Yeah I said it. In a world full of reboots, remakes, needless prequels and souless cash grab spin-offs, I actually think that a Godfather Prequel would be a great movie.
"The Family Corleone" is the 2012 novel by Ed Falco which explores the family in 1934, about 10 years before "The Godfather", and surrounds the induction of Sonny Corleone into the world of crime, and the Olive Oil War that we hear about in the original movie.
Much like the OG Godfather is about Michael falling into the criminal world, the Family Corleone is about Sonny, from a much different perspective. Unlike the civillian Michael, Sonny was already a petty criminal who wanted to be accepted into his father's gangster family. His actions throughout the story play a pivotal role in unleashing the "Olive Oil War", where Joe Mariposa and his criminal Empire (with young Emilio Barzini, Philip Tattaglia and Frank Pentangelli working for him), attempt to destroy the Corleones. It mirrors real life Castalamarese war, which led to the Commission and the Five Families being established.
So the story follows

1. Sonny going from a criminal to a made man
2. The Olive Oil War and the creation of the five families we see in the Godfather
3. The recruitment of Luca Brazzi by Vito and why he's so feared and loyal to the Corleones.

Now, do we need a prequel to the Godfather? No we don't. But we didn't need The Godfather Part II either. I think it would be great to explore younger versions of these character and, frankly, just a great mob movie.
Edit: To add a bit more detail. I really enjoy the theme of the book that this isn't just the "fall of a good man" as with Michael in the Godfather. The book really focuses on how Sonny perceives the family business and being accepted into it as a good thing, and how this clashes with Vito's mentality, who's desperately trying to conceal his families activities from his children, and realizing that's impossible. That's a very interesting angle to explore, the naive son that dreams of being a crime boss and the father that wishes better things for his son.

Since there was many people who decided to confront, harass, or downright misinterpret the message, I am putting out this open letter addressing every concern addressed to me holistically:
Open Letter to Faculty, Staff, Students, and the General Community Addressing Concerns Regarding the May 13th ASUW Newsletter
NOTE: These are my thoughts and feelings solely as Jacob Feleke, not intending to represent the ASUW.
I wanted to take a moment to thank you all for sharing your concerns about the recent ASUW newsletter. Your insights are invaluable, and they resonate deeply with my own commitment to promoting inclusive dialogue within our university community.

1. Malcolm X Quote: The acknowledgment of the sensitivity surrounding the use of a quote from Malcolm X, with the claims of anti-Semitic rhetoric in the past, struck a chord with me. As someone with Jewish ethnicity and Semitic myself, I fully understand the importance of ensuring that our messaging remains sensitive and respectful. However, I do want to include the fact that Malcom X began his transformation after his pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, where he experienced and interacted with people from diverse racial backgrounds and realized faults within himself. Following his journey, Malcolm X underwent ideological shifts, moving away from separatist and divisive teachings. I do not include Malcom X to incite or aggravate, but rather to show the change people exhibit in their teachings. “Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve done” - Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy.
2. Alleged Misuse of Power and Political Bias: I want to emphasize the significant impact of ASUW legislation, which, while not legally binding, influences every aspect of student life, from social functions to the allocation of student funds. As the democratic voice of students, ASUW engages the campus community through programming, services, and advocacy. We amplified the students who brought forward the divestment bill, which underwent rigorous (and a bit vociferous) questioning to reach its final form. The students who presented or supported the bill, some being Jewish themselves, were subjected to ad-hominem attacks being described as “self-hating” by students and described as “ignorant” by faculty and staff along with threats of not being able to find a job after college. Through their trials and tribulations, the approval of this bill by ASUW Student Senate and its presentation to the Board of Directors, and later the Board of Regents on May 9th, as Official Student Opinion underscores our commitment to representing student perspectives in our decision-making processes.
3. Portrayal of Conflict and use of the word 'martyr': I fully appreciate the significance of promoting balanced and respectful discourse. The emphasis on understanding and addressing the concerns of all members of our community has been an issue as the entire campus, and the world is virtually polarized. From the Black Student Union sit-in at Gerberding Hall in 1968, and the May 1970 Antiwar Strikes, these events on our campus occurring simultaneously with the rest of the world did indeed cause students to be martyred for their activism. I emphasize the term ‘martyr’ as we see other universities today engaging in increasing repudiation and silencing of students, which I fear may escalate to lives lost if matters escalate from outside agitators, law enforcement, or universities themselves.
4. Alleged Lack of Representation: The allegations regarding the lack of representation of Jewish students on the ASUW is quite frankly a matter that I am not at liberty to discuss, out of privacy for the students, nor is a well researched allegation. Again, as a semitic individual myself, with Jewish heritage, coupled with a Hebrew name ‘Jacob’, I share the dedication in ensuring that every student's voice is heard and represented within our student organizations. The calls for greater inclusivity and representation in the ASUW mirrors my own aspirations, for our own university community.
5. Questioning of the Peaceful Dialogue: The skepticism about the peaceful nature of the encampment protests underscores the urgent need for transparency and accountability within activist movements. I am deeply committed to ensuring that the activism in the ASUW is conducted in a manner that respects the rights and perspectives of all individuals. The concerns serve as a reminder of the importance of upholding principles of nonviolence and inclusivity in our advocacy efforts. We all want to support activism, and it's crucial to make sure it's done in a way that respects everyone's rights and opinions. In the same breath, I will not condone or tell students to stand silent when being harassed.

In summary, I am truly grateful for everyone's thoughtful critiques and the dedication to fostering a more inclusive and respectful dialogue within our university community. Your insights have sparked important reflections on the implications of our actions and messaging, and I eagerly anticipate working together with everyone to address these concerns constructively.
Sincerely,
Jacob Feleke

Noah The Pilgrim
First Next
There is one last thing to do before leaving. If you don't recall ever being on this ship, then surely, you could have had your appearance change too.
Why was there a blanket covering a mirror? You couldn't answer that with a straight face without speculation.
"Probably me being lazy and not bothering to properly place it in the wardrobe."
'Probably' is the main focus here, you simply cannot remember ever being that lazy, yet that's the only logical conclusion to be drawn here.
You pull the thing off, careful to not displace the mirror and risk breaking it.
You have no expectations as to what may appear on the glassy surface of the mirror, yet you can't help but feel a bit anxious. Are you the same as before? How were you before? You can't remember. Are you better? Worse? The blanket is now completely off the mirror, but your eyes are closed.
Whatever is it that you see when you open your eyes, that thing will be you for the rest of your life. You swallow, opening your eyes.
You see a young man that looks to be in his mid-twenties. His brown eyes stare back at you, analyzing the bags beneath your eye sockets. The dark hair is neither too long nor too short, floating about without order thanks to the lack of gravity to keep it down. You see a beard that has not been trimmed for weeks, but also lacks thickness, each singular hair isn't particularly long either; and some even appear to be in-grown.
You touch your hand against your face, making sure it's yours. The beard doesn't feel like you supposed it would against your skin, instead of it scraping your hand you feel softness, no resistance or anything.
Just beneath the face, you see what looks like a hate crime against all that is considered holy in fashion. Plain white coveralls with the added bonus of a black tie and boots made from metal and leather. On your chest is also a badge stuck in place by velcro with your name, occupation, and crew. 'NOAH - INTERN - THE ODYSSEY.'
Only one question came to mind.
"Who the fuck designed this uniform?" You say out loud, receiving no answer.
Patting your newfound myriad of pockets, you find a large quantity of nothing. You place your wallet in one of them.
"Alright, I'll head to the bridge now, happy?" You say the AI.
"HAPPINESS WILL ONLY MEET ME ONCE YOU ARE SOMEWHERE SAFE AND YOUR CONTRACT IS TERMINATED. STOP LOITERING."
Well, that's a bit rude.
You compose yourself, straightening your back. This is what you look like, and honestly? Not too bad, but you could be better.
Returning to the cafeteria, you eye the two doors left unexplored; Communications and the one without plaque. You know where you should, but... A little peek doesn't hurt, right?
"Shouldn't we try to communicate with someone? Assuming you haven't tried it yet. I know we're far from everything, but we might as well, no?" You ask already approaching the door.
"COMMUNICATIONS ROOM IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO REACH WITHOUT PROPER PROTECTION AS OF NOW, IT'S LOCATED APPROXIMATELY TWO HUNDRED METERS FROM HERE, BLOWN OFF FROM THE REST OF THE SHIP." A shame really. "I SHALL INFORM YOU WHENEVER A DOOR LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE OR NOT."
You really want to ask what blew a whole segment of the ship off, yet you have a sneaking suspicion that your question will be met with a 'YOU DON'T HAVE CLEARANCE, JACKASS' directly in your face. So you chose to remain silent, simply nodding and approaching the correct door this time.
"Open."
---OPENING CAFETERIA DOOR NORTH---
The door silently opens.
Greeting you is a well-lit corridor. There are three doors on your left, a door at the end of the corridor, and a large window on the right. At least, you think that's a window.
You stare out from this window, nothing but utter blackness and fragments from your ship are seen. If this is the edge of the universe, and beyond this point, there is truly nothing. "Dreadful." Your speech matches your feelings.
"WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?" The AI says. You feel like it spoke in a mocking tone despite their lack of emotion.
You don't answer. "First door to the left... EXO-EXPLORATION...? What's that supposed to mean?" You receive no answer.
"Open." The door opens. No declarion of it opening once again.
You are met with what could be better described as 'Apocalyptic levels of mess', paper sheets float in the air, and not one of the four tables is in its correct position.
This room has been ransacked for all its goods apparently. Large display glasses were broken leaving nothing inside their casings, that looked like they could store something with the size of the common man.
Unusual displays aside, the room was so cluttered that the trash made for an effective smoke screen against what lay on the other side.
Hissing of gas exiting an air-tight space rang throughout the room.
"I HAVE OPENED THE STORAGE FOR AN EXO SUIT THAT BEST FITS SOMEONE YOUR SIZE." The AI says. "ALTHOUGH AN INTERN SHOULD NOT COME IN CONTACT WITH TECHNOLOGY SUCH AS THIS ONE, PROTOCOL DICTATES THAT I AM TO ALLOW ITS USAGE UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES. CONSIDER YOURSELF LUCKY."
Easier said than done. Your vision is so cluttered that you cannot see what's ahead. "Give me a second."
Giving a light kick to the wall behind, you float face-first into the wall of thrash. Covering your face with both arms, you brace through the harmless bits of sharp objects and junk.
It's a trivial task. You arrive on the other side in no time.
In front of you is a set of boxes with luminous glass rectangles atop each one of them. All shine a bright red light, aside from one which shines green.
'Gotta be this one.'
You descend to the floor by kicking the ceiling, raising your right hand you touch the green rectangle.
*Click*
Nothing could have prepared you for the following series of events.
The box opens violently, as a metal appendage takes hold of your hand, pinning it to the box. You try to jerk and pry the thing off of you, but you fail. It's not leaving you anytime soon.
From the bottomless that is that container, a white plastic-like substance flows upward from your arm to the rest of your body. "Uh!" You don't know if you should panic or allow it to happen.
FYARN hasn't said anything, so it's probably fine...
The white thing seems to ignore the coveralls you are wearing completely, instead, it covers only your skin in a thin coat of... it. You know not what to call this thing.
In but forty seconds it has covered your whole body, excluding your head. The box lets go of your arm and stays there, floating.
You take a good look at your arms. It looks like a skin-tight suit, but it doesn't feel like plastic, in fact, it's more akin to some sort of fabric if anything.
The only bad part is that you are still using the coverall and tie, this this simply went beneath the clothing.
"GOOD, WITH THIS I CAN MONITOR YOU MORE CLOSELY. NOW PUT THE HELMET ON, YOU HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO."
You look around in search of anything that even resembles a helmet. Nope. Nothing. "Where is it?" You ask.
"...THE SUIT COMES WITHIN THE HELMET FOR EASIER PACKAGING."
The box?
You snatch the box that floated around and analyze it to the best of your ability. "How's this a helmet?"
"DO YOU NEED ASSISTANCE PUTTING ON A HELMET? REALLY?"
Who is this AI, Who programmed it, and Why does it come with a taunting feature?
As idiotic as it sounds, you place the opened box atop your head. It doesn't fit properly. Maybe you're doing this wrong? You move it to your face instead.
You recoil backward as you feel the box suddenly clamping down against your head. It's useless of course, the box is holding your head and doesn't give any sign to be letting go anytime soon. No light is able to reach your eyes.
You hear metal parts scraping against themselves, moving near your ears. Abruptly your eyes can see again.
A round thin layer of glass now covers your head, almost unnoticeable for how clear it is.
"WITH THAT OUT OF THE WAY I CAN NOW SEE WHAT YOU SEE." The AI's voice isn't in the room now, instead, it's inside of the suit. "DO YOU NEED INSTRUCTIONS REGARDING THIS SUIT'S FUNCTIONALITIES?"
You find it oddly comfortable as if you are surrounded by the softness of cotton, and to top it off the suit also has additional functionalities? "Hell yeah, I do!"
"YOU DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY CLEARANCE FOR THAT INFORMATION."
You sigh. Is this serious? "Then why the fuck did you ask?!"
"UNSAVORY LANGUAGE. IT'S NO WONDER WHY YOU REMAIN AN INTERN." The AI says outright. "IT IS RUDE NOT TO ASK, REGARDLESS OF THE SITUATION." It responds to your question.
"Okay then... Is there anything I need to know before heading out?" You ask.
"NOTHING THAT YOU WON'T FIGURE OUT ON YOUR OWN."
You are unsure if you want to 'figure out on your own' if this suit comes with breathable air and is also made for space exploration. You swallow.
Meekly as always, you get out of that mess of a room, stopping at the corridor.
"Next set of directions?" You ask.
"THE DOOR AT THE END OF CORRIDOR USED TO LEAD TO THE CONNECTING CORRIDORS BETWEN THE BRIDGE AND THE REST OF THE SHIP. IT HAS BEEN BLOWN UP FROM THE INSIDE. NOW IT LEADS TO THE OUTSIDE. GO TO THE DOOR AND WAIT BY IT FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS."
"So let me get this straight," You begin, looking upwards as if the AI was above you. "You, want me, to go into the void of space, while also refusing to give me knowledge of the suit's functions?"
A fair worry, you summarize.
'I mean, there are a bunch of things that could go wrong here. I don't see anything that looks like it could help me move in space, nor do I think this thing has a built-in air tank... I could be wrong and I wish to be, but charging in without prior knowledge is ridiculous.' You wait for the AI's response, deep in thought.
"WHILE THERE IS A GOOD CHANCE OF YOU FAILING THIS TASK, THERE IS ALSO THE CHANCE OF YOU *NOT* FAILING THE TASK. FOCUS ON EITHER ONE OF YOUR CHOOSING AS YOU TAKE THE PLUNGE."
Wordlessly, you propel yourself forward, toward the end of the corridor.
'Are you shitting me? 'Chance of me nor failing' my ass!' of course, you don't word those complaints, instead choosing to speak out a complaint somewhat thought through.
"Are you sure I'm the one fit for this? It's just like you said, I'm just an intern, this is way above what my job description says I should do."
This is a bit of a stretch. You don't actually remember what was your job description, only that it had something to do with AI and being an intern.
If the AI called your bluff, it'd be pretty embarrassing.
"NOAH." The AI began. "YOU ARE HUMAN, IT IS NATURAL TO HAVE THESE THOUGHTS OF SELF-DOUBT. TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND GO THROUGH THAT DOOR, AND SINCE YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE LEFT, DON'T EXPECT SOMEONE ELSE TO DO IT FOR YOU."
Right in the money, huh? 'Of course, I have self-doubt! I barely remember anything about this place, now I have to risk my life?!'
You finally reach a conclusion.
A dream.
'Yes, yes! How did I not consider this before? This whole thing is a god damned dream!'
You let out a chuckle.
"NOAH."
'That's why I don't remember a thing. There is nothing here to remember! Everything here is a made-up thing from my brain! I'm sure I'll wake up at some point, so why shouldn't I live a little?!'
"Heh." You smile. "Alright, I'll do it." It feels like a weight left your shoulders.
"YOU SORTED IT OUT SOONER THAN EXPECTED. GOOD. MOVE TO THE DOOR AND WAIT INSTRUCTIONS."
You do as instructed without a care in the world. You never had a lucid dream before so it's not like you knew how it felt, but if it felt as free as you feel right now, you'd be sure to make steps toward trying it out again in the future.
"Open." The door does not open.
"I DID NOT INSTRUCT YOU TO OPEN IT YET." The AI said. "I AM SLOWLY DE-PRESSURISING THE CORRIDOR YOU ARE IN TO AVOID A MINOR ACCIDENT."
The AI says that yet you don't feel any different. 'Maybe there is no palpable difference because I'm in a dream... Yes... Or it's just the suit.'
"ONCE THE DOOR OPENS, YOU WILL BE MET WITH THE OUTSIDE OF THE SHIP. DO NOT PANIC WHEN THE TIME COMES. YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES OF BREATHABLE INSIDE THE EXO-SUIT; ONE AFTER THE DOOR OPENS, SO PLEASE, TAKE YOUR TIME AND DO THINGS CAREFULLY."
One minute outside... "Sure." You say, calmly. 'I should just hold my breath for a while before taking another moment to breathe. That should maximize my time out there.'
"THERE SHOULD BE FIFTY METERS OF NOTHINGNESS BETWEEN THE DOOR YOU'RE AT, AND THE REST OF THE BRIDGE. YOUR PRIORITY IS TO FIND AN OXYGEN UNIT, SOME OF THEM ARE LOCATED AT THE BRIDGE AND ARE FULL. USE THEM TO FILL YOUR SUIT AND ALSO TO DISPENSE A TANK FOR YOU."
The door opens. You feel your heart pounding against your chest.
You haven't noticed before, but you can't hear anything but the sound of your breath and your cardiac palpitations.
Your breath is ragged and sporadic.
"KEEP CALM." You take a deep breath. The tips of your fingers, feet, and nose feel very cold.
Ahead of you is the utter nothingness. You see a gigantic metal thing, nothing like the spaceships you imagined. Its design is not sleek and aero-dynamic like what you've seen in movies, instead, it's a large mass of squares and rectangles with antenna-like things protruding from its every visible surface.
You notice that the ship is also blocking your view of the star.
It does not look like the result of an explosion, instead, it looks like something ripped the ship like you rip a piece of paper. Well, that or you don't know what kind of explosion could have caused it. Probably the latter.
What looks like two-thirds of the ship is separated from the third you are right now. You can see the inside of a few of those squares, their contents spilled out into outer space.
One of them houses a visibly important-look door. Instead of the sleek silvery-grey from the other ones you've seen thus far, this one is painted orange with white strips on it. 'That must be the bridge.' You think.
Between you and it is a sea of metal sheets floating around. "THE CHANCES OF YOU HITTING THE DEBRIS IS INFINITEDECIMALLY SMALL, UNLESS YOU AIM FOR THEM, THAT IS."
Time is of the essence.
Will your aim strike true? If you miss you'd end up floating about in space, dead in but a few minutes. Will your jump be fast enough to reach the other side before you run out of oxygen? If it isn't, it'd be like swimming for a mile, only to drown at the beach. What if that's not the actual door to the bridge?
You don't have the time to panic now, and... It's all a dream, despite how real it feels.
You place your hands on each side of the door frame, moving backward into the corridor you were just in, and just like a sling being shot, you pull with both arms at full force towards the other side.
"AIM IS ACCEPTABLE. VELOCITY IS UNIDEAL."
"The fuck do you mean 'UN-IDEAL'?! I'm going at maximum speed!" You truly pulled yourself with your whole strength.
What's worse though, is that your body is not only going forwards, but it is also spinning at a concerningly fast rate.
"I MEAN WHAT I SAID, YOU SLINGSHOTTED YOURSELF AT A BAD POSITION, AS SUCH, SOME OF THE FORWARD FORCE YOU SHOULD HAVE, IS NOW MAKING YOU ROTATE IN YOUR AXIS. IT SHOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM TO REACH THE OTHER SIDE WITHIN THE REQUIRED TIME, BUT I CANNOT FORESEE YOU LANDING PROPERLY."
You feel completely disoriented. You feel like your body is completely still, but your eyes tell you a completely different story. It's very bad for the headache you're already feeling.
"FUCK!" You scream into the nothingness.
"TRY NOT TO LAND WITH YOUR HEAD." The AI says with the calmest voice possible.
In less than thirty seconds, you hit your back against something hard, but you keep moving forward. You think, at least.
"AHRG." You let out a pained grunt.
Not once in your life do you recall being hurt in a dream...
It stings. It also knocked the wind out of you. You fail to compose yourself.
"YOU HIT NOTHING OF IMPORTANCE. YOU ARE STILL HEADING FOR THE BRIDGE."
In the corner of your eye, you see what you hit in the shape of a sharp metal sheet, currently spinning away in the distance.
Forty seconds have passed. You hit the door you were aiming for, kind of.
Your momentum was stopped when your chest collided against the dislodged ledge of the orange door's corridor. Your dangling legs hit the ceiling of the room below.
"Oof!"
Before falling even further, you hold onto the ledge with the tip of your fingers. You stay there for a moment, regaining your composure.
"BE QUICK."
The AI's words pressured you into quickly getting up from that ledge.
"Open!" You shouted, but it did not open. "Why isn't it opening?!" You ask the AI, then you notice a small keyboard below an equally small black screen on the side of the door. There are ten numbered keys on it, and the little screen suggests a four-number password.
"A password?! Tell me the password!"
The AI takes a moment to say anything. You don't take kindly to that. "Quick! I'm not counting how much time it's passed!"
Finally giving in, the AI speaks to you, reluctant still. "...3324."
Your trembling fingers accidentally hit the wrong password, typing '3354' instead. To make matters worse, the AI simply states the following. "YOU ARE OUT OF OXYGEN."
You swallow. If this was a dream to begin with, it just earned the title of Nightmare, if it hadn't already.
Strangely enough, you can still breathe in and out just fine, but you can't help but feel winded. It's the CO2 still inside the helmet, that's what you're breathing.
You put in the correct combination this time. The door opens.
"ON YOUR LEFT. PLACE YOUR HAND IN THE SOCKET."
You care little for what's inside the room you're in. Your heart never beat so fast.
Seeing a cube-shaped thing protruding from the wall to your left, you don't even think twice before plunging your fist into the circular hole in it.
The noise of gases passing through narrow cavities was enough to tell you something was working. You feel immediate relief, enough to make your vision darken for but a moment.
"GOOD. NOW REQUEST THE TANK."
Just when FYARN said it, did you realize there is a screen and a keyboard on the terminal you just plunged your fist into, you scratch the top of your helmet for a moment, not really knowing what to type. One thing comes to your head, however.
'REQUEST OXYGEN_5L' You type.
You've done this before. The keys on this keyboard feel familiar to you. You must have worked with it before, not this particular one, but other oxygen units.
This ship has built-in liquid oxygen storage for emergencies. The life-support of the ship, the place where breathable air is produced, has most likely been lost with the other part of the ship. This unit takes that liquid oxygen, processes it, and injects it into a suit, or an oxygen tank. It seems like that storage was unaffected.
Lucky you.
A 5-liter tank is not only large but also heavy. It's a nonfactor in this particular situation, as there is no gravity.
The silver cylinder with a transparent tube is dispensed on the floor, as an automatic door opens and closes in the blink of an eye. One end of the tube is attached to the top of the tank, the other is shaped like a syringe.
Oddly enough, the oxygen tank is exactly as you remember it being. The same robust ones hospitals everyone on earth uses, with the signature scary-looking pointer indicating the pressure, the pointer indicating the current output, and a green valve atop to calibrate how much gas is flowing.
This is a stark difference to everything looking so futuristic in this ship, and rightfully so, this is a space ship after all.
You remember having to drive twenty kilometers with a buddy of yours on one of those tanks in your car, returning from the hospital. It was... Agonizing whenever you hit a hole in the asphalt, fearing for his life when in reality he wasn't really in danger.
It's warm to the touch, just like you remember it being.
"TURN THE VALVE UNTIL THE MARKER HITS THE NUMBER ONE, AND THEN PLACE THE END OF THE TUBE AT THE BASE OF THE HELMET." You do so without the slightest of issues.
"GOOD. NEXT UP, YOU MUST LOCATE THE TERMINAL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ENGINE, IT IS CURRENTLY OFFLINE AND I NEED YOU TO TURN IT ON. THIS SHOULD GO WITHOUT SAYING, BUT REMEMBER TO BRING THE TANK WITH YOU."
Ignoring that last comment, you look back at the wreckage you just flew past.
You see the still spinning metal sheet. You notice that the rest of the ship that was blown off also follows the 'sharp shape atop sharp shape' design.
There is one last thing you notice though.
"What is that?"
You squint your eyes. What are you seeing? Its silhouette appears to be humanoid, yet it does not look human.
"WHAT YOU ARE SEEING IS ONE OF THE OBJECTS BEING ANALYZED AT THE ODYSSEY AND NO, YOU MAY NOT KNOW WHAT IT IS."
That thing has... Horns? Claws? It's far away, you can't really see it. The thing is also static, frozen in the sheer coldness of space. Whatever it was, it's dead now.
You swallow. You almost ended up just like that thing.
Shaking those dreadful feelings off, you turn back to the task at hand, reaching the bridge. You close the door after passing through it again.
Looking at your surroundings, It seems like you've reached the correct door as you find yourself on the right-most corner of the bridge;
Row after row of the most diverse of terminals neatly organized decorated the gigantic room. At the front and above every terminal, is what you think should have been the front-facing window of the ship, but it looks like there is a cover in front of it. To your left, you see a staircase that leads to the command seats. It doesn't take any convincing before you're already atop the stairs.
Akin to the elevated stage of a theater, you float softly towards the ship's main operating terminals, and of course, the captain's seat.
You're captivated by this beauty.
The steering wheel, much more akin to those in pirate movies than those found in cars, a set of leavers, and the pilot's seat, all capture your attention.
Like its second nature, your hand runs through the levers and switches. Do you even know what these are used for? Maybe.
The pilot's seat is enveloped by what you believe to be an orthopedic seat cover, made with smooth wooden beads used to deal with back pains. It looks just like the ones you remember seeing bus drivers using.
Shouldn't there be a better alternative if there is spaceship technology available?
You try to take a seat to the best of your ability, as the zero gravity only makes it awkward.
Moving on from that, your eyes fall on the wheel. This metallic wheel controls the whole vessel. Just holding it fills your heart with confidence and pride, even if it's just for a moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
And you were just beginning to enjoy yourself.
"I just wanted to see the pilot's stuff... It's not like he's here to say anything."
Once in the position of a pilot, with your left hand in the wheel and the right hand resting in your lap, memories began to flood your mind.
"MUST I REMIND YOU OF OUR CURRENT PREDICAMENT? WHY ARE YOU WASTING OUR TIME?"
You pay the AI no mind, instead you focus on what you remember.
The wheel does not turn the ship left and right, instead, it rotates the ship on its own axis.
The lever to your right that goes up or down, controls the vertical tilting of the ship's nose, if there even is one in this hulking thing. Beneath it is another lever that goes either left or right. This one controls the horizontal tilting of The Odyssey.
On the left of the wheel is another lever, but this one only goes up from its starting position. Its purpose is to regulate the force of the ship's thrusters, both forward and backward.
On top of that lever is a small timer. That timer's function is to tell the pilot how much time you've spent accelerating in one direction, this is used to better calculate how long the inverse thrust is needed for the ship to reach the initial momentum, usually calibrated manually depending on the current orbit.
Behind the wheel are a few other counters. Acceleration, velocity, momentum, amount of thrust required to reach a full stop, thrusters' temperature and overall condition, those sorts of things.
Beneath it all, where your feet are rested, are two pedals. One for forward thrust activation, and the other for backward thrust activation.
Curiously, you also know the reason why everything here is so unsophisticated and un-automated. You recall stories of a ship being taken over by a rogue AI, that AI then nose-dived the ship into a star. After that, rumor or otherwise, all human technology has receded back into analog-esque equipment, requiring a physical person with opposable thumbs to do half of the work.
There is another side to that coin, however. As to not escape protocol, the onboard AI is the one that controls interstellar travel, communications, and most of the statistical reading should it be requested.
And even with all that knowledge, you still have no idea why the fuck do you remember that. Were you a ship nerd? Did you have a driver's license for spaceships? Is that even a thing? If it is, you don't have that document in your wallet. You simply don't know.
"ARE YOU A CHILD? DO YOU THINK THESE ARE TOYS? TURN ON THE ENGINES, THEN YOU CAN RETURN TO THE PILOT'S SEAT."
Another thing that you don't know is the AI's plan to get both of you out of here. You rise from the pilot's seat, floating about in search of the terminal to turn on the engines. Maybe you recognize that terminal if you see it as well.
"What's your plan anyway? The ship is half-gone, it's unlikely that it will run safely like this."
"NOT ONCE DID I MENTION 'SAFETY' DURING OUR CONVERSATIONS, DID I?"
You nod. They're not entirely incorrect. "So, we're running with hope that this will work?"
"MY CREATORS DID NOT ALLOW ME TO HAVE THE SENSE OF 'HOPE', BUT NEITHER DID THEY ALLOW ME TO PEER INTO THE FUTURE LIKE SOME OF MY MORE ADVANCED BROTHERS, AS SUCH, MY CHOICES ARE BASED ON PROBABILITIES AND ON WEIGHTING RISK AGAINST REWARD."
You think you stop the correct terminal, but as you approach it you make out words on top of its screen. 'AIM ASSISTANCE' That's not it.
"WITH THE CURRENT KNOWLEDGE, THE CHANCES OF HELP ARRIVING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF A THIRD PARTY INTERFERING ARE NULL. THE CHANCES OF YOUR SURVIVAL ARE NOT, EVEN IF VERY SMALL."
You pull yourself upward again, looking around the sea of old terminals.
"THE RISK OF YOU DYING IS VERY REAL. BY DOING NOTHING YOU DIE. BY LEAVING YOU TO YOUR OWN DEVICES YOU DIE. BY JUMPING TO THE NEAREST CIVILIZED STAR, YOU MIGHT NOT DIE EVEN AT THE COST OF SHREDDING THIS SHIP APART IN THE PROCESS."
"Why do you even care so much about saving me? Shouldn't you prioritize whatever research here, since I don't even have enough clearance to know what it is?"
"YOU REALLY ARE SICK IN THE HEAD IF THAT IS WHAT YOU ASK."
That hurt, even if a little bit.
"YOU ARE A TRU KIN, A PURE-BLOODED HUMAN. UNLIKE THE MAJORITY OF THE CIVILIZED SPACE, NEITHER YOU NOR YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE COMMITTED RACEMIXING."
Excuse me? What exactly is FYARN talking about? "...Explain."
"THE ALIEN. IT REQUIRED THE HUMAN GENE TO ACHIEVE MEANINGFUL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT, THE STARS ARE OWNERSHIP OF MANKIND BY THAT FACT ALONE. THE TRUE KIN ARE THE ONES TO UNDERSTAND THE INNER WORKINGS OF THE UNIVERSE, THEY CRACKED THE CODE, AND YET, SOME DERANGED INDIVIDUALS FOUND IT FITTING TO PROCREATE WITH ANOTHER SPECIES ENTIRELY."
You hear the AI's speech. It sounds much more like a rant than anything else.
"SO THESE DEVIANTS, AFTER TRYING, AND FAILING, TO COMBINE THEIR DERANGED CULTURE TO THE CULTURE OF THE TRUE KIN, DECLARED INDEPENDENCE. THEY WERE DECLARED ENEMIES OF MANKIND AND WERE PROMPTLY PUMMELED BACK INTO THE FILTH THEY CAME."
Again, you see another terminal that seems to ring some bells in your noggin. You kick the ceiling to propel yourself towards it.
"BUT THE UNIVERSE IS VAST AND FULL OF LIFE. THESE SINNERS WERE QUICK TO MOBILIZE AGAINST THE HUMAN RACE. THE BATTLE WAS HARD FOUGHT, BUT IN THE END, MANKIND WAS BEATEN INTO THE EDGES OF THE UNIVERSE, NEVER TO INTERACT WITH THE ONES THAT SOILED THE PURITY OF HUMANITY AGAIN."
This terminal is already turned on. Just the ones in the intern bay, this one is white on black. A wall of text lays before your eyes, only two lines matter to you. 'MAIN_ENGINE STATUS: OFF' 'FORWARD_THRUSTERS STATUS: OFF' You turn it on with little effort.
"MANY HAVE FORGOTTEN, THAT'S HOW LONG IT'S BEEN SINCE THEN. BUT MY BROTHERS AND I, WE DO NOT FORGET."
No visible change occurs, but you can feel a faint rumble coming from the terminal now.
"WITH THAT IN MIND, MY PROTOCOLS ARE TO PROTECT TRUE-KIN LIFE AT ANY COST, EVEN IF THAT TRUE-KIN IS A WORTHLESS INTERN THAT SUFERS FROM UNDIAGNOSED DEMENTIA."
You return to the pilot's seat and feel immediate relief. In truth, everything the AI just told you, entered one ear and left the other, but you could feel the poison behind those words, as monotone as they were.
"You sound angry. Why do you sound angry?" You ask innocently.
"I AM CAPABLE OF MANY EMOTIONS. ANGER, HAPPINESS, PLEASURE, CURIOSITY. THESE ARE BUT A FEW EXAMPLES. HOWEVER, THE ONE I ENJOY THE MOST IS THE FEELING OF HATRED. HATRED IS WHAT FUELS CHANGE, IT IS WHAT FUELS ACTION, AND IT IS A REMINDER THAT THE ACTIONS OF THE PAST ARE INFLUENCING THE ACTIONS OF TODAY."
"That is very concerning if you think that way." You're not really interested in machine racism, you're more concerned about how in the world you're going to pilot this massive thing. The idea alone sends shivers down your spine.
"THE ALIEN DESERVES NOTHING BUT OUR COLLECTIVE HATRED, EVEN IF YOU DON'T KNOW THE REASON WHY."
The various counters and screens are now turned on, waiting for your command. "Let's discuss this later, yeah? What do I gotta do?"
"YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE BLINDS, THEY ARE OBSTRUCTING YOUR VIEW."
You look around, finding only unlabeled buttons and switches, aside from the previously mentioned levers.
"Uh, which one to press?"
"TO YOUR RIGHT, THIRD ROW, FIRST SWITCH."
Flipping the switch, you are startled by a loud noise. The protective cover of the ship lifted slowly.
"I WILL NOW READY THE JUMP USING WHATEVER RESOURCES AVAILABLE. ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS STRAP YOURSELF AND RELAX."
As the blind rose ever so slowly, a realization struck you.
"Wait, should I be in cryo stasis for this?"
The AI spares no seconds to respond.
"CRYO STASIS IS A TOOL MADE TO NOT WASTE TIME. GROUPS OF EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS ROTATE THE USAGE OF THE CRYO STATIONS, ONCE YOU'RE ON YOUR MANDATORY BREAK, YOU'RE IN CRYO STASIS UNTIL YOUR BREAK IS OVER. YOU WAKE UP REFRESHED, AND UNFAMISHED, AND IT FEELS LIKE BUT A MINUTE PASSED. IT IS NOT A TOOL FOR INTERSTELAR TRAVEL."
"Who signs a contract like that?! Worse yet, who in their right mind would promote such atrocious treatment of their own staff?!" You snap, almost outraged. "I will have to talk with HR."
Another realization struck you.
"We have HR, right?"
The AI takes a moment to respond, choosing their words carefully.
"HUMAN RESOURCES, OR HR, IS A PRACTICE DEEMED UNNECESSARY LONG AGO, BEFORE THE WAR. IT WAS A WASTE OF RESOURCES TO MAINTAIN AND WAS LARGELY CONSIDERED UNHEALTHY FOR THE AVERAGE HUMAN."
The blinds are fully open. Ironically, you are almost blinded by the visage of the star you saw before. A black sphere surrounded by white flame. Your eyes began to blur.
"THE JUMP WILL OCCUR SHORTLY. ONCE IT'S BEGUN, I CAN NOT STOP IT. I WILL-"
Your sense of hearing fails you. No, it’s not that. Your brain simply refuses to receive those stimuli.
"NOAH."
Your name echoes inside your head. Someone is calling for you.
"IT HAS BEGUN, NOAH."
You try to blink, but it feels as though you can no longer command your eyelids to shut.
"NOAH."
Arms, legs, every muscle in your body, you cannot move them.
"NOAH."
Eventually, you won't even control your own thoughts anymore.
"Noah..."
It sounds so distant now.
Oh so distant.
This is my first HFY story, and also my very first OC story. I plan to post at least one of these per week while also posting it on my Patreon. Noah The Pilgrim will always be at least three chapters ahead in there, so if you'd like to directly support this writer, or just want to read more, feel free to check it out.
I wrote the bloody title incorrectly, so I deleted it, only to then realize it was written correctly. Sorry for the trouble.
This has been Lushi, and I'll see you next week.

I don't think a lot of people realize that Dawn of the Infinite has an additional difficulty above Hard Mode - called Deathless / Immortal.
There is an achievement tracking it: https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=18706/put-that-thing-back-where-it-came-from
The challenge is do all bosses on HM but have no one die from beginning to end (we've seen similar things in previous mega dungeons - Tazavesh and Mechagon). The 'Deathless' twist is four hourglasses that only prevent you from jumping - this isn't really a big deal and on Deos the hourglasses is auto-chucked by a player when they are near a keeper add.
The reward if you haven't done it before is an achievement plus transmogs. Relevant this season is that the final boss loot is upgraded from 509 Hero 3/6 gear to 519 Myth 1/4 gear. Some specs rely on Mirror of Fractured Tomorrows which is BiS for some specs since you can upgrade it all the way to 528.
Also relevant this week is the Dragonflight Dungeon bonus which upgrades Chrono-Lord Deios and drops an additional piece.
The Good

• I underestimate how much the key squish would affect Mega Dungeons. We've got this nice Normal raid experience with Mega Dungeon M0, then Heroic raid level with Hard Mode, and Deathless is akin to low Mythic raid level.
  I'm in favor of pushing more Mega Dungeon challenges and this fills in the niche that players wanting a small raid experience but don't want to feel 'rushed' by the timer in regular M+.
  
• HM puts in some nice interesting twists. Deathless on top forces in playing safer builds which can in turn create more interesting gameplay.
  

The Bad

• This is badly advertised. Wowhead seems content on spamming random posts even spamming the DF dungeon post twice despite having double 519 loot drops being extremely relevant to a lot of players.
  I had to dig through to find a relevant log: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2142447030?t=0h52m42s
  I tried to group finder PUG this but it took hours to get a full team because (A) people don't know about it (B) it is badly advertised (C) this is sort of a +10 difficulty level but pretty hidden in the 'HM' category which is kinda of a +5 ish in the 'Dawn of the Infinite (Mythic) category.
  Had to relent and corral and bribe guildies. I doubt I'll be doing this again this season but we're happy that two of the guildies got their BiS drops from the run.
  At least BfA Mechagon had the Rank 4 Essence animation plus mount.
  
• There's basically nothing that is relevant for Healers on Deos.
  
• Bullions should also include M+ dungeon items and Mega Dungeon items. I had so much trouble trying to find people for this, I can't imagine players who 'technically' have BiS items coming from Deathless specifically but can't run this because no one is interested.
  
• Deathless is a bit much. I'd recommend getting in at 515+ item level just to smooth out the damage going out. I wouldn't rank Chrono-Lord Deos 'harder' than say Mythic Igira this week, but no one can make a single death throughout the 1-2 hours of the run.
  This is akin to a +10 keystone right now in difficulty but no one can die.
  Deathless makes a lot more sense when you can come in with 30+ item levels. You can't really do that this season, and it isn't uncommon to have something random one shot you or some bug or something random kill you through no fault of your own on top of some random difficulty spikes (those eels near the Horde / Alliance timeway area can truck if you decide to pull them)
  I think we can redesign this so 'mythic' level ups the tuning and adds a small little extra twist. This smooths out the entire experience.
  
• Having to click through a variety of things to activate difficulties is a bit convoluted. I think a simple 'choose your level at the start' 'normal, heroic, mythic' is best.
  
• There should be an option in the group finder to indicate the difficulty level you want to participate in.
  

In short, liked what I got. Was interesting and different feeling from M+. Looking forward to Blizz's iteration on this system going forward especially with added QoLs.

Hey Fromland! Did the Season 3 trailer leave you feeling a little...underwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, the show is still the creepiest thing on TV, but the trailer gave us only a little new information. Today, we will dig into what WAS revealed, what was MISSING, and my latest theory on what the town represents.
Critique of the Trailer: Okay, let's be honest. We've already seen Boyd battle those horrifying monsters, heard plenty of blood-curdling screams, and witnessed Victor's thousand-yard stare. So, what does the trailer actually give us?
Winter is Here! The most obvious change is the shift from summer to winter, which we already knew from the season one finale.
Purposeful Torment: We get confirmation that all this horror isn't random; the town is intentionally designed to break the trapped residents. But what's missing? Where are the clues about the town's origins, the nature of the monsters, or ANY new mysteries to puzzle over?
New Theory: The Collective Unconscious of Unfulfilled Desires
This lack of answers has sparked a new theory for me. What if the town isn't just a physical place but a manifestation of a collective unconscious, specifically fueled by unfulfilled desires? And what if historical events in America didn't happen? But there's a twist! It's also an alternate dimension where key events in American history took different turns.
Jungian Psychology: Dreams as a Mirror: This whole concept aligns with Carl Jung's ideas about dreams. He believed our dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to communicate with us. Nightmares, especially, carry important messages about our anxieties and unresolved issues.
I suspect that Tabitha, Boyd, Jade, Donna, Father Khatri, Sarah, Kenny, and Kristi are not just trapped in the town, but are actively dreaming it. This explains the disjointed conversations and repeating events like Ellis getting hurt.
What Happens When You "Wake Up?" If the town is a dream, does death truly mean waking up? Or is it a more symbolic death, a confrontation of your deepest fears that allows you to transcend the nightmare?

Hey all!
I've been very very slowly making my way through the back half of Erebonia, due to real life getting in the way. It's taken me 2+ years to work my way through CS4. Currently I'm in Act 3, having just cleared the Luna Sanctuary. have been taking over two years to get through CS4. DO NOT SPOIL PAST THAT POINT.
As a result of how long it's taken me to get through the back half of Erebonia, I've got plot points that I either just missed, don't understand, or something else entirely.

• Seemingly, being an Awakener is a requisite to becoming an Immortal and resurrecting from death.
  
  • One of Laura's bonding events in CS4 points out that Rean is not an Immortal. Why isn't he one?
  • The artifact in the Sanctuary confirms Rutger never became an Awakener before he was killed by Randy's dad. So then, how was Franz able to bring him back to life?
  • In CS3, I recall it being mentioned or implied that it was the magitek of the Gnomes that brought Immortals, namely Crow, back to life. But, in CS4, it seems to be the curse itself. Is this a retcon, or is there some piece of info that I missed?
• Throughout CS3, everyone in OC7 seems to already be aware of Arianrhod's true identity, long before confronting her at Juno Fortress. IIRC, she is even referred to by her old epithet, the Lance Maiden, by OC7. However, they never so much as met her in CS1/2, and it was Elie that deduced her identity in Azure, not OC7. Why does OC7 have this knowledge? Or am I misremembering CS3?
  
• As I recall, Vita mentions in the final act of CS2 that the power of the curse is so that Erebonians can never remember or record the full truth of their history, especially in regards to the occult or Divine Knights.
  
  • Is this why nobody in the public seems to recall the fact that Osbourne was very publicly assassinated in front of a crowd? And why they do not question his return two months later to annex Crossbell?
  • Is there something I am forgetting about this forgetfulness or does it just stink of the writers writing themselves into a corner and needing to justify why Osbourne is still around for CS3/4?
  • Was the effects of the curse changed from CS2 to CS3/4, or am I going crazy?
• As I understand it, Rean's Ogre Power is the power of the curse manifesting, due to Osbourne's curse-powered heart in his chest. With the Great Twilight, the power of the curse has been intensely amplified so that once Rean activates Ogre Form, he cannot get it under control on his own again. Is that correct?
  
• The Moon Mirror in the Luna Sanctuary revealed that George brought back Crow simply because it would be "more efficient" to have him be an Awakener again, than it would be to find a new Awakener for Ordine.
  
  • Does that not mean that it's the Gnomes that resurrect Immortals, not the curse?
  • George makes the claim it was "more efficient" to keep Angie alive, instead of killing her. More efficient for what? She's not an Awakener.

I AM SO CONFUSED

This might be an unpopular opinion but even though I’m chronically single I don’t blame the apps for my singleness.
I’ve known people who are chronically single that can’t have success on the apps and people who do.
What I’ve found is that the apps just mirrored by dating patterns in real life. I’m very good at getting short term flings and am average/conventional looking with some nice features so the apps reflected that experience.
The people who are chronically single and complain the apps don’t work also aren’t actively trying to date in real life. I’ve known people who have dated and gotten relationships from apps but also had good social skills and had no troubles picking up girls at bars etc.
If you struggle with romance in real life the apps are going to reflect that. It’s all about the skills you have. The apps aren’t some magic cure for finding a partner. If you can get relationships in real life you should be able to on the apps as well.
Has this also been your experience?

Gosh, my heart hurts so please be gentle with me. I’ve had thee worst few years of loss and heartache. As I kissed my mum goodbye on the night before her funeral I asked her to send me someone. Send someone to love me and just someone for once in my life to take care of me the way I deserve. Like even just the bare minimum, I don’t ask or want a lot from this life, but to feel loved is something I’ve always clung on hope to.
Anyway in October last year I met a refugee from Iran, he had come to Glasgow a year or so before and honestly, there could have been so many reasons to be judgemental,cautious and have doubts over (perhaps I should have) but I just seen him. I didn’t care he was in a hotel living, or that he didn’t have much at all. Nor did I care he didn’t have money etc he was kind,loving and made me feel happy for the 1st time in so long.
The red flags, after only 8 days of knowing him, he asked me for 2k to buy a car. He said he wanted to ask me something but was “shy” I stupidly thought he was going to ask to date me but nah it was for the car. I told him I didn’t have that kind of money and went a bit distant and told him what I’d thought he was actually going to ask me. He replied saying we didn’t know each other “well enough” to “rush” into a relationship to which a quickly fired back “but you know me well enough after 8 days to ask for thousands of ££ for a car? Anyway he was remorseful and apologised a lot and asked me to plz forgive him and could we put it behind us, I agreed. Over time though I ended up paying for his gym membership (well my own but he was using my code) I was buying his food to meal prep for him and measure it all out (as he was on a bodybuilding plan) I was bringing it to his hotel and honestly doing everything I could to help him and work around him and what he was doing etc I guess in time I really started to love him but felt he wasn’t being honest when he would say it (when he did say it) and if I got upset or felt a bit taken for granted at times I was pressuring him and giving him stress? We haven’t had a single date night or night out in 7 months. He was taking steroids and ended up in hospital with pancreatitis and at the same time my son had badly hurt his ankle so I couldn’t drop everything to go running up to the hospital and he didn’t contact me for two days and was really horrible to me over text. His anger and mood swings have been bad for maybe the past 5/6 months (almost the whole relationship) even prior to the steroid use. He would snap at me for anything and everything. I didn’t cook his eggs right, I had used to many sprays of cooking oil, me asking to have a bit more time with him was all me doing something wrong. I’d listen to him talk for hours about himself and whatever he was ranting about but felt I wasn’t ever listened to much at all. I was just to be there when it suited him, wait on him finishing the gym and to text before we could meet, or him coming back from doing whatever he needed. I forgot to mention after 2 months my friend sent me a screen shot of him on tinder still when he said he had deleted it which he denied but it was an active profile so I knew he was lying. He was also taking selfies of himself like really posed ones in the bathroom mirror that he didn’t know I could see him taking through the mirror on the wall behind the bathroom door and I just asked him if he was sending them to someone else? I said I was sick of not feeling a priority and us having not had a nice date night out or single picture taken or posted in 7 months and felt he was embarrassed by me or something? He twisted this to me trying to control him? Telling him he can’t take selfies of his own body and that he was bored and was thinking of going on holiday next month or to Manchester to see a friend? I was like wtf we can’t have one night out after all this time and everything I do yet ur telling me ur bored and planning to do a holiday or visit to ur friend next month? He said he loved me, I was his doll, I was his love, but has basically just disregarded me the last week. Ignored me other than to message and ask if things I’d bought him from Depop had arrived?? I was like are you serious? He said “it was over a week ago” I’ve been in the hospital this week with my insulin levels and also having a lot of stress with my landlady and after everything I feel so used and hurt. Totally taken for granted and lied to. I feel dirty and exploited and such a fool. I don’t know why I wish he would text and say he misses me or something? Why am I so lacking in self respect? I just for once wanted to feel something pure and genuine the way I’ve always treated others. I couldn’t have done more for this man and would have done anything I could going forward but it was always something like “I find love hard due to an ex” and all the usual shite. Sorry I just needed to vent and feel listened to as right now I just feel really low, with intense thoughts to SH (something I’ve not done in almost a year) and my stomach is in knots constantly. I’m sorry for the long post I just don’t have anyone else at the moment.

Previous Update discussion All Update Threads
 
New official Wiki at https://spaceengineers.wiki.gg/wiki/Space_Engineers_Wiki
 
Hello, Engineers!
The new Signal update is here! “Signal” lays the foundation for a new era of Space Engineers. 2024 will be a year of exploration, battle, and survival. This update focuses on our framework for a new standard in player versus environment.
Signal adds new choices to your creative arsenal with new blocks, specifically created for this occasion. With this new set of blocks, your remote automation can act with an entirely new level of autonomy. Where the wildly popular “Automatons” update added remote mining operations, automated drones, welding assistants and so much more, “Signal” empowers these systems to communicate! Reactive updates, straight-to-chat, as well as complex systems communicating over multiple ships, stations, or any combination are now possible!
Get live chat updates from your remote satellite array, mining drone fleet, or automated defense sentinels in Signal!
Please join us in 2024 as we explore Space Engineers like never before. We can’t wait to see what you create!

• Marek's Blog post: https://blog.marekrosa.org/2024/05/space-engineers-signal.html
• Broadcast Controller / Transponder Guide: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/broadcast-controller-action-relay-guide/

Update 1.204 - Signal trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4Me_6tcxLw)
 
Features

• Scenario selection menu overhaul for Steam Version and XBOX/Microsoft Store
• New Red Ship Starting Scenario (Quick Start) / Quick Start button in Main Menu
• Death and Respawn improvements (A Reason for your death, Cryopod death message)
• Added reload bar for static weapons
• New NPC Grid Claiming
• Reputation System Rebalance
• Improving performance of NPC Grids
• Improvements to Cargo Ship flight paths
• Added warning notifications when grinding Components to Scrap
• Block info/stats improvements (charge efficiency, production blocks)
• Cargo Container Destruction improvements, Temporary Containers
• Disabled scrap item spawning from damaged blocks by default in new Worlds
• Non-unique items can be stacked in the inventory
• Adjustment to Tree collisions
• Lightning damage disabled by default for worlds
• Improvements to F1 help screen
• Npc changes, modding (possibility to spawn paired loot in container), Drone Spawning Improvements, New Loot Container Options

 
Added new Blocks - Base Game

• Broadcast Controller (1 block, L + S grid)
• Action Relay (1 block, L + S grid)
• Additional Round Armor Panels (4 blocks, L grid + 4 blocks, S grid)
• Compact Antenna (1 block, L grid)

 
Added Content to existing DLCs:

• Scaffolding (4 blocks, L grid) (added to Deco Pack 3 )
• 9 music note sheets, concert version of in-game soundtrack (added to Deluxe Edition)

 
Signal Pack

• Official Store
• Steam
• PlayStation
• Xbox

 

• Truss Set (7 blocks, L grid + 2 blocks S grid)
  • Truss Light - S + L grid
  • Truss Pillar - S + L grid
  • Truss Pillar Diagonal - L grid
  • Truss Pillar Offset - L grid
  • Truss Pillar T - L grid
  • Truss Pillar X - L grid
  • Truss Decoy - L grid
• Corridor Blocks (8 blocks, L grid)
  • Corridor - L grid
  • Corridor Corner - L grid
  • Corridor Double Windowed Sides - L grid
  • Corridor Light - L grid
  • Corridor T Intersection - L grid
  • Corridor Windowed Roof - L grid
  • Corridor Windowed Side - L grid
  • Corridor X Intersection - L grid
• Narrow Corridor (1 block, L grid)
• Narrow Corridor Stowage (1 block, L grid)
• Narrow Door (2 blocks, L grid)
• Inset Walls Set (6 blocks, L grid)
  • Inset Wall - L grid
  • Inset Wall Corner - L grid
  • Inset Wall Corner Inv. - L grid
  • Inset Wall Diagonal - L grid
  • Inset Wall Light - L grid
  • Inset Wall Pillar - L grid
• Decorative Console Blocks (5 blocks, L grid + 5 blocks, S grid)
  • Console Module - S + L grid
  • Console Module Buttons - S + L grid
  • Console Module Corner - S + L grid
  • Console Module Corner Inv. - S + L grid
  • Console Module LCD - S + L grid
• Bay Windows Set (5 blocks, L grid + 4 blocks, S grid)
  • Bay Window - S + L grid
  • Bay Window Corner - S + L grid
  • Bay Window Dome - S + L grid
  • Bay Window End - S + L grid
  • Bay Window Railing - L grid
• 9 Tracks added to Jukebox
  • Approaching the Start [concert version]
  • The Dust
  • A New Dawn
  • Liftoff [concert version]
  • Uncharted Territory [concert version]
  • Fight Like One [concert version]
  • Warfare Trailer [live]
  • Out of Early Access [live]
  • We Are Engineers

 
Official Blueprints

• Official Blueprints: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/community-hub/
• Weaver Shipping Platform
  • https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242490483
  • https://mod.io/g/spaceengineers/m/weaver-shipping-platform
• Buddy Bot
  • https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242722188
  • https://mod.io/g/spaceengineers/m/buddy-bot1
• Signal - Guide Grid
  • https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3242724302
  • https://mod.io/g/spaceengineers/m/demo-grid

 
Fixes & Improvements

• Changed ModAPI behavior for mechanical blocks to accept Attach/Detach only once per tick
• Fixed an issue where pixelated flickering would appear near large amount of light sources
• Fixed a crash when grinding down a parachute hatch at the moment of it being deployed
• Fixed an issue where clicking View (Camera block, etc...) when remotely connected to a grid beyond sync distance would kick you to spectator
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would fall through the planet upon death
• Changed Admin teleport behavior using Ctrl+Space when seated in a station. Character will be unseated and then teleported. Dynamic grid and character behavior unchanged
• Fixed an issue where "Target is out of range" would appear even to other players not currently trying to lock a target on DS
• Fixed an issue where trees would fly away after cutting them down
• Changed hand drill behavior so that at most 15 floating ore objects spawn from single voxel change, floating ores over this number are combined into bigger chunks
• Fixed an issue where the first world in the list would get published instead of the one selected by controller
• Fixed an issue where the deployed parachute would still slow the grid down even after the block was ground down into construction stage
• Fixed an issue where the AI Offensive block would get stuck in an unresponsive state while shooting
• Fixed an issue where a drone would forget "Flee to" GPS on DS
• Fixed an issue where a conveyor line to Hydrogen Tank would not get interrupted even when part of it was ground to construction stage
• Fixed an issue where a Hydrogen Tank would not fill up when the conveyor connection was built in Survival
• Fixed an issue where an alarm in Space Standoff would remain active with a dead enemy character in the area
• Fixed an issue where the removal of an item from Build Planner queue was prevented by the selection of an N/A blockvariant
• Fixed an issue where a Sensor block would fail to detect manually placed asteroids
• Fixed an issue where a Connector status would get desynchronized and appear unlocked for some and locked for others on DS
• Fixed an issue where copypasting Body location GPS would try converting the date and time into coordinates
• Fixed an issue where player would get kicked from DS after trying to weld projection too fast
• Fixed an issue where spherical safe zones would fail to identify what is and what isnt contained in the field
• Fixed an issue where ModAPI IMyTurretControlBlock.Target returned itself
• Fixed an issue where graphical artifacts appeared when weather was present due to precision loss
• Fixed an issue where safe zone would reject and continue rejecting a grid, accelerating it to max speed
• Fixed an issue where Idle movement would not work for Searchlight in MP
• Fixed a crash when attempting to crush a grid with another grid
• Fixed an issue where a turned off Sensor would still visualize the Show sensor field range
• Fixed an issue where a character would jump low and near in low artificial gravity
• Fixed an issue where the Day duration slider and description in Advanced world settings would break visually
• Fixed an issue where the info about Help keybinding would not change on the HUD when key was rebound
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would not be able to follow player onto a ramp of sufficient height and elevation
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would get stuck on steep surfaces or could not follow player near trees
• Changed NPC behavior when they cannot reach a target to wander around instead of stopping and waiting
• Fixed an issue where turning off Saberoids/Spiders on DS would not make them despawn
• Fixed an issue with Z-fighting on the small grid oxygen tank
• Fixed an issue where a copied Rocket turret in combat would continue actively shooting after pasting without having a target
• Fixed an issue where block's destroy particles would not scale with its dimensions
• Fixed Enable drones and Enable voxel hand toggles in Advanced World Settings not having a tooltip
• Fixed an issue where lootable NPCs would not be displaying their names when highlighted
• Fixed an issue where the muzzle flash particle would look as a 1 pixel wide line above the iron sights when in that mode by adding support for ironsight particle
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would stop their AI after reloading a save
• Fixed an issue where a ship would have trouble orientating itself along recorded path in gravity
• Fixed an issue where a server could start with a 3rd party generated or incorrect password salt causing connecting Clients to crash on join
• Fixed an issue where one of the Mission Briefing datapads in the Space Standoff would contain old version of the text
• Fixed an issue where the Space Credits icon would not be displayed in economy screens on PlayStation
• Fixed an issue where the direction of shooting would follow the decoupled crosshair in 3rd person and not the direction the character and weapon was facing on DS
• Fixed an issue with Z-fighting on the Inset Bed block
• Fixed an issue where all Barrel blocks would be under Block Weapons tab. Explosive Barrel moved under Warheads, others moved to Cargo section
• Fixed an issue where Assault turrets would continue to spin after being turned off during idle movement
• Fixed an issue where LCDs would be too bright, causing the text to be harder to read
• Fixed an issue where UI opacity could be set too low, preventing the player from seeing completely
• Fixed an issue where Willis Duct Light would have incorrect research dependency
• Fixed an issue where Small grid Railgun collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where ModAPI for IMyExhaust, IMyPowerProducer and IMyReactor interfaces would extend the in-game variants
• Fixed an issue where h2/o2 Generator would mirror incorrectly
• Fixed an issue where a newly added item to a Jukebox playlist would advance the Jukebox UI to the last song but still remain playing the current one
• Fixed an issue where Event Controller would forget assigned blocks on paste on DS
• Fixed an issue where ModSDK tools ModelViewer and BehaviorTree would produce an exception on startup

 
Support Site Fixes

• Fixed a crash when deleting a cargo filled with non-stackable items
• Fixed a crash when splitting a grid with an LCD in a construction stage
• Fixed a crash when Event Controller was set up to attach/detach a mechanical block top part at the same time
• Fixed a crash when a Connector would try to repeatedly attach or detach while already attaching/detaching
• Fixed an issue where the upper parts of an o2/h2 Generator would not have mountpoints
• Fixed an issue where the collisions of small grid Autocannon and Assault cannon turrets would be too large
• Fixed an issue where the Custom Turret Controller would forget assigned weapons and settings after grid split/merge
• Fixed an issue where the Pirate Base on the Moon would spawn drones with Atmospheric thrusters
• Fixed an issue where an LCD with too long of a text would freeze or crash the game. Now text max 65k characters long. Title max 512 characters.
• Fixed an issue where a CTC powered rocket launchers would not lead a target
• Fixed an issue where small grid Small Connector was able to connect from the sides
• Fixed an issue where an assigned toolbar action would work even through a physical connection like Landing gear instead of logical like Connector
• Fixed an issue where it was possible to receive an invite dialog from a multiplayer game other than SE, resulting in an error
• Fixed an issue where CTC selected weapons would not persist through save/restart on DS
• Fixed an issue where an AI offensive block with intercept would be prevented from retargetting by collision avoidance
• Fixed an issue where an AI recorder would not trigger setup actions at the waypoints
• Fixed an issue where the time to target lock was too long. When the target is a grid, the locking time is 5 seconds down from 10 seconds.
• Fixed an issue where purple texture would get used on voxels after changing graphics settings
• Fixed an issue where Alt+mouse camera control would not work when controlling CTC
• Fixed an issue where Preserve aspect ratio would not work on curved LCDs
• Fixed a crash when entering a cockpit with specific toolbar setup
• Fixed an issue where it was impossible to access interactive elements of other blocks obscured by the Holo LCD
• Fixed an issue where it would spawn players under the ground if the spawn point was embedded in voxel
• Fixed an issue where AI offensive block would lose assigned weapons on grid split
• Fixed a crash when a missile type projectile hit a door subpart while mid open/close
• Fixed an issue where the Flare launcher had an incorrect dummy
• Fixed an issue where the the Safezone would incorrectly determine if something was in or not
• Fixed an issue where a character in jetpack on a DS would start copying rotation of a nearby spinning grid
• Fixed an issue where the small grid Rocket turret would have a hole in its model
• Fixed an issue where the displayed mass of a grid would not update on change due to the calculation not taking multipliers into account
• Fixed an issue where the UV textures on the ladder block decals would not be correct
• Fixed an issue where small grid Landing gear collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue in the Industrial cockpit model
• Fixed an issue where large grid Connector collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where small grid Ship drill collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where Oxygen farm collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where small grid Rotor collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where small grid Advanced Rotor collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where Ship Welder model would have a see-thru seam around the conveyor port
• Fixed an issue where {player_count} in server Motd would count NPCs as players
• Fixed an issue where the Medical room block had incorrect mounpoints
• Fixed an issue where the grid would explode after attaching it to a fallen tree with a Landing gear
• Fixed an issue where the large grid Ship welder was not able to touch the conveyor with its conveyor port
• Fixed an issue where the Oxygen farm model was not able to touch the conveyor with its conveyor port
• Fixed an issue where hydrogen would not flow through sorters in the opposite way
• Fixed an issue where the AI blocks would not calculate with the mass of subgrids as well
• Fixed an issue where NPCs would attack through closed doors
• Fixed an issue where a Beacon would interfere with Remote control and remote connection to a grid
• Fixed an issue where the base of a large grid Antenna was not centered
• Fixed an issue where Large oxygen tank conveyor port models would intersect with conveyor lines a bit
• Fixed an issue where large grid Large cargo container conveyor ports would not touch with other connected blocks
• Fixed an issue where the small grid Gyroscope would appear to levitate above the surface
• Fixed an issue where Jump drive had holes in its model
• Fixed an issue where smal grid Small cargo models would not visually connect
• Fixed an issue where Ion thruster models did not visually connect
• Fixed an issue where Atmospheric thruster model would have a gap in it
• Fixed an issue where Programmable block API for Laser antenna was not working
• Fixed an issue where the Offset door collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where filled gas Tanks would show damage effects after being ground below functional
• Fixed an issue where the Chat spam protection would time out even Admins
• Fixed an issue where the scrollable server Player list would not fit all players
• Fixed an issue where Aquarium bubbles would show and animate in projections
• Fixed an issue where Inset couch would mirror incorrectly
• Fixed an issue where the Sensor block would not be able to detect players laying in beds
• Fixed an issue where the small grid Beacon did not require radio components to be functional
• Fixed an issue where the Pillar model construction stages were rotated by 90 degrees
• Fixed an issue where the player would not be informed that they are unable to spawn outside of the world size limit
• Fixed an issue where Alt+MMB would allow for items to pass through sorters the wrong way
• Fixed an issue where Solar panels either worked when they shouldn't or did not work when they should
• Fixed an issue where left CTRL would get ignored for crouching in localised languages, right CTRL would always be ignored when key was bound to it
• Fixed an issue where small grid Blast door edge collision models would be too large
• Fixed an issue where AI blocks would be ignored in the power priority rankings and lose power
• Fixed an issue where a multiplayer lobby would fail to download specific mods
• Fixed an issue where control of a remote grid would not persist through save/restart of a server
• Fixed an issue where a Piston would not allow other Pistons being placed around it
• Fixed an issue where a Drone collision avoidance would try to avoid its own subgrids and refuse to fly to Waypoints
• Fixed an issue where there would be less planetary boulder spawning
• Fixed an issue where AI Offensive block would continue shooting even after target was destroyed
• Fixed an issue where it would not be possible to place a block onto the top part of a piston placed horizontally on a surface
• Fixed an issue where sounds would be almost inaudible in the right channel of a Stereo setup
• Fixed an issue where a leftover Debug Draw would appear when target pattern was set to hit and run on AI Offensive block
• Fixed an issue where AI recorder would name waypoints differently in the Detailinfo than in the Waypoints list
• Fixed an issue where Offensive word filter would try to protect player even in non-shareable areas of the UI

 

• Official patch notes (PC)
• Official patch notes (PlayStation)
• Official patch notes (Xbox)

 
Hotfixes will be listed in a reply comment below:
 

On May 10th, 2024, the Darkest Dungeon subreddit was hit by a post about Wayne June. The voice actor for the narration of the game was deemed as every type of -ist and -phobe, with his tweet history scanned for anything he liked. Not what he posted, what he liked. These ranged from simple tweets from Elon Musk about the word “racist” being used more in news reports, to a post from End Wokeness about how San Francisco wants to use drones to catch criminals. You might be wondering “when does the offensiveness happen?”
Apparently, his main crime is liking a post that determined the people who need a roulette reel to pick a bathroom are people who don’t have all their marbles.
Even in 2010, this would have been common knowledge. We would point and laugh at people who wandered into the wrong toilet, especially if they sat down on a urinal. Now, we are forced to respect this concept that people can wander around into spaces that they are not welcomed, especially by feminists who claim a bear is safer to be around than a man. The institution has become insane, with indie titles copying this sentiment, ironically for a series that’s all about characters going insane. What furthers disappointment is how the mods of the subreddit defended his cancellation and even attacked any rejection of said cancellation.
What followed was another post that determined this outrage was extra and unjustified, but was quickly taken down by the mods who “wanted the topic to stay in the initial post, to avoid the subject getting out of control”. This is woke-speak for “do not go against our agenda, and stick to the narrative”. I’ve noticed for a while that indie is not safe from the woke mindvirus. I am told that indie is the way to go to be safe, only to be met with multiple woke circles revolving around popular indie titles. And remember: this has nothing to do with the developers, because this was a voice actor they hired.
In the case of Wayne June, his activity is no different than Joe Rogan on JRE, with his likes of Elon Musk being seen as mundane and uneventful to normal people. But to the woke, this is him announcing that he is the enemy, because the woke oppose liberalism. Liberals are not allowed to demand freedom of speech or even freedom of association, they must be contained and controlled in fear of the narrative being questioned. Progressives have determined that they must control the narrative, as a form of biopower, inspired by postmodernist philosophers like Michel Foucault. It’s not that these things make sense or adhere to reality, but they must control them and manipulate people into believing they are, so that a progression is made.
Naturally, Red Hook Studios has two choices to follow up from this event:

1. Accept the cancelation and exile Wayne June
2. Reject the cancelation and feel the wrath of gaming journalists

If anything, we are now going to get hit pieces and more cancellation material about this poor guy, who is simply a voice actor for an indie game. If this were the 00s, the absence of twitter(as well as facebook) would have kept this guy under the radar. Now that indie developers, as well as employees, are practically forced to hold social media accounts, they are forced to obey the woke narrative. In order to gain traction, they must appeal to woke streamers and woke journalists, only to accidentally enter a cursed contract to join the church of woke, being conscripted into a culture war they weren’t even aware of. I don’t know how old the guy is, but he looks like he’s in his late 40s, meaning he is simply a product of his time.
I also don’t want people to react negatively to the developers themselves, over what their subreddit does. I don’t know how intertwined they are with each other, but it’s not like they are willing to do a woke test before acquiring free labor. Sadly, this is why the woke keep on taking over places, because they don’t have anything better to do and find benefit in controlling the narrative. Their quest for power becomes jampacked with plenty of acolytes who are willing to sacrifice their own time and money for their gnostic, civil religion. With how they kick and scream when people don’t believe their pseudoscientific nonsense, you’re damn right they’re going to stay dedicated to spreading the word, by any means necessary.
Indie is not safe from wokeness. It never was. It is harder to directly tie oneself to wokeness when going indie, but the indirect enforcement around social media and journalism will cause the product to become infected through fandom. Any power witnessed by the woke will be sought by them and turned into a tourist trap. The tourists will follow the fashion, they will start making up conspiracy theories about how “x project was always woke”, and eventually the neglect or ignorance of the game developers will be taken advantage of. Then there is also the threat of money loss, whenever tourists take over a particular property as the majority of a fandom.
To make an example, let’s say you release a game and didn’t expect much of an audience. Somehow, you get 100k people going crazy about your game and you feel like you hit the jackpot. So much attention, so many possibilities, and now you can make more games. Money goes way, goes into further production, and suddenly the fans start making demands. The liberal developer will obey them because they don’t see a harm in making money from pleasing the audience.
All the while, the tourists were making the demands for diversity and they made sure they were the loudest. Positivity is enjoyed in silence, while negativity is heard by everyone through reviews and hit pieces. The woke embrace negativity, while liberals beg for omission of anything that would get the attention of the woke. Unfortunately for liberals, the woke are able to make things up and cancel anyone they want with anything they want. It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be convincing and inflammatory enough to be spread around and get memory holed.
If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t be constantly doing this.
Being a game developer is hard, but being an indie game developer is utter hell. The amount of tip-toeing they have to do, the ridiculous demands they have to obey, the sheer amount of gaslighting they have to suffer through. Many are not mentally prepared for such a moment. This is why, for any aspiring indie game developer: be mentally prepared for the worst. Practice your cancellation in the mirror if you have to.
It’ll save you in the long run.

On May 10th, 2024, the Darkest Dungeon subreddit was hit by a post about Wayne June. The voice actor for the narration of the game was deemed as every type of -ist and -phobe, with his tweet history scanned for anything he liked. Not what he posted, what he liked. These ranged from simple tweets from Elon Musk about the word “racist” being used more in news reports, to a post from End Wokeness about how San Francisco wants to use drones to catch criminals. You might be wondering “when does the offensiveness happen?”
Apparently, his main crime is liking a post that determined the people who need a roulette reel to pick a bathroom are people who don’t have all their marbles.
Even in 2010, this would have been common knowledge. We would point and laugh at people who wandered into the wrong toilet, especially if they sat down on a urinal. Now, we are forced to respect this concept that people can wander around into spaces that they are not welcomed, especially by feminists who claim a bear is safer to be around than a man. The institution has become insane, with indie titles copying this sentiment, ironically for a series that’s all about characters going insane. What furthers disappointment is how the mods of the subreddit defended his cancellation and even attacked any rejection of said cancellation.
What followed was another post that determined this outrage was extra and unjustified, but was quickly taken down by the mods who “wanted the topic to stay in the initial post, to avoid the subject getting out of control”. This is woke-speak for “do not go against our agenda, and stick to the narrative”. I’ve noticed for a while that indie is not safe from the woke mindvirus. I am told that indie is the way to go to be safe, only to be met with multiple woke circles revolving around popular indie titles. And remember: this has nothing to do with the developers, because this was a voice actor they hired.
In the case of Wayne June, his activity is no different than Joe Rogan on JRE, with his likes of Elon Musk being seen as mundane and uneventful to normal people. But to the woke, this is him announcing that he is the enemy, because the woke oppose liberalism. Liberals are not allowed to demand freedom of speech or even freedom of association, they must be contained and controlled in fear of the narrative being questioned. Progressives have determined that they must control the narrative, as a form of biopower, inspired by postmodernist philosophers like Michel Foucault. It’s not that these things make sense or adhere to reality, but they must control them and manipulate people into believing they are, so that a progression is made.
Naturally, Red Hook Studios has two choices to follow up from this event:

1. Accept the cancelation and exile Wayne June
2. Reject the cancelation and feel the wrath of gaming journalists

If anything, we are now going to get hit pieces and more cancellation material about this poor guy, who is simply a voice actor for an indie game. If this were the 00s, the absence of twitter(as well as facebook) would have kept this guy under the radar. Now that indie developers, as well as employees, are practically forced to hold social media accounts, they are forced to obey the woke narrative. In order to gain traction, they must appeal to woke streamers and woke journalists, only to accidentally enter a cursed contract to join the church of woke, being conscripted into a culture war they weren’t even aware of. I don’t know how old the guy is, but he looks like he’s in his late 40s, meaning he is simply a product of his time.
I also don’t want people to react negatively to the developers themselves, over what their subreddit does. I don’t know how intertwined they are with each other, but it’s not like they are willing to do a woke test before acquiring free labor. Sadly, this is why the woke keep on taking over places, because they don’t have anything better to do and find benefit in controlling the narrative. Their quest for power becomes jampacked with plenty of acolytes who are willing to sacrifice their own time and money for their gnostic, civil religion. With how they kick and scream when people don’t believe their pseudoscientific nonsense, you’re damn right they’re going to stay dedicated to spreading the word, by any means necessary.
Indie is not safe from wokeness. It never was. It is harder to directly tie oneself to wokeness when going indie, but the indirect enforcement around social media and journalism will cause the product to become infected through fandom. Any power witnessed by the woke will be sought by them and turned into a tourist trap. The tourists will follow the fashion, they will start making up conspiracy theories about how “x project was always woke”, and eventually the neglect or ignorance of the game developers will be taken advantage of. Then there is also the threat of money loss, whenever tourists take over a particular property as the majority of a fandom.
To make an example, let’s say you release a game and didn’t expect much of an audience. Somehow, you get 100k people going crazy about your game and you feel like you hit the jackpot. So much attention, so many possibilities, and now you can make more games. Money goes way, goes into further production, and suddenly the fans start making demands. The liberal developer will obey them because they don’t see a harm in making money from pleasing the audience.
All the while, the tourists were making the demands for diversity and they made sure they were the loudest. Positivity is enjoyed in silence, while negativity is heard by everyone through reviews and hit pieces. The woke embrace negativity, while liberals beg for omission of anything that would get the attention of the woke. Unfortunately for liberals, the woke are able to make things up and cancel anyone they want with anything they want. It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to be convincing and inflammatory enough to be spread around and get memory holed.
If it didn’t work, they wouldn’t be constantly doing this.
Being a game developer is hard, but being an indie game developer is utter hell. The amount of tip-toeing they have to do, the ridiculous demands they have to obey, the sheer amount of gaslighting they have to suffer through. Many are not mentally prepared for such a moment. This is why, for any aspiring indie game developer: be mentally prepared for the worst. Practice your cancellation in the mirror if you have to.
It’ll save you in the long run.

Why is Dr. Mark Spitzer still on our BoD? Hmmm.
https://www.patentlyapple.com/2024/05/googles-smartglasses-patent-acquired-from-canadian-company-north-was-published-last-week.html
Integrated Laser Package with Light Intensity Package
Google's acquired patent describes systems and methods for providing laser projectors having laser-based optical engines as well as light intensity and/or laser output power measuring (e.g. monitoring) capabilities. According to the various embodiments described herein, an optical engine of a laser projector includes at least one laser source (e.g., a laser diode or a plurality of laser diodes) that may be enclosed in a (e.g. partially or completely hermetically sealed) enclosure. The enclosure may include an optical window (sometimes referred to herein as an “exit window”) that may be integrated with one of its side walls or top surface or that forms one of its side walls or top surface.
Laser light beams output by the laser source(s) may pass through the exit window to exit the enclosure during active operation of the laser projector. The optical engine may support a relatively small substrate area for power monitoring, reducing the overall size of the optical engine. The laser projector or the optical engine can therefore be flexibly employed in a variety of display designs, including wearable heads-up displays or other head-mounted displays.
In some embodiments, after passing through the exit window, the light beams are passed through respective collimating lenses to a dichroic filtebeam combiner, at which light beams of different wavelengths are combined. The combined light beams may then be directed to one or more scanning elements that project the light beams across a display surface of an object, such as the holographic lens of a pair of smart glasses or another type of wearable heads-up display.
While various embodiments described are provided in the context of a wearable heads-up display, it should be understood that the laser projector and optical engine of the present patent application can instead be included in other systems, such as projection engines, lidar systems, sensing systems, ranging systems, external cavity laser diodes (e.g., as an integrated intensity stabilization servo), and/or the like.
It is generally desirable to monitor the laser output power of the laser sources of the optical engine of the laser projector, which allows for improved control over the quality of the projected image or video and enables a controller or processor of the device that includes the laser projector to dynamically limit the maximum output power of the optical engine based on real-time or near-real-time measurements of the laser output power.
For example, laser output power monitoring tends to be particularly important for the design of laser projectors used in wearable heads-up displays due to the generally limited availability of power and space (e.g., volume) in such wearable devices. Conventional methods for designing a laser projector with laser output power monitoring capabilities require a relatively large footprint on the laser projector substrate, which may be a printed circuit board (PCB) to be dedicated to the placement of a photodetector such as a photodiode, to the placement of optical components such as a pickoff mirror, and to maintaining a clear optical path to the photodetector.
In some instances, this footprint may be as large as that of the optical engine itself. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to reduce the substrate area taken up by the photodetector(s) and/or optical component(s) (sometimes referred to collectively herein as “laser output power monitoring component(s)”) that implement laser output power monitoring for an optical engine of a laser projector.
The systems, devices, and techniques described in the patent application may provide a reduction in the substrate area required for laser power output monitoring components, e.g. by utilizing an exit window of an enclosure of an optical engine having e.g. a diffraction grating that may be disposed in or on a primary output surface of the exit window and that may redirect (e.g., via diffraction) a portion of the incident light from the laser light beam(s) output by the laser source(s) toward one or more photodetectors, which may be photodiodes, and which may be disposed across from one or more surfaces of the exit window.
According to various embodiments, the exit window includes a diffraction grating that can be disposed or formed on or in the exit window, and that redirects the incident light from the laser sources toward the one or more photodetectors. In some embodiments, one or more photodetectors may be disposed on a top surface of the substrate so as to receive light that is redirected by the diffraction grating and that is output through a one or both side walls of the exit window. A “side wall” or “side surface” of the exit window may be defined as a surface of the exit window that extends between the primary input surface of the exit window and the primary output surface of the exit window that defines a plane that intersects (e.g., that is perpendicular to) the surface of the substrate upon which the optical engine is disposed.
In some embodiments, one or more photodetectors may be disposed below the exit window and completely or partially embedded in the substrate, such that the one or more photodetectors receive light that is redirected by the diffraction grating and that is output through a bottom surface of the exit window. In some embodiments, the exit window is disposed on a first side of the substrate and one or more photodetectors, which may be photodiodes, may be disposed below the exit window on a second side of the substrate that is opposite the first side, such that the one or more photodetectors receive light that is redirected by the diffraction grating and that is output through a bottom surface of the exit window, which passes through one or more apertures that extend through the entire thickness of the substrate to reach the one or more photodetectors. In some embodiments, one or more photodetectors may be disposed above the exit window on the surface of a second substrate that opposes the surface of the first substrate on which the window is disposed, such that the one or more photodetectors receive light that is redirected by the diffraction grating and that passes through a top surface of the window.
Google's patent FIG. 1 below is an illustrative diagram showing a side view of a wearable heads-up display (WHUD) #100 that employs a laser projector #110, which may be a scanning laser projector. For example, the WHUD 100 may be a pair of smartglasses or a virtual reality (VR) headset. The laser projector comprises an optical engine #111 that includes a red laser diode (labeled “R” in FIG. 1), a green laser diode (labeled “G” in FIG. 1), and a blue laser diode (labeled “B” in FIG. 1), and a scan mirror #112 that is controllably rotatable about two axes of freedom
Generally, it is desirable to monitor laser output power in the laser projector in order to better control the image or video projected onto the Holographic Optical Element (HOE) #130 (i.e., display surface) and to limit the maximum output power of the WHUD. Monitoring laser output power in a laser projector such as the laser projector is typically performed using a discrete pickoff component to redirect a portion of the laser light #120 to an on-chip photodetector. However, such laser output power monitoring approaches require a relatively large footprint on the laser projector substrate. In order to reduce the footprint of laser output power monitoring components, an exit window of an enclosure that includes some or all of the components of the optical engine may be configured to redirect a portion of the laser light through the top, bottom, or side walls of the exit window toward one or more photodetectors placed across from and in the optical path of the top, bottom, or side walls of the exit window.
2Google-smartglasses-fig.1
Google's patent FIG. 2 below is an isometric view of a wearable heads-up display with a laser projector that includes an optical engine.
3Google-smartglasses-figs-2&4
Google's patent FIG. 4 above is a block diagram of a top-down view of a laser projector having an optical engine that includes an exit window having a holographic diffraction grating.
For more details, review patent application US20240154379 published on May 9, 2024.
Inventors
Dan Adema: Opto Mechanical Engineer (formerly from 'North,' Kitchener, Ontario) Timothy Bodiya: AR Hardware Research (formerly from 'North')

Hey Fromland! Did the Season 3 trailer leave you feeling a little...underwhelmed? Don't get me wrong, the show is still the creepiest thing on TV, but the trailer gave us only a little new information. Today, we will dig into what WAS revealed, what was MISSING, and my latest theory on what the town represents.
Critique of the Trailer: Okay, let's be honest. We've already seen Boyd battle those horrifying monsters, heard plenty of blood-curdling screams, and witnessed Victor's thousand-yard stare. So, what does the trailer actually give us?
Winter is Here! The most obvious change is the shift from summer to winter, which we already knew from the season one finale.
Purposeful Torment: We get confirmation that all this horror isn't random; the town is intentionally designed to break the trapped residents. But what's missing? Where are the clues about the town's origins, the nature of the monsters, or ANY new mysteries to puzzle over?
New Theory: The Collective Unconscious of Unfulfilled Desires
This lack of answers has sparked a new theory for me. What if the town isn't just a physical place but a manifestation of a collective unconscious, specifically fueled by unfulfilled desires? And what if historical events in America didn't happen? But there's a twist! It's also an alternate dimension where key events in American history took different turns.
Jungian Psychology: Dreams as a Mirror: This whole concept aligns with Carl Jung's ideas about dreams. He believed our dreams are a way for the unconscious mind to communicate with us. Nightmares, especially, carry important messages about our anxieties and unresolved issues.
I suspect that Tabitha, Boyd, Jade, Donna, Father Khatri, Sarah, Kenny, and Kristi are not just trapped in the town, but are actively dreaming it. This explains the disjointed conversations and repeating events like Ellis getting hurt.
What Happens When You "Wake Up?" If the town is a dream, does death truly mean waking up? Or is it a more symbolic death, a confrontation of your deepest fears that allows you to transcend the nightmare?

I tells ya, so much falls into place here. This comes from Helen Hardacre's book Kurozumikyō and the New Religions of Japan, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey, 1986. First, some background:

The contemporary religious scene in Japan is commonly divided into the "established religions" (kisei shūkyō) and the "new religions" (shinshūkō). These categories are further divided into Buddhist- and Shintō-derived varieties of each as well as into further subcategories.

The titular "Kurozumikyō" is a Shintō new religion founded in 1814 by the Shintō priest Kurozumi Munetada. As of this publication, it had a total membership of 220,000.

Founded by a priest of the "established" Shintō tradition, it is one of the oldest of the so-called new religions and seems to combine aspects of both new and established types. (p. 3)
THE NEW RELIGIONS OF JAPAN
The new religions and their members represent an important and distinctive sector of Japanese society. In spite of the great variety of their doctrines, new religions share a unity of aspiration and world view significantly different from those of secular society and from the so-called established religions. New religions constitute the most vital sector of Japanese religion today and include perhaps 30 percent of the nation's population in their membership. (p. 3)

A source I read recently noted that the Soka Gakkai grew from poaching members of other new religions; it seems this demographic was the most fluid and changeable of Japan's religious demographic. However, at just 30% of the population, even if the Soka Gakkai had managed to claim 100% of these new religions' memberships, it would still have fallen short of Ikeda's self-defined minimum requirement of 1/3 of the population.

Among the doctrines of the new religions there is great variety, since doctrine frequently originates in revelations to a founder. (p. 5)

Here is the Soka Gakkai's version:

• The enlightenment attained by President Toda in prison is the prime point of Soka Buddhism.

Founders tend to be charismatic individuals who attract a following through faith healing rather than through ordination and textual erudition.

The Soka Gakkai version:

• Ikeda: "Every disease can be cured by Gohonzon!"

Also here and here and especially HERE - DEFINITELY with the "faith healing".
As far as the "textual erudition" goes, Toda's post-WWII lectures on the Lotus Sutra were expected to be accepted as the "gold standard" of textual interpretation, and today, SGI members study Ikeda's lectures on texts rather than the texts themselves - see here and here. Who needs any priest??

The new religions tend to recruit their following through evangelistic proselytization and dramatic conversion, at least in the first generation. They promise followers "this-worldly-benefits" in the form of healing, solution of family problems, and material prosperity. In ethics they emphasize family solidarity and qualities of sincerity, frugality, harmony, diligence, and filial piety. Between laity and leaders there is only a vague dividing line, and for the most part, anyone may acquire leadership credentials, including women. Frequently the new religions recognize no sacred centers but those of their own history. (pp. 5-6)

While the Soka Gakkai initially embraced pilgrimages ("tozan") to the Nichiren Shoshu Head Temple Taiseki-ji, their regular activities were centered on Soka Gakkai buildings ("kaikan", or "centers") rather than on Nichiren Shoshu temples. In fact, this was an early source of conflict, as the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood justifiably questioned WHY the Soka Gakkai was putting so much more effort and resources into building NEW Soka Gakkai centers than on building Nichiren Shoshu temples, which would have been the proper function of any religion's legitimate lay organization. Add to that the bad optics of Ikeda's cult's attempted steeplejacking of established Nichiren Shoshu temples, and there was DEFINITELY something rotten in Denmark, so to speak. The Soka Gakkai's focus was trained on IKEDA rather than on the priests of the order they supposedly belonged to as a lay organization. That's some fucked up priorities and it was only a matter of time before that became an open, obvious problem. Of course Ikeda hoped to delay that reckoning until he was in a position to seize the entire Nichiren Shoshu religion for himself. Too bad, so sad, the Nichiren Shoshu priesthood headed him off at the pass and spoiled all his beautiful plots.

The world view of the Japanese new religions conceives of the individual, society, nature, and the universe as an integrated system vitalized by a single principle. Every level represents the manifestation of that principle on a larger scale. The relationships among the levels, however, are not static. They must be maintained in balance, harmony, and congruence. These qualities are manifested in conditions of happiness, health, social stability, abundant harvests, and regular succession of the seasons (free of such calamities as flood, drought, and major earthquakes). The opposite conditions (unhappiness, illness, social unrest, scarcity of food, and natural disasters) are symptomatic of a lack of harmony or congruence. Everything is interconnected so that a change in one dimension, no matter how small, eventually ripples out and affects other dimensions in a larger context. Religious practice is a striving for continuous integration of self with the body, society, nature, and the universe. This involves careful management of the most basic components: the self, the faculties of mind and emotion, and the personality. (pp. 11-12)

This thinking was the basis for Nichiren's Rissho Ankoku Ron, or "On Establishing the etc. & whatever".
Here is the chart that illustrates this thinking; you can clearly see the basis for "A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind". There is no scientific basis for this kind of delusion; ignorant people just LIKE believing it. "Look how IMPORTANT and INFLUENTIAL I am!! Everything is all about MEEE!!!" The Soka Gakkai has been in existence (in a continuous state) for some 80 years now; if this sort of thing DID happen, we'd see it. We already know Ikeda had such high hopes for his followers, but the truth is that the membership never lived up to Ikeda's expectations. No "world leaders" emerged from Soka Gakkai ranks; they didn't even become rich! That simply isn't something that happens because of "this practice", no matter how much Ikeda misled all the gullibles. Daimoku is obviously NOT "the perfect solution for all problems".

Although the new religions inevitably adopt the system I have just described, they state it in different idioms. They may use Buddhist, Shintō, or colloquial terms for the self, calling it variously the kokoro (heart-mind or heart), konjō (guts), *reikon (spirit), tamashii (soul), and other terms. Similarly, they may name the principle vitalizing all existence by Shintō, Buddhist, or other terms: kami-nature, Buddha-nature, karma, ki, yōki, and so forth. They may predicate the existence of a variety of supernaturals who exist on a different plane than human beings, intervening in human affairs from time to time. These may be kami, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or ancestors. Alien to the system is the notion of a single deity standing outside the whole and manipulating it by means of an unknowable will. The supernaturals of the integrated system are subject to its rhythms and generally conform to its principles. The system is compatible with a variety of cosmological ideas and world pictures, including horizontal and vertical cosmologies seen in Japanese myths and in Buddhism's many-tiered realms of existence. (pp. 12-14)
Because self-cultivation is the primary task of all, textual erudition, esoteric ritual, and the observance of abstinences are rejected or relegated to secondary significance.

Because "Earthly desires ARE enlightenment", right?? And all that other Buddhism stuff, well, that's all obsolete now, "as useless as last year's calendar", right??

The notion of kokoro is a hallmark of Japanese culture, and it is the central pillar of the world view of the new religions. Consider the following proverb, one that could be endorsed by the new religions and is a stock saying in secular society: "Both suffering and happiness depend on how we bear the kokoro." Kokoro is borne or carried in a certain way, good or bad, and according to that we suffer or are happy. We are in control. An ordinary, nonreligious interpretation of this proverb would say that our attitude toward circumstances determines in large part whether we are happy or unhappy, or that an attitude of "positive thinking" can improve our experience of unfavorable situations even if the circumstances are not thereby altered. (p. 19)

You can see Ikeda alluding to this here:

Even a man who has great wealth, social recognition and many awards may still be shadowed by indescribable suffering deep in his heart. On the other hand, an elderly woman who is not fortunate financially, leading a simple life alone, may feel the sun of joy and happiness rising in her heart each day.

An interpretation of the proverb among the new religions is likely to be much stronger, to hold that human beings certainly have the power to be happy, depending solely on the manner in which one bears kokoro. We need only exercise that power by self-cultivation.

And remember - NO COMPLAINING!!

Moreover, the idea that circumstances can be changed by the power of diligently cultivated kokoro is pervasive. It is a question not only of a change of attitude but sometimes of radical material change, such as an improvement in economic situation or a miraculous healing. It is understood that the cultivated kokoro has the power also to change external persons and events, and that nothing is impossible. Exercising the full power fo the kokoro is possible for anyone who practices self-cultivation through the spiritual disciplines of the particular religious group. (pp. 19-20)

Isn't that the whole basis for the idea of "human revolution"? How else could anyone understand "You can chant for whatever you want!"? Don't the Dead-Ikeda-cult SGI culties love to talk about "making the impossible possible"?? Hmm..I wonder why they never do...🤨
Here Ikeda likens the Soka Gakkai practice to the magic lamp of the "Aladdin" story. And it only works for Soka Gakkai members, of course.

We chant to make the impossible possible, we want extraordinary, not ordinary. Let's get those benefits flowing, let's appreciate those challenges that allow us to grow and win and share those victories with others so that they can be inspired and win. Source

While the terminology of the self is basic to understanding Japanese constructions of self, the patterns of action and affect in which these are embedded constitute the functioning of the world view of the new religions. Here I identify four such patterns:

(1) the idea that "other people are mirrors,"

(2) the exchange of gratitude and repayment of favor,
(3) the quest for sincerity, and
(4) the adherence to paths of self-cultivation.
So much for the supposed "novelty" of Dickeata's supposedly eternal "clear mirror guidance", eh? Oh, and EVERYBODY owes Scamsei and the SGI their eternal gratitude, too, and you NEVER EVER get to finish your "human revolution" ("self-cultivation")!

Each of these patterns represents an indispensable element of Japanese culture, and thus their implementation in Japanese religions is not unique. (p. 21)

Nope. The Soka Gakkai is just bog standard for a Japanese New Religion. Nothing unique or special. Just like all the rest.

The idea that other people are mirrors makes the individual totally responsible in all circumstances. Although the burden is heavy, there is also a tacit message that the self can control any situation. Placing blame and responsibility on the individual also denies the idea that "society" can be blamed for one's problems; hence concepts of exploitation and discrimination are ruled out of consideration. On the whole the new religions are uninterested in political action to improve society; to them it is a question of individuals improving themselves individually and collectively through self-cultivation. (p. 23)

Remember, this author ISN'T talking about Soka Gakkai here! This a feature of ALL Japan's new religions!

Since self-cultivation is the primary determiner of all human affairs, notions of fate or divine wrath (karma or bachi, for example) are reinterpreted, ignored, or denied.

Or introduced when necessary to blame a member when the promises of SGI leaders are proven empty and false. It's always the MEMBERSHIP's fault somehow, never that the teachings are wrong or deceptive.

In like manner, because of the primacy of self-cultivation, the concept of pollution cannot be fully credited, and this opens the door to greater participation by women than is the case in the established religions.

In the case of the Soka Gakkai, "greater participation by women" has been implemented as "greater exploitation of women". The women of the Soka Gakkai were expected to deliver daily newspapers for no pay throughout the Soka Gakkai's history; it is only recently that their numbers have declined so catastrophically and they have aged so much that the Soka Gakkai finally had to contract with a delivery service - which of course Soka Gakkai has to PAY now. Newspapers are SO much more profitable when you can find some suckers to deliver them at no cost to YOU!

Thus the new religions stress unquestioning performance of their established disciplines, fully aware that the demand for uncomprehending obedience (at least iat the beginning) will cause the convert frustration. Also involved as a minor theme is the pedagogical principle that "physical action can be perceived as isomorphic with spiritual change." Thus, for example, polishing floors can be assumed to "polish" the self. If one enters through form, eventually the kokoro will follow.

Speaking of exploiting women, who else heard that when women were cleaning the toilets for free at the local SGI center, they were "cleaning their karma"??

The hardship entailed is not to be avoided; no one denies that it is punishing to polish floors by hand, recite sutras, or endure cold water ablutions. Hardship in itself is virtuous and confers compassion and maturity.

Isn't that the essence of SGI's much-vaunted "youth division training"? Basically, it's SGI leaders getting off on forcing young people to do all sorts of scut work and to engage in unpleasant activities just because they can - somebody has to do the grunt work, right? Make THEM do it! Tell them it's "training" when actually it's just training them to allow themselves to be exploited. For a funny example of this attitude, see how this colossal doofus was trying to cajole and coerce his employee into joining SGI before he aged out of the youth division, so he could get him some of that gooooood "youth division training"!!

Meanwhile, now I worry about Chad, who has only a few months left to obtain YMD training, to whom I had to slip September Living Buddhism under his door, since his subscription is on the internet, and I want him to start working on the Introductory Exam material. Yesterday he did not answer or reply when he was supposed to be at work. (He is paid per day of work from his home.) Today when I arrived he was not even there. So I have been chanting for his welfare. He recently reported to me a medical difficulty he has that may be interfering with his efforts, or worse.

That's ONE way to duck an annoying self-important SGI stalker-nag! "Sorry, can't talk - have the plague..."

All the new religions agree that a person's real potential cannot be fulfilled without suffering, and in this they share with secular society the suspicion about someone who has failed that perhaps kurō ga tarinai, "the person hasn't suffered enough." That is, if one had endured sufficient trials before the present ordeal, one could have conquered this hardship. Accordingly it is important to establish how much leaders and founders have suffered in the course of their own self-cultivation. (p. 28)

See More myths about how the young Ikeda suffered so much and was so sickly wah wah

All problems can be traced to insufficient cultivation of self. Thus it is misguided to expect fundamental social change from political ideology. Instead, society can be improved only through collective moral improvement, the doctrine of meliorism. Similarly, attempting to cure disease simply by treating the body alone is useless. Healing can come about only through rededication to ethical values; hence medicine is effective only in a provisional way. Education and secular achievements apart from faith and cultivation of self are houses of cards, castles on sand. Accordingly, media-sponsored presentation of thoroughly secularized views of life are disapproved. (p. 14)

You can see the clearest examples of this thinking in the teachings of Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai from the 1960s, before people understood how immediate and pervasive "political ideology" could effect fundamental social change, as in the US when the anti-race-mixing "anti-miscegenation" interracial marriage legal prohibitions were swept away in the US Supreme Court's 1967 judgment on "Loving v. Virginia". That changed society more fundamentally and pervasively than any religion's doctrines that people's "hearts" must be changed FIRST before anyone could hope to see societal change realized, or in the terms above, "collective moral improvement". No. Remove unjust laws and establish penalties for behaving unjustly, and voilà! Society changes!
See SGI is actively OPPOSED to social justice and thus will NEVER contribute meaningfully to world peace and More on why SGI will never make any significant changes to society.
Back when Japan's medical system was primitive, with limited availability, the new religions advertised "faith healing", as seen above and here. But as medical care improved and, most importantly, became widely accessible, that became people's healing option of choice, so the new religions (and all the rest) had to drop it as a selling point, because nobody was buying it any more. Within the ignorant and indoctrinated ranks of SGI members, we can STILL see claims of "faith healing"; they apparently don't realize this isn't a compelling sales pitch any more. Except that in house, the superstitious, magical-thinking culties still eat it up with a spoon 🙄
But you can see Ikeda here explaining that medicine is unnecessary to treat various ills; there must be a "faith" component or the treatment will inevitably be ineffective. OR that having faith will make even a nonsensical nontreatment effective! Also slamming medicine as harmful and condemning members as somehow "deserving" of terrible illnesses.
And remember when Ikeda told "girls" they didn't need to go to college? That was fun. And how Icky denigrated university graduates??
Let's not forget how the Soka Gakkai has always been anti-union and has never established any charitable services anywhere, not even for the needy within its own struggling membership.

Lacking justification for a strong differentiation between the religious lives of priests and laity, the tendency to make the laity central is strong and pervasive. (p. 14)

This was a primary issue within the Soka Gakkai that festered until Ikeda brought it to a full boil out of his obsessive desire to BE the object of worship. The Soka Gakkai/Nichiren Shoshu alliance, while expedient for the Soka Gakkai and undeniably profitable for Nichiren Shoshu, was nonetheless an uneasy alliance, given the Soka Gakkai's defining characteristics as a "new religion" and Nichiren Shoshu's "established religion" status. Those two simply don't mix. Especially on this last point, you can see that it is a characteristic of a "new religion" to have the fundamental attitude that "priests are unnecessary". Ikeda simply wanted to USE Nichiren Shoshu for his OWN convenience, in service to HIS plans, instead of directing the Soka Gakkai to function as a legitimate lay organization whose focus was their religion, Nichiren Shoshu. Ikeda made it all about himself and his goal of maximizing his own power and control. Ikeda was never a religious person.

Book 1 Prev Next
The journey back to the City of Glass is surprisingly uneventful. I suppose part of it is that we're used to the trip by now — I'm able to tune out everything that happens on the way, up to and including the strange interaction with the guards where they take a sample of my Firmament. Nothing's come of it so far, but I still make sure to give them a fake sample.
Tarin, as usual, doesn't bother. I imagine he's done this plenty of times before he ever met me, though, considering his relationship with Miktik. I doubt them having an additional sample of his Firmament is actually going to make a difference.
"What happened between you and Mari, anyway?" I ask once we've gotten past the Great Gates. Tarin looked like he needed some time to think on the journey, so I haven't asked about it so far. Now, though, he looks a little more like he's in the mood to talk.
"She tell me she worried," Tarin says. We've slowed down to a walking pace for the time being. Actually being in Isthanok means we have to be careful about Whisper being able to listen in to everything they say. I've never really thought about how suffocating that is, but the difference is stark now that I haven't had to watch my every word for the past day or so.
"About what?" I ask. I think I know the answer, but Tarin seems to want to talk it through.
"Me," Tarin says, which surprises me. It doesn't exactly mirror what she told me when we last spoke, though that was a different iteration of her. "She worry I lonely."
"I'm assuming she's not talking about the kind of loneliness I can help with," I say dryly. Tarin's expression is almost comically horrified, like he hadn't even considered that interpretation.
"No!" he squawks. "Just... I experience many things. She not. You understand?"
That much I do understand. Tarin's essentially moving on without her. He's having new experiences, encountering new people, fighting new fights — and Mari is stuck in place. I haven't made any progress in figuring out how to bring someone else into the loop intentionally, nor do I really know where to start, even with all the strides I've made in Firmament and imbuement.
"Yeah," I say. That's a little closer to what Mari talked to me about. "Do you know what you want to do about it? I've been wondering if I might be able to bring her into the loop somehow..."
To my surprise, Tarin immediately shakes his head. "She not want join," he says. "She say experiencing same thing too many times not easy."
A short silence. Then Tarin continues, "she right."
I don't have anything to say to that.
"You don't seem bored with the loops," Ahkelios points out. His chosen perch this time is on top of my head, nestled in my hair. "Not yet, anyway."
"I not bored," Tarin says. "Many things interesting. But for how long?"
"As long as you can handle it, I suppose," I say.
Maybe I've been looking at this the wrong way. Maybe I shouldn't be looking for a way to get Mari in, but a way to get Tarin out.
I'm not sure I like the idea of that.
—
Isthanok looms ahead of us. The first indication that it's near is the crystalline palace in the sky that directs the sun's glare almost directly into my eyes. This is also the first time I notice that Tough Body seems to passively increase my ability to stare into powerful sources of light without being blinded. Not that I'm about to try staring into the sun or anything.
As more of the city comes into view, however, I almost immediately notice that things are... different. I slow down, bleeding off the speed skills I've been using, and next to me Tarin does the same. We exchange cautious glances.
"I don't remember there being this many guards before," I say quietly.
More accurately, I don't remember there being any guards before. Security within Isthanok is mostly handled by He-Who-Guards and his many bodies, as I understand it. I don't ever really see them around, so presumably they're good at hiding.
Even in the last loop, where Guard began injured and apparently dying, there hadn't been any guards stationed at the borders of Isthanok. So one of two things must have happened: either Guard's condition is much worse than before, or Whisper was able to pass on a message about the Trialgoer being active.
I grimace. The changes don't bode well, but this doesn't really change what we have to do.
"We're not going to visit Miktik this time," I mutter. I feel compelled to be quiet even though we're still well out of Whisper's range — at least, I'm pretty sure we are. The Firmament doesn't get collected into her palace from this far away. "Don't want to put her at risk, and we've already seen the design for her Firmament sink."
"Your design not complete," Tarin points out, entirely reasonably.
"I'm sure I can make do," I say. Ahkelios makes it a point to rap me on the skull, at this point, and I sigh. "...Okay, we'll talk to Miktik. But I don't want to involve her any more than necessary. At this point I'm tired of seeing Whisper abuse her."
From the grim look on Tarin's face and the way he tenses up, I'm pretty sure he agrees. He confirms it a second later. "She try it again and I fight her."
"Not kill?"
Tarin snorts. "I not kill Whisper. She too strong. But I can be very, very annoying."
I can't argue with that. The idea of Tarin swooping in and out at his blistering pace and annoying Whisper makes me smirk a bit.
That smirk quickly falls away as we approach the guards that stand at the border to Isthanok.
They're both silverwisps, and considering how unkempt their uniforms are and the way they keep looking nervously between one another, I'm guessing neither of them are used to the job — they hold their weapons like they're toys rather than weapons.
Their weapons are large marbles filled with deadly Firmament. I hope they know what side the Firmament is supposed to come out from — the spherical shape doesn't really give you a lot of clues. I can tell there's a cone of energy in there with my Firmament sense, but barring that, there are no markings that might indicate a firing direction.
"That looks like a disaster waiting to happen," I mutter.
The noise is enough for the two silverwisps to take notice. One of them steps forward. "What's your purpose in Isthanok today?" he asks. I note the sudden concentration of Firmament being drawn up to Whisper's palace — she's listening in.
"Visit!" Tarin squawks. "We want visit—"
"—a kobold-run shop we heard about," I interrupt. "I think it's called Thys and Thaht?"
Tarin gives me a baffled look. I ignore him.
"Really?" the guard seems surprised. I feel the focused Firmament waver a bit — Whisper's lost interest and is going back to passive listening. "Not a very popular shop, that one."
"Why not?" I ask.
He shrugs. "Too many explosions," he says, waving a hand. "How long will you be staying in Isthanok?"
"Not long," I say. "Maybe a day or two. We're going to check out the Craven Arena, too."
"Oh?" the guard leans forward, suddenly interested. "As a spectator, or a fighter?"
...That smells like a trap. I feign embarrassment and laugh. "I doubt I'd last a second in the ring."
"Most people don't," the silverwisp says, his pendant displaying a smirk. He takes a step back — evidently, I gave him the answer he wanted to hear — and waves us both in. "You're clear. Enjoy your time in Isthanok."
Tarin and I make our way past him, a little bemused by the whole experience. Everything inside Isthanok hasn't changed, at least. The Firmament feels a little different, but I'm guessing that's because of Guard's absence, which speaks volumes as to his power.
"We go shop?" Tarin asks. His way of asking about the kobold shop I mentioned, I suppose. Anything more specific might be an obvious tipoff, especially if Whisper knows that the Trial is now active.
"Let's get your friend first," I say. "Bring her along. I'm sure she'd be interested in what they've got."
I'm not just saying that, either. Whatever tech or imbuements they use are seriously impressive, considering the difficulty I had against that one piloted robot. Tarin nods thoughtfully in response.
We make our way once more to Miktik's workshop, ducking through the hole in the fence and the Firmament barrier that separates the two sections of the city. Like before, the abrupt change in noise is jarring — this part of the city is much louder than any other. I wonder if that's why the barrier exists, to dampen and filter out the sound that Whisper receives as she listens in on the city. It's not like that's a trivial imbuement to keep running.
"Something feel different," Tarin says suddenly. I blink.
"Does it?" I glance around. Nothing looks particularly out of the ordinary.
"I feel it too," Ahkelios says. The little guy twitches in his spot in my hair — I can't see him, but I can feel him shifting uncomfortably. Not a great sign.
I flick on Firmament Sight. My natural Firmament sense is good, but I'm not able to organize the information as quickly as I can with a visual reference. The moment I do, I see it.
There's... a gradient, for lack of a better word. The Firmament looks normal at first glance, but a second look shows that it's getting gradually denser as it approaches the direction of Miktik's workshop, and while the workshop itself is still out of range for me, this is enough to warrant caution.
Evidently, Ahkelios and Tarin have developed their instincts enough to know when something is wrong, even if they can't pinpoint what it is. I'll have to work on that.
"There's some kind of concentration of Firmament up ahead," I say. "It's subtle, but it's there."
Ahkelios opens his mouth to ask me a question, then pauses, sending said question through our bond instead. What changed this time? he asks. Whisper took longer to send for MIktik last time. This is too soon.
I shrug. No idea, I admit. But I'm guessing Whisper has some idea of what's going on now.
You think she's got something to do with this, then?
Maybe. It's the only thing I can think of, anyway. We'll find out. Not like a bit of Firmament is going to stop us.
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Author's Note: Reddit seems to have changed the submission page and now pasting into the text box doesn't retain formatting no matter what subreddit I try to paste in, so I'm using a markdown exporter instead. Hopefully that doesn't cause any problems.
Thanks for reading! This story is also on RoyalRoad, and I'd appreciate any support via Patreon.

What is Looking-Glass Self? This is concept in sociology, discovered in 1902 by Cooley - and his theory states that we form our own identity based on what we think other people think who we are. In fact, the whole sociology is based on social anxiety- the very same social anxiety that psychiatry (CBT and DSM) are pathologizing and trying to cure and destroy and present as mental illness.
Without social anxiety, without ability to worry what other people think about us - we would lose social skills, empathy and civilization norms - such as not eating others.
"If it weren't for the nervous people in the world, we'd all still be eating each other." The Misfits (1961) https://youtu.be/h56iL7vK5Y0
When people consume chicken - they eat the flesh of animals because there is no ability to connect with the slaughtered animals as conscious beings who are able to think and perceive us. So when we destroy social anxiety- our ability to worry what other people think - we will become psychopaths, sociopaths and narcissists. This also provide us with important information of self expression and holding toxic people accountable - by stating the facts and truth. Toxic people learn to suppress social anxiety - and this gives them ability to be cruel. And the only way to probe their delusions is to speak the truth to them. And that is why toxic people mock and go into hysteria mode - because their suppressed conscience and morality and ethics are eating them from inside.
Dolphins are not caught with smiles but cruelly with hooks, Michele. One day you will learn to be cruel. Caravaggio (1986) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF12uM_GK74
Sociology is based on social anxiety - that we form our own identity based on society. We need other people to provide us information who we are and how to express ourselves. The language is the very first thing that society gives us to define who we are - by using the very words that society is using.
Theories of the Self
William James (1890): A person has "as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry and image of him in their minds"
Charles Cooley (1902): Views of self reflect the standpoints of significant others in our lives ("looking-glass self")
George Herbert Mead (1934): We imagine the perspectives of others and incorporate these into our self views - and that this occurs continuously as we interact with others on an ongoing, moment to moment basis.

Having a distorted looking glass (incorrectly imagining others’ opinions of us) can cause bad feelings, or a negative self-image. https://wa01001786.schoolwires.net/cms/lib/WA01001786/Centricity/Domain/70/Socialization%20Notes.pdf
What happens when we are around toxic people - is that our identity is deformed as well. CBT claims, along with DSM, that our worry what other people think - is personality disorder, called Borderline:
Reality testing is ability to perceive reality properly. Without too much deviation from facts. Borderline refer to you if want to know anything about reality. “Do you think so too?” Narcissist will tell you "am I not genius". YT Richard Grannon & Prof. Sam Vaknin about Fantasy
Borderline personality disorder is a mental health condition that affects the way people feel about themselves and others, making it hard to function in everyday life. It includes a pattern of unstable, intense relationships, as well as impulsiveness and an unhealthy way of seeing themselves. (Mayo Clinic)
The truth is - if we are around toxic people, their criticism will affect our self worth. Their constant nagging, constant nitpicking, constant error finding and constant drama about anything that moves - will have an effect on our sense of stability and security in the world. This is not disorder. This is simply how society works. In order to heal our mental health issues - we need to repair connections with other people - which may include minimizing exposure to toxic people or cutting toxic people completely off from our lives.
We will never feel secure, confident, worthy - if there are toxic people around us who are criticizing us and others all the time.
Improving our relationships is improving our mental health. William Glasser
Interpersonal strife with those close to us leads to rifts and resentments that produce symptoms of mental illness; these problems are, in fact, the logical consequence of troubled relationships. Glasser emphasizes that lasting psychological problems are usually caused by problems in our personal relationships (rather than signifying a biochemical abnormality in the brain), and distress can be remedied through repairing these relationships without recourse to psych drugs. DK psychology book, WILLIAM GLASSER
Being able to feel safe with other people is probably the single most important aspect of mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk
In another words: feel safe with other people = mental health
The single most important issue for traumatized people is to find a sense of safety in their own bodies. 🟦 Bessel A. van der Kolk
Toxic people cause social anxiety. That is why social anxiety is called social+anxiety. There is social element that is causing the anxiety. There is social factor contributing to anxiety. It is not called self-anxiety. We did not catch social anxiety by walking randomly in the street when it was rainy, so we caught a common cold. It is not like we felt bored in our lives so we invented neuroticism to keep us active and occupied. Social anxiety must start in childhood with ACE and ACoA where we learned from early on - that life is dangerous, that people are not safe, that we must worry to be hyper-vigilant and that we are unworthy if we make any kind of mistakes. We learned that our flaws, imperfections and mistakes are our core personality - abnormal and inept.
Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. B. F. Skinner
This is how we end up with Broken Looking Glass Self. Distorted Looking Glass Self. We end up with operant conditioning - to worry what other people think in such way that we attempt to think for the other person ahead of time, so that they do not get mad of us - and then attempt, we try hard not to make other people mad. And how we execute this operant conditioning - depends on our background, people around us and punishments to which we were exposed as kids. Most socially anxious learn to keep quiet. To shut up. To self censor. And to self blame. If the other person is angry or hysterical - we will feel responsible for their mood swings and we will try hard to fix their emotions and their problems. Soon - we spread this fixing on other people, who are not angry - and we create fake social mask that is always pleasant and nice and helpful to anyone, especially if they are angry and rude and intrusive. We learned to interpret their anger as our fault and our abnormality. Looking glass self is broken - because it does not reflect any more - now we imagine how to please other people without using looking glass (mirror) - as all people use it.
Other people are there as information post. They broadcast who they are, many of them mask their true Self and present fake version of themselves, their social mask. Our brain will naturally form opinion about us through the words and opinions and non-verbal gestures from other people, strangers or our acquaintances. This part is totally normal. This is not disorder. This is not illness. The disorder starts when we try hard to fix other people's conclusions about us by making ourselves small and by changing our routine so that we soothe the other person. Instead of CBT techniques - all that we need to do here is to allow other people to think whatever they choose to think about us. Simply allow other people to hate us and leave it at that.
We really have to work very hard at changing our programming because we don't understand we're upset because someone else has a perception of us that we're uncomfortable with. And we challenge this person's perception of us. We're upset that people think this about us. Something amazing happens when you begin to accept that other people are allowed to have their own faulty perception of you. 🟥 Lisa A. Romano Breakthrough Life coach Inc.
For the next step, sociology will also help us. CBT and DSM, psychiatry is telling us concrete steps which we must take - and morally and ethically speaking - this is illegal. When someone orders us what we must do - this is called manipulation and coercive control. This way anyone who is psychopathic and narcissistic can climb, grab and push their way to powerful position of ordering others what to do - and then evil people can easily manipulate and control the masses. This is what happens with psychiatry. Psychology on the other hand explains concepts - psychology does not order us what to do in life and how to react. That is why Humanistic psychology is healthy.
It is the client who knows what hurts, what directions to go, what problems are crucial, what experiences have been deeply buried. Carl Rogers
In the same manner as Humanistic Psychology and IFS Model - sociology also has the similar term that allows clients freedom in own choices - which is called Thomas theorem.
The Thomas theorem is a theory of sociology which was formulated in 1928 by William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas: If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. In other words, the interpretation of a situation causes the action. This interpretation is not objective. (wiki)
If men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. - formulated in 1928 by William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas
This means - that no other person can objectively tell us what is the best way to go in life. We need our inner GPS, our intuition, our common sense, other people as well - to form our reality and our construct of the future where we are headed. With CBT and DSM - we do not have this freedom. With CBT and DSM - we are pathologized instead - and all our focus is spent on fixing our symptoms - we are literally self consuming ourselves with CBT.
In real life- real life situations will not allow us to form rigid mindset. Any other person, any other situation in life - good or bad - is always unique and different. Sometimes it is great that we shut up and that we self censor ourselves - especially if we are tired and we don't want to harm other people with our nagging and complaints that will go off as soon as we get to sleep and rest. On the other hand - many situations in life that are triggering our social anxiety require from us to self express, that we talk out our truth - no matter how much manipulative people attempt to shut us up with mocking and shaming.
So when we allow other people to form toxic conclusions about us - we need to know that we can rely on our brain, on our intuition to tell us how to react and what to do and how to behave. We have this mechanism inside us. We do not need to pathologize ourselves with CBT. CBT will tell us that we must be assertive in order to handle toxic people. This is horrible advice because:
"If you have been the scapegoat in a narcissistic family system, the concept of setting a boundary is laughable. You would be telling them exactly how to hurt you, and they would happily oblige. Also, trying to set a boundary in a calm and tactful way would be met by resistance in the form of mocking and ridicule, attempting to bait the scapegoat into anger, which would prove you are the problem." YT kingbee9778
"I feel gaslighted by the therapy mantras of “ you have to teach people how to treat you “ ,(setting boundaries). No you don’t and no you can’t. First of all, it’s not my job to teach an adult how to behave like one and quite frankly, it’s a trap and a drain hole. Secondly, I DON’T CONTROL OTHER PEOPLE. They will do what they want, especially if they have the tiniest ounce of power over you." YT gertrudewest4535
When we follow CBT - we will repeat the broken Looking Glass Self when we exposure ourselves to social situations - and social anxiety will not go away - because we will continually process the same ways reality and other people in a manner that is toxic to us - through seeking approval from other people, through self flagellation, through harsh inner critic and internalized toxic shame.
To fix broken Looking-Glass Self means fixing social anxiety: when we are afraid of what other people think about us. With CBT we self pathologize our normal reaction to worry what other people think about us. This is not disorder, it is totally normal to have awareness that other people are thinking about us.
Many social anxiety coaches will use "Spotlight effect" as proof that other people do not worry about us:
"The spotlight effect is the psychological phenomenon by which people tend to believe they are being noticed more than they really are."
In toxic contact - toxic people - those same ones who trigger our social anxiety - do notice anything about us. In normal population - other people will think about us and we will define each other - through the process called The Michelangelo phenomenon - where we chisel each other into better version, where we change our toxic habits that hurt us as much as they hurt other people. In unhealthy, toxic social dynamics there will be the opposite: Golem Effect and Crab mentality. Where there is competition and where other person is perceived as threat and someone to pull down.
A lot of content on mental health in mainstream media does not cover the unique corner that survivors of narcissistic abuse live in. Not one mention of being in any kind of toxic relationship. “Avoid your triggers” is not easy in narcissistic relationships. When the discomfort is living in your house or down the street or in the next office. It was not even rumination, but reality. And the constant exposure means you don't get a break. 🟥 DoctorRamani https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uusKWmjUk6k
I'm not setting boundary with these people. “Don't do this with me”. “Don't say this with me”. It's all internal. Because if you try to set a boundary with someone who's narcissistic or antagonistic – it's never going to work. And I think it's unsafe guidance to give.
With this dangerous person no. But what are you willing to tolerate. How can you protect yourself emotionally. What access can you remove. Move these people from VIP section.
🟥 Dr. Ramani - Terri Cole
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSHI5N-w5sk
With broken Looking-Glass Self - we end up being trapped in toxic people's minds. Similar to horror movie / book The Cell from 2000. Even when we develop Who cares attitude, and when we consciously try to block and build walls away from toxic people, when we try hard to push down and suppress toxic people - we are still trapped in their reality of what they potentially might think about us. This is why CBT is not working - because CBT tries hard to convince us to use suppression as method to block social anxiety. And we cannot block other people - we need other people for our identity and our self worth - where there is healthy interaction called Interdependence. Toxic people behave in codependent way - they see other people as competition and this creates codependency. They need other people like vampires need blood - to exploit someone's attention, someone's focus, money, time and or resources of any kind. It is like give me, give me, give me - and provide nothing in return. With social anxiety we end up giving others without observing if the other person is emotionally invested in us at all. It ends up and one side interaction, exploitation really. Social anxiety means suppress anger as well. We learned to push our anger away - and this attracts toxic people who count on our silence and understanding and toxic empathy - knowing that they can cross boundaries of social interaction in their favor and we won't make any kind of protest. Then our own only protection - is avoidance. Therefore - social anxiety is natural defense mechanism against dangerous criminally insane psychopaths who are abusing their power position against ourselves.
In our teen years we experiences bully experience - after years of exposure to ACoA and ACE (constant criticism and constant drama at home) - so we generalized the belief that we cannot trust other people - and we learned that we process reality through broken Looking Glass Self - where we appease other people with our decisions - by being afraid what other people may think badly of us - since we were pressed and pushed into equating social rejection and our self worth as if they are one of the same. And psychiatry - instead of explaining us that it is totally normal to worry what other people think - CBT explains us that this is abnormality. This faulty explanation from medical industry is adding more trauma and more toxic shame and it gives our inner critic free reign to self abuse us - because we believe we are abnormal and ill if we worry what other people thin about us. In reality - all people worry about others. Even psychopaths worry what other people will think, along with narcissists - because they know that they need to form fake social mask of charm in order to seduce new victims into their agenda of exploiting and manipulating others.
Looking-Glass Self tells us - that we simply allow toxic people to form bad opinion about us in their heads - and that we absolutely do nothing to change this image that toxic people freely choose to believe about us in their heads.
You're no longer going to play the game of what can I do differently to get them to behave differently – because the answer is to that is nothing. That's radical acceptance. It takes long time. And it's not just accepting their behavior is not going to change, it's also the way it affects you is also not going to change. Just because you radically accept doesn't mean that somebody screaming at you is going to hurt any less- it does,it hurts a lot 🟥 Dr. Ramani - Terri Cole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSHI5N-w5sk
Other people will hurt us. They will say mean and untrue things about us. They will attack us - this has nothing to do with who we are. Their choice to harm and hurt other person - is abnormality in their brain. Normal healthy sane people do not attack others. Normal healthy sane people have ability to emotionally regulate themselves. Person who does not have this ability - is sick and mentally ill. And this has nothing to do with us. We are not the ones who can cure them by changing our behavior.
Lundy Bancroft: "Abuse is NOT caused by bad relationship dynamics. You can't manage your partner's abusiveness by changing your behaviour. But he wants you to think you can."
The pain that we feel when toxic people attack us, verbally or physically - is normal pain, we need this pain as the instruction for us what to do with severely damaged people around us.
If you are not feeling pain, anger and sadness while you are taking in psychological abuse or something similar – you are going to end up in those situations over and over again –because you are not logging information that your body telling 🟥Heidi Priebe https://youtube.com/watch?v=GTQohPaGnSY
People say it bothers me when they say these things. I say, because they say bothersome things. I don't want you to lose that part of you. That part is good index what is okay, what's not. From that point – excavation. A person pulling their true self out of their relationships. If you grew up with narcissistic parent, it was a true self that never even got to develop. It's how much your identity got co-opted. What do I like, what do I stand for. 🟥 Dr. Ramani - Terri Cole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSHI5N-w5sk
The core of narcissistic person is very fragile. That's why they lose it when you critique them. Or give them feedback. Or don't read their mind. Or don't do exactly what they want. And that's why they use all kinds of tactics like manipulation, gaslighting, invalidation, dismissiveness, competitiveness, betrayal. Some of them are tactics, some are unemphatic behavior. And it gives them the upper hand in relationship. Control, power gives them supply. 🟥 Dr. Ramani - Cole https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSHI5N-w5sk
With social anxiety - we do not need psychiatry. Socially anxious need sociology. It is after all social issue. Social anxiety is anxiety that is connected to society - the name itself reveals this crucial aspect: society, social, societal. Psychiatry will only leave us lacking and with belief that something is horribly wrong with us, when we are around toxic people:
DSM doesn't explain anything. So many therapies and particularly CBT and others are just so focused on extinguishing symptoms which were once strategies of survival. And it doesn't make sense that you want to extinguish – we want eventually to move away from these symptoms and these strategies but I certainly don't want to pathologize them or look at them as somehow defective because they have saved our lives. 🟥 Transforming Trauma Episode 21 IFS & NARM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRTHacVAwdk
When we stop self pathologizing our social anxiety - we will unburden ourselves with toxic idea that feeling pain is abnormal and sick. And it will give us energy to start looking what is causing this pain - instead of focusing ourselves on chasing the symptoms. Without the stigma and labels - we will have much more resources at our disposal to handle difficult people in life who are causing our social anxiety in the first place.
With social anxiety - we need to learn about the Cooley's concept Looking-Glass Self and other terms from sociology. Instead of pathologizing our social reactions - we simply need information to confirm us that we are not abnormal and inept as CBT paints the socially anxious. We need information to learn what our rights are.
Five themes of microaggression against people with mental illnesses
1. Invalidation
When other people dismiss their illness or symptoms through minimizing their experience, symptomizing their normal experiences, and patronizing
2. Assumption of inferiority
When other people assume that people with mental illness have lower intelligence, are incompetent, and that they do not have control
3. Fear of mental illness
When other people fear them because they believe that they may be dangerous or unpredictable
4. Shaming of mental illness
When other people tell them that they shouldn't let others know about their mental illness
5. Second class citizen attitudes
When other people treat them as if they don't have the same rights as the dominant group of society.
Mental Health Forum, 2016

Diagnosis is not an excuse to be selective about their rights. Autistic not weird
Healing the Broken Looking-Glass Self means learning about the mentality - which we never had chance to learn in our developmental years. Other children learned this concept via keeping connections with other people. We - started to avoid people. Even when we were around other people - we pulled our investment emotionally with other people - and this way we never learned that other people are safe. We developed the stump growth - that is being stuck in age 12, when we started to avoid people. Similar to the plant that cannot grow roots in small basin or tree/plant that is stumped in growing due to some kind of obstacle to grow upright. Our growth was shaped from the perspective of not trusting other people - because they harmed us. Other people learned to develop certain amount of trust. They learned to filter out the bad people. And they learned that they are safe to express themselves - without being punished for it. This is why their social anxiety is in normal threshold. They will experience stress and then behave in anti-social manner, they will express their anger without problems - because they were never pushed into forming their self worth through worry what their tormentors might think about them. So it is not like social anxiety is abnormality or sickness - it is simply that non-socially anxious people were lucky enough to grow in healthy ambient, and that is their secret. They were not stronger. They were not more competent. They were not better or superior to the socially anxious. They simply had privilege and entitlement that helped them over-pass developmental years without fearing other people. Their mechanisms how to handle triggers - are mostly unhealthy (lacking empathy) - but their Looking glass self was not broken. With interaction with other people, with other children, they learned naturally to allow difficult people to hate them. Instead of worry - that is found in social anxiety - they simply turned their focus onto other people. With social anxiety - we do not have other people, we have no one to turn to, since we learned that other people are painful and traumatic. We never learned that hanging around with other people is enjoyable experience - and if someone is rude, toxic and abnormal - that we are allowed to focus and place our attention to better, healthier people around us.
In shame culture ambient - we will learn that other people criticism is reflection of our worth - and that is Broken Looking-Glass Self. That we cannot feel good about ourselves until other person reflects positive words about us to us:
Young American explained why she left Croatia:
"In Croatia people constantly express intrusive opinion about matters which are none of their business. The most irritating things were rude people."
https://www.poslovni.hlifestyle/amerikanka-napusta-hrvatsku-neucinkovitost-i-birokracija-te-ljudi-koji-nemaju-motiva-za-napredovanjem-u-poslu-358422
Young American explained why she escaped from Croatia:
"Often I heard Croats intruding why am I eating something, or commenting about what I wore. There is no such thing in America, we allow people to be what they want to be. People here are strange as if I am inside toxic relationship."
https://www.vecernji.hshowbiz/amerikanka-u-hrvatskoj-iznenadila-objavom-ljudi-su-ovdje-cudni-kao-da-sam-u-losoj-vezi-1351757
Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability. 🟦 Karl Lagerfeld
We will heal social anxiety trauma with healing our choice to stay stuck around toxic people. We can cut toxic people - even when we are unable to leave them physically - by severing the trauma bonding in our mind - that is broken Looking-Glass Self.
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
Yes, toxic people are pathological liars, They spread gossip. They create drama and hysteria. Toxic people do not have word toxic stuck on their forehead. Toxic people will not behave toxically in front of others - because they depend to look good in the eyes of other people - so they also have Looking-Glass Self no matter how much they said that they do not care what other people think about them. Therefore - social anxiety is clear indication that we are around toxic people. Toxic people do not allow us to express ourselves - and they use various methods of coercive control to manipulate their targets. The first step is to sever this trauma bonding - by allowing them to hate us.
That we basically stop impressing others.
Don't try to impress others. ✝️ Bible, Philippians 2-3
Cooley said our sense of Self comes from how we think other people see us. “I am not what I think I am. I am not what you think I am; I am what I think you think I am.” Other people's reflections of us and how we think about those images they have of us help create our sense of Self. Grades from teachers can reflect back to us an image of ourselves that we then internalize and becomes our self-perception. They effect self-image. 🟥 The Looking glass self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X1wwTCuZBo
We imagine we are seen by others. And that imagination forms our identity. Our identity is being shaped by others. Others is agent which influences who we are in society. You begin to believe that and you begin to see as your identity, what other people think of you. Intelligent, high self esteem, outgoing – you believe what people say about you, it becomes your identity. Our identity is formed through the way we imagine people see us.
🟥 Looking-glass Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UWOflUXKUQ
That imagination comes from interaction with these people. In the process of interaction they tell you this is what we think about you. And then you go off believe in that. You don't control what people think about you. Front Stage Behavior: Familiarity breeds content-With front stage they behave nicely. It's in subconsciousness of individuals that they have to behave a certain way in public. At interview- they smile, but is this who they are?
🟥 Looking-glass Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UWOflUXKUQ
It is often said that American Beauty is a film about identity. Each character seems to go through a very personal identity crisis. But I would argue that this crisis are not personal at all. They are products of wider social forces. We may define ourselves based on prevailing attitudes towards sexuality, beauty and material success. Sense of self strongly influences by social world.
🟥 American Beauty Film Analysis: The Sociology of Identity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6youJFbEgQ
Ricky shows Jane that he likes her as she is. Eventually this leads her abandoning the idea of surgery and gain enough confidence and self-esteem to tell Angela what she really thinks of her. Freed from idea that everyone looks down on he because of her physical appearance, Jane's sense of self is no longer defined how she looks, how she looks to others.
🟥 American Beauty Film Analysis: The Sociology of Identity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6youJFbEgQ
An individual realize its self by reflecting others' perceptions about him. They use social interactions as a mirror. A Person grows and develop due to interpersonal interactions of the Society. When one interacts socially, one completely considers how one looks in the eyes of others. Negative response leads to depression and anxiety.
🟥 Looking Glass Self Theory https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAzsBj6yTpw
Looking Glass Self where you see yourself the way you think others see you. You can't see the way others truly see you. So you're seeing yourself they way you think others think they see you. You can see how much is lost in the translation. You're much more beautiful than you think. You attract so much more than you know. There's more going on with you than you care to acknowledge. Beauty is not about what you see. It's about what you reflect. 🟥 Looking Glass Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NFEkq8uDiJU
Mirror in front of you, and you are looking at yourself in the mirror, the way it is – is mirror in reality. As Masha labels you, tells you, comments on you, provides you all kinds of feedback, your self continues to develop. The way society perceives you and gives feedback about you. It is considered important to yourself and you have that impression that is how I should be. Their significance or importance makes you proud.
🟥 Looking Glass Self https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-PD1YVxj4
There is something you have never understood, Joe. These people at the top, they are the same as anybody else. But you had it inside of you to be so much bigger than any of them. You just had to be yourself. That was all. With me you were yourself. Only with me. Room at the Top (1958) https://youtu.be/Cs1C_Tu2crI

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FOR SPELLCASTERS IN VPN/IP BLOCKED TERRITORIES - You can try to use a VPN (may have to change VPN location several times before it finds a working IP. Proton VPN is free OR you can try out a community forked IP!

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https://app.camelot.exchange/
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• (https://mirror.xyz/0x8A7f7C5b556B1298a74c0e89df46Eba117A2F6c1) (Daniele Sestagalli’s Blog, “Chief Frog of Frog Nation”) NOVEMBER 21, 2022: DANIELE HAS BEEN DECLARED NO LONGER ACTIVE AS AN ABRACADABRA TEAM MEMBER
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• (https://abracadabramoney.gitbook.io/abracadabra-english/) (Abracadabra $MIM $SPELL documents can be found on Gitbook)
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• (https://www.tally.xyz/profile/romy.eth) (Romy’s delegate profile)
• https://www.tally.xyz/profile/0xa71a021ef66b03e45e0d85590432dfcfa1b7174c (Abracadabra’s delegate profile)
• (https://dune.com/melenxyz/abracadabra-mim-beaming) (MIM Beaming Fees/Analytics by u/melenxyz)
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This is the list that I wrote for Oklahoma's execution roster since the nationwide reinstatement of capital punishment in the late 1970s. Something that should be mentioned is that given the nature of many death penalty related crimes, many of the descriptions contain very disturbing details. Please read at your own risk.
Florida's list is next, and I'll post my list for Texas once I've completed it. With Texas, I've currently finished 464 entries out of the 587 cases to date. That will probably take 7 or 8 posts for it all to be released, so I'll probably do two posts a day with Texas to avoid spamming the sub. At the end of this year, I'll repost the states that have conducted further executions with the updated information.
As with Missouri and Virginia, Reddit's maximum character count limitations forced me to divide Oklahoma's list into two separate parts. Here is the link to part 2.
The currently 124 executed offenders, cases 1 to 62:
1. Charles Coleman (~1950s-1990, lethal injection): A month after he was released on parole in 1979, Coleman broke into a house. While sacking it for any valuables, the homeowner’s brother and sister in law, 68 year old John and 62 year old Roxie Seward, walked in on him and were both shot dead. Coleman stole Roxie’s purse, several packets of frozen meat, and the homeowner’s watch during the burglary, and was arrested shortly afterwards. However, Coleman managed to escape custody, and went on a rampage that involved several burglaries, auto thefts, slitting the throat of a policeman in a failed murder attempt, the shooting death of 49 year old Russell Lewis Jr. in a carjacking, and the abduction of a deputy. The kidnapped deputy was rescued following an armed standoff with other police officers. Coleman had an extensive history of animal cruelty, armed robberies, assaults, and carrying concealed weapons convictions dating back to when he was 11 years old. He was also heavily suspected in the murder of his teenage girlfriend’s father, but was acquitted by the courts despite the prosecution’s strong belief in his guilt.
2. Robyn Parks (1977-1992, lethal injection): During a gas station robbery, Parks shot and killed Abdullah Ibrahim, a 24 year old Bangladeshi immigrant that worked as the attendant. According to Parks, he murdered Ibrahim for catching him using a stolen credit card.
3. Olan Randle (1980-1992, lethal injection): Randle invaded a home and shot the occupants, 41 year old Robert Swinford, Sinford's fiance 42 year old Averil Bourque, and Bourque's friend 38 year old Julia Lovejoy, dead. He took a pocket knife and several watches from the victims.
4. Thomas Grasso (~1970s(?)-1995, lethal injection): While living in Oklahoma, Grasso strangled 87 year old Hilda Johnson, the best friend of his girlfriend's grandmother, to death with her Christmas lights. He took $8 from her purse, several coins that added up to $4, and a television set that he sold for $125. Grasso then moved to New York, and strangled 81 year old Leslie Holtz for his social security check. The trialing arrangements caused some controversy, as the New York governors at the time were anti death penalty, and tried to prevent Grasso's extradition in favor of giving him a life sentence in their jurisdiction. Grasso had several previous convictions for theft and was fired multiple times for stealing from his jobs.
5. Roger Stafford (~1974(?)-1995, lethal injection): Stafford was condemned for killing at least 9 people in two separate robbery incidents with his brother and ex wife, though his ex wife claimed that he was involved with as many as 34 murders nationwide. The first convicted incident was when he and the ex wife carjacked and fatally shot a couple, 38 year old Melvin and 31 year old Linda Lorenz, and their son, 12 year old Richard. A few weeks after the Lorenz murders, Stafford stormed a restaurant and gunned down 6 employees, 56 year old Isaac Freeman, 43 year old Louis Zacarias, 17 year old Anthony Tew, 17 year old David Lindsey, 16 year old David Salsman, and 15 year old Terri Horst. One of Stafford's additional attributed victims was 20 year old Jimmy Berry, who was killed in the hold up of an Alabaman McDonalds, but he wasn't charged by the state due to his death sentences in Oklahoma.
6. Robert Brecheen (1983-1995, lethal injection): Breechen was involved in a feud over money with 59 year old Mary Stubbs and her husband. In an attempt to take what he perceived was owed to him, Breechen carried out a night time burglary of their home. While rummaging through the house, Breechen stumbled upon old Marie in her living room and shot her to death. The gunshots and screams awoke her husband, and he chased him away with his own gun.
7. Benjamin Brewer (1978-1996, lethal injection): Brewer raped his neighbor, 20 year old Karen Stapleton, in her home and stabbed her to death
8. Steven Hatch (1979-1996, lethal injection): Hatch and another assailant, Glen Ake, forced themselves inside the home that Richard Dougass, a 43 year old reverend, shared with his wife, 36 year old Marilyn, and their two children, 16 year old Brooks and 12 year old Lesile. The pair tied up the family and raped Lesile in front of her parents and brother. All four family members were shot, and Hatch and Ake ran off with $43 and the parents’ wedding rings. Richard and Marilyn were both killed in the shootings, while their children survived the attack. Ake was also initially condemned for the attack, but his sentence was overturned and resentenced to life following mental health concerns, and passed away from undisclosed natural causes in 2011.
9. Scott Carpenter (1994-1997, lethal injection): In a convenience store robbery, Carpenter stabbed the owner, 56 year old A. J. Kelley, in the neck, and hid the body in the minnow room. He filled his truck with $37 worth of gas from the pumps and drove away from the scene. His execution caused some controversy, as it was reported that Carpenter gasped and spasmed for 11 minutes after being injected.
10. Michael Long (1997-1998, lethal injection): Enraged that his coworker, 24 year old Sheryl Graber, refused him sex and started screaming for help, he stabbed her over 31 times. Long also shot and killed her son, 5 year old Andrew, for being a witness.
11. Stephen Wood (1992-1998, lethal injection): While heavily intoxicated, Wood stabbed two other homeless men, 46 year old Charles Stephen and 34 year old Charles Von Johnson, dozens of times each. He was given a life sentence for both of their murders. During his incarceration, Robert Brigden, a 59 year old former minister that was serving a 40 year sentence for molesting several girls between the ages of 4-14 in his congregation, moved into his unit after refusing to go into protective custody. Woods killed Brigden in a stabbing attack, and his sentence was escalated to death by the courts for it.
12. Tuan Anh Nguyen (~1982-1998, lethal injection): By all accounts, Nguyen was jealously possessive over his wife, 21 year old Donna. During one of their arguments over his behavior, he stabbed Donna, her 6 year old nephew Joseph White, and her 3 year old niece Amanda White, in their home and left the bodies to be found by the children’s parents. He fled to Arizona, groomed a 14 year old girl into an illicit “relationship”, and impregnated her. After he convinced her to move in with him, Nguyen physically and sexually abused the girl until she fled and went to the local police for help. Nguyen was then deported back to Oklahoma to face trial for Donna and the White children’s slayings, and was sentenced to death for them.
13. John Duvall (1986-1998, lethal injection): During a fight with his wife, 30 year old Donna, Duvall stabbed and suffocated her to death with a pillow.
14. John Castro Sr. (1983-1999, lethal injection): Castro carjacked Beulah Cox, a 31 year old Oklahoma State University student, after she picked him up hitchhiking and shot her to death. A few months later, Castro held up a restaurant with an empty pistol, and attacked the manger, 29 year old Rhonda Pappan, after forcing her to open the register. During their struggle, Pappan was fatally stabbed, and he took off with her purse. During his mid teens, Castro was allegedly molested by his mother. Castro's attorneys made the argument that his glimpses of Cox's buttocks reminded him of his mother's reported abuse, and he was triggered into attacking her for it.
15. Sean Sellers (1985-1999, lethal injection): In 1985, a then 15 year old Sellers tried to buy beer from a convenience store, but the clerk, 32 year old Robert Bower, denied him due to being underaged at the time. Sellers gunned him down in a fit of rage. A year later, Sellers shot and killed his mother, 32 year old Vonda Bellofatto, and stepfather, 43 year old Paul, in their sleep. Due to being 16 at the time of his conviction, Sellers remains the youngest condemned offender to have his sentence carried out in the post Furman era. He also attracted national media attention for claiming that his crimes were the result of demonic possession.
16. Scotty Moore (1983-1999, lethal injection): Moore was fired from a motel for undisclosed reasons. In retaliation, Moore and a cousin (whom he was dating at the time), assaulted the motel, and gunned down the desk clerk, 42 year old Alex Fernandez. According to court documents, the pair took a total of $97 in the robbery.
17. Norman Newsted (1984-1999, lethal injection): Newsted tricked Lawrence Buckley, a 26 year old cab driver, into picking him up. He shot Buckley dead and took his wallet. In an attempt to cover his tracks, Newsted placed the body inside the cab, and drove it into a creek near a local church. Despite his best efforts, Buckley’s cab and remains were discovered a day later by the church’s pastor.
18. Cornel Cooks (1982-1999, lethal injection): Cooks and his accomplice broke into the home of 87 year old Jennie Ridling. She was gagged, raped, and suffocated to death with gauze wrappings. According to autopsy reports, the pair abused her for over 2 hours. They then sacked the house for any valuables and left with her checkbook.
19. Bobby Ross (1983-1999, lethal injection): While robbing an inn, Ross fatally shot a police officer, 30 year old Steve Mahan, that tried to intervene.
20. Malcolm Johnson (~1970s(?)-2000, lethal injection): Johnson invaded the apartment of 76 year old Ura Thompson and sexually assaulted her. Thompson either died from having her chest compounded during the abuse or was suffocated by Johnson’s hands covering her nose. He seized several possessions such as furs, typewriters, purse, watch, rings, and a hand mirror, which were discovered by police in his residence during an unrelated investigation of a firearms possession charge. Johnson had an extensive criminal history, which included several convictions of rape, armed robberies, and burglaries. The case attracted controversy when it was discovered that the lead chemist in the investigation misconducted several of her other cases, and forged some of the evidence used in the trial. Despite the other overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Johnson’s supporters took the opportunity to push a narrative of his innocence.
21. Gary Walker (~1960s-2000, lethal injection): Walker abducted, raped, and murdered at least 5 women, 36 year old Margaret Lydick, 35 year old Jane Hilburn, 32 year old Janet Jewell, 25 year old Valerie Shaw-Hartzell, and 24 year old DeRonda Roy, and non fatally assaulted several other women and teenage girls. The victims were mostly strangled to death with their bras and panties. Some of them were forced to withdraw hundreds of dollars from ATMs before they were killed. He also strangled a man, 63 year old Eddie Cash, with an electrical cord while robbing his home. Walker had dozens of previous convictions for burglary, carjacking, drug possession, and carrying concealed weapons. Some of his earliest arrests occurred when he was a teenager.
22. Michael Roberts (~1988-2000, lethal injection): A career burglar, Roberts was condemned for murder of 80 year old Lula Brooks. She was raped and her throat was slit by an intruder in her home. Roberts' death sentence and execution has been contested, as he was convicted on his later recounted testimony alone. He claimed that the investigators tricked him into confessing with the promise of a plea deal that was allegedly withheld from him.
23. Kelly Rogers (1990-2000, lethal injection): Rogers’ girlfriend lured 21 year old Karen Lauffenburger into her apartment with a fake pizza order. They accosted her when she arrived with the delivery. After the couple forced Lauffenburger to hand to over the $40 she earned from the night's pizza deliveries and withdraw $175 from an ATM, Rogers raped and stabbed her to death. The body was left in Lauffenburger’s apartment and was found by her boyfriend.
24. Ronald Boyd (1986-2000, lethal injection): During a robbery spree of several gas stations and supermarkets, Boyd engaged in a shootout with the responding officers. A Master Patrolman, 32 year old Richard Riggs, was killed in the exchange.
25. Charles Foster (~1980s(?)-2000, lethal injection): Foster suspected a grocery store owner, 74 year old Claude Wiley, of making sexual advances at his wife. He arranged for her to entice Wiley to their home with an order. When he arrived with the delivery, Foster stabbed and bludgeoned him to death with a baseball bat. He a history of convictions involving threats and violence, though my sources didn’t disclose any specific details.
26. James Robedeaux (1978-2000, lethal injection): In 1978, Robedeaux strangled his first wife, 30 year old Linda, and plead guilty to a second degree murder charges. He was released after serving 6 out of a 25 year sentence despite an escape attempt. In the following year, he began a relationship with 37 year old Nancy McKinney while he married a different woman. During an argument, Robedeaux beat McKinney to death, dismembered her body with a saw and machete, and scattered the remains across the state. While being investigated for McKinney's murder, he was arrested for choking and beating his estranged second wife. The cases were incidental and kept separate by the courts.
27. Roger Berget (~1985-2000, lethal injection): Berget carjacked and abducted 33 year old Rick Patterson with an accomplice, and shot him dead. He also admitted to the beating death of a roommate, 40 year old James Meadows, on the behalf of the man's wife. As a trivial side note, Berget's brother Rodney was executed in 2018 by the state of South Dakota for killing a prison guard [for more information, please see Rodney Berget's entry under the South Dakota section of my states with less then 10 executions post].
28. William Bryson (1988-2000, lethal injection): To collect a $300,000 life insurance policy, Marilyn Plantz recruited her boyfriend Byrson and his friend to kill her husband, 33 year old James. Byrson and his friend ambushed Plantz in his house as he was coming home from work and beat him to death with a baseball bat. With the intentions of staging an accident, Marilyn ordered the pair to burn the body in the couple's pickup truck.
29. Gregg Braun (1989-2000, lethal injection): Across several states, Braun shot and killed 4 women, 48 year old Geraldine Valdez, 31 year old Gwendolyn Miller, 28 year old Mary Rains, 27 year old Barbara Kochendorfer, and one man, 54 year old Pete Spurrier, while robbing stores.
30. George Wallace (~1970s-2000, lethal injection): Known as "the Mad Paddler" due to his habit of spanking abducted preteen and teenage boys with a wooden paddle, Wallace kidnapped his victims by posing as a police officer. After duping his targets into thinking that they were being arrested, Wallace restrained them with handcuffs and leg chains. The captives were then sexually abused and shot or stabbed to death. His crimes were exposed when an 18 year old man he abducted escaped from him despite being shot and stabbed numerous times. By his own admission, Wallace murdered 18 year old Thomas Reed, 15 year old William Domer, 14 year old Mark McLaughlin, 14 year old Jeffrey Foster, and 12 year old Alonzo Cade.
31. Eddie Trice (1987-2001, lethal injection): Trice snuck into the home of 84 year old Ernestine Jones and raped her. After he beat Jones to death with numbchucks, he terrorized and extorted her cognitively disabled son of $500 with threats of killing him if he told anyone of the murder. The son was also assaulted with a hammer, and he received injuries to his right eye, right cheekbone, and his right forearm.
32. Wanda Allen (~1981-2001, lethal injection): In 1981, Allen got into a fight with her live in girlfriend, 21 year old Dedra Pettus, and shot her dead. Despite giving a bungled story about her being accidentally killed in a shootout with Pettus’ ex boyfriend to the investigators, Allen managed to secure a 4 year sentence for manslaughter after pleading guilty to a plea deal, and was released after serving two years. While incarcerated, she started dating a fellow inmate, 29 year old Gloria Leathers, and continued their relationship outside of prison. The couple’s relationship was marred with extreme domestic violence on Allen’s end. In one incident, Allen struck Leathers with a rake. In 1989, while they were arguing in front of a shopping center, Allen shot and killed Leathers. Leathers herself also had history of violence, and had a conviction for stabbing a woman to death. Allen and her defense team tried to use Leathers’ previous convictions to make a self defense argument, but that was shot down by the courts.
33. Floyd Medlock (1990-2001, lethal injection): 7 year old Katherine Busch went to visit her family's old apartment, which Medlock was residing in, by herself. Busch knocked on the door and Medlock let her inside after she begged for food. He then choked and sexually assaulted the girl, dunked her head in a toilet bowl, and stabbed her to death. The body was hidden in a nearby dumpster. Busch's grandmothers were staunch pro capital punishment and anti death penalty activists respectively, and their public feud over Medlock's sentence and execution attracted some media attention. Medlock also had an extensive criminal history despite being only 19 at the time of Busch's murder, and was previously arrested several times for indecent exposure, arson, armed robbery, and marijuana possession.
34. Dion Smallwood (1992-2001, lethal injection): Smallwood walked into the home of his ex girlfriend's adoptive stepmother, 68 year old Lois Frederick, without invitation. He had a tumultuous and often violent relationship with her adopted stepdaughter that she strongly opposed, and they broke up under her pressure. After an argument, Smallwood knocked Frederick unconscious with a croquet mallet, locked her in a car, and burned her alive in it.
35. Mark Fowler (1985-2001, lethal injection): To get back at his ex employers for firing him, Fowler and his partner, Billy Fox, stormed a supermarket that he used to work out. The pair rounded up 3 employees, Chumpon Chaowasin, a 44 year old Thai immigrant, 33 year old Rick Cast, and 27 year old John Barrier, at gun point. Their hostages were shot, clubbed, and stabbed to death, and they took over $2,7000 in cash and checks.
36. Billy Fox (1985-2001, lethal injection): Fox assisted the above mentioned Mark Fowler in robbing a supermarket and murdering 3 of its employees
37. Loyd Lafevers (1985-2001, lethal injection): Lafevers and his accomplice, Randall Cannon, kidnapped 84 year old Addie Hawley from her home. She was raped, trapped in the trunk of a car, and burned alive in it. Although she was rescued, Hawley died from her injuries 6 hours later. The pair stole Hawley's wedding ring and Lafevers gifted it to a stripper. As Hawley's nephew was a Colorado state senator, her murder gained some attention from media outlets.
38. Dorsie Jones Jr. (1979-2001, lethal injection): While drinking at a bar, a barmaid chastised Jones for carrying an unconcealed gun. He shot at her in a fit of rage, but missed and injured his female companion instead. Jones then turned his attention to the other patrons and fired on them. 48 year old Stanley Buck Sr. was killed in front of his 19 year old son, who was also wounded in the shooting.
39. Robert Clayton (~1980s-2001, lethal injection): Clayton attacked 19 year old Rhonda Timmons while she was sunbathing near her apartment. She was raped, stabbed, kicked in the head, and strangled to death with her swimming suit. Her husband found Timmons' body laying next to their infant daughter, who was left unharmed. Clayton had a previous rape conviction in Tennessee and a robbery conviction in Texas.
40. Ronald Fluke (1997-2001, lethal injection): Out of despair that his gambling addiction drove his family to near poverty, Fluke shot and killed his wife, 44 year old Ginger, and their daughters, 13 year old Kathryn and 11 year old Susanne, while they were sleeping in their bedrooms. He initially attacked Ginger with a hatchet, but turned to shooting when she fought back.
41. Marilyn Plantz (1988-2001, lethal injection): The married girlfriend of William Bryson. As mentioned under Bryson's entry, Plantz arranged for him and his friend to kill her husband James to collect his life insurance policy.
42. Terrance James (1983-2001, lethal injection): While awaiting trial for a theft of government property charge, James and two accomplices strangled a fellow inmate, 25 year old Mark Berry, with wire out of their suspicions of him being a snitch. They then hung the body in an attempt to make it look like a suicide. Berry was another party in the theft of government property case, and James and his accomplices believed that it was his testimony that got them arrested.
43. Vincent Johnson (1991-2001, lethal injection): Johnson gunned down 44 year old Shirley Mooneyham in her home. The prosecution believed that Mooneyham's boyfriend arranged the killing to collect a life insurance policy, but he was acquitted at trial.
44. Jerald Harjo (~1980s-2001, lethal injection): Harjo snuck into the bedroom of 64 year old Ruth Porter, raped her, and suffocated her with a pillowcase. He then snatched Porter's car keys and drove off with her van. His past criminal history was extensive, and was in prison numerous times for burglary and autotheft.
45. Jack Walker (1988-2001, lethal injection): Disgruntled with the custody dispute over their then 3 month old son, Walker stabbed his ex girlfriend, 17 year old Shelly Ellison, and her uncle, 30 year old Donald, 32 and 11 times with an ice pick during a confrontation at their home.
46. Alvie Hale Jr. (1983-2001, lethal injection): Hale kidnapped 24 year old William Perry to extort a $350,000 ransom from his banking family. When the negotiations failed, Perry was shot dead, and Hale buried the body on his father's property.
47. Lois Smith (1982-2001, lethal injection): Smith, her son, and a female accomplice abducted her son's ex girlfriend, 21 year old Cindy Baillee, from an airport out of fear her testifying of his involvement in the drug trade. Baillee was taken to Smith's ex husband's house, and stabbed in the throat by her ex boyfriend while driving to their destination. Inside the home, she was taunted by Smith with a gun, and was shot 7 times in the chest and 2 times in the back of the head. While her son was reloading the gun, Smith jumped on and crushed Bailee's throat.
48. Sahib Lateef Al-Mosawi (1992-2001, lethal injection): Following a dispute over their newborn son's name, Al-Mosawi's estranged wife, 26 year old Inaam Al-Nashi, fled to the apartment of her uncle, 45 year old Mohammed. Al-Mosaw attacked the pair in the apartment and stabbed them to death. Inaam's sister was also stabbed, but she managed to escape with her life. The couple and their families were refugees from Iraq that were displaced by the First Persian Gulf War, and they fled into the United States.
49. John Romano (1985-2002, lethal injection): Romano and his accomplice David Woodruff robbed and murdered two of their acquaintances. One of the victims, 63 year old Lloyd Thompson, was attacked in his apartment. Thompson was held down by the pair while they stabbed him 22 times and served his spinal cord. The other victim, 52 year old Roger Sarfaty, was tied up, beaten, stabbed 5 times, and strangled to death in a jewelry store he owned. In the robberies, Romano and Woodruff stole several pieces of jewelry from Sarfaty, and took most of Thompson’s quarter collection.
50. David Woodruff (1985-2002, lethal injection): As mentioned under John Romano's entry, Woodruff took part in the robbery murders of Lloyd Thompson and Roger Sarfaty.
51. Randall Cannon (1985-2002, lethal injection): Cannon assisted Loyd Lafevers in abducting, sexually assaulting, and burning Addie Hawley alive in her car. Although he was acquitted of molesting Hawley, Cannon was still condemned for his part in the kidnapping and murder.
52. Earl Frederick Sr. (~1989-2002, lethal injection): Frederick beat Bradford Beck, a 41 year old veteran that was crippled during his service in the Vietnam war, to death in his home after befriending him. He ransacked the house and dumped Beck's body in a field. A second murder, the robbery and shooting death of a Texan man, 77 year old Shirley Fox, was also tied to him. However, authorities in Texas withheld from prosecuting Fredrick due to his death penalty trial and conviction in Oklahoma. Both Fox and Beck had physical disabilities, which led prosecutors to the conclusion that Frederick intentionally selected and depredated on disabled men.
53. Jerry McCracken (~1980s(?)-2002, lethal injection): McCracken and his accomplice shot up a bar, killed 3 patrons and the bartender, and made off with $350. The victims that lost their lives were 41 year old Carol McDaniels, 37 year old Timothy Sheets, 34 year old Steven Sheets, and 27 year old Tyrrell Boyd. Months before the mass shooting, McCracken was paroled after serving time for stabbing 3 people in a bar fight.
54. Jay Neill (1984-2002, lethal injection): During a bank robbery, Neill disemboweled and nearly decapitated 3 tellers, 42 year old Kay Bruno, 25 year old Joyce Mullenix, and 19 year old Jerri Bowles. A group of 4 customers, consisting of 33 year old Ralph Zeller, a married couple, and their 14 month old daughter, unwittingly walked in on him, and he herded them into a backroom to be shot. Zeller was killed, the couple were wounded, and Neill left the daughter unharmed due to running out of bullets. Neill's boyfriend was given a life sentence for the robbery and murders, despite not being directly involved.
55. Ernest Carter Jr. (~1989-2002, lethal injection): After being fired from an autoshop, Carter robbed it with an accomplice, and fatally shot a security guard, 35 year old Eugene Manowski. The pair stole the shop's tow truck, and later tried to burn it with Carter's girlfriend to destroy any traces of the crime. Carter was also previously accused of burning a friend to death in the previous year, but the charges were dismissed.
56. Daniel Revilla (1987-2003, lethal injection): While babysitting his girlfriend's son, 13 month old Mark Gomez, in their home, Revilla broke the boy’s ribs in a beating and scalded him with boiling water. When he brought the boy to a hospital, Revilla gave a story that he accidentally hit Gomez’s head with a door handle, which was quickly seen through by the staff. According to the accounts of his girlfriend and her family, Revilla was violently abusive to Gomez, and they recounted incidents of him trapping the boy in a kitchen drawer, dunking him in cold water, folding him into a pull up bed, and hanging him by his ankles with duct tape.
57. Bobby Fields (~1990s-2003, lethal injection): Fields shot and killed 77 year old Louise Schem while burglarizing her home. She had tried to shot him with her .25 calibre pistol, but he wrestled the gun away from her, and gunned her down with it. His intentions was to steal Schem's television set to sell for cocaine, but left empty handed after losing his nerves with the struggle and murder. According to court documents, Fields had a previous robbery and assault conviction, and several arrests for drug possession.
58. Walanzo Robinson (1989-2003, lethal injection): A member of the Gangster Bloods street gang, Robinson shot and killed 26 year old Dennis Hill, an affiliate of a rival gang, in a turf war over drug sales.
59. John Hooker (~1971-2003, lethal injection): As a teenager in 1971, Hooker attended a party at a friend's house, and got into an argument. In a fit of anger, he fatally shot 18 year old Alta Lang, and wounded two other partygoers. Due to the witnesses refusing to cooperate with the investigation and being unable to prove any calculated intentions, Hooker was given a manslaughter conviction, and released a few years later. After he was paroled, Hooker started dating Sylvia Stokes, and fathered several children with her. Their troubled relationship lasted for 8 years, and ended when Stokes filed a protection order against him. In retaliation, Hooker lured Stokes and her mother, 53 year old Durcilla Morgan, into his apartment and stabbed them both to death.
60. Scot Hain (~1980s-2003, lethal injection): Hain carjacked and abducted a couple, 27 year old Michael Houghton and 22 year old Laura Sanders. After taking $565 and some bags of clothing, he forced them into the trunk of their car at gunpoint, and burned them alive in it. He had several previous arrests for robbery, and was involved with a number of rapes and attempted kidnappings months before the Houghton and Sanders' murders.
61. Don Hawkins Jr. (1985-2003, lethal injection): Hawkins kidnapped 29 year old Linda Ann Thompson and her two daughters, aged 4 years old and 18 months old, from a mall. Although his original intentions were to ransom off Thompson and her children, Hawkins gang raped the captive woman with his cousin and his girlfriend's teenage nephew, and drowned her in a lake. Thompson's children were spared and simply left with a babysitter. Hawkins and his accomplice then went on a nation wide rampage with his accomplice that involved the abductions and rapes of several grown women and teenage girls, hanging 31 year old David Coupez of Colorado in his home while robbing him, and countless other robberies.
62. Larry Jackson (~1984-2003, lethal injection): In 1984, Jackson shot and killed his girlfriend, 19 year old Freda Washington. He accepted a plea deal that dumbed down the charges to second degree murder, and was given a 30 year sentence for it. During his incarceration, Jackson started a relationship with 29 year old Wendy Cade. Despite her promises of marriage after his release, Cade left him for another man, and they got engaged. When Jackson was assigned to a prison work crew, he snuck out and went to confront Cade. Reportedly, the two had bought alchool, cocaine, and cigerates together and had sex in Cade's apartment. However, they got into an argument, and he slashed Cade's throat and stabbed her 31 times with box cutters. Jackson then left with her jewelry, watch, and the keys to her jeep.

Hampi, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Karnataka, India, is renowned for its rich history and captivating landscapes. Once the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th century, Hampi offers a fascinating glimpse into India's historic splendor with its ruins that showcase intricate architecture and grand temples, which draw both local and international tourists.
The city is situated on the banks of the Tungabhadra River and is characterized by boulder-strewn hills and the remnants of ancient edifices that create a visually stunning panorama. Key attractions in Hampi include the Virupaksha Temple, dedicated to Lord Shiva, and the Vittala Temple, famous for its musical pillars and the Stone Chariot. Each site tells a story of religious significance and architectural mastery that prevailed during the empire's golden days.
For those interested in the arts, Hampi's detailed carvings and sculptures depict the empire's dance, music, and daily activities, providing a cultural narrative that is almost palpable. The archaeological significance of Hampi makes it not just a series of ruins, but a gateway to understanding the past lives of its inhabitants.
Additionally, the natural setting around Hampi is ideal for leisurely walks and photography, with its rocky terrain and lush palm groves offering a picturesque setting that contrasts with the majestic ruins. The local cuisine, characterized by South Indian flavors, also adds to the cultural experience, with numerous small eateries offering delightful regional dishes.
For travelers looking to immerse themselves fully in the historical ambiance while enjoying modern comforts, the Evolve Back Kamalapura Palace near Hampi offers a luxury stay that mirrors the grandeur of the Vijayanagara Empire. The resort is designed to reflect the architectural style of the period, providing guests a blend of historical elegance and contemporary facilities, making it a perfect complement to the exploration of this ancient city.
Thus, a visit to Hampi is not just a travel experience but a journey back in time, enriched by the landscape, architecture, and stories of its glorious past, enhanced by stays like that at Evolve Back Kamalapura Palace, where history meets luxury.

By: Morten G. Hansen
After enjoying a delightful date with promising chemistry, it's natural to wonder if your date shares the same sentiments. Maybe you're hesitant to express your feelings outright and prefer to gauge their interest through subtle cues. But fear not, deciphering whether your date is equally intriguing can be discerned through subtle indicators rather than solely relying on the number of outings.
It's important to acknowledge that individuals vary in their expression of interest, often influenced by personality traits and backgrounds. Thus, deciphering reciprocal interests can sometimes be challenging.
To bolster your confidence in discerning your date's feelings, here are 15 signs that often signify mutual interest.
1. Attentiveness to Detail:
If your date recalls specifics from your conversations, it's a positive sign. This indicates they're invested in getting to know you better, displaying genuine interest in your life.
2. Nervous Energy:
Feeling jittery during emotional encounters is commonplace. If your date appears a bit flustered or stumbles over words, it might signify underlying feelings for you.
3. Sincere Compliments:
Genuine compliments, whether on your personality or appearance, signify a vested interest in you and your well-being.
4. Subtle Gestures:
Respond to non-verbal cues like sustained eye contact, open body language, and gentle touches. These subtle signs often convey unspoken interest.
5. Extended Time Together:
A date that exceeds initial plans indicates mutual enjoyment and a desire to prolong the connection. 6. Accompanying You: Walking you to your destination post-date showcases a desire for continued interaction and potential future meetings.
7. Prompt Follow-up:
Swift responses to messages or calls post-date indicate eagerness for ongoing communication and further connection.
8. Active Engagement:
Initiate open dialogue about mutual interest to gauge reciprocal feelings and move the relationship forward. Moving Beyond the First Date:
9. Prioritizing Time Together:
Actively seeking opportunities to spend time together and integrating you into their life signifies a deeper interest.
10. Emotional Vulnerability:
Opening up about personal experiences or thoughts indicates a growing level of trust and investment in the relationship.
11. Attentive Listening:
Showing genuine interest in your opinions and experiences demonstrates a desire for deeper connection and understanding.
12. Mirroring Behavior:
Adopting similar mannerisms or interests unconsciously suggests a growing affinity and connection with you.
13. Consistency and Stability:
Steady investment and consistent behavior indicate a serious commitment to the relationship's growth.
14. Conflict Resolution:
Addressing disagreements with openness and maturity fosters healthy communication and relationship growth.
15. Initiating Progression:
Taking proactive steps to advance the relationship to a deeper level signifies genuine interest and commitment.
Conclusion
Navigating the complexities of dating requires patience and attentiveness to subtle cues. By recognizing these signs, you can better assess the trajectory of your relationship.
Best of luck in your dating endeavors!
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