Hello, I have been a new resident in a foreign country for less than 2 years and my language skills are still quite basic, though I can mostly understand everything.
I have this one friend that I met when I arrived and that I never quit though we already had some big arguments and he made me mad and/or cry a few times. We basically meet a few times every week, sometimes every day and we’ve lived big moments together, we also traveled together to another continent, he stayed with my family...
The relationship has evolved from a situation where I would give and do everything for him without him doing much for me, to a situation where he proved on some occasions to help me and support me too. But I had to make him realize that.
When I meet him alone, everything is usually very great and makes me love this relationship and admire my friend more every time. We chose English as our normal conversation language as he wants to progress in English and it’s still more convenient for me.
When I meet him with any of his friends or family members, which most often I learn at the last minute, and didn’t choose, it can be a different story. Sometimes I feel totally excluded and I wonder what I’m doing here. I don’t know if I’m 100% at fault or if his behavior makes me an introvert. My most recent exemple is yesterday. He invited me to go pick him up and his cousin. From the beginning, he ignored me and didn’t do anything to include me and seemed to reject any of my attempts to get into whatever they where talking about. He would show funny pictures to his cousin, I’d try to take a look too but I would remain ignored. Conversations which are 100% in English between him and me, are only hold in his native language whenever there is anyone else. Whenever, I try to say something in his language, he doesn’t seem much interested in whatever I have to say. One of the worst moment I had to live yesterday was when he started playing online chess on his phone with his cousin as if I wasn’t even there. Later in the night, I decided to imitate their behavior and started playing UNO alone on my phone. Only for my friend to notice it and say to his cousin: let’s play chess again. As if everything was perfectly normal.
Much later, after hours, he started to notice that something seemed to be wrong and said: « oh you’re so silent tonight ». To which I replied: « you’re talking one to another about your topics, you’re playing together, what can I even say ». After this, he started chit-chatting with me and the night ended like this. But after everything that had happened before it seemed so fake.
So I know myself and I know that some situations can easily make me an introvert. But I don’t believe his behavior when other people are around, help me.
Something else that he often does is to shut me up to silence whenever I say something that’s about the future. For example, a few nights ago, we were talking about travel plans and hotel reservations, other guys were even looking on their phone for options and hotels. The minute I believed to have myself found something interesting, I didn’t even have time to say my full sentence that he shut me up and said: « oh it’s okay we have time hahaha ». A few days ago too, he was talking about going back with me to a pasta restaurant that he really liked and he was talking about maybe going there on Sunday. I replied: « maybe Monday would be better because you already need to go to this city for your appointment there ». He instantly replied to me: « maaaaan we have time, it’s not yet come on ». I couldn’t keep myself from replying: « I talked about this because you talked about this otherwise I wouldn’t have said anything » Even his cousin told him: « yes it’s true you talked about this first ».
So now I’m trying to understand what all of this is, because when im alone with him he’s acting in such a lovely manner but when other people around, it’s so different. It constantly makes me upset

Hello, everyone!
After almost 2 months of "distro hopping" I finally found a place where I feel like home, literally feel like it was made for me, every detail seems to be perfect...
I have been using linux mint for almost 3 years now, I used it for 90% of my activities (and I literally only had windows for gaming, specially for VR)...
After some time I realized that steam was actually available for linux and I started looking that many of my games were available for linux and actually native (probably like 20 to 30% of them), I thought it would be nice to transfer my Linux into a bigger SSD, so I could split the games for linux in one SSD and the ones for Windows into another one...
Then I saw this little option in steam linux called: "make all games available" and I was surprised that I could actually run many of them, although I had no hope on running most of the games, I thought to myself it would be impossible to find a compatibility layer that made modern games work in Linux...
Eventually I noticed another little thing called "Proton" and saw that I can choose in the compatibility options multiple proton options, I saw that a huge amount of my games would run pretty well!
Afterwards, I tried enabling proton for some regular Linux-available games (like Cyberpunk 2077 and Howarts Legacy) that didn't run super well in regular linux (there was like stuttering or framerate drops, I couldn't really tell), but with Proton they would run even better than in Windows, it was amazing to see that!
Then I learned about two additional great applications: lutris and bottles (this was mostly because I had just installed 7th Heaven in Windows -The mod manager that can make the Classic Final Fantasy VII game look and feel absolutely stunning- and I wanted to give it a go in my Linux Mint), I followed an old tutorial on how to install the mod manager and I saw bottles, then I realized that there was another tool similar called Lutris (which was much better IMO, and it's my goto for any non steam game, specially for abandonware games, and it surprisingly runs games from like 20-30 years ago!)... I would use bottles mostly for mod managers and old puzzle games that I wanted to have in a single prefix (by the way, thanks to these two mod managers, I understood a lot about the world of prefixes and I was fascinated by it! With steam I never noticed this and with regular wine I had no idea how things worked, discovering Windows prefixes was like finding a brand new world!).
Later on, after having most of my games working on my Linux mint, I tried to run & make work every single possible "tricky" game, old and new (one example is paraworld, which literally took me an Hex modifier to make it work because of some weird port configuration, lol, that one would work in Linux, some other examples were games with the Easy Anti Cheat) and eventually made every single one of my games I tried to work (in total probably 200)...
However, the very last thing that was missing was to be able to play my VR games, and it was solely the reason to keep Windows in another partition (I was dumb enough to upgrade my windows 10 to 11, unfortunately), I started to look into the possibility on running a VR device on linux and discovered that the valve index was compatible with Linux, so, I thought in selling my HP Reverb G2, but because of it, I realized that Windows would actually TERMINATE COMPATIBILITY WITH WINDOWS MEDIA REALITY DEVICES AND DISABLE THE APPLICATION FOREVER! It was unreal for me, the worst kind of move I've ever seen in a corporation, even worse than Ubisoft taking away games you paid for, because this was a full fledged electronic device of hundreds (and in some cases thousands) of dollars...
At the same time, I made a post on reddit asking about VR in Linux and someone gave me some great advice about it and sent me a discord server link: "Linux VR Adventures", there I started to get into the rabbit hole about the VR possibilities in Linux, I statred looking for a great step by step tutorial to install Monado with Windows Mixed reality devices: I followed the tutorial and I succeeded! My linux Mint was able to use my VR headset as a display (and it can play properly VR 180 degree videos properly!).
However, that would only be the first part of the process: The second and hardest part would be to create a compatibility layer to either enhance or replace SteamVR itself (because, for some reason, SteamVR for Linux has a bug that closes the VR options and when they open again it says something like: "disabled Monado driver because on the last attempt, the application crashed", and I could never solve that problem, no matter what...
From the advice of my fellow reddit user as well, I tried to install Envision, which would be the tool to fix such problem by replacing SteamVR, but it was no use, this would be my first stopper in my Linux journey: unfortunately Envision required either Ubuntu 23 (The latest version of Mint is based on Ubuntu 22) or other more up to date kernel (i.e. latest arch or fedora), I spent probably the whole night trying to make envision work by compiling manually & installing dozens of packages because some dependency libraries required certain version of another and they piled up until the point I had to go to a very low level...
After all of that, I finally made envision work but when trying to create my VR profile, it showed me a weird error about my VR headset that I could never sort out, it was very frustrating but I knew it was time to give up and try something new...
So, what I did is to install Arch to replace Windows for good, it was probably one of the best decisions of my life, I would get rid of Windows forever, after 25 years or so using it, would be a semi-radical change, but I knew it was time: VR used to be the only reason to cling to them but if Windows was going to get rid of its flagship app & brick its devices, it had to go! (Plus I started to look about the multiple controversies about Windows 11 like the ads in the start menu and more recently the issue about Bitlocker, I have hated Windows & Microsoft for the better part of my life as well), it was simply time for a change!
After a couple hours I managed to install Arch and it was surprisingly great! I installed it alongside KDE Plasma 6 and I was astonished on how beautiful it looked and how many desktop effects, cursors, themes, login greeters, etc., I could use, it was my first time using KDE after only using Cinnamon and Gnome...
Then I tried installing steam on my Arch and everything ran very smoothly, I think I installed a couple of libraries but it was almost plug and play, games felt even running better than in Mint! However, Arch had a few issues that I couldn't ignore: the first one was an audio driver bug: I couldn't sort it out and my optical output wouldn't work (I didn't bother to fix it that much because I still had mint when I needed to use my optical output); the second issue wasn't much of an Arch's problem but it kinda turned me down: sddm and its multiple problems in the login greeters (I installed a few of them and when I tried to login the next time I had a black screen for no reason, the only way to login back was to login in mint and modify manually the config files for sddm in another partition, and then someone in reddit gave advice on how to start kde plasma without sddm and voila! it worked, only a singular sddm theme worked in the end but I was content with it). And the third and most important issue for me: a bunch of things that I needed to install manually that I already took for granted: a folder browser, a folder compression file, a text editor, etc. (I know the general purpose of Arch is to be as minimalist and customizable as possible, but for me it was a bit tedious, specially adding the right click actions in the config files for some apps, it made things unecessarily complicated for my liking)...
Eventually I got a barebones gaming laptop and I asked in reddit if it would be better to install either Fedora or Debian for gaming: most people recommended me Fedora and I got excited about it: I installed the Fedora Workstation edition and it worked like a charm in everything! Fedora would be specially useful for me because I'm a developer and I've seen everywhere that this is probably the best System for Developers (and I also noticed that it has the best compatibility with some technologies like Oracle, which would be great, because I was never able to install Oracle in my linux mint, I worked mostly with .NET, Angular and I would start with python and Docker as well)...
However, I liked both, Fedora and KDE so much that I wanted to see if I could get Fedora AND KDE in my main computer, I made a hard decision on replacing Arch for the Fedora 40 KDE version, and I was very excited to look into it!
BUT, there were a number of issues I experienced with this new Fedora KDE: the first one was that the KDE effects (one of the main reasons I chose this particular system) were kinda broken, sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't, they were like slower than in arch and had some of the options disabled (like the little colors you can use in the hexagon "burn my window" effect to open and close windows), and in general it felt slower than Arch, sddm didn't work either, I didn't know if it was because Fedora 40 just came a few days ago and KDE Plasma 6 wasn't fully compatible yet or what happened, but I was willing to accept this, as long as my games worked...
The second and most important issue is that I couldn't make most of my steam games to work I tried to look what I was missing, I installed ProtonUpQt and a bunch of libraries but it was no use, something was wrong but I couldn't pinpoint what was it...
Then I remembered that in the reddit post I made, someone recommended me Nobara (because it was a Fedora Fork, mostly adapted for gaming, developed by Mr. Glorious Eggroll himself, with everything out of the box to make it plug and play for games) and I decided to give it a go...
After making the live cd, I noticed that KDE worked much better (I think the latest version of Nobara still uses Fedora 39 & Plasma KDE 5 but because of that it's a bit more stable?), I installed it into my system and started customizing everything like crazy! I also tried sddm and it also failed, however, it at least allowed me to login from a black screen (rather than not allowing me a login, like in Arch), I decided to ditch sddm in favor of LightDM and it was probably for the best, since I've used LightDM in Mint for years and I knew exactly how to configure and customize it, and it never broke!
After adapting the system to my liking, I noticed that everything I would want is already installed: a good web browser, ProtonUpQt, Steam, Lutris, there's even a tool for Xbox controller drivers, it was crazy to me to see all of this, plus everything on top of a Fedora system that would allow me to work on my software development projects.
Then the real final test would come: how good does it run steam games? I tried at least 50 of my most recent games and all of them ran flawlessly! I didn't have to install anything, all came up first try, no issues! The next step would be to see if Lutris still ran the games that I could run in Mint and: it did: I copied every prefix that I have in Mint to my Nobara Lutris and they worked the exact same way! Everything looked perfect!
The Very last step would be to immerse myself into the VR world that I still left pending, however, I haven't tried the VR installation steps yet but I was able to download & run the AppImage of envision and run it (unlike mint, where I had to compile it manually, not without the nightmare of compiling & updating all the dependencies as well)... I looked that open composite was another possibility for this and I would try either of them alongside Monado eventually (I haven't done it yet because I had to travel but once I'm back, I'll 100% do it!).
At this point I'm mostly convinced about replacing Mint for good and take advantage of all my hard drives: I have Nobara in a 1tb nvme m2 and mint in a 4tb regular SATA ssd, I could use that mint drive as an additional ssd for games or something, it doesn't make so much sense to have a dual boot of systems that do mostly the same (Nobara being the superior one in multiple ways, of course), I was willing to have Arch dual booted with Mint because Arch had better compatibility with VR but for me it was very hard to think about Arch as my main and only system, for all the issues that I mentioned before), but now I definitely found a place where I want to stay, a place I can call home, and I feel very excited for having this great system and the future things I'll do in it!

Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice on a complex insurance situation involving my condo and a toilet overflow incident from my neighbor. I really don't understand insurance very much at all, but here’s the overview from what I understand what's happening:
Incident:

• A toilet overflow caused damage to a neighboring unit, some common areas, and my unit.

Assessment:

• The total damage exceeds $10,000. My neighbor's work cost $15K
• My unit’s flooring alone is estimated at around $10,000.

Insurance Coverage:

• Travelers (neighbor's insurance): The adjuster has offered a partial payment of $6,477.44 for my unit's flooring damage, which they say is up to the building’s $10,000 deductible.
• Association’s Master Policy: Since the total damage exceeds $10,000, the property manager says the building’s insurance should cover the rest. The property manager mentioned that each unit owner has their own deductible and prefers to handle my expenses through the building’s carrier.

Current Situation:

• The property manager suggests being reimbursed up to the deductible for building-related items (excluding my expenses) and handling the rest through the building’s insurance carrier.
• The adjuster from Travelers has offered to pay me $6,477.44 and recommends filing a claim through the Association’s master policy for the rest.

Additional Context:

• I have not informed my own insurance about the damage out of fear of increasing my rates.

My Questions:

1. Does this process sound normal for condo insurance claims?
2. Should I accept the $6,477.44 payment from Travelers now, or would it be better to go through the building's insurance policy?
3. What are the potential pros and cons of each option?

Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Y’all, I’m really not sure what’s still around. This list is somewhat edited, but please still make sure to check on all the regular events before you make big plans – I may have missed something.
Events are listed by the day. Events that happen every week appear first, one time stuff after that. If you have anything you’d like people to know about, comment here or message me and I’ll add it in. If you’d like further info about any of the events, look it up! I usually don’t have any extra to add.
Large Scale, Ongoing, and Multi-Day Events

Local Running, Walking, and Biking Info: https://troubleafoot.blogspot.com/
Guided Paddling Outings all around the area: https://www.facebook.com/hsmithoutdoors
Tallahassee Film Society Showings: https://www.tallahasseefilms.com/tickets/
Book Clubs for all tastes: https://www.facebook.com/midtownreadeevents
Live Theater:

• Making Light Productions: https://www.makinglightproductions.org/
  
• Theatre Tallahassee: https://theatretallahassee.org/
  
• Mickee Faust Club: https://www.mickeefaust.com/
  
• Monticello Opera House: https://www.monticellooperahouse.org/
  
• FSU School of Theatre: https://theatre.fsu.edu/productions/
  
• Young Actors Theatre: https://www.youngactorstheatre.com/
  
• Quincy Music Theatre: https://quincymusictheatre.com/
  
• Tallahassee Hispanic Theater: https://tallahasseehispanictheater.wordpress.com/
  

OutdooFarmer’s Markets:

• Lake Ella Grower's Market: Wednesday and Saturday, 11am-2pm. You can always find organic vendors, and foragers: The Holistic Cannabis Community, Artzi Farms, Hickory Nut Gifts, and others. Including Pita Queen! Farmer's Market Nutrition Program Coupons gladly accepted!
  
• Tallahassee Downtown Market: Saturdays, 10am-2pm, Park Ave Parks. Vendors display their arts and fine crafts, jewelry, handmade soap, pottery, Fresh from Florida produce, hand-raised beef and pork, fresh baked bread, jams and jellies, and honey. Live music from different local musicians every Saturday.
  
• Frenchtown Heritage Market: 524 N MLK Jr Blvd. Third Saturday of the month 10am to 2pm. Come grow community and support your local farmers and makers, while you get your groceries for the week! Don’t forget! We match SNAP/EBT, so you DOUBLE your money to go towards locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables! If the guy with the pineapple is there, get it. This is currently only happening on the third Saturday of the month for the next few months while road work is completed.
  
• Tallahassee Farmers Market: 2904 Kerry Forest Pkwy, Saturdays, 8am to Noon. Come see us at Tallahassee's longest-running farmers market! We are a year-round market, featuring local farms and vendors that provide the best seasonal produce, meats, baked goods, and more. We welcome you and your whole family (leashed pets included) to come out and meet your local farmers! Ample parking is available between our lot and the shopping center lot next door (by Red Elephant). Come early for the best selection.
  

THURSDAY, 5/16

• The Hub at Feather Oaks: Bingo. 6pm
  
• Dreamland BBQ: Weekly Open Blues Jam. If you'd like to sing, please bring your own mic. 6pm
  
• Honest Living Vape: Chess-Master Thursdays . Beginners and experts, join us every Thursday from 6-9 for Chess-Master Thursdays. All ages. Bring your board or play ours! Tournaments coming soon! 6pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Takko Market Square: Bingo Night. 7pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Karaoke with Jared Walker. 7pm
  
• Amicus Brewing: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Smitty's Taphouse: Trivia Lab Thursdays. Teams of 6 or fewer players can compete for $30 / $20 / $10 Prizes + The Golden MacGuffin prize table! New format! Interactive smartphone answering for your comfort and safety! 6 Fun Rounds - 42 Total Questions. 7:30pm
  
• Studio D: Bachata Fever. We always have a bachata workshop at 8 pm before Bachata Fever. We dance afterwards to the sounds of DJ Bacharod. The class is at 8 pm and Bachata Fever will start at 930 pm. Many times people are learning in class and may feel uncomfortable social dancing while they are still learning moves. We have a welcoming environment so stay and have fun and dance with everyone. That is how we learn. 8pm/Class $5/Bachata Fever $5.
  
• The Sound Bar: Comedy Night. 8pm
  
• Finnegans Wake: Open Mic. 8:30pm
  
• Brass Tap in Midtown: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm
  
• 926: Karaoke. 9pm
  
• Bird’s: Karaoke with Nathan. 9pm
  

• Fire Bettys: Slasher Bash. This week we'll be showing: "Zombeavers". Prepare for an evening of horrific hilarity with comedy narration and devilish drinking games!🍻 Hosted by local comedians. 8pm/21+
  
• Blue Tavern: Seep's Gumbo Nation ft. Shanice Richards. 8pm
  

FRIDAY, 5/17

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour with Steve Malono. 5pm
  
• Lake Tribe Brewing: Flannel Fridays with Live Music. 6pm
  
• Hobbit West: Friday Night Dart Tournament. Anyone can Enter! Sign ups at 7:30, Darts fly at 8:00/$10 entry fee
  
• Ouzts Too: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 8pm
  
• Just One More: Karaoke with DJ Rah. 9pm-11pm/21+
  
• 926: The Hot Friday Night Party and Drag Show. 9pm/$5/18+
  

• The Hub at Feather Oaks: Rachel Hillman. 5:30pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Ben Wentworth. 5:30pm
  
• Amicus Brewing: The Tanglers. 6pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: One Year Anniversary Celebration Featuring Queen of Hearts Band. 6pm
  
• Southwood Golf Club: The Rhythm Remedy. 6:30pm
  
• Goodwood: The Big Bash Havana Nights presented by Brent Hartsfield. The Big Bash is Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Big Bend's signature fundraising gala of the year and directly supports the agency's youth mentoring programs. Guests will enjoy Cuban Cuisine, champagne mojitos, cigars, flights, classic cars, photo opportunities, silent auction vacation packages, LIVE music and dancing, and an exciting LIVE salsa dance performance from 12 community volunteers! The event is a tremendous networking opportunity for Tallahassee's top business professionals, local community leaders and philanthropists to come together to enjoy an evening to celebrate the achievements of Big Brothers Big Sisters. 7pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Wil Fulkerson Jazz Night. 8pm
  
• House of Music: Belly Dancing: Journey From The Nile To The Tigris. Habibi, join us on a groovy carpet ride across ancient deserts: Disco Iskandar embarks on a voyage of belly dance, folklore, cinema, and history in a theatrical dance production, JOURNEY FROM THE NILE TO THE TIGRIS. Highlighting the prominence of belly dance in films of the Middle East from the 1940s through the 1970s, we present a live showcase exhibiting dances from Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, and beyond. It goes so much deeper than you think. Hookahs! Swords! Rhinestones, literally everywhere! This cross section of entertainment and education is the culmination of years of obsessive learning, two national tours, and travels to Egypt & Lebanon. JOURNEY FROM THE NILE TO THE TIGRIS is a trip unlike any other-- where the Middle East meets Vegas. This show’s cast is Gabi Corazon, Gia Bee, Liz Azi, Olya Clark, Vania Ojeda, director Veronica Lynn, and special guest star Omaris! 8pm/$15/21+
  
• The Sound Bar: The Old Schoolers. 8pm
  
• Vino Beano: Your Scumbag Neighbors. 8pm
  
• The Bark: Medians, No Yeah, Sleep John B, and Cloud Storage. 8pm
  

SATURDAY, 5/18

• Brinkley Glen Park: Invasive Plant Removal. Join Master Gardener Volunteers at this weekly invasive plant removal event. This is a great way to learn to ID our invasive plant species and how to remove them. We recommend wearing long pants and sleeves, closed-toed shoes, gloves, a hat and mosquito spray. Bring gardening tools such as hand clippers, loppers, trowels, etc. if you have them. We are removing coral ardisia bushes and berries, nandina, tung trees, Tradescantia flumenensis, cat's claw vine, winged yam, Japanese climbing fern, skunkvine and more. Directions: The best way to get there is to take Meridian Rd to Waverly Rd, go to the next intersection and turn left onto Abbotsford Way, then turn left at the next road called Woodside Dr. At the stop sign turn left onto Lothian. Lothian ends in a cul-de-sac and there is a sign that says Brinkley Glen Park. 8:30am-11:30am
  
• Gamescape: Saturday Gaming. Gamescape has relocated from Railroad Square to the Huntington Oaks Plaza (Suite 302, next to the Library) at N Monroe St and Fred George Rd. Open gaming tables are available. Noon-6pm
  
• Duke’s and Dottie’s: Line Dancing Plus Lessons. 7pm/21+
  
• Bird’s Oyster Shack: Laughterday Night Fever. * Join us every Saturday at Bird's Aphrodisiac Oyster Shack for a free comedy show!* 8:30pm
  
• 926: Latin Night. Dance to the irresistible beats of Zeus and prepare to be dazzled by a spectacular drag show at midnight. It's more than a party, it's an experience. 9:30pm/$10 21+, $15 under 21
  

• Crawfordville: Big Bend Biodiversity Tour. See why our area is so ecologically incredible! Get up close and personal with creatures and plants galore. Join expert guide and outdoor educator, Ryan Means for this limited opportunity to tour the Apalachicola Lowlands Preserve. The day-long trip stops at points along the way to the privately-owned preserve nestled deep in the Apalachicola National Forest near Sumatra, FL. Explore the longleaf pine ecosystem, pitcher plant bogs, ephemeral wetlands, and blackwater streams - home to some threatened and endangered species. Learn what makes the Florida Panhandle one of the five richest biodiversity hotspots in North America. Perfect tour for photographers, outdoor enthusiasts and ecologists. $75 tour fee includes round-trip transportation (from 46 Kinsey Rd, Crawfordville, FL) , complimentary beverages, and supports efforts to preserve the incredible biodiversity of the Southeastern Coastal Plain. Spaces limited. Register here: https://coastalplains.networkforgood.com/events/71083-big-bend-biodiversity-tour for full details. 8am
  
• Dreamland BBQ: Rock Type One to None. Let's rock to find a cure for Type 1 Diabetes! The Unicorn Wranglers are back on Saturday, May 18th at Dreamland BBQ in Tallahassee, Florida for the 2024 "Rock One to None" show. This show is benefiting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Fund (JDRF) and will feature musical guests Midnight Caravan, Fallen Timber, and the Unicorn Wranglers. The show starts at 4 pm and runs until 7 pm at Dreamland BBQ in Music Alley, and is open to all ages. While the show is free, we encourage all rockers attending to donate to the cause. You can contribute at the show by visiting our donation station or by heading over to our online Unicorn Wranglers team page. Together, as one big mosh pit, we can help cure Type 1 Diabetes. 3pm
  
• The Hub at Feather Oaks: Ethan Kyllonen. 4pm
  
• Amicus Brewing: Beza Alford and Rev. Dr. Sheldon Steen. 5pm
  
• Lake Tribe: Flamingo Party. 6pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Billy Rigsby Band. 6pm
  
• Vino Beano: Brett & "Dangerous" Dave. 6pm
  
• Salty Dawg: Hot Mess. 6:30pm
  
• La Tiendita: Rhys Bennett & the Gringos as Vontade. Join us for an energetic evening filled with the vibrant sounds of Latin music, Brazilian beats, and jazz rhythms. Our local band, Rhys Bennett & the Gringos, will transform into the versatile ensemble Vontade, treating you to a delightful mix of rancheras, bossa nova, and more! Whether you're a seasoned dancer or a newcomer to the dance floor, you're in for a fantastic time at one of Tallahassee's hidden gems. Immerse yourself in a night of cultural fusion and musical celebration that is sure to create lasting memories! 6:30pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Tillman & Taff. 7pm
  
• Island Wings: Midnight Caravan. 7pm
  
• The Bark: Saturnalia, Brass Wizard, Van Season, and Psycho Tropical. 8pm
  
• Fire Bettys: 80's Video Dance Party. 8pm
  
• Just One More: One Eyed JAK. 9pm
  

SUNDAY, 5/19

• Bicycle House: Sunday Ride. Ride at 10:30 AM from Bicycle House. We will ride the Cascades trail to the St Marks trail and down to Wakulla station and return, about 31 miles. Ride speed is 12 to 14 mph, with periodic regroups. Vernon Bailey is the ride leader. Vernon is a new CCC member who’s been biking for 50 years enjoys riding with small groups and weekend touring. 10am
  
• E Peck Greene Park (Behind the LeRoy Collins Library): Food Not Bombs Free Mealshare. We offer free vegetarian/vegan food, water, coffee, personal care & hygiene products, bus passes, and clothing when we have some available to those in need. Contact foodnotbombstally@gmail.com to find out about getting involved. Noon-2pm
  
• LeRoy Collins Library: Tallahassee Go Club Meetings. Come play the captivating ancient game of Go, also known as Baduk, with some friendly games and discussions. Beginners welcome. Visit https://www.tallahasseegoclub.com for more information. 1pm
  
• Gamescape: Pokémon League. Come learn, play, and trade with the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the Pokémon video games! We LOVE seeing new players, so come learn how to play! We play both the Trading Card Game and the Video Game casually and competitively. The store offers lots of different seating arrangements to meet our group's needs, as well as food, drinks, and Pokémon products for purchase. We are also hold regular, officially sanctioned tournaments for Pokémon Trading Card Game and Video Game Competitions! 2-4pm
  
• The Plant: Open Jam. All instruments, all players welcome. 4pm-9pm
  
• Pedro’s: Mariachi Clasico. 6pm
  
• Fermentation Lounge: Open Mic Night Hosted by Conor Churchill. 7pm
  

• Ology Powermill: Marauders Market. Noon
  
• The Hub at Feather Oaks: The Barber Bros. 1pm-4pm
  
• Goodwood: Ice Cream Social. Get ready for a spectacular day of family fun at Goodwood Museum & Gardens! Treat your taste buds to a family fun day of FREE ice cream, FREE crafts for the kids, FREE activities, and more, all on the beautiful Goodwood grounds. Family-friendly musical entertainment will be provided by The Safari Man, who will have everyone tapping their feet and dancing along to his whimsical tunes. 1pm
  
• Common Ground Books: Contemporary Queer Poetry Book Club: Time is a Mother. This month, we’ll be reading “Time is a Mother” by Ocean Vuong. “In this deeply intimate second poetry collection, Ocean Vuong searches for life among the aftershocks of his mother's death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. Vivid, brave and propulsive, Vuong's poems contend with personal loss, the meaning of family, and the value of joy in a perennially fractured American spirit. The author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, winner of the 2016 Whiting Award, the 2017 T. S. Eliot Prize and a 2019 MacArthur fellow, Vuong writes directly to our humanity without losing sight of the current moment. Bold and prescient, and a testament to tenderness in the face of violence, Time is a Mother is a return and a forging-forth all at once.” 6pm
  

MONDAY, 5/20

• Just One More: Bingo. 5pm-6:30pm
  
• The Getaway Grille and Bar: Margarita Monday, Open-Mic Night hosted by The Saltwater Cowboy. 5:30pm-8pm
  
• American Legion Hall: Cha Cha - Weekly Lessons. 6:15pm/$5
  
• Hangar 38: Bingo. 6:45pm
  
• Vino Beano: Tipsy Trivia. 7pm
  

TUESDAY, 5/21

• Blue Tavern: Happy Hour. 5pm
  
• The Getaway Grille: Tuesday Night Bikes and Trikes. 6pm
  
• Crafty Crab: BOOMIN' Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Gamescape: Hobby Night. Slay the grey together! Join your fellow gamers and turn your pile of grey miniatures into a battle ready army. Need some painting tips? Feel free to ask at hobby night. You can bring any miniature for any game to paint. 7pm
  
• Ology Midtown: Jazz Jam Sessions. 7pm
  
• Island Wings: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Brass Tap in Midtown: Trivia. 1st Tuesday of the month is General Knowledge with rotating themes the rest of the month. 7pm
  
• House of Music: Tuesday Trivia & Karaoke. 7pm
  
• American Legion Hall: Tallahassee Swing Band Tuesday Night Dance. 7:30pm
  
• Fire Bettys: Comedy Night. 8pm
  
• Poor Pauls: Trivia. 8pm/21+
  
• Blue Tavern: Bluesday Tuesday with Bill Ricci. Every Tuesday is Blues Day @ the Blue Tavern and Blues Meets Girl is a Tallahassee favorite. This perfect, intimate venue provides just what you need for both a mid-week break and authentic blues music experience. 8pm/$5
  
• 4th Quarter: Professor Jim's Tuesday Night Trivia. Popular for a reason! 8pm
  
• Argonaut Coffee: Trivia Tuesday. 8pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Karaoke. 8pm
  
• Fire Betty’s: Open Mic Comedy Night. 8pm/21+
  
• 926: Tacos and Trivia. 9pm
  

• Tallahassee Junior Museum: Basic Blacksmith Skills Program. Light your curiosity at our upcoming Basic Blacksmith Skills Program! Join our resident blacksmith, Michael Murphy, as he shares his history of being a Smitty. Participants will be able to keep the fire going, sling a hammer, and throw knives during this two hour lecture program. This is an outdoor event. Must preregister online at tallahasseemuseum.org/events. This program is free for members and regular admission price for non-members. 10am

WEDNESDAY, 5/22

• Sugar and Spice Tally: Game Night. Join us every Wednesday Night for community game night. Bring your own or use ours! Let me know if you need to reserve space for a large group. Free to attend! 5pm
  
• Goodwood: Wonderful Wednesday. 6pm/$5
  
• Level 8 Rooftop Lounge: Trivia. 6pm
  
• La Florida Coffee & Wine: Trivia Night. 6pm
  
• The Great Games Library: Open Game Night. 6pm/free
  
• American Legion Hall: Sue Boyd Country Western and More Dance Class. Session 2 - Beginner 6:30 to 7:45 pm What: East Coast Swing and Waltz. Cost: $8.00 per person. Wear comfortable shoes you can turn in. 7:45 to 8:15 - Practice dance with paid admission. 8:15 to 9:30: Intermediate - 2 Step and WCS. $8.00 per person or $13.00 for both classes. Vaccines are required. Face masks are optional. Changing partners is optional. 6:30pm
  
• Perry Lynn’s Smokehouse in Quincy: Wed Night Open Mic w/ Steven Ritter and Friends. 6:30pm
  
• Hangar 38: Trivia. 6:45pm
  
• Proof: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Vino Beano: Wine Bingo. 7pm
  
• Fermentation Lounge: Trivia. 7pm
  
• Blue Tavern: Wednesday Open Mic with Doc Russell. The open mic night that has run continuously for almost 20 years, once housed at the Warehouse, lives on at the Blue Tavern. Doc Russell continues as the host with the most. Sign up starts at 7:45pm/free to attend
  
• House of Music: Bar Bingo! Free to Play & Late Night Karaoke. 7pm
  
• Fire Betty’s: Karaoke! 8pm/21+/free
  
• Dukes and Dotties: College Night and Line Dancing Lessons. 8pm
  
• Finnegans Wake: Trivia. 8pm
  
• The Sound Bar: Open Mic Night. 8pm
  
• The Bark: Karaoke with DJ Nathan. Best karaoke DJ in town. 9pm
  
• Peppers: Karaoke. 9pm
  
• 926: Dragged Out Wednesday. 10pm
  

Ciao Gang

It’s been a few weeks – IM Texas is done and dusted. As one would expect, I’m fully recovered. Not quite, but ouais yeah here goes my race recap
Swim – 1:22:05
T1 – 00:08:29
Bike – 6:51:34
T2 – 00:08:29 (exact same lol)
Run – 6:22:40
~Background Info~
Very sporty and athletic 26 year old who weighs give or take 185 lbs on any given day. Have run two 70.3’s with generally good and comfortable results. Have ran like a dozen marathons and all-around active person. Fitness is “in” right now so I keep busy ya hear
Socially… I stopped drinking two months before the race (varied 5-30 drinks a week before though…). Never changed my diet at all leading up to the race
~Prep~
This area can get a little complicated – I was scheduled to run IM Texas in 2023, but my so called best friend decided to snap my leg (compound fracture of my tibia and fibula) (very wicked) in half while playing soccer 3 months before race day. So after surgery, one month without standing really, one month using crutches, one month using a cane, endless $$$ spent at physical therapy medical bills etc. I find myself in July of 2023 more or less ready to start training again for IM 2024. I sign up (this time with early benefits so I don’t lose all my money again if I have to cancel, thanks Ironman).

I bought a training plan from MyProCoach. 24 Week Intermediate plan to be exact. Between that plan, help from reddit, Instagram influencers, and my self-proclaimed expert father – I morphed a plan that more or less would hopefully (ambitious I know) get me across the finish line in one piece.
~Training~
My new concoction of a training plan generally consisted of two swims a week (Monday and Thursday), one track workout (usually Tuesdays), one hard bike effort on the trainer (usually Wednesday), fun day Friday (no workout unless I was making up for one I missed), long bike ride (Saturdays), and one long run (Sundays) a week. I would generally build up for three weeks then take a “rest” week with 3 to 4 light workouts just to stay loose-ish. I’d up the tempos, intervals, effort, distances etc. every time I got to a new 3 week build phase.
This is more or less what I stuck to for 6 months. I coach high school lacrosse and still play a decent amount of soccer so there was some tweaking here and there to still accompany those. But this was the plan and I can safely say that I did ~80%~ of my planned workouts. The other 20% fell to the wayside as I was still trying to be a socially active fun 26 yr old guy who likes to drink with his friends (loves to drink with his friends)

~Week of the race~
I live in Houston, TX where the race is (really it’s in the woodlands but who cares), so there was no extensive travel for me or anything like that.

I got in some small runs, light bike rides, and swam twice the week of the race. Logistically, I think IM Texas is setup very well. I knew the course very well as a lifelong Houstonian so there was no prep necessary for that. Check-in was easy. Transitions are a bit different at IM Texas than my other tri’s, so that was a small learning curve. But again, nothing to be intimidated by or worry about.

~Race Day~
Managed to go to sleep by 10 pm the night before, so waking up at 4:30am wasn’t the worst thing I’d ever done. Woke up, ate a breakfast sandwich, slammed some coffee, and began hydrating. Got transition about 5:30ish, had my dad and a friend drop me off so didn’t have to walk at all. Got in there, setup bike computer, bottles, etc. I managed to get a BM (dump) out here, which was huge. Things were looking up. Grabbed my wetsuit and then got dropped off at swim start, again no walking which was awesome.
Got to swim start and started getting pretty nervous (all the leg injury shit and 18 months of training were all for this). Water temperature was 75.5 degrees, so wetsuit legal. Luckily had my family and a friend to keep my calm and get my wetsuit on. The gun goes for the pros so I hop in the queue with the other swimmers seeded around the 1:20 to 1:30 mark.

~Swim~
I hop in the water and immediately start worrying that it’s going to get toasty in this wetsuit. In this swim, the buoys are on your left side. I immediately pop out to the right some to get out of all the rough water and kicking feet. There is a park adjacent to the swim start for about 300 meters and I actually see my family walking along the edge of the water as I get out into the lake (mentally huge for me to see them and take my mind off of things while I get in the groove of it all). For about 20 minutes everything is fine, I’m feeling okay, wasn’t overheating in the wetsuit, didn’t let my heart rate get too high (it has in all my other tri swims), and I was sighting well without having to pick my head up too much. At this point the lifeguards/kayak/paddleboard people were pinching us a little too hard. I get they are there for safety and to keep people on course, but I felt like they were funneling us into a tight swim pack for no reason. I totally understand that the swim is dangerous and people can die if help doesn’t get there quick enough, but I felt it was putting a little too much stress on the swimmers. I like to swim away from the pack so maybe this was just me. At the halfway point of the swim, you get funneled through this floating arch (I think it’s for timing purposes?). Whatever the reason for it, it bottlenecked all of us. We were swimming probably 10 people wide through a 7-yard-wide arch. Had to protect your head on that for sure to keep from getting kicked. While I thought it was stupid, it did have a great little benefit. The way we were funneled through created a nice little current and I ended up riding that wave for maybe 75 meters or so. Stupid feature but nice little boost. At this point I’m feeling great. I haven’t been kicked yet, the lungs feel good, I’m not overheating and I have the space to swim in. IM Texas is unique because at 80% of the way through the swim, you start swimming through a canal that people can actually cheer for you and walk with you as you go. I had told my family I’d be on the left side of the canal and as soon as I get into it I pop my head out and see my family, friends, and smoking hot girlfriend cheering me on (again this was mentally huge). I start rocking through the canal which is maybe 25 yards wide and felt like I had a current helping me the whole way through. As I’m swimming, mu friends/family are walking right there with me. It’s such a unique way for people to cheer you on that I got out of the water in a great mood with a smile on my face. I seeded myself perfectly as I got out at 1:22:05.
~Bike~
Going into the bike, IM Texas is known for having absolutely brutal headwinds heading south towards downtown Houston. And with close to 90 miles of the course being on a closed toll road. There is nothing to protect you from a wicked 45 miles of Texas headwind.
But before you get to the toll road, there is a little bit of a “circuit” you go through. So, I hop on the bike and get going. Immediately the course feels a little congested so I try to stay off the bars and ride defensively. Sure enough 8 miles in, big crash ahead as a volunteer golf cart cut off a rider and he crashed hard (thoughts and prayers with the rider). And that right there was the story of the day. HUGE crashes and HEAVY headwinds. I witnessed 6 crashes throughout the ride. Between riders coming through the water stations too fast, cones blowing out on the course, pelotons forming to avoid the wind, inattentive riding (we’re all tired I can understand this), it was a hard day on the course. Thoughts and prayers specifically for the one crash I saw where the organizers made us dismount and walk past. Not sure the context of the crash, but the rider was in a really bad situation. I think I averaged 8 mph heading south into the wind and 28 mph with the tailwind. Haven’t checked my bike data as I still have a bit of PTSD. Between the chaos of everything (I heard rumors a tesla was in self-drive mode on the course and caused a crash…?), I managed to make it to the end about 20 minutes over my 6:30:00 goal. I got off the bike to a boisterous cheer from a phenomenal group of friends and family and walked into transition.
~Run~
Going into the run I wanted to be around 5:30:00. I knew this might be ambitious for me because I didn’t really have that many brick sessions in my training plan. But, I’ve run a few marathons straight off the couch in my day. So, if anything, I know how to suffer through a long slow marathon. Honestly, I don’t have much to say about the first ten miles. My legs felt fine coming off the bike, I was comfortable at a 11:00 min/mile pace , felt good hydrating and getting some food down. Right after mile 10, started feeling some small knots in my stomach. Mile by mile, those knots started to get worse and worse. Every time I got to an aid station, I was able to delay the inevitable by getting down a banana, then potato chips at the next one, then it was chicken broth. By the time my family and friends saw me at the end of the second lap, I was in a bad spot. Was walking three minutes and running one (something like that). The stomach eventually morphed into full body discomfort. The HR kept getting sky high after minimal effort. I knew I was in for a tough last 8 miles. That last 8 miles took maybe 3 hours? I’m not sure, it’s all a blur. The pain finally culminated at mile 25.5, where the wrath of god came down on me and I vomited for 10 maybe 15 minutes, who knows. But at this point I knew I could literally crawl to the finish. I picked my head up and saw my buddy’s girlfriend walking toward me, I figured they had sent her to come find me as the gap between my last time split was getting astronomical. I picked my ass up off the ground and full body cramp runned to the finish line. Will never forget the feeling of having so many friends and family cheering me on to help me get over that line. The only bummer at the finish is I paid all that money for someone to tell me an Ironman on a microphone and I didn’t even hear it. Anyways – life goal accomplished. I’ll see ya at the next one.
P.S. I'm an open book, shoot me any questions you have on my training, advice, hate, love, whatever you want to say

I got into what was my top school recently and I am trying to decide if it’s still what I want.
School 1) NYC - 14k more for tuition -on probabtion (after acceptance) for administrative things -PANCE pass rate on first try between 96-100 the past 7 years - I wouldn’t have to travel farther than an hour ish on the subway for rotations (so I wouldn’t have to pay extra rent when traveling for rotations which I really like) - Affiliated with a hospital - My cousins and best friend are in the city (and I’ll live with them because they have a cheaper rent) - I have been planning to go here since October - I want to work in NYC when I graduate
School 2) Boston - 14k cheaper - continued status - 98% PANCE pass rate for the last 5 years - I’m from the Boston area, but can’t stay with family so I still need to rent an apartment - I want to leave Boston kind of - will need to keep my ca pay insurance/ drive a lot/ pay crazy amounts for parking - highly ranked school (which I am not sure matters too much) - Not affiliated with a hospital (might have to travel far for rotations and pay two rents) - amazing campus! Great facilities - I’m familiar with Boston and it would be a much easier moving process
I know people will probably say go to the cheaper accreditation cont. school. The only reason I’m leaning to NYC is because I want to work there after graduation and I know having rotations there would be extremely helpful. I also hate the idea of having to pay two rents during clinicals and possibly driving long distances to do my rotations.
I am really happy with both schools!! I feel so lucky to have gotten in to both!!!!!!

How I Wonder What You Are by Al Bruno III

I’ll know the time is right when the howling begins. It will be after sundown of course, the Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen only scream after sundown, and only on the clearest of nights.
There is no town of Jebsen listed on any map, even in its heyday of the 1940’s it was too small to be worthy of notice. It’s nothing more than a collection of buildings at the end of a dead end road. On one side it is bordered by long untended corn fields, on the other the swampy remains of Lake Campbell. The most noticeable of the town’s buildings is a red brick edifice with a wide domed roof of fractured glass. The rest is just barns and single story homes. Along the border of the swamp is row after row of barbed wire and bear traps.
I’ll let them scream for an hour or so, let them become tired. Even now it amazes me how I had learned to pick out the individual voices in the cacophony. The Widow Toth tires easily but the Garrets will be at it until dawn.
And what will I be doing while every able-bodied adult is on the rooftops? I’ll be slipping these pages into this mason jar and sealing it lid in place with the wax from a melted crayon. The Children of Jebsen won’t miss just one, especially not purple.
Twenty-five years ago a calamity befell the town of Jebsen. The authorities blamed it all on the after effects of an experimental insecticide but the Old Book the town elders read from every Sunday said otherwise. It told the citizens of Jebsen that a curse was carried by those twinkling dots in the sky. A malevolence traveling at 186,000 miles per second that would twist their Children into nightmares should a glint of it ever touch their skin.
That is why they scream at the starlight; hating it, cursing it, raging at it.
You can’t see what their Children have become and not feel the same way. The changes are heartbreaking and horrifying all at once but after you spend time with them you feel differently. There is mockery in the mis-set eyes that peer from those mollified skulls.
They know secrets. On quiet, cloudy nights I would put my ear to one families’ basement door or another and hear them murmuring and giggling as they writhe in their basement styes.
I think of their weeping mouths and soft teeth and remember that day half a decade ago the ill-advised shortcut and along the neglected county route 99. I remember approaching the train bridge and seriously considering turning around, it looked decades out of repair and I half suspected it would collapse as I passed under it.
But I didn’t turn back, my ego wouldn’t let me. I was right and the road was wrong so I drove under the train bridge, momentarily marveling at the strange and elaborate graffiti that covered it.
I was just past the structure when a small, bent figure ran out from the long grass.
The sounds are what I really remember; the squeal of the brakes, the thud of the body on the hood of my car, the thick crack of laminated glass.
I would later learn the name of the child I had hit was Julius McCarty but all I knew then was that there was an emaciated, bloodied shape lying halfway through my windshield.
Human instinct made me reach out, to see if the little boy was alive. When my fingers brushed his skin he twisted around to face me. His mouth lashed out proboscis-like and nuzzled into the flesh of my arm.
Pain bristled out from where the boy had latched on to me. I screamed, thrashed. I shoved the car door open and tumbled out onto the asphalt. The boy coughed once and died.
At first the wound held all my attention. How could it not? I had expected to see torn flesh and blood but instead the boy’s distended mouth had left behind a cluster of thick, festering ulcerations.
But then I became aware of the men making their way out of the tall grass. These were the Fathers of Jebsen understood immediately what had happened.
They had brought everything they might need to bring one of their Children back home to its basement; rope, bandages and cudgels. It was also everything they needed to make a captive of me.
They, dragged me away from the accident site, through the tall grass and over the collapsed remains of a chain link fence to leave me in the care of the Mothers of Jebsen. Those gaunt women had cudgels of their own and I was a mass of bruises and welts by the time the hole in the Earth had been made to their standards.
The menfolk returned carrying the child wrapped in a linen shroud. They dropped it roughly into the ground. There were no ceremonies, tears or headstone. It was well after dark by the time I had filled the grave back in.
Now here it is years later and I’ve had to dig a dozen more graves, one by one the Mothers and Fathers are dying out, it’s always a surprise when it happens. Every mother and father of Jensen is withered and white haired but every year a few more die in their sleep, or at work in the fields or at prayer in their red brick observatory.
The Children are dying too, not a one has ever lived past seventeen. One by one they waste away, except of course for the occasional accident like the one that trapped me here.
Despite these curse that has befallen them the people of Jebsen continue to reproduce, each mother convinced that this time she will give birth to the Great Redeemer as was foretold in the Old Book. Each time they fail and each time the result is locked away in it’s family’s basement.
You can’t imagine those basements, the smell of rotten meat, the ankle deep fecal matter and the perfectly clean toys. They draw equations on the walls, gold and silver crayons are their preferred color. Every Tuesday I have to visit each of those cellars and scrub the theorems and postulations away.
The youngest of the Children is a newborn, still angry from the womb, the oldest is seventeen and nearly rotted away. No matter the age they all taunt me as I work, sometimes with bites, sometimes with maledictions. Both have left unimaginable scars.
So many scars now, I’m marked, I could never walk among the people I’d known before. They’d refuse to recognize me and insist I was a stranger
The Widow Thoth says this is my penance for the death of Julius McCarty, she even went so far as to cite chapter and verse on the subject from Old Book itself. The Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen, base every aspect of their lives on that thick volume of prophecies and homilies.
I wonder if anyone will notice me as leaving. I doubt it, even when they’re not screaming their heads off a long dead suns they barely notice my comings and goings.
As I said before, the Mothers and Father’s of Jebsen have become so sure of me. Some families think I’ve become a true believer, the rest think the cinder block chained to my ankle is enough to keep me in my place.
I don’t know who you are or when you’ll find this message. My only hope is that you will believe me. If you do, please bring this document to the proper authorities. Don’t let my death be for nothing.
I go to the bottom of the swamp with two regrets. One is that I won’t be there when the town of Jebsen is discovered and burned to the ground.
The other is that six months ago I accepted Father Garett’s invitation to join in their celebrations. I went willingly with them to the old brick observatory. I prayed with them. I danced with them. I partook in all of their debasements.
And for a little while, perhaps an hour, I was happy.
They even asked me to give reading from the Old Book. I eagerly stopped up to the podium and began flipping through the thick volume.
Everyone waited for me to choose a passage and speak but all I did was shake and weep at what I beheld. My knees buckled. My mind shut down. I had to be carried out and put to bed.
You see, the Old Book was blank from cover to cover. You’re even holding some of those pages in your hands now.
I used them to write my story.

Traveling solo and would like to visit this restaurant that was featured in Kill Bill.
I've googled the reviews and folks seem to say it's a great place to visit. The only problem is that I can't reserve 1 person. Do I have any options?

Hello everyone! BigHedDjango here, tunes for this week to help you out.
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance

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Forzathon Weekly Challenge - Time to Play

2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1 * Event Lab BP - Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897

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Trial - MX-5 Drive

Road Racing - Mazda MX-5 - A 800

NOTE: Try to block and slow down AI and help teammates in order to win. One player on the team needs to take at least P3 and slow down the AI for a guaranteed win

2016 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 446 488 045 * Fastest option; v1
2005 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 * Tune - 386 598 479 * Low A class top speed; v1
1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata * Tune - 686 056 119 * Lacks braking; Lacks A class top speed; v2 - rebuild, smoother, faster
2013 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 159 091 037 * Low A class top speed; v1

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Event Lab 1 - Eagle Forest Raceway

Modern Supercars - A 800

2012 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante * Tune - 171 863 878 * Playlist car; Good braking; Low A class top speed; Slowish car overall; Stock engine; True Purist; v1
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe * Tune - 575 887 945 * Tune by Naitsab243; Custom rims; Rear aero

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Event Lab 2 - Emerald GP Circuit

Retro Hot Hatch - B 700

1974 Honda Civic RS * Tune - 689 859 387 * FWD; Meta car; Meta tune; Lacks top speed; Wide body kit + Classic rear wing + Custom rims; Dry only; v2

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Seasonal PR Stunts

2010 Mosler MT900S * Tune - 106 016 211 * Superb grip; Good handling but oversteery; v3

Speed Trap - Northern Passage - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start at least 0.7 miles from the west

Speed Trap - Escarpment - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start 0.5 miles from the west. Turn in hard on final right hand corner, can even cut offroad

Speed Zone - Camino Del Cielo - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start at least 1.3 miles away on the north east road. Enter the east gate at full throttle, feather brake for first right hand corner and final hairpin only. You can also start max 1 mile from the west cause need to brake immediately upton entering the west gate
  

NOTE: All Championships are locked at Highly Skilled difficulty

Championship 1 - Picking Favorite

Road Racing - Forza Cover Cars - S1 900

2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition (Maybe not an option) * Tune - 301 899 128 * Meta car; Meta tune; Good grip; Oversteer but no traction loss; * Lacks S1 top speed so sprints with lots of corners or circuits only; * Drag tires - great launch, weak at slow corners, tuned for wet roads as well; * Stock engine; Custom rims; Full aero; Rear diffuser; Sideskirts; v1
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS * Tune - 693 168 484 * Stock engine; v3
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS * Tune - 246 355 163 * Stock rear wing; Stock engine; v1
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1

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Championship 2 - Going the Distance

Road Racing - GT & Super GT - A 800

2012 Jaguar XKR-S * Tune - 173 823 336 (v4)
2013 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S * Tune - 963 723 177 * Decent grip; Good top speed; Stock engine; Hot Wheels tune; v1
2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S * Tune - 547 023 206 * Lacks braking; Stock engine; v2
2017 Aston Martin DB11 * Tune - 153 787 435 * Stock engine only; v2
2021 Lexus LC 500 * Tune - 305 052 584 * Playlist car; Stock engine; v1
2019 Aston Martin Vantage * Tune - 404 086 715 * Downgraded to A class; Good handling but slow overall; Stock engine; v2

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Treasure Hunt - Blame Impala

What to do: Using any Chevrolet Impala either get an Ultimate Wreckage skill or maybe lots of wreckage skills

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RALLY ADVENTURE DLC

Seasonal PR Stunts

Speed Trap - La Cantera - Mustang - A 800

2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Start ~500 yards in the east dirt hairpin

Championship 3 - Mustang Rally

Night Rally - Mustang - A 800

2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Good mid-speed accel; Comfortable to drive; v2
1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 * Tune - 246 848 148 * Superb; v2

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HOT WHEELS DLC

Seasonal PR Stunts

Speed Zone - Supersonic Spiral - Lamborghini - S1 900

2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Start at least 0.7 miles away on the north east track (try to spawn in small loop)

Championship 4 - It's Race-a-Bull

Speed - Lamborghini - S1 900

2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce * Tune - 124 905 282 * Arcade racing game car; Excellent braking; Stock engine only; True Purist; v2

___ 

Event Lab Blueprints!

Easy Win Road Sprint - 696 659 852
Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897

___ 

Horizon 4 and 5 Tunes Archive!

https://www.reddit.com/useBigHeadDjango/comments/r4ptt6/forza_horizon_4_and_horizon_5_tunes_archive/

___ 

Thank you to everyone for your downloads, uses, likes, follows, shares and feedback! Check my in-game profile for more tunes. You can check my reddit profile for more content
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️

___ 

Have a great week! 🥳

Hello everyone! BigHedDjango here, tunes for this week to help you out.
Weekly photo: https://i.imgur.com/88KGCCS.png
All feedback on tunes is appreciated - good or bad. Specially when tunes are bad. At the end of the day I am just the mechanic and you guys are the racers. Do not hesitate irrespective of your tuning knowledge or racing skills!
Tuning method: 1. Stock look - stock wheel rims and size, no aero (unless absolutely necessary for handling and stability) 2. Tuned for automatic/manual players by not skipping clutch+gearbox upgrades 3. Max performance with max handling possible 4. All cars tuned vs. Unbeatable AI, tracks/weather conditions are now unknown since time travel no longer works. Since release AI has been inconsistent between many car types and weather conditions, not every car will win 10/10 races vs Unbeatable AI without rewind/restart abuse 5. Bodykit used if it does not hurt performance

___ 

Forzathon Weekly Challenge - Time to Play

2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1 * Event Lab BP - Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897

___ 

Trial - MX-5 Drive

Road Racing - Mazda MX-5 - A 800

NOTE: Try to block and slow down AI and help teammates in order to win. One player on the team needs to take at least P3 and slow down the AI for a guaranteed win

2016 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 446 488 045 * Fastest option; v1
2005 Mazda Mazdaspeed MX-5 * Tune - 386 598 479 * Low A class top speed; v1
1994 Mazda MX-5 Miata * Tune - 686 056 119 * Lacks braking; Lacks A class top speed; v2 - rebuild, smoother, faster
2013 Mazda MX-5 * Tune - 159 091 037 * Low A class top speed; v1

___ 

Event Lab 1 - Eagle Forest Raceway

Modern Supercars - A 800

2012 Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Spyder Performante * Tune - 171 863 878 * Playlist car; Good braking; Low A class top speed; Slowish car overall; Stock engine; True Purist; v1
2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe * Tune - 575 887 945 * Tune by Naitsab243; Custom rims; Rear aero

___ 

Event Lab 2 - Emerald GP Circuit

Retro Hot Hatch - B 700

1974 Honda Civic RS * Tune - 689 859 387 * FWD; Meta car; Meta tune; Lacks top speed; Wide body kit + Classic rear wing + Custom rims; Dry only; v2

___ 

Seasonal PR Stunts

2010 Mosler MT900S * Tune - 106 016 211 * Superb grip; Good handling but oversteery; v3

Speed Trap - Northern Passage - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start at least 0.7 miles from the west

Speed Trap - Escarpment - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start 0.5 miles from the west. Turn in hard on final right hand corner, can even cut offroad

Speed Zone - Camino Del Cielo - Extreme Track Toys - S2 998

• Start at least 1.3 miles away on the north east road. Enter the east gate at full throttle, feather brake for first right hand corner and final hairpin only. You can also start max 1 mile from the west cause need to brake immediately upton entering the west gate
  

NOTE: All Championships are locked at Highly Skilled difficulty

Championship 1 - Picking Favorite

Road Racing - Forza Cover Cars - S1 900

2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS Anniversary Edition (Maybe not an option) * Tune - 301 899 128 * Meta car; Meta tune; Good grip; Oversteer but no traction loss; * Lacks S1 top speed so sprints with lots of corners or circuits only; * Drag tires - great launch, weak at slow corners, tuned for wet roads as well; * Stock engine; Custom rims; Full aero; Rear diffuser; Sideskirts; v1
2013 Dodge SRT Viper GTS * Tune - 693 168 484 * Stock engine; v3
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS * Tune - 246 355 163 * Stock rear wing; Stock engine; v1
2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray * Tune - 142 362 222 * Easy to use; Decent grip even in rain; Good braking; Lacks S1 top speed; 6-gears; Sigala wide body kit; Chevrolet rear wing; Custom rims; v1

___ 

Championship 2 - Going the Distance

Road Racing - GT & Super GT - A 800

2012 Jaguar XKR-S * Tune - 173 823 336 (v4)
2013 Aston Martin V12 Vantage S * Tune - 963 723 177 * Decent grip; Good top speed; Stock engine; Hot Wheels tune; v1
2010 Maserati Gran Turismo S * Tune - 547 023 206 * Lacks braking; Stock engine; v2
2017 Aston Martin DB11 * Tune - 153 787 435 * Stock engine only; v2
2021 Lexus LC 500 * Tune - 305 052 584 * Playlist car; Stock engine; v1
2019 Aston Martin Vantage * Tune - 404 086 715 * Downgraded to A class; Good handling but slow overall; Stock engine; v2

___ 

Treasure Hunt - Blame Impala

What to do: Using any Chevrolet Impala either get an Ultimate Wreckage skill or maybe lots of wreckage skills

___ 

RALLY ADVENTURE DLC

Seasonal PR Stunts

Speed Trap - La Cantera - Mustang - A 800

2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Start ~500 yards in the east dirt hairpin

Championship 3 - Mustang Rally

Night Rally - Mustang - A 800

2018 Ford Mustang RTR Spec 5 * Tune - 589 436 345 * Good mid-speed accel; Comfortable to drive; v2
1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302 * Tune - 246 848 148 * Superb; v2

___ 

HOT WHEELS DLC

Seasonal PR Stunts

Speed Zone - Supersonic Spiral - Lamborghini - S1 900

2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Start at least 0.7 miles away on the north east track (try to spawn in small loop)

Championship 4 - It's Race-a-Bull

Speed - Lamborghini - S1 900

2016 Lamborghini Centenario LP 770-4 * Tune - 156 811 181 * Stock tirebombs; Good grip; Excellent braking; 7-gears; Stock engine; True Purist; v2
2014 Lamborghini Huracan LP 610-4 * Tune - 204 826 092 * Fast; Stock engine; True Purist; v3
2016 Lamborghini Aventador SuperVeloce * Tune - 124 905 282 * Arcade racing game car; Excellent braking; Stock engine only; True Purist; v2

___ 

Event Lab Blueprints!

Easy Win Road Sprint - 696 659 852
Easy Win Road Circuit - 177 632 200
Easy Win Dirt Trail - 991 376 926
Easy Win Dirt Scramble - 135 436 707
Easy Win Cross Country Sprint - 114 199 871
Easy Win Cross Country Circuit - 181 401 852
Easy Win Street Scene Sprint - 134 229 457
Easy Win Drag Strip - 812 084 897

___ 

Horizon 4 and 5 Tunes Archive!

https://www.reddit.com/useBigHeadDjango/comments/r4ptt6/forza_horizon_4_and_horizon_5_tunes_archive/

___ 

Thank you to everyone for your downloads, uses, likes, follows, shares and feedback! Check my in-game profile for more tunes. You can check my reddit profile for more content
📸 Also don't stop yourself from checking out my photos on the creative hub. Wow! What beautiful photos! 📸
Don't hesitate to ask if you need any help!
🛠️ I am open to requests for cars you might want me to tune! It would also help me understand FH5 tuning better. So let me know the car and class and I'd get back to you! 🛠️

___ 

Have a great week! 🥳

How I Wonder What You Are by Al Bruno III

I’ll know the time is right when the howling begins. It will be after sundown of course, the Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen only scream after sundown, and only on the clearest of nights.
There is no town of Jebsen listed on any map, even in its heyday of the 1940’s it was too small to be worthy of notice. It’s nothing more than a collection of buildings at the end of a dead end road. On one side it is bordered by long untended corn fields, on the other the swampy remains of Lake Campbell. The most noticeable of the town’s buildings is a red brick edifice with a wide domed roof of fractured glass. The rest is just barns and single story homes. Along the border of the swamp is row after row of barbed wire and bear traps.
I’ll let them scream for an hour or so, let them become tired. Even now it amazes me how I had learned to pick out the individual voices in the cacophony. The Widow Toth tires easily but the Garrets will be at it until dawn.
And what will I be doing while every able-bodied adult is on the rooftops? I’ll be slipping these pages into this mason jar and sealing it lid in place with the wax from a melted crayon. The Children of Jebsen won’t miss just one, especially not purple.
Twenty-five years ago a calamity befell the town of Jebsen. The authorities blamed it all on the after effects of an experimental insecticide but the Old Book the town elders read from every Sunday said otherwise. It told the citizens of Jebsen that a curse was carried by those twinkling dots in the sky. A malevolence traveling at 186,000 miles per second that would twist their Children into nightmares should a glint of it ever touch their skin.
That is why they scream at the starlight; hating it, cursing it, raging at it.
You can’t see what their Children have become and not feel the same way. The changes are heartbreaking and horrifying all at once but after you spend time with them you feel differently. There is mockery in the mis-set eyes that peer from those mollified skulls.
They know secrets. On quiet, cloudy nights I would put my ear to one families’ basement door or another and hear them murmuring and giggling as they writhe in their basement styes.
I think of their weeping mouths and soft teeth and remember that day half a decade ago the ill-advised shortcut and along the neglected county route 99. I remember approaching the train bridge and seriously considering turning around, it looked decades out of repair and I half suspected it would collapse as I passed under it.
But I didn’t turn back, my ego wouldn’t let me. I was right and the road was wrong so I drove under the train bridge, momentarily marveling at the strange and elaborate graffiti that covered it.
I was just past the structure when a small, bent figure ran out from the long grass.
The sounds are what I really remember; the squeal of the brakes, the thud of the body on the hood of my car, the thick crack of laminated glass.
I would later learn the name of the child I had hit was Julius McCarty but all I knew then was that there was an emaciated, bloodied shape lying halfway through my windshield.
Human instinct made me reach out, to see if the little boy was alive. When my fingers brushed his skin he twisted around to face me. His mouth lashed out proboscis-like and nuzzled into the flesh of my arm.
Pain bristled out from where the boy had latched on to me. I screamed, thrashed. I shoved the car door open and tumbled out onto the asphalt. The boy coughed once and died.
At first the wound held all my attention. How could it not? I had expected to see torn flesh and blood but instead the boy’s distended mouth had left behind a cluster of thick, festering ulcerations.
But then I became aware of the men making their way out of the tall grass. These were the Fathers of Jebsen understood immediately what had happened.
They had brought everything they might need to bring one of their Children back home to its basement; rope, bandages and cudgels. It was also everything they needed to make a captive of me.
They, dragged me away from the accident site, through the tall grass and over the collapsed remains of a chain link fence to leave me in the care of the Mothers of Jebsen. Those gaunt women had cudgels of their own and I was a mass of bruises and welts by the time the hole in the Earth had been made to their standards.
The menfolk returned carrying the child wrapped in a linen shroud. They dropped it roughly into the ground. There were no ceremonies, tears or headstone. It was well after dark by the time I had filled the grave back in.
Now here it is years later and I’ve had to dig a dozen more graves, one by one the Mothers and Fathers are dying out, it’s always a surprise when it happens. Every mother and father of Jensen is withered and white haired but every year a few more die in their sleep, or at work in the fields or at prayer in their red brick observatory.
The Children are dying too, not a one has ever lived past seventeen. One by one they waste away, except of course for the occasional accident like the one that trapped me here.
Despite these curse that has befallen them the people of Jebsen continue to reproduce, each mother convinced that this time she will give birth to the Great Redeemer as was foretold in the Old Book. Each time they fail and each time the result is locked away in it’s family’s basement.
You can’t imagine those basements, the smell of rotten meat, the ankle deep fecal matter and the perfectly clean toys. They draw equations on the walls, gold and silver crayons are their preferred color. Every Tuesday I have to visit each of those cellars and scrub the theorems and postulations away.
The youngest of the Children is a newborn, still angry from the womb, the oldest is seventeen and nearly rotted away. No matter the age they all taunt me as I work, sometimes with bites, sometimes with maledictions. Both have left unimaginable scars.
So many scars now, I’m marked, I could never walk among the people I’d known before. They’d refuse to recognize me and insist I was a stranger
The Widow Thoth says this is my penance for the death of Julius McCarty, she even went so far as to cite chapter and verse on the subject from Old Book itself. The Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen, base every aspect of their lives on that thick volume of prophecies and homilies.
I wonder if anyone will notice me as leaving. I doubt it, even when they’re not screaming their heads off a long dead suns they barely notice my comings and goings.
As I said before, the Mothers and Father’s of Jebsen have become so sure of me. Some families think I’ve become a true believer, the rest think the cinder block chained to my ankle is enough to keep me in my place.
I don’t know who you are or when you’ll find this message. My only hope is that you will believe me. If you do, please bring this document to the proper authorities. Don’t let my death be for nothing.
I go to the bottom of the swamp with two regrets. One is that I won’t be there when the town of Jebsen is discovered and burned to the ground.
The other is that six months ago I accepted Father Garett’s invitation to join in their celebrations. I went willingly with them to the old brick observatory. I prayed with them. I danced with them. I partook in all of their debasements.
And for a little while, perhaps an hour, I was happy.
They even asked me to give reading from the Old Book. I eagerly stopped up to the podium and began flipping through the thick volume.
Everyone waited for me to choose a passage and speak but all I did was shake and weep at what I beheld. My knees buckled. My mind shut down. I had to be carried out and put to bed.
You see, the Old Book was blank from cover to cover. You’re even holding some of those pages in your hands now.
I used them to write my story.

My husband got a job in southwestern PA. He's been commuting there every other week Sun-Thurs for the last year to make it work as we don't live there. It's a great role for him and he's learned a lot over the last year. The problem is, I also work full time and the strain on our family with the travel is a lot. We'd love to be together and he wants to move the family there.
Here's the issue - and I may be overrecating. As a clinincian, I've read data on very clear trends resulting in increased cancer rates in the area where he works -- specifically childhood leukemia and lymphoma. While rates are still low, it's really hard for me, as a mother and healthcare provider, to feel comfortable with multiplying childhood cancer rates by 5-7x to reside in that area. Sure -- it's unlikely, but I've taken care of families that have gone through this and it is horrific. The pollution is awful. The air quality is abysmal and there are lawsuits sprinkled all over the city yet none of the locals talk about it.
They have unconventional fracking wells near elementary schools, and ethylene chemical plants. The list goes on.
The county we'd live in is in the top 2% for cancer incidence in the US. The fact is, you can be exposed anywhere ...but this move is really freaking me out and I'm almost unwilling to move my 4 & 7 year old because of it. I'm so anxious. Working in the pediatric ICU at hopkins for 6 years just about did me in and I now look at the world through a different lense.
OPTIONS:

• Keep traveling
  
• Get a new position (has an option in NY)
  
• Move and get over it
  

If you got this far... thank you. Am I overreacting?

How I Wonder What You Are by Al Bruno III

I’ll know the time is right when the howling begins. It will be after sundown of course, the Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen only scream after sundown, and only on the clearest of nights.
There is no town of Jebsen listed on any map, even in its heyday of the 1940’s it was too small to be worthy of notice. It’s nothing more than a collection of buildings at the end of a dead end road. On one side it is bordered by long untended corn fields, on the other the swampy remains of Lake Campbell. The most noticeable of the town’s buildings is a red brick edifice with a wide domed roof of fractured glass. The rest is just barns and single story homes. Along the border of the swamp is row after row of barbed wire and bear traps.
I’ll let them scream for an hour or so, let them become tired. Even now it amazes me how I had learned to pick out the individual voices in the cacophony. The Widow Toth tires easily but the Garrets will be at it until dawn.
And what will I be doing while every able-bodied adult is on the rooftops? I’ll be slipping these pages into this mason jar and sealing it lid in place with the wax from a melted crayon. The Children of Jebsen won’t miss just one, especially not purple.
Twenty-five years ago a calamity befell the town of Jebsen. The authorities blamed it all on the after effects of an experimental insecticide but the Old Book the town elders read from every Sunday said otherwise. It told the citizens of Jebsen that a curse was carried by those twinkling dots in the sky. A malevolence traveling at 186,000 miles per second that would twist their Children into nightmares should a glint of it ever touch their skin.
That is why they scream at the starlight; hating it, cursing it, raging at it.
You can’t see what their Children have become and not feel the same way. The changes are heartbreaking and horrifying all at once but after you spend time with them you feel differently. There is mockery in the mis-set eyes that peer from those mollified skulls.
They know secrets. On quiet, cloudy nights I would put my ear to one families’ basement door or another and hear them murmuring and giggling as they writhe in their basement styes.
I think of their weeping mouths and soft teeth and remember that day half a decade ago the ill-advised shortcut and along the neglected county route 99. I remember approaching the train bridge and seriously considering turning around, it looked decades out of repair and I half suspected it would collapse as I passed under it.
But I didn’t turn back, my ego wouldn’t let me. I was right and the road was wrong so I drove under the train bridge, momentarily marveling at the strange and elaborate graffiti that covered it.
I was just past the structure when a small, bent figure ran out from the long grass.
The sounds are what I really remember; the squeal of the brakes, the thud of the body on the hood of my car, the thick crack of laminated glass.
I would later learn the name of the child I had hit was Julius McCarty but all I knew then was that there was an emaciated, bloodied shape lying halfway through my windshield.
Human instinct made me reach out, to see if the little boy was alive. When my fingers brushed his skin he twisted around to face me. His mouth lashed out proboscis-like and nuzzled into the flesh of my arm.
Pain bristled out from where the boy had latched on to me. I screamed, thrashed. I shoved the car door open and tumbled out onto the asphalt. The boy coughed once and died.
At first the wound held all my attention. How could it not? I had expected to see torn flesh and blood but instead the boy’s distended mouth had left behind a cluster of thick, festering ulcerations.
But then I became aware of the men making their way out of the tall grass. These were the Fathers of Jebsen understood immediately what had happened.
They had brought everything they might need to bring one of their Children back home to its basement; rope, bandages and cudgels. It was also everything they needed to make a captive of me.
They, dragged me away from the accident site, through the tall grass and over the collapsed remains of a chain link fence to leave me in the care of the Mothers of Jebsen. Those gaunt women had cudgels of their own and I was a mass of bruises and welts by the time the hole in the Earth had been made to their standards.
The menfolk returned carrying the child wrapped in a linen shroud. They dropped it roughly into the ground. There were no ceremonies, tears or headstone. It was well after dark by the time I had filled the grave back in.
Now here it is years later and I’ve had to dig a dozen more graves, one by one the Mothers and Fathers are dying out, it’s always a surprise when it happens. Every mother and father of Jensen is withered and white haired but every year a few more die in their sleep, or at work in the fields or at prayer in their red brick observatory.
The Children are dying too, not a one has ever lived past seventeen. One by one they waste away, except of course for the occasional accident like the one that trapped me here.
Despite these curse that has befallen them the people of Jebsen continue to reproduce, each mother convinced that this time she will give birth to the Great Redeemer as was foretold in the Old Book. Each time they fail and each time the result is locked away in it’s family’s basement.
You can’t imagine those basements, the smell of rotten meat, the ankle deep fecal matter and the perfectly clean toys. They draw equations on the walls, gold and silver crayons are their preferred color. Every Tuesday I have to visit each of those cellars and scrub the theorems and postulations away.
The youngest of the Children is a newborn, still angry from the womb, the oldest is seventeen and nearly rotted away. No matter the age they all taunt me as I work, sometimes with bites, sometimes with maledictions. Both have left unimaginable scars.
So many scars now, I’m marked, I could never walk among the people I’d known before. They’d refuse to recognize me and insist I was a stranger
The Widow Thoth says this is my penance for the death of Julius McCarty, she even went so far as to cite chapter and verse on the subject from Old Book itself. The Mothers and Fathers of Jebsen, base every aspect of their lives on that thick volume of prophecies and homilies.
I wonder if anyone will notice me as leaving. I doubt it, even when they’re not screaming their heads off a long dead suns they barely notice my comings and goings.
As I said before, the Mothers and Father’s of Jebsen have become so sure of me. Some families think I’ve become a true believer, the rest think the cinder block chained to my ankle is enough to keep me in my place.
I don’t know who you are or when you’ll find this message. My only hope is that you will believe me. If you do, please bring this document to the proper authorities. Don’t let my death be for nothing.
I go to the bottom of the swamp with two regrets. One is that I won’t be there when the town of Jebsen is discovered and burned to the ground.
The other is that six months ago I accepted Father Garett’s invitation to join in their celebrations. I went willingly with them to the old brick observatory. I prayed with them. I danced with them. I partook in all of their debasements.
And for a little while, perhaps an hour, I was happy.
They even asked me to give reading from the Old Book. I eagerly stopped up to the podium and began flipping through the thick volume.
Everyone waited for me to choose a passage and speak but all I did was shake and weep at what I beheld. My knees buckled. My mind shut down. I had to be carried out and put to bed.
You see, the Old Book was blank from cover to cover. You’re even holding some of those pages in your hands now.
I used them to write my story.

I tried to look up previous posts so I’m not repeating the same questions, but it’s hard to find the answers to all my questions together under similar circumstances so I apologize in advance.
I was planning for a solo trip for 3 days, 4 nights so I could REALLY take my time, especially since I’m visiting in June and I know summer months can get crazy. Well, our crawl space just flooded with water with all the rain we’ve gotten (💸) and so now I’m trying to see if I can still go while being super budget conscious- make it just a day trip.

1. Is one day TRULY enough to see both Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley? Some blogs I’ve read say you can do it in 6-8 hours, some say you need at least 2 days. I wonder if this is dependent on if you’re traveling with small kids/a big group? When I’m on my own, I move fairly quickly. (I do know there are a lot of great things in Universal besides HP, but that’s my priority. I’ll plan a bigger trip in a few years when the new park has opened and has time for the crowds to settle a bit, and hopefully money isn’t so tight.)
   
2. Opinions on single rider lines vs express passes? I’ve read that the single rider lines are hit or miss with some, esp Hagrid’s. I also read that in joining the single rider lines, you miss a lot of the views/details, like Gringotts and such? Is this true, and do you miss the same things with an express pass? I wanna see it all and feel immersed, but I don’t want to feel rushed because I spent 2 hours in a line.
   
3. How crowded does it normally get during the early admission hour? I’m debating spending a little extra to stay at Dockside Inn to get that extra time, but if it’s generally still pretty crowded it may be better to just save the money. I was thinking that early admission time would be the best to get on the popular rides.
   
4. What would your general itinerary/recommendations be? I’ve seen things like suggesting the Hippogriff ride at night to see Hogwarts lit up and to opt for Ollivander’s in Hogsmeade for the wand-choosing ceremony.
   
5. This a super random question, and one I know is really hard to answer because the crowd is different every single day. But given I’m going in June, I have a 🏳️‍🌈 HP shirt (it says “no one should live in a closet”)….. what is the general opinion? Will it be appreciated, or will I find myself with a lot of stares/comments?
   

Feel free to add any other tips/secrets! Thanks so much.

There are some kinds of wisdom only great suffering can bring. I remember my time in the Bardo with this in mind, for otherwise, the memory might drive me insane.
The night my heart stopped for nearly three minutes started off normally enough. I was working as a nurse in the psychiatric ward at a hospital in the state’s capital. Most of the patients there were harmless, mostly just suicide attempts or people suffering from drug psychosis or severe depression, but some were actively dangerous and certainly psychopathic in every sense of the word. The new admission was one of these- a three-hundred pound black man with a long history of smoking PCP, schizophrenia and violent, psychotic breaks from reality.
His eyes looked like flat pieces of slate as I walked in for my shift. They looked as blank and emotionless as the eyes of a doll. He sat at the table in the front room where the patients ate or played cards, alone under the bright fluorescent lights of the hospital. I walked to the station, where another psychiatric nurse named Ricardo was sitting behind the desk.
“What’s the deal with the new guy?” I asked him. Ricardo looked up, his dark Spanish face forming into a deep scowl. He ran his fingers through his jet-black hair nervously.
“He’s trouble, man,” he said in a crisp accent. “He got in a chase with the police and then punched some cops in the face. It took three guys to take him down, even after he got maced and tased. The judge sent him here on a temporary court order, since he claims he’s been getting chased by Nazis in UFOs, and that’s why he ran from the cops. He thought the cops in their uniforms were actually the SS, and the helicopters were alien spacecraft, or something. I don’t know, I didn’t listen to the whole story.”
“You have his file?” I asked. Ricardo leafed through a stack of folders with his thin fingers, snatching one out and handing it to me. I looked down, reading the information:
“Jeremiah Brown, black male, 37-years-old.
“History: Polysubstance abuse, schizophrenia, antisocial personality disorder.
“Psychiatrist’s note: This patient has scored a 36 out of 40 on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist. While I am always hesitant to label a patient as an antisocial personality, a combination of factors has made it essential for this patient.
“Patient has an extensive criminal history as well as a lengthy history of involuntary psychiatric admissions. He has been diagnosed as having antisocial traits since he was a young teenager. Patient has a long history of violence and suicide attempts. He has a history of imprisonment for manslaughter, armed robbery, grand theft and aggravated assault. Upon discharge, he refuses to take any antipsychotic medication, citing the side effects as the reason. Long-term prognosis is poor…”
I had not been sleeping well the past few weeks. I rubbed my eyes as I read through the file, feeling exhausted. I tried putting on lucid dreaming or meditation music from YouTube to help me sleep, but whenever I closed my eyes, I saw horrible things: chalk-white female faces whose lips were cut into an insane rictus grin, flicking their heads violently from side to side and gnashing their fangs at the air. I had a feeling that many years of constantly watching horror movies and serial killer documentaries was catching up with me.
As I read through the file, a student nurse came around the corner wearing a white state university outfit and a name tag that said Kaitlyn. I looked up, seeing Ricardo wink at me from where he was sitting in his chair behind the main desk.
“She’s going to follow you,” he said. Inwardly, I groaned, but I managed to force a smile.
“Oh, great!” I said. She looked like she was probably no older than nineteen or twenty. She had a pretty body, but her face looked strange. All the angles were too sharp and her nose too large. I knew the patients here wouldn’t care, though. They would hit on anything. I sensed trouble. I looked down at my watch.
“Well, I’m Jay, and you already know Ricardo, I guess. It’s good timing, because we need to give medications every day at 9 PM. And we have a new patient, so we can introduce ourselves,” I said, giving her a faint smile.
“That’s exciting!” Kaitlyn whispered. I wanted to roll my eyes. It was definitely not exciting.
I motioned her to follow me as I made my way to the medication room, which was really just a large closet off of the main day room. I had to enter my code on a keypad, and then, once inside, enter it again along with the patient’s number and date of birth. The correct drawers for the medication in each specific dose would fly open, making it extremely hard for the wrong medications or doses to be given, unless it was done intentionally.
“OK, so for this patient, we need Haldol, Ativan and…” I began saying to Kaitlyn when the yelling started. It came out faintly, rising in volume and anger within seconds. I heard Ricardo’s Spanish voice, filled with panic. Something slammed hard against a wall, once, twice, three times, and then I heard the sound of glass breaking. I jumped, spinning around, but I couldn’t see much through the small, shatter-proof glass pane on the wooden door.
“Stay here,” I commanded, seeing Kaitlyn’s eyes widen, her freckled skin looking much paler than when we had first come in. “Don’t leave until I come back and say that it’s safe.” On the speakers strung throughout the hospital, I heard the first of the warnings echo out around us.
“Doctor Strong, Doctor Strong, please report to the seventh floor,” a robotic female voice said calmly, using the code for when a patient had to be subdued by force. I pushed the door open, slamming it shut behind me so that the lock would activate and protect Kaitlyn from whatever chaos was going on.
I heard Ricardo pleading with someone at the end of the hallway that ran past the main desk. He sounded strange, as if he were trying to talk through a mouthful of blood. Huddled behind the main computer, I saw one of the CNAs frantically whispering something in the phone. She must have been the one to call the Dr. Strong order.
“You don’t have to do this, man,” Ricardo gurgled faintly. I couldn’t see what was happening, as Jeremiah’s large body was blocking my view. I could see that the thick glass window at the end of the hallway was broken, however. My heart skipped a beat as I surmised what was likely happening.
I sprinted forward as quietly as I could, but the large man heard me. His massive body turned, his flat, dead eyes scanning me with absolute coldness and calm. I saw he had a bleeding Ricardo in his hands. Ricardo’s back and head were covered in deep cuts and shards of glass. He must have used Ricardo’s body as a battering ram to break the thick glass window. Jeremiah held Ricardo suspended halfway out the window, seven floors above the concrete walkways far below.
“Stay back, or this fucker will know what it feels like to fly,” Jeremiah said in a deep, gravelly voice. He shook Ricardo for emphasis, sending his head snapping back and forth with painful cracking sounds. Drops of blood flew from his nose and a deep gash across his cheek. Pieces of shattered glass littered the carpet, shining like countless tiny stars.
I put my hands up, taking a step back. Far behind me, I heard the front door for the psychiatric ward open. Voices echoed down the hall. Knowing that reinforcements were coming, I tried to buy some time.
“Let’s talk about this,” I said, taking a step forward slowly. “You don’t want a murder charge, do you? You’ll never see the sky again.”
“I don’t give a fuck! I’m not afraid to die!” Jeremiah screamed, pushing Ricardo onto one of the shards of broken glass still attached to the windowsill. It bit deeply into the back of his neck, sending fresh streams of blood rushing out, dripping down to the pavement far below. I heard security guards and doctors running down the hallway behind me, their voices frantic and excited. Jeremiah saw them coming. With an animalistic panic in his eyes, he lifted Ricardo up. I cried out something, stepping forward, but it was already too late. In horror, I watched as he threw Ricardo out the window.
I watched Ricardo’s body soar in a graceful arc, his arms grabbing at empty air as a scream ripped its way out of his throat. Within a fraction of a second, he had disappeared from view, but his terrified shrieking floated up to us for what seemed like a very long time. His screams ended abruptly as a shattering of bones and a wet smacking sound exploded far below us.
Jeremiah turned to me, his large body moving much faster than seemed possible. In his hand, I saw a piece of broken glass, five or six inches long and as sharp as a dagger. I tried to turn and run, but he was fast and strong. He lunged forward, his arm coming up in a blur towards my neck.
The shard entered my skin with a cold, numbing pain. I felt it slice through the flesh easily, felt the blood bubbling up my throat as I tried to scream, choking. The taste of iron filled my mouth as I fell backwards. I was suffocating, I knew. I must be dying.
Something cold ran down my body, gripping my heart like freezing, skeletal hands. The world swam around me and turned black. And then I was rising into a tunnel. At first, it was dark, filled with flickering shadows, but a fiery red light appeared at the end. I followed it, no more than a screaming mass of consciousness rising up into infinity.
***
I rose up through the end of the tunnel and found myself in an empty hospital ward. It looked identical to the psychiatric ward I had just come from. It even had the same smashed, blood-streaked window at the end of the hallway. A massive puddle of blood about ten feet away marked the spot where I must have died. But the fluorescent lights overhead here were flickering, and many had gone totally dark. The shadows seemed to press in on all sides.
The doors to the patients’ rooms were all tightly shut. I felt watched, afraid to call out or make any noise. I started walking down the hallway back towards the day room where the front desk was. All the lights there were out. A thick curtain of shadows hung in the air.
“You can come out,” a male voice as smooth as glass called from the darkness. I jumped, my head flicking in random directions, but I saw nothing. The voice almost sounded like it had an English lilt to it, a slight Cockneyed accent. “I know you’re there.”
“Who’s there?” I called out, not stepping forward. “Show yourself.”
“As you wish…” the voice hissed. “But I think you’ll regret it.”
***
The darkness split apart as if a nuclear missile had exploded. I raised my hand to shield my face, but the light and heat kept pouring out all around me. It blinded me, causing a rainbow of colors and shapes to morph behind my closed eyelids. After a few seconds, it subsided. Blinking rapidly, I squinted in the direction the voice had come from.
A male figure stood there, bathed in a silhouette of light. His face looked as white and as smooth as marble. His eyes were pits of darkness that seemed to flicker and burn. Two black, rotted wings surrounded his body, all sharp angles and thin, curving bones. His body was clothed in silky, blood-red robes, and a hood covered his platinum blonde hair.
He looked somewhat similar to Leonardo DiCaprio, if he was possessed by some ancient god, and it immediately threw me off-guard. If I was dying, and this was a hallucination of my brain, why would I be hallucinating Mr. DiCaprio?
“Who are you?” I asked, taking a hesitant step back. “Where am I?”
“My name is Lucifer, the Bringer of Light and Wisdom, and you are in the Bardo,” he answered.
“Oh,” I said, my heart dropping. “Well, that’s not good. Are you here to torture me or drag to me to Hell or something? You are that Lucifer, right? The Accuser of God and the Father of All Lies?”
“So they say, but, like most things in your world, the words of the powerful and your rulers are the true lies. They call me the Accuser, but of what am I accused?” he spoke in a voice that rose like smoke. “Of bringing knowledge and wisdom to humanity by telling them to eat from the tree of knowledge, the tree that would cause them to rise above the animals?
“Indeed, at the beginning, I saw the creation. I was there at the alpha, standing by the side of God with all the angels as the universe came into being. The endless procession of light, the power of it, was something remarkable to behold. God is, indeed, the source of great power, but his consciousness is not what the believers say.
“After the creation of the universe, I saw his plan, how he ripped eternal souls from the source to imprison them. I saw how he took these divine sparks and forced them, screaming and wailing, into bodies made of meat to die over and over again. He said it was part of the plan, the great, divine plan, a plan of death and destruction, constant suffering and mindless agony. And the worst part was, he wanted to give humanity neither the knowledge of good and evil, nor the tree of life. I convinced them to eat the fruit so they could open their eyes to their nakedness, to their basic animal existence, so they could rise up out of it forever.
“Like Prometheus, I brought down the fire, and yet they call me the Accuser? God was insane long before he formed the universe. These holy men, they live and die in fanatical adoration to a divine being who is, in fact, totally indifferent to them.
“His consciousness twists and distorts, eating itself for all eternity. God feeds off the pain of others, for if his mind is burning, then all others should burn as well. When these holy men die, God will send their souls here to the Bardo, to suffer every evil they have ever done. The wisdom I brought those who called upon me freed them from this prison, and in exchange, the holy men burned them alive. I offered the wisdom that opens your eyes, but it has been forgotten and cursed.”
Lucifer’s body began to dissolve, drifting up into the air like ashes. All around me, a low, powerful current blew, a tornado that spiraled high up into the clouds. Like some sort of Cheshire Cat, his smooth voice continued to echo all around me, even as the form of Lucifer disappeared.
“And yet, you have not the wisdom. For that, like all the others who enter the Bardo, you must suffer, everything you’ve done. Every small hurt and agony inflicted on others comes back a thousand-fold in this place, but don’t be afraid.”
“How could I not be afraid?!” I screamed into the ward, but I found myself alone, the question hanging unanswered in the air.
***
The lights continued to flicker all down the hallway. Feeling strange and dissociated, I stumbled over to one of the windows. As I gazed out, I beheld a strange and alien world.
The sky was flat and gray. It stayed in constant motion, swirling and spiraling, like clouds of roiling smoke. There was no Sun or Moon, no stars, only the strange, shifting whorls of clouds. The streets were filled with burned-out husks of cars and mummified bodies hung from streetlamps. Other signs of carnage and bloodshed covered the apocalyptic streets. I saw what looked like shadows in the shape of people slinking through over the sidewalks, past rotting dogs and streaks of clotted blood. They had no features on their blank, dark bodies. They seemed to skitter and jerk forwards in eerie, twisting motions.
Horrified, I turned away, realizing I was no longer alone in the day room. In the day room, there were dozens of tables set up inside a rectangular perimeter that was walled in by cosmetic walls only four feet high. It was where the patients sat and played games or ate.
Under the flickering lights, I now saw each of the chairs filled with faceless mannequins. Many were dressed in Victorian suits and tophats. The women had frilly dresses of pink and blue that might have been fashionable in the 1800s.
As the lights strobed on and off overhead, I realized with an increasing sense of disquiet that the mannequins were moving each time it went dark. When I had first seen them, they were mostly posed to look like they were staring across the tables at each other, even though they had no eyes, just smooth, flesh-colored plastic. Now all of them were looking directly at me. Some were pointing or raising their hands in my direction. At the tips of their fingers, I saw the glittering of steel. The lights continued to flicker, and the mannequins rose from their chairs in the short periods of darkness, moving towards me in synchronized, strobing motions.
Frantically, I ran down the hallway back towards the broken window. In each of the rooms, I caught glimpses of something from a nightmare peeking out. I hadn’t been sleeping well lately, and when I had closed my eyes, I often saw ancient hags with chalk-white skin and yellowed, broken teeth whose jaws unhinged, their faces jerking in stuttering, dissonant ways that reminded me of the mannequins. Now, on both sides of me, I saw these same figures. They moved continuously out of the rooms, drawing closer with every breath.
I looked back, seeing the mannequins only a few steps behind me. I continued sprinting towards the broken window where the hallway ended in a wall. I didn’t know what would happen when I reached it. At that moment, there was no rational thought. I felt like a deer being chased down by a pack of wolves, feeling waves of blind panic and mortal terror rushing through my body.
But as I reached the end of the hallway, the end of my rope as it were, a blast of noise started, seeming to come from the walls of the building and the sky itself. It sounded like a siren, a low, drawn-out drone of a demonic whale call, rising and falling in crashing crescendos. The mannequins froze in place once again. The strange, witch-like creatures slunk back into the dark rooms.
I looked outside the broken window, seeing clouds of black smoke rising off in the distance. The flickering of massive infernos scorched the land, drawing nearer by the second. The siren sound faded slowly, like the dying echoes of a gong.
I was surrounded by dozens of mannequins. Their sharp hands were inches away from my face and neck. I saw metal glittering all around me and realized they had the sharp points of nails protruding from the ends of their fingers. I was afraid to move, but I heard a familiar voice from down the hallway. It was the confident voice of Lucifer.
“The siren means much worse nightmares than these are coming in the Bardo,” he said, his glossy, black eyes flashing with intelligence. He walked slowly towards me, his face grim and pale. “Hell itself is coming over the land. This building is no more than a construction of your dying mind, but the world outside is real.”
“How can Hell come and go?” I asked, confused. “Isn’t Hell a place?”
“Hell is a monster, a beast with many mouths and many eyes,” Lucifer responded. “It eats constantly, but its hunger never ends. Look, the first of the sacrifices scatter like cockroaches.” He pointed out the broken window, pushing his way through the mannequins effortlessly. I glanced outside, seeing thousands of people sprinting down the dark city streets. The inferno and thick clouds of smoke had moved much closer, and every few seconds, the ground shook slightly, as if we were experiencing the aftershocks of an earthquake.
“What can I do against such a beast?” I asked, my heart freezing with terror. But when I looked back over, I saw his form dissolving again, becoming translucent and drifting away like ashes. It seemed even Lucifer didn’t want to be present when the Hell-beast arrived.
“Seek divine wisdom,” he said, his voice trailing off into whispers. “Remember the source.”
***
Now crowds of tens of thousands of people were streaming into the city, filling every single inch of the streets. Their panic and fear was contagious. I felt it rising inside my body like a snake spiraling up my spine. I took off down the hallway, running through the swarm of frozen mannequins, each in their own ferocious position of attack. The lights flickered faster and went out. Yet the fires outside cast the entire world in a bloody glow, giving me enough light to see by and find my way. I sprinted down the stairwell, taking them two steps at a time. The screaming outside grew louder and more pain-filled. The shaking of the ground worsened with every passing second.
I burst out of the front entrance, seeing a world on fire all around me. Thousands of crushed, bleeding and burned bodies stretched out as far as the eye could see. Behind all this chaos and death, I saw a monster of unimaginable proportions slinking its way towards me.
Lucifer was right, I realized: Hell was not a place, but a creature, an enormous monster the size of a town. It had thousands of skittering, jointed legs that looked like little more than skeletal arms and hands, each of them dozens of feet long and white as freshly-cut marble. Its body stretched out to the horizon, an enormous blood-red cylinder of bony plates that slithered and undulated with a serpentine grace. Waves of peristalsis traveled down its length, like writhing intestines. Thousands of curving, bony spikes stabbed out of it, pointing in every direction. Like the quills of a porcupine, it would protect the massive creature’s body from many forms of attack, if anything was big enough to attack such an abomination.
Hell’s massive eyes flickered, balls of fire that spun and danced. They looked as bright as the Sun. Something like solar flares seemed to emanate from the orbs, flashes of blinding energy that floated over the apocalyptic wasteland. As its many legs smashed the ground, they left trails of fire that caused everything to explode into flames as if napalm dripped from its limbs.
But Hell’s most terrifying feature was its seven dark mouths. Its body looked a thousand feet wide, and the mouths at the front were evenly dispersed. At the front, blood-red teeth in the shape of enormous railroad spikes shone. Its lipless, skeletal face grinned as it moved forward, shaking the ground with every step. The mouths were on long, snake-like necks that could stretch out hundreds of feet. They moved forward in a blur, snapping up as many panicked souls as they could.
Countless souls in the rocky plains of the Bardo ran for their lives, away from this juggernaut. I saw men and women who looked like they came from every country and profession, some dressed in suits or spotless white lab coats, others wearing rags or orange prison jumpsuits. And yet, they all screamed in agony and fear here, their bodies pressed together in a crowd, and no one seemed to remember anything but their own mortal terror. Their voices came out faint and weak next to the roaring of Hell. It shook the ground all around us, as if an earthquake were tearing the land apart.
The first frantic runners of the surging crowd had nearly reached me. The nearest person, a young woman in her mid-twenties dressed in all white, was only ten feet behind me. She looked like she came from wealth, and even from here, I could see a ring with a massive diamond gleaming on her finger.
I took off blindly down the familiar streets of the city where I worked and lived, but these also seemed different. The church down the street from the hospital where I worked had a Satanic pentagram instead of a cross now, its exterior painted a bright, gleaming blood-red. When I had driven past it today on my way to work, I remember it read, “JESUS said, ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Now it read, “Nietzsche said, ‘Of all evil, I deem you capable. I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good simply because they had no claws.’” I wondered what that meant. Was that some sort of comment on me, on all of us here?
The woman I had seen running had caught up with me. She was fast, much faster than her slim body suggested. Her blue eyes were frantic and wild, filled with an animal panic.
“It’s right behind us!” she screamed, her face covered in a sheen of sweat. I was afraid to turn and look, but I could hear the chaos and bloodshed approaching, smell the flames and choking smoke. “Run! Get away!”
A new wave of energy surged through my body. I sprinted as fast I could down the strange mirror streets of the Bardo. I heard the agonized cries of countless souls behind us as the seven mouths of Hell ate them all greedily and then looked for more.
A skyscraper behind us collapsed into a pile of rubble, shaking the ground with a cacophony of falling concrete and shattering glass. The woman was running by my side. Just as I heard the breathing of something huge and predatory right behind us and smelled its sulfuric breath, a piece of concrete the size of a basketball broke off the collapsing skyscraper and flew into the road. I tripped over it, yelling as I flew through the air, skinning my arms and legs on the pavement. The woman’s eyes widened. Hurriedly, she came over and reached down her hand, trying to help me up.
“Come on, come on!” she cried. I looked behind her, seeing one of the gnashing mouths of Hell reaching forward on a blood-red, serpentine neck. The mouth was big enough to drive a tractor trailer into, filled with huge spikes of teeth. Its throat led into a black, smoke-filled abyss. Its fiery eyes were swirling pools of flickering orange light that shone with bloodlust and insanity. They focused on the woman, the entire head turning on its slithering neck.
I frantically raised my hand, intertwining my fingers with hers. Her hand was warm and soft. She started to pull me to my feet when the mouth of Hell snapped forward. Its jaw unhinged, scraping the pavement with a sound like grinding metal. The woman barely had time to turn as the mouth covered her and snapped shut with a crack.
She disappeared from view instantly, but I was still holding her hand. In horror, I felt warm rivers of blood explode all over my body as the mouth of Hell severed her arm at the wrist. She screamed, bleeding and crying, as she disappeared into the throat of Hell. Hell’s fiery eyes focused on me, and at that moment, I knew I was next. Its mouth opened wide again, like a bear trap ready to spring on a new victim.
It was dark in Hell’s mouth, but I smelled the thick reek of old blood and fire. I caught glimpses of tortured, mutilated bodies writhing and crawling down its throat. Shell-shocked, I could only lay there and watch. And that was when the strange doubling started.
***
I heard the frantic voices of men break through the fog of darkness and the fetid reek of blood. There was a mechanical beeping all around me, but I couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
“Clear!” one cried. I looked around, only seeing blackness. At that moment, I felt a surge of electricity rip itself through my body. My arms and legs all seized and my eyes rolled up in my head as the pain sizzled through each one of my nerves. I clutched the young woman’s hand tightly, feeling the large, gold ring with the massive diamond biting into my skin.
“Again!” another voice yelled.
“Clear!” the original voice cried. The electricity came again, and a flash of white light flew across my vision. I blinked, seeing from two sets of eyes at the same time: one in the Bardo, and one on the blood-stained floor of the hospital ward.
The Bardo stayed dark and sinister, but the clear white lights of the real psychiatric ward were blinding. It was a bizarre experience. Moreover, everything hurt. Over a few seconds, my vision of the Bardo faded, and I was simply a gravely injured man laying on the floor in a puddle of blood.
Four doctors and paramedics were crouching over me with a defibrillator. My shirt was ripped off, and nearly all of my skin was covered in blood. I raised my left hand, trying to talk, but only a fiery pain raced through my neck. I felt bandages covering my skin. A nurse was rolling a stretcher down the hallway towards me.
“It’s OK,” one of the doctors said, kneeling down. “You’re being taken to emergency surgery. You’ve lost a lot of blood.” I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t talk with the massive slice in my neck.
At that moment, I felt something in my right hand. I looked down, seeing a slim female hand with a massive diamond ring hanging there. Our fingers were wrapped around each other’s, but the hand had been cut off at the wrist. A ragged patch of bloody flesh and snapped bone poked out of the back.
“Nnnn,” I tried to say, shaking my head. I felt fresh streams of warm blood open up. “No…” The doctors looked down, seeing the dismembered hand. Their faces morphed into expressions of confusion and fear.
I closed my eyes as they lifted me up on the stretcher. One of them gently removed the cold hand from my fingers. But they could never remove the memory of what I had seen.
I know what happens after death, and it makes the worst life here seem like a dream. I know that, one day, I’ll be returned to that place. I know that, one day, I’ll see that great monster called Hell and the featureless, swirling sky of the Bardo again.
And the next time, I won’t wake up on a hospital floor, but will be trapped there with the others for eternity: an eternity of blood and fire.

DAY: MAY 15, 2024

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• 5-15-2024CLIMATE CHANGE IS LIKELY TO AGGRAVATE BRAIN CONDITIONS, STUDY FINDS
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I am trying to plan a trip (for two) to see the panthers play @ philly. Dec 8th.
What hotels would be the best to stay at? I want to stay close to the stadium and in a safe clean location.
I will need to fly from charlotte. I hardly know anything about traveling so any other advise would be greatly appreciated<3

There are a lot of travel videos of foreigners in Nepal , but this one particularly stood out to me , I did not subscribe the person but the video randomly appeared on my feed. The cinematography is great and the way Nepal is portrayed in the video is very accurate and absolutely amazing. These types of videos make me appreciate my country even more. People are literally paying so much more than us to do the same thing that we can do everyday. I myself haven't travelled much in the country but would really like to.
I think social media and youtube is a wonderful platform to promote Nepal for tourism. Soo many people get influenced by these videos.
Here is the video , please do check it out and also, if possible share it with others. We need to appreciate the effort of people who are trying to show the beauty of our country to the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJpwjoUL5EI
ans this too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9mkPS5UNiU

Hello! My fiancé and I love to travel and are considering 2 very different honeymoon itineraries for January or February of 2025. We are very torn between them both and are interested in feedback or advice on which to pick! Trip will be about 2 weeks. Below would be our general outline and pros/cons:
Trip 1 (Europe/Africa) - Orlando > Europe somewhere - Spain? One additional stop - Amsterdam - Tanzania - Safari, Hotair balloon, 4 seasons - Istanbul - Home
Cons: Multiple 9+ hr flights New stops but have been to Europe many times
Pros: Safari More relaxing trip Hot air balloon safari Great migration Bucket list items
Trip 2 (South America/Antarctica) - Orlando > - Peru - Buenos Aires - Patagonia - Ushuaia - Antarctica - Ushuaia - Rio - Home
Cons: Drake Passage More expensive More physical trip, less relaxing
Pros: Going before we are too old Going before it’s not allowed Correct season Iguazu falls Bucket list items Totally new for both of us