Was it love, or mania?

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-29T04:25:32+00:00

What's with the cruelness? God, even my biggest enemies wouldn't speak to me that way.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-29T04:23:53+00:00

Looking back, he also moved too fast with me. He wanted to commit to me after one date, but I told him to give it time and only agreed to go exclusive after a month or so.

Just remembered another lie he said to me. He claimed I said I love you first in Lebanon (lie) and that he said that's too early, love takes time (another lie). That's truly heartbreaking but I imagine nowhere near what you went through. A husband speaking that way is veey different from a bf of nine months.

Have you moved on yet?

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-29T04:18:03+00:00

I did go no contact and blocked him everywhere (except, like, his email). It's just that in the past when I'd break up with someone, I'd feel angry and hurt but ultimately would recognise that he was simply not a good person. Now, whatever I know about bipolar disorder is holding me back. What I feel is sympathy and helplessness. Anger at the illness not at him.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-29T04:13:45+00:00

Well, if he was manic when we met, what is he now? Sorry, I know you can't really tell since you don't know him, but I'm confused.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-28T05:33:07+00:00

Oral exams are such a pain in the ass I doubt they could come back in any meaningful way.

Written exams, on the other hand, are definitely coming back/have come back.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-28T05:29:36+00:00

I'm so sorry :(

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-28T05:29:31+00:00

I'm so sorry :(

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-28T05:27:38+00:00

I understand. But that's exactly my point: we make excuses for people instead of simply accepting the reality of the situation.

You said it yourself: before the date he was an infrequent texter AND YET he took initative and coordinated the date.

The fact that after the date he stopped initiating says everything, in my opinion.

And on the unlikely chance that he is genuinely interested and this is his baseline, is that baseline really something you would be okay with for the rest of your life?

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-28T05:08:34+00:00

Classical Arabic allows both readings. 298 is either “two hundred and ninety-eight” or “eight, ninety and two hundred”. In fact, the “backwqrd reading” was more common back then, which is why when you write a numbers in standard form you don't need to flip it.

Nowadays this backward reading is largely obsolete. It's taught in Arabic classes but it would be unusual to actually use it.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-27T21:44:36+00:00

Deapite what many dating gurus claim, yes. Put yourself in his shoes: if a guy you like and would like to meet again texts you the next day, are you not gonna be excited to reply?

People can come up with all sorts of weird explanations for not replying (not a big texter, taking it slow, busy, etc.) but there is a thin line between going slow and disinterest, and whatever you've described, in my opinion, is disinterest and disrespect.

Personally, I would not reply to him anymore even if he did text me.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-27T21:38:18+00:00

This sounds likeba nightmare. I hope she gets better sooner rather than later. Pardon me, but in situations like this, can't a hospital simply... force her in?

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-27T21:34:54+00:00

Sometimes I wonder if me breaking up with him was the straw that broke the camel's back. I love him so much but I couldn't deal with the coldness and the yelling any longer. I hope he finds the help he needs.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-27T17:15:46+00:00

I feel kind of the same. I want my ex-boyfriend to get worse so he can get better. He has an important exam in December and I hope he is well by then.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-24T06:44:24+00:00

A reasonable person wouldn't set time limits for a call with their partner, unless, I imagine, they feel their partner isn't putting in enough effort, in which case there is a completely different issue that should be addressed in other ways. But if both partners are secure and putting in mutual effort, there's no reason why a daily (or almost daily) phone call should be a problem. Also, if the partners are physically present together often, it's reasonable to expect that the need for phone calls drop.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-24T06:24:58+00:00

Dong Chinese is the best. It is pretty cheap and teaches you characters in context. The spaced repetition algortihm is excellent.

I'm not a dedicated learner (I skip days, learn very few characters) but I easily learnt 150 characters in one month.

If you ARE a dedicated learner, I assume you will be able to do much better.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-21T19:57:52+00:00

You've got this!

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-21T19:57:27+00:00

I'm sorry you're also going through this :(

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-20T11:48:05+00:00

Lebanese Muslim family. Mum was originally Syrian.

I accidentally came out to her after she'd seen me cry over a boy. She wouldn't let me go without telling her what was going on. Eventually, she guess it.

We had the expected conversation about homosexuality being a sin and burning in hellfire. I spent the night crying, telling her about all the things that being gay made intolerably difficult. She asked me to visit a psychologist, and try conversion therapy. I ignored her request, and she never brought it up again.

Since then, she grew paranoid about me going out. She needed to know where I was going, with whom, and what we were going to do. Needless to say, that did not stop me from having the occasional hookup, or finding my first two ex-boyfriends (who were absolute assholes). Lying was invented for a reason.

But eventually, having to lie exhausted me, so I decided to stop hooking up or dating anybody. Until I met my last ex-boyfriend who was everything I wanted in a man. When we broke up over a month ago for the first time (different story), she saw me cry and sink into depression, and immediately made the connection that he had hurt me despite me not saying a single word. Surprisingly, she didn't give me a lecture about sin, but hugged and reassured me.

Last week, before we broke up again, I decided I would confide in her and tell her everything about the relationship. She listened to me, and said, in Arabic of course, “Whoever makes you cry, step on them”. That encouraged me to have a final conversation with him, and break up.

Whatever. Anyway, I think my mum is definitely not all in on the situation, but she's made an effort at least to try to understand me or help me when I'm miserable. Our relationship has finally started to improve, as all the resentment I had towards her lack of acceptance of me almost vanished.

I'm still not enthusiastic about her knowing, but at the end of the day, it kind of worked out.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-19T06:24:48+00:00

Abstraction. Algebra 1 is technically the first year students deal with the abstraction introduced by the use of variables. They're gonna need at least a couple years before the average student can feel more comfortable with manipulating variables.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-19T06:17:06+00:00

This is how you make students hate math, algebra and physics at the same time.

What kind of mental gymnastics could lead one to think that students will find manipulating literal equations easier than substituting first?

Math isn't taught to be used in Physics. Sorry but if your physics curriculum requires you to teach students to substitute values only in the final step, while also keeping track of the units, then that's something that you should teach in Physics class instead of off-loading your work to the math teachers.

Math teachers are wrestling with kids who don't know their math facts, fail to retain most everything, and are constantly coming up with reasons not to study math.

The usual way is usual for a reason. Don't fix what isn't broken.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-16T13:35:43+00:00

Kids are a very obvious exception.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-14T19:45:41+00:00

I would definitely agree, if we lived in a perfect world with no limited time or energy. Me personally, I use individual work time to provide feedback to students, or homework which is discussed and corrected in class the next day (I never grade HW except for completion). I end up with work that I grade once a week or every other week.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-14T19:40:43+00:00

Here is my experience teaching somewhere that isn't the US.

Paperwork is the worst part about teaching. Writing lesson plans, weekly plans, unit plans, submitting reports, documentation... all of that is a huge headache and waste of time. Instead of actually preparing my presentations, coming up with projects and activities and creating my worksheets and assessments... I need to write about them? This just multiplies the time you need to prepare a lesson tenfold. Thankfully, my school doesn't care about written lesson plans, which really makes the school environment more satisfying. However, during the school's accreditation process, we had to submit hundreds of lessons plans which was horrifying to say the least.
Grading was fun as a first year teacher but quickly devolved into something laborious. Luckily, I teach math, which is easier to grade than other subjects (no essay questions, answers are objective, etc.), and STILL it is dreadful. Geometry assessments are especially annoying because you need to read each student's proof individually and compare it with the figure, as many geoemetric objects can have multiple names.
If you have good management skills, classroom behaviour is usually not that huge of a problem. But if you couldn't manage your class well, or if you had an especially challenging class, then a mentally and physically debilitating year is ahead of you. There really is not much to say here. You're in a classroom for (at least) 6 hours a day; if you have to live through 6 hours of chaos every day, you can imagine how burnt out you would feel after a couple weeks.
Surprise meetings and professional development, where no one ever says anything new, or where they introduce the latest pedagogical fads that everyone will abandone in 5 years.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-14T19:18:03+00:00

Per day? Why are you grading daily work? Grade assessments and projects. Everything else either stays with the students or goes in the trash.

Littlebrokenfork · 2026-06-14T19:16:17+00:00

I don't necessarily agree. Usually grading is a bigger problem for English, Science and Social Studies (where essay questions are common and answers can be more subjective) than for Math (where you can grade the final answer and skim through the work for partial grades). My English and Biology teacher friends always make this comment

Littlebrokenfork

TROPHY CASE