Top 100 subject lines for dating

Hi I've never been to the waterloo area before and I'm going on a date soon. Wanted some options for dinner. She and I are both vegetarian but the restaurant doesn't have to be 100% vegetarian or anything.
We both love italian, mexican, indian food and she's never tried thai food.
Any recommendations?

I'm not the type to obsess over charts, but tripleS has entered Melon TOP100 with Girls Never Die (it's currently at #72) and it made my day.
They've been doing so well this comeback/debut, surpassing 170k sales, charting in the top 100 on all the other major charts (#10 on bugs, #46 genie, #70 flo, #50 vibe) and getting their 1st win. Admittedly, I was a bit anxious about the album’s performance due to the underwhelming teasers, but the release turned out to be fantastic, with an amazing title track, a great album and a stunning mv and I'm happy it's getting the recognition it deserves. Although it’s not a hit, these achievements are impressive for a girl group from a lesser-known company with an unconventional concept.
Not only that, but the girls have improved a lot as well. During Rising era they have been criticized (and even hated on by some) for their stages and you can see how much better their dancing and synchronization have gotten in just over a year. The members have clearly been working hard, and I’m confident they’ll continue to grow.
I also feel somehow vindicated because many people were convinced from the start that tripleS would stay in nugudom forever or never surpass Generation. But look at them now! I really hope the group has a bright future ahead

$650 Productivity/Gaming Build

**What will you be doing with this PC? Be as specific as possible, and include specific games - For programs, obs, streamlabs, DaVinci resolve for editing Gaming - rocket league, geometry dash, sonic generations, portal
What is your maximum budget before rebates/shipping/taxes?

$650

When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Note: beyond a week or two from today means any build you receive will be out of date when you want to buy.

Within a month

What, exactly, do you need included in the budget? (ToweOS/monitokeyboard/mouse/etc)

Just the tower

Which country (and state/province) will you be purchasing the parts in? If you're in US, do you have access to a Microcenter location?

Dallas TX, microcenter nearby

If reusing any parts (including monitor(s)/keyboard/mouse/etc), what parts will you be reusing? Brands and models are appreciated.
Will you be overclocking? If yes, are you interested in overclocking right away, or down the line? CPU and/or GPU?
Are there any specific features or items you want/need in the build? (ex: SSD, large amount of storage or a RAID setup, CUDA or OpenCL support, etc)

1 TB SSD Wifi included in the motherboard

Do you have any specific case preferences (Size like ITX/microATX/mid-towefull-tower, styles, colors, window or not, LED lighting, etc), or a particular color theme preference for the components? I like the black colorscheme of everything
Do you need a copy of Windows included in the budget? If you do need one included, do you have a preference?

No

Extra info or particulars:

I went in for recycling reasons. I had a box of sharps to turn in and that pharmacy was closest. Also I turned in my pots for points at the garden centre (pro tip, if you are a few points away from from cashing in your points bring empty nursery pots and it nets you 100 points per pot).
First it was not a crazy long weekend crowd. It was a Wednesday in the middle of the month crowd at best. No lines, but also no staff, which goes to show they will throw customer service and their staff under the bus before their profits.
Let's keep this going to the end of the quarter.

So at the climax of Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin has gone all 9/11 and is flailing about in his lifelong misery while taking the galaxy down with him, he and Obi-Wan start arguing about political differences, religious beliefs, and whether it’s morally acceptable to murder hundreds if not thousands of people along the way to get there. Obi-Wan takes the valid stance of it not being cool, and makes it clear he’s going to fuck Anakin’s shit up for all his dark deeds. Anakin is eager for this because as said above, he’s riding high on FUBAR as a state of being and seeks the catharsis/validation of beating someone he can project all his problems onto. Thus, we get the baddest lightsaber duel there is, and you know the rest.
Now a lot of the time, people drag their knuckles about the line “Only a Sith deals in absolutes” and how it’s some kind of indicator of inherent Jedi hypocrisy or dramatic irony or George Lucas being a hack or what-fucking-have-you. I don’t really care because I think it's stupid, as Jocasta Nu illustrates for us here, and it’s not the point I want to make. Instead, I’d like to draw your attention to the line Obi-Wan drops before: “Anakin, my allegiance is to the Republic, to democracy!”
Nice delivery by Ewan aside, the meaning of this line is pretty clear: that Obi-Wan, in the face of Anakin flying completely and absolutely batshit off the handle into Divine-Right-of-Kings-For-Those-I-Love, is declaring himself an ally to the Republic and democracy specifically. That he is a very pro-democracy individual and considers it a part of the Republic. Which, cool, because Anakin is totally bugfuck nuts at this point and anything he believes in is probably bugfuck nuts as well so it’s smart to avoid it.
The thing is though, that Obi-Wan is wrong. Actually, he's not just wrong, he's speaking nonsense that is genuinely complete nonsense to hear from a Jedi in the Prequel Era Republic. Because let's recap a few details:
The Jedi Order of the Prequels inducts their initiates as infants or toddlers, with an aged nine Anakin being considered way too old. Now it's their prerogative to take students as they wish (though the thousand years of uniformity unsurprisingly severely backfires), but generally speaking, children under nine are learning things like what's acceptable to put in your mouth and how to read, write, and use the bathroom. The ability to choose "make me a Jedi for life" is genuinely nonexistent for them, so right off the bat, one of the basic democratic cornerstones is also nonexistent for them. It's also not like the Jedi are just Space Catholics/Buddhists: they are explicitly raised and taught to serve the (increasingly corrupt) Republic and its (gradually growing in obscenity until they have to violate their identities as peacekeepers) needs. The actual ability to choose for Jedi is already in the negative double digits.
And for whichever one of you that's breaking their keyboard typing about how Jedi can leave if they want, I'm already aware, thanks for nothing. The thing is that A.) the ability to be able to refuse to participate in something you did not actually sign up for is what I would consider the absolute bare minimum, B.) it doesn't change the part where they don't make the choice to join to begin with, and C.) given how Jedi are taken into the Order usually before they even begin forming concrete memories, we can probably assume that's the reason so few do. When you're raised in that environment for your entire life, the choice to leave is synonymous with abandoning everything you've ever known, which is pretty terrifying.
Moving on: in the Jedi Order, the positions of authority are broken up between the Grand Master (who leads the entire Jedi Order), the Master of the Jedi Order (who is the leaderepresentative officer of the Council), and the Jedi Council. Let's talk about how the buck of leadership is passed around these people, and how there's frighteningly little oversight for the vast majority of the Jedi. Pay attention to the bold words.
The Council is made up of twelve Jedi Masters, including the Grand Master and Master of the Order (this was Yoda and Mace respectively in the PT) who historically are the same person holding both titles. In ROTS, Anakin serves as the senate-appointed representative, an extreme breach of tradition and what sends the Council into dealing with Palpatine's dictatorship (long after the Chad Mace Windu had sobered up to his increasing power and the problems of the war in the EU). While there's no 13th chair made for him, it's never clarified who Anakin was replacing or why there was an open spot at the moment. Though we can probably assume it was due to a wartime event, like the previous Council member being violently executed with a planet full of civilians on the HoloNet by the Separatists as part of their terror campaigns a week ago, it ultimately doesn't matter because this isn't about him.
The twelve seats are split between five lifetime members, four long-term members (and the end to that term is entirely decided on what's the "approved end date", not an actual hard number), and three limited-term members (that limit is not stated). If a lifetime appointment member dies, then it's possible for a long-term member to succeed them or for the Council to choose another Jedi Master at their own discretion, and the long-and-short-term members can be elevated to another position in the Council and have their term extended. The Council, in addition to serving as the liasion between the Jedi and the Senate, are also responsible for deciding when Padawans have progressed to the point of being ready for the Trials to become a Jedi Knight.
(Before I get some wannabe trying to blast me in the comments for using supplementary material to make an argument, take a look at the lineup of the Council in the movies. In the ten year period between TPM and AOTC, there have been only two switches in membership (which in extended material usually involves both being killed), and the three year period after AOTC leading up to ROTS being a war makes it questionable whether term limits became a thing, or Council members just stepped down or got killed off. Not really ideal).
Now notice how, nowhere in the above, is there a "members of the Jedi Order vote for who should be on the Council" option. Even if you want to argue that there should be a qualification factor, like say, holding the rank of Master, that still leaves a large candidate pool open where the actual rank-and-file of the Jedi could decide who they wanted making decisions. We're talking about a group that's supposed to be at least 10,000 members strong at this point, I somehow believe there are enough people willing and capable of leadership given the opportunity. Let alone the idea of immutable, set term limits.
Instead, it's basically just Yoda (also: very telling that the dude who probably only missed a four digit lifespan due to an unholy amount of trauma and misery at the tail end of it is a key decision maker for everything) and a couple of other people (who very well might have similarly lengthy lifetimes on account of being aliens) holding onto power for insanely extended periods of time and selecting who else gets to hold on to power for insanely extended periods of time at the whims of this inner circle. This is obviously a little less than preferable for how leadership should be handled, and that's not even taking into account how the Council seems to be the only real governing body of the Jedi Order.
But let's sidestep how completely anti-democratic the Jedi Order is internally, and focus on its external agency. The Jedi, despite being members of the Republic and a key cornerstone of it as a government institution, are never shown able to participate in the Senate in any meaningful way, shape, or form, such as actually voting for senators to be representatives of any star system. Let me remind you, this is the same senate where megacorporations get to have their own seats, so we aren't exactly talking about a sacred and honorable institution here.
Even if you want to assume the Jedi wouldn't want to influence the elections of systems they technically aren't part of (because of the above-mentioned total removal from their homes and cultures to become Jedi), there's an enormous leap between that and the basic ability to vote for who you'll be taking orders from. Why can't the Jedi have a voice in the government when Space Exxon gets to have their own senator? Even if it's just something as basic as "participate in the vote for who will become Chancellor of the Republic", that would be A.) an enormous leap towards the Jedi Order getting to participate in a democracy, and B.) exercising the absolute bare minimum of power in the system they are part of and help uphold. Maybe if there had been Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewwll in the PT, they could have turned the vote against Palpatine in TPM! Or advised Jar Jar against giving Palpatine emergency powers in AOTC! But nah, we can't have the defenders of the Republic decide anything about how it operates, that's too much.
Actually though, scratch that, the Jedi wouldn't actually be participating in a democracy even if there was a Senatorial Representative Jedi Master Shii-Par Kewell. Because according to the Prequels worldbuilding, senators don't even have to actually be selected by the systems they represent. Let's look at Padme's case: She is supposed to represent the Chommel sector of the Republic, a system that holds about thirty-six different planets. You would imagine then, Padme had to be elected by all of them, or some other selective process, to act as their representative, no?
Nope. The only system we are ever informed of regarding the election of senators is that 1/36th of their constituency-in this case-their home planet's ruler-has them serve as the representative. Even if Padme is from Naboo, that doesn't make her part of the Queen's administration if she serves as the senator of the entire Chommel sector. The fact we only get one other named political representative for the Chommel sector in Jar Jar, who is representing the second species of Naboo, doesn't suggest much involvement from the other planets they are supposed to be serving.
Hell, Padme herself wasn’t even democratically elected if we go off her own account of Naboo’s post-TPM political history. After she served her second term as Queen, the population wanted to abolish term limits to keep her in power, which she refused to accept and the next Queen, Jamilla, was elected. Queen Jamilla then has Padme become their senator through the tried-and-true democratic process of…requesting her to serve. Nowhere is the mention of other candidates, an election, anything that isn’t just the monarch asking the previous monarch very nicely if she’ll take over the job for the entire sector.
It also bears noting that the only reason there is a current monarch that’s not Padme is because Padme refused to follow the people’s wishes, which were to break term limits on the monarchy for her to stay as Queen…which can be summarized as “one person making everyone else agree”. Now, that’s not to criticize Padme for preserving what shreds of legitimacy Naboo has as a government, but breaking term limits so someone can spend fifteen years total controlling policy is nuts. From fourteen to twenty-nine, Padme has massive control over Naboo’s politics, which is an insane amount of time even if people had wanted her to serve another term as Queen and presumably were all in on her being Senator as a result. Even if the people had wanted it, there not being a formal election means that this system is just begging to be abused. Wonder how Palpatine got his start, huh…
So to recap: if you’re a Jedi in the Prequels, you have been picked up from when you were very small to be raised in a system you will have no conceivable influence on at any point in your life. As part of that system, you are also taught to serve another system you will never have any conceivable influence over, and it’s very likely that the vast majority of the populace that make up that system don’t have any hope of conceivably influencing it either. This is the amount of agency you will have over your entire life, unless you decide “hey, I’m going to leave now, can I keep the lightsaber so I can fight off the wolves I’m being thrown to?”, which the Jedi at least have the good will to offer as an option in contrast to the Republic. Turns out that when Anakin’s starting to talk about authoritarianism in AOTC, he’s actually just telling Padme about how the Jedi and Republic operate as institutions, and how the daily life of the average member of both is just getting teabagged by everything ever. There was never any democracy to save in the Republic, the characters are all living in a shared delusion that cracks on an accelerated timeline when Palpatine starts his Sithma grindset, and the only solution was to send Anakin in with a flamethrower and let him cry himself out burning everything down, so the ashes could be used as soil and his tears as water to grow something better with.
I should probably be clear that I don’t get the sense much of this was intentional. Lucas often flip-flops in his BTS commentary about the Jedi, and that’s without getting into how it actually plays out in the stories he writes. Despite the Republic and Clone Wars being a deliberate criticism of America, a lot of the politics are muddied and not really fleshed out for the audience. The lack of interest in Padme as a character is clear for everyone to see, so it’s no surprise a lot of her story has more than a few headscratchers. I think it’s clear there’s a lot of stuff in the PT that wasn’t completely thought out or put together well, and this is another instance of such a thing occurring.
Ultimately to me, it doesn’t matter too much what that intent was. If your takeaway from the Prequels is that the Jedi and Republic were hopelessly fucked from the beginning and both systems needed to be entirely flipped on their heads to even begin to be democratic, all that matters is that you can back it up from within the films themselves, as I have done with the above. The point is, the Jedi and Republic were not soulfully democratic in any sense, their defenders and allies were not supporters of democracy as a result, and Obi-Wan took yet another L. It’s just how he rolls, gotta love that for him.
TL;DR: A lot of the ways the Jedi operate as an entity, and their dynamics with themselves, in service to the Republic, and outside parties as part of the Republic, makes far more sense when you read about how George Lucas considers them to be peacekeepers in the same way mafia dons are. Based Nute Gunray, dodging an offer he couldn’t refuse in TPM?
(Also if you come away from this post thinking it’s point was “OP is saying the Jedi are bad/evil” and I see that shit in the comments: you’re a moron. This post has sailed over your head. You have the same level of reading ability and intelligence as the Avatar movies do cultural impact. Go outside and touch the grass.)

Hey there swappers!!! I hope you’re enjoying this beautiful weekend! Today I have for you a Chris Reeve Sebenza 31 large in S45VN steel. It comes with all original packaging as well as date card. It was sent in for glass blasting around six months ago and features titanium Backspacer as well as dual thumb lugs. I am the second owner and have never sharpened only stropped. Some very light pocket wear but perfect other than that.
SV$450 TV $475
Trade interests- I’d love to get a grimsmo Norseman and I can add other trade or cash on top. Other than that I’m absolutely open to trade requests! Let me know what you have. Thanks so much!!!!
Will ship USPS on Monday and only in the us.
Timestamp and plenty of pics https://imgur.com/a/eiAHz8J
Let me know if you have any questions. 😃

I just finished my third run of DUST. I believe I should share some of the knowledge I have gained with the community. The two best perks in DUST are:

1. Jury rigging:

It has a high repair requirement of a 100, but it allows you to repair anything with a roughly similar item. Why is this amazing? First, The spread of a gun is tied to it's condition in DUST. At full condition, most guns perform amazingly well. You can fire as many junk rounds as you want. Second, it makes it easy to repair good rare guns like marksman carbine which is pretty much an endgame gun that you can find in first tribal village north of good springs. Third, Armor. I can't stress this enough. Being able to keep your Vault Security Armor (best light Armor) or Elite riot gear (medium) with any light or medium armor means your Armor is always in the top condition. Most tribals wear light armor, most NCR medium. You never need to make a single weapon repair kit.

1. Roughin' it:

Similar high survival requirement of 100, but there are no owned beds in DUST, this perks allows you to sleep in any bed as if it's an owned bed, essentially giveing you 3 boosts. One, it heals your health by sleeping. (Yes, even in hardcore). Two, it heals crippled limbs for free!! And 3. Well rested bonus. Since there are no doctors in the game, crippled limbs are a major pain. Even splints improve their health by a very tiny amount. Beds are plentiful in FNV, almost every camp has one. You can even carry your own bedroll kit if you so need, but I personally never carried one.
Bonus perks that go well with these two.

1. Irradiated beauty:

Rads are a pain. Micromanaging food and drinks and worry about rads is a pain. Every hour of sleep removes 100 rads with this perks. This goes hand in hand with Roughin it, as sleep brings even more benefits now. Remember to sleep in 1 hour intervals.

1. Hand loader:

You'll be taking repair to max anyway, might as well take this. With marksman carbine as my go-to weapon, I need 5.56 ammo. Every other rifle round i find gets broken down at a workbench. I get plenty of powder and rifle primer that way. The liming factor is 5.56 casings. Hand loader allows me to pretty much recover all casings i fire, allowing me to basically recycle ammo. Bonus Bonus tip, the 5mm and 5.56 mm surplus ammo that the vendertron sells can be broken down, (Unlike normal junk rounds) allowing for close to 1500 bullets of 5.56 after that trip, which is enough for the endgame.
General strategy: level 2, guns 50 rest into repair. Level 6, repair 100, jury rigging. Level 12, survival 100, roughin' it. Use tag, skilled and Max intelligence as needed.

So on top of everything else I've listed in my posts about gross shit my husband does and doesn't do. (Like not brushing his teeth, or using a scrubbie in the shower, or never clipping his toenails so they curl over the ends of his toes and are dark brown and yellow.)
My husband is ALWAYS congested. Right? So he's ALWAYS coughing and sounds like he has bronchitis. Well the other thing he ALWAYS does? He coughs up mucus on the walls/surfaces and leaves it there.
Just leaves it.
Doesn't bother to wipe it up right away like a NORMAL HUMAN BEING WHO CONSIDERS OTHERS FEELINGS AND COMFORT.
He leaves it.
There are over 100 splotches of dried mucus all over the walls of our current rental. And if I ask him to clean it up? He doesn't. The wall next to the bed where he sleeps? Literally covered in mucus.
I've stepped in it. Rolled over in it. Sat in it on chairs or the couch. Had it unintentionally wiped on my face by a kid with a blanket that he COUGHED IN TO AND DIDNT CARE TO PUT IN THE LAUNDRY.
Yeah. My kid was cuddling with his glorified, wet sticky handkerchief. If I could post pictures here... I still wouldn't because it's so fucking gross nobody deserves to be exposed to it.
If I don't notice it somewhere and it gets on me and I get grossed out and tell him to clean it off me and wipe it off whatever surface it's on, he acts like I'M THE PROBLEM.
MY HUSBAND COUGHS UP THICK DARK MUCUS ONTO THE WALLS AND OTHER SURFACES IN THE HOUSE AND HE DOESNT FUCKING CLEAN IT BUT IM THE ABUSIVE ONE BECAUSE I CALL HIM A JACKASS WHEN HE GETS ANNOYED AT ME FOR HAVING TO ASK HIM TO CLEAN IT UP MULTIPLE TIMES Y'ALL.
He doesn't cough into a tissue or anything. He just coughs in the open and sprays everything.

I'm going to try and make this as simple as possible.
A coworker at work was attempting to date an associate at work. We have a fratenization policy which we were all made aware of. Nowhere in the fratenization policy does it state that if I am aware of it, i have to report it. I knew about it, but I didn't feel like it was my business because my coworker is an adult and I felt like he could go and tell my manager himself. My coworker kept me out of the loop either way, so I didn't want to spread misinformation and look bad and get him fired either.
Another incident where a security guard that works under me quit because he wasn't getting paid enough. I spotted him out in public wearing a different uniform, which obviously leads to to me knowing about it. I did not tell my manager either because I felt like the gaurd must've already discussed this with my manager and it's just simply none of my business. He's also a grown man, that's his decision and that's not within my power to tell someone.
Skip to today, my manager sends out a form and tries to write me up for not telling him this "vital information". The form states "I hereby agree that if I am aware of something that violates policy - " etc basically stating that if I don't rat out on people or say something, I get written up and be subject to termination.
I stated my side of things. I told him straight up that I am simply here for work. I put in my time, I work my 40 hours, I put in my statistics, and that's it. Anything that does not have to do with protecting the company from losses, has nothing to do with me. My coworker having a relationship is none of my business. The gaurd quitting and working somewhere else is none of my business. So im not signing that paper.
I find this completely unfair. Now if I were to see my coworker stealing, doing time theft, doing obvious stupid things, then yea I'd tell my manager. But little shit like that is not in my category.

This is my ranking of every Impractical Jokers episode starting when Joe left. I was going to wait until season 10 was over to post this, but I’m just gonna post it now, as I have no idea if season 10 is done or still going.
I’ll be referring to the episodes by their celebrity guests, but that’s only because that’s how IJ names their episodes. I’ll be judging the episodes as a whole, not just the guest.
I’m only doing mainline episodes, meaning no “sideline smacktalk” or shark week special.
25. Bobby Moinahan
In general, I like challenges where the Jokers have to convince a mark to go along with what they’re doing, but making it so both challenges had that goal made this episode monotonous. The telethon challenge was particularly disappointing, as I think there was a ton of potential to make the marks do a bunch of wacky things, but it wound up being “insult the customer” over and over.
The punishment also felt disjointed. Murr having to annoy and creep out wedding dress buyers was pretty standard, but making him eat his wedding band and then wear a wedding dress to the airport seemed really tacked on.
24. Jillian Bell
The “you’re fired” challenge was a swing and a miss. Not only is it not fun to watch the Jokers just act like jerks of their own volition, but the ruleset is backwards because it requires you to be a jerk and then you’ll lose if you do too good a job. I think this game could be easily fixed if they made the first half be a standard “refuse you lose” and then fire the mark and beg for your job.
The “one more minute” skit was pretty cringey (this is coming from someone who likes the skits more than the average IJ fan) and I much preferred the deleted skit shown on “Filming with the stars”
The punishment was really underwhelming.
The one saving grace was the “Boot and Rally” challenge, which isn’t one I’d want to see again, but was still entertaining because of how over the top it was, and because of how self aware they were that it’s not a good challenge.
23. David Cross
They basically copied and pasted one of the Rob Riggle skits for this episode. Even though the skits are the least important part of the show, it’s still kind of upsetting to see them get recycled.
The challenges were fairly average, with the exception of Max Zoda dragging down Sal’s turn.
I did like the punishment. The post-Joe episodes have been pretty dependent on physically painful punishments, but this one was pretty creative both in using various methods to torture Murr, and in doing it in a context where it seems acceptable.
22. Adam Pally and Jon Gabrus
The babysitting challenge was solid, and I like the choice to play beer pong with the guests instead of doing a skit. In fact, I think it would’ve been better to consistently show authentic interactions with the guests instead of skits. They could even make it a callback to the walking bits from season 1.
Sal’s shock punishment was also pretty entertaining. Although it is watered down by the abundance of physical punishments in this era of the show.
21. Paul Scheer
The two challenges were solid, but the punishment was pretty underwhelming. The overall idea is pretty funny after it’s explained, but the entertainment value dissipates after the first couple rounds.
20. Colin Jost
The ice cream challenge was an improvement over the “you’re fired” challenge from last episode. While it still involved the vague command of “act like a jerk”, they now made the mark a witness instead of a victim, and the Jokers were actually rewarded instead of punished for fulfilling that command.
This episode also opted to show a real interaction with its guest instead of a skit, which again, is a decision I like.
The love guru’s challenge was solid, with the best part being when the guy claimed to know about the relationship expert Murr and Sal made up.
The punishment was entertaining, but again, kind of diluted by how many physical punishments there have been recently.
19. Eric André Returns
Fairly underwhelming as an episode, but never to the point that I wasn’t enjoying it. The best part was Sal talking about his exploding wife.
18. Harvey Guillen
The lawyer challenge was alright. The best part was Q’s “potato chip or two” line, which highlighted the absurdity of how convoluted the contracts were
Having a challenge where each turn was at a different location was an interesting idea, but ultimately didn’t have much impact.
Q’s punishment was kind of underwhelming. When it started with him getting prosthetics, I was expecting him to look radically different and for it to be crucial to the punishment, so I was disappointed when Q was fairly recognizable and it wasn’t necessary for what he had to do. Though the punishment itself was still fun due to the energy Harvey gave it. Plus it had a surprisingly light hearted ending.
17. Paula Abdul
Most of the episode was middling. I was disappointed because I was expecting Paula to have a great dynamic with the Jokers due to them making a movie together, yet she wound up blending in as a guest.
The high point of the episode was the “get my wallet challenge”. I loved the twist of having Cha throw Q out instead of Dan, and I especially loved Q sabotaging Sal by giving him his wallet before the mark could get it. It was oddly nostalgic, as it was the kind of thing Joe would do.
16. Kesha
I really don’t like that they repeated Sal’s shock punishment, the seance setting made it just barely different enough to justify doing again.
However, the “fall in love” challenge was pretty fun, and the debate challenge with MJF was great. I’d love for him to work with the Jokers again.
15. Michael Ian Black
I liked the return of the texting challenge, and Murr chasing the greased up boy was ridiculous (in a good way).
The punishment was fairly standard, but Michael did a great job acting as the straight-man and adding to Sal’s embarrassment.
14. Kim Fields
Murr’s “fuck marry kill” conversation, Q’s mistletoe, and Q eating the dog treats were all fun moments. The punishment felt pretty old school (in a good way) and while Q calling a woman’s bitch briefly dampened the fun, the mood was saved by Murr’s impression afterwards.
13. Post Malone
I liked seeing the etiquette challenge brought back and I especially loved seeing the guy do a 180 after recognizing Murr.
The punishment was clever and Post did a great job fanning the flames between the customers and Q. Though I think it was an odd choice to end it as a man was calling 911 without showing how the situation resolves.
12. Eric Andre
The challenges don’t have any moments that particularly stand out to me, but they were consistently entertaining in a way where it always feels worth my time to watch.
This is a rare time where I’d say the best moment from an episode came from a skit, as I love the idea of Murr being a fictional character.
The one change I’d make is that I wish they cut the opening skit and instead spoke to the audience directly, explicitly acknowledging that Joe left and they would be changing things up. I feel like that would’ve made for a better transition.
11. John Mayer
I don’t like that this episode only had one challenge before the punishment, but I do like that the celebrity guest was involved in both the challenge and the punishment, which I wish was the case more often.
The challenge itself was also fun enough to make up for being the only one. I loved Sal randomly arm wrestling the investors, the constant utterance of “Bro” and Murr’s mark insinuating he hired prostitutes.
10. ALF
The ticket challenge was solid and the phone call challenge was great, especially Sal’s McRib story.
Making a fictional character the celebrity guest was a somewhat risky choice, but I think it worked out. They did a good job integrating ALF into the punishment, and I loved the detail of him thinking Q enjoyed the food.
9. Anthony Davis
I like challenges where the Jokers have to convince the mark to lie, so I really enjoyed the “playing hookie” challenge.
I did not like the second challenge though. I found Steve Byrne’s antics more annoying than funny.
This is made up for by the punishment, which I consider one of the best punishments in recent history. Allowing Sal to opt out of tasks at a price was a clever way of adding stakes and making the punishment standout. The final task in particular was genius, and while it could have been over the line, Anthony avoided that by giving the kid his own shoes.
8. Method Man
The punishment was just uncomfortable and not very fun to watch, but the episode makes up for it with the challenges.
The scientists challenge was great, and the “don’t smirk” challenge was possibly the funniest segment in the whole post-Joe era. I personally think the “no smirking” rule was a bit excessive, and a rule against laughing would’ve been plenty, but the content of the challenge was hilarious, and that’s what matters.
7. Bruce Campbell
The Rosanna Scotto challenge was alright, with the most interesting part being when customers defended dumpster diving.
The waiter challenge was great. I loved Murr’s “who’s paying?” bit and Q constantly trying to improve the women’s ribs.
The punishment was great and felt like something we’d get in the older seasons. For the Bobby Moynihan episode, I mentioned that parts of Murr’s punishment seemed tacked on, and that’s not the case here. Each step of Q’s punishment felt like a natural extension, and Campbell did a great job as the overly demanding director.
6. Bret Michaels
The Grocery Roll was a great challenge to kick off the COVID restrictions being lifted. Murr and Sal each had spectacular Pratt falls.
The hide and seek challenge was a welcomed return. While I wouldn’t want it to become a staple of the show, I think it’s a great game to throw in once every couple of seasons to shake things up. Sal genuinely wondering if he can breathe in the fridge, repeatedly trying to close the door on himself, and hurting his arm on the third attempt was very stupid in the best way possible.
Murr’s punishment was a mixed bag. The armwrestling, bowls of soup, and Paul Rudd showing up out of nowhere were all hilarious, but whenever a mark is furious and has their face blurred, I go from enjoying the discomfort to just feeling bad for everyone involved.
5. Rob Riggle
The taste test challenge was great, with Q’s mark being one of the funniest of season in recent history.
The workout challenge was even better and really recaptured the magic they had in earlier seasons. Murr’s “wrong/good” workout and Sal’s refusal to accept help were particularly great.
The punishment was also solid. Murr having to stay still while mostly naked was simple and effective, and they were able to create a wacky enough environment around him that there’s more to keep things entertaining.
4. Chris Jericho
This is the first episode that made me realize IJ can make great episodes.
The Joint Gravy challenge was absolutely hilarious. Especially Sal’s turn.
The focus group challenge was also great. I’d be happy if they made Jiggy… not the fourth Joker… but the official stand-in whenever they have a challenge where they need to pair up.
The two skits were both really good. The opener was grounded and reserved, while the mid-show skit was ridiculous in the best way.
While I’ve said that IJ has gone a bit overboard with the physical torture punishments, I think this one was well done. It was creative to let Q alternate between various painful tasks as he wanted, and I loved how he was dependent on Sal’s mom to end the punishment. I really wish she started getting involved in the show earlier, because she’s hilarious.
3. Kal Penn
Having to sell a product after coming in through the window was hysterical, both in concept and execution. All three turns had a completely different feel to them. Murr was slimy and confident, Q was overly enthusiastic, and Sal was completely desperate.
The eating challenge was similar to the “Boot and Rally” challenge to me, in the sense that it’s not something I’d want to see again, but it was made funny due to the Jokers being self aware about it not being a good challenge. Murr’s frustration at Q and Sal saying they’d just take the thumbs down was 10X funnier than if they actually attempted the challenge.
The punishment itself was solid. It’s a simple but effective idea, and revealing that it was Sal’s breath that stunk was a great ending.
2. Blake Anderson
They brought back two challenges that had each only been done once before, which could be risky, but worked out great.
The “phony fees” challenge was a welcomed return. Johnna did a great job making the charges seem legitimate, and the woman constantly praising Q was amazing.
The Yearbook challenge was also really good. The gag about them all being married to Melissa reminded me of the organic humor we got back when Joe was on the show.
The punishment was my favorite of season 10. It has a juvenile charm where I know what Sal’s doing is really dumb, yet am root for him to get away with it.
1. Brooke Shields
Brooke gave the same energy as a guest that I was hoping to get from Paula Abdul.
The opening skit was great, largely because of how well Brooke sold the role of a fangirl.
This was the first time we saw the celebrity guest participate in a challenge, and it was very fun to watch. The girl trying to dab while in a suitcase was hilarious.
The “Brooke of Love” punishment was genius. We’ve seen challenges that convert to punishments before, but it was always done on the fly and/or kept secret from the joker being punished. Having everyone know that whoever loses will be punished immediately was a really unique approach and I hope they do something similar in the future.
I also love the idea of a dating show where the guys are all trying to be as unappealing as possible. Sal’s rap, the return of Stanley Merkle, and the hushed trash talking (trash whispering?) were all fantastic. I know the show (usually) doesn’t repeat punishments, but I’d love to see the challenge be done again, even if it’s without the instant punishment at the end. It could be in the context of a dating show again, or it could be something like a job interview.

So, here is part 2 of my entitled employee story. We left off with discovering Sally’s retaliation of giving me trash as a Christmas gift after her latest write-up.
So, the next several weeks, I am noticing more problems, but here’s some of the highlights.

1. Ever since we had issues of the office’s checks going randomly missing, Sally had apparently decided to just stop throwing any envelope away when opening the mail. She would supposedly search the envelopes/paperwork & then keep the envelopes with the paperwork. So, instead of doing her job better, she would decide to just stop doing the job at all. After all, you can’t get in trouble for screwing it up if you aren’t doing it, right? However, this resulted in items getting left with the paperwork (which sometimes wouldn’t get touched for several weeks due to being busy) that had needed to be collected or addressed right away.
   
2. Sally’s careless mistakes continued at about the same rate (average of 2 to 3 a week). She would put deposit slips/emails with the wrong office’s report, put one office’s mail in another office’s bin, put one office’s funding papers in another office’s bin, put one office’s bills in the folder for their correspondence & vice versa, put one office’s bills in the folder for another office’s bills, put the new month’s bills in the folder without taking out the old month’s bills so they would get mixed up. I could go on & on.
   
3. Sally would still ask for help on things she shouldn’t need help on anymore, ‘cause I had helped her many times on items exactly like it in the 2 years she’s worked here. I mean, the whole point of asking for help when learning new things on a job is so you can take the input you’re given & use it to get better at the job so you don’t have to ask for help anymore. I mean, what kind of office works by their employees constantly needing to be walked through everything every day? Sally would even ask for help on things no one would need to ask for help on. For example, she asked me, “An office took a deposit to the bank without showing it on their report. How do I write that up in the letter to fax to them?” Um, exactly what you just said to me. Or another time, she asks how long she should wait before calling an office back. Well, how long do you think you should give them? Just use your good judgment. You don’t need help with that! Again, you’ve been here 2 years!
   

On Jan 26, I take the Dec bills, correspondence faxes, & timesheets out of their folders to scan them into the computer. Now, one thing the bills should always have on them are the check number used to pay for this purchase & the date it was paid. The offices themselves are supposed to write this on there, but they don’t always, which is why it is our job to write it on there if it’s missing. I had noticed when I scanned Nov’s bills around Nov 30 that a lot of Sally’s offices don’t have that info written on them. So, I explained to her what needed to be written on every bill/receipt. I now flip through the Dec & Jan bills of her offices really quick to check them. There are quite a few of them with no info written down on them. There’s strike one for noncompliance.
Another task we would do several days a week (that’s Sally’s responsibility) is to check the bank accounts online. She is to look at the bank balances & report any low balances to Greg (or me if Greg isn’t there). She is then to look at the transactions in order to see if anything looks fraudulent. Since we are a loan company, check fraud is very common for us. So, we look at the checks for anything funny-looking, & we look to see if there are any auto debits (like when you use your bank account online to pay for a bill) that would tell us if someone got hold of our bank account info.
On Jan 30, at 1:15 p.m., I asked if any of the bank balances were low (Greg was out of town for a few days). Sally said she had forgotten to check the bank accounts that morning. Weird, ‘cause you had to check the Dallas office to make sure the money we sent them had shown up. How did you get the login sheet out to look in their bank account but then forget about checking all the bank accounts? This just further cemented in my mind that she was NOT checking these bank accounts the way she should. I was 100% positive that all she does when logging into these bank accounts is checking the balances to give to Greg but then never checks the transactions. I know this ‘cause, 1) I’ve observed Sally only logging in to write down the balances & then logging back out (she had some flimsy excuse ready when I asked her about it), 2) there have been auto debits that appeared in bank accounts that we didn’t find for weeks until I happened to see it for some reason & guess what? She never pointed those out to us, & 3) Sally hadn’t bothered to check the bank account balances since Greg was out of town, so clearly she only felt the need to check the balances. There’s strike two for noncompliance.
& even more bad mistakes or decisions:

1. At the end of Jan, we discovered that Sally had mailed the employees’ W2s to the managers’ home addresses instead of to the offices to distribute to their employees!
   
2. We had an office that moved locations to right across the street, so the only thing that changed in their address was their street number (12 Main Street instead of 11 Main Street). I explained this to Sally & gave her an updated list of the office’s addresses. 3 weeks later, we get a call from that office saying that mail we send to them keeps going to their landlord’s house. I check the address labels Sally had created for herself. Sure enough, it had the wrong address on them. I go to grab the lease, & at the top is where the tenant’s new address is listed. & all the way at the bottom of the page in the paragraph titled “RENT” where it lists where to send the rent is the landlord’s home address. & that’s the address Sally had chosen to be the new office’s address on her address labels.
   
3. Sally hadn’t been faxing the offices to ask for bills/receipts that never made it to us.
   
4. I used the last towel on a roll of paper towels, so I went to the cabinets to grab another. We were out. Sally is in charge of keeping track of supplies that need ordering, so I go to Sally & say we’re completely out of paper towels, we need to order some. Sally response: “No one ever tells me when they grab the last roll so I know when to order them.” Um, excuse me, since when is it our job to tell you to do your job? It’s your responsibility to keep track of supplies. You should be checking the level of paper towels, toilet paper, Kleenex, etc., to see when you need to order them.
   

So, I knew she needed a second warning write up for carelessness cause of the numerous mistakes since the first warning write up in the middle of Dec, & I would be giving Sally a first warning write up for negligence cause of her not asking the offices for missing bills & not writing the info on the bills I had told her to do at the end of Nov. However, it was only a few days from Feb, which was the time for performance reviews. So, rather than doing a write up now & then in a week or so doing a performance review that was one of the worst performance reviews I’ve ever heard of, I decided to just do it in one fell swoop. You know, just get it all out of the way with one bad conversation, one bad day, & then both of us can hopefully put it behind us & move on.
I decided to do the performance review & write ups on Feb 5 (Monday). It went much smoother ‘cause Greg was there, so Sally couldn’t really give me lip or lash out by showing attitude & anger like she had previously.
On Feb 7 (Wednesday), I log in to get the transactions for an office who is switching banks. I wanted to get an updated list of outstanding checks so they know how many checks are left before they can close the old bank account. & what do I see? Someone had used the bank account to pay $100 on their AT&T bill. I call the office & find out it was actually them, so no fraud there. But I then ask Sally if she had seen that when checking the bank accounts. She said she didn’t remember. Obviously, I have found my proof that she is either not checking them or isn’t paying attention when she does. I have a discussion with Greg about it, & we decide I need to have a sit down with her about her not doing her job. She is sick on Thursday, so I plan to talk with her the next day she comes in.
On Feb 9 (Friday), I begin the conversation about checking the bank accounts & how important it is. I am planning to say things like, we expect you to do this job, you’ve been told multiple times to do this task, if you’re not going to do the job, then you’re welcome to go find another one, etc. But she cuts me off at the beginning with an excuse of, “Well, I didn’t know what I should be looking for, now I know.” & it broke me. She does this exact thing every time I have to have a conversation with her. She has an excuse ready to go on the tip of her tongue, always spins it around so it’s not actually her fault. It’s always, “Well, I didn’t know that, but now, I do.” & I was just done. I didn’t continue the conversation, even though I needed to, ‘cause I just broke down in tears from the stress of having to discipline her & knowing that nothing will ever come of it, but having our hands legally tied to be able to fire her right now. I cried nonstop for over 4 hours.
On Feb 12 (Monday), I sat down to continue the conversation, this time with a written statement for her to sign.
Me: You respond a lot of the time that you don’t know how to do things, which is very frustrating, ‘cause you’ve been shown multiple times how to do these tasks. It’s very inefficient & wasteful that I have to constantly check all of your work & retrain you on the same thing over & over again. This needs to change. This job is about accuracy & accountability.
Sally: You’re not giving me a chance to improve. I never hear “Good job,” from you. All I ever hear is, “You’re doing a bad job, sign this paper.” I get in trouble every time I ask for help, so I guess I’ll just follow the instructions & hope I’m doing it right.
The problems with that response:

1. You’ve worked here for 2 years, Sally. You’ve had plenty of time to improve.
   
2. The reason you never hear “Good job” is ‘cause you’re not doing a good job. How am I supposed to tell you “Good job,” but also need to give you a write up for doing a bad job? If you’re getting multiple write ups for doing a bad job, don’t you think that’s a sign that something is wrong? I mean, she thinks that managers should be telling their employees good job on everything they do right. No, you’re expected to do these tasks. We’re not going to congratulate you every time you do your basic job requirements like some toddler that needs constant positive reinforcement so they know that doing something right is a good thing! You will hear “Good job” when you are doing a really good job on something, when you go above & beyond!! I mean, do you think Greg tells me “Good job” when I’m just doing my job as expected?!! NO!!! I’ve never had a manager constantly tell me “Good job” all the time!!!! (Whew. Sorry about that. Kinda went on a crazy rant there. I’m good now.)
   
3. Here’s another example of her mentality of “if I don’t do the job, I can’t get in trouble for doing it wrong.” She’s going to stop asking for help instead of using the help I’ve given her to do better. I mean, if you’re making these mistakes when you ARE asking for help, how many more are you going to make when you stop asking for help? How does this make any logical sense?!
   

Well, here’s another chance for some malicious compliance. She claimed she didn’t know how to check the bank accounts, right? Well, my job as the manager is to make sure my employees know how to do their job. So, I need to sit down with her & train her how to check the bank accounts. Again. Even though I know she already knows how to do it. So, every time you tell me that the reason why you didn’t do a job is ‘cause you didn’t know how to do it right, well, we’re going to sit down & waste both our times & annoy you having to be retrained on something you do, in fact, know how to do.
Sally continues making careless mistakes & not doing stuff she doesn’t think she should have to do. Like answering the phones. It’s her job to answer the phones; that’s something I as the manager should be delegating to her. However, she never answers the phone unless I literally can’t. So, I had asked her to start answering the phone more. She will wait until the last possible second before answering the phone. By that time, it’s already rung twice, so I have to answer it before it goes on any longer or they hang up. One time, we were both away from our desks when the phone rang. We both went to answer it, but she was closer & got to her desk before me, put her hand on the phone, & watched me until I got to my desk before she picked it up. With a comment of, “Oh, (laughs) I didn’t want to make you walk all the way to your desk.” Well, you did, anyway, you little jerk.
On Feb 27, Sally asks for help on a report. She says that my note stating the office is over-deposited $28 on report 1 but fixed on report 2 by being $28 under-deposited didn’t work out. She says that they were never over by $28 in the first place. I take the report to look it over. Her calculator tape adding up the deposits shows the bank is in balance, but I don’t see deposit slips.
Me: Where are the deposit slips?
Sally: I haven’t gotten them yet.
Me: (trying to comprehend her logic) Then how do you have the deposit amounts added on this tape?
Sally: I got the amounts from the report.
Me: You…(my brain trying not to implode at this point) you can’t add up amounts to see if the bank has too much or too little money in it without knowing what was actually taken to the bank. The amounts on the report don’t always equal what was taken to the bank.
I log into the bank account & discover just that: the report says they took $500 to the bank, but their deposit says $528. They were indeed $28 over-deposited. I then lecture her (for the second time in a few months) on the correct way to account for the deposits at the bank, that we are only to use the dollar amounts on the bank’s deposit receipt. (The first time was her getting the deposit amount from what was written on the deposit slip instead of what the bank gave us credit for on their printed receipt. The bank had shorted us $500, & we never knew until her deposits didn’t work out when reconciling the bank statement at the end of the month. We were missing $500 for 4 weeks! It’s a miracle we didn’t overdraw the account.)
Another task that we do several days a week is checking the CFPB website. This is a government website that uses federal regulations to monitor financial institutions. It’s like the Better Business Bureau, but more official. Customers can make complaints through them, prompting an investigation to make sure we’re following the federal guidelines. We have 2 weeks to respond to a complaint before it is past due.
On Feb 29, Greg just happens to be looking at an email inbox that he never checks, ‘cause after all, we’re checking the CFPB website, so he doesn’t have to look there, right? There is a complaint in 2 of the portals that have been in there since Jan 22. He immediately marches out & tells Sally about them.
Greg: Aren’t you checking the CFPB sites?
Sally: Yeah, I am.
Really? Then how come you didn’t print this complaint off to give to Greg in the last 6 weeks? She came back from lunch to a second warning write up given by me for negligence.
On Mar 5 (Tuesday), we are working on reconciling the bank statements so we can close the month of Feb. Sally brings me a Jan bank statement for an office.
Sally: This never cleared in Feb.
I look at the bank statement. It’s an electronic deposit of $254 on Jan 31. I remember this. She had asked me at the beginning of Feb why this deposit wasn’t recorded on the office’s report. I explained that since it didn’t show up in the bank account until the last day of Jan, they might not have known about it before the end of the month & so recorded it on the first of Feb. We will wait until the first report of Feb. If it’s still not recorded, then we’ll bring that to the office’s attention. & here she is, clearly telling me she hadn’t brought it to anyone’s attention all month long.
Me: (staring at the bank statement as I try to prevent my autistic brain from exploding at her while also trying to prevent a spontaneous stroke) You didn’t keep track of this all month?
Sally: Well, I didn’t know if it was treated differently ‘cause it was OTBP (One Time Bill Pay, which is the electronic deposit). (Oh, what a shocker, she once again didn’t know how to do something.)
Me: But we talked about this. If it wasn’t on the first of the month, we needed to address it.
Sally: Okay, well, now I know that we treat this the same as other deposits. (goes nonchalantly back to her desk like it was no big deal, like she hadn’t just revealed she had once again disobeyed my detailed instructions)
Me: (seeing her flagrant disregard for the seriousness of the situation & wondering just how on earth she could once again think that not doing her job would have no consequences) This is exactly what Greg talks about over & over, about how we can’t leave errors like this to sit for weeks & weeks, that these need to be dealt with as they happen.
Sally: (still as easy-going as if she had simply used the wrong color highlighter) Okay, I’ll make note of that.
Now, I am getting really pissed off. She keeps saying, “Oh, now I know that OTBP is treated the same as everything else.” That doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter that you didn’t know it’s treated the same! I specifically told you to take care of it if it didn’t appear on the first of Feb! It didn’t matter what kind of deposit it was! I said to tell me if it wasn’t on the first of Feb!
Now, this was right before she leaves at 3:30, so by the time I’m finished with my text conversation with Greg (‘cause he isn’t there that afternoon), she has already left. But I’m telling Greg that I have once again caught her being negligent, & she’s already had 2 written warnings about this, which means our next step is letting her go. Not to mention, her carelessness is still continuing. He said that he supports my decision to let her go. By the way, the final decision happened an hour after she left. If I had known before she left that we were indeed going to fire her, I would have done it before she left so she didn’t have to come all the way to work in the morning just to leave again.
So, on Mar 6 (Wednesday), I arrive early to work so I can be prepared. I am standing at my desk, watching her come in. This is unusual, so she frowns as she approaches me.
Me: Sally, we need to talk.
Sally: (still frowns at me)
Me: (handing her the typed up notice) We are going to read this together. “When reconciling the month of Jan, around Feb 5, it was brought to my attention that we had a deposit that hadn’t been reconciled. I gave you instructions to wait a report to see if it works out. If not, you would need to bring it to mine & the office’s attention for further instructions. This wasn’t done. It wasn’t until Mar 5 that you brought this to my attention again. You have been told many times the importance of reconciling the financials of the office. You have been warned several times of negligence. This is another example of negligence with respect to your job. All you had to do was follow my instructions. It is for this reason that it is now time to terminate your employment.”
Sally: When did you tell me to do this?
Me: (thinking, “Um, I kinda just told you when I told you do that, but, okay.”) When you showed me the Jan bank statement—
Sally: Yesterday?!
Me: You showed me the Jan bank statement a month ago when you were reconciling Jan. I told you to wait for the first of Feb & then—
Sally: You did no such thing!
Me: Yes, I did, Sally.
Sally: When does Greg get here?
Me: Around 9, like usual.
Sally: I’m calling him, ‘cause this is ridiculous. You’ve had it out for me from the very beginning.
Me: No, I haven’t.
Sally: Yeah, you have. Just like the other 2. (sets her bags at the front door, goes outside, & calls Greg)

1. How could I have had it out for you from the very beginning when we didn’t have problems for the first year & a half you worked here? If I’d had it out for you from the beginning, you wouldn’t have had a job the past 6 months. Need I remind you what Greg told you about the timesheet thing being something we fire someone for on the spot, but that Molly had gone to bat for you & gave you a second chance? Why would I have done that if I had wanted you gone from the start?
   
2. “Just like the other 2.” She’s talking about Irene (who had left in Feb 2023) & another employee (who we’ll call Phil). Phil had been fired (by Greg, by the way) for continuing to watch movies on his phone at his desk despite being told multiple times by Greg to not do that. & Irene? She wasn’t fired. She gave her 2 weeks’ notice. & we then discovered when going through the work she’s been doing as we started taking over her tasks that she didn’t just not do jobs. She would actually forge the work so she wouldn’t have to work. “A bank imbalance of $2.65? Well, I’ll just add it to the imbalance that’s been building up for who knows how many months & just label it as an over-deposit from the end of the month. That way, I don’t have to look into why the bank isn’t balancing.” But no, I had it out for them, apparently.
   
3. Does she really think that calling Greg was gonna reverse my firing her? Does she really think I would do something as drastic as writing her up or firing her without discussing it with my supervisor first? Did she really think I would do this behind his back?
   

Apparently, she did, ‘cause Greg confirmed that Sally tried telling him about all the stuff I’ve been doing to her as if he didn’t know. She hung up on him when he explained that he’s been told everything as it happens & he supports this decision.
Sally: (storming back into the office & towards her desk) I’m not signing anything.
Me: Ok.
Sally begins packing up her desk. I had known she kept a lot of personal items at the office, so I had gotten a big box or 2 out & placed them nearby for her to use to pack up her desk.
Me: We can give you a box if you need it.
Sally: I don’t need sh** from you guys.
Me: The only thing we’ll need is your office key.
Sally: You’ll get it when you get it. I’m packing my desk.
Me: Ok.
I go back to work, keeping an eye on her as she packs to make sure she doesn’t take anything she’s not supposed to or damage any company property. Sally at some point decides to use the boxes she didn’t want from us to pack up her many items. She takes both boxes to the front door where her bags are & sets them down to put the last of her things in. She picks up one box to take outside.
Sally: You are the worst manager ever. (goes out the door)
Me: (shrug)
Sally: (comes back in for the final box) Seriously, you’re the most evil person I’ve ever met. (leaves)
Really? I rank worse than the guy that beat you up? I’m worse than him?
I continued watching her to see if she’s going to come back to give up her office key. As she packed up her car, another employee had arrived (we’ll call him Randy). He had run into her on the way in & asks me if Sally quit. I explained, no, she was let go. I then see that Sally has gotten behind the wheel of her car without coming back to give us the office key.
Me: Well, I guess we’ll just change the locks.
Randy then takes it upon himself to go out to her car. He phrased it very gently by saying he wanted to spare her having to come back in to turn the key in.
Sally: I guess Molly didn’t have the balls to do it herself. (hands the key over)
& then…she was gone. Despite having to do the entire corporate office’s work all by myself & falling steadily behind little by little, I have never been more happy. I had forgotten how much I loved my job & how much I couldn’t wait to get to work. I haven’t been this stress-free in 6 months, & it feels fantastic! & the great part is, I’m not really falling as far behind as I expected to without her. Having to do 2 people’s jobs by myself is only affecting me a little. Really goes to show you how bad she was for the company & for my job when she disrupted everything that much. For example, me & her would get through maybe 5 to 6 offices’ reports between us in a single day when playing catch up after closing the previous month. One day? I caught up on 10 offices’ reports in a single day. By myself.
Oh, did I mention she smoked marijuana most days on her way to work or while on her lunch break? We could never actually prove it. But, come on, you don’t smell that strongly of marijuana on only select days if you aren’t smoking it recently. If it was leftover from the smell of your house or car, you would smell like that every day. But it was only some days she would come into work or back from lunch smelling like that. Obviously, smoking on the job. So very glad to be rid of her & her awful skunk smell. Although, I do wish her well on a new job search. I don’t wish ill on anyone, ever. But I am just glad she’s no longer my problem to deal with.
(Added 2 months after she was fired): By the way, I am actually gaining on my work. I’m not only not behind on my work, I’m actually getting it done soon enough to work on extra stuff. Also, out of the blue, we’ve started getting about 3 to 4 sales & scam calls every day since Sally left (for things like better Medicare benefits, better retirement benefits, & even one time recently where “Walgreens” was calling to ask if I still had diabetes). I’m convinced Sally signed us up for calls as retaliation. I hope they die down soon, especially as they are starting to get rude. (Our response to every one of these is “Sorry, this is a business.” This one guy responded to me with, “This is my job.” I said, “I understand this is your job, but this is a business. I am not allowed to take personal calls.” He said, “Why?” I said very slowly & firmly, “Because I’m working!” He started to say, “Can you explain to me why—” I hung up. Jerk.)

I'm going to try and make this as simple as possible.
A coworker at work was attempting to date an associate at work. We have a fratenization policy which we were all made aware of. Nowhere in the fratenization policy does it state that if I am aware of it, i have to report it. I knew about it, but I didn't feel like it was my business because my coworker is an adult and I felt like he could go and tell my manager himself. My coworker kept me out of the loop either way, so I didn't want to spread misinformation and look bad and get him fired either.
Another incident where a security guard that works under me quit because he wasn't getting paid enough. I spotted him out in public wearing a different uniform, which obviously leads to to me knowing about it. I did not tell my manager either because I felt like the gaurd must've already discussed this with my manager and it's just simply none of my business. He's also a grown man, that's his decision and that's not within my power to tell someone.
Skip to today, my manager sends out a form and tries to write me up for not telling him this "vital information". The form states "I hereby agree that if I am aware of something that violates policy - " etc basically stating that if I don't rat out on people or say something, I get written up and be subject to termination.
I stated my side of things. I told him straight up that I am simply here for work. I put in my time, I work my 40 hours, I put in my statistics, and that's it. Anything that does not have to do with protecting the company from losses, has nothing to do with me. My coworker having a relationship is none of my business. The gaurd quitting and working somewhere else is none of my business. So im not signing that paper.
I find this completely unfair. Now if I were to see my coworker stealing, doing time theft, doing obvious stupid things, then yea I'd tell my manager. But little shit like that is not in my category.

So I've started a job as a baker, at a national food chain. I know from previous kitchen work, that burns are going to happen. Last month, I had a burn from the oven that looked nasty for a while, but ultimately isn't too bad.
But the other day, I was baking on my own. My team lead came in, and said the water line for the kettle was way too low. She filled it near to the top, far above the marked "Fill Line." I told her that it was too high, and she insisted it was at a good height. Mind you, she's been working for this company, for 6 years.
I've been instructed to do whatever the team lead says, and she's doner the duties of this role a lot- and for a long time.
Stupidly, I went along with it, knowing it was very wrong, but trying to respect my team lead. Well, the stem fogged up my glasses so that it was impossible to see what was happening, and for a while this had no consequences. Then I was working with denser items, and needed to dip the scoop in on lot lower, The burn was severe, and I screamed profanities (the store was not open yet).
Here's what pisses me off: She came back there to see what happened, and saw me desperately removing my glove as fast as possible. And immediately started cracking jokes. All I could hear, was "Bet you're glad that....." I remember hearing her tone, and knowing it was one of levity. She was essentially treating it as if I hit my head on something hanging overhead- like something one-off, and not at all serious. When I turned around, she was smiling as if she was waiting for me to laugh at her joke, and be equally amused.
So when I said- rather angrily- "Now is not the time for banter! I'm not going to laugh at something, while I'm hurt. You need to leave me alone, until I calm down." And I was definitely yelling- think physiological response says BIG MAD, while not actually bein mad at the person.
It wasn't until the end of the day, that she mentioned the burn cream in the first aid kit.
After going home, I sent a photo of the injury to my doctor, and she prescribed a cream that is apparently made to prevent sepsis in 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The skin had melted off the area, there was pus all over the burn. (After using the cream, it's finally scabbed over now. Took 2 days to get there.)
I'm pissed that she insisted on unsafe working conditions. I feel like an idiot, for not refusing to work with what was clearly a dangerous situation (I did afterward). But more than anything, I'm pissed off that a 60+ year old Team Lead, jist stood there smiling and cracking jokes, while I was literally screaming in pain. Not for a single moment, did she think about the conditions she was insisting on. Not for a second, did she think I could really be hurt. Not for a second, did she think to offer the damn burn cream in the moment.
Not for a second, did this woman show basic empathy. Then she tried to write it off as me being stressed.
Am I crazy here?

About a month ago, my mom asked my younger sibling to let my sister live with them in their 1 bedroom apt and work down there to get some job experience.They said they couldn't cause their friend was already living with them as well as their combined 1 dog and 2 cats. So it deferred to me. I asked why they wanted her out the house so bad and it turned out my stepfather was coming home on leave then retirement in July/Aug.
Now, my stepfather is a piece of shit. He verbally abuses my mother, my sibling and myself and physically abused my sister due to her being "a problem child" in my highschool years. Things such as Military PT, standing in a corner for 5+hours, and writing over 100 pages front to back of lines. My sibling and I also got some of this but nothing as bad as my sister. My sister reasonably is terrified of this man and the few times he's come to visit, she refuses to leave her room and will wait til he's asleep or out the house to even grab food and drinks.
He is not aware that she is trans (most of our family doesn't know) but she's grown out her hair and dresses a bit more feminine when she feels comfortable. My stepfather is a highly conservative person who on several occasions has said my mom is a terrible mother cause all her children are gay/trans/nonbinary and it was somehow her fault.
Now to the part that might make me the asshole, I haven't said no yet but I'm worried about a few things.

1. My sister can not drive so she can't get herself to work, (The town we live in is mostly highways and since she's autistic and highly antisocial, working at the restaurant closest to our house isn't the best option) so we would have to drive her.
   
2. We would have to choose between a living space and our gaming setups. We chose this space due to the amount of stuff we have and to have a comfortable space to live in. Having to get rid of my art workspace in the dining room area or his vr setup to give the other room to my sister seems unfair to us.
   

I feel like we are unreasonably having to compromise our comfortability for my mom to stay with a shitty human being. We have talked with her on multiple occasions asking why, if she knows that man makes her children uncomfortable, is she willing to stay with him? Her response is always that she still loves him or he isn't that bad or "[Sister] can just such it up". I want to make it clear if anything happened to my sister while he was there I would immediately go get her to let her crash at my place for a bit. I never want her to be unsafe.
I don't really have any friends due to moving around alot and everyone I know is emotionally invested in this conflict. I have been told I'm being selfish and an asshole for not immediately saying yes and moving her in right away. But I'm also being told it isn't my responsibility to take care of my sister, it's my mom's responsibility.
Please any advice will be greatly appreciated. AITA?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a side smoothing bra? I find mu bras just roll up/crease as I move about and ruin the lines of my top.

As I look through many different posts in this forum, I can't help but notice a recurring theme where people are saying that the 2024 Pats defense will "take a step back" because "Bill the GOAT" is gone, and this honestly does not make sense to me at all.
Don't get me wrong, that 2023 defense was a very good unit without doubt (fewest yards allowed per rush attempt in the league), but they were still prone to making dumb/costly mistakes and had bad performances that a supposed "elite" defense SHOULD NOT be putting out. Please bear with me as I list all the 2023 games and what went (or didn't go) wrong for the defense in those games;
Eagles Week 1 - No complaints here, they played GREAT against the defending NFC champs, they just got unlucky with the Slay pick-six, Zeke fumbling away short field position to set up the Eagles only touchdown, and Jake Elliott nailing all 4 of his LONG field goals. Dolphins Week 2 - Defense did a solid, not good job limiting Tua and the passing game, but proceeded to let Mostert BULLY them on the ground by allowing 120+ yards on just 18 carries and 2 TDs. Jets Week 3 - Again, no real big complaints. A wet, miserable game where both offenses struggled and both defenses had field days, plus Judon got a safety. Although Dugger almost ruined everything on that final hail mary when he swatted the ball RIGHT TO R. Cobb, who thankfully slipped on the turf and couldn't get it. Cowboys Week 4 - A game we all want to forget about. I really don't remember anything about the defense in this game other than that they allowed 17 points and both Judon and Gonzalez got hurt. I'm sure there were ACTUAL defensive lowlights from that game but it's not worth going back and looking. Saints Week 5 - The other HORRIBLE game we'd all love to wipe from our memory. Only thing worth noting is that the defense struggled WAY MORE against both the pass and run in this game than they did against the Cowboys for some reason. Raiders Week 6 - Raiders rookie tight end Michael Mayer would end his rookie season with 304 receiving yards, he had nearly a third of that total in THIS GAME ALONE. On all 5 of his catches, there wasn't a single defender within like 15 yards of him, enough said with that crap. Bills Week 7 - We can all probably agree that this was our favorite game of the season, and while the defense did good, it still isn't safe, because they allowed that flukey Diggs touchdown where Jackson and Bryant failed miserably to tackle him and allowed that 4th down conversion near the end that eventually allowed Buffalo to score the go-ahead touchdown before the Pats game-winning drive. Dolphins Week 8 - Abysmal officiating aside, the defense allowed every 4th down Miami attempted to be converted as well as those 2 big wide-open touchdown passes, the one to Hill is slightly embarrassing, but the one to Waddle is pathetic and totally inexcusable. Commanders Week 9 - Within the 2-minute warning of the first half, Commanders had the ball at midfield on 3rd and 23 and the Pats defense had a chance to get the offense the ball back to potentially add to the lead the Pats had before halftime, but they proceeded to CHOKE HARD by allowing Howell to SCRAMBLE for a first down, keeping the ball in the hands of the Commies, and while they would force an interception in the endzone, it was too late at that point to try and get points. They also (along with special teams) kept committing stupid penalties that took away time of possession. Colts Week 10 - The first of a 3-game stretch where because the other team couldn't score more than 10, everyone was convinced that the Pats defense was "elite", when in actuality it was more of complete ineptitude displayed by the opposing team's offenses. In this game, Gardner Minshew wasn't sacked ONCE, and if I recall correctly he was only pressured or hit one time by Barmore and that was it. This failure to bring down the QB allowed Minshew to tear the Pats weak AF secondary a new one at least a couple of times. Additionally, this has nothing to do with the defense, but at one point Bill stupidly had the punt team do an all-out blitz in an attempt to block a punt, which failed because it ended up being a good punt with no return man on the field to get it, costing them lots of field position. Giants Week 12 - The Giants won 3 straight games with undrafted QB Tommy Devito as the starter. He had a 100+ passer rating in all of those games, where he went against the ATROCIOUS defenses of Washington and Green Bay, and the "elite" defense of New England. I know the Pats offense was trash in that game, but if the defense still allows Devito to have a good performance SOMEWHAT similar to the one he had against the Commanders league-worst defense, that is a problem. Chargers Week 13 - The final game where the final score is deceiving as hell. The Pats rushing defense was unstoppable without question, but the passing defense was lowkey BAD. The secondary got very lucky when Herbert's receivers dropped 4 or 5 great passes from him. Herbert very well could have had over 300 yards passing that day if those drops didn't happen. Again, 6-0 is more telling of the bad offense from both teams as opposed to good defense. Steelers Week 14 - Not too much to say. They played against Trubisky, and limited him to less than 200 yards passing, picked him off and held VERY strong in the red zone, although they almost blew it at the end. Chiefs Week 15 - Intercepting Mahomes twice in the same game is certainly something to be proud about, but he still threw for over 300+ yards when the entire Chiefs offense was a chaotic mess at that point. Broncos Week 16 - I was already a fan of Barmore, but he played GODLY in this game. With 3 sacks in a single quarter and pretty much singlehandedly preventing the Broncos from scoring at the 1 after Zappe immediately fumbled at the start made me love the man even more. However, the defense still allowed the Broncos to come back from a double-digit deficit near the end, but still held strong for the win. Bills Week 17 - The defense was basically set up to fail 3 times in a row when Zappe threw those horrible picks, giving up extremely short field position and a free 6 points to Douglas. Credit to the defense though, the only RZ touchdowns they allowed were the 2 Allen tush pushes, but they still gave up that deep ball to Kincaid. Jets Week 18 - The dreadful snow game where the defense had absolutely no answer for Breece Hall, but honestly, who even cared at that point?
Two other things that contradict the defense being "elite" in 2023 was that one, they didn't score a single defensive touchdown all year long, and two, they had maybe the 6th or 7th fewest forced turnovers in the league, which honestly doesn't sound elite to me.
With all this being said, I genuinely don't see a reason to think the defense will regress next year just because Bill is no longer coaching. The defense's strongest units in 2023, by far, were the linebackers and the line. Who coached those units? Mayo and Covington. Who is the new head coach and new defensive coordinator? Mayo and Covington. So the defense will still be very strong in those areas, mix that in with Judon and Gonzo returning (and hopefully staying healthy), Barmore developing into a star, and Pepper and Dugger finding rhythm as one of the best safety duos in the league, I'd say, if anything, the defense will AT LEAST be just as good as it was last season, and we as a fanbase should be VERY OPTIMISTIC for what the defense can do next year.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

Mikan has a habit of pondering many things while waiting for her mother to use the restroom. It is not aimless daydreaming, but rather akin to how some people would keep different books by their bedside, toilet, and office. Mikan always use this time to think about light but continuous things. Typically, she'd spend three to five minutes, with the first minute warming up, recalling where she left off in the book from the last time, then staring at her nails, progressing her thoughts bit by bit.
She developed this habit during her first visit to the zoo. That spring, she graduated from kindergarten, and before leaving the house, her mother was in front of the mirror, adjusting Mikan’s elementary school uniform. The zoo was on a seaside cliff, connected to the foot of the mountain by a narrow path lined with cherry blossoms. Children of all ages sat on the steps, waiting for a gust of wind to blow so they could shout for their mothers to take pictures. Mikan buried her head and walked up, thinking the others were childish. At that time, her father was still young; his neck had not yet thickened, and his eyelids had not drooped. When they left, she asked her mother who the strange uncle was, the one who knew so much about giraffes. She couldn’t remember how her mother answered, but she remembered seeing a kitten lying on the hillside, showing its belly to the sunset, making her exclaim "wow" to the cherry blossoms. From that day on, one weekend a month, she would go to the zoo with her mother to meet her father. During the time her mother was in the restroom, Mikan used it to think about the kitten. She had imagined raising three kittens: the first was tortoiseshell, then an orange one like her surname, and the latest was another tortoiseshell. Each cat lived for twelve years, and she thought about the world and herself thirty-six years later.
She didn’t always think about cats. Occasionally, when she didn’t go with her mother, she would talk with her classmates about how they envied the animals in the zoo, like gorillas and hyenas. Although there were no lions or tigers, there were lynxes. They looked so ugly, walking on all fours all their lives, but they were lucky to live by the sea and enjoy the sea breeze for a lifetime. The crude boys in her class would retort, saying, "Yeah, yeah, they can even poop directly into the sea."
After graduation, she never saw that boy again. All the boys would go to Tokyo when they were young; that was the rule. Only when they were old and decrepit would they be reluctantly sent back by the younger ones. But she often thought about that classmate. By the time she raised her third cat, he might have come back. When she saw the sea again, the image of a smooth butt hanging over the cliff came to mind. When she got into Waseda University, she told her mother that she might consider marrying that classmate.
When Mikan was little, she secretly asked her father how he fell in love with her mother. The primate area always had a strange smell, between animal and human. Her mother didn’t like the smell, standing five meters away near the door for ventilation (they couldn’t go further in because they were not allowed to meet outside the guardian’s sight; that was the rule). She didn’t remember what her father said, but she remembered pressing her hand against the glass, with an orangutan looking at her disdainfully. She felt like she was the one being watched. But her father must have said something, without hesitation, as if talking about a daily matter. It was too mundane, overshadowed by the contemptuous orangutan in her memory.
Influenced by her mother, Mikan also didn’t like the smell of the primate area. It wasn’t that it was unpleasant; it was like touching the residual warmth of someone who just left their seat, the mixed smell of decaying wood and butter in old temples, awkward and cautious. The only chance she almost had to be alone with that classmate was during a field trip. Both happened to be lingering at the entrance of the primate area. Mikan was there first, then the boy appeared behind her, peeking around. The introduction at the entrance had been scanned five or six times. Inside, the darkness reminded Mikan of the anteater’s mouth she had just seen. The boy asked, “Are you afraid to go in?” Mikan replied, “Of course not.” The boy retorted, “Coward, the teacher said not to wander off; you definitely won’t dare.” Mikan suddenly felt annoyed and walked in. When she reached the orangutan’s window and looked back, the boy had already disappeared. Mikan thought, childish.
One summer, a cat sneaked into the zoo and was brutally tortured by baboons before being killed. Mikan learned about it from the morning paper, crumbs scattered on it. The front page was about US-Japan trade friction, followed by news about Tokyo, Syria, obituaries, nuclear, and the next Olympics’ sailing event being held on the local beach. The news was arranged from far to near, and finally, in the middle column, she saw this news.
"Such a pity, so sad, so heartbreaking, so infuriating." She inhaled deeply and exhaled.
She didn’t know what this incident meant for the townspeople. Didn’t the middle column mean it was unimportant? She didn’t understand, but the townspeople seemed outraged, eventually passing a resolution to lower the male zoo supervision age to fourteen. The next day, this proposal moved to the front page, although not the headline, it stood alongside news from the US and Europe.
But this wasn’t a distant matter for her. Recently, she had joined the baseball team because that boy also loved baseball. At a celebration party, when discussing future high schools, he talked eagerly about a famous school in Tokyo, jokingly preparing for life there. Everyone laughed at this joke.
The front-page news explained the lawmakers' logic: due to men’s violence and animalistic nature, our country decided to confine men in zoos years ago, something we have always been proud of. Over the years, many outstanding women have joined the country to restrain their husbands' potential harm to the world. But our solution isn’t perfect. When does a child become a man? The radicals believe it’s at adulthood, at twenty, the legal marriage age. Conservatives argue that maleness is in the chromosomes and should be separated at the hospital. The incident with the baboons harming the cat further proves the harm of violence and animality to civilization. We should be more cautious and responsible. Thus, in our town, the second sex characteristic is used as the basis for identifying males.
This event was written into textbooks, leading to significant zoo renovations. Besides old mothers bringing their children to see their fathers, the zoo now provided spaces for the new generation of women to date their boyfriends in the park. For the town’s zoo, this room added at the end of the primate area, with rain hitting the iron roof, animal calls (and conversations from the men’s park) and the sound of waves hitting the cliffs, seemed far from a suitable place for romance. Mikan had never been there.
She never saw that boy again, though he didn’t play baseball. He likely lived the life he joked about, pooping off the cliff.
When her mother came out of the restroom, Mikan was imagining holding the tortoiseshell cat that had just died. She remembered her father saying that the zoo’s most famous animal was a giraffe, but it was a specimen, transported from Tokyo Zoo, always standing in the most conspicuous place. He saw it every morning as if it were still alive. She asked if he would become a specimen too, but she couldn’t remember his answer (she always remembered her questions but not others’ answers).

I've just moved to the US into a 9-yo home in the upper midwest. (Obligatory *sigh* about prices). It has zero automation, not even a doorbell -- totally stock. Home networking will be 100% Unifi . Before I waste any (more) money I wanted to throw this to the hivemind. :)
In my previous home I've been using Homeassistant about four years with almost everything automated - lights, garage doors, watering systems, hvac, solar+battery, humidity/extractor fans. Largely using a combination of Philips Hue recessed lights, bulbs, fixtures and sensors as well as Shelly and ESPhome for switching devices. I previously used Shelly bulbs & sensors but their failure rates, battery life and firmware updates were a pain.
Far and beyond the best outcome was automating lights in every room via Hue (two hubs cause Google v Apple and 60 devices) and Adaptive Lighting. I had direct z2mqtt & zha in use before, but I found keeping firmware up to date was a pain, hence the move back to the hubs. I don't like the complexity of the hubs, even though with local control it's fast enough.
Question is what are others using who've done whole-house Adaptive Lighting setups? Reliable alternatives to Hue for lights and sensors? Green > Pi?
Thanks!