Another interesting thing, Ukraine replaced some general.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/14/europe/lutsenko-ukraine-replaces-commander-russia-intl-latam/index.html

The new general:

I tried to find Reddit cope but seems Reddit ignored it for more important topics like

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/1he7uz8/medical_marijuana_is_set_to_become_available_in/

Veterans will certainly be once they return home and can deal with PTSD with a joint instead of copious amounts of alcohol.

Although legalizing psychodelics would probably be better.

Why are Redditors such junkies ?

Lord knows they need it

Drugs are literally haram in all Arabic religions.

If you consume drugs at least know it roots your brain, don't cope with lord or you are not better than those who call them self Islam brothers and consume alcohol and drugs thinking not eating pig is enough and asking for forgiveness later. Deliberately committing a crime with idea to later ask for forgiveness is evil, only a jin would act like this.

Also most people that bought illegal weed did so because illegal weed ain't clean, it's mixed with strong shit

So

Why the replacement of the general is important, because it shows that Ukraine expects from new general to hold Pokrovsk at all costs like they held Bakhmut. It would be naive to expect in now because he lost Avdiivka and that's the reason Russian are now inside Pokrovsk. Pokrovsk ain't Bakhmut with multiple rivers and hills or avdiivka that was extremely fortified. On top of it Russian now have shit tons of fabs and Ukraine doesn't have that much bodies to throw holding Pokrovsk.

Also Russian already captured more territory than in November

First November

Today and as you know live map now copes hard so that thing below Kurakhove don't exist + Ukrainian left Kurakhove yesterday.

So when I told Russian gaining exponential more ground every month since June I wasn't lying. Just telling brutal truth

So no wonder that r-slurs like @Christmas_Commander are mad at me but you see he politely asked me to tell him when Russian reach pokrovsk. They guy called me hoi4 player I toke it as compliment because he is low IQ so all his insults against me is prove of him being delusional about his IQ. He thinks Ukraine is equality distributed with Ukrainian soldiers and that Russian would move same speed always. Now that corned parrot will scream "rent free" because that's peak of his IQ and he is proto pro khohol.

But I am like giga surprised that Redditors didn't reposted khohols official proofs of NK soldiers:

Thing is Kursk wasn't that snowy the past days and those videos ain't geolocated and it's just soldiers.

So giga impressed Redditors realised this is no proof.

More from Kursk region 🇰🇵🐜 pic.twitter.com/QVFrr6Y5xE

— MAKS 24 🇺🇦👀 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) December 15, 2024

See its North Korean soldiers there is flag on top of them

⚡️Soldiers of the 🇷🇺Russian and 🇰🇵North Korean Armed Forces in the Kursk region, situation pic.twitter.com/2G7nRAt4s7

— 🪖MilitaryNewsUA🇺🇦 (@front_ukrainian) December 15, 2024

Look more Korean

They don't even ask how is that possible. To collect those bodies Ukraine needs to move forwards. They won't have time to put those in formation anywhere close to the front so it's just photoshot or photoshop somewhere far away from the front and no proofs it's NK

The new prokhohol cope is this:

https://old.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/1het6jr/ukraines_volodymyr_zelensky_delays_critical/

Zelenskyy wants to give its resources away.

The thing is 80% of Ukrainian recourses are Donbas and Dnipro. And Trump ain't r-slur to buy Donetsk city resources that Zelenskyy wants to sell to him

This is the only correct approach. I don't care that he doesn't deserve it or that it isn't fair, I care about the results. Americans can go protest him or w/e, abroad the only thing to do is try to win his favor

Trump doesn't deserve things that are not under Zelenskyy controls ? Like when foods saying you don't deserve me at my best when you don't want me at my worst ?

Estonia (I am leaving it here for you to have better picture)

Americans must be thinking now, "OMG, he is a real boss, he owns all of Europe, everyone is afraid of him, everyone has to respect him."

Meanwhile...

United States

Americans by and large do not care what happens in Europe.

Estonia

If we are swallowed by Russia and China, which I don't think will ever happen, but if that does happen, the US will lose its economic and military power at the speed of light.

The last time they pursued the "America First" policy, we know what happened.

EU

And the American government by and large doesn't care what Americans think, which is why Americans don't matter in foreign policy.

Why are Redditors so low IQ like imagine a guy wakes up at 6 every morning to reach his job at 8/9 then works till 16/17 then comes home at 19:00 buys a kebab because he lives alone and is tired, falls a sleep at 24:00 in front of his TV holding ps5 controller and so 5/7 a week if you come to him and tell Ukraine needs the money and his kebab will soon cost more for sake of Ukraine. He is going to say Frick Ukraine and there are millions people like this guy in Europe. The help for Ukraine reached such lvl that averagecels starts asking tha frick we help them that much ? People virtue ain't unlimited.

Zelensky needs to swallow his pride and be pragmatic, if cosying up to Trump and stroking his ego is what helps the war effort, then it needs to be done.

Redditors are so bad at business no wonder they so poor. They don't follow the story up to date. Republicans are only interested in shit in far west of Ukraine. They also not interested in shit from ultra unpopular guy whose legitimacy is also questionable and that's why they suggesting election. So why would Trump need Zelenskyy deal if he can find him self an Zelenskyy successor and help him get rid of Zelenskyy and get even a better deal ?

So, in case you need some contextualization, Jordan Peterson was born in Alberta, Canada and he earned his PhD in psychology from McGill University. It's important to note that Peterson is prolific in his field, and he has over a hundred papers published covering topics such as addiction, play, and personality.

Peterson taught at Howard University before returning to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto. It's interesting to note that during this time, Jordan Peterson began to change. He became more intense, more politically involved, and many of his friends noted this.

The professor rose to fame after protesting Bill C-16 and claiming that it legislated compelled speech and forced him to refer to transpeople using their preferred pronouns. Since then, many have debunked JP's concerns and have pointed out that absolutely nobody has been imprisoned as a consequence of Bill C-16. In modern day, JP is still fairly popular and he enjoys a strong following, as seen with the sales of his latest book, We Who Wrestle With God.

In 2018, Jordan Peterson was arguably at the peak of his fame, and he had yet to be completely demonized online. Consequently, he took to Reddit to host an AMA. It's actually quite a funny one because it highlights the main problem with JP - while he has some insightful advice to give regarding his core field (psychology), he exposes areas of ignorance when he delves into other topics he is not an expert on. He has a tendency to read obscure esoteric texts and to latch onto fringe ideas merely because they are interesting. He has also demonstrated that he is not the best when it comes to interpreting scientific papers and reaching logical conclusions.

Jordan Peterson's Reddit AMA

Link to the whole thing is here: https://old.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/8m21kw/i_am_dr_jordan_b_peterson_u_of_t_professor/

Let's off with something light. Jordan Peterson makes a statement regarding antidepressants and whether they are overprescribed. An expert in the field quickly jumps in and points out an error in JP's message. You'll see this trend of experts popping up to disprove him recur.

Now to dive into the deep waters. Postmodern cultural marxism! JP always uses this phrase, and it seems like a highly self-contradictory one at first. He gives a definition but many point out that his definition is bullshit.

Fricking /u/Bardfinn appears!!1!

Jordan also touches on Nazism, arguing that it was an atheist doctrine.

Euphoric redditors don't take too kindly to this.

Lastly, we have the topic of "enforced monogamy" which was a controversy at the time. When asked about incels, JP recommended enforced monogamy. When talking about a murderous incel, he states:

"He was angry at God because women were rejecting him," Mr. Peterson says of the Toronto killer. "The cure for that is enforced monogamy. That's actually why monogamy emerges."

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/18/style/jordan-peterson-12-rules-for-life.html

He is asked about this in the AMA, to which he replies with the following:

That is not enough to placate redditors who still see a problem with what the professor is proposing.

Conclusion

So that's all for today regarding the adventures on Jordan Peterson. You can catch him on Ben Shapiro's The Daily Wire where he teaches his fans about marriage, Christianity, and conservatism. Personally, I think JP is an intelligent man who may have stumbled into a few psychological truths. However, he is bogged down by so much political crap and tangential bullshit including religion that anyone with some sense would avoid and go seek knowledge elsewhere. There is nothing JP exclusively offers that can't be obtained elsewhere without half the amount of bullshit.

Darklands Series

1 - Darklands LP Part I

2 - Darklands LP Part II: Charles Bronson Edition

3 - Darklands LP III: Nuns and Coins

4 - Darklands LP Ep IV: Introduction to Equipment & Combat

5 - Darklands LP Part V: We finally briefly go out into the dark lands

6 - Darklands LP VI: We actually start a quest!

7 - Darklands LP VII: We reach our destination

8 - Darklands LP VIII: Raubritter confrontation & learning how combat works

9 - Darklands LP IX: I'm not giving you my goddarn alchemical materials

Miners working in the Erzgebirge. I forgot to include this in the last episode am using this as a segue from the last episode.

Hunt for Formulas

A few of the more important cities have universities, the same ones that had one in real life. There's one in Leipzig but we're heading to Bohemia anyway so let's go to Prague. Charles University was established in 1348 by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV as the first university in Central Europe. There was like, I dunno, 8 universities in Europe at this point and most were in Italy, so this was a really big deal. About 80% of the students were foreign as it was the only university in the eastern half of Europe. The Hussite revolution of 1415 that wracked the whole Empire began here. It's one of the oldest universities still operating today.

To save time, we'll take a boat up the Elbe. One criticism I hear of the game is that the cities are all interchangable. Obviously that's a really tarded observation because the city couldn't be nearly this complex if you made them unique. And there are some subtle differences that you'll pick up on if you know your history. Like notice here that the castle is the Hradcany.

Academia is full of uncooperative peepeeheads just like in our time. It'll be tough to find someone who can navigate their bullshit. One person in the party is the "leader". This is the person who will take on any solo task that doesn't depend on the whole party. For almost the entire game up to this point I've left Sasha as the leader because almost all of those tasks involved talking to people and she's the charismatic one. But these university students are a bunch of spergs so we have to deal with them on their own level. Yuna is perceptive and has 29 in Speak Latin, but Redactor has the same skill and slightly more when we add up the other two attributes.

I'll get Thunderbolt. It's explosives. (I'll describe these in detail below.)

After that it was night time so we had to leave. Let's try this again tomorrow. Wow! Redactor pulled it off again. What to get now? Noxious Aroma and Eyeburn are fairly useful in combat. (These are the two potions that evil alchemist used against our guys in the last fight.) Unfortunately the formulas they're selling are for the best versions of it, so they're probably way too hard to make until Redactor gets extremely good at alchemy. So we'll get Black Cloud. This isn't used in combat, but in a lot of dangerous situations it lets you create a smokescreen. Now that Redactor has 5 formulas it's more likely that other alchemists will trade formulas with him.

Having gone through all that ordeal of finding a university and convincing them to sell me a formula, I remember that actually the regular local alchemist will also sell them in any relatively big city. Well at least you guys got to hear the university music. Let's take a look at our formulas. (No I will not call them "formulae".) "Mystical number" is the difficulty. 112 is fairly easy. There's only three ingredients which means it's very likely I'll find both of them soon. (BTW: "Pitchblende" is a uranium ore. Marie Curie first discovered uranium in pitchblende from the Erzgebirge.) Looking at my other formulas I see that actually I've collected all the ingredients needed to make Quickmove, so I could have demonstrated alchemy to you guys a whole episode ago. Oh well. I'll do it now.

Alchemy

We could just stay at the inn and do our alchemy here, but some of these potions will blow up in your face if you make a mistake. If that happens I don't want it to happen in the middle of Prague. So we go camp just outside the city. Quickmove temporarily increases agility, which doesn't help much in combat but is very important in a lot of other situations, like any time you need to climb. Let's look at that equation:

• +100 - Bonus for making just one

• +18ps - The quality of my philosopher's stone. This is something you keep permanently that helps you do alchemy. I picked up a cheap one at some point. Getting a really high level one is expensive and a pain in the butt since you have to deal with the university.

• +42int - I hope this is obvious.

• +44alch - My alchemy skill

• -101mn - The mystical number of the formula.

We got enough ingredients to make more than one, so let's do that. Generally you mix up potions in big batches. It gets increasingly difficult after the third one though. If we try to make 4, that +100 bonus turns into +50 and our chance of success drops to 53%. At a batch of 6 it's a +33 bonus, and so on. So obviously we'll make 3. Nice. That's what I like to see. I'll actually stay here and make a few more batches. You can sell the potions for a profit. Late in the game you can make obscene amounts of money this way, but late in the game you've already got all the money you'll ever need.

More Wandering

At this point I think we're pretty well ready to get into mid-game content with one exception. We really need Redactor to make some potions for us because we're going to run into trouble that you don't want to face with just steel. Also the game will tell us when we're ready. So I'm going to do more wandering, focusing on learning new formulas and stockpiling alchemical components.

We run across a rural monastery. Let's go in. They usually have a lot to offer.

Well these guys seem like peepees. Monasteries run the spectrum from honest to wicked. (Reading the game's data files, there was going to be crypto-Satanic monasteries where if you spend the night they send a Satanic nun or monk to try to seduce one of your party. If they fail a Virtue check they... do things that you're not supposed to outside of marriage. I'm pretty sure that's one of the things that got cut just because they were so far behind schedule.)

This is not my kind of monastacism!

I can't complain about their library though. Books can't be corrupted. We pick up St. Hubert. He was a bishop in the Ardennes in the 600s-700s who is famous for spending a lot of time hunting and just hanging out in the forest with the animals and converting the people around Liege. In the game, he'll help us out a lot. If we run into an encounter in the wilderness that we want to run away from (this will happen) our Woodwise and Stealth skills will be tested. Even Nathan only has 24 in each.

I wandered over to St. Joachimsthal and it definitely wasn't just an excuse to give you a history lesson. It only has a couple thousand inhabitants now, but it was a boom town after the discovery of silver in 1512. Coins were minted called Joachimstaler. This was soon abbreviated as thaler and evolved into the word "dollar". Agricola, who revolutionized metallurgy and geology and pushed alchemy toward being science instead of bullshit did much of his studies here.

Wolves! With our equipment we should be pretty well immune to their attacks, but they're always a little scary. In Darklands if you lose a battle most opponents will take all your money and equipment but leave you alive. Wolves are one of the exceptions. If you lose they'll eat one of your people. I'm glad our New World wolves are nicer. Wolves attacking humans is pretty much unheard of in North America.

Notice how they've landed a 1 point and a 2 point hit on us. That indicates they're not penetrating our armor.

They're not a big threat during the day though. One of the great things in this game that they really follow through on is the day/night cycle. Before electricity a lot of your life was dictated by where the sun was. The Darklands are much more dangerous when it's literally dark.

Kutna Hora, the other important center of silver mining in Bohemia. It played an important role in the Hussite Wars in the early 1400s. Actually I'm pissed because it's depicted in the game as being a small town when in real life it was a major city in this era. If Arnold Hendrick were still around I'd give him an earful.

I guess I'll have to pay. It would be a pretty major sin to get in a physical fight with a bishop even if he is in the wrong.

We go east and spend some time in Moravia. We can get good bows there. Thrown weapons are just not going to be viable going forward because they only have 2-3 penetration. I get Sasha and Yuna longbows. These have 6 penetration, which cuts through any armor an ordinary human wears.

Well we can't let this happen. This aggression cannot go unchecked. It's time to draw a line in the sand.

A surprisingly easy fight. Sasha got beat up pretty bad because she's not strong enough to wear the same level of armor as everyone else. I'm gonna have to figure out what to do about that. I might have to actually do some math and see how much weight we can cut by losing the longbow and maybe even giving her a lighter weapon. I don't need her out there slaughtering the enemy, the rest of my party can do that, but I do need her to stay in the fight. If she gets knocked out there's just 3 of us and we'll get swamped by whatever enemy we're facing.

Castle

Eventually my wandering takes me to the castle of Zossen in Brandenburg.

Sasha tries to figure out if the local lord is a good guy by talking to people but can't figure out anything definitive.

Yuna prays to St. Dorothea of Montau, a native to these parts who lived a pretty hard life. She reveals to her what this guy's true nature is. Woodchippers haven't been invented yet, but we all know what needs to happen to male feminists.

How are we going to get in? We could try to bribe someone but they might just con us. Nathan is very agile (and we could give him one of those Quickmove potions we made to increase his agility even more) but there's always risk there. Yuna could implore St. Reinold, the patron of stonemasons to help.

I'm gonna pick the last one just because even after all these years I've never done this yet. Nice. Now we're going to get into an extended combat, like the raubritter castles but bigger.

Oh wait, actually we won't. We happened to climb into the room where the castle lord is so this will be a quick fight to the death.

Whoa... -17... I think that's the single worst hit we've ever taken so far.

It gets pretty chaotic. Yuna is knocked out but the lord is taken down at about the same time. These guys were wearing brigandine armor, level 4, same as chainmail, so it wasn't easy, but we prevailed.

Zossen turns from a castle into an ordinary village. Let's stop in and see if we can heal our wounds here. Hey wait, wtf, they're Satanic??? Maybe they did need some brutality to keep them in line. We'll mend our wounds and then come back and massacre them.

More Wandering

Eventually we come back to Magdeburg. Everyone loves us in Saxony so it's good to be back home. It's a good place to sell off some of our loot, taking advantage of the bonus from our local reputation.

I bounce around the region for a while doing various boring things. We had about 50 florins worth of dead people's armor to sell off and we invest most of that into alchemical components for Redactor. We concentrate on stuff we need for the formulas we already know, but get a little of everything in case we learn something new. We can afford to now. Also we do some more training.

We've now collected the ingredients for every formula Redactor knows. I was a bit surprised by this. We must have gotten lucky with what happened to be available in the towns we visited. Let's go camp out in the woods and start cooking up some potions.

Alchemy - Mass Production

Of the 6 formulas that Redactor knows, we've made a lot of Black Cloud and Quickmove. We'll only need to use these on rare occasions and we already have more than enough. As for the other 4, all of these are very useful in combat. I'll make at least a few of each. One thing to watch out for is that some of them use the components. So for example I don't want to use up all my orpiment making Fleadust and not have any left to make Thunderbolt. For each formula I'll explain what it does in game and what the ingredients are, because even I don't know what the heck half of these are. After all, this is edutainment. (It's been decades since I took chemistry so tell me if I write something stupid. And some of this I'm just copying from the manual.) Note that for each kind of potion there are 3 different formulas that can make it. They make increasingly high quality versions of the potion but also are more difficult.

First, let me explain the bases. Alchemy ties into the other sciences of the time, so of course the four elements play an important role. The bases are just common mundane stuff that is associated with an element. This stuff is cheap and very common. All the formulas at least one. I'll just copy the descriptions straight out of the manual.

MELANCHOLIC BASE: A variety of plants considered useful in alchemy, such as bell mushrooms, belladonna, camphor, hemlock, seed of sea holly, nightshade, thorn apple, henbane, turpentine, etc.

SANGUINE BASE: A variety of animal materials, such as eye of newt, toad tongues, bat claws, powdered unicorn horn, etc.

CHOLERIC BASE: A variety of acids and other liquids considered useful, including aqua fortis, vitriol and Roman vitriol, alcohol, distilled water, etc.

PHLEGMATIC BASE: A variety of common minerals, such as kupfer (copper), lead, lime (calcium oxide), quicksilver, and kohle (coal).

Fleadust

This reduces the skills of anyone caught in the cloud, affecting them more the heavier their armor is. This ranges from 10% if they're just wearing leather up to 50% if they're wearing plate. We have the highest level formula for Fleadust so the effects will last for 60 seconds.

This is a really useful one. Weapon skill makes a huge difference not just in hitting the enemy but also in defending yourself. The 60 second duration is enough time for me to send someone out to kill the guy before he recovers. It's less effective against poorly armored enemies, but I wouldn't be wasting potions on them anyway.

Orpiment is an arsenic sulfide mineral. It was used as a pigment for its striking yellow color. Some alchemists figured if it was yellow it must be somehow related to gold so they studied it a lot. Be careful with it though, it's extremely toxic.

Cinnabar is a mercury sulfide crystal that looks kind of like quartz. It comes in all kinds of colors. The red kind was used as a pigment. More importantly for us alchemists, pure mercury could be distilled from it. Why ours has to be white, I dunno.

Nickel was named by the miners of the Erzgebirge after a mischevious supernatural being that lives underground. (I wonder if we'll ever run into one?) They were pissed off because they would dig up what they thought was copper ore but it turned out to actually be nickel ore and they had to blame someone for it. In the 1400s it was a curiosity but there wasn't any use for it yet.

Breath of Death

Poison gas. We have the lowest level formula for this so our potions will do 5-12 damage to anyone caught in the cloud. Victims with higher endurance will take less damage.

That may not sound like a lot of damage but the cloud is pretty big so you can easily catch several enemies with it. Note that even though Redactor has the easiest formula, it's still pretty darn hard to make. We've only got a 31% chance each time we try.

Marsh Vapor A natural gas, whose medieval admixture produced a sharp smell. Acquiring and containing this vapor was extremely difficult because it is virtually colorless. It is also known as methane.

Aqua Regia A mix of nitric and hydrochloric acid. This is dangerous stuff as it can dissolve lots of things, including people. Alchemists were fascinated by it because it could dissolve gold.

Thunderbolt

A bomb. Anyone nearby is hit by a fragment. These are treated just any other missile. Damage and penetration depend on how close the victim is to the explosion, dropping off rapidly with range. In my experience, if you throw this into a crowd the guy who is actually hit will take significant damage but for the rest it will be less than 5.

Redactor only knows the lowest level formula, so it won't be terribly useful in combat. It may be better to just use an ordinary missile weapon instead. A longbow or crossbow might do a little less damage in total but it will all be concentrated on one target. However, there are a lot of non-combat situations where we might need to blow something up or just create a distraction.

Manganes You probably had a chemistry teacher light this on fire to show you how incredibly bright it is when it burns. Alchemists found that just as cool as you do.

Arabian Fire

Greek fire or napalm. It does about the same damage to the target as Thunderbolt and a few points to those nearby. It slightly reduces the quality of the target's armor.

I don't see this as terribly useful, especially the low level formula we have. In order to noticeably degrade the target's armor you'd have to hit them 5-10 times. I imagine it will have some noncombat uses so it'll be good to keep a few on hand.

Naphtha The lighter part of petroleum. This stuff catches fire very easily.

Conclusion

We spend a couple weeks camping out while Redactor churns out potions. I made 10 Fleadust as I expect this is actually the most useful in combat and several of the others. We've defeated two evil alchemists and looted their potions so now I think we've got the alchemical support we need to get into mid-game content. I've been dragging my heels a bit as there's a special event that plays when the game explicitly tells you that you're ready. I thought it would have triggered by now. Maybe next time we'll move along to a new stage in the plot.

[Apparently I forgot to save the game at the end of the last episode or I saved it under some really esoteric name I don't remember so we're still halfway to Wesel. It doesn't really affect anything.]

Notice how the seasons actually change in this game! If you want a game that's really really good about seasons, look up Shadow Empire. You can play on planets with radically different axial tilt and it actually matters.

Oh no. These people chose to frick with us. You want my briefcase. I'm not giving you my goddarn briefcase.

Like Michael Douglas I try to have Sasha talk them out of this. Didn't work.

We're faced with some ordinary bandits who we should make short work of. But they have a leader who is wearing cuirboulli armor (the same as our people). He's got a shield. He's got a longsword, which is at least comparable to our weapons. And they're of fair quality. This is the first relatively tough opponent we've faced. If you've been made to read a few pages of Clausewitz by some tard you might think this guy is the enemy's "center of gravity" so we'll attack him. Heck no. Anybody who knows anything about fighting knows you go for the enemy's weakness. We'll try to kill off his loser companions. Then when we're in a 4v1 one with him, it will go exactly like in real life. He will die really fast.

The bandits try to hit us from two sides, trying to throw us off. Big mistake. All four of us go east to hit those two. We only have a few seconds alone with them, but double-teaming them it doesn't take long to cut them down. After that it was kind of a blur. We engaged the other three guys but Redactor got the heck beaten out of him and knocked unconscious for reasons I'm not sure of. Must have been a really lucky hit. The rest of the party won the fight though. I think we really need better armor.

Redactor is banged up really bad but the upside to this is that the equipment that tough guy had will get us a good price when we sell it. (Unlike Rimworld, you can stab a guy to death and still sell his clothes to the local thrift store for full price.)

We're hurt bad so we'll go to the nuns for help. It's a different city so they'll help us. Wait. WTF??? Story of my fricking life. I think we got enough money to heal up at the inn but it's going to take time. And as every 40 year old boomer can tell you, time is not on our side. (Literally. Our older characters will lose strength as time goes by.)

I don't know if we're ready for this yet, but let's try to get some quests. Various people have quests but the bankers are the most likely. There's the Fuggers from Austria and the Medicis from Italy. Also the Hanseatic League aren't really bankers but they need to get some tasks done in the same way. The problem is, how are we going to get taken seriously? We haven't done any quests so we're not famous yet. We need someone to talk these people into giving us one. Sasha is very charismatic, but she's not yet 2006 Torino level.

Maybe we can give her a little boost? Redactor knows St. Anthony, who can boost Charisma and Speak Common (the skill of just knowing to speak German well enough to talk people into things). He can pray for St. Anthony to help Sasha. But religion in the 1400s is very transactional. If you want something, you're expected to pay for it. That's where Divine Favor comes in. This is, in terms of gameplay mechanics, your mana. You can't just constantly pray every time you hit a speed bump in your life and expect your problems to be solved for you. When you pray you pay Divine Favor points.

And you're not guaranteed anyone is going to listen. The other crucial number here is your Virtue skill, which appropriately is the most important skill in the game by far. It increases your chances of saintly intervention. You increase it by doing good deeds as a Christian. The higher your Virtue the more likely it is that saints will actually listen to you. Even Yuna has saints that she has no chance with right now. When we combat the forces of Satan and do charity to the poor and oppressed we'll bump that number up.

For the purposes of this LP I'm going to just spend all her DF to make sure she has a 99% chance of being heard.

Wow that's a pretty big impact. Let's see if any of these bankers care. Many of them just will not give you a quest because not everyone needs a party of four bold individuals to solve a problem every day of their life.

Fetch quest. This is actually close to us! The locations for these are apparently completely random so half the time they want to send you across the Empire for 4 florins. But this is near Bremen, in the northwest corner of Germany, close to where we are on the lower Rhine. We can actually try this one. The money is nice but what's even better is gaining Local Reputation in this city and Fame (how well you're known across the country).

I would try to buy some better armor but all they got here in Wesel is 24-quality and I refuse to pay for that. I stop at Osnabruck and at least get something slightly better for Nathan. You have armor for your torso and armor for your limbs. I think my people (barely) have adequate protection for now on their torsos but they still have virtually nothing for their limbs. I think that's where we're getting most of our damage.

On our way we run into a monastery. Huh. This doesn't seem quite right.

Capitalism? As a 1400s guy I find that pretty unseemly, especially in a monastery.

They have a library so we can learn about another saint. The only two I remember are Thomas the Apostle and Margaret. Margaret is some girl who died under horrible circumstances. She does a lot for you in-game because she was widely venerated at the time. But Darklands encourages you to roleplay. Thomas is my favorite apostle. I'm the kind of guy who would insist on literally reaching into the guts of my god to prove He's real. So we'll pick him.

Actually he's gonna be useful sometimes. Just like you'd expect from someone that pragmatic.

I'm gonna quit now just because it is incredibly time-consuming to upscale all the screenshots and put them in the right place. Next time, we're going to that place north of Bremen to get the fetch quest artifact. But we are gonna run into a challenge and it's not gonna be "somebody wants you to kill 20 mobs".

!christians

Power is a toxic vapor devouring the hearts of all who inhale it. Those who are smart revel in the rush. Those who are intelligent hoard it away from the commoners. Those who are wise avoid it altogether. One's circumstances of one's birth seldom paint the picture of one's future. There have been remarkable stories of people who have reached unimaginable heights starting from unfathomable lows. Likewise, those born in heaven have found themselves hurtling to heck like Lucifer.

Today I want to discuss gaming's most famous auteur - Hideo Kojima - and his fued with Konami.

Blighted Beginnings

Born 24 August 1963, Hideo Kojima describes his childhood as a very lonely one. Without many friends, he would find himself walking home alone to an empty house after school. Here, he remembers turning the TV to help him feel like he wasn't alone. It was through this ritual that his obsession with movies began, with his first favorite movie being Driver.

He admits that it wasn't until high school that he knew the difference between cats and dogs.

He had dreams of being a filmographer, and created short films on 8mm as a hobby. He was particularly interested in zombie movies. Those familiar with his movies will know that this love hasn't been squelched and his games can feel like a clash between film and gaming with their long cutscenes.

He went to univresity to study economics and decided to venture into gaming which was far from glamorous at the time. Hence, he would often lie when asked what is profession is. In 1986 he joined Konami, a move that would change his life.

Turning the Metal Gears

His first project with Konami was Lost Warld, and already we see where his conflicts with Konami would begin. He was limited to developing for the MSX system instead of the more powerful NES at the time. Unfortunately, Kojima scope for the game was too vast for the MSX so the idea was ultimately scrapped. This didn't kill his dream, however. He became more convinced of the idea of video games as "electronic arts" (EA was named for that same reason, if you're curious).

In 1987, Kojima released Metal Gear which could be considered the first example of a stealth game. It stars Solid Snake, who could crawl on the ground like a serpent to sneak past foes. He was an operative who is part of the special forces unit named FOXHOUND, and his objective was to infiltrate a base to destroy a nuclear weapon called the Metal Gear. This theme of nuclear warfare would continue throughout the franchise. It stood out from other action games at the time. Instead of shooting at your foes, you were using tactical thinking to bypass them altogether. Philosophically, this ties in with the game's anti-war themes and commentary on violence and cyclic retribution.

Following Metal Gear, Kojima would butt heads with Konami again for similar reasons as before. He wanted to create a graphic novel called Snatcher. However, the idea was for it to be six chapters long. Konami wasn't having that, and it forced the auteur to bring it down to two chapters. Hideo begrudgingly agreed.

The birth of the Metal Gear Solid series came with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Like its predecessor, it focused on warfare and the threat of nuclear weapons. The sequel to Metal Gear 2, simply titled, Metal Gear Solid, was released in 1998 and it brought Hideo Kojima's franchise to the 3D world. Several more Metal Gear Solid series would be released, with many declaring Metal Gear Solid 3 one of the greatest games of all time.

Konami vs Kojima

For Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, Kojima had big plans. This was to be the first open-world title in the franchise and it was going to be excessive in almost every aspect. It's a long game as it stands, with a sharply rising difficulty level. Players are given a plethora of toys to play with and though the missions are similar, the fun comes using different tactics to infiltrate bases. Will you use a water gun to destroy communications, or a can of sleeping gas to subdue foes?

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain stars Big Boss, also known as “Venom Snake”. His paramilitary group, the MSF, is ambushed by Cipher's strike force XOF. The result is the death of many of Big Boss's soldiers and the amputation of his right arm which is replaced by a mechanical one. Nine years later, Big Boss wakes up from a coma, clearly traumatised by the events that previously ensued. With the help of Ocelot, he rebuilds his paramilitary in secret under the name Diamond Dogs and embarks on a mission to seek revenge on Cipher.

Set in the 1980s with the Cold War as the backdrop, Big Boss's missions have him travelling to Afghanistan where Soviet Soldiers are positioned, and Central Africa where South African mercenaries are found (and speak terrible Afrikaans). The game encourages using stealth and non-violent methods to accomplish goals. For example, players may deploy decoys to trick opponents or hide in cardboard boxes to lure them. Less kills during a mission equals a higher rank at the end of it. In this way, the battle becomes one of psychological warfare and figuring out how to outsmart your opponents. However, violence is always an option, and players who do not want to engage with the more strategic elements of the game can always resort to gunplay to murder foes.

Metal Gear Solid V illustrates how events of the past can etch themselves into your mind permanently and slowly drive you crazy. In that state of mind, it is not hard to eventually believe that revenge is the only way to bring about justice and find resolution.

Hideo was obsessed with long, expensive cutscenes which Konami disagreed with. They weren't interested in Kojima's cinematic ambitions. They were more concerned with the mobile and gacha market. The public got a whiff of the storm occuring within the studio when the "a Hideo Kojima Production" subheading was removed from the cover of the game. Before Kojima could complete the game, development time was cut short, causing the game to feel somewhat incomplete toward the end. Furthermore, Kojima Productions Los Angeles was renamed to Konami Los Angeles Studio.

The biggest and most painful moment in the fued came when Metal Gear Solid V won the awards for Best Action Game and Best Score/Soundtrack at the 2015 Game Awards, yet Hideo did not receive the award because he had been barred by Konami from attending the event. It was around this time that the relationship between Konami and Kojima came to an end.

Kojima post-Konami

Kojima started his own studio, Kojima Productions, and signed a deal with Sony for a video game. Death Stranding features protagonist is Sam Porter Bridges, a delivery man who is tasked with reuniting a post-apocalyptic America which has been ravaged by the ‘Death Stranding' which has caused beings from the purgatory between life and death to roam and destroy the country. This rebuilding of America must be done by establishing a ‘chiral network' that will connect people and forge the United Cities of America. To do this, Sam must travel across large swaths of desolate land, facing rebirths both literal and metaphorical. Literal rebirths take place when he is defeated by BTs (Beached Things) that can kill him. However, because Sam Bridges is a Repatriate, he is taken to the Seam, an underwater realm where he is able to swim back to his body and revive himself. Sam also experiences a metaphorical rebirth through the fact that he is afflicted with aphenphosmphobia, a condition which causes one to be averse to physical touch, emotional bonds and intimacy. Through his journey to reconnect America, he comes to see the value of human bonds, leading to his own psychic transformation.

The main gameplay loop involves players strategically loading Sam with cargo (paying attention to weight and how cargo arrangement affects his centre of gravity). The player must then have Sam trek a harsh, uneven terrain that features natural elements wind, rain and snow that can have Sam toppling over and damaging his cargo. Because of this, players must pay attention to factors such as momentum, inertia, stamina and weight distribution that may cause Sam to fall. These attempts at realism serve to turn the game into a hiking simulator, allowing players to role-play as pilgrims. Players also have control of Sam during his moments of rebirth and guide him towards his body when he is sent to the Seam.

Hideo Kojima has stated that he intended for Death Stranding to elicit a transformation within players. In an interview with Time magazine, Kojima-san spoke about his own struggles with loneliness and stated that “there are so many people who play games feeling like that, like they don't belong in this society”. However, the game shows players that they are not truly alone and that connections with others are possible. This is due to the collaborative nature of the game enabled by online features. Although players cannot see other players, they share the game world with one another and interact with structures others have built. For example, when multiple players have walked the same route, footpaths will eventually appear which both guide other players and demonstrate that they are not alone. Larger structures such as bridges and roads are collectively built with players from around the world contributing by donating raw materials. By seeing the contributions other players make, as Kojima-san states, “you won't feel alone anymore”. This shift from feeling isolated to feeling connected represents a transformation within players. As the interviewee writes, Kojima-san is “hopeful that players come away from Death Stranding feeling renewed. ‘I want players to think about these things and have the energy to live on the next day,' he says”.

Conclusion

Is he a genius or a goof? It's hard to tell with most eccentrics. At the end of the day, Kojima has a legendary career and some can say he outgrew Konami, a business that lost more than it gained through parting with Kojima. Let this be inspiration to you.

Bye!

What's s*x? I wouldn't know. But I've read a lot of opinions about it. Today I'd like to go through the opinions of Andrea Dworkin, a feminist who argued for a rather s*x negative view on the topic. Was she correct or was she hysterical? Let's find out.

Who is Andrea Dworkin?

Andrea Dworkin is most known for her iconic text Intercourse. She's also fat. In her lifetime, Dworkin remained a controversial feminist figure due to her views which were sometimes regarded as ‘s*x-negative'. However, regardless of whether you agree with her overall conclusions, many of her critiques concerning the problematic aspects of society prove to be quite valuable. Her text is notable for its coarse and direct language, as well as the liberal use of literature to illustrate certain points.

Andrea Dworkin and s*x

Dworkin views heterosexual s*x as an act of subordination on the part of the woman who is the one getting "fricked". Popular conceptions of intercourse often normalize forms of hostile sexism which subordinate women and remove their agency. Typically, women are viewed as sexual prey that is to be conquered by the dominant male who, in doing so, achieves possession of the woman. Dworkin expresses this slightly more crudely when she writes that intercourse is commonly conceptualized as:

“a form of possession or an act of possession in which, during which, because of which, a man inhabits a woman, physically covering her and overwhelming her and at the same time penetrating her; and this physical relation to her—over her and inside her—is his possession of her. He has her, or, when he is done, he has had her. By thrusting into her, he takes her over. His thrusting into her is taken to be her capitulation to him as a conqueror; it is a physical surrender of herself to him; he occupies and rules her, expresses his elemental dominance over her, by his possession of her in the” act.

Dworkin adds that often the act is “taken to be an act of invasion and ownership undertaken in a mode of predation”. Essentially, all heterosexual s*x is r*pe. How does Dworkin explain this? I'll let her speak:

"A human being has a body that is inviolate; and when it is violated, it is abused. A woman has a body that is penetrated in intercourse: permeable, its corporeal solidness a lie. The discourse of male truth—literature, science, philosophy, pornography— calls that penetration violation. This it does with some consistency and some confidence. Violation is a synonym for intercourse. At the same time, the penetration is taken to be a use, not an abuse; a normal use; it is appropriate to enter her, to push into (“violate”) the boundaries of her body. She is human, of course, but by a standard that does not include physical privacy. She is, in fact, human by a standard that precludes physical privacy, since to keep a man out altogether and for a lifetime is deviant in the extreme, a psychopathology, a repudiation of the way in which she is expected to manifest her humanity. There is a deep recognition in culture and in experience that intercourse is both the normal use of a woman, her human potentiality affirmed by it, and a violative abuse, her privacy irredeemably compromised, her selfhood changed in a way that is irrevocable, unrecoverable. And it is recognized that the use and abuse are not distinct phenomena but somehow a synthesized reality: both are true at the same time as if they were one harmonious truth instead of mutually exclusive contradictions. Intercourse in reality is a use and an abuse simultaneously, experienced and described as such, the act parlayed into the illuminated heights of religious duty and the dark recesses of morbid and dirty brutality. She, a human being, is supposed to have a privacy that is absolute; except that she, a woman, has a hole between her legs that men can, must, do enter. This hole, her hole, is synonymous with entry."

Do you agree with her? Maybe a video will elucidate her points better.

Andrea Dworkin and FGM

Dworkin also discusses female genital mutilation at length. According to Dworkin, FGM has been used on women around the world to “take away sexual drive and behavioural nonconformity”. At its worst, FGM/C takes the form of infibulation which Dworkin regards as a violation of a civilly inferior group. Infibulation is a procedure whereby the birth canal is stitched closed enough to prevent intercourse and thus, as Dworkin explains, infibulated women “are partially cut open at marriage, and must be fully opened at childbirth - after which they are sewn up again”. For these reasons, Dworkin regards FGM/C as another form of sexual suppression which aims to limit women's autonomy, in some cases through irreversible body modification.

This view has been hotly challenged and remains controversial within the feminist realm. Scholars such as Obioma Nnaemeka claim that the word mutilation conjures imagery of knives and blades which may not necessarily be accurate as in some communities hot water is used instead. Furthermore, the term mutilation may result in negative perceptions of certain groups of people and their cultures. Okorafor, on the other hand, argues that the word mutilation is fitting. On her blog she justifies this by claiming that the word female circumcision falsely “implies that it is the equivalent of male circumcision”. I disagree with Okorafor because I do think it is equivalent and male peepees shouldn't be cut.

Conclusion

What do you think about the nature of penetration? Is it okay because it feels good? Can incels use this theory to indignify normies? I believe this is all true and more. Men who have s*x are male feminists, and I am a good person because I don't.

Metal Gear Solid V is one of the greatest games of all time. Honestly, Kojima's greatest work and he didn't even finish it. It knocks Death Stranding out of the park. Holy heck I'm loving it and this is my second playthrough. I forgot how awesome it was and what a crazy negro Kojima is. Bless la creatividad.

For those who don't know, The Metal Gear Solid series is a stealth franchise created by video game icon Hideo Kojima. Released in 2015, Metal Gear Solid V is set over a decade before the original Metal Gear game. The protagonist is Venom Snake, who is also known as Big Boss by his men. He is a mercenary leader and the head of Militaires Sans Frontières. As revealed in Ground Zeroes, this mercenary group is defeated, and Venom Snake falls into a coma after his helicopter is bombed. It takes nine years before he reawakens, but he is a changed person. He is sensitive to light and his left arm has been replaced with a prosthetic one.

Venom Snake constructs the Diamond Dogs, a new mercenary group, and heads to Afghanistan to seek revenge on those who dared to wrong him. His motivation is the constant trauma he feels from the losses he has experienced in warfare. This is the “phantom pain” that haunts Venom Snake. It manifests in a very literal sense. In a tape recording, Venom Snake mentions that he still feels a “phantom pain” in his left arm despite the fact that it is missing. He is also haunted by the hallucinations he has of Paz, whose death he witnesses. She is a phantom that constantly visits him, serving as a reminder of the fact that he could not save her.

The main themes are revenge, war, and violence. Central to most societies is the concept of justice which, put simply, means that people should get what they deserve. On the surface, it seems like an agreeable philosophy. Good deeds should be rewarded while the wicked should be punished so as to maintain balance. However, as MGSV reveals, it is not easy to tell apart justice from revenge.

As Snake tracks down Skullface, he comes across several mercenary groups that stand in his path. You have various cowtools at your disposal for eliminating these mercenaries, and you can choose to employ lethal force or attempt a pacifist approach. These moral quandaries reach a crescendo when Venom Snake encounters child soldiers in Central Africa. They are every bit as lethal as their adult counterparts, but they are still children. Though the game punishes players heavily for using lethal force against child soldiers, you still have to deal with the moral question of what to do with the children. Though they may be children, it does not mitigate the amount of harm and suffering they cause.

But that's not the theme of this post. I want to discuss a doctor who loved LSD and gave it to a lot of his patients. His name is Slanislav Grof.

Born in Czech in 1931, Grof is a psychiatrist who has garnered himself both praise and notoriety for his eccentric ideas and research focus. He has published studies on out-of-the-ordinary states of mind and LSD-induced states of consciousness. His polarising nature is demonstrated by the fact that he has been awarded prestigious prizes such as the Thomas R. Verny Award from the Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health for his important contributions to his field, as well as the Vaclav Havel Award for his lifetime of work. However, he has also been the two-time recipient of the Erratic Boulder anti-award given to individuals and groups deemed to be peddlers of pseudoscience. Since the 1960s, he continued his research in the USA.

Grof went to university to study psychiatry, where he came into contact with LSD. It profoundly impacted him, and changed his career course. Since then, he has been involved with over twenty-five hundred LSD sessions and he has analyzed over thirteen hundred psychedelic sessions conducted by his colleagues in Czechoslovakia and the USA.

When studying psychedelics, Grof uses a scientific method that he has crafted through years of research and observation of subjects under the influence of psychedelic substances. Unlike many of his fellow researchers, Grof did not view psychedelics as substances that induce schizophrenia or similar states of psychosis. Hence, he began to deviate from their established research methods, and he began to develop his own.

Grof focuses much of his attention on the theme of death and rebirth within the psychedelic experience. He argues that one of the psychological benefits of psychedelics is their ability to induce an Ego death, whereby an individual will experience a metaphorical death in the form of a loss of subjective identity and Ego. The return of the Ego is experienced as a rebirth. According to Grof, those who complete the death-rebirth process connect with intrinsic spiritual sources and realize that a mechanistic and materialistic worldview is rooted in fear of birth and death.

Grof claims that following an Ego death, “the ability to enjoy life typically increases considerably”, and “the past and the future appear to be relatively less important than the present moment”. With Grof, we find a model of psychedelics which positions them as a vehicle towards psychological growth through a metaphorical death and rebirth. From this viewpoint, death is a positive state worth intentionally pursuing via psychedelics.

Types of psychedelic experiences

Grof outlines four types of psychedelic experiences:

1. The first is the “abstract or aesthetic” experience which Grof considers to be the most superficial. This type of psychedelic experience has “no specific symbolic content related to the personality of the subject”, he argues. He notes that one having this psychedelic experience may hallucinate abstract geometric designs or architectural patterns. This includes “interiors of gigantic temples, naves of incredibly beautiful Gothic cathedrals, cupolas of monumental mosques, or decorations in Moorish palaces (‘arabesques')”. As someone who has done copious amounts of LSD, I can definitely relate to this phenomenon of seeing aesthetic beauty when tripping.

2. Secondly, we have the “psychodynamic, biographical, or recollective” psychedelic experience. This involves biographical memories, and this can be useful for seeing things from a new perspective and finding closure.

3. The third is the perinatal psychedelic experience. In this perinatal experience, LSD subjects can relive elements of their biological birth in all its complexity, and sometimes with astonishing objectively verifiable details. Keep a tab on this one, because, I'll be exploring it a little more in a moment.

4. Lastly, we have the transpersonal experience in which one is freed of the Ego. In these instances, one may come into contact with religious figures or otherworldly beings. The experience tends to have a mystical nature to it. . Grof argues that within Western thought, it is only Assagioli's psychosynthesis and Jung's psychology that can shed light on the processes involved in the transpersonal psychedelic realm. Speaking on Jung, Grof evokes his ideas of archetypes when describing the primordial imagery which is often witnessed during transpersonal experiences.

The perinatal psychedelic experience

The perinatal experience is a kind of rebirth. Grof's views, in this respect, are far from unique. What Grof describes with regards to the perinatal experience, are personality transformations described by both Campbell and Jung who claim that such transformations arise as a product of acting out death and rebirth archetypes.

Grof divides the perinatal level of the unconscious into four patterns he refers to as the Basic Perinatal Matrices (BPM). Since Grof believes that perinatal type psychedelic experiences are deeply connected to the process of biological birth, he aligns each of the matrices with a stage in the birth process. In these matrices, Jungian archetypes are liable to make appearances.

1. BPM 1

BPM 1 aligns with the peacefulness of being a foetus in the womb.

2. BPM 2

This aligns with the beginning stages of birth. The foetus is constricted by the uterine yet cannot find a way out yet because the cervix is still closed. Paralleling this biological process, experiences from this matrix are marked by a sense of “cosmic engulfment”, whereby one feels a forebody sense of imminent danger. Consequently, the anxiety-stricken individual is likely to interpret the world in paranoid terms.

Imagery associated with this matrix includes being swallowed by a great monster or whale, and scenes of descending into a dangerous underworld. Just as Adam and Eve are cast from Eden and Satan is cast from Heaven, so too is the biological foetus being ejected from the womb where it experienced ideal conditions. Similarly, this matrix has individuals feeling as though they are moving from a state of safety to a state of unknown peril.

3. BPM 3

BPM 3 is deeply concerned with the death-rebirth struggle. Biologically, it is aligned with the stage of delivery where uterine contractions continue, but with the cervix dilated to allow for the gradual passing of the foetus. This is not an easy process, and there is risk of mortality for both the baby and the mother. The foetus may experience several unpleasant sensations during this process. Unlike the previous perinatal matrix, this matrix does not feel hopeless and helpless. Much like a mythical hero facing a trial, the individual in the throes of this experience feels as though they are actively involved in the situation's resolution. Hence, while BPM II might feel like heck, BPM III is more akin to purgatory.

4. BPM 4

As you'd expect, this aligns with the final stages of birth. Following the cutting of the umbilical cord, the child is fully severed from its mother and begins its journey as an independent, autonomous individual. This is when most LSD users are likely to experience an Ego death. However, this Ego death experience is not entirely existentially terrifying. Following its crescendo, positive imagery can be expected, including “visions of blinding white or golden light of supernatural radiance and beauty”. As Grof argues, this experience has positive associations and has the potential to change one's outlook for the better. For example, for some “irrational and exaggerated ambition, craving for money, status, prestige, or power appear in this state to be absurd and childish desires”.

Grof's critics

Grof is not without his critics, and they must be acknowledged. A glaring issue with Grof's theories is that while he claims to apply a scientific method to his research, his interpretation of the data often stretches beyond what empirical information can demonstrate. The most visible cases of this occur when Grof integrates mystical ideas when interpreting what his subjects who have ingested psychedelics experience. An example of this can be found when Grof proposes that individuals having transpersonal experiences exhibit paranormal phenomena such as ESP.

The biggest criticism is that while he can demonstrate that his subjects, when administered doses of LSD, are liable to have death-rebirth experiences that may map onto the biological birth process in some metaphorical manner, the mechanisms he proposes for this are never explained in a way which draws from the data.

Conclusion

Lads, I don't know what's going on right now but I can't feel sleepy and my mind won't stop racing. I want to accomplish everything, I want to hurt myself, I'm impulsively spending money on dumb shit like this site (where I'm the most blocked user by a significant margin), and I can't stop writing. I feel like I would keep writing even if I didn't have the need to make sense, just as long as words are being strung together. Honestly, just ignore this shit. I don't know whether I should contact my psychologist and ask them what to do. I drove earlier today and I probably shouldn't have on such little sleep. It felt like traffic was moving in slow motion lol. I think I'll go play more MGSV to calm myself down.

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN BEHAVING BADLY

Also known as Down Under, Australia is the smallest continent, and it consists of three countries, namely: Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, and Australia. Today, we will discuss three Australian women who were naughty and brought shame to themselves. Before we dive in, I think it would be necessary to give a little background regarding the Australian continent.

Papua New Guinea

When the continent is discussed, Papua New Guinea is often neglected, so it would be wise to discuss this interesting country briefly. The islands of Papua and New Guinea were discovered by the Western world in the sixteenth century by Portuguese and Spanish explorers. In 1884, Germany took control of about a quarter of the islands, calling it German New Guinea, and plantations were established. In the same year, Britain claimed control of the Southern coast of New Guinea and called it British New Guinea. It was established as a protectorate, though ownership of this protectorate would be passed to the Australian Commonwealth in 1902.

Australia forcibly seized German New Guinea during World War 1, and during the Pacific War, the Allies defended the territory from Japanese invasion until Japan surrendered in 1945. Following this, Papua and New Guinea would be merged to form what was known as The Territory of Papua and New Guinea. While it operated as a single body, it was still under the control of the Australian government. In 1975, the territory freed itself from Western control and became an independent State.

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country consisting primarily of the North Island and the South Island, as well as over 700 smaller islands. It is regarded as one of the last land masses that humans settled on.

It is believed that it was found by Kope, a Polynesian explorer, in the 14th century. The Polynesians settled here, eventually forming what would become the Maori tribe. The Maori's way of life was disrupted when European colonialism began. In the 17th century, Abel Tasman the British explorer discovered New Zealand, and not long after it was fully mapped by James Cook in the 18th century. Conflict arose, resulting in large swaths of Maori land being seized by British colonizers.

Today, New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth, and large strides have been taken to restore the dignity and wealth of the Maori. The country is also noted for being one of the first in the world to give women the right to vote.

Australia

Today, of course, we'll be discussing Australia. Its colonial history is a long and brutal one with effects that permeate into the modern day. With the arrival of the First Fleet on the island in 1788, Europeans were confronted with a strange land that they often did not understand or appreciate.

Europeans viewed the Australian land and people as ancient, primitive, and endemically resistant to progress. Such judgments reflected the Europeans' confused and defensive reaction to ecology and a way of living in a land very different from their own. This reaction allowed the Europeans to legitimize their colonization by casting themselves as superior to the ‘savage' Aborigines.

Their failure to appreciate the Aborigines' knowledge is evident in the Europeans' responses to fire. Although many early observers recognized that the Aborigines set fire to the land, they were at a loss to understand why and certainly did not see it as a crucial land management practice. Such an unthinking dismissal of an ancient practice is characteristic of the Europeans' views of the Aborigines as uncivilized and backward.

With the contextualization out of the way, we can begin our discussion on the three women. We'll be looking at what they did, what the public reaction was, and how the women reacted to the consequences of their actions. The three women are:

• Mel Greig

• Belle Gibson

• Raina Thaiday

Without further ado, let's begin.

Mel Greig

Born in 1982, Mel Greig is no stranger to the media. In 2011, she participated in the Australian version of The Amazing Race, and she has also written for publications such as Yahoo Be.

In 2012, she began co-hosting the Hot30 Countdown on 2Day FM with Matty Acton, and then Mike Christian. This job wouldn't last for long. In December of the same year, she and her co-hosts decided to pull a prank. You see, at the time, Catherine Middleton, Princess of Wales, was in hospital in London. This was big news, and plenty of New Zealanders were sending their best wishes to the princess.

Mel and Mike pretended to be the king and queen, and they phoned the hospital, asking about Catherine. The phone was picked up by Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at King Edward VII Hospital. Jacintha fell for the joke and even proceeded to forward them to the nurse who was taking care of Catherine. You can listen to the whole thing here:

Personally, I can't see how not one but two women fell for that. Jacintha was mortified when she discovered she had been bamboozled. Unable to face the humiliation, she committed suicide and left a note stating that the prank was the reason she did it.

The suicide caused a great backlash, and advertisers began boycotting the radio station. Mel was subjected to online bullying and hate mail which, in a strange turn of events, made her suicidal. Mel has taken responsibility for her role in the prank, and she has publicly expressed her regret at ever doing it.

I think she is an otherwise good person, and it was just an unlucky string of events that led to her being named in a suicide letter.

Belle Gibson

Belle Gibson was born in 1991, and by all accounts, she had a normal childhood. In her teen years, she picked up skateboarding, but that didn't last long. It is believed she dropped out of school in Year 10.

In 2013, Belle publicly claimed to have cancer. Not just cancer, but multiple cancers, including brain cancer and blood, spleen, uterine, liver, and kidney cancer. Shocking many, she claimed that she was shunning conventional medicine and treating herself through healthy eating.

Encouraging others to take the same route, she released an app called The Whole Pantry which outlined healthy eating for people with cancer. She also released a cookbook of the same name. Forever generous, Belle Gibson also claimed that a percentage of the proceeds would be going to charity. Her health claims continued, and she stated that she has had multiple heart surgeries and that she once suffered a stroke.

Of course, this couldn't continue indefinitely. Eventually, journ*lists began sniffing around and realized that Belle was lying a lot. Eventually, it was unearthed that she had never had cancer. She bamboozled people with a sob story to get them to buy her book. She also gave false hope to cancer patients and quite possibly turned them off conventional medicine.

Since the uncovering of her lie, Belle has been publicly shamed, and she received a hefty fine for making false claims about donating to charity. She has not paid these fines, which has led to her house being raided at least twice. She now claims that she is part of the Omoro tribe, though the tribe has denied this.

I think she's cute, and she should be forgiven.

Raina Thaiday

Despite the extent of this tragedy, there is very little information available on it. Raina Thaiday was a woman known to have schizophrenia. Despite this, she had at least nine children, and she lived with them, along with her neice and her child, in a single home. Her first child she gave birth to when she was 14.

Her oldest daughter, Norena Warrena, has described Raina as a very loving mother who was close to all her children. She was also a chronic marijuana user, which did not do favors for her mental health.

In December 2014, she had a schizophrenic episode that started with her killing the family duck and cleaning the house obsessively for a week to rid it of evil. A dove told her to kill her children, which she did. She killed 7 of them and a niece. The youngest victim was 2 and the oldest was 14. Her weapon of choice? A knife which she used to slash all the children in the home before she turned it on herself and stabbed herself 35 times.

She did not die, and after hospitalization, made a full recovery. She was put on trial for the murders, but it was found that she was not of sound mind when the murders occurred. Hence, she was taken to a mental healthcare facility instead, where she resides to this day.

CONCLUSION

Thanks for reading. Writing these is a nice distraction from the horrors of life as a poor incel. Sometimes I get so lonely it physically hurts. Tune in next time when we discuss the best Oprah episodes.

We all make mistakes in life. Some of them are minor, you know, like spilling milk, taking the wrong turn on the road, or forgetting to close the fridge door. Other mistakes are catastrophic and it can take years to repair the damage, if it can be fixed at all.

Surprisingly, you'll find that many philosophers do not scorn mistakes but instead embrace them. Daniel Dennett is a good example of this, and he has written at length about humanness of erring, and how we should respond to errors to lead a good life. He points out the following:

Mistakes are not just opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning or making something truly new. Before there can be learning, there must be learners. There are only two non-miraculous ways for learners to come into existence: they must either evolve or be designed and built by learners that evolved. Biological evolution proceeds by a grand, inexorable process of trial and error — and without the errors the trials wouldn't accomplish anything.

The solution to mistakes? Don't hide them.

The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them — especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. The fundamental reaction to any mistake ought to be this: “Well, I won't do that again!”

To Nietzche, mistakes were a part of life, but they were also to be warred against and defeated. Only the weak - those infected by slave morality - valorize mistakes. The ubermensch conquers mistakes.

We have reached mastery when we neither mistake nor hesitate in the achievement.

Who do you agree with more?

Today, we're going to look at two cases of individuals who made mistakes that caused great suffering to others. Consider the following as you read:

• Was the mistake a product of stupidity (failure of reason) or confusion (failure of data)?

• Was it an easily preventable mistake?

• Where does the moral culpability lie?

AEROFLOT FLIGHT 593

People consider many things when picking a profession. The pay, the ease of entry, and family expectations are all things that one might think about as one plans one's career. For many, they are primarily drawn to prestige and status. There are very few jobs that offer status, and they are very hard to get into, which is partially why people are so impressed by those in the profession. Examples include surgeons, engineers, judges, and athletes.

Being a pilot is very prestigious, but one man let it consume him a little too much. On 23 March 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 took off from Sheremetyevo Alexander S. Pushkin International Airport in Moscow, Russia. It wasn't a particularly large plane, holding only 63 passengers and 12 crew members. In the cockpit we have Andrey Viktorovich Danilov the captain with close to 10,000 hours of flight time. He was assisted by first officer Vasilyevich Piskaryov and relief captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593

Kudrinsky is who we'll focus on. He had close to 9,000 hours of flight time, and on this particular flight, he also had his two children on board. The eldest one was Eldar, who was 15 and looked up to his pilot father. The youngest was Yana, and she was 13. To impress his kids, he let them into the cockpit. While this may sound absurd now, this was pre-9/11 and while it wasn't something that was explicitly allowed, it wasn't punished either.

For Kudrinsky, merely letting his children into the cockpit wasn't enough. He had to let them touch the controls too. He had put the plane on autopilot before he let Yana in the seat. He told her to turn left and to her astonishment, the plane turned left! With eyes as wide as a saucer, Eldar wanted to try too. Of course, he got a turn. He was instructed to turn right, and when he did so, the plane slowly turned in that direction. Being a little older, Eldar wasn't as easily fooled and he soon realized his father was adjusting the autopilot. The kids had never had control!

It was a relatively harmless practice in theory. When the autopilot is on, the plane does not accept input from the control column. Unfortunately, Kudrinsky made a mistake. He did not know that the autopilot could be disengaged if you yanked the column hard for 30 seconds. The thinking behind this design is that in such a situation the human is clearly attempting to avoid a danger that the plane cannot detect, and it should defer control to the human.

In normal situations, nobody would yank at the control column for 30 seconds while the plane was on autopilot. But this wasn't a normal situation - a kid was in the pilot's seat. Eldar yanked hard while his father was distracted. The boy was still having fun imagining himself as a pilot. Eventually, he noticed that the plane was banking right and alerted his father. Kudrinsky and his coworkers were confused at first. They thought the plane was on autopilot, but the flight path indicator was telling them that they were making a 180-degree turn. By the time they figured out the problem, precious seconds had passed and it was too late, the plane had turned at such a sharp angle that the G forces kept everyone glued to their seats or the wall - everyone in the plane.

Kudrinsky attempted to instruct his son on what to do, but there's only so much a 13-year-old can manage in such circumstances. The plane could not handle the extreme forces it was being subjected to, and it stalled, causing it to nosedive like a gannet with its eyes on a trout. When a window of opportunity arose and the G forces dipped, Kudrinsky took Eldar's place. He and Piskaryov tried the best they could to regain control of the plane and level it out, but there was just not enough time left. The plane crashed into Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, killing everyone on board.

You can hear the entire cockpit recording here (with subtitles). Warning for sensitive listeners. It's not graphic, but it is grim. It is also interesting to note that Kudrinsky takes out his anger on his son.

Kudrinsky's first error was bad, but it was somewhat excusable. Which father doesn't want to impress their kids? Nevertheless, he shouldn't have been playing games with people's lives. Unfortunately, there's a second error. All the struggle was for nothing. In fact, it made the situation worse. You see, though all the pilots had plenty of flight experience, they were relatively novices when it came to the A310-304. This is why it took them so long to figure out there was a problem in the first place. It's the reason why they didn't know about the control column's ability to disengage the autopilot. Their ignorance blinded them to another feature the plane had - if they had just let go of the controls, the plane would have corrected itself.

For a full breakdown of the tragedy, read the investigation report which outlines all the mistakes made.

https://reports.aviation-safety.net/1994/19940323-0_A310_F-OGQS.pdf

HI-FI MURDERS

Have you ever been deeply influenced by a movie? During the heyday of Fast and the Furious, police would note an increase in traffic crimes when the films hit theatres. Scream inspired two teens to kill their friend. For our last case today, we'll look at two people who were looking for a way to quickly and efficiently kill victims in a robbery. They turned to the movie Magnum Force for answers. In the film, a pimp murders a prostitute by forcing her to drink Drano which kills her almost instantly.

Our criminals are Dale Pierre and William Andrews who were both US airmen. They had their target picked out - the Hi-fi Shop in Ogden, Utah. It was 1974, and electronics were expensive and popular, so they stood a chance of making lots of money. They managed to convince four other men to join them in what they claimed was a robbery. When the shop was about to close Peirre, Andrews and one other man walked into the store. The rest stayed by two vans outside which they were going to load up with the stolen goods.

Upon entering, they immediately made their intentions known. There were only two people in the store:

• Stanley Walker (20)

• Michelle Ansley (18)

They were held hostage while the goons loaded up sound equipment and other expensive electronics. Things did not go according to plan. A teen named Cortney Naisbitt entered the store, so they decided to tie him (yes him) up as well. Later, 43yo Orren Walker came around looking for Stanley and he was taken hostage, then Courtney's mom, Carol Naisbitt came around looking for Cortney so she was taken hostage as well, leaving them with five hostages total. They are put in the basement.

With all the goods taken, all the crooks flee. Well, all of them except for Pierre and Andrews. They wanted to get rid of the witnesses. For that, they have Drano. To trick the hostages into drinking it, they pour it into a glass and tell them that it is vodka laced with sleeping pills. The hostages refuse, so they have to be forced. Carol is forced first. The effects are immediate. The corrosive liquid burns their lips, causing the skin to slip off. As it goes down their oesophagus, it causes severe burns all the way into the stomach lining. Orren is the only one who does not drink the Drano because he fakes it.

At this point, the two criminals begin to realize their big mistake - movies aren't real life. They did not get the quick and quiet murder of Magnum Force. It was loud and slow as they screamed and writhed in agony. They tried to duct tape their mouths shut, but their skinless lips provided no surface for the adhesive tape to stick to. At this point, Andrews realized he was in over his head and split. Note, Wikipedia gets this part of the murders wrong, as most sources claim Andrews left while Wiki claims he stayed.

Pierre had a backup plan - his handgun. He pulled it out and shot Carol and Cortney in the head, killing Carol. Cortney survived but was grievously injured. More mistakes were made as he missed Orren twice before killing Stanley Walker. This should have been quick, but it was getting louder and messier.

The murdering stopped when Pierre had a coomer emergency. He took Ansley and r*ped her for half an hour before fatally shooting her in the head. If you're keeping track, that's three dead, leaving two alive.

He falsely assumed Cortney was dead so he set their sights on Orren. Enraged, Pierre tied a wire around his neck and tried to strangle him. He failed at that and Orren lived. Frustrated, Pierre did the unthinkable. He took a ballpoint pen and inserted it on Orren, who was lying on the ground. He then stomped on it until exited his throat. Satisfied with his work, he left.

Orren was not dead. This was good, as he became a star witness that helped ensure the two cretins received the death sentence.

https://www.oxygen.com/violent-minds-killers-on-tape/crime-news/hi-fi-murders-what-to-know-about-the-killers-victims

https://www.abc4.com/news/justice-files/the-justice-files-the-ogden-hi-fi-murders

CONCLUSION

We all make mistakes, and this is unavoidable. Your only hope is to find a cope and cross your fingers that you never make a mistake as disastrous as these fools.

Prev: Ch. 1 Ch. 2 Ch. 3 Ch.4

Hello. Apologies for the lateness, some IRL happened and such and all that.

It is the 1st of Granite of the year 254. This year, you will be exposed to the brilliant tones of Dwarf Fortress as I have become too used to seeing it.

I have been left with a decently prosperous fortress, and the dwarves are happy.

If we are surviving, we can push onward. The deepest mark we have left in the stone is at Elevation 29, in our central stairwell. The depths of the world will make us much more prosperous, if we can exploit them.

...However, that will have to wait for a moment.

The siege is large, and our military is unlikely to win in a straight fight. A full alarm is declared, with the gates to the outside closed.

The dead reach the KOMPACTOR,

and it is hungry. Several dark hunters are pulverized.

Back to delving, then. An exploratory borehole is made in a section easily closed off.

...and somehow, we miss breaching anything at all. At -116, we hit semi-molten rock. Very well: magma forges are my favorite. Let's ignore the siege outside and get at this stuff.

After some careful delving, we find what we're looking for. Hot stuff.

Something else, too.

It sure is pretty, but this year's project is magma exploitation now.

First, a mood to help along, though. Exciting! Mineral gathers everything needed, and works away. The creation ends up being Ethbeshtaron Tureltunur, a chert scepter.

Not particularly interesting or valuable, but it is certainly a sign to move forward with leadership as we move into

Summer

Work on the forge-area starts in earnest, though dwarves are exceedingly cautious despite knowing full well that they're above the magma. Meanwhile, the undead climb the tower noticing the main gate is open, which is great for us as they go in one by one, dampening the mood but being easily dispatched. Due to the location on the borehole and weight of the stone, work is exceedingly slow as many dwarves must hold off the trickle of undead.

Autumn

Yep, work is slow. Bigger concerns on the surface, just boring ones.

To distract from the forgeworks, another mood! WillowWalker creates Tadenshal, a set of tetrahedrite mechanisms.

And at last the forge is up.

Winter

A smelter follows, with the Magma Crafting Area now fully completed. A decently-sized area for future storage is dug on the level above. To commemorate this occasion, pig iron and steel are ordered to be made off of this smelter. The one to make the first steel bar powered by the depths of Armok's creation is Erush Zefonsebïr, a Fish Cleaner necromancer named after nobody.

Lor Cattenkadol is possessed, going less smoothly. My assumption is that a type of thread we do not have is needed: yet, it is late winter, and finding cave spiders may prove too long an undertaking. Still, orders are sent in to make the stuff as soon as we have it. MatsurisAhoge is appointed as our manager, as the previous holder was needed for military work too often and orders kept not getting put into the list.

Overall, an uneventful year, with the dwarves only whittling at the invasion force while the underground project is worked on. But with access to magma, what might the next overseer be able to do? The dwarves are happy enough, the supplies are full enough, and there are many options available.

My successor @BFBugleberry will be sent the save shortly after I fricked up nameclicking the first time. Best of luck!

Player list in order of succession:

@60horsesinmyherd

@Cream_a_da_crop

@s_a_n_t_b

@Spysix

@searcher

@BFBugleberry

@Rankine_911

@Yasharn

@Losercel

@Ninjjer

@duck

Hello, I've got 2 hours before work is done, and I'm too lazy to do anything productive so I'll write this quick post discussing the Indian Question in South Africa. It makes me sad that I even have to write this post because I love all races and I want to live in a multicultural rainbow nation. Unfortunatey, there are some people who are more concerned about tribal in-group bias than unity.

Indians in South Africa

As you can imagine, Indians are not native to South Africa. Yet the country has an Indian population of close to 1.7 million. Furthermore, the South African city of Durban is one of the largest ethnically Indian-populated cities outside of India.

Indians first arrived in South Africa in 1860, during the country's colonial era. The first lot of Indians (approximately 342 of them) were brought in on a ship called the Truro, and the intention was to use the Indians as indentured workers on sugr plantations in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Indians were originally taken from Calcutta and Madras, but eventually labour was taken from other areas of India as well. Colonial workers generally didn't give a shit about keeping proper records. Consequently, many Indian last names in South Africa are corruptions of their proper Indian last names.

Under Apartheid, Indians were subordinated, though they enjoyed better treatment than the Blacks did. Due to forced removals, Indians were forced into their own ghettoes. It is during this time that Indians started gaining the reputation of being "Jew-ish". Much like Jewish populations, they formed insular communities, small businesses, and they stopped relying on the government for services, instead building their own schools and temples. To this day, Indian-built schools produce some of the best students in the country. Consequently, a lot of wealth accumulated within Indian communities, which naturally attracted jealousy.

Anti-Indian Racism in South Africa

Anti-Indian discrimination was certainly present during Apartheid, and it was not uncommon for Indians to be referred to using the racist term "coolie". Blacks were also racist towards Indians, and this is seen through the Durban riots of 1949 in which South Africans took to the streets to loot Indian businesses, stone Indian vehicles, and break into homes. The riots, which lasted for days, were extremely violent and involved acts of assault, r*pe, and murder. In total, 142 Indians were killed, and there were several suicides following the riots due to families being destroyed. This marks the second-deadliest massacre during Apartheid.

Naturally, one would question why the massacre happened. It's generally theorized that there was already animosity between the Indian and Black populations in Durban, and this peaked on January 13 when Harilal Basanth, a 40-year-old Indian shop-owner, smashed 14-year-old George Madondo's head into a shop window.

Do not see Indians as eternal victims, however. It's also important to note that violence during the riots wasn't one-sided and several Zulus were assaulted by Indians. Furthermore, they created the racist term "bululu" to refer to Black people. There's a new term for chuds who want to fine-tune their racism.

The EFF and the Indian Question

Post-Apartheid, South Africa has dealt with problems of racism, but for the most part, ordinary South Africans get on with life in a multicultural society in a mostly peaceful manner. Problems arose in 2018 when the South African communist party called the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) raised the Indian Question. The EFF is led by Julius Malema, who many have foolishly been led to believe is South Africa's president. No! He was the head of the ANC's Youth League (the ANC is the African National Congress which is South Africa's ruling party since democracy was instated in 1994). During his time in the Youth League he showed himself to be a hothead not afraid to speak his mind. Here he is telling a mayo BBC to frick off with his "white tendencies".

He proved too much of a hothead to be controlled by the ANC, and he eventually formed his own party, the EFF. In the 2024 elections, they earned 10.80% of the votes. In 2018, he declared that the majority of Indians are racist.

This was met with pushback from the media and the Indian population who declared that Malema is being racist. As it usually does, the party did not back down and instead released a long statement addressing the "Indian question".

https://www.facebook.com/economicfreedomstruggle/posts/on-the-indian-question-in-south-africa-a-response-to-mob-psychologists-by-the-na/1143818679092596/

The Chairperson also released an explosive article defending Malema's comments on Indian people. Some choice quotes:

It is a historical fact that Indians arrived in the political territory we call South Africa today as indentured labourers from 1860 onwards. This automatically disqualifies them as indigenous South Africans in the same way whites, who had arrived earlier than the indentured labourers are not indigenous Africans.

Indians were brought to South Africa during the indigenous Africans Wars of resistance, and there is no record that they fought on the side of Africans. On the contrary, prominent Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi recognised and worshipped the colonial empire and spread ideological and political gibberish that "whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African" as empirically proved in the book The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire by Desai & Vahed, 2015. The intellectual honesty that defined these two authors while writing about Gandhi's racism escaped one of them in the immediate aftermath of calling out the Momoniat racism.

Even though Indians and whites make up the smallest sections of the population, combined they own and control more land, deciding on the racial and apartheid spatial planning. It is one thing to expose and reflect on already existing racial divisions, and it is another to divide a country that is already racially divided. All the EFF has done since its formation in 2013 is to expose these societal contradictions. It is not possible to further divide such a deeply divided country, but we can only move towards eradicating such inequality by honest and frank engagements.

There are many instances of reported anti-African racism from the Indian community in the stores, workplaces, homes, schools, which do not get reported on. Those who are recipients of Indian racism are often of subjugate economic standing and as stated in the perspective here, economic subjugation of the African majority is the root cause of anti-African racism from both white and Indian communities.

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2018-06-21-on-the-indian-question-in-south-africa-a-response-to-mob-psychologists/

Pushback came in strong:

and even this annoying DEAD cuck Eusebius McKaiser decided to comment.

Conclusion

Unfortunately, racial relations between Blacks and Indians have not improved and in 2021, there were more riots that resulted in 20 deaths. Clashes between Blacks and Indians took place in the suburb of Phoenix.

So what do you think? Are Indians in South Africa victims of anti-Indian racism? Or do Blacks have genuine reason to fight against Indians? I'd love to hear your opinion. Sorry for the relatively shitty post.

If you're American, it can be hard to fully conceptualize how the country is viewed by outsiders. America is the promised land, the land of opportunity and plenty, the one location where all your dreams can come true. It's a bitch to get in, but once you're in you've hit the jackpot. Cleaning toilets in the USA is better than dodging bullets from MS13 in Mexico. As a middle-class South African, I wonder whether my life would have turned out better had I been a low-class American on foodstamps. Could I have leveraged it to a better life. The pull of the American Dream tells me yes...

Many immigrants, legal and illegal find their way into America and begin with lower-class job. The plan is to eventually climb the ladder and provide a better life for their children. It's a noble quest, and it would work if America wasn't filled with ills such as racism and police brutality. We see that in today's case which features a young man named Amadou Diallo.

This is a story that has captured my attention due to its brutality, and I'd like to share some of the details with you.

Early Life

Amadou Diallo is one of four children of Guinean descent. The male circumcision rate in Guinea is estimated to be 84.2% (https://pophealthmetrics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12963-016-0073-5/tables/1_), making it highly likely that Amadou is circumcised. He was born in Sinoe County in Liberia on September 2, 1975, and he followed his parents to Togo, Singapore, Thailand, and back to Guinea. Things would change for Diallo, in1996, he received an offer to start a business in the USA, NY with his cousin. Some may be thinking - rather be a mouse in my homeland than a rat in a cesspool, but Diallo did not see things that way. To him, the trip would open up opportunities for his future and career

His plans were to seek asylum once landing in the promised land, and he would falsely admit that his parents died in conflict in mauritious. It's not clear exactly how well his plan worked but by 1997, he was selling video cassettes, gloves, and socks on the sidewalk along 14th Street during the day. How many of us have had to resort to such to keep living. Most of us were born on home base.

Early Death

On February 4, 1999, Amadou was still standing next to his place of residence, completing the consumption of a meal. At about 12:40 a.m., officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss, and Richard Murphy were looking for a serial rapist. Unfortunately, their search led them to cross paths with Diallo. The police pulled up on Diallo with an unarmed car, pretending to want to ask him questions. Sensing the tenseness of the situation, Diallo ran, pulling out his wallet in the process.

BANG! BANG!

One officer shot at Diallo. The other three law enforcement, believing their partner to be shot, opened fire on Diallo 41 with Diallo getting hit 14 times. Un understandably, Diallo succumbed to his injuries. Eyewitness Sherrie Elliott stated that the police continued to shoot even though Diallo was already down.

This is apparently called a "contagious shooting." Confused cops will continue firing until the supposed threat is stopped. Out of the 41 rounds fired, 19 bullets had fatally struck Diallo. When the four officers searched Diallo's dead body for a weapon, they only found a black wallet and a beeper. Realizing he had shot an unarmed civilian, Carroll cried, "Oh my God! Please don't die!"

"When you think about Amadou, you think of yourself, you think of your brother, your cousin. He could have been anyone. That night, the officers saw a black man standing on the vestibule, that it didn't take time to stop and look, give time," said Kadiatou Diallo to Newsweek. "They just stereotyped him and just killed him without any time to understand that he lived in this building. That he was not a criminal, and this is why in the depths of everything, I didn't know I was creating a movement."

Reactions to Amadialo's case

If you're ever curious about how to cure a mass movement, this is a good case study. George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, by the time these names energe there's already been a pattern of police brutality in these national. There's a conflict of interest and a lack of community involved. I listened to a story about a lady who was two shy to say no to immigrants eating her food. Imagine if that was on the streets and it was an immigrant asking to use her umbrella in the middle of the rain. We need to find common ground between natives and first-generation immigrants regarding what's expected in the USA, and the police need to learn skills of soft deescelation. Shooing a man 41 times without even seeing a gun is paranoid policing, the acts of scared people.I believe feat more than racism encouraged this attack.

Boss, Carroll, McMellon, and Murphy pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder charges to Diallo's death. The jury, which consisted of four black and eight white jurors, deliberated for three days. When the jury finally reached their final verdict, the officers were acquitted of all charges in Diallo's death. As you can imagine, this caused outrage. In response to the not guilty finding, protestors took to the streets, blocking Fifth Avenue, blocking traffic to Wall Street, and continuing towards City Hall. Seveal public figures made statements regarding the case:

Then-president Bill Clinton made his first comments about the Diallo verdict at a Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco. "I don't pretend for a moment to second-guess the jury. But I know most people in America of all races believe that if it had been a young white man in an all-white neighborhood, it probably wouldn't have happened," Clinton said.

When Newsweek asked what Diallo expects from government leaders today, she answered, "My hope is that all leaders, whether you are government leaders, or community leaders, or teachers, everyone will seize the hands that are extended from these young people. These young people are the first of this movement, let us extend our hand to them and grab their extended hands. Connect with the youth and let them be part of this question, let them be part of the work that we're doing. I am doing my part."

As a result of the terrible incident, the Street Crimes Unit was officially disbanded in 2002.

Erykah Badu's Reaction

As you can imagine, there was an outpouring of music from the Black community, but none seemed to carry the gravtas of the situation quite like she did on the song AD 2000. Erykah Badu rose to fame with her first album Baduizm, released in 1997, which earned her a Grammy award, and it is regarded as being pivotal in popularisng the neo-soul genre. However, I wish to focus more on her position as a Black mother figure within the African American community, particularly to Black men. As Marlo David points out in her analysis of Black motherhood, "Badu uses her music, visual style, and linguistic play to offer an Afrofuturistic vision of family that embraces black women's sexual autonomy and transgressive motherhood as an important part of a black collective identity that resonates in the post–Civil Rights era". Her music is noted for having a nurturing attitude towards Black men and deep concern for the plight of Black men and the social issues they face. This is seen in songs such as Times a Wastin' where Badu takes on a maternal role, warning Black men to take responsibility for their lives and keep guard in a world hostile to them, or A.D. 2000 where Badu remembers Amadou Diallo who was 22 and unarmed when he was shot 19 times by police. As seen in these instances, Badu's position as a Black mother to Black men to a large degree stems as a response to societal conditions. What is being counteracted here is the specific variety of racism directed towards Black men which criminalises, demonises, and devalues Black men. This variety of racism was amplified by the War on Drugs. At times, Badu takes her mothering of Black men to transgressive extremes, as seen with her public displays of support for villainised Black men such as R. Kelly and Bill Cosby.

[Holly-Willoughby-in-white-top-with-WYLDE-MOON-candle.jpg]

To understand Erykah Badu's performance of motherhood, it is necessary to look into the archetype of the Great Mother and how it has been represented in mythology. For this, it is useful to turn to Adrienne Rich. In her 1976 text Of Woman Born, Rich offers a feminist analysis of motherhood, noting the expectations society places on mothers and the unique problems faced by all women who are viewed in terms of their ability to conceive and serve a maternalistic purpose. The text is quite personal at times, as Rich is the mother of three sons, and she reflects on her own experiences raising her children. Far from merely being a diary, she engages in a scholarly analysis of views of motherhood throughout the ages. Citing Gertrude Rachel Levy who has authored books on comparative mythology, she suggests that among early humans, there existed a "Prepatriarchal" consciousness where the archetypal figure of the Mother represented Earth, and then came to embody the duality of birth and death because the earth is both where life emanates and where the dead are buried. These two aspects of the Mother are sometimes separated out as the Great Mother and the Terrible Mother. Hence, as Rich highlights, the Mother contains duality, and her dark deathly aspect are "inseparable from her benign, life-giving aspect" (116).

However, in patriarchal thought, argues Rich, the Great Mother has been associated with the moon and has been devalued while masculine solar deities have taken centre stage. She notes how Apollo "assimilated a number of attractive aspects of the Great Mother" (125). With the sun representing the masculine, and the moon representing the Great Mother, a kind of archetypal imagery occurs which is troubling to Rich. The sun is constant and produces its own illumination. The moon, however, is sometimes not there at all, and only glows thanks to the radiance of the sun. Within this, one could argue, a patriarchal relationship is illustrated. As Rich writes: "with the advent of solar religion, the Great Mother, in her manifold persons and expressions, begins to suffer reductions; parts of her are split off, some undergo a gender change, and henceforth woman herself will be living on patriarchal terms, under the laws of male divinities and in the light of male judgments" (125). According to Rich, this light which illuminates the moon is a dominating and judgmental one. In the year 2000, Badu released her second album, Mama's Gun. As the name might suggest, it sees her adopting the role of a maternal figure in the African American community once again. Her concern with Black males is made evident from the very first song, Penitentiary Philosophy, which as the name suggests, imagines the ways the African American community is trapped in a penitentiary both literally and metaphorically.

Here's my philosophy

Livin' in a penitentiary

Brothers all on the corner

Tryin' to make believe

Turn around ain't got no pot to pee

Make me mad when I see ya sad

Can't stand to see ya hustle doin' bad

But you can't win when your will is weak

When you're knocked on the ground

The first verse imagines Brothers standing idly on the corner, and Erykah expresses empathy for them stating "Make me mad when I see ya sad/Can't stand to see ya hustle doin' bad". However, as a Great Mother, she also attempts to uplift, and proceeds to offer advice to the Brothers, stating "But you can't win when your will is weak". On the song "Orange Moon", Erykah makes use of the same archetypal imagery of the sun and the moon to illustrate the relationship between mothers and sons. However, in Erykah's interpretation, the Great Mother serve as an antidote to the loss of dignity faced by Black men in society, and she expresses this without the minimisation of women.

To understand the myths and symbolism which Badu draws from, it is worth noting that she is part of the Five-Percent Nation, also known as the Nation of Gods and Earths, which is a Black consciousness movement and an offshoot of Islam founded by Clarence 13X who was influenced by Malcom X and Elijah Muhammad who he met while he was a member of the Nation of Islam.

The Five-Percent Nation makes use numerology, astronomy, and a complex set of symbols to encode and convey their teachings which centre on the divinity of Black people. Such a philosophy arose in the 1960s in New York, Harlem, as a response to a society rife with anti-Black racism.

Within Five-Percenter symbolism, women are represented by the moon, while children are represented by the stars. This mystical imagery is expressed in the lyrics of 'Orange Moon' where Erykah sings the following:

I'm an orange moon

I'm brighter than before

Brighter than ever before

I'm an orange moon and I shine so bright

Cause I reflect the light of my sun

I praise the day, he turned my way

And smiled at me

He gets to smile and I get to be orange

Once again, as is the case with Rich's Great Mother, Badu positions herself as the moon who glows only through the illumination of the sun. However, Badu, is not just any moon. She is an orange moon, which is a kind of moon which occurs close to the Autumnal Equinox, and it is when the moon shines the brightest which brings to mind beautiful imagery of a glowing orange moon in the night sky. However, rather than see herself in a position of oppression, she praises the day she gets to be orange. Instead of seeing patriarchy in this archetypal imagery, Badu sees harmony.

How good it is, how good it is

How good it is, how good it is

How good it is, how good it is

How good it is, how good it is

Shine so bright

He ruled the day, I ruled the night

Shine, shine, shine

The lyric "he ruled the day, I ruled the night" suggest a relationship of equality despite these differing roles. The imagery of the orange moon also highlights this harmony, as the Autumnal Equinox is when the length of the day and night are equal, giving the sun and the moon equal time to rule over the Earth. It is worth noting that it could be argued that this song is about her eldest son specifically. Her son's name is Seven, and within the Five-Percenter system of Supreme Mathematics, the number seven represents God who is also represented by the sun.

What I argue is that in addition to being a religious praise song, this song, in keeping with Badu's theme as a mother figure, serves to uplift Black men by highlighting their importance within the Black community. With Black men in America being a demographic that has faced staggering incarceration rates and police brutality, to a large degree as a result of the ongoing War on Drugs, Badu offers an alternative, uplifting view of Black men as a source of light and knowledge which illuminates the world.

Comparing Adreinne Rich and Badu, we find polar opposite reactions to the Great Mother archetype, particularly when it is represented as a moon. While Rich sees a patriarchal picture of oppression, Badu sees a beautiful system of harmony. In short, we see the same archetype finding varied expression in Black and White American communities as a result of differing cultural forces. While Rich is afraid of her sons becoming oppressors, Badu is afraid of her sons becoming oppressed.

Conclusion

I like Eryka Badu because she articulates the crux of the issue so beautiful. What would a statue for Diallo do, when therer'll just be anther black victim, causing Dialo's name to be forgotten. How many of you eve remember Diallo's name? Instead she finds an infinite home for him in the cosmos where he can enjoy bringing the beautiful light that illuminates the beauty of women (the moon). It's an image of motherhood that may seem oppressive to some, but I view it as a trauma-triggered response to the fracturing of the Black community where key figures like mother and father are typically found outside the home.

Any, I wished to dispell common views of motherhood in the Black community. Black mothers are deathly afraid of their suns becoming victims which is why they are babied well into adulthood and kept in cribs. It's not social retardation, it's a reaction to a hostile work.

Thoughts, opinions, downmarseys!

Henlo freinds! Here is the second part of my fanfiction of lappland being raped behind a dumpster

!rapists can you please upvote and rate five starts and comment4comment!

It's okay. The love I had faded once we had our fun together. I don't like lying. Dishonesty is just something I can't support. I should've looked a little more, I'd have found your secret. But you can't trust the people you love. You were just wearing a mask, all the greetings and talking about your day wasn't real. The hair, the face, the chest, everything two-faced and a lie. I thought your face was wide open but it was all closed up and hidden so I had to make a scar in it, a mark of where it should've been split.

I was in my car, far part of the lot sitting in the darkness, I was late. Felt sorry. Clients always want specific times so I couldn't help it. Didn't even get to eat. I was famished. Then I saw you.

YOU. Walking outside with a ten gallon bag with the normal sway of your supple and tight hips being suppressed by your struggle, turned into a slow backwards drag of the black mass along the rocky asphalt. I felt anger at an angel from above getting filthy filling a dumpster. Anger seeing your pretty hands handle the sticky residue, anger at how you swing with the full weight of the bag to try getting it airborne.

And God you were in that dark area trying to fit them in the compactor, finally picking them up like an atlas stone of rubbish to the chest and caressing its bottom to get over the edge. I remembered though, the words "Sorry I'm not wanting one" go through my head over and over.

I opened my door and slithered out, slow to close it.

I thought we were similar. You  seemed lonely, never talkative. Even at those little events but I was wrong. Lie after lie after lie. You never told me why either. I can guess, not everyone is a model but it'd be nicer if you were direct. Didn't hide it, just say what you mean. I've dealt with worse.

You didn't notice, I wonder how you would have acted if you saw it coming, would you have smiled? Would it have been genuine or a feign for your discomfort, another mask you slip onto a mask already on a mask. Maybe you weren't so happy because you didn't know it was me at first but seeing me would have made you happy, that you wanted it real bad but were shy and this was a nice place.

Wanting it rough with a push into the compactor and a rag right against your mouth as my other arm felt along your body, tracing with my hand along your elegant thin hips and grabbing along. A bit of the thin thighs, some more of the hip and some playful squeezes of your pert ass.

I heard your groans and little cries as I circled my finger around your inner thigh, drawing circles and shell spirals in its dry sands.

But when I squeezed you down there, grabbing along your crouch I didn't feel any firmness. Nothing. The beach was wet and it was smooth along that mound. You kept squirming and shaking and crying and more while I felt myself go blank.

I was the fool.

You made me so.

I grappled at your belt while you still kept shaking like a wet dog until I managed to free your pants from their constraint and further your panties. White boxer looking ones and I kept until finally your ass glistened under the moon. I could feel the tears of your face mimic my soul as I felt from your stomach down again, the smooth curve and the slight wetness of your slit. You could feel as I moved away from you, I died down quick.

You were a girl.

I said that and you tensed a bit, let the rag a little loose to let you speak. More cries and asking me not to hurt you in little whispers but you danced around it and rubbed me like a kitten for attention.

I gently brought you down as you finally knew your role in our dance.

You have me a burbling yesh and some more streamed tears as you let yourself be gently led down near the metal beast with me atop. My knee was hitting your crouch from how I knelt over you, my arm holding down yours.

But seeing you sprawled around, your legs moving and shifting under my weight as they still refused to concede, wrapping around and loosening my legs like you were trying to simultaneously pull me in and flee. I pinned you with just one arm and used the other to prepare us both. It wasn't long, they were quick thrusts and I felt your wet, sticky face with that hand, trying to caress your cheek. Your little cries turned to silence by the end of the first minute. After the tenth you looked sort of dead, at least inside, eyes halfway open looking glazy like a doped fish, puffy from the tears. I didn't see the need to bring protection with me since normally I don't need them, you're not my type. This real you isn't my type, at least. You're so thin with your ribs sticking out that I thought I could see it poke from the stomach. Being that thin means it should be safe for you. I overheard that it makes your type have period issues. I think it's safe. You never leave home now so I don't know. I started to get up, leaving, letting you hit the floor, everybody walk the dinosaur.

I wuz writing the second part and learn that Lappland is NOT BOY

and i dont want to write GIRL rape but I NEED TO FINISH

I thought maybe I have Lappland get her head beaten in with rock and disfigyured and bleeding

but its called rape not justice

so i made it quikc. it be more epic but you are not a man

dis is in lit because lit cause this is pretty skibidi lit

why is the words purple WTF

EDITED FOR UPDOOTS

Lapp is a man MAYBE I GOT TRICK

SAD DAY

You don't need to see someone's face to know if they are biologically male or female. You can just watch their gait (walking manner). Women (female) take smaller steps, regardless of their height or size. The shorter female stride length is because females protruded their legs less vigorously with more hip abduction. You see, females generally have greater hip width. It would stand to reason that for comfort reasons, females would tend to focus more on hip abduction instead of taking longer steps.

This isn't the focus of the post. Instead, it's a story involving a MILF, a libertarian, and a dead queen. This is the tale of queuegate.

Remember 2022? One of the most important events of the year was the death of Queen Elizabeth II, one of the most powerful people on Earth. Though she was 96, the death still came as a surprise, as she seemed like a workhorse that would make it to 100. Instead, she perished during her nonagenarian years. Despite this, she holds the record of having the longest reign of any British monarch. She passed away on September 8 in Scotland, and for a while, it felt like the world came to a standstill. The queen had become a constant, and now she was gone.

BBC had the rights to make the official announcement under the process known as Operation London Bridge. The announcement was made by Huw Edwards (who has a public feud with Phillip Schofield, but that's a story for another day).

The Funeral

The event was a solemn one. Many wept, as the Queen was beloved and a symbol of the British Empire. It was also a massive event, costing an estimated $200 million, which is chump change for the Windsor family which is estimated to be worth close to $30 billion.

Around 2,000 people showed up at Westminster for the funeral where the Queen would finally be laid to rest at Windsor Castle, but not before being carried to Westminster Hall. The traditional bugle call of the British infantry rang and two minutes of silence was observed around Britain.

Of course, the event was deeply Christian as well, and there was a service headed by the Dean of Windsor, David Conner. The following prayer was recited by the Rector of Sandringham, the Minister of Crathie Kirk

and the Chaplain of the Royal Chapel,Windsor Great Park:

REMEMBER, O Lord, thy servant Elizabeth who has gone before us with the sign

of faith, and now rests in sleep. According to thy promises, grant unto her, and

to all who repose in Christ, refreshment, light and peace; through the same Jesus

Christ our Lord. Amen.

MERCIFUL Father and Lord of all life, we praise thee that thou hast made us in

thine image and that we reflect thy truth and light.We give special thanks for

the life of thy daughter Elizabeth, for the mercy she received from thee, and for the

example that through her life of service, love and faith, she has set before our eyes.

Above all, we rejoice at thy gracious promise to all thy servants, living and departed,

that we shall rise again at the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.We pray that, in due

time, we may share with our sister that clearer vision when we shall see thy face in

the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O FATHER of all, we pray to thee for those whom we love, but see no longer.

Grant them peace; let light perpetual shine upon them; and, in thy loving

wisdom and almighty power, work in them the good purposes of thy perfect will;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

O LORD, support us all the day long of this troublous life, until the shades

lengthen and the evening comes, the busy world is hushed, the fever of life is

over and our work is done; then Lord, in thy mercy, grant us safe lodging, a holy rest,

and peace at the last; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

LORD God Almighty, King of creation, bless our King and all Members of the

Royal Family. May godliness be their guidance, may sanctity be their strength,

may peace on earth be the fruit of their labours, and their joy in heaven thine eternal

gift; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

GOD save our gracious Sovereign and all the Companions, living and departed,

of the Most Honourable and Noble Order of the Garter. Amen.

The Queen was buried beside Prince Philip, the two reunited in death. The end of era. She was succeeded by King Charles III.

The Controversy

In addition to various world leaders, a select few media organizations were given special access to Westminster Hall to see the Queen in lying. This included ITV who were represented by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield. Trouble began when The Mail argued that the two presenters were not cleared to enter Westminster Hall, but used the weight of ITV's name to gain entrance. ITV gave the following response:

“Phillip and Holly had full accreditation which was organised by the This Morning production team. Any claims otherwise are untrue.”

The trouble this caused is nothing compared to Queuegate. Soon came the allegation that Phillip and Holly committed the worst crime possible you can as a Brit - they NSFW ahead Skipped the queue in the procession entering Westminster Hall! This caused outrage, as there people waiting up to 24 hours to see the Queen while it appears the stars got to see her at will! Things get worse. One person on Twitter posted images of their mother in a wheelchair along with the claim that she was pushed aside for Philip and Holly!

The accusations caused a massive stir, not just with the general public but also with corporations who decided to make the most of the backlash.

According to the Daily Mail, the duo was heckled as they skipped the quote, with one person saying, I kid you not, "Oi, Phil, Holly, get to the back of the queue!"

ITV defended its stars and denied all the claims. Furthermore, it assured the public that Holly and Phillip would face no repercussions nor were their jobs in danger. It seems, in the eyes of ITV, the whole furor was the product of a rumor run amock. Schofield gave the following response:

“The rules were that we would be quickly escorted around the edges to a platform to the back. In contrast, those paying respects walked along a carpeted area beside the coffin and were given time to pause. None of the broadcasters and journ*lists there took anyone's place in the queue and no-one filed past the Queen. We of course respected those rules however we realize it may have looked like something else and therefore totally understand the reaction. Please know that we would never jump a queue.”

This did not quell the outrage, because there was video footage of them appearing to bypass the queue altogether! Holly was hit hard, and for the next few episodes of This Morning, she appeared crestfallen. She had reason to be. At the National Televisions Awards, she was booed as she collected her award. It seemed the public had turned against her and she had become a villain.

Of course, time heals all, and eventually the controversy passed. Who could hate an angel like her?!

Did Phillip and Holly Skip the Queue

Yes, they absolutely did. In addition to the footage and the first-person accounts of the transgression, the now disgraced Phillip has discussed the matter and how the two panicked when the scandal broke out and has pretty much confessed.

They had no VIP access, they were not given permission, and they did not have media privileges. They just skipped the queue to see the Queen in lying.

Conclusion

Metal Gear Solid V has reignited my love for video games. Holy shit, now I try to get things done quickly so I can sneak in a mission of pure basedness. This is a PS3 game and it still sits as one of the best-looking games on the PS5. It also has some of, if not the, best gameplay of any game ever. This is my second playthrough and I'm still finding out little tricks and features I didn't know about the first time around. And don't get me started on the story and the visuals - only one person in the world could have imagined that up - Hideo Kojima.

I love the narcissism that shines through. How his name pops up on screen every ten minutes. It gives the feeling that you're experiencing one person's vision whereas video games usually feel like they were made by a soulless committee. There's so many little touches, bits and pieces of story that directly tie into the gameplay, like Snake's horn, and it all comes together so beautifully. It's like Kojima knitted a sweater of based gameplay and narrative. My top three games are: MGSV, The Last of Us Part 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2.

It's very, very clear that TLOU2 was heavily inspired by MGSV. In both games you're sucked into the dark cycle of violence, making the gameplay experience an exhilarating test of morality and empathy. I think TLOU2 does the cycle of violence story better, but MGSV is the overall better game.

Why do I say this? Well, The Last of Us Part 2 is centered around the idea of justice and how retributive justice can lead to cycles of violence. In short, one man's justice is another man's revenge. This leaves the player to consider how differently two people can view the same situation. It also brings to question the validity of retributive justice and the role of reconciliation. These are all intensely complex themes, but the game manages to tackle them with outstanding finesse, forcing players to consider both sides of a conflict and stretching their ability to rethink their worldviews in a medium that often presents the world as one of easily identifiable heroes and villains. MGSV tries to do the same, but on a wider scale - nations warring. The revenge becomes impersonal, the moral a platitude. Though there is the personal revenge between Snake (Ahab) and Skullface, it sits behind the historic larger world conflicts that sit at the forefront.

I have been a fan of Naughty Dog for many years and it has been interesting to see the studio evolve and improve all aspects of its games, including the visuals, narratives, and gameplay. The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered feels like a culmination of all of this, and the result is a gameplay experience that is simply too impactful to ignore. However, MGSV's gameplay still excels. It's beautifully intricate, testing your creativity in just the right way.

I finally crashed and fell asleep last night. I don't feel like hurting myself anymore, but I'm seeing my psychiatrist and psychologist tomorrow (at the same time). I may need a dosage adjustment of my meds. I hope they don't take away my ADHD medication because it's based.

Sorry for the repeated Holly's. I'm hungry and I'm not in the mood to creep through Pinterest and Instagram looking for more.

I was going to post this with my skydiving story tomorrow, but I thought I'd get this out the way first instead of making a 10-page post that covers a bunch of unrelated topics. I've also got a manicure appointment for Monday and a trip to the psychiatrist on Tuesday. Maybe I'll wait for Tuesday to cover skydiving, manicure, psychiatrist visits, and gynophobia in one go. But who knows? I was supposed to write a Holly biography months ago but that hasn't happened.

The Adventures of Pinocchio

I recently read this text and it had an incredible impact on me. I don't know why this is the archetypal book about lying because very little of it actually concerns the deed. Minimal scenes feature the whole nose-growing gimmick from the puppet.

The overwhelming majority of the text is in fact Pinocchio getting lied to and repeatedly swindled. Far more than “don't lie”, the underlying lesson is “don't be exploited”. As the book highlights this is a position you can mostly avoid by living the straight and narrow life, and doing as you're taught.

I related to this book a lot because I feel like I made the same mistakes the puppet did and faced some of the consequences. Since childhood you're told that it's pretty simple what's expected of you - get a respectable degree, get a good job, marry, and start your own family. When you're in your early twenties this sounds like SHIT. You gotta put on a button-down shirt and be a normie professional? Heck no, I'm special, I'm asexual I'm going to be a famous novelist I don't need your outdated boomer crap. You're being heteronormative!

I was swindled a million directions by folks promising me happiness and riches through all these alternate paths. It's false. The first thing I was told was the correct one, and if I had just continued doing that I would not be facing none of the problems I'm tangled in now.

This is not to say that no other life will give you fulfillment. There are good reasons sometimes to not be a normie - you're gay, you're incapable of monogamy, you're horribly disabled, you're a genius whose time is better spent on a project. But the truth is that it is exceptionally rare and unlikely that you will succeed with these paths. Being a boring normie will bring you the most happiness in almost all cases.

I'm witnessing this now with my parents. They're not perfect people, but they did the normie road, and they're feasting on the fruits of their labor. They both retired in their early 60s and they're financially well-endowed. My dad buys sports cars for fun and picks up random hobbies like playing the keyboard. My mom gets to enjoy finally resting after a long life, and she has no financial issues to worry about. They also have each other in old age.

Holy frick I want that life. I want to retire at 60 and have a loving wife to grow old with. I don't want to work until I die, I won't want to rent until I die, I don't want to be poor when I'm old - that is all suffering, intense suffering, but you don't even anticipate it when you're in your 20s because your brain's not fully developed. Well, some people are mature enough to plan out their lives. I'm not one of those people.

Ultimately, Pinocchio is a puppet in multiple ways:

a) Physically - which needs no explanation

b) Socially - he strays from the straight and narrow, and refuses to work, and it results in him being a puppet to those offering him the promise of an idyllic life. If he just worked and earned his own money, he would be no slave to those around him, and there would be nothing they could offer him to control or tempt him.

c) Biologically - he is a slave to his impulses. He is lazy and hedonistic. Being a slave to these drives causes him to avoid work and seek pleasures however troublesome they may be. He becomes a human when these impulses no longer control him. This is the point where we stop being puppets - when the base impulses of our brains no longer manipulate us. If you can get angry and not be driven to violence, you are not a puppet. If you're lazy and you still go to the gym, you are not a puppet. You are a real human - the opposite of an NPC.

So I want to be a good boy, a real boy, a human. How much of me has to die for this to occur? Is it a matter of change, or a case of simply finding the right situations? The truth is that it is probably both. I am in need of social skills, but I also need opportunities to be a human, and they don't exist sitting in front of my computer.

My favorite quotes from The Adventures of Pinocchio

1. You scoundrel of a son! You are not even finished, and you already disobey your father! That's bad, my boy - very bad.

2. Woe to those boys who revolt against their parents, and run away from home. They will never do anything good in this world, and sooner or later they will repent bitterly.

3 I know I have been a very bad boy, and that the talking cricket was right when he said, “Disobedient children never do any good in the world.” I have learnt it at my expense, for I have suffered many misfortunes!

4. My boy, never trust people who promise to make you rich in a day. They are generally crazy swindlers.

5. I have learnt that to earn money honestly, you must know how to do it with the labour of your hands, or with your brains.

6. How many dreadful things have happened to me! And I deserved them, for I am obstinate as a mule and deceitful as Lethe himself. I always wanted my own way, and never listened to those who loved me, and who had a thousand times more sense than I had. But from now I shall lead a different life, and become an obedient boy. I have learnt the lesson that disobedient children never prosper, never gain anything.

7. I wanted to be a good for nothing, and a vagabond. I listened to evil companions, so I have always been unlucky. If only I had been a good boy, like so many others - if I had been willing to study and work, if I had stayed home with my poor father - I would not be here now in this lonely place.

8. He was ashamed to beg. His father had told him several times that only the aged and the crippled have a right to beg. Poor, really poor people in this world - those who really deserve help and pity - are those who , by reason of old age or sickness, are no longer able to earn their living by their own labor. It is everybody else's duty to work; and if they refuse to work, and are hungry, so much worse for them.

9. Remember that every man, rich or poor, must find something to do in this world; everybody must work. Woe to those who lead idle lives! Idleness is a dreadful disease, of which one should be cured immediately in childhood; if not, one never gets over it.

10 Boys who study always make those who don't small by comparison, and we don't like it.

11. “What can I do to deserve to become a man?” “It's very easy; you begin by being a good boy.”

12. Children who love their parents, and help them when they are sick and poor, are worthy of praise and love, even if they are not moels of obedience and good behaviour.

Being overwhelmed

Life isn't perfect, obviously. You'll do things you're not supposed to do, either by mistake or on purpose. You also can't control random events around you, or the actions of others. Consequently, disappointment is impossible to avoid.

Knowing this rationally is different from experiencing it. There's a deep pain and desire for suicide if someone hoots at me on the road, or if a social interaction doesn't go perfectly at work. The stress is unbearable, and it fills me with intense self-loathing - imagine a bucket of viscous, steaming hate being poured into a vat, and that's what it's like in my head. It feels like my very essence and core are evil, and my continued existence is an act of malevolence.

I deserve to be punished for my badness, my sinister flaws, and my inability to justify my existence. The perfect punishment - cutting. Go deep, do it multiple times, until you can't take it anymore. It hurts so bad but that's the point. Wide, white cuts what I deserve. If you're really filled with emotion you can actually do a nice swipe that doesn't just reach the white meat but also slices into it. You're left with a gaping wound, long and wide. This is pretty much stitches territory, but some improvised first-aid will also work, though you WILL scar for life.

Do it to yourself enough times, and you'll be nothing but dark lines. You run out of space, and you just cut over old scars. It looks psychotic though the act of cutting is done pretty calmly and routinely. You pick a tool, a spot to cut, and what aftercare you'll employ. It's rationally implemented, nothing like a psycho slashing away with wanton abandon. Do it enough times, you'll even have the bandages and antiseptics ready for the aftermath.

In the thick of it, weird psychological shit happens. You can forget you did it at all and wake up with a bloody bed, barely believing what you did to yourself the night prior. It hurts in the morning, but you have no recollection of any pain or anguish, even if you remember the cutting event. I really relate to these lyrics in Stan by Eminem:

>'Cause I don't really got shit else, so that shit helps when I'm depressed

>I even got a tattoo with your name across the chest

>Sometimes I even cut myself to see how much it bleeds

>It's like adrenaline, the pain is such a sudden rush for me

The impulsiveness, the hunt for the pain I deserve, that desire to continue mutilating myself through facial piercings, it is all captured perfectly in those lines. Being depressed and not knowing what the frick else to do, but the razor blade, it promises relief, and familiarity and comfort.

Can anyone relate to the experience I'm describing? Emotions so all-consuming that slicing yourself is inevitable. It's a choice and not a choice at the same time. At that point, the cut represents everything - that ineffable inner turmoil, every past injustice, all the self-loathing, it's all concentrated in this one cut. It stays white for a few moments, then the blood flows and the excruciating pain hits - what a relief! The pain's not scattered all over my brain, it's just in one place.

My GP referred me to a psychiatrist who'll finally be seeing me next week. I've taken a vow of honesty, so I'll have to admit to drug use if he asks, which I do not want to do at all. I don't want anyone telling me to stop vaping weed because the answer is no, and I'm not arguing about it.

I haven't cut in a few weeks but we all know it's only a matter of time.

Nofap

It's very embarrassing to admit but I want to push radical honesty as far as I can as frequently as possible. I've been on nofap since 26 December for issues I'm not quite ready to delve into yet. Consequently, the thought of ending my inceldom has become an obsessive topic in my head. I don't know if this is a good or a bad thing, but it's driven me into a situation where it's at the forefront of my mind and I'm constantly scheming about how to get around this problem.

It feels like having a dirty house - you can never truly relax until you've solved the problem. With fapping, you're temporarily dulled to the truth. You've tricked your brain into thinking your house is clean. If you fap regularly, you can end up forgetting your house was dirty at all. With nofap, there are no more illusions. I need to clean my house (coom) or else I will find no peace.

Taking advice

I had previously mentioned my desire to get piercings. A few rdrama users warned me against it. You know what? I'll take your advice for now, I'm not unamenable. I desperately want to, however, and I can't promise that I won't eventually. I want to feel pain and disfigure myself. Well, better explained, I don't want to, but I crave it.

Consequently, my fifth courage challenge is to drive a long distance to an unknown place instead of acquiring my first piercing. This will be necessary to do tomorrow because the closest place that offers skydiving is an hour away, which is an hour and a half of driving for me. This will be the second-furthest I've ever driven. The first time I did long-distance driving was pre car crash so I didn't have a driving fear yet.

The thought alone terrifies me. I keep imagining myself taking a wrong turn and ending up on the wrong side of the road on the freeway, or trying to make a lane change and colliding with an SUV. Nevertheless, I'm just pushing through the fear and forcing myself to do it. The Payton Gendron quote is ingrained into my brain: “I'm doing it.”

This is genuinely the part that is the actual challenge and test of fear, far more than skydiving. I've decided to do the drive completely sober - well, almost completely sober, I'll probably vape some weed that morning as I always do but that doesn't count, it doesn't impair me. But no pills, alcohol, or anything to calm my nerves. I'm raw-dogging it.

I will bring my vape and hit it a few times when I get to the location because I do want to be baked when I skydive.

Also, fun fact: I named my car Asuka Soryu because it is orange lol

In case anyone was wondering, the five acts of courage I've committed myself to are

1. go to nightclub (complete)

2. go skydiving

3. get a manicure

4. join hiking club

5. drive long distance to unknown area

After completing them, I can take the word Coward off my mirror. A lesson from David Goggins.

conclusion

Well, going to try and get some sleep tonight so I can be ready for skydive tomorrow. I also just want to forget about work where I don't think I did everything the right way and it's stressing me out that maybe I'm a liability. Lastly, I highly advise working out. It feels very good afterward and I think it's played a big role in preventing nofap relapses - just fill up your time, free time is the enemy. You also feel a little more confident at the end even if you aren't brock lesner.

I feel like I'll regret speaking publicly about nofap but whatever. It is done. This is my truth.

The self-sabotage of lying

Yes, a financially poor mentally ill truecel is about to give you life advice.

The following discussion concerns lying and why you should never do it, no matter how terrible the consequences initially seem. This is going to be a fairly long post, but I hope by the end of it, you understand my position.

What led to the no lying policy?

There was a very specific experience I witnessed that completely convinced me that lying only serves to worsen your life. I know I tell a lot of these academia stories, so if they're boring please let me know and I'll stop. With that said, here's the event in question:

So I knew an English professor, let's call her Debbie. Overall, she was mostly a good person and I'd really only criticize her for still smoking disgusting cigarettes in current year. Despite not acting like it, she is actually insanely overqualified and intelligent. She has two Masters degrees, one from fricking Cambridge University.

I'm not part of the staff team of course, but I got to know the workplace pretty well just from all the years I wasted there (almost an entire fricking decade - worst mistake of my life to date). One day, during a meeting, Debbie was verbally attacked by a pipsqueak fellow staff member (let's call her Lisa) who is far less qualified and experienced than her. Lisa is highly disagreeable and quite frankly one of the most unpleasant people I have ever met, even on the most superficial level. If I found out she had colon cancer I would give 0 shits (pun intended) because I'm convinced she's a sociopath who would feel nothing for anyone else.

Anyway, back to Debbie. How did she react to the attack? Days later, she's acting like she's best buddies with Lisa!

Seeing this, I noticed that I had lost all respect or even sympathy for Debbie. She was obviously hurt and disrespected by Lisa. There was no reason for there to be any civility between them because Lisa had used many fancy words to essentially tell Debbie to frick off, and publicly so.

Debbie, you know this person has no respect for you, they will attack you publicly, and they fear no retribution. Why are you smiling as though she's your friend? YOU ARE LYING. This behavior isn't arbitrary. Her continued lie to both herself and others attempting to convince them that she's fine was keeping her in an environment where she was destined to be treated the same way yet again one day.

Do you know what the correct response would be? Debbie, you tell Lisa you think she's a disrespectful piece of shit, and if she speaks to you like that again, you're going to leave (or promise violence if she genuinely felt capable of it and was willing to do it). Would that cause conflict? Yes. But it also would have set the HONEST boundaries of the relationship.

There are so many people tolerating toxic relationships and workplaces, being ruled over by a tyrant and the reason it continues is because you can't open your mouth and tell that tyrant to FRICK OFF. So you lie and act like it's okay. Why do you lie?:

• Afraid of losing your job and affecting your finances

• Afraid of damaging a relationship with a boyfriend/parent/loved one

• Terrified of conflict

• Lack of experience (you've lied so much you literally don't know how to be honest with your feelings)

The terrible, terrible consequence of this is that you remain stuck in the same position. If you're lucky, you'll just experience stagnancy. The more realistic scenario is that shit escalates because you've proven yourself to be a good target for malice.

It took me a long time to understand this about life, but in adulthood, people who are being bullied or mistreated often fully deserve it, including me.

Reason? We lied very early on about what we were willing to tolerate, so the treatment only got worse. If we told the truth at the very beginning - “stop that shit I don't like it” - it would have almost certainly stopped.

The nature of bullying is that your target is weaker than you physically/mentally/financially/professionally. When you're mistreated and you don't say anything, you prove yourself to be both mentally and emotionally weak - an irresistible target for a bully. It's like white girls walking alone in India in short skirts - you deserve what's coming, and you brought it on yourself.

This isn't high school. You're not stuck going to the same building every day if you don't want to. And you most certainly have the legal right to fricking deck anyone once they even remotely attempt to intimidate you. An honest punch is more moral than a fake smile. Losing your job in that scenario is noble, but you're a fricking pathetic, scared liar so you don't/can't understand that. Instead, you'll pretend things are fine when they're not.

If you are guilty of this in any capacity, cease this behavior right now. Stop lying to yourself and stop lying to others, regardless of who you're talking to and how much power they have. I promise you that your life will drastically improve if you stop lying. I hope to convince you of this by the end of this article.

What is lying

That image above. YOU JUST KNOW.

There are so many questions that surround the concept of a “lie” that I don't think we even have a universally agreed-upon definition for it just yet, and I'm not arrogant enough to believe I've solved the problem.

The consensus is that a lie is the opposite of the truth. But that definition doesn't help much, because we could have a debate for days over what “truth” is. Nevertheless, when we talk about lying in regular society, we're typically referring to the act of intentionally misrepresenting what you believe to be true.

I would add one detail to this definition. You don't need to mislead another person to lie - lies told to yourself are still lies. Not accepting the nature of reality is a lie to yourself. And it's these lies that are perhaps the most dangerous.

Do definitions matter? Yes, I believe they do in this case. Most of the time, we know we're lying. However, there are cases where people need to be shown the dishonesty within their words or actions. This is the case for several reasons.

1. Firstly, we lie so routinely that we start to not recognize the falsehoods in our words (e.g. I love you, I'm okay).

2. Secondly, it can be difficult to accept that you've lied to yourself because it requires a drastic change in your perception of reality, the one you were trying to run away from (e.g. I cannot afford the car I'm driving, I caused my break-up, I'm an addict).

So not only is lying hard to define, but it can also be hard to determine when we've lied. This is slightly different from something like, say, theft, when we all know exactly what it is and when we've done it intentionally. Why? We'll dive into that in a moment, but there's a little more theoretical groundwork to lay down first.

What kinds of lies are there?

There's a seemingly countless variety of lies we can tell, with some of them being more controversial than others. There are some common types of lies that we face every day. Here are some examples:

1. White lies - these are lies we tell with good intentions. Usually to spare someone's feelings or protect them from a horrible truth. I consider these to be one of the worst kinds of lies because we do them daily without realizing how much we are actually destroying our relationships with each other. We tell these lies, the victim sees through them, and they lose all respect for you. I have no respect for people who tell me “white lies”.

Furthermore, if your life is believed, it prevents people from solving otherwise simple problems. Instead of saying “No Sandra, you're not fat!”, just tell her the truth - “You're a fat frick, it's unhealthy, and it reflects badly on your personality because fat people are rightfully seen as greedy and undisciplined. Your life would improve if you lost weight.” Sandra needs to hear the truth, but you'll lie to her, and she'll never improve.

2. Black lies - These are lies told by BIPOCs. Just kidding. Black lies are those we tell with conscious and deliberate malice or ill intent. Lying to get money, to cheat, to get out of trouble etc. Most people would find these to be the worst kinds of lies, but I disagree. I find them to be the most “honest” kind of lie. The person telling the lie knows they're lying, they know they're being immoral, and they're going ahead with the deed. Unlike the other kinds of lies, there's no confusion or obfuscation of the immorality of the action.

What is the last black lie you have told?

3. Honest lie - This is also known as the “black truth” and it is the kind of lie wielded by experts in dishonesty. I do not mean to be misogynistic, but I've also noticed it is the kind of lie I've pretty much only seen women use. You deceive by telling the truth. It's a complex thing, and it takes good social skills to pull off. An example: you tell me I'm fat (the truth). The next day you tell me I'm fat (the truth). The day after you tell me I'm fat (the truth). You've acknowledged no other part of my humanity, and reduced me to merely a “fat person”. I may be a person that's fat, but it's a lie to convince me I'm solely a “fat person”. I have more value than that.

I'm not fat by the way, just an example. I refuse to be fat. Even as an incel, that's below me.

4. Defamation/Slander - Once again, this is the kind of lie I see used mainly by women. Someone wants your reputation damaged, so they tell a lie about you. The lie usually has some truth to it, but things have been exaggerated, or context has been left out. It doesn't matter so long as it makes you look bad.

5. Lie by omission - This is a controversial one. You lie by not saying something. It's difficult to gauge what a lie by omission is because we all have a right to privacy. However, I believe deep down we all know when we're using the guise of privacy to hide truths that should be revealed. A very common example - you wanna have s*x with your female friend. You don't say it - you just orbit. You understand the dynamics of the situation would be different if you admitted your true intentions but you don't. You haven't told a lie, but you're certainly lying.

6. The big lie - During my lying days, these were the kinds of lies I would tell. Go big or go home. Tell a lie so preposterous that nobody would believe you'd lie about something so massive.

7. The cover-up lie - I'd argue this is probably one of the most common lies. We've all done it. There is almost certainly someone reading this that is in the midst of a cover-up lie in your life right now. Some of you have been keeping up this cover-up for years.

You fricked up, you don't want anyone to know, so you lie. This lie is initially useful, but it almost always results in the “snowball effect”. You need a second lie to bolster the first, then a third, then a fourth, and now you're stuck in a matrix of lies that are bound to be uncovered at some point. It's probably the most stressful kind of lie as well because not only do you have to worry about your lies, but you're also stressing about the initial thing you were trying to cover up.

There are other kinds of lies we could discuss such as exaggerations, half-truths, and malingering (another big one), but with the above, we cover the gamut of lies you'll probably tell and hear daily.

Origins of lying

It is estimated that children learn to lie at around age three when they start to have an improved theory of mind. They understand that you have your own mind, separate from theirs, and that two people can believe different things. It's as if we're all born Jungians believing in collective consciousness, then we're rapidly ripped from that and thrown into solipsism.

Left to their own devices, children will lie without any guilt. This is different from other acts we deem immoral that children often have an ingrained sense of guilt over. An example is unfairness. It's a concept so primitive that toddlers as young as 19 months will express moral outrage at any situation that seems even remotely unfair.

https://healthland.time.com/2012/02/20/even-babies-can-recognize-whats-fair

Dogs, cows, apes - they all understand unfairness and will object to it.

For some reason, lying doesn't follow these rules. To the contrary, lying is a cognitive milestone, and to some degree, you should want your child to have a period of lying, as it demonstrates a developed theory of mind. Lying is an expected part of childhood development.

Here's where the issue arises - from ages 4 to 6, children will do the most lying. They're discovering the world, learning about other humans, and understanding their place in society.

Smart kids will lie the most, and then they'll learn how to do it well, and if they do it convincingly then it will help them avoid trouble and succeed socially. And quite frankly, at that age, it's not really possible to fully understand the perniciousness of lying, especially because telling the truth will almost always land you in a bad position. You broke the window? Why the frick be honest about it? So you can get into trouble? Just say you don't know how it happened and you're spared punishment. If you're a smart child, you can even lay down evidence to make it seem like the dog did it.

It's not entirely obvious to a child at this age why they shouldn't use this effective tool, and if you don't ingrain the idea that lying is wrong during these years, you run the risk of breeding an incorrigible pathological liar. Remember, there's no natural moral repulsion to lying, probably because evolutionarily, lying also serves as a viable mating strategy. You may not form a good long-term relationship with lies, but you can sure as frick lie your way to quick s*x.

So we need to teach children that lying is wrong, which is something even adults have trouble fully explaining or understanding beyond the simple “people don't like it when you lie to them.” This isn't a useful lesson. All you're telling your child is that they need to lie well enough to not get caught.

Adults have a second problem to deal with - they're also big fat liars. Any attentive child will recognize that adults lie frequently, including their own parents. Furthermore, the “wrongness” of lies seems to vary. This isn't like, theft for example. You can teach a child to never steal anything, and your child will probably never see you steal because most adults don't. On the other hand, children are punished by their parents for lying but can see that their parents also lie.

The end result? Most of us grow up believing lying is wrong, but not always wrong. I'm sure you can understand this. Have you ever given a false compliment? I'm sure you never felt any guilt about it at all. You may have even felt good about saying something nice to someone, regardless of how untrue it is.

This is the most interesting thing I find about lying. We consider it to be immoral, yet it seems to illicit little to no feelings of guilt. We ultimately have to teach ourselves to not lie, and figuring out why you shouldn't lie isn't always obvious.

Why do we lie?

I've mostly answered this question already - it's useful, at least in the short term. Here's a brief list of things lying can get you:

• Escape trouble or negative consequences

• Avoid blame

• Convince people we will do something we have no intention of doing

• Appear better than you are

• Make someone feel better

• Avoid confrontation

• Commit fraud and other crimes to net you money

• Harm people you don't like by lying about them

• Lead people to make poor decisions because of incorrect information

It's also worth mentioning that not all lies have these benefits. Some lies are told for no reason other than the satisfaction of knowing you fooled someone. These are cases of “duper's delight” and in this realm, we're usually discussing pathological liars. That deserves its own post, as with this post, I'd like to focus on the fricked up and unnecessary lies otherwise moral folks tell daily.

I write this post as a reformed liar. I was never a pathological liar but I darn well have used lying to help me in life. Estimates suggest that people tell about two lies daily, which is where I would place my prior self. I'll also admit that I felt no guilt lying (and still don't), and while I recognize the wrongness of the lies I've told, they don't weigh on my conscience at all.

A lot of lying was to my father specifically, because he was violent when I was younger, so lying was a form of self-preservation. The consequence of this is that it taught me to lie to all superiors, as though they'll also beat the shit out of me if I upset them. Bad life lesson to learn, and a difficult mindset to grow past.

Here are some of the lies I told:

• I swear I'm not drunk!

• That's okay!

• It doesn't matter.

• I'm not upset.

• I'm sorry.

• I lied to my parents about failing a subject in one semester of my 1st year of university

• I didn't declare all income sources on my tax forms

• I lie to my family about being Christian

• I'm pretty sure I lie to myself about my true levels of bitterness toward women

Do I feel bad about these lies? No, but I believe they all led to worse long-term outcomes than if I had just told the truth.

The Stress of Lying

As I said, lying doesn't trigger a guilt response unless you were raised to have one, or life experiences have taught you this lesson. For most of us, it's pretty easy to lie and we'll forget about it ten seconds later, not feeling bad about it at all. Nevertheless, lying can stress you out.

You have the task of convincing the person of a mistruth which requires acting skills, a good memory, or knowledge you don't have. If you're discovered, you could face consequences and reputational damage, not to mention damaged relationships.

So even if we don't feel guilt, lying is often a stressful experience. Personally, I have anxiety disorder so really whether I'm lying to you or telling the truth, I'm still going to be stressed out by communicating at all. The truth content of my statement doesn't really matter which makes lying all the more easier.

Why you shouldn't lie - harm to others

Wewlad one of my favorite Holly's above.

In the Bible, the devil is referred to as the father of lies, and that deception is his mother tongue. Of all the things the devil could be characterized as - king of murderers, the r*pe ruler - he is instead depicted as a liar.

In the Bible, we witness God kill thousands if not millions. Yet when Satan, the villain of the story, shows up, his strategy is to lie. Worth thinking about, isn't it? The Bible doesn't just rebuke lies - they seem to be deeply tied to the very core of sin itself.

I hate it when people say the serpent didn't lie to Eve (and yes the serpent is Satan, it doesn't need to be explicitly stated, it is contextually obvious). The serpent without a doubt lied. He promised that they would not die if she ate the fruit. Epic troll! God finds out and darns the whole of humanity to death.

“In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” - (Genesis 3:17)

So why this big focus on lying in religion? Because the ancients recognized how lies were enough to destroy nations. The most important words Eve speaks are “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” In short, the lie I was told ruined my life. This is what you do to others when you lie to them. You lead them astray, causing them to draw false conclusions and ultimately not act in the best way.

Why you shouldn't lie - harm to self

Let's say you don't give a shit about others. Why is lying wrong for you? Lying is quite possibly the most destructive thing you can do in your life. It is probably the biggest thing blocking you right now from improving your life. I'll list the four main reasons:

1. It obfuscates situations that are already present but you refuse to acknowledge.

An example - you do OnlyFans but your family is conservative. Your dad would disown you if he knew. Okay, so what the frick is the point of the fake relationship? The truth is that it already ceased to exist the second you posted your first nude.

Your dad has already rejected you. He's just talking to a false illusion of yourself that you've formed. Just tell him the truth, get formally disowned, and you can move on with your life with the facts of reality no longer obfuscated. But that's scary, so we lie.

Now, I gave the OnlyFans example, but how many of us are currently in similar situations? Hiding shit and lying about it because we fear rejection or abandonment? Lying to work colleagues about how much you like them or your job, lying to friends about romantic feelings you hold, lying to parents about your degeneracies. Just rip the fricking band-aid off and tell the truth. It will completely declutter your life of all the shit that doesn't need to be there.

I've spoken at length about my friend S.H. whom I had feelings for but got rejected.

https://rdrama.net/post/224434/i-told-my-friend-i-have

I was heartbroken at first - still am - but god it feels good to finally be past it. I'm so glad I can close that chapter and move on instead of lying to her pretending the friendship was purely platonical. It's over, I lost a friend, but I understand now that I had truly lost that friend long ago when I first developed feelings, and everything after that was just the anguish of continuing a friendship based on a lie.

Yes, it may make me a horny incel that I don't want to talk to her anymore if she doesn't want to frick me, but now I have one less person to worry about, and I can start devising other ways I can use women for s*x. My current ideas:

a) Ask the cute budtender at the weed dispensary on a date

b) Go to the local gay club and pick up a transmale with a vagina

c) Join the Mormon church down the road

d) Join the local hiking club

2. When you lie, you are often avoiding setting necessary boundaries

A homeless man asks you for money. You say you don't have any. You're lying. How about being honest to the man and telling him the truth - “you're half-drunk, I don't trust you, and I doubt you'll use this money for good. You're also making me and everyone you beg from uncomfortable.”

You would be surprised at how many people in such a situation will actually apologize, perhaps even explain why they're down on their luck, and at which point, they would be forced to consider and pursue legitimate ways of making money. Your harsh but true words are probably the wake-up call they need.

Stop saying shit is okay when it's not, or pretending you're fine with things you aren't okay with. Whether it's friends, colleagues, romantic partners, or even your superiors. I promise you they know you're lying and respect you less for it. When they ask you for something ridiculous or treat you unkindly, they do so because they know you're a liar who'll never admit that they've had enough. You're being mistreated - and rightfully so - because of your own lies.

It's hard to do at first, especially if you're someone who hates hurting other people's emotions and is scared to say no. But the more you do it, the easier it becomes, and the more respect you have for yourself.

Another real-world example - I'm currently visiting my parents. I chronically lie to my dad because he was violent during my childhood, so lying was a form of self-preservation. This time around, my dad wanted me to do something with him in the afternoon. I didn't want to, so I said so without sugar-coating it. Following this, he's actually been a lot more respectful towards me. He sensed the b-word in me was gone, I was being honest, and people respect that, even if you say shit they don't like.

People will mistreat you until you stop lying and acting like you're okay with it.

Being shy, introverted, scared, and anti-confrontation are all insufficient reasons to not SAY THE WORD “NO”.

If you think you're being underpaid at work, Don't lie and act like it's fine. Bring your proof of your true value and say so. Go to your boss and tell them “I've been working here 6 years, I've got a higher degree than all my peers, yet my salary hasn't changed. Pay me more or I'll leave.” If you're smart about it, you'll actually go to job interviews first, receive a salary offer, then go to your boss and tell them to pay you that amount or you'll frick off.

It goes the other way as well. If you're struggling with your job and its requirements, don't lie and fake competence. Maybe you do need a demotion where you can learn the basics better and, in the long run, become a better worker. Yes, you'll earn less, but you'll avoid the shitstorm that is fricking something serious up because of your incompetence. We all know these people at work. They know they're not qualified for their job, so they need to try every trick in the book to keep the lie up, and it ends up negatively affecting everyone, including you who has to fix their inevitable frick-ups.

3. You will eventually lie to yourself, and you will never know who you truly are.

None of us are perfect. We have twisted, sick desires. We want degenerate shit. And sometimes, we're driven by malice.

Hiding these things from ourselves only makes our Jungian shadow larger, and that shadow will darken everything it touches. This is the reason you need a good friend or, ideally, a good husband/wife who will accept you regardless of what you admit. Someone whom you cannot lie to regardless of how fricked up the truth is.

Yes, a friend can serve this purpose, but nothing replaces a spouse who has already (honestly) vowed to never leave you. A friend will reject you for your truths. A good spouse will only love you more for admitting them.

Are you a porn addict? The answer's obviously yes. If you're hiding it, the habit only gets worse and more obscene.

Here's a challenge - tell the person you love most about precisely what porn you watch and I'm not even kidding

“Hey X, I watch porn for hours at a time and it's been getting increasingly sick. I like seeing squirting and it's progressed to piss porn. I like gangbangs and it turns me on more when women seem like they don't like it.”

Firstly, you'll learn whether your loved one's love is unconditional if they don't abandon you. Secondly, just admitting these things is likely to end it all. The fetishes fester under the shadow of shame.

4. You stop yourself from learning about reality

Telling the truth is hard. Like, one of the hardest things to do in life. But if you prove to yourself that you can tell the truth, it gets easier which prepares you for the bigger truths you'll eventually need to tell.

Another real-world example. It was hard to tell my friend the truth that I liked her romantically. It didn't turn out the way I wanted, but now I know that I am capable of expressing romantic feelings to women. Importantly, I also learned a lesson - DON'T ORBIT FOR YEARS, it'll only suck worse when you're rejected. Now I can act better in the future with a clearer understanding of how reality works.

If I like you, I'm probably going to tell you as soon as I know it now. Reject me or accept me. I know this reality is better than holding it in forever.

Are there exceptions?

Of course, there are no absolutes in life. I fully support lying to the police and committing perjury in court. Lying weakens these systems and prevents them from functioning, which is the ultimate goal. Police should be misled, and in court, regardless of your guilt, your only aim should be to avoid being put in a cage where you may face r*pe and violence.

There are also extreme cases, but these will likely never come up in your life. For example, it's the day of the rope and you're hiding black people in your house. A Proud Boy knocks on your door and asks if there are any neighbors in there. Lie! A life is worth more than a moral code.

CONCLUSION

When you start only telling the truth, you will initially have more conflict in your life. You will lose friends. You will be judged as people disapprove of your actions and the degeneracies you've been hiding.

But when you come out the other end, you'll be a better person with a better life. You will be closer to the things you truly want.

Notice that I haven't said anything about trustworthiness or reputation. I don't give a shit about that. Whether you think I'm a liar or a truth-teller is irrelevant to me. Reputation and trustworthiness are not good reasons to not lie. You can tell the truth and still garner the reputation of a liar if your truths are unliked. A good liar can have a reputation as an honest person.

So, when you're ready, take that vow of honesty, and promise yourself to never lie again. If you don't want to go to lunch with someone upon invitation - tell them you don't enjoy their company. Is someone annoying you at work? Tell them to leave you alone, and that their behavior annoys you. Did you make a mistake, forget to do something, or just make a bad choice? Oh well, just say so. Who cares! Do you have a shameful habit or some kind of degeneracy you engage in behind closed doors? Maybe being honest about it will open the door for a well-needed conversation.

If you got this far, thank you for reading. Wishing you a wonderful festive season!

!effortposters

@MrsFrozenClaus

Subreddit link in case of drama

Jose, 29, Dallas TX

Self-rated 4/10 financially and slowly declining

Career/Business stuff:

• Personal Trainer

• Started a gym

  • Signed lease a year ago

  • Opened 6-9 months

  • "All of it's debt" (did not save up money before starting)

  • One of his clients loaned him money to help get gym started

• Has his business/personal life merged, difficulty separating the two

• Bringing in 10k a month

  • "Now after expenses what does that look like" "Gonna be honest I haven't done the math" timestamp

  • "I am uhh slightly in the red"

  • "I would say right now it costs about 2 grand roughly" a month to run the business

  • Rent is 1600 a month, going to go up in July to 4'600

    • Was on a 6 month "baiters" lease? I didn't hear this part clearly

• Only employee is his girlfriend, she keeps about 60% commission

  • brings in 4'500 for the business? Not sure

  • "A lot of our finances are also intertwined"

• 0 cost on equipment besides a loan on a body scanner?

  • $160 a month

• Bought cleaning supplies in bulk and hasn't needed to buy more since then

• Electricity - 150, 200 a month

• Water currently included with the lease?

• Internet about $80

• Pandora subscription $10

• Insurances

  • Doesn't have them

• Business credit card debt

  • "Under a special program that they have" reduced interest, reduced monthly payment

  • "About 370"

• Personal Loan from the client

  • Lent 50k

  • Paying him 1360 a month but through an exchange of services? Trains him/wife 3 times a week

• Personal Loan

  • 170 monthly payment

• Has an LLC set up

  • Not currently funneling money through this before it gets to him

• Setting money aside for taxes? (this wasn't mentioned)

• Should be around 3000 dollars of profit but he doesn't know where it goes

• Currently struggling to hire a trainer, has two-three leads per month he's able to handle?

• No base pay for the new hire, 40% commission only for anyone interested

• Had a friend he set up a deal with for training at the gym and the bridge got burned for various reasons

  • deets timestamp

• Had another guy who put his two weeks in 3 weeks ago they've been looking for someone since then

• Plans to start doing youtube content to help promote the gym

Debts:

• Blue Cash Preferred Amex (Card 1) $4898:

  • $86 minimum payment, made $55 in purchases on this card

  • Doesn't know what those purchases on there, thought he had already canceled everything on this card

  • $33 interest charged (409 total so far this year)

  • On this card with his gf

• Blue Business Amex (Card 2) 12'691:

  • Business card

  • 371 minimum payment

  • $40 new purchases, $81.47 in interest charged, $1112 interest total for this year

  • 691 above credit limit

  • Thought he had canceled everything on it

  • Purchases at two record stores and disney+

• Inbody scanning machine thing

  • 63 month term

  • 36'260 total financed, has paid maybe 5000?

  • $100 monthly payment since May of last year

  • No interest

• Upstart Loan

  • Took it out because the lease was about to start and he didn't have the money for first month's rent (had already signed the lease)

    • Story and reasoning timestamp

  • 30% interest loan

  • Minimum monthly payment (he doesn't remember it) timestamp

Savings/Expense:

• Business checking:

  • $30 -> $1239

  • Lot of zelles in (clients), some zelles from himself into the account

  • Lots of Amazon purchases (at least 15 separate purchases)

    • Gym equipment

    • Some of his other purchases here: timestamp

    • PSN payment is on the business account

  • G-suite

  • $34 overdraft fee

  • Zelle payments timestamp

• Does not have any savings?

• Pays a $30 subscription to another gym

• His personal rent is going to decrease he thinks? Will go down to $675 starting June

• Does not currently have health insurance

• Car insurance $200

• Parents currently cover his phone bill?

I posted this back when /r/drama hadn't been completely cucked by the admins, but it had a lot of info and names redacted because of the potential dox. It's almost 4 years later now and probably nobody gives a shit anymore, so here it is again.

Our story begins in 2016 when guncel poweruser Topgunebay gives Kilo Guns, an Arizona gun shop, two incredibly rare Russian parts kits, one for Kilo Guns to assemble as a pistol and the other for Kilo to keep as payment for finishing the first kit. To Topgunebay's surprise, instead of fulfilling his obligation, Kilo Guns takes the kit he was supposed to assemble into semi-automatic pistol and turns it into a machine gun instead. That's a problem, because as a private citizen without a dealer/manufacturer license, there's no way that Topgunebay can ever take possession of the gun back in its current form. According to the ATF, once a machine gun, always a machine gun, so it can only ever be in the possession of law enforcement, other licensed dealers/manufacturers, or it can be destroyed. Over the course of two years, Topgunebay hounds Kilo Guns to get his shit back to no avail, while Kilo whores off his stolen Vityaz on Instagram.

lol he literally took a photo of the same angle every season in 2018

https://instagram.com/p/BdFzG5vlEVd/

https://instagram.com/p/Ben-4qHF8Y0/

https://instagram.com/p/BqxNKkAHV7y/

https://instagram.com/p/BoooRupndc3/

https://instagram.com/p/BjupkKLncGP/

https://instagram.com/p/Bh90s9RHg9W/

https://instagram.com/p/BfY21l0F49t/

SHOW MORE

I technically have only 1 trophy left to get the plat, just to finish the game on hard but after beating all the challenges it's an easy part.

So the game continues the divisive game ff7 remake or part 1. A vocal minority didn't liked that part 1 wasn't a faithful remake

https://old.reddit.com/r/FinalFantasyVII/comments/i967ja/how_faithful_is_the_ff7_remake_to_the_original/

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/168653-final-fantasy-vii-remake/80041128

My fully objective opinion is that if you want to play original story then play the original game. I played first time the game in 2017 and it held very well, the graphic is part of experience it also a lot better in many ways than the remakes.

So devs had hard choices to make second part more faithful or do some creative freedom.

They started with big middle finger to canon lovers by putting Zack in front of their promotional art. And teased that you can actually save Aerith. And the whole game will end up being a very big tease.

The game start with you playing Zack and them showing parallel universe where Zack survives but cloud doesn't wakes up. Zack enters Midgar and sees helicopter crushes with Avalanche including Aerith. This shit absolutely doesn't make sense timeline wise but goal was to show Zack surviving is bad. So cloud than wakes up, yeah every Zack moment in the game is dream sequence.

Devs made every Zack sequence as dream so they could always back steep if majority of gaymers don't like the new direction and say "ha it was just a dream"

So the next 7-8 chapters of the game have basically no story. Just gameplay and the gameplay is alright, it has some strong far cry motif but what is really impressive is the balance. The game is so balanced

FF7 is a legendary game because there was so many way to break the game so many players were experimenting with the builds and stuff. RPG are generally about min/max and breaking the game. So ff7 remake parts showing such a middle finger to rpg elements. Some rpg elements will only show up at end game but you'll still will never be op. They also future proof the balance. Like you can't use equipment to get a status boost +100% attack or magic. You get only 1 item in the game that can give you +25% attack so it's impossible even to reach 100% attack boost and they already creeped you

You end up being in that game weaker than in part 1. In part 1 every character can reach 9999hp because the hp materia gives you 50% hp boost and you can use multiple of those. In part 2 30% hp boost max

You could assume it an action game but nope as action game the gameplay is absolutely not balanced but luckily you only encounter it doing hard mode or challenges.

So on chapter 8 comes the first legit big change. Tiffa falls into mako, in og game that happens after aerith dies.

On chapter 13 happens some wild religious symbolism shit in those dream sequences starts happening. Here my fav:

They start giving player a choice hinting that you can save Aerith but same time foreshadowing that non of those choices are real, neighbor can't escape fate and some symbolism like all those choices had this dog

Hinting that you won't save Aerith. That dream sequence also killed Zack multiple times showing you can't change the fate, Zack must die from bullets from those soldiers. So the moment Aerith is about to get killed, cloud saves her in his head and starts fighting Sephiroth and then thinking that he saved Aerith when she got killed

The game ends with illusion of Aerith telling she will stop Sephiroth and all this is still cannon since in og ff7 Aerith did showed up in the end in life stream defeating Sephiroth.

The real changes are basically just Tifa mako event and Yiffie being the main female protagonist, she has even more screen time than Aerith if you ignore the dream sequence. It's understandable, modern Japan is quite libertarian so no wonder she is everywhere and the strongest character in the game. Despite being total optional in og game. She got her own dlc in part 1 and in part3 she will get a huge chapter for her self.

Graphic of ff7 part 2 is actually worse than in part 1 but part 1 is not open world so understandable.

Part 1 is generally a better game than part 2. Part 2 just has so many mini games like 1/4 of chapters are just mini games. Part 2 is too much of an fanfic game.

The story also needed more changes because like I mentioned before that og ff7 did a lot of things better than the remakes and one is that in part 2 it doesn't make sense how the party was following clearly mentally unstable cloud without questioning his actions, many characters interactions just looked better og game than with modern graphics. In rebirth so many interactions and characters motives look so robotic than even most giga neurodivergent would write a better interaction of characters, just show how robotic japs are.

So objectively the game is a 7/10 but if you like Japanese nonsense the game becomes 8/10 and if you like serious shit that makes sense the game is 5/10.

If you go after platinum it will be an harder platinum than any souls game

It has challenges where you have to fight 10+ bosses and if you lose one fight you have to start from beginning, you cannot use any items. All bosses are faster than you and have moves that will wipe you out in one hit so you need to know their patterns

I didn't had any trouble with the game and beating the mini games but the feeling that after fighting a challenge for 30 min the prospect of losing last battle and then start from zero didn't felt nice. I have no idea why they made a jrpg this hard. I am pretty sure the 1% that finished all those challenges didn't liked it and devs will make them even harder in part3.

I'll make this an effort post since I know you zoomies know nothing about the Internet or gaming before 2015.

Dyack in the middle

Silicon Knights

Silicon Knights was a Canadian developer who made a few decent games, like Legacy of Kain and the Gamecube remake of Metal Gear Solid. They're mainly remembered for the classic Gamecube horror game Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, which is quite good for its time and is notable for being the only rated-M game ever published directly by Nintendo. They were lead by a guy named Dennis Dyack, a whiny manchild who doomed his company to fail.

Zoomers: This was considered scary in 2002

To give you an idea of their management, here's an image of games in production, games that were cancelled or abandoned before release are marked in yellow. Note the staggering ratio of unreleased/released games:

Anyways, Dyack's passion project for decades had always been a game called Too Human, but every effort to make it had been abortive. After the successes of Eternal Darkness and MGS, Dyack decides the Wii doesn't have shiny enough graphics and makes the bold choice to unshackle his company from a lucrative position as a Nintendo third party so he can truly fulfill his vision on the superior XBawx Please Fix Me. Silicon Knights shacks up with Microsoft and Epic Games and produce an E3 demo (zoomers: people used to go to an annual convention for video game trailers) which is received overwhelmingly negatively.

Dyack is NOT HAPPY and goes on the IGN forums to whine about how the critics will regret their words and deeds:

Unedited clip from Too Human

NeoGAF

Once upon a time there was a gayming website called Gaming Age, with their forum called the Gaming Age Forum (or GAF). Eventually Gaming Age imploded, but the top two jannies (Evillore and Bishoptl) were able to move their community to a new forum, appropriately called NeoGAF. You wouldn't know it these days with GAF being a shambling corpse and its spinoff ResetERA being what it is, but pre-G*merGate GAF was chill and a place where industry figures would show up and sperg out while everyone laughed at them.

Dennis Dyack makes a bet

Once such figure was our hero, Dyack. With his new slop getting trashed by GAFfers, he makes a thread to bet on how it'll turn out:

Right now the man just appears confident in his project. But his next post is a bit more... unhinged, and seems to be setting the bar rather low by making alreay-forgotten games Lair and Haze the standard to beat:

He then goes for an interview on 1up (Zoomers: Now-defunct gaming journo site) and whined about how people saying mean things online is ruining America and how if the NeoGAF mods don't start respecting Denis Dyack and Too Human he's going to call the Internet Police and shut them down!

Dyack then does another interview where he declares that not only is NeoGAF the worst forum in the world, but forums in general are evil and this is why the US military no longer uses writing:

Too Human comes out and scores lower than Haze. In classic GAF fashion the top janny punishes Dyack for losing the bet by writing lots of words and then perma-banning him. Dyack copes by saying g*mers are too stupid to understand his genius.

By this point the capital-G G*mers are pissed at Dyack in a way that prefigures G*merGate in a way. Seething articles are written speculating that angering the G*mers has resulted in him not just being banned from NeoGAF, but divorced from his wife, kicked out of the house, abandoned by his employees, his car towed, banned from every website ever, banned from the city of Niagara and tossed over the waterfall.

He messed with g*mers. G*mers.

The Saga Ends

Denis Dyack has brought Silicon Knights from one of the more respected devs in the industry to basically a joke. Following the failure of Too Human Dyack blamed the Unreal Engine and Epic Games and made the genius decision to sue them. This didn't go their way and by 2012 they owed Epic millions of dollars, had less than five employees, and were legally obligated to destroy all of their unsold games and source code.

In the meantime they had six more projects (including two sequels for Too Human) which were cancelled before they finally released another game, the absolutely awful X-Men Destiny, which turns out to be their last. In desperation, Dyack crawls back to Nintendo and pitches a sequel to their last hit, Eternal Darkness. NeoGAF insider reveals that Nintendo is agreeable until SK loses the lawsuit against Epic, and they decide they'd rather not fork over $10 million in legal fees so SK can survive, which Dyack denied. Former SK staff reveal that this was the case and part of the reason the X-Men game sucked was because Dyack was taking money given by Activision for that game and instead putting it toward Eternal Darkness II.

Years later Dyack attempts to kickstart his own Eternal Darkness successor and makes $300,000 out of the $700,000 target. He has yet to make another game. The end!

Dyack, left

tl;dr

Why not write this later after the jump

Becuase I might go to another nightclub that Friday. In 2024, I will get a girlfriend. Too high to get more hollys. enjoy yjrdr

Piercing

Can't stop thinking about it. It's a sign Yeah, I'm getting a facial piericng. Maybe my first won't be in a noticeable but we're eventually doing the face. My old Benzos made me calm and talkative. These just zone the frick out of. I feel like a shameless zombie.

If I knew even one girl IRL I'd be hitting her up. I think I'll ask my Loctitian (male) to a bar next week. I've got so many ideas like making massive straws that rich Westermers can enter in Africa sterilized straw and thirsty Africans can just get quenched like help folks reach their destination

Th aimbian in is the fridge. Don't take it, you've had enough. Therapeutic doses are nice! I just get enjoy alternative states of mind where you arn't being Seft-loathing and anxious 247.

Preparations

As I previously mentioned, my skydiving was delayed to this Friday because of the weather. In the lead-up to skydiving, it has occurred to me that I'm not really afraid of it. The thought doesn't give me anxiety, just a bit of excitement actually.

This is notable, as going to a nightclub gave me fear-induced diarrhea. Speaking to women terrifies me more than jumping out of a plane. If given the option to leap from a plane with a parachute or spend an hour talking to a woman, jumping out of a plane is the thought that scares me less.

What the everloving frick is going on here? What explains this? My belief is that there are things more terrifying than death, and most of them are socially related. Things like humiliation, rejection, and scorn. They are more real and easy to encounter than death so they become these massive monsters.

These social dangers also happen to be expertly wielded by women. Being rejected at university doesn't hurt like being rejected by a girl. I don't know why, but that's the way it is. Women hold this intense power to completely crush my sense of self-worth. A rejection from a woman feels like it's infused with moral castigation - as if you earned it because you're a bad person.

Getting a work rejection or something similar? Oh well, it's just a corporation. I've been rejected hundreds of times professionally. Had numerous applications that received the “we regret to inform you…” email and although it sucks, none of it crushed me to my core like getting rejected by S.H.

==========

Quick notes from Holly!

The phobia of women of women is known as gynophobia. It shouldn't be confused with misogyny, which is the hatred of women.

According to mythologist Joseph Campbell, gynophobia makes an appearance in plenty of global mythology. Most notably, in the form of vagina dendata - the toothed vagina. In Primordial Mythology he speaks of the Native American story of the boy living in a house of toothed vaginas: “they had strong teeth with which they had eaten their victims. But this medicine destroyed their teeth entirely.” The medicine made them orgasm, as is explained in the tale.

Of course Sigmund Freud would also have an opinion on gynophobia. Who cares!

==========

So, to sum up, I don't care too much about skydiving. I didn't prepare, and didn't read anything about the experience beforehand or what to expect. I didn't even research the business to see if it has a good track record. They could have ten deaths and I wouldn't know.

I purchased a skydive from the highest point offered which is from 11000 feet. I have no idea how high that is, but it comes with a 40-second freefall. Okay. There were also recording options. You could pay to have the fall recorded go-pro style or you could pay someone to record you from 3rd person, or you could opt for both. I went with the regular go-pro option because I wasn't interested in seeing my face. I just wanted proof that I did the thing.

They wanted payment beforehand, which I did and was grateful for because once again I was “locked-in” to the event and couldn't leave because I paid for it already. Consequently, I have no choice but to either act regardless of fear (of driving), or to lose all my money.

conclusion

I haven't fapped this year. I'm trying to touch grass. I'm working out at andsseing psychiatric help. Miracles happen to the deserving. People who crush the economy have duplicate lives. Killers hit hard and cheat. But, and, but /Jesus and the ultimate prof then maybe life has value there is something to be done here.

Last thing: why are inels considered misogynistic? As though men wo have gf arent? Clearly hating women isn't a turn-off unless you're ugly. Think about how “incel” killings there are to family annihilators and it becomes obvious that incels are no worse in their perceptions than regular men.

Not talking blackpikll/andew tate shit. I mean a normie is not worse to women than incels. Respecting women isn't the silver bullet (still, be kind to women.) they make it out to be.

I'd also like to write a report on the following topics

Christchruch massacre + royal report

Oxform shooter + legal analysis/or same for Orlando shooting

I don't want to be a narcissist wring about my own life essays. Would you read such a lengthy docmiementl Depednding on my mental stat Ill watch te videol and descrbe in full what happened during the events.

Men are violent. There's no denying it. It is estimated that men commit 98% of all murders globally. What's interesting to note is that of all female homicide victims, 10% were killed by strangers. In contrast, 70% of male homicide victims are killed by strangers. It seems like men are facing random violence while women are being checked by the people in their lives.

What about that 2%? Who are these outliers and why do they do what they do? To explore this question, I wish to look at mothers who killed their children. We will discuss their motive and the events that led to the tragic event. With every subsequent entry, the death toll increases by one.

1. Julissa Thaler

Deaths: 1

Motive: Revenge

Julissa Thaler has always been a thrill-seeker. She started drinking at 13 and was abusing prescription drugs in her early twenties, resulting in her going in and out of treatment facilities. At one point, she used LSD on a daily basis.

Julissa had a son, Eli Hart, with a man named Tony Hart. Their relationship had been a tumultuous one which featured Julissa making insane accusations against Tony. Additionally, Julissa used drugs during her pregnancy. Eli was born with Townes-Brocks syndrome, a disease that affects several of his organs. Consequently, he wears hearing aids.

Tony, who had worked to get his life together and was married to another woman, was fighting to gain custody of Eli. This was hard because, despite being gainfully employed and a responsible citizen, the mother's custody rights take precedence. Julissa, who was spiteful, also didn't want Tony to have the child and she did everything she could to prevent him from seeing Eli.

In 2019, she accused Tony of making a homemade bomb. Though no such bomb was found, that was enough to have a restraining order filed against him, essentially barring him from seeing his son at all, as she had managed to gain 100% custody.

When Eli was with Julissa, she wouldn't bathe him or clothe him, and the child would wind up with cuts and matted hair because it was never combed. Child Protection Services eventually visited her home, found in complete disarray, and took the child away from her. Julissa was sent to a mental healthcare facility.

At this point, you'd think Tony would finally have his son? No. He was given to Nikita and Stephen Konenberg, who were relatives of Julissa. Still, the father fought to see his son and gain custody. When Julissa was back on the streets, it was up to the courts to determine who Eli would be given to. Julissa regained custody. When she parked outside Nikita's house with binoculars in the early hours of the morning, Nikita called the police. Consequently, Julissa was given Eli two days earlier. The father still did not have custody.

As part of having Eli back in her care, Julissa was ordered to take parenting classes. She did not. At school, Eli complained that his mommy was hurting him. A teacher reported it to CPS. Julissa did not lose custody and she explicitly told CPS that Tony will never see his son.

On May 20, Julissa put her son (now 6. in the backseat of the car and drove to a secluded area. Due to his disabilities, he sat in a car seat. She then pulled out a shotgun and shot Eli 9 times, having to reload the gun. By the end of her carnage, her back window had been blown out, and the car interior was covered in blood. She then took the car seat containing whatever was left of Eli and put it into the backseat.

During her drive home, she is pulled over by the police. In addition to the smashed window, one of her front tires is missing. They speak to Julissa and they realize that she has brain splatter in her hair, she's covered in blood, and there are shotgun shells littered all over her car. She manages to convince the police that it's deer meat, so they decide to give her a ride home! Some of the police stay by the car. They're still suspicious of the whole thing, so they decide to open the trunk. In there, they find the horrific mess Julissa made.

She is arrested, and is given life without the possibility of parole. At sentencing, the judge asks if she has anything she wants to say. She does: “I'm innocent. Frick you all. You're garbage.” When the judge is reading the sentencing, she tells him to speak up because she can't hear him over his stomach grumbling.

The saddest part of this case is how preventable it was. I didn't even go through everything CPS overlooked or just didn't give a shit about when they kept giving the baby back to her.

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/investigations/kare-11-investigates-eli-hart-child-red-protection-failures/89-a0878e1a-f655-48bc-96ce-b25114aef1ac

2. Christy Sheats

Deaths: 2

Motive: Revenge

Christy Sheats was married to Jason Sheats. They were a relatively wealthy family in Texas, and they had two daughters. Madison was 17 and she was a straight-A student. Taylor was 22 and in college.

Christy and Jason were fighting all the time, and this had been going on for years. Furthermore, Christy wasn't particularly mentally stable, and she had attempted suicide three times. Eventually, Jason realized he could not handle things anymore. He told Christy that he was going to divorce. Men, if you're going to divorce your wife, leave with the kids first. An abuse victim is most at risk when they want to leave the relationship.

On June 24, 2016, Christy spoke to her husband and reminded him that they hadn't told the girls about the divorce. Jason agreed that they should do it. So Christy called for a family meeting. After the family gathered together, they turned to Christy, expecting her to speak. Instead, she pulled out a .38-caliber revolver and shot Taylor in the chest.

At this point, Jason is utterly horrified and Madison is screaming. Jason tells Madison to run and call the police as she shields Taylor amd tries to escape with her. Madison flees and manages to call 911, and she's soon joined by Taylor and Jason who are still desperately begging her to not shoot them. She shoots Madison in the back and she dies on the porch.

The calls are available online, but be warned they are absolutely harrowing one of the worst things I've heard so don't listen unless you want to hear a 17yo scream “MOMMY DON'T SHOOT ME” before getting shot as a husband howls in the background.

Jason and Taylor make it onto the street where they're also calling 911. Once again, the audio is disturbing beyond belief. Jason is begging Christy, telling her he'll do anything if she puts the gun down. She does not put the gun down. Instead, she went back inside to reload before returning to shoot Taylor again. Police arrive on the scene, but this doesn't deter her. She shoots Taylor a third time. She is ordered to put the gun down and she does not comply, resulting in police opening fire on her and killing her.

Christy did not shoot Jason. Not one hair on him was harmed. That was intentional. She wanted to hurt Jason and absolutely psychologically shatter him. Did I mention that it was also his birthday?

3. Lauren Peepeeason

Deaths: 3

Motive: Unwanted children and possibly revenge

Lauren Peepeeason grew up wealthy in South Africa. Thanks to her brains as well as her money, she was able to study medicine and become a doctor. In 2005, she met Graham Peepeeason, an orthopaedic surgeon, in Pretoria, and before long the two married.

Peepeeason is described as an intelligent woman, though she could be rude at times. She was very sociable and had a big friend group. She also had a long history of depression.

She and Graham wanted to have children, but it was proving to be harder than anticipated. Consequently, they ended up relying on IVF and donor eggs. Liané, her first child, was born in 2014. Not long after, she had twin girls, Maya and Karly in 2018.

Peepeeason was happy to be a parent, but it wouldn't be true to say she loved every aspect of it. The kids were a handful, and according to Peepeeason, they would regularly kick and slap her and (taking a note from Bella and Cece Watts) throw chicken nuggets at her. In contrast, they loved their father, which angered Peepeeason.

She would regularly complain about her kids to her friends, and some of the texts are truly horrific. She says the children are never enough, that she wants to murder them, and that she regrets becoming a mother. She also expresses rage when the children favor their father. She confided in her husband that she had thoughts of harming and killing her children, and he gets her on antidepressants.

Though life was good for the wealthy Peepeeasons, they did not like South Africa for a myriad of reasons, including the high crime rate, social unrest, and the government's declining ability to provide electricity to its citizens.

During the lockdowns of 2020, Peepeeason's mental health steeply declined. This is in part due to how strict the lockdown restrictions in South Africa are. Eventually, Graham and his wife decided they had had enough of South Africa, so they moved to New Zealand. Before they left, Graham found 3 cable ties linked together in the closet but thought nothing of it.

They arrived in New Zealand and to their astonishment, Peepeeason's condition did not improve. She hated Timaru and felt that they had made a mistake by moving. A much bigger mistake was coming.

On 16 September 2021, Peepeeason went to go pick up her children from school. First, she had to get Karla. As usual, she threw a fit in the car, frustrating Peepeeason. After picking up the other children, they visited the park for a while before returning home. Graham had a prior engagement with some work buddies, leaving Lauren alone with the kids. They were particularly boisterous and cantankerous that evening, jumping on the couches and disrespecting Peepeeason.

Peepeeason told her children that they were going to make special necklaces. She gave them the cable ties and tied them around their necks. With that done, she began strangling the kids one by one. She started with Karla who she admitted had been particularly mean to her that evening. Liané, who was 7 at the time, was old enough to know what was going on and began pleading with her mother. According to Peepeeason, she “very angry and she wants to know why I'm doing this to them because I'm the best mum and she loves me.”

All three children were strangled, though it took some smothering as well to ensure they were truly dead. She then made a few pathetic attempts at suicide before swallowing some pills. Graham returned to a house of horror. Following the deaths, he would move back to South Africa while Peepeeason stood trial in New Zealand.

In court, Peepeeason argued insanity, and there was some basis for this, as she had suffered from postpartum depression. Prosecutors painted a different picture. They claimed that Peepeeason was tired of her children, and she was jealous of the fact that they preferred her father. She regularly sent friends texts about killing her kids and how annoying she found them to be. In August 2023, Peepeeason was found guilty, and she is currently awaiting sentencing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_the_Dickason_children

CONCLUSION

In part 2, we'll continue our count from 4. Alan Wake 2 review tomorrow. Bye :)

I've tried to make an effortpost about this a couple times now but have never been able to because this woman is so insane that it's hard to find where to start.

/r/pickmes describes itself as "A community for women who like to suck up to men." 95% of the posts are from GimpGirl, a 39 year old Russian self-proclaimed pick-me, pro-ana BDSM "tradwife". She mainly posted videos of herself ranting about Tinder or other women, opening "gifts" for her man, her disastrous cooking, spam about s*x dolls and random news articles, tips on how to have a hot Auschwitz survivor body like her, and her neurodivergent comics.

The few posts that aren't from GimpGirl fall under three categories:

People asking what the subreddit is about or calling GimpGirl mentally ill:

Is this some sort of a kink subreddit ?

This is pretty strange, and I'm not sure whether this is some sort of a pick me kink, a cult, or an art project.

Why?

Gimpgirl your not perfect at all

In fact your look like a fricking 90 year old s*x weirdo instead of a tradwife. You look like a fricking meth addict probably due to not eating a healthy diet and wtf is wrong with you telling other because they don't fit your fricked idea of perfect womanhood that they're not good? You have a lot of nerve posting your deflated looking tits and saying your the uber woman. You aren't perfect no one is but At least unlike you have natural looks and don't look like I eat meth for all 3 meals of the day.

People who are confused and think the subreddit is for making fun of pickmes:

• "oh boy"

• "Met a Pick Me Guy on hinge y’all" (based foid makes fun of her hinge match's audio message)

Pornsick moids posting gross porn

We don’t frick pick me girls

A romantic trip with hubby

Anyway, the sub's been active for a bit over a year and GimpGirl's since been banned, her only online presence now seems to be her Youtube channel called GimpGirl and Doll, where she posts basically the same things she used to on her subreddit but in video form. Here's an example:

At the start of this video she says "this is not for you older women, because no matter what you do if you're 30+, well, you just have no chance, so just forget about it" despite being 37 at the time of filming. I would try and post some other highlights but I can't get through any of the videos because they're just so unbearably dull. She seems so weak and sickly and talks so slowly in her fugly Russian accent.

Miscellaneous highlights:

• r/truerateme thread where she asks people to be "brutally honest" but still argues with them when they rate her a 3-4 (one person rated her a 6, and they got a 3-day ban for "rate inflation" lmao)

• "You look like the aliens from Men in Black that hang out in the break room." "But you'd still do me right?" "No"

Futher reading:

(This post is massively underbaked and doesn't even go over half the crazy shit about her but at least I tried lol)

• lolcow.farm thread #1

• lolcow.farm thread #2

(Reply to this post)

@Redactor0 grandpa confirm what I got wrong

Nothing fam. Just like I expect from you. Let's see if there's a few points I can elaborate on slightly.

USA Navy forces were not immediately aware of the ramifications the Battle of Midway would have upon the momentum of the Pacific Theatre

Keep in mind that both sides didn't even know how what ships the other had. They were getting bullshit intelligence from their own pilots all the time, so for example the Japanese were overestimating how many carriers they had sunk and had no idea we still had 3 left in the Pacific at that time.

the sheer dominant magnitude of the influence an aircraft carrier would as a weapons platform would supercede even the wildest prewar speculations

I gotta push back on this just slightly. Battleships were going obsolete but it wasn't completely over quite yet. Notice how important they were at Leyte Gulf on both sides and that was near the end of the war. This is one thing where I actually got some insight from computer games. Like so often, that comes in the form of actually getting the geometry involved. A battleship at flank speed could get about as far overnight as a carrier-based plane could fly (I'm oversimplifying here, but you get it). So you could actually dash in and catch them with a little luck. Especially if there were a few clouds out.

But it was really marginal. At the end of the war the proximity fuze for AA shells came out which helped the battleships a lot but also jet engines and guided bombs. And just planes that could fly farther. So it was really obvious by 1945 that within a few years they would be totally useless for fighting other ships.

the Royal Palace in hue

The bastards got there before Old Man Redactor could take pictures of it. But there was a lot of beautiful stuff left in Hue even after the battle.

this upcoming deafeat would be the greatest blow dealt to the US for the entire war

That's a really good way of putting it. You must have some angloid DNA.

It was the single greatest massacre of VC forces to the extent that they literally ceased to fricking be a political power within the communist sphere in Vietnam entire and Cambodia. From then on the North Vietnamese had near absolute control of military operations.

The VC were never really an independent force. At least not at the top level. There were lots of commies in South Vietnam at the beginning of the war of course, but the leadership was always directed from Hanoi. What was really changed by Tet is that all these low-level commies native to the South got killed off. After that, there was no longer any pretense that this was a guerilla war. By the time the old man got there (I think 1970) it was completely a conventional war between the North and the South fought with advanced high-tech weapons. He wasn't hauling an M-16 around when he was on his photography trips to old historical buildings in Hue because there weren't any guerillas to be scared of. Those people were all dead.

The Phoenix Program was also very helpful here. Just using basic 1960s police and office work they rooted out the commies in the villages. This was basically just turning the tables on them. Going after everyone who is on the enemy side. Except we didn't use terrorism the way the VC did, chopping off the head of the mayor's kid and shit like that. The cops just arrested people in 90% of cases. (Statistics on the Phoenix Program are quite interesting, something to go into more detail about someday.)

The US and ARVn performance was absolutely spectacular, perhaps one of history's great battles like fricking Cannae or Waterloo or something

Let's not suck our peepees too hard here. Old Man tells me a story second hand of a guy who had been in some big base around Saigon during Tet. He complained that he never got to shoot anybody because they were all slaughtered by .50 cal machineguns before they even got close enough. This wasn't Hannibal or Wellington we were dealing with.

us Air Cavalry (helicopter troops)

My dad will swear up and down that he hated everything about the Army but this is exactly the kind of comment that would draw him out. The 101st was airborne, it was NOT cavalry!

the lies and deception of the military a and 2 administrations about how good the war went

That's what the real crisis was. If it wasn't Tet it would have been something else to trigger it. They kept saying the war is about to end and they were clearly lying. This is a generation that wasn't beyond sacrifices. Everyone's parents had been in WW2 in some shit job sweeping asbestos off the floor of a shipyard or on the side of the world fighting. A lot of them never came back. But there was a purpose. People will sacrifice a lot for a purpose, but if they're getting jerked around, they notice real fast.

Old Man's story about this is listening to the radio where Nixon is saying that we're not bombing Laos and he's looking up in the sky and there's planes above him heading west. It didn't take fricking Descartes to guess where they were going.

unexpectedly brought low USA civilian morale to continue to send their sons overseas into the meatgrinder

A lot of the conventional wisdom about this isn't always right. We had something like half our casualties after Tet. (One third, I dunno.) And popular support for the war wasn't really eroded all that much if you look at the polling data.

Keep in mind that there's a certain class of people who dominate the discussion of the Vietnam War. Specifically: Guys who dodged the draft so they didn't have to go there and know anything about it. There's an extreme level of self-serving bullshit they claim. Like that the "Anti-War Movement" (lol you sure cared about the Vietnam-Cambodia war) had any impact at all on anything other than being so disgusting they helped get Nixon elected in 1968. These are the last fricking people on Earth you should ever believe. I trust the guys fighting on the other side 1000x more than them.

By the time 2023 arrived the most critical munitions would be basic artillery shells

So my two things I was saying going into this is ATGMs are gonna be important (because of experience in the Middle East in previous decades) and basic b-word artillery shells. There was this cult of precision munitions from Desert Storm. The thing I never heard anybody explain is: What if you don't know exactly where the enemy is tho?

Unironic WW1 bunkers and trenches also came to dominate the southern and eastern parts of Ukraine from Donbass to Crimea, with static artillery war and massed charges for both sides being the most popular strategy, on a grinding stalemate similar as to the ending phase of 1952s Korea War.

The last full-scale war we had between two opponents that was a fair fight was the Iran-Iraq War and it was a heck of a lot like this. I keep telling everyone, but nobody believes little old Redactor. I guess I gotta post more Chronicles of Victory.

!historychads !anticommunists