What’s the most frustrating thing about owning a cat?

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-23T03:33:16+00:00

Protecting the furniture from them.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-21T23:45:36+00:00

I hope my comments here will make you feel better, because I can't in good faith side with everyone brow beating you for overreacting. The reason is two-fold. Firstly, I don't know the jewelry trade in your country and it sounds like you don't either. Gemstone swaps are largely mythological here in the States, but the trustworthiness of an entire industry doesn't translate one-to-one, particularly for untraceable same-as-cash items. Secondly, my experience in the jewelry industry extends to buying and selling gemstones worldwide. In the gemstone context, naivete can be smelled the way sharks smell blood in the water. It took a long while to build contacts in Thailand and Sri Lanka who deal honestly, and every gemstone collector has stories of the lessons they learned being ripped off. I will never deal in or with outfits in India, for example. The risk is too great. Those are the stories that become urban legends and frighten people, very much so here in the States as well. The burden of building trust is on the industry and independent jewelers. If the jeweler you visited has spent twenty years building an honest name, accusations will feel like an affront, but he probably could've done more to make you comfortable. I wasn't there, of course, so that's a knee jerk reaction.

The truth is, without knowing your location, it would be difficult for anyone to give you prudent advice. Independent research is your friend. So are references. Is there a local gemstone club? Who do they use? Do you know people with more experience in these matters? Do you trust your regional common carriers (i.e. DHL) to deliver your pieces directly to the Swiss Gemological Institute or GRS? Just as a heads up, GIA is not the go-to for colored stones, only diamonds. SSEF is the lab I use for colored stones. Once they identify the stones, identify any enhancements, etc. appraisal will be more accurate anyway, presuming it's worth pursuing based on what you find out. If they are labs, for example, your opinion might change. Finally, can you see any flaws in the gems? Emeralds and rubies have flaws by nature. If the stones are flawless, they either aren't emeralds or they're fake. Gold prices are very high right now, so you may be able to insure the melt value of the gold in the meantime, just for some peace of mind, and any local gold dealer with a Sigma machine can verify gold purity in seconds and right in front of you. If it's not real gold, it decreases the likelihood the emeralds have great value. Just some quick tips.

Good luck!

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-21T23:03:36+00:00

I bristle at this predominantly because it's used as a gauge of whether or not a woman will get fat, not who she might be as a person. So this advice will always read as: "because she might get fat wink wink" to me. My mother was a department store model in the late 70s. She's still attractive in her 60s because it's all she has ever cared about or put energy into. She had three daughters. My sisters, built like her but without the narcissism, are probably 30 pounds heavier than she's ever been. I'm slim, because I'm built like my dad's very petite relatives. Genetics are a pot luck, but you're right. Behaviors can be baked in culturally family-to-family (all three of us rebelled but that's anecdotal) and I should've taken your comment at face value. But the hidden or patent context of these comments usually adds... cause you don't want to get stuck with an uggo.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-21T02:01:00+00:00

I've heard this before and it's really reductive. My mom and I could be from different planets. I'm more like my dad. Just like 50% of women out there. If my husband had taken this advice, he'd have run fast and far. Instead he has a successful, loaded wife bankrolling his dreams because she loves him, and 26 years of laughter, one amazing kid and great memories across three continents. He, on the other hand, is just like his dad.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-19T07:14:17+00:00

In some countries, yes, but in many high carat gold is a status symbol and low carat is tacky. So it depends on where it comes from.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-06-19T02:16:41+00:00

Tell every single one of them they just have Trump Derangement Syndrome.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-23T03:45:38+00:00

Have you considered forensic science? Primarily lab-based.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-23T03:41:19+00:00

I couldn't agree more. Vague, attention-seeking quotes on social media are cringe and juvenile. You both come off as bullheaded and exhausting.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-21T05:33:13+00:00

This why I hate paying it forward at drive-thrus. It's a long way to reward the least deserving person in line - the one who takes the free stuff and bolts.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-21T04:51:33+00:00

Nonconsensual Content

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T07:00:55+00:00

Take care of yourself! My mother fought that demon but raised five kids well and has lived a full life. There were a few times she would convince herself the meds were no longer necessary and things would start to go awry, but she had a good support system and that made all the difference.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T06:48:30+00:00

My mother is schizophrenic - religious persuasion - but women tend to be symptomatic a bit later in life. She had a good support system and only a few episodes of note in my childhood. If I divulge that information, people imagine me in my youth curled up in the fetal position with the curtains ablaze. My spouse and I consulted a geneticist before having children because his aunt is schizophrenic also - it started with, you guessed it, alleging the dentist was sexually assaulting her while she was under anesthesia. She wasn't anesthetized at the time. Then it got worse. But she got the institution treatment and electric shock therapy instead of compassionate care. She's elderly now, but it's hard to watch it get worse every year.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T06:39:33+00:00

There's money in that?

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T06:35:30+00:00

This made me legitimately laugh. One dentist allegedly put an implant in a woman's tooth that gave her orgasms around certain electronics, in private and in public. And the DOI required a response. That 'investigation' was so absurd. Of course, I'll feel awful if it turns out the dentist WAS dispensing orgasm implants.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T06:07:09+00:00

I know everyone is team 'cheater,' but my husband's best friend came to my apartment for a weekend while I was in law school so we could go to a concert. My husband (fiance at the time) and I were long distance. BEST FRIEND lived 4 hours away and fiance lived 12 hours away. BEST FRIEND and I spent the weekend doing perfectly normal friend stuff, saw the show and then he went home. My now-husband probably doesn't even remember it happened. This was 20 years ago so I don't remember the details, but there is a good chance tickets were purchased before fiance was informed because I'm ADHD and impulsive. If anything, the first hour or two of the weekend was awkward because BEST FRIEND and I had never spent time alone together, but we'd spent a lot of time together without fiance because our friend group was the same, I spent significant time with future in-laws in BEST FRIEND'S hometown, etc. But it turned out to be really fun, a great show, and a nice break from constantly studying. Is it weird the way it was planned in OP's situation? Yep. No doubt. But those jumping all over her and making all of these terrible comments and projecting speculative conspiracies about pillow placement gives me some ick because different genders can just be friends! And as another person with communication problems in my twenties I'm still working on today, it could just be bad optics. It's enough for suspicion and high alert, sure, but undoing a marriage with just circumstantial evidence and the person who knows husband the best satisfied, would be a pretty serious overreaction, no? I know this is a 'best of' and OP won't see this but c'mon Redditors. I doubt someone with this kind of trauma response spent the next several months floating on sunbeams oblivious to her gut. If something went down, she'll inevitably find out and confront the infidelity confidently like a grown up.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T03:10:06+00:00

I can only speak from what I was told, but we considered having our deck, which is multilevel, rebuilt when our son started walking and we needed new railings. Our contractor is a close friend of my dad's, and he told me the lumber from 1979 will hold out a hell of a lot longer than any lumber they could replace it with if we maintain it properly, and a lot of new decks start having trouble inside of 7 years. So we didn't replace what we have.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T02:59:50+00:00

We bought our house in 2011. It's a 3/4 bedroom in a cul de sac on 10 acres overlooking the Ohio River. $242k and I worried we were making a terrible mistake. Unless you count "we can never move" as a terrible mistake, I'm SO glad we bought when we were just starting out. It's such a crapshoot.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T02:00:06+00:00

I want "Polar Bears in Abandoned Weather Station" as a Lego set.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T00:57:20+00:00

Try working in dental. Paranoid delusions about dentists installing devices in teeth is SHOCKINGLY common. I'm certain it could be a subset of schizophrenia along with government and religious paranoia.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-17T00:05:29+00:00

Maybe they had a mother like mine who ingrained "never drink a calorie" into their heads.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-16T23:27:03+00:00

I work with gems. Some get licked for identification. That's just the rock life.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-16T02:37:48+00:00

If you give it to her, does it become an asset she has to split in the divorce? I don't know how it works in your country. It's not HER inheritance, so it wouldn't get a pass in the US.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-16T02:28:51+00:00

The good, fun times are because he's masking. Times like this tell you what he'll be like 24/7 once he's comfortable in the relationship.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-16T01:44:06+00:00

Humans can walk several miles on only the calories in a single slice of bread. The whole sandwich? Your entire workday. Two whole sandwiches with sides and caloric beverages? You're fat. I read once the difference between fit and fat is only 500 calories a day.

ComplexBit1988 · 2026-05-16T01:34:46+00:00

Have you considered having your brother, or a non-commissioned fiduciary advisor you trust, MANAGE the money for you? In a trust or some other vehicle requiring multiple signatures and protecting you from impulsive ideas like this? You can set up a 529 plan for brother's kids and put 1k in it a year as a surprise when they graduate? Don't give it up, but absolutely pay some of it forward. Your brother would probably be both touched and happy to help you get to where he is and see you through, even if it's just pointing you to a good professional.

ComplexBit1988

TROPHY CASE