"My family has lived in these mountains for more than three thousand years."
"How can you be sure of that?”
"Because we have records going back two thousand years and then records of my family's tribe before that. For that reason, no one knows these mountains better than I do, and even then, I still don't know everything there is to know. Every time I go out in the woods, I feel something new."
Krill glanced over at Sunny.
If he could raise an eyebrow he would have.
Of all the places they could go on their weekend, and she had decided to go on a guided hike. This would be just like something Adam would do.
He thought of all the people he wouldn't have to remind Sunny how dangerous Earth forests were with their trees, and animals, and poisonous plants, and, well, pretty much everything.
"Don't give me that look, Krill. You know if Adam was here, he would take us out to do the same thing, and you needed to quit moping anyway. He's going to be back soon."
Krill crossed his arms emphatically,
"I am not moping."
"You are too moping, and it's honestly kind of pathetic. You get all cranky when Adam isn't around."
”Fuck you!”
”Why are you so aggressive? Don’t worry, Adam will be fine! Why do you worry so much?”
"That's because I worry about his health and safety."
"He's a grown man."
"He's a man child."
”Awww is momma Krill missing his little Adam?”
”Fuck you too… Also you know I’m right about that.”
”I didn’t say you weren’t.”
Krill sighed and turned back to look at their guide who was staring on in mild amusement.
This human had dark tan skin, deep brown eyes and long dark hair pulled back from his face. He wore a green ranger's uniform, but she knew for a fact he was off duty,
"We're ready."
He smiled, and motioned them to follow him.
Krill held onto Sunny's shoulder as they followed the human into the woods.
"Aren't we going to take a trail?"
"You don't need a trail when you have me."
"I definitely think a trail would-…"
"Is your mind ever still my alien friend?"
Sunny shook her head,
"No, never, not even a little bit."
"Well try. I can't show you anything if you don't also listen."
"Now that just makes no sense!”
Sunny huffed and the ranger sighed,
"There is more in these woods to hear, that there is to see. The wind leaves the animals."
They passed over soggy earth and into a meadow filled with bright wildflowers. Krill was about to ask another question, but the ranger held up a hand despite not looking at him,
"Shhh, just listen, to the silence."
Krill turned to glower at Sunny, and she smirked at him, but he angrily did as told, focusing away from his eyes and towards his ears. He could hear the wind in the trees, the distant chirp of birds, rustling in the underbrush, their feet as it moved over packed earth.
In the silence there was also a strange rushing. A sort of white noise that you expect to find at the ocean but comes from deep within the mountains.
He watched their new human friend from the corner of his eye as it led them deeper into the mountains. For all Krill knew this creature could be more interested in killing them and eating them.
How did Sunny even know him?
With his usual paranoia, Krill continued to watch as the green clad human lead them through patches of shadow, over rocks and through little mountain gullies. He used no trail, but it seemed as if all of his senses were alive, following something into the forest. He used his hands to trace over rough packed dirt. He scanned his eyes through the underbrush and lifted his head eyes closed allowing little gusts of air to sweep hair about his face.
He listened, and occasionally, Krill thought he saw the human smelling at the air.
And as they went, they were led deeper and deeper into the forest, Krill had to admit that there was something peaceful about it, almost surreal, like being removed from one's own head and being surrounded by the quiet.
A couple of times, he thought he saw the human smiling over his shoulder at him.
They had made it a good hour or two into the woods when they broke into a nearby clearing. Sunny was about to step out with him, but right at the edge of the treeline, she was stopped by the human, who had pulled back into the shadows.
Sunny blinked and looked around.
Krill did as well.
The ranger shook his head.
Krill looked over Sunny's shoulder, but in the clearing, he saw nothing, nothing except for a strangely geometric circle of wildflowers, in the middle of which there was nothing but a barren patch of dirt.
That was strange, there seemed to be nothing growing inside that circle.
"We go around."
The man muttered.
"Why?"
"Because, we don't want to trespass."
"Trespass on what exactly?"
Krill found himself whispering.
"Well, the fey, of course!"
The human smiled at him, and he wasn't entirely sure if the creature was pulling his leg or not.
"What are the fey?"
The human smiled again, slowly motioning him to follow as he led them around the open circle,
"The fey or fairies, are a group of mystical creatures known to make mischief. Most of the time if you trespass on their land, you forfeit your rights as human, and the laws of the fey world become absolute. If you take anything from a fey, you are immediately required to stay with them for the rest of eternity. There are many rules governing the world of the fey, so it is best just to avoid them."
Krill snorted,
"Ah yes... fairies."
"You laugh, but through all these years as a ranger, I have seen things I cannot explain."
"Like what."
"Like the time someone went missing in the forest. He was lost on a relatively well traveled hiking trail. We didn't find him for over six months. The search party was called off after those first few weeks. Six months later I am hiking in an unrelated part of the forest forty miles away in the other side of a mountain, and I find this man's decomposing corpse hanging from a forty-foot tall tree, with impact wounds that looked like he had been dropped from a great height. There were no cliffs in the area, and it appeared as if the man had died one month earlier."
Krill frowned. The math on that didn't particularly add up.
"Then a year ago we went looking for a missing child. His parents turned around for five seconds and when they turned back, he was gone. I found his body forty feet up a sheer cliff-face, stuffed into a crevice five months later. He had been dead only two hours, and was wearing the same clothes he had been lost in."
Sunny's eyes widened and Krill snorted.
He was expected to believe that?
The ranger waved at him.
"Say what you will, but the forest is a dangerous and unusual place if you don't know how to respect her."
"Would you say you are superstitious then?"
"Very. Look, I can't explain everything in the world, and I have no desire to do so. I see no harm in giving things the respect they deserve even if, later, it turns out I was wrong."
The human was not particularly kidding about him being superstitious. More than a few times, he leads them around strange objects or formations. There was at one point, a time when they were heading towards another low gully in the middle of the woods, and all of a sudden, their entire party grew very uneasy.
The woods seemed darker to Krill than they had before.
But he shook it off.
Sunny seemed to be behaving similarly.
But the ranger, he looked downright terrified, grabbed the two of them by the arm and pulled them away quick time, setting them to a low jog in the opposite direction.
Sunny and Krill stared at him in confusion not entirely sure what to make of it.
"What was that all about?”
The human just shook his head.
"We were not welcome!"
"From what!?”
"Does it matter? When you are not welcome somewhere, you do not question it."
"What are you worried about, angering the wendigo?"
It was at that moment that Krill was pretty sure he had made a huge mistake, as the human maniacally sprinted at him like a madman, grabbed him and had a hand pressed over his mouth in under a millisecond flat. Even Sunny looked shocked.
"We do NOT joke about those kind of things here!!!"
He let Krill go, and Krill stared on in confusion and mild terror.
"I come from a line of people who believe you can attract things to you based off the kind of energy you put off. Now I don't know if it's true or not, but joking about something's existence is bound to piss it off enough to test its patience don’t you think?"
He took a deep breath and adjusted his shirt,
”Now there are a few other things it could have been. It could have been the den of a mountain lion, or a bear. It could have been a subliminal sense of danger, an incorrect smell, or the way the rocks looked. Or it could simply have been us all getting paranoid at once, but whatever it is, I would rather be safe than sorry. Now come on, let's take you back. After your little stunt there with name-naming we better don’t risk anything…"
Krill stayed quiet and tried not to joke more about the supernatural things., despite finding it funny and not really believing a word the man said.
Apparently, humans tended to take that sort of thing seriously.
Krill did not, all that supernatural stuff was definitely absolute bullshit.
They heard more stories form the strange ranger, about finding people in places they shouldn't be, staircases in strange places, the sudden loss of time.
"There was one point, when I was doing some training out in the field. We were on top of a mountain, and I went off to go to the bathroom. It was so weird, after I was finished, it was like time seemed to slow down. I got starving, and I was looking around in the forest thinking I might be able to find something to eat. I was so hungry. It was all I could think about, and then suddenly I see one of the other rangers, sort of snaps me out of how hungry I was."
He shrugged,
"I raise my hand to him and this guy looks terrified, he runs up to me, and he's going off about where was I and what was I doing, what is going on we have been looking for you. Of course, I am super confused and as what he's on about, and this guy looks at me, and he's all like: dude you have been missing for three days."
Krill and Sunny stared at him.
"I know, strange isn't it? To me it almost seemed like hours. But it was three days and almost twenty miles over to the next mountain ridge. I don't remember any of it."
"Sounds like a dissociative fugue."
"Maybe, whatever I was it was strange."
Behind them, the sun was just beginning to fall and the undergrowth was heading towards a deep black.
They could see the parking lot just ahead of them, and it was at that moment, a blood curling shriek echoed up from the trees at their back.
Sunny leaped nearly a foot.
Krill squealed.
The ranger jumped.
The scream came again.
It sounded like a woman's voice in absolute gut-wrenching agony. Like she was being eviscerated from the inside moving out.
The ranger turned back towards the trees his chin down his eyes up,
"Get slowly back to the car, but don't run."
"Don't run? Don't run!?"
"Yes don't run. It's a mountain lion."
He stared hard into the trees,
"It is a mountain lion and if you run it will have no other choice than to chase you. They don't like to attack from the front and running will trigger her hunting instincts. Walk backwards towards the car very slowly and do not take your eyes off the treeline."
Off to his side, Krill heard a sharp metallic snik and watched as Sunny's spear suddenly appeared in hand.
Of course, she wasn't worried.
But together they backed towards the truck and got in.
As their headlights turned on, the high beams broke over a body hunched up against the treeline.
Sunny cursed in Drev.
The ranger nodded,
"See? Mountain lion."
Krill stared in paralyzed horror at the massive cat, as it stalked back into the trees.
"Going to have to call that in. She is way too close to the trails for comfort, someone is going to get hurt. Hmm weird behavior from her…"
As they were driving away, Krill looked back towards the woods, where the mountain lion had gone to.
Glancing over the scenery, he couldn’t see it anymore, only a shadowy shape of a person was standing there…
…
…
Wait a second…
WHAT!?
He did a double take as he thought he saw a tall willowy figure with antlers, standing at the edge of the treeline in almost the same spot as the mountain lion, angrily staring at him with glittering red eyes.
Woah what?
When he looked again it was gone.
He sat back in his seat, eyes straight forward.
He had a greater appreciation for the woods now because, for some reason, on Earth nature is connected to something strange and unexplainable, and whatever it is Krill was not interested in finding out.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author

FYI, this is a story COLLECTION. Lots of standalones technically. So, you can basically start to read at any chapter, no pre-read of the other chapters needed technically (other than maybe getting better descriptions of characters than: Adam Vir=human, Krill=antlike alien, Sunny=tall alien, Conn=telepathic alien). The numbers are (mostly) only for organization of posts and continuity.
OC Written by Charlie Stastarrfallknightrise,
Typed up and then posted here by me.
Proofreading and language check for some chapters by u/Finbar9800
Future Lore and fact check done by me.
As a small interlude, here have ONE chapter of what Krill and Sunny where up to when Adam was gone.
Note to self: write more stories what they did in the months Adam was gone later.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
"My family has lived in these mountains for more than three thousand years."
"How can you be sure of that?”
"Because we have records going back two thousand years and then records of my family's tribe before that. For that reason, no one knows these mountains better than I do, and even then, I still don't know everything there is to know. Every time I go out in the woods, I feel something new."
Krill glanced over at Sunny.
If he could raise an eyebrow he would have.
Of all the places they could go on their weekend, and she had decided to go on a guided hike. This would be just like something Adam would do.
He thought of all the people he wouldn't have to remind Sunny how dangerous Earth forests were with their trees, and animals, and poisonous plants, and, well, pretty much everything.
"Don't give me that look, Krill. You know if Adam was here, he would take us out to do the same thing, and you needed to quit moping anyway. He's going to be back soon."
Krill crossed his arms emphatically,
"I am not moping."
"You are too moping, and it's honestly kind of pathetic. You get all cranky when Adam isn't around."
”Fuck you!”
”Why are you so aggressive? Don’t worry, Adam will be fine! Why do you worry so much?”
"That's because I worry about his health and safety."
"He's a grown man."
"He's a man child."
”Awww is momma Krill missing his little Adam?”
”Fuck you too… Also you know I’m right about that.”
”I didn’t say you weren’t.”
Krill sighed and turned back to look at their guide who was staring on in mild amusement.
This human had dark tan skin, deep brown eyes and long dark hair pulled back from his face. He wore a green ranger's uniform, but she knew for a fact he was off duty,
"We're ready."
He smiled, and motioned them to follow him.
Krill held onto Sunny's shoulder as they followed the human into the woods.
"Aren't we going to take a trail?"
"You don't need a trail when you have me."
"I definitely think a trail would-…"
"Is your mind ever still my alien friend?"
Sunny shook her head,
"No, never, not even a little bit."
"Well try. I can't show you anything if you don't also listen."
"Now that just makes no sense!”
Sunny huffed and the ranger sighed,
"There is more in these woods to hear, that there is to see. The wind leaves the animals."
They passed over soggy earth and into a meadow filled with bright wildflowers. Krill was about to ask another question, but the ranger held up a hand despite not looking at him,
"Shhh, just listen, to the silence."
Krill turned to glower at Sunny, and she smirked at him, but he angrily did as told, focusing away from his eyes and towards his ears. He could hear the wind in the trees, the distant chirp of birds, rustling in the underbrush, their feet as it moved over packed earth.
In the silence there was also a strange rushing. A sort of white noise that you expect to find at the ocean but comes from deep within the mountains.
He watched their new human friend from the corner of his eye as it led them deeper into the mountains. For all Krill knew this creature could be more interested in killing them and eating them.
How did Sunny even know him?
With his usual paranoia, Krill continued to watch as the green clad human lead them through patches of shadow, over rocks and through little mountain gullies. He used no trail, but it seemed as if all of his senses were alive, following something into the forest. He used his hands to trace over rough packed dirt. He scanned his eyes through the underbrush and lifted his head eyes closed allowing little gusts of air to sweep hair about his face.
He listened, and occasionally, Krill thought he saw the human smelling at the air.
And as they went, they were led deeper and deeper into the forest, Krill had to admit that there was something peaceful about it, almost surreal, like being removed from one's own head and being surrounded by the quiet.
A couple of times, he thought he saw the human smiling over his shoulder at him.
They had made it a good hour or two into the woods when they broke into a nearby clearing. Sunny was about to step out with him, but right at the edge of the treeline, she was stopped by the human, who had pulled back into the shadows.
Sunny blinked and looked around.
Krill did as well.
The ranger shook his head.
Krill looked over Sunny's shoulder, but in the clearing, he saw nothing, nothing except for a strangely geometric circle of wildflowers, in the middle of which there was nothing but a barren patch of dirt.
That was strange, there seemed to be nothing growing inside that circle.
"We go around."
The man muttered.
"Why?"
"Because, we don't want to trespass."
"Trespass on what exactly?"
Krill found himself whispering.
"Well, the fey, of course!"
The human smiled at him, and he wasn't entirely sure if the creature was pulling his leg or not.
"What are the fey?"
The human smiled again, slowly motioning him to follow as he led them around the open circle,
"The fey or fairies, are a group of mystical creatures known to make mischief. Most of the time if you trespass on their land, you forfeit your rights as human, and the laws of the fey world become absolute. If you take anything from a fey, you are immediately required to stay with them for the rest of eternity. There are many rules governing the world of the fey, so it is best just to avoid them."
Krill snorted,
"Ah yes... fairies."
"You laugh, but through all these years as a ranger, I have seen things I cannot explain."
"Like what."
"Like the time someone went missing in the forest. He was lost on a relatively well traveled hiking trail. We didn't find him for over six months. The search party was called off after those first few weeks. Six months later I am hiking in an unrelated part of the forest forty miles away in the other side of a mountain, and I find this man's decomposing corpse hanging from a forty-foot tall tree, with impact wounds that looked like he had been dropped from a great height. There were no cliffs in the area, and it appeared as if the man had died one month earlier."
Krill frowned. The math on that didn't particularly add up.
"Then a year ago we went looking for a missing child. His parents turned around for five seconds and when they turned back, he was gone. I found his body forty feet up a sheer cliff-face, stuffed into a crevice five months later. He had been dead only two hours, and was wearing the same clothes he had been lost in."
Sunny's eyes widened and Krill snorted.
He was expected to believe that?
The ranger waved at him.
"Say what you will, but the forest is a dangerous and unusual place if you don't know how to respect her."
"Would you say you are superstitious then?"
"Very. Look, I can't explain everything in the world, and I have no desire to do so. I see no harm in giving things the respect they deserve even if, later, it turns out I was wrong."
The human was not particularly kidding about him being superstitious. More than a few times, he leads them around strange objects or formations. There was at one point, a time when they were heading towards another low gully in the middle of the woods, and all of a sudden, their entire party grew very uneasy.
The woods seemed darker to Krill than they had before.
But he shook it off.
Sunny seemed to be behaving similarly.
But the ranger, he looked downright terrified, grabbed the two of them by the arm and pulled them away quick time, setting them to a low jog in the opposite direction.
Sunny and Krill stared at him in confusion not entirely sure what to make of it.
"What was that all about?”
The human just shook his head.
"We were not welcome!"
"From what!?”
"Does it matter? When you are not welcome somewhere, you do not question it."
"What are you worried about, angering the wendigo?"
It was at that moment that Krill was pretty sure he had made a huge mistake, as the human maniacally sprinted at him like a madman, grabbed him and had a hand pressed over his mouth in under a millisecond flat. Even Sunny looked shocked.
"We do NOT joke about those kind of things here!!!"
He let Krill go, and Krill stared on in confusion and mild terror.
"I come from a line of people who believe you can attract things to you based off the kind of energy you put off. Now I don't know if it's true or not, but joking about something's existence is bound to piss it off enough to test its patience don’t you think?"
He took a deep breath and adjusted his shirt,
”Now there are a few other things it could have been. It could have been the den of a mountain lion, or a bear. It could have been a subliminal sense of danger, an incorrect smell, or the way the rocks looked. Or it could simply have been us all getting paranoid at once, but whatever it is, I would rather be safe than sorry. Now come on, let's take you back. After your little stunt there with name-naming we better don’t risk anything…"
Krill stayed quiet and tried not to joke more about the supernatural things., despite finding it funny and not really believing a word the man said.
Apparently, humans tended to take that sort of thing seriously.
Krill did not, all that supernatural stuff was definitely absolute bullshit.
They heard more stories form the strange ranger, about finding people in places they shouldn't be, staircases in strange places, the sudden loss of time.
"There was one point, when I was doing some training out in the field. We were on top of a mountain, and I went off to go to the bathroom. It was so weird, after I was finished, it was like time seemed to slow down. I got starving, and I was looking around in the forest thinking I might be able to find something to eat. I was so hungry. It was all I could think about, and then suddenly I see one of the other rangers, sort of snaps me out of how hungry I was."
He shrugged,
"I raise my hand to him and this guy looks terrified, he runs up to me, and he's going off about where was I and what was I doing, what is going on we have been looking for you. Of course, I am super confused and as what he's on about, and this guy looks at me, and he's all like: dude you have been missing for three days."
Krill and Sunny stared at him.
"I know, strange isn't it? To me it almost seemed like hours. But it was three days and almost twenty miles over to the next mountain ridge. I don't remember any of it."
"Sounds like a dissociative fugue."
"Maybe, whatever I was it was strange."
Behind them, the sun was just beginning to fall and the undergrowth was heading towards a deep black.
They could see the parking lot just ahead of them, and it was at that moment, a blood curling shriek echoed up from the trees at their back.
Sunny leaped nearly a foot.
Krill squealed.
The ranger jumped.
The scream came again.
It sounded like a woman's voice in absolute gut-wrenching agony. Like she was being eviscerated from the inside moving out.
The ranger turned back towards the trees his chin down his eyes up,
"Get slowly back to the car, but don't run."
"Don't run? Don't run!?"
"Yes don't run. It's a mountain lion."
He stared hard into the trees,
"It is a mountain lion and if you run it will have no other choice than to chase you. They don't like to attack from the front and running will trigger her hunting instincts. Walk backwards towards the car very slowly and do not take your eyes off the treeline."
Off to his side, Krill heard a sharp metallic snik and watched as Sunny's spear suddenly appeared in hand.
Of course, she wasn't worried.
But together they backed towards the truck and got in.
As their headlights turned on, the high beams broke over a body hunched up against the treeline.
Sunny cursed in Drev.
The ranger nodded,
"See? Mountain lion."
Krill stared in paralyzed horror at the massive cat, as it stalked back into the trees.
"Going to have to call that in. She is way too close to the trails for comfort, someone is going to get hurt. Hmm weird behavior from her…"
As they were driving away, Krill looked back towards the woods, where the mountain lion had gone to.
Glancing over the scenery, he couldn’t see it anymore, only a shadowy shape of a person was standing there…
…
…
Wait a second…
WHAT!?
He did a double take as he thought he saw a tall willowy figure with antlers, standing at the edge of the treeline in almost the same spot as the mountain lion, angrily staring at him with glittering red eyes.
Woah what?
When he looked again it was gone.
He sat back in his seat, eyes straight forward.
He had a greater appreciation for the woods now because, for some reason, on Earth nature is connected to something strange and unexplainable, and whatever it is Krill was not interested in finding out.
Previous First [Next](link)
Want to find a specific one, see the whole list or check fanart?
Here is the link to the master-post.
Intro post by me
OC-whole collection
Patreon of the author
Thanks for reading! As you saw in the title, this is a cross posted story written by starrfallknightrise and I'll just upload some of it here for you guys, if you are interested and want to read ahead, the original story-collection can be found on tumblr or wattpad to read for free. (link above this text under "OC:..." ) It is the Empyrean Iris story collection by starfallknightrise. Also, if you want to know more about the story collection i made an intro post about it, so feel free to check that out to see what other great characters to look forward to! (Link also above this text). I have no affiliations to the author; just thought I’d share some of the great stories you might enjoy a lot!
Obviously, I have Charlie’s permission to post this and for the people already knowing the stories, or starting to read them: If you follow the link and check out the story you will see some differences. I made some small (non-artistic) changes, mainly correcting writing mistakes, pronoun correction and some small additional info here and there of things which were not thought of/forgotten or even were added/changed in later stories (like the “USS->UNSC” prefix of Stabby, Chalar=/->Sunny etc). As well as some "biggemajor" changes in descriptions and info’s for the same stringency/continuity reason. That can be explained by the story collection being, well a story collection at the start with many standalone-stories just starring the same people, but later on it gets more to a stringent storyline with backstories and throwbacks. (For example Adam Vir has some HEAVY scars over his body, following his bones, which were not really talked about up till half the collection, where it says it covers his whole body and you find out via backflash that he had them the whole time and how he got them, they just weren't mentioned before. However, I would think a doctor would at least see these scars before that, especially since he gets analyzed, treated and goes shirtless/in T-shirts in some stories). So TLDR: Writing and some descriptions are slightly changed, with full OK from the author, since he himself did not bother to correct these things before.

I am sharing with you a list of articles that I normally use when supervising my master (and bachelor but mainly master) students. I hope you will find them useful, and I welcome your feedback (i) in order to improve them, (ii) to have new ideas and (iii) anything else that you would like to share.
I tried to keep these articles fairly general, but my perspective come from supervising students in Computer Science/Engineering, Data Science, Information Management and Software Engineering. Therefore, apologies if they may sound alien to your discipline, however, if that is the case please let me know. Over the years they have grown in quantity, and I categorized them in 2 groups:

• How to do a better thesis: articles that clarify various aspects of the development of a (master) thesis. Proposal development, ideas, related work, methodology, writing etc...
• How to become a better programmer: articles that helps a person familiar with scripting programming (basic python for example) understanding the basic of object-oriented programming and how professional tools (like SDK) woks. Again, the specific focus is improving the quality of the code that a master student needs to write. Probably if you are following a hard-core programming master these articles will be fairly simple.

What follows are the one of the “better thesis” section:
Attitude mindset and lifestyle

1. Take a moment to reflect to right approach for the challenge ahead.
2. Mens sana in corpore sano: Take care of yourself, in particular do not neglect of your physical health

How to do a good thesis: before you start.

1. Start from considering these tips for improving the quality of your proposal. They will help you in understanding how to think scientifically including if you do not have to write a research proposal.
2. Check if you are aware of all the players around you thesis and what is their interest
3. Understand how adopting good scientific practices can improve your grade.

How to do a good thesis: the openings moves.

1. Ask yourself what you want to do when you will “grow up”. This article will help you understanding how you can take the most from your thesis for your future goals.
2. (Optional) Get a grasp of what kind of mentor I am. It will help you in understanding what I write in these posts and/or if we are compatible in case you are considering pursuing your thesis with me.
3. Set up theproper communication tools with your supervisor, so that you will have a better quality time with him/her.

A Note on Writing:

1. Writing a scientific endeavor has its rules and best practices

How to do a good thesis: literature research and related work

1. Look at these heuristics for understanding if a paper is worth reading or you should move forward to the next one.
2. Understand how to select good venues (conferences or journals) where you can search for good publication.
3. Learn how to read a scientific paper faster and more effectively.
4. Master the right features in MS-Word for handling the related work and managing the growing complexity of the task.
5. Get more insights about related work, literature review and survey papers.

How to do a good thesis: the experimental and scientific part

1. If you feel stuck: get an idea on “how to warm up your research engine” and do your first step.
2. Get some inspiration from the work of other scientist and learn how to properly categorize the literature review.
3. Familiarize with sources that can provide Data for your (master or bachelor) thesis.
4. If you plan to write some programming code there are several free resources that can help you.
5. If you plan to write some programming code, get familiar with these best practices.
6. If you plan to use a survey for scientific research you may want to consider these tips and suggestions.
7. Do this simple feasibility check if you plan to use an interview approach in your case study research

How to do a good thesis: the last mile

1. Did you produced the first final draft of the thesis? Here you can find a simple set of rules and a checklist that can help you.
2. Are you close to finishing the thesis? Put your current draft to a (stress) test.

The End Game

1. Deal with the submission of your thesis and its defense in the proper way
2. Understand what is Open Access and how you can make the most of it
3. Consider the benefit (and the extra work) of publish your thesis. Is it worth it?
4. Now that your thesis has been submitted is about preparing a killer presentation for the defense!

The End of the Journey

1. Publish your thesis using the University Library. It will take less then one hour and will ensure some extra visibility to your work.
2. Learn what the future of your thesis could be

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Thanks for taking the time to read such a long post! Based on your experience, is there anything missing or that require some improvement?
P.S: you are also welcome to repost this reddit in any subreddit that you may think is suitable.

Hi everyone,
I had posted on here a couple months ago regarding a recent breakup and navigating all of that. I've been doing my best since then, but now things feel like they're at a breaking point. Was wondering if I could ask for guidance if anyone is willing to listen.
Since the breakup in February, it feels like everything in my life has unraveled. I had to move to a new place with strangers, and I feel very distant from a lot of my friends in the city. I'm not entirely alone, but I've had to spend a lot of time in solitude recently thinking about everything that's happened. I've been going on morning walks around the park near my house, which has been a nice habit to pick up.
There was also a recent GI scare that lead me to getting a colonoscopy that thankfully turned out negative, but my appetite has still been almost non-existent for the last few months. I've gone from 253 lbs to 200 lbs since my last physical in early February, and it feels really hard to get back into a regular eating schedule (mainly cause I've put an extreme budgeting plan in motion to try to save up to move to a new place sooner than later). Some days I realize that I haven't eaten anything except some small snacks and a lot of water.
My current dayjob has been steady, but it's also not work that I feel content doing in the long run. Being mostly remote has been nice due to my covid anxieties but being cooped up in my room all day for the last three years hasn't been good for my psyche. What's interesting is that a job offer has come my way that would allow me to pivot into an industry that I want to try my shot at (at the cost of a 1.23% paycut) but I'm worried that I won't be able to keep up with the pacing of the work or that my stress tolerance isn't high enough these days to endure possible high workloads from the current position. It sucks, because it feels like I've spent the last three years working up to this point, and now it feels like my body/mind are in such shambles that I don't feel confident in accepting the job.
Things have been tense at the apartment recently - and I'm sad that things have escalated as fast as they have. One of my roommates put a lot of hard boundaries up in response to the anxiety that I've been trying to stifle around the house, and I'm not sure if the other roommates now feel unsafe with me around.
Right now, I'm not sure what to do. I moved to the east coast with the idea of pursuing my passions and expanding my network. I was able to do that to an extent, but it feels like in the last three years I haven't made the progress that I wanted to make. Now, at this point in my life, I wonder if I want to continue to stack on stress on myself to keep pursuing these ambitions of mine, or if I should just drop it and tend to my mental health. I've even considered the idea of moving back to the west coast to be closer to family, but I'm not even sure what I would do to secure a job that makes as much as I make now.
Last night, after talking with the other roommates about the recent situation, I started to feel my heart rate rise rapidly. I measured it on my phone, and my heart was beating around 105 bpm. I took a cold shower to try to level out, but it only felt like a temporary fix. There was also a moment where my left hand and part of my face felt like it was going numb. Those feelings have subsided for now, but I'm really concerned about my health and wellbeing. I tried to sleep it off, but I woke up in a cold sweat with my heart rate still elevated. It doesn't feel like any of it is stopping.
What do you think is best to do for my wellbeing at this time? Should I still accept this new job offer and see if I can still achieve my dreams in the big city, should I settle for my current job and keep saving money, or should I just cash my chips now and go back home? No matter what, I know that I can't keep living like this. I'm 32 now, and it feels like I'm wasting away. I'm just afraid that if I can't mitigate this anxiety in time that it'll manifest as a serious health issue come up in the near future that wouldn't be able to recover from.

So, for starters, I would like to disclaimer this as the pills were prescribed to me something like a couple of months ago. I've never taken them, as I was afraid of doing so, and after my experience I was untrusting.
My doctor prescribed me this for urticaria that happens that stopped responding to typical treatment. I've been having episodes for a year since my COVID infection, and they used to happen when I used nicotine. My regular antihistamine stopped working as effectively. I used to be able to take it when I needed it, and it would sort me out really quickly. Granted, they still help out immensely, but not with everything.
I had a flare up recently. This is the first 2 I had in something like, a year or so? I took my loratadine for about 5 days and it works. I don't know why it's happened though. I also don't know what else could be causing my immune system to be acting up. I stopped nicotine. I quit 7 days ago. The only thing that's changed is the time of year. Beyond that, I'm unsure. I'm also unsure what to do about this, and I can't deny, it's making me feel quite crappy, mental health wise. The only 2 other things I know cause this is stress and illness, particularly viral ones for me.
That's not the point though. I'm considering taking the 180 mg I've got, but things don't add up and when I spoke to my GP, she gave me information that didn't seem right either. She told me I didn't need to wait 24 hours for my antihistamine to wear off, that I could take the 180mg on top of the 10mg Loratadine I've got in me right now.
She told me I could continue to take them with my daily antihistamine. However, that sounds like a recipe for overdose. She assured me that while Fexofenadine sounds scary, it's something that is commonplace in America, where I'm from. She's right, it's Allegra (if I'm certain), but not at this amount. Is 180mg going to be ok, and not cause some funky symptoms or concerning problems? After all, I thought 50mg is an OD amount.
Lastly, I don't know what's going on in me anymore. I'm naturally a worrier, and this isn't doing me any benefit. But, does anyone here experience a similar condition? How do you go about learning what causes your flare ups? How do you learn to deal with it? I can't deny, I'm feeling a lil mentally shitty, especially now that it takes me multiple days of antihistamines to calm it, or just one straight nuke antihistamine. The fact the medicine isn't helping as it used to is making me feel a tad bit hopeless, even if the condition at best is annoying, and at worst a pest. Honestly, I'd just like as much info as possible, and I didn't know where else to go.
Sorry for the ramble, I really wanna thank you for your time. Have a great day :).
TLDR - GP prescribed me 180mg of Fexofenadine but did a somewhat crappy job in answering my questions and calming concerns. I've had urticaria for a year now, but don't know what causes it or what to do. Any info is appreciated.
Age - 19 Sex - M Weight - 205 lbs Height - 5'9'' Substance use - nicotine (currently quitting) Previous conditions - none Current medication - One a day oral antihistamine (Loratadine 10mg).

Lots of people celebrating their 50 to day! Good job everyone. Today been a shitty day so id like to take the time to share my story to remind myself why Im doing this.
Im 30 years old, been drinking heavily since Im 15. Most of my life, Ive fought to keep illusions, while things kept getting worst in reality. The druken mistake keep stacking up, but I would constantly run away and start over. Never kept an appartment more than a year, never kept a job more than 6 months. Keep moving, making new plans, starting over. My alcoolism became more and more severe, I became more and more depressed, until I completely gave up. I cut contact with all my friends, gave up my long time relation, stopped working. Leeching off my parents and doing nothing more than drinking and gaming all day. I just wanted to die. At some point, I stopped drinking, not because I wanted, but because I didnt even have enough will to leave my house to get alcool.
After 3 miserable sober months, my parents convinced me to go in therapy. It helped me a lot. Not so much of the things Ive learned, but simply being with people who had similar struggles where it was okay for me to say Im not doing okay and people really understand what I meant.
But the day I got out, I relapsed and lost my driving liscence. I had a pending date in court, with little hope of avoiding jail time. This was when covid started. But the flame ive ignited in therapy somehow survived. It wasnt bright, but it wasnt completly dead.
I pushed back my court date for as long as I could. I went back in therapy again. This time managed to stayed sober a couples more weeks after. But I felt left behind from the friends I made there. It hurted me really bad to finally find the strenght to open up to others and be rejected. I felt, once again completly alone.
I end up not going in jail after all. Mostly because of covid. Instead of serving time, I been home arrested during weekend. It was at the peak of covid and we were in curfew. I would work my shitty job all day, hurry to get back in my miserable studio in time and spend the whole weekend stuck inside.
I did drank a lot during that time, but started rationning my alcool. I start trying to make every drink last as long as possible, buy stuff I hate the taste so I drink less, mix them with water, take smaller sips, go to sleep earlier, start to drink later in the morning, etc...I was pretty miserable, but I was drinking less. I spent most of my time walking in circle, talking to myself, stuck in an endless mental torture.
But I kept my new drinking habits. I was getting black out drunk less and less frequently. I even been sober somes days and went to AA once in a while. I decided to once again, go back in school, to study a medical field this time. I hoped it would helped me get more sensitive about my health and also surrend myself with good peoples.
I just finished my last semester. It was a lot harder than the others. It would have been easier to stop after that, but I decided to stop during anyway. I felt something different in me. I felt like regardless of all the work, the stress, if it made me fail, I would habve enough stength to keep being sober.
First 2 weeks has been extremly hard. It made me extremly depressed and mentally confused. I became paranoid, unable to work properly, unable to sleep properly. I got in trouble because I couldnt keep up. My teachers been on my ass on top of that.
Bow things are slowly getting better. But im not gonna lie, im reallllly piss off, all the time. And it wont get better as long as I can work on my life long issues. The issues that made me drink so much.
But Im more resilient than I ever been. I have years of anger bottled up that is starting to surface. But im directing that anger (as much as possible...) toward alcool. Because fuck you. Im not your slave anymore. You destroyed my life. You made me hate myself. Made me hurt the people I loved. Turned me into a coward, humiliated me. Made me lose everything I had. I will never be the same because of you, I will never forgive you. I will hate you for the rest of my life.

I made this post not to humiliate my mama, but just to know other people's reactions based on the content of this post.
I know that it's normal lang naman tuwing nag aalala yung mga magulang natin sa safety and health natin pero minsan kasi parang nagiging OA na sila.
Lately lang, yung auntie ko sa side ni mama nagkaroon ng sakit sa kidney and sinabayan pa ng highblood ni papa (Lumabas yung test niya kanina so far normal naman daw lahat sabi ni Doc) kaya umiral na naman pagiging OA ng nanay ko. Wag na daw kami gaano kumain ng maalat dahil daw baka magkasakit kami, which is totoo naman. Kaso medyo nawindang ako sa sinabi niya kanina na, "Magtiis na daw kami sa matabang na pagkain dahil hindi na raw siya maglalagay ng patis or any pampalasa sa pagkain. Hindi ko alam kung bakit siya nagkakaganya.
Then yesterday, my Lola (Her Mom) was admitted to the hospital due to nag positive sa covid-19. Tapos ngayon naman pinag-faface mask niya na kami. Hindi ko talaga alam kung bakit like kahit ako alam ko na meron pa ring covid but dahil voluntarily na lang ang pagsusuot ng face mask (Unless sa loob ng establishments, Building, or Malls) na sanay na kami hindi mag facemask, then ngayon pinipilit niya kami mag suot ng face dahil sa nangyari kay Lola.
Parang ang lumalabas kasi unless walang mag titrigger sa kanya, wala siyang pakealam.
Tulad niyan, kung hindi nagkasakit si auntie sa kidney for sure hindi yan siya mag healthy living.
Kung hindi nagka-covid 19 si Lola, for sure hahayaan niya lang kami ng walang face mask.
Yun lang
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I'm not sure what I'm doing here other than the fact I've been pacing around my kitchen for the last 5 hours with constant thoughts spinning in my head so here goes.
I (20f) for the last 4 years of my life haven't had a real friend, for context for a lot of my teen years I struggled with major depression/anxiety, just generally not well, when I was 16 I lost the only 2 people I could consider my actual friends because they betrayed me and I spiralled and ended up in an extremely codependant rs with my bf at the time that lasted for 2 years while i dropped out from school and my mental health got worse and worse which led to a bpd diagnosis after constantly being in and out of the psych ward which inevitably got me dumped at the beginning of 2021.
At that point I felt like everything was gone and I was over, practically abandoned by quite literally the only person I could call a "friend" because I had no one else the entire time, I didn't know what to do, I wasn't able to seek therapy because I had no one to take me and I couldn't go on my own after that esp during covid and my mom being busy.
The last 2 years the only people I've been able to talk to were people online, foreigners mostly and it was all very short lived? I couldn't connect with them or it just all felt unreal I guess, my ex kept messaging me from time to time and ig I'd fall back into the trap because I did still love him and I was attached as unhealthy as it was, each time I'd lie about going out with friends or studying to finish my highschool education privately, I just wanted to seem...normal? Which leads me to this...
There's very little ways for me to socialize in my life, I have no job because i got recently fired, not attending any school, there isn't really anywhere I can just go on my own and meet people and even if I do I'd have to pay for transport and I'm really scared of going out on my own because of high crime rate where i'm from and getting harassed and I can't defend myself and I'm scared I won't be accepted by any random person or I won't get along.
I have social media and I do have people from where I'm from on them but I mostly get messages from thirsty men because I'm not too terrible looking and the girls...i am too scared to talk to because a lot of them, they're very intimidating (either popular or provocative)or if I do talk to any my messages are never read...I just really want a female friend(s) that I can relate to and have fun with instead of forcing myself to reply to weird messages from men I have nothing in common with.
I did recently make one friend over dms, a guy, we ended up chatting for months, he doesn't know but he's my only friend, i lie to him about having friends too just because I wanna seem relatable or just like a normal person, I ended up having a small crush on him and told him because we were flirting for a bit but he ended up not actually having feelings for me but he was just testing out how he felt ig but now our messages are dwindling, it hurts. Now my ex is popping around again and I promised myself I won't talk to him anymore and I just feel so fricking lonely and scared, I kept replying to him and then cutting him off again and again for the past few weeks.
How am I ever to be accepted like this I feel like a nobody and I'm so lost on what to do, I feel like I'm scared, everytime i leave the house i feel so paranoid, like everyone can just tell how much of a loser I am, I see other people my age actually doing stuff with their lives and I'm just a failure that's stuck and has been stuck for so long.
I'm so jealous of everyone else and I wish I had something I could fill this gaping void with that isn't short lived or just another bandaid to momentarily forget this pain. Is there even hope for someone like me? I'm getting older, I can't even believe I'm 20 already, I'm 20 years old and I'm just nothing. What is wrong with me??

I (m31) usually have a very high sex drive and I also really enjoy having sex. I've been having a cold for a while now and though by today I'm 99% back to full health again, my sex drive has been gone ever since like a week before I got sick. It's so weird because usually even when I'm sick, it doesn't really affect my sex drive at all (apart from both times I had COVID or that one cold in December last year). I'm still very attracted to men and there is a part of me me that wants to masgurhate and wants to have sex but when I jack off I never really get to the point where it feels as good as it did before, my most erogenous zones are almost kind of unresponsive and when I cum it's.... There's barely any feeling at all compared to what it was like before. Also I just don't get in the mood of really wanting to cum. It's just so weird
I'm just so worried that it might stay like this and not come back 🥲

Tldr; I'm dealing with a complex situation where my girlfriend, who has a history of trauma, is undergoing therapy. She oscillates between wanting a break and maintaining our relationship. This is taking a toll on my emotional health. How can I effectively handle this situation?
I have been in a relationship with my girlfriend for approximately 20 months, although we've been friends since 2017. Our relationship kicked off in September 2021 when she visited my city for a test and stayed at my place. Post her test, we were intimate, and subsequently, we decided to give a romantic relationship a shot. Fast forward a few months, she received her test results that necessitated her move to Europe for roughly 1.5 years. This sparked a conversation about the potential termination of our relationship, but we eventually agreed to maintain an open relationship during her stay abroad. During my one-month visit to Europe, we faced an unplanned pregnancy, which we decided to terminate. Unfortunately, due to visa complications, I wasn't there during the abortion procedure. Further complicating matters is my girlfriend's traumatic past, including sexual abuse by a teacher during her teenage years, and subsequent incidents of abuse. I had urged her to seek therapy for these experiences, which she started in February this year. Ever since she began therapy, she has been on an emotional roller-coaster. I've witnessed significant changes in her, beneficial in the long run, but these emotional fluctuations have contributed to uncertainty in our relationship. Over the last two months, she has been contemplating taking a break from our relationship to focus on her self-love and healing. Despite this, we have maintained regular contact, although it often feels as though she isn't truly present in my life. Navigating these emotionally taxing circumstances has been challenging for me, and has begun to trigger my anxiety. I deeply care for her and desire to continue our relationship, but I'm unsure if it's sustainable given the current state of things. How can I handle this situation effectively? What could be some strategies for me to maintain my emotional health while still being supportive of her during her healing process? Any advice on managing such an emotionally charged relationship would be highly appreciated.

DAY 15: I felt good waking up and I feel good right now. The day has gone well. No anxiety today. :)
DAY 16&17: I felt okay, not anxious, but not happy
DAY 18&19: I have POTS from Long Covid & I had a flare, also having pmdd symptoms, so felt anxious. But not super anxious like before starting the meds.
DAY 20: Noticing urinary retention for the last couple days? And it’s not an UTI. I have seen an urologist before and she literally ordered 100 lab tests for me so that I never run out of them. I took a urine test; all clear but it takes me like a minute to get my pee out and i also gotta push sometimes… very uncomfortable. & sometimes I feel the need to pee much more frequently. Basically just having a lot of urinary issues. Other than that, i seem to be more mellow but easily agitated.
OFFICIALLY 3 WEEKS, 5 mg (DAY 21 & 22): Same issues of urinary issues continue. I feel bored all the time and really unmotivated but okay with it. I mean I do have long covid and am pretty much bed bound so I prefer feeling numb ish. However, if I was trying to get the happy effects out of this med, it’s not really making me happier per se at this time. Just a little numbed.
DAY 23-25 I feel a little bit of anxiety seeping through and I wake up multiple times a night. I wake up but then can go right back to sleep. Lately I’ve been wondering if it’s too early to increase my dosage to 10 mg or even 7.5. I’d like a little bit more relief from Lex.

I'm booked in for a cosmetic procedure next year for which I'm required to complete some blood tests prior to surgery which includes: HbsAg (Hepatitis B), Anti HCV (Hepatitis C), Anti HIV, PT/INR (Prothrombin Time test) and a complete blood count.
Where would the best place to get these blood tests done for someone based in the UK? Reading online it looks highly unlikely that I'd be able to get these on the NHS. I don't mind paying for the tests privately if its my only option but I don't want to be spending a fortune on them.
I’ve been having a look online at sites which offer blood tests and medichecks.co.uk look like they offer some packages which would cost me around £220-350 for all the tests listed. Are there any sites which can offer blood tests cheaper than that, or is that the sort of price range I can expect to pay everywhere else too? Alternatively, I’ve been thinking about taking out private health insurance in any case, but are there any insurance plans which would cover the costs of blood tests?

Hello, The aim of this post is to see if anyone else has gone or is going through a similar situation and if they have any advice. For reference I am in my 20s.
It all started in December, I’ve been spending too much time working overtime and not sleeping properly. At some point in December I started having mild diziness. Then after a night of very little sleep, the diziness started to become more pronounced. Since then, I’ve done medical blood tests, talked to a doctor, also I’ve gone to Neurology, done MRI, all results showing that my health is perfect.
In March, I moved a month together with my brother (as I am living alone) and during that time it dissapeared. My sleep wasn’t perfect this month but it was somewhat constant. It only came back 3 weeks ago, in May. So now I am returning from one week vacation, where my diziness improved. But, I had to catch an ealy morning bus 3 days ago so I only slept around 4h which totally messed me up. Even though I sleept during the day, I am still suffering from anxiety and diziness again. So it seems that it is affected by the amount of sleep I get. Also, the anxiety comes together with the diziness.
What is interesting about this diziness is that I never fell, moreover if I force myself through physical activities, I usually tend to feel better afterwards, or at least not worse. For those who are familiar, it’s not BPPV which is esentially caused by the inner ear. The diziness feels like being on a boat though. I also started therapy, and I am better at controlling my panic attacks if that matters.
This is now affecting my life pretty badly, as I am constantly in fear of diyng, falling, passing out which really never happened but my life is not the same since this started.
Thank you for reading this and I’m sorry if I didn’t explain some things properly maybe. It would be helpful if anyone has any advice or experience in regards to this.

I tried to highlight the main points in case you do not want to read all this.
My cockepoodle mix dog is about 14 and has severe breathing issues. He is in remarkably good health otherwise, high energy, eats well, plays normally. He is 17 pounds. Starting about 3-4 years ago we bought a property in the desert, and he loves to dig. We only spend part time there. At first, we had no A/C or even real accommodations on our developing campsite, so we allowed him to stay part of the day outside (I regret this forever). He would dig massive holes and this dry dust was very different than at home. It would get caked on his nose.
I am not always at the property with him as I have to go off traveling to work. He stays with my husband who doesn't keep him out of the dust enough. After 4 or 5 stints of this we began noticing a very slight intermittent cough. One-time two years ago the cough became severe. We took him to 2 different vets and did work up and X-rays. The first doc in a box vet was dismissive and said trachea collapse, no x-ray merely squeezing his throat. She gave us some tablets for the cough and said that he would have to live with it until he couldn't anymore, the end.
A few months later after tears I went to another place. The second vet was better. He noticed a slight heart murmur and did an X-ray which showed some lung inflammation as well. He could not diagnose trachea collapse from an X-ray but mentioned that it was possibly not the primary cause of his issues. Further way more expense tests needed at specialist to confirm or rule out. We declined those. He was given an antibiotic and cough tabs and improved tremendously. A year after that this happened again after another stint in the desert. This time the good vet was busy, and we got another vet. She focused only on the heart murmur (stage 2?). We tried to tell her about the dust and his history, but she was sure that he needed heart mediation and a fluid tab. She noticed slight lung inflammation. She told us to try the CHF/heart meds for 8 weeks (he does not have CHF) and that if he did not improve, we could explore lung/trachea issues upon return. She really did not believe that it could be anything else.
The heart medicine did absolutely nothing except made him pee incessantly and extremely thirsty. Over the next 6-8 months, his cough went down to once every 3-4 hours and my dog was his normal self except for this once in a while cough now. We never went back after taking those meds. The longer he was not in the desert or was kept totally inside the house when we were in the desert he just calmed down somewhat. Fast forward to now. I again had to drop him off with my husband in the desert for a month. I don't know what my husband allowed because I wasn't there. I suspect that he stopped being strict with him because the dog cries and scratches all day to go outside and we only have a tiny house so it's very tiring to tell him no.
When I go to pick him up, he is horrible. I cannot stand it. Wheezing while at rest (whistle sounds), labored breathing while at rest, severe totally nonstop coughing, choking, gagging constantly. I rushed him again to the same vet and the good vet was in high demand, so we had to see another younger vet. This vet heard heart murmur and wanted to do X-ray and wanted to put back on heart meds. Total was 500.00 and I refused because we have already been down this road. This is not a heart issue despite his heart murmur. I wanted steroid or cough meds or inhaler or something, or antibiotics (which worked a miracle the first time with the old doc). He reluctantly gave him a steroid for 2 weeks tapering off slowly. At first few days the steroid worked a miracle. I felt relief but as he tapered off his situation became even worse. Now my husband is talking about putting him down. We get not one second from his gagging and coughing. It is breaking me. I am going to go to the vet one more time about this. He is finishing his last steroid pill today. BTW my dog occasionally gets a brief relief from this coughing while deeply sleeping. He loves to pant heavily and make a lot of huffing noise for fun (always has) and this seems to make the cough flare up worse. He still wheezes and breaths kind of labored when in a deep sleep but at least he is not coughing as he does every minute while awake. Seems slightly better on the steroid days. Any suggestions? Is this......

1. bronchitis caused by dust? (He has shown lung inflammation in the past)
2. trachea collapse?
3. heart murmur? (I doubt as primary cause. heart meds had zero affect)
4. Combination or something else entirely?

I am prepared to pay. I don't want to put him down. He went from 20% to 100% affected within the last 2 months while staying in the dusty area again.

I loved the dungeon from day 1, and really wanted to get the flair, and decided that it might as well be my first dungeon to solo.
And, in my opinion, the final boss health gate is too high. I did 7 damage phases, taking me an entire hour (compared to about 50 min for the first two encounters, counting me wiping once at the first encounter), coming away with ~13 million damage at the end (I used xenophage + the titan hammer super).
Honestly, as much as I liked solo'ing it, I wouldn't do it again, or go for flawless (unless I go above the dungeon power delta, though even then its unlikely), since the endurance test of running around the boss arena for an entire hour is simply not fun.

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the world in many ways, including health and finances. With the rise in the number of coronavirus xe variant cases, it is crucial to have health insurance that covers coronavirus-related expenses. The Corona Kavach health insurance plan is one such policy that provides coverage for COVID-19 treatment. In this article, we will discuss how to enroll in the Corona Kavach health insurance plan. Read More

I really need and am looking for advice, reassurance and some big-sisterly support here. Please chime in if you can help offer some clarity and perspective. I'm happy to take follow up questions in the comments where needed.
Pros:

• the dynamic needs more time to stabilize
• mutual attraction, chemistry. I think he's incredibly handsome
• Good sex, our appetites and approaches match
• Fitness goals align. Can cook as well as me too so mealprepping together might be fun if we get to it
• keen to be a father. Wants a relationship
• we share major trauma and seem to understand each other deeply around this
• wants to work on things
• funny, his perspective on finding the humor in small things. Our laughs together are chefs kiss
• he's perceptive and notices small things
• I respect how he thinks about his career
• he has been listening to me when I confide in him about fucked up past trauma. His reaction to certain very difficult things I told him was absolutely precious, empathetic, and supportive, which I appreciate
• willing to admit mistakes when he understands me
• he has rarely hesitated to hold my hand or kiss me nonsexually (forehead) in public
• conventionally masculine af yet has a sensitive side. Has teared up in front of me on a couple occasions when talking about past hurts. I like it when men can be soft like this.
• strong headed, focused with work and gym
• Shares his personal /family stories with me, we have reached a comfort level with being emotionally intimate at least in some aspects
• Makes time for us, sexual and nonsexual. He has almost never made excuses to avoid spending time together.
• We notice and remember each others likes and dislikes for the most part
• He has volunteered to do small things for me sometimes, like pick up new socks when I needed them and couldn't make it happen the previous day
• he has been super patient with me whenever he has actively not let his anger get the best of him
• Only guy in my dating history I've been as comfortable farting around🤓
• shares his protein with me. Brings me fruit snacks for the gym
• I love spending time with him. We have done upto 26 straight hours together, totally nonsexual, and never once been bored.
• We talk through fights incredibly well when mutually at peace but this is rare
• has gone out of his way to apologise when I tried ending the relationship after the last disappointment. ran to catch up to me down a subway and showed up at my doorstep to apologise for a misunderstanding (and to apologise for showing up at my doorstep like that). This is when I suggested a break to think things through.
• he has, since the break, admitted total responsibility for the cons to follow and says he really cares, and wants to change.
• I genuinely like this man

Cons:

• I can't trust him. He lies, repeated instances of shady behaviour with phone, texts etc. Phone always on silent and in pocket. Promised to change this, lasted 2 days before continuing on the same way. Has promised to change this again during our break but I have set lower expectations. He has deleted chats, which he says is out of habit.
• his doucheiest point here is this - he asked his friend to explicitly hide something he did from me (take a flight to a different city and put a story up for close friends on ig from there, which I'm not on) which I reasonably freaked out about when I found out about when looking at their chat once (more on this in a following point). I had a pregnancy scare (no judgement please) during this week, he only found out a few days after he had potentially left. I had a full fledged panic attack at this time. He didnt see me all week, instead lied to me saying he had covid. He did reassure me that he was there for me on video calls repeatedly but flat out refused to see me saying he was sick so couldn't. I have a feeling he actually did traveled to the other city but he denies that vehemently, saying he had lied to his friend instead because he had put up an older story from that city and wanted to avoid a fight between us. I still am not sure whether he traveled or not during this time.
• I have had two anxiety attacks and one panic attack in our time together.
• he RARELY, if ever, does what he says he's going to do. Follow-through rate is pretty shit.
• I don't always feel respected. He has humiliated me in public once or twice, unnecessarily gossipped about me to his friend in early stages which I somehow found out during an argument one night.
• I've become the person who looks at his phone. I've looked thrice, with his consent. Never in any prior relationship have I done this or felt the need to do this. I despise that I have developed trust issues that have led me here, I hate that I've become this person. I don't want to be this.
• naturally flirtatious and has trouble seeing his flirtatiousness for what it is, although has accepted and corrected behaviour with some resistance when pointed out
• Hes sketch about future marriage if or when (dying institution) although open to it if deeply in love
• I could get badly emotionally hurt again if he stays reckless with my boundaries
• he gets uncomfortable/ reactive to handling big emotions with me. Difficult with communication
• Hasnt taken time to read about my mental health diagnosis (complex trauma). Doesn't seem invested in trying to understand me deeper in this context
• he isn't as transparent yet as I'd like a partner to be
• sometimes it feels like he's 'exhibiting the idea of our relationship' for display
• he jams to Anu Malik unironically
• doesn't dive/ love the ocean, wherein I'm a mermaid
• he's much more social than I am, so gym dates have been constantly interrupted by people walking up to him and on one occasion him forgetting about me for a good 20 mins mid-workout to go spot some chick and listen to her work troubles. He cut her off completely following me telling him how I felt about it. He admitted she may have been flirting. His boundaries have been better since with female friendships, but there's still past baggage to be sorted out coming up now and then.
• had a previous affinity for drink+drugs though it is has not been an issue right now with us yet
• flexes in every mirror he sees🙄
• slow to adopt agreed upon changes into practice
• stubborn
• hasn't actively taken the lead with planning date nights, opts for easy low investment dates often
• gross lifting ig account (toxic masculinity)(I refused to follow it)
• major anger issues. He lost a parent very young. Has broken a door in his anger once. Called me a bitch another time. Apologized both times quickly.
• not open minded to therapy, I've suggested
• some potentially toxic/narcy tendencies although he has apologized when he knows hes at fault. can be super emotionally immature, selfish sometimes
• has never called me beautiful, instead says pretty hot, cute etc. Dilutes compliments with backhanded comments sometimes in the spirit of humor but I haven't enjoyed this
• he hasn't asked for my opinion on things yet
• he has some bouts of insecurity although I've never given him a reason to feel like that
• smokes, no desire to quit

Hi! I (19) have been experiencing continuous guilt following the unexpected death of a young teacher. Any advice on how to get rid of this guilt is greatly appreciated!
Here is some more information:
At my primary school there was a great PE teacher. I was never a big fan of sports or exercise haha, but she made it fun. I remember when I was graduating primary school, I was sad to leave but that changed when I found out that this teacher would be working in the secondary school too! She also taught hockey classes after school which I participated in for a few years despite my terrible hockey skills haha.
I only knew her for about 7 years, but in that time I saw a lot of cool moments in her life. I still remember how happy she was showing her engagement ring to my classmates and hearing about her wedding. She also rocked a variety of hairstyles over the years and she suited all of them!
Back at the start of 2020, I volunteered at my primary school for a week. When I entered the staff room, I saw that teacher but she just seemed kind of off, kind of down, which was a strange sight. Back then I was a dumb teenager who had some reason become bored of the occasionally monotonous nature of life. Very unusual for me, as I’m normally quite optimistic. This resulted in a low mood where nothing seemed exciting anymore, typical teenager stuff haha.
I remember she asked me a bunch of questions and told me she was pregnant. Thanks to the stupid mindset I was in, I don’t remember being as enthusiastic as I wanted to be. Additionally, as I got older, I became nervous to speak to her fearing I’d say something stupid, not that she would pick up on it, she was too kind for that haha. There was literally no reason for me to be nervous. During our conversation, she asked me about my singing lessons, a hobby which I have always loved especially throughout primary school and I was touched that she still remembered this. However, I still noticed that something slightly off with her.
In the past I used to get intrusive thoughts and that day was no exception. After our conversation, an awful thought appeared in my mind: What if she died? But it was good to have this thought, as it put me back in the moment and I had a great time helping her out with her PE classes. Afterwards, I obviously dismissed the thought due to how bizarre it was, since there are a million other reasons why someone could be feeling down. Following that week, I remember feeling bad about my lack of enthusiasm, but didn’t think much of it since I’d have another conversation with her in the future when I would be in a better mood. Or so I thought.
Little did I know that over a month later, that teacher was diagnosed with cancer.
Then came the Covid-19 lockdown, it wasn’t ideal but hey everyone’s in the same boat! (Now knowing the reality of the situation, turns out that was a lie. I still can’t believe that this teacher was sick the whole time in lockdown.) After lockdown when I got back to school, I obviously didn’t see her. Over the years, more teachers had joined the PE department, so she wasn’t needed as much in the secondary school. So I assumed the whole year that she was working in the primary school, not dying in hospital.
I didn’t find out until my mom told me what had happened a day after she died back in the summer of 2021. Not only that she had cancer but that she had died from it? That came completely out of nowhere and was definitely a shock. One good thing that came from Covid is that the recorded funeral was available online for anyone to watch. It was nice to learn more reasons to like her.
I wish I had known that she was sick. It’s so dumb but I had her school email. if I had known, I would have sent her a message. And I know the chances of her reading that are extremely low with what she was going though, but it would have been something. Just something instead of nothing.
Fortunately, the anger and sadness has subsided. This death has truly shown me how precious life really is. Yet the guilt is surrounding the conversations we had, not knowing they were the last, still remains. I took her for granted. I took it all for granted and I can never get it back. Looking back on it, it makes me so angry at myself: knowing what she could have been thinking health-wise but still having light conversations with me. And all she gets back is unenthusiastic responses? I hope I didn’t offend her. I was such an idiot.
It’s got to the point where any time I do a good deed, it just feels like I’m putting on a facade. This week I visited my primary school to drop off cards and gifts at reception for my old teachers to show my appreciation for them. Ever since that teacher died, it’s become very important that the remaining teachers know they are appreciated. I thought this would make me feel good, but it only brought up feelings of guilt, anger and sadness since I’ll never be able to thank this teacher and make sure she knows that she’s appreciated.
I know nothing good comes of ruminating about this. And I know she’s dead and I’ll never see her again. But for some reason this has stuck in my mind. I’ve thought about her everyday since she has died. Which is strange because I don’t remember thinking about her everyday when she was alive. We weren’t close and I wasn’t sports-obsessed haha. It’s been nearly 2 years since she’s passed, I still don’t know why I’ve cared so much about this. Even if she had been alive when I graduated, we both would have gone our separate ways when I left the school. Obviously she wasn’t meant to be around forever, but I didn’t realise how soon she would go.
There are people you meet that you don’t get a lot of chances to speak to but you just hope that life is kind to them. She was one of them.
I feel like I’m so close to putting this out of my mind forever (I hope), but the guilt is still holding me back. Deep down, I still feel like a terrible person and I’m not sure what to do about it. But I do know that I have to get rid of this guilt. This is the last step to moving on, any advice on how to accomplish this is greatly appreciated.