Filipino bakery near me

I had to bring back my lease car and since my wife is totally into Alfa’s Italian feel of cars (which I get as a Ducati fan), she is totally into owning a Stelvio one day, we are looking for a Giulietta for now.
I like to have at least 150HP, so we are looking for one with a MA engine.
I have been test driving two of them and with both of them I noticed a “woooooooo” like / flute like sound around 1600-2100 RPM I think. It seems to be coming from the ride side of the engine bay when sitting in the car. Both cars had it and it sounded exactly the same. (A bit like when with old custom radios in cars with bad grounding you could hear a sort of RPM related noise).
When the cars are idle it’s gone and when you rev the car it also seem gone.
I tend to have learned (especially with Audi A3 2.0TDi engines) that when you hear a sound like that its the turbo that its nearing its end.
However since I have heard it in two cars and it seems strange to me two totally unrelated cars (one from 2016, one from 2018, one from Germany and one from France) both would have the sam issue.
So I guess the question is: is it normal for a MA Giulietta to have a flute/whistle/woo like sound around this RPM?
(If so it would seem annoying to have all the time….)

Hey guys, I’ve been playing for maybe 2 weeks solid. I’ve picked it up before now for maybe a couple weeks at a time and usually get busy and lose the habit of practicing.
Anyways, I was just wondering how negatively playing without a pick will impact me in the future? I learned to play bass back in HS and since then I’ve found using a pick just feels really weird and it makes me lose interest fast. I really enjoy strumming/attempting riffs without a pick, it just feels much more natural, but was just curious if this is a bad idea? I know some musicians choose to play without so it is okay to do but is it okay to start without a pick?
Primary genre of interest right now is punk/folk punk. If that matters at all :) (nowhere near where I need to be to get all those bar chords though 🥲)

Let me start by saying I (M41) love my wife (45F) more than I though I could love, well, anything. We've been together for 14 years, married 8. She's got kids from a previous relationship, but the youngest is mid-teens so they do their own thing.
A few years ago I noticed our sex life slowing down. I get it...we're not in our 20s anymore. That kind of thing happens. But we always kind of agreed that 2-3 times a week was probably our ideal. We both work, our schedules are weird, but we made the time. Now...now it's maybe once a month. Longest dry spell was more like 3-4 months.
I know some of this comes from medication, specifically Celexa my wife takes as an antidepressant. I absolutely get it. When I started my own antidepressant, granted I was in college, it messed with my sex drive too. The thing is, she doesn't talk to her doctor about (or if she does her doctor is an idiot). She started on it because at the time I didn't have insurance and stuff that worked better for her in general was too expensive. I just know that if tomorrow my dick didn't work and my first reaction was "I'll get around to the doctor to see about in a few years", she'd be incredibly hurt (and rightfully so).
I also get that things like menopause exist, but I'm fairly sure we're not that point yet. That said, every time I try and talk to her about it she starts crying and says she feels like a bad wife. No, she's a great wife. When I try and broach the subject, I am in no way judgmental or angry. I just want to check in with her and I want to know what's going on. I know it's something that's heavy on her mind and I don't want to add to the situation, but I feel like I've got some right to know what's up.
Bottom line is that I'm just incredibly hurt. When we do get it on, she always enjoys it. My performance has suffered a bit just because I'm so psychologically messed up from the on again/off again nature of everything. Not to mention the "it's been a while" factor. I'm positive she's not running around on me and I'd never do that to her either. I just don't know what to do. I know my situation isn't nearly as severe as some other posters here, but it feels like a massive thing in my life and I feel uncomfortable talking to friends about it, because it involves both of us and I don't have the right to bring up her intimate details.

I've (36F) have recently had a baby with my partner (35M). I was NC with his parents (70s M/F) and LC with his sister (43F) for years leading up to this due to a disagreement that culminated in them saying they wanted us to break up to preserve their "legacy". This has been a sore point with my partner because he reacted extremely mildly to this statement even though he admits I did nothing to deserve it.
Our baby is their first and likely going to be their only grandchild. The birth was traumatic and I was hospitalized for 2 weeks in total.
A couple of days after the birth, a midwife came by and said my in-laws were there and wanted to see the baby. I was shocked because while I knew my partner had told them about the birth but he and I had agreed that they wouldn't get to see the baby for a few weeks. I texted my partner and he got them to leave but they got quite angry and I'm told made a bit of a scene.
Later he got texts from his sister overseas about it. He tried to explain that they turned up unannounced but she just said that they were old and she didn't want him fighting with them about it because she thought he was getting between me and them.
I was pretty enraged by this but my health situation got complicated postpartum and I had to set that aside.
Eventually we arranged for his parents to come visit us after I was discharged from the hospital. We all pretended that everything was normal and that the delay in them seeing the baby was due to my nearly dying. To their credit they did sound very sympathetic.
His sister announced she was flying to see us when she heard about the birth. She's arriving next week and is expecting to see the baby while she's in the country. We were both taken aback by her doing this as she never checked when we would be comfortable receiving her. Luckily she's staying at his parents' so we don't have to host her.
We've agreed with her that she can come see the baby on a specific day. I'm uneasy about this because I feel like she was pretty disrespectful in insisting we should have let her parents in when they first turned up unannounced and also because she seems to think that I'm a bad guy that her brother needs to be protected from based on her comment about not wanting him to get involved in the disagreement between me and his parents.
My question is: how do I set boundaries here without being unfair to anyone? I understand that the baby is part of their family and they want to be involved in her life but I'm not sure I feel good being essentially obligated to let them into my life because of this especially given how they've been turning up without consulting us.
Tl;Dr: Partner's family want to see our baby after years of NC and keep trying to do so without consulting us about when it would be convenient.

There's no particular point to these ramblings, I think I'd just like to feel that someone relates.
I am 25 years old and have been a NEET for approaching four years since I dropped out of college, living with my brother as my roommate. I had always been anticipating buying a gun to kill myself with before my savings would run out, but I was too nervous about the process of doing it and kept putting it off, until my savings effectively did run out, and I was trapped. I was continually reliant on charity from my family and constantly stressed by their understandable impatience and insistence on my finding employment and the uncertainty and dread of that, until around a year ago I suddenly got the news of a decent sum of inheritance money meant for me, which I roughly estimated was substantial enough to live on for maybe another year or so.
Having gotten that second chance, I was resolute that I would either make preparations to kill myself for certain this time before my savings would run out (so I would at least have that option when it would come to it, and thus avoid being trapped again), or by using all my time at home more wisely to think and focus on things without the distraction, worry, and drain of employment, I would find some kind of reason or hope to continue living.
Predictably, I spent all this time abjectly miserable as the years before, fixating daily on my disappointment with my life and myself, and continuing the decade long trend of losing interest in and hope for the things I had cared about before, becoming more empty rather than finding any kind of motivation, almost completely giving up on my pursuits more than I ever had before. These last few months I seem to have given up on even nominally following my passions, and all I've done is engage in mindless escapism trying desperately to distract myself and dull the misery. But in spite of that, I still have at least felt some kind of comfort and security in feeling that I have plenty of money and that there's more time, and I just won't have to think about it, not yet.
Recently, several large unexpected expenses came to my attention, which will nearly wipe out my savings soon when they are due. I am frugal, but poor with planning finances on a larger scale and being a functional adult in general, and these things simply aren't on my mind until my mother informs me of them.
This forces me to hastily evaluate--what reasons to go on have I come up with in this time? I don't want to run out of money and be trapped again, I don't want to go through that shame again, and I don't want to continue living an empty life with no reason, especially if I have to grind every day at an occupation that I hate just to prolong it.
I've several times asked myself, is it worth it to give another try at employment, even if I've concluded pretty reasonably from past experience that being surrounded by people I can't relate to and working an unskilled job that constantly reminds me of my life failure without being able to distract myself from my thoughts would do nothing but cause me constant dread, shame, and misery more than I already experience? It's not a prospect I can feel motivated for. I'm weak, and I know I'd just crack and give up in the end, like I always have before.
My life is defined by constant failure, and inaction produced by indecision and inability to sufficiently care about the things I think I care about more than anything. As much as I've held out for evidence to the contrary, I've proven time and time again through my life that I do not have what it takes to accomplish anything meaningful or find satisfaction in my pursuits, that I have nothing particularly meaningful or compelling to do or say or share with the world, and it is not viable for me to relate to, be valued by, or form meaningful and lasting connections with other people. I want too much out of life, and I am capable of very little, and even while understanding the reality, I have always been unable to sufficiently adjust my expectations and learn to be content with my allotment. There have always been so many glimpses of potential happiness seemingly tantalizingly close, but I have spent my life confused and talentless and unable to focus and decide, and nothing has ever really worked out for me. It's reasonable to expect by now that nothing ever will, because of who I fundamentally am.
Probable autism, ADHD, depression (in any case some confluence of mental dysfunction throughout my life that has made me maladaptive, and unable to function or find pleasure in things). Short, bald, underweight (chronically, for my entire life regardless of intervention), arthritic, generally sickly and not suggesting manly strength. What I think about most each day is how I want to be loved by a girl, how maybe life would feel worth living if that much were possible and I could use that to somehow ignore all the rest, but being loved is just not viable for someone like me, especially not now (and not for lack of trying, through the internet as my only realistic avenue since my teen years). My personality and drive for interacting with reality has eroded so much over the years that there's not much left to share with anyone, I just feel hollow. If I ever had much redeeming value, it is not there now.
What do I enjoy in life? What is realistically left for me? From here forward, coming home exhausted and mentally and physically drained from work each day, just to stare blankly at the computer screen as I have for my entire life and consume media I am tired of, and trying to numb myself from the insipidness of my life? People say that life is what you make it, and I feel I've proven long enough that I can't make it much of anything.

So I’m reading the light novels, getting caught up, and I just had a question for anyone that’s caught up.. Does it get better? I’m honestly feeling extremely annoyed with the events of volume 20 so far. Sorry if anyone doesn’t want to hear this, it does come from a love of the series, it’s just.. The last few volumes actually annoyed me quite a bit. I really enjoyed the series up through volume 16 on my last read, which is as far as it had updated at the time, but.. It took like two or three volumes to get through the arc in Kizuna’s world, and as much as I like those characters.. I’m not nearly as invested in this “mamoru” character or the implications of time travel shenanigans. Reading this is hurting my head, and not because it’s too complicated. Rather, am I going to have to learn a whole new cast of characters that are essentially clones of other characters? ..and am I expected to care about them? I’m just getting really annoyed at the prospect of enjoying so much of a series, knowing it’s coming to an end.. and then having the last several volumes potentially be a complete slog virtually unrelated to the main story. It also feels like a massive pain that right when the other heroes/villagers start getting developed and start being fun characters, they get sidelined for god knows how many volumes in favor of these bozos I care nothing for. It’s like just when I was finally invested in all the stuff going in in kizuna’s world, it’s just “nope, we’re going back now”. Then when I get interested in the plot points and characters back home, it’s literally immediately “nope, we’re in the past now”. I just feel like the last few volumes it’s been doing this thing where it drags on forever in parts I have no interest in, like the stupid twenty person battles that are all one on one between ten different parties and always the same “Naofumi is watching from the side and commenting on every single fight” gag, as if he’s not in a fight himself and as if any of us care HOW filo killed this guy or “the heavenly empress” killed that guy.. At this point I’m just venting, I thought this series was so good, but I’ve really been struggling through the volumes for a good minute now. I genuinely want to like it and keep reading but I’m so unbelievably frustrated at how it drags on and then cuts me off on the actual good stuff. Perfect example; I love the slice of life stuff, with the cast and characters were actually interested in, in the world we know. Why in God’s name would I be interested in it with “R’yne”, “Holn” and “Mamoru”?! Of course I’m not, can we just get to the conclusion of whatever the hell this is and go back to melromarc? But I have the distinct feeling that won’t be happening, and I’m stuck with this for a while. Anyway.. I could rant about this all day. Sorry to anyone that read through all this; My question is just “Does it get any better?” Are there any reasons to keep reading? Because a hundred pages of this “time travel” nonsense already has me feeling incredibly stupid about how excited I was to get caught up.. It’s not even the time travel that annoys me, it’s that they actually expect me to care about the cloned characters or the differences between timelines. ….am I actually expected to learn a whole new, completely uninspired cast, this late in the series..please saintly even right at the end…?

Anyone up for a sfw call before sleeping?
I think I can hold a conversation pretty well naman and I’ve been told that I’m a good listener kaya g na! Tell me you kwentos.
I’m an open book :)) I’m into music and series. Maybe you can suggest some?
Preferably someone makwento & near my age.
hmu with a short intro <3

When I was younger, I got a job in a major city across the country, so I got an apartment. I'm a country girl, so I loathe the city and all its glass and stone, and therefore I happily paid the premium for the one apartment complex I could find that actually had greenery in that it had small green "fields" around it. Like a 10 foot strip of green between the building and the road, but it was better than pavement.
The layout of the place is somewhat relevant, and to make it easier I'll use compass directions to give you an idea. The apartment building was your typical skyscraper, on the corner of a highway access road and a regular street that went downtown. The highway was north of the building, traveling east to west. The side street was to the east, running north to south. South of the apartment building was the surface parking lot, which sat on top of an underground parking garage. Between the apartment building and the southern parking lot was a small green island, basically the side of a hill as the land sloped up from the underground garage entrance up to the surface lots on top of it.
The main door of the apartment faced the side street (across which was a well-lit square where neighborhood holiday events took place, and a bunch of small boutiques and further down a mall, so it was bright and busy almost all the time. It sucked but it meant the place wasn't creepy at night). The apartment also had a side door on its south end, through the basement (not a creepy basement, well lit and also where the gym, laundry room, and party room were. The apartment was on a hill so the entrances were on different levels). The side door let out toward the parking garage and the parking lots.
There are two entrances to drive onto the property from the side street, one at the north end of the building and one at the south end. Between the apartment and the side street was a drive-thru like lane, with street-facing parking on one side but no room to park on the apartment-side. This drive-thru lane went from the north street entrance to the south street entrance (a stoplight intersection), which was also where the parking lot split. The south street entrance was convoluted. If you were driving onto the property from there, you could either take a right onto the drive-thru lane, go straight to turn into the underground garage entrance, or go left to drive up onto the surface lot.
My typical routine would be to get up at 4 and let my dog out to pee. I would take him out the south side door, cross the little lane that led to the parking garage, and let him pee in the little island of grass between the entrance to the garage and the surface lot. Sometimes I'd go further, crossing to the sidewalk beside the actual street, since there was a strip of green there between the parking spots and the sidewalk.
That morning, I had stayed in the island next to the parking garage, letting my dog do his thing. I tend to pace, so while he was sniffing about, I was casually strolling back and forth. I do this out of general restlessness, but it doubles as an excellent way to keep a good 360 degree awareness of my surroundings.
During one turn, I glimpsed something between the cars parked facing the street on that thru-lane. It was a lone figure on the sidewalk by the side street, shoulders slightly bent against the cold, head down, walking south, hands in the pockets of his dark jacket/hoodie. I'm often out this early to go jogging, and I've seen the occasional early bird doing the same, so I had no qualms about a guy walking on the sidewalk. I literally notice nothing else about him except the dark jacket and his location.
I turn away, and my dog is still taking his sweet time, so my slow pacing eventually turns me back toward the street. I notice the guy on the sidewalk cut across the green strip and between the cars parked facing the street on that drive-thru lane. This is the first time I really take note, because that particular area is a short albeit steep incline from the sidewalk to the parked cars. He easily could have been taking a shortcut to get to the south side door of the apartment, but the actual sidewalk turnoff (at the south car entrance) was like 10 feet away from him, so it was a relatively unnecessary shortcut. Whatever, he crosses the drive-thru lane toward the south side entrance, so I pay it no mind. My pacing is slow, so even as I'm turning, I still have him in my peripherals. He definitely heads to the door, so I proceed to ignore him as I turn back to my dog, who is still taking his sweet-ass time sniffing a particularly interesting spot in the grass.
As I'm looking at my dog, he suddenly stops sniffing and lifts his head slightly, ears pricked as he stares at something behind. He had seen the guy crossing the thru-lane earlier and ignored him, and he posture wasn't any more defensive than it usually is, but I just notice. That's when I realized I hadn't actually heard the side door open. You need a key fob to enter any of the entrances, which makes a loud beep, and I hadn't heard that.
My pacing turned me around again, and that's when I see the guy walking away from the door, as if back toward the street or parking lot. But the second I catch sight of him, he stops. And he's just standing there on the curb of the little lane to the garage, opposite me where I am on the green island. He's just standing there facing me, hands in pockets, looking right at me, me standing there looking right at him.
(I always carry pepper spray on a strap that wraps around my hand, so it's always secure in my palm, and since I was using that hand to hold my jacket closed since the zipper broke, the mace can was clearly visible. Looking back, I wonder if that's why he stopped walking when I turned).
I'm normally dumb and absentminded enough to not feel anxious in situations when I should. That whole "Gift of Fear" thing simply doesn't exist in me. I didn't get any chills, no queasy feeling, no hair raised on the back of my neck. But I did have a very loud and decisive voice speak up in my head that just said, "Nope."
So I tug the leash and start out for the sidewalk, crossing the convoluted "intersection" of parking lot lanes, intending to make my way to the north main door. The second I move, though, so does the guy! He steps out sideways, stepping off the curb and crossing the convoluted "intersection that isn't an intersection," perfectly angled to cut me off right in the center. So I do another "Nope" and spin on the ball of my foot to head for the other sidewalk, south of the intersection, as if to let my dog pee over at that green strip instead.
In my peripherals, the guy changed direction, too. He took a left, heading back toward the sidewalk to head north, literally going back the way he came. I could see him the whole time from my vantage point next to the sidewalk now, so I know for certain he did not go to the north main door of the apartment building. He just kept walking along the street until he was gone. That's ultimately the only reason I'm putting this here, because up to then, a large part of me had rationalized this behavior as that of a guy simply trying to get home but had forgotten his key fob (the north main door has a desk person who can buzz you in).
But he didn't go to the main door of the apartment, and the brief moment of him just standing there staring at me, and nearly cutting me off, then changing course... I don't know what to make of it. Like I said, I wasn't panicked, but then I usually don't get that way because my first instinct is to drop all emotion and face weird situations analytically. But the event always really stuck out in my mind, and I honestly can't determine if that instance really was "weird" or I'm making a bigger deal of it because it was 4 in the morning and I was tired and wired.

I’m looking at buying a Silverado but I’m getting worried about what I’m seeing on transmissions issues for this generation of trucks. From what I’m seeing most transmissions will go out around 100k miles, I have a couple friends whose transmission went out around the exact same mileage as well.
Has anyone not had an issue with their transmission with these years? I’m not going to be doing a ton of towing other than a boat every once in a while. I love the look and feel of the Silverados but the transmission issues I am seeing are concerning. I don’t like the idea that I will have to shell out nearly 5k at any given time.
This issue is making me consider getting a Tacoma instead but they are so sluggish and cramped compared to the Silverado but will undoubtedly last forever. Should I avoid this generation? Or if I treat it right and look into some preventative maintenance can I avoid the tranny issues?

I'm specifically looking into NB's, as I prefer their look just a tad more than the NA (which I am also still fine with, but mainly NB - don't kill me!).
I can likely buy an NA or NB by the end of this summer, but it'd be a (to my parents, I'm not actually sure if it is) high mileage one, with at least 170k miles on it. My parents are super picky and are the type to only buy Honda/Toyota because of their reliability, and so this number has been ingrained in my head as super high mileage, but I'm not too sure if that's really the case with Miatas.
Or I can wait until next summer to buy a lower mileage one with around 118k miles or so, but it'd cost more than double, and I have a feeling prices will only get higher as more time passes, so these cars could go to nearly $12-13K USD for one with that mileage - not really ideal.
I'd obviously prefer just going the higher mileage route, meanwhile spending less than half of the money. Let's say I did go this route. What things are commonly failing/things to look for at this mileage? I know the frame rail rust is a big one, but what other things to consider in terms of majominor maintenance needed around this mileage?
Thanks for your replies!

I’m male aged 22 look younger still get asked for ID to prove age for example)
Anyways Iv been going to this female job advisor around aged 32 ish every 2 weeks for 20 mins who Iv been going to for 5-6 months who’s been pretty difficult for me tbh
I’m really quiet and pleasant always polite always turn up on time for appointments never complain always do what she asks etc yet her attitude with me is poor tbh. She’s rude, abrupt, arrogant and can easily tell she sits there and judges and criticises me like staring at my hair when it’s messy from wind or rain for example and makes it obvious but doesn’t care. Looks at me like I killed her cat with this pissed off glare
I say hello to her at the beginning of every appointment she ignores me and juts narkily says ‘how’s your job search going’ rolling her eyes while looking at her computer screen etc
I ask her about a job application I’m stuck on she ignores me she puts me in computer job search and never goes near me to offer help but goes near the others. I once picked up a pen she dropped once she didn’t take it off me and said ‘just put it down on the desk’ then later seen her put it in the bin after I walked off which was like 3-4 mins later and it wasn’t a disposable pen.
+can tell easily she keeps her distance from me but isn’t standoffish with others at all+
For example she phone calls them often yet she only ever emailed me once
But when certain other males who seem attractive and attracted to her it’s a different person from her. She’s giggly, bubbly all little miss sunshine personality goes out of her way for him offers him help she’s never offered me. phones him several times a week to send him jobs to apply for but never phoned me and she also offered them to phone for help her and never has with me , you get the drift .
▪️ She’s even in a very super good, bubbly, miss sunshine mood shiny eyes etc when I’m next after they sit there too and it’s so obvious
iv seen 1 male who was extremely rude to their reception staff and complained a lot shouting refusing to do computer job search etc but is on the attractive side and she stared at him and requested for him and a few weeks later there he was sitting in front of my advisor and she way different with him and in an extremely good mood with me for once after it when I sat there next
◼️ she actually changed one of my appointments once by only sending me a letter so she could get a hot guy instead sooner to help him with a practice interview etc (that hurt a lot tbh)
▪️So I have a job interview tomorrow she doesn’t know about as I don’t tell her because of her attitude

Used to play a lot but just haven't in a long time I don't have it in me quite yet to put this beast down on my own. Password is 1234 near the boss's lair

All credit for the world goes to u/spacepaladin15. I hope you enjoy! (and if you didn't, I'd be happy to hear your critique)
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Memory transcript subject: Trish, Venlil civilian
Date [Standardized Human Time]: February 28th, 2177
Location: Lower sprawl of City 23, Venlil Prime
Trish didn’t make any noise to announce her presence. Her jet-black dyed fur blended in with the soft shadows. By the time anyone noticed her, she could’ve been standing there for a solid quarter-claw. She’d made a sort of game out of it, seeing how well she could keep hidden under Sasha’s all-observant eyes. Of course, everyone who could notice her was sprawled out on various couches and chairs, overfull on stew and lost in the flow of conversation. That helped. In the dim lighting and complete absence of alertness, she could even smooth out her fur with a paw and not draw any notice from them, provided she did so quietly.
Watching people from the shadows instead of greeting them was predatory behavior, or so she’d been told; in school, she was repeatedly reprimanded for not socializing properly with the other Venlil. When they forced her to stop spending so much time alone, she chose to spend time with the few human kids. They were more interesting, and they didn’t yell at her because her tail and ears didn’t move like they were supposed to. She’d never seen any of those humans sit back and watch like she did; they were nothing if not sociable, although they always seemed to know when she’d talked enough and gave her space before she started to panic. Some “predators” they were.
They were nice kids. Sometimes she wondered what facility she’d be rotting in if one of them didn’t teach her the basics of writing Fl-sharp on an old, beat up datapad. When her teachers brought in assessors, she’d talked with one of them about programming for so long that they decided to forgo the tests entirely, assuming that such a talkative kid couldn’t have predator disease. Trish could barely bring herself to speak for days afterwards in a fog of social exhaustion, but the act had been worth it.
​
Minutes of self-absorbed self-reflection, and still nobody had noticed her. Perhaps James had butterfingered some sedatives into their food on accident? She decided to finally make herself known with a sharp tail lash against the wooden floor.
“...Trish. I suppose you’ll tell us why we’re all here.” Sasha groggily rose to look at her as she stepped out into the light. The rest mimicked the action, dragging themselves out of stew-induced stupor to focus their attention. Trish cleared her throat.
“Thank you all for coming. I’ve gotten word of another package on the way. It’s from her.”
That got their attention. James nearly fell over from twisting around to look at her. “Our mysterious unnamed benefactor again, so soon? What’s it this time, more books? Earth music?”
“Much better. It’s another unmarked.”
Last time they’d gotten an unmarked package from her, it had turned out to be a pair of pistols. Kinetic weaponry which would tear right through the flame/plasma resistant exterminator suits, though it also kicked like hell. One of them was given as a gift to a friend who lived on the dark side of Venlil Prime, and the other was concealed in Tressa’s coat. The prospect of something similar filled them all with equal excitement and dread.
“And no, I don’t have any idea what it is. All she said was to ‘be gentle with it’. It’s set to be delivered…”
Trish checked her pad again, quietly hoping that the words on the screen had somehow changed. They hadn’t.
“...at the Rising Star hotel, the one right next to the new spaceport.”
A single groan of frustration expressed itself through four different people. Tressa was the first to speak. “You’re kidding me. She’s seriously asking you to… not just the upper layer, mind you, a spaceport! The place’ll be crawling with those flamethrower freaks, one at every corner!”
"I know. And she thinks it’s worth the risk trying to get it to us anyway, whatever it is. So we’re doing it.”
There was silence, as every one of them tried to find a reason it wasn’t worth it. Even Trish, who’d already gone through this whole process nearly a paw ago when she got the message, tried one more time to write the idea off. All of them failed. The potential reward was just too great, and it wasn’t worth breaking the trust of their fixer. She was putting a hell of a lot on the line and blindly hoping they’d reciprocate.
With a long, exaggerated sigh, James rose from his sprawled lounge to a semi-respectable slouch. “So I’m taking it that this isn’t a solo op, is it. Who’re you looking to take?”
“All of us.”
Trish spoke in a clear, somewhat monotone voice which completely belied her nerves at her proposal. Truth be told, they didn’t need to come at all. Not for practical reasons. Some of them could certainly be useful, of course, but that was hardly cause to drag every one of them out for what really could be a solo operation. No, the real reason was far dumber than that.
—
The first time she’d noticed it was the night she met Burai. It was a miserably cold night, and she was nearly running to get home. Her route took her past the Tipped Quill, although at the time she’d barely noticed the building. Without any signage (much less the extensive remodeling that would come later), the establishment blended in with a thousand other dilapidated buildings on the street. She paid it no mind.
Or she would’ve paid it no mind, but something stopped her. A physical feeling, an icy tightness around her stomach which pulled towards the bar like a magnet. She stopped, wheeled around; Burai was sitting on the front steps, checking something on his pad and shivering lightly in the wind. She’d seen the old Gojid a handful of times, but never talked to him before. She’d never had any reason to. Without thinking, without even understanding what exactly she was doing, she started to double back.
It happened again a few weeks later, in a seedy restaurant on the border of Sweetwater. This time, instead of pulling her in, it was dragging her out with urgent force. She’d already finished her food and paid, so she just let it happen, watching with curiosity as it forced her into a half-sprint away from the building. It wasn’t until she’d rounded a corner that she heard the telltale roar of flamethrowers, and by then she’d already been ferried away from the chaos.
And again, commanding her to follow a digital trail that led her straight to their mysterious contact who’d turned out to be a veritable goldmine of banned materials, books and foods and a working firearm. And again, suggesting that she double back into the bar where she’d find Burai choking on a starfruit and unable to breath. The feeling had no words to speak with, but its command was always clear. And right now, it was telling her in no uncertain terms that the entire group needed to come along for the retrieval.
Of course, she couldn’t tell them the real reason why she wanted them to all go. She’d been making up excuses all evening, practicing a few to the bathroom mirror and shower wall. She braced herself for an explosion of hostility at the inane suggestion, squared her shoulders for the coming argument.
—
The silence in the room started to tear at Trish’s spirit. Were they so nonplussed that they wouldn’t even dignify her with a response? She felt tension building in her throat, thick enough to choke on. Maybe if she fainted on the spot, they’d take some pity on her. She never was a fainter, but if she forced herself to stop breathing she could make something work…
“Ahh… yeah. I thought we might, given your message.” Tressa began with a stifled yawn. “So how long do we have before leaving? Enough to get some rest?” His tail swished lazily across the floor; Trish didn’t need to remember the fine details of tail language to see the lack of distress in the movement. James went back to his sprawled position, muttering something about clearing his schedule.
Trish looked at him incredulously, and he failed to return the gesture. All of them were acting as though this was a sane, normal thing to request, starting to quietly chatter about the details of the mission in the same casual register they’d been using all night to discuss food and friends and work.
“All of you.” Trish made her voice firm. “Do you understand what I’m asking? This will not be a risk free mission, a ‘walk in the park’. Tressa, you said as much a moment ago. You didn’t seem so cavalier about this idea then.”
“Nothing we do is risk free.” James countered. “Even meeting here is a risk, right? And besides, I’ve been stuck down here too long. It’s high time I got some fresh air.”
That was hardly a real reason. Even Trish could come up with a better excuse than that.
…She decided to let it lie. If they were willing to go, there was no point in pushing back. They weren’t dumb; they knew the risks. If they didn’t want to tell her the reason they were so eager to jump on a pointlessly over-crewed retrieval mission, so be it. Who was she, to tell them to be honest with her about their motivations?
Trish leaned against a nearby couch and slumped into a more comfortable position, feeling her heart rate restabilize and her mind resharpen. Pulling out the pad again, she mulled over the details of the message one more time before speaking up.
“What we’re looking for is a light gray backpack with the UN logo on it. As I said, it’ll be handed over in the Rising Star hotel; exact location is still pending. We’ve got about 10 hours before we need to leave.”
She desperately hoped she had the time conversion between claws and hours correct, or she’d be dealing with either four underslept liabilities or a very irritated fixer who wouldn’t accept “slept in” as a reasonable excuse.
“We’ll need a few minutes to get prepared before taking Beast, and the trip up could take a couple hours if there’s really bad traffic. I’m sure you all understand why we need to be there immediately, so that possibility is what I’m planning around. That should give you all plenty of time to rest.”
Taking the multiple sighs of relief as her cue, Trish picked herself up from the floor and stalked off to one of the rooms she’d claimed as her own. She never liked these face-to-face chats, but at least the hardest part of her work was done. In the morning, she could focus on the relatively simple task of actually retrieving the package. The thought of the trip up wasn’t pleasant, per se (Beast wasn’t exactly a reliable steed), nor was the prospect of traipsing around the upper layer of City 23. Though it was undeniably beautiful, they’d be under the ever-watchful eye of the Federation at all times. Still, the stress of surveillance couldn’t hold a candle to the stress of social confrontation. Compared to that ordeal, the trip couldn't be anything but smooth sailing.
---
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How do entrepreneurs meet each other in foreign countries?
Fellow entrepreneur in Taiwan for the rest of 2023.
Wanted to see if anyone wants to connect/meetup/discuss business ideas.
I am located near Taipei
My passion is sales/marketing. I've done some pretty cool stuff like sales for Google in early days and digital marketing ads for Credit Karma right before the Intuit acquisition.
So, if you are a technical ambitious guy I would love to make a new friend.
Please DM Me if the above resonates with you.
In DMs, I'll send you my LinkedIn so you know I'm not full of it.
Thanks!

I always order from places near me, like tops 15 mins away from my house. Most of the time I order from a plaza thats 4 mins away. Whats an appropriate tip for this distance?

Any other game I play is flawless online, no major issues and certainly not to the point where I get half way into the game and just switch off again. No chance is it just me, but apparently every opponent I face has zero issues. Not only that but my players are not able to perform anywhere near my opposition, TOTS Modric is literally pointless at this point because he plays as if he’s a bronze card

Context for later: I am Polyamorous and currently have a boyfriend (15M) and have for nearly 3 years
I (16F) recently broke up with my girlfriend (18F), it was a long distance relationship and we never actually got to meet in person, I was obsessed with her and loved her a lot, we were dating for two years. a few weeks back she told me the distance was too hard and that she wanted an in person relationship, and I was okay with that, I took the breakup pretty hard and was basically crying and screaming to myself for days, with the breakup also being in the middle of exams, it was extra hard.
She wanted us to stay friends and assured me that everything was gonna be alright between us, I genuinely thought that was true and that things would be okay, Oh how fucking wrong I was.
Not a day after we broke up she started talking to me about this other guy who wanted to get into a relationship after apparently getting out of a pretty toxic one a while back, not a week later they were together and they had already been on a date, she told me everything about them, both directly and in group chats on discord.
At first i was kinda okay with it but she refused to tell me any specifics about him, not even his name, she said that it would just “hurt me more” but I feel like if I knew who he was I’d atleast feel comfort in knowing the guy wasn’t an asshole, I reluctantly agreed, before she immediately told me a lot of specifics about him and his past, but the more she told me about him the worse I felt, at this point I just asked her to stop talking to me about him, did she listen? Of course not
She kept going on about him and I had told her multiple times to stop, i was kinda okay with it coz the guy didn’t sound like an ass, but a few days later is when i really had it.
She was talking to me about him and his previous “toxic” relationship, she didn’t get into specifics but the whole thing sounded fake as fuck, she kept dancing around what actually happened, then I asked if he knew about us and how we were together for two years before they got together, she then replied with a very blunt “no” saying she didn’t wanna bring up past relationships with him (bullshit) and gave me a guilt tripping “can we not talk about this?”
It was at that point that I was just done with it, I just told her to stop and that she was being cruel and selfish. I blew up in her face (over text) saying she should atleast tell him and that she’s being a selfish asshole, I then threatened to tell her new boyfriend about us since she didn’t wanna, in hindsight I feel like that was a bad thing to say but she just said to me that she, again, wasn’t ready to talk about past relationships with him, strange considering that’s all they were doing
She gave me some half assed apologies, but by that point I had fully had it and we just cut contact completely.
It’s been two days since we actually cut contact, I miss talking to her but I fully know she would just make me feel shit if i takes to her. I said I’ll get back in contact with her around the end of June, but I dunno if I will at this point, if the first message she sends back isn’t an apology of some kind then I’ll be done. I feel like I’m in the right for the most part but I’m still unsure about the threat, I’ll probably update this when/if we get back in contact.

Hey everyone.
I want to say that I realize some of you have marriages that are crumbling, and some of you have children. What you're going through is bigger than what I am, and I don't want to diminish what you're going through. I'm asking advice about my girlfriend, but this is someone whom I was contemplating marrying and having a kid with before this news came out.
I'm really struggling with whether or not this relationship is worth continuing. I want to, but it feels incredibly exhausting. I don't know what feelings I have are valid, invalid, positive or negative. I don't know what is worth talking about with her, and what I need to work on myself, or even - keep to myself. I understand that talking about the affair can send our day or time into a spiral together, so I find myself avoiding talking about it even when it's on my mind. This most certainly impacts the way I show up in the relationship, and she can almost always tell something is wrong because I either get quiet, or try to distance myself for the day. I don't know how to move forward, and I would really like ya'lls opinion or help.
I feel like explaining what happened will better paint a picture.
About eight months ago, I started dating my partner. We had known each other for several years, because we once had worked together. Things were wonderful between us, however I recognize things were moving very quickly. I had recently gotten out of a long term relationship when I started dating my girlfriend, so I hadn't exactly had the time and space to heal from that. I found the momentum of my new relationship take over and I found myself trying to seek a commitment with her, possibly in order to lock her down/ "make her my girlfriend". I recognize now, that this was a mistake.
She explained that she had a trip planned roughly a month away to go across the country to visit a FWB (lets call him Matt) that she had attended concerts with, and that she didn't feel like being in a relationship at the time was something she wanted. Initially, I was understanding of this and wanted to respect this. As I mentioned before, things between the two of us were moving very quickly. Even though we weren't "committed" to each other, neither of us were actively dating anybody else and would gush over each othetell each other we loved each other. Things felt wonderful, but in the back of my mind - the idea of the looming trip lingered.
I expressed to her that because she had the trip planned, I thought it best to reel things back and just be friends. I didn't want to risk heartbreak because I knew the odds of something happening would be extremely high. She understood this, but we would both go back and forth about continuing to see and spend time with each other. It was hard to stay away, because of our love/infatuation. We would discuss not spending time with each other until after she gets back, and then one of us would get weak and seek each other out.
After this continued for roughly 3 weeks, (trip is roughly 1 week out at this point), I asked her if she would cancel her trip and flight and explore the possibility of "us" and what we could be. She was unwilling to do this, and said that she "needed to close this chapter out" before moving forward with me. I remember speaking to my therapist at the time, and she said that it sounds like she "wants her pie and to eat it too". Anyways, I came to accept that she was going - that was that and there wasn't anything I could do about it other than learn to be okay with it.
I changed positions and accepted that she was going, however I said "I realize that you want to go on this trip, but just because you're going doesn't mean you have to be physical with this person". Initially, she was trying to defend leaving the possibility of something physical happening, to which I explained I didn't understand given how we said we felt about each other. After discussing things for awhile, she told me that she agreed that she would be monogamous with me, and I to her - and that nothing would happen on her trip. She even went as far as contacting the guy she was going to visit and telling him about me, and how we're exclusive and that she wants him to respect that boundary when she comes to visit. I feel naive for believing this, now.
Half-way through her trip, she called me early in the morning crying. I asked her if everything was okay. She said "yes I just miss you, and I'm feeling a little homesick". I asked "did anything happen between the two of you"? She replied "No, nothing like that happened.". I told her that I loved her and that I was looking forward to seeing her in a couple of days.
Fast forward to the day she came back - I was excited to see her but I also had a suspicion that something had happened. I chose not to pressure her or ask her again if anything had happened, and chose to move forward in building our relationship. I felt at the time this would show that I was "unbothered" and not insecure.
It's important for me to also state that she continued to have a "platonic" texting friendship with this individual that she saw on her trip. From the time when she came back, until now - I believe she had been keeping things appropriate (for the most part) that I could see.
As the continuing months went on, things over all were going really well. She started inviting me to family gatherings, to meet her friends, going on vacations, and even professed that she wanted to get married to me and have a child together. All of these things made me feel great. I was so happy to hear how much she was into our relationship.
About a month and a half ago, we went to Texas to visit her family. It was overall a great trip. There was eventually a conversation about a big concert that was going to be happening near our hometown this summer, to which I asked her if she wanted to go. She told me "honestly, I think Matt is going to be flying there to see that concert - and out of respect for you and to avoid awkwardness, I don't think I want to go". This initially made me feel good - that she was being respectful of our relationship. I asked her if she thought it would be hard to go with me and see him there - to which she replied "no, I think that it would be totally fine and he would be respectful as he has been of our relationship". She went on to say that "I think that former lovers or partners can be platonic friends and it has to do with being mature enough to handle something like that". I said that I think I can understand where she's coming from, and that as long as "she was honest about nothing happening on the trip, I didn't think it would be a problem either". She replied "no, nothing happened at all". I believed her, again.
About three weeks ago, I had made dinner reservations for us to have a nice meal just for a random occasion. Before the dinner - she told me that she contacted "Matt" and told him that she wouldn't be attending the concert that summer and that she feels out of respect for her and I's relationship they should reel back their communication with each other. That made me happy to hear, as I had cut off almost all the women friends/ex's that I had out of respect for her quite some time ago. The conversation started to spiral at one point, and I began to ask more focused questions around her trip with "Matt". I asked her if he tried to kiss her. She said "no". I then decided to ask about sleeping arrangements. She said that he slept on the couch and she slept in the bed. I asked her "did you two ever share the bed any of the nights?". She was quiet for a second, and then said "yes we shared a bed one of the nights but he slept on his side". I said "did he try to cuddle you at all, or anything like that?" She was quiet for several seconds. I knew then that something had happened. I pressed harder and asked if they had hooked up. She finally admitted that they did.
I felt sick, betrayed, and like a fool. I don't even think what happened was the worst part. I think the fact that she lied for 6+ months about it and tried to sell this as a "purely platonic" friendship was the worst. I demanded to look at her phone. I went through her phone, and saw that they had pretty frequent communication. Nothing seemingly inappropriate, however when I found the texts about this music festival in our hometown this summer she said "you should come!". I asked her what she meant by that, and she said "I just meant he should go, not come with me.". This felt like a BS excuse to me, but she still defends it to this day. I told her that "I cant do this, and we can't have a relationship without trust" and I left.
She sent me texts that night begging for another chance. Telling me she was confused when it happened and she was very sorry. She told me that she felt pressured into a commitment with me and that she felt like she hadn't finished exploring the possibility with this other guy at the time. After thinking about those details, and how great everything else had been between us - I decided to give us another shot.
She has made significant changes that I had never asked for, but I still feel the pain of betrayal every single day. She has blocked his number, and removed and blocked him off all platforms. She turned on tracking on her phone, read receipts, she has thrown away the merchandise she bought on that trip to see "Matt". She has limited her interactions with her male friends as I have expressed that it just looks bad for her to have solo lunches with single male co-workers. She has been overly communicating when she goes on trips with girlfriends to make me feel more secure. I can tell a lot of these adjustments are really weighing on her, and I do feel bad - but it doesn't make my pain go away.
There are days where I feel this nagging, heavy weight on my soul. It's telling me that a relationship this early should not have this much strife. This is too much work, and maybe I should quit. It has turned me into an insecure man, which I was never before. It has me questioning if I can ever trust her again. The biggest problem, is that I love her and I see the potential for our relationship if we can move past this and pretend like it never happened.
Most days, 90%+ of the time I feel like I can show up in a way where it's not impacting me. These days are wonderful. We share so much love, laughs, and connect on so many levels. The days where it's impacting me, I feel like I shutdown. I try to handle the thoughts myself, which she can tell and it ultimately sabotages us, and our day.
I also find smaller issues "triggering" the big thing that happened. A couple examples would be, she said "you really turned a hoe into a housewife" the other day. For whatever reason, this triggered me because in my head I said "why would you even say that?". This ended up in a long heated discussion over that comment because I expressed to her how it triggered me, and how I view her action on her trip as a "hoe" action and I think that was a trigger.
Recently, she planned a river rafting trip with some friends of hers (2 females, 1 single male friend of hers). I wasn't invited to come on the trip, until after someone else decided they wanted to bring their partner. I expressed to her that I felt like I was an afterthought, and the fact that she was going on a rafting trip with a single guy in the group seems like a no brainer to invite your boyfriend to come a long with, especially after what happened and how we're trying to repair us.
I know this is a huge wall of text. I'm sorry, and thank you for reading. I don't know how to move forward. I love her. She was all I wanted, in the beginning. I feel like what happened has changed me for the worse. Am I making this a bigger deal than it should be? I know if I keep going at this rate, I will implode our relationship with my insecurity. If that doesn't happen, then we will both be consistently miserable and then my biggest fear of something happening again will likely come true.
I could really use any advice on this matter, and also if you think my feelings around what happened are valid or if I'm blowing this out of proportion.
Thank you all.