(Sorry for the wall of text)
Hi all, I've been severely ill for well over half a decade with multiple diseases. My primary issues were finally located around 4 yrs ago thanks to a biological dentist located in MD (I'm in NY) via the use of the cavitat, a tomographic device demonized and eliminated by the corporate-influenced FDA. The issues were ischemic bone surrounding 5 cavitations, a phenomena that has been disgustingly dismissed by far too many dentists for far too long. This dismissal is mostly in the states and not Europe, funny, huh? All this automatic dismissal and ignorance despite comprehensive evidence of the existence of cavitations being published as early as the beginning of the 20th century. Those 5 areas I had became infected because my oral microbiome was largely pathogenic at the time of my extractions ~13yrs ago. This is why the draconian at best/fascistic at worst "preventative" extractions of wisdom teeth can be an insidious death sentence. The claim that cavitations aren't killing far more people than most realize has yet to be comprehensively disproved. I say insidious because I had no signs/symptoms of pathology in my dental regions until ~7yrs ago (increasing soreness around the cavitations). This is the same phenomena behind the termed "silent killers" associated with many root canals. A film was made about cavitations yrs ago but was booted off a major platform, Netflix I believe. I have no clear legal recourse since cavitations are dismissed by authorities and regulators and that first dentist didn't clearly act in negligence. A question, why the heck are DDSs in many if not all jurisdictions allowed to pull as many teeth as they'd like in one operation? So, the MD dentist saved my life, at least in the short-term, through a comprehensive couple of surgeries for primarily debriding these sites. Despite extreme dietary issues, he later showed that the sites filled with bone almost perfectly. My extreme soreness began slowly diminishing within months after the last surgery. I still however have had reversible pulpitis in most if not all of my teeth, literally, no exaggeration. Reversible since the teeth have been getting whiter throughout the yrs. The MD dentist of course recommended that I do my best with an intensive daily routine (primarily through nutrition) to try to restore the function of my teeth. There's plenty of evidence to show that root canals do not completely eliminate pathology, allowing it to fester. Pulling all of my teeth of course would've been borderline psychotic and all surgical options cost enough to bankrupt most people. I of course am unemployed and don't even qualify for disability in this lovely, fascistic country we live in despite my issues including CFS (not just occasionally tired, to most, narcissistic people, we live in a country of narcissists for the most part whether or not you accept that), chronic upper torso and neck pain, occasional heart pain associated with herxheimer reactions/endotoxemia, NAFLD, H2S SIBO/severe IBS, in addition to the massive dental pathologies. This all is how an extremist is made by the way, paying attention, oftentimes against your will, to the crises domestically and internationally. Anyways, sorry to upset you with these damning facts but I had to vent somewhere as I need an outlet to express this all when I've received such little help throughout the yrs.

Video Here
Timestamps: 15:10 and 19:10
It would be wonderful if any domain of our lives was not infiltrated by anti-Catholic bigotry, but it seems the world of sports is now fully toxic for Catholics too.
Extremely disappointed in Dejan Kovacevic who operates "DK Pittsburgh Sports" which is a local outlet that covers the three professional sports teams in Pittsburgh. While I was a daily consumer of his content, I did not know that he has quietly hated Catholics, including me, until yesterday.
For absolutely no reason, in a discussion about the importance of special teams players in the upcoming NFL season on the "Ramon Foster Show" (which he co-hosts), he decided to reveal his real view of Catholic beliefs by taking a swipe at Harrison Butker and his "neanderthal views."
I was pleased that a viewer challenged him on this statement in the user questions featured in the video, but not only did he double down when challenged (see video at 19:10), he then proceeded to triple down in the comments to the YouTube video, calling Butker's professed beliefs racist to boot**.**
As a Catholic, I can no longer support this man. It is actually a loss for me, as I listened to podcasts from his outlet every day while driving, subscribed to his premium sports news site, and recommended his shows to any Steelers fan who was looking for good content. I have just deleted my accounts.
Is this happening in other markets too?
I know the national media, including national sports media, will always side against Catholic opinions, but Pittsburgh is one of the three most Catholic cities in the country measured by percentage of the population that identifies as Catholic.
I'm curious if this bigotry is appearing in local media in Boston, Chicago, or anywhere else where there are sizable Catholic populations as well?
Alas, I guess anti-Catholic bigotry is just acceptable everywhere now.

”Stop.”
I really needed the bathroom.
For fifty painstaking minutes, I had been staring at the clock on the wall, willing it to go faster, uncomfortably shifting side to side in my seat so much that I was starting to get weird looks.
2:52pm.
Eight minutes, I thought dizzily, squeezing my legs together.
Which was just two chunks of four minutes.
Four chunks of two minutes.
The pain started like normal stomach pain, the kind I could deal with.
I swallowed two Tylenol with lukewarm soda.
But this was different.
This kind of pain was contorting and twisting my gut so much, I had to keep leaning onto my left buttock for relief.
I must have done it so many times, I caught the attention of the guy sitting next to me. Roman Hemlock who was half asleep, dark blonde curls hanging in half lidded eyes, his chin leaning on his fist. He shot me a look. I couldn't tell if it was Are you okay? or Can you stop moving around so much?
From the single crease in his brow, the slight curl in his lip, I guessed the latter.
It's not like Roman was helping.
For half the class, he'd been tapping his foot on the floor, then his chair leg, and to complete the orchestra, his fingers joined in, tap, tap, tapping on the edge of his desk. I didn't know if it was a bored thing, an ADHD thing, or he was trying to keep himself awake. It was easy to tolerate without the pain, but with it, the boy’s incessant tapping was more akin to a dentist drill splitting my skull open. I already felt nauseous, the sad looking chicken nuggets I forced down at lunch making an unwelcome appearance at the back of my throat.
It was too fucking hot, the stuffy summer air glueing my hair to the back of my neck. The material of my shirt was making me cringe, sticky against my skin.
Tipping my head back, the lights were too bright. Every sound was too loud. Imogen Prairie, who was sitting behind me chewing her gum a little too loudly.
Kaz Samuels scribbling notes like a maniac.
I could hear every stroke of his pencil, every time he paused, looked up at the presentation, and continued writing.
When I leaned forward in my chair, I could smell exactly what Isabella Trinity had eaten for lunch, the stink hanging in the air.
It became a case of sucking in my stomach and taking slow, deep breaths.
I’d never had these kinds of stomach cramps before. But it didn't take me long to figure out what they were.
I was yet to start my period at the grand age of sixteen, which meant this was it.
After countless sessions with the doctor, and feeling like a social outcast among my group of friends who started their periods in middle school, it had finally happened. The cramps in my gut that felt like my torso was being ripped apart, was in fact me entering womanhood. When my breath started to quicken, my mouth watering, I raised my hand, biting my lip against a cry.
Fuck.
Something lurched in my gut, a wave of nausea crashing into me.
I was going to throw up.
“Mr Brighton.”
Roman spoke up before me, waving his arm. “Can I use the bathroom?”
The teacher’s answer was always the same. Which was why I had been crossing my legs for the entirety of the class, unable to focus on anything but my gut trying to twist itself inside out.
Mr Brighton leaned against the wall, his eyes glued to the PowerPoint awash in our faces. We had been staring at the exact same slide for maybe five minutes now, and our physics teacher was yet to speak, his gaze somewhere else.
Mr Brighton was my Dad’s age, a greying man in his early fifties who always wore the exact same suit with the exact same stain on his collar.
The man was about as interesting as watching paint dry.
Normally, I would drift off myself, lulled into slumber by the low drone of his voice.
But the pain ripping me apart was keeping me awake.
“Mr Brighton.” Roman said, louder. His voice snapped me out of it. “Can I use the bathroom?” He paused, exaggerating a loud sigh. ”Please?”
The teacher straightened up, folding his arms.
“Mr Hemlock, you know the rules. Why didn't you go before class?”
“I didn't need to go an hour ago, did I?”
“You will no longer need to go to the bathroom, Mr Hemlock.”
Roman made a snorting noise.
“What?”
The low murmur of my classmates collapsed into white noise.
Glancing at the clock, I was anticipating the school bell.
The sickness swimming in the pit of my belly was reaching dangerous territory.
2:52pm.
Something ice cold trickled down my spine.
It was 2:52 the last time I checked, and five minutes had surely passed.
This time, I waited a whole minute and counted the seconds under my breath. The clock still didn't move. The ticker was frozen halfway between three and four.
Slowly, the same realisation began to hit the twelve of us. The clock on the wall had stopped. But it wasn't the only thing that had stopped. The cool breeze drifting through the window was gone.
The sound of birds outside, and the cheer squad practising their routine.
Everything had stopped. Trying to ignore a sickly slither of panic twisting its way through me, I checked my phone under my desk. There was a text from my Mom lighting up my notifications. When I tried to swipe it open, nothing happened. My lock screen was frozen, stuck at 2:52pm.
With my hands growing clammy around my phone, I stared at the time, willing it to move, to flick to 2:53.
But nothing happened, the numbers stubbornly staying at 2:52.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Roman’s voice brought me back to reality, though I was sure I'd dropped my phone. I heard it hit the floor with a sickening crack. Whatever he was saying, though, faded into dull murmur, when I turned toward the window.
Something was wrong outside.
The cheer squad were nowhere to be seen.
Being on the top floor gave us a front row seat to their practice sessions.
I stopped watching when their flyer did a death defying flip, almost breaking her neck. 2:52pm. I couldn't see the cheer squad. But I did see Jessie Carson mid-sprint across the track field, strawberry blonde curls suspended in a halo around her.
I could see exactly where she had frozen in place, her left foot hovering off of the ground, her right foot driving momentum. It wasn't just Jessie who had stopped. The dirt she was kicking into a cloud behind her was hovering, caught in mid-air.
Studying the faces around me, my mouth went dry.
Roman Hemlock, mid-argument with our physics teacher.
His eyes were wide, lips curved into what would have been a yell.
Fuck.
Was I the only one?
But then Roman blinked, and I realized the boy wasn't frozen. He was trying to think of a comeback. “What do you mean I won't need the bathroom anymore?”
“Mr Hemlock, please lower your voice.”
“Why? You can't dictate to me when I do and don't need the bathroom, dude!”
Moving onto the rest of my class, the others were still moving.
It was too quiet, though.
Yes, Roman was still tapping his foot.
Imogen was still chewing her gum.
Kaz was still scribbling notes like a psychopath.
But they were the only noise I could hear.
I wasn't the only one confused. The classroom had pricked with a sense of urgency. Kids were checking their phones, their gazes glued to the clock. Even Roman, who was still arguing, was starting to notice. I watched his gaze lazily roll to the clock on the wall.
I pretended not to see his cheeks visibly paling.
We had all come to the exact same terrifying conclusion.
2:52pm.
Time had come to a halt, and somehow, we had not.
“Is that clock broken?” Roman interrupted, leaning forward in his chair.
Kaz twisted around, settling the boy with an eye-roll.
“Check your phone, dumbass.”
“I broke my phone.”
Imogen threw her iPhone at him, narrowly missing hitting him in the face.
“Everything is frozen,” She said, her voice shuddering. “It's not just the clock.”
I waited for Roman’s response. For once, though, he was speechless.
“Well done, Imogen. That is correct.” Mr Brighton spoke up, tearing a piece of paper from a workbook and striding over to the door, glueing it over the glass window. When we started to protest, some of us were shouting, while others bursting into tears, he calmly took out his key and locked us in.
I should have been surprised that our teacher had spontaneously decided to take his entire class hostage, but the rumor mill had been churning.
According to Becca Jason, the guy’s wife divorced him and took his kids.
I could feel myself sinking into my chair, phantom bugs filling my mouth.
So, this guy had nothing to lose.
Taking his place in front of his desk, the man settled us with a patient smile.
“From now on, you will stay inside this room.” He said. “In case you haven't noticed, time is currently frozen at fifty two minutes past two. The thirteen of us are tucked into the twenty first second, and will be, for the foreseeable future.”
I could tell the others wanted to argue, but we couldn't deny that time had stopped. Kaz was staring down at his frozen phone, Imogen hyperventilating behind me, Roman glaring at the clock, chewing on a pencil. We wanted it to be a prank, a joke, some kind of glitch in the matrix that would fix itself.
But then a whole minute passed by. Followed by another. Kaz threw his phone on the floor, hissing in frustration. Imogen let out a wet sounding sob.
Roman’s pencil split in his mouth, slipping from his fingers. We couldn't pretend it wasn't happening or call our teacher out on his BS, because it was everywhere around us. The sudden absence of outdoor ambience, birdsong, planes flying overhead, and traffic outside the school gates. Everyone and everything had stopped, and we were the only ones left.
This was a nightmare, surely.
My physics class were some of the most boring and pretentious people in the school, and somehow the world had been reduced to the twelve of us inside our classroom. We were scared, of course we were. But reality had stopped making sense, crashing and burning in a single second. We had no choice but to listen to our teacher. “Now, before you freak out, it may not feel like it, but the twelve of you have also stopped.”
Mr Brighton held out his own hand, and placed it on his heart.
He was right.
I was so busy trying to understand what was happening, I had failed to realize my period cramps were gone.
“Do me a favor, and press your hand over your heart.”
“You mean like, in a culty way?” Imogen whispered.
“Obviously.” Roman grumbled, halfway out of his seat. He was hesitant, though, in case our teacher was armed. It only took one glance from our teacher, and he slumped back into his chair. “This crazy fucker clearly wants to play mind games with us.”
“No, I'm just asking you to feel for your heart.”
I felt for mine, and there was nothing, my stomach twisting.
Roman stabbed his fingers into his neck, feeling for a pulse.
He tried his wrist.
Then his heart.
Nothing.
“The twelve of you are currently in a state of stasis,” the teacher explained to us, “You are not alive, nor are you dead. Your bodily functions are also on pause, such as your heartbeat and your pulse. In this state there will be no need for food and water, or going to the bathroom.” His gaze found a ghastly looking Roman, who looked like he was going to faint. “Your minds, however, as you can see, are working as usual.”
“But why?” Imogen demanded in a shriek.
Mr Brighton’s lip curled. “I would rather not answer that question.”
“Because you're lonely.” Roman spoke up. He swung back on his chair, narrowed eyes glued to the teacher.
“Your wife and kids left you, so you're asserting power over a group of sixteen year olds. Which is kinda fucking pathetic.”
Mr Brighton’s expression darkened, and something slimy crept up my throat.
The worst thing any of us could do was threaten him. He had taken kidnapping to a whole new level, and we were alone with this psychopath, trapped inside a second. I waited for the man to stride forward and attack the kid. But he didn't. Instead, the teacher leaned back on his desk. “Yes.” The man nodded.
“I suppose you could say I am.”
“But why us?!” Kaz hissed.
“Because you are children.” Mr Brighton responded casually.
He straightened up, taking slow, intimidating steps towards Roman’s desk. The rest of us leaned back. I tried to pull my desk with me, but it was glued to the floor. Frozen. Mr Brighton’s shoes went click-clack across the hardwood floor.
“You are right,” the man said in a murmur, “I am lonely. My wife and kids did leave me, and I have nobody left to control. I have nobody else to contort and use to my advantage.” Reaching Roman’s desk, he leaned in close until he was nose to nose with the kid.
“Congratulations, Mr Hemlock. You have just earned yourself detention.”
Roman stayed stubbornly still, but he was visibly afraid. I could see him very slowly backing away. Roman was all bark and no bite. He was a loud mouth, sure, but he was also the least confrontational person in the class.
“What?” He spluttered. “You trap us in a time loop or time trap, or whatever, and you still want to act like a teacher?”
“Stand up.” The teacher ordered.
“What if I don't?”
Mr Brighton’s expression didn't waver. “You said it yourself. I can and have trapped you inside a single second. What else do you think I'm capable of?”
Roman stood, kicking his chair out of the way.
“What are you planning on doing to me, old man?”
The teacher maintained his smile. “Stand up straight, and close your mouth.”
To my confusion, Roman Hemlock did all the above.
He straightened up, and closed his mouth.
“Do not fight me.” The teacher said calmly, “Do as you are told, and follow me.”
The boy did exactly as instructed.
His jaw slackened, that rebellious light in his eyes fizzling out.
I think that's when we all collectively agreed that going against this teacher and trying to escape was mental suicide.
“I will use Mr Hemlock as an example to all of you,” Mr Brighton said, turning to the rest of us. “If you break the rules or are derogatory in any way, you will be given detention.”
He grabbed the boy’s shoulders, forcing him to walk towards the supply closet. Roman moved like a robot, slightly off balance, his gaze glued to thin air, like he was tracking invisible butterflies.
"Your time in detention will depend on the severity of your rule-break.” He opened the door, gently pushing Roman inside, and following suit. When the door closed behind them, there was a pause, and I remembered how to breathe.
Kaz Samuels slowly got up from his desk, inching towards the closet.
“This guy is a certified nut.” He announced.
He turned towards us. “Whatever he's doing to Hemlock, we’re probably next.”
“He stopped time.” I spoke up, my own voice barely a croak. “He’s capable of anything.”
“But how did he stop time?” Kaz whistled, tipping his head back. The boy was slow, his fingers grasping each desk as he slid down the aisle. “He said he was lonely, right? But why take it out on us? What did we do to him?”
“Check his desk for a weapon!” Imogen whisper-shrieked.
Kaz nodded, striding over to the man's desk, his hands moving frantically, shoving paper on the floor. He took an uncertain seat on the man's chair. “There's nothing here,” he murmured, lifting stained coffee mugs and ancient textbooks. “It's just…test papers.” Kaz ducked from view, trying the drawers.
“He's a fan of Pokémon,” he said, “There's a tonne of Pokémon cards,” Kaz straightened up, running a hand through his hair. “No sign of a weapon, though.”
He picked up a ruler, waving it around. “This could work. If we plunge it in his eye.”
“Try his laptop!” Imogen was halfway out of her seat.
Kaz did, slamming the keys. “It's locked.”
“Look harder!” Ren Clarke threw a pencil at him.
“I am!”
After a minute of searching, Kaz grabbed a single piece of paper.
He held it up, and I squinted.
It was a list of our names, with several of them highlighted.
“Fuck.” Kaz dropped the list, his expression crumpling. The stubborn bravado facade transforming him into our sort of leader dissipated, hollowing him out into exactly what he was. Just a scared kid. Kaz’s hands were shaking.
“Mr Brighton’s got a hit list.” He whispered. “He's going to kill us.”
“How do you know that?” I found myself asking.
Kaz slowly dropped into a crouch, picking up the paper and holding it up.
“Look.” He pointed to a capitalised name at the top of the list highlighted in red.
ROMAN HEMLOCK.
There were six names highlighted in red, including mine.
CRISTA ADAMS.
As if on cue, Roman’s cry rang out from the supply closet, suddenly, freezing us all in place. Kaz jumped up, adapting the expression of a deer caught in headlights, eyes wide, almost unseeing.
He fell over himself to tidy up the desk, putting everything back where he had found it, sliding the list between a pile of test papers. Kaz took slow, stumbled steps back, his feverish gaze glued to the closet, before turning and making a break for it and diving into his seat.
“Brighton’s got a hit liiiist,” Kaz said, in a mocking sing-song, “And we’re all on it.”
What followed was deathly silence. I think we were expecting Roman to cry out again. But when he didn't, the class started to stir. Some kids started praying to a god they didn't believe in, while others were in varying states of denial, trying to call their parents with dead phones.
I wasn't sure what parts of me had stopped, but I was still alive, still felt like my lungs were deprived of oxygen, my chest aching. I'm not sure how long I sat there, trying to find my voice, a shriek trying and failing to rip through my mouth. Being kidnapped and held hostage is one thing, but being imprisoned inside a single, never ending second, was an existential hell worse than death. Slowly, I pressed my palm over my heart once again. Then I breathed into my cupped hands.
I was expecting it, but no longer being able to feel my own heartbeat and breath, was fear I didn't think was possible. The kind that glued me to my seat, hollowing me out completely until I was nothing, an empty shell with no heartbeat, no breath, no thoughts, except denial, followed by acceptance.
And finally, regret.
I regretted not hugging my mother goodbye before I left for school.
I regretted acting like a spoiled brat when my parents refused to drive me halfway across the country so I could attend Coachella.
I regretted stepping inside Mr Brighton’s fourth period physics class.
Mr Brighton reappeared, slamming the door behind him and locking the boy inside. Part of me flinched, while the rest of me remembered not to move a muscle. I was barely aware of time passing. Or it wasn't. Time had stopped, so now long had I been sitting there?
I could no longer measure the passage of time with hunger or thirst, and my body felt the same. I wasn't stiff or tired or achy. Looking out of the window, the sky was the exact same crystal blue, every cloud in the exact same place.
Jessie Carson was still frozen mid-run, strands of dark red hair caught around her.
“What's wrong with you guys?” Mr Brighton chuckled, and I twisted back to the front, a shiver writhing down my spine. “Why don't you give me a smile?”
The teacher returned to his desk, and I was already subconsciously sitting up straight in my seat, forcing my lips into a jaw-breaking grin, following Brighton’s instructions. In the corner of my eye, Imogen was sitting very still, forcing an award-winning cheesy smile, while Kaz grinned through gritted teeth.
“Mr Hemlock just earned himself two weeks inside the supply closet.” he said casually, perching himself on the edge of his desk. The man studied each of us, taking his time to rip every shred of us apart.
Mind, body, and soul.
I struggled to maintain my stupid smile, shoving my shaking hands in my lap.
“Would anyone like to join him, or are you going to follow the rules?”
The rest of us stayed silent. I don't think any of us breathed.
Our teacher nodded to Kaz, inclining his head.
“Samuels. Are you all right?”
Kaz’s smile faltered slightly. He shifted in his chair. I could see sweat trickling down his right temple. “Uh, yeah.” He swiped at his forehead, like he couldn't believe he was sweating. “Yeah, I'm good.”
The teacher’s eyes narrowed. He moved toward his desk, and we all held our breaths. Mr Brighton seemed to study his hit-list, lips curving into a frown.
His gaze flicked to the boy, and then the paper.
He knew, I thought dizzily.
Mr Brighton knew the kid had been rummaging through his desk. But this was all about control. The teacher was using fear to control us, to manipulate our thoughts without having to get physical. He could have called out the boy right then, but Brighton was settling with mental torture instead. He just wanted to make my classmate squirm.
Without a word, the man folded up the piece of paper and slipped it into his pocket. “Mr Samuels, you are sweating,” our physics teacher said, mocking a frown. “Are you feeling okay?”
Kaz hesitated, tapping his shoe in a rhythm.
Being one of the smartest kids in the room definitely gave him an advantage.
I could already see the cogs turning behind half lidded eyes. Kaz was weighing each scenario, sorting them into positives and negatives.
The positives of answering would mean he was one step towards being in the clear, but there were two negatives.
Brighton would question him if he had left his seat, and then demand how his hit-list had magically moved across the desk.
Talking back was surely a rule-break, as well as outright lying.
Opening his mouth would get him in trouble, either way, and Kaz knew that.
So, he just nodded, forcing an even bigger smile.
Brighton’s lips pricked, his gaze straying on Kaz. “Good!” He cleared his throat, turning to the class. Kaz slumped in his seat with a sharp breath, resting his head in his arms. If Mr Brighton noticed, he didn't say anything. “Ignore the sweating. It should stop, along with hunger and thirst.”
Our teacher seemed to be able to manipulate everything in his vicinity.
Time.
Minds.
And slowly… contorting us into his own.
In the single second we were trapped inside, I felt days go by in a dizzying whirlwind that was like being permanently high. When I stood up, I felt like I was floating.
When I sat down, hours could go by, even days, and I wouldn't even feel them. I did try and count the days, initially, scribbling them on a scrap piece of paper, but somewhere around the thirteenth or fourteenth day, I lost count. The world around us never changed, in permanent stasis, and maybe that was sending us a little crazy.
After a while of being stuck at our desks, Mr Brighton allowed us to wander the classroom, as long as we stayed away from the door. I lay on the floor for days, counting ceiling tiles.
Sometimes, Imogen would join me.
I couldn't sleep, but I could pretend to sleep, imagining a world that was back to normal. I didn't feel hungry, but my brain did like to remind me of food at the weirdest times. I was aware of weeks passing us by, and then months.
I never grew hungry or tired, and my bodily functions were none existent.
I couldn't remember what pain felt like, or the urge to go to the bathroom. Even the concept of eating and drinking became foreign to me. Putting something in your mouth and chewing to sustain yourself?
That sounded odd.
The only thing that was changing was our slowly unravelling metal state.
I don't know how it started. Weekends and Tuesdays blended together. On one particular SaturTuesday, I was hanging upside down from my desk, watching Kaz and Imogen doodle on the whiteboard.
Kaz had a plan to escape, but after a while, his ‘plan’ to distract the teacher, had gone nowhere. After passing notes between us, the twelve of us had decided that we needed a weapon.
That was maybe a month ago. I wasn't sure what mind games our teacher was playing, but Kaz Samuels, who we were counting on to be our brains, was slowly falling under his spell. Their game had been going on for three days. The two of them were having a competition to see who could draw the craziest thing.
Mr Brighton was at his desk as usual, marking papers.
Imogen was drawing a weird looking ‘skateboard’ when the doors to the storage closet flew open.
Roman Hemlock appeared, and to my surprise, wasn't a hollow eyed shell.
He held up his hand in a wave, his lips forming a small smile.
“Yo.”
Roman’s reappearance was enough to snap us out of it. Kaz and Imogen stopped arguing, the rest of the class going silent. I sat up, blinking rapidly.
I was sure our collective consensus was that Roman Hemlock was dead.
Mr Brighton lifted his head and gave the boy a civil nod. “Mr Hemlock will be rejoining us,” he said, his gaze going back to marking papers. “Please make him feel comfortable. I'm sure he's very excited to be able to talk to you again.”
Instead of going to his desk, the boy immediately joined the others, snatching the marker off of a baffled looking Kaz, and drawing an overly artistic sketch of a penis. I wasn't sure what confused me more. The fact that Roman Hemlock had some serious artistic skills, or that he seemed suspiciously fine for someone who had been locked in the storage closet for two weeks with no social interaction.
With my last few lingering brain cells still clinging on, I studied the boy.
There were no signs of bruises or scratches.
His eyes seemed normal, not diluted or half lidded.
Unable to stop myself, I jumped off of my desk and joined the others, where Kaz was already interrogating the guy.
“WHAT–”
Imogen nudged him, and he lowered his voice, leaning against the wall. “What did he do to you?”
Roman shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Relax, dude. He didn't do anything to me.”
“Then what was that yell?” Imogen hissed.
The boy cocked his head. “Yell?”
“You yelled out,” Kaz folded his arms, narrowing his eyes. He was already suspecting one of us had been compromised– or worse, brainwashed into compliance. Kaz stepped closer, backing Roman into the desk. “You cried out when you first went in there,” he murmured, “So, what was that?”
Something in Roman’s eyes darkened. “Oh,” He said, his lip curling. “That.”
Kaz’s expression softened. He rested his hands on the boy’s shoulders. “Yeah,” He whispered. “What did he do to you?”
Imogen shoved Kaz out of the way, shooting the boy a glare.
“You don't have to tell us, you know.” She said in a small voice. “If it's too traumatising, or he did something you don't want to talk about–”
Roman cut her off with a laugh, and suddenly, all eyes were on him.
The remaining nine of us were eagerly awaiting an explanation.
“Are you fucking serious?”
When Kaz didn't respond, Roman gathered us in a kind of hustle, the four of us grouped together. I felt like I was on the football field. Still, though, if the guy’s goal was to look as suspicious as possible, he was doing a great job.
Roman studied each of us, one eyebrow cocked. When Mr Brighton glanced up from his work, Roman shot him a grin, lowering his voice to a hiss.
“You seriously think our fifty year old physics teacher has been abusing me in the storage closet?
“Then why did you cry out?” Kaz demanded. “Did he hit you?”
Roman stuck out his bottom lip. “I'm pretty sure he didn't hit me.”
“So, you cried out for no reason.”
“Why are you covering for him?” Imogen poked his forehead. “Are you lobotomised?”
Roman wafted her hand away. “Stop prodding me, and no, I'm 100% good.” He backed away from us, like we were observers, and he was the zoo attraction.
“I won't be, if you keep treating me like I'm senile.”
“Okay, fine,” Kaz sighed. “Just answer one.”
“Shoot.”
“When you first went in there, you made an unmistakable sound of distress–”
“Not this again,” Roman groaned. “Of course I yelled! I was shoved into a pitch black storage closet on my own! What, did you expect me to stay silent?”
Kaz didn't look convinced, Imogen nervously sucking her teeth.
The boy leaned back, resting his head against the wall. His eyes flickered shut.
“Stop looking at me like that, there's nothing to tell you,” he murmured, “Brighton didn't do shit to me. I was just freaked out.” Prying one eye open, he fixed us with a glare. “I am so sorry for reacting like a human. Next time, I'll make sure to attack him and pin him to the ground.”
It's not like we believed him. I don't think Roman believed himself.
Something significant had changed in him. He was no longer argumentative, like half of his personality had been torn away. Roman set a precedent. Because once he was following instructions and walking around with a dazed smile, others began to follow. I can't remember how much time had passed since I thought about escaping.
Days and weeks and months had collapsed into fleeting seconds I only noticed when I wasn't playing games.
I wasn't aware of my own lack of sanity until I found myself, on a random SaturWednesday. I was laughing, gathered with the others on the floor, around a Monopoly board. The game had been going on for almost a week.
Reality hit me when I was laughing so hard I tipped back.
I can't remember why I was laughing. I think Imogen told a bad joke.
“Hand it over.” Roman, who was the King of Monopoly, held out his hand, demanding my last 250 bucks. I remember noticing his smile, my foggy brain trying to find hints that he was in some kind of trance, or being controlled by Brighton. But no. His smile was real.
Genuine.
To my shock and confusion, so was mine.
I wasn't in a trance or any type of mind manipulation. I was completely conscious.
Was this… Stockholm syndrome? I thought dizzily.
Was I enjoying this?
My thoughts were like cotton candy, disconnected and wrong, and they barely felt like my own. My gaze found Imogen and Kaz, the two of them sitting shoulder to shoulder, enveloped in the game.
They looked exactly the same, their hair, clothes, everything about them staying stagnant. It was them themselves who had drastically changed. I had never seen them look so carefree. Imogen was a hotheaded cheerleader, and Kaz was the smart kid who gave himself nosebleeds from overworking himself. But now, they were laughing, nudging each other, caught up in an inside joke. Blinking slowly, my gaze strayed on them.
Sure, it could be manipulation. It could be brainwashing. But it could also be real.
Kaz caught my eye, raising a brow.
“You good, Christa?”
Again, my smile felt real. Like I was having fun.
“Good. It's your turn.”
I picked up the dice, throwing them across the board.
Two sixes.
“I can already see her landing on one of my hotels.” Roman murmured. He sat up, resting his chin on his knees. “As the clear winner, I have a proposition.”
Ignoring him, I moved my piece– immediately landing on Park Place.
“I'll give you 500,” Roman announced, “If you give up New York avenue.”
“That's all I've got!”
Imogen nudged me. “Don't do it. If you give him New York Avenue, he only needs one more.”
“One thousand.” Roman waved the notes in my face.
“My final offer.”
When I reached for the cash, he held it back.
“New York Avenue, he said, with a grin.
“And your pride.”
Reluctantly, I handed my only property over.
Kaz threw the dice and moved his piece, and I half remembered we had an escape plan. “Community chest.” Kaz picked up a card. “Go straight to jail.”*
Roman spluttered. “That's karma,” he said, “For stealing from the bank.”
“You were stealing too!”
We had a plan.
We had…. a plan.
After discussing it in detail, Imogen and I were going to try and get onto Brighton’s laptop. It wasn't a perfect way to escape, but it was coherent.
So, what happened?
We were going to get out, so what… what was this?
Kaz’s earlier words hit me from months ago.
“Mr Brighton *is the thing keeping us here,”* he explained. “If we kill him, I'm like, 98% sure we’ll go back to normal.”
“Okay, and what if he dies and we’re *stuck?”* Imogen whisper-shrieked.
“I said 98% for a reason. Yes, there's a small chance his power will die with him. But there's a bigger chance that its effects will die when he does.”
Ren nodded slowly. “Right, and where exactly did you learn this information?”
“You'll feel a lot better if I don't answer that.”
“Okay.” Ren gritted his teeth. “So, we just need to find a weapon, right?”
“And don't tell Hemlock,” Kaz rolled his eyes. “I don't care what he says, that boy definitely had his mind fucked with. Hemlock is a liability. If we tell Roman, he tells Brighton, and we’re screwed.” Kaz nodded to me, then the others. “Keep your mouths shut.”
Presently, I wasn't sure the boy wanted to escape.
Slowly, I rolled my eyes over to Mr Brighton, who had joined us to play.
He was happily marking papers, taking part when he could.
It felt…right.
Not like we had been forced or manipulated, but more like he belonged. Part of me wanted to question why I felt like this, but I found that I didn't care. I didn't care that we were essentially dead, in a never ending stasis and stuck inside fifty two minutes past two. I stopped thinking about the outside world a long time ago.
I couldn't even remember my Mom’s face.
I made my decision, dazedly watching Imogen throw a chance card at Roman.
He flung one back, threatening to tip the board.
I wanted to stay.
In the corner of my eye, however, someone was still awake.
Ren, who had been sitting next to me, kept moving, further and further away. I didn't notice until he was inching towards our teacher, a box cutter clenched between his fist. There must have been a point when we found a box cutter, when we made it our weapon of choice.
But somewhere along the way, I think we just… lost the longing to want to escape.
I didn't see the exact moment the boy stabbed the blade into the man's neck, plunging it through his flesh, but I did feel a sudden jolt, like time itself was starting to falter and tremble.
Mr Brighton dropped to the ground, and I found my gaze flashing to the frozen clock.
Which was moving, suddenly.
Slowly creeping towards 2:53pm.
Something sticky ran underneath me, warm and wet.
Blood.
Blood that was running.
Roman’s half lidded eyes found mine, and he blinked, dropping the dice.
Like he'd been asleep for a long time.
2:53pm.
We were free.
The cool spring breeze grazing my cheeks was back. I could feel my own heartbeat, sticky sweat on my forehead.
And outside, Jessie Carson let out a gut-churning scream.
For a disorienting moment, I don't think any of us believed we were free.
Roman twisted around, his gaze on the doorway.
The piece of paper the teacher had stuck to the glass slipped away.
But Roman’s gaze was glued to the door, his cheeks paling.
His lips parted into a silent cry.
Following his eyes, I glimpsed a shadow.
A shadow that was frozen at 2:52pm.
2:53pm.
“Fuck.” Roman whispered, stumbling to his feet.
He turned to the rest of us, his eyes wild.
“Get DOWN!”
I dropped onto my knees, crawling under a desk, the classroom exploding around me.
2:54.
Blood splattered the walls, and I was crawling in it, stained in my friends.
2:55.
I grabbed Mr Brighton's hand, squeezing for dear life.
Roman joined me, his trembling fingers feeling for a pulse.
A gunshot rang in my ears, rattling my skull.
When Roman went limp next to me, I wrapped my arms around my teacher.
“Mr Brighton, say Stop.”
He was so cold…
“Mr Brighton! Take us back!”
Footsteps coming towards me.
2:56.

I was at work today and was asked “you’re 18, right?” and just for shits, later in the day, I asked the new guy how old he thinks I am, and he also guessed 18… nope. I’m 26 and will be 27 this year but I guess I look much younger than I am, because I get this all of the time.
I’ve looked younger than I am at least for my adult-life. My headshape is a bit on the rounder side, I can’t grow a full beard, and I’m 5’7. I’ve never asked anyone what makes me look young, but I assume all of those things contribute. I dress my age and I think I’m a pretty sharp dresser, don’t have a kiddish haircut (imo), don’t look feminine, and keep in good shape. Maybe there are other things I could be doing to look my age. Maybe I should start chain-smoking and doing hard drugs 🤔, that ages people right? (kidding)
I’m trying minoxidil for beard growth. My dad had a full-on moustache in grade-10, but I’m 26 and look like a poor-man’s Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite if I let it grow lol.
When I turned 19 (legal drinking age in my country) and tried to buy a beer at a soccer game, the concession stand had 2 other people including a manager look at my license and they asked to see my birth certificate (who the hell just carries that around). I don’t look as young 7 years later, but I do still get ID’d almost every time I buy liquor or a lottery ticket or smokes (I’ve quit). I always just laugh it off with the cashier and they tell me how great it must be to look young. Like, sure, when I’m in my 40’s it’ll probably be a good thing… but I’m not seeing any benefit now. But it has probably been an obstacle in dating and in the workplace (sometimes I feel as if I’m treated like more of a kid than a colleague by new coworkers).
It’s not the end of the world, though I do feel a bit insecure about it sometimes. I guess all I can do at the end of the day is laugh when I’m at the dentist and the hot hygienist asks me what grade I’m in 💀
Does anyone else here have this issue? How do you deal with it proactively, and what do you do to be more accepting of yourself?

I have Renaissance insurance (through the Healthcare Marketplace) and am struggling to find a dentist that accepts it. The list they provided me is old; several dentists I’ve called are no longer practicing, many for years.
If you have this insurance, who do you go to?
I’m in U City, but willing to drive. Also helps if they are open on Fridays; apparently it’s common now for many to be Monday-Thursday?

I’m trying to apply to dental school this cycle and am confused about my shadowing hours. I decided to pursue Dentistry this January and have worked really hard to take the DAT, got a 22. My GPA is a 3.9. Since I’ve already graduated I don’t really have any services to rely on to get info so I didn’t realize that schools really care about general dentist shadowing over specialties. An endodontist was the first one to take me and I got 50 hours with her, and then I got a general dentist for another 50 hours. I’ve also done 200 hours with a general dentist with a remote/virtual internship but I know a lot of schools don’t accept it as shadowing. I do not want to delay my application but do you think that me only having 50 hours in person with a general dentist despite my 50 hours with an endodontist will screw me over?

Are you several years past due for a dental cleaning? Do you avoid flossing like it's your job? Do you have state insurance or no insurance? I'd love to clean your teeth! 😀🪥
Please comment on this post or send me a message to schedule with me !
I'm a dental hygiene student (Kent resident) attending Pierce College Lakewood looking for patients who:
🦷Haven’t had their teeth cleaned for several years
🦷Vape and/or smoke (but not a necesary requirement!)
🦷Are looking for a thorough cleaning supervised by registered dental hygienists and a general dentist, who confirm my work and findings at every step
🦷Understand that I’m a student offering very detailed process of care. You would come in for 2-4 appointments, each lasting approximately 3 hours, depending on your condition
🦷Want to receive EXCELLENT CARE!
Our clinic’s prices are 80% to 95% less than private dental offices, making this a perfect opportunity for folks without dental insurance or those looking for low-cost dental care. The clinic accepts Provider One insurance. If you have private dental insurance, you can submit a claim for reimbursement. I’ve attached our clinic’s fee ranges for reference.
Responsibilities to be my patient:
🦷I will need you to be serious about committing to being a dependable patient. My grade is impacted if a patient cancels and I’m unable to find a new one
🦷You will need reliable transportation to the Pierce College Dental Clinic, located at 9401 Farwest Dr. SW, Lakewood
🦷Understand that this is a teaching facility and while the rates are deeply discounted, you will be paying with your time. I will need you to commit to multiple appointments.
Please reach out if you (or someone you know) is interested or would like to hear more about being a patient!
If you’d like to help me in other ways:
🦷PLEASE share my post
🦷PLEASE ask your friends or family (think of me if someone needs a cleaning!)
🦷PLEASE let me know if this is something you would consider doing in the future, even if you can’t right now. I will be continually looking for patients while I’m a student at Pierce College!

The World's first tooth-regrowing drug will be given to humans in September
“Well, I must say your body of work is quite impressive Dr. Branson, and we're excited for the opportunity to coordinate and collaborate with your lab.” Dr. Meyers smiled as she held out her hand to shake that of the lead researcher she was visiting. Dr. Branson returned the handshake, although she could detect a poorly-hidden nervousness beyond what she would have anticipated for a routine, if important, meeting.
“So, let's get down to brass tacks then: You've got data on the progress of your tooth-regeneration drug then?”
“Well, it's not just a drug, but more like a tuned cocktail. But yes, I've got the data here, particularly the initial animal testing we had performed to determine the beginning human dosages.” He shrugged sheepishly. “I will admit, this is my first time developing a drug all the way to clinical trials like this. My expertise is typically in handing them off well before this point, so you'll have to forgive me if I seem a bit nervous.”
Dr. Meyers fanned herself with the paper she'd printed out to read, hopefully on the Uber drive home. The summer heat in the poorly-ventilated university offices was starting to get noticeable, and she was grateful as Branson flipped on a reticulating fan stationed near the door of the small conference room he led her into.
Smiling, Branson started up the projector and loaded his presentation, saying briefly “I'll just skip past these parts. These are more for introducing our project and team to faculty administration,” he said, mashing the advance button several times until he finally stopped as an image of a white lab mouse appeared onscreen.
“We began our initial testing after computer analysis of predicted drug interactions and enhancers to determine gene regions of interest we wanted to upregulate and enhance. We knew we needed to shift to animal models almost immediately to begin identifying which drug cocktails had the highest effectiveness.”
For the first time since learning of the project and joining the group, Meyers could feel a shadow of doubt flicker across her mind. She did her best not to treat her colleague like a graduate student she was grilling for a doctoral defense, but rather give him the honest question she had.
“Branson, there are many different animal models to choose from, but rodents have a markedly-different dental growth pattern and morphology than humans. Was that considered in choosing them?”
“We knew animal models might prove imperfect, and knew it was a risk, but the issue was that the data we were working from was incomplete in terms of what treatments would produce what effects and in what ratios. We had plenty of petri-dish examples of what kind of cocktails best encouraged growth of bone or enamel individually, but ensuring that our data was identifying a candidate that produced both and without an inordinate-impact on morphology was what caused us to need to go into animal models shooting blind.”
She now saw why some colleagues had expressed surprise that she was going to be working with Branson’s lab. Dr. Branson, for his part, appeared not not too perturbed by Dr. Meyers’s concerns.
“While we would normally have significant issues in dental comparisons using an unmodified wild-type mouse, we actually have been using a specific variant that was bred to study human dental bone disease. Specifically, it's chimeric for human dentition and approximate structure.”
“I'm sorry, what?”
“It might be easier if I show you,” he said, clicking to the next slide. There, Dr. Meyers could feel an involuntary shudder as she saw a dissected mouse skull, showing that rather than the smaller side teeth and the two large characteristic incisors in the front, instead there was a haphazard semicircle of tiny little teeth. Some were canines, other human-style incisors, and yet more looked like miniature human molars. It resembled a hodge-podge attempt to mimic a human mouth and teeth by someone who was working with magazine cutouts of each tooth and a shaking and unsteady hand.
“It’s not perfect, of course, but genetically we found it to be quite consistent with performance and expression in human mouths. So yes, while we are starting with a bit of a blind shot in the dark, it's far less than you might expect.”
Dr. Meyers was still unsettled by the appearance of a human mouth inside a tiny mouse head, and tried and failed to not imagine the tiny mouth smiling, a horrific Photoshop come to life.
“Additionally,” he said, “It still retains quite a bit of plasticity and resilience to aberrant dental configurations, thanks to the already quite durable nature of the native mouse mouth structure.”
“Meaning?” asked Dr. Meyers.
“Meaning that despite fewer successes than we had initially hoped for, the survival rate of the mice is almost 100%, barring a few edge cases. Almost all the mice you see here are ones we still have and keep under study, even if their specific cocktail treatments proved to be failures.”
She leaned back, and finally starting to barely get used to the idea of weird little human mouths in tiny mice. “Might as well show me what you 've been able to produce so far.”
“Certainly,” said Dr. Branson, smiling as he advanced to the next section. “So to begin with, we had to determine the best administration route.”
“Oh,” said Dr. Meyers. “Wouldn’t intravenous be the preferred method this early in testing?”
“Well, we weren't sure on the uptake rate, so we decided to do the initial tests with groups given it both intravenously or orally. The drug is GI-tract stable.”
“That's good,” said Dr. Meyers, “But I'm also getting a distinct feeling there's a ‘But’?”
“Unfortunately, it appears the drugs are locally reactive,” he said. “While the mice may have robust and resilient to disruptions to their mouth structure, they had significantly less robustness for their vascular and gastrointestinal structures.”
He advanced the slide again, and Dr. Meyers could feel a bit of bile rising the back of her throat upon seeing the dissections of the unfortunate deceased mice. THere were tiny circulatory systems covered with hundreds or maybe even thousands of tiny tiny teeth lining the inside of the veins and arteries. For the ones that had the oral administration, these instead showed teeth coating the throat and stomach lining, and leading into and part way down the intestinal tract.
“Suffice to say all subsequent treatments were directly topical, and I'm pleased to announce we had no further mice that passed away due to the treatments.”
Dr. Meyers nodded slowly as he advanced a slide into the next section. “The first challenge after that was figuring out the specific cocktail ratio controlling dentical scale.”
“Scale?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Wouldn't that be inherently controlled by the phenotypic expression?”
“Well, normally and unaltered, yes,” said Dr. Branson, “But in this case, the cocktail is capable of overriding that, as we found out with these subjects. The two most extreme examples are shown here.”
The slides revealed a mouse with an open mouth and Dr. Meyers stared in amazement as she could see that the image revealed the mouse had only two teeth: enormous molars, one for each jaw, that effectively spanned the entire width and breadth of the roof and base of the mouth. “There were some hindrance issues related to the tongue and its proper development here,” said Dr. Branson, “But we felt this was at least a marked step in the right direction compared to the non-topical applications.”
The other picture showed a mouse with an open mouth that at first appeared just simply have white gums.Then the picture changed again, to show a confocal microscope view zooming in to reveal thousands of teeth and teeth-like structures dotting it like sandpaper.
“A little bit of figuring for the exact ratios and the proportions, and we were capable of hitting the scalar value almost exactly,” said Dr. Branson eagerly. “However, that also led to the next issue, which was that of frequency.”
Dr. Meyers watched with rapt attention and no small amount of uncomfortable nausea as the two extreme examples were displayed onscreen. This time, it was a picture of a mouse but with healthy pink gums this time, with a single white speck of a tooth on both jaws.
The opposite picture, though, was something more akin to what she had seen on sharks: three or four rows of normally sized and healthy teeth, but growing almost like waves, and filling the mouth.
“I'm assuming you were able to refine this aspect as well?”
Branson nodded. “It's a bit of a fine art, as the scalar value especially depended on the size of the body morphology it was being applied to, but yes, we were able to refine both of these and produce this instead.”
With a flourish, the slide deck clicked forward, now showing a side-by-side comparison according to the labels on the images. One was an unaltered mouse, still with the eerily-human-like dental structure, but next to it was what appeared to be an identical mouse jaw but this time labeled as being one in which the medication was being unapplied.
“That is outstanding,” she said, squinting closely. “While I'm not familiar with the nuances of that mouse model, to my eye that looks like a perfect match.”
Branson beamed and said “That was our thought, too. With this, we finally have a dosage and proportion for the cocktail, and I believe it is ready to advance to human trials.”
Dr. Meyers nodded, but this time with slight hesitation. “You've done some outstanding work here, but again I'm reminded that this is an artificially-made mouse model, a chimera with multiple sets of conflicting genetic instructions that might impact and skew your clinical outcomes. Have you tried this formulation on a wild-type mouse, with no dental modifications?”
Branson hesitated. “Not yet, but I believe my postdoc is actually performing that test as we speak. Would you like to come observe? The regeneration process takes less than an hour in most cases.”
Dr. Meyers couldn't resist her eagerness as she agreed, and followed Branson out down the hallway and into their lab proper. The smell of the mouse kennels was noticeable, but not as strong as she'd seen at some labs, and she commented as much to Branson, complimenting the cleanliness of his animal care. He accepted it graciously, saying “Oof course. I know it's uncommon to have such aggressive and early treatments in animal models, and so we wanted to make additionally sure we gave them the best possible conditions given those restrictions.”
After dawning a lab coat and PPE, Meyers followed Branson into a sterile treatment area. The post doc was already working in the hood and had the plastic mouse kennel ready.
Sticking the mouse in what almost look like an icing bag, they carefully opened the creature’s jaws and, dabbing a sterile swab into the end of an open-top container, smeared the colorful pink liquid on the creature's gums.
The mouse wiggled, and managed to catch the swab against the edge of its nose before the postdoc had pulled it back. As Dr. Meyers watched, she could see as the pink gums of the mouse soon began to sparkle with little white specks that quickly grew into comparatively-full-size mouse teeth, including a pair of distinctive incisors in the front.
There were also an unfortunate set of lumpy molars growing on the spots that had touched the end of the nose, but Branson smiled broadly, saying “There's some concerns we have about non-target application, but with the proper precautions and a more calm and willing patient, the the cocktail should be perfectly effective.”
“I would still be concerned about what safety-proofing measures you end up using,” said Dr. Meyers with some hesitation. “After all, I think people would be unpleasantly surprised if their dog got a hold of a foil tube, chewed it up, and then suddenly came out looking like something out of a dentist's nightmare.”
Dr. Branson nodded, but even Dr. Meyers had to admit that these were impressive results, and very promising. “Your sponsors are going to be quite pleased with this progress,” she said. “Are they here now?”
“They mostly have been supplying funds for us, but they've expressed keen interest in the success of this operation. The funding has been impressive, to say the least.”
Meyers nodded, feeling slightly jealous and wondering idly who would have deep-enough pockets to effortlessly finance such a line of research.
Stepping back from the scrying pool, Glimmer and Squeak both looked at each other, eyes wide as the mouse with a mouthful of human teeth faded from the glowing basin, replaced by the swirls of magical chaos. Their wings were buzzing with excitement.
“You’re telling me it was this easy the whole time?” Glimmer squealed with delight.
“Well, not exactly,” said Squeak. “They've only had this sort of technology for the last decade or so. Still, I think this was worth diverting the payments for a few hundred million children's teeth in the short term, in exchange for such long-term gains.”
“We're about to become the most influential and powerful fairies to ever to grace the Court of Bones! After all, who would deny us when we can create more teeth than even the most famished fairy could ever dream of eating?”

Mom you have made me feel small my entire life. As a kid I thought you were my guardian but now I can see that you used me to make yourself feel better for the things you’ve failed at. When my options were an alcoholic neglectful mother or a physically and verbally abusive father, of course I would go with the carefree mother who would let me do what I want. You would hold this over me as you do many things. You would bring up how I can always go live with my father if I was ever unhappy with you. Where Brian had his rage, you withheld love as if it were something I needed to earn as reciprocation to playing your therapist. You did the bare minimum as a parent, hands off and apathetic. My grades slipped, I was overweight, I didn’t make many friends, I struggled with mental illness that I have texts from you saying you suspected and didn’t do anything about, you had so many warning signs that something was not okay and you willingly chose to ignore it as you always did. After the divorce you never brought me to the doctors or dentist, you literally did not take care of my health. I was a child, i was irresponsible, you needed to guide me more than not at all. Im not sure if you were afraid that me having something I need to work on reflected poorly on you, but As a kid you didn’t play with me. As a teenager you didn’t try to understand me. As an adult you don’t even attempt to have a relationship with me. You will gladly drive two hours to get your hair cut to a family that you are no longer apart of but you’ve never even once offered to come visit me. You put in the bare minimum to be a parent and looking back I’m not sure you ever wanted to be a parent. You have always been more concerned about doing what you want, purchasing all manner of toys and vehicles and things you’ll never use but you couldn’t save for my college, save for opportunities for me to explore my talents, save to take me to get assessed for mental illness. I don’t know why. I don’t know why you have always chosen everyone and everything else over me but you have done it time and time again. You have dragged me around the eastern part of the states and just expected me to put up with your impulsivity and codependency and it never mattered how it was going to impact me, all that ever mattered was what you wanted. I’ve sacrificed so much for you, i was your therapist from such a young age and you put so much on me as young as 8. You used me as an emotional sponge for you to get all your woes and worries out because you never wanted to actually get help, you just want someone to tell you you’re doing a good job instead of working on your problems. All the Christmas gifts, random surprises, and allowing me to go out late with friends where I’m sure you knew I was smoking weed and drinking, you thought all of this made you a good mother. You would never allowed me to be mad at you or be disappointed in you, you would say things like “I get it I’m a bad mother” as a way to guilt me for being upset with you, when I’m allowed to be upset with you but you can’t handle someone getting angry towards you so you try to mitigate it as much as possible to make you feel better some how. I don’t think you ever cared to get to know me, maybe there’s this vision of me in your head you wish I was but I’m not, maybe that’s why you still ask loaded questions about me being gay, snide remarks about maybe being bisexual that hurt more than you know. You’ve always used me and others as a scapegoat for your bad habits, I was your excuse to leave Brian, I was a coverup for your drinking so much so that you blamed me for drinking a jar of moonshine that you had (maybe you remember me getting mad at you about that). You’ve used Greg to justify wanting to move every single time we did becuase you were unhappy and you spun it as wanting to help Greg reconnect with his family or find a better job but in reality you just want to run away from everything and you need someone to pin it on.
I remember growing up, sometimes Greg would go on hunting trips or work trips and part of me would get excited to have time for us, just to watch movies or go eat, and every time my heart would shatter seeing you get so drunk you’d stumble and lose track of things, sometimes even dropping and breaking things. I was never enough. I was never allowed to just have time with my mother, not that you ever cared to spend time with me anyways. Outside of one trip to Butler PA where you took me to a Yugioh tournament and a trip to see my entries to an art gallery that you rushed through, you’ve never found an interest in spending time with me, or an interest in learning about me. I did so much and I’ve done so much and I have had so many varied interests. I can sing. I can cook. I can write. I can do so many amazing things and you have never asked to be apart of anything, and the times I asked you always lead to disappointment. My musicals, my theater, my arts, you would go to these things and the moment it was over you’d offer a kind word and then it may as well have never happened. You want me in your life as much as I’m willing to put in the effort to be in yours. I often wonder how much you actually know about me, and how much you don’t know. I’ve had many heart breaks, losses, changes in views, passions, I’ve had so much happen in my life and to me as a person and even before I moved out you knew so little. I just want you to admit you never liked being a mother, all the evidence is there. I just want you to say something so I stop beating myself up all these years and wondering what I did wrong. I just need to know that my pain is valid, that I’m allowed to move on from this. I can’t keep chasing a relationship that will never happen and hoping one day maybe you’ll improve or admit you did wrong but I don’t think it will. I have bawled in front of you and you didn’t care at all. I’ve pleaded and begged and I desperately wanted to try and have a semblance of something healthy but I don’t think you would put in the effort. I just want to know the truth at why you neglected me my whole life, why you’ve distanced yourself at any chance you got, why I was never enough to have an interest in your life.
I hope you enjoy all your new toys as you don’t work and live a life of secluded country luxury while I work to barely make enough to pay rent while having to pay back my student loans you forced me to take. I hope you enjoy your home in a town that you so desperately wanted to move to so you can be closer to your grandchildren who you only talk about how much they annoy you. I hope you enjoy your marriage that you have painted to be this horrible, borderline abusive thing just so you can get some sympathy from your son on days you needed validation when really Greg is a very kind man. I hope you enjoy your relationship with my sister who you have rushed to the side of my whole life while you happily left me alone and looking for a reason to get that kind of attention. I hope you enjoy time with my father’s family as your husband sits at home alone as you go talk to people who reluctantly accept you because you have some history but all wonder why you haven’t been able to move on. I hope you find the strength to get help, I hope you find the ability to allow yourself to recognize your problems so you can get help. I hope maybe one day many years from now we can meet again like strangers and recall the select few memories we actually have together. I want to close this with saying I love you but I’m not sure what I have to love anymore

I posted a few weeks ago about looking for a psychiatrist in Pittsburgh that accepts Medicaid & happy to report that I went to Summit Psychological in Fox Chapel & it truly changed my life. I hope everyone who struggles with mental health has the experience I had at their office. This was probably the first time in my life that I truly felt like i was being heard by a doctor. I saw nurse Practitioner Nathan King & the patience & time he took to listen to my issues and not only give me a new diagnosis & med plan but actually explain to me what’s going on in my brain was an amazing experience. I am so relived to have found this place & hope this can help anyone looking for mental health help in pgh. I know it can be such a struggle especially when doctors just dismiss you but there’s is hope & great doctors in the world who have sympathy & care for their patients. I hope this helps someone.

There are droves of Christian guys who are trying to find a wife, a lot of which are struggling with this in a major way. Though I haven't been posting here much of late, many of you have reached out to me directly asking for advise and it has been revealing. This post is the unfortunate product of many conversations with various guys who are shooting themselves in the foot by not taking care of the basics. While they may seem obvious to many of you, each of the issues below have come up numerous times as I've counseled guys. If you are a guy who finds himself struggling to attract a suitable woman, this post may be a critical aid in starting to get yourself sorted out.
Note: this post is focuses primarily on practicle, rather than theological, matters as I am increasingly seeing guys, who have good theology, in need of more practicle hand holding / butt kicking.

The Deck Is In Fact Stacked Against You

I won't sugar coat it, the dating market is not great these days for the vast majority of men (and women for that matter). The reasons for this have been hashed out elsewhere and it is sufficient for our purposes here to simply recognize that this current generation got dealt a terrible hand in this regard.
Congratulations, you may now give up, stop trying, and commit yourself to whatever wierd incel niche of the internet most appeals to you.
Or you can not be a bundle of sticks and make the best of the situation.
Seriously. Those are your options and you need to choose one, because whining about what is does nothing to steer you towards what could be. I am not kidding. You need to accept this as fact, stop whining about it, and move on or you will remain stuck exactly where you find yourself to be unhappy.

The People Who Want You To Be Unhappy Are The Elites

Hating women for what they are is misplaced anger. They contributed to this mess we are in, but you ascribe a much higher level of agency to women than is warranted if you think they are the root of the problem. Simply put, you aren't mysoginistic enough if you blame women for this because women couldn't create this rainbow dystopia of a clown world if they were handed the blueprint.
It is a topic for another post (one that would get me banned on Reddit) to dive into who is behind this, but suffice to say as Christians we were well warned about this group at length in the New Testament, and Christ himself was not too fond of them.
If you don't like what I just hinted at, please stop reading now and go back to reading whatever Daily Wire article you were jacking off to before you saw this post; it's better for my children and grandchildren if you didn't reproduce.
The point is, women got played by the elites and are also getting screwed in this modern hellscape of hook up culture. Women aren't your enemy. Many of them hate this too and they actually want you to win them over because they are also bored and lonely. Until this concept that registers with you this entire thing will be uphill for you.

Know Your Enemy

So who is the real enemy? The meta level answer are the oligarchal elites that want to prevent you from reproducting and will try to turn your kids into transformers if you do. The practical answer though is that you are your biggest enemy.
If you are fat, it's because you keep putting too much stupid food in your own stupid mouth. If you smell bad, it's because you aren't prioritizing basic hygeniene. If you are broke it's because you are either spending too much on crap you don't need, haven't developed a valuable skillset to get paid better, or both.
Some of you are going to be big mad because I am not blaming the market, the terrible "food" supply, or whatever else is external to you, for your plight. Remember, I recognized from the start that there really is a meta level exterior pissearth cabal against you, but they aren't just against you, but against society.
To unpack that a bit, we are in a time where the average man is a revolting specimen and that should give you a lot of hope. That's the white pill: your competition has never been more pathetic and easily beaten.

Let's Talk Triage, Because You're Killing Me

Given the hypergamous nature of women (though there are certain question marks there as well, but we'll assume it for this post) the top 20% of men stand the best chance of actually attracting a woman. Sounds bad right? Wrong. Go somewhere public and do some people watching. What you'll find is that in most places, the average man is fat (or scrawny), dresses like an idiot, is terrible with his money, and is a disheveled mess. Most of them just coast through life and aren't even really trying.
Learning game is great, but it only gets your so far. Assuming you manage to game your way into getting a girl's number and taking her out, eventually she will discover the real you and lose interest... unless the real you is actually solid and interesting, which can be developed.
Putting real effort into a solving a handful of things would put many of you into that 20% in most social settings. In fact, like the guy shoving a stick in his own bike spokes, many of you are doing (or not doing) some basic thibgs that are disproportionately keeping you down.
So where to start with this?
Many of your lives are the equivelant of mass combat casualties when it comes to the categories to improve on. In the emergency medical world, there is a practice known as triage where the injuries most likely to kill someone are treated first. Applying that same manner of thinking to attracting a spouse, there are some things that are going to cause you to "bleed out" "kill" you faster than others. I am addressing some of the common "wounds" I keep seeing because I am getting tired of constantly having to treat them.

Tier 1: Apperances

These are the things that you can start fixing right away and see immediate improvements. These are basic but can ruin your attractiveness right away and there are no good reasons why you can't fix these if they apply to you.
Hygiene
If you smell bad, look sloppy and unkempt, or otherwise are unhygenic, she won't give you the time of day. It pains me that I even have to write this, but gentlemen: shower yourselves daily. Wear deoderant / cologne (but not too much) and wash your clothes. Actually, burn your clothes and buy new ones that actually fit you and then keep those clean. If you aren't certain whether or not you smell bad, you smell bad. Men are amazing in their ability to walk around smelling like a shat in gym sock without knowing it. If you are fat, you are physiologically predisposed to smelling awful.

Protip: if you are unsure of how your breath smells, lick the back of your hand and wait a few seconds before giving it a smell. That will give you a very good idea of how others are smelling your breath. If it is anything south of neutral, start keeping gum or mints with you to be able to fix it on the fly.

This is your new rule: If you can't be certain that you smell good, assume you smell bad.
Clothes
Burn your graphic tees. All of them. It is hereby officially illegal for you to wear them until you become jacked ("skinny ripped" doesn't count unless you are the scrawny musician type while actually performing music.)

Like the scorching winds of the sandy dunes, the fat guy with a graphic tee shirt is, to a woman's nether oasis. - Bene Gesserit Proverb

Make sure your belt and shoes match. This is entirely basic, but it is missed so often it bears repeating: black belt = black shoes, brown shoes = brown belt. Don't wear athletic wear unless you are actively doing athletic things. Don't mix formal/dress items with casual, etc. There is too much to address on this topic right here, but you need to get this figured out in a bad way. You don't have to dress well, but you cannot afford to dress badly.
Hair
Get your hair cut regularly. I don't care if it is "too expensive", until you develop a sense of style and a fit physique that allows you to break the rules, you have to keep it clean. If you truly cannot afford a regular haircut, get a trimmer and give yourself a buzzcut every other week. It will look better than an unkempt mop.
Long hair is illegal if you are fat, it makes you look like a buffoon. Seriously, I'm not kidding. If you are fat and have long hair it screams, "I have no self awareness" and that is not good. Who can/should have long hair? Tarzan. You know why? Tarzan is jacked to the gills. You are not Tarzan, you haven't earned your Samson locks.
Beards need to be kept clean and for most of you this will mean shorter than you want. There is a very fine line between looking masculine and "refined" and like a basement wizard. For the non-fats (see a theme?) as a general rule, if you have long hair keep a short beard, and if you have a long beard keep your hair short. The more jacked you are the looser you can be with this.

Protip: Dandruff is a deal breaker for many women. One of the easiest way to get rid of it is to keep your hair short and your scalp clean. There are droves of resources on how to not have dandruff, but you need to figure that crap out in a hurry if you've got it.

Body hair is fairly straightforward: don't be an outlier. There is a certain subset of women (some very attractive) who are into hairy dudes. The majority don't have a strong opinion one way or another unless the hair is on the extreme end. The idea here is to trim anything that is unusual to a normal range. If have a pelt of back hair, have a totally-platonic-definitely-not-closeted friend shave that for you. If you have bushes for your ears, nostrils, or eyebrows, trim it down. Shoulders too. Again, for most guys body hair should not be a noteworthy feature are all.
Teeth
Go to the dentist. Brush your teeth after every meal. Floss daily. Your teeth are a dead giveaway to your hygeine habits. Everything else can be on point, but if your smile looks like it came from a cartoon villan or a British person, you're screwed even if everything else is on point. Theoretically you're going to want to kiss a woman with that facehole of yours, and the cleaner, whiter, and straighter your teeth are the better chance you have at making your dreams come true.
Skin
Improving the quality of your skin is one of the surest ways to improve your overall appearance. If you stop eating heavily processed foods, cut out seed oils from your diet, clean yourself regularly, and get enough sunlight and sleep, it will likely do wonders to cleaning up your skin. All of these things overlap with improving your overall health too (hence why skin quality is such a strong indicator of reproductive fitness). There are endless YouTube videos amd several subreddits dedicated to this topic, so browse those and start making improvements ASAP.
Vehicle
Your vehicle says a lot about you and your priorities. Driving an expensive fancy car is not required, but keeping whatever vehicle you do drive clean and well maintained needs to be a high priority.
When you roll up to a date in a car with dents, parts strapped or taped together, or otherwise in less-than-great visible condition, or if your car is a filthy mess on the inside, you are sending a strong signal that you do not take care of what belongs to you. Why would a girl want to belong to a guy who doesn't prioritize taking care of his vehicle? Why would her father want to give his daughter to such a guy?
If you think this is shallow or materialistic you're missing it. Woman, throughout history, have depended on men to provide and take care of them and their kids. Yes, the modern "yasss queen" girlboss woman doesn't consciously look at things this way, but you don't want one of them to be the mother of your children anyway. If you are sensible and want a woman who will stay home and raise your children right, such a woman needs to know that they will be provided for during that time.
Driving a car that looks like a beater, no matter how functional, signals that either 1) you don't have the means to take care of it or 2) you don't care to take care of it. Neither of these things bode well for a woman who will likely end up staying home with the kids and whose means will be limited to your ability to provide.
On cleanliness, make a point to clean your car weekly, both inside and out. If you live in an apartment or otherwise don't have the ability to wash your car on your own, get a car wash membership and use it frequently. During these weekly cleanings you should vacuum it out and should be throwing away any trash left laying around. Also, your car is not a storage unit. It blows my mind how many guys store all kinds of stuff in their cars. Stop it. It makes you look like a homeless guy or that you are living out of your car. If you want to store a few practicle things (tools, a change of clothes, overnight toiletries just in case, emergency supplies, etc.) fine, but put that stuff in on or two clean designated bags/totes and keep it someplace out of sight.
If your car has dents, get them fixed. If you have mismatched bumpers or pannels, taped together pieces, or a cracked windshield, come up with a plan to take care of those issues (or replace the car) as soon as you can.
Yes, these things cost far more than it seems like it should, but not fixing these things will cost you access to high quality women.

Tier 2: Behaviors

These are going to take a bit more time to straighten out, but they are well worth the effort to improve on as even if you have all the tier 1 items under control, these can vastly limit or improve your attractiveness
Posture
This is the #1 thing I see guys get wrong in this category: they don't just have poor posture, but worse they are totally unaware of it. Body language is critical to attractiveness and the way your carry yourself, your posture, is the biggest part of it.
It hits close to home for me because when I was a young teenager my posture was terrible until I made an intentional effort to fix it, and it was a major game changer and did not take all that long. I am certain that failing to improve this would have radically limited my success in life.
Ask a friend to film you in a normal setting, ideally at a time when you aren't aware that they are taking a video. Watch the video back to yourself and let the horror of your own awkwardness scorch a permanent scar in your subsconscious so that you never slouch or walk around with your neck forward ever again.
Not only will better posture improve your ability to attract women, but every human interaction in your life will improve, including at the workplace. Interviewers, bosses, customers, and other stakeholders in your success make decisions based on their impression of you. If your posture is poor, you will get capped in your career early as you get passed over for opportunities that you were otherwise qualified for. Go look at nearly every CEO, president, or otherwise influential person and you will find that they carry themselves well. Having bad posture is a really stupid reason to have your earning potential limited, so just fix it.
Go on YouTube and look up videos on good posture, there are plenty. Treat this like one of your lifts and practice, it will take some time to beat the old habits out and replace them with good habits. Speaking of lifting, one of the best things you can do for your posture is train your entire back. Deadlifts, pull ups, rows, etc. will do wonders for making it easy and feel nature to keep an upright confident posture without effort.
Voice
Your voice is the clothing that your words wear, and many of you "dress" your words like homeless guys. Learning to control your voice will help you immensely in all vocal communication, and it really isn't hard to do.
As with the posture example above, recording yourself can yield immense insight into where you need to start working on your voice. If you play video games, you may already have recordings of yourself speaking in a non-performative way. Go listen to yourself speak when you aren't being self conscious of it. Here are some things to evaluate:
What is the pitch of your voice? Generally, lower vocal pitches are evaluated as more sexually attractive to women and more authorative among men. It is a matter of sexual dimorphism. If your voice is high, which it may be more than you realize, you can train yourself speak in a lower tone with vocal excercises and conscious practice. Even if your voice isn't particularly high and more "normal" you would likely benefit from practicing speaking in a lower voice naturally.
Do you control the cadence, or speed, or your speaking? Generally, speaking slower and more deliberately is seen as confident and masculine than speaking like a chipmunk on PCP. Don't go overboard here because talking quickly can convey excitement and drive.
Along with speed, is your volume deliberate or erradic? No one wants to be around the guy who is shouting all the time, but speaking loudly (likely louder than you're comfortable with at first) is an indicator of confidence.
Go listen to some speeches or recordings of some of histories great orators and you will notice that they are very deliberate about controlling both the speed and volume of their delivery. Comedians can make for great case studies as well.
How you speak is how you reveal yourself to the world. If you aren't confident in this area, you again will be greatly limited in many areas of life. It may very well be worthwhile for you to join a Toastmasters group or something like it where you can rapidly develop your voice.
Nervous ticks
Stop picking at yourself. Seriously, this not only grosses women out but makes you seem like a crackhead. If you are frequently itchy, you probably have some skin stuff you need to work on (see above). These sort of ticks are subconscious and we all do them to some extent or another, but if you do it excessively you will come off as manic or otherwise unwell. These can be tough habits to break, so it may be worthwhile to tell your close friends that you are trying to break them and ask them to point the behaviours out to you as you do them so you start breaking the patterns up and raise your own awareness. Again, YouTube university may be a great resource for you on this.

Tier 3: Ongoing Upgrades

These are things that just tend to take longer to develop, but make a world of difference once they have been improved. You can get started on these right away, but you should not focus on them until the first two tiers are resolved since they are likely deal breakers that will make these matters irrelevant anyways
Interests
A lot of you dudes are just plain boring guys living plain boring lives. Who would want to join you in that? Maybe a boring woman, but that doesn't sound very exciting, now does it? Seriously guys, spend some time trying and learning about new things. Start with aiming for breadth, and avoid things that have a stigma of being nerdy (you're probably already skewed towards those interests anyhow).
Aim for things that are exciting, creative, or signal high status. Trying out high octane pursuits, such as combat or adrenaline sports, will quickly provide you with interesting experiences to retell and will likely expose you to a lot of cool fascinating people. Picking up a new creative hobby (acting, dance, cooking, painting, pottery, jewelry making, etc.) will expose you to an entirely different subset of the population and having such a skiill, beyond being good for your soul as a being created to be a sub-creator, can be profitable or at least provide you with works of your own hand to show to others.
Classic "high status" pursuits (golfing, sailing, racing, travel, wine tasting, etc.) might be too expensive to begin with, but can help you expand your social network and expose you to wealthy successful people which may afford you new and exciting opportunities.
The point is, if you ever find yourself struggling with what to talk about while on a date or meeting someone new, you likely need to expand your activities and start intentionally exposing yourself to new things.
Fitness
I've written posts on this before, as have others, but it bears repeating: nothing will catapult you into the top percentile of men faster than having large muscles and a lean body. Full stop. The more jacked you are, the more you can get away with deficits in the other areas discussed above. Building such a body takes time, so you need to get started on it right away. That being said, there are some things you can do right away that will help you immensely in this area.
Foremost, if you are fat you need to focus on not being fat like your mother's life depended on it. It is far better to be lean and scrawny than it is to be fat when it comes to being attractive to women. Most of you guys can stand to lose between 20 and 100 pounds and need to focus on this more than worrying about building muscle.
Fasting is your friend here. Rather than screwing around with your diet and trying to cut out/add various food things, just stop eating so damned much. Barring significant medical conditions, the majority of people are going to be fine skipping meals and not eating, even for several days at a time. Rapid fat loss can come with its own set of problems (loose skin, for example) but that can be dealt with over time.
If I woke up and found myself suddenly 50 pounds overweight, I would immediately go on a 72 hour fast and then start doing OMAD (one-meal-a-day), focusing on sasiating real foods such as meats, saturated fats, and complex carbs, adding in extended fasts on a weekly or monthly basis, until I dropped the weight. Not only would the weight drop off embarassingly quickly, I would save a lot of time and money by not eating. Once you get your weight in check, then you can focus on putting the right kind of weight and building muscle. Doing this isn't exactly easy, but it also isn't complicated.
For fat guys, every 10% of bodyfat they lose gives them access to a whole point higher of attractive women. So if you are at 35% bodyfat and find yourself attracting 5's, going to 15% bodyfat would likely make you attractive to 7's. Diminishing returns set in around that point, but you get the point: lose the gut.
Finances
This deserves a series of posts on its own, but if you aren't in a great financial spot you need to put together a plan to get there. For many of you this will mean re-skilling by improving your education or otherwise learning skills that are more valuable in the market. Resist taking on new work that pays better, but doesn't have the potential to eventually pay enough to raise a family on the wage.
If you are at a loss as to what you might want to do, I strongly recommend the trades (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc.) as the demand is high and many will pay you while you gain those skills and the upside earning potential can be suprisingly high.
Living situation
Lastly, the final major dealbreaker that can take some time to sort out is your living situation. Simply put, some living situations are sexier than others. Living at home with your parents might be your best play while you figure out the Tier 1-2 issues and start working on the Tier 3 issues. While it may be your best move for a season, it will make attracting a suitable woman exceptionally difficult.
If you are in that situation, that's fine, but you need a plan to get out of it. Here a general order of least sexy to sexiest living situations:

• Living with your parents
• Renting with roommates
• Renting by yourself
• Owning your own home and renting to roommates
• Owning your own home and living by yourself

You'll notice that each movement downwards is a big increase in personal independance and ability to bring a woman into that living arrangement as a wife. Ideally you want to be moving down that list with each move, or at the very least be developing the means to move down the list if you wanted to. For example, if you are a young guy who is hustling, has a great job, and are renting with roommates but could go buy a house if you wanted, but are renting to save more money for now, that's great and you won't really be penalized for it. If you are doing that because you can't afford to do otherwise, that is far less attractive to a woman.
In short, (and yes, there are other exceptions, but broadly speaking it holds true) you want to be hustling to imrove your living situation in such a way that if you met the right girl, she could easily see herself fitting into your living situation without major shuffling being needed.

Conclusion

If this post doesn't apply to you, congratulations on sticking it out. But, if you are a single guy looking to attract women, you seriously need to take a long hard look in the mirror and make sure you are identifying and resolving these issues, starting with Tier 1 and working your way up, because all of them are entirely fixable but any of them can be your downfall. This post isn't exhaustive, but for many of you it is a necessary starting point.
I recently started a substack and intend to begun posting more frequently there since Reddit has become such a stiffling censorious platform. If you want my more frequent and less filtered content, give me a follow there.

Hello everyone!
About 6 months ago I started into a Chief APP role for my UC group. In that time I've been busy putting out fires while also trying to build out s good training regimen with 12-16 week orientation plus extra support through months 6-9 for new PAs/NPs to my service. Some of that is still in progress but I am making headway.
Additionally i have been gathering the competing offers for new hires at other groups in my state (Pennsylvania) to highlight to my employer that our base compensation and moonlighting rate are well under par at this point. They are finally starting to listen a little bit and a number of other chiefs in other service lines in my network have been doing the same.
What I'm having difficulty finding is the full other benefits (Insurance, CME, PTO, retirement match, etc) outside of the salary range and bonus structure if there is one.
Does anyone here work at MedExpress, American Family Care, Wellspan, UPMC, Tower health, etc urgent care clinics and is willing to tell me what your benefits structure is like and whether you feel you get to really take advantage of PTO and CME days if paid?
Happy to accept DMs regarding this. I'm just trying to get my direct reports a better deal and be able to actually hire good candidates. As it is now I've interviewed multiple and the sticking point every time is salary. I'm looking to see if we can up our actual pay and moonlighting structure without completely disrupting the CME valuation though I have a feeling that will be shrunk down as part of it.
Thanks in advance for any info you can provide.

This is a copy of a report filed with the IRS and local police departments. It is a 3 page report detailing a Pittsburgh area AAU baseball team called Pittsburgh premiere and their illegal activities over the past 4+ years. Activities include tax evasion, money laundering, racketeering, filing false tax returns, embezzlement, theft, mail fraud, and running an illegal gambling operation. They use youth baseball as a front for their illegal operations.
the owner runs a youth baseball “non profit” in southwestern Pennsylvania. I put non profit in quotation marks because there are hundreds of thousands of dollars being generated every year through tuition and gambling operations but most of it is not used on baseball or the players but seems to disappear. The owner is running a non profit but running it as a business and making very large unreported profits. There is no over sight on the money or costs associated with the program.
In 2020 there were 72 players across 6 teams at an average of $2500 a year in tuition per player. That’s $200,000.
Expenses include tournaments at around $500 each(around 8 tournaments per team per calendar year). Indoor training facilities (at a discount as it’s owned by one of the coaches on staff). Baseballs. Insurance. Team Equipment. 2 uniforms for spring/summer. (Fall uniforms are typically a hat/t shirt donated by a sponsor). Bat bags. Helmets. Etc. All travel expenses are covered by the parents though. I would estimate expenses around $100k a year worst case scenario. which would leave around $100k that should be invested back into the program and players. For things like individual Equipment. pitching machines for each team, technology like Rapsodo, professional guest coaches like college/pro coaches, uniform/tournament cost and travel costs. But it disappears every year.
To try and explain where all the money goes the owner told a parent he has to pay big field rental fees(not true it’s typically free for a resident to get a field permit) and that he pays 20k a year for insurance. According to the web it’s around $300 a year per team for sports insurance. So $1800 roughly for 6 teams. That’s off by $18,200. For 72 players. So $18,200 is missing. To compare, A local community (greater Baldwin Whitehall athletic association) with 2000 ball players pays 6k a year for insurance. Jessie Siefert is the president and Told us the costs for his entire org. Again. GBWAA pays $6000 a year for 2000 players and jim coulter claims to pay $20,000 for 72 players.
At the 2020 cash bash 4 years ago (and each year since ) the owner charged his own organization $15,000 for food(many non profits get the food donated or at the very least provided at cost). There were around 350 people in attendance. That is approximately $42 per person for food. For frozen chicken fingers, pasta, rolls, pop, and salad. The owners restaurant provided the food For the event. We tried to raise funds for our sons but the owner took $15,000 off the top for food that could not have cost more than $2000-$3000. I have not spoken to one family that made money unless their ticket won or they won money gambling. Because everyone spent more money donating baskets than they received on their ticket sales.
An at that 2020 cash bash. 72 Families were given 15 tickets each to sell for a cash bash at $40 each. The owner Let one dad sell 57 tickets off the top. taking money out of 71 families hands and putting it into the hands of one guy. Why? Why that guy?. That guy is a bookie. The owners bookie. He goes by the name of “smitty”. And the owner bragged to me personally that he gambles $4000 per football game. Plus This bookie was owed $10,000 dollars by a friend of the owners. I don’t know his name. But it was the cousin of one of the assistant coaches. Which nearly resulted in fight between the bookie and the assistant coach in the parking lot at the end of the cash bash. Which then resulted in many parents questioning if the fundraiser helped to alleviate someone’s gambling debts. And that appears to be what happened.
40k brought in on ticket sales 15k given out at cash bash. $25x 1000 ($25k) given to parents for each ticket sold. And Expenses =Food. Beer (donated i believe) Hall rental. Party Supplies. We sold Jell-O shots. Liquor shots. (Both donated by parents). Money wheel. Dice game. Multiple 50/50 all night. “Tip boards”. Chinese auction ( all baskets donated) and table games.
People in the count room estimate We Must have brought in 40k+during the cash bash with 350-375 people attending in person and tipping on all of their winnings. Money was pouring in everywhere. My wife and i lost at least $250 gambling at the event alone. Nearly every guest I talked to says they lost/spent over $100 at the event.
Yet All of those games and events brought in exactly enough money to cover the cost of food. Beer. And party supplies. ? So we brought in approximately 80k gross. Gave out 15k at the event in cash bash winnings and gave parents $25 per ticket or $25k. And our expenses at the event were $40k for a 4 hour youth baseball fundraiser? Most people do not spend $40,000 on a 300 guest wedding. which included $15k in food that went straight to the owner of the program. How did all of the other gambling and sale of things like Jell-O shot and liquor (that were donated by parents) result In 0 profit. Nothing. Not one dollar. I saw hundreds and hundreds of dollars in the tip cup at the bar and yet none of that was profit? The 50/50 profit alone was in the thousands on the night. Yet it disappeared.
One family gave the following information. our personal donations and expenses were around $600. But they only received $500 for selling 20 tickets. So they lost $100 on the event. But the owners restaurant had a $15000 night for food that probably cost around $2000-$3000.
The only people that seemed to make money were the owner and his buddies who he allowed to exceed The table max from $10 a hand to $100 a hand on a table game. The table game lost over $1000 within minutes and had to be shut down.
2 days after the event the owner and his wife flew to las Vegas for a vacation. With what appears to be tens of thousands of dollars of Pittsburgh premieres money that was raised by families for their son’s baseball expenses.
Pittsburgh premiere also routinely promotes lotto tickets for sale on Facebook. They are advertised to benefit Pittsburgh premiere players. Here is one example. 250 tickets were sold. 1000 possibilities. Based on the Daily 3 digit. 25% chance someone who bought a ticket wins. 75% chance the owner wins and keeps it all. They are trying to ensure the winning ticket doesn't get sold. By Only selling 250 tickets. With 1000 possibilities. That means it's a 75% chance the owne keeps it all.
Not only that. To make matters worse they also have an org wide bingo every year where all of the proceeds “go to the org” not the players or their families. the coach keeps the money. All of it. Tens of thousands in profit for this bingo completely disappears each year. Each family is forced to sell X number of tickets. It’s in the contract they sign when they join the team. The event brings in tens of thousands in profit and it all goes directly to the coach Jim coulter and none of it appears to be spent on the boys or baseball.
I am told he takes the cash and buys equipment and supplies for his restaurant and will not be able to explain where the cash comes from. As well as cash funneled through the restaurant.
This appears to be money laundering. tax evasion. Embezzlement. Filing of false tax returns. Misappropriation of non profit funds. Mail fraud. felony theft. Racketeering. And Illegal gambling. This “non profit” runs a year round illegal gambling and fundraising operation that includes football polls. Basketball polls. Lotto tickets. Bingo games both in person and virtual. Cash bash events multiple times a year. And They post about these events and fundraisers on Facebook all year long. Very little of the funds actually benefits the players and the org. The people involved used Venmo and PayPal for gambling but more recently switched to cash to try and conceal the money.
This coach was forced out of his job as a police officer when he was found to have unlawfully beaten a motorist after a traffic stop and it resulted in a Multiple million dollar lawsuit settled for the plaintiff
When I try to make the money disappear on paper. I can’t. Not even close. Even if each team does 12 tournaments a year(they don’t). At $600 per tournament (it isn’t) that’s $43,000. And if uniforms/helmets/bag bags are $600 per player (they aren’t) that’s another $43,000. That’s $86000. With $124,000 a year left for equipment. Baseballs. Indoor training facilities (that one of the coaches owns and rents at a discount to the team). Insurance. No matter what I can’t seem to spend $200,000 a year on 6 teams no matter how frivolously I spend it on paper. For profit teams often pay the head coach, sometimes up to $5000 a year or more I’m told. But that’s still only $30,000 across 6 teams. And I don’t believe that income was claimed on any tax returns as they try to force you to pay in cash for tuition. And fundraisers to limit the paper trail. So all of the coaches accepted cash but did not report it as income. They can’t stand it was a gift as it was a paid position in cash.
Also. In 2019. When the owner was coaching for another AAU org. He organized a bingo fundraiser for his 11u team. The owners of that team forbid him from running the fundraiser using their name when the org would not benefit from it. He did it anyway. And was fired. He took that 11u team and created the Pittsburgh premiere org.
around 150-200 people attended this bingo game in 2019. and the owner reported the profit only covered the costs of the event and a handful of tournaments and uniforms for the players. The owner reported Approximately $9000 in profit from the 13-14 families that sold tickets to the event. His restaurant also provided the food but we did not get the food at a discount or at cost. The event also included games of chance like the aforementioned cash bash. He kept the $9000 and was supposed to use it to completely fund the season but we had to give more money when he spent it all. I do not remember all of the details. It just immediately struck me as odd that a coach would be so adamant and insistent that we organize a bingo fundraiser when no other for profit baseball org does that. You charge the parents tuition and it’s their responsibility to come up with the money and that’s the end of it. He insisted on organizing a bingo game and handling all of the money. And having his restaurant provide the catering at a premium price.

I always knew that navigating adulthood would indeed be a challenge; however, I didn’t realise that it would leave me on the phone to Samaritans every night, crying over a full plate of beans on toast.
I left the home nest at 17, working full time as an engineer and going to uni full time.
I found a good man at work, got married, got a house together.
He had an affair with a lady at work. I got diagnosed with epilepsy and stopped working. Got divorced.
Lived on my nans sofa for a year. Saved to get a flat.
Roommate smashes up my flat, never paid any bills. Currently homeless.
Just been served a council tax liability order. Roommate refusing to pay his half even though he has a full time job and I’m currently on disability due to constant seizures. The whole thing has gone to court which has bumped up my council tax bill by £100!!!! Got 14 days to cough up £500.
So, you’re not told that you’ve missed payment on your council tax so it’s secretly sent to court and made even more expensive!!
Took out a phone and iPad contract two years ago when I was working full time - £120 a month in total. Due to interest I’m now paying £288 a month. Thanks EE.
Occasionally, I have to miss taking my medication due to my doctors surgery not issuing it on time.
I’m in an absolute rut. Yet I know I’m not the only one. I guess I’d just like to know if anyone else out there is struggling? I have little family around me and I’m trying to do everything here on my own. I know I should just charge it and accept it, but I struggle getting out of bed every morning.
I love the UK and always have, but the level of care, help and support is zero. Mental health help? Months of waiting for some shit free therapy. House prices through the roof. Tax tax tax. Have to sell my left kidney just to go food shopping (although Aldi is a godsend). Ring the doctors all morning and never have any appointments. Haven’t been able to see a dentist in years. It’s all a mess.
Lastly, I want to know: what keeps YOU going?
Thanks for listening to my rant.

I’ve recently read a selection of posts and blogs by people who have begun treatment after receiving a diagnosis for ADHD. A common thread appears concerning the struggle to feel a sense of purpose.
These are my thoughts on the topic. Hopefully, they provide some solace for fellow ADHDers.
I’m currently one month into a titration period and am familiar with the existential challenges that come after beginning therapeutics.
From my experience, there are two key aspects:
Firstly, we are presented with a new lens to view past experiences, and secondly, we are granted a newfound ability for strategic planning (your mileage may vary, of course).
Being able to look back upon decades of curious career progression, short-term relationships, and questionable financial decisions, and identify the underlying drivers is helpful, but can also be destabilising.
What seemed to be something core to your identity can now be seen as symptoms of a profound disability, previously unmanaged.
During this period, you had a clear purpose and motivation: to seek out situations, environments, and activities that provided the novelty and stimulation to aid somewhat normal function.
When the need for this behaviour abates, then the ‘north star’ which has been guiding us also dims.
The question then is, what to do instead?
Now that I can focus on establishing healthy habits, what habits would I like to form? Now that I don’t need to seek continual novelty from my environment, what environment do I want to live in?
For me, pre-treatment, I was fixated on sweet foods. I have no interest in them now. So what do I want my diet to consist of?
Our improved ability for long-term thinking and strategic planning will also lead us to consider questions of purpose and meaning that we didn’t consider previously.
A hallmark of untreated ADHD is a quite short time horizon. Planning is done primarily at a tactical level, sometimes operational, and seldom at a strategic level.
Therapeutics can extend this time horizon, in both our ability to reflect on the past and consider the future. For people diagnosed later in life, this can mean a long history of short-term planning and local/point optimisations in their life.
Faced with the ability for global optimisations and long-term planning, we will find we are asking ourselves questions that we’ve never considered previously. It can also lead to deeper reflection on our personal values and how we can act in line with them.
My advice in dealing with these existential challenges is to accept that a diagnosis is a sea change in your life. It is a profound event that will affect core aspects of your identity now and throughout your life.
There will be profound changes ahead for you, so don’t try to rush through everything. Make small, incremental improvements in your environment and habits. Focus on the backlog of important, but non-urgent tasks. Go see the dentist if you’ve been putting that off, like I have.
Remember, in all of this, that your behaviours may change, but your core values will remain the same.

I can only speak about Japan, it's getting bad in regards to over-tourism. For instance in Kyoto, there was a tourist acting like a some sort of 'wannabe' papparazzi bothering the Geisha walking around, she was reprimanded by another tourist saying that it's rude (rightly so) as the Geisha was just trying her best to not interfere as she's working. You can't do that, as Geisha are humans like everybody else, they don't like to be bothered by unruly tourists up close.

(Plus Japan has strict privacy laws about posting a photo portrait of someone's face up close without their permission on social media, as you can actually get sued for breaching their right to privacy.)

The thing is that Japan has unspoken rules (even for the slightest ones) including etiquette that may not cross over to Western culture, which is why Western tourists often fail to understand or completely disregard it, since they think "It's Asia, who gives a damn!" but that kind of mentality of them thinking it's okay to do stuff Japan deems inappropriate is just crazy.

(A traveler has to be culturally aware of where they are in the world regardless of the country they are currently in, there are mannerisms that are acceptable in their home country but frowned upon in foreign land.)
Apart from Westerners, tourists from both China and South Korea frequently travel to Japan, due to their geographical proximity to their home countries. However there are mannerisms from their own country that aren't tolerated in Japan. (i.e. spitting on the floor)
I swear, what attracts tourists is: video games, anime & pokemon! It's one of the biggest reasons why they end up bringing a empty suitcase to only fill it with nothing but snacks, games, QoL items from Japan.

It's disgusting when tourists in Kyoto (especially in Gion or the Geisha district) are acting like paparazzi whenever they spot a Geisha or Maiko, constantly invading their space approaching up so close, that is so rude! pretending as if they are celebrities or actresses, they ask the question on "can I take photo of you" with the attitude of "I want your autograph!" Its ridiculous!
[Japanese news segment talking about trash (or food scraps) left on the floor by tourists after visiting Gion and Kyoto despite bins present in the area!] with some of them eating while walking, which is frowned upon in Japan. As a manager from one of the stores showed photos from the last time tourists were present as 3 bins shown are full and clogged, thus giving tourists an incentive to litter leaving trash on the floor!

Even in other parts of the city, tourists leave empty bottles of soju including other beverages out in the street and pavement! Not being bothered to clean up after themselves.

There are even cases of tourists harassing them, pulling their hair, putting out cigarette butts on their kimonos or tearing their attire, it's bad! To the point the local government in Kyoto restricted (but didn't ban) tourist presence within private roadways.
They deter tourists from entering private roads where Geisha's hang out with a penality of ¥10000 (58,80 €) for trespassing, this applies to everyone - not just tourists. They should not be trespassing on private property, like at all!
Just recently, there are tourists caught trespassing on those private roads. (However the signage is working as a deterent for most, due to the fine imposed.) but like anywhere else there will be bad apples in the bunch who will of course, trespass on private property.

I mean, you can still go to Kyoto, but please... have some manners, that is what they are asking from visitors, as it's a living art museum that has been preserved for centuries to this day, which what makes Kyoto fascinating to visit in the first place.
Even though there are public streets, some of the surrounding ones are deemed private property (which tourists are unaware of.) I also hate the misinformation from "Western" media regarding a "Tourist Ban" - it's not true, you can still go there, but just comply with the rules.

A tourist was caught on video ringing a bell at Yasaka Shrine (which is used for ceremonial purposes) not for playing around, they actually barred off the rope attached to the bell since that happened. (Just because Japan is not a "Christian" country, doesn't mean you get to disrespect their culture and religion, it's gross!) Think of it as someone randomly ringing a bell at a Church in Rome randomly when it's intended to be used only during mass.
Not forgetting the issue that tourists occupy most of the available capacity in regards to public transport, the same ones locals use every day. That causes problems for local commuters, which is why there's a demand for specalized transport instead of tourists taking the regular one.
In most cases the train just passes by that station if there's insufficient space available. This also applies to restaurants too, as the queue is too long or results in longer waiting times for the locals in which they are the regular customer base, as tourists have invaded those too.
For example, in Japan: there was news coverage about tourists being careless on the roadway despite orange traffic cones and a barrier visible on the side of the road intended to dissuade them, tourists either halted incoming vehicles & traffic standing in the middle of the road (MEANT FOR CARS!) just to take a picture of Mt. Fuji. [It's stupid and dangerous if you ask me.] (I'm like: "Do they seriously want to be run over by a passing vehicle? It's a road designed for INCOMING traffic! Not a sidewalk!")
Some tourists STAND or SIT on the barrier, which is just like, why? Japan has a habit on indirectly solving any problem rather than confronting it head on, so they would rather install a fence to deter tourists rather than closing the road entirely to redirect incoming traffic, like instead of improving the infrastructre Kawaguchiko near Fuji, they just want to barricade the view. (There's even CCTV installed on a pole not far from the barrier that keeping the area under constant surveilance by cops.)
You're probably thinking "Why can't they just close the road and redirect the cars elsewhere? So the tourists can happy." It's because confrontation is frowned upon in Japan, in order to not tarnish their reputation, they instead come up with indirect and descrete approaches on providing solutions to the issue at hand i.e. such as over-tourism, it's nothing new. For example, they would put signage in Kyoto to deter or convince tourists rather than actually confronting them.
Due to Japan being a collectivist society where social harmony reigns, where you need an unanimous vote to rule in your favor without any objections from all parties in regards to decision making when talking about matters like this from a governmental or societal standpoint.

(As opposed to Europe & The West where Individualism is valued, Japan is more of "We have to do this as a team" mentality rather than "I want to do this for myself only" so that in itself is a cultural difference.)

There's more from that clip:

• Tourists standing in the middle of the traffic lane divider to pose and snap pictures [Mind you - There's incoming vehicles while they are doing all of this!]
• Even the news reporter covering the story advised a tourist against taking a photo / selfie while standing on the road divider also treading on it.
• Tourists in Kawaguchiko were partially obstructing the road (not moving out of the way!) to let an INCOMING TRUCK pass, so the driver had to swerve to the right to avoid running them over.
• Tourists flooded another spot「夢の大橋」("Ponte dei sogni") for taking pictures of the mountain, walking up the stairway for the "instagrammable" picture.
• [at around 4:41] They even caught tourists JAYWALKING in the middle of the roadway even though there's incoming traffic. (Despite the cones and barriers present.)
• There's a group of tourists who were standing on the side of the road divider with incoming traffic loitering there. (Even a van drove right past them, as it's a ROAD - NOT A SIDEWALK!)
• [at around 6:33-6:52] A tourist was standing behind a vehicle approaching the driver. (You can't halt vehicles in the middle of the road and distract the driver! - It's insane!)
• [at around 6:69] Tourists posing in the middle of the lane divider for their "instagram" pics. (You are not allowed to loiter in the road divider!)
• [at around 8:30] A mother and daughter who were tourists TRESPASSED on private property, as there was a sign displaying「立入禁止」("DIVETO DI ACCESSO!") treading on the premises.
• Of course, tourists litter and leave trash on the street, since Japan has no bins available at public places. (only at designated spots.)
• Even the locals in that area are starting to complain and getting fed up with tourists constantly populating the area - violating the rules, being a 迷惑 ("Disturbo")

Tourists standing on the barrier with their own two feet, which again is not allowed. Even Japan's ministry of transportation put out a clear statement regarding implmenting countermeasures on a location you are not meant to tread on (or be jaywalking) so their solution is to "install a barrier" to deter them. But we know how that will end up, tourists still disregard the fact there's a barrier.
There's another spot where tourists now can take a picture of Fuji, it's some stairway of an overhead bridge, but people again cross the road (or jaywalk) just to reach it. Not long ago, a female tourist was run over by an incoming vehicle (due to her standing in the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD) for the "instagrammable" picture of the mountain. [This happened in Kawaguchiko.]
Speaking of Kawaguchiko, the Lawsons there including Mt. Fuji are always featured on as the backdrop of every TikTok talking about tourism in Japan (alongside Kyoto) Yep, there were even 2 tourists caught jaywalking disregarding the ACTUAL pedestrian crossing. Some tourists are standing on the store's sign posts positioned nearby (that have running electricity and LEDs.) using that as a makeshift tripod for their iPhones!
In regards to Mt. Fuji, on TikTok there are so many "copy cat" itinerary submissions, even the thumbnails are basically the 'same' you can literally see the similarities [down below]. (hence why there are so many tourists flooding the area), like this:
Despite these posts coming from different users from all over the world, they are basically copying each other's itineraries. It's like this no matter how long I've scrolled through the site.
Since Japan started installing a black tarp obstructing the view of Mt. Fuji, tourists still poked holes through it. It's not opaque as you can partially see through it, or walk to the otherside where a Lawson stands, but some still jaywalk disregarding the actual pedestrian crossing even when there's a cop or security guard present.
From this video, a complaint filed by a dental clinic within the area, stating that tourists are leaving trash or left over food scraps near their premises, loitering on the steps approaching their clinic (only patients are allowed to enter) the clinic. Here, there are even complaints from the clinic mentioning about tourists parking their bikes on bike racks only designated for patients entering their clinic, along with trespassing on their premises. Even the dentist himself took photos regarding tourists loitering outside the clinic, patients are having a hard time getting inside because of this.
Not forgetting that they are trespassing on the rooftop, to the point the dentist (or the staff) resorted to calling the police multiple times due to this! Again, tourists were told to move out of the way or move their belongings to let incoming vehicles pass to park their cars at a Lawson. (Even the driver of a incoming truck had to honk at them! so they can move.)
Like what was happening in Kawaguchiko, the same is now happening in Fujiyoshida, at a pedestrian crossing, despite a security guard being present, people still disregarded rules about crossing the road, at around [3:00] from the video, the driver of an incoming vehicle had to honk at the tourist standing in the middle of the road so they can pass. (It's stupid.) Of course they were honked at by the driver (He's probably like: "What the hell is this idiot doing here standing in the middle of the road for cars!"), as you're not meant to loiter there halting traffic!

• [0:29-0:40] In Kawaguchiko, a Lawson store employee scolded a tourist to step off a strangers vehicle. (As he was posing for a selfie for instagram.)
• [0:42-0:48] Groups of tourists jaywalk again, when it is ill-advised, even a car just drove past. Even some are stalling traffic!
• [2:49] There's a female tourist posing for a selfie in the middle of the road (while the main traffic light is green!) meaning that cars are still driving past, not the pedestrians turn to cross.
• [3:41] The news reporter even warned a Chinese tourist to not stand in the middle of the road, regardless he didn't listen until an incoming vehicle was about to approach them as the reporter warned him that it's dangerous to stand on the road!
• [4:05] A tourist again, standing in the middle of the pedestrian crossing! The vehicle in red had to honk since that tourist refused to move out of the way! (It's insane! How can you not simply just move so the car can pass!?)
• [5:30] Carvings of [who's here] or their [instagram account] are found etched on the stone walls of the tea plantation (at Obuchi Sasaba) insribed in many language

From this video, a complaint filed by a dental clinic within the area, stating that tourists are leaving trash or left over food scraps near their premises as well as loitering on the steps approaching their clinic (only patients are allowed to enter). Not forgetting that they are trespassing on the rooftop, to the point the dentist even had to call the police multiple times due to this! Again, tourists were told to move out of the way or move their belongings to let incoming vehicles pass to park their cars at a Lawson. (Even the driver of a truck had to honk at them! so they can move.)
Just last year, Mt. Fuji itself was suffering from an over-tourism problem on its own since tourists are dying to climb to the summit, but some were ill equipped. (There was even a woman caught wearing shorts and sandals upon the trip to the summit - not suitable for climbing!) Some climbers show up shirtless or come ill-prepared along with creating a makeshift bonfire.

Public amenities (i.e. Toilets) are vandalized, damaged or destroyed due to over-tourism, now they are enforcing an entry fee of ¥2000 (11,75 €) to enter Mt. Fuji because of this! Tourists leave trash everywhere, crowds of them wanting to head to the summit in large gatherings, which causes problems leading to overcapacity.
Don't get me wrong, tourists do show up with proper gear (i.e. spiked shoes, ice axes, etc.) and attire heading for the summit, but there are bad apples who literally show up with shorts or singlet, which is not advised on a place like this since it's cold up there! You're climbing up a mountain after all. (Heading to the top is their main objective, with stop overs.)

There were a group of tourists caught shaking a sakura tree during cherry blossom season causing outrage, they're basically damaging the tree as the leaves were falling prematurely. The intended way the leaves are meant to fall is when they've matured, since the trees are considered part of public property, Japan deemed that as an act of vandalism and destruction of property.
Plus the trees are sacred to the Japanese (its even part of their cultural identity), as they believe it to represent a symbolism of life and death, those who tamper or mess with it are met with misfortune. Also, in the Daikoku Parking Area (in Yokohama) where it's a hangout for car enthusiasts, but the issue is that tourists trespass on the premises, such as climbing the fence.
December 2023: In Tokyo, tourists where holding up incoming traffic on a pedestrian crossing, despite cops being present, most of them want a selfie with the Tokyo Tower but holding up traffic with vehicles is just bad, as the security guards / police are telling people to just cross, to keep the flow, not stall incoming cars & traffic (in a busy city - mind you), but tourists were just loitering there (or walking on the road meant for cars) until they were scolded for jaywalking.
Earlier this year, there was an American livestreamer who was fined ¥200000 (1,174 €) for blasting his music way TOO LOUD, as it was disturbing the peace inside a restaurant somewhere in Osaka, it shows that Western streamers (who act like this) have ZERO respect for the customs upon their visit, ruining the reputation of foreigners in Japan, which is already causing some Japanese people to hate them.
There was a female tourist who literally by passed the fence / yellow line (like the one you stand behind upon waiting for a incoming train) went on the tracks just to take a selfie with her boyfriend! (Disregarding that she's at the station in Kyoto were other commuters are present, a train is going to show up eventually.) Stupid and dangerous, it's like as if she wants to be hit by an incoming train.
In hindsight:

• Have there been cases within Italy, where tourists actually sustained injuries all because of their recklessness and disregard for the rules at tourist attractions near riskier areas (i.e. a Cliff)?
• How often does public transport (the same ones locals use) become overcrowded due to tourists taking most of the available seats on both buses and trains?
• When it comes to climbing the Italian Alps, how many tourists literally show up ill-equipped such as wearing sandals, singlet or shorts or lacking proper gear for the journey?
• Are there times when tourists continue to violate the country's rules and social etiquette to the point that locals start to complain about their bad behavior? (or received news coverage?)
• How common is it for tourists visiting Italy to end up just leaving their trash on the floor even though there are bins available at public places?
• Are there tourists who disregard social etiquette at cultural events deemed important to Italian culture that angers locals?
• How many "copycat itinerary" posts on social media (i.e. TikTok) from Tourists do you notice depicting ONE spot in Italy where the thumbnails are basically the same?
• In regards to the Swiss Guard in the Vatican, how often do tourists disrespect or mess around with them akin to how tourists in London mess around with the Queens Guard?
• Are there times when tourists have obstructed incoming traffic on a roadway in Italy (which is stupid!) all because of that "Instagrammable" picture of a famous landmark?
• Restaurants in Italy: How often are they crowded with tourists making it hard for regular customers who are locals to dine there resulting in longer waiting times or queues?

My HS elective has a pretty big end of year research presentation that accounts for 10% of the overall grade in place of a final test. I'm very upfront about it on the first day of school and it's in my syllabus before kids register for classes the spring before.
This year has been so sad dealing with students who don't know how to: use databases, create a decent power point that isn't either 3 words or a wall of text on every slide, and have never been asked to stand in front of a class and present alone.
The presenting part has been especially troublesome. I actually let 1 other students present to me one on one after school because her parents tried to pull her from the class (a withdraw fail on her transcript) because she was so nervous to present- all without talking to me about it, an admin thankfully let me know what was happening.
Today I had another student who actually did all the prep work really well but told me she'll just take a 0 on the project because she had to leave early for a dentist appointment- even though she had plenty of time to present. (and which by the way was during our assigned senior final block, the last day I see these seniors with grades due at 7am for me)
Obviously everyone remembers being embarrassed having to present in school but I can't imagine just giving up 10% of my grade, and this girl has a 95%, instead of doing this. And I even had a teacher who rang a little bike bell everytime you paused or "umm'd and and'd"! You suck it up, do it, and learn that it's not the end of the world and move on with your life.
I'm genuinely considering getting rid of the entire thing next year and just giving a test because it's driving me nuts and I seems be getting worse every year!
EDIT: for common feedback.

1. The 10% is district mandated for finals. I do a presentation instead of a test because it was designed to be an easy grade boost with lots of in class time to work on it. It wasn't until the last year or two where I noticed public speaking went from anxiety inducing to life or death for some students. I have been teaching this class for 8 years now.
   
2. To add more context, this is a class geared towards future teachers- that's why I feel strong about making them present now before they potentially flush money down the drain when they realize they are too anxious to present halfway through an education degree. I saw it happen IRL to some of my peers and want to help prevent that.
   
3. This is also a very social class with mostly group work, group presentations, and small or medium group discussions and presentations. So it's not like they sit quietly taking notes all year and suddenly have to get up and present. This is however the only project I require them to present alone so maybe I can introduce that aspect of the project earlier or have them practice in small groups first as others mentioned. They work on the project pretty much all year unit by unit already.
   
4. For this particular student, the actual speaking portion is actually only 25% of the total project grade (although she didn't understand this) and she turned in high quality work otherwise so she didn't get a full 0 and finished with an A-.
   
5. I must be a boomer at the ripe age of 32 though because going from a 95 to an 85 over 10 minutes of my life is unimaginable to me- but many seem to think they'd do the same thing as this student since it's only a B. Or she is graduating who cares. My parents definitely would have provided plenty of punishment over that college acceptance or not. 😂
   

Hello all, while scrolling subreddits like BuyItForLife, DentalHygiene and Dentistry, I noticed a lot of Redditors are looking for a good electric toothbrush. With so many options in the market it can be difficult to choose an electric toothbrush. So, I decided to create a list of best electric toothbrushes to make it easier for them. I did a lot of research, read a lot reviews by users, experts and dentist and then created this list of best electric toothbrushes.

• Philips Sonicare 4100
• Oral-B Pro 1000
• Philips Sonicare - 9900 Prestige
• Oral-B iO Series 5
• Greater Goods Sonic (budget option)

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Philips Sonicare 4100

At $50, the 4100 is a good midrange brush with two intensity levels, a pressure sensor, and a two-minute timer. It does what it needs to do without a bunch of unnecessary features, and a charge should last about two weeks.
The single-button operation makes daily use a straightforward endeavor, and the handle is comfy to hold during your daily (and nightly) brushing sessions.
Remember that there's nowhere to store extra brush heads. However, given the price, this is forgivable.
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Oral-B Pro 1000

Oral-B’s Pro 1000 is a reliable brush for a solid price that you can pick up at most stores. It has been around for a while and continues to outshine more expensive models with fancier features.
Battery life isn't as long as pricier ones, but you should still get around 10 days. All the brand’s electric toothbrushes have oscillating brush heads, which are those circular bristles that get right in between all your teeth. Most of the Pro models are probably a good bet if the price is right for you.
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Philips Sonicare - 9900 Prestige

The Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige is a lifesaver if you have sensitive gums like me. The Philips Sonicare buzzes and lights up when you press down too hard with the toothbrush. It's a gentle nudge to let you know to lighten the pressure. The brush also automatically adjusts intensity if you're pushing too hard.
The Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige has three different intensity modes and an app that shows your coverage. Similar to the app with the Oral-B iO Series, the display on your phone shows a 3D scan of your mouth and highlights the areas you are missing. The Sonicare app also guides you while brushing, and keeps track of your data, how much you are scrubbing (a big no-no with electric toothbrushes) and the pressure you are applying.
Another great feature of this brush is the reminders. If you have trouble remembering when to replace your brush heads, Philips' BrushSync technology will tell you how long you've been using your brush head.
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Oral-B iO Series 5

This Oral-B electric toothbrush is similar to other Oral-B brushes, except the bristles on this brush feel softer than the Oral-B Pro 1000. That's a big bonus for anyone with sensitive gums, as is the real-time coaching that tells you if you're brushing too hard. The Oral-B iO also has a quieter motor compared with the Pro 1000.
The display offers an impressive amount of information. Based on the lit-up icon, you can easily tell what mode you're brushing in. The iO has five brush modes, whereas most electric toothbrushes seem to have three or four. You can choose from daily clean, intense clean, whitening, sensitive and super sensitive. The Oral-B iO Series is also ADA-accepted.
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Greater Goods Sonic

The Greater Goods Sonic Toothbrush is an excellent pick for newcomers to the electric toothbrush game, not just because of its price but because of its wealth of features. Despite being made by a company that isn’t known for its oral care products, it can fully hold its own with the veterans in the toothbrush game.
The battery is meant to last 2 weeks on a full charge. The brush comes with two brush heads with differently colored bristles and rings, so a couple can both use the same handle safely. A three-pack of replacement brush heads costs $9.99 on Amazon, and soft, medium and hard bristles are available— though we don’t recommend using anything other than a soft bristle, since harsher brushes can damage the gums.

Finally quit the UHC project after many breakdowns, mental health leave and dealing with stacks of steaming bullshit.
I was already on my last straw weeks ago when every other day it was something: my transfer rate despite me doing EXACTLY what I was told to do (idk how you can have a call center without transfers, most people call the wrong department) then it was the demonic survey scores that I'm not protected from in any way (this was my breaking point)
Dealing with people who have time to be upset over things like their favorite food not being covered by the plan and making them feel oh so important despite the rude tones, only to get pulled aside and told I wasn't good enough and they left a bad survey score. I did everything I could but apparently I should have used more ram in my brain to calculate every single possible choice and outcome to assist with a damn tantrum more than I already did. Members are mad at UHC and take it out on us but we have no choice but to sit around and nod yes when TLs tell us we should have done better. It was always do more, do more, do more and I was burnt out in a few months flat to the point of madness. There was no winning, I could be perfect and they'll leave a bad survey and suddenly I need to beg 15 people to give me 100 so I can keep my job. It was set up so my hard work to earn 100 wasn't worth anything compared to one bad score, and I'd spend the rest of the month stressing out about getting the score up.
No member knows how to use any tech and getting yelled at over telling them how they're able to use said tech was getting old. Some would call seconds before closing and screamed about some sort of reward or something they saw on TV and accepted no answer except what they wanted to hear. The help who were getting paid to answer questions were sat in zooms yapping away to each other instead of answering, we had posts sitting for up to 20 minutes with no repsonse from a single soul in a dedicated channel. But best believe they knew when you did anything else and called you out in chat with urgent messages. They started randomly screen recording every call, not sure if this was there before and I don't really care too much, but Jesus did it make me paranoid after finding out. It felt like I'd get a double dose of judgment per misclick or I couldn't do the things that were shorthanded and straightened out later because it was being eagle eye viewed and they wouldn't understand my thought process in that moment. Like they were breathing over my fucking shoulder every call even more than they already do.
Felt like I was at a retail store and not doing Healthcare since half the calls were about groceries and their grocery cards etc. I didn't mind calling doctors for people and helping them get their appointments scheduled etc but the process was...primal. We just have to keep guessing and calling from a giant list, there's no formal system with definite answers and getting a dentist was almost impossible they way we had to use code words to get them to make the appointment. And they wanted us following up and calling these grown adults for every minor thing, it became so stressful having all these call backs you know you have to do the next day. Sending information was also primal, but then again most of them could barely use their phones. So many missed chances to send a text or email with a single button instead of telling them no or logging in through 700 links and systems, my department had no website or app knowledge but we got all the calls related to it, which if we were lucky we could transfer and get yelled at for doing so. The criteria they wanted us to meet vs the million steps and clunky systems it took to get there would drive anyone mad.
I got back from my break and guess what? Whole week of mandatory overtime so I can sit there for 10 hours getting hounded by both TTEC in their passive aggressive ass chats and members who don't know what the hell is happening and can't get answers. They fired all those people earlier this year for what? To overwork those who stayed? Before I left they were already attempting to schedule "trainings" to give us more duties that we never took care of before. Logging on and seeing that hellscape was all I needed to leave that day and send in my resignation letter. They didn't even check if I was in, they kept adding me to compliance chats like I was failing and switched my TL who didn't realize I was on leave. Fucking mess, but this isn't my first time emailing an immediate resignation to them, I just gotta remember they don't deserve so much grace.

Hi all, I'm a high school senior from Vancouver, Canada, currently thinking between University of Washington and University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) for my university choice. I'd really appreciate some advice.
Summary. - Same major (college or arts and science.) - Similar amount of cost but Udub might be cheaper option receiving financial aid after I gain state residency. - Pitt has offered me a scholarship/grant of 23.5k each year. - For Udub going through the process gaining in-state residency is necessary. For that I gotta take a year gap year for Udub.
As for my intended major, I'm leaning towards sociology, social science, or maybe public health, with interests in public policy and mental health. Pitt has accepted me into the College of Arts and Sciences as an undeclared major, while Udub has placed me in the pre-social science program. However, Udub has a system of applying to the your major later on.
I'm leaning towards Udub and I am positive about taking a gap year. However, I'm worried about managing on my own for a year, dealing with paperwork, and the uncertainty surrounding the residency process (based on my research, it seems most people gain residency in 1-2 years)
I'm unsure about Pitt's quality compared to Udub, especially since I'm not familiar with schools on the East Coast. Since I am on the West Coast, most people here think Udub is the better school, and rankings support that too. However, I understand that perceptions and reputations can differ by region. Sorry for focusing so much on reputation; it's something that's important in my culture (I grew up in S Korea).
Also what would you choose?
Oh Lastly, could you let me know if one school is better in supporting students with ADHD than other one? (I got diagnosed last year.)
Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Someone made a post on casualUK, talking about how priveliged we are to live in the UK. So I wrote the following reply:
Privileged to live in the UK? Try being disabled and on benefits. Even being blind, having cancer or unable to walk, or all three, people treat you like a scrounger. Even if you worked and paid taxes for decades beforehand. Getting reassessed by the DWP every year or two, even though multiple doctors have written them letters saying your condition won't improve and will actually deteriorate. Having your benefits stopped at each assessment and having to go through appeal to get them reinstated because the assessor tells blatant lies. And while you're going through appeal, having absolutely no money whatsoever. Yeah I feel so privileged to live in a country where it's considered acceptable for me to be really hungry and under constant threat of homelessness, because I committed the sin of no longer being able to work.
Not to mention all the stuff that goes along with being in poverty in a country that's falling apart at the seams. For example, someone in my position is theoretically entitled to free dental treatment. But are there any NHS dentists taking patients? No of course not. So, I need dental treatment, have no money, no free dentist will take me. Cue all kinds of dental problems and pain.
And people who don't live like this act like there's so much easily available help. "Just go to a food bank!" So... wait a week for an appointment with a GP or citizens advice to get a referral, then wait a few days for your food bank appointment, then get given three days worth of food, then starve for a week while you go through the whole process again.
Can't get a dentist?
"Just contact NHS England/Just complain to the ombudsman/your MP/just ask for an emergency appointment" Yeah tried all of those. All the NHS dentists I called charge for emergency appointments if you're not already registered with them and the people I complained to don't help.
And NHS waiting lists. I had a stroke. According to my physio, if I'd been given physiotherapy in a timely manner I might not be so disabled now. But the waiting list was long and the damage done is now severe and life changing.
This country is just like america now - all fine and dandy if you have money. Actually a wretched and thoroughly miserable place to live if you don't.
Of course, it got downvoted and then removed. It's bad enough that it's so difficult for people in circumstances like disability and/or poverty to access help, and so impossible for us to have a chance at a decent quality of life. But we are constantly shut down, censored, denied and gaslit whenever we try to talk about it. There is an absolutely disgusting culture of ignoring and downplaying the lived reality of millions of people, blaming them for circumstances beyond their control and actually being angry with them for daring to mention it. There is more anger directed towards a severely disabled person getting a pittance each month than there is towards billionaires hoarding obscene amounts of wealth and business owners committing wage theft against the lowest paid workers. What is wrong with this country, why are so many people like this? Yeah I am hangry but everything I'm saying is still true. I then tried posting it in GreenAndPleasant, a supposed leftist, socialist sub who are meant to be helpful towards the disabled. Even they removed it! Where on earth are we allowed to talk about our lives as disabled people and the effect societies policies have on us?
EDIT: tried posting it on the leftist sub too, they also immediately removed it. If even the political side that is meant to be supporting us is silencing us, where can we talk about this?

I struggled with BB during my teenage years, and now I’m in my 20s, and every doctor I spoke to tells me I don’t have it anymore. this sickness mess up with your head because you can’t smell yourself, and you worry about the possibility of still having it.
I am now trying to heal from this trauma, and accept that I am healthy. I want to share everything i know and I advise people who are not sure to straightforwardly ask a doctor to tell you, don’t continue living without knowing and believe their answer because they have nothing to gain by lying.
Okay now what did i do? ✍️
I went to a dentist and told them to fix every cavity I have, and now I regularly visit (every 5~6 months) to get professional cleanup and to check! Someone posted about biofilm cleaning, and I recommended it 100%!! It made my teeth whiter, and it reach between the teeths too! It’s more expensive though.
(I'm planning to ask to include my tongue and cheek during my upcoming bioflim cleaning)

• Clean your teeth and tongue 2~3 times a day; invest in electric brush and better brands of mouthwash; stay away from harsh alcohol that will make ur mouth dry.) Sometimes i’ll buy one designed to strengthen and heal the gums, don’t forget about them.

I also removed my wisdom teeth; they were useless and hard to clean as they trapped food.
If you plan to have crowns or already have them, make sure they are done by a crown specialist, so they they fit perfectly and don’t trap food etc, i had to replace mine.

• I went to an otolaryngologist and checked if everything was okay! I checked for tonsil stones too! When my nose gets stuffy, I clean it with a syringe and normal-saline 0.9%.
  
• i I went to a stomach doctor because, at the time, I was experiencing recurrent symptoms of vomiting and stomach pain every two weeks. The doctor told me I have GERD and prescribed medication, I thought it must be the cause of my bb.. However, I didn't feel comfortable with the idea that he diagnosed me based on a conversation, so I went to a larger hospital where they performed a test on me. I was asked to drink something to simulate stomach acid, and they made me lie down somewhat upside down while watching my stomach movements through an x-ray. Turns out, I don't have GERD! and I stopped taking the medicines since they would have, at worst, made me sicker.
  

You're going to ask now, so what exactly was the issue? My diet was the issue. I cooked very little at home, consumed a lot of fast food—such as pizza, burgers, and Pepsi— ate spicy food, didn't drink enough water, and didn't eat enough fruits and steamed vegetables. I also consumed sweets and drank tea and coffee every day! My weight wasn’t a problem so i ate everything.
I ask you to listen to me and eliminate processed sugar, the greatest culprit, as soon as possible! The first two weeks will be difficult, but your body will thank you; you'll see improvements in your skin, reduced acne ; your tongue will heal and turn pink; your teeth chance of having decay is lower too!
eating healthy and exercising to remove the body toxins has made even my sweat smell like nothing! It just smells like my skin's natural scent—I had no idea it was possible—so doing the reverse will do the opposite! And begin your day with a cup of warm herbal tea—there are some really good & delicious varieties available! You gonna find something u like.

• ❗️I would like to emphasize the importance of still consuming healthy sugars like fruits or real honey Which helps with fighting bb, To ensuring its authenticity. Pour the honey; if it flows quickly and is very thin, it is fake. It will be super chaep too.
  
• I do not support the use of antibiotics without a prescription or the practice of overdosing in the belief that it will speed up the healing process; in reality, it only serves to make the harmful bacteria more resilient and powerful. probiotics is better! I eat a combination of pills and food like plain yogurt or kombucha. Natural remedies are the superior option
  
• I took a 1-week course of Senna Leaf Pills , I ate them before bed with plenty of water, they will empty your gut by morning. A friend who tried them reported seeing things that seemed like it was stuck inside him for a long time. 😵 However, caution is advised (only once a year) a good reviewed brand - and avoid if you have conditions like stomach ulcers
  
• not a fan of gum or mint! If I went out eating, I would make sure to go to the restroom afterward to wash my mouth with warm water, and I'd use an xylitol or a probiotic mouth spray; it simulates the saliva and is way better way to cleanse while letting your mouth rest from all the chewing.
  
• If I am out on a long trip, such as being in the airport, I will definitely bring a travel kit to brush my teeth. I know it might feel embarrassing to do it in public, but it's even more embarrassing if your breath worsens and you didn’t do anything about it.
  
• Have faith in your recovery and focus on your mental well-being; your body will follow your mind! Anxiety and stress have been linked to gastrointestinal issues, dry mouth, and others. you determine how to handle it, by remaining optimistic or by not giving a f*ck, or by speaking with a psychiatrist (online session are available if you would rather not meet) etc. stay strong!!
  

And that’s it. I'll add if I remember something. I hope I added anything of value, wish you all the best.