u/West-Possible5128

Is anyone else getting a little tired of simple work messages from colleagues suddenly turning into polished AI paragraphs?

I get using AI to organize your thoughts or clean up something important. I use it too. But sometimes a normal Teams DM turns into bullet points, filler words, and three paragraphs where one normal sentence would have worked.

Not every message needs to sound like a quarterly update. Sometimes “yeah, I checked and this should be good” is enough. It has turned almost all conversation to an "AcTuaLlY" with nothing but AI dribble. Sales really loves to use it when messaging IT.

Has anyone seen this downtown Seattle? I parked in a QR code lot, got out to scan the QR code to pay, and before I could even finish, some guy with a tablet was already taking a picture of my car and typing.

When I asked what he was doing, he said, “Oh, is this your car?” Like yes, you literally watched me get out. I showed him I paid, then watched him try the same thing with another woman who had just gotten out of her car.

Is this normal protocol, or are they really trying to ticket people before they even get a chance to pay?

Anyone who works for one of these parking companies, wtf are you told to do?

I wanted to share this because I genuinely had no idea how quickly things could go sideways.

A friend gave me some kratom (brand was “Kratom Numbz”). I didn’t really know much about it, just figured it was mild or whatever. He explained it like a pain med. Those I could take one day and quit the next. Took one 10mg tablet and honestly… it felt really good at first. Not even gonna lie. It was a nice, short high and maybe like an hour tops. Within about a week, and only taking maybe 4 pills total, it already started changing. The high dropped to like 15–30 minutes, and I kept wanting that original feeling back. That alone should’ve been a red flag.

But then the side effects started getting weird. I was hallucinating in my peripheral vision (like something running around on the far left side… legit thought I saw a rat at one point). Mostly dark black spots. Couldn’t sleep. My arm and hand would twitch randomly. My voice would go out, like I’d been screaming. I’d randomly nod off. I legit would not want to hangout with friends if I didn't have one to take. Was scary.

I didn’t even realize what was happening at first. It didn’t feel like “addiction” in the way you picture it, but it was already pulling me in fast. What scared me the most was how quick it escalated with such light use. This wasn’t years of abuse. This was literally days.

I ended up quitting cold turkey. Not saying that’s easy for everyone, but for me it came down to being freaked out enough to stop. It honestly felt like it was starting to take over way faster than I could control.

Maybe some people handle it fine, but my experience was the opposite. Cheap stuff, easy access, and it hit me way harder than expected. If you’re dealing with it right now, it does get better. I wasn’t in it long, but it still felt like it was about to wreck things if I kept going.