Edit: Actual TL;DR - There is none. It's a complicated issue and I'm hoping you will take the time to read the post if you want to engage in the discussion. That's why the post is tagged 'discussion'.
I made a lengthy comment after reading this post yesterday. What a crazy helmet! But it was the top comment chain in that thread that caught my attention, particularly this comment:

Annoyance leads to a group that is willing to put up with it getting all the rewards but hating the game because it's annoying and a second group that doesn't put up with it but hates that they're missing out on the stuff the first group is getting. Everyone loses.

My thoughts on this subject probably merit its own discussion thread, so here it is.
This reminds me of Grod's Law:

Grod's Law: You cannot and should not balance bad mechanics by making them annoying to use

Years ago on the Giant in the Playground forums (a community for the D&D 3.5 edition tabletop roleplaying game), an argument broke out when a user recommended balancing the absurd power of magic using classes by making them meticulously track their material components for each spell.
For those unaware, material costs for spells that didn't have an explicit monetary cost listed were generally just flavorful; holdovers from Gary Gygax's day at the helm, basically little Easter eggs in the game. Like Detect Thoughts required you to use 2 copper pieces to cast, e.g. 'penny for your thoughts?', and Fireball required you to use bat guano (known to be high in sulfur content) and saltpeter (chemically combined they create an exothermic reaction IRL).
Anyway, your wizard or whatever was expected to buy a spell component pouch for a few gold and that pouch was assumed to have all the basic material components they'd need for most spells in limitless quantity. Spells in D&D can be incredibly powerful and versatile in their use, and the most powerful builds in the game all involve casting magic. Well, this user suggested balancing those spells by making wizards have to spend time gathering their individual material components. Want to cast Fireball? Spend a few days scraping bat shit off the cave floor, etc.
The problem with this rationale is that it doesn't really solve any problems. Wizards are still just as powerful, but now the player has to go out of their way, detracting from the campaign and story, so they can scrape their spell juice off the dungeon floor. Grod argued the following:

The disruptive munchkin ignores it, argues it, or forces the rest of the group to suffer through it. His power remains the same, and he gets more annoying to play with.
The inappropriate powergamer figures out how to circumvent the restriction. His power remains the same.
The reasonable player either figures out how to circumvent the restriction (rendering it moot), avoids the class (turning it into a ban) or suffers through it. His power remains the same and/or his enjoyment goes down.
The new player avoids the class or suffers through it. His enjoyment goes down.

Tie this back into PoE already!

Yes, sorry. Thanks for putting up with my rambling.
I kinda feel like harvest is like this - A terrible implementation of a mechanic that GGG (i.e. Chris Wilson) hates (i.e. thinks is 'bad' for the game). It highlights a massive problem with itemization and crafting in this game.
Way too much character power is tied up in gear as compared to skills and passives. And Harvest crafts are so powerful because other crafting tools in PoE are are way too random, but the power creep in items over the years has made it way too appealing (various influence mods for example). Crafting most items is a gamble, plain and simple. Gambling is just not appealing to many people, and it can get expensive very fast. It's layers upon layers of RNG for even the chance of getting a decent item, some of which can be build-enabling, and there are very few deterministic methods of getting what you want. It's far easier to just buy a powerful item like that from someone else. Of course, that can't be done for SSF players, but even in trade league it can be problematic when GGG balances the game around meta-builds (supply and demand means you might not get to enjoy playing your build because upgrades are too expensive).
GGG wants the game to be like this. They want you to engage in the skinner box of gambling RNG they've designed. Harvest just doesn't jive with how they want you to build your character, but it's immensely popular for anyone who hates gambling and wants to build their character in a predictable and targeted way. Their solution was to leave it in the game but make it as cumbersome and obnoxious to engage with as possible, so it becomes a massive opportunity cost to do so.
You find a grove in a map. Cue 20 to 30 minutes of reviewing your stash and gear for possible upgrades and reviewing craft options for valuable ones that might be sold on TFT, etc. It completely disrupts the flow of the game and you can barely save enough valuable crafts for one or two side builds. When you finally do get one of the few good craft options, you might not even have something to use it on! Ultimately it's far more time-efficient to sell your good crafts (using 3rd party mechanisms, of course) and just keep playing the game.

How does this affect me, SaneExile?

The system affects the game exactly how Grod proposes:

The inappropriate powergamer figures out how to circumvent the restriction. His power remains the same.

PoE isn't a collaborative tabletop game like D&D, so "inappropriate powergamer" is, well, an inappropriate name for this group. Optimizing gameplay in PoE is perfectly reasonable and encouraged. But people who trade crafts in large volume on TFT or are in massive guilds throwing around thousands of exalts are not your average optimizer, and are not affected by this cumbersome barrier to entry. They find the optimal solution and just incorporate it into their gameplay and profit off it massively.

The reasonable player either figures out how to circumvent the restriction (rendering it moot), avoids the class (turning it into a ban) or suffers through it. His power remains the same and/or his enjoyment goes down.

Reasonable player -> average PoE player. The distinction between these two groups can get fuzzy, but it's hard to argue that someone playing 40 hours per week and someone playing 10 hours per week can achieve the same levels of effectiveness. Practice makes perfect, and practice takes time. Those in large communities are, likewise, not really playing the same game as the solo players (e.g. aura-bots, trade groups, etc.). For some, efficiency is measured in chaos per hour. For a few, it can be exalts per hour. This group is very much the former.

The new player avoids the class or suffers through it. His enjoyment goes down.

Class -> game mechanic. In this case, I'm sure a lot of people just pretend the Sacred Grove doesn't exist. Harvest is a thing that other people do. And if they do choose to engage with it, its cumbersomeness and complexity means their overall enjoyment of PoE is diminished. I couldn't even begin to explain the system to someone new to the game, at least in a reasonable manner that doesn't sound like a college economics lecture.

Conclusions

So, average people either suffer through harvest's implementation because it's so damn useful, or they avoid it and suffer FOMO or other gambling-induced psychological issues because the power-players in the community are cranking out incredibly OP gear on the trading market. Lose-Lose. This isn't unique to harvest, it's just the most obvious with this crafting system in the game. Crafting in general is fucked up, when you really consider how it's designed to prey on gambling addiction.
This might not be a problem in the short term (obviously you don't need the helmet posted above to make specters work), but in the long term it throws off the balance of the game through power creep. The Raise Specters gem was meganerfed this league, but it's definitely still playable, and with items like this, it's not even that much weaker than before. Essentially, the power of the skill was offloaded from the gem to PoE's itemization system, and the barrier to OPness is that much higher. The rich get richer and the average market has one less meta build.
GGG really fucked up Harvest, but it's only because Harvest highlighted just how fucked up crafting in this game is. Super powerful crafts have always been something only the PoE rich engage with regularly and with any significant profit. Harvest, for its league at least, let more casual players engage with that system. And the power creep ended up being so massive that they hamstrung it every chance they got.
Ultimately, GGG's implementation ends up hurting the whole game because of Grod's Law - the benefits of it are minimized while the annoyance is maximized. It's possible we can benefit from some stopgap solutions, like more horticrafting station space, tradeable crafts (like beasts), etc., but many of these come with their own host of issues. They're just bandaids on the crafting mechanic as a whole, which is a product of the itemization design.
TL;DR, thanks for coming to my TEDTalk. General disclaimer that this is my personal opinion of the state of the game, one that I've put way too much time into. It's still fun in a lot of ways, but the more I play the more I see problematic design features creeping their way into the game.
Edit: Well this took off. I've been trying to address arguments from you all as best I can, but there's one I noticed in particular keeps coming up and I think my main post didn't clarify my stance as well as it could've:
I'm not against the idea of RNG. Randomness in itself is not a problem for this genre or most games in general. I am however very much against the argument that, 'well the entire game is randomness so more randomness is fine.' I've tried to address that in this comment, which I'll link instead of reiterating.

Something remarkable happened when I had no phone for 2 weeks and was forced to stop using dating apps and social media...

I wrote a long reply on why gambling, and loot boxes in particular, are bad...

So, inside some other post, I was asked why gambling is bad... My reply ended up being really detailed, so I'll promote it to a post of its own (just copy-pasting it here; no new words)... [Note: list of 3 points about loot boxes at the end...]
(I work at a company that sells gambling services... I see how the sausage is made...)
By the way, I love PoE and GGG. Still, loot boxes are bad.
I personally get to see the statistics side of oddsmaking. It's always about suckering you out of your money, because by definition all you are doing is paying more money as the price of getting less money (on average), but you also need to feel like you have a chance at getting the upper hand, even though in the long run you don't.
For example, sometimes, if you're really "good" at betting, you just end up working for the oddsmaker on a bad deal. It's really hard for them sometimes to get the odds perfectly right (although the profit margin still takes care of 99.9% of punters). So, if you're a professional gambler making a regular profit, what's basically happening is that you are investing an enormous amount of time and expertise to try and make tiny profits at the margins, and the bookmaker monitors your activity and learns about the market from you, at what ends up being a lower cost than if they hired experts to give them the same info on a salary. Plus you constantly run high risks! Which is why my company is full of ex-gamblers who were able to make a profit for a while, and intelligent enough to realise that they were still getting a bad deal, and come to the company and offer their services directly. (For another way gambling companies guarantee their own profits by passing on the risk to gamblers, research "balancing the books": yes, a professional gambler could make some profits this way, but if you're possibly making profits by taking on a risk that a large gambling corporation wants to get rid of, do you really think you're getting a good deal, especially considering how much time and expertise you sink into the activity? EDIT: more info)
The only way I know of to make a consistent and considerable profit off gambling is when a pro gambler is allowed to make a profit off other gamblers, in a move that a company makes to increase total amounts played. So, for one person to profit, many others are being seriously scammed, and the company is safely skimming its percentages off the top.
There are many different ways a gambling company presents bad deals to you, hoping that your intuition misfires about one of them and you decide to throw away your money. Examples... There are single bets, of course. But then there are also combinations, and these screw with your intuition--you can convince yourself based on a narrative (e.g. team 1 wins first half, team 2 comes back in second half), where in fact the actual hard cold odds are against you. There is "cash out" where you take a fraction of a likely-seeming win early (but at a loss), which of course simply taxes you for your risk aversion. There are "systems", creating more and more complex bets, until you convince yourself you've set up the perfect deal, and yet the company's profit margin keeps growing the more complex you make it.
Anyway, those are the parts I work on as a software guy. (By the way, this isn't the worst thing in the world, it's not as bad, as, say, the military industry or the military itself, or say religions or banks, because at some level gambling is voluntary. And making gambling illegal is a terrible idea-we should fight it through education, not prohibition. Still, I only work there because I'm currently a completely non-creative software grunt (and currently satisfied with that). If I get to the point of pursuing higher-level jobs, I'll look elsewhere.)
But the most nefarious part of all is the psychological work they pull on you. That's not my area of expertise, so if you want it explained you need to look elsewhere (recommended book: Thinking Fast and Slow--it's not about gambling, it's about psychology). They are constantly doing things to 1) give you false hope and 2) artificially trigger some pleasure response in you.
E.g. most people are naturally risk averse and loss averse, e.g. losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure. In reality, a gamble is about paying, say, $10 to win an average of, say, $9, so that's a terrible and painful deal. In addition to all the advertising and bright colours and encouraging sounds and making you read success stories and all the other psychological manipulations, they can also straight up befuddle you with numbers. So, losing $10 brings more pain than winning $10 brings pleasure, but what if you pay $10 but you're not really at a risk of losing that much, because on average you win $9 back, so you're only really risking a single $, and yet if you get lucky you won't win a mere $10 but millions? Suddenly that sounds good, right? Risk $1 to win $10000000? Of course not: you're still risking $10 and taking $1 losses on average each time you play, and the high rewards are vanishingly rare and built into that average.
That's it about gambling for money. On loot boxes I'm no expert, but, beyond the basic problems (encouraging addiction, exploiting minors who beg money from parents and don't understand how they're throwing it away, generating gambling "pleasure" while giving you "bits" instead of any real value, etc), I can point out a couple of extra scummy aspects:

They can say "the box costs 30 points but all the possible rewards are worth at least 50, the average reward is worth 70 and the best is worth 400"... really??? Those prices are completely arbitrary... Who says the footprints are "worth" 50 or some random hideout decoration is "worth" 200? Talking about average microtransaction point values in a loot box is completely misleading.
Either you (a) lose on the statistics of getting complete sets or you lose on (b) being psychologically manipulated into buying extra stuff you didn't actually want so much (or (c) you just lose by getting useless stuff). Let's say you decide to pick up a couple of boxes and see what you get before buying more stuff. You might just get useless stuff, of course (case c). But what if you get the body armour or wings? Now you might say "I'll get more boxes to complete the set". But the chances of getting any one part of a set are not anywhere near as bad as your chances of completing a set (like map lab trials, but much worse because loot boxes contain many more items), so you are getting totally fleeced (case a). Alternatively you could go "oh look, I got x in the box, I'll buy matching items y and z from the shop later" so you think you got x cheap and y and z at normal prices. But you are being manipulated into buying y and z. Would you really have bought x and y and z from the shop if there had been no loot box? Only rarely. The rest of the time you are overspending (case b).
Loot box gifts are another scummy behaviour, considering people don't have good intuitions about statistics. Most of us get bad results from the gifted boxes, but some will get lucky. Those of us who are already gambling on loot boxes won't be affected by the outcome of a few extra boxes. Those who wouldn't ever buy them normally, and get bad results, who cares. But those who wouldn't normally buy them but get lucky a few times in a row might decide it's a good deal after all. So, it's manipulating us psychologically in a way that is statistically designed to fail at no cost most times and succeed sometimes, which makes money. (While also giving everybody holiday presents or race prizes, making the company appear generous.)

A Practical Guide to 💎🙌

TLDR; taking on huge risk and betting everything makes you more prone to paper handing your position at the slightest red. Be smart about your position and your profits. 🦍🦍 💪💪, GME 🚀 🚀 🚀
Alright retards, put on your helmet and take that crayon out of your nose because it's time to get serious.
Diamond handing is important. It's been the most important part of our strategy, no doubt. The concept's easy, but this volatility is enough to age us all 40 years. Not everyone, especially the newer people, are capable of stomaching these drops, so I'd like to offer a more practical (more realistic maybe) guide to diamond handing. At the very least, this guide will help you be more confident in your positions and greatly decreasing your odds of being a little bitch that sells at the first sign of red.

If you're just joining us now and bought any of the hyped stocks at current prices or higher:

Educate yourself. You bought a stock, which is ownership of a company. Understand the fundamentals behind what your company. DD is not something WSB is lacking in. You have a searchbar. You have eyes. (I mean, unless you don't. That's cool too. Have someone read you DD out loud like a bedtime story. :) ) I really like this DD on Gamestop if you want to learn some more about Gamestop. I don't know (and don't care) about any of the other stocks, so you're on your own. Educate yourself on the company you own a portion of and you'll be less prone to paper hand.
Don't sell at a loss. It's just retarded. Fear is one of the worst human emotions and you'll never make money in the market if you're scared of a little red. So if you can't stand that you're down 10% on a stock that swings 50% a day, why did you buy it in the first place? Similarly, if you're down 50% on a stock, it makes no sense to sell it when it pretty much can only go up from there. This isn't to say that stop loss isn't important but I feel like I'll do more harm by trying to explain to you retards on when to use it. So for now, while the hype is still there, just hold.
Only invest what you can afford to lose. Don't overleverage. Don't use margin. Seriously, if you're struggling to put food on the table and your last $10 are in AMC like a retard, this game really isn't for you. The reason is that you're so scared for your money that you will make the worst possible decisions at the worst time and lose that money. Don't underestimate fear and desperation. This isn't just a get rich quick scheme.
When you're up bigly, congratulations! You win. Follow the advice for OGs.

If you're an OG and bought Gamestop when it was double digits:

Congratulations you big chad! :)
Consider taking a little bit of profit. If you bought Gamestop at like $12, you are up bigly, no doubt, but it can be extremely nerve wrecking to watch your portfolio erase three years of your Wendy's salary in an hour and so you can be prone to paper handing. It will really be much easier if you sell a tiny portion of your shares to at least cover the initial deposit. That way, if Gamestop goes down to $0 (when hell freezes over, but you never know), you at least break even. It'll be easier to sleep at night. I mean, even Deepfuckingvalue does it. Be smart about it.

Anyway, it's hard to diamond hand consistently if you have trouble sleeping at night due to how overleveraged you are. It's like a diet fad. The chad that limits himself by 100 calories but sticks to it consistently will do better than the retard trying to fast 72 hours when he's never gone 30 minutes without a sugar donut.
Be realistic and take care of yourself. It's far easier to stay consistent by doing that.
If anybody has any questions on Gamestop, stocks, or options, feel free to ask in the comments. My DMs are open too if you're shy 😳 👉👈.

Positions: A fuckton of GME, bought both at $14 and at $300. I buy every dip and hold, I've sold my entire portfolio to feed my GME gambling addiction but I've also sold 8% of my shares to cover my initial investment so it truly doesn't matter anymore if it goes tits up.
Not investment advice. I have one braincell.

Update 8: 5 days since i served my STBXW (30F) of 7 years, now everyone is piling on me to talk to her.

Previous post https://www.reddit.com/cheating_stories/comments/k0okky/update_7_5_days_since_i_served_my_stbxw_30f_of_7/

Its been an interesting week. This is a long one, but i have gotten so much help from here i feel obligated to share the current status and what i have learned so far.

I have moved back to my house with the kids. Sue also moved back inn a few days ago. Mom and Dad is with us during the day and helps out a lot.
Kids are doing well considering everything but they are naturally shaken up.
Their parents basically disappeared for 2 weeks while they where parked with their grandparents.
I wish i handled the 2 first weeks better for the sake of my kids but i just couldn't. I was totally lost and Its been very hard to get back out of the hole i got stuck in.
Getting back with the kids has helped me find a lot of strength i didn't even know i had.
I am doing well, i am happy to inform everyone that i am in control of my faculties.
There is still a shitt load of pain and trauma to work through but i manage it very well now.
I am more sure of myself, i feel confident and positive for the future.
I am systematic and very detail focused by nature. It helps me to maintain a detailed journal. Actually for the both of us at the moment, Me and Sue. It helps us dig deep into one and one issue.
We have a dedicated 1 hour session where we talk every day. During this we try to understand and prioritize the issues we need to discuss. We also put things on ice for dealing with later if we cant find a good solution or resolution for now.
This 1 hour allows us to have some energy left to spend with the kids watching tv, playing schoolwork, etc. 1 hour is pretty exhausting, when we are brutally honest, so we limit it for the moment. It allow us to disconnect after the session and We have made some good new memories, all of us together.
This has helped us so much! I highly recommend this if you are working with a partner in a difficult situation like this.
It naturally creates a plan of attack and allows us to fully work through issues with determination and a little bit of emotional distance. If we don't finish we just continue the discussion the next day.

Me and the kids have also talked a lot and we have been to IC for each of them plus family therapy with me and the boys. The last session also included Sue.
Sue struggled with the session. She is drowning in shame and guilt at the moment so i guess we need to be patient.
Sue has been out of the hospital for a few days and is better off living at the house with the rest of us. Before you guys pile on me to kick her out,,,. I will not kick out the unemployed mother of my children in the middle of a pandemic.
I think about it this way, when my kids are grown and they ask me about this period i want to be able to be proud of most of my behavior.
I find its also very helpful to think about things long term. It helps me see past the overwhelming immediate pain and lets me set targets to aim for.
Sue is in daily therapy and has been diagnosed with mild PTSD. Her therapist is sure she is no longer at risk of terminating herself.
Kids have enjoyed having her at home, they missed their mother of course. She seams stable and i think staying together is the best option for her and everyone at this point.

Lets get one of the main issues out of the way, I have decided that the divorce will go through.

The Deciding argument actually came from a PM dialogue i had with a self proclaimed lesbian feminist. The discussion included a lot of nonsense about patriarchy and historical oppression, but she had some good arguments about my wife being a grown woman and therefor having agency.
She praised me a lot for allowing my wife to make her own choices actually. ??? Even if those choices where stupid...
I actually regret not confronting Sue harder earlier, but i wasn't in a good place mentally and i didn't make all the best choices. Its easy to se a better path in hindsight.
The talk with the feminist was at times confusing, but the closing argument was: If this was a married gay couple with 2 males would anyone question the agency of the partners? The ws or the bs? The answer to that is no so i will treat my wife like she has agency to make her own choices and let her face the consequences from those.
I have accept that my wife made a choice to do this, it made perfect sense to her, its what she wanted at the time.
It was a stupid choice but people make stupid choices every day, they drink and drive, they commit stupid acts and in all cases. If they are exposed, there will be negative consequences of such bad choices.

I have looked hard into myself and here is what i have accepted.
I cant reconcile Sues actions with the woman i believed her to be.
The hard truth is, I dont know this woman that used to be my wife. I just dont trust her anymore and i cannot remain married to a person i dont feel i know or trust.
Its absolutely devastating to Sue but she accepts and understands my decision.

She has offered everything to me in the divorce. All our assets, house, cars full custody.
I have said a hard no to that. We will divide assets fairly and she will automatically regain 50/50 custody once she is ok with it, and is declared ok for this by her psychiatrist.
She has also insisted that i find some woman and have an affair with her, i will not do that. I am not really interested in getting into another relationship. I feel i have enough on my plate.
Secondly i think Sue wants this, primarily because she believes this will easy her guilt.
I on the other hand don't see how bringing more pain and confusion into this situation will help anything.
Also i don't have the right to bring an innocent third party into this painful mess.

She has also offered full access to everything, complete transparency, and to not do anything without my permission.
But i dont want to be her warden or her jailer. If she wants to show me, fine she can, but i will not monitor her like i have done. Building trust is on her now.
I don't want to hate Sue, i am angry with her. But i know i need find a way past that.
I want our kids to have their mother in their life. Regardless of the final outcome of this.
We had a good life up until recently. I am grateful for the time we had, and we both love our children.

The day after the meeting in the hospital, me and the wife started communicating electronically.
We agreed that the best way to open the dialogue was for Sue to author a letter for me.
The letter would detail everything she has done while we have been together. Everything about her friends, how it started with Frank. Everything up until the day she sat down to type this all out. Her desires, wants, fears, needs, drives, etc.

Oh before i forget... We found out Frank has left the country. He has transferred money back, or at least the half that belongs to his wife. So Franks wife is ok.
Turns out Franks own mother hired a PI to track him down Monday. She was worried about him, plus very angry. His mother will not tell us where he is, only that he is in a different country.
Frank has agreed to a uncontested divorce, and will not be back any time soon.
From what i have been told, one of the betrayed husbands apparently threatened Frank on Saturday. But i don't know, its mostly hearsay and rumor at this point.

Sue's letter shows the process Sue went through to get to a point where she could justify to herself having an affair. I was surprised to learn that It actually started over 3 years ago.
It was incredibly hard for me to read, but it felt honest, very honest.
A woman from their school friend group, lets call her Betty, that moved away at 18 had moved back to the area around 4 years ago with her family.
Betty started an affair with an ex from school. She would wax on about how great it was. How they would sneak off to spa hotels, bla bla. How nobody got hurt because they didnt know bla bla. How she deserved it, bla bla. How the cheating actually made her a better wife, bla bla.
Basically every cheating excuse in the book. I have learned that a total of 4 women in the group have cheated on their husbands in addition to Sue. 2 of them each had short affairs that terminated after the first physical meeting. Betty had multiple long term affairs over the years. One other woman had a 7 month affair that just ended. She joined Betty in the promotional efforts for the benefits of affairs when she started hers 7 months ago.
From what i hear 3 husbands have already decided to file for divorce.

I have been trying to understand my wifes actions to see if there is something i missed.
Its been hard to accept, but her actions in regards to the affair seams to have nothing to do with me.
She has explained how Life became monotone and the affair became a fantasy that grew over the years. A fantasy escape of sorts from day to day life. When Frank showed an interest she got trapped in it. The rush, the excitement.
She never really considered the consequences, or that it would hurt me or her family. It was never her intention. She got obsessed with getting her fix and it took more and more risk to get it.
Her cheating friends egged her on while her loyal friends spoke against it, but didnt insist.

I have talked a lot to Sues and her therapist. I have understood that i need to think a little differently about this. its not black and white. There are many additional variables and nuances to consider, not just my own perception, hurt and ego.
Once i realized that i need to take time to fully reflect on this before i decide anything my stress levels have gone way back, almost back to normal.
Several therapists have explained it to me in the mental framework of this type of compulsive, addictive behavior.
I have also talked to a lot of WW and BS, (thank you so much for answering all my stupid questions.) I am starting to better understand this now.
This does not excuse Sues actions but it makes it a little understandable in some ways. I can comprehend it. This doesn't mean i forgive or forget it though.
Like everyone knows, smoking is bad, drinking is bad. Exorcising regularly is important, junk food hurts you etc.
People know these things, still they do them all their lives. Look at the lung cancer ward with dying patients still smoking outside.
I understand Its a similar reaction in Sues brain in relation to this affair. An affair became a fantasy, the excitement of it became an addiction. Like a kind of adrenaline junkie.

At the hotel Frank had just started to give her oral after some initial touching/kissing and they where only a few minutes into it when i crashed reality into her fantasy world.
Sue has confessed that she was going to go all the way.
After reality hit, she became desperate to fix it, it was all she could think about. It explains her behavior a bit after D-day.
When she read the reddit posts and lost hope that she could fix anything she just couldnt deal with it. she tried to end it. S
he has admitted that if the shoe was on the other foot she would leave me. So at least i know she is being honest.
I seriously doubt she would cheat again. She got scarred for life. Now she just cannot understand herself, why she did this.
Now I see Sue as i would look at someone with a gambling addiction. I don't respect that kind of weakness, but i believe people can change.
I am no quire boy myself and experimented with drugs back in the day. I got out of it when somone gave me chance, so i will see if Sue can deal with her issues with my help.
To be honest I think the shock of it cured her of that vice.

That brings me to the future. I will give Sue an opportunity to first re-gain my respect and then maybe, just maybe my trust.
If she re-gains my respect and trust i will consider starting to date her again.
Sue seams to be very motivated by this and is clearly putting inn a lot of effort.
I have made it clear that this is on her to do this, she will have to prove it to me.

She has already had one of the betrayed husbands over and explained everything to him. Then she invited his wife over. Her former friend. And told her that she had explained everything to her husband.
Lots of yelling ensued, but she stood firm and admitted her role in it. That took guts. She did the right thing.
She has also apologized and talked to Franks wife, they sort of hit it off actually, they where joking about Franks weaknesses over several glasses of vine. It was all kind of strange to me, Bizarre even... I listened from the hallway. Frank was not painted in a flattering light to put it that way.
Is this something women do? Bond over ripping into a common x?

Sue has asked the remaining betrayed husbands if they want the same information for them.

We had Betty at our door yesterday begging Sue not to tell her husband. Betty wanted Sue to agree to a "light version" or she was sure her husband would leave her.
My wife refused her request, Bettys husband is coming over for dinner this evening. Sue promised he will get the full unfiltered truth. Its safe to say Sue and Betty are no longer friends.

She has been flooded by messages from the other cheaters, and she has refused them as well.
The loyal wives have made requests for Sue to meet their husbands to reassure them and she has agreed to this as well. I guess she knows who her friends are now.

I actually made a big spreadsheets of my choices and options. Its a gigantic mess, measuring the pros and cons.
What is best for the kids, what is the benefits of this and that. What is the negative side of this and that.
For example there is no guarantee that a new girlfriend would be any more faithful, there is no guarantee i would find a new partner compatible with my kids, ect, etc, etc.
All in all i come to the conclusion that my best choice for now, especially for the kids, is to take my time and see if Sue makes any progress. I need to see that she can get to a point where we can try to build a new relationship. The one we have is dead. Still it was a good one on so, so many levels. Maybe we could have that again? Maybe it will fail? Who knows?
I am not in a rush and if i think its futile I will act. Until then we can practice co-parenting and find ways to remain at least cordial.
I am not a perfect husband or human be any stretch. I have many flaws just like everyone else. I will keep this in mind whenever i feel i am in a position where i have to judge Sue moving forward.
So this is probably my last activity here, maybe i will do another update in a year or 2. I cannot thank the reddit community enough. thank you for all your help.
I know that in the end its up to me to decide and thankfully you all set time aside to help me reflect more broadly.

I need to confide in someone about my opioid addiction

Edit: LONG POST AHEAD
I used to be a gambling addict and alcoholic and those two went hand-in-hand for me. I started drinking when I was 14 and it got more serious probably two years later. It was just having fun with friends, skipping school and drinking on those lovely summer days. It was definitely fun and I enjoyed those times. Around that time I started being a regular smoker as well. It seemed harmless at the time and it felt so good. And hey, everyone was doing the same. Looking back, I can see I had social anxiety even then. Maybe when I was 18 I got really deep into gambling. I used to gamble before but just for fun and as soon as I turned 18 I started to gamble more and soon became a gambling addict, even if it didn’t seemed like addiction to me back then. So years went by and I carried these two addictions with me. I was gambling away all my money that I made myself from various sources, I would borrow money from friends and family and I would sometimes gamble the money I needed for other things like dentist, shopping, everything basically. I would win sometimes but you know how it is with gambling... you never really win. I was also doing some other “drugs” occasionally but never strong drugs, and the occasional spliff. This basically was what I was doing with my life everyday. By the time I was 28, I realised that I got an addictive personality and I tried to get clean countless times but I couldn’t even manage to stop smoking cigarettes for more than a week. I knew I had a problem with addiction and was actively trying to fix it. One night after I lost all my wages again, I was riding my penny board home, having my earphones on and listening to music. I was really angry at myself cause I did the same stupid shit again. I felt hopeless once again. It was like when I didn’t have money I was a different person completely. Anyway, as it was late night I was riding in the middle of the street and suddenly I changed lanes and I felt something was off so I looked behind; a large London double-decker bus was behind me so I changed lanes again in a split second. I was maybe 0.5 seconds away from ending up under it. I stopped on the sidewalk and got even angrier at myself for almost killing myself. Anyway, I got home and I just felt the need to look for a meditation guide and after finding a good one, I meditated for 20 minutes. When I opened my eyes I felt like my entire system just restarted. I felt so easy, no tension in my body, I felt amazing! That’s when I started getting into self-development (not that self motivation crap). Anyway, things were decent for a while and sometimes I would gamble sometimes I would stop but I knew that if I keep trying I will get what I want eventually. Ups and downs for a couple years.
At some point I got a new job with accommodation included (something that I did many times before) and I met this guy that was working there and living there as well. I was still struggling with addiction at that point. He introduced me to heroin and crack and eventually I got addicted to these drugs. On the bright side, I stopped gambling and drinking and eventually I started spending all my money on drugs. This went on for about 8 months. You know how people talk about new year’s resolution? Well, I unintentionally stopped doing drugs just before 1st of January. I went through withdrawals which was absolutely terrible and I got clean. I started drinking again to compensate the lack of drugs and then started gambling again but in a few months I kicked them. I started using kratom and life was all rainbows for half a year or so. I also stopped using kratom so my only addiction was cigarettes which was fine by me.
Then one day I got into the same hard drugs again. I’ve only used them for about a week or closer to ten days. This is the present time, meaning today.
Let me tell you the positives. I no longer feel the need to gamble or drink, for about half a year now. My mind sometimes drew me to gambling but I easily refused. I find it very easy now to say no to gambling in my weakest moments when a deep part of me wants to gamble. It no longer has a grip on me and because I quit or tried to quit so many times before, at this point in my life I am 100% certain that I will never gamble again. I got a very strong grip on it and even if I have a weak moment I can still stay on the right side. I also got a very strong grip on alcohol. I don’t even like it anymore! I had a few drinks in the last half a year, on special occasions, but I since I don’t enjoy drinking anymore and I hate the way it makes me feels the next day, I am confident that I will never be an alcoholic again. One might say that it’s not as simple as that, and I know it isn’t but I worked on myself a lot in the past years and I have grown and evolved so that’s why I know for sure that I’m free of these two major addictions that basically ruined a big part of my life.
Now I know I need to stop these two drugs that I recently got back into. The plan was to stop after a couple days in order to avoid the withdrawals but I kinda messed that up so now I have to do it the hard way. I’m sure that withdrawals after only of 10 days of use is going to be a lot easier that after months and years of continuous use but I’m still a bit scared. The fact is that I have two bags of heroin left and I plan to start tapering starting literally now as I’m writing this, in order to minimise the withdrawal symptoms. I will only smoke a few lines every 12h for a day and then once every 16-24h. It seems like a good plan to me but feel free to give me any suggestions if you by any miracle read all this long text that I’ve written.
I am currently listening to a Russel Brand and Brad Evans video and one thing they say is that in order to change your behaviour, you also need to change your behaviour in the eyes of others and that if you do confide in others, that’s when the transformative potential (or process) happens. I don’t have many friends and I don’t want to talk about me relapsing with the few friends I do have. So here I am, talking to my distant brothers from reddit. I am a kind and compassionate person so even if I don’t know you, I can still appreciate you from a distance. That’s it. It actually feels a bit good to put this in writing and it will feel even better if I get any replies 😀
Late edit: A bit over 24h in and I realise it would’ve been at least 50% more terrible if I didn’t have the kratom. It helps with the restless legs A LOT. I kinda feel guilty by writing this but I just bought 350ml of Wiskey and maybe that will help. See how it goes
Later: I feel a bit drunk but I feel better a bit. Someone sent me a text on Signal so I checked cause I feel like I can. I liked it so I sent a song that I like J Cole Fire Squad. I realised by listening to my song that I feel empowered by the verses, while drinking the 3 out of 4 glasses of whiskey. You and I are all the same. Listen to the song. Bottom line is that we are kings of ourselves so listen to your most cherished songs when on heroin withdrawal. Every person, deep down, just wants love. You got it from me.

My Homelessness Perspective

I debated making this post for awhile because I normally just comment in replies to other things. But someone came across an old post and thought I should share directly, particularly given the influx of homeless discussion.
I'm a homeless person in the area. I lived on paid campgrounds in the region when the weather was nicer and now when I have the cash, I stay in motels. So I'm not someone on the lawn, chopping up bikes (I actually sold mine for $50 to pay for another room night) I'm a nobody and you've probably stood in line next to me and had no idea I was homeless because I do everything in my power to keep it together. But I cry a lot and the longer this goes on, the more difficult it is to climb out of because literally everything in society is working against you and I don't think many people realize the logistics of how difficult homelessness can be.
I lost my job literally the week after the NBA shut down. For what it's worth, my former boss got a six figure PPP loan (it was on ProPublica which is how I found out) and I haven't heard from them since. Other than when I had to fight some reporting stuff that they messed up. The shitty thing too is, the company made multiple millions of dollars. Still in business. Still operating btw. Anyway...
I was raised in foster care, so I don't have a family to run to when times get tough. All of my IRL friends live in Canada and I was actually in the IEC working visa pool and hoping to go over, get work experience, make connections, and eventually immigrate there permanently. My friends there are like my family, but there's nothing they can do to bring me over because we aren't blood related and they can send me some money but the exchange rate sucks and so do all the exchange fees. They really just don't know how this country just lets people struggle. But the pool suspended draws in March and at the end of last year, they fully closed it out. There hasn't been any announcement on if they'll ever bring it back and jesus christ I feel so fucked.
So, I want to explain how people end up in situations like mine. I was on a short term lease and it didn't get renewed. It was probably for the better anyway because my former roommate was talking about stabbing Jews like Soros to end the pandemic. (I'm Jewish.) Oh and she owns a business in town.
That was early on in the pandemic when I lost my previous place and I thought honestly this would be over by summer, my job would ask me back and it wouldn't be an issue, so I rented airbnbs even though they were pricey. I don't think many people thought this would all go on as long as it did either.
Then I had car issues (tires balded completely, brakes, rotors, and tired rods iirc? I needed a whole lot of shit done.) Then I got really sick too and medical bills were an arm and leg. I was applying to places to live and my credit was going to obviously get dinged with maxing out credit cards and having unpaid medical bills would just obviously make me a shitty candidate to rent to.
But through June I tried applying to places. But those are hard credit pulls and I did...a number of them over 2-3 months to try my damndest. However, I can't get approved for housing because I'm unemployed and have been unemployed for months. I don't make enough from sex work other than to cover some nights nor is that a viable "job" to most people. I don't have a WA cosigner, hell I don't have ANY cosigner that lives in America, so that takes me out of the running of the vast vast majority of places. And not only that, a number of landlords would only take me if I could pay something like $5k or pay the full amount of the lease upfront. One woman almost rented a room to me, but I have now no "recent" landlord for them to reference and call. When I explained to her I was living in a motel, she called me homeless scum looking for a place to do drugs. One of my friends tried to "act" as a former landlord, but they looked up property records and he wanted to arrest me for fraud. I was just desperate for a place to live (and I want to share this story too because a lot of people make VERY VERY VERY bad suggestions to homeless people.)
I don't even drink in this goddamn state full of craft breweries. I don't like NOT having my wits about me. So no, I'm not some tweaker that does drugs. I also cannot fucking stand the smell of marijuana. I'm a lame ass square. But it doesn't matter because every single stereotype is what you are when you are homeless.
You can't rent a room without having CURRENT employment THAT PAYS THE RENT. So a part time, 10 hour a week gig at $15 McD's won't qualify you for housing. I don't know what is so difficult about understanding that but people really seem to struggle with that. You need to make at least 3-4x to qualify for anything, including just a bedroom.
And? You can't rent without RECENT landlord to reference. It's one of the several sneaky requirements they throw in there in order to make it damn near impossible for someone who is homeless to get permanent housing.
Mentally, it's all a constant waking nightmare. I have to try to figure out the best prices on places to stay, I have to make lots of calls, I apply for aid, I have to stay warm, I have to try to sleep, I have to try to promote my sex work, I have to try to think if there's any future for me. It's exhausting.
"Now you're wondering why not go to the shelter?"
I did one night and I had to fight off assault. I know another girl who was raped and she attempted suicide and had to be committed. PLEASE stop thinking this shit doesn't happen in this town just because your homes cost half a million fucking dollars.
Most people may not also understand the restrictions or lack of dignity that occurs at a lot of shelters. Some shelters force you to change into scrubs they provide, so it feels like prison. You can't keep your stuff on you. It's very time restrictive, so if you are working later than the entry time, you're totally fucked. Or if you need to go to work, you can also be fucked for violating the rules. It's also just full of people who are screaming at night from the mental anguish this shit leaves you in. It's literally sleeping among nightmares.
A lot of aid in town and in general, America, is run by churches or "loosely affiliated religious organizations". I have been point blank asked to convert in order to get help. I'm ethnically Jewish and I dunno how they can't quite get that I can't exactly convert into a new ethnicity. The synagogue in this county has been closed and offers zero aid or help. Also LOTS of charities focus strictly on families and there is also one in town for young adults (under 24.) While I understand that's important, there isn't a lot of help for people like me in their mid-30s or who are single.
"Why not apply for affordable housing?"
Well, most people don't even know that the waiting lists are closed for 1 bedrooms. The list is 5-10+ y e a r s long. Many people have probably never visited it, despite constantly suggesting it to me: https://bellinghamhousing.org/home/applicants/open-waitlist/ go ahead and tell me what's open and what's closed. And that's the waiting list- that's not even you getting housing tomorrow.
"You must make a lot sex working!"
90% of OnlyFans accounts make under $50 a month. It's not the money maker you think it is, earning even $100 is hard work. Processors take huge chunks of earnings, then you have transfer fees, and yeah it's a lot to be desired. There's also the mental toll it can take. Also, I'm not a hot young college thing, I have a specific niche and it doesn't really pay.
So just a few other things, especially as it concerns food:

Not every motel, especially the cheap ones, have rooms with microwaves or fridges. Or they don't work. If you're on a campground, you can't use perishables without ice, a freezer and that has to be constantly maintained.
EBT doesn't cover warm or prepared food or "anything intended to be eaten in the store".
I won't accept food handed to me where I didn't purchase it or it didn't come from a verified place. ESPECIALLY HOMEMADE FOOD. Please, PLEASE reconsider this (I know there is meal train and that might be different, but I'm talking just generally.) I'd actually avoid handing food directly to a homeless person. You have ZERO idea of their allergies or medical conditions. I have NO IDEA if you poisoned it. Now you might laugh, but given the way people who are supposed to be helping have treated me, I really, really can't afford to trust strangers.
Also, I'm wary of the free pantries. Why? Again, because people tamper with food.
YOU may be well-intentioned, but enough people aren't.
I routinely have gotten rotten produce in my food bank box, I can send you fun pics. Point is, most of the stuff is on its last legs or has no legs at all. I have gotten fully molded loaves of bread and I honestly couldn't even eat after seeing it.
PLEASE stop donating your expired goods to the food bank.
PLEASE do not donate UNSEALED things to the food bank. Like your hot chocolate mix in a tin from 2014.
Please donate jams, jellies, honey, and spices because 1) plain beans and rice sucks and 2) surviving on peanut butter sucks and every person struggling right now will tell you some jam would be nice.

People want to help and I get that. And you're like "goddammit what can I do?"
Just hand people money.
Just give people the dignity that they know how to prioritize their needs.
Research continually bares this out: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/09/americas/direct-giving-homeless-people-vancouver-trnd/index.html
Don't give me coats, I have one. The one you gave me probably won't fit or if I'm allergic to wool, I will have no use for it. (I'm not allergic to wool, but people are!)
Don't give me things I haven't asked for in general. Someone send me a PM saying they have a twin bed I could have. Uh, I have a bed in storage, no thanks. They called me a cunt and told me to kill myself.
Don't hand me lotto tickets. Most scratch offs are loser tickets and then it looks like I'm wasting my money on gambling. You also have no idea who might have be struggling with or recovering from a gambling addiction.
Don't donate your trash and expect me to grateful. You gave me the work of throwing away your garbage and reminding me that's all I am to you and the community.
Don't bitch about homelessness and in the same breath fight Section 8 or assume shit about housing vouchers. If you're a landlord in this town, maybe you ought to accept vouchers and actually try to be a force for good. Or bitch about how minimum wage is too high. It ain't high enough.
Don't send me a PM saying you have a room for me to stay in or will "take me out on a date" to get me food. That's taking advantage of someone. That's also really fucking unsafe. If you do allow homeless and jobless people a place to stay, put that on your facebook or craigslist ad publicly or respond back when someone does explain their situation. (Note: and while I sex work, I'm not an in/outcall worker or an escort. I'm not going to have sex with you or put myself in an incredibly dangerous situation.)
Don't criticize people who are homeless who are trying to tell you what they actually need- you do not know their needs. Please stop assuming you do.
You can encourage groups to just give straight cash grants. If you absolutely are committed to give giftcards, do them for useful places like Target, Walmart, grocery stores, etc. where someone can buy toiletries, clothing, etc. Don't send me a $5 giftcard to like Cabela's. The closest one is a drive away and what can I do with that? I would spend more in gas to get to one. In the same vein, someone offered me a giftcard to like a steakhouse in Seattle. I hope you can understand how those aren't useful.
You can also hold your church, your preferred charity org, etc. ACCOUNTABLE. Actually look what they require of applicants for aid, ask them for how they advertise to the public and what their outreach is, ask how much is going to people, demand transparency.
"Okay, so I want to give to United Way--"
Wait. Stop. PLEASE understand that United Way is a passthrough organization. It's a middle man. They just help fund other charities and they obviously skim off the top as "operating expenses". Likewise, I saw here and on facebook lots of folks donating to Whatcom Community Foundation. They also do not provide any direct aid. It's also a middle man. Listen, I understand they fund a few scholarships and help promote nonprofits and I'm NOT saying it's bad or the worst idea ever, but if we are talking about the most direct, most efficient, and most bang for your buck, just hand your dollars to people struggling.
Hand me $5 and that can go towards my storage unit or cell phone bill or private mailbox or gas or insurance. It can go towards supplements, it can go towards getting a warm cup of soup, or it can go towards another night of a safe warm place to stay. Other sex workers, my friends in Canada, and a couple nice souls on reddit who have helped via paypal/cashapp/venmo? That's been THE reason I've stayed afloat, it's the been THE reason I can stand next to you in line at Target and I don't reek of piss because I was able to actually have a real shower. It has NOT been because of nonprofit organizations.
I think it's really important for people to understand that some bills, some bad luck, and some pandemic fuckery can easily spiral your life into daily struggling and homelessness. It's not easy to move and most of our safety net requires you to have a robust social network. I hope one day I can migrate to Canada, but now I need to resave thousands of dollars to qualify for any visa and to be brutal with you, my chances of achieving that dream and being able to have a real life again are very slim. I'll soon age out of IEC Working Holiday visa and I simply don't have tens of thousands of dollars to pay for graduate school as an alternate way in. It's a hard road ahead for me to get through until I can even get the vaccine.
My hope in sharing this lengthy long diatribe is that it causes you to think and critique the institutions we have. Please think about how you can truly help and what that looks like in action. Not everyone's struggles are the same, especially not everyone's homeless struggles, but thank you for reading mine.
Edit: Thank you again for reading this and really taking it to heart, I really appreciate the kindness and gratitude show. I honestly didn't think anyone would even read this. If anyone else is homeless or struggling or on the verge, I don't take any mind to you sharing your story too and please feel free to just send me a message that this sucks and I'm here to listen to bitching because lordy I get it. xo

Feb. 9 Daily HUT Content - What is new?

Hey guys, it’s Coooolin ! How was everyone’s day!? :) Hope you all had a wonderful one! Let me know how it was downn belooww! :)
Here are the new cards for today, Thanks EA! :)

Silver Master Icons

Rob Blake - 91 OVR - LAK / RD - H and S² , SPE² ... 89 SPEED , 92 with DIS + SPE
Ted Lindsay - 91 OVR - DET / LW - BAL² , T² .. 89 FO with T
Bernie Parent - 91 OVR - PHI / G - 5’10” / 170 lbs - SPA² , SWA² ... yuck
— Set needs 9 Icons + Bronze Icon to upgrade to Silver —
——-

Primetimes

NHL

Ryan O’Reilly - 90 OVR - STL / C - LTL¹ , T¹ ... 97 FOs - Without Thief!!
Seymon Varlamov - 88 OVR - NYI / G - 6’2” / 215 lbs - H and S¹ , SPA¹
Tom Wilson - 87 OVR - WAS / RW - GLA¹ , WM¹
Erik Cernak - 87 OVR - TBL / RD - HOW¹ , WH¹
Fredrik Anderson - 86 OVR - TOR / G - 6’4” / 230 lbs - BAR¹ , SWA¹
Clayton Keller - 86 OVR - ARI / C - PP¹ , MAG¹
Anthony Cirelli - 85 OVR - TBL / C - SPE¹ , SH¹
Matt Martin - 84 OVR - NYI / LW - HOW¹ , WH¹
Jack Roslovic - 84 OVR - CBJ / C - LTL¹ , SPE¹
Mike Smith - 84 OVR - EDM / G - 6’4” / 220 lbs - DIS¹ , SPA¹ .... oh babyy
Tyler Ennis - 81 OVR - EDM / LW - GLA¹ , WM¹
Alexander Kerfoot - 81 OVR - TOR / C - PP¹ , SPE¹
• • • • • • • • • • - - - - - - - - - • • • • • • • • • • • •

Packs Available

23H 40M
• Jumbo Elite Pack - 50k C / 1k P
20 items , with at least 11 80+ OVR Players
• Mega Pack - 37.5k C / 750 P
30 items, at least 15 Gold Players, and 4 80+ OVR Players
• Players Pack - 15k C / 300 P
10 items, all Players, at least 5 Gold Players and 1 80+ OVR Player

P.S.

• Rivals Resets Today
• More Bold Cards

Hockey News

• Koivu Retires
• NHL postpones more games

Stock Market News

• Why Pot Stocks are Flyying!
• Stock Dip after Reaching Record Highs!

Other News

• National Pizza Day
• Today in History
——————

What’s to Come?

• SB Season Reset - Wednesday at 5pm EST
• Rivals Rewards - Wednesday at 5pm EST
• HUT Champ Rewards - Wednesday at 6am EST
• SB Rewards !! - Thursday at 5pm EST
• New Event !! - Friday at 5pm EST
—————

Summary of the day

Quick Read
Best Forward of the Day - PT - is RYAN O’REILLYY OVR 90 with the syn LIGHTT the LAMPP and THIEFF
Best Defence of the Day - PT - is ERIKK CERNAKK OVR 87 with the syn HOWITZERR and WORKK HORSEE
• Rivals Resets ! Where did you place?
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Important Notice

Day by day may seem like nothing changes, but when you look back a lot has changed.
Take risks. Do what makes you happy. Smile more. Laugh more. Have fun!!
Don’t take life too seriously , and yourself too seriously.. learn to have fun!! Learn to laugh at yourself if you did something dumb, your mistakes, etc.,
Life is way too short to just sit and wait... when you can make a difference and big change in your life today!
—-

Interested in Stocks?

EA’s Stock Price, after hours - Feb 9
$ 146.11 (usd) —- Currency Converter
we looked at the stock at $137.54 usd
—— That is a difference of ( $8.57 / 6.23% ) —
Disclaimer - I am not a financial advisor. It is your money, please do your own due diligence. I am not responsible for your money. This is *not** advice. I added this section for an added educational purposes only. Thanks*
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NEED A SOUNDTRACK TO LISTEN TO?

I made this for everyone. I’ll update it whenever I feel like it, but its been often!

WE’RE AT 1400 SONGS! WOW! How are you not listening to this playlist already!?
Comment songs to add, and please give feedback! It’s much appreciated!!
I currently have “Speechless” by “Dan + Shay” stuck in my head.... which you can play, recently added to the playlist!
Sidenote - How do you guys like the playlist!? I have a friend who makes music...and I really want to surprise him with some new people listening to his music... if you wanna help me, please click Here!! it would mean a lot to me!!
———-

Sites To Bookmark!

If you click here you will be redirected to bilasport. Bilasport is the best Online Streaming site for your entertainment needs for all sports! (Not affiliated)
A great streaming source recommended by NHLStreams is SurgeSport. Click on Hockey and you’ll be good to go!
Want to make your dream team, and show others what you’ve been working on, and much more? I will redirect you HERE!.
Here’s a helpful pack guide for you! Click!
Want to know how the market is holding up? With a simple TAP! you will be on the newly fresh made website for the HUT market, made by one of the guys on the sub!
.... what do the stats on a card mean? Is my card I want / pulled good? Click here to find out!!
When is my favourite team playing? When do they play!? Here you can click on this link, and tap on your favourite team. From there, tap “Schedule” . You can add this to your homescreen on iPhone by clicking the square with the upwards arrow, scrolling down, and tapping “Add to Home Screen”
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Fighting a Gambling Addiction?

Colin’s Thoughts

I got accepted to a College for Business - Accounting !! :) Super excited to see where this leads me!
4 other Colleges to respond back! :) Yay!
Also, mighttt have a job at Home Depot! All depends if they phone me back or not, and look at it!! I’m so stoked !
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40 / 365
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Thanks for reading.
I’m always welcome to feedback, please let me know what I can improve on.
If there’s anything missing, please let me know!
Take care, happy gaming! HAPPY NATIONAL PIZZA DAY!!
• Coolin Killin It
(Life is like a puzzle, you just have to find the right piece.)

Look I’m Holding 10 GME til the Moon Or Death but If people are looking for different plays I’m telling you it’s worth your time to research $OCGN for at least like 30 mins

So-called information addiction is just an expression of a natural learn drive, which in itself is a good thing. All we need to make it maximally beneficial is to balance and direct it

Note: this post talks primarily about the type of "addiction" to information in a more general sense, rather than just social media (e.g. related to hobbies and interests, or just exploration). This is my attempt to share a more balanced view on the topic and provide practical ideas for a mindful approach to the internet use to minimize its side-effects.
I've realized it's a mistake to demonize the internet and our tendency to seek information and novelty. Without this insatiable curiosity and drive to search answers we would not have evolved to be where we are now. The internet opened up numerous opportunities for self-directed learning that was not possible before. Labeling information seeking as a problem, or thinking that life was better before the internet and denying yourself the pleasure of almost effortless learning afforded by the web may do more harm than good. The internet is an incredible resource and, if I'm being honest, it had the biggest influence on my ability to regain the love of learning after losing it thanks to school (I got home access to the internet at 16 years old).
The internet is, no doubt, a source of distraction, manipulation, and addictive content. Many people on this sub complain of wasting time on platforms like Youtube, Reddit etc. I've felt similarly on many occasions as well. But it's also a rich source of knowledge, inspiration, and awesome communities on every obscure topic that exists. Imposing arbitrary limits on screen time and internet usage is not always a reasonable approach, at least not without first trying to understand the deeper processes behind your behavior.
We should be aware of black-and-white thinking and look at it from multiple angles. I wrote a post here a couple of weeks ago about a concept called Compulsive Information Seeking, but I've made a mistake of labeling information seeking as a pathology, rather than a natural desire (obviously, there are exceptions, but they are probably more rare than some scientists and journalists would make us believe).
For a different view on this you can look at this insightful paper: Scholars’ open debate paper on the World Health Organization ICD-11 Gaming Disorder proposal. The authors talk about a gaming disorder, rather than internet addiction, but many of their concerns can be extrapolated to broader use of technology. Here is an excerpt that summarizes their points:

Our main concerns are the low quality of the research base, the fact that the current operationalization leans too heavily on substance use and gambling criteria, and the lack of consensus on symptomatology and assessment of problematic gaming. The act of formalizing this disorder, even as a proposal, has negative medical, scientific, public-health, societal, and human rights fallout that should be considered. Of particular concern are moral panics around the harm of video gaming. They might result in premature application of diagnosis in the medical community and the treatment of abundant false-positive cases, especially for children and adolescents. Second, research will be locked into a confirmatory approach, rather than an exploration of the boundaries of normal versus pathological. Third, the healthy majority of gamers will be affected negatively. We expect that the premature inclusion of Gaming Disorder as a diagnosis in ICD-11 will cause significant stigma to the millions of children who play video games as a part of a normal, healthy life.

Basically, before jumping to conclusions and pathologizing everyone who spends a lot of their waking life using screens and the internet, we first need to explore what is actually normal and healthy, what is just a symptom of a larger issue (mindless scrolling can be a sign of chronic stress and low energy) and what is a full-blown addiction.
In fact, I believe those who are able to maintain or regain the hunger for new knowledge are lucky, because of how difficult it can be to do so in modern society. Children naturally love to learn, but after going through years of coercive school system, then dragging themselves through college (often studying something they are barely interested in because of the job market), then working at a job they dislike, it becomes apparent how easy it is to lose your innate learn drive in these circumstances, and use whatever is left of it to scroll through social media. This is why the desire to learn (even about seemingly useless things!) and pleasure of learning should be cherished and cultivated.

Information seeking can become a problem when it prevents you from living the life you want, or when it's driven by anxiety (fear of missing out, obsessively googling your symptoms etc.). I think the solution here is to learn how to use it mindfully and enjoyably. Here are a few ideas I've thought about and experimented with:

Apply mindfulness and introspection
- Learn to be aware of your thoughts and behavior. If you catch yourself mindlessly scrolling through social media, or obsessively googling something and opening dozens of tabs, pause and slow down. Observe what you are doing. As much as possible, avoid judgments and negative self-talk. Be friendly and gentle with yourself! Decide if you want to continue, and if you do, try to do it with full awareness.
- Recognize what positive things this desire to gather and consume information brings you. Maybe it helped you solve a personal problem, maybe it helps you contributing to conversations or helping others. Recognize that love of learning is inherently good, you may just need to make a few tweaks to reduce or (ideally) eliminate negative side-effects.
- Accept the present situation and commit to making incremental changes.
Work on deeper issues that keep you googling and scrolling, if you suffer from anxiety and fear of missing out
- This is a big one. Various techniques and practices exist to address this problem. For me personally the most helpful techniques are recognition of impermanence of everything, meditation on death and facing my fears (e.g. by asking "What's the worst that I fear might happen? How could I deal with it if it happens?") Depending on severity though, you may need therapy.
- Try to eliminate as many stressors in your life as possible. Stress is a major cause of addictive behavior. This is not easy, and often impossible as we are constrained by external circumstances. But it's good to remind yourself that the biggest source of stress is your own mind. This is good news, because it's something we can change.
Adopt better learning habits
- Try to avoid mindlessly consuming and collecting information with no proper knowledge integration. Passive consumption is not very useful in the long-term, because you will forget what you learned pretty soon (but we are often not aware that's what's happening!)
- Prefer long-form content like longer articles, research papers, books and lectures. It's probably not necessary to cut out bite-sized stuff completely, but the ratio of long-form to short-form should be in favor of long-form. If you have a short attention span, you can start with reading abstracts and summaries to increase exposure to higher quality of information.
- Think about what you read (or watch, or listen). Thinking in writing is particularly awesome, because you can save your notes and revisit later (or write a post on Reddit :)) (See Zettelkasten)
- Use spaced repetition and active recall to commit knowledge to long-term memory (See anki)
- Apply what you learn in real life - share it with others (irl or on the internet), use it for self-improvement, create something.
Regularly (preferably daily) schedule time for NOT learning
- A hands-on hobby, time with your friends and family, exercise, spending time outdoors, meditation, daydreaming. Basically any enjoyable activity that doesn't involve direct interaction with information. Sometimes your brain needs a break!
And last but not least - learn to enjoy it!
- Allow yourself to follow those rabbit holes of obscure knowledge, explore new territories, savor the thrill of the process and the rewards of discovery. Take small steps to adopt better learning habits, but try not to force it. Focus on the pleasure of learning, explore your creativity, share what you learn, and you'll be much closer to sustainable happiness.

Thank you all for reading. I don't know how many of you relate to my wall of text or find it helpful, but I hope it will at least inspire an interesting discussion!

Everything wrong with Genshin Impact, Community and Mihoyo

This is going to be a really long post, so read it at your pace. I'll try my best to make it worthwhile but I ain't much of a good writer.

Genshin Impact has been released since 28th of September and so far the game has received a lot of mixed reactions from the players and most of them not being good ones. Let's dig into them. So this is a criticism/feedback/bitching/complaining post or whatever you like to call it.

First of all What is Genshin Impact?
This is something even the game itself doesn't know and is what's confused most of the people around and is what created the first problem. Genshin has severe identity crisis. It's a JRPG? It's a Mobile gacha game? It's a AAA title aimed for all?
The game tried to find something in between all this and created the mess we see today.
You see people trying to defend the game by saying "This is a Gacha game. This is how it works. This is how it's been for years." Now all these things are complete BS.
Genshin isn't and was never intended to be your typical mobile gacha. It tried to appeal to the mainstream audience. The instant Genshin was being developed for PC, Switch and PS4 it rose above your typical Gacha game. It wanted to cater to the mainstream crowd. Now this creates the very big problem that is the difference between Mainstream gamers like PC, PS4, Switch and Gacha Addict mobile market. While gacha addicted mobile gamers are used to being fcked over by shitty practices by those companies, the mainstream crowd is different. Some of them are completely new to the gacha system. Just accept the fact that gacha is a very bad monetization model, some games have implemented it in a nicer way which actually isn't bad, but Genshin monetization is just straight up ridiculous.
Genshin was promoted as JRPG from the very beginning instead of being your usual gacha mobile game. This is where most of the mainstream players expectations shattered. Things like being limited by stamina system for play is a norm practice in mobile games(Not all games do this but most of them do) BUT it's not in the mainstream market and this is something which is not acceptable when you go for broader market. You can't just expect them to conform to your shitty stamina system and be all happy happy. You're gonna get backlash.

Resin(this absolute piece of shit item in Genshin)
Resin system is just ridiculous. While being already bad in the first place, it's way worse compared to even the stamina system of other mobile gacha games. Almost 95% of the stuff you do in the game is locked behind resin system. You wanna farm Mora? go spend resin, you wanna farm exp? go spend resin, you wanna farm artifacts? go spend resin, you wanna farm upgrade materials? go spend resin. What's even more ridiculous is the amount you need per dungeons, bosses and the amount you get.

Resin is capped at 120. So you can run hypostasis 3 times and poof it's gone. Once you get to higher level even running hypostasis 3 times doesn't give you enough material to level up your character. The regen rate is also crap 1 resin per 8 minutes.

This doesn't stop here. One of the shittiest thing in the game is the weekly bosses.
YOU CAN FCKING FIGHT IT ONCE A WEEK AND IT'S STILL WALLED BEHIND RESIN. Can you see double the bs here. On top of being only available once a week you still need to spend 60 Resin just to collect rewards. The sheer amount of bs is ridiculous.

Let's talk Experience
To raise your character. The very first laughable thing is that beating monsters of lv60 gives you 14-15 Character exp. I mean why even have it in the first place. This is just shitty on the face of people. You need to fight monsters for months then maybe you can raise one Level of your character. The sheer amount of stupidness that fighting monsters doesn't give you Exp is just wow. You get most of the exp from those Exp Books(Adventurer's exp, Hero's Wit). And guess what you need to spend resin to get those. And what's another fcked up thing is that one run costs 20 resin and doesn't even give you enough to level up even 1 level. Yes you can get it from chests and quests but you'll run out way too soon once you reach higher levels.

Money walks in now which is Mora.
You need iirc 60000 Mora just to ascend a character and a lv35 Leyline gives you 44000. The amount of Mora you need to upgrade gears and characters is once again another very bad thing. You can spend few days farming 1 Million Mora and guess what it'll be gone in a poof once you get upgrade 3-4 artifacts(which you'll get fcked along the way. We'll get to that). Everything in the game needs mora be it levelling up character, talents, artifacts, weapons. The amount needed is 100x more than what you are earning. You'll always be short on this.

Comes in the Artifact now
You have greater chance of winning a lottery ticket than rolling good stats on the artifacts. The amount of RNG implemented on Artifacts is baffling.
First you need a good main stat(Pray to RNG), then you good secondary stats. Did you know these are also assigned via RNG. Then once you upgrade the artifact additional stats are assigned based on RNG. Once you keep upgrading the artifacts existing sub stats are upgraded(based on RNG) and more new Sub stats are assigned(Based on RNG) which are further upgraded(based on RNG). Those are whole 6-7 layers of RNG to get a good Artifact. So yeah you're better off praying of being able to kamehameha than getting a good Artifact.
You can say that no problem I'm a hardcore grinder I'll farm them till I get them. But then Resin comes and grabs your a$$ and puts you in place.
Oh did you also know that Artifact drops are RNG!? Also Domains drops multiple type of artifacts you on top praying to get a good artifact main stat, first you need to pray to get the artifact at all. And you need to do this with 6 runs per day ONLY IF YOU GRIND SINGLE DOMAIN AND NEGLECT EVERYTHING ELSE.

Now Don't ya worry because in comes the weapons upgrade materials
Weapon ascension materials are dropped from different domains and you need 20 resin per run and need to do multiple runs to get enough material to ascend your weapon.

Talent Books have joined the Chat
You thought it was over, but it was I the talent books. Yet another piece of upgrade material which drops from yet different type of domains that require resin. Higher levels require 9 per talent level to upgrade and the domain drops 1 per run.

Now what's the center of all the problems mentioned above? IT'S RESIN!
This single piece of item limits everything you can do in the game. The only thing you can do in this game without resin is just farming chests which(don't even get me started on this) are just another piece of shit in the game. Chest rewards are very very underwhelming. It's isn't worth farming them except for that Adventure Exp. Have you ever played a Open world RPG which limits 95% of the content behind such a system? This is one of the biggest bs in the game.
So yeah what's the game at higher levels? You login -> burn resin in 10 minutes -> you get trash -> you curse -> you logout -> rinse and repeat. Basically you're a trash collector.

Congratulations you've made it so far. Now that the resin is done we look at another horrendous aspect of the game that is Monetization and Gacha.
Now for all those white knights out there just accept the fact that the gacha rate is horrendous. 0.6% to get a 5 star character is way too low. As the CN guy said it's just double the rate of a glass blowing up.
Gacha has been for around quite a while. There are examples of good and bad gachas all around. BUT GENSHIN FALLS INTO THE WORST ONE.
You have 0.6 rate to get a 5 star character which is basically non existent and you get pity at 90 pulls. Here's comes another scummy part. At 90 pulls you have 50% chance to get the UP characters. See this bs. It's actually a pity but not a pity. You can pull 90 times but are still reliant on RNG to get you the desired character. Real pity comes at 180 Pulls which is just straight up ridiculous. 180 pulls are 32000 primogems and converting them to real life money that's a whopping $400 just one Freaking 5 star character. That's like whole month worth of food.
and Congrats if you got the 5 star character cuz that's not his full potential. You need another 6 of him to max him. So in worst case you're looking at $2400 just to max out one 5 star character. Holy flames this shit.
4 star rate is also so low that you rarely get them out of 10 pull pity which is just another scummy practice.
Cost for primogems is yet another crappy practice to greed money. $100 gives you 8800 primogems which are about 55 pulls. This is not even enough to hit that initial pity of 90 pulls let alone that 180 one.

Monthly Pass and Battle Pass
Another two methods of monetization that the game uses. These two are absolutely worthless. Now you may say that Monthly Pass is actually really good value. You can get 3000 Primogems for $5 which is a steal. and Yes it could have been good had the rates been decent.
Just look at what 3000 primogems net you. A 4 star character you don't want? A useless 4 star weapon? or will you hold out on to hope that it will give you a 5 star character? Even after spending money you are still reliant on that small chance to get something good.
Battle Pass. Oh don't get me started on this piece of crap. It's the single worst BP I've seen during my whole gaming life. From those ridiculous requirements which force you spend primogems to refresh resin to the locking of weekly Exp, this is just accumulation of every single crap lying around. Not even worth a shit.

Achievements
This doesn't fall under Monetization but is another bs aspect of the game that I'd like to discuss. Achievements spit in the face of the player. Collecting 100 chests gives you 10 primogems. and what's that number? That's 1/16 the amount you need for one damn pull. Even if we count the primogems you get from those 100 chests it nets you 200(2 from each) + 10 = 210 primogems which doesn't even amount to two pulls. I feel like this system is there just to mock the player.

Hats of to you. You've made it this far. Next we move on to other aspects.

COMMUNITY
First of all I'm very happy that people are shitting on these crappy practices and voicing their opinions. There's definitely no need to accept these types of things. Once you accept this, they'll go even lower next time.
Along with this I'm baffled at the people still trying to defend such scummy tactics. Take a look at these posts
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j799kw/i_will_say_my_biggest_tip_to_enjoy_the_game_and/
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/j7atw9/my_take_on_the_negative_reviews_as_a_long_time/
I won't go into any of them. Feel free to look at them yourselves.
CN players are not happy and they're bashing the game everywhere and trying to make sure their voice is heard. This is what we also need to do. Some people say that "It's a Chinese Company. It won't matter whether you bitch here". This is 100% bs. This is not just a chinese game. It's released worldwide for everybody to play. They have people everywhere looking at stuff. So voice you complaints wherever you want official discord, forums, reddit, twitter, youtube, in game feedback.
Keep in mind if you don't speak at all nothing will ever change. Once they receive enough backlash from their playerbase things will get better. The community definitely has the power to change things,
Youtube channels
To be honest I was hoping for those youtube channels would bring up some of those concerns of the community but nope. Every single one of them is dripping wet for Genshin and just screaming into the mics.
"5 AWESOME TIPS FOR GENSHIN". "5 INSANE TIPS FOR GENSHIN". "5 SUPER DUPER INSANE TIPS FOR GENSHIN". "5 TIPS FOR GENSHIN TO LEVEL UP AND GET THAT HOT MILF IN YOUR AREA".
I don't mean to criticize those channels, they may create content they want, but a good chunk of community watches those channels so bringing issues with the game will definitely help.

"This is a Gacha Game. This is how it's supposed to be. If you don't like it quit it. You aren't enjoying the game" ---- Genshin Impact Whiteknights
First of all I have absolutely no need to hear from someone how to enjoy my game so yeah get the hell outta here with this advice.
And for all you sorry a$$ mobile gacha gaming gambling addicts out there get it through your thick skulls of yours that GENSHIN IS NOT A MOBILE GACHA GAME.
This is something even the game tries to achieve but fails very hard to do so. It wanted to be something more than your typical gacha game but in the end it's own system doomed it.
From the start Genshin is being marketed as OPEN WORLD JRPG rather than a gacha game. It also has every aspect of open world rpgs cuz that's what the game is. It is also a game that it playable on PC and console rather than mobile. 90% of the mobiles don't even run the game good. The moment Genshin touched the PC, Switch and PS4 platforms it needed to shed the skin of mobile gacha gaming concepts.
Currently the Genshin Impact for high level player is login -> burn resin in 10-15 minutes -> logout.
This is how you play Mobile Gacha games. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PLAY PC, PS4 OR FOR THAT MATTER MAINSTREAM GAMES. This part is limited to mobile gaming. It has absolutely no place in the mainstream market cuz most of the time people play for longer hours on these systems.
Genshin is not a game that you'll play waiting at a bus stop for 5-10 minutes or waiting for your friend at the cafe. The game wants you to play it like a full RPG. and in here comes the point where the game contradicts itself.
It wants you play the game but limits it greatly or just 99% behind a stamina system.
See the absolute madness in this? This is where the greed comes in. It's where they sell Resin refills. Look at the $20 BP with extra resin, look at weekly packs in the shop selling resin. The sheer ridiculousness of the game selling you stamina just to play the game. For people waiting for the feature to pet the dogs, just hope that it doesn't cost you 20 resin to do so or they are only pettable once a week.

Even as a gacha game Genshin Impact is a big disappointment
This is coming from my experience as a gacha gamer. The game is literal crap when compared to other gacha games. You've got examples of great gacha games like Azur Lane around(I'm saying comparatively better, not that other ones don't have problems) but still it choose to go with worst ones.

I have nothing expect gratitude for you for reading this so far. Next we move on to the final segment that is the Company Itself.

Mihoyo
The final boss of all is Mihoyo itself and they themselves have been really scummy and shitty.
So far they have been completely turning a blind eye and not listening to the people at all. Starting from the very first CBT to the OBT they have received constant feedback but have completely neglected the main parts which include resin and monetization. Now keep in mind that Mihoyo is not a new company. They have been in the market for years. Their other mobile game Honkai Impact 3 is very big in CN and also quite popular in global too. Throughout constant feedback from players and being in market they have learned what's good and what's bad.
And the shittiest thing is that they choose to completely ignore it and push there scummy tactics. Let's see some of them....

The first and very obvious one being the gacha and monetization. Monetization was available during the CBT3 on CN server. It received quite a feedback due to rates being so low. But they still didn't change a thing. They just rolled it exactly the same way meaning they didn't pay any heed to the feedback regarding the monetization. They know about gacha and what's good and bad about it but still purposely chose to go with the shittiest kind of gacha.

Unskippable Cutscenes. Let's just accept it that the only reason the cutscenes are unskippable is because they want to prevent people from rerolling accounts. Though it didn't prevent them but it was their intention. That's why they even went as far as banning accounts who pulled 5 star but had no activity for 24 hours or so but didn't even touch those accounts that only had 4 stars. Criticism threads on the official forums are being deleted. Just another scummy tactic.

There have been constant bashing on CN forums since 15th, taptap score is 4.7 and on other forums too. Yet they still haven't considered any of them and are just ignoring their playerbase completely.

What's Mihoyo trying to do?
At this point it's either two possibilities one that either they didn't research enough into the mainstream audience or it's just deliberate. And the chance of it being the former is let's say 0.6
It seems like rather than catering to what the mainstream playerbase expects, Mihoyo is trying to lure them into the shady and absolute bs world of Mobile Gacha gaming. This is what garnered so much hate from the mainstream audience. While the gacha gaming addicts are used to being fcked over by these scummy tactics all year around, this is not the case with others. Some of them are even completely new to the terms like Gacha. And just accept the fact that Gacha is a horrendous system of monetization. Like Gigguk said "Who said gacha is like drugs. Drugs are way cheaper." To any sane person this model of monetization is absolute bs and it is. Even among this Monetization Genshin goes for the worst one their is. So yeah expecting a whole different player crowd to shut up and just fall into crappy and scummy practices is not gonna work and is definitely gonna blow up in your face.
And I hope that people continue to bash such systems cuz if such kind of system is accepted it will shift many other aspects to the shittier side and thing will continue to get worse. This is the reason why mobile gacha gaming is so bad. The devs pushed poorer rates and people just sat there and accepted it blowing thousands on such practices. This is the reason why something like 0.6% chance to get a 5 star character exists. It's derived from the Mobile Gacha Gaming.

What's all these complaining posts? Why don't you just enjoy the game?
FCKING STOP PROTECTING/WHITE KNIGHTING THESE SCUMMY PRACTICES. First of all get it through your thick skulls that the who are doing the so called "complaining" are doing it because they love the game and WANT IT TO BE BETTER. They aren't doing it out of spite or anything.
You can dismiss a few troll threads when a user is hating without a reason anywhere. But know that when multiple people are complaining about one thing it means there is something wrong with that. People are making long posts giving proper reasons as to why something is bad and giving a reply like "This is how it is. Quit if you don't like it." is a rotten and crappy mindset.
The reason people are taking their time to write of such lengthy posts is because they genuinely love the game and want it to be better and more awesome. That's why something called "FEEDBACK" exists in this world. As it stands the game is just heading to its doom and the people trying to prevent it are the ones who care about it. People giving crappy answers are contributing nothing to it.
And let me ask this question why do you have to fcking head crash into people who care? Is it bad that the game gets better and everybody enjoys it rather than your sorry a$$ of a gacha gambling addict.
A fact is that if things get better these so called white knights will be jumping in joy too. BUT THERE IS ONE VERY BIG DIFFERENCE. They will call it like "Wow! mihoyo is so generous. They're the best devs in the world." rather than actually crediting it to the people who made the change possible.

FINAL WORDS
The game itself is very beautiful. The awesome Open world map, absolutely banger soundtrack all are just too good. I absolutely love the game itself. But the current game system is very flawed and this needs to addressed as soon as possible.
If Genshin Impact stays like this, it will be removed from the mainstream audience. That's why changes need to occur if they want this crowd to stay, otherwise if all want is just money then they'll carry on with these shitty practices.
Know that at the end of all this if nothing is changed Genshin will just be another Generic Mobile Gacha Game where you'll save primogems for months for a char -> Get fcked by abyssal rates -> Curse the devs and game -> Go to sleep -> Rinse and repeat and if you enjoy it that's good for you. What sucks the most is that a game with so much potential will be ruined.

This sub literally spread misinformation about gacha game right now

Gamestop: Power to the Market Players (Part 2)

This writing was copied from my blog https://nope-its-lily.medium.com/. I write about the NOPE and other options and market things there and on my twitter https://twitter.com/nope_its_lily. Cheers!
Check out Part 1 first about my thoughts on the short squeeze thesis. To clarify — I do think shorts are being squeezed in Gamestop, although this is auxiliary to the main driver of the stock’s momentum (and not, in my opinion, the primary driver of Friday’s exponential rise).
So okay, let’s go to the obvious question — if hedge fund tears didn’t cause Gamestop to rocket, what did cause it?
Wew laddy, +71.25% at the peak.
Gamestop in many ways is an extraordinary story, and has all the properties of a successful meme stock (salience):

Personal name recognition/Nostalgia-For better or worse, we all know/remember Gamestop (primarily from childhood), which is similarly why Hertez performed so well in the afterlife while Mallinckrodt hasn’t.
A hero and a villain — Much like Tesla, Ryan Cohen represents the hero in the Gamestop narrative, where investors can paint whatever picture of the future they want and justify whatever price tag they pay. Similarly, Melvin and Citron (I mean, even the name Melvin) and the hedge fund industry are (perhaps well-deserved) villains in the arc, helping obfuscate feelings of greed or risk by presenting it as a righteous cause.
A cataly-ish — For obvious reasons Gamestop is benefiting from the console cycle, but perhaps to a lesser degree than before (its massive real world presence during a pandemic doesn’t help much).
Humor-What could be more funny than investing in a relic of the early 2000s? Except maybe investing billions into 3d renderings of hydrogen powered cars.

So it isn’t a surprise Gamestop captivated the attention of the internet; despite common belief, the legend of Gamestop extended far outside wallstreetbets (although the saga of DeepFuckingValue/RoaringKitty there helped bring substantial energy to the cause).
And how does the internet show some love?
Well, it buys calls.
For better or worse, most new investors have absolutely no concept outside of simple long call/put positions (probably for the best, from experience). In general, most new market positions view long options (and, let’s face it, mostly calls) as a highly leveraged bet on the underlying akin to a lotto ticket, which works beautifully for the following reasons:

Long options have asymmetric risk-reward, assuming risk-loving participants.

While in prior posts I’ve touched on the expected profit of options being zero, this is only true (it’s never actually true, due to seller’s, variance risk premium, and a host of other factors) under risk-neutral measure. In the real world, investors (especially on indices) tend to be risk-averse (weighting losses more heavily than chance of gain)… at least historically. The new class of retail investors, on the other hand, partly engendered by Robinhood’s extremely gamified UI tends to be risk-loving (“yolos”), favoring chance of gain over (higher) chance of loss.
For that type of an investor, options are akin to a casino due to convexity, or in layman’s terms, “the potential to go up a lot really fast” in value. This is of course true for stocks too (albeit less so, due to the implied leverage of options), but when an individual purchases a stock they have a rather large downside (the entire stock can become worthless). This isn’t the case for a call option, which only represents a portion of the total cost of the stock, but represents the entire upside.
2. Options have to be hedged… often in the underlying.
Before I get 1000 responses telling me this isn’t always true (especially on indices, where you have futures and all sorts of nice things) — it’s more or less true on a meme stock, which basically has no beta or correlation to any other stock (except perhaps other meme stocks). In general, one can anticipate that an option written by a market maker and sold to a retail investor (who owns a long position from that transaction) is hedged in the underlying stock, which obeys the same rules of buying and selling pressure. This is even more apparent in stocks with low float, which tend to move in price substantially with relatively low volume traded. You can imagine how few option contracts it similarly takes (given the implied leverage up to 100 shares worth of delta) to actually move the price (I’ve seen call options move the spot in real time, for instance, on Del Taco stock before earnings).
3. Option buying begets option buying.
What happens when a few individuals buy options on a stock? It moves up slightly (usually in proportion to how many options were bought, what time period they were bought in, and how large the underlying’s float is). This triggers the happy centers in peoples’ brains (yay, we’re making money) and triggers more buying of calls.
More interestingly, option convexity is largely due to the Greek gamma, which simply refers to the rate delta changes in response to changes in the underlying’s spot price. Delta more formally measures how much we expect the option price to change as the spot price changes, but more usefully for this example can represent how many shares equivalent the option contract controls at the given price. This is why delta represents the hedge ratio — if you, for instance, write a 100 delta (ITM) call option and sell it, you need to equivalently own 100 shares of that stock to neutralize your risk.
Delta is interesting (my favorite Greek) because it is heavily non-linear, and changes in response to:

Spot price (gamma)
Time to expiration of the option (charm)
Volatility of the underlying (vanna)

These are all second order derivatives, so you probably are lost by now if you didn’t take calculus at some point.
So why is gamma important here?
Source: quantik.org
Unlike controlling the equivalent delta’s worth of shares, the value of an option contract increases at a faster rate as it gets closer to in-the-money. This is (one of the reasons) why options have convexity — the value of an OTM call option contract goes up faster as it gets closer to ITM, with a potential for (5,10,100,200+)**-**baggers (multiples of how much you paid for the initial) if you play it right.
What’s even more interesting though than gamma alone, however, is pairing it with theta, the decay of an option’s value as the time-to-expiration draws closer. This tends to have a strong relationship to the implied volatility — theta represents the time value of the option (extrinsic), and implied volatility is largely the market consensus of the potential for the underlying to move in the time remaining on the option. However, as the days tick down, the time for that move to actually happen diminishes, and therefore the value of the option similarly goes down with it.
As IV increases, theta usually does (especially on short term options), and vice versa. (Helpful video by the tastytrade crew — https://www.tastytrade.com/shows/market-measures/episodes/theta-and-iv-05-17-2019)
So, given my tendency to ramble, the question is — why is this important? Let’s look at gamma and theta in the context of 0-day-to-expiration (0dte) options, and try to piece together what happened to Gamestop on January 22, 2021.

0 Days to Live

0dte options have long been a mainstay of the dopamine addicted day-trader community (including me, sometimes) given they represent the purest form of lottery ticket:

They expire at the end of the day — You don’t need to go to bed and worry about your position, because it’s either closed or worthless.
They’re cheap, generally-Theta in particular becomes exponential for 0dte options, and you can quickly buy positions on sale just to gamble as the end of the day grows closer.
They still represent implied leverage and have that tasty convexity-Like their more respectable brethren, 0dte options still represent the underlying and have all the neat Greeks (gamma, delta, vanna, pajamas, etc.) which make their payouts non-linear and fun.

In general, the optimal strategy to capitalize on 0dte long options is to buy as late as possible in the day, to allow theta to provide as much leverage to you as cheaply as possible.

Let’s Imagine a Scenario Here

Let’s imagine you have a high implied volatility stock that has been stable/slightly declining in price for multiple days. During that time period, theta is aggressively destroying the value of long options, while IV is similarly dropping (both due to theta and due to relative lack of movement). As we get to the final day (this is a weekly, for example), much of the option’s value has now disappeared.
This impacts both put and calls open, though. And let’s say a mean orange decided to start a war on your stock in the days before, causing a flood of short-term puts to hit the market during that week, which had minimal effect (largely due to continual call buying of longer-dated options coupled with actual shares buying pressure due to belief of a short squeeze/Ryan Cohen being the second coming of Christ).
What happens when those puts start to expire? As the days and then hours tick down, the hedges of those put positions (shorted shares) start to unwind, and buying pressure picks up.
Similarly, this buying pressure is noticed by market participants, who start to capitalize on the momentum by buying 0dte call options. These at first have minimal impact, largely because the inflow and outflow of call delta are roughly equivalent (somewhat of a bias towards inflow, pushing price up alongside share buying).
But towards the middle of the day, two interesting things happen:

Theta and charm become more and more prominent in both making new option positions cheaper and unwinding existing put and call positions.
Gamma starts to become more dominant due to the high implied leverage versus cost of 0dtes, leading to the virtuous cycle (option buying begets option buying).

These two effects tend to be complementary — as the hedges unwind (given the weekly puts from Citron/the short seller attack) for existing option positions, new 0dte positions can be bought and bought, each time pushing up the underlying as well as increasing the value and delta of other 0dte positions.
This can be neatly observed in the option volume versus open interest for the 1/22 series on GME:
This is fine.
Although more puts traded, the delta (for obvious reasons) of calls is much higher.
As the price of the stock goes higher and higher, this continues to attract more and more speculation, hoping to capitalize on the continued momentum. This continues in a loop:

The price of the underlying continues to increase as put hedges unwind, volatility spikes, and call options are bought (the initial delta hedge).
The increase in price leads to gamma of existing contracts increasing the delta of those contracts.
This leads to more shares being bought to hedge those increasingly higher delta positions.
This leads to more speculation and momentum.

An interesting property of $GME from Friday you can neatly observe is the highest strike in the series is $60, meaning that at Friday’s close, every single call option expiring 1/22 expired ITM. More interestingly is the relationship with gamma, again observable below:
Source: quantik.org
As a contract moves further and further ITM (at one point, GME hit $76 intraday), the gamma of the contract decreases as delta hits 100 on the position. This implies a cap on the momentum from the virtuous cycle described above — while continued call buying can of course drive up the price further, not only does the cost become prohibitive (given that a deep-ITM position is basically equivalent to buying 100 shares in payout), it becomes linear (and therefore boring). Once 100 delta is reached, there is no more cycle of increasing spot price causing increasing share buying, only normal share buying.
And that’s when it drops.
It’s hard to say whether the halt caused the drop (given the mental association halts have to pump and dumps for most investors). In this case the drop assuredly coincided with the halt, but more importantly, we can observe where the drop ended:

57.99 is such a pretty number.
In this case, we can observe the drop in price stabilized at $58, before rapidly jumping above $60. This is largely due to gamma and continued 0dte call buying buttressing the fall — as the positions fell farther OTM, shares used to hedge those positions are sold off, further driving the price down (in this scenario, the dealers are almost assuredly short gamma). However, similarly those positions-now closeOTM and close to expiry-become cheaper at a fairly exponential rate (due to theta and charm).
Speculators again gain conviction, pushing the price up above the highest strike (to the point where gamma provides no real extra push versus the clock ticking down).
This is what we call a gamma squeeze, and isn’t a terribly uncommon phenomenon. It largely follows similar patterns:

In general, gamma squeezes tend to happen closer to OPEX, due to both hedge unwinding (in the case of a previous put skew, for instance) and due to the 0dte effects mentioned.
In general, there is both a rapid rise (due to gamma looping and speculators joining) with a similarly steep cliff (especially if the available strikes is exhausted, like what happened to $GME).

Can it be continued forever, though?

In general, the answer unfortunately is yes.
Gamma squeezes in generally power meme stocks, and require a few elements to be true:

Continued supply of strikes and promise of convexity — Put gamma squeezes rarely happen because well, the maximum value of a put option occurs when the underlying hits 0. Calls, however, have an infinite potential payoff and strikes similarly can be added indefinitely. This allows continued creation of OTM options, which due to cheap premium and asymmetric risk-reward on longs power the gamma squeeze.
Continued momentum-In general, meme stocks follow the greater fool theory, despite promise of rocket emojis. When they drop, they drop hard.

Oopsies.
This is because, as previously mentioned, meme stocks are powered by long calls sold by market makers, who are chronically short gamma. Any selling begets more selling. Even periods of quiescence are dangerous, because without continued inflow of call delta, hedges unwind, and the selling pressure begins.

Continued attention-This is where salience shines. The major reason Tesla (the OG gamma squeeze) continued to rocket throughout 2020 was largely due to Elon Musk’s charisma and Tesla’s promise of a better world. It becomes a lot easier to stomach risk for an investor when following a strong personality with a killer story. This role was largely played in Gamestop’s saga by Ryan Cohen, and fed into (potentially unwittingly) by the battle with Citron and the mystique of DeepFuckingValue. It remains, however, to be seen if this will continue.

The moral of the story here is retail, for better or for worse, finally learned how to weaponize options. We’ll see what happens next.

Mon. Feb. 8 Daily HUT Content - What is new?

Hey guys, it’s Coooolin! How was your Monday!? It’s a brand new week!! Hope everyone had a great start to it ! What did you do today? Let me know, down below!
Here’s the new content for today, Thanks EA! :)

NHL 94 Flashback

Mark Recchi - 91 OVR - PHI / RW - DIS¹ , WM²
Glenn Anderson - 90 OVR - EDM / RW - BAR¹ , HOW²
Morgan Rielly - 90 OVR - TOR / RD - BAR¹ , LTL² ... YAY! u/jordanjclarke
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - 89 OVR - EDM / C - DIS¹ , MAG²
Ryan Getzlaf - 88 OVR - ANA / C - - H and S¹ , T² ... 91 FOs with T
Shayne Corson - 87 OVR - EDM / LD - BAL¹ , SPE²
Craig Ludwig - 87 OVR - DAL / LD - SWA¹ , WH²
Kevin Hayes - 87 OVR - PHI / C - SPA¹ , MAG²
Tomas Hertl - 87 OVR - SJS / C - SPA¹ , LTL²
Sean Hill - 86 OVR - ANA / RW - BAL¹ , SH²
Jamie Olesiak - 85 OVR - DAL / LD - SWA¹ , GLA²
Johan Garpenlov - 85 OVR - SJS / LW - H and S¹ , PP²
—-

Primetimes

NHL

Austin Matthews - 93 OVR - TOR / C - LTL¹ , GLA¹
Mitchell Marner - 91 OVR - TOR / RW - PP¹ , MAG¹
Max Pacioretty - 88 OVR - LVK / LW - WM¹ , WH¹
Thomas Griess - 87 OVR - DET / G - 6’2” / 232 lbs - BAR¹ , SPA¹
Alex Debrincant - 87 OVR - CHI / RW - HOW¹ , SH¹
Dougie Hamilton - 87 OVR - CAR / RD - GLA¹ , WH¹
Mikael Backlund - 85 OVR - CGY / C - SPE¹ , MAG¹
Barclay Goodrow - 83 OVR - TBL / C - MAG¹ , T¹ ... 86 FOs with T
Jake Allen - 83 OVR - MTL / G - 6’2” / 190 lbs - DIS¹ , SWA¹
Maxime Comtois - 82 OVR - ANA / LW - PP¹ , WM¹
Scott Laughton - 81 OVR - PHI / C - HOW¹ , SH¹
Bratt Pesce - 80 OVR - CAR / RD - BAL¹ , GLA¹
Chandler Stephenson - 80 OVR - LVK / C - DIS¹ , PP¹
Nicolas Hague - 78 OVR - LVK / LD - SPA¹ , LTL¹
Givani Smith - 78 OVR - DET / RW - SWA¹ , MAG¹

Other Leagues

Nick Shore - 80 OVR - EVZ / C - BAR¹ , HOW¹
Enzo Corvi - 79 OVR - DAV / C - H and S¹ , SPE¹
Valtteri Kemiläinen - 78 OVR - TAM / RD - DIS¹ , T¹
• • • • • • • • • • - - - - - - - - - • • • • • • • • • • • •

Packs Available

1D 23H
• Jumbo Elite Pack - 50k C / 1k P
20 items , with at least 11 80+ OVR Players
• Mega Pack - 37.5k C / 750 P
30 items, at least 15 Gold Players, and 4 80+ OVR Players
• Players Pack - 15k C / 300 P
10 items, all Players, at least 5 Gold Players and 1 80+ OVR Player

P.S.

• HUT CHAMPS Processing
• Happy Monday!

Hockey News

• Khudubin gets Benched
• Hockey in History

Stock Market News

• All Time Highs
• A chance to make millions

Other News

• COVID 19 whats happening in Canada
• Will you buy Silver Stocks?
——————

What’s to Come?

• Rivals Resets - Tomorrow at 5pm EST
• SB Season Reset - Wednesday at 5pm EST
• Rivals Rewards - Wednesday at 5pm EST
• HUT Champ Rewards - Wednesday at 6am EST
• SB Rewards !! - Thursday at 5pm EST
• More Event Cards!! - Friday at 5pm EST
—————

Summary of the day

Quick Read
Best Forward of the Day - 94 FLASHBACK - is MAARK RECHHI OVR 91 with the syn DISTRIBUTOR and DOUBLE WING MAN
Best Defence of the Day - 94 FLASHBACK - is MOORGAN RIELLY OVR 90 with the syn BARRAGEE and LIGHT THE LAAMP
//
Best Forward of the Day - PT - is AUSTIN MATTHEWSS OVR 93 with the syn LIGHT THE LAMP and GLAADIATOR
Best Defence of the Day - PT - is DOUGIE HAMILTONN OVR 86 with the syn GLADIATORR and WING MAAN
———— —— ———

Important Notice

Okay, lets say you had a bad day. Are you going to let it tower over your mood, spiral thoughts into your brain making it negative... or are you going to get your power back? You are who you choose to be. Just be yourself, and be you: be true, be you, and just be yourself. People will like you for you, and not just a fake persona you choose to be..because people can/will find out sooner or later, and that’ll just be bad.
Do what makes you happy. Be around people that make you happy.. and if someone isnt? Tell them that - or let them be.
You deserve good people in your life.

Interested in Stocks?

EA’s Stock Price, after hours - Feb 8
$ 142.46 (usd) —- Currency Converter
we looked at the stock at $137.54 usd
—— That is a difference of ( $4.92 / 3.58% ) —
Disclaimer - I am not a financial advisor. It is your money, please do your own due diligence. I am not responsible for your money. This is *not** advice. I added this section for an added educational purposes only. Thanks*
—— —— —— —-

NEED A SOUNDTRACK TO LISTEN TO?

I made this for everyone. I’ll update it whenever I feel like it, but its been often!

WE’RE AT 1400 SONGS! WOWW! How are you not listening to this playlist already!?
Comment songs to add, and please give feedback! It’s much appreciated!!
I currently have “Glad You Exist” by “Dan + Shay” stuck in my head.... which you can play, recently added to the playlist!
Sidenote - How do you guys like the playlist!? I have a friend who makes music...and I really want to surprise him with some new people listening to his music... if you wanna help me, please click Here!! it would mean a lot to me!!
———-

Sites To Bookmark!

Fighting a Gambling Addiction?

Don’t feel scared to click here. Winning is SO much louder than losing. Know that you are NEVER alone. We are all here for eachother, and it is never too late to get help. I am here for you.
This is a VERY important thread, especially if you are new to HUT. Here!
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39 / 365
—— —— —— —- —- ——- —- —— ——
Thanks for reading.
I’m always welcome to feedback, please let me know what I can improve on.
If there’s anything missing, please let me know!
Take care, happy gaming! HAPPY NATIONAL KITE FLYING DAY!
• Coolin Killin It
(Life is like a puzzle, you just have to find the right piece.)

I got stuck with a pet demon. Do you know how scary these things are?

I don’t have to tell you how scared I was when I saw it. Like scared shitless. I didn’t believe it was real at first, I thought maybe I was dreaming, but soon after I concluded that I was dealing with a creature that’s out of this world. It isn’t every day that you meet with intergalactic, demented creatures or demons from hell or whatever other evil places.
I just found it on my couch one morning after I woke up. It was the oddest and scariest thing I’ve ever laid eyes on. When it saw me too, it started howling, raging like crazy, probably demanding food.
The game was on and it was watching it like it was the biggest football fan in the world. Then it started dragging its ass on the carpet, circling around me. The creature didn’t attack me or anything, he seemed harmless but still goddamn horrible to look at. It burped and started running through the living room until it went headfirst into the furniture, where it instantly blacked out.
I honestly thought it was gonna bite or kill me when it’d wake up and my heart was racing inside my chest, drumming so hard like Tommy Lee was playing a solo in a Motley Crue live concert.
I saw a letter on the carpet and I wondered where or whom it was from, aaaaaaand, of course, that’s when the troubles started. Let me just write it here verbatim and then I can go on with it. It was written in red ink, the letters were pulsating different shades, and I was pretty sure it had to be supernatural or the likes of that.
Luckily I took a photo before reading it all, you’ll see why it was a good idea.
“Dear Jonathan,
Hello there. Sorry to send Fluffy out of the blue but I am really busy at the moment and I need you to take care of him for a few days. These are troubling times down here, I had a few guys who went overboard with drinking and gambling and they haven’t been doing their duty properly.
I won’t get into detail about how things here work as you’re not eligible for a place yet. You’re very close though!
I don’t even want to start telling you what a crazy party we had on Halloween. We had stripping demon hookers, we smoked DMT, drank whisky that was one thousand years old, brewed right down here with our special recipe. Good times!
I left one bottle in the fridge for you as well. Just be careful with drinking too much or you’ll go insane. It kinda burns your throat like really bad and if you do shots, you’ll be able to breathe flames.
No, not really. Joking, duh! I like bringing the lolz, you know what I’m saying? Seriously though, don’t drink too much in a single day. If you have just a single on the rocks, you should be fine. If you actually do get drunk on it and see the dancing devils just ignore them, they’re not real. Or are they? Lol, jk.
Anyways, the reason I sent Fluffy over is that I have some business to attend here on earth and I can’t leave him alone down there. The last time I did it, he ate my sidekick after he forgot to feed him on time. I can’t carry him with me either because… well, I got important stuff to do that require my utmost attention.
So, I have chosen you to watch for my dear old Fluffers! Ain’t he great? Did he get to run headfirst into the furniture by now? He does that when he’s in a new environment.
Speaking of, you have to feed time every Wednesday, at 12 pm sharp. Not a minute earlier, not a minute later. I can’t even highlight the importance of that!
Even if he is a demon, he still eats the usual raw stuff: raw hearts, raw kidneys, raw muscles. You know, everything meaty basically. Also, aside from that he requires milk daily, just a little, it doesn’t matter when you’ll give it to him, he will not refuse it. Just make sure it’s not too much otherwise he’ll start barking and howling like crazy and your neighbors will hear him and you don’t want that to happen.
No bueno.
He does like strawberries from time to time but I recommend giving those only on Friday mornings and only in moderation (like two or three of them) because he has a tendency of getting bloated and he’ll start shitting all over your house.
And you do not want that to happen because his shits are very acidic and will punch holes in the floor.
You’ll have a shitty floor. Get it?
Anywho, I gotta bounce. I’ll come to get Fluffy later this month.
DO NOT GET PHYSICALLY OR VERBALLY VIOLENT WITH HIM.
Toodles!
Yours truly,
Sa†an
P.S. If you’re lucky and he likes you, he’ll try and communicate with you. So if you ask him a yes or no question he’ll reply with one bark (I personally call them barks) for yes, two for no. Try it if you get the chance.
P.S.S. If I see that you took good care of him, I’ll make sure you get a big fat reward. If no, then…
Right after I finished reading it, the letters scrambled all by themselves into the face of a devil who smirked and winked at me right before vanishing.
What the fuck, right? If you’re like me, then you’re wondering what the hell was going on. I just experienced two supernatural events in less than five minutes and I didn’t even think that there was a word in the dictionary to describe how scared I was.
The tag on his collar was in the shape of a pink heart with the name Fluffy written on it so I knew he didn’t lie in the letter but…
Fluffy? There was a huge discrepancy between the name and the actual way the creature looked like.
Anyway, let me tell you a bit about Fluffy. God, I can’t even say his name without my heart starting to rise up in my throat when I think I had to monstersit the Devil’s pet.
The small creature was approximately three feet tall, it had purple fur all over its body and two crimson tusks, one longer than the other. Its eyes were a bright hue of glowing pink, and it had three legs and four arms. The arms had little claws on them, probably so that it could grab its food better.
I still couldn’t believe it but… I was sure it was real. I had to do what he said in the letter and I had to take care of it.
I found myself in a situation in which I’ve never thought I’d be. I decided to call it a him, just like Satan wrote in his letter, maybe that’d have helped.
Fluffy was waking up and I approached him. He was a bit scared, I could sense it and when I tried to pet him on the head, he hissed at me, and that’s when I noticed his dark orange tail that ended in an arrow-head tip. Classic demon stuff, right?
I let out a ‘Woah!’ and I saw his pink eyes and the tail both lit up in flames. The light was flickering while he focused on studying me and my moves. The tail was colored a bright flamy orange that seemed to contrast the dark hue pretty damn well.
I wondered how should I’d call him, ‘Here, Fluffy’, ‘Here, here, little demon’, ‘Atta monster’???
…
“Fluffy, want some milk?”, I asked.
He started wagging his tail and ran towards my leg. Fortunately, the fire was gone and nothing burned.
“Does Satan gives you milk in Hell?” I asked again and I heard him… bark, sorta.
It wasn’t your traditional dog bark, more like a thousand barks that echoed in one. You know… like could you imagine a creature of Hell doing one? Yeah, that’s exactly how it sounded.
I took a bowl and put some milk in it and he started drinking with his three tongues and spikes started coming out from his back. That probably meant he liked it, I thought.
I felt physically sick when I heard the sound of them erecting from under the flesh and I started shivering with a fear that I’d never thought to experience ever in my life. I made his sleeping spot in the kitchen and I tried to make it as comfortable and cozy as possible.
After all, I didn’t exactly know how to take care of a demon pet, except for the instructions I was given.
Of course, I had to call in sick at work that morning because you know you don’t get the chance every day to monstersit Satan’s pet.
Time passed on and nothing significant happened on that Tuesday. Oh, luckily I remembered I had to get his food for the next day. There was a butcher’s shop nearby so it was a quick errand to run.
I left him sleeping and I wished that nothing bad would happen. I mean… Satan would have him trained by now, right? I bought like twenty pounds of chicken hearts, beef steaks, sirloins, and pork chops and I put them in the freezer to make his lunch the next day.
Then I heard my neighbor Gary blasting that stupid black metal shit and screaming vocals over the original song like a goddamn lunatic.
“Hey, fucking asshole! Mind turning that down, I’m trying to rest?!” I angrily yelled.
“Up yours, ya pussy, this is real fucking music, not that pop shit you listen to!” his wife Karen replied.
“Hey! Fuck you both, you demented scumbags! I’m going to call the cops if you don’t turn that shit down, you hear me?!” I said, blood starting to boil inside my veins.
Five minutes later, the music stopped. Fucking Gary and Karen, what a lovely couple.
I saw Fluffy standing behind me growling.
“Sorry, little guy. I shouldn’t have yelled. It’s that they piss me off sometimes with that stupid musical vomit,” I told him but he didn’t stop growling.
I moved past him but he was still standing there, motionless, just growling in their direction. I assured him it’s alright and told him to come with me, so I can give him some milk. He happily obliged.
Night came and I took Fluffy to bed. Even though he seemed to listen to every word I said there was still some sort of darkness in the way he looked at me. They say that the eyes are windows to the soul so maybe that’s exactly what he was doing. Trying to ‘read’ my soul and see if I was fit to take care of him or not.
“Listen here, Fluffy. Your owner gave me strict rules and told me to be really careful about taking care of you, ok? So please, don’t start throwing tantrums in the middle of the night or become too curious about the neighborhood, ok?” I told him, hoping that maybe he could understand. Still, I was trembling with fear.
Then I remembered what Satan said at the end of the letter. One bark for yes, two for no.
“Do you understand?” I asked him again and I heard him bark once. We were starting to get along pretty good and I went to bed for the night.
Lights out.
Someone knocked on the front door. I got out of bed to see who could’ve been at that late hour in the night. Half asleep I opened the door to see Gary enraged with madness, drunk as a skunk and high as a kite, holding a knife in his hand.
“You disrespected my woman, you piece of shit! No one talks to her like that,” he said, his hands shaking.
“Listen, man. I’m sorry, alright? I shouldn’t have said those things,” I told him, hoping in resolving the conflict peacefully.
Of course, that wasn’t the case, you can’t reason with madmen. His right fist connected with my face and I was sent on the floor, start filling my vision. My upper lip split and I felt blood entering my mouth, the salty and coppery taste was something I haven’t felt since I was in a school fight as a kid.
I tried to punch back but I couldn’t match his enormous size and strength. He put the knife to my throat and asked me if I wanna die. I shook my head as tears starting to form in my eyes. He was pressing the tip of the blade against my neck, I thought that the end would soon follow and I’d die at the hands of a drunken crack addict.
He pocketed the knife and spat at my face, telling me that if I ever even look at them, I’d be dead. He ended by saying that if I’d call the cops, he’ll kill me. Even if he were to be arrested, he’d hire a guy to kill me. Or worse, just cripple me. Make it look like an accident.
I looked in the corner where the kitchen was and saw Fluffly standing there, just watching. I shook my head at him not make a move. Then I pissed myself with fear, the warm liquid staining my pajama pants.
Gary punched me one more time in the ribs and I coughed blood on the floor. “You’re fucking disgusting, you stupid fuck,” he said, right before leaving, slamming the door on his way out.
I didn’t want to call the cops straight away because fear overtook all my other senses and the guy was batshit crazy. I mean he could’ve come back any second and I never trusted a person as erratic as him.
Besides, I had to deal with more important things than my split lip and pissed pants. I raised myself, patched my lip, and went to take a shower.
I was in and out of sleep for a few hours when suddenly I jolted awake when I heard the front door slamming shut. Someone was trying to rob me. I had to deal with a demon, a murderous neighbor, and now a burglar.
Or maybe it was Gary who changed his mind and wanted to finish me off for good.
Shit, shit, shit, SHIT! I thought. I didn’t have anything to defend myself with so I just took a pencil from my desk so I could stab the motherfucker in the eye if push came to shove.
I checked the living room, nothing. I looked around nothing. I went to the kitchen and turned on the lights.
Fluffy was standing there with a human arm in his mouth while his tusks were dripping blood. I recognized Gary’s tattoos on it before I stumbled and fell down on the floor.
Fluffy was different. He was bigger in size and now there were spikes all over him and they dripped with blood too. He started wagging his tail and dropped the arm at my feet, barking at me to take it.
Then he pushed it again with his tusks towards me.
“Oh no, Fluffy… What the hell did you do?!” I yelled.
Big mistake because his eyes and tail lit up again. “Sorry for yelling! Didn’t mean to, it’s just… I’m scared and you shouldn’t have done that!” I said.
Then I saw Gary’s head watching me from the corner of the room, his lifeless dull eyes frozen with fear. I shrieked and fell on the floor again. Then from across the street, I heard Karen letting out a huge scream, one that woke up the whole neighborhood.
I understood why Fluffy did it, he wanted to protect me from the bad neighbor but he left me with a bad situation on my hands so I had to think fast.
“Fluffy, is the rest of the body here in my house?” I asked.
He barked twice.
“Did you leave it in their house?” I said while pointed to Gary and Karen’s house.
Woof.
Well, at least we got that figured out. I was afraid he would’ve eaten parts of him and get me in double trouble. He wasn’t allowed to eat anything except on Wednesday, remember?
I told him to stay put. I got some trash bags for Gary’s head and arm and then stuffed them inside the freezer with the rest of his food. Figured, I don’t know, maybe he’d eat them in a few hours. I then wiped the floor clean with bleach and made sure there wasn’t any more blood in the house.
Fluffy went to sleep like nothing happened.
What a shitshow.
Then I heard the police sirens and as I watched through the window I saw them pull up in front of my neighbors’ house.
I didn’t even notice it was morning. I just stood on the side of my bed petrified, all kinds of scenarios going through my head: jail for the rest of my life, death row, things like that.
11:30 in the morning. Time passed so fast while I stood there like a statue, still and unable to move. Frozen with fear.
I heard a knock on the front door.
Two police officers came to ask me questions. They wanted to see if I know anything about Gary’s killing.
As soon as I started talking Fluffy started barking.
“Hey Fluffy, keep it down please! I’m trying to talk with these officers about the tragic accident that happened last night! Do you understand?”
He barked once.
I’m trying to save both our asses here, I thought.
“His wife told us that you got in a fight yesterday, Mr. Turner. She said that you were pretty aggressive towards them. Mind telling us why?” one of them asked.
I looked at Agents Suck and Fuck over standing on my porch and wished that Fluffy would come and rip their heads off.
“I wasn’t aggressive, officers. It’s just sometimes they took that black metal music too seriously and forget that other people are living in the neighborhood… It was very loud and I was trying to get some rest,” I told them, whimpering.
More questions followed and when I checked the clock, it said 11:51.
“If that’s all, officers…” I said, trying to make them leave so I can feed the “dog”.
“Got somewhere to be, sport?” Agent Suck asked me, patronizingly.
I shook my head and said that I just needed to feed my dog, he’s very hungry.
“Come on, Gary, leave the man be. We’ll be in touch, Mr. Turner. Thank you for your cooperation,” Agent Fuck said.
His name was Gary…. I felt like I was in some sort of bad cosmic joke.
“What happened to your lip?” Officer Suck or Gary asked me. “You got your ass handed to you or something?”
I said that my dog accidentally scratched me while I was training him, it was no big deal. Then they both said goodbye and I was getting really nervous and stressed because I didn’t want to miss Fluffy’s lunchtime.
11:54.
I ran to the fridge and I took the frozen meat and quickly placed them in the microwave, hit defrost for three and a half minutes, and fed Fluffy. The spikes came out again from his spine and I asked them if he liked the food and he barked once and kept eating.
Then I heard another knock. It was Officer Gary again, this time alone. His voice tone was a little bit changed.
“I know you killed him, Jonathan. I know you have his head and arm in the fridge,” he said.
No, no, no, fucking no! This wasn’t happening.
He pointed his gun at me, “On the ground with your hands behind your back! You’re under arrest!” he said while I followed his instructions.
I was basically fucked. I’d go to prison first, then Satan would come after me for not taking care of his pet.
Then Officer Gary started laughing.
“Oh, man! You should see the look on your face right now! Get the hell up, man! I was just messing with you! I told you I like to bring the lolz!”, he said, crying with laughter. “Where’s my Fluffy?”
Then the little creature came running from the kitchen and jumped on Officer Gary, I mean Officer Satan.
I mean… Ugh….
“Thank you for taking care of me for him. My business here finished earlier than anticipated and I am truly grateful for your absolute dedication towards the little fella here,” Satan said. “Mind if I take all the meats from your fridge? Including the… you know.”
I nodded.
“Jonathan. I told you that you’ll get a reward for being nice to my Fluffers, didn’t I?” he asked me.
I nodded and he told me that my mortgage has been paid off in its entirety.
“I’ll be seeing you around, Johnny boy. I like you, you could work for me. Think about it, will you?” he said. “Come on, Fluffy. To the Batmobile!” he finished.
They hoped on in the car and started driving into the distance.
Well, my piece of shit neighbor died. That meant no shitty black metal music unless Karen decided to go solo on the vocals. Maybe I’ll get Fluffy again and teach her a lesson too if I get the chance.
At least I’m debt-free so I got that going for me which is nice.
Might as well pour myself a glass of Satan’s whisky now.
Join the party.

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Gaming disorder is defined in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as a pattern of gaming behavior (“digital-gaming” or “video-gaming”) characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or ... A gambling addict is ultimately someone who loses the perspective to do the math on their losses, and dreams constantly of the big reward that might be. They will develop rituals and routines around gambling. "On the way home from work, I stop at the convenience store, and buy $25 dollars worth of scratch tickets." Gambling is so addictive, that it won’t be wrong to compare it with drugs. Similar to how substance abuse has devastating effects on a personal and social level, even gambling is detrimental to both these aspects of living. That’s one reason why it is wise to outlaw it. In other words, it seems to be the case that the less social interaction and a less enriching environ the studied beings are, the more addictive gambling seems to become for them, be it for seeds, engrams, or loot in Diablo. As a result, I’ve come to the realization that gaming can be quite addictive to say the least. What seemed like an hour of gameplay instantly turned into 6-7 hours, without so much as a snap of ... Why Are Slot Machines So Addictive? Joe Raedle/Getty Most research on compulsive gambling focuses on the psychological, biological, or even moral profiles of gambling addicts—but the real ... More:Why legalized sports gambling is a win for millions of fans More:What it means: Supreme Court strikes down PASPA law that limited sports betting Keith Whyte, executive director of the ... On the other hand, “disordered gambling,” as the American Psychiatric Association now calls gambling addiction, seems to afflict just 1 to 2 percent of Americans, according to studies. Yet according to a long string of studies, and as Schull notes in her book, those people can generate 30 to 60 percent of revenues for the machine-gambling ... Why is gambling so addictive? It is addictive because the casino cover it up as games, they want the customers feel like a child going to amusement park. Most people who are going to casino would find excitement from the very first bet they made, and the very first winning they got. Online gambling sites may have policies on restricting access, but their ability to enforce them is unclear. Thus, the only real limit is an individual’s self-control. For people who are prone to addictive behavior, obsession easily overrides willpower. An important part of gambling addiction treatment is having a strategy to avoid play.

Understanding gambling addiction MIT News ...

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why is gambling so addictive reddit video

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