Is there a typical or “universal” attitude of a Stoic, and if so, what is it?
I was reading Philosophy as a Way of Life by Pierre Hadot and came across this description in the introduction (page 34), which I think is thought provoking:
“With respect to Stoicism, Hadot has described four features that constitute the universal Stoic attitude. They arc, first, the Stoic consciousness of "the fact that no being is alone, but that we make up part of a Whole, constituted by the totality of human beings as well as by the totality of the cosmos"; second, the Stoic "feels absolutely serene, free, and invulnerable to the extent that he has become aware that there is no other evil but moral evil and that the only thing that counts is the purity of moral consciousness"; third, the Stoic "believes in the absolute value of the human person," a belief that is "at the origin of the modern notion of the 'rights of man' "; finally, the Stoic exercises his concentration "on the present instant, which consists, on the one hand, in living as if we were seeing the world for the first and for the last time, and, on the other hand, in being conscious that, in this lived presence of the instant, we have access to the totality of time and of the world." 217 Thus, for Hadot, cosmic consciousness, the purity ofmoral consciousness, the recognition of the equality and absolute value of human beings, and the concentration on the present instant represent the universal Stoic attitude.”

Of everyone currently in the running for being eliminated from Blue Lock, there are 4 main candidates. Kiyora, Nanase, Zantetsu and Tokimitsu. I think it’s important to remember that Blue Lock is not a story that favors Logical writing, it favors Emotional writing. Every single hype moment is hype because of its emotional value, not logical value. So yes while you could argue that they are better players, this is not the sort of story where that matters
So from a Narrative perspective, Kiyora is in a pretty good spot right now. Not only was he hyped up from the last game and the training he did with Igaguri (with Noa’s assistance), but he’s also gotten a spotlight in Episode Nagi. His aerobatics have been highlighted and we know that Nagi took him as his last member of Team 2. Hence it doesn’t make much sense for him to get this much screentime in BOTH mangas, only for him to immediately be outed from the story after this game.
The same is true of Nanase. He wouldn’t have gotten all that stuff with being ambidextrous and backing up Rin if he wasn’t going to stay in the story. The story very clearly wants him to stay in. And I know I’m making assumptions here but when Rin scores this match I’m positive it’s going to be Nanase that helps him the most, yeah even more than Charles.
Zant and Toki haven’t been relevant (in the main story) since the first and second selections respectively. Toki was #3 in Blue Lock and he didn’t even play in the U20 game. And both of their main draws are in categories that other players just do so much better. With how much screentime he’s been getting, I would absolutely take Raichi as a stamina freak over Toki, and I would take his physique over Toki too. And why the hell would you want Zantetsu when Chigiri is better in literally every way? We have more than enough speedster characters even disregarding those two. Zantetsu wasn’t even involved in Shidou’s goal, it was only Karasu and Charles, and he was the only member of the team V trio that didn’t get a backstory (it coming in EP Nagi just makes it even worse). Hell Toki doesn’t even have a backstory. And imma just say it, I don’t think Kaneshiro cares about either of them, especially Toki.

Should someone involved in the inner running of Edgenuity be reading this, know that it is not mindless criticism. I have some things I do genuinely like and prefer about your site, which I mention. Consider reading, if you much care for the opinions of a highschool senior about to graduate.
I get why they want students to 'actually learn' and stuff, but they've been going super hard to crack down on userscripts and extensions. I know a lot of people used scripts to pull them through classes, but I mostly had them for QoL (Quality-of-Life, for you non-whippersnappers) changes that I have a hard time working without, such as skipping the little audio bits on assignments and auto-advancing through completed segments and videos.
I honestly wouldn't be so upset about the total blocking of scripts if these changes were implemented into Edgenuity itself, though I doubt they'd even consider that. I do my own work, answer the questions myself, write my own essays, etc.
From the looks of it (at least from the way Edgenuity has been systematically blocking userscripts before this 'academic integrity' block), someone with involvement in the development and operation of the site occasionally references this subreddit to see what they need to block. Maybe one of them will read this. Like I said, I understand wanting students to actually retain information from their classes.
I do really appreciate how Edgenuity lets me work on my own time and keeps all my work in one place, but I definitely think that the site and service as a whole could stand to be improved. A fair bit of the content is outdated (in that it's more than 5-10 years old, by the looks of it), but of course I know that updating all of these classes would be expensive and largely redundant since most of the information still holds up.
My biggest grievance is, like I mentioned before, just how slow the work gets when small QoL alterations are missing that I had added via userscript. It moves from manageable to an absolute slog when I have to listen to the beginning and end audio clips (that really add nothing of value, might I add, as a majority of them just say 'read the question and answer' which is... obvious) and manually click through the videos. This is fine when there are 2-4 segments, but it can get annoying quickly, especially when I've seen some 'Direct Instruction' assignments have upwards of 15 segments, a majority of which are videos that are only 2-3 minutes long.
Now, maybe I haven't been the most integrous student. Maybe I've used Brainly for a few answers, but (although I respect the teachers wholly) I cannot for the life of me sit through these lecture videos and actually listen to gather information myself.
I understand that reading through a scripted curriculum isn't exactly thrilling, and it's nearly impossible to engage with content when the teacher treats their subject matter with the same love, care, and attention as the man that throws bags into the rear of a garbage truck (so to say, without much care at all).
Also, might I add in regard to literature-based classes, so much of it is very linear despite literature and writing being one of the most varied and subjective subjects in education. Much of these classes asks questions based on interpretations of writing, as if there are single correct interpretations of something that is, notoriously, not a subject with objective answers.
I myself am not autistic, though I occasionally have issues discerning meaning and tone through text (and I can imagine this is only amplified for people who ARE on the spectrum of autism) which makes classes revolving around reading and interpreting literature very difficult for me. Getting an answer wrong simply because I have a different interpretation or understanding of a text is infuriating.
I do not have solely negative feelings for Edgenuity. As I mentioned before, I appreciate having all of my schoolwork in one place and in order (I used to lose assignments quite often when I attended physical school). I appreciate how flexible it allows my schedule to be, especially as a highschool senior who is actively studying for my permit and is taking on quite a few new responsibilities as I turn 18 soon.
Edgenuity is to school what watching a movie at home is as opposed to in a theater, because of how much more control over your situation that it offers. Need to go to the bathroom? No teacher to ask, you're in your own home. Hungry? It's lunch time all the time, and anything's on the menu. Need a break? Take it, and pick up where you left off on your work. I do greatly appreciate this.
I don't expect Edgenuity to remove the block on extensions and userscript usage, but a few small additions purely for QoL would make it a vastly better experience, at least for myself. Who knows? Maybe I'm alone with how I feel about Edgenuity.
Whether you're a student or staff (which I doubt will've read this), I'd like to hear your input on the state of things.
The school year is wrapping up (for me, atleast, I'm unsure if it differs for other people) and I hope all of you, even the ones super behind and in the educational dumps, can push through and make this your year.
To all my fellow seniors, the class of 2024, we made it. Through hard work, stress, pandemics, and all the other crazy shit that's been going on for the past 12-13 years of our lives, we've made it. Hopefully you all feel as accomplished as you should.

Hi there! IM LOOKING FOR GENUINE EFFORT AND CARE. I value chemistry very highly. If you are going to send a short/small reply, ESPECIALLY as an opener, please do not bother. (I play a lot of TFT so pls let's Double Up! :pray:!)
What I'm looking for:
Silly - I'm an energetic and goofball, I can't be with someone who is too serious and doesn't embrace being silly with me. That doesn't sound fun to me!
Communicative - I absolutely loving talking to my partner, but what's most important is BEING ON THE SAME PAGE. Communication is very important. I'm a patient and understanding guy. Unfortunately I can't read minds! (If you know how to read minds, DM pls). This also goes for knowing how to actually converse. I can't stand lack of effort and short responses. Not my cup of tea.
Effort - Effort, time, consistency. These are all very important to me. It's so draining to put these things into a friendship or relationship (anything really) and not get it back. I'm not settling for anything less.
Common interests/hobbies - Some people are able to date others who have nothing or little in common with them. Impossible for me. I want to spend a lot of time with my partner, enjoying the things WE BOTH ENJOY. My partner is my best friend, we don't have to have everything in common, but there needs to be a solid amount to work with.
Those are the main things. Yes, attraction matters too. I'm being real about it. I'm not looking for a model or anything, but I'd be lying to say attraction doesn't matter to me. If you send a selfie, you happily get mine. I'm up front about things.
Now about me:
30 years old
Capricorn (for those who are curious).
6 feet tall (6'1 on a good day), white.
Cat dad
Work in the gaming industry
I've been told I'm a goofball who brings some energy and liveliness to those around me. I aim to make those around me comfortable and ensure they enjoy their time. Those are my top two priorities when I'm with or around people.
I love to talk and get to know people. I'm the clingy type, and I'll take every chance to talk to someone if I enjoy their company. I also know how to read between the lines and give space when needed. The energy you give is the energy I return. That's why I look for silly and comfortable energy; that's what I work best with and want. People come and go (including myself); I'm not the type to be bothered about it. Everyone has different lives and responsibilities.
The right people will communicate and stay. I'm the type to work on a problem if I notice one. I hate giving up if I think there's even a small chance of fixing it.I want to learn from every experience I have. My mind is always on and thinking. I often replay a lot of the interactions and events during my day at night and try to figure out what I could've done differently and why, what other outcomes were possible. It's entertaining to me but also helps me learn and grow.
I'm not perfect; I just want to be a better person and work on myself when I can.I love to play TFT and Aram! Recently finished my first playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 and FF7 Rebirth. I do what I can to learn more about the game I'm playing to get better and have even more fun.
Pokemon TCG! I play in real life and online! I'd say semi-competitively these days. It's hard to find the time to go to big tournaments often when you have other things going on. I play mostly for social reasons, but it is another way to scratch that competitive itch. Pokemon, in general, though, I'm a huge fan of! Aipom and Piplup are my two favorites!
Reading (with a little bit of writing)! I'm not the type to read fiction books; most of that is taken care of via shows, games, movies. I enjoy psychology and business books, self-improvement, memoirs!
I enjoy watching anime and kdramas! There are some occasional shows on Netflix I enjoy watching when they are new, but most of my entertainment from shows will be anime and kdramas. There's a lot more to say; this post is getting long, though, so I'll save it for later. If you are still reading, congratulations! I hope to hear from some of y'all! ^^
Ps - Hopefully the formatting isn't too awful and I didn't make too many mistakes haha

Hi,
I'm (31M) preparing to see my partner (P, 34NB) for the first time in a year. I'm pretty excited as I have missed them.
Currently they are on a vacation in the capital city of my country (which is considerable distance away) with Meta (M) and some friends, and will be meeting me and staying with me later on. We have had a bit of an argument over P boundary setting with me regarding meeting arrangements and this has made me felt less confident about our date week as a whole.
The situation feels a bit personal for myself because I have GAD, a disability and am neurodivergent with comorbid executive dysfunction issues. I personally think that the ED is a significant stressor for Partner, maybe even more than my mental health! Although I am not sure why this is.
I can somewhat understand why executive functioning is a sore spot and important. In general booking flights, trains, hotels etc. can be really stressful and overwhelming for me, and while a general problem, this is obviously a problem in an LDR especially. There is also P's work schedule to consider. I wish we had more autonomy but I can't and in fact right now I'm not even *allowed* to drive.
So what happened: my polycule suggested this UK meet months ago, and I was keen, but this was at the time just an idea. The plan was always to meet P, M et. al. after their break in capital city A in city B and then for the group to split so that P and I could do our own thing separately.
For various unfortunate reasons though (including awaiting an appointment for surgery and my social security review) I was first unable to commit until 2 weeks ago, when I had a hospital appointment (which was almost a 5 minute waste of time but that's another story) and then procrastinated on reserving hotels. (I was especially scared of being discharged if I rescheduled, and as a disabled person I am just scared of my government who frankly dislike and scapegoat disabled people.) I was also insecure about meeting meta and especially the friends. Finally money was both an issue and something I was pretending was not for reasons I'll explain below.
P tried to help me with hotel reservation but we were unable to complete it before they left their country last weekend. I can't remember why; I'm ashamed to say I might have just got distracted and panicked...
I have since had a busy/exhausting week engaged with advocacy service, family birthdays, therapy and a planned outing with friends--and so has P, with work before leaving and with the trip after. P suggested meeting me halfway at city C, and we could have a day trip there.
I had felt overwhelmed by the decision, so asked for help from my friends. Both my friends and partner kept emphasising that reservations as well as the kinds of long-haul trains I wanted would be 'expensive' and basically talking out of our plan B and plan C. It seems as if my not spending was the major consideration. At risk of sounding both privileged and irresponsible, which maybe I am; from a self-confidence standpoint I care less about spending a lot of money as a) proving to myself I can do these things and b) treating my partner to a nice experience after so long away from each other.
However I am also quite a people pleaser, especially towards P. Additionally deadlines absolutely cause me to panic and any form of timekeeping pressure. So if somebody shares an opinion strongly then I tend to just mirror them. This can often be a problem with Partner who has quite a lot of strong opinions and values, and also can be easily frustrated. They can also be impatient although I want to caveat that in many ways they have been *very* patient with me. It's hard to process. I keep wanting to blame myself or them. The point is that I don't like arguing with people and will let them talk me out of a situation if it means avoiding a fight. (I know this is a trauma response from my abandonment issues and seeing my parents fight while divorcing as a kid)
Partner initially said that since they were now spending time with meta they were unavailable and it was up to me to decide and plan my own arrangements. However they more or less suddenly changed their mind *the next day*, and said that they had to consider their own needs, had ditched any plans with me beyond meeting me at my home (plan D) and will meet me at my home this weekend.
I absolutely understand why P was stressed about pinning down a meet up date, place and time. Despite being completely fluent, they would be travelling in a foreign country after all. Perhaps I had been stubborn about 'wanting to see Meta and friends' while not considering or committing to the logistics of that, which I knew would exhaust me.
The problem was this flip in...willingness to grant me autonomy happened so suddenly I had no time to process it. I was on a bus home at the time. The period between "I think we should drop the holiday" and "I've bought a train directly to yours, meet me" was about 5-10 minutes of streaming IMs where I was in freeze response and unable to really engage.
Although they didn't see it (instead my friend did) I had a complete meltdown and panic attack as in my mind this was failure. I was already doing toxic comparison to Meta (who is wealthier, more relationally experienced, and has greater connections in the poly scene). My hometown is...it's a dump. I mean my local area is nice enough but...it's not a capital city or city break. I sense this is toxic but . Again it feels like personal failure, especially as I had told my family and *even my therapist and social worker* about the plans. So there is embarrassment on top of it, like disappointing P is disappointing *them* by proxy. Further I'm worrying that the fact I think P might even 'need' the entertainment of a big city is being sexist (and so misgendering). Finally I'm struggling to think of alternatives since I doubt they will want to spend the whole time in my apartment.
Nor is this the first time I have had a meltdown due to P being frustrated with how slow, tardy, indecisive I can get. In fact one happened when we went on vacation last year...because I took too long in the toilet before we left for the train. So...yeah, I know how important punctuality and efficiency is to P but I...still got caught off guard this time.
I spoke to my therapist today I'm thinking about whether it'd be good for us to have a one-off 'couples therapy' with my therapist (with P attending) and what I need to ask from my therapist. Fortunately my therapist is poly informed and practises it, which I think will help. However I don't think this is about 'poly' exactly, it seems to be about my own difficulties.
Beyond this I'm not sure what to do. Honestly I don't want to disturb P but also? This incident has caused me to check out of interest in their time with M and friends beforehand, (which I was previously following with interest) and lose some compersion. I have the distressed part of my brain telling me that I can avoid disappointing people if I just let them take control of everything and never say No or speak up. Especially with P it has seemed for a while that the best way to avoid annoying them is to just let them take the lead, because me trying to exercise my own autonomy just causes analysis paralysis and arguments leading to panic attacks/meltdowns/shame spirals...and tbqh that happens with everyone in my life which suggests it's a me problem. Generally I'm just low energy now, I'm tired and didn't sleep well or much.
I am worried I'm going to get dumped, and I am worried that this would be proof that I am not fit for at least poly dating if not dating in general. My mind takes P and M as representative of 'the ideal ENM individual' (read: high agency, extremely independent, values autonomy, effortless boundaries/assertiveness, highly efficient/no EF issues etc.) and I am projecting all of my insecurities and deficit in these faculties onto the whole damn scene.
How much of this boils down to bad communication, RSD and internalised ableism? Idk. I can tell that my mind is on a worry train now, and this whole thing is yet again as much about proving myself as capable to people as being in the moment. I worry that I won't be able to mentally solve this issue and I *have* to let go. Right now I need to clean this place up a little before the weekend. Any help appreciated

I'm just absolutely confounded by the default settings on like, every card search engine. What value do I gain from seeing the "A"s first? If i'm looking up cards presumably I want them for some functional purpose, shouldn't the sorting also be functional?
Anyway. I think everything should default to cmc sorting it's much more useful, thanks Scryfall for enabling this so I don't have to do "order:cmc" on every query.

Not really sure what I’m looking for by posting this, maybe just reassurance that my plan is sound and can work at the expense of accruing some interest on loans.
So I bought a condo pre-con in 2019 for $513k. 21% down. Have been paying the crazy high occupancy fees for the last few months but thankfully it is closing in June.
I am self employed as a general contractor and my income is very unpredictable, but basically am not making nearly as much in 2023 and 2024 as I did years prior. Combine this with the interest rates skyrocketing, and the bottom line is that I absolutely cannot afford the $400k~ mortgage on this place (plus condo fees, utilities, etc). I would sell today and be happy.
That’s the issue. Due to the new house flipping laws in Canada, I cannot qualify for principal residence exemption unless I own and live in it for 12 months from closing date.
The value of the condo is now more like $750k. That’s almost 250k in appreciation or “profit” that I would have to claim 100% as income as it would not even qualify as a capital gain, if I sell before June of 2025. We’re talking about well over $100k of taxes on the sale. For this reason, I feel like it’s worth it to just live above my means, take loans where I can (luckily I have parents that can help subsidize the mortgage, at a standard interest rate), and just accumulate debt until I can sell the condo and pay off all the loans.
I think it’s well worth accumulating $10k-20k of interest to hold this condo, in order to sell next year and save the tax. The math checks out for sure. It’s just incredibly stressful knowing I’m living way above my financial means, as this is never how I’ve lived and never how I want to live. Wouldn’t have saved up as much as I did to afford this condo in the first place if that’s how I was comfortable living. It’s really just a combination of bad financial environments that has screwed me a little here, but it is what it is.
I guess im just looking for a pat on the back and a “it’ll be ok!” here lol, but does anyone see any glaring problems with this plan? It sounds like by next summer (assuming little change in the real estate market) after selling and settling all debts and paying all costs, I’ll be sitting on nearly $300k and can plan my next move from there.

After watching last nights meltdown, it got me thinking about a potential roster makeover.
I for one was really looking forward to this season. I know the injury bug has bitten us hard, but it can’t be used as a blanket excuse for how piss-poor the offense has been.
I think heading into the summer, the Reds leadership needs to think about throwing in the towel on the season and look to selling off some of the veterans we have on the squad and look at rebuilding certain spots with proven veteran commodities.
For starters I think the bullpen needs to be gutted. They just are not getting it done, plain and simple. I’d start with shipping out Diaz and throwing Cruz into the closer role to see how he does to close out the year. I’d also see what I could get for Pagan, Martinez, Suter, Farmer, Wilson and Sims (which will not be a lot).
From there, I think Montas is for sure gone from the rotation. I would also listen on Ashcraft and Greene though I would need to be absolutely blown away to even consider moving them.
Moving on to the offense….. woof! This is where it gets interesting. I think anyone but Elly (obviously), McClain, Marte (even though I’m still pissed at his stupidity), Steer and CES is available. I love India, but I don’t think his value goes much higher than it would be at the all-star break. Same with Stephenson. I hope he gets hot closer to the deadline and we would could sell high. I would love to see him rebound, but I think he is who he is at this point. Candy….. yeah no thanks.
From my view, it’s the outfield that desperately needs upgraded. Benson has so much potential, but he has regressed badly from the promise he showed last year and is not an everyday player. I love Fairchild and Fridel as defensive first center fielders, but I don’t think there is room for both on the roster. I love Frailey too, but you basically have to platoon him unless he proves otherwise (which he has yet to do). All told I think we have room for one, maybe two of our current outfielders outside of Steer.
Finally, I think David Bell’s time is over. I would love to see us go with a former player with a lot of enthusiasm in the mold of Aaron Boone or David Ross.
Super bummed sitting here writing this out. I was so stoked for this season. As we are about a quarter through the season and are showing little to no signs of pulling out of this funk, I think the Reds need to think about remaking a decent chunk of the current roster. There are some great pieces here (see Elly, Lodolo, Steer, Abbott, McClain once healthy), but this is not a playoff caliber team IMO.

Thank you to those who have engaged in various discussions over the past few weeks about the presence/behavior of cis men in this sub. Based on your input, we've made the following changes - please see further down this post for a discussion of each change and how it'll improve this sub (TLDR is below, longer explanation is under that).
TLDR OF THE CHANGES:

1. We are changing the "Women and NB only" flair to say "Not seeking cis male perspectives" as to be more inclusive to our trans male sub members, who we value and are of course welcome here. We are adding a rule called "Be mindful of perspective" to clarify the purpose of this flair, and anyone found violating this rule will have their comment deleted and the user will be muted from the sub for a month. We have set up the automod to add a pinned comment to the top of any post/thread with the "Not seeking cis male perspectives" flair to explain the rule and the consequences for breaking it. Posts without this flair won't have the automod comment.
2. This sub will no longer appear on all, popular, or other high-traffic aggregation pages. It will, however, still be suggested to people following similar subs (climbing, for example) but we are open to changing that if needed and have the sub no longer be recommended to people following similar subs.
3. Anyone who tries to post/comment in this sub after having been banned from another sub will automatically have their comment held for moderation.
4. We have not done this yet, but if needed, will set up the "crowd control" filter such that if anyone with negative karma in this sub or no post history in this sub tries to comment/post, it'll be held for moderation.

RATIONALE BEHIND THE CHANGES:
This sub was created by and for people who are specifically seeking perspectives other than the ones we encounter most likely in climbing (both online and offline). As the sub has gotten bigger and more "discoverable", many more cis males have been participating in conversations. Some cis male contributors approach from a place of respectful curiosity, seeking to understand the perspectives of the women in their lives. Others, however, have decided to use this space to unload their grievances about gender dynamics, inclusion, beta-spraying, sexual assault, dating/relationships, etc in a way that is not only unproductive, but also harmful to members of our community. This is unacceptable and cannot continue.
The extreme step would be to make our sub entirely private, requiring users to be verified (which is something other subs on Reddit do when faced with similar issues). However, this step comes with its own set of disadvantages. We want to ensure the people for whom this sub was created are still able to find it. Also, we as a mod team work full-time and don't have unlimited time/energy to do all the things necessary to make a sub private and require verification. This step is not completely off the table but we're holding off on it for now.
We recognize there's diversity within our community: some users absolutely do not for any reason want cis male perspectives in the comments of their posts. Others are open to it, as long as commenters are respectful/coming from a place of learning. The "Not seeking cis male perspectives" flair is thus optional. We will follow the lead of OPs and moderate strictly when OPs do choose to use this flair. We also think decreasing the number of non-climber cis males this page is suggested to will decrease the brigading, harassment, commenting from people who have never read the rules & don't care at all about our sub, and other antisocial behavior.
We hope the changes above will result in a material, concrete decrease in the number of inappropriate comments from cis men and an increased feeling of safety, warmth, and community for everyone else. We value this space and appreciate all who work to make it a positive one. Please send us modmail anytime with suggestions or feedback.

Welcome to The Garden, a (Bedrock Edition) laid back experience thats been running for 2 years now. Our server is powered by the Forsaken Odyssey expansion made by Nico the Kid. No modding required, just join and download the resource packs.
I pride myself on keeping this world running until i absolutely cant. The only reason the world will be reset is if a new minecraft update requires it, and i'll do my best to work around that as well. Blocks outside of 15,000 in any direction are reset every once in a while to add new land to explore.
🌱 No Obligations: I believe in creating an environment where you can play Minecraft on your terms. There are no playtime obligations, and we don't have any paid packages or donation systems. The server's expenses are entirely covered by me, ensuring that it's a place for pure enjoyment.
🌍 Fresh and Unique: The Forsaken Odyssey expansion introduces a variety of new content while maintaining game balance. Expect new mobs, blocks, biomes, and items, along with carefully selected personal addons that keep the server fresh and unique. You dont have to download anything on your own to join. Just download the resource packs when you log in.
🌟 Play Your Way: There's no "right way" to participate here. Whether you prefer a solitary experience or want to create or join a community, you're welcome. We respect your choice and value your presence. As long as you are respectfull of others, you'll have a great time here.
⚔️ Survival Challenges: The server is set to Hard difficulty with enabled coordinates. PvP is allowed for duels or consensual battles, and players can form factions and engage in PvP when agreed upon. Check our Discord for more details on rules. Modded creatures get added and removed occasionally to keep things interesting, and the landscape is dotted with abandoned buildings and dungeons to explore.
🏡 Convenience Features: We offer features like Homes, Warps, and TPA for easy navigation and a smoother gameplay experience. Economy features make catching up to long term players easier, and allow you to focus on building what you want.
Joining is easy, simply click this link: https://discord.gg/TvyAb9ga7g
After reading the rules, click the verify button in our Discord server. No captchas, external links, or additional authorizations are required. The IP and port will be readily available in the Discord. We're excited to welcome new players to The Garden, and we hope you have a wonderful and stress-free time here.

Welcome to The Garden, a (Bedrock Edition) laid back experience thats been running for 2 years now. Our server is powered by the Forsaken Odyssey expansion made by Nico the Kid. No modding required, just join and download the resource packs.
I pride myself on keeping this world running until i absolutely cant. The only reason the world will be reset is if a new minecraft update requires it, and i'll do my best to work around that as well. Blocks outside of 15,000 in any direction are reset every once in a while to add new land to explore.
🌱 No Obligations: I believe in creating an environment where you can play Minecraft on your terms. There are no playtime obligations, and we don't have any paid packages or donation systems. The server's expenses are entirely covered by me, ensuring that it's a place for pure enjoyment.
🌍 Fresh and Unique: The Forsaken Odyssey expansion introduces a variety of new content while maintaining game balance. Expect new mobs, blocks, biomes, and items, along with carefully selected personal addons that keep the server fresh and unique. You dont have to download anything on your own to join. Just download the resource packs when you log in.
🌟 Play Your Way: There's no "right way" to participate here. Whether you prefer a solitary experience or want to create or join a community, you're welcome. We respect your choice and value your presence. As long as you are respectfull of others, you'll have a great time here.
⚔️ Survival Challenges: The server is set to Hard difficulty with enabled coordinates. PvP is allowed for duels or consensual battles, and players can form factions and engage in PvP when agreed upon. Check our Discord for more details on rules. Modded creatures get added and removed occasionally to keep things interesting, and the landscape is dotted with abandoned buildings and dungeons to explore.
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There have been an increasing number of juniors visiting this sub asking for advice about writing essays. Below are some tips and advice for making your essay stand out as excellent. Feel free to ask questions because I will answer every single question in the comments.
I know from experience that many of you are struggling to identify a good topic for your essay. Conventional wisdom says to start by brainstorming a list of potential topics, and chances are, you have already started a mental list of ideas. You might think you only have a few choices for topics, based on your activities or experiences, or essay examples you read, or the rough draft you already started (or worse, that GPT started...). I advise, however, that you put down your list of topics and back away from it. Forget that exists for a moment. Seriously - thinking about this initial list tethers you to certain ideas that might not actually be your best options.
Now you can begin brainstorming with a clean slate.
Start with thinking about what you want to show in your entire application, not just one essay. Every single component in your app has one purpose – to tell more about YOU. Filling out the rest of the application by rote and focusing solely on the essay is short-sighted and will leave so much potential untapped in your application.

It's About You. Tell Your Story - And Be The Protagonist

An admissions officer’s goal is to understand you fully, in the context of your background and the rest of the applicant pool. They will begin this with assessing your academic abilities and potential. Then they will evaluate how you will fit into the student body they’re trying to curate. All of this can be somewhat broad and diverse and touch on several institutional goals. But they will dig deep to find out what each applicant is like, what your core values and motivations are, what kind of student you will be, how you will contribute to the vibrant and intellectual campus community they’re building, etc.
Your goal with essay brainstorming is to ascertain how to powerfully tell your story in a manner that will fit these criteria. The entirety of your application (again, not just one essay) aims to showcase your abilities, qualifications, and uncommon attributes as a person in a positive way. Before you begin outlining or writing your application, you must determine what is unique about you that will stand out to an admissions panel. All students are truly unique. Not one other student has the same combination of life experiences, personality, passions, or goals as you do. Your job in your application is to frame your unique personal attributes in a positive and compelling way. How will you fit on campus? What personal qualities, strengths, core values, talents, or different perspectives do you bring to the table? What stories, deeper motivations/beliefs, or formative experiences can you use to illustrate all of this?
It is always helpful to start with some soul-searching or self-examination. You might not immediately know what you want to share about yourself. It’s not a simple task to decide how to summarize your whole life and being in a powerful and eloquent way on your application. Introspection prior to starting your application takes additional time and effort rather than jumping straight into your first draft. But it is also a valuable method to start writing a winning application that stands out from the stack.
You'll see the advice everywhere that all essay prompts are really about the same thing - you. The goal of each essay then is to showcase who you are, what matters to you, and how you think. I guarantee if you're on this sub enough, you'll hear the advice to "show, don't tell" when writing about yourself. But what does this mean really, and how do you do it well? How do you even get started on an essay that does this?

Introspection Questions

It’s often easiest to start thinking in terms of superlatives, especially those related to personal insights -- what are the most meaningful things about you, and what do you value the most? Here is a list of questions to help you brainstorm broadly before you narrow down your focus for writing:

• What are your interests?
  
• What sparks your curiosity?
  
• About what topics do you enjoy reading?
  
• With whom do you enjoy spending time? Who has impacted your life the most?
  
• Reflect upon “superlatives” in your life. What moments were most memorable, formative, enlightening, enjoyable, or valuable? What physical possessions, experiences, dreams, or lessons could make your superlatives list?
  
• Stop and think about what things, people, or circumstances in your life are really unique, fascinating, or outlandish. Are there any that really have a lot of "cultural flavor" (whatever your culture is)?
  

I have a free introspection worksheet with over 100 questions like this designed to help you find ideas worth exploring in your essays. You can find it on the A2C Discord or download it directly here.

Find Your Story And Arc

Think of a small anecdote or story from your life that you could share that serves as a microcosm of who you are and what is important to you. It will massively help you narrow this down and find a gem of a story if you first start by thinking about your application arc or theme. This is the one-phrase summary of your entire application. It could be "brilliant entrepreneur who started her own successful business" or "talented athlete who wants to study economics and finance as they pertain to sports", or even "avid baker whose hobby sparked an interest in chemistry". It doesn't have to be related to your intended major, but it can help your arc be stronger and clearer if it is.
Once you have an arc determined and a story to share, think about what you want that story to say about you. This is where it can help to think of this as something you would share on a date - what impression does it make about you to the reader? Once you know this, start showing, not telling this attribute of yourself through your story. For example, instead of saying that you're compassionate toward others, you show an example of a time you were compassionate, then elaborate on why, and what it means to you.

Essay Brainstorming Techniques

If you are having trouble finding a story, or simply have writer’s block once you have picked your topic, here are some ideas to get your juices flowing:

• Stream of consciousness writing -- Start writing whatever is in your head, and don’t stop for 30 minutes. You probably won’t use what you just wrote for your essay, but it will help you find a starting point.
  
• Journaling -- Answer the prompt as if you were writing in a journal. This will get you in the habit of writing about yourself and establish comfort with the concept. It will also take you to a new level of introspection and self-awareness.
  
• Twitter X style -- Write several rapid-fire responses to the prompt in 280 characters or less. Choose an idea from these responses to expound upon in your essay.
  
• Read each essay prompt, then go through your introspection worksheet responses and connect the stories and insights to one or more of the prompts. Some students like using color coding to visually see how their different ideas might work together.
  

Why Essays Matter

Here's the thing a lot of people don't realize about college admission: it's not an award for being the smartest, most accomplished, or most impressive. It's an invitation to join a community. Far too many students think that if they can just show that they're smart enough, they'll get in. Yale even says right on their admissions website that 75% of their applicants are academically qualified to succeed at Yale. But only ~4% are getting in. That should tell you that they're looking for more than just top tier test scores and grades. To be perfectly clear, you will need top tier grades and (optionally) test scores to show that you're qualified, and the vast majority of my students come to me with this part already in the bank. But what sets the admits apart? It's personal insight - sharing who you are, how you think, what matters to you, and how you engage community. You can't just say "/IAmVerySmart, please admit me," or even "I did a cool thing guys! Isn't that neat!" You need to go deeper and show them your core values, personal strengths, motivations, aspirations, character traits, foundational beliefs, personality, etc. And you need to do it in a charming, winsome way that makes them like you and want to invite you to join their community.
So how do I get students to do this? All of my students complete that introspection worksheet. We go through it and find the stories, examples, anecdotes, conversations, memories, relationships, and other things from their life that will help us craft a strong and personally insightful narrative. We also make lists of the values, strengths, and key personal qualities we want to showcase. Once we have some topics, outlines, abstracts, or rough drafts, we talk about which stories to tell where, how to tell them well, and what details to include to present the best they have to offer. Then we refine, edit, polish, and enhance over and over until the story sings, but more importantly shows their heart and soul. We also go through all the other application components to ensure consistency, quality, and distinctiveness.
Here's why this works so well: at most highly selective colleges there is a primary reader (or 2-3) who will review everything first and then present it to the admissions committee, who then votes on whether to admit you. That presentation typically goes one of three ways:

1. Total enthusiasm, energy, and excitement. They strongly advocate for admission and paint a clear picture of how you will contribute to their goals and community. Everyone in the room picks up on that energy and is leaning forward in their chairs, looking for reasons to admit you. This is quite rare, generally less than 5 out of every 100 applications, even among those which are "fully qualified." When you do this right, you show depth, meaning, and valuable personal insights so the reviewer is learning about who you are and how you might engage the community they're curating. You come alive off the page as a person, not just another file.
   
2. Business as usual. You're another great applicant in a pile of great applicants. They share a basic review of the facts, your profile, stats, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Maybe someone on the committee finds something they love, and they really push for admission. More likely, not and you get deferred/waitlisted even though there wasn't anything "wrong" with your application. They just didn't love you enough to commit.
   
3. "Here's a stack of 20 applications that I didn't find all that compelling, so we won't present them individually, but you guys are the committee and you make the decisions. So let me know if there are any you want to talk about." In this case, unless there's a letter of endorsement from an athletics coach or your last name matches several buildings on campus, you're probably not getting additional consideration, much less admission. They will regret to inform you.
   

Everything we're doing is designed to help them get to know themselves, present the best they have to offer, and land in that first group. Having top tier essays is the single best way to get there. Get started on brainstorming in the next few weeks so you'll have time to get a few essays completed over the summer.

I’ve always been really into ghost stories, or urban legends in general. The White Lady, haunted dolls, vampires, black eyed children, that kind of stuff. I know that, today, people my age aren’t big fans of that kind of horror anymore, preferring it things like the Backrooms, analog horror, all the new kinds of scary media. Honestly, I get it, things do need to evolve, and when we see everything that’s happening in the world, it’s understandable that a good old ghost story don’t do the job anymore.

Still, the “old fashioned” horror (it’s not that old, but things move fast on the internet) is always my jam. I grew up watching youtubers investigating haunted places, ghost hunting, with all their accessories, EMF meters, their little radio thing that they use to listen to radio frequencies so that they can hear any interference, their antenna that beeps when something approaches it, voice recorders, special flashlights, and let me tell you that all this, it was doing it for me.

So, since my, probably 7 years, I dreamt of doing these things myself. Of course, I tried everything a young boy is able to do, like Ouija or stupidly walking around my house with my phone filming, hoping that some random deceased person with unfinished business will show up to, I don’t know, have a chat. I wish I could say that other people’s judgement doesn’t affect me, but that would be a lie, so, going in to high school, I had to socially tone down my interest for those things in order to have friends. None of my friends and classmates knew about my persisting passion for ghosts and creepy stories.

I realize that keeping this such a secret is a bit ridiculous, especially approaching my 18^th birthday, but, you know, it would be even weirder to reveal it after hiding it for almost 6 years like it was something super taboo. So here I was, I started hiding my passion at 12 to avoid other’s judging it, and I’m now still hiding it at 17 to avoid others judging the fact that I hid it… A bit pathetic I got to admit.

Anyway, everything started a few days ago. I have an art history class at school and the teacher really likes to give us big works of research. This time, he had a new idea, the whole class will be divided into groups of two, and each group will receive a building from our city that the teacher had choose for his architectural and artistic interests, and we’ll have to give it a visit and write an analysis on the different things we’ll notice and link it to what we saw in class. Since all the buildings were not public places, he had asked the authorization of every property’s owner.

Honestly, this could have been worse. This actually sounded kinda cool to do. Now, what I was concerned about was who will be my partner. Obviously, I was hoping for one of my friends. After explaining the rules and exact instructions for the work, he started to announce the groups. I was waiting to hear my name, anxious, as all my friends were slowly starting to be put into their groups.

“Joshua!” The teacher said (yeah that’s my name). “You will be with…” I was holding on to my chair. “… Elizabeth!”

I turned to Elizabeth, and we looked at each other. Neither one of us seemed excited. It wasn’t a terrible pair, I thought to myself, I just didn’t know what to think of it exactly. Elizabeth was a pretty popular girl, not that I was an outcast or anything, but she was still way more popular than me. I didn’t know much more about her, despite the fact that we were in the same class since my first year of high school, but it looked like she was going to be an okay partner.

The teacher then gave us our building. I won’t reveal the real name of what he gave us so I’ll call it “Guaraldi’s Street 22”. Apparently, it was a pretty old house that had somewhat of an historic value to it. The teacher gave us some information so we wouldn’t stumble there without any prior knowledge. The owner was an old woman who had always lived there. She was apparently very glad to open her doors to young students and was ready to answer any questions we could have. He warned us that she had a weak audition and that we would have to speak loudly. The teacher then recommended us to do a little bit of research before going there, so we could already have some idea of where we were entering.

I then found myself in front of Elizabeth. I think the last time we even talked to each other was months ago when she was distributing a test to the class and that I said “Thanks”, so, yeah, not a lot of background. I noticed, and I don’t know why it took me so long, I guess I never paid much attention to her, that she was dressed in kind of an old style, she wore some clearly used dungarees. The date the teacher had scheduled for our visit was on Sunday, and we were Thursday.

“So, hum, I guess, we can both do research on our side, and we’ll meet, maybe at lunch break tomorrow to get on the same page. Is that good for you?” She asked me.

“Yeah, that’s good, we can do that.”

“Okay, then, see you tomorrow.” She said.

“See you.”

On that she turned her feet and left for her break. The rest of the day went by and I got back home. As usual, my mom wasn’t there, she often has to work late as she’s a single mom to me and my little sister Rosa. I ate my diner and went to my room. I opened my computer to start my research. It wasn’t hard to find information, even though things were repeating themselves a lot: “so much historical meaning for the city”, “a perfect example of “art-deco” architecture”, “a house filled with stories”. There was a lot of talk by local medias about it, but not much actual facts.

It was so weak, that I had to go to page 2 of the search results on google, or, as I like to call them, “the abyss of the internet” (I’m exaggerating a bit, but it’s not often that you have to go there).
Then, something caught my eyes. It was a forum about paranormal experiences, and the address was mentioned on a post. I immediately clicked on it and read the whole thing. It wasn’t exactly the most thrilling story I’ve read, but here’s what it basically said.

Apparently, the owner opened the house as a cottage during the summer, and the person posting was narrating what he experienced during his passage there. He described a very special and kinda suffocating vibe that was apparently all around the house, and the feeling of being observed all the time. He also talked about hearing voices at random moments. They were brief but often mentioned his name. The end of his testimony talked about his last night, when he said he saw a little child with no facial expression in front of his bed, who slowly started to climb into it and grabbed his legs, trying to pull him outside of his bed. The poster said he eventually succeeded to push the kid away, despite his unreal strength, and that the boy ended up running out of the room, laughing. When he spoke to the owner about it the next morning, she said that it must have been his imagination playing tricks on him, as she didn’t believe in paranormal and that nothing similar ever happened to her.

This wasn’t much, it could have been a complete lie, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t peak my curiosity. The story was as basic as it could be, but it was so specific for it to happen in that place, which was absolutely not famous, and even less for any paranormal events. I kept that in the back of my mind and continued my research, but I didn’t find much more, so I went to sleep.

As I was lying in my bed, I was thinking. What if the person who posted his story said the truth. This was the first time I was going to enter somewhere that old and charged with history, this could be the perfect place for my first ghost-hunt. But of course, I was going for school and won’t be alone, plus, it’s not really respectful to the owner, who kindly opened the doors of her family house to us. And even if I wanted to, I’d be constantly with Elizabeth, so, it was not really an option. I looked at the EMF meter I received for a birthday on my shelf and thought to myself that this would be for another time.

The next day, as planned, I met with Elizabeth at lunch break. We started to share the results of our research, where I did not include the post from the forum for obvious reasons. We talked a bit before coming to a clear conclusion.

“Yeah, the thing is, we have the same exact stuff, there isn’t much interesting infos to be found online, except very surface level stuff.” She said.

“Yes, I think we should prepare the questions we want to ask the owner instead.” I answered.

“You’re right, do you think you can have yours for Sunday?”

“Yeah, no problem.”

We exchanged a bit more and eventually went back to class.

On Saturday, I prepared a few questions to ask the owner.

Then came today, Sunday. The meeting was planned at 11AM. I woke up normally, took a breakfast, got dressed, everything. Before leaving my room, I took one last look at the room and I saw my EMF meter. It was like he was begging me to take him. I grabbed it and left. I didn’t know if I would actually use it, but I had it. It had an option where instead of lighting the small lamps he was vibrating, so I activated that and put it in my pocket.

I arrived at the house and Elizabeth was already waiting for me. We knocked and we could hear the owner walking towards the door saying “Yes, yes, just a second.” She opened and she looked like the sweetest thing ever. She was short and had a naturally kind face. We could see that she was clearly dressed and make up for the occasion. She welcomed us and let us in happily. The hallway was very pretty, I understood why our teacher got us this house, it was indeed very interesting. The walls were covered with paintings and old pictures, mostly portraits. On everyone of these, the people had a very serious look, but that’s not unusual for old pictures.

We walked to the living room where she served us tea and we sat together.

“So, I think you have some questions for me?” She asked. You could see that she was very glad to talk. “Don’t be shy, I’m open.”

Elizabeth started to ask her first question then I did, and we could ask her everything.

The house was her family’s for many generations, but it hadn’t always been theirs. All the persons in the hallway, paintings or pictures, were previous habitants of the house, and they went as far as the 15th century, so, yeah, it was all pretty old. She said they could only know the identity of some of the first generations but that a lot of the people were non identified. She answered a lot of other questions regarding the architectural and artistic heritage of the building, and she was surprisingly very interesting to listen to. Her enthusiasm and kindness were contagious, and we both couldn’t help but ask more questions.

Eventually, we arrived to the end of our list, and it was time for us to visit, take notes, analyze, all that. She asked us not to touch anything, as a lot of things had a lot of value, but let us wander free in the house. She said she’ll be making cookies for when we’ll be done. Elizabeth and I found ourselves alone in the living room and finished our tea.

“God,… She’s adorable.” Said Elizabeth with a smile.

“Yes, she’s so sweet, I wasn’t expecting that.” I said.

“Let’s, maybe start with there.” She said, pointing to the room besides us.

We got up and entered it. The walls were covered by huge bookshelves. Elizabeth started to take notes, looking at the room, and I started inspecting the books. There was probably a more than a thousand books, and some of them looked super old. I read the titles of some of them, and the least I could say was that it needed to be rearranged. “Cooking Asian Food”, “Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince”, some old book with the title erased, and even a CD in the middle, it was a bit random.

We eventually moved on to the hallway. It was a bit oppressing with all those eyes who seemed to observe us. Elizabeth did mention how it felt a bit weird and we started to take notes again. At some point, my look stopped on one painting at the back of the hall. It was a young lady, dressed classically, maybe a bit poorly even, for someone who would have lived there. She was kinda pretty, if I’m being honest. But the reason why it caught my eyes was that it was the only one who was smiling. All the other people represented looked dead serious, but her, she smiled. A sweet, even caring and warm smile. I noticed that it seemed like she was staring at me. Of course, a lot of paintings give that same impression, but it was more intense on her.

My heart skipped a beat. I was sure that I just saw her winked to me. I let out a gasp. I was convinced she winked at me. The vibe went from slightly oppressive to extremely heavy. Then we both heard it.

“Elizabeth.”

An unrecognizable voice had just whispered. Elizabeth turned to me.

“Did you say that?” She asked.

“Elizabeth.”

A younger voice this time. We were facing each other, so we knew it couldn’t be one of us this time, and the owner was in the kitchen. Elizabeth’s eyes opened wide and she slowly walked towards me.

“Elizabeth.”

She jumped.

“WHAT THE… fuck?” I let out. We were looking around us.

“Joshua, I don’t like this…”

“Yeah, me neither.”

We were frozen in place, with all the paintings looking right to us.

“Elizabeth.”

That time it was a deep voice, and it came from behind us. We turned. Slowly, all the faces of the paintings and pictures started to clearly move. They were opening their eyes wide and opening their mouths, maintaining their serious, and now even melancholic look.

“Holy shit, holy shit, what the fuck is that, what is it!” Elizabeth was mumbling, panicking as I was starting to breathe faster.

All the people started to say her name together on repeat: “Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Elizabeth…” I turned my head to the painting of the young lady from earlier, and she was the only one that wasn’t moving, still the same smile, she looked at peace.

I don’t remember exactly what I was whispering at that moment, but we were both freaking out.

We heard some scratching noise. Long, dirty hands with sharp nails, almost inhumans, were piercing the pictures and paintings. The eyes of the people were becoming all black, and their jaws were opening more than humanly possible as they kept on repeating her name. The hands were all getting closer from us. We were now touching one another, completely surrounded by those hands. Then, they moved way faster and a lot of them got their nails right into Elizabeth’s skin and pierced it while descending all over her body.

She screamed loudly out of pain. It was a terrifying scream. All the hands got to their pictures and back inside of it while closing what they pierced. Soon, the pictures and paintings were back to normal, but Elizabeth was bleeding from all over her body and was on the floor, crying. I got to her level and tried as much as possible to reassure her, but I wasn’t very effective as I was myself in shock and terrified.
We heard the owner walk towards us.

“What’s happening to you two? I heard screams, are you okay?”

She entered the hallway and saw the scene. She looked completely shocked.

“But what happened?” She asked.

Both of us were unable to answer to her, we had no idea what to say that wouldn’t make us sound crazy, so we just looked at her with whatever faces we were making at that moment. She didn’t wait long and went to take a first aid kid. She sat down and put some bandages all over Elizabeth, as I was reflecting on what happened. When she was done, we both wanted to leave, so we said that we had what we needed for now. She looked sorry and packed some cookies for each of us. As we opened the door to leave, she articulated one last phrase.

“I hope you’ll come back.” She had a look and a tone of sadness. We got out and were now on the street.

We both looked at each other. She was covered in bands, like she got into a huge fight. I started to speak but she lifted her hand.

“Not today. Another one.” She said. “I’ll see you at school.” And she left.

I got on my way too and gave one last look to the house. The old owner was watching me from her window, and I couldn’t tell what her expression was.

I was too tired so I ignored it and went back to my house.

I’m posting this now that I’m back at home. I have no news of Elizabeth, but she did add me on Instagram, so…

I have no idea what I should do now, I have so many questions, so, if anyone has any theories, I’ll take it. I’m also open to questions of course…

Episode Description

Simba leaves Kiara in charge of the Pride Lands while he, Nala, and Zazu go to Kilio Valley to attend a funeral for an old elephant friend named Amanifu who has just died. Upon learning this from Mzingo, Janja decides to take advantage of Kiara's inexperience and comes up with a plan to take over the Pride Lands. Meanwhile, Simba is nervous about performing his eulogy in front of the elephants, including Aminifu's daughter, Ma Tembo.

Song: "Duties of the King" sung by Simba and Zazu
Pros
-First off, I like the sibling dynamic in this episode, as somebody with a similarly aged older brother. Kion and Kiara's relationship has resonated with me, the way they have off days and arguments, but, obviously love each other and make it out strong in the end. I, for one, do not hate Kiara in The Lion Guard, and Kion gives her the same attitude she gives him in early episodes. I like watching their relationship go through ups and downs throughout Season 1.
-I know the opening scene, where Kiara and Kion are fighting over a tree to sharpen their claws is quite intense, because they would've probably gotten into a scuffle if Simba hadn't showed up when he did, but, that is siblings for you sometimes. I feel like anyone who's got siblings of your own can relate, at least a little bit, to that scene.
-I like the plotline of Kiara and Kion's sibling rivalry stemming from their roles in leadership. Kiara is clearly a reflection of her father, when he was a cub, which is interesting and so, she thinks that being the Future Queen is really swell and makes her the alpha, and Kion (who is no better than her) thinks that being Leader of the Lion Guard makes him more important than her. I like this mechanic in this episode. It makes me want to know if Scar felt the same way about Mufasa. I mean, Kion was obviously not resentful of Kiara, unlike Scar, but I wonder if a similar thing happened with the two brothers except, in this case, it drove Scar to insanity and wanting to murder Mufasa.
-Now let's talk about Kiara being left in charge of the Pride Lands (I mean, I do think the main conflict of the episode was Simba's fault, but we'll get to that later). So, I like the fact that Kiara is nervous about ruling the Pride Lands, even for a brief period of time. I like this because for one thing, she's still only a cub at this time, so, she's entitled to be nervous and anxious about being responsible for an entire kingdom. There's a lot of responsibility being placed on her at such a young age, but, she still remained likable, in my opinion. I do like how, in The Lion Guard, she takes her responsibility as Future Queen very seriously. I know this is unpopular to say, but, I headcanon that, as she's grown up into an older cub, she's realised that being queen won't prevent her from being herself, a concern she had at the beginning of TLK 2.
-I do empathise with Kiara, and Kion, because they are both being put into a huge responsibility of looking after the entire kingdom on their own, while all the adults are away from Pride Rock. This is still really early on in Season 1, so Kion is inexperienced as Leader of the Lion Guard, and Kiara only just started her training with Simba, in the pilot episode. I do feel bad at the fact that they have to figure everything without their parents around and I respect them for managing to work out their differences by the end of the episode.
-I really feel bad for Kiara because she gets a lot of crap from people in the TLG community, moreso than Kion does. I feel really sorry for her because people say they hate her for her attitude and that they think she's a self-righteous bitch at the start of the series, but, I don't. Even as a kid, I knew that a lot of Kiara's behaviour in this episode was down to the stress of being left in charge of whole kingdom for a few days without her parents around, while still being a cub at this point. I do really like her and it really upsets when I see people hating on her. I don't think Kiara really means to be controlling in this episode, she's just trying to do right by her father while he's gone.
-I like the fact that Kiara is really hesitant and nervous to have a huge weight on her shoulders, a role she was previously really excited to fulfil in the pilot episode. When Simba asks this of her, she's understanding feeling a lot of pressure to make him proud. I like the fact that Simba admits to her that he was also nervous about becoming king the first time. I like this because we only saw the side of him that was cocky, overconfident and optimistic about becoming king. I like the fact that she was nervous and that he decides to be upfront about it.
-Kiara still remained a likable character to me throughout this episode. I like how she starts out as nervous and how her confidence is slowly building up nicely during the episode. But, she never came off as mean-spirited, to me. Also, it becomes clear that the reason her responsibility goes to her head is because of Tiifu and Zuri's influence on her and the Lion Guard's inexperience and, in this case, plot-convenient incompetence.
-Beshte, "I'm sure she'll be a nice queen." Well, I'm glad at least one of you believes in her. I can't tell you guys how much I love Beshte, always the sweetest soul out of the group.
-Ono, "Thank you for the opportunity, my queen. And you.... err..... my Kion." That line was funnier than it had any right to be.
-Speaking of which, I thought seeing Ono in Zazu's position, temporarily for Kiara was interesting and I think was a great use of his character, outside of being a Member of the Lion Guard. I personally would've been down for more scenes like this. I think a cool send off for Ono would've been to have him be the Royal Advisor to Queen Kiara and King Kovu, in the future. I wish Ono had stayed in the Pride Lands in the series finale and had become Zazu's apprentice or something.
-Bunga, "Your majesty." {bows at Kiara}. Kiara, "Bunga, that's really not necessary." I found that whole interaction surprisingly funny. Also, strong feeling that Bunga has a huge crush on his best friend's sister at this point, and Kiara views him as her friend, nothing more.
-Kiara's plan about the Bees and the Eelands fiasco was actually very smart, and even when I saw this as a kid, I knew that she had a better idea than Kion. Her idea about moving the eelands away from bees' nests is smarter because bees obviously sting when angered. So, Kion was too proud to admit Kiara had the better idea.
-One of the funniest parts of the whole episode for me was Kion saying, "I say we move the bees". Then, the scene cuts to Kion, Beshte, Fuli and Ono running away from a swarm of bees, in terror. I obviously don't want them hurt, but, I just had to laugh because it was so predictable.
-Bunga, "What are you guys running for? Bees taste even better when they're mad!" Accurate behaviour from a honey badger. They can raid beehives without being stung due to their very thick hide and their stink sap.
-When the Lion Guard arrived back at Pride Rock covered in bee stings, if I were Kiara, I'd be laughing in Kion's face at that moment, like "Ha, ha, you were wrong. Only an idiot would decide to move a swarm of bees to a new place." But, in fairness, Kiara was right to be mad at him, in that moment, for his little screw up.
-"It wasn't a total disaster," Kion, while talking to Kiara. Kiara, looks at Fuli and Ono scratching themselves, "Really? It looks pretty total to me." I mean, she does have a point there. In this situation, Kion had everything to gain from taking her advice.
-"Admit it. I was right about the bees and you were wrong." Kion, just admit it and save yourself the embarrassment. Kiara was not being rude to him whatsoever. She was speaking nothing but facts.
-When Kiara talks to Mzingo at Pride Rock, I like the fact that the latter is clearly higher up in the frame because he's the one dominating the conversation and is also the one who manipulates Kiara. I think it's a nice touch where he creepily approaches and blackmails her.
-*laughs "Janja wants peace?" I like the fact that Kiara is clearly sceptical and she's obviously suspicious of Janja's true intentions. I like this because it doesn't make Kiara out to be seriously wayyy too gullible and silly. The fact that was she was suspicious feels more in-line with TLK 2 and makes her decision to believe Janja, partially Kion's fault. Manipulation is also a very powerful tool, especially to done on a semi-young child, like Kiara.
-I like the fact that Mufasa appears to Kion, unprompted in this episode, for the first time in the series. I love this because it feels like Mufasa saw the argument that had just gone down and was like, "Right I need to put an end to this sibling drama before it gets out of hand. I need to make Kion see the error of his ways."
-I actually love the fact that Kiara is, at least partially willing, to give Outlanders a chance for peace. It feels like a nice bit of foreshadowing for her character arc in TLK 2, where she was able to give the Outsider lions a chance to fit in.
-Kion angrily to Tiifu and Zuri, "Ugh! Some advisors you two are!" That was more hilarious than it had any right to be. Because, let's be honest, they were pretty obnoxious in this episode.
-"Get away from the Queen!!!!" I actually love the moment where Kion comes bursting in like a superhero, to his sister's aid. I also love the fact that he calls Kiara his queen, at this point, because he clearly listened to Mufasa's advice, and also because he had felt somewhat responsible for her almost being killed by Janja.
-"Oh we can fight all right!!!" So badass. I personally would've loved to see Kiara fight alongside the Lion Guard. I think it would've been cool to see her help to fight off Janja's clan. I wanted to see what she could do.
-"Six on six..... Forget it!!!!" Yeah, you better run, Janja, you don't stand a chance against all six of these heroic friends. And one of them is a bloody hippo.
-I love Kion and Kiara's closeness at the end of the episode where they make up for their uncivil, squabbling at the start. Kion finally rightfully admits that he should've taken Kiara's advice about the bees and the elands, and Kiara admits that Kion was right about Janja being nothing but trouble.
-Kion, "And I should've listened to you about the bees." Ono, "Oh, sure {rolls his eyes}. Now he admits it." Oh, Ono, you knew all along, but, we love you.
-Kiara and Kion when Simba and Nala arrive home, are really sweet. I love the fact that Kiara wants to be honest about what happened, "Ruling the Pride Lands? It went..." I absolutely love the moment where Kion decides to cover for her and admits that she'll be a great queen, this is an incredibly sweet brother and sister moment. That moment feels like a precursor to the episode "Baboons" and even later "The Trail to Udugu."
-I love the moral of this episode about "being supportive of your loved ones efforts to help, especially when they are wrong," because it applies to both Kiara and Kion in two different situations. Kion was obviously wrong to go against Kiara's advice to move the elands, but, Kiara learned that she should've been more sensitive about that whole situation. But, Kion also learned that if hadn't been so dismissive of her acting queen for a few days and given her his utmost support when she was clearly nervous about ruling the Pride Lands. If Kion and Kiara been more sensitive to each other, then, they would've been able to be in charge of the Pride Lands together instead of arguing. Also, this episode shares another moral, "Communication is key to understanding each other and a successful team." Kiara learns this after Kion saves her and she realises she was wrong about Janja, and Kion learns this when the Lion Guard get stung by bees, and even later when he realises that he was partly to blame for Kiara going into the Outlands, and that if he had been upfront with her instead of outright yelling at her and running out on her, she wouldn't have needed to be rescued. These are two important lessons for kids going through school together, or with siblings and friends.
-Also, Janja is genuinely dangerous and scary in this episode. He traps Kiara in the Outlands to use her as a bargaining chip for Simba or else he and his would eat her. They would've gotten away with it if Kion didn't jump in at the last second. Janja threatened the freaking princess of the Pride Lands! Reason number #50 why he should never be allowed enter the Pride Lands, no matter if he is starving or not, because he clearly cannot be trusted to follow the rules.
-And now I'm finally going to talk about the B-plot of the episode. It wasn't as good the A-plot, in my opinion. I did love the worldbuilding aspect of this episode where we learn that different animals in the Pride Lands have their own customs and traditions that need to be respected. I like the idea of Simba upholding a tradition and it was interesting that he was never trained for it because obviously Mufasa died before he could complete his training.
-I like the idea of Simba, Nala and Zazu going to an elephant funeral. Elephants actually have "funerals" in real life. In real life, if a member of their herd dies, the elephants will crowd around them ceremoniously to pay tribute and they'll collect twigs and branches to cover the fallen elephant to pay tribute, out of respect for them. I love the way its portrayed as a ceremonial funeral in The Lion Guard and that Simba is upholding a tradition. I love the way he has to say it in Elephantese because the idea of the elephants' having a language barrier is a cool worldbuilding element.
-Aminifu is a cool worldbuilding character too who, we're told, played a big part in the Pride Lands' revival and bringing the circle of life into balance. I like to headcanon we was a childhood friend of Mufasa and Scar, and the rest of the Royal Family, and how he go on to be a good friend to Simba, Nala and the rest of Simba's pride. I like to think Aminifu was responsible for all the animals in the kingdom, similar to the Lion Guard, and how his daughter fills that role in Season 2.
-The Elephant Funeral scene looks cool because of how emotional and how heart-wrenching it looks from afar. I like the addition of all the elephants mourning in the background. It was a little dark this early on the series. One elephant hugs Aminifu and looks like their going to cry, another elephant and her calf are crying, while hugging each other.
-I like how you can see shades of Mufasa's death through Simba's voice in this episode, such as, "And now Aminifu has completely his part of the circle of life," and "Well, time for the tribute." I like this because I like to think Simba is obviously nervous about performing a eulogy in front of elephants, but, probably also a bit upset and mourning over his own father's death. I mean, in fairness, he never to give his father a proper send off when he died, so, this probably hit even harder for him.
-I like how this is Zazu's first main character moment in the series and how much of a hard worker and a loyal he is to Simba and Nala, his whole motivation is just to help Simba learn Elephantese properly so he can impress Ma Tembo's herd, during the tribute.
-Nala is such a sweetheart and a loving partner to Simba. I love her because she's pretty much exactly how she was in the original film. She's his loving and supportive wife, and I love the way he gives him moral support when he gets nervous. I love her snarky jab at her husband early on the episode too, by the way, "Worried about Kiara? Or are you worried about your tribute?"
-The song "Duties of the King" was decent enough, I suppose. I mean, it's not my favourite song in the series and I wouldn't be reaching for it. But, I don't hate it. I like the more cutesy, "miscellaneous" animals shown in the background, like the chimpanzees and the porcupines. Plus, it's nice to know that Simba doesn't just sit on his ass all day and that he does important jobs, like he assigns gazelles to their grazing grounds and songbirds to their trees. I love that he presides over aardvark wedding rites and then we saw Muhanga and Muhangus kissing behind some grass. So, I wonder if Simba did in fact, preside over their wedding before this episode. Overall, I like the cute scenes of this song and I like the fact that Simba actually has important stuff to do. I can see why kids would dance around to this song because it's very bouncy and energetic. The beat is fine, but, I don't like Rob Lowe's singing voice as Simba. I think they should've used Cam Clarke all along for The Lion Guard, who actually voices Mwoga the vulture. I don't mind the beat, but, I don't think Simba and Zazu are the best singers, at least in this series, that is. I'll give it a 5/10 because there are worse songs than it.
-Ma Tembo is such a sweetheart in this episode and I love her. She doesn't have a major role in the series as of yet, but, it's still clear in this episode that she has a great relationship with Simba and the Royal Family. I'm glad she had a bigger part in Season 2. I also love her voice actress, Lynette DuPree (R.I.P) and I think she's one of the best in the series. I love how she makes her sound genuinely sad during the procession and then a little bittersweet during the "poop" scene. Also, shout out to the moment where she wraps her trunk around Simba.
-Also, call me childish if you want to, but I actually love it when Simba actually says that Aminifu had "poop on him". I mean, it just gets me because that's not something you'd say at a funeral and the fact that the elephants took it really well and actually laughed hysterically is genuinely hilarious. Like, even his daughter admitted that he had always had faeces on him. It was funny because of how much Simba feels like he screwed up, but, then, the elephants had a really good sense of humour about it.
-Also, this episode makes me wish that at least someone went to the Elephant Graveyard during this series. Maybe Aminifu's funeral could've been there and Simba and Nala would've had to go the place where they almost got killed as cubs or maybe even Kion and the Lion Guard would have to go there. It's such a missed opportunity. Or if Janja went there then maybe he could've learn that Scar betrayed his ancestors long before the events of The Lion Guard. But, speaking of the Elephant Graveyard, I bet Ma Tembo's herd are going to wait for Aminifu to decompose and then carry his remains to the Graveyard because that's something that elephants do if a member of their herd dies outside of their designated area. I like to think that that's what happened after this episode. I just wish they had the funeral in the Elephant Graveyard and we got to see Simba and Nala go there as adults, but, I'm not going to fault this episode for not going in this direction.
-Zazu, "I'm not sure Sire, but, I think you just said he had.... {quietly} poop on him...." Try not to judge me too harshly, but, I just find poop jokes hilarious for some reason, as an adult.
Cons
-First off, I don't like how Kion and Kiara were both dumbed down for the sake of plot-convenience for much of this episode. I get that they're still kids, but, Kion's plans to move the bees instead of the elands was the most stupid idea I've seen in the series. The literally just had an episode where Kion calls out his best friend, Bunga, for making bad decisions and now it's Kion who made a really dumb decision. I mean, that should be bee rescue 101, don't try to move a swarm of bees, they do not like, and the fact that Kiara spells it out for them before this scene, "....if the elands step on the beehives, they'll get stung.... there could be chaos." She's speaking nothing but facts. Kion should've realised that they shouldn't have tried to aggravate the bees. I don't like the fact that he acts cocky and dismissive towards Kiara, when she was so obviously right. I hate the way Kion just randomly disobeys her out of spite, even though she gave him advice. However, Kiara was dumb to go into the Outlands alone to see Janja. I mean, I admire her willingness to give strangers a chance for peace, but the fact that she had her suspicions about him and she already knew what he was like, in accordance to the pilot episode, wouldn't she see reason to bring Tiifu and Zuri along for backup.
-I don't like how this episode seems to indicate that Simba favours his daughter over his son. Between the pilot episode and this episode, it seems like he sees Kion as a just a Child Soldier and doesn't actually love him equally. I know it's obviously not through, but, I don't like how he gives off an impression that he has favourites. Parents don't have favourites, unless you're an evil lioness named Zira and you give your youngest son everything, but then treat your eldest son like dirt. But, Simba isn't like that. I don't like how he says "I have faith in you," in such a way that gives off Parental Favouritism vibes. I'm really glad he doesn't have this in any of the later episodes.
-I hate the way the writers tried to do the Kion/Scar and Kiara/Mufasa parallels in this episode. I just don't like it being used as a plot device. The series makes a point to say that Kion is nothing like Scar and how he would never take his anger out on his family and friends. I don't mind Kiara being like her grandfather because he was a great king in his day, but, I don't like how the writers made Kion and Kiara have a similar relationship that led to Mufasa's fall. Also, one thing I loathed early on in the series is the fanart of Kion brutally murdering Kiara in rage, just like Scar murdered Mufasa. I just hate it so much because it would happen since Kiara and Kion have a caring relationship, where they do bicker like siblings tend to do, but, they would never turn on each other.
-I don't like the part where Kiara and Kion were outright malicious towards each other. All the lion cubs in this episode were quite mean-spirited at times. Kion and Kiara for obviously constantly fighting and being horrible instead of admitting to being wrong in certain situations, like the bees and the elands and the Janja situation. Kion is too cocky and overconfident about the bees, for my liking, and Kiara allows Tiifu and Zuri's influence to get her head and ends up believing she's always right. Kion only adds fuel to the fire by yelling at Kiara and then callously running out her instead of being upfront with her about Janja's true intentions. I get that siblings don't always see eye-to-eye on things, but, I don't like Kion and Kiara constantly being scumbags to each other and not giving things a second thought until the end. Mufasa had to be the one to put an end to the "sibling drama".
-Tiifu and Zuri were the worst of all, in my opinion, and I think all of you guys will agree. They were pretty annoying and obnoxious in this episode. They were very disrespectful and condescending towards Kion just because he's not a queen, and they caused Kiara to be disrespectful right back. Kiara doesn't strike me as disrespectful without these two around. I'm glad she actually stands up to them in later episodes rather than being influenced by them. Zuri is my least favourite of the two of them, she comes off as super mean-spirited and bitchy, and Tiifu comes off as domineering and rude. I don't like the way they talk down and belittle Kion and how they throw shade at anyone who believes Kiara is wrong. They act like stereotypical Mean Girls, but, the annoying kind. Plus, they weren't very good friends to Kiara for letting her go into the Outlands alone without a second thought about the fact that it might be dangerous. That doesn't sound like Tiifu. Remember how in the pilot, she was deeply concerned when Kiara was trapped by the gazelles. But, here, the stakes are much higher, and she's up against a much bigger threat and Tiifu and Zuri don't seem to give a damn. I'm glad Kion called them out on this behaviour before leaving. What I wouldn't give for Tiifu and Zuri to be captured by Janja instead, not to get eaten, but just so they can see how dangerous it is. It's episodes like this that make me wonder are they her actual best friends or are they just using her to hang out with the Royal Family. Kiara deserves better than these self-entitled bitches, in my opinion.
-I feel like Kiara should've been the main focus of this episode instead of Kion. I know this only S1 Ep4, but, I still think this should've been a Kiara focused episode, rather than a brothesister episode. I would've been interested to see Kiara take centre stage and the Lion Guard take a back seat. Then, we could've seen more of Kiara's apprehension about becoming Queen and her trying to make all the decisions without Simba around to guide her, and most importantly, see her trying to decide what sort of Queen she wants to be. I would've loved if Kion tried to be supportive of her and tries to help her watch over the entire kingdom, instead of saying "Screw you Kiara, go get herself killed if you want to and my friends hate you." I would've liked to see that explored and maybe have them be a little bit annoyed at each other, but without making them really malicious. Also, have Tiifu and Zuri be in their annoying phase and for Kiara to realise that her "so-called" friends are not being very good friends to her, and have her ditch those bitches at the end of the episode. Then, have Kiara and Kion make some big decision together that really develops their relationship, in the future.
-I don't like how Simba is portrayed for much of this episode. I know, he was mourning the loss of an old friend, but I really don't like angry Simba moments in this series. I don't like the fact that all Zazu was doing was trying to help him practice his eulogy and Simba gets frustrated and roars in his face. I hate it when he throws tantrums, as a full-grown adult lion. I hate the idea of Simba regressing more into his evil uncle as of this series. I know he's not, but, I hate it when acts like it. Zazu, bless him, was just trying to help and Simba took out his rage on him. I do not like it when Zazu has to be the butt of all the jokes. I don't like Simba being a headstrong asshole in The Lion Guard.
-I also don't want to point fingers, but, if Simba hadn't left his semi-young daughter to rule over an entire kingdom for a few days, none of the conflict would've happened if he left Kion and Kiara with a responsible adult, like Rafiki or Basi or someone, just to keep an eye on things. I wouldn't leave kids their age home alone for even a day or more than an afternoon. If they had an adult in Pride Rock with them, the arguing wouldn't have spiralled out of control the way that it did. Also, this makes no sense with Simba's character in TLK 2. This is the same guy who sheltered his daughter the whole time she was growing up and wouldn't even let her explore more than 2ft from Pride Rock or even leave Pride Rock, at another point in the film. In this episode, she's still a cub and he's okay with leaving her to look after an entire kingdom for days on end! Yes, he did show hesitation, but that was after he and Nala had already left the Pride Lands. This episode fails to show just how okay he was with leaving his preteen daughter in charge of the kingdom for a few days with no adult supervision. Also, this episode and the series fails to explain how he regressed back into his over-protective state of mind in the second half of TLK 2.
-A minor complaint I have. This is a very minor nitpick. But, the distance between Kilio Valley and the Pride Lands that was established in this episode is very confusing. This episode implies that the elephants live approximately a two or three day walk from the Pride Lands, enough for Simba to outside of the kingdom, when in other episodes it's actually a part of the Pride Lands, just barely on the outskirts of the kingdom. I also don't get why the writers made it seem like Simba, Nala and Zazu took like a day or less to arrive at the elephants' funeral. There's no indication that they were travelling at night or that they ever slept. However, I understand, the writers just wanted to show some of journey and then transition to the day of the funeral, so I won't fault it to harshly. However, I do wish that the distance between Kilio Valley and the Pride Lands was consistent. This episode makes it seem like that whenever Kion and his friends have to help the elephants, it would take them a whole day to arrive on the scene. But, that's just a small criticism I had with this episode.
Overall
So, overall, I did always thoroughly enjoy this episode. Even as a kid, I could not stand the fact that Kiara got a lot of hate in the Lion Guard Fandom and that loads of people blamed her, just her, for a lot of the drama in this episode. Kion and Kiara shared 50% of the blame each and I think that Kiara is overhated. Anyways, I did like Kion and Kiara interacting like real siblings and slowly learning how to work together, it felt a little bit like a prequel to "Baboons" and "The Trail to Udugu", in that way. I like the lesson about learning to communicate well and to listen to one another and that they were both in the right and wrong, at different points. I liked the loving sibling dynamic at the end and the friendship with all the Lion Guard. I like the sense of family between Simba, Nala, Kiara and Kion at the end. Janja poses as a genuinely threat to Kiara. I think the humour was pretty solid as well and the educational value. I liked the worldbuilding aspect and the elephants' relationship with the lions. Aminifu is a cool headcanon character. The only parts I didn't like were, Tiifu and Zuri were unbearably annoying in this episode and weren't very good friends to Kiara. I don't like them being stereotypical Middle School girls. I hate their disrespect and belittling towards Kion and their toxic influence on Kiara. I didn't like Kiara and Kion's maliciousness at the start or the fact that the writers tried to draw Mufasa/Scar parallels. I don't like angry Simba at all in this series. I hate the fact that he gives off Parental Favouritism vibes in this episode. I don't like the fact that Kion and Kiara were hit with the idiot stick in this episode. Simba and Tiifu and Zuri are kind of at fault for all the drama in this episode. The song was just decent, not the best not the worst. I really don't like arrogant Kion. However, this episode has a lot of love to it clearly. Overall, I'll give this episode a 6.75/10, it's not perfect, but I think it deserves more love.

This analysis also comes from Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Shakubuku: A Study of the Nichiren Shoshu Buddhist Movement in America, 1960-1975", David A. Snow, 1993, pp. 175-177 - it's a section within the analysis here about how the SGI's "discussion meetings" were carefully planned and choreographed sales pitch performances aimed at convincing any "guests" to convert. I thought this part about the carefully structured "experiences" deserved its own post:

In addition to the general supportive role, members are provided with instructions regarding the more specific role activity. That is, they are coached as to how to give explanations of what NSA [former name of SGI-USA] is all about, to lead songs, and to give testimonies. Regarding the latter, for example, members are reminded to respond to the emcee's request for experiences with great alacrity and enthusiasm by thrusting their hands in the air in a vigorous manner and yelling out "hi."

Actually, it's "Hai!", which means "Yes/Okay/I'll do it" in Japanese.

And if called upon, they are reminded to attend to the five major points or the "five S's" of giving a good experience.

That "coaching" is done before the live performance at the "discussion meeting", of course, not reminded within that performance context. That would break the illusion, as you can imagine.

The first point is Shakubuku. Remember, the guests have absolutely no understanding of this practice or any NSA terminology. Always talk to the guests and not to the members. The sole purpose of an experience is to make the guests curious enough to join ... Don't use Buddhist terms and names the guests won't understand...
Point number two is story. Make sure an experience is just that - something which happened to you and which you either changed into a benefit or changed an aspect of your life-condition through chanting. Basically , an experience should be structured as
(a) I had a problem or I was satisfied [sic] with my life and

That's obviously a typo; it should be either "I wasn't satisfied with my life" or "I was dissatisfied with my life", as confirmed by part (b):

(b) then I chanted, solved the problem or changed that aspect of my life which I wasn't satisfied with...
Make sure that you stress that chanting was the ingredient which changed those aspects of your life. Otherwise, the guests won't be able to connect just how chanting and a person's problems relate.
The third point to keep in mind is simplicity. Make each point of the story simple and to the point. Don't clutter the issue with unnecessary details. Try to be as brief as possible.
The fourth point is that of a seeking mind. What this means is that the person giving an experience should try to find out what type of experience the leader wants to have conveyed to the guests that will most benefit them.

Clearly, this is all about crafting the most persuasive sales pitch, not about honestly and authentically communicating anything real.

We're not saying that there is a "one" type of experience that is sought, but experiences have to be geared to the guests at the meeting. A middle-aged person is definitely going to have hard time relating to the change in values of a college student... The point is, make sure you are perceptive enough to give the type of experience which the guests at the meeting can relate to best.

Keeping in mind that no one knows for certain WHO these "guests" will be - this sort of "adjustment" in the details has to be made on the fly, which demonstrates the inauthenticity of the "experience" performance. But the culties are supposed to make it appear "authentic":

The final point is one of the most important - sincerity ... Even if your experience isn't that spectacular or full of content, the guests can relate to a person' [sic] sincere way of giving the experience...

The "5 S's" section is footnoted as coming from:

"The Five S's of Giving a Good Experience," World Tribune (September 11, 1974). Also, see the NSA Quarterly (Winter, 1975), p. 13; and the World Tribune (October 25, 1974).

It was obviously a structured thing that was explicitly taught (indoctrinated).

These five pointers on how to construct and give a "good" experience are mentioned repeatedly in the movement's literature and by its leaders. Furthermore, members can learn how to construct testimonies in accordance with these instructions by simply watching and listening to other members, and especially core converts, when giving their respective experiences.

You can probably surmise that after a while, these "experiences" will all start to show the same standardized structure; this will be accepted within the cult (because that's the goal), but the guests won't realize just how structured it is - and the focus on making it as manipulative as possible.

Indeed, rank-and-file members and new converts are often told to watch and listen to how so-and-so gives an experience.

That's true - I remember that.

It should thus come as no surprise that the testimonies given at these meetings, or wherever, are usually structured in accordance with the above pointers or instructions. And when they are not, the violators are usually pulled aside after the meeting and provided with corrective suggestions. At the end of several meetings, for example, I overheard the district chief reprimanding and re-instructing members regarding the unsuitable testimonies they had given earlier in the evening. This sanctioning and corrective work occurs not only when unsatisfactory testimonies are given but whenever meeting or movement-related roles are performed in an unsatisfactory manner and whenever members visibly engage in conduct that is inappropriate from the standpoint of NSA. During the San Diego Convention weekend, for example, I observed on several occasions members who were being brought back into line for engaging in unbecoming conduct, such as smoking grass on the bus while en route to the convention. That members who conduct themselves and perform their roles in an unsuitable and unconvincing manner are frequently pulled aside and provided with corrective guidance thus suggests a third consideration pointing to the highly orchestrated and theatrical character of discussion meetings in particular and of NSA in general.

Everyone must be "on" at all times; they must at all times display the SGI-defined image that SGI believes will impress the public and be most appealing to draw in potential new members.
While these specific "five S's" aren't around any more, there are still guidelines for how to give an "experience":

How do I write an experience for SGI budhist meeting?
State the difficulty you faced.
State how long you have been struggling with it, and how it affected you.
State what you did to resolve it, and how much you chanted.
State the resolution, and what that means to you.
Keep it to under 3.5 minutes.
Before you give your experience, read it to someone who cares about you, someone you know, and ask for an honest opinion on how your delivery is. from 7 years ago

REHEARSE it, in other words. These "experiences" are NOT spontaneous!

I'd love to see another pinned post on this sub breaking down electrical myths and common idioms that are incorrect. They all show a lack of understanding of how the things we work on every day actually work, and could potentially lead to dangerous situations if taken at face value.
I've been a member of this sub for 8 years or so and all the time I see allegedly qualified electricians spouting absolute nonsense, common electrical myths, and demonstrating an obvious deficit in understanding of basic electrical theory.
Stuff like:

Current takes the path of least resistance

No, current takes all available paths inversely proportional to their resistance.

Current goes to ground

No, current goes back to its source, it will use the ground as an additional path when available because we bond the source to ground at the source.

Its the current that kills you, not the voltage

Kind of, except the current will always be a function of your bodies resistance, the source voltage, and the nature of the fault. The voltage of the system is the primary factor in determining how dangerous a system is to touch. Basic math shows that its safer to touch a circuit that operates at 12 volts carrying 1000 amps than it is to touch a circuit operating at 600v carrying 1 amp.

When you touch a neutral your body takes the full current of the load

This one really gets me. So many electricians seem to go blind and forget that ohms law still applies regardless of the color of the wire. I've been in mutiple discussions with folks that INSIST that if a circuit is carrying 15amps and you touch that neutral or bridge the neutral in series with your hands then the load will push that same 15amps through your body regardless of the fact that your body is now a part of that circuit and brings its own resistance into the equation.

touching phase to phase is more dangerous than phase to neutral because each phase pushes current in opposite directions and they cross at your heart.

Yeah, I've genuinely had this discussion with someone IRL. It makes zero sense because if each phase pushed current in opposite directions then obviously you could never have a current flowing through a load since they'll push against each other.
What other myths and common misunderstandings do you all see?
Please feel free to start discussions. I'm happy to elaborate and discuss these topics with anyone who wants to learn.

Before I start this, I just want to answer some question I know I’ll probably have to answer later, or share some information that might be important.

1. I have gone no contact with him. (He tries to bait me into talking to him.) Only my friend group knows about the alcohol.
   
2. I know for a fact he drinks, I was with him once when he did it.
   
3. It’s not his parent’s fault, he sneaks it from open vodka bottles in their refrigerator.
   
4. I know he is drinking while underage, I plan to report him to the school counselor if he doesn’t seek help.
   
5. We’re both gay, though I do not like him like that in any way shape or form. He swears up and down he doesn’t like me like that either, but take that how you will.
   
6. He has allegedly been drinking since he was 7. I can neither confirm nor deny this.
   
7. He blames all of his problems on the alcohol.
   

I, 16m, was friends with another boy, 15m, for roughly 4 years. We used to call each other every day to play games. Every single day for 4 years. Everything was fine until I started hanging out with our other (mutual) friends.
After I started hanging out with other people, he began to get very jealous and bitter towards me and the friend I was talking to. He would act annoyed and upset whenever I would do things with my other friends, even though it’s the same things I would do with him. This is when the arguing began. He would make snarky comments toward me indirectly through his bio on either a game we play together or the app we use to text and call. He would always deny that it is about me, even if it was blatantly obvious. (For example, I used to give myself nicknames on the game we play together. He combined the starting letter of the 3 I've used and said something along the lines of “ABC gave me everything but real love.”)
We would argue like this and he would come to school like nothing happened and act friendly towards me, even if it was obvious that I didn’t want to act friendly with him. He would also frequently block me for absolutely no reason, and unblock me after a few hours. If I asked for a reason, he would get mad and change the subject. Of course, I got tired of this and blocked him back one day. To nobody’s surprise, the next day at school he was talking to me and making jokes like absolutely nothing happened.
One day, he even decided it would be a great idea to ignore me while I was sitting right next to him. I would talk to him, wave my hand in front of him to get his attention, and even tap his shoulder. No response. I obviously got fed up with him and let my friends know in a group chat that he isn’t in what was going on incase they were curious why either of us were annoyed. (This wasn't the best idea, I know, however he gets mad when I hang out or talk to them differently than I do with him so the most logical thing to do was to not let him know when I hang out or text with them.)
Before this next part, I have to go back a little bit. Because we would play games together, we would log into each other’s account to farm or grind for something the other wants. This lead to him knowing my password and email. Since he saw me typing on my phone, he saw the group chat that doesn’t have him in it. He took that as a sign that I was talking shit about him to our friends (I truly was not.) and decided to try and hack my account. Luckily, I’ve always used a secondary email on the games we play, so he only got my old account.
Not knowing that this happened, I forgave him for everything that he did prior. A few days later, at the end of school before I left, we were talking when he said the name of my secondary account. Of course, I asked how he knew about it, and he said he logged in. I obviously got very angry at him for this, as I had not given him permission whatsoever. I told him I would have showed him my messages had he just simply asked. This caused him to get angry at me for being angry at him. (He also got angry at me when he got the notifications that he had been removed from my email. I also changed my passwords, have no fear.)
After discussing this with our mutual friends, they confirmed that what he did was not okay. Because I was getting more distant from him, he thought that he should buddy up to someone else in our friend group. (He barely speaks to anyone else if he doesn’t have to.) Of course, he chose the one person that he supposedly hates based on past events. (Not my story to share, I apologize.)
(I don’t remember this part all too well so take it with a grain of salt.) After a while, I decided to give him another chance. We had a conversation where I brought up all of the issues I had with him in a few paragraphs. (Mainly stuff about boundaries and respecting me. Also for pulling my hair whenever he got the chance even though I told him multiple times on multiple occasions to stop.) His response was changing the subject to something different, and about me. I promptly him shut down, however, as he was bringing up stuff that I didn’t do, insisting that he at least acknowledges his problems instead of pretending everything is fine. This ultimately lead to him getting angry and ending the conversation with his signature “Okay. Bye.”
He then went back to pretending everything was normal with me, though he was talking shit about me in a group chat with our mutual online friends and one of our real life friends (The one he hated that I mentioned previously.) She would tell me everything he said about me, but she didn’t want to get involved so I couldn’t call him out for any of it. At this point, I was just tired of fighting, so I went with it. Many more minor arguments happened after this. I won’t include details for the sake of this post not being too unbearably long, since what happened was basically the previous fight over and over.
A while later, one of our friends called him out for his shit, as I had been letting them know what was going on for every argument we had. He got really heated over this, and told her to kill herself and that he never valued her as a friend. She gave no shits at all. He was promptly removed, or left on his own, from all of the group chats with her in them except our main server. They had each other blocked, though to nobody’s surprise that didn’t stop him from talking about her or to her in the server.
Though 2 out of 5 people in our friend group wanted nothing to do with him, that didn’t stop him from sitting with us and trying to joke around with us like nothing happened. For a while, everything was fine. I wasn’t talking to him, he wasn’t talking to me. Another fight happened between him and the friend he hated before, but that isn’t my story to tell either, sorry. The only thing I can say about the fight is that he mentioned his alcohol addiction.
One thing lead to another and I decided to give him one last chance. Again. So, I had another conversation with him, letting him know that im serious about unfriending him if he doesn’t talk to his therapist about the alcohol, jealousy, and obsession with me.
I gave him until the end of the week to talk to his therapist, or I’m gone. Everything was fine until the weekend. I went on a trip to Dollywood on the weekend, 4 of my friends being there. He of course did not come on the trip, as he isn’t in the school club that took us. I asked him on Sunday if he had talked to his therapist about anything yet, and he had said no. I rightfully blocked him, just as I said I would. He proceeded to play the victim and started asking our friends what he did wrong, pretending that I hadn’t told him anything about blocking him.
I unblocked him momentarily to send a message on why I did it. I told him blatantly that if he didn’t talk to his therapist I would block him, and he did not. I may have been a little harsh with my words, but keep in mind that I have given him many chances to grow and learn from his mistakes that he has not taken. He needs help, and I can’t help him. I wished him the best, but told him that the best is not something I am capable of giving him.
After I blocked him again, he edited one of his messages to “call me out” for not doing what he wanted. He claims that I should’ve just listened to his issues and tell him everything was fine instead of letting him know that what he’s doing is wrong. He doesn’t want help, he wants someone to ignore his problems. I told him that im not that person and im tired of pretending I am. He proceeded to make his bio things along the lines of “You never actually loved me” once more.
After his numerous attempts at getting me to talk to him by making his bio about me, I got fed up. I confronted him, letting him know that I don’t want to be friends with him, I don’t want anything to do with him, and that he needs to stop talking about me in his bio. He of course pretended his issues didn’t exist, instead telling me that he would get help for real this time. I let him know that he just admitted to not trying to get help the first time, and that in lying to me, he broke my trust in him.
Because I knew he wouldn’t try to get help, I blocked him after saying goodbye once more. This is when he started openly shit talking me and the friend that called him out one single time. He changed his bio to things about my body he knew I was insecure about, such as my forehead. While I admit that this wasn’t the best thing to do, I gave him a taste of his own medicine. He’s a bigger individual, and he’s told me that he’s insecure about his weight.
Again, I apologize for what I said to him, I was angry when I said it. He said I have a sixhead, so I retaliated with seventeen stomach and that he can’t be talking about me when he looks 5 years pregnant. I mean no hate to pregnant people, I was angry at him when I said it. I do not condone rudeness towards plus sized or pregnant individuals. Back to the story.
He made a post on a platform we all use about how he hates Taylor Swift fans, especially the blonde ones. (Ironic when he was talking about how he liked her a while ago. Also, the friend that called him out is blonde and a big Taylor Swift fan.) So, in retaliation, our other, OTHER friend commented the username to his twitter account where he actively reposts nsfw images of gay furries, often depicted as children. I was the only person that knew about it, since he reposted such images and showed them to me in class, to my discomfort. I am usually not one to air out dirty laundry like that, however he had done something similar to me a while back, and I honestly didn’t care how it would make him feel.
I took another page out of his book and edited my message since we had each other blocked, telling him to stop shit talking me in his bio, and that I wanted nothing to do with him. Since that happened, he hasn’t made his bio anything about me, instead changing it to some joke about being 5 years pregnant.
Nobody has told me that what I’ve done was wrong, I just would like to make sure that I’m not in the wrong here. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Lately, whenever someone mentions the name Gray - or a similar name, like Grayson - it’s gotten a lot of hate (at least from the threads I’ve seen).
People say gray is boring/dull, but it’s not! Gray stormy skies are absolutely beautiful. Misty mornings, the sound of rain on the roof, the quiet pre-dawn world. And whenever I go to create a new drawing, I start on a gray canvas, as it helps keep your values true.
Gray isn’t plain, it’s balanced. It’s the calm before the storm. It’s a clean slate to be built upon by its wearer. It’s both powerful and gentle.
I’ve heard the hate, so let’s hear some love!

Good morning everyone. Absolutely insane! Post pandemic I have seen everything. Many of you do not remember, there was a little Chinese company $HKD around August/September 2022 that ran from 12 to 2,555 in less than 5 days! This company was not short. At it’s peak the market cap was well over 500 billion! It is now 690 million. Look it up! This company was a new IPO with just 1 million shares available for trade. This was not shorted at all. The idea that a company must be short is not correct!
The stock market is a live auction based on supply and demand… Yes, it is correct that if a company is short high. [A figure over 20% is fairly high] it becomes easier for the stock to increase.. the buyers can force the stock to go higher, and brokers will cover, force buy the shorts to close out positions but it is not necessary..
AMC had near 500 million volume and GME 200 yesterday….
AMC had 263 million shares available… AMC took advantage of the volume and printed 72.5 million brand new shares at an average of 3.45 yesterday for 250 million.
Does AA have #FOMO ?
This morning’s peak was 13 for AMC and 80 for GME … AMC does need the money for business, it does suck that they didn’t have more offerings available and had they known, this 250 million would be over 1 billion today!
The point? NO ONE KNOWS!
No one knew last week, no one knew over the weekend! Yes, Roaring kitty, or someone that used their account may have tweeted but no one knows what traders will do with that, or what the highest high or lowest low will be…
I have shared with many of you that the CEO of Reddit RDDT is actually the main Mod at WSB. There is definitely a ton of stock manipulation but I would argue and say that is what 99% of new traders want! They want quick and fast money, don’t care if its fixed, scam, real…
So open the casinos! Most options must be traded during market hours..
I do not blame anyone for playing the volatility.
Yesterday, I did bid 500 dollars on 2 different GME puts for July. I guess I was lucky that neither filled. A 25 and 27 strike… Based on premarket I may be able to 60-70 LOL! If I lose it is a risk I am willing to take.

I would like to buy 3 different AMC and 3 different GME puts. Maybe different strike prices or expiration dates and at most 500 each. The most I can lose is the money in the option. No YOLO! No one can predict the prices, just that it will be hot money…
If you go on the fundamentals :
AMC 330 million shares = 700 to 800 million value means near $2 to 2.50 fair value
GME 305 million shares = 700 to 800 million value means near 2.50
It is obvious that the companys’ themselves can not make enough money to justify the 4 and 10+ billion market caps they will have at open.

I sold PERI at 12.55 from 12.10. I will keep making this trade. They will be doing a 75 million buyback soon. The CFO expects it to start soon and close by June 30^th. The only speculation here is when it starts and if they will have a daily limit… Will they buy in several days? Or buy 5 million a day? 10 million a day? That no one knows… I took a bet a few weeks ago on DNUT because of MCD news.. The earnings were good. I have 1,000 at 13.55, I may buy 1,000 more as it goes near 12…. I am positive when MCD roll out completes there will be a 25% increase in sales… not earnings, but sales….. earnings, I do not know… I have WBA at 19 and 19.25… I am glad they are selling off Boot stores in the UK. They must unlock some value here. I did bid 22.50 on more ACMR.. I did try YOU … I almost sold SOFI at 7.35 [In 1,000 at 7.10] I did make a bid for PYPL . COIN had amazing earnings I am watching… OSCR as well…
Looking for a deal on MTCH again, last sale at 29.. So there are lots of things to do besides memes.. Just be careful out there. It is a roll of the dice!

5 Trade Ideas:

AMC / GME – Open the casinos! I don’t blame anyone long or short, I am willing to make several 500 bets on different strikes and dates.. They will all have time. [Yesterday I tried July GME puts with a 25 and 27 strike, no fills]

PERI – I have 500 still at 22, They will be at the auctions soon and I want to be in first! Last trade 12.10 to 12.55 on 500… I will keep trading more blocks of 500

SOFI – I would like to make 25 cents on my 1,000 at 7.10 and keep trading a block of 1,000

ACMR MTCH OSCR – Some stocks I have been watching with good earnings or value

DKNG COIN – Both great earnings but speculative at valuations, I would risk money in Call options, not shares

The contents of this post are for information and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial, accounting, or legal advice. ... By choosing to make a trade you are responsible for your own actions. Please do some due diligence. These are trades I am making and you can follow along. If you make a winning trade, I do not even expect a bravo or thanks but that’s fine, if you lose on a trade the same difference.. I do not even expect an upvote or reward… The Elite team is aware of the risks and volatility in the market.

Good luck everyone let’s make money. Share trades, ideas here during trading hours. Our main goal here is to make money so I hope we can help eachother. I will be in and out of here as well.