Participate in an Interview Study on Psychedelics Use in People with a History of Psychosis UAB IRB Protocol #: IRB-300009865 Principal Investigator: Haley Dourron, B.S. Sponsor: UAB Department of Health Behavior; Source Research Foundation [This study has been posted before but, we need a few more participants] How do classic psychedelics affect people with a history of psychosis? Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham are currently conducting interviews with people who have experienced both non-affective psychosis AND have used psychedelics after their first psychotic episode. Please do not comment. Contact the study team directly if you have questions. To find out more about the study, see the screening survey landing page: https://uab.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV\_37WUW5cSvk7b2vA What will you be asked to do? Complete a screening survey that takes approximately 20 minutes. This survey will ask information about your mental health history, drug use, and current quality of life.Participate in two confidential interviews with a researcher from the University of Alabama at Birmingham over a secure version of Zoom. These interviews will last between 30 to 75 minutes each. These interviews will focus on your experiences with psychosis, psychedelics, and possibly other substances, such as cannabis. Who is eligible to participate? --- Volunteers who are over 18 --- Volunteers who have used a classic psychedelic (such as “magic mushrooms,” LSD, or ayahuasca) after their first episode of psychosis. --- Volunteers who are not in an acute state of psychosis and/or currently receiving in-patient mental health treatment. --- Volunteers with a history of non-affective psychosis. This could be a single episode of psychosis, or part of an illness such as schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. People who have only experienced psychosis within the context of bipolar disorder or major depression with psychotic features do not qualify. Will I be paid for participating? Each participant will receive up to $40.00 in payment for participation. For each interview you complete you will be paid $20.00. Participation in the screening survey is not compensated. If you have any questions, please contact Haley Dourron ([email protected]). This survey has been approved by the moderators.

I have new MICHELIN Primacy MXM4 tires. I live in Toronto/GTA. During winter, I rarely drive long distances and mostly drive to nearby stores that are about three minutes away from my home. I avoid cold weather, especially snow. Maybe I'm being stupid, but should I consider buying winter tires?

In a few years from now I will graduate college and work. I am wondering about where I should live or what place is right for me. Right now I live in a small town in Indiana. I was thinking about moving to a somewhat bigger city in Indiana, but now I’m not to sure if I want to stay here or not. One of my friends thinks I would like it in Japan and another thinks I would like it in California. So I’m going to list my preferences for what kind of area I would want to live in or just random information that might make a difference.
-I prefer to live in a suburban type area. (Somewhere that isn’t a huge city but not a small town either.)
-I want to live in a house. I would hate living in an apartment building forever.
-I would want to have my own car and drive it around. I don’t think I would like being in a subway all the time.
-I don’t want to live somewhere that has a high crime rate. I want there to be little crime.
-I want to live in a safe place. I don’t want to deal with dangerous places weather that be people or issues with nature.
-I think it would be cool to live in a beachy area but I also don’t want to deal with hurricanes.
-I think it would be cool to live in California but they have a lot of wildfires and things are expensive there. But maybe it wouldn’t matter if I made a lot of money.
-I want a decent sized backyard. I want to own a trampoline.
-I don’t plan on having kids and I probably won’t get married either.
-I want to be able to walk around and get exercise.
-I would want there to be nice places to shop.
-I don’t want to live in a boring place with nothing to do.
-I would love to explore my city and go to new places in it and walk around a lot.
-I would prefer to be in a liberal area. I would want to be around people that are pro lgbt.
-If I ever got raped and got pregnant I would want to get an abortion.
-I want to live around kind and chill people.
-I want it to be quite around my house, or at least pretty quite. As for in town I don’t care as much.
-I can’t handle supper hot environments. I have been to Florida and it’s too hot for me. I wouldn’t prefer to live in a super cold environment either but if I had to choose I would prefer a cold environment over a hot one. But a place with like a 60 degree Fahrenheit temperature would be nice.
-I don’t want to live in a poor area. I want to live in a place that I would make a lot of money from or at least a decent amount. (I plan on becoming an interior designer.)
-I would probably need to live in a somewhat busy city for my job. There aren’t many interior design jobs in small towns.
-I would probably prefer to live in the U.S. If I did move to a different country I would probably go to Canada.
-I hate super busy traffic.
-I get lost easily and I need to use a GPS a lot.
-I don’t know if I really care about being around relatives. A lot of my friends and family live out of state and my parents and grandparents and a couple of other relatives live in Indiana. I wouldn’t mind not seeing them all the time.
-I would want to live in a house that’s modern, minimalistic, and an average size.
-I would prefer to live at least somewhat close to work.
-I don’t want to work more than 40 hours a week. A couple of hours less would be cool. I would want a lot of vacation breaks. I would not want to work on the weekends. I would probably like a normal Monday through Friday 9-5 job.
-I would prefer to stay in one area and not move around all the time.
-I have a tree but allergy so even if I did move to a random country I would have to be careful about the food. I also hate seafood.
-I want to do my own laundry at my house.
-I like cloudy weather the best.
-I hate snow and ice and I get super anxious when driving in the winter.
-I don’t like wind and I don’t care for super sunny weather.
-I don’t mind rain that much.
-I don’t want to be in a super foggy place.
-I want to be able to hang out with friends on the weekends.
So based on this information, what place do you think would fit best for me? Thanks!

​
"Best sleep I've ever had in a year," I said, yawning as I sat up in my cot and looked out the window.
Thankfully the room Kyle and I were handcuffed and locked in had a small porthole in the wall, but the glass was eight inches thick, making it nearly impossible for me to punch my way out.
"Fuck, you're awake?" Kyle asked, as he did push ups on the floor. "I've been trying my old prison workout. Hits different."
"Yeah, well I haven't been to prison yet, so I wouldn't know."
"It's also a huge fucking shame that Task Force Nova Compass Hunter hasn't found us yet. Thought those guys would be coming over here, guns blazing by now."
"Same, but looks like these guys are the real deal anyway. Can't wait for the super-informative job opportunities we'll be faced with today."
Someone slammed on the door, and after the beep of an electronic keycard, Dennis unlocked the door, backed by a dozen guards in riot gear, and Lucy.
"You can chill with the security," I said. "We won't pull anything."
"Correction, you won't do shit." Kyle said, wriggling his wrists from his handcuffs as he jumped up, kicking Dennis in the solar plexus and sending him flying.
The room went fucking wild as I sat back and watched, while Kyle started brawling with a dozen men at once, as his face and head were battered with nightsticks and tasers. He waded through half of them until Lucy finally jumped in, pulling him off and picking him up with one hand before slamming him against the wall, choking him. Kyle kicked her in the face and cracked her nose, and she yelped in pain before throwing him against his cot.
"You like that, yeah?" Kyle said, waving his fists in the air. "Roger, c'mere. Back me up."
"Nah, I know exactly how this is gonna end."
Kyle jumped and drop-kicked the fucking mob of guards at once, planting both of his feet into a riot shield and sending the crowd soaring.
"Why aren't they shooting at us?!" I yelled.
"We're too valuable to shoot, dumbass. Now break your handcuffs and start fighting."
I sighed, telling myself I would wait ten more seconds, and if nobody beat the shit out of Kyle by then, I would jump in to help.
"ROGER!!" He yelled.
Luci picked Kyle up and slammed him into the wall, and stared directly into his eyes, and grabbed his arms as he slowly fell woozy and slumped over.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck." I said, panicking. "What did you do?! Did you fucking kill him?!"
"Relax, he's alive. I just 'put him to sleep'."
"You know, that's the expression most people use to say they killed someone."
I slumped off my cot, standing up and stretching, yawning as I watched Luci and the guards drag Kyle into a cell somewhere below decks.
"So… he's like, really not dead, right?"
"Like I said, he's just fine. I can influence people's minds and emotions by touching them."
"So what's going on with me then?" I asked.
"Since you didn't go apeshit like your buddy," Dennis said, standing up and groaning as he rubbed his head. "We'll proceed as planned. You'll be going on an operation with our combatives team."
"Is Kyle coming with?" I asked.
"Fuck no, who knows what that unpredictable shit is going to do."
"I'm not going if Kyle's not going."
Dennis tensed.
"Roger, I'll talk with my superiors and ask them what they think."
"Sounds fair. Should I get ready to go in a few hours?"
"Yeah, I'll come by here to pick you up near the evening. And, I'll tell you what came of Kyle."
"Thanks."
I lied back down on my cot, taking a deep breath and falling back to sleep, waiting for the knock at the room's door calling me to action.
​
***
​
"It's time," he said, as he walked in.
"Fuck it, let's go." I said, stretching and yawning as I stood up.
"You haven't changed out of your fatigues, so I'll just give you the same kit and rifle we picked you up with, all freshly cleaned and loaded. Of course since you're still a high-risk person, we're not giving them to you until the mission officially starts. Follow me."
I got out and walked with him into the corridors, ducking under the steel pipes of the ship until we finally took a short flight of stairs to the main deck, overlooking the ocean, just as the sun began to set. He took me to the side of the boat, where there was a ladder on the side of the hull of the anchored ship, leading down to several airboats filled with armed men. I noticed Kyle was in one of the boats, having no weapons or gear besides a helmet, plate carrier, and a flashlight. He was handcuffed and his feet were shackled to a hundred-pound weight. Dennis tossed my gear and weapons down into the boat, as I climbed down the hull and jumped into the airboat.
"They'll guide you through the mission," Dennis said, before walking off.
The dozen men sitting in the airboat with me all had assault rifles, wearing balaclavas and dark camoflauge under plate carriers stuffed with magazines.
"Listen," one of the men, supposedly the leader, said as the boat started and zoomed away. "Our main objective is to meet with a demon to exchange the skull of one of the Five Leviathans for a demonic artifact we're selling. It might be a setup, so we're keeping our numbers high and risk low. Stay quiet, and don't even fucking think of running, we'll shoot you if you even breathe suspiciously. If you do manage to get away, we put an ankle monitor on while you were sleeping that will explode if you take it off or disable it."
"That's comforting," I replied. "How the fuck did you get a skull of one of the Five Leviathans? Which one is it?"
"Don't worry about it. Focus on shutting the fuck up and paying attention, genius."
Kyle and I sat across from each other in the airboat, sandwiched on either side by the armed mercenaries, as he kept trying to blink at me in morse code while whistling, but he stopped that when he got pistol-whipped. Our boat droned on and on until finally, I caught sight of a small, rocky island covered in trees in the horizon, rapidly approaching in the falling sunlight. The lack of tropical vegitation combined with the weather of our surroundings led me to believe we weren't anywhere near the equator. Most likely in the Pacific or Atlantic, I had gotten familiar to the Northern seas during the months I had spent on battleships during the holy war, as well as my time studying as a marine biologist.

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

There was a wedding of our close friend, so we both went. We couldn't find any place to hang out alone. She used to stay with all the ladies, and gupshup krti thi. I used to stand there in the courtyard, reclining on the pillar, and she used to resist looking at me. Those uncles and kids talked about the weather there while the guys flirted with the girls. And they even did that with mine. But she just smiled and complimented one guy. Pretty sad I was.
I went aback to the room I came from; the darkness thanking my exit; the halls churning black light behind.
She saw that. And later that night while I was shaving, she took my hand and took me to the bathroom. She applied the cream on my face, and then was shaving that gently. I was just looking at her the whole time. And then she stopped for a second, and I put my face forward, and I rubbed my foamy face on her. And she started giggling. Smiling. And then we kissed...
Later at night when everybody went outside for the sangeet ceremony, she was still dressing, and then I entered the room while and saw her unable to zip the choli. So I came to her and zipped that while looking at ourselves in the mirror, where I saw her blushing and looking down...she looked lovely in that pink lehenga...and I picked her up and just stayed like that for a few minutes until one aunt came and chided.

Match Thread - Chiefs v Reds Super Rugby Pacific 2023 Round 16

Venue: FMG Stadium Waikato, Hamilton Weather: 16 C, Clear
Match Page: https://db.rugbybot.com/match/3505
Match Threads: /rugbyunion/wiki/matchthread

Time

UTC	BST	CEST (+2)	AWST (+8)	AEST (+10)	NZ (+12)	more
04:35	05:35	06:35	12:35	14:35	16:35	more tz

Lineups

Chiefs	Pos	Reds
Aidan Ross	1	Peni Ravai
Samisoni Taukei'aho	2	Matt Faessler
John Ryan	3	Sef Fa'agase
Brodie Retallick	4	Angus Blyth
Josh Lord	5	Ryan Smith
Samipeni Finau	6	Seru Uru
Sam Cane	7	Fraser McReight
Luke Jacobson	8	Harry Wilson
Brad Weber	9	Tate McDermott
Damian McKenzie	10	Tom Lynagh
Etene Nanai-Seturo	11	Josh Flook
Rameka Poihipi	12	James O'Connor
Anton Lienert-Brown	13	Filipo Daugunu
Emoni Narawa	14	Suliasi Vunivalu
Shaun Stevenson	15	Jock Campbell
Bradley Slater	16	Richie Asiata
Oliver Norris	17	Dane Zander
George Dyer	18	Zane Nonggorr
Naitoa Ah Kuoi	19	Lopeti Faifua
Pita-Gus Sowakula	20	Jake Upfield
Cortez Ratima	21	Kalani Thomas
Josh Ioane	22	Lawson Creighton
Daniel Rona	23	Taj Annan
Clayton McMillan	Coach	Brad Thorn

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This is an old story, like, more than 10 years old, but I occasionally find myself thinking and still fuming about this, and I don't have anyone to tell it to.
I had a job working at a Headstart preschool. It didn't pay great, but I loved the work. Like, to the point that I would sometimes go in on my days off because it was fun job. I loved the kids, I felt like I was doing something meaningful - we were a preschool in a very low income area, we had kids from the local homeless shelter, new immigrants, kids who had been kicked out of other preschools for behavior issues... we took them all, and it was great.
It was just a satisfying job that was also, somehow, not too mentally taxing. Like, when I went home from work, i was home. It wasn't like when I taught at an elementary school and would go home and do hours of work to prepare for the next day. It honestly was just a joy to go to work, something I know is incredibly rare and I truly valued it.
I had a coteacher, who I'll call Shelly. Shelly and I got along alright, not amazingly, but alright. Although over the years, she changed in some odd ways. The first and weirdest one was she began to smell. Our preschool was not religious, but it was located in a large, old school Anglican church, with very high ceilings, and there were days that I would walk into the church (not our preschool classrooms) and be able to smell that she was there. That's how bad it was. And it was doubly frustrating because we had very different fashion styles. She tended to dress up ,and I always was in jeans and a t-shirt. So while I don't know for sure, I'm would imagine anyone coming into the room would smell the B.O., look at the two adults in the room, and think "well, that must be coming off the woman in the old t-shirt, can't be from the woman in the little black dress."
But I tolerated it because what else could I do? We were a small preschool, no HR department. And I don't know how to bring that up without being super rude.
But that wasn't the thing that ruined the job.
Our preschool had two separate programs, morning and afternoon, with room for 16 kids in each. Because of the neighborhood we were in, there were a lot of kids who would come and go (like, kids from the shelter who would get housing, and move away, that sort of thing), so our supervisor was always out doing community outreach to make sure we were full. We weren't always full, but that was part of her job.
But our supervisor ended up making a financial error, and got fired (she landed on her feet, I still hear from her occasionally, she's fine). The board of trustees offered me the job, but I know I'm not an administrator, so I refused, and they offered it to my coworker Shelly. And she took it. Which initially I was happy about because it would mean she would not be in the classrooms with me, and I wouldn't have to smell her.
One of the first things Shelly did was align our preschool with a large local Community Health Center (CHC). Which meant we were no longer an independent preschool run by a board of trustees made up of a bunch of old church ladies, we were now a part of a large organization with hundreds of staff. There was a slight increase in benefits, which initially came with a slight decrease in pay, which I remember finding a bit funny, but that was fine.
But almost immediately things got worse at the actual job. Our preschool was maybe a 4 minute walk away from a local library, with no street crossings in between, and we had, for years, taken our kids to the library once a month. We'd usually ask for one parent volunteer for that day, and if we couldn't get one, we'd ask a librarian to come to the preschool and walk with us so the kids would be safe. Suddenly, that was no longer permitted because of safety and liability concerns (the CHC was not willing to take the risk).
For years we had had random "water days" in the summer when it was really hot, where we would set up kiddy pools and sprinklers in our little backyard. I had gone and bought a bunch of kids clothes from local thrift shops using my own money and we would tell parents at the beginning of the summer that if the weather was hot, we would have water play day, and then if they were too wet, we would put them in the thrift store clothing, send them home and ask the parents to return the thrift store clothes. We would get about 80% of the clothing back, but it was fine. The kids loved it, no parents ever complained. But the CHC said that wasn't allowed anymore. We could only have Water Days on preplanned days when the parents could send their own change of clothing. And that effectively ended it because how could we know when the weather was going to be good for it?
We had also done monthly field trips to local museums and parks (again, always with volunteers -- we had 3 volunteers who came on regular days every week, and we would ask for parent volunteers as well). But the CHC thought this was too much of a liability risk and no longer permitted it. So that sucked.
But then something else began to happen. When we would lose children from the program due to them moving or aging out, they were not getting replaced, and our numbers got really low. This had happened before, but only ever for a month or so. This went on for several months. And of course, the CHC was super concerned. Because while we were a non-profit, and the parents didn't pay, we got money from the government to cover the cost of each child, and if there weren't enough children, the preschool would actually lose money.
The CHC started coming down on Shelly after maybe 6 months of this, but it just didn't get better. I arrived one morning to do my morning preparations and I could hear Shelly in the office with someone from the CHC and Shelly was yelling something or other, and then I heard her say "Well, maybe I shouldn't be here then", and that was the last I saw her for almost a year. She quit that day.
We got a new supervisor within a week, who did the proper community outreach, and we were filled within maybe 2 weeks again. So Shelly just hadn't done her job. But the problem was that 6 months of not being full had put us very firmly in the red, so the CHC decided to stop our preschool having 2 programs for the morning and afternoon and reduced us to one full day program. And that's when everything fully went to shit.
When you have a preschool that is open for 6 hours or more, suddenly there are things legally mandated by the government that you have to do. We had to provide breakfast, 2 snacks, and lunch. We had to have a nap time, craft time, and indoor and outdoor playtime (separate times). And this would have been fine except for the fact that the CHC had another preschool and so to save costs, they decided to combine the bus routes, which because of timing and schedules meant that our kids were with us for exactly 6 hours.
All of those government mandated things? They take up exactly six hours. So we had ZERO flexibility. I don't know if you noticed, but there was nothing in that list of things that included activities like reading together, circle time, etc. Basically, there was now no real teaching time going on.
Oh, and naptime was hell. People think it would be relaxing, but trying to get 16 kids to go to sleep at the same time is a nightmare. They are not all tired at the same time. Some of them don't nap anymore. Some of them cry, some of them need to be held to fall asleep, and then others get jealous, it was just... the worst. And it was government mandated to be, I think 2 hours? So it was two hours of trying to get kids to stay on their cots. I hated every second of it. We all did.
I was literally sneaking time during this whole ordeal to read and do educational circle activities with the kids. Like, I'm not exaggerating. My supervisor would be out for the day for something and I would think "OH GOOD! She's gone, I can have storytime today! Maybe we can do a counting game! YAY!" Because I would get in trouble if she was around because it was taking away from the things that we were legally required to do. The job went from being super fun, fulfilling and meaningful to feeling like I was babysitting and just making sure the kids didn't die.
I was the last of the "old" teachers to quit. I stuck it out for maybe 18 months. There had been, I think 5 staff from before the Community Health Center. The rest of them all quit within the first year.
Now, this might seem like just a random consequence of Shelly being bad at her job. But here's where it gets worse. Maybe 2 months before I quit ( and yeah, this definitely had an effect on me and wanting to stay), Shelly came back to visit. She and I were having a friendly chat, and I was telling her about the changes and how we were now a full day program and she looks away and says -- "You know, when I started, it was just half day. Not two half day programs, we were only open in the morning. I really liked it then. And I didn't need any more hours, that was enough for me to live on."
I looked at her a bit confused and said "well, I'm glad it was 2 half day programs by the time I started, I could barely make due with that income, to be honest."
And she shrugged, and then said "I kinda thought that if we couldn't fill the two halves, the Community Center would take it back to just mornings. I guess they went the other way."
And I just stared at her. And I think we spoke for a few more minutes and then she left.
She never said it outright, but I'm certain she deliberately tanked the program to try and cut it back to a halfday program but they went in the opposite direction. And made a wonderful job into a miserable one. And I think that was what took the wind out of my sails. I was out of there (and literally out of the country -- I live in Korea now) within a couple of months.

Like the title says, I found a decent LO that doesn’t take up much space at all and actually works well on my XB1 S. I will say that I tried Vivid Fallout AIO with LOD but was CTD within minutes. Before the crashes, it really did look spectacular and my hat is off to the mod author. Also, this is the first time in a long time that I’ve used the UFO4P and haven’t had any complaints. It didn’t auto load at the top though and I thought that was strange.
FO4 GOTY
All DLCS
UFO4P
TSSMSR
Lone Wanderer Perk W/Followers
Fallout 3/NV Special
Building Materials Dispenser
STS - All-In-One
STS - Extras - Living & Dead
More Caps Stashes
Merchants Have 10K Caps
Boston Red Sox Uniforms
Expanded Weaponry
DLC Weapons and ammo in the Commonwealth
Minutemen Edits
Autosave Manager
Marowski’s Chem Lab Redux
UCW - Unified Commonwealth Weather
Clean Blue Waters
Reduced Grass Density - Medium
RGD - M FH Patch
Boston Less Enemies
Far Less Fog Harbor
Simple Survival Fast Travel Enabler
I am using a grand total of 40.33 MB with 1.96 GB free. Although I have frozen a couple times, I have thus far been able to traverse DT Boston and even rescue Rex and Strong without more than a stutter. Strong and I took out Swan and proceeded to Vault 114 with no issues. I attribute some of the freezing to deleting Vivid and Clarity (it conflicts with Far Less Fog Harbor) during a saved game and the fact that DT Boston will forever be a shit show on XB1.
All in all, I’m prepared to ride this one out til the end.

So, I've lived in Texas all my life and I'm currently in college. I wanted to move for college in the first place but I ended up staying home just because it was easier. But, I feel like moving somewhere else would just be so much better for me and my mental health and I think there'd be more opportunities for things like education and careers. I don't plan to move for a while since I still have 3 years of college left (I'm 19) and I don't plan on transferring (plans might change but idk). I have a list of places I might go and it includes:

1. LA
2. San Fransisco
3. Chicago
4. D.C
5. Seattle
6. Boston
7. New York City (?)

I don't really have any climate/weather preferences so my questions are mostly about public transportation (I can't drive for shit but if I have to I will) which neighborhoods are cheapest or which neighborhoods I should look into (I also don't have noise preference or anything like that, the price is really the only thing that matters to me) and just what the city is like in general. Things like nightlife, places to visit, the overall atmosphere. I've lived in a kind of small city (not dallas, houstin, or austin) so I'm just not used to "big city life" but I'd rather live somewhere walkable and with good public transportation and I really want to get away from the city I live in now. Also, I just don't like Texas in general.
If there's any advice I can get for moving to a bigger city, looking for apartments, moving with a dog (I have a very small morkie, I don't feel safe leaving him with my family so I want to take him with me if possible), or visiting before I move, that'd be super helpful!

Hi Reddit! I’m a 20 year old female living on my own in an apartment. I don’t know too much about tenant rights so I was hoping someone might be able to help me out. I read over the 12 month lease I signed in the part about repairs. It states, “You shall report any damage or problem immediately upon discovery or you may be held responsible for the cost. Our complying with or responding to any oral request regarding security or non security matters doesn't waive the strict requirement for written notices under this Lease Contract. You must promptly notify us in writing of: water leaks; electrical problems; malfunctioning lights; broken or missing locks or latches; and other conditions that pose a hazard to the property, or your health, or safety. We will respond in accordance with state law and the Lease Contract to repair or remedy the situation, as necessary.”
On May 30th I wrote and submitted a maintenance request on the apartment owner’s app saying this: “The AC unit keeps tripping the breaker. Nothing else is plugged into the outlet. I’ve turned the breaker switch off for a day and then turned it back on, but it keeps tripping every 5 minutes to a couple hours. And the weather is starting to get really warm, especially being on the top floor.”
I’ve called them about it a week after they didn’t do anything yet. They said they’d talk to the technician and call me back. As you can tell, I haven’t gotten a call back. I’ve cleaned out the filter for the AC (which is ancient btw and is the same one since I started living here in 2021), and it didn’t fix the problem. I don’t know what else I can do. I know that I can’t find someone myself to fix it, because then I’d be financially responsible. With my panic and anxiety disorders, the constant heat can a lot of time amplify those issues for me.
Someone please let me know what my next steps should be.
Edit: the maintenance request was seen by management and sent off to the technician the same day I sent it. It was marked as urgent.

First ever trip report for me, only just getting back into coasters after regular life got in the way for a decade and I decided to start with a season pass to my home park (this isn't my first visit of the season, but probably the best so far). Today's chilly weather + being a Friday in June meant relatively short lines and I took full advantage to nab multi-rides on some favorites and to grab my last 2 credits in the park.
​
Wildcat's Revenge x5: Got to ride this in the passholder preview event and was pretty hype on it then, but didn't want to say too much after only one ride. Now that I'm up to 6 I can confidently say this is my new favorite in the park. The relentless pacing packaged with the great variety of forces, glass smooth ride, comfortable restraints, and solid ops makes it really tough for Skyrush to compete, despite the soft spot in my heart for it. Love how this thing gets even more wild as the day goes on, too, even on a chilly rainy day. Only downsides today were that it was down for extended inspections in the morning and didn't start running until about 12:30, and it did have one breakdown in the afternoon and some folks were stuck on the brake run for ~15 minutes. For only being open a week, it's to be expected. 10/10
Skyrush x2: Was absolutely flying today despite the weather, almost felt like it was trying its best to keep the top spot. I actually grayed out a bit which hasn't happened since the first few times I rode it. Still easily #2 in the park and I will always make time for it. Closed due to rain later in the day and as far as I could tell it never reopened. 9.5/10
Storm Runner x4: The launch and flying snake dive are still some of my all-time favorite experiences and I can easily keep getting back in line when it's running well. This also closed for the rain today, but fortunately I was nearby when they ran the first test train to reopen it. At that point in the evening no one was around so it was a walk-on. Yes, please! 9/10
Candymonium x2: Unusual two rides in one day. Not many folks showed up for sweet start so I was able to get on twice first thing in the morning. I love this ride and I always feel bad that it barely makes my top 5 in the park. It's the best at what got me into coasters in the first place - smooth endless floater airtime and a fantastic first drop. I really wish they'd figure out a way to improve ops here so that I could get more rides on a normal day, but in fair weather it's averaging a 2 hour wait. 8.5/10
Fahrenheit: Another solid ride that is plagued by long lines. Even today I only did it once (and mostly because it was still running in the rain). 7.5/10
Lightning Racer x2: I did both sides as is tradition, even though Thunder is better. Still the best woodies in the park and fantastic rides on their own merit, though they're definitely a lot rougher than they were when I was a kid. Hoping we might see a full retrack at some point to preserve this awesome layout for the long term. 8/10
Great Bear: They were only running one train today which took me by surprise because they've had two going for all but my very first visit this season. Still a fantastic ride, the first drop and the terrain segment by the river and SDL are near and dear to me. This used to be my favorite in the park long, long ago and I still give it the respect it deserves. 7.5/10
Jolly Rancher Remix: Today was my first time riding this, including when it was Sidewinder. The line always seemed too long and the ride seemed too lame. Today's short lines gave me an opportunity to find out that it's not a bad ride. The new theming probably helps, but even the ride experience is certainly worth waiting 15-20 minutes for. Pleasantly surprised and I can check Vekoma boomerang off my list. 6/10
Wild Mouse: This is another one I always skipped, for the same reasons as Jolly Rancher, but it's a great little ride and I'm glad that I got it in as I understand they're in the process of trying to sell it. 5.5/10
​
Did Not Ride Today:
Laff Trakk 6/10
Comet 7/10
SooperDooperLooper 5.5/10
Trailblazer 6/10

How to move forward with this?
So me and this girl go to same college or did as I am transferring now. We knew of eachother for almost 8 months but never got really close despite hanging within a group of friends a couple of times. I had not seen her in a few months but run into eachother last day of semester. We talked hanged out that day and continued to text over the next week. I ask her out and she agrees.
First Date goes amazing. One more week of texting and second date happens, goes okay not as good as first though. Both lasted around 5 hours with multiple places included. We plan our third date for Yesterday and continue texting throughout the week leading up to the date. This texting she seems way more into it and enthusiastic than normal which was a good sign to me.
As you know the Canada fire happens, and NYC gets killed with smoke and makes the outside unbearable. While texting I bring up the fact of the weather as our date was for an outdoors event offer to go somewhere else or reschedule if the even is canceled. She says she’s unsure about our date tomorrow because of the weather and we agree to check tomorrow how it is. So tomorrow happens, (The day of date) and we text in the morning as usual and I ask her what she was thinking of the weather and that I could go today or wait for the weekend if she felt uncomfortable. She doesn’t respond to that for 4 hours and the time of the date is coming up shortly, so I double text to tell her we should go during the weekend as the air quality is still bad unless she’s not free then we’ll go today and to let me know if we’re still going today as the event is an hour away from me so I could start making my way there.
Doesn’t respond until she gets off work which was around the time I was supposed to meet her, that she’s so sorry and that she got busy at work and that she’ll let me know for what day during The Weeknd. I responded with a heart reaction and to just let me know and that any day of the weekend would work. This morning we texted as usual I don't bring up the date at all but we text really chill briefly and a she seemed into it for the most part but did not mention anything however I ended it shortly.
At this point I am pretty sure she is not going to let me know anything. Should I just cut all contact with her? We usually daily text with me initiating it most of it? Im either thinking of texting her through the week like normal and try to set up another date. Or just stop initiating contact and in a week or so text to see her energy.

How to move forward with this?
So me and this girl go to same college or did as I am transferring now. We knew of eachother for almost 8 months but never got really close despite hanging within a group of friends a couple of times. I had not seen her in a few months but run into eachother last day of semester. We talked hanged out that day and continued to text over the next week. I ask her out and she agrees. First Date goes amazing. One more week of texting and second date happens, goes okay not as good as first though. Both lasted around 5 hours with multiple places included. We plan our third date for Yesterday and continue texting throughout the week leading up to the date. This texting she seems way more into it and enthusiastic than normal which was a good sign to me.
As you know the Canada fire happens, and NYC gets killed with smoke and makes the outside unbearable. While texting I bring up the fact of the weather as our date was for an outdoors event offer to go somewhere else or reschedule if the even is canceled. She says she’s unsure about our date tomorrow because of the weather and we agree to check tomorrow how it is. So tomorrow happens, (The day of date) and we text in the morning as usual and I ask her what she was thinking of the weather and that I could go today or wait for the weekend if she felt uncomfortable. She doesn’t respond to that for 4 hours and the time of the date is coming up shortly, so I double text to tell her we should go during the weekend as the air quality is still bad unless she’s not free then we’ll go today and to let me know if we’re still going today as the event is an hour away from me so I could start making my way there.
Doesn’t respond until she gets off work which was around the time I was supposed to meet her, that she’s so sorry and that she got busy at work and that she’ll let me know for what day during The Weeknd. I responded with a heart reaction and to just let me know and that any day of the weekend would work. This morning we texted as usual I don't bring up the date at all but we text really chill briefly and a she seemed into it for the most part but did not mention anything however I ended it shortly.
At this point I am pretty sure she is not going to let me know anything. Should I just cut all contact with her? We usually daily text with me initiating it most of it? Im either thinking of texting her through the week like normal and try to set up another date. Or just stop initiating contact and in a week or so text to see her energy.

I finally settled on a Honda CR-V EX-L today for $38,500 (Urban Gray Pearl) and put a deposit on it. I am very excited, and I haven't even driven the EX-L, just the Hybrid Sport Touring. I know it won't be as road quiet but I hope it is quieter than the Rav 4 I test drove.
Anyway, I was pretty upset the dealership would not remove the all-weather package for $695, especially when it is a $495 option and I want Weathertech but they refused. I decided to check other dealerships and I'll be damned, there was not one dealership I could find that would delete this in Idaho, Washington, Oregon nor California. As a matter of fact, Washington dealerships forced $4k in options, California $2.5K and Idaho $1K. Most often it was the weather stuff plus perma-plate and some kind of treatment for the door edges and door handles (interior).
10 Years ago I bought a 2013 RAM 1500 under MSRP with not a single option and was very happy. What the hell is going on with all this forced option stuff? I feel that since most dealerships are offering MSRP they need to get more money for frivolous crap most people don't need or want it is forced and due to demand, we either wait or pay it.
Am I missing something here?
​

I work at a home depot in alberta and anyone who knows alberta weather knows we get really cold winters with a lot of snow. My building has a flat roof so obviously snow gathers and when it melts the water needs somewhere to go. around march when the snow started melting (i was a headcash at the time) i noticed water dripping from one of my exit doors. i followed standard procedure informed the MOD and put a bucket and wet floor sign. a few days later after my department transfer i was called by the frantic headcash that the door was pouring water. i rushed over and was able to stuff the door full of clothes and that stopped the leak, i had to change said clothes every 2-3 hours because the leak would start again. that’s when i noticed the peeling paint and what looked to be rot in the moulding. for nearly a month i pestered my managers every day asking when it would be fixed and the moulding was soaked and pressing on it would make it drip. it’s been 3 months and nothing has been done and today i found out our break room and bathrooms are being redone at this i was livid, yes sure that’s nice but maybe fix the rotting moulding first?! or the lumber doors that are always closed or always open but no. i was talking to one of my favourite older coworkers and he told me how he got an asm suspended with an email to the corporate leadership so i spent about an hour (on the clock) getting all their emails and sending them the photos. i sent it to mike rowe the vp, hr, and operations VPs. if nothing gets done after this i give up. i’m great at my job and i can be bad at it if i want to, no skin off my back they won’t fire the person who harassed me so they won’t be firing me.

This is the second part to chapter 1 of my side project book called "The Wise"... Tell me what you think, don't hold back!!
Zorr-EL is by far the wisest and most knowledgeable person in the universe, she's around 24,600 years old. She is the smartest Centurian to ever exist and has knowledge that spans for over 20 millennia, she has memorized all 679,465,923,512,094 books (and counting) in the Library of the Centurians. She knows more about this universe than OUR own scientists, she has wisdom as vast as a black hole is deep. Every week over 15,740 new books flood in to the library, to in which she reads; she can read 1,200 words per minute and has excellent edetic memory. Edetic memory is controlled primarily by the posterior parietal cortex of the parietal lobe of the brain. This is the part of the brain through which visual stimuli are processed, and images retained. Zorr-EL also has hyperthymesia syndrome, which is like an enhanced version of photographic memory. Now, Draco has some ability to be a knowledgeable person, but most of her wisdom comes from experience and not books, this is why Draco is a better ruler and Zorr-EL wouldn't be able to take her place. Since Zorr-EL relies solely on what the books say and not what experience says. For this, Draco is technically smarter than her, but does not contain the ability to retain vast knowledge like Zorr-EL can. Zorr-EL is the official teacher of the school of Fireborne and the personal teacher for Dan-AL. Of course Dan-AL does not like her know it all attitude, he doesn't mind her teaching. Zorr-EL tries to make it fun for him, but where she's smart in knowledge and wisdom, she lacks in fun and humor. Dan-AL sat quietly in his seat, Zorr-EL wrote on the blackboard. The chalk squeaked as it rubbed against the porcelain enamelled steel. Zorr-EL turned to the class. "Today we are going to learn about, other planets and THEIR life!" Zorr-EL said to the class. "Now, first we're going to learn about Earth and it's people..." A student raised her hand. "Yes Marcella?" "Why do we always talk about Earth? They're not that interesting..." The girl said. Zorr-EL smiled. "Well, they may not be interesting, but they are our allies..." "Draco has good friends on Earth, and it's a nice planet with wonderful life..." Zorr-EL opened a book up. "Now turn your pages to 365 and I'll read with you..." The class turned their pages. "Today we'll be learning of the great war that happened in their year 2030..." "Now, when the team known as The Defenders of Earth we're created, they protected their leading city, known as 'Seattle' from a creature known as 'Megasaur'..." "When they did this the people of their planet accepted them as the official protectors of the World, hence the name 'Defenders of Earth'..." "Later on more enhanced people began to come out of hiding, why is that?" A boy raised his hand. "Firgus?" "The stones of enhancement began getting found by them..." He said. Zorr-EL nodded. "Yes..." "Later on, more enhanced people began to appear and the Defenders of Earth had a harder time to keep them under control..." "Soon after the Lizardians came to Earth to destroy it..." A boy raised his hand. "Yes, Herald?" "Are there any more Lizardians left?" He asked Zorr-EL sat down on her desk. "Well yes, of course there are..." "But they aren't going to attack Earth again..." "Especially since your Queen is protecting it!" The kids chuckled. "Also, the Defenders of Space protect Earth as well..." "Why?" a kid asked. "I believe it is because Earth is a rich planet with perfect weather and perfect temperatures... So a lot of evil beings out there want to rule over the World.." "Earth is full of water and life, it has rare elements you can't find out here, and it is just a beautiful planet..." "The people of that World are lucky to have it!" Dan-AL sighed, this was boring, why bother talk about a planet who can't even protect itself from silly Lizardians? Zorr-EL walked around the class. "Now can anyone tell me when the Defenders of Earth we're founded?" "Why?" Dan-AL asked. "Excuse me?" Zorr-EL questioned. "Well, what have the people of Earth done for us?" "And why bother talk about them, they don't even live as long as we do... Seems a little useless..." Zorr-EL walked over to Dan-AL's desk. "Life isn't about how LONG you live, it's about how you live it..." She said. Dan-AL sighed. "Why don't we just learn about OUR people?" He asked. Zorr-EL walked over to the front of the class. "The people of this planet is learnt enough, the people of Earth are far from knowledge..." Dan-AL sighed again...

Just wanted outside opinion if I should reroute my flights tomorrow or not. I’m flying ABQ-DFW and then DFW-JFK tomorrow from 8:30 AM-11:18 AM and then 12:34 PM-5:20 PM. I just received a notification about the hail/ storms tomorrow and it looks like there’s a flight through ORD I might be able to switch to instead, but I’d get to NY at 10 PM. If this were your flight, would you keep the original itinerary or reroute through Chicago? Thanks!

the other day i decided to do it. i was tired of having to cover up in the hot summer weather. i have lichen planus, an ugly skin condition that's scarred me all over, and in the year since i've had it i've simply covered up at all times, including 100% of the time at home because i don't even have privacy/my own room to be alone in.
the other day i went outside with my arms out and sat at a place where a lot of people were walking by. being seen by them wasn't the point. the point was to enjoy a nice day outside, and other people happened to be doing the same thing. and nobody even looked at me. one lady stood near me and i thought she was going to notice my skin and be grossed out and inch away, but she was unbothered. i felt so relieved. i felt like i have a chance of being normal and i'm happy i decided not to care anymore. i'm still not going to show my skin to my family, people i know, or people i see around. but it feels good to not really care if strangers see.