My wife and I just did an 8 day norwegian cruise in the western Carribean and it was ok, nice even. But, it was not kid friendly, and my wife wants to do another cruise with my 1 and 7 year old daughters. So, some quick questions.
My wife wants to do a Disney cruise, but at first glance they run about double what we just paid for with norwegian. Is it worth it, and what are the best ways to get either the best value or reduce the overall price. My wife recommended we use their military discount as I'm a veteran and we pay for it via Disney gift cards bought at target that periodically dies 10% off gift cards (this is according to her)
Second, royal Carribean keeps coming up as a Disney alternative for kid friendly. True?
Final side note I will share, unrelated. But, norwegian didn't have a single chicken tender on board. Which I found a little surprising. As an American, chicken tenders are basically a part of every menu at almost every resturant. Why no tendies?

For context, I’m an environmental engineespecialist. I work in water treatment, watershed protection, and compliance. (In the field, so it does pay less than the lead engineers)
I have 3 years experience, and 3 state licenses.
This is the second outright rejection I’ve received with the reason stating my salary requirement of at least $65k is too high.
They indicated they couldn’t come reasonably close, so just how bad is the pay really??
I just had an interview with Panda Express as a regional manager. It was paying even more than $65k.
Wtf is going on? How has it gotten so bad that middle positions in engineering pay less than fast food restaurants??

For context, I’m an environmental engineespecialist. I work in water treatment, watershed protection, and compliance. (In the field, so it does pay less than the lead engineers)
I have 3 years experience, and 3 state licenses.
This is the second outright rejection I’ve received with the reason stating my salary requirement of at least $65k is too high.
They indicated they couldn’t come reasonably close, so just how bad is the pay really??
I just had an interview with Panda Express as a regional manager. It was paying even more than $65k.
Wtf is going on? How has it gotten so bad that middle positions in engineering pay less than fast food restaurants??

First Previous Next
-----Damian-----
Damian kneeled off to the side, trying his best to blend into the rubble around him as Ree was scolded like never before by his mother. He cradled the toddler closer to his chest through the harness it was placed in when it started to fuss. At the attention, it settled back down. As Violet basically breathed fire at her chick, the angry image being ruined by the mother-henning she was doing checking his injuries, Damian kept an eye on the armored aliens standing around watching them.
Damian didn't like the way they semi-circled to trap him, his kids and his birds between themselves and the broken tree-tower. The only things keeping him from placing himself between them and his family was the child who refused to be separated from him and Sky. Said bird was perched on one of his thighs to better reach some of his wounds. Despite that, he still had to lean down a bit to let him reach the wounds on his head and the big one on his bicep.
His eyes constantly scanned the area in an uneasy search for Squeaks, who had jumped down and scampered off once he left the tree. He was not happy with her sudden disspearance, since the same thing was what started this mess. Then again, it was what led him to the toddler who would definitely have been killed, had he not been here. He could confidently say the voices didn't like it either. They were a constant mind-numbing buzz in the base of his skull but at least they didn't do so farther up. He could actually think past their annoyed chatter for once.
As he watched his surroundings and let Sky look at his wounds, he talked with some of the calmer voices. They discussed ways to compromise his head space. Clearly they didn't like being locked in the back of his mind, if the violent attacks were anything to go by, but he can't focus on anything if they are free to wander without any restrictions. His conversation was interrupted by a voice that is mostly quiet, one of a very few number that is more....not physical but just felt more than heard. Them mostly being known by non-verbal contributions to the conversation. Anyways, it butted in with a hand on his metaphorical shoulder. His attention shifted to it, making it easier to.....notice? read? it. It sent the feeling of pointing to the outside world, like pointing out a window.
It takes a few seconds to extract himself from the web of conversations he was keeping an eye on while he brainstormed. Once he did and zoned back into the real world his attention was drawn back to the armored aliens by movement at the very edge of his vision, just this side of his blindspot. He tenced and whipped his head around to stare down the movement. The alien that has walked closer immediately stopped walking and retracted the leg halfway through it's next step.
The build of the alien was vaguely familiar, like he's seen one of it's species before. He just can't quite place where. Its not any of his flock, or one their species anyways, since its bigger than Untruthful. That much he's sure about. It also can't be one of the fish-aliens from when he was in that reverse-aquarium since it didn't have a tank or anything that looked like it would help it breathe water. And the fact it has legs, too. The fish-people only had hand-fins and tails. So maybe he just saw one when they all went to that market-place? Where he found Squeaks. Its a possibility, there were a lot of aliens packed together.
It stands silently in its spot a few steps closer than the semi-circle of other armored aliens. It's legs were bent ever so slightly, posture slouched, and head lowered like it was trying to look as small and submissive as possible while still being considered standing. He couldn't tell for sure where it was looking because of the helmet covering it's face but from the angle of it's head, he guesses it's staring at the ground just before his folded legs.
He was confused at the position it froze in. It doesn't look at all comfortable for it. It's legs constantly shifted slightly to move around it's weight like the pose wasn't something it naturally did but was taught to do. Why was it doing that? He would understand if it was it's species' way of showing peacefulness or a lack of aggression but it was clearly uncomfortable. Though a good portion of that was probably the fact that he was staring it down with a death glare.
It had six limbs: two arms, two legs, and a small pair between them that was half bent in the air. From what he saw as it walked, the two tiny limbs extend and are used as legs when it moves. It seems like when it stands still it leans back on its thick tail. Its overall body shape is like a long noodle. Like a ferret or particularly wide snake. Its head, from the shape of it's helmet anyways, looks like someone took a sphere and cut off the bottom quarter before sticking it to the creature's neck.
The only thing showing which side of it's head is the front is the two flat wedges on either side of it's head. From the way they were covered they looked like a mix between fins and ears, with the front being flat and the back angling out and into the head like a ramp. Said ear-fin-wedges were currently flattened against the side of it's head and drooping down like someone tied weights to the ends of them.
He stared for a few long minutes, only shifting to give Sky more access to whatever wound he moved to look over. It didn't move closer or try to speak the entire time but it didn't move away either. It just stood there in an uncomfortable pose like it was waiting for something. He didn't have a single guess as to what and he didn't like how still it was being. Slowly his lips lifted into a mockery of a smile, more of a snarl than anything. When it only flinched but still refused to move, he unconsciously made a low unhappy humm from his chest.
With the snarl still on his face and the way he was awkwardly slouched and twisted for Sky, it came out much more guttural and growl-like than he expected it to. The alien flinched again and shifted it's weight backwards ever so slightly like it wanted to step back but it's feet were glued to the ground. Before he could try again to make it back off Sky spoke up from his lap as he nudged the hands holding the toddler, wanting to check on the kid's side. His voice was perfectly neutral, none of he emotions usually plastered all over his words to be found.
"If you are just going to stand there and work up my Dark-crest, you might as well leave." Damian's head whipped down at that tone so fast that he felt his neck crack. That tone was so strange coming from Sky that he worried something was wrong. The small bird's expression was perfectly neutral but he did see a spark of mirth and amusement in his eye when the armored alien winced and stuttered a few failed starts. He moved his head ever so slightly to look up at the stuttering alien out of the corner of his eye as he lifted the toddler out of it's harness and onto his lap, letting Sky loosen the make-shift bandages to check it's wound.
The alien paused its stuttering to take a breath, at least he thinks so. He couldn't quite tell since he didn't hear it breathe through it's helmet but it did pause its arm movements like it did. Either way it paused to probably collect it's thoughts and calm itself, well, as much as possible with Damian glaring it down and ready to lunge if it so much as twitched wrong.
At this point the voices seemed to notice the nervous alien and were split between ignoring them and turning their attention to the situation. Of those that did switch, half were making fun of the armoured alien and the other half were cooing over how cute it's nervousness was. Damian was confused and distracted by the ones cooing over it. Sure, objectively it could be considered cute, what with it being under half his size, but that wasn't what confused him. It was that they kept calling it 'baby', 'child', and a few said something about a student. Was.....wasn't it an adult?
Who in their right mind would ever think it was a good idea to toss a kid into armour and let them play soldier with actual trained adults? That gained the attention of more voices them either snickering at the mental image and passing their own back and forth with each other, berating whoever it's guardian was, or cooing sympathetically at the child. He let the conversations wash over his thoughts and blank his mind as he just watched the alien. Almost all his previous aggression was absent from his expression and posture, replaced by intrigue and curiosity.
Apparently the alien had gotten it's thoughts together enough to swap a few sentences back and forth with Sky since he snapped back into the present at the sound of his name.
"-Damian." Unfortunately Sky said his name at the end of the sentence so he didn't know any context. The reply the alien made gave enough, though. It tilted its head, at least he guessed so, as it took a few slow creeping steps towards them.
"Really? I-" It caught itself at Sky's sharp glare, "He is.....forgive me for not using the right word but, 'tame'?" It seemed like either it wasn't very fluent in common or it didn't know the right term to use for this specific situation. Either way he cut in sharply before Sky could reply.
"No, I'm not 'tame'. I am not some mindless animal to be trained-" He interrupted himself with an agressive snarl to his voice as the alien continued to creep closer. "And I will gladly rip your head off if you take one step closer to my flock!" The alien immediately stopped and scuttled multiple steps backwards with a fearful yelp, stuttering out a nervous stream of apologies. They ended up a bit closer than they originally were but seemed to understand the correct distance to keep.
Damian felt Sky pause their checking of the toddler to lean their head into his chest in attempt to stifle his giggling, shuttering with the force of the attempt. Damian felt his glare and scowl lessen with a barely withheld smile at the quiet stuttered breath-laughs escaping his bird. Eventually he couldn't hold a straight face and let a lop-sided smile spread onto his face with an amused exhale as he relaxed his shoulders and looked down at the small bird.
"Could you not? Its kinda hard to keep an angry face with you giggling away into my chest." Sky held his breath for a second at the teasing comment, just barely holding in his laughter. Sky lifted a wing-claw-hand and hit his chest in reprimand, glancing up at him with a horrible attempt at a stern glare, laughter clear behind his voice.
"Don't you dare make me laugh! I'm supposed to be working." Damian relaxed a bit at the voice, happy he was able to make his bird break the emotionless mask. He leaned back on a hand, the other cradling the toddler, as his smile grew to flash his teeth.
"Your own fault. I was just stating facts. Hard to act all big and bad with a chicken-sized being giggling away like a child into you." Sky squawked much like Violet does before her and Ruby bat their wings at each other. Sure enough Sky spread his wings and flapped them to continously bap him in the head. Damian let himself laugh as he ducked his head and raised his free arm in a fruitless attempt to sheild him from the harmless attack of feathers.
Once Sky got it all out of his system he folded his wings back up and floofed his already puffy feathers to make him even rounder. Damian laughed at him again and playfully ruffled his crest, not noticing how much more relaxed he is after that. Sky finally let out a small chuckle and shook himself off to resettle his feathers.
Damian moving his free arm to cradle the toddler again he glanced up at the maybe-child alien once he remembered it and huffed out an amused snort at it's completely baffled body language. Hearing something halfway between an oink and a squeak, Damian glanced down. The toddler was staring up at him with big suprised eyes.
"What?" He asked the kid, not expecting an answer. The reply he got was the child snorting a nearly identical sound he made but with a slight change to it. It then looked at him expectantly. Damian glanced up at Sky but the bird was occupied with talking with the armoured alien and hadn't noticed. Looking back at the child he hesitated for a second before repeating the snort he made before.
The child squealed, in what he assumed was happiness, and headbutted Damian's ribs hard enough that he was sure they would bruise, it's tail wagging so violently the fluffy end was hitting it's sides. Damian laughed and held the child as it made happy snorts and grunts.
-----Runt-----
Runt was confused and scared. He didn't know what was happening. Brute, Scavenger, and soft-BruteSoundermate left the not-den-path after they exchanged not-instinct-speak with the weird voice. Once they left to the out they paused at the sight of the weird-things. Two more soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate walked over and talked with them. The bigger of the two taking the first soft-BruteSoundermate and making annoyed-shoat-angry sounds. The smaller of the new soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate chattered to Brute until he lowered to the ground and let it check it over.
Runt watched as Scavenger ran off, making Brute call out to it in protest. It was ignored and grumbled unhappily for a while until the weird-things moved to enclose everyone else. Runt didn't like the lack of escape and whimpered a bit as he cuddled into Brute. Brute held him closer and Runt felt reassured. Runt dosed off for a bit, trusting Brute would protect him from the weird-things. Plus, his side was really hurting.
He was brought out of his not-really-sleep when he heard soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate make weird short high-pitched squeals. Brute took him out of the strap-holder-things keeping him to it's chest. He watched as the small-soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate started to unwrap the wound-cover. He couldn't help but shy away once it started to hurt, peeling off his side. Soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate exchanged a few weird sounds with the weird-thing. The weird-thing started to slowly creep closer to them. Runt was scared. He hid in Brute's middle. Eventually Brute seemed to have enough with the weird-thing since it spoke up and ended on anger-warning-backoff.
The weird-thing immediately scrambled back and soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate leaned against Brute while making quiet-amused sounds. Why was it amused? It hit Brute and Runt shied away from it, expecting Brute to punish it for the weak attack. It never happened though. Brute just made teasing-amused sounds and even relaxed a bit. Soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate then made a weird noise, probably taking the lack of response as Brute not acting like he should as Protector.
Then it......made its arms longer? The extra flaps on its arms extended and it continuously hit them against Brute's head. Runt watched in tence silence as Brute just lifted its arm to try and shield it from the useless attack. Runt waited for Brute to grow tired of soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate disrespecting it's position and move to put it in it's place. Again, it never happened. Runt was confused when it eventually stopped it's useless attack and make itself bigger. Brute just made an amused-happy sound and rubbed it's head. Brute then glared up at the weird-thing, moved to hold Runt a bit more protectively and-
"Mine." Runt whipped his head up at Brute in suprise at the clear Neath word.
"Maybe-sire?" Brute looked down at him and grunted something he didn't understand. Runt didn't want to get his hopes up, maybe he just didn't hear Brute right so he asked it what it said.
"Yours?" Brute glanced at soft-maybe-BruteSoundermate then glared at the weird-thing before looking back down to him and replying.
"Mine." Runt couldn't help the happy squeal as he felt the bond click into place. Instinct made happy rumbling noises in the back of his head as he happily headbutted his Sire. A Sire picked him. A Sire picked him! His Sire picked him! He has a sounder! He was so happy he couldn't do anything but vocalize his happiness and excitement. He felt his Sire hold him closer and that only made him happier.

Universe by U/BlueFishCake
Previous Chapter
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////
I don't look like a sad orphan! I think.
Sean was frantically looking through his extremely limited supply of "nice" clothes. Haali had reminded him that while they were proper business attire, they weren't exactly glamorous or flattering. Sean had no use for fancy clothes, so he really didn't have any. Now here he was kicking himself for not having at least one nice shirt.
He leaned over and looked at himself in the mirror and groaned, "Damnit I have no idea what I'm doing. Reflection what do I do?".
He and his reflection both shrugged, "Ugh, some use you are.".
He stuck his head back into his closet, hoping that somehow a perfect article of clothing had somehow appeared there. Coincidentally he remembered an old shirt he had "borrowed" from his dad. He hadn't noticed it before, he kept it tucked away in a box at the top of the closet and he often forgot it existed. Besides, he virtually never looked through his clothes with this level of intensity.
As he reached up to the box, he began to feel increasingly ridiculous. It was one of his dad's old shirts from his partying days back when he was a little younger than Sean. Suffice it to say, the garment could be officially qualified as "old as shit".
Sean initially took it as a joke; something to wear to 80's parties or when he just wanted to look absurd. Fashion was an ever-changing force and so much time had passed since this shirt had been woven. You could turn a lot of heads for all the wrong reasons wearing this thing. But it did have one thing going for it: it strangely reminded him of something Haali would wear.
It didn't look like his fluffy pirate shirt or anything, but it had that same "I'm here to party 'till I die look". Sean fumbled around until his hand met the box, with an odd degree of reverence he slid the box off the shelf and he sat it on his bed. He flipped the lid off with one finger and winced when he saw it again.
I forgot how outrageous this thing is...
The "Turquiose Menace" as he had come to call it, would arise once again. He held it up; he smiled, then cringed, then weakly smiled once more. He held it over himself in the mirror and tilted his head from side to side, trying to make a decision. After a few more seconds of looking, he shrugged, nodded, "It'll have to do...". He gently laid it on his bed and went to take a shower.
////////////////////////////////////////////
Haruk had been enjoying herself getting ready for tonight. She was smiling and running a brush through her hair as she hummed to herself. She had invested in a full body mirror and was enjoying the sight of herself looking so good. She was ecstatic to have an excuse to get all dressed up and look sexy. While she was quite satisfied with her appearance, she had a growing sense of dread in the back of her mind concerning Sean and Xerya.
Goddess I hope those two show up wearing something half way decent.
She stopped brushing her long hair for a moment to rotate around and check out her back side. She smiled and giggled a bit, she loved getting everything about this. She spun back around and pushed a lock of hair over her ear, she then resumed brushing her hair. As she raised the brush for another stroke, she froze.
I... I better go check on Xerya.
/////////////////////////////////////////////
Xerya wasn't used to this feeling, and she really didn't like it. She was someone who always had her shit together, and now was one of the very few times in her life where she didn't. The sliding door to her closet in her room was wide open. She had her arms outstretched, resting on the opposing sides of the closet. She had a thin sheen of stress sweat coating her face and her eyes were widened by a low grade panic attack.
Nice? What does that even mean? I think a tank top and sweat pants are nice. I know that's not what they mean, but shit, I don't really have anything to work with here!
She frantically shoved her hangers from side to side as she searched for some forgotten article of clothing. The real kick in the tits was Haali's specific ban on wearing uniforms. When she had first gotten word of their dinner date, that's exactly where her mind first went; hell, that’s what she always wore when she had to dress up. They might have been a little stiff and up tight, but it gave her a decent set of clothes that were accepted in most places.
That devious little imp had now starved her of her silver bullet for fashion. So now she was trapped in a clothesless wasteland of her own making, and she was running out of time. She was about to double down on her growing anxiety by panicking about the time but was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Several aggressive thuds on the door were followed by Haruk's voice. Her tone was a blend of teasing and legitimate concern, "Hey Xerya you alive in there? You didn't get crushed under your own tits did ya?".
Thank the goddess!
Xerya bounded over to her door, her massive jugs bouncing around with every step. She had been topless while trying to decide what to wear. She flung the door open wearing an uncharacteristically neurotic look of fear. She was greeted by the image of an irritatingly sexy and well-dressed Haruk.
At first, she thought Haruk had magically grown several inches, but then as she looked down she noticed the shoes she was wearing. A pair of high heeled sandals were strapped to her feet. She was adorned by a cobalt blue dress that clung to her hips and ass and flowed freely as it cut off just above her ankles. It accented her flat tummy and the curves of her breasts as two straps tied together behind her neck to hold the whole thing up.
She had shiny earrings on and her hair had been expertly curled and styled. Her long glossy ponytail cascaded over her left shoulder. The blue of her highlights blended with the blue of her dress...and at that point Xerya realized she was staring. At Haruk of all people.
Haruk grinned and gently slid her ponytail over her shoulder in a practiced motion, "Damn I must look good, I'm even making girls stare.".
Xerya's cheeks became tinged with blue, "I-uhh- no I wasn't!".
Haruk rolled her eyes, "Yeah ok whatever.". Her eyes then crept downward to the blue capped mountains hanging off Xerya's chest, "So uhhh", she pointed at Xerya's tits, waving her finger in a little circle, "What's going on here?".
Xerya's blush intensified, she felt vulnerable. Not because of her tits hanging out, but because she didn't have a plan. Not having a plan was not how she lived her life. "Haruk I don't know what to do! You and Sean said no uniforms and I have nothing else but my awesome comfortable clothes.".
Haruk pushed past Xerya and invaded her room while shaking her head, "My goddess...".
For such a clever and punctual person, Xerya really did live like an animal. There was clutter and random bits of clothing all over the place. Haruk spun around in place marveling at the duality of Xerya's existence, "How do you live like this?".
Xerya swung her door shut and stepped to face Haruk. She ran her hands down her cheeks, "It's worse than usual. If you can't tell, I'm sort of freaking out. What the deep do I wear? I don't know how to look good!".
Haruk didn't want to ruin her makeup, but she managed a modest face palm anyways. She chuckled lightly, "You already look good you idiot. You just need to learn how to show it!".
Xerya flailed her arms in frustration, "With what though? Look in that closet? Would you honestly allow me to wear anything in there to dinner? We both know you're going the be the self-proclaimed fashion police here.".
Haruk smiled and pointed right at Xerya's face, "And don't you forget it.".
Haruk quickly spun around and began to pick through Xerya's closet. A mere few seconds later she spun around looking like she just saw a ghost, "You're fucked.".
Xerya mirrored Haruk's terror, "...what... do I do?".
Haruk looked at her omni pad, "Well we could try to run out real fast a-".
"We don't have time!" Xerya shouted.
Haruk stood silently with her chin resting on the thumb and index finger. One of her long legs pumped rhythmically as if generating thoughts. She looked up to Xerya with a somber expression, "There's only one thing we can do then.".
Xerya was desperate, she'd try anything at this point. Sean would be arriving in a few minutes, and she was out of ideas. Her voice was full of desperation, "Whatever it is, I'll do it!".
Haruk nodded, "Come to my room, it’s up to my closet to save you.".
Haruk strode out without another word. Her mind was focused solely on the task at hand; and it was quite a task. Trying to fit Xerya into her clothes sounded impossible, but tonight they needed to accomplish exactly that.
Haruk opened Xerya's door, then her own a few seconds later. Xerya stood there looking across the hall with her hands hanging at her sides. She whispered quietly and fearfully, "But... how will I fit?".
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Sean was powerwalking his way through the corridors of the building. The black eyes of the marines were glued to him even more than usual. His shirt did not button up all the way, so he had been flashing his chest to everyone he crossed paths with. His face was burning red from all the attention.
It had been a constant stream of cat calls the whole way there. Many of the faces he recognized simply from being on the base a lot, and then there were the faces that belonged to his students. It was easy enough to ignore the strangers and run away. It was much harder to ignore Shinal stepping out of her room and staring at his chest while licking her lips.
Sean watched her nipples harden as she cooed, "You're looking... sharp today Mr. Warwick.". Sean felt obligated to say something on account of being her teacher. He smiled weakly and gave a quick, "Hi Shinal, see ya tomorrow.". He didn't even stop moving to say it. He blew past her as she leaned out her door to shamelessly stare at his ass like many others were.
Shinal pivoted back into her doorway and whispered to herself, "See you tomorrow...". She smiled up at the ceiling and disappeared back into her room.
Sean was grateful that he could see Xerya's door coming into view down the hallway. He never thought drowning in pussy could be a bad thing, until now. He laughed internally at the thought of a giant blue vagina popping out of a door somewhere and swallowing him whole like some sort of "Penis Fly-trap". He felt safer already as he gently knocked on Xerya's door.
His budding sense of safety quickly faded away as no one answered the door. That was very unlike Xerya to not stick to the plan.
I hope everything is ok. What if she's sick, or in trouble with work? That would fuck up the whole night. She better not, but she's better than that. What if something happened to her? Oh fuck maybe she's hurt... or worse!?
God damnit why does my brain always go straight to this insane shit!?
Sean looked to his right and saw several marines mingling about farther down the hall and trying very hard not to look like they were staring. Sean wanted nothing more than to disappear into Xerya's room, and now for some unknown reason he couldn't.
Fuck it, plan B.
He turned around and banged on Haruk's door in a decidedly more panicked fashion. A few seconds of insane daydreaming later and the door opened, revealing an exceptional looking Haruk.
Sean looked up extra high to meet her eyes, "Woah...".
Haruk smiled brightly and blushed, "Hi, Sean you look so...".
She bit her lip as her eyes glued themselves to his chest, "...good".
The reality of Sean's situation then dawned on Haruk. She leaned past Sean and looked into the hall; her suspicions were confirmed by the presence of the unwanted competition out there. She wrapped an arm around Sean's waist and quickly pulled him inside, "You beautiful idiot, get in here!".
Sean paced forward a bit and turned to watch Haruk push her door shut. Haruk put her hands on her hips, "You should have called one of us! You went through all that alone?".
Sean looked at the floor, "Ehh yeah, to both of those things, sorry.".
Haruk bent down and hugged Sean, "No I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean. I just want you to be safe.".
Sean turned and kissed her cheek as he wrapped his arms around her, "Well here I am in one piece, also, holy shit you look gorgeous!".
He broke out of her hug and stepped back to fit all of Haruk in his vision. He looked at her from head to toe, "You look so good I almost just wanna skip dinner.".
Haruk swooned, "If any of us looks good, its you! I've never seen a shirt like that. It's very se- um it looks so good on you!".
Sean laughed as he remembered how he dressed, "This thing practically came out of a time machine. It used to belong to my dad back when he was my age. I kept it just for fun, oddly enough it kind of reminded me of the shirts Haali wears.".
Haruk winked, "Well, whatever it is, it’s working.".
Sean couldn't help but to run a hand along Haruk's tight thigh, "Yeah, so is this.".
He looked up at Haruk and they swapped not so innocent smiles. Sean then membered why be was here, "So where's Xerya?".
Haruk looked to the corner of her room where her closet resided. Their rooms may not have had bathrooms in them, but they generous closets. She gently and quite reluctantly guided Sean's hand off of her thigh, "Let me go check. We had a bit of a clothing situation.".
Sean shrugged and chuckled, "Umm, ok. I hope she's about ready.".
As Haruk approached the closet Sean heard Xerya's voice, "I almost ready I swearing! And hi Sean!".
Sean smiled and looked toward the closet, "Everything ok in there?".
Haruk looked into her closet, "Oh my goddess!".
As she rounded the corner, she was greeted with the sight of Xerya annihilating her stretchiest dress. It was the only thing she had a hope of fitting into, and fitting was a very relative term in this case. She was spilling out of the top and bottom of Haruk's poor white dress.
She was frantically stuffing her tits back into the extremely low neckline. Doing so caused it to ride up her legs and damn near cause her ass to fall out the bottom. Her tits took up so much room in the dress there really wasn't much room left for the rest of her.
Xerya looked at Haruk with a worried expression, "Hold on I just need another second.". She reached down and pulled the bottom to cover more of her ludicrously thick thighs.
Haruk's looked shocked, "You're exploding out of it! By the Empress! You look like you're going to an erotica convention!".
Xerya turned to her looking terrified, "So, it's not working? We don't have time for anything else! And I feel ridiculous!".
Haruk was exasperated, "I mean, it's working, but not for the right reasons.".
Sean overheard this exchange, and he couldn't help but have a look. He peeked around the corner and his jaw hit the floor. Xerya was rocking a beyond skintight white dress that honestly couldn't contain her assets. He got there just in time to see her adjust her bra straps which made the dress ride back up her thighs again.
Xerya saw Sean emerge and blushed like she did the first time they met. She shyly put her hands behind her back and put on a nervous smile, "Hi".
Sean smiled ear to ear while fucking her with his eyes, "Hello to you.".
Haruk rolled her eyes, "See, he basically wants to fuck you right here. Only problem is, now we gotta go have dinner with our boss's, boss's, boss.".
Both Sean and Xerya wilted a bit, but very quickly their eyes began to slither all over each other again. Xerya huffed, "How do you wear these things Haruk?".
Haruk crossed her arms, "Well not like you, that’s for sure.".
Sean squeezed by Haruk, he was compelled to feel Xerya's touch. He literally couldn't stay away, "Xerya you look incredible.".
She quickly responded to his approach by kneeling down and kissing him. Sean allowed his hands to roam all over her, "Just uhhh, try not to pop out at the dinner table. I feel like that would make things maybe just a bit awkward.".
Xerya looked mortified, then relaxed a little, "Yes, I really do not want sex dinner.".
Xerya stood back up and Sean guided her and Haruk towards the door, "Yeah sex is for dessert, not dinner.".
As he said that he made eye contact with Haruk and licked his lips with a devilish smile. Haruk turned blue and bit her lip in anticipation.
They got to the door and Sean put his hand on the handle, "Ok, are you two as nervous as I am?”.
Haruk enthusiastically said, “Oh yeah.”.
Xerya, looking quite nervous, quietly and rapidly nodded.
Sean turned the handle and swung the door open, “Alright, lets try to survive this thing.”.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
The exo hangar was a loud, well-lit place. Most of the time. Now it was dark except for the lights in bay one. The building was eerily quiet except for the occasional clang or whirring of hand tools. As always, the place stunk of grease, coolant, and sweat.
There was one other sound that broke the pattern of mechanical noises.
"BROTHER FUCKING DAUGHTER OF A CUNT!"
Khe'siri leaned against the wrench and shoved with all her freakish strength. The sweat poured off her brow as she grunted and strained. She adjusted her footing, tightened her grip on the wrench and pushed again. Alas the stubborn bolt refused to turn.
She stepped back and shook the numbness out of her hands, "Goddess damned piece a shit! What crawled up your ass?".
She sat down on a crate and took a long sip off her water bottle. She scowled at the bolt; she hated it. She wanted to defeat it... to destroy it.
I don't care if it takes me all night. That little fucker is coming out of there.
Anyone else who saw her like this would assume she was miserable. That wasn't the case though. It was dark, quiet except for her, and there was no one else around. No people, no bullshit, just her and her work. This was her happy place.
Happy of course was a relative term. Khe'siri didn't have the broadest spectrum of emotions out there. She was angry more often than she wasn't, she was infamous for her fiery temper and foul mouth. A quiet calm was about as close to happy as she could go. Despite her swearing and endless threats to the inanimate objects around her, she was almost enjoying herself.
She stood back up and wiped her hands on her coveralls. As usual the top half was tied around her waist leaving just a tight black tank top covering her chest. Sort of. She once again glared at the bolt on the exo's ankle actuator, "Ok smart ass, you just earned yourself a date with the breaker.".
She reached behind her toolbox and retrieved a five-foot-long purple metal bar. It had a modular slot on the end to fit virtually any kind of nut, bolt, or screw in the Imperium. She had made it herself and was immensely proud of it. She was the only one who ever used it. Not only were many others afraid to interact with her, but they could barely even lift it anyways. It even felt heavy to her, and she loved it dearly.
As she wrapped her meaty hands around it, she looked at it with true affection. Love never brought her anything but trouble in the past. Love with people anyways, but the breaker only ever brought her joy. It was basically her boyfriend.
She had a joyous glint in her eye as she approached the bolt once more, "Alright you little shit, looks like we're doing this the hard way.".
She found herself holding back a smile. Despite the joy she felt wielding the breaker, she really hated that bolt.
Without any preamble she slotted in the proper head and placed it over the bolt. She had the bar angled across her chest so she could channel all her might into it. Between that and the massive mechanical advantage provided by its length, no nut or bolt had ever resisted its power. She was confident this one would be broken like all the others.
"TIME TO GET FUCKED"
Her biceps swelled as she dumped all her power into the breaker. This was the part where the bolt was supposed to turn. Where she got to win. To have at least one little thing in her life turn out her way. But it did not.
She grunted, those grunts turned into growls. Her frustration and rage crescendoed into outright yells, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!". Almost as if the universe wanted to kick her while she was down, she caught a glimpse of herself reflected on a deactivated data pad as she screamed that question.
She let go of the breaker and thew her arms into the air. She was still looking at her reflection, "What the fuck is wrong with you?".
This was supposed to be the one thing she was good at. Her current failure reminded her of her abysmal scores in that stupid English class she had to take. Not that she really gave a shit about it, but she needed to pass. After a prior incident involving a gratuitous lack of self-control and a dumbass fellow mechanic, Sergeant Revni had creatively punished Khe'siri by enrolling her in English classes on base.
Now she was stuck in that class with a bunch of hopeless cunts who think they'll be able to fuck their teacher. Not only did she not like her classmates, but that human language was stupid. It's hard to learn a language when you hate it and the class.
Then there was that teacher of theirs. He was always parading around the room acting like he was everyone's friend with his tight little pants and fat ass. Guys only ever brought her trouble. Now she had to sit there and listen to a preachy little human male teach her his primitive language.
And now this bolt.
Thinking about the mountain of failures that was her life caused her temper to flare once more. She stormed over to the data pad and threw a punch fueled by her searing anger. The screen instantly cracked into a spiderweb pattern, and the entire back side now domed outwards. Not feeling satisfied, she grabbed the tablet and launched it across the room where it exploded against the opposite wall.
"FUCK!"
She stood there panting and looking at the floor while the hurricane in her mind gradually wound down. She turned to head back to the breaker for one last final try when she noticed something.
Oh my fuck.
The entire casing for that ankle joint was bent. It would be impossible to pull the bolts now. Fixing a broken arm had just turned into brain surgery. Khe'siri gritted her teeth and sneered, "Oh just wait till I find the bitch that drives this thing..."

Apologies in advance for the omg-long post. It's breaking my brain.
I've spent so much time on fb marketplace and learning about castoff enterprise gear... and so much time researching components for a new build... and looking into nucs & tiny/mini/micros... I've learned so much but I just feel like a hungry person in a restaurant with a small novel for a menu. So many choices & options that look good and I just don't know the best way to go that quite nails it.
I'm hoping if I share my current equipment & use cases, the bottlenecks/issues I have, and what I currently think my desired outcome is... that you guys can point me in the right direction.

Current gear & uses:

Big picture - coaching & workouts, podcast recording/production, website design, "homelab" type personal projects
Thinkpad X1 Yoga 3rd Gen (i7 8650U, UHD iGPU) - "lives" at my desk in finished basement office space, travels as needed - used with Lenovo TB3 Dock (2nd gen) - Internal screen + 3 external monitors - Startech DisplayLink adapter used to make 3rd external (4th total) screen possible - zoom meetings & regular office-type / creator work happen here
Old Lenovo k450e desktop (has GTX 730 I think) - lives on other side of basement in "den" space, which doubles as home workout space - uses the den's led TV as primary display - only used for live 1 on 1 / group workouts over zoom, using OBS Studio to incorporate other needed elements to the stream - also can use one of the Thinkpad's external screens (via hdmi switch) for convenience so I can stay in one place to boot it up & open programs pre-session (takes... a while. it's old 😅)
QNAP TS-454A - personal NAS used for the typical *arr apps, Plex server, etc - currently has 12 TB usable, 1.2 free - dabbling with Docker, managed via Portainer. Actively using vaultwarden & paperless-ngx. Installed piwigo, homeassistant, nextcloud, etc, but haven't really done much with them yet due (waiting for more capable machine)

Current issues/bottlenecks:

• when in Zoom meetings on Thinkpad, can't do too much else or it'll affect Zoom. Makes it difficult to effectively multitask and use reference material, take notes, screenshare things, etc. Using OBS really taxes the system.
• used to use the Thinkpad instead of the k450e for the workout streaming/zooms using a CalDigit TB3 dock & that TV. Easy enough to just bring it over & use 2nd dock. Allowed use of OBS but just barely, and ended up with crashes/issues during a stream that led me to just use a separate machine
• k450e is a dinosaur, takes forever to start up or open programs, not sure where the bottleneck is but either way it's a powerhogging inconvenience I'd like to get rid of
• QNAP has served me well, but it's not very powerful and the integrated graphics can't do a whole lot in the way of transcoding for Plex. It also takes foooooorever to consume large doc files in Paperless, as well as taking a long time for other data-intensive tasks. Need something beefier, esp if I want to go down the homelab rabbithole & really play with homeassistant, set up nextcloud, and just generally "do all the things"
• I'm sure I could solve some of my issues by not driving 4 screens on the Thinkpad, but it's helpful for my ADHD to dedicate different screens to different purposes and be able to keep certain things in view (out of sight out of mind). I imagine with a new setup I'd just be running the 3 external screens (no thinkpad), which would be fine.

Desired new setup:

• need enough processing/graphics power to run OBS with multiple webcams, screen capture elements, would like to do chroma key (green screen), etc, and to be able to do it while also driving my 3 primary displays & whatever else I'm doing on that desktop/workspace concurrent with the zoom meeting
• would like post-processing for podcasts/audio in Reaper to not take a million years
• need a raid array for NAS, not sure if ZFS is the best option for file system or something else
• would like 2.5 GB networking
• would like enough oomph to be able to go bananas with homeserver things including lots of automation & camera-related things in homeassistant (looking at people/object recognition with Coral, etc)
• looking at Intel because quicksync for Plex. Plus, I know & understand Intel and would prefer to stick with that rather than AMD even though I think I'd love to have ECC memory (but do I even really need it?)
• would like to not consume a ton of power for the basic homeserver type things, which it'll do 24/7. I understand it'll consume more power when actively being used for daily office work, zoom / streams, audio & video processing, etc.
  
• really hoping for TB4 either on the i/o backplane or at least via PCIe & mb header
  
• DDR5 feels like a smart choice both for power efficiency and speed/oomph
  
• really don't care about RGB 😂
  
• need plenty of SATA because "lots of storage for cheap"
  
• wifi 6e is nice but a 2.5 gb hardline is fine, I can live without wifi... it's not going anywhere
  
• I like the idea of IPMI but I know that complicates things probably unnecessarily?
  
• I like the external LCD on the QNAP but I imagine that's something I can do without?
  
• Hotswap bays... something I thought was a must-have but probably really isn't.
  
• would really like to not spend a fortune. $400+ mobo and $400+ cpu make me hesitant.
  

So... that's where I am.
Idk if it's a good idea to do it all with one machine running proxmox to virtualize what I'm currently doing with the QNAP, and... virtualize my daily driver office computer (thinkpad w/3 displays)? Is that... totally stupid / not gonna work how I imagine? I mean... accessing my "office desktop" (prob win11 pro) remotely would be pretty nice... and I already do that with the NAS... 🤔
I'm worried a NUC-type machine might not be enough for what I do in the office space, but if I put all the oomph in the new server across the basement why wouldn't I just use that as the daily driver too?
If I do try to do it all in one machine, is an i5-13600k a good idea? overkill? Would I be able to do it in ITX form factor or do I need to look at mATX (or... ugh... do I actually have to go full ATX?)
Presently I'm trying to find a z790 (DDR5, 2.5G network, plenty of m.2 & sata) to use with an i5-13600k as an all-in-one solution. But I'm having a hard time finding the right thing. Am I even on the right track?
gah. halp. 🏳️🆘

What even is codependency and how does it work?
A relationship with a codependent dynamic is a relationship that‘s driven by an excessive reliance on the partner.
An example of this is a relationship where one side has some sort of illness that renders them unable to completely function well on their own and that requires the help and support of another.
There is nothing inherently wrong with such relationships as long as the help and support is given out of genuine care and as long as it doesn’t turn into enabling.
*****
Yet another thing that’s very important to be aware of is that many people who are codependent in relationships and post-breakup don’t have any illness or addiction and can completely function well on their without the help and support of their partner.
This is when the codependency is entirely caused by psychological or emotional trauma, attachment problems, bad social conditioning, lack of relationship experience, limiting beliefs and fear.
A relationship with this type of codependency typically operates on limiting beliefs and unhealthy principles like:
'I need to be fixed and saved by someone other than me'
'He/she completes me‘
'I‘m incomplete without them'
'I must manipulate to keep them in my life or else I will lose half of myself'
'Self-abandonment and self-sacrifice is the highest and most powerful expression of true love' (it‘s not. Respect and self-respect is the highest and most powerful expression of love for another and self-love).
'If there’s no reassurance and no words of affirmation, then they don’t love me/I‘m not good enough/must be mad because of something I did or said'
'When they withdraw I must chase or else I wont survive'
'My happiness is in someone elses hands'
A relationship dynamic like this is not healthy because:

1. It severely limits the growth you and your partner can reach and create together.
   
2. It also puts unnecessary obstacles on your journey of personal growth.
   
3. It puts you in a constant state of victimhood and self-victimization where you’re lacking power and purpose.
   
4. It makes you confuse unhealthy obsession, craving and attachment for true love.
   
5. You may not be aware of when you’re crossing your partners boundaries because the desperation to get your needs met overrides the respect for your partner and for their personal boundaries.
   
6. It makes you tolerate too much bullshit and pick the wrong partners.
   

The way to heal this and thus drastically improve and transform relationships is as follows:
• Learn to be secure in yourself above all else. This essentially means to be grounded in your own validation rather than chasing that in someone else all the time. To fill your own cup and to learn to take more responsibility for your emotional states.
• Improve the relationship with yourself. Because that relationship dictates the quality of the relationships with others.
• Heal emotional/psychological traumas and attachment problems.
• Let go of the bad social conditioning (subconscious programming) and limiting beliefs that disconnect you from your power, your true purpose and your higheauthentic self.
• Unlearn and release the outdated survival mechanisms that once served you but only stand in your way and no longer serve you now.

"Life is but a Dream..." seems like a drastic departure from what we've heard from A7X in the past, but I would say this is a companion piece to The Stage (especially with tracks like COSMIC and Beautiful Morning). So if you didn't love The Stage and the direction they took in their last album, I can see how people wouldn't love, or downright hate this one.
I'm a big A7X fan since Waking the Fallen was released 20 years ago (damn where has the time gone!?) So to expect that the band is going to sound the same after all that time is unrealistic. They have matured both in age and musically.
They lost (IMO) the 'soul' of the band when Jimmy died and have been struggling to find their purpose ever since... The band's library could easily be separated in the category of "before Nightmare and post Nightmare".
Side note: Their white (self titled) album is my favorite to date, while Hail to the King is my least favorite/least memorable album.
Speaking of The Rev... I was surprised to read the notes that the band used contributions from him! I'm interested to know what specifically was written by him. Lyrics, themes, drums, etc.?
I feel like they're on some acid trip since The Stage, that's not a bad thing, it's just different than what we know of them. I'll openly admit when I first heard "Nobody" on the radio, I wasn't initially all that impressed.
However, I have listened to LibaD all weekend and on the 2nd listen, I was hooked. I love the weirdness of some of the songs on here. From the System of a Down inspired Game Over to the driving beats on We Love You "More power, more pace, more money, more taste...more more more", it's so much fun. Cosmic and (O)rdinary sounds like beautiful leftovers from the Stage and I like thematic connection it has between the 2 albums. (D)eath is amazing... I don't know how else to put into words how much I love this song and how Shadows sings it all Sinatra crooning style. It sorta feels like they were in a NIGHTMARE and are slowly waking up and feeling their way through the fog.
In the end, I have no doubt this will be a love it or hate it entry. I feel like they definitely needed to express themselves creatively, but time will tell if they've gotten it out of their system? Will they continue the trend? Or go back to a heavier sound on the next album (which would be my guess). Love the band, love Life is but a Dream... I hope you do too or that you'll discover and learn to appreciate it over time.
What are your thoughts?

I have two cartoon characters already created. Is it possible to upload the images into Dall-E and have it use those characters for further reference?
What I mean is, if I have a teddy bear cartoon (front view) already made. If I upload it to Dall-E is there a way to take that existing character and make other views of him (i.e. side view, different facial expressions, etc.)
Thanks in advance!!
MM

Earlier this year, several coworkers and I were part of the mass tech layoffs. I immediately got another job while my coworkers are struggling to get interviews and haven’t received FTE offers. One of my coworkers (we’ll call them Taylor) expressed that they were looking for a specific pay range so they would only have to work one job and not have to keep doing side gigs. They were hoping to get an offer from a role they are interviewing for, but stated they would have to keep looking after accepting since it was under their desired range, and that they would leave as soon as they found better pay. Makes sense to me.
Now, at my new company, I’m hiring for a FTE role that is right up their alley, and it would be a $10k raise from our previous job. I think Taylor would also be able to expand their role and help show what my team could do, but the CEO and CFO actually only accepted the role at $5k reduction of what I was asking for. I know as soon as the job gets posted, Taylor is going to see it and inquire. I’d love to work with them again, but I worry how I will look professionally for me when they leave after a short period of time. That said, it would be nice to have them even for a bit because I know they’re capable and would do a great job even if they know it’s not a long-term thing. I also worry about bringing it up before/after posting with Taylor because they would absolutely take the role for the benefits (because who wouldn’t?!).
Managers, what would you do or what have you done in these situations? Is the person who I know is great but going to leave better than someone I don’t know who could do the same thing? Is this something that’s appropriate to discuss with my boss in full, or do I leave out the part about Taylor wanting a specific pay (that would be above my current rate)? How do I navigate that discussion with Taylor when it comes up? It’s a “damned if a do, damned if I don’t” situation.

Hey, I've been looking for people who are currently looking for community managers or co owners, to help them built up a server. I'm looking for a server that is 16 or 18+, that wants to be fully whitelisted, has sufficient funding, and is inspired by servers like SA'F, so is san Andreas based, uses custom liveries, focuses on making the departments as realistic as possible and making departments stand out to other servers in fivem. I'd mostly also be happy to built up SAFR as I have liveries, a discord and all other necessary things to built a really realistic and fun SAFR department. If you are one of the servers please DM me on my discord: GoldenOx70838#6355
Looking for a server:

• That is vMenu and serious roleplay (so a server exactly or close to SA'F)
• Server that wants to be fully whitelisted
• Server that is focusing on making every department unique and realistic
• Server where I can take over and build up fd
• Server where I can build up the server with the staff team

Final note is I wanna find a server who with I can work together me being on FD side and bring my experience in, and make the server really focus on every department, and make it big.

So, I waitress as a side job. I really like the job all in all and intend to keep it till I've finished my studies in about nine months (which is a fairly long time), but during the last couple of months, some issues have come up that I don't really know how to solve (or feel unable to).
Specifically, there are two colleagues who both make it very clear they don't like me in their own ways. That's fine - it's their right, they don't need to be friends with me. But it's really impacting the work environment and I think even the guests are starting to notice the tension.
Both colleagues are a lot older than me, have full jobs at this restaurant and are "shift supervisors" if they're there, so naturally I respect them as an authority and don't really dare confront them like I would colleagues of my own age. I have no issues defending myself if I'm being wrongfully accused of something, but I do have a terrible fear of specifically addressing interpersonal issues.
But let's roll back a bit to what's actually going on.
Colleague 1 is your average witch a woman in her late 30's/early 40's, overly correct, very confident and communicates a lot just through looks; also the "I wanna speak to the manager" type. She is nice to the guests, but she spends a lot of time standing around near the bar and just chatting - while being completely unaware of her own bad work ethic. While she is standing around, the rest of us is cleaning up tables etc.
We're not supposed to take orders, that's what she's there for, but if it's just one or two drinks, it's okay and we can just tell her rather than telling the guests to wait for her which is unnecessarily complicated. This is causing a LOT of problems, because every time one of us tells her just one or two drinks some guest ordered, she grows increasingly frustrated - I mean, how dare those people order drinks, right? And I wonder why they tell us the order, given that she is never around (I hope you spot the sarcasm).
A couple of weeks ago, she suddenly pressed her lips together like a 7th-grade drama queen and went, in the smugliest tone: "Uhm, do you go around taking orders or do I?" I wish I'd just said, "well, you're not doing it, so somebody has to", but in that second I was in too much shock to say anything. Oh yes, there were guests sitting right behind us who could definitely hear her.
This is not the only issue. The other is that she doesn't like me and shows this very clearly. Colleague xy (everybody loves her and rightfully so!) tells a story, this woman (let's just call her Karen because it fits) laughs heartily, comments the story, tells a story of her own. I say literally anything, she rolls her eyes, simply ignores me or mumbles an uninterested "aha". Those two opposites often appear within seconds of one another. As I said, she doesn't have to marry me, but a little human decency never hurt anybody!
Colleague 2 is a man my father's age (and actually knows my father which is just perfect. He himself is also the father of my first crush, so let's just be glad that crush never got anywhere). I respect him a lot more than I do Karen because he actually does his job properly, explained things to me properly when I first started and is generally, while a little quiet and dull, a pleasant person to be around.
I've been working there for about a year and a half, and during the last half year or so, I've started to notice that he has something against me as well for some reason. I get a snappy comeback at a reasonable (or not reasonable, what does it matter?) question while my colleague xy gets asked what she does for her holidays. She makes a mistake, he laughs it off; I make a mistake, he doesn't trust me with anything anymore and treats me like an idiot.
Whenever I'm nervous or in a situation unknown to me, I start asking questions. This male colleague doesn't like questions at all, even if they're justified and prevent a potential disaster. Just yesterday, I asked whether the table I assumed was reserved for a group was actually the right one - because obviously, I didn't want to seat them at the wrong table. He just snapped back at me to seat them at any godd*mn table and that it absolutely didn't matter. Okay, fine. A couple of minutes later, a lady orders a glass of water from me, I tell him: "The lady from table 123 asked for a glass of water." He snaps: "Did she ask for it or did she order it?", then rants on about how he apparently explained this to me already (I had no idea what he was talking about, he never explained anything remotely in that direction to me). What the heck is the difference? I expressed myself badly, okay, but that's no reason to treat me like some stupid child!
In comes another group that reserved a table. "Really, this one?", they ask. Apparently they want some privacy because they have to discuss some business that is really not for everyone's ears. Completely helpless, I tell them I'm going to ask my colleague, so I go back to the front and ask him what I'm supposed to do. He completely loses it, yelling that I know every table in this restaurant just as well as he does, and I also know that at each table, somebody might end up sitting at the table next to them, and so on. Yes, my friend, that's exactly the issue, you've got it. I didn't come to you looking for some secret table I didn't know about, but because I wanted help in finding the best solution for the current problem.
I get that he wants me to be independent. But every now and then, I'm going to come across a situation that I haven't dealt with before and don't know how to, and it should be okay to ask for help in those cases (especially if he doesn't have anything else to do in that instant)! Anyway, this was my breaking point. I think the guests overheard my colleague, because when I came back to them, they just accepted the table. I basically just shrugged, then found a quiet corner and cried - I can always keep my composure at work, but yesterday was too much, I couldn't hold back the tears. Colleague xy saw me, handed me a tissue and comforted me. The rest of the evening went fine, my male colleague was nice (I'm suspecting he either heard me cry and felt guilty or colleague xy actually talked to him about it).
But the general issue is still there. I know the solution in both cases is to confront them, but I have huge issues with confrontation. I don't know what to say, when to start a conversation about this, and how to not turn it into a drama where all my insecurity and immaturity shows and I end up just looking like an overly sensitive idiot who can't take a tiny bit of criticism - because that's not it. I can take criticism. I just can't take being those colleagues' punching bag anymore.
I should say that I have no issues with our other colleagues - including the boss. There was once a misunderstanding with one of the cooks that was resolved (though only with my brother's help - he works in the kitchen) and everything is fine now. I also confronted my boss when he sent me to an all-night-job at a wedding without telling me before. He explained someone had gotten sick and he didn't have a choice, and everything was fine. BUT confronting someone about their behaviour towards me? That's simply impossible.
Any ideas? Anyone with similar experiences?

Every school spends maybe 10 minutes on unique factors. The rest is generic crap that I have heard going on ten times now.
“We give plenty of internship opportunities!”
“This is a big college but it really feels small.”
“Our library is unique in that it gets quieter as the floors get higher. insert joke about dropping pen on top floor.”
“Other colleges have big classes. Not us.”
“Our job center helps with jobs.” (No shit?)
“We have some combination of traditional and suite housing.” (All look basically the same.)
“You can preload your account with CollegeCash^TM for the food court and restaurants.”
“We used to have a Panda Express but it closed…”

I've been a long time reader of this specific genre.
I won't say I've delved deep into it, but I've read milestone works as well as some smaller ones.
​
Standing in the shower, I had thought I would have written a long-ass essay on my feelings.
I opened up my browser, looked at the textbox, and ended up concluding that it wouldn't be a great idea to invest so much energy and time.
So I'll take a shortcut.
​
There's a certain word in the cultural zeitgeist that's been gaining traction in the past few years.
I believe that it perfectly encapsulates my misgivings about the bad side of this genre.
It expresses my disdain for the frequent pseudointellectual snobbiness, the disconnect from reality lesser works have, the lack of self-awareness, and so on.
That word is cringe.
​
Obviously, not every work is cringe, and not every part of a cringe piece is cringe.
But when I want to express why I dislike a rational fiction, that's the word that ends up floating up to the top.
​
This is my major problem with Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, a work that is (in my opinion, unfortunately) foundational to this genre. Overwhelmingly, it feels like it was written with a sense of superiority -- of being less wrong -- towards the original work and its fans.
​
It's also my problem with parts of a more recent work, Worth the Candle.
Actually, I think I ended up overall enjoying the work. Like the title says, I love the world created by Alexander Wales. I love the detail, the consistency, the sheer cohesion of the hex.
However, there were times where I felt it was frankly laying it on a bit thick. Calling them caricactures would be a bit too much, but I do believe that the core cast were exaggerated in a way. At the end, it's outright said to be intentional, but that still doesn't redeem the dozens of chapters before the conclusion.
Althought it wasn't written with the vitriol that HPMOR had, there were still times I felt it was trying too hard to subvert the tropes of the isekai genre. Mainly in the "love interests" the main character had.
(Haha, look! It turns out she WON'T be a part of a harem, woah! How unexpected!)
(Uh oh, the dommy mommy yandere being a rapist actually isn't a good thing!?)
​
As a whole, I would say that this genre severely lacks good dialogue.
There's this idea that being rational is like the best thing when that's actually rather questionable.
There's also a lack of being able to separate being rational versus being logical.
I don't know if that's the right term for it, but here's a shitty short story that helps explain my idea.

A rationalist walks up to a man smoking a cigarette.
The rationalist asks, "Don't you know that smoking kills you? You'll live 10 years less on average!"
The smoker replies, "Well, yeah, but I'd rather live smoking than live 10 more years."

Basically, it's a fundamental lack of understanding that people have different values.
For the rationalist, living rationally frequently means living to their values "optimally".
​
Some of you might take this as me liking rational fiction, but not rationalist fiction, but I don't think that's quite right either.
I'm meandering a bit, and probably didn't get to the main points I intended to, but I feel like this has gone on too long for my own taste.

(Any sentences or phrases wrapped with brackets "[ ]" are designated as inner monologue!)
Thank you to u/SpacePaladin15 for creating this wonderful literary universe!
< First Previous Next >
Memory transcription subject: Tassak, Arxur Paleontologist
Date [standardized human time]: July 15, 2165
I nervously clicked my claws against the wooden table as I waited for the rest of the invitees to arrive. The UN had brought me to the senate building privately so as to not cause panic, and I was grateful. I only hoped that the people whom I was going to be working with wouldn’t freak out at my appearance.
The war against the Federation and the subjugation of the Arxur by the Dominion had ended shortly after my birth, but the effects of the past few centuries of conflict could not be eliminated in such a short amount of time. Societal ideals have to be rewritten over long stretches of time by strong people with strong will, and there simply hasn’t been enough time to do so. As a result, though it has been many years since the last battle against the Arxur, it was still uncommon to see any outside of the space they already inhabited, and still VERY common to see hatred and fear of us among Fed species. It has always been my ultimate goal to show those who fear us just how similar we are, that is why I sacrificed everything to attend the Meiers Institute of Knowledge.
On the Arxur’s side of the societal coin, it was social suicide to interact with “prey” species willingly. [Oh how I hate that word.] Most of the elders of our society could not get over their hatred of the Federation species, despite the fact that they were under just as much, if not MORE subjugation than we were. When I made the decision to go and learn at MIK, I was shunned from all social groups at home. Not that there even were many, most Arxur rarely interacted with each other if they could help it.
MIK was a chance for me to experience new ideas and try new things. For once, I wasn’t discriminated against because I had front-facing eyes and scary teeth, and I learned just how much I loved socializing with like-minded people. I was finally allowed to let my love for knowledge flourish in a way that other Arxur would never have condoned. I graduated some time later with several degrees and a doctorate in paleontology.
Though to some, the idea of digging up bones and putting them together like a puzzle seemed macabre, it felt liberating to me. I felt like I truly understood the value of life and death. I could look at the cracked tooth of an ancient ancestor of the Arxur or the fossilized chitin of one of the Tilfish’s predecessors and identify a pattern, showing the divergent evolution they underwent to achieve their current form. I could see the similarities all life inherently had. Sometimes the similarities between us were shocking, and occasionally it was kind-of scary, but that only made me more passionate about my work.
I assume that is why the UN decided to send me a job offer 3 weeks ago. When I received it I was ECSTATIC at the prospect. The UN government sending ME, a small-time nobody Arxur paleontologist, an invitation to work with them? If I could tell my past self what I would be up to now, I would almost certainly scoff at myself. Even as I boarded my UN funded private ship to Aafa I was subconsciously wondering if it was some elaborate prank. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard footsteps from the other side of the door. This is it, I’m about to meet my partners, please don’t run away screaming.
A human, a venlil, and a gojid stood in the doorway staring at me. The gojid seemed slightly fearful but hid it well, the human and venlil however just seemed confused. [Okay, okay, they didn’t scream at me. That’s a good start.] The three, along with their escort, settled into chairs at the table I sat at, looking at me expectantly. I straightened my posture and prepared myself mentally to greet them. “H-hi, my name is Tassak. Are you the other three invitees?” The human sitting across from me spoke. “Yes. I hope I don’t offend by saying this but I wasn’t expecting an Arxur invitee.” He raised an eyebrow as he ended his sentence. He quickly started talking again, probably to try and explain his reasoning. “Sorry, I-I mean, don’t the Arxur frown upon interacting with “prey” species?” The venlil and gojid looked at me as I thought of a response. “Yes, they do. I had to cut a lot of ties to get into this profession. Let’s get introductions out of the way please.” “Alright, my name is James. I’m 31 years old. I was born on Earth and now live on Venlil prime. I went to MIK to become a historian. My diet is mainly coffee but occasionally I drink coffee as a treat.” The man smiled as he awaited our amusement, but it never came. James’ smirk faded and he coughed into his hand before continuing. “I was invited along with my friend Lemva, she’s the venlil next to me, and Cayek, he’s the gojid to your right.”
I exhaled quietly, James seemed friendly enough. “My name is Tassak, as I said before. I’m 29. I got a doctorate in paleontology at the Meiers Institute of Knowledge, along with some other degrees. I hail from Wriss I currently live on Earth.” As I finished my statement, I couldn’t help but criticize the way I spoke. [Why did I talk so rigidly, ughhh! My first impressions are going terribly!] James spoke up. “Wait, did we all come from MIK? Weird coincidence huh?” I could tell he was trying to ease the tension in the room. “I thought I would’ve noticed a giant lizard guy walking around campus.” Wait, did he call me a guy? “Uh, I’m a girl, actually.” I spoke timidly. The man before me became as red as a fresh cut of steak. His embarrassment was plainly visible, which I found amusing, it lessened my anxiety slightly.
The venlil that James had referred to as Lemva spoke up, changing the subject. “Weelll… Anyhow, my name is Lemva as James told you. I’m 30 years old. I’m an archaeologist and got my doctorate from MIK. My current home is on Earth but I’ve lived a little bit of everywhere. Me and James have been friends for a long time, we met in the institute’s history club.” Everyone focused their attention onto Cayek as Lemva’s introduction concluded. It took several seconds for him to compose himself. I could tell that my presence was uncomfortable for him, and him being seated closest to me of the three people probably exacerbated that feeling. I didn’t blame him for his fear, but it still stung a little. He gulped and started talking.
“My name is Cayek. I’m a 41 year old linguist who also went to MIK for my doctorate. I was born on the Cradle, was taken in at a young age by the UN after it got bombed, and was offered a home in one of the cities constructed by the Cradle Re-colonization Project, where I now live.” The man stopped talking and I thought he was done, but he straightened his posture and started speaking again. “I just want to get this out of the way before it causes trouble later down the line.” He spoke with a sigh. “I was born in a… you could call it a “hostile” household. My family raised me during a time when hate against… “people who were different” was acceptable. My upbringing cemented a couple habits into me that I’ve been trying to chip away at, so to speak, ever since I saw the sheer good that mankind is capable of. I’ve been attempting to be more open to new ideas ever since. Hell, I even took the anti-cure and tried some-” He gulped. “-non-herbivore cuisine, to get some perspective. So if I accidentally say or do something offensive to you please tell me, I truly want to leave that part of me behind.” As he ended his speech, he slouched and let out a breath he had been holding in. I was surprised by his honesty.
James and Lemva both processed the information. I responded first. “Thank you. You have no idea how much anxiety dropped off my shoulders just now. I was worried you’d all run away at first sight of me or treat me like some bloodthirsty beast. I very much appreciate the effort you’re putting into reforming.” James spoke after me. “I appreciate it too. After all these riots it’s such a breath of fresh air to meet a person that won’t cry if I look at them.” In the past 10 minutes, this man had crammed in jokes at any time he could. I think I’m gonna like him. I could tell that the joke came from a place of sadness though, I could see the sadness in his eyes.
James started to look impatient, he tapped his fingers on the table in a rhythmic pattern while he checked his holopad for the time. “I thought we were here for a job offer. How long is this gon-” The sound of the heavy wooden door opening filled the room, as a small group of well-dressed men and women filed in through the doorway. As my eyes scanned over each person who entered, my heart skipped a beat and I jolted upward to attempt a human salute as I spotted President Zhao at the tail-end of the group. [What the fuck? Why is he meeting with us?] The other three followed my gaze and stood to salute as well. In his surprise, James nearly fell over. My three partners were as equally dumbstruck as I by the sudden appearance of the head of the government.
President Zhao took on a small amused smirk as he witnessed James straighten himself out. “At ease. You may take a seat.” We did as he commanded. “Welcome to the Capitol. It’s good to see that you all accepted your invitations. I can see from your confused expressions that you probably want some answers, so let’s get started.” As Zhao took a seat at the head of the table, one of the men who had accompanied him lifted a briefcase from his side and placed it delicately on the table. The man inputted a code into a small keypad and the briefcase unlocked with a click. Inside was a holo-projector, which the man placed on the center of the table. “Before we begin, our four guests will need to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement, the information spoken of in this meeting must never leave this room.” Another of the officials, a small woman in a black dress, passed four holopads to us, which we promptly wrote our signatures into. The holopads were collected and Zhao spoke. “Excellent. You’re probably all curious about the reason we invited you specifically for this opportunity, why all the security measures and guards, why we’re trying to keep this under such tight wraps.” The holo-projector on the table switched on and briefly displayed the Coalition logo, before transitioning to a hologram of Talsk, the Farsul homeworld. “As you know, for hundreds of years the Federation had been keeping archives filled with classified knowledge and confiscated or outright stolen items. On the nineteenth of june, approximately four weeks ago, after extensive search efforts, we found the motherlode. The Federation had kept many archives but this one was special. It wasn’t a library, it was a tomb. Buried under several kilometers of rock and deep ocean, the Federation sealed away items and information that, if released, could possibly threaten their hold over the galaxy.”
The holo-projector transitioned to a diagram depicting the archive, there was no entrance-way and no exit, just kilometers of water and stone between it and the surface. The hologram zoomed in on the archive, showing a more detailed view of the gargantuan structure. It consisted of several levels, each with a number of chambers housing items or information. At the very bottom of the structure, one chamber stood out among the rest. 10 meter thick walls of an ultra-hard titanium alloy encased a small cell filled with toxic gas. Suspended in the middle of the chamber by hundreds of metal rods was a vacuum-sealed prism of diamond. Finally, inside the prism was a small metal cube along with a holopad.
I felt a chill down my spine as I studied the intricate carvings etched upon the surface of the artifact. I could tell that the carvings were of some language, but it did not match any that I could think of. “Within the records, this artifact was designated as Class-Hydrogen1. The Federation’s information classification system is far too complex to discuss in full, but in summary, the more important something is, the closer to 1 the atomic number of the element it is assigned will be. The classification is then proceeded by a 1 or 2, 1 signifies dangerous information and 2 signifies dangerous materials. For example, in this same archive we discovered an experimental and dangerous singularity generator with a classification of Fluorine2, which has an atomic number of 9.”
“To put into perspective how scary the idea of a Class-Hydrogen designation is, the second highest classification object on record is a self-powered anti-grav receptacle of strange matter. Strange matter will turn any other matter it touches into more strange matter, I shouldn’t have to explain why that is incredibly dangerous. The receptacle was classified as a Carbon2. There are 4 classifications between Hydrogen and Carbon and none of them are being used.” My blood ran cold as I listened. What power could this artifact possibly hold? The question in my mind was quickly replaced by another. Why are WE the ones being told this? Before the window of opportunity ended, I opened my mouth to speak.
“Permission to speak, sir?” Zhao looked at me and nodded. “I still have a question, and I’m sure my partners do too, but why us? Why did you choose to tell us this instead of someone more qualified?” “I’m glad you reminded me.” I heard the clacking of a keyboard as one of the men beside the President switched the holo-projector to a different tab. A close-up of the cube appeared, showing the four sides of the object.
The first side depicts a bipedal creature covered in spikes turning their back on two similar figures cloaked in blood and flames. The creature holds a defiant posture. Flames trail behind them, turning to embers, then to smoke, and then fading entirely.
The second side depicts a small fluffy figure being chased by a dark version of themselves across a variety of settings and locations.
The third side depicts a large being covered in scales bound in chains kneeling on an altar, their arms being stretched to two different sides. On one side a crowd of identical creatures and on the other side a crowd composed of different figures of varying shapes and sizes, both sides pointing weapons at the central figure.
The final scene depicts a man screaming in anger and sorrow pointing a dagger toward a small creature with bloodied hands. Tears stream down his face. A man and woman lie dead in the background.
A gojid, a venlil, an arxur, and a human.
< First Previous Next >
(This is my first major post on NatureofPredators, any criticism or advice is welcome! I want to make my stories inviting and pleasant to read! Also, please notify me if you find any formatting errors, I'm not very familiar with Reddit's formatting.)

Certain foods make my blood sugar sky rocket fast no matter how much insulin I give myself for the food. The top two is cereal and Panda Express for me. How does anyone else combat this or is it simply to just give more insulin for it? 🤣

https://www.npr.org/2023/06/06/1180175155/supreme-court-decisions-affirmative-action-voting-rights-student-loans
Affirmative Action Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina
At issue are affirmative action programs at the the University of North Carolina, which until the 1950s did not admit Black students, and Harvard University, which was the model for the Supreme Court's 1978 decision declaring that colleges and universities may consider race as one of many factors, from the applicant's geographical and family background, to their special talents in science, math, athletics, and even whether the applicant is the child of the school's alumni.
The two cases overlap. Because UNC is a state school, the question is whether its affirmative-action program violates the 14th Amendment's guarantee to equal protection of the law. And even though Harvard is a private institution, it still is covered by federal anti-discrimination laws because it accepts federal money for a wide variety of programs. The cases were argued last October.
Voting Rights Act Merrill v. Milligan
At issue in Alabama's congressional redistricting plan adopted by the Republican state legislature after the 2020 census. More than a quarter of the state's population is African American, but in only 1 of 7 districts do minority voters have a realistic chance of electing the candidate of their choice. Black voters are either concentrated in that district so they are a supermajority there or spread out across the remaining six districts so that their voting power is diluted. It's a practice known as packing and cracking.
In January 2022, a three-judge federal court panel ruled unanimously that Alabama could and should have created two compact congressional districts with a majority, or close to a majority, of Black voters: two districts instead of just one. Two of the judges on the panel were Trump appointees, the third a Clinton appointee.
The state appealed to the Supreme Court, which by a 5-4 vote blocked the lower court ruling, which ordered a new map for the 2022 election, then nine months away. That was too much for Chief Justice John Roberts, a longtime critic of the Voting Rights Act, but who this time dissented along with the court's three liberals. He said he could find "no apparent errors" in the way the lower court applied existing precedents. What he didn't say was whether the court should revisit some of those precedents. The case was argued in October.
Indian Child Welfare Act
Haaland v. Brackeen
The case pitted several prospective adoptive parents and the state of Texas against the Indian Child Welfare Act — a federal law aimed at preventing Native American children from being separated from their extended families and their tribes.
Texas and several families who are adopting American Indian children challenged the law in court. They contended it amounts to an unconstitutional racial preference, and that the federal law impermissibly intrudes on state autonomy. The case was argued in November.
LGBTQ rights 303 Creative v. Elenis
The case pits two constitutional principles against each other. On one side are laws that guarantee same-sex couples equal access to all businesses that offer their services to the public. On the other are business owners who see themselves as artists and don't want to use their talents to express a message that they don't believe in.
The plaintiff in the case is a Colorado web designer who argues that Colorado's public accommodations law prevents her from doing what she wants to do most — custom web designs for weddings. The reason: She believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman. The case was argued Dec. 6.
Independent state legislature theory Moore v. Harper
At issue is the so-called independent state legislature theory, put forth in this case by the North Carolina Republican State Legislature. If adopted, it would give state legislatures the power to put in place all manner of election laws and rules without any review by the state courts. At its most extreme, the theory could eliminate not just state judicial power over elections, but governor's vetoes. And it might allow state legislatures to certify presidential electors who were not approved by the voters - an idea that Donald Trump tried unsuccessfully to put forth in 2020.
In the particular case before the justices, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that the Republican-dominated state Legislature, in drawing new congressional districts after the 2020 census, violated the state constitution with an extreme partisan gerrymander.
The case was argued Dec. 7.
Sunday work at USPS Groff v. DeJoy
Case tests how far employers must go to accommodate the religious views of employees.
Forty-six years ago, the court, by a lopsided margin, ruled that an employer need not accommodate a worker's desire to avoid work on the Sabbath if that would mean operating shorthanded or regularly paying premium wages to replacement workers. The court went on to say that employers should not have to bear more than what it called, quote, "a de minimis," or trifling, cost.
The de minimis language has sparked lots of criticism over the years, but Congress has repeatedly rejected proposals to provide greater accommodation for religious observers, including those who object to working on the Sabbath. Now, however, religious groups of every kind are pressing a new and more conservative group of justices to overturn or modify the court's earlier ruling. The case was heard in April.
Student loans Biden v. Nebraska
A handful of Republican-dominated states – Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas and South Carolina – have asked the Supreme Court to permanently block the Biden administration's student loan forgiveness program. The states contend that the president exceeded his legal authority when he implemented a program to cancel up to $20,000 in debt for people holding federal student loans.
The merits of the case are fairly straightforward. Does the 2003 law, known as the HEROES Act, give the president and his secretary of education the power to authorize federal student loan forgiveness? The case was argued in February.
True threats Counterman v. Colorado
The Supreme Court this term revisits a question the court has never answered: When is a threat a "true threat?" What does the prosecution have to prove? Does it have to show that the defendant intended to frighten his target, or is it enough to show that his words would have that effect on a reasonable person?
The case involves Coles Whalen, a singer-songwriter from Colorado, and Billy Counterman, a man convicted and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for "stalking" Whalen and making "true threats" against her. The case was heard in April.