I have recently done a lot of thinking about the way I behave and after a doing a lot of research I am very sure that I have bpd, and this has been incredibly stressful on me, I was already feeling estranged beforehand but now really having an answer in front of me for the way I act feels oddly horrible, like I’m not just kinda strange in the way I act but there is something WRONG with me and that’s so scary. But after discovering this I kinda stepped back and realized how damaging I was to me and my girlfriends relationship, and my heart just kind of shattered, I love this girl so much, and without really having a cause It was never so clear to me how poorly I was acting, and now I stupidly connected the dots. Now that I realized all this, it seems like I’ve noticed a complete and total shift in her behaviour, it feels like I’m talking to a corpse of the girl I love, that I killed, and it hurts so badly, because it’s my fault. I can hardly get a conversation out of her, I have sucked the life out of her and I never realized, all the small little fights and breakdowns and stress just never clicked with me, and now that I really understand and want to change it feels like I have totally sucked any compassion or care she had for me out of her, I want to change so I can make her happy again, even if it costs me a lot of myself. I just only now figured out this part of me and I desperately just want to suppress it so she can be happy, no fusses no abrupt panicking no overbearing jealously, just give her the peace she deserves, but I don’t think she can make herself care anymore even if I change, even if try really hard for her, I’m hurting so much, i hurt her, I genuinely love her so much and I just want to make things better. Anyone that could give some advice would be appreciated, I’m so scared.

Hi there everyone! I’m posting on here for the same reason as all of us: In search of that person we can truely connect and bond with, to find someone to keep by your side.
Here’s a little description of me: Blonde, quite tall, neatly dressed and basically a big teddy bear (hence my username😅). I can be a bit socially awkward at first, but once I start to feel more comfortable I do open up a lot. My main interests are music, cooking, going for walks, reading and learning all about the world. I’d also love to take dance classes or be on stage again one day (through theater or music).
If any of this interests you, please let me know! My preferred age range is 18-25. I hope you all have a wonderful night!

Hi. I’ll be in slo for work and got myself a ticket to see T&S! Super excited but nervous as this will be my first solo show. Would like to connect with some people at the show!

**Name and House:** Beatrice Massey
**Age:** 27
**Cultural Group:** Crownlander
**Appearance:** She has curly brown hair she always keeps tied up, and dark brown eyes. She has plain features and dresses modestly and is of an average height with a pudgy build. She always has dark circles beneath her eyes. Despite her and her brother’s partial Valyrian heritage, they both take strongly after their father’s family.
**Trait:** Steward
**Skill(s):** Administrator (e), Investor (e), Avaricious
**Talent(s):** Language: High Valyrian, History, Geography
**Negative Trait(s):** N/A
**Starting Title(s):** Steward of Stonedance
**Starting Location:** The Hunt

AC
**Name and House:** Arthur Massey
**Age:** 30
**Cultural Group:** Crownlander
**Appearance:** He has thin, straight features with a squared jaw and stubble, with curled brown hair and dark eyes. He stands a modest height with broad shoulders and slim build.
**Trait:** Ruthless
**Skill(s):** Rumourmonger(e), Devious
**Talent(s):** Drinking, Card Games, Sleight of Hand
**Negative Trait(s):** N/A
**Starting Title(s):** Heir of Stonedance
**Starting Location:** The Hunt


Biography

House Massey, along with many neighbouring houses, were quick to join Aegon’s cause and pledge their support during his conquest. Coren Massey, the Lord, had wed a Valyrian woman named Alysanne Belaerys, and had two children by her.
Beatrice was only two years old, and her brother only a boy of five when the Conquest began. Their father and uncle would ride out with their armies to support his cause and would find themselves roosting in his court for the next few years and assisting the construction of King’s Landing. It wouldn’t be until after Aegon’s assassination that her uncle, Triston Massey would take over as Master of Laws.
Tragedy would strike the Massey’s during the Kingswood Hunt, where Triston would fall victim to the attacks by the bandits and would perish.
Coren Massey, her father, would spend much time in King’s Landing, constantly seeking—and failing to secure his brother’s position as Master of Laws. Arthur would spend much time in the new capital as well, though not in court. He would carouse the town, often spending times with other lords and ladies of a similar age, hosting parties or tavern crawls, or hunting expeditions. He established a network of contacts and conversationalists throughout the years there, a gossip-mill that he could turn to his own ends—amongst nobility and smallfolk alike.
Beatrice’s story was much different. As her father and brother left Stonedance to seek greener pastures, much of it resided on her. When she grew up, her family had secured tutors to teach her and her brother skills of administration and governance—though Arthur never took to them, often skipping out on his lessons. Beatrice on the other hand made it her life’s work, studying a variety of subjects. One gift her mother had given her was a tutor from Essos, to teach her the Valyrian tongue both for eventual use in court, and to connect with that part of her heritage.
When she turned ten and seven, she began to take in children from around the Crownlands and a few from lands beyond that, offering to teach them in various disciplines such as arithmetic, history, geography, calligraphy, and literature. This, combined with her duties of running and managing Stonedance, kept her busy and rarely leaving the hold, while her brother, the heir, caroused through life.
At twenty, she was arranged to marry Dorin Sunglass, however the betrothal fell through when he married another—to her relief.
Arthur would sire several bastards, that she would keep track of and it became her responsibility to care for the mother’s left behind and the children he wanted nothing to do with. A cook, a maid, a sailor—Beatrice kept track of them as they came to Stonedance with their children in their arms, offering them gold and a place in the village. Most notably was his fling with Perra Bracken—while the Blackwood’s and Bracken’s geared for war, the two had a tryst in King’s Landing which resulted in a child, Arina. Taken back to Stonedance to raise, Beatrice would tutor her and send letters of progress to Perra, but otherwise both of the parents of the bastard would be uninvolved.

Archetype NPCs

Magnate – Laisa Chyttering
Trader – Evelyne Follard


Family Tree

Coren Massey, Head of House (56)
Alysanne Belaerys (57)
Triston Massey, Uncle – Deceased
Arthur Massey – Brother (30)
- 4 bastards (Calla, Primrose, Roan, Arina)
Beatrice Massey (27)

https://www.familyecho.com/?p=START&c=jx4tc3o73z2l582z&f=703439927850474756

Timeline

1 AC – House Massey is of the first to support Aegon’s Conquest, Coren and Triston, brothers, fight at the Dragonlord’s side to Conqueror Westeros and swear fealty
5 AC – Beatrice begins her studies from tutors acquired by her father from Westeros and beyond.
8 AC – Following the death of the King, Triston Massey is named Master of Laws
14 AC – Arthur makes regular appearances in King’s Landing and begins to make his own circles and share and spread information.
15 AC – Triston Massey perishes in the Kingswood. Coren Massey would move permanently to the court of King’s Landing, vying for a seat on the Small Council, with no luck. In the same year, Beatrice takes his absence and begins to tutor and teach her own students within the lands of Stonedance in a variety of subjects.
18 AC – Beatrice is arranged to marry Dorin Sunglass, though the wedding is called off when he marries another, to her relief, and the chagrin of her family’s. Arina Waters is born.

Male, Age 24.
Hi, basically since early march I’ve been suffering from numerous mouth infections/sores… notably Pericoronitis, twice on each side in a very short space of time and I’m baffled as to why… I understand it’s relatively common with partially erupted wisdom teeth but the constant reinfections are starting to worry me a bit. (I only had it once the entirety of last year)
(First 2 infections) The pain/pressure is generally mild and symptoms clear up in about a week using salt water rinse and corsodyl mouth wash. The third infection however was extremely painful (8/10 constant) but it cleared up much faster in about 1 day…
I’ve also noticed numerous painful small bumps (not ulcers) appearing on the gum line, inside of cheek and roof of mouth that sort of come and go, they heal very quickly. These also started about 2 months ago so I believe it’s connected to the Pericoronitis flare ups.
My oral hygiene is not the best and I’ve had anxiety the past few months, could this be the cause? If not what could be causing such frequent oral infections all of a sudden like this? Thanks.

[Obvious spoilers for character romances, relationships, and a few character arcs. I don't recommend reading this post unless you've beaten the game.]
I’ll start off with the most obvious disclaimer: this post is not here to critique polyamory itself or its inclusion in the game. I’m all for adding the option to games (and BG3 as well) as long as it’s done respectfully and in a way that can make both monogamous and polyamorous players comfortable. This post will discuss what the game could have done better, why the characters they chose to make poly were poorly thought out, and what characters should have (hypothetically) been chosen instead. (The suggestions of who SHOULD have been chosen would give poly players MORE options, rather than less, while also maintaining character consistency and helping mono people feel comfortable too).
These suggestions are, of course, my own opinion coupled with a lot of threads I read all over the internet from three groups: monogamous players, poly players who liked what BG3 did, and poly players who felt it was handled poorly/felt uncomfortable with it. I myself didn’t care to go through the poly routes in the game but after I read some youtube comments on the Halsin topic, I got fully invested in the discussion and dove through youtube, reddit, and Larian threads to hear everyone’s opinions. As a monogamous person myself, it was interesting to hear thoughts from the poly players about what they felt uncomfortable with and how things should have been written instead. As a result, this thread is less my own thoughts and more a compilation of all the ideas/suggestions I saw people come up with.
The goal of this post is not to hate on the developers or people from either side of the debate, but to find a middle ground the developers could have used that would make both monogamous people and polyamorous people happy. The current game did appeal to some poly players, but it left a lot of other ones dissatisfied, and when half of your target audience is feeling skeptical about how you handled something, it’s good to take notice (and even though it’s too late for any changes to be made, it’s fun to talk about the hypotheticals and suggest what pitfalls could be avoided when developing future games).
This post will be formatted like so: (yes, I know it’s long but after having all the discussions and debates run through my head for a few days, it’s nice to get them all written down and out of my brain)

1. Important factors that should be considered when adding poly relationships to your game (in a way that makes at least the majority of your audience comfortable)
   
2. Which characters should have been chosen to be poly instead of the ones we got (and why)
   
3. Why the characters the developers chose to make poly weren’t ideal
   
4. Issues with how Halsin was presented
   

A few more points I want to emphasize before I start.

1. This post isn’t just focusing on the story and character motivations, but also on what makes the players feel at ease. You can’t make everyone happy, obviously, but there were a lot of mistakes BG3 made that could have been easily solved (with suggestions from both sides). I want to see games where both monogamous players and poly players can find the romance options they’re seeking without feeling ignored or pushed aside.
   
2. While it is easy to say, “It’s just a videogame. We shouldn’t worry about what the characters think because they’re fictional,” I say both yes and no. While the feelings of the characters shouldn’t be cared about (because they’re not real), the writers clearly wanted each character to have their own backstory, morals, opinions, and fears. I’d argue most of, if not all of the characters were written really well and in a realistic manner (as realistic as you can get with tadpoles in your brains and magical abilities). The writers WANTED us to take these characters seriously, as well as the portrayals of abuse that some of them represent, so it’s not surprising that lots of players analyze them. The fact that so many different people took the time to discuss the character romances and relationships is a testament to how well written the characters are. It’s okay to say the poly interactions felt ‘out of character’ and debate why.
   

​
Part 1. IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT NEED TO BE CONSIDERED WHEN ADDING POLY RELATIONSHIPS TO YOUR GAME (particularly when monogamous relationships are also part of the game). Most of these will be things other people have said, some of which I never even considered until they brought it up.
- Communication with the players
- Consent (particularly ‘enthusiastic consent’)
- Lying, pressure, and coercion
- Character backstories and potential trauma

1. Communication with the players

One of the biggest issues I had with BG3’s poly relationships is that the developers didn’t try to effectively communicate which options players had until Act 3 (when it’s too late to change your mind). A monogamous player could start a character romance, only to be disappointed in Act 3 when they find out the character is poly. Likewise, a poly player would assume someone is poly, then have that character change their mind halfway through. Now, in terms of narrative, this can be quite interesting, and in terms of real life, I’m sure this happens often. However, when you’re looking at it from a developer’s standpoint, it's not a good idea to do this. If you want to make players comfortable and satisfied with the romance options, you need to make it clear to them what they’re getting themselves into.
So, if you’ve written a poly character into your game, you need to let the players know. Once the topic of romance/sex is brought up, have that character confidently state their thoughts and expectations about it. This way mono players can go, “Oh, this type of relationship isn’t for me. I’ll try to romance someone else.” Meanwhile poly players can say, “This is what I’m looking for.” This way, neither party has to google which characters are or aren’t poly and risk spoiling important plot points for themselves. Likewise, if a character is monogamous, writers should do the same thing.
Two great poly examples are Act 1 Laezel and Dragon Age’s Zevran. As soon as the topic of relationships is brought up, they explain their stance on sex, relationships, expectations, and possible reasons for why they think the way they do. It’s done in a fairly natural manner and fits their character.
Of course, what makes this more difficult is a character like Astarion, whose entire personality is largely an act until he opens up in Act 2. This does make communication with the player harder, but an easy solution is: once he opens up about his true feelings, have him restate what he truly wants in a relationship. (Even that’s difficult for someone like him, who doesn’t know what he wants, but we’re looking at this from a hypothetical developer’s standpoint, not what we currently have.) Having him (subtly) express his expectations here leaves room for players to again say, “Oh, that’s not what I’m looking for. Let’s stay friends.” The devs should then leave some romance options open in Act 2 so players can reevaluate and choose someone else without getting locked out. (Again, this is obviously impossible to fix now. This should have been thought through in early development).
Consent (particularly enthusiastic consent)
One of the biggest issues I saw being brought up from poly players was the topic of consent, especially what they repeatedly prioritized: enthusiastic consent. The ideal response they’re looking for when talking to their partner is that their lover is wholly on board with the arrangement, comfortable expressing their true feelings, and doesn’t feel pressured to agree when they really don’t want to deep down. Out of the three BG3 poly options, only one of them (Shadowheart) had poly players feeling comfortable with her reaction to ‘opening up’ the relationship with Halsin (and even then, there were disagreements).
I can’t get too far into this discussion without bringing up my next point, so I’ll skip to it.
Lying, pressure, and coercion
This is the part that initially piqued my interest when reading that first youtube comment section. Many of the comments were poly people saying, “If my partner reacted to the Halsin arrangement the way Karlach and Astarion did, I would not go through with it.” Coupled with that were poly players saying, “I was hoping for enthusiastic consent and ethical poly. I was disappointed to find neither.” There were a lot of people disappointed with how the poly was written. One person even recommended it to their poly friends, then walked the recommendation back when they finished the game and felt the writers handled it carelessly.
Lots of people, both monogamous and poly, had their doubts about Karlach and Astarion’s reactions. Were they fully comfortable with the poly relationship or were they just saying what their lover wanted to hear? Were they scared of appearing weak and controlling so they pushed their own wishes down? Karlach literally says she’s not fine with it but will tolerate it because she loves you. Astarion’s true thoughts are more uncertain because he has a history of lying to make people happy and struggles with boundaries. I saw many people on the fence about both of them.
Now, in real life, there can obviously be nuance. You can spend hours discussing poly with your partner and checking in with them throughout the relationship to make sure they’re still on board. Some people may genuinely be fine with it but sound nervous at first. Others may NOT be fine with it and lie to avoid being abandoned.
The issue is that we’re addressing a video game where you CAN’T check in with your partner regularly and you only get 1 minute to gauge their reaction. That, coupled with their backstories and how the characters were written up to that point, is bound to make a lot of people (mono and poly) raise an eyebrow or feel uneasy.
While one can argue that leaving the poly relationships open ended/up to interpretation is an artistic choice or an attempt to add realism to the game, at the end of the day, you’re making a lot more people uncomfortable than you need to. There were plenty of poly players who just wanted to see healthy poly relationships with enthusiastic consent, and that’s it. They didn’t want to ask themselves if this was the right decision or if they were making their lover feel worse deep down. That’s something to address in reality, not fantasy. If the developers wanted to welcome poly players in, they should have done so in a way that makes them feel comfortable/satisfied.
This point will lead into WHO I think should have been poly instead but that’s for a little later in the post.
Character backstories and potential trauma
This is largely referring to Astarion but applies to Shadowheart and Karlach as well: If you are going to give characters a lot of layers, insecurities, fears, and trauma, you need to handle their relationships carefully. Not only are you building a character, but you’re letting players see their own traits reflected back at them. When it comes to abuse (physical or sexual), I personally think it’s important to consider player reactions to certain aspects of the game (especially those who have experienced abuse in their own lives).
I think Astarion’s sexual abuse and overcoming of trauma was well written (and a lot of people who experienced similar situations agreed). However, once the developers added poly into his story, I witnessed two prominent reactions from players:
- People defending it, saying that they were fine with poly relationships in their own lives despite going through abusive relationships (which is completely fine and valid).
- People who had the opposite experience, where they lied and said they were fine with poly to please their partners, then felt miserable throughout the relationships. (This is also fine and valid.) These players (even some who went through with the poly relationship in the game) came out feeling uncomfortable and reminded of their pasts.
The ambiguity the developers went for just made this whole situation worse, as it led to arguments and disagreements in the community, with some people insisting the brothel scene helps Astarion heal, while many believed it had the opposite effect. The same arguments were made regarding the Halsin relationship.
Again, there’s nothing wrong with writing a story and sticking to it regardless of how uncomfortable it makes people feel, but in this case, there were so many other options besides Astarion you could have chosen. I think in the long run, it’s better to leave his character away from poly to avoid making lots of people (including SA victims) uneasy when it’s an optional feature anyway. (No one would have complained if he said a simple “that’s not what I’m looking for” or “I’m not comfortable sharing” and left it at that.)
(I’ll go more into more detail about Astarion, Karlach, and Shadowheart later, but will move on for now.)
​

1. WHICH CHARACTERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO BE POLY INSTEAD OF THE ONES WE GOT (AND WHY)

Now, just because I recommend removing poly options from certain characters doesn’t mean it should be omitted entirely. I just think there were far better options available to the developers (character wise, story wise, and player expectation wise). I agree with the online sentiment that instead of taking a step back and figuring out which characters worked best for poly, the developers instead chose the most popular male and female characters and called it a day without discussing whether or not these were the ideal options.
As I was reading through everyone’s complaints and critiques of the poly implementation, I took a moment to figure out which characters would fit it best. I took several factors into account.
You need a character who poly players are confident their yes means yes and no means no (meaning they need to be a generally honest and forthright person). It’s not a good idea to have sexual trauma or a past of people pleasing/coercion because while not all SA victims are monogamous by any means, because it’s a video game and not real life, this opens the door to a lot of other issues and can leave poly players unsure if the character’s past influenced their ability to say yes or no. This is especially relevant because the game only takes place over 4 months. Not only are the romantic relationships just beginning, but Karlach and Astarion literally killed their abusers a few days ago. The pain is still fresh and a lot of healing needs to be done. It’s better to leave the sexual content away from them for now (and if poly players want to imagine the characters opening up the relationship later, they can. It just shouldn’t happen in the current game.)
With those factors in mind, I started narrowing down the characters to figure out which ones would suit the criteria.
Ones that AREN’T a perfect fit:
Astarion: two hundred years of sexual abuse (which is a lot to recover from), he just regained his bodily autonomy, he is a habitual liar, he can be talked into doing things he hates and only protests after the deed is done, even after Cazador dies in Act 3 he will do things he doesn’t want to in order to appease the player, killing one’s abuser does not magically fix all the internal issues and insecurities, the list goes on.
Gale: His issues aren’t as obvious or prominent but he also has a history of people pleasing and doing things he doesn’t want to simply to make his partner happy (see Mystra and the brothel scene).
Karlach: While she is pretty chill about the brothel, the most prominent problem this game has is that she’s literally dying. Even if she was open to poly, as someone pointed out, any loving partner would dedicate what little time they have left to focusing on her.
Shadowheart: This one has the most discussions around it because the writing is inconsistent. This is also the only romance I personally haven’t gone through so I can’t get into full details. However, what I have seen discussed is: brainwashing and memory wipes, being forced to be a “honeypot” against her will, she links her love of poly back to the cult that she spent the whole game trying to escape, her personality does a fairly sudden 180 when poly is brought up. This specific case is more of a “the poly aspect makes the writing feel inconsistent” but the issues of her cult and coercion are also very important.
That leads into characters who ARE a better fit (and bear in mind that this would require rewrites and other stuff that would have had to happen in earlier stages of development, though the tweaks would honestly be minimal):
Minthara: She may have insecurities about the Absolute and choosing her own path, but she is never insecure when dealing with romance. She knows what she wants and how to get it. While I adore her “lay a finger on them, and I’ll cut you” dialogue in the brothel, no one would have been surprised if she was written as poly. It fits her character and if she says, “Go right on with Halsin,” we all know she means it. You could honestly take Ascended Astarion’s Halsin dialogue and paste it into hers instead. The “you are mine” line would make more sense for her than him.
Laezel: This is the most obvious one. She is not only confident in her relationships and sexual preferences, but she also comes from a poly society. Like Minthara, she knows what she wants and will refuse if she doesn’t agree with something. Again, while I love her romance shifting from only wanting casual sex to becoming strictly monogamous, no one would have been surprised if she remained consistent throughout instead.
Halsin: He doesn’t have a history of lying, he knows what he wants, and he is supposed to be one of the more mature members of the group. While I think his writing itself was handled poorly (I dedicate a whole section to that at the end), he’s still a fine option for poly. My only change would be that they make his preferences very obvious in Act 1 and or 2. I saw lots of Halsin fans being super disappointed when they found out he wasn’t willing to be monogamous (and again, you don’t learn this until sixty hours in, so you’ve not only missed out on all the other romances but you can’t just go back and remedy that easily). His talk about the drow kidnapping in the brothel is questionable but that’s easy enough to omit (I saw a lot of people wondering why it was added at all. While Astarion’s trauma was carefully implemented, many felt Halsin’s was carelessly tacked on and almost fetishized.)
This final one is tricky. We know the developers wanted a male option but it’s hard when both Wyll and Gale are written as strictly monogamous. However, going by my criteria from before and therefore omitting Gale and Astarion for aforementioned issues, that leaves us only one option (and it makes sense the more I think about it).
Wyll: Like the other three, Wyll doesn’t lie to spare people’s feelings. He knows what he wants, he accepts his decisions (even the Mizora one), and he is always down to have an open discussion about anything. The only thing holding him back from poly narratively is his nobility and wish to be traditional. Just like the others, I personally like this trait, but since we’re speaking in “what if’s” we can ignore that. It’s easy enough to tweak his story to him being more open to try new things (especially because in most endings, he doesn’t end up becoming a noble anyway). I did see a few people mention that making Wyll the poly option instead of Astarion would have made him more interesting and layered as well.
Of course, these implementations would have to be coupled with them being truthful/open about their poly traits from the beginning of the game, as mentioned before.
This lineup also fixes another problem people had: the current BG3 poly options completely cut off lesbians and straight men. Only bisexuals, straight women, or gay men can have a poly relationship in the game.
What I propose (or at least pretend to since no real changes will be made) is that Halsin and Minthara are the ones who suggest the poly thing (or more ideally, it’s a dialogue option for the PLAYER to choose, since many poly people said it’s weird to insert yourself into a couple rather than having the couple proposition you). This way the options can expand. You now have
Minthara and Laezel
Minthara and Wyll
Halsin and Laezel
Halsin and Wyll
I stumbled upon some threads in this rabbit hole where people were initially debating who they thought would be poly (before the game officially came out). The three most prominent answers were: Minthara, Laezel, and Astarion (though I should clarify that at this point, most players assumed Astarion’s hedonistic playboy persona was real and not an act). On the other hand, once the poly options were fully available and explored, most people were surprised (in a negative way) that Astarion, Shadowheart, and Karlach had been chosen. They felt that poly had been slapped on to sell more games, rather than carefully implemented to fit the story.
Now that I’ve established the alternative I believe should have happened, I can expand a little more on why what we got wasn’t satisfactory. (I’d like to add a note that I personally romanced Astarion the most, Karlach once, and Shadowheart never, so the evidence I go over will heavily lean to one side, unfortunately. There are other redditors who get into the Shadowheart debate in more detail than I could. I can link these below if anyone bothers to read this far and wants to see them.)
​

1. WHY THE CHARACTERS THE DEVELOPERS CHOSE TO MAKE POLY WEREN’T IDEAL

Karlach:
This is the most simple of the three. On the surface, I initially thought she would be a good idea for poly. She lets you sleep with the prostitutes in the brothel, she’s pretty blatant about her wants and needs, she’s touch starved, and she initially seems like she’d be fine with Halsin.
But there are two issues:
One, in the Halsin proposition dialogue, she outright states that she isn’t really cool with a poly relationship. (She says something along the lines of, “I’ll have to chew on that for a while. I’m not sure I want this right now and don’t think I ever will.”) So she’s very blatant in telling you that this isn’t what she wants, but she’ll tolerate it because she loves you. It’s easy to see why this would make poly people feel bad and wish for an alternative.
Now, this could be fixed by changing her dialogue to being super enthusiastic, but even if you did, you get problem two: She is dying. She has weeks left to live. You the player spend most of your day fighting enemies so you only have a few hours left to spend with your lover. No kind hearted partner, poly or otherwise, would waste those precious hours on a casual relationship with Halsin when they should be focusing entirely on Karlach. Halsin will still be around at the end of the game. To the player’s knowledge, Karlach won’t.
If she wasn’t dying, I would list her as a possible poly option. But because she only has a few weeks to live, she just can’t be. Her existence as one of the three poly options was what cemented the theory (in my mind) that the developers chose the most popular romance options, rather than the ideal ones.
Shadowheart:
Again, this was the one that some skeptical poly people said felt the most right in terms of presentation. She is enthusiastic about Halsin and the twins, she participates, and if you were to pick the most likely to be cool with it, she wins.
However, there are still a lot of issues with this choice (in terms of backstory, insecurities, reasons for poly, and treatment of monogamous players). Again, please bear in mind that this is the one romance I myself didn’t do so some facts may be off or vague.
Backstory: Her entire life up to this point has been erased. She was forced to do horrific things against her will (abusing her parents, being abused herself, torturing others, seducing people). She puts up a constant act of loving torture and being evil, but as you play through the game, you realize she doesn’t actually like harming people and she seeks genuine connections and love despite claiming she doesn’t. I didn’t fully appreciate her until I did an evil Dark Urge run because while my psychotic monk, dictator Minthara, and Ascended Astarion were killing people left and right, she continued to disapprove of our evil actions despite “choosing” Shar in the end. To a lesser extent than Astarion, she does lie to the player about her wishes and intentions, which is one of the criteria I went into earlier.
Insecurities: I didn’t see this myself but I read plenty of threads about how her confidence is also an act. She is one of the only characters to continually ask the player if their relationship is still ongoing and if they’re happy with her. Her dialogue throughout the romance seems to be leading to her preferring monogamy and complete loyalty, so it feels out of character when she suddenly switches at the end of her arc. (Can real life people do this? Sure. Is it a very strange and sometimes off-putting writing choice? Yes, especially because there are very few hints (if any) of her being poly throughout the romance.) This also links into my ‘communicating that a character is poly to the player’ problem from earlier.
Reasons for poly: This is what I personally had the most issue with. If you cheat on her with Mizora, she explains that she’s fine with poly and/or open relationships and asks that you communicate with her first. Fine. No issues there. The problem arises when she explains WHY she’s fine with open relationships. It’s because Lady Shar encouraged it in the cult she grew up in. You know, the cult that abused her and brainwashed her for years. The one she spent the entire game trying to escape. She continually tries to distance herself from both Shar and the practices she encouraged. She expresses disgust in the Act 3 section when talking about how she had to torture and seduce people. She could choose to be poly for herself after the fact, but players are allowed to be a little concerned that her main reason for being poly is directly a result of her abusive goddess’s teachings.
Similar to Astarion, it is possible for someone in Shadowheart’s position to be poly in real life. Everyone is different and reacts to things differently. However, from a writer and developer standpoint, it’s better to just leave her monogamous and avoid all these pitfalls. As we saw, even with her enthusiastic consent to Halsin and the twins, her backstory and character arc up to that point still left people doubtful and uncomfortable. Again, since there are much better options for poly characters, why choose Shadowheart?
My final point for Shadowheart was about how it treated monogamous players. This personally irked me and I feel like it was the worst way to introduce poly because it actively antagonizes monogamous players and ruins the experience for them. (Thankfully Karlach and Astarion’s poly romances didn’t seem to have this issue to such an obvious extent).
I’ll summarize what people experienced when romancing Shadowheart. In Act 3, Halsin asks you to start a poly relationship with Shadowheart. If you tell him, “No, I’m not interested” he says that’s fine and will move on. No problem there. The issue arises if you keep him in your party. Despite you rejecting him, he will proceed to flirt with Shadowheart instead, which makes him seem pushy and creepy (which you don’t want as a writer unless it’s intentional). This made things particularly uncomfortable for lesbian players, though I completely understand how it would make ANY monogamous player annoyed, regardless of gender or preference. What makes it worse is that Shadowheart will then flirt back with him. The game ignores any preferences or input from the player here and they can’t respond to it. This bothered me, since the game up to that point seemed to at least respect the fact that mono players exist and want to have a romance that suits them.
But you could argue it was just a bug/forgetting to flag dialogue correctly. I could accept that, until you take both Shadowheart and Halsin to the brothel. Not only will Halsin invite himself in a third time after being rejected, but Shadowheart will say she’s dreamed of having sex with him before the player can even accept or reject Halsin’s suggestion. Most people would rightfully get angry when their romantic partner mentions wanting to sleep with one of their friends. From a writer’s standpoint, this is just disrespectful to the player’s choices and has zero reason to be this way. I’m not sure how such a mistake was made and why it hasn’t been rectified, but I’m disappointed that they didn’t at least lock that section behind the poly romance. It’s a fine scene if you HAVE agreed to date Halsin, but the existence of poly relationships shouldn’t completely ruin the experience for monogamous players. The writers should have tried to view these interactions from both perspectives, rather than simply one side or the other. And again, because the writers failed to communicate Shadowheart’s preferences early on, no one encountered this until they were three acts in and invested.
[There's a character limit so I'll have to do a part 2 to finish the Astarion points and discuss Halsin.]

Rearranging the VPR cast couples:
It has already been said about Jax and Kristen.
The fairy tale train wreck potential of Lala and James Kennedy.
More recently they the link between Scheana and Sandoval seems more obvious
But what about Stassi and Schwartz? Hear me out!
There seems to be a bit of a sizzle there, whenever they had scenes together there was definitely a friendship between them, but I also wonder if there’s an alternate time line where they may actually be together
I don’t think it is necessarily a sexual connection, and I don’t think Stasi would ever do anything to mess with her friendship with Katie, especially not for Schwartz
Schwartz has a degradation kink: Stassi could definitely fulfill that and she may never tire of busting his chops
And then there is Beau: a goofy weirdo that also doesn’t like missing out on a good time
Beau seems to be a better human being. I suspect being exposed to Sandoval and Jax in his formative frontal lobe years is what pointed Schwartz to the dark side.

spaceballs

iykyk

Chance Me: Low GPA ASIAN

Demographics: Male, mid-income, Asian, in Michigan
First gen & immigrant parents
Major: Biology
Academics: GPA (3.6) - upward trend (3.0, 3.0, 4.1, will have 4.7 snr yr first semester), school doesn’t rank
Courseload: 7 APs (Micro, Macro, Bio, Stats, Psych, APES, Lang), 3 Dual enrollments, 3 Honors, Participated in 4-year long school STEM Medical program
Scores: 1520 SAT & All 5s and 4s
Extracurriculars (not in order)

• Biotechnology and Research Sequencing Camp at University of Michigan - Explored Nucleotide Hybridization, led group research linking it to a real-world disease. Presented a business plan on Biotech and NGS technology.
• Medical Student Shadowing and Medicine Exploration at University of Brown Alpert Medical School - Learned about heart transplants, and reviewed different medical careers
• Shadowed Primary Care Physican - #1 Care Physican in our city. Worked in the Biomedical Lab helping analyzing samples and results for patients (in real time). Shadowed the actual checkups as well.
• Swim Instructor - Worked for ~1 year, over 400 hours of work, about 8-10 hours weekly on school weeks, CPR and Lifeguard Certified.
• Michigan Ref Certified - Participated in overall 50+ hours of ref related activities, played soccer for 13 years, and competitive/travel soccer for 10 years.
• HOSA Competitor (2yrs) - Qualified for International Leadership Conference in 1st year, placed 1st at States (SLC), and placed Top 3 at HOSA ILC
• Goldfish Summer Volunteer connected w/Detroit's Children’s Care Center - Helped instruct kids who’ve dealt with major behavioral, emotional, and educational trauma or challenges. Participated in a 4-week long program to teach them how to swim.
• Board/Co-Founder of Medical Club (3yrs) - Led a Medical Club focused on healthcare careers, connecting with licensed doctors and med students to inspire youth. Expanded membership from 4 to 150 in 4 years by organizing talks for younger children about life as a doctor.
• Math Tutor for Struggling Students - 75+ Hours Volunteering
• Key Club Volunteer - 50+ Hours Volunteering

Awards:
International Qualifier HOSA
International Top 3 Placement HOSA
States 1st Place out of 40 HOSA
AP Scholar w/Distinction
National Merit Semifinalist
LOR: APES + Biomed Teacher
Biomed: (9/10): close with her + made reviews for struggling students
APES: (6/10): showed initiative, highest score on final exam project, asked and answered questions
Counselor (6/10): Pretty close with me and I went for help a lot during the year, and knows how I pulled my GPA up from the depths of earth
Essays: Not sure yet, but I am a pretty good writer as well as will get good audits
Schools (Safety to Reach): Purdue, OSU, MSU, UMich, UChicago, NYU, UCLA, Brown, Columbia

9-minute read.

France welcomes the latest round of negotiations between foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Kazakhstan

FM Mirzoyan said the negotiations in Kazakhstan were held in a constructive environment and referred to the statement made after the meeting.
PARIS: France stresses the importance of both sides confirming their commitment to the Almaty Protocol of 1991 and to mutual recognition of each other’s territorial integrity as the core of this process, following the quadripartite meeting in Prague on 7 October 2022.
France calls to continue the delimitation of the border on the basis of the principles agreed in the declaration of April 19, 2024, and as an extension of the first demarcation work carried out on the ground. At the same time, it calls for continuing discussions with a view to signing a peace treaty between the two countries.
France welcomes the initiative of the Kazakh authorities to facilitate the holding of these talks.
France continues to work together with its partners to establish just and solid peace in the South Caucasus in accordance with international law. //
source, source, source, source,

OSCE: Reaching stable and comprehensive peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority for us

OSCE Chair-in-Office Ian Borg visited Armenia on Monday.
BORG: The only way to ensure comprehensive and stable peace is through diplomacy. The steps made towards border delimitation between Armenia and Azerbaijan are the actions needed to reach peace. //
Pashinyan and Borg discussed the AM-OSCE cooperation and the peace talks.
BORG: The OSCE is committed to supporting stable peace, solving all conflicts in the OSCE area, and applying the organization’s mandate to ensure regional peace and stability. //
source, source,

opposition activists detained and released after briefly shutting down several streets in Yerevan

Last week the protest organizers, led by Archbishop Bagrat and MPs representing pro-Russian parties, called for strikes and road closures on Monday. They demand PM Pashinyan's resignation. The opposition parties have not yet disclosed when they plan to launch the impeachment process in the parliament. They likely have the minimum number of MPs to launch the impeachment but they'd still need dozens of ruling party MPs to join them for the motion to succeed, which is unlikely.
On Monday over 170 people were detained and released after blocking roads, including with the use of trash cans and hay. A red beret pushed a journalist out of his way while running up the stairs, sending him to the ground. Another journalist fainted during a clash between police and protesters. In the morning, Yandex Maps showed the traffic congestion in Yerevan at Level 5 on a scale of 1-10, a "usual workday".
In one instance, an angry driver got out of his car and pushed the trash can out of the street, while other cars proceeded to drive through the sparse group of protesters. Video.
ARF MP Garnik Danielyan, a co-organizer of the protest, engaged in a dispute with a driver. The angry driver told the MP to go "siktir", while the MP called him "chatlax". Video.
One protester suggested catching and "putting down" police officers one by one while they are alone, "because they feel good in large numbers." Video.
A psychotic incident was recorded between a protester and a bystandedriver who was presumably trying to open the road. The protester hit the man and called him "Nikol's trash". The police intervened to push the protesters out of the road.
During an encounter between a protester and one resident, the protester asked the latter if he was a Christian:
PROTESTER: Քրիստոնյա՞ ես
RESIDENT: Հա
PROTESTER: Հա ու համփ արա [suck my dick]
The resident pushes the protester, and the protester spits on him. Several people got off the buses and urged the protesters to leave or to "go protect the borders" instead. The red berets arrived within minutes and removed the trash cans and the small number of protesters from the road. video, video, video,
While the ARF has long been viewed as the voice of diaspora, other movements have emerged to challenge its dominance. The Armenian Movement of France has organized a change.org petition that calls to encourage Armenia's independence and Euro-Atlantic integration, to keep the church and state separate, and not take any destabilizing actions.
KHURSHUDYAN: They [ARF and protest organizers] are attempting to convince the diaspora to join them by influencing various organizations like the Lemkin Institute. It is strange that the Lemkin Institute released a statement accusing PM Pashinyan's Genocide statement of containing "victim blaming" only now, during these protests, several weeks after Pashinyan made that statement. It took a lot of effort for these forces to lobby and create the impression that the diaspora as a whole is on their side. //
The BEVER (Sasna Tsrer) party leaders said they are cooperating with the pro-Russian former regime parties but only on the issues of removing Pashinyan and stopping the border delimitation process.
BEVER (Ara Papyan): If Pashinyan resigns now and pro-Russian forces win the elections democratically, it will be the population's fault, not ours. // video
As you know from Sunday news digest, the pro-Russian forces and a group of ex-diplomats led by Kocharyan's Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, are against using the 1991 Almaty declaration as the basis for delimitation. Foreign Minister Mirzoyan was asked to comment on Monday.
MIRZOYAN: The Deputy PMs of Armenia and Azerbaijan, who are in charge of border commissions, have come to an agreement to launch the delimitation process taking into account the 1991 Almaty Declaration. This was welcomed by numerous states and international organizations. The foreign diplomats you mentioned are deserters who fled their duties while Armenia was under physical attack in 2021. I can no longer treat them seriously. That is the most civil language I can use toward them. In reality, by torpedoing the Almaty Declaration and the peace process based on Almaty, these ex-diplomats continue to torpedo the sovereignty, statehood, and territorial integrity of Armenia. In the best-case scenario, they do this without understanding, and in the worst-case scenario, they are following the orders of a foreign state. I don't have further comments. //
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan said they will not hold daily meetings at Republic Square anymore, and that smaller gatherings will be held near the St. Anna church every evening to wrap up the day and discuss future plans. Yesterday Arman Babajanyan revealed a meeting between church officials. On Monday, Archbishop Galstanyan confirmed that he indeed met Catholicos on Sunday. Galstanyan asked whether he plans to "transfer" the "leadership" of the movement to political parties. He said he is open to that idea: "Թող գան, վերցնեն, ով ցանկանում է:"
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

Executive Vice President of the European Commission for Economic Affairs, the EU Trade Commissioner, will visit Armenia this week

Valdis Dombrovskis will meet Armenian and EBRD officials and take part in an annual meeting of the EBRD Board of Governors.
source, source,

PM Pashinyan is in Denmark for the "Copenhagen Democracy Summit"

Nikol Pashinyan will take part in the discussion on “From the frontline: Armenia’s defense of democracy.”
source,

Armenia will bring its consumer protection legislation in line with European standards

The head of Armenia's Competition Protection Commission visited Poland to participate in ICPEN (International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network).
They spoke about unfair business practices and how to combat them, online taxi service regulations, online casinos, discounting policies used by businesses, etc.
GEVORGYAN: Armenia is going through an important phase in terms of protecting the interests of consumers. Discussions are underway to align Armenia's consumer protection legislation with EU standards. It is necessary to use digital technologies and train skilled experts in this field.
source,

Russia begins withdrawing border agents near the border village Nerkin Hand: residents

The villagers noticed that the Russian soldiers were no longer observing the traffic from the observation post and that they were packing some of their stuff.
source, source,

anti-corruption: Patrol Police officer is charged with accepting a bribe from a driver

INTERIOR MINISTRY: In early March, two officers pulled over an Indian driver on Kievyan St. One of the officers demanded a ֏20,000 bribe to ignore the fact that the vehicle didn't pass a tech inspection. They negotiated it down to ֏7,000. The officer was charged with felony bribery. He confessed. The case is in court. //
source,

Yerevan Mayor Avinyan had a lightbulb moment

The city has purchased 6,000 LED lights producing 4000K white light. Mayor Avinyan instructed the department to install them only on roads and to purchase weaker 3000K bulbs for condo backyards in order not to disrupt sleep.
Last month the city replaced 8.6 kilometers of cables. The Mother Armenia statue and the Opera building will have new գեղարվեստական lighting.
source, source, video,

Yerevan implements GIS (geographic information system) to collect data from various sources and make targeted decisions based on visualized data: VIDEO

MAYOR AVINYAN: The Municipality and all the district offices are switching to a new management style with the introduction of GIS. Every department will join it, phase by phase. We are talking about digital maps which we must learn to use. This is going to significantly simplify some of the work done by departments.
OFFICIAL: This is part of the digitization strategy. This unified GIS platform will collect information from the cadastre, transport, Active Citizen app, utility services, construction, etc., and make them accessible in one place. The visual data allow us to carry out analysis and make fact-based decisions.
For example, we created a cadastre GIS by using a satellite image as the base layer, then integrated it with the cadastre database. This map shows in detail the boundaries of properties, the purpose and status of each land plot, etc.
Another example is a map of air pollution, prior records, and analytical tools.
The GIS map for the Active Citizen app allows us to see the submissions and the completed work, their locations on the map, and how well the city responds to issues reported by citizens. You can filter the issues by category. For example, you can show only the reports about illegal dumping, click on the report and see the image shared by the citizen, then click to see the status and the outcome of city's response. The tools allow you to analyze the data and the performance rate.
Another map shows the 3D image of the city with its buildings and green areas. Here we can calculate the capacity of bus stops, etc. Drones can be used to create a very detailed digital 3D copy of specific buildings.
You can click on a land plot and it'll pull up the ownership information, the permit records, etc.
Connecting two dots shows you the altitude differences and other data that you can use, for example, during the installation of irrigation pipes.
This is less than 1% of its potential. We plan to train employees next week.
MAYOR AVINYAN: We should make some of this data public, like the air quality map or certain maps that did not require financial resources to create [քձիբ խոզ]. This is a revolutionary change in the municipality. We need to speed up the work with the use of digital tools.
video,

Yerevan begins planting hundreds of adult "high-value" trees and thousands of bushes near the new promenade/park around the Yerevanyan Lake: VIDEO

video,

Central Bank chief was invited to Parliament to discuss economy and expenditures

MP: Regarding CB's report on the efficiency of service vehicles used by state agencies. The state buildings scheduled to receive solar panels should also be equipped with EV chargers so the service vehicles can use the energy generated by the panels. I requested information from Yerevan Municipality about the service vehicle expenditures and it shows that EVs are not only cheaper because of electricity, but also because they are overall more affordable to maintain. We are talking about large savings.
CB CHIEF: Our estimates show that EVs are 2x-3x more affordable compared to combustion engine vehicles, even if we factor in all the adjacent expenses. In Yerevan, we have [state] buildings with solar panels on roofs but [connecting them to EV chargers in the parking lot] will be very difficult because these are old and sometimes "historical" buildings. They also have problems with air conditioning, plumbing, etc. At the same time, we are trying to implement this solar panel project in the newer buildings, for example, in Dilijan, where we have EV chargers for service vehicles in the parking lots.
video,

Central Bank chief spoke about the deflation in Q1

RULING MP: It is great for our residents' pockets that the prices have fallen but what is its effect on the economy and exports? What is the best inflation rate to maintain a "balance"?
CB CHIEF: During the discussions with our colleagues from IMF, regarding regional and global events, we agreed that countries develop when the inflation is low and manageable. It encourages investments. In this regard, the overall microeconomic stability and the fiscal policy of Armenia create a very good environment for this predictability. This is one of our "cards" in our relations with foreign entities.
During each CB session, we discuss several market and inflation scenarios. Under one scenario there is a risk of inflation becoming too high, while under other scenarios it could remain low. We are trying to find the most balanced option and thank God we have been able to continuously lower the [refinancing] rates, which helps the state. //
Ըստ զեկուցողիդրամավարկային քաղաքականության ծրագրում ներկայացվող սցենարների համաձայն 2024 թվականի կարճաժամկետ հորիզոնում գնաճը կպահպանվի նպատակային ցուցանիշից ցածր մակարդակում` տարեվերջին այն կկազմի 1,3%-1,5%:
video, source,

Central Bank chief spoke about the refinancing rate, the rate at which the state borrows from banks, copper prices, etc.

video,

how did the family of Ilham Aliyev's security chief obtain so many properties in the United Kingdom?

Offshore companies owned by Eyyubov’s wife and daughter spent $114 million on real estate in the United Kingdom. The family, including Eyyubov himself, also own over $46 million in properties in Dubai.

OCCRP report,

growing concerns in Abkhazia that Putin might have secretly "sold" them to Georgia as a confederation in exchange for Georgia's neutrality between West and Russia

video,

long story short, we are a large company and we take calls from all english speaking countries (canada, america and some european countries) whilst their local centre is closed. we rarely get calls but we are more than equipped to take them. it means that we have 24/7 customer support and means i get to speak to customers worldwide which i love.
the american customer calling from arkansas where it was 2am started off very abruptly by interrupting my call introduction with “why is your website broken!!!!”
i kindly explain that our website is functioning properly at the moment but the issue may be with his connection and id be happy to assist ect.
he is very rude but i help as best i can and it honestly sounds like his wifi is off on his laptop/ device he is accessing the website on lmao as he said the page said “hmmm can’t reach this page” and was moaning about how patronising it was to say “hmm.” i genuinely think that’s bings error screen
i wanted to check if anything was loading on his browser so painstakingly explained how to open a tab (how he even opened our website i have no clue) and asked him to type “google.com” to see if it would load. i don’t think it did but he started shouting “i don’t know why you’re asking me to do that” “it’s not my job to fix your website” “you call this customer service” ect. he kept calling me “little girl” as well which was horrible as im a fully grown woman Hhahahah
i let him finish and go to kindly explain the issue isn’t with us but i’m here to help so would appreciate him not shouting at me. but before i finish he asks to speak to “an american citizen who understands customer service.” i’m taken aback but i go to explain he’s welcome to call back during our american centres opening times. he doesn’t let me finish and goes on about how every company has call centres in india to save money and “nobody in india can understand simple problems” (quote)
im confused. but i go to finish what i was saying and even had the american centres opening times up to give them to him.
he doesn’t even let me finish and keeps going on about how it’s a money saving thing or whatever.
i decide to terminate the call, so i tell him “im terminating the call, if you call before 9am today you’ll be routed to us here in the glasgow or london office” he started talking again halfway through but i kept speaking.
he started to shout as i hung up and it clipped out and was quite funny
sorry to my american colleagues who got that call later on :)
sorry for the rant hahahah wasn’t really what i was expecting before 9am (uk time)

I agree with Ross Rosenberg’s redefining of codependent behaviors as ‘self-love deficit disorder’. That seems to be a very accurate read of WHY people fall into codependency in certain relationship dynamics. Self-love deficit usually arises due to childhood conditioning in which the child was parentified, put on a pedestal for conditional approval, emotionally neglected, or directly abused.
In all of these cases, which are all forms of abuse (though it may be unconscious and unintentional), the child develops a distorted belief that he/she is not ‘good enough’ to just be loved and accepted for who they are and must either perform, obey, serve, or act inauthentically in order to get their needs for love and safety met. This attacks the child’s inherent self worth because they lack the emotional and physical maturity to understand that the parent is incorrect and not parenting well. Nor can the child meet their own needs or leave the home. Therefore, everything is directed inward and the child develops a deep sense of shame and low self-worth, believing that he/she must please the parent by being whatever version reduces conflict, lessens abuse, and provokes approval.
Although codependent people are often highly empathic, that empathy has unfortunately developed through hyper-vigilance and taking on other people’s feelings as our own (aka enmeshment). This results in habits of people-pleasing, walking on eggshells, being a chameleon, over-giving, and performing inauthentically for approval. What kind of person will be drawn to a people-pleasing over-giver with low self-esteem in certain vulnerable areas, who wants to avoid conflict, has poor boundaries, and is afraid to be disliked? Ding ding.
The child re-enacts this narcissist-codependent dynamic in romantic relationships and friendships because so far that is all they have known, so it seems not only ‘normal’ but that there is no other way to receive love and acceptance. I call this the pattern of self-negation and servitude. Anyone with low self-worth and a deficit of self-love will be highly vulnerable to emotional manipulation, because there is a desperate desire to be fully loved, admired, seen as attractive and worthy, and totally accepted for who they are, to finally be ‘good enough’.
This is exactly why codependent people are so taken in and susceptible to love-bombing and covert manipulation. If they run into someone who is very convincing at showering them with massive amounts of love, lust, attention, admiration, almost worship, it will feel like the greatest ‘love-high’ that they’ve experienced in their lives. They will feel they have finally found true love and a soul mate, and the intense joy and finally feeling ‘home’ with another person will make them extremely eager to reciprocate by being supportive, generous, helpful, romantic, you name it.
Now, with a healthy authentic person, this is actually what we should be looking for- but not so fast and so soon and so over-the-top. Healthy, authentic people do not ‘love bomb’ because they know it’s weird and creepy and unsafe to get too close to someone new too fast. That is normal restraint. Manipulators, borderlines, and pathological narcissists only know this tactic to draw someone in because they too are extremely deficient in self-love underneath their false surface. It becomes a two-way manipulation dance instead of a safe, healthy, growing attachment that can become a sustainable mutually-supporting relationship between two adults.
Those of us who have been through this know all too well that it feels worse than death when the fantasy ends and the loveboming is replaced by devaluation and abuse. The codependent wants to ride that breadcrumb rollercoaster forever in pursuit of that original high, that feeling of ecstatic connection, love, and acceptance. To let that go forever and realize it was never real and never going to last is the cruel deathblow that all codependents must face as their initiation into healing and individuation. To stop getting into those unhealthy, abusive dynamics is a sign of real progress and recovery.
It is very, very hard to break this cycle because it is one that has been inherited over generations. It did not start with you, you were programmed this way and it’s probably even in your DNA to some degree. But it is possible to completely transform yourself and heal so that you develop a healthier attachment style and a balanced relational frame. That’s what all of recovery is about- reclaiming your own heart, your own dignity, and your own hopes and dreams so that you stop being someone else’s sock puppet just to feel wanted and loved. It’s a truly awful way to live and I’m not exaggerating by saying it can kill you if you‘re not careful. It becomes a love addiction, a sex addiction, and even a sad abuse addiction. We were not put on God’s green earth to live that way or give up our own personal sovereignty for twisted people to abuse.
Unfortunately, very few codependents have the awareness or capacity to voluntarily give up their ways and heal. It is only a tremendous shock to their system in the form of that one evil relationship worse than anything they’ve ever experienced that forces them to reassess their lives and choose a better way. Much like the addict or alcoholic who has to hit rock bottom before they get sober for good, the codependent runs into a truly diabolical person or relationship and decides,” NO MORE!”
There may be relapses and it will likely not be a quick, linear road. But those who truly want to exert their will and their faith to align with their highest values and the uphold dignity of their own hearts will change themselves for the better. As difficult as it is to face this turning point and climb out of hell, I also know what an exciting journey full of redemption and potential greatness can be waiting on the other side.

Hey! I am new to supercollider. I work on Windows 10 with supercollider version 1.13.0 and I am using jupyter notebook.
I just tried to start sc3nb import sc3nb as scn sc = scn.startup()
But I get this error:

Starting sclang process... Done. Registering OSC /return callback in sclang... Done. Loading default sc3nb SynthDefs... Done. Booting SuperCollider Server... Done. ERROR: unable to receive /return message from sclang sclang output: (also see console) sc3> r['callback'].value("NetAddr.langPort", "127.0.0.1", 57135); -> 57126 sc3> sc3> sc3> Requested notification messages from server 'sc3nb_remote' sc3nb_remote: server process has maxLogins 8 - adjusting my options accordingly. sc3nb_remote: keeping clientID (0) as confirmed by server process. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ProcessTimeout Traceback (most recent call last) File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sclang.py:459, in SCLang.connect_to_server(self, server) 458 try: # if there are 'too many users' we failed. So the Exception is the successful case! 459 self.read(expect="too many users", timeout=0.3, print_error=False) 460 except ProcessTimeout: File , in SCLang.read(self, expect, timeout, print_error) 383 print(error_str + timeout_error.output) 384 raise timeout_error File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sclang.py:371, in SCLang.read(self, expect, timeout, print_error) 370 try: 371 return self.process.read(expect=expect, timeout=timeout) 372 except ProcessTimeout as timeout_error: File , in Process.read(self, expect, timeout) 246 if time.time() >= timeout_time: 247 raise ProcessTimeout( 248 executable=self.executable, 249 timeout=timeout, 250 output=out, 251 expected=expect, 252 ) 253 try: ProcessTimeout: Reading of sclang timed out after 0.3s while expecting: "too many users" During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred: Empty Traceback (most recent call last) File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sclang.py:309, in SCLang.cmd(self, code, pyvars, verbose, discard_output, get_result, print_error, get_output, timeout) 308 try: 309 return_val = self._server.returns.get(timeout) 310 except Empty as empty_exception: File , in MessageQueue.get(self, timeout, skip) 638 self._skips -= 1 639 val = self._queue.get(block=True, timeout=timeout) 640 self._queue.task_done() File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\queue.py:179, in Queue.get(self, block, timeout) 178 if remaining <= 0.0: 179 raise Empty 180 self.not_empty.wait(remaining) Empty: The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: SCLangError Traceback (most recent call last) File , in SC._try_to_connect(self) 279 try: 280 self._sclang.connect_to_server(self._server) 281 except Exception as excep: File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sclang.py:462, in SCLang.connect_to_server(self, server) 461 self._server = server 462 self._port = self.cmdg("NetAddr.langPort", verbose=False) 463 _LOGGER.info("Connecting %s with %s", self._server, self) File , in SCLang.cmdg(self, code, **kwargs) 343 kwargs["pyvars"] = parse_pyvars(code) 344 return self.cmd(code, get_result=True, **kwargs) File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sclang.py:316, in SCLang.cmd(self, code, pyvars, verbose, discard_output, get_result, print_error, get_output, timeout) 315 print(out) 316 raise SCLangError( 317 "unable to receive /return message from sclang", sclang_output=out 318 ) from empty_exception 319 out = self.read(expect=self._repl_return, timeout=timeout) SCLangError: unable to receive /return message from sclang The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception: RuntimeError Traceback (most recent call last) Cell In[8], line 3 1 # to start sc3nb use this header 2 import sc3nb as scn -- 3 sc = scn.startup() File , in startup(start_server, scsynth_path, start_sclang, sclang_path, magic, scsynth_options, with_blip, console_logging, allowed_parents, timeout) 64 magics.load_ipython_extension(ipy) 66 if SC.default is None: - 67 SC.default = SC( 68 start_server=start_server, 69 scsynth_path=scsynth_path, 70 start_sclang=start_sclang, 71 sclang_path=sclang_path, 72 scsynth_options=scsynth_options, 73 with_blip=with_blip, 74 console_logging=console_logging, 75 allowed_parents=allowed_parents, 76 timeout=timeout, 77 ) 78 else: 79 _LOGGER.warning("SC already started") File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sc.py:177, in SC.__init__(self, start_server, scsynth_path, start_sclang, sclang_path, scsynth_options, with_blip, console_logging, allowed_parents, timeout) 170 self.start_sclang( 171 sclang_path=sclang_path, 172 console_logging=self._console_logging, 173 allowed_parents=allowed_parents, 174 timeout=timeout, 175 ) 176 if start_server: 177 self.start_server( 178 scsynth_path=scsynth_path, 179 scsynth_options=scsynth_options, 180 console_logging=self._console_logging, 181 with_blip=with_blip, 182 allowed_parents=allowed_parents, 183 timeout=timeout, 184 ) 185 except Exception: 186 if SC.default is self: File , in SC.start_server(self, scsynth_options, scsynth_path, console_logging, with_blip, allowed_parents, timeout) 269 raise RuntimeError(f"Starting scsynth failed - {excep}") from excep 270 else: 271 self._try_to_connect() 272 else: 273 _LOGGER.warning("scsynth already started") File ~\miniforge3\envs\uni_env\Lib\site-packages\sc3nb\sc.py:282, in SC._try_to_connect(self) 280 self._sclang.connect_to_server(self._server) 281 except Exception as excep: 282 raise RuntimeError( 283 f"connecting {self._sclang} to {self._server} failed" 284 ) from excep RuntimeError: connecting > to > failed 

Any prop firm traders in Belgium interested in meeting up? Let’s connect, share experiences, and exchange ideas. If you’re interested, feel free to leave a comment.

Hi all!
WORKMATES is a bi-monthly offline meetup in Williamsburg that’s perfect for:

• business owners, freelancers, or creatives in any industry
• those looking to make authentic connections with people you want to work with now or in the future
• everyone from young career climbers and parents ready to network again to start-up entrepreneurs and veteran tastemakers + social lovers

WHAT TO EXPECT:

• speed networking
• $50 headshots
• fantastic conversations + new connections

Our next event is THIS Wednesday, the 15th from 6-8pm. If you’re interested, please use the below link (location provided upon RSVP). If you’re not available this month but want to be kept up to date, we are on Instagram at WeAreWorkmates
RSVP
Sounds good?! See you there.

Around October last year I suddenly started getting intermittent high ping and packet loss (10-30%) on my home wifi and ethernet which became very noticeable during work calls and gaming. I used both sky and BT over my the last months I lived in that rural 70mbps max area but swapping between internet providers didn’t seem to effect anything. I initially believed it was caused by a faulty connection point or cables which I replaced several times to no avail. I contacted my internet provider and had several engineers sent out but they couldn’t find anything wrong with the physical connection and just kept dismissing the case aside from the occasional router change. (Including some of my own which I just bought online) I didn’t really believe them at the time because the same issues were present on multiple devices in the house and trace routes seemed to indicate there were issues at the neighbourhood box so I just brushed it off until I moved. (My new place has 1gbps on both wifi and LAN) However as soon as I moved to my new place my PC started having booting issues where it wouldn’t load into windows and would remain awake but on a blank screen until I did a boot override using my ssd from BIOS. However, stranger still is that my connection was working perfectly on all fronts for about 5 days with no issues whatsoever and high speeds before it suddenly started experiencing all the same problems again. (I’m currently using a Tp link router with virgin wifi gigabit internet) Every other device I’ve tested, including my phone, exhibits none of the same issues as my pc.
My Ethernet is controlled through the motherboard by a Realtek PCIe GbE family controller and my wifi by a 802.11n wireless LAN card, with neither showing any problems I’m able to see. I’ve tried updating and reinstalling every driver in my pc, tried checking for corrupt files, updated to the latest BIOS on a gigabyte B550 gaming x V2 motherboard, checked and redone every connection on the board (GeForce RTX 3060, wifi card, ddr4 16gb ram, AMD Ryzen 5 5600x, 1TB ssd + 500gb hdd etc), looked through device manager and event viewer for anything obvious, made an entirely new profile to see if the connection changed, used a USB to Ethernet adapter to check every USB port I could on the motherboard, (same issues across all) reset the network and the firewall several times and constantly run ping plotter and trace routes. I can’t seem to figure out if it’s something hardware or software related that’s destroying my connection. The setup for every other device on the new network from my phone to my TV is working perfectly. The packet loss on wired connections to my PC has gotten significantly worse to where it now averages around 60-90% with low ping, however the wifi seems to have much less packet loss but very high ping even though I’m setup directly next to my router. My only guesses at this point is that a chipset on the motherboard is fried or some firmware is busted but I’m at a complete loss because nothing has worked and it only seems to be getting worse. I’m not sure what to do from this point aside from take everything out and replace it so any advice or help is appreciated.

(FOR WIKI VERSION CLICK HERE: https://whig.miraheze.org/wiki/Property_%26_Land)
Views on property by whigs varied, but one strain of thought put forth something like the follow. First, we should respect other people's (some might say creatures') autonomy and equal status as ends onto themselves, and we should try to not lessen or hurt each other. Second, if someone adds to themself without lessening another, they probably have not wronged anyone. Third, because of the first and second points, it follows that we can mix our labor with natural resources and have a property claim to the result, so long as we have not lessened, hurt, or restricted another in the process, by, for example, taking more than a fair share of land and thereby depriving others of a home or means to feed themselves.
Contrary to this thinking, there is a common thread running a thousand years through history. It starts with the Norman Invasion which imposed feudalism on the English people in the 11th century, it then runs to 12th century complaints about Normans hogging up land, it then runs to the Peasants' Revolt of the 14th century, then to the enclosure of the commons and depopulation of some villages to make way for wool production in the 16th century, then to English republicans denouncing this theft of the people's land in the 17th century, then to land reform efforts by whigs in the 18th and 19th centuries (including during the Anti-Rent War of New York), then to the housing crisis of the 21st century.
This is the common thread: the general public has suffered an unnecessary and unjust burden ever since a small class of people declared that the earth belonged to them alone, and imposed themselves on the villages, towns, and cities of England (later on the settlements in the colonies), by supposed right of the king, by supposed right of heaven. This insane system has largely survived until today by disguising itself as part of republicanism, but it is a remnant of feudalism. It is presented as the ideology of private land rights, when it is only the feudal theory of private land rights, and is in opposition to the classical republican theory which holds that land is a natural thing like the air, not the creation of humans, and that we all have an equal right to the land, to shelter ourselves in homes, to feed ourselves with produce, and to come together in a republican manner to decide the particulars of this equitable arrangement, like by imposing land value tax on those granted the privilege of holding more or better land than average.
QUOTES

"The same law of nature, that does by this means give us property, does also bound that property too. . . As much as any one can make use of to any advantage of life before it spoils, so much he may by his labour fix a property in: whatever is beyond this, is more than his share, and belongs to others. . . But the chief matter of property being now not the fruits of the earth, and the beasts that subsist on it, but the earth itself; as that which takes in and carries with it all the rest; I think it is plain, that property in that too is acquired as the former. As much land as a man tills, plants, improves, cultivates, and can use the product of, so much is his property. . . Nor was this appropriation of any parcel of land, by improving it, any prejudice to any other man, since there was still enough, and as good left; and more than the yet unprovided could use. So that, in effect, there was never the less left for others because of his enclosure for himself: for he that leaves as much as another can make use of, does as good as take nothing at all. No body could think himself injured by the drinking of another man, though he took a good draught, who had a whole river of the same water left him to quench his thirst: and the case of land and water, where there is enough of both, is perfectly the same."

—John Locke (Two Treatises of Government, book 2 chapter 5)

". . . a right to property is founded in our natural wants, in the means with which we are endowed to satisfy these wants, and the right to what we acquire by those means without violating the similar rights of other sensible beings; that no one has a right to obstruct another, exercising his faculties innocently for the relief of sensibilities made a part of his nature. . ."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, 1816)

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, & to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right. The earth is given as a common stock for man to labour & live on. If, for the encouragement of industry we allow it to be appropriated, we must take care that other employment be furnished to those excluded from the appropriation. If we do not the fundamental right to labour the earth returns to the unemployed. It is too soon yet in our country to say that every man who can not find employment but who can find uncultivated land, shall be at liberty to cultivate it, paying a moderate rent. But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1785)

"It has been pretended by some (and in England especially) that inventors have a natural and exclusive right to their inventions; & not merely for their own lives, but inheritable to their heirs. but while it is a moot question whether the origin of any kind of property is derived from nature at all, it would be singular to admit a natural, and even an hereditary right to inventions. it is agreed by those who have seriously considered the subject, that no individual has, of natural right, a separate property in an acre of land, for instance. by an universal law indeed, whatever, whether fixed or moveable, belongs to all men equally and in common, is the property, for the moment, of him who occupies it; but when he relinquishes the occupation the property goes with it. stable ownership is the gift of social law, and is given late in the progress of society. it would be curious then if an idea, the fugitive fermentation of an individual brain, could, of natural right, be claimed in exclusive and stable property. if nature has made any one thing less susceptible, than all others, of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an Idea; which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the reciever cannot dispossess himself of it. it’s peculiar character too is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. he who recieves an idea from me, recieves instruction himself, without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, recieves light without darkening me. that ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benvolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point; and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement, or exclusive appropriation. inventions then cannot in nature be a subject of property. society may give an exclusive right to the profits arising from them as an encouragement to men to pursue ideas which may produce utility. but this may, or may not be done, according to the will and convenience of the society, without claim or complaint from any body."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to Isaac McPherson, 1813)

"Establish the principle also in the new law to be passed for protecting copyrights & new inventions, by securing the exclusive right for 19 [years]."

—Thomas Jefferson (a letter to James Madison, 1789)

"Consequently there is as yet no such thing as a street except adjacent to the lots actually sold or divided; the erection of a house in any part of the ground cannot as yet be a nuisance in law. Mr. Carrol is tenant in common of the soil, with the public, and the erection of a house by a tenant in common on the common property is no nuisance. Mr. Carrol has acted imprudently, intemperately, foolishly; but he has not acted illegally. There must be an establishment of the streets before his house can become a nuisance in the eye of the law. Therefore till that establishment neither Majr. Lenfant, nor the Commissioners would have had a right to demolish his house without his consent."

—Thomas Jefferson (Enclosure: Observations on L'Enfant's Letter, 1791)

"It is a position not to be controverted that the earth, in its natural, uncultivated state was, and ever would have continued to be, the common property of the human race. In that state every man would have been born to property. He would have been a joint life proprietor with rest in the property of the soil, and in all its natural productions, vegetable and animal. But the earth in its natural state, as before said, is capable of supporting but a small number of inhabitants compared with what it is capable of doing in a cultivated state. And as it is impossible to separate the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement is made, the idea of landed property arose from that parable connection; but it is nevertheless true, that it is the value of the improvement, only, and not the earth itself, that is individual property. Every proprietor, therefore, of cultivated lands, owes to the community a ground-rent (for I know of no better term to express the idea) for the land which he holds. . . There could be no such thing as landed property originally. Man did not make the earth, and, though he had a natural right to occupy it, he had no right to locate as his property in perpetuity any part of it; neither did the Creator of the earth open a land-office, from whence the first title-deeds should issue. Whence then, arose the idea of landed property? I answer as before, that when cultivation began the idea of landed property began with it, from the impossibility of separating the improvement made by cultivation from the earth itself, upon which that improvement was made. The value of the improvement so far exceeded the value of the natural earth, at that time, as to absorb it; till, in the end, the common right of all became confounded into the cultivated right of the individual. But there are, nevertheless, distinct species of rights, and will continue to be, so long as the earth endures. It is only by tracing things to their origin that we can gain rightful ideas of them, and it is by gaining such ideas that we, discover the boundary that divides right from wrong, and teaches every man to know his own. . . While, therefore, I advocate the right, and interest myself in the hard case of all those who have been thrown out of their natural inheritance by the introduction of the system of landed property, I equally defend the right of the possessor to the part which is his. Cultivation is at least one of the greatest natural improvements ever made by human invention. It has given to created earth a tenfold value. But the landed monopoly that began with it has produced the greatest evil. It has dispossessed more than half the inhabitants of every nation of their natural inheritance, without providing for them, as ought to have been done, an indemnification for that loss, and has thereby created a species of poverty and wretchedness that did not exist before. . . It is not charity but a right, not bounty but justice, that I am pleading for. The present state of civilization is as odious as it is unjust. It is absolutely the opposite of what it should be, and it is necessary that a revolution should be made in it. . . It is the practice of what has unjustly obtained the name of civilization. . . to make some provision for persons becoming poor and wretched only at the time they become so. Would it not, even as a matter of economy, be far better to adopt means to prevent their becoming poor?. . ."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"I care not how affluent some may be, provided that none be miserable in consequence of it."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"Separate an individual from society, and give him an island or a continent to possess, and he cannot acquire personal property. He cannot be rich. So inseparably are the means connected with the end, in all cases, that where the former do not exist the latter cannot be obtained. All accumulation, therefore, of personal property, beyond what a man's own hands produce, is derived to him by living in society; and he owes on every principle of justice, of gratitude, and of civilization, a part of that accumulation back again to society from whence the whole came."

—Thomas Paine (Agrarian Justice)

"The law which prohibited people's having two inheritances was extremely well adapted for a democracy. It derived its origin from the equal distribution of lands and portions made to each citizen. The law would not permit a single man to possess more than a single portion. . . It is not sufficient in a well regulated democracy that the divisions of land be equal; they ought also to be small, as was customary among the Romans. 'God forbid, said Curius to his soldiers, that a citizen should look upon that as a small piece of land, which is sufficient to support a man.'"

—Charles Montesquieu (The Spirit of Laws, book 5)

"The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, part 2)

"In general, to establish the right of the first occupier over a plot of ground, the following conditions are necessary: first, the land must not yet be inhabited; secondly, a man must occupy only the amount he needs for his subsistence; and, in the third place, possession must be taken, not by an empty ceremony, but by labour and cultivation, the only sign of proprietorship that should be respected by others, in default of a legal title."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)

"In granting the right of first occupancy to necessity and labour, are we not really stretching it as far as it can go? Is it possible to leave such a right unlimited? Is it to be enough to set foot on a plot of common ground, in order to be able to call yourself at once the master of it? Is it to be enough that a man has the strength to expel others for a moment, in order to establish his right to prevent them from ever returning? How can a man or a people seize an immense territory and keep it from the rest of the world except by a punishable usurpation, since all others are being robbed, by such an act, of the place of habitation and the means of subsistence which nature gave them in common? When Nunez Balboa, standing on the sea-shore, took possession of the South Seas and the whole of South America in the name of the crown of Castile, was that enough to dispossess all their actual inhabitants, and to shut out from them all the princes of the world? On such a showing, these ceremonies are idly multiplied, and the Catholic King need only take possession all at once, from his apartment, of the whole universe, merely making a subsequent reservation about what was already in the possession of other princes."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Social Contract, book 1 section 9)

"The like may be said in relation to my house, land, or estate; I may do what I please with them, if I bring no damage upon others. But I must not set fire to my house, by which my neighbour’s house may be burnt. I may not erect forts upon my own lands, or deliver them to a foreign enemy, who may by that means infest my country. I may not cut the banks of the sea, or those of a river, lest my neighbour’s ground be overflown, because the society into which I am incorporated, would by such means receive prejudice. My land is not simply my own, but upon condition that I shall not thereby bring damage upon the publick, by which I am protected in the peaceable enjoyment and innocent use of what I possess."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 3 section 41)

"The like continued amongst Jacob’s sons; no jurisdiction was given to one above the rest: an equal division of land was made amongst them: Their judges and magistrates were of several tribes and families, without any other preference of one before another, than what did arise from the advantages God had given to any particular person. This I take to be a proof of the utmost extent and certainty, that the equality amongst mankind was then perfect. . ."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 1 section 12)

"Men can hardly at once foresee all that may happen in many ages, and the changes that accompany them ought to be provided for. Rome in its foundation was subject to these defects, and the inconveniences arising from them were by degrees discover’d and remedi’d. They did not think of regulating usury, till they saw the mischiefs proceeding from the cruelty of usurers; or setting limits to the proportion of land that one man might enjoy, till the avarice of a few had so far succeeded, that their riches were grown formidable, and many by the poverty to which they were reduced became useless to the city."

—Algernon Sidney (Discourses Concerning Government, chapter 2 section 13)

"That the too long continued shame of this Nation, viz. permission of any to suffer such poverty as to beg their bread, may be forthwith effectually remedied; and to that purpose, that the poor be enabled to chuse their Trustees to discover all Stocks, Houses, Lands, &c. which of right belong to them and their use, that they may speedily receive the benefit thereof, and that some good improvement may be made of waste Grounds for their use. . ."

—John Lilburne (An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwel)

"As soon as the land of any country has all become private property, the landlords, like all other men, love to reap where they never sowed, and demand a rent even for its natural produce."

—Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, book 1 chapter 6)

"The thirteenth ORDER. . . every man who is at present possest, or shall hereafter be possest of an estate in land exceeding the revenue of two thousand pounds a year, and having more than one son, shall leave his lands either equally divided among them, in case the lands amount to above 2000 l. a year to each; or so near equally in case they com under, that the greater part or portion of the same remaining to the eldest, excede not the value of two thousand pounds revenue. And no man, not in present possession of lands above the value of two thousand pounds by the year, shall receive, enjoy (except by lawful inheritance) acquire, or purchase to himself lands within the said territorys, amounting, with those already in his possession, above the said revenue."

—James Harrington (Oceana)

"All Property indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents & all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity & the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man for the Conservation of the Individual & the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who by their Laws have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire & live among Savages.— He can have no right to the Benefits of Society who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it."

—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Robert Morris, 1783)

"I think it could never be, that the best of the Proprietaries located uncultivated Lands should be taxed no higher than the worst of those of the People; that being so manifestly unjust. Nor that a Medium Rate should be fix’d on for all that kind of Lands, as this would be too high for some, and too low for others. Nor that the common Rate should be taken from the worst kind; for this would lay the Burthen chiefly on that kind, which is unjust and oppressive to the poorer People."

—Benjamin Franklin (a letter to Richard Jackson, 1764)

"It gives me Pain my Lord! to observe that the prevailing monopoly of Lands in this Colony has become a Grievance to the lower Class of People in it; and confines the Bounty of our gracious Sovereign to mercenary Land-Jobbers, and Gentlemen who have already shared very largely in the royal Munificence."

—John Jay (a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, 1773)

"That the right of the Poor, in their Commons, may be preserved, and freed from the Usurpations, Enclosures, and Encroachments of all manner of Projectors, Undertakers, &c. and that all servile Tenures of Lands, as by Copy-holds, or the like, be abolished and holden for naught."

—Leveller tract (The Fundamental Lawes and Liberties of England claimed, asserted, and agreed unto, by severall Peaceable Persons of the City of London, Westminster, Southwark, Hamblets, and Places adjacent; commonly called Levellers.)

"The right to property being inviolable and sacred, no one ought to be deprived of it, except in cases of evident public necessity, legally ascertained, and on condition of a previous just indemnity."

—National Assembly of France (Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens)

Hey everyone,
I recently acquired a Univox U4044 speaker cabinet and I'm hoping to connect it to my Music Man 112 RP 65 watt amp via the extension speaker output and use the main 1x12" in my amp in unison with the 4x12" cab. I'm a bit unsure about the compatibility and the best way to go about this. Amp/speaker compatibility has been something I've struggled with understanding and I'm looking to learn more. Impedance has been especially confusing to me.
I only have experience using combo amps and the main speaker(s) they come with so I didn't know I'd need an electrical engineering degree to branch out into using extension speakers /s.
Here's what I know:

• My Music Man amp has a 4 ohm and 8 ohm output impedance switch on the back. I believe the main speaker takes 8 ohms.
• The Univox U4044 speaker cabinet has an impedance of 8 ohms and takes up to 120w. It has four 12" speakers. (is the whole cab needing 8 ohms or is each individual speaker 8 ohms and needs something different? this is so confusing pls help)

I've read conflicting information online about what's safe and what isn't so I'm hoping the experienced folks here might have some advice:

1. Is it safe to connect my Music Man 112 RP 65w amp to the Univox U4044 speaker cabinet?
2. If so, whats the best way to do it?
3. Are there any potential risks or drawbacks I should be aware of?
4. Any other cab recommendations?
5. I'm planning on setting the amp on top of the cab and running all 5 speakers, is this parallel or series?

What I've gathered from reading the owners manual for my amp is I should use the 4 ohm output impedance but I'm not feeling confident in my hypothesis. Especially because I'm not sure if this is a parallel or series speaker situation (any tips on how I can learn more about this concept and determine if this is a parallel or series setup would be awesome)
Per the manual:

Parallel speaker impedance = (R1 * R2)/(R1+R2)
Series speaker impedance = R1+R2

Again, any insights or tips you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Especially if you have any tips to help make amp/speaker compatibility simpler to understand!!
Thanks in advance for your help!
ps i posted some pics of the amp and cab (not mine, just snagged em off google)