We recently got out of our Eircom contract, the prices were just ridiculous compared to what we were getting.
I've been tasked with finding a new ISP, and i have no idea what I'm doing, I've never done this before. Anyone know of any decent ISP's that you don't need a landline for?
(we still have the actual line, we are just not interested in the phone service anymore.)

I’ve been playing Destiny for quite some time and I’ve enjoyed the community around it a lot, but the one thing that frustrates me the most about Destiny is how little the community actually knows about game development. It’s driving me crazy, so I wrote this whole thing down. I’m a game designeproducer myself, I’ve never worked on a project as massive as Destiny (not many people ever do), but I have worked on several gaming projects, some of them big in large companies, some of them small gaming apps. I know enough to explain the basics here, but I’m definitely not the ultimate authority on videogames and I’m not representing Bungie whatsoever, everything here is only from my experience. My goal here is to give you some useful info and calm my mind about this.
The Destiny community is incredibly vocal, especially this sub, which is generally a good thing, but the lack of understanding really damages not only the enjoyment of the community members but also the game itself IMO. I’ll explain some of the basics I think any hardcore fan should know here with an example and then I’ll outline some specific problems.
How Games Are Made
A videogame pipeline can be simplified into this flow: Demand from the top/the market -> top management decision -> design and prototyping -> development and feedbacks -> in house testing -> public testing -> marketing and publishing -> data collecting and analysis -> feedback implementation. It’s a circle that applies to everything from the big picture like the main campaign, to the smallest details like colors of shaders or proofreading of even the smallest posts. Every decision made in this system, even the tiniest ones, has to be debated, supported by data and expertise, approved in multiple places based on the priority, and checked multiple times after it’s implemented.
Game developers, especially in a powerhouse like Bungie, are very skilled, talented, experienced, and passionate people who always do their best to navigate that flow to satisfy the demands with a quality product delivered on time. I can’t stress this enough, developers (including QA testers, designers, artists, marketing, publishing, the whole team) are pretty much always incredibly hard-working people with a love for video games, because otherwise, they would never stay in this scummy business. They’re underpaid, overworked, and most likely overqualified for what they have to do. Some of them know almost everything there is to know about their field and they’re always improving as well.
Because video games, especially gargantuan living games with real-time action combat like Destiny, are insanely complicated, you need sometimes hundreds of experts to put them together. The pipeline needs to be perfectly planned, flexible so you can adapt to problems, and also easy enough to implement so you can deliver the product on time. All of these factors result in a tight-rope walk that never ends.
Now it’s time for an example. Let’s say during Season of the Worthy you get an assignment to create a catalyst for Thorn that would make it more popular in PVE, but doesn’t make it overpowered in PVP. Seems simple enough, right? There are dozens of posts about this topic on this subreddit, how hard can it be. The answer is, very, very hard.
You start working on your designs. You analyze all other exotic catalysts and hand cannon perks in the game - how they were made, their philosophy, psychological effects, and how they influence gameplay, you discuss everything in your team. When you create your first version, your design lead tells your whole team that hand cannons are getting a range buff and Thorn is now a 140 RPM and you have to adjust your design. After that, your priorities get shifted to helping with Beyond Light and the DSC weapons so it’s finished on time, so you put Thorn on hold. You don’t want to waste time though, so you give the art team an assignment to create the catalyst icon.
After two months of work on Beyond Light, you come back to Thorn, but now you basically have to start over because the future meta has changed so much. You create new designs and this time they’re approved by management, so you move onto prototyping. Developers are way too busy debugging and QA testing Beyond Light, so they have no time for Thorn and that task gets put into their To-Do list. You have no choice but to move onto your other tasks and start working on weapons for seasons 13 and 14.
When development starts finally working on Thorn, they find an exploit in your design that would allow it to two tap in PVP, you have to rework it again and hope they’ll have time to implement it this time. They don’t and the Thorn catalyst now officially misses its deadline and is pushed from Beyond Light. The marketing team doesn’t hear about it though, so they publish the icon you had made four months ago, leaking the catalyst coming out. This is of course your fault, but these things happen during all the chaos and there was almost nothing you could have done.
When you finally push this task through and it’s checked and approved dozens of times in different places (weapon design team, design lead, writing, sandbox team, development, QA, studio director, etc.) you have to make sure it’s published correctly in the right build, it has all necessary descriptions and marketing texts done and translated into all languages and the community managers know about it so they can get ready to collect data.
This single task took you a year to complete even when you did your best to do it fast and well and I left out about 90% of problems you would normally encounter. THIS is game development.
Community Attitude and Feedback
Now we get to why the uninformed community hurts the game so much. This sub would only see Thorn getting a catalyst and it would immediately be flooded with posts like “The catalyst sucks in PVE, buff pls”, “Bungo doesn’t care, the catalyst sucks for Warlocks” and a few “Why catalyst for Thorn, but not for Skyburner’s Oath”, completely missing the point of the catalyst and adding nothing to the discussion.
Bungie devs are way more informed, skilled, and experienced than us, the community. The only feedback they are interested in from us is quantitative - basically what we like and what we don’t like about the game. Any posts giving them ideas, elaborate reworks, or straight up negative outrage will accomplish nothing, because they already know everything about the game and discuss it daily in way more detail than we could ever imagine. The only qualitative feedback they should collect and measure is from content creators and the top 1% of the player base because those people actually know some aspects of the game Bungie doesn’t. I know it may sound like the hated “Bungo only listens to sweats and Youtubers”, but that’s kinda the point, they should be listening.
It doesn’t mean that our voices are ignored or not listened to. I would bet all of my money that all forums are constantly monitored and analyzed. The truth is, however, that the only valid opinion we can give that Bungie should consider is what aspects of the game we like, and what aspects we don’t. Anything beyond that we already tell them through data they collect from our play sessions.
As I wrote above, any change within this massive game is complicated and could take months or years to be implemented, so being upset we don’t have everything now is just useless. Bungie is hard at work to make good stuff, we should respect them more and not bring out the pitchforks every time a season slows down a bit and we can’t play for four hours a day every day for the whole year. There will always be problems in a live game and they are doing a fantastic job, I can’t even imagine how much work must go into it. So before you post about something in the future, take a moment to think about the process and figure out what exactly you can provide to the devs with your feedback, because otherwise, you’re fanning the flames on something that probably isn’t actually burning. It’s just taking its time as it should.
With all of the above said, it isn't the community's fault that we're not informed. The fault lies entirely with Bungie not educating people enough and this problem could be avoided.
Reasons Why Things Suck
I’ll close by giving my two cents on why the game isn’t perfect and never will be, just so you know where the community's frustrations should go.

1. The biggest reason that influences everything - Bungie is a company owned by a group of shareholders that will always force the studio to grow and provide more profit. With every extra dollar, the value of the company grows and the board of directors gets richer and because of the super predatory capitalism we live in now, Bungie has to justify every single decision with a monetary value. It's not the fault of the devs, they don't make much money themselves.
2. The game is massive and always online. I’m pretty confident that no other studio would be able to support Destiny for so long without the game completely crashing down. Technology always evolves and it’s almost impossible to keep a living game up to date, so some parts of the front end of the game will always suck because Bungie has to upkeep the back end we will never get to see.
3. The project has been going on for a decade, which leads to people wanting to naturally move on. Replacing team members on a living game is very difficult, which leads to problems and delays.
4. The community is not educated about the game enough, which is why I ended up writing this. The continuous cycle of negative outrage that comes from a lack of understanding damages the game because the devs are forced to deal with it without disclosing information. If people knew more, they could help Bungie, but no company that wants to make big profits will ever open up its communication because it would show just how many decisions are influenced by the search for profit.

That’s it, sorry for the length of this essay. I hope you learned something and let me know if you’d be interested in more stuff like this (takes on sunsetting, sandbox, etc.). I would like to give people more info so they don’t waste their precious time on stuff completely outside of their control and maybe educate people about the industry. I love the game and I hope you’ll appreciate it a bit more now.
Edit 1:
This post is not meant as a defense for the faults of the game or an excuse for bad decisions, it's meant as a resource to give you perspective and information. If you believe the game is not as good as it was promised to be or disagree with some design choices made, you are of course entitled to your own opinion, and there are quite a few things I myself absolutely hate in Destiny. I can't answer questions related to design on Destiny with confidence, because I don't work for Bungie and I won't speculate much on why certain decisions were made. I can give you my opinion on stuff like sunsetting based on my experience in another post, but ultimately it's only speculation with little benefit. All I will say is that there is always more stuff we don't know about the game than we do know and design should be judged in context.
When it comes to questions related to Bungie's scummy tactics when it comes to monetization and bad communication, I agree with you, as I said above. Money is the biggest factor of why Destiny suffers and the best way for us to do anything about that is to stop buying it. I know it's a cliche statement, but it's true.
And lastly, for the comments saying stuff like "shut up, Bungie sucks and you know it", please read what I said again and think about it. The devs most likely love the game just as much as you once did, if not much more.
Edit 2:
I'll add one thing that keeps popping up. It's clear that Destiny is a product developed for profit, so if your outlook is "I don't want to know about development, I'm just an unhappy consumer that didn't like this product", I agree as would most likely everybody that it's absolutely a valid stance, but that's not what my post was about. If that's how you see any product, you should tell the producer why you didn't like it if you care enough to do so and move on. The post is meant to inform people who don't want to move on from Destiny, especially those who continuously engage with the product from a place of understanding even if they don't have it, which wastes their time and does nothing for the product. If you don't like this game or any other game, it's absolutely OK and you should move on from playing it, complaining about things you don't want to understand won't help you achieve what you want and only makes the game worse. As I said above, the best way to show your disagreements is not to support the company and if you don't like Destiny, please stop playing it and take care of yourself. Your time is valuable, don't give it away to someone you don't agree with.
Edit 3
This will be the last edit on this post. I appreciate all the awards and great discussions happening below, but holy cow did this get a lot of vitriol. I expected a lot of negativity, but it still surprised me. It's partially my fault for trying to talk about so much with not enough room so I'm sure I made a few mistakes. I'll reply to a few things that I want to make clear and then leave this alone, it's way too long anyway.
If you see any malicious intent, attacks, arrogance, or "Bungie shilling" between the lines, I put none there, at least not on purpose. My goal was to inform, as I said right at the start, so if you see any other agenda, it's not there and my writing either wasn't clear enough, or you're looking for something that I didn't write. Take the post for what it is, a stranger on the internet telling you something you may not know from their experience. If you disagree with me, downvote the post and explain why, no need to insult anyone, you're once again wasting your precious time.
I didn't mention management as a problem on Destiny, because I don't know enough about it. Leadership is very often a problem on any collaborative projects but calling someone out without the necessary data is exactly what I warned about in my post, so I won't comment on it, but feel free to disagree with me. Maybe you know more about the subject than I do and I'll be happy to read your reply.
I never put myself up as an ultimate authority on the subject, all of this is just basics I thought hardcore fans should know and I communicated that. This post was already very long and I didn't have time, nor did I want to describe theory in detail, so insulting me over not explaining how scrum works in a post meant for people with no experience is not necessary. If you want to argue about production methodologies, my reasoning on examples given, and how healthy management looks like with me please feel free to message me and I'm sure we'll have a cool conversation, I'd love to hear about your experience from working in gaming.
And that's it, I hope you got something out of this. Have a great day and see you around.

In honour of Capaz97 giving me my mod job back after going AFK for so long, I made you guys another big list of creepy and cool threads to kill some time to.
I missed this community, and I'm glad to be back! <3
Please let me know any mistakes I've made.
As always, criticism and critiques welcome. Compliments always accepted.
With love,
Jane <3

• Thread 1
  
• Thread 2
  

ALIENS, CRYPTOIDS AND SIMULATIONS

• What if Earth is like one of those uncontacted tribes in South America, like the whole Galaxy knows we're here but they've agreed not to contact us until we figure it out for ourselves?
• What are some horrifying things to consider when thinking about aliens?
• What do you think is stopping aliens from killing us all?
• What is your personal encounter with the paranormal - ghosts, aliens, sleep paralysis, glitch in the matrix, etc?
• What are some horrifying things to consider when thinking about aliens?
• People of Reddit that honestly believe they have been abducted by aliens, what was your experience like?
• Stephen Hawking has stated that we should stop trying to contact Aliens, as they would likely be hostile to us. What is your position on this issue?
• If UFO's aren't aliens, and aren't hoaxes, what's the scariest scenario for what they really are?
• What is the most "aliens did it" moment in history?
• Believers of reddit, what's the most convincing evidence that aliens exist?
• The President mistakenly declares Martian Law, instead of Martial Law. What powers does he think he has under Martian Law?
• Individuals of Reddit who have experienced crazy sightings such as Aliens, Cryptids, Humanoids, UFOs, Black Silouettes AKA The Shadow People, Dogman, Mothman, Stairs in the Woods etc- What stories can you share?
• Neil deGrasse Tyson believes there are better than 50/50 odds that we live in a simulation universe. What glitch in the matrix have you experienced?
• People of reddit who claim to have seen a mythical creature, such as faires, elves, gnomes, etc, what is your story?
• What do you think is scarier, the idea that we are alone in the universe or the idea that we aren’t? Why?
• UFO enthusiasts of Reddit, what is the most significant piece of evidence supporting extra terrestrial life?
• Who would you call if you caught bigfoot?
• Did a small-town college professor discover the first-ever evidence of extraterrestrial life back in 1959? - a little-known European mystery that totally belongs in the X Files

PLACES, ENCOUNTERS AND EXPERIENCES

• People of reddit, what is the one thing that was so disturbing and gruesome you saw in your life that still disturbs you deeply to this day?
• What’s something unexplainable that you’ve experienced?
• What place gets creepy when you're alone?
• When did a game of hide and seek go horribly wrong?
• Travelers of lonely roads, explorers of the great outdoors, workers of creepy jobs and late-night shifts... What's your scary story?
• Whats a horrifying/creepy experience you have lived through?
• What is the creepiest or most unexplained thing that’s happened to you that you still think and/or wonder about to this day?
• People of Reddit, what was the creepiest thing you experienced that you thought was paranormal, but was actually much scarier when you found out what really caused it?
• What is the creepiest thing you found in a forest?
• People who like to explore abandoned buildings. What was the biggest "fuck this, I'm out" moment you had while exploring?
• What’s the creepiest or most unexplainable thing you’ve ever seen that you haven’t shared anywhere?
• What was the strangest moment in your life that you still can't explain up to this day?
  
• People who avoided certain death by not going at a place they normally would be at (9/11, plane crashes, shootings, etc.), What did you feel when you found out something horrible happened at a place you would have normally been at?
  
• What is the most horrific event that you have personally witnessed?
  
• Road trippers, what's the scariest and creepiest portion of Interstate or State Highways to drive in?
  
• What is the strangest/creepiest thing that has happened to you, that left you saying what the hell was that?
  
• What is the Creepiest or most Unexplained thing that’s happened to you that you still think about to this day?
  
• Whats a horrifying/creepy experience you have lived through?
  
• What is your small town dark secret story?
  
• What are your most disturbing /unsettling memories from your childhood?
  
• What's the creepiest thing you've ever experienced when you've been alone?
  
• What is the scariest noise you've ever heard?
  
• What very realistic event could happen to make 2020 even worse?
  
• Parents, what's the creepiest thing you remember about your child and an imaginary friend?
  
• What is the strangest thing that happened to you that you can’t logically explain?
  
• What is the strangest thing you've seen that you cannot explain?
  
• What is the scariest thing to happen to you when you’ve been home alone?
  
• What is your “I was THAT close to dying” moment?
  
• What is the scariest thing you have seen?
  
• People of Reddit with security cameras, what is the creepiest thing you’ve caught on video?
  
• What's the scariest thing that's ever woken you up during the middle of the night?
  
• People who’ve had a “Something is VERY wrong here and I need to leave” feeling but stayed, what happened?
  
• What was your biggest ‘we need to leave... Now!’ moment?
  
• People who grew up in a small town, what’s the dark secret?
  
• When has a gut feeling saved your life?
  
• Reddit, what was the scariest place you have ever been to ?
  

SUPERNATURAL, PARANORMAL, AND URBAN LEGENDS

• What’s the most supernatural experience you’ve ever had?
  
• What myth or folklore do you FIRMLY believe in?
  
• What is your personal encounter with the paranormal - ghosts, aliens, sleep paralysis, glitch in the matrix, etc?
  
• People who aren't superstitious, what is something that still creeps you out/ you won't mess with?
  
• Reddit, regardless of your opinion of the occult or supernatural, what is the most downright creepy or inexplicable thing that you've ever experienced?
  
• What are some scary urban legends you have heard of?
  
• What was YOUR paranormal experience ?
  
• What is a paranormal experience you’ve had?
  
• What's your Favorite Cryptid or Urban Legends?
  
• Paranormal believers of reddit, what made you believe?
  

PEOPLE AND PROFESSIONS

• Redditors who work at remote places like forest officers, oil rig workers, etc, what creepy things have you noticed while at work?
  
• Deep woods hikers and campers, what is the strangest or scariest situation you have come across?
  
• Nurses and doctors of reddit what’s your weirdest/scariest paranormal stories that took place during work?
  
• Urban Explorers: What is the creepiest "We're not alone" experience(s) you've had?
  
• Urban explorer of Reddit, what was your "I better gtfo" story?Urban explorer of Reddit, what was your "I better gtfo" story?
  
• Truck drivers, what's a creepy story you've got from the middle of nowhere?
  
• Campers, backpackers and park rangers of Reddit. What is the weirdest or creepiest thing you have found while in the woods?
  
• Deep sea Divers, what are your horror stories?
  
• People that do autopsies, whats the weirdest thing that you have found that didn't have anything to do with the person's death?
  
• Sailors, what's the creepiest, scariest, or most unnerving thing you've seen/witnessed while at sea?
  
• Night shifters, ever witnessed a paranormal activity? If so, what was it?
  
• Graveyard Shift workers of Reddit, what crazy, creepy, unbelievable things have you seen working in the dead of night?
  
• Therapists of Reddit, have you ever been genuinely scared of a patient and why?
  
• Autopsy doctors of Reddit, what was the biggest revelation you had to a person's death after you carried out the procedure?
  
• People who make their living out of cleaning murder scenes, accidents and the like, what is the worst thing you have experienced in your career?
  
• Night time workers of reddit, what's the freakiest stuff you've seen on the job?
  
• Mariners of Reddit, what’s the strangest thing you’ve seen out on the open ocean?
  
• Detectives of Reddit, What are Some of the Creepiest Cases You Have Worked On?
  
• Former homicide detectives of reddit, what was the case that made you leave the profession?
  
• Surgeons of reddit, what was your "oh shit" moment ?
  
• Doctors of Reddit, what is a disease that terrifies you but most people don’t care about?
  
• People working in forensics, what was the most shocking thing discovered in your lab?
  
• People who have worked as forensic photographers what picture you took traumatized you for a long time ?
  
• People who work in graveyards/morgues/embalming bodies. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen...?
  
• Gamers of reddit, what was the most fucked up thing you heard in a voice chat?
  
• People who work for social media companies that reviews the community reports. What report that you reviewed that you will never forget about?
  
• Interstate rest area and truck stop employees, what’s the most bizarre story you have?
  
• Redditors who have hired a private investigator...what did you find out?
  
• Ex-homeless redditors, what was the scariest thing that you ever saw on the streets?
  
• What are your nightshift horror stories?
  

MYSTERIES, CRIMES AND CRIMINALS

• What cold case or unsolved crime still gives you chills?
  
• In three days it will have been 4 years since the Delphi Murders of Liberty German and Abigail Williams. The case is still unsolved.
  
• Which real life serial killer frightened/disturbed you the most?
  
• In 1928, the third richest man in the world disappeared from his private airplane midflight. He went to the bathroom and simply vanished. To this day, nobody knows for sure what happened on that flight.
  
• What is the strangest mystery that is still unsolved?
  
• What is your favorite SOLVED mystery?
  
• People who knew Murderers, when did you know something was off?
  
• If you could learn the honest truth behind any rumor or mystery from the course of human history, what secret would you like to unravel?
  
• Former Prisoners of reddit, what was the most fucked up thing about the prison/jail in general you have witnessed ?
  
• What is the creepiest missing person case you know about?
  
• Which unsolved mystery are you most interested in? Why?
  
• Whats the craziest crime you or somebody in your family has commited?
  
• Ex Prisoners of reddit, who was the most evil person there, and what did they do that was so bad?
  
• What are some of the most eerie and unexplained mysteries that you have experienced in your life?
  
• Redditors who were almost murdered, what's your story?
  
• McKamey Manor, a “haunted attraction,” is a participation event “where you will live your own horror movie.” Critics have argued that McKamey Manor is not a haunted attraction, but a torture chamber. Founder Russ McKamey denies these claims, and maintains that the Manor has an element of mystery.
  
• Where is GirlsDoPorn founder Michael James Pratt? Wanted for charges of sex trafficking and child pornography, Pratt has been a fugitive since 2019.
  
• Ex-Friends of a Serial Killer What Were They Like?
  
• What unsolved murder are you sure you have the answer to and what is the answer?
  
• Redditors who have gone/were declared missing, what is your story?
  
• Dear Reddit, has anyone you've known simply disappeared? What's the story? Have you found closure?
  
• What was the most unexpected twist you came across in a case?
  
• What unresolved disappearance creeps you out the most?
  
• Around 2,000 Medieval era tunnels can be found throughout Europe. No one knows who built them, or why. So what are the erdstall?
  
• What’s Your Weirdest Theory?
  
• When the Spanish arrived in modern-day Mexico, they conquered the Aztec city of Teotihuacan. But this city was not built by the Aztecs, who discovered its ruins and claimed it as their own. Who really founded Teotihuacan, once the largest city in the Western world, and what led to its collapse?
  
• I compiled a list of images related to unsolved cases where investigators are asking the public’s help to identify the subjects of the photo. Each photo is of a John or Jane Doe, Suspect, or Objects in an investigation. Do you recognize any of these subjects?
  
• On September 11th 1990, a Peruvian Boeing 727 with 16 crewmembers on board went down off Newfoundland, Canada. In a distress call overheard by two other aircraft, the pilot of the doomed jet reported that they were low on fuel and preparing to ditch. But no trace of the plane was ever found
  
• Today marks the 3 year anniversary of the Las Vegas shooting. Yesterday a judge approved an $800M settlement lawsuit against the Mandalay Bay Resort for the victims in the shooting. To this day there has been no definitive motive discovered regarding the shooter.
  
• What happened to the children of Hamelin? The dark truth to the Pied Piper.
  
• The mystery of the SOS sign on the mountain and a corpse, found by complete coincidence
  
• The Last Victim of 9/11
  
• A ship is found adrift in the North Sea, covered in blood, partially burnt out and with no sign of its crew. A lone survivor is found in a life raft with suitcases of cash and keeps changing his story. What happened on the Bärbel?
  

THE INTERNET AGE

• What are some creepy incidents that unfolded through Reddit posts/comments?
  
• What mysteries from the early days of the internet are still unsolved to this day?
  
• What was one of the most mysterious post found on Reddit?
  
• What is the creepiest, bone chilling post on Reddit?
  
• What's the creepiest Ask Reddit thread you have come across?
  
• What's the creepiest unresolved reddit mystery?
  
• People who downloaded their Google data and went through it, what were the most unsettling things you found out they had stored about you?
  
• What is the creepiest unexplained thing you have ever come across on the internet?
  
• People who have read the data that Google has collected on you, what is the most disturbing data they had collected about you?
  
• Who is the worst person you've met on the internet?
  
• What are some of the creepiest moments in Reddit history that people have seem to have forgotten?
  
• What was your weirdest/creepiest online experience?
  

REAL LIFE

• What are some VERY creepy facts?
  
• What is your favourite, very creepy fact?
  
• What's a dark secret/questionable practice in your profession which we regular folks would know nothing about?
  
• what a creepy fact you know?
  
• People of reddit, what's an interesting creepy topic to look into?
  
• What are some dark secrets about regular life that people should know ?
  
• What is something about the universe that becomes creepier as we learn more about it? Why?
  
• What is something that doesn’t seem dangerous but actually is dangerous?
  
• When did you realize that someone you were cool with your whole life was actually really messed up?
  
• What psychological studies would change everything we know about humans if it were not immoral to actually run them?
  
• What scares you as an adult that didn't bother you as a kid?
  
• Scientists of Reddit, what's a scary science fact that the public knows nothing about?
  
• What's much more likely to get you killed than people realize?
  
• What is a product that if people found out how it was made they'd stop buying it?
  
• What is the creepiest thing that society accepts as a cultural norm?
  
• What is a crazy history fact that sounds like a time traveler was involved in?
  
• What's your story of seeing somebody's mental state degrade?
  
• What is the most terrifying fact?
  
• What is the scariest theory you know about?
  
• What are some useless scary facts?
  
• Whats a terrifying fact that keeps you up at night?
  
• What’s the most bizarre historical fact you know?
  
• What is something normal that scares the shit out of you?
  
• What is a NOT fun fact?
  
• Redditors who have been in such severe and enduring physical pain that they honestly would have clicked an 'insta-death' button, what was the cause of your pain?
  
• Someone once said "Everyone sees the world in a different way; so when someone dies, it is - in a way - the death of an entire world." So, Reddit. . . what unique world will die with you?
  
• What is not illegal, but is creepy?
  
• What's a scary or disturbing fact that would probably keep most people awake at night?
  
• What's way more dangerous than most people think?
  
• What human experiment would you want to see happen if ethics was of no concern?
  
• What are some of dark events happened in history not many people know about?
  

PEOPLE AND STRANGERS

• What terrifying confession has someone told you while drunk?
  
• What's the closest you ever came to cannibalism ?
  
• People of Reddit who have practiced or witnessed acts of the witchcraft, voodoo, or the occult, what was the strangest/most unexplainable thing you saw?
  
• People who have known victims of crimes that have appeared in the media, what happened after the media lost their interest in broadcasting?
  
• What's the fastest you've seen a crowd go from excited to horrified?
  
• Which celebrity/public figure gives you the creeps for no logical reason, when it's just a type of 6th sense, nope, type of feeling?
  
• What's the darkest secret you found out about a family membe relative?
  
• What famous person has done something incredibly heinous, but has often been overlooked?
  
• When was a time you interacted with a seemingly “normal” person, but later found out that they were not?
  
• Who was the creepiest person you've ever seen or met?
  
• What was the creepiest thing someone said on the first date?
  
• For those of you that escaped cults... what was your, “I need to get the fuck out” story?
  
• Has anyone known a killer before they killed? What were they like?
  
• Which one of histories ‘good guys’ was actually a horrible person?
  
• Who is the scariest person you've ever met?
  
• What secret do you keep from your family?
  
• Who's one person you wish you never knew/met?
  
• Fellow redditors, what was a moment where you thought a person you knew might be an actual psychopath ?
  
• Former cult members, what made you realize you were in a cult and need to get out?
  
• Has anyone ever given a "nice guy" a chance after they've thrown a tantrum because you didn't let them treat you like a queen? And if you did, how did it work out?
  
• What was the moment that you realized that someone was obsessed with you in an unhealthy way? What tipped you off?
  

Dear NCPA (all 16 of you),
You failed our community and harmed the survivors who gave you their stories.
Obviously I don’t speak for all of them, but as someone who submitted a story to you early on and trusted you, this is my opinion.
Survivor advocacy is not a fun little side project you pick up on a whim. It’s not something you do for internet attention. It’s truly a commitment to the survivors who you claim to serve.
Before I go on, for those reading who are not aware, the NCPA (North Carolina Protection Alliance) abruptly dissolved with no notice to the survivors or victims who’s information/stories NCPA have possession of. Many speculated that they dissolved because they were being targeted by one of the men accused on their page. What it actually has turned out to be is interpersonal middle school drama over which of the two white women got to control more of the LLC/Instagram account.
The founder of the NCPA posted on their personal/private account detailing what happened. This account is private and screenshots of their post were sent to me. I do understand the need for these people’s identity to remain anonymous, but is 1700 followers you’re sharing details with actually anonymous. Basically it was this: the founder (X) let someone with legal experience (Y) come into the fold. X wanted X’s name to be on the LLC, Y wanted Y’s name on there too. X and Y didn’t agree on how things were run, Y wanted a hierarchy, X wanted democracy. Because they disagreed and couldn’t see eye to eye, X claims Y was “abusing” them. X says “Y was trying to run me out of the very thing I created” and said they kicked Y out. Y “hacked” into the account to take it over”, X got back in and deleted the entire Raleigh account. X shares some screenshots at the end of a couple texts between them. They look like professional disagreements not abuse. X also claims Y is just exerting white privilege and Y is rich (irrelevant info) and X shared screenshots of X emphasizing “the account I created”.
Here’s why it’s all fucked. What did NCPA actually do for survivors? They took their stories and posted them online and at least in my experience, never followed up again. I do think there was a lot of good done, the community was alerted to people and businesses that should be avoided (but with the page gone, where are the names to reference now?). The organized protests were helpful for some in bringing awareness and attention. And it seems like some men did see at least some smidgen of accountability. NCPA appears to have raised $4,481 in their go fund me (https://www.gofundme.com/f/24rbielnk0) and they haven’t detailed exactly where every penny went. Though they claimed $1600 left is going directly to Food Not Bombs rather than being returned to the donors. I love FNB but that’s not on the up and up of NCPA and not okay to take money under the guise of “for survivors” and then just do something completely different.
To go back to my earlier point, advocacy work is not some silly little Instagram game. If you cannot sort interpersonal drama, remove those members and move on without them. If you argue about control, your focus is not on the survivors you claim to be working for. If you’re too drained to go on, hand over the account to someone who is capable. I don’t know the professional background of these people, but they clearly don’t seem qualified or educated on how to treat or talk to or advocate for survivors. Being “bullied” by your fellow account holder doesn’t qualify you for that. And I’m sorry, but professional/personal conflict is NOT abuse. Hold up the text messages of conflict next to the stories of rape and battery and assault you read and do some self examination. I’m sorry if you couldn’t agree over control but kindly go fuck your self to cry wolf on “abuse”.
It was really frustrating to be a survivor who submitted a story and hoped for help and support to read X’s cry of “I created this account!” Here’s why the controlling “but it’s MINE” whines are absolutely disgusting... the account is not yours. Yes, you created it and made the login/password but every piece of content on their belongs to NOT YOU. The hundreds of stories belong to hurting members of our community. The cutesy graphics you reposted from other (more qualified) accounts do not belong to you. And while the graphics you did indeed create are yours, it’s still standing on the backs of the hurting people you took stories from, including BIPOC. With 15k followers, this account was no longer yours and not about you, the information and stories belonged to the community. Shame on you. It appears you care more about control over the page you created rather than the actual victims and the mission. When your abrupt and harsh response is just to take it all down with no thought behind the survivors, it appears that you’d rather take it all away than hand it over to someone else who is capable of dealing with it.
X painted Y as a dominant abuser because of “white privilege”. X, appears to also be white based off the pie chart NCPA created stating they were all white but their “non-white” members were “white passing Italian” and a “white passing Jew” (their words). You cannot be a victim of white privilege when you appear to be white.
The biggest wrong in all of this, is that while these people seem to be airing out their dirty laundry online, not one person has given an explanation or apology to the survivors they left behind. No one is survivor focused. No one. NCPA took personal information, contact details, names, stories, legal records, and left it in the hands of people who are just trying to “hack” into things. They took all those details and where are they? Who has them? Where is their importance now? NCPA claimed survivor stories mattered and deleted and silenced every single one. Survivors have every right to not trust y’all. Survivors have every right to feel victimized by the NCPA who claimed to be helping them but couldn’t see past their own drama to think how this would affect the already hurting survivors. When you create some account with no experience then you better be ready to DO THE WORK! The work that survivors are already doing. If you need to tap out to protect mental health, you tag someone capable in. You don’t just take it all down with you.
At the very MINIMUM, NCPA owed it to each and every victim who submitted stories an explanation. They have the contacts for every single person who submitted, then you take the fucking time to say “thank you for trusting us with your story, here’s EXACTLY why it’s all coming down, here’s how we’ll keep your story safe, and here’s an apology for how we failed you”. NCPA was reckless with a plethora of beyond very sensitive information. NCPA can be sued for all of that.
Y’all have every right to thank them for what they did but every right to shame them and distrust them for what they didn’t do.
The current cities that still have pages up, you still haven’t been fully transparent. Quit asking for support and stories when y’all already put peoples information and truthfully their lives at risk.
You came into our already hurting community with the savior complex to help and save the survivors and with 15k followers, you positioned yourself as “leaders” in the community. But then you hid and neglected the advice of BIPOC amongst you. You lacked transparency with inter personal drama that put survivors information at risk twice now (first being the separation from the Greensboro account).
While NCPA called for the accountability of abusers in our community, NCPA, you should now be holding yourselves accountable for the damage.

So many kids are failing. However, I am constantly seeing the awesome things teachers are doing to engage students and get them to succeed.
I KNOW there are students taking care of siblings at home, experiencing trauma, lacking proper internet access, etc. I’m not talking about those kids. I feel deep sadness for the kids that are suffering because of the conditions they are currently in.
That being said, I don’t think that the overwhelming majority of kids are facing these issues. I think it’s just easier to play video games and avoid school. Many of these students that are allowed open note tests, also have teachers that are willing to work with them beyond contract hours to help them succeed. Shoot, you could even just try and cheat to get some credit. But that would involve making an effort. Many of these kids are the ones we have to constantly address in class to get any work done. Even if it is the bare minimum.
I don’t think online schooling is the true issue. I think it’s the amount of hand holding these kids need to do the bare minimum. The lack of motivation. All I think that online schooling did was emphasize this issue.
As always, there are exceptions. And I do recognize that there are many factors affecting these kids. But I truly don’t think I would personally blame online school for the number of failing students.

I feel compelled to write this post because I am seeing it first hand right now. People everywhere are asking whether GameStop or AMC or Blackberry or even Silver are good buys. Why? Because they are ALL in the news, embedded in culture at this very moment. They are being texted and shared with friends and discussed across the Internet. I want to write about this to shed light on a really interesting concept in markets related to this and I hope it helps someone.
First of all, there's an old trader rule that says "if a stock makes the news, you're late." What that means is someone who was more prepared, who had built a long-term plan, was involved before the news became a thing. Before you knew what it was. It's important to remember that people do this for a living - studying companies, writing about them, reading about them, and building a position over time before the news cycle begins. You need to know this to make better decisions. Otherwise you will chase news headlines and continue to be "late." Now of course, some people do chase headlines for a living, buying on big news announcements, but just remember that someone out there was there long before it happened. The awareness of this will really change your perspective on markets.
The next topic I want to shed some light on is the broad market and all of the ideas available to you if you just look around. I see WAY TOO many people talking about AMC and Blackberry and others. There are 3000+ other stocks in the market. That's right... 3000. Add in crypto and that's easily another 1000+ crypto projects. Add in forex and futures and that's easily another 500+ futures and forex trades. The point I am trying to make is - REALLY? You're going to buy AMC or Blackberry just because you saw a headline? There are 5000+ other trades and ideas out there. Take your time. Be patient. Don't chase. Look at the entire market. It's wide open to you.
The final point of this post is the idea that the market is not going anywhere. Avoid FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) at all costs. My good friend tells me to embrace JOMO (Joy of Missing Out). The point here, and concluding paragraph, is that the market has been open for 100+ years. It is not going anywhere. No one is telling you to buy or sell. You are talking to yourself and spiraling into a whirlwind of FOMO. You have to take ownership of your portfolio. There is no manipulation or scam going on other than your decision making. The same way you research a car or TV, hours of research, reading reviews, studying your budget, is the same way you should approach markets. There is no rush to do anything. You won't "miss the move." As I said, the market has been open 100+ years. Relax. JOMO is a great strategy in certain times.
I hope this post helps and I wrote it because you all mean a lot to me. I have been online talking markets since 2010. I am thankful to the Internet, Reddit, and even Twitter because of the doors they've opened in my life. Especially around markets. So I really write this post to help someone, anyone, who is new or confused about the markets. I also want to say that I write this having done all the above. No joke. I have done ALL of the above and been hosed so many times. So I hope this helps.
Thanks for reading and good luck!

For fucks sake you don't have the money to make better computers?? You fucking 100 billion dollar company. How dare you share your trash laptops with schools. Now that we have online school, we need good internet and fast laptops. But can we get that? NO. Fucking piece of trash laptop didn't let me mute today so I was stuck staying silent. Fucking trash dude. I was trying to load a google doc, DIDN'T LET ME. So fucking trash dude.
Also, ya'll SCAMMING PEOPLE. Showing you can play games n' shit on it in an Ad but YOU CAN'T. Can't even run fucking roblox, that game doesn't even lag much. You are just so fucking trash at making good laptops. Scammers. Pieces of shit.

Hello Reddit! Forgive me as I am new to the online community. Just wanted to tell my story and maybe get some input. I [37F] accidentally found out last month my husband [38M] was using 'work trips' as an excuse to sleep with his also married coworker who lives across the country. When I say accidentally; he sent me a screen shot of Amazon purchases for our children and included at the bottom of the photo was a delivery to this woman. So yes, the worried wife in me checked his search history and email. It was all right there! I learned his November trip was a romantic getaway but this current one is luxurious! A spa resort complete with couples massages, couples cooking classes and monogramed bathrobes from etsy. He mailed her a box of gifts a few days ago for Christmas (how sweet), he purchases sexy lingerie, sent her money on venmo and even started planning a January trip to Las Vegas. I was furious when I learn all this but I kept my composure.
My plan: He left this morning for his 'work trip' but before he left I gathered all evidence of his affair. I spent 4 weeks collecting emails, credit card statements, reservations and confirmations. I wrote him a 10 page letter, put it in an envelope and taped it inside the lining of his suitcase. I plan on sending a group text to him and his mistress right after check in telling them to enjoy their trip. I will also inform them that a letter is in his suitcase and that I want a divorce. I wrote a special section just for her and I want to make sure she sees it so I will be emailing her the letter as well.
He is currently in the air. My group text goes out this evening. Stay tuned...
UPDATE!
His flight landed 1 1/2 hours ago. He told me he would text me when he landed and he has yet to do so. I have text him twice, they were delivered but not read. I checked our phone records and he text both me and her during his lay over. His email shows no Uber receipt from his final destination airport to his hotel. She must have picked him up. Something I probably should have clarified in my OP. She lives in the state he is visiting. So he flew alone.
I will be sending a group text to both him and his mistress in 2 hours as that will be 4pm their time and check in.
UPDATE #2
Sent pictures of our children and he did not respond. FYI he is in the middle of the desert.
My texts are going through green which puts a monkey wrench in my plan for a group text to him and his mistress. Need suggestions. Should I call the hotel? Connect right to their room. I worked so hard for this, it has to be tonight. HELP!
​
UPDATE #3
Thank you to everyone standing by and waiting. My best friend has come to my house to help me through this. It seems my texts are going through green (undelivered) but when my friend tried it is blue and delivered.
HE HAS BLOCKED ME! I guess that helps his guilt.
The plan now is to call the hotel. Will wait a few minutes after check in to make the call. Very soon. Please stand by.
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UPDATE #4
Like most of you predicted he does not care, He had zero answers for my questions. That was. the mot hurtful part. But guess what, I have all the emotional support and economic support so i'm not mad. Every question I asked he had no response because his mistress was sitting there. I suspect when he is home alone with me, his answers will be different. I have made sure that he will not emotionally and financially fuck me because I have secured support from family and friends. He can go FUCK himself!!!!!!
UPDATE #5
Called his hotel room. Talked to his mistress and finally lost my shit. He ended up calling me a few minutes later and had zero empathy. I'm shocked, but I'm not. He said a divorce was in order and fought me on nothing. I expected him to be sad, he was not, but thats ok. I started packing up his shit, I have some great friend who helped me put everything in the garage. Good riddance? I guess so...
The Morning After
I wake this morning broken. My house is in shambles as I went on a rampage yesterday ripping photos off the wall, throwing his stuff in piles on the floor and breaking random objects in anger. Now that I've had a nights sleep I feel that I am a bit clearer in my thinking as I analyze the 'conversation' we had yesterday. He was different on the phone. That was not the man I know, but who was the man I've known? Because everything was a lie. The only thing he cared about on the phone was getting the kids. Which is perfectly ok, he should want to see his kids. But he refused to answer any question I had or admit to anything. I personally feel his lack of remorse was because he was sitting in front of his mistress. If I confronted him at home this would not have been his reaction. When he comes home Monday night I expect to see a different man. Also, in my conversation with the mistress I learned she is recently separated.
I called my mom. That was hard. While she and my dad have always been loving and supporting it was hard to make that phone call. I felt like a failure. I know it wasn't my doing but to admit that I made a poor choice in a spouse was difficult. Was this all because of a mistake I made 13 years ago? Honestly it doesn't matter. I have 2 days to empty my house of his things.
Who do I tell? Do I call his dad? Do I tell his mother? Best friend? Work buddies? I wish there was a manual on how to do this because I'm lost. Even with all my preparation I'm still humiliated.
Luckily he did not take his house keys when he left. So no need to change the locks, I'll be removing his keys and sending him on his way. I don't plan on seeing him when he gets home Monday night. Doors are locked, everything you own is in the garage, have your people talk to my people and I'll see you never.
Preparing for the Return
My friends and family have been wonderful. I am so fortunate to have such great people in my life. Yesterday they came to help me move all of his clothing to the garage. His collectibles were all packed up and sitting here, waiting to be appraised. It took a very long time and I was exhausted afterwards; but it was necessary. I honestly don't think he expects me to have gone to such great lengths to remove him from my life. Because I was so emotional when I confronted him there is a chance that he thinks I will want to reconcile. Fat chance, buddy. His flights lands a little before 10pm tonight. When he Ubers back home the doors will be locked. He told me on the phone he was just getting his car and leaving. I will be holding him to that. Something I should have mentioned earlier, the house is in my name only. He had no credit when we first started looking so everything is in my maiden name and purchased by me. Health insurance, car insurance, cell phones, utilities are all in my name. The only thing his name is on is his car. I think he realizes now that could all come back to bite him. I don't want a messy divorce, I'm willing to listen to his demands and try and meet in the middle on as many things as possible. He obviously doesn't care anymore so I'm going to do my best to not care and treat this like a business deal.
Update late tonight on his return. Thank you to everyone following and showing support. You are appreciated.
The Dust has Settled
It's been a few days since his return. For a man who so diligently planned a secret retreat with his mistress he took no time to plan for his return 'home.' He has been living in the basement since Monday. I allowed him to watch the children open gifts on Christmas but he has since returned to the basement. We have contacted 3 mediators and have appointments next week to start the mediation process. It's obviously over. We had a conversation/argument upon his return and he actually asked about reconciliation. I laughed. I laughed uncontrollably. Of course he pushed blame stating that our marriage has been over for a long time. Well, that's news to me. His actions of an affair were selfish and avoidant. He didn't want to have that hard conversation with me about counseling or divorcing and this route was easier and a lot more fun. Let's face it, he likes the attention of 2 women loving and pining over him. Well, I'm not longer playing that game. She wins, and oh what a prize he is! I have been amicable about talking about the terms of our separation. My biggest hang up is her. He may continue seeing her and I have questions about her character. What kind of woman/mother cheats with a man she knows is married and knows has children? When I confronted her on the phone last Saturday and asked her that question she was silent. I asked if she was 'sorry' and it was as if the line went dead. That kind of person I do not want around my children. People who show no remorse, especially when they are in the wrong, are not kind people.
I have found solace in friends and family and thank you to everyone's recommendation of ChumpLady. I'm half way through the book, read through the website and find it so helpful. Thank you again to everyone. I can't believe the outpouring of support. To the trolls, sorry you think I'm an unfit and inattentive wife, but cheaters cheat because they want to. Thank you again to all, not sure if you want a mediation update or if my story is over. Either way, I'm happy to have 'met' you all.
Where is the 'fault'?
If you listen to the books and advice always given about cheaters it all says the same thing: It's not you, they made a choice. MY STBX insists things were bad. While I don't think we were Pam and Jim or Lucy and Ricky, I think things were good. This process has made me review who I am, who I've been and who I want to be. Could I have made changes? Yes. Was I perfect? Absolutely not. But my decisions and actions were never detrimental to our marriage. They were more like sacrifices. And now I'm having those sacrifices thrown at me and I'm being called neglectful. Is all this about attention? A narcissistic need to be the apple of someone's eye? Him and the AP are now blissfully in the honeymoon stage. Vacations, late night phone calls like teenagers, present buying, etc. But what happens when the other shoe drops? What happens when she sees that he has very little patience with children? That he will walk past a a sink full of dishes completely blind to them? When he doesn't pay the phone bill for 2 months because he is spending money on silly gadgets? What then? While it's not my problem, I'm sure his AP will take issue with these things. Perhaps then she will be put in the situation I've been in for a decade. Should she be the glue and hold it all together or should she neglect responsibilities for his neediness? I've been told by him ( someone who is having a relationship and spending large sums of money on someone else) that I'm at fault. Perhaps, but what about the decades of cleaning up your messes? Maybe if I would have had 2 hour conversations with him every night things would be different, but to be honest, I'm happy I'm here. Now reflecting back I see how under appreciated I was. How neglected I was. All these year I thought I was helping but I was really being taken advantage of and this affair is no different.
Just a word of advice to all the mess cleaners, excuse makers, and spouse sheltering people reading this. Stop. Stop now. I've learned that all the 'helping' is simply them learning how to manipulate you. Draw that line in the sand. Prepare for an uncomfortable situation when they start to stumble under the pressures of real life. But don't lose yourself. I lost myself years ago and it's not a place you want to be.
Mediation & The Move.
We had our first mediation appointment via Zoom yesterday. It was very amicable, but only because I don't want to fight and I just want this to be over. He apparently wants nothing. Not the house, not the furniture, not what he's entitled to of my pension; he just wants to be done as well. As I've been packing up things in the house to declutter I've been offering him things, but he wants nothing. I suspect the moment our marriage is dissolved he will be packing up his collectables and clothing and driving across the country to live with her. I guess I should be ok with this as I don't want to be married to him anymore. It just kills me that he will be moving in with her and helping her raise her 2 children while mine are fatherless. It makes me so angry. Seething. The man who was abandoned by his father is now doing the same thing. Something he said would never ever happened because of the mental issues it has given him today. Well, it looks like that, as well as mostly everything else, was a lie. Again, I take solace in the fact that their honeymoon phase will be short lived. Reality will smack them both in the face and she will realize that he can be more hurt than help.
While I wish him well and hope the best, our kids deserve more than a Christmas/Easteone week in the summer father. No dad at basketball games, cub scouts, birthday parties and school plays. Meanwhile AP will have him and her children's biological father. I guess nothing in life is fair and my boys will have to learn that lesson early than I had hoped.
He's Gone.
My STBX left yesterday morning to visit her. I told him to go. I didn't want to spend NYE with him and our COVID circle friends who we celebrate with have zero interest in seeing him either. He booked a flight 30 minutes after I told him to go. My only stipulation was that he is back for this weekend as it's my birthday and I really need a day to myself. I've watched the kids for 3 weekends now while he went to see his mistress, I thought I at least deserved my birthday to relax. He text me while he was boarding that he won't be home for my birthday. Well then... He claims when he booked this he booked a return for the evening of my birthday. When he tried to change it he was put on standby, it would cost $1000 to change, it was a red eye etc. The excuses kept coming. He apparently does not realize I have access to the internet as well and flights are less than $300 with the airline he flew. I told him this and he said those flights weren't there when he booked (lies) and he will take care of it. I just want him to be honest. If you don't want to be here for my birthday, just say it. If you don't want to spend the day with your children, just tell me. I can't force you to be a parent. I told him the flights were available and affordable, it's his choice to rebook. Ball is in your court. That's all I can do, right? Stay tuned for an update on his return this weekend..
NYE Nightmare.
It was 12:40am on NYE and there was still no call from him. I was angry for no other reason than I explained to the kids that even though daddy wasn't with us he would call at midnight to talk to them and wish them a Happy New Year. I was made to be a liar. So, I text my STBX and his excuse was, 'they are with their friends, I didn't want to bother them'. Excuse me? Bother them? You mean you didn't want your kids to bother you is what you are really saying. If I was across the country on NYE without my kids I would have called and done the countdown with them via facetime. I think most parents would. But not him. He said, "If you would have told me that you told the kids I'd call then I would have." He tried to spin this on me, that I created this mess. Why do I have to tell you that you need to call your children at midnight? This small act said a lot to me. Our children are not a priority. I guess he didn't want to ruin his perfect vacation at his new girlfriend's house with her children. He has a nice new family now. Today is my birthday and he returns this evening. I told him in my NYE text that I will speak to him on the 12th, our next mediation meeting because I'm done. I tried to be civil for the kids but he is not putting forth the effort for them.
Liar Liar, Pants on Fire.
The past few days have been strange. We rarely talk (a decision on both our parts) and when we do it's about mediation, plans moving forward, or the kids. We have been civil and communicating well about those items. We are also friendly in front of the children as not to upset them. The situation is strange because we are getting along, there is no arguing, it's a shared focus to just get through mediation and divorce. That's fine by me. Last night while I was cleaning the kitchen I heard him on the phone in the basement. I guess he didn't realize the door was left open by one of the children. Not wanting to be a part of the drama anymore I went to close the door. At that point I heard him tell her how 'crazy' I have been acting. Excuse me? We don't speak and when we do it's very civil. How is that crazy? Well, he proceeded to tell her about a conversation we had and he lied about everything. While the conversation part was true he told her I exploded, I was in a rage, I was crying etc. None of that was true. He explained how he laughed in my face at my rage, also not true because there was no rage. I had told him awhile back before the NYE debacle that I would start dating eventually and he proceeded to tell her that I was bragging about guys I'm meeting. So far from the truth. I slammed the basement door. I'm sure he knows I heard. So I ask, 'Why the need to lie and make me a villain?' We aren't staying together, I have no reason to fight with you anymore, that's why we are paying a mediator. Why start lying to your new girlfriend that you love? How is that a good way to start a relationship? I don't know what is happening here...
This is my concern: This woman and him are in love and want to start a life together. Ok, thats fine, God bless and congrats. But, this woman only knows me by the stories (which I'm assuming are all lies) he has told her about me. If he does move across the country to be with her, how can I trust a woman who hates me because of misinformation to treat my children properly? I don't care if she hates me personally, I'll still sleep fine at night, but now I'm worried about sending my kids in the summer to stay with them. I want to confront him about this but I know I can't. Maybe it's not that I can't, but I don't know how. Also, he has told no one we are separated and definitely has not told people why. How come? You initiated this, you cheated, you are happy now, so why can't you tell people? He told his father that he was bringing the kids alone to visit him because he and I 'weren't seeing eye to eye at the moment.' What?! I would assume he's afraid to face the music or is just finding comfort in the little love bubble he has created. He chooses to not face reality. He has yet to look for an apartment for when the divorce is finalized but has booked another fight out to see her for Valentine's Day. He is refusing to face reality and it's so frustrating.
We have mediation on 1/12 to discuss custody and hope that we can settle everything and get the paperwork moving. I'm having a scheduled phone conversation with a lawyer today to discuss what I should ask for in terms of physical and legal custody when he moves. Update you all (if you want it of course) on mediation after the 12th.
Mediation and Empty Promises
Yesterday was our second mediation appointment. While it was amicable, there was some obvious tension. The tension was not on my end but more on his. Let me explain... During our first mediation we brought up the topic that he might move out of state. At yesterdays meeting I asked what we would do about custody if he moves to this particular state. When I mentioned the state by name the mediator was confused. This prompted her to ask him why this state that is so far away. His answer? "Well......." Then silence. He couldn't put into words the fact that he was leaving to be with his girlfriend. I had to finally chime in realizing we are paying by the hour that he was moving to be with his girlfriend. I realized later that was the first time he had semi-confessed to having an affair and a girlfriend to anyone. If you love this person so much why can't you just say it out loud? That whole situation confuses me.
Anyway, when it comes to dollars and cents I will be fine. He will also be fine. He will have enough to do what he needs and so will I. We have agreed to a physical custody scenario that allows him weekend and dinner visits. Fine by me, I want my boys to have their father. But, the situation becomes a bit more difficult when he moves. While he said yesterday he plans to stay here at least a year, I doubt that will actually happen. When he does move across the country he wishes to return for one weekend of every month to see the boys. Again, I'm fine with this scenario but where will he stay that weekend? He has no family. Will he just be taking the boys to a hotel? Again, I don't think he actually thought this through. This is a problem I/we will tackle when he does decide to move.
Lastly, the mediator said it could take about 2 months to finalize everything. He and I spoke after the session to go over some facts and figures and I brought up the tentative finalization date of our marriage. I told him how 2 months is a good amount of time to save some money and find an apartment to which he agreed. I also reminded him about his promise to not return to visit her until our divorce is finalized or he has a place to live. He quickly became frustrated telling me that he knew and tried to shut down the conversation. I told him I'm happy that we are on the same page but I'm not budging. If you leave while you still live here you can not come back, that is something we both agreed to.
Now the big question remains; Who does he break a promise with? Obviously it's a win win for me, stay home and help me with the kids while you save $500+ and move out quickly or leave to visit her and I get you out of the house sooner. I'm happy with either decision. I just want to move on with my life and enjoy my moments with my children.
Out For A Swim
When I took this dive into the Reddit community I had no idea where I would land. I thought my feet would hit shallow ground and I would be ankle deep on the banks in an uncomfortable swimsuit all alone. But to my surprise this deep ocean of Reddit readers have engulfed me into their warm waters and I am surrounded by a sea of support. For this I am thankful. I am also so touched by the droves of people who have reached out for advice or offered their own experiences as lessons to be learned. To the ones seeking advice I tell them, I am not an expert swimmer. I am merely doggy paddling through this sea of hurt and confusion. Please don't use me as a sign of strength. Because the truth is, I am not strong, I am you. I am the woman who reads because they are suspicious of late night phones call her husband takes. I am the spouse who has shouldered the entire family and is in desperate need of support. I am the woman who misses affection from her husband who is next to her in bed every night. I. Am. You. To those people who have yet to catch their partner cheating but are suspicious, trust your gut. Cheating is a coward's choice so be braver than them and face the truth. To the spouse who is 'the fixer' and takes on every challenge, take a step back. When you help (even with good intention) you are actually just hurting yourself. To the spouse who has tried everything to receive physical attention from their partner but to no avail, their affection is probably going somewhere else. These are lesson I wish I could have told myself months, if not years ago. Listen to me. Or just listen to you.
To the sharks in water who call me a 'bad mom', 'a crazy bitch', 'fake' or even just think I'm out of my mind, you will find no blood in this water. So it's best you move on and find a thread where the OP will chum the water for you. It's so very easy to read and judge, this I understand. I just hope that if this ever happens to you that you will be as brave, logical and composed as you expect others to be. If not, you will find sharks circling you as well. So I hope you are as strong of a swimmer as you claim to be.
If you are still reading, my saga/survival continues. Our final mediation papers will arrive this week. We were able to settle everything at the last meeting on 1/12 and the documents just need our signature. After that, the divorce papers need to be served and filed with the county. Then we await our court date which will be done via Zoom. Yes, a bit anticlimactic, but it will still serve its purpose of divorcing. He has started (finally) to look for an apartment but nothing is to his satisfaction. Maybe he is being picky or maybe he is comfortable living in the basement. Either way, once the divorce papers are stamped he needs to be gone. He has started making phone calls to her during the day and I can hear him giggling downstairs. I'm happy he is happy, I really am. That isn't passive aggressive. I know I will be happy one day too, he just got there first and that's ok. I feel like my life is in limbo right now. I can't move forward because I'm chained to the past. I'm hoping his move will be soon. I suspect he wants out for February 1st so he can go visit her for Valentines Day. I hope for his sake (and mine) that he makes his deadline. I will update again after I receive the mediation paperwork and divorce papers are served. I'm sure that will stir up a lot of thought and emotion so I'm certain it will be a doozy. Till then, I'll keep doggy paddling.
Souvenirs
If you have been following along then you know that there was a chance he would leave for Valentine's Day to go visit her. Well, he left this morning. He told the kids, "I'm going" as he walked out the door leaving me to explain a few hours later that he had to leave to 'work' when they started asking for him. I have learned that I can't have expectations. Just because I would try to be more honest with the kids doesn't mean he would. I was really proud of the fact that I didn't even engage him in the discussion/debate/argument of going. Yes, I had loudly vocalized some feelings a week ago when he told me he was going but I have not engaged him about it since. All I asked was for his flight info so that I would know when to expect him back. He did not provide this information; maybe he thinks I'm not entitled to it. Either way, he left and I was fine. While we had the conversation multiple times (in which he agreed) that he would not visit her again till he had an apartment he has reneged on that agreement. Shocker. He claims that he has every right to be here (which he does legally) and he can do as he pleases. He put a down payment on an apartment a few days ago but says he doesn't know when he is moving. What? The bills he pays in the house are less than the child support he will have to pay, so I think his decision to stay longer might be a financial one. I've offered him any piece of furniture he wants in the house. I even offered to pay for 1/2 of the cost of bunk beds for the boys. I just need him to leave. I have no idea why he is dragging his feet.
BUT, I learned through a mutual friend and former work colleague of theirs that she recently had COVID. When I say recently, I mean the board of health from her state said she could stop quarantining 3 days ago! But what about her kids that are in the home? Where they living there during her quarantine? Are they positive? Perhaps they are asymptomatic? Will my STBX be bringing me and our children home a COVID souvenir?
I'm LIVID.

Okay, i'm using a throwaway because this whole thing is really starting to freak me out. I live in a small town in Florida. It's pretty small, and because of that i'm close to a small handful of my neighbors. Down the road there is this family that lives there, a mom and two daughters.
I went over there the other day to see how they were doing, since it had been a couple days and I was feeling a little bored. The mother, Mary, was there, but I didn't see the girls. I asked where they were and she just looked kind of confused. She said Alex was in her room, as she was being really moody lately.
But when I asked about her younger daughter, Sandy, she just looked confused, and maybe worried? She said she only had the one.
I haven't gotten a good chance to talk to her eldest daughter, so I don't know if it's just the mom, but I asked a few of my other neighbors, and they just looked really confused, like I was spouting nonsense.
It's really starting to freak me out. I can't find anything online about this kind of thing happening, I don't think. Her name is Sandy Beckett.
What should I do? I know i'm certain she exists, i've talked to her so many times. She was a really sweet kid, and everyone just forgot her and she's nowhere to be found.
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Edit/Update: Woah, I didn't expect this to get as much attention as it did. Thank you to everyone who is concerned about my mental state, but unless I see anything else that might be a sign of some kind of illness or break such as schizophrenia, i'm going to hold off on going to a psychiatrist. I don't want to be committed against my will if i'm not crazy, and something is actually happening here.
I'm getting alot of the same questions so I thought i'd clear a few things up, and give some more details about the situation.
First of all, I'm absolutely sure that Sandy and Alex are two different people. Alot of you are saying that they're both short for Alexandra, and I might just be remembering wrong. I've seen them in the same room together, and interacting. (I think Sandy is short for Sandra anyway.)
I'm also certain they're sisters, not cousins or friends or anything of that nature. When I first met the family, Mary introduced them as her daughters, and everything i've seen points to them being sisters.
A few of you have questioned if I've seen Sandy age over the years, and I have. She's gotten older. She even got a haircut once, when she grew tired of her long hair.
I should also probably give some more specifics about all of us. I'm 17, have lived here for quite some time, and don't really know much of a history of mental illness in my family. I don't know most of my family, so there might be, but beyond a bit of depression on my Dad's side, nothing big that I know of. As for drugs, beyond a little weed I took in the freshmen year of highschool, I'm not on anything like that.
I don't know exact ages for the girls, but Alex is maybe 6 or 7, while Sandy was around 4. As for how often I see them, it varies. With the pandemic, I've seen them significantly less, but before all this I saw them roughly once a week. Sometimes I'd go a while without seeing them, and other times i'd see them just about every day. It evens out.
Some other things I've seen in the comments include the carbon monoxide levels in my house. I'm not sure about how to check that but i'll definitely look into getting that checked out.
If anyone has any other questions please feel free to ask me. I wanted to make this a follow up post, but i'm not exactly tech savvy, so this will have to do. Later today, i'm going to head over to their house again. I'm just gonna hang out with Mary, like i've done in the past, and at some point i'll say I need to use the bathroom, and then I'll check the hall for Sandy's bedroom. I'll let you know how that goes later today. Until then, thanks so much for all your concern, but for now I just need to figure out what's going on.
Edit/Update 2: Okay, So as promised I went over to their house today. I didn't bring up Sandy again, and Mary seemed to either pretend the previous conversation didn't happen, or doesn't remember it. She didn't seem concerned for me or my mental health at all, which is good.
After a while of general talking about stuff; some shows we like, covid, etc, I got up to use the bathroom. Mary didn't think anything of it, so I slipped down the hall. Before going to the bathroom, I looked down the hall. The kids bedrooms are still there. I tried to open Sandy's room, but it was locked. I didn't want to be caught snooping, so I quickly went to the bathroom and after a few minutes came back out.
I still haven't seen Alex. I asked Mary where she was, and she said she went down to see a few of the kids a few streets over. I didn't say anything, but that's a really weird answer, for a couple reasons. It's a small town, but the boys she was talking about are a good 20 minute walk. I honestly cant imagine Alex walking down there by herself, and her bike was still on their front lawn.
Any photos on their walls that I remember having the family are now gone. Not edited or anything, fully removed. A few were replaced with photos of Alex, and one was replaced with a painting of a cat, seemingly done by Alex.
I'm really starting to get worried here, as any good explanation is gone, and even though Alex still seemingly exists, I haven't seen her in a while.
Also, I tried to call the school district to get any information about a Sandy Beckett, but they wouldn't give me anything, since I wasn't a parent/guardian and wasn't on any lists of contacts. Not sure what to do now besides be vigilant and try and talk to Alex. Thanks for all your support, guys, it's really helping out. I'll try to respond to more comments, and hopefully give you guys a better picture of what's going on.
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Mini Update/Edit: I'm seeing alot of comments asking about my parents. Without going into too much of my problems, my mother is dead and my father is god knows where. I live with my grandparents. And as much as I want to say that they'll be able to help me out, I honestly have never known more checked-out people in my life. I could tell them I'm doing meth (im not lol) and they'd just be like "have fun". They don't care much for anything around them. They don't talk to the neighbors, and I know for a fact that they don't talk to the Becketts.
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update?: someones outside. i've never seen em before theyre just standing in the middle of the road im freaking out. nobody new comes down here especially not at 11 at night. i cant go out i dont want em to see me. I havent seen anybody new down here since that new old guy moved in down the road why is someone here. i dont know this person theyre new im freaking out i cant confront them. im going to the bedroom and baracading myself in this isnt the thing thats takin me out. no ma'am. oh god illl up date when I get a chance and i know its safe fuck
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uppdate: people are confrsed about my last uodate. callled mary snd she said it was an okd friend whi wasv loiterin cuz she eas lookin for thr rigbt addresss, soeey noo opicture of persodn i panicced, jf she comees bacj ill tfy and remember to grt a picruee . csnt updsate more im si rired.
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Update: I'm sorry for my sudden disapearance, after the shit I posted, no less. I'm going to be completely honest here, I don't really remember writing the last update, or the post I made to Drugs. I'm not sure what all has happened these past few days here, but I do know that at some point I ended up getting sick. Something is wrong with my stomach, and I haven't been in the best physical or mental state. I realized I should probably update, so people don't get worried.
In all honesty, i'm just really tired and want all of this to stop. I'm scared about Sandy, and I don't know what all is happening anymore. I havent seen Mary or Alex since the last time I went over there. This isn't exactly a satisfying update, but i'm really tired and hurting all the time, and am frankly getting really tired with being worried about Sandy. Unless i find something I think is proof of something one way or another, whether im losing a few screws, or something did happen to Sandy. I just want to stop and go back to how things used to be. I'm sorry, guys.
If anything interesting happens i'll be sure to update. when I get better, i'm going to make an effort to go find Alex, but until then, I need to focus on shaking whatever bug I managed to pick up.
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Mini Update (not just health, I actually do have something relevant):
I'm mostly better now, still a little iffy, but with a bit more time, i'll probably be good as new and ready to keep lookin into this.
As for Sandy, I took some of you guys's advice and went on socials to see if I could find anything about Sandy. I'm not going to give out socials (obviously) because I don't want them getting harrassed, especially if all this shit is just in my head.
Honestly, I didn't look too hard, but I plan to. So far, theres been nothing of interest. Mary hasn't posted too much on her Facebook as of late, though with the pandemic, its not like theres much to talk about besides politics. I found a picture of Alex up from a few weeks ago, and it looks new, so I'm confident she's okay. Nothing of Sandy. I'm gonna keep looking, as this seems like a good angle. Only problem is theres a lot of posts to sift through to try and find anything about Sandy.
I'm nervous though about if I find a picture of her. Should I post it? I feel kinda weird combing through her Facebook looking for pictures of a kid, even more so posting it to reddit. Idk I'm just really tired and need to figure this whole thing out. I'm gonna try to respond to some more people on here, but there's alot of comments, some saying the same thing, so I can't get them all. Thanks for all the support guys.
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Update/confession: People found a blog. I don't know what else I expected from Reddit, but they found it, and I need to come clean. Not in the way you think, but I have been somewhat lying.
OP does not exist. There was no neighbor. No grandparents, nothing. The reason things seem sketchy, is because I tried to do something sketchy.
I've seen those compilation videos of "mysteries solved by the internet" and similar titles. I thought if I tried to go about this like it was a current thing, maybe I could finally get some damn closure. I'm not a 17 year old concerned neighbor. My name is Alex Beckett.
In 2014 my younger sister Sandy Beckett went missing. I lived in Bronson, Florida. I tried to contact the police, but they didn't care about what some random kid had to say, especially considering I had been driven by my older cousin Jr. He has been arrested at least three times, once for hunting on private property, some bullshit charge about being a public nuisance or something (he was kinda being a prick, but thats what you get from a conspiracy nut) and for something related to the possession of crack, even though I know for a fact he couldn't have had any.
So the police weren't exactly inclined to care about me telling them Sandy went missing when I showed up in a beaten up Ford truck with the local conspiracy nut who's known for crack despite only doin weed. They basically told me the equivalent of "Go home, honey, and leave the mysteries for your little games."
My mother wouldn't be much help either. She's not exactly what society, or any sober person for that matter, would call a good mother. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if she fucking killed Sandy and panicked and somehow got it to stay quiet.
I think what worked against me back then was my age, my family, and the fact that my mom never wanted us kids to go out much. Not many people really knew us, despite being pretty tight knit.
So as for why I did this, I just wanted some answers. I thought maybe the internet could help me. And before anybody asks why I lied about who I am, would you really have believed me if I had some crazy conspiracy that happened when I was so young? I know it wouldv'e been chalked up to some false memory bullshit. Thats not what happened. You don't forget a sister. I've forgotten alot of things, but damnit I'm not gonna forget Sandy.
So I made this more episodic, I guess. Trying to get people interested, so they'd maybe look into this, and help me find answers. only problem is that this is the internet, and nobody takes these kinds of things as real. I've gotten a million comments that this isn't real. Well, bingo, you're half right. I just wanted people to see this, and maybe find some of those crazy internet sleuths to finally find Sandy. I don't even know if she's alive, but I hope she is.
Please. I know I haven't been truthful, and i'm sorry. I just wanted to find my sister. I did some dumb things, but I need some closure.
All in all, I'm sorry for any upset I may cause, and I'm sorry I lied. I hope that some people will still try and help me. I'll give any information I can to help.

*We may be anonymous strangers on the internet, but we have one thing in common. We may be a world apart, but we're here together!*
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**Welcome to the 24 hour pledge!**
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I'm pledging myself to not drinking today, and invite you to do the same.
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Maybe you're new to /stopdrinking and have a hard time deciding what to do next. Maybe you're like me and feel you need a daily commitment or maybe you've been sober for a long time and want to inspire others.
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It doesn't matter if you're still hung over from a three day bender or been sober for years, if you just woke up or have already completed a sober day. For the next 24 hours, lets not drink alcohol!
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**This pledge is a statement of intent.** Today we don't set out *trying* not to drink, we make a conscious decision *not to drink*. It sounds simple, but all of us know it can be hard and sometimes impossible. The group can support and inspire us, yet only one person can decide if we drink today. Give that person the right mindset!
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What happens if we can't keep to our pledge? We give up or try again. And since we're here in /stopdrinking, we're not ready to give up.
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**What this is:** A simple thread where we commit to not drinking alcohol for the next 24 hours, posting to show others that they're not alone and making a pledge to ourselves. Anybody can join and participate at any time, you do not have to be a regular at /stopdrinking or have followed the pledges from the beginning.
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**What this isn't:** A good place for a detailed introduction of yourself, directly seek advice or share lengthy stories. You'll get a more personal response in your own thread.
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This post goes up at:
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- US - Night/Early Morning
- Europe - Morning
- Asia and Australia - Evening/Night
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A link to the current Daily Check-In post can always be found near the top of the sidebar.
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Hi everyone. I’m EffortCareless. It’s nice to meet you. It’s nice to be here, hosting the DCI again. I can’t believe that it’s been almost five months since I last hosted, five more sober months spent with you fine people. I feel incredibly lucky to be part of such a wonderful community and look forward to sharing my thoughts with you this week. There will be plenty of light fare. Some heavy stuff. There will be ghosts. Zombies. A bit on sober spaces, time, and finances. And I dunno, whatever else comes across this sober mind of mine. So without further ado…
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About a month into my sobriety I was frantically looking for a book in my bedroom, thrashing about and turning the room upside down trying to find it. I really needed that book. While searching the closet I came across a crumpled green t-shirt, what used to be one of my favorite articles of clothing because I thought it captured my personality in such a witty, cute way. “I’m outdoorsy in that I like getting drunk on patios,” it read. I used to actually wear this. I used to actually think it was funny (OK it is *kind* of funny given that prior to getting sober the only time you’d catch me outdoors was literally on a patio somewhere getting wasted). I noticed several wine stains splattered across the front of it. And its dank ripeness caused me to throw it in disgust. “I used to be the person who wore this silly, sodden, foul shirt,” I mumbled in disbelief before tossing it in the trash (I momentarily considered ceremoniously burning it as some kind of symbolic gesture).
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I was surprised to find that shirt, the last material trace of my drunken debauchery remaining in my apartment. When I decided to quit drinking I removed everything that could possibly remind me of drink so as to avoid physical triggers. I think I had read this advice when googling “how to quit smoking cigarettes,” and, although the strategy didn’t help me stop smoking (I just keep buying more lighters), I figured it would help me abstain from the booze. A bewildering array of shirts and hats boasting beer logos were donated. Five (five!) very elaborate corkscrews were discarded. Why would someone have five corkscrews, you ask? One for each room, including the bathroom, and one for the car because drinking wine in a parking lot was the kind of thing I used to do. I sold my beloved Game of Thrones themed wine goblets. I even got rid of a poster above my writing desk of Hemingway in Spain drinking wine straight from the bottle, as well as a smaller one quoting him as saying “My only regret in life is that I did not drink more wine.” I once looked to these for inspiration, thinking that literary genius awaited me if I just drank some more wine. And then there was the very chic bartender set I bought online while intoxicated in an effort to lend an air of sophistication to my den of iniquity. To, ya know, entertain. Wayfair most definitely does not have what I need when drunk browsing. That had to go, along with all my aspirations for becoming a mean mixologist.
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When I look around my place now I’m amazed by the changes my environment has undergone since quitting drinking. A kind of purging has occurred that reflects my inner transformation, an exorcism of sorts on all fronts. It’s almost as if a different person lives here. And I guess, in a way, they do. A cleaner, more responsible, and dare I say, more adult human being. It’s very…what’s the word? Oh yeah. Salubrious. My living space is salubrious. No more random empty wine bottles floating around. Or beer caps strewn about waiting to pierce the soles of my feet. There may be some stray coffee beans scattered here and there that I use for the sweet espresso machine I purchased with some of the money I’ve saved from not drinking (thanks Wayfair!). In a very objective, tangible sense I have turned things around. I no longer have anything to hide if surprised by an unexpected visitor. What I do have is peace of mind. And a really good cup of coffee. I think I’ll go out on my patio and strum that ukulele I bought while drunk (ok so there’s one relic left from that bygone era). I’ll just play myself out if you don’t mind. This one’s for all you sweethearts out there…
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….We’re gonna live forever, knowing together that we did it all for the glory of love….
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I can’t wait to hear about your nonalcoholic aesthetics and alcohol free dwellings, the lovely external manifestations of your inner revolutions.
Have a wonderful Sunday. Happy Valentine’s. IWNDWYT!

Also be prepared for this sub to shut down. I have a bad feeling this sub will shut down now that we have been mentioned nationally by the House during Impeachment. The Left has been hunting Trump Supporters and Conspiracy Theorists relentlessly because we questioned their narrative. And have been right while they move the goalposts. Or they change the rules to how the game is played by claiming Hate Speech or Misinformation. So they can silence us.
If something does happen which I pray to God it won’t. Expect a Internet Black Out. Bitchute and YouTube Upload Feature went off line during the Election Day itself. So expect that but on a much larger scale. They can’t have Streamers interfering with the preplanned narrative. So they will shut down all video platforms that allow for Streamers. Including Twitter and Facebook.
Expect the Stock Market to have a “Artificial Crash”. Then when everything comes back online we see President Harris. The media has really ramped up the fear porn lately by implementing the thought that someone will off Biden. Remember guys Biden canceled a inauguration practice because of “Security Concerns” despite having 25K National Guards in town. Then recently had to cancel a 2nd one because some random homeless guy shit caught on fire.
And recently the media has been talking about insider threats from the national guard. Which does not make sense. Why have 25K Troops there if you don’t trust everyone and require the FBI to do background checks. When everyone there already had background checks done AND took a Oath to the Nation. Wouldn’t a small but elite task force of Navy Seals/Marines do a better job of protecting Biden instead of having this massive force occupy are Nations Capital?
Then on top of that Biden’s people hired a private security force loyal only to Biden. And Democrats are notoriously Anti-Militia. So why hire one when you have 25K Troops? If your this worried about a attack DURING A VIRTUAL INAUGURATION then why even have guests attend?
And once the smoke clears the media will be playing the same pre recorded event a thousand times a day. While accusing Trump Supporters of orchestrating the attack. Just like they did with Jessie Somlet, the Covington MAGA Hat Kids, and the NASCAR Driver fake Noose which turned out to be a Garage door handle which the FBI responded with 12 FBI Agents to investigate that joke.
And this event what ever it may be will trigger the Senate to immediately hold a Impeachment trial which will end up convicting Trump because of “outrage” from Twitter and the MSM. Then allows Congress to declare all registered Republicans “Domestic Terrorists”. And thus the Cold Civil War becomes a Hot one as the Nations Intelligence and Feds will immediately go after ALL sitting members 1st. Then go door to door arresting normal people who weren’t even there. And why do I think this?
Because Democrats controls all 3 branches of power, the media, Feds, Intelligence Community, and big tech. They don’t need Republican input anymore. They successfully impeached the President over a false narrative that he incited attacks when nothing in the transcript is even close. To what they claim happened. They successfully censored him over not demanding peaceful protests when he did. Demand peaceful protests.
And for the last 4 years it’s been the goal of the Democrat party to lock Trump and his family up for daring to Drain the Swamp. And again I hope I’m wrong. But like I said the Left won’t stop until they have absolute control. And 25K Troops in Washington IS NOT NORMAL. THATS A OCCUPATION FORCE. And not a reasonable response for one broken window a few stolen items from Pelosis desk, and 1 death. Something big is going to go down. I can sense it coming. The warning signs are on the wall. These are uncharted waters we are heading into.

Edit: I would like to add that currently Trump Supporters are being hunted like Dogs Nation Wide by the FBI currently as The FBI immediately took the moral high ground and sent out arrest warrants for everyone who was at the Fiery, but Mostly Peaceful Protest. O wait that’s right Trump Supporters get labeled rioters and insurrections immediately. Easy mistake to make. So again no sane Trump Supporter would even dare go to Martial Law DC right now. So when the False Flag happens and the media’s 1st response is LOOK AT WHAT THESE angry TRUMP SUPPORTERS DID THIS, it’s a false flag.

Throwaway for obvious reasons...
So I will start this story by saying that I don't think I am a good person, and a story with some collateral damage. But this is a story about one bad person getting revenge on another bad person.
Backstory: I[34m, now] was raised by a single mom because dad passed away when I was younger, but I had many male role models in older brothers and he left behind a generous life insurance policy, so I largely had a good upbringing. However, I was not ever very social and from my early teens I spent a lot of time in front of my computer. This habit got worse as I went to college and it resulted in me spending 80% of my time gaming, working, reading, or whatever on a screen. As a result, I was not very attractive and quite obese at the age of 20. For these reasons, I never really dated and did not even lose my virginity until I met my exfiance. On top of this, I was raised very religious because my mom became really religious after the death of my father so I always thought it was a bad idea to "play the field". The only thing I had going for me was that I had become somewhat proficient in several coding languages and expanded on these in college. I would not say that I am a good IT person or coder, but with a little bit of coding knowledge and a lot of creativity you can create residual income streams and I had a decent job in IT where I could work from home 3 days a week. At the age of 24, I was still overweight and a social reject, but through my mom I met a woman from her "bible study" that would eventually become ex-fiance[36f, now]. We hit off and started dating. She had a 2 year old son at the time and they became the only thing in my world that I cared about. It did not take me long to get physical (LOL) all those years of pretending I was "saving myself" went out the window when I finally had the chance to lose it. To be honest, she really broke me out of the shell I had become more sociable within a couple months of meeting her. I even took on a fatherly role for her son and within 6 months of dating she got pregnant. Being the religious person I was, I immediately proposed and wanted to marry before the birth of the baby. Then she dropped a bombshell on me.... she was still legally married.... to a guy in prison. This did not bother me too much as she had always talked about her troubled past and I thought I would be the one to save her from it anyways so I just took this as it came with the territory. She began the divorce proceedings shortly and we planned to get married as soon as those were finished. I was riding high after the baby was born and I thought I had really carved a place for myself in the world. I even started losing weight and spent less time online than ever. She was always kind to me and I thought we let each other know everything we were thinking... boy was I wrong.
There were a few red flags that I was too love struck to see. 1.) She told me early on that the only reason she got involved with my church was that she was on probation and had pending court cases and thought it would help her case. 2.) Despite me earning a comfortable 6 figure income with side projects and my main IT job, she insisted that she keep her part time job and my mom had to help me take care of the kids to deal with it. 3.) She knew WAY TOO MANY PEOPLE - like what suburban mom with a secretarial job has 200 contacts in her phone? 4.) We kept delaying our marriage due to sick relatives or other issues (although she did go through with the divorce to the prison guy)
Then something happened that shook me out of her spell. She got pregnant for a second time and this time with twins. We had only been with eachother for ~4 years and we were about to have 4 kids. 2 more than I thought I would ever have. She claimed she was on birth control at the time, so we were not using condoms. Anyways, after the twins were born I started seeing my doctor about a vasectomy and my exfiance encouraged it. I wanted to get some swimmers frozen before the the operation because we could completely change our minds in 5 years. So I go in for the visit and the doctor comes out to tell me that my sperm count was low and they were mostly immobile, but this problem might be temporary and I should try to eat a healthier diet and stuff for a few weeks and come back. When I came to the second appointment and the same problem arose, the doc started doing some investigating, but you know where this is going. SO... the doctor says that its likely that I am infertile (this turned out to not be completely true, as I now have a child that I KNOW is biologically mine, but it still propelled the following events.) I mentioned that I had 3 biological children and the doctor looked anxious and started talking, but I was in shell shock and did not really know what he was saying. I think I left the doctors office before they were even done with me. I did not even get in my car, I just walked until it started to get dark and eventually called an Uber to get home. My fiance was worried and already asleep inside and I just lied to her and told her my car broke down, phone died, and I was at the mechanic late and forgot to let her know. I fell asleep and woke up the next day and immediately got on the computer to research similar stories and started to give myself false hope. The first post I read was about how fertility assessments are not true and I should 100% get a test. I thought for sure this would show the doctor was wrong, but I got the test back and within a week I knew the kids were not mine.
The first person I told was my mom, I went to her house and cried for the first time in my adult life. She consoled me and then told me a story that I was never meant to hear. Essentially, I am the product of an affair myself and that dad actually died from an overdose on pain meds after he found out. Well, I don't know why the f#$% my mom thought this would comfort me, but in reality it just gave me an unhealthy view of women for a while. After the story and calming down, she insisted that I "man up" and honor my commitment to these kids because "I am the only father those kids had ever known". Up to this point I had always been a pushover, and I really considered her words to me for about 24-hours before I completely snapped. I called my fiancé and told her I had to stay the night at my moms house because of a family issue and she offered to make us dinner which I declined. At this point, the twins are about 6 months, the boys are 2.5 years and ~5 years old. I won't lie and say that I felt nothing for these kids, but it was hard to look them in the face and I knew I was done being their father. I knew this would tear them up and damage them, but I couldn't stand to hear them say "dadda" to me because every time it was like a knife in my heart. I kept my cool and did not expose anything and my mom did not say anything I assume because she thought I was "manning up". I spoke to an attorney, because I wanted to get myself off the birth certificates of these children and I thought I could seamlessly slip out of this situation because we were not married. Unfortunately, after going through the paperwork and financials, since I had tangled much of our finances and I "took on a fatherly role" I would be responsible for at least the boys child support and she would get equity in the house and my side businesses. Basically, the lawyers said that I would likely be on the hook for something like 25% of my income for many years to come. I pretty much ghosted my lawyers after paying them their initial fee, because I did not like the idea of state-enforced cucking.
The revenge starts here. I started to make a plan to disappear and leave them all with as little as possible. The start of this was destroying all of my passive income streams and getting myself fired. Getting myself fired was easy, but it got a bit cringe, basically did some of the stuff from office space, smashed an office printer in the courtyard, didn't do anything while working from home except send memes to coworkers, but I did not do anything to clients because my boss was actually a friend of mine, but my office mates had a good time watching this. After this, I did not even try to file for unemployment and began living off our savings. My exfiance let me handle all the financials despite both of our names being on everything, so she did not notice our accounts slowly draining of money and the financials going to chaos because I left her checking account filled with a few thousand (credit card debt skyrocketed because I stopped paying our cards LOL). I sat there for months wondering if I should end it and follow in the footsteps of my would-be father, but ultimately decided against it. I got ancestory test kits for the kids in an effort to find who their actual father was, because I was hoping to get them away from my ex, but this resulted in even weirder findings. Essentially the oldest child was a cousin/half-brother to his siblings and so the prison guy's brother must have gotten her pregnant, also I did not see any family members from the test that I thought would be a good fit. So that was the end of that investigation. I also tried to distance myself from my mom, as I had become disgusted by what she did to my dad and her newfound cheater allegiance with my ex. I formulated a plan to get away, FAR AWAY, from everything by just vanishing on a "hiking trip". I really hyped up this hiking trip and claimed I would be in the (insert location here) for a week alone with my thoughts in the trails. Before the trip I took the then ~6 year old out for ice cream and cried for the second time in my adult life. The 6 year old was obviously distraught over seeing his "dad" cry and started trying to calm me down. I guess I was crying that I had to leave him, and I told him I was sorry dozens of times but I think he was just confused about the situation. I was more concerned about losing him, because I knew he was not my child and I was able to form a bond anyways.
I left that afternoon and actually made my way to the lodge and checked in. Now the next part I will mostly skip because I am not sure if it was legal or illegal or whatever but cut to 6 months later and I have a new name and live in a new city where I was able to restart my IT career and was slowly working toward my old income status again. I started stalking my ex on facebook and other social-media. I won't lie, it was cathartic to say the least. The chaos of them trying to get into accounts must have been hell and she figured out that our comfortable finances were not so comfortable after all. Begging for money on facebook is sooooo trashy. Once again I won't mention the legal stuff, but a lot of people went looking for me and I considered phoning the police to let them know that I was okay, but decided against it (eventually had to pay a hefty fine for this, but it was well worth it). I worked on myself for a long time and got into great shape. Lost my religion and descended into a hedonistic lifestyle. I became unrecognizable. I continued stalking this woman for about a year when I heard she was dating a new guy and got pregnant almost immediately. Of course, my mom was still in her life taking care of my "supposed children" while she was doing god knows what. Then on the one year anniversary of me leaving she posted a memorial page... for me. This made me decide that my revenge was not quite done and I decided to call up my brother and let him know I was alive. My brother and I had drifted over the past 10 years, but he was blood and was always there when I was younger. I told him why I did what I did and we caught up and I asked him not to tell anyone yet and he agreed. But then he told me about my mom and my ex-fiance suing my insurance company to honor my life insurance. Somehow, she had managed to keep up this policy going despite its hefty cost. The payout would be substantial (7 figures) and she would be awarded the premiums that she had paid since my alleged death if she won.
Well I am not the kind of uncivilized person that would defraud an insurance company so I started my plans! I drove the 1000mile journey to my old city when I heard she had an upcoming hearing and listened to "highway to hell" half the way down.
I went to the court early and sat down. Now at this time I had grown a beard, lost 60 pounds and generally looked good. I looked so different that my fiance and mother passed right by me in the court without giving me a second look. I thought they would be meeting in a big court room and I was already planning to barge in and yell something about objecting and being a cringelord like usual. But they ended up going to a small room with some lawyers from the insurance company. I decided frick it and knocked on the door several times until they opened it. They were all confused to see this scraggly dressed man with a beard and I simply said "I believe you are trying to settle the issue of whether I am dead". My exfiance realized it was me almost immediately and let out a gasp or something. But the lawyers were just confused. Everyone ended up stepping outside the room and a whirlwind erupted and the bailiffs were called over. MY ex screamed and slapped me and they had to actually put handcuffs on her! This was a big deal for the insurance company I guess and the lawyer's boss/client actually showed up and asked for statements and everything. Even a detective showed up and I started to regret coming but I gave my statement and did not really lie about anything, but I was vague about where I was currently living. I ended up staying in town for almost a month, and it was a crazy month in a cheap motel. I showed evidence of my ex's cheating to anyone who cared and I tried to meet with the kids, but the youngest did not know me and the then 7 year old told me to "fuck myself", which is fair I guess. The police were pissed off and started civil litigation for the costs of searching for me, a detective or soemthing actually flew in from another state to question me. Luckily this whole time I did not get arrested for anything as I did not want my fingerprints being linked to my new name an such. Essentially I had to pay a large fine and immediately paid the fine in cash to the surprise of the police. As far as I was concerned I was done with this town. My ex-fiance served me a civil lawsuit for multiple different things and my mom helped, but I was a leaf in the wind long before anything came of it. I am back in my new city and never plan to go back. I stopped spying on them after a few months of ruining her insurance plans and moved on with my life. This happened some years ago and I am much better off now, but I am tired now and need to go to sleep. If there is interest I will let you know what happened with me after all this.
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UPDATE:
Hello everyone, thank you for taking interest in my life. I only want to do 1 update and lay it all out. Mostly I just wanted to let people know where I went with my life, because a lot of people seem interested. I might answer a few questions in the comments if someone has a burning question.
I am not going to say anything about how to disappear because we can't discuss potential crimes on this board, but look up the case of how **Jack Barsky a former KGB spy entered the US and obtained credentials. Literally millions of undocumented immgrants do this to be able to work for companies in the US as well. Uncle Sam just wants those taxes paid. I'm not sure about the details of the insurance investigation and how they were looking for me, but I never got so much as a phone call from them before I met them in person.
I have no intention to try to seek revenge anymore, because I believe "violent delights have violent ends" now. As far as I am concerned, my ex-fiance's life is hard enough and anything else I did would just hurt the kids. After everything blew up with my ex, I left the town and did not reach out to my brother anymore and even stopped checking up on the situation with my Ex. Having no family and friends and starting over in the world is lonely and terrifying, but equally exciting and hopeful.
So how did I reset my life upon reaching a new city? Well I had a lot of money in cash that I used to stay in a motel for a few months while I got all my documents in order and looked for work. Because I thought that my home computer would be searched when I went missing, I could not really plan much of this stuff beforehand. I realized that without a college degree linked to your name, it was difficult to find a job with my skillset. So I decided to just make my own company and post advertisements about setting up custom dispatch software, editing videos and presentations, among other tasks. I only received a few different jobs doing this and it did not even pay my living expenses. After I did a few jobs for the same company, I made friends with a project manager and got hired at a reasonable salary. To this day, my finances are only about 70% of what I was making before, but I am happy with what I have.
I spent a lot of time finding people with similar stories on the internet and eventually got involved with a Men Going Their Own Way (MGTOW) group. We basically just talked shit about women all the time and the positive feedback loop made me a pretty resentful/misogynistic person. I went so far as making fake accounts to harrass women online, so I don't want to go into anymore details because I am a bit embarrassed and remorseful now. I got on Tinder and started hooking up with women to make up for lost time. Throwing money around and lying to them became a way of life for me and I would cheat on basically every woman I got with because I thought they were all doing it too. I got caught and I would pretend like I didn't understand why they were mad with me until they left or tried to forgive me just for me to do it again. Not proud of this either.
A couple of years ago one of the women that I was sleeping with regularly got pregnant and came to me all excited with the news. Now I immediately accused her of cheating and threw her out of my apartment and there was just a look of shock on her face. Remember, I thought I was infertile so in my mind I just put another THOT in her place. I continued to mock her for a bit and even messaged my MGTOW buddies about what I did. I openly confessed to cheating on her and showed her proof. I agreed to a paternity test while she was still pregnant just because I didn't want her to get the courts involved and I was shocked with the result. I cried and tried to hug her and she screamed threw some papers at me and told me she never wanted to see me again. I went home and drank, happy that I was going to be a dad(for real this time) but sad who I had become. Like I said, I don't want you to root for me because I am not a good person.
For the remainder of the pregnancy, she would not even speak to me long enough for me to explain my actions, but I totally understood why. When the baby was born(a girl), I showed up to the hospital to sign the birth certificate and at the same time met with her lawyer (which turned out to be her sister) to go over child support stuff that we had already spoke about. I went for a "hail marry" and offered to sign any paper they wanted if she would just have coffee with me for 30 minutes to explain things (She wanted full custody and generous payments). I never got a lawyer because I just wanted to make amends and I thought a lawyer would throw up obstacles to try to protect me or my finances.
I met with her for coffee and to my surprise she let me speak uninterrupted for almost 20 minutes. I did not completely tell her the truth about my past, but she understood why I wanted a paternity test, but did not excuse my behavior in mocking her, throwing her out, and cheating. I signed the papers, but begged her to let me see my daughter and be part of her life. She said that I was unstable and that I needed intensive therapy before that would ever happen. Of course I obliged to the therapy.
I learned a lot in therapy and did a lot of research about the fallout of cheating and whatnot. Turns out there are a lot of women who had been hurt by cheaters and homewreckers too(duh) and that my view of women was toxic to say the least. I cut it off with my MGTOW buddies because I thought that atmosphere would be a detriment to my progress. I don't want to attack that group, because I think there are some good people in that group that are just broken and looking for answers. I think having a baby girl was a real punch in the gut to stop treating women so poorly.
I was finally able to see my daughter when she was 7 months old and began supervised visits every other weekend. I had dutifully paid the child support and made every attempt to talk to her mother and try to make amends. One night after our daughter we got drunk and started kissing which turned into sex. When we woke up the next morning she was emberassed and just asked me to leave, but she made it seem like she kind of wanted to make things work. It took a long time but we moved in together after she lost her job to Covid19 and are currently living together. Her family hates me and this has held us back from marriage talk or anything. Hell, I skipped our daughter's 2nd birthday celebration because her lawyer-sister didn't want to see me. I hope this turns out well for me, and I know I already have better than I deserve. For now, the pandemic has me working from home and my girl takes care of our daughter and makes me food and such. She is still suspicious of me and comes into my office to see what I am doing regularly, but I don't mind. For now, I'm just going to try to be there for my daughter and try to make it up to her mom. I'm still trying to think of things I can do or say but for now I am still in zoom therapy and just doing my best. I don't think I can ever really tell anyone everything, which is why I decided to tell the strangers of reddit. I am sorry for those people that thought I was a hero in my initial post.
Please don't let your hatred boil inside you friends, I almost missed out on something great and I may still miss out if I am not careful. This is going to be the only update, unless I come back years from now to tell you all what happened. Best of luck to everyone.
Small edit: Someone corrected me that the spy I was thinking of was Jack Barsky not Yuri Besmenov!
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Im holding shares of GME at a average price of $56, my view may be biased but I tried to look at all evidence and not be.
I know a lot of you are looking for confirmation that you should still hold, the truth is that may or may not be in your best interest. Only you can decide will all the information you have what’s best. Don’t listen to random people online.
However I’m going to let you know why I’m still holding. I bought in with a average price of $56 and a lot of the shares bought below $100 will be held by people who haven’t sold yet and aren’t planning on. Institutions and smart investors with a good amount of shares (200+) are currently holding, mostly paper hands (people who jumped on because of media/word of mouth) are gone now and they most likely didn’t have a big amount of shares anyway. We also temporarily lost swing traders because of the restrictions and loss of momentum, people with big balances who seen big dips as swinging opportunities ($124 to $300 for example) yes they sell but when they buy it brings pressure back and the price up which brings confidence for other people to invest in. I still think SI is high and HF aren’t out the game yet. With how high the SI is and the low float I think we would have seen a lot more volume on Wednesday/Thursday/Friday. The whole world was buying so this kind of volume to me even if it was HF unloading dosent signal them unwinding.
So what’s the game plan?
Well firstly I think the HF couldn’t have let the whole world buy shares and have a short squeeze, they would be in to much debt and the price may very well have gone past $2000 due to a massive amount of people buying (people normally not involved in stocks) and the HF would of become insolvent. What I think the HF did is allow retail to buy during the week with Melvin unwinding their position, then once retail buying pressure starts to decrease due to people already in the stock, start to coordinate together with other HFs to restrict buying on some brokers (decrease buying pressure) and slow down the momentum caused by the internet and people talking about the squeeze. They would then let people sell and induce FUD which changed the narrative and worked, the price is now at a more comfortable level for them $90. On the 09/02/21 we will see latest SI (2 weeks ago date) and I’m assuming it will still be over 100%. They will try to bring price as low as they can but there will be a people with large amount of shares bought early they won’t fold (some can’t sell). When good earnings come out and in addition to Cohen turning the company around and increasing the valuation until fair price is $100.
Then we may see the HFs unwind and the short squeeze would happen, at a much lower price for them as to not have to buy back shares at $500+ also with less people involved (retail got bored/lost too much money and isn’t financially involved with GME) there will be less competition to buy shares. They don’t want the whole world’s eyes on them during the squeeze. This is a waiting game for institutions and smart money. If you have the money and time to hold it would be smart or to make a position at there’s prices would also be smart. We wait for Cohen to turn the company around which would tell everyone who’s shorting this company that it will be fair valued at $100 and they (shorts) would not be able to bankrupt the company or get the share price back to where they or originally shorted it.
TL;DR - HF still have to initiate MOASS. Not yet though people need to hold for Cohen to take action and creat a positive outlook for the company, HF wouldn’t want to pay interest on a company whose valuation will be going up for years. They would unwind.
Here’s some emojis for you retarded apes 🦧🦍🚀🪐

Based on my food lists, some individuals have been PMing me for recommendations on making new friends or meeting new people in this area. Before I begin, I'd like to say that this not a perfect list or standard on how all relationships in nova should be formed, maintained, or honored. This is simply a list I've compiled on the fly while procrastinating, because I have realized through this pandemic that we all need good people in our lives.
I'm married to the girl of my dreams, I have a handful of childhood friends that have been there for me as brothers for over 25 years, and I have good neighbors that look out for each other. I have a very rich life filled with lots of love and intimacy... but please hear me:
This has NOT always been the case. In my single years, I've been to the deepest depths of isolation, hidden by immeasurable depths of insecurities and depression, and I've somehow clawed my way out.
These are my lessons learned. I hope it helps even one individual:
1. No matter what your reason for feeling lonely or searching for new friends, just know that you're not alone. This area is filled with people from all walks of life, all kinds of personalities and cultures, and many of them are all lonely. Not just you. Not just implants from other cities. Not just people that have broken up or gotten divorced. Many, many people are lonely here, and it's not often talked about.
2. With that said, ironically, people here SUCK at opening up, making themselves open and comfortable to new people, and being genuinely personal with them to build/sustain relationships. I think it has to do with a very self-centered mindset because... let's be honest, making new friends is an investment and it takes a lot of energy, but mostly time. People here never ever have "enough time". Whatever that means.
But it's also an issue of vulnerability- that is, people here find it difficult to make themselves vulnerable enough to reach out to people first, or entrust a stranger with such a sensitive sentiment in their lives. We've all been burned or rejected before, so it's terrifying to communicate to others that you're lonely or just need someone to talk to.
But all it takes is one step. You never know. Once you cross that bridge, someone might meet you half way.
3. Understand that this is not a cancer that's unique to only nova. I haven't lived too long in too many other parts of the world, but, I think I have enough life experience (in my early thirties) to understand that this is bigger than just nova. Our world and generation is part of the post-internet era, and the old school values of personal touch, human interactions and intimate communication has greatly evolved since the days of elementary chronology of making "friends" just because you liked their blue jeans or their lunch box.
4. Don't force it. We've all been on bad dates with people we didn't vibe with, and when the chemistry isn't there, that 1 hour dinner can seem like an eternity.
Instead, try to remember that most friendships blossom naturally and organically from preexisting relationships through other structures of your everyday life like work, school, church, neighborhood, etc. In fact, when you're on the outside looking in and see groups of friends out to eat at a restaurant or hanging out, you probably don't see the years and years of organic history they have between them that you don't know about.
Most nova people that grow up here go to either Vtech, Mason, VCU or UVA. And most nova people that graduate from there come back to nova. So they have friends from childhood, teens, and then from college to "come back home to". It's not like they have some super secret "how to make friends in nova" potion or formula that you don't have.... unless you consider that aforementioned organic nova roots and history.
5. If you're lucky enough to utilize a natural and organic preexisting structure in your life to broaden your social horizons, be intentional about texting them, setting up brunch or game night or volunteering or whatever else. Connect on social media and be active in their lives... but, don't come off too strong. Just go with the flow, but, be intentional.
6. If you're using online dating apps to "make new friends" on a strictly platonic level........ stop kidding yourself. Especially if you're a female. Straight dudes in nova (or anywhere) don't sign up for an online dating app thinking "BOY, I hope I meet a girl that ISN'T interested in seeing me as a potential boyfriend and/or partner!! Y-U-C-K!!! No, IIIIIIII want to meet a girl that only sees me as a brother and a friend- NOTHING MORE!!!"
"But I believe it's important to be 'Friends first!' Before getting romantically involved!". ..... yeah, OK, but that only realistically applies to people that are already organically your friends in the aforementioned pre-existing structures of your life (work, school, church, neighborhood.. etc). That virtue is bullshit online.
6.5 Girls, no matter how you meet "new people", it's probably safe to assume that most guys won't be interested in only being platonic friends and friends alone, unless they're completely removed from your dating pool (gay, married, senile, only online friends... etc).
Nova is chock full of fuckboys that are good at disguising their intentions. Source: I used to be one of them.
7. Once you meet new people, know when to give up and move on if they're not on the same wavelength as you. If you are in different stages in your life, have different personalities, hobbies, values, etc... there's no point in beating a dead horse. Most likely, if you don't feel it, they are aware as well.
8. Guys, don't be afraid of meeting other dudes. Dudes suck at opening up to other dudes, but once you do, a good bromance will really bolster the foundations to a good relationship practices in your life.
9. Have fun. Be kind and thoughtful. Everyone has hurts and pains in their life. And your friendship just might give someone a little bit of hope that they need.
10. Give as much as you receive. Don't be a selfish friend. Be generous, up to realistic standards.
Most importantly, love yourself. You're awesome :)
Edit: above all, be respectful of the covid precautions. It's real and scary, so please don't endanger yourself or others in your quest for new relationships, kthanksbye

Disclaimer I want to thank everyone for the gilds, replies and suggestions. I just do not have time to reply to everyone, but I am reading everything. I am not sure how much bigger the thread can be, I already typed this but it vanished so I think I'm at the limit. I will try to keep updating, but I don't expect the thread to be up top for much longer and will likely vanish soon, so if you need anything save it.
Yes, it's hard, it sucks, it's depressing. It is something we all have to do if you want to see this virus go. Everyone knows the deal, too many think they're the exception but no one is. However, staying home is hard so maybe I can help at least one or two people with some incentives. I'll try to give links to some things that can help cure the boredom, and some support if you need it.
Most of this might be obvious to some, some might not even have internet and of course, money is a big issue, so I'll try to give some suggestions:
For streaming and on demand things such as Netflix et al, don't forget you can subscribe for free for your first month. This goes for most things in the list. If you are worried about putting in your payment details and forgetting to cancel a month later, don't worry! You can sign up and immediately cancel and you still get your free month!
For people who don't have a smart TV, you can buy a cheap Amazon Fire TV stick or a Roku box. The Fire stick can go as low as £20 often for 1080p. It will drop to £30 for 4k.
I picked up a 4k Roku device for £18 on Amazon once. It's fast and snappy. currently it's going for £33 for the 4k version. Having both, there is little difference between the devices. NowTV also do their own roku powered device.
Subscription based streaming sites that all offer 2-4 weeks free for first timers

• Netflix *According to comments the second month is free.
  
• Amazon Prime You can either get Amazon video on its own, or take prime with other benefits. I strongly urge those who use Amazon for buying off their store front to use [https://smile.amazon.co.uk/] as there is literally no difference except everything you buy amazon donates to a charity of your choice.
  
• Now TV (I believe it's 7 days)
  
• Disney+
  
• Britbox
  
• Amazon channels. I believe you can get all these individually but Amazon offers them as channels bound to your prime account, and they are again either free for a couple weeks (again, take them, cancel instantly) or very cheap. I recently subscribed to Starzplay for £1 for 3 months. It has some good shows on it like Fringe, doom patrol. It also has channels like Curiosity stream and shudder
  

If you have not subscribed to the any of the above, you can get a few months of free TV by signing up and cancelling instantly. I suggest waiting at least 5 minutes just to let it go through the system.
Some tips for Now TV. IF you already have a subscription, I've noticed you can get it cheaper by cancelling. When you cancel they will beg you to stay. Select "I can not afford it this month" and they should beg again, telling you what shows they have. If you say you still want to cancel, they'll beg one last time and offer you the subscription for cheaper. This won't work every month, but I've noticed they'll always offer it the first time, then again after a couple months. If you're subscribed to both films and entertainment do the most expensive one as it may not work both times (but it might!). You can also pick up passes from storefronts a lot cheaper sometimes, before I could pick one up on Amazon for £3 but, they seem to have cracked down on it. If you shop around (or if anyone knows of a legitimate store please let me know) you might be able to pick it up cheaper. Lastly, check their website and under your account they should have an "offers for you" section.
Completely free TV

• Pluto TV
  
• Viki
  
• Roku
  

If you do have a smart TV and/or device, there are some good free streaming apps. One I really love is called PlutoTV. I know this is on both Roku and the fire stick, as well as Ps4/Ps5 and xbox.
Pluto offers a bunch of live channels and now an on demand section, all for free. It has adverts but they are actually short (shorter than regular TV and fewer of them). Some of the channels are just streaming certain shows like Mythbusters 24/7 or Dog the bounty hunter, but it has a lot of old movie channels as well as 24/7 kickboxing and MMA. It also has a 24/7 poker channel I quite like.
Another one I like is Rakuten Viki however, I haven't watched it for a while as my fire stick is only 1080p and I have too many other devices attached. I believe it is on Roku but you have to jump through some hoops and have an account. The last I checked on the fire stick you did not. Viki offers a metric ton of Asian shows, mainly from Japan and South Korea but it does have chinese, Malaysian etc. It has subtitles. Some Japanese shows are hysterical, albeit weird.
Roku also do their own channels with free shows if you own a device.
For those who don't have a smart TV or a Streaming device, you can set up your own computer as a dedicated streaming device with Plex. It's been a while since I used it but I believe it now also offers free movies and TV.
Anime
If you are into Anime there is

• Crunchyroll
  
• Funimation
  
• HiDive
  

The first 2 are free to watch, or offer premium without ads which you can have a trial with. Crunchyroll is the better of the two with more original choice for Japanese voice and subs, while Funimation has more Dubs. I don't believe HiDive is free to watch but you do get a 2 week trial. These are more exclusives than the previous two.
PC Centric software
If you are a gamer or like Audiobooks or anything that uses computers for things like music making, programming or graphic design

• Humble Bundle
  
• Fanatical
  
• IndieGala
  

Humble Bundle offers, as per the name, bundles. A long running site that got bought out by IGN. It offers both single items and bundles you can buy individually/as a pack while also offering a separate monthly subscription for around £8-9. The subscription gives you 12 games on average per month. That's the simplest explanation but it changes somewhat as sometimes you get to pick 10 out of 14 games, or get all 12.
Humble bundle offers more than just games though. Every Tuesday they bring a new bundle of games, while Thursday (I "think) a new bundle of books. They very often have books from the Black Library giving you a ton of Warhammer books. Sometimes it's standard E-books, other times it's audiobooks. A few times a year they do bundles for graphic design, a typical bundle would include programs like Paintshop Pro Corel Painter etc, They usually go for £0.76 for tier 1 up to around £18 for tier 3, which would include 4-6 full titles with 10+ addons. They also often have Music making bundles or video editing software as well as Programming or video game development.
The bundles change often, they usually have around 11 bundles at a time that last for 20 days. Sometimes it's trash but they do often have some very good deals.
Fanatical offers the same as humble bundle except usually not as high quality, but sometimes they do have some incredible deals, and they are very very cheap.
Both humble and fanatical are safe, trusted and been around a long time, and they are NOT grey market key sites. They work with the publishers and developers. You can buy games both old and new for a lot cheaper than you would most other places. Unless it states otherwise, keys are usually for steam.
**BOTH HB and Fanatical (HB much more common) offer free games fairly often. The catch is linking your steam account to them (at least HB). It is safe however.
IndieGala is another site like above. Except, these are much much lower quality. However, they offer a metric ton of free games. Quality is low but it is legitimate, and a lot of free stuff.
Game Store Fronts

• Steam This one is so obvious I didn't add it, but apparently many want me to. It is the best out there, and you can find almost everything, with fantastic deals.
  
• Greenmangaming offers games cheaply. Again, not a grey market site (which are legal but unethical) and they sometimes do bundles.
  
• GoG (Good old games) is a DRM free site run by CDPR, the makers of the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk. They offer you games quite cheap and not needing DRM (such as Steam, Uplay etc which is less invasive versions of dodgy DRM from the olden days).
  
• Epic Games Despite the controversy whether you care about their rivalry with valve, they offer free games ever week. Without ever having bought anything I have gained over 170 games. literally. Good games for the most part. They often give you £10 coupons as well.
  
• Twitch Everyone knows twitch, but if you don't, it's a streaming service for watching gamers and girls with low cut tops accidentally bending over in front of the game. However, if you're signed up to prime, you get free games each month (and randomly between the set bunch).
  
• Playstation Store Currently has January sales. Currently the free games for PS+ are for PS4: Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Greedfall. For the Ps5 it is Maneater
  
• Games with Gold Bleed 2 and the King of Fighters XIII is available until Janurary 15th whilst little Nightmares is available until January 31st.
  

Gaming Subscriptions
Like the TV versions, you can sign up to these for a free trial (or very cheap). If you do sign up to only one at a time, it should keep you busy for a few months

• Xbox Game Pass You can do this on both/either an Xbox or PC. If you sign up to the regular one, you can get a month (maybe three!) for £1. After you have done that, you can sign up to the premium version for 3 months at £1 a month. Most people know game pass, but you can download a large selection of games for free. The premium version gives you games with gold, allowing you to keep the games forever (but can only play with a subscription)
  
• Ubisoft+ I'm not 100% sure if you get a trial or not. This allows a large collection of Ubisoft titles to play for £12.99 a month. Quite expensive but good if you like Ubisoft titles I guess.
  
• EA Play EA's version. Goes by a ton of names I think, EA Access, EA Play, Origin Access etc etc. There's a couple of versions of this, and it is across all platforms (PS4/5, Xbox, PC) but not sure about the switch. I "think" the premium allows you to play on all platforms, while the cheaper one on a single platform, but I may be mistaken.
  
• PS Now a once terrible service that is now actually very good. Allows you to download some Ps4 games to your PS4/5 and lets you stream a massive amount of Ps2/3/4 to your PC or playstation.
  

There's more like nvidia's service but you need the Shield device which is quite expensive. I'll leave it at that.
Audiobooks & Ebooks

• Audible Not sure what the current deal is but if you are a prime member you can sign up for a trial and get a free Audiobook each month for 3 months. Some warhammer books are 48 hours long, 3 of those gives you a good 100+ hours of listening!
  
• Comixology Another Amazon company, but lets you download some free comics I believe.
  
• Marvel Unlimited No experience with this. ItFuckingWont wanted me to add it. A subscription service for Marvel.
  

Education

• Sign Language BSL here No experience myself, suggested by n21brown and asked for a few times. Didn't know SL was so popular! Listed as "Pay what you can"
  
• BBC's Bitesize here is apparently good for home learning. Again, no personal experience.
  

If you need some spare change
Okay, I don't generally bother with it, but maybe some of this could be useful to you. These are NOT a quick way to make a fortune. These are small things you can do over time for a bit of pocket change

• If you have prime you can get a FREE FIVE POUND GIFT CARD by literally just streaming a song from Amazon music (which is included in prime) here is the details According to the comments it's only for select people, but it's worth trying If the link doesn't work for you just google "Amazon £5 coupon music"
  
• Now, these sorts of sites have been around for years, I haven't used any other than talkInsights which I must have signed up to 10-15 years ago. Basically they send you surveys and you answer them. They are confidential and don't ask for personal details in the survey. You need 2000 points and you get £20. During the pandemic they've slowed down but I probably get around £40 a year. Not much I know, but it's an email followed by a quick survey ticking boxes. Depending on your answer sometimes you get screened out, I'm not telling you to lie but just be consistent with your answers and you should be able to work out how to not get screened. Some emails are only worth 20 points, others 200. It's slow to get to the 2000 but very quick to just answer a few questions.
  
• Apparently beermoneyuk is a good sub to make some pocket change with.
  
• There is also matched betting. I have never done this, I don't have the patience but from what I've read, it's legitimate, it works and you can make a fair amount of cash from it so long as you do it correctly, and there's a ton of guides. I mention this because people stuck at home could get into it and as long as you're careful (I.E not entering in the wrong numbers) it's risk free AND it pisses off the betting shops. It seems people in comments have had success with it. Disclaimer A couple have complained about gambling. This arguably is not gambling. If you are susceptible to addiction do not do it. However, it's argued that there is no fun or buzz in this, and it's a very tedious and time consuming thing. Others argue you can't make the same money anymore (People were making thousands, now only hundreds if that). It's risk free providing you know what you're doing, the risks are user error, such as entering the wrong numbers. Someone pointed out that due to the lockdown, bets could potentially be cancelled due to sport stopping. So use on a side of caution. We're (mainly) adults so I'll leave it up just because this doesn't have the excitement of regular gambling.
  
• Microsoft Rewards This is an easy way to make pocket change doing very little. Most people have a MS account. The rewards program offers you numerous ways to grab points, by playing free to play games, answering small questions (you don't even need to answer most of the time, just open the link and shut it) and by using bing and searching on it. I've gotten 20k points JUST by answering questions over a couple months. There are many rewards but you can grab a £5 gift card for 6k for example, or a month of game pass (and AFAIK you can make points playing the games)
  
• Google rewards Someone mentioned this in the comments. I have not used it, so can not give any input on it. Sounds similar to TalkInsights which I linked. Google states "Complete short surveys while standing in line, or waiting for a subway. Get rewarded with Google Play or PayPal credit for each one you complete. Topics include everything from opinion polls, to hotel reviews, to merchant satisfaction surveys. We’ll notify you when a survey is waiting."
  

That's it for now. I will try to update as I go along. A long post but I hope that it can help some of you with finding something good to do that's free, cheap or a bargain. I do suggest getting prime, especially since you get free music, free delivery, free TV and music and free video games each month. In fact, there's a ton of perks and I feel I've gotten way over the cost investment.
Hope it helps someone at least
PartTimeCrazy said if you bought an Apple product you get 3 free months of Apple Arcade and Apple TV free for a year
fakehunted is upset I didn't mention wanking. Tesco have 225 sheets of Tissue for £0.75!
tale_lost suggested Project Gutenberg for a collection of free E-Books
Learning Language
Unfortunately, I don't have time to check every link listed so I will link the comments:
Togtogtog Gives a lot of links for Spanish

• Duolingo Numerous people have suggested this So I haven't used myself. Thanks to OhHiGCHQ StephanieMecredy & Allorie_95

Board & Tabletop games
Corporal_Anaesthetic has made a list of Board games
ilyemco suggested these
HEALTH
I'm not a doctor! But if you're a smoker, something I strongly suggest is to quit. I struggled for years but in the first lockdown I quit, technically. I haven't had a cigarette since, however, I do that silly thing millennials do. I vape, but, it made quitting extremely easy. I would not have been able to do it if it wasn't for 88Vape They sell extremely cheap liquids at £1 each. You can find these in B&M but you can pick up 25 for £20 or buy your own mix.
Vitamin D deficiency has been said to be a big problem for the virus. I'd suggest (again, not a doctor!) that you pick some up. Tesco do a 3 for 2 deal. So you can pick up 270 tablets for £7.
If you are vulnerable you MIGHT be able to phone tesco and get put on their delivery saver list (currently it's paused but phoning may help. At the very least they might give you a priority slot. I did this for my mum, we didn't shop at Tesco but I phoned for her, and they put her on with no hassle, so she can always get a delivery.
HELP & ADVICE
The lockdown Rules.
Reasons to leave home include:

• Work or volunteering where it is "unreasonable" to work from home. This includes work in someone else's home, such as that carried out by social workers, nannies, cleaners and tradespeople
  
• Education, training, childcare and medical appointments and emergencies
  
• Exercise outdoors (limited to once a day). This includes meeting one other person from another household in an open public space to exercise
  
• Shopping for essentials such as food and medicine
  
• Communal religious worship
  
• Meeting your support or childcare bubble. Children can also move between separated parents Activities related to moving house
  

I want to add, if you are in danger you are also allowed (and must!) to get away from the situation for some reason, BBC seems to have missed this very important thing (or I am blind)

• To flee the threat of harm or violence.*
  
• CoronaVirus Symptoms
  
• CoronaVirus government site You can check your location and how many cases here.
  
• Worldometers Shows cases around the world.
  
• Interactive UK Map Another easy to read map with cases in counties and local area's.
  
• World Health Organisation
  

Support

• Samaritans
  
• Mental Health UK forum on reddit
  
• Link to above's stick post for support outlets
  
• Mindful
  
• Mind.org
  

FOR THOSE SHIELDING YOU CAN CONTACT THE ROYAL VOLUNTARY SERVICE. These people helped my mother with picking up her medicine from the chemist. They were very helpful and went out their way to keep in touch and do it immediately. (It's the only experience I have with them though)
_riotingpacifist wanted these links added, but I simply just don't have the time to vet and check all the suggestions here, so I will link as is:

• https://england.shelter.org.uk/housing_advice/
  
• https://www.goodsamapp.org/
  
• https://vaccinationvolunteers.sja.org.uk/roles/volunteer-vaccinator.html
  
• https://nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk/getting-you-started-guide-steward-volunteer
  
• https://peoplesmomentum.com/evictionresistance/
  
• https://londonrentersunion.org/
  

Update:
Digital Art
These are Free

• Krita Arguably the best in my opinion. It has a load of options, brushes and a decent UI. It works fantastic with a tablet.
  
• Gimp This is a decent program but last I used, the UI was a pain, and it isn't so user friendly while misses features, but it works, and it is possible to do some incredible creations on it.
  
• Medibang Paint This is slightly geared towards Comics and Manga. I really enjoy using this with my drawing Tablet. As far as I know, it also for regular tablets for Android/Ipad and is free.
  

You can pick up a drawing tablet on Amazon quite cheap these days! Small ones that are just a black slate such as the wacom ones are good but takes some practice to get use to, but very worth it if you can't afford a dedicated drawing tablet with a screen.
Office suit software
A couple of free applications for word processing, spreadsheets etc.

• LibreOffice This has most the average user would need to write their own books or to work from home. There's not a huge amount of difference between the two I'm linking (since I last used anyway) so it's more for preference.
  
• Open Office You can pick this up here and again, like above it's just preference.
  

Music Making
I'm going to direct to matthewharris806 for some links as all the programs I've used like Reason are expensive, or cheaper stuff in bundles such as Magix software.
Games development
D_Dad_Default gives some links for that here