Vein health clinics winter haven fl
Have you seen The Stranger? Have you met him? You need his blood.
2023.04.01 08:34 PappyStrangeLife Have you seen The Stranger? Have you met him? You need his blood.
Mirrors.
Our greatest fear.
There are no more anthropological demons.
Dark, predatory eyes no longer linger in the deep dark.
Winter doesn’t bring the paralyzing promise of starvation.
A needle, some gauze, and a little liquid removed terms like “blood fever” and "the sickness took him" from the lexicon.
The central nervous system is no longer powered by the night's terror and growls and disease and famine and war; it’s run on existential dread.
We bray, preach, beseech, and all scream, "apathy is the enemy!"
Why?
Because we felt ourselves jade, felt the soft lines of our hearts crystallize with cynicism.
And we want to save our children from the same fate we know, deep down, to be utterly inevitable.
You can't stop what's coming.
We, laughably, reasonably, and inescapably, are afraid of what we see in the mirror.
I am.
You might not want to come to terms with it, but you are, too.
Repulsed. Angry. Disappointed. Whatever.
Save me the thesaurus and just get down to the nitty gritty.
We’re afraid.
And we know that apathy spreads so easily, like a germ in an elementary school lunch room.
But let me tell you.
Don’t knock apathy.
Sometimes apathy keeps you from running that extra step and catching the leading bullet right in the temple.
Sometimes apathy is the time out from the moral puzzles that plague us.
Sometimes apathy is as close to Jesus as you get.
This is the story of how apathy saved my life.
At least, that's how you might see it.
I don't.
I’m not sure you would call of it much of a life.
Sure, I had a heartbeat, a pulse, and was one more clockwork orange spewing carbon dioxide out and stealing my share of the oxygen.
But that was about it.
I was trapped in the paradox of wanting to die fervently and being absolutely petrified of taking my life.
The mind; what a flawless design.
I don’t really want to bore you with my sob story.
Dead brother, health problems, no future.
If you are the sum of all your parts, if everything is shitty, aren’t you just shit?
I hadn’t left my apartment in weeks.
I decided to walk to a local bagel and coffee shop.
I didn’t want either, but I had to leave behind the stale air of my little hamster cage.
The prisons we build for ourselves are made of choices and regrets, and I needed a fucking walk in the yard.
That’s when I saw him.
The Stranger.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I should hope not.
He was sitting at one of the fading cast iron café tables outside, the sort where the aqua green is slowly giving away to rust and the ugly underneath.
Like us, exposed for long enough, that mask just withers.
I stopped abruptly.
He looked uncomfortably out of place.
Everyone should have been gawking at him.
No one seemed to notice him.
Black cowboy boots with red roosters adorning the sides.
Black slacks, white dress shirt, black tie, black gloves.
Black beard and black hair under wide-brimmed black hat.
I almost snickered until our gazes locked.
Black eyes.
Pure obsidian.
Before I could utter a word, he was in front of me.
I never saw him move.
He held me by the throat, raised me up, his arm growing longer, and longer, and longer, until I felt myself growing dizzy from the thin air and the staggering blue of the sky and mist of the clouds and the scorch of the sun and –
And I woke up.
A blackened, dim room with a single dingy light bulb trying desperately to stave off the dark, like the rest of us.
It was cramped and there were five of us, including me.
In the middle of the room was a transparent glass square, an ominous cage illuminated by what little light was shed here in this dark little corner of the universe.
A single vial of impossibly red liquid lay next to a syringe inside.
I felt a stinging, deadened pain in my right arm.
Before any of us could utter any protestations, The Stranger was among us, speaking, words coming from every corner of the room, his dark visage and image disappearing and reappearing next to each of us, whispering echoes.
“Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
All of you are worthless and undeserving of life.
So I have taken it…
…from four you.
You have all been injected with a poison.
My blood.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
In one hour, it will kill you.
You will rot from the inside.
You will vomit organs.
You will spew blood from your eyes.
You will shit out bones.
You are undone.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You should have lived differently.
I weigh value.
I do not find you wanting.
I find you repulsive.
And that is so much the worse.
You live by my blood, you die my blood.
And you can live again by it.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
There is enough of my blood in there to save one of you from the blight in your veins.
Inject less than the whole and suffer the same fate as the rest.
Only one of you will live.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
And you need his blood.”
And then he was gone, though the whispers lingered in the shadows, taunting and mocking.
I smelled piss.
It wasn’t mine but it was hard to miss that acrid scent.
I watched as my four fellow prisoners wailed incoherently, begged, screamed, impotently threatened.
Hands smashed against unbreakable glass.
I slunk to the floor, sliding out of the last reach of the light, dropping my head in my hands.
My right arm felt like dead weight, the gangrenous limb that would spell out my doom.
Every shift in my weight brought a wave of nauseating pain.
I’d finally found it. That horrible place where the Y and X axis of bullshit finally meet and cross over.
The place where you’re just too fucking tired to be afraid any longer.
I gave up.
Fuck this nightmare game.
The other four set about desperately trying to get into the box.
Quick introductions were made.
John, the pill popping firefighter.
Erin, the sex worker whose kids had been removed by the state.
Alexa, the borderline with cuts adorning her wrist.
Evan, the teacher with the ever-wandering eye. Maybe worse.
At least, that’s what I read between the lines of their half-truths.
They searched for links, argued, pushed, worked together.
They tried to think it out like this was a shitty Dan Brown novel or some 16th chapter of a gore porn horror series that should have had the decency to end.
I don’t know if they ever noticed me, or if they had simply forgotten about me.
I didn’t want to be a part of the world. This one or that one.
I sat in my little corner and waited for my Armageddon.
There wasn’t anything worth fighting for.
That’s when John made a mistake.
And so did I, I suppose.
He ambled over in the darkness, his vacuous machismo ridiculously parading for all to see, even at the end.
I felt myself lifted by my hoodie to my feet, having hardly been able to make him out in the dark.
“And what’s your deal, fa…”
I hit him with a direct jab in his windpipe with my left.
John had at least 50 pounds on me.
But I died a long time ago, killed off by a world of John’s.
And I never said I was a good man.
Far from it.
I had nothing to live for, but plenty to kill for.
John kept choking, hands intermittently clutching his throat and grasping at nothing, trying to find a breath that wasn’t there.
Do you let the half dead animal twitch to death in the street, or do you snap its neck in mercy?
You snap its neck in anger when it’s a piece of shit.
And it takes one to know one.
I screamed, sounding somewhere between a feral hog and a banshee, as adrenaline willed a dying arm to aid me in twisting his neck and putting him down for good.
At least there would be quiet.
I felt dizzy, woozy from the pain, and toppled over.
Somewhere in the deep dark, screams and shrieks.
“Fuck em,” I thought.
I had spent a life putting poison in my body, dooming myself, and I could feel The Stranger’s moving ever closer to my heart.
As the adrenaline wore off, I was beset with agony, the whole of my right side alight with pain.
Suddenly, silence.
“Look.”
Eric whispered and I saw what they were all staring at.
One of the walls of the square had begun to shatter.
In unison, the three begin frantically smashing the weakened glass wall to no avail.
John’s corpse lay inches from me.
I couldn’t tell if the piss was fresh from the kill, or if he’d been the one to wet himself from the get-go.
A chuckle left my lips.
I felt a bit of joy at either revelation.
And then he was there again.
Black hair, black wide brimmed hat, black eyes.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
Next to each of us, gone, reappearing.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
“We…we have to kill each other to get into the box.”
Alexa whispered what we all knew.
“Ya think?” I muttered. “There’s only enough for one of us, anyway.”
Alexa ran her hand along the glass. “Maybe we could find a way to share it. Maybe we could…”
Evan began strangling her from behind.
Erica screamed, clawed, struck.
Nothing cleaved his desperation. She begged me to save her.
I wasn’t in the saving business.
Evan screamed like a boxer who finally TKO'd his better in the title bout. A bit much for a worm who’d snaked a girl half his size from behind.
There was a distinctive sound of glass slowly breaking.
The wall began to shatter even more.
Shards flew out, clunking along the hard, sightless floor.
Evan and Erica tried to smash through the square, sliced their fingers trying to reach through the small, oddly shaped holes where the glass had sprayed outward.
I dropped my head and my eyes back into my arms and knees and just waited.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I could hear him, feel him, smell him, like sewage and lilacs and rotten milk and fresh cut grass, zipping around the room.
I heard the incoherent wails as Erica and Evan jostled and tumbled, a single ball of visceral flesh in the dim light.
Then there were no more words.
Just the sound of squishing and squelching.
Over and over and over.
I felt drops of wetness sprinkle over me.
Even in the pale of the tiny light, I could see Erica standing, like Carrie soaked in pig’s blood, a single thin shard of glass of held tightly in her left hand, slicing and drawing fresh blood to mix with the stew of the others’.
And he was there.
He was everywhere.
The Stranger gingerly ran a gloved black gloved hand across Erica’s cheek.
I felt him tussle my hair.
We heard his condescending laugh, his echoing whispers.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
“You have now.
And you need his blood.
Oh, you need his blood.”
And he was gone.
The glass square exploded, sending shards flying in every direction, slicing and dicing as they want.
Light exploded in the room, filling every corner.
Erica, dripping blood, slipping in the pools of it, tripping over bodies, picked up the vial and syringe.
She filled used the needle to fill the syringe with the furiously red liquid.
“We…could split it. I only killed him because I had to.”
I slowly lifted my head from my arms, still sitting in my little corner, my feet resting on John’s head and milky white eyes.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself. I didn’t. I don’t want to live. This is probably some fuckin’ bullshit lesson in fighting for your life, appreciating it. Take it. I’m good to go.”
Erica paused, looking at me, torn.
She was a good person. Probably.
I mustered a look of phony compassion and sincerity.
“Do it, please. Save yourself. Let me do one thing before I go.”
Truth is, I didn’t give a rat’s hairy ass about doing any good. I was just tired and wanted to clock out.
She stuck the syringe in her right arm and plunged, shooting the red into her veins.
“The end,” I thought, ready to get some fuckin’ peace.
Erica dropped dead instantly.
And there he was.
No zooming, no echoing whispers. Just a stride and a booming, decrepit voice.
The Stranger removed that wide brimmed black hat and knelt beside me, lifting my chin so my eyes could meet the darkness of his.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
“You have now.
And you need his blood.
…But that ain’t it.”
A grin broke out across his visage, his teeth now mangled and elongated and yellowed.
“Ain’t nothing in ya, nothin' wrong with ya.
Just stuck your arm hard with a knife some.
And that vial is poison, ya wretch.
Ya just need my blood to leave this place. To go from one Hell to another.”
I felt panic and bile rise up in me, jockeying for position.
“What the fucking fuckin?” I whined in a strained whisper.
“This ain’t no lesson. No fuckin’ morality tale. This is sadism and entertainment and punishment.
Ya wasted life, all of ya. You’re a horrible mirror and you make me want to puke. The reward for entertaining me a little is the exit it door. The reward for not…well…”
His mouth opened about a foot wide, a cavern of sharpened incisors, and blood and bile and blackness shot out, soaking me, drowning me, suffocating me.
And suddenly, I was sitting at the coffee and bagel shop.
What a horrible nightmare, I thought, until the dull pain in my right arm, barely tangible, snapped me back to the reality of it all.
And I heard a barely audible whisper.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I looked at my hand.
There was a small red tattoo of a rooster and the word “John.”
I began to cry.
submitted by PappyStrangeLife to nosleep [link] [comments]
Our greatest fear.
There are no more anthropological demons.
Dark, predatory eyes no longer linger in the deep dark.
Winter doesn’t bring the paralyzing promise of starvation.
A needle, some gauze, and a little liquid removed terms like “blood fever” and "the sickness took him" from the lexicon.
The central nervous system is no longer powered by the night's terror and growls and disease and famine and war; it’s run on existential dread.
We bray, preach, beseech, and all scream, "apathy is the enemy!"
Why?
Because we felt ourselves jade, felt the soft lines of our hearts crystallize with cynicism.
And we want to save our children from the same fate we know, deep down, to be utterly inevitable.
You can't stop what's coming.
We, laughably, reasonably, and inescapably, are afraid of what we see in the mirror.
I am.
You might not want to come to terms with it, but you are, too.
Repulsed. Angry. Disappointed. Whatever.
Save me the thesaurus and just get down to the nitty gritty.
We’re afraid.
And we know that apathy spreads so easily, like a germ in an elementary school lunch room.
But let me tell you.
Don’t knock apathy.
Sometimes apathy keeps you from running that extra step and catching the leading bullet right in the temple.
Sometimes apathy is the time out from the moral puzzles that plague us.
Sometimes apathy is as close to Jesus as you get.
This is the story of how apathy saved my life.
At least, that's how you might see it.
I don't.
I’m not sure you would call of it much of a life.
Sure, I had a heartbeat, a pulse, and was one more clockwork orange spewing carbon dioxide out and stealing my share of the oxygen.
But that was about it.
I was trapped in the paradox of wanting to die fervently and being absolutely petrified of taking my life.
The mind; what a flawless design.
I don’t really want to bore you with my sob story.
Dead brother, health problems, no future.
If you are the sum of all your parts, if everything is shitty, aren’t you just shit?
I hadn’t left my apartment in weeks.
I decided to walk to a local bagel and coffee shop.
I didn’t want either, but I had to leave behind the stale air of my little hamster cage.
The prisons we build for ourselves are made of choices and regrets, and I needed a fucking walk in the yard.
That’s when I saw him.
The Stranger.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I should hope not.
He was sitting at one of the fading cast iron café tables outside, the sort where the aqua green is slowly giving away to rust and the ugly underneath.
Like us, exposed for long enough, that mask just withers.
I stopped abruptly.
He looked uncomfortably out of place.
Everyone should have been gawking at him.
No one seemed to notice him.
Black cowboy boots with red roosters adorning the sides.
Black slacks, white dress shirt, black tie, black gloves.
Black beard and black hair under wide-brimmed black hat.
I almost snickered until our gazes locked.
Black eyes.
Pure obsidian.
Before I could utter a word, he was in front of me.
I never saw him move.
He held me by the throat, raised me up, his arm growing longer, and longer, and longer, until I felt myself growing dizzy from the thin air and the staggering blue of the sky and mist of the clouds and the scorch of the sun and –
And I woke up.
A blackened, dim room with a single dingy light bulb trying desperately to stave off the dark, like the rest of us.
It was cramped and there were five of us, including me.
In the middle of the room was a transparent glass square, an ominous cage illuminated by what little light was shed here in this dark little corner of the universe.
A single vial of impossibly red liquid lay next to a syringe inside.
I felt a stinging, deadened pain in my right arm.
Before any of us could utter any protestations, The Stranger was among us, speaking, words coming from every corner of the room, his dark visage and image disappearing and reappearing next to each of us, whispering echoes.
“Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
All of you are worthless and undeserving of life.
So I have taken it…
…from four you.
You have all been injected with a poison.
My blood.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
In one hour, it will kill you.
You will rot from the inside.
You will vomit organs.
You will spew blood from your eyes.
You will shit out bones.
You are undone.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You should have lived differently.
I weigh value.
I do not find you wanting.
I find you repulsive.
And that is so much the worse.
You live by my blood, you die my blood.
And you can live again by it.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
There is enough of my blood in there to save one of you from the blight in your veins.
Inject less than the whole and suffer the same fate as the rest.
Only one of you will live.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
And you need his blood.”
And then he was gone, though the whispers lingered in the shadows, taunting and mocking.
I smelled piss.
It wasn’t mine but it was hard to miss that acrid scent.
I watched as my four fellow prisoners wailed incoherently, begged, screamed, impotently threatened.
Hands smashed against unbreakable glass.
I slunk to the floor, sliding out of the last reach of the light, dropping my head in my hands.
My right arm felt like dead weight, the gangrenous limb that would spell out my doom.
Every shift in my weight brought a wave of nauseating pain.
I’d finally found it. That horrible place where the Y and X axis of bullshit finally meet and cross over.
The place where you’re just too fucking tired to be afraid any longer.
I gave up.
Fuck this nightmare game.
The other four set about desperately trying to get into the box.
Quick introductions were made.
John, the pill popping firefighter.
Erin, the sex worker whose kids had been removed by the state.
Alexa, the borderline with cuts adorning her wrist.
Evan, the teacher with the ever-wandering eye. Maybe worse.
At least, that’s what I read between the lines of their half-truths.
They searched for links, argued, pushed, worked together.
They tried to think it out like this was a shitty Dan Brown novel or some 16th chapter of a gore porn horror series that should have had the decency to end.
I don’t know if they ever noticed me, or if they had simply forgotten about me.
I didn’t want to be a part of the world. This one or that one.
I sat in my little corner and waited for my Armageddon.
There wasn’t anything worth fighting for.
That’s when John made a mistake.
And so did I, I suppose.
He ambled over in the darkness, his vacuous machismo ridiculously parading for all to see, even at the end.
I felt myself lifted by my hoodie to my feet, having hardly been able to make him out in the dark.
“And what’s your deal, fa…”
I hit him with a direct jab in his windpipe with my left.
John had at least 50 pounds on me.
But I died a long time ago, killed off by a world of John’s.
And I never said I was a good man.
Far from it.
I had nothing to live for, but plenty to kill for.
John kept choking, hands intermittently clutching his throat and grasping at nothing, trying to find a breath that wasn’t there.
Do you let the half dead animal twitch to death in the street, or do you snap its neck in mercy?
You snap its neck in anger when it’s a piece of shit.
And it takes one to know one.
I screamed, sounding somewhere between a feral hog and a banshee, as adrenaline willed a dying arm to aid me in twisting his neck and putting him down for good.
At least there would be quiet.
I felt dizzy, woozy from the pain, and toppled over.
Somewhere in the deep dark, screams and shrieks.
“Fuck em,” I thought.
I had spent a life putting poison in my body, dooming myself, and I could feel The Stranger’s moving ever closer to my heart.
As the adrenaline wore off, I was beset with agony, the whole of my right side alight with pain.
Suddenly, silence.
“Look.”
Eric whispered and I saw what they were all staring at.
One of the walls of the square had begun to shatter.
In unison, the three begin frantically smashing the weakened glass wall to no avail.
John’s corpse lay inches from me.
I couldn’t tell if the piss was fresh from the kill, or if he’d been the one to wet himself from the get-go.
A chuckle left my lips.
I felt a bit of joy at either revelation.
And then he was there again.
Black hair, black wide brimmed hat, black eyes.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
Next to each of us, gone, reappearing.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
You have now.
“We…we have to kill each other to get into the box.”
Alexa whispered what we all knew.
“Ya think?” I muttered. “There’s only enough for one of us, anyway.”
Alexa ran her hand along the glass. “Maybe we could find a way to share it. Maybe we could…”
Evan began strangling her from behind.
Erica screamed, clawed, struck.
Nothing cleaved his desperation. She begged me to save her.
I wasn’t in the saving business.
Evan screamed like a boxer who finally TKO'd his better in the title bout. A bit much for a worm who’d snaked a girl half his size from behind.
There was a distinctive sound of glass slowly breaking.
The wall began to shatter even more.
Shards flew out, clunking along the hard, sightless floor.
Evan and Erica tried to smash through the square, sliced their fingers trying to reach through the small, oddly shaped holes where the glass had sprayed outward.
I dropped my head and my eyes back into my arms and knees and just waited.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I could hear him, feel him, smell him, like sewage and lilacs and rotten milk and fresh cut grass, zipping around the room.
I heard the incoherent wails as Erica and Evan jostled and tumbled, a single ball of visceral flesh in the dim light.
Then there were no more words.
Just the sound of squishing and squelching.
Over and over and over.
I felt drops of wetness sprinkle over me.
Even in the pale of the tiny light, I could see Erica standing, like Carrie soaked in pig’s blood, a single thin shard of glass of held tightly in her left hand, slicing and drawing fresh blood to mix with the stew of the others’.
And he was there.
He was everywhere.
The Stranger gingerly ran a gloved black gloved hand across Erica’s cheek.
I felt him tussle my hair.
We heard his condescending laugh, his echoing whispers.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
“You have now.
And you need his blood.
Oh, you need his blood.”
And he was gone.
The glass square exploded, sending shards flying in every direction, slicing and dicing as they want.
Light exploded in the room, filling every corner.
Erica, dripping blood, slipping in the pools of it, tripping over bodies, picked up the vial and syringe.
She filled used the needle to fill the syringe with the furiously red liquid.
“We…could split it. I only killed him because I had to.”
I slowly lifted my head from my arms, still sitting in my little corner, my feet resting on John’s head and milky white eyes.
“Whatever you need to tell yourself. I didn’t. I don’t want to live. This is probably some fuckin’ bullshit lesson in fighting for your life, appreciating it. Take it. I’m good to go.”
Erica paused, looking at me, torn.
She was a good person. Probably.
I mustered a look of phony compassion and sincerity.
“Do it, please. Save yourself. Let me do one thing before I go.”
Truth is, I didn’t give a rat’s hairy ass about doing any good. I was just tired and wanted to clock out.
She stuck the syringe in her right arm and plunged, shooting the red into her veins.
“The end,” I thought, ready to get some fuckin’ peace.
Erica dropped dead instantly.
And there he was.
No zooming, no echoing whispers. Just a stride and a booming, decrepit voice.
The Stranger removed that wide brimmed black hat and knelt beside me, lifting my chin so my eyes could meet the darkness of his.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
“You have now.
And you need his blood.
…But that ain’t it.”
A grin broke out across his visage, his teeth now mangled and elongated and yellowed.
“Ain’t nothing in ya, nothin' wrong with ya.
Just stuck your arm hard with a knife some.
And that vial is poison, ya wretch.
Ya just need my blood to leave this place. To go from one Hell to another.”
I felt panic and bile rise up in me, jockeying for position.
“What the fucking fuckin?” I whined in a strained whisper.
“This ain’t no lesson. No fuckin’ morality tale. This is sadism and entertainment and punishment.
Ya wasted life, all of ya. You’re a horrible mirror and you make me want to puke. The reward for entertaining me a little is the exit it door. The reward for not…well…”
His mouth opened about a foot wide, a cavern of sharpened incisors, and blood and bile and blackness shot out, soaking me, drowning me, suffocating me.
And suddenly, I was sitting at the coffee and bagel shop.
What a horrible nightmare, I thought, until the dull pain in my right arm, barely tangible, snapped me back to the reality of it all.
And I heard a barely audible whisper.
Have you seen The Stranger?
Have you met him?
I looked at my hand.
There was a small red tattoo of a rooster and the word “John.”
I began to cry.
2023.04.01 06:02 Metal_Florida April Live Event Picks
Please note that the ticket links are usually for general admission; for VIP tickets, if available, you may have to go to the band's website.
Saturday, Apr 1, 2023
Sunday, Apr 2, 2023
Wednesday, Apr 5, 2023
Thursday, Apr 6, 2023
Friday, Apr 7, 2023
Saturday, Apr 8, 2023
Sunday, Apr 9, 2023
Monday, Apr 10, 2023
Tuesday, Apr 11, 2023
Wednesday, Apr 12, 2023
Friday, Apr 14, 2023
Saturday, Apr 15, 2023
Sunday, Apr 16, 2023
Monday, Apr 17, 2023
Tuesday, Apr 18, 2023
Thursday, Apr 20, 2023
Friday, Apr 21, 2023
Saturday, Apr 22, 2023
Sunday, Apr 23, 2023
Wednesday, Apr 26, 2023
Thursday, Apr 27, 2023
Saturday, Apr 29, 2023
Sunday, Apr 30, 2023
Upcoming concerts/festivals
submitted by Metal_Florida to floridarockcommunity [link] [comments]
Saturday, Apr 1, 2023
| Magnolia Park, Arrows In Action, Poptropicaslutz!, First and Forever | Orpheum - Tampa |
|---|---|
| Until I Wake, Dark Divine, Catch Your Breath | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Svinfylking, Warrior's Chalice, Tunnels of Set, Slutwitch, Sacrilous, Othalan | Brass Mug - Tampa |
| Nothing More, Crown the Empire, Thousand Below | Jannus - St. Petersburg |
|---|---|
| Free Throw, Can’t Swim, Heart to Gold, Early Humans | Orpheum - Tampa |
| Distant, Paleface | Justice Pub - Jacksonville |
| Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, Bodysnatcher, Boundaries | Jannus - St. Petersburg |
|---|
| Cold, Divide The Fall, Awake for Days, Sygnal to Noise, Death Valley Dreams | Jack Rabbits - Jacksonville |
|---|
| Cold, Divide The Fall, Awake for Days, Sygnal to Noise, Death Valley Dreams | The Social - Orlando |
|---|---|
| Deicide, Three Knuckles Deep, Killing Addiction, Vacuous Depths | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Southpaw, Stay Lost, Still Here, Losing Daylight | 1904 Music Hall - Jacksonville |
| Carcass, Municipal Waste, Sacred Reich, Creeping Death | Orpheum - Tampa |
|---|
| Eyehategod, Goatwhore | Brass Mug - Tampa |
|---|---|
| Escuela Grind, Bonginator | Orpheum - Tampa |
| Rosegarden Funeral Party, Caustic Bats | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Cold, Divide The Fall, Awake for Days, Sygnal to Noise, Death Valley Dreams | Orpheum - Tampa |
|---|---|
| Escuela Grind, Bonginator | Gramps - Miami |
| Gorod, Cognitive, Summoning The Lich, Flub | Crowbar - Tampa |
|---|
| Wage War, nothing,nowhere., Spite | Jannus - St. Petersburg |
|---|---|
| Speed, Kharma, Day by Day, Three Knee Deep | Crowbar - Tampa |
| Lead Into Gold, Aeon Rings, Bacon Grease | Will's Pub - Orlando |
| Shinedown, Three Days Grace, From Ashes to New | VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena - Jacksonville |
|---|---|
| Flagman, Rose Madder, Breed, Fabricate | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Shinedown, Three Days Grace, From Ashes to New | Amway Center - Orlando |
|---|---|
| Whitechapel, Archspire, Signs of the Swarm, Entheos | Orpheum - Tampa |
| Slaughter To Prevail | Orpheum - Tampa |
|---|---|
| Queensryche | Jannus - St. Petersburg |
| Whitechapel, Archspire, Signs of the Swarm, Entheos | Revolution - Fort Lauderdale |
| Icon for Hire, Hooked Like Helen, Dancing with Ghosts | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Dead Reckoning, Direct Burial, Final Feud, Ultimaum | The Justice Pub - Jacksonville |
| Slaughter To Prevail | Underbelly - Jacksonville |
|---|
| Styx, Night Ranger | St. Augustine Amphitheatre |
|---|
| Anvil, Beyond Silence, Midnite Hellion, Castle Hill | Jack Rabbits - Jacksonville |
|---|---|
| Catcher and the Rye, Sworn to Decay, Higher Ground, What We Seek, Gallows Down | Brass Mug - Tampa |
| 98Rockfest | Amalie Arena - Tampa |
|---|---|
| Morbid Angel, Revocation, Vitriol, Crypta | Orpheum - Tampa |
| The Plot In You, Holding Absence, Thornhill, Banks Arcade | The Beacham - Orlando |
| Anvil, Beyond Silence, Midnite Hellion, Castle Hill | Respectable Street - West Palm Beach |
| Traverser, Devils Envy, Leaving Haven, Silenmara | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Green Jelly, Collapsor, Abortion Twins, Kindly Shut Up!, One Trip Little | Brass Mug - Tampa |
| Regions, Pure Bliss, Murkov, Days Spent, Gas FL | Noise Box - Tampa |
| Earthday Birthday | Central Florida Fairgrounds |
|---|---|
| Anvil, Beyond Silence, Midnite Hellion, Castle Hill | Conduit - Winter Park |
| Against The Current, Trophy Eyes, Yours Truly | Level 13 - Orlando |
| Planet Band Camp | St. Augustine Amphitheatre |
|---|---|
| Anvil, Beyond Silence, Midnite Hellion, Castle Hill | Loosey's - Gainesville |
| Tendencia, Must Not Kill, March of the Fallen, The Horribles, 123Terrible | Orpheum - Tampa |
| Spiritbox, After The Burial, Intervals | House of Blues - Orlando |
|---|---|
| Mac Sabbath, Roxx Revolt & The Velvets | Crowbar - Tampa |
| Dropout Kings, Fatal Frames | Crowbar - Tampa |
|---|
| The Black Dahlia Murder, Terror, Frozen Soul, Fuming Mouth, Phobophilic | The Beacham - Orlando |
|---|---|
| Vampires Everywhere | Respectable Street - West Palm Beach |
| VV | House of Blues - Orlando |
|---|---|
| The Black Dahlia Murder, Terror, Frozen Soul, Fuming Mouth, Phobophilic | The Ritz - Tampa |
| Vampires Everywhere | Conduit - Winter Park |
2023.04.01 05:24 Merle8888 A last minute bingo post! This year I tried, with moderate success, to only include books I liked on the card. Also with commentary on the squares
Hello fantasy,
I debated whether it was worth posting my card this year, especially since I didn’t do any cool theme like some of you! My challenge was to try to find books I actually liked, and I’m a tough customer, so ideally nothing below 3 stars, and only books I didn't mind boosting.
I only mostly made it, and there are a few books on here I’d have liked to replace, but toward the end the replacement books were getting lower ratings than the originals, until I accepted it was time to take a break. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to do bingo and I did get some great books on the card. I read 10 eligible books this year that did not make it onto the card (not counting sequels of books that are included, as I continued 2 series), and all of the books left off earned 3 stars or fewer, mostly fewer. So my favorites of the year are all represented.
Sadly I can’t seem to get the enlarged cover images to make a visual card and I am tired, so no pretty image to share, just reviews!
The Square: Mental Health (HM): I liked this square a lot, and while several of this year’s books fit, the one with the frame story about a trauma support group seemed particularly apropos!
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Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Fantasy from one perspective, science fiction from another, privileging neither; worldviews are durable and neither is really more true than the other. This is a fabulously inventive and plain cool novella, with strong writing and enough depth to be memorable. The chapter with side-by-side columns featuring the two protagonists’ very different interpretations of an origin myth is an especially nice touch.
The Square: Book Club (HM): Self-explanatory. This one was especially popular in the Hugo readalong and generated some great discussion.
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The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan: Maybe fantasy, maybe not: a woman with schizophrenia writes about some weird and troubling experiences in an attempt to parse what’s really happened to her. A weird, wonderfully-written novel with a completely believable voice, and a deep sympathy for its protagonist’s mental illness; this one never feels exploitative or shallow. Particularly impressive is the chapter written when the character is off her meds. I liked the two embedded short stories, purportedly written by the lead, a bit less, but they certainly show the author’s range.
The Square: LGBTQ List (HM): I lucked out with this one, not having realized it was on the list until after reading it with a book club. I would have preferred an own voices aspect to the prompt, and this book meets that requirement as author is trans. As far as LGBT elements in the book, the protagonist is a lesbian and her girlfriend is a trans woman.
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Murderbot by Martha Wells: I read all six of these books this year and love the series even more as a whole, which is rare for me. Murderbot is a fabulous lead, with a strong voice, extremely relatable (it judges everyone for being incompetent, and just wants to chill and watch media), and a great arc (learning to trust and care about people, despite being socially incompetent). The plots are a lot of fun, although more mystery/thriller than I usually care for, and feel well thought-through, and I appreciate the critique of corporatocracy running throughout. Wells’s ability to create great secondary characters just by showing us what they say and do, without any emotional intelligence on her narrator’s part, is something other authors should study. I’m here for as many books in this series as she wants to write and am very glad I gave her another chance after a bad experience with one of her fantasies—and I don’t even like sci-fi!
The Square: Set in Space (HM): The first book is set on a planet, albeit an uninhabited one. But most of the rest of the series is set on ships and space stations.
The Square: Standalone (HM): A bit of a cheat on the hard mode since I’m confident it’s only not on the list because it wasn’t published yet!
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The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller: A dark, political standalone fantasy in a quasi-Victorian setting, featuring a woman who has suffered so much trauma that she deals with it by offloading portions of her personality and memories into other bodies. This one is well-written and different, set in an interesting world where psychic powers come with terrible costs. The beginning takes some attention to piece together what’s going on and I might have liked a little more from the end, but overall a worthwhile read.
The Square: Published in 2022 (HM): An impressive debut and I definitely want to see where this author’s imagination goes next.
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The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik: I’m a huge fan of this series: the first book got a very rare 5 stars from me, the second 4.5; this one is a little lower but I still love the trilogy as a whole. I wish this had been a little less frantically plot-driven and allowed the characters a little more room to breathe, but it’s a fabulous plot with some incredible twists and reveals, a lot of current relevance, and as always, a great protagonist in the snarky but heroic El.
The Square: Urban Fantasy (HM): Not your typical urban fantasy but I think this one definitely qualifies, as it’s set in the real world and in fact mostly in cities!
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The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin: Le Guin is a fabulous writer, and this book develops quite a deep story in a short page count, of a girl raised to be a powerful priestess who comes to question the order of things. I love the anthropological knowledge that forms the basis of her worldbuilding, and her writing is vivid and the characters feel real. Le Guin has also written about her struggles writing women as heroes, and I definitely see that in the end, where the character ending she meant as triumphant came across to me as disappointing. I wanted Tenar to take hold of her newfound authority with both hands and make the priestly compound, and perhaps her country, a better place. Instead she ends the book as a teenage refugee dependent on Ged, finding freedom only by giving up her power.
The Square: Cool Weapon: I didn’t vibe with this square so hoped something would turn up, and as Ged has a magical staff that he can also fight with, I think this technically qualifies. Sometimes technically correct is the best kind of correct.
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Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: Delightfully whimsical, sweet, and fun, this is a fairy-tale-esque story of a girl cursed into the form of an old woman, and the motley crew she falls in with, all of them living in a decidedly strange castle. I think this is really more an all-ages book than a middle-grade one; Jones’s philosophy was that kids were better at complicated plots than adults are, and that’s borne out here. I could have done without the sudden romance turn at the end.
The Square: Name in the Title: Self-explanatory.
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Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones: A lighthearted, fun book, this is a quasi-period novel set in an invented European country, featuring a romance between a young woman of the gentry who comes into money and uses it to study magic at university, and the guardswoman/duelist she inherits from her godfather. Both leads are sympathetic, the plot enjoyable, and the magic based on prayers to saints is fun. Not especially memorable but I think I’ll read the sequel (featuring a new couple) for next year’s bingo.
The Square: Small Press or Self-Published: This one is small press rather than self-published; Bella Books focuses on publishing lesbian lit.
The Square: Anti-Hero: I don’t love the way women labeled anti-heroes are so often just traumatized people being human, but Evelyn is pretty far gone. One might reasonably question whether there’s any “hero” in her at all, but she’s a compelling lead.
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The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott: A fun portal fantasy featuring a badass older woman and her posse setting out to rescue her adult son, who was kidnapped by a dragon. I really enjoy and respect Elliott’s work—she thinks through her worlds and characters deeply, and her progressivism is genuine, longstanding and interacts intelligently with her very well-developed worlds. These days I’m not that into quests and adventure plots, which is likely why I didn’t enjoy this one more.
The Square: Revolutions and Rebellions: In line with the progressive ethos, Esther works to oppose slavery and help workers claim their rights everywhere she goes—there’s definitely some rebelling against the status quo going on here.
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The Just City by Jo Walton: This one is hard to encapsulate in a mini-review. Time-traveling Greek gods Athena and Apollo bring together philosophers from throughout the ages to found Plato’s Republic in the Bronze Age, as an experiment. The book is a fun way to learn about Plato's Republic, and the characters’ philosophical discussions and sincere pursuit of excellence are great fun. I think Walton is better at writing about positive experiences than negative ones—her portrayals of grief and trauma have always fallen flat for me and do so again here, and some of her character voices are stronger than others, while the climactic debate seemed amateur. But despite the criticism, this one left me with a lot to think about, and I went on to finish the trilogy—the second is a slight step down but worth reading if you liked the first (unfortunately it’s hard to stop as they all end on cliffhangers), but the third is just a nosedive, WTF did she think that absurd plotline belonged in this trilogy when there were so many meatier things to explore? The trilogy as a whole I wouldn’t rate above 3 stars, but the first book gets 3.5. Somehow I never love Walton's books, but they're all so unique I keep coming back anyway.
The Square: Award Nominee (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde: Urban fantasy or perhaps magical realism, set in Lagos and exploring issues in contemporary Nigerian society. This one is vibrant, distinctive and messy, making no apologies for its Nigerian English and not catering to the foreign reader. It’s more short story collection than novel, and I found the first half intense and heavy but very well-written, as it explores themes of life, death, and finding meaning. The second half seems more focused on telling stories of queer Nigerians for queer Nigerians who haven’t seen much of themselves in fiction, but may do less for the reader for whom it’s not personal.
The Square: Set in Africa (HM): One of only a couple squares my natural reading didn’t fill. I checked out 5 interesting-sounding books from the library, previewed them all, and this was the winner, which I was glad of because I wanted to read an African author and not just someone of African descent. The runner-up, Redemption in Indigo, seemed strong enough that I might read it for a future bingo.
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Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer: A thoughtful, literary collection of short stories set at various points in the history of an imagined empire; it reminds me a bit of Chinese history in its cyclical rising and falling. It’s no wonder Le Guin was a fan, as this is a thematically rich work, dealing with big ideas about history and power and the individual’s role in all this. Plot and character are not the focus, and I expected the stories to tie together more than they do, but they leave the reader something to think about as Gorodischer does not spell things out.
The Square: No Ifs Ands or Buts: This year’s easiest square, and I gave up hard mode, but I wanted to fit this book on my card somehow, okay?
The Square: Family Matters (HM): I love this book for this square because the book is primarily about family relationships of various sorts. And its three-generational cast places our heroine in the middle generation rather than the youngest one, which is nice.
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In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire: The only novella in this series that I’ve read, and I loved it right up until the end. Our heroine has to choose between a portal world and our world, and passes back and forth repeatedly as she grows up and her decision gets harder and harder. I loved the deep but understated emotion, the relationships between the heroine and her families both biological and found, the fact that both her mentor and her best friend are also women/girls and these relationships have a lot of depth and emotion to them, and the sheer reasonableness of this initially bizarre world and its rules. The tragic ending basically destroys all that though, as to make it happen a major character acts against common sense, her own established wishes and motivations, and the rules of the world, all in one ridiculously contrived swoop. It seems like the author knew what ending she had to come to based on this protagonist's appearance in an already-published book, and so had to force a story that had grown in a different direction into that mold. This is the second McGuire book I’ve read, and likely the last, as my enjoyment of both books was severely impaired by elements that seemed really poorly thought-through.
The Square: Shapeshifters (HM): A cool feature of the world is that takers slowly begin to grow feathers, and ultimately turn into birds if they don’t change their ways (it’s okay though, they can become human again by giving back to the community).
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The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri: This was pretty mid for me, despite elements I like in theory: the South Asian inspired world, the three major women characters who play important roles in each other’s stories. I don’t really do epic fantasy anymore (what you don’t see on this card are all the others that I DNF’d early), but my enjoyment was probably also held back by having previously read Suri’s Books of Ambha, which I enjoyed much more. I’m starting to feel as if she creates all of her major women characters by starting with the same “strong woman” template and changing up the particular life experiences—also, you really have to emotionally connect to get much out of Suri's books and I wasn’t quite there with this one.
The Square: Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (HM): There’s a forest where time passes at a different rate. Not a huge element but it is there!
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At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson: Quite a varied short story collection, from fantasy to science fiction to magic realism. There were stories in here that I loved—particularly the first, “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” about troubled people finding their way back into the world through a circus act. There were stories I hated, like “Dia Chjerman’s Tale,” an incredibly dark and upsetting tale of the brutal destruction of a planet. So it’s hard to recommend as a collection, though I absolutely recommend all of Johnson’s novels, particularly The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, closely followed by Fudoki. Oddly enough, the story that grew into Fudoki is here and I liked it less as a short story; the collection also includes the story that grew into my least favorite of her novels, The Fox Woman—and I liked that one much more.
The Square: Five Short Stories (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher: Cute but forgettable to me. A princess-turned-nun gathers a motley band to go on a quest to rescue her sister from an abusive husband who is also a king. I wanted a little more from both the world and the characters—Marra is nominally 30 but has a pretty standard coming-of-age story, which seems like a waste of an adult heroine, and the supporting cast is in theory cool but didn’t do much for me. Someone likened them to Pratchett characters and I think there’s some truth to that, so if you get more emotionally invested in his characters than I do (read: at all) you might also like this more.
The Square: Author Uses Initials (HM): Self-explanatory.
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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: A very well-written novel; that opening is breathtaking in its sheer confidence and power. And there’s some definite character depth here. I can see why this is popular and award-winning. But I never connected with the characters, and it proved too dark a book for me to enjoy—expect horrific violence against children. Also, those themes? Yeah, I’m tired of fantasy novels that like to pretend power is irrelevant to human power relations. This setup—mages with horrifically dangerous and violent powers are hated and feared by the populace because of those powers, and use the fact that people "wrongly" hate and fear them to justify ever more violence against average citizens who can never hope to match their power—this makes a great analogy for America’s police and how they see themselves. Unfortunately the book transparently intends it as an analogy for actual oppressed people, particularly African-Americans, where it works much less well.
The Square: Weird Ecology (HM): A world geologically different from our own (though I think it may be intended as our world in the far future), where plants, animals and people have evolved to survive even decades of disaster-induced winter.
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You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson: Set in a dystopia, this purports to be the memoir of an influential psychiatrist, with footnotes by disapproving editors. The conceit is believably executed, and as a meditation on memory and history and complicity this works fairly well. It’s less successful with plot and character, and I didn’t believe in the dystopia (the world government has outlawed families? Really?). This is a tie-in novel to a podcast, Within the Wires, and while it’s sold as one you don’t need to listen to the podcast to understand, I think maybe you actually do.
The Square: 2+ Authors: This square actually got me on a multi-authored-work reading kick this year. Unfortunately, those books are ranking lower than average for me; you’ll see one more further down and there were another two ranked too low to make it onto the card (including one that would have qualified for hard mode!).
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Monstress Vol. 7: Devourer by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: I enjoy this graphic novel series, a beautifully drawn epic fantasy in a female-dominated world. Warning that it’s dark, graphic and gory, though, and seems to be bogging down a bit in the middle volumes. Or maybe I just need to wait till it’s finished and read it all in one go rather than one book per year.
The Square: Non-Human Protagonist: A bit of a cheat since Maika can pass, but she is Arcanic, meaning from a race of animal-people, not human. (She’s also sharing her body with a monster.) I later read an actual novel for this but I hated it so here we are.
The Square: Historical Fantasy: I love this as a square and wish I had something better for it—initially I used Daughter of Mystery but then moved that out late and had to scramble.
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Pemmican Wars by Katharina Vermette: A short graphic novel featuring a Metis teenager who is struggling in foster care and meanwhile is transported back to (or perhaps just dreams of?) scenes from Canada’s past. The present-day thread is intriguingly told, almost all pictures with very few words, and brings home the protagonist’s isolation while letting readers come up with their own interpretation of what’s happening. The past segments feel really juvenile though, much younger than the YA it’s sold as, and still don’t do much to clarify the history.
The Square: BIPOC Author (HM): The square I struggled with most this year, because I really wanted to do hard mode, but had a lot of trouble finding a fantasy by an indigenous author that I wanted to read. I read a lot of lists and reviews, previewed at least 7 books, and read 3 of them. The first, while perfectly decent, was straight literary fiction and I could not make an argument that it was speculative, despite its being sold that way. The third was definitely fantasy but I thought it was pretty bad. So I wound up with this one, which is only arguably fantasy, very short, and which I didn’t think was all that great—definitely a non-ideal choice! But bingo is up and I don’t mind boosting this for those who might in fact enjoy it.
Thanks for reading! If you want the longer version of any of these reviews, check out my bingo shelf on Goodreads. Hit the “view” button on the far right side of each listing to see my review.
submitted by Merle8888 to Fantasy [link] [comments]
I debated whether it was worth posting my card this year, especially since I didn’t do any cool theme like some of you! My challenge was to try to find books I actually liked, and I’m a tough customer, so ideally nothing below 3 stars, and only books I didn't mind boosting.
I only mostly made it, and there are a few books on here I’d have liked to replace, but toward the end the replacement books were getting lower ratings than the originals, until I accepted it was time to take a break. Nevertheless, it’s always fun to do bingo and I did get some great books on the card. I read 10 eligible books this year that did not make it onto the card (not counting sequels of books that are included, as I continued 2 series), and all of the books left off earned 3 stars or fewer, mostly fewer. So my favorites of the year are all represented.
Sadly I can’t seem to get the enlarged cover images to make a visual card and I am tired, so no pretty image to share, just reviews!
The Fabulous (4.5 stars)
How to Be Eaten by Maria Adelmann: Five fairy tale survivors come together in a dodgy support group in modern New York. This novel is weird and different, and very funny, with pitch-perfect dialogue and vibrant, memorable characters. It also does a great job of exploring feminism, trauma and economic inequality, and the ways all three of these are inextricably linked.The Square: Mental Health (HM): I liked this square a lot, and while several of this year’s books fit, the one with the frame story about a trauma support group seemed particularly apropos!
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Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Fantasy from one perspective, science fiction from another, privileging neither; worldviews are durable and neither is really more true than the other. This is a fabulously inventive and plain cool novella, with strong writing and enough depth to be memorable. The chapter with side-by-side columns featuring the two protagonists’ very different interpretations of an origin myth is an especially nice touch.
The Square: Book Club (HM): Self-explanatory. This one was especially popular in the Hugo readalong and generated some great discussion.
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The Drowning Girl by Caitlin Kiernan: Maybe fantasy, maybe not: a woman with schizophrenia writes about some weird and troubling experiences in an attempt to parse what’s really happened to her. A weird, wonderfully-written novel with a completely believable voice, and a deep sympathy for its protagonist’s mental illness; this one never feels exploitative or shallow. Particularly impressive is the chapter written when the character is off her meds. I liked the two embedded short stories, purportedly written by the lead, a bit less, but they certainly show the author’s range.
The Square: LGBTQ List (HM): I lucked out with this one, not having realized it was on the list until after reading it with a book club. I would have preferred an own voices aspect to the prompt, and this book meets that requirement as author is trans. As far as LGBT elements in the book, the protagonist is a lesbian and her girlfriend is a trans woman.
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Murderbot by Martha Wells: I read all six of these books this year and love the series even more as a whole, which is rare for me. Murderbot is a fabulous lead, with a strong voice, extremely relatable (it judges everyone for being incompetent, and just wants to chill and watch media), and a great arc (learning to trust and care about people, despite being socially incompetent). The plots are a lot of fun, although more mystery/thriller than I usually care for, and feel well thought-through, and I appreciate the critique of corporatocracy running throughout. Wells’s ability to create great secondary characters just by showing us what they say and do, without any emotional intelligence on her narrator’s part, is something other authors should study. I’m here for as many books in this series as she wants to write and am very glad I gave her another chance after a bad experience with one of her fantasies—and I don’t even like sci-fi!
The Square: Set in Space (HM): The first book is set on a planet, albeit an uninhabited one. But most of the rest of the series is set on ships and space stations.
The Very Good (4 stars)
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke: Lovely, atmospheric and propulsive—I had a lot of fun figuring out what was happening here. Piranesi has a strong individual voice and I love his genuine kindness and compassion. This isn’t the perspective you would expect this story to be told from and it’s better for it. Clarke is also just an excellent writer, a strong prose stylist and a confident storyteller willing to leave some questions unanswered.The Square: Standalone (HM): A bit of a cheat on the hard mode since I’m confident it’s only not on the list because it wasn’t published yet!
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The Bone Orchard by Sara Mueller: A dark, political standalone fantasy in a quasi-Victorian setting, featuring a woman who has suffered so much trauma that she deals with it by offloading portions of her personality and memories into other bodies. This one is well-written and different, set in an interesting world where psychic powers come with terrible costs. The beginning takes some attention to piece together what’s going on and I might have liked a little more from the end, but overall a worthwhile read.
The Square: Published in 2022 (HM): An impressive debut and I definitely want to see where this author’s imagination goes next.
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The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik: I’m a huge fan of this series: the first book got a very rare 5 stars from me, the second 4.5; this one is a little lower but I still love the trilogy as a whole. I wish this had been a little less frantically plot-driven and allowed the characters a little more room to breathe, but it’s a fabulous plot with some incredible twists and reveals, a lot of current relevance, and as always, a great protagonist in the snarky but heroic El.
The Square: Urban Fantasy (HM): Not your typical urban fantasy but I think this one definitely qualifies, as it’s set in the real world and in fact mostly in cities!
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The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin: Le Guin is a fabulous writer, and this book develops quite a deep story in a short page count, of a girl raised to be a powerful priestess who comes to question the order of things. I love the anthropological knowledge that forms the basis of her worldbuilding, and her writing is vivid and the characters feel real. Le Guin has also written about her struggles writing women as heroes, and I definitely see that in the end, where the character ending she meant as triumphant came across to me as disappointing. I wanted Tenar to take hold of her newfound authority with both hands and make the priestly compound, and perhaps her country, a better place. Instead she ends the book as a teenage refugee dependent on Ged, finding freedom only by giving up her power.
The Square: Cool Weapon: I didn’t vibe with this square so hoped something would turn up, and as Ged has a magical staff that he can also fight with, I think this technically qualifies. Sometimes technically correct is the best kind of correct.
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Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: Delightfully whimsical, sweet, and fun, this is a fairy-tale-esque story of a girl cursed into the form of an old woman, and the motley crew she falls in with, all of them living in a decidedly strange castle. I think this is really more an all-ages book than a middle-grade one; Jones’s philosophy was that kids were better at complicated plots than adults are, and that’s borne out here. I could have done without the sudden romance turn at the end.
The Square: Name in the Title: Self-explanatory.
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Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones: A lighthearted, fun book, this is a quasi-period novel set in an invented European country, featuring a romance between a young woman of the gentry who comes into money and uses it to study magic at university, and the guardswoman/duelist she inherits from her godfather. Both leads are sympathetic, the plot enjoyable, and the magic based on prayers to saints is fun. Not especially memorable but I think I’ll read the sequel (featuring a new couple) for next year’s bingo.
The Square: Small Press or Self-Published: This one is small press rather than self-published; Bella Books focuses on publishing lesbian lit.
The Good (3.5 stars)
The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey: A delicious psychological thriller, in which the biggest source of tension is the question of just how far our morally compromised protagonist will go. Strong writing, an unreliable narrator, and a weird cloning scenario set this one up as an intense read. Some character decisions seem a bit unlikely, but overall this one was definitely worthwhile.The Square: Anti-Hero: I don’t love the way women labeled anti-heroes are so often just traumatized people being human, but Evelyn is pretty far gone. One might reasonably question whether there’s any “hero” in her at all, but she’s a compelling lead.
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The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott: A fun portal fantasy featuring a badass older woman and her posse setting out to rescue her adult son, who was kidnapped by a dragon. I really enjoy and respect Elliott’s work—she thinks through her worlds and characters deeply, and her progressivism is genuine, longstanding and interacts intelligently with her very well-developed worlds. These days I’m not that into quests and adventure plots, which is likely why I didn’t enjoy this one more.
The Square: Revolutions and Rebellions: In line with the progressive ethos, Esther works to oppose slavery and help workers claim their rights everywhere she goes—there’s definitely some rebelling against the status quo going on here.
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The Just City by Jo Walton: This one is hard to encapsulate in a mini-review. Time-traveling Greek gods Athena and Apollo bring together philosophers from throughout the ages to found Plato’s Republic in the Bronze Age, as an experiment. The book is a fun way to learn about Plato's Republic, and the characters’ philosophical discussions and sincere pursuit of excellence are great fun. I think Walton is better at writing about positive experiences than negative ones—her portrayals of grief and trauma have always fallen flat for me and do so again here, and some of her character voices are stronger than others, while the climactic debate seemed amateur. But despite the criticism, this one left me with a lot to think about, and I went on to finish the trilogy—the second is a slight step down but worth reading if you liked the first (unfortunately it’s hard to stop as they all end on cliffhangers), but the third is just a nosedive, WTF did she think that absurd plotline belonged in this trilogy when there were so many meatier things to explore? The trilogy as a whole I wouldn’t rate above 3 stars, but the first book gets 3.5. Somehow I never love Walton's books, but they're all so unique I keep coming back anyway.
The Square: Award Nominee (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Vagabonds! by Eloghosa Osunde: Urban fantasy or perhaps magical realism, set in Lagos and exploring issues in contemporary Nigerian society. This one is vibrant, distinctive and messy, making no apologies for its Nigerian English and not catering to the foreign reader. It’s more short story collection than novel, and I found the first half intense and heavy but very well-written, as it explores themes of life, death, and finding meaning. The second half seems more focused on telling stories of queer Nigerians for queer Nigerians who haven’t seen much of themselves in fiction, but may do less for the reader for whom it’s not personal.
The Square: Set in Africa (HM): One of only a couple squares my natural reading didn’t fill. I checked out 5 interesting-sounding books from the library, previewed them all, and this was the winner, which I was glad of because I wanted to read an African author and not just someone of African descent. The runner-up, Redemption in Indigo, seemed strong enough that I might read it for a future bingo.
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Kalpa Imperial by Angelica Gorodischer: A thoughtful, literary collection of short stories set at various points in the history of an imagined empire; it reminds me a bit of Chinese history in its cyclical rising and falling. It’s no wonder Le Guin was a fan, as this is a thematically rich work, dealing with big ideas about history and power and the individual’s role in all this. Plot and character are not the focus, and I expected the stories to tie together more than they do, but they leave the reader something to think about as Gorodischer does not spell things out.
The Square: No Ifs Ands or Buts: This year’s easiest square, and I gave up hard mode, but I wanted to fit this book on my card somehow, okay?
The Okay (3 stars)
Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel: Enjoyable but not particularly memorable, this is a retelling of the Ramayana from the perspective of Rama’s antagonistic stepmother. It takes the well-worn route of making her near-perfect and Rama in the wrong, which has generated some interesting discussions about its portrayal of Hinduism. Unfortunately, it’s told in a generic first-person voice that makes Kaikeyi herself into a generic idealized protagonist. Despite that, I really enjoyed its focus on her relationships with family and friends, particularly the other women in her life, and the flow of the book appealed to me, with our lead mostly finding success and happiness in life. If you enjoyed Circe, but want to see better feminism and could do without the sex and romance, you should definitely try this.The Square: Family Matters (HM): I love this book for this square because the book is primarily about family relationships of various sorts. And its three-generational cast places our heroine in the middle generation rather than the youngest one, which is nice.
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In an Absent Dream by Seanan McGuire: The only novella in this series that I’ve read, and I loved it right up until the end. Our heroine has to choose between a portal world and our world, and passes back and forth repeatedly as she grows up and her decision gets harder and harder. I loved the deep but understated emotion, the relationships between the heroine and her families both biological and found, the fact that both her mentor and her best friend are also women/girls and these relationships have a lot of depth and emotion to them, and the sheer reasonableness of this initially bizarre world and its rules. The tragic ending basically destroys all that though, as to make it happen a major character acts against common sense, her own established wishes and motivations, and the rules of the world, all in one ridiculously contrived swoop. It seems like the author knew what ending she had to come to based on this protagonist's appearance in an already-published book, and so had to force a story that had grown in a different direction into that mold. This is the second McGuire book I’ve read, and likely the last, as my enjoyment of both books was severely impaired by elements that seemed really poorly thought-through.
The Square: Shapeshifters (HM): A cool feature of the world is that takers slowly begin to grow feathers, and ultimately turn into birds if they don’t change their ways (it’s okay though, they can become human again by giving back to the community).
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The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri: This was pretty mid for me, despite elements I like in theory: the South Asian inspired world, the three major women characters who play important roles in each other’s stories. I don’t really do epic fantasy anymore (what you don’t see on this card are all the others that I DNF’d early), but my enjoyment was probably also held back by having previously read Suri’s Books of Ambha, which I enjoyed much more. I’m starting to feel as if she creates all of her major women characters by starting with the same “strong woman” template and changing up the particular life experiences—also, you really have to emotionally connect to get much out of Suri's books and I wasn’t quite there with this one.
The Square: Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey (HM): There’s a forest where time passes at a different rate. Not a huge element but it is there!
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At the Mouth of the River of Bees by Kij Johnson: Quite a varied short story collection, from fantasy to science fiction to magic realism. There were stories in here that I loved—particularly the first, “26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss,” about troubled people finding their way back into the world through a circus act. There were stories I hated, like “Dia Chjerman’s Tale,” an incredibly dark and upsetting tale of the brutal destruction of a planet. So it’s hard to recommend as a collection, though I absolutely recommend all of Johnson’s novels, particularly The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe, closely followed by Fudoki. Oddly enough, the story that grew into Fudoki is here and I liked it less as a short story; the collection also includes the story that grew into my least favorite of her novels, The Fox Woman—and I liked that one much more.
The Square: Five Short Stories (HM): Self-explanatory.
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Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher: Cute but forgettable to me. A princess-turned-nun gathers a motley band to go on a quest to rescue her sister from an abusive husband who is also a king. I wanted a little more from both the world and the characters—Marra is nominally 30 but has a pretty standard coming-of-age story, which seems like a waste of an adult heroine, and the supporting cast is in theory cool but didn’t do much for me. Someone likened them to Pratchett characters and I think there’s some truth to that, so if you get more emotionally invested in his characters than I do (read: at all) you might also like this more.
The Square: Author Uses Initials (HM): Self-explanatory.
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The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin: A very well-written novel; that opening is breathtaking in its sheer confidence and power. And there’s some definite character depth here. I can see why this is popular and award-winning. But I never connected with the characters, and it proved too dark a book for me to enjoy—expect horrific violence against children. Also, those themes? Yeah, I’m tired of fantasy novels that like to pretend power is irrelevant to human power relations. This setup—mages with horrifically dangerous and violent powers are hated and feared by the populace because of those powers, and use the fact that people "wrongly" hate and fear them to justify ever more violence against average citizens who can never hope to match their power—this makes a great analogy for America’s police and how they see themselves. Unfortunately the book transparently intends it as an analogy for actual oppressed people, particularly African-Americans, where it works much less well.
The Square: Weird Ecology (HM): A world geologically different from our own (though I think it may be intended as our world in the far future), where plants, animals and people have evolved to survive even decades of disaster-induced winter.
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You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor and Janina Matthewson: Set in a dystopia, this purports to be the memoir of an influential psychiatrist, with footnotes by disapproving editors. The conceit is believably executed, and as a meditation on memory and history and complicity this works fairly well. It’s less successful with plot and character, and I didn’t believe in the dystopia (the world government has outlawed families? Really?). This is a tie-in novel to a podcast, Within the Wires, and while it’s sold as one you don’t need to listen to the podcast to understand, I think maybe you actually do.
The Square: 2+ Authors: This square actually got me on a multi-authored-work reading kick this year. Unfortunately, those books are ranking lower than average for me; you’ll see one more further down and there were another two ranked too low to make it onto the card (including one that would have qualified for hard mode!).
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Monstress Vol. 7: Devourer by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda: I enjoy this graphic novel series, a beautifully drawn epic fantasy in a female-dominated world. Warning that it’s dark, graphic and gory, though, and seems to be bogging down a bit in the middle volumes. Or maybe I just need to wait till it’s finished and read it all in one go rather than one book per year.
The Square: Non-Human Protagonist: A bit of a cheat since Maika can pass, but she is Arcanic, meaning from a race of animal-people, not human. (She’s also sharing her body with a monster.) I later read an actual novel for this but I hated it so here we are.
The Not-So-Good (2.5 stars)
Sorcery & Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer: This is actually kind of fun, an epistolary novel featuring two spunky cousins encountering magic and romance in Regency England. The authors wrote the novel by writing each other letters in character as a game and without discussing the plot, which is a super fun origin story, but as a novel I don’t think it quite works—both leads have protagonist syndrome, they’re kind of the same person and their plots have all the same beats, including identical climaxes, which was awfully boring the second time around. Still, if you love Georgette Heyer and you love fantasy you might want to give this a try.The Square: Historical Fantasy: I love this as a square and wish I had something better for it—initially I used Daughter of Mystery but then moved that out late and had to scramble.
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Pemmican Wars by Katharina Vermette: A short graphic novel featuring a Metis teenager who is struggling in foster care and meanwhile is transported back to (or perhaps just dreams of?) scenes from Canada’s past. The present-day thread is intriguingly told, almost all pictures with very few words, and brings home the protagonist’s isolation while letting readers come up with their own interpretation of what’s happening. The past segments feel really juvenile though, much younger than the YA it’s sold as, and still don’t do much to clarify the history.
The Square: BIPOC Author (HM): The square I struggled with most this year, because I really wanted to do hard mode, but had a lot of trouble finding a fantasy by an indigenous author that I wanted to read. I read a lot of lists and reviews, previewed at least 7 books, and read 3 of them. The first, while perfectly decent, was straight literary fiction and I could not make an argument that it was speculative, despite its being sold that way. The third was definitely fantasy but I thought it was pretty bad. So I wound up with this one, which is only arguably fantasy, very short, and which I didn’t think was all that great—definitely a non-ideal choice! But bingo is up and I don’t mind boosting this for those who might in fact enjoy it.
Thanks for reading! If you want the longer version of any of these reviews, check out my bingo shelf on Goodreads. Hit the “view” button on the far right side of each listing to see my review.
2023.04.01 03:06 West-Wrong MD/PhD App Review (MD vs MD/PhD thoughts?)
Hi everyone, I am a third year student at a T5 (Ivy) school, ORM, and economically disadvantaged (FLI). I am debating between applying to MD/PhD or just MD, so I would like some advice and guidance on what to do as I hope to apply this upcoming cycle without taking a gap year.
Here are some of my info: - Home state: NY - cGPA/sGPA: 3.6x/3.4x - MCAT: 512 - Clinical hours total: 1000 hours - Non-clinical volunteering hours: 600 hours (founded an organization for community based public health focus) - Research: 2500+ hours I have co authored more than 8 publications for BME and will have probably 10 publications by the time I apply, including one that I am a first author of. Some of the papers got into the highest impact factor journal of the field (h-index: >3) I have presented in national and international conferences and co-authored over 5 abstracts, and for some of them I am the first author. I have won multiple educational stipends for being an undergrad research trainee, including for one that I will be presenting in the upcoming months. Im also a member of several research organizations that hold these conferences and regularly attend the meetings.
I know my PI will write me a strong LOR and he has an MD/PhD himself, so I got inspired into the physician-scientist field from him. I also really enjoy the blend between doing clinical and research work because I believe that they are complementary to each other—I can’t do one without the other. I am a part of APSA so I try to get some guidance from there, but I haven’t spoken with anyone about how my stats and experience might make me appear for an MD/PhD program. How true is it that MD/PhD is forgiving of low stats if you have research experience to back it up?
I also would be the first in my family to apply to med school, so there’s essentially no one whom I can truly ask for help and guidance in this path other hand my PI who graduated med school some decades ago. So I’ll be glad if you can give me any help and insight.
submitted by West-Wrong to mdphd [link] [comments]
Here are some of my info: - Home state: NY - cGPA/sGPA: 3.6x/3.4x - MCAT: 512 - Clinical hours total: 1000 hours - Non-clinical volunteering hours: 600 hours (founded an organization for community based public health focus) - Research: 2500+ hours I have co authored more than 8 publications for BME and will have probably 10 publications by the time I apply, including one that I am a first author of. Some of the papers got into the highest impact factor journal of the field (h-index: >3) I have presented in national and international conferences and co-authored over 5 abstracts, and for some of them I am the first author. I have won multiple educational stipends for being an undergrad research trainee, including for one that I will be presenting in the upcoming months. Im also a member of several research organizations that hold these conferences and regularly attend the meetings.
I know my PI will write me a strong LOR and he has an MD/PhD himself, so I got inspired into the physician-scientist field from him. I also really enjoy the blend between doing clinical and research work because I believe that they are complementary to each other—I can’t do one without the other. I am a part of APSA so I try to get some guidance from there, but I haven’t spoken with anyone about how my stats and experience might make me appear for an MD/PhD program. How true is it that MD/PhD is forgiving of low stats if you have research experience to back it up?
I also would be the first in my family to apply to med school, so there’s essentially no one whom I can truly ask for help and guidance in this path other hand my PI who graduated med school some decades ago. So I’ll be glad if you can give me any help and insight.
2023.03.31 21:51 acebaselaceface Thinking about Part-Time to Full-Time transition
I'm a part-time 2E. I work full time in addition to attending classes at night. While I enjoy my job, it's getting really hard to juggle it all. Any advice or thoughts on my situation is much appreciated!
My job is with the state and they provide tuition remission for law school. The remission covers 6 credits/semester, but after a certain amount, that remission is taxable. When my tuition is taxed, my paycheck decreases by about 25%. I also have a scholarship that covers about 3 credits/semester. I have a small loan to cover the 25% paycheck difference, but I will have to start taking out more in loans because I need to take more than 9 credits/semester to graduate. If I stay this course, I'm looking at about 24-30K in loans once I graduate. I do not have any debt from undergrad/grad school and I qualify for forgiveness, SCOTUS willing.
My job is time-intensive and it's starting to wear on my well-being. First, my job has nothing to do with the law or what I hope to practice. There are certainly some transferrable skills I'm picking up; but overall, it doesn't really contribute to my professional development. Second, I consistently work overtime on Friday nights and weekends. My job is good about letting me flex my time (i.e. if I work all day Saturday, I can take off on Monday). However, having a Saturday completely open gives me 8-12 hours to study; but any weekday is capped off whenever my classes start, which cuts down on my free time to get work done. Third, the person in my position prior to me left me with a shitshow to clean up and, as far as job duties are concerned, I'm getting pulled in a lot of directions by a lot of people. It's wearing on me. I dislike working there, which is not great for my mental health. With all the stress, I've taken out over a month's work of sick days and developed insomnia. Just taking care of myself seems insurmountable.
That said, I really love law school. Yes, it's stressful too, but I enjoy the learning process. I want to make the absolute most of my law school experience by joining a journal and getting involved in a clinic. I know I can't do these things on my current path without losing my mind and sense of self. Going full time would give me a little more time to take care of myself and enjoy a little more time with my loved ones.
I spoke to our Dean and he told me I can switch to full time and finish school in three semesters. This would have me finish classes in the December and I can sit for the bar in February. I'm waiting to hear back from Financial Aid on increasing my scholarships (I am in good academic standing); but I would certainly have to take out more loans to cover living expenses. If I switch, I'd try to find some paid work to help offset costs.
Thoughts? Advice? Would I be an idiot to give up tuition remission? Is it unwise to finish in the winter?
submitted by acebaselaceface to LawSchool [link] [comments]
My job is with the state and they provide tuition remission for law school. The remission covers 6 credits/semester, but after a certain amount, that remission is taxable. When my tuition is taxed, my paycheck decreases by about 25%. I also have a scholarship that covers about 3 credits/semester. I have a small loan to cover the 25% paycheck difference, but I will have to start taking out more in loans because I need to take more than 9 credits/semester to graduate. If I stay this course, I'm looking at about 24-30K in loans once I graduate. I do not have any debt from undergrad/grad school and I qualify for forgiveness, SCOTUS willing.
My job is time-intensive and it's starting to wear on my well-being. First, my job has nothing to do with the law or what I hope to practice. There are certainly some transferrable skills I'm picking up; but overall, it doesn't really contribute to my professional development. Second, I consistently work overtime on Friday nights and weekends. My job is good about letting me flex my time (i.e. if I work all day Saturday, I can take off on Monday). However, having a Saturday completely open gives me 8-12 hours to study; but any weekday is capped off whenever my classes start, which cuts down on my free time to get work done. Third, the person in my position prior to me left me with a shitshow to clean up and, as far as job duties are concerned, I'm getting pulled in a lot of directions by a lot of people. It's wearing on me. I dislike working there, which is not great for my mental health. With all the stress, I've taken out over a month's work of sick days and developed insomnia. Just taking care of myself seems insurmountable.
That said, I really love law school. Yes, it's stressful too, but I enjoy the learning process. I want to make the absolute most of my law school experience by joining a journal and getting involved in a clinic. I know I can't do these things on my current path without losing my mind and sense of self. Going full time would give me a little more time to take care of myself and enjoy a little more time with my loved ones.
I spoke to our Dean and he told me I can switch to full time and finish school in three semesters. This would have me finish classes in the December and I can sit for the bar in February. I'm waiting to hear back from Financial Aid on increasing my scholarships (I am in good academic standing); but I would certainly have to take out more loans to cover living expenses. If I switch, I'd try to find some paid work to help offset costs.
Thoughts? Advice? Would I be an idiot to give up tuition remission? Is it unwise to finish in the winter?
2023.03.31 21:05 aprilkhubaz First Bingo Turn-In with Mini Reviews (~85% fantasy, 50% hard mode)
 | submitted by aprilkhubaz to Fantasy [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/j786dzhef4ra1.jpg?width=1700&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f6ec834558f563d5b95aeef0252f0a8a23a875b4 This is my first bingo. I only picked up reading novels (after a brief Chinese webnovel fan translation stint in the pandemic) in July, and I'd forgotten how much I love reading. I was wavering on whether to go for the bingo since I was introduced to it pretty late, but I'd read most of the categories by then, so it wasn't too hard to clean up. I've put some mini reviews below. Would love to fangirl over my favorites or just discuss any of these! LGBTQIA List: The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon 5/5 - This book felt like the feminist response to epic fantasy that it promises. Shannon created a beautiful and complex world, in which almost every corner is explored. I thought her religious world-building was especially strong, particularly in how multiple religions have developed from the same origin story. I thought the romance between Ead and Sabran was magical (and when reading the prequel, found the lack of a gripping romance to be what brought my review of that one down a notch), and Ead was a great POV character. Niclays grew on me for the story of his grief and finding new meaning, and that he was an older character. But I didn’t think all the POVs were created equal; Loth’s chapters were interesting, but his character was boring, and Tané's were both. Overall, I liked the pacing, as I’m used to slow court politics epics from my Chinese webnovel days, though the ¾ point dragged a little too much for me. The plot was solid but nothing mind-blowing, as the reveals (except Kalyba’s) were not shocking or impactful. I feel the same about the magic system. The strengths here were in the world’s histories, mythologies, and politics (okay, and the romance). Weird Ecology: Little Mushroom: Judgment Day by Shisi (Hard Mode) 5/5 – (Sorry, this review is a little long.) To be honest, I'm not well-versed in post-apocalyptic sci-fi, so I have no idea how to place this among the existing literature of the genre. Its fudging of actual science to fit the world seems reasonable enough, so I won't question that aspect. The story takes place in a world in which the earth's geomagnetism has changed, leading to radiation, massive population devastation, and eventually, the emergence of "xenogenics," animals that have absorbed human (or other animal or plant) genes upon consumption. Earth has been reduced to two population bases as a result. The story follows An Zhe, a xenogenic mushroom who has gained human-like sentience and a human body and doesn't exhibit the human-hunting instincts of other xenogenics, and Lu Feng, a high-level figure in the military dedicated to eradicating xenogenics who attempt to infiltrate the human base. An Zhe goes to the human base to locate his spore, which was stolen by humans. Though Lu Feng remains suspicious of him, An Zhe passes every human test. And there’s a romance, and this dynamic hits every note for me. The story was darker than I expected. This volume is divided into two halves. The first half covers the worldbuilding of how the apocalypse and current situation came to be, and follows the outer part of the human base as xenogenic attacks become more frequent and intelligent. The building sense of dread as Judgment Day unfolds was exceptionally well done. The second half follows An Zhe and Lu Feng's retreat to the inner city after Judgment Day; this follows more of the dystopia of the type of world humans have created to survive, dedicated purely to survival at the expense of human connection (and human rights, lol). I loved the plot direction, the characters (main and side), and the gradual, teasing worldbuilding. (Also, I read the sequel, and it delivered.) 2+ Authors: This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone 3/5 (Sorry, I know this is a fave here) - The writing is the type that slows you down and makes you savor it. There are countless lines that gave me pause just to enjoy. As a whole, though, the book comes across as more about the writing style than anything else. Partly, I think the letter format just doesn't do it for me. I also felt like I just didn't understand what was going on enough -- I can appreciate ambiguity to an extent, but this tested my limits a bit. Historical SFF: The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (Hard Mode) 3/5 - This was not everything I wanted it to be. I love myth retellings and Slavic settings, and the historical and mythological background of the novel was its strongest point. It was a grim look at the reign of Ivan the Terrible, and it gave a pretty comprehensive and interesting look at the old gods of the Russian mythos. But the story didn't really click with me. The antagonistic characters, like Selica, Ivan, and Koshey, were far stronger than Yaga and her allies. The writing felt disjointed; it would go from really well-written, vivid descriptions of the scenery to awkward-sounding and repetitive internal monologues by Yaga. This resulted in Yaga coming off as not very complex and compelling to me as a main character. Set in Space: Dune by Frank Herbert 2/5 – Sorry. I read this a while after watching the movie, and preferred the movie. It was a drag to read, did not have well-written female characters, and was blatantly Orientalist. I’m sure it was revolutionary for its time, but I’m not of the right generation to appreciate that. Standalone: The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec (Hard Mode) 4/5 - This follows a witch who flees from the gods in self-imposed isolation who nonetheless encounters and is drawn into the story of some of the gods - including Loki, who becomes the father of her children. The motherhood motif was strong throughout the book, which tends to appeal to me. I especially liked how the prophecy of Ragnarok was woven throughout the story and how it all came together in the end; it was written effectively and drew directly from Norse mythology in a way that I found interesting. Two quibbles I had were that sometimes I didn't think the dialogue fit the setting or the tone, and that the novel starts to drag on after the halfway mark and before the climax. I think I would have liked to see even more of the mythology and its various settings and figures make its way into the story; it was enough to pique my interest but not enough to satiate it. Anti-Hero: The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang 4.5?/5 – It’s hard to know how to rate this. I was impressed when I first read this, particularly after the dark shift in tone, and its depictions of the imperial authority selling out its own for power, the consequences of the powers of a shaman, and its goriness. I didn’t mind that it directly drew from history, as I thought it was able to rework some of humanity’s darkest moments in an impactful way. But after reading the two sequels, and reflecting a bit on it later, my view is not as favorable, especially on the character work and the writing style. Book Club: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 5/5 - The premise of the world in this novel is difficult to stomach - literally, at times. It's filled with the most egregious and violent forms of misogyny, some historical and some ever-present. It's an astonishingly dark world for a YA book. So, Wu Zetian's rage at the system and those who perpetuate it was so cathartic and satisfying. It was also refreshing how she didn't let doubt get in the way of her vengeance, before or after. The other two main characters were also immensely likeable, and I was pleasantly surprised by the subversion of the classic YA love triangle. The story was engaging, even if I found the writing style a bit lacking to my taste at times. It's an echo of a favorite theme of mine, that those in power will use the strong to their advantage, but be ready to betray or discard them out of fear when something changes. This theme drives most of the plot - the internal power struggles among the army - over the overarching conflict with the Hunduns. The book finishes at breakneck speed with a massive plot twist that left me reeling, and which fills in some of the blanks about the worldbuilding that had been hinted at. Despite a couple of hitches in the story and writing, the book gets high marks simply because of its enjoyability and because, sometimes, it feels good to channel a bit of that feminine rage. Cool Weapon: The Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Rou Bao Bu Chi Rou (Hard Mode) 5/5 – The weapon here is ML Chu Wanning’s Tianwen (a magical whip). There are other magical weapons, too. It’s xianxia. I’ve already read the full thing in fan translation (half in mtl, ouch), but I’m cherishing the official publication. The full novel is an epic in melodrama. The premise, the slow climb of the plot, and the execution are indulgent, thrilling, and overly dramatic in a wonderful concoction of words. The first installment here lays the groundwork of the two main characters and the complex relationship between the two. We have a former emperor-villain of the cultivation world who dies and is reborn in his teenage self, and his shizun, renowned for his abilities and who was a...consort of our emperor in his former life...and who is in love with his student, and is disgusted with himself for it. It's a LOT, and the author does NOT shy away from making it a lot. The plot starts off slow, as a thorough development of the main characters and their psyches. Considering their complicated backstories, this makes for a lot of dramatic (in a good way) monologue, even if the plot points haven’t picked up yet. Revolution/Rebellion: She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan (Hard Mode) 5/5 – MY FAVORITE BOOK HERE. I sort of knew this would be a five-star read going into it, because it checks off so many of my boxes. Historical fantasy, war and political intrigue, a character who is a MONK (and another, to my pleasant surprise, who is a eunuch), romance and grit alike. The execution is amazing. The characters came alive in their scenes, through their dialogue and how their desires drove them, and their interactions with others. Ouyang was my favorite. I love a good revenge quest against the only one you care for, and their interactions drew me in so that it was that much more of a tragic read. I'd consider his chapters some of the most memorable things I've read for those reasons. They also featured Wang Baoxiang, the embodiment of the scheming scholar type, who was a standout side character. It was not just Ouyang, though, that made difficult, violent decisions in pursuit of his goals; I appreciated the book's brutality, which was not over-the-top and came with good doses of character introspection. I also thought the fantasy aspects integrated well with the story. For the most part, the plot is driven by non-fantasy elements, making this more of a low fantasy, but these elements intervene in key thematic areas in such a way that it came across as very natural than, say. For example, there are these magical elements, like the manifestation of the Mandate of Heaven and the spirit world, but they are elusive enough that the concept of fate still remains nebulous. Did Zhu actually take the fate of her brother? How much bearing does the Mandate even have (especially in light of, uh, that last chapter)? It was a neat ambiguity. Name in Title: Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel 4/5 - This was a really well-written and easy-to-read retelling (or sort of new telling) of the story of Kaikeyi, with a large cast of realistic characters and strong messaging about power (especially as it relates to gender) and motherhood. There was a little something missing for me, which I realized later was that after her childhood, Kaikeyi comes across as almost perfect. Pretty much all her actions are motivated by good, moral reasons, particularly her desire to uplift and empower other women of the kingdom. Which, I don’t mind anachronism, but I prefer a bit more complexity to a main character’s morality and motives, and the Women’s Circle plotline was not fully convincing to me. Author Uses Initials: The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story by M. L. Wang 4/5 - This book was refreshing for being unflinchingly brutal in its willingness to kill off characters for having a main character who is a mature woman - and a mother, no less. The first part does some pretty good worldbuilding and politicking, before it erupts into a brutal battle with vivid action scenes. After the battle, it becomes clear that the story is less a fantasy war epic than a story about a family confronting their traumas, both related and unrelated to the war, as they rebuild their life together. This part, in its depiction of family and particularly of Misaki, was poignant and touching. There were some weaknesses; the worldbuilding faltered after the battle, never expanding on some questions in a satisfying way, the reverse colonialism thing was odd, and the ending felt so much like a set-up for a sequel that it annoyed me. Published in 2022: Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan (Hard Mode) 4/5 - I like a good fantasy adventure, just as I like a good criticism of power and plot twists that rewrite the plot up to that point. The narrator does have a very distinctly YA voice with lots of internal monologuing which personally isn't my favorite, and I'm not a huge fan of multiple love interests, but it was a fun read. Urban Fantasy: Jade City (Hard Mode) 5/5 - Jade City impressed me with its realistic characterizations, gritty plot, and ruthlessness. The event that sets off the war was an excellent study in fog of war; and how the war unfolded was a good balance between political intrigue and action. Some of the action scenes really had me holding my breath; no one feels safe in this book. (Book 2 dipped a bit for me, coming off as meandering and focused on politicking in places that weren’t fully visualized, without enough action to keep me hooked. Book 3 was again wonderful, extremely ambitious and with a lot of tear-jerking moments for me.) Set in Africa: God of Mercy by Ozekie Nwoza (Hard Mode) 4/5 - This was a pretty complicated exploration of Igbo culture and religion, and Christianity and its colonizing aspects. A little over half the book takes place in a village that steadfastly follows Igbo traditions and gods, and in particular the story of the girl Ijeoma who is granted the power to fly by one of their gods. The other part of the book follows Ijeoma as she is imprisoned by a Christian church in a neighboring town, focusing on the abuse and attempted indoctrination she faces there as a non-believer. The latter is a pretty critical look at Christianity and its violent methods of prosyletizing, with maybe one sympathetic Christian character. Which, yeah, fair. But the depiction of Igbo culture/religion wasn't so clear-cut, with there being some criticism there as well, and internal conflicts among the villagers and even the gods. The most evident conclusion being the unfair pressure on this young girl with powers to be the savior of the village, and her family, and her being used to those ends. It was a rewarding read. The style of the writing is lit-fic-y, with lots of stream of consciousness and repetition. The language was beautiful, though the focus on it did come at the expense of more vivid characterization, so that the characters felt distant rather than engaging. Non-Human Protagonist: The City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty 4.75/5 – The main character (and the other POV character) is revealed to be djinn, i.e. non-human. I loved the Middle Eastern setting, and the book delivered on political intrigue, plot reveals, and action scenes. The worldbuilding and intrigue were a slow trickle, but in a way that kept me hungry for more rather than bored. I thought the portrayal of the various sides was nicely complex, with strong motivations and no side coming off as clean as far as atrocities are concerned. I have particular praise for Ghassan, who is not a sympathetic character but has such complicated relationships with his kids. (The next two books were equally fun to read, though didn’t quite deliver for me on character development and pacing.) Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey: Tai Sui by priest (hard mode) 5/5 – I don’t even know how to explain how this fits the requirements. It was a long, 200+ chapter read over the course of months as updates (it’s a webnovel) came out. Rest assured, there’s a lot of wobbliness, particularly through the use of xianxia magical items and this whole communicating with the gods plot and there was definitely a point in which time in one area, sealed off, was at a different pace as the rest of the world. This is a wild read so I don’t remember the details very much, but it’s incredibly fun and the themes were really well-done, particularly that of challenging the heavenly authority and the impossibility of neutrality. Replaced 5 short stories with -> 2018 Features Character who is a God: Circe by Madeline Miller 5/5 - Miller is incredibly skillful in both her prose and characterization. And even though Circe (especially in the first half of Circe's banishment to Aiaia) reads a bit like a series of short stories, every character featured throughout the breadth of Greek mythology is written with such vivid characterization. Circe is also given this treatment; Miller yet again demonstrates how to write a character growth and development, from their beginning to their end. What is particularly apparent is Circe's loneliness, even when she won't admit it to herself, and how desperately she holds onto the people who pass through her life. This book also speaks poignantly on motherhood (in a variety of parenting styles) and mortality. Time and time again, we see the gods as fickle and cruel. Not that the mortals aren't, but there's also a beauty to mortality, particularly for those Circe comes to love, and in making the most of one's short time. The ending brought it all full circle, and I was quite weepy. Mental Health: The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune (Hard Mode) 5/5 – This book is really something. I don't usually gravitate towards the wholesome, cozy fantasy type, so I kept putting this off, which was a mistake. It was a magical read. The characters are all so precious, and the romance is delightful, as Arthur himself would say. There are tragic notes underpinning the wholesomeness, like the treatment these magical children faced before, Arthur's backstory, or the grey life Linus lived before the island (aka I read this as depression, thus fitting the bill for this square), that make these moments of pure acceptance and happiness and love so much more touching. The way Linus slowly comes to life, from his monotonous routine in the city to becoming a father for these children. His bond with Lucy was especially heartwarming, both because Lucy is a comedy mine, but because the knee-jerk reaction against him was strongest. This book made me fall apart with the softest of lines. Indie or Self-Published: Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi 4/5 - It’s a solid wuxia set-up. We’re introduced to a lot here - several various martial arts sects, governments, and characters within, as well as this looming strategy scroll that martial artists are seeking. I like Shen Qiao so far; his intelligence and devotion to his moral values are admirable, in the face of the betrayals he’s faced. I’m less sold on Yan Wushi, as his motivations are a bit obtuse, and their interactions don’t do much for me yet. I’ll keep reading the next volumes to see if the set-up pays off. Runner-Up: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden 5/5 - This is my favorite of the Slavic dark-fairytale evil-lurking-in-the-woods I've read so far. The main conflict is in the confrontation between Slavic paganism and Christianity. A priest brings a village to a strict form of Christianity, weakening the local powers that have kept an evil god at bay. The main character is a girl who lives in the village, is a descendant of a "witch," and has the ability to see what others cannot. The author strikes the perfect balance between atmosphere and plot; while slow, I loved the story's pacing, and it all seems incredibly intentional in retrospect. The writing itself is wonderful, and on the more sophisticated side. The characters weren't the strongest part for me - I could barely tell her brothers apart by personality - but the confrontations between her and Konstantin the priest (WOW his POVs are intense and my favorite), her and her father, and her and her step-mother were great and made this selection a distinct cast. BIPOC Author: Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia 3/5 - I thought this was okay. I love any retelling or incorporation of mythology, and I also liked the various settings in different parts of Mexico, and how each spoke a bit about class or racial/indigenous issues. However, the plot and characters were not wholly compelling to me. The plot was pretty simple—not that that’s bad necessarily, but I like complexity, and the way the plot moved around, as the two characters jumped from place to place, came off as abrupt, and no place could be explored as in depth as I’d like. Casiopea’s narration was also a bit repetitive. The exceptions were the ending, which I thought wrapped things up nicely, and how we could gradually see how Hun-Kamé was becoming more mortal over the course of the journey through subtle mannerisms. Shapeshifters: Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim (Hard Mode) 4/5 - A fast, fun read. Features all the classics: stepmother shenanigans; brothers cursed into birds; a princess cursed not to speak; lots of evil and supposedly-evil-but-not-really sorcerers. The sibling dynamics were precious, the characters were likeable, and the ending was pretty touching. I did question some of the decision-making at some points, but it was perfectly enjoyable. (And I breezed through the sequel as well, though I found the Ai’long arc to not be sufficiently long enough to explore the kingdom.) No Ifs, Ands, or Buts: Siren Queen by Nghi Vo 4/5 – Vo’s writing was stellar as usual. I loved the atmosphere. The setting of films and acting isn't one that I'm particularly interested in (I watch like 0 movies a year), but I did really enjoy the depth to each of Luli's relationships; with her family, with Greta, with Emmaline, and with Harry. The magic in this world is nebulous, and at times I struggled to understand some of the terms referenced throughout, but this style of fantasy worldbuilding is a cornerstone of Vo's and I can appreciate it nonetheless. Family Matters: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik (Hard Mode) 5/5 – Three generations of moneylenders! And other families besides. Adored the fairytale storytelling in this one. It started out as a charming story about a girl who takes over her father's moneylending business to save her family, into something spanning a kingdom on earth and one of ice, a confrontation between the kings of winter and summer, and multiple rotating POVs. Miryem was the strongest, and it was a really well-told perspective on the Jewish community in Eastern Europe as well. Irina was my second favorite; the other character POVs weren't as exciting to me, though they did even out the pacing nicely. The way the various magics came together was satisfying, and the ending hit the right note for me, even if I would have liked perhaps a bit more of the dust settling after the climax. |
2023.03.31 17:54 Better_4_You Psoriasis Revolution Review 2023
 | I hope everyone is doing well. I just got diagnosed with psoriasis about 2 years ago. I work in the health field as a CNA and I flare up so much during work hrs, and especially after having Covid. I used to live in FL. But just moved to NV and wow the winter hit me hard. In a way it felt better than FL but not i dont know. I never had to moisturize like this in my life or since having Psoriasis.I was given steroid pills and it helped with the itching. submitted by Better_4_You to u/Better_4_You [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/f0hhpcrrj3ra1.jpg?width=768&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3ac2676615ff50df5efe2b80f9f1279edc4ef59d >>>> READ MORE |
2023.03.31 17:18 Sufficient-Engine514 I'm 34, make 210k a year, and just started paying down 170k of student loan debt while paying for fertility treatments.
Background
Me: 34F
Jobs: Consultant
Location: East Coast
Goal: Finding the balance between paying off my six-figure student debt while still enjoying life post failed fertility treatments.
Current Debt and Assets
DEBT
Credit card debt: $2,200 approximately. I usually never go more than 2 months without paying it off completely to keep me honest.
Personal loans: $0
Medical debt: $0
Student loan debt: $125,303.17 with 3.301% interest. I had a scholarship to undergrad. For my graduate degree, I took out 150k of loans. In the 4 years after graduate school where I was paying the minimum payment, the loan amount grew to $171,000. I paid off approximately 57k in the past 18 months (although because interest is so high, only 46k of that went to principal.)
Auto loans: $0 – My husband and I have had a ton of bad luck the past few years but one thing we were fortunate about is buying two used cars around 22k each right before the new and used car market went crazy. We paid them both off within 3-4 months of purchasing them. I used to think I would just lease a car because I had this idea that all used cars break down constantly but I’m glad my husband disabused me of notion because with some TLC, my car should last me a long time and with all the spending on gas and tolls, I am so thankful to not have a car payment.
Savings balance: $1,000. My husband and I used to have a very large savings/rainy day fund (30k-ish) but we’ve spent the past 3 years going through fertility treatments that have really eaten away at our savings. This amount of savings is pretty antithetical to how judicious we both are about money but we both have good job security and could cash out our investment accounts with penalty if we really needed it so we haven’t prioritizied replenishing it. That, and we are very emotionally spent after the past few years.
Checking account balance: $460.55
Crypto portfolio: $0. I don’t have the risk tolerance for this.
House: Bought for $580,000, now worth ~$700,000. Still owe around 545k.
Assets:
401K: ~$140,000. I max out my contribution to my 401k. I did not start contributing to this until I was 27 but all my past employers have had generous matches which has helped.
ROTH IRA: ~$11,000. My husband and I have a joint ROTH IRA that we’ve maxed out every year for past 4-5 years. All our accounts have taken a beating this year, not unlike everyone else, so these numbers used to be much higher. Keep reminding myself to play the long game!
Brokerage Account $6,000. I’d like to be more aggressive with this but we’re doing our best at the moment.
Income
I am currently working full-time as a tech consultant. I’ve only been here a year, but I love the work and the benefits are generous. The job is very stressful and a bit hectic sometimes but it’s hard to imagine I’ll get everything I have at this job elsewhere, so I plan to stay awhile a while.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~$4,825 2x/month
Other Income: I sometimes do other work with modest honorariums that probably only bring in around $2k a year. This year is an outlier thought and I will get almost $9k.
Total Income: ~$4,825. I don’t account for other income into my budget and whatever I get just gets chucked towards student loans.
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $1550 (Half of my mortgage. My husband has VA Loan so we didn’t need a down payment for the house, just closing costs, which is why our mortgage may seem a little high. We also live in a HCOL area so this probably seems high but this is not far off from what we paid for rent living in the city, so this wasn’t a hard jump for us financially.
Debt payments: Anywhere from $1700 (the minimum) to $4000, depending on the month.
Utility Bills: ~$200 (I pay)
Cellphone + Internet: $150 (Husband pays)
Subscriptions: $150 (Husband pays)
Car Insurance: $100 (Covers both of us, husband pays)
Dining Out: $150-250. We very rarely go out to eat especially in the past few years because of pandemic and IVF but we’re trying to get in the habit of doing so once a month to enjoy ourselves. We're more likely to order in with UberEats or something. My husband usually pays even though it goes on our joint CC, he usually pays it off.
Shopping: Wildly fluctuates but anywhere from 500 to nothing. The older I’ve gotten the easier it is for me to avoid impulse buys.
Groceries: $1200-1500 – I pay for all groceries and house toiletries like soap, toothpaste, medicine, etc. One of the things we splurge on is high quality meats, organic fruits and vegetables, blah blah blah etc. This lifestyle change hasn’t made any difference in our IVF success unfortunately but we both couldn’t deny how great we felt eating that way, so we continue to do so despite me sometimes wincing at the cumulative cost. I make almost double what my husband does, so I take over a slightly higher percentage of our monthly bills but not by much because we both agreed I should prioritize paying down my student loans. He also covers dog food, treats, and medicine for both our dogs which really adds up and those more random, quarterly house expenses like Home Depot visits, pest control, buying a new mower, lawn care, and other things that come up more than you think (Home owners know the struggle). Once my debt is paid down, we will probably revisit the split of monthly expenses to see what makes sense.
Cleaning: $165/month (I pay) Having a house cleaner is one of those luxuries I would never give up. I’d rather cut back on dining out, shopping, etc if someone could come once a month to clean. We also have two big dogs, so it feels less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
Pet Insurance $80/month, covers both dogs (I pay)
Gas: $300 (I have a long commute and I go into the office almost every day)
Tolls: $225
Parking: $0 Work covers this, thank goodness!
Health Insurance: $0. My work covers health insurance for me and my husband. Huge bonus I don’t take for granted.
Total Expenses: I’ve estimated it is roughly around $6,500 a month at least for my portion of bills, assuming I’ve only paid the minimum of my student loans.
Debt Diary
2006 – Started college at a public university where I got free tuition from a combination of my mom’s job and my good grades. We still owed room and board which my parents covered for the most part and then took out loans to cover the rest when they divorced. My stepdad paid off the remaining balance of around 8k for me in my mid-twenties.
2010 – Graduated and moved to abroad for four years. Got great experience but pay was very low so no savings and no financial planning at all.
2014: Started my graduate degree back in the U.S.. Took out *all* the loans for this to include living expenses (150k). During this time I wanted to be a public servant so I felt confident my loans would be paid off after 10 years through Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. That’s not exactly how it worked out.
2016: Graduated and started my first “big girl” job at 27 making around $75,000 . This is the first time I started contributing to a 401k. I was working for a 401c3 so I qualified to start paying into the PSLF program. My loan payments, based on my income at the time was around $350-400 monthly. I got modest raises over the next few years that brought me to 85k before I switched jobs. During these four years, my student loans ballooned to 170k because I was only paying the minimum.
2020: My husband and I cancel our wedding and honeymoon (covid) but still get married. Got a new job that finally got me a low six figure salary (120k) but was in the private sector so still paying minimum on student loans but no longer was making qualified payments for student loan forgiveness. Thought I might still go back into government/nonprofit world.
2021: Changed jobs – same ish salary @ 125k, still in the private sector. Start what will be many rounds of unsuccessful rounds of IVF. I think the total cost has been somewhere around 80k. My husband’s grandmother has helped us a lot which I quite literally don’t know what we would do without, but it’s still been very financially, emotionally, and mentally taxing. Wasted a lot of money on supplements and acupuncture that didn’t help.
2022: Started at the job I have now. Base started at 175,000 plus 25% bonus. In the first year I got a promotion and a 20% raise, so I now make 210,000. This is when I realize that this is the career I enjoy and will likely not go back government service in the future or at least not long enough to participate in student loan forgiveness program. I also do the math and realize if I continue to pay the minimum of income-based repayment (based on my now much higher pay) I will end up paying 3-4x the loan amount over the course of my life. I decide to privatize my loans and choose a 10 year pay off plan because I want to be somewhat aggressive about it, hence the relatively high minimum payment of $1700. Despite the good interest rate (3% ish) the principal is so high that $400 of that goes to interest. It’s why I’d like to aggressive pay it down now, if for no other reason than to get the interest payments down.
2023: I’m told after many failed rounds of IVF, I’m unable to have genetic children. We start figuring out how we will afford other ways to build our family, all of which cost in the tens of thousands. Fortunately, (?) I’ve gotten my student loans down to 125k.
Now: Between canceling our wedding, our honeymoon, living through a pandemic and years of fertility struggles and awful treatments, I am now re-thinking how aggressively I’ve been paying down debt this past year. Approaching getting pregnant and debt payment both as a sprint and not a marathon has done me no favors. I also just want my husband and I to enjoy life a little bit given all our struggles. We both work so hard, and I want to make sure we’re making time (and money) on the things that make us happy. I also realize we need to figure out how we’ll pay to expand our family which overwhelms me but I’m trying to treat this just as a second marathon, not a sprint.
Reflection
Do I regret my student loans?
Despite my six figure loans living rent free in my mind constantly, it’s hard to regret taking them because I can’t imagine how else I would have built the career I have now, which I love and am very grateful for. My career is everything I always hoped for and more although sometimes I lose sight of that in the daily grind. Grad school was so time consuming it’s also hard to imagine how I would have worked at the same time and made enough money to make a meaningful difference in my bills. And I focused a lot of time on substantive internships that would help demonstrate my ability to shifting gears into a different career which I do think paid off in more ways than one. This new career path that I’m on also opens a lot of doors for me to continue to be a higher earner so in the long run, this amount of debt, while daunting and a bit menacing, is somewhat of a first world problem. It will get paid off. My only concern is if something catastrophic happened, since my loans are private, I would still have a very high mandatory minimum payment. Again, both my husband and I have a lot of job security and could always cash out our investment accounts, heaven forbid something awful happened. I think because the past few years have been so mentally taxing, I have very little bandwidth for regret.
Impact of Infertility
It is probably also worth noting that dealing with years of infertility and infertility treatments only to be told ultimately that I’m unable to have [genetic] children has changed who I am as a person and how I see life. We spent 3 years of our life in a pandemic lockdown and then in back-to-back all-consuming aggressive fertility treatments. I feel like we lost so much time and had very little levity during those times. I still plan on being diligent about paying off my debt and investing, but I want to cut myself some slack and allow my husband and myself to live a little, travel and just spend time enjoying our lives instead of just focusing on destinations (of having children and debt pay off).
Generational Wealth
The city I live in is filled with lots of wealthy people and many a times I’ve been in conversations where people ask where you sailed in the summer and skied in the winter, like it’s a given that everyone does this (lol). Most of the people I went to grad school with had their school paid off from family (plus help with a down payment for a house and wedding costs), and it occurs to me over and over how critical a role generational wealth can play in setting someone up for an incredibly easier life. My husband and I grew up middle class (which still conferred a lot of privilege that is never lost on us) but would like to make sure we have saved money for our [eventual] kids college so they’re not saddled with debt – and thinking about other investment accounts we could open for them to start generational wealth. Without my student loan debt, I could have an additional 200k to invest which would have meaningful impact on my kid’s and kid’s kid’s life when invested correctly. I don’t dwell too much on this though, at least anymore, but rather something I consider when planning for the future. Both my husband and I are still grateful for the advantages and privilege we still did and continue to have. Oddly, getting more interested in personal finance has made me feel more neutral about money which I appreciate.
Husband’s Influence
I also have to credit a lot of good money habits to my husband who was a really great influence on me on the importance of making consciousness steps to get a better credit score, invest aggressively, etc. I was definitely living for a good time not a long time up until I met him lol. We still prioritize spending money on fun without guilt but now I enjoy the process about making sure we’re set up well for the future.
Thank you for reading. I'm feeling a bit vulnerable talking about this stuff so please be gentle with me :').
submitted by Sufficient-Engine514 to MoneyDiariesACTIVE [link] [comments]
Me: 34F
Jobs: Consultant
Location: East Coast
Goal: Finding the balance between paying off my six-figure student debt while still enjoying life post failed fertility treatments.
Current Debt and Assets
DEBT
Credit card debt: $2,200 approximately. I usually never go more than 2 months without paying it off completely to keep me honest.
Personal loans: $0
Medical debt: $0
Student loan debt: $125,303.17 with 3.301% interest. I had a scholarship to undergrad. For my graduate degree, I took out 150k of loans. In the 4 years after graduate school where I was paying the minimum payment, the loan amount grew to $171,000. I paid off approximately 57k in the past 18 months (although because interest is so high, only 46k of that went to principal.)
Auto loans: $0 – My husband and I have had a ton of bad luck the past few years but one thing we were fortunate about is buying two used cars around 22k each right before the new and used car market went crazy. We paid them both off within 3-4 months of purchasing them. I used to think I would just lease a car because I had this idea that all used cars break down constantly but I’m glad my husband disabused me of notion because with some TLC, my car should last me a long time and with all the spending on gas and tolls, I am so thankful to not have a car payment.
Savings balance: $1,000. My husband and I used to have a very large savings/rainy day fund (30k-ish) but we’ve spent the past 3 years going through fertility treatments that have really eaten away at our savings. This amount of savings is pretty antithetical to how judicious we both are about money but we both have good job security and could cash out our investment accounts with penalty if we really needed it so we haven’t prioritizied replenishing it. That, and we are very emotionally spent after the past few years.
Checking account balance: $460.55
Crypto portfolio: $0. I don’t have the risk tolerance for this.
House: Bought for $580,000, now worth ~$700,000. Still owe around 545k.
Assets:
401K: ~$140,000. I max out my contribution to my 401k. I did not start contributing to this until I was 27 but all my past employers have had generous matches which has helped.
ROTH IRA: ~$11,000. My husband and I have a joint ROTH IRA that we’ve maxed out every year for past 4-5 years. All our accounts have taken a beating this year, not unlike everyone else, so these numbers used to be much higher. Keep reminding myself to play the long game!
Brokerage Account $6,000. I’d like to be more aggressive with this but we’re doing our best at the moment.
Income
I am currently working full-time as a tech consultant. I’ve only been here a year, but I love the work and the benefits are generous. The job is very stressful and a bit hectic sometimes but it’s hard to imagine I’ll get everything I have at this job elsewhere, so I plan to stay awhile a while.
Main Job Monthly Take Home: ~$4,825 2x/month
Other Income: I sometimes do other work with modest honorariums that probably only bring in around $2k a year. This year is an outlier thought and I will get almost $9k.
Total Income: ~$4,825. I don’t account for other income into my budget and whatever I get just gets chucked towards student loans.
Monthly Expenses
Rent: $1550 (Half of my mortgage. My husband has VA Loan so we didn’t need a down payment for the house, just closing costs, which is why our mortgage may seem a little high. We also live in a HCOL area so this probably seems high but this is not far off from what we paid for rent living in the city, so this wasn’t a hard jump for us financially.
Debt payments: Anywhere from $1700 (the minimum) to $4000, depending on the month.
Utility Bills: ~$200 (I pay)
Cellphone + Internet: $150 (Husband pays)
Subscriptions: $150 (Husband pays)
Car Insurance: $100 (Covers both of us, husband pays)
Dining Out: $150-250. We very rarely go out to eat especially in the past few years because of pandemic and IVF but we’re trying to get in the habit of doing so once a month to enjoy ourselves. We're more likely to order in with UberEats or something. My husband usually pays even though it goes on our joint CC, he usually pays it off.
Shopping: Wildly fluctuates but anywhere from 500 to nothing. The older I’ve gotten the easier it is for me to avoid impulse buys.
Groceries: $1200-1500 – I pay for all groceries and house toiletries like soap, toothpaste, medicine, etc. One of the things we splurge on is high quality meats, organic fruits and vegetables, blah blah blah etc. This lifestyle change hasn’t made any difference in our IVF success unfortunately but we both couldn’t deny how great we felt eating that way, so we continue to do so despite me sometimes wincing at the cumulative cost. I make almost double what my husband does, so I take over a slightly higher percentage of our monthly bills but not by much because we both agreed I should prioritize paying down my student loans. He also covers dog food, treats, and medicine for both our dogs which really adds up and those more random, quarterly house expenses like Home Depot visits, pest control, buying a new mower, lawn care, and other things that come up more than you think (Home owners know the struggle). Once my debt is paid down, we will probably revisit the split of monthly expenses to see what makes sense.
Cleaning: $165/month (I pay) Having a house cleaner is one of those luxuries I would never give up. I’d rather cut back on dining out, shopping, etc if someone could come once a month to clean. We also have two big dogs, so it feels less of a luxury and more of a necessity.
Pet Insurance $80/month, covers both dogs (I pay)
Gas: $300 (I have a long commute and I go into the office almost every day)
Tolls: $225
Parking: $0 Work covers this, thank goodness!
Health Insurance: $0. My work covers health insurance for me and my husband. Huge bonus I don’t take for granted.
Total Expenses: I’ve estimated it is roughly around $6,500 a month at least for my portion of bills, assuming I’ve only paid the minimum of my student loans.
Debt Diary
2006 – Started college at a public university where I got free tuition from a combination of my mom’s job and my good grades. We still owed room and board which my parents covered for the most part and then took out loans to cover the rest when they divorced. My stepdad paid off the remaining balance of around 8k for me in my mid-twenties.
2010 – Graduated and moved to abroad for four years. Got great experience but pay was very low so no savings and no financial planning at all.
2014: Started my graduate degree back in the U.S.. Took out *all* the loans for this to include living expenses (150k). During this time I wanted to be a public servant so I felt confident my loans would be paid off after 10 years through Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. That’s not exactly how it worked out.
2016: Graduated and started my first “big girl” job at 27 making around $75,000 . This is the first time I started contributing to a 401k. I was working for a 401c3 so I qualified to start paying into the PSLF program. My loan payments, based on my income at the time was around $350-400 monthly. I got modest raises over the next few years that brought me to 85k before I switched jobs. During these four years, my student loans ballooned to 170k because I was only paying the minimum.
2020: My husband and I cancel our wedding and honeymoon (covid) but still get married. Got a new job that finally got me a low six figure salary (120k) but was in the private sector so still paying minimum on student loans but no longer was making qualified payments for student loan forgiveness. Thought I might still go back into government/nonprofit world.
2021: Changed jobs – same ish salary @ 125k, still in the private sector. Start what will be many rounds of unsuccessful rounds of IVF. I think the total cost has been somewhere around 80k. My husband’s grandmother has helped us a lot which I quite literally don’t know what we would do without, but it’s still been very financially, emotionally, and mentally taxing. Wasted a lot of money on supplements and acupuncture that didn’t help.
2022: Started at the job I have now. Base started at 175,000 plus 25% bonus. In the first year I got a promotion and a 20% raise, so I now make 210,000. This is when I realize that this is the career I enjoy and will likely not go back government service in the future or at least not long enough to participate in student loan forgiveness program. I also do the math and realize if I continue to pay the minimum of income-based repayment (based on my now much higher pay) I will end up paying 3-4x the loan amount over the course of my life. I decide to privatize my loans and choose a 10 year pay off plan because I want to be somewhat aggressive about it, hence the relatively high minimum payment of $1700. Despite the good interest rate (3% ish) the principal is so high that $400 of that goes to interest. It’s why I’d like to aggressive pay it down now, if for no other reason than to get the interest payments down.
2023: I’m told after many failed rounds of IVF, I’m unable to have genetic children. We start figuring out how we will afford other ways to build our family, all of which cost in the tens of thousands. Fortunately, (?) I’ve gotten my student loans down to 125k.
Now: Between canceling our wedding, our honeymoon, living through a pandemic and years of fertility struggles and awful treatments, I am now re-thinking how aggressively I’ve been paying down debt this past year. Approaching getting pregnant and debt payment both as a sprint and not a marathon has done me no favors. I also just want my husband and I to enjoy life a little bit given all our struggles. We both work so hard, and I want to make sure we’re making time (and money) on the things that make us happy. I also realize we need to figure out how we’ll pay to expand our family which overwhelms me but I’m trying to treat this just as a second marathon, not a sprint.
Reflection
Do I regret my student loans?
Despite my six figure loans living rent free in my mind constantly, it’s hard to regret taking them because I can’t imagine how else I would have built the career I have now, which I love and am very grateful for. My career is everything I always hoped for and more although sometimes I lose sight of that in the daily grind. Grad school was so time consuming it’s also hard to imagine how I would have worked at the same time and made enough money to make a meaningful difference in my bills. And I focused a lot of time on substantive internships that would help demonstrate my ability to shifting gears into a different career which I do think paid off in more ways than one. This new career path that I’m on also opens a lot of doors for me to continue to be a higher earner so in the long run, this amount of debt, while daunting and a bit menacing, is somewhat of a first world problem. It will get paid off. My only concern is if something catastrophic happened, since my loans are private, I would still have a very high mandatory minimum payment. Again, both my husband and I have a lot of job security and could always cash out our investment accounts, heaven forbid something awful happened. I think because the past few years have been so mentally taxing, I have very little bandwidth for regret.
Impact of Infertility
It is probably also worth noting that dealing with years of infertility and infertility treatments only to be told ultimately that I’m unable to have [genetic] children has changed who I am as a person and how I see life. We spent 3 years of our life in a pandemic lockdown and then in back-to-back all-consuming aggressive fertility treatments. I feel like we lost so much time and had very little levity during those times. I still plan on being diligent about paying off my debt and investing, but I want to cut myself some slack and allow my husband and myself to live a little, travel and just spend time enjoying our lives instead of just focusing on destinations (of having children and debt pay off).
Generational Wealth
The city I live in is filled with lots of wealthy people and many a times I’ve been in conversations where people ask where you sailed in the summer and skied in the winter, like it’s a given that everyone does this (lol). Most of the people I went to grad school with had their school paid off from family (plus help with a down payment for a house and wedding costs), and it occurs to me over and over how critical a role generational wealth can play in setting someone up for an incredibly easier life. My husband and I grew up middle class (which still conferred a lot of privilege that is never lost on us) but would like to make sure we have saved money for our [eventual] kids college so they’re not saddled with debt – and thinking about other investment accounts we could open for them to start generational wealth. Without my student loan debt, I could have an additional 200k to invest which would have meaningful impact on my kid’s and kid’s kid’s life when invested correctly. I don’t dwell too much on this though, at least anymore, but rather something I consider when planning for the future. Both my husband and I are still grateful for the advantages and privilege we still did and continue to have. Oddly, getting more interested in personal finance has made me feel more neutral about money which I appreciate.
Husband’s Influence
I also have to credit a lot of good money habits to my husband who was a really great influence on me on the importance of making consciousness steps to get a better credit score, invest aggressively, etc. I was definitely living for a good time not a long time up until I met him lol. We still prioritize spending money on fun without guilt but now I enjoy the process about making sure we’re set up well for the future.
Thank you for reading. I'm feeling a bit vulnerable talking about this stuff so please be gentle with me :').
2023.03.31 16:15 SchlesingerMindy323 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in FL Hiring Now!
2023.03.31 15:41 Elevatewellness_ Explore The Surprising Benefits of Acupuncture for Anxiety
 | submitted by Elevatewellness_ to u/Elevatewellness_ [link] [comments] Anxiety is a common mental health condition that affects millions of people worldwide. It can range from mild to severe and can have a significant impact on one's daily life. Conventional treatments for anxiety, such as therapy and medication, are definitely effective, but there are also alternative medications and holistic options that are helpful to better understand and could be a helpful next step in one's health journey. In this article, we will explore the surprising benefits of acupuncture for anxiety and how it can help with depression and anxiety. What Is Acupuncture? Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice that involves the insertion of thin needles into specific points on the body. This practice is believed to balance the flow of energy (or "Qi") in the body, which can have a positive impact on physical and mental health. Many struggle with the idea of having needles poked into their body but it is helpful to know that they only penetrate the first few layers of the skin and do not go deep enough to "hurt." What Is Anxiety? Anxiety is a common mental health condition characterized by feelings of worry, nervousness, and fear, which can interfere with daily activities. It is a complex condition that can be caused by a variety of factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, life events, and stress. It should be noted that everyone has a baseline of anxiety fueled by the stress hormone cortisol. What we are referencing when we refer to "anxiety" is an over abundance of this stress hormone that impacts daily life in a way that, eventually, becomes unmanageable to handle on your own. Understanding Anxiety, Anxiety Disorder and Severe Anxiety Anxiety Attack Anxiety attacks can be sudden and overwhelming, causing symptoms such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, shaking, and difficulty breathing. Acupuncture can help alleviate these symptoms by reducing stress and promoting relaxation. Additionally, acupuncture can help regulate the body's natural balance, which can reduce the frequency and severity of anxiety attacks. We love that. Signs of Anxiety Attack It is important to be aware of the signs of an anxiety attack so that you can get (and ask for) help and support when needed. Common signs of an anxiety attack include:
Anxiety disorder is a persistent and excessive form of anxiety that can significantly impact one's daily life. Common signs of an anxiety disorder include:
Anxiety attacks can be triggered by a variety of factors, including stress, trauma, genetics, and environmental factors. It is important to identify the root cause of your anxiety so that you can receive the most appropriate treatment. This can be helpful to process with a mental health counselor or therapist in combination with other therapies. Signs of Severe Anxiety Severe anxiety can have a significant impact on one's daily life and can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion. Common signs of severe anxiety include:
The Science Behind Acupuncture and Anxiety How Does Acupuncture Work? Acupuncture works by stimulating specific points on the body called acupoints. This stimulation is believed to activate the body's natural healing processes, which can help regulate the flow of energy (or "Qi") in the body. By balancing the flow of energy, acupuncture can help alleviate physical and mental health problems, including anxiety. The Role of Acupuncture in Treating Anxiety Acupuncture is a holistic treatment option that can help reduce symptoms of anxiety by addressing the root cause of the condition. By regulating the flow of energy in the body, acupuncture can help balance the autonomic nervous system, which plays a key role in regulating emotions and stress responses. By reducing stress and anxiety, acupuncture can help improve overall well-being and quality of life. Studies have shown, time an time again, the effectiveness in treating conditions like anxiety and depression with a combination of therapies such as acupuncture and therapy, therapy and medication, etc. The power of combining therapies that are most appropriate for you is far greater in resolving these conditions than a stand alone treatment. The Link between Anxiety and the Nervous System Anxiety is closely linked to the autonomic nervous system, which controls the body's involuntary functions such as heart rate, breathing, and digestion. When the autonomic nervous system is imbalanced, it can lead to feelings of anxiety and stress. By regulating the autonomic nervous system, acupuncture can help reduce symptoms of anxiety and improve overall well-being. The Role of Acupuncture in Regulating the Nervous System Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine practice that has been used for thousands of years to treat various health conditions. Acupuncture works by regulating the autonomic nervous system, which can help reduce symptoms of anxiety. When the needles are inserted into specific acupoints,or meridian points, they stimulate the release of natural chemicals, such as endorphins, which have a calming effect on the body and mind. This can help reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, and promote overall well-being. Additionally, acupuncture can help regulate the nervous system by balancing the flow of energy in the body, which can have a positive impact on physical and mental health. According to [1], researchers believe that acupuncture can replace opioids by stimulating the production of the body's endogenous opioids. This means that acupuncture can activate the body's own chemical processes to mimic or exceed the effects of opioids, providing relief from pain and other symptoms. https://preview.redd.it/4183jr5zu2ra1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dc0e7145e4a1aa040bd917053dc4ac8162fe098a The nervous system is a complex network of nerves that connects the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. It is responsible for transmitting signals between the brain and the various organs and tissues in the body, allowing us to feel sensations and control our movements. When the nervous system is out of balance, it can lead to anxiety and other nervous system-related disorders. If you are looking to improve your nervous system's health and reduce anxiety, consider scheduling an acupuncture appointment with Kim Kuhn at Elevate Wellness St. Pete. Surprising Benefits of Acupuncture for Anxiety Reduces Stress and Tension One of the main benefits of acupuncture for anxiety is its ability to reduce stress and tension. By regulating the flow of energy in the body and balancing the autonomic nervous system, acupuncture can help alleviate feelings of worry and nervousness. This can lead to a reduction in stress and tension, and improve overall well-being. Improves Sleep Another surprising benefit of acupuncture for anxiety is its ability to improve sleep. Anxiety and stress can interfere with sleep, leading to insomnia and other sleep-related problems. However, acupuncture can help regulate the autonomic nervous system, which can have a calming effect on the body and mind. This can help improve sleep quality, and reduce symptoms of insomnia and other sleep-related problems. Enhances Mood and Overall Well-being Acupuncture can also enhance mood and improve overall well-being. By reducing stress and tension, and improving sleep quality, acupuncture can help boost mood and improve overall well-being. Additionally, by regulating the flow of energy in the body, acupuncture can help improve physical and mental health, leading to a more positive outlook on life. Boosts the Immune System In addition to its benefits for mental health, acupuncture can also boost the immune system. By stimulating the release of natural chemicals, such as endorphins, acupuncture can help improve the body's ability to fight off illness and disease. This can help improve overall health and well-being, and reduce the risk of future health problems. Promotes Relaxation Finally, acupuncture can help promote relaxation and calmness. By regulating the autonomic nervous system, acupuncture can have a calming effect on the body and mind. This can help reduce feelings of anxiety and stress, and promote overall relaxation. Elevate Wellness St. Pete's Customized Acupuncture Treatments At Elevate Wellness St. Pete, Kim Kuhn understands that every individual is unique, and their symptoms and needs may vary. This is why she provides customized acupuncture treatments for her clients, based on their specific needs and symptoms. By tailoring her treatments to each individual's specific needs, she can help achieve optimal health and well-being. As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Doctor of Chinese Medicine, Kim Kuhn approach's her clients in a very holistic way and customizes everything for them based on their concerns and needs. Whether you are seeking treatment for anxiety, depression, or any other health condition such as pain, infertility, etc Elevate Wellness St. Pete is here to help you achieve your health goals. How Acupuncture Works in Combination with Other Therapies Acupuncture and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Acupuncture can work in combination with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to treat anxiety. CBT is a type of therapy that focuses on changing negative thoughts and behaviors that contribute to anxiety. By working together, acupuncture and CBT can help regulate the nervous system and improve mood, while also addressing the underlying thought patterns and behaviors that contribute to anxiety. Acupuncture and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are two different approaches to mental health treatment that have been shown to be effective for various conditions. While acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine that involves inserting needles into the skin to stimulate specific points on the body, CBT is a form of psychotherapy that focuses on changing negative thoughts and behaviors. Both approaches have been used to treat a range of mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and stress. Chelsy Snell is a fantastic Cognitive Behavioral Therapist at Sunshine City Counseling in St. Petersburg, Fl. Research has shown that acupuncture can have a positive impact on mental health by reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. The stimulation of specific points on the body is thought to release endorphins, which are natural painkillers and mood-boosters. Additionally, acupuncture has been found to regulate the activity of the central nervous system and balance the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain, which can have a positive effect on mood and emotional well-being. CBT, on the other hand, is a form of talk therapy that focuses on changing negative thoughts and behaviors. CBT is based on the premise that negative thoughts and behaviors are maintained by negative thought patterns, which can be changed through therapy. CBT involves teaching individuals how to challenge and change their negative thought patterns, as well as teaching coping strategies for dealing with difficult thoughts and situations. Studies have shown that CBT can be effective in reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. CBT has been found to be as effective as medication for treating depression and anxiety, and it has been shown to be a long-lasting treatment for these conditions. Additionally, CBT has been found to be effective for individuals who have not responded to other forms of treatment. Both acupuncture and CBT have been shown to be effective for treating a range of mental health conditions. While acupuncture uses physical stimulation to treat mental health issues, CBT focuses on changing negative thoughts and behaviors. Both approaches can be used in combination to provide a comprehensive treatment plan for individuals with mental health conditions. As with any form of treatment, it is important to consult with a mental health counselor or therapist to determine the best approach for you and your concerns and needs. Acupuncture and Medication Acupuncture can also be used in combination with medication to treat anxiety. In some cases, medication can be used to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety, while acupuncture can help regulate the nervous system and improve overall well-being. By combining these therapies, individuals can achieve more comprehensive and effective treatment for their anxiety symptoms. When working with a psychiatrist or an Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner who specializes in psychiatric care, medication can be a very balanced and helpful way to manage the severity of anxiety and depression. Due to the stigma and misuse of medication when treating anxiety and depression, Sunshine City Counseling only recommends a few providers that we know approach individuals from a holistic mindset - Advantage Mental Health in Clearwater, Fl (private pay only) and MindSpa Psychiatry (telehealth and accepts most insurances) Acupuncture and Lifestyle Changes In addition to acupuncture and therapy, lifestyle changes can also play a role in treating anxiety. This may include changes such as exercise, diet, and stress management techniques. By incorporating these changes into their treatment plan, individuals can improve their overall health and well-being, and reduce symptoms of anxiety. While it may not resolve all anxiety or depression symptoms, exercise, nutrition and sleep does have a significant impact on one's overall health and well-being. When this is in combination with medication, acupuncture and/or therapy it can be powerful in resolving anxiety and depression symptoms. Elevate Wellness St. Pete's Holistic Approach to Treating Anxiety At Elevate Wellness St. Pete, they understand the importance of a holistic approach to treating anxiety. This is why they integrate acupuncture with other therapies, such as cupping, gua sha, herbal medicine consults, and acupuncture point injection therapy alongside lifestyle changes, to provide comprehensive and effective treatment for their clients. Their goal is to help individuals achieve optimal health and well-being, and reduce symptoms of anxiety among other things. Acupuncture is a holistic treatment for anxiety, meaning that it addresses the root cause of the problem, rather than just treating the symptoms. It aims to restore balance and harmony to the body, mind, and spirit, which can have a profound impact on anxiety levels. Whether you are seeking treatment for anxiety, depression, pain, infertility or any other health condition, Elevate Wellness St. Pete is here to help you achieve your health goals. Risks and Limitations of Acupuncture for Anxiety Possible Side Effects While acupuncture is generally considered safe, there are some possible side effects that individuals may experience. These can include discomfort or pain at the site of the needle insertion, dizziness, or fainting. However, these side effects are typically mild and short-lived, and can be managed with proper aftercare. It's important to discuss any fears or hesitations you may have with your acupuncturist. Limitations of Acupuncture as a Standalone Treatment It is important to note that acupuncture should not be considered a standalone treatment for anxiety. While acupuncture can be beneficial in reducing symptoms of anxiety, it is best used in conjunction with other therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or lifestyle changes, for optimal results. Elevate Wellness St. Pete: A Leading Provider of Acupuncture Services in St. Petersburg, FL At Elevate Wellness St. Pete, Kim Kuhn is highly experienced and qualified in providing Acupuncture services. With a commitment to providing personalized treatments, she works closely with clients to understand their specific needs and develop customized treatment plans to help manage anxiety, depression, pain, infertility and other related conditions. With a focus on integrating multiple therapies, Elevate Wellness St. Pete offers a holistic approach to managing anxiety and promoting overall well-being. Elevate Wellness St. Pete treats a number of anxiety-related conditions including, but not limited to, stress, sleep disorders, mood disorders Kim Kuhn works with clients to develop customized treatment plans that address the root causes of anxiety and help promote relaxation, reduce stress, and enhance overall well-being. Whether you are looking for a holistic approach to managing anxiety or depression, Elevate Wellness St. Pete is here to help. https://preview.redd.it/ehoutrckv2ra1.jpg?width=1000&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d989c0b7056b68a7e68084575cf2fa843fba4576 In addition to Acupuncture, Elevate Wellness St. Pete also offers Acupuncture Point Injection Therapy [2], which blends the best of Chinese medicine with conventional and homeopathic medicine. APIT involves injecting natural therapeutic substances into specific acupuncture points to help promote wellness and address specific health concerns. Elevate Wellness St. Pete also offers cupping, gua sha and herbal medicine consults among other service options. Conclusion... We have discussed the benefits of Acupuncture for anxiety and how it can be integrated with other therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), medication, and lifestyle changes, to provide a holistic approach to treatment. We have also discussed the risks and limitations of Acupuncture for anxiety and emphasized the importance of consulting with an acupuncturist before starting Acupuncture treatment. There are so many benefits of Acupuncture for anxiety Acupuncture can be an effective alternative treatment for anxiety and can provide a range of surprising benefits for those seeking relief from anxiety. Whether you are experiencing mild or severe anxiety, acupuncture can help regulate the body's natural balance, reduce stress and promote relaxation, and address the root cause of the problem. If you are interested in exploring the benefits of acupuncture for anxiety and depression, be sure to search for "acupuncture for depression and anxiety near me." Recommendations for those seeking Acupuncture treatment for anxiety If you are seeking Acupuncture treatment for anxiety, it is important to research and find a reputable practitioner who has experience and training in the field. Additionally, it is important to have open communication with your practitioner and to inform them of any medical conditions or medications you are taking. For these reasons and others, Sunshine City Counseling only refers to and highly recommends Elevate Wellness St. Pete as the best acupuncture clinic in the Tampa Bay Area. Schedule an appointment with Elevate Wellness St. Pete to learn more about how acupuncture can help with anxiety If you live in the St. Petersburg, FL area and are interested in learning more about how Acupuncture can help with your anxiety, we highly recommend scheduling an acupuncture appointment with Elevate Wellness St. Pete or call. |
2023.03.31 15:13 PritchettRobert506 [HIRING] 25 Jobs in MI Hiring Now!
2023.03.31 09:30 Forward_Camera_3110 Now serving A224 at Station One
First time back In about a year... Staff shortages Cut the hours of availability In the VA hospital in Temple, TX, Back then, And, living paycheck to paycheck, At the time, Taking a day off For the hour and a half Trip up route 35, And then the same back, Just couldn't be scheduled in If food, gas, and a roof over my head Were to stay solid. Austin VA clinic recently became A thought in my head As a means to ensure My health was doing alright. Some things were long overdue In that arena, And this Was only a 10 minute drive... Shit, shower, shave Before going in early for The scheduled blood draw Before the appointment In the afternoon. You never know How long these things are going to take... How long you're going to wait... On the walk in From the parking lot, Cloudy, dim morning, Was that a dead black sparrow, Yellow headed bobolink, Laying on the pavement, Or a blackened banana peel Enshrouding a half eaten fruit? Turned out to be the latter. Not so much an omen As it was human negligence, Simple trash... Needles aren't my favorite thing... I do alright, Pain isn't an issue, That quick stab, But a foreign object In my veins, Sharp, shiny steel, The thought of it Is bothersome... Probably need some boosters Later in the day... More steel, But not for the same Length of time... Just a little bee sting... Got here at 11 am, Not many people In the waiting room, But it's been a half hour Already... A232 got called in Before my A224... The numbers just don't work out... They never really do... Status quo... A majority of the folks Are maskless, A few, like me, Are masked up... A delicate balance Between mask and glasses To avoid Fogging up As I write... Woke up a few times the night before, For some reason Remembering dreams of my second wife... The fertile one, As she would likely say... We endured two miscarriages And one ectopic pregnancy Which had to be terminated With chemotherapy Before the pressure of loss Made things metaphorically break The way our embryos Kept breaking... Every time one died, I ended up Shouldering the blame... She eagerly placed it there, And, each time, Every blood test and ultrasound, Drifted farther away... Anyways, In the dream, For some reason, She was dating Paul Rudd... There was a small get together To celebrate his birthday... I guess She didn't expect me to be there... She was mildly surprised, But not upset, to see me On the couch In what appeared to be A modestly sized apartment Not much larger Than the apartment I lived in now, In the waking world... He was being indifferent to her... Her facial expression Said that this had become Sadly status quo... She hung close to me, Still beautiful, And she gave off An alluringly sweet smell... Her adult son Was nowhere In this dreamscape, Which was nice... In the real world, He couldn't stand me, Just as he couldn't stand any man Who had the audacity To show interest In his mother... She kept leading me off to shadowy corners To gaze at me Like she once again Wanted to be lovers... Like she wanted to ask me a question that never fully formed... I don't recall if we kissed, But she exposed one of her breasts To me, And I accepted the invitation To touch her... I don't know if we actually Spoke out loud In the dream, But there was some kind of telepathy... She was in my mind, And I felt her emotional reaction To the indifference of her Current man... I don't know why it was Paul Rudd... He was just as charming As he comes off as being On screen, But their relationship Left her Wanting... Now, In real life, She cut all communication with me... But dream her Still had warmth... Some things I do miss... Then, suddenly, We went outside To some sort of City-wide, digital/holographic Re-enactment Of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel series If it had been written By H.P. Lovecraft... A 1-to-1 scale projection of Cthulhu Hovering just over the horizon, Tentacles writhing, But somewhat pixelated... People were running to and fro Dressed as Hobbits and orcs, Wizards and elves... Swinging prop swords at Holographic projections Of larger creatures That popped up in various places, And then disappeared... She and I were entertained, Rather than terrified... We crept behind bushes and trees, Her staying intimately close, Arm linked in mine, As we avoided the flash mob From a safe distance To observe, Rather than participate... The production budget Must have been Hollywood sized... Her celebrity Beau Was back at his apartment Doing birthday shots With friends, In the living room, Unperturbed... I lost track of her Before waking up While looking for my Wallet and keys... A lot of my dreams end that way, Me frantically looking For my wallet and keys, Or something else That I've lost Before waking up...
https://jsyandow.blogspot.com/2023/03/now-serving-a224-at-stariin-one.html
submitted by Forward_Camera_3110 to Poems [link] [comments]
https://jsyandow.blogspot.com/2023/03/now-serving-a224-at-stariin-one.html
2023.03.31 09:30 Forward_Camera_3110 Now serving A224 at Station One
First time back In about a year... Staff shortages Cut the hours of availability In the VA hospital in Temple, TX, Back then, And, living paycheck to paycheck, At the time, Taking a day off For the hour and a half Trip up route 35, And then the same back, Just couldn't be scheduled in If food, gas, and a roof over my head Were to stay solid. Austin VA clinic recently became A thought in my head As a means to ensure My health was doing alright. Some things were long overdue In that arena, And this Was only a 10 minute drive... Shit, shower, shave Before going in early for The scheduled blood draw Before the appointment In the afternoon. You never know How long these things are going to take... How long you're going to wait... On the walk in From the parking lot, Cloudy, dim morning, Was that a dead black sparrow, Yellow headed bobolink, Laying on the pavement, Or a blackened banana peel Enshrouding a half eaten fruit? Turned out to be the latter. Not so much an omen As it was human negligence, Simple trash... Needles aren't my favorite thing... I do alright, Pain isn't an issue, That quick stab, But a foreign object In my veins, Sharp, shiny steel, The thought of it Is bothersome... Probably need some boosters Later in the day... More steel, But not for the same Length of time... Just a little bee sting... Got here at 11 am, Not many people In the waiting room, But it's been a half hour Already... A232 got called in Before my A224... The numbers just don't work out... They never really do... Status quo... A majority of the folks Are maskless, A few, like me, Are masked up... A delicate balance Between mask and glasses To avoid Fogging up As I write... Woke up a few times the night before, For some reason Remembering dreams of my second wife... The fertile one, As she would likely say... We endured two miscarriages And one ectopic pregnancy Which had to be terminated With chemotherapy Before the pressure of loss Made things metaphorically break The way our embryos Kept breaking... Every time one died, I ended up Shouldering the blame... She eagerly placed it there, And, each time, Every blood test and ultrasound, Drifted farther away... Anyways, In the dream, For some reason, She was dating Paul Rudd... There was a small get together To celebrate his birthday... I guess She didn't expect me to be there... She was mildly surprised, But not upset, to see me On the couch In what appeared to be A modestly sized apartment Not much larger Than the apartment I lived in now, In the waking world... He was being indifferent to her... Her facial expression Said that this had become Sadly status quo... She hung close to me, Still beautiful, And she gave off An alluringly sweet smell... Her adult son Was nowhere In this dreamscape, Which was nice... In the real world, He couldn't stand me, Just as he couldn't stand any man Who had the audacity To show interest In his mother... She kept leading me off to shadowy corners To gaze at me Like she once again Wanted to be lovers... Like she wanted to ask me a question that never fully formed... I don't recall if we kissed, But she exposed one of her breasts To me, And I accepted the invitation To touch her... I don't know if we actually Spoke out loud In the dream, But there was some kind of telepathy... She was in my mind, And I felt her emotional reaction To the indifference of her Current man... I don't know why it was Paul Rudd... He was just as charming As he comes off as being On screen, But their relationship Left her Wanting... Now, In real life, She cut all communication with me... But dream her Still had warmth... Some things I do miss... Then, suddenly, We went outside To some sort of City-wide, digital/holographic Re-enactment Of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel series If it had been written By H.P. Lovecraft... A 1-to-1 scale projection of Cthulhu Hovering just over the horizon, Tentacles writhing, But somewhat pixelated... People were running to and fro Dressed as Hobbits and orcs, Wizards and elves... Swinging prop swords at Holographic projections Of larger creatures That popped up in various places, And then disappeared... She and I were entertained, Rather than terrified... We crept behind bushes and trees, Her staying intimately close, Arm linked in mine, As we avoided the flash mob From a safe distance To observe, Rather than participate... The production budget Must have been Hollywood sized... Her celebrity Beau Was back at his apartment Doing birthday shots With friends, In the living room, Unperturbed... I lost track of her Before waking up While looking for my Wallet and keys... A lot of my dreams end that way, Me frantically looking For my wallet and keys, Or something else That I've lost Before waking up...
https://jsyandow.blogspot.com/2023/03/now-serving-a224-at-stariin-one.html
submitted by Forward_Camera_3110 to justpoetry [link] [comments]
https://jsyandow.blogspot.com/2023/03/now-serving-a224-at-stariin-one.html
2023.03.31 08:18 stephygrl DSP advice - unusual predicament
Sorry about another DSP post but my situation is quite unique so I couldn’t find advice that directly applied to me. I’m going to try and summarise the last 3 years of my life is as best I can.
Prior to June 2020 I was a young, happy and fairly healthy person in my late 20’s working full time as a teacher (and loving it). I ended up getting a stomach infection called helicobacter pylori (which I’d had before) and needed antibiotics to treat it. At that time I had believed I was allergic to penicillin so part of the treatment involved flagyl a very strong antibiotic in its place. I took the antibiotics as prescribed for 7 days and basically over that 7 days my entire life imploded.
The first symptoms started whilst still taking the medication: migraine with aura, pins and needles in extremities, foggy feeling, anxiety, insomnia mostly. I called the doctor on day 7 knowing something really wasn’t right and she advised me to cease the medication immediately.
Over the next week instead of things improving they worsened. My vision went blurry, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t regulate my body temperature, I had migraines, I couldn’t sleep properly and during the night I woke up in complete terror feeling like someone was drilling into my skull.
Terrified, I presented to the ED where I was basically just treated for a migraine despite the numerous times I told them I had a lot of symptoms and it was only since taking the medication. I was given an anti psychotic medication used to treat migraines through an IV. My BP ended up dropping very low and I started to feel what I can only describe as these feelings of doom and dread. I ended up fainting trying to get to the toilet and shaking, when I came to I had urinated myself.
The next night after coming home from the hospital the psychiatric symptoms from hell began. Things I don’t even have words for. A very deep and intense feeling of doom and dread came over me, a feeling so intense it felt like I was about to be murdered. I could not calm myself down. By the next day I was in full blown physical terror. I had non stop adrenaline rushes, sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, the feelings of colours looking ‘wrong’, I was met with sheer panic trying to simply go for a walk, I was met with doom simply being in my own lounge room, I suddenly lacked the cognitive faculties to make breakfast, I couldn’t be alone and I could not stop crying. I’ve never been more terrified in my life.
I’m going to speed up over the next part of the story but basically doctors didn’t do much, didn’t really acknowledge what was happening to me and treated me with more drugs. It was not until I looked online that I found resources and an online community suffering something called flagyl toxicity; all with matching symptoms to mine. I was prescribed an SSRI which made me worse (gave me insomnia and a agitation on top of the other symptoms), I was then given STILNOX which didn’t work and then put on nightly Ativan and intermittent Valium. I was a shell of my former self and eventually had to leave my job 4 months later as we transitioned from online learning back to school.
After continuing to decline and not understanding why 10 months later I stumbled on a forum discussing the dangers of being on benzodiazepines long term. It clicked that the benzos I had been prescribed had been making me sicker and sicker. By this time, I was scared of lights, faces, sounds and leaving the house. The doctor was pretty clueless about getting me off slowly and safely, but worked in conjunction with me to create a taper plan, using an online manual written by professor Ashton, a gov organisation called reconnexion and a compounding pharmacy I tapered off over three months.
I wish I could say that was it and things got better but they haven’t yet. There is a community full of people suffering from harm caused by medications, specifically an epidemic of people harmed by benzos. But this is not recognised and there isn’t much help, support or acknowledgement. There is no set time frame to healing. I want to believe I still can heal. I am young, have a career and everything to live for. I am just waiting.
I have been off all meds since June 2021. I had to take a very big dose of antibiotics last year to get rid of that h pylori infection once and for all, but it really set me back as my nervous system is very fragile now - a common theme in the benzo recovery community.
Since my setback I actually became anaemic and had to have an iron transfusion, I’ve also developed PMDD and OCD.
In regards to treatment; I have seen every specialist western and other you can think of. Psychiatrists, doctors, psychologists, chiropractors, naturopaths, nutritionists, Chinese med doctors, hypnotherapists etc. Some were helpful, many of the western practitioners gaslighted me. It’s traumatic enough going through this, but being gaslighted on top. I wouldn’t wish this hell on anyone.
I applied for job seeker at the time I had to leave my job, but was not granted it immediately b/c I had too much in savings. So I lived off my savings until I believe January 2021 when the payments finally started. Since then I have had medical exemptions every 3 months. At one stage Centrelink randomly decided I could work, I appealed this and received an Esat(I think that’s the name) to which a lady granted me 6 months exemption as part of overturning the decision. I’ve only been told recently that I can’t claim exemptions for longer than 2 years, that my condition is now considered permanent and I must apply for DSP.
I just asked the doctor who has written my certificates for two years to do a medical report and basically it’s a load of crap and setting me up for failure. The problem is that BIND (benzodiazepine induced neurological dysfunction) is only in the process of being approved as a diagnosis and a doctor openly admitting I was harmed by meds on a form is not that easy to obtain. However, this current doc was putting the reaction on my exemptions.
I also have a clinical psychologist I’ve seen for 12 years who says she will help me do the application. I’ve read over the table for mental health alone and I am more than matched with the elements of the ‘severe’ table.
Is it worth changing to a better doctor and telling her my story? I have an exemption until June so a little bit of time to prepare.
Any advice welcome. Thanks for reading of you made it this far.
TL;DR: I was harmed inexplicably my prescribed medications and suffer many physical and psychological symptoms. I’m unable to work sans some very casual freelance stuff at home. I have been on job seeker with medical exemptions for two years. I now have to apply for DSP. It’s hard because I have many symptoms but potentially not a recognised diagnosis. I do have many that fit the mental health table. Could I get this supported by psych and doc to get my 20 points?
Edit: I have a career I will return to as soon as I’m able. But need financial support while I’m too sick to work.
submitted by stephygrl to Centrelink [link] [comments]
Prior to June 2020 I was a young, happy and fairly healthy person in my late 20’s working full time as a teacher (and loving it). I ended up getting a stomach infection called helicobacter pylori (which I’d had before) and needed antibiotics to treat it. At that time I had believed I was allergic to penicillin so part of the treatment involved flagyl a very strong antibiotic in its place. I took the antibiotics as prescribed for 7 days and basically over that 7 days my entire life imploded.
The first symptoms started whilst still taking the medication: migraine with aura, pins and needles in extremities, foggy feeling, anxiety, insomnia mostly. I called the doctor on day 7 knowing something really wasn’t right and she advised me to cease the medication immediately.
Over the next week instead of things improving they worsened. My vision went blurry, I couldn’t drive, I couldn’t regulate my body temperature, I had migraines, I couldn’t sleep properly and during the night I woke up in complete terror feeling like someone was drilling into my skull.
Terrified, I presented to the ED where I was basically just treated for a migraine despite the numerous times I told them I had a lot of symptoms and it was only since taking the medication. I was given an anti psychotic medication used to treat migraines through an IV. My BP ended up dropping very low and I started to feel what I can only describe as these feelings of doom and dread. I ended up fainting trying to get to the toilet and shaking, when I came to I had urinated myself.
The next night after coming home from the hospital the psychiatric symptoms from hell began. Things I don’t even have words for. A very deep and intense feeling of doom and dread came over me, a feeling so intense it felt like I was about to be murdered. I could not calm myself down. By the next day I was in full blown physical terror. I had non stop adrenaline rushes, sound sensitivity, light sensitivity, the feelings of colours looking ‘wrong’, I was met with sheer panic trying to simply go for a walk, I was met with doom simply being in my own lounge room, I suddenly lacked the cognitive faculties to make breakfast, I couldn’t be alone and I could not stop crying. I’ve never been more terrified in my life.
I’m going to speed up over the next part of the story but basically doctors didn’t do much, didn’t really acknowledge what was happening to me and treated me with more drugs. It was not until I looked online that I found resources and an online community suffering something called flagyl toxicity; all with matching symptoms to mine. I was prescribed an SSRI which made me worse (gave me insomnia and a agitation on top of the other symptoms), I was then given STILNOX which didn’t work and then put on nightly Ativan and intermittent Valium. I was a shell of my former self and eventually had to leave my job 4 months later as we transitioned from online learning back to school.
After continuing to decline and not understanding why 10 months later I stumbled on a forum discussing the dangers of being on benzodiazepines long term. It clicked that the benzos I had been prescribed had been making me sicker and sicker. By this time, I was scared of lights, faces, sounds and leaving the house. The doctor was pretty clueless about getting me off slowly and safely, but worked in conjunction with me to create a taper plan, using an online manual written by professor Ashton, a gov organisation called reconnexion and a compounding pharmacy I tapered off over three months.
I wish I could say that was it and things got better but they haven’t yet. There is a community full of people suffering from harm caused by medications, specifically an epidemic of people harmed by benzos. But this is not recognised and there isn’t much help, support or acknowledgement. There is no set time frame to healing. I want to believe I still can heal. I am young, have a career and everything to live for. I am just waiting.
I have been off all meds since June 2021. I had to take a very big dose of antibiotics last year to get rid of that h pylori infection once and for all, but it really set me back as my nervous system is very fragile now - a common theme in the benzo recovery community.
Since my setback I actually became anaemic and had to have an iron transfusion, I’ve also developed PMDD and OCD.
In regards to treatment; I have seen every specialist western and other you can think of. Psychiatrists, doctors, psychologists, chiropractors, naturopaths, nutritionists, Chinese med doctors, hypnotherapists etc. Some were helpful, many of the western practitioners gaslighted me. It’s traumatic enough going through this, but being gaslighted on top. I wouldn’t wish this hell on anyone.
I applied for job seeker at the time I had to leave my job, but was not granted it immediately b/c I had too much in savings. So I lived off my savings until I believe January 2021 when the payments finally started. Since then I have had medical exemptions every 3 months. At one stage Centrelink randomly decided I could work, I appealed this and received an Esat(I think that’s the name) to which a lady granted me 6 months exemption as part of overturning the decision. I’ve only been told recently that I can’t claim exemptions for longer than 2 years, that my condition is now considered permanent and I must apply for DSP.
I just asked the doctor who has written my certificates for two years to do a medical report and basically it’s a load of crap and setting me up for failure. The problem is that BIND (benzodiazepine induced neurological dysfunction) is only in the process of being approved as a diagnosis and a doctor openly admitting I was harmed by meds on a form is not that easy to obtain. However, this current doc was putting the reaction on my exemptions.
I also have a clinical psychologist I’ve seen for 12 years who says she will help me do the application. I’ve read over the table for mental health alone and I am more than matched with the elements of the ‘severe’ table.
Is it worth changing to a better doctor and telling her my story? I have an exemption until June so a little bit of time to prepare.
Any advice welcome. Thanks for reading of you made it this far.
TL;DR: I was harmed inexplicably my prescribed medications and suffer many physical and psychological symptoms. I’m unable to work sans some very casual freelance stuff at home. I have been on job seeker with medical exemptions for two years. I now have to apply for DSP. It’s hard because I have many symptoms but potentially not a recognised diagnosis. I do have many that fit the mental health table. Could I get this supported by psych and doc to get my 20 points?
Edit: I have a career I will return to as soon as I’m able. But need financial support while I’m too sick to work.
2023.03.31 06:59 saucybatgirl [SELL] [US] TONS OF NEW SAMPLES!!! A LOT OF BEAUTY PRODUCTS UNDER $5 FROM A LOT OF BRANDS INCLUDING, DERMALOGICA, LANCOME, LA ROCHE POSAY, ORIGINS, VICHY, CERAVE, SHISEIDO, FIRST AID BEAUTY, CLINIQUE, ESTEE LAUDER, AMOREPACIFIC, CLARINS, KATE SOMERVILLE
Hey everybody! I have a crap ton of skincare and samples that I literally have not used or barely used. I'm extremely open to offers!
Shipping starts at $3 and it's within the US! **$5 minimum (shipping cost doesn't count toward minimum), please!*\* Payment through Paypal F&F or G&S (buyer pays the fee)! I only accept money and am not open to doing exchanges. I will ship out immediately. I will make sure that the products are padded when they ship so nothing fragile breaks. I put retail values next to the items that are more expensive!
COVID-19: None of the used products have been used within the past month. I sanitize the products and packages with Lysol before shipping out as well!
Foil sample options at the end of this post
If you spend (before shipping costs):
$10, you can pick 1 foil packet sample for free
$15, you can pick 2 foil packet samples for free
$20, you can pick 3 foil packet samples for free or $1 sheet mask
and so on (1 free foil sample for each additional $5 spent)
while supplies last
Key:
BNIB = brand new in box
BN = brand new
DS = deluxe size
Moisturizers/Ointments/Sunscreens
Oils/Serums/Mists/Toners/Elixirs/Essences/Self-Tanners/Treatments
Cleansers/Scrubs/Makeup Removers
Face/Body Masks
submitted by saucybatgirl to skincareexchange [link] [comments]
Shipping starts at $3 and it's within the US! **$5 minimum (shipping cost doesn't count toward minimum), please!*\* Payment through Paypal F&F or G&S (buyer pays the fee)! I only accept money and am not open to doing exchanges. I will ship out immediately. I will make sure that the products are padded when they ship so nothing fragile breaks. I put retail values next to the items that are more expensive!
COVID-19: None of the used products have been used within the past month. I sanitize the products and packages with Lysol before shipping out as well!
Foil sample options at the end of this post
If you spend (before shipping costs):
$10, you can pick 1 foil packet sample for free
$15, you can pick 2 foil packet samples for free
$20, you can pick 3 foil packet samples for free or $1 sheet mask
and so on (1 free foil sample for each additional $5 spent)
while supplies last
Key:
BNIB = brand new in box
BN = brand new
DS = deluxe size
Moisturizers/Ointments/Sunscreens
| Brand | Product | Size | Usage | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMOREPACIFIC | Youth Revolution Radiance Creme & Masque | DS (0.2 oz/8 mL) | BNIB | $10 (retail value $32) |
| AMOREPACIFIC | Moisture Bound Rejuvenating Creme | DS (0.27 oz/8 mL) | BN | $8 (retail value $24) |
| Aveeno | Skin Relief Moisturizing Lotion | DS (1 oz/29 mL) | BN` | $1 |
| Aveeno | Oat Repairing Cream | DS (1 oz/28 g) only 1 available | BN | $1 |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Daily Moisturizing Cream https://imgur.com/goMORm8 | DS (0.5 oz/14 g) 3 available | BN | $1 each |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Daily Moisturizing Cream | Mini (5 oz/141 g) | BN | $5 |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Rescue Relief Treatment Gel Cream | Mini (1.5 oz) | BN | $5 (retail value $10.49) |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Rescue Relief Treatment Gel Cream | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Itch Relief Balm | Mini (1 oz/28 g) | BN | $2 |
| Aveeno | Eczema Therapy Nighttime Itch Relief Balm | Mini (1 oz/28 g) | BN | $2 |
| Aquaphor | Healing Ointment | Mini (1.75 oz/50 g) | BN | $2 |
| Bioderma | Atoderm Intensive Gel-Cream https://imgur.com/DOwUAp8 | Mini (2.5 oz/75 mL) 2 available | BNIB | $4 each |
| BioMee | Anti-Itch PAD Cream | Full-size (6.8 oz/200 mL) | BN | $4 |
| CeraVe | Healing Ointment | Mini (3 oz/85 g) | BN | $5 (retail value $11) |
| CeraVe | Healing Ointment | DS | BN | $1 |
| CeraVe | Facial AM Moisturizing Lotion with SPF 30 | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN | $1 |
| CeraVe | Facial AM Moisturizing Lotion with SPF 30 | Mini (2 oz/60 mL) | BN | $7 (retail value $14) |
| CeraVe | Hydrating Sheer Sunscreen for Face & Body SPF 30 | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) 2 available | BN | $1 each |
| CeraVe | Hydrating Sheer Sunscreen for Face & Body SPF 30 | Full-size (3 oz/89 mL) | BN | $8 (retail value $17) |
| CeraVe | Daily Moisturizing Lotion https://imgur.com/AOmjVqT https://imgur.com/CosOkiB | DS (1 oz) 4 available | BN | $1.50 each |
| CeraVe | Moisturizing Cream | Mini (1.89 oz/56 mL) | BN | $2 |
| CeraVe | Moisturizing Cream | DS (0.17 oz/5 g) | BN | $1 |
| CeraVe | Itch Relief Moisturizing Lotion | DS (1 oz) | BN | $1.50 |
| CeraVe | Facial Moisturizing Lotion PM https://imgur.com/BwwyJ6j https://imgur.com/EJx21TT | DS (0.17 oz/15 mL) 3 available | BN | $1 each |
| Cetaphil | Moisturizing Cream | DS (0.5 oz) | BN | $1 |
| Cetaphil | Moisturizing Cream | Full-size (20 oz/566 g) | BN | $8 (retail value $16.29) |
| Cetaphil | Moisturizing Lotion | Full-size (20 oz/591 mL) | BN | $8 (retail value $16.49) |
| Cetaphil | Eczema Restoraderm Flare Up Relief Cream | DS (0.34 oz/10 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Cetaphil | Eczema Restoraderm Itch Relief Gel | Full-size (2 oz/59 mL) | BNIB | $10 (retail value $20) |
| Clinique | Moisture Surge 100H Auto-Replenishing Hydrator | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BNIB | $2 |
| DERMAdoctor | DD Eye Dermatologically Defining Eye Radiance Cream SPF 30 | 3 packets of 2 mL | BNIB | $3 (retail value $11.20) |
| Dermalogica | Intensive Moisture Balance Moisturizer | DS (0.24 oz/7 mL) | BN | $2 |
| EltaMD | UV Daily Moisturizing Facial Sunscreen SPF 40 | Full-size (1.7 oz/48 g) | BNIB | $20 (retail value $36) |
| EltaMD | UV Luminous Tinted Facial Sunscreen SPF 41 | Trial size (1 oz/30 g) | BNIB | $15 (retail value $28) |
| Eucerin | Advanced Repair Cream | Full-size (16 oz) | BN | $8 (retail value $15.29) |
| Eucerin | Advanced Repair Cream | DS (0.25 oz/7 g) 1 remaining | BN | $1 |
| Eucerin | Advanced Repair Lotion | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Eucerin | Advanced Repair Lotion | Mini (3 oz/89 mL) | BN | $2.50 |
| Eucerin | Baby Eczema Relief Body Cream | DS (0.35 oz/10 g) 1 remaining | BN | $1 |
| First Aid Beauty | Ultra Repair Cream | DS (1 oz) | BN | $3 |
| Gold Bond | Diabetics Dry Skin Relief Hand Cream | Mini (2.4 oz/68 g) | BN | $2 |
| Grown Alchemist | Hydra Repair Day Cream | DS (0.4 oz/12 mL) | BNIB | $2 |
| Hempz | Ultra-Moisturizing Herbal Lip Balm | Full-size (0.44 oz) | BN | $4 (retail value $9) |
| IMAGE Skincare | Prevention+ Daily Matte Moisturizer with SPF 32 | Mini (1.5 oz/43 g) | BN | $8 (retail value $23.62) |
| IT Cosmetics | Hello Results Wrinkle Reducing Daily Retinol Serum-in-Cream | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN | $3 (retail value $8.33) |
| Kate Somerville | Firming Eye Cream + Retinol | DS (0.1 oz/3 mL) | BN | $6 (retail value $17.60) |
| Lancome | Renergie Lift Multi-Action Ultra Dark Circle Correcting Eye Cream | DS (0.1 oz/3 mL) | BN | $4 |
| Neostrata | Matrix Support with Sunscreen SPF 30 | DS (0.5 oz/15 g) | BN | $10 (retail value $22.20) |
| Neostrata | Hyaluronic Luminous Lift Gel Cream | DS (0.35 oz/10 g) | BN in packaging | $8 (retail value $17.40) |
| Neutrogena | Hydro Boost Moisturizer with SPF 50 | Full-size (1.7 oz/50 mL) | BN | $10 (retail value $20) |
| Neutrogena | SheerZinc Dry-Touch Sunscreen SPF 50 | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL)1 remaining | BN | $1 |
| Neutrogena | Ultra-Sheer Dry Touch Sunscreen SPF 70 | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Neutrogena | Mineral Ultra-Sheer Dry Touch Lotion SPF 30 | DS 3 available | BN | $1 each |
| Neutrogena | Mineral Ultra-Sheer Dry Touch Lotion SPF 30 | Full-size (3 oz) | BN and sealed | $8 (retail value $16) |
| Neutrogena | Rapid Wrinkle Repair Moisturizer | DS (0.09 oz/2.6 mL) 2 available | BN | $2 each |
| Origins | GinZing Oil-Free Energy Boosting Gel Moisturizer | DS (0.5 oz/15 mL) 1 available | BN | $3 (retail value $9.50) |
| Origins | GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN | $7 (retail value $14) |
| Osea | Undaria Algae Body Butter | DS (0.5 oz/14.5 g) | BNIB | $4 |
| Philosophy | Amazing Grace Firming Body Emulsion | Mini (2 oz/60 mL) | BN | $3 |
| Rituals | Ritual of Sakura Recovery Hand Balm | DS (0.6 oz/20 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Rituals | Ritual of Ayurveda Recovery Hand Balm | DS (0.6 oz/20 mL) | BN | $2 |
| RoC | Derm Correxion Contour Cream | Full size (1.7 oz/50 mL) | BNIB | $16 (retail value $33) |
| Sarna | Sensitive Anti-Itch Relief Lotion | DS (5 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Shiseido | Benefiance Wrinkle Smoothing Eye Cream https://imgur.com/1bMTOqQ | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) 3 available | BN | $9 (retail value $21.33) each |
| StriVectin | Hyaluronic Tripeptide Gel-Cream for Eyes | DS (0.17 oz) | BN in packaging | $9 (retail value $21.67) |
| StriVectin | Anti-Wrinle SD Advanced Plus Intensive Moisturizing Concentrate for Wrinkles & Stretch Marks https://imgur.com/FTLsvk3 | DS (0.35 oz/10 mL) 2 available | BNIB | $5 each (retail value $13.16) |
| TiZO | PrimeSunscreen Tinted Facial Mineral Sunscreen SPF 40 | Full-size (1.75 oz/50 g) | BNIB | $30 (retail value $43) |
| TiZO | Ultra Zinc Non-Tinted SPF 40 | DS (0.18 oz/5 g) | BN | $2 |
| TiZO | Renewable Moisturizer | DS (0.18 oz/5 g) | BN | $2 |
| TiZO | PM Restore | DS (0.18 oz/5 g) | BN | $2 |
| Vichy | Aqualia Thermal Rehydrating Cream Rich https://imgur.com/V2sJ8OJ | DS (0.51 oz/15 mL) 1 available | BNIB | $3 |
| Vichy | Aqualia Thermal Rehyrdating Cream Light | DS (0.1 oz/3 mL) 2 available | BNIB | $2 each |
| Vichy | LiftActiv Supreme Firming Anti-Aging Face Moisturizer | DS (0.51 oz/15 mL) | BNIB | $5 (retail value $14) |
| ZO Skin Health | Daily Power Defense | Full-size (1 oz/30 mL) | BNIB | $75 (retail value $108) |
Oils/Serums/Mists/Toners/Elixirs/Essences/Self-Tanners/Treatments
| Brand | Product | Size | Usage | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avene | A-Oxitive Antioxidant Defense Serum https://imgur.com/Cp2nC8z | DS (0.1 oz/5 mL) 2 available | BNIB | $2 each |
| Avene | Cleanance Concentrate Blemish Control Serum | Full size (1 oz/30 mL) | BNIB | $15 (retail value $30) |
| Clinique | Smart Clinical Repair Wrinkle Correcting Serum | DS (0.17 oz) | BNIB | $3 |
| Coola | Sunless Tan Dry Oil Mist | DS (0.85 fl oz/25 mL) | BN and sealed | $12 (retail value $24) |
| Elizabeth Arden | Retinol Ceramide Capsules Line Erasing Night Serum | 7 capsules | BNIB | $4 (retail value $11.20) |
| Estee Lauder | Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex | Mini (0.23 oz/7 mL) 3 available | BNIB | $8 each (retail value $18 each) |
| Differin | Adapalene Gel 0.1% Acne Treatment | Full-size (1.6 oz/45 g) | BNIB | $22 (retail value $34) |
| Glytone | Age-Defying C+ Advanced Antioxidant Serum | DS (0.1 oz/3 mL) | BNIB | $5 |
| Hey Honey | Good Morning Honey Silk Facial Serum | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN | $3 (retail value $8.17) |
| IMAGE Skincare | Vital C Hydrating Anti-Aging Serum | DS (0.5 oz/15 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Josie Maran | 100% Pure Argan Oil | DS (0.15 oz/4.5 mL) | BNIB | $3 |
| Josie Maran | Argan Beta Retinoid Pink Algae Serum (2% pro-retinol) | DS (0.25 oz/7.5 mL) | BNIB | $10 (retail value $20.70) |
| Keys | Let Me Glow Illuminating Serum | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) 3 available | BNIB | $2 each |
| Kiehl's | Powerful-Strength Line-Reducing Concentrate with 12.5% Vitamin C and Hyaluronic Acid | DS (0.17 fl oz/5 mL) 1 remaining | BN | $3 |
| Kiehl's | Midnight Recovery Concentrate | DS (0.14 oz/4 mL) | BN in packaging | $4 |
| Lancome | Advanced Genifique Radiance Boosting Face Serum (Youth Activating Concentrate) | DS (0.27 oz/8 mL) 2 available | BN in packaging | $9 (retail value $20.80) |
| Lancome | Advanced Genifique Radiance Boosting Face Serum (Youth Activating Concentrate) | DS (0.16 oz/5 mL) | BN | $5 (retail value $13) |
| La Roche-Posay | Niacinamide 10 Serum | Full-size (1 oz/30 mL) dropper not shown but in box | BNIB | $25 (retail value $40) |
| L'Oréal | Revitalift Derm Intensives 1.5% Hyaluronic Acid Serum | DS (0.14 oz/4 mL) 2 available | BN in packaing | $1 each |
| L'Oréal | Age Perfect Cell Renewal Midnight Serum https://imgur.com/q8IaULC | DS (0.1 oz/3.8 mL) 2 available | BNIB | $1 each |
| Murad | Targeted Wrinkle Corrector | DS (0.11 oz/3.25 mL) | BNIB | $6 (retail value $16.90) |
| Neostrata | Gel Plus Oily Skin AHA Refiner https://imgur.com/ir7Tw8O | DS (0.35 oz/10 mL) 2 available | BN | $2 each |
| Neutrogena | Hydro Boost Glycolic Acid Overnight Peel | Full-size (3.2 oz/94 mL) | BNIB | $13 (retail value $23) |
| Neutrogena | Rapid Wrinkle Repair Retinol Pro+ 0.5% Power Serum | Full-size (1 oz/30 mL) | BNIB | $20 (retail value $35) |
| Neutrogena | Stubborn Acne AM Treatment with Benzoyl Peroxide https://imgur.com/Dixg7Fw | DS (0.3 oz/9 g) 4 available | BN | $1 each |
| Obagi Medical | ELASTIderm Neck and Decollete Concentrate | Full-size (1 oz/30 mL) | BNIB | $125 (retail value $250) |
| PCA Skin | ExLinea Pro Peptide Serum | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN and sealed | $10 (retail value $20) |
| PCA Skin | Pigment Pro Gel | Full-size (1 oz/29 mL) | BNIB | $80 (retail value $124) |
| Philosophy | Nature in a Jar Skin Reset Serum with Bakuchiol | DS (0.16 oz/5 mL) | BNIB | $2 |
| RoC | Derm Correxion Fill + Treat Serum | Full size (0.5 oz/15 mL) | BNIB | $22 (retail value $39) |
| RoC | Retinol Correxion Line Smoothing Night Serum Capsules | DS (10 capsules) | BN | $4 |
| RoC | Multi Correxion Hydrate + Plump Hyaluronic Acid Serum Capsules | Full-size (30 capsules) | BNIB | $16 (retail value $33) |
| Shiseido | Ultimune Power Infusing Concentrate | DS (0.33 oz/10 mL) | BN | $5 |
| SkinCeuticals | C E Ferulic | Full-size (1 oz/30 m | BNIB | $90 (retail value $166) |
| TiZO | Advanced Vitamin C + E Serum | BN in packaging | ||
| Vichy | Mineral 89 Hyaluronic Acid Serum | DS (0.14 oz/3 mL) 1 available | BNIB | $2 |
| Vichy | LiftActiv Vitamin B3 Face Serum for Dark Spots & Wrinkles | DS (0.16 oz/5 mL) | BNIB | $3 |
| Vichy | Neovadiol Peri & Post Menopause Meno 5 Bi-Serum | DS (0.16 oz/5 mL) | BNIB | $3 (retail value $6.50) |
| Vichy | Neovadiol Peri & Post Menopause Meno 5 Bi-Serum | Full-size (1oz/30 mL) dropper not shown but in box | BNIB | $22 (retail value $39) |
| Vichy | LIFTACTIV Supreme Vitamin C Serum | Full-size (0.67 oz/20 mL) dropper not shown but in box | BNIB | $20 (retail value $35) |
Cleansers/Scrubs/Makeup Removers
| Brand | Product | Size | Usage | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aveeno | Calm + Restore Nourishing Oat Cleanser | Full-size (7.8 oz/232 mL) | BN | $5 (retail value $10.49) |
| Avene | Tolerance Extremely Gentle Cleanser | DS (0.8 oz/25 mL) 2 available | BN | $1 each |
| Bioderma | Sensibio Foaming Gel Cleanser | Mini (1.5 oz/45 mL) | BN | $1 |
| CeraVe | Foaming Facial Cleanser | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL) | BN | $1 |
| CeraVe | Hydrating Cream-to-Foam Cleanser | Mini (3 oz/87 mL) | BN | $2 |
| CeraVe | Hydrating Facial Cleanser | Mini (3 oz/87 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Cetaphil | Daily Facial Cleanser | Full-size (16 oz/473 mL) | BN | $6 (retail value $14) |
| Cetaphil | Gentle Skin Cleanser | Full-size (20 oz/591 mL) | BN | $6 (retail value $14) |
| Clinique | 7 Day Scrub Cream | DS (1 oz/30 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Epionce | Gentle Foaming Cleanser | DS (0.2 oz/6 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Eucerin | Eczema Relief Cream Body Wash | DS (0.5/14 mL) 2 available | BN | $1 each |
| Fresh | Soy Face Cleanser | DS (0.6 oz/20 mL) only 1 available | BN | $3 |
| Glytone | Rejuvenating Mild Cream Cleanser | Mini (2 oz/60 mL) | BN | $7 (retail value $15) |
| Glytone | Enhance Brightening Cleanser Powder | Full-size (2 oz/60 g) | BNIB | $25 (retail value $50) |
| Kate Somerville | ExfoliKate Cleanser Daily Foaming Wash | DS (1 oz/30 mL) | BN | $3 |
| Kiehl's | Calendula Deep Cleansing Foaming Face Wash | DS (1 oz/30 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Neostrata | Enlighten Ultra Brightening Cleanser | DS (0.35 oz/10 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Neutrogena | Hydro Boost Hydrating Cleansing Gel https://imgur.com/TkEqGM4 | DS (0.5 oz/14 mL) 3 available | BN | $1 each |
| Neutrogena | Hydro Boost Hydrating Cleansing Gel | Full-size (7.8 oz/230 mL) | BN | $5 (retail value $10.49) |
| Neutrogena | Ultra-Gentle Hydrating Cleanser | DS (0.5 oz) | BN | $1 |
| Origins | Checks and Balances Frothy Face Wash | DS (0.5 oz/15 mL) 4 available | BN | $2 each |
| PanOxyl | Acne Foaming Wash | DS (0.17 oz/5 mL) | BN | $1 |
| Philosophy | Purity Made Simple One-Step Facial Cleanser | DS (1 oz/30 mL) | BN | $2 |
Face/Body Masks
| Brand | Product | Size | Usage | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aveeno | Repairing Cica Hand Mask | 2 single use gloves (1 pair hand mask) | BN | $1 |
| Aveeno | Repairing Cica Foot Mask | 2 single use slippers (1 pair foot mask) | BN | $1 |
| Fresh | Floral Recovery Calming Mask | DS (0.5 oz/15 mL) | BNIB | $5 (retail value $10.30) |
| Fresh | Rose Face Mask | Mini (1 oz/30 mL) | BNIB | $13 (retail value $26) |
| Lancome | Advanced Genefique Hydrogel Melting Mask | 1 mask | BN in packaging | $7 (retail value $15) |
| MD Cosmetica | Growth Factor Repair Mask | 1 mask | BN in packaging | $5 |
| Miss Spa | Rose Stem Cell Renewal Sheet Mask | 1 mask | BN in packaging | $1 |
| Naisture | Exfoliating 3-Step Skin Care Kit | Full-size (comes with cleanser, sleeping mask, and AHA peeling pad) x 2 | BN in packaging | $2 each |
| Naisture | Recharging 3-Step Skin Care Kit | Full-size (comes with cleanser, moisturizer, and sheet mask) 1 available | BN in packaging | $2 |
| Sephora Collection | Purple Clay Mask | 4 uses (1.18 oz/35 mL) | BN | $2 |
| Sisterfoot | CBD Foot Mask | Two masks (one for each foot) | BN in packaging | $2 |
| SKINWORKOUT | Inner B System Inner Mask for Blemish Control | 1 mask | BN in packaging | $2 |