I had my next door arrested and charged with Communicating Threats and Threatening to Do Bodily Harm last week. I have Pitbull who is my service dog. Now my dog is also registered with the NC Dept of Health and Human Services [it’s not a requirement it is a service offered y the state of NC].
One day about a month ago my neighbor made a complaint to our local Animal Control starting my service dog was tormenting and terrorizing her kids. Now, the doorbell video shows my dog simply staring in the direction of her home. The dog was not barking or even moving. She was simply just standing in my yard. Her kids are scared of dogs. However, just because they’re scared of dogs doesn’t mean my dog is dangerous or vicious.
So on 5/9/24 my son had traveled from VA to NC for my daughter’s college graduation. Of course my dog was ecstatic to see him and she showed it. In an effort to prevent any shananigans I told my son to bring the dog inside my office. I told him that if he comes inside then so will the dog. Be mindful, my dog was on the separate porch which leads into my home office. I then continued to talk with my sister via FaceTime. Next thing I know my neighbor comes outside of her residence and starts making threats and because she appeared to be facing her door I thought she was talking g to someone on her own residence. Not wanting to get caught in any crossfire I stepped back inside my office and continued talking to my sister via FaceTime.
I didn’t even see my husband step outside because he was sleeping in the master bedroom which is located towards the back of the house. It wasn’t until I heard him saying “she was talking on the phone to my sister in law” that I realized he was attempting to justify my words to the neighbor. That’s when I I exploded. [O feel as if I was justified because there was no reason for her to exit her residence to start saying anything to me]. Apparently, her bestie with the botched BBL had hyped her up [ you can see her besties black vehicle in the lower end of the right side of the video].
I was baffled as to where this sudden burst of courage came from as the neighbor had JUST walked past me with her head down and mouth shut about 30 minutes prior to this incident. In celebration of my daughter’s graduation I had been outside on my porch since about 10:00am making shirts for the family and other gifts.
So, knowing she’s kind of lose with her firearm and she now had gotten some courage only when someone else was around, I swore out the criminal complaints. The last thing I want or need is for her to get another burst of courage when she had company. I don’t have any family or friends here. I don’t roll with groups or anything g to the such. Finally, in the event I am forced into a position where I’ve gotta use my firearm in self defense, I felt the need to take all precautions available to me.
So, I swore out the criminal complaints and the local PD showed up yesterday. She was arrested and placed in the squad car in front of her kids, grandkids, and rest of her company. I’ve even taken and blocked the entrance to my side porch with a shower curtain and my expensive dog bed. I figured that if she can’t see me, then that lowers the chance of hostility but it also blocks my Emergency Access Entrance for EMS in the event I have a seizure. It also blocks access to my mailbox. I now have a makeshift mailbox until I find a better solution.
AITA ??????d
Instigated Altercation Video

For context: I've beaten the Manticore, have all tools and not on the 58 eggs.
So, I've located a chest in this room, it's one of the kangaroo rooms, located to the right (on the same level) of the kangaroo-shaped room unlocked by shards. The chest is in the dark area, right of the lowest red platform. I've tried everything, so after some time I've thought that maybe it opens by guiding a large ghost dog through it. It didn't work and I've died to the main dog in the process of trying everything.
Now every time I'm entering this room a small ghost dog appears, however it stays in the room. I've tried to restart, same thing, so either it's a serious bug or intended puzzle.
So, I have 3 questions, latter two will be hidden to not accidentally spoil the solution: 1) Is that a bug or it's supposed to be this way? 2) >! If it's a puzzle, does the solution involve the flute and dog's directions? !< 3) >! Is that chest even connected to this room? !<

Hello, my uncle is currently in the ICU. He’s had cancer twice in the last two years, and the radiation has done a number on his throat. Last week he was admitted to the hospital because he could no longer swallow anything. Then Friday night he had a stroke and they had to do surgery twice with the second one putting a stent on his brain to prevent further clotting. The doctors say he will most likely be wheelchair bound for sometime after he’s out of the hospital and into rehab. We are still not sure about what the future looks like for him, but he currently has a house that is absolutely not hospitable. We are looking to sell the house and figure out a solution for his dog. He has no children, just me (his niece) and his sister (my aunt) and her husband. He is in his late 60s, and his dog who is currently at his house is 8 I believe. I live in an apartment so I cannot take him no matter how much I want to, and my aunt has told me she cannot handle her brothers affairs and take care of her own stuff on top of a dog. With this brief backstory, I am wondering if anybody at all has experienced a similar situation and would have any advice on what to do about his dog. I am looking for some kind soul to temporarily home this poor dog that has had experience doing so in the past. He is a very regimented and spoiled mix (bulldog, boxer, bully mix) He is very set in his ways since my uncle lets him do whatever he wants. I am afraid at the potential of him being aggressive if he’s left with someone he doesn’t know but I never know what to expect from him. His name is Rux and he is as unique as his name lol. He does not do well around other dogs since he was not socialized around other dogs. My uncle did have an old pitbull when he got Rux as a pup. Rux just doesn’t know when to leave other dogs alone and never seems to learn his lesson. (He expects to get his way always lol) I have more insight into his temperament and typical lazy and sweet demeanor if anyone has more questions. Thank you in advance <3

Me (19 male) and my fiancé (21 male) have been together for many years know each other for like 8. We’ve been engaged for almost a year, we are supposed to marry this fall. He has been engaged before to another man who I will call tony. Tony dumped my fiancé who I will call John, three days before there wedding and still has johns stuff to this day.
Occasionally me and John will go to Tony’s to get whatever tony found of johns and it’s very uncomfortable for me. Tony will often make moves on John when I’m not in the room and at every opportunity he can get.
I’ve talked to John about this and we’ve come to the solution that when we are over there I will just follow John wherever he goes to avoid any conflict with tony.
Today I decided I would go to my moms for lunch and let John sleep as he works nights, I was eating in the kitchen of our home and over heard him in the phone with Tony. I went into the living room to see what was up and he invited him over to bring some stuff he found. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem however. I wasn’t asked, John wants to have a play date with the dogs, and I won’t be there to stop any moves tony try’s to make. Let me be clear. If John had let me know before hand and only let him come to give the stuff he found back, I would be okay with this. But with the dog factor, it’s going to be a longer visit that will be unsupervised.
I’m aware that John is an adult and capable of making good judgment but tony is so unpredictable. He once asked for a hot and tried kissing John while hugging him. As soon as I found out he was coming I grabbed my keys alert for my moms.
I feel like this shouldn’t be a big deal and that I should trust him but my gut is just not okay with it. I feel panicked and sick. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do. I haven’t told him how I feel about this situation yet because I know I’m just going to blow up.
I’m currently writing this at my moms house. What should I do? Should I even be worried?

Problems With Dog GPS Trackers - 5 Every Pet Owner Should Know!

Are you a dog owner considering a GPS tracker for your furry friend? Pause for a moment. While these devices promise safety and peace of mind, they're not without problems. Let's delve into the realities of dog GPS trackers. You may face issues ranging from accuracy limitations in urban and indoor areas to their reliance on inconsistent cellular coverage. Battery life can be disappointingly short, and the size or weight might make your pet uncomfortable. Not to mention, the ongoing costs and potential for device failure add another layer of complication. In this article, we'll explore these five common problems, offering you a complete picture before you make your decision.
https://www.trackingsystemdirect.com/dog-gps-tracker-reviews/

Dog GPS Tracker Have Issues With Cellular Dependence

Many dog GPS trackers rely on cellular networks to transmit the location data back to the owner's device. This means that if your pet wanders into an area with poor or no cellular coverage, you may not be able to track your pet's whereabouts. And there can be nothing worse than that for a pet owner. The truth is, pet tracking devices do not use GPS technology to transmit data - they use cellular data. And in conditions where cell coverage is weak, this can result in your pet tracker failing to update location. Woof!

Battery Life Concerns: A Persistent Dog GPS Tracking Problem

Another crucial problem with GPS trackers is battery life. The more frequently the tracker updates your pet's location, the faster it will drain the battery. While some high-end models may last up to a week, others might need to be recharged every few days. This short battery life can be a problem if your pet goes missing for an extended period.

Size and Weight Issues: A Potential Problem With Pet GPS Trackers

GPS trackers can be bulky and heavy for smaller pets. The device needs to be large enough to house a GPS receiver, a battery, and other necessary components, which may cause discomfort for smaller dogs or cats. Manufacturers are working to make these devices lighter and more comfortable, but size and weight remain a concern.

The Cost Factor: An Ongoing Subscription Fees With Dog & Cat GPS Trackers

Pet GPS trackers can be quite expensive, especially when you consider the ongoing costs. The device itself can cost anywhere from $50 to several hundred dollars, depending on its features. In addition, many services require a monthly subscription fee for cellular data usage. This cost can add up over time and may be prohibitive for some pet owners.

Malfunction and Damage: The Hidden Problem With Dog GPS

Like any electronic device, GPS locators are susceptible to malfunctions and damage. A tracker could stop working due to software glitches, hardware failure, or even physical damage if your dog is particularly active or rough. If your pet loves swimming or gets caught in a downpour, water damage could be an issue unless the device is waterproof. This is crucial if pet safety is a priority for you. Thus, despite your investment, you may find yourself without the tracking capabilities when you need them most due to unforeseen device failures or damage. Always consider the durability and warranty of the GPS tracker when purchasing.
In conclusion, while GPS tracking collars offer a potential solution for pet owners concerned about their furry friends' safety, there are several key problems to consider. One significant challenge is the limited battery life of small real-time devices, requiring frequent recharging to maintain functionality. Additionally, pet tracking devices heavily rely on cellular technology, which can be unreliable in areas with weak or non-existent coverage, hindering the ability to access real-time data. It's crucial for pet owners to be aware of these limitations and to supplement GPS tracking with other measures such as updated contact information and microchipping. Protecting your pet's safety goes beyond relying solely on technology.

We have a privacy fence in our backyard, but they have a porch with a windowed door, that overlooks our backyard. Well for entire time they've lived there, 3/4 years I've felt like they watch me while I'm outside. Not always, but you know the feeling...
Today as I'm outside playing with my toddler in our backyard, I feel eyes yet again, and I look up to see a little bump at the bottom of the window on their door. So I waved, I felt sick when after their older teenager stands up, and runs away from the window. What the heck?!
I didn't call the police, and it seems like its too late to now? I have been emailing the chief, also our code enforcer.. Honestly I hate complaining, but even more everything these people have been putting us through.
They have 2 large dogs, and have never cleaned up after them. They share a backyard area with us so it stinks. Last year I called Central dispatch a lot, and they no longer leave their dogs out for hours barking. They won't listen to us, they lied to me once, and retreated when I confronted them on not letting their dog bark at us when we're in the backyard. I just feel very weird about it all. (P.S. I have 3 dogs, clean up after them daily, and curb their barking!)
I'm not wanting to go into all of the specifics of what these people have done, and continue to do, but what is the best course of action with people like this?? I'm thinking a few tall metal trellises, but are there any other quick solutions 10ft or so that would work until I can grow some privacy trees.

I am F16, my ex is M18. loved my ex. I want to get that out of the way. He wasn't conventionally attractive, but I thought he looked nice and was a wonderful person. He was autistic and had adhd, which made some stuff challenging, but I loved him and was willing to deal with it, since I myself had BPD and he was willing to deal with it (or so he said). Do note this relationship was long distance.
I knew him for four years before we dated. We didn't talk much for a year or so, before dating. I had gotten out of a relationship, a little after we had reconnected. I didn't want to date again for at least a year, but he was kind to me and we talked quite often. I started to fall for him, but he told me he was aromantic so I never pursued.
We jokingly would flirt though, and spend a lot of time talking together. One day he told me he might be demiromantic, not aromantic, because he felt something for me. I talked more with him after that, about relationship type things. Eventually I confessed, and then a while later, he confessed back to me. When we started dating, we agreed on certain things. He didn't know if he loved me romantically, but he was happy to engage in romantic behaviors and he felt some type of love for me. I was okay with this. I made him aware of what my BPD looked like, he said he was okay with that too.
For the beginning of the relationship, the first few months, it was lovely and we enjoyed each other's company (at least I thought we did). Rough patches were smoothed over pretty easily. Eventually, behaviors I have from BPD, specifically being easily triggered to react emotionally, became more prevalent. There was a point where he wanted to break up with me, then after a conversation, decided to let me try and resolve the behavior. I did try, I tried very hard.
I think I probably should have let it go, though. After this event, he began to tell his friends and family about all our dramas. Probably a red flag, since I only spoke to one person (my best friend) and never painted him negatively, though his family hates me now so he must have. We met a month after this, and it was the best five days I ever had. I felt loved, we got along well (I thought, Ill touch on this later). A month later, he begins online college. Okay, cool. Great. I was happy for him.
He told me it wouldn't affect our relationship, and at first it didn't, but eventually he stopped doing it in a timely manner and would fail to achieve commitments he had said he would do. Every day I would ask if we planned to call, I would've been fine with a yes or no. He always said yes, but often wouldn't keep the commitment. At first I handled it just fine, but eventually it became upsetting.
I'm a busy person, and I'm not free during my day until evening. He's free most of his days, almost constantly. I would do my best to be available at our designated time, and would feel hurt (and eventually react as such) when he wouldn't. Especially when he started to put off his schoolwork to hang out with his friends, often after having said we would talk later that day too. I brought this up to him, I want to say. I told him if he wanted time to himself, he could tell me how long he wanted and I would give it to him. He never did tell me, but he often would tell me that when I was awake he never felt free. He would stay up very late because that was the only time he felt free. He said he was always worried I would need him, so I guess there was a red flag in that too.
Touching back on the meeting him in person thing. He has a large family, and his family has a small farm with livestock dogs on it. His younger siblings were very interested in me, since I was a new person, and they wanted to hang out with me. I also love dogs, and have always wanted one, so I spent some time with the dogs out on the farm. I would invite him to play with his siblings with me, or go see the dog. I slept six hours a night for those five days, and would be with him for 16-17 hours a day. We would go out places and talk, and I would spend maybe two or three of those hours at the most around his siblings/the dog.
Later on, after we went on our break (I'll talk about this too, later) he said to me that he felt I wanted to make an impression on his siblings more than I did with him, and that we were at different points in our lives because I still wanted to have fun and play around (I want to reiterate that his siblings would seek me out). He told me he wanted us to have spent more time just laying around and cuddling, rather than going out to so many places, but never said this to me while we were together in person. I invited his oldest sister to come with us to a place (before asking him), though I told her I would need him to agree before we finalized anything, and then asked him after. He didn't like that.
Now, before I get into the last section of this, I want to establish that he was very kind to me (usually). We bought each other gifts, spent time together, made plans, and all of that stuff. He made me happy, I thought I made him happy too.
In our relationship, we both failed to communicate, and I would fail to discuss things calmly, letting my emotions get the best of me. I wouldn't leave him alone very often, wouldn't let him do stuff away from me very often. I loved being around him, but he wanted time apart and I tended not to give that to him. I should have. This was his first relationship that he wanted to last, but his second relationship in total. I've had many more before this, but this was the only one I really felt commitment to. We talked about marrying, about buying a house, about pets and family. I feel as if we did everything right, or at least he did. I was the emotional one, who wanted too much. I know it was mainly my fault.
When we went on break, it was because I couldn't take it anymore and lost my cool. He'd promised we could talk that night, I was extremely vulnerable emotionally because of something with my family. He failed to finish his work on time, told me he needed another two hours. I snapped. I went down the list of "everything I hate about you (him)". I told him most of the stuff I'm saying here, and some others.

• I hate how you never take my advice
• I hate how you ask me to help you stay on track but never listen to me
• I hate how you get upset with me easily, but never do with any of your friends Etc.

We talked after that, he acted pretty normal. The next day he dropped that on me, despite saying the night before that he wanted to be there for us to both improve.
I started therapy after that, I started trying to find ways to work around all my issues while he continued his typical daily routine. I didn't mind. He initiated flirting with me, and other stuff, that I reciprocated and went along with because I loved him and I still love him even now, and it was all my fault even if I know it wasn't all my fault it feels like it was all my fault. He said he never wants to speak to me again, blocked me, all of it.
During our break, I tried confronting our problems and finding solutions. He dropped several bombs on me, that make me feel rather insecure even now about whether he ever liked me for me or just because of other physical (you know what I mean) attributes, bring that that was all he would really comment on positively.
He told me he never loved me, and never likes me.
Now, what led to the final actual break up, was that I have been planning with another friend to move to Salt Lake City for actual years. He wanted to be part of it, and so did another friend. My household situation isn't great, won't go into too many details but I have been having stress reactions since many years ago, that have been getting steadily worse. I wanted to move out at 18, I'm almost 17. I've been kind of panicking about all of this, and yesterday I snapped (sort of). The conversation with him went sort of like this:

• I tell him he and the other two won't enjoy the talk we'll have Monday
• He asks why
• I said "you guys probably just wont"
• He tells me I'm being defeatist
• I tell him I'm not, then give more details on the conversation. He and the other two are 18, 18, and 20. Two of them come from well-off families. I felt frustrated that neither of them, especially him, work yet or have been trying to even get their driver's license. I intend to skip two years of high-school to take my GED and start working because I don't have another choice. They have choices, and I don't. I wanted to get this point across.

I go on further to say he and the other person's view of maturity is narrow-minded and flawed. A while later he tells me he no longer wants to be involved with me or anything to do with me, after talking to other people and getting their opinions.
Tl;Dr, had a relationship with someone I really liked, I feel like I'm to blame for the collapse of it. He had autism/adhd, I had BPD, we went on break so I could try to fix my problems (he said he would too but it didn't really feel much like he was), and then broke up because I confronted him (albeit poorly) about how I felt he and another person treated the future they wanted to be involved in. There were a lot of things that hurt me really badly in the relationship, but I think I hurt him worse. AITAH?

It was half past nine when my shift at the diner ended. It’s not any place specifically you’d know, though you’d be forgiven for confusing it for a Waffle House given the abundance of cheap, greasy food and drunk clientele. The only thing distinguishing our location was that our doors closed at ten.
It was a cold night in October. The winds felt out of place for the fall season with the sharp way they bit into my skin. Usually, the low temperatures in Grant tended to hover around the mid-fifties. Tonight felt particularly frigid even bundled up in the warm confines of my jacket.
I hurried through the lot outside the diner, passing by several vehicles. When I made it to my car at the far end, I was quick to put the key in the ignition.
My car was a special edition Subaru Legacy. The only thing special about it was that it was only by the grace of God that my radiator and engine were still operational given the car was a little over two decades old.
When you turn the key, the engine would knock. My father said it was indicative of worn-out bearings. Could be an engine getting ready to declare sayonara before it crapped out one final time and departed for car heaven or perhaps car hell given its rough condition.
I knew little about that though; all I knew was that as a poor college student I was having a difficult enough time as is scrambling to make ends meet with a part time job at a diner. Regardless, whatever the solution, the answer involved money. Money I, notably, didn’t have.
The smart thing to do would be to purchase another used car; though in this economy that sort of thing is far easier said than done.
An even harder task than figuring out the financing for a replacement vehicle was getting this stubborn thing to turn. The engine threatened to exhibit life but would stop short of properly starting.
It was about the fifth round when my engine found the energy to fight the good fight on this frigid night. The engine knocked fiercely, reverberating inside the hood for a few seconds before the noise steadied itself.
I sighed in relief and backed out of my parking spot in the back of the lot.
As I left, I couldn’t help but notice something out of the corner of my eye. A man, a very rugged specimen of the male sex adorning a blue baseball cap and a grizzly beard, was approaching my vehicle at a brisk pace. Where I was the only one stationed at the back of the lot, it seemed odd he was coming my way.
I turned my head to acknowledge him. That’s when he began to break out into a full-on run.
My heart raced almost as fast as my car. I slammed the pedal down and sped out of the lot, the tires screeched loudly along the pavement as I veered to a sharp right.
​
I was lucky the road didn’t carry heavy traffic around this time of night. Where my eyes were focused on him, I was damn near lucky I hadn’t plowed directly into someone.
I sped along the highway and tried to rationalize why this lumberjack looking fellow had charged me. News reports of human trafficking came to mind, but it wasn’t really anything you heard much about in a place as remote as Grant Alabama.
For crying out loud, we physically were so remote one of the miniature cities within Grant was called Bucksnort. We were about as far from the Big Apple, or any real semblance of civilization, one could get.
After a minute of driving, I slowed down, especially when I heard something in the engine rattle. This car wasn’t designed for no races or wild chases. Not with the amount of age it carried.
Besides, I was alone. Safe.
At least that’s what I thought before I heard the blaring of a truck horn. An eighteen-wheeler was coming up behind me. Given I was the only other soul visible on this lonely two lane stretch of highway, it was clear they were honking at me.
I prayed to God and kept moving.
The big rig followed closely. We went down the road for two miles when suddenly my vision was obscured in a bright light.
The trucker was flashing his high beams. I could barely see when he hit me with them. I nearly swerved off the road when he did it.
After a few seconds the mounted flood lights on his vehicle relented and the blinding rays ceased their assault on my eyes.
I moved my car to the right lane to let him pass. He had no intention of doing so. His signal made that clear when he merged behind me.
Drops of rain began to pour from the sky lightly tapping my windshield.
Plop…plop, plop…plop.
My car didn’t handle well with slick roads. Fortunately, I wasn’t too far from home. Maybe another seven miles.
The fiery orange glow flooded the cabin of my car and I yelped.
I fumbled in my purse. One hand on the wheel, one digging desperately for my phone. With my visibility being periodically robbed, I was already a hazard on the road. Might as well risk compounding the issue if it meant I could get in contact with the police.
When the high beams vanished, I managed to pull out my phone and dial 911.
​
The operator answered after two rings. “911, what’s your emergency?” The man that answered the call sounded bored out of his mind, like he’d rather be anywhere else on a Saturday night.
I didn’t care if he was bored, entertained, playing with himself. As long as he could send someone out that’s all I cared about in the end.
“There’s a maniac tailgating me,” I said.
The operator’s voice clipped. Though from what I could understand of the roboticized sound coming out from his end of the line, I could tell from his tone he remained unenthused. “Ma’am, you’ve called an emergency line.”
​
“Y-you don’t understand! I was leaving work and this man started chasing me. I-I think he’s trying to hurt me.”
The operator fell silent for a few seconds. For a moment, between the rainy weather and the flaky signal, I thought I’d lost him. His voice reemerged seconds later. “Where are you?”
I rattled off the highway number I was driving on and told him my home address.
“I’ll get an officer dispatched in the area. ETA should be around ten minutes.”
Ten minutes. Six hundred seconds. Toss whatever metric you wanted to use to measure it out, with that big rig riding close behind me and the driver intermittently blinding me when they felt like getting their rocks off, it might as well have spanned an eternity. I was going to be lucky I didn’t crash into a guardrail or land myself in a ditch.
“Make that around fifteen minutes,” the operator clarified, his crackled voice twisting the knife deeper into me with his update.
I made the turn off the two-lane highway. I didn’t signal when I did it. I was hoping the sudden movement would have had my unwanted friend in the big rig blow past me.
“Ma’am?”
For a moment, I believed it worked. No more blinding lights. The only sound was the operator fishing for a response and the pitter patter of rain on my windshield.
My sigh of relief became a choking noise lodged inside my throat as I saw the eighteen-wheeler backing up. It didn’t turn on a dime, but he was moving fast enough.
The road up ahead winded with hairpin curves. I didn’t know how long I’d have until those lights were upon me. Till he was upon me.
The phone clicked and the call abruptly ended.
I cursed under my breath while my engine knocked like an irate person trying to beat down a door. My Subaru was rapidly approaching its limit. I had to think fast.
These were my options: I could risk speeding and hoped the engine would hold out till I made it to the house, or I could continue driving at a steady pace. If the first option proved successful, he might not see where my vehicle would vanish. If it didn’t, my car might leave me stranded. That’s assuming I didn’t wreck myself taking a turn too fast.
The other option would be safer, but I’d be visible to him. Though with some of these curves I feared if he hit me with the high beams again, I’d be at risk of crashing. Where the area of road ascended, one wrong turn would mean a long journey down.
It would mean certain death.
Taking a sharp intake of breath, I pulled out my phone and called my husband. The only answer I got was his voicemail urging me to leave a message at the tone.
“Billy, there’s a lunatic after me. I’ve called the cops. Please…please be ready. I’m only two minutes away.”
It wasn’t the most inspiring call to action. My husband wasn’t Billy Badass. He was more like Billy the Stamp Collector. Benign hobbies. Soft spoken. Wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Still, I was counting on his presence to deter Mr. High Beams behind me. It was a desperate ploy, but it was all I could think of on such short notice.
I made the turn into the dirt trail that led to my driveway. As I was pulling in the porch light flickered to life. Maybe. It might have been those high beams. They illuminated my cab in a flood of light once more obscuring my vision.
The door to the house opened and a figure ran out of the entryway. My husband from what I could discern of the silhouette. Our dog Jasper, a black schnauzer with more bark than bite, darted out the door. I couldn’t see the little guy, but I heard him.
I stopped the car and shoved open the door. I bolted out of the seat, nearly tripping over my own feet with my frantic departure.
Jasper started barking up a storm, even before the big rig came to a standstill.
The door of it opened and the bearded man stepped out of the vehicle.
Strangely, my dog paid the trucker little mind. Jasper’s eyes remained fixated on my Subaru. He began to snarl.
“Get away from the car,” the man bellowed. He pulled out a gun and pointed it at an angle, almost like he was aiming at my vehicle.
Was this how my life was going to end? Shot dead when I was at the finish line, where I was supposed to be safe?
My husband Billy babbled. “S-sir, please. You don’t have to do this.”
The trucker shook his head. As he did, the sound of sirens began to blare in the distance. He didn’t answer us. Instead, he lowered his gun into his holster and stood still as a statue all while my dog continued snarling and barking at our vehicle.
When the police came, guns drawn, he remained calm.
“I’m not the one you want,” he said. “The car. Search the car.”
Even to this day, I still remember in vivid detail what happened. When the police opened the rear driver door, there was a gaunt looking man back there crouched in the floorboard with a knife clenched in his hand. The wide, manic look lingering in his eyes remained far colder than the frigid winds blowing around us.
The trucker explained later that he saw the man inside my vehicle wielding the blade. He must’ve snuck inside before my shift ended. Once the driver realized what was going on, he’d tried to intervene.
Every time the person in the backseat had attempted to overpower me, to harm me, the trucker turned on his high beams. It scared my unknown passenger. The sight of the light made him hide.
The police hadn’t offered much in the way of details concerning who my stowaway was; given the six inches worth of blade he held, not much imagination was needed to map out what the strange man planned to do to me.
I learned on that cold, lonely October night to never judge a situation wholly by appearances. I was grateful to that truck driver. If it weren’t for his persistence, I would probably not be alive today to share my story.

tl;dr - need a thermostat to constantly measure my deck’s surface temp.
Hi all - been doing some searching for a device but haven’t had too much luck finding something to fit my needs. I have a deck that gets a lot of sun. I live in Texas, so the temperature can get pretty hot, but the wood on the deck can easily reach 145-155 during summer.
My dog likes to lay out on the deck, but these temps are obviously way too hot for him to even walk on it comfortably. I do have misters out there and turn them on as needed, which can bring the temps down to mid 90s pretty quick. The deck can reach these temps when ambient temp is in the low 90s or above, but can also not get that hot depending on cloud covebreeze/etc.
Im just getting into HA and already have some sprinkler timers connected to HA. My idea is to have some kind of thermometer to constantly be measuring the deck’s surface temp, and use an automation to turn on a sprinkler timer and misters when the deck reaches a certain temp. Then run for x amount of time.
Seems like everything I’m finding uses a probe, which tbf might work fine if I just lay it on the deck, but figured I’d ask here if anyone has any ideas or thoughts on a better solution.

So there is a society a bit away from mine with a group of strays, they bark at people passing by at times. They are very thin and I'd like to feed them.
Problem is, I'm scared of dogs, and will be going there alone (tried asking but no one to accompany me), and thus worried that while I am taking out 5 different tiffins for the 5 of them, they might get impatient and start leaping at me for more food (like in the meanwhile).
If it were one or two dogs it could've been manageable, but with 5 of them sitting together, I feel like by the time I manage to take out food for 1 of them from my container, the others will leap at me for more food.
Eventually, when I'm able to earn their trust, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about this, but for now, can u guys give me creative solutions to tackle this?
P.Sv A version of the above has happened with me before with two other dogs nearby, which is why I'm a bit apprehensive about how to approach.

So there is a society a bit away from mine with a group of strays, they bark at people passing by at times. They are very thin and I'd like to feed them.
Problem is, I'm scared of dogs, and will be going there alone (tried asking but no one to accompany me), and thus worried that while I am taking out 5 different tiffins for the 5 of them, they might get impatient and start leaping at me for more food (like in the meanwhile).
If it were one or two dogs it could've been manageable, but with 5 of them sitting together, I feel like by the time I manage to take out food for 1 of them from my container, the others will leap at me for more food.
Eventually, when I'm able to earn their trust, I guess I wouldn't have to worry about this, but for now, can u guys give me creative solutions to tackle this?
P.Sv A version of the above has happened with me before with two other dogs nearby, which is why I'm a bit apprehensive about how to approach.

We have a male springer spaniel (field) who is turning 3 years old tomorrow and for the last two years he has been suffering from horrible allergies.
His symptoms include ear infections, hot spots, red swollen anus (infected from licking once), skin tags, scabbing, goopy eyes, hair falling off of his eyes, and full body rashes (worse on his chest).
We have done EVERYTHING and I am desperate for something that could possibly help him suffer less. He currently eats a hydrolized allergy diet with NO treats and/or scraps, we bath him in an allergy shampoo weekly, he gets medicated powder on his belly, ears cleaned with preventative solution weekly, and he has tried pills (which we stopped because they weakened his immune system and he got kennel cough 3x) and the allergy shots.
I feel horrible and hate that he suffers like this. It seems as though once we have it under control, a new symptom starts. We have been under the care of a vet who is lovely, but isn’t sure what’s causing his allergies and we have an appointment booked with a dog dermatologist in 3 months (waiting list was insane).
Has anyone else had these problems? How do you help your dogs? If it’s helpful, we are located in the southeastern USA.

These past 2 years have been brutal, it's been L after L with no break.
I feel like a mouse in a maze that every time it approaches the exit is dragged back to the start by a hand from the sky.
It doesn't matter how much I try, the outcome is always the worst possible one.
I've gone from agnostic to full on believer because I don't think someone can be this unlucky without some almighty being involved in it.
I now fully believe God exists and either:

1. He is actively punishing me
2. He has left me stranded

   
Will keep it short since I know you hoes like reading this kind of shit:
 
Around 2 years ago I was leasing a horse, and giving it my all, I was earning an entry-level salary in a comfy remote work living with my parents. Keeping the horse was costing me pretty much my full salary. I didn't go out and did anything except lifting, running, riding and working.
For almost a year I was the happiest I had ever been, I literally jumped out of bed excited to live the day, I would work 8-4, lift in my home gym and go visit my horse, either riding, or just being with him, during the time I had him I didn't go a single day without seeing him.
Of course living like this means that I don't have the most social life or friends circle, but I didn't care since every hour of my life was busy.
My plan for the year was training and competing and then in September changing jobs and buying the horse, but in July the horse was injured, I didn't get the best veterinary advice and didn't know what to do, I was being drained for a horse I couldn't even ride or enjoy, after all those months of hard work and discipline, for some reason the owner got mad, and petty sold him behind my back.
During this time, my highschool best friend started regaining contact and started meeting with me and his gf, they gave me a lot of support during those weeks, against all odds, I nailed an interview for a high-paying job that would've allowed me to buy the horse and maintain it comfortably.
I was still too hurt from what had happened, so I just chilled for a few months, saving money, and hanging out with my friend and his gf, and lifting and running, I was at my physical peak, I was lifting heavier than ever, running faster and longer, I was optimistic for the future, I just needed time to heal and I had the means to do so, social life, earning money and physical activity.
 
Fast forward to December and I receive a cryptic message from my friend's GF saying that she wasn't going to be here for my birthday (we met the previous day) because my dumbass friend just broke up with her.
That basically destroyed my little social life since they were living in the city, and my friend disappeared to be with his new GF.
I tried to comfort her and be there for her (wasn't attracted and even if I were it wouldn't be right to take advantage of the situation).
The months of just working and lifting allowed me to save enough to start looking to buy my own horse, I was still hurting from the whole situation, and being alone, but still I was just lifting heavy, running, walking my dog, keeping myself busy.
In February after trying and vetting some horses, I found one that seemed promising. I bought a very expensive veterinary exam, and he passed it, allegedly, I buy the horse.
 
Long story short, barely 3 weeks into ownership, I started noticing pain and weird stuff that shouldn't be happening since I started with very soft work, a few weeks of going through 3 different vets, and basically the horse had a life-long injury that the first vet didn't catch in the exam, and basically it was done for, I was devastated, I tried some solutions but they we're not effective, it was over.
During those months, my friend's ex-gf started coming to visit me, we slept together (no sex), we talked every day, I gave her presents, one would say what I did was love bombing her, but to me It was just being there giving support, for her it turned into a situationship.
I still had the horse, I couldn't selling him while he was untrained, and I still had a bit of faith in the vet's advice, and then, suddenly, my knee started hurting, I was lucky that in my new job I had private insurance, so I could immediately go to the orthopedist and do an MRI without the long ass waits of the public health care (up to a year for the MRI), and lo and behold, torn meniscus, it rapidly went from "pain while running" to "some days I can't even fucking walk", I had to stop riding, paying my trainer to ride my horse since I needed to sell him, I had to stop running, I had to stop doing any leg gym exercises.
I didn't want to do the surgery since what I read online was very contradictory.
 
Because shit can always get worse, one day I was alone with my parents (we also live with my brother and grandma), and I notice the vibes being off, I ask “what the fuck is your problem?” and they confess that my father doesn’t like my mom anymore, well, not to get into too much detail but since then I’ve had to endure watching my mom cry, they get into arguments all the time, just awful, thing is I was already so drained from my personal bullshit that after the initial shock, It didn’t pain me too much, they just keep living together, although I hear them arguing from time to time.
During those months my ex-friend’s ex-gf kept catching feelings for me, and my autistic ass couldn't really read the situation so I made it worse. Finally she asked me if I was going serious with her or if she could go on about her life. I said that I didn't see her as my partner, and since then she got a boyfriend and our friendship went to shit.
 
I finally sold the horse, my life got extremely bored.
I decided to do the surgery since I couldn't do any of the things I enjoyed, running, riding, whatever, but I had a trip in January with her so I had to postpone it until then, for those months all I could do was going for walks like an old man, and hit the gym (all chest no legs), I was going kinda hard tho, since I knew that during the months of recovery I would lose a lot of muscle and I wanted to go in my best form, during those months I acquired my best physique ever, for the first time, after years of being constant, I liked how my body looked.
The trip was a mistake, she nagged me every minute of it, I could tell she had only gone because it was already paid for, I had postponed the surgery 2 months just to have a horrible weekend.
 
I did the surgery and the first bad news came, they couldn't fix the broken part of the meniscus, so they took it out, this was the worst possible outcome since it would mean a shorter recovery, but the probabilities of arthritis in the future were higher, off to a good start.
2 weeks later I start going to rehab, during those weeks nobody came to visit me, well, my friend did, only to talk shit on his new coworker (during those months he would only message me to talk shit about coworkers or work), nobody else, not the situationship, not my trainer, nobody.
Speaking about the situationship, after the trip, she stopped messaging me, and even replying at all. I thought, well, there it goes, I’ve lost “not being an unopened chat” privilege.
Some boring months of rehab, working the job that I started to dread, and doing the boring ass knee exercises at home, and then, suddenly a glimmer of hope.
 
I start being treated by a “new” physio, but turns out she had been on sick leave for the same reason as me, she tore her meniscus, during those first 3-4 sessions we talked and talked for the whole hour, she was just perfect, around my age, funny, cute, was active, played sports, had a nice body, she lives like 5 minutes walk from my house.
I immediately fell in love like I had never before in my life, and that’s when it came to me, this was it, every bad thing that happened to me has come to this, to meeting this girl, everything made sense, If I had my surgery earlier I would not have met her because she would be on sick leave. My broken meniscus, my lame horse, every bad thing that had happened to me had led me to her.
So I take my autistic ass, and since I felt like we had something cool going on I ask “Hey, I think you’re very interesting and cute and would like to know you better, can I have your number so we can meet and go for a drink some day?” and she actually did give it to me, I asked for her number instead of her IG because I didn’t want to play any game, I thought she wouldn’t give me her number unless she was interested in me, I was ecstatic.
I start texting her and after refusing to meet a few times (with actually convincing excuses) I ask her “Hey if you don't want its fine I won't bother you anymore, just tell me” and she basically told me that she didn’t want to break the physio-patient barrier, I didn’t understand anything but I didn’t want to make it weirder since she is still treating me so I just accepted it.
 
The thing is, I know where she lives, I have to walk past her apartment whenever I go for a walk, drive to town, I get reminded constantly, moving on is very hard, I really thought she was for me, I thought she was finally the reward for all my suffering, but turns out she's just part of the punishment, I legit had a religious revelation, every single bad thing that had happened, God made it so I went and met her, my knee injury, having to sell the horse, losing my friends, no way it was a coincidence.
 
Now that I know that she is not for me, not even as a friend, I have nothing, the knee recovery is not going well, I was supposed to be a-ok in 6 weeks, It’s been 3 months and I still can’t even go for a walk without swelling and pain, I can’t workout because the knee exercises take a long ass time and I feel like they’re not doing shit, I don’t have friends to meet and take my mind off it, every few weeks I have to see my mum weeping around the house because my father is a piece of shit.
 
And to top it all, I just started having similar pain in the good knee, so there is a possibility that even If I hadn’t done shit, it may be injured too, this shit just doesn’t end, it just fucking never ends.
     
TLDR: Everything that has ever given me pleasure or made me happy has been taken away from me. I went from getting out of bed full of hope and enthusiasm to sleeping through my alarms because the only thing I can do is sit in front of a screen. I’ve been having the worst day of my life every day for the past 2 years, after everything I’ve worked hard for and all the sacrifices I’ve made.

These past 2 years have been brutal, it's been L after L with no break.
I feel like a mouse in a maze that every time it approaches the exit is dragged back to the start by a hand from the sky.
It doesn't matter how much I try, the outcome is always the worst possible one.
I've gone from agnostic to full on believer because I don't think someone can be this unlucky without some almighty being involved in it.
I now fully believe God exists and either:

1. He is actively punishing me
2. He has left me stranded

   
Will keep it short since I know you hoes like reading this kind of shit:
 
Around 2 years ago I was leasing a horse, and giving it my all, I was earning an entry-level salary in a comfy remote work living with my parents. Keeping the horse was costing me pretty much my full salary. I didn't go out and did anything except lifting, running, riding and working.
For almost a year I was the happiest I had ever been, I literally jumped out of bed excited to live the day, I would work 8-4, lift in my home gym and go visit my horse, either riding, or just being with him, during the time I had him I didn't go a single day without seeing him.
Of course living like this means that I don't have the most social life or friends circle, but I didn't care since every hour of my life was busy.
My plan for the year was training and competing and then in September changing jobs and buying the horse, but in July the horse was injured, I didn't get the best veterinary advice and didn't know what to do, I was being drained for a horse I couldn't even ride or enjoy, after all those months of hard work and discipline, for some reason the owner got mad, and petty sold him behind my back.
During this time, my highschool best friend started regaining contact and started meeting with me and his gf, they gave me a lot of support during those weeks, against all odds, I nailed an interview for a high-paying job that would've allowed me to buy the horse and maintain it comfortably.
I was still too hurt from what had happened, so I just chilled for a few months, saving money, and hanging out with my friend and his gf, and lifting and running, I was at my physical peak, I was lifting heavier than ever, running faster and longer, I was optimistic for the future, I just needed time to heal and I had the means to do so, social life, earning money and physical activity.
 
Fast forward to December and I receive a cryptic message from my friend's GF saying that she wasn't going to be here for my birthday (we met the previous day) because my dumbass friend just broke up with her.
That basically destroyed my little social life since they were living in the city, and my friend disappeared to be with his new GF.
I tried to comfort her and be there for her (wasn't attracted and even if I were it wouldn't be right to take advantage of the situation).
The months of just working and lifting allowed me to save enough to start looking to buy my own horse, I was still hurting from the whole situation, and being alone, but still I was just lifting heavy, running, walking my dog, keeping myself busy.
In February after trying and vetting some horses, I found one that seemed promising. I bought a very expensive veterinary exam, and he passed it, allegedly, I buy the horse.
 
Long story short, barely 3 weeks into ownership, I started noticing pain and weird stuff that shouldn't be happening since I started with very soft work, a few weeks of going through 3 different vets, and basically the horse had a life-long injury that the first vet didn't catch in the exam, and basically it was done for, I was devastated, I tried some solutions but they we're not effective, it was over.
During those months, my friend's ex-gf started coming to visit me, we slept together (no sex), we talked every day, I gave her presents, one would say what I did was love bombing her, but to me It was just being there giving support, for her it turned into a situationship.
I still had the horse, I couldn't selling him while he was untrained, and I still had a bit of faith in the vet's advice, and then, suddenly, my knee started hurting, I was lucky that in my new job I had private insurance, so I could immediately go to the orthopedist and do an MRI without the long ass waits of the public health care (up to a year for the MRI), and lo and behold, torn meniscus, it rapidly went from "pain while running" to "some days I can't even fucking walk", I had to stop riding, paying my trainer to ride my horse since I needed to sell him, I had to stop running, I had to stop doing any leg gym exercises.
I didn't want to do the surgery since what I read online was very contradictory.
 
Because shit can always get worse, one day I was alone with my parents (we also live with my brother and grandma), and I notice the vibes being off, I ask “what the fuck is your problem?” and they confess that my father doesn’t like my mom anymore, well, not to get into too much detail but since then I’ve had to endure watching my mom cry, they get into arguments all the time, just awful, thing is I was already so drained from my personal bullshit that after the initial shock, It didn’t pain me too much, they just keep living together, although I hear them arguing from time to time.
During those months my ex-friend’s ex-gf kept catching feelings for me, and my autistic ass couldn't really read the situation so I made it worse. Finally she asked me if I was going serious with her or if she could go on about her life. I said that I didn't see her as my partner, and since then she got a boyfriend and our friendship went to shit.
 
I finally sold the horse, my life got extremely bored.
I decided to do the surgery since I couldn't do any of the things I enjoyed, running, riding, whatever, but I had a trip in January with her so I had to postpone it until then, for those months all I could do was going for walks like an old man, and hit the gym (all chest no legs), I was going kinda hard tho, since I knew that during the months of recovery I would lose a lot of muscle and I wanted to go in my best form, during those months I acquired my best physique ever, for the first time, after years of being constant, I liked how my body looked.
The trip was a mistake, she nagged me every minute of it, I could tell she had only gone because it was already paid for, I had postponed the surgery 2 months just to have a horrible weekend.
 
I did the surgery and the first bad news came, they couldn't fix the broken part of the meniscus, so they took it out, this was the worst possible outcome since it would mean a shorter recovery, but the probabilities of arthritis in the future were higher, off to a good start.
2 weeks later I start going to rehab, during those weeks nobody came to visit me, well, my friend did, only to talk shit on his new coworker (during those months he would only message me to talk shit about coworkers or work), nobody else, not the situationship, not my trainer, nobody.
Speaking about the situationship, after the trip, she stopped messaging me, and even replying at all. I thought, well, there it goes, I’ve lost “not being an unopened chat” privilege.
Some boring months of rehab, working the job that I started to dread, and doing the boring ass knee exercises at home, and then, suddenly a glimmer of hope.
 
I start being treated by a “new” physio, but turns out she had been on sick leave for the same reason as me, she tore her meniscus, during those first 3-4 sessions we talked and talked for the whole hour, she was just perfect, around my age, funny, cute, was active, played sports, had a nice body, she lives like 5 minutes walk from my house.
I immediately fell in love like I had never before in my life, and that’s when it came to me, this was it, every bad thing that happened to me has come to this, to meeting this girl, everything made sense, If I had my surgery earlier I would not have met her because she would be on sick leave. My broken meniscus, my lame horse, every bad thing that had happened to me had led me to her.
So I take my autistic ass, and since I felt like we had something cool going on I ask “Hey, I think you’re very interesting and cute and would like to know you better, can I have your number so we can meet and go for a drink some day?” and she actually did give it to me, I asked for her number instead of her IG because I didn’t want to play any game, I thought she wouldn’t give me her number unless she was interested in me, I was ecstatic.
I start texting her and after refusing to meet a few times (with actually convincing excuses) I ask her “Hey if you don't want its fine I won't bother you anymore, just tell me” and she basically told me that she didn’t want to break the physio-patient barrier, I didn’t understand anything but I didn’t want to make it weirder since she is still treating me so I just accepted it.
 
The thing is, I know where she lives, I have to walk past her apartment whenever I go for a walk, drive to town, I get reminded constantly, moving on is very hard, I really thought she was for me, I thought she was finally the reward for all my suffering, but turns out she's just part of the punishment, I legit had a religious revelation, every single bad thing that had happened, God made it so I went and met her, my knee injury, having to sell the horse, losing my friends, no way it was a coincidence.
 
Now that I know that she is not for me, not even as a friend, I have nothing, the knee recovery is not going well, I was supposed to be a-ok in 6 weeks, It’s been 3 months and I still can’t even go for a walk without swelling and pain, I can’t workout because the knee exercises take a long ass time and I feel like they’re not doing shit, I don’t have friends to meet and take my mind off it, every few weeks I have to see my mum weeping around the house because my father is a piece of shit.
 
And to top it all, I just started having similar pain in the good knee, so there is a possibility that even If I hadn’t done shit, it may be injured too, this shit just doesn’t end, it just fucking never ends.
     
TLDR: Everything that has ever given me pleasure or made me happy has been taken away from me. I went from getting out of bed full of hope and enthusiasm to sleeping through my alarms because the only thing I can do is sit in front of a screen. I’ve been having the worst day of my life every day for the past 2 years, after everything I’ve worked hard for and all the sacrifices I’ve made.

🪞
Welcome back to the Asylum write-up, where we explore the decade-long slow-motion car crash that is the Emilie Autumn fandom.
Sorry this installment took so long to upload! Just a heads-up, I may take some time to deliver the last one too – these posts take forever to format on Reddit's finicky-ass editor, and my dumb real life is currently keeping me from precious Internet time. Thank you for your patience! You have my word that everyone who pre-ordered the final installment will receive a PERSONAL, HANDWRITTEN letter autographed and illustrated by me, a list of the snacks I consumed while composing this write-up, some exclusive behind-the-scenes secrets, and a pony.
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4.1 – Part 4.2 Part 5

Places, everyone This is a test Throw your stones Do your damage Your worst, and your best (...) And if I had a dollar For every time I repented the sin And commit the same crime I'd be sitting on top of the world today (“God Help Me”, 2006🎵)

Quick recap of where we left off. First, there were five to ten halcyon years of pleasant and meaningful interactions between EA and her blossoming fanbase, prominently by way of her official forum. Then, circa 2009-2010, EA's online presence shifted towards sudden anger outbursts, ban-hammering, and an increasingly top-down communication style.
This created a sort of primordial rift within the fanbase, between those who supported EA's right to speak her mind and regulate her own fan spaces however she pleased – and those who thought that her reactions were rude and inappropriate (at best), and that even fan spaces should allow for reasonable, non-abusive criticism of the artist.
Between a poorly-handled book release (see Part 3), the controversial (Part 2) or dubiously true (Part 4) contents of said book, and serious shade from various former collaborators (Part 5), more and more fans had pressing thoughts about EA's work ethic and choices. EA attempted damage control through drastic forum rules that made it virtually impossible to voice any “serious” critical opinion. It didn't work, of course: instead of squashing the mutiny, she created a schism.
Critical fans and active haters started congregating on unofficial platforms.

“WITH MUFFINS LIKE THIS, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?”: TROLL LIKE A GIRL

So here we were, the early 2010s. The official forum (which had about 700 members in 2006, if you recall) was now thousands-strong, reaching just over 12,000 registered users in 2012 – not all of them active, but still. In terms of sheer numbers and content creation, the party was POPPIN'... but increasingly in parts of the Asylum that escaped EA's jurisdiction, such as Tumblr, where they could speak their mind freely.

You play the victim very well You've built your self-indulgent hell You wanted someone to understand you Well, be careful what you wish for, because I do (“I Know Where You Sleep”, 2006🎵)

In one wing of Asylum Tumblr, a smattering of call-out blogs emerged, which laid out EA's various lies, faux pas, shitty takes, and general deep-seated terribleness in detailed timelines and screenshots (or, short of that, long-winded bullet points). While many such blogs framed it as “serious” whistleblowing and did their best to remain as fact-based and neutral as they could, there was some genuine disgust, animosity and creepiness towards EA on that side of Tumblr; for some ex-fans, “exposing the truth” was mostly justify obsessive hatred, prying and verbal abuse. Some, for instance, felt the bizarre need to side with EA's mother in their estrangement. (One user, with the URL “emilyautumnfischkopf”, argued in a serious and down-to-earth tone - but with zero sources - that EA's upbringing had been nothing but peaceful and supportive until she ungratefully kicked her loving family to the curb for no reason at all. They were later revealed 🔍 to have an alternate handle as “eaisalyingcunt”.)
Either way, through these blogs, a number of potential drama bombs that had mostly flown under the radar were dredged up from over the years – some of which were hard to ignore, even for supportive fans. Where to begin?
There was that nonsense in-joke song, captured twice on camera during the 2009 tour (to very little outrage, at the time), crassly called “Manatee Retard”📺. Or EA's scathing response, in print, to a wheelchair user who found it insensitive that she used a bedazzled wheelchair as a prop to do sexy acrobatics on stage. (“Your offence taken at my hard-won self-acceptance proves that I indeed have something to fight against”, she wrote). Spoken word tracks where she made trivializing knock-knock jokes about serious mental illnesses she didn't have, like schizophrenia and OCD. Multiple instances of calling Britney Spears a “bimbo” and a “Hollywood fucked-up”, resentfully claiming that she only shaved her head because she was “hopped up on drugs” and certainly not because she was “bipolar”, a word the press liked to wield as an insult anyway. (“That's almost like calling someone a retard!” Yeah, heaven forbid.) The meanest, most distasteful paragraphs in the book. Basically everything problematic EA had ever said or written.📝 In retrospect, it had been a long time coming, but it was a lot to take in – and certainly more off-putting, even to less emotionally invested fans, than silly lies about her age and last name.
In another wing of Asylum Tumblr, some fans had had it up to here and just wanted to have fun. 🎵 If Plague Rats had learned one valuable lesson from EA, it was how to crack a joke in the face of absurd tragedy – and the general state of the EA fandom certainly warranted a few.
In 2012, Fight Like a Girl was released. After six long years, three of which had been peaceful, the Opheliac era was officially over. The new album and ensuing tour confirmed that the Asylum had entered a process of glamorous Broadway-style militarization. 🎵📺
The mood board was “Roman general meets Vegas showgirl meets Victorian street urchin”.🪞 The color palette was, to naysayers, “musty pink and rotten, stale piss yellow”. 🐀 The keyword was “REVENGE” (through the power of... self-expression! sorority! brutal assault with rusty medical implements!). The chorus of the title song had an intriguing run-on line about getting “revenge on the world, or at least 49% of the people in it” 🎵 – which seemed like an awful lot, and was widely interpreted (to cheers, boos, or uncomfortable sighs) as a misandrist jab at literally all men on Earth.
The show was essentially a demo version of the musical, in that the setlist vaguely reflected the order of events in the story – but prior reading was essential in order to get what the hell was going on on stage. This one Broadway reviewer had not perused the literature before seeing the show 🔍, and hated: the set, the choreography, the skits, the plot, the lyrics, the music, the concept. (Seriously, you should read the review. It's not even my show and I feel like quitting show business.)
Pre-show VIP encounters, now violin-free, were lorded over by EA's new manager🐀, whose official title was “Asylum Headmistress”. (Interesting choice – she sounds fun!) The swag bags were less substantial than before, and the “greet” part of the meet-and-greet was rarely more than a quick hug and photo op.
On Twitter, EA continued to embrace her “I am very badass” fronting attitude...

Often wonder if cyberbullies r aware they’re fucking w/ a girl who’s BFs w/ maker of the SAW films & is marrying a knife-throwing scorpion. (🐀📝)

...and her taste for needlessly inflammatory statements. About an aisle sign in a supermarket:

If this does not infuriate you, then you're a fucking potato.

(Again with the confounding crypto-ableism, EA! 🔍) She also went through a phase of raging against Lady Gaga 📝, who had stolen her idea of using a wheelchair on stage as an able-bodied woman. 🔍 That failed to convince anyone that she wasn't the histrionic diva that haters made her out to be.
Spurred on by EA's rallying cries and “us vs them” mentality, loyalists turned the white-knighting up to 11. On Twitter, some Plague Rats got into cat fights with Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (what a time to be alive). Others tried to balance out the Tumblr negativity with initiatives like “Spreading a Plague of Love” – a “positive-only” confession blog, whose extreme fangirling, comically drastic rules and hyper-defensive tone📝 did not debunk the increasingly popular notion that “true Plague Rats” were a bunch of authoritarian and hopelessly brainwashed fanatics.
EA truthers and other anti-fans started lashing out at anyone who dared express any positive opinion of EA, solidifying claims that the backlash against EA was just a conspiracy of bitter, hysterical bullies.
All this to say: every passing day brought new reasons for fans to get mad at EA and each other, and everyone in the Asylum was in need of a laugh. It's not easy having a good time.🦠
Leading up to Fight Like a Girl and in the years that followed, user-submission-based meme blogs took off, most notably “Spreading a Plague of Lulz / Troll Like a Girl”. A lot of the early submissions were absurdist humor and toothless, cheezburger-Impact memes (a style that was, oddly, already dated at the time). Those often originated in good fun, and from loyal fans, on the official forum. But there was also true snark, satirizing EA's questionable ethics, outrageous claims, and easily spoofed artistic gimmicks. A new slang of Asylumspeak emerged: Glittertits (slight NSFW), GAGA!!, EA Gusta and all its memeface variants, Get outta mah house!, Are You Suffering?, Fight Like A Goat, [Random celebrity] copied EA (a subgenre in its own right), ...
Most of the “trolling” was directed at unrepentant bootlickers and, to a lesser extent, red-in-the-face haters and creeps. Meme blogs would post joke comments under “serious” or gushing submissions on Wayward Victorian Confessions, and taunt loyalist accounts by tagging them in their posts. When a few people complained on WVC that almost all of the Bloody Crumpets to date had been thin white able-bodied women, and a few fans responded by sharing their dream-casts for a more diverse line-up, the blog was flooded for days with confessions that “X should be a Crumpet” (candidates included RuPaul, Mitt Romney, Nicki Minaj, EA's therapist, and the WVC admins). Farcical shenanigans like that.
Ah, but some people will always cross the line, won't they. EA threads popped up on merciless, bully-friendly snark platforms like Lolcow, Pretty Ugly Little Liar, and Encyclopedia Dramatica. Snarkers with a mean streak and obsessive haters mingled in some of the more aggressive, 4-chan-spirited retaliation against EA – which would be called “brigading” in modern parlance. This included flooding EA's Goodreads page with one-star reviews (see part 4), repeatedly editing her Wikipedia page to include her legal name and birth year, and ensuring that Googling said name would bring up current pictures of her.
All of this compounded agitation fragmented the once-united fandom beyond recognition.🦠 Through substantial disagreements among fans, personal bickerings, layers upon layers of inscrutable in-jokes, and cross-platform telephone games, the Asylum morphed into a booby-trapped Escher room.
Satire blogs were taken in earnest. Earnest fan blogs scanned as satire. Memes would get called out as abuse. Appreciation without attached criticism would get mocked as bootlicking. Obvious jokes made by EA would be taken at face value. One divisive confession could trigger days and days of debate, to the point that WVC eventually banned confessions in response to other confessions. New waves of infighting created a confusing web of rival sub-factions🐀, each accusing the others of being toxic, cliquish, and delusional.
The shared fantasy was broken, the collective vision had crumbled, no onez was speaking the same language anymore. Fans would jump down the throat of other fans who held almost identical views about EA, except for that one thing she said or did that one time. Everyone had differing thoughts on what should or shouldn't acceptable to discuss, question, excuse, make fun of.
War is hell.

SCORCHED EARTH SHENANIGANS: HONEY, I SHRUNK THE ASYLUM

Would you tear my castle down Stone by stone And let the wind run through my windows Till there was nothing left But a battered rose? (“Castle Down”, 2003🎵)

Haters vs sycophants is not really the kind of conflict where one side can come out on top (if you're participating, you've already lost). But in the long tug-of-war between “grassroots” and “EA-sponsored” fan spaces, the ultimate winner is obvious – in that the former is gasping in agony, a shriveled husk of its former glory, while the latter... is non-existent. This is due in no small part to EA's tendency, like the Czars of old, to settle conflicts by setting Moscow on fire.🔍)
That's not entirely fair: unlike EA, the czar only did it that once.
By early 2013, as EA was gearing up for her third Fight Like a Girl tour at the end of the year, the official forum was... not as lively as it once had been. Not just because of the stifling rules and disgruntlement towards EA, or because EA herself hadn't really posted anything on there in years; the Internet was also changing, and forums in general were fast becoming passé.
This made it difficult for EA to create a safe space where she could talk to fans, and fans could talk to and about her, in a way she deemed suitable (ie, a space she could gate-keep and regulate enough to keep it completely free from negative criticism). Social media was a minefield; she still posted regularly, but didn't interact very much. So EA and the Headmistress came up with a way to filter out the unbelievers: an official fan club📝, aptly called the “Asylum Army”, with a $100 entry price.
Joining the AA came with a dog tag, a sew-on patch, and a lifetime membership certificate signed by EA and – for some reason – the Headmistress. (Unlike EA's best friend and sound engineer back in the forum's heyday, I don't think fans ever really embraced the FLAG-era manager as part of the Asylum in-group. She came across more as a coordinator / businessperson / adult chaperone, at best.🐀) So, slightly better goodies than you'd get by joining the other AA 🔍 ... but not by much. The main appeal was that members would have access to exclusive content, special merch, giveaways, early bird tickets for future shows, and regular video chats with EA.
The concept itself drew a fair amount of criticism, as you can imagine. Between the name🐀, the price, and the inherent gatekeeping of a pay-to-join fanclub, many balked at the monetizing of a concept that had once (like, three years back) been significantly more DIY, grassroots, and inclusive. 📝🐀
Then again, many also longed for a positive, drama-free space where fans could just be fans. And while the creation of the AA was generally recognized as a quick cashgrab, a lot of people were surprisingly cool with it. EA was trying to finance her dream musical, after all – although a number of fans wished she had gone about raising funds in a less sketchy way.
So around 400 fans shelled out (which, according to the Headmistress📝, “basically cover[ed] the cost of running the fanclub itself – keeping the database up, website, etc.”). Enough for a close-knit, but sizable community. But already, there was a conflict of interest: a high fanclub entry fee essentially demands that you pledge loyalty to the artist over loyalty to your fellow fans, who wish to join but can't afford to. Sharing, caring, and ensuring no one felt left out were some of the more positive values cultivated in the fandom... but leaking exclusive content would surely piss off other paying members🐀, and make EA feel betrayed all over again. (And she had barely just started to mellow out on social media!)
...But then again, this is the internet. After the first month of secret AA drops (lyric sheets, some photoshoot outtakes – nothing too juicy, really), there were, yes, some leaks. EA was predictably miffed, and retaliated by... ghosting the fanclub for weeks at a time in its first few months of existence (great look!). She eventually found the “solution” to her problem, by providing something you couldn't right-click-save (and which had been part of the promised perks to begin with): live interaction.
Over webcam, she was her usual in-person bubbly, charming, funny self. Everyone seemingly had a good time during the fanclub video chat, and this gave people faith and hope.
There were a few more events, giveaways, etc. As promised, ahead of the fall 2013 tour (the last one to date, it would turn out), AA members got priority access to show tickets and VIP bundles. The latter were much pricier than before, and only included soundcheck, a photo-op, and three goodies: a tin of loose-leaf tea, a signed printer-paper setlist, and a small flag that said “F.L.A.G.”.🔍 Some stuff continued to leak – but, as some of the outlaws pointed out (scroll down to the Disqus comments), they were mostly relaying information that was relevant to the entire fanbase, such as updates about ongoing projects (the dragged-out recording of the audiobook, for one).
In early 2014, lifetime memberships were closed, and replaced with monthly, quarterly and yearly subscription tiers. Bizarrely, you ended up paying $3 more per month if you bought a $99 yearly subscription📝 – but it did include the patch, dog tag, and piece of paper!

Sometimes I kind of want to be part of the cool kids and register to the Asylum Army. Then I remember how it came about, what you could get for the same price a couple years ago, how the whole thing was and is handled, and that I won’t support any of this bullshit. (And then I roll around naked in all the money I’m saving.) (🐀)

Still, a number of fans rejoiced at the affordable monthly option, and joined – if not for the exclusive content and merch (which were... okay, but not much to write home about), then for the friendly, drama-free exchanges with an artist they actually did love, in spite of all the frustration.
For the still-too-poor or still-undecided, there was always the forum! It wasn't as active as it used to be, but a few die-hards still managed to keep the lights on... until, inevitably, Someone Did Something and Ruined Everything. (Once again: EA's wrath is spectacular, but rarely completely unprovoked.) The incident features one notable figure in the Asylum community. Let's call him the Collector.
OK, so maybe you remember the meme I linked to in Part 4, with Christian Grey and the ginormous EA hoard. Well, that's the Collector's collection. The “Violin” promo that I called the "Holy Grail of the fandom" in the same paragraph? Also his. The handwritten lyrics that went for $940? Guess who won that auction. Over the years, the Collector had probably spent five figures on EA merch and shows, and although that fact was a little unsettling, he was a very active, easy-going, and generally well-liked fixture of the fandom.
One day in 2012, shortly after the Headmistress had replaced EA's old Chicago BFF as main forum admin, the Collector's account got banned or restricted over something dumb. When the ban wasn't lifted as quickly as he hoped, he took it... the way one takes things when one is unhealthily invested: he started spamming Headmistress and the mod team with increasingly rambling and abusive emails (lost to time, probably for the best). When that didn't work quickly enough, he tried a different route.
One of the many auctions that the Collector had won, some years prior, was EA's old iPod Touch📝 – which contained all of her favorite tunes and, buried somewhere in the data cache... a phone number. Which the Collector tried calling. And wouldn't you know it: EA picked up. She congratulated him on his sleuthing skills, listened patiently as he made his case, apologized for any distress caused by the unfair account restriction, and then they got married.
Kidding! She freaked the fuck out, hung up, and banned him for life from the forum and all EA shows and events.
After his ban, the Collector allegedly still tried to attend at least one VIP pre-show (one source in the comments says he was allowed to buy some merch, refunded for his ticket, and escorted out). He joined the Reform forum to bitch about EA and try to rally people to his cause, possibly made revenge posts about her on darker snark forums, and continued to hound the Asylum mod team. So in June 2014, EA came up with a radical and unexpected fix to the Collector problem.

The official Asylum Fan Forum has been shut down permanently. I have personally paid thousands of dollars each year to keep the forum safe and secure for you ... Unfortunately, the forum has not been kept safe and secure for me, a truth which disappoints me greatly, instead becoming a place where people who have physically threatened myself and my staff prey upon forum members, pressuring them to contact me and my staff on their behalf. If the gullible wish to humor my stalkers (who live in their parent’s basement at age 30 something) and thus put me in danger, they may do it on their own dime. They may also fuck off, because stupidity can kill, and I won’t be your victim. To those who enjoyed the forum, you know who to thank for its closure. (“On the closing of the Asylum Forum”)

Voilà! This is how a decade-long archive of shared history ends: not with a bang, but with a dirty delete and a sod-off communiqué.
The obliteration of the forum took everyone by surprise...

I was actually on the forum when it was taken down. I was navigating between posts and when I went to click on a different board, an error message came up. I honestly cried a little, I'm not ashamed to say. (WVC admin on Reddit, 2024)

...and I do mean everyone:

Chicago BFF / ex-admin, the next morning: Whoa, EA forum shut down? Ex-mod: It turns out that if someone spends enough years actively “waging war” to destroy what they can’t have, eventually they’ll be successful. * eye roll * Not even mods got prior warning. Just all the sudden, poof, gone. BFF: Really? She did not let the moderators know?! This is sounding worse and worse. Uggh. I’m so sorry. Such a loss. (...) Ok, threats are serious, but why not just put it in archive mode so no one can post? (...) Sad. I shall light a candle in the forum's honor. (Facebook posts; scroll down for screenshots)

It was a gut punch, especially for people who had poured countless hours into the community, or could have used some prior warning to save years of their own writing from the role-playing threads. One last chance to take a look around the place that had meant so much to so many.

From the wording of the announcement of closing the forum and a number of other things, it sometimes seems like EA doesn't like her fans much. :/ (🐀)

Three months after the forum was nuked, Battered Rose (a venerable EA fansite, which had been around since the Enchant era and had one of the most complete EA galleries online) announced that it was shutting down too.📝 The admin, who had also been a long-time forum mod, cited a lack of “time, energy, passion, or money” to keep the website going... and being upset at the sudden disappearance of the forum. It was, truly, the end of an era for the Asylum.
...Well, no point in living in the past. For those who could afford it, and still wanted to talk to/about EA after that (not everyone did 🐀), there was always the Asylum Army fanclub!
Over the summer of 2014, EA held regular live chats and Q&A's, and... many attendees really enjoyed them, and thought the AA was well worth the money after all. She also quietly parted ways with the much poo-pooed Headmistress around that time.

Just spent over 4 hours giggling, drinking tea and playing guessing games in chat with EA and other Asylum Army members ... No griping, no downers, just lots of fun. I think I like the way the ‘new fandom’ is going and now I’m really glad I finally decided to join the Army. (September 4, 2014🐀; Battered Rose had closed the day before)

The forum was lost forever, but perhaps that was a chance for a fresh start. Could this fanclub thing really be the Asylum Renaissance that fans had been longing for?

...I have come today to a very difficult but necessary decision, and that is to discontinue the Emilie Autumn Official Fanclub. The site itself, and the community chatroom, will remain open to you indefinitely, but I will no longer be making updates to the site. (Newsletter, September 8, 2014📝)

...Never mind, then.
Turns out the fanclub had been the Headmistress' idea all along. EA had been reluctant from the start, and although she really enjoyed the live chats with a safe community of people “who are there for the right reasons”, she couldn't overcome her fundamental discomfort with the concept. Lifetime and regular members would receive a bunch of digital downloads and a -35% coupon on the Asylum Emporium for their troubles. EA said she would definitely pop back once in a while for live chats, for free, just for fun, but to my knowledge, she never did.
And so the most devoted fans were left standing in the rain...

She is happy, she made it. She is fulfilling her dreams, found love and happiness after all the pain. I understand that she now doesn’t need “us” anymore ... That doesn’t change the fact she broke my heart with taking the Asylum Army and the forum from me. Yet, I am happy for her. (🐀)

...while naysayers pointed and laughed, Nelson-style.🦠

I don’t feel sorry at all for the people that paid for the Asylum Army fan club. Most of them knew that EA is an atrocious business woman and has broken many promises before. In fact, I laugh at them. They seriously thought that EA would actually stay consistent with this? (🐀)

EVERYTHING MUST GO: THE ASYLUM WHOLESALE

EA fans were left without an “official” home for about three years. This gave them plenty of time to be annoyed at EA for: not releasing the audiobook on time, not materializing any new project for a while... and the new sin of peddling random, ridiculously marked-up AliBaba jewelry as “merch” on her official store. Think faux-antique cameo pendants and $30 Big Ben rings (...because the Asylum story is set in London, get it?).

The whole accessories section looks like a tacky overpriced English souvenir shop. (🐀)

The fanbase lost a lost of steam in those in-between years, because there wasn't much to stick around for. As evidenced by the positive reception of the AA live chats, even in the midst of unresolved drama, out-loud interactions in a friendly environment have always been EA's saving grace. Considering the amount of online hate, there are shockingly few accounts of bad IRL encounters with EA: most people say that in live conversation, she comes across as a fun, warm, and genuinely sweet person. Some report that their negative opinion shifted after meeting her.
But there were no chats or live shows anymore. There was only social media, where she ignored questions and vague-posted about overdue projects – and the newsletter📝, which was all saccharine love-bombing to promote bland dropshipped trinkets. For fans who remembered the handcrafted merch (and two-way communication) of the early years, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

CONTINUED IN COMMENTS

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Well perhaps unpopular opinion.
But is anyone else tired of stepping into a mall and being greeted by a chorus of yapping dogs? I get it, you love your precious pooch, but the rest of us came to shop and eat, not to navigate through a canine convention or a pet parade. Malls are not the place for your fur babies to showcase their barking skills and sniffing habits. Seriously, leave them at home or take them to an open park where they can actually enjoy themselves instead of being dragged through crowded, noisy stores.
I know — especially in Manila and other major cities in PH there aren’t enough parks, so naturally, the solution is to bring your entitled pets to a shop or restaurant where they can slobber over everything. Insert sarcastic cough.
Malls being greedy enterprises too will never have regulations on this, but perhaps there should be some etiquette around this? (LOL asa pa on etiquette sa Pinas).
Also MOST of the dog owners who bring their pets to malls seem more interested in validation and showing off their fluffy accessories than considering how annoying it is for everyone else. The world doesn’t revolve around your dog, people. Iwan mo sa bahay mga yan --- but then again how can you get all the attention and Validation?
EDIT: To be clear, I love dogs and love pets in general. But they need to be kept in their proper places, especially if they're yappy, noisy, and unhygienic and if you're not conscientious enough about other humans. It's not my problem na random Reddit people have low reading comprehension skills and critical thinking skills and don't distinguish nuance.
EDIT 2: Madami talagang Pinoy Redditors na kulang sa reading comprehension and critical thinking, and yayabang pa displaying their idiocy. Which is not surprising kasi mababa naman quality ng education sa Pilipinas at mediocre talaga ang culture at quality of life ng 99% of people. Walang sense of space, responsibility, and social contracts. Which is fine. This post just proves the point na kadiri talaga ang viewpoints at kawawa ang Pilipinas.

I struggle to understand my feelings with all of this beyond the general names of sadness, frustration, anger, and so much guilt. But here’s what I’ve got:
My father just retired from his very high pay, high stakes job and my mother is a housewife and has had major health issues for years(probably from abuse/anxiety/stress, maybe also eating/exercise disorders). She thought that after years, maybe decades, of him taking his job stress and snapping at her and getting loud to make her be quiet, that their relationship would be fine once he retired. It is not. They don’t comunicate, spend as little time in the same building as eachother as they can, and he still just yells to get his way. Which she still responds to by crying, panicking, and then secretly doing something destructive behind his back(trying to give the family dog that he loves to the pound).
I have had it with this pattern. And I am haunted by guilt because this frustration and anger is mostly with her. Logically I know my father is problematic, but I have a very positive relationship with him. We talk about the things we’ve been doing once a week and he listens to me without being judgemental. Most importantly he doesn’t involve me in their drama. Talking to my mom, however, has a 50/50 chance of ruining my day with guilt, anger, and sadness. I always say the wrong thing and I feel like I’m abusing her or giving the worst advise. Can’t suggest therapy, divorce, or learning to communicate better with him for the 500th time, she will shut down or twist it into me telling her to do something vindictive. My mother is a wall, a very depressing and depressed wall.
I feel so bad, I know my mom is so lonely and scared. But everyone is to infuriatingly stuck doing the same dumb things, mom won’t change, dad won’t change, and that just leaves me confronting my dad as the only untried solution.
Am I a bad person if I don’t? I like having his call each week, and honestly the thought of confronting him about anything makes my stomach drop. Mom doesn’t call anymore, so I call her every 1-2 weeks when the guilt gets to much, and I start on that same guilty note each time.

It’s so humbling when u get forced back into the present, whether it’s your headphones catching on something, or you just full on collide against walls and corners. I think the worst is when my dogs muzzle catches on it and when she moves, she just yanks them out of my ears, and I can do nothing about it.
It gives me such a love/hate relationship with dissociating, because as much as I love using it, I’ll also be less aware of my surroundings and become way more clumsy. As a weird bonus, I’ll make faces or mumble to myself, and I just know I look odd from an outsider’s perspective. I use to do hand movements too, but my family kept making fun of me for doing it, so I just stopped, which was probably for the best.
And yes I know I can get wireless earbuds/headphones, but I swear to you, I’ll lose them so fast, because I forget where I put them. I mean it’s the same with normal headphones and earbuds, but I guess I’d have a higher chance of finding them? I wasn’t really looking for a solution to this, it’s more of a vent that I hope other people can relate to when dissociating/maladaptive daydreaming.