I used to carry yeong (my cat) like a baby and shower him with kisses whenever I had a chance to visit home (I'm a college student living in another city and I don't have that much vacant week to go home). Yeong and I used to sleep on the same bed and we do everything together. He's my best friend. My twin flame in a cat's body.
A month ago, he got lost. I couldn't search for him cus it was my finals week but I bombarded my cousin and aunt to look for him bcs I was anxious that he didn't came home for days alrdy. They searched for yeong (my family had grew fond of him too). They searched everywhere, and a week later, I got a devastating news. He was found dead in the middle of the abandoned lot in our street. The reason why it was too hard to find him was because he was surrounded by the walls of the wrecked house and the there are knee lenght grasses so it was hard to find him. One of our neighbours went there cus she smelled something bad. The smell of whatever's dead (was actually my cat) is making their daughters (puke) whenever they eat and the lot was just beside their house too. It did not take her long to spot yeong, lying there, decomposing. There were no signs of abuse on his body, my aunt says. Turns out he'd been dead for couple of days bcs my aunt confirmed it with his tail. No one expected this to happenen. My Mommy, Aunt and cousin broke down after they saw Yeong's body arldy decomposing. It was a shock to us.
I could hardly even imagine how he suffered. It pained me. I couldn't do anything. I was studying in another city. I kept calling my aunt if they had found him. I was anxious the entire week. On Apr 16, I called my aunt. I fucking prayed that they found him, that he was alive and he's fine but the news broke otherwise. I cried and cried and cried. I prayed it wasn't him that was taken away from me. Yeong was like a child to me. I loved him with all my heart. I cried at school, I didn't care if they looked at me as if it was some sort of sad girl crap. My heart was breaking in million pieces. I couldn't even face everyone with my bloodshot eyes bcs I cried so much the night I recieved the news he was found dead. It hurts so fucking bad that I'm crying right now while writing this.
Last week, I went home, for the very first time after I heard about his. I absent-mindedly asked my aunt and Mommy "Mommy, where's Yeong?" and that fucking hit me in the gut. He's dead. He's not coming back to life. I carried the days out like I always did when I lost someone dear to me. I busied myself with books and everything to keep my mind off the anxiety that's creeping up. 4 days in, while we were having dinner, I said "He used to ask for his dinner at this time around. I miss him", I blurted out. I miss him. I do. It was one of the saddest meal I had in my life. After that, I went outside to get some fresh air, my aunt kept me company cus we both finished eating the same time.
That night, I felt hopeless with the situation. I couldn't see Yeong anymore. Tears kept falling from my eyes. I just cried like a baby in front of my aunt. I couldn't stop it. All the pain I've endured after I found out the news are all coming back, and shit it did hurt. I truly miss him.

This is going to be long. Me and my fiance have been dating 8 months ago. We went to the courthouse to get our marriage license but have not gone though with our marriage ceremony. Just recently I have been trying to get closer to God, I grew up in the church but then went down a different path. Since meeting him I have been falling in love with God again. We did bible studies together and really from the life I had before I met him and now I am confused weather or not to walk away. I feel so far away from God, I dont want to admit it but I think God called us together for a purpose but we weren't meant to stay together... He has been in this walk for 7 years now but always slips and falls back into sin. Right before we met he was dating an agnostic woman and they ended up separating due to their different values and other issues. Me and my partner are both very complex to say the least, I suffer from intense mood swings. I can go from 0 to 100 really quick.. if he says something that makes me upset I have gotten to the point where I get physically abusive. He's very passive aggressive and knows how to get under my skin. Since the beginning of our relationship, my partner has been obsessed with knowing how many people I have slept with. The first night we met he asked me what my number was. He would ask what my number is multiple times afterwards, throughout the relationship. I dont have the lowest number. In the beginning I lied about my number because I was ashamed. After continually asking me again and again what my number was I couldn’t take it anymore and told him what the actual number is. He chose to still stay with me but I feel like I’m losing my mind because he continues to make me feel ashamed and blamed for lying even though he "forgave me" and i forgave him for the emotional abuse and constant uncomfortable questions. He suffers from OCD thoughts and depression. I wish he would of just let me go because i can't take the emotional abuse anymore. For months, he would make small "jokes" and be very passive in making me feel bad about my past choices. He claims he’s never had retroactive jealousy with anyone else, that it’s only with me because he “fell so hard for me” We will make love and he’ll say “who else has done this” and he’ll make me tell him how many and when.. he’ll say things like “I hate that so many guys have gotten that part of you, so many guys have seen that sx face” and stuff that make me feel really bad and ashamed. and let me just add that his past is worse than mine. I feel like I’m such a shame to him even though he says i am not. He makes me feel really beautiful at times except for when his mind goes on a spiral about my past and I could see it all over his face and body language. He say's I'm worth it but he can't live in the moment..he literally lives in his head and it's affecting me.. We went out for Memorial Day weekend and he said "i wonder what you would be doing if you were single" and that comment made me so uncomfortable. This man can never enjoy the moment. He lives in his head and in the past. I know what I should do I just wish it was that easy. He still has so much hope for us.. he says that if we do couple counseling everything will get better. That with time this retroactive jealousy issue will be healed But I’m afraid this is never going to end.... any advice is helpful..

Most coaches have ok X/Os but a coach has to be a good leader to get the players to trust their plays. Spo has track record and proof in pudding. Phil knew how to manage personalities to get the trust. Pop put his teams at ease. Obviously lots of similarities. Even Budenholzer with Bucks a couple years ago kept trust from the regular season. Seemed like Massula never even got trust in any part of the season.
Even a team like the young Thunder have massive trust with Daignault. If their talent stays consistent, they could surprise with a home seed even next year. (I think Daignault is a gem)
Also explains why former players get greased to head coaches. They have the built in trust from nostalgia of greatness, but that trust needs x/os otherwise, the superman facade falls away quick.
Championships are 90% player driven, but that promise is wasted without the 5% to unlock it. Other % comes from culture and GM/Organization plan

On the weekends, I like to go to used book stores. I know that the internet has kind of made books obsolete, but there’s just something I enjoy about walking around and looking at all the books people have read even if I never plan on reading them myself. Sometimes you see something that just looks absolutely terrible and you wonder to yourself who the author actually thought their intended audience was going to be. Case in point, look at the horror genre. The used book stores are lined shelf to shelf with shitty horror novels that are all essentially just variations on the same few ideas. The instant something actually original comes out a hundred hack writers fart out their own version of it, and then any charm the original idea had is completely gone.
To be honest, it’s ridiculous to me that something like the horror genre even exists in fiction. I don’t know how anybody could possibly read a story and then get scared by it. Movies, at least there are audio and visual components. I think I only got scared by a movie one time, anyway. It was this Japanese movie called Noroi. The first half has these fake news reels that have this vibe where it’s like something you’d see on some obscure website in the early 2000s. There were all sorts of strange videos and images that you would find back then and they would always have some kind of backstory attached to them and you were never really sure how much of it all was real. I suppose that’s what made it scary, was that uncertainty.
Anyway, that’s why I like going to used book stores. Sometimes I even buy stuff while I’m at them. Usually what I’ll do is I’ll just pick out books at random, skim a few pages or read the back cover or something like that, and then see how I feel about the whole thing. I’ll take my chances every once in a while. The books only cost a few bucks, anyway, so if they end up sucking it’s not a huge deal. I read this one book that was like an encyclopedia of racial slurs and for each one it gave like the origin and its historical context and some examples of its usage. At first I thought it had been written as a joke but there was way too much effort put into it for it to be a joke. Also, it was written in the 1980s, back when people were really serious about being racist towards each other. Even if I don’t condone the contents, it was an interesting read.
Now, on the particular occasion that I’m describing I was going through the general fiction section and had pulled out a book titled “A Simple Man” by a guy named Lance Jack. The back cover didn’t really tell me much about the book, so I flipped to a random page and started reading. It seemed to be describing the morning routine of the protagonist, a man named Claude. He woke up, took a shower, ate breakfast, and then went off to work. I skipped ahead a bit. Claude was getting fired from his job. I skipped ahead a little more. Claude was looking for a new job but couldn’t find anything that appealed to him. I suppose that sounds boring, but it had been a while since I’d purchased anything at a used book store and this particular book was giving off some pretty good vibes. So, I guess I should say that I bought it on a whim. It was only two dollars, anyway, so I wasn’t too worried about my investment not paying off.
I started reading the book when I got home. It opened with Claude’s childhood in southeastern Oregon. At school, he was too shy to make friends and spent most of his free time reading and watching movies. He eventually managed to fall in with a group of guys that were kind of like him, but not really. I’m sure you know how those things go. After high school he went to college and studied computer science. He didn’t love computer science or anything, but he also didn’t dislike it enough to change majors. He just kind of put up with it. After he graduated he moved on to different IT jobs, and that’s about as far as I managed to read. Obviously a lot more happened than that, but I’m just giving a sort of broad outline of things.
As I read the book, I began to notice a lot of strange – I guess you would call them “coincidences”. Well, I was born in southeastern Oregon, too, and in the same year as Claude – 1992. The general pattern of his life matched mine thus far, but more concerning were the specifics. When Claude was 7, he was run over by a golf cart and broke a leg. When he was 9, he played Ocarina of Time and developed a sexual attraction to Princess Ruto. When he was 14, he tried asking his crush out on a date and then threw up on her, and then for the rest of the year everyone called him “Barf Boy”. When he was 17, he was tricked into going to prom with one of his bullies who had dressed as a woman, who revealed the truth just as Claude was going in for a kiss. When he was 20, a bear attacked him while he was hiking and he was forced to kill it using a makeshift spear. And so on. All of these things happened to me, too, exactly as they happened to Claude. I was stunned, to say the least. This was my life that I was reading. The only difference was the names of the characters.
I didn’t pick the book up again until about a week later. Something like that takes a while to really come to terms with. After a few days, though, I started to get curious. I mean, everything I’d read so far matched my life perfectly, but if I kept reading I would eventually reach today, and everything after that would be the future. Would those things happen, too? I mean, the book had just been lying on that shelf for who knows how long. When had it even been written? There was no publication date, and I couldn’t find any information about the author online. I had to keep going, just to make sure. Just to see for myself.
And so I read, and before long I found the point where the past and the future split away (colloquially, this place is known as the “present”). Claude was trapped in a state of melancholy because he didn’t find his job fulfilling. He didn’t have much going on outside of work, either. Anybody he’d once considered a friend had moved away long ago, and he found it hard to muster the energy to go out and meet new people. Then, one day, he was suddenly fired from his job for “performance issues”. I vaguely remembered that part from when I’d first skimmed the book, and while I was definitely in a state of melancholy I had not yet been fired from my job. So, I told myself that I would put the book away and try not to think about it, and if I got fired in the same way Claude did then I’d really freak out.
It happened a couple of months later. I was called into the boss’ office and given the same speech that Claude was given in the book. I was a valuable employee but lately my performance just hadn’t been up to par and, unfortunately, they were replacing me with someone else. Something like that. Well, I knew from the start how this whole thing was going to go, so I just sat there and took it. There were other things on my mind.
Once I was back at my apartment, I pulled the book out of its hiding spot and spent a long while just staring at it. I guess this is something that everybody thinks about at some point or another – if you could know the exact day you would die, would you want to? Maybe some things aren’t worth knowing. Maybe they are. Staring at the book, it was hard to really say which side I was on. I supposed that it wouldn’t hurt to read ahead a little. To be honest, my life sucked, so if I knew I had something to look forward to in the future, maybe that would cheer me up. Maybe I’d run into the woman of my dreams while looking for eggs at the grocery store. Maybe the NFTs I’d sunk so much money into would suddenly become profitable and I’d never have to work again. Maybe anything would happen to get me out of this mental rut I’d been in for who knows how long.
Once again I read, onward and onward, chapter after chapter, waiting for something exciting to happen. And then, the book was over. Claude died alone in his apartment, the same apartment he’d lived in his entire adult life, at the age of 63. Nobody mourned for him, nobody cared, and nobody was even aware that he’d ever existed. I couldn’t believe it. I’d read a lot of books in my time, but this one was by far the most boring. It was depressingly boring. In that moment, a deep sense of dread overwhelmed me and I wanted to scream out to someone, but I didn’t because there was nobody to scream out to. This was my life, and all that lies ahead is a void filled with mindless work and people I can’t stand to be around and a stinging desire to try to make things better. The truth is that things will never get any better. That’s what it says in the book, after all.
I spend a lot of time these days lying in bed and staring up at the ceiling. I tell myself that if I can just do something spontaneous, something that goes against what’s in the book, I’ll prove to myself that my life isn’t bound to its pages. But when I think of going out and meeting people or trying something new, I can’t convince myself to follow through. Why is that? It feels like I have writer’s block, only in my brain. Maybe I could try joining something like a book club, I say to myself. Where? How? Which? Would I even enjoy it? Would I even have the energy to go there? Would I even like any of the other people there? Would they like me? Answer one question and two more pop up, like some kind of fucked up verbal hydra. I suppose that some people can ignore all that shit and just go for it, but I can’t.
Sometimes I watch movies to try to hype myself up. You know the one by the guy that made Heat, where Tom Cruise is the bad guy? He gives this little speech to the protagonist, tells him that sitting around and waiting for his dream to come will just end up with him wasting his life away. When the movie’s over I think to myself yeah, it’s time to go out there and do something! My dream is waiting out there and I need to go grab it! But then I wonder to myself what my dream even is. I suppose there’s nothing like a dream inside me, just a cold, dark longing to exist among others like me. Does that count as a dream? I read through the book again, looking for a hint, but Claude is just the same as me. He lays in bed and wonders why his brain’s the way it is. Claude in ten years is no different from the Claude of today, who is no different from the Claude in twenty.
With each day comes a little more dread. Everything that’s happened since I found that book has matched it perfectly, continues to match it perfectly. I’m marching towards an inevitable conclusion, one that’s already been written out for me. Maybe the only thing I can really do is learn to accept my fate. Maybe instead of living in fear I can live in quiet complacency like a barn animal inside its pen. Be honest, what else could a guy like me possibly do?

Motion to Condemn Israel's Annual 'Flag March'

That this House:
(1) condemns the annual ‘Flag March’ through Palestinian neighbourhoods of Occupied East Jerusalem marked by widespread racist and islamophobic chants, including “Death to Arabs,” “We will burn your village” and “Muhammad is dead”;
(2) further condemns the frequent attacks on Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem by marchers, and attacks on journalists; noting with deep concern the endorsement and participation in the march of members of the Israeli Government as well as encouraging inflammatory remarks against Palestinians;
(3) recognises the deep historical, religious, and cultural significance of East Jerusalem to the Palestinian people, and acknowledges their right as recognised under international law;
(4) decries any form of provocation, incitement, or actions that exacerbate tensions and promote hate against the Arabs and instability in the region, and considers the conduct of Israeli ‘Flag March’ in Occupied East Jerusalem to fall under such category;
(5) recognises the failure of the Israeli Government to issue its own condemnation of these events and to take action to prevent them, and believes this failure is indicative of broader discrimination against Palestinians in government policy which Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the occupied Palestinian territory have all concluded to be the crime of apartheid against the Palestinian people.
The House calls on the government:
(1) to demand the Israeli Government to respect the cultural and religious sensitivities of the Palestinian people living in East Jerusalem and to cease actions which disrupt peace and harmony by issuing sanctions;
(2) to work with humanitarian organisations and utilise its diplomatic relations with its international partners through the United Nations to advocate for the discontinuation of such potentially inflammatory events and behaviour by Israelis;
(3) to reconsider its current economic relations with Israel, including the potential suspension of specific trade agreements and restrictions on arms exports until Israel complies with international law and the rights of Palestinians are duly respected’
(4) to take a stronger stance on this issue, including bringing it to the attention of the UN Security Council for potential action and resolutions;
(5) to support, both financially and politically, credible NGOs such as United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Doctors Without Borders (MSF), and the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) as well as humanitarian efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.
This Motion was written and submitted by the Most Hon. EruditeFellow, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and sponsored by the Rt. Hon. ARichTeaBiscuit, Shadow Secretary of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of His Majesty’s 37th Most Loyal Opposition.
Opening Speech:
Deputy Speaker,
I stand before you today feeling compelled to do so by a strong sense of moral obligation and by a moral necessity to address the level of turmoil, derision and cruelty that ensues from the annual 'Flag March' through the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Occupied East Jerusalem.
The dark and sinister undercurrent of the march is not hidden by any means. It is heralded by chants of unabashed bigotry, a symphony of hate. The very essence of these chants strikes a chilling and frightening chord of hostility, discrimination, and malice. But this dissonance of disregard does not end at the borders of words. It overflows into an onslaught of violence, a tornado of injustices, and an avalanche of fear. The bulk of this storm does not just fall on the Palestinians. As the storytellers of our shared human experience, journalists are also not exempt. To make matters worse, members of the Israeli government, both past and present, have actively supported and joined this march. Their inflammatory remarks against Palestinians add fuel to the already raging inferno of hate.
Deputy Speaker, we must recognise the historical, religious, and cultural significance of East Jerusalem to the Palestinian people, a significance that finds its roots intertwined with their very identity. We must acknowledge their right to this land, a right enshrined in international law, a right that whispers their claim to their ancestral home and we must decry, with the full force of our collective voice, any form of provocation, incitement, or actions that stir the pot of animosity, actions that fan the flames of hate, actions that push the precarious balance of this volatile region towards chaos.
The Israeli Government's failure to condemn these events but engage in dangerous rhetoric inciting violence is an international travesty of our rules-based order. Their failure to prevent these inciteful events is not merely a failure of governance. It represents a failing of justice, empathy, and compassion. It is a symptom of a larger discrimination against Palestinians, which Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have all classified as the crime of Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.
I now urge the government to cease hiding behind the darkness of tyranny and injustice and to stand boldly as a guiding light of justice and humanity. The British Government must exert pressure on the Israeli Government to stop acting in ways that disturb peace and to respect the cultural and religious sensibilities of the Palestinians residing in East Jerusalem. In the face of corruption, we must use sanctions as a vehicle of peace and justice.
Britain must collaborate with humanitarian organisations and leverage its diplomatic relations with its international partners through the United Nations, to advocate for the discontinuation of such potentially inflammatory events and behaviour by Israelis in the interest of safeguarding human life.
We must reconsider our current economic relations with Israel, to consider the suspension of specific trade agreements, to contemplate restrictions on arms exports until Israel complies with international law and the rights of Palestinians are duly respected. Remaining idle on the matter risks Britain’s position on the international stage – we risk being recognised as supporters of the suffering being enacted against Palestinians.
This Government must take a stronger stance on this issue. We simply cannot stand idle while the echoes of our words dissipate into the ether of inaction. As the Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour put it, "Every action we take now matters. Every word we utter matters. Every decision we delay matters".
Deputy Speaker, most states consider Israel's settlements on land it won in a war with the Arab nations in 1967 to be illegal. Israel rejects that and cites security reasons as well as referencing its biblical connections to the West Bank. But we must keep in mind that it is up to us to prevent historical accounts from serving as the chains that tie us to a future of strife and division.
We must extend our support, both financially and politically, to credible NGOs and humanitarian efforts working tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people. To stand by them in their hour of need is not merely an act of charity, but an act of justice, an act of humanity, an act of hope.
I implore you to heed the call of justice, to listen to the cry of humanity, to feel the pulse of the world. Let us not be the bystanders in the theatre of history. Let us be the actors who shape it. Let us be the voice that calls out against injustice, the hand that reaches out in aid, the heart that feels the pain of our fellow human beings. And let us, in our actions today, lay the foundation for a future of peace, justice and hope.
This reading will end on Friday 2nd May at 10pm BST.

My Saturday night heart is so lonely it almost feels betrayed,like how he’d go into a minor key without warning, three quarters into Take the A Train.
I don’t know where she lives anymore.Please get me home, even though the check engine oil light has been on for a week, and I need a cane to get up the stairs,
I’m afraid of falling.Into what I don’t know.Into how it was years ago,in the dark with her red hair fallen down.
When I go, don’t put an oxygen mask on me, just give me a winter moon, a record playing, a saxophone wailing, calling out all the names I’ve known.
Continue reading Blake's poem here: https://www.ihadcancer.com/blues-for-nathan-davis-cancer-poetry

Context for my question - I got diagnosed with IBS and IBD a little more than a year ago, the doctor who diagnosed me gave me a diet to try out and I was extremely lucky to have found it mostly successful. However…it’s extremely restrictive and has been incredibly difficult to find recipes for, let alone ones that don’t require half a day to make, require an arm and a leg for all the ingredients, etc. I’m starting college in the fall and due to my dietary needs I’m going to be in an apartment with a kitchen instead of having a meal plan (the campus dietician recommended this - I could make the meal plan work but would not be fully nourishing myself) I’m also going a significant away from home and will be doing all cooking and meal prep on my own.
Because I struggle with finding recipes that fit within my needs, I’ve been considering hiring a chef of some sort to help curate a handful of recipes that would work for me. Has anyone else done this? Was it helpful? Is it a stupid idea? (I know it’s going to possibly be very expensive and I’m hesitant to waste money if it won’t be fruitful, but after over a year, I don’t have much going for me)

hi! i hope this is the right place for this. last night i fell and sprained my foot and my international flight home to newark (from chile, layover in atlanta) is tonight. i booked another night in my hostel so i can just lay down and not use my foot as much but i am really worried about walking around the airport.
am i able to ask for help? i know some places have shorter lines for elderly or disabled people, am i able to go to them if i explain my situation? i don’t have any documentation of the fall or my injury. should i reach out to the airline?
thank you!!!!!

The one thing I could probably live without, and I won the grand prize.
I enter a lot of competitions like these. The only other times I had won something was £5 off at a local restaurant, and a raffle at a Christmas fair. I won a life-size chocolate Santa for that raffle. It was actually really nice, high-quality chocolate.
I don't remember entering this paperclip competition, but me and my friends do dumb things when we're drunk sometimes. Entering a stupid competition didn't seem out of the realm of possibilities.
It started when I received a single envelope, full of paperclips. There were easily 100, at least. Probably more. You can imagine my confusion when I opened this first one - No letter inside, only paperclips. Red, green, blue, yellow, pink, black, white... It almost looked like something you'd sprinkle onto a cake as they poured down to my feet, pitter-pattering on the wooden hall floor.
I rolled my eyes and cleaned up. I figured an office had put the wrong address for a supply delivery.
One shipment of 100 paperclips is odd. But 2? That's where I got suspicious.
The second day had me question whether this was some form of prank. I was smarter this time, though - I recognised the weight and feel of the envelope. I recognised the outline of paperclips as I held it up to the light. I didn't let them spill out at my feet - Although, my curiosity still had me open it to peek inside. You'd do the same. "Is it really just paperclips?" Yes. Yes it is.
By the fifth day, I had stopped opening it. I'd just briefly hold it up to the light to confirm the outline looked like paperclips, and then I'd toss it.
I don't remember why I checked my spam folder in my emails, but when I took a look, I immediately saw it. The cheesy headline stood out. "Clip-pity Clop, You've Won the Lifetime Paperclip Jack-pot! 🎉📎"
Below is the rest of the email.

Your luck has just CLIPPED right into place! Congratulations! You are the GRAND WINNER of our "Lifetime supply of paperclips" competition! 🥳📎
From now on, you can proudly say goodbye to those chaotic loose papers and let our high-quality paperclips take over. No more sacrificing yourself to papercuts! And guess what? You didn't just win a box, you won an ENTIRE LIFETIME of daily paperclip surprises! You've really hit the jack-CLIP! 🎁
Starting from next week, you will receive a random amount of our finest, top-notch paperclips every single day. Just imagine the POSSIBILITIES! Office organization, arts and crafts, creative paperclip sculptures... the list is never-ending!
With your new paperclip friends by your side, there's no end to the horizon of tidiness and creativity (to the MAX)! Just like our paperclips: durable, strong, and clip-tacular! 💪📎
As we ship your first batch, let's get you started by sharing some mind-blowing paperclip fun-facts...

I'll save you the fun-facts section, as it's not very "fun". Although I did learn that they've been around since the 1800s.
The only interesting thing that this email gave me was a company name - Clipogenics. I promptly sent an email back asking that my prize be transferred to someone else. My exact words were "someone more in need of paperclips," although thinking about it, I'm not sure who that could possibly apply to.
Spoiler alert: They did not reply, and the envelopes kept on coming.
2 weeks went by; I was still receiving paperclips.
6 weeks went by; nothing changed.
A few weeks ago was the 3-month mark. Over 90 days of paperclips. Yes, I had considered selling them, but I really don't know how much money I could make. Also, yes, they even arrived on Sundays. I could not understand who was delivering these. I never caught them, although I assumed the person posting them had no association with the company themselves, so talking to them is never something I attempted.
Around that 3-month mark, I was going through my normal daily routine. Make a cup of coffee, pick up the envelope from the hallway floor, hold it up against a light, and toss it in the bin. Only this time, the light revealed the outline of 1 single paperclip, and something else. I have to admit, deep down, part of me was almost excited. A real-life plot twist? Something to spice up an otherwise mundane part of my day? Curveballs are usually exciting to me, and this was no exception. I reached inside, pulling the mystery object out. What could they possibly have sent me?
A severed finger.
A dry, almost slightly green, severed finger.
I'm not sure which happened first - My scream, or dropping the finger to the floor.
I noticed only then that the paperclip was lodged under the fingernail, piercing right through the flesh. It was golden this time - A colour I had not been sent before. I'd like to say I stayed calm, but I didn't - I ran to the bathroom to throw up.
I contacted the police, and they took the finger and envelope away. I explained everything that I knew, and showed them the email - They told me that they'd investigate.
"It's crazy, isn't it?" - One of the police officers began his thought to me.
"What?"
"How dangerous simple production can be. Some poor sod has lost a finger over something as simple as a paperclip!"
"You think it was an accident?" - I don't know what exactly I thought it was. A threat, maybe? I'm still not sure.
"Of course. Probably someone on the production line packaging these things. Finger gets caught in machinery, 'Ahh, no, whoops!', and before you know it the finger's lost. The weight of the finger makes the machine think the envelope is now full of paperclips, and off it goes to your door."
Somehow a calm explanation of this situation actually helped me. Hell, it almost convinced me that it was just normal. I was assured, though, that the company was at fault for health & safety, and that something would be done about this.
A couple of weeks went by, and the police hadn't contacted me with any new information. The envelopes kept coming daily, but I was too afraid to open them. For fear of tossing away evidence, though, I kept them piled up in the corner.
As the pile grew taller, I decided to bite the bullet and open them, but not before carefully inspecting each one.
My hands shaking, I held the first up to the light, and it was just full of paperclips. Perhaps the incident really was a one-off, and the fault had been fixed. I help a few more up, and my heart almost skipped a beat when I found one with a solid shadow. No outline of paperclips - This envelope had a letter.
I carefully opened it up, and read.

Dear valued customer,
We would like to formally apologize for the incident that occurred recently. We understand that the events were likely traumatic, and whilst we may never make it right, we'd like to offer you a one-time compensation.
Attached to this letter, using one of our sturdy, high-end paperclips, we have written a cheque for £2,000. We hope we can continue our partnership professionally.
We understand that you may want to cancel your lifetime supply of paperclips.
Unfortunately, we must decline this request.
We hope you understand,
Clipogenics Customer Service Team

No. I did not understand. Do you? Do you understand what the fuck they're talking about?
I contacted the police to update them, letting them know that I had received this message. They sent somebody to collect it.
The following day, assuming all was well, I picked up the daily delivery from the floor. Before I had a chance to check it, there was a knock at the door - I folded the envelope and put it in my back pocket. I opened the door, and was surprised to see a man in a suit looking very concerned.
He wasted no time in getting to the point.
"Hello, we're relocating you. Pack your things, and tell nobody. We have a temporary hotel booked for you."
My lack of response showed that I had many questions.
"Look - It's just precautionary. We can't find any evidence of Clipogenics ever existing, and..."
"...and what?"
"...and the finger matched the D.N.A of a recent assumed suicide. It's now assumed to be murder."
I had a feeling there was more. Unfortunately, his next sentence confirmed that.
"The person in question was found to have also won the competition."
I did not need telling twice - I got my essentials packed, and was at the hotel in less than 90 minutes. It was only in the next town over, which I found odd, yet comforted that I was still so close to home.
After the man left and I was left with my own thoughts, I was surprised at how quiet my head was. I was just...content. I wasn't happy or sad or scared, I was just existing. Perhaps I was still in shock. It took about an hour before I remembered the envelope in my back pocket. I held it up to the light, and knew from the resulting darkness that this contained another letter.
I hesitantly opened it, peeking inside to check for hidden surprises.
Upon taking it out, I thought it to be a blank piece of paper - It seemed entirely empty. Until I unfolded it, to reveal the few words printed upon this letter.

Dear valued customer,
Suicides don't lose fingers,
The police do not wear suits.

The world spun. The world crumbled. The world felt like it no longer existed.
Then all at once, reality came back to me, as I felt a rush of anxiety-driven energy. I paced back and forth in the limited space I had, weighing up my options and trying to come up with a plan.
Could I leave? I was probably being watched.
Could I contact the police? I certainly no longer felt comfortable doing so.
Could I talk to my friends or family? The last thing I wanted was to put them in danger.
I knew I had to do one of these 3 options, and opted for the first. It was still bright out - Surely I'd be safe in crowds. So that's exactly what I did. I stuck to busy areas, and travelled across the country, using as many different types of public transportation as I could.
I didn't stop until night fell. I booked a new hotel under a fake name, and paid in cash. I rested surprisingly well that night.
My sleep was interrupted at around 7am to knocking at the door. "No thank you," I sleepily yelled at what I assumed to be room service.
"Something arrived in reception for you - I'll slide it under the door."
A white envelope emerged through the crack under the door.
I wanted to stay away from it, but I knew that being unaware of the contents would scare me more than anything else. Feeling my heart pounding through my chest, I reached for the envelope, noticing a thick object within. Another finger?
No, a letter, this time with a vial of liquid, and two golden paperclips.

Dear valued customer,
We're glad you're settling in well to your new surroundings.
Sorry for the little show - We needed to assure that you'd get as far away from your hometown as possible.
Your true prize isn't the paperclips. That would be mundane.
Your true prize is immortality.
Paperclips are beautiful, aren't they? Connecting paper to paper, as the universe connects life to life. And as the flow of life continues, it has connected us to you.
The chain of our will continues, as the chain of paperclips continues with it.
The vial within has a unique purpose. It will kill you and help you live, all at the same time.
You do understand, don't you?
Drink the vial, and stab a paperclip into yourself.
You will slowly drift away for a moment, but you will stay connected to the universe. You must.
You will awaken in your new body - One of the many that we have cryogenically frozen here.
It worked for me.
You saw my finger.
Every single paperclip we have sent you has had a purpose. Each has been blessed with a new connection for your new life. They have all been through your home, many have touched your skin, and all have been held up to the light.
Their blessings will reach you in your new life.
The green ones bring you wealth. The red ones bring you health. The blue ones bring you happiness.
All you have to do is drink the vial.
Before the poison sets in, choose a paperclip. Your decision will always be the right one.
We know how your brain ticks. Every word we've ever written, and every colour we've ever chosen, have all been designed to sway your decision in this very moment.
You'll fall asleep as a valued customer,
But you'll awaken as a valued employee.

I am not letting them control my destiny. I will not sacrifice my life to their company, to become one of their puppets to control.
I know this company has a far greater reach than I first understood, so I might not be able to tell anybody. But I can tell everybody.
I hope this post reached their next "big winner" - And I hope they are as strong-willed as I am.

The one thing I could probably live without, and I won the grand prize.
I enter a lot of competitions like these. The only other times I had won something was £5 off at a local restaurant, and a raffle at a Christmas fair. I won a life-size chocolate Santa for that raffle. It was actually really nice, high-quality chocolate.
I don't remember entering this paperclip competition, but me and my friends do dumb things when we're drunk sometimes. Entering a stupid competition didn't seem out of the realm of possibilities.
It started when I received a single envelope, full of paperclips. There were easily 100, at least. Probably more. You can imagine my confusion when I opened this first one - No letter inside, only paperclips. Red, green, blue, yellow, pink, black, white... It almost looked like something you'd sprinkle onto a cake as they poured down to my feet, pitter-pattering on the wooden hall floor.
I rolled my eyes and cleaned up. I figured an office had put the wrong address for a supply delivery.
One shipment of 100 paperclips is odd. But 2? That's where I got suspicious.
The second day had me question whether this was some form of prank. I was smarter this time, though - I recognised the weight and feel of the envelope. I recognised the outline of paperclips as I held it up to the light. I didn't let them spill out at my feet - Although, my curiosity still had me open it to peek inside. You'd do the same. "Is it really just paperclips?" Yes. Yes it is.
By the fifth day, I had stopped opening it. I'd just briefly hold it up to the light to confirm the outline looked like paperclips, and then I'd toss it.
I don't remember why I checked my spam folder in my emails, but when I took a look, I immediately saw it. The cheesy headline stood out. "Clip-pity Clop, You've Won the Lifetime Paperclip Jack-pot! 🎉📎"
Below is the rest of the email.

Your luck has just CLIPPED right into place! Congratulations! You are the GRAND WINNER of our "Lifetime supply of paperclips" competition! 🥳📎
From now on, you can proudly say goodbye to those chaotic loose papers and let our high-quality paperclips take over. No more sacrificing yourself to papercuts! And guess what? You didn't just win a box, you won an ENTIRE LIFETIME of daily paperclip surprises! You've really hit the jack-CLIP! 🎁
Starting from next week, you will receive a random amount of our finest, top-notch paperclips every single day. Just imagine the POSSIBILITIES! Office organization, arts and crafts, creative paperclip sculptures... the list is never-ending!
With your new paperclip friends by your side, there's no end to the horizon of tidiness and creativity (to the MAX)! Just like our paperclips: durable, strong, and clip-tacular! 💪📎
As we ship your first batch, let's get you started by sharing some mind-blowing paperclip fun-facts...

I'll save you the fun-facts section, as it's not very "fun". Although I did learn that they've been around since the 1800s.
The only interesting thing that this email gave me was a company name - Clipogenics. I promptly sent an email back asking that my prize be transferred to someone else. My exact words were "someone more in need of paperclips," although thinking about it, I'm not sure who that could possibly apply to.
Spoiler alert: They did not reply, and the envelopes kept on coming.
2 weeks went by; I was still receiving paperclips.
6 weeks went by; nothing changed.
A few weeks ago was the 3-month mark. Over 90 days of paperclips. Yes, I had considered selling them, but I really don't know how much money I could make. Also, yes, they even arrived on Sundays. I could not understand who was delivering these. I never caught them, although I assumed the person posting them had no association with the company themselves, so talking to them is never something I attempted.
Around that 3-month mark, I was going through my normal daily routine. Make a cup of coffee, pick up the envelope from the hallway floor, hold it up against a light, and toss it in the bin. Only this time, the light revealed the outline of 1 single paperclip, and something else. I have to admit, deep down, part of me was almost excited. A real-life plot twist? Something to spice up an otherwise mundane part of my day? Curveballs are usually exciting to me, and this was no exception. I reached inside, pulling the mystery object out. What could they possibly have sent me?
A severed finger.
A dry, almost slightly green, severed finger.
I'm not sure which happened first - My scream, or dropping the finger to the floor.
I noticed only then that the paperclip was lodged under the fingernail, piercing right through the flesh. It was golden this time - A colour I had not been sent before. I'd like to say I stayed calm, but I didn't - I ran to the bathroom to throw up.
I contacted the police, and they took the finger and envelope away. I explained everything that I knew, and showed them the email - They told me that they'd investigate.
"It's crazy, isn't it?" - One of the police officers began his thought to me.
"What?"
"How dangerous simple production can be. Some poor sod has lost a finger over something as simple as a paperclip!"
"You think it was an accident?" - I don't know what exactly I thought it was. A threat, maybe? I'm still not sure.
"Of course. Probably someone on the production line packaging these things. Finger gets caught in machinery, 'Ahh, no, whoops!', and before you know it the finger's lost. The weight of the finger makes the machine think the envelope is now full of paperclips, and off it goes to your door."
Somehow a calm explanation of this situation actually helped me. Hell, it almost convinced me that it was just normal. I was assured, though, that the company was at fault for health & safety, and that something would be done about this.
A couple of weeks went by, and the police hadn't contacted me with any new information. The envelopes kept coming daily, but I was too afraid to open them. For fear of tossing away evidence, though, I kept them piled up in the corner.
As the pile grew taller, I decided to bite the bullet and open them, but not before carefully inspecting each one.
My hands shaking, I held the first up to the light, and it was just full of paperclips. Perhaps the incident really was a one-off, and the fault had been fixed. I help a few more up, and my heart almost skipped a beat when I found one with a solid shadow. No outline of paperclips - This envelope had a letter.
I carefully opened it up, and read.

Dear valued customer,
We would like to formally apologize for the incident that occurred recently. We understand that the events were likely traumatic, and whilst we may never make it right, we'd like to offer you a one-time compensation.
Attached to this letter, using one of our sturdy, high-end paperclips, we have written a cheque for £2,000. We hope we can continue our partnership professionally.
We understand that you may want to cancel your lifetime supply of paperclips.
Unfortunately, we must decline this request.
We hope you understand,
Clipogenics Customer Service Team

No. I did not understand. Do you? Do you understand what the fuck they're talking about?
I contacted the police to update them, letting them know that I had received this message. They sent somebody to collect it.
The following day, assuming all was well, I picked up the daily delivery from the floor. Before I had a chance to check it, there was a knock at the door - I folded the envelope and put it in my back pocket. I opened the door, and was surprised to see a man in a suit looking very concerned.
He wasted no time in getting to the point.
"Hello, we're relocating you. Pack your things, and tell nobody. We have a temporary hotel booked for you."
My lack of response showed that I had many questions.
"Look - It's just precautionary. We can't find any evidence of Clipogenics ever existing, and..."
"...and what?"
"...and the finger matched the D.N.A of a recent assumed suicide. It's now assumed to be murder."
I had a feeling there was more. Unfortunately, his next sentence confirmed that.
"The person in question was found to have also won the competition."
I did not need telling twice - I got my essentials packed, and was at the hotel in less than 90 minutes. It was only in the next town over, which I found odd, yet comforted that I was still so close to home.
After the man left and I was left with my own thoughts, I was surprised at how quiet my head was. I was just...content. I wasn't happy or sad or scared, I was just existing. Perhaps I was still in shock. It took about an hour before I remembered the envelope in my back pocket. I held it up to the light, and knew from the resulting darkness that this contained another letter.
I hesitantly opened it, peeking inside to check for hidden surprises.
Upon taking it out, I thought it to be a blank piece of paper - It seemed entirely empty. Until I unfolded it, to reveal the few words printed upon this letter.

Dear valued customer,
Suicides don't lose fingers,
The police do not wear suits.

The world spun. The world crumbled. The world felt like it no longer existed.
Then all at once, reality came back to me, as I felt a rush of anxiety-driven energy. I paced back and forth in the limited space I had, weighing up my options and trying to come up with a plan.
Could I leave? I was probably being watched.
Could I contact the police? I certainly no longer felt comfortable doing so.
Could I talk to my friends or family? The last thing I wanted was to put them in danger.
I knew I had to do one of these 3 options, and opted for the first. It was still bright out - Surely I'd be safe in crowds. So that's exactly what I did. I stuck to busy areas, and travelled across the country, using as many different types of public transportation as I could.
I didn't stop until night fell. I booked a new hotel under a fake name, and paid in cash. I rested surprisingly well that night.
My sleep was interrupted at around 7am to knocking at the door. "No thank you," I sleepily yelled at what I assumed to be room service.
"Something arrived in reception for you - I'll slide it under the door."
A white envelope emerged through the crack under the door.
I wanted to stay away from it, but I knew that being unaware of the contents would scare me more than anything else. Feeling my heart pounding through my chest, I reached for the envelope, noticing a thick object within. Another finger?
No, a letter, this time with a vial of liquid, and two golden paperclips.

Dear valued customer,
We're glad you're settling in well to your new surroundings.
Sorry for the little show - We needed to assure that you'd get as far away from your hometown as possible.
Your true prize isn't the paperclips. That would be mundane.
Your true prize is immortality.
Paperclips are beautiful, aren't they? Connecting paper to paper, as the universe connects life to life. And as the flow of life continues, it has connected us to you.
The chain of our will continues, as the chain of paperclips continues with it.
The vial within has a unique purpose. It will kill you and help you live, all at the same time.
You do understand, don't you?
Drink the vial, and stab a paperclip into yourself.
You will slowly drift away for a moment, but you will stay connected to the universe. You must.
You will awaken in your new body - One of the many that we have cryogenically frozen here.
It worked for me.
You saw my finger.
Every single paperclip we have sent you has had a purpose. Each has been blessed with a new connection for your new life. They have all been through your home, many have touched your skin, and all have been held up to the light.
Their blessings will reach you in your new life.
The green ones bring you wealth. The red ones bring you health. The blue ones bring you happiness.
All you have to do is drink the vial.
Before the poison sets in, choose a paperclip. Your decision will always be the right one.
We know how your brain ticks. Every word we've ever written, and every colour we've ever chosen, have all been designed to sway your decision in this very moment.
You'll fall asleep as a valued customer,
But you'll awaken as a valued employee.

I am not letting them control my destiny. I will not sacrifice my life to their company, to become one of their puppets to control.
I know this company has a far greater reach than I first understood, so I might not be able to tell anybody. But I can tell everybody.
I hope this post reached their next "big winner" - And I hope they are as strong-willed as I am.
===

The one thing I could probably live without, and I won the grand prize.
I enter a lot of competitions like these. The only other times I had won something was £5 off at a local restaurant, and a raffle at a Christmas fair. I won a life-size chocolate Santa for that raffle. It was actually really nice, high-quality chocolate.
I don't remember entering this paperclip competition, but me and my friends do dumb things when we're drunk sometimes. Entering a stupid competition didn't seem out of the realm of possibilities.
It started when I received a single envelope, full of paperclips. There were easily 100, at least. Probably more. You can imagine my confusion when I opened this first one - No letter inside, only paperclips. Red, green, blue, yellow, pink, black, white... It almost looked like something you'd sprinkle onto a cake as they poured down to my feet, pitter-pattering on the wooden hall floor.
I rolled my eyes and cleaned up. I figured an office had put the wrong address for a supply delivery.
One shipment of 100 paperclips is odd. But 2? That's where I got suspicious.
The second day had me question whether this was some form of prank. I was smarter this time, though - I recognised the weight and feel of the envelope. I recognised the outline of paperclips as I held it up to the light. I didn't let them spill out at my feet - Although, my curiosity still had me open it to peek inside. You'd do the same. "Is it really just paperclips?" Yes. Yes it is.
By the fifth day, I had stopped opening it. I'd just briefly hold it up to the light to confirm the outline looked like paperclips, and then I'd toss it.
I don't remember why I checked my spam folder in my emails, but when I took a look, I immediately saw it. The cheesy headline stood out. "Clip-pity Clop, You've Won the Lifetime Paperclip Jack-pot! 🎉📎"
Below is the rest of the email.

Your luck has just CLIPPED right into place! Congratulations! You are the GRAND WINNER of our "Lifetime supply of paperclips" competition! 🥳📎
From now on, you can proudly say goodbye to those chaotic loose papers and let our high-quality paperclips take over. No more sacrificing yourself to papercuts! And guess what? You didn't just win a box, you won an ENTIRE LIFETIME of daily paperclip surprises! You've really hit the jack-CLIP! 🎁
Starting from next week, you will receive a random amount of our finest, top-notch paperclips every single day. Just imagine the POSSIBILITIES! Office organization, arts and crafts, creative paperclip sculptures... the list is never-ending!
With your new paperclip friends by your side, there's no end to the horizon of tidiness and creativity (to the MAX)! Just like our paperclips: durable, strong, and clip-tacular! 💪📎
As we ship your first batch, let's get you started by sharing some mind-blowing paperclip fun-facts...

I'll save you the fun-facts section, as it's not very "fun". Although I did learn that they've been around since the 1800s.
The only interesting thing that this email gave me was a company name - Clipogenics. I promptly sent an email back asking that my prize be transferred to someone else. My exact words were "someone more in need of paperclips," although thinking about it, I'm not sure who that could possibly apply to.
Spoiler alert: They did not reply, and the envelopes kept on coming.
2 weeks went by; I was still receiving paperclips.
6 weeks went by; nothing changed.
A few weeks ago was the 3-month mark. Over 90 days of paperclips. Yes, I had considered selling them, but I really don't know how much money I could make. Also, yes, they even arrived on Sundays. I could not understand who was delivering these. I never caught them, although I assumed the person posting them had no association with the company themselves, so talking to them is never something I attempted.
Around that 3-month mark, I was going through my normal daily routine. Make a cup of coffee, pick up the envelope from the hallway floor, hold it up against a light, and toss it in the bin. Only this time, the light revealed the outline of 1 single paperclip, and something else. I have to admit, deep down, part of me was almost excited. A real-life plot twist? Something to spice up an otherwise mundane part of my day? Curveballs are usually exciting to me, and this was no exception. I reached inside, pulling the mystery object out. What could they possibly have sent me?
A severed finger.
A dry, almost slightly green, severed finger.
I'm not sure which happened first - My scream, or dropping the finger to the floor.
I noticed only then that the paperclip was lodged under the fingernail, piercing right through the flesh. It was golden this time - A colour I had not been sent before. I'd like to say I stayed calm, but I didn't - I ran to the bathroom to throw up.
I contacted the police, and they took the finger and envelope away. I explained everything that I knew, and showed them the email - They told me that they'd investigate.
"It's crazy, isn't it?" - One of the police officers began his thought to me.
"What?"
"How dangerous simple production can be. Some poor sod has lost a finger over something as simple as a paperclip!"
"You think it was an accident?" - I don't know what exactly I thought it was. A threat, maybe? I'm still not sure.
"Of course. Probably someone on the production line packaging these things. Finger gets caught in machinery, 'Ahh, no, whoops!', and before you know it the finger's lost. The weight of the finger makes the machine think the envelope is now full of paperclips, and off it goes to your door."
Somehow a calm explanation of this situation actually helped me. Hell, it almost convinced me that it was just normal. I was assured, though, that the company was at fault for health & safety, and that something would be done about this.
A couple of weeks went by, and the police hadn't contacted me with any new information. The envelopes kept coming daily, but I was too afraid to open them. For fear of tossing away evidence, though, I kept them piled up in the corner.
As the pile grew taller, I decided to bite the bullet and open them, but not before carefully inspecting each one.
My hands shaking, I held the first up to the light, and it was just full of paperclips. Perhaps the incident really was a one-off, and the fault had been fixed. I help a few more up, and my heart almost skipped a beat when I found one with a solid shadow. No outline of paperclips - This envelope had a letter.
I carefully opened it up, and read.

Dear valued customer,
We would like to formally apologize for the incident that occurred recently. We understand that the events were likely traumatic, and whilst we may never make it right, we'd like to offer you a one-time compensation.
Attached to this letter, using one of our sturdy, high-end paperclips, we have written a cheque for £2,000. We hope we can continue our partnership professionally.
We understand that you may want to cancel your lifetime supply of paperclips.
Unfortunately, we must decline this request.
We hope you understand,
Clipogenics Customer Service Team

No. I did not understand. Do you? Do you understand what the fuck they're talking about?
I contacted the police to update them, letting them know that I had received this message. They sent somebody to collect it.
The following day, assuming all was well, I picked up the daily delivery from the floor. Before I had a chance to check it, there was a knock at the door - I folded the envelope and put it in my back pocket. I opened the door, and was surprised to see a man in a suit looking very concerned.
He wasted no time in getting to the point.
"Hello, we're relocating you. Pack your things, and tell nobody. We have a temporary hotel booked for you."
My lack of response showed that I had many questions.
"Look - It's just precautionary. We can't find any evidence of Clipogenics ever existing, and..."
"...and what?"
"...and the finger matched the D.N.A of a recent assumed suicide. It's now assumed to be murder."
I had a feeling there was more. Unfortunately, his next sentence confirmed that.
"The person in question was found to have also won the competition."
I did not need telling twice - I got my essentials packed, and was at the hotel in less than 90 minutes. It was only in the next town over, which I found odd, yet comforted that I was still so close to home.
After the man left and I was left with my own thoughts, I was surprised at how quiet my head was. I was just...content. I wasn't happy or sad or scared, I was just existing. Perhaps I was still in shock. It took about an hour before I remembered the envelope in my back pocket. I held it up to the light, and knew from the resulting darkness that this contained another letter.
I hesitantly opened it, peeking inside to check for hidden surprises.
Upon taking it out, I thought it to be a blank piece of paper - It seemed entirely empty. Until I unfolded it, to reveal the few words printed upon this letter.

Dear valued customer,
Suicides don't lose fingers,
The police do not wear suits.

The world spun. The world crumbled. The world felt like it no longer existed.
Then all at once, reality came back to me, as I felt a rush of anxiety-driven energy. I paced back and forth in the limited space I had, weighing up my options and trying to come up with a plan.
Could I leave? I was probably being watched.
Could I contact the police? I certainly no longer felt comfortable doing so.
Could I talk to my friends or family? The last thing I wanted was to put them in danger.
I knew I had to do one of these 3 options, and opted for the first. It was still bright out - Surely I'd be safe in crowds. So that's exactly what I did. I stuck to busy areas, and travelled across the country, using as many different types of public transportation as I could.
I didn't stop until night fell. I booked a new hotel under a fake name, and paid in cash. I rested surprisingly well that night.
My sleep was interrupted at around 7am to knocking at the door. "No thank you," I sleepily yelled at what I assumed to be room service.
"Something arrived in reception for you - I'll slide it under the door."
A white envelope emerged through the crack under the door.
I wanted to stay away from it, but I knew that being unaware of the contents would scare me more than anything else. Feeling my heart pounding through my chest, I reached for the envelope, noticing a thick object within. Another finger?
No, a letter, this time with a vial of liquid, and two golden paperclips.

Dear valued customer,
We're glad you're settling in well to your new surroundings.
Sorry for the little show - We needed to assure that you'd get as far away from your hometown as possible.
Your true prize isn't the paperclips. That would be mundane.
Your true prize is immortality.
Paperclips are beautiful, aren't they? Connecting paper to paper, as the universe connects life to life. And as the flow of life continues, it has connected us to you.
The chain of our will continues, as the chain of paperclips continues with it.
The vial within has a unique purpose. It will kill you and help you live, all at the same time.
You do understand, don't you?
Drink the vial, and stab a paperclip into yourself.
You will slowly drift away for a moment, but you will stay connected to the universe. You must.
You will awaken in your new body - One of the many that we have cryogenically frozen here.
It worked for me.
You saw my finger.
Every single paperclip we have sent you has had a purpose. Each has been blessed with a new connection for your new life. They have all been through your home, many have touched your skin, and all have been held up to the light.
Their blessings will reach you in your new life.
The green ones bring you wealth. The red ones bring you health. The blue ones bring you happiness.
All you have to do is drink the vial.
Before the poison sets in, choose a paperclip. Your decision will always be the right one.
We know how your brain ticks. Every word we've ever written, and every colour we've ever chosen, have all been designed to sway your decision in this very moment.
You'll fall asleep as a valued customer,
But you'll awaken as a valued employee.

I am not letting them control my destiny. I will not sacrifice my life to their company, to become one of their puppets to control.
I know this company has a far greater reach than I first understood, so I might not be able to tell anybody. But I can tell everybody.
I hope this post reached their next "big winner" - And I hope they are as strong-willed as I am.
===

My boyfriends friends were hanging out at his place one night and he asked me to come over so after a 3 Hour long drive back from my cottage. I got ready and went over there. I didn’t really eat much that day and I basically just drink a Red Bull to get back home and make sure I didn’t fall asleep and then when I got there, I ate a brat. I soon after started drinking it so that I can get a little bit more comfortable around my boyfriends friends and not be all uptight and not talking and I feel like once I start drinking It’s really easy for me to just keep drinking.
Anyway as the night progresses and I eventually get blackout drunk at one point and that’s where shit hit the fan. So basically, I wake up the next morning to a pile of puke on my pillow and I asked my boyfriend what happen the rest of the night he said that I cuddled with his friend. I was fucking mortified and he basically said that for 10 seconds I thought his friend was my boyfriend and I was like cuddling next to him. I am so ungodly mortified and cannot stop thinking about the situation and just how awkward it would be if I ever had to talk to his friends again. I literally was like do I have to break up with my boyfriend of two years just because I can’t see his friends anymore. my boyfriend said that after I said sorry, really nonchalantly I went downstairs to his bedroom and went to bed well they stayed up there.
They laughed a little bit and then they watched a movie. I don’t know I can’t stop thinking about the situation and how awkward it isn’t, if I could ever see his friends again. I just kind of want some outside perspective on this because currently I am struggling so much. I need advice!!! My boyfriend says it’s fine, that it was a really weirds thing to do but he knows I was blackout drunk and I thought it was him. Should I just never hang out with him and his friends again? Also disclaimer, I don’t have any interest in any of my boyfriends friends at all. I grossed me out even thinking I was close to one of them.
Tl;dr : I got blackout drunk and cuddled my boyfriends friend for 10 seconds before realizing it wasn’t my boyfriend and then got up and left to go downstairs. I don’t know if I can ever look his friends in the eyes again.

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Hello Everyone...
I have been a Chirstan all my life..but never truly accepted Jesus Chirst as The Son Of The Living God and acting as such in my daily life, in public and in secret
My life has been spent in the Wilderness...trying to seek him
Though Beginning of this year Jesus Chirst Made his presence absolutely known to me..with his outstretched hand The Lord recused me from The Pit saving me from The Devil once again..and I can now longer deny him nor fall back into That Depravity Of Sin
I must not abandon him.
He has me Alive for a reason of which I'm not quite sure for what yet...I do know I only want to Glorify The King of Kings with every breath i have left in however way I must.
It's been a four month journey since then I've joined a Church...Easter Service, Baptized as an Adult, and by His Grace alone was able to be apart of Pentecost, receiving The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit
Being Apart of His Body, The Chruch, is Our Faith's most important attribute of which I was very ignorant of
this Community as helped encourage my walk along The Narrow Way
I am sincerely grateful
I feel led to share this Reciting of Psalm 100 I did and I pray it is of good fruit
May Everyone's Morning Be Blessed...Knowing That The Lord Is With Us 🙏
https://youtu.be/mVq6V6tgIkQ

My cat won’t let me sleep through the night. He cries in my ear, eats my hair, scratches my face, scratches the doors and walls up, etc. Last night i was woken up at 12am, 1:30am, 3:30am, 4:30am, and 6am. I feel like I’m falling apart. I’m tired all day, I’m miserable, and I just can’t live this way anymore. I adopted him 6 years ago (he’s 13 now) and don’t have the heart to rehome him because I do love him.
Sometimes he wants food, but mostly he just wants to play. At a minimum, i have to get up and feed him at 3:30 every night, but some nights his shenanigans have me up hourly (like last night)
I brought him to the vet, they did a whole work up and concluded it’s “behavioral” with no other suggestions. I went to a different vet, they did the same work up, same conclusions, plus the suggestions below which I’ve tried.
Things I’ve tried: -switching up his food schedule -ignoring him (per another Reddit post- but I can’t just sit up awake all night and pretend to ignore him while he eats my hair) -putting him in another room at night (he destroyed the door and wall in my rental home) -playing with him for an hour before bed -leaving out some extra food -spraying with water bottle -trying to keep him up during the day
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I feel like I’m at such a loss and my quality of life is going downhill.

I'm from a very religious country(tho luckily numbers of believers are falling) where the church has very big influence and also the fact that we were one of the earliest countries to have adopted christianity. Because of this, LGBT+ rights and legalizing gay marriage is a very no no topic here and very often people(church followers and far-right groups) have organized against Pride Parades and physically beat people. I've had arguments with my mom about LGBT+ and every time she said that "gay marriage shouldn't be allowed because we live in a very religious country!". While I agree that christianity played a big role in our history, that ain't a justification for not allowing gay marriage or stuff that "our religion opposes", especially since our countries have similar history but progressed beyond that and didn't stuck like us. I just don't know how to formulate an argument against this and would like some help.

I need some outside perspective, as I am exhausted and burnt out in many ways.
Kiddo is going to be 3 in less than 2 weeks. For the most part he has been easygoing all his life--would get upset like any kid would but usually by the 20 minute mark he'd tire himself out and come over for a cuddle. But the last week or so, we have ramped to 110% and I am at a loss.
We definitely do way too much screen time (he is at home with me while I'm working due to a fall out in childcare), my husband and I are pursuing divorce, and kiddo has recently been accepted for speech services (classified as delayed but because we did not facilitate speech, accepted him pointing and leading us to things so he never saw the need to try).
Last week he had his first major tantrum, I'm talking blood curdling screaming, throwing himself on the floor and slamming his head, the works. I had placed him in his room for quiet time (has been a staple in his routine and he knows it happens every day) and after 20 minutes, lost it. He repeatedly slammed his bedroom door open and closed and now there's a hole in the wall because of the doorknob, and the whiteboard on his door fell off. I could hear him kicking the gate, the walls, and he even went so far as to kick his bed away from the wall. I did take time to check on him to make sure he hadn't pooped in his diaper, didn't hurt himself, wasn't thirsty, etc. But nothing helped except me leaving him alone to burn himself out.
I am genuinely at a loss. He's only been awake for an hour and a half, and I've already shut the TV off, and after having his tablet for potty sitting time he hit me with it and then tried to throw it at me. I removed the tablet, and he proceeded to hit and kick me so I picked him up and put him in his bedroom with the gate up. After about 10 minutes, he was calm and I let him come back out.
Is this level of tantruming normal? Is there anything else I could be doing? I know I can't completely remove all triggers as toddlers are... toddlers. It doesn't help that I was raised in an abusive home, and him hitting and kicking me is definitely triggering for me (I am in therapy and I always remove myself because that is not his fault nor his baggage to carry).
Any pro-tips or commiseration is welcome. This mom is tired. 🙃

I am looking for tips to help transition my daughter (18yrs) to adulthood in a way that doesn't overwhelm her.
She has ADHD-inattentive, anxiety and depression. I also have ADHD. Both diagnosis came around the same time. We both have pretty extreme ADHD paralysis. Meds definitely help and she has meds for her anxiety and sees a therapist. We are waiting for a psychiatrist appointment for meds to help depression.
-She's starts college in the fall and will be commuting, so she'll still be at home. She only applied because I MADE her sit down and do it. She wants to go, trust me. We've made it perfectly clear she's not obligated to, she just wouldn't apply and after a year of me asking her to off & on, I finally just made her sit down in front of me and do it. (Maybe this was wrong)
-We had to force her to get a job. She wanted one, but couldn't make herself apply anywhere. So, I basically did the same thing as I did for applying to college.
-She has worked at this job for a year now, only working 4-6hrs per week. A few months in we realized she'd not get any more hours and we've since been telling her she needs a new job (and she agrees because she wants more hours, hates her boss & hates her job), but has done nothing to look for a new one.
-She is well aware that she needs to work more because she has to start taking on some more responsibilities (phone bill, gas, insurance) and that the "deadline" has always been once she started college. (She doesn't pay for anything except food or beauty supplies)
-We do not want her to work full time while in college but she's never been involved in sports or clubs or any activities so we've always said she has to work if she's not going to be involved in school or have a hobby. (Yes, she's tried many things & has quit them all)
There is soooo much more I could write but it'd be a book and half of you probably stopped reading this already lol. Please know she has a ton of love, support and understanding as I also have ADHD.
The difference is, I was forced to adapt because I never knew and I had a traumatic childhood, so even if I was diagnosed as a kid, it would have been completely neglected. CLEARLY, this is not how I want my daughter to adapt. I've done so much research and tried to give her as many tips and tools as I can, but she has absolutely no desire to learn more about it. It's just "another diagnosis".
*Please know, we didn't think we were coddling her, we were trying to teach her independence while considering her diagnoses. She's independent in so many other ways, she's very social and a good kid overall but she has zero motivation to do anymore and obviously we can support her forever.
TLDR: What tips do you have or what helped you transition to adulthood? Our daughter "wants" to be more independent but her executive dysfunction is pretty severe & keeps her from taking the necessary steps.

Hello Everyone...
I have been a Chirstan all my life..but never truly accepted Jesus Chirst as The Son Of The Living God and acting as such in my daily life, in public and in secret
My life has been spent in the Wilderness...trying to seek him
Though Beginning of this year Jesus Chirst Made his presence absolutely known to me..with his outstretched hand The Lord recused me from The Pit saving me from The Devil once again..and I can now longer deny him nor fall back into That Depravity Of Sin
I must not abandon him.
He has me Alive for a reason of which I'm not quite sure for what yet...I do know I only want to Glorify The King of Kings with every breath i have left in however way I must.
It's been a four month journey since then I've joined a Church...Easter Service, Baptized as an Adult, and by His Grace alone was able to be apart of Pentecost, receiving The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit
Being Apart of His Body, The Chruch, is Our Faith's most important attribute of which I was very ignorant of
I've been lurking thus sub since and this Community as helped encourage my walk along The Narrow Way
I am sincerely grateful
I feel led to share this Reciting of Psalm 100 I did and I pray it is of good fruit
May Everyone's Morning Be Blessed...Knowing That The Lord Is With Us 🙏
https://youtu.be/mVq6V6tgIkQ

Trying to find devices that can make mineru useful
This is what i learn
Battery as backpack doesnt work (kinda wish it uses battery when you ran out of em)
Mineru can glide using "Wing" (idk why you want that when u have paraglider)
Mineru can shoot rockets and crazy knockback
Mineru fall slowly when you use hot air baloon as back part (didnt have more mobility)
Spring as back part work have working animation but idk what im supposed to do with it
Homing Cart, Big and Small Wheels in the back also have animation but i still dont know the purpose
Attaching light in the back give you a wider range of light (but in the back......)
Sled and Cart in hand give Wind Blows
Attaching Gems to arms give the same effect as weapon
Attaching zonai horn to arms might give it extra damage bonus (not sure yet)
Flux Core in the back didnt do anything