As someone who has been in a long-term relationship for many years, I can say that it can be a minefield of emotions when it comes to trying to keep things interesting and exciting.

My partner and I had been together for a few years and had become quite adventurous in our explorations of different activities.

We had talked about trying some kinky activities, and one night, I made a suggestion that I soon regretted.

I suggested to my partner that we should try choking each other when we were engaging in intimate activities. I had heard other people talking about it, and it seemed like something we could both enjoy. Little did I know that this suggestion would have such a profound effect on our relationship.

My partner was hesitant at first, asking me why I wanted to do this and if it was safe. I reassured him that it was something we could try and that it would be a fun way to add a bit of spice to our activities.

I also told him that it was perfectly safe if we did it right and that I would never ask him to do something that would hurt me.

Little did I know that my partner would take my suggestion very seriously and would become obsessed with choking me during our intimate moments. He would often demand that I let him choke me, and he would become angry if I refused. He told me that it was what I had wanted, and he wanted to make sure that he was pleasing me.

At first, I found the choking exciting, and it added a new level of intensity to our activities. But soon, I began to feel scared. I had no idea how far my partner would go, and I was worried that he might hurt me in the heat of the moment. I tried to talk to him about it, but he refused to listen, insisting that it was what I wanted and that he was just trying to make me happy.

Eventually, I had to put my foot down and tell him that I no longer wanted to try choking, we eventually came to an agreement that we would no longer engage in any activity involving choking.

It is a common saying around SoC that it is way easier for girls to get internships at FAANG. For example, for 2022 Google Internship there is like around 70% girls?

Some may say its unfair but I opine that there is a very clear business reasoning behind this.

I would argue that at least for the entry position, an incompetent female is way more valuable than a regular competent male (not so pro, but good enough).

I would argue that for the value that female provides for the company in terms of PR, diversity numbers and marketing is way more than whatever another the other male candidate can provide technically.

Consider this. You are Google and its 2021, money is essentially free.

Woke culture is at an all time high. Investors and the media demands an equal representation of gender. So what do you do? You go to the nearby college campus and start mass hiring females. Who cares if they are incompetent? Most entry level graduates barely do work anyways. You maybe spend couple of millions a month (which is chump change) and you make your diversity numbers look nice and pretty. Investors are happy and the media call you a champion for diversity and an industry standard. Suppose, instead you hire a few more male engineers who may be competent. What are you gonna make them do?

What extra use do they bring to your company that your existing workforce (which are already chilling) is unable to do? Worse still, your numbers are now even worse and the people starts flaming you. In essence, you brought negative value to your company!

Once you follow this line of reasoning, it becomes quite clear. Now it is 2022, Papa Powell has turned off the money printer. The bloat has to be cut and as a result you do see that a lot of these females being laid off. So perhaps moving forward, we would possibly see a shift.

In fact, now HFTs are the new hot thing and they seem to actually value talent. So maybe there would be brighter days ahead.

IT’S GOOD BYE I was recently let go from my job and while it was a tough pill to swallow.

I was reminded of a saying that my former boss had shared with me: “Colleagues are not friends, once you’re fired it’s goodbye”.

At the time, I had laughed it off as though it was an exaggeration. I had felt close to many of my colleagues and thought that if I were ever to be fired, I would still remain in contact with them.

I was wrong.

When I was let go from the job, none of my colleagues reached out to me or even asked me what had happened. I had heard through the grapevine that there had been some rumblings about me, but no one had even taken the time to ask me what really happened.

At first, I was angry and hurt by the lack of support. But then I realized that my boss had been right: my colleagues weren’t my friends, they were simply colleagues.

I think the biggest lesson I learned from this experience is that you can’t rely on your colleagues for support, especially when it comes to your professional life. It’s important to have a strong network of friends and family that you can turn to when times get tough, not just your colleagues.

That being said, I still think it’s important to maintain a good relationship with your colleagues, even if they’re not your friends. A supportive working environment can make a huge difference in terms of productivity and morale. Even though it’s important to remember that your colleagues are not your friends, you should still treat them with respect and kindness.

It’s also important to remember that if you’ve ever let go from a job, it’s important to remain professional and polite. Even if you feel that you’ve been wronged, it’s important to maintain a level of professionalism and not burn any bridges. Even if your colleagues aren’t your friends, you never know when you might need their help in the future.

In the end, my boss was right: “Colleagues are not friends, once you’re fired it’s goodbye”. It’s important to remember that while it’s important to maintain a good relationship with your colleagues, you should never rely on them for

Yes. Colleagues are colleagues. We are all paid to turn up to office and do our job. They are not your friends.

“Reading all the recent posts on girls expecting gifts from their boyfriends really makes me feel very blessed that my girlfriend is a very down-to-earth person who doesn’t expect anything from me.

I grew up in a low-income family where my dad earned only $1200 as a factory worker. When I was 13, my mom divorced my dad and soon remarried.

When I was 18, my dad suffered from a hereditary brain disease that caused him to be paralysed. As a result, he wasn’t able to work. Fortunately, NTUC income gave him a sum of insurance payout which helped us to handle our bills and expenditure. My dad’s medical bills were also highly subsidized. But we had to hire a helper to take care of my dad.

Soon after I got enlisted and had to contribute most of my allowance to the household expenses. After NS, I found a temp admin job before starting university.

I then met my first girlfriend, who works in the same department. She was a fresh graduate. She’s also from a low-income family so we could relate to each other.

She had to pay for her own tuition loan, household expenses and even the mortgage for her parents’ house. Despite all of that, she always offered to pay for our meals. Of course, we could only afford to eat at coffeeshops. Once in awhile, we would spoil ourselves with a big cup of gongcha and a movie at the cinemas.

I often felt very insecure during the early stages of our relationship because we had to keep our rs a secret. Afterall, office romance is frowned upon. It didn’t help that there were a few permanent staff who tried to pursue her. They would often buy drinks and breakfast for her and ask her out for dinner.

The worst thing was those permanent staff were seniors who earn at least four times of my salary. I often felt very relieved whenever I see her rejecting their advances.

Sometimes I would feel very insecure and ask her if she would go for those rich guys at the office. She would always reassure me and tell me, “It doesn’t matter if a guy is rich or not. What matters most is the guy loves you or not.”

Fast forward to today, I have graduated and found a job which pays well. I credit all of my achievements to my girlfriend. Because of her constant support and encouragement, I managed to do well in uni and secure many internships, and therefore able to secure a good job.

She could have chosen to be with those rich guys who pursued her but she chose to be with a poor guy like me. Sometimes I really feel very lucky that I found such a great girlfriend.

Despite her own financial struggles, she always offered to pay for all our expenses. At times, when we share a plate of cai png, she would purposely give me all the meat and lie to me that she is on a diet.

Even till today, whenever I ask her if she wants me to buy a bag or clothes for her, she would call me crazy for wanting to spend money. She always say old clothes are more comfortable and as for bags, one or two bags is enough already. Even on her birthday, she would make me promise her that I won’t buy her a gift. How silly of her. I really feel thankful to her for enduring all these years of hardship with me and I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.”

I’m a self-proclaimed lazy girl – I’m the first to admit it.

Some people may think that I’m too lazy, but I’m just taking advantage of what’s available to make life easier.

One of the things I’ve recently come across is asking guys to peel prawn shells for me.

I know what you’re thinking: why would anyone want to peel prawn shells for someone else? Well, let me explain. Why should I make my hand dirty when there are men to always try to be a hero?

I’m not saying that I can’t peel prawn shells. I can, and I do. But it’s incredibly painful and takes a lot of effort. I’m also not saying that I’m expecting guys to peel prawn shells for me all the time. I’m just saying that if a guy is around and willing to help, it would make my life easier.

So, why do I feel like it’s okay to ask guys to peel prawn shells for me?

I believe that men should be willing to help out a woman in need. It’s an old-fashioned notion, but I still believe it. I think it’s only fair that a man should help out a woman who is struggling. If he can help her out in some way, then he should.

I think it’s perfectly acceptable to ask a guy to peel prawn shells for me. I may be considered lazy, but I don’t think it’s wrong.

A guy even call me “handicapped” once but it don’t matter.

I’m just trying to make life easier for myself and take advantage of the fact that guys are better at peeling prawn shells than I am.

This is just an example of how I make men do to my bidding, sometimes I make them do chores or even give me gifts so they think that they have ‘chance’.

So, if a guy is willing to help out, I’m more than happy to let him.

My significant other [27/M] and I [25/F] have been together for a bit over 3 years, living together for 2, and have every intention of spending the next forever together.

We’re at a point where we’d like to be more intentional about our finances to ensure we are spending and saving wisely for our future together. Aside from our general concerns about intertwining finances (because what if we break up, right? that’s a whole mess to sort out.)

we want to ensure we’re doing things in the smartest way. We’ve both only ever been in charge of ourselves, and we currently split things 50/50 (for the most part).

We make fairly similar incomes (~$2000/month for him, and ~$2125/month for me). Our monthly bills include:

• Rent: $850/month (all utilities included)
• Internet: $50/month
• Netflix: $17.48/month
• Car Payment (shared): $980/month
• Groceries: ~$500/month (that’s definitely higher than our actual spending, but we’d rather budget for more and have leftover money!)
• Petrol: ~$80/month each ($160/month total)

In addition to bills, we have student loans. He has about $20k left in multiple loans from undergrad. My undergrad is paid off, but I’m in a graduate program that will cost me about thousands each semester for the next 2.5 years. At the moment, the only loan I have is for this semester, $1500, already accruing interest.

We’ve thought of several approaches but aren’t sure where to go next. Our first thought was to live like a single-income family: I take on all the household bills and rent, and rather than stashing his entire paycheck into savings, we use it to pay down loans.

We also need to factor in savings – I’m currently putting about $500/month into a general savings account (out of my $2000 monthly income), and we want to continue this practice and/or increase our savings as much as possible.

How do you all split your incomes, PF? We want to combine finances and split bills in the best way possible. Any and all advice or anecdotes are appreciated!!

Just a rant, but maybe also advice:

Emotionally cheated on my ex, not proud of it and it’s something I learned the hard way, my fault.

But after the breakup, things I found out (happened during our rs):

1. Asking friends to send her pictures of cute guys when they were overseas

2. Asking friends for other guys @ to follow

3. Telling one of her friend that she would sit on another guy’s lap if she were the friend (context: friend was alone in a room w/ some “cute” guy)

4. Initiating to catch up with an ex fwb without telling me (I didn’t even know this guy existed in her social circle)

5. Saying she would cheat on me to a friend (probably joking but insensitive topic to joke about)

6. Had plans to wear slutty dresses to go look at guys knowing I wouldn’t agree

And she’s painting me as the bad guy and that she has done nothing wrong throughout the rs. Do I confront her about this? Or just sit back and let myself be seen as the AH.

Here are what netizens think:

• The older you get, the less you will care what others say about you. The older you get, the less you will care about digging up old wounds and unpleasant memories. Just move on and stop caring what comes out of her mouth. People who listen to gossip and make judgements about you are not worth your attention anyway.

• Let it go… let it go…. Don’t be petty about who’s right who’s wrong liao… she is playful, you are not loyal too… Just believe that Karma will do its job… and you, you also learnt sth from this rs… Don’t just grow older , grow wiser too … next time, find someone worthy of your love and treat her well… that’s it. Good luck to you bro

• It’ll be an endless “he said, she said” thing. Let it go. Those who knows you knows you.

• It’s not easy but you will have to spot the subtle changes in her behaviour e.g. how she reacts around your friends if it’s more and more flirtatious, or if she starts to dress more and more promiscuous overtime.

• Clearly you delibrately ignored those signs until it was too late…and you cannot blame the woman for doing such after you had emotionally cheated on her…can you blame her for still hanging onto green flags as opposed to ‘Mhmm, these were all the signs that I had missed, what didn’t I notice them earlier?’ and wall herself away from you.

I work as a hostess at a popular bar and restaurant in town.

It’s a great job, and I get to meet lots of new people every night. But recently I’ve been noticing something strange: Most of my male customers seem to be a little… dumb and desperate.

I’m not being mean or anything, but it’s true. They come in and act like they’re the most important person in the place, and they always try to hit on me.

It’s like they think I’m going to be impressed by their cheesy pickup lines and catcalls.

One night, I had a customer who was really persistent. He was tall, good-looking, and seemed to think he was God’s gift to women. He asked me out multiple times, and I politely declined each time.

He finally asked if I wanted a present – an iPhone – and I was taken aback. I’m not the type of girl that takes bribes, so I turned him down again.

But he wouldn’t take no for an answer. He kept insisting that I take the phone, and eventually I gave in. It was a brand new, top-of-the-line iPhone, and I was so grateful. I couldn’t believe it.

My friends and family were so impressed when they saw the phone.

They all asked me how I got it and I told them the truth: my customer gave it to me. They were a bit shocked and thought it was a bit weird, but I didn’t think too much of it.

I guess my customer thought I was worth it, and that’s a nice feeling. But it also made me realize that most of my male customers are dumb and desperate. I mean, they think they can get whatever they want just by throwing money or presents at it.

It’s a bit sad, really. But at least I got a free iPhone out of it, so I guess I can’t complain too much!