Mom giving a blow and hand job

Hi, I've got a friend who got made redundant in Dec 22, he had some family things going on and decided to try start up a business, went through an incubator but it didn't work out and he is back in the corporate world applying for jobs. He was working as a strategy consultant and has a masters in finance along with experience at some mid tier firms. What can he put in his resume for the period from Dec 22 till now if he feels that what he did is not related to his field and nothing came out of it. I am worried for him as the long period can be a huge blow to confidence. I myself had gone through about 6mths before getting a job and was feeling depressed by month 4!!!
TLDR : friend in early 40s, made redundant in 2022, had some personal issues and failed in starting a business - how to explain the gap when applying for jobs?

Backround info: I (16f) share a room with my sister (12f) and two of my friends that we took in to live with us permanently. We will call them Hope (16f) and Harmony (18f). Two of us typically sleep on my queen bed, the other a floor matress, while my sister sleeps in her own bed.
After prom Hope came up with the idea that we invite a mutual friend of ours over, Jude (17f). Jude has known hope since middle school and have been a "thing" on and off until they finally started dating like a month or 2 ago. Well at first when Hope and Harmony moved in, hope was constantly seeking affection with me (not sexual) and we would cuddle in an intimate way where our legs were intwined and we would be completely intwined in general and it we would even stay up all night talking and connecting. However when i started having conflicts which have been solved she stopped giving me affection as often. It was over regular friendship fears of not feeling good enough.
Well we resolved and it was still not often very much but she stopped altogether after she started dating jude. Well this has made me feel like i was the placeholder for jude and that it might have become deeper for me than i thought so i feel played with. I also feel embarrassed because i am such a prune that idk what normal behaviofeelings are for a friendship. But clearly ive been trying to take the time to get over it while i can and just move on.
Well when jude spent the night after prom at our house: Hope, Jude, and I slept on the big bed while harmony slept on the matress. Well this morning i woke up to them cuddled up and intertwined, making out. Like i could hear the spit and their tongues and they were having a full makeout session right next to me. They stopped when i made it fully clear i was awake but i felt like my space was invaded in some way and a certain anxiety or disgust.
Being intimate with your partner isnt gross to me but nobody in their right mind wants to wake up to that. Im used to my friends keeping that more discreet and private and being more considerate of my feelings. And i don't know if i am just being sensitive misophonic bitch or if this is genuinely a valid reason to ask my mom to not have jude over anymore. I don't want to have her over if the only reason is for consideration of her girlfriend without the consideration of other friends she is hanging out with. As well as feeling unimportant to a friend who is meant to be playing a sisterly figure.

I am half-Thai/Half-Mexican. My mom is an immigrant, and my dad's parent's immigrated but he spent a large time of his childhood in Mexico as we lived on the border. When my parent's had us, my dad was worried we would have a hard time with English (when he was a kid, our hometown was still dealing with racism against Mexicans so his family faced their own trials growing up), so my sister and I were never taught Spanish or Thai and we lack an accent when speaking English. I still experienced the culture of both sides and visited Mexico a lot as a kid though. Now that I am older, I have been learning Thai and Spanish. I feel proud that I can now understand my grandma on my dad's side. I get to understand stories in her own words instead of my dad translating. I can also now read in Thai and write short letters to my loved ones.
Despite all of this, I have still been told I am white-washed, not Asian/Mexican enough, called a mutt, and have had racial jokes told to me because since I am not full, they don't think I will be bothered. They never speak in a hateful tone and it's always been friends, co-workers, and acquaintances. No matter what I do, because of how I look on the outside, and due to my lack of accent when I speak English, people are comfortable making these types of comments to me. These comments have come from a variety of people of different backgrounds and races.
It didn't start affecting me physically until recently when a friend started joking about Mexican people and then when a co-worker who I barely know joked about a struggle I was having, saying something along the lines of, "I thought you'd be a harder worker because of your two backgrounds". I used to just get frustrated in the moment but brush it off, but now I started to get this weird feeling. My stomach feels like it drops, my face feels warm, and my hands feel tingly. I get stuck thinking about those comments for days. I have been still trying to process the feeling with my therapist because I cannot find the right word to explain how I feel, but I know it makes me uncomfortable and upset.
I know a lot of it is ignorance and they don't mean to be cruel, but I still want to be able to talk to people about how it makes me feel and how harmful it can be to others. How do you handle people who believe because you are not full, they can make these types of statements to you? How do you practice keeping composure when confronting people who make racial comments to you?

Hard to pack in years of what has built up to this particular post into a couple reasonable paragraphs, so maybe I'll just skip to the end. It's all the same story we've read in here post after post, just a new OP.
I truly believe I'm now experiencing ptsd from the last couple years in particular, of what took me too long to realize what was straight up abuse.
I arrived in the world 40 ish years ago as an insecure, people pleaser. I've had multiple therapists listen to me talk about my low self esteem, and lack of confidence, my fear of disappointing people, strangers or family. They all would ask, "what happened to you?" Nothing. Nothing happened. I had the most normal 1980s childhood. Riding bikes across town, playing in creeks, dance lessons, horseback riding lessons... great childhood. While my parents did divorce when I was 17, I was happy for them. They weren't meant for eachother., Even though they split up, and my dad was even caught in an affair, they didn't scream and throw things. They had little arguments here and there, nothing traumatic, like ever. All that said to say, I'm just an insecure baby, for no apparent, evident reason.
I've been married (#2) for 11 years. 7 of which, (3 years together before marriage) were the most magical, perfect, soul mate type love years of my entire life. We were disgusting. We made people that were older and married longer jealous. It was gross and we were so insane over eachother. I left my first marriage for this insane love.
This story is already getting too long. Tell me this wouldn't cause someone trauma, and subsequent ptsd... somewhere along the way, a few years ago, a switch was flipped. There was screaming, jealousy, and screaming. He's never put a hand on me, nor threatened it. Psychologically, I am destroyed, and sometimes wish he would have just knocked me out instead.
He has threatened no less than 15 times to divorce me. Told me to start looking for a place. Told me good luck on your own, you'll never make it without me. Told me he doesn't love me. Threatened to take my kid away. Neither of us drink, no drugs, no pot, nothing.
Anyway, he says over and over he's gonna divorce me. Proceeds to sleep on the couch for a year now and has not filed for divorce. (Asked me why I haven't even though he was the one using it as a threat.) So now, I come home every day to this house where he just lives on the couch, and proceeds to ask me how my day was as if nothing ever happened. I feel like a wild animal that the trap door just shut behind and am figuratively smashing into the walls trying to escape because I don't know what the fuck just happened. He won't leave. He told me he was leaving. He will not leave. Now tells me that my older child (not his) and I need to move. (We have a younger child together also.)
I was a stay at home mom for nearly 18 years. Just started back to work after he threatened me a year ago. Not sure if you've looked outside in the US right now, but it's unaffordable by every stretch for almost anyone to survive. He earns 50% more than me, and could easily afford 2 bedrooms somewhere, where I don't even meet minimum requirements to start over, and I need more rooms. I can stay where I am and make it work, and that's my only option.
He makes me feel like I'm losing my mind, all the unfulfilled threats, screaming so hard he got spit on my face (apparently my fault because I was "too close" to his face.), and then asking if I want some dinner the next day. What planet am I on?

I feel kind of bad; I recently completed the monastery quest, Needle in a Haystack, and felt underwhelmed so have been reading player reviews and every one I have read is complaining about how arduous and time consuming this stage of the game is. People talk about having to live out the life of the monk, engage in menial tasks and wait for the chance to progress the story.
This wasn’t my experience. I won’t lie I have been blitzing the main storyline as I was wasting a lot of time on side quests, so I was space skipping a lot of the cutscenes and dialogues for the main story. “Tell me where I need to go and what to do, that’s my motto.”
I got to the stage of donning the habit and dropping all my gear off in the chest, but because of my low attention span I wasn’t really sure what I was doing in the abbey in the first place. Suddenly this abbot geezer is requesting I sing, so with the gentle nudging of my new best friend, a brown haired bloke, I grease the old throat pipes and get inducted into the order.
Abbot tells me I’m lucky to join and I sneer, and then new best friend offers to give me a tour. “My guy!” I’m led off on a whirlwhind escapade, and three rooms later he’s showing me the library which looks suspiciously similar to a room I stole a Necromonicon from 12 hours earlier to exorcise a spirit with.
The tour being over, my new compadre asks if I have any questions before I begin my lifetime commitment into serving the order. Now, I don’t know what combination of side quests I have completed that have given my Henry his perspicacious, Sherlock Holmesian insight but the first option available says “You’re pious aren’t you?” Great I think; a chance to compliment my new bezzie who has so kindly rolled out the red carpet for me. Let’s play into his clear spiritual devotion and cement him as my main companion.
Oh dear; it turns out in my haste to bumrush the story and lack of suitable attention to detail, I am searching for a secret agent - codename Pious - who I am looking to extort information from. One frantic conversation later, and I have bludgeoned my newfound right hand man to death amongst the latin almanacs and make haste to their secret fort.
All told, I spent about three minutes in the monastery. That’s it. One quick tour and a fistfight and my life of celibacy and chanting were over.
Seems almost sacrilegious to be honest.

You can see my first post here: https://www.reddit.com/Cityofheroes/comments/1cqpvrk/earthbending_for_noobs_the_earthearth_dominato
For my second build, I am going to try and explain this somewhat unique build and play style. The reason I call it the anti-tank is because it doesn't tend to jive with a typical taunt tank that leads from the front. This plays like a ranged, stealthy scout that sets up groups for everyone else to mop up. It can do well 1v1, but it's damage overall is minimal. It plays like a ranged blaster with crowd control. Most control sets have an AoE stun, AoE immob, and a single target immob. Mind doesn't. Most control sets have a pet. Mind doesn't.
I do not play this as a damage dominator. I run ahead of groups and do soft controls and damage mitigation. When I run along with the group, I do a bit of rodeo herding. This set leans heavily on a handful of powers and finesse usage. It starts out very slow with a lot of single target blasts. My end goal is to have decent resistance to Smashing, Lethal, and Psi damage, and almost capped Defense to Ranged, Energy, Negative Energy, and Psionic Damage. You will have a little over 100% recharge before hasten end game, and you will learn you will need to constantly be on the move. This set plays well when your lead is a brute, your tank is primarily damage dealing and doesn't have taunt, or you just don't have either.
Mind Control

• Mesmerize - I slot this with 5 decimation. It's a good blast and a good sleep also. You can also slot this 1 ACC, 3 DAM, 1 END RED
• Levitate - Same as above. It's very soft mitigation that doesn't always knock-up. I see it as just another blast.
• Dominate - I hate this power sometimes. Damage is worse than the previous two. 4 basilisk's gaze or 1 ACC, 2 RECH, 1 END RED. This is usually last on the blast chain unless I am fighting an AV.
• Confuse - I skipped this power, but it's great. It has great recharge, accuracy, and duration already. I can see doing 1 acc/confuse set piece. 1 ACC. With enough recharge and accuracy, you can confuse AVs or EBs. If you solo a lot, maybe take it.
• Mass Hypnosis - This is a staple power. Eventually I placed the entire purple sleep set in it. You can also do 5 slots of the rare sleep set for 6.25% recharge and then a single lvl 50 Recharge IO. 1 ACC, 3 RECH, 2 END RED. I would NOT put a damage proc in this set. Enemies don't notice it.
• Telekinesis - Great power, but requires a lot of finesse. It herds better than Hurricane. I put 1 ACC and 2-3 RECH. What it does is when you click a bad guy, it first bunches them up with others in the area, then pushes them a set distance away. If you go forward, they go forward, if you walk back, they move back with you. This power holds sets, but I would skip that. You can add extra bad guys into your herd, push and pull them where you want granted they don't kill you, shove dudes into a wall, lock down a doorway or choke point (any mission in Terra Volta, or certain points in the ITF). The key is mitigating damage first and then bunching them up. You can also just bunch them up and unclick. The toggle doesn't last forever, but it holds them in place and sometimes levitates them. It can draw you more aggro than you can handle. You can take already immob'd bad guys and bunch them up nice and pretty. 1 ACC, 2 RECHARGE
• Total Domination - I hate this power, but its necessary. It has garbage base recharge, crap for accuracy, and only a mag 3 hold. It's only good when you are really slotted up. I slot it 4 basilisk's gaze and 2 from the ATO Dominating Grasp Set. The Idea is to maximize Accuracy and Recharge. This power goes well AFTER you have already tagged a group with fear or sleep. This power does very well when you are in domination mode. MAKE SURE AND PUT YOUR DOMINATION CLICKY IN YOUR TRAY AND ON AUTO. Place it right beside hasten. This power set combo has quite a few clikies and Your domination button and your hasten button are two of about four. 2 ACC, 3 RECH, 1 END RED
• Terrify - Great Power. I would put a fear OR ranged AoE set in this (or a purple Ranged AoE) and then a single RECH IO. You can ALSO put your 1 good ATO set in this (not dominating grasp, but the other one). The ATO set or the purple Ranged AoE set give 10% recharge. The Fear set only gives 6.25% recharge. This is a great soft lock. The bad guys will fire back before they get scared so don't open with this until you get capped ranged defense. This on top of a sleep kinda defeats the purpose of sleep. This is ALL the AoE damage you get until epics. 1 ACC, 3 DAM, 2 RECH.
• Mass Confusion - I slot the purple Confuse Set. You can also use 5 confuse set and 1 RECH IO. Do NOT put damage procs in this power. I don't care about the extra 3% ranged def. Don't do it. 1 ACC, 3 RECH, 2 END RED.

End game, you will have quite a bit of recharge. Aim for using the full (and the only good) ATO set and all of the purples you can. If you can only afford 1 purple set: The Confuse One. The Sleep one is good also, but before you get that, get that other ATO set.
For Power Pools I use stealth plus one more power from that pool, hasten and super speed, combat jumping, and boxing tough/weave. For Epics I use Psionic. Mainly for Link Minds, Indomitable Will, and Mind over Body. Link Minds gets a LotG plus 5 defense set for that extra 5% recharge, Indomitable Will gets a single LotG, and Mind over Matter gets 4 Resist IO set for 3% melee plus 7.5% HP.
Tough gets 2 3% def uniques, weave gets a LotG plus another 5 for that 5% recharge (same as link minds). Hasten gets 2 RECH. CJ gets a stealth IO and a LotG. Stealth and Grant Stealth get LotG as well. Stamina gets 2 END MOD and Health gets Numina's and Miracle Uniques.
Psionic Assault

• Psionic Dart - I slot this with 3 thunderstrike for the ranged def. This is one of your beginner blasts. 1 ACC, 2 DAM
• Mind Probe - I skip this, but this is a great power. It's your heavy damage melee. I can see taking it.
• Telekinetic Thrust - I skip this. It's like power push. Not very good.
• Mental Blast - Treat this just like Psionic Dart. Same slotting as Psionic Dart.
• Psychic Scream - It's ranged and it's a cone, but I skip it. I can see taking it. I think it would be OK instead of Psionic Dart. I just don't have the slots to devote more than 3 to it. I placed a lot of emphasis on resistance and defense since I was weak AF early on and dying a lot.
• Drain Psyche - This will just about cap your recovery and give you great regeneration the more it hits. You run in, cast it while the bad guys are subdued, then run out. Even if it hits one bad guy, it does well. You have to frankenslot it to maxmize ACC, HEAL, RECH, and MAYBE A LITTLE END MOD. I do 2 from accurate heal, 2 from an end mod set, and 2 from a heal set. You want good ACC and max RECH, plus whatever healing and end mod you can snag. The power has good base recovery slotting, but a long recharge and base accuracy. 1 ACC, 2 HEAL, 3 RECH.
• Subdue - I treat this like a blast, because it has good range and good damage. Also, it's a single target immob. 5 Decimation is how I slot it. Also, put the build up proc in one of your ranged blasts. 1 ACC, 3 DAM, 1 RECH
• Psionic Lance - I 5 slot this with a sniper set. This is your best ranged blast. 1 ACC, 3 DAM, 1 RECH
• Psychic Shockwave - I skip this. It's a PBAoE disorient that does lousy damage. Since I am ranged only (except Drain Psyche) Dom, this and the 2 melee attacks are a skip.

The end goal is to have great recharge (100% give or take) and almost capped ranged, energy, negative energy, and Psionic Defense (35-45%). Your resists will be about 50% to S/L/Psi.
As for incarnates, you can choose anything for each, but this may be the only instance I am particular about your alpha slot: Vigor Radial Paragon. It buffs everything you need. Everything else you can pick and choose whatever.
Your play style should be ahead of the pack, being stealth, and prepping groups for attack. The stealth IO plus Stealth power should allow you to do most things and get away. Mass Confuses and Sleeps won't be noticed. Total Dom, and Terrify will, but they can be cast before or after each other especially when you are in domination mode when your MAG DOUBLES.

Hey everyone. I am a seasoned cupcake and cookie baker, but I have been asked about cake pops. I have followed this group trying to pay attention to eventually try them out. If anyone can help,regular-sized I have a few questions.

1. How many cake pops can you get out of one regular sized cake recipe?
2. Do you prefer to start with a super light, moist cake or a more dense cake?
3. Do you mix frosting in with the cake before rolling or not? What are the benefits either way?
4. Typically when I make anything chocolate coated I use Ghiradelli melts from the grocery store and thin that with Crisco. Will this method work for cake pops and do you recommend something other than a melt (I have worked with Merkins and that's good too. It's just that I can get Gheradelli at several local grocery stores).5. I have never looked into costing cake pops. This would basically be a donation to a local event handing out school supplies in under privileged areas. They are looking to have all vendors at no more than $1.00 per item. So I'm wondering if it is possible to make a cake pop for less than $1 in ingredients. The time is donated. This is a super small town and this is the downtown 2-block strip of store owners putting the event on. My mom owns 2 of those stores and is the one inquiring, so I'm hoping to do anything possible to help.
5. I have never looked into pricing cake pops. This would basically be a donation to a local event that would hand out school supplies in underprivileged areas. They are looking to have all vendors at no more than $1.00 per item. This is a super small town and this is the downtown 2-block strip of store owners putting the event on. My mom owns 2 of those stores and is the one inquiring, so I'm hoping to do anything possible to help.
6. If you have a recipe that makes a lot of cake pops please share.

I know that's a lot of questions but I thought it would be easier to keep track of all of them in the same post.
TIA

I would say that overall, today was pretty tough.
I saw in that movie called trainspotting a little excerpt about how when recovering from an addiction something that is unspoken is that feeling of depression. Like nothing really excites you, you don't really look forward to much, nothing.
I find this to really ring true, especially today for some reason. But for me its mainly the OCD stuff. day after day im living with a sense of fear, without any possibility for the "answer" that my brain is seeking. So its this constant sense of uncertainty without really any relief. Back when I would "use" so to speak, in my waking existence of this reality there was always a great escape. I would just plunge into indulgence and dopamine would flood my brain and for those hours I felt as if I didn't really exist, like I was someplace else.
So it makes sense as to why I'd feel depressed. My "answer" to the ghost of fear that follows me around is taken away. And with the days passing on and the novelty of recovery gone, you're simply faced with the uncertainty of life.
While this may seem sad, I feel that in tandem with what I said now is a good time to take a deep dive into the depth of my addiction at its worse, and why I would feel as If something essential to me is missing. After all, its what my brain was taught.
To start off, when I see accounts of other pornography type addictions, most of the time, these are trivial to me. It's almost notable how far my addiction went, until it isn't. because the people on the communities I would use in would be just as frequent as me, with their hours just as long. Showing that this is a silent epidemic that is exclusively a consequence of the 21st century. For now its clinically called "cybersex addiction". But in my opinion their needs to be a term created that sounds more medicinal. Cybersex sounds a little corny and a tad sci-fi, and with my recount and the habits of others in the community, I'm sure in 20 years or so it will be observed as something a bit more serious and given a name to fit it. But for now with its current term its a tad difficult to take it seriously. If I was to tell someone I suffered for years from a cybersex addiction they'd probably find it a bit humorous. But I digress.
I would say that it started when I was about 15 years old, give or take. I had always liked porn. Loved porn even. I remember when I discovered it at 12 years old, and how good it made me feel. I watched it close to every night and would masturbate. But the feelings that I specifically liked were the videos that displayed power, and control. Absolutely nothing romantic. Stealing someone's girlfriend, making someone's spouse pleasure you for a favor, making a stepsibling "do as their told". Those kinda things. Specifically cheating. There was something so arousing to me about making someone elses significant other have sex with you. The power trip felt to primal and dirty. This was at 12-13 years old.
However, despite my habit, I feel as if I was still normal. I subconsciously suspended a sense of disbelief. The prospect of just having a girlfriend and having sex still very much excited me. My member still worked perfectly fine. And when I would watch porn I would just rub one out and be done with it. 15 minutes tops, typically more around 5. And then id move on with my day.
I remember when I first discovered a sex chat room. I believe I was 14 years old. At that time i had it on a family computer, so I couldn't take it very far. But i remember how excited I felt, that jumping in my chest when matched up with someone I would talk about sex with. But i wouldnt be able to touch myself, as I was in the living room.
It was at the back end of that year when I'd get on the site again. At this point I had purchased a smart phone and could use it in privacy. I will never forget that night in which I was hooked. I was on the couch, as I used to sleep there in a living room. This was different from the different aforementioned living room, as I had a lot of places growing up. I never had much of a home, and it was pretty troubled. But thats a topic for another day.
I matched up with someone on that same site. They were, or most likely roleplaying, as someone's wife. Sneaking around. I remember when I discovered that in the conversation my heart felt like it jumped out of my chest. I remember moving the conversation towards soemething sexual, and "she" naturally played her part and went along. I remember getting demanding, giving orders. "she" acted reluctant but "caved". I remember getting a euphoric sexual high. 14 years old, I was hooked.
It ebbed and flowed over the years, and came and went. But when it got really bad is after the onset of my adulthood OCD, at around 17
(People with OCD have it fully set in at some point during early adulthood, with episodes throughout childhood)
When my mental illness struggles started I felt as though my life was a waking nightmare. I just did not understand nonresponse at the time, and it felt as though my reality caved and inverted. I could not have a moment without rumination and did not understand there was nothing to solve. I just didn't understand. so I was merely a zombie, like some kind of ghoul. I was pretending to be alive. Floating moment to moment, phoning it in. My family didnt understand why I was so distant. Why i had no aspirations or anything. It made my father so angry he would beat me. The beating and what not got so bad that at 18 I split home. I was in and out after that.
Some time passed and I bummed around but I got to a point where I lived by myself and had roommates.
Throughout this era there was one constant. The internet pornography use. The "cybersex". at the end of every fruitless day I would get on, and it would be hours. I had multiple accounts, on multiple forums. Many fetish based. I would get desperate sometimes and would get spammy, clawing for a good partner that matched my interests, and would often get banned. So many times I would have accounts i would switch back in forth from to avoid getting banned. I was a full blown addict.
Snap forwards a couple years, where my addiction and mental illness had fully taken over. I had no job, I would never be able to hold one down. I was hemorrhaging money, my savings from my teenage hood. I would Doordash and do gig work on occasion but would give up if my OCD got too loud. Or if I had plans but started using f*ck those plans.
I would wake up at 11 or so. maybe noon, maybe 1. id get up and use the restroom, throw my clothes on the floor. My room was completely rotted away. I would go downstairs and chat with my roommates. maybe go grab lunch or something. then I'd get home and start using. typically, by 3 o clock. It would be hours, masturbating, binge watching porn, being on the forums. Finding partners that matched me and saying things that were unspeakibly nasty to get a good rush. Hours and hours would pass by and I would prevent ejaculation. i did not want the escape to end, but eventually it would. I would excrete all over myself and by matress with no bedding (I would not put my sheets on my bed, as i just simply did not care). I would not clean up much, would mostly just let it dry. After that I would watch some youtube. I would not get out of my bed, or shower, or anything like that. These things did not not concern me. At around 10 or so I would start up again. Using and using and using and using. typically till about 4 in the morning. Then id c*m, and Id go downstairs to stuff my face with whatever I had in the fridge. Then Id go back into my room, and with the rush of my vice gone and the fear from OCD quelled by it, Id feel unspeakably sad. Unspeakably empty. then id go to sleep.
Sometimes it was from the moment I woke up. I'd wake up, stare at my ceiling, my anxiety would settle in, and I'd start using. I'd use till 2 and then take a nap. Then id use till 4. Then I'd use till 8. Then id use till 2 am.
I remember my member would be red and blistered, sensitive to the touch, and unable to get an erection. But id keep using. Id go again and again, rubbing it while it was limp. My room stunk like hell and I was gaining weight. My hair was greasy and i was running out of money. I was literally just fading away.
Heres my great ability though. My friends just thought I was a tad unhygienic and lazy. They didn't suspect a thing. Because no matter what, I'm always a showman. I can always say something to crack up the group or become an inside joke. I was literally a dead man walking yet people considered me funny and capable. But the curtain got pulled on that eventually.
Well, more on that some other day. This recount served its purpose for me in putting in my perspective on what I am not anymore. And no matter how hard it gets, making sure I never go back again.
Fucking hell man. Why's this shit gotta be so hard.
See yall tomorrow.

Hey everyone. I am a seasoned cupcake and cookie baker, but I have been asked about cake pops. I have followed this group trying to pay attention to eventually try them out. If anyone can help,regular-sized I have a few questions.

1. How many cake pops can you get out of one regular sized cake recipe?
   
2. Do you prefer to start with a super light, moist cake or a more dense cake?
   
3. Do you mix frosting in with the cake before rolling or not? What are the benefits either way?
   
4. Typically when I make anything chocolate coated I use Ghiradelli melts from the grocery store and thin that with Crisco. Will this method work for cake pops and do you recommend something other than a melt (I have worked with Merkins and that's good too. It's just that I can get Gheradelli at several local grocery stores).5. I have never looked into costing cake pops. This would basically be a donation to a local event handing out school supplies in under privileged areas. They are looking to have all vendors at no more than $1.00 per item. So I'm wondering if it is possible to make a cake pop for less than $1 in ingredients. The time is donated. This is a super small town and this is the downtown 2-block strip of store owners putting the event on. My mom owns 2 of those stores and is the one inquiring, so I'm hoping to do anything possible to help.
   
5. I have never looked into pricing cake pops. This would basically be a donation to a local event that would hand out school supplies in underprivileged areas. They are looking to have all vendors at no more than $1.00 per item. This is a super small town and this is the downtown 2-block strip of store owners putting the event on. My mom owns 2 of those stores and is the one inquiring, so I'm hoping to do anything possible to help.
   
6. If you have a recipe that makes a lot of cake pops please share.
   

I know that's a lot of questions but I thought it would be easier to keep track of all of them in the same post.
TIA

Hey Everyone,
Recently, I (female, 30s) was ghosted by more than one friend. I feel like logically, I know I didn't deserve it but there is still this nagging feeling that I did. So I guess I'm just looking for outside opinions even if they are negative towards me.
To explain some of the situation, the first friend (Ghost #1) to ghost me was a female friend whom I was trying to have a heart to heart with. She was responding badly to what I was trying to talk about, so it wasn't a huge surprise when she ghosted. To summarize, basically I had introduced this friend to all of my other friends. Then surprise! They really liked her.
So she (Ghost #1) started getting invites to outings (by people I introduced her to) that even I wasn't getting. I tried telling her how this made me feel, that it made me feel used, left out, and that my friends (including her) didn't actually like me. I tried asking for her to include me more when these situations happened. So if she was invited out by people I introduced her to and she saw I wasn't included, for her to just include me and invite me. She didn't accept my feelings about the situation at all and she kept arguing, essentially telling me that my feelings were wrong. She also took it very badly, and said that I was being controlling and that I was accusing her of things. She also said that I should be taking up my issues with the people who weren't inviting me. She also didn't agree with me because according to her, I was only not getting invited because I could not go anyway (I work a lot of weekends and I don't have a car). For the record, there were some weekends where I could have joined but the only reason I didn't was because they didn't even try to invite me. I said back to her that it was invite that counted and that even if I could not go, the invite would make all the difference. But she just didn't agree or seem to want to understand.
I tried my best to understand her (Ghost #1) perspective, but because she wasn't trying to understand mine, it was really hard. But I did get what she meant about the accusations and the controlling aspect. I told her that I did not want to be that way but I was just hoping for some care and understanding. I also tried to get her to understand that I was only asking her to do what I had done for her. I just wanted her to include me the way that I had always included her. The only reason she met all of my friends was because I had always included her. Anyway, we were just not understanding each other and instead of continuing to try to talk it out, one day she just stopped responding entirely. I wasn't that surprised because it was obvious we had deep incompatibilities and she didn't seem to care much about my feelings. I was only surprised by the immaturity of her not being able to say something like "I need some time to think, so I need a break from responding" etc. But how she handled the rest of the conversation wasn't great either so that's why it wasn't that big of a surprise. She and I had been friends for 2 years.
Then something so horrible happened, I still can't even believe it and can barely type it out. My younger brother was killed by a truck over the winter holidays.
I had to tell all of my friends about this because they had to know why I wouldn't be responding for awhile. So I told everyone, except for Ghost #1 because at this point she had already stopped responding.
After telling people what happened to my brother, I didn't respond to any friends for about a month. After some time, I was able to start talking to people again. This was when I also realized that Ghost #1 had actually ghosted me. I didn't realise it before because I wasn't thinking about it. But after realising Ghost #1 had ghosted me, I was left with a difficult decision, should I tell people or not?
I decided to start telling people that Ghost #1 had ghosted me. The reason I chose to tell people was because as I said earlier, I had introduced her to all of my friends and she was apparently still socialising with them but not me. I wasn't sure if it was the right decision to tell others because I knew it would be involving them in drama they didn't ask for. But at the same time, when I introduced Ghost #1 to my other friends I was essentially "endorsing" her as a good friend but after her ghosting me I could no longer "endorse" her. Also, if my other friends didn't know that she had ghosted me they might inadvertently invite her or tell her things about me etc. Then the final reason was that if a friend had introduced me to a friend of theirs, I would want to know if they're a ghoster.
Anyway, so I told the other friends. The other friends didn't seem to believe it and the reactions were mixed but it seemed like they understood me and why I told them. At least they didn't seem to think badly of me.
But then surprise! Shortly after telling others that Ghost #1 had ghosted me, she got back in touch with me. Basically, she (Ghost #1) didn't apologize at all for taking long to respond to me (2 months) and she just provided condolences about my brother and said that she was there for me if I needed to talk about him. At first when I got this message, I thought it was kind of her. But then I thought about it more and realized it was a very self-serving message. She was essentially saying that she would not take any responsibility for how she hurt me. I felt that she was just using my brother's death as a way to make herself look better and get rid of her own guilt. Since she had ghosted me for 2 months, she knew I wouldn't reach out to her for support regarding my brother. So it was a very empty offer. It also put me in yet another shit position because now I had to figure out how to handle her new response. I thought about trying to hold her accountable again for the cruelty in her lack of actions but I was so tired of it. I decided to just send her a single emoji as a response (hands shaped in heart emoji). Another hard decision was figuring out if now I should tell people that she didn't technically ghost me?
I decided not to tell people that she had eventually responded. The reason I chose not to was because like i said I was really tired of dealing with her and talking about her. I had so much weight on my shoulders already and I am grieving my brother. I decided that if someone asked me directly if she had ever gotten back to me, I would tell them that yes she had. I would tell them that even though she did eventually get back to me, she did not apologize for her own actions and the message she sent was self-serving. And that even though she did not technically ghost me, she did spiritually because she only did the barest minimum so that she would not look bad. That is why I still consider her as having ghosted me and she is still Ghost #1. But no one ever asked me about her again.
Anyway, so then not long after that I was talking to one of the friends that I had introduced to Ghost #1. We were talking about doing a boxing class and it was difficult to organise because she and I had different schedules. Eventually we decided on a day, and I was getting ready to meet her for the class and she texted me to say she was stuck at work and couldn't come. She used a lot of crying emojis and apologized a lot. It seemed like she was genuine about the situation. I texted her back to tell her not to worry about it and that I was nervous to go to the class anyway. Then I asked her if she would maybe like to just go to a regular gym and use the machines. I told her that this might be better because then we wouldn't be confined to a specific day/time. And then I haven't heard from her since then (3+ months). So she became Ghost #2.
For extra context Ghost #2 seemed to really like Ghost #1. Ghost #2 was actually one of the friends who was inviting Ghost #1 out when I wasn't included. However, when I talked to Ghost #2 how it was leaving me feeling excluded and uncomfortable, she responded really well and it seemed like she really understood. Ghost #2 even put my feelings into words I had not even thought of. She told me that she hadn't invited me because she thought I could not come for various reasons. And then she said that she now understands she should have left the decision with me instead. I felt like she really understood me. Ghost #2 seemed like such a kind and genuine person. So when Ghost #2 ghosted me it really surprised me. I had been friends with her for over a year.
I know that there is a strong possibility that Ghost #2 ghosted me because of something to do with Ghost #1. But I will never know for sure. If it had been just Ghost #1 then I could've brushed it off and said it was just her but adding Ghost #2 to the mix has really damaged me. I'm thinking that maybe I did deserve it. Maybe I was being "too much" for them. Or asking for too much. Or I just wasn't valuable. Or that I did something wrong by not telling everyone that Ghost #1 did not technically ghost me. As if I was spreading drama or bad mouthing or controlling or manipulating etc. Or that I did anything to deserve it. I don't know.
So this wasn't the end of my ghostings. Eventually another friend who wasn't super connected to Ghost #1 or Ghost #2, started to take longer and longer to respond to my messages. So she became Ghost #3. Now it's been over a month since I've heard from Ghost #3. Ghost #3 did not super ghost me, because my last message to Ghost #3 didn't have any specific questions in it. But Ghost #3 indicated that they were really interested in hearing about a trip I was going on. But now the trip has passed by many weeks. And Ghost #3 never got back in touch with me, even though I was the last to send a message. Ghost #3 may still get in touch with me but she has never taken this long to respond before.
So finally, I had yet another ghosting by yet another female friend, Ghost #4. So Ghost #4 wasn't a close friend of mine. I met Ghost #4 through Ghost #3, they were once roommates. As far as I know, Ghost #4 and Ghost #3 are still good friends because the last I heard they also work together. Ghost #4 reached out to me to find out how I was doing because she knew about my brother. I responded back to her and tried to keep the focus on her. I asked her about her job and etc. And then I never heard from her and it's been over a couple months. What upsets me about this, is that no one asked Ghost #4 to reach out to me. I didn't. She could've just never messaged me. But she did and at first I thought that was nice of her but then she ghosted me. And it's just so senseless, that she put me through a ghosting when she didn't even have to message me.
So those are the ghostings. Most days I can rationalise it, that these friendships had already run their course and the extra stress was enough to break the friendships. I also think that ghosting has nothing to do with how kind someone is but how brave they are. And you never know someone's level of bravery until something bad happens. So I didnt know I was friends with so many cowards.
And for extra context we're not young and we're all women.
The major lesson I learned is that you shouldn't introduce friends too early because then it complicates the dynamics. That was what really kickstarted my problems with Ghost #1. I shouldn't have introduced her to all my friends and should have been more careful. But I'm struggling to learn anything from all the ghostings. Because it was so many of them. I still have that feeling that I deserved it. Because how could 4 friends ghost me within a few months of each other, if I didn't deserve it?
Anyway, I guess I'm taking it to jury of the internet to see what everyone thinks.
AITAH?

didn’t know what flare to put this under, because there isn’t an advice one. I’ve been working at this dishwashing job at a retirement home for the past month or so. You have to do a lot of paperwork and testing to work with old people even though I’m just going to be in the back. for about a week they were only training me to be a server, and I knew a little bit of my job would be serving, but it was advertised as a dishwashing job. When I asked when I was going to be trained for dishwashing, my supervisor seemed surprised and asked if I was 18, which I am. then finally started training me. there’s been a lot of tiny little things that my boss has done that have really confused me. a couple times in a row now she’s shown up and told me I am doing serving or dishwashing when I was scheduled to do the opposite. fast-forward to now, my sister said that she has a birthday party in two weeks and she really wanted me to come, I text around some of my coworkers and asked if they could cover, one of them could cover half of my shift in the early morning. I was texting my boss about this, and sent her this message: “I think i’m going to need saturday off since it’s still two weeks away, I feel like that’s a reasonable amount of time to let you know. (coworker) says she’s okay with coming in earlier, so you’d only have to find coverage for 3-7pm.” she seemed like it was fine until I came in today. She came up to me and said that I need to fill out a time off sheet and put it on her desk, which I did and then asked me if I read the handbook. There was roughly 9 hours of training online learning about Dementia and HIPAA violations, etc. etc. I was thinking about it, when she interrupted and said you signed it so you should have. Looking back, she was talking about a big pamphlet called the Work handbook and I glossed through it (it seemed like review), but when I was handed it, someone was waiting for me to sign it so i didn’t read the whole thing. apparently in the handbook it says that you need 60 days in advance to even ask for one day off. I’ve worked many jobs before and none of them have been strict – I honestly thought it was reasonable to ask two weeks ahead. she said that the text that I sent was actually very rude. I apologized quickly and then started doing my job. I’m autistic so sometimes I say things that people perceive as rude that I really don’t mean to be. I’m really here asking about the 60 days ahead thing because I have a grad party in late June and a concert that I’m going to that I just submitted a form for too. this seems like such a ridiculous policy for just a part-time dishwashing job at a retirement home. I suppose this is the AITA for the job subreddit, but i’d love some advice. PS I’ve also been jobhunting, because this really isn’t the environment that I expected it to be – so hopefully I won’t be in this job very longer.

im new to Reddit so I apologize if im doing this wrong, i think im asking for advice/opinions.. im 21f and two or three years ago i started hanging out with an old friend again after a few years, it was right after a serious relationship for me so honestly i was just rebounding and having fun with an old friend. Anyways.. after about a month of hanging out everyday with him and his friends, and three hookups later, hes driving me home and says “ive started talking to this one girl recently and id feel bad if we kept seeing each other while I pursued her”. Very understandable, i told him thats no problem, no worries and that were all good. That was the last i heard of him until a year later. 

After about a year, im back together with the ex i was hung up on while rebounding with (well call him jake). Im at the mall with my friend and i get a “hey girly” text from a girl well call sara. Anyways, sara proceededs to say that her and jake were dating and she thinks jake was cheating on her with me, she then said when she found out abt the cheating he cried and said that while he tried to break it off with me, i “screamed and cried” and said “i love you, ill off myself if you leave… that I assaulted him during one of our hookups. I was blown away.

Sara clarifies and assures me she knows the truth and that hes a lying cheating loser and i fill her in on what really happened between us, keep in mind, I know woman can hurt men like that, but the three times we hooked up I was stomach down face down the whole time and it was during a very sickly time in my life, I was under 90lbs. It just wasn’t possible unless i drugged the mf somehow, he was very big… anyways, after that jake tried reaching out to me to hang out again and i literally said “if i assaulted you why would u wanna hang w ur abuser?” And blocked him after that. 

For the next year n half Sara and I aren’t close friends but we are mutuals and frequently interacted via instagram, the typical liking posts and replying to stories… i didnt start noticing anything off about Sara until it was basically too late, essentially it started with a TikTok she reposted on instagram saying something like “when she copy’s you” idk just something along those lines. I cant tell you why i had a feeling it was about me, but i did.. i ignored it and immediately pushed down the idea that she posted that directed towards me, i remember thinking to myself “there’s no way, i mean we’ve had literally no issues lol”.. and i mean her and i are still interacting completely normal still atp.

i cant remember how long after the TikTok repost till the indirect, direct posts, started getting really personal. Things like “the girl they cheat with is always uglier.” But it really started going downhill till i noticed.. no matter what time it is.. 4am..1pm.. she was my first instagram story viewer, without fail, everytime. 

In my head at this point im just thinking like “yk i post a lot, its not weird, maybe she’s just really active like me” during this time im really just trying to avoid the truth which is, that girl isn’t my friend, her and I weren’t close but i hold friends more dear than anything and i always have, she went through something hurtful that i was involved with and although i didnt know she and jake were together i felt i owed her loyalty and at least someone that’ll be real with her.
Now im getting to the main event.. i know.. this is already insane enough. Trust me. Anyways very very soon after i clock it that Sara is always my first viewer, thats when the eerily similar post come up. It started with random little things, and maybe thats why it took me so long to notice but it started with me posting a picture of a bush outside and, im not joking, two minutes later after being my first viewer, posts a SOMEHOW “prettier” (subjectively) bush than i posted. Then id post a selfie in a certain pose and minutes later shed post the same exact thing of herself. By this time ive NOTICED what’s slowly happening but I truly didnt want to believe this shit again im thinking to myself “youre not that bitch, why would someone COPY you” i mean this girl is pretty! Smart! Insane daddy’s money! Why tf would she be pressed over me, at the time i was sick and depressed and lowkey Emo.

the basically blatant copying continued for a few months, i really didnt want to bring it up and it had gotten to a point where i was thinking of this situation pretty often, it made me feel gross and weird and mean, i felt mean thinking she’d copy me. It was horrible. I had gotten Into a new Relationship at this time and i was just ignoring it until one day i lost a picture of a hummingbird and the caption says “omg a hummingbird has never been so close to me” those birds are very important to me they remind me of my grandmas old cottage. NOT EVEN A WHOLE 2 MINUTES GO BY and she posts a video of a hummingbird flying CLOSER to her. 

That was the breaking point for me honestly, i didn’t say anything to her nor post anything bout her, i simply unfollowed her on instagram and that was that, I unfollowed her and refreshed her account 5 seconds later SHE BLOCKED ME. It had all clicked, she was on my account all day. Everyday refreshing my account, always my first viewer, post exact lookalikes to what im postng, purchasing clothes and random things i own. It was all on purpose and she knew what she was doing. But that was that, what’s done was done and i moved on, literally forgot about her existence.
UNTIL THREE MONTHS LATER i get a. Message from one of those fake phone numbers saying “come get ur man girl” and sends a photo of my bf at the time liking a body photo of Sara’s on instagram. Now I wasn’t mad at the obviously photoshopped screenshot, like that shit was fucking stupidly photoshopped the fonts were completely different, i was mad about her HUNG UP on me. I replied saying stuff like youre nothing but a spoiled brat who cries when she doesnt get her way, i said she complains about these things in her life that she causes herself, all the drama she was in and i blindly defend her, somehow she was always in beef with ppl that stalked her and copy’s her an all these People want to be as rich and pretty and smart and funny her and they cant so they hate her, i said you are the evil one and now i see it, you cause these issues and when people defend themselves or disengage with you because of your behavior towards them and blast them on social media painting them as the bag guy because you know people will blindly believe you. I said much more in much better wording but thats basically that.. AND BOY DID SHE NOT LIKE THAT

here begins the relentless posting of me, she’s posted blatant insane lies like im a pedo and a racist,, that i support mass genocide and im a rapist, im a stalker who wants to be her so bad but ill never be as educated and wealthy and ill never have a good job and will be a lifeless loser my whole life. INSANE SHIT LMAOO, i entertained it for a while, shed post lies and id post “un actually here’s what happened” and she’s post my post and cover out the parts she sounds bad and only post the parts where I admittedly went wrong, but like i willl literally admit Where i said sum I shouldn’t have so wtf. 

This cycle goes on for months, she contacts these older girls who previously had beef with me and had them give her all my information so now she’s signing my phone number up for the national guard, my address, my full name and family’s name. She’s actually lost her mind atp, it’s been two years and biweekly she Post about. me, pushing this narrative that im all these things yet has no proof to back up anything, even tho i have timeline proof of my posts then hers, i buy something then she buys it after, saying Vietnamese noses are ugly. Proof of her asking for my information. She has her army of blinded losers constantly stalking me along with her and talking about me, texting me talking all this ignorant shit and ive sat here all by myself just flabbergasted, for the first year it really did get to me, id feel sick, i felt the need to prove to her and her instagram followers that im not who she’s saying i am, and even she herself knows that. I eventually just stopped fighting back, i stopped trying to clear my name and clear the air.. i learned she’s a Narcissist , no matter the response. She’s going to feed off of it, i’ve been nice, i’ve been rude, i’’ve been empathetic, and ive been cruel. nothing stopped her and im afraid nothing but time will.

This started when i was 19 and i’m now 21, i’’ve called the cops but since this is classified as “cyber bullying” there’s no laws and nothing they can do, after learning i called the cops on her she started posting about a case she’s making against me for defamation which is confusing bc i never told a lie, she did. I notice After two years she just projects everything, her deepest insecurities are right there if you look, it’s what she brags, and shows off the most, herself. She has everything, anyone could want and need yet she’s still so Miserable, yet me, broke as fuck, pretty but nothing to brag abt, i don’’t materially have what she has and she thinks because of that i created this whole mess, but ive always been richer,, im happy with myself, im content most days and thats incredible, i have the most beautiful friends who love me. And would die for me, family i adore. I have everything. The great job, the loads of money and gucci purse can fucking wait, thats my even what i want truly, i want to be a mother. there’s much more detail but this post is already so long and draining, i honestly dont know what to say, I haven’t gone on her account in months but ill still hear and see screenshots every now and then of what she says, the most recent one was yesterday and its that i apparently have been calling her little brothers phone, who’s also a minor. Just untrue, honestly sinister, evil shit. Evil person. And i regret befriending her.. 

So, am I the asshole for not going on a trip to Europe with my girlfriend? Some background: my girlfriend is going to Europe along with some of her brother’s friends and girlfriend because her brother is studying abroad there, and of course, I am invited. The issue is I don’t know if I’ll be able to afford it, and I feel weird asking for the time off as I just recently started this job. My girlfriend, on the other hand, has had the luxury of having a real job for the past year and a bit, and having the luxury of more money (we are both 24). Now, if this were any other time of year, I feel like I would have a good reason to not go to Europe. However, the issue is she’ll be in Europe during our 4-year anniversary. If it wasn’t obvious, my girl would love me to be there and wants me to go, and knows I’m thinking of these factors. So, my question is, would I be the asshole if I didn’t go to Europe or if I went for only a few days to be there on our anniversary?

Hello everyone! So I’m a 17 year old male who has mild-more than mild eczema. I’ve only done topical throughout my life, and it’s been fine. It works when I do it, but the problem is that I hate doing it.
My eczema is worst on my hands probably, and it’s such a crappy spot because I wash them, touch things, and it rubs off.
So my mom (who has worse eczema than me) started Rinvoq, and she said that it has helped her, and she thinks it’d help me. So she wants me to go to the dermatologist and see what they say about it, but I’m nervous haha.
So far I have never been on serious medication like this, and there’s a lot of side effects to this drug. Plus, I’m very pale and I’ve heard that sunburn can ignite a flare up (having this problem now, actually. But it’s getting better slowly).
Any and all help is appreciated. Just hoping for outside opinions. Thanks and have a great day!

Alongside other typical picks like Friede/Morgott, my favorite Soulsborne boss EVER is Champion Gundyr, just how animated, dynamic, and cool is fight is. His entire 2nd phase is an endless combo-extension.
But it's limited by being a mid-late game boss, you can typically blow past him with higher level weapons.
So how would you Enhance Gundyr?
* marginally increase the speed of his attacks, with more variation in delay between moves * more intelligent AI in terms of move usage. I notice that sometimes due to rng, gundyr will use a lot of poor moves, making his fight a lot less difficult run-to-run, certain strings of moves make him untouchable, but others are easy, so maybe add some weight so that he will almost always perform the best/hardest sequences of moves? * being able to counter being parried. * And just spitballing, maybe pull an Ongbal and give him 1 extra piece of equipment: A simple bucker shield, and have him parry you back!

I had clinical yesterday and received a phone call from a family member. The voice mail sounded serious so I left and went to another floor to return the call. I thought maybe a family member had passed and they wanted me to tell my mom. But it my mom and this family member were trying to make a payment using a card I'd already cancelled because it was compromised.
I ended up giving my information because I was still reeling off adrenaline. But when it was all said and done, I didn't even know why my mom needed to give her card information. When I got home, she couldn't remember the details of why, which I should've known would happen.
I know I was stupid. This isn't an unknown family member and they're close with my mom and my grandma when she was alive. None of them however know the extent of my mom's memory issues or why it was caused (alcohol) except my grandma's baby sister and my mom's best friend who's my godfather.
Idk how to prevent stuff like this from happening. So many people didn't know she was even in the hospital. She will throw a fit if I take her phone and I'd hate to do that because she already doesn't really go out. She won't remember to not make decisions like that on her own OR she'll argue me down about it.
I will call the family member tomorrow and find out everything I can but there was no mention of payment back to me and it was for over $2000 (I know...chew me out). Stuff like this is why I'm very nervous about working outside the home. If I'd been home I probably could've kept it from getting that far and my mom would've been able to tell me what was going on while it was happening.

For context I (m60) raised my step daughter (f21) since she was 11 and have been married to her mom (f60) for 5 yrs. I know that my stepdaughter doesn’t have the best relationship with her bio dad & doesn’t like to talk about him much. But anyway she was telling me and her mom this morning that her friends have never seen a pic of her dad & that she decided to post a pic of her and her dad on her Instagram account yesterday.
I felt kind of off about it because I don’t want her to post anything that’s gonna start something since everyone thinks I’m her biological father. But we all go to church and my step daughter’s friends have heard about her dad but never seen a photo of him and she felt that it was time for them to see.
Anyway back to the story, I told my stepdaughter that she shouldn’t have posted the picture of her and her dad because it’s gonna stir conflict and that she’s gonna start nothing but drama. She tried telling me that it doesn’t matter because that’s still her dad and she still loves him. I tried to tell her that not everyone needs to know all the stuff that goes on between her and her dad. She said she wasn’t gonna tell anyone about their estranged relationship, that she just wanted to post a picture. But I think otherwise.
She tried telling me “it’s literally my dad. Why is that such a problem to you? I don’t see you getting so defensive when I post pictures of me and you? Why can’t you just understand that? What is so hard about this?? The church isn’t going to judge. At least I post about you online, I don’t ever see your 4 bio kids posting about you at all. They don’t even want to talk to you!!”
I got in self defense mode and told her “that’s different and you KNOW that. You seriously need to stop causing all this drama. You need to GROW UP! Maybe this is why you don’t have a lot of friends because you run your mouth too much and try to start something stupid every single time. It’s pathetic that you’re almost 22 yrs old and still act like a freaking child. Grow up man and go get a stupid job. I’m so tired of this. I don’t even know why you want to post about your dad after all the crap he’s said and done to you and when your relationship is barely making ends meet.”
There’s no way she’s gonna talk about my 4 kids like that and butt in like that. So I told her off and said that I said and walked out the door to my back yard to cool off. When I came back inside I could see that she had been crying and noticed tissues in the trash can. Her mom tried telling me that I crossed a major line and had no business to tell her daughter who is an adult what to & what not to post on her social media profiles especially when it comes to her dad. Now I feel pretty bad because of what my wife said but I dont feel bad about what I said, even though she told me I should be. AITAH??

Went to the opening night at spac to see Hozier tonight.
(At least in the one big section near the back) they had both real men’s bathrooms closed for women only, and literally 2/10 porta potties were designated for men only.
I’m down for giving the ladies some more potty space given their typical situation, but I waited 20+ minutes to pee while I watched hundreds of females run in and out of the 10 bathrooms they had while I waited for the 2 porta potties with the other guys.
To make it worse, women were also waiting in our line and using the same 2 porta potties we had to ourselves.
I would understand this at a Taylor swift concert, but there were thousands and thousands of men in that venue tonight all sharing a handful of porta potties.
Definitely felt a bit dystopian, and it was clear most people were also pretty surprised. I stopped drinking the $18 dollar beers, having been fully prepared for the price because I didn’t want to piss myself.
I would happily pay a bit extra to be able to use a real bathroom when I need to pee lol.

With the splatfest being over and everything. It reminded me of why I love the game, the franchise, the community. I grew up with this game and it's brought me so much joy that it couldn't be understated enough.
I remember "learning" about the game when I was visiting my cousin--the coolest person I know-- and seeing so many colors and shapes on the screen. It was the first ever splatfest announcement, "Cat vs. Dog". I wanted to play but it was time for me to go home. I never knew the name of the game but it always stuck with me.
A few Yeats later, I was in 5th grade and I discovered the game splatoon via YouTube. I BEGGED my mom to buy the game, since I had the WiiU. And from there it grew. My love for the franchise just continued to swell and swell
Throughout all of my cornerstones of my life. I could probably tie it to whatever weapon I was gaining during the time lol. I'm a long way from 5th grade though, I'm going to be a senior in highschool next year and I'm more worried about what I'm going to do after school.
The reason why I specifically brought up this after the splatfest ended is because of the music that plays after. The day break of the splatfest. I've NEVER heard of it until today and it brought tears to my eyes.
It reminded me of all of the memories I've had of the game so far and why I loved the franchise. The franchise is so, so, SO dear to me because of all of the memories it was able to bring me. I'm never going to find another franchise that can bring me close to the joy that Splatoon can being me.
As a wanabe composer myself, the music was THE highlight of the franchise. The culture that is built around music was just pure cocaine to me. Splatoon gives me hope for what I can do in the future. Because when I always think that my creativity won't get me nowhere. I look towards Splatoon. The game that started with Tofu, is now one of the most popular IP's Nintendo has.
I may not be a kid, but I still feel the same joy as one whenever I listen in on the splatcast, wondering what awaits me next. (As long as it's not clam Blitz that is)
TLDR: I genuinely cannot express how much I love Splatoon I to a comprehensible though.
And thanks for reading my mess of a Ted talk if you read through it🦑💖🐙

I (15F) recently went on a first date with a girl (16MTF) and I was very uncomfortable with some things that happened but wasn’t sure how to express that. I’m now feeling lots of guilt and shame. For context we were friends at first but then about two weeks ago we started flirting over text. We had been using pet names and she talked about how touch starved she was. I returned these affections but when I did I felt like I was just saying what I thought I should say rather than what I wanted. We went to a local park and as soon as I got there she started touching me excessively, lying on top of me, hugging me, holding my hand (I have only been in one relationship before that was built on a foundation of friendship rather than romance so this is new to me). A bit into the date she asked me where it was ok for her to touch me and I told her I didn’t like people touching the small of my back, my upper thighs and my chest (I was more guessing what my boundaries were since no one had ever tested them) and she told me she was uncomfortable with me touched her upper thighs and chest. Whenever she touched me somewhere different she asked me if it was ok and I pretty much always said yes but I was more saying yes because I felt obligated to rather than because I was actually comfortable with it. Eventually she started kissing my neck and things got very confusing because while it felt really nice I also felt like I wanted to throw up. I’m really confused how I gained pleasure from that experience but whenever I think about it now I want to cry. I’m also really uncomfortable with how much she was touching me which is confusing because I thought someone doing that was what I’d always wanted. Eventually she asked if she could kiss me and I said no but she kept bringing it up and giving me a look and I felt like I had to apologise for not being comfortable with it. I’m so thankful I didn’t kiss her though begause I can tell that would have been a massive regret. I’m starting to wonder if maybe I don’t actually enjoy physical touch and intimacy like I thought I would or if it’s just with her that I’m uncomfortable. I was happy to hold her hand but that was about the only thing I enjoyed. I don’t even know if I actually still like her or if I just feel obligated to like her. When we weren’t being intimate the date was really nice but when she was touching me it felt like I had a hole in my stomach. I’m not angry with her at all because she was constantly asking for my consent but I didn’t even know I had these lines until she crossed them. I ended up dissociating for most of the date and acting on autopilot the whole time. I’m feeling really guilty and like I’ve been leading her on but I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to break up with her but I’m not sure how to fix this. We had previously been texting and using pet names and she talked about how touch starved she was. I returned these affections but when I did I felt like I was just saying what I thought I should say rather than what I wanted to. How should I proceed?

I (29M) posted here after a fight on Mother’s Day with my mom (47F) that opened my eyes a lot. TL;DR, we got into an explosive screaming match over the phone over some MASSIVE misinterpretations on her end, and suddenly my mom said everything from “well why don’t you go tell your step-mother?!” to “you have no idea what I’m dealing with right now! You’re not the only one with problems!” I don’t want to repost that mess here if I can avoid it, but rest assured I got the hint and now need your help because this all stemmed from a Facebook post from Mother’s Day ten years ago when I was basically saying my good-byes in a very, very dark time of my life. The post was deleted a week ago, but the fight is still in my mind.
Emotional blackmail like this is my mother’s go-to (has been since I was a kid) and until seeing you all post it here in black and white, I just thought this was normal stuff parents did. Everyone has a complicated relationship with family, right? But seeing SO many of you tell me how toxic this was made me realize what nearly 14 years of therapy with five different professionals couldn’t: that I’m just never going to be able to just live with it. I have been told so many times to cut her out of my life by going on a hundred different people at this point. I even briefly did about ten years ago. And each time I came back because I thought this time was going to be different, because something would change for a couple of months max before slipping back.
I have been told everything from “you’re nothing without me,” to “you only want me around for money,” to her favorite, “you know, I didn’t HAVE to give birth to you” (paraphrasing tremendously to comply with rules) since I was eight, at least. After a week of thinking, I talked to my husband (28M) about setting some boundaries, and these are the big two we came up with:

• No more money, ever, unless we’re about to lose our house. Christmas/Birthday/holiday gifts have a hard limit of $25 and if they’re a cent more, they aren’t accepted. If we go out to eat, my husband and I pay for ourselves. No exceptions.
• We start saving to pay her back the $5k she “gifted” us for our down payment fro the house, which I’m now thinking was actually just another loan. Any other additional “gifts” like that are rejected, and any other money we do accept from here on out is eventually paid back.

I am worried these might come off as TA-ish and as overreactions, but to keep myself out of more depressive spirals, I have to know if I’m doing the right thing. Even if I’m TA, I need to know if there’s room for nuance in that. She’s coming up next week for Memorial Day brunch, and I need outsider insight. My husband is 100% with me, and even promised to be with me when I drew these boundaries with her. He hates seeing how she treats me, but I have doubts about myself (wonder where that comes from). So, WIBTA?