u/SarahKauthen

I'm repainting my office and wanted to do something fun this time. I grew up watching TNG and always admired Picard's office, finding it calm, elegant and sane - like the captain. In my researches, I've seen the color described as brown but, to my eyes, it looks like it features tones of mauve and maybe dusty rose? Totally late 80s/early 90s and I love it. I can't be the first one to have embarked on this mad adventure but couldn't find anything helpful when I searched the reddit history. Any tips? I'm shopping for an aquarium and geode today to complete the effect, totally nerding out and loving every minute of it ♡

I am dealing with the grief of accepting that a few of my relationships were unnecessarily curtailed because of bloody Facebook. First, I have to establish at the outset of this rant that all this is largely my own fault. Because of things that have happened in my past - rejections, my boundaries not being respected by harmful actors - I am super super respectful (overly, it now seems) of the boundaries of others. So if someone "signals" that they don't want me around anymore: I will 100% run in the other direction at the word "go".

When Facebook got going, I was one of the first people to jump onboard, happy to reconnect with people I'd lost touch with. It hardly took me long to realize the social media world was not for me being, to my mind, a grotesque exaggerated version of high school. And high school made me miserable. So I soon "deleted" my account.

Surprise! Even way back then, a "deleted" account wasn't deleted. It was just "deactivated". Not only was all my personal data still floating around in the ether but, even worse, through some sort of loophole or glitch, people were still able to message me or post things to my wall by rote. I imagine there was some Facebook: "Wish SARAH a happy birthday!" And they did. Many people. And I never responded. And they sent me other messages. And I never responded to those. Because I thought that my Facebook was dead and gone.

And then they stopped sending messages. Because they thought I didn't care or didn't like them.

Meanwhile, I thought they had moved on or didn't care to contact me anymore. And I, consequently, moved on and embraced intentional living - albeit somewhat bewildered by my disappearing friends. And when I did reach out to the disappeared, after some time, they didn't respond. Assuming I'd ignored them for years. The two most heartbreaking instances being:

A very close friend - once my best friend - who lives across the world from me. Who, for years, I would go to the mailbox on my birthday with f!cking tears in my eyes, wishing he'd remember me with a card, because we share the same birthday and used to celebrate it together. Only to log in to bloody Facebook when I realized the account still existed to find him sending me loving little birthday notes for half a decade while I unintentionally ignored him.

And another close friend who literally committed suicide a week after wishing me a happy birthday and sending me a message on Facebook and I now realize that was the last message he ever sent me before he died - and I didn't see it until today. When he died, he literally thought I was ignoring his messages.

And what am I meant to do, now? Contact people and be like: so sorry I was hypersensitive and insecure and didn't reach out after TEN BLOODY YEARS? Who wants a friend like that back?? It's so banal and horrifying and stupid and pointless and a perfect example of how screens have warped our perception of what's real and what's not. I feel so stupid. It's pathetic. And pointless. And sad. And I can't wait to be done with this for good so I can just set it all on fire and walk away.

I'd never had skin problems in my life. 2 years ago I experienced my first blepharitis and demodex breakout. It got so bad, I was nearly blind with eyelid swelling, my lashes fell out, I was in constant pain, my body was covered with thick red patches that cracked and bled. Nothing helped. All this had an extreme negative impact on my mental health. I spent thousands on GPs and eye and skin specialists who took my money but provided no useful answers. I was ripped off buying every snake-oil nonsense cream and pharmaceutical and treatment recommended by paid professionals. I tried everything mentioned in this reddit. I felt I was going mad. Now it's gone but for a tiny red patch every now and then. This is how I did it:

• ENVIRONMENT: I changed from feather dusting once a month to wet-paper towel dusting twice a month. I didn't think dust would be a big factor but my skin improved by half once I made this change.
• HYDRATION: I DOUBLED my water intake.
• MOISTURE: Full body coconut jergens right after my morning shower and - crucially - right before bed; for problem areas: equal parts mixture of coconut oil, vasoline and jergens.

My life is back to normal. I've given up the expensive eye drops and tea tree oil. I still use gentle soaps, unscented products and wash my face before bed with baby shampoo but I lotion up immediately after. This is my routine for the rest of my life and it's not too much to ask in return for healthy skin and quality of life. Until a person has been through it, they can't possibly understand what suffering this condition brings. I couldn't swim for fear of bacterial infection since I was constantly covered in open sores. I would cry in the shower because the water hitting my skin was torture. It literally hurt to walk because fabric would grate against my raw skin. The joy was being sucked from my life. Thank god this nightmare seems to be over for me. I hope this advice works for someone out there and helps to alleviate their suffering.

Fan community UNITE to bring this baby home! Because, let's hand it to him: this belongs to Mark Hamill. (Note: I am joking about crowdsourcing the buying of this item - if Mark Hamill has already spent his Disney paycheck, he has bigger problems than a missing hand)

Call-in with your questions, cower fawningly (as I do) in the live-chat with your fellow freaks, dance languidly and sing off-key made-up lyrics to Kiss From a Rose with the weird people's princess: it's all happening ⏾ TONIGHT ⏾