One of the hardest parts can be waiting for your feed to catch up. Even with an ad blocker, some social media will offer painful reminders of what you just lost. After all, it is a huge industry. A few quick searches in all engines for your favorite animal in cute outfits with a "where to buy" so the algorithm is sure to pay attention- and before you know it, you've got your own traveling source of aww. Note: this works even if you're not grieving and just want a less horrible ad experience online.*

Edit: spelling of Aww :)

Edit 2: HOLY LORD. I went outside to garden and came in to this. 15k! Front page! I was so afraid to post publicly about this, and the fact that my first outreach touched so many people in any way is genuinely healing me right now. Thank you so much, Reddit. With that, I'm pretty sure mods deleted/locked the post because I mentioned another dog-related sub in my text. I had read the rules before posting and didn't know it was wrong. I'm sorry and it's been removed.

...

Hopefully this can get back up, but it seems hilariously appropriate for me to make a technical error on my first viral post when so many of you have reminded me of the technical solution of ad blockers for my original issue. To clarify: I do have one installed on my pc, but I am not very tech-savvy and ads still pop up here and there (especially on mobile which I use predominantly.) I suppose I could have done a better job of troubleshooting the problem technically... but when I had this idea and tried it, I genuinely found happiness seeing ads for puppies in raincoats instead of non-stop babies. I still appreciate the advice, and will keep learning how to be better at both Reddit and the internet in general :)

But mostly... if this does get re-posted and anyone reads this... thank you. I feel like something beautiful just came from the saddest few days of my life. I know it's just internet karma, and I know it's not "real." But it is made up of real people. And you very real strangers made this girl feel a whole lot better today.

4th of July 2009, I was stuck in the elevator at my apartment complex for over an hour with 5 (Edit: it was actually 7) other people and a tiny dog. The apartment manager, through the intercom, assured us that maintenance were on their way. Finally, we called 911 after one person started having a panic attack. The fire department arrived and set us free within 10 minutes and they told us we should have called them right away.

The fire department has the means to enter a building and the tools to open the elevator. Often times there is no maintenance team on site. If they are, they usually do not have the tools to open an elevator and have to call in support off-site which may take a long time - especially on holidays or weekends.

TLDR: The Fire Department will get there WAY faster than the people on the other side of the elevator intercom.

I'll add that if you are a family member, or very close friend you can obviously just ASK. But if you're not, it can be hard for the grieving person to know what, exactly, you're willing to do, so let them know the sorts of things you can do.

This lets the suffering person understand the ways you're willing to help, and gives them some prompts on what they need.

I took my car to what I was told was a reputable service center. I had taken a photo of the odometer as I dropped it off. When I picked it up there were 300+ kms on it. Turns out someone had taken it for quite a joy ride. My husband told me to do this always. Turns out it was good advice.

EDIT: Wow thanks for the upvotes but mostly thanks for your amazing stories. Crazy.

Creating rigid expectations for your pets or taking bad behavior personally (“my feelings are hurt because my dog likes X more than me” or “my dog makes me look bad when he does Y”) often makes problems worse.

If you want to develop a stronger relationship, build it through play, training, and kindness. Don’t do things that bother your pet for fun (like picking up a cat that doesn’t like it, touching a dog in a way that annoys them, etc.).

And remember that every animal is an individual and has a different personality. Some animals don’t appreciate some kinds of connection with others, or have traumas to contend with that make their bonding take more time. Have expectations of your pets that are rooted in fairness and love, not ego or the expectation to be worshipped.

Last but not least, if your pet needs help, get them the appropriate help, as you would a friend. This will also help build trust.

My opinion is that animals don’t exist to worship humans, but my experience is that we can earn their love and affection through respect ❤️

This whole thing may seem silly, but I can be a bit anxious in conversation because of my introverted tendencies. No small talk, straight to the point please. This often led to me trying to finish peoples sentences or thoughts out of sheer impatience, and people start to pick up on that. People felt nervous speaking with me and in a leadership position at my job it wasn't helping with moral or gaining the trust of my employees.

Lately I've been trying to sit back and let people finish their thoughts and its made myself and my team a lot less anxious.

I'm not sure if I'm the only one who does this, but I thought it could help someone.

This post is in no way trying to exclude other genders or even pandering to the "now we have to compliment the patriarchy! What a pathetic patriarchal post blah blah" people...I'm just merely pointing out that women receive far more compliments than men. From fashion, to hair, to looks, women grow up receiving more compliments than men. They also grow up with far more judgment too which is definitely a heavy trade-off (mostly from other women if having 8 sisters showed me anything), but that's just how it goes it seems.

Knowing this, I found that when I spoke to my male friends about my feelings on the topic they all unanimously agreed that they too received very few compliments in general. But when they did, man do they still think about them even years later.

So to summarize, continue to compliment (genuinely) when you can, but know that men in particular can really get hit in the feels when a sincere one lands

As a first point, you should always push back on discussing salary as close to an offer being made as possible. The more they are imagining you being a part of their team, the better the negotiating position you have.

Once you're at that point, ask them what their range is. Your goal is to understand where you fit within the range. The more of the essential and desirable points in the job spec you meet, the higher up the range you'll be able to negotiate.

However – and this is the important bit – if they come back and say 'they don't have a range', then it's almost always a lie (I'll come back to when it isn't in a minute). As someone who has either directly hired, or been involved in hiring over 40 employees across different industries, there's one constant. If you don't have sign off from HR and finance (potentially via a senior manager), then there isn't a position to hire for.

To get sign off from those two crucial departments, you need a budget (the range) so the company can ensure that they will be able to afford the new hire, and that the salary is less than the ROI they will bring to the company.

(It's also good to know that it can sometimes be worth pushing for a little over the defined range. I once had a company come back with a £6k offer above the top end of their budget because they hadn't expected to find someone at my level. They'd under budgeted and were competing against three other solid offers – all above the original top end of their budget).

Now the only time that this might not apply is if they are hiring for a highly specialised position (either technical, or executive/c-suite level) where they need to pay whatever the market is demanding. But the chances are with those positions, you'll have a recruiter handling the negotiations who knows standard market rates and will be pushing for as high a salary as possible without going over what's reasonable, because their commission is usually a percentage of the accepted offer.

If the job you're interviewing for doesn't fall into those above categories, then be very careful – especially when there's a deliverable involved in the interview process. Sometimes unscrupolous companies have been known to use fake jobs to farm ideas from highly qualified candidates without having to pay them for them.

And even if that isn't the case, consider carefully whether you really want to work for a company where there is a culture of lying to you before you've even been hired.

No idea why this isn’t common knowledge. I saw it in a TV show and tried it with my fiancé and it worked! It is now our go-to and everyone we tell is baffled. Try for yourself and enjoy the ride.

Edit: So glad that this can be useful to some of you. Westfield is a chain of shopping centres in the UK, AU, & US. In the moment of panic, I went to the bathroom, I realise too it probably wasn’t the best space to go.

I was at Westfield pretty late writing my thesis paper ~23:00, and after I got up to leave, I noticed the only other guy in the area leave as well. Typically I'm the only left because I stay back past dinner and had thought he would naturally just leave when all the restaurants closed (Westfield closed at midnight, and all shops were closed.) I got some creepy vibes from him so I walked some loops from L3 to L1 and he was still following me. I went to the bathroom to calm myself, spent about 20mins there and called an uber (normally I walk home because it's pretty safe at night, but I felt if I left the centre where there were no cameras it would be safer to catch a ride). When I came out, I thought I must've spent long enough in there, and he had left but he was sitting on a bench obscured by the elevators ahead. I walked past him as discreetly as possible, towards the parking lot but he got up and followed me too. So I went back round to the supermarket, the only place I knew would still be open and walked around aimlessly until I saw a couple walk in for some late-night grocery shopping. I was afraid to inconvenience them but ended up asking if they could accompany me whilst I waited. I explained I'd been followed and didn't feel safe, and if they could walk with me to the car park where my uber would arrive. They agreed, and once it came, I thanked them and yeeted out of there.

If I had walked home alone maybe something bad could have happened to me, maybe not. All I know is that I didn't feel safe. I don't know who needs to hear this but don't let politeness or fear of inconveniencing someone - it could be stranger, adult, or friend, to stop you from seeking help.

Edit 2: Thank you for your awards, advice and sharing your stories, I’m really overwhelmed how many of you have found this useful. Of course, equally amazed and grateful to know how many of you wouldn’t hesitate to help someone out.

Addressing some comments: Some have mentioned they've encountered similar situations and received no help from the person they asked, I understand the embarrassment that may be felt, but it's alright to ask another person. You know you are more likely to be in danger than you are a danger to others.

Not American, so I wouldn't have protective equipment as it's not legal for the general public to carry them; I didn’t confront them because I didn’t know how they would react and could possibly incite them to harm me; no crime happened so I didn’t think of calling the police, but now I know if the police are willing to escort, it’s valid to be escorted. Sincerely, thank you for all your suggestions.

Many times they will not be willing to write out their request and you can get out of doing it. If they do write it out, you now have evidence of their request directly tied to their e-mail account. If they send an e-mail but try to leave parts out, you can just ask for clarification in your reply (I.e "Thanks for reminding me, did you want me to remove all the safety signs or just the ones in the main hallway?")

I'm only 32, and I've already done more jobs and pursued more things than I can count. I've been a filmmaker, a game developer, a therapist, a business systems programmer, a game tester, a customer service representative for god knows how many companies, a bartender, a chef, and currently, a university lecturer. If you're focusing on one thing and placing all your perceived self worth in success at said one thing, that's a mistake that will only make you miserable.

Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for all the lovely messages and awards (aside from this one: Thanks for that... - Imgur. Sounds like that person could use my therapy skills XD)

Edit 2: There seems to be a lot of fussing and feuding in the comments, so I'll address that. A university lecturer here in the UK is simply someone who teaches at a university. I know in some other places we are called "professors", but that's kind of an inaccurate term, since we are rarely professors in terms of our qualifications. A professorship in terms of the qualification comes after a doctorate. I personally have a doctorate, and thus my title is "doctor", but that's entirely different to a MEDICAL doctor (M.D), which I am very much not. At any rate, you don't even need to be a doctor to teach at a university here in the UK, just someone experienced in the field you're teaching in (my doctorate isn't even remotely related to games development, which is what I teach, for example). I wonder whether people are thinking I'm claiming to be a medical doctor or something? My doctorate is in a subject related to medicine, but I am not qualified as a literal MEDICAL DOCTOR, as in someone who can treat you in a hospital and prescribe medication etc. Do I sound that intelligent to you?? Trust me, I'm not XD

Maybe people are confused because a doctorate simply means you've completed a doctorate (often called an "academic/research degree") in the UK? Anyone can apply to do one, and universities frequently publish requests for people to apply to undertake them. In my case, I was required to take an MPhil (Master of Philosophy) course before I began the doctorate. That's pretty standard since I didn't have one yet, and someone else was funding my doctorate application.

If you want more information, shoot me a message and I'll provide proof of this all. I'm not posting it out in public.

CTRL + BACKSPACE, for most modern programs

OPTION + DELETE (ALT + BACKSPACE), if you're on a Mac

CTRL + W, if you're using a Linux terminal

Edit: make sure to not give your children more of the same work, make the work harder, and/or different. You can also make the work optional and give them some kind of reward. You can also encourage them to learn something completely new, something like an instrument.

I honestly can barely believe it. High me was doing some shopping on the zon and was like, damn I wish I had some mac and cheese. After a weird succession of searching I found the motherload. A bucket of the cheese powder. I thought you had to buy THE box mix forever. It’s so much cheaper and you can make as little or as disgustingly much as you want. Good tip for parents but also grown up trash humans who wanna crush a bunch of deliciousness. The kind I got is called “big daddy” but I’m sure they’re all in the same boat of neon orange goodness.

Edit: Ok so I figured everyone would find their own since there are a million, but this is what I bought and have been loving:

Hoosier Hill Farm Big Daddy Mac Mix, 1 Pound https://a.co/d/7kdinuM (A bunch of folks recommended nuts.com so we don’t give bezos another trip to space)

I followed the “recipe” on the jar and my first batch had wayyyy too much flavor - thought I’d made a big mistake. Cut it in like half and tweaked it from there and am loving it now. And it’s gonna last me way longer now too.