Hey everyone! Still a little new to this forum only have 4 trades on here but I have 60+ trades on pkmntcgtrades and Funkoswap combined! Today I have this Switch Bundle:
Nintendo Switch - https://imgur.com/a/3FSavx8
The value is $325 Shipped, $300 Local
I will be posting this on gameswap as well if you are interested in trading!
Thank you and happy gaming

Yes, this is a post discrediting NOT Loreen’s song, but the people who are voting for it. I know, simply let people vote on what they feel like. In any case, I’m letting you know this beforehand, just so if you don’t want any amount of shaking to your view - you can ignore or downvote this before anything else, and then go on with your scrolling.
[Quite a long (!) read. Only start if you have some free time lol.]
‘Clickbaity’ title, apologies!
But I wanted to get this opinion out there, which I believe is just as valid as the ones defending this song. If you want to get angry at my view, you’re also free to do so, of course.
I profoundly despise this entry. Don’t get me wrong, I like the song, it’s a competent ‘ballady’ pop song, easy on the ear, which we all know Sweden does so well. A solid representation of Sweden’s strength in this genre, at the European scope. But as an Eurovision entry, I see so many things wrong with it.
I don’t want to get into the fact that it is a repeating competitor. Morally, one could argue it’s playing dirty, going for the fan-factor, radio-factor, etc., but since we’ve seen many instances of this, it’s an argument that people will simply discredit. Even though, morally, it could very much be questioned. Not doing it here, however.
Right, so; ‘Tattoo’ is a safe entry that for some reason gathered a lot of backing. By giving her an(other) Eurovision win, the competition would be set back 10 years. The moment ‘Euphoria’ won, Europe’s attitude towards music changed. And massively, at that. We went modern and significantly dropped our historic roots. The EDM scene properly exploded in Northern Europe, we bettered our ability to control music digitally. Honestly? A revolutionary win that positively evolved Europe’s music scene. Very much deserved and well appreciated.
Ten years later, we go back to it again. With a less impactful music too! What did all these years mean?
We’re at a point in time where I feel embracing the history, the tradition, the culture of a continent such as Europe has would be beautiful. Combining the newly acquired dominance of modern sounds and incorporating the elements that define (if not the!) one of the most diverse continents in this world.
Can you imagine the possibilities?
Learning a new aspect about every country year in and year out, with the modern interpretation we’re capable of doing now! The reason why the festival came to be, to showcase our identity, but this time, we can not only do it in Europe - we can use the concepts we learned and showcase it to the world. They’ll feel familiarity and be able to enjoy our sounds now more naturally.
But no.
Here we are. Voting for a song that could come from any place in the world. A pop song without any particularity tying it to Europe. How is this all Eurovision is nowadays?
This is getting too long and I won’t really prepare a TLDR, as I wouldn’t even know how to summarise this - so I should think about wrapping this up.
Essentially, it’s a song that makes me sad for Europe, more than anything. Again, people can identify with it and there’s that, that’s what Europe has become - so it’d still be representative. Maybe that’s all it means and I’m diving too deeply into this. It’s just a song after all and we’re all dying in the end.
But it’s the message that passes, you know? That a soulless (not literally, she seems to pour a lot of her soul into it, but you get it lol) pop song is the play. With certain nations trying to erase others’ culture, throughout the world - not only the one your head thought of - this could be an opportunity to keep them alive, in yet another front.
Celebrating them. There is no other moment to do so in Europe. We can and will keep on listening to our favourite pop songs all year round. But the possibilities of what we could be doing in Eurovision make me so hopeful.
‘But this represents the European culture of today!’
Well, does it? It’s true that cultures evolve, we don’t have to be conservative and always go back to the past. However, a main characteristic of any culture is that they tie you to a place. If you told me this entry was from South Korea, the US or Norway, you’d have just tricked me three times lol.
If Loreen wins, it’ll incentivise countries to select this style, if they want to realistically have a shot at winning - when we could be making another revolutionary transition towards integrating the best of both worlds. And the truth is that some songs this year have already tried to do that! It’s not like we have no alternatives.
For that reason, I hope this year’s Eurovision winner can feel European, more than anything… and ‘Tattoo’ is unfortunately not the answer.

I am sitting here reading all of the hilarious and celebratory posts pouring in and emotions just hit me like a tidal wave. Of course this is still a battle and we are far from done but HOLY FUCKING SHIT Gamestop is profitable!!! For all of us that have been fighting for 2 years, putting both our financial and emotional energy into this company and community, I raise a huge fucking glass to each and every one of you. We deserve this victory. We deserve to get out of our seats and dance just a little. We deserve to celebrate something we have been told time and time again by the outside world that it will never happen. Yet we all believed. We all worked hard to learn and educate. To make others laugh and pick them up when they were down. To support each other even though we are each making our own decisions. This war most certainly will continue but hot damn am I happy to have this victory under our belts. Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but for right now, as I sit here listening to the earnings call music, I can't help but feel we won something today.
Both the laughter and tears I am experiencing right now are a direct reflection of just how badass all of you apes have been during this fight. Thanks to all of you for being there for each other.
Apes Together Strong.

Holy crap I honestly just wanna die, I'm tired of dealing with this (not in a suicidal way but just like I need a break). My mom hates me at this point. I'll give the whole backstory so this'll be a long post. Here is where the actual question is and info on that: paragraph 6 and on
Growing up my father was a narc and was very emotionally, physically and sexually abusive with me. He left when I was 13 and because of the way he was, my mom was perfect compared to that. But now I realize you can be better than someone without being good. That's my mom. She's way better than him, but that doesn't mean she is what people would consider a good parent.
My mom used to hit me a bunch, but it was always justified as me not listening to all the warnings and she had no other choice. So I'm like oh, ok, I guess I suck. My mom found out abt the sexual abuse in October and even now she still says I'm just like my father (which hurts so much in the first place, but now she's literally saying that I'm the same as someone who sexually abuses children). When I was 15 I was self harming cause I wasn't allowed therapy and I had trauma nightmares every night to the point that I barely slept, I lived with my grandparents, like life was really hard at the time and I had no one to talk to and that was a way I could get out my emotions. At 16 I told my mom and she said that no one will sleep with me and then she walked away. That hurt so much and she never apologized.
Last night we were fighting and she said she's never been hurt this much in her life (I was slow to help clean up a small flood and it was my birthday so I had a friend over or dinner. I came upstairs and said 'I cannot believe her. Like I just am so done. I'm not even hungry anymore so now my whole birthday dinner is ruined (that I made) and she's worried about being 30 minutes late to see her bf (long term and he's always late so it's not a big deal) and eat her dinner when my birthday is a bit ruined'). She asked me what I'd do if roles were reversed and I was trying to come up with an excuse but I couldn't so I said 'I'd be sad and then let it go' and she got mad. I said that she's hurt me way more before, she said if I don't have an example then I'm lying. I mentioned the sh thing and she was like 'ok I'm sorry if I said that'. Yay. Then today she said 'Like I know I'm not the best parent, but I try my best. Even with the sh thing like I've never dealt with that before so obviously I didn't know how to react (I think saying no one will have sex with you is something you avoid saying in this situation) and like how was I supposed to react when I found out you were cutting your thigh for pleasure. Like I never knew you were just cutting yourself for fun. And so that hurt a bunch too cause she said that it was just fun, like yes, I love having scars all over my thigh and being stressed to wear swim suits! That is so fun!
So yeah, still not really saying sorry. And so yesterday she was saying how she just wants me out, she can't live with me anymore, she's so close to kicking me out, like she wants to just kick me out. I said 'can I have a max of 5 more months? I can apply to -- and move there by the end of summer' and then she got so mad saying she bought this house for me, she bought me a car, she works so hard cause this is where I said I wanna go to school (I never wanted to go to school here, she kept pushing me and this whole time I've been coming up with other schools to go to. I never wanted a car, since I was a child I wanted to buy my own first car cause it's a pride thing and so I kept saying I'll just take the bus but she didn't feel safe with that.) And so then I packed a bag to stay with a friend last night. but 4 hours later at 9 my mom asked me to come home so I did.
-------here is where the actual question starts------
Now she's saying that I'm not a bad person at all, we all do bad things but one thing doesn't define us after she literally said I'm just like my father and she's never been hurt this bad in her whole life. She's like 'if you wanna move away for school then go for it, I just want you to be happy, like we can figure this out!'
But my issue is that my current school is a shit school. The only other schools I can afford (in terms of rent) are shit schools. Otherwise I can only go to Toronto and that's too expensive cause rent for a room is usually $1000-1200 a month and that's just not possible for me. Ottawa is $600-700 utilities included. Uottawa is a good school, but I'm in Social work and they only offer it in French which I don't speak. So I only have Carleton (if you know the school) and that's similar ranking to my current school. Plus right now I'm already accepted to social work at my current school, but at any other schools the deadline passed so I'd have to do honours psych for the first year, hope my grades are good enough to then get into social work for the second year.
So it doesn't make a lot of sense but I also think I need to get away from my mom but then I feel really bad and I'm so confused. This whole thing is so confusing and like idk if she supports me. If I leave she'll likely never speak to me again and idk if that's good or bad and idk what to do and I'm so confused. Like she pretty much kicked me out but then when I actually left she started apologizing and wanted me back and now I'm getting convinced that I'm a horrible person and I am just like my dad and I suck and I'm conceited and manipulative and I don't know what to do so please give me advice.
I'm sobbing while writing this so sorry if it doesn't read the best.

I called out today because I am sick. And I rarely call out. Apparently the number 7 is going around?? But not saying if it’s been since I started or this year which it definitely isn’t for this year. Cause that’d mean it had to be at least once each two weeks and I know that isn’t it. I’ve been there for almost 1.5 years, calling out 7 times but never late on an opening shift (5am) when most people are with a coffee in their hand, doesnt seem bad to me. Knowing my manager is talking about how many times I called out to my other coworkers makes me uncomfortable. I’ve always given at least 5 hours in advance (when we only gotta give an hour advance per policy). Are they allowed to tell other people why I called out and how many times I’ve had?

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who appears likely to jump into the 2024 Republican presidential primary and compete against Trump, took a barely veiled shot at the tawdry nature of the allegations against Trump - but still condemned the as-yet nonexistent charges as cooked up.
The response underscores the depth of Trump's continued influence over his party and the power of the former president's base over those who might want to beat him in the voting booth.
"Even today, Republican leaders are unwilling to isolate Trump, unwilling to denounce Trump for his criminal and anti-Democratic behavior," Levitsky said.
Trump's presidency and its aftermath have worried democracy experts.
Trump derided the free press; frequently warned about the "deep state" of civil servants, a crucial corps in the government; and sought to depict basic fixtures of American elections, including absentee voting, as part of a plot to rig elections against him.
Some of Trump's allies have suggested that prosecuting him is too risky for the institutions that make up American democracy.

Summary Source FAQ Feedback Top keywords: Trump^#1 democracy^#2 case^#3 president^#4 against^#5
Post found in /politics, /politics and /The_Mueller.
NOTICE: This thread is for discussing the submission topic. Please do not discuss the concept of the autotldr bot here.

I had heard about people falling asleep to Kitboga but I was always scared to do it because I was scared of waking up to a scammer yelling "DON'T REDEEM!" Today I finally had a chance to do it because it was a shorter stream so there probably wouldn't be a break with clips of Steve or Abel, and also because redeems haven't been common lately. The funny thing is I fell asleep right around the time they called him Kitboga and I woke up hours later to the same scammers still talking to him and apparently they gave him a bank account. It was a great nap and it was fun to just continue listening to the stream after waking up and seeing how the story ended.

Hi all, I'm new to isopods and just built my first terrarium and found some white cloud like thin fluffy mold (I think its mold) in my terrarium today. Can anyone help me figure out what to do? So far I've removed it and dug up a bit of the substrate around it and tossed that in the bin, but I'm worried I'm doing something wrong.

My boyfriend is a relatively newly-qualified Solicitor and was working for a central London firm but was let go today.
The first months were rocky (he lost his Dad the week the job started) and due to train strikes and contracting long Covid, he was in the office less than expected, but he still made it in 3x a week most weeks and worked from home (as all do in the firm).
At his three-month mid-probation meeting they said he wasn’t “on the ball” enough and needed to work on communication skills. They also detailed some mistakes he had made (one was missing two emails) but conceded that they know they do not support new colleagues well or solicitors at the start of their careers, and that he hasn’t been mentored.
Three months later, they have not made reference again to the targets. He was worried about losing the job but had to ask for a probation meeting which he had today. He was told, during a half hour meeting that he wasn’t been kept on because he was progressing but not quickly enough.
I am inexperienced and don’t work in the best career (I’m a teacher) but I feel this isn’t brilliant treatment. He wasn’t given explicit warning about being let go and also only had this meeting because he had to ask for it.
Is this actually quite a normal and acceptable way for things to operate?
While he knows he won’t get the job back, is there a best course of action here?

The other day we were getting chicken together she stormed out of the restaurant to take a phone call with "a friend" and then when I walked outside she whispered to this friend "hey I gotta go now" that's weird behaviour no?
Today I was like hey can I use your laptop? The response was ugh what do you wanna do with it? I just wanted to watch hockey highlights from last night but I just took it as a no she did go onto give me her password and such but the first initial response was odd... is this strange behaviour or am I in my own head?

So its been a while since i read the book but i love the movie and (even though its also been a while) i know it well
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Having said that, today i was doing a bit of browsing on a fan wiki, tbh i was lookin for more info on Duddits backstory (im trying to remember if he was also an alien or just a very special boy with a strong shine). Anyways i came across mr grays entry in the wiki (https://villains.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Gray)
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first paragraph
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" Mr. Gray's origins are shrouded with mystery. One of the few confirmed facts about him is that he is the last of his kind, after his home planet and the rest of his species were destroyed by humans. Eventually, Mr. Gray stowed away on one of the human ships, and rode back down to Earth and waited quietly for the right time to exact his revenge. "
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Ummm what??? In the king universe have humans somehow mastered intergalactic travel?? when/where/how/what..../all the questions?!?! How did humans destroy his planet and when and why? where is this covered? im pretty sure it wasnt mentioned in the movie or the book (unless i missed or forgot a huge chunk of the story)
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does anyone here have any light they can shed on this?

Ahhh, regex, useful in so many contexts. Today, prolific New Relic author James Buchanan brings us another informative article, this time on the topic of how to use regex to extract data from logs!
In this blog post, you'll learn how to put together a regex for an important use case: extracting name-value pairs from a log line, which is often an important part of managing your logs. Logs are a good example of when you need to have strong regular expressions because typically, logs are part of a wider system (ideally, you have logs for your entire stack), need to scale with your application, and are often inconsistent.
Read on here!

Checking in day#3 This evening i’ve been feeling pretty messed up. Like my emotions stopped working don’t feel like talking, answering, pick up the phone, I just want to lie down and sleep for 50 hours straight
On the otherhand i went to the library today and did 4 hours of studying without getting distracted. Pure hyperfocus, kinda impressed by myself ngl How about you guys, how was your day?

Im sorry first and foremost for some incorrect words (3rd language).
My kitten is 7 months old. I adopted her tohether with her sister when they were 7 weeks old.
The kitten is female and has 6 bumps on her nipples. The front two are huge, the size of an apple, the other four are the size of a grape.
The veterinerian gave her a therapy of antibiotics and corticosteroids and it went stagnant for 2 days, then resumed growing. Today she received a 6x therapy of the same drugs. The first worker said they were tumors, then the veteran veterinerian took over and said that the tumors couldnt grow that large in 10 days.
Continued with saying that it also cant be an infection because the kitten doesnt have fever, keeps eating and drinking and behaving completely normal, but its the best shout.
They said that i should come back in two days and if it doesnt go away they will puncture the breast and see what will come out.
Im constantly scared that the breast will burst because they are so inflated and tight. Also today it developed a half inch scab across the nipple.
I would be glad if someone could give some advice or that they have been in a similar situation just so i can give an idea to my veterinerian.

So I always assumed I just had migraine - my pattern is dull pain to start as a warning that will then escalate to quite intense pain, usually located around my eye, top of nose. I usually apply pressure and and a ice pack to the area and hope the next round of the painkillers does the job. But I do experience moments of no pain - back to intense pain. So I just try to stay still and wait for it to pass.
However, I don't get tearing or a runny nose. My eyes get itchy. I vomited today which doesn't always happen for me, but then the pain was just gone without painkillers, which got me thinking...
The on-off pain, located around my eye like a knife is being poked in ....is this not migraine?

REMEMBER THAT EVERYONE HAS A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE/FEEL
Today I got my Mirena inserted and I’ll be expressing every detail there is on how I personally felt. I’m a university student that is sexually active with my partner and I have HMB (Heavy Menstrual Bleeding). My gynecologist recommended me Mirena due to my HMB and I haven’t given birth. They called me a week later to have the IUD inserted.
I went into the room, laid down and the gynecologist asked me if I really wanted this IUD and I said yes. As the gynecologist told me about the process while doing it, the nurse would also talk to me to distract myself. At one point she even held a cotton ball that contained alcohol so that I smell it (just in case I would pass out). The process was done, they congratulated me for how I was with composure and told me to stay as long as I want to make sure I don’t pass out. The pain is as if you’re on your 1st day of your period (have in mind I have HMB). It’s a manageable pain and it goes away as soon as the process is done (which is 5-10mins).
TIPS!

• Ask absolutely anything and everything to your gynecologist! They’re there to provide only the best for you! (If your doctor isn’t cooperating with you, please change doctors)
  
• Educate yourself about Mirena (or any IUD you’ll get), the insertion process and how it progresses while you’re using an IUD to see if you’re truly fit for it.
  
• Eat beforehand (not to the point of extremely full, but well maintained).
  
• Take ibuprofen or acetaminophen an hour before the insertion process (I took 2 Advils Dual Action).
  
• Practice breathing techniques to calm your heart rate.
  
• Close your eyes as you breathe so that you can only concentrate on yourself.
  

You can do this! You’re taking care of yourself <3

As of today, I think I decided to stop. Never thought about it too deeply before. I’m just done. Not that into it. My parents are alcoholics. I drink to get drunk like twice a week. It doesn’t even make me feel much anymore, just numb.

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Processing video cbtty8x9n5pa1...
https://www.buzzsprout.com/371360/9101967
Transcript: https://www.johannadraconis.com/episode-101-120

Intro [0:00]

Hello my dears! My name is Johanna, and I welcome you to the Johanna Draconis - The Deconstruction Of C-PTSD podcast.
In this episode we will talk about Introspection, one of the most useful tools you ever get in your life in general - not just for PTSD. It is the same base mechanic EMDR uses and helps you to process anything so much faster and more. So it is VERY useful.
Most of the time it IS about utilizing the tools we have in the best way possible. We of course will cover only the basics unless there is want for more. So let us talk about it.
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Prelude [0:49]

Now if you are thinking at the moment how you are supposed to wiggle a finger in front of yourself to achieve this affect, I have good news for you: The finger wiggling in front of the eyes is not really necessary as it is debated in studies - will link it in the description.
It CAN be just as effective to fixate at a spot in the wall. Let us call it the introspection mode for now, as it, as far as I know, has no official name - and it is my favorite thing. As it can be used for so many things and is just so incredible useful.
It is basically you disabling the world around you and letting your brain go into overtime, like it does at night, but in this mode you are controlling where it is heading. Meaning you can process anything. Work projects, trauma, daily problems, riddles and so on.
Remember the whole ‘we are not using 100% of our brain?’, while not really accurate, this is the closest we get to actually using it. In this mode you can tackle and solve issues that are impossible to deal with regularly or just greatly speed up regularly solving.
You can access also more memories and control over emotions. There are many, many ways to reach this mode and everyone had their own best way. We talk about that first and then how to best use it in regards to PTSD.
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How do I get into introspection? [2:27]

So first, how do we get into the introspection mode? Like I said, it can be done in many ways. Focusing out on a wall, during a hobby that just keeps your hands busy, meditating of course, self hypnosis, daydreaming, the right music or whatever you can come up with.
Now, how do you know you have reached that mode? Where you ever so gone, that someone hat to touch you or shout at you to make you ‘come back’? Like everything disappeared? Sounds, smells, the people around you and the like?
That is basically it. Your goal is to disable the outside world as much as possible, while still having a foot in that door that keeps you connected and allows you control over it all, which is usually lacking during the same mode at night.
So, you are basically sleeping while still awake. Taking care of stimuli from outside, especially seeing, but also smelling, keeping track of whats going on, takes a huge toll on our brain and costs a lot of energy and attention.
Which we tune out to be able to REALLY focus on what we need to. It is sort of controlled daydreaming. Might be not so far off, as in daydreaming we also create scenarios and tune the world out. It is daydreaming with you taking charge of the direction.
What is also very common is, that once you enter the mode, the thoughts and issues you suppress and distract you from will become louder and louder. As this is a working mode to get stuff done and it is perfect for that purpose.
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How do I best use it for PTSD? [4:30]

Which leads us to the second point, about how to best use this mode for PTSD. As mentioned before, it increases your capacities, better emotional control, better memory access, your problem solving speed and allows you to tackle problems directly.
Which is a huge benefit on its own. But it also lets us do things that are impossible otherwise: Visualize our problem, trauma and the like. Within seconds you can create scenarios to walk through your problem or… more importantly - through your trauma. Or trigger.
Or where ever you are stuck. While you can summon scenarios, so to speak, - I usually recommend letting the brain create them and you going along. As it is usually goes to things that are already getting worked on and therefor most close to getting solved.
It did the prep so to speak. It is showing you what it is showing you for a reason. And not showing you things also for a reason. Like everything you need to learn and get the hang of it. With experience you can pretty much hop in and out of it. It is a thing of balance.
A sort of gliding and going with the flow. If you go down the wrong path you will go against the stream and disconnect. So if you are feeling you are slipping away - it might be because you are moving away from the issue and the scenario.
Like I said - this episode is here to cover the absolute basics. I can do step by step tutorials or go by example. Just let me know if there is any interest for that.
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Outro [6:30]

That was it for todays episode, I hope you found it helpful. Hope you are safe and well. And as always, if you have any questions or feedback and the like, please let me know at [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).
More information and transcript you can find as usually under johannadraconis.com/podcast/, information regarding therapy you can find under johannadraconis.com/therapy/ and links are in the description.
I hope to see you next time. Watch yourselves and have a wonderful time.