The Cast:
Cheer the Boisterous, Tabaxi Monk: Cheer is a small Tabaxi with white fur and mismatched blue and green eyes. She is always seen in the company of her brother, Charles, and together, the two of them haunt the alleys outside the Al Walab Jeweler Guild, keeping other thieves away from their "territory."
Charles the Butcher, Tabaxi Rogue: Charles is a small Tabaxi with smoky black fur and mismatched blue and green eyes. He is always accompanied by his sister, Cheer, and together, the two of them haunt the alleys outside the Al Walab Jeweler Guild, keeping other thieves away from their "territory."
Calina St. Clair, Fire Genasi Wizard: Calina is the third child of the St. Clair merchants, an influential family of wealthy nobles in Al Walab. With her inheritance looking less and less likely with each passing year, she expanded her interests into arcane magic and cartography, hoping to find her own fortune in the world.
Honu Chorba, Tortle Ranger: Honu is a seasoned desert traveler who has spent much of his long life among the dunes. He joined the group to assist them in their journeys out of the belief that they would all get lost and die without him.
Reed Ha'saan, Human (Rashed) Artificer: Reed is a Rashed, nomads who wander the desert wastes. He's a tinker and a jeweler who is loosely affiliated with the Jeweler Guild of Al Walab, serving as a member in the (much looser and less prestigious) offshoot of the Guild among the Rashed. He's accompanied by a mechanical crab machine that he built.
Previous Session
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Story: Upon returning to Al Walab, the group found themselves stopped at the gates, as the guards claimed that their previous "exempt from all charges" writ from the Sultan was no longer valid. Fortunately, they were able to intimidate the guards into letting them pass anyways.
Once in the city proper, the group immediately headed to Nafay Sabat's home to speak with Fatima. Once there, they removed her corpse from Reed's bag of holding and handed it over to the undying sorceress, much to her delight. She rewarded them with a box full of high-potency healing potions, as well as a blackened bone dagger that instantly killed and drained the life from anyone it rendered unconscious. Charles quickly claimed the knife, and then he and Cheer also claimed the box that everything had come in.
Fatima caught them up on current events in the city: apparently, her former advisor, Zeera, had found her way into the city and had been trying to seize control of the Thieves' Guild, and the battles between the two factions had spilled out onto the streets. Under the guise of restoring order, the Sultan had moved to seize the property of "collaborators," a thinly-veiled attempt to consolidate his power among the noble houses.
To capitalize upon the discord and unrest in the city, Fatima intended to have the group - under the illusionary guise of the sultan's guards - attack three beloved temples, those of Commerce, Love, and Mercy. While this was happening, Fatima planned to attack the Sultan's advisors, killing his most competent one while framing the second-most, ensuring that the Sultan's only advisor would be an idiot. This, in her opinion, would further destabilize the city and help convince the people that it was time for a new regime.
The group complimented her on the plan, then, once they had left Nafay's home, began to discuss whether or not they were actually on board with attacking three different temples of seemingly friendly priests. The discussion went back and forth, with neither of the Tabaxi particularly caring about the long-term fallout given that they only had about ten years of their short lives left. Honu, staring down a few centuries, was more concerned. Eventually, they decided that the risks of upsetting Fatima were too great to back out at this point, and they decided to visit the marketplace to do some shopping and restock on supplies.
At the market, they discovered that Avani, the Tabaxi they had rescued from the desert many months earlier, had taken Calina's initial investment in his business and turned it into a thriving travel emporium. He had driven many of his competitors out of business and had been cutting most of his rations with catnip, which was really driving product among the city's Tabaxi.
The group swung by the Aydeewa Academy so that Calina could purchase some spell components, only to discover that it now had guards, which were put in place by its new headmistress, Jasmine Musad. They were only allowing current students, faculty, and alumni inside, so Calina headed in alone, with Charles sneaking in alongside her. She was able to obtain from the spell components, but learned that Jasmine Musad had tightened regulations considerably and was running things with severe punishments in place for those who defied her authority.
After getting the components she needed, the group went to Calina's home, where they found a letter waiting for her. It bore the traces of magic, so she gave it to Charles to open outside under the suspicion that it would explode... which it did, raking lightning bolts everywhere. He was fortunately able to avoid them all with his quick reflexes. The group assumed that the letter had been sent by Saleel Arif and once again vowed to make him pay.
Calina then settled in to scribe some new spells into her book while the others scouted out the three temples they would be attacking earlier. The temple of Ishbal, the God of Commerce, was well defended by hired guards and priests wearing armor made from metal coins, while the temples of Hartema, Goddess of Mercy, and Rehema, Goddess of Love, seemed like softer targets, with only a few armored guards at the former and none at the latter.
Finally, Cheer, Charles, and Honu paid a visit to the dive bar in the slums that had serves as a meeting place for the Thieves' Guild to check in on things, only to discover that the crowd seemed to be people they hadn't seen before, all of them shifty and giving suspicious looks at the two Tabaxi. They managed to avoid getting attacked thanks to Honu's large presence and made a hasty retreat.
On their way back to Calina's estate, the three of them were stopped by an old man calling himself Devdan, who wanted to hire them to help investigate the Halls of Aldalla, a long-abandoned arcane school in the western desert. The group was suspicious of him, believing that he could be Saleel Arif in disguise, and set up a meeting with him in three days at a nearby fountain.
They returned to Calina's home to meet up with the others, and Cheer and Charles (the latter of whom was still banned from Calina's estate) spent the night sleeping outside the gate in their newly-acquired box.
In the morning, they paid Fatima another visit to discover her in her original body once more, now evidently restored to life. With her dark skin, long black hair, and green eyes peeking out from behind her black silk mask, she certainly overwhelmed the room with her presence. She cast a spell that cloaked the group in an illusion of the sultan's guards and set them loose to attack the indicated temples while she turned her attention to the sultan's advisors.
At this point, the group decided to split up so that they could quickly cut through the "undefended" temples and then regroup to focus their efforts on the temple of commerce. Calina and Cheer attacked the Temple of Rehema, the love goddess, but were surprised to find their former companion, Rivaan, among their number. Their initial assault killed a few of the unclothed priests, but when one of the worshipers transformed into a large snake with rainbow-colored wings, the battle began to turn against them. Calina ended up caught in the serpent's coils, and with the priests healing more damage than they were dealing, Cheer fled in search of assistance, leaving Calina behind.
Meanwhile, at the temple of mercy, Charles, Reed, and Honu came up with a plan to use poison to render one of the two guards unconscious and blind a second. The plan worked well... at first, until it was revealed that the guards were paladins who were capable of removing poisons from their bodies by laying hands upon themselves. Worse yet, the high priest called out to his goddess, Hartema, and animated four of the statues within the temple, providing additional warriors. With numbers against them, the group retreated to seek help... and soon encountered Cheer, who was doing the same.
Since Calina had been taken prisoner, the group returned to the temple of love, where the priests had healed many of their wounds and clad themselves in clothes and armor. Still in their illusionary disguises, the group fought with the priests, eventually killing them despite the numerous healing spells the priests used to tend to their wounds. Rivaan moved between the group, viciously attacking anyone who threatened his friends with the sunsword and poisoned dagger he had recovered months earlier. Eventually, the priests were killed and Rivaan was knocked unconscious. The winged snake attempted to grab Rivaan and fly to safety, but the group killed him at range with surprising spite for someone who had once been their friend.
The second battle at the temple had not gone unnoticed, however, and as the group frantically searched the temple for Calina's things, a mob of angry townsfolk surged into the temple grounds and pressed against its main gates. Honu held the door shut as Calina's spellbook, wand, and other items were eventually discovered, and they fled through a back window as the crowd pelted them with rocks and stones.
With their resources pushed to the limit and many of them wounded, the group pulled back to Calina's estate to rest and tend to their wounds. Only one of the temples had been slaughtered as Fatima had requested, and the group was torn between their doubts that they could take out the other two temples and their fears about what Fatima wound do to them if they failed her.

When my girlfriend and I are moving in together within the next few years, we've been talking about getting a cat and a dog. Now, cats are easier to have because they can litter indoors. Dogs take more work because you have to walk them, but that's not a problem. I love going on long walks before I go to work or after. Maybe this questions has been asked a lot here, but I just want to get this straight in my head before I do/don't do something.
Is it cruel to get a dog when we have to leave it alone for one or two workdays a week? In the future, we'll both be working from home twice a week, which leaves one day (or perhaps two once in a while) where no one's home during the day. Is that a problem? And how do people with jobs have dogs anyway if they have to leave for work multiple times a week?

I been on time off for a little over a week. I been dreading going back to work this coming Monday, since last Monday. A solid 7 days of anxiety about going back. I really don't think I can make it.
About the only thing making me go back is making it through July so I can get the second yearly HSA disbursement. And that's about it.
Since this time off started:

• My sleep schedule normalize.
  
• I actually slept at least 7hrs without waking up multiple times during the night.
  
• I managed to do some chores around the home that I been putting off.
  
• I actual saw my wife numerous times and didn't feel bad when she wanted to talk. I had actually energy and patience to interact with my wife, my best friend, and looked forward to it.
  
• I made time to hangout with my mom. Actual time. Spent an entire day with her. And not another "just tell me what the problem is so I can fix it and go back home and not lose too much sleep time".
  
• roommates came up to me help them with something. And I didn't feel like it was an incredible burden to me.
  
• I actually watched 2 series off my overly long watch list and made it through in a couple of days. Instead of playing the same episodes over and over again because I would just fall asleep halfway through every time.
  
• I'm a cook by trade. I actually got to make full meals. Like foods that take longer than 20mins. Made from scratch foods like pies, breads, quiches, cajun red beans, buttermilk fried chicken, roast beefs and then some.
  

So many more thing that actually made me happy this past few days. Thing that I loved. Wake up and want to get out of bed and start the day.
And I have to go back at the end of this weekend. And now I just feel a bit if depression. And now I have to pretend at be happy while on the clock. Instead of actually being happy, no matter the time of day. Since last Monday, a little voice in the back of my head has been counting down the days.
7 days. 6 days. 5 days. 4 days. 3 days. 2 days. I can't.

The small cargo ship, in the default medium grey, was wholly unremarkable. The same and similar made up the fleets of corporate and private couriers, with the result that it was not surprising to see it anywhere.
The anonymity and ability to blend in served Sidra well…usually. This station, run by the hyper-bureaucratic aslodzhins was the exception. The “bugs,” as many humans called them, had their own ways of doing things and didn’t like a “squishy,” as they called humans and other endoskeletal beings in their own language, upsetting the order.
“Private vessel Hobby Horse, please state the purpose of your visit and expected duration.”
“Station 47 control, I say again: PV Hobby Horse requesting permission to dock in an out-of-the-way small cargo dock for fueling. Expected visit duration no more than a week…seven standard days, but no less than an hour.”
“PV Hobby Horse, docking for fuel cleared at Lock 7-16. All passengers and crew are required to wait inside the vehicle until security arrives to clear you. …Cracked-shell squishy thinks they can—” The controller’s voice cut out as they must have noticed they were still transmitting.
“Thank you, station 47 control. Docking at Lock 7-16. Squishy out….”
Sidra expected one or two security to show up to clear her to enter the station, instead, there were a dozen. She opened the airlock and waited inside. “Come on in.”
The leader, obvious by the shiny, silver emblem in the center of its blast armor, stepped in, followed by two others that made a quick inspection of the ship to verify the claim of no other persons aboard. The brown color of the leader’s head carapace marked them as a drone, while the black carapaces were male and bright blue were female.
Sidra extended a hand. “Sidra Boston; captain, owner, pilot, and sole crew of the Hobby Horse. Welcome to my home.”
“Sub-adjutant-lieutenant-detachment-commander Slivdzak.” The officer looked at her extended hand and grasped it with one their six manipulators.
“Pleasure to meet you, Slivdzak. How can I help?” Sidra felt a secret rush of joy at the way the officer tried and failed to hide their discomfort. She knew that the lack of carapace was as disconcerting to them as the feel of a surprise tarantula crawling on the neck was to humans.
“Captain Sidra Boston—”
“Please, just call me Sid. Drop all the Captain and Boston stuff.”
“Sid, you have not made clear the purpose of your ‘one-hour to seven-day’ stay. Please elaborate.”
“I’m meeting someone here and taking them home.”
The officer looked at a small device it carried. A hologram rose from it, her close-cropped black hair, medium-brown skin, large, green eyes, and humped nose obvious. Beneath the hologram was writing in the bugs’ script. “Are you not a hunter of bounties?”
“Well, if that’s what you want to call it, I guess.”
“Such activity is only allowed in teams of three or more by aslodzhin law 9314-27.664 and safety regulations 647-88.932 and 90991-17.0. In addition, at least one of the team must be aslodzhin.”
“That’s kind of speciesist, isn’t it?”
“The courts have allowed for permanent residents of aslodzhin space to fill the requirements where applicable, in accordance with Galactic Union Resolution on the Rights of Sapients, 74.23.08 Paragraph 12.”
“Great, good to hear. Problem is, I work alone and I’m not after a bug.” She shrugged. “You know how we squishies are.”
“Station command has already decreed that you are not to leave your vessel without the two members chosen for you.” The officer raised to its full height, its head carapace close to scraping the ceiling. “Your team will be here soon. Good day, Captain Sidra Boston.”
“Good day, sub-whatever-whatchamacallit Sliv.”
After the security detail left, she stepped out of the ship to check on the refueling. No sooner had her foot set down outside the airlock than she found herself in the crosshairs of two armed security guards that had been standing out of sight.
“They aren’t kidding about not leaving without a team, huh? Damned bureaucracy.” She stepped back inside the ship and sat on the floor to await her babysitters.
When her team arrived, she was surprised by the presence of the furred, six-limbed hikarin hemi-male. He was easily head and shoulders taller than her, but slight of build, and thin-boned, coming from a lower-gravity world.
The aslodzhin female didn’t surprise her, even in her law enforcement uniform. She wore a red symbol on the chest of her uniform.
Sidra stood. “Okay guys, I’m Sid, and this is my job. You do what I say and stay out of the way we’ll get along fine. You,” she said, pointing at the aslodzhin female, “change out of that uniform. You’ll scare off my skip.”
“Sid, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m senior-squad-chief Dliz, and this is Soolyasin.” Dliz extended a manipulator for a shake and Sidra obliged. Dliz’s compound eyes rotated in a way Sidra didn’t know they could, and she showed frank wonder at the feel of a hand in her manipulator. “Could you do that again?” she asked.
“Do what?”
“You moved your hand, and I could feel the muscles flex…yes! That’s it!” Dliz laughed. “That’s the neatest feeling ever!”
“Am I the first squishy you’ve met?”
“Oh, no. I’ve known Sool since I was a nymph.” Dliz continued to hold on to Sidra’s hand.
“How about humans?” Sidra raised an eyebrow and tried to extricate herself from the increasingly awkward handshake.
“Yes. I mean, I’ve seen plenty passing through, but never met one.” Dliz let go and uttered a quiet apology.
Soolyasin stepped forward. He was dressed in technician’s clothes, complete with tool belt. “You’ll have to forgive Dliz. She’s a fan of bounty hunters in general, and you in particular.”
“Shush.” Dliz stood straight up at attention on her four hind legs, her head scraping the ceiling, her three left manipulators raised in a salute. “What are your orders, Sid?”
“First order of business, you need to lose the uniform and dress in something less conspicuous. Sool, is that a disguise?”
“No, these are my work clothes. When Dliz called I ran straight here.”
“That’s fine. You’ll blend in, no trouble.” Sidra put on a ballistic vest and covered it with a loose jacket. She checked that she had cuffs, shackles, bench warrant, and badge.
She turned toward Dliz. “Do you have a ballistic vest?”
“I have a carapace; I’m not a squishy.”
“Will your carapace stop a slug from a weapon like this?” Sidra held up a high-powered, 6mm rifle.
“Um, no. I have armor, though.”
“Can you wear it under clothes?”
“Yes, but it’s against the regulations.”
“Screw the rules, wear your armor…under your clothes.” She muttered under her breath, “Damned bureaucracy.”
Sidra turned toward Soolyasin. “I think I have a vest that’ll fit you.”
He looked at Sidra, then Dliz, then back again. “Is it going to be that dangerous?”
Sidra showed them the bench warrant. Soolyasin’s eyes grew wide and Dliz’s eyes rolled in a different way to earlier. Sidra thought she might be able to read bug emotions if this kept up.
“You were going after a turgen terrorist by yourself?” he asked.
“Still am. Just don’t want to see my babysitters get hurt.” She turned to look at Dliz. “Dliz, relax. You don’t have to stand at attention. I need you to tell me which of these weapons you’ll let me carry on the station.”
Dliz settled back down onto six legs and looked over the cabinet Sidra had unlocked. In addition to the rifle, she had pistols, tasers, batons, knives, and a shotgun with less-lethal beanbag loads along with standard loads.
“Which of them are capable of breaching the station hull?”
“The 6-mil, and the shotgun, if I loaded it with steel shot or slugs instead of beanbags.” She didn’t mention that the 10mm pistols were just as likely to do the same damage, but she wasn’t going out without at least one lethal weapon.
“In that case, leave the rifle and lethal shotgun rounds behind. I’ll be carrying a beam weapon, too, so we should be covered.”
“What about me?” Soolyasin asked.
“The only thing I need you to do is stay out of the way. Unless I need some inconspicuous eyes in the bay.”
After fitting Soolyasin with a ballistic vest and Dliz getting into civilian clothes over her armor, much to her dismay, they moved to the main cargo bays where they expected their quarry to show. Sidra positioned them so that she could watch arrivals, Dliz could watch her back, and Soolyasin could stay well out of the way unless and until needed.
The first hour went by at glacial speed, with constant interruptions from Dliz and Soolyasin asking questions or pointing at every passerby that might be a turgen in disguise. The next two hours dragged compared to the first.
It was in the middle of the fourth hour that Sidra got notice that the ship carrying her quarry was docking. She moved them to cover the lock where it pulled in, granting them a view on both the personnel airlock and the cargo airlock.
A much smaller contingent of security met the ship, cleared the crew for the station, and left. Four crewmembers, all turgen, filed off. Larger than humans in bulk, grey skin covered with hard dermal denticles, they had two arms, two legs, the remnants of a dorsal fin, and a long, flat tail with which they could do bone-breaking damage.
Sidra waited. If he was going to sneak off the ship, he’d need to do it soon. When it became apparent that he wasn’t going to get out on his own, she radioed Soolyasin.
“Okay, Sool. It’s clear around the ship. Just carry your tool case and walk onboard like you belong there. You’ve seen his picture, if you see him, run. If there’s anyone else on the ship, just tell them you’re checking the fuel gauges because of some regulation or other.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. You got this, and I’ve got your back.”
Soolyasin walked onto the ship, and they could hear him in their headsets, “Hello? Anyone here? I need to check your fuel gauges. Hello?”
A few quiet moments passed before Soolyasin spoke up again. “There’s no one else here,” he said, “I’m co—” His voice was cut off by the sound of a heavy thud.
Sidra ran for the ship, pulling her shotgun into firing position and cycling a round into the chamber. She stopped at the door of the ship and called inside. “Give it up, Otto. The only way you’re leaving here is in cuffs.”
When she didn’t hear anything else, she moved to clear the corners. She looked right where the door to the cockpit was closed. She swiveled around to check the other side only to find it empty as well. “Dliz, move up and cover the exit. The cargo airlock hasn’t been cycled, so this is the only way off.”
She began to move down the passageway when she heard the cockpit door click behind her. She swung around a delivered a 12-gauge beanbag into Otto’s gut at near point-blank range. Rather than stopping him, it enraged him. He turned and swiped at her with his tail.
Sidra tried to dodge out the way, but he managed to knock the shotgun out of her hands. He picked it up and threw it behind himself into the cockpit, next to the limp form of Soolyasin. “Time to go away, bounty hunter.”
He began to move toward her. When he stepped in front of the open door, he was met with a concentrated beam of infrared energy that forced him to jump back. “Listen, soft-skin. You leave now, and I’ll throw your friend out. It’s your one chance to leave alive.”
She drew her 10mm pistol and pointed it at him. “And if I don’t?”
He started toward her again, then stopped when the beam almost connected. “I’ll start by killing your furry friend, then your trigger-happy friend, then you…but nice and slow. There’s no way you’re taking me to a human prison.”
Sidra couldn’t see Dliz, but from the angle of the last beam, she’d moved to where she had more coverage of the passageway toward the cockpit. She knew that if he wanted, he could ignore the burns and rush her, crushing her carapace in a thousand different ways. Her shotgun was far out of reach, not to mention ineffective, but the 10mm pistol was a comforting weight in her hand.
Otto turned his back on her, his tail swishing wildly, smashing against the bulkheads on each side of the passage. “Very well, then. On to killing your furry friend first.”
“I’m warning you, Otto, these are lethal rounds. Put your hands behind your head, your tail between your legs, and drop to your knees.”
By the time Otto had taken a step, Sidra had taken aim and fired a shot into his torso and another into his thigh. He stopped and turned to look at her, bright pink blood running down his leg and back. He laughed. “You’re going to be so much fun.”
The courts tended to look down on spinal injuries, but when a round in the torso and thigh didn’t slow him down, she didn’t feel like she had much choice. She took aim again and fired at the base of his tail. His tail dropped like a dead weight, and he cried out.
The pain dropped him to his knees. Sidra finished the motion by jumping between his shoulder blades to put him flat on the deck. She cuffed his hands behind his back, and secured his ankles with shackles before motioning Dliz to come in.
“Call for medical for Sool and for the idiot here.”
Dliz made the call and medical teams arrived in less than a minute.
“Damn,” Sidra said, “I guess bureaucracy is good for something after all.”
Soolyasin was awake by the time he was loaded onto a stretcher. There didn’t seem to be any broken bones, but he’d been thrown rather hard by Otto’s tail strike. “Sorry I wasn’t any help,” he said.
“Nonsense. I’m sorry I sent you in there and you got hurt. I’m splitting the bounty three ways, even across with both of you.”
“I can’t take any payment,” Dliz said. “It’s against the regulations for police to have any outside earnings.”
“You saved my bacon, though. If you hadn’t been enough of an inconvenience with the beam, he would’ve tail swiped me before I could draw.”
“Still can’t accept any payments or monetary gifts.”
“How about this? You two have been friends forever, right? I’ll pay your portion to Sool, and he can treat you to fancy dinners for the rest of your life.”
“Wha...how much is the bounty?”
“Three-point-seven million Terran credits. About sixteen million galactic.”
Dliz’s eyes rolled in yet another motion. “Damned bureaucracy.”
Reedsy Prompt: Write about someone who has always done something as part of a group, and is now starting to set out solo, or vice versa.
Story published here.

Need honest advice
A few months ago my long term GF (27F) of 8 years left me(33) after I yelled at her during a drunken rage. It was the last straw after many years of drug and alcohol abuse and many other mistakes. She took our 5 year old son with her and was gone for about 2 weeks before I convinced her to come home with our son. Only after I made it clear I would leave if they came back. During the two weeks she met another another guy and proceeded to see and sleep him, up till now, with out telling me 10 or so months later. During that time. I was in and out of the house, I’d stay most days and leave on the weekends. I also started to see other women in the 10 month. This went on for the whole ten months. Furthermore during these months I quit drinking, went to counseling, and continued to stay sober from drugs as I had been for the past couple years. In hopes she see I have changed.
It all came to a head when I found out she had been bringing the guy to our apartment to have sex. So I ended up moving out and getting my own permanent apartment. She refused to end it with the new guy when I asked if we could work it out. So I began seeing other women to spite her or in hopes to move on. She said she doesn’t want to work things out because she thinks she will get hurt again and again as I have hurt constantly over the years, but she continues tells me she thinks about giving us another try all the time. It gets confusing because we still sleep together constantly multiple days out of the week, and she tells me she loves me and still would like to have more kids in the future. But she just needs time and space. I’m not sure what to do here. Do I go no contact. Do I continue to sleep with her. Or throw in the towel. We had a lot of good days and years. It was never all bad at all. I’m completely in love with her. I’m not sure what she might want, but part of me feels like she’s stringing me along till she finds a solid relationship. Idk what to do or see how this could possibly end. Any advice would be great.

Get the course here: [Download Course] Dan Koe – Digital Economics Masters Degree (Genkicourses.site)
Our website: https://www.genkicourses.site/product/dan-koe-digital-economics-masters-degree/
​

Phase 0) Digital Economics 101

The Digital Economics 101 module will open 1 week prior to the cohort start date.This is an onboarding module that will get you up to speed so we can get straight into the material.This will be required to finish before the start date.

• Gain a deep understanding of all of the pieces in the digital economy.
• Learn about the future of media and code — the front-end and backend of the internet — so you can focus your efforts.
• Understand digital leverage, distribution, no-code tools, and digital assets so you can take part in the mental & financial wealth transfer.

Phase 1) Creating A Meaningful Niche

Every day I hear people going on and on about trying to find their niche.I also hear people talking about how they don’t know how to combine what they love talking about with what will sell.You already have the answer. You just don’t have the clarity.

• Develop a long-term strategy to create your own niche — meaning you don’t have to worry about your “competition” playing status games.
• Discover your life’s work, curiosities, and obsessions. I see too many people that are uncertain about this for years.
• Cultivate and turn your vision, goals, and values into a brand that attracts an audience you love interacting with (and that will buy from you, and only you).

Phase 2) Content Strategy

There is one thing that separates those who make it in the digital economy and those who don’t.It’s the quality, articulation, and perceived originality of their content.The content you post has to make sense to the people you attract.Everyone has a different voice and tone that they resonate with. That they are congruent with and trust.It has to change their thought patterns or behavior — that’s what makes you memorable.That’s what separates you from the sea of people posting surface-level copy-cat style posts.Example and putting my money where my mouth is:

• Become an expert-level speaker or writer on the topics you care about.
• Never run out of content ideas for your posts or promotions (without using content templates — that’s how you stay a commodity).
• Create posts, blogs, tweets, images, and videos that resonate with other’s on a deep level. People will actually ask you how you got so good at what you do.
• Separate yourself from the ocean of B-tier creators that struggle to sell their products, services, andhave their ideas stick in the head of their audience.
• Implement our Epistemic Research Method — which is just a fancy way of saying scientific research method… but it’s for researching your mind to craft brilliant content and product ideas.

Phase 3) Crafting Your Offer

Most people are sitting on a goldmine of skills, experience, and knowledge (that they can use to help people 1-2 steps behind them).That is what people pay for.Considering 95% of the market are beginners… if you are good at something, you can help them get to your level (no matter how “basic” you think the information is).Do you not watch basic content all day anyway? People don’t want new information, they want to be reminded of what works.

• Use our Minimum Viable Offer strategy to start monetizing immediately (and have something to improve over time, rather than procrastinating until it’s perfect).
• Have a strategy for reducing the time you spend working over time (as you build leverage and improve your offer).
• Know how to create your own customers from the audience you are building, instead of “finding” the right customer for your offer.
• Take the guesswork out of building coaching, consulting, or digital product offers.

Phase 4) Marketing Strategy

You aren’t making money because you aren’t promoting yourself or your offer.That is literally the only way to make money. Have something desirable and consistently put it in front of peoples’ faces.In Phase 4, I will show you how to systemize, automate, and be consistent with simple promotions.You will be able to make money without having the chance of forgetting to do it (or letting fear of failure get in the way).

• Learn to sell on social media, in your writing, and across different platforms.
• Have consistent sales coming in while focusing on your meaningful message (no need to sound salesy all the time).
• Learn advanced automation strategies that you can implement at your own pace, especially once you validate your offer.

Bonus) The Creator Command Center

The Creator Command Center is a Notion template that houses all of the systems.This is how you will manage your brand, content, offer creation, marketing strategy, and systemized promotions for consistent sales.

Bonus) Live Product Build & Launch

In the first Digital Economics Cohort, I built out my course The 2 Hour Writer.I have videos showing how I build it with the strategies in phase 3 and 4.There is a bonus module that shows how I had an $85,000 launch that resulted in my first $100K month.I did this to prove the strategies inside Digital Economics work if you stick to the plan.And, this past Black Friday, I blew my that monthly high out of the water in 4 days.That’s the power of these strategies if you stay consistent with your life’s work.
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If you are interested in Iman Gadzhi – Copy Paste Agency contact us at +44 759 388 2116 on Telegram/Whatsapp.
I have Iman Gadzhi – Copy Paste Agency.
Iman Gadzhi – Copy Paste agency is the latest course by Iman Gadzhi.
Copy Paste Agency is designed for established agency owners, who can use these lessons to scale their business.
In Iman Gadzhi – Copy Paste Agency, you will learn:

• How to continue to run a multiple-six-figure agency from home with a skeleton staff and minimal expenses
  
• How to command higher retainers… and retain those clients for longer
  
• How to automate, delegate, and optimize every area of your agency from lead generation and sales to service delivery and client communication
  

To get Iman Gadzhi – Copy Paste Agency contact us on:
Whatsapp/Telegram: +44 759 388 2116 (Telegram: multistorecourses)
Reddit DM to u/RequestCourseAccess
Email: silverlakestore[@]yandex.com (remove the brackets)

Inspired by the tale of the sniper, Marisol
Markov couldn't remember the last time he had taken off his respirator.
He'd seen the faces of the others - decrepit, rotting, sloughing. Their rotten skin peeling off to reveal the oozing muscle below, their appearance matching the rot beneath. The Grandfather's so-called 'blessing' in action. The Admonition - the cults - called it a sign. A sign that they were His chosen. That this campaign (or crusade, as they called it) had His blessing.
He called it horrifying.
A few others agreed with him, other souls who still had some sanity left to recognize what they were becoming. Most of them deserted, disappearing into the hive's depths. A few of them were shot - he should know, he was on the firing line for most of them. Those who remained were silent like him, keeping their thoughts to themselves. The Moebian 6th was all they had left, and the blessings of the plague father were keeping them alive.
Some of his squad had taken off their gear to eat. One of them took off their jaw when they undid the latches of the respirator. Got some laughter, that did. Sergeant patted their shoulder too roughly, twisted her hand in a bad way. She chuckled and snapped it back into place with a 'pop'.
Markov couldn't remember the last time he had taken off any of his gear. It was better this way. Couldn't see the rot beneath if he kept his uniform on. Couldn't see the disease take hold of him. Couldn't realize that he was lost and damned from Terra's light for good.
He was on patrol. The orders blurred together. Scout here, defend here. They were all over Tertium, across every wretched square meter of that damned place. He never remembered the names, it all looked the same to him. Grand, high gothic architecture combined with the slums the average denizen of the city squatted in. It was disgusting. Some days he hated the city more than his rotting comrades. Both were infested with disease, rot rooted all the way into their slimy cores. There was companionship here, once. He even called Atoma a home, long before.
He looked around him as he walked along the flickering hallways of the hab. The boots of his squadmates stomped against the metal floor, the humming of the sergeant's volley gun, the grinding of machinery deep below; joining in the cacophony of background noise in the massive, unknowable hive. One of his squadmates choked something up and spit it into their respirator.
Then the tension of hearing las-fire and shouting in the distance.
"Movement detected. Moving to intercept." The sergeant rattled off the report into her micro-bead as she raised her hand in the air, gesturing the squad to follow. Markov checked the sights on his lasgun one last time before double-timing it towards the noise. They ducked through a doorway.
The squaddie to his left was immediately taken down with a crack of las-fire. He fell limp, crouched over with a burnt hole through his helmet.
"Down! Get down, take cover! Engagement protocol Kappa-Two-Taurox!"
They had joined in with some of their skirmisher infantry. Markov and a few others dashed behind a barricade as the sergeant warmed up her volleygun. He grunted as slug and las alike rained above his head, and...
And a grenade box?
Markov barely registered the strange object flying overhead until it landed right between the sergeant's eyes, cracking her visor and denting the goggles into her face. She crumpled to the ground, the plague father's gifts oozing from the broken helmet.
"Gunner down! Can't get a shot!"
The others hunkered down. With their heavy support and lead down, the enemy was free to fire on their position. Kneeling down, Markov leaned out to get a sightline - before taking a las to his left eye, burning a hole through his goggles.He yelled in pain, a sensation he hadn't felt in a long time, as dulled as it was. He lingered on the floor as another las hit right next to his head. He crawled to another barricade as the rest of his squads took his injury as a chance to open fire.
Breathing heavily, Markov felt around the wound. He was barely bleeding, no - he felt something else dripping from the wound. Liquified flesh, and likely whatever remained of his retina.
With a hand covering his mask, he looked back at his squad, now engaged in melee with an Ogryn. The brutish mass was tossing them around like the were toys, the jagged knife in his meaty fists cleanly bisecting one of his squad. Markov looked at the bayonet attached to his barrel. It was rusted despite barely seeing use. Something that made him feel slightly more secure in close quarters. He stood, leveling the bayonet towards the Ogyn's spine. Maybe if he got a lucky hit - maybe if he dug it deep enough - maybe -
Maybe, maybe, maybe. Markov yelled, in a voice he had forgotten. "For the 6th!" Did he really believe it? Was he really going to risk his life for a squad he loathed? The questions swirled in his mind as he charged the Ogyrn, whose attention was still on one last renegade. The short distance seemed so long. Every step, he was reminded of the man he once was. The people the 6th once were - before the darktide, before all this. He was a hive ganger, but conscription shaped him up. Before he left, he found someone. He never thought he would find love, but being free of the undercity made him a new man. He promised them he'd return, after he was a hero. He promised they'd come back with stories of grandeur and of victory. He wondered where they were now - dead, most likely. Gone with the rest of the hive, or still hiding somewhere. Maybe he'd find them, search for them through ever Emperor-forsaken level of the city once he left the damned Moebian 6th behind. He wouldn't turn back again. Not this time.
He dug the steel into the Ogryn's back, thrusting it forward with every ounce of strength he had. It dug into the beast's flesh, a trickle of blood coming out of the wound. The Ogryn didn't even seem to register it, and finished mutilating Marie, killing her with a single swipe of his savage knife.
Then it turned around. He readied his bayonet for another thrust.
And then Markov died.

I [26F] was friends with this girl [28F] and she ended up ghosting me after I had gone through a sexual assault.
It’s been 8 months since that time and i’m just now coming out of a depression.
I’m trying to review what went wrong and i’m anxious to go back to the climbing gym ( i introduced her to climbing and towards the end of my friendship she told me not to go there when she was there and wait til she was gone to work).
Things she did: - tell me I didn’t spend enough money on her bday present compared to what i spent on someone else’s ( keep in mind she got me nothing for mine and didnt even come out to my birthday dinner because she was heartbroken over this guy)

• i usually gave her clothes i was planning to donate. After the assault, there was one weekend where i took a lot of my wardrobe and needed to get rid of it. I sheepishly texted her “ sorry, i know i should of kept the clothes for you but i just needed them out of my house and i felt weird with you wearing the clothes that represent a weird time in my life” She said “im just salty because you know i need money right now and cant afford new clothes. But do whatever you want i guesss” The next day i felt guilty and put clothes in a bag and gave it to her
  
• our entire friendship, she kept talking about her previous friend who broke their friendship in a letter to her. She had outlined times where she was being unfair and not nice. I should of taken this story as a red flag…
  
• she would often tell me “ someone called me too much once”
  
• she would say people who claim that “everyone loves them” are actually the people everyone dislikes… and then she would say “ this people love me so much, im everybody’s favorite… etc That confused me
  
• i was raised by a stay at home italian mom who loves through food. So shes the type of person who bakes for the nee neighbour or makes soup when someone is sick… i told my friend i was going to bake the employees at our climbing gym because theyre nice and she said “ why would you do that? It’s so weird” Made me feel insecure about wanting to bake for people but then my mom told me she was just upset because it would make me look better than her so she didnt want me to do that…
  
• she called me stupid infront of this guy i had a crush on and that hurt my feelings and when i confronted her about it later she said “ i said that? I dont even remember”
  
• the real kicker is that she started a rumour about me after ghosting me and told people i cant be trusted with guys who have girlfriends and made all the women on staff stay away from me… girls i didnt even know we’re telling people that i was bad news I only know because a guy on staff asked me about it because he was like “ you seem really sweet and nice but people are saying youre bad news” That felt shitty. I was trying to get back into climbing about the assault and she made that place a living hell for me, i was already paranoid every knew about the assault but add this shit on… She also knew i hadnt dated anyone in 6 years and im just a bubbly person…
  

I guess i’m looking for input. These are red flags or is it okay for her to do and say these things because shes angry and depressed and hurting? I still don’t know how i could of salvaged the relationship or what i did wrong. Thats al. I kinda feel blind sided and now im scared to make another friend… i dont have many to begin with

In real life, “Ukrainian politics carries on in the background, shutting down opposition parties, monopolizing television broadcasts” with “attacks on those dissenting from the patriotic consensus” (V. Ishchenko). National unity is unfavourable to profound social transformation. By definition, “the Ukrainian people” gathers all Ukrainians, and the post-war period will not go against the interests of the ruling classes. At best some mild reforms might come out of it, but Ukraine will remain a country of low wages and poor protection of labour rights.
An altogether different matter would be the emergence of groups large enough to head the resistance towards a situation of “dual power”, ending up in confronting a Russian army tired out by the stalemate, to the point of desertions and mutinies, as well as confronting a Ukrainian State also contested from within. We are clearly not there. There are not three forces vying for power in Ukraine now: the Russian invader, the official Ukrainian army, plus a popular democratic armed movement that could grow (and take over?). There are two armies fighting an inter-State war in which grassroots efforts play an auxiliary role.
War mends social fractures as much as it aggravates divisions, and many a political change can come out of these troubled times providing they appear to offer a viable solution: the Bolsheviks in Russia in 1917, the fascists in Italy in 1922. The shock of war does not ipso facto entail rebellion, and anti-war attitudes are known to have taken the most diverse forms: revolutionary, conservative, reactionary… Exactly one hundred years before Russia attacked Ukraine, Lenin, who in terms of revolutionary defeatism spoke from experience, asserted that in “the national question”, “the overwhelming majority of the working people will inevitably decide it in favour of their bourgeoisie.” (At least temporarily, that is.) The past century has rather proved him right.
In the short term, the Ukrainian population, proletarians included, have few options: defending themselves ( = joining the government’s war effort in one way or other), or lying low, or even trying to evade conscription. Meanwhile, “revolutionary defeatism” only has reality in the aggressor’s country. After the war broke out, Russian anarchists set fire to army recruitment centres, Belorussian railway workers sabotaged tracks used to convey Russian troops and supplies to Ukraine, while various dissidents voiced their opposition to the war on social media. How widespread these (usually clandestine) networks are and what impact they could have is unknown but, more important, there are reports of Russian servicemen refusing to go and fight, even more so since the partial mobilisation of reservists.
If these movements happened to continue, if protest grew within Russia and the invading troops, if the war was grinding on and becoming unpopular because of the army being bogged down, and if too many “zinc coffins” started coming home, there could be defections, desertions, mutinies or even fraternisation with Ukrainian soldiers. At the time of writing (April 2023), this is not the case (yet?).
In 1940, Otto Rühle wrote: “The question confronting us today is whether Liebknecht’s slogan ‘The enemy is at home!’ is as valid now for the working class as it was in 1914.” To which he answered: “No matter to which side the proletariat offers itself, it will always be among the defeated. Therefore it must not side with the democracies, nor with the totalitarians.” https://thepolarblast.wordpress.com/2023/06/04/gilles-dauve-peace-is-wa

Over the last weeks, I have been diving once again in the discography of The National. This time I really decided to take my time and listen to every song on repeat, taking in the lyrics and looking up comments the band made about the songs. Result: I love this band more than ever, have a playlist of over 100 tracks that I really love and discovered some great songs that somehow remained under my radar so far or I didn't appreciate as much as I do now. I wanted to share with you some songs here that I feel deserve the spotlight and should be more part of the conversation, hoping you might enjoy them too if you didn't already. I started writing down my thoughts and decided to keep it to some songs from their first album as this was taking me more time than I thought. Maybe I'll make another post with more songs that I rediscovered if this can start some discussion.
The National (2021)
I love this album and have several songs still on repeat. There is such a raw sound to this record that remains recognizable as The National, even though they have obviously evolved quite a bit.

• The Perfect Song: Matt reminiscing in his own Matt way about a past relationship that clearly didn’t end well. I love the lyricism and even though it's one of their earliest works, you already see a lot of themes present that will come back even in FTPOF. "I tried to look at you but I couldn't break the ice" - classic Matt struggling to find the right words, a theme coming back in more recent Tropic Morning News for example. I also love the line "Sometimes I can feel your weight when I close my eyes. Seven times I was under you", maybe it's just me, but that cracks me up. Another line I love, that has The National all over it: "Shallow frame and shaky sticks but I know there's a river in me", this is also the best part of the song.
• Bitters & Absolut: Matt's singing is deliciously nonchalant and laid-back here, plus the hook is super catchy. The title already hints at it, but one of the more notorious themes of The National comes forward here, alcohol: "I'd do better than you ever will - When I am on Bitters and Absolut". "Your bottom lip is bleeding, I cut it on your collarbone" is also a line I feel you can only find back in a Matt Berninger lyric. This is the perfect song to play as you lay back in the comfort of your own home, enjoy an afternoon vodka cocktail accompanied by pure nothingness.
• American Mary: Not sure if this can be considered as underrated or unknown, especially since it's the name of their official website. For a long time, this one was the only song I listened to from the self-titled album. The other very well-known National theme, being 'water', also subtly makes its way in this song "It takes a lot of little rain to make you feel like nothing". The song is, again, so catchy, Matt is a wizard when it comes to finding the right melody.
• Theory of the Crows: In the earlier days of the band, Matt focused way more on the unfairness and pointlessness of the corporate world. And so he does here in the Theory of the Crows. Also something that’s typical for the early National songs, is the explicitness. Just listen to this: "I'll suck off investors, I'll suck off VCs. I'm losing my posture from time on my knees". And I must say, I love this version of Matt. He gets even more unhinged in the following album. I'm so happy we can still experience this part of The National.
• 29 Years: This is very much an outlier in terms of style and tone. There's something very dark, deterministic in Matt's voice, giving the vibe of a drunk guy who just picked up the mic at the end of the wedding of his ex. And I think that's also exactly what they went for. To all National fans, '29 years' will of course ring a bell. And indeed, they actually reused some of the lyrics to make one of the best songs ever recorded 6 years later.

There's other good songs like Watching You Well, Cold Girl Fever, Beautiful Head,.. But these five jump out for me.
Would love to hear your thoughts on your favourite songs from their debut album too so I can give them another try with your point of view!

My in-laws are just so fucking annoying and weird. At least they aren’t malicious but they are terrible houseguests and it just sucks being around them.
FIL wears a sweat band around his head and a mesh vest with the pockets stuffed with items—in public. He drinks 1 coffee per hour. He takes DayQuil when he feels tired. He’s partially deaf but won’t wear his hearing aids, and mumbles. English is also his second language. Communication is extremely difficult. He’s rough with the kids and has made my 2 year old cry twice in one evening so far. He doesn’t like tacos but is okay with fajitas and any other Mexican food. Whatever food we have at home is not okay with him and he eats enough for 3-4 people. He microwaved bread this morning instead of toasting it. He decided to take the hard boiled eggs we had with breakfast and mash them in a bowl and drown them at mayo at the table. He then requested we cut him an onion and ate it with raw onion. He literally never pushes in his chair or cleans up after himself. He is constantly taking photos and it takes him forever while people on the sidewalk are visibly annoyed and having to walk around him or wait for him. And because he’s deaf he doesn’t hear people asking him to move. He won’t drink anything cold. He drinks lukewarm water from the recently boiled tea kettle and room temp soda from the pantry. It’s 80 degrees here. And the kicker: he refuses to sleep in the guest bed. Every time he has visited, it has been an issue. Last time, the bed was too hard— I got a quilted pad. Then he wanted the air mattress, but he also doesn’t like it. Then he wants to sleep on the sofa. This time we told him that after having a second child, there is no where to put the air mattress. Then I asked if I could put more padding on the bed for him. He said it would be okay, he would sleep in the bed. We told him that my 2 year old is sick and often needs a parent to sleep downstairs on the couch to be nearby when he cries, so please don’t sleep on the couch. The man fucking slept on the couch. Turns out he isn’t comfortable sharing a bed with his wife. The bed is comfortable btw. I slept on it for a month when the ceiling in our bedroom had a leak. Every other houseguest has said it’s fine. Like, WTF?! I’ve never heard of a guest refusing to sleep in the guest room and making such a big deal of it when they’re only here for 2 nights. Plus he slept on my white throw pillows, which are now a bit yellow and greasy. And I can’t wash them. I told my husband they need to get a hotel next time and he said it wasn’t fair that my parents get to stay here, but my parents behave like normal guests. I’m just so annoyed.
MIL is also messy and refuses to push in her chair. She only drinks wine with club soda mixed in it. Bell peppers are too spicy for her. She makes insulting comments. Like she mentioned that her children were spoon fed until they were able to eat with a spoon themselves because eating with your hands is for savages. I’m from South Asia. We eat with our hands all the time. Then my 8 month old grabbed my phone. Screen off and locked. And she mentioned how I always give the kids a screen to distract them. I don’t. She’s still better than him.

The 2012 Election is taking shape in the Confederacy. The Conventions of the Dixiecrats and the Populists have wrapped up. Vincent K. McMahon will represent the Dixiecrats with Jeff Sessions as his running mate. On the Populist end, John McCain rides a surprising wave of popular support with Bill Nelson to try and redeem the image of the Populists.
It now comes down to the Farmers, and everyone attending the Convention believes this is the election where the Farmers finalize their decade-plus long comeback. The economic recession and shaky situation abroad has, to the Farmers, created the perfect storm to not only enter the Presidency again but also to push through other reforms. Even the last few years' controversies surrounding former Farmers Presidential candidate John Edwards can't seem to stop the Farmers' hype train.
And so the Farmers National Convention begins in New Orleans, Louisiana. Who do the delegates choose to carry the Farmers to the White House?

Senator Al Gore of Tennessee

The son of a prominent Confederate political family and current frontrunner in the election is the Senator Al Gore. A long-time environmentalist, Gore was actually on the shortlist for a cabinet position in the Clinton administration. It's believed that this is the reason Gore declined to run in 2006, out of respect for Edwin Edwards who was running as the Populist candidate. Gore has been a strong and stabilizing hand for the Farmers since the 80s, and has drawn comparisons with the legendary Confederate President Huey Long. Gore has been running on a plan of repealing the Israel embargo, strengthening the Confederate Social Security program, infrastructure spending, and environmentalist reforms to protect Confederate nature such as the Florida Everglades and Ozarks.
Some, however, see this as promising too much and shooting too high, and claim these ideals contradict each-other. Gore is also a known ally of former President Bill Clinton, which could hurt him somewhat if he isn't careful.

Senator James Webb of Virginia

Back from is Vice Presidential loss in 2006 is James Webb. As former Secretary of the Navy under President Jimmy Carter, and a current sitting Senator, and with a wealth of foreign policy experience, Webb is trailing only slightly behind Gore, and even coming ahead of him in the Deep South. Like Gore, Webb wants to repeal the Israeli embargo, but wants to pair this with pushing European allies to sanction Israel as well. He supports reforms to national veteran support systems, and his nature as a fighter makes him appeal to even the hawks across the Confederacy.
However, Webb walks the fine line between a fighter and a strongman. As well, his controversial statements about women, especially women in military service, could cost the Farmers the female vote. There's also a number of accusations from more conservative individuals across the Confederacy that he'll increase rights for black Confederates, but that affects all Farmers. It just affects him more than others.

Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana

The only woman in the Confederate race so far is Mary Landrieu, Senator from Louisiana. Unlike Gore or Webb, who are firmly on the Farmers' left-wing side, Landrieu is much more moderate, and willing to cross party lines, as evidenced by her work in the Common Ground Coalition in Congress. She adopts a few of Gore's environmental positions, endearing her to the Deep South, but also supports the current embargo and sanctions on Israel, instead proposing new trade agreements with India and Taiwan to make up the difference. Even her Internet sales tax proposals have gained significant ground. Not to mention that if she won the general election, she would be the first female Confederate President!
But Landrieu has been the target of a few criticisms. In particular, her record on environmentalism is mixed, and some believe she's adopting some of Gore's positions to simply gain votes, which she denies. She's also accused of being more socially conservative than either Gore or Webb, personally supporting same-sex marriage but also defending her own State's ban, which just leaves people confused.
And so it's turned over to the delegates. Who do the Farmers nominate for the Presidency?
View Poll

Hello Reddit, I am a 21M, and I just wanted to come on here and let people know about my experience with this antibiotic.
This antibiotic is usually for skin-related issues and a few other things. This is not something someone would take to help RELIEVE anxiety but instead, this is something that people may use without knowing that it has the ability to CAUSE anxiety and other horrible symptoms.
I had a pilonidal cyst and so a dermatologist gave me a prescription for about 2 weeks' worth of Doxycycline (100 mg, twice a day, preferably in the morning and then again at night before I go to bed). My horrible experience started very soon after taking my first dose, though I did not realize it. On day 2 of taking the antibiotic, I had eaten some wings for dinner. I started to feel lightheaded and had an overwhelming weird feeling in my body. I have the potential for HBP because of my parents, so I figured it was related to that. I felt pretty bad through the night, and couldn't go to sleep for a while, but eventually, I was able to calm myself down enough to go to sleep. The following day, I woke up feeling okay, but progressively felt worse as the day continued. I had shortness of breath, arm numbness, uncomfortable chest pressure (on the left side), and a weird tingling that shot throughout my entire body. My anxiety also rose to a new high. I thought I was having a heart attack. My parents, who are both medical professionals, said it was just anxiety but I managed to get them to take me to the ER anyway. Spent like 5 or 6 hours in the ER just for them to tell me I'm perfectly healthy and all I have is moderate HBP, which is mostly due to my anxiety. Even after, the symptoms still persisted for the following days, and I assumed it must have just been due to my BP levels...
Flash forward to just a few days ago, I had moved back to my dorm and felt pretty okay, though the lightheadedness and shortness of breath never seemed to go away truly. I was doing more walking to try and get my BP down and it had started to work, when suddenly I started getting all of these horrible symptoms back again. The lightheadedness persisted, dizziness, shortness of breath, heartbeat skips, chest pressure...It finally hit a head when I was driving to practice down the interstate and I felt this horrible wave through my body, I thought I was going to pass out, and my heart rate jumped to like 110-120 BPM. It was, and still is, the worst sensation I have ever felt in my life. I pulled over on the side of the road and called my mom and told her how I felt and asked what I needed to do. She talked me through my symptoms and then told me it was most likely just a panic attack. By the end of the conversation, my symptoms had gone away and I felt moderately normal again. I decided to go back to my room for the remainder of the day and rest. The attack hit me again as I drove back to my dorm, but that time I was better equipped to deal with it.
When I got back to my room, my dad called me and asked me about what happened, and I told him. Throughout the entire conversation, I felt these waves of pressure go through my body. I could barely focus on anything and at times it felt like I was going to pass out, but I was still fine. My parents told me to just try and relax, so I got in bed and tried to relax, but I couldn't. My heart rate continued to rise, the left side of my chest was highly uncomfortable, and I still had shortness of breath, lightheadedness, dizziness, slight nausea, crazy chest tightness, and this feeling of what felt like indigestion...like something was stuck in my chest. It had been two hours since that last conversation when I told my parents about these symptoms. My dad decided we should go to the ER again, so my parents came and picked me up from my dorm and brought me to the ER near home.
This time I was in the ER for 9 hours (so fun...). All my tests came back negative once again. EKG looks "textbook healthy" as the nurse said, and all my blood work came back perfect as well. X-Ray showed no signs of anything abnormal. My BP was high when I came in, but by the time I was settled out, it had lowered back to proper levels. In all, no one knew what was wrong with me besides anxiety elevating my symptoms. Out of nowhere, my dad asked about the Doxy...specifically wondering how long I had been taking it. I told them it's been two weeks...which is exactly how long I've been dealing with all of these horrible symptoms. My mom then looked up the side effects of Doxy, something we hadn't actually done yet for some reason...and...well look at that...all the side effects match up with the symptoms I had been having :)
So when we got back home, I tossed the Doxy. I'm trying to cycle the rest of it out of my system so I can feel normal again. This is the 3rd day since my most recent ER visit. The symptoms have not really gotten any better. I still get at least one panic attack a day, though it is much more manageable now that I know I'm not actually having a heart attack. I still have shortness of breath, my heart rate will run high, I'll feel warm for short periods of time, my heart will randomly skip beats (this can sometimes trigger a panic attack, which makes my HR and BP skyrocket temporarily), I get weird poking feelings in between my left shoulder and arm and occasionally in my actual arm, I still get occasional stinging chest pains, tightness in the middle of my chest, "indigestion", and the uncomfortable feeling in the left side of my chest.
It requires lots of mental strength to not freak out. Yesterday, I felt off all day, and then I had mass band rehearsal that afternoon. I went to band because my dad mentioned it would be good to have something to take my mind off of what my body has been doing, but I ended up leaving from practice about 45 mins early because I felt so bad. My chest was extremely tight, there were moments I felt like I could barely breathe, I had pain in my lower neck, my heart kept skipping beats, and there were moments I felt like I was going to fall out.
I am drinking a lot of water to flush the Doxy through my system fully, and have 10 billion count probiotics that I take once a day to help rebalance my gut. I'm looking forward to feeling normal again...

In my life, I currently do not have a single person I consider a friend (awful, I know). I feel like I am just coasting through my 20s completely alone (even worse, I know). So, what better way to look for a friend than Reddit? I have seen lots of good posts here. This is probably not going to be half as good, but we can give it a go. I live in NW England. I am a university student. I am massively into gaming (mainly PC and NS). Huge hip-hop head. Collector of pottery and home décor. Lover of Dr Martens. Avid reader.
Super basic. However, it would be nice to organically get to know someone. Feel free to hmu.

In my life, I currently do not have a single person I consider a friend (awful, I know). I feel like I am just coasting through my 20s completely alone (even worse, I know). So, what better way to look for a friend than Reddit? I have seen lots of good posts here. This is probably not going to be half as good, but we can give it a go. I live in NW England. I am a university student. I am massively into gaming (mainly PC and NS). Huge hip-hop head. Collector of pottery and home décor. Lover of Dr Martens. Avid reader.
Feel free to hmu

Basically the title. I’m in my early 30’s, I’m divorced, and I have an 8 year old son. I have 19 and 20 year old stepsons who like to keep in touch. And I spend most of my time with my ex because I can spend more time with my son that way.
My relationship ended after years of us drifting apart that came to a head when she told me the friend she had been texting and hanging out with sporadically for years was actually her affair partner. I tried to come to a reconciliation but she was very hostile with me and we ended up getting divorced after a couple years of Zoom court.
I have always struggled with feelings of inadequacy as I’ve had very little positive experiences with relationships and very little experience in general. Before divorce she told me I could do whatever I want, but even now that I’m single I haven’t found anyone.
I ended up landing an amazing job shortly after we separated and make more money than I know what to do with, and being depressed I’ve never been such a poor employee either. I’m not worried about losing my job and if I did I basically have a golden parachute. But at the same time I’ve saved up hardly any money because I’ve found ways to waste it away while depressed. Still I pay my ex’s bills in child support and put dinner on the table every night.
I know that I’m doing a poor job for myself and a poor job for my kiddo. And I always feel best when I am there to take care of people, like acts of service are my love language. But when I go to bed alone every night, I’d rather stay up all night battling anxiety than try again another day.
When I first moved out I promised myself that I would take every opportunity to change my life. No video games, no binge watching, no time wasters. Just working hard, going to the gym, buying fresh ingredients and cooking, taking dance classes. None of that ever happened because two months later everyone was told to stay home, indefinitely.
I’m a calm person but pandemic hysteria and never escaping my ex’s orbit have left me debilitated. In the meantime she’s chatted up a bunch of guys, had enough bad experiences to swear it off, and then get back into the game all over again. Now she was even saying we should hook-up, and I’ll I have is a couple girl’s numbers from onlyfans and a huge hole in my pocket.
So yeah, the title question. How do you give a **** about yourself when it’s clear no one else does and it’s not fair to people who love you to be so checked out.

In my life, I currently do not have a single person I consider a friend (awful, I know). I feel like I am just coasting through my 20s completely alone (even worse, I know). So, what better way to look for a friend than Reddit? I have seen lots of good posts here. This is probably not going to be half as good, but we can give it a go. I live in NW England. I am a university student. I am massively into gaming (mainly PC and NS). Huge hip-hop head. Collector of pottery and home décor. Lover of Dr Martens. Avid reader.
Super basic. However, it would be nice to organically get to know someone. Feel free to hmu.