Free sample complaint letter about my boss

Album of my build + loadout. I'm level 104. 2H Melee focus, I like facetanking and collision blocking bosses, often play w/ fragile high DPS friends. Have focused on free'ing up extra perk points w/ my legendaries. Curious what Legendary I should target @ 150 or if I'm missing anything obvious. Thinking about Hack & Slash.

This post goes into detail about my personal experience playing MoP Remix as well as why I think it’s an enormous step in the right direction.
I’ve been playing WoW since 2005, mostly as a PvP player and mostly solo. I don’t enjoy being in a guild or doing organized PvP or PvE content, simply because I don’t like the commitment. I play video games to escape and have fun. The moment I have to “answer” to someone (teammate, guildmate, etc.) it stops being fun and starts being a job.
I have, and have usually had, a lot of free time on my hands. Over the years, I put in countless hours in WoW. That being said, my skill level is average at best. I have about 20 keybinds and I have DBM installed. I’ve never used a weak aura. The best I’ve ever parsed is probably blue, and that was in Phase 1 of Classic WotLK. Up until MoP Remix, the highest difficulty I’ve raided is Normal and it wasn’t a regular occurrence for me. Most seasons I would just stop at LFR. I don’t intend to get any better at the game than this.
Initially when starting my char in MoP Remix, an Arms Warrior, I was quite skeptical of what I could hope to achieve given my past raiding experience (or lackthereof). I took it slow at first, didn’t even start when the event itself started, completely missed out on the frogs and got to 70 around the end of week 1. I got a bit curious about the cosmetics, saw the Mannoroth shoulders, saw the bones only drop from Normal and above and thought, sigh, not for me.
My previous experience with pugs was mixed. I fairly enjoyed pugging Phase 1 of Classic, skipped TBC entirely then also enjoyed Phase 1 of Classic WotLK. The barrier to entry was small to non-existant. In Classic WotLK you needed an initial GearScore that was easy enough to obtain, and in Classic I can’t recall needing anything specific. Note this is Phase 1 in both cases. Sometimes the groups would require Discord, but only for listening not speaking.
The only other time I pugged was in Legion, patch 7.2. This was a significantly worse experience for me. Between Normal mode groups asking me to “link acheiv” and getting into a group for Tomb of Sargeras only to wipe at the second boss and people already saying “kick all low dps” I didn’t really feel like this is an environment I wanna be in for long. I didn’t even get to Raider.io and parsing, I already stopped playing anything above LFR before that.
Back to MoP Remix, I thought “OK, if it’s gonna be like early Classic, cool, if it’s gonna be like Legion, nevermind”. So I signed up for a Mogu’shan Vaults pug. To my surprise, no one yelled at me or at other people throughout the raid, no one linked Discord at the beginning, and we actually finished the raid. I quickly realized that the only real requirement for raids in MoP Remix is ilvl. You technically don't even need to raid to improve your ilvl. You only need a time investment, and time is what I have in abundance.
So then I did more pugs and started to invest bronze into upgrading my gear. A few days later I finished all the normal raids and got my amulet. Then I started to farm open world mobs every day besides doing all the raids I could.
Today I reached ilvl 476, every piece upgraded to 556, and got the Mythic SoO achievement + 28 bones in total from Garrosh.
Given the relatively low difficulty of the content and the ease of gearing, I know this isn’t much, but for me who didn’t think I’d even get one bone, that’s quite a lot.
Now you may be asking yourself what is the point of all this. The point for me is when WoW says all I gotta do to get the best gear and do all the content is to put in the time — not become a highly skilled player or commit to a guild or get a high Raider.io score or whatever else — just play more, that to me sounds like a good deal. It sounds like a game I actually want to play and finish.
It means I can treat the game the same way as I treat something like Path of Exile. I don’t have to be an amazing player in PoE to get Mageblood and do all the ubers every league. I just need to devote my time to it.
Speaking of time, my total /played in MoP Remix so far is about 90 hours. I only play one char.
Thank you for reading my blog post. I hope Blizzard does more content like this in the future. Cheers.

So, I know for a fact I am getting fired in the third, it’s a week before my probation is up, my boss has done this to people in the past, and I found the document in a recently printed list. (Literal file called “termination letter for my name”)
So my question is, if I hand him my resignation before he can open his mouth can he still say I was fired?
I’m not concerned about employment insurance and really my biggest concern is that black mark on my resume that says I was terminated.
Edit: I’m in Ontario, Canada

One of the things that I think I’ve read about ASD (or maybe also ADHD?) is the need of detailed instructions. And this has happened to me all my life, impacting my tasks at university and potentially to my future jobs.
I’m gonna quickly explain what I’m talking about. Let’s say we’re on the chemistry lab (it’s just an example, not my field) and the teacher instructs us to make this reaction with this and that to achieve that product. The problem, is that the procedure can be done in several ways, and I paralyze and feel the need to ask the teacher about the details: Should we grab the reagents in pellets or powder? Should we mix it at certain temperature? For how long? We can pass that solution to another recipient? Which one? Should we add the reagents in certain order? If we obtain the product, should we put it somewhere before it’s too late?
Maybe those questions don’t have sense for you, and maybe those aren’t relevant. I’ve already said that’s not my field but just from what I remember from High School. Doesn’t matter, it’s just an example.
Usually, the teacher, or the boss/manager, will tell you what to do, but not exactly how they want you to do it. And NTs kinda assume the way it must be done, usually they get how the teacher wants it to be done even if teacheboss/manager didn’t provide those details; and sometimes they will do it wrong, but they don’t care.
As a result, during the practical classes on college, I usually find myself waiting -paralyzed by so many doubts about the details- until the teacher is free and I can personally ask all of those details, that I either don’t remember, or wasn’t provided with. As a result, I’m usually seen as the insecure student that asks a lot of questions and is always the last one to finish.
I’m worried, because in college, most teachers assume you’re there to learn -although they end up viewing you as the slow one-. However, workplaces aren’t as forgiving, I’m afraid, because they are paying you to efficiently do the job… and usually they assume you know the details, or you will figure them out. If you ask, and ask, and ask again about those details, they aren’t going to hire you after your trial period. And what if you don’t ask, and do something in a way that impacts/delays/damages the product or any of the workflow, or even your coworkers? That would imply the same firing PLUS feeling bad for myself, for the -probably insignificant- harm done, the boss or manager’s reprimand, and impacting my self esteem.
So, I guess it’s better to ask, even if they see you as the one who constantly asks irrelevant questions and is slower? Or should I just try to assume that if certain step was important, the manager should have told me exactly how to do it, and not assume I know? Because if it’s the latter, the blame is on the (bad) manager. But the one being fired is me so…
TL;DR: I have trouble with non-detailed instructions, where the teacheboss/manager assumes you will know how to handle them. If you ask too much, it’s a bad image, but if you don’t and do something wrong in the process, it’s even worse. 1) Do you struggle with non-detailed procedures? How does it impact you? 2) Do you think it’s because ASD or ADHD? And 3) How do you deal with it?

Just a bit of contect he was never involved in my pregnancy since we broke up when I was 10 weeks pregnant I let him know when we was born and he message me when can I see her.
I arrange for him to see her when she was 5 days old he didnt seem that interested in her at all he never looked at her he held her one during the few hours he saw her. He came again when she was about 2 weeks old and that when the problems started.
He constantly picked fights saying I wasn't allowing him to see her and I was a horrible mother that she's not his as she looks nothing like him etc.
When she was 3 weeks old he tried to end it twice it go that bad the police had to drag him back to the hospital, I said thats since his mental health isnt the best that's its not the best idea for him to be seeing her and we can arrange somthing for when his mental health was better I still messaged him sent in photos and we still ft when he could.
2 weeks later I got a letter though for mediation I message him and he said that his mental health was better and that even if he and said anything I would allow him to see her ( which I never did the planning wasn't the best as when he was buzy I was free amd when I was buzy he was free so him seeing her was difficult to arrange) after I decline he stopped messaging me
8 months later I put in for child support he got his sister to message me to tell me I'm a horrible person for putting in for CS when I don't allow him to see her (i never said he couldnt see her) so I message him to see if he wanted to see her and I would arrange somthing so that he wasn't on his own with her so like at a visitation centre.
We went back and forth for a few days then I asked him it not message me everyday (as all it was is him asking is she was OK and constantly comparing her to his family but when i said oh she gets that from my side of the family he would accuse me of pushing him and his family out and that im trying to turn her against him she was 9 months old at the time) he flipped out on me.
Saying how can I help and support my child if you don't allow me to message. I put back I'm not saying not message just not every day and I might be the arsehole for this but I said that asking how she is amd comparing her to your family isn't helping or supporting her.
Then he went on a rant about how much of a horrible person I am and then demanded to see her or he would take me to court to I Just put fine see you in court then during the conversation he kept trying to argue with me but I had tried to remain civil
A day later I got a call from CS as he had denied being her dad and we had to go wait for a DNA test and I had to answer some question. His family however kept messaging me about the case it was like a message or two a day which I had ignore I ended up closed the CS case as his family kept on harassing me about the DNA test
So aita for stopping him from seeing his child?

Haven’t played this game since release so figured I’d give it another shot. The game is great honestly My only complaint about the game is that SBMM is cranked up way too much. I’ll do great then get punished for being good and go negative and have the most insufferable experience. The game isn’t bad at all and doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.its the community that ruins it completely. Everybody trying to be a fucking pro league player, treating a video game as if their entire life depends on it. Ofc the free trial is right when they add a one shot kar98k so it’s just constant death getting hard scoped from across the map or soon as I go through a door the glare is glaring right at me. Constant sweaty movement players jumping, proning, and sliding every split second. It’s blows my mind how anyone can have fun like that but to each their own ig.
Wish someone would make an arcade shooter without the sliding and jumping spam option. Add a vault over prompt and that’s all a game would need to be a good shooter.

We’ve reached the final couple of weeks of this season and here is my top 5 prediction and chances of vote splitting.
1) Jinto
One of the main content makers of the season. Right from the start, Jinto made content out of tea ☕️ which at first seemed stupid but BiggBoss gave him the comedy arc. Slowly whatever he did, be it some blatant lie or his cussing, BB made sure he was portrayed as a “paavam/nishkalankan” character. This gained him a lot of the typical family audience votes and also the way he took on Jabri gave him the “Raajavu” image, he was also attacked by the whole house at one point which gained him sympathy votes as well.
Jinto has recently toned down his words and made sure he doesn’t curse or use strong language which he has done really well but at what cost ? There has been a significant drop in screen space for Jinto going into the finale which might affect his chances winning the title ?
2) Abhishek Sreekumar
The strongest of the wildcards. Came right into the show with controversies to his name, made sure he would have the alpha/sigma males with him no matter what. I thought that there would only be a small percentage of people who’d fall in that category but surprisingly looking at his vote share, the numbers are huge.
Of course that is not the only category of votes he owns, Abhishek Sreekumar does not seem actually the person he portrays to be. He does seem to be wearing a mask for the sake of getting popularity and owning that particular fan group. There is a large group of audience who think he is very good as a gamer and is a kind guy on the inside. This group wouldn’t care about his fake mask but would rather vote for him seeing his dedication for the game.
Now what audience group is common for Jinto and Abhishek ? They both have played against Jasmin and they have the most stable vote bank of the show : Anti-Jasmin votes.
3) Jasmin
The biggest controversy of the season was Jabri and we know how it has ruined a lot of lives till now. But I strongly believe “We reap what we sow”. Jasmin has been good in some tasks throughout the show but has been an utter failure in TTF. She did have valid points against Jinto at some stages but I’d say she lost the majority of times. She had a 50-50 win over Nora but Nora won it big time for the last fight that happened between them. Jasmin is strong with words and points sometimes but her disrespect and lack of accountability gets her a major L from me. She doesn’t appeal to me at all but that might not be the same for everybody.
I am surprised with the vote share Jasmin has, I’m sure she feels she is a top 2 right now. This might be the category of audience who feel Jasmin has won her arguments quite well and is the “better” when compared to Jinto and Abhishek Sreekumar. Also, there is a small percentage of people who think that her cheating isn’t a big thing and people are being too hard on her. And this isn’t a small percentage of the audience, it is a considerably good percentage which takes us to a vote splitting scenario.
Vote Splitting Scenario
Consider the scenario where Jinto gets 25% votes, Abhishek Sreekumar gets 25% votes and Jasmine gets 30% votes. This is a random assumption without taking into consideration the anti-Jasmine votes. If the anti-Jasmin votes are 10% of the audience, either of Jinto or Abhishek Sreekumar needs to get the majority of Anti-Jasmin votes to be the title winner or to beat Jasmin. It must be stressed that Jasmin has a strong vote base and her votes won’t go down from here no matter what she does.
4) Arjun
Arjun has been a soft gamer throughout this season. He hasn’t really made much impact with his verbal skills but stood out in physical tasks by giving his 100%. I feel BB tried forcing Arjun and Sreethu for the Sreejun combo but hasn’t been organic at all but there has been a larger number of Sreejun simps all over SM.
Even though Arjun seemed to be a decent person in the show, his chance of winning the title is weak considering he hasn’t made much impact even towards the end of the season.
5) Sijo/Sreethu
Sijo came into the show with a lot of plans but sadly had to go out of the show when things went overboard. The punch from Rocky costed Rocky his whole BB appearance while it meant Sijo would stay out of the show for weeks and I feel the little support he had got weaker as weeks passed by. But it eventually got him a lot of sympathy votes for his comeback. Then again, he couldn’t make him impact apart from his “thee” dialogues.
Sreethu has been an example of how pretty privilege works in BiggBoss. Apart from an argument or two and her captaincy week, Sreethu hasn’t done much to gain a unique support from the audience. I remember Sreethu topping one of the weeks with votes but that has eventually died down now (Has it ? We’ll see 😅)
Sorry for the long read, please feel free to share your thoughts :)

So I gotta do a rant about something that's now over already for some time but still makes me seethe when I think about it. I am from germany and I am quite unsure about some work related english terminolgy, so if it confuses you ask away.
Until recently I worked in a sheltered workshop and 2.5 years ago there was the next works council vote to be held, at the start there were only 3 candidates so an autistic co-worker (I will call him Matthew) and me thought it would be a more interesting election with more candidates and we both put us up for election after getting some support from our departments, in the end there were actually 8 candidates and even though I could only hold half a speech before having a meltdown, I still got elected together with John and a very friendly co-worker from another department with some form of learning disability (Let's call him Phill)
Now we got a bit of a problem, as we were elected to represent around 150 people, with no one having prior experience in it and the former council being mostly absent/going into retirement, suddenly we were supposed to attend all kind of organizing events, which mostly were very interesting and fun but also stuff like employment interviews for the staff of the sheltered workshop who supervises departments where I already sometimes got sideeyed by the workshop staff when I asked for claryfications on questions.
But what really made me angry was the kind of ableism you'd suddenly encountenotice everyday. We were expected to act like NTs and when we didn't we would be blamed for all kind of stuff.
One time we got a complaint from a department about the staff there and we decided to just go there to ask if we could set up a meeting with them, the next day we were told my the workshop manager that we couldn't just "waltz in" any department as it would send a specific message when the works council just comes along and talks with the staff there and that in the future we should talk to him first.
Another time my two colleagues went down to the manager to set up a meeting because we wanted to talk about a change to the operating regulations he NEEDED our approval for what he ignored "because the former council already agreed" even though that was two years ago at that point postboned because of covid-19.
Well, I never entirely got told what exactly happened there but apparently he told them they could come in right away to speak about it and got very loud at some point, from that day onward Matthew didn't want any conflict anymore at all with the management and I am pretty sure it triggered some traumatic experience from his childhood ABA therapy... from all I can tell and it's making me really sad even today, as he's one of the most kindest and well thought out people I know, even though he's in his fifties he never got that "boomer attitude" going a lots of older people get.
I tried to push it further and managment even acknowled that our complaint about the new regulations were factually correct but they wouldn't care because it's basically already done and it didn't help that my two colleagues didn't want to push it any further as Phill generally, while being a very nice and friendly person just disliked conflict from the start.
Then there were all the times where we were told something would be done with it never being done until we asked at least three more times, like how do these kind of structures NTs put up even keep working at this point?!
A lot of other changes management just assumed any missing protest from our side meant we agreed with it even though they would need our formal confirmation but everytime I wanted to go file an official complaint Phill didn't care and Matthew didn't want to cause a ruckus.
Also bullshit rules obviously made by NTs for NTs, like: You are allowed to eat there even if you are sick but only if you visited a doctor who confirmed you are sick, otherwise you weren't allowed to eat in the canteen because apparently "people could feel it would be unfair" even though no one of our co-workers ever told us so and they wouldn't know if someone was sick or "official sick" anyway as they aren't allowed to ask if a doctor confirmed it or not. When we asked how they intent to control it they said they realisticly couldn't and hence trust the people being honest, we of course mirrored this response to our co-workers and asked of them in a very non sarcastic tone of voice to be please very honest. (Anyone knowing Babylon 5 just imagine Londo)
We started to resort to "more subtle but non subtle" ways of criticizing bad practices, like we held the yearly company meeting (led by us, attened by everyone interested including workshop staff) and there were people who had serious complaints (about being infantilized by certain staff members all the time) who we gave the time to voice it and of course the workshop staff wanted to quiet them down, so we added a "private" part where no workshop staff was allowed, we excluded management from the last part of the monthly meetings, as they did exclude us from theirs (which was already normal practice since years) and stuff like that.
Well overall it was a very interesting and fun experience but it was also so FUCKING FRUSTRATING, indeed it frustrated me so much that I left the workshop (and the works council early) for that very reason after being there almost 11 years, fuck that shit, fuck NTs with power complexes and their "politics" of doing things the very exact way unwritten rules never told you.
I know this got a lot less structured and more chaotic than I wanted and I left out some details but it makes me too angry to straighten it right now, feel free to ask away.
5/10 would only recommend if you are ready to leave afterwards and got a very high frustration tolerance.

Hi I just came across a novel, chosen by the moon novel by izabella W. Its on pay by chapter websites, I've opened and read a few chapters but I can't seem to find any free version or chapter version anywhere. Please help. If anyone has read it I'm willing to take spoilers. Here's the advert I found below of it on Facebook.
Lycanthrope species is a disgusting race. And I, Delan Riley, am nothing more than a human scum in their eyes never expected those species would turn my world upside down. Since when the lycans managed to penetrate our town, like in the early 1900's we have a hierarchy, upper class = the lycans, middle class = mated humans, and lower class = the normal humans, who were basically considered scum. I endured their torment day after day, vowing to run away from them one day, until that day came and everything changed.
Dylan POV "Humans," I scowled at the principal's words from tannoy. "The Alpha twins will be celebrating their birthday tomorrow, as such, festivities are in order." Oh great, the Alphas twin children. Adrian and Arya are the worst lycans alive. I swear just because they are the alphas kids they literally get away with everything. If their birthday is tomorrow, then the wolves are going to be worse than ever. "All students will be present to greet them, two lines will be made, with humans on the left and the lycanthrope on the right. Any mated human will be at the front of the line for their year, you will all also be in order of your school year. That is all." Chat broke out the minute the tannoy was finished. "We haven't had a school gathering since the alpha king visited three years ago, before his sons coronation." Nick was right, the last time we all gathered like that was for the king and queens visit, when he decided to let the world know that he was to renounce his title to his only child, son Josh. "That sick bestard, he wants to make sure everyone is there so those idiot twins can find their mates." Yes I was mad, my fists connected with the table in front of me once more as I thought about how disgusting the situation was. You see the twins will be turning 17, so it's very possible someone in our school could be their mate, finding a mate is sacred to a wolf, the minute they say that one word your fate is sealed. They will turn your mind, morph you into being a lover of their kind, and then you'll give in.

That won't happen to me, I'm growing old to see the world as it once was, and I'm going to choose who I'll be with. No one will take that dream away from me.

Once dinner was finished, I just wanted to sleep. I'd had a very long tiring day, I quickly sat down on a small stool my mother kept in the storage closet and removed my shirt while my brother Freddy sat at the table to do his simple homework. It wasn't long before my mother came in with a large bowl of warm salt water and some cotton, this was going to sting I just knew it. She was here to help me with the wounds caused by wolves yesterday. She slowly began to unwrap the bandage from around my torso and slowed down drastically when it came to the final layer, I felt it peel off every wound and my fists clenched in pain. "Jesus!" I heard my mom exclaim once the dressing was completely removed. The air on my back was nice though and I sighed as my arm covered my once again exposed brests. "This is more than 15!" I began to hear sniffles coming from her and sighed turning round to look at her face, only to notice tears streaming down it. "Mom I'm fine, it's alright." She shook her head. "It's not alright, I'm your mother I shouldn't let these things happen. I'm so sorry. Your father would have..." here she goes again. Every single time something happened she'd always bring up dad, it really annoyed me because no matter how much we all wish he was here, he just isn't. My father was kiled by THEIR kind, almost 5 years ago when they actually managed to take over. When the lycans managed to penetrate our town my father rose up with some people from the neighborhood, to defend our livelihood, it was futile to say the least. We lost many people and I watched as my dad was ripped apart by two fully shifted wolves, I ended up shoting him to stop his suffering before they dragged me to the courtyard, i was the person to receive the first lashing of the town when I was 12! The wolves have been pretty strict with me since that day. "Stop being stvpid!" Was I harsh? Definitely! Did she need to hear it again, absolutely. "Dad is dead, we don't know what he'd do because he never knew this life. He never knew this world." I know what he'd have done, most likely attacked the guy who held the whip and got himself kiled in the process. "The best thing you can do for me, is stop crying and help me, next time don't insist on helping if you can't handle it." She began to wash my open wounds with the warm salt water causing loud winces to leave me, I knew it was necessary to prevent infection, but my god it hurt like a betch. "Some of these are really deep Dylan!" She sniffed again and my eyes rolled in my head. "I told you, I'm fine, just wrap me back up so I can get to bed." My mom was obviously more impacted by my injuries than I was, I suppose that always the case though. When it's happening to you, you've just got to get through it but when it's happening to someone you love, you just want to take their pain away. She quickly placed a fresh bandage around my waist and chest and wrapped it tightly for compression. The bowl of water that was used was now red in color, I guess from the blood my back was dripping with. "Can you keep your head down please? At least just this week. You can't take any more lashings." I simply nodded before standing up away from the stool, I walked over to Freddie and ruffled his hair in affection. "Good night squirt." He giggled and fixed his hair slightly. "Night Dilly." I smiled walking upstairs to my little bedroom, as soon as I was inside i shut the door and flopped down on to my bed on my stomach and I took a minute to cry to myself at the pain in my back, what my mom did was important but it hurt, not that I'd ever tell her. My hand covered my mouth quickly to muffle any noise I might be making. I couldn't tell anyone, I had to be strong because more and more people were crumpling these days, and my mom would break if she knew how much I was suffering. Sleep followed me shortly after, she was right though about me needing to keep my head down for the time being, I could not take another lashing! After a long night and an even longer morning, we were all finally stood in the hallway at school waiting for the twins to arrive. "Mine!" Everyone that was stood in the hallway tensed up, as we were seniors, me and Nick were stood towards the very back of the human line. All the mated people were situated directly opposite their wolf mates in their years. We stayed silent and still as Arya walked down the hall and stopped directly in front of Nick. His eyes widened in fear, unsure of wether to look up or keep his head lowered. "Look me in the eye, mate." He glanced at me slightly as if asking what he should do. "I said, look me in the eye." He slowly moved his eye line up to look at her face. I took a glance myself to see her eyes pitch black with lust. "I... can't... I mean... erm." Before he was able to mutter anything else, two wolves from opposite, grabbed him out of the line and dragged him behind Arya. "Hey!" My head shot up before I could stop myself. My mouth also forgot its place as I jumped out of line. Everyone's head shot to me as my eyes widened in realization at what I'd done. Adrian, the other twin, walked up to me before punching me right in the stomach, I doubled over instantly. Feeling the sting in my slightly healed back. "I know you... You were publicly flogged only two days ago." God I hate this guy. "I also have it on good authority, that you openly spoke out against our rules and regulations in yesterday's class." My head shot down the line slightly to see Erin, looking a little frightened, her mate, the beta to be was looking at her, nodding his head in reassurance. "You traitor, you grassed on your own kind?" I yelled at her before feeling a fist connect with my cheek. My head whipped to the side from the force, while my class members gasped. I'm so done with this treatment, right then, I wasn't in charge of my actions. My fists curled up and my stance became a lot more defensive. My head snapped up to the alpha to be, and I looked him in the eye. "You don't know the meaning of the word disrespect." I suddenly hurled my fist towards his head, which he easily dodged, but my foot came up and kicked him instead. He stumbled backwards from the force with wide eyes. "You... you Actually hit me!" He didn't even sound annoyed, more shocked. Everyone in the hallway was watching, waiting for the alpha to do something but instead he simply stood up straight, regaining his composure. "I think everyone should get back to class." He began to walk away, following his sister when I called him back. "What about Nick?!" "Simple, He's my sisters mate. He now belongs to her." Argh, he's not an object. "He's not her property." A chuckle left his mouth, before turning his back to me again. "All humans are property." A short while later everyone made it to science class, our teacher Mrs Mathews is mated to the lycans pack doctor, she also now has a four and two year old with him. She was one of the first humans to be cohered into a false relationship. "What were you thinking young lady?" I rolled my head at her before looking at the empty seat next to mine. Nick was with that stvpid wolf girl right now. Being changed, I'm so angry it's ridiculous. "I was thinking, this guy is being a prick. Did you hear him? 'All humans are property.' It's bull shet." I looked up and the whole class looked at me like I had three heads. Talking shet about wolves is one thing, but talking about an alpha is punishable by death, attacking an alpha is an even worse offense. There was then a knock at the door and in walked Erin and her band of mated bestards. "Sorry we're late Mrs." "Erin, how are things between you and bata Monroe?" She blushed, the traitor actually blushed at the mention of his name. "He spoke to me last night about trying for a baby. We need a good strong boy to take over as beta." I scoffed looking at her as she took her seat. "You guys are actually pathetic, why can't it be a girl? Those mutts are basically Neanderthals" I voiced my opinion and saw all the shocked faces around me. Calling the lycans mutts, is the same as them calling us scum. After lesson had ended the entire school was called into the hall for assembly. This is where any human who has been found to have broken the rules were punished, usually 10 lashings were goven out or something similar. "Welcome to the school assembly, congratulations to the alpha twins for finding both your mates. Now on to the business at hand, as the 5 year anniversary of the new world is coming up, we have been informed that the alpha king will be visiting our district next week, this is very exciting news. We want you all to look your absolute best, she wolves and mated females will wear exemplary dresses made by seamstress. Male wolves and mated men will wear tailored suits. Anyone who doesn't comply will be reprimanded." The Alpha King?! No one has met him yet, he took over the throne three years ago when he turned 18. He really didn't make any appearances though, great, this month is going to be a nightmare. "As for the humans, you will be given a new uniform to wear for the visit, these are to be neatly ironed and worn to the highest standard. As for the following humans, based on your attitude this past week, you will be coming to the front and facing punishment. Tony summerset?!" Tony's head shot up as he looked around, he was in the year below but he shared my views when it came to the lycans. He slowly walked up to the front of assembly, almost instantly his top was t0rn in two and he received 10 lashings. A girl named Kara was next and she too received 10 lashings. A few more people went up slowly accepting their fate then suddenly my name was called. "Dylan Riley." Inside I was terrified but I simply shrugged my shoulders, I guess I did kind of expect this. Although I'm not sure if my back can take any more damage. "You attacked an alpha, correct!" His eyes bored into mine as I bowed my head submitting to his authority. "Technically, no." Everyone in the school gym looked on in fear, as my head moved to the front row of the wolf side. Adrian sat, with a werewolf girl in the year below, her name was Jana, I guess he found his mate. Nick and Arya were no where to be seen though. Adrian gave me a shrug as if to say he didn't tell, before smirking at my comment. "He hasn't officially taken the alpha title yet, so he's just..." i looked at the principle and noticed his eyes black and his claws out, he was in what lycans call a half shift, triggered when the subject has become angered. He turned to two security wolves and gave them a nod, Almost immediately i was forced onto my knees, my arm was slammed on a table and held in place by one wolf, while my body was held in place by the other. "Ok, I don't think this is needed, I have alpha blood, a stvpid human girl can't hurt me." My head snapped to Adrian who had stood up in front of the school to stop what was happening. "Nevertheless, humans need to know their place." With that the pressure on my arm increased as our principals hand pulled my sleeve up before a long claw punctured my skin. The searing pain shoting from the fresh wound had my eyes scrunched and my fist clenched, I bit the inside of my cheek hard instantly tasting blood, however no sound left my mouth. He continued to write, using my skin as a canvas and his claws as a marker, it went on forever, my vision blurred slightly at one point as I turned my head away. After minutes of torture, he was done and the pressure on my arm eased, instantly I snatched my arm away, hissing through my teeth at the pain. I was about to scurry off stage, when I was roughly grabbed yet again, my arm being held in the air by the principal while my feet were inches off the floor, blood dripped from the wound and the pattern he had made was on show for everyone to see. Loads of people gasped, even the wolves looked slightly horrified at what had happened. "This is what happens when a human decides to speak out. I can promise, anyone who so much as says one word about our way of life, will have the same punishment." My arm was starting to seriously ache from being held in the air for so long, and the lack of blood flow to my suspended arm was causing me pins and needles, still I refused to make a sound. I held the tears back and I bit my cheek harder causing more blood to fill my mouth. "That's enough Bradley!" Adrian growled, he was still stood up and looking at the scene in front of him. His eyes hard as he stared at the principal a low warning growl erupted from his chest which had the head teacher gulping, he quickly let go of my arm causing me to crash to the floor. A small cry left my mouth as I hit the hard floor. Immediately I scrambled away, my foot just missed the high step leading to the stage and I fell, waiting for the impact of the ground, but it never came. Two strong arms wrapped around me catching my weak body causing me to look up, my eyes widened as I noticed Adrian had caught my falling form. "This isn't part of the human punishment program!" Adrian growled causing me to tense in his grip, I pushed him away from me before fixing my uniform top. The room was deadly silent, taking in the scene in front of them, while I stole a glance at my forearm. Carved into my skin by his devastating claws were two words, words that would most definitely scar my body for life. 'Human scum' "Lessons must be learned, she received lashing merely two days ago, and clearly it had no effect on her." Another growl left Adrian's chest as he stepped on to the stage, I wasn't bothered though, you would think I'd be ashamed but I simply smiled slightly. I fixed my sleeve a little so it wouldn't rub on the fresh wound before speaking. "It doesn't matter," the whole room looked at me shocked by my attitude. "I would rather be labeled human scum, than have any resemblance to your kind. I'm proud of what I am, how many of you can say that?" After my amazing little speech, I walked right down the middle between the humans and lycans and out the door. No more compliance, I'm going to get away with as much as I can without getting into too much bother. There will come a day when the lycans power will fizzle out. When it does I'll be ready, I'll be waiting for the day we take our world back. As for the best part about my plan...

No one can stop me.

"Ouch, not so hard." I seethed as the school nurse cleaned my new wound with antiseptic. "If you had of just kept your mouth shut, this wouldn't have happened." I turned to my right looking out the window at the few clouds that were floating in the blue sky. "Like I said, I'm proud to be human, and now everyone knows what I am." I clenched my fist together as the nurse began wrapping a bandage around my forearm. It had been a good few hours since the incident in the hall, and I had been forced to come to the nurces office after I had tried to clean my wound by splashing it with water from the tap, it also refused to stop bleeding. "You are impossible. Can you please just try and stay out of trouble? For one day, that's all I ask." Our school nurse is a wolf, she's one of them. However she hates the way they treat us mere humans, she thinks we should all just live in peace with equal rights. Like that would ever happen. "All I've done is stay out of trouble, but you are just going to humiliate me anyway, so what's the actual point?" "The pack were discussing a public execution, Dylan. You need to walk on egg shells from now on, not just for you but for your family as well." No ones been publicly executed in over 4 months, I'm flattered they're considering it. They only execute people who they believe are the biggest problems to society. "Well then... I'm flattered." I chuckled, before looking at the patch job. 'Huh, not too shabby.' I quickly stood up from the human nursing station and pulled the sleeve of my shirt down covering the evidence of ever being hurt. "This is serious!" I just gave her a blank look before leaving the room. On the way out I heard her call back to me. "Please just think about it." I gave a clipped nod as I walked away wondering how I'm going to tell my mom about this. Later in the evening... "Dilly why you say that?" Freddie looked up at me with a mouth full of bread. "Don't speak with your mouthful!" My mom scolded him as a bashful blush made its way to his cheeks. "Sowwy mommy." His reply was muffled as he swallowed the last chunk of food. "I said it Freddie, because it's the truth. The wolf race are a pathetic excuse for..." my mom cut me off with an extremely stern look. "Dylan! They have ears everywhere, one more word out of you and it's your room." I scowled, my hatred for the Lycan kind growing stronger as each day passes. "What more can they do to me, lash me? Beat me? Brand me? They've ran out of options." I stated slamming my hands down, then severely regretting it as sharp pain shot though my wound. "What was that?" My head shot to regard my mothers worried expression. Her eyebrows were raised and her eyes were dull and judging as she looked at me. "Nothing, it was nothing." I quickly took my plate in my hand and began to walk to the kitchen. "I'm not really hungry, and I have homework to do!" My mom caught hold of my forearm causing me to drop my plate suddenly, I watched it slowly fall before shattering on the floor. I retracted my arm quickly and turned to Freddie. "Stay there and don't move until it's cleaned up ok sport?" He just nodded with wide eyes, I turned back to my mom and noticed her curious stare on my arm. Her grip shifted to the other side as she turned it around before pulling my sleeve up. The bandage was showing and a bit of blood was seeping though after the wound had been disturbed. "What the hel happened?" My moms eyes widened as she began to fumble with the bandage. Before she could unravel any of it I snatched my arm away. "I had an accident at school. No big." I began to gather the large pieces of the broken plate up ready to put them in the bin. "What did you do Dylan?" She looked at me with pure worry and only then did I realize what the wound must look like to someone who didn't know. "For gods sake! I didn't do it to myself! I got publicly punished at the assembly alright? It's no big deal." Her face dropped instantly and she stepped towards me, causing me to step backwards. "Mom, I'm ok. So back off will you." "What did you do? I've never known them to cut someone's arm as a punishment." Her shock and accusation was evident in her voice and I sighed heavily. "I spoke against the alphas son." I may have hit him too, but I wasn't going to divulge that part to her. "It's not one big cut, mom, it's a brand, 'human scum' carved onto my arm." "They've branded you now too?!" My eyes rolled at her hurt tone as I went to get the dustpan and brush. "You're so much like your father." A sigh left her mouth as she spoke, running a hand through her hair, while I quickly swept up the little pieces of the broken plate. "You've had a new uniform delivered. It's laid out on your bed. Dylan, Please just try and stay respectful in the future, I don't want my daughter to be completely mutilated. Although you're not far off." "Gee, Thanks." I then walked over to my little brother Freddy before blowing a kiss into his neck and hearing him giggle. "So sport, how's school going?" "It's ok." He shrugged before going back to coloring a dinosaur picture in. "Well that's good, stay out of trouble, ok little man?" Heading upstairs and into my room, my thoughts wandered to the permanent graffiti scar very slowly healing on my arm. Disgusting beasts. Think they own the world because they're faster, stronger and can shift. Pah. If you ask me they are not all that.

The second I walked into my room my mouth dropped open. On my bed was some grey pants laid out neatly, which wasn't the surprising part, no, what shocked me was the grey high neck no sleeved button down shirt, every single set of uniform had sleeves except this one. They've done this on purpose those, mutts. They want the world to see my arm and know what a disgusting creature I am. They want the world to know that I, Dylan Riley, am nothing more than 'human scum'.

During the last week, I've been horrible, in class I've been loud in voicing my views, I've insulted at least everyone to some degree, I didn't care about the consequences, and I certainly didn't think about them. I haven't seen Nick at all since he was claimed, and to make matters worse today was the royal visit. Oh yes, werewolves and mated humans alike were spending every waking minute preparing themselves to meet his royal majesty, king of the wolves. Unclaimed Humans however would rather stick pins in their eyes. "Dylan, get down now... you're going to be late." She was right, I was dawdling this morning, I really couldn't be bothered today, I gave myself one last look in the small mirror and sighed when my eyes met my newly uncovered brand. It had bad bruising around the letters, and was still extremely tender to touch, it was definitely healing now though. I made my way down the stairs and came face to face with my mother who was seeing to Freddie, she was helping my brother get his coat on when she turned to me. "You ready sport?" Freddie nodded his little head at me and smiled while I quickly slid my shoes on. "Just Remember, the alpha is bad enough, Dylan, please, please don't do anything to anger the king." My mother stopped us from walking out the door to tell me something she had been telling me continuously for the last couple of days, it was almost as if the entire human population of our district was expecting me to do something stvpid. "Try and have a good day." I rolled my eyes but nodded, even I know not to push the king, he could kil me in the hallway like it was nothing. In fact I plan on staying out of his way for the entirety of the day. "We will see you tonight mom." I stated before me and my brother began our walk to school, his little hand clutched my own tightly as we went. Usually Nick would be with us, as he lives next door, well he used to, now he's residing in the main pack house. I quickly dropped Freddie off at his school and watched him get the wolfsbane neutralizer before walking into him building giving me a small wave before he went in. With my new scar on complete show, and my figure being complimented by the skin tight shirt I was wearing, I sauntered down the street to school, I gave my name and year in and took the wolf's bane neutralizer injection with no problems at all. It was finally getting into school that the problem occurred. Walking through the halls I was met by many looks, some of pity some of disgust. You see every single non mated human in the school was wearing a long sleeved version of the uniform I was given. All the Wolves and mated couples were scattered around in fancy floor length dresses or tailored suits. As I turned the corner I noticed a couple, now this couple happened to catch my eye the most out of all of them because it consisted of Arya and Nick, eating each other's faces off. "What the hel!" Nicks head shot to me as his eyes widened. He too was dressed in a tailored suit, a navy blue tie hung on his neck to match Aryas dress. Why was this happening all the time? It's always my friends that get completely brain washed. I shook my head in disbelief before turning my back on him. I heard his fast footsteps behind me as I rounded the corner. "Dylan?!" He ran right in front of me, stopping me in my tracks, making me drop my bag off my shoulder and almost causing me to bump into him. "Let me just explain..." "Has she marked you?" I mean you could almost see it in his eyes, she had marked him, and knowing the way life goes he's probably even mated with her. "Actually... Don't even answer that." I aggressively picked my bag up off of the floor and stormed off down the hall. "Dylan, just listen to me, Erin was right, it's so hard to resist your soulmate, and Arya is actually ok once you get to know her." I just kept walking, he caught up to me walking beside me but it didn't matter, I completely ignored everything and everyone. 'I'm so not in the mood today' getting into class was good though, I said hello to Mr Foley and took my usual seat. Nick sighed then took his bag off ready to sit next to me, but I snapped before he had the chance. "Traitors and mated idiots sit on that side of the room." I didn't look him in the eye as I pointed to a seat right at the front of the classroom on the opposite side. His eyes widened as he turned his attention back to me. "You can't be serious Dylan." I gave him a blank look before grabbing my book out of my backpack, I placed it on the desk then began to write the date on the top line. "I've sat in this seat for as long as I can remember." I ignored him, his voice sounded sad and shocked. "Dylan? Wait! What is that?!" Before I could react Nick had grabbed hold of my branded arm and turned it to see the letters. "Oh my God! What happened?" I snatched my arm away from him and shrugged as I continued to write in my book before grabbing my water bottle out of my bag. "The principal happened, it was my punishment for speaking out against Adrian and Arya. I wear it with pride." He just held a complete look of disbelief. "You spoke out against them?" I shrugged, what did he think I'd do. "It's no secret that I despise this stvpid new world and the mutts that control it. You were my friend, I wasn't going to let them just take you without saying something, although that is exactly what you seem to have done. Enjoy the view from your new seat!" "Don't be like that, Dylan, I'm your best friend, I'm sorry about your arm, but..." my eyes rolled inside my head at my friends words. "Anything with the word 'but' in, isn't an apology, it's a rationalization." I took a drink of water from my bottle and kept my eyes facing forward, ignoring his every attempt to try and talk to me. "Dylan?.. Dylan?... Do you know what? Erin is right, if you push us all away you won't have any friends left." He huffed before walking over to the empty seat and sitting down, I could feel him glancing up at me every now and again but I didn't respond. "Good morning class, please settle down." He looked at me then at Nick and frowned, we've never sat apart, we were friends before the new world even began. I just shook my head telling him to forget it. "So... as you know the king will be arriving in a short while, but until then lessons will go on as normal." Its funny seeing teachers in the same uniform your wearing, mr Foley and his wife are the coolest. Human teachers and doctors only have slightly more respect than we do. Because of Mr Foley's status him and his wife have better access to food and drink, Mrs Foley is cool, sometimes she even makes sure mr Foley brings some in for me. Ya know, coz I'm their favorite student. It's not in a weird way, it's just they were friends of the family before the new wold took effect. Mr Foley and my dad were buddies from high school, so it goes without sayin really. "All the mated humans will be at the front of each years line again, after that you will all be placed in status, Nick, as your mated to Alpha Arya, you'll be at the front of your line. Dylan as you have been branded..." his voice trailed off as he looked at me. "Yeah yeah, I'll be at the back of the line behind everyone. I get it." I huffed, moving my sight towards the window once more. "I am sorry." I turned to face Mr Foley again, he looked genuinely upset and that look of pity wasn't something I wanted to see. I gave him a clipped nod then turned away again. "Anyway, on to the subject matter, 'Of Mice and Men, page 64, Nick why don't you start us off with the reading."

"Of course sir." Nick began reading the book but I switched off, today is going to be a long day. After almost an hour and a half of reading comprehension, the bell chimed signaling lunch. I shot up and out of the classroom before anyone could say anything. Today, I was avoiding drama like the plague.

I wandered the corridors straight to the lunch hall. All the people I would normally hang out with we're all mated so I grabbed my lunch quickly, and sat down at the end of the human table. Let me lay the lunch hall out for you. On one side of the room you have two long rows of tables, with simple benches that make it look like prison, on the other side of the room you have multiple round tables with fancy chairs. Yup you get it. The humans sit at the prison tables and the wolves and traitors sit on the fancy tables, they get fancy food, fancy drink and most importantly they get pudding. what I would give to have some pudding. "Dylan can we just talk?" Nick quickly took the spot next to me as he set his lunch tray down. I looked at his food which had been placed on a ceramic, circular white plate. God that looked good. I sighed knowing he was going to talk anyway. "Fine, you have two minutes." I used my fork to take a bit of pasta off his plate and shoved it into my mouth. God that was good. "After I left school, I was taken to the pack house with Arya, and I really got to know her. It took a few days for me to finally accept being with her, but ever since life has been ok, and the sax... well that's a whole other story." Eww, I didn't need that mental image in my head. "I'm glad your happy." I stated before deciding I had no appetite. His face held shock before he sighed in relief. "That means a lot Dylan, I mean you know that your opinion matters to me." I cut him off before he could say anything else. "I said I was glad your happy. I didn't say I approved of what you've done. You've basically turned into one of THEM, I can't ever forgive you for that." He looked hurt, but I couldn't care less about his feelings. He placed his hand gently on my arm and went to open his mouth when a growl sounded out. All heads whipped to where it came from, Arya was stood holding a glass of soda and a plate, she was looking right at me and Nick and I would totally be dead if looks could kil. Nick quickly retracted his hand, his whole face fell and you could see sorrow flood his irises. "You sit with me now, get away from that, that... scum!" Wow, Nick was such a lucky guy. NOT. "You heard her. Get away from me, go sit with your new friends. I'm happy for you, and I understand where your coming from, but don't come up to me again and pretend you didn't betray your own kind. Don't pretend you didn't betray me." I shoved a little bit of food into my mouth before standing up and walking out of the cafeteria, leaving my tray on the table. I was walking through the hallway to the classroom, you see I decided to spend lunch with Mr Foley in his room, when I happened to hear voices in the corridor. "Is it wise for her to actually be present when the king arrives? Surely she could be placed in the dungeons, it might actually teach her some respect?" My principal was speaking to the alpha of our district, huh, if I stayed and listened do you think they'd notice, maybe they could smell me?! "Everyone is to be present, if the Riley girl does one thing out of line she will be dealt with severely, child or not. That girl has been a blight to the district since day one, she's dangerous, if she puts one hair out of place I will personally break her into submission." Oh shet, they were talking about me specifically, and they mentioned the dungeon, that's not been used in months. Normally I would have listened in more but something about the entire situation didn't sit right with me, all of a sudden, I was on edge, and simply wasn't interested in the slightest in hearing how my misery was to be enhanced. I backed up slightly before turning around and bumping head first into one of the hottest man I had ever seen. I lost my balance immediately and fell straight on to the floor letting out a small grumble in the process. His eyebrows knitted together quickly and his breath hitched in his throat as he looked upon my fallen state and gasped. "Mate!" He whispered, his eyes fixated on mine. Now, I had seen and heard that many times to know what that means, I gasped before taking a step back. 'No, no, no, no, no. This can not be happening.' He growled slightly before stepping towards me. Oh Shet!

Given the recent discussion of Shut Up And Ruck’s strength programming, I thought it might be appropriate to address a few lingering comments.
First, we’re not immune to criticism. It is perfectly reasonable to criticize whenever and whoever you want, even me. Clearly, the anonymity of the internet provides ample license to do so. I’m not infallible and I make at least one mistake every fiscal year. I get downvoted all the time and I recognize that many things that I say are taken as gospel based on my years of providing accurate information. I don’t take this leniency lightly. I’ve earned this gift and I don’t look gift horses in the mouth. I certainly don’t shy away from criticizing others, but I always seek to do so from a position of best intentions of the outcome. But if you think that it’s appropriate to draw conclusions like “He definitely doesn’t know what he’s talking about”, “It violates basic principles”, or my favorite “It looks like he stole this from X, Y, or Z” and you’re basing that on one tiny screenshot of one sample day of one singular domain absent of context of the entirety of the programming then you must be special. I wish I had that sort of clairvoyance.
Second, our programming is not a mistake. Is it aggressive? Absolutely. Is it wrong? Absolutely not. It is deliberate and intentional. A few points to consider:
-The higher percentages and rep ranges occur at the end of each cycle. You don’t start off at the high end, you finish there. The passage cited is 9 weeks post 1RM testing. At a minimum the higher % come 5 weeks after testing. You get stronger and the programming reflects that.
-Just because you’ve never done anything like this doesn’t mean much. We follow the evidence, and the literature clearly indicates that our recommendations are appropriate. Aggressive, but appropriate. Here are 6 sources, including some meta-analyses that bring the body of knowledge to several hundred; there are many more.
Source 1
Source 2
Source 3
Source 4
Source 5
Source 6
Your experience not withstanding, our programming is entirely valid. This is especially true given the other variables. 1) we prioritize intensity and we manifest that through heavy weights 2) you only lift each exercise 2 times in every 5 day cycle - plenty of time for macro recovery 3) you are resting up to 4 minutes between sets - plenty of time for micro recovery 4) you are only doing 3 lifts in a day and only one for that domain - you aren’t doing 3 sets of barbell bench, then 3 sets of incline, then 3 sets of decline, then some cable cross-overs, then some dumbbell flys, then finishing with some drop sets on the Smith machine. 1 exercise, at maximal intensity. No need to pace yourself. 5) we are seeking to balance strength and endurance. It’s impossible to fully address both simultaneously. There will inevitably be friction. 6) we are seeking to challenge you, not accommodate you. 7) we emphasize self-reflection, data analysis, and agency. If you are struggling to meet the listed criteria then we encourage you to program accordingly. It’s foundational to our approach.
But allow me to let you in on a little secret. Even though we cite no small amount of literature, you can find lots of literature that argues against our programming. In fact, there is so much ‘literature’ out there that you can find supporting information for damn near everything and anything. So, back to my first point, you are welcome to criticize. But you should at least provide some counter-evidence beyond “in my experience”. In the Taxonomy of Information, anecdotal testimony is the least rigorous. We have presented our arguments, you are invited to present yours. Or be a little more graceful in your criticism.
We are well aware of Prilepin’s optimal reps (for powerlifting), and the NASM 5 Phase Optimum Performance Training Model (which we follow) and the NSCA Performance Pyramid (which we follow). We don’t disagree that they are to be well considered. We did a full and complete survey of the information environment. But we stated in our introduction and made available for free our philosophy…we have no interest in preserving the credentialed protectorate of the fitness industry. SFAS is different, so shall the programming be.
Third, we didn’t “steal” another program and stack it on top of our own stuff. That’s not how this works. If you survey all of the programs and methodology out there, you will find a ton of overlap. If you follow established principles and seek consensus, then you end up looking a lot like the other stuff. Did we look at other programs? Yes, dozens of them. Did we steal them? No. The fact that we favor a more intense program that most programs don’t should make this argument moot. This is a serious accusation and should be reserved for the most egregious circumstances. You might not have experience with this type of programming, you might not be familiar with recent literature, and you are only seeing a very minuscule event absent of any of the other programming and ancillary elements.
Fourth, and finally, I want to address the unhinged discussion of cost. We’re particularly sensitive to this topic because we know that our target population skews younger and likely less affluent, so cost matters. And I don’t like calling guys out necessarily, but u/Certain-Exam-2577 and u/Potential_Presence67 ? You two can go fuck yourselves. You anonymous peices of shit decided from your castles on top of Mount Holy that we are looking for a “money grab”? I could have charged hundreds, I could put all of my content behind a paywall, and I could simply pump and dump and walk away to stack cash. But that’s not the case.
What do you two fucking genius economists think would be appropriate for 8 months of daily programming for strength, conditioning, rucking, mental prep, mobility, skills, recovery and much more? We charge 60 dollars. Let’s take a very small survey the prep environment and see where we stack up:
Evoke - 3 months, requires additional programming prerequisites, $65
Performance First - 3 months, $90
18A Fitness - 4 months, $179
Gritty Soldier - 3 months, $30
Mountain Tactical - 12 months, $329
Blue/Green Training - 11 weeks, $129
We’re looking pretty competitive given these numbers. And these are the better programs. We mostly like them (and others) and we have tremendous respect for their creators and coaches. We don’t think they are as good as ours, especially our ruck programming, but they’re in the ballpark. Many guys in this sub have used them and speak highly of them. There are also near endless shit programs out there. AI generated, generic, point-of-sale trash with slick marketing and zero support.
We are a complete program that covers every single domain, and we have well established our expertise for SFAS. But we don’t rely on reputation, we deliver. We research, analyze, synthesize, and present the most comprehensive program out there. For just 60 bucks. Hell, you’ll spend over half that on a blank journal…we’ve recommended this excellent journal many times. But that’s just a cool journal. Zero programming. So we think we’re not “grabbing” too much.
Our resident pricks go on to say that RUSU wasn’t worth $50. Good thing we only charge $40. And perhaps you’d prefer the 15+ year old, lack-luster competition? They’re in the same price range. They even take a cheap shot at our Muster events as just a ‘wAlK iN tHe wOoDs tHaT yOu cOuLd do for FrEe’ or ‘info you could probably find online’. Our “competition” is $750 and one of the programs isn’t even taught by a military guy, much less a Green Beret. You two retarded laureates haven’t even attended an event, so your opinion is irrelevant.
And I should put a pin in all of this money grab, predatory, grifter talk by reminding them that this is all voluntary. You don’t have to spend a single dime if you don’t want to. Lots of guys don’t do anything extra and they get Selected all the time. But if a guy wants to be compensated for his hard work and another guy wants to allocate the cost of a night out drinking, then maybe your keen criticism could be stymied a bit. I offer plenty of free advice and commentary every day. I note that neither of you provide anything of value.
So, that’s my assessment of the situation. You don’t have to be a part of the conversation, but I thought that I should let you know how I see it. I endlessly tell you about the importance of foot care, so it’s only fair that I weigh in on this important topic. I should note that there was also some very reasoned comments and lots of guys understanding the intent of the programming AND of the program. And the OP reached out via DM and we had a very reasonable and productive discussion. He gets it. And the number of guys commenting is <1% of the number of guys reading the actual full program. I like that guys are passionate about this stuff. If you get 10 Green Berets in a room you’ll get 11 different opinions on damn near every topic. You know what they say about opinions…

If you’ve been following me on here, you know I am a drop shipping veteran. I have been doing it for the past 11 years and I think I am qualified to say I know the ins and outs of the business model.
It still surprises me that Most people on YouTube (the so-called Dropshipping gurus) still promise you that you will become rich in two weeks without hardly putting in any effort. Let me give it to you straight: nothing could be further from the truth. I’ve made well over seven figures with drop shipping and I also failed a lot. So let me share with you the information that is missing from 99% of what you see on YouTube.

1. Do NOT copy what’s already working

that’s one of the phrases they tell you most often. Just copy what’s already working and you’re done. Usually the method shown is researching your competitors, look at their best selling products and sell the same stuff. But think about it. If we are all doing that, in the long run, we’re all competing, only based on price, driving our profit margin down. Customers aren’t stupid and know they have seen that product somewhere else for a cheaper price. So do not go out and sell products everyone else is selling. Instead, make sure to do proper niche research. Select a niche first (you can download a guide containing 300+ niches for free in the links section of PassionsToProfits). Then spend some solid time, researching it deeply. Join private Facebook groups around your niche, go through all the posts to get into peoples minds and how they think, how they talk about products, what they value in terms of features and benefits, etc. Do the same thing on Reddit. Then look at best selling products in your niche on Amazon and look at the NEGATIVE reviews. That will tell you what can be improved. Those are good ideas for when you go out and research products. Only when you have done your homework, go onto websites like AliExpress and try to find unique products that hardly anyone is selling already. Yes, that takes time and work. And lots of patience. I have found a few of my bestsellers hidden on page 53 in the search results. Sometimes it took me two weeks before finding a really good product I could attempt to sell.

1. Advertise your products properly

By that I mean do not rip off someone else’s product video or image and run with it. Order a sample or two, analyze the product, use it yourself and shoot your own product video. Again, that takes work, but it will pay off. Make sure to show the main product benefits in the first few seconds of your video, followed by the characteristics/features and additionalinformation (instructions, assembly instructions, etc.).

1. You should NOT use drop shipping from China forever

It’s great for testing the validity of a product, but you should not use this business model for a long time. The main reason has to do with supply chain issues. It takes forever for products to arrive, and you can get away with it if your product is truly unique and people cannot get it elsewhere. But even then, two weeks is a long time for any product to arrive. So once you find a winning product, make sure to look for bulk order options and import it into your country to a local fulfillment warehouse. That way you can get products quickly to your customers doors, and also avoid the typical downtime during Chinese new year.

1. Not any product is suitable for drop shipping

I won’t go into too much detail about this here, because I wrote a detailed post which you can check out here: https://www.reddit.com/PassionsToProfits/s/SAg2p9JCGe
I could go on and on, but I’ll stop here for now. Feel free to share your experiences in the comments or ask questions. I’ll do my best to answer them.
Note: Nowadays, I am more focused on print on demand, because it eliminates all the supply chain headaches. The majority of suppliers and fulfillment companies are based in the US and I hardly receive any customer emails asking where their stuff is. Plus, product quality is great and I have happy customers :)

I'm a student who's planning to study in Germany. I took my Goethe B1 Exam last week and hoping that I'll pass and continue working on my language. Applying to universities all around Germany as well. But this post isn't the one to enquire but more of just to catch a feeling about y'all. Social media is toxic and we all know that, IG has been pushing a lot of German Political Content to my feed from both sides the AFD which to my understanding doesn't like international student (Especially ones from the middle east like myself) and the other sides which promotes that Germany and the German people welcome anyone who's willing to come to their land and work and create a family and a life there (AKA be a normal productive member in society). I also have an American friend (F34) who told me that the later way of thinking is more common. But I didn't actually take her words to the heart as things maybe different based on place of origin and where you're planning to live in Germany. So I thought that I'd take it to reddit and ask the people directly. How do you feel about international students in general? and according to my experience online I'll answer a question in advance: If I hopefully had the opportunity to move to Germany (Visa & Admission Letter and the rest...) then I'm not planning to just benefit from the tuition free education and leave Germany for a better place, I actually want to create a stable life if I had the chance and even work on achieving my dreams inside of Germany because my field - as I heard - is still growing and has tons of potential for development in Germany and because (this one is a personal reason) I like way y'all are specifically the dry sense of humor and Ruhezeit makes Germany attractive to me as a place. As I've said, this is not the full post because things aren't clear yet and idk if I'd get the chance, but I was really working on that chance for the past year and I hope that I'll get it. Thanks for reading <<3
Edit: I labeled it as Tourism wrongly, so sorry. I meant to label it as "Student" stuff. Edit 2: tons of typos, as someone who can't help but correct people, please feel free to correct what I did not correct now.

I want to raise a serious complaint about TradingView. On the Daily timeframe chart of NIFTY50 for Tuesday, 21 May 2024, the lowest price is visible as INR 22,404.55. However, when I switch the chart from Daily to a 4-Hour timeframe chart, the lowest price for the same date is now INR 22,440.90. I mean, what? I'm investing my hard-earned funds based on this data.
I even took a trial version of the TradingView premium subscription to try out more tools and capabilities, and this is what I get? The plans come at a hefty price, and with this quality of data, it's a shame.
Additionally, when trying to raise a complaint with the company, there's no way to contact them other than sharing feedback or purchasing a premium plan. The feedback section is marked by exactly: "Describe the problem in detail. Please keep in mind that while we do read every piece of feedback we receive, we don’t respond to it due to the volume we receive from free users."
So, even to raise an issue, I need to first pay a premium. The most important thing here is that people are investing money based on this data.
u/TradingView, this is unacceptable and needs immediate attention.
https://preview.redd.it/o512kwsiqx3d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=20456e0acf50dd96639ec11405abcd75817a98ab
https://preview.redd.it/cpf5tx9jqx3d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=bca3721396a24aa35eb2b8921ca2e87e98b67013

This is an example of a letter from my great uncle who joined the First French Army near the end of the war. It is a letter that mentions many things that avid followers of the show and books know about (The whole thing was found in two pieces in different parts of the same collection, but there is an english translation for each one).
https://preview.redd.it/k5go18yqpx3d1.png?width=690&format=png&auto=webp&s=41c31b4da3388f3a99ed97ef675f2ec84473da9e

1. First Page
2. Second Page

Like many letters from the WWII time period, they've been kept in attics, boxes, and stored away, hard to find, and maybe even never seen again. You can replace these with whatever you want, photos, survivors, documents, items, and the same thing almost applies. One thing is clear, much of the information of the WWII era is being scattered and lost.
That is why I came up with the website, the WWII Archives (https://wwii-archives.org), which allows for anyone to join to create the most detailed articles about each subject from the WWII era. In doing this we attempt to archive and find all that scattered information, to bring it together to make these articles
Some example articles include people I've interviewed (Joe McPhail, Paul Blackmon), Units (A Co, 116th IR), VMF-323)), and family (Raymond Traumann whose letter is above). If your article even is notable enough we will summarize it in a blog and post it on social media.
https://preview.redd.it/nptkl9lmlx3d1.png?width=190&format=png&auto=webp&s=83290bc4d697958315a95d6909431b52c9bad59d
For this subreddit, although again you may write on any subject from that era, we are interested in people that would like to contribute and write about Easy Company, its members, 1st battalion, the 506th, the 101st, the 82nd, and anything related to those things. There are especially some niche and unknown things about the 101st out there that haven't really been well documented. For example a while back I started looking into a paratrooper named Bernie Gaudreau. If anyone has any information on him and other things we need help with that. Since the 80th anniversary of D-Day any information that can be contributed through that would be great.
Not only would you be able to write about general WWII things, but also about your family, other people from the time, very niche topics, and even things that don’t have to do with the war, but happened during the time period. Most importantly, you would be contributing to the scholarship for that time period in general.
All that it takes is to go to the website, sign up, read the Editing and Multimedia Guides (and Interview Guide if you’re interviewing), and then you are free to contribute!

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---Sample---
​
---Fnurfar’s perspective---
---2710 Terran Calenda3 years BF---
All six of my paws desperately scramble against the slick pavement of the Prosperity back alley as I flee for my life!
Pursuing me… is a monster!
His species aren’t meant to be sprinters!
They said if it came to a chase, I just needed to quickly get out of his line of sight and keep going and he’d not be able to keep up!
I skid around a corner and steal a glance behind me, seeing two furious eyes moving towards me so fast that they seem to leave streaks of emerald green behind them as afterimages!
The Fury is so close on my tail that he’s almost certain to catch me now!
It would be laughable how much my… ‘employers’ had underestimated him if it weren’t so terrifying!
‘You’ve got a Terran with you! There should be no issue!’
Yes, that idiot mercenary they hired almost had me going with his smug, arrogant proclamation that ‘Big=slow! Slow=dead!’ as he idly showed off his little knife tricks!
My confidence lasted up until the very moment I saw the one we were supposed to rob!
[20cm] taller than the skinny mercenary and looking like he could easily weigh twice as much, the man was a Hunt damned beast compared to the one who was meant to protect me from him!
I think Flynn reassessed his cocksure attitude as well because, rather than waiting for me to have an opening like we agreed in the [fucking] plan, he just drew a knife and tried to stab the monster to death!
An extremely poorly calculated risk!
There was no competition!
This juggernaut dealt with Flynn as easily as Flynn could have dealt with me!
It took him a matter of seconds to dispatch my accomplice but that was a matter of seconds where he was distracted enough that I was able to snag what we had been after… not that it makes any difference now!
Just as I hear thundering footfalls coming up on my left, powerful fingers impact the space between the bottom of my neck and the top of my top shoulderblades.
I’m slammed into the ground… but not killed…
I can feel the power contained in the iron grip around my neck…
I know that decapitating me would be as simple as deciding to close his fingers but, as I wait for death to come, it doesn’t…
Instead, the hand slides up my shoulders, gathering the loose skin and lifting me up like a kit in her parent’s mouth…
The first thing I’m able to see is the monster’s flat, booted feet, followed by a pair of long thick legs, then a chest and left arm covered in a loose fitting, buttoned shirt, patterned with vertical and horizontal lines.
The red fabric of his top disguises the bloodstain from the wound he got from Flynn, just below his shoulder. However, the nauseatingly metallic smell of it absolutely fills my nostrils!
The final thing to be revealed, as my feet hang more than [a metre] from the ground, is a face… the scarred skin a pale beige, the white, calcite teeth bared in a furious grimace, copper coloured eyebrows tilted downward in the middle over a nose, wrinkled with anger, and emerald eyes, burning with rage!
His shoulders rise and fall, in time with panted breaths he sucks in and out through his gritted teeth, putting me less in mind of a person (or even an animal) catching their breath after exertion and more in mind of some hulking piece of machinery from the Steam Age venting its pressure!
The Terran extends his pallid skinned, long fingered, furless, pentadactyl left hand to me, stained with the ferrous blood that’s run down his sleeve, and growls “Sample!”
“No…” I breathe, terrified.
“GIRL! I AIN’T fuckin’ PLAYIN’ with you!” he snarls, curling all but his index finger and jabbing it towards my snout “You’re gonna. GIVE. BACK. what you. FUCKIN’. STOLE!”
“You… can take it… from my corpse…” I defy, clutching my exhausted, trembling pawhands to the front of my jumpsuit.
Effortlessly, his free hand comes forward, batting my four aside, before pinching the top of the stasis vial and pulling it free, with there being absolutely nothing I can do to stop him!
He holds up the tube, in which is visible a small plant with a rosette of frilly black leaves and through which can be seen a frozen impression of the room it was in when it was stasised, demanding “You’re really willin’ to die for this!? For corporate espionage?!… Why the fuck’s this matter to you like that?!?!?!”
“I don’t care… about the plant… at all…” I answer, defeated.
His face twists in a sneer as he asks “Then why tell me I had to pry it from your cold. dead. hands!?”
“Because… if I come back… emptyhanded… they’re going to… torture my husband… and son… and make me watch!… If I don’t… come back… at all… maybe they’ll let them go!” I pant in answer.
His face falls blank… but I can tell that is not because he’s no longer angry!
Instead, his redoubled rage has gone from white hot to ice cold as he leans in and demands “Who’s ‘they’?”
---2715 Terran Calenda2 years AF---
“One!?” demands the sceptical, lutrine, Nvar man, one of six listening to my story for the first time (along with the two friends who’ve heard it before), holding up a webbed pawhand and extending a single finger “You’re trying to tell us that one Terran dismantled the entire Giluspri Sisters’ Syndicate, overnight!?… Simply because you told him a sob story about them holding your family hostage!?”
“I did say you wouldn’t believe me(!)” I smirk, lifting my drink to take a sip.
“You’re damn right I don’t believe you!!!” he sneers “It might have been a little more believable if you’d made it a team of a dozen or so Terrans that were guarding this thing but one!?… There’s no way it took a single individual a single night to root out and entirely destroy an enterprise that Prosperity’s government had been hunting for nearly [2 decades], even if that individual was a Terran!”
I place my drink down on the table and turn the palms of all four pawhands to the ceiling as I say “Believe me or don’t… that’s exactly how it happened!”
“Hmmm… Don’t know ’bout ‘exactly’…!” comes a familiar voice from behind my head, in the next booth over.
I freeze and straighten my back.
The friends and audience in my booth are looking past me, curiously, but, from their faces, it doesn’t look like they can see anything.
I stand and slide out through the gap between the table and Nafnarl’s footpaws.
I turn right and am immediately able to see that the booth next to us is occupied by a mixture of Terrans and some much smaller humanoids with green skin.
I keep going, rounding the partition to reveal…
“By the Hunt! Victor?!” I exclaim, seeing the man sat with his back almost exactly to where I was sitting, next to another tall, slim humanoid with blue skin and four arms.
His copper hair is much longer, his face isn’t as scarred and isn’t wearing the disgusted sneer that characterised so much of the time he and I spent together but… there’s no mistaking it!
The man turns his head, smiling, before standing up to nearly twice my height and extending a palm to ruffle the fur between my ears, saying “How’s it goin’, Foxy? You look a lot better ’an you did last time I saw you at least(!)” gesturing with his other hand up and down my less skinny and less visibly scarred body.
“Never mind that, Victor! What are you doing here?! You didn’t tell me you were coming back to Prosperity!”
He smirks “Yeah, sorry Foxy… It’s a loose lips sink ships kinda deal… Just thought I’d show my friends here the bar you brought me to celebrate after everythin’ was done that time… Didn’t think I’d actually run into you here!”
I stare up at the man, agog, for a few moments before reaching up with both my left hands and closing them around his wrist.
He allows me to drag him back to the head of my table.
“Nafnarl! Gfurnaf! This is him! This is the one I’ve been telling you about for the last [5 years]!” I say to my two Graufna friends before turning to the rest of the table to declare “He’s the man who took down the Giluspris! He’s Victor ‘Cuddles’ Taylor!”
With mirthful bemusement, the Terran raises his left palm to the table to smile “Y’alright guys!” before his eyes scan the faces and his expression goes concerned. He turns to me and asks “Your hubby alright, Foxy?”
I bare my teeth (I hope friendlily) and answer “Fnarnulf’s fine, Victor!… Fuffarn too! This is just a girl’s night…” gesturing at my two friends “…or… it was(!)” gesturing over the four men and two women, of four different species, who joined us to hear my story.
“What did you mean by it not being ‘exactly’ right?” queries Lunvo, the same sceptical Nvar who voiced disbelief before, still looking sceptical (not that I can blame him) but at least impressed by the fact that the ‘con’ has an (imposing looking) Terran stooge now(!)
“Weeeeell…” Victor frowns down at me, mirthfully “…the way she described me dodgin’ that knife attack, she made me sound almost psychic(!)… In reality, she and this guy weren’t as smooth as she seems to think(!) The fact that I even got nicked by someone I was payin’ as much attention to as that is a bad reflection on my reaction time!… Also, she kinda made it sound like I went into their headquarters with a gun in one hand and a lit plasmasword in the other(!) As I recall, I gave ’em all a chance to surrender and come quietly and it were only after they, shall we say, indicated a lack of interest in that option that my weapons first cleared leather!… Oh! And what was with all that comparin’ the way I pant to ventin’ steam engines, Foxy(?!)”
“But…” starts Muan, a nervous tolypeutine Wne woman beside her Wno husband, Kmuw “…you don’t deny it was you and you alone who brought down the Giluspris?… Without help?”
The pale skin of the Terran’s flat face performs a complicated scrunch as he considers the question before answering “Don’t know ’bout ‘without help’… I had Foxy here for showin’ me the way, after I’d done a lotta convincin’… and, once I’d taken care of ’em, local law enforcers came to take the survivors away… Aaaaand… I probably didn’t actually manage to kill or capture every last one of ’em… just gutted its power structure enough that the rats fled the sinkin’ ship(!)”
“Why are you calling her ‘Foxy’?” asks Lunvo, four eyes narrowed in suspicion “‘Fnurfar’ is the name she gave us!”
The large man shrugs his shoulders “I didn’t get her name until we came here to celebrate… she didn’t trust me to give it… Had to call her somethin’, so I called her Foxy.”
“Hmmm…” responds Lunvo “…I’m not buying it…”
Victor raises an eyebrow “You ain’t buyin’ me givin’ her a nickname(!?)”
“I don’t believe any of it! The whole story reeks of the fanciful!”
I bare my teeth and slam my paws on the table before snarling “I don’t care if you question my honesty, Lunvo, but this man saved my husband’s life, my son’s life, the lives of dozens of others, freed me from effective slavery and freed this planet from its largest criminal syndicate! I will not have you questioning his integrity!”
Lunvo cowers away from me, despite the table separating us.
I feel a large, strong hand on my shoulder.
I turn to see a smiling face.
“Eeeeasy there, Foxy… ’Preciate the defence but there ain’t no need to get heated over it!… ’Specially not when there’s a really easy way to sort this out…” he looks up at Lunvo and asks “Lunvo, was it? Could I ask you to look up the front page of the Prosperity Chronicle from the 3rd of September, 2710?… I think you’ll see a picture of me shakin’ hands with your governor at the time…”
---
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Discord
Dramatis Personae

I need advice regarding my relationship and decision that I’ve made. I want to know if I made the right decision. I (21f) met my (25m) bf at a tobacconist. He approached me and was very polite and asked for my number and if he could take me out. I asked him about his age and if he works because these are important things for me to know before even giving out my number. He answered and said he wasn’t working at the moment because he just got out of house arrest and I asking him if he’s not working, how will he take me out? He told me money isn’t an issue he’s just not employed. I got what he was trying to say. He took me out on a date and it was perfect. He was polite, sweet and a gentleman. It felt like love at first sight for me. We began dating and then he got arrested near my street when he came to drop off a motorcycle to someone and then came to see me. At this point, I knew him for 5 weeks in total and we spoke about a lot of things and I told him hypotheticallly if he was to be locked up again I would hold it down for him. I don’t think he believed me at the time I told him but when the situation arised, it wasn’t even a question for me and I did hold him down. It took a few weeks for him to get processed and call me. I wasn’t sure if he even wanted to be with me anymore. Right after his arrest, I tried to track him down to which jail he was at and sent him letters with words of encouragement and reassurance that I am here for him as promised. In those three weeks of no contact, I also got his BPAY details to put money in his account and have been this whole time. Around $30-$50 per week. He usually spends that money to call me twice a day for 15 minutes per call. Sometimes he calls me 3 times a day. In the weeks where I couldn’t send him money, he never asked for money but I realised the calls were only once a day as he was trying to space out the calls for the week as he was low on money. Still, he never asked me for anything. He’s always given me reassurance during the 6 months he’s been inside and speaks to me kindly and gently. When we do have issues, usually on the first call he will say something that’s not quite right and upset me but always fix it by the second call when he’s had time to think about it. I’ve felt lucky af to have him because he’s been the most sweetest and romantic person I’ve been with yet. All of his friends know bout me and message me when it comes to important information regarding his trial. His mum has also confided in me for the last 6 months and has told me that I’m like a daughter to her (although in the last 1 month she’s ghosted me). I had a face to face visit with him last month because his mum took me with her and it felt amazing to be able to see him and hold him. He has lied to me about a few things starting off with his ethnicity. When I met him he told me he was two different ethnicities but I later came to find out drop his mum that he’s actually 100% Indian and doesn’t have any roots of those other two ethnicities. His mum showed me her entire family as proof and his dad’s family. His mum has also warned me numerous times to break up with him because he’s been in and out of prison since he was 20 and every time he says he will change but he doesn’t. He’s also gotten expelled from school so he never finished school either. He has never had a normal job but has been making money in other ways so money isn’t an issue. I also think he might be addicted to drugs but I am not sure. He has gotten people to transfer different amounts of money into my account and for me to transfer them to other accounts. I did become suspicious of what’s going on but I kind of turned a blind eye to it and told him he better not be making me do something I shouldn’t be doing. He’s always told me if i don’t want to do it it’s totally fine and he can get someone else to do this for him. I am confident I am the only girl he’s talking to as I can book visits every week and I can tell other people are not really visiting him except his sister and mum sometimes and his mum’s also given me reassurance that he is talking to me only me and that when it comes to relationships he is soft hearted. I also do think he is soft hearted. I have experienced a lot of adversity from people and people definitely have looked down on me and have told me all sorts of negative things but I tried to stay strong and stay in the relationship. I have always brought up with issues and we have fixed them. Anyways, he gets out in 10 days and last week I went on to reddit to read peoples posts about dating someone that’s in prison and it scared tf out of me when I saw that all this sweet romantic talk is just “prison talk” and that they will switch up once they come out. I have sent him lots of pics of me too and I saw other people talking about how they sell and trade photos of women and I think I know him enough to know he respects me to not do that to me but all of these things just freaked me out. I am really scared of getting hurt so I tend to withdraw from relationships because the other person can leave me or hurt me to leave him. I know it’s something I struggle with but I have held it down for 6 months even though I only knew him for 5 weeks prior. I have tried to support him in every way I can and I have never missed a call from him. I am not strong enough to break things off over the phone because the calls are timed and I am afraid that if he does give me reassurance over the phone rn it’s probably “prison talk.” I would never ghost him or not give closure so I sent a message to be passed to him to his friend. In the message I basically talked about the reason why I’m leaving is because i don’t think he loves me and probably only feels so strongly about me because he’s in jail and all he’s got is time so now he’s infatuated with me but when he comes out that may change. I don’t want to hold him to promises he’s made while being in there and I don’t want to subconsciously force him to be with me I did write all that in a panic state. Anyway, I think he got the message. He did try to call me a few times after he got the message and I didn’t pick up. I love him a lot so deep down I do want him to try and prove me wrong and give me reassurance that it’s not just prison talk and that he does love me and want to be with me. He’s always made it clear he loves me over the phone. Do you guys think I made the right choice and that if he truly does love me, he will understand how I have been feeling on my end? It’s very difficult to be a loved one of someone that is incarcerated. You feel lonely and always in an emotional roller coaster. I stuck through and didn’t abandon him during his sentence but now that he’s coming out, I’ve kind of just set him free so he doesn’t feel guilty about treating me differently when he comes out if he realises his feelings are not as strong as they were once he was locked up.

The longer I go on the harder the cravings are. I can't stand even a week like this, I cave on the weekend. My eating habits are regular and fulfilling. But sugar will always make me my mood better. It makes me depressed to imagine living life without an access to that "free" moodlifter. It was soulcrushing to have to give up alcohol, to try and train myself to live with the fact that REAL life does not and can't feel like a party. It's just how it is. If everyday is a party, by yourself in your sad dingy flat, you are an addict, not living. There is quarantee something about your life is being neglected if you feel like you are having the time of your life every night, whether from actual intoxication or from the sweet taste of cinnamon buns.
But the bad news for my sugar addiction is I seem to be a bit of an dry alcoholic. If you don't know what that is, it's when you don't have the booze anymore but you still haven't healed the causes of the alcoholism, which logically lead to just another addiction. Even worse news is that I can't just refer to my previous stradegy for this sugar addiction even if my sobriety feels secure.
I take naltrexone. It is drug to lessen the effects and cravings of alcohol and opiods. It doesn't work as well for everyone as it has for me. But while alcoholism support circles online are so sweet about it and pat me on the back, I do think I did less for sobriety than others, I had the worst months of my life and then I just got put on it. Now I know what it is like to be addicted but I don't know what it is like to recover. I wouldn't be sober without naltrexone.
So now I am back where I started. All my life so far I have managed to stay between the mildly underweight to mildly overweight category. No fast swings from one side to the other, even if I have been on both ends but I'm talking more than a decade on the time periods. Now I am average again even if heavier than couple months ago. With that history and status, I'm not getting any kind of pills this time.
I wish there was a way to practice saying no before I actually am bombarded with all these mental gymnastics, circular arguments, excuses and barganing my mind likes to toy me with. It's 3 days of newly sworn loyalty to health but at least by day 6 it's like I am being thrown straight to the final boss. There's no inbetweens. I feel like there's no way to safely fail because it ends in binges and that ends in weight gain which feels like a direct proof of what a horrible addict I am, a number to measure how I am getting worse. The time I was overweight two years ago was like body horror, I really hated it and I hate this this. I'm scared I'm headed for it again. I can't even fathom where tf I am supposed to pull the energy from to keep saying no, when I am already beaten to a pulp by avoidance and overcoming of triggers. How am I supposed to stop for good when I can't make it for 7 days??? Barely 1??

I need advice regarding my relationship and decision that I’ve made. I want to know if I made the right decision.
I (21f) met my (25m) bf at a tobacconist. He approached me and was very polite and asked for my number and if he could take me out. I asked him about his age and if he works because these are important things for me to know before even giving out my number. He answered and said he wasn’t working at the moment because he just got out of house arrest and I asking him if he’s not working, how will he take me out? He told me money isn’t an issue he’s just not employed. I got what he was trying to say.
He took me out on a date and it was perfect. He was polite, sweet and a gentleman. It felt like love at first sight for me. We began dating and then he got arrested near my street when he came to drop off a motorcycle to someone and then came to see me. At this point, I knew him for 5 weeks in total and we spoke about a lot of things and I told him hypotheticallly if he was to be locked up again I would hold it down for him. I don’t think he believed me at the time I told him but when the situation arised, it wasn’t even a question for me and I did hold him down.
It took a few weeks for him to get processed and call me. I wasn’t sure if he even wanted to be with me anymore. Right after his arrest, I tried to track him down to which jail he was at and sent him letters with words of encouragement and reassurance that I am here for him as promised. In those three weeks of no contact, I also got his BPAY details to put money in his account and have been this whole time. Around $30-$50 per week. He usually spends that money to call me twice a day for 15 minutes per call. Sometimes he calls me 3 times a day. In the weeks where I couldn’t send him money, he never asked for money but I realised the calls were only once a day as he was trying to space out the calls for the week as he was low on money. Still, he never asked me for anything. He’s always given me reassurance during the 6 months he’s been inside and speaks to me kindly and gently. When we do have issues, usually on the first call he will say something that’s not quite right and upset me but always fix it by the second call when he’s had time to think about it. I’ve felt lucky af to have him because he’s been the most sweetest and romantic person I’ve been with yet. All of his friends know bout me and message me when it comes to important information regarding his trial. His mum has also confided in me for the last 6 months and has told me that I’m like a daughter to her (although in the last 1 month she’s ghosted me).
I had a face to face visit with him last month because his mum took me with her and it felt amazing to be able to see him and hold him. He has lied to me about a few things starting off with his ethnicity. When I met him he told me he was two different ethnicities but I later came to find out drop his mum that he’s actually 100% Indian and doesn’t have any roots of those other two ethnicities. His mum showed me her entire family as proof and his dad’s family. His mum has also warned me numerous times to break up with him because he’s been in and out of prison since he was 20 and every time he says he will change but he doesn’t.
He’s also gotten expelled from school so he never finished school either. He has never had a normal job but has been making money in other ways so money isn’t an issue. I also think he might be addicted to drugs but I am not sure. He has gotten people to transfer different amounts of money into my account and for me to transfer them to other accounts. I did become suspicious of what’s going on but I kind of turned a blind eye to it and told him he better not be making me do something I shouldn’t be doing. He’s always told me if i don’t want to do it it’s totally fine and he can get someone else to do this for him. I am confident I am the only girl he’s talking to as I can book visits every week and I can tell other people are not really visiting him except his sister and mum sometimes and his mum’s also given me reassurance that he is talking to me only me and that when it comes to relationships he is soft hearted.
I also do think he is soft hearted. I have experienced a lot of adversity from people and people definitely have looked down on me and have told me all sorts of negative things but I tried to stay strong and stay in the relationship. I have always brought up with issues and we have fixed them.
Anyways, he gets out in 10 days and last week I went on to reddit to read peoples posts about dating someone that’s in prison and it scared tf out of me when I saw that all this sweet romantic talk is just “prison talk” and that they will switch up once they come out. I have sent him lots of pics of me too and I saw other people talking about how they sell and trade photos of women and I think I know him enough to know he respects me to not do that to me but all of these things just freaked me out. I am really scared of getting hurt so I tend to withdraw from relationships because the other person can leave me or hurt me to leave him. I know it’s something I struggle with but I have held it down for 6 months even though I only knew him for 5 weeks prior. I have tried to support him in every way I can and I have never missed a call from him.
I am not strong enough to break things off over the phone because the calls are timed and I am afraid that if he does give me reassurance over the phone rn it’s probably “prison talk.” I would never ghost him or not give closure so I sent a message to be passed to him to his friend. In the message I basically talked about the reason why I’m leaving is because i don’t think he loves me and probably only feels so strongly about me because he’s in jail and all he’s got is time so now he’s infatuated with me but when he comes out that may change. I don’t want to hold him to promises he’s made while being in there and I don’t want to subconsciously force him to be with me
I did write all that in a panic state. Anyway, I think he got the message. He did try to call me a few times after he got the message and I didn’t pick up. I love him a lot so deep down I do want him to try and prove me wrong and give me reassurance that it’s not just prison talk and that he does love me and want to be with me.
He’s always made it clear he loves me over the phone. Do you guys think I made the right choice and that if he truly does love me, he will understand how I have been feeling on my end? It’s very difficult to be a loved one of someone that is incarcerated. You feel lonely and always in an emotional roller coaster. I stuck through and didn’t abandon him during his sentence but now that he’s coming out, I’ve kind of just set him free so he doesn’t feel guilty about treating me differently when he comes out if he realises his feelings are not as strong as they were once he was locked up.

It's strange. My life, by most metrics, has been going pretty well. My parents love me and tell me how proud they are of me, my siblings look up to me, my friends tell me they appreciate me. I do well in school despite heavy course loads and my teachers and professors like me a lot. I have a couple jobs on campus that are okay and mean I'm not too strapped for cash (if we ignore the student debt). I have a beautiful and loving partner who I want to propose to during the total solar eclipse in 2028. And despite it all, I want to die. There's no hope. There may be happiness in my life but I'm always the same sick, broken individual underneath and I always, always revert back to that person. I will never succeed as an adult but I also recognize that no amount of success will ever be enough. I always want what I haven't got.
I should be happy with my life, I should be grateful for every opportunity I've been given, but I want to throw it all away. I would break my baby sister's heart but I want to do it anyway because I'm sick and selfish and I hate living. I'm terrified of failure so I'd rather give up before I fail to amount to anything. I'm not built to be a functional adult. I'm selfish and cold, antisocial, inflexible and unreliable, and I have no control over my emotions. I lash out at people who don't deserve it and pick fights when there's nothing wrong. I will hurt my partner emotionally and I'm scared I'll hurt them physically, too, because I get so angry so quickly for no reason. I will ruin everything that is good in my life if I continue to live.
I think the first time I thought "I want to die" instead of "I wish I hadn't been born" was in middle school, and it's stuck with me through high school and now university. But in the last three years the thoughts have been getting significantly worse. I've been having vibrant fantasies about dying and killing myself. Planning letters in detail. Earlier this year I had such a vivid imagining about slitting my wrists that it made me nauseous. I've been hurting myself more frequently and the intensity has been getting worse too. My self-esteem is abysmally low and I despise myself more and more every day.
I cannot get better. There is no light at the end of the tunnel, there is no long and hard but rewarding path to happiness. I am fully aware of the good things in my life, I can perceive when I've had a success or when somebody cares about me, and yet I have a bone-deep assuredness that I am destined for failure and loneliness. I know that the sickness is lying to me when it says that I'm unloved, that there's no hope, that I should die, but I listen to it all the same. If I truly wanted to get better I would do something about it- think more positively, go to therapy, go to a doctor, treat my body and mind with kindness- but I don't do any of that, and I haven't for years and years and years. I'm incapable of changing because I don't truly want to. I'm too scared of admitting these thoughts to anyone, of getting in trouble (to be honest I don't know what kind of trouble, it's just a gut feeling), of all this pain being for nothing. It's totally, utterly hopeless. I wonder what will finally push me over the edge so I can finally be free.