Lmao I tried to be funny cause you know, goodnight! Anyways how was y’all’s weekend!? I hope well! Certainly not ready for work tomorrow! But since I got some time left before I sleep, and was feeling lonely, I wanna chat with someone about anything I don’t mind as long as we vibe and your clingy lmaoo jk! Hoping to make a few friends, miss texting on the daily, los miro en mis mensajes jaja!

Jesus reminded me “Almost everyone here has had sex before they died, for most it was a regular part of their life.”
“But Lord”, I said. You said that sex before marriage was a sin, and marriage obviously wasn’t going to happen for me! I was almost 30, couldn’t even get a real job, and even when I was in school I couldn’t even get a girlfriend!”
“God’s plan, and His will, was for you to remain celibate and childfree, He created you to be that way”. Jesus went on.
“I didn’t want children, Lord! The trauma I went through! The life I didn’t get to even live and enjoy, I thought it’d be morally wrong TO have children anyway!”
“My father made sex to grow His army of worshippers, to create more servants for Him, it is not your say, child.”
“So it doesn’t even matter how I feel, or what I want?”
“No, you selfish child. God made you just the way HE WANTED YOU TO BE, you should be grateful you even got to exist!” Jesus replied.
“I was miserable, lonely, depressed! I HATED existing! What I went through everyday! The nightmares, the intrusive thoughts, the voices telling me to kill people, the feelings of evil trying to take over me and corrupt me, why would he let me go through all of that????”
“Because you refused to submit to Him, you were stubborn, and determined to stay focused on what YOU wanted. Wasn’t it obvious God didn’t want you to have those things? You weren’t even willing to get married, and have children. You had sick, twisted desires, you literally almost subscribed to femdom dominstrixes on OnlyFans!!!! Don’t you know that the MAN is supposed to be in charge of the woman???”
“I never felt like that kind of man, I wanted to be dominated by strong women, and abused and humiliated sometimes even, a combination of trauma and genetics probably made me that way. If those desires were SO SINFUL AND WRONG, why didn’t they ever feel wrong? They never felt like a bad thing, quite pleasurable, honestly. Also, God made, or let people be gay too! What about that??? There were probably a lot more gay people than straight guys into femdom!”
“You are supposed to RESIST those desires! The flesh is of the devil! Those desires are a TEST! And like many others, YOU FAILED!” Jesus boomed.
“Didn’t God create the flesh, like everything else? That’s messed up, like trying to make a man kill his son, and trying to make another man impregnate his dead brother’s wife.” I replied.
“GOD MAKES THE RULES! NOT YOU PUNY HUMANS!!!!” Jesus exploded.
“I do not appreciate that tone.” I said.
“DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE TALKING TO????” Jesus rose into the air, and his arms suddenly covered in lightning and fire.
“You gonna send me to Hell now? Your standards were just impossible to meet, and completely went against our human nature. We were the way GOD MADE US.”
I was using reasoning and logic, but God is beyond all that, I guess.
Satan (looking like that big red guy in South Park) walked over.
“What is HE doing HERE?” I exclaimed.
“The Bible literally said that Satan is in the HEAVENLY REALMS.”
“Why would you allow that???”
“SATAN!” Take this ungrateful selfish prick back with you!!!” Jesus demanded.
“Come on, it’s lame here anyway. Why do you think I left here in the first place? Me and the homies have so much fun down there, and nobody tells us we can’t have fun and enjoy things that feel good. We have all the fun stuff down there, up here you’re only allowed to worship and serve God, you can’t even have sex, even if you were married and your spouse is here too. They don’t even allow marriage up here, not that marriage is really neccessary to have and enjoy sex.” Satan was using logic and reason too!!!
“YOU ARE NOT WORTHY OF GOD!!! GO HAVE YOUR NASTY SEX IN HELL!!!! YOU DON’T EVEN APPRECIATE GOD’S WONDERFUL GIFT OF CELIBACY!!! YOU WEREN’T MEANT TO HAVE SEX!!! THAT’S FOR MARRIED PEOPLE WHO AREN’T TOO SELFISH TO REPRODUCE!!!!!!”
A crowd of people started chanting at me, “You never got to have sex because you weren’t a real man! We’ve ALL had sex here! Before we got here. And the virgins here? Are actually GRATEFUL that they never had it!!!!”.
“Let’s get out of here.” Satan said. “You’re gonna LOVE the femdemons. Don’t worry, there are human women too, sexy dominant ones. You can have sex too, the WAY you want it too.”
“I never belonged here anyway.” I said.
Satan lifted me on his back and jumped and flew down from the clouds.
The dream just ended there, so for all I know Satan was tricking me? But how would you explain the way Jesus was acting?
I guess I just can’t trust God, never really heard from HIM DIRECTLY ANYWAY.
I knew I didn’t fit into “God’s model”.

Hey. What’s up? I’m Jack. I’m 21 years old (22 in July) and I’m looking for my soulmate, my other half, the one person who can make me whole.
I know some people would say twenty is a bit young to be looking for your soulmate. Cool. I don’t care. I’ve been looking for her, since I was twelve.
As for me as a person, I’m incredibly romantic and affectionate and I want the same back in a romantic partner. I’m hugely sentimental. I’m also an aspiring filmmaker. I studied IT in college so I’d have something to support myself as I work to make it in film. I’m also into photography, collecting nerdy things, collecting old books, reading. If you want to know more, shoot me a message.
When I’m into someone, I’m not joking when I say that person will become my everything. They become the first thing I think about when I wake up, and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep (I know how cheesy that sounds). They become the thing I care most about. They become the thing I want most in the world. They become my heart and my soul, my sky and my stars, my moon and my sun.
They become everything to me.
I’m searching for my soulmate, not just on Reddit other places too. I’m looking for the Rose to my Jack (I know Jack dies in Titanic, breaks my fucking heart every time I watch the film), the Claire to my Phil (Modern Family reference), the Rose to my Ten (except we don’t get separated like they did in Series 2 Episode 13 “Doomsday”).
I know I post a lot, and I know it annoys a lot of you. I’m not doing it to annoy you, I’m not a creep and I’m not an incel. I’m a guy who happens to be a gigantic hopeless romantic, a guy who already knows how he wants to propose. I just need the girl to complete the puzzle.
And yeah, I’m a little intense with my feelings and I know how f**king determined I am. One day, I’m gonna show her all these posts because I want to her know how hard and long I looked for her and that now that I have her, she will never be alone again, I will always be there for her. That she will always feel loved and special and wanted and cherished.
I haven’t even met her yet, and she’s already the best thing that ever happened to me.
I haven’t even met her yet and she’s already my whole world.
(P.S. my dcord is in my bio 😊)
I’m not gonna stop looking, I’m not gonna rest until she’s in my arms and when she is, I’ll never let go.
Because, to put it simply…
She is the key.
She is the dream.
Now I want to speak directly to her:
I know you’re out there somewhere. I can feel it. I can feel you. Now and always in my heart.
You are my Queen. My hero. My sun and stars. Moon of my life. From my first day, until my last day.
I pledge myself to you. Now and always. There is no one else now. There will never be anyone else. It will always be you.
I’ll be right here when you turn up. I can’t wait to meet you and learn all about you, about your family, everything. I can’t wait until we can go exploring together. Roaming through forests, different countries. Those are the days I long for.
You are the thing I long for.
I eagerly await your arrival.
Yours, Jack

I brought my wife to my company's prom night. It was boring. The food was so-so, we didn't enjoy the entertainment there, and my wife isn't the type to socialize
I did ask her if she really wanted to come, and she said yes, so it's not my fault that she got so bored there. I tried to spend time with her, but I also wanted to chat with my colleagues
Anyway, once the main event was over, she told me she wanted to leave. I said it was poor form to leave so soon, as my manager still had a speech coming up. She begrudgingly agreed to stay. After the speech, she told me again it was time to go
I told her to give me a moment as I wanted to say goodbyes to my colleagues
To my surprise, I saw a group of ex-colleagues, and we immediately hit it off, asking about how each other were doing
10 mins later, my wife abruptly showed up beside me, frowning in obvious anger. I said "This is my wife Y!"
She said hi to just one of them (a dismissive kind of hi), ignoring everyone else. Then we all saw the rage on her face. She walked off without waiting, and I had to chase after her
She told me off later, blaming me for making her wait despite telling her I was only saying goodbyes. I admitted I should have at least dropped her a text, but she had humiliated me in front of my colleagues, and she didn't even bother to return their greetings
She replied she wanted to show her anger. And that was when I got furious as well. We didn't talk at all during the entire drive home
She thinks she is justified. I think she went way too far in her disrespect. Now what?

So this is a little discussion that I've had a few times with a few people and now Im wondering what others think. To give a lil backstory: I (20F) have been friends with my guy friend (21M) since 8th grade. Back then we used to have an attraction towards eachother but never fully went into it as a real thing. Mostly because we were going to different schools once we reached highschool, and hes not into a long distance type of relationship. In highschool he would chat at times with me, and it would be awhile again till I heard from him. But finally this year things have changed and we reconnected, along with our other friend as well! We got a lil trio going on :))
Anyways: so my problem is, as you read the title, whether or not he's grown to have a crush on me, and I worry as well for the girlfriend. Now, yes, I will admit, again I have gained attraction towards him again after all these years, but because he has a girlfriend, im not stepping on her toes. At first I've only heard her through his rantings of their relationship. He asks for advice, I say what I think is right and we move on. When we hang out, theres physical touch in place. I asked him due to curiosity and worry but he said that it's his love language. We move on. I myself enjoy physical touch, but I try to not do it so much in respect of the gf. Of course with time, she knows about me and I grow more worried because it's like "oh shoot" type moment of, is she mad? is she cool? am I gonna live? type beat. But anyways, There are more moments where I cant tell, but then it feels like theres tension but then I dont know- (i happen to be oblivious to a lot of stuff so i have to ask if what I thought I saw or felt was tru) anyways.. One day we were all hanging out and one thing led to another-....HA i gotchu didnt I- anyways, it led to him admitting to wanting to sleep with me. NOW NOW I know what yall are thinking, "OH THATS GOTTA BE UR SIGN RIGHT THERE" I was surprised because I didnt expect that yknow?? In my mind, okay, if I were told that by like some other guy I wouldve been like: "lil ol me??" but anyways, I was flattered but I told him no, and reminded him he has a gf.
There are a lot of moments where he's genuinely caring and is a loving person, but I'm worried that I look like im trying to "make him mine" and I'm really not planning on doing that. I enjoy being around me friend, but I also want to know if Im getting us in trouble some how. Even my mom teases about how "no guy cares THAT much" (I tell her a lot of stuff even this stuff too) And yea- I dunno I just need opinions, should I step away for a minute? Should I ask him directly?

CW: This diary contains sensitive topics such as alcohol issues, disordered eating, weight issues, and mental health challenges
📈 Section One: Assets and Debt
I live at home and have done so since I graduated college which puts me in a much better financial position than I would have been in otherwise. Just want to be upfront about that.
Retirement Balance: I have $12.5k in my 401k and $3.5k in my Roth IRA
HSA: $5k
Taxable brokerage: $3.5k all in VTWAX
Home Equity: Nada
Savings account: I have $17k in my emergency fund and $1k in a separate sinking fund for travel
Checking account balance: $650 at this time
Credit card debt: Currently $135 but I pay off my card every week or so
Student loan debt: I borrowed $33k for a Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) degree from an Ivy League university. It's down to $15k right now. I specified that it was an Ivy League school because I want to use this moment to say that I did not have a great experience and I do not think it was worth it. For the vast majority of people, especially those who are middle class and can't afford it without debt but also won't qualify for need-based aid, I would actually advise against attending one unless you're targeting specific, highly competitive post-grad roles such as investment banking, management consulting, or big tech. For everyone else, I recommend going to your state school and picking a major with good ROI. Sometimes what glitters is gold, but most times it's just fucking glitter. Ok I'll get off my soapbox now.
💰 Section Two: Income
Income Progression:

• Job 1: Media Monitor at a political consulting firm making $50k, then I got laid off
• Job 2: Marketing Coordinator at a nonprofit making $45k. I jumped ship after 6 months. I'm committed to the cause but not that committed.
• Job 3: Account Executive at an ad agency making $60k, then I got a promotion to Senior Account Executive which puts me at $70k

Main Job Monthly Take Home: $4,065 after taxes, 401k, HSA, and insurance. No side gigs.
💸 Section Three: Monthly Expenses
Housekeeper: $200 + $50 tip. I don't pay rent or utilities so I figure this is the least I can do.
Transportation: $100
Groceries: $300
Student Loans: $500
Savings: $1,000 which is split between my emergency fund and my travel fund. Down the line, I want to save to pay off my student loans and maybe put away some cash for a downpayment.
Roth IRA: $250
Taxable brokerage: $100
Therapy: $180
Gym + HIIT Classes: $125
Spin Class Package: $80 for 5 classes
Spotify: $12
I use my parents' Netflix and I bought every season of Brooklyn 99 as a birthday present to myself two years ago, which I rewatch regularly.
✨ Section Four: Money Diary
Monday: Anxiety wakes me up around 4am but I stay in bed until my alarm goes off at 4:45am and I get ready for the gym. Today is leg day, which is not my favorite, but I'm still excited to exercise. The gym is my safe space in a lot of ways.
After my workout, I shower at the gym, get to the office, and eat my packed green yogurt and granola. It's a pretty chill day, all things considered. No client calls, which is a blessing. I just prepare a few proposals to sell in additional projects and prepare a scope of work. At some point, I eat my packed pasta for lunch. Surprisingly, I'm done at six.
When I get home, I see that we have white wine in the fridge, and force myself not to have any. Instead, I grab my prepped rice, ground beef, and veggies meal and pop it in the microwave. I have a problem with binge eating (and drinking) so I try as much as possible to stick to what I meal prep.
After dinner, I pack my gym bag for tomorrow and watch an episode of Brooklyn 99 before going to bed.
Tuesday: Same deal as yesterday: wake up too early, lie in bed worrying about nothing until my alarm goes off, and head to the gym for a much needed mental health break. Today is upper body day which is my fave! I'm able to bench 65 pounds which makes me really happy and proud of myself. I know it's objectively not much weight, but when I first started, I was barely able to bench the bar.
I shower after my workout, get to the office, eat my greek yogurt and granola, and get to work. An RFP came in so getting everything sorted for the proposal takes up much of my day. We also have a creative review with our client, which does not go well. Towards the end of the day, we get a very angry email from said client so my boss and I hop on a call to talk her down.
On the way home, I think about my career choices. My friends in investment banking are equally miserable but at least they're well compensated for their misery. For dinner, I eat the lunch I was supposed to eat at work plus my dinner. Oops.
Wednesday: Leg day again. I feel much better after working out but it only lasts until I get to the office. It's one of those days when everyone is mad at you. The client is mad because they don't like the creative, the creative team is mad because they don't feel like you stood up for them enough, your boss is mad because they're stressed, and you're mad because of...everything.
I go on a lunch walk and pass a wine bar. I manage to not get a drink but I do end up at a Shake Shack where I emotionally eat until I feel sick which obviously does not help things ($26). I spend the rest of the work day putting out fires and trying not to cry. I repeat to myself that it's just advertising: no one's going to die.
After work, I head to my therapist's office and spend the first five minutes of the session just crying. Then we talk about things, do some EMDR work, and some somatic exercises ($45).
When I get home, I eat my lunch for dinner, even though I'm still pretty full. Before bed, I talk to a friend on the phone. She asks about how work is going and I keep things vague because she just got laid off and I feel like it's insensitive to complain about work to someone who just got fired.
Thursday: I wake up anxious but determined to not have a shitty day. I go to the gym, do my upper body workout, and hit a PR for an overhead press (only 55 pounds but I'm still proud). It's so lame but I feel really blessed to have this time to just be in my body, listen to Sza, and not think of anything in particular.
Today is a wfh day so I shower at home and eat breakfast with my mom. She casts a judgmental glance at my yogurt bowl and says I could probably eat half of it and save the rest for lunch. My therapist tells me to "grey rock" my mom in these situations so I ignore her and put my headphones on but it still hurts my feelings, especially because I calculated the macros for that meal (and all my meals) almost exactly and have been losing weight at a slow and healthy pace.
Work is only mildly stressful instead of extremely stressful and for that I am grateful. I even have time to eat my lunch.
After work, I catch up with a former boss of mine who works as a creative lead at a beauty brand now. I get over myself and let him know I'm looking for a new opportunity and he immediately puts me in their referral system.
After the call, when I'm eating dinner, I tear up a little thinking about that interaction. I sometimes have a hard time believing that people like me and have my back so it a nice reminder. I savor the moment.
Friday: For once I'm woken up by my alarm. I head to the gym for my HIIT bootcamp class and hang out with the coach and other attendees for a little while after. On the way home I think about how much easier that class was than when I first started. I think about how I'm on a first-name basis with people there, who seem excited to see me and even save me a spot when they know I'm coming. Another nice moment I savor.
It's Friday and a wfh day, so work is pretty chill. I have a virtual coffee chat with a coworker who also hates it here and is trying to leave advertising which is always cathartic. Then I have a 1:1 with my boss which goes surprisingly well. She says some very nice things which embarrassingly makes me tear up a little. I eat my breakfast for lunch and my lunch as a snack a couple of hours later.
That evening, my dad and I go on a walk which is nice. Then we have dinner and I go to my room. I start reading Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan but I get bored, so I switch to Funny Story by Emily Henry instead, which I enjoy much more.
My mom comes into my room and vents about the job interview she just had, which did not go well. I reassure her that it's just a tough market but tell her that her feelings are valid, and hold her hand as she cries a little. It's been a tough year for her. I hope she finds something soon.
Saturday: I "sleep in" until 5:30am, then keep reading Funny Story until my alarm goes off at 6:45am. Then I get ready for spin class.
I randomly run into my friend at the studio which makes me so happy! The class is tough but fun. I feel relief from my brain for a good 45 minutes, which is always welcome. After the class, we walk to a breakfast place nearby and catch up ($18). She takes a picture of me to post to her Instagram story which makes me nervous because I don't usually like how I look in pictures but I actually look pretty good.
After our hangout, I go grocery shopping and head home ($80). My mom is in the kitchen when I get back and she helps me put my groceries away. I tell her that I ran into my friend and show her the picture. She says I look lovely which is a really nice feeling because as pathetic as it is, I still care what she thinks about my appearance.
I take a shower, take a nap, and go to the kitchen to meal prep when I wake up. My mom comes in to grab a snack and jiggles my belly fat then shakes her head at me disapprovingly as she walks by. I do what my therapist and I practice: which is nothing. No reaction, no acknowledgement, even as she lingers, expecting me to say something. I just keep chopping my bell peppers.
Later that night though, I let myself feel pissed. Usually, I make excuses for her. She came of age during the height of diet culture. She was a pageant queen and that environment really messed her up in some ways. I did gain 60 pounds during the height of my binge eating and drinking struggle. She's much meaner to herself than she is to me. All of which are true, but none of it makes it right. Acknowledging that actually makes me feel a tiny bit better.
Sunday: I wake up pissed and anxious, but Sunday is a rest day so I unfortunately can't work out to get it out of my system. I go on a walk but it doesn't help much.
So I just take a shower and read my novel until I finish it. It's 2pm by the time I'm done and I feel hungry, but I don't want to go downstairs and be around my mom right now. My stomach grumbles so I suck it up. She gives me a small smile when she sees me but I ignore her, grab an apple, and leave. She looks hurt but oh well.
Back in my room, I open my spreadsheets and look at how my financial goals are progressing. Only 3-4 years until my major milestones are reached and I'll feel secure enough to move out. I remind myself that this is what it's all for. If I can delay gratification now, I can put myself in a secure position and set myself up well for the future. Deal with her shit now so I won't have to deal with it later. I can do this.
Before bed, I write up this MD as my laundry runs, then pack my gym bag for tomorrow, and post.
Weekly Total: $169
☁️ Reflection: This ended up being a slightly depressing journal entry more than anything else but I still found it really helpful. I'm really surprised by how low my spend was, compared to this time last year. I was spending at least $300 a week on food and alcohol (and weed). It's also interesting to see how far I've progressed in terms of using the healthy coping skills I've learned.
I considered taking some of the heavier stuff out but I feel like my mental health stuff gives context to my financial habits. Anyway, it was a tough week but I got through it relatively ok. That's a win!

Some of y'all are being extremely ridiculous, rude, disrespectful, and outright embarrassing and should seriously CALM TF DOWN. Look, I'm not happy over the server crashes, and I'm also bummed over my favorite bots not working right now. I'm also happy I'm not paying for this app because of the bugs and how they're introducing new things while also causing bugs. But holy crap some of you need to stop being so melodramatic and get a life. Threatening the mods, acting like they're personally sabotaging the servers to get back at people, ignoring people because they're non-paid users... like, some of you are acting like toddlers throwing a tantrum over an AI CHAT SERVICE going down.
It's not just the subreddit, but the discord, too. Some of the drama has been funny because there's some people just airing their frustrations in ways that are dramatic because they're annoyed but AREN'T really being as serious over their anger as some of you. But the people talking about "revolutions" and that they won't stand for being treated so poorly should really think about how their griping sounds—it's pathetic at this point. Maybe some of that is just feeding into the drama for entertainment, too, but looking at some of these posts and comments makes me realize that a lot is genuine vitriol. The subreddit is flooded with people saying the same thing in the same ways, and although it sucks that there's been all these issues, and although it makes sense to a certain degree to make our complaints known, the level of panic I see from some people the MINUTE something goes wrong is INSANE.
TLDR; they're working on the fixes, maybe it'll be fixed (maybe it won't) but for the love of... calm tf down and think about how it's just ordinary people behind the site/app and that you're crying over AI.

My gf(31F) and I(34M) are trying to see if we can save our relationship. We have been dating for 1 year now, and things are pretty serious. We’ve both discussed marriage and children and we both agree on almost everything that we want in our future, but there’s one big issue, my gf has a lot of male friends.
I don’t consider myself a jealous person, I’ve had 2 other serious relationships in my past and they had some male friends but never anything like this. My current gf is part of this group that formed about 2 years ago, they call themselves a “Team” and they like to go out together. The “Team” has a group chat with about 5 guys and 3 girls. I’ve meet most of them and they’ve always been respectful and I’ve always been ok with the situation. They text pretty much daily and from what I’ve seen it appears to all be innocent friendly conversation. But about 2 weeks ago I saw that her friends were drinking and texting the groupchat late at night and sending photos and videos of them making out with girls at the club. It was around 3am which is past our normal bedtime but we were on vacation so we were still awake. I didn’t like that my gf was part of such an explicit conversation and that she was texting other guys at 3am. I calmly let her know that this is something I am not comfortable with and that we need to have boundaries when it comes to this groupchat. She agreed that texting the “Team” late at night was not appropriate for our relationship and I felt that we had pretty much resolved the issue.
Fast forward to the following week my gf goes out to a bar till at least 3am with the “Team” without telling me where she was or who she was with. I’m not exactly sure how late because she never texted me when she got home. What kills me is that I only found out that she went out with her “Team” because she reposted one of her guy friends Instagram stories but had blocked me from seeing it on her friend’s Instagram account so her story came up as unavailable on my feed. I honestly couldn’t believe she tried to deceive me like this, and it felt very out of character for her. I never told her she couldn’t go out with her friends, so I don’t know why she would try to hide it. When I confronted her about it the next day she said she knew it was wrong, but she blocked me from viewing her story because, “We had been arguing about her friends and she didn’t want to upset me.”
I’m still kind of in shock about everything. I was pretty upset when I first found out and I told her the only way I could trust her again is if she left the “Team” and she told me she wouldn’t. I don’t think she physically cheated on me but I don’t really know how to handle this situation. We are currently broken up but still talking because she wants to try to make things work but she does not want to give up her guy friends. I just don’t know if the relationship can be saved at this point because I know it will be very hard for me to trust her again, and at this point I feel like she has chosen her guy friends over me, which is a whole other issue. She is telling me that, “I am not being fair and that I shouldn’t let this one action define her, because she has done so many other good things for me.” I’m torn because I do love this woman and I want to forgive her but I don’t know if I can. I’m curious, am I being too hard on her?
tl;dr I confronted my gf about her groupchat and then she went out to a bar with a bunch of her guy friends and blocked me from viewing her friends IG story.

Chapter 2: Imogen
Masada, Stronghold of Arcadia
The locker rooms were a surprisingly subdued place, contrasting with their inhabitants. The children of the upper crust of nobility could be a raucous bunch, but hours of drills and war games would tire anyone out, even if they’d gotten used to it over the years. Imogen of Arcady, heir to the Throne, was a tightly wound ball of barely contained fury and righteous indignation.
Traditionally, there hadn’t even been a throne. There were three royal houses, each in possession of one irreplaceable warship from centuries past. However, Imogen’s grandfather had consolidated enough power that House Arcady had managed to wrest control over what remained of human space. This, of course, made Imogen a target of hatred from the scions of the other two houses and their allies—as did the medical implant in her brain.
These war games were supposed to be training for how nobility should conduct themselves, but more importantly, they were a method to teach the future leaders of the nation how to wage war. There was a whole galaxy of infrastructure, ancient technology, and garden worlds to be reconquered, and everyone here was going to be involved in some capacity, and she was to be at the head of it. Some people in the room, however, failed to anything from those lessons.
Lothar, scion of House Fury, was a prime example. Time and time again she heard through Royal Intelligence about some misdeed or failure, and each time it seemed he could sink no lower. But, time and time again, he somehow found a way to become even more of a miserable wretch than he had been before. Lothar was a brilliant manipulator, and his family was powerful, so the young nobles with an ambition for power clung to him for as long as he was useful to them, regardless of how he treated them. This was a power he abused greatly, and at every available turn. Imogen had spent an annoying amount of time around the heir to House Fury, given the fact his family was second in political power only to her own. He’d not changed at all since they were children; he’d only found new victims.
He had gone too far, however. She had had enough. Lothar’s mother was not just a fleet admiral using her commission to bring to heel the disorganized worlds among the lawless unbound stars, but also head of House Fury, thus making her the second or third most powerful living human. For her son’s 18^th birthday, she had gifted him control of a small fleet of four ships. More specifically, they’d been Arcadian ships, lent under the guise of inter-House diplomacy.
Lothar had returned with only the ship he commanded from, and his executive officer had to be talked down from shooting the boy for treason. Lothar had, apparently, attempted a raid on a well-established pirate base in the region, with only four ships, and no backup. The details of his plan, if it existed at all, had not been revealed to her through Royal Intelligence.
What she did know, though, was that during this spectacularly stupid series of events, Lothar had immediately panicked when his leading gunboat was destroyed. He then used his remaining ships to cover his escape. It was pure cowardice, plain and simple. And it would not stand. He’d gotten her citizens, her sailors, killed. People that she, as heir to the throne, was responsible for protecting.
Imogen slammed her locker closed and set out to hunt him.
Lothar could usually be found surrounded by a pack of even more pathetic lackeys, and today was no exception. They sat, somehow enraptured by whatever yarn of bullshit he was spinning. As parts of the conversation floated to her ears, she realized he was sitting in the locker room bragging about his recent experiences commanding a fleet.
“I heard all about your fleet,” Imogen interrupted. “Did you make sure to tell them about how you lost three ships, and got over a thousand sailors killed?”
Lothar looked at her, sneered, and replied, “So I lost a few ships. Who cares? They’re replaceable. It was a learning experience. At least I actually do something as opposed to sitting around the palace all day.”
Imogen’s hands balled into fists. She wasn’t sure Lothar believed anything he said, really, but he was remarkably adept at pushing people’s buttons.
“Why do you care? It’s not like anyone’s going to do anything about it, not even if you go crying to your father,” added one of the lower nobles that hung about Lothar. Imogen wasn’t even sure of the girl’s name. Sadly, but the girl had a point. Nothing would be done. Those lives had ended for nothing.
“She’s right you know, there’s nothing you can do, what’s done is done. Just walk away.”
Somewhere in Imogen, fiery rage transformed into a strange sort of detached calm. Nothing would happen to Lothar. Not unless she did something about it. So she would.
She punched Lothar square in the face.
Lothar fell backwards into the metal lockers, and the room erupted into absolute anarchy. Fights like this were uncommon, especially among proper royalty engaged. News of this would be heard in dining halls and country clubs across the universe, but Imogen simply didn’t care anymore. She was going to beat the hell out of Lothar.
The bastard got back up, struggling slightly, steadied by his groupies. One of them rose to swing at her, but Lothar put a hand on his arm to stop him. He would have to deal with this himself, or he’d appear weak to all the future leaders of humanity.
Technically Imogen could have, should have, formulated a proper duel. But that could take months, and the little rat might well have found a way out. This, though, was something that could not be avoided.
The observers had made a ring around them, credits flowing like water between outstretched hands as they made bets on who would win, who would strike first, who would be most injured and so on. Many of the watchers didn’t seem to know who had insulted whom, or the context of the insults, and frankly didn’t care to learn. They simply knew good entertainment when they saw it.
Lothar stood a few feet opposite her, bouncing to-and-fro on the balls of his feet and generally trying to appear far more confident and light-hearted than he actually was. He seemed to have realized he might have bit off more than he could chew.
Imogen stood with her feet squarely planted and her legs bent slightly, open palms held front of her face, slightly curled to punch or to grab at her opponent. They circled around each other, eyes locked, hand-crafted leather boots clacking and tapping on intricate tiles.
Lothar darted out with his right fist, pivoting from the hips with the precision of hundreds of hours of practice. She blocked it with her left, gritting her teeth from the impact, ducked in and slammed a fist into his chest.
She grappled his neck, and with her weight on top of him drove her knee into his stomach. Lothar made a horrid noise as his lungs searched for air that simply wouldn’t come, but he had the clarity of mind to wrap one hand around her leg and use the other to drive a fist into her thigh as hard as he could.
Imogen yelled as she drove her elbow down like a hammer onto his back, striking at her opponent’s kidneys. Lothar crumpled, and she rolled his weight off her legs and onto the hard floor with a wet thump. He wasn’t dead, or unconscious, but she knew from experience that he was hardly able to move.
The gathered crowd seemed agitated, and a bit disappointed. The fight had been brutal, but too quick for their tastes. Imogen hated to agree, but she still wanted to fight. It didn’t feel like punishment enough. A thousand sailors dead, several ships damaged or lost. For what? Rage simmered at the senseless loss of so many lives, when they were already working with limited resources.
Imogen flipped Lothar from his side on to his back, facing up at her, and pressed her boot down on his chest. “Do you yield?”
His breath came in rasping gasps, and his glassy eyes focused on her.
“Fucking freak,” he gurgled out, “you should have died before you let them defile you,”
Imogen snarled and lashed a kick into his ribs.
The watchers cheered and jeered as Lothar yelled in pain. He curled up.
Then, quick as the vermin he was, Lothar grabbed her leg with one hand, withdrew a knife from his belt with the other, and launched himself off the pristine ceramic floor towards her chest.
Imogen’s hand whipped out to block the knife.
The crowd’s roars of excitement drowned out everything. The fighters were in lockstep, muscles twitching and feet shifting to gain any advantage over the other. Imogen ducked inside his reach and smashed her palm directly under Lothar’s nose into a nerve cluster, and then again, this time into his throat.
He let go of the knife.
Imogen, enraged almost beyond words, guided his limp body towards a bench. He fell onto the carved wood, his arm splayed slightly over the edge. She raised her booted foot and slammed it down, snapping his elbow backwards over the bench with a sickeningly wet cracking sound. He screamed and fell off the bench into a fetal position curled up on the floor. Blood oozed from his nose, a brilliant crimson mark upon the alabaster tiling, as he sobbed and cradled his arm.
The audience had mostly quieted down at this point, watching with either admiration and fear, or with a slowly building rage. As all things in Masada did, the distinction seemed to boil down to politics--namely, whether they liked her or Lothar more. Or perhaps it was simply who they were more afraid of.
One of Lothar’s people, the girl who’d insulted Imogen earlier had gone over to check on him. She rose from his side with a mounting fury and started heading towards Imogen, picking up Lothar’s discarded weapon as she went. Several of her peers followed in tow.
Imogen squared her feet and drew her own knife, long and thin with a tapered double-edge, built for thrusting in between the ribs of your enemy. She flicked a small switch and the weapon hummed to life, an impossibly thin filament of prismatic energy floating above the cutting edge as it transformed from a mere blade to something which could cut through bone and metal in an instant. It was, in essence, the same technology behind starship shielding and weaponry, but rigged into a melee weapon.
She breathed heavily as she watched them form ranks and build up the courage to approach her. Others stepped forwards to fight alongside her. There was something freeing about this, to be entirely focused on the here and now, on the morass of gore and violence. Some distant part of her though recognized that she had, perhaps, gone a little too far, and that this sort of thing brought consequences even for one of her lofty social standing.
“That’s enough,” barked the voice of one of their trainers as he strode into the room, flanked by two medics.
Imogen’s attendant, Ingrid, followed behind the trio. The crowd parted around them and quieted down as the tension left the room alongside the blood seeping into the drains. One of the medics knelt by Lothar, checking his vitals and administering aid, slathering his wounds in nanite paste.
“Did you kill him?” her attendant asked coolly, a neutral expression on her face as she eyed up the body.
Their trainer looked far more irritated, but bit his tongue.
“Probably not.” Imogen settled into a far more relaxed stance, her blade again in its sheath.
“He’ll live, your highness,” answered the second medic, examining Lothar’s vital signs on a portable viewing screen. “He’ll be spending a week or two in medical, though. I can’t give an exact timeline.”
The medic eyed the trainer, who gave a silent nod of assent. The medics quickly and precisely unfolded a litter to cart Lothar out of the claustrophobic locker room. They hurried perhaps a bit more than was strictly necessary. They likely shared the same sentiment as some of the noble children: this was no longer a place they wanted to stay.
The trainer strode towards Imogen, scowling as he went. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
She stood and met his eyes, saying nothing.
“Come now. We need to get you to medical, your highness,” Ingrid spoke quietly. She looked at the trainer. “We will discuss this later.”
Throughout this, the crowd had taken on a deathly silence. Even the arrogant sons and daughters of the upper echelons of Arcadia knew that true political power held sway over blue blood.
Still standing tall and defiant, Imogen walked out of the locker rooms, leaving her things behind. Almost none of the crowd would meet her eyes as she left, but she knew they watched her from behind, like vultures. She did her best to suppress the pain and keep from limping as she walked. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing her injured.
The gym doors opened into a sprawling walkway decorated with stone paths and carefully maintained rows of trees and greenery. Buildings and shops were both free-standing and built into the station itself. Skycars flitted about above them, dancing in between skyscrapers and military installations. They walked towards her personal vehicle, long and angular, with blacked out windows, parked quite illegally on the walking path in front of the training facility.
Imogen glared at one of the ambling merchants who’d been gawking at the whole spectacle, and he darted away. The back doors opened upwards silently, and Ingrid tried to help Imogen in. Imogen knocked her hand away and hauled herself into the car.
The attendant gracefully slid in on the other side, and nodded to the driver, who took off at a clip towards the palace.
“Your hands,” Ingrid said, handing Imogen a cloth as she did so. “You’ll stain the leather.”
Imogen eyed her bloody knuckles, and dutifully wrapped them with the cloth. She leaned back in the quilted leather and stared out the window. Masada was a beautiful place, one of the last vestiges of true human civilization. Glittering buildings shined below, and above them an open view of the void beyond, thanks to pre-collapse technology. The entire assemblage rotated slowly, so over a series of days the scenery would change from stars to a jaw dropping view of Crom Cruach, the gas giant they orbited. From where they were now, it was a little bit of both, but by the time they reached the palace, the planet would dominate the view. If you sat at the very top of the palace spire, Crom would span from one end of the “sky” to the other, an endless stretch of roiling storms and lightning the size of terrestrial worlds. It felt like you could fall into it and never come back up.
Imogen looked away from the window and back at her attendant, locking eyes with her. Unlike most people, that didn’t seem to bother her. Nothing seemed to bother her. It was annoying.
“What happened back there?” Ingrid asked.
“What do you think?” scoffed Imogen.
Imogen’s eyes unfocused slightly as she examined the hand-stitched interior of her car, suddenly not interested in sight-seeing a place she’d seen a thousand times before. A familiar view snapped her out of her fugue--the palace spire. The skycar angled down gently towards a landing pad and touched down ever-so-softly. With all the sound deadening, you couldn’t even hear the engines from inside.
The doors opened, and Imogen hauled herself out, stumbling only slightly. An entourage of medical personnel had arrayed themselves to meet her, doctors, nurses, military triage medics. They’d even brought a stretcher with them. Two nurses rushed to her side, poking and prodding at her, scanning her with various devices.
“I’m fine!” Imogen eyed the stretched with disdain. She’d rather crawl than be carried into medical on something like that. “And I can walk.”
She headed inside, stalking down the corridors as fast as she could without outright running. It was quite painful, and hardly dignified, but she was tired of waiting. She wanted to get this over with. The winding path through the palace spire took her to a room nestled deep inside the complex, far away from the paths servants and nobles took through the spire. Not even the help wanted their bedroom near the good doctor, apparently. She knocked twice, then pushed the door open, knowing the occupant would be waiting for her.
“Ah, Imogen!” remarked the sole inhabitant of the room, a spindly old man fiddling about with something at one of his desks.
“They brought a stretcher, Doctor Birrer,” Imogen remarked, sitting down on the edge of the chair in the center of the room.
“Ha! “I did tell them not to waste their time. Always so dramatic.” The doctor pushed a small cart containing a variety of medical implements over and set about scanning her limbs and body for maladies, bright orange light soaking through her clothes and skin. Images of her bones and organs were displayed on holographic screens across the room, all examined closely by the Doctor.
“Your opponent is in far worse shape, I assume?” He magnified a scan of her bruised and swollen leg.
“Broken elbow. Bruised kidney. Broken nose. Crushed windpipe. A few other things, too,” she rattled off as she stared at the ceiling, trying not to look at the scans of her body, knowing what would come next.
Doctor Birrer was silent for a moment, but then he laughed slightly, shaking his head. “Well, he’ll have a longer stay in medical than you will. By far. It looks like you should just need a minor layer of nanite paste. Nothing’s broken, no lacerations. No internal bleeding. You’ll want to keep your weight off the leg for a while. No running for a few days at least,” he told her, still examining the readout.
Imogen grunted in acknowledgement.
“I’m going to do some routine diagnostics while you’re here, though,” he said, and he moved the scanner over her head.
Despite herself, Imogen couldn’t help but look. The holographic screen showed the inside of her skull, and the hateful machine curled up inside of it. Dull gray, with thin wires spreading like roots all throughout her brain. It was disgusting, but she couldn’t stop staring at it.
“Imogen . . .,” the Doctor whispered, barely audible. “You had it turned off.”
She said nothing, eyes still glued to the display.
“You could have died,” he said, now staring directly at her.
Imogen remained quiet
The Doctor shook his head, sighed, and continued his work. “You are the only heir. You have a responsibility to stay alive.”
Imogen broke her trance-like fix on the display and looked through the one-way window in the clinic at the city below, at the teeming mass of humanity sprawled out across the orbital assemblage. She was born for her people, and that was all she’d ever be.
Imogen might steal a few minutes of freedom in her rebellions, but she was the heir. That was first, last, and all she was allowed to be.
“Just fix what you can. I suspect I’m needed in the throne room,” she said, and after a pause added, “Please.”
She leaned back and closed her eyes as the warm electric feeling of nanite paste rolled over her skin, reveling in the sensation.

I’ve been given lots of mixed advice from people in my life so I also wanted to ask for advice here on what you’d do in this situation.
I’ve worked at McDonald’s for just under a year recently in the last month or 2 I’ve been told by most managers that they were looking for new managers and they vouched for me in their manager group chat. Other people were chosen first and a lot of the managers were confused and upset on my behalf. I looked into other jobs with higher pay a few months prior and got turned down at first. Then last week I got a call back from the job I applied at and they asked if I was interested in a part time job working to full time in the future. I accepted assuming I wouldn’t have a shot at management in the near future and I worked a couple shifts to see if I liked it before telling the scheduling manager about getting a second job. Yesterday I told the scheduling manager about it and how to schedule around my other job, and not even 20 minutes later the general manager and scheduling manager pulled me into a conference room to speak with me. They asked why I got a second job and I told them minimum wage isn’t cutting it for me ($16.55 CAD), the other job is interesting (a wine making building) and I make $18 at the wine place currently (after my probation it goes up to $18.50 but I did not mention this part) they then asked if I was open to being a manager because they need more, they promoted an overnight crew member to manager so he would take the main night managers days off so the day managers wouldn’t have to do overnights anymore and promoted another kitchen staff because she is a crew trainer. And they went on about how it’s all about seniority and a pyramid to work up. Which I think is bullshit considering at least 3 managers were here for less than a year and not crew trainers before hand. Then I asked what the starting pay for a manager was and they said “I think it’s $18.50 which is a very livable wage” when it really isn’t, most of the managers still live with their parents because they can’t afford to move out. Anyways they said if I accepted management that I’d have to leave my other job, which is a little boring, lots of heavy lifting and cleaning, not much interaction with people but I still enjoy it quite a bit. I mean I make wine and put it in glass containers for customers to bottle and stuff. Basically I’m just wondering if they’re bullshitting me, if I have to quit my other job and if it’s even worth it to be a manager at McDonald’s. I know it looks great on a resume but should I bother. And should I try to haggle up a higher pay if I accept? What would you do in this situation?

I’m going to go in order, but for starters, I’m F21, and I’ll go by Evie.
When I was 11, I had a friend, we’ll call her Katherine. One day, we got into a huge fight and stopped talking. Me, being immature, I decided to make burnefake social media accounts to try and talk to her as different people. As I portrayed these “different people” and catfish them, I would text her and ask her, “Oh yeah, I went to that school a few years before you did. Do you know this girl named Evie by any chance? We were good friends, I didn’t get a chance to make friends with other people. She was so nice.” Eventually, Katherine found out about all these fake accounts I made, didn’t say anything and just blocked me. On New Year’s Eve 2022, I rejoined Instagram after deleting my account in 2021 for a personal break, and I saw her account on my explore page. I reached out to her and told her that I was so sorry for all the hell I put her through, that the “I was 12 and stupid” excuse is no excuse at all, and I will hold myself accountable for my wrongdoings. I didn’t hold back on how bad I felt. I wanted to talk to her, deeply, one-on-one. We didn’t have to become friends or anything, I just wanted to clear the air and make amends. To my surprise, she blocked me. Happy New Year’s to me, I guess.
Then when I was 13, I met this girl online, we’ll call her Nichole. We met randomly through a One Direction group chat on Kik and became best friends, we talked every single day for 2 years. Just like Katherine, I wanted to make another account and text Nichole, ask her about me since “I talk about her all the time,” and see what she would say about me in return. Like Katherine, Nichole found out eventually, and sent me a super long message on Kik. She was so angry, and blocked me on every single social media. I’ve tried to reach out to her about a year or two later, and she never answered and left me on read. But last year, her Facebook popped up. I took this as a chance, and sent her a really long, remorseful text. I told her how deeply sorry I was, how I should have never hurt her and betrayed her trust the way I did, that she meant the absolute world to me. I wanted to be the bigger person, an adult if you will, and handle things the right way. I felt a deeper sorrow for Nichole than I did with Katherine for some reason, and I was truly trying to make things right. The text was so long that I had to break it into three paragraphs. I waited and waited, and I saw that her profile disappeared. I thought maybe she deleted her Facebook account, but it turns out she blocked me. I took this incredibly hard and even went back to old, destructive habits.
I feel so stupid and pathetic, man. I want to make things right, I want to apologize for those I done wrong. It wasn’t easy to admit my careless idiotic mistakes. It wasn’t easy to reach out to these people. It wasn’t easy to hold myself accountable for catfishing Katherine and Nichole. This guilt, no matter how long it’s been, even though I am 21 now, eats me up. So shamelessly bad. I’ve ruined and damaged friendships that meant so much to me.
And I’ll never be able to get them back.
But then again, it’s nobody’s fault but my own.

I learned about limerence recently and my life makes more sense now. My romantic obsessions were ways for me to self-regulate during intense frustrations with my life. Imagining the fantasy calmed me down. I’ve been like this for as long as I can remember but it definitely got more intense in my 20s. The relief of getting over a LO is so freeing but Idk if l’ll ever get over my current LO.
My current LO is an online friend of almost 10 years. When we first started talking in the beginning, we got along great. There was chemistry. We realized our families actually had a long history and had inside jokes with each other. But I had another LO at the time so I didn’t think much of it. We stayed friends online, even when I became no longer single. But conversations were minimal. Maybe one conversation per year.
Then he posted an opinion that infuriated me. I didn’t confront him about it, I just deleted him from every social media platform. I wanted to forget him and his stupid opinion. And I did! I wasn’t limerent about him at the time so it felt like nothing. Months later, I joined a new app and spoke to many new and old friends. And as if by fate, he also joined that new app and started joining conversations I was in. I recognized his name and stayed as far away as I could. But then my friend made a mistake with him that I was partially to blame for, so I sought him out, sincerely apologized, and asked if he remembered me. He did. It broke the ice. He would join conversations and I didn’t stay away. Eventually I told him why I deleted him, and he understood. After a few conversations of getting along like the old days, we became friends and he told me to never delete him ever again.
We continued talking and formed our own clique with a few others. 95% of our conversations there were other friends included. We had other private conversations through text on multiple platforms. But it never got to emotional affair territory, though at times it could have. It was mostly sharing jokes and gossip and ideas and work stories and advice because we were in the same profession. We clicked in a way that many others even noticed. He told me once how someone asked him why he wasn’t with me and he told them that I was taken. That was the only excuse he gave them. Idk if he was just being nice or if that was implying that that was really the only barrier to us being together.
I was having problems with many aspects of my life at the time of our friendship, including my relationship with my SO. I started comparing my SO to my LO. That obviously didn’t help my relationship at all. Then after 6 months of what I considered a good friendship with my LO, he went LC. He explained that he wasn’t comfortable talking in the group chats anymore and felt like he was wasting a lot of time and wanted to focus on other things. I told him I understood. My limerence started shortly before he went LC, but man did it get way worse after he left.
What made it even more worse is that he started posting stuff that made me think I was his LO too. Stuff like missing and wanting someone he can never have. He would suddenly appear online every time I posted something, like he had notifications set up. Or I would post something and he would post something that seemed like a response to my post. Lots of little things like that. I would dream of leaving my SO for him, but I knew that would be a recipe for disaster so I tried so hard to be rational. I told myself that he’s not talking about me and that he met someone else. Even though it broke my heart if that were true. For months and months I didn’t let my emotions take over and instead tried to work on what was truly important in my life. I think him going LC, even with all those cryptic posts, was a blessing. But damn, it was still so hard.
My relationship with my SO has gotten a lot better since. I’ll still have a LE occasionally by reading old conversations because I do miss him a lot. I learned so much from him and he was a good listener. He challenged me intellectually and I never had someone in my life like that. I’ll fantasize about him whenever I have an argument with my SO. Now I know, thanks to this subreddit, that’s a way for me to self-regulate. Now I know my attachment to him was probably because I was dealing with a lot of hardship at the time. I’m going to work on healthier ways to self-regulate now, any tips would be much appreciated.
Even if my limerence ends, I know I will always care for him. Maybe one day he’ll randomly pop into my life again and we can be friends without any deep feelings on my end. Maybe that’s something I can fantasize about instead.

I submitted an "issue" on git hub.. but accidentally discovered a nice feature of llama-zip. ( github: https://github.com/AlexBuz/llama-zip localllama discussion: https://www.reddit.com/LocalLLaMA/comments/1d9z8ly/llamazip_an_llmpowered_compression_tool/ )
Been fascinated by the idea of LLM based lossless compression, and was trying to figure out a compressed model (which I now think won't work), BUT I discovered a nice little feature... extracting training data.
This isn't necessarily a problem, but might prove an interesting way to have the model dump/recover large portions of its training data, Putting in arbitrary values:
Entering a string allows for compression llama-zip ../../gguf/Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct-Q8_0.gguf -c "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog."
Outputs hoDQrHQThQ
Which can be decoded: llama-zip ../../gguf/Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct-Q8_0.gguf -d "hoDQrHQThQ"
The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
If you arbitrarily change the string to something else (say, remove th beginning "h", or changing a later letter), you get some interesting results. Some strings are similar (if only a few words changed), but just putting something random in there gets really interesting:
llama-zip ../../gguf/Meta-Llama-3-8B-Instruct-Q8_0.gguf -d "a"
Essentially, I asked it to decode the compressed content for the letter "a", and received an entire source article. This worked for several arbitrary strings. (also by removing the first letter) seems to allow you to pull entire training datasets out of LLMs. It will just repeat the entire source article.
I see this as a feature. It would be great to try and figure out what the "key" is to unlock an article, as it would be an amazing "wikipedia on disk" sort of thing... or even a modified version of RAG without actually requiring an external database.
How do I get back from Sam Smith to 'a' and query it? That could make hallucinations a thing of the past, if the model could recover entire memories within itself.
See the output below: ``` Samantha "Sam" Smith is a renowned British singer-songwriter, singer, and top liner. Born on May 19, 1992, in London, England, Smith rose to fame with his powerful, soulful voice and hit singles like "Stay With Me," "I'm Not the Only One," and "Too Good At Goodbyes." His 2014 album, "In the Lonely Hour," was a massive commercial success, featuring the hit single "Stay With Me," which won four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance.

Growing Up and Early Career

Smith was raised in St. Mark's Rd, Stockwell, London, England. His parents, Kate and Fred Smith, were Both vegetarians who instilled in him a strong sense of empathy and compassion. He was a shy child who found solace in singing and performing. At the age of 12, Smith joined the Bromley Youth Choir and met his future collaborator, Jimmy Napes.

Early Life with Grindr and Bmi

Smith began his music career by gigging in London and uploading music to MySpace. He later joined the Gospel Collective group, performing gospel music across various churches. In 2010, he was discovered by Grindr (a social networking app for the LGBTQ+ community) and was featured in their advertisement campaign. This exposure led to him working with various music production companies and meeting his future collaborator and producer, Jimmy Napes.

Career Breakthrough

After signing with Capitol Records in 2012, Smith released his debut album, "In the Lonely Hour," on May 26, 2014. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and the US Billboard 200 chart, featuring hit singles like "Stay With Me" and "I'm Not the Only One." The album achieved significant commercial success and received widespread critical acclaim, winning numerous awards, including four Grammy Awards.

Awards and Recognition

Smith has won numerous awards and nominations throughout his career, including:

• Four Grammy Awards (2015)
• Three Brit Awards (2014 and 2015)
• two MTV Video Music Awards (2014 and 2015)
• two American Music Awards (2014 and 2019)
• One Billboard Music Award (2015)

The Legacy of Sam Smith

Sam Smith's music and message of love and self-acceptance have had a significant impact on the music industry and the world at large. His album "In the Lonely Hour" was certified triple platinum in the UK and double platinum in the US, making him one of the most successful artists in the world. His powerful vocals and engaging live performances have earned him a devoted fan base and critical acclaim.
Continuing to follow his artistic vision and themes of love and heartbreak, Smith has continued to release successful albums like "The Thrill of It All" (2017) and "Love Goes" (2020). His music has been praised for its raw emotion, vulnerability, and authenticity, making him a standout artist in the contemporary music scene.

Love and Personal Life

Smith is openly gay and has spoken publicly about his struggles with gender identity and sexual orientation. He has been an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and has used his platform to encourage acceptance and inclusivity.
Smith has been in high-profile relationships with Jimmy Napes, the writer and producer of his debut album, and Brandon Flynn, an actor best known for his role in the Netflix series "13 Reasons Why." He has also been open about his struggles with mental health, including depression and anxiety.

Conclusion

Sam Smith is a talented and successful singer-songwriter who has made a significant impact on the music industry. His powerful voice, relatable lyrics, and commitment to music have earned him widespread recognition and critical acclaim. Through his music and personal advocacy, Smith has become a role model for countless young people and a beacon of hope for those seeking acceptance and inclusivity. As he continues to create and share his music, fans around the world eagerly await his new projects and performances, knowing that Sam Smith will always deliver a powerful and emotional experience. Leave a comment below, and do not forget to like and subscribe for more content! #SamSmith #SingerSongwriter #Music #GospelMusic #Grindr #LGBTQPlus #MentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #Acceptance #Inclusion #Love #MusicIndustry #AwardsAndRecognition #GrammyAwards #BritAwards #MusicToMyEars #TheThrillOfItAll #LoveGoes #RawEmotion #Vulnerability #Authenticity #TopLine #SoulfulVoice #Songwriter #Singer #MusicArtiste #MusicLegend # IconicVoices #MusicGreats #LegendaryVocalist #AwardsAndRecognition #AcademicPaper #Biography #SamSmithBiography #ArtistProfile #MusicBiography Image Credit: Sam Smith Wiki, Wikimedia Commons.jpg) This content is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any information presented is based on publicly available information and is subject to change. The author is not responsible for any errors or inaccuracies. For more information, please visit Sam Smith Wiki. haus
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I like Baie 19 and am going to make something similar.
I'm familiar with the (scant) postings on this one. I've also seen the Santal 33 stuff. So,I asked ChatGPT, and this is how it went (cut down for obvious reasons):
le labo, baie 19 ingredients
ChatGPT
Below is a detailed breakdown of the key ingredients that make up Baie 19:
Juniper Berry (Juniperus communis)
Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin)
Green Leaves (Galbanum)
Ambroxan
Musk
Synthetic Woods
does Le Labo Baie 19 contain geosmin?
ChatGPT
Le Labo Baie 19 does indeed contain geosmin, a naturally occurring compound ...
besides geosmin, Ambroxan, Galbanum, Ambroxan, Patchouli and Juniper Berry, what does le labo baie 19 contain
ChatGPT
Here are some additional notes found in Baie 19:
Cade Oil
Iso E Super
Karo Karounde
Moss
Vetiver
besides geosmin, Ambroxan, Galbanum, Ambroxan, Patchouli, musk, Synthetic Woods, Cade Oil, Iso E Super, Karo Karounde, Moss, Vetiver and Juniper Berry, what does le labo baie 19 contain
ChatGPT
Baie 19 may also contain a range of other components...
While the exact formulation is proprietary here are some potential additional ingredients...
Bergamot:
Geranium:
Sandalwood:
Rosemary:
Oakmoss:
Ambergris (Synthetic):
Orris Root:
Like pulling teeth, you know?
I'm questioning some of the last ones.
So, what do you think's in it?

3 months of the time we've been together was long distance, 1st month was fwb but then we fell for each other (I fell hard but inconsistently, like a beautiful, intoxicating dream I kept waking up from)
I broke up with my boyfriend of 8 years about 3-4 months before meeting this guy, *Tony. (Fake name). I'd been pretty wrecked but when I met Tony I was ecstatic to be free, and on the cusp of turning 30. Sex was & is the best I've ever had. 🤯🤯
I don't think we're a couple anyone would predict. Family and friends have expressed astonishment at how different Tony is from me, and also from my ex. He's a capable, go-getting kind of guy, always chatting, laughing, making things happen, making things fun. I'm pretty reserved & get a snappy if I don't have at least an hour to read each day and 20 minutes to meditate. I like conversations about abstract ideas and feelings. Tony is like, woah, how exotic & cute! But I think he gets bored when I try and do this with him 😂
Early on I thought a lot about this and fretted a lot (could I be with someone long-term where we don't have 'deep' conversations about things I'm really interested in?) but he seemed basically confused why I thought it was a problem. He can fix any problem with his car and I failed to learn to drive one (tried for a year as a teen, wept, and my parents finally agreed I should give up), but for him it's like 🤷‍♂️ He thinks it's cute/doesn't care - He's not the sort of person to think about which parts of person he could do without, he just takes me on my own terms.
He says I'm an overthinker. He's like, just click your fingers and turn it off? But I can't!!!!
These are the factors that seem to determine how I feel about being with him:
++++ When we have time and fun things to do he's GOOD at having fun, loosens me up, brings out a side of me I've never met before, pulls me into the moment, makes me abstract 'witty' jokes charismatic and lively and fun by bring them into the present ++++ When I'm stressed about a relational thing, like something between me and flatmate, boss, etc. He's just like. 'It should be like this, tell them X' - I do what he says and woah, the problem was never so complicated after all and now it's solved ++++ When I spend lots of time with my bookish friends & start to get sick of that kind of talk/of myself & makes everything casual, colourful, relaxing, fun with his silly jokes and the sex and how he can just relax and watch a movie ++++ The cuddles/sex, when I'm in the mood
⬇️When I've been socialising a lot, or spending a lot of time talking with people I love about things that don't interest me I resent that he seems to expect I do the same with him ⬇️ When I'm not in the mood for cuddles/sex and it feels like it's just for his benefit ⬇️When I feel anxious about my creative/intellectual dreams maybe not coming true / when I'm unfilfilled by my work life and want to meet my creative needs in my own time but then don't have time to do this
I don't want to lead him on and rip him off. He's been so frank and available with me, so heartfelt, genuine, generous. EVERYTHING. I don't want to have these 'secret doubts' and then pull out the carpet in six months. Paticularly because I told him last time I wasn't sure, I feel like if I did break-up with him in 3-6 months he might be like, so, all along?...
Last time this happened I just told myself 'no pressure, you don't know what will happen in the future, don't try and predict outcomes when you have such an incomplete understanding of him and of yourself. He wants to see what happens, so see what happens with him. Why not? Why kill something that's bringing you so much happiness out of fear of hurting somebody?' And then BANG as soon as I thought all that (and discussed it all with him) I fell wildly in love with him and here we are.
But I'm not sure I can have that conversation with him again? I can't expect him to keep propping the relationship with his own willingness to be vulnerable/take risks/etc - if it seems like what I'm bringing to the table is just so much confusion and uncertainty.
TLDR:
**Not sure if boyfriend and I have long-term potential but really want to keep seeing him because he (mostly) makes me happy (INFJ dates ESFP? 😂) **

When I was still relatively new to my current position last year, I was involved in a project that was very important to ensuring our department's data integrity. A senior member of the department was leading the project, and sat with me to help me go through my piece. A key tool that was needed for me to complete my part of the project was missing and I asked how we should make inferences based on the tools we still had. The senior said 'we'll just make our best guess,' and we proceeded that way, ignoring some other tools. A week later, managers are asking why my part of the project was done wrong. The senior questions me in a group chat with the other project members, 'OP, why didn't you look at the other tools??' I was kind of bewildered by this, but I didn't want to start an argument in a group chat so I just said I was sorry that it had happened. Did not hear from the senior again. The next day my manager is telling me it would be best that I leave this project if it's too much for me to handle. Again, not wanting to sound like I'm putting my own ego above the department, I went along with it and said that if that's what they think is best, I'd step aside.
This left a really bad taste in my mouth, but frankly, I'm more interested in the problem-solving aspects of the work we do than being amazing at office politics, so I never brought it up again. It felt like I was on thinner ice with my manager after that, but I was able to rebuild my reputation somewhat.
However, now my manager is leaving the company, and the senior who blamed me is likely the leading candidate to replace my manager. The senior has, I think, improved their people skills a bit since the initial incident, but I'm still pretty worried about the possibility of working under them.
My manager's here for one more week before moving to another department. Should I set the record straight? If so, what would be the best way?
TLDR: senior team member blamed me for something they were ultimately responsible for last year. I did not mention that I felt it was an injustice at the time and paid a small price for it. Now they may be on track to be my new manager. Should I say something?

This is probably silly, and long, but I would really appreciate for someone to take the time to read it and help me figure out what happened, I’m heartbroken.
Basically there’s this boy at my school, let’s call him David, a year older than me but in the grade below, he plays guitar, picture him with blonde streaks in his hair and metal glasses, really, really cute and really wanted.
I had been giving him flirty stares for over a month, he smiled and I did too, and after an encounter outside of school in which (I thought) his friends signaled that he was interested in me, I put a song in my ig notes talking about kissing him and looking into his eyes, I thought he wouldn’t catch it, but before I knew it he put in his notes “you should have done so”, then I wrote “what if I talk to you?” And he answered “do”. So I texted him, we chatted for a while, he told me about his ambitions, his dreams, his talents, and he also told me he would be leaving the country in 2 months or so to study abroad, I figured we could have a summer love type of thing, we said goodnight, and went to sleep.
The next day we stared nervously at each other, following with smiles, my friends were teasing me in front of him and I thought his friends were doing the same with him, and around 4pm he texted me a link, it was a Spotify Jam, for us to listen to music together. (I must add, no man has ever done this for me, no man ever took the initiative with me and to top it all in such a nice way). We went from classic rock, he introduced me to his favorite band and I did too, to jazz, to modern music, acoustic songs, etc… for 5 hours, while both of us studied for our exams and chatted in the process, he got comfortable and started joking around and telling me all about where he’d be staying once he left for the exchange, I’m a painter, so I asked him to send me a picture of the landscape when he got there so that I could paint it, he said he would do so.
He was sweet, really intelligent, funny, talented, handsome, I truly felt he was the answer to all my prayers.
He played such romantic songs, and I did too, it was all going as smoothly as can be. We said goodbye, I thanked him for the nice time I had and he said “no, thank you, really”, and we were all set to meet the next day at a park near the school.
We got there, he was playing football, and when he saw me he turned around nervous, he flashed smiles at me followed with the cutest nervous gestures I had ever seen, and I did as well. I’m really shy with this kind of stuff, he was with his friends, all guys, and I was with my friend, a girl.
One of David’s friends went to say hello to me and I got a weird vibe, like he was hitting on me, but I just thought he was confident, and I thought David had told them about me.
We joined in to play with them for a little while.
This is where it began going down, my friend had to leave (my other friends were getting there, so I wasn’t left alone), so the dude with a weird vibe, offered to walk us to the exit, he did, and then started questioning me: “why do you want to play with us if you’re not into sports?”, I told him I wouldn’t say, but he jokingly insisted, I answered: “I’m really shy, don’t make me tell you, actually, I think your friend is really shy too…”, he asked me if I liked a friend of his and asked which, I told him to guess and right off the bat he said: “ugh, the blonde one?” “Are you sure you don’t like anyone else?”, “I swear it’s always the blonde one”, I was trying to come up with something because he got visibly upset and kept insisting and insisting that he was the better choice, not David. “I’m sick of him always outshining me, are you 100% sure you’re into him? But he doesn’t talk to anyone” so I told him about how David sent me the link to listen to music together and that we had been chatting, “Really? What a jerk, he never told me, when I feel like I know him he just does something to prove me wrong, I’m sick of it”.
We got to where we were before and his friends, including David, were not there, he complained about them leaving him and said “you could be with someone better, like the one who didn’t leave” signaling himself.
I started getting a bad feeling and told him my friend who had just left liked him, (which was true), but that didn’t count for shit, he kept throwing his tantrum, speaking horribly of his “best friend” David.
David and his friends came back and sat in a table nearby, (they had gone to hide when the other dude left with me, I know this because my friends managed to record them). This dude offered to go on a double date sometime with me and my friend and I said yes, but he was still going at it with the bitterness and horrible attitude, he saw David and immediately flipped him off, even when I asked him not to, because I was afraid David would stop talking to me.
Long story short, they all start joking around, this dude says he’ll call David over so we can talk, jokingly, he does, but before that he tells me: “David said he doesn’t recognize you and doesn’t know who you are”, I told him I didn’t believe him, and that’s when David came over and called me by a different name, I was stunned, but then he corrected himself, laughing, to then tell me his friend just told him my name, so that’s how he knew it. Just bad taste jokes all around. He also joked saying stuff like “oh I’m not David, he’s David, nah, actually, he, over there, that’s David” all while I looked at him in disbelief. He asked me about what his friend had said and I told him everything, he seemed surprised, but also nonchalant, I made clear that I had no reason to lie to him about what the creepy guy had said about him, then we began chatting and I said that I truly wanted to spend some time together before he left the country, he just kept replying “yeah, yeah that’d be good, if you want to”. He also asked me if his friend had liked me and when I said yes, he just turned around to give him a dirty look, while this was all going on, his friends were playing shitpost noises in full volume to disrupt us, when his friend came over again to make fun of me, i asked “what’s wrong with you?” And they both just looked at me with such a cold, humiliating stare that I can’t get out of my head.
We tried to talk, and we actually managed to hold a conversation following what we had chatted about the day before, but his friends would just come closer and David would turn into a different person, cold and cruel, nothing like the boy who stared at me to then turn around nervous half an hour ago. I offered getting ice cream to chat a bit more, he told me that it depended on where his friends were going, my friends approached me and told me they all got a weird vibe and there was no way they were leaving me alone with them, just then, the creepy friend approaches me again and says “as the spokesperson of the group, I’ll tell you the plan we came up with, we go for ice cream, but you buy mine” and David joins in “yeah, you buy him ice cream, I don’t need one”. That’s when I had enough of feeling absolutely humiliated and just said “bye”, David said “okay” and went back to laughing with his friends, hurt, I went back and told him “but I do want to get to know you”, and he answered “ok, later”.
I stormed off with my friends and began WEEPING on our way out of the park, we stopped for a minute for them to calm me down, and that’s when they walked past us, David didn’t even look at me, he just waved and said bye and kept walking as if nothing had happened, the creepy friend approaches me (again) and says: “I told you David was a jerk, he said he doesn’t want anything with you, that it all meant nothing and the music thing was a mistake, he wants to apologize for making you think otherwise” I told him I didn’t believe him and he just said that I can believe whatever I want, I turned around to keep walking and I heard him laughing behind me.
My friends and I ran into other friends who I told what had happened to (I was sobbing and they asked what was wrong, said friends later encountered the creepy friend and scolded him).
I sent David a text saying “is it true that nothing meant nothing?”, he took 7 hours to read it, and then blocked me, along with the creepy friend.
What the fuck? Truly what the fuck? I hadn’t felt this sad in years, what happened? I have so many questions, it feels like I was left with all my love in my hands.