I'll try to be as brief as I can, otherwise this post will become an essay of me trying to promote Japan as the best vacation destination I have ever been to.
TLDR; Japan is great!
Background
The trip took place from 13 May 2023 to 27 May 2023. 9 people, ages ranging from late 20s to mid 60s, family from both my side and my wife's, took part in this trip. The 4 youngest members, including yours truly, planned for everything in this trip which includes the hotels, places we visits, international flights, domestic flights, meals, routes to take. It also helps that our youngest member is fluent in Japanese, while the rest of the youngsters can understand simple Japanese, thus YMMV.
Tokyo (13 May - 18 May 2023)
Tokyo was probably the most hated part of our trip as it involves a lot of walking. And the 5 old people were definitely not keen on walking much. So we really had to spend a lot of time looking for places to chill after half an hour of walking, which really slows us down. Even in train stations, we had to look for elevators since they were unable to climb stairs. There were really a lot of stairs in Japan.
Anyway, for the most part, we stayed in Kyobashi in Tokyo. We chose this area as it provides direct access to Haneda Airport via trains. It was also really convenient as every location we went to in Tokyo was accessible from Kyobashi Station, requiring little to no transfers.
A short review of places we went in Tokyo
Asakusa - It was crowded on a Sunday. Sensoji was nice to look at. Lots of street food around the area if you explore west of Nakamise Street. Kappabashi Dougu Street sells kitchenware and handmade crockeries, which are slightly pricey but good additions to my dining set. Spent around 5 hours here.
Ueno Zoo - Oldest zoo in Japan. Houses many animals that we don't see in Singapore, like the snow monkeys and shoebills. Pandas were definitely the main attraction. We queued for 15 minutes just to see them for 3 minutes. There is a system in place so that panda viewing is not overcrowded. In total, we spent almost 5 hours here.
Ameyoko Street - Shopping street. We just walked through this stretch after Ueno Zoo when everyone was tired. It was quite a touristy place where we did not find it interesting.
Meiji Shrine - Very beautiful shrine. Everybody enjoyed the walk from Harajuku Station to the shrine. The canopy provided shade on a hot day. Coupled with the cool weather, the walk was pleasant. We were also lucky enough to be able to witness a wedding ceremony happening at the shrine while we were there. Get your Omikuji (fortune slip) for JPY200. It comes with English translation.
Harajuku - Very hip shopping street. We were just here for Marion Crepes, nothing else. But if you are into fashion, feel free to spend time shopping here. The clothes are relatively cheaper as compared to places like Uniqlo.
Shibuya - A lot of construction projects are happening now at Shibuya, so it was slightly harder to get around. We went to a planetarium, and sat down for a "show", which was all voiced in Japanese, no subtitles. Very cool even if you don't understand anything as the start of the show basically placed you right in the heart of Shibuya, and allowed you to see the skyline. The youngsters also had a chance to go to the Pokemon Centre and Disney Store to do some light shopping. Go if you like these kind of things. If not, I would recommend skipping them.
Tsukiji Market - A local, slightly more touristy fish market. A lot of fresh seafood to try. Uni (Sea urchin) was in season. The most popular items were the tamagoyaki (rolled egg omelet) and hotate (scallops). We also ate at a local sushi restaurant and I had my first horse meat sushi. The chef even advised me that I should eat it without soy sauce. Very cool experience, probably something I'll never try if I did not go to Japan.
As you can see from above, we didn't go to many places in Tokyo as the oldies were pretty much restricted by their physical abilities to take long walks. I should also share that eating out is more expensive compared to Singapore (where we are from), with each meal costing around JPY1500 or more per person.
Hokkaido (18 May - 27 May 2023)
Hokkaido was really the highlight of this trip. It was clear that everyone enjoyed Hokkaido more than Tokyo. For the domestic flights, we flew via Air Do. To get to Hokkaido, we flew from Haneda Airport to Asaikawa Airport. To get back to Tokyo, we flew from Hakodate Airport. In addition, we rented 2 cars to fit 9 people, with 10 medium to large sized luggage. The distance between each city was usually about 2 to 3 hours drive. Essentially, we went from the west of Hokkaido to the east. So.. That definitely took a long while. so I'll break down the locations by cities.
Monbetsu (18 May - 19 May 2023)
Kamiyubetsu Tulip Park - A tulip park recreated to make you feel as if you were in The Netherlands. Very pretty place especially when all the tulips were in full bloom. We spent about 2 hours here just taking pictures and taking in the view.
Takinoue Shibazakura Park - A park where everything is pink! I have never seen a place so pink. We missed the sakura season in Tokyo but managed to catch the blooming of Shibazakura instead. It is really a sight to behold. In the park, if you are able, I would recommend climbing all the way to the bell to get a stunning view of the whole place. There is also a 3 minutes helicopter ride for JPY600 per person to get an aerial view of the park.
The tulip park was the reason why we drove 3 hours to the small town of Monbetsu. I think the drive was worth it if you like looking at flowers in full bloom. On a separate note, I have been to Monbetsu on another trip in 2019. There is a crab claw statue, a sea ice musuem and a seal sanctuary to visit. The town is not as boring as one might think.
Asahikawa (19 May - 20 May 2023)
Ramen Village - Just a place where 8 ramen restaurants set up shop. I highly recommend eating shoyu ramen in Asahikawa since that's what they're famous for.
Otokoyama Sake Brewery and Museum - It's in the name! Go here if you like sake. There's free tasting. The museum portion just showcases equipment used in the brewing process. It even shows how it was brewed in the older eras. There is also a tap where anyone can collect the spring water that they use to brew the sake. So.. BRING YOUR OWN BOTTLE!
Takikawa Canola Festival - We were just in time for the event. Canola (oil?) is the main export of the town of Takikawa. The festival only runs for 2 weekends. We were lucky to have been able to see this. Anyway, the festival was packed with people. So to alleviate overcrowding at the fields, the organisers did not allow people to go to the fields directly. Everybody is required to go to the festival location and take a shuttle bus to the fields. The bus timings were about 10 minutes from the next one, so even if the queue was long, we didn't wait too long. With any festival, there will always be snacks and other merchandise. Feel free to buy them and support the locals.
Furano (20 May - 21 May 2023)
Ningle Terrace - I think there were a total of 18 small craft shops in the area. Anyway, it's a place where you'll want to go after it turns dark. That's when the fairy lights come on and make it look magical. Personally, I wasn't into the crafts. But I bet they will be good decorations for your office desk or home.
Farm Tomita - A farm famous for lavender. It was raining heavily when we were there. So.. It wasn't a great experience. Coupled with the fact that lavender wasn't really in season, we could only see a small patch of purple. Potatoes here were great though! I would recommend getting some potato wedges or croquettes as snacks.
Furano Cheese Factory - We went there on a weekend. So, there was pretty much no production viewing. But no loss, since we were actually there for the pizza! The whole complex, including a pizza cafe, ice cream shop, factory and museum is nestled in a small woodland area. So you get to enjoy pizza and ice cream in the great outdoors! I highly recommend the pizzas.
Sapporo (21 May - 23 May 2023)
Tanukikoji Street - Shopping street! There's a Mega Don Quixote if anyone's interested. Otherwise it is really just another shopping street. What's cool about it is that there is also an underground mall that's linked to Susukino Station. So, you can shop above and under ground.
Nijo Market - A fish market just like Tsukiji Market but on a smaller scale. It was already past noon when we reached so most shops were closed or closing. The local shopkeepers here were friendlier though.
Odori Park - We took a 15 minutes walk from Sapporo Station to this park. It was not very impressive without sakura blooms or festivals. The iconic Sapporo TV Tower was at the head of the park. We chose not to go up the tower as we went somewhere higher.
JR Tower 36 - I believe this tower is taller than the Sapporo TV Tower. It costs JPY600 per person to ascend the tower. It offers a 360 degrees (more like 90 degrees x 4 sides) view of the city. On a clear day, you might even be able to see Otaru from the tower. You can also see the trains leaving and entering JR Sapporo Station.
Mount Moiwa - Unfortunately, it was foggy the night when we wanted to go up the mountain. So, we decided not to go. From what we researched, it offers a very pretty night view of the city.
So.. In Sapporo, we ditched the car and travelled via trains and legs, like how we did in Tokyo. Parking is expensive in bigger cities. It was a shame that we didn't get to go up to Mount Moiwa as I personally wanted to go up there. But.. There is always an alternative (maybe even better).
Otaru (23 May - 24 May 2023)
Sakaimachi Street - The biggest shopping street in Otaru. The road is lined with shops of various sizes on both sides. Highlights include a glass warehouse, the Romankan (Romance House) and the windchimes on the river. At the end of the street (or the beginning depends on where you start), is an iconic clock tower. I think it rings and blows steam out of its top every hour. Under the clock tower is my personal favourite, LeTao! Their bestseller, the cheesecakes, is the best! But I love their chocolate biscuits, The Noir, better.
Otaru Canal - You may or may not know that Otaru was a port town. The warehouses that line up beside the canal has since been transformed into shops. According to my wife, it is supposedly a pretty place to go to at night, when lights brighten the canal. But when we were there, it was a sad sight. The lights barely lit up the canal. So.. GO IN FEBRUARY when the snow light path festival is happening! There is also a gondola ride on the canal if anyone's interested. We were not.
Sankaku Market - A really small market beside Otaru Station. We had our crab lunch here! 3 crabs totaling 4.6kg for JPY45000. I think that the items sold here are relatively more expensive as this market is catered towards tourists.
Lake Toya (24 May - 25 May 2023)
Mount Usu - A volcano which last erupted in the year 2000. We took the ropeway up. Trust me! It is worth the trip. There is a terrace right beside the ropeway station where you can enjoy beautiful scenery of the lake and surrounding mountains. The youngsters also managed to climb 320 steps to go closer to the caldera of Mount Usu. While you don't see any lava, you can definitely see some smoke.
Meisui-no-Sato Rest Station - This is not really an attraction. But I wanted to give it a shoutout because it was definitely the most beautiful rest station I have ever seen. A suspension bridge links the rest station to a small forested area. And in that area is a spring! It was unexpected to see everybody enjoying a rest there and drinking spring water directly from the mountains.
The Lake Ko no Sumika - Our hotel for the night at Lake Toya. This hotel resort is situated right beside the lake. The hotel is also part of the Toya Sun Palace. If you stay in Ko no Sumika, you get access to the onsen and facilities of both hotels. But it doesn't work the other way round. So it definitely feels more exclusive. The Lake Ko no Sumika has the onsen on the 8th level, giving you an unblocked view of the lake and its beyond when you're taking a bath. For those who don't know, from April to October, a fireworks show happens every night between 8.45pm to 9.05pm. The fireworks show takes place on the lake, starting from the pier near The Lake Toya Nonokaze resort, ending in the middle of the lake, right in front of my hotel room. Did I mention that there is a balcony in every room that looks out to the lake? That's where we enjoyed the fireworks show. There is also an onsen bath in every room of the hotel for you to enjoy if you are shy about going nude in the public bath. To summarise, The Lake Ko no Sumika was luxury on another level. I highly recommend this heaven.
Hakodate (25 May - 27 May 2023)
Onuma National Park - It's actually a quasi-national park. Not sure what the difference is. But it is a beautiful park where there are bridges that link small little islands together. It'll take around 1 hour to walk the longest route and 15 minutes for the shortest. Honestly, I love this park. It was picturesque and it was also amusing to see young couples (the guy) struggling to row a boat.
Mount Hakodate - Boasts the world famous night view. While I agree that the view is beautiful, it is too packed for anyone to enjoy. Everybody is holding up their cameras and crowding near the railings for anyone to take in the scenery. Of course, to counter this, you can always pop by the restaurant or cafe and hope that you'll be assigned a seat by the window so that you can enjoy the view. I recommend that to go right before the sun sets. At the top, you'll have to choose if you want to see the sunset or the night view. Because there is no way that you'll capture both since everybody will crowd to one or the other. It'll always be more crowded when the sky turns dark and everybody is rushing to get off the mountain. So.. Be prepared to wait! Good luck!
Hakodate Morning Market - The morning market is awesome. You have access to fresh seafood and other produce. You can even haggle! We spend our 2 mornings there for breakfast. Amazing place to get delicious and slightly cheaper seafood. There is also a stall which lets you catch your own squid and they'll grill it for you. Long queue though. For reference, we had 2 crabs, weighing at 4.2kg in total for JPY37000. They'll lead you to a restaurant where they'll cook the crabs for you, for free! Don't be afraid to haggle and discuss with the shop owners.
Goryokaku - A fort turned into a park! The famous star(?) shaped park is a beautiful place. When we were there, we saw wisterias and fresh green trees. There is also a structure, which I believe was the residence of someone, which you can pay to enter. Nothing to rave about. But if you want to see some architecture in the middle of a park, you can see it here. Come here if you enjoy walking around a big park. If not, give it a miss.
To sum things up
It is safe to say that all of us enjoyed our trip to Japan. For my parents, it was their first time in Japan. Our itinerary could have been more optimised to cater to the old folks but we planned what we could. Everything else was pretty much on the fly.
While most Japanese don't speak English, they do have some basic understanding if you speak slowly and give them time to process what you said. Alternatively, learn some simple Japanese phrases. It'll make life a lot easier there. For the most part, we relied on Google Maps and Navitime apps to get around Tokyo. We googled for Mapcodes for our drive in Hokkaido.
Hope you enjoyed this lengthy trip report!

Hi everyone,
Visiting from London and just curious at to the best place for polish and traditional food that has vegetarian options.
We’re located around old town. We tried a place last night and we were assured our potato and cheese pierogi was vegetarian until it came out with bacon all over the top.
Any recommendations or suggestions would be amazing.
Thank you.

Race Information

• Name: Edinburgh Marathon
• Date: 28/05/2023
• Distance: 26.2 miles
• Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
• Website: https://www.edinburghmarathon.com
• Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/9156321200
• Time: 2:54:41

Goals

Goal	Description	Completed?
A	Sub 3:10	Yes
B	Sub 3	Yes
B	London qualification 2024	hopefully

Splits

Kilometer	Time
1	4:11
2	4:07
3	3:56
4	4:10
5	3:54
6	4:00
7	4:01
8	4:03
9	4:11
10	4:06
11	4:08
12	4:05
13	4:03
14	4:09
15	4:04
16	4:07
17	4:08
18	4:06
19	4:09
20	4:02
21	4:04
22	4:03
23	4:07
24	4:13
25	4:04
26	4:07
27	4:07
28	4:02
29	4:07
30	4:08
31	4:08
32	4:07
33	4:05
34	4:07
35	4:10
36	4:13
37	4:13
38	4:13
39	4:16
40	4:17
41	4:21
42	4:18
43	3.45

Training

First marathon. Began running in lockdown, seen vast improvements in all my distances, managing to get 5k under 19 mins, 10k under 40 mins, and half marathon under 1:40. I joined a running club in Oct 2022 and seen further improvements in all distances, so I set myself a target of completing a half marathon in under 1:30 and a marathon in under 3.30.
My training consisted on speed work on a Monday (track) and Wednesday (usually in a park or quiet area with no traffic).These sessions are provided by the coaches at my running club. Some examples of the sessions are;
Monday: 5k paced session - 20 x 200m at 5Km Pace/100m Same Time Recovery e.g if 5Km pace is 40s for 200m then 100m recovery is covered in 40s
Wednesday: 10k paced session - 6 x 5 Mins @ 10Km Pace with 2.5 Mins Jog Recovery
Monday: 7 x 800m @ 5Km Pace with 100m in 90s Jog Recovery
Wednesday: 5min, 4min, 3min, 2min, 2min, 3min, 4min, 5min @ 10k pace with half jog rec.
Monday: 10 x 3 Mins/90s Jog Recovery (10k pace)
Wednesday: 8 x 4 Mins @ Half Marathon Pace with 3 Mins Reovery at Easy Run Pace (Not a jog)
Outwith these sessions, I tried to do at least 40km over another 4 runs at an easy pace, keeping heart late below 150bpm. Total monthly kilometres always over 200km. Since the new year I have been trying to hit at least 60km per week.
I booked this marathon last summer and had no idea of a plan or targets. I completed a half marathon in 1.19.59 the end of April this year, and this gave me belief that I would be able to post a good time in this race. I would have been disappointed if I did not manage to complete it in 3.10.
The longest run I completed during my training was an easy run of 33km, about 4 weeks before the race. I was confident I would be able to finish but had no idea how my body would do after that distance at a quicker pace.

Pre-race

I done my last long run (~22km) exactly one week before the race. Easy 10km runs Monday & Tuesday, Wednesday I done 3 x 10km at target marathon pace (4.14/km) with 2 mins rest in between. Another easy run on Thursday and then complete rest Friday & Saturday. On the Wednesday I started upping my carb intake significantly, eating a lot more bread, rice, pancakes, crumpets, scones, tortilla wraps, potatoes and chips. I was feeling rather bloated for these few days so cut back a bit on the Saturday in order to be good for Sunday.
Race day: Got up at 5.30am - big bowl of porridge with a scoop of protein powder, 2 slice of toast & strong coffee. Had a cereal bar and a banana at 8am (2 hours before start). Sipped water through the morning - not too much as was wary of toilet breaks during the race.

Race

Weather on the morning was ideal - good temperature, no wind or rain. Had the potential to heat up later on in the afternoon but overall great running conditions.
Race began at 10am. This was an extremely busy race and had some very narrow points over the first 10km where it was impossible to get by anyone.
The first quarter of the race through the city is all downhill. Great scenery all along closed roads, very enjoyable and a good way to start the race and get warmed up. The streets were packed with spectators and an overall good atmosphere.
KMs 10-30 are where you really need to focus on hitting target pace. The crowds thinned out a bit although there was still locals outside their houses cheering, handing out sweets, playing music, and even a though bands/ dance groups along the way. I always race without earphones in order to take all of this in and it is truly a worthwhile experience. Plenty of water stations along this stretch and the weather was still good. Ran with a few groups during this stretch and chatted away, was lucky enough to move in front of most of them onto the next group.
There is a short gravel section around 28kms around Gosford House. Afterwards I heard a lot of people moaning about this - it certainly is a bit different from running on the road. I suppose it depends on what you are used to, I do a fair bit of trail running as well so felt comfortable. Only thing I would say is the terrain is not suited for the Nike Alphafly.
The last section of the race was by far the most difficult. Temperature had heated up to around ~14 degrees (not roasting, but for us Scots who train all through winter it is on the warmer side). Along with a few gradual inclines on the way back made for some tough kilometres. The number of people I passed on the last stretch who were cramping, being sick or simply walking grew the further I got to the finish line. There also seemed to be less water stations on this section, which is not ideal when you are in the final stages of a marathon.
The final couple of hundred metres was a flat, straight run along mats to the finish line. By far the best part - all the hard work is complete, thousands of spectators and knowing your family and friends are at the finish line waiting to congratulate you. Even better knowing when you know you have smashed every target set!

Nutrition & Strategy

When I signed up for the race I put in a target time of 3.45 - meaning I started in a pen with runners a lot slower than me. This was not ideal as it was very busy and I was stuck behind big groups of runners a lot for the first 20-30mins. I definitely could have went quicker at the beginning, maybe a blessing in disguise as I was still under target pace and perhaps allowed me to not come out the traps too quickly. I took 2 salt tablets every water station, which was every 30 mins or so. Took 1 gel at 10km, 20km then 32km. Fortunately was able to get through the whole race without stopping for the toilet. I was really comfortable up until the last 10km, I had never ran more than this so had no idea how my body would react. I had plenty of time in the bank so I dialled it back a bit to make sure I could finish without cramping or pulling a muscle. My plan before the race was to keep every kilometre below 4.15 and hold on for as long as possible.

Post-race

I am going to take a few days off to let my body recover. I have a few 10k runs booked throughout the summer and hope to achieve some PBs. The time I posted should also qualify me for London next year.
Made with a new race report generator created by herumph.

Hi, how are you all doing? I'll be going to Saint Petersburg in the next few months for study for a bachelors. I'm a Vietnamese International Student and so I have a few questions to the very lovely Russians living in Saint Petersburg. 1. How is the pace of life in Saint Petersburg, is it fast or slow? How are things? 2. What are the costs of living, are they super high? Or just about affordable for a student living on a non-existent stipend? 3. How are the markets like, are they good? and are there Asian markets? 4. Do you guys have vegetables, because from what I've heard, it's all potatoes and no greeneries. (dies from constipation) 5. Is Saint Petersburg a safe city to live in? You know with all the war going on and what not. I'm not really afraid of anything since I know I'm in good hands when it comes to Russia, but I still gotta be a little cautious because of the recent drone strikes in Moscow. 6. How is the job market there for an International student? While I'm not particularly good at Russian (I know the basics to get by) I am really good at English and well, Vietnamese. Thats all there is for now! Thank you all for reading and best of regards to those who respond!!! Спасибо большое!!

Chef Gordon Ramsay welcomed back his Chefs to hells kitchen and said he hoped that the 3 worst Chefs had been eliminated and all the dead weight had gone and Zach said it was time for CHEF GRANT BANKS to return on the next challenge and service and that no one was ready while Kanae was excited after the strong last service as to what the next challenge would be. Chef Ramsay announced that the next challenge would be 2 Chefs from each team cooking 4 different types of fish and Drew said fish was his thing so he was very confident of the next challenge being a victory as long as his team supported him. First up was the battle of the trout with Van, Zach, Kashia and Tara competing and Van’s dish was comfortably the best of the 4 with Van screaming WOOOO and hoping the blue team would be getting out of Hells Kitchen today. Next up was the battle of the Arctic char with Josh overcooking the fish and Santos serving burnt potatoes, it was down to Brad and Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s was judged as the best dish which delighted her to finally prove herself to her team on a challenge. Next up was cod and the red team took the lead when Nikki beat Sabrina, Giovanni and Drew with Drew bemused how he lost the challenge and Nikki said she was delighted as the red team needed to keep the momentum up. Van was fuming at the blue team falling behind and said Antonio and Ed needed to pull this back to avoid the blue team losing again. However, despite Dannie overcooking her mahi mahi, Kanae’s dish was the best dish of the day and the red team won 3:1 to win again! Kanae said this was her best day so far to be the reason the red team won and Antonio said he knew this was not going to be a good day of punishment before service tomorrow.
The blue team were grumpy during prep with Ed noting the the blue team needed to pick themselves up before dinner service and Josh getting into an argument with Zach during prep over prepping a sauce and Van told them to stop arguing like children to get a strong service tonight. Antonio on hot appetisers said it was his time to get the blue team off to an amazing start but he spent way too long cooking in mid air and served an underdone risotto with Ramsay telling him to stop cooking in mid air. Ed tried leading with Brad on the fish station and despite them serving perfect scallops and Antonio’s next risottos being accepted, Josh got behind on salads saying he wasn’t going to get the presentation wrong and Brad told him to get a move on and Ramsay said they shouldn’t be waiting on salads. Josh did get his act together and Brad and Ed supported well to finish off the appetisers strongly for the blue team but Zach serving tableside shrimp served raw shrimp for a table and Ramsay said careless mistakes like this should not be happening. Van wanted to lead the team strongly on the garnish station but after an initial strong start from Giovanni and Drew on the meat station, Giovanni served cold NY Strip which he said was horrible for him as he has cooked a million steaks in his life and this was followed by Brad serving overcooked cod and Ramsay said the service can’t fall apart again. Brad and Ed did get it back together on the fish station and Drew communicated strongly with Van to get the next tickets out but on a late ticket Drew served overcooked lamb and Drew said he couldn’t believe he made such a silly mistake. The final tickets continued to drag as Drew and Giovanni completely lost their timing as Drew claimed his lamb was ready 3 minutes of ahead of Giovanni’s pork but then realised it was still raw and Giovanni told Drew to stop opening the oven as he was nowhere near ready anyway. Van furiously had enough from the garnish station and told Ed to finish his last garnishes as Van brought said the lamb was ready in 2 minutes as the final tickets finally finished with Ramsay saying they may have completed service but it was far too painful.
The red team got off to a strong start with Nikki vocal on cold appetisers, getting out the first flatbreads and salads and Dannie’s 1st risottos flying out as well. Dannie did frustrate Kanae and Kashia on fish by pushing the time back on risottos and Nikki had to get involved to stop Dannie from constantly cooking in midair but Dannie said she wasn’t going to put out bad food and got the rest of her appetisers out. Kashia though served greasy scallops having used too much oil to cook them and Kashia then shouted at Nikki when she told her to give a real time on scallops with Kasha saying too many people talking was very flustrating. Kashia did finally get her scallops accepted and the rest of the appetisers finished well and Sabrina said this was her night to shine on the garnish station. Elizabeth and Tara were on the meat station and Elizabeth said she wanted to lead the station but brought up overcooked chicken on an early ticket with Tara wondering how that happened before Elizabeth had a re-fire accepted. Tara and Elizabeth did perform well on the meat station after this and Kanae now leading the fish station sent up perfect salmon but Sabrina got flustered on the garnish station, getting 2 minutes behind and getting frustrated at being constantly asked for times on garnish. Sabrina continued to get frustrated and ended up serving an overcooked poached egg with Ramsay telling Sabrina to “show the egg some respect!” and finally told someone to help Sabrina as she wasn’t going to ask for it so Dannie came over to help out which annoyed Sabrina even more. After Sabrina sorted her attitude out, Kashia served raw monkfish on a late ticket and ended up just staring at the oven for 2 minutes with the rest of the team just waiting. Ramsay said the service had gotten painful but finally Kashia completed the ticket and service finished but Ramsay said he was not happy with the performance of the red team at all.
Ramsay was furious and said despite both teams completing service it was painful and that both teams had lost, asking for 2 nominees from each team. Zach was quick to jump in and claim he had a good night at tableside but Brad said he can't just lie about serving raw shrimp and he should go up which Zach said was ridiculous as he'd had a great service. Josh said the meat station should go up for being the reason they lost service and Giovanni said appetizers were more of an issue than the meat station and Drew said he was leading the meat station all night which Van said was bullshit and he should up for his sloppy services. The red team seemed to have an easier time deciding who was going up as despite Sabrina claiming that Kashia and Elizabeth should go up, the rest of the team felt Sabrina had to go up as well for constantly being behind on garnish. Sabrina said she was done being nice to people and furiously claimed she had no help tonight and her team let her down. Sabrina and Kashia were both nominated and Kashia said she would have her best day ever tomorrow and Sabrina said there was no way she should go home, pointing out it was her first time up here and Kashia's third. The blue team eventually decided on Drew and Zach as the 2 nominees and after Zach said he would bring fire tomorrow, Drew said this team would fall apart without him which Ramsay disagreed with and eliminated DREW for his failure to live up to his claims as a great Chef and for being the reason the blue team did not win. Ed was happy to see Drew go as he was all no talk and no action while Kashia was livid at Sabrina throwing her under the bus at elimination.
https://strawpoll.com/polls/poy9WPKvJgJ
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yZAEyarJoN7y7eVxefqMECZJaQT4frCccvuZ5TdMGvM/edit#gid=0

I'm (25M) autistic, introverted, and very socially challenged, and have never been in a relationship. The last time I asked a girl out was six years ago, and it went so bad for me, I swore never to do it again. She had a friend who saw the rejection and decided it would be a good idea to take advantage of my socially awkwardness and make fake accounts to tease her about me, and made her think I was a harasser for three years until she figured out the truth on her own. I've since moved on from that situation but still usually don't make the first move because I worked in a business where public reputation mattered and I rather protect my job than have something go horribly wrong like that ever again.
That didn't stop me from developing crushes on girls though even though I never ask them out because I have the social skills of a potato, and I've developed an unhealthy habit of checking out someone I'm interested in's social media profile if I find them, just to make sure they are okay, and also so I can get a better grasp about certain variables if I were to express interest so that doesn't happen again. I try not to do it that often, but sometimes its hard not to wonder about them from time to time. I get the urge to check this girl I'm interested in's profile for the first time in months, and find out that a few days ago she was apparently dumped, and I don't know what I should/can do with that information. I had the urge weeks ago to let her know I was interested in her even if she was taken just as a way to possibly make her day, but I would always chicken out because of various reasons, and even with this knowledge I'm not sure if I should approach her (especially with it being so soon) because I feel like I'd be taking advantage of a situation I shouldn't have previous info about. The problem is when you have a crush on someone, you want to see them happy and make their day better with whatever you can do, and I don't know if I should just talk to her without letting on that I stalked her social media and found out what happened or let it go or what I can do really. This was not where I saw my life at 25 at all. I certainly hoped I'd have more experience with women than I do, and I know stalking someone's social media is a no-no, I just don't know at all the best way to let her know due to my insane lack of social skills... Having social issues is a huge problem...

Hi friends! This is my first time using AirBnb and my expectations were far from met. To give some background, I am interning at a major company this summer post-graduating from college. I found this AirBnb for a fair price and was very affordable, so I booked it 3-4 weeks in advance. I have already paid half of the amount on the AirBnb. Upon arriving, the lock where I put in a code was not there and was only showing a keyhole. It was about 5-6 minutes after the check-in time and I did not hear from my host, so I asked how I should get into the unit. The host responded right away, apologized, and told me to grab the key from the electrical box. When I came into the guest house, I noticed right away a strong, chemical cleaning scent, like a bunch of febreze. The cupboards in the kitchen was filled with food, some even open. I picked up a box of instant mashed potatoes to throw away, and the bottom opened, making it spill all over the floor. I noticed a dead cockroach near the door, but I assumed it might have gotten in when I brought my belongings in.
After moving my things in, I noticed my feet were black from dirt. Thats when I realized the floors were dirty and I had to mop them. I asked where the mop was to the host since the floors were dirty, and he told me they were in the closet and thanked me for letting him know. I have mopped them twice (and bought a new mop rag) and my feet are still coming up black the next day. In the bathroom, there were 2-3 long strands of brown hair on the wall and 3-4 tiny bugs in the shower. I also noticed all of the water comes up slightly cloudy. This makes me extremely worried about the cleanliness of the unit as a whole. I didn't get the best sleep since the bed was rock hard and made my back hurt throughout the night. This morning, I heard cats crying outside. I ignored it for a while, but upon looking outside, I have noticed 4-5 feral cats and 1 kitten, all of which hang out by my door and under my car. At one point while I was leaving, I saw two of the cats "doing the deed" by my car. I also checked the door this morning and have found it to be a really weak door that could easily be kicked down.
Today, I came across 6-7 shotgun bullets in a glass jar. I also found a living cockroach in the kitchen. I told the owner about the cockroach and he offered to come out the next day to spray and set traps. I told him that was ok and asked him about the ammunition. He said he had no idea about the ammunition and told me the cleaning lady found a 9mm under the mattress 3 months ago. I found a receipt in the jar from 1-8-22, which means it has been there for a long time. This makes me concerned for my safety.
This is my first time with AirBnb and it makes me wish I just got a hotel for my internship. I booked my reservation through July 30th, but I already want to leave. I have been extremely polite with the host up to this point, and made it clear to them I want to treat their guest home like my home and keep it clean, but I am very uncomfortable with the situation at hand. Any advice, comments, or feedback would be greatly appreciated and welcomed. Thank you for listening to my rant. :)

What are these little green slightly translucent balls in a Chinese/Uyghur dish called dapanji or "big plate chicken".

1. The picture is them cooked
2. each green "ball" is about the size of a peppercorn
3. They taste citrusy, almost like lemon but not spicy or numbing at all
4. if you zoom in the husk/shell is kind of spotted

Here's the picture
https://imgur.com/HmabPrg
Extra details
I bought this dish from a Uyghur restaurant while visiting New York. This dish blew my mind and felt like discovering a new genre of food. I have to try to reverse engineer it as best I can! It was listed as chicken Laghman but given the other ingredients they used a dapanji/ big plate chicken recipe for the base.
I have looked at a few big plate chicken recipes and couldn't find an obvious match for this ingredient.
In some recipes the base broth cooks for 1hr+ and I wonder if some of the spices change appearance or flavor after that time. Brainstorming here, would either fennel seed, or Sichuan peppercorns taste and appear this way after 1hr+?
Any thoughts on what this could are welcome!!!
​
Example recipe
The recipe that I have seen to include most of the ingredients I could discern is copied and pasted below. Credit to u/mthmchris for the recipe and detailed guide.
https://www.reddit.com/Cooking/comments/7bcvarecipe\_xinjiangstyle\_dapanji\_braised\_chicken\_aka/
"So we wanted to show you how to make Uighur-style of Dapanji, a.k.a. the aptly translated ‘big plate of chicken’.
The Uighurs are a Turkish ethnic group from the Xinjiang province in the far North West of China, and have a fascinatingly awesome cuisine. They've got a solid mix of Central Asian and Northwest Chinese flavors - lamb features heavily, the grill and the tandoor's used, and they have their own version of pilaf (called 'polo' or 'shouzhuafan'). But at the same time, they'll use certain Chinese ingredients and also make use of the wok. This dish is one of the most beloved in the region, and a great place to start with Xinjiang food.
Video is here. We decided to also include in a recipe for those wide kudaimian pulled noodles that’re often served with this… but if you’re not feeling ambitious you could always opt for any sort of thick dried Asian noodles instead.
Ingredients:
One whole chicken cut into pieces -or- chicken wings, ~1.5kg. So really, the ideal sort of chicken for this dish would be an Asian variety of chicken cut into pieces across the bone... and if that's convenient for you, I'd implore you to go that route. If that sort of thing would be difficult for you to get, my sub would be chicken wings. You could cleave them in half, or honestly you could probably leave them in whole as well. I've seen some Western recipe writers call for boneless breast or thigh here, but I really think that's a dramatic reinterpretation of the dish, and you'd also run the risk of dry chicken. Wings aren't too intimidating, and the essence's the same.
Potato, 800g. Cut into large chunks. You don’t want your potatoes to be too small else they’ll end up dissolving into the braise.
Xinjiang xianjiao (线椒), ~3 minced and reconstituted -or- Hungarian Sweet Paprika, 2 tbsp -or- Sichuan Pixian Doubanjiang, 2 tbsp. So Xinjiang xianjiao is what gives the Dapanji its characteristic red color… this mild chili is super red, and dyes basically anything it touches. Now, this chili’s sort of difficult to source even in China, so substitutions might obviously be necessary. To me, this chili is very similar to a paprika chili… so if you can get your hands on some dried paprika chilis (in China, hongjiao), I think that would be the most ideal sub. Similarly, if you got some quality Hungarian sweet paprika that should also be fine. In China outside of Xinjiang the most common sub is some Sichuan Pixian doubanjiang – you can go that route too, but in my opinion I think paprika would be closer to the original. We also got a real interesting lead on what these chilis might be called in English... see the note below.
White sugar, ¼ cup This will be mixed in with a half cup of oil to make a ‘tangse’, or caramel, for the initial step of frying the chicken.
Ginger (姜), ~2 inches Cut into slices, to be fried together with the chicken.
Sichuan peppercorns (花椒), ~1 tbsp. Added when frying the chicken.
Star anise (八角), ~4. Added when frying the chicken.
Cinnamon/Cassia (桂皮), 1 stick. Added when frying the chicken. Note that this, just like what you’d get a supermarket in the West, is actually Cassia bark and not the so-called “true cinnamon” from Ceylon.
Black Cardamom (草果), 2 pod. Added when frying the chicken. Slightly crushed to open.
Dried Chaotianjiao Heaven Facing Chilis (干朝天椒), ~15. A dapanji isn’t set-your-mouth-on-fire spicy, but it should have some kick. Adding in about fifteen whole dried chilis in with your braising liquid does the job nicely (no need to deseed them). If you’re outside China, dried Thai birds eye chilis should work just as well, or you could play around with Mexican chilis (anything unsmoked from the Capsicum Annum cultivar, e.g. Arbols, would likely be fine).
Dried bay leaf (香叶), 1. To be added when braising.
Leek (大葱), ½. Cut up a half a leek into strips, these’ll be added about halfway through the braise.
Garlic, 1 head. Peel a head of garlic, these’ll be added when there’s about 15 minutes left of the braise. Note that I add the garlic a bit earlier than many recipes might (most common is to see it added five minutes until it’s finished), mostly because I fucking love munching on garlic that’s been softened in a braise.
Mild chilis, 1 small red chili (红辣椒) and one small green chili (青辣椒). Cut into wedges. Neither of these chilis are very spicy, so you could also opt for one small green or red bell pepper.
Salt, 1 tbsp. To season. If you’re using doubanjiang in the place of xianjiao chilis, cut this out.
Chicken boullion powder (鸡粉), 1 tbsp. To season.
Process, Dapanji.
If using Xinjiang xianjiao chili, finely mince and reconstitute the chili. You’re aiming to get this into a super-fine mince – if you got a food processor (we don’t), I imagine that’d be a help. Once it’s fine enough for you, add in some water – we added roughly two tablespoons. Leave that aside for about thirty minutes - the chili will end up absorbing the water and forming a sort of paste.
Prep your ingredients. I’d use that time to peel and slice your ginger, peel the potato and cut into large chunks, crush the black cardamom pods, cut the leek and mild chilis into strips/biased wedges, peel the garlic… measuring everything out so that it’s good to go once you’re ready to fry.
Blanch the chicken pieces. Blanch the chicken in boiling water for three minutes or so. Because the braise isn’t going to feature much liquid, we’re not going to be able to skim the scum, blood, and impurities from the braise. The quick blanch’ll clean our chicken right up so it’s good to braise.
Make the tangse (caramel). This is a relatively common step in many Chinese braises. To make the tangse, add in a half cup of oil and a quarter cup of sugar to a wok over medium heat. The sugar will begin to melt into the oil, and after a couple minutes it’ll deepen in color to something resembling a caramel. For this stage, it’s important that you stir constantly, and know that tangse can go from zero to midnight real quick. All in all, it’s better to have an overly blonde tangse than a burnt one.
Fry the chicken pieces in with the tangse, then add in the ginger and the salt/chicken boullion. Fry the chicken with the tangse for 30 seconds or so, then add in the ginger and fry for another 30 seconds. Sprinkle with salt and chicken boullion to season – I know it seems a bit strange to season so early in a braise, but things end up getting a bit unwieldy near the end when the potatoes are nearly dissolved.
Add in the xianjiao chili, then the Sichuan peppercorns, black cardamom, star anise, and cinnamon. Add in the xianjiao chili (or some Hungarian sweet paprika, or some Pixian doubanjiang) and coat the chicken with it. Then, add in those spices and let them fry for about 45 seconds or so until it’s all just starting to smell awesome.
Add in 400 mL of water, and nestle in your potatoes, chaotianjiao heaven facing chilis, and bay leaf. Cover and let simmer on low. 400 mL of water might feel like a bit of a small amount (it won’t cover all of your ingredients), but the idea is that the ingredients are going to steam in addition to braise. Because of that, after you cover it you really don’t want to peek. This’ll end up cooking about an hour in total – we still got three ingredients to add (the leek, the garlic, and the mild fresh chilis), so we’ll mix it when we open it up to add those ingredients.
After 30 minutes, add in the leek. At this point, the braising liquid should still look ‘water-y’ and the potatoes should be mostly intact. Toss the leek into the braising liquid, give everything a mix, and cover.
15 minutes later (45 into the braise), add in the garlic. Now the braise should start to look like it’s coming together. The very edges of the potato should be starting to dissolve – if you eat a potato it’ll be roughly cooked through but not very soft. Now, I should note that I add in the garlic a bit early – when I was researching this dish, the Han Xinjiang guy at my market was insistent that the garlic be added at the very end, five minutes before finishing. I like my garlic soft and cooked through so I can munch on it though, so I add in in here.
15 minutes later (60 minutes into the braise), add in the mild fresh chilis. These will only need five minutes or so to cook.
Serve. Serve this with the kudaimian noodles below. Generally, it's best to serve them after you've already munched on the dapanji a bit so that you can get them all in that braising liquid.
Ingredients, Kudaimian Pulled Noodles:
Bread Flour -or- Dumpling Flour (高筋面粉), 250g. Basically looking for a high gluten content, we used bread flour.
Water, 125g.
Salt, ½ tsp.
Oil. To roll the noodles in before resting.
Process, Kudaimian Pulled Noodles:
Ok, now before we get into this, a quick word of warning: hand pulled noodle making is more of a skill than a recipe. If you’re new to noodle pulling, it might take a few tries to get your noodles right – by far the most common issue is noodles that’re a bit too thick, which I’ll talk about how to save in the notes below.
Disclaimer number two… we’re not the most experienced noodle pullers. Steph’s from Guangzhou (where there’s not exactly much of a tradition of this northern-style hand pulled noodle making), so it isn’t exactly something she grew up with. To give you an idea, about a third of our noodles we had to ‘save’ using the technique in the notes.
In any event, this variety of hand pulled noodles is vastly easier than lamian, so it’s a good place to start. Also, 'Biang biang' noodles are basically the same method, but are divided into smaller pieces and cut in half lengthwise with a chopstick.
Mix together the flour and salt, then slowly incorporate the water into the dough. Rest for 10 minutes. We’ve found doing this by hand is actually a bit easier than using the stand mixer. Add the water bit by bit, kneading and incorporating it into the dough. Once the dough is doesn’t stick to the bowl anymore and has been kneaded into a ball shape, it’s done. Cover with a warm, damp towel and set it aside to let the dough relax.
Cut the dough into eight even pieces, roll them into a sort of fat ‘log’ shape, coat generously with oil, and set aside for 60 minutes. Each one of these pieces is going to make one big noodle – this is like the noodle from KenM’s nightmares. Make sure the logs are coated real well with oil, cover them with plastic wrap, and set it aside for one hour. This second rest is gunna be really critical, if it doesn’t rest for an hour, you’re not really gunna be able to pull them.
Pull the noodles. As always, when I’m trying to explain what to do with dough via the written word, I sound like a convoluted doofus, so take a look at 4:49 in the video for a visual. First thing you’ll do is flatten your log by pressing it down with your palm – the flatter it gets here, the easier it’ll be to pull. Then, grab a hold of the two edges of the log and stretch it out four times. Now this is going to start to begin to look like a noodle. Then, continue to pull and smack the noodle against the table – this smacking motion’ll help the noodle thin out in the center as well. Once the noodle’s roughly as wide as your arm span, you’re finished. Just tear off and toss the little knobs of dough where your hands were pulling from.
Boil the noodle. Boil the noodles until they float. These northwestern style noodles are a bit thicker, so it might take a minute or so.
Note on how to rescue kudaimian that’re too thick:
One of the difficulties with learning hand pulled noodles is that if you screw up, you can’t just roll it back into a ball and start over – it won’t really form because of the oil.
If your noodle’s a bit too thick, use your fingers to lightly spread it horizontally, then pass it through your middle and index fingers with both hands while lightly pressing and pulling to straighten it back out – this motion is at 5:33 in the video. Again, this isn’t really impressive or correct or anything, but it’ll thin out the noodle and everyone’ll be none the wiser (unless you’re, uh… filming yourself).
Note on other Dapanji ingredients:
So a couple things that we didn’t add that you might see in a few dapanji recipes… (1) tomato paste (2) some other spices and (3) beer.
So right, Uighurs actually do use tomato paste in some dishes – the brand of tomato paste I buy here in Shenzhen is actually from Xinjiang. You could use half Xinjiang chili and half tomato paste to get that sort of red color if you like – it might be a bit more visually appealing, as our dapanji had a number of red flakes scattered about. We opted for pure chili as we were basing the recipe off of the dapanji of our favorite Xinjiang restaurant in Shenzhen, which didn’t use tomato paste.
Also, if you poke around, you’ll see that each restaurant’ll sort of has their own spice mix. We went with a basic one that was sort of a copycat of a Uighur-run Xinjiang restaurant we love in Shenzhen (plus Bay Leaf). The most commonly added ingredient that we didn’t use would probably be fennel seed… but sometimes you’ll see some places toss some more exotic stuff in too.
Lastly, many of the recipes around Xiachufang (the Chinese AllRecipes) feature a light beer as the braising liquid. Uighurs are Muslim though, so we just opted for water. Beer wouldn’t hurt though, so if you feel like it you could toss that in as well.
Note on Xianjiao Chili:
Again, please don't hesitate to sub this. I figured it'd be almost impossible for people to find abroad, except...
I was chatting with someone on YouTube and I'm now like 70% sure that this is Kashmiri Chili. They look really, really similar, have the same purpose (red color), similar heat level (~1k scoville), and if you look at a map that pathway seems like it makes a ton of sense. You should be able to find them on Amazon - at the very least, even if they aren't the same, I think it'd be a nice sub."

What is the best way to do frozen, breaded chicken (the big bag of non-precooked Tyson filets from Costco) and peeled-n-cut fries in the same basket with a Ninja Speedi? Google/YT aren't helpful, and Ninja's recipe builder thing doesn't even list potatoes.
[EDIT] Let me reiterate. I'm replacing a Gourmia fryer with the Speedi, because the other one's fan motor gave out. The Gourmia came with a metal rack that you could sit on top of the fryer tray, or set it underneath the tray to raise it's height closer to the heating element, for whatever recipe needed that. I would lay the fries across the tray, and put the chicken filet on the rack on top of the layer of fries, and do it all at once. That worked for me, and I saved the rack from the Gourmia to do the same with the Speedi.
Yes it all fits, but the Speedi doesn't have the same depth as the Gourmia, so it's taking some experimentation with temperature and time, and I wondered if anyone already has this figured out.

I would send you this myself. But I have no idea where you are. You left. I wish I could find you. This year was the shittiest year of my life. We were both doing terrible, but we found comfort in each other. When I went to the hospital I remember thinking about how you would probably find it amusing that I tried to kill myself. Obviously you care but it's because I lived. You are a bitch but you are MY bitch. You were my rock this year. And in all honestly, I didn't realize how much you valued me until I came back and you ran up to me crying and hugging me. In that moment it made me realize how much I cared about you too. We only knew each other for what, 7 or 8 months? But it was a friendship I couldn't even begin to describe. We had a deep understanding of each other that I don't often find with other people. When you left school unexpectedly it only gave me a glimpse into what it was probably like for you when I basically vanished out of thin air after our last conversation had been about me wanting to kill myself. Nobody knows where you are. I have no idea where you are. It's a weird feeling. Are you dead? Did you end up killing yourself? I miss you. I want to know where you are. I have this weird and empty feeling when I think about how you just left. It has really been affecting me lately. It makes me feel scared to think of never speaking to you again, or not knowing what happened to you. We became so close in only less than a year, my friendship with you is indescribable. You leaving one random day out of the blue made me realize how temporary people can become. I just want to know where you are. I look back at old pictures of us in October and November, when we were both doing our worst. I can see it in our eyes when I look back. But we had each other. I think that is what created the strong bond we had. You will always be close to my heart, you were in my life in such a personal time. And I hope I meant a lot to you too. We were the only people able to confide in each other. I will never be able to talk to someone else the way I talked to you. I want to talk to you again. Even though November and October were the worst time in my life, I would go back in a heartbeat. Because it was horrible but also amazing, being around you and talking to you is what I most remember. Girl you little cunt I can't believe you left me. If I see you again or even find you and speak to you online, which is another problem because your parents barely let you do anything online and have probably taken your computer which was the only thing you had left. But if I speak to you again in any way shape or form I am definitely showing you this letter. I can already hear you saying I am cringey but that honestly makes me happy. I even miss you beating the shit out of me at school. God I know you would reply to that with "mommy" or something. You are the stupidest bitch ever but like we are both stupid bitches. Where are you I truly do miss you so much. Also potato head got more annoying if you can even believe that. Plus handsome squidward is still cringey as ever. Girl literally our friendship was so weird. I had a best friend of 4 or 5 years and I don't even think I was as close to her as I got to you in such a short time span. Our friendship was the best. I really really really miss you. I wanna talk to you again. I need to know you are okay. It sucks that I know there is a very real possibility you killed yourself. But I hope maybe you just got sent to that camp teenager troubled kid fucking thing your parents were talking about. Lowkey your random disappearance keeps me up at night sometimes. I wonder what you are doing right now. Also our "friends" talked shit about you after you left. Always knew they were fake but was still surprised. I'm taking finals now. I fucking hate my life girl. I feel like such a loner now cause you were my best friend and I hadn't really bothered with anyone else much this year and now you are gone. I really don't feel like I will be able to ever have a best friend replace you. I know people come and go. But I don't want you to. It just makes it so much worse. Nobody knows where you are. You vanished. I guess I will just have to stalk your mom's facebook and see if I can find any intel. Man I just wanna talk to you again. I wish things were different. We knew each other in likely the worst times in our life, both of our lives were falling apart rapidly, but we were able to find comfort in each other. I was able to talk to you about ANYTHING, and you talked to me about everything girl LMAO. Even the mango rice bed pants incident. I just want to hug you and never let you go. What if I never see you again? I can't even remember what our last conversation was about. When you first went missing I thought maybe you went to the mental hospital like I had, but then when our teacher told the class you unenrolled I was shocked. I miss you so much. I hope we talk again. If we never talk again know that I cherish every minute we had with each other. You were the best, best friend I had ever had, and ever will. I miss you so so so much. I don't even know how to explain the emotion I experience thinking about all of it. You leaving, our friendship, the things we went through, the jokes, the tears, the hopeless moments, the suicide pacts, the notes, the plans on running away together, the random men on emerald, the bus routes you looked up, the moutain directions you looked up so you could jump off it, the drawings we made of potato head. I still have that note you wrote me in the beginning of the year. I have the math test you gave me so that I could cheat, I found it when I was cleaning out my backpack, those are the times I miss. I remember how much we would help each other cheat on tests and homework, we were fucking bad girl, we are honestly probably the reason we didn't fail some of our classes. But we would both do anything for each other, didn't matter how little or how big. These memories are everything to me. We were there for each other when nobody else was, we were going through the shittiest times in our life together. We both shared our deepest darkest secrets with each other. Have you thought about me since you left? Or are you dead? I don't even want to think about you being dead. I am fucking scared girl. I hope I get the chance to send this to you so that we can laugh at it and make fun of how cringey I sounded. Goddamn girl. Fuck everything. You and us against the world forever. I love you so much girl I hope you know that. Literally so much you are the best. Fuck everyone else. Me and you girl. I miss you. I love you bitch please for the love of god don't be dead. Okay ending this note. I miss you so much I love you <3

I tend towards the verbose so TL;DR right here:
I'm set to inherit ~120 rural acres in the US South. It has some good/bad points. It is quite far from where life has led me to put down roots. I don't know what I don't know and I wonder if y'all have faced similar situations in your life.
Geography: NW Alabama but tending towards Birmingham. The footiest of the foothills of the Appalachians. Not flat, not mountains. Property is bordered by a non-seasonal, 20 foot wide, creek on two sides and has a county blacktop road cutting it into basically 60 acres and 40 acre plots. The bordering river is navigable by small boat/personal watercraft but sees only incidental fisherman, no docks or ramps for a while up or downstream. It flows slowly, sometimes backwards when far downstream locks/dams stop flow. Zero flood risk.
Land Ecology: The property is about 70 percent woodland, unmanaged, and 30 percent hay field, casually managed by leasee that cuts it. Some older hardwoods but much of it is scrubby pine. Healthy deer, turkey, possum, rabbit populations.
History: The pasture was once the row crop field of my paternal grandfather and great grandfather, perhaps even further back. A ruined wall is where washing was done in the past. Long disused fish capture/raising ponds recount my great grandfather's side business selling bait for long gone fishing camps. A (now inactive, more on this below) is where my father and his siblings bathed growing up. The 40 acres across the street has been leased for mountain top strip mining 3 times in living memory, about 20 years apart, most recently 10 years ago. Reclaiming efforts that are mandated by law were performed haphazardly and amount to some grading of the land and some pine saplings strewn about. The spring is long dead. The river, once clear to the bottom when my father was young, is a permanent zero visibility clay orange from the mining operations of decades ago.
Economy: The land is a few miles outside of a town that has been dying for decades. They just closed the local school not too many years ago so even that vestige of strength is gone. The mines are slowly folding as well. The feneral population is best described as elderly or addicted. Sad/fading churches, potholes, and kudzu are the icons that I note from afar. The rest of folks, those who could, have left. Drug abuse and crime, petty and otherwise are not at all uncommon.
Fiscal burdens: There are no liens or other intangible issues with the property, I'm an only child and the property is mine by birthright if I want if. Yearly taxes are small due to no improvements on the property, though this may go up if inheriting it triggers an accessor visit. I think my parents are paying $1200 or so a year in taxes, but it could be half of that.
Personal thoughts/questions, aka the meat and potatoes of this post that I'd love to talk about:
I hate to see the family land that, including my kids, albeit briefly, have played on, at least 6 or 7 generations have owned simply be sold. But I am realistic and the complications, the ones I've considered listed below, are tough.
I don't live near there anymore, I'm 12 hours away by car and I've seen friends attempt to manage two homes, or a home and a cabin, and it's a heck of a job. Keeping up two places, even if one is rustic, is a stressor to even think about. Roads/trails need maintenance. This is further complicated by the fact that, due to the economic issues above, any improvements are subject to abuse or theft. Garbage will be dumped, unattended RVs would be noticed and vandalized/stolen/squatted in, cabins would see break-ins and even AC coils or well pumps or electric wires stolen for scrap metal sale.
There's a small interest from a group of my goodest friends in creating a group owned cabin there. That would help with the issue of not having a presence there by spreading responsibility across more people but, honestly, they don't know the local taboos and idiosyncrasies that this would entail dealing with. Plus 'good walls make good neighbors' or something like that and I'm not sure I want to rism complicating a friendship with the worlds smallest commune, offgrid, cabin homestead.
But, I have always wanted to build an off grid retreat of sorts... It's not impossible insofar as my wife's and my careers are doing well enough to keep it on the back burner, nor do we need the money that would come from a sale of the property.
Anyway... Thanks for your thoughts. Until the time comes, at least 10 or 15+ years for my kids to finish school, I continue to dream.

Hi so, I'm Leo [24], and at this point in time, halfway through 2023 to be precise, I'm starting to lose hope in thinking I'll ever be happy in life.
To premise, let's think about life like a game. I was nerfed at birth (foot deformity, asthma), I was put into a server where my skills are either misunderstood, or not very useful for this server (Autism, ADHD), most of my patches have been nerfs (abuse, trauma resulting in multiple different disorders that I will not detail). And while everyone around me seems to be doing better off (they were in the correct servers and have had more balanced patches), bc of my terrible stats (some of which have to be menued into or are just invisible), I'm expected to have the same stats and level as everyone in the server. I've found others with stats similar to mine, but most of my life, I've been unaware of what my stats were.
With that out of that way, let's get into the meat n potatoes of why I'm wallowing in self pity on this subreddit (I'm painfully self aware to the point of questioning my own reality, lol I don't need acid, I've got my fucked up brain and derealization for free).
I came back home from a convention, pooped and all socialed out. That past week going on until even today, I'd been dealing with Uber not refunding me 300+ for services unrendered (the company, not a driver). Next, I got charged 1500 for dents in a rental car that weren't there when I dropped it off. To clarify, this was in Atlanta. My mom said that the dents looked like they came from a tow truck and were small enough for anyone to miss. So there's THAT. Next, my sciatic nerve in my left foot/leg was, and still is, having it's flare ups (feels like an unbearably sharp, pinching pain) as well as my foot deformity (pes planovalgus deformity, aka fallen arch, I have no arch at ALL on my right foot and a little bit on my left foot), plus, I have an old MCL injury that flares up sometimes too (left knee). The PP deformity (hehe) makes pain shoot up to my knee, hip, and lower back. I own a cane bc of all of this. Because of the fact that I'd been working at a labor heavy job for the last 6-7 months (UPS), the pain in my feet and legs was exacerbated causing me to be unable to walk at times. I communicated this to my boss, letting him know that I was unsure of my options. Two days later, with no answer from my boss, I received an email from Workday to do an "Exit Survey" and say that I was terminated. This has all happened in the span of 2½ weeks.
Billy Mays voice But WAIT, there's MORE :'D
Before that all happened, around I think February, I suffered from a concussion at work. I'm still technically healing from it. On the side, I do freelance artwork (I draw furries, get your laughs out now, no one cares), and usually, I'm able to work on art for 8 hours or more at a time. When I was first healing, I could only do maybe 2½ hours drawing (I own an iPad and a monitor tablet), then it bumped up to 4 hours, and I just now am able to tentatively reach 6 hours of work before I have to take like a 1-2 hour break away from my screen. This has slowed my work down immensely and has made it unviable for me to take on more work (burn out is a thing and I want to stay faaarrrrrr away from it).
Now here I am, almost June, unemployed and unable to take on more freelance work until I finish my current queue of clients.
I am at the point of realizing that I'm a lot more disabled than I'd been presenting myself. I'm 24 with a cane, I have chronic pain, and I'm autistic as all hell. Hell, my hip has been bothering me for the last few days. All I've been doing the last few days is working on art and applying for the few jobs in my town that won't exacerbate my disability.
I feel like a failure, looking at where I am, and I just wish that I could breathe. I want a break from constantly struggling, even when I'm trying my hardest. I was a hard worker and one of the best loaders at my Hub, and I tried to tough it out, but everyone has a limit when it comes to pain, and I reached mine.
I just wish it didn't result in losing my source of income and feeling practically useless in my household of 3.
Thanks for listening I guess.

I’ve seen a couple posts floating around Reddit saying that Korean “fans” of EXO are justified for repeatedly going after Jongdae and Chanyeol, especially the latter, and they got me thinking. I haven’t been very involved in EXO since 2021 and only recently got back into them like I was before, but even while I was away so to speak, I was under the impression the rumours and allegations had been laid to rest.
Despite people acting like Chanyeol was convicted for some heinous crimes, did SM not sue a person for spreading misinformation and malicious allegations way back when? And didn’t Chanyeol put out a statement denying it and apologizing for the backlash it created for fans?
I think, especially compared to other artists whose scandals made SM drop them like a hot potato, the evidence against him was questionable at best. He continued to be active even in the military and, again unlike other artists facing similar accusations that were factually proven, SM and brands continue to highlight him as a soloist and part of EXO. I’m not certain of this so correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe they identified the man who was doing all this too? If that’s wrong, it’s certainly possible there was an ex-girlfriend trying to ruin his reputation, but why was her evidence so weak and her claims so exaggerated without any real receipts, like in Lucas’ case for example?
My post is therefore to ask why there seems to be such an overwhelming voice on Reddit that believes nearly without the shadow of a doubt that he’s “guilty” when there’s so very little evidence and the pictures that were posted were unconvincing, some of them clearly edited from his own vlogs?
I understand wanting to hold people accountable and I fully participate in that when the proof provided is actually significant/the agency or idol admits to the wrong-doings, but in Chanyeol’s case, I’m puzzled by this desire to believe suspicious accounts. It can’t be because y’all think SM not rushing into a lawsuit is the steaming gun or whatever the expression is lol

I need help with this thing, and I'm sure it's me not the ship. However, it's the only ship I own which I absolutely cannot play to the strengths of in any battle, despite being constantly reminded in chat and online of how powerful it supposedly is. I own every TIX and TX DD and can make them all work; but not this thing. I just die...fast. My main grievances are:
​

• Trades most of its torps for SAP, which gets anaemic damage at best; especially when compared with my other SAP trading DD, Paulo. I'm lucky if I ever get above 1k on a Superstructure.
• Has incredibly bad concealment for a US DD, especially at this tier. Gets out spotted by many other gunboat DDs and probably all torpbotes within its spread. This makes bullying caps almost impossible unless the enemy team are complete potatoes.
• HE is ok but lacks the punch it needs to make me feel better about losing most of my torps. The DPM only partially offsets the lack of guns.
• Hydro is ok but again, if I want spot-spot memes I'll play something with better hydro or Black. This is definitely not a dev strike ship or even a capper so why would hydro matter?
• Is slow. I get that it's comparable to other USN DDs within this mm spread, but it loses so much and just seems to gain so little.

Am I seriously missing something with this thing? I really hate playing it because it just feels like a TVIII at TX. AGAIN though, I know I probably just need to git gud as no ship in wows is inherently 'bad'....I can even get 200k matches in Zao in the current meta which has become an objectively powercrept ship. I just don't get how to compensate for the above issues it has.

Brace yourselves, this is gonna be a long one.
Table of Contents
1…… The Main Goal
2…… What I’m Seeking
3…… Personality
4…… Interests
5…… Physical Characteristics (with pics)
6…… Expectations of You
7…… Living Situation
8…… Deal Breakers
9…… Closing Remarks
(1)
The Main Goal:
Well if you’re browsing this subreddit then much like me, you were alone this weekend and I’m sure you’d like to change that as much as me. I won’t lie, I am going through a rough part of my life right now. It’s difficult for me to find the energy for anything at the moment and I’m just really seeking affection in general, anything that will give me a push. I don’t want to be that person who brings everyone down but I could really use someone to talk to right now. I’d really like to find someone who’s similar to me so much to the point that we do everything together and talk about everything while not having to pretend to be interested. I want someone with whom we can mutually spew our emotions onto and have those feelings reciprocated. Not an emotional punching bag, but an emotional teddy bear to hug and cuddle until everything feels better as many times as we need. There’s people who I’m sure have told you the same, they’ll be there no matter how many times you need the support, no matter how many times the insecurities and bad thoughts come back but they don’t mean it. I will be the exception, I’m not so ignorant to think some nice words and tales of relating to you will magically forever heal whatever ails you then get mad when you seek the same support again. Mental ailments are rarely temporary and I don’t care about someone because they’re perfect, caring about someone means being there no matter how many times they need you to be. It doesn’t feel like a chore, it doesn’t get old, and it never will.
(2)
(2.a)
What I'm Seeking:
I will upfront let you know if I’m clicking better with someone else or if you’re the one, I’m not here to tread the sea of fish or keep my options open, I’m here for one singular person.
(2.b)
Relationship:
A relationship is difficult for me right now, it’s been nearly half a year since I got out of my last relationship and the reasons for it ending are partially responsible for how I’ve been feeling and why it’s so hard for me to seek the comfort I so desperately crave. I will tell you about it but for the sake of not treating the entirety of the internet as my therapist, it’ll be in private. I really need the comfort of intimacy and the warmth of someone who cares. I'm not going to feel better if I just sulk and don’t move on. This is my attempt to get better, I’ll admit I’m not great right now and I don’t expect you to be either. If we can help each other heal, then I’d be more than happy :) A relationship isn’t just being there for when someone’s at their best. Even if a relationship is hard at the moment, I do want a life partner and I don’t want to be alone. Things aren’t going to get easier without you so I don’t want to hesitate. I view my other as an equal, I don’t like categorizing us into specific roles. We take care of each other and treat each other how we like to be treated, whatever that is, it's as simple as that. I don't care if you're "successful" or not, living simple lives with our days filled with love is the ultimate measure of success to me.
(3)
Personality:
(3.a)
On the Surface:
As you can tell I can be rather… stoic but that’s largely due to my current stressors, I truthfully am goofy and fun loving but I just can’t find it in me right now. I want to return to that but without someone to light up my world it’s been difficult to just have fun and enjoy stuff. I’m definitely more introverted, you won’t catch me at any parties or really outside at all. I definitely prefer being home though the occasional outing is not out of the question and one day I’d like to travel to other countries because I think that kind of perspective is important.
(3.b)
The Core of My Being:
I like being a spectator to it all and if we bear witness to humanity burning or its miraculous recovery, I want to watch it with you. I enjoy watching humanity advance, less so when it devolves but I want to watch it to the end nonetheless. I’m both a realist and someone who lives with my head in the clouds dreaming of scenarios or worlds that don’t exist. I’m saying that I enjoy a good narrative and can suspend my disbelief to enjoy something but you won’t catch me refusing vaccines or ignoring blatant facts for the sake of some pseudo science or witch doctor’s remedy. I’m an atheist but I do not rule out existence after death, not because I’m agnostic but because due to the nature of potentially infinite time at some point after how many googol years with a googol amount of 0s after that, something’s bound to replicate your consciousness perfectly at some point. It’s actually a really fascinating topic I like talking about. If infinite time and infinite possibilities exist, does non existence exist? Though that’s an awfully existentially dreadful thought process considering the ramifications of infinite existence and infinite possibilities during said infinite existence. I would say I’m confidently left leaning and I don’t think I could truly get along with anyone right leaning, at least America’s definition of right leaning. Left and right seems to have just become; do people deserve to suffer or do they deserve to live good lives? Being political is not something I expected to become but how can you not be when crimes against human rights are being passed on a daily basis and at the end of the day, everything’s political. Oftentimes I imagine the perfect moment as relaxing with my significant other playing games or cuddling in a cold room under blankets.
I value that special someone above all of the existential thoughts, the bad of the world, the good of the world, they practically become my world. So many worries wash away when I’m with them. I don’t know if that’s the defense mechanism my brain created to not feel bad 24/7 but if it is, I’m currently without it.
(3.c)
Insecurities:
I talk of philosophy and politics here but really I spend most of my time just playing games, watching stuff, and trying to not be sleep deprived. I’m also nowhere near as well spoken, heck sometimes I feel like my speech is broken. I won’t claim to be something I’m not, I sit at home while I complain about the world doing nothing about it wishing I had someone here with me. I’m not noble nor do I really want to be, I have morals I uphold but much like most other hypocrites I acknowledge that my comfortable life is built on the suffering of others without doing anything about it. Why? My sleep problems? Am I depressed? Is that why I have no energy to do anything? Do I just think nothing I could do could help? I can’t nail it down myself, maybe it’s a mix of everything, maybe I’m just a bad person. I have always told myself that if I had wealth I would help people but if I get that kind of wealth will I just become a wealth hoarder who tries to justify my riches as something I earned rather than something given to me through incredibly lucky circumstances? If I do help people is it because I’m a good person or out of guilt? Will I die alone? I feel like I drive everyone away with my clinginess, I get paranoid often and need reassurance often. It’s something I want to work on, something I’ve been trying to work on. Hearing that someone cares about me just never gets old. I value self awareness even if it’s painful.
(3.d)
Socializing:
I’m definitely a socially anxious/awkward mess, especially around strangers. I do feel a large amount of anxiety in public, people can’t tell by looking at my face since I kind of go stone faced in an attempt to block everything out but yeah you’ll notice that if we go out in public. Growing up my pediatrician said I was probably autistic, never got a formal diagnosis so that’s just great. But yeah that explains why I can’t make eye contact with people, I kinda just stare at the ground and avoid their gaze at all costs. A lot of these social struggles go away to a great degree once I know you for a bit but yeah I apologize for how terrible I am at socializing at first. Don’t let my social struggles fool you though, I love cuddling and being close with my person.
(3.e)
Sexuality:
I am a heterosexual male, though I’m not very masculine like at all. I may even be a bit feminine sometimes. Not that I believe any activity or manner of acting belongs to a gender but I don’t know how else to describe it. I’m definitely super affectionate and love it when my partner is too. I am open to dating demi people but I do have a libido so I don't think asexual would work out.
(4)
Interests:
(4.a)
Video Games:
As stated before, I do spend a lot of my time playing video games. It’s been hard lately with me having no energy but I really do want to play more games and have a good time playing them with you! I primarily play on PC though I do have a switch. I’m primarily into platform fighters, roguelikes, open world, survival, and sandbox games. As for single player story games, I enjoy watching them through twitch or youtube but for the most part I don’t play them myself. I’d watch you play them though!
Here’s a list of games we can play:
-Minecraft (Java)
-Risk of Rain 2
-Gunfire Reborn
-Roboquest
-7 Days to Die
-Phasmophobia
-Rust
-Unturned
-Bloons TD 6
-Platform fighters: Super Smash Bros. Melee, Slap City, Multiversus, Flash Party, Fraymakers
Whatever you want to play I’ll give it a shot! I will say that League bores me to death but I’ll play it for you :) I try to avoid MMOs, not because I don’t like them but because of how addicted I can get to them. I enjoy learning games in-depth so MMOs can be a fast track to addiction.
I recently got Kerbal Space Program 2 and ehhh not really worth it right now but hopefully later it will be? I’m super excited for Tears of the Kingdom! In the far off future I’m excited for Rivals of Aether 2 which is a platform fighter releasing in 2024, let me know of your most anticipated releases and I’ll see if I could play them with you!
Also I never got into FPS games but I could totally see myself playing like CoD with you or Escape From Tarkov. Any FPS really, I’m down.
I am a fan of Pokemon but with how things have been lately I don’t know how long that will last. Pixelmon is a common Pokemon mod I play for Minecraft if you want to play that! Also if I say I want to play something with you I mean it but there are often times when no matter how much I want to I'm just drained and can do little more than lay in bed so please don't think I'm making an excuse.
(4.b)
Science:
I really enjoy keeping up with the latest advances in pretty much everything, it could be biology, technology, astronomy, anything! I love seeing progression and I love talking about it! Really I could go on and on about what I’m obsessing about that day. I particularly love technology, ask me for my laptop specs I dare you. When I was little I always wanted to be a scientist of any kind but then insomnia and fear of college stuff hit me like a truck aaaand that’s the end of that dream.
(4.c)
Anime:
You got me, I like anime but I’d like to think my tastes are benign.
Here’s some of my favorites I can list from the top of my head:
- To Your Eternity
- Vinland Saga
- Spice and Wolf
- Re:Zero
- Mob Psycho
- Dr. Stone
- Attack on Titan
- Spy x Family
- My Hero Academia
- Ranking of Kings
- Demon Slayer
Okay I can go on and on but I will say I don’t like pointless fan service and the spamming of cliche anime moments. I mostly enjoy action and anything well animated if it doesn’t have a potato story. Heck Demon Slayer could be my top 3 out of season 2’s animation alone. I don’t watch slice of life often or romance but I would with you!
(4.d)
Misc:
I’m not going to go on and on about the tiniest little things when the main ones are covered but I’ll watch pretty much any show with you and anything really. I like random youtube videos that explain some kind of lore or mystery, sometimes mini documentaries too.
As for food I looove sushi and I’m a sucker for fast food. Okay and candy, definitely candy.
I used to play tennis but haven’t really had the opportunity nor friends to play it with and I’m way too socially anxious to seek it out. Also I will say that when we move to something like discord I type waaaay more casually. I’m not going to expect long paragraphs back and forth like we’re writing English papers for each other, I do enjoy long conversations but seriously don’t worry about having to put the utmost effort into every response, I just like making good first impressions I guess.
(5)
(5.a)
My Physical Characteristics:
I’m 5’8 (172cm), 128 pounds (58kg), with curly brown hair and blue eyes. I like keeping my hair long in the winter and cutting it in the summer. I’m pretty slim in general so if you’re looking for someone large, that’s not me. I don’t work out but my work is pretty physical so at least I’m not totally inactive. I don’t have the urge to work out or gain muscle but I do want to maintain my slim figure so if I start losing control of that I’ll work out. I like to keep my face shaved because I don’t think I look good with a beard/mustache so if you’re into those I apologize. I have an average amount of body hair? I’d prefer to be completely shaved but it’s easy to lose motivation with that battle, if you prefer shaved then I’d have no problem complying. Anyways here’s what I look like: https://imgur.com/a/MZZgf2t
(5.b)
My Physical Preferences:
Having physical preferences makes me feel shallow, if I could make myself not have them I would but unfortunately that’s now how that works. I don’t care if you’re shorter or taller than me and I don’t care if you weigh more or less than me. All I ask is that you’re slim-average weight. I would never ask for someone to be something I’m not. I don’t care about tattoos or piercings.**(6)Expectations of You (Relationship Only):**I am not looking for someone “exciting” or someone to “keep me on my toes” I’m not looking for someone to cater to my every whim or anything like that. I don’t care if you’re “boring” or if you aren’t “successful”. I know it’s a common thing for people to not want a “boring” relationship and to seek something argumentative or something with constant challenges but I just want to be with you. During the exciting times, the boring times, and everything in-between, all of it will be great with you! Maybe we do argue sometimes or maybe there will be challenges but that will never be something I purposefully seek out and I don’t want that to be something you seek out either. I will not play tricks on you and I will not play mind games, I expect the same from you. We all have personal measures of success we may or may not have lived up to but what I care about most is our commitment to each other. If we have each other we can get through tough times, near the ends of our lives I want us to look back and feel that this life together was worth more than anything. That’s not saying I want us to be haphazard, I don’t want us to make poor decisions for the sake of yolo and I want us to always be rational, especially with each other. I want you to be someone I can trust to make decisions and weigh the options with a level head, I’ll try my best to live up to the same for you. Most of all I want empathy, understanding, someone to feel the utmost comfort and trust in.
(7)
Living Situation:
Currently my life is pretty relaxed, I work 3 times a week as a night shift stocker. I currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment with my roommate but we’re looking to move into someplace larger by the end of the year if everything works out. The internet is weirdly great for Ohio too like I have fiber and later this year we’re supposed to be getting dedicated fiber so that’s neat. I’m not attached to Ohio so the ultimate goal living location wise is probably moving to a country that won’t send you into a lifetime of dealing with the repercussions from one medical emergency.
(8)
Deal Breakers:
Might as well make this simple and make it a list.
- Anti-vaxxers
- Unironically believing astrology
- Right wingers
- Hard drugs (occasional 420 and alcohol is fine, may even join you)
- Wanting children, there was a time when I was younger when I wanted children but with the state of the word that’s a definite no and I feel like I wouldn’t be able to handle the stress. I’d love a stress free life with as much time with you as possible.
- Homophobic
- Transphobic
- Racist
- Super Religious
- Don’t be a bigot and don’t deny facts.
(9)
Closing Remarks:
Well you made it, I was thinking that finding someone I’d be willing to put a lifetime of effort into at least required this much effort. If I think of anything more I’ll update the post. Also about timezones, it really doesn’t matter where in the world you are. I don’t have a sleep schedule and I have most of the week off from work so it really doesn’t matter.
I request that in your response you do put effort into it, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near as long as this but at least enough so I know that you read this and enough about you so I know why you saw potential compatibility. I will seriously read all of it and respond the best I can. I do also request a pic included in your response (sfw please) or one soon after we start talking to prove identity, I’ll send identity proving pics too. As long as this post is up, you can send a reply!