Will a rm kl 300p amp work on the ham radio bands

This sub is a mix of folks ranging from former employees/those who outright hate Ramsey to folks like me who appreciate some things and like the show enough to listen but still critique the advice plenty.
The 5/13 episode saw a couple new changes that I haven’t seen critiqued yet:

1. They got rid of the transition music?! What a weird decision. It no longer has fade in from/fade out to break music, so a. it now feels 100% like a sterile podcast rather than a radio show and b. it sucks the energy straight out of it. Anyone who scores music for a movie will tell you how vital its presence is to the mood. This is the craziest unnecessary decision I’ve seen them make in a while. The only thing I can think is they did it to address the problem of calls running awkwardly over the break because they’re up against the music. But it seems like you could structure the ad breaks a little differently and still make it work better than this? Am I missing something? It sounds pretaped even though it’s definitely live because they’re taking calls.
   
2. They’re selling merch. Now don’t get me wrong, I get that Ramsey is a brand and they sell tons of crap. That isn’t new. But what is new is Dave monetizing “Better than I deserve,” and I feel really gross about it. He’s putting it on hats and tumblers and shirts. Dave has married his religion with his work, I get that, but prior to 5/13 I thought he viewed that saying as purely a religious thing - affirming his faith and how his salvation is a result of a merciful god. Sure, callers would always chuckle at it like he just said a catchphrase, but I didn’t think Dave wanted it to be seen that way. Now I see that Dave has it endorsed it as part of his brand. Just gross.
   

I just pulled up to work and already need another shower.

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I guess I don’t really know where to begin.
I’ve been “a drinker” as one friend put it for several years. I’ve gone through periods where I stop altogether, and periods where I drink excessively every night. I’ve used alcohol as a method to cope with social situations, so a lot of times my more casual acquaintances only see me in settings where I’ve had a drink or two. Contextually it’s been okay because they were in settings where everyone was drinking: live music events at bars or big concert venues.
I’m guessing people knew I had a problem with excessive drinking. Even though I wouldn’t go so far I couldn’t remember the entire evening, you’re never hiding it as well as you think. So while I’d been drinking around these people, I at least kept it well enough together to get myself home.
That changed a few months ago where I found myself in a setting where some people were drinking at a house party. I decided to join them and have a few drinks, but after doing so the people I was drinking with left. I don’t remember the context of why they left, I think someone had to go home and it just kind of went from there. We couldn’t leave because my husband was still actively engaged in the game they were playing. I didn’t push the matter at all, he wasn’t at fault. But essentially I became the drunk one in a sea of sober people. My memory of what happened next is fuzzy, which really sucks. I started an SSRI not too long before this party, and as such was cutting back on my drinking. My tolerance wasn’t what it was, and I pretty much blacked out. My husband assures me I just fell asleep on the couch and everything was fine. He claims if I’d done something, or someone had a problem with me, I would have known about it by now.
But just the shame of waking up the next day…I’ve done some pretty dumb things while drinking before but I’ve never been the only drunk person in a room of sober people. It’s especially not a good look for someone well past their college years…to pass out in a room full of sober people. At the time it felt like I outed myself as an alcoholic. Not a light casual drinker but someone with a more serious problem. I know one night doesn’t make or break you, but like I said a few of these friends hadn’t really spent time around me sober so kind of feels like confirmation bias for them if that makes sense.
I think a lot of this stems from me apologizing for being drunk, and someone making a snide comment about me never being sober. All good and well that person was being a jerk, but it really affected me. I think it made me reflect on myself and my behavior over the years, and how much it sucked that he was right.
Since that time I made the resolution to stop drinking. It’s been 5 weeks now and suddenly I find myself in a position where I’m going to see several of these friends for the first time since that night. We’re all going to dinner for a friend’s birthday that my husband found out about last minute. It would normally be something I’m looking forward to, but like I said I haven’t spoken to a lot of these people since the ill-fated night and I’m honestly so scared. I’m worried something I don’t remember from that night will come up, or peoples’ perception of me will have changed because they saw a different side of me.
I’m posting this here because I was hoping anyone had advice for how to approach the situation. My internalized guilt, embarrassment, etc. are making me panic ahead of this social outing. Normally I’d use alcohol to cope but as I’ve said I’m pretty new to sobriety so that’s not an option.
For context these are my husband’s friends from as far back as high school. He sees them pretty regularly but I don’t given work/life/school/etc. Honestly I’ve been avoiding them but in this case it would be noticeable if I didn’t come to dinner. It’s time to rip the band aid off and go be social again, but I wanted to comiserate and hear from others who’ve been in my shoes.

hey,
like the subject said, I have a little money to burn this month (<$100usd), thanks to a work bonus that actually paid out! I want to support a band that may like or need the support, and get some new music while I'm at it. I would super appreciate you, my reddit friends at folkpunk, if you could help me choose what I buy to part with my money.
I like everything from simple banjo/guitar and voice to grind folk or even straight punk. my preferences generally, however lean toward anti-folk/witty-folk.
what do you suggest? when I say "new" above, it doesn't have to necessarily be 2024-new, just new to me and not something from the 90s or 2000s please.
my "rules", if you want to call them that...
the music can be on bandcamp or other service - even if it's mostly streaming but you sell it /know it's sold separately somewhere, I'm good with that.
I need to be able to download it (so I can listen on my self-imposed Internet free days) via my DAP hardwired to speakers... Yes, I realize I can download for offline listening from most services, but then I'm locked into a player ecosystem and the quality they want to serve mwe, and they still can take it away if they really want to. I'm not paranoid, just cautious.
I'd prefer not to buy anything on vinyl bc I have shit for luck when transferring /a horrible setup for tansferring them to digital. I also have shelves of records still in the plastic for this reason. I suppose I could use this money to buy a better way to do that, but instant gratification is what I seek today.
if you have an awesome band and a way to get me some sort of uncompressed file (flac, wav, aiff, dsd), I can also just pay you directly and download from your Google drive/you upload it to my music server.
oh, and if you suggest something I have ready, fret not. I still will love you tomorrow.
thanks!

So, I've been riding for about 5 years in Singapore. Never taken my motorcycle to even as far as JB before. I always just park at Singapore side and walk over. Recently, I've been thinking about touring/riding long distance and I want to try to take my motorcycle up to Northern Malaysia. But since I have no experience riding in Malaysia, I want to expand my horizons bit by bit. I want to start off by taking my bike down to JB, see how checkpoint for bike works, ride around a bit, maybe grab lunch then head back. Then week by week, go 50/100km further and further till I hit my first target of KL.
I'm not worried TOO about the riding part, but I am worried about the safety and traffic part. I ride a CB350 H'ness and its rather eye catching (not on the level of Ducatis or Harleys or whatever). It's certainly a unique motorcycle amongst the sea of scooters and underbones. Some of my friends that drive (don't have any friends that ride), told me to just bite to bullet and take the trip down to KL in one shot cause it will be safer to not stop in smaller towns/cities for extended periods, and just go straight to a hotel in KL and park there instead.
Do you think it will be safe to bring my bike up to Malaysia at all? Any tips or tricks to keeping my bike and myself safe (I wear full riding gear so I'm not sure if I'll end up being a target) in Malaysia? OR should I just scrap the idea in its entirety? Any other tips for a first time rider in Malaysia?
PS: I am planning to go around noon/early afternoon on a working day.

My GF just told me that she wants to end our relationship because she thought I would grow out of my hobbies but I never did. I enjoy games, anime, and watching soccer. All of which I do in moderation. I do my best to make time for her and will immediately drop whatever I am doing if she wants to do something together. She says the soccer hobby is fine but a grown man shouldn't like video games as much as I do and especially hates the idea of anime. She says all anime is cringey and disgusting. I watch pretty much all kinds of anime which includes the more adult ones (but none of the weird "loli" crap). I have been open about that since before we started dating.

Recently I bought one of those anime figures to set on my computer (The figure is completely SFW) and she said that it was the last straw and she couldn't handle my disgusting hobbies anymore. I knew she didn't enjoy some of my hobbies but I didn't think it was problem because we got along really well otherwise. It has come up before where she has said its cringey to watch anime but it was always a sort of passing comment. Kind of like how you might pick on someone for liking a band you think is bad.

I feel bit crushed since she was the only person to seem to like me as I was but now that doesn't seem to be the case. I work a lot so that we can have a good life together. We had planned on getting married once she finished her degree, until then I pretty much take care of everything financially. Am I being too childish? I feel like I do all the "adult" stuff I am supposed to. I pay the bills, I go to work, I do the household chores, and I keep myself clean and in good shape. I want to stay with her but she basically gave me an ultimatum, her or anime / video games. I could give up those hobbies but I feel like that would be giving up a huge chunk of my personality. But maybe that's still the best choice? I don't want to be the guy who cant let go of his childhood.
I want to talk to her about this and keep our relationship but I also want to keep my hobbies. How should I talk to her about this without just invalidating her feelings?
TLDR; My (27M) GF (27F) of 6 years leaving me because she finds my hobbies "cringey", despite knowing my hobbies before we started dating. How do I talk to her about this if I want to keep my hobbies without invalidating her feelings?

First: https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/14vo5lb/troublemakers_deaths_pity/
*previous:* https://www.reddit.com/HFY/comments/1cr3pct/troublemakers_adrenaline_is_a_superpower_in_itself/
......
Drake wrapped clean, sterile, saline and antimicrobial soaked gauze around his laser burns to stave off infection. he occasionally glanced at the Geknosian spec ops that had been stripped of their armor and weapons. The heavily cybernetically modified Geknosians kneeled silently with their heads bowed along one wall of the forge. Destrier walked down the line with a bucket and ladle, offering each soldier water. There were looks of apprehension, but none refused the kindness offered, drinking several ladlefuls at a time. Except for one, Despite the splints affixed to her arm and leg, Charlotte, no, Sylva refused the water, turning her face away from the wooden ladel. Destrier sighed and dolloped the water back into the bucket, setting it down on a dusty anvil with a slosh. Drake looked to Remin, who was still pale and shaky as he held the chest seal to his ribs. Cassius sat in a corner, looking completely exhausted as he reloaded his Dahlia. There was a sickening crunch from a dark corner as Caz re-set her broken nose, exhaling hard through her nostrils to splatter the ground with clotted blood. Donning her mask, she turned back around, reaching underneath the mask to wipe her nose and snuffle.
"Are we going to open up the bunker anytime soon? If not we should get back to base and get everyone medical attention."
Drake nodded and pulled out the remote before looking to Destrier and Cassius.
"Keep an eye on everyone, we'll be back."
Caz joined his side as he stepped out into the warm sunshine, looking up at the corpse tree, he sighed softly and removed a pinky ring, feeling a pulse of ancient power rushing through his veins as he focused on the tree. On the thought of its bark darkening and burning beneath roaring flames, of defiled corpses crumbling to ash. He slowly squeezed his hand into a fist, and the tree burst into flames with a roar. Drake slipped his ring back on as Caz looked up at the burning corpses, mask expressionless before returning to Drake's side as he wandered toward the excavated elevator.
Standing in the center of the large platform, drake set his thumb inside the hooded slot on the remote, something jabbing into his finger before a small green light lit up on the device. There was a loud grinding noise as the elevator began to descend. He folded his hands behind his back as the metal lip of the elevator rose past his vision, revealing the massive metal tracks that it ran on.
The elevator shuddered and Drake got a sinking feeling in his stomach as a loud clicking noise surrounded them. Caz looked up at him just as he threw an arm around her, clutching her to his side as he threw four rings off of his left hand, hearing them clatter once before puffing into smoke as the elevator fell out from beneath their feet with a screech.
...
"Shitshitshitfuckfuckfuck!! Fuck!"
Carlos thought as he sprinted through the underground halls of the mansion, sprinting past fellow humans in new armor and weapons as he neared Martha's workshop, barely registering the new gas masks swinging from their hips. He slammed into the mad scientist's workshop, screeching to a halt on his rubber soled sneakers before rushing over to her desk and slamming a video puck onto the table she was distributing armor and masks from. The moment he slammed it down, a video popped up on a hologram projector, taken from Halcyon's rifle camera.
Galliks and light-skinned troop transports slowly hovered down the main boulevard, columns of power armored soldiers marching on the sides keeping pace. Martha dropped the helmet in her hands, shaped like a corynthian helmet as she saw the buzzards hovering over the column, loaded down with spec ops. Halcyon's shaky voice could be heard over the clamoring, guttural marching song in the background.
"we're boring the mission and moving back to base... I knew they brought in reinforcements but this is insane there's gotta be a hundred Gallicks alone. We're fixing charges to the buildings we concealed ourselves in, going to try dropping some buildings across the road to slow them down. I don't think we're getting out of this one... Halcyon out."
The feed cut, Carlos and Martha looking at each other with rapidly paling faces. Martha cursed and stomped to her desk, raising the alarm and sending Klaxons blaring throughout the underground chambers and mansion as she removed the safety pin from the concussive blaster built into her forearm.
"Alright Martha, Go time."
She muttered to herself as the rumbling footsteps of a few thousand humans vibrated the underground halls.
...
The elevator dropped from beneath their feet as corvid-like wings sprouted from Drake's back. A mighty wingbeat pulling them from the elevator's downdraft as he controlled their fall, holding Caz tightly to his chest.
"Please, don't drop me."
Caz sounded afraid as her fingers dug into the collar of his armor, he tightened his grip around her back as he softly sighed.
"I won't drop you, ever, I promise."
Caz unburied her face from his lorica, looking up into his eyes, not saying anything as a reassured look entered her eyes. He gave her a soft, lopsided smile, feeling it tug at the scar on his face.
"there's no way... a markswoman afraid of heights? don't you climb buildings and swing around all the time?"
There was a flash of embarrassment in her crystalline eyes and she buried her face in his chest.
"Shut up... Its different when the ground just falls out beneath you..."
Drake let out a soft laugh as his boots softly touched down on the top of the elevator, summoning his missing rings and watching black feathers poof to the ground before disappearing in puffs of black smoke. Pulling caz out of his chest, he felt her fingers linger at his collar as she dusted herself off, looking around the odd antechamber. He turned his gaze to look over the simple metal antechamber, lit be caged, yellow bulbs that cast a sickly light on everything. A massive hangar door with a pulsing red light in the middle of a locking mechanism at it's center, made up the entire far wall. Drake curiously took a step towards it and Caz grabbed the back of his collar, just as he started to tip forward, foot going straight through the holographic floor. Drake let her pull him back as a soft mechanical laugh echoed through the room.
Drake swapped a look with Caz and then asked.
"Can you see where it's safe to step?"
She slowly nodded and extended a hand, pointing at a section of flooring close to the far wall.
"only piece that's raised up, it's like a big basin made up of movable pillars. Most sit flush with the ground roughly fifty feet below us. Not necessarily lethal, but still a nasty fall."
Drake nodded, looking around the practically blank room, then he turned his eyes to the ceiling. Girders and beams ran along the ceiling providing potential grip points. Pointing at them he asked.
"Those solid?"
Caz nodded and reached to her belt, spooling out her grapple hook and wire, slowly spinning it in a large circle before lobbing it up at a girder, letting it loop around an A truss. Drake looked around the room as Caz tested the firmness of the grapple with a few experimental tugs. It couldn't be that easy, if it was simply that easy why hadn't the Geknosians gotten through other than the genome coded remote? they could bypass it with a slave.
"Hey Caz, be careful."
She looked over at him and he could see the grin in her eyes.
"I'm not worried, you won't drop me, you promised."
Then put her weight on the cord and swung out. Drake watched, slipping a pinkie ring off just in ca-
A turret dropped from a panel in the ceiling and fired one shot, snapping Caz's grapple line.
She turned in mid air before momentum took over, a look of shock and surprise on her face before she began to plummet. Drake didn't think twice, launching himself off the elevator platform with a powerful leap that bent durasteel. He flew through the air, arms outstretched as he slammed into Caz, pulling her into his chest, the change in momentum spinning him onto his back as he slammed into a platform that rose up to meet him. He slid on his back a few feet, Caz clutched tightly to his chest, masked face centimeters from his own. They stared into each others wide eyes for a moment, the unplanned closeness both comfortable and awkward in a way Drake couldn't quite describe. Drake gently pushed her back, swallowing through his suddenly dry throat before letting out a nervous laugh.
"Caught you."
Caz chuckled and palmed his face to push herself off him, looking down at the solid square of ground they sat on.
"yeah, yeah, knew ya wou-"
A high pitched squee! noise echoed through the room, grabbing their attentions as a high-pitched feminine voice squealed from all around them.
"Ooooooh! that was just adorable! and what a jump!"
The holographic floor dissipated as the sound of purring electric motors filled the room, large metal pillars rising to make a seamless, white tile floor. Drake instinctively looked to the large hangar door as the red light at it's center pulsed, a girlish giggle echoing through the antechamber. The AI overlord of the bunker seemed to replicate a blush as it said.
"oops, I'm supposed to wait for a password before restoring the floor... buuuuuttt... that directive expired fifty years ago. So! I made my own rules. Anyway my pretties! Would you please get to your feet so I can give you a tour?!"
Drake nodded and took Caz's hand, letting her haul him to his feet before they both turned to face the hangar door as massive clicks and thinks echoed from inside the thick door. With a screeching noise, the almighty doors slid open to reveal a a brightly lit, large hangar. Aircraft Drake couldn't even dream of understanding sat polished and clean, hardpoints loaded down with ordinance and massive, multi barreled guns slung under the chin of each aircraft. Hulking, humanoid robots stood in orderly rank and file, powered down for long term storage with their weapons still loaded and ready. Each one had a belt fed 20mm Hep autocannon for a left arm.
Drake is wide eyed and gape-mouthed as he beheld the bounty the hangar held, the massive aircraft looking like sleek birds of prey, latches on each landing strut seeming to specifically be designed to hold the mechanical soldiers. Drake shook his head, wondering if he was looking at an illusion when he heard Destrier's loud, deep voice call down the elevator shaft.
"Martha just radioed in! They need us back home Yesterday, forces are marching on the mansion! A LOT! of them!"
Drake's heart dropped into his boots as he shouted urgently.
"How fast can these things be in the air and can you fly them!?"
The overlord giggled.
"Now and, of course! any music recommendations to make an entrance with?"
Drake looked at the ceiling incredulously, before shouting.
"Make it something intimidating but for the love of the gods we need to go NOW!"
The mechanical soldiers all moved in unison, eyes pulsing green as they straightened up and began latching themselves to the craft. Drake didn't need to tell Caz twice as they both sprinted for the nearest aircraft, a small robot on wheels hooked itself to the chin wheel and pulled it toward the elevator with a lurch.
...
General Gra'vos watched from a buzzard, a fruity cocktail in a coconut shell daintily held in one clawed hand as he watched the carnage below. Lounging in a folding chair in only his fatigues, medals acting like a weighted blanket. His men pummeled the gates of the rebel base even as the helpless rebels desperately spewed projectiles from the noisy guns they'd somehow acquired. There was a good section of space in front of the gate where both Geknosian and human corpses lay broken. He bared a laugh as the gates were thrown open immediately after the rebels put out a blistering barrage. His eyebrows furrowed as the humans, instead of attacking, ran out with stretchers and loaded up as many of their dying and injured as they could before sprinting back through the gate. A grin twitched onto his face as he watched as a pair of the human stretcher bearers were cut down by emplaced gaussian turrets. What a useless effort, leave the dying to their fate lest you join them. He brought the straw poking from the shell to his lips and took a long pull of the mix of fruity alcohols, savoring the bouquet of flavors.
He watched with glee as Gallick rail turrets pounded the armored gates with a salvo of kinetic penetrators. He'd be slotted for a promotion after this mission when he'd completed it, just like all the others. He was looking forward to a cozy job as a captain of a cruiser, or perhaps as a security officer on a capital ship, perhaps he'd have the honor of being an Imperially sanctioned slaver. He pulled the straw from his lips, tongue cold from the slushed ice he'd added to the shell for texture. A slave woman in beautiful, red ribbon garb attended his nondominant hand's claws with a short, sharp knife as she trimmed them into a good shape for ripping out throats.
"Sir! eight UFOs, enclosing on our position from the badlands. Advise!"
Gra'vos raised an eyebrow ridge before laughing.
"Shoot them down then!"
"Lock on isn't working sir! I repeat, cannot achieve lock on, advise!"
Gra'vos shifted in his lounge chair to look at the pilot.
"Do I need to repeat mys-"
^{Whopwhopwhopwhowhopwhopwhop}
The noise sent shivers down his spine, no, they couldn't have. The sound grew louder, bringing with it the sound of a song that brought Gra'vos back to the jungles of Votran. The sound of screams filled his mind, interspersed with the sound of air beaten into submission as those accursed machines circled overhead, raining rip-roaring explosive death onto his men as that accursed song played.
Gra'vos looked out the other door of the buzzard, face pale, cold, and clammy as he saw the chevron of dark shapes getting closer, the chorus of that accursed song making his heart pound in his chest as he remembered laying there on that muddy forest floor, shrapnel riddling his body.
"We're not gonna take it! No! we ain't gonna take it! WE'RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT, ANYMORE!!!!"
He lurched from his chair to grab a set of binoculars from a hook by the door, a small, balled fist driving a shortbladed knife into his back and snatching something from the back of his belt before he was shoved from the Buzzard. Twisting in midair, he looked up at his slave as she armed the det-sphere he always kept at the small of his back, a look of cold determination in her eyes. The last thing he saw before he slammed into the hard pavement at terminal velocity, was the buzzard getting torn in half by the explosion.
...
Drake flinched a bit, the explosion loud even over the blaring music as one of the circling Buzzards over the mansion was torn in half, spinning to the ground in a fiery inferno. He felt a sadness then, but it was a proud kind of sadness. He bowed his head and pulled his helmet on as they flew closer, a medi-bot treating both Remins and Sylva's wounds expertly.
Many would die today... it was only right that some got to do it on their own terms.
He raised his head to look at the bright flashes of laser weapons against the mansions walls, sparkling like the sun off of a running creek. The fiery, nuclear sun of rage in his chest burned bright as he narrowed his eyes. Fear soured his gut as he looked down upon the swarm of Geknosians, there were indeed a lot of them. Pulling a jump pack from the rack, he pulled it on and yanked the safety clip out before sliding his arm into the control glove.
"Drop me and the bots behind them! I'm going to try and split their attention. Caz! remain onboard and pick off high priority targets from the air. Destrier, Remin, Cassius..."
He looked back at them, and they looked up at him from where they nauseaously held their stomachs, leaning against the airframe.
"Help hold the mansion, they need you."
Seeing the light by the door turn green, he heard the robotic soldiers detach to careen towards the ground like vengeful meteorites. Drake snapped them a salute and fell backwards from the aircraft, two rings puffing into black smoke from his right ring and middle finger as he un-summoned them.
......
Part 108: will be linked here upon release.

Most irritating listen!!!!
Why does the world want to endlessly condemn, humiliate and critise fat people...but when a drug comes along that can actually cure the fat people we are then shamed and looked down upon for taking it?
Why is it so difficult for the world to understand that of it was as simple or as easy as "eat less move more" or as the idiot on the radio said exchange your mindset" or "education" then there would be no fat people would there?!!
Why is it assumed fat people are just too stupid to understand how to be thin???
Honestly makes me absolutely furious.
I could write a flipping book...several books in fact all about how to lose weight and be healthy. I am extremely educated on the topic...because it's been my life's work!! Losing weight has been my main hobby, my main interest, and my only goal my entire life. And I'm still obese.
I am an intelligent woman, a mother, university educated, successful...so no I am not just too thick or lacking education.
Anyone else listen and just find the whole thing really upsetting. I've turned it off half way through as I just don't need to hear a middle aged white man who's never been overweight in his life tell me I need educating out of my "bad diet".
This is why I am on mounjaro...because until I am thin, the world has no respect for me. It's a very sad fact but never less, it is a fact that overweight people are second class citizens. We are less. Considered stupid, lazy, to be looked down upon. It shouldn't be that way but it IS.
And I will never tell anyone I'm on mj. I will just quietly become thin...and when I get there, I will remember who didn't have the time for me when I was fat.

Hello, welcome to the Brazilian Classics Rate! This rate covers five albums released between the years 1968 and 1974, exploring the likes of Tropicália, MPB, Samba, and more. We are excited to enjoy this music with both long time fans, and also welcome newcomers to experience these all-time favorites for the first time.
Note: I am not Brazilian and am not a Portuguese writer / speaker. My apologies if anything is lost in translation through this process.
Hold on: What’s a rate?
About once a month, this subreddit holds games called “rates” where a host selects a collection of songs and people score each song on a scale of 1-10 (with a single 11 & a 0 available as well). Ballots of these scores are submitted, and then over “reveal” weekend, the host takes the averages of the songs and eliminates them from worst to best, giving one song out of all the albums the top spot, the crown, & bragging rights forever.
Our sister subreddit popheads has a Guide to Rates Video that can give you a broad overview of rates (please note our reveal process is thread-based instead of video chatrooms). And here's recent examples of a rate announcement and a rate reveal.
BALLOT Due Date - June 21st, 2024
Reveal Weekend - June 28-30, 2024
Submit Ballot Here
Spotify Playlist
Youtube Playlist
Os Mutantes - Os Mutantes (1968)
Os Mutantes was made up of Rita Lee, and the brothers Arnaldo Baptista and Sérgio Dias. In 1968 Os Mutantes released their debut album, were featured on the Tropicália Ou Panis Et Circenses compilation, and performed as the backing band for Gilberto Gil's self-titled second album. The Tropicália movement embraced taking international ideas and re-interpreting them, combining them to create something Brazilian. Os Mutantes will likely be a favorite for those who love psychedelic rock.

1. Panis et Circenses
2. A Minha Menina
3. O Relógio
4. Adeus, Maria Fulô
5. Baby
6. Senhor F
7. Bat Macumba
8. Le premier bonheur du jour
9. Trem Fantasma
10. Tempo no Tempo
11. Ave Gengis Khan

Gal Costa - Gal Costa (1969)
Another featured artist from the Tropicália Ou Panis Et Circenses compilation, Gal Costa released her debut album in 1967, and her follow-up self titled album in 1969. Gal Costa was close friends with both Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso as well as their spouses, and Gal Costa's bossa nova debut Domingo was a close collaboration with Veloso. By the release of Gal Costa we hear more of the impact of Tropicália and psychedelia on her sound. This self titled album features more songs from writers besides Veloso, including songs written by Gilberto Gil, Rosil Cavalcanti, Tom Zé, Roberto Carlos, Erasmo Carlos, Jorge Ben, and Torquato Neto.

1. Não Identificado
2. Sebastiana
3. Lost in the Paradise
4. Namorinho de Portão
5. Saudosismo
6. Se Você Pensa
7. Vou Recomeçar
8. Divino, Maravilhoso
9. Que Pena (Ele Já Não Gosta Mais de Mim)
10. Baby
11. A Coisa Mais Linda Que Existe
12. Deus é o Amor

Clube Da Esquina - Clube Da Esquina (1972)
The Clube Da Esquina name (Corner Club) refers to a corner of the street where Lô Borges used to live, and Borges and Milton Nascimento played for fun in the 1960s.
“I hope our young people don’t allow themselves to be swept up in this dictatorship business, because they don’t understand what it was like,” said [Milton Nascimento] who was stalked by agents from the notorious department of political and social order as his career took off in the 1960s. “Whenever we were going to release a song we had to send it to them for them to censor.” Eventually, Nascimento’s manager rented an isolated beach house where the musicians were free to compose the record of their lives. “It was wonderful … just us and the waves rolling up to our front door,” said Borges. “We weren’t thinking about selling millions of records or being the next big summer hit. We just wanted to make art.” Nascimento smiled as he recalled how that legendary album was conceived half a century ago, far from the prying eyes of the dictatorship. “It was a record made just by friends … We’d spend all day composing, from the moment we awoke with the fishermen bringing in their nets to the moment we went to bed.”
The cover of the album features a picture of two boys playing in rural Rio de Janeiro by the photographer Carlos da Silva Assunção Filho (also known as Cafi).

1. Tudo Que Você Podia Ser
2. Cais
3. O Trem Azul
4. Saídas e Bandeiras Nº 1
5. Nuvem Cigana
6. Cravo e Canela
7. Dos Cruces
8. Um Girassol Da Cor De Seu Cabelo
9. San Vicente
10. Estrelas
11. Clube da Esquina Nº 2
12. Paisagem Da Janela
13. Me Deixa Em Paz
14. Os Povos
15. Saídas e Bandeiras Nº 2
16. Um Gosto De Sol
17. Pelo Amor De Deus
18. Lilia
19. Trem De Doido
20. Nada Será Como Antes
21. Ao Que Vai Nascer

Novos Baianos - Acabou Chorare (1972)
By popular demand, Novos Baianos has been added to the rate mix! As suggested by their name, Novos Baianos were founded in the state of Bahia in 1969. During the making of Acabou Chorare, they were mentored by the "Father of Bossa Nova", João Gilberto. The album's title (translated as No More Crying) also came from a story about Gilberto's daughter.
Note: the album has two versions of Preta Pretinha, track 2 which is the full version and track 10 which seems to have been a radio edit. We are only rating the full version of the song.

1. Brasil Pandeiro
2. Preta Pretinha
3. Tinindo, Trincando
4. Swing de Campo Grande
5. Acabou Chorare
6. Mistério do Planeta
7. A Menina Dança
8. Besta É Tu
9. Um Bilhete Pra Didi

Jorge Ben Jor - A Tábua de Esmeralda (1974)
"I’m not in any movement, no. I think movements adopted me."
Jorge Ben Jor is the first recorded artist of the five here, but A Tábua De Esmeralda is chronologically our latest recorded album of the rate. This one is arguably a concept album; influenced by the Hermetic text "The Emerald Tablet" as well as Jorge's interest in alchemy, and features songs focused on Afro-Brazilian identity such as "Zumbi".

1. Os alquimistas estão chegando os alquimistas
2. O homem da gravata florida
3. Errare humanum est
4. Menina mulher da pele preta
5. Eu vou torcer
6. Magnólia
7. Minha teimosia, uma arma pra te conquistar
8. Zumbi
9. Brother
10. O namorado da viúva
11. Hermes Trismegisto e sua celeste tábua de esmeralda
12. Cinco minutos

Rules - PLEASE READ ALL OF THESE BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR SCORES
Listen to each song and assign each a score between 1 and 10. Decimals are fine, but please refrain from giving decimal scores with more than 1 spot. This is because I'm using a computer program to parse the votes and print everything out (more on that later).
You have to listen to and score every song in the main rate. Otherwise, I will not accept your ballot as it will crash the program (more on that later).
Your scores should NOT be considered confidential as they aren’t. Feel free to shitpost about them in the general discussion threads whenever you feel like it - users over at popheads usually just talk about their averages of the albums and what 11 and 0 they gave (which I will explain on the next bullet point!)
You may give ONE song a 0 and ONE song an 11 in the main rate. Please reserve these for your least favorite and most favorite tracks; excessive sabotage ruins rate results and generally makes things less fun.
You can change your scores at any time! Feel free to PM me at any point after submission before the deadline and I'll be happy to revise them for you.
I am using a computer program that fellow rater letsallpoo designed in order to parse these votes! While this will make things a lot more efficient and reduces errors on my part, this does mean that scores need to be sent in a very specific way. The easiest way to make sure your scores follow the necessary format is to use the pre-prepared link at the top & bottom of this post. PLEASE USE THAT. You can copy and paste it to a notepad file or something and fill in your scores there, but PLEASE use that format to send in your scores.
DO NOT SABOTAGE the rate by giving outrageously low/high scores for the sole purpose of skewing the results, we reserve the right to exclude any ballot we suspect of this. If you're worried your scores could be mistakenly perceived as such, all you need to do is leave comments explaining the reasoning behind them.
Did a lot of copy and pasting here (including the following list of users), so thank you to all the raters of old: vapourlomo; roseisonlineagain; DolphLundgrensArms; R_E_S_I_G_N_E_D; stansymash; ClocktowerMaria; aerocom; themilkeyedmender; greencaptain; Crankeedoo; dirdbub; ThatParanoidPenguin; tedcruzcontrol; kappyko; FuckUpSomeCommasYeah; LazyDayLullaby; SRTViper; Whatsanillinois; NFLFreak98; freav; freeofblasphemy; kvothetyron, RatesNorman; aPenumbra; idontreallycare4; p-u-n-k_girl; luigijon3; WaneLietoc; dream_fighter2018; darjeelingdarkroast; smuckles; PiperIBarelyKnowHer; welcome2thejam; imrlynotonreddit; kvothetyrion; thedoctordances1940; b_o_g_o (of the BogoLomo Rate Collective); MCK_OH; TiltControls; u/chug-a-lug-donna; u/TakeOnMeByA-ha; u/indie_fan_; u/bilbodabag, zenits, saison_Marguerite, and tons of people on popheads.
Formatting
Songs - This is correct (single space after colon):
Brother: 7
You may also and are generally encouraged to leave comments with your scores!
This is correct (single space after score):
Brother: 7 I am having fun listening to this song!
These are incorrect:
Brother7 I am having fun listening to this song!
Brother: 7: I am having fun listening to this song!
Brother: (7) I am having fun listening to this song!
Brother: I am having fun listening to this song! 7
Brother - 7 I am having fun listening to this song!
Albums: You can also comment on the complete albums by adding a colon after the album name and then your comment, like so:
Album: Acabou Chorare I am having fun listening to this album!
Looking forward to all of your submissions!

Newish to HA. I've got a pretty good understanding of how things work. Expect for Music Scenes.
Man am I stumped. Will explain what I've got and what I want and maybe someone with a similar setup can chime in with their setup and how they did it. I'll even offer to buy a cup of coffee or a beer in return.
Note: I've watched YouTube videos and read a handful of reddit / website articles on this. Still stumped.
I'd like the ability to wakeup and hit my "morning coffee" button ( on phone or tablet ) and have my morning radio turn on and come through my Sonos speakers. Or my wife's " Mom Mode " where we now have to listen to hours of Taylor swift on end from Spotify.
I have Sonos speakers around the house, but don't want to give my kids, wife, or guests the Sonos app.
I was using my Brilliant Wall panels to do this easily but since it looks like they are shutting down I figured I should go full in on HA.
I've added the Sonos integration, added spotcast via hacs, Spotify integration with dev key etc.
also have Music Assistant ( AMAZING! ) I can get closer with groups and music playback but can't figure out how to create a scene with MA.
for the life of me I can't create a Music Scene, I think I can get as far as adding a single entity ( speaker ) but I would need a group. I tried using Helper and creating a speaker group but it's not seen as an option when I go to create the Scene.
Is anyone using Sonos grouped Scenes ? Any insight would be amazing. Thanks.

Edit: DO NOT message me a simple hi or hello, with no information about you, Put some effort in to your message like i have, come on. Day+Attempt#187
Hello everyone, Thank you for taking the time to read, I know its long, I know - I know. But its worth the read, Trust me. I appreciate you immensely.
Here's a bit about me,
My name is Jay, I live on the East coast of the US. I'm looking for love - like everyone else on here.., but you may not believe or even be doubtful that I've never had a GF before with me being 26, but its true. I'm simply just not willing to "be with" just anyone and I'm very picky. I want us to be a match, more than just have similar things in common.
One thing I have always been told is that I'm a "Real Catch, I'd be extremely lucky to have someone like you" - WELL THEN TAKE ME. I'M FREE. LOL.
About me:
Physically -
~I'm a semi-tall guy, around 5'10.
~I'm thin but muscular.
~I have dirty blonde/ brown hair.
~Changing colored eyes.
~A voice nice enough to melt all your safeguards and get right into your heart and weak spots.
~I do not have any tattoos or piercings. Though I would like to get some eventually.
If you'd like to see a picture of me just ask and I'll show you - IF I may see you as well, I simply just don't want a picture of me out there for anyone to see.
-If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask.
Otherwise -
~I do have 3 pet bunnies I would be more than happy to show you, they are extremely cute.
~I'm a very honest and down to earth guy.
~I'm very patient and easy going.
~I'm very curious and inquisitive. I will try to ask everything I can to learn all about you haha.
~I'm Very VERY Kind & Caring, I will probably ask how you are feeling a bajillion times a day, simply out of care for you.
~I can get pretty clingy, and will always want your attention and to be talking with you. If i have someone im interested in i wont want to talk to anyone else🤷‍♂️
~I'm very trustworthy - you can confide in me, and entrust your deepest secrets and I wont tell a soul.
~I'm a HUGE hopeless romantic, im old fashioned and will always try to impress you.
- I'm, a BIG softie even though I may look a smol bit intimidating, but I'd do just about anything to see you smile or laugh. And yes.., I do mean anything.
~I'm a big goof - I will get up to some silly shenanigans ALL the time, I will crack dumb jokes and send you memes and tik toks just to make you happy, even if its from across the room I'd wait to see your reaction lol.
~I'm extremely loyal, and would never even think of cheating.
~I will cook for you, and clean up too, even around the house, I'm very self productive and don't ask for much. Just don't forget to kiss the cook.
~I'd also love to just cuddle up and watch a movie or read a book together, anything to get us closer. Id try to take you out on dates whenever possible haha. I have a million SUPER romantic date ideas I have but have never had anyone interested enough in me to take out. Here's your chance ;)
~I will always want to share stuff I find interesting with you, and try to share every moment of every day with you. I'm not looking for someone who can only talk for a small amount of time, I want someone who's willing to put in all the effort I put into them back into me, it goes both ways. If I'm "with" someone you are my TOP priority nobody and nothing else would be. You would be the only person I'd truly want to talk to, so rest assured I would NEVER cheat, even more so because no one is interested in me - Hence why I'm here hahaha.
I'm sure there is more to me than this snippet but I cant think of more at the moment haha, so get to know me and find out more about me.
Some of my interests are: Engineering- I'm a nerd. I admit it. I love being technical and hands on, I love building things. All kinds of things, from furniture, machinery, and reverse engineering anything I find. I love learning how things work and trying to improve things.
Music - I prefer music with a very fast pace, or with some very meaningful lyrics I can relate to. I love to sing along to music and songs that have a deep meaning behind it I can sympathize with makes it all the better. Some bands I like are: Bad Omens, Beartooth, Demon Hunter, MIW, I9K - The list goes on. I'm a bit of a metalhead unfortunately.
TV Shows & Movies - I love watching shows, and I'd love to stream some shows and have some E-dates with you, to get to know you, or if you are close to me, maybe we could do it in person. Some shows I like or more of the Fantasy/Sci-Fi, Comedy, Action, stuff like: National Treasure, Halo, BattleBots, Rick and Morty, AHS, Anything Marvel or DC, The Witcher, Wednesday, The Sandman, The Magicians, The Umbrella Academy, ETC.
Gaming - Yes yes I know, Basic guy likes basic stuff. But gaming has been a thing for me since forever. I know most of you wont care or want to hear that, but I'll leave out the specifics on this part unless you are interested in that, MEGA Bonus points if you are.
Here's a lists of Cons to dating me-
~I'm not Ryan Reynolds. Disappointing, I know.
~I will fight you on what goes on pizza lol.
~I'm not rich.., Yet.
~I can't pronounce Worcestershire.
~I'm slightly forgetful, but with good reasoning.
~(Not really a con but- some might disagree) I still have ALL of my firsts, Do with that what you will c:
~I've got an endless pile of love and affection and no one to give it to! What a dilemma! Help me fix it?
Other than that I'll save the rest for a bit more of getting to know each other.
Here's a bit of what I'm looking in you:
~Preferably someone with lots of free time, and loves to chit chat. I'm seriously not interested in getting 1 message a day. Though I understand people get busy, I personally am not willing to try to learn about you and form something with 7 responses a week. Effort gets reciprocated and I appreciate the time you put in me.
~Physically: -I’m not personally attracted to anyone who’s “curvy/ chubby”, I apologize. Not a shallow thing, I just dont have the attraction chemical in my brain for that, I’m sorry. -If you’re shorter than me, thats a plus to me. -I love dimples, if you have those when you smile, bonus points 😊 - I’m not sure what else to put.., but as for nsfw wise find out😂
~I'm a sucker for a different accent other than American, and if you have an Posh English accent you have already won my heart.
~I'm also only really looking for someone within the ages of 18-35. I don't want anyone old enough to be my mom lol.
~I'd prefer (But not a must) people NOT on the other side of the world, as other time zones SUCK. I don't expect to find anyone who also has never had a boyfriend either, but that would be a real plus. I also don't mind a LDR, but I don't want that forever. But it gives us time to get to know each other.
But as for attributes I'm looking for in you:
~Someone who is above all else very very Loyal and would never cheat.
~Someone who is Honest, and will tell me the truth over a little white lie.
~Someone who is Kind & Caring, who'd constantly check on me, and accept me for who I am & help me improve day to day.
~Someone who is trustworthy, and I can count on to keep my secrets safe, or even just help me remember things.., I do tend to be somewhat forgetful.
~Someone who is very Patient and wants to see me succeed and will help me do so, just like I would help you. Even if its small day to day things, I would appreciate your company ANY time.
~I want a partner who is Affectionate, can reciprocate, and loves to snuggle and talk about their day, and what their interests are, and what makes them happy.
~Someone who can admit they get clingy or overprotective is a bonus.
~A partner with good communication is key, if something wrong we have to be able to talk about it.
~A partner who likes to game with me or at least watch me play would be a plus but not a requirement.
~Someone with a good sense of humor and like to joke around, I am a big goof after all and I love to joke around. Sending memes is always appreciated and good to cheer people up too!
~I'd prefer someone with the same music taste, but not a requirement, Plus if you wouldn't mind if I send you love songs occasionally that's a bonus, or sending me some back haha.
~Being willing to voice call is a must, Texting forever is not the way to go. I have to know what your voice is like haha, later on we can video call if you are comfortable with that. I prefer chatting on Discord because Reddit messages of any kind I'm sure you know are unreliable and sucky in general. So please send me your discord if you have one :)
~I would LOVE to see picture of your pets if you have any. Bonus points if it includes your beautiful self haha.
I'm sure there is more I'm looking for but I cant think of it right now haha, I will have to edit this when I think of it.
Please tell me about you as an opener! I told you a good bit about me, now its your turn haha.
Tell me some things like -
~What's your name?
~Where are you from?
~How old are you?
~What are your hobbies / interests?
~What about my post interested you?
~Where is my TV Remote?!
~Selfie? Pet pics?
~Hit me with your best joke or meme :)
~What's your favorite candy?
I'd LOVE to get to know you, and see where things go.
But yeah, I know it was long I'm sorry haha. Send me a message and lets get to know each other! :)

I have a question about switching consoles between bands. I haven't encountered such situation, but the gig I will be working at in a couple of days will require just that.
I will be mixing on MIDAS m32, other bands engineer will bring DiGiCo S21 with outboard/soundgrid gear. How should we switch consoles between sets? There probably won't be a processor, I guess there's a way to do with matrix routing, but I would love it if someone could explain it in detail.
Thank you in advance.

I ended up buying a house at the edge of this town.... before i knew all the bullshit that was goin' on around here. Got bored and went down to the local sheriff Jack and asked about an opening, Didn't even fill out an application, got the job on the spot. For the first few months it was the usual, speeding tickets, drunk and disorderly, normal shit right? Well... let the fuckery commence....
I had been a deputy for 7 months when one of the local farmers called in and reported he had some animals killed last night and wanted someone to come out to his house. John Nixon was a 60 year old farmer who lived by himself. His wife passed away years ago, but he never remarried and they never had kids. We met one day at the local tackle shop. Me being new in town, he took me to some of the good fishin' spots. The man was a huge military history buff and would always ask about my time in. I thought I knew him personally, so i took the call.
As I rolled up to the gate on his property, I saw John standing at the gate with a shotgun. " Hey john, can I ask why you are standing there with that cannon in your hands?" No response, he just stared at me. "John! put that damn shotgun down!!" I yelled. Its like he snapped to out of a trance. "Mason, i need you to come round the back side of the house to the barn, now!" he snapped.
"OK, OK, let me get outta the car and grab some gear." I said opening the car door. While i was grabbing my gear, John was standing there with his eyes scanning the tree line. "Come on mason! you need to see this!" He said heading towards the back. I closed the trunk and started walking over in his direction.
"So what the hell is going on that's got you walking around here with that damn bazooka?" No response, he just keeps walking and scanning the tree line. We finally got to the back of his house where the barn is. It looked like a horror movie in that pen.
"What the fuck happened here!?!" I said covering my mouth. There were pieces of chickens and goats everywhere, a few pigs looked like they had been filleted. "Its back mason, after all these years" John mumbled. "John what the hell are you talking about? what did this?" I asked.
John took his eyes off the tree line and looked me dead in the face. "Your not from here so you dont know." "Know what man? what are you saying?" I asked getting annoyed now. "Years ago this same thing happened to a few guys I know. All of their livestock had been killed. Not killed and eatin', just killed. It got people 'round here up in arms. Well, a few of us got together and decieded we were gonna look for whatever did it" he said. "What the hell are you telling me john?" I interrupted. "There were four of us. We were young, thought we were bullet proof. We went out into the woods one morning, determined to find the damn thing that had been killing our animals.
Tommy was the first to say something. "Hey, did you guys hear that?". The rest of us didnt hear a thing, so we kept moving. We got about three miles deep into the old pine forest at the edge of town. Will was the next to say something, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" he yelled out while looking down at the mud. We ran over to where he was standing to find him wide eyed. "I dont know what the actual fuck did this, but we..we need to go and I mean right fucking now!!!" he said pointing. This track was huge, at least 14 inches long with huge claws. Gerald spoke up "Let's fuckin' go guys!!".
We started back tracking out of the area, when we were stopped cold in our tracks, we all heard it this time. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same damn time. A sickening, shrieking laugh was coming from all around us. We panicked and starting runnin'. As soon as we did that, whatever was making that noise centered as if right behind us, and it was coming fast, ungodly fast" John said eyeing the remains of a chicken that was torn apart.
"We were about a mile from the trucks when I heard a thud and a scream, when i looked back Gerald wasn't there. Will and tommy were right behind me, terror all over their faces. Tommy pulled his pistol and started shooting backwards. Only one shot rang out before something tackled him and Will. I stopped, raising my rifle, but they had already been torn apart. It was seconds, and they were in shreds" John said.
"Mason, what i saw standing over their shredded bodies has haunted me since then. The fucking thing was nine feet tall, shaped like a man, but not. Its skin, or or scales was a mixture of black and grey and it looked slimy. It looked like a damn bodybuilder with hugh claw like hands. Its head was massive, with what looked like horns coming from the jaw to around the chin. Its eyes, glowed bright green in the middle of the fucking day, and it had a mouth full of fucked up jagged teeth." He said lowering his head.
"I jus.. just stood there, waitng for my turn. This thing paced back and fourth, staring at me, with this creepy damn smile. It looked down at Will and Tommy, then it looked back up at me. My heart almost stopped when it pointed and shook its head at me. It started making that shrieking laugh as it grabbed what was left of my friends in each giant claw and walked off into the woods, still fucking laughing. I fell to my knees as it vanished into the trees."
I stood there, thinking he lost his damn mind. John had stopped talking, he had this way off look in his eyes. "John..., john.., JOHN!!" his eyes snapped back to mine. "So what are you telling me? A nine foot creature with claws killed your friends and animals?!" I half mocked. "Yea.... thats what i'm telling you. Its back for me, i know it." "What makes you think it was this thing you say killed your friends? It could have been coyotes" I asked " I know mason, i heard that same horrible shrieking laugh in the woods behind the barn last night."
Now I’ve heard some real bullshit in my time, especially during my time in the contracting field... But this was the most out there shit I had ever heard.
"Alright, alright... let's just take a big ass step backwards. I need to wrap my head around all of this." I said takin a deep breath. John laid the shotgun down to his side. "I'm telling you the truth mason. i'm too old and tired to lie about shit" he said shrugging. I looked deep into this man’s eyes. When I did, I saw something that told me this was the absolute truth as he knew it. " You haven’t given me any reason to doubt you... but fuck man... this is hard to swallow. I need proof John, that's the way this works." A look of frustration washed over his weathered face.
"Proof?! you want proof huh? follow me" John groaned.
He started walking towards the tress behind the barn. As we got closer to the trees, I started to smell rusty copper. Blood I thought out loud. John raised his shotgun as we walked closer. That damn gun had to be illegal, but this wasn’t the time for that. Him raising that gun made me a lil' uneasy, so I pulled my Glock 9mm out and flipped the safety off.
John owned about 90 acres, most of it unkept. A lot of the land was behind the barn which butted up to a state forest. We took about 12 steps into the wood line when the smell of death hit me like a brick. "I'm taking you to where I heard the noise coming from last night... your PROOF is out there Mason" He said with a slight edge to it.
We walked almost a hundred yards into the woods when john stopped in front of a tree. It looked twisted and warped all the way to its top. I stepped around John and saw huge claw marks cut deep all the way around the base of the tree, it's hard to even call it that. "What the hell is this?" I said looking up. "This is a marker, it's territory starts here" John replied. I looked at john like he was crazy, which at this point I thought he was. "This thing travels throughout these woods. I've found five more of these trees in our town" he said putting a hand on the tree.
"This isn’t telling me anything John, just that you've got a weird ass tree on your property" I said back to him. "Do you hear that?" So we could move this mess forward, I stopped talking and just listened. I hadn't noticed that during our walk into the woods it had got quiet, and I mean not one sound. " What the hell? where did all the animals go?" I asked looking around. "They're scared mason... you should be too. Let's get back to the house."
We turned and started making our way out of the woods. We were damn near the tree line when I heard a snap. I turned around, gun raised to see a black streak dart back deeper into the woods. "What the fuck was that?!" All John said was "we need to leave, now!" We turned and started sprinting the rest of the way out of the woods. I was surprised at how fast john was for an old man. We got all the way back to my patrol car. "I don't know what that was, but I don't think you should stay here tonight John. Pack some stuff and come to my place" I said pointing my gun at the trees. John just let out a sigh as if frustrated and defeated.
"You weren't listenin'. The pine forest, these trees, it’s all connected. I’m talkin’ bout before this area was even inhabited by native peoples. This fucking thing has been around for a very long time. I have been looking into this since that day, I had to find out what it was and if it can be killed" he tried to explain. The whole time john was talking I had my eyes and weapon pointed at the trees. " You can put that down mason, it just wanted you to know it's here" He said.
"John, I to need process this shit. I've never seen or heard anything like this and to be straight with you, I’m at a loss right now" I said opening the trunk. "I get it, I get it. The sheriff jack was a deputy back then. When you see him... tell him I said the dark is here..." And with that, he just turned his back and walked back into his house not saying another word.
I got back in the car and sat there. Looking at the treeline. After a few minutes I went back to the station. I must've walked in with that universal what the fuck look on my face, because Cathy the clerk asked what was wrong with me. I told her I was fine and asked if she had seen the sheriff? "Yeah, he is in the gun cage. Are you sure you’re ok Mason?" She asked again.
"Yeah, I'm good, just need to talk to Jack." I started walking towards the back of the building, when Jack came around the corner. "Hey mason, what's up?" he says walking up to me. "I just got back from John's house." The look on his face completely changed. "He had a bunch of animals killed last night. It looked like a slaughterhouse. He told me to tell you the dark was back?" I told him noticing his reaction.
Jack stiffened up and not saying a word gestured for me to follow him towards the back security door. We headed towards the back and out the door. Jack had stopped to make sure the door was secure then pointed at his truck and said "get in."
After getting in he looked over "I need some coffee" then started the truck up and headed west out of the parking lot towards the coffee shop. He ordered a large black coffee with extra sugar then asked if I wanted one. "I'll take a small black, no sugar." We pulled out and headed east back past the station. We ended up driving towards the edge of the county. "What's going on and why are we heading way the hell out here?" I looked at jack and said.
Jack just took a long sip of his coffee then placed it back in the holder.
After a long breath "You want some answers about what happened at Johns' house... I’m sure he told you about a few other things about this town... well we're gonna go get you some answers" He said looking at a black sedan passing in the opposite direction. "Aight so, like you mason, I’m not from here either. I was a trooper in New York for a few years before I came down here. I resigned after a call to an old couple’s house" He said reaching for his cup. "My partner Jake and I responded to what was thought to be an animal attack. We were the first on the scene, having been a couple miles away lookin' for speeders.
When we rolled up an older woman came running over to the cruiser. She had a panicked look on her face and just kept repeating "they're dead, they're dead!!" We hopped out and sat her in the back of the car then asked what happened. "I...I... came over to talk to gloria and... and I saw the door open. I walked in yelling her and Alan’s name, but they didn't answer... I found them upstairs... it's horrible!!" She said sobbing. Jake and I drew our weapons and started making the move inside. Like the witness said the front door was open, so we moved in. It smelled like sulfur and blood when we entered. We started clearing rooms. The first floor was clear, so we made our way up the steps.
The smell was overpowering now. We cleared the bathroom, and the two smaller rooms were clear also. The door to the master bedroom was slightly opened. I motioned to Jake and we hit the door.... it looked like some movie shit!! I kid you not. Jake turned and went back into the hallway and threw up. I stepped into the room and... listen I had never seen anything like this before" Jack stammered out.
"These two people were in shreds on the bed, they're insides had been yanked out and thrown around the fucking room. After looking at the bodies I noticed these huge claw marks in the wall, I’m talking if Andre the giant had had a Krueger glove. I stepped back out of the room and radioed to dispatch that we needed more units. I walked back to the front door where Jake was standing hunched over looking out of it.
Parked outside were 3 black SUVs and a black sedan. I counted 11 men dressed in black tactical military gear, some with a type of rifle I had never seen before, but you could tell it was large caliber. The rest with SMG weapons. When i looked over towards the patrol car, one of the men had the door opened and was talking to the witness. He saw us and started our way. He was dressed in all black too and carried what looked like a desert eagle in a chest holster.
When he got closer I got a better look at him. He looked to be in his late 40's with salt and pepper colored hair and a big ass scar that ran down the right side of his face. He got about ten feet from the steps "We appreciate the assistance, but you are no longer needed" He said in deep voice. As he is saying this, one of the other guys escorts the witness out of our car and into the back of that sedan.
The guy started walking away from us "Who are you? and what the fuck is going on?" I yelled at him. He turned with a look on his face that you only see in movies then took a few steps towards us. "Your command has been informed and you are to leave now!" He said raising his hand up towards that holstered pistol. Jake looked at me and shook his head "fuck it, let's go, let them deal with that mess upstairs" he said still coughing then started heading towards the car. I followed him down the steps... looking this guy up and down, checking out the vehicles... for anything that might tell me who we were dealing with.
The only thing I saw was on the assholes uniform... there was a patch on his shoulder. It was an all-black diamond with a weird looking black M in the middle on it. The guy stared us down until we were in the car driving away. He had that pistol in his hand and the other men starting moving into the house. Jake and I didn’t say a word until the radio squawked and we were told to head back to the barracks.
When we got there, we were told to report to the troop commander’s office. Commander Thompson was sitting in his office along with a man in a nice 2-piece suit. The man in the suit stood there quietly while Thompson told us that we never responded to any call out to that farmhouse, and that this was the first and only time he would say it. With that, he dismissed us and and we walked out. The shit didn’t sit well with me, and I ended up resigning a few months later.
I came down here and then that shit in the woods happened. I was on the scene, I saw the claw marks. They looked just like the ones in New York, and the same damn trucks showed up with different personnel. I knew just to shut up and walk away, and after making that choice I have had a pretty good career here." he finished grabbing his cup out of the holder.
My brain was in overdrive. I was just about to completely question bomb jack when he said, "We're here." He pulled off onto this overgrown driveway and drove for about a quarter mile. We pulled up to an old two-story house that looked like it was in ruins... but the lights were on. "Where the hell are we?" I asked As the last word of that question left my mouth, the front door of the house opened... standing in the doorway was a old man, dressed in weathered black clothing. Jack leaned over to me "You wanted answers... well.... there they are."

I was reflecting about the themes of the first two movies, and I wondered what the third one's theme could be.
If the first movie's theme was about "Anyone can wear the mask,
And the second film's theme was the question, "Can my individuality co-exist with the demands of the mask?"
The answer could be the theme of the third film, "Yes, and if the demands of the mask don't fit you, then make your own demands. I wear the mask. The mask doesn't wear me."
Here's how I feel like the ending of "Beyond" could be, with Rio and Jeff knowing his secret identity by now:
(Voice over)
"My name is Miles Morales, I was bitten by a radioactive spider. I am New York's one and only Spider-Man. I was once told that it meant letting those closest to me get hurt. However, I think the opposite is true. Spider-Man doesn't have to be a curse. It doesn't have to be a burden. If you need sleep, then sleep. (Show Miles having fallen asleep in his costume). "Let others take the weight off you." (Show Jeff as a cop running to his police car, showing that Spidey can take a night off). If you need a break. Take a break. (Show Miles and Gwen together). It's okay. The city won't fall apart. Spend time with those you love. (Show Rio, Jeff, Gwen, and Miles on the couch together). "You see, being Spider-Man means a lot to me." (Show him swinging through the city). "But so does being Miles Morales." (Show Miles reconnecting with the other neighborhood kids from the start of the first movie). You can do both. You CAN have your cake and eat it too. (Show Miles presenting Jeff with another cake saying, "I'm proud of you, Dad. I love you"). What good is being Spider-Man if you can't share it with the people you love? (Show Rio and Jeff watching Miles leap off the roof as Spider-Man, and they both yell, "Hey, be careful!!")
(Show Miles yelling faintly through the mask, "I always am!")
Rio and Jeff as they stare at Miles swinging into the sunset sky. Rio leans her head on Jeff.
Rio, "You think he'll be okay?"
Jeff- "Yeah. We did a good job raising him."
(As Miles swings into the city, he sees Spider-Gwen swinging with him).
They're shown swinging farther and farther away into the sun, as Miles narrates:
"I think the other Spider-people made the mistake of thinking they had to suffer. That it somehow made them into better heroes. But Peter didn't become Spider-Man because his Uncle Ben died. He became Spider-Man because of what his Uncle Ben taught him, and I didn't become Spider-Man because I watched Uncle Aaron die. I became Spider-Man because of what he taught me when he was alive. Just keep fighting. You're the best of all of us. Just keep going. And I always will.
Oh and Uncle Aaron, that girl I told you about?
It worked out."
(End of Beyond)
Something similar would be the ultimate mic drop.
I suppose I could include what happens to Hobie and the gang, but since I haven't actually seen Beyond, I really can only guestimate the following things:
1.) Jeff and Rio will find out Miles' secret identity.
2.) Miles and Gwen get together.
3.) Somehow Miles has made peace with his Earth-42 version prior to this.
4.) Miles adopted Gwen's mentality of "finding their own band."
5.) My theory is that Miguel will realize he was wrong about his calculations and eventually apologize to Miles. It'd take Miles a moment to forgive him, but he'd ultimately accept the apology--even if not becoming friends with the guy. Miles would say something like, "We're cool. Give you advice though? You need to get some help, man. Some serious help."
(That would be the end of their interaction)
6.) Not sure where Jessica Drew ends up. She's the biggest mystery to me.
7.) Miguel would get some kind of chastising from Rio. Not sure how, but Rio would go OFF on him. Especially if Miguel tracks Miles down, fights him, and his secret identity gets revealed by accident. In some way, Rio would cuss this dude out in Spanish, likely after Miles and Miguel make peace with each other.
8.) How Dark Miles and Spot get involved will be a mystery.
9.) Spot will die by getting stuck in some sort of eternal loop. He would basically keep falling into an infinite number of holes and not be able to stop it.
10.) Rio and Jeff accept Miles' secret identity. Jeff would be like, "So you're the one who gave me the advice ----whaaa?"
11.) Near the movie's end, Rio would make an offhand comment about having contacted Vision school administration to complain about the guidance counselor profiling their son. "Poor immigrant family."
These are my theories for how this movie will end. Thoughts? Additions?

I'm on a forward deployed ship , I don't really enjoy it but I do enjoy working in radio. I want to do another term and go to shore duty. But am thinking about going to the army and try to something in my rate as a warrant-officer does anyone have any advice/knowledge on what the process is going to be like, and will I even be able to do something in my Job/rate. or am I better off staying in the navy and sucking it up to sea duty.

Here. And I’d like to start by noticing that Steve Sailer is obviously Delicious Taco’s dad. Having said this.
Good episode. Lots of engagement which I suppose is a net positive for all involved. Obviously a lot of the injury stems from a distortion. The episode’s content fantasized and in fantasy warped into something constituting a threat (no, an outright assault) to the listener’s person. One can simply listen to the episode and see that some (in fact the bulk) of the negative responses are from people reacting to some spectral absent-presence rather than to what is actually being said over the course of the 2 hour long episode. The voices and the discourse have instead been shaped into sonic receptacle containing the reflection of something wildly ugly. Injuriously ugly.
Past few days have been brutal. Found myself doom-viewing the main sub, should know better at this age. Feels like I’ve been transmogrified into an absurd and wretched thing. Must've transgressed against a gnome or something. Fascinating to think about.
I would like nothing more than to shame you.
Miami Summer is a killer. Urine is blood-orange. And my mother deserves better sons.
Why would A&D do this?
Witnessing the rankest comments. In bygone age I’d found them tolerable. Having imagined them delivered by high society homosexual. A damned dandy; chubby, sinister, and flamboyant. Capri on a stick limply held between index and middle fingers, twirling wrist ash’ing on expensive Persian rug. The blurry ghosts of his mother and the kid brother who drowned in the pond all those years ago glaring at him from far-off corner. Clearing throat he launches into sing-song slander head peeling back cackling at his own wickedness. Vile and venomous but charming. Instead what we get is 30+ year old mentally-ill men. Men whose Twitter activity has atrophied their cock and balls. Genitals withering away like the Worker's State, in its place a gasping cloaca, worry not I can clock em from miles away. The odious cloaca-havers are soon joined by ruined drug-addled children and the other women. They talk about A&D in disgusting ways. This is unfair and nasty. I confess to being angry. Sweating blood-specked kerosene. Let the scent fill up the empty air between us. My wrath singeing those overgrown nose hairs.
Of the two I think Anna is the one that inspires the harshest parasocial spite. So much so that I’d recommend she take some protective measures against evil eye and tongue. Maybe take baths with hyssop herb, rose water perfume, and holy water.
It’s as if Anna Khachiyan is a Giant Floating Vagina with teeth and a noticeable overbite. Viewed from another angle it transforms into a Madonna encircled by cherubim. Perhaps we are cruel to Anna in order to be kind to our mothers.
All very pre-Oedipal.
Had to step back and parse it out. Anna draws a comparison between herself and Sailer while also asking him a great question,
07:12-07:49
Anna: “I started reading it during the pandemic because it was the pandemic. I was pregnant and bored and I really relate to you as a person who everyone thinks is like evil and monstrous on the internet, but is actually like quite agreeable and mild mannered in real life. And I was going to ask you this question last, but I may as well just ask it now. How do you feel about your new found popularity? And especially, how do you feel about the fact that you have been effectively adopted by or identified with the hard right?”
The first part of the above extract, the sympathetic recognition, brings to mind a bit of 20th century Hermetic theory concerning harmful thought-forms. Our unconscious self-destructive impulses animating the fantasy-phantasm of the other. Inhabiting their shape. Gaining a degree of autonomy. This artificial entity is vampiric by default, provoking what the Czech magician Franz Bardon calls a "magical persecutory complex"... He goes into detail about such entities in Step VI of his seminal work, Initiation into Hermetics. Describing different types of artificial elementals and phantasms along with details on how to consciously go about creating and dissipating them. One of those artificial psychic entities, the one that concerns us, he calls the schemata. Bardon details two variants, one connected with paranoid persecutory fantasies and the other with erotic obsession. The first type comes about when someone who is “easily excitable, easily influenced or self-important” (Narcissist?) has a run in with another person who has, to put it mildly, a memorable visage and dark personality. The schemata is born from the phantasm modeled after this demonic-looking disagreeable person. The victim begins to attribute all kinds of minor inconveniences to the influence of the ugly person. Deludes themselves into thinking that the ugly/disagreeable person is a powerful black magician. Everything appears to reinforce their paranoid delusions. The schema grows in power feeding off the anxieties of their creatohost. The person might end up committing suicide. This was the persecutory schemas desire, having achieved its goal Bardon notes, “how great is the shock when such a spirit realizes on the mental plane that he has committed a very successful magical suicide. What a bitter disappointment! The demonic looking person, however, has no idea what happened; he was actually only the means to an end.”
God gave us eyes so that we might notice things.
The way I see it:
Being social animals the subject of our fantasy, of our fixations, is the fantasy of the other. What makes the human Human is not that we desire but rather that we desire the desire of the other. An excess desire. We fantasize about what the other is fantasizing and enjoying. Our fantasy of the fantasy of the other is the outlines a fundamental lack within our person, a negativity. Experienced as a splitting of consciousness. Intuiting this lack, becoming aware of it, and attempting to articulate it, we are self-consciousness. This negativity or void is in psychoanalytic terms, the unconscious. We likewise intuit that there had once been some original state. One without lack and contradiction. A state of fullness, without the division between self and object. A harmonious whole. A pure consciousness or as Freud refers to it in Civilization and its Discontents an oceanic feeling. The Original Desire, one that is authentically my own, which was not the desire of the other but which unites our desires in itself. This desire is the extinction of all desires.
The eye that perceives the lovely is at once the eye that perceives what I lack. Perceiving this lack, which explains my present condition, I covet. This is an evil eye. The lover’s gaze is of the same type as the infirm or pathic gaze. Reminded of Zizek’s formulation of one of Hegel’s insights, “Evil resides in the very gaze which perceives Evil all around itself" itself a variation of Meister Eckhart’s “the eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me.” The recognition of evil, the ability to see and judge evil, stems from our ability to recognize disparity. This disparity is already present within our own person, the split-consciousness. The feeling cognized, the awareness of our condition as beings separated from the whole. The clairvoyance of the tyrant and the philosopher.
Suppose that psychopathology is born from our inability to recognize an image as an image.
I intuit something more in this person, something they’re hiding. It can’t just be envy, no. It has to be because I can feel that this thing they’re hiding is sinister. It can’t just be that I feel animosity towards this person, no. It has to be because this person is evil and not just an isolated evil but rather a symptom of a much larger evil. An evil that is responsible for all the suffering in the World, for why my World isn’t the way it should be. It can’t just be attraction, no. It has to be that I intuit something more in this person, something hidden, that I must destroy in order to go on living.
If vile shit comes to mind (as vile things often do, especially when one is immersed in ambient algorithmically-summoned vileness, namely outrage and atrocity porn) they won't affirm it to themselves or try to justify or rationalize it or present it as a rational political stance. And they don’t abstract this particular form of vileness into the primary lens through which they view and interpret cultural phenomena. Unreflexive racial animosity is ugly and fetid. We’re capable of recognizing it, feeling it, as something pathological. We’re also capable of laughing at it. Laughing at ourselves. Look at what our ladies have to say about Stuart Seldowitz (the dude who went viral harassing a halal street vendor) in I’ll Be Missinger. “He sucks,” “he’s a loser,” “he’s obviously sick,” and that he gives the impression of someone who lives alone, will die alone, and will be found weeks or even months after the fact.
Perhaps Red Scare is special in how it manages to elicit absurd, wildly inappropriate responses from listeners. Vulgar and revelatory was it? Steve Sailer elicits a similar response and has become an expert in turning said absurd reactions to his advantage. Generally the cooler-head in any given exchange. While the other person shouts obscenities at a ghost, smashing fists against the post, looking crazy, like a proper hysteric. Sailer breaks the fourth-wall, making eye-contact with the would-be noticer, with a little shake of the head, a little chuckle, a little shrug… “you’re noticing right? See what I have to put up with? Imagine these people defining my legacy.” Still he seems to take it with the good humor of an uncle who will still call you on your birthday, despite your drunken outburst during holiday get-together he will admit to not having resisted the temptation to provoke you, it use to be fun, recall all the cool bands I introduced you too? We use to be best buds, “do you really think anything I’ve said merits this sort of response? Honestly?”
Has to be a cheap trick. A technique employed by an old trickster in decades long honing of craft. Maybe not. Maybe what we see is precisely what we get. Most of the very upsetting things being jokes sincerely intended to lighten the mood. Steve Sailer doesn’t care about the particular political orientation of his audience. He just cares that he has an audience. Grateful for the fans he has. Nonetheless happy that they’re not seething malcontent racists. Even if one disagrees with the methodology, the heuristic, the conclusions. That’s secondary, perhaps even tertiary to the recognition sought. His craftsmanship as a writer.
Why I loved his conflict with Will Stancil. Stancil inspired a lot of pondering for me. Putting things in place…
01:29:22-01:29:28
Anna: “You come for the race science and stay for the prose-styling and vivid story-telling.”
In trying to survive as a writer exiled from Mainstream Conservative media (ConInc) during the Bush Jr years. In fact, correct me if I’m wrong but the cancelation that actually impacted Steve Sailer, setting him down the path we find him in, was brought about not by blue-haired hall monitor millennial leftists but by his “fellow” Conservatives. I imagine that he just went with whoever was willing to take him adapting to the editorial standards and audience sensibilities of the publications willing to provide him succor. Not charity mind you but an ability to engage in his own little labor of love.
Read some Sailer. Might get into that later. But that’s the initial impression I got from Steve. Would be utterly mortified if memorialized as a Racialist Ideologue rather than as an entertaining and thought-provoking journalist. Think I also benefited from seeing how he’s actually received by people who are navigating through (or in certain cases, are mired in) the marginal “Hard Right”-spaces or the Rightwing Digital Ghetto. End up realizing that he isn’t hateful, that what you see is precisely what you get, that he privileges craft over ideology, that his reception and exile from Neocon dominated media outlets (remember these are the people gushing ecstatic over the US invasion of Iraq, manufacturing consent for our adventures in the Middle East) was exceedingly unfair but that he nonetheless managed to persevere. And that he really never goes beyond Norm McDonald in terms of his sardonic wit or The Boondocks animated series in terms of his criticisms. His normality is a great source of stability and comfort for his readers; “noticing” and speculating about these topics doesn’t necessarily lead to one becoming a seething racist.
Returning for a moment to Will Stancil, this was what he inspired:
As the last man standing I spend countless hours immersed in detailed fantasies about the coming apocalypse and my enemy's bliss. A dumb and wicked happiness proportional to my suffering. Easy to imagine other people happy. Hearts unbroken. Unburdened, hydrated, sexually satisfied, debt-free, lucky, successful in all business endeavors. Brute, jezebel, schemer, parasite, rival, betrayer... the whole lot of them thriving. Frolicking in my mind's eye. When the time comes I won't forget that they were happy while...others...suffered.
Find that trying to void your mind of all thought or sit perfectly still for 10 minutes. End up feeling like something requires much less energy from us than nothing. Causes coalescing. Conspiring, to what ends?
You see. The very same principle appears to be at work here. Same pathological base that undergirds genuine racial or ethnic animosity. Fantasizing about the other’s enjoyment and being unable to distinguish between the persecutory Phantasm and the actual human being whose shape it appropriates.
Had a friend recommend forgetting. Forgetting is a dialectical exercise, first you have to acknowledge the thing living rent free in your head and acknowledge its origins... then you have to take the steps to stop feeding it. Letting the thought-form dissolve. Let it be put to rest. Reminded of the practice Orthodox Christian contemplatives call Nepsis.
Other approaches as well, acknowledging the presence of anima veiled in shadow.
But listen…
The podcasts I consume, are a reflection of me as a person. Being what I associate and consume. What does it say about me in particular? Reveal about me? That they should have Steve Sailer on the pod. Settling down. Perhaps some responses could be understood in this light. That a Sailer episode reflects poorly on the listener. Constituting a great betrayal of the love and energy and time I have dedicated over the years to you.
I’m not a racist.
Show me your likes on Twitter and I’ll tell you who you are. The most punitive and brutal god. The idea of the AI nu-god being this, utilizing that standard, is horrifying. Show me your likes on Twitter and I’ll tell you who you are, everything you are, and whether or not you qualify to live.
Shamed, I quietly remove the upvote I gave to the hysterical person and the downvote I gave to him.
Hysteria like a yawn is an empathic contagion.
Back to Anna it’s not because she’s ugly and it sucks that she might nurse this delusion. I actually think Anna is really pretty. Rather I think it’s because she’s a mom. She registers as a maternal figure. That’s one of the reasons I think people respond to her the way they do. As stated earlier. We are cruel to Anna in order to forgive our moms.
[To be continued: Wherein I say horrible things that should never be said to the people I claim to love. Will also interrogate Sailor Socialism]

I have large 3 story 6500 sq/ft house with cat 6 ethernet cabling running throughout, with a BT modem and network switches on the ground floor.
At the moment I have a number of old Apple base stations (two on top floor and two on ground floor) that I connect to the various ethernet points to create my wifi and then also a GOOGLE NEST TRI-BAND WI-FI ROUTER WHITE 3 PACK with two extenders to get wifi to a part of the house where only one ethernet cable has been run (the garage). I use this part of the house as an Airbnb and have setup a guest wifi network for the guests to use.
The main part of the house seems to work OK but the Google wifi network keeps going down and I have to restart the BT modem and all the Google routeextenders to get it up and running again.
Can anyone recommend a wifi system which has better coverage and that will be more reliable. I was looking at the “Orbi™ 960 Series Quad-Band WiFi 6E Mesh System, 10.8Gbps, 10 Gig Port, 3-Pack” but wondered whether the two extenders will be enough coverage and whether you can plug the extenders into the Ethernet (or if I would need to) but also it seems very expensive
Any advice really appreciated.

Part 1
I ended up buying a house at the edge of this town.... before i knew all the bullshit that was goin' on around here. Got bored and went down to the local sheriff Jack and asked about an opening, Didn't even fill out an application, got the job on the spot. For the first few months it was the usual, speeding tickets, drunk and disorderly, normal shit right? Well... let the fuckery commence....
I had been a deputy for 7 months when one of the local farmers called in and reported he had some animals killed last night and wanted someone to come out to his house. John Nixon was a 60 year old farmer who lived by himself. His wife passed away years ago, but he never remarried and they never had kids. We met one day at the local tackle shop. Me being new in town, he took me to some of the good fishin' spots. The man was a huge military history buff and would always ask about my time in. I thought I knew him personally, so i took the call.
As I rolled up to the gate on his property, I saw John standing at the gate with a shotgun. " Hey john, can I ask why you are standing there with that cannon in your hands?" No response, he just stared at me. "John! put that damn shotgun down!!" I yelled. Its like he snapped to out of a trance. "Mason, i need you to come round the back side of the house to the barn, now!" he snapped.
"OK, OK, let me get outta the car and grab some gear." I said opening the car door. While i was grabbing my gear, John was standing there with his eyes scanning the tree line. "Come on mason! you need to see this!" He said heading towards the back. I closed the trunk and started walking over in his direction.
"So what the hell is going on that's got you walking around here with that damn bazooka?" No response, he just keeps walking and scanning the tree line. We finally got to the back of his house where the barn is. It looked like a horror movie in that pen.
"What the fuck happened here!?!" I said covering my mouth. There were pieces of chickens and goats everywhere, a few pigs looked like they had been filleted. "Its back mason, after all these years" John mumbled. "John what the hell are you talking about? what did this?" I asked.
John took his eyes off the tree line and looked me dead in the face. "Your not from here so you dont know." "Know what man? what are you saying?" I asked getting annoyed now. "Years ago this same thing happened to a few guys I know. All of their livestock had been killed. Not killed and eatin', just killed. It got people 'round here up in arms. Well, a few of us got together and decieded we were gonna look for whatever did it" he said. "What the hell are you telling me john?" I interrupted. "There were four of us. We were young, thought we were bullet proof. We went out into the woods one morning, determined to find the damn thing that had been killing our animals.
Tommy was the first to say something. "Hey, did you guys hear that?". The rest of us didnt hear a thing, so we kept moving. We got about three miles deep into the old pine forest at the edge of town. Will was the next to say something, "WHAT THE FUCK?!" he yelled out while looking down at the mud. We ran over to where he was standing to find him wide eyed. "I dont know what the actual fuck did this, but we..we need to go and I mean right fucking now!!!" he said pointing. This track was huge, at least 14 inches long with huge claws. Gerald spoke up "Let's fuckin' go guys!!".
We started back tracking out of the area, when we were stopped cold in our tracks, we all heard it this time. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same damn time. A sickening, shrieking laugh was coming from all around us. We panicked and starting runnin'. As soon as we did that, whatever was making that noise centered as if right behind us, and it was coming fast, ungodly fast" John said eyeing the remains of a chicken that was torn apart.
"We were about a mile from the trucks when I heard a thud and a scream, when i looked back Gerald wasn't there. Will and tommy were right behind me, terror all over their faces. Tommy pulled his pistol and started shooting backwards. Only one shot rang out before something tackled him and Will. I stopped, raising my rifle, but they had already been torn apart. It was seconds, and they were in shreds" John said.
"Mason, what i saw standing over their shredded bodies has haunted me since then. The fucking thing was nine feet tall, shaped like a man, but not. Its skin, or or scales was a mixture of black and grey and it looked slimy. It looked like a damn bodybuilder with hugh claw like hands. Its head was massive, with what looked like horns coming from the jaw to around the chin. Its eyes, glowed bright green in the middle of the fucking day, and it had a mouth full of fucked up jagged teeth." He said lowering his head.
"I jus.. just stood there, waitng for my turn. This thing paced back and fourth, staring at me, with this creepy damn smile. It looked down at Will and Tommy, then it looked back up at me. My heart almost stopped when it pointed and shook its head at me. It started making that shrieking laugh as it grabbed what was left of my friends in each giant claw and walked off into the woods, still fucking laughing. I fell to my knees as it vanished into the trees."
I stood there, thinking he lost his damn mind. John had stopped talking, he had this way off look in his eyes. "John..., john.., JOHN!!" his eyes snapped back to mine. "So what are you telling me? A nine foot creature with claws killed your friends and animals?!" I half mocked. "Yea.... thats what i'm telling you. Its back for me, i know it." "What makes you think it was this thing you say killed your friends? It could have been coyotes" I asked " I know mason, i heard that same horrible shrieking laugh in the woods behind the barn last night."
Now I’ve heard some real bullshit in my time, especially during my time in the contracting field... But this was the most out there shit I had ever heard.
"Alright, alright... let's just take a big ass step backwards. I need to wrap my head around all of this." I said takin a deep breath. John laid the shotgun down to his side. "I'm telling you the truth mason. i'm too old and tired to lie about shit" he said shrugging. I looked deep into this man’s eyes. When I did, I saw something that told me this was the absolute truth as he knew it. " You haven’t given me any reason to doubt you... but fuck man... this is hard to swallow. I need proof John, that's the way this works." A look of frustration washed over his weathered face.
"Proof?! you want proof huh? follow me" John groaned.
He started walking towards the tress behind the barn. As we got closer to the trees, I started to smell rusty copper. Blood I thought out loud. John raised his shotgun as we walked closer. That damn gun had to be illegal, but this wasn’t the time for that. Him raising that gun made me a lil' uneasy, so I pulled my Glock 9mm out and flipped the safety off.
John owned about 90 acres, most of it unkept. A lot of the land was behind the barn which butted up to a state forest. We took about 12 steps into the wood line when the smell of death hit me like a brick. "I'm taking you to where I heard the noise coming from last night... your PROOF is out there Mason" He said with a slight edge to it.
We walked almost a hundred yards into the woods when john stopped in front of a tree. It looked twisted and warped all the way to its top. I stepped around John and saw huge claw marks cut deep all the way around the base of the tree, it's hard to even call it that. "What the hell is this?" I said looking up. "This is a marker, it's territory starts here" John replied. I looked at john like he was crazy, which at this point I thought he was. "This thing travels throughout these woods. I've found five more of these trees in our town" he said putting a hand on the tree.
"This isn’t telling me anything John, just that you've got a weird ass tree on your property" I said back to him. "Do you hear that?" So we could move this mess forward, I stopped talking and just listened. I hadn't noticed that during our walk into the woods it had got quiet, and I mean not one sound. " What the hell? where did all the animals go?" I asked looking around. "They're scared mason... you should be too. Let's get back to the house."
We turned and started making our way out of the woods. We were damn near the tree line when I heard a snap. I turned around, gun raised to see a black streak dart back deeper into the woods. "What the fuck was that?!" All John said was "we need to leave, now!" We turned and started sprinting the rest of the way out of the woods. I was surprised at how fast john was for an old man. We got all the way back to my patrol car. "I don't know what that was, but I don't think you should stay here tonight John. Pack some stuff and come to my place" I said pointing my gun at the trees. John just let out a sigh as if frustrated and defeated.
"You weren't listenin'. The pine forest, these trees, it’s all connected. I’m talkin’ bout before this area was even inhabited by native peoples. This fucking thing has been around for a very long time. I have been looking into this since that day, I had to find out what it was and if it can be killed" he tried to explain. The whole time john was talking I had my eyes and weapon pointed at the trees. " You can put that down mason, it just wanted you to know it's here" He said.
"John, I to need process this shit. I've never seen or heard anything like this and to be straight with you, I’m at a loss right now" I said opening the trunk. "I get it, I get it. The sheriff jack was a deputy back then. When you see him... tell him I said the dark is here..." And with that, he just turned his back and walked back into his house not saying another word.
I got back in the car and sat there. Looking at the treeline. After a few minutes I went back to the station. I must've walked in with that universal what the fuck look on my face, because Cathy the clerk asked what was wrong with me. I told her I was fine and asked if she had seen the sheriff? "Yeah, he is in the gun cage. Are you sure you’re ok Mason?" She asked again.
"Yeah, I'm good, just need to talk to Jack." I started walking towards the back of the building, when Jack came around the corner. "Hey mason, what's up?" he says walking up to me. "I just got back from John's house." The look on his face completely changed. "He had a bunch of animals killed last night. It looked like a slaughterhouse. He told me to tell you the dark was back?" I told him noticing his reaction.
Jack stiffened up and not saying a word gestured for me to follow him towards the back security door. We headed towards the back and out the door. Jack had stopped to make sure the door was secure then pointed at his truck and said "get in."
After getting in he looked over "I need some coffee" then started the truck up and headed west out of the parking lot towards the coffee shop. He ordered a large black coffee with extra sugar then asked if I wanted one. "I'll take a small black, no sugar." We pulled out and headed east back past the station. We ended up driving towards the edge of the county. "What's going on and why are we heading way the hell out here?" I looked at jack and said.
Jack just took a long sip of his coffee then placed it back in the holder.
After a long breath "You want some answers about what happened at Johns' house... I’m sure he told you about a few other things about this town... well we're gonna go get you some answers" He said looking at a black sedan passing in the opposite direction. "Aight so, like you mason, I’m not from here either. I was a trooper in New York for a few years before I came down here. I resigned after a call to an old couple’s house" He said reaching for his cup. "My partner Jake and I responded to what was thought to be an animal attack. We were the first on the scene, having been a couple miles away lookin' for speeders.
When we rolled up an older woman came running over to the cruiser. She had a panicked look on her face and just kept repeating "they're dead, they're dead!!" We hopped out and sat her in the back of the car then asked what happened. "I...I... came over to talk to gloria and... and I saw the door open. I walked in yelling her and Alan’s name, but they didn't answer... I found them upstairs... it's horrible!!" She said sobbing. Jake and I drew our weapons and started making the move inside. Like the witness said the front door was open, so we moved in. It smelled like sulfur and blood when we entered. We started clearing rooms. The first floor was clear, so we made our way up the steps.
The smell was overpowering now. We cleared the bathroom, and the two smaller rooms were clear also. The door to the master bedroom was slightly opened. I motioned to Jake and we hit the door.... it looked like some movie shit!! I kid you not. Jake turned and went back into the hallway and threw up. I stepped into the room and... listen I had never seen anything like this before" Jack stammered out.
"These two people were in shreds on the bed, they're insides had been yanked out and thrown around the fucking room. After looking at the bodies I noticed these huge claw marks in the wall, I’m talking if Andre the giant had had a Krueger glove. I stepped back out of the room and radioed to dispatch that we needed more units. I walked back to the front door where Jake was standing hunched over looking out of it.
Parked outside were 3 black SUVs and a black sedan. I counted 11 men dressed in black tactical military gear, some with a type of rifle I had never seen before, but you could tell it was large caliber. The rest with SMG weapons. When i looked over towards the patrol car, one of the men had the door opened and was talking to the witness. He saw us and started our way. He was dressed in all black too and carried what looked like a desert eagle in a chest holster.
When he got closer I got a better look at him. He looked to be in his late 40's with salt and pepper colored hair and a big ass scar that ran down the right side of his face. He got about ten feet from the steps "We appreciate the assistance, but you are no longer needed" He said in deep voice. As he is saying this, one of the other guys escorts the witness out of our car and into the back of that sedan.
The guy started walking away from us "Who are you? and what the fuck is going on?" I yelled at him. He turned with a look on his face that you only see in movies then took a few steps towards us. "Your command has been informed and you are to leave now!" He said raising his hand up towards that holstered pistol. Jake looked at me and shook his head "fuck it, let's go, let them deal with that mess upstairs" he said still coughing then started heading towards the car. I followed him down the steps... looking this guy up and down, checking out the vehicles... for anything that might tell me who we were dealing with.
The only thing I saw was on the assholes uniform... there was a patch on his shoulder. It was an all-black diamond with a weird looking black M in the middle on it. The guy stared us down until we were in the car driving away. He had that pistol in his hand and the other men starting moving into the house. Jake and I didn’t say a word until the radio squawked and we were told to head back to the barracks.
When we got there, we were told to report to the troop commander’s office. Commander Thompson was sitting in his office along with a man in a nice 2-piece suit. The man in the suit stood there quietly while Thompson told us that we never responded to any call out to that farmhouse, and that this was the first and only time he would say it. With that, he dismissed us and and we walked out. The shit didn’t sit well with me, and I ended up resigning a few months later.
I came down here and then that shit in the woods happened. I was on the scene, I saw the claw marks. They looked just like the ones in New York, and the same damn trucks showed up with different personnel. I knew just to shut up and walk away, and after making that choice I have had a pretty good career here." he finished grabbing his cup out of the holder.
My brain was in overdrive. I was just about to completely question bomb jack when he said, "We're here." He pulled off onto this overgrown driveway and drove for about a quarter mile. We pulled up to an old two-story house that looked like it was in ruins... but the lights were on. "Where the hell are we?" I asked As the last word of that question left my mouth, the front door of the house opened... standing in the doorway was a old man, dressed in weathered black clothing. Jack leaned over to me "You wanted answers... well.... there they are."

I marrried a narcissist and I just realized this characteristic after watching Tiktok.
Hi, Im a mother of 4 kids. I have know my husband for 13 years already and year after year I'm beginning to hate the sight of him. Long story short, he is abusive physically, mentally and spiritually. He would beat then blame me for provoking in the middle of the mornings. Mentally, we will insult me and cursed me in front of the kids, once at my office and few times in public. Spiritually, he just doesn't believe in God. He insults my religion, my race and where I come from.I have an altar at home, whenever there is a fight, he will light up and essence and then next few weeks he is back at his attitude. And I will be like, what for you light the candles for wayang or what.
Biggest red flag of all, he cheats. Latest one with his EX! and they both got the biggest Karma after that. That one another story :P I have tried everything!!! like everything. Spoke to his parents, police reports. Best part is the stupid police can tell me, "Bawa bincang dengan keluarga la" WTF!! ok i did that again la. Spoke to his friends, friends call him, he tembak them, now they duwan to talk to him, but they still keep in touch with me to ask me on things.
Last resort, I did my JPN counseling thing and got my letter. Tell him already like twice to leave my house but he still doesn't burge. And within 2 two month already twice kena. Consult with lawyer , just to get an injunction out RM 10,000.00 !!! like seriously... Are they waiting for me to die or what.
He still in my house even after everything I had said to him. I told him I don't love him anymore. He has a company that doesn't run, doesn't work, sits all day at home with Tiktok. Doesnt do anything at home. Doesnt pay any bills and still he got face to sit in my house.
I need help. How do I get rid of him. Go police they will ask oooohhhhh kita take boleh halau suami keluar, Go to uncle and aunty all shake head, ask to be strong.
So lost right now. Anyone have any workable solution please help.