Photo graduated bob

I dreamed that I was getting ready for grad check in university. As I was reading up, I saw a photo of this semesters graduates. It was at an Italian winery where a part of it had been converted to several event halls and a public tourism area. In the photo, a man and a woman were posing next to a guy who looked equally like Robin Williams and a teacher who was instrumental to me in high school.
Suddenly, I was at the event. Behind the bar, there’s a computer on a swivel mount and a tall guy with curly black hair and a beard was reading the grad requirements page for the university. Swooning jazz songs played as people walked by with their framed degrees. Afterwards, it seemed to be a tradition that everyone in attendance sing one of the four jazz songs that were played, regardless of the person’s musical prowess. As I waited for this balding guy who was very out of tune to finish singing, I saw an odd sight.
A pair of jeans was being lowered from the third floor with a woman climbing down them, when the people below saw her, they each grabbed a leg and eased her to the ground.

I was clearing the chat of an old friend, I just felt that we were out of touch and whatever just wanted to stop reaching out. Then looking at the chat photos, and I saw her sitting across from me at a diner with a big smile happy to have my company. I felt a surge of emotion, like a spike of action potentials moving up my spine as I embraced the photo. My first love, someone I shared everything with from my late teens and early twenties, and someone who was so deceitful and promiscuous. I was shocked on how to interpret her. I have just graduated college and I have so much potential ahead of me. To look at a relic of my past made me tear up because I long to be in that moment again; I still haven’t found a connection that strong despite it being with such an awful person. She was beautiful, but I know with her behavior it would’ve never lasted. I saved the picture and left it in a hidden folder because the emotion I felt was so powerful it made me feel happy to be alive.

Hi,
I am someone who just get his foot into basic coding and programming. Did some Python and now C and just finished my Data Science bootcamp and completed my CCNA (out of curiosity ) and Cyber Security short course certificate with TP. I am 23 years old with 5 Os and 2 A levels ( A in both Further math and Mathematic -Private candidate ) I love Math haha but did horribly in my GP (d) Completed my NS 2 years ago and working as a full time Math tutor at a local private institute .
So ya the Laptop I am using now is an old Lenovo with 8gb Ram and 256 SSD i5. It seems okay for now but I have to return it to a friend.
Since I am going to start my SIT CS degree the next 3 years I clearly need to get a better laptop. On a budget and not wanting to get any brand new ones as my older brother and sisters will give me 5 k if I graduated so I can get a brand new laptop haha, not a rich family at all just supportive and trying our best for each other.
Before you advise me and help me out on the specs please bear in mind and consider that I am not a gamer or collect photos or videos so this upcoming laptop is only for learning Programming/Coding/ etc and not wanting a Mac as I have a Mac mini for my Logic Pro music project and wants to use a Window laptop for my budget reasons . My hobbies are music production editing classical music and I love higher math ( completed CET in undergraduate Math with SUSS )
So here's my option . An older cousin is selling his Lenovo 7th gen i7 Thinkpad X1 Carbon for only $380 ! The price is family price lol and I think I saw he put on Carousel for 600-700
i7 -1050 , 16GB Ram and 512 SSD , Windows 10and Its like totally brand new condition ! he bought it years back on impulse and the battery is impressive ( toyed with it for a day ).
Will this laptop suffice for my next 3 years SIT CS journey? I have no intentions of storing videos or gaming etc absolutely nothing so strictly for SIT CS.
Okay time for me to go and see an old friend to teach me some programming and languages
I value your time coming here to advise me, Thanks everyone

Hi! Took two graduation photos but when I popped the champagne…it didn’t spray 😞 If anyone can help photoshop so it looks like it actually sprayed would be greatly appreciated! Verified editors only. To protect my identity, I’ll send the pictures in DM. Please send me your portfolio or anything you’ve done before similar if you have it! Happy to pay more if you can get it done within a few days. Thank you so much!

I have just graduated with my teaching degree and am looking for some funny/witty captions I can post with my graduation photos - any ideas are welcome! Thank you in advance!

this is going to be a lengthy post. i have only posted here on reddit once, so forgive me for any mistakes.
as the title says, my best friend cut me off for no reason. for some context, this happened just a couple days before our high school graduation, which was today, 05/18.
i guess this started on thursday, which was the day of our senior picnic my high school organized. since she was in an ap exam for the first half of the picnic, she showed up late as she had mentioned she would before. my other friend (who is also one of our best friends, we have a trio as well as another friend group) and i show up and join a group of friends to sit with. after about 30 minutes, my best friend shows up.
she stayed for 5 minutes. five. minutes. she said one thing, which was just a question about my english class. i responded to her, and she went on her phone for the short time she was there. the conversation was steered towards her multiple times, but she acted uninterested. to be clear, she wasn’t angry - she was very friendly the entire time although she only spoke once.
suddenly she gets up, announces she’s going to the bathroom in a friendly tone, and she never comes back. multiple friends and i text asking her where she went, to which she told us she had left. when my other friend asked her why, she said she didn’t want to text the reason why and would rather speak in person? everybody was confused.
i give her some time to cool down, and later i text her asking if she is upset about something. no response. days go by, still nothing. so, i send one more text saying if she’s angry about something then that is okay, but i want her to communicate it instead of ignoring everybody. still nothing and now it is the night after our graduation ceremony.
she skipped our good friend’s grad party, skipped a hang out our friend group planned, and is ignoring everybody but the other best friend i had mentioned before that she wanted to “talk to privately”. she didn’t meet with us for photos with our caps and gowns, didn’t clap for me when my name was called, nothing.
my best friend has a history of losing people. i never pried or looked into it since it was from her past, but so many people i talk to have some issue with her. i’m trying to not take it personally as more and more people express the same thing happened to them with her. it just hurts because this is 4 years down the drain over something that i don’t know. i’ve never lost a friend before, i don’t think i have ever even argued with a friend before so this is all very new to me. my friend group is very supportive and has given me a shoulder to lean on, but it hurts. if she cared about the friendship, i thought she would work with me instead of against me.
i just don’t get it. we were talking that morning before her exam and everything was normal. to me, her ignoring me shows she never really valued the friendship or cared for me enough. i just feel so heartbroken.

My Advice As a 2024 High school Graduate
My last day of Senior year is tomorrow and I have a few things I wanna say to those of you still in middle school/ high school.
Things I believe I did well - and things I believe you should do well too :)
• Push yourself out of your comfort zone - whether that be by taking a hard class or doing that activity you’re iffy about. You can always drop something if it’s too hard but it’s better to start and fail than never try. I took AP Chem my junior year and it kicked my ass, but in the end it was my favorite class in high school and I passed the exam :) Science rocks.
• This is SOOOOO cliche, but please, do something you actually like in high school. I participated in activities I actually cared deeply about and was able to talk about to other people as well as write about in college/ scholarship applications. I got into a top university and a bunch of scholarships. Just make it a priority to do things you like - no matter what it is - and be a leader in it.
• Be friendly to everyone, yes, even the people you despise. Honestly, you never know who will be able to help you down the line. The treasurer at my school is notoriously mean and I actually made the effort to get to know her and speak to her kindly. She then waived all of my school fees so I didn’t have to pay anything. And not just because they can do something for you but because being kind is just what’s right.
Things I wish I did/ did better - don’t be like me!
• Tell my best friend about my feelings for him. I’ve loved him for 4 years and have always been too shy/insecure to say anything about it. And now he’s going away for university, we’ll never be together like we were in high school again. Just bite the bullet and move on, not worth the tears lol. But oddly I don’t necessarily regret this decision. (Wish I would’ve had just ONE boyfriend at least lmao)
• I wish I was less insecure. People do not care about you like you think they do. This sounds harsh but there’s freedom in this truth. Wear what you want, don’t cover your smile when you laugh, take that picture (because when you graduate - or in 20 years - you’ll wish you had that stupid photo of you from Freshman year)
• Fixed this cursed sleep schedule and formed better habits. I have an abomination of a sleep Schedule. I get 4 hours on average and have no idea what it’s like to feel well rested. Since I’m always tired I don’t go to the gym and yeah - downward spiral. Health is the most valuable thing you can possess, treat yourself kindly.
Good luck everyone!

So this has all happened within the past few weeks. A girl Im friends with at college is a senior, and I will be a sophomore. I jokingly said that she should help me practice kissing for next semester and she said that if I didn’t kiss at all when I graduated she would kiss me. I then jokingly said that I gotta wait three years and then she said that she’ll do it at her graduation instead which is next year. She is 100% serious. What does this mean? Does she like me? Think Im attractive? Or just wants to do something nice for me because she’s a really good friend? I sorta like her and find her pretty attractive but I already like another girl who just got in a relationship. She has told me she likes another guy but she hasn’t really elaborated much past that. However she knows the guy she likes doesn’t like her back. She wanted to FT me that same night to fall asleep because she’s wasn’t feeling well and having birthday depression because she doesn’t like her birthday. What does this add to the story already talked about?
Then cut to the day after where she went swimming and when she told me I jokingly said to not send swimsuit photos and she then later sent a mirror photo of her smiling, however she was in a tank top and jean shorts and not her swimsuit. Then a couple hours later she sent me another mirror photo in said tank top and jean shorts showing me her sunburn, she was making a sorta laughing smirking face with puffed out cheeks. However she sent a photo to a group chat we are both in but it was a different photo of her. It was definitely taken back to back with each other and the gc photo was more a goofy face/expression. Could that mean anything? Then fast forward to tonight where she asked me if she could send me a photo of her “looking good” (her words). I ofc say yes and she sends another mirror photo in a black tank top and black nike pro shorts, while having a flirty smirk on her face. She said she needed approval before she sent the photo to her mom and when I asked why she need approval to send a picture to her own mother, she responded with she’s scared of sending photos to her mom which I asked why and she replied with “Idk why I’m weird ok.” She then told me that she used to have someone to approve her photos but doesn’t anymore and that she can be herself around me, I told her she can always come to me for approval and she said she appreciated it. Was that photo meant for me or actually for her mom? Is she genuinely just wanting my opinion on photos of her? Or is there something else Im not seeing?
Then yesterday she was out boating and swimming again and she sent me a picture captioned “I hope I stay this tan” and its just a photo of her sitting down and her camera is just showing off her thighs and legs. Is there anything in that or am I just being crazy?

Random thought that I’d like to take ask Reddit, as Iv seen a few graduation posts or photos the past few weeks captioned “Dr. xyz, J.D.”
They’re technically not wrong with putting the doctor in front of their names, right??
What’s everyone’s thoughts on this lol
Is saying “Dr. xyz, J.D.” common/appropriate?

WARNING: Long post/ sx situation.
To understand the situation you need to know our history.
My ex-best friend (now 22F) and I (now 21F) haven't spoken in 2 years.
We met in school and did not like eachother, but we soon became good friends. I would spend weeks sleeping over at her ( I will call her Grace) house and she introduced me to grass and nic.
I grew up very modest and I was still a virgin when we met. One day we were talking with another one of her friends (I will call her Amanda) abt this fact and I jokingly told them that sometimes I just wished I could get it over with but that I was sure it would happen eventually. Let me be clear I was laughing and I think I even rolled my eyes, Grace responds with "I know a guy around the corner, let me call him" I told her no, and reiterated that I was joking. She said no, no, you should just get it over with and was still typing on her phone, I found out she sent a photo of me to him.
10 minutes later we were sitting in her room, Grace, Amanda, myself, and this dude ive never seen before (I will call him Ron). Amanda bent over and told me that if i didnt do it she would. The two girls then left the room and he just started kissing me.
I wont get too personal but it happened and i felt disgusting, dirty and used. During, I found out that he didnt know I was a virgin and felt guilty, but kept going anyway..
I went home and kept talking to Grace (I struggle to get friends and was nieve). Ron ended up adding me on snapchat and again, my nieve self thought i should try to stay with him because he was my first.
Grace never brought it up again, but she would always come to me with her issues but never wanted to hear about mine. Now having more life experience I realise that she wasn't a good friend but I still loved her nonetheless.
A couple months later I was packing to move (again) and told Ron that I wasnt going to do long distance and he carved my name into his arm and I found out that he is nutssss.
After I moved I would text Grace often and then she ghosted me for 9 months and came back into my life when her and her bf (that she was living with) were splitting up. (AGAIN when she needed me)
This happened to be right before my highschool graduation (I believe it was on the Saturday before, I was graduating the next Friday). She asked me if she could come stay with me for a couple of days (at this point i lived over 3hrs away) and I told her "well I am graduating on Friday so you could probably come until Wednesday" and she agreed and left that day. She ended up asking to stay through my graduation and I responded with a hesitant sure.
Throughout that week we went everyday to find a graduation dress for me and a swimsuit for her because we were doing a graduation swim and party the day after my graduation.
The day of my graduation she wanted to go look for a swimsuit for her and I said sure and we ended up staying way to long and by the time we were headed home I needed to be at the school in an hour and a half and she needed to be there in two and a half hours.
As soon as we got back to my place she gathered her stuff to shower and I said I was hoping to shower first bc i need to be there soon and she said ill be fast and just went to shower so I was trying to get everything laid out to put on and my makeup laid out so I could be fast. After she got out I raced to shower as fast as I could so I wouldnt be late and I come back in my towel, when i opened the door she was wearing a dress so short if she bent over everyone could see all the goods and the front of the dress was so low her boob could pop out at any second (she is heavy chested). Come to find out my two younger male cousins, and my grandmother saw her nipple that day. I will tell you the dress I wore was very modest catholic (high-neckline, knee-length).
I felt like she was trying to pull the attention to her. I asked her to leave after my graduation and she threw a fit and left. I didnt talk to her after that and didnt respond to her text asking me to ship some items she left.
After over two years of no contact she contacted me and left me this voice mail "Hey sweetie, it's Grace. I just wanted to give you a call and check on you, its been a minute. I just wanted to talk about what happened a while back and I wanted to clear the air with you because oh stupid there's been a lot going on. Theres a lot of stupid, stupid, stupid things. I kinda regret a lot of stupid things one of them being our friendship thats for sure, so give me a call back okay? or at least listen to this voicemail and text me if you dont want to talk to me but i love you I hope to hear from you soon.
I found out that she is now getting married and has no friends to be in her wedding party, I feel bad and I think I might be an asshole for not responding or calling back, AITA?

WARNING: Long post/ sx situation.
To understand the situation you need to know our history.
My ex-best friend (now 22F) and I (now 21F) haven't spoken in 2 years.
We met in school and did not like eachother, but we soon became good friends. I would spend weeks sleeping over at her ( I will call her Grace) house and she introduced me to grass and nic.
I grew up very modest and I was still a virgin when we met. One day we were talking with another one of her friends (I will call her Amanda) abt this fact and I jokingly told them that sometimes I just wished I could get it over with but that I was sure it would happen eventually. Let me be clear I was laughing and I think I even rolled my eyes, Grace responds with "I know a guy around the corner, let me call him" I told her no, and reiterated that I was joking. She said no, no, you should just get it over with and was still typing on her phone, I found out she sent a photo of me to him.
10 minutes later we were sitting in her room, Grace, Amanda, myself, and this dude ive never seen before (I will call him Ron). Amanda bent over and told me that if i didnt do it she would. The two girls then left the room and he just started kissing me.
I wont get too personal but it happened and i felt disgusting, dirty and used. During, I found out that he didnt know I was a virgin and felt guilty, but kept going anyway..
I went home and kept talking to Grace (I struggle to get friends and was nieve). Ron ended up adding me on snapchat and again, my nieve self thought i should try to stay with him because he was my first.
Grace never brought it up again, but she would always come to me with her issues but never wanted to hear about mine. Now having more life experience I realise that she wasn't a good friend but I still loved her nonetheless.
A couple months later I was packing to move (again) and told Ron that I wasnt going to do long distance and he carved my name into his arm and I found out that he is nutssss.
After I moved I would text Grace often and then she ghosted me for 9 months and came back into my life when her and her bf (that she was living with) were splitting up. (AGAIN when she needed me)
This happened to be right before my highschool graduation (I believe it was on the Saturday before, I was graduating the next Friday). She asked me if she could come stay with me for a couple of days (at this point i lived over 3hrs away) and I told her "well I am graduating on Friday so you could probably come until Wednesday" and she agreed and left that day. She ended up asking to stay through my graduation and I responded with a hesitant sure.
Throughout that week we went everyday to find a graduation dress for me and a swimsuit for her because we were doing a graduation swim and party the day after my graduation.
The day of my graduation she wanted to go look for a swimsuit for her and I said sure and we ended up staying way to long and by the time we were headed home I needed to be at the school in an hour and a half and she needed to be there in two and a half hours.
As soon as we got back to my place she gathered her stuff to shower and I said I was hoping to shower first bc i need to be there soon and she said ill be fast and just went to shower so I was trying to get everything laid out to put on and my makeup laid out so I could be fast. After she got out I raced to shower as fast as I could so I wouldnt be late and I come back in my towel, when i opened the door she was wearing a dress so short if she bent over everyone could see all the goods and the front of the dress was so low her boob could pop out at any second (she is heavy chested). Come to find out my two younger male cousins, and my grandmother saw her nipple that day. I will tell you the dress I wore was very modest catholic (high-neckline, knee-length).
I felt like she was trying to pull the attention to her. I asked her to leave after my graduation and she threw a fit and left. I didnt talk to her after that and didnt respond to her text asking me to ship some items she left.
After over two years of no contact she contacted me and left me this voice mail "Hey sweetie, it's Grace. I just wanted to give you a call and check on you, its been a minute. I just wanted to talk about what happened a while back and I wanted to clear the air with you because oh stupid there's been a lot going on. Theres a lot of stupid, stupid, stupid things. I kinda regret a lot of stupid things one of them being our friendship thats for sure, so give me a call back okay? or at least listen to this voicemail and text me if you dont want to talk to me but i love you I hope to hear from you soon.
I found out that she is now getting married and has no friends to be in her wedding party, I feel bad and I think I might be an asshole for not responding or calling back, AITA?

First / Previous
​
Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
​
THE END
​
First / Previous
***
Patreon
My Website
/storiesbykaren

People are already being stupid because it’s not one but both major school districts in my area having high school graduation.
I’m trying to juggle getting bays done and photo since my CSA doesn’t know anything. I’m heading to the stockroom, and a door dasher shoves his phone right into my face asking where a product was and I tell him the aisle number and go on my way to do an IC3 for the front.
I hear the lovely voice of Walgreens telling me that someone needs the pravagen unlocked. I go to unlocked it and lo and behold it’s the same doordasher, shoving his phone in my face for the exact same product. I tell him again that it’s in said aisle and next to the Vicks products and to go look as I was yet again being called away. As I leave, I get told by him that I should clock out and go home if I didn’t want to my job. Like you want me to close the store so your dumbass can’t do your job, because that’ll what happen if I do.

Hey y’all,
I recently graduated from college and was given money for a grad gift. I decided I wanted a camera, as I’ve always been interested in photography and used to rent out DSLRs from my college just to take photos. But, I will admit I’m no pro.
I want a camera that’s more compact and I can take with me everywhere in my bag, as I plan to travel soon and also go to quite a few concerts before this year ends. I decided on the Sony Cybershot RX100 series, as I have a friend who takes hers to concerts and carries around in general and the shots she gets are beautiful. She has the RX100 VI.
Based on my prior research, I know the V tends to get higher marks from the community overall, but I’m aware that the VI has better zoom capabilities.
I suppose my main question would be, is the trade off in zoom something I can look over? If I were to take a photo, could I get away with cropping it and it still looking pretty good? Obviously, I know quality will be compromised the more I crop. But I also know the V tends to perform better in low light. My main concern is where I’m not super close at a concert (or to my subject in general in day to day) and the photos don’t come out as good. I know the photos don’t have to be of just the subject to be good, but in case I wanted to do so.
I also might take occasional videos, but I don’t think too often. My main focus is for photos.
In terms of budget, I have enough to afford a used RX100 V with the grad money, where as I’d have to dip into my own savings for a used VI.
Let me know your opinions, any advice is appreciated. Thanks!