This weekend, I met a man for a first date. We’ve talked for awhile now, and I thought he was a nice guy. I haven’t had a first date in 17 years, and I haven’t had any dates, much less sex, since my divorce 5 years ago. We’d agreed we’d probably have sex, but there was absolutely NO talk of filming ANYTHING - it would have been a fast, hard, no way in hell if it had been discussed. Imagine my surprise when after sex he got up and turned his iPad camera off. I wear glasses and hadn’t seen anything. I was speechless, and feel so stupid that I didn’t say anything at the time. I’m 43. He’s 48. Is this normal for dating now? I don’t know what I do about it now, since if he’s the type to film without permission, seems like he would either say he deleted it or just ignore me. What do I do? What if he puts it on some porn site? I feel like since I didn’t say anything at the time I’ve given implied consent.

We bought a dishwasher when we moved in about 18 months ago. I told him I wanted X brand and gave many reasons why we should go with it. This brand is more expensive but it’s worth it and we had one in our previous home. He bought Y instead because it was less money and in his opinion a good deal, I tried to explain why it wasn’t but he didn’t care, it does the job - no he didn’t get a warranty, even though I encouraged him to.
About 8 months ago (maybe not even quite that) the motor and something else goes out on it. He calls someone to come out and it costs us close to $500 to repair it between parts and labor, essentially what it costs to buy it. I told my husband if that fixes the problem then it’s worth it but for the price we could just replace it.
The repair works for 91 days and stops again. They come out and determine it’s the same problem and they need to swap out a part and it’s weird that this happened. They replace the part over the course of a week and upon leaving it still doesn’t work.
My husband is calling these people and leaving me to interact with them. We both have jobs and work the same schedule even similar roles. It’s not like I’ve got free time any more than him to babysit the project but I am. I’m talking to repair guy and he says basically that X is full of cheap plastic and the brand is know to have problems.
I see money spent as time for them to come out and the cost of the hardware. They’re repairing an object, they can’t guarantee they can fix anything 100%. Even the repair guy said he had never had to replace the same part 3 times. I asked what our options were and he said buy a different brand - fine by me.
My husband is mad. He’s mad that he spent $500+ and it’s not fixed. That I should call and tell them that it’s still broken and we want compensation or it to work - I don’t even know what he expects? We paid them for their time and service. They warranty the part for a year but labor is good for 60 days.
I will call Tuesday to inquire about replacing the fan or what that may even cost but at this point I just want to buy the dishwasher I wanted - and no, not sprint out and buy it. I’m the one washing a household of 5 everything. I want something that is dependable and works.
My husband is mad at me because I’m not as angry at the repair company like he is and that I told him what did he expect? The repair guys said it was possible this wouldn’t be the end all he all. I told him not to buy this one but he did anyways. He said fine I’ll call them - but guess who’s going to be the one talking to them when they get here…
Am I wrong?

I'm 19. For years I feel like I have no real purpose on earth. Why do we have to go to school, work, get married, have kids, retire, then sit around and rot away till you're nothingness in the dirt. That's the cycle of life and there's nothing else to it unless you do it yourself and it's not easy that way.
I've been making beats for a few years but it's very hard to try to pursue this as a career. Music is the only thing that drives me and makes me feel joy. The thought of going to college makes me depressed and there's nothing they have to offer that I want to dedicate my life to. My friends went to college and half dropped out and the other half graduated and just hangout with girls. I barely see anybody, let alone a real friend that I can trust anymore.
I used to have a girlfriend and she brought a light to my dark world, we both messed up and were very toxic. She now has a new guy and they've been together for a while now, I have nobody. She has me blocked on everything and I still miss her. I just wish I could talk to her.
I think about killing myself if I am not happy where I am in life in the next 10-15 years because I refuse to go through life as a normal human working a normal job.

So I I was cleaning the kitchen with my cousin when my niece and nephew came back from the store with my mom. They had gotten some candy and my mom had called me over to get one for him and me. One of the candies were these vegan gummy candy's and other was gummy bears. I asked which one he wanted and he asked about the vegan one and what the difference was. I told him that they make regular gummies using pork or beef to make the gelatin. The way this man looked at me in utter horror. His moth was agape his eyes, a look of disbelief like no other. He was raised Christian but with some Muslim values that he still keeps to this day one of which is not eating pork. I was so shocked he didn't know. He always ate them so I assumed he just didn't mind. I double checked the gummy bear package and it said contains pork on it. He was frozen the gummy bears I had were his favorite kind he gets them almost every time we go to the store. I feel as though I did good by telling him but also kinda guilty for not telling him sooner. He got over his initial shock and took the vegan ones. I guess he'll be getting those from now on.
TLDR TIFU by telling my cousin his favorite candy's are made with pork and he doesn't eat pork.

Hello all,
My question is mainly for HRs but anyone can chime in. Why are salaries so low in Toronto when compared to similar cities around the world and to Toronto's high cost of living? What can be done to improve the situation?
For example, I work for an American company and I know salary bands in Toronto are even lower than in Houston, which is absolutely crazy. Having lived in Houston, cost of living is half of that in Toronto. You can buy almost a mansion in Houston suburbs for ~$600-700K.
I feel so bad because I know some of the best employees in my company are from Canada and they work more or equally as hard. There is definitely benefit of less work stress than in US but nothing more than that. Vacation days and all other perks are same. We also don't get higher vacation days like Europe as a tradeoff. My manager was kind enough to even take my salary rise request to CFO but it was turned down citing I am already getting better than market range in Toronto.
Do you all think this situation will improve given the ever increasing real estate cost in the city? It's hard to believe home prices are still going up when bank interest rates are more than 5-6%.
P.S: I am still way more happy than I was in Houston. I feel Toronto is way better city (better infrastructure, people, weather, activities, food, less crime, and most important - natural beauty).

I don't know what to put here. But I think I'm ready. Online or in person it always goes the same way. I'm an awful person. I'm of no value. Ive done horrible things and I want to atone. But then I'm posturing. Putting the blame on others. So let me take responsibility.

I am recently realising again that my parents are abusive. I go through phases where I can see their abuse but then it becomes too much to believe to be true so I tell myself I have it wrong, and that I’ve misunderstood.
Here are some of the ways my parents are abusive. Not all of these are currently relevant, but they at least have been in the somewhat recent past. There’s also more that I haven’t included.

• Physical abuse*
• Striking, hitting, punching or Kicking
• Hitting with an object
  
• Verbal abuse*
  
• Yelling
  
• Making threats
  
• Swearing at in an aggressive manner
  
• Screaming, shouting
  
• Attacks on intelligence, sexuality, disabilities, body image, etc.
  
• Psychological abuse*
  
• Manipulating to make me feel worthless and like a burden
  
• Creating fear, such as driving dangerously
  
• Empty threats of harm and/or violence
  
• Destroying property or valued possessions, or threatening to do so in order to get me to do something
  
• Hurting pets in front of me when angry
  
• Saying that the police and the courts will not help, support or believe me
  
• Empty threats of forced medical intervention (such as threatening to make up lies to have me forced into an involuntary psychiatric hospital admission)
  
• Gaslighting
  
• Making me believe that I am in the wrong and that I am bad, and that everything is my fault
  
• Telling me my therapists are bad and trying to convince me I shouldn’t see them anymore to try and further isolate me
  
• Making me question my own sanity and intelligence by repeatedly saying I am intellectually disabled even though I am not
  
• Threatening to kick me out as an empty threat knowing I have no where to go in order to get me to abide their strict rules
  
• Emotional abuse*
  
• Blaming me for all problems in the relationship
  
• Constantly comparing me to others to undermine my self-esteem and self-worth
  
• Withdrawing all interest and engagement (for example, days of silent treatment)
  
• Emotional blackmail
  
• Mocking, name calling, insulting
  
• Denial of abuse and blaming victim
  
• Telling me that I am too much trouble/burden
  
• Social abuse*
  
• Isolation from family and friends such as ongoing rudeness to family and friends to alienate me, or limiting contact with family and friends
  
• Restricting use of the car or telephone
  
• Forbidding or physically preventing me from going out and meeting people
  
• Restricting socialisation hours
  
• Bad mouthing/making up lies about me to others in an attempt to isolate me
  
• Controlling who I can and cannot have contact with
  
• Trying to convince me that my friends are good friends, and they should not be friends with them
  
• Giving me a curfew even as an adult who pays board to live in the house
  
• Talking bad about any friends or family members I have contact with to try and make me question the relationship, along with subtle encouragement to cut ties with the friend/family member
  
• Financial abuse*
  
• Forbidding access to bank accounts
  
• providing only a small ‘allowance’
  
• not allowing me to work or have a job, and telling me I’m not capable of working, while also complaining because I do not work
  
• Making a bank account in my name without my permission and having all my funds in the bank account that I cannot access
  
• Controlling my income (to some extent)
  
• Sexual Abuse* (?)
  
• Exposing me to sexually explicit scenery (walking around the household naked despite me consistently expressing my extreme discomfort in this and asking for it to stop)
  
• Ongoing sexually explicit talk in front of me, or to me, despite me expressing my extreme discomfort and asking for this to stop
  
• Harassment and Stalking*
  
• Telephone and online harassment
  
• tracking with GPS
  
• being intimidating
  
• Hacking emails, social media, phone, etc. and reading messages and private emails without permission
  

Hi everyone, I’m looking for some advice on my current situation. I’ve been working with Microsoft Dynamics CRM/Power Platform for about 2.5 years now as a functional/technical consultant. I’m based in the US. I have experience with 2 of the Customer Engagement apps built on the Power Platform and I’ve done a few client implementations for each of them. I have a bachelors degree in information systems and took 4 or 5 computer science courses in college as well.
Here’s what I’m struggling with: I enjoy many aspects of my job: working from home, good pay, new challenges/learning new technologies. I really enjoy the technical side of my job. Specifically, I have experience with power automate, canvas apps, powerbi, client-side JavaScript form customizations, and standard form/view configuration inside the PowerApps editor. I enjoy the problem-solving of creating these solutions and writing code. However, I’m really having a hard time with the ‘consulting’ side of my job. It seems I get into a lot of situations where the clients we work with are really unhappy with us regarding timeline, budget, functionality, etc. and I end up being the one to get yelled at by the clients, and apologize for things that are often outside of my control. It’s honestly really starting to wear on me and I’m having a hard time enjoying my life outside of work because I feel this constant anxiety that clients are mad at me, think our team is doing a bad job, I don’t really have good answers for them or know the right things to say to deescalate the situation. I feel like everything is on me to fix as my team doesn’t know how to fix a lot of these issues. I don’t do great with conflict and there just seems to be a lot of tension and conflict as a consultant for these complex and expensive implementations. And in all honesty I never wanted to be a consultant, I want to be a software developer. I went down the consulting road because it was the first career path that was offered to me out of college when I really needed a job, and I thought this could put me down the road of becoming a developer.
So I think what I really want to do is pivot my career to development rather than consulting. I just don’t see myself as a consultant long term. The good news is, I have a little bit of JavaScript experience and canvas apps/powerbi/power automate experience as well, and Java/SQL experience from college. So I’m not starting from scratch but I’m not an experienced developer either. I know there’s options to be a developer in this industry. The other factor is that my pay is pretty decent right now (low 6-figures, US dollars) and I can’t necessarily afford to take a big hit to my pay.
So with all that said, I’m trying to decide what to do next. Should I:
A) try to pivot into development and away from consulting but stay within the dynamics/power platform space, and try to find a job that is less client-facing? Is there a need for this for US workers right now or are all these jobs overseas? Will they pay be comparable or would I take a big pay hit doing this? I know the development jobs for Dynamics/Power Platform are really just plugin development, Javascript form customizations, Power Automate flows, etc. Not really full on custom dev. I don't have a lot .NET experience but I could pick up the basics quickly with my previous experience. My understanding is this option is good in terms of pay, but kind of narrows my career prospects as this doesn't translate well to other dev jobs.
B) should I try to move out of the CRM/power platform space entirely and look at getting a development job doing .net development, for example? I assume if I go this route I would either have to take a big pay cut at first or get pretty comfortable with whatever language/framework I plan to move into before I actually move that direction.
C) should I try to move towards something like cloud engineer working with Azure? This would allow me to utilize a lot of the knowledge i've gained working in the Microsoft ecosystem for 2.5 years. I've been using devops for about 2 years now as well so I know how that works. I've also been using Power Automate for a while now which is essentially a Logic App in azure, as I understand. What would I need to learn before going down this route? Is this primarily .Net stuff? This seems like a logical choice to me, but I don't really know much about being an Azure cloud engineer to be honest.
Really my biggest struggle currently is dealing with clients. I just don’t think I have the personality to be a consultant as I’m more introverted and don’t do well with big conflicts/stress (I let it eat at me all hours of the day and can’t enjoy my life when this is happening). It's not that I never want to interface with clients, but I don't want that to be the focus of my career, which it is now in a way. I know development in general isn’t stress-free, but it feels like a better fit for me.
Any input or thoughts would be greatly appreciated, even if it’s not one of the ideas I had above. I want to make sure that I’m intentional with my career and learn what I like/dislike so I can get a fulfilling career and not keep a job where the stress takes away from the rest of my life.
Thank you all for reading!

during that time someone hacked a facebook acct i had and changed password & recovery email to w*******************3 @ hotmail. would hotmail be able to help or its not worth trying? facebook is no help. Can anyone figure out the email and either way is there anything i or anyone can do?

Previous Next First
​
---Job---
​
---Lhamo’s perspective---
---2686 Terran Calenda27 years BF---
I watch the British woman of FrancoJapanese parentage stride from the floor of the Parliament of our (recently capitulated) enemies.
She is surrounded by four of the most physically imposing Humans I’ve ever seen! Not one of them less than 210cm!
I suppose, when our army numbers in the hundreds of billions, finding one-in-a-millions isn’t too hard(!)
Me and the rest of her retinue fall in behind her as she passes through the vomitorium and turns to my left, her right, towards her temporary office.
As large in stature as the durasteel clad soldiers are, they do not compare to the woman’s android husband, 230cm tall and, from the sound of his bare footfalls, a few hundred kilos in mass!
We reach the door of the (newly designated) office of the Terran Representative and she snarls “You four, guard the door…” addressing her bodyguards “…Ezra, Zurab, Lhamo, inside… Everyone else, piss off and find something to do!”
The door closes behind us.
“Bug sweep, darling…” says the woman, exhaustedly.
“No bugs detected.” answers her husband, instantly.
She slumps onto the chair that had to be brought from our ship after the one provided by the Parliament collapsed under her weight the first time she sat in it.
Tilting her head back, she asks “So… how did I do?”
“You did wonderfully, sweetheart.” answers Ezra, immediately, in his flat, serene cadence.
She reaches a hand out to one of his and says “Thank you, darling! You are my rock… but I was really asking these two…” gesturing at me and the KartveloTamil man with her other hand.
“My opinion…” smiles Mudaliar “…pitch perfect! No notes!”
“Agreed.” I concur.
She leans her elbows onto the table in front of her, quickly removing them when she hears its groans of protest.
“There’ll be a lot of people back home who think that we let them off too easy… who’ll think that we should have pulled a fucking Versailles on their arses!” she muses.
“A punitive Peace would foster resentment in the gardenworlder populace… They would feel as if their leaders stabbed them in the back by surrendering… Not to mention giving ammunition to antideathworlder bigots!… We need future generations of gardenworlders to think their ancestors were wrong to declare War on us, not wrong to sue for Peace…” I remind her.
“Enumerating their various hypocrisies, warcrimes and the many violations of their own laws that they perpetrated serves that end well… Hundreds of trillions of GU citizens, who personally had little to nothing to do with the War, suddenly finding their salaries cut in half to pay our War reparations would very much be counter to it(!)… Let us hope that demanding the most heinous warcriminals be remanded to Terran custody to stand trial placates the sabre rattlers back home…” adds Mudaliar.
“Yes, but…! I don’t know… I feel like we should have got something more from them!… Instructions on how to reproduce their more advanced tech, maybe…?”
Mudaliar purses his lips in a joyless smile and shakes his head “We just (relatively handily) defeated them in a War with technology centuries behind theirs… Their tech is not something we can ask them to trust us with yet… we need to build their trust first. It’s going to take time… It’s going to take…”
*Knock**Knock**Knock**Knock**Knock**Knock*
“What!?” snarls Miyazaki to whatever poor unfortunate soul is requesting entry.
One of the towering guards, in their sleek, state of the art durasteel, enters.
“Apologies for the interruption, Mistress Miyazaki… There’s a delivery for you. Already been scanned for explosive, biological and chemical agents etc… It’s clean.”
“A delivery…?” she says, screwing up her face in a mixture of confusion and contempt for a moment before shifting to appraisal and beckoning wordlessly.
The towering man enters the room and stands to one side, revealing a small woman with pink skin, purple tendrils covering her scalp, three teal eyes and three legs with one too many joints.
The girl looks terrified as she walks in, a levitating platform following behind her with a heavy looking cube (around a metre wide, deep and tall) on top.
Looking as if she might be about to burst into tears from her fear, the pink skinned girl holds out a holo toward Miyazaki (though still around 8m away) and says “C-c-could you… s-s-s-sssign h-here, p-please?”
“What am I signing for?” asks Miyazaki, flatly.
“Th-this?” says the scared delivery girl, gesturing at the glossy cube.
Fury flashes across Miyazaki’s face and, before she can traumatise the poor girl, I step in.
“I think what our Representative means is that we weren’t expecting a delivery… Would you mind telling us what this is?” I say, kindly, smiling (without teeth) down at the girl.
“I-it’s… a d-data drive…?” she asks more than tells.
A data drive!?
That’s absurd!!!
With how insanely advanced their computing is, a physical storage device this large would represent several multiples of all the information Humanity has ever set to page!
“What’s on this data drive, sweetie?” I smile, trying not to betray any of my desperate curiosity to her.
“It’s a c-compendium… of a-all Galactic Union t-technologies and ssscience…”
The room stands in stunned silence for 9 straight seconds while we all process what the little xeno girl just said.
She shifts uncomfortably, looking at Miyazaki and, clearly, unwilling to approach her.
Shellshocked, I eventually manage to say “I… can… sign… for that…”
Looking relieved, she hands me her holo and a stylus.
I scrawl out my name in the abugidic script of my native Tibetan, my hand then making a second pass on the line, adding the vowel markers.
The girl looks thoroughly relieved not to have had to get any closer than she is to the intimidating woman behind the desk, in the formal blue dress.
I hand the device back to her and she uses it to direct the platform to unload its cargo.
She does not wait to be dismissed, beating a hasty retreat from the room, leaving behind the single most valuable object ever possessed by Terrankind!
---2687 Terran Calenda26 years BF---
“We need gardenworlders!” growls Miyazaki, frustratedly, as we pore over the plans for the new agency we’re trying to design “This needs to be more than just the Terran embassy to the GU and vice versa! It needs to set the tone for all our interactions moving forward! We need qualified gardenworlders, ready, willing and able to work alongside the Terran staff! Helping us build our networks and win over potential allies in the Parliament!”
“Yes… well… unless you want to kidnap a complement of gardenworlders to staff it as forced labour, then our choices are open it with a Terran dominated staff and hope we can entice more gardenworld employees at a later date or delay it… again!” points out a weary Mudaliar.
“Guys…” I interject, equally wearily “…I think we’re past the point of productivity for this evening… how about we call it quits and come back to it with fresh eyes, tomorrow?”
“Good idea…” he answers.
The two of us begin getting up but Miyazaki says “Wait…”
We turn to look at her, expectantly.
“How about we go out tonight?… No shoptalk, I promise!…Just think it might be good for us to have a night to cut loose… just the four of us… five, if that hot, young nurse you’re dating wants to come, Zurab?”
Mudaliar smiles “I appreciate the offer… but I really need to sleep… Raincheck?”
“Fair enough… Lhamo?”
I hesitate, considering.
---later---
“Wooooo! Shots! Shots! Shots! Shots shots SHOTS!!!” shouts a merry Miyazaki as she and I raise small glasses of weak spirits to our lips, in a booth in the xeno bar, and tip them down our throats.
Her android husband mimics the action with an empty glass.
She slams her glass onto the table and releases a sigh as she slumps against the padded seatback.
Her expression turns slightly melancholic as she says “Y’know… I don’t know if I’m the right woman for this job…”
“You are.” replies her husband, instantly, almost displaying an emotion for a second there(!) “The fact that you were appointed above all other potential candidates should prove your fitness for the role. They could have chosen anyone and they chose you.”
“I agree with your husband… but what makes you say that, Jeanne?” I query.
“IIIII don’t knooow…” she grumbles “…I sort of feel like I was chosen on the strength of my reputation… and my parents’ reputation for ferocity… but, the thing is, while my mum and my shitstain of a father could give a fiery speech, they also had all the other skills you need to be a diplomat as well!… I feel like I’ve got one skill and it’s scaring people!”
“That’s why I’m here, sweetheart.” smiles Ezra, serenely “You’re the stick and I’m the carrot…”
“Thank you, darling… It’s just… much as I hate to give that man the credit… difficult not to think that my father would’ve done a better job if he’d managed to make it hear without getting his ship blasted out of the sky!”
While I have far more sense than to ever say it, it’s absolutely apparent that the husband Jeanne ‘Blitz’ Miyazaki commissioned for herself is, in all ways, the polar opposite of the late father she despises!
I only ever knew him by his reputation but; where her father was a passionate firebrand, Ezra is calm, measured and tranquil.
Where her father was a gorgeous heartthrob who became a handsome silver fox in his later life, her husband (while certainly not ugly) is definitely much plainer in his looks.
Where her father famously favoured flamboyant modern dress, her husband’s wardrobe looks straight out of a Unification era vid in its conservativeness.
Where her father had a slight frame and a diminutive stature, her husband is tall and solidly built.
And, where Yuki ‘Blizzard’ Miyazaki famously left his wife, Charlotte ‘Guerre’ d’Aureville , after a scandalous extramarital affair with Tombe ‘Breeze’ Upash (another (obviously married) diplomat, no less!) in a move that would have sunk the career of anyone else in his line of work, Ezra certainly seems as if he only has eyes for her!
Several times, she has expressed the thought that raising her half sister, Emiko, to be a decent person is the only good thing that man ever did!
My rumination on that is cut short, before I can answer her imposter syndrome, when she says “You ever consider the diplomat track, Lhamo?”
I give a rueful smile as I answer “I’d need a spouse for that, Jeanne(!)”
Her eyebrows raise in surprise as she says “Oh… you’re ace? I didn’t realise…”
I chuckle and shake my head “Not ace… just 42 with crowsfeet…” I gesture to the corners of my eyes “…I feel like, if I were going to meet Mr Right, it would have happened by now(!)”
“Bah…!” she dismisses, letting out her Francophone side for a second(!) “…None of this ‘too old to find love’ tripe! You’re still a stunner!… Not to mention an intelligent, vibrant woman with a fantastic personality!…Plus… we’re this close to cracking regen!… Pretty soon, 42 will be the new 25… along with every other age over 25(!) You’ve got all the time in the world!… It’d be really great to be able to hand this job off to you or Zurab!… Either of you’d do better than me, I’m sure!… I could go back to Earth, safe in the knowledge that things were being taken care of!”
“Ma’am…” I lean forward and reassuringly pat her wrist “…I promise you, you are the best person for the job… certainly at the moment, anyway!… Please grace us with your presence for a few more years at least!”
She chuckles “How about you get the next round and we’ll make a toast of it(!)”
I smile back “No problem… but I don’t think we’ll be allowed anymore of these…” I gesture to the, one-per-customer, shot glasses.
“Vinjirian ale… 900ml.” says the woman, immediately.
“I will take an empty 900ml glass.” states her husband.
“Got it.” I smile.
“Don’t drink any until Ezra can run chem analysis on it… Don’t want to get drugged!” she reminds me, seriously.
“I promise I won’t!” I chuckle, walking away.
“Oh, and watch him pour! Make sure he doesn’t spit in it or anything!” she adds, a little louder than she needs to but not loud enough that I think the large, porcine, xeno barman will have heard her.
I cross the crowded bar and step to the counter.
“Two Vinjirian ales and an empty glass, please… 900ml, all. Pretty sure you have our waivers for it already.” I smile, with closed lips, up at the orange xeno with the piglike face.
He oinks an acknowledgement and starts pouring.
As I watch him, I notice myself being noticed by a xeno at the far end of the bar.
I don’t turn to look but keep track of him in my periphery while my foveal focus rests, squarely, on the drinks being drawn.
He stands.
“Fuck…” I whisper to myself.
There’s one of two reasons a xeno is likely to be approaching me: either, he’s going to angrily vent at me about how I’m a monster and caused him to lose X number of loved ones in the War… or he’s about to test the rumours about Human promiscuity…
I’m not particularly in the mood for either but I really hope it’s the latter… I don’t know that I would trust the proprietor to take my side if one of his gardenworld patrons gets belligerent.
As the man approaches, he occupies more and more of my attention to the point that, even though I’m looking right at them, I wouldn’t necessarily see if our drinks were tampered with!
Good thing I’ve got a walking laboratory back at my table(!)
The gigantic man has now made it to within a metre of me on my left and stands, looming over me.
Despite the fact that I know, if push came to shove, I could probably put his head clear through the countertop without too much trouble, it’s still uncomfortable to have such a large person so close.
The first words the man speaks catch me completely off guard.
“It’s been a while, Dr Yeshe… I’m very glad to see you again!” comes a warm, familiar voice, speaking Gangsri accented Tibetan and sounding a bit like a Human with a blocked nose.
My head whips left and up, my eyes resting upon a very recognisable patch of smooth, flat, periwinkle coloured skin between two large, orange eyes.
I haven’t seen this man since I was transferred to Forward Operations, 4 years ago!
My joy is so immediate and genuine that I momentarily forget to restrain my smile, so as not to be perceived as making an aggressive display!
He doesn’t flinch at the brief flash of my teeth I involuntarily give him.
“Well, well, well, well, well!… If it isn’t my favourite prisoner of War(!) What a pleasant surprise, Wing Commander!” I say, my voice joyful.
Then, my face falls as I notice the dark blue bruise across his right eye.
“What happened to your eye, Ong?!” I ask, ready to demand the name and badge number of whatever guard it was that did that to him… then remembering that we’re no longer on Gangsri!
He casts his eyes down and shamefully confesses “It’s… not ‘Ong’ anymore… and it’s not ‘Wing Commander’ either… I’m just Ngngomg, now…”
It takes a second before the pieces click together for me.
I gasp as I realise “*Hhhhh*…You were expelled from your tribe?!”
He answers with a doleful Terran nod.
“Because you defected?”
“Just got released here, yesterday… went to my embassy… found my tribal representative… he punched me… told me not to come back to Gollogng… and… here I am…” he gestures around the bar “…drowning my sorrows(!)”
“That’s terrible, On…Ngngomg! I’m so sorry!!!”
“It’s fine…” he lies “…I’ve got some preWar savings to live on for the moment… should also be due two years salary from the GU military… but who knows when or if I’ll ever see that, given how my service ended!”
“They don’t count time spent as a POW to be time you served?” I query.
He puffs through his lips before answering “They do not, no… certainly not when you became a POW by treason!”
“Is… is there anything I can… do?” I offer, pathetically.
He gives a joyless curl of his lips and answers “Sweet of you to offer but… there’s really nothing to be done… Anyway… it was nice seeing you…” and turns to walk a way.
“Wait!” I say, a little more desperately than I mean to.
He turns back, one of his dark blue eyebrows raised quizzically.
“How would you like a job?”
“A job…?” he frowns “A job doing what?”
“Let me buy you a drink and… we can tell you all about it at my table…”
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Dramatis Personae

i got up at 6 am today to get a head start on my day before school starting at 1 pm.
Im too tired to explain so i wrote this. I needed to make my apartment payment on the 27th but there have been, issues
I have deposited snd withdrawn the same 50 man like 8 times in 3 days
Also please include me walking 30 minutes to whereever location i was directed to next in the heat today
my apartment office: "please open a bank account and bring your bank info to our office so we can document it and take the rent payment out of it" "oki" takes out 370 dollars and 1 dollar usage fee
puts 370 dollars into atm new bank account plus 1 dollar usage fee
"here is my account info" "thank you, we know you have money in your account but the first month can either be paid in transfer or card, we cant take money from the account, unless you want to go to the atm" "i can go to the atm" "okay see you tomorrow" takes money out plus 1 dollar usage fee "hi i brought the money" "oh you cant pay in cash you need to transfer" "ok" puts money back into account with 1 dollar usage fee "i need to make a transfer" "we cant do that you can go to an atm to transfer" spends an hour trying to transfer but atm wont let me. "its not working" "ok we can have you pay in card" "ok" takes money back out to put on card plus 1 dollar usage fee "we cant load money back onto your card" "you can try this bank they can transfer for you"
"ok" *puts money back into account with 1 dollar usage fee
also went to the grocery store to get a bento to make myself feel better and it was ransacked and i didnt really have time to grocery shop all day between doing this and school. I got home at 11 pm
I still have homework and i have to get up early tomorrow too, i only got 4 hours of sleep last night.
Just a rough day

So I (21m) and girlfriend (21f) have been together for 1 year 6 months and are moving in together for the year next.
We had a perfect relationship up until 2 weeks ago. She has a fetish like a cuckquean to watch me fuck another woman. This has been known to me and her for a few months. She asked me to show her a girl I “would” fuck so I literally just scrolled till I seen someone pretty on my Ig and said yeah I’d fuck her if you want me to.
I never said I wanted too. She then was all over me in the moment saying she’d love me to do this.
A week later she then tells a friend about this and in the messages states “my bf showed me a girl he wants to fuck” (I never said I wanted to fuck her) she then says in the text “I find it hot” “I basically forced him to answer” However the problem is the next text. “This makes me feel less bad about wanting to fuck … name” I only found these messages yesterday.
She went out clubbing with friends and she met this guy there 2 weeks ago and she gave her snap because he was friendly. (Big problem and she’s never done that before) She then texted him in a message and one of them said “sorry for saying I wanted to fuck you the first night”
She messaged her friend later that week saying “if I was there longer something maybe would happen” “I never did anything physical not even a kiss or touch so I can’t feel bad right?”
2 weeks past she never brings anything up no arguments no anything just happy as can be even went out for drinks and food the day before this happened. Went shopping for house stuff, asked me to come for drinks with her older sister and wanted to book a holiday in a few months away.
The night of this she goes clubbing with her friends again. Turns out she was texting this guy flirty messages a lot nothing more just flirty but one of them was asking him to come to this place to say hello. Turns out he did and he then spiked her or atleast he bought her a drink and she then felt unwell and went with a friend to the toilets and messaged me to come get her. She passed out in the girls toilets and I had to come get her and take her to hospital as she was spiked. I was emotionally cheated on and had to deal with my gf being spiked. I already know most of Reddit answer is instantly breakup because I’m young and have a full life ahead and can find better. But this relationship was great we already discussed our sexual needs how both of us actually wanted to swing and do things with other couples together. Our sex life was great and our relationship until this point was great.
My biggest problem is the house we are under contract to live together + a friend in a 2 bedroom apartment that’s really nice. The rent is split 3 ways instead of 2 as there is 3 of us. This is so that we can all afford it and we’ve already spent last year living together everyday so not like living together now is a change.
I’m at a loss on what to do. I have planned to take a month and stay together but at any point I don’t feel like it’s working I will just end things. We will then have to remain as fwb/fuck buddies who live together until the end of the year regardless if it dosent work out.
How do people recover from emotional cheating. How do people rebuild trust?
She is no longer going to drink alcohol or go out clubbing or really anywhere at all. Has offered to take a break if I want to be with other girls and then get back together. Has gave me access to her phone and just do whatever I want in general. She said I could beat her if I’m angry and she won’t say (Ofc I would never I’m not a disgusting human).
I’m heart broken but I’m young and know it’s not the end of the world. Should I give it a month to just know that I tried.
I want to hear from someone who has dealt with this and survived and the other side where it has failed.

https://imgur.com/a/0Au2h3d
Hello folks,
Another one for sale. Level is shown on photos. Prices include shipping (USA only). G/S fees to be paid by buyer. PayPal, Venmo, CashApp
Creed Royal Water 75ml Batch C3610L02 This is the old style bottle (firehose sprayer). The batch is from 2010. No Cap. I hate to see this go. I only wore it once, but it needs a new home $165
That’s all, Folks
If I am for a swap, the only 2 fragrances I would be interested in are: Louis Vuitton Imagination, Afternoon Swim, On the beach, Pacific Chill (partial or full bottles, no testers or decants).
We can negotiate prices and come up with a difference in cash or other fragrance.

Hi, I've just bought an Aovo pro and would love some help please?
I have looked on there website and it says they can be unlocked though the app to 19.5mph, I have also read a load of posts on here about it and can't find anything definitive or upto date.
The problem I'm having is that every time I change the speed in the app to 20mph, 2 seconds later it changes back to 15mph.
I have also looked at the firmware update, but there's no option to update, so no way of changing it, as is advised on most of the posts I've read.
I don't want it to go super fast as it's just for riding with my step son on his Ninebot, but it would be nice if I could get it to go the advertised speed and after emailing Aovo they don't appear to want to help.
Thanks in advance.

Hi! I’m a woman in my mid-20s wondering how to politely reject a guy. I went on a couple of dates with a guy after he slid in my DMs on multiple different social medias. I didn’t answer them at the time, because I don’t usually answer random guys messaging me online. Only people I know, and honestly, only in friendship contexts. Unfortunately, we ran into one another in public and he asked me out then. I apprehensively accepted - I know, dumb decision - and we went out a couple of times. After getting to know his personality more, I realised that we had nothing in common and that I did not like his personality or sense of humor. He is also the exact opposite of my physical type. Afterwards, I rejected him (quite politely, I think, but maybe not directly enough???) and moved cities. This was two years ago. Since then, he has been hounding me online with paragraphs upon paragraphs of messages. I did not reply to these for a few months because, honestly, it scared me a lot. I only answered after he sent me an angry message to just “reject him”, and I did. Again. He has continued to send me many messages, and even spoke to people about me. About 6 months ago, I found out that he had been ‘asking about me’ for months before he had even messaged me online. This terrified me further because I had no idea who this guy was, we only had very few vaguely mutual acquaintances. No clue how he even knew I existed. I also found out that he is very very ‘creepy’ with women. As far as I know, he seems harmless, but he texted me a day ago saying that we are in the same area. I have no idea how he even found out I was here. I want to reject him in polite way, but in a very clear, firm, direct manner so there is no excuse of ‘confusion’ on his end. I also don’t want any drama or problems. It’s extremely annoying for me and I just want to be left alone. Im a patient person, but I’ve seriously had enough. No more messages. And, tbh, I am a woman living alone and I can’t defend myself if anything happens. I feel like I’ve been SO clear, and I haven’t been engaging with him at all so that he further gets the hint. Any ideas of things I can say? I am a little bit autistic so I’m not sure how to not sound harsh.
Idea: - hey. I’m not interested in meeting. But I hope you have a lovely time while you’re here.

This has probably been pointed out already but I really wanted to take a moment to appreciate the incredible scene where Kendall strong-arms Roman into securing his vote. The finale is filled with incredibly powerful scenes but this one in particular really stood out for me.
They've been leaning into the Godfather parallels this season and this scene to me seemed like the culmination of all of that, specifically the famous scene where Michael reveals to Fredo that he knows he betrayed him. My thoughts are scattered so this will be in point form:
- Roman is obviously Fredo, the pathetic brother that everyone knows isn't capable of the job but still feels that he should have more than the scraps he's been given. Like Fredo he doesn't even visibly register as strong enough to be worthy of the Roy legacy: he's thin, he's sickly looking, he radiates pettiness and insecurity, he doesn't even pretend to be capable of getting married or having a normal sex life (ie he can't keep the dynasty going, which means a lot to the patriarch). He's the runt, the black sheep, doomed by his nature to never be capable of what the family business requires.
- Kendall is obviously Michael, the son who surprises everyone with his killer instinct when circumstances bring it to the fore. He's been on the outs and back in season 3 he was seemingly mentally prepared to leave the family business altogether, but like Michael he discovered something dangerous and powerful in himself when Logan died. Kendall is more emotionally fragile than Michael (his desperate tantrum later in the episode is where this parallel diverges) but in this moment at least he has Michael's cold ambition and ruthlessness, and that's what matters in this context.
- Fredo's betrayal of Michael was a betrayal, certainly, but not a calculated bloodthirsty one. He claims to not know that Michael's life was in danger, and when the two of them have their heart-to-heart all of his insecurities just pour out of him as if he's admitting he wasn't in control of how it all turned out. Roman's impromptu breakdown in Logan's office reminds me a lot of this: he wasn't making a power play, the weight/pressure of the moment just hits him and all of his deep-seated insecurities and “overlooked brother” emotions overwhelm him. And like Fredo it's not a FULL betrayal: Fredo didn't know he was giving away Michael's life and Roman only dangles the possibility of sabotaging the vote.
- And then the violent embrace, the kiss, the reverse betrayal. A lot goes unsaid in both scenes but my god, the emotions are powerful and the implications are so clear. Kendall/Michael embraces Roman/Fredo but it's aggressive and forceful, an embrace devoid of warmth or love. Kendall/Michael kisses Roman/Fredo but it's a kiss that says “how dare you?”, a kiss that accuses, a Judas kiss where both parties know it's not what it seems. There's an element of “keeping up appearances” in play: Michael whispers instructions to Fredo as he does all of this and Kendall is clearly trying to force Roman's hand in a context where appearances are everything. And in both scenarios Michael/Kendall respond to their brother's betrayal with their OWN betrayal: Fredo knows Michael is sealing his fate with that kiss, and Roman knows that if he sabotages the vote his brother will cut him out and he'll lose that sibling relationship that is perhaps the only meaningful thing in either of their lives.
- A really sharply observed detail, maybe coming more from Pacino/Strong, is that neither Kendall or Michael blink when they deliver the kiss. It's intense for them emotionally but there's something incredibly cold and deliberate about the way they go about it. They are burying their souls as deep within themselves as they can in order for them to be able to do this at all. And honestly it'd be foolish of me to write all of this and not point how deeply incredible Al Pacino, John Cazale, Jeremy Strong and Kieran Culkin are in these roles. Iconic, legacy-defining performances.
- The power dynamic between the two sets of brothers is tested and then secured in the coldest, saddest way possible: Roman/Fredo tries to fight for a bigger pile of scraps and Kendall/Michael shuts it down, lets him know who's really in charge, opens up his wounds and rubs salt in them. The “don” doesn't just exercise his power, he needs to FLEX it a bit for it to be meaningful, for it to have the force he desires. And in doing so he reveals just how far he's fallen.
- An interesting but very important contrast that I'd be remiss to leave out: when Kendall kisses Roman you get the impression Logan would be proud, but it's equally clear that Vito would NEVER have wanted his sons to go down this path. The big thing missing in both scenes is the presence of the patriarch but Succession uses this to twist the knife even deeper, as if even hardened criminal Vito Corleone has a kinder heart than the bastard Logan Roy who always revelled in hurting and dividing his children. This is what it looks like when the bonds of family are poisoned.
I don't want to go too far with overanalyzing these parallels because there's a point where they diverge and it's not a 1:1 in the first place, but the memory of the Corleone saga really hangs over this final season of Succession and makes that final Roy kid blowup so much more tragic and powerful. Make no mistake, this was a tragedy from the beginning and the allusions to the Godfather series really underline that.

Personally think Chipotle peaked in the late 2000s and early 2010s
This time period was the perfect time when Chipotle had expanded enough to where it was quite accessible yet was super consistent.
Affordable, generous portions, great consistency and quality. Never had any problems at the many locations my family would go to, and never had to worry about anything, service was better back then. Around 2011 a new chipotle opened closer to our home and we were all psyched.
These days I rarely go. Yeah sure the market cap is insane and growth is there but there’s always inconsistencies with portions and quality, and prices have gone up significantly, irrespective of location. Not to mention all the e-coli stuff that made the news multiple times.
Gone are the days of quality bowls with side tortillas for like $6-7.
Side note: even though I only order a quesarito when it’s not busy (I’m not a monster lol, only get it during the dead time between lunch and dinner and when no line is there) these days I get side eyed by employees a lot. Not the case back in the day.

My son 3 years old doesnt speak that much. He is way behind his milestone in terms of speech development. Propably he has 10-20 nouns. But he has many made up words in his vocabulary. For example, to say "water", he says "gugulgu". Also he talks a lot in gibberish. We thought it might be autism but, apart from his speech issues, he has no autism symptoms (looks in the eye, points to stuff, plays with the toys in a normal way). And he has no hearing issues. Does anybody had the same stuff with his toddlers?

This does not mean they played the best strategic games of everyone, but every single choice they made was strategic based, with not a single emotional choice made at any point in the game. I would say the ones who best fit this category would be.
Richard Borneo- One could argue keeping Rudy who was a jury threat was out of emotions or loyalty, but it really wasn't. He knew Rudy was the only one for sure staying loyal to him right to the end. And his stepping off in final immunity so he didn't have to take/vote out Rudy, and knowing Rudy and Kelly would both take him, and Kelly probably is going to beat old Rudy in final immunity, and knowing he beats her, was a perfect example.
Vecepia Marquesas- I can't think of a single emotional choice she made. Every choice was strategic only. Her making an alliance with Kathy at Final 4 to save herself, then betraying her at Final 3 is a perfect example of that. Willing to be loyal to Sean or Boston Rob right to the end isn't either as she crushes both (both were super hated) in a jury vote.
Brian Thailand- I can't think of a single emotional choice he made from start to finish. As he said he was the ice man.
Sandra Pearl Islands- This one might be questionable but I can't think of a single emotional choice she made. Which is the anthesis of her Final 2 opponent Lil who made nothing but emotional choices, which is why I laugh at anyone who suggests Lil should have won. Even to those who value power more, yes Lil had more power than Sandra, but she used it chaotically, horribly, without making a single strategic based choice all game. Whether she would have or not if Rupert or Christy had lasted longer is immaterial. She was anti Fairplay, but still turned against him at Final 5 since it was more beneficial to her game to get rid of either him or Burton, joined forces with Fairplay at Final 4 since it was more beneficial to her game to keep him and get rid of Darrah, and at that point made a late game Final 2 with Fairplay that Fairplay was apparently going to follow through on (despite it being stupid for him) had he won final immunity. She flip flopped alliances as they benefited her once her main alliance crumbled, and stuck with her main alliance prior to that as it again benefitted her.
Chris Vanuata- I again can't think of a single emotional choice he made. He took Twila to Final 2, despite disliking her the most. Every boot he made when he had power was strategic minded only. He had no problem cutting his little sister Julie, in favor of Twila, who he hated, despite that he probably beats both at the end anyway, since Twila was the better goat and probably weaker in challenges. He took Twila to F2 over Scout, despite liking Scout far better, and despite that was almost certain to beat both, since again Twila was the bigger goat. The only I could argue is keeping Julie over Ryan, but he had no choice Julie was flipping, and Ryan seemed certain to flip with the girls if he stayed.
Rob Redemption Island- I can't think of a single emotional choice he made either. It was entirely strategic based only choices the whole way through.
Cochran Caramoan- I honestly can't think of a single emotional or non strategic choice he made. Even bringing Dawn to FTC, if he were always planning on doing this, isn't that, as she was the most loyal to him by far (anyone else would have atleast considered voting him out in the right condition) and was no threat at all to beat him in a jury vote. And it seems he would have cut her before Sherri if the final episode was any indication. Taking Dawn over Eddie was smarter, as Eddie gets Reynolds atleast for sure and he thus loses his "perfect game" stat which I am sure he enjoys having.
Tommy Island of Idols- This is the only one I wasn't sure whether to include or not, but I am also not sure when he made a choice that was not strategic. He was planning to cut both his bff Lauren and mother Janet before the Final 4 until Dan was yanked, and he still fully planned on getting both out before FTC even after he was yanked. I look over his whole game, including the swaps, and can't think of a single choice he made that wasn't strategically motivated.
Honestly I think that is it. I considered Tony on Winners at War but his complete loyalty to Sarah was something that went beyond strategy some, even though it was also mostly strategically beneficial for him.
I can't pick Kim since taking Sabrina and Chelsea to FTC was clearly emotional based, even though she was pretty certain to still win.
I thought of Tina, but some of her choices seemed atleast partly out of her dislike for certain people, and she would have taken Colby to FTC over Keith which is clearly emotional based.

By:Bheria
May 25, 2023
Islam, as a system or way of life that imposes itself as being the obvious truth, necessarily makes many claims and propositions.
One of these is that it is the last revealed religion, as we had discussed in a recent article.
Another claim is that all human communities were greeted by messengers and prophets who taught them Tawhid (pure monotheism) before they innovated and corrupted the original message, birthing the cults and religions we have today.
Among the many Qur’anic verses on the subject, including the following:

Indeed, We have sent forth among every community a messenger [with the commandment]: You shall worship Allah [alone] and shun [all] false deities [and objects of worship]! So among them were those [people] whom Allah guided [aright]. And among them were those who [persistently rejected guidance. Thus they] deservedly remained astray. So journey in the earth, and see how [devastating] was the end of those who belied Allah! (Qur’an, 16:36)

Under the explanation of this verse, Ibn Kathir writes in his Tafsir:

Allah continued sending Messengers to mankind with this Message, from the first incidence of Shirk that appeared among the Children of Adam, in the people to whom Nuh was sent—the first Messenger sent by Allah to the people of this earth—until He sent the final Messenger, Muhammad ﷺ, whose call was addressed to both men and Jinn, in the east and in the west.

The inference from such information is that all communities were taught about Tawhid and that, despite the now deformed message, it may still feature some features of the original monotheism that they were supposed to maintain.
Due to this, many Muslims have sought to “recuperate” some religions and even religious figures. For example, many have supposed that Zoroaster, the founder (or more correctly the Mazdean reformer) of Iran’s main pre-Islamic religion might have been a prophet. Similarly, the late Muhammad Hamidullah—the prolific and polyglot Indian-born pioneer of Islamic Studies in France—famously suggested in the explanatory notes to his translation of the Qur’an into French (the first by a Muslim) that the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) may also have been a prophet (those who speculate regarding the supposed potential prophethood of the historical Buddha tend to look at Surah 95).
RELATED: The Traditional Buddhist View of Women: Feminists Beware
Of course, they all remain cautious and speak only in terms of hypotheticals. This is because we simply cannot assert that any such figure was a prophet or messenger of Allah without the existence of solid grounds for such a claim within the Qur’an or Ahadith (prophetic narrations).
But Muslims are not alone in trying to trace the monotheistic roots of the world religions. Once upon a time, Western anthropologists were immersed in this venture too.

“Primitive Monotheism” in Western Anthropology

“Primitive monotheism” is basically the idea that all communities essentially began as monotheistic prior to degenerating into different forms of polytheism.
The first modern proponent of this idea was the Scottish poet Andrew Lang, who was active during the second half of the 19th century.
These were the decades in which Darwin and his theories were slowly encroaching the Western intellectual discourse and public imagination. Due to this evolutionary approach, the “simple” religion was viewed as just a form of adaptation to the society itself, and when the society evolved, the religion evolved along with it. Monotheism was thus considered to have followed “primitive polytheism,” which is often equated with tribal cults and animism.
Edward Burnett Tylor—perhaps the foremost acclaimed British anthropologist of his days—was someone who propagated such an evolutionist approach, to the extent that he could potentially be regarded as the spiritual father figure of evolutionary anthropology, if not the entire field of modern anthropology. In fact, it was Tylor who popularized the term animism within the public discourse.
It is not difficult to guess the ideological underpinnings of Tylor’s worldview. He lived at a time when the British Empire was at its peak, and by saying that polytheists are uncivilized by virtue of their belief system, he was essentially justifying British imperialism.
On the other hand, Andrew Lang, who was Tylor’s student and disciple, disagreed. He believed that monotheism is not merely some sort of evolution which tells us about a society’s so-called complexity but rather that it is a concept of its own right. According to him, it was not something to be used for differentiating some “savages” from the “civilized” crowd.
Lang even debated directly with Tylor on this issue, arguing that the idea of a Supreme Being, creator, benevolent, source of morality, etc., is the default position so to speak, not some sort of animism.
Lang looked at the Australian Aboriginals in particular and their concept of the “sky father,” Baiame.
During the 20th century, many would actively promote this idea of primitive monotheism. Included among them were famous anthropologists such as Paul Radin, who was one of the most influential American anthropologists of the first half of the last century, having studied Native Americans in particular.
But the most important figure was someone named Wilhelm Schmidt, a Catholic priest from Germany. Over the course of four decades (1910s–1950s), he compiled a 12-volume work entitled The Origin of the Idea of God.
To get a basic idea regarding the scope of this work, we can read the following summary of its main thesis (albeit with some criticism) by Stanley Arthur Cook, who was a professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. He writes in his article “Primitive Monotheism” (1931), published in The Journal of Theological Studies (p.2):

From the evidence for the prevalence of beliefs in High Gods or Supreme Beings among people who are ‘ethnologically’ primitive, Father Schmidt argues that a monotheism of a strikingly pure character distinguished the very beginning of the history of religion but has been overlaid by the less pure when not degraded cults of peoples living at higher stages of developement. […] From his survey of the peoples who are held to be ethnologically primitive, Father Schmidt constructs a picture of the worship of a Supreme Being, a personality transcending all experience, omnipotent, universal cause and creator, omniscient, beneficent, all righteous, father, giver of moral law, and the centre of cult. These Primitives include pygmies, Tasmanians, Algonkins, Eskimo, etc., and are food-hunters. Above them in the scale are the Primary peoples, living at the stage where man exploits nature. They fall into three classes, each with religious characteristics : (a) matrilineal, agriculturists (with lunar ideas, mother goddesses), (b) patrilineal, totemists (solar ideas; men are prominent), and (c) patrilineal, nomads (sky-gods, social hierarchy). Next, with all sorts of complex crossings come the Secondary and Tertiary cultures, the latter comprising the old civilizations of Asia, Europe, and America.

RELATED: Sikhism’s Dubious Monotheism – Between Auto-Deification and Book Worship
This idea of “primitive monotheism” is no longer popular in Western anthropology, due primarily to the secularization of the West. The concept of primitive monotheism is considered to be too indebted to a Eurocentric and even Christianized definition of religion. What is preferred now is the “phenomenological” approach. This is the idea of learning a religion directly from its adherents, without superimposing Western concepts onto it.
Such a methodologically secular and even postcolonialist approach is quite clear in James L. Cox’s 2014 book, The Invention of God in Indigenous Societies.
Yet even if the interpretation were to differ, the ethnological data remains. Furthermore, the interpretation of the adherents themselves may itself indicate towards primitive monotheism. For example, this was the case with Hehaka Sapa (also known as Black Elk), a Native American religious figure who said that the concept of Wakan-Tanka (“The Great Mysterious”)—found in varying forms in virtually all Native American shamanism—contained a belief in the Supreme Being, though in a pantheistic way. This is quite clear in his discussions with ethnologist Joseph Epes Brown.
In Black Africa, the Shona people of Zimbabwe believe in Mwari, a Supreme Creator (though one that has a sort of internal duality); in Latin America, the Aztecs have Ometeotl; and pre-Islamic Iranics who didn’t accept Zoroaster’s reforms have Zurvan. All of them believe in a sort of unique Supreme Creator. However, their belief in this Supreme Creator includes a belief in there being some sort of internal duality within them. This would, of course, mean that their initial beliefs had already been corrupted.
We could go on providing numerous other examples—and Schmidt has already covered pretty much all he could for every continent—but the point is this:
Despite this belief having been polluted in many cases (with that pollution later degenerating into different forms of polytheism, including animism), every civilization and culture seems to have held a belief in the idea of some kind of unique Supreme Being.
It thus seems that the Qur’anic claim of every human society being graced with some divine message resonates with anthropological research. Of course, this is not to say that there was ever any doubt regarding the veracity of the Qur’an’s claims to begin with; or that the Qur’an needs any sort of support or validation from contemporary sciences.
But, that being said, all of this should serve to make us more conscious and appreciative of Tawhid and Iman (faith), along with our own individual and even societal approach to them. Let us be grateful to Allah for endowing upon us these great blessings by increasing in our worship and devotion.
RELATED: The Genius of Islam Episode 3, The Curse of Polytheism

Alright so I’m down to 2 pills in my container and they’re for 225mg (I KNOW PLS DO NOT BE LIKE ME AND LET IT GET THIS FAR)
I have zero refills left and it costs 100 dollars to make an appointment to get the script sent in and another 50 to have it filled.
My issue being I don’t have these extra funds at this moment. I have to choose between my mental health and making sure my electric and rent is paid on time.
Thursday may be the earliest I can have this script appointment.
I haven’t taken any pills since Saturday and definitely suffering withdrawals. It’s one of those stay on the toilet days cause you just don’t know which end you’re about to explode from (TMI I KNOW)
So my question is how can I ration these 2 pills in the best way possible? To try and minimize these withdrawal symptoms?
The brain zaps are horrible and aside from spontaneously generating the needed funds, I need to figure out the safest way to proceed.
Any advice is appreciated! Thanks.

Warning ⚠: Fairly long post ahead
Hello fellow Australians looking for love! I'm a 29 year old man with no kids and a stable career in finance. I am ready to start dating as I'd like to find someone to share my life with but am freshly reminded of how much I hate dating apps, so thought I'd give this a try !
I can be funny, witty, smart, charming and chivalrous. Am not athletic or a regular gym person but I am slim and fit.
I can weave words and turn them into the most delicious word salad you've ever tasted. I can say words that can motivate and empower you. I can hold the most serious conversation and discuss the universe with you or I can clown around if that makes you happy to keep the mood light.
For fun I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, traveling, putting together puzzles, listening to music, upgrading or repairing my electronic devices, reading, going to the movies or just watching Netflix! I am a big 'ol fan of spreadsheets so let me know if we can geek out together over the best way to analyze data with them!
DEAL BREAKERS* I'm a nerd that loves efficiencies so let me hit you with the dealbreakers I need first so I don't waste your time: - You are Strictly over 25 (that’s the lowest I’ll consider although my preferred range is 28-38) - single (not interested in helping someone cheat) - looking for a long term relationship - non-smoker - employed full time in a stable career - not "extra" religious - good communication skills (I prefer consistent, good communication both when getting to know someone and once in a relationship, feeling like you're getting ghosted constantly is a roller coaster I don't enjoy riding lol) - willing to endure a long distance communications (text and / or voice or video) while I work on relocating closer to you
All of these are not to knock anyone in a different situation, but just to find someone that's in a similar phase of life as me.
Things I'm also looking for: a woman that's kind, smart, takes initiative, wants a healthy relationship, takes care of herself, has the time to build a relationship, and seeks an equal partner in life's adventures.

• Am attracted to a persons intellect. Things like:
  • How you think;
  • How you respond - (basic Grammar and spelling);
  • What are your views on things around us;
  • How you carry out a conversation;
  • How you type your messages;
  • If you notice the details;
• The idea is I get to know you better.

If you've made it this far, thank you for spending your time and effort, I hope the spelling, grammar and vocabulary has been upto par ! If you think we might be a good fit, shoot me a message *perhaps with a simple face pic - maybe the one you submitted on your job/ licence application? * so I know you took the time to you read all the way to the end, and I'll reply (as soon as possible) with one ! I look forward to receiving your Thoughtful and inquisitive responses. I would love to get to know you before actually meeting up in person!
If any of the above appeals to you or you wish to make enquiries , please send me a Reddit Chat (Preferred) or Direct Message (I also understand the problems with chat for many users) and inquire further.
Thank you once again for taking the time to read this.
Yours truly... Neel