Stop and shop west hartford ct
West Springfield
2014.08.09 14:38 West Springfield
West Springfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area.
2014.12.10 16:33 noraamitt CTMusic - the one stop shop for live music in Connecticut
CTMusic is a live music aggregate focusing on bands, musicians, concerts and performances in Connecticut.
2012.06.12 15:38 Holyoke, MA
Holyoke is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States that lies between the western bank of the Connecticut River and the Mount Tom Range of mountains. As of 2012, the city had an estimated population of 40,135.
2023.06.06 07:19 repollo_queenofslugs it's true, I was the magnet
 | submitted by repollo_queenofslugs to thatHappened [link] [comments] |
2023.06.06 07:18 A_horse_a_piece77 The Strange Pandemic Of 'White' Disparagement
 | All of a sudden, the obsession with whites as a Satanic collective has become a national fad... submitted by A_horse_a_piece77 to DoorCountyALT [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/pr31og8h0c4b1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=da38ea03039dc1112f407f516e9bf957f7e09499 One of the tenets of the early civil rights movement some 65 years ago was ending racial stereotyping. When Martin Luther King, Jr. called for emphasizing the “content of our character” over “the color of our skin,” the subtext was “stop judging people as a faceless collective on the basis of their superficial appearance and instead look to them as individuals with unique characters.” It is tragic that King’s plea for an integrated, assimilated society, in which race became incidental, not essential to our personas, has mostly been abandoned by the Left in favor of racial stereotyping, collective guilting, and scapegoating by race and gender. Indeed, many of the old Confederate pathologies—fixation on racial essence, obsession with genealogy, nullification of federal laws, states’ rights, and segregated spaces and ceremonies—are now rehabilitated by woke activists. In that larger landscape, the collective adjective and noun “white” now has also been redefined and mainstreamed as a pejorative to the point of banality. “White” followed by a string of subsequent oppressive nouns—“rage,” “supremacy,” “privilege”—has become a twitch on campus. Diversity, equity, and inclusion deans and provosts cannot write a memo, issue a communique, or sign a directive without a reference to “white” something or other. Like the mysterious omnipresence of transgenderism in popular culture, all of a sudden, the obsession with whites as a Satanic collective has become a national fad—a pet-rock or hula-hoop-like collective madness. Yet such an addiction remains bizarre in a variety of ways. Millions in the present are now to be libeled as oppressors by the contemporary self-described oppressed—supposedly for what some whites who are mostly now dead once did to now mostly dead others. Yet what does “white” really mean anymore? Is it an adjective or noun indicating color? Culture? Race? Ethnicity? Is white defined as three-quarters, one-half, or one-quarter paleness? Is it an overarching state of mind that encompasses both “Duck Dynasty” and “The West Wing”? Certainly, in a multiracial, intermarried nation, with 50 million residents not even born in America, the term is a construct that can mean almost anything and thus nothing much at all. Hispanics are often lumped in with other “marginalized” peoples as part of the vast diversity coalition. Yet most Latinos are indistinguishable from Italian-, Arab-, Greek- or Portuguese-Americans, who, in turn, are all usually considered part of the “white” majority. Does a mere accent mark or trilled “R” transmogrify a blue-eyed Argentinian-American into the preferred nonwhite, diversity collective? In our crazy racially categorized society, had George Zimmerman just adopted his maternal surname Mesa and Hispanicized George to Jorge, then a “Jorge Mesa” might not have been so easily demonized as what the New York Times slurred as a “white” Hispanic following his deadly confrontation with Trayvon Martin in 2012. The controversial City University of New York firebrand and graduation speaker Fatima Mousa Mohammed recently railed against capitalism, Zionism, Israel—and, of course, “white supremacy.” Yet she herself is whiter than white. She is now an elite with a law degree. Is she then a beneficiary of “white privilege”? Or do her radical politics trump skin color and earn her exemption? Is a snarly, divisive Joe Biden, barking at the moon about “ultra-MAGA” and “semi-fascist” white monsters, then, not a purveyor and beneficiary of white supremacy by virtue of his woke politics? I know a lot of white mechanics, forklift drivers, and assembly workers. I have never heard one employ one of Biden’s racial putdowns like “boy” or “junkie.” Do they enjoy white privilege in some way the Biden family consortium does not—despite Joe’s past fulsome praise of iconic segregationists or his Corn-Pop fables of black youth petting his golden hairs on his sun-tanned white legs, or Hunter’s taboos about dating Asian women? “The View’s” Sonny Hostin has created a mini-career in imaging all the ways in which she can smear “white” women as demonic (“White women, in particular, want to protect this patriarchy”) as she thinks up new Hitlerian gas metaphors of dehumanization, such as white women resembling “roaches voting for Raid.” When the media wishes to attack black conservatives like Larry Elder, it now can call them “white supremacists.” When it wishes to warp the news for its woke agendas, it assures us that a Latino mass-murderer was a “white supremacist” and then, in Pavlovian fashion, academics follow with essays assuring us that their “research” proves Hispanics too can be white supremacists. The creation of false racial identities is an accurate touchstone of perceived collective racialized privilege. “Passing” for white in the racist days of Jim Crow reflected a means of escaping racist segregation and discrimination for blacks. Now the increasing trend of whites seeking to pass for nonwhites—Elizabeth Warren, Ward Churchill, Rachel Dolezal—reflects a self-interested and careerist assessment that nonwhite status is advantageous. In college admissions, are applicants more likely to massage a non-white or white identity for perceived advantage? Is the racist ossified “one-drop rule” or “one-sixteenth” genealogy now rebooted as helpful proof of proving white or nonwhite heritage? Then we come to the absurdity of lumping together 330 million diverse Americans, with ancestries that are often quite antithetical—Serbians and Albanians, Turks and Armenians, Israelis and Syrians, Germans and French. Are all these ancient antagonists reduced now to white automatons of a sinister collective borg? Arrive as an immigrant from Hungary or Estonia, and—presto!—you are culpable for creating supposed monsters of the past like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, whose statues must be toppled or defaced? Arrive the same day from Oaxaca and you are somehow exempt from such reparatory burdens? Immigration, at least, is immune from the academic perversion of research, and simply reflects realities on the ground. Millions of immigrants instinctively vote with their feet. We are told the U.S. current population is 67 percent to 70 percent “white” while yearly immigrants, legal and illegal, may total upwards of 90 percent nonwhite. But how is this paradox possible? Given the loud global warnings about “white rage” and “white supremacy,” why would millions of nonwhites risk their lives to reach a country where they would be assured of being subservient to “white privilege”? Can it instead be true that they simply do not believe what media and political elites tell them, given they have learned from prior immigrants that far from being at risk, they will have opportunities impossible in their native countries? Do not new arrivals risk their lives to enter the United States because they rightly assume that a so-called white majority country strangely, unlike their own tribal homelands in China or Mexico, does not fixate on race but instead encourages those who do not look like the majority to join their commonwealth—in a way the Mexican Constitution, for example, traditionally did not? Class apparently now means nothing. Does the white mechanic in Provo supposedly think like the Pelosi family—as a fellow “white” person? Are Barack Obama’s “clingers,” Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables” and “irredeemables,” and Joe Biden’s “semi-fascists,” “Ultra-MAGAs,” “dregs,” and “chumps” all of the same mentality? Do they share the same values as those embraced by Hunter Biden, Jane Fonda, and Adam Schiff, by virtue of some mystical bonds of whiteness? Where are the data to support the charge of imperious whiteness? Do so-called raging whites commit hate crimes in numbers greater than their demographics? In fact, they are underrepresented. Do purported whites hunt down people of color as if we are all living in 1920s rural Mississippi? In fact, in relatively rare interracial violent crime, whites are up to 10 times more likely to be victims of black- or Hispanic-perpetrated violence than agents themselves of interracial assault. Do white supremacists send poor people of color abroad, as often argued, to die in rich white men’s wars? In fact, white males died in Iraq and Afghanistan at twice their numbers in the general population. Is that asymmetry proof of what Mark Milley and Lloyd Austin pontificated about in fixating on white privilege? How do we adjudicate or define “proportionate representation”? What is disproportionate? Would it be the more than 70 percent of African Americans in many professional sports at six times their percentages of the population? Or perhaps the current admission statistics of the incoming class at Stanford University, where the university boasts that just 22 percent of its 2026 class is so-called white? Is it white privilege, rage, or supremacy that explains why seven of the current 25 cabinet and cabinet-level secretaries of the U.S. government are heterosexual white males? Does white privilege reveal why Asian Americans, on average, enjoy an annual median household income some $25,000 higher than their white counterparts? Are whites, by virtue of their supposed privileged caste, immune from suicide? In fact, the so-called white suicide rate is more than double the rate of blacks and Hispanics. Do supremacy and privilege explain why two-thirds of the annual opioid overdose deaths are among whites? Perhaps to substantiate the boilerplate of “white supremacy” and “white rage,” we might look to efforts at retro-segregation? Are privileged whites insisting on white-only college graduations? Perhaps they are demanding set-aside spaces on campuses, where they feel “safer” and can enjoy racial affinities and solidarity by excluding others? In fact, there are racially segregated spaces on campuses, but they tend to exclude whites. Perhaps the Left means white supremacy is a euphemism for a return to segregated housing and redlined neighborhoods. In fact, there are racially segregated dorms on campuses, the so-called “theme houses,” but again these were demanded by nonwhites. We are told that it is not safe for the diverse to be around white people, given their supposed violent proclivities. But that certainly seems not to be the case for our elites. The Obamas often lecture the country on housing discrimination and the historic efforts of whites to self-congregate and exclude. But the ex-president owns four expensive homes, in Kalorama D.C., https://www.compass.com/neighborhood-guides/dc/kalorama/ , Martha’s Vineyard, Hawaii, and Chicago. Yet he is least likely to reside in his richly diverse Chicago neighborhood and apparently feels more at home with the mostly white neighbors of his other three estates. Indeed, some of the most severe critics of “white privilege” and “white rage” are themselves ensconced in white neighborhoods, such as the Duchess of Sussex or LeBron James. When Oprah Winfrey damns white supremacy in graduation speeches, is her subtext a snarl at her fellow billionaire neighbors in Montecito? So what is going on with the contemporary fixation on white, white, white? Why are there so many Duke Lacrosse, Covington kids, Tawana Brawley, and Jussie Smollett cases, as if the dearth of white oppressors and the multitude of would-be oppressed requires the fabrication of so-called white hate crimes? Why does Joe Biden lecture the country on its supposedly greatest terrorist threat of “white supremacy”—this from the most racialist president of the modern era, who sets himself up as the judge of who is and who "ain't black"? https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/22/politics/biden-charlamagne-tha-god-you-aint-black/index.html This rebooted white collective stereotype seems to be the obsession of two general groups. One cadre is the elite professional, left-wing whites. By any definition of income and status, its members are quite blessed and privileged. For them, voicing the new white pejorative is a sort of psychological mechanism that excuses their own guilt-ridden privilege, by fobbing purported toxic “whiteness” onto an amorphous “semi-fascist” other, while virtue signaling they are not like “them.” “Them,” of course, are those who live and work in places like East Palestine, Ohio, and who have zero privilege but, by the Obama-Clinton-Biden standards, are culturally and socially deplorable. Such “white rage” and “white supremacist” mantras are also careerist cues that signal, as with party membership of the old Soviet nomenklatura, that they are correct and now audited for raises, promotions, and rewards. The second group is composed of the wealthy, left-wing minority elites in politics, media, entertainment, sports, and government service. For the Al Sharptons and “squad” members of the world, damning “white, white, white” bogeymen alleviates them of any painful analysis of inequality, such as the role of endemic illegitimacy and absent fathers in nearly ensuring a lack of parity. It is hard work to buck the teachers’ unions and set up K-12 charter schools in the inner city that focus on math, science, and languages to ensure parity. But it is easy and cheap—and far more lucrative—to blast the SAT test as “racist” and demand reparative admissions to Yale or Harvard. For the racialist careerist, the less racism there is to find, all the more essential it is to root it out somehow, somewhere. So, here arrives a new genre of manufactured hate crimes, whose logic is “even if it did not happen, it reminds us that it could have happened.” The dearth of actual racism also demands a new set of adjectives that serve as something like sophisticated detectors to discover otherwise invisible natural gas fumes. The adjective “systemic” means only the select can now spot racism. Like air, it is everywhere but invisible and thus requires battalions of diversity, equity, and inclusion inspectors to use their training to expose it in the common atmosphere. “Microaggressions” exist as a tacit admission there are no aggressions as we commonly define them. No matter—there are still hints that there might be some racial aggression, once experts redefine words and gestures to ferret out micro-racists in our midst. Where does this all lead? We are wasting trillions of dollars in capital, labor, and time in tribal cannibalism as our friends abroad watch in horror, and our enemies savor our decline into collective suicide—while we sink into debt, our cities turn medieval, our border disappears, our criminal justice system collapses, and our military chases its tail. We know from history the ultimate destination of tribal chauvinism, and it is not pretty. Once a society retribalizes, it descends into a Hobbesian war of all against all. Everyone eventually seeks out or manufactures a tribal identity for self-protection. Tribalism operates on the principles of proliferation: if a neighboring nation goes nuclear, then everyone in the neighborhood must too. Unless some passengers on our runaway train force our engineers to hit the brakes, we are headed over the cliff into Yugoslavia. Authored by Victor Davis Hanson via American Greatness https://amgreatness.com/2023/06/04/the-strange-pandemic-of-white-disparagement/ |
2023.06.06 07:15 BadBillyMedia What Bike should I get? Should I swap my current ride?
Hey guys, looking for some advice from some fellow riders, as im a new(ish) to MTB. First, a little about me and my wants. First and foremost, I want freedom to explore trails, do some single trails and work up to some jumps. I wanted a EMTB just for range/ exploration options. Im carrying a bit of extra weight and not the fittest - I have spent a lot of my time on my ass in front of a screen working around the clock for too many years - time for a lifestyle change. Im new to MTB although used to ride when I was a kid a bit/ bmx. I used to race motocross/ enduro a lot and do my own maintainance, and plan on doing a fair chunk of my own maintainance.
I picked up a CUBE Reaction Pro hard tail eMTB, and its great, but I have some growing concerns. I am yet to take it on a serious offroad trip, but have already noticed a few things im not sure about. 1. It is huge. it has 29 inch wheels, and at my height, im borderline too small for it, ie, feet can only be flat on one side when sitting on cross bar. I definitely need to get a dropper post regardless. Also, its nearly impossible for me to get the front wheel up at any decent speed, I have to be walkping pace to be able to pop up the front. im guessing this is because of the 29 tires and the long wheelbase? Its super stable ride, but doesnt have that 2). The front forks, X-Fusion, seem a bit off to me. They feel way too soft (bottoming out on small drop offs, or turning up by 1 click, then want to snap your wrists off). I didnt know if I should just invest in better forks? 3) The brakes are good, but i feel they could be better (2 piston I think) If I grab a handfull of front brake, im struggling to lock the front wheel on concrete, or do a stoppie. It stops quick, but feels almost like ABS - and im smashing the lever. It might be from my MX days, but I feel I should have a great feel over the front brake with 1/2 fingers? Would 4 piston be the way to go. 4) I always felt I was going to go hard tail for a while before making the jump to full suspension - but im already itching to send it down rough tracks/ jumps, and I know its not going to be the same experience as a full suspension setup.
I spent roughly $3.5k AUD on this bike. I can take it back to the bike shop within 30 days and swap it out (pay the difference) as there is no damage to the bike. I have until the 23rd of this month to do so.
So my question is: Should I swap this bike and put more money into getting a FS bike, with better forks and better brakes? I dont really want to go much higher than $5kAUD as im just starting out, there are a few options in my price range. I do intend to ride some days throughout the week and most weekeneds. Im not competing, but I still want to have fun and not feel huge restrictions on the trails.
OR - I quite like the bike I have minus the few shortcomings - should maybe just invest in better forks, a dropper seat, maybe swap the wheels to 27.5inch and make the most of it - just get out and ride - and upgrade in future if I feel the need? Or should I spend more and go full suspension while I can do a free swap but just pay the difference?
Thanks for any advice/ insight!!
submitted by BadBillyMedia to MTB [link] [comments]
I picked up a CUBE Reaction Pro hard tail eMTB, and its great, but I have some growing concerns. I am yet to take it on a serious offroad trip, but have already noticed a few things im not sure about. 1. It is huge. it has 29 inch wheels, and at my height, im borderline too small for it, ie, feet can only be flat on one side when sitting on cross bar. I definitely need to get a dropper post regardless. Also, its nearly impossible for me to get the front wheel up at any decent speed, I have to be walkping pace to be able to pop up the front. im guessing this is because of the 29 tires and the long wheelbase? Its super stable ride, but doesnt have that 2). The front forks, X-Fusion, seem a bit off to me. They feel way too soft (bottoming out on small drop offs, or turning up by 1 click, then want to snap your wrists off). I didnt know if I should just invest in better forks? 3) The brakes are good, but i feel they could be better (2 piston I think) If I grab a handfull of front brake, im struggling to lock the front wheel on concrete, or do a stoppie. It stops quick, but feels almost like ABS - and im smashing the lever. It might be from my MX days, but I feel I should have a great feel over the front brake with 1/2 fingers? Would 4 piston be the way to go. 4) I always felt I was going to go hard tail for a while before making the jump to full suspension - but im already itching to send it down rough tracks/ jumps, and I know its not going to be the same experience as a full suspension setup.
I spent roughly $3.5k AUD on this bike. I can take it back to the bike shop within 30 days and swap it out (pay the difference) as there is no damage to the bike. I have until the 23rd of this month to do so.
So my question is: Should I swap this bike and put more money into getting a FS bike, with better forks and better brakes? I dont really want to go much higher than $5kAUD as im just starting out, there are a few options in my price range. I do intend to ride some days throughout the week and most weekeneds. Im not competing, but I still want to have fun and not feel huge restrictions on the trails.
OR - I quite like the bike I have minus the few shortcomings - should maybe just invest in better forks, a dropper seat, maybe swap the wheels to 27.5inch and make the most of it - just get out and ride - and upgrade in future if I feel the need? Or should I spend more and go full suspension while I can do a free swap but just pay the difference?
Thanks for any advice/ insight!!
2023.06.06 07:14 myaudioandsecurity Find 3 key aspects to buy a car amplifier for sale
My Audio and Security is the one-stop shop to procure best-in-class car amplifier for sale that furnishes increased consistency with the car stereo system.
submitted by myaudioandsecurity to u/myaudioandsecurity [link] [comments]
2023.06.06 07:01 Shiro_Zeref How to actually SAVE the game
Want players back?
Simple, just do this and people will surely come back to give the game another chance.
Big problems require drastic solutions..
Lost ark Season 3:
-Hard reset on gear straight up, Tier IV blues out of the story 2000ilvl for example and make the game feel fresh again. This is called an Expansion in other games and it creates an ease of access for new players so they can hop in and play together with their friends at the current content.
-Reset Card System with an easier system to complete or even better get done with it (TOTAL REMOVAL) because its garbage paytowin crap that doesn't bring anything good to the game. It's just a pay to win system to snipe the whales that only creates problems.
-Reset Gems tier as it went with T2, make the gems effectively worthless by reducing their effects by half so it would incentivize people using the newer ones.
-Make the daily grind not to feel horrendous. Basically the game economy and how to progress got min-maxed to death so changing the formula a little bit here and there might actually help. Having a game where to be serious about your main character you have to farm 40x chaos dungeons 40x guardian raids to swap them to your main so you can progress is kinda sad tbh (yes, you don't have to do this, but if other people are hardcore enough and do it yet you don't, guess what, you are left behind, that doesn't sound good now right?), and that's on top of 6+sets of legion raids per week..
Possible solution for daily grind being shit would be to have more rewards per character doing the boring chore stuff but having the materials bound on character, that would make altocholics still play their alts and make everyone else not feeling that they are getting behind because they don't do it on all their characters.
What would be the problem if the guardian raids wasn't a right(2x per character) but a freedom? Want to play guardians all day with your main character? go do it.. there would be no limit.. surely the numbers it drops, the expected marketplace price or the numbers needed to hone would change but that can be used as actual content that people can spam (blade & soul, WoW and a bunch of other mmo's have it so it can be done). How its done is not really something I care. Making something endlessly farmable would remove the fomo of having to do them and make them a free for all.
-Remove Pheons, everybody knows that pheons are a problem.
People would have way more freedom to play other specs / builds , try more stuff with alt characters, send their drops to their alts for FREE (something that can't be done freely now which is low and scummy). There is literally no positive for having pheons. Bunch of idiot ideas about it protecting against people that would do huge buyouts and scalp up the price are so dumb that don't even need a reason existing.
If someone for example buys all of an item for example a "specific" stone, they run the risk of losing gold in the long term because they would have to compete with people pumping them out on the daily, scalping specific "accessories" they also run the same risks. Wake up, scalpers exist either way and its always a gamble, they just have to amount for the fee to pay to the company to do their job, its not being stopped.
This is just a reason to have another revenue stream in the back of the players and making their interaction with trading with other people and even with themselves harder.
-Remove Raid wipes. Raid wipes are a poor method of KR mmo's trying to handle the integrity of the game with Swipers (p2w people) and make the work of bussers harder to impossible. Who wins from all of this? basically nobody, this is not really a game but at this point alcatraz Island simulator.
1-hit-KO moves can still exist but on each player depending on their play.
-Introduce a cap to Geagems/cards at certain raids / dungeons to decrease gatekeeping
For example when you join Valtan you are capped at 1490 item level even if your gear is 1570 you don't get stat benefits, this could go to gems and cards having a cap. Doing Valtan doesn't need that much gear and this can alleviate the problems of gatekeeping to a certain degree.
Also another positive from this would be the increase of difficulty of bussing that Smilegate is desperately trying to fight against, or at least is pretending to.
Players gatekeeping to this extreme isn't their fault, they just want to min-max their effort and get the reward, they want bosses to die faster and pick the biggest number since time is money in this game, and lost time is a problem. Tinkering with caps would open the door to less gigachad players to join the groups easier and not getting gatekept.
-Scale down the difficulty of encounters in general and promote all that hardcore stuff to Hell mode where you can flex your skills. Like tough bosses? Like a challenge? burn yourself in that pit for all we care and flex about it later.
Progressing through the game via upgrades is fun and all (instead of upgrading via drops of bosses you kill that other mmo games have), but having these encounters difficulty so high up there when they are just a farm content bosses multiple times every week is too tiring.
-Free Consumables for Hell mode would be a great change, that would make more people try joining in and testing it out (at least i guess so)
There is a ton of stuff that can be done to save the game from doom at least in the WEST.
Game is doing fine and it will do fine in KR regardless.
These are some options that could create problems for the economy, how the game works and functions or how it interacts with players but that's all because balancing a pay2win freetoplay and stopping it from bleeding more and more players daily needs drastic actions. This is an ever ending cycle, you can not have a f2p p2w game that everyone loves because that's how it is.
To be Honest the game is designed from the ground up to be a kr grinder mmo where you either waste your life away or drop down cash to keep up. Drastically changing something will probably create other problems since its how its designed. ( you don't go to said dungeon and get the loot to get better, you have to farm farm farm to upgrade to get better so you can see the dungeon) so having the game running for years without a BIG RESET is a no go if you want it to last so that it can replace old blood (people that quit or people that take a break) with new players.
Hyper express is a patch to a problem that's definitely too weak to work and in the end it doesn't get rid of the problem, it just moves it to a later date and that date is coming as we see with concurrent player numbers.
New people when they start an mmo they don't want to be a year behind the current endgame (because even after a year of farming they would still be like 3-6months behind at the next year's endgame.
Who in their right mind starts a game knowing this? Actually they don't since they get to experience the wall pretty fast and leave.
Remember people were raising hell for Argos being about a month early give or take.
Games that don't fix this issue of replenishing people quitting with new blood end up dead or with a hardcore community that over time bleeds to an inevitable death.
Game went from 80 to 70 to 60 to 50 to 40 in a month and we still have tons of bots in punika abusing the Hyper Express on mass.
Call it Diablo , call it content drought, call it whatever
Losing half player base in a month that's not on release month (since games on release lose quite a sizeable amount of people after first month) needs action.
Sure the game can sustain with 10k concurrent hardcore player base, even with less but also keep in mind that they are divided to the whole world except china and kr. Meaning sooner or later people leaving that don't get replenished will make the game for certain regions at least unplayable and that's where the never ending downward spiral of game losing people will begin.
Finally, the game needs to feel fresh again and sacrifices probably have to be made, either by smilegate toning down their choices of greedy monetization that do more harm than the worth of the money they get or players accepting a new tier / expansion blanket reset, or both
Most Likely the Thread will go invisible or get much hate since I'm a nobody and probably nobody cares to read walls of texts of their favorite mmo being bashed when they spend their time playing it, out of those that are left.
Feel free to cope on how wrong I am
That I am a rice eater
That I don't really care about the game and simply want things for free that others had to work for
That I just need to GETGOOD to play the alcatraz bosses
Ask me to quit the game or go on a break since I am not having fun
I'll check the thread maybe a couple people might turn up after that huge wall of text and give their honest thoughts, being positive or negative, adding solutions or explaining why those i gave are garbage.
submitted by Shiro_Zeref to lostarkgame [link] [comments]
Simple, just do this and people will surely come back to give the game another chance.
Big problems require drastic solutions..
Lost ark Season 3:
-Hard reset on gear straight up, Tier IV blues out of the story 2000ilvl for example and make the game feel fresh again. This is called an Expansion in other games and it creates an ease of access for new players so they can hop in and play together with their friends at the current content.
-Reset Card System with an easier system to complete or even better get done with it (TOTAL REMOVAL) because its garbage paytowin crap that doesn't bring anything good to the game. It's just a pay to win system to snipe the whales that only creates problems.
-Reset Gems tier as it went with T2, make the gems effectively worthless by reducing their effects by half so it would incentivize people using the newer ones.
-Make the daily grind not to feel horrendous. Basically the game economy and how to progress got min-maxed to death so changing the formula a little bit here and there might actually help. Having a game where to be serious about your main character you have to farm 40x chaos dungeons 40x guardian raids to swap them to your main so you can progress is kinda sad tbh (yes, you don't have to do this, but if other people are hardcore enough and do it yet you don't, guess what, you are left behind, that doesn't sound good now right?), and that's on top of 6+sets of legion raids per week..
Possible solution for daily grind being shit would be to have more rewards per character doing the boring chore stuff but having the materials bound on character, that would make altocholics still play their alts and make everyone else not feeling that they are getting behind because they don't do it on all their characters.
What would be the problem if the guardian raids wasn't a right(2x per character) but a freedom? Want to play guardians all day with your main character? go do it.. there would be no limit.. surely the numbers it drops, the expected marketplace price or the numbers needed to hone would change but that can be used as actual content that people can spam (blade & soul, WoW and a bunch of other mmo's have it so it can be done). How its done is not really something I care. Making something endlessly farmable would remove the fomo of having to do them and make them a free for all.
-Remove Pheons, everybody knows that pheons are a problem.
People would have way more freedom to play other specs / builds , try more stuff with alt characters, send their drops to their alts for FREE (something that can't be done freely now which is low and scummy). There is literally no positive for having pheons. Bunch of idiot ideas about it protecting against people that would do huge buyouts and scalp up the price are so dumb that don't even need a reason existing.
If someone for example buys all of an item for example a "specific" stone, they run the risk of losing gold in the long term because they would have to compete with people pumping them out on the daily, scalping specific "accessories" they also run the same risks. Wake up, scalpers exist either way and its always a gamble, they just have to amount for the fee to pay to the company to do their job, its not being stopped.
This is just a reason to have another revenue stream in the back of the players and making their interaction with trading with other people and even with themselves harder.
-Remove Raid wipes. Raid wipes are a poor method of KR mmo's trying to handle the integrity of the game with Swipers (p2w people) and make the work of bussers harder to impossible. Who wins from all of this? basically nobody, this is not really a game but at this point alcatraz Island simulator.
1-hit-KO moves can still exist but on each player depending on their play.
-Introduce a cap to Geagems/cards at certain raids / dungeons to decrease gatekeeping
For example when you join Valtan you are capped at 1490 item level even if your gear is 1570 you don't get stat benefits, this could go to gems and cards having a cap. Doing Valtan doesn't need that much gear and this can alleviate the problems of gatekeeping to a certain degree.
Also another positive from this would be the increase of difficulty of bussing that Smilegate is desperately trying to fight against, or at least is pretending to.
Players gatekeeping to this extreme isn't their fault, they just want to min-max their effort and get the reward, they want bosses to die faster and pick the biggest number since time is money in this game, and lost time is a problem. Tinkering with caps would open the door to less gigachad players to join the groups easier and not getting gatekept.
-Scale down the difficulty of encounters in general and promote all that hardcore stuff to Hell mode where you can flex your skills. Like tough bosses? Like a challenge? burn yourself in that pit for all we care and flex about it later.
Progressing through the game via upgrades is fun and all (instead of upgrading via drops of bosses you kill that other mmo games have), but having these encounters difficulty so high up there when they are just a farm content bosses multiple times every week is too tiring.
-Free Consumables for Hell mode would be a great change, that would make more people try joining in and testing it out (at least i guess so)
There is a ton of stuff that can be done to save the game from doom at least in the WEST.
Game is doing fine and it will do fine in KR regardless.
These are some options that could create problems for the economy, how the game works and functions or how it interacts with players but that's all because balancing a pay2win freetoplay and stopping it from bleeding more and more players daily needs drastic actions. This is an ever ending cycle, you can not have a f2p p2w game that everyone loves because that's how it is.
To be Honest the game is designed from the ground up to be a kr grinder mmo where you either waste your life away or drop down cash to keep up. Drastically changing something will probably create other problems since its how its designed. ( you don't go to said dungeon and get the loot to get better, you have to farm farm farm to upgrade to get better so you can see the dungeon) so having the game running for years without a BIG RESET is a no go if you want it to last so that it can replace old blood (people that quit or people that take a break) with new players.
Hyper express is a patch to a problem that's definitely too weak to work and in the end it doesn't get rid of the problem, it just moves it to a later date and that date is coming as we see with concurrent player numbers.
New people when they start an mmo they don't want to be a year behind the current endgame (because even after a year of farming they would still be like 3-6months behind at the next year's endgame.
Who in their right mind starts a game knowing this? Actually they don't since they get to experience the wall pretty fast and leave.
Remember people were raising hell for Argos being about a month early give or take.
Games that don't fix this issue of replenishing people quitting with new blood end up dead or with a hardcore community that over time bleeds to an inevitable death.
Game went from 80 to 70 to 60 to 50 to 40 in a month and we still have tons of bots in punika abusing the Hyper Express on mass.
Call it Diablo , call it content drought, call it whatever
Losing half player base in a month that's not on release month (since games on release lose quite a sizeable amount of people after first month) needs action.
Sure the game can sustain with 10k concurrent hardcore player base, even with less but also keep in mind that they are divided to the whole world except china and kr. Meaning sooner or later people leaving that don't get replenished will make the game for certain regions at least unplayable and that's where the never ending downward spiral of game losing people will begin.
Finally, the game needs to feel fresh again and sacrifices probably have to be made, either by smilegate toning down their choices of greedy monetization that do more harm than the worth of the money they get or players accepting a new tier / expansion blanket reset, or both
Most Likely the Thread will go invisible or get much hate since I'm a nobody and probably nobody cares to read walls of texts of their favorite mmo being bashed when they spend their time playing it, out of those that are left.
Feel free to cope on how wrong I am
That I am a rice eater
That I don't really care about the game and simply want things for free that others had to work for
That I just need to GETGOOD to play the alcatraz bosses
Ask me to quit the game or go on a break since I am not having fun
I'll check the thread maybe a couple people might turn up after that huge wall of text and give their honest thoughts, being positive or negative, adding solutions or explaining why those i gave are garbage.
2023.06.06 06:59 Spider-Menace24 Would I be the bad apple if I cut contact with my best friend?
For context, I (19M) have been friends with my best friend, we'll call them Lee (19X), for 6 years since high school freshman year. When a movie came out that we both wanted to see we would make plans to go. We would enjoy talking about either movie theories or the latest book in ELA. They helped me socially transition when I was coming out as trans. They even helped me set up a harmless senior prank on one of our favorite teachers. After our graduation, we just drifted apart and I got a job and went to community college just for my associate's and they got a job as well as started their new online shop on Insta. They got new partners and new friends and I'm... trying. I was and still am introverted, I will talk to someone if they talk to me first, but other than that I'm pretty quiet. Due to this, I have little to no friends besides the guys at work and I don't go out to do something unless that thing has a purpose. We tried to play Minecraft with each other when we could but I guess Lee got too busy with other things. Usually, when we text I'm the one that initiates the conversation, and when I don't I won't hear from them for weeks unless they send me videos on TikTok but even then I send one first and they reciprocate maybe with one or two but then that would be it. At some point in high school, I even had a crush on Lee but then that went away when they told me they were polyamorous. I love Lee like a sibling and now it's like they're that cousin that you don't know at a family reunion. Once their mother had threatened to kick them out and they reached out to me for help and I offered for them to stay with me until they could find a place, luckily nothing ever came of that. Over the past weeks, I've been depressed and every time I would try to arrange for us to hang out or play Minecraft there would almost always be an excuse either with their mother or work or nothing at all. When I brought up my concerns about our friendship they said they've just been so busy and we could hang out whenever, but when things seemed like they were looking up, things started to go down fast. These two weeks in particular I was feeling really depressed because of the way my manager treats me and about the fact that I have no friends and the person who I thought was my friend didn't care enough to say "How are things?". So as an experiment, I've stopped reaching out to Lee to see if they will notice that something is off and do something. I'm waiting until next week to cut them off and I have drawn up a paragraph of a text that I will send them when their time is up. I want to believe that they'll reach out because they're a wonderful person, but at the same time, I can't hold on to them forever and still act like everything is okay.
Here's the text: Listen I don't think this friendship is working out, we barely hang out and on the rare occasion we have a conversation, I'm always the one who initiates it. Over the past few days, I have resisted the urge to text you or send you videos on TikTok to see if you would notice that something was off or if you would do anything, but you have proven that I'm the last thing on your mind. I understand that you have your own life and your own problems, but it wouldn't kill you to check in every once in a while instead of me checking in on you because I care so much. I will be blocking your number until further notice, if you have anything to say you can say it to my face. It's sad because you were my best friend and I loved you and you made me happy even if it was for a split second, but I guess nothing lasts forever, right? And I know you won't do anything to prove me wrong because either you don't care or you won't even read this message. Goodbye, Lee.
So would I be the bad apple?
submitted by Spider-Menace24 to AmITheBadApple [link] [comments]
Here's the text: Listen I don't think this friendship is working out, we barely hang out and on the rare occasion we have a conversation, I'm always the one who initiates it. Over the past few days, I have resisted the urge to text you or send you videos on TikTok to see if you would notice that something was off or if you would do anything, but you have proven that I'm the last thing on your mind. I understand that you have your own life and your own problems, but it wouldn't kill you to check in every once in a while instead of me checking in on you because I care so much. I will be blocking your number until further notice, if you have anything to say you can say it to my face. It's sad because you were my best friend and I loved you and you made me happy even if it was for a split second, but I guess nothing lasts forever, right? And I know you won't do anything to prove me wrong because either you don't care or you won't even read this message. Goodbye, Lee.
So would I be the bad apple?
2023.06.06 06:58 Spider-Menace24 WIGTH for cutting contact with my ex-best friend?
For context, I (19M) have been friends with my best friend, we'll call them Lee (19X), for 6 years since high school freshman year. When a movie came out that we both wanted to see we would make plans to go. We would enjoy talking about either movie theories or the latest book in ELA. They helped me socially transition when I was coming out as trans. They even helped me set up a harmless senior prank on one of our favorite teachers. After our graduation, we just drifted apart and I got a job and went to community college just for my associate's and they got a job as well as started their new online shop on Insta. They got new partners and new friends and I'm... trying. I was and still am introverted, I will talk to someone if they talk to me first, but other than that I'm pretty quiet. Due to this, I have little to no friends besides the guys at work and I don't go out to do something unless that thing has a purpose. We tried to play Minecraft with each other when we could but I guess Lee got too busy with other things. Usually, when we text I'm the one that initiates the conversation, and when I don't I won't hear from them for weeks unless they send me videos on TikTok but even then I send one first and they reciprocate maybe with one or two but then that would be it. At some point in high school, I even had a crush on Lee but then that went away when they told me they were polyamorous. I love Lee like a sibling and now it's like they're that cousin that you don't know at a family reunion. Once their mother had threatened to kick them out and they reached out to me for help and I offered for them to stay with me until they could find a place, luckily nothing ever came of that. Over the past weeks, I've been depressed and every time I would try to arrange for us to hang out or play Minecraft there would almost always be an excuse either with their mother or work or nothing at all. When I brought up my concerns about our friendship they said they've just been so busy and we could hang out whenever, but when things seemed like they were looking up, things started to go down fast. These two weeks in particular I was feeling really depressed because of the way my manager treats me and about the fact that I have no friends and the person who I thought was my friend didn't care enough to say "How are things?". So as an experiment, I've stopped reaching out to Lee to see if they will notice that something is off and do something. I'm waiting until next week to cut them off and I have drawn up a paragraph of a text that I will send them when their time is up. I want to believe that they'll reach out because they're a wonderful person, but at the same time, I can't hold on to them forever and still act like everything is okay.
Here's the text: Listen I don't think this friendship is working out, we barely hang out and on the rare occasion we have a conversation, I'm always the one who initiates it. Over the past few days, I have resisted the urge to text you or send you videos on TikTok to see if you would notice that something was off or if you would do anything, but you have proven that I'm the last thing on your mind. I understand that you have your own life and your own problems, but it wouldn't kill you to check in every once in a while instead of me checking in on you because I care so much. I will be blocking your number until further notice, if you have anything to say you can say it to my face. It's sad because you were my best friend and I loved you and you made me happy even if it was for a split second, but I guess nothing lasts forever, right? And I know you won't do anything to prove me wrong because either you don't care or you won't even read this message. Goodbye, Lee.
So would I go to Hell?
submitted by Spider-Menace24 to AIGTH [link] [comments]
Here's the text: Listen I don't think this friendship is working out, we barely hang out and on the rare occasion we have a conversation, I'm always the one who initiates it. Over the past few days, I have resisted the urge to text you or send you videos on TikTok to see if you would notice that something was off or if you would do anything, but you have proven that I'm the last thing on your mind. I understand that you have your own life and your own problems, but it wouldn't kill you to check in every once in a while instead of me checking in on you because I care so much. I will be blocking your number until further notice, if you have anything to say you can say it to my face. It's sad because you were my best friend and I loved you and you made me happy even if it was for a split second, but I guess nothing lasts forever, right? And I know you won't do anything to prove me wrong because either you don't care or you won't even read this message. Goodbye, Lee.
So would I go to Hell?
2023.06.06 06:51 Stopthewhip Galaxy Gas and Addiction
It’s been 18 months. 6 figures spent 7 figures lost It’s become 5 trips to rehab. I lost all the vitamin B in my body and lost the ability to walk for two months, my lungs froze over causing pulmonary embolisms and was saved minutes from losing my life. It’s taken away a multi million dollar business. I’ve lost friends, relationships and been arrested. I’ve become hopeless to this shit and I wish I understood.
I’ve come here to post about the reality of using nitrous and the fact we can become addicted to this, it is dangerous and a walk in my shoes is quite the horrid experience.
I drank often, I used most recreational drugs overall was a fun social guy, a business owner and my life was the one I always dreamed of. I would occasionally do a whip it every now again when doing some shrooms and nothing harmful happened. I worked everyday and woke up early and aside from a hangover every now and again I didn’t show signs of a life that was crippled by addiction. I had fun, I had control and I was doing life like any 27 year old who started a successful business and had a high level of income would.
In January of 2022, I found myself in a relationship that made me want to put down the typical party life as my 20’s were closing in. The idea of a family and serious relationship was the fulfillment I had always wanted and naturally I stoped that life of drinking often and blowing down on the weekends.
The night I went to get a vape: (01/29/22)
I quit smoking cigarettes and picked up vaping, normal trend of the millennial and went to pick up an elf bar at a local smoke shop. In a glass case laid out were new 600g galaxy blueberry mango nitrous tanks, I’d actually bought some a few months back called an infusion on Amazon and it tasted like shit (no cream like flavor) and I kept them around for a cheap thrill every now and again on days like my birthday and randomly on weekends. I took them to a festival once.
On this particular night, I was bored and grabbed the new flavor, my girlfriend was out of town and I went home to listen to music, watch key and peel and wah wah wah, whatever.
That evening, I proceeded to return to the smoke shop 4-5 times, it was close to home and for some reason felt harmlessly appealing. I knew no risks of vitamin B and thought okay, that got out of hand onward to tomorrow, back to normal….
Not the case. Over the next two weeks, I had bought out every smoke shop in town of these tanks, I was at a smoke shop at 10am every day and did two of these tanks per hour driving around all day for work. Some days I’d just lay on my ass and blow off my company and lie to my girlfriend about work engagements and my mood became terrible. Addiction started brewing.
02/08/2022 My girlfriend caught on to what I was doing and actually joined me in the fun for a couple days and just looked at my one night like “what the fuck” so I said I’d stop and apologized for even showing her. It felt wrong and I naturally wanted to stop.
02/09/2022 I lied about not being able to make it to dinner and my girlfriend showed up to my house, where I rarely stayed, I stuffed the tanks in the couch and faked some work on my laptop, said I’d meet her at the other apartment we primarily stayed at in an hour. She came back shortly after and the evidence of around 10 tanks on the table, we got into it, I apologized and we went home to the other apartment.
Later that night: I became hard of hearing and felt like ants were all over my body, my stomach swelled, my ankles tripled in size and felt like absolute hell and the function of my digestive system was frozen and I could not use the restroom. Something was wrong. I played it cool in and decided to leave and go home (to do more gas)
I went home and soon after my girlfriend called my family and the initial intervention occurred. She of course made it about her and that’s the day it clicked I needed out but whatever, that’s life.
2/10/2022 I had my best friend take me to the hospital, spilled the beans, they gave me a golytely for a cleanse and said my ct scans showed nothing and of course said “don’t do nitrous”
2/11/2022 - afternoon Went back to hospital as something was wrong, they said the same shit and sent me home with some magnesium citrate. Later that afternoon, I stood up on the couch and fell on my ass and couldn’t walk.
2/11/2022- Night visit I went to a different hospital, 28 year old guy, swollen head to toe, can’t walk and in pain, clearly entering the early phases of psychosis. I finally got a brilliant doctor, at a different hospital.
Almost 0 vitamin B in body Multiple large pulmonary embolisms in my lungs headed for the heart. Water retention from nerve damage head to toe. Everything appeared bright and I was clearly experiencing a mental health issue from the use. ANA positive (autoimmune markers)
Admission to hospital neurological floor.
I went nuts at the hospital and turned into the biggest asshole you’ve ever met. Disrespectful, not thankful, fighting every nurse and doctor to leave and go use.
2/14 missed Valentine’s Day. Not good
2/15 left hospital.
My life was saved that night. It wasn’t good enough as for the next two weeks I’d shoot myself up with vitamin b everyday and drag my ass to a smoke shop in a walker.
At this point February was closing in, I was using 10-15 tanks a day, lying, not working and having interventions once a week.
This behavior continued until March 18th and I finally went to a local detox center, not knowing anything about recovery I quickly AMA’D called them losers and left.
My relationship ended March 27th (I was walking with crutches at this time) My girlfriend never visited me at the hospital, tried to hide I was struggling. Encouraged me drinking on meds that combined with alcohol would kill me. Our relationship was toxic. I was in active addiction and she was terrible to me before and after this nitrous hell consumed me. It was for the best we ended. I was however in psychosis and absolutely a terror in the breakup. I regret my actions often for that.
In the next few days I wrecked a few cars, made a few scenes, probably did about 80 tanks of galaxy gas and waved the white flag for rehab.
04/01/22 I went to treatment in California for 10 days. Most expensive rehab in the country and no one knew shit about inhalants. I didn’t know shit about recovery and too conceited at the time to do any real research.
Beautiful place, I however left on 6 new fun medications, broke, psychologically misdiagnosed and obviously got drunk at the airport.
04/11/22 I’m home, back to 12-15 tanks a day. Debt piling up, trying to fake that I’m fine. Losing touch, cars wrecked uncontrollably using.
I was able to hide it well in some respects and I was counteracting the effects. This went well into May.
May comes around,
At this point I’m taking out loans to keep my business afloat, I had to trade all my vehicles in on a lease. The business is on thin ice. Layoffs are happening, projects are being delayed and or terminated. Headed for a cliff.
05/15/2022 I’m hitting a tank in the driveway of my house and floor my car and slam into a retaining wall. A true wake up call. I decided to call for help that day, learn about recovery in more detail and find a rehab in my state and get real help. I discovered the healthcare marketplace and got new insurance. I decided to go to treatment for 30 days on June 1st.
06/01/22 I went to rehab. Terrible place, terrible food, left on 11 medications and honestly It was a blurry time.
06/21/22 I was discharged due to the facility needing a bed and they said “I had this” I left not even knowing what aftercare was. My business partner disowned me at this point, gave up and filed bankruptcy.
06/22/22 Galaxy tanks up to 15 a day. Getting credit cards and just throwing them away. Time to trash credit and pawn shit for the next couple weeks. At this point I’m on my parents couch. My house was gutted from a renovation I had started and obviously unable to continue to work on it and barely making payments.
06/28/22 I found an iop and stayed sober for 5 months. I found CA and AA outside of a treatment facility and handed over my financials to someone who would only give me $20 a day and I stayed sober.
11/05/22 I started using again, I started another business and I lost control again and back to 15 tanks a day for a month and change. I held on by a thread during thanksgiving even sucking down the redi whip in the garage. My family would find me weekly relapsing in parking lots with the passenger seats of their cars filled to the brim with galaxy tanks and at this point the tanks were being made in 1200g size and I was using 15 of those a day.
11/28/22 I went to the hospital after using so much nitrous I was burning holes on the outside of stomach and froze my skin passing out. I was 1013’d the day after thanksgiving and taken off all the medications I was wrongly given and I proceeded to enter inpatient rehab at a better facility until Christmas Eve.
12/26/22 I started using the day after Christmas, I couldn’t help it. The holidays, the loneliness and the addiction was crippling. No matter what I did I used.
01/05/23 My birthday, I quit on my own, I found an iop and I quit for 4 months. In this time I’ve gotten to be successful again but miserable trying to find a long term solution.
04/14/23 I started smoking weed, avoided meetings and I relapsed on nitrous and was arrested within 3 minutes of relapsing. I bailed out of jail and proceeded to use for a few days.
04/18/23 - 05/02/23 I went to a relapse program at a rehab Id previously graduated and found a new mindset. I took a deep dive, I felt hopeful and I opened the big book instead of being a meeting attender only. I found a sponsor and I’m trying, Hard!
Here I am 49 days later. I relapsed about 4 days ago. My mental health is shit from all the use. I’m using using about 35,000 grams worth of tanks a day. The tanks now come in 4 sizes, every smoke shop sells them and is stocked to the brim.
Why is this legal? Don’t ever say this isn’t addicting. If you don’t think nitrous can harm you, you’re wrong. I’m grateful to be alive and I won’t give up on finding long term recovery. This shit sucks. This story is my life and addiction is a cunt.
submitted by Stopthewhip to NitrousOxide [link] [comments]
I’ve come here to post about the reality of using nitrous and the fact we can become addicted to this, it is dangerous and a walk in my shoes is quite the horrid experience.
I drank often, I used most recreational drugs overall was a fun social guy, a business owner and my life was the one I always dreamed of. I would occasionally do a whip it every now again when doing some shrooms and nothing harmful happened. I worked everyday and woke up early and aside from a hangover every now and again I didn’t show signs of a life that was crippled by addiction. I had fun, I had control and I was doing life like any 27 year old who started a successful business and had a high level of income would.
In January of 2022, I found myself in a relationship that made me want to put down the typical party life as my 20’s were closing in. The idea of a family and serious relationship was the fulfillment I had always wanted and naturally I stoped that life of drinking often and blowing down on the weekends.
The night I went to get a vape: (01/29/22)
I quit smoking cigarettes and picked up vaping, normal trend of the millennial and went to pick up an elf bar at a local smoke shop. In a glass case laid out were new 600g galaxy blueberry mango nitrous tanks, I’d actually bought some a few months back called an infusion on Amazon and it tasted like shit (no cream like flavor) and I kept them around for a cheap thrill every now and again on days like my birthday and randomly on weekends. I took them to a festival once.
On this particular night, I was bored and grabbed the new flavor, my girlfriend was out of town and I went home to listen to music, watch key and peel and wah wah wah, whatever.
That evening, I proceeded to return to the smoke shop 4-5 times, it was close to home and for some reason felt harmlessly appealing. I knew no risks of vitamin B and thought okay, that got out of hand onward to tomorrow, back to normal….
Not the case. Over the next two weeks, I had bought out every smoke shop in town of these tanks, I was at a smoke shop at 10am every day and did two of these tanks per hour driving around all day for work. Some days I’d just lay on my ass and blow off my company and lie to my girlfriend about work engagements and my mood became terrible. Addiction started brewing.
02/08/2022 My girlfriend caught on to what I was doing and actually joined me in the fun for a couple days and just looked at my one night like “what the fuck” so I said I’d stop and apologized for even showing her. It felt wrong and I naturally wanted to stop.
02/09/2022 I lied about not being able to make it to dinner and my girlfriend showed up to my house, where I rarely stayed, I stuffed the tanks in the couch and faked some work on my laptop, said I’d meet her at the other apartment we primarily stayed at in an hour. She came back shortly after and the evidence of around 10 tanks on the table, we got into it, I apologized and we went home to the other apartment.
Later that night: I became hard of hearing and felt like ants were all over my body, my stomach swelled, my ankles tripled in size and felt like absolute hell and the function of my digestive system was frozen and I could not use the restroom. Something was wrong. I played it cool in and decided to leave and go home (to do more gas)
I went home and soon after my girlfriend called my family and the initial intervention occurred. She of course made it about her and that’s the day it clicked I needed out but whatever, that’s life.
2/10/2022 I had my best friend take me to the hospital, spilled the beans, they gave me a golytely for a cleanse and said my ct scans showed nothing and of course said “don’t do nitrous”
2/11/2022 - afternoon Went back to hospital as something was wrong, they said the same shit and sent me home with some magnesium citrate. Later that afternoon, I stood up on the couch and fell on my ass and couldn’t walk.
2/11/2022- Night visit I went to a different hospital, 28 year old guy, swollen head to toe, can’t walk and in pain, clearly entering the early phases of psychosis. I finally got a brilliant doctor, at a different hospital.
Almost 0 vitamin B in body Multiple large pulmonary embolisms in my lungs headed for the heart. Water retention from nerve damage head to toe. Everything appeared bright and I was clearly experiencing a mental health issue from the use. ANA positive (autoimmune markers)
Admission to hospital neurological floor.
I went nuts at the hospital and turned into the biggest asshole you’ve ever met. Disrespectful, not thankful, fighting every nurse and doctor to leave and go use.
2/14 missed Valentine’s Day. Not good
2/15 left hospital.
My life was saved that night. It wasn’t good enough as for the next two weeks I’d shoot myself up with vitamin b everyday and drag my ass to a smoke shop in a walker.
At this point February was closing in, I was using 10-15 tanks a day, lying, not working and having interventions once a week.
This behavior continued until March 18th and I finally went to a local detox center, not knowing anything about recovery I quickly AMA’D called them losers and left.
My relationship ended March 27th (I was walking with crutches at this time) My girlfriend never visited me at the hospital, tried to hide I was struggling. Encouraged me drinking on meds that combined with alcohol would kill me. Our relationship was toxic. I was in active addiction and she was terrible to me before and after this nitrous hell consumed me. It was for the best we ended. I was however in psychosis and absolutely a terror in the breakup. I regret my actions often for that.
In the next few days I wrecked a few cars, made a few scenes, probably did about 80 tanks of galaxy gas and waved the white flag for rehab.
04/01/22 I went to treatment in California for 10 days. Most expensive rehab in the country and no one knew shit about inhalants. I didn’t know shit about recovery and too conceited at the time to do any real research.
Beautiful place, I however left on 6 new fun medications, broke, psychologically misdiagnosed and obviously got drunk at the airport.
04/11/22 I’m home, back to 12-15 tanks a day. Debt piling up, trying to fake that I’m fine. Losing touch, cars wrecked uncontrollably using.
I was able to hide it well in some respects and I was counteracting the effects. This went well into May.
May comes around,
At this point I’m taking out loans to keep my business afloat, I had to trade all my vehicles in on a lease. The business is on thin ice. Layoffs are happening, projects are being delayed and or terminated. Headed for a cliff.
05/15/2022 I’m hitting a tank in the driveway of my house and floor my car and slam into a retaining wall. A true wake up call. I decided to call for help that day, learn about recovery in more detail and find a rehab in my state and get real help. I discovered the healthcare marketplace and got new insurance. I decided to go to treatment for 30 days on June 1st.
06/01/22 I went to rehab. Terrible place, terrible food, left on 11 medications and honestly It was a blurry time.
06/21/22 I was discharged due to the facility needing a bed and they said “I had this” I left not even knowing what aftercare was. My business partner disowned me at this point, gave up and filed bankruptcy.
06/22/22 Galaxy tanks up to 15 a day. Getting credit cards and just throwing them away. Time to trash credit and pawn shit for the next couple weeks. At this point I’m on my parents couch. My house was gutted from a renovation I had started and obviously unable to continue to work on it and barely making payments.
06/28/22 I found an iop and stayed sober for 5 months. I found CA and AA outside of a treatment facility and handed over my financials to someone who would only give me $20 a day and I stayed sober.
11/05/22 I started using again, I started another business and I lost control again and back to 15 tanks a day for a month and change. I held on by a thread during thanksgiving even sucking down the redi whip in the garage. My family would find me weekly relapsing in parking lots with the passenger seats of their cars filled to the brim with galaxy tanks and at this point the tanks were being made in 1200g size and I was using 15 of those a day.
11/28/22 I went to the hospital after using so much nitrous I was burning holes on the outside of stomach and froze my skin passing out. I was 1013’d the day after thanksgiving and taken off all the medications I was wrongly given and I proceeded to enter inpatient rehab at a better facility until Christmas Eve.
12/26/22 I started using the day after Christmas, I couldn’t help it. The holidays, the loneliness and the addiction was crippling. No matter what I did I used.
01/05/23 My birthday, I quit on my own, I found an iop and I quit for 4 months. In this time I’ve gotten to be successful again but miserable trying to find a long term solution.
04/14/23 I started smoking weed, avoided meetings and I relapsed on nitrous and was arrested within 3 minutes of relapsing. I bailed out of jail and proceeded to use for a few days.
04/18/23 - 05/02/23 I went to a relapse program at a rehab Id previously graduated and found a new mindset. I took a deep dive, I felt hopeful and I opened the big book instead of being a meeting attender only. I found a sponsor and I’m trying, Hard!
Here I am 49 days later. I relapsed about 4 days ago. My mental health is shit from all the use. I’m using using about 35,000 grams worth of tanks a day. The tanks now come in 4 sizes, every smoke shop sells them and is stocked to the brim.
Why is this legal? Don’t ever say this isn’t addicting. If you don’t think nitrous can harm you, you’re wrong. I’m grateful to be alive and I won’t give up on finding long term recovery. This shit sucks. This story is my life and addiction is a cunt.
2023.06.06 06:45 FoggyGlassEye The Only, Part Twenty-Two: The Bride
The Shattered Mirror was exactly what Justin expected it to be. The shelves were cluttered, a disorganized mess of books, baubles and crystals meant to pull in the superstitious and otherwise gullible. It practically begged him not to be taken seriously, but Lee swore by it and so did her new medium friend, so it was worth a look.
The problem was, Justin didn’t know what he was looking for.
Their little stakeout of the Pearl District was a bit of a disaster. Allen finally came face to face with the Black Widow, and now Milo’s phone was going straight to voicemail. Lee and Allen were out looking for him at the waterfront, near the end of the streetcar line, and in the meantime, Justin had no idea how to be of use.
He perused the merchandise, hoping that something would jump out at him as capital i Important, but it felt less like browsing a magic shop and more like passing through someone’s mediocre garage sale.
“Cal I help you?” a woman called from the counter at the far end of the store. Her hair was a storm of curled dark grays, her narrow, calculating eyes almost lost amongst the strands. She looked him up and down, getting the measure of him. “Looking for something specific?”
Justin sighed. “Not really,” he admitted, approaching the counter. “My friend Lee was here recently, bought some holy water? I was hoping to find something else to help us out.”
“Oh, Ethan’s friend,” she said, her smile shifting from professional to honest. “Always nice to meet a friend of a friend.” She offered her hand. “I’m Joanne.”
“Justin,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
She crossed her arms. “Still having that vampire problem?”
He smiled awkwardly, taken aback by how casually she brought it up. Guess this is the world I live in, now, he realized. Lee told me that Ethan believed her right off the bat. That’s probably the standard in these circles. “Well that’s the thing- I feel like we’re still fighting with our eyes closed, here. We’re all new to…” he trailed off, gesturing behind him, to the store full of curios.
“Could always talk to an expert,” the woman suggested. She held a finger up, then disappeared behind her counter for a moment. “Here we go,” she exhaled, standing back up with a rolodex of business cards. She took a close look at one of the cards, nodded to herself, then wrote the information down on a slip of paper. “He lives up in Willamette Heights. Don’t ring the doorbell, and don’t knock hard. He won’t ask you to take off your shoes, but do it anyway. He should be able to get you started.”
Justin took the paper. “Thank you,” he mumbled, surprised by her willingness to help. He hadn’t had much experience dealing with people in the city, but the constant of everyone he’d run into was that they were often polite, but rarely so kind. “So who is this guy? Is he like an arms dealer or something?”
Joanne shook her head. “He’s a historian. His family goes back to before the founding of Portland, back when the city was a coin toss away from being called Boston. He can tell you anything about the city, and if you tell him I sent you, he can even tell you the truth. Just be respectful, alright?”
“I will,” he promised, pocketing the paper. “Hey, I gotta ask: you don’t owe me anything and we’re strangers, so why are you helping me?”
She laughed softly, then sighed. “You’re in the real world now, kid. There’s no guidebook to help you survive it. That feeling of fighting with your eyes closed? You don’t undo that, you just get used to it. May as well help whoever you can when you bump into them, and hope they’ll do the same for you.”
* * *
“We’re here,” the driver said, stopping just before the driveway.
“Thanks,” Justin replied, opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle.
“Remember to rate five stars!” the driver yelled before making a U-turn and heading back down towards the city.
Willamette Heights was a beautiful neighborhood. The trees were so dense that it felt like civilization stopped at the backyards of the two and three-story houses the lined the streets. These weren’t paint-by-numbers, mass manufactured McMansions; they each had their own style, their own character. It was a quiet place, hidden in the shadow of the city. A perfect place to raise a family, and a perfect place to spend the twilight of one’s life.
From the sidewalk, the house seemed quite pleasant at first- the winding stone walkway up towards the front door, the garage built into the hill like a Hobbit hole, the trees looming over the front lawn in an inviting, “take a load off and enjoy the shade” kind of way- but that all stopped at the actual front of the house. All of the curtains were drawn, and all of the windows were barred. “What is this, the fucking Elm Street house?” Justin asked, feeling as though he were walking down the plank as he approached the bright red front door.
He stopped himself from ringing the doorbell, lightly knocking on the door as instructed. Before he had time to consider whether to knock again, the door swung open.
The historian was an imposing figure, nearly as tall as the doorframe. The hair atop his head had long ago receded, but his lengthy beard was nearly long enough to tuck into the belt of his bathrobe. He seemed thin, impossibly thin, but not brittle.
“Mr. Roland? Joanne sent me.”
“Of course she did.” He stepped aside, but did not invite Justin in. He simply waited.
“Yeah, I don’t bite,” Justin joked, stepping inside. He removed his shoes and left that at the door.
The house was as dusty as The Shattered Mirror, but not quite so cluttered. The walls of the entryway were bare, save for crosses secured above and to the sides of each doorway. “Follow me,” the historian instructed, stepping through an open pair of double doors down the hall.
Justin followed, and found himself in an incredible personal library. There were several rows of bookshelves between the doorway and the far end of the room, where the historian stepped behind a large walnut desk. The walls were lined with shelves, and the shelves were filled to bursting with books. As Justin approached the desk, he read a few of the labels at the ends of the rows. “Demonology, Manifestations, The Vetus… something tells me you don’t have a horror section, here.”
“Everything is horror if you allow yourself to be afraid,” the historian said, taking his seat. “You’re not here for that.”
“I’ve already been afraid,” Justin admitted. He took the single seat in front of the desk, wondering why there weren’t two. “I’ll be the first to admit, however, that I don’t know why I’m here.”
The historian opened one of the desk drawers and retrieved a small rectangular box. He opened it, placing it before him, and looked intently at it. Justin leaned forward, and saw that it was a small compass. The box was a dark brown wood, nearly black, and the needle was solid white. The needle was spinning steadily counter-clockwise, but as the historian glared at it, it suddenly stopped, pointing directly at Justin. That isn’t north, he noted, wondering what else it could mean.
“I know why you’re here,” the historian said, closing the box and returning it to the desk. “You need help, and there’s only one kind that I can provide. What do you need to know?” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together.
Justin squirmed in his seat. “There’s a vampire in Portland. We’re trying to kill her.”
The historian frowned. “The girl? She’s only active during snowstorms, and the weather’s clearing up.”
“No, this is a woman,” Justin corrected. “She hunts men every three weeks like clockwork- always lonely, single guys who think they’re getting lucky. She was gone for a while, but we know she’s been active on and off for a few years, now.”
One of the historian’s eyebrows slowly began to rise at the description. “She wears disguises, yes?” He opened another drawer and began rummaging through it.
“Yeah, actually. We’re calling her the Black Widow, but that’s just a nickname. We don’t know her real name.”
“I might,” the historian replied, retrieving a leather-bound book from the drawer. He pawed through it for a moment before stopping on a page near the end of the book. “Here,” he said, turning the book over and tapping over one of the pages.
Justin tried to read the page, but had trouble at first. It was written by hand, and it had been a while since he’d last read cursive handwriting. It was a journal. The entry was from September 22nd, 1892:
The children whisper of her again, of the woman in white. They say that she wanders the sunset woods under moonlight. They say she dances across the waters of the Willamette, but not on the suspension bridge. They say that one cannot see her with the naked eye, that she only appears in the reflections of the water itself. They say her face changes, but her broken heart remains still. They say she cries out for lost love and spilled blood.
A man was found in the sunset woods on the west side of the Willamette, drained of his life’s blood without a drop on his person. He was last seen with a woman no one recognized. This has happened before, and if Satan has his way, it will happen again.
The men tell me it was a witch. The women believe it was a ghost. I know it is a demon, but not what it wants.
I wonder if it is her- the bride!- but she is only a rumor, a story we know not to tell our children as we were told, lest they inherit our nightmares and the figures we see in the shadows. Still… they do not know the story, but they say she is dressed in white.
I only know two things to be true. There is a God watching us, and he suffers no fools. We will barricade the doors and not answer when she comes calling. We will not stray.
“The woman in white?” Justin asked, looking up from the journal.
The historian nodded. “The Bride, yes. Many believed that she was a phantom, a poltergeist of a woman whose husband was taken from her before they could say their vows. However, there is the occasional mention throughout that time of men found dead, drained of their blood, leading to some- myself included- speculating that there could be a vampire involved in this tragedy.”
“So it’s a vampire that people think is a ghost?” Justin scoffed. “What, do they think ghosts bite people?”
“Yes,” the historian replied, nodding thoughtfully. After a moment, he let a soft chuckle escape him, then frowned. “Well, poltergeists actually might- if they made a habit of biting in life, that is. Either way, the vampire responsible for killing these men over a century ago may be your Black Widow.”
Justin rubbed his eyes. “So how does knowing that help us? What do we do?”
“What you do,” the historian corrected, “is look for the Bride.”
“Listen, we need a way to track her down and kill her. Learning when and why she was turned into a vampire doesn’t help us.”
The historian nodded again. “You’re right. However, finding the Bride will help you.”
“We know where she is. She lives in the Pearl District.” Justin poked at the journal. “This is fun history and all, but it doesn’t help us kill her.”
Closing the book and returning it to its drawer, the historian steepled his fingers together again and leaned back. “Why are you pursuing the Black Widow?”
“She’s a killer, and no one else knows she exists.” Justin could feel his cheeks reddening.
The historian smiled knowingly. “You know why she should die. Why does it have to be you, specifically?”
Justin felt a cold chill wash over him. This guy’s gotta be a mind reader or something. “My friend went missing a few years ago,” he admitted. “He doesn’t really fit her pattern, but he disappeared without a trace and she was active at the time. It’s the only lead on him that I’ve got. I know it’s a long shot, but I need to know if she killed him.”
“I understand,” the historian said, stroking his beard in contemplation. He seemed to be considering something, but Justin didn’t know what. “If this Black Widow were to learn your personal motivations, do you think she could find a way to leverage it against you?”
“Sure,” Justin agreed.
“The Bride is somehow connected to the Black Widow,” the historian replied. “To know what happened to her is to know who you’re facing. This could be your leverage. This could be your weapon.”
“So who do we think she is?” Justin asked, leaning forward.
The historian smiled. “I don’t know her name, but I know where she’s been spotted.” He rummaged through another drawer briefly before retrieving a paper, unfolding it to reveal a worn map of the state. He circled a spot near the Willamette, south of Portland. “There’s a manor in West Linn, not far from the Arch Bridge. Some say it’s haunted. I’m inclined to agree. Go there. Seek her out. Learn her story.”
Justin took the map, folding it back up. “Thank you, Mr. Roland,” he said. “When this is all over, maybe I’ll have a story worth telling you.”
The historian’s smile left him. “Oh, I know how this story ends, and it’s not one I’ll wish to hear again. Good luck, Justin.”
submitted by FoggyGlassEye to libraryofshadows [link] [comments]
The problem was, Justin didn’t know what he was looking for.
Their little stakeout of the Pearl District was a bit of a disaster. Allen finally came face to face with the Black Widow, and now Milo’s phone was going straight to voicemail. Lee and Allen were out looking for him at the waterfront, near the end of the streetcar line, and in the meantime, Justin had no idea how to be of use.
He perused the merchandise, hoping that something would jump out at him as capital i Important, but it felt less like browsing a magic shop and more like passing through someone’s mediocre garage sale.
“Cal I help you?” a woman called from the counter at the far end of the store. Her hair was a storm of curled dark grays, her narrow, calculating eyes almost lost amongst the strands. She looked him up and down, getting the measure of him. “Looking for something specific?”
Justin sighed. “Not really,” he admitted, approaching the counter. “My friend Lee was here recently, bought some holy water? I was hoping to find something else to help us out.”
“Oh, Ethan’s friend,” she said, her smile shifting from professional to honest. “Always nice to meet a friend of a friend.” She offered her hand. “I’m Joanne.”
“Justin,” he replied, shaking her hand. “Yeah, nice to meet you.”
She crossed her arms. “Still having that vampire problem?”
He smiled awkwardly, taken aback by how casually she brought it up. Guess this is the world I live in, now, he realized. Lee told me that Ethan believed her right off the bat. That’s probably the standard in these circles. “Well that’s the thing- I feel like we’re still fighting with our eyes closed, here. We’re all new to…” he trailed off, gesturing behind him, to the store full of curios.
“Could always talk to an expert,” the woman suggested. She held a finger up, then disappeared behind her counter for a moment. “Here we go,” she exhaled, standing back up with a rolodex of business cards. She took a close look at one of the cards, nodded to herself, then wrote the information down on a slip of paper. “He lives up in Willamette Heights. Don’t ring the doorbell, and don’t knock hard. He won’t ask you to take off your shoes, but do it anyway. He should be able to get you started.”
Justin took the paper. “Thank you,” he mumbled, surprised by her willingness to help. He hadn’t had much experience dealing with people in the city, but the constant of everyone he’d run into was that they were often polite, but rarely so kind. “So who is this guy? Is he like an arms dealer or something?”
Joanne shook her head. “He’s a historian. His family goes back to before the founding of Portland, back when the city was a coin toss away from being called Boston. He can tell you anything about the city, and if you tell him I sent you, he can even tell you the truth. Just be respectful, alright?”
“I will,” he promised, pocketing the paper. “Hey, I gotta ask: you don’t owe me anything and we’re strangers, so why are you helping me?”
She laughed softly, then sighed. “You’re in the real world now, kid. There’s no guidebook to help you survive it. That feeling of fighting with your eyes closed? You don’t undo that, you just get used to it. May as well help whoever you can when you bump into them, and hope they’ll do the same for you.”
* * *
“We’re here,” the driver said, stopping just before the driveway.
“Thanks,” Justin replied, opening the door and stepping out of the vehicle.
“Remember to rate five stars!” the driver yelled before making a U-turn and heading back down towards the city.
Willamette Heights was a beautiful neighborhood. The trees were so dense that it felt like civilization stopped at the backyards of the two and three-story houses the lined the streets. These weren’t paint-by-numbers, mass manufactured McMansions; they each had their own style, their own character. It was a quiet place, hidden in the shadow of the city. A perfect place to raise a family, and a perfect place to spend the twilight of one’s life.
From the sidewalk, the house seemed quite pleasant at first- the winding stone walkway up towards the front door, the garage built into the hill like a Hobbit hole, the trees looming over the front lawn in an inviting, “take a load off and enjoy the shade” kind of way- but that all stopped at the actual front of the house. All of the curtains were drawn, and all of the windows were barred. “What is this, the fucking Elm Street house?” Justin asked, feeling as though he were walking down the plank as he approached the bright red front door.
He stopped himself from ringing the doorbell, lightly knocking on the door as instructed. Before he had time to consider whether to knock again, the door swung open.
The historian was an imposing figure, nearly as tall as the doorframe. The hair atop his head had long ago receded, but his lengthy beard was nearly long enough to tuck into the belt of his bathrobe. He seemed thin, impossibly thin, but not brittle.
“Mr. Roland? Joanne sent me.”
“Of course she did.” He stepped aside, but did not invite Justin in. He simply waited.
“Yeah, I don’t bite,” Justin joked, stepping inside. He removed his shoes and left that at the door.
The house was as dusty as The Shattered Mirror, but not quite so cluttered. The walls of the entryway were bare, save for crosses secured above and to the sides of each doorway. “Follow me,” the historian instructed, stepping through an open pair of double doors down the hall.
Justin followed, and found himself in an incredible personal library. There were several rows of bookshelves between the doorway and the far end of the room, where the historian stepped behind a large walnut desk. The walls were lined with shelves, and the shelves were filled to bursting with books. As Justin approached the desk, he read a few of the labels at the ends of the rows. “Demonology, Manifestations, The Vetus… something tells me you don’t have a horror section, here.”
“Everything is horror if you allow yourself to be afraid,” the historian said, taking his seat. “You’re not here for that.”
“I’ve already been afraid,” Justin admitted. He took the single seat in front of the desk, wondering why there weren’t two. “I’ll be the first to admit, however, that I don’t know why I’m here.”
The historian opened one of the desk drawers and retrieved a small rectangular box. He opened it, placing it before him, and looked intently at it. Justin leaned forward, and saw that it was a small compass. The box was a dark brown wood, nearly black, and the needle was solid white. The needle was spinning steadily counter-clockwise, but as the historian glared at it, it suddenly stopped, pointing directly at Justin. That isn’t north, he noted, wondering what else it could mean.
“I know why you’re here,” the historian said, closing the box and returning it to the desk. “You need help, and there’s only one kind that I can provide. What do you need to know?” He leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together.
Justin squirmed in his seat. “There’s a vampire in Portland. We’re trying to kill her.”
The historian frowned. “The girl? She’s only active during snowstorms, and the weather’s clearing up.”
“No, this is a woman,” Justin corrected. “She hunts men every three weeks like clockwork- always lonely, single guys who think they’re getting lucky. She was gone for a while, but we know she’s been active on and off for a few years, now.”
One of the historian’s eyebrows slowly began to rise at the description. “She wears disguises, yes?” He opened another drawer and began rummaging through it.
“Yeah, actually. We’re calling her the Black Widow, but that’s just a nickname. We don’t know her real name.”
“I might,” the historian replied, retrieving a leather-bound book from the drawer. He pawed through it for a moment before stopping on a page near the end of the book. “Here,” he said, turning the book over and tapping over one of the pages.
Justin tried to read the page, but had trouble at first. It was written by hand, and it had been a while since he’d last read cursive handwriting. It was a journal. The entry was from September 22nd, 1892:
The children whisper of her again, of the woman in white. They say that she wanders the sunset woods under moonlight. They say she dances across the waters of the Willamette, but not on the suspension bridge. They say that one cannot see her with the naked eye, that she only appears in the reflections of the water itself. They say her face changes, but her broken heart remains still. They say she cries out for lost love and spilled blood.
A man was found in the sunset woods on the west side of the Willamette, drained of his life’s blood without a drop on his person. He was last seen with a woman no one recognized. This has happened before, and if Satan has his way, it will happen again.
The men tell me it was a witch. The women believe it was a ghost. I know it is a demon, but not what it wants.
I wonder if it is her- the bride!- but she is only a rumor, a story we know not to tell our children as we were told, lest they inherit our nightmares and the figures we see in the shadows. Still… they do not know the story, but they say she is dressed in white.
I only know two things to be true. There is a God watching us, and he suffers no fools. We will barricade the doors and not answer when she comes calling. We will not stray.
“The woman in white?” Justin asked, looking up from the journal.
The historian nodded. “The Bride, yes. Many believed that she was a phantom, a poltergeist of a woman whose husband was taken from her before they could say their vows. However, there is the occasional mention throughout that time of men found dead, drained of their blood, leading to some- myself included- speculating that there could be a vampire involved in this tragedy.”
“So it’s a vampire that people think is a ghost?” Justin scoffed. “What, do they think ghosts bite people?”
“Yes,” the historian replied, nodding thoughtfully. After a moment, he let a soft chuckle escape him, then frowned. “Well, poltergeists actually might- if they made a habit of biting in life, that is. Either way, the vampire responsible for killing these men over a century ago may be your Black Widow.”
Justin rubbed his eyes. “So how does knowing that help us? What do we do?”
“What you do,” the historian corrected, “is look for the Bride.”
“Listen, we need a way to track her down and kill her. Learning when and why she was turned into a vampire doesn’t help us.”
The historian nodded again. “You’re right. However, finding the Bride will help you.”
“We know where she is. She lives in the Pearl District.” Justin poked at the journal. “This is fun history and all, but it doesn’t help us kill her.”
Closing the book and returning it to its drawer, the historian steepled his fingers together again and leaned back. “Why are you pursuing the Black Widow?”
“She’s a killer, and no one else knows she exists.” Justin could feel his cheeks reddening.
The historian smiled knowingly. “You know why she should die. Why does it have to be you, specifically?”
Justin felt a cold chill wash over him. This guy’s gotta be a mind reader or something. “My friend went missing a few years ago,” he admitted. “He doesn’t really fit her pattern, but he disappeared without a trace and she was active at the time. It’s the only lead on him that I’ve got. I know it’s a long shot, but I need to know if she killed him.”
“I understand,” the historian said, stroking his beard in contemplation. He seemed to be considering something, but Justin didn’t know what. “If this Black Widow were to learn your personal motivations, do you think she could find a way to leverage it against you?”
“Sure,” Justin agreed.
“The Bride is somehow connected to the Black Widow,” the historian replied. “To know what happened to her is to know who you’re facing. This could be your leverage. This could be your weapon.”
“So who do we think she is?” Justin asked, leaning forward.
The historian smiled. “I don’t know her name, but I know where she’s been spotted.” He rummaged through another drawer briefly before retrieving a paper, unfolding it to reveal a worn map of the state. He circled a spot near the Willamette, south of Portland. “There’s a manor in West Linn, not far from the Arch Bridge. Some say it’s haunted. I’m inclined to agree. Go there. Seek her out. Learn her story.”
Justin took the map, folding it back up. “Thank you, Mr. Roland,” he said. “When this is all over, maybe I’ll have a story worth telling you.”
The historian’s smile left him. “Oh, I know how this story ends, and it’s not one I’ll wish to hear again. Good luck, Justin.”
2023.06.06 06:42 Canary_Short Regarding Conquest
Stop asking the same question all of you, stop making the same post again and again, Conquest is a new game mode with a new shop, it's obviously going to need a patch, so it will launch together with this month's patch.
Seriously stop, just search it, type in the search bar up there, Conquest.
submitted by Canary_Short to MarvelSnap [link] [comments]
Seriously stop, just search it, type in the search bar up there, Conquest.
2023.06.06 06:42 Super_Swag_Hacker Bree is crafting a cool hyacinth crown
Her house is to the west of the airport and immediately north of the Able Sisters shop. I'll be AFK for the most part; will be open for 3 hours. Dodo code is GG4L4.
submitted by Super_Swag_Hacker to NoFeeAC [link] [comments]
2023.06.06 06:35 OurQuarterMaster 11th Moon of 200AC Recap
Crownlands
In an act of justice, Aerea Targaryen partakes in the burning of the Carons and the sell swords, only to see Urrax rise from dragonstone, leading to her anger and displeasure.Amongst the Red Keep, the brothers Bracken duel knights to show their skills. However, they went too far, prompting the Grand Maester, in his mercy, to tend to the maimed Knights before the still standing Brackens.
Following the removal of Aerys Targaryen, Ryman Caron attempts to flee the Crownlands with his sellswords and sell sails. However, the fleet of the Targaryen dynasty had moved to prevent such, with the Queen herself joining the fray. In the turmoil, both Joffrey Caron and Ryman Caron are pushed overboard resulting in their deaths.
Following her flight from the North, Princess Gaelyn Targaryen, Heir to the Iron Throne, encounters her father and engages him in combat, and eventually, her mother. This would result in the death of Princess Gaelyn
Following his duel with his daughter, the dragons dance once more, as Prince-Consort Aerys Targaryen clashes with his sister wife, Queen Aerea Targaryen. This results in the death of Aerys Targaryen.
North
Dale Whitehill and Domeric Bolton plot to bring their men to Winterfell and gauge the Princess' demeanor, seeking to bring about an end to Corin Stark's rule of the North with her help.Corin Stark and Harmond Umber return to Winterfell and the news they receive upon their return is staggering. Royals are dead, armies are warring, and everything seems to be spiraling. Corin convenes the assembled nobility to take their counsel but also to make his course of action known to them all.
At Winterfell, Lord Ryswell meets with Lord Stark. He is troubled by the foreboding vision that his wife, Lady Sarra, had seen.
On the voyage to scout Crowtown once again, Magnar Sweyn and his sister Saga discuss matters of family and the coming winter. All the while, the men have begun to go mad. Be it from stress, a curse, or something other, it's not clear. But that matters not when survival is on the line. And the Crowls seek to survive. As Sweyn of Crowl discusses with his sister her time away from home, a strange madness spreads among the Skagosi of Deepdown on their way to Crowtown.
Vale
Joffrey and Jonquil Arryn arrive at Gulltown, ready to make allies in the South for the upcoming conflict. They have their sights set on Starfall and are eager to set sail as soon as possible.Lady Vanya puts a bounty on the head of Lord Harwin Manderly. Vanya and Harwin then exchange letters.
Luceon Lipps meets a beautiful but unfortunate girl and decides to give her money. \
Gretchel Waxley has adopted a puppy, the runt of the litter, Clover.
Stormlands
At Storm’s End, in the wake of the deaths of the King, the Princess and both their dragons, the Stormlords gather to discuss the future of their lands. Unwilling to support a kinslayer for a Queen, or recognise the authority of any regent who may replace her, the Stormlords opted to declare themselves independent, with Aelinor Baratheon crowned as their Storm Queen.Reach
In the wake of Dayne's accident, Lord Daven is summoned by lady Aurola to Highgarden for the trial of three. With his lady wife under house arrest at Highgarden, Lord Daven agrees to meet with Lady Paramount at Oldtown, asking to bring his wife Fiona there.At Highgarden, Ser Olyvar Hightower enjoys a lunch after the spar, chatting with lords and ladies of the Reach. Meanwhile, Lady Aurola orders her cooks to bake the cakes, which she wants to share with Ser Lucantine Redwyne. But it's not why she asked him to be in her solar, where she asked him for a favor in return for stopping taxation of Arbor.
Ser Victor Hightower passes through the gates of Highgarden, requesting an audience with Lady Aurola.
At nightfall, lady Leona Roxton wanders outside, enjoying the night.
Elayna Banefort arrives at Highgarden, seeking a meeting with the lady of Horn Hill.
At Old Oak, Eden Oakheart remembers the last years with his mother, singing her a song and promising to never stop being himself.
After being asked by Lord Gynir Greyjoy to join forces , Lyla Mullendore writes to the Hightower and is given permission to wage war against the West. Later, Lyla seeks an audience with Lady Greyjoy to join up with the Ironborn.
Ser Steffon Marbrand is called back to West by his sister, breaking off his match with lady Agnes Cuy.
At Ashford, Lord Aladore ponders the need for a wife.
By the end of the moon, the news of Queen Aerea's kinslaying, murder of her husband-brother and a daughter, has reached Highgarden. Lady Aurola holds a meeting to discuss this matter with her lords.
Riverlands
The forces of House Lannister are engaged by Alysanne Velaryon and her dragon Morning. Hundreds of Lannister men burn to death beneath the walls of Pinkmaiden, however the dragon and its rider were driven off by Tygren Lannister, the Dragonbane, as one of his arrows managed to wound the Lady of Driftmark… Though, the young Lannister’s skill with the bow couldn’t spare him from Morning’s flames.Iron Islands
Through the combined efforts of Baela Celtigar, Zhoe Myre, Roryk Volmark, and the crew of the Dog’s Revenge, a giant squid is successfully caught and brought under the ownership of Sigfryd Farwynd.Gyrnir Greyjoy toasts the fall of House Targaryen and beseeches his liege lady to attack the Westerlands soon.
Westerlands
Rohanne Banefort reveals Mina Marbrand's murderous betrayals to Lady Ella while Forley Banefort is captured at Seagard. Fearing the war and Lord Tywald’s retribution, Rohanne and Ella Marbrand flee to the Banefort.Lord Lefford arrives at his home only to find it full to bursting with Lord Tywald Lannister’s great host. He throws a feast for his noble guests which Tywald announces will be the site of his wedding with Lady Arwen Arryn.
At the Battle of Pinkmaiden, Ser Tygren Lannister successfully beats back the Piper army, Lady Alysanne Velaryon, and her dragon Morning. Most of Tyg’s force is engulfed in dragonflame, killing everyone on his own flank but himself. Though he survives, he suffers horrific burns.
Later, at Deep Den, Tyg begs for death that his men do not grant him, and proves to have become both physically and mentally changed by the ordeal.
Dorne
All is quiet in Dorne this moon.Faith
The Faithful lie in wait this moon.Essos
Across the sea, all appears quiet in Essos…The Wall and Beyond
From the Wall, Lord Corin Stark writes to Driftmark, offering his support and marriage of his son Theon to Laena Velaryon.Beyond the wall, Magnar Corpse of Milkwater tribe arrives at Crowtown, where he is met by its commander, Torrhen.
Igrin, healer of Thenns, manages to tame a beaver named Cheddar in the wake of her being separated from most of her family. Igrin has tamed a beaver name Cheddar in the wake of being separated from most of her family. Meanwhile, Jenny faces the King of Winter and the Dark Prince as she reports what has happened to her people and that Winter comes for Westeros.
Torrhen, commander of Crowntown, relays the orders of Lord Commander that Crowtown is to be abandoned. He is set to return to Castle Black and wishes to let the wildling through the Wall.
It is at this time, when Others arrive, surrounding the Crowtown.
Magnar Sweyn of Crowl set sail from Crowtow but as the time passes, the more of his people turn mad. They dispose of the bodies by eating them.
2023.06.06 06:33 lacrimalJugular148 Japan is bigger than you think
 | submitted by lacrimalJugular148 to Damnthatsinteresting [link] [comments] |
2023.06.06 06:33 Pianogrl Extravasation/leak during CT with contrast
A little backstory; As the title suggests, I had to have a CT w/contrast this afternoon. I am already a difficult stick most of the time and right before the ct I also had blood work done. They ended up trying to hit the same vein they used for the blood draw, I dont know if it was just fed up or what, but as soon as they started the contrast my arm started burning like someone was pressing down with a hot iron as hard as they could. The tech stopped as soon as I let them know there was an issue but the damage was done. I ended up finishing out the CT without the contrast and they told me to monitor my arm for significant changes, but now my arm is swollen like a sausage. I’ve been trying to keep it elevated and have been using hot/cold compresses but I’ve never had something like the contrast injected into the wrong part of me before. Not sure how much is to be expected and where the line of concern should be drawn. The pain isn’t unbearable but I feel like the more time that passes since it happened the more discomfort I’m in. The IV was in the elbow dip on my right arm and now about 6 hours since it happened my forearm and bicep are visibly swollen and warm to the touch.
submitted by Pianogrl to ChronicIllness [link] [comments]
2023.06.06 06:31 CtG526 Co-Op Mutation #372: Medieval Times
The swirling radiation around the Voidshade Hybrid has given your enemies the ability to grow into more powerful forms, as well as cause an incurable plague to spread. Only destroying the Void Slivers will stop this growing threat.
submitted by CtG526 to starcraft [link] [comments]
Map: Scythe of Amon
Black Death Some enemy units carry a plague that deals damage over time and spreads to other nearby units. The plague spreads to your units when the enemy unit is killed. Transmutation Enemy units have a chance to transform into more powerful units whenever they deal damage.
Rating: Brutal +4
Video Replays on Brutal:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| [CtG(Rebel Raider Raynor)] | [Twotuuu (Frightful Fleshwelder Stukov)] |
| [CtG(Best Buddy Stetmann)] | Nostrebor (Scourge Queen Zagara) |
| [CtG(Solarite Celestial Karax)] | Sticksbender (Desolate Queen Kerrigan) |
| [CtG(Merchant of Death Arcturus)] | 구렁이 (Scourge Queen Zagara) |
Transmutation Tiers
| Tier | Unit |
|---|---|
| 0 | Broodling/Other units |
| 1 | Zergling, Marine, Baneling |
| 2 | Reaper, Zealot, Roach, Hellion, Widow Mine, Hellbat |
| 3 | Marauder, Firebat, Adept, Sentry, Hydralisk |
| 4 | Stalker, Dragoon, Mutalisk, Goliath, High Templar |
| 5 | Viking, Warhound, Phoenix, Infestor, Banshee, Scout, Viking |
| 6 | Siege Tank, Oracle, Cyclone, Ghost, Swarm Host, Lurker |
| 7 | Ravager, Immortal, Archon, Voidray, Disruptor, Liberator |
| 8 | Broodlord, Ultralisk, Battlecruiser, Thor, Carrier, Tempest, Reaver |
| 9 | Loki, Hybrid Nemesis, Hybrid Reaver, Hybrid Destroyer |
| 10 | Hybrid Behemoth, Hybrid Dominator |
Other notes:
- Whenever an enemy kills one of your units, it transforms. Avoid losing ANYTHING whenever possible.
- Enemies transform into tiers based on the supply of the units they kill. An enemy that kills a Zealot (2 supply) will level two tiers.
- Enemy units, upon transforming, return to full health. Make sure to focus the strong ones before they become Hybrids.
- Any enemy unit has 33% to carry black death on Brutal.
- Players units that carry this plague will lose 2% of their max HP per second on Brutal until they die.
- When any infected unit dies [player's or Amon's], it will spread to 3 random players' units within 5 range.
- Stukov's Bunkers, Karax's Repair Beam, 100-biomass Abathur units, and being in Kerrigan's Omega Worms all out-heal the plague.
- Stetmann's green zone can outheal the Black Plague for a lot of the units with Stetzone bonuses mastery.
Vote for [Commander of the Week] and [Mutation Difficulty]!
Do you like this mutation? [VOTE HERE]
Commander of the Previous Week: [Stetmann]! Previous Week(Never Say Die): [2.84/5.00(Average)] Previous Week Approval Rating: [0.45] [Weekly Mutation Database]
Clearly Superior Version: [Battle.Net] Relevant Links Maguro's Mutation List starcraft2coop.com Week 186 post: [Reddit] [Battle.Net]2023.06.06 06:31 CtG526 Co-Op Mutation #372: Medieval Times
The swirling radiation around the Voidshade Hybrid has given your enemies the ability to grow into more powerful forms, as well as cause an incurable plague to spread. Only destroying the Void Slivers will stop this growing threat.
submitted by CtG526 to starcraft2 [link] [comments]
Map: Scythe of Amon
Black Death Some enemy units carry a plague that deals damage over time and spreads to other nearby units. The plague spreads to your units when the enemy unit is killed. Transmutation Enemy units have a chance to transform into more powerful units whenever they deal damage.
Rating: Brutal +4
Video Replays on Brutal:
| Player 1 | Player 2 |
|---|---|
| [CtG(Rebel Raider Raynor)] | [Twotuuu (Frightful Fleshwelder Stukov)] |
| [CtG(Best Buddy Stetmann)] | Nostrebor (Scourge Queen Zagara) |
| [CtG(Solarite Celestial Karax)] | Sticksbender (Desolate Queen Kerrigan) |
| [CtG(Merchant of Death Arcturus)] | 구렁이 (Scourge Queen Zagara) |
Transmutation Tiers
| Tier | Unit |
|---|---|
| 0 | Broodling/Other units |
| 1 | Zergling, Marine, Baneling |
| 2 | Reaper, Zealot, Roach, Hellion, Widow Mine, Hellbat |
| 3 | Marauder, Firebat, Adept, Sentry, Hydralisk |
| 4 | Stalker, Dragoon, Mutalisk, Goliath, High Templar |
| 5 | Viking, Warhound, Phoenix, Infestor, Banshee, Scout, Viking |
| 6 | Siege Tank, Oracle, Cyclone, Ghost, Swarm Host, Lurker |
| 7 | Ravager, Immortal, Archon, Voidray, Disruptor, Liberator |
| 8 | Broodlord, Ultralisk, Battlecruiser, Thor, Carrier, Tempest, Reaver |
| 9 | Loki, Hybrid Nemesis, Hybrid Reaver, Hybrid Destroyer |
| 10 | Hybrid Behemoth, Hybrid Dominator |
Other notes:
- Whenever an enemy kills one of your units, it transforms. Avoid losing ANYTHING whenever possible.
- Enemies transform into tiers based on the supply of the units they kill. An enemy that kills a Zealot (2 supply) will level two tiers.
- Enemy units, upon transforming, return to full health. Make sure to focus the strong ones before they become Hybrids.
- Any enemy unit has 33% to carry black death on Brutal.
- Players units that carry this plague will lose 2% of their max HP per second on Brutal until they die.
- When any infected unit dies [player's or Amon's], it will spread to 3 random players' units within 5 range.
- Stukov's Bunkers, Karax's Repair Beam, 100-biomass Abathur units, and being in Kerrigan's Omega Worms all out-heal the plague.
- Stetmann's green zone can outheal the Black Plague for a lot of the units with Stetzone bonuses mastery.
Vote for [Commander of the Week] and [Mutation Difficulty]!
Do you like this mutation? [VOTE HERE]
Commander of the Previous Week: [Stetmann]! Previous Week(Never Say Die): [2.84/5.00(Average)] Previous Week Approval Rating: [0.45] [Weekly Mutation Database]
Clearly Superior Version: [Battle.Net] Relevant Links Maguro's Mutation List starcraft2coop.com Week 186 post: [Reddit] [Battle.Net]2023.06.06 06:17 Hot_Figure_6537 Does anyone else get this problem with their ram?
 | I got a 2014 1500 limited and it tends to do this, is there a solution to the issue? submitted by Hot_Figure_6537 to ram_trucks [link] [comments] |
2023.06.06 06:14 175doubledrop Small Shop Dust Collection - Upgrade from Shop Vac, or....?
I'm a hobbyist working out of one side of a 2 car garage. I've been working with basic tools so far (circular saw / miter saw / battery powered sander / etc.) but recently picked up a router and am contemplating a table saw purchase in the near future. Right now my dust collection setup is just a 6.5hp shop vac with a few different 2.5" hoses that I swap in and out depending on what tool I'm using. I'm considering getting a proper collector, but am a bit unsure on sizing and whether I'll actually see much of an improvement compared to my shop vac.
I've been looking at a few of the 1 HP models available, specifically this laguna model: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/laguna-b-flux-1hp-110v-canister-dust-collector?via=573621bd69702d0676000002%2C576455d369702d2f2f0013a2%2C5764562369702d3c42000be9
I'm conflicted as I've read the 1 hp models aren't actually that powerful (although the specs on paper seem a lot better than my shop vac), and I currently don't have any tools that have 5" dust ports. The table saw I'm considering is the ubiquitous Dewalt 10" Jobsite saw and it has a 2.5" dust port. At the moment, I also don't have space for a planejointer so I don't see myself picking either of those up any time soon.
Long story short, I've got a lot of questions:
submitted by 175doubledrop to BeginnerWoodWorking [link] [comments]
I've been looking at a few of the 1 HP models available, specifically this laguna model: https://www.woodcraft.com/products/laguna-b-flux-1hp-110v-canister-dust-collector?via=573621bd69702d0676000002%2C576455d369702d2f2f0013a2%2C5764562369702d3c42000be9
I'm conflicted as I've read the 1 hp models aren't actually that powerful (although the specs on paper seem a lot better than my shop vac), and I currently don't have any tools that have 5" dust ports. The table saw I'm considering is the ubiquitous Dewalt 10" Jobsite saw and it has a 2.5" dust port. At the moment, I also don't have space for a planejointer so I don't see myself picking either of those up any time soon.
Long story short, I've got a lot of questions:
- Is it worth upgrading to true dust collector if you'll be adapting the connection down to 2.5" for every tool?
- Given a 1 hp compressor, is it worth building out any sort of ducting to connect multiple tools?
- I like the laguna model I linked above as it's a pretty good price for a collector with a cartridge filter, but has anyone used this model? I'm comparing it against the Dust Right wall mount 1 hp model from Rockler as well as the 1 hp Grizzly.
2023.06.06 06:12 Appropriate-Pound-25 Low stock, inventory in disarray, low manning, people cut off, this place is burning
As the title states. Best Buy is slowing going down, but it’s one of those transitional periods where we make do with what we got and the problems eventually corrects itself. Also, I can barely sell anything if there isnt any stock. Slowly dreading Best Buy, and letting go the managers put a bad taste in my mouth. I get it though from a business standpoint, to increase profits, do more with less but customer satisfaction will go down. But then again, what other one-stop-shop would customers go to get their electronics.
submitted by Appropriate-Pound-25 to Bestbuy [link] [comments]
2023.06.06 06:07 andiheyes What should I do regarding my relationship with my out of touch, entitled rich friend?
I (23F) am the maid of honor for my good friend’s (26F) upcoming wedding. Naturally for the past year I have been heavily involved in the planning, shopping, etc. Last weekend was the bachelorette party and I’m really struggling with my relationship with my friend after that weekend. There have been a few small things that have bothered me that I haven’t brought up and just tried to ignore/get over but I’m struggling with feeling some resentment and frustration with my friend.
Backstory: my friend comes from an extremely wealthy family. She is debt free. Owns many assets outright. She and her fiancé own a multi million dollar business. She has a multi million dollar inheritance coming to her in the next ten years. They have 70k plus in savings that I know of. Her family is fully paying for her to have a lavish wedding and party with 300+ people invited. My fiancé and I come from lower middle class families. We are renting and struggling to save up to buy a house. We aren’t having a wedding because we can’t afford it. We have decent jobs but live paycheck to paycheck for the most part.
When we were planning the bachelorette party my friend absolutely refused to chip in ANYTHING to cover costs. Her exact words were “if I have to pay for anything I don’t even want to go, that’s like the whole point.” That really, really bothered me but I did not say anything. She originally wanted to do a huge bash which would have been incredibly expensive and several of her bridesmaids simply could not afford that. They said so and she complained about it to me quite a bit. I encouraged her to pick something cheaper, or chip in. She chose something cheaper. Her cheap option was still $1000 a person plus getting there from across the country. And several of her bridesmaids simply couldn’t afford that and had to bow out. Again the complaining. Only myself and one other bridesmaid could afford to go. And of course the cost went up for us because we were no longer splitting things among several people.
On the trip, several other things began to really bother me. First, her general naïveté about the world. I always knew she’d been incredibly sheltered as a child by her position of privilege but I guess I had no idea how much. She had no idea how to behave in public or do basic life things, it seemed. Second she was incredibly judgmental about the cars people drove (incessantly calling cheaper cars we drove by “nasty” or “disgusting” with great gusto) homeless people who were literally just minding their own business, saying she didn’t feel comfortable in certain places (around people of different races, people dressed in alternative fashions, etc) This very very quickly got on my nerves. To make things cheaper for myself I didn’t drink and was the designated driver so we didn’t have to pay for an Uber to go everywhere. All the while I am swiping my credit card to pay for this expensive trip which certainly did not help my mood. The absolute last straw was when we were stopping at the store to grab some quick things before leaving on the last day. I needed some socks because mine has holes in them so I grabbed a bundle. My friend complained that she didn’t have money to buy things whenever she wanted and she wished she could. I literally just stared at her and said in a monotone that they were $6. She said that maybe she would ask for some for Christmas. Honestly I’m shocked I didn’t lose my cool right there. But I just walked away, seething. This was after we just spent 2k on her in a single weekend trying to make sure she had a great time….
And on the way home she was chatting about the extremely high costs of her wedding in detail and complaining about each part being so expensive when I know she’s not paying for a single dime of it, her family is….and she knows my fiancé and I aren’t having a wedding at all due to financial constraints.
I don’t know how to approach this going forward. I know I need a break from her to think about things. The wedding is in 3 months. I’ve already told her I can’t make the bridal shower and thankfully have a very good excuse. I’ve also decided I will not be getting her a gift as I feel I’ve given her plenty already. But I am not sure how to approach this. She is just incredibly out of touch with reality and I maybe have not seen or not paid attention to this side of her before? We’ve known each other for five years but, I’ve changed as a person significantly in that time, so who knows. What should I do? My gut feeling is to suck it up, shut my mouth and continue helping with this wedding and then take a nice long sabbatical from her company after it’s over. I’ve already made commitments and I don’t think it’s right to back out of them. I know this story may sound awful but my friend is generally a sweet and kind person, who does genuinely care about me. We have never had to deal with money things before so I’ve never really seen this side of her but in retrospect I’m always the one offering to pay for meals, coffee etc and she never does. It never bothered me much before. What should I do?
submitted by andiheyes to TwoHotTakes [link] [comments]
Backstory: my friend comes from an extremely wealthy family. She is debt free. Owns many assets outright. She and her fiancé own a multi million dollar business. She has a multi million dollar inheritance coming to her in the next ten years. They have 70k plus in savings that I know of. Her family is fully paying for her to have a lavish wedding and party with 300+ people invited. My fiancé and I come from lower middle class families. We are renting and struggling to save up to buy a house. We aren’t having a wedding because we can’t afford it. We have decent jobs but live paycheck to paycheck for the most part.
When we were planning the bachelorette party my friend absolutely refused to chip in ANYTHING to cover costs. Her exact words were “if I have to pay for anything I don’t even want to go, that’s like the whole point.” That really, really bothered me but I did not say anything. She originally wanted to do a huge bash which would have been incredibly expensive and several of her bridesmaids simply could not afford that. They said so and she complained about it to me quite a bit. I encouraged her to pick something cheaper, or chip in. She chose something cheaper. Her cheap option was still $1000 a person plus getting there from across the country. And several of her bridesmaids simply couldn’t afford that and had to bow out. Again the complaining. Only myself and one other bridesmaid could afford to go. And of course the cost went up for us because we were no longer splitting things among several people.
On the trip, several other things began to really bother me. First, her general naïveté about the world. I always knew she’d been incredibly sheltered as a child by her position of privilege but I guess I had no idea how much. She had no idea how to behave in public or do basic life things, it seemed. Second she was incredibly judgmental about the cars people drove (incessantly calling cheaper cars we drove by “nasty” or “disgusting” with great gusto) homeless people who were literally just minding their own business, saying she didn’t feel comfortable in certain places (around people of different races, people dressed in alternative fashions, etc) This very very quickly got on my nerves. To make things cheaper for myself I didn’t drink and was the designated driver so we didn’t have to pay for an Uber to go everywhere. All the while I am swiping my credit card to pay for this expensive trip which certainly did not help my mood. The absolute last straw was when we were stopping at the store to grab some quick things before leaving on the last day. I needed some socks because mine has holes in them so I grabbed a bundle. My friend complained that she didn’t have money to buy things whenever she wanted and she wished she could. I literally just stared at her and said in a monotone that they were $6. She said that maybe she would ask for some for Christmas. Honestly I’m shocked I didn’t lose my cool right there. But I just walked away, seething. This was after we just spent 2k on her in a single weekend trying to make sure she had a great time….
And on the way home she was chatting about the extremely high costs of her wedding in detail and complaining about each part being so expensive when I know she’s not paying for a single dime of it, her family is….and she knows my fiancé and I aren’t having a wedding at all due to financial constraints.
I don’t know how to approach this going forward. I know I need a break from her to think about things. The wedding is in 3 months. I’ve already told her I can’t make the bridal shower and thankfully have a very good excuse. I’ve also decided I will not be getting her a gift as I feel I’ve given her plenty already. But I am not sure how to approach this. She is just incredibly out of touch with reality and I maybe have not seen or not paid attention to this side of her before? We’ve known each other for five years but, I’ve changed as a person significantly in that time, so who knows. What should I do? My gut feeling is to suck it up, shut my mouth and continue helping with this wedding and then take a nice long sabbatical from her company after it’s over. I’ve already made commitments and I don’t think it’s right to back out of them. I know this story may sound awful but my friend is generally a sweet and kind person, who does genuinely care about me. We have never had to deal with money things before so I’ve never really seen this side of her but in retrospect I’m always the one offering to pay for meals, coffee etc and she never does. It never bothered me much before. What should I do?
2023.06.06 06:00 fionaberret12345 I'm not having a good day. Another altercation
After my initial run in at the store I ran home and had some of my medical marijuana to help calm down. I walked to the different shops. But I was still in q foul mood. I couldn't stop thinking about that fat bastard. I spotted a obese lady with her very over weight kids. I was furious. I tried to ignore it and I got rhe cats food. When I was leaving I saw her LEAVE her shopping cart in another cars space. I went up to her and said she should put her cart away. She said " it's none of your business and that's the workers jobs" I called her a lazy buffalo and she should walk more and lose weight. I called her a fat buffalo once more as I ran off. I just got home and having more medical marijuana.
submitted by fionaberret12345 to nrls [link] [comments]
2023.06.06 05:55 hnqn1611 TOP 10 Things to do in Vancouver - [2023 Travel Guide]
![TOP 10 Things to do in Vancouver - [2023 Travel Guide]](https://b.thumbs.redditmedia.com/1d6E2BYerNuWHxjAyWybqXWk71zj2f-T28ra5HfulMU.jpg "TOP 10 Things to do in Vancouver - [2023 Travel Guide]") | https://preview.redd.it/f5jki87wlb4b1.jpg?width=1280&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13cb50cac71dd19e705cbbe82f15ff47be017616 submitted by hnqn1611 to TopPersonality [link] [comments] TOP 10 Things to do in Vancouver - [2023 Travel Guide] This post is based on our fun trip to this beautiful city. Don't forget to like this post, subscribe to our channel, and enable notifications. And share your own experience or ask a question in the comments below. Sponsored by Beeyond compression packing cubes for travel - helping you save space when you travel and organize your suitcase. The link is in the description. And stick around until the end of this post because we have a bonus for you. Here are our top 10 picks: Number 10: Gastown Known as the oldest neighborhood in the city, Gastown is a picturesque district in downtown Vancouver. It takes its name from riverboat captain John "Gassy Jack" Deighton, believed to be one of the earliest settlers in the area in 1867. Deighton’s statue was recently torn down due to his controversial past. The neighborhood now preserves its historical character, evident by its heritage buildings and Victorian-style homes. Gastown received a national historic site of Canada designation in 2009 for its notable significance. Exploring Gastown is best discovered by wandering its cobbled streets. Sit in one of the countless restaurants and choose among incredible food options. The neighborhood has a vibrant atmosphere, full of art galleries, boutique shops, historic sites, and the iconic antique-style Steam Clock from 1977. The clock is powered by steam, and every 15 minutes it whistles to tell the time. It is the world's only still-operating steam-powered clock. Number 9: Unique transportation Forget about typical public transportation like busses and metros and rather embark on a water adventure by riding the cute Aquabus - a unique and colorful way to travel around False Creek, and a great way to use this ferry service also if you are planning to visit the Granville Island. Enjoy a breathtaking waterfront as you ride this rainbow-colored ferry. You can also take a harbour cruise with a dinner option or ride a SeaBus, a ferry service crossing and connecting Downtown and North Vancouver. There are other unique ways to discover Vancouver and its surroundings, like exploring the city from the sky by riding a seaplane, or embarking on a whale watching tour. Number 8: Science World Science World, located at the east end of False Creek, is a museum of science and technology built for the Expo 86 World Fair. Distinctive for its giant mirrored dome, Science World is one of Vancouver's most famous landmarks. Explore interactive indoor and outdoor exhibits, galleries, and live science demonstrations that will fuel your imagination. Whether you are a local or a traveler, alone or with the whole family, Science World is an exciting destination to spark wonder and ignite one's curiosity. Number 7: Capilano Suspension Bridge Park Capilano Suspension Bridge is a 450 ft long and 230 ft high suspension bridge spanning the Capilano River in North Vancouver. With its convenient location, the park is one of the most visited places in Vancouver, attracting over 1.2 million visitors every year. Although the bridge has been the main attraction since 1889, there are other things to explore in the park – it also offers thrilling treetop adventures with a breathtaking rainforest view. The Cliffwalk offers a heart-stopping, spectacular view of the canyon below. Enjoy casual dining with a scenic and captivating view of the park. If you visit Vancouver between November and January, don't skip Canyon Lights - when the park transformed into a magical world. We suggest hopping on one of their free shuttle busses departing from various locations in Downtown Vancouver. Number 6: Chinatown Vancouver's Chinatown is a historic neighborhood boasting traditional shops, cocktail bars, and rich Chinese lifestyle. The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Vancouver to work on railroads and in mining operations in the second half of the 1800s. The neighborhood developed into one of the largest Chinatowns in North America. In 2010, the it was recognized as a National Historic Site of Canada. Taste traditional and authentic Chinese specialties like dim sum in one of the neighborhood's restaurants. Walk around Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden's fascinating pavilions and pathways, the first of its kind outside China. There are other interesting neighborhoods in Vancouver. Check our travel guide for more information. By the way, our mobile-friendly travel guide covers the top 20 things to do in Vancouver, including maps, opening hours, links to buy tickets, and other information. Number 5: Vancouver Aquarium The Vancouver Aquarium is a popular tourist destination, home to thousands of aquatic species with over one million visitors every year. Established in 1956, it was the first and largest public aquarium in Canada. The facility is an aquarium and a center for marine research and rehabilitation. The aquarium offers a unique experience of the wonders of aquatic life through its impressive exhibits and displays. Learn about rescued marine life and watch cute sea lions in action. Vancouver Aquarium also features a 4D theatre that will transform your senses. Number 4: Vancouver Maritime Museum Dedicated to showcasing the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest and the Arctic, the Vancouver Maritime Museum is a museum in Vanier Park that opened in 1959. The Vancouver Maritime Museum has a collection of over 15,000 artifacts, numerous model ships, and old photos that tell the stories of important historical voyages and lost expeditions. The museum's most prominent exhibit is St. Roch, a large arctic vessel used during the first west-to-east journey at the Northwest Passage through the Arctic in the 1940s. Because to its significance, the exploration vessel is listed as a National Historic Site. You can actually climb aboard the historic boat and explore the decks and cabins. Don't skip the Ben Franklin, a yellow submarine outside the museum, built for a 30-day study in the Gulf Stream in 1969. Of course, there are other museums in Vancouver worth exploring, like the nearby Museum of Vancouver. Number 3: Vancouver Lookout Experience Vancouver in the best possible way by visiting a 553 ft high Vancouver Lookout Tower at Harbour Centre. The building was constructed in a popular brutalist style with large-scale use of poured concrete – a popular architectural style at the time. American astronaut Neil Armstrong opened the lookout in 1977. Vancouver Lookout observation deck gives a 360-degree panoramic view of Downtown and beyond. Vancouver Lookout also offers an audio tour and information panels that will help you learn about the different sights you see in front of you. Experience a breathtaking 40-second glass elevator ride of Harbour Centre, one of Vancouver's tallest buildings. You can even enjoy the Top of Vancouver Restaurant, a unique revolving diner. Number 2: Stanley Park Vancouver's first and largest urban park - Stanley Park, is a green space covering 1,000 acres of land, making up half of the city's Downtown area. The area was used by Indigenous people for thousands of years before the region was colonized by the British during the 1858 Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Stanley Park was designated a national historic site of Canada for its beauty and connection to the environment and the city's culture. This large scenic landscape is filled with forest trails, an aquarium, beautiful beach areas, enchanting Lost Lagoon, and many other iconic sights. Walk around Rose Garden and Shakespeare Garden to enjoy beautiful landscaping paths. The park is also home Don't skip Vancouver Seawall which also passes around Stanley Park and has been declared the world's longest uninterrupted waterfront path. Number 1: Granville Island From a former industrial wasteland to a busy shopping and market hub, the small peninsula of Granville Island is home to over 300 businesses with a million tourists annually. Granville Island Public Market is the most popular attraction, described by many as a food paradise. The market boasts seafood, fresh produce, and gourmet goods from Asian, Mexican, and Greek specialties, and more. Granville Island is also known for its artistic side, with countless theater productions, art galleries and many events. Walk around parks with many hiking trails, enjoy a glass of beer in one of Canada's original microbreweries, or embark on a whale-watching tour; there are plenty of things to discover on the peninsula. And here is the bonus that we promised. Did you know you can experience world-class skiing less than an hour away from Vancouver? If you're there during winter months, jump on a convenient ski bus from Downtown Vancouver and ski down the slopes at Grouse Mountain, Cypress Mountain, or Mt Seymour Resort. And if you're willing to ride just a little farther, try one of the best ski resorts in North America - Whistler Blackcomb. You can also explore the mountains during the summer or embark on a hiking adventure and experience breathtaking nature of Vancouver surroundings, like Bowen and Vancouver Islands. We wish you a fantastic trip to Vancouver. |