kick in. Eh, could've been worse.
Pros (C's Route)- -Swin, Nadia, and Lapis These three are some of the most refreshing characters from the series in a while. Their comedic dynamic and overall vibe feels closer to something out of Sky than anything we've gotten since somehow, and overall they just feel very different in both comedic style and character dynamic compared to the Cold Steel and Zero/Azure casts. It's a change in writing style that at this stage is more than welcome.
-The Interplay This game has so far done all of its sequence breaking right. You start of thinking you're doing a pretty standard multi character story, but then the TRC happens. And with C and Rean's route, the full potential of a multi perspective story is realised almost completely. From each team fighting each other, to each team influencing the other's actions across the course of the story, to the sheer novelty of what's happening, I think this part of the game is downright genius and one of the best things the writers have done in terms of game design since the isometric games.
-Rufus An enigma even when you're playing as him, the fact he's one of the main characters is fascinating, and I really like how it pulls the rug from under you. I've heard a lot of people thought it might've been Cedric before the reveal, but honestly I think this is so much cooler.
Cons (C's Route)- -Under Heimdallr I like underground sewer levels when they're done right but I'm really tired of them at this point, drab scenery with not much else to do other than follow the straight path that you might need to deviate from to grab a chest or flip a switch, and then right back. The scenery is dull, the travelling is dull, the only real motivation here is that you have to do it to advance the main story. If these levels come up again in Calvard, I really hope they've revamped them into something a little more unique.
Conclusion- This is a really promising start. The TRC was great, a somewhat different area for the different casts to interact, and for the various Daydreams to be accessed. This is definitely an upgrade on Sky the 3rd. My one complaint is that the end to Lloyd's act two isn't... great... but it's okay enough that I can just let it exist and move on. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll see you after Act Three! Or whenever I view my 5th Daydream because I'll be posting a separate review for that.

Bought two LiB wristbands on stubhub three weeks ago. The event start time was listed as 5/22 12pm, so I assumed these wristbands would be 5-day and got assurance from Stubhub support that they would otherwise replace the tickets for me.
Immediately after purchase the seller emailed me directly and told me that these are 3-day which won’t work for me (whole crew going in on Thursday). I was never sent or transferred the bands and the order just shows up in my account with nothing that will get me into the fest. Since then I’ve been in touch with stubhub support 8 times and they tell me they will make it right but then there is no follow up. Anyone in a similar situation? Does stubhub have people at LiB locally that can hook me up if they can’t get the band to my house by Wednesday? Can they be trusted to make it right?

I think a lot about signals. Signals that show people what groups they belong to. Signals that hide the truth. Everybody uses signals to blend, entice, or trap.
Grandma Pearl died not long after her stroke, and I've been making bad decisions ever since. Maybe my expectations are too high, or I'm just an idiot. Either way, I ran away from the group home to be with people who called themselves my "family." They were the wrong people. They used the words family, brother, sister, and love like lock picks, stealing trust, and taking self-respect.
The only person I remember using the word family correctly was Grandma Pearl. She was a small woman who toured the US as an actress before settling with Granddad above their theatrical rentals shop. I was three when the car accident took Granddad and Mom, so I don't know if they used the word "family" correctly, but I hope they did.
I was never as outgoing as Grandma, but that didn't bother her; she taught me how to watch people. How to see their signals, and how to listen. When she died. I forgot a lot of those lessons for a while.
They called it a "family". The "family" moved product. That product could be goods, drugs, or people.
The uninitiated, like me, were distracted with food and a dry place to sleep, but it didn't take long to see behind the curtain. Things got too intense with the new "family" and I ran.
I ran back to my old neighborhood. The buildings were familiar even if my home was gone. The old theatrical shop had been turned into a microbrewery.
After an appropriate amount of self-pity, thirty minutes, I wandered the alleys, picking up cans or scavenging for bits and pieces that could be recycled, used, or bartered.
I recognized old faces, but I tried to stay out of sight. It was safer that way.
The only place I allowed myself to be seen was the old Lutheran church on the park's far side. Most people who might have known me had aged out of the congregation or died. It was worth the risk because St. Lazarus had a food pantry in the basement and gave out lunches most days, so I wasn't always hungry, which was nice.
I found a dry spot near the library to sleep, which seemed like a stroke of luck until it wasn't.
I had the contentment that came with being in a familiar place. Little bits of comfort let me believe, for a moment, that I wasn't a screw-up and hadn't trusted the wrong people. That moment scurried away when Stick found me.
Stick was a scary asshole. He technically wasn't in charge of the " family," but he made it work. He got things done. I have no idea how old he was. He was all corded muscle and could clock in between twenty and fifty. He looked half-starved and moved like a stalking predator, even with his limp.
His left leg was stiff. The knee didn't bend, and anytime he sat, his left leg would be splayed to the side like a kickstand on a bike. The leg was why he walked with a cane. The cane and how he used it was why we called him Stick.
I don't know why he took the time to track me down. It's not like I was wanted. Maybe it was that I had become property. Property shouldn't just wander off.
Sometimes, you feel a person before you see them. The air is different. When Stick was around, the air felt dead and motionless. I knew I was being watched before I opened my eyes.
Stick was sitting on a milk crate, his bad leg cocked to the side and his forehead resting on his cane. I pushed myself out from beneath the ductwork of the HVAC unit I had been sleeping under and slapped the dirt off my jeans.
"I thought that was you," Stick said as his sharp grin curved up to his unblinking dark eyes.
Stick wanted my discomfort. I'd seen him play the intimidation game too many times. He'd act too friendly, and then when you were good and worried, quick movements, a hand around the back of your neck, and violence would be next. Then he'd act like the whole mind fuck was a big joke, like you were friends, and isn't it great that you can joke around with someone who "really" cared.
It worked, too. If you were the unfortunate focus of Stick's attention, you would be grateful when he smiled and said, "Just a joke, kid. Don't be so sensitive." I'd seen the pattern enough times to know Stick trained people like dogs with his hot and cold game. I didn't like the game, or the fear, so I changed the pattern.
"Hey, Stick, did you come to help pick up cans?" I asked, making sure my smile reached my eyes. I was trying to be pleasant while ignoring the burning nervousness in my gut.
It was still dark out, but I could see Stick's expressions well enough.
Stick tapped his cane on the sidewalk and squinted at me skeptically before answering. "Just checking on my little brother."
We were not related.
Stick liked to call the uninitiated his little brothers or little sisters. He forced intimacy into his language. I didn't argue the point. Interactions went best with Stick when you agreed with everything he said.
"Thanks, man," I complimented, trying to sound genuine and ignorant as I stepped forward and offered him my hand.
Stick didn't move, but I could see that this conversation wasn't going as planned for him, and I forced myself not to react to his confusion. I couldn't break character, or he would know I was playing him.
Stick tapped his cane on the ground twice, grasped my hand, and stood. He watched me. I held his stare, but in an open, naive, guileless way that I had perfected in front of the mirror as grandma gave acting advice while she put her face on.
I once asked Grandma Perl why anyone would practice acting stupid. She pointed her mascara brush at me and, in her ditsiest Minnesota Nice character, said, "It's easier to be forgiven when people think you're a little dumb, don't ya know?" Like with most things, Grandma was right.
Before I understood what had happened, Stick pulled me into his side and slung an arm around my shoulder.
"You don't have a name yet. Everyone gets a name, but they don't get to pick it." He paused and gave me a Cheshire cat grin. "I have a name for you, little brother. You are going to be called Slide." Then he held my chin and forced eye contact." Your name will be Slide because I have never seen anyone slide out of shit faster than you. I can't tell if you do it on purpose or not, and I've been watching. I watch everybody. You do, too. Hell, this might be the first time I've ever heard you talk. So let's celebrate your name, Slide." Stick's smile slipped as he pulled me out of the alley. "We'll go do something special."
I stayed silent, knowing full well what was coming. Being named meant doing something you could never take back. It was public and would put you in prison if the police ever took the time to look for you. It meant severing yourself from your life before and relying entirely on the "family." I had been absent each time naming seemed to be in the cards, but I couldn't duck out this time.
There was only one place to go at this time of night that would have an impact, the Bodega.
The Bodega was a red hole in the wall with a glass door papered over with grocery ads years outdated. Canned salmon two for one seemed to be the dominant theme. Although there were two large windows, one on either side of the door, you could barely see in. The right window was a tapestry of cigarette promotions. The left window displayed the only swath of uncovered glass with a view of the interior. From the outside, the view was of tobacco, lottery scratchers, and Old Lady Imitari.
Old Lady Imitari owned the store. She was a short, dark-haired woman who always wore a long floral tank top. Grandma Pearl loved the old woman but said Imitari looked like an old man's thumb all the years she had known her, and Grandma moved to the neighborhood with Grandad thirty years ago. Imitari was a local legend even then because the Bodega was open twenty hours a day, three hundred sixty-five days a year, and no one else worked in the store. Grandma used to make an extra strong coffee called Barako and chat with Imitari sometimes when work in the shop was slow.
I would sneak out at night and try to catch Imitari sleeping. No matter the time, I never caught her snoozing, and she always saw me peeking at her through the window. I know she saw me because she would uncross her arms and wave her flyswatter at me.
All these memories flicked through my mind as Stick smiled his too-wide smile and pushed me into the Bodega.
Imitari flicked her fly swatter at me in acknowledgment, and her attention returned to the small TV she had nestled beside the cash register, which seemed to be the old woman's only real tether to the world outside her shop.
The inside of the Bodega was just a long hallway with shelves of convenience foods, drinks, home supplies, candy, and cold meds covering every available surface from floor to ceiling. The only break in the tunnel of products was the glass counter at the back corner of the store; Imitari presided over her mini domain by casually ignoring her shoppers. I tried to make eye contact with the old woman again as Stick pushed me to the back of the shop, but after her initial acknowledgment of our entrance, Imitari's eyes stayed focused on her TV.
As casually confident as possible, I walked to the cooler and grabbed an iced tea. "Want a drink," I asked over my shoulder, my voice unusually steady, given the electric current of anxiety flowing through me.
Stick sneered and tapped his cane twice on the ground. His eyes found all the security cameras in the tiny store, a frown creasing his angular features.
I followed his line of sight and finally realized what had bothered him. The cameras were fake. They looked like security cameras, but they weren't. There were no wires or lenses, just rectangles and circles in a security camera shape.
Stick took a deep breath and tapped his cane on the ground again. " There… is … so… much… here… to… see… but… no… one… is… watching," he said with a singsong. Then his sneer turned into a cruel smile.
I knew Stick wanted an audience for what he would force me to do. The fact that the security cameras were fakes meant that whatever was going to happen would now have to be significant. An event that the neighborhood wouldn't be able to ignore. My stomach twisted with the thought.
Stick waggled his eyebrows at me. He had been watching. He had seen my thoughts, and we both knew he had something terrible in mind.
The cane twirled in Stick's hand and then tapped twice on the shop tile.
"I think I want a little bit of this," Stick said, gesturing wildly with his cane, sending a row of soup cans tumbling to the floor. "And a little bit of that," Stick added as another wild gesture sent cups of ramen spinning and knocking glass bottles of hot sauce to the floor.
I stood paralyzed, unable to run. I was trapped with nowhere to duck away to. I didn't want Stick to hurt Old Lady Imitari, and I didn't want Stick to hurt me, either. The truth was, he would hurt both of us no matter what I did. That was just the way Stick was. I'd seen him. I'd seen him show us who he was every day.
Then I realized Imitari hadn't moved. She was watching her TV and chuckling at the sitcom as if nothing had happened.
Stick glanced at me, confused. I almost felt sorry for the sociopath. His night was not going to plan.
Imitari chuckled at her TV again, and a crease formed in the middle of Stick's forehead, letting me know that he was beyond angry. He was calm, dangerous, and vicious. People had been left for dead when Stick got this way.
Stick raised his cane and flipped it so the handle jutted like a pickax. He was going to attack Imitari.
Somehow, I moved. I didn't do much, but when I slid forward and grabbed the back of Stick's shirt, the cane missed Imitari, and the sharp handle punctured the thick glass top of the counter just above a roll of Lotto scratchers.
Old lady Imitari slowly looked up into Stick's eyes and smiled. Her wide, gentle frown was replaced with a look of joy and something else, something primal, something hungry. Her pupils were blown, and I had the uneasy feeling that I was watching someone be served their absolute favorite meal.
Before Stick could pull his cane from the punctured glass, Imitari casually reached forward, grabbed the cane, and pulled the wirey man forward. Small, old, and wrinkled, Imitari stared into Stick's eyes and overpowered him.
Stick fell forward across the counter. He tried to push himself back, but Imitari's hand clamped down on his wrist like a vice.
Bones ground together as Imitari pulled Stick's hand to her mouth, and with a swift, subtle movement, she bit off the tips of Stick's pinky and ring finger like she was sampling a cookie.
I jumped back next to the cooler as a thin spray of blood arched toward me.
Stick screamed and thrashed, but Imitari's small form was static and immovable. Stick was a fly in a trap. No matter how much he struggled, punched, poked, or kicked, he could not break the old woman's hold. Then, slowly, she took another bite.
It was strangely fascinating watching the frail form of this old woman I had known for years take bite after bite out of Stick. This man, whom I thought of as a predator, a hunter, an enforcer, was crying and begging while an old woman, who looked like a wrinkled thumb in a floral top, quietly devoured him.
I was surprised by the lack of blood after the first spray. I'm sure it was Imitari's crushing grip that stanched the flow of blood. The flesh of Stick's arm looked white from the pressure.
Hand over hand, Imitari pulled Stick forward. Bones cracked as she gripped higher on Stick's arm, clamped down with her long leathery fingers, and fed the flesh and bone, one concise bite at a time, into her open smiling maw. It was rhythmical in its simplicity: chomp, crunch, chew, chew, swallow. Over and over, the pattern continued until the begging stopped.
Stick wasn't dead. He gave up. Not struggling, he laid over the glass counter like a rag doll. He watched me glassily as Imitari took bite after bite, and I knew he wasn't there anymore. Whatever made Stick Stick had either curled up and hidden in a dark corner of his mind or had been devoured with his arm.
The old woman seemed displeased that her meal had stopped struggling. She shook him, but he flopped, and his head lulled from side to side. Imitari frowned, let go of Stick's arm, and pushed down on the limp man's back. Blood gushed from the ragged stump, and Imitari lowered her mouth and drank from the wound like she was sipping from a garden hose.
Stick didn't move. He just grew pail, and eventually, his panicked, shallow breaths ended, and the blood stopped flowing.
Then Imitari stood. With a quick tug, she pulled Stick's body over the counter and let it flop to the floor at her feet. Her eyes closed. A contented smile bloomed on her face as the explosive sound of crunching and cracking bones echoed through the small shop.
The deafening sound of crunching stopped, and only the buzzing of the drinks cooler reverberated through the small space. Imitari opened her eyes and watched me, a broad smile still on her lips. At that moment, I realized I could hear the drinks cooler so well because I had crawled into it, wedged between the glass door and the shelves.
Imitari held me with her gaze as cords of pink flesh lowered from the ceiling and efficiently tidied up Stick's mess, lapping up blood and hot sauce, placing cans on shelves, and scooping up cups of ramen with whip-like tendrils. Then, the cords of flesh nudged me forward, and I stood before Old Lady Imitari.
The thing that I had always thought of as a stern old woman handed me Stick's cane. With the same benign smile I remembered from buying red hots from it as a ten-year-old, it waved me away with its flyswatter, and the cords of flesh pushed me out the door onto the sidewalk.

Anyone else think that HPAI will make smart people mask up again? I'm thinking about getting more masks....
I'll give a quick overview below for those who aren't aware of this emerging disease. It's probably really wrong, but I'm aiming for generalities and I'm glad to be corrected.
Bird Flu is becoming a thing. It's known variously as HPAI (Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza), H5N1, and other names. We know how flus usually progresses from animals to humans: it mutates through a predictable path (Birds > pinnipeds > lizards > small mammals > cows > pigs > humans). In this case it's jumped a few steps directly to cows here in the US, probably because we feed chicken litter to cow herds. However it happened, it's now mutated to be spreading between cow herds, most commonly dairy herds.
This strain isn't the Bird Flu that's been hanging around wild flocks for decades, it's a mutation specifically called HPAI. There is HPAI in many states' herds now, and it's in milk. Thankfully the pasteurization process is doing exactly what it needs to do: kill and break up viruses so pasteurizated milk seems to be quite safe. There's some advice for people to cook eggs and beef thoroughly, but nothing official yet that I've seen. The US is offering no incentive to farmers to test their herds, so farmers aren't letting the (prepped and ready) CDC teams onto their farms to test.
It's in small mammals: cats and weasel/foxes appear to be quite vulnerable and it's showing up wherever predators eat infected carcasses. We do know that HPAI has infected cattle workers due to exposure such as infected milk spraying into eyes, but it's not yet mutated to human-to-human transfers. Nor do we think it's mutated into pig-to-pig transfers. We can't predict what the virus will look like when it mutates to humans, so we can't design tests or vaccines yet, but we do have vaccines for previous versions of H5N1.

I’m a 24f and in December of 2017 I had lower right quadrant pain so I went to the emergency room. CT scans showed inflammation in my LRQ so the doctor wanted to remove my appendix via laparoscopy. When I woke up from my surgery I had a drain tube in my abdomen to remove excess fluid. The surgeon said he could not see well during surgery with excess fluid. His post op diagnosis was appendix rupture.
In 2022 I started having LRQ pain again and had an exploratory laparoscopy with my gynecologist. She found my appendix fully intact and fully functioning, but I am now missing my right ovary and Fallopian tube. My post op diagnosis from the surgery was endometriosis. This prompted me to get my surgical records from my surgery in 2017 and I am very disturbed and could use some peace of mind.
In my first surgical write up, the surgeon says he found a mass in my abdomen connecting my right ovary, my small bowel, and my cecum. He tried to remove the mass (also referred to as phelgmon), but it started “oozing” and he was worried about serosal injury so he just stopped and left it and inserted a drain tube to remove excess fluid. A small sample was sent to pathology which showed “non caseating granulomas”.
I’m very worried about why this mass was never brought to my attention and why I was told my appendix ruptured. My second surgeon says she did not see a mass, but how is that possible if it wasn’t removed? How is my right ovary now missing? No one can give me any answers to what happened in my body, and I am still having daily pain in that area.
I will attach my surgical write ups on my profile. Any advice as to what this may be or where to go from here would be greatly appreciated.

"Explain your past, Musa" the gov'ness walks at my right, shielding my from the piercing sun as we walks with the caravan. After the trench was dismantled, we are walking by foot to reach the capital, as the trench-line have been pushed far into our homeland.
"I was a cook when the war started, gov'ness" and now I am left wondering why did she chose me from anyone else in the caravan, there's the sergeant, the whom she asked to see earlier today.
"You have been trusted to cook rations for your company, as early as the war?" her baroque companion, similarly donned in her armor, walks close by ours, but never overtook us.
"No, gov'ness, I was a 10 years old when the war started, the war went for seven years and I fought for the last two" before she came, with weapons of the stars that could've decimate my trench instead of theirs
"Such a young man you are, seven years ago, the Emperor grants me audience, revealing that I was his progenitor"
This talk about an "imperium" across the stars and the deified emperor has gotten me worried. Is that her reason for talking to me, to ease my pain before sending me to the stars far from here? Or simply an act of pity?
The meager town came into view, and was it not for the ancient structure, we would've thought this was anywhere but the capital. Gray skies and beaten earth have become the synonym for the heart of Nagorow.
"I must say, this was not our expectation when your leader came into contact with my ship, begging for salvation" the gov'ness depart from me, and my instinct was to follow her, but who am I to her? And so I stay put and follow the rest of the caravan back to the main camp.
"You're lucky to have an audience with the Lady, runt" one of gov'ness' companion knocked me to the dirt, assuming that he's doing it out of spite and jealousy. I can see him walking to gov'ness
"I apologize for my companion's doing" another of gov'ness', as he extends his fingers that allowed me to stand to my feet "Lucius was indeed jealous, he was our best melee combatant and our Primarch haven't even bat an eye for him"
"Is that a rare thing?" Lucius and the gov'ness seems to enter the structure, doing their business there. I quickly glance at my watch, the gray sky seems to be forever, and it shows 1641. And I quickly look back at the gov'ness companion
"It is, perhaps Mother saw something within you, perhaps yours was interesting at the moment" the giant release his helmet, letting his bronze hair free from the confine "I am Rylanor, pleasure to meet you, Musa"
"As is mine, gov'nor"
The Sejm was delightful in seeing Fulgrim and her companions, as well as the news of the apparent victory on the frontlines. Such delight warrants them to spent their moneys on a grand feast right at the capital, inviting everyone within range to attend, with the guest of honor being the gov'ness herself.
"I would have thought you are with Mother, Musa" Rylanor brought two plates in his palm, the plate whom was enough for me was made miniscule by his hands, each contained meager food they could thrown
"Thanks, gov'nor" the feast gives us chair to sit, yet here I stand with him, outside of the building. Somehow the gov'nor chose to make a companion out of me, whilst gov'ness over there busy herself with her empire in the suns.
"I almost forgot what a food taste, Musa, back in the campaign, we would be served liquid ration with occasional starch" I took a look at him, and his plate was already cleaned
"You should try my cooking then, I cook better"
We let a simple laugh from the situation, from a soldier to another, from a human to another too. The door barges open and whom I thought to be Lucius emerge, escaping the feast.
"It's obnoxious inside, Rylanor, if you wish to see me, then don't, I'm heading to the nearest landing coordinate" and went he goes, somewhere place only he, gov'nor and gov'ness know. Something that I would not understand no matter how much gov'nor taught me.
"I have to agree with dear Lucius there" and speak of the gov'ness, and she shall came, looking at the horizon "they barely separate the nobility and the peasant"
I didn't mean to stare, but gov'ness wore something fine, something you'd see from paintings high in temple's ceiling, an ascendant of man. Looking carefully, it seems she wore old Nagorovian dress and modify it to suit her stature, or rather, her figure. She need not a corset, it seems.
"The food is delectable, Mother" Rylanor already took my plate without my knowing, something that I relent
"Every food is delectable when you are starved of them, dear Rylanor"
We all watched as a star suddenly rose at the horizon, perhaps something to do with Lucius and his departure. I suppose this is our future, being shackled by another uncaring emperor to fight the dangers of mankind.
"Say, Rylanor, but does that star seems approaching us?" and behind Lucius' ascend, a second star indeed looks as if its getting nearer. Just before I respond, nor gov'nor did for that matter, the air raid sirens blare and screech
"It is too late to dodge the missile, Mother, and I am the only one still wearing my armor, I would suggest taking a shield behind me" Rylanor easily stood and tower over us. I didn't even wait as I quickly take cover.
"Don't be ridiculous, Rylanor, these brutes couldn't even muster the technology to weaponize simple nuclear reaction" Rylanor didn't wait and cover me with his entire figure, and I just prayed that whatever nuclear is nor what reaction it cause would not be as devastating as I'd fear.
The moment of impact was blurry, but there was an apparent pain riddled to it, as the temperature rose akin to a sun blasting us with the heat. Like what was drilled into my head, I quickly wrap my entire face with anything, covering up the assuredly loud aftermath and the shrapnel flying around. I couldn't hear
And I wish I wouldn't hear
By the time the air around began to cool, my throat was hoarse, as if I have been shouting the entire time. It wasn't until I noticed the spasmic movement on my mouth that I realized, I have been barking around.
"At ease, gov'nor, at ease lads" I chanted
"It seems it was a nuclear explosion, Mother, albeit a primitive version of it" Rylanor seems to ignore my rant, addressing the gov'ness instead. He then release me, before coughing up liquids right at my face "apologies" he mumbles
"Be damned your humor, Rylanor" I hear the gov'ness, rasping in breath as I slowly gather my senses "Musa, you lived it seems" my eyes were blinking rapidly, due to the heat and the dust it caused "oh Rylanor, I apologized for your condition".
When my eyes fully recovered, I saw only desolation. No Man's Land was gentler than this, water and mud found refuge within them after all. But what I saw was beyond it, ruins and dry earth, trees and building charred, and people would likely evaporate. Peoples, on whom I was fighting with and fighting for, for two damned years. I couldn't take it anymore, first Maria and now this? Fate was far too cruel
Liquid barge through my mouth, followed close by every air in my lungs and waters in my eyes. There was no rythym, only that I was doing it in instinct, lying on all fours at the stairs near the gov'nor and gov'ness.
Only then did I brave to stand up, looking at them and the impact it caused. Gov'nor seems to be stuck in his place, unable to move as his hair rotted away and flesh melts to his armor. Now I understand why did he puke. The gov'ness was way less impacted, as her clothing burnt with the flesh on her skins, with her lying on her back.
"Cease your staring, Musa" she quickly commanded
"Yes ma'am" I quickly slap my cheek, a soldier need to finish his duties until the bitter end, and the enemy was no better after all "orders, gov'ness?"
"You're waiting for my orders?" she slowly sat herself, throwing out blood from her mouth while her arms sizzle and creates smoke "so it seems, help me get to one of landing coordinates" when she did sat, she saw her own legs, crushed from the debris of the railings and burnt to crisp "it seems I would have to relegate the matter of combat to you"
"Private Musa at the ready, gov'ness" so soon to serve this faraway empire, and my first duty is to escape the chaos that will ensue. And first, I need to find a cart or I will be carrying the giant on my back
"Musa, before you go" Rylanor rasp and wheeze as he reach for something, before he carved it with letters and numbers "you are familiar with latitudes and longitudes of your planet, I assume, and if not then you can ask Mother for direction" he gave me the knife, on which he have engraved numbers.
"And what will happen to you, gov'nor?" I took the knife and pocket it, then looking back at the gov'ness
"I will be fine, Musa, all I ask is that you deliver Mother there to the place, and rest assured that you will be awarded"
I ignore the last part, something about the futility in wealth and glory that I realized, living as a cook my entire life before becoming a soldier taught me that. I quickly strip my clothing, and though I have to face the cold soon, finding the gov'ness means of transportation is more valuable. I quickly wrapped the gov'ness legs with a shirt, then I cut another of my shirt into pieces before I wrapped it at her so I can carry her off, my suspender helped in holding her together too
"Something tells me I won't enjoy the journey" Fulgrim murmurs as she rest on my shoulder
"Be safe Mother, I pray that Musa will be sufficient to you"

Perhaps this ought to start before the end of May.
An action on everyone's part to refuse making any Loblaws owned store a one-stop go-to for our grocery needs, but using it to target only sales. And not the "sales" that mark off something expensive, that's still expensive after the "sale", but the deep sales, that are designed to lure people in.
Point in case: butter at 4.99 and water melon at 2.99. Those sales are apparently happening right now. They're designed to get you to come with a shopping cart, and they're hoping that you might as well load up with various other items. A water melon in particular, is heavy, and most people will need a cart for that. Those guys know that possibly selling water melon at a loss, they will make up for it, by pushing other heavily marked up item to us suckers.
Resist!
Don't be tempted to buy other items. Just go in, and get only sales where you'd really say: that is a true sale. Resist any fake "sales", quote quote.
This accomplishes multiple goals:

1. We show that we continue to refuse to accept unreasonably marked up items.
2. We deprive them of profits through rip offs.
3. We benefit from deep sales, that are possibly sold at a loss.
4. They lose money when we stubbornly only get deep sales.
5. Other stores see that we're willing to shop around, enticing them to play nice so that they gain our business.

Will Loblaws smarten up?
Most probably not right away. Once a business becomes accustomed to certain profit levels, they have a responsibility to their investors to meet (ever greater) expectations. That, plus the greed of the ones running the show. They can probably cover up reduced sales by shoving things around, but they can't hide it forever. They need to be forced to alter their business model. And investors will need to come to the realization that it can't be a forever growth model. The Ponzi scheme can't continue to work, but that's another whole topic.
In the meantime, our job should be simple. Simply refuse to give in. Shop elsewhere. But go in to grab the deep sales. We need to talk about how we can keep up to date with those deep sales, and I guess we can call it that, and it might be dependent on location. Areas where there are enough people with high disposable income that don't care, might not see those deep sales. They'll just tease them with fake "sales". Areas where people have less alternatives will probably be disappointed also.
It's going to require a bit of effort. We need to resist saying to ourselves "oh, I have kids and don't have a the time to go to two stores". Make it work. Realize that when done efficiently, it will not take twice as long to shop. It's worth saving money. Plus it's the right thing to do, because you'd be part of a movement that can help everyone see competition restored. It's like fighting for and protecting democracy, in comparison. You might only save a little for your particular pocket book, but there are those that benefit far more. It feels good to fight for all of us the people. Also resist other excuses and cop-outs. "Oh, but it takes gas". Calculate it. It might take you $2 more in gas to do two locations instead of one. $2 is easy to overcome. Don't be that automatic naysayer, that person that opposes automatically out of reaction. Many people do that habitually. Stop! Help the cause, not work against it! Be part of the solution!
Ok, so what flyers, what apps, what posts could we all look at, to help us all home in on those deep sales. And share how much you probably have saved by doing the Loblaws-for-a-quick-deep-sale-grabbing and then heading over to a proper grocery store. When you go into a Loblaws to grab what you need, while you walk to the target, you can see a few prices looking left and right. Make mental note of that. Making up some numbers here: Bananas 89 cents, apples $5, etc etc. Then proper store, 69 cents, $3. Some might feel that, "meh, 2 bucks, 20 cents, who cars". But if every item is like that, it adds up. A $300 grocery bill becomes a $450 grocery bill. And that is what this entire thing is all about ! It takes work to make competition work. Without that work, they will exploit us, and they have!

My husband (47 M) and I (37 F) have been married for 5.5 years and together for 9 years. When we started dating, we were both fresh out of long relationships and "rushed" into things, including having a child together. But, things were really good. I don't regret it at all. We now have a beautiful home, two daughters, financial stability, and all of the standard "good stuff". Like, we literally have a white picket fence. We don't fight often and I've been able to leave work to pursue an education in Yoga Instruction. We have chores split fairly and know what tasks are "ours". For example, I do the laundry and he does the dishes; He tidies the floors and I sweep/mop the floors; etc. For all intents and purposes, this is an amazing family and life.
However, it is extremely clear to me that he doesn't love me. I don't know if he ever has or ever will. I feel alone and sad/frustrated by this. When we first started dating, we'd go to bed at the same time. I don't quite recall when this stopped, but he permanently sleeps in the living room on the couch. I've spent years begging him to make it a regular habit to come to bed. He'll say he will, but never does. He has a million excuses not to, but never has a reason to lay with me. He'll lay in the bed for a midday nap, but leaves the second I lay down. He will wake up in the middle of being fully asleep just to leave. We have physical intimacy time regularly, but even that is like checking off a box. I enjoy it. He claims to enjoy it. But there is absolutely no talking or cuddling after. He's never said something nice to me unprompted. I've actually asked direct questions about his favorite thing about me, why he loves me, etc. I'm not a "beat around the bush" kind of person. I clearly, actively, consistently, and sometimes loudly communicate how I feel or what I need. He seems to try his best to meet those needs as long as they are not emotional. He doesn't necessarily say regular mean things, but the dryness is hurtful. He doesn't show any interest when I talk about my day or my interests, but has no problem talking about his day or his interests. He won't even watch TV with me, even though he spends the majority of his time watching TV that interests him. Holidays are the same. It's checking off the boxes. Flowers, gift, card (that he always manages to "forget" the envelope for and "didn't have a pen" to sign).
I've tried to address this in many ways. Marriage counselor. Informal relationship check-ins. Marriage book. The counselor was too much. The check-ins were not enough. The book seemed to help the most. But, he's always made it clear that he "is only doing it for me" and doesn't like it or care about it. To him, it's a book. To me, it's a tool to enhance our relationship and fall back in love. It IS our relationship, or a pathway to a good one at least. He's recently started to fully refuse to work on it with me, saying it doesn't help. I, actually, thought it was helping a lot. He started to feel like my friend and not just my roommate. But it seems like that may be exactly why he doesn't want to keep doing it. It seems like he doesn't think we should be friends.
We recently go into a small argument. Some snide remarks were made that led to a rabbit hole ending in him saying he wouldn't care if I had a boyfriend on the side. Now, I don't actually believe that he wouldn't care. But I think he'd care for how it looks and not how it feels. I genuinely don't think his feelings would be hurt if I actually found someone to entertain me. It's not even on the table, though. I don't want anyone else. I want my husband. But I'm starting to feel pathetic and like I'm begging someone to love me that never will. He's just not interested in a loving relationship with me.
I suppose it's also important to mention that he has what most people would consider a drinking problem. He's not mean or aggressive. It doesn't get in the way of his job. However, he drinks beer everyday and falls asleep. He doesn't have issues waking up. In fact, he wakes me and our daughters up in the mornings. Because it doesn't impact the functioning of his days, he doesn't view it as a problem. I know it's too much and I know it most likely has everything to do with why he is so distant with me. It's like he has an affair with alcohol. It will always mean more to him. It's an addiction. But, he won't view it that way. And it won't change. And I'm left here clinging to the moments in between and feeling alone.
I won't be divorcing him. So, I guess my question is How do I manage to exist in this "picture perfect", lonely, lacking in love life without completely losing my mind? How do I stay content without clinging to the hopes that he'll maybe love me? I've never been the type to be interested in how things appear to others. I want actual love and joy. This is tearing me apart and I don't know how to continue as a calm, regulated, mindful person. And ultimately, I fear this will inhibit my ability to be the best yoga instructor I can be.

My husband and I just had a baby 2 months ago and honestly, him and I have been fighting nonstop since. It's because he is a "yes man" and it's starting to become intolerable. We live beside ALL of his friends and they ask him to go out every single weekend and he basically can't tell them "no" without feeling some type of way about it. His alternative to fixing the issue is to move in with his mother, who is fixing to buy a giant home over an hour away. I refuse to do this. Not only do I not want to live with anyone at all but there's already issues I'm not okay with. But irregardless, he went and looked at the house with her yesterday and came back home and brought it up yet again.
Here's my issues... For one, she expects us to come up with the down payment for her loan. It's $10,400. I have the money. My husband has suggested that we use my savings to put toward the loan (he works full time but 80% of his money goes toward our bills). I refuse to give up my financial cushion for anyone. Our name wouldn't be on the loan or the deed to the house but she has told us that the house would be ours when she passes (I DO believe her, she's a lot of things but a liar isn't one of them so I know the house would 100% be ours). She expects us to pay half of all the bills, which is $800 more than we pay here and that's not including electric or water or pretty much anything else that goes wrong. For two, she expects me to go back to work immediately upon her purchasing the home and put our daughter in to daycare. My husband and I have already made it clear that our daughter will not be going to daycare but she keeps pushing the issue. Every time we see her now, she is bringing up the house and dropping comments about her being able to get me a job with her. She knows we have said no. She says that "won't work" unless I intend on picking up all house work. This means I would be in charge of cleaning up after 4 adults (her boyfriend, my husband, myself and her) and her unruly, untrained dog. Nope. Which leads to point 3, I refuse to live with her BF or her dog. And then the big one, she doesn't respect boundaries. She is not a malicious person but she's very... Nonchalant? She thinks that a lot of things don't matter because they wouldn't matter to her. As in she's come in to my room several times (when visiting us) while I'm sleeping and woken me and the baby up. When my daughter was 5 days old she showed up announced with her 3 young grandchildren so they could see the baby and one of those kids parents were at home sick with the flu, so she knowingly exposed my daughter because "well, she isn't sick, just her parents are".
Anyways, I just don't want to live with her. I don't want to live with anyone and be under someone else's thumb. I love my MIL. She truly is a great person (outside of the boundaries issue) but I can't do it and won't do it. My husband keeps trying to convince me to just "try it out" because he desperately wants to get out of here. He knows he has an issue with saying no to his buddies but instead of trying to say no, he wants to run because he thinks it'll make us stop fighting. I told him I'm absolutely not moving out of here unless we move alone. He's so upset about this that he is panicking. He feels like staying here is basically sealing his fate to be a "loser" (all his buddies are 30-40yo nobodies who do nothing but drink and blow money on dumb "fun" shit while their wives are at home taking care of everything and he doesn't want to end up like that but still refuses to say "no"). He says I should be willing to do this for him. AITA?

UK based.
Thirteenth post in my accountability series. Using this as a progress diary since startihg my weight loss journey on 12th Feb 2024.
Started the week at 154.2 (down 1.6lbs from) 155.8 the week before.
Now this has been an interesting week to say the least. With 3 weeks left on MJ (I can’t afford to do any longer) I wanted to push the boundaries a little. I wanted to see what wiggle room I have.
I’ve made some real changes with walking, drinking water and portion size, to the point that my body water % is up 3% since making my health a priority, and my average daily steps has doubled. Now this isn’t to say I’m not going to continue with these great habits, but I wanted to see how affected I’d be if I didn’t do these things consistently.
This week I switched out some of my water for lightly flavoured sparkling water on occasion (think appletiser) and had a glass or two of Prosecco a few weeks after work with my husband (had a few days of work and was feeling a lot more chilled than usual).
Brother in law stayed over from Wednesday to Friday. Even though he’s very health conscious, I think his presence threw things off food wise in the house. Husband was more keen to get takeaway and snacks. It’s not necessarily because bro in law wants them, but I think husband feels happy and at peace when he’s around and fully relaxes. I love that, but not necessarily the food effect. I stayed eating the way I have but I had a KFC drum stick and some small chips (very delicious treat, but definitely more than enough).
Husband has been very congratulatory about my weight loss. I wanted us to go through this together as we were both unhealthy, overweight and have been through the rigmaroles of weight loss countless times, but he wasn’t ready. After bro in law left on Friday, and seeing my progress husband spoke to me about being interested in MJ. I’m excited for him if it’s a step he chooses to take.
We had Mexican for dinner on Friday after dropping our little one off at my parents house. I stuck to two appetisers which were protein and salad heavy and seasoned with lime for extra flavour. Delicious. What a relief it is to eat with my stomach instead of my eyes. I’m no longer exhausted thinking about food, I know how much will satisfy me and I don’t go beyond that, because why would I?
Saturday morning rolled round. Husband and I were busy and some friends very kindly offered to look after our dog overnight. We dropped him off and they were very surprised and congratulatory about my weight loss. We see them every few weeks but now the weather is changing, I’m not bundled in jumpers like usual and I guess my weight loss really showed. I didn’t really know what to say! I think I’m almost getting a little embarrassed now. I think I need to work on saying thank you, and knowing that that’s a full and complete sentence. Baby steps with that I guess.
On Saturday afternoon I had a big brunch that was booked from a few months ago and lovely fried rice dish and unlimited Prosecco / woo woo drinks for a few hours. I happily ate my portion of food, taking my time to chew eat and enjoy, rather than wolfing it down like I used to. The flavour was delicious and I really enjoyed it and had time to think about how much I was enjoying it. It’s wild that I didn’t do this before.
Now the drinks… I read a lot on Reddit and otherwise about the averse side effects people have even after a couple of light alcoholic drinks, so I’ve always been cautious about have 0-1 drinks if I do have a drink with MJ. Hand on heart, I lost count after 6 Proseccos, and had a few more in the pub afterwards. I had a small glass of water between drinks when I could remember. I was fully expecting to throw up or have a terrible tummy, but I write this now at 6:47am on a Sunday morning, waking up happy and well rested without even a whiff of a hangover, ready to resume my regular schedule (MJ shot, walk, healthy eating). I think I had a lucky escape, but it definitely isn’t something I’m in a rush to repeat. But a part of me wonders if I’m ok because of all the changes I’ve made. This is now a little blip rather than the norm.
I’m not really sure what my update is about today other than surprise. My son is with his grandparents for the weekend, and I guess I had a big relax. But I’m ready to get back to normal. It’s so interesting how aware I am of how my diet has changed. This would be something I could mindlessly do on a Friday and Saturday without thinking before. It wouldn’t have been an active choice.
Looking in the mirror, I like what I see and how I feel. I’ve readjusted my goal weight again since I feel I look good now (and looking good on the inside according to my stats), so would be happy with the top of the range. I’m really focussed on body recomposition and have started a home programme of 20 minutes of exercise after the little one has gone to bed.
As I expected, there’s nothing interesting to report stat wise, but I enjoyed the week.
SW: 184.4 lbs CW: 153.1 lbs WoW Loss: 1.1 lbs GW: 145-150 with tone/muscle 💪🏾
SW fat percentage: 36% why Last Week fat percentage: 31.4% CW fat percentage: 30.8%
SW visceral fat: 11 Last week visceral fat: 7 CW visceral fat: 7
SW metabolic age: 38 Last week metabolic age: 34 CW metabolic age: 34
Ready for next week ✨

Hello all,

I am just looking for somebody who is grammatically better than me to make sure I am not making any glaring mistakes when using certain words in their current tense. Or maybe a word doesn’t fit and another would be better. I’m no English major ,but do want to get my thoughts out to my girl effectively. Not looking to rewrite but open to suggestions. Thank you all so much in advance. Good bless! 

Vows- You are at its core ,if studied, the Essence of my being. Your reactions have defined who and what I am. From 1 blessed soul to another, I pray throughout all the trials and tribulations, we share a union and an attraction that may never be broken. Our union is like venturing into the uncharted territory of a black hole. We may not be able to stare down the abyss but we know there will be tremendous pressures and unknowns along the journey. I promise to be your beacon of hope when all seems lost, as you have been mine. As wicked and wretched scoundrels interpose tumultuous and deafening disorder. I stand as your vociferous and indomitable partner to all that attempts to deviate this journey. We are indivisibly mended to one another, as is the very fabric of space/time we displace and experience jubilation in the riches and blessings god bestows upon us. As long I draw breath I’ll draw joy knowing your heart beats in this reality and by the most deserving soul I know. I feel blessed to be able to cherish moments together “like our children’s first loves or making lifelong running jokes like “it’s for the children!!” No matter what has ever transpired or transpires in this reality we call a life. Know that you are at the most deserving person of happiness I know. Many are worthy but you are undoubtedly in a class of your own when it comes to showing grace, resilience, and perseverance in the face of insurmountable challenges. You are my inspiration and motivation, daily, to propel this family into the next generation of successful spirits produced. Your love keeps me grounded and spiritually fueled up. You are my destiny. I promise always to remember how much you mean to me. That’s a vow I’ll make till the day we’re old and grey. You’re the peanut butter to my jelly, the salt to my pepper shaker, and the ranch to my fries– we’re just better together. You are a one-of-a-kind spice I need in life, and I will forever move heaven and earth for one more taste. You are the love of my life and I promise to adore you, cherish you and respect you for all the days of my life.
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Proposal-
Since I first set eyes on that beautiful smile and those enchanting dimples at that podium I have been enthralled with you. The days of vows only being “you know I love you girl” are over. Moving forward genuine care and thought is going to be put into everything that we try to conquer and overcome together. You are the spirit that intrinsically keeps me bound to this reality I convince myself is “my life”. You are the true elixir that makes this genie in a bottle grant all the wishes a mother fucker could. Cause we built like that. Nah saying! Jenae You’re my lobster. You're my person. You will always be my person. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day. When I look into my heart, I see only you. If you can look into your heart and only see me, then we should spend the rest of our lives together. There are many ways to be happy in this life, but all I really need is you. Babygurl will you marry me?

I am Agent P7, only worker drone in the Phantom Section of the T.A.B.L.E., the Tactical Asymmetric Black-ops for Lethal Equilibrium. We are responsible for keeping the world in peace from bastards who do nothing but taking over the world. However, if someone asks me if I like my job, I will answer a “no”, as being a top secret agent can sometimes feel repetitive, or even annoying in some extent.
Here is my planned daily schedule(note the keyword “planned”): 0600-2100 standby hours, 2100-2200 drive back to my apartment, 2200-2400 free time bf bed
But for us secret agents, “planned” stuff tends to go wrong, and the schedule will become: 0600-2100 figuring how to steal classified documents from an active military base with thousands of personnel, 2100-2200 being chased back home by a convoy of MRAPs, tanks and helicopters, 2200-2400 managed to loose the convoy and return home, but being ambushed by 100 insurgents during a walk at the park so pre-bed activity is horde fighting lol
Not even holidays give me enough rest, such as when I took a 3 month injury leave some time before, I was able to have a nice cup of black martini, martini made of oil, on the balcony, and enjoy the soothing breeze I’ve missed so much. Just after I got into the mood, a bullet flew past by and shattered my glass of martini. At the same time, my sensor picked up 10 armed guys, either mounted on the windows of the adjacent building, or on the streets taking cover from cars.
“How did the N.A.H.A.S. find out my location?” I thought, when the sensor showed further details of those men. N.A.H.A.S., the Nomadic Aegis Holdings of the Australian Soil, is a private military company located in Australia. Well, no. This is just a front. N.A.H.A.S. is an international crime syndicate. Their main income comes from various illegal activities, one of them is provoking regional conflicts and then performing arms trafficking in conflict areas for profit.
I rushed to the living room with my head down, sprays of bullets went above me, creating dense and high tone sonic booms.
In the living room, there was an empty cupboard next to the main door. I jumped inside and slam-closed the doors. Appeared to me was a secret portal to a room with a CCTV system, arsenal, and various comm systems…
(Don’t know why it’s glitch asf, perhaps too many words, so I paused here, new parts will come out ASAP)