Hello I don’t know what to expect or how to prepare. My mother has early Alzheimer’s and although she is still independent for most things she needs lost of help but. Main concern is that mom is upset bc she doesn’t believe require any help but I do so much for her. She is good with toileting and personal care just needs reminders but she does frequently lock herself out of the house so I installed a camera and alarms on all doors windows. Things like shopping, planning meals, and cooking have become too complicated for her or she just forgets to eat. She lost 15 lbs since last year her said it was bc of her disease and said she needed someone to start supervising her meals so I do all the cooking and shopping for her. She also frequently forgets the stove on and burns pots. She has tried and gotten into the wrong cars when we are out as well and she is no longer able to drive, can’t pay bills or keep appointments. She does weir things m like instead of turning on the heater she decides to turn on the stove to warm herself which scares me bc it is a gas stove and I even caught her once trying to put her foot on the stove bc her feet were cold. Will this be enough to get approved for hours? Do I need documentation from her dr? Please help I don’t know how this works I don’t have Facebook and the SW seems very rude and short on the phone. She didn’t even let me explain anything just gave me the date of the visit.

I recently bought two crts to game on. Both use RCA (one has a SCART port). I want to use both as secondary monitors to my main PC.
How would I go about this is the simplest (and cheapest) way possible?
Edit: I only have 1 hdmi port available

Hi everyone,
With your guidance I think I solved 6c and 6d. If someone has time can someone check my work Thank you

TL:DR Slim, mature, responsible, and intellectual guy seeking a petite to average size (as in, not overweight, not that you have to be short haha) younger girl (18 or older) that's going to graduate HS this year, or did recently (i.e. the last few years or so) that wants the build the deepest, most romantic and loving relationship with someone that genuinely wants to get to know and understand them on a deep level! Also, someone that will DEEPLY appreciate them, on a level most boys her age could only dream of. Someone that will THOROUGHLY enjoy spending TONS of time with you, savoring every second, loving the memories you're making together, and the things you learn about each other as you get to know and understand each other that much better! A girl that wants to experience a "young love" style of romance, and by that I mean going on all sorts of dates, including some cheesy ones, holding hands a lot while we walk around in parks, at the mall, even at the supermarket if you wish (if you're super shy we can hold off on the PDA such as hand holding until you're more comfortable). By "young love" I also mean just being very romantic, excited to see and spend time with each other, and also lots of hugs and cuddles and kisses (only in private is fine at first if you're shy). Do all sorts of things in life together, cuddle, travel, explore, and just in general enjoy life together and spending time together. Also trying lots of new things together and really appreciating the memories we're making together! Basically just going all-in on the romance / relationship and giving it our all, and just thoroughly enjoying the ride as we get to know each other better and better, and hopefully we click well enough to stay together forever! <3
So that gives you a decent idea of who and what I'm looking for, but there's still more details I'd like to go into, as well as telling some more about myself, so you can better understand who I am.
Ideally I'm looking for a girl that just graduated HS (or did in the last few years), but anyone up to ~25 or so is welcome. If you're shy, even extremely shy, or have strict parents [those aren't requirements either], this could be a great opportunity for you, as I used to be extremely shy when I was younger too (and also had strict / controlling parents, so I understand how that can be too). If you're outgoing, and/or just want to explore new things and places in life, that's cool and fine too! Size wise, as I'm a relatively slim guy myself, I'm attracted to girls that are petite to average weight. I want to be able to do some athletic things together like walking/jogging/perhaps some sports (and/or other things, depending on what you're into). So it's not just an attraction thing that I'm not interested in people overweight, it's a matter of lifestyle / mentality / and being able to do certain things together. Of course I expect my partner to have the same expectations of me, that I don't get fat either.
Anyways, moving on, so thanks for reading my post so far, and if you're looking for what I'd described, hopefully you'll read on and find me interesting, and if so, PLEASE send me a message! It's fine if you are just curious and want to ask some questions and learn more first, before making any decisions / jumping into anything! With that in mind, let me describe myself a bit. I'm a slim, intellectual guy, often been called cute, and I'm pretty upbeat and optimistic, but I've been a bit lonely lately and would LOVE to find a girl that wants a deep, loving, emotionally and mentally close relationship, and is willing to put in the time and effort to build that - assuming of course we click well enough. That doesn't mean we need to rush into things, and I'm not looking to - I'm just saying that should be our end goal. If we date for a while and then decide we're not a close enough match, well, it happens sometimes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try! So, to address the elephant in the room, yes, I would be a good bit older than you, so obviously you need to be OK with dating a middle aged guy, and I realize that's not for everyone - and that's fine. I'm not looking to pressure anyone into anything. But I also know that there most definitely ARE some girls out there that are open to that, as well as some that specifically prefer that. There's advantages to dating someone a bit older than you, such as them being a lot more mature, responsible, considerate, respectful, and, perhaps most importantly, appreciate life and a deep relationship sooooo much more. Someone whom knows when they have someone special with them, and can appreciate and enjoy that on a level that someone your age can't. Anyways, as long as you're genuinely open to a deep, serious relationship with someone my age, hopefully someday leading to a serious LTR and kids, that's fine. Like I said, I'm not looking to rush into anything, I want to spend some time chatting and getting to know each other first, so we can get comfortable with each other before meeting. So if you're shy, even extremely shy, don't worry, it's OK! I actually used to be EXTREMELY shy when I was young, so I totally understand how that can be, and I usually can get along well with shy people because I've been there and understand where they're coming from. Also, if needed I can carry the conversation until you start getting more comfortable and more talkative. ;) If you've been too shy to talk to guys you like (or possibly you do like older guys but are WAY too shy to approach one) - but genuinely DO want a relationship and would love to find someone willing to spend the time to get to know and truly understand you, this could be the opportunity you're looking for! On the other hand, if you're outgoing and love to chat [and looking for a relationship], that's totally fine too! haha Both sides of that coin can be fun, so I'm cool with either way you are. ;)
Alternatively, maybe you had a bad time at prom (or some other romantic event you were looking forward to), or didn't go, or didn't have anyone to go with, or maybe it was OK but didn't nearly live up to your expectations, and would love to get to have some romantic evenings and memories. Or maybe you just didn't get out much (or had super strict parents that didn't let you) and want to get out into the world and explore new places and new things, etc. and would love to have a romantic partner to share all those experiences and memories together with!
...or maybe you had suuuuper strict parents and want to finally get out from under the rock you were living under and finally get to see and do many of the things you've wanted to for a long time! (I would totally understand this one as I had very strict parents)
Maybe you've had a few relationships before but you never clicked very deeply with any of them (and/or they were just too immature), and you're looking for a relationship that's much deeper and more meaningful than that. Or maybe you've never had anyone that you've connected well enough to to feel that they really understand you. ...while I can't promise that we'll click well enough for that to happen, I'd like that to be the goal, and there's certainly a non-zero chance of it happening haha.
Perhaps you're REALLY wanting to be able to fully dive into a relationship as soon as you graduate, and are looking forward to, not necessarily Prom [although possibly that too], but also/mostly just would love to be able to take a long romantic vacation / visit once you're done with school and have some freedom. An opportunity to be yourself and learn about both yourself and your romantic partner.
Or, lastly, maybe you're just single and would love to have someone to cuddle with, talk to, share everything with, watch movies or shows together with, play games together, and travel or explore together!
Anyways, whatever the case is for you, if you think I'm interesting and would like to explore some or all of those things, I'd love to hear from you! Before I get too far ahead of myself, let you tell you a little about me. I'm 39 (but I look a bit younger), white, 5'11" and relatively slim at 165 lbs. I enjoy walking and jogging in the park, as well as exploring new parks / seeing new places and new scenery. Although it's 100 times better when I have someone to enjoy that with and talk to meanwhile! <3 Anyways, I do have a number of nerdy interests - games, movies, anime, computers, science stuff, etc., but I can also enjoy long conversations with a date, walks in the park - or on the beach, playing board, card, or video games together, or sports, etc. Plus I'm open to learning some interests of yours - I can't promise I'll be interested in all of your interests, but it's extremely likely that I'd at least enjoy hearing you talk about them, and some of them I may be happy to join you in (this is very likely). We don't need to share ALL of the same interests, as long as we share a few haha. As far as games go, I'm primarily (almost entirely) a PC gamer, but I occasionally play some console games (primarily older consoles). My favorite thing to do is to cuddle up and watch something fun or interesting, such as movies, YouTube (I watch a lot of YouTube), Anime, Netflix, or Kdramas (occasionally). So you need to at minimum be someone whom would enjoy cuddling up and watching things together with me haha ... but then, almost everyone enjoys doing that. Oh, and I also have a relatively newfound love for Theme Parks and water parks since I recently started going back to them for the first time as an adult recently, and there's many more I'd love to go to - as well as re-visit the ones I've been to with someone special going with me to share the experience with. <3 I'm also curious to try out some amusement parks now that I'm getting more comfortable on rollercoasters.
Anyways, that's a bit about me, I'd love to hear some about you and what your interests are! And maybe note some shared interests that we have! Of course I do have some additional interests, I haven't listed EVERYTHING haha, nor do you need to in a first message haha. Just because my post is long doesn't mean your messages have to be haha. ;)
As for requirements for you, I'm pretty open minded on most things, so I'll try to keep the requirements pretty minimal. Ideally I'm looking for someone that's white or Asian, or some mix thereof (i.e. if you're 50/50, or 50/50 white or Asian and something else, that's fine). I'd consider making exceptions to this for the right person, if we really clicked otherwise. ;) Age wise, while it would be nice to find someone about to graduate HS (and is excited to use their newfound freedom to explore so many new things in life and the world), I'm willing to consider someone a bit older, up to early to mid 20s, as long as we share a number of interests and you feel like you're looking for something similar to what I've described. It's more that I'm looking for someone with a certain mindset and/or at a certain point in their life, not necessarily that they're SUPER young. My main requirement is, as someone that's slim (and sometimes athletic, when I have time to get more exercise), I need you to also BE [as opposed "working on it"] average weight or below, and plan to stay there (but also to expect me to as well - I don't expect anything from a partner that I don't have at LEAST as high expectations of myself about). I find petite girls super cute, but average size girls are fun and cute as well! Both sizes have their fun and interesting points haha, so I'm fine if you're either one.
Anyways, I think I've talked long enough for now haha, but that gives you a decent idea what I'm looking for plus some basics about me. As the title says, while ideally I'd love to find someone within 3 hours of Harrisonburg, VA, I'm willing to consider someone anywhere in the US (probably just the lower 48 states). Drives longer than 3 hours are definitely still very plausible, possibly even 8 or 10 hours perhaps, and flying is an option if you live significantly further away (plus points if you live anywhere remotely near a major airport, but that's not a requirement). Anyways, my point is, if you're further away than a few hours drive, I'd need you to be willing to travel / work with the distance when the time comes - particularly with the drastically increased costs of gas/travel these days. For example, if you're pretty far away, then after the first visit or two, we'd probably need to be planning longer visits when one of us travels to the other. Anyways, I'm not looking to rush into meeting, but I'm also NOT INTERESTED in an online only relationship. We need to start meeting in person in the relatively near future (i.e. a few weeks or so (possibly several weeks if you're far), assuming we talk a good bit during those few weeks). Also, I'm willing to come to you the first visit (or perhaps more) if you're far, but after the first visit or two you'd need to be willing to visit me (I might be willing to pay for your flight if you can't, we'll see), as that's going to be a LOT cheaper than me flying out somewhere, getting a hotel, and renting a car. On the other hand, if you're much closer, within a reasonably driving range, if needed I could pick you up in my car once you're ready to visit (and I can just drive to you for the first few visits). And if you're within 3 hours or so drive, I'm happy to drive to you for several visits at first, until you're ready to visit me. Regardless of the timing, I'm not going to pressure you do visit me before you're comfortable doing so, and it's something we can play by ear. For example, if you're someone that's super shy I understand if it takes a few extra times of me visiting you before you're ready to visit me, or perhaps we need to chat some extra time first, etc.
Well, thanks for reading my rather long post haha, hopefully I've piqued your interest, and if so, I'd love to hear from you! Certainly feel free to ask me any questions you may have, either if you're interested, or if you're curious but need to know some more before you know if you're interested haha. Also, I'm happy to exchange some (clean!) pictures of each other after a few messages. On that note, when you message me, please tell me at least a little about you (i.e. age, race, height/weight, and a little about you and what you're looking for). Thanks again, and hopefully this can be a great opportunity for both of us, and the start of something amazing!
P.S. To the SUPER shy and lurkers out there - yes, you, you know who you are - if you've been looking and wanting a relationship for a while, but have been too shy to ever post yourself or respond to a post, but you find me / what I'm looking for interesting, THIS is the post for you, THE one you've been waiting for. I've talked to a few VERY shy girls occasionally, and it was such an amazing experience for some of them to talk to someone that understands them and is willing to take the time to get to know them, and give them time to get comfortable before meeting. Someone that can help them slowly come out of their shell, gently nudging them to try new things and slowly be more outgoing, but without being pushy. So if that's you, you fit what I described that I'm looking for, and you're THAT shy but really DO want to be in a relationship, THIS is the post that's the opportunity for you. You've found the person that's willing to spend the time to get to know you and let you get comfortable, and also the guy that's going to enjoy and appreciate spending time with you in person if/when we get to that point (hopefully, that's the objective). I understand that shy girls, if you can get to know them well enough that they get comfortable with you, can often build some of the deepest emotional connections, because they appreciate the few close friends they do have SO much moreso than average people. So, if that's you, and you've been wanting a relationship for a while but been too shy to message anyone, PLEASE do this time! <3 I can carry the conversation if needed, but you need to at least say "hi" so that I know you're interested! [If you're too shy to say much, just say "Hi, I'm shy but I'd love to chat" or something like that]. :) Romance doesn't have to be just something you read about in books or watch in movies, YOU CAN experience it yourself! <3

TL:DR Slim, mature, responsible, and intellectual guy seeking a petite to average size (as in, not overweight, not that you have to be short haha) younger girl (18 or older) that's going to graduate HS this year, or did recently (i.e. the last few years or so) that wants the build the deepest, most romantic and loving relationship with someone that genuinely wants to get to know and understand them on a deep level! Also, someone that will DEEPLY appreciate them, on a level most boys her age could only dream of. Someone that will THOROUGHLY enjoy spending TONS of time with you, savoring every second, loving the memories you're making together, and the things you learn about each other as you get to know and understand each other that much better! A girl that wants to experience a "young love" style of romance, and by that I mean going on all sorts of dates, including some cheesy ones, holding hands a lot while we walk around in parks, at the mall, even at the supermarket if you wish (if you're super shy we can hold off on the PDA such as hand holding until you're more comfortable). By "young love" I also mean just being very romantic, excited to see and spend time with each other, and also lots of hugs and cuddles and kisses (only in private is fine at first if you're shy). Do all sorts of things in life together, cuddle, travel, explore, and just in general enjoy life together and spending time together. Also trying lots of new things together and really appreciating the memories we're making together! Basically just going all-in on the romance / relationship and giving it our all, and just thoroughly enjoying the ride as we get to know each other better and better, and hopefully we click well enough to stay together forever! <3
So that gives you a decent idea of who and what I'm looking for, but there's still more details I'd like to go into, as well as telling some more about myself, so you can better understand who I am.
Ideally I'm looking for a girl that just graduated HS (or did in the last few years), but anyone up to ~25 or so is welcome. If you're shy, even extremely shy, or have strict parents [those aren't requirements either], this could be a great opportunity for you, as I used to be extremely shy when I was younger too (and also had strict / controlling parents, so I understand how that can be too). If you're outgoing, and/or just want to explore new things and places in life, that's cool and fine too! Size wise, as I'm a relatively slim guy myself, I'm attracted to girls that are petite to average weight. I want to be able to do some athletic things together like walking/jogging/perhaps some sports (and/or other things, depending on what you're into). So it's not just an attraction thing that I'm not interested in people overweight, it's a matter of lifestyle / mentality / and being able to do certain things together. Of course I expect my partner to have the same expectations of me, that I don't get fat either.
Anyways, moving on, so thanks for reading my post so far, and if you're looking for what I'd described, hopefully you'll read on and find me interesting, and if so, PLEASE send me a message! It's fine if you are just curious and want to ask some questions and learn more first, before making any decisions / jumping into anything! With that in mind, let me describe myself a bit. I'm a slim, intellectual guy, often been called cute, and I'm pretty upbeat and optimistic, but I've been a bit lonely lately and would LOVE to find a girl that wants a deep, loving, emotionally and mentally close relationship, and is willing to put in the time and effort to build that - assuming of course we click well enough. That doesn't mean we need to rush into things, and I'm not looking to - I'm just saying that should be our end goal. If we date for a while and then decide we're not a close enough match, well, it happens sometimes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try! So, to address the elephant in the room, yes, I would be a good bit older than you, so obviously you need to be OK with dating a middle aged guy, and I realize that's not for everyone - and that's fine. I'm not looking to pressure anyone into anything. But I also know that there most definitely ARE some girls out there that are open to that, as well as some that specifically prefer that. There's advantages to dating someone a bit older than you, such as them being a lot more mature, responsible, considerate, respectful, and, perhaps most importantly, appreciate life and a deep relationship sooooo much more. Someone whom knows when they have someone special with them, and can appreciate and enjoy that on a level that someone your age can't. Anyways, as long as you're genuinely open to a deep, serious relationship with someone my age, hopefully someday leading to a serious LTR and kids, that's fine. Like I said, I'm not looking to rush into anything, I want to spend some time chatting and getting to know each other first, so we can get comfortable with each other before meeting. So if you're shy, even extremely shy, don't worry, it's OK! I actually used to be EXTREMELY shy when I was young, so I totally understand how that can be, and I usually can get along well with shy people because I've been there and understand where they're coming from. Also, if needed I can carry the conversation until you start getting more comfortable and more talkative. ;) If you've been too shy to talk to guys you like (or possibly you do like older guys but are WAY too shy to approach one) - but genuinely DO want a relationship and would love to find someone willing to spend the time to get to know and truly understand you, this could be the opportunity you're looking for! On the other hand, if you're outgoing and love to chat [and looking for a relationship], that's totally fine too! haha Both sides of that coin can be fun, so I'm cool with either way you are. ;)
Alternatively, maybe you had a bad time at prom (or some other romantic event you were looking forward to), or didn't go, or didn't have anyone to go with, or maybe it was OK but didn't nearly live up to your expectations, and would love to get to have some romantic evenings and memories. Or maybe you just didn't get out much (or had super strict parents that didn't let you) and want to get out into the world and explore new places and new things, etc. and would love to have a romantic partner to share all those experiences and memories together with!
...or maybe you had suuuuper strict parents and want to finally get out from under the rock you were living under and finally get to see and do many of the things you've wanted to for a long time! (I would totally understand this one as I had very strict parents)
Maybe you've had a few relationships before but you never clicked very deeply with any of them (and/or they were just too immature), and you're looking for a relationship that's much deeper and more meaningful than that. Or maybe you've never had anyone that you've connected well enough to to feel that they really understand you. ...while I can't promise that we'll click well enough for that to happen, I'd like that to be the goal, and there's certainly a non-zero chance of it happening haha.
Perhaps you're REALLY wanting to be able to fully dive into a relationship as soon as you graduate, and are looking forward to, not necessarily Prom [although possibly that too], but also/mostly just would love to be able to take a long romantic vacation / visit once you're done with school and have some freedom. An opportunity to be yourself and learn about both yourself and your romantic partner.
Or, lastly, maybe you're just single and would love to have someone to cuddle with, talk to, share everything with, watch movies or shows together with, play games together, and travel or explore together!
Anyways, whatever the case is for you, if you think I'm interesting and would like to explore some or all of those things, I'd love to hear from you! Before I get too far ahead of myself, let you tell you a little about me. I'm 39 (but I look a bit younger), white, 5'11" and relatively slim at 165 lbs. I enjoy walking and jogging in the park, as well as exploring new parks / seeing new places and new scenery. Although it's 100 times better when I have someone to enjoy that with and talk to meanwhile! <3 Anyways, I do have a number of nerdy interests - games, movies, anime, computers, science stuff, etc., but I can also enjoy long conversations with a date, walks in the park - or on the beach, playing board, card, or video games together, or sports, etc. Plus I'm open to learning some interests of yours - I can't promise I'll be interested in all of your interests, but it's extremely likely that I'd at least enjoy hearing you talk about them, and some of them I may be happy to join you in (this is very likely). We don't need to share ALL of the same interests, as long as we share a few haha. As far as games go, I'm primarily (almost entirely) a PC gamer, but I occasionally play some console games (primarily older consoles). My favorite thing to do is to cuddle up and watch something fun or interesting, such as movies, YouTube (I watch a lot of YouTube), Anime, Netflix, or Kdramas (occasionally). So you need to at minimum be someone whom would enjoy cuddling up and watching things together with me haha ... but then, almost everyone enjoys doing that. Oh, and I also have a relatively newfound love for Theme Parks and water parks since I recently started going back to them for the first time as an adult recently, and there's many more I'd love to go to - as well as re-visit the ones I've been to with someone special going with me to share the experience with. <3 I'm also curious to try out some amusement parks now that I'm getting more comfortable on rollercoasters.
Anyways, that's a bit about me, I'd love to hear some about you and what your interests are! And maybe note some shared interests that we have! Of course I do have some additional interests, I haven't listed EVERYTHING haha, nor do you need to in a first message haha. Just because my post is long doesn't mean your messages have to be haha. ;)
As for requirements for you, I'm pretty open minded on most things, so I'll try to keep the requirements pretty minimal. Ideally I'm looking for someone that's white or Asian, or some mix thereof (i.e. if you're 50/50, or 50/50 white or Asian and something else, that's fine). I'd consider making exceptions to this for the right person, if we really clicked otherwise. ;) Age wise, while it would be nice to find someone about to graduate HS (and is excited to use their newfound freedom to explore so many new things in life and the world), I'm willing to consider someone a bit older, up to early to mid 20s, as long as we share a number of interests and you feel like you're looking for something similar to what I've described. It's more that I'm looking for someone with a certain mindset and/or at a certain point in their life, not necessarily that they're SUPER young. My main requirement is, as someone that's slim (and sometimes athletic, when I have time to get more exercise), I need you to also BE [as opposed "working on it"] average weight or below, and plan to stay there (but also to expect me to as well - I don't expect anything from a partner that I don't have at LEAST as high expectations of myself about). I find petite girls super cute, but average size girls are fun and cute as well! Both sizes have their fun and interesting points haha, so I'm fine if you're either one.
Anyways, I think I've talked long enough for now haha, but that gives you a decent idea what I'm looking for plus some basics about me. As the title says, while ideally I'd love to find someone within 3 hours of Harrisonburg, VA, I'm willing to consider someone anywhere in the US (probably just the lower 48 states). Drives longer than 3 hours are definitely still very plausible, possibly even 8 or 10 hours perhaps, and flying is an option if you live significantly further away (plus points if you live anywhere remotely near a major airport, but that's not a requirement). Anyways, my point is, if you're further away than a few hours drive, I'd need you to be willing to travel / work with the distance when the time comes - particularly with the drastically increased costs of gas/travel these days. For example, if you're pretty far away, then after the first visit or two, we'd probably need to be planning longer visits when one of us travels to the other. Anyways, I'm not looking to rush into meeting, but I'm also NOT INTERESTED in an online only relationship. We need to start meeting in person in the relatively near future (i.e. a few weeks or so (possibly several weeks if you're far), assuming we talk a good bit during those few weeks). Also, I'm willing to come to you the first visit (or perhaps more) if you're far, but after the first visit or two you'd need to be willing to visit me (I might be willing to pay for your flight if you can't, we'll see), as that's going to be a LOT cheaper than me flying out somewhere, getting a hotel, and renting a car. On the other hand, if you're much closer, within a reasonably driving range, if needed I could pick you up in my car once you're ready to visit (and I can just drive to you for the first few visits). And if you're within 3 hours or so drive, I'm happy to drive to you for several visits at first, until you're ready to visit me. Regardless of the timing, I'm not going to pressure you do visit me before you're comfortable doing so, and it's something we can play by ear. For example, if you're someone that's super shy I understand if it takes a few extra times of me visiting you before you're ready to visit me, or perhaps we need to chat some extra time first, etc.
Well, thanks for reading my rather long post haha, hopefully I've piqued your interest, and if so, I'd love to hear from you! Certainly feel free to ask me any questions you may have, either if you're interested, or if you're curious but need to know some more before you know if you're interested haha. Also, I'm happy to exchange some (clean!) pictures of each other after a few messages. On that note, when you message me, please tell me at least a little about you (i.e. age, race, height/weight, and a little about you and what you're looking for). Thanks again, and hopefully this can be a great opportunity for both of us, and the start of something amazing!
P.S. To the SUPER shy and lurkers out there - yes, you, you know who you are - if you've been looking and wanting a relationship for a while, but have been too shy to ever post yourself or respond to a post, but you find me / what I'm looking for interesting, THIS is the post for you, THE one you've been waiting for. I've talked to a few VERY shy girls occasionally, and it was such an amazing experience for some of them to talk to someone that understands them and is willing to take the time to get to know them, and give them time to get comfortable before meeting. Someone that can help them slowly come out of their shell, gently nudging them to try new things and slowly be more outgoing, but without being pushy. So if that's you, you fit what I described that I'm looking for, and you're THAT shy but really DO want to be in a relationship, THIS is the post that's the opportunity for you. You've found the person that's willing to spend the time to get to know you and let you get comfortable, and also the guy that's going to enjoy and appreciate spending time with you in person if/when we get to that point (hopefully, that's the objective). I understand that shy girls, if you can get to know them well enough that they get comfortable with you, can often build some of the deepest emotional connections, because they appreciate the few close friends they do have SO much moreso than average people. So, if that's you, and you've been wanting a relationship for a while but been too shy to message anyone, PLEASE do this time! <3 I can carry the conversation if needed, but you need to at least say "hi" so that I know you're interested! [If you're too shy to say much, just say "Hi, I'm shy but I'd love to chat" or something like that]. :) Romance doesn't have to be just something you read about in books or watch in movies, YOU CAN experience it yourself! <3

As a full-time instacart employee, I have made a sustainable living off of self employment apps. Mainly instacart at about 70% of my total income.
This is my first year filing a 10-99 as I am aware I will have to pay in probably more than I think. To be general I’ve streamed around 30-40k in the time I’ve started this gig full-time..
My question is:
Does anyone have advice on how to get THE LOWEST tax pay ins possible? I have kept all my gas and car repair receipts. Are cell phone bills deductible? Should I enter every last cent I spent on gas with receipts? I’ve had 4 car repairs done in the meantime.. Do I enter all that as well?
I feel I’m going to have to go into obsessive detail to enter the mountains of receipts and all the deductions I have. Is it worth it?
Any help or prior experiences would be amazing..
Thank you!

So first off, i believe i tagged this correctly, please let me know if not- i can repost under the correct one if needed.
So, there's been 2 possible instances (months apart) of someone purposefully harassing me and my mother. Nothing is sent directly to us such as threats or letters or messages, but there have been 2 calls to the city on us. (It's more a nuisance type thing but we're both stretched thin at the moment so it's more emotionally distressing than it usually would be)
The first instance was (what we thought) a "freelance" Gardner who reported weeds to the city to get us fined (or so we'd hire him to do the work). We took care of everything ourselves, but the inspector we spoke to stated basically "we can't tell you even if someone did call in" but said it in such a way that insinuated that yes we were indeed called in on. He also mentioned that everyone in our area with weeds was also cited and the city would clean up the weeds if they did not.
There was also during that a whole fiasco of getting a 2nd notice for things we'd already done because the inspector hadn't actually make the trip out and just assumed we didn't do it.
(It's been roughly 3 months since then and there's been no such action taken on the many neighbor; they had threatened us with fines for the weeds and the city getting them cleaned up and jail time for ours- which leads us in combo with this next event to the conclusion that it was a targeted call and we were only told such things from the inspector to keep us from complaining on others they had no intention of pursuing).
The second just happened today, so we're still waiting on the complete info for everything, but we confirmed we were called in on to our water company for the property apparently being "vacant" and "possible water leak" so it needed to be shut off (its been raining with snow the recent week when they supposedly made the trip out). The water had been shut off and our account closed (its now turned back on, so only a few hours- roughly 5 hours about) as a technician apparently came and deemed the property vacant on the 16th- despite our current usage (the meter being different), personal property clearly visible, no weeds, average mail amount (so no "abundance of mail"), and myself and the dogs being home (we've also had packages, but no one at the door in the days the tech supposedly visited).
We spoke with two representatives- different calls- and were told "I don't know how this happened, we have procedures to prevent this from happening" all of which would have shown this wasn't vacant (as previously listed) if were checked in the slightest. My mother requested that we be told who called in and who the technician was (as he obviously didnt do his job and wanted to file a formal complaint), but we were told by the first that there were no notes on file about that so she didnt know, and the second came back (after stating yes, we were called in on) and said the system went down and she'd have to escalate it to her manager who'd give us a call. We had to explain that our home previous to our buying was vacant for 6 months (we've been here all through the lockdowns) and all power, water, trash, and gas was still active when it was visibly vacant in order for them to finally disclose that we were called on as we know this wasn't a "in the area random visit" event that they could have mistaken- if they even ever visited which we find highly unlikely. As well, we never recieved any kind of contact- email, call, text, or physically showing up - mentioning that there was a call on our property/account despite the visit being 5 days ago (Date of the call was not disclosed, only visit/determination of vacancy)
We ourselves cannot think of anyone who might do this (we don't speak with our neighbors so no disputes, I myself am a homebody/work from home freelancing, and neither of us bring people around so it's not like anyone knows where our house is)- the only possibility we can think of is if someone who worked with my mom in the past suddenly has a grudge as well as family in the city to pull our information in order to make such calls and/or connections within those companies and searched our info to make the reports.
We've had issues with bad employers as well as other disgruntled employees/coworkers practically all the time i can remember (there could be a whole list of things- mainly stemming from my mom being a "I'm here to work not socialize" type which either gives her a cold/unfriendly vibe when she's busy or intimidates people by the sheer volume she's capable of- ive worked in the office with her a few times so its not a "my mom can do no wrong" rose tinted glasses idea).
Back on topic though, I've skimmed NM laws, but the results I'm getting appear more for workplaces than general type instances so they're not particularly helpful.
Do we need to wait until this happens a third time/someone tries again- successful or not? Or do we need to wait a 4th time since we dont know with solid proof that it was the same person who called us in the first time?
Would authorities be able to get the info from both the city and the water company if they refuse to hand it over to us (like how the city refused to specify if we were called in or not) if/or when they get involved? Should we start looking out for a lawyer instead and keep an eye out for anyother possible harassment events?
We're considering calling the gas and electric companies tomorrow to give them a heads up and make a note on our account because of this, on the instance that these 2 aren't some freak events of bad and lazy employees but someone actually out to harass us (by messing with our necessities and wasting our time).

Alright as we get further from the present this gets less and less likely but I'm gonna try my best to compile everything I know about the future plot of Chainsaw Man as of right now.
So we start off with the end of the Cooking Devil mini arc that started in 122. Of course as you all know 124 left off on a cliffhanger and Denji met a mysterious stranger while in hell with Ass and Yoru. It turns out at the beginning of chapter 125 that this was in fact the reincarnated blood devil. Chapters 125-129 are focused on Denji and Ass trying to avoid various hijinks while Denji tries to convine the blood Devil to help them escape hell. Due to the contract he had with Power Denji ends up succeeding since the contract legally had to be resolved. The 3 characters then escape hell by Ass realising that she can turn the body of a devil she killed into a "plot resolution sword".
Once out of hell it is revealed that the cooking devil floaty thing is a planet wide epidemic. Although she is suprised they escaped hell, she still nearly kills all of them in a short fight since all primordial devils are super powerful just like darkness devil. She is then impaled from behind by a figure who is revealed the next chapter to be none other than Kobeni, who went sleeper agent mode the second the falling devil stuff started. It is revealed she didn't start floating because her John Wick mode prevented her from remembering her trauma.
This victory is short lived, however, as Cooking Devil begins laughing maniacally and alludes to the end of worlds coming sooner than they would ever be prepared for. The earth begins to crumble around them and the darkness and death devils come straight out of hell to end our main cast once and for all. They stand no chance as Denji dies immediately, Ass is knocked 5 blockz down the road, and Kobeni is left completely fine. At this point Nayuta shows up and one-shots the darkness devil just for shits and giggles and then proceeds to do the default dance from fortnite on its corpse. This angers the death devil so it tries to kill Nayuta but it comically slips on a banana peel that Kobeni dropped earlier in the manga and gets impaled. With its dying breath it tells the group that they are still doomed.
We go back to day by day regular life stuff for a few chapters. Ass being a femcel, Denji pulling no hoes, and Fami eating an entire continents worth of food every time she's on screen.
Chapter 180, Yoshida finally makes another appearance after being noticably absent for so long. He busts down the door to Dennis's room and urgently tells him that the most evil devil of all has finally reared its head about 3 miles North of them.
All of the main group gathers up. This being Denji, Ass, Yoshida, new Power, Kobeni, Fami, and Nayuta and they all go to fight the new threat. Upon arriving, they find the city in complete ruin. Not a single building is left standing and a sulfuric smell fills the air. In the midst of it all stands a lone devil. The Sex Devil
It immediately notices them and charges foward, everyone preparing for a fight. Yoshida tells them to run but nobody listens because they all think he's a gay twink (he is) and they begin fighting anyway. Without even making a move the sex devil explodes Dennis's balls. It tries the same on Yoshida but nothing happens. It then explaims that Yoshida "is peculiar" in the fact that he has no balls. Kobeni then goes into John Wick mode again and charges the Sex Devil. It summons a sex sword to attack and Kobeni expertly dodges multiple times in a row. In silhouette, it is implied that Kobeni killed the Sex Devil, however, at the beginning of the next chapter what really happened is shown.
Kobeni slips on a comically placed banana peel that someone (Power) left on the ground. She catches her balance and then takes two steps foward and slips on another one. She slips, falls, and is instantly killed by the impact of hitting the ground. Seeing this, Fami doesn't care at all. She immediately does absolutely nothing but the Sex Devil stops her in her tracks and makes a simple statement. "It's so sad that Steve Jobs died of ligma" it says. Fami does not reply, looking rather annoyed. The Sex Devil then says "ligma balls" and Fami evaporates. The final death of the battle comes when Kishibe shows up 30 minutes late to the fight and is immediately killed by the Sex Devil upon stepping out of his car. His final words are "Well uhh that just happened"
The rest of the team retreats. They take shelter behind what is left of a gas station. There they find that one girl who sat on Denji that one time (I do not know her name). She says that she is a secret devil hunter with the same abilities as Kobeni and she thinks she can help them defeat the Sex Devil. She begins to lay out her play for defeating the Sex Devil while Yoshida tries to help Denji recover from his ball lackage. Just as she is about so reveal her master plan she is shot 7 times in the back. It turns out Power found a glock somewhere and thought it would be funny to do a little trolling. Yoshida says that it doesn't matter since he knows what her plan was anyway.
Ass then tries to give a motivational speech before they head off but she fails because she has no social skills. They then head off to defeat the Sex Devil.
Upon arriving at the Sex Devil's location Yohsida uses his squid devil thingimabob to contrain the Sex Devil. Then Nayuta begins trying to control it. While it is distracted by this Ass is told by Yoru to turn it into a weapon. She runs up and tries to touch it. Before she can though Yoshida accidentally lets go of the Sex Devil and says "whoopsie dasis". It immediately knocks everyone back and goes straight for power, who has not been helping this whole time. On a cliffhanger, we are left to believe it is about to kill Power, again.
In the next chapter the full panel is shown though and it is revealed that Ass actually did something for once in her life and had already touched that Sex Devil. She yells out "Sex Devil sword" and the Sex Devil is turned into a sword. Suprised she asks Yoru how she knew that would work. Yoru says that as the biggest femcel on the entire planet, Ass owned sex itself so she was able to turn the sex devil into a sword. Once again it is a short lived victory as Power was not actually saved. She had already been sliced by the Sex Devil's sword of sex and had died of sex.
Everyone is distraught and they have one of those big sad scenes where everyone is sad about sad things happening. Then, Kobeni's body rises from the ground possessed by Power. Powbeni then reveals that this was all a grand plot to get rid of the Sex Devil so that she could achieve her dream and becomes ruler of the world. Powbeni then puts on a black military general's cap and declares herself Hitlerbeni. She gets into Yoshida's car and drives into the distance, not to be seen again for awhile.
This begins part 3 of the manga. The early chapters are dedicated to locating Hitlerbeni and once again the femcel life of Ass and Yoru. Around chapter 210 Hitlerbeni is finally located in America. She has formed a cult and convinced the people of a small village in Wyoming to build her a cardboard fort around their town and declare her chancellor. Although she has no real ill motives since she's just Power and can't do much, the main cast still has no choice but to head to Wyoming to try to peacefully convince Hitlbeni to return to Japan. This is as far as I can predict.
So whaddya think?

So, been playing this mode the past 5 days, maybe 100 different characters....a lot of 5 minutes deaths.
First 7+ day survivor was a combat spec'd fire fighter who lived long enough the deep wound actually healed on its own (guess lucky, only 7 days to heal), even with slow healer. He got killed in the train yard south after my damn inventory was open and i couldn't close it in time (mostly play on a steam deck). Didn't help the helicopter event happened while he was there...
Had a fitness instructor adreniline runner last 14 hours with 1500+ fire kills, but he died of thirst after the last of the horde dropped dead, but too far to get to water.
Most recent character is a veteran, former scout, athletic, outdoorsman, lucky, fast learner, cat's eyes, and all the negative traits I could stack, except slow healer (which I always take, but it is a death trap in this mode). Got lucky and found a needle (foraging right outside of starter house), stitched up. Went to loot a house nearby and set off an alarm. Game over right? Well turned out this actually helped, with some quick dodging I manage to ditch most of the zeds so headed to farm. On way to farm luck #2, avoided most zombies since most got attracted to house alarm, but got followed by 3 zombies, 1 with an embedded axe. No weapon but the trusty foot stomp, +1 fireaxe. Got a tea cup, bowl and a mallet from the farm, 4 cans were useless without a can opener and couldn't carry them anyway with 12 carry capacity and no bag. Decided to head north to radio towers and from there cabin with well. 2nd choice was south to cabins by lake (unsure if I made the right choice, but with weak stomach and no way to boil water..). Got foraging to 5, only found 3 bullets though (main reason for going veteran), berries and rose hips are plentiful, but can't get enough calories to not lose weight and of course I have no trapping or recipes for trap (just read 30 rose hips per day will keepweight level).
Hit barracks past power lines, scored a backpack (finally something other than a plastic bag which I couldn't really use since I was wielding spears to save my axe from deteriorating). Also picked up military coat, camo pants and a can opener. Located a generator in a shed, don't think I will use it though given how impossible it is to find gas or a cat with a battery not at zero.
Feeling confident about this guy, need to find a way to get higher calories, may need to relocate to a lake for fishing unless I get lucky and find a trap recipe magazine. Waiting oit helicopter event in cabin, then plan to go forage in farm fields and hope for some seeds.
Finally a few tips:
Foraging - important, eat all berries except holly, discard those unless you want to die. This challenge mode seems heavily weighed towards foragong and living outside towns (hardly any deep forest zombies).
Positive traits -
Atheletic, but need to keep it at 9 for endurance recovery boost. I could not escape starter area without high endurance, run skill or adreniline junkie.
Outdoorsman - important for foraging and cold resistance after you get over the first one.
Lucky - loot is so low and foraging so important, you need that little extra boost.
Optional - cat's eyes, fast learner, maybe a bonus foraging, trapping or fishing trait
Negative traits: prone to illness, high thirst, slow reader, weak stomache, conspicuous (starting cold makes stealth impossible), pacifist, thin skinned, smoker, short sighted (don't like the forage penalty on this, but need the points). Fear of blood, maybe if not a veteran, just keep a clean pair of clothes for sleeping.
On spawn, immediately pull glass from wound and try to get to a window with shades before they burn. Rip sheets and bandage. If you get burned, just restart. Bonus if you can grab a water container of some sort in kitchen.
Try to foot stomp a zed and grab shoes, without shoes your game is pretty much over.
At this point you can try to loot nearby houses, though after so many restarts I think it is hardly worth it, maybe you get lucky and find a needle (in all my restarts found 1 needle and 1 suture needle).
Otherwise get to farm, hope for some food, forage for chipped stone and branches for those spears. Kill zeds and get as much clothing layers as possible. Try to get that cold healed asap, otherwise you are just a zombie magnat. Get foraging to lvl 4 for rose hips. After that game is open to lots of choices.....
Oh yeah, be sure to get a radio and monitor when the helicopter event happens, if you are outside then it is likely game over, or you will have to relocate to greener pastures..

So I’ve been plumbing a couple years now & decided to start taking on some solo side work. I have an acquaintance who needs their water heater changed. I like to be fair with prices & not rip people off but also not sell myself short cuz I know my work is quality & I try my best to offer the best service. She wants to upgrade to a 50 gallon, cause of the amount of people in the house, and also wants to purchase one that comes with a 9 year lifespan. I found the right one for her, cheapest was $800 after tax. I have a friend helping me out with this job & we’re splitting the earnings. She also needs me to pick up the water heater as well since she does not drive. For all the work, cost of heater, gas, picking up the heater & materials, I quoted her 2000. After costs me & my buddy should be making about $600 each. I could just be overthinking it but do y’all think I’m charging a fair price??

This was incredibly hard for me to write and admit., I'm sure I have forgotten important information and have errors.
DEEP IN DEBT DIARY TEMPLATE
Title: I am 33 years old, making $80,000 salary ( just started new job ) plus $21,300. Spouse ( 39 )makes $40 per hour plus $14,200, and we have $77,313 debt not including our mortgage.
SECTION ONE: Background
Job: Project Analyst ( new job ) & GIS Analyst
Industry: Finance
Location - MCOL, rural Texas
Context - I have worked for my MIL since 2015 with no benefits. My husband has worked for her since 2013 with no benefits. We were led to believe we would take over the business and have a really good secure income. Instead, we have made less than others in our same careers or near the same, but with no benefits, no paid holidays etc. We attempted to get the plan of action for us to take over starting in 2017, but were met with aggression and personality issues each time. It’s been a long mentally exhausting 5+ years. I have finally broken away.
SECTION TWO: Current Debt and Assets
Credit card debt: Total Credit Card Debt $31,606.30. Breakdown: Card 1 ($10,799.30 out of $14,500) Card 2 ( $17,002.84 out of $18,000 ) Card 3 ( $0 out $0 ) Card 4 ( $3,805 out of $5,000)
Personal loans: $0
Medical debt: $0 paid down from $18,000
Student loan debt (for what degree). $12,534.18 Bachelors in Engineering Technology. Already paid off over $15,000. His grandparents and parents paid for his undergrad; he saved up ( before we met ) and paid for his master's.
Remaining mortgage balance if you’re a homeowner. $298,000 remaining. Originally 318,000 at 4.84%. Yearly Dividends are around $3,500-$3,800.
Auto loans: Truck $19,781.71 u/2.25%, small SUV $13,390.64 @ 2.25%
Any other type of debt and how you accumulated it (e.g., payday loans, title loans). N/a
Retirement balance (and how you got there). Around $5000-$6,000 for both of us. This was from putting some into accounts we opened a few years ago.
Equity $502,000
Our first house was purchased for $82,000 in December 2010 with low interest. We sold it 2016 for $115,000 to buy our land.
To buy our land, we put some of the equity towards credit card debt and the rest towards purchasing the land for $150,000 at a 15 yr fixed rate of around 5% interest rate. We “rebuilt” our house starting Nov 2019 with a refinance and construction loan in one. We didn’t put any down, it was 90% loan to value. The house we built made the value ( once complete ) more than the loan. Currently, the estimated appraisal is around $800,000 leaving $498,000 in equity. We didn’t purchase and build in a typical way. We bought the 45 acres for 150k 4% or so15 year loan 3 years before refinancing with a construction loan. We did put down $15,000 to purchase the land originally.
Savings account balance: $200
Checking account balance: averages $4000-$5000 to cover all bills etc.
Any other assets that are applicable to you.
SECTION THREE: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home aka Net Pay I just started my new job so I don’t know what the health insurance etc will look like. My salary is $80,000. My insurance is 80% covered. My husband makes $40/hour with no benefits besides two weeks of paid vacation.
Side Gig Monthly Take Home
We have owned a business for 10 years. It is a contract that has been $30,000 per year until this year; it is now $35,500. This is very part-time, part of the year. We have always worked on this in our free time, until 2021 when I did work it as my main job for that year and a half. We have had our real estate licenses since 2016; we didn’t make any money until 2019. It ranged from $15,000-$30,000, was in 2021. He is quitting real estate and I recently also quit.
Any Other Monthly Income Here
N/A
SECTION FOUR: Monthly Expenses
Mortgage $1676
Home insurance Annually $3,000
Property Taxes Annually $3,300
Private Health Insurance $580
Additional Retirement contribution N/A
Savings contribution N/A
Investment contribution N/A
Private School $350 plus $100 for aftercare
Trash Pickup $89/quarter
Husbands Life Insurance $51 monthly
My Life Insurance Annually $180
Debt payments We put extra money towards debt and get out of credit card debt most years, then go back into it. We paid the minimum from when I quit working full time for MIL until now.
Donations (please estimate monthly) I donate a lot; I’ve been on a minimalist journey for years and donate nearly everything. I used to also donate to St Jude's $25 a month.
Electricity averages $200-$275.
Water Averages $45-50
Sewage on a septic system
Internet $71 it will go up to $97 soon.
Cellphone $240 per quarter Mint
Subscriptions Apple TV $6.99, Apple Care $10.81, Discovery+ $6, Hulu Disney Bundle $5.39, Amazon $8 ( sister is taking over ), Netflix another sister usually pays for this,
Pet expenses Approximately $50
Car payment / insurance small SUV $317, truck $526. Yearly auto-ins. $1,000 for the truck, $600 suv
Parking/toll/gas/other transportation costs. $500-$700 we live out of town. It’s a 45-mile drive one way to go to a decent grocery store or to buy most things. Our town only has a tiny walmart ( limited options and bad produce ) and a very expensive small grocery store. He does get paid mileage but also has to have a 4x4 truck for work; although he doesn't work in the woods most days.
Regular therapy/other routine healthcare or wellness treatments. No insurance to cover it, but grandfathered in at $75 when I go. I/we used to go once or twice a month for years on and off. Our daughter did see a therapist last summer. She was $125 every two weeks for a couple of months.
Beauty/grooming not enough, honest. I may get a haircut twice a year and he gets his cut maybe once every few months. This will become more scheduled.
Paid hobbies nodda
Food/Drink Average $800 a month on groceries but during the worst times for us, $2000. I want to get this lower; we don’t buy meat so I feel like we need to do better planning.
Fun / Entertainment $0
Random House/Property stuff Averages $200 a month +
Clothes $0. Our daughter has a uniform for school; I tend to buy when on clearance. I’ve rarely bought anything since quitting MIL.
Any other expense that's relevant to you.
SECTION FIVE: [Write your Deep in Debt Diary here]
Please provide a detailed history of your debt accumulation and payments, including your pay at the time, any strategies you used to target your debt, and anecdotes about your experience. Example:
2010-2014 Worked as a draftsman while getting my associates in drafting. I was honest with them from the beginning about going back for a bachelor's. The most I made was $15/ hour with benefits only in the last year of employment. We started our contract work in 2013 at $25,000 per year.
2014 went back to college for a bachelor's degree and got my first real credit card. I don’t recall my balance when I started working on it but I would say it was over 3k. I also learned he had over 5k in cc debt when we started talking about combining our finances and working on debt. He was making $33 per hour with no benefits. Our contract was $25,000 per year which was broken up into equal payments over the year.
2016 - 2019 We combined out income and I took over finances completely with no help. I agreed to join the family business after finishing my degree in May 2016 and also got my real estate license ( boss MIL was also a broker). Worked full time from May until end of November when our child was born. I made $15-$25 in that time. We paid $800 per month for private insurance and had a traumatic delivery that came to another $18,000 after insurance coverage. I was scared of being one alone with my child; I had postpartum but didn’t tell anyone nor fully wanted to admit it to myself. Our daughter wasn’t easy going even as a baby, she had to be on my body at all times to be happy. She still gets bored easily. We spent a lot of money on stuff to entertain her at home; she never liked anything, not even a swing. We hired a nanny to be at our office with us full time from age 1 month to 3. We paid her $10 per hour in cash. Our daughter started pre-k at a private school at 3. $350 a month. Debt varied as always. I was at the office 40-45 hours but my boss used me to do real estate stuff she didn’t want to do which cut my hours to 30-32 per week hourly; I was never compensated for all of the real estate admin and website building. We both had our real estate licenses but never made anything until 2019-2022. It took up 8+ hours or so of my weekly hours then a lot of our weekends. In 2016, our contract work increased to $30,000 and payments changed to larger payments during our busy time of the year. I feel like that was when we started relying on that income to bail us out of debt.
Nov 2019-April 2020. Refinanced our land and did a construction loan to rebuild our house. Our daughter was out of school and at home with me working which was very hard. Our house was finished April 2020 two weeks before everything started shutting down further it seems. Debt was maybe around 10k because we forgot to plan for the carport that still doesn’t have a slab. It’s just dirt.
2020-2021 We told our boss MIL we were leaving the business. We were tired of the stress and chaos with her and low wages with no benefits. We were given raises ( $33 and $40 per hour ) to keep us there. I told her several months later in a formal notice I was quitting. I was guilt tripped and manipulated to stay; she stated we would make the changes necessary and I would start taking over her job. Of course nothing at all changed. I was a wreck and quit without notice 6 months later after trying again 2 months before because I was a serious mess. This hurt us financially because I wasn’t taking care of our finances and was too upset. I did take over our business contract work so we didn’t have to work on that during our free time. My husband was also a mess on and off, so we kept an emergency fund to support him quitting and finding a job. He told her twice he was quitting but could never follow through. We used up our emergency fund because we weren’t paying attention. Somehow spending 2k a month on groceries for several months. I hate that I have no clue how it happened and how much food waste we had.
2021-2023 I didn’t work for MIL from May 2021-October 2021 when I went back but only 10 hours per week. I went back because we needed the income. I typically worked 12 hours a week until leaving recently. We decided to move to Michigan; I feel like i sacrificed a lot staying in Texas ( I never wanted to ) and putting up with everything working for his mother and all the chaos and control that came with that. We will be moving end of May beginning on June. He still works for her and doesn’t have a set plan.
Reflection
I feel like our lives have been a wreck the last 3-6 years and I refuse to fall back into it. I feel like not having benefits has hurt us more than we ever imagined it would. Just this year so far we’ve paid $2400 for his emergency root canal and crown. $400 for a consultation and CT scan for my nose for sinus issues. $3500 for a new fence for our dogs. It seems to never end.
I was upset with myself for awhile; I am trying hard to focus on the future. We need to learn to plan and save for large expenses. I am highly considering separating our finances and splitting everything proportionally. He has yet to actually help me with managing our finances although I have mentioned and asked numerous times. He is also supposed to be evaluated for ADHD. He does try and he’s a great partner besides his mom problems and not helping with finances. He thinks just not spending money is enough for our finances. Our therapist thinks us getting away ( even if it is only part of the year ) will change my husband and his dynamic with his mother. I hope he will fall in love with where we are moving, and agree to stay there permanently and sell our home/property in Texas.
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The above template was modified, with permission, from MoneyDiariesACTIVE.

Warning! I cant describe the book without spoilers! And it was a good twist!
I read this from a librarian recommendation shelf in Bellevue Washington between 2013 and 2016
The book was historical fiction set before cars but after horse carriages and gas lighting. The main character is a young mother recently (?) married. She was wealthy and the husband was poor(?)
Her doctor is the main POV, her POV is basically not used. Her doctor is trying to prove she was too insane to be held responsible. He is often condescending in a period appropriate way, but in the period probably would have been considered forward thinking. He specifically considers whether her reading too many books is part of why she went crazy.
The big twist: She DIDNT kill her baby and she wasnt insane. She stole a worker's baby, killed that baby, and managed to fake insanity to get out of the death penalty. Her husband ended up being framed by her somehow(?) I think because he was considered "responsible" for driving her crazy. She is released from the asylum and then she runs away to a hidden home in the country where her real baby is waiting for her, she did the whole thing because she needed a way to escape her lifestyle (I think)
Major scenes I remember: There is some sort of asylum dance they attend. The doctor uses hypnosis on her and he thinks it doesnt work but it turns out later she confessed to the whole thing and he just didnt believe a woman could be that conniving. The Doctor at one point ponders how the women in the community are more bloodthirsty for her punishment than the men, and how they seem to turn on her for making them look bad. The husband's POV is used at the end when he is to be hanged for her crime.
I tried googling and no luck, I just keep getting true stories and Beloved (It's not beloved, but that's a good book)

Hello everyone!
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I have recently bought my first Tesla and immediately began having issues with it.
It is a 2013 model S P85 with only 37k miles.. I thought I stole it!
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Tesla Service replaced the battery contactors and pyro fuse for around $2k
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As soon as I left the service center (in my newly repaired car) I began hearing a milling noise coming from the rear.
After I did some research I determined this noise is coming from the Drive unit.
I then went back to the service center and had an expert tech take it for a drive.
The tech returned and claimed that whoever had sold me the vehicle had not had it inspected and that I should return the vehicle because the repair cost would run me another $7500
That is a total of $9500 after buying the car for $32,000.
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What can I do about this if anything? I would love an outsider's perspective.. from someone that works so closely with these types of cars.
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Should I repair what I have.. should I try to trade in the vehicle..
I have no warranty and signed an AS-IS with the car dealership..
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I believe that the main issue with the drive unit is that the bearings are going bad.
I have the knowhow to work on Gas powered vehicles, but I am worried to take this DU apart.
Do you have any information that could be valuable to me in this situation?

First Previous
Chapter 2: Now Is Found
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The moment the Into the Black entered Sol, the human’s home system, various transmissions and radio signals poured in. At first, the captain and the rest of the crew thought that humanity was well and truly alive. But upon closer inspection of the deluge of signals they were receiving, they realized they were nothing more than automated warnings, echoes, and ghost signals bouncing around the countless derelict ships, stations, habitats, and arcologies that surrounded nearly every world and moon in the system. The place was a mass grave, far greater than any of the previous systems. In fact, this system was the most developed Ohmata had ever seen. The Galactic Union’s capital is the most advanced system in the GU, and it pales compared to the level of development of the human home system!
The sheer amount of death and destruction was frightening. Entire fleets worth of ships clumped together in the void of space. Their own mass creating a small gravity, pulling them together and fashioning massive hulks. While also creating hazardous clouds of metal debris, more than a few moving fast enough to rip the Black to shreds, should they not be vigilant. Constructs the size of cities floated aimlessly, stuck within the confines of the star’s influence. Mobile defense platforms, which once bristled with the finest weapons humanity could field, lay battered and broken amongst the many wrecks that called Sol home. Humanity did not go down without a fight, that much was for certain. If anyone ever called them cowards, Ohmata would simply show them the recorded footage of their home system to prove the naysayers otherwise.
There looked to be more metal strewn about from the battles and destroyed ships alone than in every GU fleet combined, and more than a few worlds, too. The difference in the ships was obvious. The human vessels were boxy, utilitarian. They did their jobs, and they did them well. Many of which appeared to be nothing more than massive guns someone built a ship around, then put more guns on that.
The Nemesis were different; they weren’t boxy and rigid angles like the humans, but not totally smooth either. They had a far more organic look with multiple bends and curves, but the surfaces seemed to be rough and bumpy, and unlike the human ships, almost none were symmetrical. But though they were asymmetrical, there existed patterns in the various derelicts. As if they were variations of preexisting models, updated and expanded upon with time. In comparison, most GU ships were a happy medium. They had the bends and curves like the Nemesis, but were neatly symmetrical like the human ships.
Looking past the destruction and death, the system was fairly average. Four rocky worlds, four gas giants, and several smaller bodies here and there. The gas giants still had the broken remains of floating cities scattered across them, while their moons contained colonies and stations galore. But what was most interesting were the third and fourth rocky worlds. The fourth one had depressingly little green on it. It was mostly red, with an occasional white streak indicating clouds. It was highly developed, ruined cities ranged across its surface freely. But it bore the marks of war none the less. It would be a prime candidate for collecting samples, as long as the surface wasn’t too hazardous. Humanity did have a fetish for nuclear annihilation towards their end, after all.
The third planet, the third planet was something else. It was a grey husk devoid of life. Its moon had a massive crater denting its facade, with many smaller ones marking its surface. They stood out prominently. Fresh wounds of war contrasted against natural meteor strikes. The debris from the lunar surface and whatever had caused the impact was already starting to form the semblance of a ring around the planet. And like everywhere else, the surrounding space was choked with battle debris, though most had collected in the planet’s “proto ring”. There was so much debris that they could barely scan the planet, and what parts they could get to was so irradiated that a signal couldn’t penetrate from such a distance. Which meant if they wanted to scan the home world of these legendary humans, they would have to get closer. Which, frankly, was currently impossible.
“Nix’Fa, can you maneuver through that debris field?” Ohmata asked, while peering down at her console.
“No ma’am. A shuttle may get through, but it won’t have any of the equipment necessary to scan the planet. At least, not at any reasonable rate,” Nix’Fa replied. She, too, was looking over her console at potential flight paths.
First Lieutenant Qhaax spoke up from her station. “We may not need to actually scan the planet to learn more about humanity, captain. Most of the planet is a flattened, irradiated death pit, but the debris field around it still contains warships from both sides, some in remarkable condition. In fact, several derelicts appear to still have power, even after thousands of years. We may be able to board them using a shuttle and extract data from any intact computer systems we find. And while not exactly human, there is a Nemesis ship relatively close to the edge of the field. It would be a good first target.”
“Then we’ll change our plan to that. Qhaax, contact Kitern and tell her to get her marines suited up, send a techy or two and some researchers with them as well. You’ll have to contact Tentzonta to get her to let some of her engineers loose for once, and Glevar for her researchers. Though you won’t have to convince her, she’ll be jumping at the opportunity. Nix’Fa, start plotting them a course, and we’ll go from there, understood?”
The two responded with a crisp, yes ma’am, and got to work on their respective tasks.
-
“Kitern, can you hear me?” Ohmata’s voice called out from Kitern’s suit’s comms.
“Loud and clear, cap, whatcha need?” Commander Kitern responded as she stowed away several more energy cells for her weapon. She was a digitigrade, feline like mammal known as a Lioranian, with thick paw like hands that held deadly claws within them. They were still thin and nimble enough to manipulate objects accurately, but most importantly, pull a trigger. Her kind also had a slightly elongated snout, long tail, and top forward facing ears. Their eyes were dark, but a few bore mutations which lightened the iris to a sky blue. And their pupils are vertical, but would dilate periodically to give better depth perception and low light visibility. Her species’ coats ranged from a dark tan to a bright yellow gold and had multiple coat patterns of varying intensities. She personally had a dusty tan coat with slight stripe markings originating from her spine, but quickly fading as they reached around to her abdomen and chest.
“You already have a basic rundown about what to do. But I just wanted to remind you, we marked an entrance for you through some old battle damage on a derelict Nemesis ship that is close to the edge of the debris field. Enter, make your way to the power source, secure the area, and set up a pressurized zone if possible so the techies can work in peace. If you can’t, oh well, they can work in their suits. Also, you see anything living, as unlikely as that is, don’t go shooting it. Try to capture or reason with it, but if it does anything stupid, then do what you and your girls do best.”
Kitern smiled maliciously. “Aye, aye, captain. We’ll keep the civvies alive and kick’n, get the goods and be back in no time.”
“Then I leave the rest to you. Oh, try not to mess with the shuttle’s controls while it’s on autopilot this time. It’ll be weaving through a debris field too compact to get the Black into. Any rescue efforts will take a long time, longer than what you’ll have, so don’t touch the throttle like last time!” Ohmata raised her voice jokingly, playfully reminding Kitern of the last time they were on a shuttle together in such conditions.
“Ha! Dontcha worry, I’ll be in the back. Onsa will be in the pilot’s seat for this go. She’s a better flyer anyways,” Kitern played.
“Alright then, get done and come back, preferable alive. Ohmata out.” There was a click as Ohmata closed the channel.
“Hmph, always do.” Kitern had been staring at a random wall while talking to Ohmata. With the call over, she turned to her squad. “Alright girls, get your shit together and get to the shuttle. Oh, and keep your hands to yourself, Hran is coming along, I don’t want any complaints from him, or hands where they shouldn’t be, got it?” she barked, eyeing each of the three other marines, more specifically the youngest two.
“What if he lets us?” one of said marines asked jokingly.
“It’ll be a cold day on Ca’tab before that happens, Asteli,” Kitern replied.
“You never know, we might just wear him down finally, right Gre’Namra?” the perky Venanian replied.
“How many times do I have to tell you? Just call me Namra, and I doubt it. Men like to be wined and dined. Take them out, pay for a fancy meal, maybe buy them something. You know, the usual,” her counterpart, a Drae’Ildan, responded.
Kitern sighed. “Or how about not harassing anyone and act like a decent sentient, you hornbags? Now, shut it and get to the shuttle. Dentala you’ll have your work cut out for you keeping track of these two today.”
“Not as big of a job as keeping track of you, I pity Onsa,” Dentala said as she lifted a heavy kinetic slugger with a red hand, another Venanian.
Kitern chuffed deeply, her species version of a chuckle. “Me too! But, you might wanna put on a glove before we go out. Might help with the whole vacuum thing.” Dentala looked at her hand, surprised that she had forgotten it, before slipping one on. It attached to her bracer and made an airtight seal, forming an armored gauntlet. With that, the four marines left to join their fifth member in the shuttle.
As they left the locker room, Asteli mumbled under her breath. “We wouldn’t do that. We’re not assholes,” she said, addressing Kitern’s assertion of harassment.
“Well, you sound like one,” Gre’Namra replied quietly. After that, they kept their heads down and trudged along with their commanding officer.
A short jaunt later, they were passing through the hangar bay’s airlock. They were greeted by the Black’s only two shuttles. One, small and cramped, meant for scanning dangerous locations that they couldn’t get to with the ship. Logically, that would mean it was best suited to scan Earth. But even its equipment was not powerful enough to breach the radiation. Not without descending into the planet's atmosphere and becoming so irradiated they would practically glow in the dark. And while they could get Aphosi to pilot the shuttle remotely, its scanners aren't able to scan such a broad area like an entire planet. They were more meant to target small, specific locations.
The second shuttle was much larger. It was built to transport supplies and the handful of rovers they had in storage, to make excursions to planets. The smaller shuttle had permanently extended wings and large thrusters on the rear. The larger of the two, simply dubbed Shuttle One, could fold its wings. And had a variety of thrusters located across the ship for better maneuverability in space, and atmospheric thrusters embedded in the center of each wing for flight in atmo. But it also had two large engines in the back for forward thrust, just above its rear ramp.
Walking over to shuttle one, Onsa, the other Lioranian in the squad, was already waiting for them in the pilot’s seat. In the rear seating area were two engineers and two scientists, wearing grey, lightly armored EVA suits that looked to be made of cloth, but were instead a variety of advance polymers and flexible but insulative materials. Most of the helmet was a large, one way transparent material, allowing for increased awareness while sacrificing protection. In comparison, the marine’s helmets had no exterior window, instead a suite of miniature sensors embedded in their black armored helmets allowed them to see through an internal display screen. The helmets appeared to be smooth metal from a distance, only up close could you see the microscopic sensors embedded in them.
The marine’s suits held many of the same features as the civilians, but were black and had thick armored plates over vital areas and on select parts of their extremities, with thinner, non-metal armor segments filling in the gaps. Both suit types had an array of pockets and hideaways, each holding their respective tools of the trade. Regardless of the accessories, or level of protection, each was specially crafted to accommodate for the unique physiologies of the different species.
Had the ship and its equipment not made with each of their species in mind, they would have worn generic multi species suits. Instead of the pre-built features tailored for their specific anatomy, they would be covered with a thick insulated, pliable material that fitted over the horns, tails, and crests and shrank until it was tightly pressed against every nook and cranny. Aside from personalized helmets, each species’ leg sections and gloves/gauntlets catered for whether they were plantigrade, digitigrade, or for how many digits they may possess.
Hran being a male Venanian, had small horns jutting out from his temples. But because his horns were so small, his helmet did not need any special features. Thus was fairly plain. It looked like a sphere that had been slightly squished in on the sides. Unlike the females of his species, who had much larger, curved horns, their helmets were marked with two twin armored segments sticking up like antenna. Otherwise, their helmets were just as “stubby” as his, for their flatter faces. At least, in comparison to the other species onboard.
The Shednae with their elaborate head crests and long faces, had a stubby mohawk like metal protrusion for their crests to fit in, and longer helmets to account for their heads. The Drae’Ildan’s helmets were similar to the Shednae. In fact, they could be mistaken for one another if not for the lack of a head crest. Lastly, the Lioranian helmets were quite plain, aside from the extended “snout” for their slightly longer faces and two nubs to house their ears located on the top of their heads.
Those with tails were likewise afforded a special area to put them, instead of the shrinking material normal for such species. The Shednae have a small knob like space for their short tails. While the Venanians and Lioranians had long thin tails, they could be coiled in the suit. Drae’Ildan suits had a much longer and thicker tail section that looked burdensome but was quite flexible. Their suits were also equipped with a much larger array of sensors to assist them, as the Drae’Ildan’s natural sensory organs were significantly dulled in such tight confines.
“I see the grunts have finally made their appearance. Why did you bother bringing so many guns with you? It’s a derelict that has been floating dead in space for thousands of cycles. There won’t be anything living on board.”, one of the engineers nagged, as the marines ducked into the shuttle. Though her helmet was on, it was clear she was a part of engineering by the orange stripe running along the left of her suite, and left sleeve. Mimicking their uniforms.
“And a fine hello to you Kass, you too, Hran,” Kitern said as she sat down across from the two Venanians and buckled in. Hran simply nodded silently. Kitern continued, “And as for your question, we have no idea what we’ll find. You want to be stuck out in space with no way of protecting yourself if something is there? Yeah, I’m sure it’s empty too. Doesn’t mean I’m taking any chances.” Kass snorted at her reply.
“Shavizi, Jurwa, what about you two, think we’ve over prepared?” Kitern asked the two scientists to her left. Their stripes were blue.
“One can never be too prepared! Though the heavy slugger seems a bit excessive, but as long as you don’t drop it on me, I have no complaints,” Jurwa, a Shednae, said gleefully, practically bouncing in her seat.
“I agree, organic enemies aside. The ship may have automated defenses still functioning. If so, they will have to be dealt with accordingly.” Shavizi added. Yet another Venanian.
“See Kass, they get it,” Kitern grinned smugly underneath her helmet as she leaned back and buckled herself in.
As the others sat down and buckled in, Onsa turned in her seat to see if they were all ready. Everyone confirming they were. She turned back around and started up the shuttle. Quickly putting it into autopilot, but still keeping her hands on the controls just in case. The shuttle slipped out of the bay, passing through the atmospheric retention field, and pitching down and to the left, heading for the derelict Nemesis ship.
As the debris field is so dense and dangerous, the Into the Black was several hundred kilometers away, clear of any potential danger. As such, the trip would take around five minutes before they reached the field, another six to navigate the debris, as it was so hazardous. The Nemesis ship in question was near the edge of the debris field, but still mostly intact, with some power readings emanating from within, a perfect target for research.
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“We’re coming alongside it now. Once we have successfully magnetized to its hull with the docking clamps, I’ll decompress the shuttle and you can open him up,” Onsa called out, just barely turning her head back in their direction.
Kitern activated her comms so everyone could hear her clearly once the air was siphoned out. “Gotcha. Scans show two distinct points of power readings. Both look to be in the same place, or at least really damn close. We’ll take a right once we get into the ship and follow the corridor until it leads to a three-way intersection. Then we make a left, then a right, and we’ll be on track. The room in question will be along that corridor. Keep your eyes and sensors open for anything that looks Nemesis-y.”
“Oh, like the entire ship?” Kass chimed in.
Kitern rolled her eyes. “Onsa, give a countdown.”
Onsa nodded her head. “Affirmative. Decompression commencing in three… two… one… starting.” There was an audible hiss that slowly faded away as the air in the shuttle was pulled back into storage tanks for later use. “Decompression complete, safe to open the door,” she confirmed over their comms.
“Opening door. Don’t go floating off,” Kitern joked as she pressed a button near the hatch, causing it to slide open silently. Before them was a gaping hole in the side of what looked like a ship that had grown large warts. The human beacons had mentioned that the Nemesis ships weren’t smooth, but the reality was a bit more unsettling up close. The humans weren’t sure why the Nemesis ships were so… bumpy. But they knew it wasn’t actually part of the building process, as newly refurbished or repaired Nemesis vessels lacked the warty exterior. But they had seen no importance in investigating the reason, as they had no tactical or structural advantage. Humanity theorized they were damage, but what could cause metal to ripple and bubble? So it remains a mystery to this day.
Kitern lifted a foot, causing the magnetic lock on that boot to disengage automatically, then re-engage when she put pressure on it. Allowing her to walk forward until she was looking down into the hole. Kitern put a foot on the lip of the shuttle, and bent forward, pushing herself into the opening.
As Kitern floated into the ship, she could see the corridors were circular, with strange partitions along the edges. The partitions didn’t seem to move or close, so she guessed they were more decorative support beams than actual doorways. A second later, she put out a hand to stop herself from colliding with the far wall, and pushed downward, boots magnetizing to the floor. Upon magnetizing, she immediately lifted her weapon. It was a small energy-based firearm, similar in size and function to an SMG.
Looking down both directions of the corridor showed nothing of interest other than more of those strange support beams and closed bulkhead doors on either end. She noted the twisted metal and battle damage in the corridor caused by whatever had impacted the hull.
Before everyone had touched down, she started making her way toward their objective. She continued on until she reached the bulkhead door at the end of the corridor. It was not fully closed, only partially, allowing someone to grip between the two sections and pull them apart. She did just that. As the door slowly opened, Dentala came up behind her and lent her strength to the task. Grunting in exertion, they pulled the door apart until they could easily walk through. Kitern silently fist bumped Dentala on the shoulder in thanks before she continued on, weapon held at the ready.
As they proceeded through the derelict, signs of battle began to appear. At first, it was only a few scorch marks or kinetic impact craters on the wall. Then, what looked like dried blood from some ancient creature. It had aged into a sickly dark green color with a hint of yellow. A quick scan showed that no genetic material could be retrieved, it had long degraded into nothing. Though some sort of information could certainty be gleamed from the stain if they searched long enough, but the sample was unimportant, as it was not a focus of the mission. Pressing on, the signs of battle intensified, as well the amount of spilled blood. At one point, an entire corridor looked like it had been painted in viscera.
The team could only speculate on what had happened. Was it a mutiny? Civil war between surviving Nemesis forces trapped in the Sol system? Or perhaps the humans had something to do with it? But there was one thing on everyone’s mind as they walked through the ancient carnage. Where were the bodies? They hadn’t passed a single corpse yet, just blood stains.
“Captain Kitern, do you suppose we can slow down and so I can scan the ship a bit more? I can’t get a proper reading while moving like this,” Shavizi requested from the back. She had some sort of tool and was waving it back and forth across the surface of the corridor.
“You can scan the ship when we stop, and that will be when we get to those power signals. And once we make sure the place is secure,” Kitern responded, weapon still up at her shoulder as she swept the hallway.
“If that is your order,” Shavizi relented, but still attempted to scan everything they passed, incomplete or not.
It didn’t take long before they arrived at where the Black said the power readings were. They had weaved about the ship a bit more than desired. Several bulkhead doors were completely sealed shut, causing them to detour, but they managed it in the end. They were now standing in front of a large single door; it was nowhere near as large as the bulkhead doors that sealed off entire corridors, but it was large enough to allow passage with room to spare on all sides.
It too bore damage from whatever conflict had occurred within the ship. The door’s access panel was damaged, and the surrounding wall panels warped. Preventing them from directly interacting with the door.
“This is the place; my scanner is already picking up power readings from here. Hran, be a dear and get out the interface tools. We’ll see if this door has power first, instead of brute forcing our way through first thing,” Kass stated. Hran silently carried out his orders, unpacking a variety of tools they may need.
After pulling off several of the panels to see if they allowed access to the door’s wiring, they eventually found the right one. Sadly, a closer inspection revealed that the door, like nearly the entire ship, had no power, meaning it couldn’t be opened by the press of a button like they wanted.
“Oh well, do what you do best, Kitern,” Kass shrugged as she and Hran began packing up their tools.
“Eh, worth a shot. Privates, if you please,” Kitern motioned to the door for the two young marines to take a crack at it. They both replied with a crisp, yes ma’am, and quickly got to work trying to pry open the door.
It took a little more effort than they thought, but over time it slowly slid further and further open, until Gre’Namra wedged herself in between the door and frame, and used her entire body to push it open. Asteli joined in when it widened enough for the both of them. Together, they pushed it fully open, the door slowly recessing into the wall. Revealing an old dusty room with several long bed-like pods.
“Thank you, girls. Now clear the room while you’re at it. Though by now any baddies would have chewed you up,” Kitern ordered. The two did just that. Thankfully, the entire room could be seen from the doorway, so there really wasn’t any clearing. Just looking behind the pods for anything not so friendly.
During their little search, they noticed one bed had several lights flickering on its side. They pointed it out to the others. Immediately, Kass and Shavizi pushed them aside to get to it. Drooling over it like children being offered sweets.
“I wonder what this is?! After so many thousands of years, it still has power. I thought those beacons were incredible enough, but this is something else!” Kass said to no one in particular.
Shavizi had been scanning the bed, as well as its neighbors, while Kass looked it over. “Hmm. The pods have a sliding covering that encloses the occupants. All the others are open, yet this one is closed.” Shavizi tapped at her scanner a bit. “Wait… the other energy signature… it’s coming from inside it!” she said astonished, while moving a hand over the top of the slid that covered the pod. As she did, thousands of years’ worth of dust floated away from where she dragged her hand. Allowing a small amount of light to break free from within.
Noticing this, Shavizi leaned forward and peered inside the pod. Her eyes went wide as her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. “GET BACK! DON’T TOUCH IT!” she screamed, but was too late. Kass, who was now crouched down near the base of the bed, had pressed a finger to one of the flickering lights just as Shavizi yelled her warning. All Kass had time to do was turn her head up and mutter a confused, “huh?”, before the covering of the pod slid open, unleashing its occupant onto the galaxy.
First Previous
Hello once again! First things first. If you see the name Osan, please point it out to me. It is supposed to be Onsa, but the program I use to write the story changed the name to Osan for some reason. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the cliffhanger! This chapter is meant to help further detail the various species and their features, and of course set up for many things to come!
Also, in my last story. I had a lot of flashback sequences to add in fluff and give backstory to the MC. While I don't want overuse it in this story, I do want to have flashback esque sequences that are basically just battles of the Human-Nemesis war (recorded combat footage recovered from human ships and installations), introduce new characters, or maybe give further development to preexisting characters. The flashback sequences will be called Orphan: Tales of the Past and won't begin until a certain point in the main story. Once that point is reached, the side stories will pop up every once in a while in place of the main story chapters. Or, if I fell as if its safe to push the story ahead, you'll get the main story and a side story in one week.
That's it for the week folks! See you next week!

I am planning to get the gas line from basement to kitchen in order to add a gas powered range. Can someone point me to any contractors/ company that does this kind of work and an approx cost.
Also, if anyone using gas powered range - which brands do you prefer and which brands to avoid. Thanks in advance.

Blue Reflection Sun was released one month ago and after playing religiously every day (this includes waking up in the middle of the night to consume stamina, something I'll get to later on in my review), here are my thoughts. First of all, this review will not touch on the controversy regarding including the first male character in a series that features only female characters. Just let me say that after playing through the story to the latest chapter, many of the interactions/scenarios between the girls and the protagonist completely excludes the protagonist from being female. So that possibility is off the books for foreign releases or future patches. Now that that's over with, I will be reviewing the game as a standard gacha game developed and published by large companies (Koei Tecmo and DMM Games).
As a disclaimer, I have been playing gacha games for over 10 years but rarely have I played in any language other than Japanese. So while I am translating to English to the best of my ability, some terms may be wrong, though hopefully decipherable.
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Gacha
I'll start off with the crux of gacha games: the gacha. There are essentially 2 types of gacha: character and fragcard gacha. Character is self-explanatory, but fragcard is the `card` system found in some gacha - each includes a skill, which can be upgraded, and stats, which can be levelled. Characters range from 1-3 stars (can be limit broken to a maximum of 5) and fragcards which go from R→SR→UR. Each gacha can drop the other type except for at the highest rank. In other words, the character gacha can drop R and SR cards but not UR, while the fragcard gacha can drop 1-2 star characters but not 3 star.
The rates in order of ascending rarity is 77%→20%→3%. The tenth pull is 97%→3%, so in other words, at the tenth pull you are guaranteed 2★/SR or higher. There is a pity system for each gacha that does not carry over, besides the standard gacha. 200 pulls for 200 tickets will let you exchange for the featured item - this number cannot be reached without major saving or else spending money. Each event period gives you an estimated 50 pulls (this is a very rough estimate since it's still service start).
Regarding the limited gacha, So far, characters and cards have been truly limited, in that there is no plan to add them to the standard pool after the run, though the fine print states that there may be reruns (par for the course). This is great as it makes things black and white: you either pull if you want it or save if you're waiting for something else. No grey area where you want the item but you might as well wait since it will be added to the pool later.
You'll also receive a plethora of gacha tickets, but unfortunately, these can only be used one at a time (probably in order to bypass the ten pull system). Combined with the slow loading screens, using 30 or so tickets took me almost an hour...
Finally, even 1 star characters can be easily limit broken to 5 stars, which makes it so that there are no useless characters. Of course, a 3→5★ will be stronger than a 1→5★, though at the very least this means that you'll still have viable characters even if you get horrible pulls.
All this to say that, the rates don't feel unfair, and even when you pull a card instead of a character, Kishida's art is so pretty that it doesn't even feel all that bad. Also, just as there are no useless characters, all cards can be sufficiently powerful once limit broken and levelled up.
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Cash Shop
There is no cheap monthly pass unfortunately. Only a simple money to gem system. The most expensive item is 10,000 yen for 16,000 gems which equates to 53 pulls. This goes down to the cheapest item, 160 yen for 160 gems, which is about half a pull. One pull is 300 gems.
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Mechanics
Standard turn-based rpg with no time-delay system found in the original series. 4 elements with none of that dark/light crap (sorry, I'm just not a fan of elements that do increased damage to one another) and in rare cases, non-elemental. Each character has her own powerful skill and 2 other skills that can be equipped and switched via fragcards. This means that a character of one element can equip skills of a completely different element.
Elements do increased damage and receive less damage to/from the element that they are good against. So much so that a party strong against an element can take down enemies of twice the power rating (in my case, my party of 60,000 could take down enemies of 120,000).
Standard attacks charge SP, which is counted separately for each skill. So you can freely use each skill as soon as it is charged, without worrying about saving the SP for another skill. This is where the auto battle fails. Auto makes the characters randomly choose attack or a skill, without prioritizing fully charged skills. So that means your character may use a standard attack even when you don't need the SP. Management has said that they are planning to improve the auto system in the near future, so this may be subject to change. On the plus side, characters will focus fire enemies from right to left in auto.
Finally, characters can be `borrowed` from friends/strangers, which lets you use her skill once per battle at any time, without losing your turn. This will not activate during auto. All in all, this is to say that if there is a powerful enemy that you cannot defeat in Auto, often Manual will often enable you do so.
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Stamina
At player level 1, you start off with 51 stamina (if I remember correctly), which recovers at a rate of once every 3 minutes. Doing the math, you can see that initially 2.5 hours will give you a full charge; hardly enough to let you rest during work (let alone sleep). You'll receive a ton of stamina refill items, which is in your best to use as soon as possible to level up and increase your maximum stamina. After a month of playing, I am currently at 100 stamina - the highest leveled players I've seen are 10 levels higher, i.e. 110 stamina, which equates to 5.5 hours for a full charge - still hardly enough for a full night's sleep.
All this to say, for those of us that are very stoic about consuming stamina to never let it go full, the stamina system in this game is the most stressful I have ever experienced. It seems as if not much thought was given into either lowering the recovery rate (along with the cost of stages) or else increasing the maximum increased per level.
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PVP
There is a ranked battle system, but it's almost impossible to lose. Firstly, while the enemy team will attack randomly, your team will focus fire. Secondly, each enemy has a break meter, which when full will make them lose one turn (normal enemies also have this). This, combined with weaknesses can easily let you win fights with differences in power levels of 20,000 (or potentially higher, though I don't want to try my luck).
There is a maximum of 3 battle points, which are not refreshed daily as in most games, but gradually (1 every few hours, I haven't bothered to time how many hours). Basically you can fight much more than thrice a day. There is also a consecutive win bonus, which keeps increasing to the point that the consecutive bonus is higher than the standard win bonus. At high ranks and high consecutive wins, you will receive way more points than you need for the limited items in the battle shop.
One month in, and I along with most player I imagine, have never lost a match.
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Story and Characters
The story is not Shakespeare, nor is it Twilight. The voice acting is excellent as usual, and the story is interesting enough to keep you immersed. Each character has her own personality, motivations, and desires, which are much more rounded than the standard flat female characters born of a male mind found in most fiction. While most works feature simple anime tropes that perpetuate sexist stereotypes, the characters of brs have a certain nuanced depth, i.e. they exist as entities independent of male characters (and not as mere supports to a well-rounded male). All this to say, while there are some cringey moments, most of the characters have a certain human charm separate from a mere sexualization of the character.
The main character is also not annoyingly smart/strong or dumb/weak, i.e. he has the same attractive qualities that the girls have as well. There is a good balance in terms of character relations, though I wish they reversed the females-dependent-on-male trope more (they almost did in the beginning, but then it swung to the standard MAN DO EVERYTHING AND WOMAN LIKE STRONG MAN caveman mindset...).
In terms of character design, Kishida's design is top notch as always, showing that not only is he talented in bishoujo design, but even his bishounen are pretty as hell. Personally, I cringe at the hairstyles/fashion/makeup/design of most anime because you can tell these were men creating women, 10 years behind the current fashion. Kishida, however, I always imagine him spending hours every day on Instagram absorbing all the latest trends. His characters' hairstyles and fashion really show this and adds a certain believability (most other works of fiction make me groan "no woman would be caught dead in such a mismatched setup" etc.).
The 3D models are also very similar to the 2D art, so thankfully there is no huge gap between the concept design and implementation. Also, most of the limited gacha outfits are so pretty, it never feels bad to pull.
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User Interface
There are certain aspects of UI that show of outdated design or a lack of knowledge of gacha design. For example, you cannot see details of a character's skill in the Training menu (where all of your owned characters are listed). Instead, you have to go to Formation, change character, and then view from there - very unintuitive, not to mention unecessary. Another is that upcoming maintenances are not announced in-game in an in-your-face sort of way. You have to check the once-a-day announcement or else follow their Twitter closely. Very frustrating, which I'll go into more detail in the next section.
Besides a few grave errors, most of the UI design is non-problematic, and likely to improve as hinted in an upcoming update. Much of the UI design (along with the sound and music) from the main series is brought over to the gacha game as well, which fans will enjoy.
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Management/Operations
This is the most frustrating thing about this game. Luckily, if there is an English release, you might not have to deal with this if you end up with a better English team. To sum up why, basically the 運営 (I think this translates to management or operations in English) of KT/DMM does not feel like part of a company with decades of experience; they feel like a small indie developeself-publisher that has no experience handling sudden errors.
In the first week especially, there were lots of server crashes and emergency maintenances to fix a lot of the problems. Server crashes are unexpected, but I have never seen a company handle maintenances so poorly. Apart from the lack of in-game announcement interface mentioned in the previous section, there were times when the Twitter announcement was only a few minutes in advance. Completely unacceptable in Japanese society, especially so in customer-service relations. To add to this, stamina fills up fast, which only adds to the frustration. Such that you have to constantly log in because you're never sure when the next maintenance will come.
As a side note, post-mortem of the server crashes found that they were due to high access traffic "overseas." Obviously we all knew this meant China bots once again ruining a party that they weren't invited to. Perhaps future games would do well to always cordon off a China server for the safety of Japan, but that's another story for another day.
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Final Thoughts
I am a big fan of DMM/Exnoa published games; they often publish many obscure developers, most of which are terrible, but every once in a while, there is a hidden gem. So it pains me to be so critical of their handling of this game, because I know they can do better. On the other hand, Koei Tecmo did an alright job of bringing a console/PC game to mobile, and if they are as willing to improve based on feedback as promised, then there may yet be hope for this game.
Regardless, after one month, I am still highly enjoying this game. The sounds, visuals, gameplay loop just hit all the right places for me, so I am looking forward to future updates and improvements. Those that have more free time than me may find that there is not enough to do in-game, but for relatively busy adults, this may just be the game for you.
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P.S. Thank you for making it to the end of this long review. If you wish to comment, please refrain from bashing the game, developers, publishers, etc. for introducing a male character. You can gripe about that in a different thread, but this is not the place for that. Productive comments regarding gameplay or similar are welcome.

Just looking for some general advice for what to do next for my cards. In general I would like if it would be possible to simplify my card usage so I don't have to check quarterly categories so much and swap around which cards I'm using where as often. Also looking into whether it makes sense to go all in on one ecosystem, but that's even tougher to decipher.
CREDIT PROFILE

• Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of:
  • Citi Double Cash, $19,000 limit, opened 05/2016
  • Chase Freedom, $20,000 limit, opened 05/2016
  • Capital One Quicksilver, $10,000 limit, opened 05/2016
  • Bank of America Merrill+, $7,500 limit, opened 02/2017
  • Discover it, $8,000 limit, opened 08/2017
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred, $17,500 limit, opened 01/2023 (opened this just for bonus and for big travel expenses this year, I intend to product change it Chase Freedom Flex after the first year)
• FICO Scores with source: (note that scores took a small dip in Feb, scores for the past 6 months have all been closer to the Jan ones I'm listing)
  • Discover Credit Scorecard: 815 (Feb), 830 (Jan)
  • Citi FICO Score: 826 (Feb), 848 (Jan)
• Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 6 years, 9 months
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months: 1
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months: 1
• Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months: 1
• Annual income $: ~$180k

CATEGORIES

• OK with category-specific cards?: Yes
• OK with rotating category cards?: Yes, already do this with Chase Freedom/Discover it when rotating categories are convenient
• Dining $: ~$1,000
• Groceries $: ~$200-300
• Gas $: 0 (don't drive)
• Travel $:
  • Flights: $100 (currently just do one vacation a year, so this tends to be all spent at once)
  • Airbnb: $200 (probably the most variable one here, so this can possibly go up)
  • Hotels: $0 (personally I like Airbnbs more when traveling when possible)
  • Trains/Buses: ~$60
  • Lyft/Uber: $0-50
• Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time?: No
• Any other categories or stores with significant, regular credit card spend:
  • Amazon: $300
  • Phone: $30
  • Internet: $90
  • Gym: $90
• Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?:
  • Pet Care: ~$100-200
  • Hobbies/entertainment: $~300-400
  • Fashion/clothes: ~$10,000 / YEAR (very high spending area for me as one of my main hobbies, but separated it to by year since I can often go months spending 0 then when a new season comes around or sales start my spending will go way up. Additionally some purchases here can involve foreign transactions so it can be nice to have a card with no fee there)
• Can you pay rent by credit card?: No

MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS

• Current member of Amazon Prime?: Yes
• Current member of Costco or Sam's Club? Yes, Costco
• Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?:
  • Schwab (checking)
  • Ally (savings)

PURPOSE

• What's the purpose of your next card?: Travel Rewards, previously had been only really concerned with cash back but I would be interested in optimizing for better travel rewards if possible
• If you answered "travel rewards", do you have a preferred airline and/or hotel chain? United for flights (from ORD), but I'm not too particular on this currently. And as mentioned previously, I tend not to look to hotels when traveling.
• Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Some of the options I've personally been looking at:
  • Citi Premier + Citi Custom Cash + Citi Rewards+: going all in on Citi ecosystem, as the Citi DC is already my go-to card for most things and I could get restaurant rewards on the Custom Cash. I see the premier until very recently had an 80k SUB, would it make sense to hold out for that if I went that direction? I already made my flight purchases for the year on my CSP, so not necessarily in a rush.
  • Capital One Venture X + SavorOne: this option would be for moving focus to Capital One ecosystem
  • Chase: haven't considering this one as much but maybe could also make sense to just go with the Chase ecosystem, I just feel like I haven't gotten too much value currently out of my Freedom as I'm only ever able to really make use out of 1/2 quarters per year
  • Amex Gold: also been looking at this as it has good points for restaurants, one of my high spend areas, and I think getting the dining credits shouldn't be too tough to offset the annual fee. I know this isn't really a travel card, so this would likely just be used for restaurants/groceries. My only concern is whether this is still worth getting if I intend on going all in on one ecosystem and it overlaps on that. I do also have the 90k SUB available right now, so this is tempting.

A part that's tough for me to work out which actually end up giving the most value in the end, so it would be nice to hear from people more familiar with the offerings. What I'm most unsure about is how easy the points are to use for each system, especially with how limited my travel currently is. Along with that is if I should care about the possibility of cashing out for raw cash back like I already can do with Citi DC if there's no good redemption available for me. Would appreciate any comments if anyone has any thoughts.