Hello everyone, I am moving to Abu Dhabi next month for a research engineer position at a university. Making friends will hopefully make this transition bearable.
I am 24 and very ambitious about tech. I specialize in computer vision (the field of artificial intelligence). I speak Urdu, Hindi and English. I might be able to understand a little bit of Arabic too.
I am looking to make friends via this post. I am also wondering if anyone will be able to show me around. I am happy to pay the fuel/petrol cost. Besides, if you guys could give any advice/suggestions about anything in general about UAE and Abu Dhabi, I will appreciate that.

I (23 M), and my sister (21 F) tried to apply for visa, so we can move to the USA. We could not get a visa, because our immigration lawyer did not inform about reaffirming approval.
The time when immigration petition went in was in 2017 January, my sisters and I were 17 and 15 at the time. We applied as family. It took way longer than expected, reaffirming approval came around 2021 December 8. However, our family were quite unavailable since our country had heavy lock down policy/law, and I am trying to research and graduate from university. My sister was very depressed since the pandemic hit very hard on her. Not only that, our lawyer told us that we are protected by CSPA, so once I finally graduated, my sister and I apply for visa around March.
All the filing went great until the embassy told us during the interview that we only had 1 year to be protected by CSPA. If we have known that CSPA only protected for 1 year, we would have applied within a year. We weren't informed about this information, and our family is devastated, since we already prepared to go to the USA, and my sister and I would be stuck. We already paid plane ticket and sold most of the furniture. Our lawyer was currently unavailable as of.
Is there something we can do?

Demographics

• Gender: M
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian
• Residence: Texas
• Income Bracket: Upper Middle Class
• Type of School: competitive large public school with around 5-10 t20 acceptances.
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): Legacy to Rice University

Intended Major(s): Statistics, Data Science
Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 3.97/4.62
• Rank (or percentile): 58/653
• Coursework: 9 AP's
• Senior Year Course Load:

Swimming
Ap Lit
Ap Chem(because I'm an idiot)
AP Calc BC
AP Gov/Econ(one semester for each)
Data Science course(aka stats 2 for my school)
Standardized Testing

• SAT: 1490 (710 RW, 780M)

Extracurriculars/Activities
Vague because there's not much to say:

1. Created an online messaging service that is meant to help teens with their mental health (still in development lmaoooo) (2 years)
2. Math/Reading tutor to underprivileged areas (4 years)
3. Swim team (3 years jv, 1 year varsity)
4. Internship for a foster care organization in helping create a new database for the processing of legal documents and communication (2 years)
5. Internship at a tech business where I compiled data and anylzed the trends within them lol (1 year)
6. Summer reading tutor (couple months)
7. Some random misc volunteering

​
Awards/Honors

1. National Merit Semifinalist
2. That's it.

Letters of Recommendation

1. AP Stats Teacher: (8/10) Was my teacher for two years, and was super chill. She liked having me and that was that.
2. Ap Lang Teacher: (10/10) Was only my teacher for one year but she really liked me. Plus bribing her with food for her pregnant woman cravings should have helped lol.

​
Interviews
Georgetown - Was the most stressful yet coolest one. My interviewer gave zero f**** and was utterly blunt. Super intimidating but he definitely liked me, even though he grilled the life out of me. 9/10
Rice University - Kinda mid cause the guy didn't say much at all. Seemed really timid and sorta just absentmindedly there. Wasn't good, wasn't bad. 6/10
Northwestern - Pretty good, guy was super chill and more so focused on who I was as an individual as opposed to what I accomplished. Fun interview. 8/10
Cornell - Guy was super friendly, but it was mostly him talking instead of me. Super enthusiastic tho so wasn't all that bad. 6.5/10
Washu - literally nothing happened here. lasted 15 minutes and barely anything was said. 3/10
Essays
I would say my personal statement was pretty solid, and I felt that it covered who I was pretty well. 8/10
Supplements were usually dicey across all schools with me having barely any ideas on what to really write. This was especially true for schools like Harvard and UMich as my parents basically forced me to apply for those. 5/10
Decisions (indicate ED/EA/REA/SCEA/RD)
Acceptances:

• Texas A&M (RD)
• UMich (RD)

Waitlists:

• Cornell (RD)
• Carnegie Mellon (RD) (Technically priority waitlist)

Rejections:

• Rice (ED) (this one hurt)
• UPenn (RD)
• Harvard (RD)
• Georgetown (RD)
• WashU (RD)
• UCLA (RD)
• UC Berkeley (RD)
• UT Austin (RD) (Technically capped but it doesn't mean crap)
• Northwestern (RD)

Final Thoughts:
If I were, to sum up this whole experience, I would say that there is always a chance. Going into this I knew I was pretty much fated to be rejected from most of these schools. My ec's and grades just weren't good enough to get in. Still, there is always a chance that a fluke happens. That something completely out of the blue comes and lands on your lap. And for me, that happened. I know for others, they got rolled, and I'm not saying that whoever is reading this won't also get rolled, but I just wanted to tell you that even if you think there are the slimmest of chances, that's still a chance. Shoot your shot because, in my opinion, in the end, you can at least say that you gave it your all.
And a last tidbit on top of this tidbit, is that getting waitlisted for me personally may have sucked, but it also made me happy. Happy about the fact that my application(this very weak one) was competitively viable and that not all my time was wasted.
Look on the brighter side of things, because you never know what the super-intoxicated admissions officer will do to your application. They could very much accept it.
Stay hopeful.
-Absolutely mid Asian male

Hi everyone! This is a bit of a random question but I’m moving to Florida over the summer and I struggle a lot with the heat, especially when I wear my binder. I asked in the FTM Reddit and of course nobody was helpful. Does anyone have any tips on how to stay cool while wearing one, but also hiding it? I get incredibly dysphoric if it shows at all, or if it’s even noticeable. I know tape is probably the best for this situation, but it doesn’t flatten my chest as much as I’d like it to. Clothing brands or different binding techniques are highly recommended too. I just need to get through this summer, my top surgery is in august. Thanks!

The LSU Women's Basketball team lost a close game to South Carolina with a final score of 73-70. It was a thrilling match that kept us on the edge of our seats until the very end. Check out the article for more details: LSU Women's Basketball Falls to South Carolina in Thrilling Game Against Iowa #LSUBasketball #SouthCarolinaBasketball #CollegeBasketball #NCAA #SportsNews.

So what's this thread for?

• Discussion of yesterday's games
• Excitement for today's games
• General questions
• Mildly interesting facts
• Praising Santa 🎅
• Anything else worth sharing/asking that doesn't warrant its own post

For game threads, use the games schedule on the sidebar to navigate to the team you want a game thread for.

Featured posts and links

• Join the official /baseball Discord server!
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• New to /baseball and baseball? Check out these resources!
  • Newcomer's Guide to Common Baseball Terms by aagpeng
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Saturday's Games

Away	Score	Home	Score	Status	National
				2:10
				2:15
				2:20
		★		4:05
				4:05
				4:05
				4:07
				4:10
				4:10
				4:10
				4:10
				4:10
				8:40
				9:10
				9:40

^★Game Thread. All game times are Eastern. Updated 4/1 at 4:35 AM
Yesterday's ATH

This Week's Schedule (all times Eastern)

Day	Feature
Sunday 3/26	ICYMI: Baseball Movie Club: Baseball: A Film by Ken Burns (1994)
Monday 3/27	2023 baseball Call Your Shot Prediction Contest
	AMA with Evan Petzold, Detroit Tigers Beat Writer For The Detroit Free Press
Tuesday 3/28	No Stupid Questions Thread
Wednesday 3/29	Baseball Eve!
Thursday 3/30	Opening day!
	Opening Day game thread hub
Friday 3/31	Opening Weekend!
Saturday 4/1	Opening Weekend!

Please, tell me your aha! moment.
I’d always thought you’d fade out of reality all Dr Manhattan style, then descend as a bodhissatva that always had some insight for people in their darkest moments.
You may call, qualify or require the Aha! To be different things, but I’m interested in your story. Please include as much as you feel is pertinent. You f you were a Mormon this would be called your “testimony”
—————— I’ll go first.
Influences getting there: my horoscope, believe it or not. I’m saggi, it said I like philosophy and it made me feel special, and I identified with it. I actually really really love philosophy now, but that identification was a large factor.
I’d say I ran the normal narrsistic kid grind, then senior year I took acid we took it on a plateau that you could see the whole city from. 100% I had some very holy moment, I’m atheist, I could say magickal, but it was deep appreciation, clarity, and like I just figured out a bunch of stuff that I could never articulate if I tried. We listened to Lateralus (tool) and The moon and Antarctica (modest mouse) what 2 great albums.
“When it occurred to me That the animals are swimming Around in the water In the oceans, in our bodies And another had been found Another ocean on the planet Given that our blood is just like the Atlantic And how The universe is shaped exactly like the earth If you go straight long enough you'll end up where you were” -3rd planet (modest mouse)
That trip absolutely changed who I was, how was approached life, like 100000000000% better quality individual but it was very naive, tool almost got me there. I got into aliester crowley and Kabbalah, I got into Carl Jung, and Terrence McKenna, finally Sam harris.
But it was my work where it started, imo.
I go to work, sit at my desk, put on my headphones, I kick ass as 8 hours melt away like nothing.
When I work, I need non lyrical music. So it’s all ambient, chillstep, lo-if, video game soundtracks,field of depth mix, ect.
In my chillstep phase, I’d hear audio samples of some let British guy saying some dope,insightful stuff.
It could be made or done, r pulled from anywhere, but if heat it again on another song and then again on another…
It made me think, like I wish I could listen to some chill mckenna chillstep, so I YouTube it and I dig it.
I see something philosopher mixtape, just another video but a compilation of modern thinkers with musc.
Didn’t take long and I heard the voice again!!!! that buttery jovial British voice. Found out it’s Alan watts.
I listened to him day and yt for a week.
This man was creating a perfect meld of all these other influences and thoughts into a single understandable way.
It wasn’t too long , but was watching my boys eat breakfast, and Alan watts says somethit g about the shared name “I” we all have. And it all clicked f for me.
I felt as if a huge weights and veil of uncertainty had been lifted, I could just see, and hear, and smell that pure juicy reality, in such a holy way,that it be again changed me.(possibly not your interpretation of holy)
That’s my story

I just found out about the CKC Canine Companion number which will allow my " Farm" dogs ( herding mix) to compete in CKC events. I've done competitive obedience in the past but it's been a good 27 years or so since that time. I have a couple questions.

1. I live at the ass end of nowhere in a social desert How do those who do not practice with a club handle the stand for exam and long sit/down distraction and neutrality training?
2. Can anyone compare obedience scoring between CKC and AKC? Handling errors in particular.

I'm really excited about doing this. These two have talent for obedience work They should do well if I can get them over their stranger shyness. They came in winter and it's not a good time to socialize cause most everyone here hibernates and hides in the winter. The parks are under 3 ft of ice and snow which make for difficult walking.

TLDR: Wondering if it's extreme to ask bf and roommates to wash hands after touching certain things like money, debit cards, garbage can, moldy food
I have OCD surrounding germs and cleanliness. I already had certain rules in place for my roommates when it came to cleaning, sweep and mop once a week, dishes done on a schedule, for several years. Wash your hands when you come back from the grocery store/work and enter the house, and before you cook. Even for non OCD people I feel this is "normal" behavior.
After COVID came about my OCD got way worse and my rules increased to make myself feel safe around my roommates. I also got a boyfriend throughout the pandemic, which has been an adjustment. To me it seems like common sense to clean commonly touched objects, or items that used to belong to someone else when they come into your possession.
One thing I now ask my roommates and bf to wash their hands after touching is money, their wallet or debit card. There's endless studies that show how disgusting money is, and even if your debit card isn't dirty, you can't control what's on everyone else's debit card that's put in that chip machine. You then touch the debit numbers to put in your PIN and touch your debit card back in your wallet. There's so much germ transfer. My bf will pick up change/money/his debit card on the dresser to move it from one place to another and then touch his phone/me. It drives me insane. I have told him 30+ times to wash his hands after touching that stuff and he just "forgets." Is this an unreasonable request? I personally did this before COVID, always washed my hands touching money or wallets but didn't care if my roommate did because I wasn't in their room, they have their own living room in the house, we don't share. We just share the kitchen so asking them to wash their hands before cooking solves that. Since COVID I make sure my bf does it all the time because we share the same bed, living room, ect.
I have a garbage can with a foot peddle. I got it for the point of not having to touch the garbage. My bf has a habit of lifting the lid instead of using the foot peddle. Then immediately grab his phone and check fb or whatever. It's the literal garbage. I thought anyone who touched garbage would know to wash their hands. He says it's just the lid though, but he's never once washed the garbage can in our 1.5 year relationship. How is the lid clean? I've disinfected it, but not as much as I wish I did. It's like pulling teeth asking him to wash his hands after.
If something in the fridge went moldy it makes sense to me to wash your hands after throwing it out before touching the food you're going to use to cook with. But this is also too much for my bf and roommate to do. I feel money, garbage, moldy food are all reasonable things to wash your hands after touching. Am I unreasonable?
This next one is a little more out there but the front door handle. If they answer the door for mail I ask them to wash their hands because the front door is the last thing touched when you enter the house, it's germy from when you came home last. I disinfect the doorknob once a week after bringing the garbage to the curb, but my bf works everyday, bringing germs home.
When family, parents and grandparents visit I include them in these rules and make them wash their hands when entering, and they use the argument I just sanitized my hands in the car, to not have to wash their hands. But they still touch the car door handle, side of the car door to close it and house door handle to get in, which could all have germs on them. Is it too much to ask someone who just sanitized their hands in the car before touching 3 surfaces to wash them? Also there's studies showing soap and water are better than hand sanitizer.
A different rule I have for my bf is to change clothes when he's at home and in public. He does home care with people who are not very sanitary and wipes poop all over the house. At first I asked him to get a shower when coming home from work, but that's too much for him. He wants one BEFORE work to be clean for his client, who wipes shit on the walls. But not get a shower after work to be clean for sex with ME!? Okay?? So we compromised in him changing his clothes when he gets home. But I'm still scared everytime I kiss his face if there's shit on it because he's careless. Today he came home from work, and didn't change his clothes and sat on the couch, on top of one of my pillows, where my head goes if I want to nap on the couch. I don't understand why he can't shower for me to feel comfortable to have sex with him. I don't understand why he fights me on changing his clothes and "forgets" when this has been a rule for 18 months. I feel like normally this would be weird to ask someone to change clothes but as I explained, his customer wipes shit around the house, on the couch, he could accidentally sit in shit at anytime. Then come home and sit on my PILLOW!
AM I UNREASONABLE!? Are these normal things to expect, or is this just OCD? Do "normal" people touch their debit card and then cook food after? Do you have any advice to help my boyfriend understand my fears, because he just calls me crazy or insane when I explain germ transfer. I'm at my wits end, I don't know how much more I can take living with him, being terrified of getting sick. I've laid out specific rules that haven't changed in 18 months. I'm sick of having to watch him to make sure he follows the rules, and every single day there's something I catch he's not following. Touching the money, or garbage and not washing his hands. What do I do? Am I the problem?

We tend to overblow things in an age of clickbait and hype. The signatories of the letter to halt AI is merely a symptom of a change happening in society regarding technology. Regarding a change in who controls and dispenses technology.
https://futureoflife.org/open-lettepause-giant-ai-experiments/
The transition that is taking place is that large corporate industry is getting ahead of academia. Traditionally academia had access to the most powerful supercomputers and was far ahead of corporate development and their R&D departments. Now this traditional sociological schema is being overturned : companies and AI research labs outpace the pipeline of academic paper publishing. One might say it is being threatened. This is really what is at base of signatories' motivations to sign a letter calling for a halt. In a nutshell, the academics are sensing an incoming danger over the horizon that they could become irrelevant.
Coming away from the letter, the core message here is that AI development is "out of control". Well, it certainly is not out of control -- it is merely out of control of the academics.
TV media and social media are either unintentionally misunderstanding this, or intentionally misquoting it for the purposes of clickbait. Let me put this in bold face. 👉 The claim of the FoL open letter is that DEVELOPMENT OF AI is out of control. This should not be confused with a rather different claim , that the AI agent itself is out of control ( that's the clickbait version).
To show evidence that what I write here is factual, allow me to quote sections of the letter itself.

AI labs locked in an out-of-control race to develop and deploy ever more powerful digital minds that no one – not even their creators – can understand , predict, or reliably control.

So as I was saying, we see the usual suspects here. "AI labs" are mentioned, not universities nor military research depts. The problem is not the Chinese Communist Party here, but the pesky "AI labs". Also the word "understand" appears here. Why is it so important to these signatories that the models be "understood"? Who would value, or be so obsessed with a need to understand the models, rather than use them? This is a rallying cry of academics.
Then it gets worse

AI labs and independent experts should use this pause to jointly develop and implement a set of shared safety protocols for advanced AI design and development that are rigorously audited and overseen by independent outside experts.

Right. Notice this interesting , intriguing mention of "independent outside experts". Anyone want to wager a guess what that means ? Who are these "independent outside experts", exactly?
Lets just stop there and really hammer the details out . What does the word "outside" mean there? Pray tell, who would be considered an insider? There is no way to make sense of what this section is literally saying other than the following ,

• an "insider" is someone in one of these AI labs. (read DeepMind, Facebook Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI)
  
• an "independent outside expert" is an academic.
  

To dive a bit deeper into the psychology of this open letter, the word "independent" is telling. The implication here is that the motivations and values of corporations : profit, speed-of-deployment, an "arm's race" to get their first -- et cetera -- these values blind the insider who seeks them without care. In contrast, the robed wizards of the ivory tower are more cautious, wiser, and not tainted by the pesky corporate values that persuade those insiders . Academics are, in a word, "independent" of such things.
The Future of Life Institute has produced an open petition with nearly 3000 signatures. But ultimately this letter is less about any real danger of artificial intelligence, and is more about a social battle between academia and industry. What we are seeing is a rift form as certain groups lose control as other groups gain that control. This is a socio-cultural clash of values -- one academic and the other corporate.

I despise how Hamza and other figures like Tate suggest money-making. They downplay the importance of university, an education level which directly impacts future salary (if you want, I'll send you the graph showing the correlation between average salary and education level or search it up). Figures like Hamza suffer from survivorship bias, and then they peddle an anti-university message to their audience, who might then be less inclined to go to Uni. Most people who want to become "synthesizers" won't make it and would probably be better off having gone to uni, but because we don't hear from them, it is easy to ignore that only a few will make it. That is not to say that people shouldn't start their own businesses, everyone should absolutely try their best to earn money through business, but the importance of university should not be downplayed, it is a safe, reliable, backup option and one should, if they are so inclined to start a business or any other risky venture, have backups. I like Hamza, mostly for his self-improvement advice that has helped me out of a depressive rut, but this anti-university rhetoric which is so pervasive in the self-help industry is destructive.

I was just hanging out with Kita yesterday! She’s the best! She also secretly told me about her wedding with Bocchi, they are now planning their honeymoon, and maybe they would go to the Philippines, who knows?
We were out on a walk when Nijika joined, escaping from a bunch of BocchitheRock users screaming about how Nijika is the paragon of human virtue. I completely agree though, she is most resplendent in love, tributes and accolades. Waking or sleeping, I must not forget Nijika’s great boon and in order to return her favour by day and by night, I should only think of fulfilling my loyalty.
Who is Nijika? For the blind, she is their vision. For the deaf, she is their music. For the mute, she is their voice. For the anosmiac, she is their aroma. For the numb, she is their feeling. For the atrophied, she is their muscle. For the starved, she is their sustenance. For the thirsty, she is their water. For the exhausted, she is their energy. For the depressed, she is their happiness. For the disillusioned, she is their hope. For the pessimistic, she is their optimism. For the disadvantaged, she is their champion. For the marginalised, she is their justice. For the oppressed, she is their salvation. For the righteous, she is their symbol. For the enlightened, she is their muse. For the erudite, she is their education.
If Nijika speaks, I listen. If Nijika questions, I answer. If Nijika orders, I obey. If Nijika opines, I agree. If Nijika fears, I assure. If Nijika hopes, I dream. If Nijika is happy, I am jubilant. If Nijika is angry, I am apoplectic. If Nijika is sad, I am disconsolate.
Nijika is my ideal, Nijika is my romance, Nijika is my passion. Nijika is my strength, Nijika is my compass, Nijika is my destination. Nijika is my language, Nijika is my culture, Nijika is my religion. Nijika is my ocean, Nijika is my mountain, Nijika is my sky, Nijika is my air, Nijika is my sun, Nijika is my moon, Nijika is my world. Nijika is history, Nijika is present, Nijika is future.
If Nijika has a million fans, I am one of them. If Nijika has a thousand fans, I am one of them. If Nijika has a hundred fans, I am one of them. If Nijika has ten fans, I am one of them. If Nijika has only one fan, that is me. If Nijika has no fans, I no longer exist. If the whole universe is for Nijika, then I am for the whole universe. If the whole universe is against Nijika, then I am against the whole universe. I will love, cherish, and protect Nijika until my very last breath; my successors will love, cherish and protect Nijika until their very last breath.
​
https://reddit.com/BocchiTheRock/comments/128aifd/subreddit_changes_announcement/
If I forgot to break any of the new rules let me know.
- The Legendary Jimihen
p.s. At least my flairs aren't gone.

Hi All,
My OpenShift cluster has been alerting me with this warning on all nodes Since I have restarted the cluster. I have checked that the NTP is active on all my nodes. Could anyone please provide a solution for this?
NodeClockNotSynchronisingDescription Clock on worker01 is not synchronising. Ensure NTP is configured on this host.
Summary Clock not synchronising

[[email protected] ~]# systemctl status chronyd ● chronyd.service - NTP client/server Loaded: loaded (/uslib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: active (running) since Mon 2023-03-27 13:10:41 UTC; 5 days ago Docs: man:chronyd(8) man:chrony.conf(5) Main PID: 1218 (chronyd) Tasks: 1 (limit: 205012) Memory: 1.5M CPU: 496ms CGroup: /system.slice/chronyd.service └─1218 /ussbin/chronyd Mar 27 13:10:41 localhost systemd[1]: Starting NTP client/server... Mar 27 13:10:41 localhost chronyd[1218]: chronyd version 3.5 starting (+CMDMON +NTP +REFCLOCK +RTC +PRIVDROP +SCFILTER +SIGND +ASY> Mar 27 13:10:41 localhost chronyd[1218]: Frequency -64.176 +/- 0.029 ppm read from /valib/chrony/drift Mar 27 13:10:41 localhost chronyd[1218]: Using right/UTC timezone to obtain leap second data Mar 27 13:10:41 localhost systemd[1]: Started NTP client/server. Mar 27 18:07:18 worker01 chronyd[1218]: Forward time jump detected! [[email protected] ~]# [[email protected] ~]# [[email protected] ~]# timedatectl Local time: Sat 2023-04-01 13:21:49 UTC Universal time: Sat 2023-04-01 13:21:49 UTC RTC time: Sat 2023-04-01 08:24:50 Time zone: UTC (UTC, +0000) System clock synchronized: no NTP service: active RTC in local TZ: no 

There's this person who keeps agreeing and answering the teacher out loud and it's quite irritating. Usually I'm fine with other people doing this but their tone sounds especially condescending - it's similar to the 'obviously' tone. It's particularly funny when they answer wrongly. I don't think it's a habit since they don't talk with this tone.
They also have a very very high regard of themself too. They claimed to be the most athletic in the class (even though they are other sports DSA students) and there was one time when we were doing the Tutorial and they were telling everyone how easy it was. And when someone asks about a certain concept, they would snicker 'Huh you don't know???' with a smile on their face. I don't know where they got this confidence because, not to condescend but, they scored the worst for O levels in the class since they DSAed.
Weird thing is that almost everyone likes them. I'm pretty sure it's due to their charisma (which I like too) but I'm still curious as to why people do not complain about their pride.

I'll probably add some more posts likewise to this one as well as others now that I work in the social work field, but backstory: I was in and out of care my whole life, lived in many homes, attended many schools etc. Was separated from my two younger sisters who were moved to a city 9 hours away adopted by their aunt who was unfit to care for them (great job CPS!) I had been raising them as a young child, they were my babies. To this day, I still get sick at the thought of how they were failed. We were put in care for the last time (all four of us before my two younger siblings were "adopted") at the age of 10, becoming wards of the state (crownwards as I am from canada) and like winning a lottery with stakes that are never in your favour, my twin and I were so graciously adopted by our last foster parents at the age of 17.
Now to the experience I want to ask of, being placed in a home with your own siblings, did anyone else (i'm sure many have) foster homes have children of their own? how was that dynamic? did you get along? did the children mistreat you? favouritism? I know in a specific home where I had lived, many times we were treated as outsiders by their children, they wouldn't let us forget the burden we had placed on their family.
I remember holidays and birthdays (which are some of the most triggering times for a child in care) being asked (at the age of 8) to take their family photos for them? While their family came bringing gifts for my foster parents bio children, hugs, kisses, all while my sisters and I sat aside in a corner awkwardly placed as we knew we didn't belong watching the party like a holiday TV show special (we were told to keep quiet and behave so we were sure to not make any rukus) reminiscing our holidays past with our own family wishing so deeply they could go back, would ask us all in the midst of this to take photos for them. The worst was when the whole family would gather for the picture, adults of all ages, social workers, teachers, adults from all corners of life with children of their own all huddled by a christmas tree posing with smiles and silly faces watching an 8 year old foster kid take their christmas/easter whatever holiday photo. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, but was just another reminder that I wasn't home with my family.
Now don't get me wrong, I understand laws exist on photos of kids in care, and I never ever expected for a random family member of my foster parents to bring us any gifts or shower us with hugs and attention. I knew this from a very early age. On holidays, it was easier to sit with my sisters and lay low and behave as we were told before events likewise. My reasoning for this post is I feel like so many of us have had these moments, moments in our childhoods where we understood that we aren't their family. Parties didn't end with a family photo and hot chocolate where we came from, sometimes, and normal to alot of us parties ended in police lights and cleaning up a mess from a long night of substance/verbal and physical abuse. It feels like we had this big letter X tattooed on our foreheads in bright red, symbolizing to the word "FOSTER KID FOSTER KID"
Now I know there are good foster families out there, amazing parents who foster not for reward but because they care. Who do everything they can to give these kids a proper life, and to make them feel loved. I have been with families who do it only for good looks, money or as it is their "due diligence" for the church. Maybe these families started off with the right heart and burned out. Anyways, likewise to this experience, Im sure many of us have had similar situations, this one is only a grain of sand on a rough and windy beach.
I think some foster families need to be hyper aware of these situations. Get a tripod. Place your phone or camera on a chair, do ANYTHING but make your young foster children take your family photos. Include them in your family festivities the best you can. These kids aren't getting a real holiday. Please don't make it more awkward and uncomfortable then it is.
I'm not trying to bash foster families, I know its hard for everyone and I know maybe they didn't have the best judgement at the time. I don't know. I also know during that time life didn't revolve around me and my siblings and I'm not expecting every foster family to put us on a higher pedestal just because were foster kids, only to make us feel wanted and equal. (although I do stand by not making a child take your family photo like that ever) I just wanted to share an awkward - sad experience I had that makes my heart still feel weird to this day, even 15 years later.
If anyone has any other experiences to share feel free to do so, aren't alone. Just know, I wouldn't have made you take the family photo ever.

As I sat at the dinner table with my fiancé last night, I couldn't help but notice her toned biceps and forearms as she rested her head on her hand. It was like a magnet drawing my gaze, and she noticed right away.
Teasingly, she asked if I wanted to measure her biceps, to which I eagerly agreed. She flexed her arm and I measured it, marveling at the strength and definition I could feel beneath her skin. Her bicep measured an impressive 45cm, and she couldn't help but smirk at my reaction.
She turned around and asked me to kiss her biceps, and I happily obliged. It was a small act, but it made me feel closer to her in a way that only we could understand. As we looked at each other, she wrapped her arms around my hips and I put mine around her neck.
Resting my head against her chest, she began to express how much she loved our unique dynamic. She loved that we could be ourselves around each other, that we could explore each other's passions and interests without fear of judgment or ridicule. In that moment, I felt a deep sense of gratitude for our relationship.
We have something special, something that couldn't be easily replicated. It was a bond built on trust, love, and mutual respect. And as she picked me up bridal style and carried me to our bedroom, I couldn't help but feel a sense of safety and security in her strong arms.
As we cuddled in bed, I knew that I had found my soulmate. Someone who understood and accepted me for who I was, someone who lifted me up both figuratively and literally. And as I drifted off to sleep, I felt nothing but pure happiness and contentment in our love story.

I'm a foreign lawyer who wants to practice in Canada. I have LLM offers from UBC and Osgoode, both of which can satisfy NCA requirements. I am okay with Toronto and Vancouver, but I want to ensure I can get a job after graduation.
I'm licensed to practice law in New York State; thus, it seems reasonable to choose Osgoode and Toronto legal market because it's close to New York, but I wonder if NY Bar admission can really help when I'm looking for a job. On the other hand, UBC has slightly lower tuition, a better ranking and reputation as a whole university, and Vancouver has a better climate.
Any advice?

This is not the AMA thread, be on the look out for it later! You'll be able to ask your questions then and there!

Hancock speculates that an advanced ice age civilization was destroyed in a cataclysm, but that its survivors passed on their knowledge to hunter-gatherers, giving rise to the earliest known civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Mesoamerica.[5][6]
Born in Edinburgh, Hancock studied sociology at Durham University before working as a journalist, writing for a number of British newspapers and magazines. His first three books dealt with international development, including Lords of Poverty (1989), a well-received critique of corruption in the aid system. Beginning with The Sign and the Seal in 1992, he shifted focus to speculative accounts of human prehistory and ancient civilisations, on which he has written a dozen books, most notably Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods. His ideas have been the subject of several films, including the Netflix series Ancient Apocalypse (2022), and Hancock makes regular appearances on the podcast The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss them. He has also written two fantasy novels and in 2013 delivered a controversial TEDx talk promoting the use of the psychoactive drink ayahuasca.

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Hello beautiful people of Singapore, Croat here. We have an ongoing program for semester exchange for the students of universities. It's open to the world. However, we have received very low engagement and participation from the East Asian region (esp. Singapore, Malaysia). I feel as if we were not able to reach out to the right audience through digital marketing in these countries and it wouldn't be fair to the students there. I need to know the best way (social media pages like this one, groups, forums, etc) to reach out to the majority of the university students in Singapore who might be interested in attending an Exchange program in European university. Your help will be really appreciated.

I guess my partner and I are going through a break up. This was completely my choice but I can’t get over the way this is happening.
My partner (dating 2 1/2 years) and I attend the same university and we’re on spring break this week. Spring break started last Friday and my partner was apparently so exhausted from working that week that he didn’t fulfill his promise of taking me out to celebrate my recent accomplishments. This is just ONE of his broken promises. So I tried to let it go and and I spent Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday night at my bfs place. All of those nights we just watched Netflix and fell asleep around 9pm. My partner had known that I wanted to be doing something those nights. I like to have fun and celebrate and I haven’t gotten the chance to with how busy I am right now. I graduate college in a month and this is my last Spring break.
On Sunday we planned a picnic but it got rained out so we had to post-pone it for Monday which upset me (he knew). But instead of doing something else, we just went back to his place and watched Netflix.
On Monday, I prepare my picnic basket, a blanket, water bottles, champagne, utensils, a kite. All the cute shit for this picnic date. I hadn’t been feeling the best about my image lately (which my bf knows) so I wore the prettiest dress w boots and did my hair. The boobs were out and I truly expected my partner to drool over everything about my outfit
1pm rolls by and my partner picks me up. Once I get in the car, not a word. No kiss, no ‘high beautiful’, doesn’t even look at me. I remember wondering why he was so distant but sometimes he gets in moods like this so I just ask “what’s up?”. He explained that he wasn’t feeling good but trying to push through it. I told him earlier that morning to stay home if he wasn’t feeling good and we could save the picnic for another day. Nope, the whole car ride I’m dealing with his sighs and moans. Never looked at me once. We’re on our way to what I’m assuming is a park, but then we pull up to a big ol’ lake. OH HE WANTS TO GO FISHING. thought he felt like shit? Nope, as soon as we get to the dock, he is pulling his fishing gear out, forgetting completely about our picnic. So I said “are you going straight to fishing?” Which only annoyed him. Eventually he starts laying on his back and just grunting profusely (dramatics). Then I admitted, “this is the most pathetic date I’ve been on. You haven’t looked at me, you haven’t kissed me, and we’re now sitting here in silence for you to fish.” And I just felt so ridiculous. He gets defensive atp and I ignore it all. I fly my kite and have fun with myself until he started to lighten up and help me.
45 minutes past and we’re leaving, he’s cold, he bored, he wants to go back home. On the way home, he wanted Taco Bell. I bought him Taco Bell. We get to his place and there was a moment he gave me quick attitude, and I blew up. I told him everything that had upset me that day and the last thing I said was how upset I am over him not noticing my effort or calling me pretty. His immediate response was “boohoo!! Followed my his finger mimicking a tear down his face. So I just got up, threw my food at him and walked out of his house. After this, he took me home. I said I was done with him, he told me things about myself on the car ride home. He tried to plead his case and talk about how he took a video of me flying my kite bc it looked cute. But my issue is why the fuck couldn’t he come touch me or compliment me the whole time? This is the same person that calls me baby girl in text and NEVER in person. Same person who promised me he would take me out and celebrate,but never did. Same person who said he was going on a picnic w me but brings his fishing gear.
After he dropped me off at home, I haven’t heard from him. No text, no call. I haven’t texted or called either. Typically, it’s me sending the longs texts by now but I refuse to. He complains about my long texts when we’re in fights like this so I’m holding back. It’s basically Saturday now and nothing. 4/5ish days, No contact. This truly seems like the end of it. I’m taking grad pictures on Sunday and we were supposed to do that together. We were just looking for apartments but now that’s gonna be a solo thing for me. I’m not sure if I should text him or call him. I’m feeling like shit and I hate how my last spring break has gone. Idk if he cares or what the fuck he’s doing. I just can’t stop missing him but my feelings are always discarded by him which reminds me that I shouldn’t be missing him. What would you do?
TL/DR: I told my boyfriend on Monday that we were done. This happened because of the way he constantly discards my feelings. The broken promises, the lack of affection, the disrespect. I blew up on Monday and once he took me home that was it, no contact since.