Utah county land records

All values in USD.
Assets and Debt
Retirement Balance: nope because I'm planning on leaving the US (for my bf) after finishing school. Not sure how retirement balance works across countries.
Equity: nope but almost bit and bought a house in the middle of the insane housing price crisis? windfall?? in 2021. Boy would my life be different rn
Savings account balance: zip but 90k in bonds
Checking account balance: 60k
Credit card debt: nada, and using a debit card in Europe
Student loan debt: nothing, because my parents (bless them) paid for my (subsidized, bless FAFSA + need based scholarships) college tuition, and I got a free masters (thanks to my advisor + TAships) and am currently doing a free (aka on my advisor's bill again lmao + TAships) phd
Income
Income Progression: a string of tech internships (every single summer except freshman and masters and first year of phd) with pay from between 5500/month to 11000/month (pre-tax, adjusted for bonus and currency exchange rate) That high end was from a fancy startup and pre-brexit lmaoooo. Low end was gov work. And my current phd income is 2500/month, so this is actually an income regression lol
Main Job Monthly Take Home: Current internship is 5000/month but my overall taxes are low because I'm not here long enough for it to bump up my income taxes more than one rung. So keep in mind I make like 1700/month the rest of the year
Side Gig Monthly Take Home: I wish! Once I get my big girl job I'm going remote and setting up a ceramics studio, a grocery store, and then volunteering and making games. Work can go stuff itself. Honestly the more and more I work the more and more I feel like I want to turn stage left exit society, tyvm. People meme academia as being abstract and useless (and sometimes toxic...that one's deserved maybe) but unless you are at a specific type of company, corporate research can be equally "useless" but by way of having insanely short (as in, to production by year's end) deadlines so you're kind of forced to "fit a square peg into a round hole" eg work on a business problem that you (or your higher up) did not spend enough time defining and then somehow make it look like research when maybe the most cost-effective solution was something else entirely...sorry for rant
Do your parents pitch in monthly? Been financially independent since last year...to my great surprise. I used to be financially independent since undergrad graduation but apparently my mom started sneakily paying off my CC debt again in my phd so I had to change the linked bank account back. My mom thinks I'm poor lmao...I'm not
Expenses
Rent (includes utilities): 2000 ouch (Europe) + 500 (US) monthly
Transport: bike (free after fixed costs, yay!) and bus (free with school)
Renters insurance: none. Getting renter's insurance is like wearing my retainer...everyone tells me to do it (including myself) but I make up a million excuses as to not
Savings contribution: whatever's left in the month. Usually 400+-100
Investment contribution: is the stock market even real? I'm just kidding. But I don't really understand my finances, and I feel embarrassed about that, but at the same time I feel like after factoring in all my personal considerations, I'm better off not doing anything other than guaranteed bonds.
Debt payments: no. college is done, no house, no car
Cellphone: Prepaid in Europe, like 5 a month. But my US phone is actually on my parent's family plan. So I guess I'm still not financially independent...
Subscriptions: Occasional magazines 50 annually, school union 100 annually
Regular therapy: None. Therapy has been a hit and miss for me
Paid hobbies: Art supplies like 100 a year, books like 300 annually, audio like 100, bike stuff 100, kitchen stuff...400, fancy specialty ingredients...800, clothes 400 but my mom gifts me a lot over the holidays like 500-1000 worth, and gifts for f&f I budget around 800 a year
[Money Diary]
[Tuesday]
7am: wake. super groggy. Drink two gulps of fanta to actually wake and immediately regret it
8am: on the bus to work. Today is going to be a slow day which is nice.
8:30am: grab a rhubarb and rose yogurt for breakfast ($2). Delicious. Have to order this somehow when I'm back in the states.
12pm: Brought eggplant and bolognese for lunch. Eat with another intern and talk random stuff about our phds.
4:30pm: leaving early cuz today is my bf's last night in the country. I head to a bakery and grab a croissant and pretzel and baguette ($7) for him as an apology for an argument we had yesterday. I also head to a grocery to grab a pumpkin ($10) for curry later. I race to the bus! Almost miss it. Everyone is looking at me because I'm panting and I feel that strange awkwardness you get from being caught running without gym clothes.
6pm: Back home. We heat up leftovers (ramen for me and bolognese for him) and watch a chill video about balancing in gaming. It was either this or a math video and the math video was too long.
7pm: I ask him about when he's coming back to see me so I can let my mom know if my schedule fits my family's June paris trip or not (my mom's extremely hyped about this so I would like to come.) Because he's been dragging his feet figuring out his schedule we get into another argument, which then carries back into our argument from yesterday.
9pm: Answer some emails and book a flight for my return trip because my sister is going to her dream college and I want to be with her on visit week ($156)
10pm: I'm trying to read my paper for tomorrow's meeting but it's not going well because we are still talking about our problems
12pm: We cuddle and sleep. Argument's not resolved because neither wants to give
Total: 19 (Food) + 156 (Plane)
[Wednesday]
6am: wake. notice that it's 6am and go back to sleep
7am: wake and wake up bf. He's leaving today and so we cuddle, but like sadly (LDR, whats new.) Eventually I get hungry so I go and munch on plums. I am a bit distracted because I have a lot of meetings that I'm not well prepared for.
8:30am: catch bus. We joke a bit about yesterday's argument. Eventually, say goodbye when I transfer trams. I watch a video to prepare for my first meeting on the tram. Then I have a meeting, read to prepare for next meeting, rinse, repeat. Go out to eat with coworkers ($18)--conversations are so awkward (because of me. I don't have the extra mental capacity to try socializing with overworked dudes 4 years older than me and I've lost a concerning amount of EQ over the course of my phd.)
2:00pm: After a particularly stressful meeting (went well, thanks to my clutch skills) I decide I need to take a walk outside as a break. I go to the bakery to buy a chocolatine and apple danish ($5). I am not even hungry. I am just retail theraping and desserts look cute and smell good. Head back and have string of meetings until the end of the day. Very angry about my schedule
5:30pm: say fuck it cuz my brain is shot and go home. Why am I the only one who leaves before 6? Isn't this supposed to be Europe? I hate working a 9-6.
6pm: eat dinner (ramen), shower with rice on the stove (no rice cooker), rice burns omg now the bottom of the pan is burnt. I soak the pan overnight and leave my personal pan out for people to use.
7pm: reddit as revenge procrastination. I make a note to buy steel wool for the burnt pan
9pm: start writing money diary. Have wayy too much fun writing money diary while snacking on Comte and aloe vera water
11pm: realize its late and I have to finish reading a paper for Friday. I read a bit of the paper
1am: sleep
Total: 23 (Food)
[Thursday]
6am: Wake and look at random stuff on reddit for an hour and a half. I don't feel that hungry so I head out to work.
8:30am: I am very sleepy for some reason. I don't have a lot of meetings today, so I check emails, slack, and find a manageable task for the day. I end up getting distracted dealing with administrivia (ugh visa work!) I see that I have a seminar I want to attend the night and mark that down too.
10am: I decide I should try doing something productive so I start brainstorming. It doesn't really get anywhere, but I've realized that I probably need to read another paper to get a better idea of what I should do.
12pm: Head out to eat with other interns. I get shawarama ($16.) Delicious. Head back for more meetings. I try to read a bit but my focus is pretty shot so I start doing a more chill writeup instead.
7pm: We are having drinks at a bar tonight, and it takes time for people to get ready so I work late. We head out to the bar, which is crowded. I order a burger and soda because I don't want to make my sickness worse ($20.) We have a good time chatting and I get closer with some coworkers I didn't know well.
7:45pm: I say goodbye and leave early. As I'm scrolling through my phone on the late night bus, I realize that I've missed the seminar. I'm legitimiately devastated. I was thinking this seminar would help a lot with me pushing through a huge bottleneck in my thesis that's been stressing me out for the last year. I panic message my labmate to ask if the seminar was recorded, and thank the fucking lord, buddha, allah, hayao miyazaki, yes. It was recorded. My pants on fire are doused, my soul is saved. I cannot wait to fucking graduate.
9pm: I get back and notice the cleaning lady's cleaned the burnt pan. I feel a bad but grateful. After showering I am tired as hell. I really can't work today, but I stubbornly stay awake thinking that if I lay in bed scrolling through eBay long enough I might recharge. It doesn't work but I find some really nice stuff (cool architectural glass vase from a designer whose stuff I usually hate, secondhand clothes from one of my fav designers, suitcase from a brand with a style that I love but quality that is absolute trash for its price, and a gift for my college friend for her next bday) that I want to bid on.
11pm: Sleep
Total: 36 (Food)
[Friday]
6am: Wake and look at videos but now with zen. I have come to terms with my laziness. I get out of bed at 7:30 instead of 7:45 (progress!) and I snack on the chocolatine from two days ago. I finally find the time and motivation to deal with some administrivia and I head to work. On my morning bus trips, I like to press my forehead against the cool window glass and zone out to stripes of greenery but today I'm thinking about eBay and how I might travel to go visit my favorite eBay stores in person lol. A quick google search shows that a roundtrip ticket is $200. Interesting.
12am: Nice lunch with coworkers at a bakery. I get a croissant sandwich ($6) and a gift for one of my coworker friends ($14).
4pm: I wrap up writing a draft and go chat and review some stuff for school and then catch up with my coworker friend to give her the gift. 6pm: Head to the grocery for a dinner salad, plums, and some orange-mango juice ($13). Look for steel wool but there is none???
6:30pm: shower because I feel a little under the weather.
8pm: call my bf and tell him some juicy gossip at work. He gets bored around the 1 hour mark.
11pm: I start working on my writeup for school. I message the dude who is receiving the writeup that it's gonna be late. He is really nice about it but I feel like I'm taking advantage of his kindness because I am always late. Disappointed in myself but not sure how to change.
1am: sleep
Total: 33 (Food)
[Saturday]
6am: wake. Seriously not motivated to continue the writeup. I waste time on eBay and youtube for 5 hours.
11am: get dressed, brush teeth, and look alive. I've been planning out my day a bit so I call my bf while I clean my room and check up on my fridge. I toss out a quarter kg of ground beef that I forgot to finish, it is two days past expiry. I take stock of what I need for meal prep this week (carrot, onion, meat, steel wool) and load up my laundry before heading to the grocery. I end up also getting a lightweight aluminum bowl (it says stainless steel though??) for washing, blueberries, dried mangos, mushroom medley ($35.) I make curry with rice for next week and rice balls to add to miso soup later.
4pm: Eat curry. I call my bf after and try to write my writeup but I get very frustrated over trying to understand a paper and complain to my bf
7pm: I head over to my friend's place for a going-away party. I feel a bit ambivalent about attending because I still have my writeup but I had already agreed to come and I will miss these people when they leave. I want to aim to leave around 9pm. The host's house is lovely and we have some great food.
9:40pm: I head back home, shower, and work on my writeup.
11pm: sleep
Total: 35 (Food)
[Sunday]
7am: wake. My wakeup time is off from normal but then I remember that today is daylight savings in Europe. I still feel tired so I end up watching some dumb videos on youtube. I bid on two items on eBay ($70...tentatively). My friend from uni messages me about meeting up to chat tonight. Hyped.
11:45am: I remember my clothes are still in the dryer. The landlord wants the laundry room free between 11am and 3pm for airbnb reasons. I rush down to grab them. I got there right on time because the landlord has 3 minutes on the washer left.
12pm: Heat up curry and eat it with an apple, some Comte, and a plum. I take a supplement with water. I've been forgetting to do that.
12:30pm: Start working on writeup. I am determined to finish it before there is no sun left so I can enjoy the outdoors a little this weekend. Have my bf on vc.
4pm: One of my bfs jokes lands the wrong way and we have to talk about it. I'm fuming mad because I'm wasting time here.
6pm: Facetime with my friend from college! It's been awhile so we catch up for a long time. 9pm: Heat dinner (curry) and eat. Then I go and read a bit more.
11pm: I have a bit of a mental breakdown because I can't finish the writeup by the weekend, and it's not because I don't have time, but because I have bad mental health around it. I have a long heart to heart with my bf over the phone. I cry a little. Life is sometimes hard and everyone's life is really hard at some point. At some point I just start rambling about nothing. I fall asleep at 1:30am.
Total: 70 (eBay)
[Monday]
4am: wake. I have a bit of a shitty morning because my eyes are still swollen. I woke up early to work on this writeup but tbh I'm barely awake and not in the mood. This was a bad idea. I intermittenly wake and sleep between 4am and 6am, of which at tail end I realize that I'm just playing myself for a fool and then I actually sleep for a good hour or so.
7:15am: Wake for real and get ready.
8:30am: Arrive at work. I buy yogurt ($2) and eat a banana while checking emails. I decide to use company time to work on my writeup because I'm blocked at work by someone else right now anyways (this is about as far as my lukewarm ass will r antiwork.)
12am: Lunch with coworkers. I have a sandwich I really don't care for ($10.) I'm a bit woozy from lack of sleep so I don't remember much. Also, I got my period.
1pm: Meetings, meetings, meetings. So many meetings.
6:30pm: Meetings end. Catch up with my intern friend before she leaves. Will miss her. I go the grocery to buy a baguette ($1) and then go to the fancy, overpriced but also conveniently-located-right-next-to-my-bus-stop bakery to get a croissant and chocolates for my period ($25.)
7:30pm: I grab Mickey D's because I want to. Fish filet sandwich, fries, chicken nuggets, and a soft drink ($18.)
8:00pm: zone out in bed and chat with my bf
11:00pm: Work on the writeup
1am: sleep
Total: 56 (Food)
[Reflections]
Weekly total:
Food + Drink: 207
Home + Clothes + Beauty (aka eBay): 70
Transport: 156
Honestly, this was the first time in a long time that I had done such a detailed review of my week. I was honestly a bit impressed by how often I wound up on eBay (ngl the times I'm on reddit, I'm oftentimes searching for new brands and designers I like, so that I can go find them...on eBay. It kind of feels a little like I may have a bit of a shopping addiction?) I use it wayy too often to cope. The nice thing about it is that I always find great deals on eBay, but I think it's probably time to switch hobbies.
Also, I need better work hygiene. Like sleep hygiene but for work. I might start going into the office weekends just so that I can wrap up stuff early, leave, and then actually have a weekend.
This week was a bit pricier than usual because I ate out for dinner and bought a plane ticket, but tbh it's not that ooc for me. Food is almost exactly the same as what I spend a week in the US and usually I budget 400/m for misc stuff so it seems like my habits haven't changed much even after moving lol. I know some people might balk at the idea of 800/m for food and 400/m discretionary spending on a 2k/m income but being no car + having the school pay for my insurance (& offering a lot of free things in general) + most importantly, no debt makes it less of a dangerous risk and more of a poor choice lmao. In Europe, I think I will end up spending more on misc things here than back in the US because Europe offers a higher density of concerts, entertainment, and designers that I like within a 30 euros train distance (and 200 euros plane distance for the ones I really like.) My personal preference is to spend <2 hours a month total thinking abt finances (so basically budgeting if I have a major life change + just going thru my CC statement and updating my tracker) so I am happy with how I spend and prefer to overspend a bit rather than think about it too much.
For those who are curious, my monthly budget here:
food (weekly): 70 for groceries + unavoidable 50 for eating with coworkers 3x a week
overall (monthly): 3700 (income) - 2500 (rents) = 1200 - 300 (food after sodexo) = 900 - 600 (misc spending) = 300 (base savings) + 1000 (relocation) = 1300 (total savings) + a bit more after tax return
​
Hope you enjoyed reading! I'm curious to see people's reactions.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/march-26-2023
Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff landed midday today in Accra, the capital of Ghana, a country of about 33 million people slightly larger than Michigan on Africa’s west coast.
The 54 countries in Africa vary widely in language, religion, and culture, and Harris will visit three countries which initially seem unrelated. During her week on the African continent, in addition to Ghana, Harris will also visit Tanzania, a country bigger than Texas of about 62 million people on the east coast that is known for its natural wonders—Mount Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti plain are both on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List. She will then visit neighboring Zambia, a landlocked country slightly larger than Texas with about 20 million people, where about one third of the country is game management areas or national parks, including one that protects the famous waterfall Mosi-oa-Tunya, or Smoke that Thunders—also known as Victoria Falls.
Harris’s visit is part of the Biden administration’s plan to counter Chinese and Russian influence on the African continent. That continent is rich in natural resources, and other countries want access to them. Between 2000 and 2016, China invested heavily in a number of African nations, sometimes in exchange for resources, sometimes for political alliances. It has become Africa’s second most important trading partner with about $250 billion in trade in 2021, just slightly behind the European Union, while U.S.-Africa trade in 2021 was about $64 billion.
Russia’s interests in Africa have tended toward support for authoritarian regimes. Russia focused on Africa after its 2014 invasion of Ukraine began to isolate it from other nations and their resources. The Russian Wagner Group of mercenary fighters has been a key player in Africa since then, often called in by authoritarian leaders to suppress political opposition in exchange for access to mines or other valuable resources.
The Wagner Group has supported anti-democratic movements across the semi-arid Sahel region, which stretches across the northern part of the continent in a band above Ghana. After recent failures in Ukraine, the leader of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, says he will turn his attention back to Africa, although it is unclear that he will be able to raise the necessary forces to make a major push.
African nations have historical reasons to be leery of European governments, who have tended to want to exploit the continent’s resources for themselves at the expense—often the deadly expense—of Africa’s inhabitants. They are also leery of the U.S., for when African nations began to throw off colonial rule, the Soviet Union tended to support those movements while the U.S. tended instead to support right-wing forces. More recently, the Trump years continued to weaken ties between the U.S and Africa as the United States withdrew from engagement with what the former president allegedly called “sh*thole countries.”
The Biden administration has worked to repair relations between the U.S. and Africa on the stated principle that Africans must have control over their own countries and their own future. The administration hosted the U.S.-Africa leaders summit in December 2022, where it announced that it backed the admission of the African Union to the Group of 20, welcoming the 55 member states of the African Union to the intergovernmental forum that focuses on global issues. The African Union has wanted admission to the G20 for years, noting that they are currently left out of discussions that affect them—most recently, the plans to address the coronavirus—and the administration’s promise that it would back the African Union’s admission was an important sign of the administration’s focus on strengthening ties between the continent and the U.S.
Since then, the Biden administration has pledged more than $6.5 billion to the continent to aid security, support democratic institutions, and advance civil rights and the rule of law. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, First Lady Jill Biden, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have all visited the continent.
Harris is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit and will emphasize the deep connections between Africa and the spread of Africans around the world, a process known as the African diaspora. In Ghana, Harris will visit the Cape Coast slave castle, used to hold enslaved Africans before they were shipped across the Atlantic for sale, primarily in the Caribbean. But the connections between Africa and the Americas reach far beyond the legacy of enslavement: Accra is the burial place of early twentieth-century U.S. writer and intellectual W. E. B. DuBois, for example. Harris will also visit Lusaka, Zambia, where as a child she visited her maternal grandfather when he worked there as a civil engineer.
The administration’s outreach to Africa is not simply a way to counter China and Russia on the continent. The White House explained that Harris is visiting these three countries specifically because their governments are investing in their democracies at a time when democracies around the globe are under siege.
Harris will launch her meeting with Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo. When the two leaders met before, in September 2021, Akufo-Addo identified the key issue facing Africa and the world, saying: “[O]ur big challenge—and it is a challenge of all those who want to develop democratic institutions on our continent—is to ensure and reassure our people that democratic institutions can be a vehicle for the resolution of their big problem—that is economic development as the means to eradicate poverty on the continent.”
This is a great summary of the central issue for democracy today.
In Africa the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, alongside a rise in interest rates, has made it hard for a number of nations to pay their international debts, which quintupled between 2000 and 2020. At the same time, the Russian blockade of Ukraine has cut food supplies while international sanctions against Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine has cut fertilizer supplies to the continent, increasing food shortages.
Those crises offer possibilities for international cooperation to invest in the African continent, especially as the new African Continental Free Trade Area agreement smooths trade across the continent and, with luck, brings rural regions into better contact with more urban areas.
But those same crises also open the way for strongmen to take over by promising to solve their country’s shortages. Russian disinformation in Africa drives pro-Russian and anti-European sentiment; a new Russian social media network launched on the continent in February 2022. Last week, Russian president Vladimir Putin claimed to have written off $20 billion of African debt and blamed the West for his inability to deliver the fertilizer he had promised.
But while democracy is under siege around the world, Freedom House, the non-profit organization that tracks the health of democracy worldwide, noted last September that African countries have shown important efforts to expand the rule of law and strong democratic institutions. Ghana, for example, has become more democratic but is threatened by the instability to its north.
Still, in August, the pan-African, nonpartisan research network Afrobarometer found that African voters want democratic institutions. According to a report from Chatham House that reviewed the polling, Africans “believe that the military should stay out of politics, that political parties should freely compete for power, that elections are an imperfect but essential tool for choosing their leaders, and that it is time for the old men who cling to power to step aside.” Seventy percent of Africans say they prefer democracy to any other form of government, 82% reject “strongman” rule, 77% reject one-party rule, and 75% reject military rule (even in countries that have recently experienced military coups).
Those impressive numbers in a continent of very young people—the median age is just 19—are an obvious reason for the U.S. to want better relations at a time when both President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have been very clear that they believe democracy at home depends at least in part on democracy overseas.
And the danger to democracy at home was crystal clear last night, as former president Trump held a rally in Waco, Texas, where in 1993 a 51-day government siege of the headquarters of a religious cult gave birth to the modern anti-government militia movement. Since then, Waco has been a touchstone for violent attacks on the government. There, last night, Trump stood on stage with his hand over his heart while loudspeakers played not the national anthem but a song recorded by January 6 insurrectionists. Footage from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol played on a screen behind him.

Thank you in advance and I’m sorry for the formatting, I’m on mobile writing this.
I (26m) am writing this on Tuesday at 9pm at night in Washington County, Oregon. I sold my car 1.5 years ago.
5 days ago I got a letter from the Oregon lien services for $600 for a tow of the car which was abandoned at the buyers apartment complex.
When I sold the car, I had the person sign 2 different “Bill of sale” documents that were provided by the Oregon DMV, I then took of if the documents fully filled out. I also took a picture of their ID (front and back) and their picture in person with the car. All of these pictures have undoctored metadata.
I have their number, instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and yet no response. I got access to the car from the tow company but didn’t find their copy of the bill of sale. I tore my house and my car apart looking these documents and still found nothing.
I contacted the tow company about the proof I have of the sale, but they had contact DMV since the owner info (apparently still me) was provided by the DMV.
I contacted the DMV about the situation and they have no record of me notifying them about the sale of the car. I asked to talk to the supervisor at the DMV and what I originally thought was said was they were backdating the sale date and I just needed to find the bill of sale to back this up.
After I contacted them, I looked all over for the bill of sale in my apartment and my car and my storage unit. I even went through all of my important papers that I know I should always save (bank statements, tax info, 3 other bill of sales from previous cars of mine, etc.) and spent hours looking. Nothing.
So I contacted the DMV again and they said the sale date was from when I originally called (which was the day after I got the bill) and not what the supervisor told me. The new agent I was talking to said they have no way of backdating sale notices by law.
The bill from the tow company states that I have until April 7th 2023 to either provide the notice of the sale dated from before the tow or pay the full bill, which I think is $2000 for the yard hold at which will then be auctioned off on the 7th.
I’m lost and feel completely out of options. I’m broke and can’t afford this bill on such a short notice. Even at $600. I don’t feel like I own the car since the documents were all signed and it’s considered an official document by the Oregon DMV.
What should I do? Is there a way to get out of this mess without paying for this bill?
UPDATE: I forgot to mention I also have a picture of the passenger registration with the buyers signature.

EDIT: Never mind I found the divorce :) Despite having my search set to “all party types” it wasn’t showing under my person’s name, it only came up after I searched the ex’s name which took me awhile to find on the internet
I have been using the Massachusetts Trial Court Electronic Case Access site. This individual would have been divorced prior to 2007 because they re-married that year. While I can find record for every single other divorce I know of for the county in question, I cannot find a court record for this particular divorce.
I can locate this person in other court cases, where their name is always displayed as "Arthur C Clarke" (fake example) with the middle initial included. I did find a divorce record for several years later than they should have been divorced, however the name is shown as just "Arthur Clarke" so I'm not sure if this inconsistency could exist across court records or if it's just someone else. I also checked the Probate and Family Court for all the other counties just in case the spouse had relocated.
My questions would be: 1) Could this divorce court case just not exist on the site where I can find all the other divorces I know of? Or B) Would it be even remotely possible for this person not to have formally divorced their ex until several years after their new marriage (assuming the case with the missing middle initial is indeed this person)?

I used to think success was driving down a beach-front highway having to choose between breathing in the new car smell from your convertible, or putting the top down for some salt air.
1 week ago, I had neither of those choices and today the very thought of beach air and new car smell makes me fucking sick.
Before I get into this, let me be clear: this is not a confession of guilt for anything I’ve done. I never wanted all this shit. From the very start it was only about one thing: Getting my son, James a birthday present.
I wasn’t even trying to get him the BEST or the BIGGEST or the most EXPENSIVE birthday present. Just
A present. The present I set out to get.
But instead...
I went to the 7/11 on Santa Monica and bought a MegaMillions lotto ticket.
My name is Daniel Baxter, and this is the day I thought I won the lottery.
​
April 8, 2022 – 2:03AM
It’s 2 o’clock in the morning and I’m at the Hollywood Casino. I’ve got every penny to my name spread across the craps table and some dickhead on his bachelor party holds the dice of fate in his clammy little hands.
My last 3 meals have been from discarded room service trays at LAX Hilton, my truck doesn’t start without a prayer and the tires have been leaking air for the last month which is fine because now I know the location of every free air filling station in LA County.
If I’d paid my phone bill, it’d be buzzing a crater in my leg from my ex, Lenora, asking if I’d picked up our son’s birthday gift with the $200 she gave me.
“Gave me” isn’t quite the right term. She handed it to me with a scowl then told me “if you gamble this shit you’ll never fucking see him again.” Things had been tense lately.
But none of that matters because this guy’s been hot and it’s with his help that I’ve turned that 200 hundred into almost 3 grand. The only question is; are the rhythms with me or not?
Maybe you call it God. Maybe you call it Karma or the natural vibe of the earth or mercury or whatever. When the rhythms are on, everything goes your way. You crush your yearly review at work and get the raise you’re after or you’re at some party and you’ve got everyone eating outta the palm of your hand.
Most things are math. Craps is math. Poker is math. Phone bills are math. Divorce rates are math and if I keep having to eat off of room service trays, the likelihood of me waking up with diarrhea is math.
It’s all just probability. But when the rhythms are on, the probability doesn’t matter. You could take a 1 and a million shot back-to-back and hit it twice. That’s what the rhythm can do for you.
Summer of 2018 I was up over 2 million. I couldn’t lose a hand of blackjack, I couldn’t crap out if I tried, I couldn’t say the wrong thing to Lenora and every time I walked into the room my son, James, would light up like a fucking lantern.
It used to be me and Lenora at the tables. The place was always open, the food is fine and the drinks are free. If we weren’t at the tables we were in the lounge talking Black Jack strategy or in the bar talking game theory or hanging out at the slots like a couple’a mice pressing a button and waiting for the cheese to pop out.
Sometimes it’s nice to be a mouse. I’ve got rats in my house. They don’t pay rent or go food shopping. All they have to do is avoid eating a piece of death cheese or poison and honestly that’s not too far off from how I live anyways.
When we had James, things changed though. As Lenora put it “risking your son’s dinner isn’t chasing something it’s chasing nothing.” And I guess the 45-minute commute to the Hollywood wasn’t a valuable use of her time. Lots of people commute to work even longer. When I was working at Goldman, I commuted an hour and a half each way from Connecticut. Granted I was on a train but the point is we all commute to work.
It was nice having her here. It was nice seeing James with a smile. It was nice to check my bank account and feel a life raft around me, rather than a black hole forming in my bellybutton.
But the rhythms shifted.
Now it’s just me here next to Lenny with the beard, Jackie with the cigar and Jonie who’s been serving drinks here so long her face should be on the highway billboards. After Lenora broke it off with me she got together with Kelton who works for a hedge fund which (for the record) is still gambling. He’s just doing it with other people’s money.
James’ 9th birthday is three days away. He wants an iPad and soon as I cash out, I’ll be able to pick one up, maybe kick some back to Lenora and spread some cash around to the litany of people I’m on the hook to.
I’m one big night away from wiping it all out. I just need one hit. One night of pure rhythm... and I’ll be back.
The shooter shakes the dice in his hand then tosses ‘em. I watch them clack on the table walls below me, but before they even settle on the pass line, I can already feel the star implode in my stomach.
In a flash, my hard work is raked away by some new guy named Carl with a moustache and not a single ounce of sympathy.
The party’s at Lenora (and Kelton’s) which was fine because honestly, I didn’t just have rats.
The rats came in chasing the cockroaches but when a bunch of them got into my Cadbury Mini Egg stash and died under the living room floor, a pack of fleas picked the carcass clean before making their way into the carpet above. So, yeah...at the moment I have fleas, cockroaches and rats. I had a bug bomb guy coming in a couple days but things were gonna be a little itchy until then.
It's three days until the party. I’ve got no gift and if I show up without that 200 bucks I may never see my kid again.
​
April 8, 2022 – 6:32AM
There’s only so much you can do on a security guard’s salary and being paid $12 an hour to guard millions of dollars in Mercedes automobiles is hilarious. What am I supposed to do if some guy comes in to steal a car? Lay my life on the line and hope my out-of-pocket HMO covers bullet wounds?
I don’t even have dental. I got a root canal that needed to be recapped 10 minutes after it was put in.
I’ve been on Mr. Jenkins about a raise but he keeps telling me “we gotta sell more cars, Davey,” as if I’m the one selling cars. I’m a fucking security guard what the hell’s that gotta do with me? Last I checked it was my job to keep cars on the lot and getting them off was yours.
Jenkins owns every car dealer on Van Nuys. Maybe you’ve seen his ads on TV where he slides into frame wearing a suit while riding a surfboard just to say “COME ON DOWN!” He can afford to buy a surfboard for tv ad that has no mention of surfing or aquatic sports of any kind but he can’t pay me an extra $3 an hour so I can re-introduce cold foods to my diet.
I spend most of my shift eyeing the mint green on onyx black SLS convertible they keep in the lobby. It’s flashy but it’s got a nut sack under the hood so you know you could back it up if you went toe-to-toe with some clown at a red light. Sometimes I just stare at it but I never touch it. I only wanna touch it when it’s mine. Which it would be...
Maybe I could steal it and sell it to get the iPad and some other shit. I know all the codes but then again I wouldn’t need the whole car. The thing costs half a mill. Maybe I could lift a rear-view mirror. Who would notice? Then again with the way the rhythm’s set I’d probably bump into the fucking FBI on the way out.
I’ve been doing my best to get things together but the cards aren’t falling my way and there’s not much you can really do about that. I’ve been going to the Hollywood for 15 years so I know I’m due for a run.
Me and Lenny talking about this all the time at the lounge. Sometimes you’re on the downbeat and sometimes you’re on the upbeat. Lately I feel like it’s been all downs but the thing about being a father though, is that you’re not the only one on that ride.
It used to be that I could take a few down weeks or months even. Sleep in the car, call the landlord and talk them out of breaking down the door but when you got a kid everything changes. You suffer, he suffers. Lately Lenora’s been paying for that but you see she keeps a tally. She says she doesn’t but she does.
Every time she has to pay for something she looks at me like I’m the biggest piece of shit then says “It’s ok, David.” Which it really isn’t.
The fees and stuff aren’t the real problem. It’s being able to take James out and take care of him. She wants to take that away from me and honestly I don’t blame her.
Last week my card got declined trying to pay for ice cream. James had already eaten half of his and the lady made us give it back. He didn’t talk to me the whole way home then 2 days later Lenora told me James didn’t really like spending time with me anymore. A week after that she filed for sole custody and told me they were thinking about moving to Chicago. Who the fuck would want to live there? It’s cold as fuck and the people are assholes.
​
April 8, 2022 – 12:20PM
I do pickups for a porta-john company on the side. It’s just temporary. I don’t clean the shit I just spray down the units and suck out cans and shit with a wet-vac before this guy named Pete sticks a hose in the back and drains the whole thing out.
I’m always surprised by what people put on the walls of a john. Usually it’s just drawings like hearts and shit but sometimes the rhythm finds you there too. One time I spotted a phone number Sharpied on a toilet seat but it was missing 1 number. 8 digits. Kinda like 4 roulette numbers right?
I took em to the Hollywood and won 5 grand on one roll! Hasn’t worked again for me yet... but that’s the thing about it man.
But today I’m cleaning out a row of johns after some music festival which by the way is far and away the worst clean ups to get. Sure you see these kids all cleaned up online in some tweed outfit or some shit but you should see the shit that comes out of these kids. It’s like paving tar with glitter and red bull cans.
I look down in the last john I’m hosing down and I see something. Peaking out of the mounds I see: a $20 bill.
I stared at it for a second but I could hear Pete coming down the line about to suck it into oblivion. I never seen cash in the john before. Sometimes you hear a coin clank through the hose but a 20 bill just staring you right in the face?
I did what any man would do. I grabbed it and when I pulled my hand out I was half expecting it to be missing a layer of skin.
Later I’m sitting in the truck staring at this 20 bucks thinking “why would this come to me?” There had to be a reason. It wasn’t just on the floor of some john. It was in the last john after the nastiest event at a time when all I needed was one shot.
It was the rhythm.
But having to do that for just $20 didn’t add up. There had to have been a greater purpose and you know what they say about money. You don’t let it sleep. You wanna get that money out and get it working.
Craps kicked my teeth in this morning and you can’t do shit with 20 bucks on a blackjack table. I had to think bigger.
Then I’m driving home from work and I see the 7/11. Powerball was at 2.11 BILLION. The biggest in history. If you got all 6 numbers right you got the whole chicken. If you got 5 you got just shy of 8 million bucks. Boom.
I had my usual numbers but this wasn’t a usual day. I told the cashier to give me “all randoms today.” 10 slips at $2 each.
That night I sat down on my couch waiting for the Powerball to come on tv... then I blacked out.
The next thing I knew I was staring at 6 numbers lit up on my tv screen: 08, 07, 14, 29, 40, 16
And on my slip: 08, 07, 14, 29, 40, 22
I had 5 out of 6 numbers. I’d just won 8 million dollars
​
April 9, 2022 – 9:01AM
I’m standing in line at the California Lottery Offices. It’s not some huge expansive place. It’s a shitty little line up of people with various ailments trying to dispute their $5 winning ticket.
My mind is racing. Who do I pay back first? Do they give me the cash here? Is it in a duffel bag? When do I have to hold that big ass check? Do I wear a mask? I saw a guy do it in a scream mask once to maintain his anonymity. Honestly it might be nice to be seen. Not only has everyone seen me as a piece of shit forever but also I haven’t exactly kept a detailed list of everyone I owe money to.
It’d be good for people to just hit me up, I can cut a check and tell them “thanks for your patience.” Maybe I’d even give them a little off the top as a tip.
The guy a the counter basically spat in my face; “It’s gotta be reviewed. Takes 2-5 days. We’ll email you a link to collect any winnings.” It was like I just accused him of something. No congratulations or anything which at first, I was pissed about but then I realized that clearly I wasn’t the first asshole who thought they won the lottery.
Except I really did. 2-5 days was nothing. I’d been living in the shit for years I could do another few days.
Stepping outside, everything looked the same. The air wasn’t purer or the sunlight any more sunlightier and I still had to fill up my tires at the Shell on Cahuenga. There’s something about being rich without actually having any appearance of being rich.
That secret alone is like having a bomb in your pocket. People treat you regular, they smile and make conversation but deep down you think...if I pulled this out I could kill you with it.
But when people do think you have money, the more of it they give you.
I rolled in the doors of the Hollywood like I always did. Lenny called me a bullshitter, Jackie barely even put her cigarette down and Jonie didn’t even bring me a drink because I didn’t actually have any money on the table. I didn’t even have money in my pocket. I’d spent it all on the Megamillions and I hadn’t eaten since perusing the halls for leftover room service the night before.
Then news hit. My face was on every TV in the place. “Local man wins 8 million dollar jackpot.”
I checked my phone to see if it was blowing up, then remembered I still hadn’t paid the bill in months. So I was good there.
​
April 9, 2022 – 11:11AM
If you’ve ever been on a casino floor you know that it’s never silent. But I swear to God if you were on the floor when that news hit, you could’ve heard the rats eating my Mini Eggs 20 miles away. Everyone’s eyes were trained on me. For a second I even felt all the security cams shift over in my direction.
I couldn’t stand being on the floor with nothing to play with so Lenny set me up with his guy who got me a little walking around money. Japanese guy who I met in a Burger King across the street. Weird dude. Not sure what his name was.
I didn’t wanna go too nuts so I just took out a small loan. 50k at 20 points. I thought about it for a second then realized I didn’t really give a shit about the interest. 10 grand to me in a week doesn’t mean nearly as much as 50 does now. It’s just value proposition. It would have been stupid NOT to take out the loan honestly.
Walking into the casino with 50 grand in my pocket and slamming it down on the table feels a lot like taking out your dick at an orgy only when your dick comes out it’s a 60 foot cigarette boat with flames painted on the side.
But then I learned what I remembered years ago. Losing money and gaining money at that point meant almost nothing.
So losing 2 grand a hand wasn’t such a big deal because I could be making 5 on the next. That’s why I needed a little more when I lost the full 50.
Another 100k or so at another 20 points should do the trick.
It didn’t take long to realize that both winning and losing money meant almost nothing to me. So I ventured out.
A tailored suit for me (ready in 2-3 days on a rush).
An iPad for James with all the bells and whistles.
6 dozen roses sent to Lenora’s house signed “your secret admirer.” just to fuck with Kelton.
A watch for me, Lenny and Jodie.
Some special cigar Jackie had always been eyeing.
New pairs of Nikes for all of us.
And a limousine to my dentist’s office.
I paid in cash for the cap replacement, they gave me some pills and told me not to mix them with alcohol but honestly I was a little distracted by the old molar cap sitting on the table. I had an idea.
“Are you gonna just throw that away?” I asked her.
By now I realized I didn’t have a phone to receive my winnings via email. So, I stopped a guy in the lobby and paid him 2 grand cash for his before popping a few pills and slugging some champagne in the limo.
There was barely enough time to sit back and relax. I had a lifetime of debt and yearning for shit to burn through.
We made it to the Mercedes dealership but the pain killers kicked in and I could barely feel my hands as they ran across the SLS’s mint green paint. Bummer.
Jenkins sauntered over asking if I was working today and all I remember saying was “I want it.” He scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, so I put the remaining cash I had down on the table and said it again. “I WANT IT.”
They ran my credit (which was dog shit. Didn’t matter) and I looked Jenkins in his fat little face again and said “I don’t give a fuck.” He sold it to me, financed at 25 percent interest. Then when he went to fetch my paperwork and keys I took a shit on his desk, shoved the molar cap and a $20 bill in it before using his jacket to wipe my ass. Felt right. Don’t really know why.
I had walked into the CA lottery offices at 9am to start the review process on my ticket’s authenticity.
By 11am, I was watching news break from the Hollywood Casino.
By 10pm I had accrued more debt than a small country.
I hadn’t received a dime from the lotto.
And I needed more walking around money.
​
April 10, 11, 12 – who the fuck knows what time
The next few days were a blur but there are a few things I’ll never forget.
Quitting my job.
Hiring the limo for the week.
Trying to shit after 3 days of having nothing but fast food, champagne and pain killers.
Fielding questions at the party from Kelton’s asshole friends who told me “lotto rich isn’t real rich.”
And the heat of my house burning to the ground as James and I stood there watching with a can of gas in our hands.
He didn’t even want the iPad.
The rhythms were sliding back. James had that smile plastered back in his face and even Lenora was happy to see me.
​
April 16, 7:35AM
“Dear Mr. Baxter. Congratulations! You’ve successfully matched FOUR of six winning numbers. Below please find a link to collect your winnings of $10,000.”
I read it over and over again. Over and over and over.
When I called the offices an nice woman on the phone informed me that due to a printing malfunction the ticket had appeared to show the number 8 when in fact it was a 6.
They even managed to maintain a sense of excitement. I mean why wouldn’t they? They think I just won $10,000. They had no idea I’d bought a car I couldn’t afford, burned my house down, taken a shit on my boss’ desk, maxed out 3 new credit cards and borrowed a inordinate amount of money from people at a borderline illegal interest rate.
The limo company took my ride away and with no home I’ve spent the last 2 days parked on the Pacific Coast Highway, sleeping in the brand new Mercedes I can’t afford, in a suit I shouldn’t have bought, showering in the YMCA down the street, and eating 2-day-old coconut shrimp.
All of a sudden I’m fucked again. But as I stare out at the Pacific, my phone dings. It’s an alert from the Chase banking app. My lotto winnings of $10,000 have just hit my account and the only question is...
Are the rhythms with me or not?

There's been a little noticed movement for this for about a decade now. Since around 2013, some states and cities have passed ban the box legislation that bans employers from looking at criminal records until a certain point in the job search. Some versions of ban the box forbid employers from conducting a background check until after they make an employment offer that's contingent on the background check. And even after the background check, some state or localities will require employers to provide an explanation in writing if they end up pulling the employment offer. I don't understand how preventing people from looking up publicly available criminal records is constitutional at all (especially if you can research a random person's criminal records just because you feel like it, and you're only forbidden from doing so for job hiring purposes), and it's ridiculously inconsistent with respondeat superior, where an employer can get sued if an employee commits a crime on the job. Furthermore, it's just ridiculous in general that an employer has no restrictions on looking at things like your Facebook posts in a job search, but they're restricted from looking at your criminal record.
​
A more recent trend over the last two years or so has been to extend ban the box to landlords. Cook County, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Detroit, and the state of New Jersey have greatly limited the criminal background checks that landlords can do. The Ninth Circuit struck down the restrictions on landlords looking at criminal records (which really should mean that ban the box for employers in unconstitutional too, unless there's some mysterious First Amendment distinction between employers and landlords) but upheld the ban on taking adverse actions based on the criminal records.
​
https://reason.com/volokh/2023/03/21/ninth-circuit-strikes-down-ban-on-landlords-inquiring-about-prospective-tenants-criminal-history-but/

I actually live in Colorado, but I've been around long enough to know that the cops and government in Utah works hand-in-hand with the Mormon church to discriminate against LGBTQ teens.
So, what organizations out there in Mormon land can I donate and provide support to help these kids?

Hey all,
Recently decided to pick zombies back up, going for high rounds in solo. I do the easter eggs/buildables when necessary but if i can help it i just go for the bare essentials needed to get further. I actually first played Zombies when WaW dropped, had some casual fun with it. Then when Black Ops came out is when i first really started trying to go for higher rounds and learning the maps. Dropped off for a bit, BO2 kinda turned me off because Tranzit just didn't land for me and I didn't have a console or a PC for a few years and missed out on Bo3, grabbed Bo4 on a whim and was not pleased with how they changed zombies so I kinda just dropped it
Over the pandemic i got bored and grabbed Cold War, i thought some of the zombies maps were kinda neat (namely Mauer i actually really think that map is cool in concept but because its cold war doesn't reach its full potential) Eventually i just said screw it and grabbed BO3 on PC with all the DLC and fell back in love with it. Some of the newer maps (Origins, Der Eisen, etc) are a bit strange to me because im used to the WaW/BO1 map structure where its very straight forward. i did however absolutely fall in love with Shadows of Evil. To the point that I went out of my way to learn everything about that map. Ive actually pretty much figured out (and used some videos) how to get the shield, the pack a punch and civil servant by about round 5-7 and the apothicon servant and sword shortly after. Thus far my best solo run record is 27.
On a side note, from back in the day I got pretty beast mode with the WaW/BO1 maps. My best record solo is about 50 in Der Reise. as a team somehow me and my friend managed to get to like round 64 on Five of all maps which I hear many consider to be a pretty difficult map. With BO3 workshop creations on steam I can actually play Mob of The Dead finally. Really hope someone just does every Pre-BO4 map.
anyway, id love to hear the perspectives of other group members on my situation. its always weird going back to something you enjoy to find its drastically changed.

[FL] Guardian At Litem
I’m taking my ex back to court for more custody. Pasco County, FL. She contsantly breaks the parenting agreement and she has not been a good Mom to our two daughters that are 8 and 10. They are starting to resent her, she is an alcoholic, she misses practices, performances, she talks terribly about me…lets just say she has many issues. Currently we have shared custody which is 65% to her and 35% to me. The main difference is Sunday nights on my weekends the kids go back with her, or they are supposed to, for months she just lets them stay with me and says she has to work. So it is basically 50/50 now, but my girls need, want and deserve to be with me more. That’s besides the point, the other day we had a hearing for a GAL. The opposing attorney objected to the GAL and then when the Guardian was assigned, he would not allow the guardian to use hearsay. Meaning the Guardian can’t use what the girls tell them. The judge stated “I can’t require you to allow Hearsay” gave a small explanation and asked the opposing Atty if he was sure he didn’t want to allow it. the Attorney said he reserved his right to allow it later, but not now.
That is very confusing to me and it brings up numerous issues. I get the guardian can still work around and find plenty out. But having the opposing Atty oppose hearsay from the kids, wouldn’t that be a huge red flag on Day one to the Judge and GAL? Clearly my ex doesn’t want the girls to be heard, she doesn’t want her truths to come out. But I would think it could piss some GAL’s off, some may not take the case, and wouldn’t that make the GAL more curious as to what she may be hiding?
Also in same hearing, my Atty asked to subpoena her work records for various reasons, but she didn’t have a concrete argument to get the Drug/ Alcohol screenings from work and the judge denied that portion of the subpoena. Wouldn’t’t that be a red flag to the judge as well. I’m more concerned about the GAL, but wanted to hear some thoughts and opinions.

I’m taking my ex back to court for more custody. Pasco County, FL. She contsantly breaks the parenting agreement and she has not been a good Mom to our two daughters that are 8 and 10. They are starting to resent her, she is an alcoholic, she misses practices, performances, she talks terribly about me…lets just say she has many issues. Currently we have shared custody which is 65% to her and 35% to me. The main difference is Sunday nights on my weekends the kids go back with her, or they are supposed to, for months she just lets them stay with me and says she has to work. So it is basically 50/50 now, but my girls need, want and deserve to be with me more. That’s besides the point, the other day we had a hearing for a GAL. The opposing attorney objected to the GAL and then when the Guardian was assigned, he would not allow the guardian to use hearsay. Meaning the Guardian can’t use what the girls tell them. The judge stated “I can’t require you to allow Hearsay” gave a small explanation and asked the opposing Atty if he was sure he didn’t want to allow it. the Attorney said he reserved his right to allow it later, but not now.
That is very confusing to me and it brings up numerous issues. I get the guardian can still work around and find plenty out. But having the opposing Atty oppose hearsay from the kids, wouldn’t that be a huge red flag on Day one to the Judge and GAL? Clearly my ex doesn’t want the girls to be heard, she doesn’t want her truths to come out. But I would think it could piss some GAL’s off, some may not take the case, and wouldn’t that make the GAL more curious as to what she may be hiding?
Also in same hearing, my Atty asked to subpoena her work records for various reasons, but she didn’t have a concrete argument to get the Drug/ Alcohol screenings from work and the judge denied that portion of the subpoena. Wouldn’t’t that be a red flag to the judge as well. I’m more concerned about the GAL, but wanted to hear some thoughts and opinions.

So many thanks go out to this wonderful group of individuals who sent me this stellar haul (mystery sender is the last pic)! More specifically, thank you to...

• drivingogre for the Blue Marble postcard (and the moon landing 50th anniversary stamp)!
  
• ez330 for the global view of Venus postcard!
  
• apm8 for the Apollo 11 plaque postcard - I compared their signatures to the ones I own, it's so cool how they match :D
  
• sable__ for the solar system chart postcard!
  
• daeneryswon for the Tarantula Nebula postcard! Hope you had a great vacation!
  
• Rura_Penthe924 for The Pleiades postcard!
  
• doggotoast for the pumpkin postcard & your answer to the iPhone Witch Paradox! Love it :D
  
• kittycatcon for the cute change of address postcard! Got it!
  
• ninajyang for the 10th RAoC Anniversary postcard! Cheers!
  
• goodgirlathena for the See the Stars at Dinosaur National Monument postcard - I really enjoy this art style!
  
• scared_deerfox for the Mystic Mountain postcard, the fun facts, and the cute animal stickers!
  
• artslave21202 for the digital pigment print card from NASA/STSI! Very cool image indeed!
  
• sea-shine2878 for the Greetings from The Moon postcard - I love this style!
  
• fancykiddens for the retro space aliens card! I love all the little puffy stickers and quotes on the card/envelope, and especially that new JWST postage stamp!
  
• ladylili13 for the stargazer postcard & the mini-envelope full of cute and pride stickers! I also really like the washi tape you put on the main envelope!
  
• pinkpengin for the awesome handmade meteorite rocks card and the cool pieces of space-themed stickers and stationary (plus the ones on the envelope)! I actually really adore the quote on one of them: "it is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important" cause I've been thinking a lot about how 'what if I'm wasting my time doing meaningless things' lately, but that quote really stood out to me and made me feel better.. thank you! I also really dig the space postage stamps you used too ;)
  
• jnschult for all the amazing space stamps, omg! The whole sheet of them is so awesome! I collect stamps and I've never even seen this particular set of stamps before, so this is so cool! But it has my favorite spacecraft/mission on them (Voyager), so that makes it such an awesome pick for me (I even have a tattoo of a design from the Voyagers!), thank you so much!! :D
  
• zuuzuubean for the Thank You postcard - I'm so glad you got the b-day card and I'm even happier that you liked it so much! Thank you so much for all the kind things you wrote, please also feel free to reach out to me whenever as well, I'm always happy to send you things! <3
  
• yetanotherblankface (2x!) for both the solar system lineup postcard & for the Opportunity rover postcard!
  
• wabisabi_sf (2x!) for the envelope containing the Park City ski trip postcard, the Scenic Utah Canyonlands postcard, and mint Zion postcard! I've never been there but my family has and they also say it's awesome! These are all so cool to add to my collection, especially those Zion postmarkings, thank you!! I also like your date stamp, it's very cute! And secondly, for the space otters with the super sweet JWST maximum card - omg!! This is such a freaking cool addition to my collection - I barely have a collection of maxi cards since I don't own that many/as many - but this one is just so awesome, I love it!! I might just have to start collecting them too! This is such an incredibly thoughtful collection of little gifts and I really have to say thank you so much, it means a lot that you'd send me all of this <3 I also really like the envelope made out of the double-sided image, I might steal that idea ;)
  

• 1x mystery sender - thank you for sending the 7x space postcards and space-themed post-it notes. You have very lovely handwriting, I'm sorry I'm just not better at reading it! Your signature looks like it might be "IBO" or "130", the I/1 looks very fancy and swoops quite a bit, so could also be an L or a 7. I didn't see any of these combinations as any of the usernames who responded to my space request post. If this is you, please let me know and I'll make an edit to this post.

Thank you again to everyone! You're all such awesome, lovely human beings! <3

I’m not sure if this has been done because I haven’t seen it. Okay so this has been bothering me for a while and I’ve come up with a few theories and I want to know y‘alls opinions on it. This will have spoilers if you haven’t caught up with all of the story in Genshin (Sumeru story quest and dainsleif quest mainly). Forgive me for any errors, my typing isn’t typing :,)
Okay so my theory is about the Traveler’s sibling (I will be using Aether as the traveler and Lumine as the Abyss sibling fyi). While we talked with Nahida and she dumped a whole ton of information that no other Archon had given us, she told us that she did a search in Irminsul (Irminsul is “a repository for all the information and memories of Teyvat” this information was givien to us by Paimon whom I also have a tiny theory on but we won’t get into it much) to find info on our sister. There are two options that you can pick but they both say the same thing, “there should be no information about us because we don’t belong to this world.” Nahida says that, indeed, there is no information on us, the traveler, but there is information on our sister. This is completely weird because all we’ve known is that our sister was just the Princess of the Abyss order which was founded my Kaeya’s ancestors (Dainsleif’s quest). The thing is, Irminsul should have no information on Lumine because she is supposed to be like us, an outlander, someone who isn’t connected to Teyvat. Nahida tells us that because there’s information on our sister, she belongs to Teyvat. Aether sums up what most of us felt, “(How is that possible? We journeyed the sea of stars all our lives until we came here. How can she possibly hail from Teyvat? Things don’t add up. Is there something wrong with my memories? Or is it this world that has done something to her..)” Paimon asks Aether how it was possible if this was their first time traveling to Teyvat. This is Aether’s first time traveling, not Lumine’s. Lumine had already traveled through Teyvat once. That was probably when Aether was asleep. Lumine and Aether landed in Teyvat over 500 years ago seeing as Lumine was there to whiteness the cataclysm. Nahida tells us that the first records Irminsul has on Lumine is that she suddenly appear in Khaenri’ah and begins to travel the seven nations after Khaenri’ah was destroyed. As soon as Lumine is about to reach the end of her journey Irminsul’s memories become fuzzy and Nahida states that, “All I know for sure is that somebody, for reasons only they can know, is deliberately obfuscating her fate.” I believe that this person is the Unknown God that we meet at the start of the game. They must’ve changed Irminsul’s memories and classified Lumine as someone who belongs to Teyvat. This would explain why the Fatui doesn’t classify Lumine as a descender. They do classify Aether as the forth descender. Nahida’s own hypothesis is that the Unkown God is the first descender meaning that there are two other descenders that we do not know are descenders. Going back to what Aether thought, his memories weren’t failing him. Lumine, isn’t a part of Teyvat. Lumine says (Another Dainsleif quest), “I cannot go with you to find a new home… at least, not yet.” She knows that she’s an outlander, she doesn’t belong. Just like Aether.. “Until the Abyss has engulfed the thrones, my war with destiny will see no end... Listen to me, Aether. I have already traveled through this world once. Once you reach the end of your journey as I did, you will see for yourself the true nature of this world.“ She’s fighting the Unkown God.
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There’s more I want to add but my brain hurts and some of those pieces don’t really fit. I hope whoever reads this dump can make an actual theory and not a half baked one like I did! MatPat, and Crew, if you read this, I hope you guys make a GT out of it. If not that’s completely understandable lmao. Have a nice day! <3

I will preface this entire post with everything I'm saying here has been reported to the school in a series of incident reports, videos, and eyewitness testimonies. Also obligatory this is an alt-account
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So I (F 15) have been dealing with a group of boys bullying me for months. Full cans of soda, food, and other things have been poured or dumped on my friends or me, I have been called names and slurs due to my disabilities, they have gone out of their way to find me to terrorize me, and they have blocked me from being able to use the elevator "As a joke" despite the fact I need to use the elevator because of my bad knees. These are only some of the things being done that I had to report multiple times for them to even be acknowledged.
This all led up to last week on Wednesday when my friends and I recorded them harassing us, we live in a one-party consent state so we were within our right to record them. 3 of my friends and I submitted incident reports and the footage since we were tired of the whole thing. The next day during our lunch period they continued, they threatened to beat me up and even though I was terrified I didn't let it show. When they saw their threats and insults weren't working one of them came up to my friend sitting across the hallway from us and sexually assaulted her while another one of them recorded it. I don't want to get into detail because even writing that out is making the whole thing play over in my head. They were immediately reported by my friend group and the girl, when they were leaving the scene one of the boys had come up to me and said "Just you fucking wait until April 14th." I still have no idea what that exactly means.
After filling out a two-page incident report and taking Friday off since I was too scared to go to school I returned on Monday to find out that nothing had come of the reports. They had started following me when I was in the hallways and I needed to go home because I fainted from anxiety. This finally lands us today when they came back to my group. I ran off and reported it to our resource officer who was very close by, I was on the verge of shutting down when he came back and told me unless they actively tried to assault me (Despite the fact they had assaulted my friend) that they wouldn't do anything. I made it clear that if an attempt was made that I would exercise my legal right to defend myself with whatever force was necessary but was told that I had no right to use force in any way.
I guess I'm looking for what I should do. My parents don't think it's a big deal despite a literal crime being committed. I'm scared to go to school, to be seen in the hallway, to go to the bathroom, to just be there. It's tearing me apart and I'm losing sleep and losing my mind. I'm out of ideas and the idea of going to school again tomorrow to be faced with the possibility of being violated and assaulted is pushing me to my breaking point.