u/cenzilooculta

Otaku Food Festival is a traveling event in Texas that celebrates Anime and Asian Street Food. This is a free event that happens in various cities in Texas. I've been curious to know what other peoples thoughts are on this event who attend solely for the anime/vendor booths. I've personally gone to 4 different locations and I've attended for 3 years now, and for me the event honestly depends on the location.

Some locations have a great variety of artists and vendors, while others seem to repeat the same drop shippers. I personally think the Waco one is probably the worst one I've gone to when it comes to vendors and artists. I see almost the exact same drop shipping vendors who are usually in the same spots selling the same things of knockoff figures, plushies, 3 booths selling decal stickers/credit card stickers, aliexpress tapestries and blankets, and the usually knickknacks you find cheap online but priced 10x the amount at this event. My favorite location that I saw it be held was in Plano, as even though the event itself was a bit all over the place and it was a congested nightmare, the variety of venders they had was honestly pretty cool and I even brought some stuff from them.

For anyone who has attended this event, no matter which location or year, I'm curious to know what your thoughts/experiences have been with this event!

This is a bit of a small funny story for me, and it involves a small psychological trick I decided to try out.

At work I always tell people Good Morning when passing by them as a sort of polite thing to do. I started doing this when I first started working at the company in order to slowly meet people/get people familiar with me, which has greatly helped me better know everyone in the office. I even greet coworkers who I only ever see when I clock in/clock out, which has again greatly helped and made my experience amazing with my coworkers. Now of course not everyone is going to say it back, and some people will give a simple nod or a smile, which is perfectly fine with me. Some people however I noticed they would see me say Good Morning and would completely ignore me or turn the other way, making it clear that they heard but don't care to acknowledge it. Whatever, I personally don't really care because I just continue on with my day. After a month or two of working there, I decided that I would stop saying Good Morning to any coworkers who don't acknowledge what I say or make it obvious they ignore it. I decided this because I felt like I was already on good terms with most coworkers, and I see no reason to acknowledge anyone who would blatantly ignore me, and I did just that. So the following two days, I did that and just stayed silent and didn't acknowledge any coworkers who would ignore me, while continuing to do what I did with my other coworkers. This wasn't done in any sort of petty way, nor would I do anything different with them, I would just walk past like they would. The third day however, one of the guys who I started ignoring told me Good Morning once I passed them again silently. It wasn't said in a rude way or with an attitude, just a regular good morning. I was surprised but quickly said Good Morning back to acknowledge them. After that, two other people who wouldn't tell me anything started telling me Good Morning as well, and would start to even talk to me while I passed them in the halls. Soon enough, I was telling everyone in the office good morning, and all the guys who were previously ignoring me started to greet me and acknowledge me.

It's funny, cause I never had any grudges about it nor did I ever have any issue, I just stopped doing it because I felt like maybe my Good Mornings were just annoying to hear, but I guess it must be awkward for them to see me cheerfully greet someone in front of them and then be given the silent treatment once they get passed. There is like one person who doesn't say it back still as often, but honestly I noticed that anytime he can hear me coming they book it straight to their office. Which honestly respect as I'm a introvert and I hate having to talk to people if I don't need to and often hide in my office as well, so respect to him lmao

A few weeks ago I applied to a juried art exhibition and was accepted for it. The exhibition itself is being hosted by the city and it will be separated to 8 different local areas in the city. They ranged from the libraries, local establishments, and hotels/recreation centers. My artwork ended up getting chosen to be displayed at a local brewery in the city. While I'm excited my artwork was accepted and is going to be displayed, I feel embarrassed that it's being shown somewhere that actively uses AI for everything they do. I want to advertise to friends and family to come see my work, but I also don't want them to think that I associate with the company it's being displayed at nor assume that I condone their use of AI. I've thought about making a post saying to come see my work, while also adding a explicit statement saying I do not condone the companies use of AI nor am I affiliated with them in anyway, but I feel like at that point I should just not say anything at all. I want to at some point go check out the place to go see my art, but also knowing they use AI for everything doesn't really make me feel proud as much about my art being displayed there. Has anyone else gone through this before, or what would you do if you were in my situation?

Hey everyone, where or what do you search when you look for open calls that are for online Exhibitions or for Magazines/Zines? I know Instagram is a pretty good option since that's where I find a lot of advertisements, but often times they're either for a specific state or the deadline has passed. If you've had any luck with this or know of places (preferably where I don't need a membership to be able to enter), I would love to hear it from you!

Thank Yall so much in advance :)

So I have a good friend of mine who is throwing a pool party this week, I've only been to one other party of his and I honestly had a good time. I was invited about a month ago and I was excited to be able to see him and the group again. Ever since that invite, I haven't really been going out as much due to financial reasons, which isn't much of an issue but I've noticed that my social battery has literally plummeted.

The mix of staying at home and not interacting with many people much + the combination of the Texas heat keeping me from wanting to actually go out has me in this weird state of "I want to go out and see my friends, but at the same time I don't want to do anything at all and just do my own little things in the house". I am excited about seeing my friends and everything, but I'm also not ready to do that while also swimming and possibly getting drunk.

This has me wondering, what is the best way I can get myself pumped to go to my friends party so I don't arrive socially drained? I'm worried that once I arrive, it'll be 5 minutes until my brain starts saying "I wish I was home", and I'm also worried that if I decide to drink, I'll just go mute (normally I get more social when I get drunk, but recently it just makes me stay to myself and sort of be in my own bubble).

Anyone else have this issue before? What did you do to get yourself pumped about a friends party? I don't want to miss out on this event, but I don't want my friends to think I'm having a bad day or worry that I'm not having a good time. Thank yall for the help!

TL;DR: I was invited to a friends pool party and even though I'm excited, my social battery is nonexistent at the moment but I want to still go out and see my friends. What's the best way I can pump myself up for the party so I can actually enjoy myself and have a good time instead of being mute?

Alright so some backstory, there is this shopping center near my city that has so many cool things. I love going there monthly and have found my specific stores that I like to shop at. I never have any problems with the area except for one thing, I will always be followed around. When I first started going there, I honestly didn't think too much of it because I was new to this area and I just assumed they didn't want anything stolen (the store did sell some expensive items and it is easy to steal if you really tried). I ended up going to this store and several others for the next two years, and while I never had any issues with them, I would still be followed around. I was getting pretty frustrated by this because by this point I had become a sort of regular customer, and would usually come out with something each time.

Before anyone asks, I still went to this store because they specialized in items/decorations that I can't find anywhere else, plus some stuff they have marked down for pretty good prices I can't find anywhere else.

One day, I was in the store per usual and I had this one man follow me around again. This wasn't anyone I hadn't seen before, but this time he was actually making me uncomfortable/agitated with how close he would be and how he would literally follow me around every time I turned or stepped somewhere. He was getting close to the point that anything I even pointed at, he would come and start "fixing" it. That's where I finally had enough and got the bright idea to start following him, in which I did. I immediately went to where he was standing at and stood right next to him and just stood there looking at whatever he was looking at. He pays no mind and leaves after 2 seconds, in which I then follow him to the next place he was at. He's at this new area and once again I go and stand directly next to him and just look at the items he's looking at. This time, I can tell that he's noticing what I'm doing because his hands start to look like he doesn't know what to do. After a few seconds of awkward silence and him trying to see what he could "fix" he leaves and goes to another area, and what happens next? I followed him to that area AGAIN and this time even started to grab one of the items he was "fixing" and started to act interested in it. By this point I think he knows what I'm doing because after this he just goes to the register and stays there for the rest of the time.

After all of that, I pay for the one thing I decided to buy that day and go home. Now when I left the store itself and got to the car, I was honestly cheesing at myself for the fact that I actually did that, especially since I hate confrontation or being rude to people in general. I wondered if the next time I went to the store if I would be followed again, which surprisingly enough he never did.

What shocked me even more was that ever since that day, the guy would never follow me around the store again and was instead actually nice to me. Before when I would come in he would never acknowledge me or anything except follow me around, but now when I came in he would say "Welcome to *store*" and even "Thank You for Coming in". The biggest shock was when I went to that store again for their re grand opening (they renovated/expanded the store more) and I bumped into the man who turned out to be the owner of the store, and he gave me a nod like he was in my way and went on to whatever he was doing. I felt like I had been being given a nod of approval from a strict parent.

Ever since then, anytime I go to any stores and see someone following me around in the sense that they think I'm trying to steal, I just pull that same move and every time they leave me alone without fail. Weirdly enough, I would get treated better from doing that which I honestly never understood. Thank you store owner guy for unintentionally teaching me to better stand up for myself haha

I'm not sure if it's just me, but recently I've been going into each movie blind without watching the trailer or hearing/reading reviews, with the most being just reading the basic plot of the story. This is because lately I've been setting my expectations too highly based off of the trailer, and I often come out very underwhelmed. Same with reviews/hype, I feel like when I listen to them it just sets an expectation for me that's often not met since everyone views/thinks different. Now when I watch films with little knowledge of the story beforehand, it's actually been more enjoyable and it's made me enjoy hyped movies more coming in blind. Does anyone else do this too?

I posted this story in another board but I think it would be good here also!

Warning: This story involves blood, like a lot lmao.

This story takes place at an old job that I had a few years ago. I was working in this sort of open concept office where I shared a room with another coworker at the time. He worked behind me and we were very chill and cool, joked often and he was a pretty cool guy. During this time, he was dealing with some health conditions that required him to take medications, and one of the side affects was thinning his blood. Keep this in mind.

A quick bit of information about me before we continue, I can be very sensitive to blood. Like even typing this story right now gives my body a sort of fight of flight feeling as my body shivers haha. Talking about blood or the body already makes my body feel shaky, but seeing blood in person can make me almost pass out. Keep this also in mind.

Back to the story: one week he had returned from his daily doctor visits and he came back with one leg being wrapped around with bandages. They were wrapped on the lower parts of his left leg, close to his ankle if that gives you a good idea. We didn't think much of it since it was pretty common at this point, and even he said that it was nothing serious and that he had some bump open up and they cleared it up. I go back to doing my computer work, and we go on with our morning.

It's 10:30 am now, and around this time our other coworker who would sit on the other room across from us was heading out for her lunch break, and our boss was also going out for her lunch. That left us with just me, my coworker, and this other dude who worked on the opposite side of the building. He's not relevant to this story but this lets you know that it was just me and him at this point. All was going well until I was working on my computer when my coworker calls my name. I'm still typing on the computer but I go, "Yeah what's up", and he sort of chuckles a bit and nervously asks "can you assist me with something?". By this point I'm already turning around to assist him since I never have any issues helping him out, and as I turn I'm met with a massive pool of blood on the floor.

Immediately I'm like "What's wrong did you spill something?" as I'm looking down at this massive pool of thick dark red liquid. My eyes are scanning the area to try to determine what could have happened before he tells me anything, in my head I'm hoping it's just cranberry juice, but my heart is telling me it's something worse. Before my eyes could navigate the source of the problem, he tells me "my leg is squirting blood like a water fountain and I don't know what to do", all while he's covering his leg with his bloody sock. This is where I messed up, but I had asked him to show me where/how the blood was coming out, and he did. When I tell you I've never seen blood squirt out of a mans leg the way his was. I felt like I was watching one of those over the top horror films where they had some campy blood squirting scene. I watched blood squirt out of this mans leg like a fire hydrant for 5 seconds before I could feel the world going black. My body gave me two options in that moment, either helping this guy out before he bleeds to death, or trying to calm myself down before I caused another accident in the office. Surprisingly, I ended up picking the first option.

I immediately ran to our break room and just took the entire First Aid Kit and a roll of paper towels and ran back to the office to prevent the blood from spreading more. By this point, the entire bottom of my coworkers desk was just a massive puddle of blood, and everything from his shoes and socks, to the carpet we had on the floor was stained. I started using the paper towels to contain the blood from spreading around more on the floor and opened up a fresh roll of bandages so could add pressure to his legs. Weirdly enough in that moment, while being faced with a pool of blood and also cleaning it up with my hands, my fear of blood was gone in that moment. It felt like my body decided to halt my fear for a moment in order to make sure my coworker was comfortable and safe. After 30 mins, we were able to get all of the blood cleaned up and his leg was fully wrapped and the bleeding had finally stopped. Just in time for my other coworker and boss to return from lunch.

Me and my coworker just started laughing about the entire situation. He kept apologizing to me and thanking me so much because he explained how his foot had been bleeding for a few minutes before he had called me, but he was too scared to ask for assistance since he knew I was deadly afraid of blood and he didn't want to feel like a bother. I told him that it was absolutely no problem at all and that I'm just glad he told me and we were able to stop it. He was still apologetic but I told him that I was just happy he was fine, and at least now we have something to laugh at.

The next day he ended up bringing me a breakfast burrito as a thank you for helping him out the day before, which he absolutely didn't need to do but my stomach was very thankful for that.
Afterwards, this incident happened like 2 more times, but they weren't as graphic as the first time and it was contained fairly easily. Sadly however, the last time this happened, it would be the last time I'd see him in the office ever again. He ended up having to stay at the ER for several weeks until he eventually passed away. It was absolutely awful. He was an amazing guy, and everyone in the office loved him. A week after he passed away, one of the plants that was near his desk bloomed a single white flower.

It's now one of my favorite stories to tell anytime I remember him, and whenever I see blood lmao.

Hey everyone, I'll try not to make this too long!

Basically I started Hobonichi this year for the first time and I got a planner. I absolutely love it and haven't had to take much breaks. Recently, I changed my writing time from doing it every day, to now doing all the pages of the week during the weekend. This helps me a lot better concentrate and also better write stuff for days I have nothing interesting going on.(I use my journal more for daily writing than as a actual planner) I've been looking at other peoples Weeks and I've slowly been getting more invested in buying a Weeks instead of a planner. I love having a whole page to talk about my day or even a specific event, but some days there's nothing to write about and I just end up doing a doodle to call it a day. That being said, do you think I should invest in a Weeks Hobonichi for next year since I basically write about my entire week in one day, or should I continue getting a planner? If you think I should be a bit ambitious, should I splurge and get both and see which one calls my name more? Thank yall in advance :D

Warning: This story involves blood, like a lot lmao.

This story takes place at an old job that I had a few years ago. I was working in this sort of open concept office where I shared a room with another coworker at the time. He worked behind me and we were very chill and cool, joked often and he was a pretty cool guy. During this time, he was dealing with some health conditions that required him to take medications, and one of the side affects was thinning his blood. Keep this in mind.

A quick bit of information about me before we continue, I can be very sensitive to blood. Like even typing this story right now gives my body a sort of fight of flight feeling as my body shivers haha. Talking about blood or the body already makes my body feel shaky, but seeing blood in person can make me almost pass out. Keep this also in mind.

Back to the story: one week he had returned from his daily doctor visits and he came back with one leg being wrapped around with bandages. They were wrapped on the lower parts of his left leg, close to his ankle if that gives you a good idea. We didn't think much of it since it was pretty common at this point, and even he said that it was nothing serious and that he had some bump open up and they cleared it up. I go back to doing my computer work, and we go on with our morning.

It's 10:30 am now, and around this time our other coworker who would sit on the other room across from us was heading out for her lunch break, and our boss was also going out for her lunch. That left us with just me, my coworker, and this other dude who worked on the opposite side of the building. He's not relevant to this story but this lets you know that it was just me and him at this point. All was going well until I was working on my computer when my coworker calls my name. I'm still typing on the computer but I go, "Yeah what's up", and he sort of chuckles a bit and nervously asks "can you assist me with something?". By this point I'm already turning around to assist him since I never have any issues helping him out, and as I turn I'm met with a massive pool of blood on the floor.

Immediately I'm like "What's wrong did you spill something?" as I'm looking down at this massive pool of thick dark red liquid. My eyes are scanning the area to try to determine what could have happened before he tells me anything, in my head I'm hoping it's just cranberry juice, but my heart is telling me it's something worse. Before my eyes could navigate the source of the problem, he tells me "my leg is squirting blood like a water fountain and I don't know what to do", all while he's covering his leg with his bloody sock. This is where I messed up, but I had asked him to show me where/how the blood was coming out, and he did. When I tell you I've never seen blood squirt out of a mans leg the way his was. I felt like I was watching one of those over the top horror films where they had some campy blood squirting scene. I watched blood squirt out of this mans leg like a fire hydrant for 5 seconds before I could feel the world going black. My body gave me two options in that moment, either helping this guy out before he bleeds to death, or trying to calm myself down before I caused another accident in the office. Surprisingly, I ended up picking the first option.

I immediately ran to our break room and just took the entire First Aid Kit and a roll of paper towels and ran back to the office to prevent the blood from spreading more. By this point, the entire bottom of my coworkers desk was just a massive puddle of blood, and everything from his shoes and socks, to the carpet we had on the floor was stained. I started using the paper towels to contain the blood from spreading around more on the floor and opened up a fresh roll of bandages so could add pressure to his legs. Weirdly enough in that moment, while being faced with a pool of blood and also cleaning it up with my hands, my fear of blood was gone in that moment. It felt like my body decided to halt my fear for a moment in order to make sure my coworker was comfortable and safe. After 30 mins, we were able to get all of the blood cleaned up and his leg was fully wrapped and the bleeding had finally stopped. Just in time for my other coworker and boss to return from lunch.

Me and my coworker just started laughing about the entire situation. He kept apologizing to me and thanking me so much because he explained how his foot had been bleeding for a few minutes before he had called me, but he was too scared to ask for assistance since he knew I was deadly afraid of blood and he didn't want to feel like a bother. I told him that it was absolutely no problem at all and that I'm just glad he told me and we were able to stop it. He was still apologetic but I told him that I was just happy he was fine, and at least now we have something to laugh at.

The next day he ended up bringing me a breakfast burrito as a thank you for helping him out the day before, which he absolutely didn't need to do but my stomach was very thankful for that.
Afterwards, this incident happened like 2 more times, but they weren't as graphic as the first time and it was contained fairly easily. Sadly however, the last time this happened, it would be the last time I'd see him in the office ever again. He ended up having to stay at the ER for several weeks until he eventually passed away. It was absolutely awful. He was an amazing guy, and everyone in the office loved him. A week after he passed away, one of the plants that was near his desk bloomed a single white flower.

It's now one of my favorite stories to tell anytime I remember him, and whenever I see blood lmao.

Edit: typo

Earlier today I saw a video for the Fan Fest in Houston already having a long line for the Mexico Vs South Korea game that doesn’t start till 8 pm. I’m curious to know if Dallas is also experiencing this from anyone who’s currently there or planning on going!

TL;DR - I love going to haunted houses, and especially the ones where they can grab you. They've been my favorite thing to do ever since I was a kid, and I would gladly do one without hesitation. Yet when it comes to carnival haunted house rides, I'm absolutely terrified of them and wouldn't willingly get on one myself. Is anyone else the same way, or am I just weird?

I want to know if anyone else is like this or if I'm just weird. Basically ever since I was a kid, I loved going to haunted houses. They're one of my favorite things to do, and over the years I've grown from being a fan of basic haunted houses, to houses where actors can full on grab you and shock you and whatnot. I absolutely love going to those kind of houses, the adrenalin rush I get from there is something else. The most recent house I can think of is when I went to the Dark Hour Haunted House for their Couples in the Dark experience. Basically we walked through the entire haunted house in complete darkness, by ourselves, and only a glow stick to guide us. The only issue is if we use the glowstick to help us, that attracts the monsters to come attack you and scare you, which here they're able to grab you and touch you. One of my scariest moments was when we were in some sort of bushes area, and I told my partner "oh thank god we have a moment to breathe" and as soon as I said that, a monster that was secretly behind us during that time (and that we didn't notice) grabbed me by my shoulder and told me "think again". That was one of my favorite scares in that house and I still think about it. I would 100% do that whole thing all over again!

So with all of this, you'd think I would be able to handle a ride like a haunted mansion ride at some parking lot carnival right? Wrong. Ever since I was a kid, I have been terrified of riding those rides at the fair, and anytime I do I always have my head under the cart with my arms covering my face/ears. It's a complete 180 to how I normally am at more high production haunted houses. The most recent experience with this was when I went to this carnival and my partner wanted to ride the haunted mansion ride. I thought sure why not since we had the unlimited wrist bands, but literally as soon as those doors opened I instantly put my head down and was quiet the entire ride, stiff as a rock not making any sort of movement or noise until we were fully out the ride. I don't get why the loud noises and animatronics from a carnival ride can legitimately terrify me, but those same loud noises and animatronics from more well known houses do scare me, but not to the point that I can't even enjoy myself. Anyone else have this sort of experience?

The title is already off to a strong start, so I'll give you some background on this:

I was working at Hobby Lobby for about 2-3 years. I was mostly in the register since I was one of the few cashiers who memorized the coupons and could check out customers very fast and accurately, sometimes when the store wasn't busy I would be tasked to work on the floor to organize inventory or work on stock. Working at Hobby Lobby, I dealt with a lot of elderly customers, and over time my patience for them grew thinner and thinner. This isn't to say I hate the elderly in general, I just hated them while in the retail world.

Here are some complaints that I had from serious to not as serious:

1. They are creeps with no filter to their mouth and hands.

I could not tell you the amount of times I have had an elderly person make a suggestive comment about my body. They'd laugh and think it's funny and cute, but I'd be in my head trying not to punch them in the face for how uncomfortable they're making me. The worst offense was one day when I was hanging up shirts, and these two elderly women come up behind me and one of them gropes me while the other says "wow he's really plumped up back there". I didn't mention this earlier, but I'm a minor during this time. I was completely taken a back by how casually they did that to me and how they thought it was just some funny hehe haha moment. I had to quickly excuse myself before I felt myself yelling at them (I'm not the most confrontational person). That was honestly the nail in the coffin that made me stop having any sort of respect for elderly people in retail spaces. Not to mention, they were the ONLY ones who would ever do that. I would ask some of my female friends if they ever had anyone be creepy towards them, and they'd tell me it was always the older crowd.

2. The entitlement they have:

These people have some of the worst entitlement attitudes I have ever experienced. They always seem to have a problem with something even if everything is going the way they want it to be. It feels like they need to have some sort of power trip over everything, and it makes it for an annoying experience. I've had elderly people try to interrupt me/customers when I am working with them to ask (or honestly demand) for something. They would ask me questions and would then be mad that the answer I gave them doesn't work for them. I'll get some of the most ridiculous complaints and requests from them. The worst is when they would come to my register early in the morning, be the first customer in line, give me a 100 dollar bill for a 5 dollar item, and then be mad that I have to call my boss to not only verify if the 100 is legit, but to also bring me more cash because we start our registers off with 40 dollars each morning.

3. They love to complain about anything, and find a reason to make you at fault.

It seemed like the elderly at Hobby Lobby were never in a good mood. I could tell an elderly customer "Welcome to Hobby Lobby" and they'll complain that I didn't start off with "Good Morning" (True Story). They would complain about prices being too expensive even with the 50% off discount, and would then be mad when an item wasn't on sale (it literally says on the signs). They'd ask do we have an elders discount, I'd say "We sadly don't, but I wish we did" and they'd get mad at me and go off on me like I'm the one decided they can't get an extra 10% off their order (we barely got 15% off with our employee discount as is). I left at a great time as on my last day they had gotten rid of the 40% off coupon that was always on their website. The amount of elderly people (and only the elderly) who were complaining and getting mad at me because of this was insane. I honestly had to blur out that day just to get through the day.

4. "Please remove your Card", that is all.

5. They hate when you know something about their childhood instead of being like "what's that?"

This just might be from my own experiences, but man do they hate when they say "This was way before your time period" and then I hit them with the "Oh I grew up on that". My best example is with the show, Rocky and Bullwinkle. My mom loved that show as a kid, and whenever I would go to her job in the summer, she would put on PBS kids and would also play Rocky and Bullwinkle. They weren't major parts of my childhood, but I grew up watching them at a young age and it's something I like to think about because of my mom (and Thundercats lmao). But man anytime I had elderly folks come in and bring up that show, I'd tell them I know about that show and you'd think I just insulted their entire bloodline by the way they would look at me in disgust and annoyance. Like okay sure, sorry I happened to watch a tv show and didn't instead say "what's that?" so you could go on your overused rant about "kids these days don't know about the classics that started it all" rant.

There are some other issues, but honestly they're stuff that's already been talked about or small things that just happen consistently. It sucks because I grew up with parents who taught me at a young age to be respectful towards the elderly, but honestly I don't think I can keep that same mindset with the current generation. It could've just been my Hobby Lobby, or it could be retail in general, but man they for real knew how to struck a cord in me. Anyways, anyone else have similar experiences or have a similar feeling towards this? I'd love to hear if people have had similar experiences or feelings about this!

Edit: fixed typo

TL;DR: I recently moved to a new area with my partner with a big Middle Eastern/South Asian Community. There is a street filled with tons of Middle Eastern Cuisine/Baked goods that we have been wanting to try, but I have a severe pistachio allergy that keeps me from wanting to try them out. Is there a way for me to possibly be able to go out and try a place without worrying about cross contamination?

Hey everyone, about a year ago I moved to DFW with my partner and we live in a pretty big Middle Eastern/ South Asian Community. We live 4-5 minutes from a street that is filled with tons of Middle Eastern cuisine and baked goods, actually there's been a lot of Middle Eastern eateries opening up around the area that have looked exciting to try. My only issue however is that I have a pretty bad allergic reaction to pistachios, to the point where even if there was a small bit of cross contamination, it lands me in the hospital. My partner and I have been wanting to try out these new locations, but seeing as many dishes on the menu involve pistachio in some way, we've been hesitant on trying it out in fear of me getting a allergic reaction.

So that leads me to ask, is there a way for me to be able to try any of these restaurants without worrying about the possibility of a allergic reaction? I know I can easily cook some recipes that don't involve pistachios at home, but I feel as though I won't get a authentic first taste of whatever I'm trying if I'm the one making it (I'm also not the greatest chef haha). Any advice or tips is greatly appreciated, or if this is a lost cause then I can take that answer also. I just want to know if there is a possibility of me trying these foods before I decide to kick the bucket and just accept defeat. Thank you !

I've been having this issue about everyday since September, and it's starting to concern me.

Basically every night I get extremely bad night sweats that it causes me to wake up feeling cold and sticky. Sometimes the sweating gets so bad that the bed gets wet and it's hard to comfortably lay down and rest because of it. This started happening around September and I first thought it was because I would have the house a bit hot at night, I keep the house cool at 67 now and I still sweat extremely bad. I started having a fan blast towards me each night to try to keep me cool, but I still wake up sweating. At the time I was working a job that was stressing me out extremely bad to where it was interfering with my personal life. I ended up quitting that job and I thought from there maybe the sweating would go away (because I also would wake up multiple times throughout the night daily due to sweating/overthinking work), but nothing changed. I have a new job now where I'm much happier at, but still the same thing. I've tried everything, to the point that I go into bed extremely cold and still wake up sweating under the sheets, and even during the winter when my room would get more cold easily since I have a door in my room that connects to the backyard, I would still wake up sweating extremely bad in the middle of the night even though its 35 degrees outside. Does anyone know what this is or what I should do to try stopping it? Anything greatly helps!

TL;DR - I've been sweating every night and I've tried about everything to stop it but I continue to sweat real bad. I leave the room basically freezing and still wake up sweating like I had the heater turned on, even though I get cold easily. What should I do to stop it?

Please forgive me for any errors in this story, this is my first time writing something like this!

This story takes place back in my childhood in 8th grade year. A bit of backstory, this takes place in a public library across from my school that was located in the east end of downtown in my city. The school was located in a area that was a bit sketchy at the time (the same year we had two lockdowns due to a gun fight and another because a dude with a bomb had climbed his home that was a block from us and was threatening to set it off), but it wasn't too bad if you stayed near the school. During this time I would have to wait about 45 mins after school ended since my brother had afterschool athletics, so I would often go hang out at the public library with my friends.

The story starts off like any regular school day, the final bell had rang and it was time for us to go home. I walked down to the library like I normally did, and when I got there I spotted two of my friends, I'll call them Sam and Cat. We all saw each other and decided to hang out at a table while we waiting for our siblings to arrive (they also had a younger sibling who was in athletics as well). We all sat at this table and just talked about our day and how things were going. Sam and I were starting to talk a lot about acting and making music as my friend really wanted to get into music producing and even some acting. We started getting real into the conversation, laughing and talking about future ideas or shows we would produce, when out of nowhere this man we had never seen walked past us. Now this table was square shaped, so I sat facing Cat while Sam was facing the wall next to me. The man walks next to me and Sam as we talked, he looked at us, and we all just gave him a quick smile and nod (I don't know if it's a Texas thing or just something our parents taught us, but we were told to always be respectful, even if it was a simple gesture) and carried on with our conversation.

It seemed like this dude took our smiles as a invitation, and he turned back around and came to our table and asked us "What's this I hear about a movie star?".

For context: This man looked to be a middle aged man with a bit of a balding head going on. I couldn't tell how old he was, but you could tell he was in the sun often. He had a backpack with him, and his appearance looked like he just threw everything on without looking. I wish I had looked more into him, but honestly I didn't want to make eye contact with him or have him speak to us more.

Me and my friend both look at each other a bit embarrassed but then immediately Sam tells him "Oh we're talking about our future plans of being in the industry! He (me) wants to work with movies and I want to work with singing a lot"

This instantly triggered an interest in his eyes, and he proceeded to tell us:

"Well I think that's absolutely amazing! Both of you would make amazing stars, and especially you (referring to Sam)"

Now all of us were blissfully unaware at the time of what was happening, or honestly I think we were all just trying to be nice to the old man so he could leave us alone. Sam tells the old man "I don't know, I want to do it but I don't have the resources or know where to begin"

The old man started getting more eager, "Well I could help you with that, see I'm a cancer survivor who has been battling this disease for a few years now and doctors have told me that I don't have much longer soon. I've owned a business for my entire life and recently had to retire as I'm planning on letting things go, but God's angel had spoken to me and gave me a great message, do you believe in God?"

My friend being raised Christian but at the time was sort of questioning herself said "Yeah I believe a bit, but I'm uncertain"

The old man replied, "Well you'll have to believe this, one of God's angels told me that I have the gift to be able to bless people and give them better lives! I have a studio in my house where I have different kids work on their talents like singing and dancing, you like to dance right?" My friend of course says yes but this time nods her head. "well why don't you come by to my house sometime so I can show you the studio and you can bring all of your friends as well", by this point me and Cat have realized he has an interest with Sam specifically.

Sam, not really knowing what to say at that point or do, just says "Oh sure yeah, that could be pretty cool", and from there the old man offers to give us his phone number.

"Let me write down my phone number so we can keep in contact, I see a lot of star power with you young lady" and he proceeds to write his number on some scratch paper he had in his bag.

All us by this point, not realizing what was going on and just wanting the man to leave us alone so we could go back to our conversation, gave him a quick "well it was nice knowing you, we'll be sure to call" followed by a smile and wave and he went on his way down the library.

After he left, we all just started speaking with our eyes until we knew he was fully gone, and we started to laugh.

"What a weirdo, he could not have shut up any faster" I replied, followed Sam and Cat joining in. We then looked at Cat who still had the phone number that the man had given her, and I asked her what she plans on doing with it.

"Do you plan on calling him? I wonder if he's being for real or is delusional", again we were being blissfully ignorant, or our brain was probably trying to rationalize everything. She said she isn't sure, but she's going to keep the paper with her.

After this my mom called me saying she was here, and I told my friends bye and went home. During the ride home, I never told my mom what had happened, but my brain was slowly piecing everything together until it hit me. We were just approached by a creep. I was so shocked, but I just kept my face normal and never brought it up.

Then next day I saw Sam and Cat and I had asked them whatever happened to the number and jokingly said "what if we see him again today". Well Sam followed that up with "So I told my mom about what happened yesterday", and I immediately asked her what she said. "yeah so my mom said we can't go to the library anymore after school and is just going to start picking us up early and will later come back for our sister so we don't stay any longer.". Weirdly enough we all started laughing after she said that, but it wasn't in a we found it funny sort of way, but rather it was all of us realizing that what just happened to us wasn't normal. Like her mom said, they never went back to the library again, and I was stuck going there alone since I never told my mom what had happened in fear of being banned from going there alone. I thankfully never saw the man again, but it seemed like my friends mom didn't keep this to herself. The following few weeks, the library had more workers during the evening and our school even started advertising after school activities (which they never had before other than athletics). I've yet to tell my mom what happened even though I'm grown up now, but it's a story my friends and I always bring up when we talk about creeps.

I've been going to some Comic Con conventions for a few years now both big and small, and one thing I've always noticed is that a lot of dealers booths have no prices showing for what they're selling. This never really bothered me at first when I started going to shows, but overtime I've grown a bit of a bias towards them and now tend to ignore their booths. I now just assume that whatever they have is probably at a price point that I can't afford, and that deters me from looking any further. For me personally, I'm more likely to look at a booth and not mind so much the expensive prices if they're clear and transparent about them, I'm more likely to buy the product especially if it's of something I like.

This has me wondering why do some booths keep their prices hidden and why do they continue to do that? Are they able to make more money this way, are they going based off who is buying and what they're buying? Is it just easier for them to do it this way? I'm curious to know from a vendors perspective or customer POV, or even how you feel about this yourself!

This mainly goes towards the dealer hall vendors, as I don't see it as often with artist alley booths, but why do vendors keep their prices hidden and often have you ask them for prices? I've noticed this in both big and small conventions, and when I first started going to conventions I never minded it as much, but over time I've grown a bit of a bias towards them. I don't ever really look at these booths anymore since I just often assume whatever they have is most likely going to be overpriced. What's insulting with some of these booths is that all that they're selling is just Aliexpress/Temu stuff for 10x the price. Recently at a Food Festival event, I had one booth seller try to sell me this Aliexpress Domo plushie that usually goes for 4-10$ dollars online, but she tried to charge me 40 for it. That was insane considering I can get officially licensed plushies from Hot Topic right now for 25$. This isn't the case for all vendors, as there are vendors who specialize in overseas merchandise that you can't find anywhere else, or they just have a love for anime in general.

All that aside, why do vendors keep their prices off of their products? Do they make more money this way? Is it just easier on their end? I'm curious to know from a sellers perspective or customers POV, as I've sold for some conventions before and I've always wondered how successful vendors are who keep prices hidden.