Hello all,
I had placed a Pelican whole house water filtration system in my home with their NS6 salt-free softener. I had spoken with Pelican a few times questioning the salt-free softener, and they swore I wouldn't see a difference between then and a traditional salt model. After using it for over a year, my fixtures show scale, and the whole family seems to get extremely dry skin. Pelican has been bought out by Pentair and closed their store down as of October 2022. Since they no longer have a store, they will not swap out the unit. They have offered to reimburse me a few hundred dollars if I purchased a Pentair softener at Home Depot.
I already have a Pelican sediment and carbon filter on my main. What softener would you all recommend for 4 people with 3 full bathrooms? I am looking at Home Depot and a few other places and do not see a difference between the units.
I hope to get something that is adjustable, so the water does get too "wet" feeling.
This is what I currently have installed: Pelican NS6 Salt-Free Softener
Pentair is recommending I purchase this: Pentair Water Softener System for 3 to 4 Bathrooms
​
But I also see these on Home Depot and don't really understand the differences.
Harmony Series 48,000 Grain Digital Metered Water Softener
Harmony Series 48,000 Grain Water Softener with Fine Mesh Resin for Iron Removal
PRO+AQUA 80,000 Grain Whole House High Demand Premium Grade With Digital Valve
​
Appreciate any recommendations or help you may offer.

Background: I am a non US IMG. Grad year 2020.
Took step 1 in Feb 2021.
Resources used:

• UWorld. Did 1 pass, then incorrects, and got to 15% of my second pass.
• Amboss. The library is an extremely useful resource to quickly look up topics. And their highlight feature helps you pay attention to what’s more important. I suggest not using the “high yield” toggle because it leaves out some critical details that the NBME folks like going after. I also did a few random blocks and did all the QI, ethics, and other recommended Amboss questions to do. Will add the details for that below.
• Divine intervention Podcasts. After UWorld, this has been my most useful resource. I used it in my last 6 weeks and it has been a life saver. Should have started listening to Divine from the beginning of my prep. There are a few high yield episodes you should listen to (will reference them at the end), but I particularly enjoyed the rapid review series. Did one every night before sleeping and ado during the day randomly (doing dishes, when showering, during my runs/morning walks). He describes a clinical case and then talks about the condition and all high yield associations. Sometimes he even veers off and talks about other high yield concepts so doing one rapid review makes you revise so many concepts.
• Dr high yield. I would watch his episodes when I wanted a quick recap of most high yield concepts in a short time. He does a good job at speeding through super high yield concepts. I watched most of the videos at the beginning of my prep and few episodes a second time during my dedicated.
• First Aid step 1. I honestly did not use it too much but I always had it next to me to review some topics such as lysosomal storage disease, immunodeficiencies, etc.
• My notes. I made a 260 pages word document off UWorld (incorrects and new concept I wasn’t familiar with), the NBMEs and CMS, Amboss and Divine. I would revise this document in its entirety every week. So every morning, I would read about 50-60 pages before starting the day. I also made sure I read it before every assessment. I probably went through that document 8-10 times in all including the day before my exam. It was passive reading but it allowed me to literally memorize so many facts.
• Anki. I used it before my dedicated. Went through the Zanki Step 2 deck. Only did surgery, OBGY, and a bit of internal medicine. During dedicated (in the last month), I did the USPSTF Hoggiemed deck.

Timeline:
I started preparing in July. Started with a few UWorld questions a day. I was not consistent because I was also working in a surgery department and some weeks got really busy. I completed my first pass UWorld at the end of December and had 62% correct. Then I started with my incorrects. Took me a month to complete incorrects and my percentage correct got to 64%. While doing the incorrects, I also did about 4 CMS forms mostly IM and surgery.
In the last 5 weeks, I did most of the CMS forms, did all the Amboss QI, ethics, did 15% of UWorld second pass averaging 85% correct. I dedicated a day in my last week to redo all biostats in UWorld as second pass.
Here are my assessments in the order taken:

• USWA 1: 212 (11/01/2023) 55 days out
• NBME 9: 223 (23/01/2023) 43 days out.
• NBME 10: 245 (05/02/2023) 30 days out
• NBME 11: 242 (13/02/2023) 22 days out
• NBME 12: 250 (20/02/2023) 15 days out
• Old Free 120: 80.8% (27/02/2023) 8 days out
• UWSA 2: 258 (02/03/2023); 5 days out
• Free 120: 78% (05/03/2023); 2 days out

Real deal: 259!
What I would do differently?

• Would have started listening to Divine sooner. I think he’s doing such a great thing with his podcasts and he is an excellent teacher.
• I would have tried to include more self care during my dedicated. I barely took a day off and my mental health suffered for it. I did not get much exercise done and gained a lot of weight.

I also had tremendous support from family and some friends. It’s a really difficult journey and having some support goes a long way.
All the best to those preparing and please reach out to me if you have any questions.
​
Amboss Useful links

• Preventative medicine: https://next.amboss.com/us/article/Wj0Pzf?q=std%screening#1-12wj0
• Healthcare system: next.amboss.com/us/article/Np0-pS (8 questions)
• Infection Prevention and control: next.amboss.com/us/article/WQ0PEf (12 questions)
• Patient communication and counseling: next.amboss.com/us/article/3K0STS (14 questions)
• Palliative medicine: next.amboss.com/us/article/3n0SGg (7 questions)
• Quality and Safety: next.amboss.com/us/article/mp0VJS (43 questions)
• Medical Law and Ethics: next.amboss.com/us/article/DO01uT (77 questions)
• Death: next.amboss.com/us/article/vP0AgT (7 questions)

Divine must listen to episodes: 37, 97, 137, 184, 325, 123, 276, 277, 132, 173, 204, 207, 221, 228, 230, 231, 234, 239, 250, 255, 268, 275, 282, 283, 304, 372, 399, 436, 421, 94, 104, 384
​
I also listened to ep 400 (get your head in the game for test day) 3 days to my exam. And went to watch the Dirty medicine video on how to prepare for test day 2 days before. They were helpful.
​
Thank you for reading and I hope this helps someone out there.

So short version of the story - I had 20 years of service in a pension plan at my old job. My new job has a pension plan but doesn't have a transfer agreement but said I would be able to purchase my past service with cash.
So the only solution was to transfer my existing pension into a LIRA and then into the new pension plan. The $$$s were perfect match for the purpose.
So I went into the BMO and told the financial guy that he couldn't screw this up. That it had to move flawlessly between the LIRA and the new pension. I reiterated that in an email to him. I told him this is critical to my future. His response was 'no problem, this will be super easy'.
Well come transfer day they are saying they won't do it because the rules of the pension plans are not exactly the same (even though they are they are just claiming the language is different). I have the potential to lose 20 years of service here. They admit that they promised me they could do this initially but washing their hands of it now with the comment that the guy in the bank screwed up when he told me that. I could have kept the pension in the other pension plan and just had two plans or quite frankly I may have said no to the job otherwise.
Quick question - do you think I have a case to get a lawyer and sue?

Hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster here.
I am working in house for a company in their legal department. My employers have offered to sponsor me to complete my legal training via the CILEX route. Unfortunately a training contract is off the cards because of the level of time required of the other in house lawyers. I’m happy to do CILEX, and honestly am just grateful for the chance, but am very confused by the information available.
I completed my law degree and then the LPC back in 2011, but was ultimately unable to get into a training contract, ran out of money and fell out of law until I started my current role 18 months ago.
I was initially told by CILEX that I would go down their ‘CILEX Lawyer’ route and would need to sit a few exams, although am exempt from the majority due to completing the LPC. My employers would like to know what the academic commitment is like, how much time I would need to commit during the week to anything like workshops. CILEX have given me a resounding ‘it depends’, which unfortunately doesn’t satisfy HR.
To further complicate things, CILEX are now telling me I don’t need to study at all and can qualify via their legacy route to become a Chartered Legal Executive. I have asked what the difference is between a CILEX lawyer and a Chartered Legal Executive, and nobody has given me a straightforward answer, only a link to their website, which doesn’t really answer the question.
I was under the impression that a CILEX Lawyer is just the updated term for a Legal Executive?
If anyone could help me understand how it works now, I would be very appreciative - for I am old, and apparently very out of the loop.

Dog Barks,

"what is annoying, when it's annoying," or when it catches you off guard; like fucking Shoepenhauer talks of in his chapter of Pessimism,

Noise, Noise, Motherfuckers in Carts, Motherfuckers Banging, Clanging; the fuck, man; and beat horses, too, beat themselves, don't have a horse to beat- it's fucked up, more so than people say

...that's, summary, but go off and read it I haven't in at least a year; so,
The cat is bored and wants attention, It IS an Emergency, She insists, and POOF- the same, "you and me we talk together," I am inside of, you are inside of, albeit a little seperated in space and time that this is what goes away; it's interruptive, I'm saying,

What if it's always interruptive; what if speech is always interruptive, and the conveyance occurs through the, "I know what you're thinking, what thought leads from there, and further on, HALT!"

Watch This,

Not This, or...#Monologization)

This read this, OK Back to Father Riley, the Guy,

It occurs to me as obvious that in their, "tennis game,"

The Priest Takes it for granted that God Exists, Paradoxically, That this is a Closed Chapter and thus his interests, or, his,

[the priests discursive/utterance/creative] activity and discourse [which are]#Monologization) evaluatively charged and context specific,

...are all outside of the realm of Catholic Doctrine and Dogma, wherein/within which auto-utterative language objects close the realm of thought down to, non-possibility; Riley, or, the Alchoholic Who killed a young woman in a Car Accident?

That is the realm of thought wherein which, quite specifically, everything, remains, "evaluatively charged and context specific," open to all and new possibility; so while the atheist, in theory, in point of fact, He Tells the Priest, "Halt from the material, think to the spiritual," and just the same,THE PRIEST, In Function-of-fact, says, in his Certainty, "HALT FROM THE SPIRITUAL, THAT OF LIFE AND DEATH AND BROADEST SENSE OF ETHICS," Halt from this, allow me to teach you the Halting Frame, the Frame around the closed and boxed realities that I can percieve without an exit, and then, or, allow your thoughts to return to the material; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dialogic_Imagination

NEW SCIENCE JUST IN: LANGUAGE SHUTS DOWN THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE'S ACTIVE, well,

The authors came up with an innovative language task for their study subjects and applied advanced neuroimaging methods to the data collected.
A paper on their findings has been published in PLoS ONE.
Functional asymmetry between the two cerebral hemispheres in performing higher-level cognitive functions is a major characteristic of the human brain. For example, the left hemisphere plays a leading role in language processing in most people. However, between 10% and 15% of the human population also use the right hemisphere to varying degrees for the same task.
Traditionally, language lateralization to the right hemisphere was explained by handedness, as it is mainly found in left-handed and ambidextrous (using both hands equally well) individuals. But recent research has demonstrated a genetic difference in the way language is processed by left-handed and ambidextrous people.
In addition to this, some right-handed people also involve their right hemisphere in language functions.
These findings prompted the scientists to consider alternative explanations—in particular, by looking at brain anatomy to find out why language functions can shift to the right hemisphere.
Researchers at the HSE Centre for Language and Brain hypothesized that language lateralization may have something to do with the anatomy of the corpus callosum, the largest commissural tract in the human brain connecting the two cerebral hemispheres.
The researchers asked 50 study participants to perform a sentence completion task. The subjects were instructed to read aloud a visually presented Russian sentence and to complete it with an appropriate final word (e.g., “Teper ministr podpisyvaet vazhnoe…”—”Now the minister is signing an important …”).
At the same time, the participants’ brain activity was recorded using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Additionally, the volume of the corpus callosum was measured in each subject.
A comparison between the fMRI data and the corpus callosum measurements revealed that the larger the latter’s volume, the less lateralization of the language function to the right hemisphere was observed.
It can be said that in processing language, the brain tends to use the left hemisphere’s resources efficiently and to suppress, by means of the corpus callosum, any additional involvement of the right hemisphere. The larger a person’s corpus callosum, the less involved their right hemisphere is in language processing (and vice versa).
This finding is consistent with the inhibitory model suggesting that the corpus callosum inhibits the action of one hemisphere while the other is engaged in cognitive tasks.

SO WHAT WOULD THAT IMPLY OF LANGUAGE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND THE LITTLE GODS AND GREAT DEMONS I LOVE THE MOST< DIISMANESETLARESLARVAE,

​
WHAT IS DYNAMICAL INDETERMINISM allow a Medical Doctor to Explain, explain that this is the manner in which we are nothing, really, like a mineral and instead like a hurricane; and from,

Physics, also- so what then is language?

...in this kinda, framework, wherein- and to be clear, I am saying, It's always a dogs bark, always, a cats meow, dogs are just a little rougher with their technique and cats can't be goddamned to care better for theirs, 'see how these statements shut down certain thoughts which lead from the thoughts before," if not at first, then, certainly, now that you've read this far; which might be, also, definitely, if the rest is correct, How Chat-GPT, "works," not on the PC side but for what reason it could be so good-like a Doppleganger, yeah? I'm referring to the, "autocomplete," and Perhaps, then, an overall metaphor for what I'm insinuating might-well be,
...an auto-complete of injunctions, and to which in dialogue we might add more injunctions which complicate or contradict the extant inunction systems of:
​

CHAOS CONTROL, an active cage around the dynamical indeterminative rendered through Injunction; fwiw and from a narcoleptic (take a look at me, being, slow, slowest motherfucker would like to spend another 10 20 minutes staring out the window before I have a sandwich) sometimes, well; some of you, Definitely, would overdose on how much amphetamine is inside of me I'm saying, "I know the moods and mode of it," Let me tell you: There is no, "high," it just renders second-order-injunction obvious for what it is and that is, also, the reason (or perhaps the process through which) those unfamiliar with, synthetic ephedra, soma, whatever we wanna call it, Chatter-Chatter-Chatter; can't stop themselves, I WOULD BE CURIOUS WHETHER THERE COULD BE SOME MODELED ANALOGUE, TO THIS, SPECIFICALLY, Within a failure-state of Cage-Breakout in this, "chaos control"Literally, this is a good idea maybe, may-be.

...a motherfucker cassandra in this motherfucker, simply, because I'd got, not, assimiliated to some, "nevermind," anyway,

This is Evidence that I am correct; the reason he lost his fucking cool, should be obvious- that it's, "material," or, cultural (in this instance) and NOT narcotic nor biological, "skrrrrt," it's cultural, narratological, the Material Realities of His Day, That Day, Fucked His Shit Right Up, Pushed that reality,

​

.....outside of the Chaos Control of His Injunctive Auto-utterances, interior-or-even-just-conferential-to habit and circumstance (again, this, perhaps, what a Dopamine (bunch of it) over-rides) so what does that Man do to, "fix his fucking ghost haunted nightmare visage of his daytime reality," which, lest you forgot:

Dude made a Fundraising Video for his Sham Charity, "Stop the warlord," but there wasn't one, not, anymore, Literally, imagine it this way,

You're from Kazakhstan

I do have a friend from Kazakhstan, but, I know, for this reason, most of you don't; it's far away, is the point,

so you're from Kazakhstan and you visit america, return, and set up a Charity to STOP THE PROUD BOYS FROM TERRORIZING AMERICAN, you choose, Cleveland; it's a huge success, it's that, nebulous, "raise awareness," kind of thing; with fundraising, of course, to raise more awareness of the proud boys in cleveland at your home in kazakhstan, now, Proud Boys are Real, Cleveland is real, it's a different scandal, per se, than a charity, not doing enough to fulfill its obligations, per se, isn't it, because when your normal-ass cheesy-toasty-video goes ULTRAVIRAL the MOST VIRAL OF ALL OF HISTORY, at that point,

People in Cleveland are going to be like, and, Did, in this 1:1 Real Close analogue, be like:

What in the absolute fuck, are you even talking about?

So,

He's outside of the discursive cage, right?

Watch all of the videos, read all of the links, and then tell me this:

It Does Make Sense, and (and!) it is NOT Wittgenstein 1

It not Wittgenstein 2,
and it is NOT Logical Positivism; Oh, Logical Positivism, "you're familiar with Logical Positivism," except I suspect you know it as its new name,

Economics

Related: I need, Need Not a Want a NEED, You to notice that the instantiation of some so-called, "fact value dichotomy," is what, in fact, however, "close the two sound," it is the CAUSE of,

The Is/Ought problem and Hume's Guillotine Being Ignored; Do You See How that Is So, I'll Tell You: Logical Positivism, and the Fact Value Dichotomy, take the premise that there is no, "is/ought problem," if all of the, "ought," discourses are rejected. entirely, as frivolous bullshit invented by women homosexuals poets and the arts; and you've got to do what is because otherwise you'll starve to death and a policeman will shoot you for moving when he punches you, "I'm not even fucking kidding, should you like I should say it in less blunt and common language," because I can 10,000 improvised words in an elevator all sourced from memory and the obvious snip snap I just don't think so little of you as to think you need me to do so you live in an economy also don't you, ok. so.

It Does Make Sense, and (and!) it is NOT Wittgenstein 1
It not Wittgenstein 2,
and it is NOT Logical Positivism; Oh, Logical Positivism, "you're familiar with Logical Positivism," except I suspect you know it as its new name,
Economics

​

Jonathan to Jonathan, here, I'm kinda like:

Did I just knock it out the fucking ballpark>

Just on that alone, it makes kinda sense, it isn't the century-old stuff that's either not-quite correct enough not to be way-the-fuck-off or insufficient, and, it's coherent with Modern Modern Science
​

Send This Limp Bizkit Video to the Nobel Prize Committee and tell them we don't give a fuck about u neither-

remain violent out there
Jonathan phillip fox

I'm playing Infiltrator, which I've done to hell and back, but I decided to change things up in how I play. I first picked up infiltrator when I wanted to go up difficulty because I had very little experience with reflex-based gameplay and vanguard was getting me killed over and over. Infiltrator was a very defensively played deletion spec that helped me get a good sense for what was on the battlefield, and I never really changed how I played infiltrator, as a result. I played peekaboo. I went with all the safe recommendations, and my squadmates went down constantly, but I got my all insanity run with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
Well, I have much faster reflexes than I used to, so I decided to go more aggressive, and it's ridiculous how much better this is. Insanity feels very easy to me now. I couldn't have done this when I started because I didn't have the reflex speed, but there's not much else to blame since I take long breaks between replays of years. It's not like I have an encyclopedic knowledge of the gameplay.
I run out of cover all the time. I carefully adjust squadmate positions so we don't cluster and instead have three different killing angles at all times.
Half of my squadmate rankings have completely reversed:

• Jacob: Underrated. He's very good on husk-focused levels and better than Grunt. Grunt lasts longer, but if I'm doing squad micro and stripping defenses quickly, Jacob's pull recharges much faster and that's more important. Doesn't have much use for anything but Husks and Mechs, though. I think he suffers from the fact that if you don't know what the mission is for, he doesn't adapt well.
• Mordin: Completely slept on this guy before. Like Jacob, you need to know what he's for, and this guy is for killing Blood Pack and Husks.
• Jack: Shockwave is slept on for Jack, big time. For her it recharges as fast as Pull and she has nothing else competing with it. Shockwave knocks people out of cover and is incredibly efficient at dispatching the husks Mordin nukes the armor out of.
• Kasumi: Probably the best squadmate for any non-husk situation as long as she has the right build for it. I didn't realize Flashbang was so broken at rank 4, it's completely different from rank 1. Even for husks, Flashbang 4 is fantastic in that it gives you clean setups for Blackstorming, my favorite of the heavy weapons. Shadow Strike is jank and unreliable but if you get a sense for how to use it, it's a really good defensive cooldown for your squad that helps change the angles the enemies are lumbering towards and buy you time. Also it hits really hard. Also, Overload so you can avoid using Disruptor Ammo, which for infiltrators is just the worst ammo in 2 aside from Shredder.
• Grunt: Overrated. If Grunt's health is coming into play I'm taking too long to kill and my angles are bad. Concussive Shot is the worst physics-based move except that it's okay at killing barriers but I get warp ammo for that and barriers are never common enough to make up for that. His melee is strong but is AI RNG.
• Thane: Slept on this guy. Incisor sniper, warp, and throw for husks. He's with Mordin and Samara on the Husk and Blood Pack team. Contemplating him and Kasumi for the Collector Base with how I play.

Zaeed is my lowest ranked squaddie of the ones I have, even Grunt outranks him -- disruptor ammo is just not worth it, and I'm not impressed with inferno grenade compared to Mordin's incinerate.
I can't justify bringing Legion on most missions to myself so I'll have no opportunity to change my mind with him I think. I don't do Squad Ammo, I haven't changed my mind on that, feel it's too random of a benefit with squadmates and too weak of a benefit for Shepard, so I don't think he'll be making it onto the collector base team and I don't expect him to survive my ME3 run anyway so no sense getting attached.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that -- it's amazing how much how you play influences what you like about squadmates, so I encourage you to try looking at the game from a new angle with squadmates you never liked before.

Context

1. I write fanfic and primarily organize my stuff across Google drive, docs, and slides.
   
2. I am also a windows person.
   
3. I hate plugging into a software ecosystem (I consider being part of the google ecosystem a necessary evil.)
   
4. I clean reinstall windows every 6 odd months.
   
5. I write and edit at different times (usually on my laptop/phone respectively.)
   
6. I prefer working offline.
   

What I know

1. Making google docs run offline on edge is a pain.
   
2. Offline use is non-negotiable.
   
3. I really can't afford a subscription right now.
   
4. Office 365 has better spell check and other features (?)
   
5. Their spreadsheets are definitely better.
   
6. Much better integration with windows.
   
7. Google is much better at interoperability; you're not constrained by to any one software family. Office kind of makes it a pain to switch between editors.
   
8. This sub is skewed toward Google.
   

What I want to know

1. Is it worth switching to Office 365?
   
2. Is backup/sync and resetting your workspace easy in Office 365? (I reinstall windows 6mo, so yeah . . .)
   
3. What's the co-writing scene like on Office 365?
   
4. Are there any other alternatives (existing or being built)? Please don't say notepad/vscode and git. That's easy to setup but doesn't make the writing process any easier.
   

I have a total of 5 admits as of now and after reviewing, I am stuck between these final 2 ones.
I am interested in AI/Ml field and want to get job after Ms. The main difference between these two is mainly the cost. I am planning to take a loan and USC is giving an estimate of around 140k for the whole program which is huge (more than double of SBU). Whereas in SBU the cost is less and they have offered the TA role with stipend along with a 2k tuition scholorship for the first year (total funding around 14k). But the program at USC is much better especially considering that it is a AI specialization which I am interested in. Most other aspects are almost same as both are in big cities with good social life and diversity.
So, is the program at USC so much better and worth the high fees or no? Also how much difference is there in securing internships and jobs? Please share your thoughts also considering the current economy and job market.
PS: please send link of any WhatsApp/discord groups for SBU,USC. Would love to connect to students who have finalized their decisions.

I have a mainnet deposit file and a number of keystores created by a hardware wallet (The Grid+ Lattice1). But I’d like to test it out on Goerli first.
Unfortunately there is no option for the Lattice1 to generate a Goerli deposit file.
When I try using the generated deposit file the Goerli launchpad says that my deposit file isn’t for Goerli. I’ve edited the file and replaced the word “mainnet” with “goerli” and I’ve changed the fork to the one I found in another Goerli deposit file. However the Goerli launchpad still does not accept the file.
Could someone points me towards the spec for the deposit file, or even better, just tell me how to edit the mainnet deposit file so it works with the Goerli launchpad?
Also, does anyone know if the keystores are OK to use on Goerli? Are the keystores different between mainnet and Goerli?

Hello everyone,
I was fortunate enough to receive an offer for an internship in my field (HR) in January and began in February. It is a temporary, 6 month position with ability to negotiate at the end for a longer window.
However, despite only being in the position for a little over the month, I haven’t enjoyed my experience. For one, the workload is too much in the sense that I’m limited to 20 hours a week, but they expect me to put in the effort of a 40 hours work week. Despite having a schedule, they frequently contact me outside of work and ask to join meetings that go outside of my 20 hours and then it falls on me to balance out the rest of the week’s hours. Normally I would be okay with this, but it’s been overwhelming especially when I’m “required” to attend 1-2 hour last minute meetings and am I’m working on 2-3 projects at a time for 3 different people and am randomly told on a Thursday that I need to focus on a whole new report, different from the current task, to be presented the following day on Friday.
I know it’s probably the nature of the industry, but it’s been a less than pleasant experience especially for my first position within a field I’ve been trying to get into for a little while.
Another qualm I have with my experience is their “throw you in the water and learn how to swim” approach. I don’t want to be babied, but I think there’s a balance between that and treating you like a seasoned employee in terms of knowing all the terminology, staff, and departments of an organization. For context, I work in a hospital setting and am constantly met with new terminology without much explanation. While I try to ask, I can tell we all get exhausted around the 6th or 7th time of me asking what a certain department is, who is this person I need to work with, what position is this, etc. I am often encouraged to share ideas, but this one person on my team who is essentially my supervisor, constantly shuts me down before I even finish a thought. At times I'm out of the loop because the four people on my direct team have a group chat without me, which is fine, but it leads to lack of communication where I'm left confused at what's expected / needed because they don't fill me in on all the details. At times, I won't even be contacted for days on end so I'm completely lost on any urgent matters that need to be addressed.
While everyone has been great, they can also be a little rude. A lot of the time, it seems like they don't even like their job anymore. Which I understand, after years in a certain position, it can get tiresome or irritating. At our weekly "catch-up" meetings, they tend to gossip about people in other departments. Which again, can be the nature of the HR industry but it doesn't necessarily sit right with me. For example, the supervisor I mentioned prior likes to talk smack and used a chunk of our meeting last week to talk smack about an employee who decided to check themselves in due to mental health and another who was asking for a pay raise due to us living in a high cost city. In my head, these people are just trying to look out for themselves, there's no need to talk about them rudely.
Overall, I've had an unpleasant experience and wanted to see if anyone has had a similar experience or if I'm being a little too sensitive about it. Maybe I'm just not a good fit for this organization in particular. I'm grateful for the opportunity, it being my first internship in the field, however, I'm thinking about cutting my internship short. Anyways, thank you for my rant, please feel free to share any similar experiences!

When I heard the stories of the abandoned train, I was immediately intrigued. Late-night whispers in dark corners spoke of a train that appeared only to those who sought it. The curious and the desperate would find themselves stepping aboard, venturing into the unknown. It was said that the train had deeper levels, each more unsettling than the last. I needed to see it for myself.
On a rainy evening, shrouded in darkness, I found the old train. The rusty tracks seemed to appear from nowhere, snaking their way through the shadows. The train was old, its paint peeling, and the windows were cracked. But it had an undeniable presence, an aura of otherworldliness that captivated me. I boarded with a pounding heart, finding myself in a dimly lit cabin. Then– the train started moving.
At first, nothing happened. But then, as we ventured further into the night, there was a grating sound like nails on a chalkboard as I suddenly felt like I was on a drop tower in an amusement park.
The inside of the train suddenly felt completely different. I call this Level 1. Here I noticed that the once-empty seats were filled with identical passengers. Their expressions were blank, staring ahead. It was unnerving, but I was too curious to leave. I needed to see what lay deeper within the train.
Level 2 was a shock. As the cabin was suddenly bathed in a deep red light, the passengers all turned to face me. Their eyes were now pitch black, devoid of any humanity. The air grew heavy, and it became harder to breathe. But still, I pressed on, driven by my desire to explore this liminal space.
As I delved deeper into the train, the environment became increasingly disturbing. The walls seemed to close in, and the train's movement became erratic, jerking violently without warning. The passengers no longer resembled anything human. Their limbs were twisted and elongated, and their black eyes seemed to pierce my very soul. I could feel my sanity slipping away, but I couldn't stop.
On Level 9, I was nearly consumed by the darkness. The passengers had become monstrous, their faces twisted into grotesque snarls. The air was so thick that I could barely breathe. In that moment, I knew that if I didn't escape, I would be lost forever. For some reason I believed if I stood and fought my way to the front of the train, I could claw my way up a level.
And that’s exactly what happened. It took all of my strength to just barely make it up through each level, to the safety of reality.
I was suddenly back in the abandoned cabin at Level 0. I stepped outside. This first trip was so overwhelming, my senses stimulated past anything I’d ever experienced– I blacked out a lot of the details.
I vowed never to return. But something about that experience haunted me. The mundane reality of life became unbearable, a constant reminder of the train that had nearly claimed me. I knew that I couldn't resist its pull forever.
I needed to find out what lies beyond Level 9, to see what twisted horrors await me in the depths of the abyss.
Last night I returned to that desolate station. It wasn’t where I last found it– I needed to will it to appear in front of me. After several moments I could feel it about ten yards away, shrouded in fog. It stood before me– harrowing and gorgeous all at once,.
I boarded the train. My hands trembled as I reached for the cold, metal door handle, my heart racing with a mix of fear and excitement. As I entered the cabin, a feeling of déjà vu washed over me – the dim lighting, the musty smell, and the faint creaking of the train as it lurched into motion.
Level 1 was just as I remember it. The seats filled with identical passengers, their vacant stares a chilling reminder of the journey I was about to undertake. As the train descended to Level 2, the deep red glow returned, painting the cabin walls in sinister shades of crimson. The passengers' eyes turned pitch black, as if they were empty vessels waiting to be filled with darkness.
On Level 3, I found myself in a fog-shrouded world. The cabin was cloaked in a dense mist, obscuring the grotesque passengers that lurked within. Their twisted limbs reached out from the fog, grasping at the air, as if trying to snatch me away from my path.
Level 4 brought a cacophony of tortured screams. The once-empty seats were now filled with writhing, agonized figures, their bodies contorted in unimaginable ways. The walls of the cabin seemed to pulsate, as if alive with the pain and suffering of the damned.
The train lurched violently as we descended to Level 5. Here, the cabin was bathed in an eerie, sickly green light. The passengers' faces were now bloated and rotten, their mouths gaping open to reveal rows of jagged, broken teeth. The stench of decay filled the air, and I struggled not to gag as I pressed onward.
Level 6 was a realm of shadows. The cabin was plunged into almost total darkness, the only light coming from the faint glow of the passengers' eyes. Their grotesque forms seemed to shift and change with each flicker of light, as if they were creatures not of flesh and bone, but of darkness itself.
By the time I reached Level 7, the train's movement had become a chaotic, frenzied dance. The cabin lurched and swayed violently, the twisted passengers thrown about like rag dolls. The walls were slick with blood and other unidentifiable fluids, and the train's once-melodic creaks became guttural, demonic growls.
Level 8 was a nightmare I can barely describe. The cabin was alive with writhing, slithering tendrils, pulsating and twisting as if they had minds of their own. The passengers have all but disappeared, replaced by grotesque masses of flesh and bone, fused together in a horrifying amalgamation of suffering and despair.
As I entered Level 9, the darkness consumed me once more. The monstrous passengers closed in, their twisted faces barely visible in the suffocating blackness. My heart raced as I forced myself through the nightmarish crowd, each step bringing me closer to the brink of madness. But there was a strange, magnetic pull emanating from somewhere deeper, urging me to continue.
And then, at last, I reached Level 10. The train came to a sudden, jarring halt, and the door to the next cabin slid open. I stepped into the unknown, my breath catching in my throat as I confronted the heart of the abyss.
The cabin was vast, larger than any of the others, and bathed in an ethereal, pale light. The passengers were gone, replaced by an enormous, pulsating mass that stretched from floor to ceiling. The mass was a swirling vortex of darkness, streaked with flashes of blinding white light. It seemed to beckon me, drawing me closer with a force I couldn’t resist.
As I approached the vortex, I felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of unity – a connection to something far greater than myself. It was as if I was being offered a glimpse of the infinite, a chance to embrace the darkness and become one with the abyss. The fear that accompanied me throughout my journey faded, replaced by an almost euphoric acceptance of my fate.
I stepped closer to the vortex, my body trembling as I prepared to be consumed by the unknown. But just as I was about to be swallowed by the darkness, a voice echoed through the cabin, clear and powerful: "Turn back."
I hesitated, torn between the allure of the abyss and the desperate plea of the voice. The vortex roared in frustration, the darkness churning and writhing as if trying to seize me. But the voice grew louder, more insistent: "Turn back, before it's too late."
With a final, agonizing burst of willpower, I wrenched myself away from the vortex and stumbled back towards the front of the car. As I retraced my steps through the hellish depths of the train, the voice remained with me, guiding me back to the surface and the safety of the mundane world.
When I finally stepped off the train, the night air was cold and crisp. The shadows had retreated, replaced by the first faint light of dawn. The voice is gone, but its message lingers, a stark reminder of the dangers that lie in the pursuit of the unknown.
I walk away from the abandoned train, forever changed by my journey into the depths of the abyss. The allure of the unknown will always tempt me, but I now understand the limits of human curiosity. Some doors are best left unopened, some secrets best left undiscovered.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I am F18 from Europe and as i have just returned to Reddit i want to make some online friends for chat.
I just want to talk with other females about how life is, differences between cultures and basicly anything that comes to mind. Just chatting to share experiences and get to know each other while we might be far apart.
Something about myself, i love listening to music (can't play any instrument myself but would love to learn one day), i like being outdoor in nature and i like to swim.
Send me a message if you want to chat :)

I’m a 20 year old male, and throughout my years so far, my social life had been quite confusing and difficult. As a former homeschool student, I didn’t have easy ways to make friends like most kids. In fact, I’d say my childhood was drastically different from most others which makes it relatively hard to relate when people talk about their youth.
One of the bigger issues I’ve come to realize, is my fear and hatred of confrontation. I’ve always tried to be polite to people weather they’re friends or not, and arguing with someone who won’t listen to your side is imo the WORST type of confrontation.
My friends argue and joke quite a bit and sometimes the lines get blurred between what’s a joke and what’s not. I get that friends make fun of each other, but sometimes people don’t understand or simply don’t care when they’ve gone too far. That’s when I start to get upset.
Another form of confrontation I have trouble with is asking for help. Putting my burden onto someone else makes me feel like total shit, even if they’re confidential and professional. So therapy really hasn’t helped much because there are so many things I haven’t been comfortable sharing that are the reason I’m there in the first place. In addition, I need to find a doctor but with the issues I have with asking questions, I fear I may never be able to receive the help I so desperately need.
If it seems ridiculous, that’s because it is. ADHD, anxiety, and depression affect my mental health and my daily routine more than you could imagine and though I attend therapy, my fear of confrontation has prevented from telling my therapist significant information. If anybody has any advice for me I’d highly appreciate it!

we just started doing this but he is already so fast! I’ve tried: hiding them under containers, setting up different sized boxes around the room and placing them inside both open ones and closed ones with lids, shoeboxes with smaller boxes or containers layered inside, putting the containers/boxes under blankets, behind pillows, hiding them between different objects…scattering some on their own in corners or places like under his bed…putting them inside rolled up dish towels and blankets…I do this with maybe a 10-20 tiny pieces throughout two rooms at a time and he is done in under 10 minutes lol. He loves it though so I would love some more ideas! He is a chihuahua mix but he bites through things pretty easily so I wouldn’t want to let him rip anything apart to get to the treats.

Hi,
I am not a developer and not very familiar with how it all works. I just need to install OpenJDK on some devices.
We are deploying OpenJDK from Adoptium. No issues there.
But I want to understand the differences between the various version.
I understand that it is advisable to install the LTS version. That is fine.
However, which version?
If I install version 17. Will it be backwards compatible with apps requiring version 8? Can it break something if I upgrade from version 8 to 17?
I can install them one next to the other. But what would be the use-case for that? Isn't it cleaner to just keep one version installed?
For someone that is not familiar with Java, it is very confusing. Hope some of you can shed some light on it. Would be highly appreciated.
Thank you

Im curious what’s everyone’s motivation to quit?
Im being prescribed Xanax since ca.12 years, physical dependency developed 6 years ago. Current daily dose between 8-12 mg :/ i get brainfog, headache and nausea when I don’t start taking it in the morning.
With the withdrawal symptoms being so severe ( my headache etc is just minor compared to how strong it gets after a few days) I’m curious what motivated you to push through. I’m reading success stories here and feel like I couldn’t do that.
Up until ~ 2 I had a vague motivation of getting off because I always wanted kids (and 12 mg/ day would probably NOT good for a growing human) but now it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen so I’m thinking…. Why should I even go through this whole process???
Some other factors that make it difficult for me:
-parents would probably support me ( if they knew about it lol) but they live in a different country.

• my psychiatrist is not supportive. I told him two times in the past I want to get off but he always said something evasive like „ you should try that after the pandemic but is over“ etc Yes, I could/ should look for a different psychiatrist, but as you see I lack motivation….

The only thing that sometimes worries me that it supposedly increases the risk for dementia. I imagine being an old, frail dementia patient without a family/ partner, in a Country i immigrated to is not that fun 🤔