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here is something, also, i have always observed about "gifted" programs - there are gifted student athletes, too. overwhelmingly, and much, much stronger than any other factor (iirc), the best* way to be discovered as a "gifted" athlete is to be born just before the cutoff date so you're up to 364 days older than the rest of your cohort and subsequently get a great deal of training time and attention. the gift you had was being born in august instead of september. i think about that a lot. *technically i'm lying, the absolute most predictive factor is "have a parent who is a professional athlete" lmao
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Mar 18, 2021 17:57
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I’m early September, was tall for my age, and they always tried to make me do sports but I hated it and sucked.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:00
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*Someone posts the words "gifted child" in a thread* Goons everywhere: "I felt a great disturbance in the Forums, as if millions of voices cried out in unison "that's me" and were suddenly smug as poo poo."
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Mar 18, 2021 18:05
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CoolCab posted:here is something, also, i have always observed about "gifted" programs - there are gifted student athletes, too. overwhelmingly, and much, much stronger than any other factor (iirc), the best* way to be discovered as a "gifted" athlete is to be born just before the cutoff date so you're up to 364 days older than the rest of your cohort and subsequently get a great deal of training time and attention. the gift you had was being born in august instead of september. i think about that a lot. It's funny how if you get into exercise science there's a lot of useful advice about how best to maximise your training, but at the end of the day the advice is "if you want to be an elite athlete you better have incredible genetics lol"
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Mar 18, 2021 18:06
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When I passed my 11 plus, all my friends were getting presents off their parents for passing. All I got was "we didn't expect you to fail." I note with interest the different expectations my parents had of me (expected to do well even though I was dragged from one school to another - 4 secondary schools- changing syllabuses every time, changing 'choices' of subjects available to me every time) and of my sister who they expected to do badly and when she failed 3 out of 5 O-levels (O-levels were still pass or fail exams then) with 'unclassified' because the only thing she did in the exams was write her name on the paper and didn't even bother to try any questions, she got 'never mind deary you did the best you could'. (Guess which one was 'the pretty one' and which one was 'the clever one'. I remember talking about this with my sister a few years ago and she said "just for once I wanted them to say I was the clever one" and I said "just for once I wanted them to say I was the pretty one".) The fact is schools can't really cope with 'differently-abled' kids whether learning difficulties or very academically able (whether or not identified as 'gifted') especially with all the funding cuts. Personally, I'm in favour of extreme-setting. One school I went to did that very well. EVERY subject was streamed so it was quite possible to be in top set English and bottom set maths and somewhere in the middle for French, say, and each year group had all their English or whatever lessons timetabled at the same time so moving up and down sets wasn't a timetabling problem. Of course, it means a ton of teachers! 6 teachers for each subject so there could be 6 sets of each subject run simultaneously. Mixed-ability English Lit classes where you have to go round the class reading a paragraph from a novel or a couple of lines from a play absolutely killed any love of literature stone dead. The more literate kids could read the entire book in the time it took others to read a paragraph. I never ever understood why that was supposed to be a good idea. Very academically-able kids are a pain in the neck to teachers because they finish the work too quickly, aren't satisfied with the inevitable wordsearches or other puzzles teachers bring in to keep early-finishers busy til the bell goes, and can become VERY disruptive. There's also an expectation that 'bright kids' can learn on their own and don't need to be directed or have managed learning. Even worse for some insecure teachers (especially with many teachers teaching subjects which they have never studied past GCSE level) is when the bright sparks ask questions that the teacher doesn't know the answer to or even, in some cases, understand the question (and I don't mean because of it being badly expressed by the student). Then apart from learning difficulties and academic differences, there are all the other uncatered for needs at schools: social anxiety for example - kids crippled with anxiety who are called out to answer questions in class in front of other students. I used to force myself to answer questions in class despite being red in the face, stuttering, dying of embarrassment, but I know others who just couldn't bring themselves to do it. Or kids who perhaps come from home backgrounds where looking a 'superior' (eg teacher) directly in the eyes is considered rude whereas our culture is that it is rude NOT to look at someone in the eyes when they are talking to you (and actually that is true at work too - I raised it with HR in one company I worked in that certain body language perceived as 'shifty' and 'sly' in British cultural norms is considered 'polite' in other cultures). Harassment, bullying (and teacher-on-teacher bullying can be very bad in some schools). Anyway, just my 2p. Wasn't sure whether to comment or not on this subject as it can be quite painful for people. TL:DR - the current school system has a lot of problems .
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Mar 18, 2021 18:10
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ThomasPaine posted:It's not a satisfying answer but (with the possible caveat of those with such severe conditions that they require day-to-day help just to get by, and even then...) I think any attempt to quantify intelligence or even conclusively draw a line between 'normal' and 'abnormal' mental function is a flawed premise from the off because these kinds of measurements are always going to be influenced drastically by the ideology of the observer or test designer. Fair enough, ta. I've assumed I should probably just look at counselling through the NHS or privately to wheedle some serious self-reflection out of me. Lol I had some sessions with work's contracted OT a few years' back and managed to shoot myself in the foot and talk them out of signing me off for a bit, because as above, thick.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:10
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MeinPanzer posted:*Someone posts the words "gifted child" in a thread*
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Mar 18, 2021 18:10
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Guavanaut posted:Prince Andrew: *sweats* that's a first
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Mar 18, 2021 18:13
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Of course the times news dickhead brings up India and gets all racist.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:18
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Im actually surprised Boris hasn't been vaccinated before now. Especially with all the travelling he does, avoiding all PM type work.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:26
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MikeCrotch posted:It's funny how if you get into exercise science there's a lot of useful advice about how best to maximise your training, but at the end of the day the advice is "if you want to be an elite athlete you better have incredible genetics lol" and if you wanna be wayne gretsky you need to hit all sevens - incredible genetics, training by a professional from the age of 3, extreme fortune with injuries and natural reaction time and extremely high levels of creativity and abstract thinking. probably a bunch of other ones too - i've never entirely agreed with the idea that the greats were born, they get made.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:26
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CoolCab posted:here is something, also, i have always observed about "gifted" programs - there are gifted student athletes, too. overwhelmingly, and much, much stronger than any other factor (iirc), the best* way to be discovered as a "gifted" athlete is to be born just before the cutoff date so you're up to 364 days older than the rest of your cohort and subsequently get a great deal of training time and attention. the gift you had was being born in august instead of september. i think about that a lot. I read about that somewhere, can't remember the name of the book. A bit like actors. Just look at the whole Fox / David morass. They're all related and they're in just about every British 'cozy' - Midsomer Murders etc.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:29
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MikeCrotch posted:It's funny how if you get into exercise science there's a lot of useful advice about how best to maximise your training, but at the end of the day the advice is "if you want to be an elite athlete you better have incredible genetics lol" If “The Cult of Smart” is to be believed, this is also true of the main predictors of academic achievement, which governs a larger amount of most people’s life outcomes than athletic ability. A worrying thought.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:30
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So I am stressed as gently caress right now. tl;dr: my wife fell for a borderline scam website, we've now signed away our tax affairs to a company we've never heard of, and there's nothing we can do about it. Avid readers of my posts may remember that I was asking if anyone else had ever had a company (in this case “Ensign Advisory Ltd” appear on their tax docs from the government. A company I had never heard of. So, the plot has now thickened. To get the awkward part out of the way: my wife has been a loving idiot. She acknowledges she has been a loving idiot. It is taking all my emotional and mental reserves to not repeatedly express how stupid she has been. However, it is in the past, and nothing can be done, so I am trying to let it go. Anyway, with that out of the way: It turns out that at some time last year she filled out a form on this website (https://marriageallowancecheck.net/) – run by Ensign Advisory Ltd. She wanted to see if we were entitled to any marriage-related tax rebate, and she thought that she was just filling out like an application or a quote like you would do for insurance or, like, virtually any other service ever. However, by filling in the form (including providing a loving signature, which should have set off her alarm bells), it turns out you are, in the words of the T&Cs, “unconditionally and irrevocably instruct HMRC to release, assign and repay to Ensign advisory LTD any tax rebate”. This entitles them to 35% + Vat (42% including VAT) plus £100 (including VAT) of any tax rebates we get. This is because, in filling out the form, you are, in fact, completing a Deed of Assignment, which is a legally binding contract. I have been in email contact with the company, and they are just completely refusing to engage with my request to void any contract that was formed. Having spoken again to HMRC, a (very helpful and sympathetic) lady advised that the contract can only be terminated by written mutual consent between us and Ensign Advisory Ltd – which means that the termination ain’t gonna happen. Apparently the contract only pertains to tax years up until 2019-2020, so this SHOULD mean that I won’t have to worry about it again – but I am now worried that my tax rebate is going to be gobbled up by these thieving cunts, and I might even be charged for the pleasure. The super frustrating thing about it is that there is nothing that I can do about this – it loving smells and looks like a crime has happened to me, but it is an unregulated industry, the ActionFraud people can’t do much with it, and HMRC can’t do anything with it either. So my only recourse is lovely reviews, and telling my deeply boring story to media outlets. Sorry to vent, and this probably isn’t the place for it. If anyone can provide any advice I’d be really grateful, but if not then hopefully it might help prevent people making the same mistakes in future, or at the least give people an opportunity to sneer contemptuously at our idiocy.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:34
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Beefeater1980 posted:If “The Cult of Smart” is to be believed, this is also true of the main predictors of academic achievement, which governs a larger amount of most people’s life outcomes than athletic ability. A worrying thought. The difference is that "academic achievement" is a much more subjective measurement. It's easy to see the mechanisms via which genetics influences your lung capacity for maximum strength; there is much more ambiguity about how much genetics affects intelligence, and that's before you get into the fraught area that is "measuring intelligence". Usually what ends up happening is measuring intelligence turns out to be a measurement of how white you are, and other intelligence indicators turn out to be tied to thinks like childhood nutrition and pollution (i.e. lead poisoning).
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Mar 18, 2021 18:44
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The Perfect Element posted:
How the gently caress is that legal? That seems beyond shady, and into legal loophole territory.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:48
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The Perfect Element posted:So I am stressed as gently caress right now. Sorry to hear about that. If you are in contact with them, record yourself asking them to confirm its only for the period 2019-20 so you can use against them in case they try something later. Ask for the end date.
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Mar 18, 2021 18:52
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When did you enter into the contract? This is very important
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Mar 18, 2021 18:57
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The Saviour posted:Im actually surprised Boris hasn't been vaccinated before now. Especially with all the travelling he does, avoiding all PM type work. I mean hes had it, thats not a 100% shield but he's less at risk than most of us.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:11
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Borrovan posted:When did you enter into the contract? This is very important It was late October last year, so we're well outside of their cooling off period.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:20
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Sorry to hear about our situation The Perfect Element. Hope you can find a way out of it.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:39
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bessantj posted:Sorry to hear about our situation The Perfect Element. Hope you can find a way out of it. Thanks  It's just so mind boggling to me that what these guys have done is legal.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:51
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The Perfect Element posted:So I am stressed as gently caress right now. Phone CAB, that doesn’t sound like a legal contract, unless your wife has done more than simply fill in an online form, and has full on signed actual legal documents online? Or are you saying that is exactly what she has done? HMRC are not legal advisors.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:52
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He specifically said she put a signature on a document.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:53
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The Perfect Element posted:So I am stressed as gently caress right now. From their t's and c's quote:We will prepare the documentation needed in order to apply for the transfer of the Marriage Allowance from one person to another, and endeavour to create a tax rebate on your behalf.We will apply for the Marriage Allowance to be transferred for all eligible tax years that have passed. For future tax years we will automatically apply each year for the Marriage Allowance to be transferred until you advise us that you no longer wish us to act on your behalf. You must do this immediately. Demand that they confirm this in writing within 14 days or you will instruct legal proceedings. And unfortunately this can't be a threat, you might have to get a solicitor over this to get out of it. Your wife is a loving idiot and needs to go on a basic cyber awareness course immediately so she doesn't do this again.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:54
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I cannot find even a shred of hope to get you out of this, they have done everything correctly on their side. Its incredibly loving shady but its legal as far as I can see. Apart from their reviews. They've bought their reviews so you could complain to Feefo (It won't do anything but might make you feel better).
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Mar 18, 2021 19:55
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A contract requires both parties to be aware they are contracting.
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Mar 18, 2021 19:57
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Total Meatlove posted:A contract requires both parties to be aware they are contracting. Its plain as day when you go through the process at the signature stage. There's no get out there from being 'unaware' or not knowing you were signing a contract. Its scummy as gently caress but its done correctly. You could try and argue it in front of a judge, but you've spent more money to get in front of them than its cost you at this point unless you're expecting a 10k rebate?
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Mar 18, 2021 19:59
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The Perfect Element posted:Thanks It's such a load of bullshit that they're allowed to do this mate. I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up before now and stopped.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:01
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That's honestly insane. Firstly, why does your wife signing the form entitle them to act on your behalf? Surely they need joint consent? I've dealt with lovely businesses acting 'on behalf' of people for a huge percentage plenty (mostly from the PPI days when every dickhead and their mother pretended that they had any special power to get people refunds when they can just fill in a form themselves in five minutes). I've never seen anyone unable to get out of that sort of thing by simply telling people 'these guys don't represent me anymore'.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:01
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While it absolutely isn't clear or obvious that the form constitutes a legal document, it nevertheless was 'signed'. If you're curious about all this stuff, I'd encourage you to make a fake application on the site, it takes like 2 minutes. You do have to click to agree T&C, but it is not made clear that just by agreeing T&Cs you are actually agreeing to form this contract with them, or instructing them to do anything. Tax and HMRC stuff also isn't regulated, so there's no recourse to the FCA either. I'll give the CAB a call tomorrow to see if they can help, but I'm pretty sure nothing can be done at this point.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:05
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Have you told them you no longer want them to act on your behalf and received confirmation in writing?
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Mar 18, 2021 20:09
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The Perfect Element posted:While it absolutely isn't clear or obvious that the form constitutes a legal document, it nevertheless was 'signed'. If you're curious about all this stuff, I'd encourage you to make a fake application on the site, it takes like 2 minutes. You do have to click to agree T&C, but it is not made clear that just by agreeing T&Cs you are actually agreeing to form this contract with them, or instructing them to do anything. This is the scummy part, but a read of the T's and C's tells you exactly what you are instructing them to do. For future reference, you don't have to give a digital signature for a quote or 'to check you're eligible' or anything like that. If a service wants your signature its for a contract and you need to comb through the t&c's if its not explicit what its being used for.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:12
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serious gaylord posted:This is the scummy part, but a read of the T's and C's tells you exactly what you are instructing them to do. It's so easy to 'sign' a digital signature without realizing that's what you're doing or that it forms a binding contract. 90% of the time it's just a box that says 'tick this box to confirm you want us to do the thing'.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:14
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Talk to legal advice. If that doesn't work, go to the media – someone like Radio 4's Money box. If they're interested, worst case you might stop others, but the company might u-turn 'as an act of generosity'. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1M8DssCcgjtZQlwLCrLBmpM/contact-money-box
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Mar 18, 2021 20:15
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stev posted:It's so easy to 'sign' a digital signature without realizing that's what you're doing or that it forms a binding contract. 90% of the time it's just a box that says 'tick this box to confirm you want us to do the thing'. Depending on what it is the regulations usually stipulate it must be very obvious and there is usually a secondary check after the first button press. You usually get a 'click here to agree' and then a summary which runs through everything you're agreeing to and a final option to back out or continue. Unregulated industries however just need to cover themselves with the 'You agreed to it by checking this box' to get by.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:21
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As someone who deals with picking apart dodgy contacts on a day to day basis I don't think you have any legal recourse to voiding or withdrawing from the contract. As others have said I would recommend kicking up a stink to your money boxes and martin Lewises etc. The main way these companies get away with poo poo like this is people are too embarrassed to admit they've been scammed, if you can get some noise they might pay you to make you go away.
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Mar 18, 2021 20:22
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people like this should be hunted down and physically branded as con artists, their assets seized, their earth salted their home razed to the ground and all that good stuff. Surely if brexit is good for anything its mob justice?
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Mar 18, 2021 20:28
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a pipe smoking dog posted:As someone who deals with picking apart dodgy contacts on a day to day basis I don't think you have any legal recourse to voiding or withdrawing from the contract. As others have said I would recommend kicking up a stink to your money boxes and martin Lewises etc. The main way these companies get away with poo poo like this is people are too embarrassed to admit they've been scammed, if you can get some noise they might pay you to make you go away. Pretty much this, yeah. I don't think anything illegal has happened, although I do think that it's sketchy as all gently caress to make filling out that form the same as signing a contract. Honestly, I've never been so confused or bemused about something in my life. I don't even know whether they've taken any money from me, or whether they will, or whether they can. I'll get on the media tomorrow
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Mar 18, 2021 20:29
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The Perfect Element posted:So I am stressed as gently caress right now. divorce her, cancel the contract, then remarry her
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Mar 18, 2021 20:35
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