I have been travelling virtually constantly for the past few months. I’ve had a pollen allergy as long as I can remember and it gets very debilitating around this time of year.
Medications seem to have very little to no effect on me, so I’ll usually just hole up in my room with an air purifier for the affected months.
I’m currently travelling in France : huge mistake. The pollen levels here are absolutely ludicrous, and this is the first time I’ve spent this much time outside while my allergies are in full swing. Earlier someone even asked me why I was crying because my eyes were watering so much.
My nose is completely blocked, my entire body feels sluggish and aches, walking past some trees at a train station I was stepping in pollen and sneezing with only a second to catch my breath between each one.
I don’t think I’ve ever been exposed to pollen for this long and with such intensity that I have two symptoms I’ve never noticed before. - Very severe conjunctivitis (pink-eye) which appears a while after I itch my eye, goes away within the day if I don’t itch but I habitually do so. - Periodic coughing & difficulty breathing, which only happened when I was near those trees that had me sneezing.
I think I might be ready to call it quits on France for now. I could go back to Canada and suffer slightly less, or I could try to see about picking somewhere new that might offer some relief for the meantime.

I have multiple reasons for doing this, so please don’t judge and I’m more than happy to explain my reasons but this post is already very long. I’m looking to adopt out my black GSD, Nox (Latin for night) he’s approx 1yr old male, 70lbs. Please do not contact me unless you meet the following criteria:
-Willing to provide me with a description of your home life, what you want from a dog like Nox, how much land or backyard you have, and a current veterinary hospital you use as well as a valid driver’s license upon taking Nox into your care. I will be signing ownership over to the new owner. Currently he has Trupanion insurance and I highly urge a new owner to get their own insurance on him (I cannot transfer the policy unfortunately) I am willing to continue his policy for a trial period of ownership to make sure he’s a good fit before I cancel it. The new owner however would be responsible for any veterinary bills not covered by the policy.
-Experienced with shepherds, specifically working line ones AND be seeking a shepherd for “work” such as dog sports or professional occupations.
-Preferably live within an hour or so radius of Raleigh, NC. and willingness to keep in contact with me with updates for him. If he does not work out or circumstances arise that he would require re-homing again, I ask you contact me first and I will take him back.
-Willing to pay a re-homing fee due to the amount of money I have spent on his vet care and neutestomach tack. I typically dislike re-homing fees, but I will be nearly 3k worth of money into him by the time he goes to his new home. I will also be happy to provide his favorite toys, leashes/collars and other accessories to his new home.
I work at a vet hospital so Nox is fully vetted and was neutered and had his stomach tacked on May 24th. He will not be available for re-homing until he has recovered from that, so at very earliest the first week of June.
He’s up to date on Rabies, DHPP, Lepto, Lyme, Canine Influenza, and Bordetella vaccines. He’s currently on Simparica Trio for heartworm/flea/tick prevention. He’s received full lab workups that look great. I had radiographs taken of his hips while he was under anesthesia for his surgery and his hips are rated mild/moderate subluxation. I can expound on this further for series inquires. It does NOT mean he has hip dysplasia.
Pros- -Aims to please, highly trainable, wonderful spirit to him. -House trained, no accidents, does not bother open trash cans, knows command “place” to go sit on his cot with toys. -Crate trained- initially he did not like the crate at all but he was definitely crate trained before I got him. He now goes right in and doesn’t mind it. -Does great in an outdoor 40x40 run with a doghouse, does not dig, loves to be outside in the run during the days and is fine being left unsupervised in the run. No excessive barking. -Gets along great with other dogs, but see con list for further. Ideally he would go to a home with another similar sized dog. He loves playing with my sister’s similar sized hound mix. -LOVES the water, I have never seen a shepherd love water as much as this boy does. Dock diving would be an excellent sport for him, or any other water based activities. -Very good with people, very approachable and has not shown any red flags for interacting with people. He has had limited interactions with some coworkers’ children at work, ranging from age 5-10, and does well. I would not leave him alone unsupervised with children due to his energy level, he’s very boisterous. -Knows basic commands, sit, stay, “place” for indoors, “kennel” to crate and go into his run outside, etc. I do not train my dogs shake or speak so he does not know either of those (personal preference) has basic leash manners but can pull still sometimes if he’s excited.
Cons: -Extremely high prey drive. I do not trust him around my cats and have given up on trying to blend them to live in harmony. I do not think he ever lived with cats prior to me. He does okay with small dogs, has not shown aggression but he very clearly has his prey drive engaged with smaller dogs rather than just playful energy like he does with larger dogs. I have dog tested him extensively at work with multiple small to large breed dogs. -He still occasionally goes for a pair of shoes inside the house but I have mostly broken him of that by providing him with toys. He loves food ball toys and squeaky balls. -Still mouthy but on par with shepherd mouthy behavior. Very puppyish about it, and very playful. Still persistent about it despite working with him on it since day one. -Does have his teenager stubbornness kicking in, will sit down or lose interest and try to walk away if he does not want to obey. -Strong herding drive, has tried to herd the lawn mower, my horses, me, etc. possibly a pro if you’re looking for that in a shepherd. - He is a working line shepherd, I cannot stress this enough. He needs consistent, daily exercise and work. He is my third shepherd but first working line GSD and he needs more time and structure than I can dedicate to him for the next 5-7 years.

https://imgur.com/RGa2TeJ Visual aid
The commute in Japan has got me in the most volatile rage I've been in. I just hate how people here line up for absolutely no reason. I was lining up for near 2 minutes just to go up a set of stairs despite the fact that there was another set of stairs that absolutely NO ONE was using. People just continued to line up to go up the stairs that saves you 5-10 seconds. Ironically creating conjestion so fucking severe that collectively everyone loses 2 minutes. The only reason it didn't take another minutes is because I had to shove my way out and take the other stairs. This on top of the congestion in stations in general caused by people lining up to stand on the escalator. line up for 2 minutes. walk in the opposite direction to where they're heading, just so they can join the long line to stand on the escalator God it makes me wanna say some shit. It makes me wanna say some fucked up shit. What the fuck is this behaviour. How do people conduct themselves like this. This is ridiculous

I'm looking to start a micro-roastery and am looking at commercial property in my area. What are the basics you need to get the Dept of Ag food handler's approval? Triple sink, Handwashing station, anything else? Do floors and walls have to be sealed and washable like a restaurant kitchen (floor drain)? I want to be compliant but I know a bunch of roasters have much less in their setups so I'm wondering if I am overthinking it or if maybe they are just a little less than compliant?
Any advice would be welcome. The information online is less than specific.
Alternatively: Are there any roasters between Albany and Westchester who would be willing to share/sublease their roaster up to 1day/week? I haven't found any co-ops near me yet.
Thanks.

Kings' Firearms has been posted a couple times over on /Gundeals and it's usually in the form of some kind of police trade in. They had Bushmaster trade-in AR15s a month ago and while I missed out on the deal it didn't stop me from browsing the rest of their inventory until I found a Bushmaster blank firing AR15 trade in. I'm a sucker for salty trade-ins and after reading the description I figured I just needed to drop a new barrel in and I would have a functioning Bushmaster AR15 for $299 + a barrel. I sent it.
Package arrived at FFL 3 days later. Despite the used condition of the rifle they still wrapped this thing in 10 layers of bubble wrap and had excellent packaging. While the rifle is very obviously used it was still well maintained and the nylon sling that came with the rifle even had the loose ends melted down. Whichever police department this came from the armorer did a great job in maintaining this. Picture dump:
Complete Rifle
Bolt Carrier Group
Bolt Face
Complete Rifle, Reverse
Barrel Wear
Bolt Carrier Group and Charging Handle
Firing Pin, Bolt and Cam Pin
Chamber Wear
Lower Receiver Wear
Magazine Well Blocked 1
Magazine Well Blocked 2
Magazine Block
Magazine Block Removed 1
Lower Parts Removed
Lower Receiver Stripped
The rifle also had some random picatinny attachment near the delta ring which I'm assuming may have been part of a brass catcher. If you guys can identify it let me know. The magazine well had a small piece of aluminum attached with a hex bolt to prevent an officer from inserting a magazine with actual live ammunition. The barrel itself has a steel rod welded in spanning about half the length of the barrel. There's a very small amount of rust on the buffer tube, most likely from rubbing on some rusted steel.
I'm planning on sending the entire lower and lower parts through the ultrasonic before oiling and reassembling with new springs, detents, castle nut and endplate. The bolt carrier group is also in excellent shape and just needs some new gas rings. It will probably become the lower for my FBI HRT build and overall it was a pretty great value.

Kings' Firearms has been posted a couple times over on /Gundeals and it's usually in the form of some kind of police trade in. They had Bushmaster trade-in AR15s a month ago and while I missed out on the deal it didn't stop me from browsing the rest of their inventory until I found a Bushmaster blank firing AR15 trade in. I'm a sucker for salty trade-ins and after reading the description I figured I just needed to drop a new barrel in and I would have a functioning Bushmaster AR15 for $299 + a barrel. I sent it.
Package arrived at FFL 3 days later. Despite the used condition of the rifle they still wrapped this thing in 10 layers of bubble wrap and had excellent packaging. While the rifle is very obviously used it was still well maintained and the nylon sling that came with the rifle even had the loose ends melted down. Whichever police department this came from the armorer did a great job in maintaining this. Picture dump:
Complete Rifle
Bolt Carrier Group
Bolt Face
Complete Rifle, Reverse
Barrel Wear
Bolt Carrier Group and Charging Handle
Firing Pin, Bolt and Cam Pin
Chamber Wear
Lower Receiver Wear
Magazine Well Blocked 1
Magazine Well Blocked 2
Magazine Block
Magazine Block Removed 1
Lower Parts Removed
Lower Receiver Stripped
The rifle also had some random picatinny attachment near the delta ring which I'm assuming may have been part of a brass catcher. If you guys can identify it let me know. The magazine well had a small piece of aluminum attached with a hex bolt to prevent an officer from inserting a magazine with actual live ammunition. The barrel itself has a steel rod welded in spanning about half the length of the barrel. There's a very small amount of rust on the buffer tube, most likely from rubbing on some rusted steel.
I'm planning on sending the entire lower and lower parts through the ultrasonic before oiling and reassembling with new springs, detents, castle nut and endplate. The bolt carrier group is also in excellent shape and just needs some new gas rings. It will probably become the lower for my FBI HRT build and overall it was a pretty great value.

Can someone point me in the direction for lodging and travel pay regs pertinent to reservists? I've been looking through AR637-1 and AR-135-91 but I don't think I'm in the right place.
Just wrapped up AT and seem to being screwed over a bit. Mission had a convoy and stay down at NTC and then convoy back. My original orders were Gov meals and lodging available and directed, easy pz they'll house me while I'm there as I live 300 miles away from home station. Turns out that there was no such thing as available lodging for the days before and after the convoy and mission. Me and one of my joes acquire accommodation for our squad and we are promised it'll be authorized.
So far no amended orders and they are denying the authorization of the lodging as it was not present on the DTS auth. They can't have orders with no commercial lodging authorized and then not provide us with anything right?
Then as far as travel issue goes we had a BA at the beginning of AT. They stated no IDT or LIK funds. I marked in my DTS auth for AT, mileage for both ways as my HOR is 300 miles away, I feel am entitled those funds whether I happen to be near my HS or not. Now they want us to remove TO mileage and use (the now seemly abundant) IDT funds for what is essentially less than half the mileage pay.
To think I was going to eat the lodging cost and just call it it is what it is, but now they bring up this travel issue I want to fight back. They continually "run out of funds" for IDT and leave us finding lodging ourselves and I'm sick of it. I don't think it should be happening on AT too.
​
Annnnyways, I'll take a large fry with a side of low retention thank you.

Original prompt: [WP] Humans are unique among all space faring creatures, they can interbreed successfully with any sentient lifeform. You run the station daycare. (link)
I was somewhat surprised at how easy it had been to get the job of diplomat for the Terra-Prime Space-Faring Relations Board. I'd just sent in the application, and I had almost no experience, but they'd already called me in for an interview.
The interview itself was short, the first question was about my criminal record (which was nonexistent), and the second was whether I was a people person, which seemed almost redundant given that I was applying for a job as a diplomat.
But now it was time for my first day of work, and I was a bit nervous. I had barely been trained, and had been brought to the Grand United Space-Farer Station, or the Gus-Fast as the pilot of the transport had kept calling it on the way here. While the Gus-Fast was large, I was making steady progress toward the office where I would get my first assignment. Finally, I arrived at the door.
"Hello?" I called as I entered. I rapped my knuckles on the door, but it was already open by that point. "I'm Planter Blackwell, the new diplomat..."
"Uh? Oh!" a grizzled voice said. A middle-aged man jolted in his chair as I entered. The name on his desk read "Jerry". "So you're the new Dipper Junior? Come on, you're late."
The man gestured for me to follow him and began walking briskly down the hall.
"Hoo boy, the other dipper jr. ain't gonna be in a good mood, but it's a good thing you're here now," he said.
I followed Jerry, accidentally knocking over an empty trash can as I left the room. I barely had time to put it back in place before he was nearly out of sight, and had to scramble to catch up.
"Sir? I haven't really been briefed, what is my mission?" I asked.
"Hm? Oh yeah, you're doing a very important... eh, what do they say to call it... training mission? Yeah, I think that was it," he said. "Gotta take care of some VIPs for... some span of time... Ugh, I really need to lay off the vodka on work days."
"VIPs? That sounds awfully important for a training mission," I said.
"It'll make sense when we get there," Jerry said. He turned the corner and stopped in front of a door, which had the words "Dipper's Playhouse" written in Star-phonics. He knocked the door twice, then three times.
"Wait, is this some kind of scam? I was told I would be working as a diplomat," I said.
"You are, but the training for diplomats is a bit... strange," Jerry said.
Before he could elaborate, the door slammed open and a woman roughly my age wearing the same uniform I'd been given stormed out.
"Your problem now, newbie!" she shouted as she headed down the hall. "I'm getting lunch!"
"Well that's unfortunate," Jerry said. "Guess I've got to give the introduction then..."
Jerry walked over to the door and opened it, walking inside. As I entered, I noticed a large number of humanoid children with strange bodily features running around, screaming and throwing things.
"These are the children of nobility and other diplomats, so you've got to babysit them until you've been deemed ready to advance. It's a pain in the ass, so nobody wants to do it," he said. "And I've got paperwork to get back to, so try to survive until Jenny gets back."
"Wait, why do they seem so-" I asked, only to be cut off by the door slamming in my face. "Humanlike..."
"Teacher! Quigli took my markers!" A small mushroom person wearing a dress shouted as they ran over to me.
"Xiazha's lying! They're mine, not hers! I found them in the arts'n'crafts box! Finder's keepers!" a small boy said. He looked nearly human, save for the insectoid compound eyes and the mandibles around his mouth.
"Uh... Shasha, what makes the markers yours?" I asked.
"Xiazha!" the mushroom child said.
"Okay... Xiazha," I said, putting a bit of a sharper inflection on the words. "But don't dodge the question."
"We were picking our thing for the day and I picked the markers, so they're mine!" she said.
"I see... Well, there's more than one marker, can't you share?" I asked.
"The markers are my thing! I should get all of them!" Xiazha screamed.
"But you only use the red!" Quigli said.
"Red's the prettiest color!" she said. Naturally, the cap of her head was candy-apple red with white spots.
"Okay... Quigli, I don't know how this 'thing' thing works, but is there a reason you can't play with whatever you got?" I asked.
"Mom dropped me off late, so I didn't get anything," he said, his expression dropping.
"Right..." I said. I looked around, and spied a toy box at the far end of the room. "Why don't you just go grab something else from the toy box?"
"Really? It's not even toy time yet," he said.
"Uh... sure?" I said, now somewhat unsure of what exactly I was authorizing. "Just this once though."
The boy scampered off toward the toy box, and I turned my attention to the gooey green girl tugging at the end of my coat. She showed me a crayon drawing of the space station, which was surprisingly detailed.
"Ah, very nice... uh," I said, glancing down at the signature. "Melaani."
She emitted a small squeak and ran off to an extremely pale girl with mechanical limbs. Things seemed to be going well, then Jenny opened the door to the room, carrying half a sandwich, a soda, and a bag of squeezy froot.
"Okay, I'm back, and the place isn't on fire yet! Good stuff, newbie," the other junior diplomat said.
"Thank goodness, what on Gus-Fast is going on here?" I asked.
"You mean like with the station as a whole or just this room?" Jenny asked.
"I mean why do we have so many children on a space station?" I asked.
"Because they were born here," she said, taking a sip of her drink.
"Okay, but aren't aliens... you know, alien? Most of these guys look like human kids in convincing Halloween costumes," I said.
"Oh, human crossbreeds mostly. Diplomacy gets a bit freaky sometimes, and we tend to be a bit more... viable than one would expect with other farer species, so the higher ups thought it would be a good idea to remind us why the TePS-FaRB handbook has an entire volume detailing the rules and guidelines around canoodling with locals," she said, taking a bite of her sandwich.
I prepared to ask another question before being interrupted by the sounds of pained screaming. Quigli was carrying what looked like a laser pistol and was firing it at the other kids, who were screaming and crying as the beams hit their skin.
"What? Hey! Quigli, no! It's not toy time yet, put that back!" Jenny shouted, putting down her food.
"No! Other teacher said I could get a toy early!" he said, shooting the laser pistol at her.
"Ow! That's it, get over here you little brat," she said, stomping toward the boy as he yelped in fear, throwing the laser pistol on the ground and backing away from it. She grabbed the weapon and stuffed in back in the box, gesturing at him with her fingers to communicate that she was keeping her eyes on him.
"Uh, Jenny? Why are there training weapons in the toybox?" I asked. "Aren't they supposed to be in weapon lockers like all the other weapons?"
"Toy time is code for combat training, most of these kids are going to be generals or warlords when they grow up, so we don't have enough actual toys to warrant a box for them. Besides, the weapon locker is full of medical supplies in case of emergency, so we had to keep the training weapons somewhere else," she said.
"Why are we keeping medical supplies in the weapons locker instead of the first aid kit?" I asked, gesturing at the medical supply box hanging on the wall.
"Because the first aid kit is full of snacks in case of hunger emergencies, obviously," she said, sucking a bit of the froot goo out of its soft plastic-adjacent package.
"You realize this is a terrible idea for organization, what if there had been an emergency and I needed to grab some gauze, but instead I got..." I said, popping open the first aid kit and sending several bags of candy tumbling to the floor, as well as a few loose pieces of fruit and packaged cookies. "Oops."
"Oh, you've done it now, newbie," she said.
"Snack time!" Xiazha shouted, running forward and grabbing a bag of gummee bitz, causing all the other kids to begin swarming to grab their own treats.
"No! Stop that, all of you!" I said ineffectually. It very quickly became clear that there weren't enough snacks to go around, and some of the ones that were available got ruined by kids playing tug of war over them.
Jenny just chuckled, then reached into the desk she'd been eating off of and pulled out a whistle. It let loose a sharp, shrill cry as she blew into it, and all the kids froze where they were.
"That seems... useful," I said.
"Once per day at most, newbie, don't want it to lose it's charm," she said. "Everyone go get your lunches, and put those snacks back where you found them."
The kids dropped the uneaten snacks back on the ground and began walking toward the cubbies toward the side of the room.
"What about the ones we already-" Xiazha began to ask.
"Did I stutter? Put them back," Jenny said, her voice becoming more stern.
The mushroom girl spat the half-chewed gummies back into the bag and placed it on the floor, walking to her cubby and grabbing what appeared to be a bag of spoiled vegetables and sawdust. While I wasn't sure about the nutritional needs of her species, she certainly didn't look like she was enjoying her lunch.
"So... why can't they keep the opened stuff?" I asked, keeping my voice low as I picked up the unopened snacks off the ground, and tossed the opened ones into the trash can.
"If they know we'll let them keep them, they'll just move faster next time. Trust me, it's better this way," she whispered. She raised her voice a little to say, "It's going to be a few hours before the parents come to pick them up, you might want to grab a bite to eat yourself."
"Sure," I said, heading for the door. "See you in a few."

Here are the goodies.

First haul in a while. Got a nice mix of things today.

Total: $98.78

Coupons: None!

Total Cash Back: $108.60

Final Cost: -$9.82 - Money Maker!

^{Photo of the haul.}
 
Here is the complete break down and sites used. The stores are listed in the breakdown image. I don't include sites that take any receipt such as Coinout, ReceiptPal, etc on my breakdown. Brandclub takes a while to credit, so the amounts listed are what I expect to get once it finishes pending. FieldAgent is an app that pays you to do a variety of tasks, including the one I did here where I made a purchase, took a couple photos, and left a review about the cat food.
Note: Individual deals vary by user for most apps. If you don't have the deals right now, you can try checking back later.
 
My Guides

1. All rebate apps/sites I use and/or know about
   
2. How I do my hauls
   
3. Beginners guide to using rebate apps/sites - for those who don't know where to start
   

 
If you aren't interested in this kind of thing, please keep your comments to yourself. If you don't like what I buy, you can buy different products. If you don't like hunting for deals, you can do surveys, microtasks, games or whatever else you like instead. There is no need to discourage other users just because you aren't interested in the same things!
 
Some additional deals:

• 3oz CeraVe Lotion for $1. They're $5 at Wal-Mart and there's a $4 printable coupon on their site.
  
• Knoppers Chocolate Hazelnut Wafer - ~$4 at the store, MP + C51
  
• Colgate Keep Replaceable Heads - Money Maker. It's on MP + C51. Alternatively, you can get the toothbrush + the 2 heads and add on an IB rebate for like $2 for 2 toothbrushes + 4 heads. Or mix and match.
  
• Dr Elsey's Cat Litter - Up to $22 back on a bag up to 40 lbs when you purchase at Target, Walmart, or a local business pet store. You need to cut out the barcode and mail it in with the receipt. One rebate per person/household/address. Must submit within 90 days. There's also a handful of $1 coupons on this page.
  
• Born Simple Pasta Sauce - Free after PayPal/Venmo rebate. Only available at Target
  
• P&G Rebates - Made to Save - Get $15 when you spend $50 OR get $5 when you spend $20 on select products. Expires 6/30/23
  
• Free T is for Tame hair taming product
  
• Free Pedialyte - expires 7/31/23 - This is also on IB for $1
  
• Free bag of Like Air Puffcorn - Refund via PayPal or Venmo. Must purchase in-store or for curbside pickup. Expiration date unknown.
  
• Nightfood Ice Cream - Free pint. Expiration date unknown.
  
• Various freebies on Ibotta.
  
• Various offers on Aisle Referrals: SkinTe Core Bar Proper Good Meals (using my ref will give me another rebate offer) Pays out via PayPal or Venmo
  
• Various deals I've done in previous weeks can still be done.
  

 

Afterthoughts

Man, today was stressful. In part due to the fact that I ended up going during a particularly busy time (I was planning to go after a doc appointment, but that didn't happen), and the fact that our Wal-Mart has rearranged 2/3 of the store, some of which in weird ways (they put all of the wet cat food in reverse order) But mainly it was due to what happened on the way to the store. For those curious, I'll explain further down at the end of this section since it's not explicitly related to this haul, but a TL;DR - I fucking hate my Jeep.
 
So, the haul itself went relatively smoothly. It's been a while, so I was a bit out of my groove. I messed up a bit on the deals. I meant to get 2 Arm & Hammer toothpaste and 4 Knoppers, but I swapped those around. Whoops. I also accidently got 11 deals when I only needed 8. I had decided to relook over MyPoints and found some deals, and it didn't register that since there were also deals for them on Ibotta, I could remove other deals. This wouldn't have been an issue if I were to aim to finish my big bonus this weekend, but... I'm not sure if I will be able to now.
Not a huge fan of Fetch's new redemption screen. It's pretty, sure, but it's no longer intuitive which defeats the purpose. I liked the old one. I also don't like how the videos seem to get longer each time. I also forgot about MyPoint's limit of 10 items per receipt, but then I found out you can just scan the receipt a 2nd time to get the rest of the rebates. So, what's the point of the limit? Lol. I also noticed a lot of rebates got added to aisle this past month... but none of them are good. Everything near me is mostly BOGO or just a buck or two back. That'd be fine if I knew I liked the products, but most of this stuff is really expensive, and I don't want two of something that I don't know if I'll even like.
BrandClub seems to have made some major changes. They added Kroger! I don't have one near me, but I see people post amazing Kroger deals all the time. Also, if I'm seeing this right, purchase rewards don't seem to be going into a locked status anymore (unless you unlock another reward with your purchase). For example, my Barilla purchases from last month all immediately unlocked their own rewards. I have nothing in the locked status for them. I did not add this change to my spreadsheet since I'm not 100% sure right now, but that'd be awesome if it were true. I also noticed a few rewards for watching videos. Unfortunately, they require a purchase to unlock. On the not-so-good side, brands seem to have different percent rebates now. Some items don't give any rewards, such as the Arm & Hammer, and they won't register or unlock rewards either. I know that Arm & Hammer toothpaste is in the system. I've bought it before, and it's showing in the search, but since it has no reward, none of my locked rewards were unlocked.
 
Instacart also gave me another offer for $30 off my next two orders of $50. Didn't take a picture this time, but I got almost $50 worth of groceries for $16 (they were out of something, so my total went down). Still not sure how to get them to use my credits that I earned before. It said it applied in the checkout, but it didn't. I have until the 9th to use the 2nd one, so maybe I'll figure it out then.
 
Now for the rant - In case you didn't notice, it's been a month since my last post. The last time I was at the store there was an obviously very ill jerk who didn't comprehend the concept of personal space. I ended up horrendously sick for the better part of 3 weeks. Not covid, but it was nasty, so I took it upon myself to completely self isolate. Looks like this cough is here to stay for a while though. My car apparently also caught what I did since it didn't want to leave the house either. Towed it to the mechanic, where the issue magically disappeared, he fixed a few things, and he wanted me to run it the next few days to try to see if the issue comes back. Well, it sure did. Car broke down on my way to do this haul. On a highway. Around a wide bend (I could be seen in time... IF they were paying attention). Going up a hill. In a place where people blow through at 45-55+ mph without thinking. Yea, that wasn't fun. There were a few close calls (mostly by school busses...), but thankfully it got towed away without incident. I borrowed a car and did the haul since I really did need to get some stuff after going almost nowhere for the past month. I planned to do another haul this weekend to finish my big bonus but... that probably won't happen. I'm not sure when my next haul will be.
 

Time Spent

I totally forgot to keep track today, sorry. I generally plan my hauls over the course of an hour or two while I play with the cat and eat breakfast. I spent a total of about 1.5-2 hours driving to a couple stores, getting everything including my shopping items, picking up my Aldi order, then driving the car back to its owner.
 

Food From Deals

This past month I made Buttered pasta, stewed apples, and cinnamon ginger tea, Tomato Tortilla, High Protein Tomato Crackers, "Pizza" Sandwich, Pesto Steak with Jasmine Rice, Pizza Pocket, and Cherry Pancakes
 
Do you guys want me to continue showing things I've made using ingredients I got from rebate apps on these posts? Let me know in the comments, or you can vote on this poll if you want to remain anonymous.

Hello,
I asked this in melbourne but I thought maybe you guys would also have a good insight.
I'm a 33 y/o Kiwi communications coordinator across the ditch (Wellington NZ). I may have a job opportunity coming up in Melbourne. The role is in the city center, near Southern Cross station. It's for an interesting company and the work itself is pretty much up my alley. I've wanted to move over to Australia for a while now, so having some work lined up would be a good push to finally go.
However, there's just one problem. The role's salary band is $60-65k AUD a year. At my current job in NZ I'm earning about $81k AUD a year. My current work is alright, and the people/company are great in terms of culture and benefits. The Melbourne job's day to day work is more appealing to me (more straight creative copywriting, where as my current role is anything from copy, to HR policy, to marketing), but the culture and social vibes are likely not as relaxed or inviting.
I'm interested to hear what people think about a $60-65k salary for a 30s singleton in Melbourne. I already assume I would be living in a flat/sharehouse - I do that here in NZ too. With the rising cost of living and rents, am I crazy for even considering an almost $20k pay drop? Or is this a pretty doable, even common, salary over there?
I like to go out for dinners now and then, do some exploring of cities, and not live off of 2 minute noodles and pies if I can help it. I would not have a car, so public transport would be how I get to work. I'd also like to have a few luxuries like a gym membership, lunches out, event tickets etc. Given I'm in my 30s I'd like to live comfortably - bit old for the poor recent-grad lifestyle.

I was getting Taco Bell with my kids pretty late last night around 10pm. I pulled into a parking spot as I always do, to make sure all of what I ordered is there. I realized I actually forgot to order something so I pulled out to go back to the drive thru line.
A man was parked horizontally across several spots a few feet away. As I started to back up, he made really intense eye contact with me. Both of our windows were down and I heard him say “let me find out”. I parked in front of Taco Bell now (previously was behind it) to see if their lobby was open. The man follows me around, blocking me into the parking spot. I decide I should just leave, I slowly start to back up and he allows me to, but stays very close to my car. He then pulls up next to me as I’m halfway pulled out, says “let me find out” again and speeds away. He’s now at an exit to leave.
I now decide I’m going to just use the drive thru, i went towards the drive thru and suddenly got a really funny feeling and decided to just leave. I headed towards a different exit than he was at. I then see him start to reverse and basically ends up behind me at the same exit. I wait and wait until there’s barley an opening (really busy street right there right off the highway) for just me to pull out. It works but he pulls out soon after and catches up to me.
He’s now going on all sides of me. Traffic clears up and roads pretty dead just a few street lights up from the Taco Bell further away from the highway. He’s tailgating so close behind I can’t even see his headlights. Then he’ll swerve to my left and stare, get back behind and get on my right side, making sure to go the exact speed as me. I am absolutely petrified. I should also mention I have a ptsd diagnosis which revolves around a traumatic event where my kids were threatened so I am already always on higher than usual alert for their safety… so maybe my already existing fear made this feel worse but I was absolutely afraid for my kids and my life.
By this point (like 2 minutes after turning out of Taco Bell) I call 911. It only took this long to actually call because I was just too focused on trying to get away and wanted to wait until I was at a complete stop again to reach for my phone. It’s hectic, trying to focus on what the driver might do next, talk to dispatch and make sure I keep my kids and I safe. I see an opportunity, we’re both driving westbound, 40mph and just before we cross an intersection I cut to my left (he’s on my right) and jump into the turning lane. He doesn’t even take a moment to make sure it’s clear, he goes from the right side straight lane to actually making the left turn straight across the intersection, almost hitting multiple cars.
Now, I’m sitting in the turning lane to go south and if I make this turn he’s in the next lane over to go north (hope all this makes sense). So I decide to stay put. He’s revving his car, going forward and backwards in my direction (he was across 2 lanes, to be facing me diagonally) The dispatcher was telling me that there wasn’t an officer very close and wanted me to drive to the police station. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn’t. It’s a very twisty road I’d have to take to get there and I’d have to go across 2 bridges. I was way too scared to drive that specific route with a maniac following me. It would have been much more dangerous on that road.
Next thing I know the car is gunning it right at my car, going at least 40mph while I’m at a complete stop. He would have hit right where my 2 year old sons car seat is (with my 2yo in it). I thankfully was able to quickly turn right, and start heading north down another road. He’s tailgating again, going around both sides of me, looking insane (like he had an actual look of a demon in his eyes, I don’t know how to explain that). I reach another intersection and I decide that I’m going to just stay there until an officer finds up. Dispatch agrees it’s an okay plan. The man pulls to my left so I did something maybe stupid but needed to try. By this point I had already rolled my windows up, so I cracked it a tiny bit and said “what did I do?” He’s telling me don’t act stupid, you know what you did etc etc. I said I’ve never seen you in my life please tell me what I did, you’re scaring me and my kids are terrified too. Please tell me what I did! He then said “you killed my daughter” he honestly had a true look of pain in his eyes when he said that.
I rolled my window down all the way now and said “I’m a mother. I cannot possibly imagine the pain you’re going through. I’m sorry about your daughter and I hope you find who did that- but it wasn’t me.” He asked my name, I gave him my nickname and he kept asking “do you promise? Are you lying to me? Is that really your name?” I assured him over and over. He then started profusely apologizing. Even yelled sorry to my kids. He told me his daughters name and I said I’m sorry for your loss and thought I was okay from there.
I still planned on having contact with police but I wanted to get away from him. So I went across the intersection and pulled into a gas station to my right and lo and behold the man is still following me. This time it’s a very slow, less aggressive following. Just slowly following from a distance. I see 3 officers approaching and by this point we’re at another gas station across the street. It takes about 1 minute from pulling into this gas station for the police to actually pull up behind us. I roll my window down again and ask him why he’s still following me. He then starts yelling “I heard you! When you pulled away I heard you saying you were hiding shit! You’re lying! You killed daughter’s name !! Stop lying stop lying you’re lying to me!!” I reason with him once more with empathy and compassion. He starts apologizing again.
Now police have pulled up, they get a run down of the situation from me. I hear the man telling the police “it’s just a misunderstanding, we’re okay I’m so sorry it’s just a misunderstanding.” I briefly hear 2 other officers speaking after speaking with him, whispering to each other about a girls body never found and that he seemed mentally unwell. Unsure the details. They give me a card and tell me to go home.
I arrive home around 11:30pm and send the officer who’s card I was given an email.
“Hi my name is **** I was in the **
****** being followed by the red **** tonight around ** & *** steeet. I was just wondering if there was any sort of follow up information I could get, If the man was on drugs or sent for a psych evaluation or anything? Feeling very anxious to go out driving again anytime soon. Also I left in a hurry of course because I was wanting to just get home but can I press charges on this man?”
I awoke to this response
“Hello,
He did not meet requirements for a mental health evaluation. If for some reason he comes into contact with you please just call us but he stated he does not know you or have any reason to contact you.
Hope this helps.”
I feel as though he should have been charged with SOMETHING! I was absolutely scared for my kids life and my own. Am I owed any sort of explanation? Can I press charges? How likely is it that a court would grant me a protection order? So that way if I do encounter him in this manner again, it’s not the same story again- it’s just simply he’s violating a protection order, please get him away from me! I have no idea if this man lives/is from this area. If he really has a daughter. If he truly meant the apologies or if he’s planning on finding me again and doing worse.
Literally looking for any and all legal advice here because I don’t know if im acting out of fear here but I don’t think he should have just been allowed to leave without any sort of consequence. I did go up to the police station this morning but was told I’d need to call when any of the officers that were on scene were on duty which won’t be until late tonight. What can he actually be charged with? What would be my best option? Pressing charges? A protection order? Both?
* I typed this out last night but didn’t actually post so another update since I typed this out.. I was unable to get ahold of the officer whose card I was given last night via phone. I emailed her also with no response. It’s been over 24hours so I called non emergency and dispatch took it a lot more serious, agreeing that I should get an explanation for his actions at the least (like if they could even confirm he had a daughter). She gave my number to a sergeant and said she’d have him call me since it’ll be harder for me to reach the officers who worked that night, graveyard shift. That was about 8 hours ago. I know they’re busy but I just feel so terrified. The way he switched back and forth from being so aggressive to apologetic multiple times is a huge red flag to me, the non emergency dispatcher agreed. Who knows if he’s been actively searching for my car again since this occurred.

Ah, behold the cosmic enigma known as a black hole, a maelstrom of unfathomable power and darkness! Tremble before its immense gravitational pull, for it devours all that dares to come near. Allow me, Vergil, to elucidate the nature of this celestial beast.
A black hole, my dear interlocutor, is born from the remnants of a massive star that has met its cataclysmic end. When such a star exhausts its nuclear fuel, it collapses under its own weight, succumbing to the grip of gravity. This collapse is a sight to behold, as the star implodes upon itself, condensing into an infinitely dense singularity at its core.
Picture, if you will, a swirling vortex, a tempest of cosmic forces from which no light can escape. This is the event horizon, the point of no return. It marks the boundary between our world and the abyss beyond. Once one ventures beyond this threshold, their fate is sealed. Time distorts, and space itself contorts in unimaginable ways.
The gravitational pull of a black hole is its most fearsome attribute. It is an insatiable hunger that consumes matter, energy, and even light itself. As objects draw closer to the event horizon, the force becomes increasingly potent, bending and warping the fabric of space-time. It is as if the very laws of the universe bow before this titanic force.
But fear not, for a black hole is not entirely merciless. It possesses a certain magnanimity, for it can serve as a cosmic engine of creation. As matter spirals into its depths, it forms an accretion disk—a swirling disk of superheated gas and dust that glows with an infernal radiance. These disks are cosmic crucibles, birthing new stars and galaxies from the chaos.
However, it is imperative to remember the peril a black hole poses. Venture too close, and you shall be forever trapped within its inescapable clutches. The immense gravity will stretch and distort you, tearing you apart in a process known as spaghettification. It is a fate reserved for the foolhardy and the ill-prepared.
So, my acquaintance, heed this warning: the black hole is a celestial embodiment of power and destruction, an abyss from which there is no escape. Approach with caution, for once you succumb to its gravitational embrace, your fate shall be forever entwined with its dark and enigmatic nature.

So, like. Ok. I don't think this is ever going to actually become A Thing™, obviously. But that hasn't stopped me before, and it isn't going to now.
I've listened to a little Tally Hall for a while, but recently I've gotten more into them by way of Miracle Musical. Every now and then, when I get really into an artist or band, I'll start creating stories to connect their songs together (especially if some of those connections and stories are already in the music), and sometimes that takes the form of drafting out a jukebox musical. Which is what I'm gonna share in this post.
The working title is Marvin's Marvelous Miracle Musical. Definitely wouldn't be the actual title, but it does kinda accurately reflect the structure of the musical: Act I is an assortment of songs from MMMM and Good & Evil, while Act II is the entirety of Hawaii: Pt II in album order. Also, it's a funny name.
In this post, I'll give y'all what I've got so far: The cast list, a list of songs in each act (with who's singing what in parentheses), and a short bit of plot summary next to each song (which will also cover some of the in-between-songs material). As things currently stand, each song is sung in its entirety with no lines changed (though there are a few where small word changes would also work, and like it would be kinda helpful to have an English version of 宇宙ステーションのレベル7 lol). There are ideas for symbolic arcs and staging/acting choices and interpretations of specific lyrics that I won't be going into here but are, like, in my brain because reasons, so feel more than free to ask questions ^^
Heads up: This is going to be a long post.

Cast:

• Simon (name from The Mind Electric/Inside the Mind of Simon): Joint protagonist and childhood friend of Juno.
• Juno (name from Ruler of Everything): Joint protagonist and childhood friend of Simon.
• The Siren (name from Dream Sweet in Sea Major): Joint antagonist and Simon’s imaginary friend.
• The Erlking (name from Murders): Joint antagonist and Juno’s imaginary friend.
• Marvin (name from, like, the concept of MMMM): Juno’s father and town mayor.
• Violet (name for the fact that the Korean word for purple/violet is “bora”): Simon’s mother.
• Sally (name from T.H.I.S. skits “The Pretty One” and “What’s Wrong?”): A friend of Juno.
• Ryan (name from T.H.I.S. segment “Questioned Answers/Tally Mail”): A friend of Simon.
• Ensemble: Various other characters, including school friends and bullies, adult citizens of the town, and assorted spirits and illusory figures.

Act I:

Hidden in the Sand (Marvin, Ensemble): Marvin and Violet meet on the beach, having not seen each other since they broke up years ago. Both, now married to other people, briefly catch up on each other’s lives and watch their kids meet each other for the first time.
Turn the Lights Off (Juno, Simon, Ensemble): Simon and Juno grow up together and become fast friends. They’re misunderstood and often bullied by other kids, but find an escape in the form of imagination games, pretending to be wizards and ghost-hunters and the like. They each create an imaginary friend, and imagine their new companions defending them against the meaner classmates.
The Whole World and You (Ryan, Sally, Ensemble): Simon and Juno are in late middle school, and with how close they are as friends, many other students assume they’re dating. Their other friends give them the idea that maybe they really do like like each other, and they ultimately decide to give things a shot.
Out in the Twilight (Juno, Simon): Now about to graduate high school, Simon and Juno have been going strong; still, much of their relationship seems like more of the same adventures and escapades they went on as kids, just without the make-believe. They’re as of yet unjaded, and greatly looking forward to being more independent and making their own calls in life.
Ruler of Everything (Erlking, Siren, Simon, Juno, Ensemble): Simon and Juno are now married adults, and the faults in their relationship become clearer the more they try to hide who they truly are and fit the mold that’s expected of them, both in their interpersonal life and in the world at large. The Siren and Erlking, their old imaginary friends, resurface and watch from afar as the two live their lives, calling out the couple’s facades to no avail.
Just Apathy (Simon, Juno): Simon and Juno confront the problems in their relationship—in part, both realizing/owning that they aren’t straight, and have been trying to force a romantic attraction that isn’t there—and while ultimately they seem willing to commit to one another platonically, they don’t feel their relationship can continue the way it’s been going.
A Lady (Erlking, Siren, Ensemble): The Siren and the Erlking formulate a plan while Simon and Juno are sleep, out of fear that if the couple is no longer with each other, they’ll forget their old friends entirely, thus causing them to fade from existence. As the two are dreaming, their not-yet-fully-forgotten imaginary friends try to inspire them back into their old ways.
Misery Fell (Juno, Simon, Siren, Erlking, Ensemble): Having had strange dreams the night before, Simon and Juno grow disenchanted with the life they’ve been trying to lead, and find a sudden burst of motivation to seek out a better way of being (this being the Siren and Erlking’s doing). They run through the town, at first starry-eyed and eventually near-manic, and at the end of the song, an unspeakable idea seems to have struck them both.
Taken for a Ride (Marvin, Simon, Juno, Violet, Ensemble): Marvin is burnt out from mayoral duties but soldiering on with a more resentful and power-hungry attitude. Over the course of the song, he steadily breaks with reality, and it’s revealed that Simon and Juno are ostensibly behind this, with the two performing a ritual that mirrors the magic they played out as kids, only more potent. While their goal was only to bring more wonder and weirdness to the town, the damage is much more acute. Marvin is found alive but unwaking the next day, and when Violet tries to figure out what happened to him, she too gets too close to the gap between reality and dream and falls unconscious in much the same way, this time before Simon and Juno's eyes.
Fate of the Stars (Simon, Juno, Ensemble): As the sun sets, Simon and Juno attempt to figure out what’s happening, it dawning on them that they’ve done something seriously wrong. Reality slowly appears to turn into a stranger and stranger funhouse mirror reflection of itself, with the ensemble of their friends singing ominous warnings to them as if possessed, until the two suddenly find themselves decidedly “not in Kansas anymore.” They eventually make it solid ground, but are unable to wake up from whatever dream they’re in.
& (Erlking, Siren): The Siren and the Erlking, now appearing as adults, confront Simon and Juno to make their motives clear. Since the two were bound to leave each other one way or another, the imaginary friends sought out another means of securing their existence: pulling their creators into their reality so they could have them for themselves, with Marvin and Violet as mere unintended collateral. As twilight fades and night begins, the two pairs (Simon and the Siren, and Juno and the Erlking) find themselves torn from each other. While both imaginary friends seem eager to spend eternity in this dream with their humans, Simon and Juno push them away, eventually causing them to temporarily disappear with a promise that they'll eventually be back for more—if the couple doesn't seek them out or bring them back themselves.

Intermission

Act II:

Introduction to the Snow (Simon): Considerable time has passed within the dreamscape between acts. Both Simon and Juno are trying to find ways to reunite with each other for longer than a single twilight, and to escape the dream. Turning to the sort of magic that brought him here, Simon gains a prophetic glimpse into the way his story will ultimately end: in a snowy place, without Juno, and with him joining the Siren, who promises that he will "live forever tonight."
Isle Unto Thyself (Juno, Simon, Ensemble): Juno, with the methods she's been working at over time, is briefly able to hear Simon, from which she gains the impression that he’s decided to leave her and stay with the Siren (when in fact, he’s only seeking out the Siren in order to eventually escape with Juno). Juno sings about her feelings of heartbreak, while Simon prepares to call forth the Siren within the confines of a summoning circle, for negotiations.
Black Rainbows (Siren, Ensemble): Simon successfully summons the Siren, who explains how she plans to make things right, by reworking the dream and allowing it to continue indefinitely in a state of created perfection. Juno will finally live a happy life in a world that accepts her, and with a partner who can “fully love her”, and Simon will do the same; the implication that the two will have to be apart for things to be perfect is strong, though unspoken directly. The Siren regales Simon with a wild display of rainbow lights as she speaks, in an attempt to impress and distract him.
White Ball (Simon, Siren): While Simon is distracted, the Siren escapes the summoning circle, and steadily works a spell over Simon to make him fall in (some form or another of) love with her, ultimately so he’ll forget his quest for Juno and go along unquestioningly with her own plans instead. The two dance together as the magic slowly grows stronger and stronger.
Murders (Juno, Erlking): Having caught another brief glimpse of Simon, Juno becomes enraged and begrudgingly seeks out the Erlking’s assistance. They meet at the Fountain of Infinite Mirror, and the Erlking pushes Juno to murder Simon within the dream, dipping a dagger into the fountain’s psychically poisonous waters to give to her as a weapon. Dawn arrives, and Simon and Juno are able to see and hear each other at last. Juno goes in for the “kill,” only to find that as Simon desperately explains what he was trying to do for the both of them, she is momentarily unable to control her actions and stabs Simon in the head, before the Erlking withdraws the magic he’s been working over her.
Space Station Level 7 (Violet, Simon, Ensemble): Violet emerges from the recesses of the dreamscape as the song begins, searching for something or someone she recognizes, and telling herself that she’ll be alright in the end. She finds Simon, still alive in some sense, but clearly deeply confused and in anguish. She stays by his side and sings to him in his distress, reassuring them both that they’ll make it back home—that as many painful memories as life there holds for both of them, those are ultimately what make the good moments truly valuable. As the sky grows darker and the dreamscape grows more chaotic, Violet runs and attempts to take Simon with her, but he stays behind.
The Mind Electric (Erlking, Simon, Juno, Ensemble): Juno attempts to find her way through the fracturing dreamscape, while the Erlking tells her his plans for what to do with the dream. The longer they stay, the closer the dream gets to total undone chaos, but he promises to make something new, something better (than the current state of things and than the Siren's proposed ending), from the wreckage of the old—so long as Juno doesn’t leave or forget about him. It's strongly implied that the attempted murder of Simon was a ploy to make Juno more likely to go along with this plan. Juno remains skeptical. As the song switches direction, she finds Simon in a nightmare of his own mind’s unwilling creation, and sticks it out with him while both the Siren and Erlking attempt to regain control over their former friends, and ultimately over the eventual state of the entire dream. Simon and Juno fight back, shaking off the magic cast over them only to gain a much clearer picture of the danger they’re truly in—that if the dream does go to ruin, they'll go with it.
Labyrinth (Siren, Juno, Simon): Simon and Juno find themselves trapped in a labyrinth of their imaginary friends’ joint creation, their last desperate bid to get what—and who—they want. It seems as though there are only two ways out: towards the Siren’s ending, or towards the Erlking’s. The couple try to make their way through, facing various fears within the labyrinth along the way, while repeatedly dodging the fear that one of those two paths is ultimately inevitable if they want the pandemonium to end. They eventually reason that, even if it's only pushing the end down the line, there is a third way out for now: the twilight is soon to be over, and the two will be pulled away from this place. Over the end of the song, the two manage to find some amount of peace within the labyrinth as they await their escape, mixed with the grief of leaving each other again and the fear of what will come next.
Time Machine (Marvin, Juno): Day breaks, separating Simon and Juno. The dream continues to destabilize further and further. Juno finds Marvin, who’s been desperately scrambling to go back in time to before his sense of reality broke—and, as Juno finds, to before he and Violet left each other, so he can get a second chance at their relationship. Juno stops him (if Marvin and Violet never break up, then Juno and Simon both cease to exist), but realizes she can make use of the strange contraption he’s pulled together. She considers the places she could go—far back in time to live a life she didn’t get the chance to live... maybe even far forward, to when everything sorted out as per the Erlking’s plans, if it really must come to that. Before making her leave, though, she stops at the next twilight to say her goodbyes to Simon.
Stranded Lullaby (Simon, Juno): Juno finds Simon in the middle of the ocean, reluctantly drifting towards the Siren's shores out of the same sense of defeat she felt in the time machine. In that moment, she finds herself unwilling to leave him behind. While afloat in the nearly-broken dream, the two sing to one another about reuniting, about the ways they failed each other in the past, and about their inability to control where they’re headed anymore. In the last moments before it seems their fate is to be decided, they resolve to do as right by each other as they can: to try to better understand each other without needing to fix anything.
Dream Sweet in Sea Major (Simon, Juno, Siren, Erlking, Ensemble): Simon and Juno wash up on the shore of the snowy place that Simon had foreseen; the Siren waits for him, and the end she planned seems near. Simon, however, chooses Juno instead, with the two abandoning either plan presented to them and electing to find their own way through the chaos together. Initially unsure of what to do, the two become lucid to what happened to them while asleep back in Act I, and how they might be able to pull the same tricks as their imaginary friends did then. They find their real-world sleeping selves through the cracks in reality, wake them up (along with Marvin and Violet), and gently guide their real selves away from their old habits and external pressures and towards the things they wish they'd done sooner, before easing off the reins and watching themselves live the lives they actually wanted to. Real-life Simon and Juno ultimately start relationships with Ryan and Sally respectively, while remaining faster friends with each other than ever before. The Siren and Erlking accept that they are going to die, and try to make their last night together as romantic as they can as the world vibrantly falls apart. At the end of the song, the parts of Simon and Juno that remain in the dream—perhaps the selves they used to be, or that they tried so hard to pretend to be—realize they’re going to die as well, as the true Simon and Juno live on.

After the Show:

The Bidding (All): The cast members and portions of the ensemble come on stage one by one for bows, with the ensemble (led by Sally and Ryan) singing the choruses and post-chorus and the main cast singing sections of the verses and bridge in this order: Violet, Marvin, Erlking, Siren, Juno, Simon.
(Welcome to Tally Hall or Good Day (All): Optionally, the cast and crew all sing this on stage after bows.)
"Score" Playlist

In my opinion, Denver is the 3/4 most difficult team we have played this postseason. I put Milwaukee and Boston at tier 1, and put teams like Denver in the Philly tier 2 in the league. Boston and Milwaukee can just out-talent you, and there’s nothing you can do about it on certain nights. I just don’t see that with Denver. I don’t see how we can march through Milwaukee and beat Boston and then stumble on the Nuggets. Jokic is great, but the supporting cast of Murray, KCP, MPJ, Gordon don’t nearly scare me as much as Boston/Milwaukee’s other guys.
I just can’t see us losing. I literally 100% think we are the better team rn, and think I would say that if I wasn’t a heat fan. Denver (record wise) would be a 4 seed in the East. Denver just seems like a team good enough to win some series, beat some dysfunctional teams, but NBA Champs? Can totally be a team that is happy to be there, get the experience, come back next year. The Heat know we gotta have it this year.
My question is how do other people not see it this way. Is it just the Heat fan in me? Boston and Milwaukee are better talent wise, eye test wise, and record wise. Unless it’s just a “we ran out of gas” situation, how is Denver the team that figures us out and beats us 4 times?Not being a Denver hater, that’s honestly how I see it. Would be shocked if we lost this series. Let’s go Heat.

Damn it, lost a day! Had Memorial Day off but got fucked (mandated to work) on Saturday. Threw off the timing. Super-rare Wednesday edition!
Good afternoon. Brief listing of CAREER JOBS pulled from usps.com/careers/ for your convenience. Tell HR User_3971 sent you, let's see if they pay more than .25¢ per head. NOTE: Maintenance jobs are drying up - the In Service Register may finally be seeing results for our already career people.
Some jobs may be part-time regular however all listed jobs should qualify for federal benefits from day one. To save text I have only listed the location and date of posting for each. Use the posting number for your search term. LC and MM are entry-level Maintenance. Here is a Maint overview and here is Exam 955 info. You can DO it!
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NOTE: USPS NEVER charges a fee for entrance exams. If payment is requested during the application process, walk the fuck away, go to usps.com/careers/ and APPLY THERE. We even has a video walkthrough prepared.
​
Laborer Custodial:
CHARLEVOIX MI NC11370316 05/27/2023
OMAHA NE NC11369343 05/27/2023
SAN JOSE CA NC11365062 05/27/2023
KIRKLAND WA NC11367251 05/27/2023
COLUMBUS OH NC11371903 05/27/2023
FORT WASHAKIE WY NC11369073 05/27/2023
YUBA CITY CA NC11367214 05/25/2023
MOUNT IDA AR NC11361986 05/20/2023
BRATTLEBORO VT NC11374752 05/31/2023
BENTON HARBOR MI NC11371533 05/27/2023
PETALUMA CA NC11371537 05/27/2023
CATASAUQUA PA NC11371600 05/27/2023
EL CENTRO CA NC11371615 05/27/2023
HAMBURG PA NC11371700 05/27/2023
SAINT LOUIS MO NC11371707 05/27/2023
HAZELWOOD MO NC11371718 05/27/2023
WAUKESHA WI NC11371854 05/27/2023
GREEN BAY WI NC11371863 05/27/2023
SAINT LOUIS MO NC11371870 05/27/2023
AUSTIN TX NC11371871 05/27/2023
YUBA CITY CA NC11371908 05/27/2023
EAST HAMPTON NY NC11371909 05/27/2023
PEEKSKILL NY NC11371527 05/27/2023
PEEKSKILL NY NC11371421 05/27/2023
MACHIAS ME NC11371418 05/27/2023
SAN MATEO CA NC11371915 05/27/2023
WILLMAR MN NC11371410 05/27/2023
CUPERTINO CA NC11370120 05/27/2023
WARSAW IN NC11369259 05/27/2023
BISMARCK ND NC11369191 05/27/2023
DES MOINES IA NC11369059 05/27/2023
URBANDALE IA NC11369055 05/27/2023
DES MOINES IA NC11369050 05/27/2023
BUFFALO GROVE IL NC11368995 05/27/2023
SANTA ANA CA NC11365065 05/27/2023
CATASAUQUA PA NC11367255 05/25/2023
HAMBURG PA NC11367254 05/25/2023
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION VT NC11371417 05/27/2023
WEST CHICAGO IL NC11368968 05/27/2023
​
Maintenance Mechanic:
WEST PALM BEACH FL NC11367250 05/27/2023
PONTIAC MI NC11370630 05/27/2023
MINNEAPOLIS MN NC11371348 05/27/2023
NEW YORK NY NC11370543 05/27/2023
EAGAN MN NC11369434 05/27/2023
BIRMINGHAM AL NC11369105 05/27/2023
DES MOINES IA NC11369114 05/27/2023
WICHITA KS NC11369186 05/27/2023
PHOENIX AZ NC11364942 05/27/2023
JACKSONVILLE FL NC11370197 05/27/2023
HARRISBURG PA NC11369187 05/27/2023
COLUMBUS OH NC11370181 05/27/2023
CAROL STREAM IL NC11363416 05/27/2023
BOSTON MA NC11370175 05/27/2023
BETHPAGE NY NC11371414 05/27/2023
SAINT LOUIS MO NC11371828 05/27/2023
MEMPHIS TN NC11371737 05/27/2023
MELVILLE NY NC11371742 05/27/2023
JERSEY CITY NJ NC11371729 05/27/2023
​
Special! Interesting Maintenance Jobs: (may be skills required)
​
Maintenance Mechanic MPE:
FARGO ND NC11371325 05/27/2023
WEST FARGO ND NC11371173 05/27/2023
COLUMBUS OH NC11370161 05/27/2023
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION NC11371671 05/27/2023
EAGAN MN NC11369373 05/27/2023
WICHITA KS NC11369179 05/27/2023
MINNEAPOLIS MN NC11371319 05/27/2023
ELK GROVE VILLAGE IL NC11370043 05/27/2023
​
Building Equipment Mechanic:
FACILITY MAINTENANCE MECHANIC - MERRIFIELD VA NC11371531 05/27/2023
BELLMAWR NJ NC11368795 05/27/2023
MINNEAPOLIS MN NC11368549 05/27/2023
​
General Clerk VMF:
TULSA OK NC11367091 05/24/2023
MIAMI FL NC11365300 05/30/2023
WEST PALM BEACH FL NC11365247 05/30/2023
​
Tool & Parts Clerk:
MIAMI FL NC11365302 05/30/2023
​
Garage Assistant:
HOUSTON TX NC11368988 05/26/2023
Electronic Technician:
BROCKTON MA NC11370302 05/27/2023
ROCHESTER NY NC11371416 05/27/2023
ELK GROVE VILLAGE IL NC11370150 05/27/2023
JACKSON MS NC11366836 05/27/2023
TRENTON NJ NC11369363 05/27/2023
​
NON-Maintenance jerbs:
​
SALES,SVCS/DISTRIBUTION ASSOC:
LINDEN TN NC11359072 05/18/2023
OCEAN BEACH NY NC11370230 05/27/2023
LANAI CITY HI NC11363428 05/20/2023
DAYTON TX NC11362387 05/22/2023
MEMPHIS MO NC11370238 05/29/2023
JACKMAN ME NC11367260 05/25/2023
ILIAMNA AK NC11371701 05/27/2023
CHENOA IL NC11361153 05/19/2023
BUNA TX NC11362381 05/22/2023
BOLINAS CA NC11368368 05/25/2023
PRESIDIO TX NC11360896 05/19/2023
PALACIOS TX NC11362377 05/22/2023
KOTZEBUE AK NC11371704 05/27/2023
ROCKSPRINGS TX NC11361161 05/19/2023
MILLERSBURG PA NC11370506 05/27/2023
EAGLE BUTTE SD NC11367304 05/29/2023
S YARMOUTH MA NC11370685 05/27/2023
CHARLESTON TN NC11371307 05/27/2023
BERRYVILLE AR NC11360673 05/19/2023
RANDLE WA NC11367126 05/24/2023
PECONIC NY NC11370190 05/27/2023
MARSHALL AR NC11360674 05/19/2023
ELK MOUND WI NC11369091 05/25/2023
BOW WA NC11367586 05/25/2023
BASSETT NE NC11366996 05/24/2023
ADDY WA NC11367447 05/25/2023
WEST CHATHAM MA NC11368584 05/27/2023
WEBBERVILLE MI NC11360764 05/19/2023
PONCE DE LEON FL NC11367045 05/24/2023
MARENGO IL NC11369368 05/26/2023
KETCHIKAN AK NC11373327 05/30/2023
HOMEWOOD CA NC11368364 05/25/2023
HIGHLAND MD NC11372890 05/30/2023
FLANDREAU SD NC11367252 05/25/2023
BELGIUM WI NC11366636 05/24/2023
BATH MI NC11360766 05/19/2023
LOS GATOS CA NC11368369 05/26/2023
EDGECOMB ME NC11367253 05/25/2023
​
City Carrier:
OAKLAND CA NC11365498 05/28/2023
PITTSBURGH PA NC11365454 05/28/2023
AURORA CO NC11365555 05/28/2023
BARRINGTON IL NC11370311 05/29/2023
CAMBRIDGE MA NC11370380 05/27/2023
CINCINNATI OH NC11365482 05/28/2023
COLUMBUS OH NC11365496 05/28/2023
COVINGTON KY NC11371919 05/27/2023
DENVER CO NC11366882 05/28/2023
DULUTH MN NC11362480 05/30/2023
EAST PALO ALTO CA NC11368607 05/26/2023
FREMONT CA NC11370500 05/27/2023
HALF MOON BAY CA NC11367133 05/25/2023
HOPKINS MN NC11367637 05/25/2023
JAMAICA PLAIN MA NC11365301 05/28/2023
KANSAS CITY MO NC11365461 05/28/2023
LONGMONT CO NC11364941 05/30/2023
MENLO PARK CA NC11367127 05/25/2023
MINNEAPOLIS MN NC11365468 05/28/2023
MISSION KS NC11366896 05/28/2023
REDWOOD CITY CA NC11367129 05/25/2023
RICHMOND CA NC11361984 05/24/2023
RICHMOND CA NC11370511 05/27/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA NC11365552 05/28/2023
SANTA BARBARA CA NC11371344 05/27/2023
WALTHAM MA NC11365314 05/28/2023
WATERTOWN WI NC11367306 05/24/2023
WESTMINSTER CO NC11372881 05/30/2023
WESTMINSTER CO NC11372888 05/31/2023
WHEAT RIDGE CO NC11372884 05/30/2023
WOBURN MA NC11370383 05/27/2023
BURLINGAME CA NC11367093 05/25/2023
DENVER CO NC11365625 05/28/2023
FORT DODGE IA NC11367454 05/31/2023
GLENSHAW PA NC11367256 05/26/2023
SAN BRUNO CA NC11367213 05/25/2023
SCOTTDALE PA NC11367257 05/26/2023
ALBANY NY NC11370227 05/27/2023
BELMONT CA NC11366923 05/25/2023
CONCORD NH NC11370243 05/27/2023
DENVER CO NC11365557 05/28/2023
FLORENCE KY NC11371918 05/27/2023
LAKEWOOD CO NC11366843 05/28/2023
LOS GATOS CA NC11368374 05/26/2023
LOUISVILLE KY NC11365467 05/28/2023
LOWELL MA NC11370408 05/27/2023
MADISON WI NC11365493 05/28/2023
MOUNT HOREB WI NC11368738 05/26/2023
SAINT PAUL MN NC11365480 05/28/2023
SAN MATEO CA NC11367212 05/25/2023
SOUTH BEND IN NC11370168 05/26/2023
UNION GROVE WI NC11368781 05/26/2023
ASPEN CO NC11369062 05/26/2023
BELVEDERE TIBURON CA NC11372865 05/30/2023
BILLERICA MA NC11370249 05/27/2023
BILLINGS MT NC11367481 05/25/2023
BOULDER CO NC11353373 05/28/2023
BOULDER CO NC11365053 05/29/2023
CEDARBURG WI NC11367207 05/24/2023
CHELSEA MA NC11365307 05/28/2023
COHOES NY NC11367097 05/29/2023
CORTE MADERA CA NC11372872 05/30/2023
CRESSON PA NC11367258 05/26/2023
FARGO ND NC11366936 05/29/2023
INDIANAPOLIS IN NC11365459 05/28/2023
LACONIA NH NC11370526 05/27/2023
LAWRENCE MA NC11370401 05/27/2023
LITTLETON CO NC11366840 05/28/2023
MALDEN MA NC11365310 05/28/2023
MILLBRAE CA NC11367211 05/25/2023
NEWPORT KY NC11372004 05/27/2023
NORTHGLENN CO NC11366639 05/28/2023
PACIFICA CA NC11367168 05/25/2023
SAN CARLOS CA NC11367164 05/25/2023
SAN JOSE CA NC11365554 05/28/2023
SANTA CLARA CA NC11368650 05/26/2023
SARATOGA SPRINGS NY NC11367451 05/27/2023
SUNNYVALE CA NC11368652 05/26/2023
WATERTOWN WI NC11367220 05/24/2023
CENTRAL SEATTLE WA NC11366942 05/28/2023
NORTH SEATTLE WA NC11366940 05/28/2023
SOUTH SEATTLE WA NC11366849 05/28/2023
​
Rural Carrier:
KNOXVILLE TN NC11372862 05/30/2023
GORHAM ME NC11370153 05/26/2023
BARRINGTON NH NC11370412 05/27/2023
BRIGHTON CO NC11372903 05/30/2023
AMERY WI NC11370225 05/26/2023
​
Motor Vehicle Operator:
ALBANY NY P&DC NC11371435 05/27/2023
DVD BLDG NJ P&DC NC11371439 05/27/2023
OAKLAND CA P&DC NC11371661 05/27/2023
RALEIGH NC P&DC NC11371445 05/27/2023
SEATTLE WA P&DC NC11371654 05/27/2023
MORGAN NY P&DC NC11371442 05/27/2023
PORTLAND OR P&DC NC11371664 05/27/2023
SAN JOSE CA P&DC NC11371658 05/27/2023
SAN JUAN PR P&DC NC11371880 05/27/2023
MARGARET SELLERS P&DC NC11371651 05/27/2023
​
Tractor Trailer Operator:
LANCASTER PA P&DC NC11371431 05/27/2023
NEW JERSEY NDC NC11358892 05/27/2023
NORTH READING P&DC NC11371432 05/27/2023
SPRINGFIELD NDC NC11371434 05/27/2023
MICHIGAN METROPLEX MI P&DC NC11371623 05/27/2023
SALT LAKE CITY UT P&DC NC11371617 05/27/2023
SAN FRANCISCO CA P&DC NC11371542 05/27/2023
CAROL STREAM IL P&DC NC11371705 05/27/2023
DENVER CO P&DC NC11371611 05/27/2023
KCMO MO P&DC NC11371703 05/27/2023
OAKLAND CA P&DC NC11371538 05/27/2023
SAN FRANCISCO NDC NC11371541 05/27/2023
SEATTLE WA P&DC NC11371547 05/27/2023
SEATTLE WA P&DC NC11371601 05/27/2023
TACOMA WA P&DC NC11371609 05/27/2023
DES MOINES IA P&DC NC11371702 05/27/2023
EVANSVILLE IN P&DC NC11371709 05/27/2023
DVD BLDG NJ P&DC NC11354736 05/27/2023
SYRACUSE NY P&DC NC11371433 05/27/2023
NORTHERN NJ P&DC NC11358893 05/27/2023
​
No experience necessary for the laborer custodial or maintenance mechanic positions. It helps on the interview but you can surely think of maintenance related experience to relay for an interview. Based on fixing things around your house, the car etc. Always mention working safely.
​
Pro tip: You can apply for any job that has an exam opening and the test is administered local to yourself. Make sure you're serious and score decently; you can turn down the job offer. Keep a physical copy of your exam score, I believe they are good for two years.
The reason is: These job postings can be posted externally at capacity for testing, meaning they will not allow you to take the exam if they have enough qualified applicants. However, if you have a test score on the books, you are a qualified applicant.
​
Explanation of MVO/TTO to save time:
MVO= CDL B Can only drive box trucks on public roads, can drive anything for moves on postal property.
TTO= CDL A Can drive anything.
​
USPS provides the training. (Maintenance jobs at least. TTO and management...GOOD LUCK)
​
You don't have to be crazy to work here. We'll train you. Everything but proper email usage.

Memory transcription subject: Josak, Arxur-Human Cultural Exchange Member
Date [standardized human time]: November 11, 2136
As crude as the comparison is, it was almost like wrestling Gojid trying to get Moss back onto the RV. She and her dad kept getting roped back into conversation with each other. Carmen described it as like a “midwestern goodbye” even if they were from the eastern portion of the North American landmass. Eventually the goodbye finally ended and Mr. Lykaios offered a final farewell to us all and a thanks for my help fixing the door.
In all truth, I felt it was unearned. He did most of the work. I just held up the door so he could balance it on the hinges. I did learn from him though. Still, I didn’t know exactly how useful it was to know how to repair a doorway.
“Aight. We got, uh, like 15 minutes until the stop and shop. That’ll be the last place ta piss, shit, or release other fluids until we reach the ranch.” Moss questioned.
They had taken up the driver’s seat with Carmen.
“Noted!” Geo yelled in response.
“Can you please not swear around my kids so much?” Carmen solemnly asked.
Moss raised their fist as if to flip the bird to Carmen, but instead, they held up a thumbs up and spoke. “Sure thing, toots. My apple hoagies.”
“Ugh. You’re supposed to be a therapist, and you’re honestly helping by just talking to me, but you make it unbearably hard to respect you.” Carmen whispered.
I figured it was best for me to stop listening even if it meant leaving the comfiest spot on the bus. Carefully, I crawled on all fours towards the other end. The other three of the family were all lazing about in the camper’s spacious sleeping cabin. I crossed through their cabin area and into the final section of the moving house. Mara and Dani were sleeping while Geo listened to little videos from a place called “youtube”.
I left them to themselves and closed the door between their room and the place I wanted to myself. I wanted to figure out how to play the guitar that Moss had stolen for me. I had no idea how to, but I figured it couldn’t be too hard. I sat down into the worn chair in the corner and picked up the flimsy wooden instrument. I didn’t even know entirely how to hold it. Everyway I tried to hold it felt wrong in a different way. I settled on the way I had seen Cris hold it. It still felt off, but it was what it was.
I tried to hold the guitar pic in my claws, but my fingers simply weren’t meant for such a small thing. Instead, I thought for a second and then tried my own strategy. I beated one of my claws against the strings, making sure not to snag it. The strings gave out a twangy sound. The heavier strings were lower in pitch while the lighter ones were higher.
I still had no idea how to play the dang thing, but I knew what sounds I liked. I tried to keep them quiet though and I tried and tried again to recreate them the same each time. Even if I didn’t know what I was doing, I still enjoyed it. It was soothing to hear the ornamental sounds. The few minutes spent alone felt euphoric. I think it was because I didn’t feel alone with the guitar. I felt as if I was with a good friend. One that I hoped to see again eventually.
I put the instrument back down as the bus rolled to a stop in a very large battery station. I walked out into a strip of shining LED lights and a few neon signs too. Despite the fact that humanity had nearly been bombed to oblivion, the station was still packed full of travelers and freight drivers. It was 20 separate lanes of chaos with batteries charging on electrical racks all the way down. There was a market and a restroom next to the lanes.
To any other Arxur, the place would seem comparable to a small military camp, but I knew better. Humans were decadent in the best of ways. The whole place was for everyone to enjoy, and that was honestly beautiful. A whole station full of cheap food for weary travelers and plenty of amenities for any sort of situation.
“Joe, you get battery duties. I already swiped the card and everything. Don’t electrocute yourself. I’m gonna grab some grub for everyone.” Moss declared.
I followed the therapists orders and carefully replaced the batteries in order to not electrocute myself. The humans used some sort of hydrogen cell instead of the usual diesel powered vehicles I was used to. Regardless, it wasn’t too hard to figure it all out. The battery symbol on the bus was quite recognizable and with a quick flip of a hatch, I found the 4 packs. It took a little out of me, but I managed to replace the heavy contraptions with freshly charged ones from the charging wall. As I was about to place the last fresh battery into the bus, I heard a voice yell out from the lane over.
“Holeeee shit! Is that another Arxur I spy? Jesus, you guys sure are finding your ways around the states, huh?” the voice inquired.
I placed the battery into the compartment and finished the job of locking it up before responding. Though I was curious as to his mention of another Arxur, I didn’t want to forget to close up the compartment. Getting stuck on the side of the road wouldn’t be fun. As I completed my task, the man grew impatient and questioned me again. I feared he would respond with anger, but he instead seemed worried that he had offended me.
“Hey! You ignoring me? I wasn’t trying to be rude or nothing.” the man declared.
“No, mister. Just making sure I close everything up. My apologies.” I replied
“Oh, sorry then.” he babbled
“What did you mean by another Arxur? Am I not the first one out here?” I asked.
“Oh, uh, hell nah. Plenty of y’all have been seen trying to head inland from the coasts. Heck, I just dropped one of yas off in the Appalachians. Feller said he was trying to escape some government fuckwads or sometin. You trying to do the same, boy?” he inquired.
“No. I am merely trying to make a better life for myself and a family I found here. My family.” I said with a smile.
“Well good on ya, buddy. Hehehe. They told us before y’all came here that you were all a buncha psychobillies or somethin, but y’all don’t seem so bad. Ya just need some meat on your bones and you calm right down. That’s how that other feller was. He was as ornery as could be, but once I got some food in him, he cheered up quite a bit.” the chunky man laughed.
“I apologize on behalf of our species if he gave you any trouble. We’re… we’re not good people.” I admitted.
“Arxur, you fellers ain’t that bad. So don’t apologize like that. I’ve met worse in my own family. My daddy, he was a very brutal man. Mean old drunk. He would beat me, and he was family. That feller I picked up, he described the same story. I related to him. I relate to you all a bit, I spose. You fellers are just a buncha fellers that found themselves in a bad situation. Sure, you’re a little less moral than the Donner party, but ya still are trying to be better. I see that.” the man cheerily declared.
“Mmm. You have my sympathies. No child should have to go through that.” I replied.
“Eh, I won out in the end. He’s long dead from cirrhosis and I’m off saving the country and giving rides to aliens. It’s fun times. But this ain’t about me, bud. Don’t be calling your race bad people. You’re good people as long as you can see that you done bad. You yourself, you seem good.” the man declared.
I smiled sarcastically and responded similarly “Well, thank you, sir. I will try to prove you right. I don’t entirely think so though.”
“You have a right to think that, but I hope you change your mind one day. Have a good one, boy.” he said.
After he got done with his talk, the man returned to his hauler. He lumbered in and started the beast up. It gave out sounds of steam almost like a boiler whistle. Slowly, it lurched forward and started the man off on his next journey. In my head, I wished him the best.
As I turned to leave, I heard another more familiar voice from Geo. He ran up to me with flailing arms and yelled. “Josak, watch this!”
The kid put one of his arms in an L shape and pulled it down as if to signify something. The trucker rolled his window down and stopped his journey short for one last bit of speech.
“Sure thing, kid! You take care of that lizard, ya hear?” the trucker yelled before tugging a string within his rig.
The beast of a truck let out a loud and bellowing noise. The horn was almost painful to listen to, but the kid loved it. Geo burst into laughter and it only amplified as the rest of the trucks in the joint started joining in. It was a chorus of painfully loud horns and blares, but Geo loved it. He was happy and that was good.
The trucker gave out a final loud bout of laughter before rolling up his window and heading off into the world for good. I waved the stranger goodbye as I would probably never see him again.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The bustling port fell into its more usual noises. Carmen, Dani, Mara, and Moss all returned in due time. I waited with the kid in the camper until they finally got back in.
“Joe, catch!” Moss blurted as they entered the carriage.
They tossed a bag of unknown contents into the air and I did my best to catch the thing, but failed due to my inability to raise my arms up so high. I shamefully yoinked the bag from the ground instead. Inside there were glorious blessings such as jerkied meats and the treat that I coveted most, corn bread.
I opened all the packages and combined a little bit of everything into a mash before shoving it in. The flavors of the bread and the meat mixed together well enough. I loved it. With a mouth still full of food, I started yelling to the cockpit. “Thanks, Moss. The snacks are good.”
“No problemo, croco. Enjoy and bone apple teeth.” Moss chuckled.
I did enjoy it as they had asked of me. I put aside the rest of the cornbread though so as to not disturb my stomach. The jerky was delicious. The sausages were delicious. Even the SPAM in it’s uncooked form was delicious. What made it even better was that I was not eating alone. Everyone else was eating too. Charging port chicken wings, sandwiches, and vegetable chips. The atmosphere was something that could not be known in the Dominion.
They did not eat with shame on their minds, and as a result, neither did I. I knew that I was eating with a clear conscience unlike the times before. I only wished so much that the others could have experienced such luxuries, but at least the trucker had given me some hope. There were other Arxur out there on Earth. Others were trying to leave and to find new lives away from the horrors of war.
That restored my faith in us a little. We weren’t all like Idokam. We didn’t all need convincing to know that we needed to change. Some of us just needed a chance, and now that the gates were open, at least a few were taking it.
Other rejects and empaths were probably out there, just like me, trying to live one day at a time and trying to find a new way. Cheers to the draft dodgers and to the AWOL hunters. May the assholes who started the wars be forced to fight them so that they finally end.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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Josak has a talk with a trucker. This chapter is kind of a mix between filler and actual content. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it, but I didn't want to skip out on the entire journey back to the glove. I hope you all don't mind it too much.

I (14f) and my ex shaun (15m) had been in a 6 month relationship from June 2022, he was a friend of my cousin Hollie (13f) and had been accused of rpe in the past by several different women. I’m not sure how that didn’t make me stay away but I didn’t believe it was true. From the start of the relationship he was a nice guy but had some red flags ,for example: not letting me be around boys, having to ask permission to go out, having to show him what I was wearing, having to ask permission to post tiktoks and not being allowed to go near my best friend Keira (14f). I had told Keira about the rules I had to obey - if I didn’t I would have punishments made by him- she had confronted him which had made him dislike her. Overtime his behaviour would get worse if he had found something on my phone he didn’t like he would h!t me, if I texted boys he would block them without consent even if they were family, he would go through my messages with everyone and always find something to get mad at, he would force sx on me even after saying no. Keira lived in a town which was a thirty minute drive from where I used to live and had no way home, I had invited Keira and my other friend Hayley (13f) for a sleepover without shauns permission, when I told him about it he had a fit and ended up sneaking out of his house at 1 in the morning. It had made me extremely worried. He had been going out with girls which he knew liked him and I wasn’t comfortable with to smoke wed and have intercourse all because I had a friend he didn’t like over for a sleepover. The next day at 5am he had decided to get a train to where I live and make me meet him at the station. I told him I couldn’t since my mum would be very mad for going out so early but he didn’t seem to care. I ended up going to meet him without getting any sleep that night and feeling like I was hallucinating, once I had met up with him he had taken me to a parking lot outside of the station and said I had to have sx with him to make up for what I’d done at this point I’m barely awake feeling really weak and not processing any words from the lack of sleep. I nodded but inside I was screaming no. We started walking towards a forest that isn’t well known but on the way I was stalling, purposefully making wrong turns while having tears in my eyes. When we was getting closer to the forest I decided to turn around to him and say no and that I didn’t want to do this, he pulled me aside and threatened to stb me if he didn’t and said he had a knfe in his pocket. Hearing those very words made my heart drop. I was dreading the moment that I could potentially get stabbed all because I didn’t want to have sx at 5am. When we had gotten to the forest I was told to get into position but I collapsed to the floor in tears saying how much I didn’t want to do it he then started to act like he cared just by using a softer tone and saying I had to do it for him, I felt like I had no other choice but to say yes so he would stop telling me that we’re doing it either way. During this whole time my phone had been blowing up with messages from both my mum and nan going nuts. My mum knew about the situation form the night before. Overtime he would get more abusive kicking me into desks, throwing me on the floor and strangling me , punching me if I beat him in a game,calling me overweight, and slapping me. I had left him in January 2023, I had met up with my now boyfriend Kennedy (15m) who was his best friend at the time, my ex turned up at the place but luckily Kennedy had gotten away in time, he didn’t find out until the night after because I had forgotten to delete the messages between me and another friend who was there. My ex posted stuff about me on his story calling me an obsessed ex and toxic making me seem like the bad guy and ended up leaking my snap username which I had to change, to a load of his girlfriends, I was getting added to group chats made fun of things that have happened between me and my biological father. I had gotten voicenotes from shaun saying how I got fcked my dad -which isn’t true. I had enough and started leaking his address and reported him to the police, he had got followed throughout his town and ran into a Starbucks asking them to call the police. He still posts about me and is trying to get the police on me for making “false allegations”. He tells people I’ve ruined his life but idk if he knows the meaning of life is his is evolved around abusing his mum and girls

Hey, folks!
Just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be taking my truck to Sydney, NS next week. Any of you familiar with the gas stations in town or nearby? I'm specifically looking for ones that have shower facilities. Not many places offer that amenity for us truck drivers, so any info would be much appreciated!

For reference i live in Southern California and am in the market for potentially buying a new car. I dont make much money since I'm a recent graduate (3500/month after taxes, grad last June), though I have roughly 5k to put as down payment so I was looking for advice regarding this topic. Now, I know that the Dave Ramsey folks will be telling me that I cant afford anything new, and that I dont deserve any fun because I'm not rich but I like cars and would love something that would be fun to drive but also won't kill me with maintenence and repair costs. The way to look at it is that I would be willing to replace a hobby with a car expense for example because it is kind of a hobby to me.
Now here's my dilemma, I dont know if I should just wait it out a couple of years, as the EV infrastructure in California is getting better and with the outlawing of gas powered engines in the near future, the case for EVs just get better and better here. Now the only problem is that the only EV that catches my eye stylistically is the model 3, which is way out of my price range.
I'm also moving into an apartment that doesn't have at home charging and will require me to commute an hour to work, therefore even if I get an EV the gas savings won't be that much as ill have to rely on superchargers here that charge 30 cents per kwh.
I currently am driving a 2022 prius prime thats in my fathers name and I have been making payments on it, and its a great car no doubt and very economical, I'm just looking for something a little more spirited and exciting to drive in and hopefully not as slow. I've been looking at the Mazda 3 turbo, the corolla se, and similar cars, but no real commitment to any of them thusfar, especially bc they'll all likely have higher maintenence and gas costs than my current vehicle.
So for the money I have right now, ICE vehicles seem to be the only viable option, but with the way prices are it may not even be realistic for me since I'll be spending 46 percent of my paycheck on rent and necessities, or even realistic in the longer term as EVs get pushed more and more by the government.
Feel free to absolutely fire roast me if I'm being an idiot as well. I love cars, but that doesn't exclude me from being a dummy given my situation. Thanks!

I'm not asking for anyone to diagnose me or offer inappropriate advice, I think I just need to talk this out. I have an appointment next week for something unrelated, but because I messaged my PCP asking for a referral to someone who can can evaluate me to determine if I do have ADHD, she wants to talk about this during that appointment before doing the referral. I don't even know how to begin to talk about it. I just don't. Especially for an appointment that will be rather brief. I want to convey to her why I think I should be evaluated, but at the same time I don't want her to be concerned that I'm seeking stimulants. I could sit there and ramble for an extended time about why I think I should be evaluated. But my rambling would be so... meandering and probably rather frustrating to listen to, and probably wouldn't even distill down to a useful point. Plus, I know she doesn't have a lot of time. I have to collect my thoughts to effectively convey the message. But I don't know how. I mean, I can collect my thoughts on plenty of other things, given enough time, but this thing has me rather stumped.
Why do I think I have it?

• My father and grandmother demonstrated some of the more disruptive signs of ADHD, and I never really realized that until very recently. I also demonstrate those signs. They never were diagnosed, but it would make sense.

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• I did have issues in school. Difficulty focusing, keeping up, keeping track of homework, and my scores were quite bad in the first grade. My teacher at that time shamed the hell out of me for reasons that, for most of the year, I simply didn't understand. Toward the end of first grade, I started to notice a pattern of when she would come down on me, and I ultimately arrived at the conclusion that these things I was or was not doing were character flaws on my part. Second grade was better. Third grade was uneventful. Fourth and Fifth grade got a little rough again. Middle school onward, my academic performance was probably average. I was riddled with anxiety, though.
  
• Professionally, I had a very rough adjustment in my first job as a nurse. My anxiety got out of control because of the sheer amount of crap that happens on a hospital unit during the day and because I was having to forge a whole different way of thinking and functioning. My anxiety was so bad that on my days off, all I could do to feel ok was go back to bed - otherwise the fear and worry would weigh on me. I only felt ok at sunset. I was placed on a SSRI, and that helped me quite a bit. Didn't stop the distractability that I now know was there, but my persistent irrational fear and worry went away. Plus, I went to night-shift, where there is considerably less nonsense to pull you away from what you're trying to do. I was at that first job for 4.5 years, then my husband took a job in another state. Learning my new job, is when I came to really appreciate that I had a problem with getting distracted and having more and more difficulty re-directing myself back to where my attention needed to be. I was at that job for about nine months, then started a different job at a different facility with higher pay. I was noticing my distractability more and more. I don't know if it was getting worse, or if I was just noticing it more and allowing myself to acknowledge that there was a problem. I think it's the latter, the more I dwell on it. There were a couple of shifts that were pretty rough, and there were 2 instances where I loudly came unglued at the nurses' station. Yelling, fouling the air with some especially offensive expletives, throwing things... At the time of the tantrums, I didn't give a damn who saw what or what anybody thought about my behavior. Afterward, all I could do was ask myself what was WRONG with me. Well, I ultimately left bedside nursing and now I work remotely. Adjusting to THIS job has been a whole other thing. I mean a WHOLE other thing. Teams pings, phone calls, 2 separate documentation systems, having to cross-reference the cases I create in both of those systems, multiple source documents from which I have to pull information to synthesize my cases, multiple job aids I have to reference while I'm working a case. Notifications from 2 separate OutLooks, 2 separate Teams systems, my physical desktop environment and my virtual desktop environment. I can do all the things but my hostility starts bubbling up rather quickly. I'm not cognizant of being anxious, if in fact I am anxious. I don't feel fear or worry the way I did when I wasn't taking my SSRI. I just feel provoked and hostile. I make what I KNOW look like careless mistakes.
  
• I do things that I know are irksome to others. I have an unfortunate tendency to glaze over when someone is talking to me, and I'm just thinking about something else entirely or something that I want to say to THEM. I am one of those people who will finish someone's thought and then move things along to what I want to say. I glaze over when my husband is talking to me. I interrupt him. When we're sitting together on the couch watching TV, I will feel his hand on my knee, and him applying downward pressure to stop my leg from bouncing. I don't even realize that I'm bouncing my leg (but then I'll bounce the other leg that he can't reach once I stop trying to make myself quit jimmying the leg near him LOL - I swear it isn't intentional).
  
• I came to accept that my brain has become rather squirrely, or that I have lost the ability to reign myself in and that I'm not as good at compiling my thoughts as I thought I was. I never was a drinker, but one night my husband brought home this Gloria Margarita Wine Cocktail crap that was pretty good. I had one drink, and my thoughts suddenly were markedly more cohesive and I could express them with much, MUCH greater fluidity and alacrity. I did not attribute it to the alcohol that first time, but when I drank again, the same thing happened. Reasonable transition of thoughts instead of odd tangents, fluid and appropriate expression while speaking. If some extraneous thing grabbed my attention, I could easily re-direct myself because I had not completely lost the thread of what I was saying/doing before the distraction occurred. More than one drink and the effect is still present, though dampened. Dopamine? I'm sorry for the obscenely long post. I still don't know what I want to say to my doctor next week.
  

So if the chest at the Gas station cap machine thing is full and i win something like a gun. What happens to it? Is it sent to inbox or lost? Has someone tested that? I need answers as i cannot sleep thinking about it but have way too little caps and nearly empty chest to test that myself. I would really appreciate the help and evidence if possible.