Fact and opinion reading worksheets
Neutral Politics: Evidence. Logic. Respect.
2012.02.14 02:01 PavementBlues Neutral Politics: Evidence. Logic. Respect.
Neutral Politics is a community dedicated to evenhanded, empirical discussion of political issues. It is a space to discuss policy and the tone of political debate.
2012.02.14 02:27 Young_Zaphod For your Opinions that are Unpopular
Share your burning hot takes and unpopular opinions!
2015.03.31 16:41 Identimental Tell Me A Fact
TMAF is a place to learn interesting facts about a variety of topics. Please read the rules in the sidebar before posting, and remember to always include a source for your fact.
2024.05.14 15:48 Responsible_Yak9855 [NA] [Illidan] Returning Mythic/Heroic Tank/Healer LF Close Knit Raiding Guild
Hiya!
I’m a veteran tank looking for a raiding guild after a hiatus. I’ve been playing since MoP, and have raiding heroically and mythically as a DPS, Healer, and most recently as a tank. I’m open to any servefaction but
I’m primarily located on Illidan. I’ve got a Guardian Druid, Demon Hunter, or a Blood DK. My Guardian is probably the most geared, but if you’re willing to help get me up to speed, I can get the others up and running quickly. If you want a healer, I’ll definitely play one, but will need a little extra helping getting one up to speed.
I’m looking for tight knit raiding guild that needs a tank. Read on for some cool pros of mine you’ll get if you recruit me!
Pros:
I’m a great listener, which is like, every raid leaders dream.
I do my homework prior to raiding. I like winging it as a general concept, but not when it comes to raiding. I am every raid leaders dream, truly.
I have a vast knowledge of random things. Want shark facts? I’ve got you. Want to know why a specific thing happened on a random Tuesday 2 states over? I probably know that too.
I’m helpful. I love running keys, and being apart of a tight knit group who wants to actively run content.
So if you’re looking for a tank/healer to fill a spot on your team, and want someone who’s kind of funny, a veteran raider, and gets along great with others, send me a message and we can chat to see if I’d be a good fit!
submitted by Responsible_Yak9855 to wowguilds [link] [comments]
I’m a veteran tank looking for a raiding guild after a hiatus. I’ve been playing since MoP, and have raiding heroically and mythically as a DPS, Healer, and most recently as a tank. I’m open to any servefaction but
I’m primarily located on Illidan. I’ve got a Guardian Druid, Demon Hunter, or a Blood DK. My Guardian is probably the most geared, but if you’re willing to help get me up to speed, I can get the others up and running quickly. If you want a healer, I’ll definitely play one, but will need a little extra helping getting one up to speed.
I’m looking for tight knit raiding guild that needs a tank. Read on for some cool pros of mine you’ll get if you recruit me!
Pros:
I’m a great listener, which is like, every raid leaders dream.
I do my homework prior to raiding. I like winging it as a general concept, but not when it comes to raiding. I am every raid leaders dream, truly.
I have a vast knowledge of random things. Want shark facts? I’ve got you. Want to know why a specific thing happened on a random Tuesday 2 states over? I probably know that too.
I’m helpful. I love running keys, and being apart of a tight knit group who wants to actively run content.
So if you’re looking for a tank/healer to fill a spot on your team, and want someone who’s kind of funny, a veteran raider, and gets along great with others, send me a message and we can chat to see if I’d be a good fit!
2024.05.14 15:47 invinciblecomics Friend is upset at me for getting a dog without her approval.
I think this story fits in here? If not, my apologies! This happened very recently and I am honestly unsure of how to handle it. I can't even believe this is an issue to begin with, so this may be a bit of a rant.
So I (28M) have a friend, who is in her fifties. We are close friends. The kind where you don't talk often, but when you do, it's always really good. We mainly talk about our pets and she's been there for me a lot. I value her and our friendship. I really, really do.
There's only one issue. You see, one does not disagree with her. She has very strong opinions and will shove them down everyone's throat. She's notorious in all pet stores and for all the wrong reasons. I am not too bothered by it. I just know when to shut my mouth and agree. Arguing is not worth it and I find our friendship more important than being right about something.
It has never been a problem. Until now.
When I brought up wanting a Doberman, she was rather judgmental, saying that I am too insecure to raise a dog and that a dog wouldn't solve my mental problems. I found her assumptions hurtful and untrue, even if she probably meant well. Obviously a dog won't make my mental illness go away, but I think taking care of a dog and having a companion has been helpful for a lot of people, especially with mental illness. It just so happens that a Doberman is exactly what I want, as they fit my lifestyle. I am also not as spineless or insecure as she made me out to be. It's just that I don't argue with her because I know she would end our whole friendship over me not agreeing on something. I don't waste my energy on an argument that won't lead anywhere. So I just didn't mention it again and I wasn't super upset. I just decided not to talk to her about it.
A few weeks later, I sent a video of a puppy I have my eyes on. I hoped that maybe she'd be happy for me now. Somehow I thought she would be. Instead, she sent me a voice message demanding I tell her which exact reasons I have to get a Doberman. It made me feel like I had to justify my decision to her, like I need her permission. Me having this dog won't affect her, so I find this weird and honestly kind of entitled. Also, I knew she'd just disagree with all my reasons. So I politely said that I know she doesn't think that I am the right person for this, but that I disagree and I have done a lot of research, which I definitely have. I have considered this for literal years, although I didn't talk to her about that until I previously mentioned the dog. I just didn't see a reason to and I still don't. Like I said, it doesn't affect her and it's not like we talk a lot nor do we talk about everything. I told her she has nothing to worry about and that the decision wasn't impulsive.
She was immediately upset. She said I was very defensive, even though I acted calm and polite. However, I simply didn't agree and I didn't want to justify my decision. This is probably the first time I said no to her. She started going off about how dangerous this dog is, that it's not the right breed for me, that she knows a lot more about this than me and that I should be able to explain why I want one, especially to her. Now she does know a lot about animals, but judging by what she said about the breed she doesn't know as much as she claims. They were very outdated views and some of the "facts" were just wrong. She said that I only want this dog to have as a "shield" and that I am going to end up with a "weapon" I can't control, etc. I said multiple times that I understand and respect her opinion and that I was sorry for upsetting her, but that I don't agree and didn't like her initial question. According to her I turned her into someone she's not and I was extremely defensive. Again, I was very calm and never accusatory, while she sent me long voice messages in which she was yelling and crying. It seems everything I said just made her more angry. She ended by saying I've insulted her and that I should know what that feels like. I said I was sorry about that and that I hope we can talk about this when we're both calm.
I am extremely confused about what I did wrong and I am honestly kind of angry, because I feel like she's simply mad at me for not agreeing with her. She knows as well as I do that I will put all of my time and energy into this dog, that I am someone who will make well informed decisions and won't hesitate to ask a professional dog trainer for guidance. And even if we are close, we are not so close that I need to involve her into a decision like this, but it seems she thinks I can't do this without her approval.
Anyway, I haven't heard from her since and I suspect she expects me to apologize. I'm not sure what to do, except wait until she calms down and then starts talking to me again like nothing happened. I might have to rethink this friendship.
submitted by invinciblecomics to EntitledPeople [link] [comments]
So I (28M) have a friend, who is in her fifties. We are close friends. The kind where you don't talk often, but when you do, it's always really good. We mainly talk about our pets and she's been there for me a lot. I value her and our friendship. I really, really do.
There's only one issue. You see, one does not disagree with her. She has very strong opinions and will shove them down everyone's throat. She's notorious in all pet stores and for all the wrong reasons. I am not too bothered by it. I just know when to shut my mouth and agree. Arguing is not worth it and I find our friendship more important than being right about something.
It has never been a problem. Until now.
When I brought up wanting a Doberman, she was rather judgmental, saying that I am too insecure to raise a dog and that a dog wouldn't solve my mental problems. I found her assumptions hurtful and untrue, even if she probably meant well. Obviously a dog won't make my mental illness go away, but I think taking care of a dog and having a companion has been helpful for a lot of people, especially with mental illness. It just so happens that a Doberman is exactly what I want, as they fit my lifestyle. I am also not as spineless or insecure as she made me out to be. It's just that I don't argue with her because I know she would end our whole friendship over me not agreeing on something. I don't waste my energy on an argument that won't lead anywhere. So I just didn't mention it again and I wasn't super upset. I just decided not to talk to her about it.
A few weeks later, I sent a video of a puppy I have my eyes on. I hoped that maybe she'd be happy for me now. Somehow I thought she would be. Instead, she sent me a voice message demanding I tell her which exact reasons I have to get a Doberman. It made me feel like I had to justify my decision to her, like I need her permission. Me having this dog won't affect her, so I find this weird and honestly kind of entitled. Also, I knew she'd just disagree with all my reasons. So I politely said that I know she doesn't think that I am the right person for this, but that I disagree and I have done a lot of research, which I definitely have. I have considered this for literal years, although I didn't talk to her about that until I previously mentioned the dog. I just didn't see a reason to and I still don't. Like I said, it doesn't affect her and it's not like we talk a lot nor do we talk about everything. I told her she has nothing to worry about and that the decision wasn't impulsive.
She was immediately upset. She said I was very defensive, even though I acted calm and polite. However, I simply didn't agree and I didn't want to justify my decision. This is probably the first time I said no to her. She started going off about how dangerous this dog is, that it's not the right breed for me, that she knows a lot more about this than me and that I should be able to explain why I want one, especially to her. Now she does know a lot about animals, but judging by what she said about the breed she doesn't know as much as she claims. They were very outdated views and some of the "facts" were just wrong. She said that I only want this dog to have as a "shield" and that I am going to end up with a "weapon" I can't control, etc. I said multiple times that I understand and respect her opinion and that I was sorry for upsetting her, but that I don't agree and didn't like her initial question. According to her I turned her into someone she's not and I was extremely defensive. Again, I was very calm and never accusatory, while she sent me long voice messages in which she was yelling and crying. It seems everything I said just made her more angry. She ended by saying I've insulted her and that I should know what that feels like. I said I was sorry about that and that I hope we can talk about this when we're both calm.
I am extremely confused about what I did wrong and I am honestly kind of angry, because I feel like she's simply mad at me for not agreeing with her. She knows as well as I do that I will put all of my time and energy into this dog, that I am someone who will make well informed decisions and won't hesitate to ask a professional dog trainer for guidance. And even if we are close, we are not so close that I need to involve her into a decision like this, but it seems she thinks I can't do this without her approval.
Anyway, I haven't heard from her since and I suspect she expects me to apologize. I'm not sure what to do, except wait until she calms down and then starts talking to me again like nothing happened. I might have to rethink this friendship.
2024.05.14 15:47 CodicierSigison21 Whom do you make offerings to when looking to obtain a new job?
Hello all, I hope you're all well.
I've recently moved abroad and I'm looking for work, but of course getting a job in this day and age can be difficult. I myself am Norse pagan so I'm thinking it might be beneficial for me to make an offering to one or more gods in the hopes of obtaining a bit more favour, but who shall I make an offering to? My first thought was Njord, as I often associate him with wealth and fortune, but I thought I'd ask the wider community to hear other thoughts and opinions.
anything shared is valuable, and I thank you for taking the time to read, friends.
submitted by CodicierSigison21 to heathenry [link] [comments]
I've recently moved abroad and I'm looking for work, but of course getting a job in this day and age can be difficult. I myself am Norse pagan so I'm thinking it might be beneficial for me to make an offering to one or more gods in the hopes of obtaining a bit more favour, but who shall I make an offering to? My first thought was Njord, as I often associate him with wealth and fortune, but I thought I'd ask the wider community to hear other thoughts and opinions.
anything shared is valuable, and I thank you for taking the time to read, friends.
2024.05.14 15:46 Mjblount95 Finishing my bachelor's soon, how much of a raise should I ask for / realistically expect?
I currently work for a small bank with one other IT employee. We get along great and work together really efficiently. I take care of basically everything myself except for security which I leave mostly to the other employee and just help with when i need to. My CFO and CEO (and all employees) really like me, and I make most of the decisions technology wise for the bank. It's a nice laid-back environment where the CEO trusts my opinion and the CFO is tech literate and likes me explaining things to him which is great.
I have been at this job for 2 years now. My current role is IT Specialist. I started out at 25$/hour and late last year got bumped to 32$/hour. This is in Rural TN, so I don't expect major city money, but things are getting much more expensive up here with all the move ins.
For my certifications I currently hold:
I was thinking about just bringing up that I finished my degree to my CEO when I get the diploma and see what they think it is worth. I haven't had much issue with not being given what I want before but honestly, I have no clue realistically what I should expect or ask for. I have saved them a ton of money by getting rid of the MSP's and other crap that the last IT team brought in because they didn't want to do anything besides sit there and be paid. I know for a fact that they want me to stay and like me a lot, and with us being so small they like having a friendly atmosphere between all departments which I have given them. So, with all that said I was maybe hoping for around 40$/hour but was wondering what you all think about the situation as well.
Thank you!
submitted by Mjblount95 to ITCareerQuestions [link] [comments]
I have been at this job for 2 years now. My current role is IT Specialist. I started out at 25$/hour and late last year got bumped to 32$/hour. This is in Rural TN, so I don't expect major city money, but things are getting much more expensive up here with all the move ins.
For my certifications I currently hold:
- CompTIA - A+, Net+, Sec+, Linux+, Cloud+, Project+, Server+
- Microsoft - AZ-900, AZ-104
- AWS CCP
- Cisco CCNA
- ITIL IT service management
- ISC2 Certified in Cybersecurity and Cloud Security
I was thinking about just bringing up that I finished my degree to my CEO when I get the diploma and see what they think it is worth. I haven't had much issue with not being given what I want before but honestly, I have no clue realistically what I should expect or ask for. I have saved them a ton of money by getting rid of the MSP's and other crap that the last IT team brought in because they didn't want to do anything besides sit there and be paid. I know for a fact that they want me to stay and like me a lot, and with us being so small they like having a friendly atmosphere between all departments which I have given them. So, with all that said I was maybe hoping for around 40$/hour but was wondering what you all think about the situation as well.
Thank you!
2024.05.14 15:45 Reasonable_Poem9535 The thing I left unsaid…
The last letter I read to you started out with a huge “I miss you”. At the time I meant it with everything I had. I missed the way you smelt, the way you’d hold me, you telling me everything about yourself, things only I knew. That night, in the rain, I told you how it was. I called you out and gave it to you. I asked you if you loved me, hoping the answer was no, and you did say no. But I know that wasn’t true. I know you loved me at one point. I know during that conversation you were confused about your feelings for me. That was our time to be open and honest with each other. Your mouth said one thing, but your eyes told a different story. You betrayed me in an unspeakable way. Hurt me in a way I would never, COULD NEVER, hurt you. And even after everything, I convinced myself that I needed you. But I don’t need you anymore. Maybe I still long for who you were, that boy who would look at me like I lit the world on fire. The boy who would use any excuse to be near me, protect me, hold my hand. But you haven’t been that boy for many years. I was just too naive to see it. In fact, we haven’t been best friends for years, I just didn’t want to let go of who you were, who I thought you were. But I’m ok with letting go now. I hope you get everything you deserve. Sincerely, me.
submitted by Reasonable_Poem9535 to letters [link] [comments]
2024.05.14 15:44 Rosabeast How do I stop caring what guys think of me?
Most of the time I (22 F) am confident in the fact that I am a lesbian. But... When a guy begins to show interest, I start spiraling and overthinking everything. I notice myself acting differently, trying to impress them, wanting them to like me. I like the thought of them liking me, but I don't feel anything about them. And that feels so wrong and even embarrassing to admit. This has happened a few times now, and at the minute, one of my best guy-friends is starting to give me more attention and showing interest, and it's like I can't be myself around him now.
I have read about comphet, but I don't know how to do anything about this for real. How do I stop trying to get guys to like me more the minute they start showing signs they like me?
I am only out to my closest friends. Maybe a solution could be to come out to my friend in question?
submitted by Rosabeast to actuallesbians [link] [comments]
I have read about comphet, but I don't know how to do anything about this for real. How do I stop trying to get guys to like me more the minute they start showing signs they like me?
I am only out to my closest friends. Maybe a solution could be to come out to my friend in question?
2024.05.14 15:44 shaneka69 LIBRA ZODIAC PREDICTIONS MAY 2024
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2024.05.14 15:43 Philothea0821 My Biggest Problems with Protestantism
I want to take a moment to list out some of my most challenging problems with Protestantism according to what Scripture says, in no particular order. It is not a comprehensive list of all of the problems that I have with it, but having these answered would go a long way to me taking Protestantism seriously from a theological viewpoint.
We should rely on our own personal interpretation of Scripture
And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Here, Peter is saying PAY ATTENTION TO THE CHURCH!!! Listen to what the apostles are teaching and allow that to form your reading of Scripture. If you read the rest of this chapter, He says that "we" (the apostles) have had given to them, "all things that pertain to life and godliness" through knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we read Scripture, we should not read it solely with our own understanding, but allow ourselves to be taught by the apostles (or those appointed by them as successors).
When it comes to Sola Scriptura, I do not see how it is not relying on one's own personal interpretation. How do I know that I am understanding Scripture correctly? How do I know that I do not have an interpretation that is horribly off base? I have never really gotten an answer to this from Protestants.
If I am debating Scripture, according to Protestants, I am debating the sole highest authority. So if I test my interpretation against something else, I am testing against a lesser authority and thus it can still be challenged and I have not sufficiently solved the problem.
We only need to declare Jesus as Lord to get to Heaven
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Here Jesus flatly says professing that Jesus is Lord is not enough to get you into Heaven, but doing the will of the Father. Yes, we are saved by faith through grace. If you get baptized and are shot dead the moment you walk out of the church, you will go to Heaven having done nothing except making that "leap of faith." If you are in a car crash and have a minute to live and all you can do is place your trust in Jesus, yes, you will be saved. But for 99.99999% of people, this is not the case. We have our entire lives to live after baptism. So the question is "Do we live according to what we profess with our mouth?"
If I say "I am an Orioles fan." but only ever go to/watch Yankees games and only ever root for the Yankees, would you say that I am actually an Orioles fan? Do I not call into question that statement that I made by my actions? What if I grow up as an Orioles fan, regularly attending games and watching them daily. But then later, my favorite player gets traded to the Yankees and I convert to a Yankees fan. Was I never an Orioles fan to begin with? No. That would be silly. I was an Orioles fan, but then became a Yankees fan.
Likewise, if I say "I am a Christian and believe that Jesus rose from the dead." But I never attend Church, I am not loving others, I am worshipping other gods, etc. Am I really a Christian? Maybe I was at one point, but I certainly am not now based on what I have done.
As such, yes, it is true that works do not save us, but if we act contrary to what we believe, we cannot have assurance of our salvation. Hopefully God still finds a way to bring us to Heaven. I would rather someone spend 1000 years after death having their soul purified knowing that they will go to Heaven then know for a fact that they are in Hell. Even so, we must recognize that Hell is real, it is a real possibility.
Baptism does not save
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
I have ZERO idea where some Protestants get this idea from. The idea that Baptism is not salvific is not at all Scriptural. This really ties into the "Sola Fide" bit of this post.
The Eucharist is merely symbolic
I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread\)c\) which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”\)d\) 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.” 59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper′na-um.
Jesus flat out says "This bread that I am talking about here is my flesh." So the disciples challenge Him saying "You mean this figuratively right?... RIGHT?
So Jesus responds repeating himself over and over in verses 53 through 58. How many times does Jesus need to say something for you to believe it? You will latch on to a singular verse that teaches something you agree with (or seems to) for dear life at the exclusion of literally any other verse on the topic, but something else is taught multiple times and you don't believe it? I am confused about how Protestants read the Bible. It does not seem to be in any kind of coherent exegesis.
You are allowed to get divorced and remarried... at all.
“Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,\)a\) 8 and the two shall become one.’\)b\) So they are no longer two but one.\)c\) 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity,\)c\) and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
Marriage is "until death do us part." The teachings on divorce from the Gospels is trying to set a trap for Jesus to see which rabbinical school he agrees with. Jesus comes out and says. "Neither." He says "Yeah. Moses allowed for divorce. But this is not how it was from the beginning. What about that "except for unchastity" phrase in Matthew (and only Matthew)?
There Matthew is talking about unions that God did not join together. He is talking about invalid marriages that his primarily Jewish readers would have been thinking about. The gentile converts to Christianity would not have thought about these weird situations, so this is excluded from the other gospels.
You can get re-baptized
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Some that want to say that you can get rebaptized jump to Acts 19. Reading this passage, it would seem that what is going on here is that the Baptism by John was not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul is essentially saying that the "baptism" that they had received was not valid. He does not say that he "baptized them again into Christ." Rather it says that Paul "baptized them in the name Jesus Christ." As in they were not baptized into Christ, so Paul baptized them "for real this time."
You can only be cleansed from Original Sin once. After that, you can confess your sins and have them forgiven. Baptism is what makes into a child of God. That can only happen once. To do otherwise is a grave sin because you are saying that God was not powerful enough to save you the first time. Again, if a baptism is deemed to be invalid, this is a different story. This is why Paul asks "Into what were you baptized?"
The Church is simply the collection of believers
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Here it is clear that the "Church" is something more than a collection of believers. Jesus teaches here that first, you deal with disagreement 1 on 1. If that does not work, you go and get other believers to help show that they are wrong. If that does not work, then take to the Church. If even that does not work, they are to be treated as an unbeliever (excommunicated).
Certainly, all believers are a part of the Church - which is the body of Christ. The Church is not a parish or a singular building. The Church is universal, but there is a clear structure to it. There are priests, bishops, elders, etc. There is real authority in that structure. This article goes over in Scripture and towards the bottom the Church Fathers what the Church is meant to look like: https://www.scripturecatholic.com/the-biblical-church/
Many Protestant ideas sound nice, but I do not want to believe something merely because it sounds nice. Dessert for dinner sounds nice but it is not good for my body. Likewise, we should not judge something on "does it sound nice." We should judge something on whether it is good for our souls.
I look at many Protestant theological views and note how they seem to not be based in Scripture or based on a misunderstanding of Scripture. I would love to see if Protestants can properly answer these. Simply quoting verses that seem to back you up is not enough here. You need to show that these other verses are not problematic.
I do not only want to trust in Jesus, I want to trust that I am following everything that he taught. Jesus commanded the apostles to teach all that He has commanded, not just the important stuff. If you get the main stuff right but other things wrong, you still got it wrong. If a teacher gave a 10 question quiz and said, "You got questions 1, 2, 5, and 7 right, but everything else wrong. It is ok though those questions were the most important." I still get a failing grade. So, if you want me to convert to Protestantism you need to show that you actually follow all of Scripture, because I want to strive to get a 100% on the "test" of salvation. After all Jesus told us to "Be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect" Not "Be kind of perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect."
submitted by Philothea0821 to Christianity [link] [comments]
We should rely on our own personal interpretation of Scripture
And we have the prophetic word made more sure. You will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20 First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Here, Peter is saying PAY ATTENTION TO THE CHURCH!!! Listen to what the apostles are teaching and allow that to form your reading of Scripture. If you read the rest of this chapter, He says that "we" (the apostles) have had given to them, "all things that pertain to life and godliness" through knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we read Scripture, we should not read it solely with our own understanding, but allow ourselves to be taught by the apostles (or those appointed by them as successors).
When it comes to Sola Scriptura, I do not see how it is not relying on one's own personal interpretation. How do I know that I am understanding Scripture correctly? How do I know that I do not have an interpretation that is horribly off base? I have never really gotten an answer to this from Protestants.
If I am debating Scripture, according to Protestants, I am debating the sole highest authority. So if I test my interpretation against something else, I am testing against a lesser authority and thus it can still be challenged and I have not sufficiently solved the problem.
We only need to declare Jesus as Lord to get to Heaven
“Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Here Jesus flatly says professing that Jesus is Lord is not enough to get you into Heaven, but doing the will of the Father. Yes, we are saved by faith through grace. If you get baptized and are shot dead the moment you walk out of the church, you will go to Heaven having done nothing except making that "leap of faith." If you are in a car crash and have a minute to live and all you can do is place your trust in Jesus, yes, you will be saved. But for 99.99999% of people, this is not the case. We have our entire lives to live after baptism. So the question is "Do we live according to what we profess with our mouth?"
If I say "I am an Orioles fan." but only ever go to/watch Yankees games and only ever root for the Yankees, would you say that I am actually an Orioles fan? Do I not call into question that statement that I made by my actions? What if I grow up as an Orioles fan, regularly attending games and watching them daily. But then later, my favorite player gets traded to the Yankees and I convert to a Yankees fan. Was I never an Orioles fan to begin with? No. That would be silly. I was an Orioles fan, but then became a Yankees fan.
Likewise, if I say "I am a Christian and believe that Jesus rose from the dead." But I never attend Church, I am not loving others, I am worshipping other gods, etc. Am I really a Christian? Maybe I was at one point, but I certainly am not now based on what I have done.
As such, yes, it is true that works do not save us, but if we act contrary to what we believe, we cannot have assurance of our salvation. Hopefully God still finds a way to bring us to Heaven. I would rather someone spend 1000 years after death having their soul purified knowing that they will go to Heaven then know for a fact that they are in Hell. Even so, we must recognize that Hell is real, it is a real possibility.
Baptism does not save
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.
I have ZERO idea where some Protestants get this idea from. The idea that Baptism is not salvific is not at all Scriptural. This really ties into the "Sola Fide" bit of this post.
The Eucharist is merely symbolic
I am the bread of life. 49 Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. 50 This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that a man may eat of it and not die. 51 I am the living bread\)c\) which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
52 The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”\)d\) 53 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; 54 he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. 55 For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. 56 He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. 57 As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. 58 This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.” 59 This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Caper′na-um.
Jesus flat out says "This bread that I am talking about here is my flesh." So the disciples challenge Him saying "You mean this figuratively right?... RIGHT?
So Jesus responds repeating himself over and over in verses 53 through 58. How many times does Jesus need to say something for you to believe it? You will latch on to a singular verse that teaches something you agree with (or seems to) for dear life at the exclusion of literally any other verse on the topic, but something else is taught multiple times and you don't believe it? I am confused about how Protestants read the Bible. It does not seem to be in any kind of coherent exegesis.
You are allowed to get divorced and remarried... at all.
“Every one who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,\)a\) 8 and the two shall become one.’\)b\) So they are no longer two but one.\)c\) 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.”
He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity,\)c\) and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery.”
A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If the husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
Marriage is "until death do us part." The teachings on divorce from the Gospels is trying to set a trap for Jesus to see which rabbinical school he agrees with. Jesus comes out and says. "Neither." He says "Yeah. Moses allowed for divorce. But this is not how it was from the beginning. What about that "except for unchastity" phrase in Matthew (and only Matthew)?
There Matthew is talking about unions that God did not join together. He is talking about invalid marriages that his primarily Jewish readers would have been thinking about. The gentile converts to Christianity would not have thought about these weird situations, so this is excluded from the other gospels.
You can get re-baptized
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
Some that want to say that you can get rebaptized jump to Acts 19. Reading this passage, it would seem that what is going on here is that the Baptism by John was not in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Paul is essentially saying that the "baptism" that they had received was not valid. He does not say that he "baptized them again into Christ." Rather it says that Paul "baptized them in the name Jesus Christ." As in they were not baptized into Christ, so Paul baptized them "for real this time."
You can only be cleansed from Original Sin once. After that, you can confess your sins and have them forgiven. Baptism is what makes into a child of God. That can only happen once. To do otherwise is a grave sin because you are saying that God was not powerful enough to save you the first time. Again, if a baptism is deemed to be invalid, this is a different story. This is why Paul asks "Into what were you baptized?"
The Church is simply the collection of believers
“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Here it is clear that the "Church" is something more than a collection of believers. Jesus teaches here that first, you deal with disagreement 1 on 1. If that does not work, you go and get other believers to help show that they are wrong. If that does not work, then take to the Church. If even that does not work, they are to be treated as an unbeliever (excommunicated).
Certainly, all believers are a part of the Church - which is the body of Christ. The Church is not a parish or a singular building. The Church is universal, but there is a clear structure to it. There are priests, bishops, elders, etc. There is real authority in that structure. This article goes over in Scripture and towards the bottom the Church Fathers what the Church is meant to look like: https://www.scripturecatholic.com/the-biblical-church/
Many Protestant ideas sound nice, but I do not want to believe something merely because it sounds nice. Dessert for dinner sounds nice but it is not good for my body. Likewise, we should not judge something on "does it sound nice." We should judge something on whether it is good for our souls.
I look at many Protestant theological views and note how they seem to not be based in Scripture or based on a misunderstanding of Scripture. I would love to see if Protestants can properly answer these. Simply quoting verses that seem to back you up is not enough here. You need to show that these other verses are not problematic.
I do not only want to trust in Jesus, I want to trust that I am following everything that he taught. Jesus commanded the apostles to teach all that He has commanded, not just the important stuff. If you get the main stuff right but other things wrong, you still got it wrong. If a teacher gave a 10 question quiz and said, "You got questions 1, 2, 5, and 7 right, but everything else wrong. It is ok though those questions were the most important." I still get a failing grade. So, if you want me to convert to Protestantism you need to show that you actually follow all of Scripture, because I want to strive to get a 100% on the "test" of salvation. After all Jesus told us to "Be perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect" Not "Be kind of perfect as Your Heavenly Father is perfect."
2024.05.14 15:41 AnimationFan_2003 S1 Ep4: Can't Wait to Be Queen Review
Episode Description
-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.
-However, I do like the fact this episode shows that Kiara and Kion are not perfect leaders yet, they're still fairly young and are only just finding their feet, so it's natural for them to have some minor slip ups, that they learn from, like every kid does.
-"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. 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. Overall, I'll give this episode a 6.5/10, it's not perfect, but I think it deserves more love in the fandom and I think there are way worse episodes than it.
submitted by AnimationFan_2003 to lionking [link] [comments]
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.Pros
Song: "Duties of the King" sung by Simba and Zazu
-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.
-However, I do like the fact this episode shows that Kiara and Kion are not perfect leaders yet, they're still fairly young and are only just finding their feet, so it's natural for them to have some minor slip ups, that they learn from, like every kid does.
-"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. 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. Overall, I'll give this episode a 6.5/10, it's not perfect, but I think it deserves more love in the fandom and I think there are way worse episodes than it.
2024.05.14 15:41 lambchopsuey "The 'five S's' of giving a good experience"
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:
While these specific "five S's" aren't around any more, there are still guidelines for how to give an "experience":
submitted by lambchopsuey to sgiwhistleblowers [link] [comments]
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...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):
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
(b) then I chanted, solved the problem or changed that aspect of my life which I wasn't satisfied with...Clearly, this is all about crafting the most persuasive sales pitch, not about honestly and authentically communicating anything real.
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.
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?REHEARSE it, in other words. These "experiences" are NOT spontaneous!
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
2024.05.14 15:36 Oddreaction3943 Tuesday, May 14, 2024 Non Real Time Meeting of OA
Welcome to this non-real time meeting of Overeaters Anonymous! I’m oddreaction3943 I’m a compulsive eater and your leader for this meeting. Will those who wish, please join me in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.
Our Invitation to You
The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous
Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery is the result of living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program.
The OA tools of recovery help us work the Steps and refrain from compulsive overeating. The nine tools are: a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, an action plan, anonymity, and service. For more information, read The Tools of Recovery OA page.
Sponsorship is one of our keys to success. Sponsors are OA members committed to abstinence and to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience and strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how he or she is achieving it. Will all abstinent sponsors please identify themselves in their post?
According to our Seventh Tradition, we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Our group number is 99038. Please use the group number when making your contribution. As our virtual group currently has no expenses please consider donating directly through this link to the OA World Service Office, who provides resources for OA groups all around the world to carry the message to other compulsive overeaters.
Suggested guidelines for sharing: As you share your experience and strength in OA, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the disease of compulsive eating, the solution offered by OA, and your own recovery from the disease, rather than just the events of the day or week. When responding to other member’s posts, please focus on your personal experience rather than advice giving. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.
This is a literature meeting. Today we are studying Book Book Page 12**
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?” That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
Closing By following the Twelve Steps, attending meetings regularly, and using the OA Tools, we are changing our lives. You will find hope and encouragement in Overeaters Anonymous. To the newcomer, we suggest attending at least six different meetings to learn the many ways OA can help you. The opinions expressed here today are those of individual OA members and do not represent OA as a whole. Let us all reach out by private message to newcomers, returning members, and each other. Together we get better.
submitted by Oddreaction3943 to OvereatersAnonymous [link] [comments]
Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.
Our Invitation to You
The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous
Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery is the result of living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program.
The OA tools of recovery help us work the Steps and refrain from compulsive overeating. The nine tools are: a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, an action plan, anonymity, and service. For more information, read The Tools of Recovery OA page.
Sponsorship is one of our keys to success. Sponsors are OA members committed to abstinence and to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience and strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how he or she is achieving it. Will all abstinent sponsors please identify themselves in their post?
According to our Seventh Tradition, we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Our group number is 99038. Please use the group number when making your contribution. As our virtual group currently has no expenses please consider donating directly through this link to the OA World Service Office, who provides resources for OA groups all around the world to carry the message to other compulsive overeaters.
Suggested guidelines for sharing: As you share your experience and strength in OA, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the disease of compulsive eating, the solution offered by OA, and your own recovery from the disease, rather than just the events of the day or week. When responding to other member’s posts, please focus on your personal experience rather than advice giving. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.
This is a literature meeting. Today we are studying Book Book Page 12**
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God?” That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
2024.05.14 15:35 Oddreaction3943 Tuesday, May 14, 2024 Non Real-Time Meeting of OA
Welcome to this non-real time meeting of Overeaters Anonymous! I’m oddreaction3943 I’m a compulsive eater and your leader for this meeting. Will those who wish, please join me in the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.
Our Invitation to You
The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous
Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery is the result of living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program.
The OA tools of recovery help us work the Steps and refrain from compulsive overeating. The nine tools are: a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, an action plan, anonymity, and service. For more information, read The Tools of Recovery OA page.
Sponsorship is one of our keys to success. Sponsors are OA members committed to abstinence and to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience and strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how he or she is achieving it. Will all abstinent sponsors please identify themselves in their post?
According to our Seventh Tradition, we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Our group number is 99038. Please use the group number when making your contribution. As our virtual group currently has no expenses please consider donating directly through this link to the OA World Service Office, who provides resources for OA groups all around the world to carry the message to other compulsive overeaters.
Suggested guidelines for sharing: As you share your experience and strength in OA, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the disease of compulsive eating, the solution offered by OA, and your own recovery from the disease, rather than just the events of the day or week. When responding to other member’s posts, please focus on your personal experience rather than advice giving. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.
This is a literature meeting. Today we are studying Book Book Page 12** Bill’s story
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God? That statement hit me hard. It melted my icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
Closing By following the Twelve Steps, attending meetings regularly, and using the OA Tools, we are changing our lives. You will find hope and encouragement in Overeaters Anonymous. To the newcomer, we suggest attending at least six different meetings to learn the many ways OA can help you. The opinions expressed here today are those of individual OA members and do not represent OA as a whole. Let us all reach out by private message to newcomers, returning members, and each other. Together we get better.
submitted by Oddreaction3943 to OvereatersAnonymous [link] [comments]
Overeaters Anonymous is a Fellowship of individuals who, through shared experience, strength, and hope, are recovering from compulsive overeating. We welcome everyone who wants to stop eating compulsively. There are no dues or fees for members; we are self-supporting through our own contributions, neither soliciting nor accepting outside donations. OA is not affiliated with any public or private organization, political movement, ideology, or religious doctrine; we take no position on outside issues. Our primary purpose is to abstain from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors and to carry the message of recovery through the Twelve Steps of OA to those who still suffer.
Our Invitation to You
The Twelve Traditions of Overeaters Anonymous
Abstinence in Overeaters Anonymous is the action of refraining from compulsive eating and compulsive food behaviors while working towards or maintaining a healthy body weight. Spiritual, emotional, and physical recovery is the result of living the Overeaters Anonymous Twelve Step program.
The OA tools of recovery help us work the Steps and refrain from compulsive overeating. The nine tools are: a plan of eating, sponsorship, meetings, telephone, writing, literature, an action plan, anonymity, and service. For more information, read The Tools of Recovery OA page.
Sponsorship is one of our keys to success. Sponsors are OA members committed to abstinence and to living the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions to the best of their ability. Sponsors share their program up to the level of their experience and strengthen their recovery through this service to others. To find a sponsor, look for someone who has what you want and ask how he or she is achieving it. Will all abstinent sponsors please identify themselves in their post?
According to our Seventh Tradition, we are self-supporting through our own contributions. Our group number is 99038. Please use the group number when making your contribution. As our virtual group currently has no expenses please consider donating directly through this link to the OA World Service Office, who provides resources for OA groups all around the world to carry the message to other compulsive overeaters.
Suggested guidelines for sharing: As you share your experience and strength in OA, please also share your hope. Please confine your sharing to your experience with the disease of compulsive eating, the solution offered by OA, and your own recovery from the disease, rather than just the events of the day or week. When responding to other member’s posts, please focus on your personal experience rather than advice giving. If you are having difficulties, share how you use the program to deal with them. If you need to talk more about your difficulties and seek solutions, we suggest you speak to your sponsor and other members after the meeting.
This is a literature meeting. Today we are studying Book Book Page 12** Bill’s story
My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said “Why don’t you choose your own conception of God? That statement hit me hard. It melted my icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last.
2024.05.14 15:34 sexyskaterbabe Telepathy and Science
One of the main proportions of socialists point of view it the cross between telepathic response and science.
While telepathy is a written and vocals mainstream idealism and science being the barrier between intelligence and discovery. Telepathy and science go hand in hand at some points of opinions. The brain is made up of abilities and ideas that wrap around a few million stimuli that are smaller than you can see and even smaller when reaching an age after realizing the realism in how the world works and talks to itself. It’s only a matter of time before you realize talking with the mind and understanding the abilities of connecting and getting the correct image in mind are scientifically proven to interact within the mind to produce an outcome known to us as our livelihood or our given written future. Advances through the mind allow a picture to be discovered through practice and mellow dramatic response. The brain makes stimuli and represents them as gardens or floral pieces in the mind. Connecting through many wave frames of other garden pieces before the realism that you are amongst millions and billions of others with the same interaction at different realisms of time.
Scientifically we are made up of roses that tie our brains into structured development used to create a future or sub reality of the time. Chemicals are only real when you want them to be. While the mind slowly wraps around the sequence of time to uprise the future possibilities turning in clockwise rotation.
Mentally we discover talking and prayer to be an arguable amount of the same idealism. While some are argumentive that they are not the same and are entirely prismed around the idea of praying is only for god or god related acts. The truth behind realizing whether or not you talk to god ends the argumentive rights that you have developed around… telepathy is the given statement that you talk with your mind and understand the ability of knowing what everyone is telling you and themselves. Being young is presumed unknowing or not realizing that everything has a multiplicative development of the time. Everything someone says is sometimes directed in a single possible answer of what the person is trying to talk towards them.
Sticky is one word that describes the mentality of the time of day and age we were born and grown up to. We are a dying age of realizing where our actions have developed and are forwarding us to fix and create a better future. Within understanding that you talk to god and everyone around you through prayer is the telepathy and science differential trait. Crossing the two methodologies is the beginning to our continued story developing in our hands.
Leave comments and a response if you enjoyed this read. I had a lot of fun writing this short response to my interests about growing up and adulting. I will be writing more based on the type of response you all give me. So like share and follow!
Hmu on my pages too.
Business pages: solo.to/kbakescookies Social Pages: solo.to/wildbluehue
Thanks. Bye.
-k<3
05142024
submitted by sexyskaterbabe to softbuttercookies [link] [comments]
While telepathy is a written and vocals mainstream idealism and science being the barrier between intelligence and discovery. Telepathy and science go hand in hand at some points of opinions. The brain is made up of abilities and ideas that wrap around a few million stimuli that are smaller than you can see and even smaller when reaching an age after realizing the realism in how the world works and talks to itself. It’s only a matter of time before you realize talking with the mind and understanding the abilities of connecting and getting the correct image in mind are scientifically proven to interact within the mind to produce an outcome known to us as our livelihood or our given written future. Advances through the mind allow a picture to be discovered through practice and mellow dramatic response. The brain makes stimuli and represents them as gardens or floral pieces in the mind. Connecting through many wave frames of other garden pieces before the realism that you are amongst millions and billions of others with the same interaction at different realisms of time.
Scientifically we are made up of roses that tie our brains into structured development used to create a future or sub reality of the time. Chemicals are only real when you want them to be. While the mind slowly wraps around the sequence of time to uprise the future possibilities turning in clockwise rotation.
Mentally we discover talking and prayer to be an arguable amount of the same idealism. While some are argumentive that they are not the same and are entirely prismed around the idea of praying is only for god or god related acts. The truth behind realizing whether or not you talk to god ends the argumentive rights that you have developed around… telepathy is the given statement that you talk with your mind and understand the ability of knowing what everyone is telling you and themselves. Being young is presumed unknowing or not realizing that everything has a multiplicative development of the time. Everything someone says is sometimes directed in a single possible answer of what the person is trying to talk towards them.
Sticky is one word that describes the mentality of the time of day and age we were born and grown up to. We are a dying age of realizing where our actions have developed and are forwarding us to fix and create a better future. Within understanding that you talk to god and everyone around you through prayer is the telepathy and science differential trait. Crossing the two methodologies is the beginning to our continued story developing in our hands.
Leave comments and a response if you enjoyed this read. I had a lot of fun writing this short response to my interests about growing up and adulting. I will be writing more based on the type of response you all give me. So like share and follow!
Hmu on my pages too.
Business pages: solo.to/kbakescookies Social Pages: solo.to/wildbluehue
Thanks. Bye.
-k<3
05142024
2024.05.14 15:25 OrganizationGreat248 Unlucky Isekai Life (Part 2 of 6)
Ruby groaned as the alarm went off signaling that one of her charges had arrived back from their mission. While troublesome in its own right, what really got under her skin was that she only had one charge at the moment, and that edge lord piece of shit wasn’t supposed to complete his task for AT LEAST another 4 deca-cycles according to the prediction algorithm. Grumbling to herself, she rolled out of bed and poured herself a glass of water to offset the hangover she was trying to recover from.
A few moments later she was gliding down the hall to the meeting room. She knew Jason was going to pitch a fit that she had left him waiting, the self-entitled brat always did think the world revolved around him; but perhaps he should have thought about that before freaking dying so early. If he wanted her to be there to meet him upon death, he could at least have the decency to not die the morning after one of her binges.
Other staff members gave her a wide berth, even if it was a hollow title, she was still technically far above basically anyone else in the pecking order, at least those who had a physical presence within the Agency. She knew they all mocked her behind her back, even divine beings were sadly prone towards gossip. She put the anger at her subordinates/coworkers out of her mind for now; even if she didn’t particularly LIKE Jason, he still didn’t deserve her coming in with baggage.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed that she’d arrived in front of the conference room door. She had been mulling over her thoughts, just staring into nothingness, for several minutes before she finally snapped back to the present. With a soft rap on the door, she opened it and floated inside. Jason was lounging, sprawled out on the regally padded chair throne he so fancied.
They exchanged pleasantries before she sat down to go over the mission summary. Upon seeing the cause of death, she had regrettably lost her composure and started to laugh uncontrollably. Her mighty subordinate had been felled by a goblin?! The mighty Jason Alexander Coyle, “mercenary extraordinaire”, had gotten his shit kicked in by a lowly goblin using what looked like a shiny butter knife. Oh, it was just too rich to not laugh at the absurdity.
It took her much longer than she would like to admit, to stop laughing. Jason of course wore a sour look through the entire endeavor. She shrugged it off, she had little doubt that if the same thing had happened to someone else, he would have been right beside her doubled over in laughter. Hell, once he was in a less pissy mood, she might even be able to get him to laugh about it later.
As luck would have it, it appeared that Jason’s actions had been enough to alter the tides of the war. The kingdom, and its divinity, would still lose many to the battles ahead, but Jason had done enough that the Agency could still bill the client for services rendered. As she spoke, she could see the disdain the man had for her, he always complained that she was drunk and reeked of liquor. Sure, that was often true, but he didn’t need to be such a stick in the mud about it all.
She went ahead and authorized the transfer of credits to Jason’s account. As soon as she did so, he opened up the store page and tuned her out. She watched him open up the back-channel site and purchase something, a small part of her wondered who was going to get roasted over the coals this time for allowing their admin privileges to be hacked. She toyed with the idea of bringing up his illegal actions, but truth be told she didn’t really give a shit. The other divinities were far too lax with their security, it had been child's play for one of her previous wards to hack into the Agency’s system and build the black site.
She’d ask him once about the whole thing, didn’t really grasp as much as she would have liked, but basically it functioned by spoofing a handler's credentials. This allowed the user to gain access to encrypted parts of the network, specifically access to certain privileged services that handlers enjoyed and most importantly, access to the mission assignment database. Users could buy and sell restricted or banned goods, and a part of the profits would be siphoned off to her ward’s personal account.
With Jason’s attention otherwise occupied, Ruby went ahead and reviewed the logs for his previous mission. Something about it was nagging at her. She couldn’t put it into words; however, the whole series of events just didn’t feel like ‘bad luck’. Using her divine authority, she rewound events, watching Jason’s lungs unfill with blood and refill with air.
The goblin skulked back to its den of corpses, resheathing the dagger at its hips, and reburied itself underneath the bodies. She let it rewind another few moments before stopping the feed and letting it run at normal time. She watched the goblin, slowly shifting the bodies out of the way, making sure they made no noise when it moved them. Slowly, carefully, it began to creep towards Jason’s exposed back. It drew the blade, again slowly and quietly. It closed the distance making sure to never let Jason see it or to give him any reason to think someone was behind him. Then in a flash of movement it leapt, burying the dagger right into a joint in Jason’s armor. The placement was perfect, no resistance, so the blade sank to the hilt. Allowing it to puncture Jason’s right lung.
Ruby rewound the log once more. This was wrong, very wrong. The goblin was way too good to just be some random grunt. Its movements were too smooth, its aim too precise. No, she was sure of it now, this was not a normal goblin. She focused her attention on the thing, aiming to scan the goblin for abnormalities, the dust covering it offering a surprising level of resistance to her scan. Not enough to stop her from doing what she wanted, but more resistance than she felt was reasonable for the anti-magic powder.
When she finally gained access to the monster’s stat block, her suspicions were proven correct. That was no normal goblin, that was a Redcap, a Redcap assassin no less. What in the dozen hells was a Redcap assassin doing in the middle of a freaking battlefield?! Such a valuable unit wouldn’t be used on the front lines, their skill set was terribly suited for the chaos that was an active battle. No, something was very wrong here and Ruby was going to figure out what.
As her mind raced trying to puzzle out what the actual fuck was going on, something else about the goblin flagged in her mind. It had come out of the corpse pile with the dagger already in its possession. She highlighted the various bodies that had made up the goblin's hidey hole, and then rewound the scene back. Every time one of the highlighted bodies met their fate, she froze the moment and pulled the scene into a separate window. It took a few minutes, but she eventually had all of the corpses frozen in the heartbeat before their deaths. She went through and scanned every single individual. Not a single one had been equipped with a magic disruptor blade. “So, where the fuck did the Redcap get a kingdom issued disruptor?”
Looking up, she saw that Jason was still fiddling with whatever it was that he bought. She tried to make idle conversation with the man, but he had gone full auto pilot, giving curt one-to-two word answers when asked a question or having to respond to a comment. She rolled her eyes, as much as she and him butted heads, she did have to admit that she did kind of like the guy. He had been going a little too hard into the whole dark and brooding edge lord thing recently, but that was hardly his fault. The human soul was ill suited to withstand the trauma of death, much less multiple deaths. The Agency usually did a memory scrub every couple missions, to prevent that kind of issue, but Jason had been dodging the screenings. For a moment she considered just letting sleeping dogs lie. Jason was dead and the mission was over regardless of what she might find, but the whole thing just rubbed her the wrong way.
Taking a little nip from her pocket flask, she once more focuses her attention on the Redcap. After scrubbing through the last several months of the creature’s life, she finally finds what she was looking for. The blade had come from one of Jason’s personal guards.
Ruby did a deep dive on the guard, and what came back made her blood run cold. The man had recently lost his lover. Jason had ordered a company to mop up a fleeing enemy force, before it could regroup and cause more issues. The entire thing had been a ruse and the company had been slaughtered to the last. The guard's lover had been part of that company. The loss had hit the man hard, driving him to the only rock left in his life. His deep belief in the kingdom’s divinity.
And wouldn’t you know it, apparently the kingdom’s divinity had some issues with Jason that it couldn’t be bothered to address through the proper channels. So instead of letting Ruby handle the trainwreck that was Jason’s social skills, this little scum lord of a God, had taken upon themself to deal with the issue. Several months of holy visions were enough to convince the grieving widow to betray everyone and everything he had ever known.
Once the guard had been properly brainwashed into turning his coat, it had been a simple matter to worm his way on to all of Jason’s post-fight surveys of the battlefield. The magic scanners that were exclusive to Jason’s retinue, had allowed him to see that Jason’s inhuman ability to avoid taking damage was really just a creative use of high-level magic. High-level magic that could have easily been used to save many of the kingdom’s soldiers. But of course, Jason believed himself too good to give the common man a means to protect themselves and those they loved. All this knowledge was of course worthless to the guard, he was nowhere near skilled enough to actually challenge Jason. But wouldn’t you know it, the divinity had thought of that too.
The podunk worm had brokered a secret deal with the enemy he’d contracted the Agency to deal with. In exchange for getting rid of a thorn in the God’s side, it would use its powers to scale back the war. Instead of facing a war of eradication, the enemy would be allowed to keep some of the land it had conquered.
At the urging of his God, the guard held a series of clandestine meetings with the Redcap. Imparting all the information he had learned in the months of shadowing Jason. He also gave the beast two gifts, the first was a Disruptor blade the guard had swiped from a fellow honor guard; when Jason’s corpse was found the blade would be traced back to the unfortunate guard instead of the traitor. The second was a satchel of Grarothian powder that had been blessed by the divinity, to ensure that Jason wouldn’t see the attack coming. It had worked of course; Jason hadn’t even known he was in danger till the blade was already buried in his lung. Oh, she was going to have the wannabe God’s head on a pike after this.
It pained her to admit it, but Jason deserved the final say in how this was all going to go down. She attempted to grab his attention, but the man was lost in his own little world. She tried waving her hands, ignored. She tried snapping her fingers in his ears, ignored. She even went so far as to beat her wings, blasting his face with the wind force of just under a category 1 hurricane; again ignored. Her rage was starting to reach fever pitch. So, she defaulted to the most tried and true method of stress reduction she had in her arsenal. She decided the only way for herself and Jason, once he knew the truth, to calm down would be to relax with a drink of the finest Earth treats.
With a heavy heart she opened up her most beloved extra planer storage space. This place was used for the only two things Ruby really cared about anymore. It was where she kept her most prized and coveted liquor, and where she kept the last few mementos, she possessed of her fallen wards. Her eyes scanned the room, she needed to pick the right apology gift. As she carefully made her way towards the back, she saw it. Tucked in about two thirds of the way to the back wall, stood a single hogshead of ancient scotch whiskey. The second to last gift she had received from one of her dearest friends, all those years ago.
Yes, this was the correct one. She felt it deep within her chest, a proper atonement requires a proper level of sacrifice. With a heavy heart she lifted the barrel over her head and began to stride out of the extra dimensional space. As she neared the opening, the soft clink of something falling and a flash of gold caught her eye. Sitting on a tiny end table was a small pouch of coins, one of which had somehow gotten loose and tumbled face up onto the polished table face.
For a moment she hesitated, she knew exactly what those coins were; and knew how much trouble she would get into if upper management found out she had them. That said, she also knew a sign when she saw one. The artifacts that she held within this place were the last remnants of those she had failed most of all. She pondered the meaning behind the fact that two of her previous charges seemed to have taken a shine to Jason, offering up to him their most precious of gifts. With a heavy heart and a plea to those long lost, she grabbed the coin before closing the pocket dimension.
With a loud *CLUNK* She set the hogshead down. Apparently, the sound of the barrel had finally made enough noise to draw Jason’s attention away from his screen. From a much smaller storage pocket she produced two crystal glasses. Pouring a hefty serving into each glass, she set one down in front of herself and the other in front of Jason. Locking eyes with the man, she said a single word.
“Drink”
The man twisted his face up in disgust at the sight of the liquor.
“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m not inclined to degr...”
“I said, DRINK!” Ruby growl bellows, casting the Command spell on the last word. Jason, despite his best efforts to ignore the compulsion, is forced to do as he is told, and takes a hearty swig of his hundred-year-old Scotch. With a smile on her lips, Ruby takes the opportunity to sip the illustrious gift. The hours melt away as they both sip and savor the deep complex flavors of this legendary brew.
As the drink flows her recollection of events becomes just a tad bit hazy. She can’t really remember how long it takes, but she does eventually come clean about the reason for this impromptu bout of drinking. It comes as little shock that Jason is... less than pleased to learn about the events that led to his death. He downs the rest of his drink in a single gulp, a waste of grand booze in Ruby’s opinion, and demands she fill his next one to the brim. For the first time in FAR too long, Ruby gets to see the Jason she had known all those years ago was still in there.
As the festivities carried on, she would occasionally catch him fiddling with the token he had bought. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she decided to ask him about it, deciding to NOT mention that she knew it was illicitly purchased. He was cagey about it at first, but eventually loosened up and told her the truth.
He had grown bored with the usual missions that he had been assigned. He was sick of always having to play support, always cleaning up someone else’s messes, always laying the groundwork for someone else’s story. So, he had decided to cash in his points, and finally make use of the vacation time he had accrued. He had picked out what looked to be a pretty basic Isekai mission. Ruby suggested not mentioning his luck to anyone else, even she was aware how rare and coveted those missions were.
As the night wound to a close, they said their goodbyes. Before taking her leave, Ruby remembered the other present she had for Jason. A sharp whistle was the only warning she gave him before flicking the coin at his head. Even drunk, the man’s senses were still a thing to marvel at as he caught it in midair .
“The fuck is this?”
“Think of it as a gift.” She snorts.
“Oh, how generous of you. A whole gold coin, whatever will I spend it on.” Jason responds as he jangles the large coin pouch at his hip.
“Oh, fuck off. I’ll take it back if you’re going to be a brat about it.”
Jason drops the coin into his wallet and shakes it again for good measure. “Oops, too late now. Guess you’ll just have to let me keep it.” He gives her a smug grin.
She scoffed before turning around and making for the door. She could hear him activate the token as she closed the door behind her. As she wandered down the hallways back to her room, she pondered the events of the day. The rogue client would need to be dealt with, but she still wasn’t sure if burying him in legal paperwork for the next millennia or two, or just giving him a good old fashion human curb stomping, was the better punishment for his actions.
The choices bounced around in her head till she finally reached her residence. Having made no real progress in deciding her actions, she elected to just table the decision till she woke up next. The God was small time, so it wasn’t like it was going anywhere.
She took her time getting ready to sleep. Being a divine being herself, she didn’t actually NEED to sleep, but she did so enjoy the human customs surrounding the whole process. She took a long hot bath to unwind, before summoning a pair of adorable pajamas. Her body clean, and her mind at peace she laid down in her oversized excessively fluffy bed.
She had barely closed her eyes and began to drift off to blissful sleep, before she was awoken once again by the sound of her alarm going off.
“You have got to be shitting me. HOW?!?!”
submitted by OrganizationGreat248 to HFY [link] [comments]
A few moments later she was gliding down the hall to the meeting room. She knew Jason was going to pitch a fit that she had left him waiting, the self-entitled brat always did think the world revolved around him; but perhaps he should have thought about that before freaking dying so early. If he wanted her to be there to meet him upon death, he could at least have the decency to not die the morning after one of her binges.
Other staff members gave her a wide berth, even if it was a hollow title, she was still technically far above basically anyone else in the pecking order, at least those who had a physical presence within the Agency. She knew they all mocked her behind her back, even divine beings were sadly prone towards gossip. She put the anger at her subordinates/coworkers out of her mind for now; even if she didn’t particularly LIKE Jason, he still didn’t deserve her coming in with baggage.
Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t noticed that she’d arrived in front of the conference room door. She had been mulling over her thoughts, just staring into nothingness, for several minutes before she finally snapped back to the present. With a soft rap on the door, she opened it and floated inside. Jason was lounging, sprawled out on the regally padded chair throne he so fancied.
They exchanged pleasantries before she sat down to go over the mission summary. Upon seeing the cause of death, she had regrettably lost her composure and started to laugh uncontrollably. Her mighty subordinate had been felled by a goblin?! The mighty Jason Alexander Coyle, “mercenary extraordinaire”, had gotten his shit kicked in by a lowly goblin using what looked like a shiny butter knife. Oh, it was just too rich to not laugh at the absurdity.
It took her much longer than she would like to admit, to stop laughing. Jason of course wore a sour look through the entire endeavor. She shrugged it off, she had little doubt that if the same thing had happened to someone else, he would have been right beside her doubled over in laughter. Hell, once he was in a less pissy mood, she might even be able to get him to laugh about it later.
As luck would have it, it appeared that Jason’s actions had been enough to alter the tides of the war. The kingdom, and its divinity, would still lose many to the battles ahead, but Jason had done enough that the Agency could still bill the client for services rendered. As she spoke, she could see the disdain the man had for her, he always complained that she was drunk and reeked of liquor. Sure, that was often true, but he didn’t need to be such a stick in the mud about it all.
She went ahead and authorized the transfer of credits to Jason’s account. As soon as she did so, he opened up the store page and tuned her out. She watched him open up the back-channel site and purchase something, a small part of her wondered who was going to get roasted over the coals this time for allowing their admin privileges to be hacked. She toyed with the idea of bringing up his illegal actions, but truth be told she didn’t really give a shit. The other divinities were far too lax with their security, it had been child's play for one of her previous wards to hack into the Agency’s system and build the black site.
She’d ask him once about the whole thing, didn’t really grasp as much as she would have liked, but basically it functioned by spoofing a handler's credentials. This allowed the user to gain access to encrypted parts of the network, specifically access to certain privileged services that handlers enjoyed and most importantly, access to the mission assignment database. Users could buy and sell restricted or banned goods, and a part of the profits would be siphoned off to her ward’s personal account.
With Jason’s attention otherwise occupied, Ruby went ahead and reviewed the logs for his previous mission. Something about it was nagging at her. She couldn’t put it into words; however, the whole series of events just didn’t feel like ‘bad luck’. Using her divine authority, she rewound events, watching Jason’s lungs unfill with blood and refill with air.
The goblin skulked back to its den of corpses, resheathing the dagger at its hips, and reburied itself underneath the bodies. She let it rewind another few moments before stopping the feed and letting it run at normal time. She watched the goblin, slowly shifting the bodies out of the way, making sure they made no noise when it moved them. Slowly, carefully, it began to creep towards Jason’s exposed back. It drew the blade, again slowly and quietly. It closed the distance making sure to never let Jason see it or to give him any reason to think someone was behind him. Then in a flash of movement it leapt, burying the dagger right into a joint in Jason’s armor. The placement was perfect, no resistance, so the blade sank to the hilt. Allowing it to puncture Jason’s right lung.
Ruby rewound the log once more. This was wrong, very wrong. The goblin was way too good to just be some random grunt. Its movements were too smooth, its aim too precise. No, she was sure of it now, this was not a normal goblin. She focused her attention on the thing, aiming to scan the goblin for abnormalities, the dust covering it offering a surprising level of resistance to her scan. Not enough to stop her from doing what she wanted, but more resistance than she felt was reasonable for the anti-magic powder.
When she finally gained access to the monster’s stat block, her suspicions were proven correct. That was no normal goblin, that was a Redcap, a Redcap assassin no less. What in the dozen hells was a Redcap assassin doing in the middle of a freaking battlefield?! Such a valuable unit wouldn’t be used on the front lines, their skill set was terribly suited for the chaos that was an active battle. No, something was very wrong here and Ruby was going to figure out what.
As her mind raced trying to puzzle out what the actual fuck was going on, something else about the goblin flagged in her mind. It had come out of the corpse pile with the dagger already in its possession. She highlighted the various bodies that had made up the goblin's hidey hole, and then rewound the scene back. Every time one of the highlighted bodies met their fate, she froze the moment and pulled the scene into a separate window. It took a few minutes, but she eventually had all of the corpses frozen in the heartbeat before their deaths. She went through and scanned every single individual. Not a single one had been equipped with a magic disruptor blade. “So, where the fuck did the Redcap get a kingdom issued disruptor?”
Looking up, she saw that Jason was still fiddling with whatever it was that he bought. She tried to make idle conversation with the man, but he had gone full auto pilot, giving curt one-to-two word answers when asked a question or having to respond to a comment. She rolled her eyes, as much as she and him butted heads, she did have to admit that she did kind of like the guy. He had been going a little too hard into the whole dark and brooding edge lord thing recently, but that was hardly his fault. The human soul was ill suited to withstand the trauma of death, much less multiple deaths. The Agency usually did a memory scrub every couple missions, to prevent that kind of issue, but Jason had been dodging the screenings. For a moment she considered just letting sleeping dogs lie. Jason was dead and the mission was over regardless of what she might find, but the whole thing just rubbed her the wrong way.
Taking a little nip from her pocket flask, she once more focuses her attention on the Redcap. After scrubbing through the last several months of the creature’s life, she finally finds what she was looking for. The blade had come from one of Jason’s personal guards.
Ruby did a deep dive on the guard, and what came back made her blood run cold. The man had recently lost his lover. Jason had ordered a company to mop up a fleeing enemy force, before it could regroup and cause more issues. The entire thing had been a ruse and the company had been slaughtered to the last. The guard's lover had been part of that company. The loss had hit the man hard, driving him to the only rock left in his life. His deep belief in the kingdom’s divinity.
And wouldn’t you know it, apparently the kingdom’s divinity had some issues with Jason that it couldn’t be bothered to address through the proper channels. So instead of letting Ruby handle the trainwreck that was Jason’s social skills, this little scum lord of a God, had taken upon themself to deal with the issue. Several months of holy visions were enough to convince the grieving widow to betray everyone and everything he had ever known.
Once the guard had been properly brainwashed into turning his coat, it had been a simple matter to worm his way on to all of Jason’s post-fight surveys of the battlefield. The magic scanners that were exclusive to Jason’s retinue, had allowed him to see that Jason’s inhuman ability to avoid taking damage was really just a creative use of high-level magic. High-level magic that could have easily been used to save many of the kingdom’s soldiers. But of course, Jason believed himself too good to give the common man a means to protect themselves and those they loved. All this knowledge was of course worthless to the guard, he was nowhere near skilled enough to actually challenge Jason. But wouldn’t you know it, the divinity had thought of that too.
The podunk worm had brokered a secret deal with the enemy he’d contracted the Agency to deal with. In exchange for getting rid of a thorn in the God’s side, it would use its powers to scale back the war. Instead of facing a war of eradication, the enemy would be allowed to keep some of the land it had conquered.
At the urging of his God, the guard held a series of clandestine meetings with the Redcap. Imparting all the information he had learned in the months of shadowing Jason. He also gave the beast two gifts, the first was a Disruptor blade the guard had swiped from a fellow honor guard; when Jason’s corpse was found the blade would be traced back to the unfortunate guard instead of the traitor. The second was a satchel of Grarothian powder that had been blessed by the divinity, to ensure that Jason wouldn’t see the attack coming. It had worked of course; Jason hadn’t even known he was in danger till the blade was already buried in his lung. Oh, she was going to have the wannabe God’s head on a pike after this.
It pained her to admit it, but Jason deserved the final say in how this was all going to go down. She attempted to grab his attention, but the man was lost in his own little world. She tried waving her hands, ignored. She tried snapping her fingers in his ears, ignored. She even went so far as to beat her wings, blasting his face with the wind force of just under a category 1 hurricane; again ignored. Her rage was starting to reach fever pitch. So, she defaulted to the most tried and true method of stress reduction she had in her arsenal. She decided the only way for herself and Jason, once he knew the truth, to calm down would be to relax with a drink of the finest Earth treats.
With a heavy heart she opened up her most beloved extra planer storage space. This place was used for the only two things Ruby really cared about anymore. It was where she kept her most prized and coveted liquor, and where she kept the last few mementos, she possessed of her fallen wards. Her eyes scanned the room, she needed to pick the right apology gift. As she carefully made her way towards the back, she saw it. Tucked in about two thirds of the way to the back wall, stood a single hogshead of ancient scotch whiskey. The second to last gift she had received from one of her dearest friends, all those years ago.
Yes, this was the correct one. She felt it deep within her chest, a proper atonement requires a proper level of sacrifice. With a heavy heart she lifted the barrel over her head and began to stride out of the extra dimensional space. As she neared the opening, the soft clink of something falling and a flash of gold caught her eye. Sitting on a tiny end table was a small pouch of coins, one of which had somehow gotten loose and tumbled face up onto the polished table face.
For a moment she hesitated, she knew exactly what those coins were; and knew how much trouble she would get into if upper management found out she had them. That said, she also knew a sign when she saw one. The artifacts that she held within this place were the last remnants of those she had failed most of all. She pondered the meaning behind the fact that two of her previous charges seemed to have taken a shine to Jason, offering up to him their most precious of gifts. With a heavy heart and a plea to those long lost, she grabbed the coin before closing the pocket dimension.
With a loud *CLUNK* She set the hogshead down. Apparently, the sound of the barrel had finally made enough noise to draw Jason’s attention away from his screen. From a much smaller storage pocket she produced two crystal glasses. Pouring a hefty serving into each glass, she set one down in front of herself and the other in front of Jason. Locking eyes with the man, she said a single word.
“Drink”
The man twisted his face up in disgust at the sight of the liquor.
“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m not inclined to degr...”
“I said, DRINK!” Ruby growl bellows, casting the Command spell on the last word. Jason, despite his best efforts to ignore the compulsion, is forced to do as he is told, and takes a hearty swig of his hundred-year-old Scotch. With a smile on her lips, Ruby takes the opportunity to sip the illustrious gift. The hours melt away as they both sip and savor the deep complex flavors of this legendary brew.
As the drink flows her recollection of events becomes just a tad bit hazy. She can’t really remember how long it takes, but she does eventually come clean about the reason for this impromptu bout of drinking. It comes as little shock that Jason is... less than pleased to learn about the events that led to his death. He downs the rest of his drink in a single gulp, a waste of grand booze in Ruby’s opinion, and demands she fill his next one to the brim. For the first time in FAR too long, Ruby gets to see the Jason she had known all those years ago was still in there.
As the festivities carried on, she would occasionally catch him fiddling with the token he had bought. Curiosity finally getting the better of her, she decided to ask him about it, deciding to NOT mention that she knew it was illicitly purchased. He was cagey about it at first, but eventually loosened up and told her the truth.
He had grown bored with the usual missions that he had been assigned. He was sick of always having to play support, always cleaning up someone else’s messes, always laying the groundwork for someone else’s story. So, he had decided to cash in his points, and finally make use of the vacation time he had accrued. He had picked out what looked to be a pretty basic Isekai mission. Ruby suggested not mentioning his luck to anyone else, even she was aware how rare and coveted those missions were.
As the night wound to a close, they said their goodbyes. Before taking her leave, Ruby remembered the other present she had for Jason. A sharp whistle was the only warning she gave him before flicking the coin at his head. Even drunk, the man’s senses were still a thing to marvel at as he caught it in midair .
“The fuck is this?”
“Think of it as a gift.” She snorts.
“Oh, how generous of you. A whole gold coin, whatever will I spend it on.” Jason responds as he jangles the large coin pouch at his hip.
“Oh, fuck off. I’ll take it back if you’re going to be a brat about it.”
Jason drops the coin into his wallet and shakes it again for good measure. “Oops, too late now. Guess you’ll just have to let me keep it.” He gives her a smug grin.
She scoffed before turning around and making for the door. She could hear him activate the token as she closed the door behind her. As she wandered down the hallways back to her room, she pondered the events of the day. The rogue client would need to be dealt with, but she still wasn’t sure if burying him in legal paperwork for the next millennia or two, or just giving him a good old fashion human curb stomping, was the better punishment for his actions.
The choices bounced around in her head till she finally reached her residence. Having made no real progress in deciding her actions, she elected to just table the decision till she woke up next. The God was small time, so it wasn’t like it was going anywhere.
She took her time getting ready to sleep. Being a divine being herself, she didn’t actually NEED to sleep, but she did so enjoy the human customs surrounding the whole process. She took a long hot bath to unwind, before summoning a pair of adorable pajamas. Her body clean, and her mind at peace she laid down in her oversized excessively fluffy bed.
She had barely closed her eyes and began to drift off to blissful sleep, before she was awoken once again by the sound of her alarm going off.
“You have got to be shitting me. HOW?!?!”
2024.05.14 15:25 deadcitiesredseas Seeking opinions on trumpet recordings with different mics
Hey y'all,
I had a session with a trumpet player the other day. It was my first time recording trumpet so I researched best recording practices. I saw a number of differing opinions on whether to use a dynamic or condenser mic. The genre of song is sort of pop/funk with four-part trumpet chord swells throughout. There are some sforzando moments and generally wide dynamics (verse is mp, outro is fortisimo & stacatto, etc). So I used both (an SM57 and an Audix SCX25A) and figured I'd decide later. Welp, it's time to decide and I'd love your help!
Firstly, the biggest difference in sound I hear is in the hi-mids (3.5k - 7k). The SM57 is much brighter in these frequencies than the Audix. When comparing in RX (spectogram), I can see the Audix obviously has the better frequency response, with the SM57 not showing much past 18k. Also, the SM57 has lower peaks (when matching LUFS for the recordings).
My instinct was to go with the Audix throughout, based on the tamer hi-mids, BUT the peaks being tamer with the SM57 is also quite appealing since it means a bit less gain staging, compression and general work when I start mixing. Currently, I've tried switching mics section by section: for the sforzando and stacatto loud sections, I'm using the SM57, and for the mp and more detailed sections i'm using the Audix. Different tracks with different EQs for each obviously. But this feels like it could be a mistake or that things might feel off (maybe they do feel off subconsciously to me).
Anyway, I know reading these words isn't nearly as helpful as hearing examples of each in context, but I figured I'd just throw this out there in case someone's had a similar experience and found the answer, or can just provide more information/advice. At the end of the day, I'll try my best to just use my ears, but I'd love to benefit from the experience of the many talented folks on this sub if anyone's feeling generous with their time.
Many thanks for any tips/guidance!
submitted by deadcitiesredseas to audioengineering [link] [comments]
I had a session with a trumpet player the other day. It was my first time recording trumpet so I researched best recording practices. I saw a number of differing opinions on whether to use a dynamic or condenser mic. The genre of song is sort of pop/funk with four-part trumpet chord swells throughout. There are some sforzando moments and generally wide dynamics (verse is mp, outro is fortisimo & stacatto, etc). So I used both (an SM57 and an Audix SCX25A) and figured I'd decide later. Welp, it's time to decide and I'd love your help!
Firstly, the biggest difference in sound I hear is in the hi-mids (3.5k - 7k). The SM57 is much brighter in these frequencies than the Audix. When comparing in RX (spectogram), I can see the Audix obviously has the better frequency response, with the SM57 not showing much past 18k. Also, the SM57 has lower peaks (when matching LUFS for the recordings).
My instinct was to go with the Audix throughout, based on the tamer hi-mids, BUT the peaks being tamer with the SM57 is also quite appealing since it means a bit less gain staging, compression and general work when I start mixing. Currently, I've tried switching mics section by section: for the sforzando and stacatto loud sections, I'm using the SM57, and for the mp and more detailed sections i'm using the Audix. Different tracks with different EQs for each obviously. But this feels like it could be a mistake or that things might feel off (maybe they do feel off subconsciously to me).
Anyway, I know reading these words isn't nearly as helpful as hearing examples of each in context, but I figured I'd just throw this out there in case someone's had a similar experience and found the answer, or can just provide more information/advice. At the end of the day, I'll try my best to just use my ears, but I'd love to benefit from the experience of the many talented folks on this sub if anyone's feeling generous with their time.
Many thanks for any tips/guidance!
2024.05.14 15:25 Effective_Advisor157 one day suspension, I don’t know if I can go back
Hi everyone,
I have been teaching for 7 years and at this high school for 5.
My state is very white, and the city I work in is very conservative aside from the fact that it’s a sanctuary city and has a huge somali population. During my five years I have rocked the boat a bit, I run the black student union, and advocate for students who have been voiceless. This past year I won an award through the YWCA for my work with students and social justice.
Yesterday I received an email from HR that I needed to come to a meeting (scary!!)
it turns out that a student who I had trusted was recording private conversations between me and other students during lunch or prep time (specifically non instructional times) and sending them to admin.
the problem with the conversations according to HR was that I was talking with students about other teachers and their behaviors with kids. HR said I should have immediately shut down any conversation about a coworker and that it was unprofessional to be talking with students like they were “equals”.
I was put on a one day suspension, and admin agreed that would be this friday.
this morning I woke up and just couldn’t stop throwing up and panicking about having to go back. I love what I do. and I love the kids I work with.
I don’t know how to move forward at the school without feeling like i’m not wanted there. I only have a month left before summer and I’m considering moving on even though my heart hurts for the kids.
any advice about how to go back after this? thank you for reading.
submitted by Effective_Advisor157 to Teachers [link] [comments]
I have been teaching for 7 years and at this high school for 5.
My state is very white, and the city I work in is very conservative aside from the fact that it’s a sanctuary city and has a huge somali population. During my five years I have rocked the boat a bit, I run the black student union, and advocate for students who have been voiceless. This past year I won an award through the YWCA for my work with students and social justice.
Yesterday I received an email from HR that I needed to come to a meeting (scary!!)
it turns out that a student who I had trusted was recording private conversations between me and other students during lunch or prep time (specifically non instructional times) and sending them to admin.
the problem with the conversations according to HR was that I was talking with students about other teachers and their behaviors with kids. HR said I should have immediately shut down any conversation about a coworker and that it was unprofessional to be talking with students like they were “equals”.
I was put on a one day suspension, and admin agreed that would be this friday.
this morning I woke up and just couldn’t stop throwing up and panicking about having to go back. I love what I do. and I love the kids I work with.
I don’t know how to move forward at the school without feeling like i’m not wanted there. I only have a month left before summer and I’m considering moving on even though my heart hurts for the kids.
any advice about how to go back after this? thank you for reading.
2024.05.14 15:25 Thin-Walrus-1512 B School research - do it right!
Hello, folks! As the results of various B Schools have been pouring in, and everyone here is in a mad rush to figure out which colleges want them and which colleges they (should) want, I've been seeing a lot of uninformed (at best) and intentionally misleading (at worst) opinions going around. The problem here is that while I, having wrapped up my MBA journey a while back, am a little more adept at sniffing out the BS than the average aspirant - many others in this journey are understandably quite clueless (as was I back in my day, to the point where I didn't even know about SP Jain till after I joined C!), and often don't know better.
So, how do you navigate these choppy waters?
All the best to everyone out here (current and future aspirants alike), and feel free to comment or DM if you'd like to take the conversation further. Cheers!
submitted by Thin-Walrus-1512 to CATpreparation [link] [comments]
So, how do you navigate these choppy waters?
- Always be skeptical on Reddit. Understand that anonymity is a powerful tool - which on one hand can be used to share privileged and even scandalous truths, but on the other hand can also serve as a façade for ulterior motives. So, if you find any particularly concerning posts or testimonials, make sure to run it by a large enough sample space to significantly dilute the ill-intentioned opinions.
- NEVER sought subjective opinions from MBA grads and students (e.g., is the consulting culture good? Is the campus pretty? etc.). Always frame your questions to ensure the answers are purely facts and numbers (e.g., how many consulting firms come to campus, and how many folks get placed there? What's the approximate split of green areas to concrete structures, and how many water bodies exist? etc.). Even with your best interests in mind, their definitions of "good" or "bad" may not align with yours, and give you the wrong picture of what to expect there. So figure out what facts and numbers qualify as "good to have" and "must have" across all aspects of your MBA experience (you could even set this up as an Excel matrix), and tailor your questions to fill in the blanks.
- NEVER ask current students their opinions on other colleges. They've barely spent long enough in an MBA to know their own college, let alone judge others' - and college tribalism can run very deep. Only ask about college opinions from the current students and alumni of said college, along the lines discussed in point 2.
- Target questions to the right audience. If you want to know about placement outcomes and future prospects of a particular college, talk to alumni of said college (preferably those who've spent at least a couple of years in the industry) - anything the current students know is only from the lens of a single placement cycle and hearsay, and their advice might be biased due to their attachment to their college (which diminishes as you gain work ex post MBA). However, if you want to know about things within the campus itself, defer to current students (since alumni may not have the time to discuss those aspects of your MBA journey, and current students would have the most updated info on the same).
- Likely goes without saying, but always maximise your sample space for feedback. If you're discussing post-MBA prospects for college A, try to talk to at least 5+ alumni - if you can get feedback from 8-10 alumni, you'll have a rich source of consistent data that isn't tainted by subjective experiences or individual biases. Likewise, for internal matters reach out to as many current students as you can, for the same reason.
All the best to everyone out here (current and future aspirants alike), and feel free to comment or DM if you'd like to take the conversation further. Cheers!
2024.05.14 15:24 HauntingTradition197 Why is premium fuel the better choice?
I was wondering why premium is the better choice, and the science behind it?
Everywhere I've looked just brings up fuel company's explaining why. But I'd rather have an unbiased opinion about it.
I want to get the most out off my shitbox. For atleast a few more years, and was wondering if any benefits I'd hope to gain from it would be worth it. I.e. cost vs benefit.
I've read that it is in fact a better choice, and x,y,z reasons why. But I'd rather know the science off why it would have the improvements it claims then just being told it does. If that makes sense?
submitted by HauntingTradition197 to CarTalkUK [link] [comments]
Everywhere I've looked just brings up fuel company's explaining why. But I'd rather have an unbiased opinion about it.
I want to get the most out off my shitbox. For atleast a few more years, and was wondering if any benefits I'd hope to gain from it would be worth it. I.e. cost vs benefit.
I've read that it is in fact a better choice, and x,y,z reasons why. But I'd rather know the science off why it would have the improvements it claims then just being told it does. If that makes sense?
2024.05.14 15:21 chug2k Race Report: Danang Vietnam 70.3 IM
My second 70.3, and my first Oly was two years ago. I swam JV for one year in high school, owned a road bike in college, and never understood how people could enjoy running. Now that I'm older (38M) ... I think I kind of "get" why people run now. It's nice. Maybe I can get into golf next, never understood that one either.
tl;dr - rookie mistake, had a great bike, terrible run. This is exactly what happened on my first 70.3 six months ago and I can't believe I did the exact same thing again. Already planning my next 70.3.
Total time: 6:10 (massive asterisk, swim course was truncated to 750m because of conditions). My target time was 6:30 (with the swim), I would've missed it. Bike split and run split were both 2:53.
Training: I didn't follow a plan, and I think that was a mistake, but I did keep it up pretty consistently. I was averaging about 10 hours a week between running / biking / swimming. 98% of my bike was done indoors, because road conditions in Vietnam (I moved here a few years ago from the US) are a little scary for me. I try to ride with the A/C off when it comes near the race to get more heat-acclimated.
Diet: My weird thing is that for my first 70.3, I was on keto. I didn't believe everyone when they said it was dumb, and it took bonking on that race to realize that you were all right. So since then have adapted to the exact opposite diet (also probably dumb) where I'm all vegan, except for whey protein powder.
Race
Swim: The surf was at about 2m overhead, and kind of big and challenging. I was excited for it, as really it's not that bad once you duck dive out past the waves. Unfortunately, the day before the race, a group who was just warming up got swept out and had a hard time coming back in. No one died but one guy had to be CPR'ed back to life on the beach. So instead, they had us run 300m, swim 750m parallel to the beach, and run another 300m. This was super lame because it was hardly a swim at all - I walked for 740 of those meters, as I realized that I was walking way faster than the people trying to swim. I'm a little bit tall so I think that helped (188cm, 6'2"), and I know how to surf a little bit so when big waves would come in, I knew how to duck dive easily under them. As a result everyone's swim times were 10-14min. I did mine in 13.
Bike: Based on heavy Reddit opinion I got a bike fit, by this super specialist who happened to be hanging out in Vietnam (www.instagram.com/fit\_by\_antoniopavlovich/). It made my bike ride about 50% more comfortable. My back was getting really sore 50km in, but before it would happen at around 20-30km. I do long Zwift rides on that bike but at home I can't help but cheat and sit up/back in the seat and stretch things out, I don't have the discipline to stay on the hood/drops once things start hurting. Anyway the bike was my best performance yet and I was really pacing myself (or so I thought). The course only has one slight climb up a bridge, and normally I'm more of a puncheur type, or at least that's what intervals.icu tells me. I kept it pretty conservative on the bike but when people would zoom by me I would try to keep up with them - not to draft (I am too scared to ride close enough for that) but just because I just wanted to feel like somebody. Anyway I thought I kept all my matches and so at the end pushed a little harder.
Towards the end of the bike ride, I was actively regretting not pushing harder earlier, and wondering if I was ready for a full ironman. There's one in October in Gurye South Korea, and I was doing some math in my head about whether or not 5 months would be enough to train.
Run: My normal easy long run pace is around 6:30min/km, and I ran slow and found myself running 5:40. So I tried to cut it back but I was so amped and I had read people on reddit setting HM PB's during their races. So I decided to play it safe at around 6:15, and then I'd kick back to 5:40 after km 10.
3km later, I started cramping in ways I'd never cramped before. I thought I had taken in enough salt, and I think I did. I think I just pushed it too hard - after being keto for so long, I was really on top of my nutrition and carbs (over 60g/hr) and I think I had tons of energy, but my muscles just couldn't take it.
But I kept running gingerly, I could feel the muscles on the verge of cramping but they were kind of holding it together. I ran the first 5km in 32 min, so about my 6:15 pace. Then my left knee just kinda gave out. I think I was running weird to avoid stressing my about-to-cramp muscles and that just messed up my knee. I was hoping I could just keep running and the pain would go away but no, it wouldn't. I was wondering if I could just goggins my way through it... but it kinda hurt a lot and I was wondering if I could do permanent damage if I kept running through it. So I decided to walk for just a bit, stretch it out. Then try to see if I could run on it again.
Eventually it was just all walking all the time, any impact on the left leg was too painful. So I tried my best to racewalk, although I'd never done that before. It was awful and I hated it but it was the only way to keep my knee from screaming. My heart rate couldn't get up (I finished the last 2 hours in basically Z1, low Z2) because if I racewalked too fast my knee would still complain. So my Garmin was just taunting me saying "Easy" when I was on the HR screen.
But I finished, and it was cool. My wife ran her first HM in a relay with her coworkers, and did it in 2:35, which I was so proud of but also kind of embarrassed about, because I was always cagey about training together because I wanted to run at a faster pace than her.
Two days later my knee feels fine, just took it on a quick bike ride and it hurt a little but I don't think I did any real damage. Going up and down stairs the day after the race was painful though.
I love triathlon stuff. I want to get a real sub 6 soon, will work on the run. And yeah, about that full ironman - definitely not ready in 5 months. But in 17? I think so. If anyone is doing Gurye South Korea 2025, give me a shout. :)
submitted by chug2k to triathlon [link] [comments]
tl;dr - rookie mistake, had a great bike, terrible run. This is exactly what happened on my first 70.3 six months ago and I can't believe I did the exact same thing again. Already planning my next 70.3.
Total time: 6:10 (massive asterisk, swim course was truncated to 750m because of conditions). My target time was 6:30 (with the swim), I would've missed it. Bike split and run split were both 2:53.
Training: I didn't follow a plan, and I think that was a mistake, but I did keep it up pretty consistently. I was averaging about 10 hours a week between running / biking / swimming. 98% of my bike was done indoors, because road conditions in Vietnam (I moved here a few years ago from the US) are a little scary for me. I try to ride with the A/C off when it comes near the race to get more heat-acclimated.
Diet: My weird thing is that for my first 70.3, I was on keto. I didn't believe everyone when they said it was dumb, and it took bonking on that race to realize that you were all right. So since then have adapted to the exact opposite diet (also probably dumb) where I'm all vegan, except for whey protein powder.
Race
Swim: The surf was at about 2m overhead, and kind of big and challenging. I was excited for it, as really it's not that bad once you duck dive out past the waves. Unfortunately, the day before the race, a group who was just warming up got swept out and had a hard time coming back in. No one died but one guy had to be CPR'ed back to life on the beach. So instead, they had us run 300m, swim 750m parallel to the beach, and run another 300m. This was super lame because it was hardly a swim at all - I walked for 740 of those meters, as I realized that I was walking way faster than the people trying to swim. I'm a little bit tall so I think that helped (188cm, 6'2"), and I know how to surf a little bit so when big waves would come in, I knew how to duck dive easily under them. As a result everyone's swim times were 10-14min. I did mine in 13.
Bike: Based on heavy Reddit opinion I got a bike fit, by this super specialist who happened to be hanging out in Vietnam (www.instagram.com/fit\_by\_antoniopavlovich/). It made my bike ride about 50% more comfortable. My back was getting really sore 50km in, but before it would happen at around 20-30km. I do long Zwift rides on that bike but at home I can't help but cheat and sit up/back in the seat and stretch things out, I don't have the discipline to stay on the hood/drops once things start hurting. Anyway the bike was my best performance yet and I was really pacing myself (or so I thought). The course only has one slight climb up a bridge, and normally I'm more of a puncheur type, or at least that's what intervals.icu tells me. I kept it pretty conservative on the bike but when people would zoom by me I would try to keep up with them - not to draft (I am too scared to ride close enough for that) but just because I just wanted to feel like somebody. Anyway I thought I kept all my matches and so at the end pushed a little harder.
Towards the end of the bike ride, I was actively regretting not pushing harder earlier, and wondering if I was ready for a full ironman. There's one in October in Gurye South Korea, and I was doing some math in my head about whether or not 5 months would be enough to train.
Run: My normal easy long run pace is around 6:30min/km, and I ran slow and found myself running 5:40. So I tried to cut it back but I was so amped and I had read people on reddit setting HM PB's during their races. So I decided to play it safe at around 6:15, and then I'd kick back to 5:40 after km 10.
3km later, I started cramping in ways I'd never cramped before. I thought I had taken in enough salt, and I think I did. I think I just pushed it too hard - after being keto for so long, I was really on top of my nutrition and carbs (over 60g/hr) and I think I had tons of energy, but my muscles just couldn't take it.
But I kept running gingerly, I could feel the muscles on the verge of cramping but they were kind of holding it together. I ran the first 5km in 32 min, so about my 6:15 pace. Then my left knee just kinda gave out. I think I was running weird to avoid stressing my about-to-cramp muscles and that just messed up my knee. I was hoping I could just keep running and the pain would go away but no, it wouldn't. I was wondering if I could just goggins my way through it... but it kinda hurt a lot and I was wondering if I could do permanent damage if I kept running through it. So I decided to walk for just a bit, stretch it out. Then try to see if I could run on it again.
Eventually it was just all walking all the time, any impact on the left leg was too painful. So I tried my best to racewalk, although I'd never done that before. It was awful and I hated it but it was the only way to keep my knee from screaming. My heart rate couldn't get up (I finished the last 2 hours in basically Z1, low Z2) because if I racewalked too fast my knee would still complain. So my Garmin was just taunting me saying "Easy" when I was on the HR screen.
But I finished, and it was cool. My wife ran her first HM in a relay with her coworkers, and did it in 2:35, which I was so proud of but also kind of embarrassed about, because I was always cagey about training together because I wanted to run at a faster pace than her.
Two days later my knee feels fine, just took it on a quick bike ride and it hurt a little but I don't think I did any real damage. Going up and down stairs the day after the race was painful though.
I love triathlon stuff. I want to get a real sub 6 soon, will work on the run. And yeah, about that full ironman - definitely not ready in 5 months. But in 17? I think so. If anyone is doing Gurye South Korea 2025, give me a shout. :)
2024.05.14 15:20 Silent_Dom02 [M4F] A rivalry rekindled (Romance/Slice of life)
Me and you. Not two peas in a pod but more like 2 rabid animals in a cage. Every moment we found some time together, it would be filled with insulting jabs, belittling, almost insulting phrases to knock each others confidence. Why?...well we aren't really sure. It wasn't like anyone got hurt or we went too far, but the rivalry that came out of nowhere seemed to stem from some sort of unrequited attraction that we were too stubborn to admit.
A few years later, we've moved on with our lives and the old high school days seemed to be behind us. We matured, grew out of our spite and went about our mundane adult lives. I changed my name, moved across the country and essentially started a new life. I wasn't flowing with cash at the time so i found that the best way to save money whilst getting a new connection in the city was to put an ad online for a new roomate in the apartment i chose to stay at.
Unbeknownst to yourself, you were also looking for the same deal and so you hastily accepted the ad, not knowing that it was in fact your old high school rival that was to be your roomate. Will we still hold the same grudge like angsty teens or find more common ground through our grown up eyes?
Greetings all, i hope the above premise caught your interest. If it did, feel free to read on.
I am a 21 year old male based in the GMT timezone and i am seeking to roleplay with a literate female writer about the above plot. I am a literate writer myself where i write multiple paragraphs and I'd say im pretty detailed with my writing.
Availability wise, i am mostly free throughout the day as im in between jobs at the moment. I don't mind what timezone you're in but it would be good to know so i can generally keep track of timings on your end.
I want to write with someone passionate, detailed and who i can talk to OOC and develop a good connection with as i feel like its important to enjoy the company you write with. I will always be open and transparent with my thoughts and feelings and i trust that you will be too.
I also prefer roleplaying on discord so it'd be handy if you preffered it too.
Reference pictures for characters are always preffered. To preface, i don't use realistic ones.
If you're interested, feel free to send me a chat and introduce yourself. I'll get back to you as soon as i can.
See ya~
submitted by Silent_Dom02 to RoleplayPartnerSearch [link] [comments]
A few years later, we've moved on with our lives and the old high school days seemed to be behind us. We matured, grew out of our spite and went about our mundane adult lives. I changed my name, moved across the country and essentially started a new life. I wasn't flowing with cash at the time so i found that the best way to save money whilst getting a new connection in the city was to put an ad online for a new roomate in the apartment i chose to stay at.
Unbeknownst to yourself, you were also looking for the same deal and so you hastily accepted the ad, not knowing that it was in fact your old high school rival that was to be your roomate. Will we still hold the same grudge like angsty teens or find more common ground through our grown up eyes?
Greetings all, i hope the above premise caught your interest. If it did, feel free to read on.
I am a 21 year old male based in the GMT timezone and i am seeking to roleplay with a literate female writer about the above plot. I am a literate writer myself where i write multiple paragraphs and I'd say im pretty detailed with my writing.
Availability wise, i am mostly free throughout the day as im in between jobs at the moment. I don't mind what timezone you're in but it would be good to know so i can generally keep track of timings on your end.
I want to write with someone passionate, detailed and who i can talk to OOC and develop a good connection with as i feel like its important to enjoy the company you write with. I will always be open and transparent with my thoughts and feelings and i trust that you will be too.
I also prefer roleplaying on discord so it'd be handy if you preffered it too.
Reference pictures for characters are always preffered. To preface, i don't use realistic ones.
If you're interested, feel free to send me a chat and introduce yourself. I'll get back to you as soon as i can.
See ya~
2024.05.14 15:18 vampire5381 bro what is reddit anymore ☠️
some people kept denying what I had to say about my religion and they kept down voting me because I was stating a fact about a religion that I follow.. they were treating my fact like an opinion
what??? what was that?? ☠️ pathetic-ville
if you're wondering what I said; its that islam actually has no problem with science, infact it encourages science, learning, seeking information, education etc.. I guess some people didn't like that because its ruins their "religion vs science" view
anyone has similar experiences? please share so I feel less insane 🙏😊
submitted by vampire5381 to teenagers [link] [comments]
what??? what was that?? ☠️ pathetic-ville
if you're wondering what I said; its that islam actually has no problem with science, infact it encourages science, learning, seeking information, education etc.. I guess some people didn't like that because its ruins their "religion vs science" view
anyone has similar experiences? please share so I feel less insane 🙏😊
2024.05.14 15:18 KentuckyFriedChaos My short lived experience with sertraline
In February this year I visited my doctor to discuss my anxiety, low mood, lack of enjoyment and just general depressed feeling. Prior to this I had tried everything to improvement my mental health - mindfulness, improving my diet, exercise, losing weight, reading, talking - but I found myself in the same position over and over. Low and anxious. I just wanted to sleep all day.
I was prescribed 50mg daily of Sertraline. I was initially reluctant to start as I was scared of the side effects. I believe that’s quite a common feeling.
After a week, and a particularly stressful time at work, I took my first dose.
I barely slept that night. I had read that it might affect my sleep and realised I should’ve taken it in the morning to reduce any negative effect. After shifting to mornings my sleep went back to normal (not great, but I could at least sleep)
My side effects were limited. I began sweating a lot. Though I wasn’t particularly hot - which made it more inconvenient as I would just sweat buckets unknowingly.
I had maybe two or three waves of anxiety unlike anything I’d experienced in the past. These lasted anywhere from a second to an hour. But did pass.
I couldn’t orgasm. But this resolved after a few weeks.
I had no issues drinking alcohol. In fact I weirdly felt like I had a higher tolerance. Not sure if that was the tablets or just a higher than usual amount of social occasions attended.
I had bizarre dreams. But to be honest I quite enjoyed them.
The worst thing for me was my short term memory just went. I often struggled to remember names and work tasks. When reminded the memory would come rushing back like some long forgotten memory. I described this to the doctor as previously having a million thoughts rushing through my head almost kept things at the forefront. Now that voice was quieter but the constant reminders had gone with it. Strange.
I felt that my anxiety and social anxiety was massively reduced overall. But almost to the point when I was apathetic. I was freed to take on backlogs of work without the anxiety but honestly was not bothered about getting started or really the consequences of not completing work tasks.
I fell out of the habit of exercising. Exercising was a mental relief for me and I do generally enjoy it. But on sertraline I just didn’t feel motivated to do it. And I didn’t really care what the negative aspects of it were.
For the reason I took it upon myself to come off medication. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS WITHOUT MEDICAL GUIDNANCE. But I am an idiot so just cut down over to nothing over the course of a week.
I haven’t had any negative withdrawals. I’ve been able to just continue as usual. I am enjoying exercise again and feel my memory is back - but along with the racing thoughts.
I would say my experience overall was on the positive side. And I can see how medication can help vital to calming down that mental chatter for many people. But for me I wasn’t strong enough to continue to be motivated on medication.
submitted by KentuckyFriedChaos to zoloft [link] [comments]
I was prescribed 50mg daily of Sertraline. I was initially reluctant to start as I was scared of the side effects. I believe that’s quite a common feeling.
After a week, and a particularly stressful time at work, I took my first dose.
I barely slept that night. I had read that it might affect my sleep and realised I should’ve taken it in the morning to reduce any negative effect. After shifting to mornings my sleep went back to normal (not great, but I could at least sleep)
My side effects were limited. I began sweating a lot. Though I wasn’t particularly hot - which made it more inconvenient as I would just sweat buckets unknowingly.
I had maybe two or three waves of anxiety unlike anything I’d experienced in the past. These lasted anywhere from a second to an hour. But did pass.
I couldn’t orgasm. But this resolved after a few weeks.
I had no issues drinking alcohol. In fact I weirdly felt like I had a higher tolerance. Not sure if that was the tablets or just a higher than usual amount of social occasions attended.
I had bizarre dreams. But to be honest I quite enjoyed them.
The worst thing for me was my short term memory just went. I often struggled to remember names and work tasks. When reminded the memory would come rushing back like some long forgotten memory. I described this to the doctor as previously having a million thoughts rushing through my head almost kept things at the forefront. Now that voice was quieter but the constant reminders had gone with it. Strange.
I felt that my anxiety and social anxiety was massively reduced overall. But almost to the point when I was apathetic. I was freed to take on backlogs of work without the anxiety but honestly was not bothered about getting started or really the consequences of not completing work tasks.
I fell out of the habit of exercising. Exercising was a mental relief for me and I do generally enjoy it. But on sertraline I just didn’t feel motivated to do it. And I didn’t really care what the negative aspects of it were.
For the reason I took it upon myself to come off medication. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND DOING THIS WITHOUT MEDICAL GUIDNANCE. But I am an idiot so just cut down over to nothing over the course of a week.
I haven’t had any negative withdrawals. I’ve been able to just continue as usual. I am enjoying exercise again and feel my memory is back - but along with the racing thoughts.
I would say my experience overall was on the positive side. And I can see how medication can help vital to calming down that mental chatter for many people. But for me I wasn’t strong enough to continue to be motivated on medication.