Title says it all, this post is a deep dive into the Sonic Adventure 2 OST, specifically all the songs pertaining to Knuckles. This is for a few reasons that I’ll get into in a moment, but from what I’ve seen Knuckles’ and Rouge’s soundtracks tend to get overlooked or written off by fans (More so Knuckles’) unfairly so in my opinion.
This post will serve, not only to analyze the music itself, but also Knuckles’ characterization, as you’ll see the two are basically intrinsically linked.
Just a quick disclaimer, I’m not a musician nor am I that musically inclined, this isn’t an expert’s opinion or analysis, just a listener’s thoughts.
A bit of background of me before we start, I grew up around hip hop when I was young so I can really appreciate Knuckles’ soundtrack probably more so than a lot of other people.
Ever since I was a kid, Knuckles has always been my favorite character, I always found his complicated friendship and rivalry with Sonic to me a much more interesting dichotomy than Sonic and Shadow (I know, fight me).
That and I’ve always just adored his character (Before they forgot how to write him) he can be hot headed and stubborn like Sonic, but he’s got a bit of a Yin and Yang thing going on, with his Chill nature conflicting with his Quick and Explosive temper, as well as his questioning of his purpose in life and duty to the Master Emerald.
Anyway, enough context on myself, let’s strap in and get to the meat of this veeeeeery long post (My bad guys).

BACKGROUND

So for starters, I think it’s best we talk about the style and influences that are quite evident in Knuckles’ Music, that being Hip Hop/Rap, but it goes a bit further than that.
For some historical context, Sonic Adventure 2 came out in 2001, I’m not sure how many hip hop fans hang around the subreddit but by 2001 the Golden Age of Hip Hop had been firmly left behind. Biggie and Pac had been dead for a while, and the stars of yesteryear began to fizzle out as the young blood cropped up onto the scene.
The early 2000s Hip Hop scene was mainly dominated by the East Coast and the Dirty South, lots of stars of this generation of rap included 50 Cent, Ja Rule, Outkast, Ludacris, The Game, Three 6 Mafia and Xzibit, but you also had older legends like Nas and Snoop Dogg who were still culturally relevant.
This modern sound of hip hop differed greatly in sound to the early 90s, everything was a lot more clean and refined, samples were still used but weren’t as common as before and the West Coast sound that characterized the early 90s had been long gone.
It’s important to bring this up, because comparing SA2’s Hip Hop tracks to the climate it was released in, they sound almost out of place. Listening to Get Rich or Die Trying, or Stillmatic and then listening to SA3’s tracks you’d be convinced they were separated by many years.
The Tracks in SA2 are definitely rooted in early 90s hip hop, it’s very clear that those early Gangsta Rap albums like Straight Outta Compton and Black Sunday greatly influenced this part of the soundtrack. And you don’t have to take my word for it, go and listen to the instrumentals of songs like Express Yourself or Insane in the Brain and tell me that they’d sound out of place playing in one of Knuckles’ Stages.
Early 90s Hip Hop makes heavy use of sampling, primarily of the work of Black Artists of the past two decades, because of SA2K’s early 90s hip hop influences, it too has a lot of roots in 70s/80s Black music. Elements of Soul, Funk and Jazz are commonly heard in Knuckles’ Stages, think James Brown or Isaac Hayes.
So what Groups or Artists seem to inspire SA2K’s sound? Well the obvious choice is NWA, though specifically Straight Outta Compton, Elif4zaggin has a much different sound. However I don’t believe that’s entirely the case.
Whether it’s pure coincidence or intentional, Too Short (stylized as Too $hort) was a decently popular artist from Oakland, which is up in the Bay Area of NorCal which is the main inspiration for most of SA2’s urban environments.
Anyway, Too Short was actually quite a pioneer in Hip Hop as he formed the Dangerous Crew, a Hip Hop Band who played actual instruments instead of using samples, it’s because of this that I believe Too Short and the Dangerous Crew to be the main inspiration of SA2K’s sound whether intentional or not, not only are the two defined by their funky beats, but also their use of live instruments. I recommend listening to songs like The Ghetto, Sample The Funk and Just Another Day to get an idea of how his music influences SA2K.

UNKNOWN FROM M.E. (REMIX)

Honestly I find this track to be an improvement over the original, it definitely leans a lot more into the R&B aspect over the rest of the soundtrack but it’s still distinctly hip hop with the record scratches, drums and Hunnid-P rapping over it.
Speaking of, let’s address the Elephant in the room briefly. I know Hunnid-P or Hunnid-Pacent isn’t everybody’s favorite person on this sub, either on the track or behind the scenes, and while his antics aren’t relevant to this post, I don’t necessarily agree that he’s as bad as people say he is on the mic. Is he the world’s greatest emcee? Absolutely not, but he does his job pretty well, he has good flow and a pretty good voice. I think people clown on his lyrics too much, I’m not saying he’s an Inspectah Deck level lyricist but I think the guy has dropped a few bombs and this OST has some gems, but we’ll get into this in a bit.
Getting back to the song, the content of the lyrics is basically Knuckles’ inner voice, this is basically the entire soundtrack, though Unknown From M.E. is more of a general character overview of Knuckles, its standard stuff now but at the time it was a pretty deep dive into the character of Knuckles’ in a decently subtle way.
Most of the song centers around Knuckles’ self imposed isolation on Angel Island, his duty to his people and the world to protect the Master Emerald, but also him yearning for something more and the inner conflict that stems from that.
This song actually has some underrated lines, some standout lyrics include:
“Clench my fists tight, become more redder - I don't wanna hurt her, my passion observed”
The last line is in obvious reference to Rouge and an interesting insight into Knuckles himself. He clearly doesn’t like violence and isn’t interested in hurting anybody, but his duty as a guardian and his quick temper often means he can get a bit too carried away as the line implies, good stuff.
“Been lonely all my life, does it matter? - Here for the mission, whoever want, it bring it”
Here we can clearly see Knuckles trying to reason with himself here, specifically after meeting Sonic and experiencing a life that isn’t just his duty. Here we see the Guardian side of him, he’s always been alone and it’s never been problem before, why should it be now? At least that’s what he tries to tell himself.
“Don't approve of him but gotta trust him - This alliance has a purpose - This partnership is only temporary”
I’ll get more into this when we get to Death Chamber, but these lines are obviously alluding to Sonic and the plot of the game. It’s clear that Knuckles still doesn’t completely like Sonic, however the key here is that he trusts him, he’s gotten to a point now where he knows Sonic is well meaning and their goals align. However, just like real people, he’s accepted the arrangement but he doesn’t have to like it, he still believes Sonic is brash, arrogant and takes far too many risks, it will take more than a few adventures for Knuckles to fully change his opinion on Sonic.
Hunnid-P and Marlon Saunders do a great job of bouncing off each other on this song, their voices and cadences clash with each other nicely almost like how Knuckles’ inner turmoil is split in two.
The beat is tantalizingly funky, for starters that bass line is smooth as butter and the song has a nice tempo, you get the occasional organ flourish and guitar riff that crescendo and just help to enhance the song even further. Overall a really solid track in my opinion, the content of the lyrics is interesting and the delivery is great, all over an extremely funky instrumental.

KICK THE ROCK - WILD CANYON

Probably my favorite song out of all Knuckles’ Stages, this one is definitely the most Jazzy and parallels nicely with Rouge, but has a distinctly Knuckles Twist.
That Sax and Organ combo just cause an absolute eargasm and those drums form such a nice tempo that makes this track such easy listening. Honestly there’s not a whole lot going on with this track and that is not a bad thing at all. Its simplicity is probably its biggest strength and is quite noticeable compared to something like Unknown From M.E.
Some Lyrics I found particularly interesting are:
“I'm feelin her in mysterious ways - That's why I stay on point like every single day - I gotta protect this place, I do it for my race”
Yeah yeah I know everybody finds this line and the play doh line inappropriate and funny, I understand the latter but honestly I could never get the outcry over this one
“I’m feelin her in mysterious ways” honestly, in my opinion, it’s not what you think. I’ve never really seen it as a sexual line “I’m feelin you” is basically another way of saying I get you, it’s basically Knuckles saying he gets Rouge, but he doesn’t know why and that kinda bothers him.
The context matters here and the lines after do give my interpretation some weight. It’s basically Knuckles saying to himself “I get this girl and I kinda fucks with her, but I gotta job to do” Knuckles is intrigued by Rouge, he’s never met anybody like her and he obviously has some feeling towards her, though because of his lack of interaction with others he struggles to understand these feelings and instead of addressing them, he tries to ignore them and remain true to his job as Guardian
“Who could'a did this, that snitch named Rouge! - When I catch her, I'ma get her with these tools”
More obvious than the last one, but it still shows that Knuckles, despite his various different feelings toward Rouge, knows he has a job to do and tries to center himself to stay committed
Honestly it’s hard to choose between this or Unknown From M.E. as my favorite Knuckles track but either way its up there and definitely something I can bop to on the regular

A GHOST’S PUMPKIN SOUP - PUMPKIN HILL

The one everybody knows and honestly I get it, it’s got that smooth piano/guitar I can’t really tell what it is but it definitely slaps. It has that distinct G-Funk whistle which pops up occasionally across SA2K that simulates that stereotypically ghostly sound nicely
It’s definitely in contention with Deeper for the most lowkey Knuckles track and that’s saying something.
Not much content lyrically, but I managed to find a few interesting lines:
“I ain’t gonna let it get to me, I’m just gon creep - Down in Pumpkin Hill I gots to find my lost piece”
Something we don’t actually see a lot from Knuckles, fear! Most of this song is about Knuckles’ fearlessness being tested, if you view this as Knuckles’ internal monologue (Which if you don’t at this point then I’ve been doing something wrong 😂) its less about the song telling us how tough Knuckles is, but Knuckles reassuring himself that he can do this.
He’s obviously trepidatious over being in Pumpkin Hill and he has to take a moment to center himself and reassure himself that “I’m Knuckles, I’m not afraid of anything” again this goes back to how Knuckles uses his job as Guardian and his duty to motivate himself and push forward through situations, regardless of his own fear.
“I’m hearing someone saying “You a chicken, don’t be scared!” - It had to be the wind, cause nobody wasn’t there”
Considering the haunted theming of this level, this very clearly (on the surface) seems to be Knuckles encountering a ghost taunting him, but I might present another angle.
This is just Knuckles’ inner thoughts again, though this time its doubt, he doesn’t believe he can find the pieces of the Master Emerald and he doesn’t think he can make it through Pumpkin Hill, yet he pushes through anyway. This one’s kinda far fetched but it’s a nice idea
I don’t adore this track as much as a lot of other people (ironically) but I can still Jive with it.

DIVE INTO THE MELLOW - AQUATIC MINE

First of all, this track does a great job at just sounding watery, the filtered organ and the echoey bass just make it sound like cave ambience turned into music
Most of this track’s lyrics center around Knuckles’ yearning to be something more than just the Guardian of the Master Emerald and to be his own individual, these are:
“Makes you wanna sit back, enjoy the life - And do things you like doing, get to shine”
Knuckles, if it wasn’t for all the enemies and hazards, obviously enjoys being in Aquatic Mine, so much so that it brings his thoughts of a better life to the front of his mind.
This shows what Knuckles really wants, to be unburdened from the Master Emerald and to just be free to kick it wherever, in a way he’s jealous of the freedom Sonic has and wishes he wasn’t tied down to Angel Island.
“I stay Knuckled up, I’m in a deep cut”
Knuckles, despite his ideals of peace and relaxation is always ready to do what he believes is right, again this whole OST is basically Knuckles reconciling his wants and his duties.
Again Knuckles isn’t really equipped to deal with these feelings and instead of addressing them, he pushes them down and buries them under his duty and tries to keep himself busy, though once he gets to Aquatic Mine where he’s forced to slow down and explore methodically, he’s suddenly unable to distract himself from his true feelings.
“In a maze, and I don't know what to do Guaranteed though, imma find the Emeralds”
Again an obvious allusion to the labyrinthine Aquatic Mine on the surface, though I believe this too has a deeper meaning.
Knuckles is lost and confused emotionally, he’s confronted by these different feelings that conflict with everything he’s ever known. His thoughts on freedom and his feelings for Rouge which he doesn’t quite understand both conflict with his role as Guardian and he can’t reconcile them.
“I don’t know what to do” in a rare moment of vulnerability, Knuckles admits that he has no idea how to manage these feelings and he’s grappling with the monumental task of managing his panicked thoughts.
Then, just as you think Knuckles is gonna start making a breakthrough, what does he do? “Guaranteed though, imma find the Emeralds” That’s right, instead of finally addressing his swirling thoughts, he pushes them down and once again distracts himself with his duty.
Honestly, like Pumpkin Hill, I know it’s a reach but it tracks with what we know Knuckles’ character has been up to this point and it gives him insane depth and really humanizes him.
A funky beat, a nice flow from Hunnid P and some really humanizing characterization of Knuckles, Dive Into The Mellow is definitely a hidden gem of the OST.

DEEPER - DEATH CHAMBER

Sooooooo chill, honestly this song is so calm and smooth, it’s so underrated on this soundtrack it really is another hidden gem like Dive Into the Mellow.
First off I absolutely adore the bass this track has, it sounds like it’s been bit compressed for a Gameboy and honestly I’m all here for it, gives it a nice techno Eggmany twist. The funky guitar and sax just enhances the mood, the song sounds almost echoey like you’re actually standing in a Death Chamber.
Lyrically this song is unique in that it’s basically just a long conversation between Sonic and Knuckles instead of Knuckles’ inner thoughts/monologue.
It’s an interesting dynamic where Sonic is actually the reasonable one, willing to put aside his and Knuckles’ differences aside for the greater good. Knuckles however is initially a bit more standoffish, but Sonic talks him into it by appealing to his guardian nature and calling him out on his stubbornness, basically forcing Knuckles to admit that Sonic is right and that they’ll be much better off working together.
Honestly not much to say, it’s pretty much all spelled out in the song, but interesting nonetheless. An understated and uniquely funky beat make this track stand out among the others nicely, definitely a great listen.

SPACE TRIP STEPS - METEOR HERD

Finally, the last song. In my opinion, Space Trip Steps is probably the weakest track musically. That doesn’t make it bad, far from it, I just can’t groove with it as easily as the others
This song takes a lot more inspirations from G-Funk than the other tracks which does give it quite a unique sound amongst the soundtrack, it wouldn’t sound out of place on The Chronic or Regulate… G Funk Era. The wavy synths and sharp base with the fast tempo give it an almost garage feel too, definitely not a sound for everyone but I think it does a good job at sounding very ethereal and space like
As for lyrics, this seems to be a turning point for Knuckles as a loner:
“Took a shuttle to space and left from our homes At least we're with friends and I'm not all alone”
Knuckles is in a completely foreign environment and feels completely out of his depth, however he feels comforted by the fact that he’s surrounded by the people he’s finally started to call his Friends, the first time he’s admitted such.
He’s forced now to acknowledge that he can’t do everything by himself, and that asking for help from his friends doesn’t make him any less of a man, he finally accepts that he can trust outsiders, but he still has a ways to go.
“Bad thing was that the Emeralds spilled - Gotta search space, man, time to get ill”
Still, Knuckles is bound and almost blinded by his duty, forcing himself to abandon his friends to search for the Master Emerald pieces that were scattered in space.
It’s clear now that Knuckles isn’t too happy to leave his friends, but as we’ve come to know him, he does the typical Knuckles thing of pushing his feelings to the side in the face of doing what he believes is right. This just tells us Knuckles still has a lot to work on before he can really come to terms with who he is.
Again, a pretty unconventional track so it can be an awkward listen and definitely not my favorite on the list, but it does something unique which I can definitely give it props for, Hunnid P even has a completely different flow, dragging out his words like he’s getting further away, hammering home that space theme.

CONCLUSION

And that’s it, if you made it this far through my long winded ramblings, then I’m extremely impressed 😂 I tried to trim the fat as best I could but I ended up getting a bit too attached to most of what I wrote
Honestly I feel like these songs have been unfairly painted as the silly shitty Knuckles rap songs with bad lyrics that are only good because of their instrumentals, and I just can’t agree with that.
I feel like in a lot of ways these songs do a much better job of characterizing Knuckles than SA1 or SA2, I really wish we got see more of his inner turmoil and him butting heads with Sonic in the game itself.
I think it’s a sad thought that for a long time, Knuckles has been a shadow of his former self (Har har) and has just been relegated to the token meathead that’s about as one dimensional as a square. Frontiers is definitely a step in the right direction and I’m excited to see what the new writing team can cook up with for his character.
But what are your thoughts though? Do you agree? Disagree? Did I manage to change your mind or have you always felt this way? Maybe you have a different take or something else to add? I’d love to hear it.
ML

I dunno who else's parents were/are like this. My parents are fairly wealthy people. It feels like all my life this is something they managed to use against me rather than for me, in big and little ways.
I remember one birthday as a teen they got me a computer. This was a REALLY big deal back then - your average kid didn't have their own PC, with internet access, and in their own room! I was absolutely over the moon. Couldn't stop thanking them, told everyone I could. My birthday is in May. In June final grades came out and mine were very meh. The psychological warfare started. They weren't just disappointed, I didn't deserve my birthday gift - which had been unexpected, and they hadn't negotiated for high grades to get it for me, and even if they had, I wouldn't have had time to change anything. They were going to take it and sell it. Whenever I used it, it reminded them I still had it, I didn't deserve it, and they should take it back. What did I even need a computer for, if it didn't get me good grades? I'm clearly not very smart. Bad grades are ungrateful. By the end of summer I was begging them to sell it just so I could stop feeling bad. This insulted them incredibly - they didn't need the money, why sell it? Such drama. Where did I get these ideas?
Never did it occur to them to talk sensibly about next year's grades, and whether the computer was a hindrance, and what they could do to help.
It was very difficult to discuss the issue with anyone at the time. I got a free computer and I was complaining about it. Anyway it's normal for parents to want you to do well in school, no?
At 19 while starting university, I moved out of their house to a small student town, against their wishes. I was supporting myself, aside from school and books, which they paid for after threatening not to at the very last minute because they didn't like my major. That, in itself, was the first time I realized I could manipulate them back. When they threatened not to pay at the point it was far too late for me to apply for loans or bursaries (what little I might have qualified for here, while living with rich parents), and too late to switch my application anyway if I'd wanted, I was a wreck. Figured I'd have to cancel my application, save up money, try next year, I was throwing up with anxiety for a week. But then, we went to a family gathering where a relative asked me where I was going to school soon. I locked eyes with my dad. He went white. Because we'd both seen in an instant all I had to do to make him look like an asshole was say I couldn't afford to go, when my dad is the richest guy in the family. I said what I was studying. Everyone was perfectly happy for me. He made the payment. We both knew if I wasn't in school by the next family party I wouldn't be the one who looked bad.
But nobody ever understood why I was upset later, because after all, having your schooling paid for is a huge privilege. And my major is a useless subject.
Anyway, I loved living with roommates, working and going to school. It was an incredible experience just to be independent and away from them. I had to admit after a year, though, that I wasn't doing as well in school as I could be. I didn't have time to attend some advanced things or do enough research because I was working a lot. Meanwhile my parents wanted me back very badly. My dad had been saying he'd have the entire basement renovated into an apartment for me if that's what it would take. He would buy me a car. I could have anything.
I thought it over. I didn't need an entire apartment or a car. But I said I would need the guest room next to my bedroom to turn into my office, since my bedroom would be too crammed, and I'd need them to repaint it and get a few extra furniture pieces. They were happy to agree. I made sure to make a big deal of telling relatives how excited I was about my future office. Because you can imagine as soon as I told my landlord I wouldn't be renewing the lease, they tried to wiggle out. I painted the office myself with a friend because they 'couldn't find painters', but I was very insistent on making them pay for the paint. I refused to move boxes out of the hallway until they took me to Ikea to get what I needed. When my dad told me 'no one else your age needs their parents to pay for things' I reminded him he VOLUNTEERED tens of thousands of dollars in renovations and a free car, but now was making a big deal out of a desk, a lamp, and two bookshelves. He paid. We cohabited poorly for a few more years, because now I knew I could make it on my own if I had to and the dynamic was never the same.
But this is only a story about how entitled I am, because I expected my parents to accommodate me and even buy me shelves, everyone else's kids only get one room of their own in their parents' house.
Sorry for the long text. It's been mother's day and my birthday again - there's been fuckery and I'm upset.

Hi, I'm about to complete my program in a few months (just 12 credits left!). I have a job lined up for once I graduate that pays 90k a year. To be honest, I'm a bit clueless about cars. I'm currently driving a beat up 2010 mazda3 with 140k miles on it that I picked up 2 years ago to get to work and school. It's not the greatest but it gets me where I need to go.
I'm doing some research on cars right now, but I have no idea how much I should set my budget for. I want to reward myself with a fun coupe that's reliable. My job requires me to drive around a bit so I'd love to have a car that's feels nice to drive. What are some brands and models I can start to look at? I'm a bit vague right now on the details but feel free to ask clarifying questions in the comments.

Background: Me (26F) and my husband (26M) are having a bit of a dispute and I want some advice. My father in law (fil) and his wife is going on holiday to Portugal to visit my husbands grandma, see his farm etc very soon. He’s been desperate to take our 4 year old daughter to show her Portugal as she’s never been. I’ve already said no for over a year because I don’t want to be away from her for that distance for me it’s just too far away, especially as we don’t drive and don’t have a lot of money to get there ourselves if anything happened. Well fil has finally annoyed my husband enough who had also been saying no til now and he’s caving going okay fine I had fun as a child on holiday with his dad so we should let our daughter go to have that fun.
The issue: For me I already feel uncomfortable with the idea of her going abroad without me or my husband. Neither of us have annual leave to be able to go with her and we won’t get new annual leave til January 2025. So we can’t go, I feel nervous her being so far away. She stays with fil and his wife loads but they’re only 40 minutes down the road although we only recently moved, before that we were practically neighbours, her school was quite literally the building next to our apartment so she’s always been close and again she’s 4 years old. In total between where we are and travel time to where they’ll be excluding any delays and the waiting times so literally just travel time is 5 hours so like closer to a good 7 hours plus it being abroad between us and her and a lot of money it won’t be easy nor fast for us to get over there.
My fil wants to take her for 3 weeks. Well he started with 1 week, now wants 3 weeks, then let it slip he wanted 2 months. I have firmly put my foot down and said absolutely not 7 days including flying days are what I will allow. I’d rather not allow it at all but my husbands on his side saying I’m being selfish that I’m taking away fun for her etc that he was okay as a child (but he was around 7/8 years old btw when he first went on these extended holidays, also he has a terrible relationship with his mother as no contact so for her she really didn’t care all that much) and that basically I’m being pointlessly difficult and will make problems for him (as he has to stay at his dads house a few nights a week because of his job being in our old town only offering hybrid and his dad is unbelievably annoying and stubborn and will just moan about it constantly basically) by me saying 7 days. I’ve said I’m happy to tell him myself and take full responsibility for the 7 days timeframe.
But my husband is pissed that I won’t budge on the 7 days, saying that fil will never accept that, to be able to do the things he wants to do he can’t do it all in a week. He thinks I’m just being an ass for just the sake of being an ass basically and that I’m unjustifiably against 3 weeks which husband has decided is okay out of nowhere. Fil is a safe person I trust him but she’s going to a country she doesn’t know the language to and again way too far away for my comfort. I wouldn’t agree to my own dad taking my daughters abroad so it doesn’t matter who is asking for me it feels unnatural for her to be so far away. Also if we could drive and had more money I’d feel better so that if something happened we could make a quick exit and get to her asap, I’d also feel better if this has happened lots more often but this is her first ever holiday and first time flying so I’m nervous about how she will cope as she is a very anxious child and has delays in learning, communicating and speech already and that’s in her first language. It was only a couple months ago a dr said they feel she may have asd because of said delays but needs to do more investigative work first.
So her age, her current speech in her native language let alone if she got lost or in trouble abroad, her delays, she’s just recovering from a gut infection, her being her first holiday and first flight I just really worry her going at all that’s why I offered 7 days including flying day as a compromise to please husband and fil.
I’ve said if he gets early morning flights like 6am land around 8/9ish they have a whole day in Porto to do things, his grandma (where they’d stay) is a couple hours away everything from his grandma is around 30 minute drive. They want to take her to their farm and to three towns. For me 7 days is plenty of time especially if they get a late afternoon or evening flight home on the 7th day.
I have said as she gets older and I feel more confident about it as does she then she can go for longer but this is first time and I don’t want her going at all so I’m trying to compromise on 7 days including flying days.
Idk I can’t seem to shake this
AITAH and being unreasonable by saying 7 days no more?

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic psychotherapy may be one of the last bastions of honest inquiry left to us, and I worry that society will "social justice" us out of it.
There are so many physical and behavioral outcomes that a psychodynamic therapist might be curious about that we are no longer encouraged to examine. And let's be clear, before I elaborate, that I do not mean it is our job to JUDGE people and most certainly not to look down upon them! But the idea seems to be that many things a psychologist might be interested in the underpinnings or root causes of are things that are allowed no investigation whatsoever, else you’re labeled an -ist and a -phobic (racist, sexist, fatphobic, homophobic, transphobic, etc., etc.).
I went to a CE event last year about the BDSM community, and it was enforced upon us multiple times that there was nothing psychological about any of it, that the CE was about acceptance and not questioning it. It was, as you can imagine, a very boring event. Is it impossible to imagine that for some members of this community, there may have been events earlier in their lives that affected their thinking around sex/relationships/attachment that might help them to understand the way they think, feel, and behave today? No; we are simply to accept, lest we are invalidating and not supporting the BDSM/polyamory community.
On a reality TV competition, an overweight, conventionally unattractive person made themselves stand out with tall, strangely-coiffed bright hair, covered in piercings and tattoos, and wearing unconventional clothing. Part of me might wonder what it means for them to stand out this way, and why they've chosen as they have. But nothing about their choices or appearance is examinable; if one does not accept them as they are with no thought, we are seen as invalidating and not supporting them.
About sexual orientation or gender identity I will only say that all the research seems to indicate both are probably caused by a deeply nuanced interplay of genetics and environment -- not 100% genetics. However, we are strongly discouraged from talking about or thinking about the environment piece.
The goal of psychodynamic therapy is exploration, inquiry, and deeper understanding. We of all people should never be silenced or shamed in the questions we are allowed to ask, either as researchers or in session with our clients (up to a point, and of course prioritizing our client’s well-being). However, I think we are not protected in society against the rules that are put in place (understandably!) to cope with abusive, invalidating, hurtful laypeople. …But I feel we should be.

Super long post so grab your tea and settle in.
I, (50f) have two kids; daughter (19) and son (18). My daughter has always been difficult. She would blame her brother for things she did, fight with him endlessly, lied continuously to me, stole from family and stores and was a hard teen to raise. She began seeing a boy (21m) 3 years ago and honestly I didn’t care for him from the start. He was rude, intitled, zero respect and already had quite the legal record.
My daughter ended up pregnant by him about 1 month into their relationship she was 16 he was 18. They lied to me and told me he was 16. They also lied about the pregnancy. She really didn’t get a pregnant belly and anytime I mentioned she was gaining some weight and could she possibly be pregnant she would accuse me of fat shaming her and being rude just for asking. Fast forward a few months and she said she was staying at her best friends for the weekend. Her friends mom even backed this story and lied to me saying, yes she is with us. When in fact she was at boyfriends recently acquired apartment ( I had no idea about and was told he lived with his grandparents). She went into labor that weekend, I still had no idea she was pregnant. When she finally called to say she was at the hospital and had a baby she insisted she had no idea she was pregnant and it was a suprise to all of them. I didn’t really buy that but didn’t argue, none of it mattered. She had a new baby and baby needed taken care of. With her story of not knowing I immediately went shopping. Bought everything you would need for a new baby. She let me know she was moving in with BF and would be raising the baby with him. When I dropped off the baby gear (literally an F250 truck load) to the apartment I notice quite a few items were already in place for a new baby, and realized they knew and had already gotten some stuff. None of that really mattered to me, I was a grandmother now and the how’s and why’s weren’t changeable so I just moved on. I tried really hard to accept her BF and invited him into our little family. He was always rude making snide comments about my son and their father. Father took his life a month before baby was born, whole other story. He would say how much better he was and would never leave his family, just a little turd. He wouldn’t let her visit without him. I couldn’t even talk to her on the phone without him listening and answering for her. He seemed extremely controlling and jealous of any relationship she had, even with her brother and I.
This kid could never hold a job for more than a month, sat around playing video games, didn’t help with baby, didn’t clean or cook. Just a waste of space, smoking weed and doing nothing. I tried not to say anything but the look on my face was telling whenever she would talk about him to me. They eventually got behind and lost their apartment and refused to move in with me because I wouldn’t allow him to stay, just her and the baby.
They were living in their cars and couch surfing. She had very little contact with me durning this time. At one point a friend of theirs called me to tell me BF was being abusive and I drove to where they were living to see if she would come home with me and leave an abusive relationship. She refused, actually became very angry I would even butt in to their relationship like that. I honestly just wanted my babygirl, my first born safe and not hurt. A little time goes by and eventually she reached out and I help her get into an apartment, he wasn’t on the lease. A couple months go by she tells me she is 5 months with number two. I am less than thrilled but it is what it is and I am just happy she is in an apartment.
Then, I get a phone call. She was just taken to the hospital because BF hit her in her pregnant belly and baby wasn’t moving. (Baby is fine).
Cops were called he is taken to jail. There was apparently an incident before this where he gave her a black eye. The police were called then but he ran and they didn’t find him but there was still a report filed. I was never told of the black eye story till later.
The time he is in jail (3 months), she is at my house daily. I am helping her with the baby and her pregnancy. I go to doctors appointments was even in her labor room. Things were actually good between us and her and her brother were getting along great. Brother is an amazing uncle and loves his niece to death. Buys her anything she wants and they are so close. She tells me she is done with BF, has a restraining order. Is moving forward and sees how in 3 short months her life is actually improving.
But sure enough as soon as he is released (2 felony charges) she takes him right back. She lies to me saying she won’t and isn’t but I don’t believe her at all. So I drive to her place and he is there. She screams at me to mind my own business and if she wants him it’s not up to me. Again I have been there everyday with both baby’s. Helping her and getting a chance to know my grandkids. At this point am very attached to my little angels and extremely frightened for her safety . She tells me, If I can’t get over the fact she will be with BF, then she never wants to see me again. I’m crushed but at the same time I am done. Done with all the lies, done with being told I can’t see the kids. With baby number one I have gotten to see her just a handful of times until the three months BF was in jail. Done with being treated like crap from my daughter. I feel like she was just using me while he was in jail. So I say fine.
That was in march. I haven’t spoken to her since. She hasn’t reached out at all and even changed her number. I feel guilt because I didn’t really fight the no contact. I mean I miss the babies something horrible but I am so done with lies. But I also feel guilty because what if he is still hurting her. A couple of her friends let me know how she and the kids are doing. And now that she isn’t pregnant I know she could kick his butt in a fight. I feel like I have abandoned her but she is the one who said no contact.
I’m I wrong for wanting no contact as a parent?

Today is a very special day for me.
Unicorn Platform is at $300,000 ARR!
I bought it two years ago for $800k with 40k users.
After having one bad year after the purchase, the next year, I managed to grow it to 128,328 users, who built their Websites, Directories, Job Boards, Launchpads, and landing pages for their SaaS, Personal, App, Course, or Podcast.
How I got there (last 12 months):
1. Redesign.
I went through 1000+ support tickets one by one to 100 frequent requests.
At first, I wanted to start fixing them, but it'd taken us a year. I slept on this idea for a few weeks and realized that half of these may be solved by changing our entire UX from page-based to canvas-based. Like Notion, where there are no pages. It's only a canvas with a page, and everything else comes in popups.
It just erased 80% of the tasks from the backlog.
Then we tackled the remaining 20%(not all ofc, still working on it).
It reduced churn from double-digit to single-digit.
2. SEO.
I knew very little about SEO a year ago, so I had to learn a lot from scratch. Instead of implementing just one strategy, I went on to try pretty much all of them at once

• looked at existing keywords I rank for optimized pages for that to win even more traffic
  
• looked at competitors and created articles for the same keywords
  
• worked hard on domain rating, reached almost 80
  
• half of my pages weren't indexed, I used an indexing tool
  
• created lots of articles for nonrelated topics for the same audience
  

3. Directories.
I saw traffic from directories 2 years ago on my other project(marsx). So it pushed really hard on listing on all directories for Unicorn Platform too. back then, most directories were not so popular yet, so I was kinda lucky to list there early and as they went viral, I got really good share of that traffic too.
4. Product Hunt.
We launched there in July. If you win the product hunt, there is a very long aftershock. You end up in newsletters and blog articles. We took 2nd place, but it was a very busy day. We scored over 1000 upvotes, so we got pretty good traffic and results.
5. Talking to users. Helping them.
I sent an email to every paid user asking for feedback and starting a discussion. I talked to at least 300 of them. It helped me figure out some low-hanging fixes I could do to keep them, and I also had a very strong network effect afterward. Many new users would tell me they got a recommendation from their friend.
Eventually, I started simply helping out all my users every day(I still spend at least an hour a day). For free. With my feedback on everything they ask, tips, and advice. I even connected one guy who was raising a round to an investor.
6. Social Media.
I shared all my steps—not just MRRs but my actual steps on how I got there and what I did. Many of such posts went viral and helped other makers grow their products. This led to X becoming the top 4 traffic source for sign-ups.
7. Traffic from my directories & products.
I have 24 products in total.
So my other 23 products drive traffic to this one via links in the footer and banners, and sometimes I recommend it in an email. About 30% of the traffic comes this way.
Also, I have over 20 directories, some of which are very successful, and they drive good traffic, too. I had a gut feeling about directories 3 years ago. But my friends kept saying, "Directories are out of hype by now..".
So, I gave up on the idea until November, when I launched the gpt directory, which went viral with millions of visits. After that, I built a few new directories every month.
8. Word of Mouth.
I track this via social media mentions, and it's my most important metric. It's the one in a pair with SEO that leads to PMF. In Jan last year, I was pretty sad to see that the viral "best landing page builders" posts on the internet would never have Unicorn Platform in them.
But all that I did above helped, and we started to appear in many such posts. Today, 90% of the mentions come organically from people on the internet.
Thank you people. Thx for sharing. I work really hard to justify your trust.
9. Affiliate partners.
I've been running it for 8 months, and it works.
People bring sign-ups, and they eventually convert into paying users. Easy to setup. No effort at all once it's running.
10. Paid ads.
This one is short: I tried and failed. Most likely, I need to learn more about this, or maybe it never works.
11. Sponsoring other directories.
I sponsored a few directories to place my banner there.
I like it. There is traffic. The ROI seems good. I wanna do more of it. If you have a directory that's visited by busy founders, let me know, and I may sponsor you.
12. More templates and blocks.
I hired an amazing designer. He is the next Johnny Ive, trust me. We created many new templates and components.
Now, we're working on a new update that will 10x the power of Unicorn when it comes to visual stuff. Once this is out, you'll forget what webflow and framer are.
Imagine getting similar power with 10x less time than is needed and 20x easier UX.
13. Cross promo.
We partnered with Senja by adding their testimonial block to our third-party blocks. Now, Unicorn users can add Senja blocks with just a few clicks. It's so powerful that users love it and use it. We drove traffic to Senja, and they drove some traffic to us by posting on social media about this integration. We may do more, for example, sending an email to all our users about Senja, and Senja sends an email to all their users about a Unicorn.
I have many more such collaborations coming. The next one is RapidForms. Users will be able to add very advanced forms with multiple steps and even payment steps.
Launching it next week.
If you think your product fits in, too, let me know.
We both will grow our userbase by doing these collabs.
That's it.
I may have missed some details.
Just ask me in replies, and I'll answer.
P.S.I don't read DMs here, only on X or Linkedin.

Currently on a gap year.
I have 3+ months until I start 4th year and exams will be in December (5 months). The exam will be SBA and SAQ.
I’ve decided I’m going to do passmed but I want to have build a good foundation first. Bear in mind I actually don’t know anything - slight exaggeration yes. But not far from the truth.
I’m aware of a lot of the resources and study methods out there, but when it comes to applying it, I get an overwhelmed and don’t do anything. The amount of spreadsheets/plans I’ve created to get on top of it is crazy.
So yeah, basically I’m not sure where to start. And what to do.
For example say I want to revise Obs&Gynae conditions. Ideally… 1) I would cover the relevant clinical physiology- which I actually don’t know where to go to and then also know it’s enough. Like you don’t know what you don’t know. 2) Then somehow familiarise myself with the diseases and their management??. I have a list of the diseases to cover for each speciality, just no idea how to go about covering them all bc there’s so many. Also with management, what extent are you meant to know ? 3) Then ideally I would do passmed questions to consolidate the knowledge.
Should I skip out step 2) and go straight to 3) but that feels a bit wrong.
Ideally someone just tell me what to do - with SPECIFIC instructions please :)
Sorry for the long and rambly message. Just thought it about time that I ask for some help. Much appreciated 🙏

I (17 M) and my partner (18M) have a pretty good relationship. He’s really caring and soft spoken, and we’ve been together for almost two years. I really like him, but I am struggling because of his anger issues. It seems like most days there is just an aura of angler surrounding him, and he seems pissed off more than not. He’ll deny he’s upset, even when he clearly is, and then confide that he was upset when I asked.
This wouldn’t be as much of a deal if I didn’t have CPTSD due to my father emotionally abusing me throughout my childhood (don’t worry, I cut contact with him two years ago). My partner exudes that same aura of anger as he did, and it’s really triggering to be around. It makes me on edge and has been severely affecting my mental health for some time now. Just to remind you, he’s not mad here and there, it is day in day out. I hate to see him upset, but I am also constantly in a state of guardedness because of his anger.
I have talked with him about it, but it isn’t getting better. He started seeing the school councilor a couple months ago, and there hasn’t been improvement.
I’m also stressed because I want to do a semester of abroad studies offered by the college we will be attending, but he is against the idea because I wouldn’t be close so he could “keep an eye on me” and kept fussing about if something happened to me.
Now, I would like to note that we live in rural America, and we are both queer trans men, and I’ve looked heavily into immigration due to the political turmoil in America right now, especially concerning our rights. I have a decent shot at Scottish citizenship through ancestry, and have considered giving it a go to see if I’d qualify due to a “just in case” scenario. My boyfriend pushed against this plan because he’s afraid of losing me. I don’t know what to do. He keeps saying that he’s never met anyone like me before and doesn’t want me to move on without him.
I think some of this comes from the fact that really insecure, as I’m supposedly the more “conventionally attractive” one in the relationship (thin, cis passing, etc), and whenever I’m talking to anyone who’s not one of the friends TM (we have a very close friend group, which would further complicate things if we broke up) he gets really defensive at people trying to “make passes at me”, which does happen from time to time. He’s constantly worried about people “using me” or “abusing my niceness” but I’ll be having a normal conversation and sometimes he’ll just seem like a guard dog. This was especially prevalent when we went on a trip funded by the school and people were asking for my number, and he just kind of lurked there. I’m also autistic and am not the best at recognizing when people are flirting with me, so its hard to tell if people are just being nice- but it also made me feel a bit uncomfortable because it felt a bit controlling, like, it seems like I can’t make new friends because they might be trying to hit on me. He also confessed that one of my old friends (no longer my friend due to unrelated reasons) made him jealous and angry simply because I was closer with him. Said friend never rubbed it in his face, but my bf was mad that I had other friends. He has since said that his mindset was toxic, but it someways I feel like it never left.
I’m stressed because we’re going on a trip abroad with my family soon and I don’t want to cause turmoil. I love him a lot, we really click on things like humour and interests, but I feel like he’s trying to tie me down, which is stressful, not to mention the whole anger issue thing, and I’m really lost. I also know I might lose friends if so broke up with him, since we’re really tight knit.
Some back up information is that he liked me first and I was pressured into dating him, but then actually started to develop feelings for him. Sometimes I wonder if I’m just resentful for how our relationship started.
Any suggestions?
(Sorry for poor formatting- I’m on mobile.)

Throwaway for privacy.
Early 30s, M/HCOL location. Single and expect to stay that way indefinitely. Do not want kids.
Goal: Open an art studio and work at least part time making art indefinitely. I've made art and sold it since I was a kid, otherwise I'd drown in my own stuff. I get more requests than I can fill currently, and I've consistently grossed 6-10k the last few years on the side with minimal/moderate effort from freelance contracts, product sales, and teaching, all while also working full time, moving multiple times, job changes, gaining and losing studio space, volunteering, staying active, etc. I'm starting to burn out doing it all at the same time for years now however, and it's affecting my mental and consequently physical health.
Current employment: My current work structure/colleagues/management leave a lot to be desired and the work can be both very boring, political, chaotic and stressful at times, with high staff turnover, but I've worked in worse places overall. The pay is about 30% over what I could get at any other employer locally on top of great vacation and benefits which kind of makes up for it? The industry in general sucks and is not helping the burnout situation.
Why now (or in the next year or so) vs. full FIRE or at least a fatter coast while the money is flowing? The main person who runs an arts program/business in my community is retiring soon and has expressed wanting an apprentice for some of his contracts. He doesn't make a lot, but he's been doing it for 30 years, raised 3 kids while divorced on it, and goes to Mexico for a month every year. It seems like a fantastic opportunity to inherit a developed client base, possibly buy cheap materials/equipment, and general support to launch into the next phase.
My original, "5 year plan," was to shovel any money free after filling registered accounts into the mortgage so the value at renewal in 3 years is very low and then either fully pay it off or extend the amortization period depending on rates/life at that point. The idea being to reduce cash flow requirements to as minimal as possible before leaving my current employment vs. possibly having to pull down on investments for a year or two to bridge the gap, but functionally I'm not sure it makes a huge difference if you looked at market return vs. debt payoff over time, plus hopefully still adding to the stash here and there in the future.
My current employment as is is not tenable for 3 more years, but there are lots of other possible options such as finding another job that doesn't suck nearly as much energy and lets me break even on expenses for those 3 years. There is a small chance I could move to part time in my current role, but it depends on things mostly out of my control. I've planted the seed with another friend/possible employer about mutually beneficial contract work with them, to float a few years between now and 100% art, but that's also in the end up to them.
Question: If you were me, how comfortable would you feel leaving the golden handcuffs in roughly a year to work your ass off on something you've always wanted, but are also scared it will be a terrible choice to go into a "non-essential" field while the environment and consequently society starts to collapse around us? That last point makes me feel like YOLO and max conservatism are both very valid in different ways.
Financials:
~100k job income + 5% DB Pension matching
135k - Mortgage debt at 5.3%
Mortgage payments of ~23k/yr,
Comfortable living expenses without mortgage and including tax burden = 35k/yr = FT minimum wage = 875k FIRE number. In a worst case I could cut a vacation and get a roommate.
40k- Pension contributions incl. match
60k- HYSA/GIC
340k- RRSP, TFSA, Margin in ETFs
=440K NW, nic home equity
I know to not bank on this, but there is a high likelihood of a significant inheritance in roughly 25 years in the million + bracket. I should be fully FI before this point, however I also fully believe we will be dealing with global watefood wars and climate migration crisis before then.

I just had things ended because a guy I was talking to finally told me today that he didn't want me and that I wasn't for him, but it ended up going way worse than I wanted.
Everything started with me reconnecting with him in Walmart. I knew him prior to this because we used to go to the same high school together but never really talked. I gave him my instagram and we were talking about our exes cause that is how we even knew each other. While I was texting him, he asked me for my number then we started texting on imessages. He would text me, send me pigeon games, and call me every now and then.
There was one day where he called me and he wanted to ask me sexual questions, I was cool with it cause we had been friends for 2 weeks and plus I don't really have anything to hide. I didn't think much about it while telling him and asking him stuff cause we were friends, he had started talking about how he wanted someone to be friends with benefits with that it wouldn't end up ruining the friendship and I told him I could never do that stuff cause I want to be in a relationship with those that I am sexual with, plus I get clingy with them cause I tend to actually like them.
At some point of talking, he even asked for me to send and I told him that I wanted to do all of that stuff when I get married because my last ex (the ex he knew about) had taken my virginity to get his ex (the guy i was talking to's ex) jealous. I don't know exactly what he said but he said something like "Well it would suck to wait for someone during the relationship just to realize that they aren't good at sex", which made me feel like I was waiting for no reason because after that ex, I never was sexually active with anyone (about 2-3 years counting). I ended up sending some old nudes because I thought it wouldn't matter anymore and that he was kind of cute. After that, the more we talked the more the sexual tension got heavy, he was talking about how he liked my body and how he wanted to fuck me, and I was eating it up cause he was making me feel pretty and wanted. He ended up jerking off to my picture when I let him take the time to (cause I really didn't want to do e-sex cause I've always felt unfulfilled doing it) and when he came back everything was fine.
After some days, we had gotten into this habit of me sending him nudes, taking them how he wanted them to look, with him complimenting me and jerking off to them, there was only one time where we did e-sex, everything else was sending. The sending nudes ended up making me feel how I did in my previous relationship which was like a whore, not an actual person, and like a porn magazine, so I talked to him about it and he told me to just tell him to stop when he does ask. Time passed some more and he would still asked so I talked to him again about it because everytime we would have a sweet moment he would ask me for nudes or say something sexual, but this time he was still entertaining the idea, I assume he was thinking I was playing hard to get, I really don't know, but this time I told him, "I don't think you'll get to the point of actually liking me" because during this time he made it seem like we were leaning into a relationship while I always said that I wanted a relationship, he had backed off when I said that but he replied saying "(my name) don't be like that". After that, the only time that we would be sexual was whenever I initiated it, which would be about once every 2-3 weeks.
During that I would treat him like a boyfriend, but he was still being plain towards me, (he even told me that he liked the way I treated him) the only time he would compliment me was when I dressed up, so I asked him about how he was rarely lovey dovey towards me and he told me that he needed more time to get to like me even more than he did cause he wanted to take things slow, I got salty and told him that sexting me and wanting me to send nudes wasn't take it slow, he didn't say anything about that but smirked and change the topic. Every now and then, I'd make slick comments about stuff that didn't make sense. We had gotten to a point where he told me that he wasn't going to be texting and calling as much because he wants to start his business up, which I had no problem with that, I told him that I would always be there for him and when needed me, if there was anything I could do to just let me know, and I even told him if he felt like he needed to not pursue a relationship right now that we could stop or cut ties for now. He agreed with him not pursuing a relationship, again stating that he wants to put all of his focus in the business, and that there was nothing wrong with me, just that he wanted to focus on himself. I told him that I didn't know if I was cool being just friends because I was actually trying to pursue a relationship with him and that if I figured out how I felt about it I would let him know so that things didn't get toxic between us.
6 days later (5/10/2024),
At night, I told him the way everything is right now is making me confused and overwhelmed because I didn't really understand what our status was, and it wasn't somewhere I wanted to be especially after sending him pictures of my body using a voice message. I also told him that I was regretting showing him my body cause of how I felt I was being used but didn't want to assume and was hoping that he just needed time, he replied the next day during the afternoon telling me that I was a good person just that he couldn't see a future with me, that he thought he made his want of being only friends clear, that we would go different directions if we did get together. I got confused about that part because everytime I would try and talk to him about us meeting up and how we would maintain the relationship, he would tell me that it was too soon to talk about it, so i got a bit mad and asked him how he came to that conclusion knowing that we didn't talk about it at all, how he knew my boundaries but didn't straight up tell me that he didn't want me so I could save my time, and how he didn't make anything clear cause I thought we were on pause for now and going to attempt to try again once the business started up. He then told me that I was trying to guilt him, to not be mad at him because he didn't want a relationship, that he didn't want me, that I wasn't for him, and to not get mad at him for something he couldn't control.
I told him that I wasn't meaning to guilt him (cause I wasn't, I was just being transparent and honest on how I felt) and that I wanted to call instead of texting cause i didn't like it, I felt more miscommunication was happening, he told me he didn't want to call because he didn't want me to call him an asshole and how my problems are his fault, I told him i never said it was his fault but he corrected me by reminding me i said it in the voice message i sent last night (I was really high when I made it, so i didn't remember much when I woke up), so i listened to it and I literally told him that it was half of his fault that I'm confused about our status and how I needed more stability from him, so I told him that just adding that I was also at fault to for not knocking him down when he first came at me. After that, I started screenshotting the messages for my notion journal to dissect more on how I feel about it to try to understand more on how i felt and to help me move on, but he gets PISSED, he texted me on imessage.
him: "yeah no, fuck your screenshots"
me: "why you don't even know what i'm going to do with them?"
him: "1 screenshot. Sure. 3??? Nahhh. You trynna catch me up. I one you and screenshots and I don't fuck with it. That drew the line for me. You right. We shouldn't talk."
THEN HE FUCKING BLOCKS ME ON EVERYTHING EVEN GETTING A MUTUAL FRIEND OF OURS TO BLOCK ME. So i start racing to talk to him because I didn't think it was a big ass deal, so i text him on discord and he's telling me to fuck off and blocks me. I kept finding ways to contact him trying to explain to him and apologizing that I'm keeping it to myself and that its nothing more but he tells me to fuck off even more to the point where he even threatens to report me. I gave up and I sent my last message to him telling him that he basically sucks, doesn't reciprocate any mercy I've given to him or treat me as if I mattered to him, how it was unfair how stubborn he was to not even try to understand how i felt, how i still, despite, the entirety of the situation, love him, and hopes his life goes well.
I do want to add that I understand constantly texting him and calling him about it was a bad move, I truly was just acting on my emotions instead of calming down then making a choice.

Sorry, it’s a long read. I have an update to a boomer being a fool story to share that happened today! I wrote about it a couple months back on a different sub, in case this story seems familiar. But then I deleted it, as I shared a lot of info in the comments and I don’t know if the boomer has Reddit.
Anyway, so I have owned my own home for 5 years and the boomer has owned his home since the 1990’s. The way mailboxes work where I live is the post lady only delivers to one side of the road. It makes her route twice as efficient as I understand it. Everyone who lives on the opposite side of the street has two choices. Dig a hole and place the post in the ground on the opposite side of the road or place a post in a 5 gallon bucket on the opposite side of the road.
There are four mailboxes on the side of my property, as my property is an acre (my box and three more boxes that belong to people living across the street). For the last five years, not a single issue, everyone’s box was either in a bucket or in the ground on a pole.
For reasons I don’t understand, while I was outside, I see boomer across the street messing with his mailbox in my yard. I didn’t have my glasses on, and I can’t see very far without them. So he’s looking at me, but doesn’t say anything. I go on with my day, forgetting all about it. The next time I go outside, I notice that what he was doing was attaching his mailbox to a 75 foot tree on my property. Mailbox was on a pole, that was in a 5 gallon bucket and some cement keeping the bucket firmly standing upright. He put that entire thing in my yard by about 12 feet, attached it to my enormous tree with two tightly attached bungie cords at the top and the bottom. So he could have asked my permission first, but chose not to. I don’t know the guy, but we would cordially wave to each other in the past.
And in addition to this, I notice all the trees in that area (all on my property) have green x’s spray painted on them. Like six trees total. I looked up and noticed the main electrical line for the entire neighborhood goes right through all those trees, including the one he’s attached his mailbox on. The spray painted x’s mean that the electric company has those trees slated to be cut down. This is because I live in a high fire zone and so the electric company is going around cutting down all the trees that could be a danger. I can’t see if the tree he’s attached his mailbox to has an X or not, since he’s tightly got the entire thing covered.
So, I call the post master and file a complaint to have his post office box removed from my property, as in the United States, it’s against the law to tamper with other mailboxes, regardless of where they are located. Post master calls me back and explains that they’re no longer delivering his mail due to the box being located on my property. He tells me that if the post lady gets injured trying to deliver his mail, I would be liable for her medical bills because she was hurt on my property. The post master said when the boomer comes in bitching at the post office that he’s no longer receiving mail, he’ll be told that he must remove it from my property. The post master tells me not to touch the box, but says the sheriff can remove it if I call them.
So I wait a while, to see if it’ll resolve itself without escalating it. Weeks pass, he’s not receiving mail anymore, but doesn’t seem to care or notice. I finally decide to call the sheriff as the electric company had come out to remove all the trees with x’s on them, but left without doing any of it, which made me realize he possibly has his box connected to a tree that also needs to be removed.
So the sheriff comes out and she says she won’t remove the box, but that I’m allowed to remove it from my property while she watches (which I also recorded for my own documentation). The entire transaction is like 2-3 minutes. When I move it, I realize his entire setup stands on its own just fine, without being attached to the tree in my yard. So sheriff tells me she’s going to try and find the guy’s phone number so at least he’ll know why he’s not receiving mail anymore. I had actually tried to find his number too, before calling the sheriff, as I don’t feel comfortable going up to his door as a single woman. The tax assessor gave me his info, including his address, which is listed as a P.O. Box three miles away! Meaning he’s not even using his mailbox, which is likely why he hasn’t noticed no mail being delivered. Anyway, I leave a voicemail politely asking him to remove his box from my property before calling the sheriff, but I have no idea if it was actually his number.
So I thank the Sheriff for her help and go back inside. Then I see on cam, as soon as I went inside, he went running out to speak with the Sheriff. I can’t hear their conversation, but can see it perfectly and his arms are flaring as he’s losing his damn mind over having his box moved. He stands there yelling at the sheriff for exactly 12 minutes. She’s just politely nodding her head the whole time. And then as soon as she leaves, he goes over to another neighbor’s house and arms flaring with very angry body language and lots of pointing at the mailbox, he talks to that neighbor for another 20 minutes. Then he leaves, which I’m assuming was to go yell at the post office 3 miles away.
Oh, also wanted to mention that when I removed the mailbox from my tree, sure enough, he intentionally covered up the green spray painted X on the tree with his mailbox!
So that should have been the end of it. Instead, today I look outside my window and I see this idiot boomer reattaching his mailbox to my property again. This is all so ridiculous and annoying to me, that I just snapped at that point and so I opened my window and yelled out “get off my property, you and your mailbox, you’re trespassing.” And he starts yelling something with flailing arms again, but I can’t hear him from that far away…so I go, “I can’t hear you way up there, I don’t want to discuss it, just remove you property from my property right fucking now or I’ll call the police and file a trespassing report.” So then, I can see him on camera, he takes his mailbox on the pole back across to his side of the street, he digs a hole and places his mailbox at least 12 feet into his own yard. Meaning, they won’t deliver it there either of course, as now it’s on the wrong side of the road and it’s in the grass 12 feet inward on his property when it must be on the side of the road to be in compliance.
For the last five years, it was just fine in the bucket on a pole, on my side of the road, not on my property. And every other house does it properly, which he can see as well! And he’s lived here since the 90’s, knowing how things work. This is just so insane to me! All this drama over what?!? Like he’s so entitled that he gets to just use my property, without asking my permission, even with the post master telling him no? Even with the Sheriff involved? Guy is nearly 80, has to be long retired. Did he just get bored or what? I don’t understand boomers at all.
TLDR: Without asking me first, boomer (who lives across the street from me) decides to attach his mailbox to a tree on my property.

A week or more ago I wrote here about moving out. It was rough, mentally draining (because I was still processing the family fight that caused the move), but I’m feeling much better now and appreciate the support I received a lot. Living alone looks more and more like a blast, even if I have to learn a lot of new things — but I like this too, feeling like an explorer of sorts, heh. Slowly transitioning from being an adult child to being an actual adult.
Following the fight we recently had a few brief chats with my mother and because I needed to take some of my other stuff I left behind I thought it was probably safe enough to try and meet. Very briefly. So I did. It was very, very brief and I was trying to pack as quick as possible, almost didn’t say a word. Today I decided to return for one last time in a while to take the last batch of stuff (mainly books, wasn’t important, but felt like a more or less final step) and… the interaction left me retrospecting.
Basically I bought myself this nice simple hat recently and knowing my mother, intuitively I expected her to comment on it, so I legitimately thought about hiding it in my backpack to avoid any comments. Just didn’t want to hear anything unnecessary. But then I felt lazy and just took it off and held it in my hand. And of course as soon as it was seen there was this baby talk that I’m not sure I can convey. It’s like “oooh, look at you, handsome”, but in this really unpleasant demeaning tone like I’m not in my 20s, but a child trying to act like an adult by buying something for himself.
I immediately felt very off for some reason and just found a way to refocus the attention elsewhere (internally cursing myself for not hiding that shit beforehand). Being autistic and having a very cyclical memory, I still replayed that phrase she said till the very evening, but just as I was starting to knock that off… out of the blue, at midnight, she wrote me and commented the same thing again, in text form. That’s where I couldn’t help it and just briefly responded “Please do not react like that, I don’t like being commented when it’s something this small. I get that you feel this way, but there’s no need to focus on my idle choices like this.”. She thought I was joking and acting “grumpy” in a playful way, so I had to elaborate and after she understood what I was saying she got upset. I can add the screenshot here, but it would be in my native language, so probably wouldn’t be helpful, lol.
And now I’m sitting here remembering how our initial recent big fight even started. It was a very small thing like me having breakfast that was commented. It was her temperament quickly losing control when I said in a neutral, focused-on-the-food tone, that I want to just have my breakfast alone. A domino effect that led to the weight of my emotions accumulated to explode.
I’m not sure what is the point of this post, probably just idle thoughts to contribute to this ongoing conversation that is this sub. I started this post by talking about being an adult child who finally gets his chance to become a proper adult. And these small altercations are like… punches in the guts. That baby talk. My own choices, however small, being perceived as “playing as an adult”. Might sound like a normal parental reaction, but if I’m telling this then I mean it — it’s more. It’s something unhealthy that I can’t shake. I think you guys can relate.
I ordered some more things for myself though. It calmed me down. Currently I have no special reason to return again, but if I should — I’ll probably hide anything new about me. There’s no significant progress in my mother and even if hiding yourself is a depressing idea, I don’t have the mental capacity to do it the other way. It’s a compromise.

Keeping it short and simple I met this cute girl in college, after 2 years of studying and hanging out together, i asked her if she liked me, not only she said that she didn’t, on top of that said she had a boyfriend and didn’t expect this from me, (since when did politely confessing love to someone became offensive), I didn’t knew she had a boyfriend and after this encounter didn’t spoke to her for a straight month. When i did join our friend circle (you can’t survive studying alone, you will need a group for projects), this girl had told her best friend that i was trying out on her even though she had a boyfriend and is disappointed on me, no matter how many times i tell her i did not know of her boyfriend (i don’t give 2 fucks about your stupid boyfriend whoever he is) she just goes around saying that i tried to hit on her knowing well she had a boyfriend. Now i only stay in her group for group projects and because rest of the class is kinda rude to an introvert guy like me. So our group is my only option and her face just keeps reminding me of how much i used to love her and depression both at the same time. Although we are good friends she now thinks after rejecting me, it is a good idea to stop me from being friends with some other guys in college who drink and smoke (stoners are the chill guys in college never forced me to do anything rash, just wanted help in assignments and you can have great chat with them any point of time, not like fake friends who copy your assignments and then block you or insult you in class) if any other person would have said i was making friends who are bad influence, I would not have found it as irksome as she telling me this after rejecting me and spreading fake rumours about my ill intent (what are you except being my friend? A girlfriend i never had?)so you guys do the justice and give tips for me in this situation, remember, our marks depend on this friend zoned relationship. I have to stay a friend for projects. Also if i ever had a girlfriend, i would not want her to be nagging and put her nose in my matters type. One advice is that i only meet her for work related matters otherwise i avoid her. Ask in comments for more of the backstory, whether i still like her or not.

So, it’s been suggested that we present a simplified overview of the recent essays (linked below) that I co-wrote with respected analyst Hanna Kahlert, of renowned London-based MIDiA Research, which covered so much territory of interconnected concepts that all affect the current and future viability of the music industry. This summary eschews the essays’ “$10 words,” (with the exception of using “eschews” here!) with which some have struggled, and is shared in the bite-sized, more digestible form of a survey and petition in combination with this summary/bullet point preface of some of the most salient points. The survey and petition presents the essence of our thesis in the uncomplicated context of a proactive social impact campaign format.
First, let me explain. I grew up in a Long Island suburb town (about thirty miles outside New York City) during the “English Invasion” of music. I’d first hear new releases on my FM clock radio tuned to stations that prided themselves on finding the “cool stuff” first. It was a time when we were met almost every day with another astounding, mind-blowing record and artist to discover, often with something worth thinking about and culturally significant. Sometimes these releases would even be life-changing. Many of these recordings would become iconic — classic evergreens with songs covered endlessly. Yes, like today, there were also dismissable records then. The difference would seem to be that there are more songs about nothing today, replete with de rigeur profanity that only further detracts and is anything but “cool." While there are some very imaginative productions and impressive singers, there are few records now that demand a cerebral, emotional response, and there is a dearth that will be remembered as moving the needle at all, so to speak. Even customary love themes are largely just recycled imitations of the greats.
Since I also relate to the sensitivity of empaths — someone attuned to the deep feelings of those around them at a personal level — I tend to gravitate to music with a message that connects with us viscerally, that which touches the soul. Especially in our currently fraught times, there clearly is a need for thought-provoking music and for more attention given to the evolution of this genre of what was once deemed “protest songs.” Socially poignant music is a category that disguises protest in metaphors and yet is just as potent. It will create community and superfans, lift spirits, and engender a large movement of positive social advocacy. I established Socially Driven Music to develop and market #Music4APurpose. The concept resonated with Hanna Kahlert and we set about to co-write what we envision.
While developing our conclusions towards offering actionable, viable value-propositions for the music industry, we took several months to sort our ideas, research, digest and assimilate the daily deluge of information about changes battering the music industry. While I wasn’t aware that Mark Mulligan, MIDiA’s Founder and Managing Director, was developing his “Bifurcation Theory,” it is validating to be in sync with his thinking and to be presenting what I consider to be the roadmap to implementing that theory. I am excited about offering takeaways that will hopefully propel many away from feelings of helpless, hopeless despair and towards optimism and positive activism through the enrapture we seek from our music and the communities built around it.
Socially driven music has traditionally been a powerful way to raise awareness about issues across the board, such as Discrimination, Climate, Democracy, Mental Health, Bullying, Substance Abuse, Antisemitism, Equality, Homelessness, Veterans, Suicide,Terrorism, Gun Control, Women’s Productive Rights, Food and Clean Water Insecurity, Cancer and other illnesses, Animal Rights/Protection, Environmental Justice, Oceans, LGBTQ+ rights, etc. Our mandate recognizes the crucial difference of a sustained campaign animated by a song.
Above all, we must always remember and honor “The Greatest Generation” (and all Veterans) who fought and died upholding ideals that they expected us to continue to respect. Political affiliation is most often indoctrinated and not questioned individually. Support traditional Republican philosophy if you must, but #MAGA is not the antidote to Democrats and is authoritarian and dangerous to our democracy!
All causes, including music rights, are affected by the influence of a common denominator — politics. Each social cause group is a large community which can be further grown and energized with the natural evolution of fans to music superfans. Compelling socially thematic music enraptures and beckons fans to demonstrate their proud commonality and membership in a next generation fan club that can actually impact society with its fervor and political influence.
Socially Driven Music, the #Music4APurpose consultancy brand, powers extraordinary reciprocal benefits for artists and songwriters when integrated with the community of fans, causes, supportive brands and empathetic politicians ! [info@sociallydrivenmusic.com](mailto:info@sociallydrivenmusic.com)
A list of many social impact causes can be found in the dropdown menu here.
We are thrilled and very appreciative to have been invited to talk with some of the most highly regarded podcast and webinar programs which will include delving into why major record labels discouraging artists espousing political views is anachronistic, irrelevant and no longer a barrier.
As you work through the survey and petition in this post, you’ll likely have an “aha moment.” We look forward to working with you and our fast growing interactive coaltion who share a passion for energizing positive changes in causes that matter to us all.

Join us. Democracy is a big issue in 2024 and one we can influence together! (The correct local and national choices will influence the rest.)

ONE:
https://forms.gle/c3gECmDp4RyZCxxW6
TWO:

THREE:
Identify your Senators and Congressional Representatives with this link and website tool, below, and let us know in the above survey for what purpose you’d like to collaborate with them. Socially Driven Music’s mandate is to facilitate a potent music-fan-cause-brand-political influencer consortium for positive social impact.
Raise your hand in the survey if you are an artist who might want to volunteer at a voting polling station or actually volunteer to help a campaign with calling voters (and meet some new fans).
PS: Although this piece is focused on how music can influence American politics and the fraught issues it impacts, this same template can be applied worldwide. Talk to us!
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/member

And here is the epitome example of what we aspire to create:
Paul Simon wrote the masterpiece “American Tune” in 1973 and it applies 51 years later even more to today’s troubled times. This is one of the best examples of the socially poignant music that we contend is so important to create again today, and a brilliant example of a copyright that will live on forever.
The first link is Rhiannon Giddens with Paul at the Grammy Salute evening for him. The second link is Paul’s original.
The song will bring the listener to tears as it describes a societal hopelessness and yet compels the listener to fight through the despair. It perfectly summarizes the emotion powering Socially Driven Music and I hope helps convey what this written summary is trying to articulate.
https://youtu.be/67pyIglP79U?si=ICl2pDKJgTMwcXTT&t=85

Democracy, #Election2024, #MAGA, #MusicIndustry, #MusicBusiness, #Music, #SocialImpact, #SocialGood, #Biden, #Trump, #Vote2024, #ActBlue, #Veterans, #JohnLennon, #YokoOno

I grew up playing gen 3 and gen 4 mostly, that was kind of my Pokemon golden age, so I was pretty excited to get into playing the 'remakes'. It took a while, but I got there! Mostly positive experience, but theres some stuff I really just don't get.
Overall, I enjoyed BD. It feels very much like the OG Diamond, just looks a bit better (depending on who you ask). And while this similarity is a good thing, it's also my biggest gripe with the game.
There's lots of different ways you see the game industry describe these sorts of games: remaster, remake, definitive edition etc. Pokemon tend to avoid such titles, but this is very much a remaster in my opinion rather than a remake, and certainly NOT a definitive gen 4 experience, and I really think 'definitive' should be what these Pokemon 'remake' games aim for.
Here's some of my issues with it.
Issue 1: I do not understand why a definitive experience isn't given to the player in these 'remake' games, in particular I'm talking about 'Event' Pokemon, and meaningful new content (one and the same in many ways).
I hate the idea of 'Event' Pokemon. I always have. Where I grew up, we didn't have access to Event Pokemon. So Deoxys, Darkrai, Shaymin, Arceus etc. were always out of reach for me, and it always bugged me as a kid. How does a game like this get created, and the developers don't take every opportunity to truly make this a definitive version of generation 4? This game should have standalone events in the base game for Darkrai, Shaymin, & Arceus.
I get you can transfer them easily now with Home, and from Legends: Arceus save data you can get the Azure flute, I do get that - but it's not the same, and a separate game shouldn't be a requirement. I just do not understand why they can't make these games the definitive experience they should be, it just feels so outdated and unfair to players to have Darkrai/Shaymin events time bound and never repeated (and who the hell wants to just get a legendary off a mystery gift, it sucks. Whatever if its a shiny variant or something, but for the regular Pokemon? Trash). Just put them in the base game, or for goodness sake even make it purchasable on the Nintendo store if you really want, I'd honestly pay 4.99 for a Shaymin/Darkrai event add-on (though that too shouldn't be necessary).
I just feel the game would've been so much more satisfying and 'complete' if there were events included for these previously unobtainable Pokemon. It feels lazy and just not in the best interests of the player, or the game.
I give ORAS some credit with this in terms of how they handled Deoxys, overall I thoroughly enjoyed that and it did give me that satisfaction that I never got when playing RSE. I say 'some' because I still don't understand why Jirachi wasn't given the same treatment. The same applies to the likes of Mew in FRLG, Celebi in HGSS. I just don't get it.
Issue 2: We are so beyond Pokemon games needing difficulty options. Look, I know the games are for kids but Nintendo surely know their audience by now, a lot of people have grown up with these games and will continue to play them, at least allow us the choice of a challenge.
This game is a piece of cake. I casually strolled through it without any sort of trouble, skipped numerous trainer battles (of which their are honestly so many it becomes draining and takes away from the fun), and still didn't experience any sort of challenge until Cynthia's Milotic made me somewhat consider a tactical move choice.
Exp. Share completely kills the difficulty. Is there a way to turn it off? I had a quick check and couldn't find one. If there is, well I rescind this point, if not, then the point stands.
Issue 3: Something that will likely never happen, but I really wish for the remakes they would just focus on the third entry in the gen. For example, instead of BDSP, just focus on a Platinum definitive experience. Emerald, Crystal, if and when they do B/W I truly hope they incorporate the story of both BW & BW2 into one game if at all possible, a truly definitive experience of gen 5 (though, I won't hold my breath).
Issue 4: Is it just me, or does the Pokemon art style lack something? I've been staring and staring and I feel like it's the lack of black edges/outlines. Obviously, sprites had it. But we even saw it through Gen 6/7. I think since SwSh, the lack of those outlines really takes away from the designs - but look, this is just a personal take. I don't hate it, I just feel like something's missing.
I'd love to hear some other views on it, the above is by no means gospel, just some thoughts I found when I finished playing. Some satisfaction, but some disappointment in a big missed opportunity.

0. High level summary

I propose that fault lines may play a significant and under documented role in what is happening with UFOs and specifically the impact of fault lines on some number of UFO related crashes. I suspect energetic effects from fault lines and gravity effects from mass variances in fault lines (especially while active) impact UFO/NHI navigational systems. They may do things like routing around, or via, fault lines.

1. A new leaker: Dijkstra's algorithm and Diablo Canyon.

On May 13th, 2024, a claimed leaker on UFO/NHI related programs posted on /Aliens with details on their history with the "Program".

• Link.
• Archive link.

It's a huge volume of data but one very particular passage instantly stuck out to me:

"The craft use a system that originally befuddled generations of researchers, but it's essentially a 3D dijkstra algorithm. It finds points around the craft, and chooses the most efficient possible route through space time to get to that point. Some of the parameters it uses to gauge efficiency are totally unknown to us and are a serious point of contention. It's not autonomy, but rather obstacle avoidance not unlike what you would see in a self-driving car. But, the self driving car could go through air, space and water without worrying about what medium its in. Additionally, the algo accounts for the crafts place in time."

And then this surprising sentence shortly after:

"Although the algo is extremely effective, Nuclear explosions and experiments somehow interfere with this navigation. Craft particularly avoid Diablo Canyon, even if we put something they really want there."

So, this Dijkstra's algorithm and Diablo Canyon.
I can find not one single prior reference to this anywhere, ever, in all of Ufology prior to that Reddit post.
I think this is entirely new, or new to the Internet for UFO topics.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dijkstra%27s_algorithm

In a 3D version of Dijkstra's algorithm, the algorithm extends from two-dimensional plane navigation to three-dimensional environments, making it suitable for applications such as drone flight paths, underwater vehicle navigation, or spacecraft trajectory planning. The algorithm begins at a starting node, exploring all neighboring nodes and continuously updating the shortest known distances from the start to each node, considering all possible paths. By repeating this process until the destination node is reached, the algorithm ensures that the path with the minimal total distance or cost is selected, taking into account the complexities of moving through 3D space. So, we have the introduction of a known means of navigation, that does 4D (by inclusion of a temporal parameter) mapping in this model.
Then we have the inclusion of Diablo Canyon -- but there are six of these in North America. Three of these are very close to government sites.

• Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California (nuclear)
  • Nearest government: Vandenburg AFB, 35 miles south.
• Diablo Canyon, New Mexico
  • Los Alamos National Laboratory, 20 miles north.
• Diablo Canyon, Washington
  • Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, 70 miles northwest.
• Diablo Canyon, British Columbia, Canada
• Diablo Canyon, Utah
• Canyon Diablo, Arizona

Which could the leaker be talking about? And why is it interesting in the context of UFOs?
Why would a UFO avoid a canyon?

2. Energy fields, UFO navigation and "fault lines" in gravity.

There are numerous reports and stories of things like claimed lasers, directed energy weapons/fields, and even allegedly things like RADAR having some manner of detecable impact on navigational capabilities of UFOs/NHI craft. The lore is full of this topic over time, and it aligns substantially with the scientific backgrounds of people known to be involved, like Sean M. Kirkpatrick.
This caught my eye as I've been doing a lot of reading on certain much lesser-known effects of fault lines, after I learned that the home and neighborhood I lived in as a child, where a group of us saw a "saucer", was literally sat atop a small land mass completely encircled like an island by fault lines. This is not unique--there are others. But this was a wild surprise to me, and especially when the flight path of the ship we saw... once I saw the fault lines path/heading...
It was the same route. The thing we saw, once I saw the fault line maps... it was like looking at a snippet of a Google Maps route that the UFO took, for the duration of our experience seeing it. I did not know this for decades.
For the curious, the bread crumb that led down this path was not this whistleblower, fault lines, or my own experience. It was studying Lagrange Points.
What's a Lagrange point?
Positions in space where the gravitational forces of two large bodies, like Earth and the Moon, balance out the centripetal force felt by a smaller object, allowing it to remain in a stable position relative to the two larger bodies. Think of it like the mid-way point between any two bodies with mass that impact gravity. Earth/Jupiter. JupiteSun. Earth moon/Neptune. You/your cat. It's not a 50/50 thing; if you are and your cat are 10 feet away, it's not 5-foot between you. It's also impacted by gravity from other bodies within range (and range is infinite because gravity is, no matter how infinitesimal at long distances).
There is even conceptually such a place, even if it's trivial in variation, between galaxies.
Keep in mind: there are specifically named 3D mapped always-moving (as Earth/moon for example) always-in-motion Lagrange points for the Earth and Moon. Five total--but those are just the optimal ones. There would be a relative band of space where overall the gravity between bodies is more balanced.
Almost like a fault line in gravity, huh?
That, the fault line discovery related to my experience, and my (then) unrelated fault line research which was pure curiosity unrelated to UFOs... at first.

3. Piezoelectrics, Electrokinetics, and Gravitational anomalies.

So we have a new claimed 4D mapping/navigational tool by NHI UFOs, and that they go out of their way to avoid some "Diablo canyon" no matter what we do. We know definitively there are places where gravity can have relative weak spots, due to the balancing of gravitational waves/forces/mass between bodies. All bodies with mass produce gravity... including tectonic plates.
But that's not all they produce in terms of energy.
Fault lines can generate three different distinct effects beyond seismic (shaking/motion) impacts on the world.
They are:
Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
Stress-induced piezoelectric effects refer to the generation of electrical charges in certain crystalline materials, such as quartz, when mechanical stress is applied. These effects are caused by tectonic stress and strain in the Earth's crust, which deforms the crystalline structures, generating electric fields. At the surface, these effects can disrupt local power grids, cause voltage fluctuations, and affect sensitive electronic equipment. In the atmosphere, piezoelectric effects can lead to changes in the ionosphere, affecting radio signal propagation and GPS accuracy up to altitudes of around 600 km. In space, the impacts are typically observed as changes in ionospheric electron density, detected by satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), such as those at altitudes up to 1,200 km.
Additional reading:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piezoelectricity
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seismoelectrical_method

Electrokinetic Effects
Electrokinetic effects are electrical phenomena that occur when a fluid (such as groundwater) moves through a porous medium (like soil or rock) under the influence of a pressure gradient. These effects are caused by the movement of ionized fluids through the Earth's subsurface, which can be influenced by tectonic activity, fluid injection, or natural fluid migration. At the surface, electrokinetic effects can alter groundwater flow, impact water supply systems, and cause electrical disturbances in subsurface sensors. In the atmosphere, these effects are less direct but can influence humidity and ionization levels, which may affect weather radar and communication systems. In space, electrokinetic effects are typically not directly observed; however, related ionospheric disturbances from fluid movement in the Earth's crust can be detected by satellites at altitudes up to 1,200 km.
Additional reading:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetotellurics
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrokinetic_phenomena

Gravity Anomalies
Gravity anomalies are variations in the Earth's gravitational field caused by differences in the distribution of mass within the Earth. These anomalies are caused by subsurface geological structures such as mountains, valleys, fault lines, and varying rock densities. On the surface, gravity anomalies can affect precise geodetic measurements, influence surveying accuracy, and impact construction projects that rely on gravitational data. In the atmosphere, gravity anomalies can slightly influence the flight paths of aircraft and atmospheric satellites, but these effects are generally minimal. In space, gravity anomalies are detected by satellites like the GRACE mission at altitudes of around 500 km, affecting satellite orbit calculations and providing data on Earth's subsurface structures and water distribution.
Additional reading:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_anomaly
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouguer_anomaly
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-air_gravity_anomaly

4. The impact of fault lines on UFOs.

Disturbances related to stress-induced piezoelectric effects, electrokinetic effects, and gravity anomalies have been observed and recorded at various altitudes. Here are some notable examples across different categories:
A) Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects

• High-altitude Observations: Piezoelectric effects typically influence ground-based systems such as power grids and sensors. There is limited data on their direct impact at high altitudes. However, atmospheric electrical phenomena, such as changes in the ionosphere related to seismic activity, have been noted up to several hundred kilometers above the Earth's surface. These are often detected by satellites in low Earth orbit.

B) Electrokinetic Effects

• High-altitude Observations: Electrokinetic effects primarily affect subsurface and near-surface fluid dynamics. There is no significant evidence of direct electrokinetic phenomena being observed at high altitudes. However, related atmospheric effects, such as changes in humidity or ionization, can indirectly influence atmospheric layers.

C) Gravity Anomalies

• High-altitude Observations: Gravity anomalies have been detected at high altitudes, including by aircraft and satellites. Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites, for example, operate at altitudes of approximately 500 km and have provided detailed maps of gravity anomalies across the Earth.

Specific High-altitude Observations

1. Ionospheric Disturbances Related to Seismic Activity:
   
   • Altitude: Up to 600 km.
   • Impact: Changes in electron density in the ionosphere, detected by satellites.
2. Gravity Anomalies Detected by GRACE Satellites:
   
   • Altitude: Approximately 500 km.
   • Impact: Detailed mapping of Earth's gravity field, revealing variations due to tectonic and other geological processes.

Summary

• Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects: Up to ionospheric altitudes (~600 km) via indirect atmospheric electrical phenomena.
• Electrokinetic Effects: Primarily near-surface, with no significant direct high-altitude observations.
• Gravity Anomalies: Up to satellite altitudes (~500 km), with significant observations by GRACE and similar missions.

Reports say that the navigational apparatus of UFOs can be impacted by energy fields, implying this plays a role in their crashing. Similar claims revolved around electromagnetic fields.

5. Why would UFOs avoid "Diablo Canyon"?

We need to know which one it is. The most likely based on the intersection of fault lines; fault lines with impacts; and near proximity to notable UFO-related locations--Vandenburg and Los Alamos--leaves us with New Mexico and the nuclear power planet.
Here are all nearby relevant fault lines for each.
This section took a substantial amount of digging/cross referencing over weeks. I had begun this for a fiction/story idea that didn't pan out, and did not save the litany of sources I read. This is a summary.

A) Diablo Canyon Power Plant, California

• Hosgri Fault Zone

  • Location: Offshore, running parallel to the coast near the power plant.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Documented near Avila Beach and Montaña de Oro State Park.
    • Relative Strength: Moderate compared to other equivalent faults in California, such as the San Andreas Fault. The presence of quartz in the fault gouge enhances the piezoelectric effect, making it comparable to effects observed in the Garlock Fault.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: Recorded near Diablo Canyon Power Plant and Morro Bay.
    • Relative Strength: Comparable to electrokinetic effects seen in the Hayward Fault in California due to similar fluid movement dynamics.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Detected offshore near Point Buchon and Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
    • Relative Strength: Significant compared to other coastal fault zones, with variations similar to those found in the Cascadia Subduction Zone.

• San Andreas Fault

  • Location: Approximately 10 miles inland from the power plant at its closest point.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Parkfield, California and Hollister, California.
    • Relative Strength: High, as the San Andreas Fault is one of the most studied and active fault lines globally. The piezoelectric effects are significant and comparable to those seen in other major fault systems worldwide.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: San Juan Bautista, California and Carrizo Plain National Monument.
    • Relative Strength: Significant, due to extensive fluid movement and high seismic activity. Comparable to effects observed in the Wasatch Fault Zone.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Palmdale, California and San Bernardino, California.
    • Relative Strength: Very high, with anomalies providing critical insights into fault mechanics. Similar to those in the New Madrid Seismic Zone.

• Shoreline Fault

  • Location: Discovered in 2008, runs very close to the plant, offshore and parallel to the coastline.
  • Length: Approximately 25 miles.
  • Within 5 miles: The Shoreline Fault comes within 5 miles of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Nearshore areas close to Diablo Canyon Power Plant.
    • Relative Strength: Potential effects are moderate, with less documentation compared to major faults.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: Offshore areas near the power plant.
    • Relative Strength: Comparable to minor faults in coastal regions.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Offshore near Diablo Cove.
    • Relative Strength: Minor, indicating subtle density changes.

• Los Osos Fault

  • Location: Within 10 miles of the power plant.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Los Osos Valley.
    • Relative Strength: Minor compared to major faults but notable within the local context.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: Areas with significant groundwater flow near Los Osos.
    • Relative Strength: Comparable to small, groundwater-rich fault zones.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Los Osos Valley.
    • Relative Strength: Minor anomalies detected.

B) Diablo Canyon, New Mexico

• Embudo Fault

  • Location: Within 20 miles of Diablo Canyon.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Near Dixon and Pilar, New Mexico.
    • Relative Strength: Moderate compared to other faults in the Rio Grande Rift. Similar effects to those observed in the East African Rift.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: Near Embudo, New Mexico.
    • Relative Strength: Moderate, consistent with other active rift zones with significant groundwater interaction.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Near the town of Española, New Mexico.
    • Relative Strength: Significant, providing insight into the rift's complex tectonic structure. Comparable to anomalies in the Basin and Range Province.

• Pajarito Fault

  • Location: Within 20 miles of Diablo Canyon.
  • Stress-induced Piezoelectric Effects
    • Specific Locations: Near Los Alamos, New Mexico.
    • Relative Strength: High, due to active seismicity and the presence of stress.
  • Electrokinetic Effects
    • Specific Locations: Near White Rock, New Mexico.
    • Relative Strength: Significant, due to active groundwater flow in the region.
  • Gravity Anomalies
    • Specific Locations: Near Los Alamos National Laboratory.
    • Relative Strength: Notable, with detailed mapping providing insights into fault mechanics.

6. Conclusion

Simply, some variables on the navigational systems of the UFO craft which rely on precise 4-dimensional mapping for their navigational system, with implied near real time adjustments across all parameters, are negatively impacted by unexpected or significant enough to not be able to compensate for impacts from native Earth effects generated by tectonic plate actions, in specific key locations.
I'd often suspected if there was something like this related to the handful of known crashes, and them seeming to be concentrated in certain areas. With this leaker, we see another few possible pieces of a puzzle filling.
Are they legitimate? We obviously can't tell, today. But this new data sure does align with:

1. Reports of the USA trying to "bait" UFOs.
2. Reports of the USA utilizing nuclear facilities to this end.
3. UFO engagement with nuclear sites.
4. UFOs reportedly avoiding certain areas, not limited to prior crash locations.
5. UFOs reportedly being seen over time in the same places or repeated routes/locations.
6. The USA getting big into gravity research along these lines (gravity scanners for military).
7. Elizondo references to LIGO.
8. And more beyond, that I'm sure more of you can recite from memory than I could.

Maybe this has some part of the genesis of the mythology of ley lines, because ancient humans couldn't possibly on their own know all these things. Were they just energetically charged fault lines that had some manner of intersection over time with UFOs?
If anyone wants to run with this or research equivalent sites in other parts of the world and their intersection with UFOs/UAPs, this may be a worthwhile rabbit hole for pursuit.

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91 Hours After the First Round of Interloper Interrogations. UNAFS Perseverance. Hangar Bay.
Evina
The stage was set, and my game face was on. It had to be, especially with what Vir had concocted over the course of his sleepless night.
The realization that AI didn’t exactly… sleep, was something I’d expected. But I’d at least thought the sleepless downtime would be used for something remotely related to downtime, something like maintenance, server repairs, or just anything at least remotely related to a decrease in productivity if only to relax.
I certainly wasn’t expecting that downtime to result in the creation of a literal sci-fi arsenal that now sat there, waiting for me just in front of the shuttle.
“A gift, Evina.” The AI spoke, gesturing to what could only be described as a small procession of bots, carts, and self-navigating cargo containers; all of which kept Eslan’s curiosities at a constant all-time high as he walked around the collection of bots, his eyes enamored by every little detail of each and every one of them.
But it was what was inside and within the containers that sat atop of those autonomous machines which was what I was really interested in. Moreover, it was a particular outfit currently sitting there on top of a felinor mannequin that really drew most of my attention.
Though the term outfit would definitely be underselling it. As what was being offered to me now was something that could no longer be found anywhere else on the continent, save for the odd military bunker and of course, the books and iterative memories belonging to that of the pre-war world.
To put it simply, it resembled advanced police armor, or maybe even military. Though its sleek design, metal pieces, and thinner silhouette put me in mind more of the former than the latter.
More to the point, it seemed to be capable of being fitted atop of my regular gear, instead of requiring me to swap it out entirely; consisting of three distinct pieces that resembled a pair of pants, a jacket, and a helmet.
I took a moment to stare at it intently, analyzing every last detail of it, from its space-age aesthetics of shiny plastics to matte metal chrome, to its soft interior that seemed to be gel-lined with some weird jelly-like fluid.
Moreover, I seized the moment to tease Eslan, as I turned towards him, then Vir, in rapid succession. “I’m assuming the gift isn’t for Eslan, right?” I snickered, prompting the smaller felinor to pout in a fit of resentful jealousy.
“I can arrange one for him if you’d like.” The AI responded casually, as if hinting at the fact that this wasn’t a one-off project, that this wasn’t just something pulled from storage and simply tailored down to my size.
“Let me guess, you have an entire factory deep within the ship somewhere?” I asked, half sarcastic, and half serious, knowing full well the answer could go either way given the track record of everything else on the ship I’d seen so far.
“Right on the money there, Evina.” Vir responded with an electronic chirp, prompting me to re-evaluate both the ship’s unfathomable capabilities, and the two dorks that were in charge of it all.
Nevertheless, it would seem as if Eslan was excited by the prospect, as he began pulling the armor pieces off of the mannequin, examining the finer details before handing them off for me to wear.
“I’m assuming the gel-like internal padding is a sort of passive heat regulator?” The felinor asked.
“Yes, but more than that, it acts as a layer of thermal insulation against energy-based attacks that manage to penetrate the ceramo-reflective plating lining the outside of the armor. This version’s passive since I don’t think you’ll be encountering anything like that on the surface but…” The AI shrugged ominously. “It’s lightweight, comfy, and there’s also ballistic-weave and kinetic-resistant properties embedded in the fabric. Along with some kinetic resistance that’ll help stop projectiles in their tracks if they penetrate the outer layers and somehow manage to make it through to the gel. Think non-newtonian fluid.” The AI’s platform shrugged. “Anyways, I thought it’d be a good, light-weight, adaptable, no-frills all rounder you could keep even after the mission’s end.” The AI explained, prompting me to more or less double-down on my re-evaluation of its seemingly conflicting personality matrix.
Vir was… complicated. In a good way. Seemingly practical, level-headed, tactical, and terrifyingly efficient on one hand, but also very much personable, surprisingly relatable, and most reassuring of all… self-reflective to the point of empathy and benevolence.
My first iteration was practically working overdrive trying to make heads or tails of him.
But my current mind was simply occupied with getting the armor on, which was more or less straightforward.
It was, surprisingly, lightweight. Like wearing a trimmed-down flak jacket that hugged and tightened to your form. The pants were the same story, which only left the helmet that I was hesitant to try on given its roundish shape and tight squeeze.
I examined it, looking inside as I noticed two little indents marking the recesses where my ears could actually comfortably fit.
“I’ve taken the liberty of creating a few modifications to the human baseline design in order to accommodate for your alien anatomy. I learned this the hard way when Lysara first donned a human helmet. It was… not fun, to say the very least.” The AI managed out with a nervous chuckle.
The idea of Lysara’s frills being squished inside a round helmet with no room for that sensitive looking extension of his head sent shivers up my spine. But then again, this made me even more curious as to just what these humans looked like if they lacked frills, ears, or anything else adorning their heads.
“I’m guessing the human-baseline must be really boring then.” I managed out unexpectedly, garnering a cock of the AI’s head. “You know what I mean right? What with having just a round space to shove their heads into. No frills, ears, or anything.”
“Ah, well, I can definitely see where you’re coming from with that.” Vir chuckled in response. “But honestly their appearance is not a big secret or anything. I can just pull up a-”
“Ah! Good morning, Evina!” Lysara announced brightly, cutting Vir off mid sentence as he jumped down from the shuttle and back onto the hangar bay proper. “I’ve been doing some final checks just to make sure we’re ready to go. Sorry I didn’t come out to greet you earlier.” The alien paused just before reaching me however, as he looked me up and down, then smiled. “I see Vir has been up to his usual work.”
“Seems so.” I shrugged. “In any case, I’m feeling more ready than I was just a few minutes ago, which I didn’t think was even possible, so thanks, Vir.” I gave Vir another nod of appreciation, before turning back to Lysara. “We're good to go, then?”
“As ready as ever.” Lysara responded promptly, surprising me with his register slowly shifting more towards something normal, rather than being entirely pulled from a university thesaurus.
Maybe I was starting to rub off of whatever translation software he was using.
“In any case, I don’t think I’ll be using your toys for the time being, Vir.” I gestured towards the rows upon rows of black and chrome weapons alike. Most of them resembled somewhat traditional looking firearms, whilst others were more or less pulled from the pages of science fiction, what with their tapered ‘muzzles’, and raygun-looking grips. “And it’s that I don’t trust that they could do some damage. It’s just a safer bet if I went with what I know. It’s better to use a gun you’ve trained and lived with, than a new one you’ve just messed around with the night prior.” I smiled, more or less alluding to the small escapade the AI and I went on for a short hour after the dinner. “Though I do thank you kindly for the ammo for my revolver, I’d say it’ll be helpful but… I’d rather not say anything at all until we get to our destination.”
The AI responded with a simple sharp dip of his head. “Chemically-derived combustion sluggers are always a solid choice. I wish you all the best, and I hope you don’t end up having to use that gun. I’ll make sure my boys take good care of you and Lysara.”
With a final exchange of nods, Lysara and I strode off and into the shuttle.
But just as we reached the precipice, I turned back, if only to give Eslan a reassuring hug. “I’ll be back sooner than you expect. So don’t get bored now.” I offered, prompting the smaller felinor to grin widely.
“Oh don’t you worry about getting bored.” He gestured to the space around him. “I probably won’t even be done with this room by the time you’re back.”
“Just make sure to save some mysteries for me. Oh, and Vir?” I turned to Vir for a moment, garnering a small cock of his head.
“Yes, Evina?”
“Do make sure that you tire him out some with your explanations. I’d rather come back to a quiet bedroom to pass out in, rather than one with an excitable Eslan ready to chew my ear out with his latest discoveries on the ship’s deep lore.” I jokingly ordered, prompting Eslan to give me his signature side-eye.
Following a dumb smile of my own signaling our temporary goodbyes, I soon found myself back within the bowels of the shuttle. Except this time, the backramp cargo bay seemed to be chock-full of those heavy-duty combat bots I caught glimpses of back in the forests.
In fact, every corner of the shuttle’s cargo bay seemed to be crammed to the brim with one or another form of combat drone. From flying drones, to clusters of those smaller insect-drones, to what looked to be oversized spiders ready to drop from the ceiling at a moment’s notice.
The whole space seemed to be decked out for combat.
Which gave me a lot of confidence about the outcome of this mission.
Lysara and I didn’t say much as we both made our way towards the cockpit, strapped into our respective seats, and began the nausea-inducing flight out of the ship’s hangar bay, and down towards the planet.
A whole minute passed in absolute silence as I tried to steady myself for what was to come.
“So, let’s go over a few of the key details for this mission.” Lysara suddenly broke the silence, bringing up a top-down map of the forests, with the facility in question highlighted in orange. “We’re going to be landing in a clearing made by Vir.” The map shifted, highlighting a very conspicuous open clearing of trees and a charred forest floor that made it very clear something big had happened here very recently.
If I’d seen that place from the ground? I’d have probably cited that aliens did it.
Which, ironically, would’ve been more on the money than I could’ve ever thought possible.
“From there, we march through the open clearing made by Vir, with drones taking point, up and towards the facility.” The map shifted once more, highlighting yet another clearing that more or less formed a clean path towards the entrance of the bunker. “From there, I assume you know your role?”
“Yup, if my prior iterations come through on this one, I’ll open the facility door, and from there… We head inside, and see what’s what.” I responded.
“The drones will make the first move, we’ll have two squads proceed inside and ascertain if it’s safe to enter. After confirming that all hazards are within a tolerable margin of safety, we’ll proceed.”
“Understood.” I acknowledged with a heavy sigh, my eyes trained on the continent that now took up most of our cockpit view.
“Whatever happens, I know for a fact we’ll be safe as long as we play it safe.” Lysara tried filling the silence with his own brand of reassurance.
“I know. But it’s not so much the physical dangers I’m worried about.” I managed out, before pausing, as my eyes once more strayed towards the top-down view of the mission map. “It’s what we’re going to find inside the facility that worries me.”
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(Author’s Note: Evina gets a cool new outfit for her mission, Eslan is promised an entire day of having his sci fi interests satiated, and we're now on our way with Lysara down towards the signal station! The next chapter is already out on Patreon as well if you want to check it out!)
[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 96 of this story is already out on there!)]

I just genuinely failed a class and I'm freaking out about how I'm going to tell my parents.
I take college classes as a Junior, and at first, I was just taking the bare minimum to meet graduation requirements, which was a manageable course load for me. This semester my mental health totally just did a complete 180 and after a year of getting over an absolutely massive depressive episode, I'm literally back where I started. (Which is bad.)
I can really only get myself out of bed to shower every day, let alone find the motivation to actually try in school. Even my high school grades are on a steady decline. I went from having all As and a 3.9 first semester to Bs and Cs this semester.
I was wise enough to withdraw from the english and marketing courses I was taking at a local community college, but not enough to drop the government course I was taking. It was a fairly easy online course that I genuinely found very useful and interesting. Plus, there was only an assignment a day, so I assumed I could handle it.
I fell behind one week and just never picked it up again, and as much as I tried, I couldn't finish all the remaining course work in time to get an A. I missed an entire unit, resulting in a F. (Which I acknowledge is totally my fault.)
I honestly have no idea how to tell my parents. I didn't even tell them I withdrew from the english course I was taking, just the marketing one. My weighted GPA is currently a 3.5 because of the shitty Bs I got in my college courses first semester. My parents already have high expectations for me for academics, not to mention they're really the only thing I have going for me when it comes to applying to college, and even then—they're pretty average.
This entire situation is my fault and it's something I can't just get out of. The F is going to be on my record, it's going to tank my GPA even further, and I'm .5 credits behind. I don't know what to do anymore, I don't even have the energy to conjure up an excuse as to why I failed other than "I was sad," which my parents will not appreciate.
I really need some advice as to how I should bring this up with my parents. Do I just be honest? (Probably.) Should I even bother to mention the stupid depressive rut I'm in right now? I'm clueless and stressed about this.
tl;dr: i failed a class for the first time, it's a college course, i am now .5 credits behind, and i have no idea how to tell my parents i failed (and explain why) without them freaking out on me.
(I hope this is coherent ? lol. I'm on mobile and it's weirdly laggy. Please excuse any typos or grammatical errors 😖🙏 I also had no idea what to flair this under so I apologize for that too haha.)

I have always been a pretty big fan of the idea of lower taxes and all, but even I know that somethings just need to stop and reform is not only inevitable but needed and quick. Let’s take unions for example, unions are a good way to guarantee power to workers without giving them more than the company and keeping both parties even. See no one wants to see a union led by some extremely underweight and annoying person, someone who is uncompromising and genuinely believes they’re always right. Let’s take another example being the good old tax the billionaires argument, the idea of this is pretty simple billionaires should pay higher taxes and yes that’s pretty simple but you have no idea what you are talking about, no I do not have some idea that I may become a billionaire I have some idea of how economics work and you don’t. Let’s take another example, student loans, these are also a fairly simple argument, individuals can not pay back there student loans properly, you solution is to just have the government pay off the whole loan, anyone with half a brain understands that this would never fly in the government and if it did it would be met with hell from people who have payed there’s and didn’t take any out, and more simple examples is just fixing the situation at its heart, reforming the programs, stoping interest and reducing taxes temporarily for individuals paying it off, allowing the student loan crisis to slowly fix itself, a crisis which let me say could have been left alone.

TLDR uBPD Mum wrote her twin daughters a birthday poem but sent it twelve days late, full of innacuracies and with a request to visit one of them. The request is for a fictional exhibition in a specific date range. She forwarded her original message to the other twin without to editing out the visit request or making an attempt to cover the fact it was written for the first twin and sent to the other as an after thought.
Context A birthday poem sent to me an hour after it was sent to my twin sister. It was also 12 days after our actual birthday, neither of us heard from uBPD mum on the day (I've asked her not to contact me but she thinks that my sister & I are 1 entity so even though my sister is still in contact with her, mum treats her like she is not). My sister (Twin1) trained in fine art in the city she now works in. She is not currently making art so has no idea what exhibition uBPD mum refers to in the poem. I have marked lies/inaccuracies with an * I've asterisked the line about being a proud mum and gran because if she was so proud, why does she make no mention of wanting to see her 2 grand sons on this trip to the city to see my sister at her exhibition? She hasn't seen her grandsons in at least a year despite visiting near by their city in our small country twice last year. She didn't even tell my sister she was in the area until my sister phoned to wish uBPD mum happy birthday on her birthday February this year.
Poem
Twin1 and Twin2 38 today * That's just not possible no way Where has the time gone Times flies sadly that's so true Doesn't seem that long ago when Myself and Twin2 went to the zoo.
You were and are my sunshine of Hometown on Gala My beautiful twin daughters living in bonnie Hometown Bay A prouder mum I could not be how you both excelled and now you both have your own family You get to experience the love and joy like I had and still have as I reflect on my wonderful family tree When you hurried home excitedly to show all the things you had lovingly made for me
You were always caring and sharing Even at such a young age so helpful too. Remember girls I was on the phone to uBPD Gran When you flushed Twin2 nappy down the loo I was panic stricken and mortified when the neighbour below said it had flooded her too.
I loved my plants* .it was a not easy to maintain with two Mischieves monkeys who tipped them upside down . It was funny but I also did frown Before you knew it we were back to laughing and getting along Happy again and full of song
Love shack was your favourite tune I loved that song too you could sing it to the moon Love shack baby love shack Oh to hear you sing that song would bring It all right back
The time we all got such a fright Twin 1 When you accidentally bumped into a light Well lamp post * Out of the three of us who was startled the most?
You were fine ,you got a war wound scar Was it the left or right side I can't remember I think it was your right eye It was so long ago at the time you were very shy
Twin 2 walked into a gate * I was dumstruck only seconds too late* You got a scar on your eyes too By then I was beside myself and did not know what to do !
Almost in the space of a year You each have a scar by your eye Which side they are on your eye is unclear Now you parents yourself you know what I mean How quickly things can happen Even when your close by to the scene
Bless the wee lady above is in Hometown She used to shout girls you whoo seconds later it was raining milkyways all over you I could only chuckle when I realised I too Along with uBPD dister we went to our neighbour for our daily rations of sweeties too * And to this day I believe my mum never knew.
Remember when you got up early and Oh my you got hold of the butter I think I was in a flutter Butter in the rods of the Wendy house it was everywhere If I recall righghtly it was in your hair.
You used to trick people switching places * Sometimes you did trip up on your laces You tried to fool me but that was not so easy * However tricking your pals and strangers was easy peasy.*
The things you have done this uBPD Mum and gran could not be more proud of you You won a camera for your ambulance picture Twin2 you designed the school logo in highschool too Is there no end to your talents You both excelled and followed your career Which I never regretted not being able to As th minute I knew I was expecting I always prioritised you* and am a proud mum of twins with 5 wonderful grandchildren too*
The trips we went to beech and picnics with aunt The endless pictures are wonderful memories of happy times with you I still have her special multi coloured umbrella Where we often seemed shelter under it too
So many more memories this is some of them I just want to ask you Twin 1 can I come with my friend M or F and see your exhibition* city between 23 rd and 29 th Sept I love seeing all that you can do and have done
Your pictures in the cafe The story about wellies and where they travelled from faraway I believe it was Canada And you made a wellington cast Now it's a focal point for tourists and everyone to see.*
I often look at the screen you both made me made before I moved country All the gifts over the years cards and mementos each one speaks words to me When you gave me the picture and chair for my birthday .
That incredible exhibition in the gallery when you made a clear curtain and even there there is a story
I understand if you say no don't come .I hope and pray one day we will all Be together again surrounded by my family.Until that joyous day comes remember I carry love in my heart for you all eternally❤️