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What would cause a huge difference between 2 dentists regarding actual # of cavities?
2023.05.28 04:13 myboxofpaints What would cause a huge difference between 2 dentists regarding actual # of cavities?
My 6 year old was told she had at least 12 cavities. The usual pediatric dentist she used to see moved and they had a new pediatric dentist. They said something like they couldn't tell exactly how many because of the xray not coming out fully or not being visible. When I was told that my jaw dropped and I couldn't believe it since my oldest never came close to that many and I don't have many either.
We were referred to another pediatric dentist who had anesthesia/other options for pain. The way this dentist made it sound was that she had to be put under and he said they didn't have the means to do that there, so not sure if there is a difference with this dentist and her previous who filled my oldest daughter's cavities on location. He said it would take multiple visits and some teeth probably would have to be pulled out.
On the referral this dentist just puts she has "many carries", not sure if some dentist jargon but he didn't specify the number. I can't remember off hand, but I think the previous dentist before he moved may have indicated on paper she had letters like a,b,c... that needed to be checked. He previously didn't feel a need to do anything with the cavities at the time and just wanted to keep an eye on it since she is close to when the teeth may fall out on their own.
She gets new x-rays at the new place even though I had requested x-rays be sent to there so not sure what happened there. She has 4, still not ideal, but not a jaw dropping 12+. So first 2 cavities filled, no anesthesia needed, but they said the next 2 will. I'm not sure what would cause such a HUGE discrepancy between these 2 places. I did tell the new dentist that the previous dentist said she had at least 12 cavities, but she kind of was like who? Not quite believing it and brushed it off, maybe she thought I heard it wrong.
submitted by myboxofpaints to askdentists [link] [comments]
We were referred to another pediatric dentist who had anesthesia/other options for pain. The way this dentist made it sound was that she had to be put under and he said they didn't have the means to do that there, so not sure if there is a difference with this dentist and her previous who filled my oldest daughter's cavities on location. He said it would take multiple visits and some teeth probably would have to be pulled out.
On the referral this dentist just puts she has "many carries", not sure if some dentist jargon but he didn't specify the number. I can't remember off hand, but I think the previous dentist before he moved may have indicated on paper she had letters like a,b,c... that needed to be checked. He previously didn't feel a need to do anything with the cavities at the time and just wanted to keep an eye on it since she is close to when the teeth may fall out on their own.
She gets new x-rays at the new place even though I had requested x-rays be sent to there so not sure what happened there. She has 4, still not ideal, but not a jaw dropping 12+. So first 2 cavities filled, no anesthesia needed, but they said the next 2 will. I'm not sure what would cause such a HUGE discrepancy between these 2 places. I did tell the new dentist that the previous dentist said she had at least 12 cavities, but she kind of was like who? Not quite believing it and brushed it off, maybe she thought I heard it wrong.
2023.05.28 04:08 RapidlyAgonizing Something tells me this guy has definitely encountered his fair share of CBs. He came prepared with a FAQ list!!
 | submitted by RapidlyAgonizing to ChoosingBeggars [link] [comments] |
2023.05.28 04:06 Lonely_Race5995 I'm finally back!! :) (vent)
Hi friends! Awhile ago, I made a post titled "Open Letter to Regal :)". I'd first like to thank everyone for all the support and advice I was given. 🩵
This is kind of a rant, so if you don't want to read it, feel free to scroll past.
I want to share my experiences so that if anyone is going through anything similar, they know they are no alone. My Regal was run extremely unprofessionally. I can barely even remember a time where I was not constantly pulling all the weight and doing all of the work. Over the summer, it became clear to me that I was the only person doing any of the work. Whenever a customer would come by, all my coworkers would collectively move to the back and leave me doing all of the work. And management did nothing about it-- even after I complained and told them what was happening. Sometimes I would come in a few minutes before my shift, and before I even had time to clock in, my coworkers would vanish and leave me at the register working off the clock. There were even times management asked me to perform minor tasks off the clock (restocking candy, cleaning the back, etc). For useful context, I was 16 during all of this. At one point I was working 15 days straights covering coworkers because management let them call out without an excuse just because they didn't want to come in (and I know this because they would literally come in and visit their friends during their own shift that I was working). But this isn't even the worst of what I went through.
Management at my location continuously spread rumors about me and others. For starters, my assistant manager treated me terribly and ignored me for around two months. I tried to talk to him about this, but every single time I tried to talk to him about this, he went further out of his way to avoid me. Since Regal was like a family to me, this completely destroyed my mental health. I was severely depressed and dreaded going to work. I was eventually told by other floor staff that he told them he thought I had a crush on him (I literally did not). I eventually reported this to management, but AM and I talked it out and I chose not to go forward with an HR report or anything.
Now here comes the worst part. I had a TL who told me multiple times that I was his favorite worker. After the situation I mentioned prior, this TL began treating me poorly-- snapping at me a lot and overall treating me badly. Now some background on this TL-- he talked shit about quite literally every floor staff and manager to me (a floor staff) and spread rumors about others. It got to the point where I was also scared of being around this TL. I also was terrified that he was saying bad things about me behind my back as well, since he talked about everyone to me. I'd also like to mention almost all of us are teenagers while this TL and well into adulthood. Anyways, he made everyone think that two of my coworkers were dating (which caused a shit ton of drama), turned me against people in manager by talking bad about them and CONSTANTLY talked bad about one girl who we worked with. I also watched him straight up lie to employees. For example-- he would tell me "____ is an awful employee; she doesn't do any work" and then tell that same employee straight to her face "you're one of our best workers!!".
Finally, everyone at my work place was constantly depressed. The atmosphere is awful and literally every employee there has told me that they were so much happier before they started working there. I cannot even tell you how many times I sat in that break room crying because of how I was treated there.
This is just the surface. It would take pages for me to write out everything I went through. And now, 3 months later, I still haven't gone a single night without having a nightmare about Regal. I am currently being treated for PTSD from this place.
But like I said in the title, I am finally back in the movie theater business! I am now working at a much better theater and I am treated so much better by management. All the employees there are so positive and make it clear that they love their job. I'm so thankful I found a much better movie theater :)
If you read all of this, thank you so much; I really appreciate it. And if anyone is going through anything similar, please quit. It's really not worth it and you deserve so much better. Please know I am here to talk if anyone needs to. 🩵
submitted by Lonely_Race5995 to MovieTheaterEmployees [link] [comments]
This is kind of a rant, so if you don't want to read it, feel free to scroll past.
I want to share my experiences so that if anyone is going through anything similar, they know they are no alone. My Regal was run extremely unprofessionally. I can barely even remember a time where I was not constantly pulling all the weight and doing all of the work. Over the summer, it became clear to me that I was the only person doing any of the work. Whenever a customer would come by, all my coworkers would collectively move to the back and leave me doing all of the work. And management did nothing about it-- even after I complained and told them what was happening. Sometimes I would come in a few minutes before my shift, and before I even had time to clock in, my coworkers would vanish and leave me at the register working off the clock. There were even times management asked me to perform minor tasks off the clock (restocking candy, cleaning the back, etc). For useful context, I was 16 during all of this. At one point I was working 15 days straights covering coworkers because management let them call out without an excuse just because they didn't want to come in (and I know this because they would literally come in and visit their friends during their own shift that I was working). But this isn't even the worst of what I went through.
Management at my location continuously spread rumors about me and others. For starters, my assistant manager treated me terribly and ignored me for around two months. I tried to talk to him about this, but every single time I tried to talk to him about this, he went further out of his way to avoid me. Since Regal was like a family to me, this completely destroyed my mental health. I was severely depressed and dreaded going to work. I was eventually told by other floor staff that he told them he thought I had a crush on him (I literally did not). I eventually reported this to management, but AM and I talked it out and I chose not to go forward with an HR report or anything.
Now here comes the worst part. I had a TL who told me multiple times that I was his favorite worker. After the situation I mentioned prior, this TL began treating me poorly-- snapping at me a lot and overall treating me badly. Now some background on this TL-- he talked shit about quite literally every floor staff and manager to me (a floor staff) and spread rumors about others. It got to the point where I was also scared of being around this TL. I also was terrified that he was saying bad things about me behind my back as well, since he talked about everyone to me. I'd also like to mention almost all of us are teenagers while this TL and well into adulthood. Anyways, he made everyone think that two of my coworkers were dating (which caused a shit ton of drama), turned me against people in manager by talking bad about them and CONSTANTLY talked bad about one girl who we worked with. I also watched him straight up lie to employees. For example-- he would tell me "____ is an awful employee; she doesn't do any work" and then tell that same employee straight to her face "you're one of our best workers!!".
Finally, everyone at my work place was constantly depressed. The atmosphere is awful and literally every employee there has told me that they were so much happier before they started working there. I cannot even tell you how many times I sat in that break room crying because of how I was treated there.
This is just the surface. It would take pages for me to write out everything I went through. And now, 3 months later, I still haven't gone a single night without having a nightmare about Regal. I am currently being treated for PTSD from this place.
But like I said in the title, I am finally back in the movie theater business! I am now working at a much better theater and I am treated so much better by management. All the employees there are so positive and make it clear that they love their job. I'm so thankful I found a much better movie theater :)
If you read all of this, thank you so much; I really appreciate it. And if anyone is going through anything similar, please quit. It's really not worth it and you deserve so much better. Please know I am here to talk if anyone needs to. 🩵
2023.05.28 03:46 kayyybelll I have BD1 w/ Psychosis and ECT Changed my life for the better
Hello everyone! So I’ve (24F) read A LOT of stories about ECT before I did it. Most of them were… not great to say the least. I have Bipolar 1 w psychosis. Everyone i saw discussing ECT had BD2, so it really was a leap of faith for me to do ECT. I only found a few articles on google scholar discussing ECT and mania. Even my therapist was skeptical about it, but my psychiatrist who suggested it is the best dr I’ve ever had. He truly cares and would never put me in a situation he didn’t think would help. He’s not a pill mill and sorts through all options. ECT was a last resort after an entire year of mania and psychosis. I had taken so many medications but my psychosis was debilitating and my mania was out of control. I was very reluctant when my psych suggest ECT, but eventually I gave in after a while. I had 12 treatments done. MWF for an entire month. Here is my honest, personal experience with ECT:
What they do is, they put you to sleep and paralyze you so your body doesn’t convulse when you have the seizure. The first session was excruciating and scary. They didn’t know I would wake up so quickly from anesthesia (this isn’t their fault. I just naturally wake up quickly from anesthesia), so I woke up still paralyzed. That was pretty scary, but not as traumatic as you’d think. Once I was no longer paralyzed, it felt like someone took a brick to the side of my face. My jaw hurt so bad (jaw pain is normal. They give you meds for it) and my head was pounding. They gave me some more medication via IV and I felt better almost immediately. Now that they knew how I’d react to everything, they increased all my meds and every session after that was smooth sailing. The nurses are very nice and comforting. I even had a HOT doctor who I swear looked just like mcdreamy from greys and he was super nice too. After every treatment, I took some Tylenol, a muscle relaxer, and a Valium and went to sleep when I got home. My muscles were very sore the day after treatment but the muscle relaxers helped a lot.
It wasn’t until about the 5th session that I started to notice a difference. I stopped feeling so paranoid, I stopped hallucinating, and I was actually at ease. My family said they noticed a major difference in me and like I seemed much calmer and could actually hold a conversation without talking so quickly they couldn’t understand me. By the end of my 12 sessions I felt like a brand new person. I didn’t see my therapist the entire time I was doing ECT because I was just exhausted and I didn’t really have anything to talk about. I saw him about a week after I finished ECT and he was ecstatic at the results. He said it’s like night and day. I’m very grateful that I decided to do ECT despite all the horror stories I read online. I am a month post ECT and living my life like I haven’t in years. I can actually go outside and go out in public without feeling like the trees are watching me or random people in the grocery store are talking about me. I finally have my life back.
So I know there will probably be a few questions regarding what other people say, I’ll answer some. 1. Yes, my memory has been slightly affected but it is not anything significant. I remember my childhood. Even the insignificant details of it. I do have trouble remembering peoples names who I don’t really know. Sometimes I’ll forget what im talking about mid sentence and it’s a bit frustrating. It’s more like brain fog rather than memory loss. If someone reminds me of a specific thing and explains in detail, then I will remember what they are talking about. 2. I have friends with BD2 that ECT did not work for. I am not sure why. 3. It is not as barbaric as it sounds and is nothing like the movies. It’s something you just have to power through and experience. There will not be an immediate result. Like I said, I didn’t notice a difference until around the 5th session. 4. The headaches sucked but I alternated Tylenol max strength and Motrin around the clock for the headaches. They helped a lot. 5. For those with ovaries, your hormones will be affected. I have an IUD so I never have a period, but ECT caused me to have intense period symptoms. The medication they give you to not foam at the mouth will also dry you out EVERYWHERE (if you know what I mean). Drink pedialyte and A LOT of water. I spoke to my OBGYN while I was having ECT done and she said that any time the brain is stimulated it will mess with your hormones. 6. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is my cognitive abilities aren’t as sharp as before. Mostly pertaining to grammar, sentence structure, and ability to put what I want to say into words. It is sometimes frustrating, but it is not enough to make me regret ECT. I WILL be doing ECT maintenance. I am very happy with the results of ECT.
If y’all have anymore questions feel free to ask me :) I’m not sure how fast I’ll reply as I do not use Reddit often, but I promise I will eventually! I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about ECT and just needs a glimmer of hope after seeing all the war stories people post 🩷
submitted by kayyybelll to ect [link] [comments]
What they do is, they put you to sleep and paralyze you so your body doesn’t convulse when you have the seizure. The first session was excruciating and scary. They didn’t know I would wake up so quickly from anesthesia (this isn’t their fault. I just naturally wake up quickly from anesthesia), so I woke up still paralyzed. That was pretty scary, but not as traumatic as you’d think. Once I was no longer paralyzed, it felt like someone took a brick to the side of my face. My jaw hurt so bad (jaw pain is normal. They give you meds for it) and my head was pounding. They gave me some more medication via IV and I felt better almost immediately. Now that they knew how I’d react to everything, they increased all my meds and every session after that was smooth sailing. The nurses are very nice and comforting. I even had a HOT doctor who I swear looked just like mcdreamy from greys and he was super nice too. After every treatment, I took some Tylenol, a muscle relaxer, and a Valium and went to sleep when I got home. My muscles were very sore the day after treatment but the muscle relaxers helped a lot.
It wasn’t until about the 5th session that I started to notice a difference. I stopped feeling so paranoid, I stopped hallucinating, and I was actually at ease. My family said they noticed a major difference in me and like I seemed much calmer and could actually hold a conversation without talking so quickly they couldn’t understand me. By the end of my 12 sessions I felt like a brand new person. I didn’t see my therapist the entire time I was doing ECT because I was just exhausted and I didn’t really have anything to talk about. I saw him about a week after I finished ECT and he was ecstatic at the results. He said it’s like night and day. I’m very grateful that I decided to do ECT despite all the horror stories I read online. I am a month post ECT and living my life like I haven’t in years. I can actually go outside and go out in public without feeling like the trees are watching me or random people in the grocery store are talking about me. I finally have my life back.
So I know there will probably be a few questions regarding what other people say, I’ll answer some. 1. Yes, my memory has been slightly affected but it is not anything significant. I remember my childhood. Even the insignificant details of it. I do have trouble remembering peoples names who I don’t really know. Sometimes I’ll forget what im talking about mid sentence and it’s a bit frustrating. It’s more like brain fog rather than memory loss. If someone reminds me of a specific thing and explains in detail, then I will remember what they are talking about. 2. I have friends with BD2 that ECT did not work for. I am not sure why. 3. It is not as barbaric as it sounds and is nothing like the movies. It’s something you just have to power through and experience. There will not be an immediate result. Like I said, I didn’t notice a difference until around the 5th session. 4. The headaches sucked but I alternated Tylenol max strength and Motrin around the clock for the headaches. They helped a lot. 5. For those with ovaries, your hormones will be affected. I have an IUD so I never have a period, but ECT caused me to have intense period symptoms. The medication they give you to not foam at the mouth will also dry you out EVERYWHERE (if you know what I mean). Drink pedialyte and A LOT of water. I spoke to my OBGYN while I was having ECT done and she said that any time the brain is stimulated it will mess with your hormones. 6. The biggest thing I’ve noticed is my cognitive abilities aren’t as sharp as before. Mostly pertaining to grammar, sentence structure, and ability to put what I want to say into words. It is sometimes frustrating, but it is not enough to make me regret ECT. I WILL be doing ECT maintenance. I am very happy with the results of ECT.
If y’all have anymore questions feel free to ask me :) I’m not sure how fast I’ll reply as I do not use Reddit often, but I promise I will eventually! I hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about ECT and just needs a glimmer of hope after seeing all the war stories people post 🩷
2023.05.28 03:46 AnabolicShredz Interested in advice achieving your fitness goals, I have 14 years of experience.
I spent my entire youth doing sports specifically wrestling and baseball. I trained 3-4 days a week from ages 5-17 specifically doing intense wrestling style workouts doing lots of cardio and bodyweight exercises. I started lifting when I was 14 and became pretty strong by age 17. I would not consider myself to have great muscle building genetics. I know how to use nutrition to grow and hold onto mass in a caloric deficit without steroids. I kept with weight training for the last 14 years. I know how compounds work and Moreso I know how to teach others to use them.
There is a issue on this page with people asking others where to look for things. Remember what it was like before you knew where to source? We started somewhere looking for where we could find supplementation and many of us lost a decent amount of money... I myself spent a FEW YEARS periodically trying to find what I needed, only to get burnt by people I didn't know. That doesn't happen to me anymore... I'm offering you the red pill...
If anyone is interested or needs help with anything feel free to message me and I will be as open with you as I possibly can.
submitted by AnabolicShredz to SteroidDomestic [link] [comments]
There is a issue on this page with people asking others where to look for things. Remember what it was like before you knew where to source? We started somewhere looking for where we could find supplementation and many of us lost a decent amount of money... I myself spent a FEW YEARS periodically trying to find what I needed, only to get burnt by people I didn't know. That doesn't happen to me anymore... I'm offering you the red pill...
If anyone is interested or needs help with anything feel free to message me and I will be as open with you as I possibly can.
2023.05.28 03:41 palocci The Brazilian "Secular Stagnation" and what Lula can do about it
 | Introduction submitted by palocci to SocialDemocracy [link] [comments] Here's another effortpost on Brazil! This time I'll be talking about why the Brazilian economy stagnated, and what we can expect from Lula in terms of economic policy (I've talked about this in the past but now I'll go into more detail). Between 1920 and 1980, Brazil was a clear economic success story. For 60 years, our GDP grew at an average of 4% a year. This 'golden age' ended in a hyperinflation crisis, which made the 1980s become known as a 'lost decade', and since its resolution in 1994 with the Plano Real, our economy has experienced minimal growth: from 1980 to 2020, the average GDP growth rate was only 0.7%. Evolution of the Brazilian per capita product, at 2010 prices, from 1900 to 2021. The scale of the graph is logarithmic in base 2. In this post, I'll try to explain the reasons for Brazil's low growth in the last four decades and what Lula's plans are to address them. The debate Before delving into the actual causes of the "semi-stagnation", I would like to explain the economic debate in Brazil. This debate revolves around two major groups of economists: the "developmentalists" and the "liberals." The term "developmentalism" may be unfamiliar to many people here, but it is very present in Latin America. A decent explanation for it could be "dirigisme with Latam characteristics." In short, liberalism in this context is associated with economic orthodoxy and a pro-market orientation in economic policy, while developmentalism leans towards economic heterodoxy and advocates for direct state interference in the economy. This debate is, in theory, separate from the traditional right versus left political divide, as we have had governments from both ends of the political spectrum adopting policies aligned with either school of thought. For instance, Lula I (2003-2007) represented a left-wing liberal government, while Geisel (1974-1979) presided over a right-wing developmentalist government. However, in practice, liberalism is associated with the right-wing while developmentalism is associated with the left-wing. One area of major divergence between those two groups is full employment. Liberals argue that the Brazilian economy generally operates at full employment, which means that there are well-defined supply-side limits and restrictions in the economy, whereas developmentalists believe it tends to operate below that level. This implies that the economy's natural state is one of perpetual aggregate demand deficiency, and thus the government could just increase spending to mobilize idle production factors and stimulate economic growth. Furthermore, liberals typically view direct state intervention in the economy with distrust, opposing increased public investments in infrastructure and most forms of industrial policy. Their preference generally leans towards reducing government spending and relying on a 'crowding in' effect, together with supply-side reforms. Conversely, developmentalists perceive state intervention as a necessity to stimulate the economy, favoring a robust industrial policy and increased public investments. Those are significant oversimplifications, and many economists do not align themselves with either group. In any case, I would say this categorization reasonably represents the current debate. It's a tradition in Brazil to divide ministries between liberals and developmentalists to ensure a balance between the two. The current Finance Minister, Fernando Haddad, believes in a middle ground approach, with some of his secretaries (e.g., Guilherme Mello) leaning more towards developmentalism, while others (e.g., Bernard Appy) lean more towards liberalism. Planning Minister Simone Tebet and Industry and Commerce Minister Geraldo Alckmin are firmly in the liberal camp. However, due to the nature of his ministry, Geraldo Alckmin will probably concede more to developmentalist policies (as he's already doing). Aloizio Mercadante, the President of the National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES), is considered the leader of the developmentalist branch of the government, along with Workers' Party President Gleisi Hoffmann (some people jokingly refer to her as the main opposition to Fernando Haddad and the 'Twitter Shadow Finance Minister' due to some of her tweets). Without further ado, let's get to the causes of Brazil's stagnation. Guido Mantega (Finance Minister between 2006 and 2014) and AntĂ´nio Palocci (Finance Minister between 2003 and 2006). Mantega is associated to developmentalism and Palocci to liberalism. Education First of all, the significant growth of the 20th century left a terrible educational legacy. Brazil only began to have a somewhat consistent educational policy in the 1990s and 2000s, when basic education was universalized. To put it into perspective, in 1990, the average number of years of schooling in Brazil was 3.8 years. Even Sub-Saharan African countries like Congo, Zimbabwe, and Zambia had higher average schooling levels than ours. Approximately a quarter of the population were illiterate. The key change came with the 1988 Constitution, which decided that Brazil would try to become an European-style social democracy. Since then, considerable progress has been made, but clearly not enough. The main educational bottleneck lies in Elementary School II, which typically spans the ages of 12 to 15. It is during this stage in Brazil that the discrepancy between age and the appropriate grade level drastically increases, leading to higher rates of grade repetition and students falling behind in their education. This problem is probably related to the transition from a single teacher trained in pedagogy in Elementary I to several specialists teaching only one subject. This transition also occurs at the onset of adolescence, which is naturally a turbulent phase already, with the introduction of drugs, alcohol and various forms of prejudice being normal. The result ends up being a distancing of the student from school. Two Brazilian states, which have been governed by center-left parties for many years, serve as examples in Brazilian educational policy: Pernambuco and Ceará. A highlight in Ceará is the Programa de Afabetização na Idade Certa (Program of Alphabetization in the Right Age), which aims to ensure that all students in the state's public school systems achieve literacy by the age of 7. The plan was based on the following pillars: (1) the elaboration of a specialized literacy curriculum that was adopted in all the municipalities, with structured materials for teachers and students containing a daily routine of classroom activities and homework assignments; (2) pedagogical practices to encourage reading in the classroom; (3) financial incentives for the municipalities that achieve better results in education; and (4) evaluation and monitoring of the program, with a census and diagnostic test that is applied at the beginning of every semester. Pernambuco has implemented a Full-Time High School system that stands out. The system is based on the following pillars: (1) the introduction of a subject called "life project," which encourages students to create plans with goals and objectives for their lives; (2) guided study, providing a space for autonomy in learning and fostering self-directed learning skills; (3) hands-on, practical classes that combine theory and practice; (4) youth clubs, where collective interests of young people are pursued; (5) tutoring, where teachers (tutors) interact with students to support their development; and (6) full-time education, of course. Both plans have been tremendous successes and could be implemented nationwide. The Member of Parliament Tabata Amaral has proposed the program "basic education like Ceará's, high school like Pernambuco's." We might see that put in practice. Izolda Cela, the mind behind Ceará's basic education plan, is the Executive-Secretary of the Ministry of Education, and the current Minister of Education is Camilo Santana, the governor of Ceará between 2014 and 2022. Izolda Cela (Executive-Secretary of the Ministry of Education) and Camilo Santana (Minister of Education). Public Investments Furthermore, there is a general consensus that the significant decrease in public investment since 1980 explains part of the problem. During the Golden Age of Brazilian growth, public investment mounted to about 6% of GDP, whereas it currently stands at approximately 4% since the lost decade. Liberal economists tend to attribute this to the expansion of the welfare state, that came with a substantial increase in the tax burden (from 25% of GDP in the 1970s to 35% in 2000). On the other hand, developmentalist economists point to the decline in public savings due to the privatization of state-owned enterprises in the 1990s. In his second government, Lula created the Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento (PAC) (Growth Acceleration Program), whose objective was precisely to expand public investments. Unfortunately, the plan ended up with highly controversial results, primarily due to the low administrative capacity of the Brazilian State and corruption (some like to call the plan the Corruption Acceleration Program!). But now the Workers' Party has gained new experience. Many of its state governments became famous for extensive investment programs in partnership with the private sector, delivering positive results. Chief of Staff Rui Costa, in particular, had a successful experience with public-private investments during his tenure as the governor of Bahia. He is now expected to lead the "New PAC", which will probably be announced at some point between today and July. (The project still has no name and is provisionally being called "New PAC"). Here's what Rui Costa has said about the project: "We will have, in an unprecedented way, investments with Public Private Partnerships (PPIs) at the federal level. Many states, including Bahia, have made PPI projects. [...] We are negotiating with the Ministry of Finance the conditions for guarantees so that we can leverage these projects." Lula wants to meet with the 27 state governors to determine which state projects the Union should prioritize for its investments. In recent weeks, Costa has held individual meetings with the state governments to define which projects will be included in the new PAC. In all, eight governors have already been heard. In a speech on the May 1st holiday, Lula said the following about the project: "We are inviting foreign businessmen to invest in Brazil and we are showing them the great projects that we are going to present in the third PAC. It will be the largest infrastructure project in this country." Former Governor of Bahia (2014 - 2022) and current Chief of Staff Rui Costa. Deindustrialization Another problem is the early deindustrialization that is taking place in Brazil: we are losing our industry before becoming rich. In the beginning of the lost decade, the industry accounted for one-quarter of the Brazilian GDP, whereas today it represents around one-tenth. The reason for this process is complex, and once again, economists disagree. Liberals point to the new form of production organization that emerged with globalization, where the manufacturing of goods was fragmented into different stages, each executed in different countries. According to this line of thinking, Brazil failed to adapt to the new industrial configuration and remained stuck in an unrealistic autarkic dream. On the other hand, developmentalist economists usually argue that after the end of hyperinflation, Brazil fell into a trap of having an overvalued currency and high interest rates, demolishing the industry's competitiveness. (I am more inclined towards the first thesis, although it is a fact that the Brazilian exchange rate was detrimental to the industry after the Real Plan). Now I want to talk a little bit about the Brazilian industrial bourgeoisie and its problems. In the 1960s, the then sociologist and future president Fernando Henrique Cardoso published his thesis on the Brazilian industrial entrepreneurs. Based on his research, he concluded that Brazilian industrialists did not have any national project, and (1) "only cared about their personal interests when speaking on behalf of the class" and (2) "[their] political action consists of personal participation in the patrimonialist game." Brazil has a serious problem related to what we call 'patrimonialism,' which refers to the capture of resources from the Brazilian state to benefit private interests. Unfortunately, industrial policy in Brazil often results in tax exemptions, subsidies, tariff protections, etc., for an inefficient, patrimonialist, and somewhat broken industry that was developed in the 20th century. The Workers' Party itself fell into this outdated corporatism while in power, especially during the first Rousseff administration (2011-2015). It is a shame that advocating for greater state involvement in the economy ends up becoming a defense of those interest groups. In this sense, I find myself opposed to both liberals and developmentalists. While the latter end up promoting an agenda that only benefits private interests, albeit with good intentions, the former dismiss any state planning, believing in an 'economic abiogenesis.' Since 2016, we have been reducing the role of the state and waiting for a crowding in effect, but with no success. We need strong a industrial policy, but it has to be transparent and not perpetuate the old game of patrimonialism. In the words of the brilliant economist Laura Carvalho: "We want a State that identifies ways to stimulate technological innovation and product development in partnership with the private sector. But this policy cannot become hostage to the existing private sector. We have remnants of our industry of the 20th century, for example the automobile industry, and when we do industrial policy, we end up just giving incentives to them. This is a state that does not choose winners, but rather is chosen by losers. Those who are struggling in the industry try to eat the resources of the state to survive." Unfortunately, the signals from the new Lula government are quite negative. Industry and Commerce Minister Geraldo Alckmin recently announced a plan of incentives for the automobile industry, which is essentially the same program that has failed several times in the past. There are positive things coming from his ministry, but few of them have much to do directly with a well-made industrial policy. It's a shame. His plans beyond industrial policy appear positive, as shown in the following excerpt, at least: "Brazil had an early deindustrialization. Europe also deindustrialized, but ours was precarious and severe. More than reindustrializing, we need a neo-reindustrialization. A central issue is the competitiveness agenda. There is a principle in medicine that says: suppress the cause and the effect ceases. We have to act on the causes of low growth. Our tax model generates an absurd cost for companies. It is not fair. We have an absurd judicialization that leads to legal insecurity and hinders exports. The whole world has a VAT (value added tax. I defend it. I think Haddad is doing well and I am a great enthusiast of the tax reform." Probably more than any other politician of expression today, Haddad positions himself as a republican and talks about reducing the patrimonialist distortions of the Brazilian public budget. He talks about "closing the drains of what is called Brazilian patrimonialism" and "ending a series of abuses that have been committed against the fiscal base" of the country. He says that many sectors have been "overly" benefited "with rules established over the decades and that have not been reviewed by any outcome control. Many have expired from the point of view of efficiency, and need to be revoked." Former Governor of SĂŁo Paulo (2001 - 2006; 2010 - 2017) and current Vice-President of Brazil and Minister of Industry and Commerce Geraldo Alckmin. Business Environment Brazilian productivity has been stagnant for decades. What is causing this? The main suspect is the Brazilian tax system. There is an enormous complexity in the various indirect taxes (ISS, ICMS, PIS/Cofins, and IPI), which forces every company to have an excessively large department dedicated to tax payment. Additionally, numerous divergences of interpretation arise between the Federal Revenue, state authorities, and businesses. On every corner of our cities, there is a specialized tax law office to assist companies in dealing with the extremely high level of litigation in our taxation system. To make matters worse, our indirect taxes discourage investment in locations with higher social returns, as the tax complexity and special tax regimes artificially alter the profitability of investments and production. A general simplification of these taxes, with the adoption of a Value Added Tax, could have an impact on the economy's efficiency equivalent to the Plano Real, which ended hyperinflation. Even beyond the tax issue, the Brazilian business environment is terrible. According to the World Bank's Doing Business 2020 report, which measures the ease of doing business in 190 countries, Brazil ranks 124th. This problem is related to excessive bureaucracy, unexpected judicial decisions, loopholes in regulatory frameworks, and disrespect for contracts. The Tax Reform is going to be the government's main priority after the approval of the New Fiscal Anchor. Planning Minister Simone Tebet summed up the reform as follows: "The Tax reform is the only silver bullet that we have to save Brazil." And here's what Finance Minister Fernando Haddad has said about it: "There is no way to grow Brazil's productivity with this tax system [...] We are developing a tax reform that is even more modern, because it introduces in the national tax system a Value Added Tax that solves a good part of the flaws of the current system that, in my opinion, is the great villain for the low growth rates of our productivity." The idea is to approve the Tax Reform still this year (Haddad talks about doing it in the first semester!). Special Secretary for Tax Reform Bernard Appy. Economic Isolation Brazil has a very closed economy. Among the 160 countries analyzed by the World Bank, the Brazilian economy is only less open than that of Sudan. The average protection applied by Brazil to capital goods is 14 times higher than in Chile and 25 times higher than in Mexico. This is probably the most expressive cause of the low productivity and deindustrialization in Brazil, together with the tax system. Here, I quote the brilliant economist Edmar Bacha: "[The closure of the Brazilian economy during the Geisel government (1974 - 1979)] caused a tremendous drop in the economy's productivity and an increase in the cost of capital goods. And this, I believe, is what lies at the root of our stagnation after the so-called economic miracle (1968-1974). Our industry became unable to compete internationally. And we were forced, because the industry has this extraordinary lobbying capacity, to prevent the redesign of the Brazilian industry to participate in global value chains." Bacha's argument makes sense: the collapse of GDP growth coincides with the collapse of capital accumulation (the growth rate of the capital stock) after Geisel's government. Why did capital accumulation collapse? Bacha explains that using a decomposition of the investment = savings relationship: K' = s(1/p)v - δ, where K' = capital accumulation, s = savings rate, p = relative price of investment, v = output-capital ratio, and δ = depreciation rate. Between 1950-1980, the "golden age" of Brazil, K' grew at nearly 9% per year. Between 1981-2014, this number was 3%. Why? Looking at the historical series, the difference is not in savings or depreciation. What happened was that the output-capital ratio fell by about one-third, and the relative price of investment increased by one-third. In other words, the capital requirement per unit of output increased significantly, and at the same time, the price of investment goods rose significantly. According to Bacha, this process occurred between 1973 and 1983, a period in which the Military Government pursued an autarkic economic policy. The ideal scenario for Brazil would be to open its economy and have an export-oriented industry. The industry we have developed is heavily reliant on our domestic market, without external competition. In the words of economist Nelson Barbosa: "Brazil cannot produce ships, but it can produce airplanes. Brazil does not have car manufacturers, but it has bus manufacturers. Brazil cannot have a domestic production of microelectronics, but it has a good domestic production of electric motors. So we need to study what worked in these sectors to see if it can be replicated in other sectors. All these successful sectors, Embraer, Weg, Marco Polo, are sectors that are competitive in Brazil and in the world. Here is the first clue: correct industrial policies create domestic production that competes domestically and internationally. They are integrated products that import and export extensively. Value chains." However, an open trade policy without a plan may not be positive either. In Nelson's words: "Development always means increased productivity. Opening the economy can stimulate productivity, but it can also lead to a negative specialization. You can open your economy and become a country that only exports commodities, with an inflated services sector that only sells domestically, with a significant portion of your population relying on informal jobs. Which is what happens in Brazil. So I think trade openness is inevitable, more developed countries are more open, but thinking that just opening up will automatically lead to development is naĂŻve and something we shouldn't do in the 21st century. I believe that strategic trade integration is crucial and necessary for development. Unilateral openness, without any plan, will only reinforce the specialization we already have today." In any case, it is certain that the current excessive protectionism cannot be maintained. Opening up would allow broader access for companies to (1) cheaper and higher-quality inputs and (2) foreign-produced capital goods and technology, (3) create significant competition effects to invigorate the economy, and (4) create a 'selection effect' that would eliminate losers and favor winners. But this is the agenda that I am least hopeful about. Trade openness is a topic that faces strong opposition from the Brazilian left and would likely only occur under a moderate center-right government. I hope, at least, that some trade agreements can be reached to open up the economy. The European Union-Mercosur trade agreement would have a significant impact and would be very important but I'm not very hopeful that it'll be approved. Haddad is still optimistic, though! He said that a more emphatic diplomatic effort will be made starting in the second semester, in a movement that will take advantage of Brazil's leadership in Mercosur and Spain's leadership in the European bloc. Simone Tebet (Planning Minister) and Fernando Haddad (Finance Minister). Interest Rates Interest rates in Brazil are much, much higher than the global average. Our credit is scarce and dysfunctional. Lula likes to repeat that Brazil is a capitalist country without capitalism because there is no credit. Brazil has the second-highest bank spread in the world, second only to Madagascar. This means that banks in Brazil charge very high interest rates for lending money. To give you an idea, Brazil's bank spread is higher than the average observed in countries at war. There are several reasons for this, but some stand out: (1) savings in Brazil have historically been very low (around 20% of GDP), (2) the government consumes a significant portion of savings to finance itself, and (3) the Brazilian banking sector is extremely concentrated, with a few banks dominating the entire sector. The other issue in this discussion is the current policy interest rate set by the Central Bank. Brazil currently has the highest real interest rate in the world, at around 9%. The debate about whether this interest level is correct or not is quite active in Brazil, with its proponents arguing that the current Brazilian inflation is demand-driven and pointing to inflation in the services sector and core inflation, while its critics argue that inflation is not demand-driven, pointing to the fact that Brazil has had a negative output gap since 2015 and that supply shocks can explain the inflation in services. This debate is complex, and it is hard to determine definitively which side is right. Nevertheless, the Central Bank is strongly adhering to the first thesis. The current Chairman of the Central Bank, Roberto Campos Neto (RCN), is the grandson of an economist of the Military Dictatorship and was appointed by Bolsonaro. He will remain in his position until 2024 due to the new autonomy granted to the Central Bank in 2021. In this scenario, Lula engaged in a public war against RCN, urging him to lower interest rates. The situation became tense, but Lula never showed any willingness to take effective action to remove him, remaining only in rhetoric. Throughout the conflict, Haddad positioned himself as a moderate, playing a certain "good cop, bad cop" game with Lula and gaining trust in the financial market. Apparently, Lula intends to nominate former executive-secretary of the Finance Ministry Gabriel GalĂpolo to replace RCN in 2024. He was recently appointed as director of monetary policy at the Central Bank, and is widely identified as a heterodox economist. Haddad's current plan is to stabilize Brazil's deficit to allow for a monetary loosening. Here's what he said: "We are not at a point where fiscal expansion is going to help the economy. If there is room for any stimulus, it will be monetary. If we know how to make the transition, there is room for a lower interest rate, you just have to give security to the monetary authority." He does not seem to be concerned about banking concentration, though. Chairman of the Central Bank Roberto Campos Neto. TL;DR The Brazilian economy has seen very little growth since the the lost decade in the 1980s. One of the primary factors contributing to this stagnation is the economy's low productivity. There are several reasons behind this low productivity, including:
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2023.05.28 03:39 moishepesach U GO DOWN 101010101
Tonight scrawled in blood red chalk, in front of the steps of my old south Brooklyn walk-up, read the words, "U GO DOWN 101010101".
I have to tell this tale in case something happens to me and I don't get another chance.
It all began with lunch.
"I once threw a cat out a window!" he blurted, mouth full of burrito. He was my new manager. His name was Tony.
"Was there a fire?" I asked.
"Naw man!" Tony responded, his voice no longer just edgy. It was now agitated too.
"Were you on the first floor?" I asked.
I tried a slow deep breath through my nostrils. I felt my trapezius muscles tense.
"Naw! It wasn't no first floor!" Tony retorted. The edge sharper. The agitation more frenzied.
Now his full mouth soliloquy gnashed meth fast. I blinked hard.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, releasing the breath that could never have been deep enough for this meshugge.
But here I was. Tony was the one who interviewed and hired me when nobody else wanted to. And now Tony looked warpath angry.
"I DON'T KNOW!" he barked. A man and a woman with ID cards around their necks looked up from their big salads then quickly away. Their faces wore an uncomfortable look.
I was jealous. I wished I was merely uncomfortable. What I was, was raging nauseous. I could feel adrenaline enter my stomach with acid and gravitas.
My skin was crawling beneath the July sun while the yachts bobbed nonchalantly in the marina behind our office as we ate our lunch.
This was my third day on the job. And it was right then and there I heard that little voice in my head that I was first introduced to at the age of five when my parents split inform me, once again, "I was doomed."
I thought of my bank account. I thought of rent. I thought about my advancing age. I thought about the job interview at a big bank I had just walked out of two weeks before that. Why had I walked out? Because the dude wrote down a bunch of names of fruit down on a piece of paper with associated prices and then a kumquat with no price and asked me how much it would cost.
Like I say, I had a relationship with IT full stack development gigs and the inevitable egos, irrationalities and EMO like prima donna pettiness the way Sean Penn had a relationship with paparazzi in the 1980s.
And there it was again. That little familiar voice whispering in my ear; dude; you are fucking doomed like Christ on the cross. You are doomed like Joan of Arc at a French fry. You are doomed like the third season of Family Guy. You are Charlie Brown football interruptus doomed.
So, after spending the better part of the last twenty-five years as a software developer, engineer or whatever the cool kids are calling my job these days I can tell you this with no equivocation; I.T. consulting sucks.
Why does it suck?
Firstly, as a consultant or sub-contractor you are not subject to the vast majority of rules, regulations and policies that protect the full time corporate employee from being treated like a disposable object. Generally speaking you are subject to one and only one rule; the golden rule; i.e.; they who's got the gold makes the rules. And, I thought I was okay with that. I've tried full time work and my soul bled.
Hell, I wouldn't even be a consultant if my comic book mail order subscription club hadn't gone belly up during the infamous Comic Book Distributor Wars of the mid to late 1990s. But I don't feel sorry for myself; sometimes a dream ends in bliss and sometimes, or always in my case; fiasco. But I never believed in evil before. I never looked into a face and saw true evil. I can't say that anymore.
Well, like I said I knew IT consulting sucks but what I did not know is the operation I'm sub-contracting for is being terrorized by a malevolent spirit more evil and insidious than anything I've ever dealt with. And about the only thing I am absolutely certain of is the malevolent force is not feline.
Fast forward a couple of years later and I have witnessed Tony yell at my colleagues at the top of lungs menacingly; ladies who had given over three decades of their lives to the company at the top of his lungs. I have seen Tony shred everybody's code always finding a reason why it was unacceptable.
I have seen Tony get three other consultants fired for being, "unable to do the job," after he lied about non-existent memory leaks to Mohan that turned out to be simple configuration issues he prevented my predecessors from fixing.
But somehow, perhaps because I grew up with a crazy mad single divorced Mom I knew how to read Tony. Slowly I put together my resources and made lateral moves with Tony's boss Mohan that continuously minimized my time with Tony. And then I was granted full time remote status.
I thought we were free of Tony.
And then Mohan informed us a couple of weeks ago we were subject to a disaster recovery exercise and I had to build a new version of our application and deploy it to a new site in less than twenty-four hours. And that's when Tony began to shred me and my team's work.
He cornered me in a meeting and told me, "You can lose your job. I don't think you can do it. It's not the 80s anymore! It's not the 80s! Get it? You shbot down my idea to trash the data dictionary and rewrite that old piece of shit! You made me look bad! Yea, you can lose your job!"
"Tony, if that's the case I will just thank you all for a wonderful two years or so. I've met so many wonderful people. But I have a call so if you'll excuse me I have a hard stop now."
"Yea! No problem! No problem!" Tony barked untruthfully.
I called a meeting with Elena and Dina. They had been there running the main system for over thirty years. They had worked with all my predecessors. They had watched them disappear into the aether as one by one they had incurred Tony's wrath and then, had poisoned Mohan against them. And then they were gone. I told Elena and Dina I had gone to Mohan and I was going to tell tales.
Later that day two years of evil bubbled to the surface. The cat. Tony's spastic-macho stories of how he always wielded a baseball bat in hand whenever answering the front door of his Bronx home.
Tony had once explained to me; "I'm from the Bronx! I hate liars. I know jiu-jitsu and I can dead-lift 400 lbs. Anybody rollup on my front door looking for trouble; batter up!"
The following Monday after the cat incident Tony, mouth full of donut turned to me and said, "I was at Chuck E. Cheese with my son and he bit this kid and the mother came up to my son and I said, 'OHNONOBODYCOMEUPTOMYSON!!!!!IWASGONNA!'"
And there I was finally, two years later in a meeting with Mohan and our chief compliance office, Dave. I felt the dam burst.
I told Mohan how Tony had once screamed at Elena on my fourth day on the job in front of the office so loud that my ear drums hurt for hours. I told him how once Daisy, the nice lady who was the office admin and my friend who watched sunsets with me and sat next to us offered him a homemade cookie once.
Tony barked, his three chins trembling with rage, "I don't eat candy!"
Daisy, unperturbed, offered me a cookie. I gratefully accepted and as Daisy walked away Tony swiveled at me, eyes unnaturally red, spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth blurting out, "I hate DAISY!"
Six months later Daisy was dead. There had never been an announcement formally. It was just casually mentioned in a meeting. I was bereft.
And there I was, for the first time in my entire life, ratting someone out to their boss.
I finished telling my twisted Tony tales to Mohan.
Mohan asked Dina and Elena if what I said was true.
Elena explained that Tony was a bully and had humiliated people in meetings for things that they simply never did or he had misunderstood. Dina explained people had made remarks or complained informally countless times and that things were, "not very pleasant with Tony."
Finally, when all was said done Mohan said, "Well, I can't have silos. Tony is our top architect. I need you to still meet with him regularly and I need this disaster recovery done fast."
"He threw a cat out a window, Mohan!" I heard myself exclaim. "I don't think we can trust him with a disaster recovery. I think he's a disaster waiting to happen."
Mohan looked at me and said, "I have worked with some evil horrible people. Sometimes we all have to. If I am nothing you know that I am pragmatic."
"I won't give him any oxygen," I heard my voice say. "I have to go. We'll have to find a way around but right now I'm too upset for this meeting."
A few days later a recruiter called me with a job that seemed my perfect escape.
It turned out it was at my company doing the exact same thing I do.
The recruiter said, "Man, I think something is up."
I thanked him. He didn't have to do that.
The next day I was told by Mohan I have until Friday to simulate a disaster and recovery in 24 hours.
It feels like a setup.
Then tonight I saw it in the chalk.
U GO DOWN 101010101
I looked around and I thought I saw an ominous fat fucking figure that looked like Tony under the tears of the weeping willow that stands guard over the community garden across the street from my apartment.
I turned and broke into a jog to cross the street. Then with the Doppleresque certainty of the alarm's increasing red glare I was prevented by an FDNY ambulance from crossing.
When it finally passed there was no sign of Tony.
But, even more disturbingly, when I went back to take a picture of the red chalked threat at the foot of my building; it too was gone.
Just. Gone.
I am not superstitious. I am a rational person and I know what I saw. I know what I saw.
The dread I feel now in the pit of my stomach is like none other and somewhere in the distance I hear the sound of a tortured cat's mewling. I feel like I am the victim in a crime not yet committed.
Please advise?
submitted by moishepesach to nosleep [link] [comments]
I have to tell this tale in case something happens to me and I don't get another chance.
It all began with lunch.
"I once threw a cat out a window!" he blurted, mouth full of burrito. He was my new manager. His name was Tony.
"Was there a fire?" I asked.
"Naw man!" Tony responded, his voice no longer just edgy. It was now agitated too.
"Were you on the first floor?" I asked.
I tried a slow deep breath through my nostrils. I felt my trapezius muscles tense.
"Naw! It wasn't no first floor!" Tony retorted. The edge sharper. The agitation more frenzied.
Now his full mouth soliloquy gnashed meth fast. I blinked hard.
"Why did you do that?" I asked, releasing the breath that could never have been deep enough for this meshugge.
But here I was. Tony was the one who interviewed and hired me when nobody else wanted to. And now Tony looked warpath angry.
"I DON'T KNOW!" he barked. A man and a woman with ID cards around their necks looked up from their big salads then quickly away. Their faces wore an uncomfortable look.
I was jealous. I wished I was merely uncomfortable. What I was, was raging nauseous. I could feel adrenaline enter my stomach with acid and gravitas.
My skin was crawling beneath the July sun while the yachts bobbed nonchalantly in the marina behind our office as we ate our lunch.
This was my third day on the job. And it was right then and there I heard that little voice in my head that I was first introduced to at the age of five when my parents split inform me, once again, "I was doomed."
I thought of my bank account. I thought of rent. I thought about my advancing age. I thought about the job interview at a big bank I had just walked out of two weeks before that. Why had I walked out? Because the dude wrote down a bunch of names of fruit down on a piece of paper with associated prices and then a kumquat with no price and asked me how much it would cost.
Like I say, I had a relationship with IT full stack development gigs and the inevitable egos, irrationalities and EMO like prima donna pettiness the way Sean Penn had a relationship with paparazzi in the 1980s.
And there it was again. That little familiar voice whispering in my ear; dude; you are fucking doomed like Christ on the cross. You are doomed like Joan of Arc at a French fry. You are doomed like the third season of Family Guy. You are Charlie Brown football interruptus doomed.
So, after spending the better part of the last twenty-five years as a software developer, engineer or whatever the cool kids are calling my job these days I can tell you this with no equivocation; I.T. consulting sucks.
Why does it suck?
Firstly, as a consultant or sub-contractor you are not subject to the vast majority of rules, regulations and policies that protect the full time corporate employee from being treated like a disposable object. Generally speaking you are subject to one and only one rule; the golden rule; i.e.; they who's got the gold makes the rules. And, I thought I was okay with that. I've tried full time work and my soul bled.
Hell, I wouldn't even be a consultant if my comic book mail order subscription club hadn't gone belly up during the infamous Comic Book Distributor Wars of the mid to late 1990s. But I don't feel sorry for myself; sometimes a dream ends in bliss and sometimes, or always in my case; fiasco. But I never believed in evil before. I never looked into a face and saw true evil. I can't say that anymore.
Well, like I said I knew IT consulting sucks but what I did not know is the operation I'm sub-contracting for is being terrorized by a malevolent spirit more evil and insidious than anything I've ever dealt with. And about the only thing I am absolutely certain of is the malevolent force is not feline.
Fast forward a couple of years later and I have witnessed Tony yell at my colleagues at the top of lungs menacingly; ladies who had given over three decades of their lives to the company at the top of his lungs. I have seen Tony shred everybody's code always finding a reason why it was unacceptable.
I have seen Tony get three other consultants fired for being, "unable to do the job," after he lied about non-existent memory leaks to Mohan that turned out to be simple configuration issues he prevented my predecessors from fixing.
But somehow, perhaps because I grew up with a crazy mad single divorced Mom I knew how to read Tony. Slowly I put together my resources and made lateral moves with Tony's boss Mohan that continuously minimized my time with Tony. And then I was granted full time remote status.
I thought we were free of Tony.
And then Mohan informed us a couple of weeks ago we were subject to a disaster recovery exercise and I had to build a new version of our application and deploy it to a new site in less than twenty-four hours. And that's when Tony began to shred me and my team's work.
He cornered me in a meeting and told me, "You can lose your job. I don't think you can do it. It's not the 80s anymore! It's not the 80s! Get it? You shbot down my idea to trash the data dictionary and rewrite that old piece of shit! You made me look bad! Yea, you can lose your job!"
"Tony, if that's the case I will just thank you all for a wonderful two years or so. I've met so many wonderful people. But I have a call so if you'll excuse me I have a hard stop now."
"Yea! No problem! No problem!" Tony barked untruthfully.
I called a meeting with Elena and Dina. They had been there running the main system for over thirty years. They had worked with all my predecessors. They had watched them disappear into the aether as one by one they had incurred Tony's wrath and then, had poisoned Mohan against them. And then they were gone. I told Elena and Dina I had gone to Mohan and I was going to tell tales.
Later that day two years of evil bubbled to the surface. The cat. Tony's spastic-macho stories of how he always wielded a baseball bat in hand whenever answering the front door of his Bronx home.
Tony had once explained to me; "I'm from the Bronx! I hate liars. I know jiu-jitsu and I can dead-lift 400 lbs. Anybody rollup on my front door looking for trouble; batter up!"
The following Monday after the cat incident Tony, mouth full of donut turned to me and said, "I was at Chuck E. Cheese with my son and he bit this kid and the mother came up to my son and I said, 'OHNONOBODYCOMEUPTOMYSON!!!!!IWASGONNA
And there I was finally, two years later in a meeting with Mohan and our chief compliance office, Dave. I felt the dam burst.
I told Mohan how Tony had once screamed at Elena on my fourth day on the job in front of the office so loud that my ear drums hurt for hours. I told him how once Daisy, the nice lady who was the office admin and my friend who watched sunsets with me and sat next to us offered him a homemade cookie once.
Tony barked, his three chins trembling with rage, "I don't eat candy!"
Daisy, unperturbed, offered me a cookie. I gratefully accepted and as Daisy walked away Tony swiveled at me, eyes unnaturally red, spittle dripping from the corner of his mouth blurting out, "I hate DAISY!"
Six months later Daisy was dead. There had never been an announcement formally. It was just casually mentioned in a meeting. I was bereft.
And there I was, for the first time in my entire life, ratting someone out to their boss.
I finished telling my twisted Tony tales to Mohan.
Mohan asked Dina and Elena if what I said was true.
Elena explained that Tony was a bully and had humiliated people in meetings for things that they simply never did or he had misunderstood. Dina explained people had made remarks or complained informally countless times and that things were, "not very pleasant with Tony."
Finally, when all was said done Mohan said, "Well, I can't have silos. Tony is our top architect. I need you to still meet with him regularly and I need this disaster recovery done fast."
"He threw a cat out a window, Mohan!" I heard myself exclaim. "I don't think we can trust him with a disaster recovery. I think he's a disaster waiting to happen."
Mohan looked at me and said, "I have worked with some evil horrible people. Sometimes we all have to. If I am nothing you know that I am pragmatic."
"I won't give him any oxygen," I heard my voice say. "I have to go. We'll have to find a way around but right now I'm too upset for this meeting."
A few days later a recruiter called me with a job that seemed my perfect escape.
It turned out it was at my company doing the exact same thing I do.
The recruiter said, "Man, I think something is up."
I thanked him. He didn't have to do that.
The next day I was told by Mohan I have until Friday to simulate a disaster and recovery in 24 hours.
It feels like a setup.
Then tonight I saw it in the chalk.
U GO DOWN 101010101
I looked around and I thought I saw an ominous fat fucking figure that looked like Tony under the tears of the weeping willow that stands guard over the community garden across the street from my apartment.
I turned and broke into a jog to cross the street. Then with the Doppleresque certainty of the alarm's increasing red glare I was prevented by an FDNY ambulance from crossing.
When it finally passed there was no sign of Tony.
But, even more disturbingly, when I went back to take a picture of the red chalked threat at the foot of my building; it too was gone.
Just. Gone.
I am not superstitious. I am a rational person and I know what I saw. I know what I saw.
The dread I feel now in the pit of my stomach is like none other and somewhere in the distance I hear the sound of a tortured cat's mewling. I feel like I am the victim in a crime not yet committed.
Please advise?
2023.05.28 03:30 Reg214 Cheap wedding dress gone right
 | I just wanted to share as I know there are a lot of negative sentiments (a lot are valid) about Shein, but want to share my positive experience. submitted by Reg214 to Weddingsunder10k [link] [comments] We had a micro ceremony and wanted to keep the wedding under $1k. I really wanted a long sleeve dress and couldn’t find one anywhere that I liked. I live in a rural area so in person options are limited, so I bought 23 different dresses online from different shops to try out. Ended up with this one from Shein. So many other dresses that were 4 times the price from nicer brands felt and looked way cheaper but I got SO many compliments on this dress, and people were shocked when I revealed it was less than $50. It held up so well for our photo shoot, we were climbing around on rocks and got wet in the ocean and the dress was just fine the next day for our ceremony. It also gave me confidence in climbing to sketchier locations, as it wasn’t an expensive dress I was worried about getting dirty or ruining (neither of which happened). I did not have it tailored, so not sure how it would hold up if you did. |
2023.05.28 03:05 Specialist_Cod_5181 So I beat WotW. (A whole bunch of text ahead)
Hi there. Might be a little late in terms of the release date of this game, but I randomly found it while surfing the internet like a month or two ago. The cover art hooked up my attention by how nicely it was made, so I looked the game up and downloaded it. Learned that this one is a sequel while I was in the middle of my first playthrough, so I was kinda worried that I wouldn't fully understand the events that are happening, but it turned out to be just fine. I still dug into some lore and now have a full picture of the world Ori belongs to.
I just finished the main storyline and now I am busy clearing the whole map to 100%, and I am here to share my thoughts about this game, which are probably very obvious, but I just can't get over how much I love this game.
I can for sure say that this game is truly one of, if not THE best games I have ever played in my life (and trust me, I played many). This well-made game will have a special place in my heart forever, and I am willing to share it with anyone who doesn't know about this underappreciated masterpiece yet.
First thing you pay attention to when you load the game, and didn't even reach the maib menu? The OST. It is freaking awesome, beautiful music. It adds so much to the story and the feeling. You can literally tell the vibe of one or another location just by the soundtrack that plays in the background while you are wandering around them.
The artstyle of this game is.. honestly insanely beautiful. From the landscapes in the background and terrain design to characters and visual effects, it is all so well done that I can't help but gasp whenever I look at the cutscenes. Damn, every frame of this game can literally be screenshotted and put as a wallpaper for your desktop.
As a person who was once making games, I am shocked with how fluid all of the animations in this game are. When you first look around in the world, Ori is the most noticable thing on your screen (which also helps to get a distinguishable picture of where your character is on the screen, looking at how intense and dynamic this game is made), so of course you are going to pay a lot of attention to her(?), and while you look at her, you can see how smoothly she moves, and knowing how fast-paced this game sometimes is, these animations still appear very smooth, which is extremely hard to make. (Still haven't figured out the gender of Ori, but judging by the looks and the sounds she makes (the SFX of this game are also on point, by the way) I just prefer to see Ori as a girl, but correct if I am wrong. Ori is technically a spirit, so she might be genderless.)
The story itself has a pretty simple concept, but it is executed insanely well. Combined with good artstyle and accompanied by beautiful soundtrack it just makes a lot more sense and doesn't seem too plain or boring. One of the rare games that actually made me tear up.
The gameplay variety is what I like in games which combine platforming, combat and puzzles. Ori offers a whole bunch of upgradeable weapons, perks, and especially movement possibilities. Bashes, triple jumps, dashes, digging into sand and swimming underwater - there is a whole bunch of ways to cross one section of the land, and this is what makes the game entertaining for everyone. Players who enjoy melee combat can take desired weapons and matching perks, and so can ranged combat enjoyers. The simple yet skill-requiring combat system is a good thing to have when your game is focused on combat as much as on platforming. The controls are very smooth and the enemies may be annoying, but certainly not hard to scare people off from an additional challenge, e.g. more slots for shards from completing the combat shrines. You quickly get used to the movement and all the mechanics that are gradually introduced, and this is a good thing.
The one thing that catched my attention is that all of the bosses are insanely large compared to Ori, which gives the feeling that you do not belong to this place and increases the tension, while making the whole game seem harder. The chase sequences are also a nice touch, which tests your recently learned skills, reaction and quick thinking. It may be common, but not all games can do it properly, and with Ori's large bosses this works just how it has to.
A nice touch from the developers is making Ori's design simple yet memorable. It helps to not cause visual confusion in combat and also makes Ori a great character to make merchendise with :)
The level design is sometimes questionable, like these annoying water sections where you can't do anything but dash and so on, but overall it is really good. The puzzles are not too hard or confusing, and completing all of the side quests is the matter of reading the dialogues and remembering the personality of each chatacter, even of all mokis. Although it may be hard to remember which moki was shy and which one was brave, but the game generally doesn't necesserily require you to open any additional guides or walkthroughs.
Had an absolutely amazing time beating this game, an unforgettable experience. I plan on beating the Blind forest as soon as I fully clear the WotW map.
Whoever reads this far (or just scrolls to the end of my essay, lol), thank you for your attention. I really just couldn't keep to myself all the feelings that I have went through while playing this masterpiece. Ori is a great game and I think we all hope for the third Ori game, and maybe even more further in time. See ya all in a couple of days.
submitted by Specialist_Cod_5181 to OriAndTheBlindForest [link] [comments]
I just finished the main storyline and now I am busy clearing the whole map to 100%, and I am here to share my thoughts about this game, which are probably very obvious, but I just can't get over how much I love this game.
I can for sure say that this game is truly one of, if not THE best games I have ever played in my life (and trust me, I played many). This well-made game will have a special place in my heart forever, and I am willing to share it with anyone who doesn't know about this underappreciated masterpiece yet.
First thing you pay attention to when you load the game, and didn't even reach the maib menu? The OST. It is freaking awesome, beautiful music. It adds so much to the story and the feeling. You can literally tell the vibe of one or another location just by the soundtrack that plays in the background while you are wandering around them.
The artstyle of this game is.. honestly insanely beautiful. From the landscapes in the background and terrain design to characters and visual effects, it is all so well done that I can't help but gasp whenever I look at the cutscenes. Damn, every frame of this game can literally be screenshotted and put as a wallpaper for your desktop.
As a person who was once making games, I am shocked with how fluid all of the animations in this game are. When you first look around in the world, Ori is the most noticable thing on your screen (which also helps to get a distinguishable picture of where your character is on the screen, looking at how intense and dynamic this game is made), so of course you are going to pay a lot of attention to her(?), and while you look at her, you can see how smoothly she moves, and knowing how fast-paced this game sometimes is, these animations still appear very smooth, which is extremely hard to make. (Still haven't figured out the gender of Ori, but judging by the looks and the sounds she makes (the SFX of this game are also on point, by the way) I just prefer to see Ori as a girl, but correct if I am wrong. Ori is technically a spirit, so she might be genderless.)
The story itself has a pretty simple concept, but it is executed insanely well. Combined with good artstyle and accompanied by beautiful soundtrack it just makes a lot more sense and doesn't seem too plain or boring. One of the rare games that actually made me tear up.
The gameplay variety is what I like in games which combine platforming, combat and puzzles. Ori offers a whole bunch of upgradeable weapons, perks, and especially movement possibilities. Bashes, triple jumps, dashes, digging into sand and swimming underwater - there is a whole bunch of ways to cross one section of the land, and this is what makes the game entertaining for everyone. Players who enjoy melee combat can take desired weapons and matching perks, and so can ranged combat enjoyers. The simple yet skill-requiring combat system is a good thing to have when your game is focused on combat as much as on platforming. The controls are very smooth and the enemies may be annoying, but certainly not hard to scare people off from an additional challenge, e.g. more slots for shards from completing the combat shrines. You quickly get used to the movement and all the mechanics that are gradually introduced, and this is a good thing.
The one thing that catched my attention is that all of the bosses are insanely large compared to Ori, which gives the feeling that you do not belong to this place and increases the tension, while making the whole game seem harder. The chase sequences are also a nice touch, which tests your recently learned skills, reaction and quick thinking. It may be common, but not all games can do it properly, and with Ori's large bosses this works just how it has to.
A nice touch from the developers is making Ori's design simple yet memorable. It helps to not cause visual confusion in combat and also makes Ori a great character to make merchendise with :)
The level design is sometimes questionable, like these annoying water sections where you can't do anything but dash and so on, but overall it is really good. The puzzles are not too hard or confusing, and completing all of the side quests is the matter of reading the dialogues and remembering the personality of each chatacter, even of all mokis. Although it may be hard to remember which moki was shy and which one was brave, but the game generally doesn't necesserily require you to open any additional guides or walkthroughs.
Had an absolutely amazing time beating this game, an unforgettable experience. I plan on beating the Blind forest as soon as I fully clear the WotW map.
Whoever reads this far (or just scrolls to the end of my essay, lol), thank you for your attention. I really just couldn't keep to myself all the feelings that I have went through while playing this masterpiece. Ori is a great game and I think we all hope for the third Ori game, and maybe even more further in time. See ya all in a couple of days.
2023.05.28 03:04 Titan_Food Edge of Infinity (First time post)
This is a project that's been living rent free in my head for awhile now, but only recently put into writing. Feel free to critique and or ask questions!
Long ago, a civilization many today call the Inter-Galactic Union (or IGU) created the relay network as a way to better regulate and ensure the safety of FTL travel. This network was comprised of three types of relays and several types of control stations, called Relay Control Centers (RCCs):
Now for the current state of the galaxy:
The galactic community was founded roughly a century ago as a way to better regulate relay usage, but evolved into a forum in which galactic law is created. The Community has explored roughly half of the galaxy, no thanks to stellar drift moving a fair amount of relays out of range of each other and/or their RCCs. Many civilizations are in the community, but the most influential are the Imperil and the Unified Galactic Worlds (UGW).
About an Eighth of the galaxy is controlled by the Imperil. An Enlightened Monarchy created by the Prixi and now has control over many vassals. The Imperil is the oldest interstellar civilization of the current age, but has been held back by internal strife, civil wars, slave uprisings, and political gridlock for much of its lifetime. It relies on the wider galaxy for innovation, providing protection for any who with to provide it with technology.
The current ruler (called an Imperi [male] or Imperia [female]) has made many reforms, such as the abolishment of slavery in all territory under Imperil influence, shifting control of the military from the Noble class to its own central command that reports to him, and the reform of the tax structure to place more pressure on the noble class rather than those below it.
However, these reforms have destabilized the power structure in the Imperil. Now many of the noble class is against the Imperi, but cannot remove or kill him due to his popularity among the people and the vassals' support of him. They fear that further instability would warrant galactic intervention, or worse, strip them of their wealth and status.
Normally, a new addition to the galactic community is of little consequence or concern, but that was before the Unified Galactic Worlds was introduced. When the UGW was introduced to the wider galactic community, they were secretive and information was scarce for months, with the only information available to the wider community being that two species, called Kirmoth and Humanity. Then they lifted their iron curtain when they offered to take on the Galactic Network Project or GalNet Project.
The GalNet Project had been floating in the Community for years. The idea was simple, connect the galaxy with FTL communications so that couriers wouldn't be necessary. The initial research focused on technologies that could push normal communications through the "warp corridors" created by relays with nothing to show. Quantum entanglement is shown to be capable of FTL communication, but couldn't pass a lightyear in distance even when attempted with relays.
The UGW proposed what they called Subspace Entanglement. Using classified technology that utilizes properties similar to the relays' "warp corridor" but with key differences, allowing quantum entanglement to occur over galactic distances. When asked if the technology could be applied to starships, the UGW said "a version is in use on our vessels as a method of power generation and emergency FTL as well as communication, but cannot compete with the relays".
Thank you for reading, i plan on posting more on the histories and technologies in the future.
submitted by Titan_Food to worldbuilding [link] [comments]
Long ago, a civilization many today call the Inter-Galactic Union (or IGU) created the relay network as a way to better regulate and ensure the safety of FTL travel. This network was comprised of three types of relays and several types of control stations, called Relay Control Centers (RCCs):
- RCC type 1 is the most numerous, these stations monitor any relay within 5 jumps regardless of type. It also has the capability to "relink" relays, often necessary in the face of interstellar drift. these stations are often found deactivated, but when an active one is found its sensor data is usually invaluable to any scholar. Normally found in the orbit of either a primary relay or the farthest planet from a star.
- RCC type 2 has 16 stations, but only 5 have been located by the current galactic community. regardless, this station type monitors all type 1 stations within its range, including (but not limited to) how many relays currently controlled, traffic between relays, activation status of a station, and most importantly the current positions of all active type 1 RCCs, active or not; this is made possible through check in pings. these stations do not move or drift, as they are anchored to a strategically placed black hole created by the IGU.
- RCC type 3 was only recently discovered anchored to the black hole at the center of the galaxy with the activation of a misaligned deep space telescope. Many theorize that it can activate or deactivate any relay in the galaxy.
- Primary relays make up the galaxy's interstellar highways, using a "warp corridor" to close the distance between each other. This type of relay has a range of 1,000 LY, according to records and attempts at realignment. Primary relays cannot be shut down once brought online.
- Secondary relays are the most numerous of the relays, able to connect to any secondary relay within 100 lightyears, but can connect to only one relay at a time. Several exotic designs of these relays have been discovered over the years, the most famous being the “Six Point Star Relay”, using a star shape to connect to 6 other relays without the need for rotating like a standard one.
- Tertiary relays are the largest relays, but are few and far between with unknown purpose
Now for the current state of the galaxy:
The galactic community was founded roughly a century ago as a way to better regulate relay usage, but evolved into a forum in which galactic law is created. The Community has explored roughly half of the galaxy, no thanks to stellar drift moving a fair amount of relays out of range of each other and/or their RCCs. Many civilizations are in the community, but the most influential are the Imperil and the Unified Galactic Worlds (UGW).
About an Eighth of the galaxy is controlled by the Imperil. An Enlightened Monarchy created by the Prixi and now has control over many vassals. The Imperil is the oldest interstellar civilization of the current age, but has been held back by internal strife, civil wars, slave uprisings, and political gridlock for much of its lifetime. It relies on the wider galaxy for innovation, providing protection for any who with to provide it with technology.
The current ruler (called an Imperi [male] or Imperia [female]) has made many reforms, such as the abolishment of slavery in all territory under Imperil influence, shifting control of the military from the Noble class to its own central command that reports to him, and the reform of the tax structure to place more pressure on the noble class rather than those below it.
However, these reforms have destabilized the power structure in the Imperil. Now many of the noble class is against the Imperi, but cannot remove or kill him due to his popularity among the people and the vassals' support of him. They fear that further instability would warrant galactic intervention, or worse, strip them of their wealth and status.
Normally, a new addition to the galactic community is of little consequence or concern, but that was before the Unified Galactic Worlds was introduced. When the UGW was introduced to the wider galactic community, they were secretive and information was scarce for months, with the only information available to the wider community being that two species, called Kirmoth and Humanity. Then they lifted their iron curtain when they offered to take on the Galactic Network Project or GalNet Project.
The GalNet Project had been floating in the Community for years. The idea was simple, connect the galaxy with FTL communications so that couriers wouldn't be necessary. The initial research focused on technologies that could push normal communications through the "warp corridors" created by relays with nothing to show. Quantum entanglement is shown to be capable of FTL communication, but couldn't pass a lightyear in distance even when attempted with relays.
The UGW proposed what they called Subspace Entanglement. Using classified technology that utilizes properties similar to the relays' "warp corridor" but with key differences, allowing quantum entanglement to occur over galactic distances. When asked if the technology could be applied to starships, the UGW said "a version is in use on our vessels as a method of power generation and emergency FTL as well as communication, but cannot compete with the relays".
Thank you for reading, i plan on posting more on the histories and technologies in the future.
2023.05.28 03:01 PurpleSolitudes Self-heating Shoulder Support Brace
 | https://preview.redd.it/9mx0yzggdl1b1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=730264f737aada4c5b3889c990d308c1935f8de8 submitted by PurpleSolitudes to allinsolution [link] [comments] Shoulder pain is a common problem that can be caused by a variety of factors, including injury, overuse, and arthritis. It can be debilitating and make it difficult to perform everyday tasks. There are a number of treatments available for shoulder pain, including medication, physical therapy, and surgery. However, for many people, these treatments are not enough to provide relief. The AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace is a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. This brace uses heat therapy to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. It can be used at home or on the go, and it is easy to use. How the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace WorksThe AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace works by using heat therapy to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. Heat therapy is a well-known method for relieving pain and inflammation. It works by increasing blood flow to the affected area, which helps to bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissues.The AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace has a built-in heating element that provides deep, penetrating heat. The heat helps to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. This can help to relieve pain and improve range of motion. The brace is also adjustable, so you can find the perfect fit for your shoulders. It is made of a soft, breathable fabric that is comfortable to wear. See Price Benefits of Using the AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceThere are a number of benefits to using the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace for pain relief. These include:
How to Choose the Right AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceWhen choosing an AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace, there are a few things you should keep in mind. These include:
How to Use the AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceTo use the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace, simply follow these steps:
https://preview.redd.it/f4rro80mdl1b1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=f9acc861447a51f4cb070555d438e4f151f4448c Tips for Using the AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceHere are a few tips for using the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace:
Additional benefits of using the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace:
ConclusionThe AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace is a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. This brace is easy to use and affordable, making it a great option for people who are looking for relief from pain.See Price |
2023.05.28 03:01 PurpleSolitudes Best Electric Heated Shoulder Wrap and Vibration Massager
 | submitted by PurpleSolitudes to allinsolution [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/muziz509cl1b1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=410ce8932e051be7149174c84fbcd0462d571651 Shoulder pain is a common problem that can be caused by a variety of factors, including injury, overuse, and arthritis. It can be debilitating and make it difficult to perform everyday tasks. There are a number of treatments available for shoulder pain, including medication, physical therapy, and surgery. However, for many people, these treatments are not enough to provide relief. Electric heated shoulder wraps and vibration massagers are a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. These devices use heat and vibration to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. They can be used at home or on the go, and they are easy to use. How Electric Heated Shoulder Wraps and Vibration Massagers WorkElectric heated shoulder wraps and vibration massagers work by using heat and vibration to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. Heat therapy is a well-known method for relieving pain and inflammation. It works by increasing blood flow to the affected area, which helps to bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissues. Vibration therapy also helps to relax muscles and reduce inflammation. It works by stimulating the nerves and muscles, which helps to release endorphins, the body's natural pain relievers. See Price Benefits of Using Electric Heated Shoulder Wraps and Vibration Massagershttps://preview.redd.it/hxqce9uycl1b1.png?width=1600&format=png&auto=webp&s=5047b3964705a54426e465b0b595137779f7ef20 There are a number of benefits to using electric heated shoulder wraps and vibration massagers for pain relief. These devices are:
How to Choose the Right Electric Heated Shoulder Wrap or Vibration MassagerWhen choosing an electric heated shoulder wrap or vibration massager, there are a few things you should keep in mind. These include:
How to Use an Electric Heated Shoulder Wrap or Vibration MassagerTo use an electric heated shoulder wrap or vibration massager, simply follow these steps:
Tips for Using an Electric Heated Shoulder Wrap or Vibration MassagerHere are a few tips for using an electric heated shoulder wrap or vibration massager:
ConclusionElectric heated shoulder wraps and vibration massagers are a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. These devices are easy to use and affordable, making them a great option for people who are looking for relief from pain.See Price |
2023.05.28 03:01 PurpleSolitudes How To Start a Blog Step By Step
Blogging is an amazing way to share your thoughts, experiences, and expertise with the world. It's a platform where you can express yourself and connect with like-minded individuals. Whether you want to start a blog for personal reasons, or to promote your business or brand, starting a blog can be a daunting task. However, with the right guidance, it can be a smooth and easy process.
WordPress is a self-hosted platform, which means you have complete control over your blog. It's highly scalable, customizable, and has a variety of plugins and themes to choose from. Blogger is a free platform owned by Google, which means you don't have to worry about hosting fees. It's easy to use and perfect for beginners. Wix is another popular platform that offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to design your blog without any coding knowledge.
When choosing your domain name, consider the following:
When choosing a web host, consider the following:
Once WordPress is installed, you can log in to your dashboard and start customizing your blog. Choose a theme, install plugins, and start creating content.
50% Off .COM on Domains - Namecheap Get 70% OFF on Hosting- Bluehost
When customizing your blog, consider the following:
When creating content, consider the following:
When promoting your blog, consider the following:
submitted by PurpleSolitudes to Earninghunts [link] [comments]
Step By Step Guide On How To Start a Blog
Choose a Blogging Platform
The first step in starting a blog is choosing a blogging platform. There are many blogging platforms available, but the most popular ones include WordPress, Blogger, and Wix. Each platform has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to choose the one that suits your needs.WordPress is a self-hosted platform, which means you have complete control over your blog. It's highly scalable, customizable, and has a variety of plugins and themes to choose from. Blogger is a free platform owned by Google, which means you don't have to worry about hosting fees. It's easy to use and perfect for beginners. Wix is another popular platform that offers a drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to design your blog without any coding knowledge.
Choose a Domain Name
Once you've chosen your blogging platform, it's time to choose a domain name. Your domain name is the web address people will use to find your blog. It's important to choose a domain name that reflects the content of your blog and is easy to remember.When choosing your domain name, consider the following:
- Keep it short and memorable
- Make it easy to spell and pronounce
- Use keywords related to your blog niche
- Avoid using hyphens and numbers
- Choose a domain extension (.com, .org, .net, etc.) that fits your needs
Choose a Web Host
After choosing your domain name, you need to choose a web host. A web host is a service that stores your blog files and makes them available online. Some popular web hosts include Bluehost, Namecheap.When choosing a web host, consider the following:
- Reliability and uptime
- Security features
- Customer support
- Cost
- Server location (choose a server location closest to your target audience for faster load times)
Install WordPress
If you've chosen WordPress as your blogging platform, the next step is to install it on your web host. This is a simple process that can be done through your web host's control panel. Most web hosts offer a one-click installation option for WordPress.Once WordPress is installed, you can log in to your dashboard and start customizing your blog. Choose a theme, install plugins, and start creating content.
Customize Your Blog
Customizing your blog is an important step in creating a unique brand identity. Choose a theme that reflects the tone of your blog and customize it to suit your needs. You can also install plugins to add functionality to your blog.50% Off .COM on Domains - Namecheap Get 70% OFF on Hosting- Bluehost
When customizing your blog, consider the following:
- Choose a theme that reflects your brand
- Use high-quality images
- Make your blog easy to navigate
- Add social media buttons
- Optimize your blog for search engines (SEO)
Create Quality Content
Creating quality content is the most important aspect of blogging. Your content should be informative, engaging, and relevant to your audience. It's important to publish regularly to keep your readers engaged.When creating content, consider the following:
- Write for your audience
- Use headlines and formatting to make your content easy to read
- Use images and videos to enhance your content
- Be consistent with your publishing schedule
Promote Your Blog
Promoting your blog is essential for attracting readers and building a following. There are many ways to promote your blog, including social media, email marketing, and guest posting on other blogs.When promoting your blog, consider the following:
- Use social media to share your content
- Build an email list and send regular newsletters
- Guest post on other blogs to reach new audiences
- Participate in online communities related to your niche
2023.05.28 03:00 SocialDemocracies Hundreds of Thousands Have Lost Medicaid Coverage Since Pandemic Protections Expired (New York Times)
Hundreds of Thousands Have Lost Medicaid Coverage Since Pandemic Protections Expired (New York Times)
Link to article: https://web.archive.org/web/20230527084332/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/us/politics/medicaid-coverage-pandemic-loss.html
Excerpts:
Link to article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/states-hundreds-of-thousands-medicaid
Article:
submitted by SocialDemocracies to Social_Democracy [link] [comments]
Link to article: https://web.archive.org/web/20230527084332/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/us/politics/medicaid-coverage-pandemic-loss.html
Excerpts:
Hundreds of thousands of low-income Americans have lost Medicaid coverage in recent weeks as part of a sprawling unwinding of a pandemic-era policy that prohibited states from removing people from the program....
Early data shows that many people lost coverage for procedural reasons, such as when Medicaid recipients did not return paperwork to verify their eligibility or could not be located. The large number of terminations on procedural grounds suggests that many people may be losing their coverage even though they are still qualified for it. Many of those who have been dropped have been children.
In Arkansas, more than 1.1 million people — over a third of the state’s residents — were on Medicaid at the end of March. In April, the first month that states could begin removing people from the program, about 73,000 people lost coverage, including about 27,000 children 17 and under....
Among those who were dropped was Melissa Buford, a diabetic with high blood pressure who makes about $35,000 a year at a health clinic in eastern Arkansas helping families find affordable health insurance. Her two adult sons also lost their coverage.
Like more than 5,000 others in the state, Ms. Buford, 51, was no longer eligible for Medicaid because her income had gone up. A notice she received informing her that she did not qualify made her so upset that she threw it in a trash can.
But a majority of those who lost coverage in Arkansas were dropped for procedural reasons.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, a Republican, has framed the unwinding as a necessary process that will save money and allow Medicaid to function within its intended scope....
“We’re simply removing ineligible participants from the program to reserve resources for those who need them and follow the law,” Ms. Sanders wrote in an opinion essay in The Wall Street Journal this month. She added that “some Democrats and activist reporters oppose Arkansas’s actions because they want to keep people dependent on the government.”
What has played out in Arkansas so far offers evidence of the widespread disruption that the unwinding process is likely to cause in households across the country in the coming months, forcing Americans to find new insurance or figure out how to regain Medicaid coverage that they lost for procedural reasons. The federal government has projected that about 15 million people will lose coverage, including nearly seven million people who are expected to be dropped despite still being eligible....
Among the biggest looming questions is how the process will affect children. In Florida, for instance, a boy in remission from leukemia and in need of a biopsy recently lost his coverage.
Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families estimated before the unwinding that more than half of children in the United States were covered by Medicaid or CHIP. Many children who lose coverage will be dropped for procedural reasons even though they are still eligible, said Joan Alker, the center’s executive director.
“Those kids have nowhere else to turn for coverage,” she said. “Medicaid is the single largest insurer for children. This is hugely consequential for them.”
In Arkansas, many of the children who lost Medicaid were “the poorest of the poor,” said Loretta Alexander, the health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She added that losing coverage would be especially harmful for young children who need regular developmental checkups early in life.
Other states have also removed a large number of Medicaid recipients for procedural reasons. In Indiana, nearly 90 percent of the roughly 53,000 people who lost Medicaid in the first month of the state’s unwinding were booted on those grounds. In Florida, where nearly 250,000 people lost Medicaid coverage, procedural reasons were to blame for a vast majority....
Debra Miller, 54, of Bullhead City, Ariz., lost Medicaid coverage in April after her roughly $25,000 annual salary as a Burger King cook left her ineligible. Ms. Miller, a single mother with diabetes and hypothyroidism, worked with an insurance counselor at North Country HealthCare, a network of federally funded health clinics, to enroll in a marketplace plan with a roughly $70 monthly premium.'Enormous Policy Failure': States Throw Hundreds of Thousands—Including Many Children—Off Medicaid (Common Dreams)
“It’s a struggle because it’s a new bill that I haven’t had before,” she said. Her new plan, she added, does not include vision insurance, leaving her worried about paying for eye appointments she needs as a diabetic.
Ms. Buford said that for some people in Arkansas, marketplace coverage would be too expensive.
“You have a car, mortgage, kids, food,” she said. “You really don’t have that much left to pay that much for health insurance.”
Ms. Buford said that her job helping others find health insurance in underserved areas was a calling inspired by watching her grandmother struggle to afford her medications and rely on food pantries. Ms. Buford went to a community college near her hometown so she could take care of her sick father, who passed away in his 40s. “I love my job because I’m able to help people,” she said.
Now that she has lost her Medicaid coverage, Ms. Buford said she hoped to find an affordable marketplace plan in the near future. The family plan offered by the clinic where she works is too costly, she said.
“I’m grateful for what I have because someone else doesn’t have what I have,” Ms. Buford said. “I just wish I could have kept my Medicaid.”
Link to article: https://www.commondreams.org/news/states-hundreds-of-thousands-medicaid
Article:
With a green light from the federal government, states across the U.S. have thrown hundreds of thousands of low-income people off Medicaid in recent weeks—and many have lost coverage because they failed to navigate bureaucratic mazes, not because they were no longer eligible.
More than a dozen states, including Florida and other Republican-led states that have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, have begun removing people from Medicaid as part of the "unwinding" of a pandemic-era federal policy that temporarily barred governments from kicking people off the program.
In a bipartisan deal late last year, Congress agreed to cut off the pandemic protections, giving states 12 months to redetermine who is eligible for the healthcare program that covers tens of millions of Americans.
The process differs in each state, but Medicaid enrollees are typically required to complete paperwork verifying their income, address, disability status, and other factors used to determine eligibility for the program.
While some states have undertaken public outreach campaigns to ensure Medicaid recipients understand what they need to do to continue receiving benefits, most enrollees across the country "were not aware that states are now permitted to resume disenrolling people from the Medicaid program," according to new survey data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
As a result, The New York Times reported Friday, "many people lost coverage for procedural reasons, such as when Medicaid recipients did not return paperwork to verify their eligibility or could not be located."
"The large number of terminations on procedural grounds suggests that many people may be losing their coverage even though they are still qualified for it," the newspaper added. "Many of those who have been dropped have been children."
Early data released by the state of Florida, for example, shows that more than 205,000 people in the state lost coverage for procedural reasons after April eligibility checks.
"We knew this was coming. But we still treat these burdens like they're unavoidable natural disasters," said Pamela Herd, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University. "We need to be much more explicit about these failures because we're making a choice to allow this."
Joan Alker, executive director of the Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said she is "very worried about Florida."
"We've heard the call center's overwhelmed, the notices are very confusing in Florida—they're very hard to understand," said Alker.
In a recent letter to Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 presidential candidate, more than 50 advocacy groups demanded a Medicaid redetermination pause, pointing to "reports of Floridians being disenrolled from Medicaid without having received notice" from the state's Department of Children and Families (DCF).
"One of these individuals is a 7-year-old boy in remission from Leukemia who is now unable to access follow-up—and potentially lifesaving—treatments," the groups wrote. "Families with children have been erroneously terminated, and parents are having trouble reaching the DCF call center for help with this process. Additionally, unclear notices and lack of information on how to appeal contribute to more confusion."
"We are deeply concerned about those with serious, acute, and chronic conditions who will continue to lose access to their lifesaving treatments during this time, along with people who risk substantial medical debt, or even bankruptcy, as a result of coverage loss," the groups added.
What if instead we just gave everyone health insurance coverage??!! https://t.co/hSOQKYU7JY — Ady Barkan (@Ady Barkan) 1685130002
The Times highlighted the situation in Arkansas, which is led by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders—a supporter of Medicaid work requirements and other attacks on the program. (Work requirements were briefly tried in Arkansas in 2018 and 2019, with disastrous consequences.)
"In Arkansas, more than 1.1 million people—over a third of the state's residents—were on Medicaid at the end of March [2023]," the Times noted Friday. "In April, the first month that states could begin removing people from the program, about 73,000 people lost coverage, including about 27,000 children 17 and under."
An Arkansas law requires the state to complete its Medicaid eligibility reviews in six months instead of 12.
In a Wall Street Journalop-ed earlier this month, Sanders wrote that her state is booting people from Medicaid at "the fastest pace in the nation" and claimed those being removed are "ineligible participants"—ignoring evidence that many being stripped of coverage were technically still eligible.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has estimated that upwards of 15 million people nationwide could lose Medicaid coverage during the redetermination process.
"This is such an enormous policy failure—profoundly cruel and will contribute to furthering inequities," Dr. CecĂlia Tomori, a public health scholar at Johns Hopkins University, wrote Friday.
While some who lose Medicaid will be able to access insurance through an employer or the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, KFF found that more than four in ten people with Medicaid as their only source of healthcare "say they wouldn't know where to look for other coverage or would be uninsured" if they were removed from the program.
"This is about to happen to a lot of people," warned Larry Levitt, KFF's executive vice president for health policy.
The Times pointed to the case of 54-year-old Arizona resident Debra Miller, who "lost Medicaid coverage in April after her roughly $25,000 annual salary as a Burger King cook left her ineligible."
"Ms. Miller, a single mother with diabetes and hypothyroidism, worked with an insurance counselor at North Country HealthCare, a network of federally funded health clinics, to enroll in a marketplace plan with a roughly $70 monthly premium," the Times reported.
Miller told the newspaper that the new plan is a "struggle" both because of the new monthly payment and because it doesn't include the vision coverage she needs and now may not be able to afford.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated earlier this week that states' Medicaid eligibility checks will likely leave 6.2 million people without any insurance at all.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
2023.05.28 02:56 PeterNYCResistance Chinese guy has sex with three different latinas in a one day period, here's how!
Hey y'all sorry I haven't been active on reddit recently, after my amazing month hanging out with Guitaristfor3v3r (check out his awesome stories with amazing tips for dating in Latin America) https://www.reddit.com/AsianMasculinity/comments/10frn5i/mexico_city_dating_update_a_wild_first_three_days/ https://www.reddit.com/AsianMasculinity/comments/10ld8x6/mexico_city_update_it_keeps_getting_bette https://www.reddit.com/AsianMasculinity/comments/11gkq42/dating_in_mexico_city_the_grand_finale_part_33/ )
We hosted about 5 different reddit Asian bros in Mexico City and showed them around. I then took some time off and settled down with a girlfriend. But for my last month there I decided to be single and go out partying.
On Friday I went on a daytime date with a girl then took her home to hook up. We have met many times at the club and danced and made out but she was always with friends. I remember she called her family in my room to tell them she was coming home late and I knew that it was on. After she left a booty call I have been seeing came over and she slept over. Both these girls were from my favorite club and using the tips at the bottom of this post. These two hookup stories were not that interesting, just standard hookups that you guys can copy and paste the advice below and do yourself too.
On Saturday night I went out to meet a Mexican wingman around 2AM. The club had many large rooms and was at medium capacity. We met his friends who just stood around and chilled so I wanted to move around the club to be close to single girls or girl groups. I saw a cute, slim woman in her 30s leaning on a wall and approached her with my sarcastic fun approach. We made eye contact and smiled, then took her hand, kissed it like a silly romantic telenovela TV show, and started dancing with her. It worked, and my friend came in trying to translate for me. I realized I had just had sex twice the previous night, so I handed her to him, and they spent the next two hours dancing, grinding, and making out. I stood nearby to protect him from any cockblocks but he said it's fine and I should go find a girl for myself. I laughed because I had sex twice the previous night but then realized that if I had sex again tonight, it would make a legendary story with three girls in a one day period.
So I casually approached girls, not being direct or aggressive but playful and indirect, commenting on the environment, like pointing out couples making out or the music. I approached two different girls but realized they were just being friendly, so I left them trying to find a girl that was more open to me. I saw a tall woman dancing alone by the bar. I danced with her separately with space between us. If she was interested in hooking up, she would have gotten closer, but since she didn't so I didn't try to force physicality with her. However, a shorter Mexican chubby girl joined our dance, and as we danced separately, she gradually came closer to me until we started grinding and eventually making out.
The club was closing in 30 minutes so all her friends came over to get ready to leave. Our six person group consisted of me, the shorter Mexican chubby girl, her hot dyed blonde-haired sister, a guy the blonde-haired sister had just met that night, her cousin, and another slim and sexy petite 19-year-old cousin. We moved to another large room, and it took another 30 minutes for everyone to use the bathroom. While waiting, the short Mexican chubby girl and I were making out. When I looked next to us, the 19-year-old slim and sexy petite cousin was giving me seductive F me eyes. Whenever the chubby girl wasn't looking, I would sneak a kiss with the 19-year-old. Eventually, we started three-way kissing, which was incredibly hot. My Mexican guy friend was nearby with his woman to translate for me, and he thought me making out with two girls at the same time was awesome.
At this point, I had the thought that while having a threesome with two family members would be amazing, it also had a high chance of failure, such as the girls slut-shaming each other. So I focused more on kissing the 19-year-old. The chubby girl didn't like that but accepted it. I then started "seeding the pull" by telling the 19-year-old that my place was two blocks away, and I had weed. She consulted with her family members, and the chubby girl said it was her group of friends, so she made the rules. I sighed because I thought this was the point where I would be cockblocked. However, the chubby girl said her 19-yeah-old cousin wouldn't go to my house, and instead, we would all go to her apartment 20 minutes north for an afterparty.
My initial reaction was to go home and call it a night. I didn't want to risk going 20 minutes north to a rural area with five other strangers. But based on my social skills and the feeling I got from these girls being kind-hearted and friendly, I decided it would be safe. I agreed to leave with them and told my Mexican guy friend he could leave me alone and go home with his girl. We all went outside, and I took the lead and suggested getting two taxis for six people to her place. I asked them to wait there outside while I ran home to grab beers and weed and ran as I could like a hollywood action scene. The guy and I called $5 Didi taxis to their place. In the back seat of my taxi, it was me and the 19-year-old girl, her sister sat in the front. We were getting touchy and kissy in the back, and she whispered in my ear that she was thankful for me paying for the taxi and wanted to “repay me”. We arrived at the apartment complex where the chubby girl lived, but those three were on a separate adventure to buy liquor. Our group killed time for 30 minutes waiting for them. I was worried I would lose the arousal of my girl because it was chilly outside and her sister was there. However, I felt confident in the hookup because of how she had pursued me earlier. I didn't make any excessive moves on her physically or verbally. We simply engaged in regular casual conversation. The second group arrived, and we all entered the apartment with the liquor. It was 6 AM, and we had a little mini dance party. My girl tried to pour liquor into my mouth, but I only drank a little because I was certain we would have sex.
The layout of the apartment consisted of a living room with a sofa and TV where we partied, a bedroom without a door, and a bedroom with a door. The other couple, the hot dyed blonde-haired girl, and the guy, started making out. My girl took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom before they could use the room first. I quickly ran to the bathroom to pee and, when I returned, she was undressing. The party and music music was still thumping outside, and she was in her bra and panties while I was in my underwear. She got on top of me and started passionately kissing me. I picked her up, threw her onto the bed, and got on top of her. I took off her bra and panties, and then my underwear. When I touched her, she was soaking wet. I told her to relax while I touched myself. As we had sex, I reflected on what was happening at that moment. I had already had natural intimate unprotected sex with two different women the previous night, and tonight I had a pick of three girls who wanted to hookup with me because dating in Mexico is so great for Asian men, and picked the hot 19-year-old petite girl. The main thought that crossed my mind was that I would write an epic awesome story on Asian Masculinity and inspire a ton of guys. It may sound silly, but that's the truth. We had amazing sex, and I won't forget the feeling of her legs wrapped around me, her repeating "cogerme," the other couple thumping on the door for their turn on the bed, and me finishing inside her unprotected. Immediately after I finished, she was ready for round two, trying to get on top of me and clawing my body. The other couple kept banging on the door so we left the room.
The next four hours were spent sleeping on the living room couch while reggaeton music videos played on the TV. She slept using my arm as a pillow. I remember several times when I tried to move my arm to go to the bathroom, and would she subconsciously while asleep pull my arm back under her head. That was so cute. Some point I woke her up and, got on top of her for a lovemaking session, then went back to sleep. Morning came, and we slowly woke up one by one. Once we were all awake, we sat in the second bedroom and joked about the previous night, excluding the sex of course. Since I knew everyone was hungry, I ordered a large bucket of KFC for $15 using the Didi app, and they were extremely grateful. One of the girls mentioned that her parents were about to come back, so the guy and I left. He helped me find my way back to Mexico City, and I arrived home by 4 PM, completely exhausted but with a smile on my face. The next day was my last day so the 19 year old came over then after she left my regular hookup came over then I ran to the airport.
It took me an entire month to process the events and emotions of that night, like experiencing a positive form of PTSD. Every time I think about it, I can't help but smile. I hope that you, my Asian brother reading this, get to experience something similar one day.
TLDR Some notes I keep in mind when going out at night:
Can y'all upvote this? I usually get like 50k views per post but only 20 upvotes, it would help the reddit algo. Check out Guitaristfor3v3r's posts linked above which have even more tips about dating in Latin America! Let me know if you guys have any questions below and I will do my best to answer.
submitted by PeterNYCResistance to AsianMasculinity [link] [comments]
We hosted about 5 different reddit Asian bros in Mexico City and showed them around. I then took some time off and settled down with a girlfriend. But for my last month there I decided to be single and go out partying.
On Friday I went on a daytime date with a girl then took her home to hook up. We have met many times at the club and danced and made out but she was always with friends. I remember she called her family in my room to tell them she was coming home late and I knew that it was on. After she left a booty call I have been seeing came over and she slept over. Both these girls were from my favorite club and using the tips at the bottom of this post. These two hookup stories were not that interesting, just standard hookups that you guys can copy and paste the advice below and do yourself too.
On Saturday night I went out to meet a Mexican wingman around 2AM. The club had many large rooms and was at medium capacity. We met his friends who just stood around and chilled so I wanted to move around the club to be close to single girls or girl groups. I saw a cute, slim woman in her 30s leaning on a wall and approached her with my sarcastic fun approach. We made eye contact and smiled, then took her hand, kissed it like a silly romantic telenovela TV show, and started dancing with her. It worked, and my friend came in trying to translate for me. I realized I had just had sex twice the previous night, so I handed her to him, and they spent the next two hours dancing, grinding, and making out. I stood nearby to protect him from any cockblocks but he said it's fine and I should go find a girl for myself. I laughed because I had sex twice the previous night but then realized that if I had sex again tonight, it would make a legendary story with three girls in a one day period.
So I casually approached girls, not being direct or aggressive but playful and indirect, commenting on the environment, like pointing out couples making out or the music. I approached two different girls but realized they were just being friendly, so I left them trying to find a girl that was more open to me. I saw a tall woman dancing alone by the bar. I danced with her separately with space between us. If she was interested in hooking up, she would have gotten closer, but since she didn't so I didn't try to force physicality with her. However, a shorter Mexican chubby girl joined our dance, and as we danced separately, she gradually came closer to me until we started grinding and eventually making out.
The club was closing in 30 minutes so all her friends came over to get ready to leave. Our six person group consisted of me, the shorter Mexican chubby girl, her hot dyed blonde-haired sister, a guy the blonde-haired sister had just met that night, her cousin, and another slim and sexy petite 19-year-old cousin. We moved to another large room, and it took another 30 minutes for everyone to use the bathroom. While waiting, the short Mexican chubby girl and I were making out. When I looked next to us, the 19-year-old slim and sexy petite cousin was giving me seductive F me eyes. Whenever the chubby girl wasn't looking, I would sneak a kiss with the 19-year-old. Eventually, we started three-way kissing, which was incredibly hot. My Mexican guy friend was nearby with his woman to translate for me, and he thought me making out with two girls at the same time was awesome.
At this point, I had the thought that while having a threesome with two family members would be amazing, it also had a high chance of failure, such as the girls slut-shaming each other. So I focused more on kissing the 19-year-old. The chubby girl didn't like that but accepted it. I then started "seeding the pull" by telling the 19-year-old that my place was two blocks away, and I had weed. She consulted with her family members, and the chubby girl said it was her group of friends, so she made the rules. I sighed because I thought this was the point where I would be cockblocked. However, the chubby girl said her 19-yeah-old cousin wouldn't go to my house, and instead, we would all go to her apartment 20 minutes north for an afterparty.
My initial reaction was to go home and call it a night. I didn't want to risk going 20 minutes north to a rural area with five other strangers. But based on my social skills and the feeling I got from these girls being kind-hearted and friendly, I decided it would be safe. I agreed to leave with them and told my Mexican guy friend he could leave me alone and go home with his girl. We all went outside, and I took the lead and suggested getting two taxis for six people to her place. I asked them to wait there outside while I ran home to grab beers and weed and ran as I could like a hollywood action scene. The guy and I called $5 Didi taxis to their place. In the back seat of my taxi, it was me and the 19-year-old girl, her sister sat in the front. We were getting touchy and kissy in the back, and she whispered in my ear that she was thankful for me paying for the taxi and wanted to “repay me”. We arrived at the apartment complex where the chubby girl lived, but those three were on a separate adventure to buy liquor. Our group killed time for 30 minutes waiting for them. I was worried I would lose the arousal of my girl because it was chilly outside and her sister was there. However, I felt confident in the hookup because of how she had pursued me earlier. I didn't make any excessive moves on her physically or verbally. We simply engaged in regular casual conversation. The second group arrived, and we all entered the apartment with the liquor. It was 6 AM, and we had a little mini dance party. My girl tried to pour liquor into my mouth, but I only drank a little because I was certain we would have sex.
The layout of the apartment consisted of a living room with a sofa and TV where we partied, a bedroom without a door, and a bedroom with a door. The other couple, the hot dyed blonde-haired girl, and the guy, started making out. My girl took me by the hand and led me to the bedroom before they could use the room first. I quickly ran to the bathroom to pee and, when I returned, she was undressing. The party and music music was still thumping outside, and she was in her bra and panties while I was in my underwear. She got on top of me and started passionately kissing me. I picked her up, threw her onto the bed, and got on top of her. I took off her bra and panties, and then my underwear. When I touched her, she was soaking wet. I told her to relax while I touched myself. As we had sex, I reflected on what was happening at that moment. I had already had natural intimate unprotected sex with two different women the previous night, and tonight I had a pick of three girls who wanted to hookup with me because dating in Mexico is so great for Asian men, and picked the hot 19-year-old petite girl. The main thought that crossed my mind was that I would write an epic awesome story on Asian Masculinity and inspire a ton of guys. It may sound silly, but that's the truth. We had amazing sex, and I won't forget the feeling of her legs wrapped around me, her repeating "cogerme," the other couple thumping on the door for their turn on the bed, and me finishing inside her unprotected. Immediately after I finished, she was ready for round two, trying to get on top of me and clawing my body. The other couple kept banging on the door so we left the room.
The next four hours were spent sleeping on the living room couch while reggaeton music videos played on the TV. She slept using my arm as a pillow. I remember several times when I tried to move my arm to go to the bathroom, and would she subconsciously while asleep pull my arm back under her head. That was so cute. Some point I woke her up and, got on top of her for a lovemaking session, then went back to sleep. Morning came, and we slowly woke up one by one. Once we were all awake, we sat in the second bedroom and joked about the previous night, excluding the sex of course. Since I knew everyone was hungry, I ordered a large bucket of KFC for $15 using the Didi app, and they were extremely grateful. One of the girls mentioned that her parents were about to come back, so the guy and I left. He helped me find my way back to Mexico City, and I arrived home by 4 PM, completely exhausted but with a smile on my face. The next day was my last day so the 19 year old came over then after she left my regular hookup came over then I ran to the airport.
It took me an entire month to process the events and emotions of that night, like experiencing a positive form of PTSD. Every time I think about it, I can't help but smile. I hope that you, my Asian brother reading this, get to experience something similar one day.
TLDR Some notes I keep in mind when going out at night:
- Take a nap and go out late. You'll be sober and full of energy while other guys are drunk and not at their best, and girls will be selecting non-stupid guys. You don't need to drink heavily. Just have one beer and sip it slowly to appear as part of the crowd. You can also bring a disposable vape to look like you are just an innocent casual guy having fun.
- Move around to where there are groups of girls and stand near them in proximity, when you are ready and they look bored, approach them by making innocent comments about the environment or about them. Let them try your interesting drink or vape. If she's not reciprocating or only being friendly, smile and go back to your friends. Don't try to force approaches to work like some try hard PUA. You will see interested girls latch onto you with high interest. Repeat this process until you find a girl who latches onto you. Once you find a girl who's interested, ask her who she is with and if she can leave them at the end of the night, stay close to her, buy a round of drinks, dance and make out, and "seed the pull" by suggesting going back to your place for drinks. If her logistics are bad but she likes you, exchange contact information and send a selfie pic of you both to her and set up future plans. But if her logistics happen to be good, continue dancing and enjoying the night with her until it's time to leave, and then arrange transportation for both of you.
- For the few guys that need to hear this, don't be cheap when you are traveling. If a beer costs a few bucks and you get the feeling a girl likes you, just buy it for her. Or get a Didi taxi to make things easier. Or get a decent place at a great location. These things will really be appreciated by the girl.
- A great way to follow up with girls after getting their contact information is by sending them a really cool and trendy but low cost cafe, bar, or restaurant and asking if they have been there, and if not then make plans to go. Because when you message a girl the next morning to set up a date, it is like “you are approaching her for a second time” and need something shiny and interesting to get her attention again, such as a good place. Do not message her “hey lets get dinner” because there is no time or location attached to it and needs investment from her and looks needy. It is better to bring up a cool spot which gets her attention and interest again. I did this and got a near 100% response rate from all my girls, it was awesome.
Can y'all upvote this? I usually get like 50k views per post but only 20 upvotes, it would help the reddit algo. Check out Guitaristfor3v3r's posts linked above which have even more tips about dating in Latin America! Let me know if you guys have any questions below and I will do my best to answer.
2023.05.28 02:55 BrendaGaming1963 List of bush cat Marios?
Does anyone have a list of all the locations where a cat mario jumps out of the bush? I think almost everyone knows about the infamous cascade kingdom bush, but I found out today there's also one in cap kingdom, sand kingdom and two in metro. Does anyone know how many there are in total and where exactly they are?
For clarification: I am not talking about the ones that give you coins, purely the ones that jump from a bush and just kinda spin around
submitted by BrendaGaming1963 to SuperMarioOdyssey [link] [comments]
For clarification: I am not talking about the ones that give you coins, purely the ones that jump from a bush and just kinda spin around
2023.05.28 02:49 The_SSS_ Anyone else keep seeing the same people over and over recently?
I keep seeing the same profiles today no matter how many times I swipe on them. One specific profile keeps showing up that’s completely blank except for the age, name, location, and a single picture that’s of a sink. Another I know I’ve seen multiple times is one asking if it’s step dad season. There’s been other repeats, but those two stood out the most. I live in a really big city with a few million people living in a 50 mile radius so I don’t think I’m running out of people.
It’s not really a big deal. It’s just weird getting so many repeats in one day and I was curious if anyone else noticed this too.
Edit: I posted this and immediately opened tinder. First person I saw was the step dad season one again. I swiped left, closed tinder, opened tinder again, and it was the same person again. Definitely something weird lol wtf
submitted by The_SSS_ to Tinder [link] [comments]
It’s not really a big deal. It’s just weird getting so many repeats in one day and I was curious if anyone else noticed this too.
Edit: I posted this and immediately opened tinder. First person I saw was the step dad season one again. I swiped left, closed tinder, opened tinder again, and it was the same person again. Definitely something weird lol wtf
2023.05.28 02:40 johny_james My Doc says I did not have an active form of C. diff, but my symptoms are very close to it. Also, conventional culture results showed C. diff is present in my stool.
25M. 18.5 BMI
Had IBS previously but it was getting way better by taking some supplements.
6 weeks ago I had stomach infection which lasted 2 weeks. Doctors did not find the cause of it.
Since then a lot of things changed for me in my life. A ton of other symptoms appered.
So the infection started with extreme stomach pain and bloating, I had bloating in the past, but this was not comparable at all.
The first day I had watery diarrhea 4-5 times going to toilet, also had 38.0 °C fever.
I took ibuprofen and paracetamol and the first it was extremely varying (37.5 - 38.0).
Weirdly enough, the other days, the fever was coming only at night.
After the second day of diarrhea, I started caloric restriction because I could not endure the stomach bloating and pain. I was having 1 meal a day, and ofc the weight started to go down.
The Diarrhea was like 4-5 days with low grade fever (37.5-37.8), muscle and joint pain, abdominal bloating and pain, small white coating on tongue (which doctors suggested because of dehydration but I was drinking like crazy (electrolytes and what not)), a bit red throat, my phyisican said that I should wait for my immune system to fight off the infection.
I had 2 blood tests, a lot of parameters tested and all came in the range, CRP was also low.
I was only taking Vitamin D3 5000UI, Vitamin K2, Vitamin C 500mg, basically vitamin therapy.
After 1 week dealing with this, I scheduled a visit to a infectiologist in a private hospital.
They tested me for Covid tests, blood tests for electrolytes, conventional culture test.
Conventional culture found C. Diff present. The doctor suggested me to go on a BRAT diet and gave me this strong Probiotic.
BTW the second week the fever was still fluctuating (37.4 - 37.5), but as I mentioned was going down a lot of times, after nearly 2 weeks of caloric restriction and a BRAT diet, I started having periods of fatigue
At the end of the second week, all the symptoms were gone, the fever was gone, only the muscle fatigue was present for 2-3 days.
And all my symptoms were resolved, but the real mystery is after this 2 week infection.
I started having floating stools with pain at some days (like 1 day a week), I was using L-glutamine which managed some of the IBS symtoms. I started experencing heart palpitations quite regularly, I had palpitations before, but after the infection they are more frequent.
But I recovered in life, I got back to university, and other sport activities, another thing that appeared was becoming very sleepy after meals, which was a thing I never had before, I always had to take a nap after bigger meals.
And after 1 month of going kind of smoothly, I again got a fever (37.5) and frequent stools (4-5 times a day), this was going around for 2-3 days, I started the above probiotic, and the fever went away, some of the symptoms re-appeared like the small white tongue coating and the new symptom was muscle soreness**(not pain but some of the muscles especially biceps, triceps and calves were just sore and some feeling of muscle stressed).**
After 1.5 week, I again went to the infectiologist, and she mentioned to me that I should not worry, that it will go away, I tested for C.diff toxin A+B which came negative, blood tests were fine.
The Doctor suggested now to use S. Boulardi as a stronger probiotic alternative.
And said that it helps for C. diff infections.
Also mentioned to use this immune supporting product (beta-glucans, fermented yeast cells, vitamins).
I have not started using the above, but today I had 4 stools and 1 watery diarrhea.
Do you guys have any suggestions, since I don't know how to continue with this problem.
It's affecting my life tremendously, and doctors do not think that I need a round of antibiotics maybe because of my milder symtpoms? Who knows...
Also per my brother, I became more religious, ofc after this many unknown things happening I don't even know who to trust and what to look for.
submitted by johny_james to cdifficile [link] [comments]
Had IBS previously but it was getting way better by taking some supplements.
6 weeks ago I had stomach infection which lasted 2 weeks. Doctors did not find the cause of it.
Since then a lot of things changed for me in my life. A ton of other symptoms appered.
So the infection started with extreme stomach pain and bloating, I had bloating in the past, but this was not comparable at all.
The first day I had watery diarrhea 4-5 times going to toilet, also had 38.0 °C fever.
I took ibuprofen and paracetamol and the first it was extremely varying (37.5 - 38.0).
Weirdly enough, the other days, the fever was coming only at night.
After the second day of diarrhea, I started caloric restriction because I could not endure the stomach bloating and pain. I was having 1 meal a day, and ofc the weight started to go down.
The Diarrhea was like 4-5 days with low grade fever (37.5-37.8), muscle and joint pain, abdominal bloating and pain, small white coating on tongue (which doctors suggested because of dehydration but I was drinking like crazy (electrolytes and what not)), a bit red throat, my phyisican said that I should wait for my immune system to fight off the infection.
I had 2 blood tests, a lot of parameters tested and all came in the range, CRP was also low.
I was only taking Vitamin D3 5000UI, Vitamin K2, Vitamin C 500mg, basically vitamin therapy.
After 1 week dealing with this, I scheduled a visit to a infectiologist in a private hospital.
They tested me for Covid tests, blood tests for electrolytes, conventional culture test.
Conventional culture found C. Diff present. The doctor suggested me to go on a BRAT diet and gave me this strong Probiotic.
BTW the second week the fever was still fluctuating (37.4 - 37.5), but as I mentioned was going down a lot of times, after nearly 2 weeks of caloric restriction and a BRAT diet, I started having periods of fatigue
At the end of the second week, all the symptoms were gone, the fever was gone, only the muscle fatigue was present for 2-3 days.
And all my symptoms were resolved, but the real mystery is after this 2 week infection.
I started having floating stools with pain at some days (like 1 day a week), I was using L-glutamine which managed some of the IBS symtoms. I started experencing heart palpitations quite regularly, I had palpitations before, but after the infection they are more frequent.
But I recovered in life, I got back to university, and other sport activities, another thing that appeared was becoming very sleepy after meals, which was a thing I never had before, I always had to take a nap after bigger meals.
And after 1 month of going kind of smoothly, I again got a fever (37.5) and frequent stools (4-5 times a day), this was going around for 2-3 days, I started the above probiotic, and the fever went away, some of the symptoms re-appeared like the small white tongue coating and the new symptom was muscle soreness**(not pain but some of the muscles especially biceps, triceps and calves were just sore and some feeling of muscle stressed).**
After 1.5 week, I again went to the infectiologist, and she mentioned to me that I should not worry, that it will go away, I tested for C.diff toxin A+B which came negative, blood tests were fine.
The Doctor suggested now to use S. Boulardi as a stronger probiotic alternative.
And said that it helps for C. diff infections.
Also mentioned to use this immune supporting product (beta-glucans, fermented yeast cells, vitamins).
I have not started using the above, but today I had 4 stools and 1 watery diarrhea.
Do you guys have any suggestions, since I don't know how to continue with this problem.
It's affecting my life tremendously, and doctors do not think that I need a round of antibiotics maybe because of my milder symtpoms? Who knows...
Also per my brother, I became more religious, ofc after this many unknown things happening I don't even know who to trust and what to look for.
2023.05.28 02:39 thetissuepaper Chance me for Duke ED, Emory, WashU, Northwestern, URochester, Rice, Georgia Tech, UF, Case Western
Asian Female
Location: Not well known state in the South, not that represented like the Bay Area, TX, or NY. It's in the Deep South.
No hooks LMAO
Major: Different majors for each school lmao, it will either be neuro/psych or chemE on the pre med track
Public school, not that competitive, only a few people actually try to go to a good school, it's a bum ass school if I'm being honest, it doesn't send that many people to top schools, usually only 2-3 each year
STATS
ACT: 35, 36 Superscore
GPA: 4.4 W 3.98 UW I have a good rank, not valedictorian or salutatorian but good
Coursework: idk if this is rigorous enough so I took no APs freshman year cause my dumbass didn't know shit about them so I tried to redeem myself by taking 2 sophomore year but got a B in one of them and 6 junior year (all As :)). My scores are gonna be shit. I signed up for 8 senior year :)
ECs (they're trash don't judge me there's literally nothing to do at my school or my area)
Awards
Nonexistent
LORs: I asked a humanities and STEM teacher. They agreed to write one :) Idk how good they will be. They did like me and I did my very best to participate in those classes. My STEM teacher knows me very well since I had her for a long time but I really don't think she's a good writer since she's not very good at her job. I think she'll write a decent LOR but I'll make sure to send a brag sheet
Essays: FUCKING HELL I DON'T FUCKING KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK
Ummmmm so I have a few ideas. My ideas are to write about my random hobbies and connect it to personal growth or some shit
Pls chance me for those top schools. I need good advice
submitted by thetissuepaper to chanceme [link] [comments]
Location: Not well known state in the South, not that represented like the Bay Area, TX, or NY. It's in the Deep South.
No hooks LMAO
Major: Different majors for each school lmao, it will either be neuro/psych or chemE on the pre med track
Public school, not that competitive, only a few people actually try to go to a good school, it's a bum ass school if I'm being honest, it doesn't send that many people to top schools, usually only 2-3 each year
STATS
ACT: 35, 36 Superscore
GPA: 4.4 W 3.98 UW I have a good rank, not valedictorian or salutatorian but good
Coursework: idk if this is rigorous enough so I took no APs freshman year cause my dumbass didn't know shit about them so I tried to redeem myself by taking 2 sophomore year but got a B in one of them and 6 junior year (all As :)). My scores are gonna be shit. I signed up for 8 senior year :)
ECs (they're trash don't judge me there's literally nothing to do at my school or my area)
- Research at my local uni (it's cool stuff, I don't clean stuff I actually conduct experiments and contribute to writing a research paper)
- An internship that lasted a few weeks (did lab research on something meaningful that contributes to solving the region's problems, it was also really selective because only a single digit number of people got in, we presented our data and all of that, worked long ass hours everyday)
- Math team (our math team is shit, there were no leadership roles because the sponsor wanted to teach us the math himself, I won state awards and I was one of the 2 people to qualify for AIME)
- Debate team (didn't get captain because I wasn't the most experienced L, I only won a good state title that I got recognition from the school district but overall I was pretty shit at this activity)
- Hospital volunteer (did basic stuff, nothing special)
- Veteran's hospital volunteer (didn't last long because the veteran patients were low-key racist af)
- Chinese school volunteer
- Book club
- I play piano
- I have random ass hobbies that take up a lot of my time
Awards
Nonexistent
- AP Scholar with Distinction
- AIME Qualifier
- Nice state title
- Some piano award
LORs: I asked a humanities and STEM teacher. They agreed to write one :) Idk how good they will be. They did like me and I did my very best to participate in those classes. My STEM teacher knows me very well since I had her for a long time but I really don't think she's a good writer since she's not very good at her job. I think she'll write a decent LOR but I'll make sure to send a brag sheet
Essays: FUCKING HELL I DON'T FUCKING KNOW WHAT TO WRITE ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK
Ummmmm so I have a few ideas. My ideas are to write about my random hobbies and connect it to personal growth or some shit
Pls chance me for those top schools. I need good advice
2023.05.28 02:35 CocoMel84 Off and on again fencesitter who has a miscarriage in January.
I didn’t know this community existed until I replied to an Instagram post by The Skimm that was asking CF folks to share their favorite things about not having children. And no matter how they phrase those kinds of questions, it always kind of turns into this hot mess of replies where CF people and parents are sort of duking it out with one another about which side is better. After seeing so many of these posts play out like this I finally wrote something about feeling rather alone in my complete indecision about whether or not to have kids. And I was pointed in this direction.
I’ve been on the fence for most of my adult life. Never thought I would be a mom until my mid to late 20s. I’m 34 now and my husband is 28. We’ve been together for 5 years, married for 1.5. He never wanted kids before meeting me. We both see the perks of having children and not having children. We met living abroad in Asia so we both value spontaneity and adventure. But I’ve also never been with someone where I would consider parenting to be “fun”— until I met him. He’s amazing and I want to see him be a father. It would almost seem like a waste to be with someone who would make such a good parent and not have kids with them.
I find it painful that I’ve never known one way or the other. It’s honestly distressing. I see children and I want them. I hear how stressed and sleep deprived acquaintances of mine are and I’m grateful I don’t have them yet. For the last decade I’ve felt like… yeah, I’ll most likely be a mom! And I’ve done so much inner work on myself that I think I could be a good mom. But I still don’t feel ready. Part of that is financial. Part of it is just overall readiness. I’m not there yet. But biologically I only have so long. And that’s where the miscarriage comes in. When I turned 34 in September, something felt urgent. Like, I need to do this now so that I can have more if I want more! We weren’t exactly trying, but we weren’t not trying either. Right after Thanksgiving I found out I was pregnant. I knew as soon as I missed my period. And though we both had our concerns, we were also so excited. I loved knowing exactly what I wanted for dinner— the cravings were strong even at 5+ weeks. I wanted a natural birth and had started reading Ina May’s book on childbirth. I have excruciatingly painful periods so I thought I already had a little experience to prepare me for a natural birth. I know that sounds naive but my periods are brutal. My pregnancy pointed out some things that we wished we had in order— a better living space, more preparedness with where we wanted to be located for the next few years, etc. But we tried to stay positive.
At 8 weeks I miscarried. It was the most physically painful thing I’ve ever gone through. I felt as though I was having contractions. Worse than any period I’ve had— very similar— but noticeably worse. The physical pain masked the emotional pain of it for awhile. I could feel it for days after… even weeks (physically).
I was laid off soon after my miscarriage. They weren’t related but things just sort of spiraled from there. My husband recked his truck on the way home after I was laid off. We almost had to put our cat down (my first and only baby). Things just felt awful for a long time after the miscarriage.
Now, almost half a year later, things are starting to look up and feel better. But the miscarriage forced us to take a step back and now we are contemplating if we actually want kids or not, again. And that comes with so much guilt for both of us because we literally we getting ready to welcome a baby in the world not too long ago.
Are we selfish? Irresponsible? Scared? Just doing our best? I don’t know. And I don’t really know how to feel. I’m still grieving but also feel relieved at the same time bc life was so incredibly stressful after the miscarriage… it almost felt like the universe intervened. Which I know is silly and also makes me feel a little guilty for even uttering that.
So here we are again. Undecided. One of the hardest things about the miscarriage is that it gave me the power to choose again. And when I was pregnant, I was happy the decision was made. That was the path we were going to take and I was going to try and make the best of it and be the best mom I could. But doesn’t my child deserve more than that?
It hurts not knowing. And I’m grateful to have found a community of folks that are also in a similar boat.
submitted by CocoMel84 to Fencesitter [link] [comments]
I’ve been on the fence for most of my adult life. Never thought I would be a mom until my mid to late 20s. I’m 34 now and my husband is 28. We’ve been together for 5 years, married for 1.5. He never wanted kids before meeting me. We both see the perks of having children and not having children. We met living abroad in Asia so we both value spontaneity and adventure. But I’ve also never been with someone where I would consider parenting to be “fun”— until I met him. He’s amazing and I want to see him be a father. It would almost seem like a waste to be with someone who would make such a good parent and not have kids with them.
I find it painful that I’ve never known one way or the other. It’s honestly distressing. I see children and I want them. I hear how stressed and sleep deprived acquaintances of mine are and I’m grateful I don’t have them yet. For the last decade I’ve felt like… yeah, I’ll most likely be a mom! And I’ve done so much inner work on myself that I think I could be a good mom. But I still don’t feel ready. Part of that is financial. Part of it is just overall readiness. I’m not there yet. But biologically I only have so long. And that’s where the miscarriage comes in. When I turned 34 in September, something felt urgent. Like, I need to do this now so that I can have more if I want more! We weren’t exactly trying, but we weren’t not trying either. Right after Thanksgiving I found out I was pregnant. I knew as soon as I missed my period. And though we both had our concerns, we were also so excited. I loved knowing exactly what I wanted for dinner— the cravings were strong even at 5+ weeks. I wanted a natural birth and had started reading Ina May’s book on childbirth. I have excruciatingly painful periods so I thought I already had a little experience to prepare me for a natural birth. I know that sounds naive but my periods are brutal. My pregnancy pointed out some things that we wished we had in order— a better living space, more preparedness with where we wanted to be located for the next few years, etc. But we tried to stay positive.
At 8 weeks I miscarried. It was the most physically painful thing I’ve ever gone through. I felt as though I was having contractions. Worse than any period I’ve had— very similar— but noticeably worse. The physical pain masked the emotional pain of it for awhile. I could feel it for days after… even weeks (physically).
I was laid off soon after my miscarriage. They weren’t related but things just sort of spiraled from there. My husband recked his truck on the way home after I was laid off. We almost had to put our cat down (my first and only baby). Things just felt awful for a long time after the miscarriage.
Now, almost half a year later, things are starting to look up and feel better. But the miscarriage forced us to take a step back and now we are contemplating if we actually want kids or not, again. And that comes with so much guilt for both of us because we literally we getting ready to welcome a baby in the world not too long ago.
Are we selfish? Irresponsible? Scared? Just doing our best? I don’t know. And I don’t really know how to feel. I’m still grieving but also feel relieved at the same time bc life was so incredibly stressful after the miscarriage… it almost felt like the universe intervened. Which I know is silly and also makes me feel a little guilty for even uttering that.
So here we are again. Undecided. One of the hardest things about the miscarriage is that it gave me the power to choose again. And when I was pregnant, I was happy the decision was made. That was the path we were going to take and I was going to try and make the best of it and be the best mom I could. But doesn’t my child deserve more than that?
It hurts not knowing. And I’m grateful to have found a community of folks that are also in a similar boat.
2023.05.28 02:17 Specific_Boot_8572 Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club Inc.
To: Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club Inc. This is a letter to describe my admiration, memories, and theories of your organization that I have been a fan of for about as long as I can recall. There’s been hard times but overall, I've enjoyed having an MLB team in my backyard. Even when the incompetent management of your organization yielded regular dismal seasons during the late 90s and into the mid-2000s I attended frequently and enjoyed the games. County Stadium had that old baseball charm and admittedly it was aged but beloved by the fans. Regardless of that, the team boldly went ahead and insisted they needed a new stadium for several reasons, but part of it was to make the Milwaukee Brewers a competitive team again. The thought of a winning team sold many people on the idea.
The new facility opened during that dark period, and the Brewers opted for the addition of several state-of-the-art features for that time including a highly touted roof that allowed games to be played during inclement weather. It could also be retracted within minutes for an outdoor baseball experience too. I remember several interesting moments involving the numerous leaks during rain showers and thunderstorms provided by the roof’s sieve-inspired construction which generally required some fans to move to other areas to avoid being deluged. In 2002 I lived on Milwaukee’s East Side, and I can still distinctly remember the synergy of excitement provided to the city from MLB and the Brewers organization from the flatulent ending of the MLB All-Star game in Milwaukee and the 100+ losses the Brewers accrued that season, it was all magic back then.
With respect to the positive features of the new stadium frequently advertised, some residents of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, and Racine counties who were then a few years into living with a tax bestowed on them for 23 years to provide the funding for the stadium and the needed infrastructure couldn’t help but be caught up in the moment. We are all grateful to the Brewers for providing discounted tickets to 4 of the 81 home games held per season to residents of these counties as a demonstration of the gratitude for their involuntary funding their new corporate headquarters. I operate a sole-member LLC and admittedly am a layman with respect to operating a large organization like the Brewers. I’m sure there are good reasons that it has been decided that the 5-county discount promotions do not apply toward tickets in certain sections of the stadium, parking charges, food or beverages, or any other items such as clothing, hats, etc.
I think it is general common knowledge that utilizing an immense facility will inevitably present a need for occasional maintenance, renovation, and facility upgrade projects. We all understand these upgrades are necessary for the Brewers due to the nature of the business they are part of. These projects will allow the team to remain competitive on a mediocre level and increase annual net profits by sticking with a consistent business plan revolving around demanding that the facility upgrades are to be publicly subsidized. Like your strategy in the late 1990s, the Brewers have hinted that without the Milwaukee area providing all funding, there is a possibility they will then have to offer residents in a different United States metropolitan region discounts for 4.9% of the home games held there per season as a thank you for their funding of your new facility. This will then give the Brewers another opportunity to be provided with a new multi-million-dollar corporate headquarters virtually for free, and then insufficiently maintain that facility as well.
Many businesses set funds aside incrementally to cover the costs associated with facility needs and if the situation arises where they do not have the sufficient budget to pay for these projects, they will get a business loan and pay it back to the lender via the terms of the contract. It is now evident the Brewer’s plan was to send the residents of Wisconsin another invoice with hinted threats to leave Milwaukee if they don’t pay. To your credit, that tactic worked in the past with universal enthusiasm. It had been so long that many people had moved on and forgotten about that time, so I admire the clever way the team went about stirring up all that enthusiasm once again. Not having to apply or account for expenses associated with the initial construction and renovations associated with your business site to maximize net profits is innovative. As a business owner, I had never thought to gouge and bully my clients to increase my project margins so I appreciate the different perspective.
I sense that if negotiations regarding the funding come to an impasse, the Brewers will be left with no other options but to positively market the potential creation of low-paying part-time jobs without benefits as a spin to convince another city to build them a stadium that meets their specifications. Luckily, the Brewers and the MLB have great resources to mask how lopsided a stadium deal in a new community will be and the consequences associated with full public subsidizing of private entities. It will get everyone on board to provide the Brewers with a new site equipped with 300-foot double-sided 4K scoreboards, a 400-speaker audio system, and the requisite number of bistro restaurants, distilleries, brew pubs, swimming pools, upscale shopping options, champagne and wine bars, spa centers, farmers markets, and rock-climbing walls.
I do genuinely hope the club is not forced to move due to the overwhelming greed of local governments prioritizing the use of their limited budgets towards necessary municipal services instead of covering the Brewers and their lack of willingness to save and pay for conspicuous facility renovations. Should they leave though, I'm sure the current stadium will still hold a concert or monster truck rally here and there for about a five-year period until being abandoned, stripped of any copper materials, fully vandalized, and left to rot.
In summary, the Brewers have held a special place in my life for a long time. I realize that the current lease will be in place for several more years but it makes sad to know that I will likely still end up having to experience a momentary period of sorrow when a door hits your ass on their way out of town. But I also know everything will all be OK because the moving expenses will not be paid by the team, and that thought makes me feel much better.
On behalf of the State of Wisconsin,
We’re tired of your bullying tactics and your shitty overpriced product. Pack up - but before you leave, grab a bratwurst or hot dog or Polish or whatever….and shove it far up your ass. Enough is enough. Go charge $10+ for a beer from a major brewery located in plain sight not even mile from the stadium just because you can somewhere else.
submitted by Specific_Boot_8572 to Brewers [link] [comments]
The new facility opened during that dark period, and the Brewers opted for the addition of several state-of-the-art features for that time including a highly touted roof that allowed games to be played during inclement weather. It could also be retracted within minutes for an outdoor baseball experience too. I remember several interesting moments involving the numerous leaks during rain showers and thunderstorms provided by the roof’s sieve-inspired construction which generally required some fans to move to other areas to avoid being deluged. In 2002 I lived on Milwaukee’s East Side, and I can still distinctly remember the synergy of excitement provided to the city from MLB and the Brewers organization from the flatulent ending of the MLB All-Star game in Milwaukee and the 100+ losses the Brewers accrued that season, it was all magic back then.
With respect to the positive features of the new stadium frequently advertised, some residents of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, and Racine counties who were then a few years into living with a tax bestowed on them for 23 years to provide the funding for the stadium and the needed infrastructure couldn’t help but be caught up in the moment. We are all grateful to the Brewers for providing discounted tickets to 4 of the 81 home games held per season to residents of these counties as a demonstration of the gratitude for their involuntary funding their new corporate headquarters. I operate a sole-member LLC and admittedly am a layman with respect to operating a large organization like the Brewers. I’m sure there are good reasons that it has been decided that the 5-county discount promotions do not apply toward tickets in certain sections of the stadium, parking charges, food or beverages, or any other items such as clothing, hats, etc.
I think it is general common knowledge that utilizing an immense facility will inevitably present a need for occasional maintenance, renovation, and facility upgrade projects. We all understand these upgrades are necessary for the Brewers due to the nature of the business they are part of. These projects will allow the team to remain competitive on a mediocre level and increase annual net profits by sticking with a consistent business plan revolving around demanding that the facility upgrades are to be publicly subsidized. Like your strategy in the late 1990s, the Brewers have hinted that without the Milwaukee area providing all funding, there is a possibility they will then have to offer residents in a different United States metropolitan region discounts for 4.9% of the home games held there per season as a thank you for their funding of your new facility. This will then give the Brewers another opportunity to be provided with a new multi-million-dollar corporate headquarters virtually for free, and then insufficiently maintain that facility as well.
Many businesses set funds aside incrementally to cover the costs associated with facility needs and if the situation arises where they do not have the sufficient budget to pay for these projects, they will get a business loan and pay it back to the lender via the terms of the contract. It is now evident the Brewer’s plan was to send the residents of Wisconsin another invoice with hinted threats to leave Milwaukee if they don’t pay. To your credit, that tactic worked in the past with universal enthusiasm. It had been so long that many people had moved on and forgotten about that time, so I admire the clever way the team went about stirring up all that enthusiasm once again. Not having to apply or account for expenses associated with the initial construction and renovations associated with your business site to maximize net profits is innovative. As a business owner, I had never thought to gouge and bully my clients to increase my project margins so I appreciate the different perspective.
I sense that if negotiations regarding the funding come to an impasse, the Brewers will be left with no other options but to positively market the potential creation of low-paying part-time jobs without benefits as a spin to convince another city to build them a stadium that meets their specifications. Luckily, the Brewers and the MLB have great resources to mask how lopsided a stadium deal in a new community will be and the consequences associated with full public subsidizing of private entities. It will get everyone on board to provide the Brewers with a new site equipped with 300-foot double-sided 4K scoreboards, a 400-speaker audio system, and the requisite number of bistro restaurants, distilleries, brew pubs, swimming pools, upscale shopping options, champagne and wine bars, spa centers, farmers markets, and rock-climbing walls.
I do genuinely hope the club is not forced to move due to the overwhelming greed of local governments prioritizing the use of their limited budgets towards necessary municipal services instead of covering the Brewers and their lack of willingness to save and pay for conspicuous facility renovations. Should they leave though, I'm sure the current stadium will still hold a concert or monster truck rally here and there for about a five-year period until being abandoned, stripped of any copper materials, fully vandalized, and left to rot.
In summary, the Brewers have held a special place in my life for a long time. I realize that the current lease will be in place for several more years but it makes sad to know that I will likely still end up having to experience a momentary period of sorrow when a door hits your ass on their way out of town. But I also know everything will all be OK because the moving expenses will not be paid by the team, and that thought makes me feel much better.
On behalf of the State of Wisconsin,
We’re tired of your bullying tactics and your shitty overpriced product. Pack up - but before you leave, grab a bratwurst or hot dog or Polish or whatever….and shove it far up your ass. Enough is enough. Go charge $10+ for a beer from a major brewery located in plain sight not even mile from the stadium just because you can somewhere else.
2023.05.28 02:03 PurpleSolitudes Self-heating Shoulder Support Brace
| | https://preview.redd.it/9mx0yzggdl1b1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=730264f737aada4c5b3889c990d308c1935f8de8 submitted by PurpleSolitudes to allinsolution [link] [comments] Shoulder pain is a common problem that can be caused by a variety of factors, including injury, overuse, and arthritis. It can be debilitating and make it difficult to perform everyday tasks. There are a number of treatments available for shoulder pain, including medication, physical therapy, and surgery. However, for many people, these treatments are not enough to provide relief. The AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace is a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. This brace uses heat therapy to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. It can be used at home or on the go, and it is easy to use. How the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace WorksThe AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace works by using heat therapy to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. Heat therapy is a well-known method for relieving pain and inflammation. It works by increasing blood flow to the affected area, which helps to bring oxygen and nutrients to the tissues.The AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace has a built-in heating element that provides deep, penetrating heat. The heat helps to relax muscles, reduce inflammation, and improve blood circulation. This can help to relieve pain and improve range of motion. The brace is also adjustable, so you can find the perfect fit for your shoulders. It is made of a soft, breathable fabric that is comfortable to wear. See Price Benefits of Using the AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceThere are a number of benefits to using the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace for pain relief. These include:
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https://preview.redd.it/f4rro80mdl1b1.png?width=1800&format=png&auto=webp&s=f9acc861447a51f4cb070555d438e4f151f4448c Tips for Using the AOFIT Shoulder Support BraceHere are a few tips for using the AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace:
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ConclusionThe AOFIT Shoulder Support Brace is a non-invasive and effective way to relieve shoulder pain. This brace is easy to use and affordable, making it a great option for people who are looking for relief from pain.See Price |