So I've been off MJ for about a little over a month. Had been consistently getting my fills for $25 until this most recent "shortage".
I didn't gain any weight while off and continued to lose an additional 3-4lbs. Mind you, I did go back to taking Phentermine during this time.
I was finally able to pick up MJ 10mg today, still at $25. Hoping that dropping down from 12.5 won't be an issue. I figure this is my last month on MJ unless I can get this formulary exception approved; so I want to make the best of it. I don't see myself paying $500+ a month with the newer coupon; especially since I didn't gain weight back while off of MJ.
This whole MJ ride has been wild. Seeing how insurance, practicioners, pharma treat weightloss is insane.
My insurance drug formulary doesn't cover MJ... because I work at a small company of under 100 employees. However, the very same insurance has a different formulary for larger companies...and guess what lol MJ was just added to that formulary. Ok 👍 lol Gotta love America.

Welcome

Spoilers DoD

Find the announcement post here
IMPORTANT- This is the discussion post for re-readers, who are done with the full Book of the Fallen series. To discuss events outside these, say from NOTME, PtA or Kharkhanas, please use spoiler tags. If you're not sure if your info belongs to MBOTF or not, just go ahead and use spoiler tags anyway.
Link to the general introduction thread

Prologue

Scene 1

This is our first introduction to the Snake storyline. It consists of a train of refugee children who are fleeing the provinces of Kolanse and are heading west. We are at the Elan Plain and the leader of this column of children is the oldest boy there, Rutt, aged about 13 or 14. He carries a small baby called Held while making sure she is protected from the sun by wrapping her well. Most of our PoV here is Badalle- a girl with green eyes and a way with words. The landscape is very desolate and it looks like Rutt is surprised every morning that they 'still live.'
Badalle describes various people/animals etc using unusual words. You can figure out most on your own, but could be a little frustrating, so if you would like to know-
Ribbers are dogs, Fathers are adults, Quitters/bones skins/Inquisitors are Forkrul Assail
She has come up from the south along Stump Road to join the rest of the Snake. She considers Rutt as the head of the snake and its fangs too. None of the children ask him where they are headed because it is the belief that he knows that is important.
We get the PoV of a 14 year old Visto who knows what the Fathers do to the children they steal away at night, because he has seen small bones in their campfires. The boy is full of a parasite called Satra Riders which would sooner or later burst out and kill him. He is impatient for the relief of death, and hopes atleast a ribber eats him and gets infected.
At the end of the day, Badalle looks back at the line of bodies of dead children they have left behind. The Snake of ribs is called Chal Managal in the Elan tongue. Don't skip her poems.

Scene 2

In the Wastelands, there is a nest of K'Chain Che'Malle called Ampelas Rooted. Our PoV here is the last surviving Elan tribal called Kalyth. When her settlement was attacked she fled the scene and feels guilty about her selfishness in abandoning her family. Alonmgside, we get description of this nest where the lower level is called Root, then Feed (where food is grown in the form of fungi and orthen- a type of rodents) then the Womb (where young ones undergo surgeries and are differentiated into factions according to the needs of the Nest), then to Heart which is guarded by Ve'Gath soldiers (these are purely for warfare and the Matron has been producing a lot of them, indicating that war is coming soon). From there she moves to Eyes, Inner Keep, Acyl Nest - home of the Matron. The final guard she meets is Brenigan, a 1000 year old J'an sentinel.
Sag'Churok and Gunth Mach have returned, and they report failure. Redmask was not the correct choice, and that Kalyth, who is acknowledged as a Destriant to the K'Chain, has made an error in choosing him. She, alongwith a small group of Guardians, is instructed to join this round of Seeking. She refuses but the Matron is adamant that they will find a Mortal Sword and Shield Anvil among humans. The adventure party consists of Sag'Churok, Gunth Mach, 2 more K'ell Hunters and a Shi'gal Assassin. The addition of the Assassin probably indicates that the Matron means business this time.
Quick note about the Shi'gal- there are always three present with the Matron because 2 alone might conspire among themselves and kill the Matron or each other. Sending away one of the Assassins is a huge risk, so maybe the Matron is descending into madness.
By spending all this time with the K'Chain, Kalyth has been given the gifts of their language and a higher percipience through oils.
Shi'gal Gu'Rull is sure that the Matron Acyl is insane. He considers humans, especially Kalyth, as weak. Since they returned empty handed from the west (Redmask), and the North is a realm of ice, they are to journey South. He takes off to do some advance scouting. He is flying out of Ampelas after 8 short centuries.

Scene 3

At the Wastelands, a ghost travels with a small group. They eat stringy meat from scaled rodents and a type of rhizan. As a ghost he flits from one person to the next and finds innate resolve and strength.
Sheb declares that all empty lands are useless and one day all cities should be merged into one. Last, who is a farmer, says that there won't be food if there are no farms. Before they can argue, Asane tells them not to fight. Sheb yells at her and Nappet defends her. He threatens to cut out his tongue because he knows nobody would object. Rautos (yes, familiar name) complains about his wife. Breath thinks he killed his wife by holding her underwater and drowning her. Drowning seeme to be her pet subject. At a distance they notice a massive narrow edifice. Taxilian (yes, another familiar name) wants to go check it out. The ghost is content to go alongwith them. He finds that Taxilian's curiosity is strong enough to overcome any misgivings from the others.
Now, you can go back and read this section again or click here to get an explanation. Or keep reading if you like a challenge.
the capemoths overhead note a lone, green skinned figure who talks with seven voices. He carries a sword but is naked and he is lost, maybe for weeks, maybe months. Many of us miss this and so the rest of the Ghost sections can be very confusing

Scene 4

After a long time we meet Heboric. He has plenty of visions.

1. A short tail K'Chain looking at a dragon nailed to a huge wooden lattice, with the nails painted a "rust colour". The dragon is denied death and has been bleeding and suffering, while the short tail seems satisfied.
   
2. Two wolves watch him from a ridge as he walks towards a number of statues in the distance.
   
3. Overhead there are drifting stars from which faint voices are heard. As he stares he is unbalanced and floats up.
   
4. Looking down, he sees more stars which give up a dozen suns of green fire that grew in size and sound as it neared him.
   
5. He sees Fener, a cast down god who is trapped like him. Both are in the way of the jade suns. Heboric accepts all of it as "The Abyss cares nothing for us."
   

To end this prologue, here is a quote from Heboric, speaking in the voice of "his enemy", i.e. the Abyss.

Behold, my friends, I am justice.
And when at last we meet, you will not like it.
And if irony awakens in you at the end, see me weep with these tears of jade, and answer with a smile.
If you’ve the courage.
Have you, my friends, the courage?

What are your expectations and misgivings now that we are in the final stretch?
Next week we read Chapters 1 & 2 only

After a hiatus of several months, I decided to work on a new Steam Controller layout. I was able to create the layout but could not save it. This was true for both the beta or regular Steam input. I have also noticed that there is only a date stamp but no time stamp on my layouts. Finally when I tried to delete older layouts one by one, multiple layouts got deleted in one operation unintentionally.
Has any other Steam Controller user had the same problems? Have other users been able to save their layouts without any trouble?

Hi, I wanted to have a good day with WP. We went on a walk and stuff. When I came home, I looked up my old roommate in our messages on his phone. Before that, it was a long message from me in August (when he was on alcohol and pill binge) saying “I don’t understand why you follow women & not talk to me”.. Then, I continued to go down in our messages when I slide off to see if he downloaded Snapchat. He in fact did and had a secret account, 5 days after DDay. He texted his old ex girlfriend. He texts her once a month to sell her weed. He claims that there is nothing else going on & of course I don’t believe that. He calls AP and lets her know that he won’t text her. He’s been doing this since September- June. With the last text being from 1D ago. I thought I was doing well with him but I’m not. This was the final straw as I’ve had problems with his ex girlfriend before. I then texted EX GF, telling her that I’m tired of her being obsessed with him & vice versa. Ex gf replied “???” And blocked me. Then blocked WH, then blocked my friend. On Mother’s Day, AP’s girlfriend texted me aswell, stating that I was watching her page when I didn’t even know her. AP/EX has been telling people that I lied about her ex boyfriend touching me, when that in fact NEVER happened.
I’m so numb. We ended up talking, but I cannot prove anything else but he’s not to be trusted. He’s been selling weed to her at a local grocery store once every month, & his location is only there for a minute or two, so no time for them to have intercourse.. but who knows.
I do not trust him. And in fact, I know for a fact this isn’t something I want to deal with. He took me home & I will hopefully see him tomorrow as planned. But I do not intend to have sex or treat him like he’s a king, because he’s not. Although the past few weeks have been great, obviously it’s not something he was doing to reconcile, but because he is selfish & ashamed. He told me that he was doing it to “scam” her. Right. Lmao.
If tomorrow doesn’t go as planned, I will finally talk to his mother about his EA, with him, and go NC with him. Although I don’t want to, he has treated me badly & I’m not dealing with this anymore. Someone that wants to treat you good would.

I got into Reddit due to my best friend talking me into it. I remember him showing me the site while he played Zelda on the Wii.
Before then, I used to love the site “StimbleUpon” and randomly got brought to a thread about dark jokes. I bookmarked that site so I could use them later.
When my best friend showed me the website, it changed my life. Suddenly I was connected with a weird community of people who liked, and hated, the same stuff I did. The biggest controversy around that time was the Mass Effect 3’s ending.
The older I grew, the more Reddit became a part of my daily life. I loved checking in on weird subs to see what they had to say. I remember being so proud of one of my posts making #1 on the front page of /ResidentEvil. My best friend, his brother (another very good friend of mine) and I once talked about who got the higher post on Reddit. While at a party. Both of them had made the front page at one point or another, but I still bragged about my /ResidentEvil post. It was so stupid.
Then the drama started happening with things like Aaron, Unidan, FPH, Ellen Pao, quarantine of subs, killing Alien Blue, etc.
The drama always made me feel like I was part of a group, in a way. Even though that’s very unhealthy. But I stuck through because I love this place and you weird people on here. It was always such a different place compared to all the big social media sites.
When Alien Blue went down, I went to the official app, and it was pretty good. It had a lot of what AB did. Then over the years, updates kept coming to the UI. It’s fine, I get it. Gotta adapt with the times. But when they finally rolled out their ‘new’ Reddit video player it made me switch to Apollo.
For a while, I had both apps downloaded so I could get notifications from the official app, then go to Apollo to view the content.
Weeks before all this drama, I finally deleted the official app because it is garbage.
If Reddit does go through with this and Apollo does shut down, I’ll probably be gone too.
Thank you, iamthatis.
toe_riffic

Table of Contents
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Review of Related Literature - Miscellaneous Reddit Part2

---

2 Posts of MasakakiKairi_v2

Post1 - 'PonderPoll' - Poll of MasakakiKairi_v2 - 2 genius questions on hair:

1. Why does Itsuki have wavy hair?
2. How does Raiha's... ponytail stay up?

https://preview.redd.it/f1b5e7wh045b1.png?width=804&format=png&auto=webp&s=c87fa02209d5766db0c77630e387e94898cb8a69

• I commented: Even Tia Ballard talked about Raiha's ponytail in the English VA dub commentary for S01E01. The ponytail is indeed important. Raiha's ponytail has the same importance as Itsuki's ahoge.

Post2 - Nicbentulan Jones, resident conspiracy theorist of 5toubun - Meme of MasakakiKairi_v2
https://preview.redd.it/hmfd0icf045b1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=be9d6a521491335c7c2802fc63a5b600bf699cea
'They're putting Uesugi's into the story that turn the freaking quintuplets gay.'

• [Wait, 2 interpretations: Either MasakakiKairi_v2 is Alex Jones and then I'm the 1 who's putting Uesugi's in the story or I'm Alex Jones and then I'm saying Negi Haruba is putting Uesugi's in the story. I guess it's the latter interpretation since the title is 'Nicbentulan Jones'.]
• I commented: Lol.
• I actually looked up 'Alex Jones frogs gay' and then clipped the frogs thing here: Alex Jones says the chemicals in water turn the frogs gay (latest 2018?).
  • MasakakiKairi_v2 truly is a genius. Notice the parallel of (chemicals, water, frogs) = (Uesugi's, story, quints) and in particular the utilisation of my using 'Uesugi' to confusingly mean Raiha instead of Fuutarou puzzle/lame joke. (Without love, it cannot be seen. Or With love, it can be seen.) People would think 'Why would the quints be gay for "Uesugi" when Fuutarou Uesugi is male and the quints are female?' In this case, MasakakiKairi_v2 really says plural Uesugi's, not singular Uesugi, sooo.... (Then again MasakakiKairi_v2 does say the plural quints, when I have only in mind Itsuki to be inclusively homosexual, sooo eh.)
  • If anyone ever considers me a even 1/10 of a genius, then it's because I stood on the shoulders of giants like MasakakiKairi_v2, hyperknees91, UnKarl_Marx, Tusk_Act_IV, k4r6000, Invincybul, ImmortalPharaoh, SyliciX, P_U_T_T_Y and those other people I asked about for my theory. And of course the giants who thought of theories and stuff when the manga was still ongoing eg marcm28 in Fuutarou Will Marry Nino The Most Obvious Clues!
• Table version:

meme	Alex Jones	nicbentulan Jones
Thing that is put in	chemicals	Uesugi's
Thing that receives what is put in	the water	the story
Living things that become gay	the frogs	the quints
The one who puts	?	Negi Haruba
One notable difference: Doesn't like / might like that things are being put in other things that causes certain living things to become gay	Doesn't like	Might like

• Sithling_66 says 'Damn you're getting downvoted to oblivion.' (As of mid 2022Jul, the score is -7. This is hardly 'oblivion'. But thanks though Sithling_66 for the sympathy / empathy / commiseration / compassion / whatchamacallit.)
  • Anyway, I'm antifragile, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb (NNT) would say, like a put option or Yotsuba: The lower the stock price goes the better. The more downvotes I get all the sweeter it will be if I’m later right. But if I’m wrong, then I’m just wrong. No amount of downvotes is going to make things, like, more bitter or something. I can’t be smaller than the world will make me seem. I am as tall as my heart will let me be. See: On the Brightside - by NeverShoutNever
    • (Not really a preview of anything in this theory but...) Preview in main sub: Fuutarou has made Yotsuba antifragile!
  • The asymmetry) favours me: Just 1 confirmation from Negi Haruba is all I need. But a decade of silence from Negi Haruba won't disprove me. It's all devil's proof like Higurashi/Umineko. There's no way you can prove 'all swans are white' from just observing white swans. But just 1 black swan disproves the statement.

Devil's proof - (Higurashi/)Umineko and TQQ - Fuutarou Uesugi as Battler Ushiromiya; Negi Haruba as Beatrice.
https://preview.redd.it/7jws8hyb045b1.png?width=2880&format=png&auto=webp&s=5d78c3a62550ab60ec1e5ab54eb483b039efb308
https://preview.redd.it/q1w6kfuc045b1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=52fc8f298a212a07c930c377abcd6495d70092b5
Weirdly enough this theory/hypothesis itself I find is pretty antifragile. The more I try to disprove it, eg trying to find out what Itsuki's type is, the more I end up finding more evidence for this theory.

Oh and about conspiracy theories & NNT:

From https://twitter.com/FischerKing64/status/1335631733132161026 as a response to NNT's 'The trouble with conspiracy theories is that, when seen in isolation (particularly without broader context), they follow impeccable logic.' See eg https://www.reddit.com/ydwn2y and https://www.reddit.com/yev3a1
https://preview.redd.it/4yvezah3045b1.png?width=744&format=png&auto=webp&s=b8a7486b0ddbaef8fee7f7c6a47a083edd66d7d7

Okay... wow.
Traffic on I5 north bound stopped near west lake bridge area around 7:45 PM. A man ran between the two cars in front of me with a single state trooper chasing. The man jumped onto my hood and crawled up my windshield then was dragged down by the trooper and an incident response person. The man yelled repeatedly "They're trying to kill me!" as the two of them tried to wrestle him to the ground. A citizen got out of their car and tried to help the trooper. The fight took about 3-5 minutes until they finally got him to the slow lane. The man was still struggling when my lane opened up and I drove away to start clearing traffic.
Uhm... definitely didn't expect THAT on my way home today.
If anyone knows more about it I'm interested to know the outcome.

Welcome

Spoilers DoD

Find the announcement post here
Important: This is the discussion post for new readers. If you have ever attempted this book before, please don't talk about events from later chapters. Err on the side of caution and use spoiler tags if you're not sure. Head to the Spoilers MBotF discussion post if you are rereading.
A note for re-readers: Please don't bring up any series wide spoilers in this discussion.
Link to the general introduction thread

Prologue

Scene 1

This is our first introduction to the Snake storyline. It consists of a train of refugee children who are fleeing the provinces of Kolanse and are heading west. We are at the Elan Plain and the leader of this column of children is the oldest boy there, Rutt, aged about 13 or 14. He carries a small baby called Held while making sure she is protected from the sun by wrapping her well. Most of our PoV here is Badalle- a girl with green eyes and a way with words. The landscape is very desolate and it looks like Rutt is surprised every morning that they 'still live.'
Badalle describes various people/animals etc using unusual words. You can figure out most on your own, but could be a little frustrating, so if you would like to know-
Ribbers are dogs, Fathers are adults, Quitters/bones skins/Inquisitors are Forkrul Assail
She has come up from the south along Stump Road to join the rest of the Snake. She considers Rutt as the head of the snake and its fangs too. None of the children ask him where they are headed because it is the belief that he knows that is important.
We get the PoV of a 14 year old Visto who knows what the Fathers do to the children they steal away at night, because he has seen small bones in their campfires. The boy is full of a parasite called Satra Riders which would sooner or later burst out and kill him. He is impatient for the relief of death, and hopes atleast a ribber eats him and gets infected.
At the end of the day, Badalle looks back at the line of bodies of dead children they have left behind. The Snake of ribs is called Chal Managal in the Elan tongue. Don't skip her poems.

Scene 2

In the Wastelands, there is a nest of K'Chain Che'Malle called Ampelas Rooted. Our PoV here is the last surviving Elan tribal called Kalyth. When her settlement was attacked she fled the scene and feels guilty about her selfishness in abandoning her family. Alonmgside, we get description of this nest where the lower level is called Root, then Feed (where food is grown in the form of fungi and orthen- a type of rodents) then the Womb (where young ones undergo surgeries and are differentiated into factions according to the needs of the Nest), then to Heart which is guarded by Ve'Gath soldiers (these are purely for warfare and the Matron has been producing a lot of them, indicating that war is coming soon). From there she moves to Eyes, Inner Keep, Acyl Nest - home of the Matron. The final guard she meets is Brenigan, a 1000 year old J'an sentinel.
Sag'Churok and Gunth Mach have returned, and they report failure. Redmask was not the correct choice, and that Kalyth, who is acknowledged as a Destriant to the K'Chain, has made an error in choosing him. She, alongwith a small group of Guardians, is instructed to join this round of Seeking. She refuses but the Matron is adamant that they will find a Mortal Sword and Shield Anvil among humans. The adventure party consists of Sag'Churok, Gunth Mach, 2 more K'ell Hunters and a Shi'gal Assassin. The addition of the Assassin probably indicates that the Matron means business this time.
Quick note about the Shi'gal- there are always three present with the Matron because 2 alone might conspire among themselves and kill the Matron or each other. Sending away one of the Assassins is a huge risk, so maybe the Matron is descending into madness.
By spending all this time with the K'Chain, Kalyth has been given the gifts of their language and a higher percipience through oils.
Shi'gal Gu'Rull is sure that the Matron Acyl is insane. He considers humans, especially Kalyth, as weak. Since they returned empty handed from the west (Redmask), and the North is a realm of ice, they are to journey South. He takes off to do some advance scouting. He is flying out of Ampelas after 8 short centuries.

Scene 3

At the Wastelands, a ghost travels with a small group. They eat stringy meat from scaled rodents and a type of rhizan. As a ghost he flits from one person to the next and finds innate resolve and strength.
Sheb declares that all empty lands are useless and one day all cities should be merged into one. Last, who is a farmer, says that there won't be food if there are no farms. Before they can argue, Asane tells them not to fight. Sheb yells at her and Nappet defends her. He threatens to cut out his tongue because he knows nobody would object. Rautos (yes, familiar name) complains about his wife. Breath thinks he killed his wife by holding her underwater and drowning her. Drowning seeme to be her pet subject. At a distance they notice a massive narrow edifice. Taxilian (yes, another familiar name) wants to go check it out. The ghost is content to go alongwith them. He finds that Taxilian's curiosity is strong enough to overcome any misgivings from the others.
Now, you can go back and read this section again or click here to get an explanation. Or keep reading if you like a challenge.
the capemoths overhead note a lone, green skinned figure who talks with seven voices. He carries a sword but is naked and he is lost, maybe for weeks, maybe months. Many of us miss this and so the rest of the Ghost sections can be very confusing

Scene 4

After a long time we meet Heboric. He has plenty of visions.

1. A short tail K'Chain looking at a dragon nailed to a huge wooden lattice, with the nails painted a "rust colour". The dragon is denied death and has been bleeding and suffering, while the short tail seems satisfied.
   
2. Two wolves watch him from a ridge as he walks towards a number of statues in the distance.
   
3. Overhead there are drifting stars from which faint voices are heard. As he stares he is unbalanced and floats up.
   
4. Looking down, he sees more stars which give up a dozen suns of green fire that grew in size and sound as it neared him.
   
5. He sees Fener, a cast down god who is trapped like him. Both are in the way of the jade suns. Heboric accepts all of it as "The Abyss cares nothing for us."
   

To end this prologue, here is a quote from Heboric, speaking in the voice of "his enemy", i.e. the Abyss.

Behold, my friends, I am justice.
And when at last we meet, you will not like it.
And if irony awakens in you at the end, see me weep with these tears of jade, and answer with a smile.
If you’ve the courage.
Have you, my friends, the courage?

What are your expectations and misgivings now that we are in the final stretch?
Anything in the Dramatis that caught your eye?
Next week we read Chapters 1 & 2 only

A RE/MAX real-estate agent from a neighboring town is selling a house in my neighborhood. She apparently put some Open House sign at the entrance to our neighborhood but the sign disappeared so she called the town PD to report it stolen. PD decides that since this all went down "next to my property" that I must know something, which I won't lie is actually reasonable, but everything that came after wasn't:

• Dude blows up my personal and work lines with repeat phone calls, voicemails, and texts. I have no idea how they know these numbers
  
• He does the same to my ex who hasn't lived here for a year - also unsure how they have her info
  
• Drives to my house and pounds (not knocks) on the front door and peeps in the windows for about 15 minutes straight
  
• Interrogates my neighbors and also my mother when she stopped by
  
• Leaves business card at the door then camps at the end of my driveway for 2.5 hours
  
• Following morning shows back up at 7am
  
• Blows up my phone again
  
• Pounds on front door, side door, walks around all sides of the house peeping in windows then pounding on back door too
  
• Tries hiding around the corner which made me laugh because it was so obvious he hadn't actually left
  
• I finally call down and ask his supervisor what's up with his guy. He sounds legit perplexed that I don't "just go out and talk" to the armed man who's spent 16 of the last 48 hours trying his best to terrorize me over a ~$100 sign that I have no knowledge of (outside the many texts and voicemails), and ended the conversation with "... you know you don't have to talk to him, right?" like no shit, that's literally what I did and look what happened; if I did this to anyone I'd be lucky to not be shot, but yeah I'm clearly the psycho here.
  

Best part: Not only is the property in question indeed mine, the city itself has laws that would have made the sign 'illegal' no matter what - he didn't care! These pigs go full CIA to 'just talk to me' but can't fucking read a GIS map or ask basic probing questions! So message received: Fuck tax-paying homeowners who mind their own business because some random business from another town came here, broke a bunch of laws, then made shit up. Fuck realtors and fuck the police.

My anxiety makes me especially hate confrontation. The idea of being in an arguement with a non-family member makes me feel physically ill. We've been friends for years, but last year she was going through a break up and leaned on me for support for about seven months. Except, it wasn't really support - in few words, her form of me supporting her was for me to enable a very unhealthy mindset she was developing. For the first time in my entire life, I set a boundary in a relationship and told her I didn't want to be party to the "support" she expected of me and she said she had to distance herself from me, which she did for two months.
Now, we've been carrying on over text like nothing's happened and I really do not want to bring anything up to her because I'm so scared of how she'll react or percieve me, so in my heart I'd rather just pretend it never happened. But she insists that we speak on the phone to game. I'd been pushing it off for a couple weeks because I was doing finals. But I'm home now, she knows I'm home, and I have no excuse anymore.
As I write this, I'm feeling noxious all over again because I KNOW it's going to come up and I have no idea how to handle it. For context, the fight was all over text and we haven't spoken voice-to-voice since before the fight. I'm so scared and I have no idea what to say. Should I bring it up? Should I let her bring it up first? And if it is brought up at all, should I just give in and accept whatever non-apology she gives? I don't think I should apologize since I was setting a boundary, but knowing me I'll probably apologize anyway, sigh...

Nobody said anything at all during the match. Later Jim Courier was the only one who whined about it but it is such an obscure trivia question nowadays

Hello-
Have a vet appt tmw at 8 am but need advice while I stress out. 60 lb out mix male neutered dog. History of frequent anal gland expressions, in hydrolyzed diet due to gut sensitivity. Timeline of events
Sunday: 2 p.m, noticed licking at butt. Made mental note to call Vet on Monday and schedule anal gland expression. Dog gets these regularly (every 1-2 months).
Sunday: 4 p.m. shaking, yelping, lethargic. Take to Vet ER. sedate, do rectal exam. Nothing found except one full gland. Discharged.
Sunday night- Monday morning: dog extremely restless, not coming out of sedation well, bad night of sleep
Monday morning: dog guarding rear, tail tucked, take back to ER. Sedated and checked. Told either inflammation or muscle strain. Prescribed carprofen and gaba.
Monday evening: finally returning to normal. Primary vet check up scheduled for following Monday.
Tuesday: doing well, no concerns.
Wednesday: last morning of regular stool. Noticed liquid (no solid at all) diarrhea starting in afternoon. Appetite normal. Took off carprofen per primary vet, still on gaba and added probiotic and omeprazole per vet.
Continued Diarrhea, still not one bit of solid stool and multiple accidents in home overnight wed-today. Moved up primary vet check up to 8am tmw. More lethargic, clearly just not feeling well. Evening meal- did not finish all food, less energetic, etc.
30 min ago: accident in home. Blood in “stool” aka liquid. Called ER, told use my judgement but can wait till primary care in morning.
Was something missed? Should my primary care have pushed to see dog sooner? I’m the one that moved it tomorrow instead of waiting Monday.
Advice/reassurance appreciated.

I missed the last damn cannonball

Part 1 - https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/11ovngn/i_play_a_game_they_call_sleep_points_every_night/
Previous Part - https://www.reddit.com/nosleep/comments/13deva8/i_play_a_game_they_call_sleep_points_every_night/
When I got home from school, even though I knew the clock wasn’t literally going to try to eat me alive like it always seemed to want to on weeknights, I still watched it intensely, dreading every minute that passed. Even though this had all been what I was hoping for over the course of the last week and a half, going through with everything I would need to do to meet up with Anastasia at her hour in the middle of the night still seemed way scarier than just dealing with the clock’s nightly threats against my life which, by that point, had become something of a routine for me.
At 11:00 PM, my parents looked like they had gone to sleep. I would wait another hour as Anastasia had advised. I would leave at midnight. And that wouldn’t be a problem since it was a Friday night, and my clock wasn’t going through its usual changes. By that time, the clock hadn’t started glowing or even turning the slightest shade of red.
When midnight did come, the clock was still in the same state as it was at 11. My parents were still asleep. They hadn’t even gotten up for a bathroom break. I turned on the kitchen lights, hoping it wouldn’t wake my parents up. It didn’t. I went to the kitchen table to take the keys to my father's truck. They weren’t there. I had no idea where else to look for them.
I tried looking all around the kitchen and living room. I checked mom and dad's bathroom. Nothing. I didn’t know how I would make my way to Anastasia’s house now. I could just picture her, spending all night at her back door, waiting for me to show up, without me ever coming. Maybe I'd find the keys tomorrow. But that seemed like a fat chance since dad wasn't gonna be driving anywhere tomorrow.
I wouldn't have him to find them for me. It looked like I’d have to wait a whole nother week on any answers now.
I had recently invested in a new watch. I had some allowance money left over from when I was a kid. My school has a little gift shop with small things like school-themed wristwatches, so after my last class of the day, I stopped by and picked up a College High watch so I could check the time without needing to look at the clock in my room or at my phone. I'm bringing this up because at around this point I was watching with increasing anxiety as time was passing by. According to the watch, the time now was 12:30 and I still didn’t have any access to my father’s car.
I was already feeling hopeless enough, just thanks to that fact, but then I remembered that I still didn’t even know how to get to Anastasia’s house.
Since I still didn’t know where the keys were and it didn’t look like I’d find them any time soon, I figured I’d take a break from looking, and go on my phone to look up her address on google maps. I knew I shouldn’t have been using my phone since it was apparently super important not to let it die. I figured it must've been one of those rules like keeping my head under the blanket when The Sandman showed up, along with the rest of my body. But I would only need my phone for a few minutes. Just enough time to look at google maps and sketch out a rough map of the route from my house to Anastasia’s.
The first thing I noticed when I typed in her address was that, thankfully, her house wasn’t too horrendously far away from mine. It would just be a 4-mile drive. So hopefully this meant that, if push did come to shove, I could still just walk there if I had too. I’d probably be late, but that would be better than not showing up at all. So, I at least had that as a back-up plan if nothing else. But it would still be risky. It would take a lot of time to walk there, and then to walk back. Maybe mom and dad would be up after all was said and done. Maybe they’d hear me coming back inside the house, regardless of how I made it to Anastasia’s. Maybe I’d wake up Anastasia’s parents too.
Since I only had an hour and thirty-five minutes left, I had no time to worry all that much about any of this though. I had to get to work, jotting down the path to Anastasia’s house. I would turn left out of my driveway, stay on that road for about a mile and a half, then turn right and stay on that road for another half-mile, then turn left for another mile, and then left again for a final fourth mile.
Another thing I noticed was that Anastasia lived out in the middle of absolute nowhere. I thought I did too, but Anastasia’s house was on a whole nother level of out there.
Fortunately, that meant I’d be driving pretty much exclusively on backroads, so it would literally be impossible to take a wrong turn after I made my first turn out of the driveway and the next right turn after that after about a mile and a half. It also meant that I would be pretty much guaranteed not to run into any other drivers, especially at that time of night. But I guess her remote address explained why she didn’t have the internet connection she would need to do a video call.
Since it was a quarter to 1 by that point, after I found out how to drive to her house, I put on all the layers I could find, took the flashlight that my mom had given me for the walk I had went on during the week prior, and started trying to walk over there, without my parents’ car, despite her recommendations. Even though it was four miles by car, I wouldn't have to worry about staying on the road if I just walked there. If I walked in a straight line, I could get there in just over 2 and half miles or so. I had decided to leave, not out of the front door, but out of the door in the hallway that led to the garage. That door made less noise than the front door.
Unfortunately, I started to get the sense that I hadn’t thought this plan through when I realized I would still have to open the garage door in order to make my way into the outside world. Which, yeah, made considerably more noise than the front door. But then I realized it didn’t matter, since I was gonna have to open the garage door anyway if I wanted to get the car out of the garage and onto the road. So, I had still made the right decision. Except no I hadn’t, because I had just remembered that I still didn’t have the car keys, and so I was supposed to be ditching the whole car idea anyway and had just randomly forgotten about all of that.
I know that all probably sounded pretty messy and wasn't very easy to follow, but maybe someone else reading with ADHD can relate. But anyway, confusing thought processes aside, I walked out the front door and started making my way to Anastasia’s on foot. It really was freezing though. I really did wonder if I could actually make it all the way to her house.
Before I even made it to the end of the driveway, I began to change my mind and decided driving really would be a more reasonable alternative. Obviously, the backroads wouldn’t even be close to snow plowed. But the snow only looked to be about maybe 6 or 7 inches deep, which was still driveable enough with the snow-proof tires that my dad had on his truck. This level of snow isn't all that uncommon around here, so those tires are pretty much a must-have for anybody living in deathly cold climates like us.
So, I could still drive despite the snow, albeit only very slowly what with how much the snow would slow me down. But I was supposed to be driving slowly anyway because I was only 14 and didn’t have a license. But I still couldn’t drive without those keys. Then I remembered I still had my bike in the garage. It was supposedly “all terrain”, so hopefully that meant it could handle the snow. I went into the garage, got my bike out, and tried riding it. Unfortunately, the tires on that bike weren’t even close to capable of handling the snow. I tried pedaling as hard as I could but hardly got anywhere before falling over. I had a feeling this would probably happen. It seemed like a dumb idea but, since I didn’t want to steal my dad’s truck and I couldn’t even seem to find his keys anyway, I figured it was at least worth a shot.
I was just about to say “fuck it” and try meeting Anastasia again on some other night when, just as I had put my bike down in the garage, I had seen that my dad had left behind his keys in the key slot of his car door. Apparently, the reason that they weren’t where they usually were was because my father had locked the truck and just forgot to take his keys with him. I turned the key sticking out of the driver’s side door and it opened. So I really could get inside of his truck after all.
I put the key into the ignition and then put it in reverse. The truck made quite a bit of noise when its ignition started, so I had just hoped that I hadn’t woken up my parents with that. Luckily, my garage is on the other side of the house from where my parents sleep, so the sound did at least have a long way to travel. Once I started backing the truck out of the garage and into the driveway, I ran into another problem. Since the roads weren’t plowed, they were just as snowy as anywhere else. So even with the rearview mirror, I had no idea where my driveway stopped and the road started. I figured I would just keep backing up until I felt like I’d gone far enough.
Far enough came sooner than expected though. Eventually, the car had very clearly backed into the grass, meaning I had backed up too far. Fortunately, I saw that I hadn’t veered too much out of the straight line I was trying to go in, because driving in reverse meant I could see the truck’s tracks right in front of me with the help of the headlights. The car fell onto the grass from back to front. So that meant that the road was now directly in front of me. Since I needed to take a left from my house if I was facing away from it, and I was now facing the opposite direction given that I was looking right at it, that meant that I now had to make a right turn in order to still be going in the right direction.
I took a moment to make sure my logic was right and, once I felt confident, I turned the truck right and then tried to feel for where the road was based on how well the truck was able to move. Eventually I was able to drive relatively smoothly, so I took that to mean that I was back on the road. I tried to angle myself properly so that I wouldn’t wind up veering off the road again. Now and then I would wind up driving myself off the road. But since I was only going like 5 miles an hour, I was able to catch myself before the car wound up falling into any ditches or something.
Since the road was entirely empty, I eventually made the decision to just drive in the middle of the road. Or at least, wherever I thought the middle of the road was. That way, I’d limit the likelihood of driving myself off the right edge.
After about 20 or 30 minutes of driving painfully slowly, I finally saw the sign for my first turn. Since all the turns I was making were fairly sharp ones, they were basically all 90 degrees, there were road signs that I could use to gauge when I should turn without needing to see the road itself. So I still knew when to do it, even though I couldn’t see the road under all the snow and I couldn't use GPS since my phone had to stay on the charger at all costs.
But the snow still made those sharp turns very difficult to make. So I had to start all my turns pretty far ahead of where they actually would’ve been in the road. Naturally, I wound up driving off the road when making literally all of them. But I was always able to work out where the road was supposed to be soon enough. I guess since people are more likely to veer off the road when making turns as opposed to when they’re driving straight, there didn’t seem to be any ditches around all those sharp turns, thankfully enough.
After I made that first turn, I checked my watch. It was now a quarter after 1. I still had 50 minutes to go. I wasn’t making great time, but I had still made it about a third of the way in only about 25 minutes. If I kept up the pace, I’d be there after just under an hour of driving. Which would put me there a little bit after 2 AM. So, pretty much exactly at 2:05, the time we agreed on.
I kept on driving incredibly slowly for what felt like forever. Finally I had made my last turn, and after a bit, I could see lights from the houses off the side of the road in the distance. I figured that this must be the neighborhood Anastasia lived in. If you could even call it a neighborhood. The houses were so hugely spaced out that it hardly even made sense to say you had neighbors. But then, she really did live out in the middle of nowhere.
Every time I passed by a house, I got out of the car and looked for an address with my flashlight. This slowed me down, but it still ensured that I would be headed for the right house. I kept the slip of paper with her address on it since I knew that, without that sheet, I’d absolutely forget which address was hers. I was actually pretty pleased with myself for having thought ahead like that. I usually didn’t. I guess I still usually don’t, if I’m being honest.
I was worried that this whole procedure of getting out of the car to scope out for an address every time I passed a new house would make me late. But fortunately, Anastasia’s house was the third house I came across on that street. So thankfully, I didn’t wind up having to check that many houses and it only cost me maybe another 5 minutes. When I checked my watch, I found I had actually arrived sooner than I had thought. Even with checking every house I had come across up to that point for the address, it was only 1:50.
I had made it with 15 minutes to spare. That meant I had made that last two thirds of my trip in about the same amount of time that I had spent on my first, meaning I had wound up going twice as fast. I suppose as I had gotten comfortable with driving, I sped up the car a little without even realizing it. Doubling your speed sounds like it should be a huge difference, but when you’re only going from 5 miles per hour to 10, I guess it must be pretty hard to notice.
Since I had so much time left and the weather outside was still hellishly cold, I stayed in the truck with the heater blaring. After a couple of minutes, I noticed an ominous red light glowing out of the side of the house. That seemed off to me since surely that couldn’t have anything to do with Anastasia’s clock. It wasn’t a weeknight and even if it was, it was still well past midnight. I remembered what she had told me about how I was still on Stage One. Maybe the fact that she was on a much later stage had something to do with what I was seeing. The fact that I was still on Stage One did, after all, seem like it had something to do with the fact that I was only threatened by the clock on weeknights.
My curiosity had gotten the better of me, and so I braved the cold and snow to go check out what was happening. There was a window on the side of the house. The curtains were left open so with the red light blaring from it, I could see inside fairly easily. Especially since the house was only one story, so it wasn’t like the window was too high up off the ground for me to see through, either.
My fears had been confirmed. Upon looking into the room, I could see exactly where the red light was emanating from: the clock on the nightstand. The face inside was as clear as ever. Every feature slowly growing, approaching the glass in front of the clock’s face. But it wasn’t looking at me. It was very clearly directing its vile and hateful gaze at the person under the covers.
The person had her head covered underneath the blanket, so I couldn’t directly tell who it was. But I figured it had to be Anastasia. For one, there was no way in hell anybody else in her family was playing Sleep Points too. I mean, what are the odds of that? And for another, the room pretty clearly looked like it belonged to a teenage girl about Anastasia’s age. Everything looked like it was pink and had all kinds of frills to it. I even noticed some boyband poster on the other end of the room. If this wasn’t the most stereotypical teenage girl’s room, I had no fucking clue what was.
Finally, 2 o’clock had come. I could see why she had told me 2:05. I had never seen the monster from the clock break out. I had always had my head under the covers whenever it happened. But since this was Anastasia’s clock and not mine and since the face in the clock was staring her down and not me, and since I had entire wall separating me from the thing, I guess I somehow managed to muster up the courage to watch the monster in action.
Suddenly, the hands and numbers of the clock’s face began to almost melt into the monster’s face. It had broken out of the sheet of glass holding it back. But that seemed to be the only thing that was broken. The rest of the actual clock remained pretty intact as the unspeakable thing from within started to slither out of the clock and onto the floor. Since the hands and numbers were still on its face, it kinda looked like they had been imprinted on it like some kind of tattoo artwork. It very quickly expanded in size and let out this unholy screech that I could hear very loudly even from behind the window. But Anastasia was still sleeping very peacefully. Totally motionless like nothing at all was going on.
It prowled around her bed, looking for the slightest sign of motion. It looked almost skeptically at her. As if it could tell whether she was really sleeping or not. And God only knows what would’ve happened to her if she wasn’t. Eventually the monster seemed satisfied with what he saw and shrunk himself down to his original size. He slid back into the clock and as he did so, there was one last glow of red light. The glass had been restored. It was now 2:01.

If you're trying to quit porn addiction, get out of Instagram and Tik Tok.
I wasn't even trying nofap, just got enough of ads all the time and paid YouTube premium while deactivating Instagram.
I feel like I was so disensitized with life in general and just removing this ongoing pile of ads and directed posts/reels/stories took a weight off of my shoulder.
I was already deleting the app and looking at it less and less for about two weeks and on the day I finally deactivated the acc on Insta, I started having genuine laughs and emotions with videos and memes again
And my horniness subsided a lot. Or should I say, my impulse/habit to jerk off got way less significant.
I feel like Instagram and tiktok kinda "know" you're checking some videos and posts or profiles to jerk off and just send you more and more and more of it. Its super addictive.
But trust me, getting rid of it just made things so much easier while also really making everything else much more enjoyable

I originally posted this in exchristian. I have edited this version a bit.
At the beginning of my sophomore year of college, I met this guy who was a fellow Christian. I was really depressed during the summer, so it was nice to have a new friend to brighten my day, especially someone I saw as pretty chill. We had several classes together, had lunch together, and hung out in his apartment. I may have had a little crush on his from the get go (if it didn't start that early, it definitely came later).
Looking back, he was a bit weird. For example, he pretty much saw anything that wasn't praying, studying the Bible, worshipping, spreading the gospel, etc. as a waste of time. Also, he made himself out to be this horrible, wretched sinner because he...had sex with his high school girlfriends before marriage. I don't see being a horny teenage boy as a terrible sin; it's quite normal, I've heard.
However, I tuned that out and started trying to be more like him so he'd like me more. Even though I liked pop and alternative music, I tried to get myself to like Christian music (even though I found it samey and boring). I tried to act like I would rather study the Bible all the time than do other fun stuff like bowling or karaoke. He was anti-LGBT, so I tried to fight off my attraction to men (which is funny because, like I said, I had a crush on him). I thought he was helping me become a better person, but the reality is I am a people pleaser and only wanted to impress him.
Things started going south the following year. I was struggling with generalized anxiety disorder, and he was my go-to person when I felt overwhelmed. Things were okay at first, but he soon started saying I probably wouldn't be so anxious and depressed if I gave it up to God. He pointed out these people at church with chronic health problems who don't complain, so I should try to be more like them. I tried doing all the good Christian things like praying, helping others, reading my Bible, etc. to bring my anxiety down. While those helped a bit, the things that helped me the most were talking to someone (especially the counselor at the time), using my other grounding techniques, self-care and getting some exercise.
The deepest wound was when he straight up told me he didn't like me. He listed all these things he didn't like about me, including having to hear about my anxiety. He said he didn't really want to be around me, but he tried to love me because that's what Jesus would do. I was conflicted. It hurt that this person I loved so dearly felt this way toward me. I wanted to do anything I could to make it right. At the same time, I wanted to tell him to fuck off. If you don't like me, leave me alone. I'll go find people who do like me. I'm not your project. I probably should have ended things there, but I wasn't ready to let go.
We had some other ups and downs over the next year. Then the pandemic hit, and we had some time away from each other. During that time, he began saying that there are no true Christians on the planet because they didn't read certain books or writings. He soon ghosted everyone and joined a more extreme church (I've heard it's essentially a cult). I wrote him a letter a year ago telling him I missed him and I was hurt by him cutting me and other people off. He did respond, but his letter focused more on recommending things to read so I can become a "true Christian," whatever that even means. I was going to respond, but I just didn't want to. I think I was just tired of all of this.
If any good came from that whole experience, it's that I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I am a people pleaser; if I find myself changing things about myself, I need to step back and see if this is because I want to or because I'm trying to please someone. It is also a reason why I started to deconstruct my faith. I'm fed up with this "no true Christian" nonsense. Maybe an ancient book isn't the best thing to base your life around. It seems way too open to interpretation for that.
Even though I've had some distance, the wound is still open. I have times where he crosses my mind and I don't know if I want to cry or throw something (or both). I miss him sometimes, but I think it might be for the best he's not a part of my life right now. We may have had some good times together, but I think we were incompatible as friends. I guess I can care for his well-being without having to be besties with him. I wish I could let things go so the wound would close and stop haunting me.
I left some stuff out because I don't want to make this longer than it already is. I hope I got my point across. If you read through this thing, thank you.

I have in my possession a $50 scratch-off ticket in which the jackpot prize is $5 million. It’s a standard scratcher where you are given a handful of numbers at the top, and you must reveal a matching number by scratching the squares below. For every match you find, you win the corresponding prize listed under the bottom number.
My ticket, as it stands right now, has a single matching pair, but I have not scratched the area below the number where the prize is presented. I also have not revealed the prizes for 5 other numbers. So to be clear, I know all of the numbers on the card, and am certain I only have a single match, and I know what all of the prizes are except for the 6 I left unscratched, including the one for my winning number.
If you’re unfamiliar with these larger $50 scratch-offs, there are 20+ potential prize boxes, and I’ve scratched 80+% of them, and have yet to reveal the $5M jackpot. To my knowledge, there is always at least a single jackpot square on every scratch-off, and often times there are two. This [technically] means I have at least a 1 in 6 chance that my winning number has the $5M prize under it, and possibly 2 in 6 (what is that like 33%?).
Keep in mind I am terrible at math, I have no idea if reselling a scratch-off is legal, and we’re not taking into account the actual odds of winning — how many jackpots remain unclaimed in this particular game, how many tickets are left, etc. — though for what it’s worth, I checked and there are 2 outstanding $5M prizes for this game, and at least one website scores it as a “better than average” chance of winning money due to there being more unclaimed prize money left in the game, than tickets remaining.
Assuming everything is on the up and up, and this ticket really has a 1-in-6 chance of winning $5M, what’s the most you would pay me for it?