halfeatenpotato

In the past, i have because my mom would routinely snoop to see if I was still talking to the boy she forbade me to date (I was, and i got more clever about hiding it). The only way she let me keep a phone was if I didn't put a pass code on it.

Fast forward to a couple of years after moving out of her house and in an emotionally abusive relationship. That dude ended up putting spyware on my phone (without my knowledge) because.. well, idk, control i guess? I was messaging a close guy friend of mine, and my boyfriend fucking blew up at me, which is when I realized he had been spying on me. I wasn't flirting with my guy friend or anything (we really didn't have a relationship like that at all). he was just messaging me late at night because his step dad was abusive to him and I was helping him through that tough time. My boyfriend did not allow me to message another male after 9p.

Those had me paranoid, but can't say I'm paranoid anymore. I'm married to a guy I trust, and he has my phone password info and I have his. I don't snoop in his phone and I trust that he isn't snooping in mine. Not like I have anything juicy in here, anyway.

But yeah, if you're feeling paranoid without someone having previously violated your trust, it could be because you are doing things on your phone that you consider to be very private/embarrassing/nefarious? If so, that kinda makes sense I think. If that's not the case, then respectfully, it might be good to see a mental health professional.. life becomes a lot less stressful without worrying about shit like that.

I've avoided this thread for a bit because I assumed there'd be a bunch of dick jokes. I was pleasantly surprised with a bunch of thoughtful and awesome comments. Fucking love the nerdiness of this community.

To answer the question - there's a number of them, but i think the first one for me was Fable: The Lost Chapters. It added a ton of new content on top of the base game, plus there were a good amount of extra side quests, challenges, puzzles, collectibles, etc, that I got so much beautiful and memorable gameplay from it.

It does feel like games nowadays are made to appeal to the masses and/or pump out a lot of games as quickly as possible in order to generate as much money as possible. Fortunately indie game studios and devs still exist for people that are looking for a little more substance. Shout out to the Indie Stone for Project Zomboid and their continued efforts to add more awesome features to their game!!

I see you've never had the misfortune of being entangled with a narcissist.

I'm actually going to Guyana in January to see a couple of friends get married. Going to be there for a week. I've been there before - lovely, amazing people, but not a lot to do. I think I'm gonna check this out while I'm there.

The second one is at least an "easy" fix. I had Lasik a couple of years ago, and don't get me wrong - it was weird and uncomfortable. But literally took less than 5 min, and they gave me an anti-anxiety pill beforehand.

Sorry, I misunderstood your previous comment. Thanks for the clarification. I agree that these charitable donations from billionaires are basically just positive PR stunts because there's essentially no tangible cost to them.

Everyone hates billionaires for hoarding their money, but then it's also a problem when they're giving it away to charity.

Billionaires suck and shouldn't exist, but they do. I know this is going to get downvoted to hell because it seems a majority of the users here can't stand anything remotely positive being said about billionaires. But guys - it's an isolated good thing when billionaires give away large sums of their money to charitable causes. Doesn't mean that they shouldnt pay more in taxes, or that they're wonderful people, or that they accumulated their wealth in moral ways. All of these things can be true at the same time.

You're completely neglecting the fact that he still has Microsoft stock.. plus, he's certainly holding stock in other companies. It's disingenuous to say that his increase in net worth between 2008 and 2024 is solely due to the money he's donated.

For what it's worth, I'm not pro Bill Gates or billionaires - I just feel like it's important to speak factually when trying to address an issue.

The comment left by johannes is spot on. I can relate to a lot of how you describe your mom, but I very much share their mentality on the matter. At some point, you have to own that you are who you are because of your choices. Just because someone/something may have influenced or caused your flaws doesn't mean you have to lay down and take it forever. If you do, that's your choice and the blame shifts to you, whether you want to accept it or not.

It's hard, but you've gotta realize that you have 2 "good" options. Either cut her out of your life and figure out how to be self-sufficient, or keep her in your life, but set boundaries. You cannot expect her to just change on her own, because thats not going to happen. It's really difficult to set boundaries, but it worked for me and my mom. Granted, I needed to not be living with her or dependent on her to be strong enough to do it. If she is housing you, feeding you, cleaning for you, etc., she has a lot of power over you, and will continue to use that as leverage to get her way. And when she doesn't have that power over you anymore, she'll likely focus hard on the emotional power she has over you. You need to focus on getting out of her house so you can stand a chance at successfully setting boundaries.

Also helped a lot that my brothers helped pave the way. Maybe talk to your brother about starting the practice of setting his own boundaries since he's more independent. Lean on each other. I would've struggled so much more without my brothers, and they are the only ones that truly knew what I was going through since they grew up with the same mom.

Good luck. It's going to be a really difficult road, but don't give up. Once you make it through, I promise life will be so much better, and you'll be a stronger person for it.

Not what I said, or what I meant.. Just typed out the first thing that comes to my head when I see large crowds nowadays. Apparently, I'm the only one lol

I can smell the covid from here

I agree, but i can't help but wonder if the internet changes this.