[WTS] Selling my collection. Niche and Designer. Some Brand New in box and some unboxed like new. (Bottle) https://imgur.com/gallery/ZIrmNCu
Only stuff that's new in box or ones I've just kept as backups for my collection and haven't worn. Some of these are discontinued gems and all of them are well reviewed by the community. Any questions or want pics of batch codes, etc, please message me and I'm happy to answer.
If you can find any of these for a lower price I will beat it. I'm trying to sell these for local pickup near Newark, DE but I will drive a reasonable distance for a transaction. I'm willing to ship if the actual shipping cost can be compensated. Shipping would make more sense if someone wanted a lot of these.
++LIST++
100 ml Laolu LTD Edition Man in Black Essence RARE full (Bottle) Bvlgari: $91
100 ml Reflection Man (Bottle) new in box Amouage: $151
100 ml Sculpture Homme (Bottle) Nikos Parfums new in box: $8
100 ml Bright Neroli (Bottle) discontinued! New in box-Ferrari: $48
100 ml Vetiver Essence (Bottle)full- Ferrari: $25
97 ml Reflesso- Trussardi (Bottle): $20
100 ml Reveal for Him (Bottle), new in box- Calvin Klein: $30
98 ml Uomo (Bottle)- Roberto Cavalli $30
100 ml Steel Sugar (Bottle) new in box- Aquolina $9
97 ml Him EDP (Bottle) discontinued! full- Hanae Mori: $90
100 ml Detour Noir (Bottle) new in box- Al Haramain: $25
100 ml Maahir Legacy (Bottle) new in box with carrying bag- Lataffa $27
100 ml Star Men Nebula (Bottle) new in box- Fragrance World: $27
124 ml / 4.2 oz Nuit D'Issey Parfum (Bottle)- Issey Miyaki: $60
95 ml Uomo (Bottle)- Salvatore Ferragamo: $20
99 ml Uomo Signature EDP (Bottle)- Salvatore Ferragamo: $21
100 ml L'homme Ideal EDP (Bottle)- Guerlain $70
100 ml Hawas (Bottle)- Rassas new in box : $30

I got my 7 month old/12 lbpomsky puppy neutered two weeks and one day ago. He seems to be healing just fine, and now we are at the two week mark. He has some crusting near the incision site (https://i.imgur.com/15y7u7L.jpg) and when I sent a picture to the vet, they said just to wait for it to fall off. Not that I don't believe them, but it's been two weeks and I've taken the onesie off (the cone/donut was a non-starter). Has anyone had experience with crusting like this post-neutering and how long will it take to fall off? Because to me, it looks pretty caked on - lol. Thanks so much in advance!

I am 25 years old and have a 9 to 5 job with a good income. My job is alright, but I can't imagine doing it for the rest of my life. I don't have a degree or any other qualifications, and I landed my current job through hard work and a bit of luck.
Every day, I wake up with the same routine. I wake up at the same time, drive to work, grab coffee, start my work, and at the end of the day, I drive back home, have dinner, do some other things to pass the time, and go to sleep. I have been doing this for five days a week for the past five years. It feels dull, and it doesn't make me happy. Currently, I don't find pleasure in life, and every day I wake up with the thought that "I just have to keep going" to gather enough financial resources before I have the chance and seize it to do something else.
I would like to do something different: explore the world, live in a different culture, start my own business, be more connected with nature, experience a peaceful existence, and share beautiful moments with a future partner.
Over the past years, I have made several attempts to start my own business to become independent. The attempts failed and set me back financially. Due to these setbacks, I have remained stuck in my current job. However, I have now reached a point where I don't want to wait for success to be happy.
Currently, I am in a better financial position and I expect to have enough money in the near future so that I could sustain myself for one year without new income.
However, I feel fear when it comes to leaving my comfortable life and quitting my job. I have a job that I probably wouldn't be able to get back quickly once I quit. On the other hand, I think that if I throw myself into the deep end, I will have more motivation and determination to make the best out of it, and new challenges will come my way.

To preface, I know what I've done is stupid and I'm not going to do this ever again after this scare. And for context this is at an HEB in Texas (large grocery store chain). My method of stealing has been I put stuff in my freezer bag in my handheld basket, take stuff out when I unload in self checkout but leave a few things in the bag sometimes, so the self checkout scale registers it as just my bag. I've been doing this for a while so I'm worried now that they have been on to me without me knowing. (Again I know I'm stupid for doing this and I do NOT plan on doing this again)
Yesterday I went again and bought a few things. I didn't do this bag trick this time but I did ring up a stupid avocado as green onions, a like 30 cent difference, and the green onions I got I put 1 instead of 2, and I put the bulk PLU for in-shell pistachios instead of shelled pistachios which is half the price. Yeah stupid I just saved like a few dollars doing that but I guess I have a weird compulsion (again not planning to do this again).
As I turned around to leave, I saw a group of workers including some manageLP-looking people say something including the words "I radio-ed it" (they were in earshot of me, about 5 feet away, only thing I heard was that). As I was leaving the doors a dude with a name tag was walking with someone behind me and I heard him say the words "loss prevention" to the person he was walking with but didn't hear the context or anything. As I got to my car the security guard that's always standing outside was walking in the direction near my car, not looking at me though. I got in my car and left, no one stopped me or said anything.
Does this sound like they are on to me and I was the focus of these things and they are planning to get me arrested or ban from the store next time I go in? Could it have been someone else shoplifting? Would they have stopped me or said anything/why not? And would they have been saying stuff like that within earshot of me if I were the focus? Were they maybe figuring out what car i drive so they could get my plates, and if so what could they do with my plates? Could I be getting an arrest warrant or something in the mail using my plates (car is registered in my name?)
And if I go back to the store could they detain me or call the cops and arrest me using past footage even if I don't steal anything again? In total over time I've stollen probably $80-$100 worth of things there, usually just like $5 of stuff at a time (random makeup, a package of ground beef a few times, small-ish things like that, and no one at self checkout has ever stopped or said anything).
Been seriously freaking out ever since. Any input welcome

for the better part of 3 years everytime i hear the discord sound for a new message, i scroll down the servers lists and check half the servers and a few channels per server for the message but i cant find anything with a timestamp near the time of the sound.....
so why doesnt discord just make a shortlist for the user of the latest messages cross servers or have a button you can highlight that takes you to the newest message (the one related to the sound effect)
cuz its driving me nuts and im not going to keep tabs on all messages in all 10 servers and all 300 channels so whenever i hear the chime i can just look for the 1 channel that has an arrow in front of it.

Sorry if this is long winded. I struggle to give enough background and detail without giving too much.
I'm still a very noob programmer. Little expertise. Self Taught. Very few hours in any actual programming projects. I'm not the type of person who needs my hand held or needs told to pull myself up by my boot straps - but I don't have any great ideas for what direction I want to go here. One of the biggest motivations that lead me to want to program was that I was playing games that I wanted to automate, (a couple differnet MMORPG's). I started early with basic keyboard/mouse script programs and now I use basic python frameworks to do a real job, non gaming related, doing automated app testing. It's not the same type of 'automation' i was doing but the years of trial and error I gained doing my gaming 'automation' translated in ways I didn't imagine they actually ever would.
The long and short of this is that I don't game as much anymore. I still love to game, I still game in my free time, and my favorite game type is still MMORPG's. The problem is that I recognize how easy it is to spend massive amounts of time on MMORPG games and so i avoid them in order to maintain the productivity i've clawed back from when I used to live on them.
I don't have a specific question here. I'm not necessarily asking for ways to re-motivate myself but moreso wondering if anyone with more programming expertise has experienced anything similar or wondeirng how other people maintain their enjoyment for programming in general.
I don't know if i'll ever find that same motivation that I used to have but i'm not going to stop programming because of that. Sometimes when thinking through this I think I could go back to my MMORPG's and rather than "game 90% 'automate' 10%" I could find a 50/50 or 10/90 happy-area.
I have other small projects that I could work on to get better at my web design languages and either way my work will slowly improve my python skills and skills that are necessity for my current career. But i'm sort of at a loss for projects that I REALLY have motivation to work on so that I can improve more than just while at work, and actually enjoy seeing the fruit of my labors.
FYI 1: I realize that scripts/third party programs break TOS of many games. I do not want that to become any part of this discussion as it won't affect my future decisions in anyway. I do not play my games to make money and do not plan on doing anything that is going to give me an unfair advantage over other people. The only advantage I gain is saving my own real life time and getting to see something I created actually work for a fun reason and not a boring work reason...

Single/Taken/Complicated: Single
Seeking Relationship/Friends/Squish/Other: Relationship, down for friends too!
Romantic Orientation: Romantically attracted to masculine folks, would also consider a QPR with any gender. I haven’t tried dating since I finally figured out I’m ace a couple years ago so bear with me please! I’m sex-positive but super indifferent. Could go the rest of my life without it but not opposed with the right person. Happy to cuddle though!
Gender: AFAB feminine NB
Pronouns: She/they
Age: 30
Height/Build: 5’4 average weight, could probably do with more squats
Physical Description: I’m white with a splash of Filipino. Dark brown hair and eyes, light skinned because I’m a creature of the night. Prone to bouts of bright red hair. Lots of piercings and easily visible tattoos. My clothing aesthetic is matching sweatsuits or “found lying on a beach somewhere.”
Personality Description: it’s the childhood trauma that makes me occasionally funny. I can easily pass for an extrovert but I need solitude to recover. My favorite root vegetable is the parsnip. I play on casual mode because I feel impotent rage when video games are better than me and I’m only here for the story anyway. I’m aegosexual so I read super smutty books but I cringe at sex scenes if I’m watching tv/movies with other people. Will serenade you from the shower with an eclectic repertoire; one day it could be Enya and the next it could be The Doors. I was kind of a big deal in high school choir so it probably won’t be miserable to listen to for the rest of your life. I will crochet your family gifts but I’m limited to rectangles. I like to watch K-dramas without dubs because I think romance sounds lovely in Korean. Walking around the local conservancy is my favorite way to top up on nature and vitamin D, and my cat Winnie is responsible for that last serotonin molecule rattling around my head. I don’t plan on having children but I can totally channel grandma energy and hold other people’s babies!
I’m in graduate school so I’ll be stuck where I am for a while and will probably need to work in this area for at least a year after but I’m not committed to Wisconsin forever. Building a witch house in the woods is non-negotiable however. Would like to live within reasonable driving distance to a metropolitan area but I like the small town feel.
I’m not super keen on dating, but I want to be someone’s person and I want someone to be mine.

I started with 2% minoxidil to see if I got any sides and after about a week of everything going good, I went to 5% topical. I got lots of sides from that (I think I was overusing it) and now switched to the foam after about two weeks of topical. I am now on the foam for roughly 1 week, and have not noticed any change at all in my hair, no shedding phase. After reading plenty of reviews, Im scared that in the case that minoxidil wont work for me, it will just accelerate my hair loss, and I’m wondering if it’s too late to stop. I have not gone through any shedding phase yet and my hair remains the exact same. Two questions. 1) What are the real life percentages of me being a responder and actually seeing gains from minoxidil, it seems there are a lot more non responders than i initially thought. 2) Since I’ve yet to go through a shedding phase, is it safe for me to stop using minox now? Or will my hair still go through a shedding phase in the near future because I used minoxidil for the last month or so.

I’m 27. When I was 13/14, I started having weird throat issues all the time. It felt like my throat had a lot of pressure in it, like a weird tension feeling, and the only thing that helped was when I ate/drank something or swallowed. This would help then it would come back a few minutes or so later. I had weird issues swallowing saliva too. I saw an ear nose & throat doctor about this and was told my issue was acid reflux. Doctor prescribed reflux medication and told me to sleep on an incline. I did those things for a while, but it didn’t help. Supposedly I was treating the issue and the doctor didn’t know why I wasn’t improving but told me to continue doing what I was doing to supposedly treat it. I saw some other doctors that weren’t sure either. I pretty much learned to just live like that but it was annoying and started to take over my life to the point that every day revolved around coping with my throat and dealing with the bad anxiety it was causing. I used to avoid things, had no life, had to make sure I always had something to drink to help my throat, and felt really stressed about the whole thing and how it was affecting me. On a side note, I also used to breathe mostly through my mouth as well. No one really knew, but I was really miserable all the time because of this stuff.
At 15, I started to feel like a brain fog on top of the throat issues. Something I’d never felt before. It was like my brain felt like mush all the time, no matter how much sleep I got. Like that feeling when you sleep really bad for a couple nights and feel like crap, except I was sleeping enough. Felt kind of spaced out constantly, couldn’t concentrate as well, I never wanted to do anything, felt apathetic, and just kind of crappy all the time. Wasn’t severe but was definitely impacting my day to day life. I went back to seeing doctors. Lots of doctors said there was nothing medically wrong with me and some even said that the brain fog (and maybe even the throat issues) were all psychological. I didn’t feel like that was it because my symptoms felt so real and physical but what did I know. I was prescribed antidepressants and doctors recommended I see a therapist for bad anxiety issues. I spent the next couple of years trying multiple medications, seeing therapists, and making other changes but nothing helped. I thought I was going crazy. In those few years that passed, I had slowly started to feel worse. By the time I graduated high school, the constant mental fog and tiredness were affecting me pretty bad. I felt stressed and anxious nonstop. I had almost no life during high school because of it and did just the bare minimum to get by. With lots of doctors telling me there was nothing physically wrong with me, I started to believe them about it being all mental. I thought it was something I was doing wrong personally. At this point I wasn’t even talking to my family about it as much since supposedly there was nothing wrong and it was all in my head. Especially when doctor after doctor were saying nothing was wrong and because my symptoms were mostly feeling tired all the time, what was I supposed to say? It felt like it was my personal fault for feeling the way I did. Everyone gave me the impression that my issues were because of me and I just needed to change my mindset and lifestyle and I’d feel better. Do anxiety workbooks, deep breathing, get more sleep, take antidepressants, therapy. I did every single thing doctors and therapists told me to do, but nothing helped. Doctors and therapists made me question my sanity every day. It was hell.
I was in no shape to go to college out of state, but I did. I ended up going because supposedly there was nothing wrong with me and I was trying desperately to believe it was all in my head like doctors and therapists and my family were saying. I just needed to change my way of thinking and lifestyle and that would cure the constant brain fog and tiredness and throat issues. So I pushed myself to go, hoping I’d sort it out. I spent the next 4 years slowly feeling worse, still seeing doctors but getting no legit answers. I'd go months and months at a time without seeing a doctor as I didn't know where to turn and had given up at times. I saw a doctor about sleep apnea but didn't seem to fit almost any of the symptoms. Stuff like waking up trying to get air, choking, stopping breathing, snoring, wasn't overweight, wasn't unhealthy, didn’t have a family history of it or other health issues. Still, I tried one of those moldable mouthpieces that’s supposed to help with sleep apnea but didn't see any benefit from it. So with all of this, I figured it’s probably not sleep apnea. I was so desperate, I was constantly trying all sorts of medications, supplements, and other weird things to try and help myself. I felt like I was losing my damn mind. My mental health was horrendous. Felt like crap 24/7. I literally felt stupid because my brain wasn’t working. Dealing with symptoms and figuring out what was wrong with me consumed my entire life. I would occasionally go to class after taking a big dose of stimulant drugs, but even those only did so much. No amount of caffeine pills, energy drinks did anything either. I was beyond that stuff helping. I experienced almost nothing enjoyable in those 4 years of college and had basically no life, really no friends, hobbies, nothing. Really the only experience I had during college was when I went on a study abroad trip but it was hell because I felt so awful the whole time. I had also joined a fraternity in the beginning of college but did almost nothing with them for the same reason. The mental tiredness had gotten so bad it felt like I was disconnected and living in a dream. Like I felt kind of drunk. I was so mentally and emotionally numb and exhausted I didn’t even feel human. Like I physically could not feel emotions and felt super spaced out. I was also still dealing with the throat issues. I’d get random dizziness, my vision got worse (more sensitive to bright light, bad floaters in my eyes). I somehow managed to graduate college and finished feeling significantly worse than when I began. I was so miserable and had no one to talk to about what was going on. But I was at least glad that college was over, because it sucked horribly.
I spent the next year doing just the bare minimum to get by. About a year after college (2019), I had a sleep study done and results came back with moderate sleep apnea. For the first time I actually had an answer. Sleep doctor immediately prescribed a CPAP machine. Didn’t even bother to wonder why a young healthy person has sleep apnea to begin with, because it’s not normal. I spent the next 2ish years trying multiple machines, masks, changing all the settings, but only saw some improvement. Keeping the CPAP consistently on throughout the night was also a struggle in itself as it was super awkward and uncomfortable, even though I was desperately trying to make it work. When I was able to keep it on for 5+ hours a night I felt a bit better but it was really difficult to do so consistently. During this time I couldn’t really hold down a job, other than some really basic, short term jobs. And even those felt brutal. My relationships with everyone were affected pretty bad. I was a complete zombie because the tiredness was so overwhelming. It was as an amount of brain fog and exhaustion I didn’t know was humanly possible. I was making myself basically sick with stimulants that really weren't helping and even had a doctor at one point tell me that I should get genetic testing for depression or have my brain zapped with electric shocks. I luckily didn't go that route.
After two years of messing with machines, my sleep doctor then recommended I see a maxillofacial doctor to see what the underlying breathing issue was being caused by. The doctor recommended I get a custom mouthpiece made that shifts the lower jaw forward to help open the airway to prevent breathing issues while sleeping. The process of having it fitted and made took a couple months. I even took a “real” job during this same time because I had two different doctors telling me that this mouthpiece was likely to help me a lot. I felt like I couldn’t have gotten the mouthpiece fast enough. I ended up messing with the mouthpiece for months and had no benefit at all. Literally zero. The dentist who made the mouthpiece said that the mouthpiece wasn’t helping because I might just have “weak muscle tone” in my throat and that I should see someone called a myofunctional doctor to supposedly improve muscle tone in the throat and tongue. I looked into that and it seemed like total quack stuff so I didn’t do it and completely dropped that dentist that made my mouthpiece and suggested this. I then saw an ear nose and throat doctor and later did a sleep endoscopy with him where I was put to sleep and had my breathing monitored with a camera down my throat. The doctor said that my breathing issues were being caused by my throat and jaw and suggested that since the mouthpiece wasn’t helping, I could get surgery or have a device called Inspire surgically inserted into my chest and neck to artificially help breathing. I held off on that cause it sounded pretty extreme and thought there had to be something else. During this time I had to leave the job I should’ve never taken in the first place because I was so non-functional.
I pretty much gave up for months. I eventually scheduled an appointment with another ear nose & throat doctor (the same kind of doctor I saw when I was 13). I'd already seen many ear nose & throat doctors by this point but didn't know what else to do. Don’t remember how exactly it happened, but the connection was made that my issues were due to really abnormal nasal breathing. Something called nasal valve stenosis, where both sides of my nose were completely caving in and blocking most air, leading to crappy breathing, even when just breathing in lightly. This issue is worse during sleep and was causing my brain to “wake up” every time my nose had the obstruction. So I was struggling to breathe all night and I was slowly feeling worse as I was never getting good deep sleep. So the bad sleep every night just kept accumulating over the course of 10+ years. He also explained that my throat issues were a sign that my nose wasn’t functioning normally, which was causing airflow issues and a throat pressure feeling as a result. But weirdly the nasal issues weren’t being caused by my nose itself. There’s nothing actually wrong with my nose. It’s the middle part of the face that provides the base and support for the nose that is lacking the support needed to keep the nose open for normal breathing. Doctor said it’s really abnormal for nasal collapse to happen like this as a result of the face just not developing properly. It was just the way the middle of my face grew and changed over time, especially during puberty, that led to this. Doctor said it is called midface deficiency. It’s the area of the face just to the sides of the nose, below the eyes. Doctor said facial surgery is really what I needed but said nasal surgery could potentially help a bit and is less intense of a surgery, so I decided to go with that. Everything finally made sense for the first time ever. I even recorded my sleep and sure enough I could hear myself struggling to breathe all night.
Last year (2022), I had nasal valve surgery. It took a long time to recover from surgery and I still have to wear something in my nose when I sleep to prevent it from pinching shut because the surgery only helped a bit. I will still have to look into facial surgery to address the underlying issue as my breathing is still horrible during the day when I’m not wearing a dilator in my nose but at night I wear it and am good. Over time most of my issues have gone away. The slowly worsening exhaustion and brain fog and cognitive issues that started when I was a teenager. The constant severe anxiety and stress feelings I had since I was a kid. Throat issues gone. I no longer feel like killing myself out of misery. It was that obvious all along but untreated made my life constant fucking torture. Feeling horrible nonstop, slowly getting worse, not knowing why, being told there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all psychological, trying all sorts of things with no benefit, and having my entire life be ruined was a mental hell I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t feel like my teens and most my 20s actually happened because I was in such poor health physically and mentally 24/7. I wish I had been able to see decent doctors earlier, but obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not even sure how I wasn’t able to make the connection myself. I think I was just so used to really bad breathing since I was young I didn’t know it was abnormal and had no reason to think I had some weird issue cause why would I? I still struggle with the mental effects of I think living like this for so long. These issues consumed everything for over 10 years so I guess it’s not surprising that it still affects me mentally even after the fact. Thanks for reading and hopefully this can help someone out there.
TLDR: Slowly worsening chronic fatigue/brain fog and other issues for 10+ years was due to really bad nasal breathing, mostly nasal valve collapse due to midface deficiency that developed when I was a teenager and was leading to sleep apnea
Here's photos of my nose just breathing in slightly deeper than normal:
https://imgur.com/aQWsJeX
https://imgur.com/a/7NsNIWo

Ok so obviously I know there ware a ton of hastily made cloned of power wash simulator out there, many that class jobs as complete before being anywhere near complete, ones that are just awful visually and ones that just don't have that "I'm power washing" feel to them. But has anyone got and good recommendations on some of these? I have three so far but they are okay at best. I'll edit this with their names so they don't get recommended to me as I have them already. Ps I have it on switch but I'm only allowed to game on my phone at work 😢
Edit:
The names of the ones I've tried are: Power car wash simulator game, Power gun. - washing simulator Power wash gun simulator 3d
So please don't recommend these 3 Thanks

I’m 27. When I was 13/14, I started having weird throat issues all the time. It felt like my throat had a lot of pressure in it, like a weird tension feeling, and the only thing that helped was when I ate/drank something or swallowed. This would help then it would come back a few minutes or so later. I had weird issues swallowing saliva too. I saw an ear nose & throat doctor about this and was told my issue was acid reflux. Doctor prescribed reflux medication and told me to sleep on an incline. I did those things for a while, but it didn’t help. Supposedly I was treating the issue and the doctor didn’t know why I wasn’t improving but told me to continue doing what I was doing to supposedly treat it. I saw some other doctors that weren’t sure either. I pretty much learned to just live like that but it was annoying and started to take over my life to the point that every day revolved around coping with my throat and dealing with the bad anxiety it was causing. I used to avoid things, had no life, had to make sure I always had something to drink to help my throat, and felt really stressed about the whole thing and how it was affecting me. On a side note, I also used to breathe mostly through my mouth as well. No one really knew, but I was really miserable all the time because of this stuff.
At 15, I started to feel like a brain fog on top of the throat issues. Something I’d never felt before. It was like my brain felt like mush all the time, no matter how much sleep I got. Like that feeling when you sleep really bad for a couple nights and feel like crap, except I was sleeping enough. Felt kind of spaced out constantly, couldn’t concentrate as well, I never wanted to do anything, felt apathetic, and just kind of crappy all the time. Wasn’t severe but was definitely impacting my day to day life. I went back to seeing doctors. Lots of doctors said there was nothing medically wrong with me and some even said that the brain fog (and maybe even the throat issues) were all psychological. I didn’t feel like that was it because my symptoms felt so real and physical but what did I know. I was prescribed antidepressants and doctors recommended I see a therapist for bad anxiety issues. I spent the next couple of years trying multiple medications, seeing therapists, and making other changes but nothing helped. I thought I was going crazy. In those few years that passed, I had slowly started to feel worse. By the time I graduated high school, the constant mental fog and tiredness were affecting me pretty bad. I felt stressed and anxious nonstop. I had almost no life during high school because of it and did just the bare minimum to get by. With lots of doctors telling me there was nothing physically wrong with me, I started to believe them about it being all mental. I thought it was something I was doing wrong personally. At this point I wasn’t even talking to my family about it as much since supposedly there was nothing wrong and it was all in my head. Especially when doctor after doctor were saying nothing was wrong and because my symptoms were mostly feeling tired all the time, what was I supposed to say? It felt like it was my personal fault for feeling the way I did. Everyone gave me the impression that my issues were because of me and I just needed to change my mindset and lifestyle and I’d feel better. Do anxiety workbooks, deep breathing, get more sleep, take antidepressants, therapy. I did every single thing doctors and therapists told me to do, but nothing helped. Doctors and therapists made me question my sanity every day. It was hell.
I was in no shape to go to college out of state, but I did. I ended up going because supposedly there was nothing wrong with me and I was trying desperately to believe it was all in my head like doctors and therapists and my family were saying. I just needed to change my way of thinking and lifestyle and that would cure the constant brain fog and tiredness and throat issues. So I pushed myself to go, hoping I’d sort it out. I spent the next 4 years slowly feeling worse, still seeing doctors but getting no legit answers. I'd go months and months at a time without seeing a doctor as I didn't know where to turn and had given up at times. I saw a doctor about sleep apnea but didn't seem to fit almost any of the symptoms. Stuff like waking up trying to get air, choking, stopping breathing, snoring, wasn't overweight, wasn't unhealthy, didn’t have a family history of it or other health issues. Still, I tried one of those moldable mouthpieces that’s supposed to help with sleep apnea but didn't see any benefit from it. So with all of this, I figured it’s probably not sleep apnea. I was so desperate, I was constantly trying all sorts of medications, supplements, and other weird things to try and help myself. I felt like I was losing my damn mind. My mental health was horrendous. Felt like crap 24/7. I literally felt stupid because my brain wasn’t working. Dealing with symptoms and figuring out what was wrong with me consumed my entire life. I would occasionally go to class after taking a big dose of stimulant drugs, but even those only did so much. No amount of caffeine pills, energy drinks did anything either. I was beyond that stuff helping. I experienced almost nothing enjoyable in those 4 years of college and had basically no life, really no friends, hobbies, nothing. Really the only experience I had during college was when I went on a study abroad trip but it was hell because I felt so awful the whole time. I had also joined a fraternity in the beginning of college but did almost nothing with them for the same reason. The mental tiredness had gotten so bad it felt like I was disconnected and living in a dream. Like I felt kind of drunk. I was so mentally and emotionally numb and exhausted I didn’t even feel human. Like I physically could not feel emotions and felt super spaced out. I was also still dealing with the throat issues. I’d get random dizziness, my vision got worse (more sensitive to bright light, bad floaters in my eyes). I somehow managed to graduate college and finished feeling significantly worse than when I began. I was so miserable and had no one to talk to about what was going on. But I was at least glad that college was over, because it sucked horribly.
I spent the next year doing just the bare minimum to get by. About a year after college (2019), I had a sleep study done and results came back with moderate sleep apnea. For the first time I actually had an answer. Sleep doctor immediately prescribed a CPAP machine. Didn’t even bother to wonder why a young healthy person has sleep apnea to begin with, because it’s not normal. I spent the next 2ish years trying multiple machines, masks, changing all the settings, but only saw some improvement. Keeping the CPAP consistently on throughout the night was also a struggle in itself as it was super awkward and uncomfortable, even though I was desperately trying to make it work. When I was able to keep it on for 5+ hours a night I felt a bit better but it was really difficult to do so consistently. During this time I couldn’t really hold down a job, other than some really basic, short term jobs. And even those felt brutal. My relationships with everyone were affected pretty bad. I was a complete zombie because the tiredness was so overwhelming. It was as an amount of brain fog and exhaustion I didn’t know was humanly possible. I was making myself basically sick with stimulants that really weren't helping and even had a doctor at one point tell me that I should get genetic testing for depression or have my brain zapped with electric shocks. I luckily didn't go that route.
After two years of messing with machines, my sleep doctor then recommended I see a maxillofacial doctor to see what the underlying breathing issue was being caused by. The doctor recommended I get a custom mouthpiece made that shifts the lower jaw forward to help open the airway to prevent breathing issues while sleeping. The process of having it fitted and made took a couple months. I even took a “real” job during this same time because I had two different doctors telling me that this mouthpiece was likely to help me a lot. I felt like I couldn’t have gotten the mouthpiece fast enough. I ended up messing with the mouthpiece for months and had no benefit at all. Literally zero. The dentist who made the mouthpiece said that the mouthpiece wasn’t helping because I might just have “weak muscle tone” in my throat and that I should see someone called a myofunctional doctor to supposedly improve muscle tone in the throat and tongue. I looked into that and it seemed like total quack stuff so I didn’t do it and completely dropped that dentist that made my mouthpiece and suggested this. I then saw an ear nose and throat doctor and later did a sleep endoscopy with him where I was put to sleep and had my breathing monitored with a camera down my throat. The doctor said that my breathing issues were being caused by my throat and jaw and suggested that since the mouthpiece wasn’t helping, I could get surgery or have a device called Inspire surgically inserted into my chest and neck to artificially help breathing. I held off on that cause it sounded pretty extreme and thought there had to be something else. During this time I had to leave the job I should’ve never taken in the first place because I was so non-functional.
I pretty much gave up for months. I eventually scheduled an appointment with another ear nose & throat doctor (the same kind of doctor I saw when I was 13). I'd already seen many ear nose & throat doctors by this point but didn't know what else to do. Don’t remember how exactly it happened, but the connection was made that my issues were due to really abnormal nasal breathing. Something called nasal valve stenosis, where both sides of my nose were completely caving in and blocking most air, leading to crappy breathing, even when just breathing in lightly. This issue is worse during sleep and was causing my brain to “wake up” every time my nose had the obstruction. So I was struggling to breathe all night and I was slowly feeling worse as I was never getting good deep sleep. So the bad sleep every night just kept accumulating over the course of 10+ years. He also explained that my throat issues were a sign that my nose wasn’t functioning normally, which was causing airflow issues and a throat pressure feeling as a result. But weirdly the nasal issues weren’t being caused by my nose itself. There’s nothing actually wrong with my nose. It’s the middle part of the face that provides the base and support for the nose that is lacking the support needed to keep the nose open for normal breathing. Doctor said it’s really abnormal for nasal collapse to happen like this as a result of the face just not developing properly. It was just the way the middle of my face grew and changed over time, especially during puberty, that led to this. Doctor said it is called midface deficiency. It’s the area of the face just to the sides of the nose, below the eyes. Doctor said facial surgery is really what I needed but said nasal surgery could potentially help a bit and is less intense of a surgery, so I decided to go with that. Everything finally made sense for the first time ever. I even recorded my sleep and sure enough I could hear myself struggling to breathe all night.
Last year (2022), I had nasal valve surgery. It took a long time to recover from surgery and I still have to wear something in my nose when I sleep to prevent it from pinching shut because the surgery only helped a bit. I will still have to look into facial surgery to address the underlying issue as my breathing is still horrible during the day when I’m not wearing a dilator in my nose but at night I wear it and am good. Over time most of my issues have gone away. The slowly worsening exhaustion and brain fog and cognitive issues that started when I was a teenager. The constant severe anxiety and stress feelings I had since I was a kid. Throat issues gone. I no longer feel like killing myself out of misery. It was that obvious all along but untreated made my life constant fucking torture. Feeling horrible nonstop, slowly getting worse, not knowing why, being told there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all psychological, trying all sorts of things with no benefit, and having my entire life be ruined was a mental hell I wouldn’t wish on anyone. I don’t feel like my teens and most my 20s actually happened because I was in such poor health physically and mentally 24/7. I wish I had been able to see decent doctors earlier, but obviously that didn’t happen. I’m not even sure how I wasn’t able to make the connection myself. I think I was just so used to really bad breathing since I was young I didn’t know it was abnormal and had no reason to think I had some weird issue cause why would I? I still struggle with the mental effects of I think living like this for so long. These issues consumed everything for over 10 years so I guess it’s not surprising that it still affects me mentally even after the fact. Thanks for reading and hopefully this can help someone out there.
TLDR: Slowly worsening chronic fatigue/brain fog and other issues for 10+ years was due to really bad nasal breathing, mostly nasal valve collapse due to midface deficiency that developed when I was a teenager and was leading to sleep apnea
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Here's photos of my nose just breathing in slightly deeper than normal:
https://imgur.com/aQWsJeX
https://imgur.com/a/7NsNIWo

Quick background, I'm more of a console gamer and don't care a whole lot about FPS. Mostly play single player games. But I do play on my PC here and there and would like to play more. I thought 60FPS was all I needed. And for console 60 FPS is fine, I feel like I don't notice frame drops and stutters as much as when I play on PC.
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I was getting annoyed with my PC, because I would shoot for 4k60 FPS if possible with whatever settings and if that wasn't the case I would lower my resolution until 60 FPS was steady. But I noticed recently no matter how I have my settings for certain games, I still have frame drops and stuttering. And I understand that sometimes games are just poorly optimized and no matter how low you go the performance is weird. (looking at you Gotham Knights)
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I was on the market for a new monitor anyways, so I went out and got a 4k120hz LG OLED C2. Scratches my monitor and TV itch perfectly for my PC and PS5. 2080 only has HDMI 2.0 so I game at 1440p now and WOW, was I doing a disservice to my 2080 all this time. It's blowing way past 60 for most games at high or ultra settings (80-110 FPS avg) and I still feel like the stutters and frame drops happen, but they're not nearly as noticeable.
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Now I'm at a point where I'm wondering if I've just been leaving too much performance on the board all these years for my 2080. I built this PC back in late 2019 more on the fact that Microcenter was giving out great deals at the time as opposed to wanting a beast PC.
I think I tried overclocking my memory once in the BIOS (A2 and B2 slot) and my computer died and I was terrified so never tried again. Do you guys think overlocking would be worth the performance boost? I've seen posts recently saying just upgrading the CPU could unlock a whole new world. But I don't know too much about what would work best with my 2080 or if its even compatible with my motherboard. Is there a way to push my PC to more consistent frames close to 120 FPS and less stuttering and frame drops? Also I use the stock AMD fan that came with the 2700x. I had heating issues with my case before but then added a beefy Noctua NF-F12 heavy duty cooling as a case fan and temps haven't been an issue since.
Had a screenshot ready, thought I could post my setup but looks like I can't. Here's the parts list.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/Rmc46r
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• AMD Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor
• Asus ROG STRIX X470-F Gaming ATX AM4 Motherboard
• Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory
• Samsung 970 Evo 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive
• EVGA XC ULTRA GAMING GeForce RTX 2080 8 GB Video Card
• EVGA 750 BQ 750 W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

Also quick side if anyone knows how to help. My motherboard comes with 2 m2 slots. One is hidden behind a shield heatsink that I didn't know about. And one just out in the open. I found out like a year later that the hidden one is the faster slot, tried to unscrew the shield, but stripped the indentation into the screw. Like I can't get anything to latch on the screw. And it's so small its difficult. So if you have any suggestions please let me know!!!

I was in a hit and run. I am unfortunately the perpetrator, and it was totally an accident.
Let me explain, I was changing lanes to the left, and this guy was in my blind spot, and I apparently barely hit him. He has literally two scratches. I thought it was super close, felt no impact, and totally thought I didn’t hit him.
He made no movements, didn’t yell, didnt roll the window down, didn’t get out the car, didn’t pull over or anything. So I totally thought we were both like “well, that was a close call!”. So I just slowly pulled away and drove off.
He called the cops and reported it as a hit-and-run, and the cops found me and told me. The guy was there as well and said he doesn’t want to press charges, but he’s demanding me to pay him privately instead of going through insurance, but I am in between jobs and can’t pay the amount he wants. He says if I don’t pay him by Friday he’ll go through insurance and submit the police report. I gave him all my information once we met up afterwards with the cops.
My question is, will a hit-and-run go on my DMV record if he submits the report to the insurance? Additionally, is it already on my record if there was a police report taken? The report just says they were “called” for a hit and run but does not say anything about me officially being me being charged for a hit and run. I didn’t get a ticket or anything.
I absolutely CANNOT have a hit and run go on my DMV record because I drive the ambulance and I will NEVER be able to drive it again if this goes on my record. I will lose my line of work, all my hard work getting my licenses, going to school, will be wasted. I love my line of work…
Please help!!!

I (26M) was recently broken up with by my (24F) girlfriend of 6 years right after opening up to her about how I had been struggling a lot mentally recently. That's not necessarily the cause, but it happens to be a terrible coincidence.
Backstory to the unfortunate mental struggles:
About 10 weeks ago I had a very long night out and woke up extremely hungover. My brother met up with me that night in our parents car and ended up staying with us for a few drinks, so evidently he left the car.
Of course, I woke up and had a boatload of caffeine so I was already on edge a little bit. My brother was still asleep, so my mom asked me if I could quickly drive my dad to the car so he could take it home. No problem, I hopped in my car and drove there with my dad.
On the way home, completely unprovoked and no anxiety prior, I had an insane panic attack. I’ve never experienced anything like it before. I think I’ve only had one panic attack in my life, and for some reason it left me with a very small amount of social anxiety. During this attack, my hands and feet were completely numb and sweating. At first, I had literally no idea what was going on - I thought it was a legitimate health issue. I ended up taking a bit to drive home, but I made it.
Since then, I've just had heightened anxiety. I've had one other panic attack in the past and I eventually got over the lingering anxiety, so I knew it wasn't permanent.
Mental Health Backstory on her end:
To preface this, we both have anxiety/depression in our genetics unfortunately. In fact, her mom spent some time in the hospital when they were young because of how bad it got.
She also apparently had a ton of anxiety from work recently (she's a nurse, I'm in tech).
On my mothers side of the family, my mom, grandma and great grandma have struggled with anxiety their entire lives, some of them taking antidepressants.
Not fun genes for either of us to have, but we persevered!
Our Relationship:
This is what has been getting to me, our relationship was very healthy. We argued probably 2-3 times per year, we spent the majority of days together - as we lived only a 5 minute drive apart. We were both fully a part of each other's families. All of the normal relationship stuff, we were completely engulfed in it. We had also been looking at engagement rings for a bit and ALWAYS talked about our life together.
When I was about 19 before we were together, I used to drunkenly talk about her all of the time to my friends saying "if she ever gets out of the relationship with her boyfriend (at that time) she's the one I'm going for". When I was graduating high school, I went into her class on yearbook day, grabbed her yearbook and wrote my number in it. Long story short, she ended up single and within a month of that happening, we were together.
The "problems" we had over the years that were semi-recurring:
I didn't suggest enough of our plans. I explained to her a number of times that I'd happily go anywhere, I just don't tend to suggest ideas because sometimes she wanted to, other times she didn't. I've lived by the motto "happy wife, happy life" in that relationship, so I tended to go along with whatever she suggested.
We didn't take enough pictures together. I don't really like being in too many pictures and that bothered her.
We didn't travel together enough. This goes back to the anxiety, I hate flying and haven't done it in almost a decade. However, I have an appointment with my doctor in early July where I'm requesting some "emergencies only" anxiety medication to use for that exact scenario. Note - she went on a number of trips over the years with her closest friends. Furthermore, we had done weekend getaways via car together but those apparently don't count. To add, her friends are hopping on planes at least once per month to go somewhere, I think comparison became the thief of joy here.
I didn't tell her I loved her enough or hug her enough. This one is hard for me because I felt like I definitely told her I loved her a lot. She used to occasionally say "do you even love me", semi-joking but also serious, and I always told her of course I did and even though I may not say it a number of times a day, of course I do. I also did a TON of things for her to show how much I cared (ie. she very rarely had to make a lunch for work, I cooked for her almost every day and we don't even live together) The hugging thing is a bit different, as she's always been extremely affectionate and I never really have been. I truly think it comes down to how I was raised, affection just wasn't a huge part of my childhood. (note, that's not a problem for me or anything, I had incredible family/parents, it just wasn't as prominent as it was in her childhood)
I cared a lot about money and how we could set ourselves up to move out. She had taken 5 trips (two of them by train, three by plane) with her friends in the past year and after the 5th one I asked if she planned on slowing down so she could focus on tackling her student debt and so we could start saving to move out, have a wedding etc. Specifically, I wanted us to be in the position where we weren't renting a home, ESPECIALLY given how much money we were making combined. This part kind of confused me because she was the first one to suggest moving out, but when it came time to adjusting the lifestyle to prepare for it, she didn't like the idea. But, I did use it as a crutch for my anxiety to get out of things sometimes and I did open up to her about that. As an example though, I still went with her to the Gucci store and helped her pick out a very expensive purse to celebrate getting her first real nursing job after graduating. I don't feel that I cared about money (especially given the stage we were in in our lives) more than any of my buddies with girlfriends. I wanted us to be set up well for the coming stages of our lives; they were fast approaching. Furthermore, her friends are catching a plane every weekend and are living with their parents but pay cheque to pay cheque with no prospects of ever leaving unless it's renting
The Situation:
About 7-ish weeks ago, a few weeks after my panic attack, my girlfriend was very adamant that we needed to book a trip together. She said we hadn't been on a "real" trip during our relationship (by real, she means getting on a plane). We were sitting down in her bed on my laptop looking at destinations and flights, but I was incredibly anxious about the whole thing. As we were about to book, I broke down and was fully vulnerable to her for one of the first times in the 6 year relationship. I said that I just don't see myself getting onto a plane right now without some kind of medication to calm me down. On top of that, it would stress me out financially a bit, as I'm a full-time masters student and working full time. Plus, it was during my one-week semester break, so I honestly just wanted to relax.
From that day on, our relationship started going downhill. She said she felt extremely disappointed by the whole situation and she couldn't shake the feeling. We then started only hanging out maybe once per week and it was very bland when we did. A couple weeks after that incident, I slept over at her house and I could tell she was genuinely just not happy at that time.
Brief backstory - despite being 26, my mom still gives me a ton of flack if I sleep at her house. It was rare that I got away with it. But, I did it that night anyway because she always asked me to sleep over but I rarely wanted to have to deal with my mom. I thought it would help show her I'm really trying to get better. She also invited me over the following evening and I obviously went.
After that day, I don't think we saw each other for about 2 weeks. I texted her on a Friday evening and said I just don't feel like she wants to be with me anymore. She picked me up so we could talk, and explained that she felt very disappointed about how we were so close to booking the trip and ended up not doing it. She said she needed a break and I was fine with it, I understood where she was coming from.
During this time, I started seeing a therapist. I found one online who was one of the highest rated in my province and was also extremely experienced in marital/pre-marital counselling so I could tell her about the relationship issues I was having along with my anxiety.
Fast forward about 2 more weeks (last weekend) she texted me saying she was ready to talk and picked me up. She said it's probably best if we just end the relationship for the time being. She explained that she felt she had been disappointed a few times over the years and was bottling a lot of things up. She said she needed time to "find herself again" and didn't know if we would get back together at all in the future or not. Then, we sat there talking in her car for another 30 minutes like things were normal so it really threw me off.
I ended up texting her the next day and asked if I could pick her up because I was confused from the night prior since we talked so normally after the breakup conversation. We ended up talking again, sharing some tears and what not, but I kind of understood why she felt she needed to be alone for a bit, even though she didn't know if we would get back together or not. She said that people do this all of the time and sometimes they come back stronger, but if it was meant to be then we'll get back together. I also told her about how much help I'm getting and how I'm setting a goal to take a vacation when I finish my masters in November. She was noticeably happy and asked a lot about how I was talking to my therapist about improving as a person and a (what I thought was soon to be) fiancé. She asked for all of the details about what we talked about in regards to our relationship and was very happy that I was putting that much effort in.
A couple days ago is when she deleted are photos together, but it came right after she posted an Instagram story while out with a friend who has no stability whatsoever. This friend has been on and off with the same guy (who treats her terribly) for as long as we were together. Not to mention, she sleeps around a ton. I can't help but feel like some of this breakup is being influenced by her friends (specifically this one) wanting her to be single like they are out of jealousy or something. Or, they want her to be flying somewhere once a month with them with no plans for the future. My girlfriend has cried to me in the past because she had been brought to places she didn't want to be because her friend wanted to go for a guy. That friend has also been binge drinking several times weekly for years. The following night, her two friends posted a story of her incredibly drunk in the back of a car with her feet out of the window I'm sure in hopes that I would see it. We're grown ass adults, I can't help but feel like that's just not a cool thing to do to your friend in general? I don't care how drunk you are, in fact I expected her to have a night out with her friends and let loose but posting someone else like that is just insanely stupid to me! To put the icing on the cake, one of my long time buddies from high school decided to go for one of her friends and I gave him substantial warnings about her. Within a year, that relationship was completely over with and she was on to the next.
Neither of us were ever the type one to have one-night stands or get around, so I'm not concerned about anything like that during the breakup. If it happens it happens, but I won't be sleeping with anyone until I've put in all of my effort to saving everything we've built. She's only ever been with me and her ex, while I've had a handful more partners before her - but I've experienced enough in my 26 years to know that there was is only one woman for me.
After all of this, I still couldn't shake the feeling that I felt I was being abandoned during the one time in my entire life I've opened up to anyone and really wanted some support. I'm also just having a hard time processing why it happened and how I can salvage it.
I've texted her once per week since the breaks & breakup happened just telling her that I loved her and wished we were going to XYZ events coming up. I also always say in the message that "You don't have to respond or even read it, I just want you to know". I'm having a hard time deciding if I should continue giving her that weekly text or not, but I really do want her to know how much I care and thought we were a dream team.
I just can't help but feel like we had "problems" that were very fixable and were very minor compared to 99% of couples. Her two best friends have had 5+ boyfriends each in the time that we were together and countless one-night stands. Every time they would break up, I'd hear a story from my girlfriend about how terribly they were treated by these guys and we talked about how lucky we are to have each other. There was no forms of jealousy or self-consciousness between us either, neither of us were bothered when we went out alone with our respective friend groups. I also never for a second worried when she travelled with her friends that she'd cheat or something.
This wraps in with why I can't process the breakup. Aside from the few things we argued about here and there (few times a year) it was an incredibly healthy relationship. I had a great relationship with her friends (despite some of the things I've said about them above) and would often times opt to go out drinking with her group over my group of buddies. I acknowledged my shortcomings as a boyfriend (ie. the affection) with my therapist and she's giving me some help with it. Am I crazy for thinking 1. that I can fix what's happened and 2. Part of this breakup might just be her wanting to see how much I actually care?
Anyway, I might add to this if I remember more important points. I just needed to get some of this off my chest. If you've made it this far into my story, thanks for reading!
TL;DR - Our relationship was very healthy, we never argued, the breakup came essentially because I wasn’t ready to travel despite the fact that I’m actively getting help

Greetings everyone, my name's Wolf and I'm searching for those who can write as canon (preferred) or as OCs. For OCs, there's specific ones that fit with my two main; Tovah (female) and Wulf (male). I require non-human OCs for Tovah like vampires, shapeshifters, spirits/ghosts, demons, and more... While for Wulf, humans are accepted. Please also write as males/masc with a dominant role for NSFW/Adult scenes. I do not accept subs (as I write as subs/brats) or switches as I will not dom at any point in time. Power bottom? Maybe, if we get along.
Aside from that, for basic writing info: My timezone is PST, I write in the POV of my partner and, depending on the story, I can write one paragraph to ten, sometimes even breaking Discord's character limit twice.
- For a brief summary of my two characters:
Tovah is my main and original OC who I’d always write with since 2014, after I decided to put away my old Naruto OC. She’s a demon, who originally started off as human (Wulf as well). Long story short, she became a demon then infamously known as ‘the Beast’ that the Bible mentions, then gained a human body a few thousand years later, and to present day she works as a privately-hired Hitman/Assassin and professional “recovery agent”. Rather, she steals from people who stole from someone else. She’s also the guardian of a forest that’s in upper Vermont, a relative distance away from Canada’s borders but still close, and her “hobby” consists of rescuing creatures or other beings from humans and black markets. Many of which live in the forests she protects.
As for Wulf, he starts off human as well, before that is taken from him very early in life. Unlike Tovah, while he was trained to become a true demon prince of Hell, some demon lords saw that he wasn’t exactly up to par. They saw other uses for him, especially when he was the first successful ritual fusion of a human and demon soul. He’s labeled as a demon prince, but he never was truly one. However, he lived a practically pampered and luxurious life in Hell until the 14th century, where he decided to explore Earth when a portal appeared to him one day. He killed and slaughtered, mostly to feed, but after a while found a human lover. They taught him so much. How to talk, how to read, but most importantly… How to feel. That didn’t last for Wulf, when a jealous woman took his lover away from him, and shortly after, an angel found him. For years, he knew nothing but pain and suffering. The opposite of what he experienced in Hell, his home. He was able to escape soon enough, but by that time it was around the late 18th century. Wulf took the next ship to France, where soon WW2 occurred. He moved to the Americas afterwards and took up a job in construction and architecture, which he had also been doing in France. In present times, he lives ‘retired’, but hops from state to state after a few short years pass.
For more of their information, I have a Carrd link in my profile that contains everything I've written on them over the years. Please read it before messaging me, or you won't know what you'll be getting into. Because, honey, you've got a storm comin'.
For Canon characters, I'm looking for the following:
- Genshin Impact: Diluc, Childe, Kaeya or Xiao. (Either two OCs will end up in Mondstahd. Aether might be accepted as well or either OC will replace his role, depending on my partner.)
- Kingdom Hearts (which will have a lot of changes if we write in 3): Vanitas, Riku or Terra.
- Attack on Titan / AoT / SnK: Eren Jaeger (adult by the time he joins the scouts, because why send kids to a war) or Levi Ackerman
- Final Fantasy VII / FF7: Cloud or Sephiroth (reallyyyy wanna write this with either Tov or Wulf...)
- Boku no Hero Academia / BNHA: Tenko/Tomura Shigaraki or Touya/Dabi
- Tokyo Ghoul: Kaneki Ken
- Bungou Stray Dogs: Dazai, Chuuya, Akutagawa, or Atsushi. (I think this is a perfect canon story to have Wulf in, and I have yet to write in this universe.)
If you require doubling, which I unfortunately can't provide, this post is not for you! This is a 1x1 focus only request (with occasional or semi-frequent scenes with other characters). Thank you.
My Discord is always available in the hub Carrd of my OC Tovah. If you've read this far and are interested, send me a friend request and hopefully we can write together! :D Thanks!

Nettie Peterson has known me at my best and at my worst, and after everything that's happened lately, I think I can finally say the same. I'm admittedly not very good at comforting her, though. I haven't had much practice, is all. Historically speaking, she's always been the one to take care of me. My introduction to earth was a confusing, horrifying time for me, and she had dealt with all of it. She'd handled every panic attack, brought me back from every low. When I woke up one night to a drilling pain in my stomach and blood soaking my panties, she managed to keep me calm while explaining that this would now happen every month.
What I'm saying is that the woman is insanely skilled.
Me, not so much. After we had gotten out of the cave, I tried to provide emotional support by petting her hair and talking soothingly. Seeing as I was also distressed, she was doing the same to me, so we were basically sitting on the beach holding each other. To the outside observer, we must have looked rather strange. I was relieved to finally get back to her house. We sat down in front of the TV and ate cupcakes. We have a special system for eating cupcakes. I peel off the frosting and give her rest. It's messy and I have to keep hand wipes nearby everytime, but it's how we do it. We both eat cupcakes whole when we're by ourselves, so it doesn't make much sense either, but when we share, it's always like this.
Once I was sure she was alright, I left her to go off to bed while I made my way back to the hotel, bracing myself for what I expected to be an extremely uncomfortable conversation.
The lobby was dim and quiet. The large, bright ceiling lights had been turned off with only a couple floor lamps illuminating the hall. I walked past the unmanned reception desk and up the stairs, then rapped my knuckles against the door to Frankie's room. After a couple seconds, he opened up. Upon meeting my gaze, he let out a soft gasp, but it wasn't followed by a smile this time. He made way for me to step inside, wordlessly, and I entered without breaking the silence. I sat down on the sofa where he joined me after placing a glass of coconut water in front of me.
For a beat, we both stared at the drink. I didn't take it.
"What you did felt really off earlier," I began. "You were trying to embarrass Nettie. If you were testing your boundaries, if you were trying to see how I'd react, you got your answer. Don't ever make me choose between you two. You'll lose."
"Yes," he said quietly.
"If you don't get along with Nettie, that's one thing. You don't need to. But she was needling you and you made a real effort to be cruel." I paused. "You act so strange sometimes. All bossy and cagey."
"Yes," he repeated, briefly falling silent as he worked away on his gum in slow, contemplative motions. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I did it. I wanted to unsettle her. It's not that I don't like her, she's fine, but at that moment, I simply loathed her. I couldn't tell you why. But I wish I'd kept quiet. I feel gross for spouting off like that."
"Then… why?"
"I don't know! There's this weird feeling, it comes over me and makes me remember stuff that's in the past… Then I get caught up and confused. I run my mouth, but I don't want to make you upset. I swear I won't do it again. I'll rein myself in."
"Will you? This doesn't seem right." I took a deep breath. "Frankie, I have no idea what you are. Even though you know everything about me."
"Not everything," he argued. "You never said a thing about what life was like where you're from. Or who you were before. Yes, that's not what this is about, but I'm just speaking technically."
"You shouldn't have to rely on technicalities to make a point."
"No. Look, I keep wondering what I'm even doing here. I like you a lot. But I haven't thought this through and by now, I'm scared to."
"Stop talking in riddles," I implored him.
He huffed out a chuckle. "I'd have to stop thinking in them first." Before he could add anything else, his phone started vibrating on the TV table. "Oh, dammit," he muttered. Shooting me an uncertain gaze, he reached out for it, his hand hovering above the screen. "Can I?"
"Sure." I let go of a long breath, snatched up the glass and leaned back in my seat as Frankie answered the call. I pick up on a woman's voice talking on the other end.
He kept glancing over at me almost sheepishly as he mumbled words of affirmation into the phone. "Yes… Yeah, I remember… Well, it's not a good time, but I'll do it. Bye." Dropping the device into his lap, he gave me a twist of the mouth. "That was Mae-Lynn. She works at—"
"The diner with you," I cut him off. "I do take note of the other staff there, for your information." I took a sip of my water. "Occasionally."
"I promised to do some shopping for her. She's come down with the flu. Store's closing soon, though, so I'll have to go now."
"Well, that's convenient."
"I was going to ask you to come along."
I agreed. Having lost track of the conversation, the drive was a grim, quiet affair. Frankie took us to one of the more expensive stores in the area, saying that he wanted to treat Mae-Lynn.
"Take a cart," I ordered, and once he had acquired one, I had him hold it still while I climbed inside. He regarded me with a bemused expression but refrained from commenting as he began to roll me down the aisles.
Grocery shopping at night is something else. Eighties music was playing over the radio at a low volume, but the otherwise quiet space made it sound decidedly louder. There was almost the hint of an echo. Safe for two of three singular, tired-looking individuals, Frankie and I were the only people in the store. I had nestled against the back of the cart, my head tipped back to watch Fran's face from below as his eyes roamed the shelves. Occasionally, he'd stop to check the list Mae-Lynn had texted him on his phone.
"If you want anything, speak up," he told me.
"I'm out of cereal," I said, just as we passed the respective aisle. He turned the cart back around, let me pick out a carton of cornflakes and took up walking again. After five minutes of stoically regarding him from my mobile vantage point, I piped up again. "Go back. Wrong ones."
"Well, which ones do you want? I'll get them, it's faster than pushing this thing around."
I shook my head. "No, no, I have to look at them. Go back."
He shook his head to himself but obediently maneuvered the cart back to the shelf with the breakfast items. I took my time picking out a different box, then settled back down.
"Happy?" Fran asked.
"Delighted."
After fifteen minutes, we were getting close to finishing Mae-Lynn's list. Frankie was starting to move towards the cash register, only for me to tug on his arm. "Turn back," I told him, holding up the box. "I don't want them after all. I need different ones."
He stifled a groan. "Sure, Sunshine." I let him roll me all the way back to the cereal aisle where I studied the colorful boxes intensely. "Nevermind," I said, turning back to him. "Let's go."
He started making his way over to the register again when I cleared my throat. "Actually, I think I might have another look."
"Are you kidding me?" he squeaked, only for me to hold his gaze with a smile. "You are," he choked out. "I oughta send you rolling right into that stack of cans."
"You wouldn't dare."
"Is that a challenge?" He glanced about himself, finding that we were alone. Then, he pushed the cart, and it swerved, sliding across the shiny floor. The thrill of the launch washed over me and I started laughing. He lunged for it, grabbing it just in time to prevent the collision.
"Do it again!" I demanded.
He indulged me, sending me swerving and spinning a couple more times. Eventually, he took a running start and pushed me down a long, empty aisle at a breakneck speed. The giggles died in my throat when, seemingly out of thin air, someone appeared at the end of the aisle. My jaw dropped and I reflexively gripped the sides of the cart to protect myself from the impending crash, but the person simply reached out and caught the cart by its edges. Within the blink of an eye, they had managed to steady it. My vehicle had come to a standstill. It all happened incredibly fast, and for a moment, I found myself unable to react. One of the other person's hands had come to rest over mine in the process. Still at a loss for words, I raised my head to meet their gaze.
Those eyes.
My heart, already thundering in my chest, dropped entirely into my stomach. There were pupils filling the void in that formerly uninterrupted pale vastness this time, but I recognized them either way. Seeing them sit in an actual face instead of behind a nondescript black mask was strange, but there was not a doubt in my mind. It was them.
The cultist had jarringly pleasant features that struck me as neither overtly feminine nor masculine. Their tawny skin had an almost bronze sheen to it and short locks of platinum blond hair stuck to their smooth forehead, slick with the same sweat that formed stains beneath the armpits of their light gray t-shirt.
It was like time stood still. The interaction could not have been longer than two seconds in total, but it felt like a full hour. From me staring at our linked hands, to locking eyes with them, to the cold, raw realization, it seemed to me as though forty minutes or more had gone by, followed by another twenty when I watched the crude smile forming on their lips. Their fingers clamped down on my own, and before I knew it, it had happened.
The lights in the store had changed color, taking on a dimmer, sickly green tint. The shelves around us had emptied and the gentle, melodic hum of the radio had been replaced by a deep, droning buzz of static. I was still sitting in the shopping cart, and the cultist was still leaning over me, but their expression had morphed into one of shocked disbelief. Seeing fear on the face of the person who'd stabbed me might have been a great satisfaction to me in any other situation, but right then and there, I was equally as terrified.
I had switched dimensions and was now alone with my attempted murderer.
The thought took a while to sink in, but the clearer it became, the more I felt the need to scream. And yet, not a sound left my lips. My own saliva had turned sour, filling my mouth with an acidic taste. Dread pooled in the pit of my stomach like icy, chilled water and tears were stringing the corners of my eyes. I blinked them away in a hurry, redirecting my gaze at the cultist. They were staring past me in a daze, taking in our changed surroundings before fixing me with a sharp glare.
"Seriously?"
"What?" The word somehow slipped past the lump in my throat.
The cultist made a sweeping gesture at our surroundings. "Where are we? What the hell is this? You don't even have your dimension hopping under control? Not gonna lie, I had higher expectations of you."
"What?" I repeated eloquently.
"You just switched dimensions on my ass. And seeing as you literally crashed into me, I don't think you planned on doing that."
"I didn't," I confirmed.
"That's what I'm talking about."
"You know about dimensions?"
The cultist palmed their face, emitting a deep, low groan. "Clearly."
I scrambled back in the cart, trying to bring some distance between the two of us. I bared my teeth at them, both rows elongating and curving outward. At least I was getting the hang of my physical transformation. "If you come any closer, I'll rip your hand off," I hissed, spittle flying out between my fangs.
"I believe you," they replied, narrowing their eyes at me. "I'm not gonna hurt you."
"That's hard for me to believe."
"Yes, sure. I did and I would again, but not here. Not now. You understand?" they asked pointedly, their voice cutting like a razor blade.
"I'm not sure I do."
"Well, without you, I won't get out of here, and I've stuff to do on the other side." They stepped behind the cart and grabbed onto the handle.
I hastily twisted around to face them. "You know about the finer details of dimension hopping but you can't do it yourself?"
They let out a soft sigh as they began pushing the cart, with me inside, down the empty aisle. "I managed to do it once. Just once. Never again. It's not a great surprise to me that you should be able to switch to the other sides, but I'd thought you'd be able to control it. I think I have your number. I'm pretty sure I know what you are, and we have more in common than you could have probably guessed. That boy you were with on the other hand… I won't lie, he freaks me out. He's got the strangest face and he didn't react to my eyes at all."
"What are you?" I queried, quick to steer him away from the topic of Frankie Preston even though I didn't really expect an honest answer. "How'd you do that the other night? Your… your eye thing?"
"That unsettled you, didn't it? It's not anything I do per se." They shrugged leisurely. "I could just as well ask you where you're hiding your tentacles."
"So you're not human. I didn't think you were," I stated. "What's your business with the Collective? What are you after? Are any of you normal people?"
"As far as I know, I'm the only one who's not." They steered the cart around the corner with a swift, forcible yank and I bumped painfully against the side of the cart. Stifling a yelp, I kept my face straight, looking over the shelves as we passed them. I noticed that some of them weren't entirely empty—there were a couple jars, cans and bags of various goods standing scattered throughout. They looked almost lonely. The cultist, registering my wandering gaze, stopped and grabbed a random plastic jar that looked like it could be containing peanut butter or something of the sort. The label was faded and partially peeled off. They inspected it from all sides before thrusting it into my hands. "Here, open it," they commanded.
"I certainly won't," I replied, a mix of rage and apprehension bubbling in my chest.
"Aren't you curious?"
"No. But if you are, go on and open it yourself."
They grunted, grabbing the jar and unscrewing the red lid. They dropped it to the floor where it bounced off once and rolled away into the darkness. Peering in, their expression remained unchanged. "Nothing. Look." They held it out to me and sure enough, it was empty. I let them hand it to me, intrigue winning me over as I started examining the small container. It was completely unremarkable. I reached two of my fingers inside only for the digits to suddenly be stricken with a searing pain. It flashed through my bones like lightning and I cried out, withdrawing my hand. Suddenly, the floor seemed to quiver. The lights in the store flickered, seeming startlingly bright for a split second only to turn dimly green once more. The cultist let out an involuntary shriek, staggering back before managing to steady themself as everything went back to its former solid state.
"What the fuck was that?" they wheezed.
"An earthquake?" I suggested, not quite knowing what else to say. My pulse was thrumming in my ears, hard enough to split my head in half. It took me a minute to regain a relative state of calm.
"An earthquake? In another dimension? You're messing with me."
"I don't know! Maybe it was… maybe I was nearly jumping back, I have no idea." I shook my head, ignoring the throbbing pain shooting through my temples. "I don't have it all figured out yet, but it's an emotional response. Whenever my flight instinct gets triggered, these dimension switches happen. It was the jar. The jar is painful inside."
"What do you mean?" they asked, eagerly reaching for the jar and sticking their pinky finger into it. They pulled it back out with a howl, letting the jar drop to the floor. "What the hell is up with this place?"
"How would I know?" I argued hotly.
"Yeah, well. Anyways." All of a sudden, their hand was in my hair, tugging on my braid. They yanked my head to the side, and before I could break out my tentacles or try to snap my jaws at them, I could feel their hot breath on my nape. A scream died in my throat, equal parts painful and shocked. My eyes burned, my vision swimming when the cultist dragged their teeth across my skin, leaving a trail of warm saliva. And then, fast and without mercy, they bit down.
The lights turned bright white. The static buzzing that had been hanging in the stale air changed to the familiar eighties music tunes. Squinting into the sudden brightness, the colors of the countless types of packaged products filling the shelves almost seemed to be screaming at me.
We were back.
The cultist disentangled themself, quickly stepping away from me. I looked up, still dazed, to see why. Frankie Preston had come up behind us, snatching the cart away from the other person and pulling it out of their reach. I immediately scrambled up to wrap my arms around him. "That's them," I breathed. "From the Collective."
"I know," he said tonelessly. His eyes, trained on the blonde, spelled murder. "You should get out of here," he added, addressing them. "The shelves here are rickety, they might fall on you."
The cultist's expression was a frozen mix of suppressed uncertainty and confusion. Still, they held the server's gaze. "You should maybe not… do anything stupid," they uttered, their voice almost equally as flat as his.
"I'm all about stupid."
"Then I guess I ought to leave. See you guys soon. It was a pleasure." They threw us a smile that was faker than Frankie's when he waited tables before marching off, leaving the two of us alone in the aisle.
"Are you alright?" Fran asked, running a hand over my mussed braid. "What happened? I'm so… one minute you were here and the next…"
"We switched dimensions."
"I pieced that together. You weren't gone for long… just a couple minutes." He nervously twisted his wet bubble gum around the tip of his finger, drawing nervous strings.
"Were you worried?"
"Out of my mind," he said in a low voice, not meeting my gaze. "I mean, I knew you'd be okay on your own, I wasn't saying that—"
"I wasn't. I'm not," I interrupted him. "I got out alright, sure I did, but I'm not okay right now." I swallowed. My throat was bone dry. "I need to call Mary Markov. She should hear about this."
Frankie nodded along. "Do you want me to do it for you? I'm certain I can give her an accurate description."
I declined and sat back in the cart. Per my request, Fran brought me home after we'd paid for everything. I needed some time alone to relax and pretend everything was normal. I cleaned my room and then looked through job listings, which I admittedly haven't done in a little while. When I couldn't find any other way to procrastinate, I made the call to Mary Markov, which went about as well as could be expected. She wants to see me tomorrow, though. I wish she'd told me about what. For a newsreader, she's really not very forward with her information.
X
1
2: deadbeat roommate
3: creepy crush
4: relocation
5: beach concert
6: First date
7: Temp work
8: roommate talk
9: a dismal worldview
10: warehouse
11: staircase
12: explanation
13: hurt
14: hospital
15: ocean
16: diner
17: government work
18: something in the caves

I feel so hopeless and like such a failure. I've live with my sister for the past 12 years and well now she's moving on to better things. I'm happy for her and her family. But Now I am left in a crappy apartment that I cannot afford on my own. I've had the same job for the last 10 years I get paid $17, paid sick (160 hrs) paid vacation (100 hrs) paid holidays off. and work Monday- Friday I love my job plus what it offers but I cannot survive on it. So now my options are leave this job for a full time low paying job that i might hate, look for a part time job in the evenings, or rent out the other bedroom and live with strangers. To make it worse my growing teenager wants his own room (we share one) and I feel like shit for putting us in this position. I have failed. I have no motivation to better myself, I have no drive. I feel so stuck. I have applied for part time jobs and nothing, who wants to hire a 40yr old with a high school diploma. To make it worse landlord want to increase rent. I just feel so lost and hopeless. why do I not have the drive to better myself. I know I'm to blame and that others have it worse than me. But I feel so left behind.

Back at it again, been away due USPS losing a tracked package, my first one in all my time here mind you, I guess I will be dropping off at the counters now. Aside that looking to offload something’s to reinvest into my YouTube channel, link in bio!
I am prioritizing my want list so that means I’m not looking at binders.. sorry.
HEADS UP I DONT HAVE MUCH OF THE NEWEST SETS CARDS IN THIS POST BUT STILL THANK YOU FOR LOOKING
Looking to let off the cards for TCGPLAYER 5k+ sales verified plus fees!

Binder #1
Binder #2
===== WANTS =====
NEAR MINT - VLP ENGLISH ONLY
[Mix of rarity]

• • Sealed LART Exodia set
• • 3x Shadow-Imprisoning Mirror - Duel Terminal 7
• • Discard (error card)
• • Card of Safe Return

[Super Rares] * • 1x PGD Necrovalley (Unlimited) * • 1x TU02 Gravekeeper's Assailant * • 2x DB2 Royal Decree
[Ultra Rares] * • MRD 1st Ed Mirror Force * • Hobby League cards 1x MST, 3x Card of Safe Return, 1x Creature Swap * • Magicians Unite Champion Pack 3 (CP03) * • FET 1st Ed Gatling Dragon - Flaming Eternity
[Secret Rares , all 1stED where applicable] * • 3x LCJW Solemn Judgement * • 2x 1st INOV Starving Venom Fusion Dragon * • PCK Secret Rare Blue-Eyes (NM-LP) * • Dark Magician Girl MFC 1st (NM-LP) * • 1x Dimensional Barrier 1st INVO * • GBI Egyptian god secret rare cards * • 3x Fossil Dyna Pachycephalo LOD 1st * • 3x DANE Gnomaterial * • 3x Ghost Belle FLOD 1st * • 1x CBLZ Spellbook of the Master * • 1x TSC Graceful Dice * • 1x Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon MRL-E000 * • 1x BOSH TrapTrix Rafflesia * • 1x LCYW Change of Heart
[Ultimate Rares] * • 1x Castel, The Skyblaster Musketeer * • 1st Ed Majester Paladin, the Ascending Dracoslayer * • 3x 1st Ed Spellbook of Fate * • 1st Ed. Gattling Dragon * • 3x Ulti Necrovalley * • Night beam * • Dark World Dealing * • Allure of Darkness * • A Feather of a Phoenix * • Into the Void * • Night Beam * • Card Trader * • Scramble Scramble!! * • Veil of darkness * • Triggered Summon 1st * • Miraculous Rebirth 1st
[Ghost Rares] * • Ghost Dark Magician
[Collector Rares] * • 1x CR 1st Ed Black Luster Solider * • 3x CR Trap Trick * • 3x CR Droll & Lock Bird
[Starlight Rares] * • Starlight Ip Masq. * • 3x Starlight Effect Veilers * • Gloomy aka Dark Charmer * • Accesscode Talker * • Borreload Savage Dragon * • Exodia the Forbidden One Pieces
==MAGIC==

• Hurricane
• Bayou

(Not straight buying any as of right now unless putting towards trades)
==== Rules====

• Minimum of 10 dollars PLEASE for shipping PWE!
  
• PWE can only hold 6 cards… if it exceeds that we’re looking at tracked I am so sorry… I have been sending out orders PWE and people have been getting postage fees owed due to the weigh
  
• Anything over $40 gets free tracked shipping, otherwise I will ask $4 for shipping for tracking or at your own risk in PWE envelope. USA shipping
  

*Currently not shipping to Canada unless PWE (+$2 dollars for the stamp) due to two too many issues.

• FIRST COME FIRST SERVE WHICH ALSO MEANS IF SOMEONE HAS CASH READY I WILL PRIORITIZE THEM OVER WAITING FOR YOU I HAVE BEEN BURNED MANY TIMES WAITING*

I'm happy to provide closeups of anything if needed. Hopefully Drive has better image quality where you can access the cards easiest without waiting for me to respond.
SHIPPING OUT ORDERS ALL AFTER TOMORROW!
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I am torn between the TCL FLip 2 and the Sunbeam F1.... I've done a lot of thinking in regards to what I actually need versus want in a dumbphone and I've come down to these:
​
NEEDS:
- Calls (reliable in both getting them and making them as well as audio clarity)
- Texting (group texts needed and texts being in order is important)
- Maps
- voice to text
- flashlight
- voice recorder or camera
-alarm clock/timer
- Bluetooth (I drive around 3k miles per month so being able to hook up to my 2014 mini would be superb!)
​
BONUSES/NICETIES:
- music is a bonus not necessarily needed
- Radio is a nice to have not a need
- headphone jack
- prefer non-touch screens but touch screens are not a deal breaker
- Hotspot would be great (I know the sunbeam doesn't have it)
- Email bonus not necessarily needed (simply to make sure I get time sensitive emails from my sons school)
- Smaller sized phone that can fit in a pocket easily (I have an iphone 13 mini so ideally not to much bigger than the mini)
​
​
I've been reading up on the Sunbeam F1 and the TCL Flip 2
- Can anyone speak to their experiences with these phones?
- Which is better in terms of quality, reliability, battery, etc.
I know the TCL Flip 2 is on TracFone and I've never used them, I'm in the northeast USA (near New York). Is TracFone a good service providereliable? I'm looking to keep my monthly phone bill to be no more than $20-$30/month. I make a lot of phone calls to a friend/coworker (as in we can be on the phone for 2-4 hours per day sometimes doing remote work). I'm open to all providers (at&t, verizon, tmobile and any mnvos) and would like recommendations if TracFone isn't good long-term as I know you need to be with them 60 days before the TCL Flip 2 is able to be unlocked.
I've heard great things about the Sunbeam F1. I know it doesn't have hotspot and that's been the one thing that has held me back as I figured keeping my smartphone turned off as backup would be nice in case I needed better maps or QR or 2FA for an emergency. I reached out to Sunbeams customer support and they are working on a Sunbream F1 Pro line up and they told me they believe hotspot will hopefully be a feature of one of the Pros and that the Pro is expected to come out in a couple months. So there aren't any guarantee's on hotspot or even a date on when the Pro is expected to be out.
​
Would love thoughts as I am not able to stick to my Nokia 225 4G given that there are no group texts, texts come in out of order, and other glitchy aspects that make it hard for me to commit to this phone over my iphone and I don't want to use my iphone outside of for work (I own my own business and need slack for clients).
Thanks in advance!

Yesterday I just interviewed for a Starbucks near me, I feel like it went well and I'm really hoping to get the job. The manager said that I should get a response in a few days but I had another interview where they said something similar and never called, when do they typically call and how many days should I wait before calling to ask about the job? Do they also call to tell you to not get the job?

Hi, and thank you in advance for taking the time to read. Let me start by saying I swear I'm not having a mid-life crisis. Everything is fine I'm just super indecisive.
So, my son (8m), my fiance (24f) and I (32m) live together in a 3 bedroom townhouse owned by her father. This essentially means we're getting a brea on the rent (paying $1350 per month when it should be around $1900-$2100). Back when covid hit and I got laid off I decided to leave the union and quit iron-working. I found a government grant that paid for me to go to Hvac school for free.
I graduated and made $100k my first year and around $135k my second. Iron-working I was making about $70k-$75k so this was a huge bump.
The only amoun of "splurging" I've done is paid roughly $30k to build the 1963 Chevy II SS I've been dragging around with me since I was 16, and the upcmoing wedding in October costing around $20k (FIL is contributing $10k and MIL is contributing $5k) so only $5k out of pocket for me.
Now keep in mind, before switching to Hvac I had virtually no savings and was living paycheck to paycheck. Currently I have about $18k in a roth ira account because my new employer doesnt offer 401k and I had to move out of my previoud employers provider. I have about $28k between my checkings and savings, another $70k in cash, about $10k in silver, and another $5k between a robinhood, wealthfront and charles schwab investment account. At the moment im averaging about $3.5k per week in gross revenue.
Heres the issue.
I am bored beyond belief and I dont feel i make anywhere near the amount of money I want/need to in order to retire by 40 (soft goal). I’m super insecure about my financial portfolio. I am chock full of ideas; some of which I feel could easily be multi-million dollar companies if they aren't already. I am hyper motivated but feeling discouraged after three failed business attempts.
The issues is I have zero network. I grew up super poor and was not by any means a model citizen growing up and have worked very hard and spent hundreds of hours in therapy to sperate myself from not only that lifestyle but from the people I grew up with so I dont have many friends left or at least no "lifers" that I've known for 18+ years or whatever.
I just feel like im at a platue now and I cant figure out what to do to take the next step. I want to take the $130k per year and make it $260k per year. That's what I've done my entire life. My entire resume is level-up list where every new Job I've acquired I've made more money than the lasy or at least improved my quality of living substantially compared to the previous situation and I’m ready for that. I want to have more children with this girl that I love. I want to get big ol house with some land and chickens and more dogs and have toys to fuck around on. I refuse to be one of the antiwork people and cower the the climate of hyper capitalism. I’ll do whatever it takes to make it happens I’m just waiting for that one opportunity to come along. I even have an llc just sitting there doing nothing atm. At the very least I’d love some advice on how best to allocate the $70k cash I have and put that money to work.
Any advice or input is appreciated and I'd love to discuss anything further in the comments! Also my location is Lv, NV.