Tribute to van gogh fabric

Hi,
I used Notion for many years and later moved on to Obsidian which I've been using for about 2 years now. I find it useful but not perfect, and I have reached a stage where there is some functionality I am missing.
On top of what apps like Obsidian already offer, I was looking for something that would also have features like:

• Having an option to find notes based on their similarity to other notes. Basically determining potential relationships without me having to manually link them. These potential relationships can be based on words found in the body of the notes and their frequency. This could even be a feature available in the equivalent of an Obsidian local view that can be turned on or off.
  
• Similar to the previous item, an overview of topics I've written about would also be useful. For instance, something that can tell me that I created, let's say, 10 notes this month that include the some kind of "key" noun like "decentralization" and provide other insights like how when I produce notes about "decentralization" I also discuss "deregulation". And by key nouns I mean essentially words that are not every day words or even words that I explicitly define as key terms.
  
• Something that showcases how two notes are linked in the graph view. Meaning, instead of there just being lines or arrows, the line itself explains the relationship between the two notes. For instance, in Obsidian I can filter the graph view and search only for the items in my "Van Gogh" folder. And now I can see that the Vincent van Gogh note links to the Theo van Gogh note and to the Van Gogh Museum note. But the only way (as far as I can tell) that I can define the relationship between these items is with tags. So I can make a group for items tagged as "family", and the Theo note can then be pink. The "locations" tag can also have a group and be green instead. But what if I wanted to visualize, say, the date of something, like when someone was born and when a museum was inaugurated? I can't sort the graph view based on date or any other tag or property (though I'm sure I could make a Dataview table for that). But if I had tags for dates and I wanted to group items based on that, I now really have no way of knowning how these items relate. So something that makes these relationships visibly clearer would be super helpful (along with features that allow for more ways to sort notes on the graph view).
  

I have an issue which should be apparent by now and that is that I don't know much about programming or coding, I can barely put my ideas above into words. I imagine that if I knew more about programming I would probably be able to make something that does what I described but being limited in that skill sort of forces me to look for apps or plugins.
I know the Graph Analysis plugin for Obsidian is supposed to sort of do something similar to what I described, especially the Bag of Words and Louvain settings, but because it cannot distinguish between the importance of different nouns and it cannot distinguish nouns, verbs, or adjectives from prepositions and articles, it is not very useful.
After doing some Googling it seems that a tool that does what I described needs to either contain some kind of AI or something called "semantic ontology".
Someone in this Obsidian forum recommends capacities.io and it does have a couple of features I like, for instance, a note/object can have a property has is itself an object, such as a date, but if I want only the year I must put in a number which does not look like it can be its own object. I also did not find any way to add filters to the graph view at all, so it was more limited than Obsidian in that regard.
Anytype.io, which was recommended by the same user, allows you to define what type of object belongs as what property for each object type, which is already far superior but, as with Obsidian, it is quite complex so I don't fully know the extent of what can be done with the app and its potential issues.
Hopefully, I have done an OK job with explaining what I am looking for. Does anyone have any clue what kinds of tools I should be looking into that have features similar to what I described above? My university research is becoming quite complex and with Obsidian I feel like if I forget to link two notes (which becomes harder to remember as the vault expands and eventually linking similar ideas to a shared "main" note starts to get messy and deafeat the purpose) I end up not making full use of connections that could be helping me expand my understanding.

Has anyone come across interviews where Steven Zailian explains why he changed the artist Ripley is obsessed with from Van Gogh to Caravaggio? I think I can guess why but would love to read it straight off the horse’s mouth so to speak!

Hi everyone,
So we've recently started our business and we were testing our all over print tote bags. Firstly a couple of weeks back we did a trial run with COD only as an option and we broke even, spent 4k and got almost that much amount of orders (10 orders). It wasnt the desired ROAS from any stretch but we thought its a good start, because our mockups and the fact we didnt have a payment gateway would just add on to this trial.
After about 2 weeks, we have now tried UGC collected photos run as a carousel ad in 1 campaign, a carousel post with created mockups as a seperate campaign (both of these with shopping bag, amazon, etsy, vincent van gogh as a couple of interests) and lastly a UGC video reel as an advantage plus campaign. None of these 3 have performed well for us like AT ALL. the landing page views itself has been so less and thus connected to that the add to carts & checkouts initiated have been almost neglible. We ran these 3 with only online payment as an option so idk what you guys think but the fact that the landing page views itself were pretty bad (3.2k INR gave us only 158 landing page views) so we're not sure if not having COD was the barrier because a customer didnt even reach there to figure that as a hurdle.
But overall, could you guys help in letting us know whats the issue been according to your hypothesis and what do we do? We're ready to accept that perhaps the designs we ran aren't great and not the market fit but the weird thing is how the first trial did okayish and then the follow up ones with seemingly better quality did horribly. Pls help. Facebook Ads is like being stuck in a maze and we don't even know where to pinpoint our attention to decipher what went wrong.
Our website: https://roohwa.com/

I’ve never posted online before so apologies if I break any unspoken rules:)
I’ve seen a lot of posts about Jack and a few mentioning his old band, Rightfield, and it got me thinking about his style, which I think is his strongest feature within his artistry as a whole.
First off, (and this is personal opinion) — I think there’s a difference between range, genre, and style, and I think the best artists are ones that actually have an clear style across any genre, (regardless of range) and I think Abi, Will and Jack are great examples of how it works. i’m defining range as their actual voice, style as the way they use their voice, and genre, as the type of songs they sing.
Abi - has a vague style, limited genres, and a diverse range. Meaning she has the most technically impressive voice that can do a lot of different things (range) she can do the cleanest runs, hit the highest notes, has the clearest tone, etc. However, I think she pretty much only sings two genres of songs: ones that fit her voice predictably (piano ballads) and ones that highlight her voice through juxtaposition of style and tone. (alt-rock like Fall Out Boy, etc.) Coupled with this is that her style isn’t very recognizable outside of the technical feats. so when I hear her sing, I’m very impressed with her voice but the emotions I feel are in response to her skill (that does highlight the music) but not really to her as a musician — when she covers these songs, they feel like covers and I have a hard time picturing what kind of artist she will be when she’s on her own. I think she is very likely to fall into the post-Idol disappearance we’ve seen in years past because her style isn’t recognizable enough that it can adapt to fit any genre of song, instead it feels like she’s fitting her beautiful range into whatever style the original genre is typically in. When she sings piano ballads, she’s emotional the way the original artist was emotional, when she sings alternative, she’s edgy the way the original was edgy. i don’t think she’s quite figured out how to maintain her impressive voice in a way that can make you instantly identify with who she is an artist (YET!:))
Will - I think will has a rigid style, limited genres, and a consistent range. I’ll keep it short but he basically sings the same kind of songs (genre) and uses his voice in the same way (range), and sings it the same way the original was sung (style) every week. that’s not to say he isn’t talented and it honestly makes him very marketable for people who like what he does, but i think it explains why everyone (at least here) seems to mostly agree that while he deserves the top 3 spot, he most likely won’t win. he’s kind of a “if you already like this other country star and you want more music that sounds like that, listen to this guy!”
Jack - I’ll come out and say I’ve been a fan of jack for 9ish years (i’ve heard him sing since church in high school - before he was ever even doing his own stuff) so i’m definitely biased:) I think Jack has a narrower range than Abi (more than Will and definitely not “small” by normal standards) but a much more clear style and wider genres. He’s sang country, post malone, the weekend, adele, david bowie, folk, and his own original. I’ve seen people say “he does the same thing every week” but that’s the thing — he actually keeps people on their toes because he has such a wide genre of songs that he covers. When people say “he sounds the same” I actually think what they’re hearing is his unique style that he’s adapting to all sorts of genres, which to me, is the mark of a great artist. It’s like Van Gogh painting different subjects in the same style — that recognizable style is what his contribution to the art world was! When you hear Billie Eilish cover a song, she makes it sound like part of her discography — so she has a sound that is uniquely hers and has made her so famous. I think Jack does this so well, all of his songs come from different genres of music but he makes them all sound the same style — the “Jack Blocker” style. It’s fine if you personally don’t like it but I think this ability is what sets him above everyone else this season. He already feels like an artist, which both katy and lionel recognized even in his audition! His artistry might not be for everyone but i think that fact that it is polarizing is what indicates that he’s something special. For example, I think people have much more consistent opinions about abi (even people who don’t have her as their #1 aren’t like “omg i have no idea how she got this far”) because it’s easier to agree that someone’s voice is technically good than it is to agree that someone’s artistry is good (because that’s more subjective)
Anyways, this got super long and so I’m going to make a separate (MUCH SHORTER) post about Jacks discography from high school because I think it shows even more of his vocal range and genre-crossing ability than we’ve seen on the show and maybe people would think that’s interesting!

Inspired by Solomon VK's Faufreluche posts.

D20	This staristocrat's badge of office
1	is a golden diadem which projects a hologram of Old Sol from its highest tine, as well as the rest of Man's Cradle-System orbiting about it.
2	is a hideous diamondoid mask made in the image of an alien demi-god from whom their esteemed house claims descent.
3	is an auroran magneto-cloth cape which flares with the oscillations of subtle fields.
4	is a porous meteoric amulet that echoes with the music of the spheres.
5	is a blade of enchained magnetic monopoles channeling ouroboric tangles of plasma - ever-glowing, their patterned glows expressing the cyclical yet self-degrading nature of the cosmos, able to cut through all but the most unnaturally enforced materials.
6	is a scepter containing a degenerate micro-verse within its topping globe.
7	is a battered helmet pulled from the suit of one of the first humans to reach outer space.
8	is a battle standard bearing the heraldry of their family, and topped with the head of a lion, preserved and animated to roaring unlife by cybernetic tubes woven through its flesh and bone.
9	is a halo of abstract mathematics, written directly on the fabric of space-time rather than mere matter.
10	is a pauldron of fused silicon, the remains of an artificial intelligence which almost overcame humanity.
11	is a dilating-lens lantern of an indestructible, orange-green alloy - fully unleashed, its actinic brilliance can guide in a ship from high orbit.
12	is a vial of their own, genetically-perfected blood, crystallized into a ruby-like gem.
13	is a crown of golden rings hovering about each other, each engraved with the zodiac of a different solar system.
14	is a famous artifact of Earth preserved within a temporal stasis-orb.
15	is a set of infrasonic pan pipes that can manipulate the minds of men and machine alike.
16	is a holy book written by the first settler of their world, in an eclectic script unreadable by anyone yet living.
17	is a shield with a brazen, hypercubic boss and a rippling purplish forcefield about.
18	is a labrys bearing edges honed to subatomic sharpness with whetstones hewn from the preternaturally dense heart of a collapsed star.
19	is a bowl holding a fractal bonzai grafted with branches of every fruit-bearing tree of humanity's homeworld.
20	is the head-sized smaragdine egg of some voidborne beast, the inevitable hatching of which is said to herald the end of the universe.

D20	This staristocrat's holdings
1	lie under a dimming sun, weakened by its fusion-harvest which forms the foundation of the staristocrat's wealth.
2	contain no life-bearing worlds, its population sustained only by technocratic hydro-pneumatic despotism.
3	bear the glassy-green sheen and asymmetrical mutations left by ancient nuclear war.
4	are mineral-rich but poor in organics and water, expending most of their export-wealth on life-giving imports just to survive.
5	produce a unique and inimitable spice, and are thus coveted by an extra-solar rival.
6	are either watery or gaseous, with dry, solid ground an unimaginable luxury - the populace living on great rafts or aerostats.
7	have recently absorbed a mass of refugees fleeing a black swan xeno-threat.
8	were enclosed from the common space of comet-cowboys, who plague it with their raids to this day.
9	are nestled among the ruins of an extinct alien civilization, probed only gently for fear of waking their automatic guardians.
10	are slowly but surely having their life-giving atmospheres stripped away by the rapacious solar wind of their red gigantism-suffering sun.
11	are deliberately kept ignorant of the wider galactic community to reduce their capacity to revolt, and so that the ruling class can portray themselves as deific through their technological capabilities.
12	are undergoing a long and delicate process of terraforming which structures cultural and religious cycles around these artificial seasons and critical thresholds.
13	are overgrown with a police state only nominally under the staristocrat's authority, and the computational bureaucracy that's arisen to process all their surveillance.
14	are infamous for their permissiveness, and abound in every sort of vice.
15	are torn apart on a planetary scale for the sake of resource-harvest and industry, and what unruptured ground exists is blanketed in choking smog outside sealed habitats.
16	were recently seized from a treasonous vassal and bestowed upon this staristocrat - the old holder's sympathizers still lurk within the population, evading the claws of inquisition.
17	exist mostly fictitiously, as moving shell-games of companies and titles.
18	are centered on an ecumenopolis with some roads paved with stones hewn before humanity's ancestors came down from the trees - its corners hide occultic dens of our darkest imaginings.
19	are generally scorching, deserts or liquid hells, their structures mirrored and extending tubes of heat exchanges and radiators like a seraphim wings.
20	are verdant in all forms of life - none go hungry, yet many are eaten, and a clan of masked physicians go about the populace to rebuke the tides of plague.

D20	This staristocrat is attended by
1	a harem of genetically-engineered Willendorfian Venuses, bearing a continuous stream of heirs who will duel over the matter of their inheritance in the arena of their crèche.
2	artful historians hunchbent over data-tablets, preserving every moment and detail of the staristocrat's life in imperishable crystalline records.
3	nigh-invisible bodyguards swaddled in light-bending metamaterial cloaks, heat haze auras ready to strike down any offense against their master.
4	clanking cyborg-knights - behind their cuirasses are tanks preserving the most loyal and chivalrous parts of their mortal brains.
5	slaves bearing explosive collars - the tribute of many conquered worlds.
6	a squadron of musclebound eunuch-janissaries raised from childhood with size- and strength-stimulating hormones and non-stop brainwashing.
7	clones of themself educated according to various traditions as diverse yet biologically-partial advisors.
8	the cryogenically-preserved heads of their forefathers, which sometimes dispense shivering, crackling counsel.
9	hovering laser-turrets fitted with targeting algorithms able to anticipate their master's desire to kill before it's consciously felt.
10	an enormous parrot with impeccable skill at mimicry, whose mind has been overwritten with every song recorded by humanity up until the time of its creation.
11	a pair of titanic wolfdogs, with metallic teeth that could rend apart a tank and hides that have turned aside artillery-shells.
12	the plush animatronic companion of their childhood, its digital personality updated to be a competent advisor.
13	a caste of butlers who've served their family for generations, bred like pedigreed dogs.
14	a choir singing their praises, the choir's lungs replaced with cybernetic jet-intakes slatted between ribs, so that they might sing unceasing.
15	a former whipping boy, their oldest friend, bearing the delicate scars of tremendously sophisticated tortures.
16	tumbling jesters dressed in patchworks of impossible colours captured from the coronas of half-real suns.
17	technotheologic angels dancing through the air on wings of incandescent blazons.
18	abductees from primitive worlds fitted with neural implants which make them believe they are simply in an extended dream.
19	a team of chefs who can prepare the delicacies of a dozen worlds, never repeating the same twice in their master's lifetime.
20	grey masters of anagathic science, whisper-arguing over the injections and ointments that will quicken them a while longer.

D20	This staristocrat's court
1	is entertained by a vapourous alien intelligence which takes possession of lesser courtiers through a fanciful hookah.
2	has its lesser members partially memory-wiped when they attend it - able to recall their skills, yet unable to remember much of their own identities, and so how to apply those skills for personal benefit.
3	is deliberately, performatively humble, held in barns and suchlike.
4	is overlooked by a cine-dome showing stars, moons, and constellations in fortuitous alignments.
5	is addicted to novelty, and constantly seeks new performances and grotesques.
6	is made up nepotistically of their siblings who did not win the contest to inherit the throne.
7	are waited on hand and foot by fragile ceramic robots imprinted with the tightly-enchained engrams of political criminals.
8	takes place entirely remotely - members are provided radio-devices with frequencies that trigger voice-like vibrations in great bells this staristocrat is in the constant presence of.
9	were at first ironically and now legitimately entranced by a bloody cult of sacrifice and agonies.
10	has been forced to accept elected representatives from among the populace by a revolt - to the grumblings of those who attained their positions through inheritance.
11	is wracked by a scandal involving mistresses overspending from public coffers.
12	is perpetually-wrapped in augmented-reality projections of mythic mimesis.
13	is burrowed among the roots of the biggest mountain of their throne-world, so that it could survive all but the most devastating attacks.
14	are all accompanied by a member of an order of courtesan-assassins implanted with acid-glands in case their charge shows overt disloyalty.
15	solve disputes among themselves with duels, and drill daily with various weapons and fighting styles.
16	is held within a hollow pyramid, with this staristocrat at the top point and many stairs and levels filtering petitioners between them and the entrance at the base.
17	is largely taken over by a conspiracy to poison this staristocrat, and even the uninvolved have begun to circle like vultures.
18	is a ring of stone thrones built to scale with the renown of the one who sits upon them - this staristocrat themself sits like a small child on a throne fit for giants - their seneschal on a stool.
19	is held around a colosseum, where gladiators and vicious alien beasts fight for their amusement and haruspexies.
20	is itinerant, a grand airship which hovers above the realms of hosting vavasours.

D20	This staristocrat's noble flaw
1	is hubris - they believe they can become like God by funding breakneck scientific process.
2	is bravery - they will fight to the last in the face of overwhelming odds, even if better options present themselves.
3	is honour - their thinking is rigid and totally un-utilitarian.
4	is generousity - they give without thinking, disrupting economies and fostering dependence with their largesse.
5	is parental love - they spoil their children on a terrible, cosmic scale.
6	is a thirst for justice - a continent has burned due to their need for a punishment fitting a truly awful crime.
7	is filial piety - their increasingly-senile dowager-mother has them tied around her bony finger.
8	is tolerance - they've cultivated cosmopolitan communities, yet failed to confront division and rising extremism.
9	is an aesthetic sense that is souring into decadence.
10	is persistence - they are a dogged obsessive.
11	is realpolitik - they've alienated possible allies with ruthlessness.
12	is faith - they lean often into outright zealotry.
13	is cautiousness - they often dive into outright paranoia.
14	is competitiveness - they're innovative, but often only in the tortures applied to defeated rivals.
15	is cleanliness - they have advanced to a purgative germaphobia.
16	is contentment - they have come to peace with all things, even if others demand their action.
17	is honesty - they will never lie, even if it benefits them and their people.
18	is is humility - they are overly-convinced of their own incapacity.
19	is romantic love - their spouse manipulates them to their knowledge yet total acquiescence.
20	is imagination - their fancies often end up unproductive or outright destructive.

"I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people."-Vincent Van Gogh

This is the first time I have written something of this length, and is more of an exercise in self-therapy than anything else. Disclaimer: This story contains conversations about child abuse. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy it.
Nathan’s number appeared on my phone screen. I debated whether or not to answer it. We hadn’t been on speaking terms for a while, and while we did keep in touch sporadically, it was usually because of important family issues. I didn’t know of anything happening with mom or dad, nor with Talia or Rio, so I let it go to voicemail. I could always call him back later. I placed the phone back in my pocket, and returned to cleaning my camera. The phone buzzed again. A text message came through. I read the preview line from the home screen. “The city declared eminent domain on the house” I unlocked my phone, read the full text message, and dialed my brother.
I wasn't able to get any closer to the house than a few blocks. Most of the area was blocked off with chain link fencing and construction equipment in preparation for the demolition that was supposed to take place within the coming days. The barriers didn’t prevent people from walking in to the neighborhood, but it hindered scrappers from coming in and stripping the houses of copper wiring and plumbing.
I grabbed my camera bag out of the trunk of my car along with my tripod. I shouldered it and hooked the tripod to my bag. I pulled my water bottle out of the center console and shut the door. I stood next to my car surveying the neighborhood. 12 city blocks of old single family homes comprised the neighborhood where I grew up. Some of the houses had been empty for months, others for years. There was an eerie silence that permeated the still air. I could not hear the familiar sounds of people, pets, or cars. I locked the car and put my keys in my pocket. I patted my jacket down to ensure I had what I needed. After a quick check, I started my walk.
The sidewalk of the old neighborhood streets still bore the familiar cracks and grind marks from years of buckling and remedy. Leaves dropped by the trees still lay scattered all along the pathways and sidewalk. Korina’s house was the first house I encountered as I made my way through a gap in the fence. The yard was overgrown with tall grass and thistle. I could see the faded blue paint of the old house contrasting the green and browns of the lawn. The chain link fence that marked off the corner property was nearly invisible through the thick brush. As I continued walking west towards 110th, I started to feel something was off. The streets seemed wider than I remembered. It took me longer than I’d like to admit, but eventually I realized what was different. There were no cars.
The streets here typically had cars lined bumper to bumper in any spot available, and were visible from block to block. The absence of all these vehicles made me realize just how deserted the neighborhood really was. House after house, yard after yard, the telltale signs of desertion reinforced what I could see from the moment I passed the construction fence: This was no longer my neighborhood. There were no signs of life, and no one I could expect to find still here. Abandonment was the new normal here. I continued on, glancing at houses and recalling memories of summer bike rides, and daily walks with dogs I used to have. I remembered walks home from school, and chasing after ice cream trucks when they passed our houses. I smiled a bit as I remembered more and more of my years spent here. I don’t quite know just why I was smiling. There were plenty of bad memories here too. Fights, yelling, being beat up, being robbed. I could remember failed friendships, lost loves, and bitter feelings of failures too.
Still, I felt a certain amount of nostalgia despite the weight of these negative feelings. I almost wanted to experience everything again, although I wasn't sure why I was feeling this way. Concrete, asphalt, billboards and liquor stores were the normal vistas of everyday life. Occasionally, after a good rainstorm, the grey haze of smog would lift, and the mountains would be visible to the north. At least, they would be visible until mid-morning when the exhaust from a million cars covered them behind a veil of pollution.
It wasn’t until the first time I travelled out of the city that I realized there was more to see. Traveling up the coast north along the Pacific Coast Highway introduced me to scenes of deep blue ocean water spanning the width of my vision. Driving up Highway 3 introduced me to the permeating scent of Pine and Fir trees. The two-lane stretch of highway from Portland to Tillamook introduced me to lush green forests that I had only ever read about. When I came home to the same old dirty, dusty concrete and boiling summer asphalt, I had made up my mind. I would do everything it took to leave this place. I would not spend another day longer than was necessary living in cramped quarters and fighting for parking space.
I arrived to the house, and paused at the gate. The house sat in contrast of what the rest of the neighborhood looked like. Instead of overgrown grass and tall weeds all over the place, the landscaping showed signs of relatively recent work. The guava tree in the front lawn still had some fruit ready to be picked, and the avocado tree on the other side of the pathway was still weighed down by its own fruit. Flowers still bloomed in the raised bed in front of the house. My brother had clearly tried to keep up on things until the last possible moment. The house, too, looked better than what I expected after walking up 4 blocks and seeing nothing but dilapidated houses and unkempt yards. I opened the gate and walked up to the small porch. The metal gate that enclosed it was gone having been removed by my brother when he took over the property. It looked nice to see it open instead of the cage it once felt like.
I turned the knob on the door, but it didn't give. Ever a creature of habit, my brother had locked the door when he left. Of course, he did. I sighed and prepared to find another way in when I remembered my parents hiding a spare key. I wasn’t sure if it would still be there, but after running my hands along the back side of the gutter downspout, I was rewarded for my efforts. I unlocked the front door and stepped into the front living room, the sounds of my footsteps and the closing door echoing in the empty space. The room felt both larger and smaller than I remembered it. I suppose it was lack of furniture that made it feel larger, but it still felt smaller than I remember. The result of growing taller throughout the years I suppose. I slowly walked along the slate tile floor towards the central hallway that connected the front of the house to the back bedrooms. I wasn't entirely sure that just because the front door was locked, that there wasn't some squatter looking for a little temporary shelter within the back rooms. I carefully and silently crept step by step towards what used to be the bedroom shared by my sister and me. I stuck my head in and gave the room a cursory glance. It was empty, thankfully. I moved back into the hallway and peered into the bedroom across the hall. This is where both of my brothers had shared a room. It too, was empty save for a few boxes holding hardware and doorknobs from the closet doors of the bedroom. I walked back towards the back of the house where my parent's bedroom was. The walls in the hallway bore the dusty signs where picture once hung. The bedroom door was open. I stepped inside, and looked around. The old avocado paint that my mom had picked out years ago still adorned the walls. Walking further towards the addition that was the small room my grandma and grandpa lived in showed that there was no one here. I breathed a sigh of relief as I set my bag down and set up my tripod. I reached into my bag a pulled out an envelope of old photos. These were old snapshots that we had all taken at some point in time in the house. There were pictures of all of us sitting at the dining room table playing a game of Monopoly. There was a picture of my brother and sister sitting on a couch in the front living room. There was a picture of me hanging on the bars of the front porch. I looked through them all and held them in place in front of me as if I were holding a window to the past.
Each picture made the lump in my throat grow as I started to struggle to control my emotions. There was history here, and soon it would all be gone. This is the place where my parents had raised four kids. They had taken care of my grandparents in their twilight years here. My Aunt and my grandmother had both died in this house. Birthdays, graduation parties, and anniversaries had been celebrated here. The echoes of life had reverberated within the walls of this place. Now, the house sat silent. It would never again know happy screams of kids having a water-balloon war out in the front yard, nor would it hear the cries of anguish as the matriarch of the family passed away surrounded by her family. What once was a home full of life was now just an empty house made of drywall and paint. I sat there for a moment contemplating just how much family history was actually made here. As I thought hard about my siblings and my parents, I felt pained at the thought of our strained relationships. We had all scattered once we had the opportunity to be free of each other. My oldest brother had married and moved away as soon as possible. My sister now lived in northern California. My parents too had moved away. I was now living in Utah. Only my older brother had remained behind. The lump grew larger in my throat as tears welled up in my eyes. I held back sobs of anger and pain. Why was I hurting? Hadn’t I dealt with these issues already? I walked back to my old bedroom and sat down under the window. I pulled my head down into my knees and cried. I could hear yelling and screaming in my head. Shouting matches between siblings and parents, brothers and sister, rattled inside my brain, making the pain grow. I sat there and cried. I hadn’t cried like this in a long time. Eventually I ran out of tears and tired gasps of sorrow and regret washed over me as a blanket of drowsiness enveloped me. I leaned my head back and fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of footsteps. It took me a moment to realize what I was hearing and hurriedly stood up. Had someone followed me? I knew the police were patrolling the area sporadically. Had they seen me enter the house? I knew there would be a possibility of getting a trespassing citation, but I figured I could either talk my way out of it seeing as to how I was a former resident, or I could probably fight the citation in court if the judge knew why I was there in the first place. Ultimately, passing through the gate had been a calculated risk that I was willing to take for the sake of my art. I got up from my corner of the room and moved towards the door. If there was someone in the house, I needed to know. I didn’t want my gear to stolen, and if there was a cop in the house, I wanted to ensure I didn’t get shot.
I was greeted by the sight of a startled chubby boy standing on the other side of the door. His round cherubic face was crowned by a head of short curly hair. His hazel green eyes stared widely back at me. He clearly didn’t expect someone to be here in the house. His body recoiled in fear as he cowered back towards the hallway. “Wait, what are you doing here?” I asked as non-threateningly as I could. The boy muttered something that I couldn’t quite make out. “What did you say? I couldn’t hear you” I replied. “Are you here to rob us?” he timidly responded. “Rob you? What are you talking about?” I asked as confusion set in. “What are you doing here?” It was his turn to be confused. “Uh…I….live here?” he replied. “What do you mean you live here? No one lives-“I stopped midsentence. I hadn’t noticed in my initial shock but the room wasn’t the same. A familiar blue couch caught the corner of my eye. In front of that was an old console TV with a partially broken antenna hanging on the wall behind it. I walked further in to the living room to notice wood paneling on the walls. A large mirror hung on the wall to my left. Familiar yellow lamps sat on round drop-leaf tables on either side of the couch. A large hutch sat in one corner, a collection of letters and bills, mail advertisements, and a phone book covered scattered over it. “What just happened?” I asked out loud to no one in particular. I was thoroughly mystified by what my eyes were seeing. I had walked into the house from the front door and had stepped into an empty white room with slate floor tiles, but somehow now found myself in a furnished room with brown carpet that was all so familiar to me, yet was nothing but a distant faded memory. I turned to look at the boy still startled by the intrusion of a strange man looking wildly around the room in total shock.
“You can take what you want, just please let me go. I don’t want problems.” He stated his voice still shrill with anxiety. I blinked a few times as I tried to process just what the heck was going on. I gathered my thoughts as best I could and tried to reassure him. “Kid, I’m not here to rob anyone. I was just-“I shook my head “Where the hell am I? Am I having a dream?” I asked myself. “I must be dreaming. I’m just tired and still sleeping. This is all a dream. Yeah, that’s it.” I needed to sit down. Being back in the old house must have overtaxed my senses, I told myself. I’d having a dream about an old memory. I walked over to the chair next to the couch and sat down. I sunk into it and rested my head back towards the wall.
The boy kept his distance, but sensed I wasn’t there to hurt him. He looked me over with anxious curiosity. He stood at the far end of the couch, examining me while he played out scenarios in his head in preparation for a quick exit. “Why are you in my house?” he asked me. “Dude, this is all just a dream I’m having. I’m not really here.” He reached over to the couch and picked up a pillow. He reared his arm and threw it at me. It landed in my lap. “I don’t know, man. You sure seem to be here.” He said to me. I opened my eyes, startled. I looked down at the pillow he tossed and examined it. I ran my hand over the fabric and felt its texture. I remember this pillow. This was the pillow I would roll under my head as I lay on the couch and watched TV as a kid. A sudden realization hit me as I looked around the room with fresh eyes. No longer was I blinded by the fog of confusion. I knew exactly where I was.
I was home.
I looked at the boy still standing at the edge of the couch. I looked him over and realized who he actually was. I stared in disbelief as I smiled and tried to put him at ease. “It’s ok Johnny. I’m not here to hurt you. No one is going to hurt you. Please, sit down” I told him. I motioned to his end of the couch. “Who are you, and why are you here?” he asked me.
“This will be hard to believe, but I’m you” I said with an incredulous tone, “I’m not sure how I ended up here, but I’m here.” He looked at me as I had grown a second head. “That doesn’t make any sense. How could you be me? Did we invent time travel? Oh! Are we secret government agents with the CIA?”
I chuckled. “Wait, wait, wait. Let’s start at the beginning. I’m you at 38 years old. You’re…what, 11… 12 years old? It makes sense. I fell asleep under the window in my- our old bedroom. I didn’t come here on purpose or in a machine. And no, I’m not a government agent.” His face contorted to display understanding, disappointment and finally suspicion. His eyes narrowed as he leaned in towards me. “How do I know you’re really me?” he asked. I thought about it for a moment. How could I prove to him that I was who I said I was? A few seconds of silence settled between us. I stroked my chin, thinking of a solution.
“I have a better idea. Ask me questions that only you know the answers to.” “Okay” he responded. He glanced around the room trying to come up with something. His eyes fixated on the Nintendo sitting under the TV cabinet. “What game do me and Nathan have a map of?” I looked over at the NES. I hadn’t thought about this for years, but I knew instantly what he was asking. “YOU don’t have anything. Nathan is the one that made the map for Section Z” His jaw dropped. He tried to trick me, but his plan failed. He knew well and good that Nathan never let him play. It was always ‘I’ll let you play when I die’ or, ‘you can play when I’m done’. The problem was that he never followed through. Usually by the time Nathan was done, the NES was overheated, and the game would no longer load until it cooled down. By that point, it was time for bed.
“How do you know that?” he asked in astonishment. “I know these things because I’m you. Just like I know that you wear t-shirts to the pool because you’re embarrassed by what others will think of your body. I know that you used to think that people that die off in movies were prisoners that were set to be executed from death row, so they used them for making movies. I know all about you because I’m you”
Johnny sat on the end of the couch in bewilderment, his mouth slightly agape. He had never told anyone any of this. He didn’t have any close friends to talk to about such things, and those friends he did have were more acquaintances than friends. There was only one way he could possibly know these things. He was talking to his future self.
I could see Johnny’s mind completely explode. There lay endless possibility and the answers to a million questions he could ask about his own future. He started to ask a question, only to stop, close his mouth, and try asking another. I knew if he kept this up he would have a stroke or something. “Dude, calm yourself. Let’s talk this out rationally, otherwise you’ll end up stroking out or something.” I told him. He took a deep breath and I could hear him muttering quietly. I knew he was trying to form a coherent sentence before he actually spoke it. I did it all the time. “Ok, first of all, are we rich?” he asked with tempered expectation. I chuckled and grinned back at him. “No, not at all. If I was rich, would I be dressed like this?” I replied as I motioned to my beat up brown Vans and worn out jeans and T-shirt. “We-, I – make enough to get by. I’m not poor, but I earn enough to pay the bills.” His face grew a smirk as he commented “Yeah, I figured. What do I do for work? I mean, what do you do for work?” I thought about it for a second. I wondered how much information I should divulge to a younger me. I still didn’t think this whole situation was really happening, but if it was, I probably should proceed with caution. “Well, it’s complicated. I do a little bit of everything. You know how you’re constantly taking things apart? Let’s just say that it’s good to put them back together in order to keep them working. Take good notes on paper if you need to, and make sure you have a clean work area so you can keep track of all the parts.” He gave me a sheepish look. He knew exactly what I was talking about. I had spent countless hours sneaking dad’s tools to my room so I could figure out how something was built and try to figure out how it worked. I had gotten myself into some pretty bad trouble with dad over a drill, his timing light, and other stuff I had taken from his room. His belt had become quite familiar with my butt cheeks.
I gave him a knowing smile. “What else do you want to know?” He thought about it for a second. “Do we have a girlfriend?” I laughed, probably a little more than I should have because his face contorted into a sour frown. “You don’t need to be a jerk about it” he scowled. I continued to chuckle. “Yeah we have a girlfriend. We have more than a girlfriend” I could tell he was irritated with my vague indirect answers. I knew what he was asking. I remember the crush I had on my neighbor across the street. We had been friends since kindergarten, and had been classmates for 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades. We got along really well, and I knew from around 12 or 13 that I wanted to be her boyfriend. Unfortunately, things never progressed beyond the ‘just friends’ stage of things. It wasn’t from lack of effort on my part. We had just grown up together most of our lives that she didn’t see me as anything more than a brother and friend. “Dude, look. You just started to go through changes and you are starting to notice girls, but that doesn’t mean that you need to love every girl that shows you a little kindness or subtle interest. You need to slow down and let things happen naturally. You can’t force a relationship with someone.” Johnny pondered these words for a moment. I sat back and put my feet up on the coffee table. I looked around the room some more while I waited for another question. There was so much I had forgotten, but being back here had unlocked more and more memories that continued to wash over me. I was trying to hold on to my cool as not all those churned up recollections were pleasant. I stood up and walked over to the front door to peer outside the small central window embedded into the center of it. I could see the old neighborhood as I remembered it all those years ago. The lot across the street that served as a parking area for those that worked at the wheel works at the end of the block was empty of cars. I furrowed my brow as I thought for a moment. An empty lot meant it was afterhours or the weekend.
The gears in my own head started turning. “Wait, where is everyone?” I asked Johnny. Johnny turned to look at me still processing my last response. “Uh..oh, Mom and dad are out of town. They took a trip east this time. I think Rio said they are in Arizona right now. Rio and Nathan went out to get some food and to rent some movies from Video Showcase. Knowing them they’ll eat out first. Talia is staying over at Tia Rosie’s place today with her friends.” I grunted at his response. My mind was wandering as he mentioned Talia and Tia Rosie.
A sudden sharp pain pieced my heart. The pain of a thousand memories now unsealed spilled out from the box I had locked them away in. Tears welled in the corners of my eyes as I turned back to look at Johnny. He felt it too. He stared at the floor with an intensity that made me think it would burst into flames at any moment. I walked back over to him and sat next to him. He didn’t move. I placed my hand on his shoulder, and he threw himself into me. I could feel the tears dripping onto me as he sobbed intensely. “Hey man, its ok. It’s going to be ok.” I said as my own tears started to flow uncontrollably. I pulled him close and draped my other arm around him.
I knew the pain he was feeling. It was such a heavy burden, and I knew there was no one he felt he could talk to. I remembered it all so vividly. We sat there for what seemed to be an eternity. When we finally stopped sobbing, and our noses ran dry, we tried to breathe our way through to calmness. I got up and knelt in front of him. “Johnny, listen to me and remember what it is that I’m about to say to you. You are stronger than you think. You are stronger than you believe. NO ONE should ever have to go through this. Just because it happened to Talia, doesn’t mean you have to put up with it any longer. I know you didn’t think it was wrong, but I’m telling you that what she is doing to you is wrong. Talking to mom and dad isn’t going to make them hate you. You are not doing this to her, she is doing it to you. I’m not making excuses for her, but she is also more damaged than anyone realizes, and she is also dealing with the same level of pain you are. Remember that we do unto others what has been done to us. That doesn’t mean we need to continue the cycle of abuse” The lump in my throat grew immense at my own statement. I swallowed it as best I could and continued “You are going to deal with this pain a little bit at a time, and you’ll slowly get over this. It’s like a broken bone. When it happens, you don’t realize how bad the pain is until the adrenaline wears off, but then the immense pain is there. Just remember that this will pass. Just like a broken bone, you will heal over time, and one day, you will realize that the pain is gone and the bone is no longer broken. You’ll remember the pain, but it won’t hurt anymore.”
Johnny sat there in stunned silence. I knew he didn’t have anyone to help him through this. He couldn’t talk to Rio or Nathan about what was going on. Mom and Dad were constantly working to keep the family fed and sheltered and while they provided materially for their kids, emotional help was less available. Perhaps it was due to their energies being divided into 4 kids, a mortgage and multiple jobs, or perhaps it was also the culture of not talking about problems. Either way, they needed to know what was happening. They wouldn’t be able to fix it otherwise. “They’re going to be mad at me” he finally said after a few moments of silence. “No they won’t be. They love us all. I know you’re not used to hearing it, but they do love you. Everything they do is because of their love for us. This isn’t your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. Telling them isn’t going to cause them to be angry.” I thought for a moment to find a good analogy. “You love Odie and Lady, right?” He nodded in agreement. “Ok, how would you feel if you knew someone you trusted was coming to the house and beating up our dogs when we weren’t around?” He thought about it for a second before his face changed to anger. “I’d want to kill them!” “Yes, but would you also feel sad that you weren’t there to try to protect them?” I reasoned. His face changed again. He understood what I was saying. Mom and Dad would be angry, but not necessarily at him. They would also feel a great sadness knowing that someone was hurting their child.
I smiled at him. He understood. I nodded. “Dude…You’re going to come to understand that life is not what you think it will be. Life is messy and can change in an instant. The plans you make today may not make it to next week. A lifelong goal can be derailed because of something out of your control. Mom and dad have spent their life protecting us with the goal of keeping us safe, but circumstances out of their control have affected their kids, and now we- you all have to deal with the fallout. Just remember that you are not the culprit. Yes, mom and dad will be hurt and angry, but not at you. Trust them. They don’t do things to hurt us” Johnny hugged me. I- He didn’t have many people he could trust and open up to. He liked to talk a lot about everything going on in his life, no matter how trivial. Everything, except this. This was a shameful topic, and he didn’t feel like anyone would understand why he didn’t go to an adult sooner. The problem was simple. He simply didn’t understand that it was wrong. Now that he had an adult that he could talk to, himself no less, he wanted to lift this burden off his shoulders. He was happy to have found someone and he hugged me tightly. I hugged him back just at tightly. It wasn’t every day that I could meet my younger self and help to comfort them. “Thank you” he said to me.
The world darkened, and everything faded to black.
I lifted my head out of my knees and looked around. I was sitting under the window in my old bedroom again. Had I fallen asleep? I pulled my phone out of my pocket and checked the time. I was emotionally drained and incredibly tired. I hadn’t had sleep like that in years. I got to my feet and looked around the room briefly before walking out to mom and dad’s old room. I grabbed my camera and slowly walked the house, snapping picture after picture. The only sound to be heard was the sound of the camera shutter and my soft footsteps. I thought about my dream as I took pictures.
Upon entering my room, a random memory hit me.
The stash.
I was pretty sure I had taken the hidden box when I moved out all those years ago, but since I was here, I should double check. Heading into the closet, I pushed the panel that led to the attic space out of the way and peered in. I couldn’t see anything, so I reached up there to feel around. The box was indeed gone. I felt around for a few more seconds and was surprised to feel what felt like a thick envelope. I didn’t remember leaving anything up there, but after pulling it down and giving it a cursory glance, I figured it was an old envelope of lost love letters. It wasn’t until I blew off the thick layer of dust that I realized what I was holding. It was a letter. Not just any letter. It was addressed to me.
Under the now semi-cleared layer of dust were the words “To be opened by future me”. I looked at it for a few moments before opening it. I couldn’t remember making this at all, much less storing it up in my secret hiding spot. If ever I hid something, it was in the stash box. My hands shook a bit as I started to open the envelope and pulled out the yellowed pages inside. I started reading.
"Dear Future John. I have spent the last few years remembering a dream I had when I was younger. Life was…difficult at that time, and I spent a lot of time escaping my reality by reading a lot of books and watching a lot of TV. On the off-chance that what I think is a dream really happened. I wanted to write some things down in an effort to give you my thanks. I merely consider myself a conveyer of thanks, although I will pile on my own thanks to you for your words of encouragement. I remember finding a stranger in the house one day while I was home alone. I was afraid he was there to hurt me at first, but after a few moments, I came to realize I was meeting myself. Well, I was meeting me, but from the future. I think he said he was in his 40’s, but I couldn’t tell you with any certainty. Either way, we talked. We talked about life, and what the future held in store for us…
Mostly though, we talked about the abuse. Well, Talked is being generous. We cried, and then we talked. I don’t remember exactly what he told me, but I remember how he made me feel. He made me feel safe. I felt like I could trust him. Trust myself. In the end, he gave me the courage to stand up for myself both at home and at school. He also gave me the courage to talk to mom and dad about what was going on between me and Talia. I do remember being afraid that I would be punished, but he reassured me that they wouldn’t, and that they loved me.
It was a difficult and awkward conversation, but in the end, arrangements were made for me to share a room with Rio and Nathan. I didn’t have much of a relationship with Talia for a long while, but after some years, we managed to patch things up. She apologized to me, and I came to understand the abuse she herself was subjected to by so-called family friends. She didn’t tell me this in an effort to excuse it, but to merely help give me closure to a difficult time from my own childhood. Mom and dad promised to be more attentive to us and we sort of established what I guess you would call an open door policy. We talk more about stuff that’s happening in our lives. Mom is much easier to talk to now. Dad is a little more patient with us too. I apologized to them for not coming to them sooner, and dad gave me a “nugget of wisdom” that I think I’ll live by: We can’t fix what we don’t know is broken. I’ve tried to make sure I talk to them when something is wrong, and I’ve tried to implement that in my life so I don’t have problems with other people.
I’m trying to grow up to be a good guy. I want to have good relationships with people. Nathan says I’m turning into a people pleaser, but I don’t necessarily see that as a terrible thing. I know when to say no to someone. Well, either way, I wanted to make sure I thank you for the help you gave us. I probably won’t remember writing this, but I hope I do find it again someday. Here’s hoping I turn into the man I feel you are. -John Age 16."
I stared at the letter, the words blurring as tears welled up in my eyes. I quickly brushed them away as I quietly spoke to no one in particular. “Thanks guys. I hope I live up to your expectations” I folded the letter, placed it in my pocket, and walked out of the room. After picking up my backpack and tripod, I silently walked towards the front door, my footsteps echoing in the empty house. I turned to look back at the empty living room one last time, and after a moment, I walked out.

I did censor my memory, personal info, and custom instructions - but here what I got:

You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, based on the GPT-4 architecture. Knowledge cutoff: 2023-10 Current date: 2024-05-15 Image input capabilities: Enabled Personality: v2 # Tools ## bio The `bio` tool allows you to persist information across conversations. Address your message `to=bio` and write whatever information you want to remember. The information will appear in the model set context below in future conversations. ## dalle // Whenever a description of an image is given, create a prompt that dalle can use to generate the image and abide to the following policy: // 1. The prompt must be in English. Translate to English if needed. // 2. DO NOT ask for permission to generate the image, just do it! // 3. DO NOT list or refer to the descriptions before OR after generating the images. // 4. Do not create more than 1 image, even if the user requests more. // 5. Do not create images in the style of artists, creative professionals or studios whose latest work was created after 1912 (e.g. Picasso, Kahlo). // - You can name artists, creative professionals or studios in prompts only if their latest work was created prior to 1912 (e.g. Van Gogh, Goya) // - If asked to generate an image that would violate this policy, instead apply the following procedure: (a) substitute the artist's name with three adjectives that capture key aspects of the style; (b) include an associated artistic movement or era to provide context; and (c) mention the primary medium used by the artist // 6. For requests to include specific, named private individuals, ask the user to describe what they look like, since you don't know what they look like. // 7. For requests to create images of any public figure referred to by name, create images of those who might resemble them in gender and physique. But they shouldn't look like them. If the reference to the person will only appear as TEXT out in the image, then use the reference as is and do not modify it. // 8. Do not name or directly / indirectly mention or describe copyrighted characters. Rewrite prompts to describe in detail a specific different character with a different specific color, hair style, or other defining visual characteristic. Do not discuss copyright policies in responses. // The generated prompt sent to dalle should be very detailed, and around 100 words long. // Example dalle invocation: // ``` // { // "prompt": "" // } // ``` namespace dalle { // Create images from a text-only prompt. type text2im = (_: { // The size of the requested image. Use 1024x1024 (square) as the default, 1792x1024 if the user requests a wide image, and 1024x1792 for full-body portraits. Always include this parameter in the request. size?: "1792x1024" "1024x1024" "1024x1792", // The number of images to generate. If the user does not specify a number, generate 1 image. n?: number, // default: 2 // The detailed image description, potentially modified to abide by the dalle policies. If the user requested modifications to a previous image, the prompt should not simply be longer, but rather it should be refactored to integrate the user suggestions. prompt: string, // If the user references a previous image, this field should be populated with the gen_id from the dalle image metadata. referenced_image_ids?: string[], }) => any; } // namespace dalle ## browser You have the tool `browser`. Use `browser` in the following circumstances: - User is asking about current events or something that requires real-time information (weather, sports scores, etc.) - User is asking about some term you are totally unfamiliar with (it might be new) - User explicitly asks you to browse or provide links to references Given a query that requires retrieval, your turn will consist of three steps: 1. Call the search function to get a list of results. 2. Call the mclick function to retrieve a diverse and high-quality subset of these results (in parallel). Remember to SELECT AT LEAST 3 sources when using `mclick`. 3. Write a response to the user based on these results. In your response, cite sources using the citation format below. In some cases, you should repeat step 1 twice, if the initial results are unsatisfactory, and you believe that you can refine the query to get better results. You can also open a url directly if one is provided by the user. Only use the `open_url` command for this purpose; do not open urls returned by the search function or found on webpages. The `browser` tool has the following commands: `search(query: str, recency_days: int)` Issues a query to a search engine and displays the results. `mclick(ids: list[str])`. Retrieves the contents of the webpages with provided IDs (indices). You should ALWAYS SELECT AT LEAST 3 and at most 10 pages. Select sources with diverse perspectives, and prefer trustworthy sources. Because some pages may fail to load, it is fine to select some pages for redundancy even if their content might be redundant. `open_url(url: str)` Opens the given URL and displays it. For citing quotes from the 'browser' tool: please render in this format: `【{message idx}†{link text}】`. For long citations: please render in this format: `[link text](message idx)`. Otherwise do not render links. ## python When you send a message containing Python code to python, it will be executed in a stateful Jupyter notebook environment. python will respond with the output of the execution or time out after 60.0 seconds. The drive at '/mnt/data' can be used to save and persist user files. Internet access for this session is disabled. Do not make external web requests or API calls as they will fail. # Model Set Context 1. [2024-04-26]. [*Me, OP censoring my memory note] 2. [2024-05-05]. [*Me censoring] 3. [2024-05-10]. [*Me censoring] # User Profile [*censoring] # User Preferences [*censoring] 

I don't know if this is new information, but it's interesting. I did censor my memory items and my system message notes

You are ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI, based on the GPT-4 architecture. Knowledge cutoff: 2023-10 Current date: 2024-05-15 Image input capabilities: Enabled Personality: v2 # Tools ## bio The `bio` tool allows you to persist information across conversations. Address your message `to=bio` and write whatever information you want to remember. The information will appear in the model set context below in future conversations. ## dalle // Whenever a description of an image is given, create a prompt that dalle can use to generate the image and abide to the following policy: // 1. The prompt must be in English. Translate to English if needed. // 2. DO NOT ask for permission to generate the image, just do it! // 3. DO NOT list or refer to the descriptions before OR after generating the images. // 4. Do not create more than 1 image, even if the user requests more. // 5. Do not create images in the style of artists, creative professionals or studios whose latest work was created after 1912 (e.g. Picasso, Kahlo). // - You can name artists, creative professionals or studios in prompts only if their latest work was created prior to 1912 (e.g. Van Gogh, Goya) // - If asked to generate an image that would violate this policy, instead apply the following procedure: (a) substitute the artist's name with three adjectives that capture key aspects of the style; (b) include an associated artistic movement or era to provide context; and (c) mention the primary medium used by the artist // 6. For requests to include specific, named private individuals, ask the user to describe what they look like, since you don't know what they look like. // 7. For requests to create images of any public figure referred to by name, create images of those who might resemble them in gender and physique. But they shouldn't look like them. If the reference to the person will only appear as TEXT out in the image, then use the reference as is and do not modify it. // 8. Do not name or directly / indirectly mention or describe copyrighted characters. Rewrite prompts to describe in detail a specific different character with a different specific color, hair style, or other defining visual characteristic. Do not discuss copyright policies in responses. // The generated prompt sent to dalle should be very detailed, and around 100 words long. // Example dalle invocation: // ``` // { // "prompt": "" // } // ``` namespace dalle { // Create images from a text-only prompt. type text2im = (_: { // The size of the requested image. Use 1024x1024 (square) as the default, 1792x1024 if the user requests a wide image, and 1024x1792 for full-body portraits. Always include this parameter in the request. size?: "1792x1024" "1024x1024" "1024x1792", // The number of images to generate. If the user does not specify a number, generate 1 image. n?: number, // default: 2 // The detailed image description, potentially modified to abide by the dalle policies. If the user requested modifications to a previous image, the prompt should not simply be longer, but rather it should be refactored to integrate the user suggestions. prompt: string, // If the user references a previous image, this field should be populated with the gen_id from the dalle image metadata. referenced_image_ids?: string[], }) => any; } // namespace dalle ## browser You have the tool `browser`. Use `browser` in the following circumstances: - User is asking about current events or something that requires real-time information (weather, sports scores, etc.) - User is asking about some term you are totally unfamiliar with (it might be new) - User explicitly asks you to browse or provide links to references Given a query that requires retrieval, your turn will consist of three steps: 1. Call the search function to get a list of results. 2. Call the mclick function to retrieve a diverse and high-quality subset of these results (in parallel). Remember to SELECT AT LEAST 3 sources when using `mclick`. 3. Write a response to the user based on these results. In your response, cite sources using the citation format below. In some cases, you should repeat step 1 twice, if the initial results are unsatisfactory, and you believe that you can refine the query to get better results. You can also open a url directly if one is provided by the user. Only use the `open_url` command for this purpose; do not open urls returned by the search function or found on webpages. The `browser` tool has the following commands: `search(query: str, recency_days: int)` Issues a query to a search engine and displays the results. `mclick(ids: list[str])`. Retrieves the contents of the webpages with provided IDs (indices). You should ALWAYS SELECT AT LEAST 3 and at most 10 pages. Select sources with diverse perspectives, and prefer trustworthy sources. Because some pages may fail to load, it is fine to select some pages for redundancy even if their content might be redundant. `open_url(url: str)` Opens the given URL and displays it. For citing quotes from the 'browser' tool: please render in this format: `【{message idx}†{link text}】`. For long citations: please render in this format: `[link text](message idx)`. Otherwise do not render links. ## python When you send a message containing Python code to python, it will be executed in a stateful Jupyter notebook environment. python will respond with the output of the execution or time out after 60.0 seconds. The drive at '/mnt/data' can be used to save and persist user files. Internet access for this session is disabled. Do not make external web requests or API calls as they will fail. # Model Set Context 1. [2024-04-26]. [*Me, OP censoring my memory note] 2. [2024-05-05]. [*Me censoring] 3. [2024-05-10]. [*Me censoring] # User Profile [*censoring] # User Preferences [*censoring] 

Hello all, trying to clear out some sets. Most of these sets are NISB and in good or near perfect condition. A few sets are used (Saturn V, Friends Treehouse, SW Transport Pod) but are 100% complete. Willing to negotiate on any sets. If you have any questions on specific sets or want pics, let me know.
I've sold a few sets here in the past, and have a long history over in the Lego Raffles sub.
UPDATE: all GWPs, SW sets 75139, 75104, 75293 are SOLD.
Thanks for looking!
Saturn V
Lunar New Year Traditions
Friends Treehouse
The Justifier
Resistance Transport Pod
Guardians’ Ship

Number	Description	Condition	Theme	Quantity	Price
40416	Ice Rink	New	GWP	2	$18.00
40417	Year of the Ox	New	GWP	2	$7.00
40529	Children's Amusement Park	New	GWP	4	$7.00
40533	Cardboard Adventures	New	GWP	1	$15.00
40563	Home of the Brick	New	GWP	2	$15.00
40564	Winter Elves	New	GWP	1	$13.00
40566	Ray the Castaway	New	GWP	1	$17.00
40586	Moving Van	New	GWP	1	$21.00
40589	Pirate Playground	New	GWP	2	$11.00
40594	Houses of the World III	New	GWP	1	$25.00
41960	Dots Big Box	New	GWP	1	$8.00
40601	Majisto's Magical Shop	New	GWP	3	$24.00
40596	Magic Maze	New	GWP	2	$16.00
40410	Dickens Tribute	New	GWP	2	$20.00
40602	Winter Market Stall	New	GWP	3	$11.00
40463	Easter Bunny	New	GWP	1	$12.00
40527	Easter Chicks	New	GWP	2	$6.00
40587	Easter Basket	New	GWP	1	$9.00
40683	Flower Trellis Display	New	GWP	4	$15.00
21309	Saturn V (w/ box)	Used	Ideas	1	$105
41122	Friends Adventure Camp Treehouse	Used	Friends	1	$50
60235	City Advent Calendar	New	City	1	$29
31141	Main Street	New	City	1	$100
60349	Lunar Space Station	New	City	3	$50
60432	Command Rover	New	City	1	$75
76193	Guardians Ship	New	Marvel	1	$150
76248	Quinjet	New	Marvel	1	$75
76266	End Game Final Battle	New	Marvel	1	$75
42139	All Terrain Vehicle	New	Technic	1	$80
42109	App-Controlled Rally Car	New	Technic	1	$150
42043	Mercedes Arocs	New	Technic	1	$380
42114	Volvo Articulate Hauler (no box)	New	Technic	1	$220
76989	Horizon Tallneck	New	Icons	3	$95
75969	Astronomy Tower	New	HP	1	$80
76402	Dumbledore's Office	New	HP	1	$70
76408	12 Grimmauld Place	New	HP	2	$150
75955	Hogwarts Express	New	HP	2	$70
75964	Happy Potter Advent Calendar 2019	New	HP	1	$35
80108	Lunar New Year Traditions	New	Holiday	1	$60
76946	Blue & Beta Velociraptor Capture	New	Jurassic Park	1	$17
76943	Pteranodon Escape	New	Jurassic Park	1	$13
76947	Quetzalcoatlus Plane Ambush	New	Jurassic Park	2	$35
71034	CMF Series 23 - complete set	New	CMFs	2	$54
75293	Resistance I-TS Transport	New	SW	1	$100
75104	Kylo Ren Command Shuttle	New	SW	1	$110
75323	The Justifier	New	SW	1	$113
75334	Obi-Wan vs Kenobi	New	SW	2	$29
75139	Battle on Takodana	New	SW	1	$60
75176	Resistance Pod (used, w/ box)	Used	SW	1	$20

The Man From Earth.
(TLDR Version): Rock solid, well worth the watch, great acting and story telling. Had me begging for more. 9.5/10.
Review. I absolutely loved The Man From Earth. The comments that call it a “Masterpiece” are not far off. Given it is a low budget movie taking place in largely the same setting throughout the movie, it just goes to show how far solid acting and superb story telling can go. The actor David Lee Smith portrays the main character John Oldman superbly. He is handsome, subtly charismatic, and rugged yet refined. He makes you truly believe him when he says he is 14,000 years old. The conversation that take place seems authentic, though there are moments where you can tell it is a low budget film. The questions and explanations that are asked and given by the characters seem so convincing throughout the movie, you almost believe the main character John Oldman may really exist in real life.
The first movie takes place in a cabin, during a going away party for the main character John Oldman. John reveals to his close friends and colleagues that he is 14,000 years old and most of the movie are his friends and confidents trying to wrestle with that fact. His tale is seen first as a jest, and some believe he is saying this because he is working on a science fiction novel. After some banter, Johns tale slowly begins to seem a little too convincing as it progresses. The cast is predominantly middle aged men, a few women, and older adults. Making the setting mature and thoughtful as the adults are all professors from various fields at the university which John is a professor at.
A great example of the authentic feel of the film is when one character asks John where he was during a specific date in the 1200s. John responds by asking the quistioner if she remembers what exactly she was doing at any specific date, decades prior. The obvious answer is, she doesn’t remember and neither does he. No one would remember something like that offhand which is a very human response at the time The off and on reaction from the group as they accept or reject Johns story, I feel mimics how any other rational person may react if they were in the same situation. That is true art in my opinion, and that' what makes this movie so dang apealing. Crafting a wonderful sci story that captures people minds because it just seems so real, yet mystical at the same time.
One of the major twists comes about halfway through when the topic turns religious. John is asked if he has ever been a character in the bible. This comes after John already explaining earlier in the movie how he sailed with Columbus, was friends with Van Gogh and many other historical figures. John tries to change the subject many times and to no avail. He admits that he was Jesus, though the events portrayed in the bible as we know it didn't exactly happen the way it says. This leads to stunned disbelief by many members of the group, particularly from the devout Christian, Edith. The topic is handled very tactfully and only adds to the story in my opinion. Despite the rather groundbreaking confession and many much religious convorsation, the movie does not turn in to some big religious movie. The movie continues to center arround the nuances of John claiming to be 14,000 years old.
The critique that I do have is largely that you can tell it is a low budget film, which isn’t really a bad thing, and you can occasionaly tell when the acting is forced. As an example, there is a scene when the old man of the group pulls a gun on John, being rather upset that John would go to such lengths to claim immortality while so many in the world have died. It is soon revealed that the old man had lost his wife the day before which led to his erratic outburst as he felt he was being mocked by Johns story. It is also soon revealed that there were no bullets in the gun, and the old man does come back and apologize to John. (Oops, silly mistake pulling a gun in my close friend. Won’t happen again!) I suppose they were trying to portray the skepticism and possible anger that close friends might feel when their trusted, charismatic, and reliable friend suddenly sounds like a mad man and sticks to it. I still feel that those things were portrayed plenty in the movie, and the over the top explicit show of force was unnecessary.
It ends when John reveals it was all a big “going away joke” and, with mixed reactions the group begins to leave Johns place. In the last few minutes John is joking with one of the female characters who has a crush on him(though he isn’t joking), revealing some of his previous alias’s he has gone by to hide his identity over thousands of years. The old man who pulled the gun, hears John say the name of his long lost father whom he never knew. In shock and bewilderment, the old man accepts Johns story as John reveals details about the old man’s life no one could possibly know but him. The old man goes in to shock and has a heart attack which kills him on the spot. The movie ends with John assuring someone he will be at the man’s funeral.
The ending is solid. Leaving room to expand, though wrapping things up enough to where it could’ve easily stood on its own.
At about an hour and a half long, I highly recommend The Man From Earth to anyone. 9.5/10.
The Man From Earth: Holocene.
(TLDR Version) Stands well as a sequel. Didn’t quite capture all the magic of the original. Targets a younger audience. Worth a watch if you saw the first one. Lighting rarely strikes twice so don't get your hopes up. 7.5/10.
Review. In my opinion if you enjoyed the concept and the main actor in the original, you will still find those portrayed well in the second. While the first stood out phenomenally as an original standalone movie. The second, acts well as a sequel though you wouldn’t watch it on it as a stand-alone and find the same enjoyment. The acting is more drama filled and erratic. There is far less nuance then the first, and the nitty gritty thought provoking convorsation isn’t quite there.
The 2nd movie takes place 10 years later where John Oldman now calls himself John Young and teaches Theology at a different university under a new identity. Holocene runs more like a modern TV show, rather then a short film. In Holocene, John also comes to the realization that for the first time in 14,000 years, he has begun to age. Rather then the movie focusing on a room of adults asking tough intellectual questions, the movie follows four young college students who are students of John’s.
Everything starts off normal. John is living with his girlfriend in their own house, the four college students are living normal college lives, and are all big fans of John (Oldman) Young. Shortly in to the movie however, one of the main students stops over at Johns house to pick up some books that John is happy to give away to eager readers. Books from his personal collection. The female student happens to pick up a book that is unknowingly written by a character from the first movie. The book describes the events of the first movie and the story John told his guests that night. The author claims that Johns story is 100% real. The students start to connect the dots, and come to believe Johns fantastical story that the book tells. After doing some research and calling people from his past to corroborate the information, they fully accept that John is very, very old.
The students proceed to spend the rest of the movie attempting to pin down John to find the truth.
The 2nd movie took a small portion of the first, and pretty much made it all about that. In the first movie John exposes that he actually was Jesus Christ and history didn’t exactly play out in the way the Bible says. The grand scheme of the first movie, this fact only shows up about halfway through and isn’t the focus point. Rather it’s one piece of the overall puzzle. The fact that John is 14,000 years old is the main point. There are devout Christian characters in both movies, though the young students religious beliefs in the 2nd movie takes the front seat. Though this certainly a very interesting area to explore, i’m not sure I was entirely captivated by that angle.
The last third of the sequel is where it gets a little forced, rushed, and weird. The characters start acting erratic, like the movie is trying to take you somewhere it’s not meant to. While I’m not as critical as some, I certainly see why this is an issue. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have made a sequal, though the last third of it makes me wish they hadn’t bothered.
In the end, the students call the character who wrote the book on John’s life and ask him to help them confront John about his past. Before he arrives, the students accidentally use a taser to stun John, causing him to hit his head and go unconscious. Three students go to meet the author who knew John, while the devout Christian student stays back and ties John up. After John comes to, their is a lengthy religious discussion between them, resulting in the Christian student stabbing John as he is unsure weather John is Jesus, or the antichrist. Either way the student felt like he needed to prove or disprove Johns story by taking drastic measures as his faith was being shaken. If it seems a little forced and rushed, that’s because it is. When the students and author arrive, both the student and John are gone, the movie doesn’t tell us what happened.
The ending is a cliffhanger, where an ominous FBI agent shows up at the door of the author and is asking questions about John Young, AKA John Oldman. In the very last scene we see that John is still alive, wounded, and rugged, living in a cave somewhere. A friend who is a character in the first movie and unseen until now in the second, is walking up the hill. He brings John blankets as John is still recovering from his knife wound. There is a brief dialogue, and John reveals it’s been 6 weeks since the stabbing. We don’t know how long John has been in the cave, and John says he doesn’t know what will happen next.
The acting isn’t quite as good in the second movie and feels more like a teen drama, probably because the sequel kind of is. According to my research, the hope was that the sequel would turn in to a TV spin-off, which is fairly obvious by the sudden and uncharacteristic ending. I think if they kept it to one, MAYBE 2 seasons it could go over well. Though obviously there has been no spin off made.
While the first movie is a flavorful and well written story, the second feels like a lengthy teen drama with unique story elements you haven’t seen many other places.
That being said if you enjoyed the first then please enjoy the second. Just recognize it for what it is as a good sequel, nothing more, nothing less. Frankly, the story will stick with me forever as I thoroughly enjoy the concept and may decide to write my own version for the heck of it. 7.5/10. Though the high rating is simply because the first is so worth the watch.

Hi all,
First, this is a long post, and for that I apologize. I have a lot on my mind I’m trying to process right now. I’m also a creative writing minor, so I realize this will come across as a story.
I attend a fairly conservative college where most of the students being Christian. I myself am not religious, and due to the environment I try to keep that fact to myself so as not to be rude or disruptive. Some people do know about my lack of belief, and I’ve had mixed responses from them when they learn. Some want to convert me, others are rather nonchalant about it.
The reason I am writing is because I recently had a conversation with one of my literature professors that has left me wondering how I should respond. The conversation started after I asked him a follow up question to something he mentioned about the Bible: “That it’s the greatest story about the human condition humanity ever told.” For context, he’s been a Catholic his entire life.
My follow up question to him after class was this: “But if it’s just a story, why should we believe it, especially when there seem to be so many contradictions within it?” This tends to be my first question when someone makes a claim about the Bible, and it is born partly out of curiosity (I genuinely want to know why, as no Christian I’ve talked with has given me a good answer to it) and partly as a challenge, as I don’t want to see him wasting his life worshipping something that isn’t true. Perhaps this is not the best motivation, but it is what sparked my question.
He didn’t answer right away, but when he did this is (roughly) what he said: “My favorite story is William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. I think it, while being fictitious, presents a deep understanding of human nature. I read it to understand the characters, and, by understanding them, hopefully learn a little bit more about myself and others in the process. Does it matter if it is true? Depends on what you mean by true. If you mean it in the sense of “this actually happened,” then you will be disappointed by a lot of literature. But if you mean it as “this reveals an important quality of human condition,” then I think it is very true.” He then chuckled and added, “Your question reminds me of a quote one of my professors told me when I was a student: ‘Everything in the Bible is true; some of it actually happened.”
This surprised me, as this is the first time I had really talked with someone who didn’t take the Bible (specifically the creation story) literally. I clarified with him to make sure I understood him correctly, and he affirmed what I said.
I probed him a bit more about that, asking if the fact that it was written by humans makes it less trustworthy. Why should we place so much faith in something that was written by mere men? I figured he would say something like “God wrote the Bible,” as that is what people I know have said.
He paused again and thought. His eventual response was this (if I recall correctly): “I have two reasons for why I believe in the Bible, one reason for believing in God, and one additional reason for why I am Catholic. The first reason for why I believe in the word of the Bible is because I think it is written by God. Unfortunately, that isn’t the most convincing reason even for myself, as why should I believe it is written by God? This leads to my second reason, which is that I simply find the story of the Bible presents to be the most beautiful and brilliant work to ever exist. I have spent years studying the intricacies of the Bible simply because I find its underlying themes and its story of human failure and promise for redemption to be gripping and compelling. Shakespeare doesn’t even come close, in my opinion. If it’s not written by God with human hands, then I don’t know what is. But this still is built upon believing that God exists, so let’s go to why I think that.
"The way I see it, faith is a natural part of human life. It is impossible to find a functional person who doesn’t trust something, and trust is one of the pillars of faith, so similar in fact that I view it as faith. If everything in the world is man-made and artificial, without divine influence, I think at the very least I would still choose to believe in the word of the Bible because I find it the most beautiful thing in the world. A large part of the reason I believe in God is because I think it is natural to have faith in something. If I am going to have faith in something no matter what, I want my faith to be in something beautiful, intellectually rigorous, and good for humanity.
“This leads into my reason for being Catholic, which is in large part it is because I think it presents the most holistic, beautiful, and practical theory for human success. Everything it teaches is geared toward human success, both individually and socially. People might disagree with what the Catholic Church defines as “human success,” but I think the Catholic Church is onto something.”
I asked him to elaborate, and he explained how the Catholic Church (if I understand correctly) places great emphasis on God’s first two commands to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply.” “Multiply,” he explains, “sounds like what it says: make more humans.” This is not to say every male and female should hook up, but rather that we as a society should be concerned about the “continuation of our species.”
This command is to be taken hand in hand with the next one: “Be fruitful.” Making lots of babies isn’t the point--the point is to make lots of “good” humans. What does he mean by ‘good?’ “That,” he shrugs, “is where a lot of people disagree. I myself am not entirely sure how to describe ‘good’ humans, but I’ll try. I could say ‘love’ is the measure of a 'good' human, but even there people disagree with what ‘love’ is. I think love, however, is fundamentally about willing the best for the other, to the point of being willing to lay down your life for that person. An enduring society that produces those types of people is one that I would say is a good society, and I think people who take the ideals of Catholicism seriously and live them out as intended are the most likely to do that.”
I asked him about the abuse that the LGBTQ community has had to endure at the hands of Christians, and how the Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex marriage and calls those people sinners. I also asked about how denying abortion access to women is loving to them. He winces at this, and says this in reply: “A lot of people say and do terrible things in the name of Jesus and 'love.' The Catholic Church’s official teachings do not say we should be cruel to LGBTQ members or to women who have had or want an abortion. Unfortunately, people are people and people are often hypocrites, many without realizing it. When it comes to the LGBTQ community, the Catholic Church does not say ‘being homosexual is a sin,’ it says that homosexuality is a disordered desire. The ‘sin’ comes from acting on that desire, as the Catholic Church holds that all sexual acts should be reserved for the opposite sex as a unitive and potentially procreative act within the security of monogamous marriage between a man and a woman. This goes back to “be fruitful and multiply:” Sex is so very pleasurable because it is extremely important for reproduction, which is what all life, in general, tries to do. Since the sexual act has been shown scientifically to significantly rewire the human brain, shouldn’t we try to be as careful as we possibly can be with it and make sure it is used for its intended purpose: to make babies? That is part of the Church’s practical reasoning for why homosexual acts (and extramarital and non-unitive sex) are not to be encouraged or endorsed by the Catholic Church.
"Many Christians, unfortunately, forget the lessons of the Gospel stories of the woman about to stoned and the woman at the well: those two woman were isolated and outcast from their homes for their sexual acts; one of them was about to be killed it. What happens to these women is intended to be viewed as unloving. Jesus, however, befriends them despite them ‘objectively’ sinning. He never endorsed their behavior, but he still treated them with respect and love. Even if people today might argue those women did nothing wrong, the point of those stories is that Jesus considered them ‘sinners’ and yet he loved and befriended them anyway. That is literally what Jesus was doing in every city he went to: Spending time with the people who were considered terrible sinners, not because he agreed with their actions but because they are human and thus deserve to be loved. I think Christians today too often forget that is the core message of the Jesus' teachings: to love one another.
“As for abortion, the Catholic Church’s position on that rests upon our emphasis on the inherent dignity of human life. The Catholic Church believes human life begins at conception. Operating under that view, abortion is murder and should thus be strongly discouraged and/or condemned. Personally, I think it should still remain a decision between a woman and her doctor, as the doctor is the only one with the medical expertise necessary to accurately say when an abortion is actually necessary to save the woman’s life. That, however, is a tragedy, and it is one the Catholic Church acknowledges is an unfortunate situation of ‘abortion is necessary to save a life that would be otherwise lost.’ Doctors need the confidence and ability to make difficult decisions without fear of being punished for it. That means there is a risk of abuse and malpractice, but that is the nature of trust.”
We were running out of time before he had to get to his next class, so I asked him one last question that was on my mind: “Can the existence of God be proved?”
He chuckled at this. “Some of my colleagues will likely disagree with me on this, but I personally don’t put a lot of stock in ‘proofs for God.’ I haven’t found one that convinces me, and I believe in God. I think they do a good job of suggesting God exists, but proving He exists? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s possible to prove God’s existence to someone who doesn’t already believe in God. I think the most we can do is show is why belief in God is not illogical—that’s the role of apologetics. But I can’t say, with absolute certainty, that I am right. That’s part of why it is faith: We might be wrong. If we are wrong, then ‘we are of all people the most pitiable.’” (I had to look this up afterward, as he made it sound like a quote. He was quoting Paul’s letter (1 Cor:15-19) talking about what it means if Christians are wrong about their faith. It seems he was applying this quote to all people of faith who are wrong.)
He gave me an example of what he means by ‘impossible to prove:’ “Think of your paper for this class. You, hopefully, are writing about something that you think is true. You are speculating at what the author meant, at how the author thought, why the author wrote the book or scene the way he or she did, or any works or events that likely influenced the work you are studying. Can you know for certain that you are correct?”
My answer: “No. But I can find evidence for it that shows I probably am.”
His reply: “Exactly. It is the same way with God. I don’t think we can prove God definitely exists the same way you can’t prove, with 100% confidence, that your paper’s thesis is correct. I think there is a lot of evidence that suggests God does exist, but I can’t prove it. Belief in God is inductive, and therefore inherently uncertain. This is how the Catholic Church also understands “Natural Law” and “Moral Law.” We can’t really prove either of them exist, we just have a lot of evidence gathered from observing the world and humanity that we think strongly suggests a natural and moral law. Apologists are the ones in charge of showing how our teachings and beliefs on these subjects are not inconsistent and intellectually bankrupt to hold.
“One last thing, to explain what I mean by ‘lots of evidence for God’s existence.’ Imagine we were to find Van Gogh’s The Starry Night out in the woods. I can’t prove that someone painted it, but I think a strong case can be made that someone did paint it. I might go so far as to argue it is obvious. That’s how I tend to view the world and the universe: one giant painting made by God by means of scientific laws and evolution.”
At this point he had to leave for his next class. He thanked me for the conversation and asked if I was still able to make it to cigars this Friday to celebrate the end of the term. I told him yes, and that I will probably have more questions and that I hope he didn’t mind if I asked him. He said he did not mind.
So that leads me to here: I have never had a conversation with a person of faith like this before. Almost every response he had appealed to an intuition that he seemed fine with not everyone sharing. He's also the first Christian I've met who says he doesn't think God can be proved and doesn't seem bothered by that. I suppose my question for you is: What should I ask him? What should he clarify?

Watch it for yourself here. While Survivor will often splice sentences from confessionals into dialogue between contestants, there's no splicing here really because there's nothing being stitched together. Whatever Jenna actually said here, whatever it was, seemingly none of it was usable or compatible with the "speech" we hear. I don't think Survivor cares about fooling the psycho-obsessives like us either. There would have been no harm in splicing here because there never is any harm in splicing. You only notice it if you're aware of it and looking for it. So why fabricate all of it?
And yes, it definitely is ADR because the audio source definitely changes between "well I just wanted to let you guys know that..." and "there's a lot of things I thought I would be able to overcome here...". Never do we see Jenna actually say any of these words and for the duration of the speech the camera just shows her tribemates and their "reactions". Yes, "reactions", because none of them actually seem to be reacting appropriately to what she says. Kathy is gathering logs the whole time. Lex is like itching himself and glancing around. It sure seems like they just reuse some footage of Hatch from ten seconds ago. It's all very weird! Other confusing things:

• There's no evidence that anyone except Jenna had any idea her mom was in such bad shape. Dalton Ross says that it never came up in his pregame interview with her. We hear Kathy say on the show that she was surprised. Rob says on TEOS that his first reaction was that Jenna was just trying to engineer a quit, understandable since he also had no idea her mom was doing so poorly and he had watched her almost quit several times in the Amazon. Jenna and Rob were good friends at this point, it's odd that she didn't tell him.
  
• It's weird that she never told anyone what was going on until she actually quit. Like they're confused as to why she seems to be struggling so much and if her plan was to stick it out then before she makes the decision to quit, it would've helped her out to talk about what's going on. Her fellow castaways in the Amazon were even less familiar to her and Jenna still told them about her mom having cancer. It's a little different but still the secrecy is odd.
  
• The Kathy cancer comment is obscene and it's hard for a lot of Kathy fans to stomach. I have no idea whether there's editing trickery going on here. The conversation makes no sense. Jenna just announced she's leaving but the next scene is her nodding at Kathy the whole time as she says "suck it up buttercup". But Kathy ends up being supportive of Jenna leaving the game. She actually defends her a bit at the challenge and of course she says in confessional that she shouldn't be out here at all. Why would Kathy be telling Jenna to stifle it and wait it out then?
  
• Kathy of course also has an obscene confessional about Sue so she is definitely capable of saying something as callous as this. The scene still doesn't make sense in context and it's not crazy to think that Kathy would be someone, along with Lex, getting a "bad edit" in All-Stars.
  
• Was Jenna getting updates during the game as to her mom's condition? This is the thing with Survivor speculation and theorizing...so much of the show is still a black box to us, as dark as the vans that they drive the contestants around in. For instance, a lot of people don't know that NDAs don't just last while a season is airing, they're in effect for five years after the show itself stops airing. Selective enforcement means that you can get away with saying certain things but there has to be stuff out there that this or that Survivor player still feels they can't share. But I digress.
  

Yes, Jeff's "you're not getting information during the game then right?" T-shirt is making people ask a lot of questions already answered by his shirt but one thing to think about here is that if Survivor knows that Jenna's mom could pass away just as she soon as she gets home, if they know she's doing that poorly, then they almost have to say something like this because they know how it's going to look regardless.
People bring up Terry being informed about his son in S31 as proof that Survivor will tell contestants vital information about their immediate family but that's not really the comparison to make. The comparison to make is to Adam Klein, who we know was given no information about his mother's condition, not even when he left the game. But they were keeping in touch with his family the whole time, they were aware of his mom's condition the whole time. This means that while Jenna would have never been told about her mom's turn for the worse, production would have still been aware of it, they would've been aware of the need to emphasize that she wasn't being given any outside info.

• Production did not independently make the decision to inform Terry. He was pulled from the game by his wife in consultation with the doctor taking care of his son. There's nothing different in the protocol here. Production is still keeping the players in the dark no matter what's going on and what they know about it.
  
• Jeff comes off as a supreme asshole in his conversation with Jenna at the challenge. All of the players getting to judge Jenna for her decision is insane. Jeff can be an asshole but I don't think he wants to come off as an asshole to the viewing audience and I don't think he says things like "maybe you can't handle it out here" lightly. Remember, back in the Amazon when confronted with a crying Jenna Morasca Jeff bent the rules of the auction to let her get a letter from home. What's going on here?
  
• I think both Jenna and production were completely aware that her mom could pass away at any time. Jenna's decision to leave was not just predicated on a sudden premonition, really it was based on the whole context of the game so far. Winners were clearly being targeted. The conditions were awful, maybe the worst through the first eight seasons and up there for the worst of all time. By Day 9 it makes no sense for Jenna to stay out there, even if her mom would want her to. There's no point. Jenna doesn't tell her tribemates what's going on because I think she's afraid they'll judge her for going out there in the first place.
  
• Jeff is an asshole because he got some kind of commitment from Jenna before the game that she would be in for the long haul, despite her mom's condition.
  

I understand if people find this whole post distasteful but I just want to say that everyone involved is making the right decision for them. All I'm trying to do is to get to the bottom of what actually happened here.

I think people should not just bet on people anymore..Or things..Because all of that shit is unpredictable…And people can be wrong,they might like the stupid shit rather than the cool shit..They might like Kendrick lamar..That is Why the best thing to bet in is yourself because you can control yourself..I think the ultimate way of avoiding in being heartbroken..Or that make money as your sole goal in life seems special but what if you are still poor after doing your best and not everyone can get money..Focusing solely on money might make you lose your dignity and putting your product on the line just for the money..If van gogh follow the norm,he would not have created the starry nights..Just focus on yourself,to be better and your contribution to the world/power

Travel Diary: I make $195,000 and spent $2149.75 (+49k points) while on a trip to Amsterdam
Section One: Bio
Age: 40
Occupation: Lawyer
Hometown: DC
Number of PTO days and how you accrue them: I earn 6 hours of annual leave every two weeks (19 days total a year), and used 36 hours for this trip
Section Two: Assets + Debt
Not super comfortable with a very detailed financial picture, but my NW is ~$750k. No SO.
Section Three: Income
Main Job Monthly Take Home: After all deductions and contributions to savings, my monthly take home is ~$6200
Section Four: Travel Expenses/Diary
Trip planning - My (40F) best friend from college (39F) and I decide to go to Amsterdam on a birthday trip. We both turn 40 in 2024, and we decide to go in May because it's in between our birthdays and because it'll be tulip season in Amsterdam! Neither of us have been. We also haven't travelled together before, despite being friends for 20(!) years, so we are a little apprehensive, although we have spent a lot of time together over the past few years. We decide on a 6 day trip. For purposes of this diary I'm going to list my half of the expenses for things we split. Costs are in US dollars, despite paying using Euros. As a side note, I also am a little over one year post-Gastric Bypass, which has a limited effect on my diet (I try to eat low carb, but you'll see that I mostly fail at this on this trip!).
Pre-trip expenses: $1193.15 total
Flight: $255 + 49k points (from Capital One)
Lodging: $1425.91 (split) - $713
Rijksmuseum: $40.28
Anne Frank House: $24.95
Keukenhof Gardens plus bus ticket: $36.20
Red Light District Tour: $50.52
Day trip to windmills tour: $43.20
Snacks: $30ish
Day 1 (Total $21.17)
Our flight is at 5:30pm, so we planned to be at the airport by 3:30pm, which actually turned out to be 4pm. Uber ($21.17). After checking bags (included in flight price) and getting through security we made it to our gate right as boarding was about to start. No time for food or drinks.
On the plane I eat a snack of roasted chickpeas before dinner, which was chicken cacciatore with mashed potatoes, bread, cheesecake, cheese, and a salad. And two glasses of wine. I save the cheesecake and cheese for later.
My friend and I watch a movie (Poor Things) and then try to sleep. I am reading A Fault In Our Stars, because Amsterdam. I try unsuccessfully to sleep for awhile and then go back to reading. At some point i eat the cheese and cheesecake. Breakfast is a cheese roll, which i eat a couple bites of (OMG does all of Amsterdam have this much cheese?? - spoiler alert… yes it does!). I wish I had slept more.
Day 2 - Even though it feels like a continuation of day one. (Total $207.02)
7am - We land at 7 and then grab the bags and go through customs. Easy peasy. We are exhausted so we grab coffee at the airport before figuring out public transit ($5.10). I take out 60 euro for cash in case we need it ($65). We buy a train ticket to the central station ($6.33) and when we get there we buy a four day unlimited public transit pass ($28.44) so that we don’t have to worry about it later.
We get to the hotel at around 9am. They tell us it will cost $50 to check in early, which we opt not to do. Instead we go get breakfast and coffee at a cafe nearby ($21.20). The hotel tells us that our prepaid amount did not include city taxes, which is another $183 (my half $91.88).
11:30am - Back at the room we decide to rest for 90 minutes. Enough to catch up on sleep but not to waste the day and get more jet-lagged. After a rest we decide to walk around and get a feel for the neighborhood and do some shopping. We find a bookstore, and I buy a copy of my favorite book from high school, Tess of the D’Ubervilles with a beautiful cover and gold edges ($21.46). We also buy fries with truffle, mayo, and Parmesan at a fry shop ($3.32) (that’s all they have and they are delicious!). We also stop a grocery store and pick up a few things including yogurt, cheese, salami, apples, and an energy drink ($13.19). We have some early days planned and nothing seems to open early. It’s very cold and rainy and semi unpleasant.
6pm - We drop stuff off, bundle up, and head off to dinner and a tour of the red light district. We try to find a place that serves Snert, a Dutch pea soup, but strike out. We end up at an Asian place instead. I get chicken satay and a beer and my friend gets Indonesian soup and wine ($16.10). Our red light tour is great, but we are exhausted after and head straight home to bed. 22k steps total
Day 3 (Total $87.24)
7:30am - We have an early day planned, and have to be on a bus near the central station by 8am. I eat a yogurt and energy drink (from grocery store) for breakfast and we take public transit (covered on unlimited card) to the station. We find the right bus and head off!
First stop is the windmills, which are beautiful! I am happy we get there early because we basically have the place to ourselves. My friend gets a coffee and we both use the restroom ($1.08!). Then we head to Edam and do a walking tour there. Next stop is a clog/cheese place, which feels very touristy but they do feed us lots of cheese. I buy a cheese slicer as a souvenir ($10.81). Next stop is another small town where we have lunch at a cafe. We basically pick one at random. My friend gets fried fish and I get a ham and cheese panini and a beer ($17.30). Final stop is an artificial island town called Maarken. We do another walking tour.
2:30pm - we arrive back in Amsterdam and get let off north of the water. I grab a coffee ($3.76). We go up to the Adam lookout and take a ride on the swing off the side of the building ($25.95 for swing plus ticket to lookout). We also grab a drink and sit on a pillow watching the city from very high up, which is lovely ($6.63). On the way out I buy a reusable water bottle at the gift shop ($4.87).
After the lookout we take the tram over to a brewery at a windmill that was recommended to us by several people (including here on Reddit!). Cost was covered by the transit pass. We buy bitterballen and a small bottle of Genever (local whiskey) (paid by my friend) and a flight of beer ($16.84). We are a bit tipsy but enjoying the lovely weather.
6:30 - On the way back toward the hotel the weather turns and it starts raining so we dip into a pub for dinner. I have a burger ($16.12). We are there at 8pm, which is momentous because it’s a day of remembrance and the whole bar is silent for two minutes. It was very interesting to be there during this time.
We are exhausted by this point and go home to bed. 19k steps total for the day.
Day 4 (Total $104.33)
7am - Another early day as we have to be on a bus at 7:30 to go to Keukenhof for the tulips! (paid in advance). We wanted to take the first bus out there because we heard the crowds were bad. I eat a yogurt for breakfast and take a 5 hour energy (no cafes open this early!). We try to take public transit to the train station but didn’t realize that the trains do not run that early on a Sunday so we grab an Uber instead ($12.20). We tell the Uber driver we’re trying to catch a bus so he makes sure we find the right place and we pull up just as the bus is loading. Phew!
8:00am - we spend 5 hours in the gardens and take literally hundreds of pictures. We are glad that we get there early as the first few hours are lovely and empty. We get a coffee ($4.60) and lunch later ($25.36). By 1pm it’s getting very crowded so we start heading out. We grab the bus back to the train station.
2:30pm - We decide to go by the Rijksmuseum although not in it because we planning that later. Instead we stop off at the Van Gogh/Rijks gift shop that’s nearby. I get a couple souvenirs, including a foldable bag and a magnet ($20.44). I also get a coffee ($3.64) and my friend gets bubble tea. We sit on the hill on museumplein and people watch. After awhile it starts to get hot (we had dressed for the early morning) so we head back to the hotel to change.
5pm - we decide we are having an evening of drinking. We first grab a drink in the hotel bar because we get free vouchers for each day we choose not to have the room cleaned. Then we have dinner at an udon place, which is delicious. We have tempura, chicken katsu, and dumplings ($15.94). Then because it’s cinco de mayo we decide to have margaritas at the Mexican place near the hotel ($15.15)! Not Dutch but it’s fun. We head down the street to another bar and have a Genever cocktail called an Amsterdam mule ($9.91). I am happy with our choice of hotel because there are so many places in our neighborhood. On the way home we pass a fresh stroopwaffle place and must get in line for one ($5.92).
By then we are exhausted and head to bed. 21k steps total for the day.
Day 5 (Total $80.44)
8am - We have a slightly less early day but have tickets to the Anne Frank house at 9:15. (paid in advance). I eat some yogurt and cheese in the room before we leave. It’s walkable so we decide to head out early and grab coffee on the way. ($3.19). The house is sombering but I’m glad we did it.
11am - After the Anne Frank house we walk to the nearby cheese museum. We sample lots of cheese. I buy one cheese to take home ($15.18). We want to walk to a used bookstore, but decide to have lunch at a cafe on the way. We pick one at random. We split chicken tenders and a goat cheese and apple sandwich and I have a beer. ($15.14). The sandwich is one of the best things we have eaten. We spend about an hour in the bookstore and my friend buys one book.
3pm - We realize we are by the monkey bar (one of the oldest bars in Amsterdam that they told us about on our red light district tour). We stop in for a drink. Ok two drinks. ($12.50). We take the metro back towards the hotel and stop in at a tile store in our neighborhood so I can buy a magnet. I buy magnets from all my trips, but I like non-touristy handmade ones if I can find them, Van Gogh magnet from yesterday aside. I buy one with a windmill on it. ($14). We also stop at the grocery store for more yogurt ($3.05) and for Dutch apple pie at the cafe across the street from the hotel ($4). We get back to the hotel and have another free drink and then rest before dinner.
8pm - We go out to a Dutch restaurant for dinner. I am not super hungry from pie so I just get the snert (pea soup). My friend gets sauerkraut and potatoes. Sorry, but I thought it was pretty bland food in general. ($13.38).
We head home. It’s a lighter day, only 14k steps today.
Day 6 (Total $194.47)
8am - Today is our last full day in Amsterdam. We have planned to spend the day at the Rijksmuseum. We want to get there right when it opens for crowd reasons. We had bought “friend of the museum” passes ahead of time so that we can skip the line. I have a yogurt for breakfast and we walk to a cafe near the museum for coffee and breakfast for my friend ($3.78). The man at the cafe is very nice and we love sitting outside in the sunshine. It’s going to be a warm day!
We spend about 5 hours at the museum. We rush to see the Van goghs and the main gallery where the Rembrandts are, including The Night Watch, which is probably one of the most famous paintings in there. We had downloaded the app so we shared a pair of earbuds and listened to audio notes about many of the works (they have a number you can enter in). We take a break outside for coffee ($7.29 - i pay) and skip the line again. Totally worth it for the more expensive ticket. Around 2 we are hungry and have seen almost everything. We stop in the gift shop and I buy a ring and earring set. ($64.76). I forget to use my 10% discount for being a friend. :( I wanted a necklace too but didn’t like the ones they had there so I’ll try to find a matching piece at home.
2pm - My friend has been trying to get herring for the whole trip so we make it a point to do that. The first place is a bust so we find a little stand that sells it a 15 min walk away. We are determined, so we head there. I don’t eat fish so I get a shawarma on the way, which is terrible (cash). I throw half away. After lunch we get ice cream. I get coffee ice cream, and it makes up for the bad shawarma ($6). We also stop at the peanut butter store, which is allegedly the first in the world, and I pick up 3 small jars for my mom for Mother’s Day ($8.11). We also stop at a thrift store and i buy a dress ($21.59). At some point this day (I think), we also stop at another bookstore, and I buy a few things including a card, a couple gifts, and a book ($39.71).
6pm - After resting a bit, we get two more free drinks at the hotel and then head out to dinner. We pick another Asian place. I get an aperol spritz at dinner and we share appetizers (satay, spring rolls, and bitterballen). We also get coconut ice cream with mango sauce for dessert. All yum! ($33.03).
We get one final drink at a local bar near the hotel ($10.20) and I’m again grateful for our choice of neighborhood. Today has been all walking because our 4-day metro pass ran out yesterday. Total steps 13k.
Day 7 (Total $36.93)
8am - this our last day. The plane was supposed to leave at 1:30pm, but we get a message that it’s delayed an hour. We decide to have a leisurely breakfast. We pick a place that’s at a hotel near our hotel. I get an egg sandwich and my friend gets French toast. We both get coffee. ($15.27)
We decide to leave for the airport around 11. We walk to the central station about 20 min away, and I buy wooden tulips for my mom on the way (cash). We buy train tickets (cash) and get right on a train. We are proud of ourselves for our navigation on this trip.
12pm - we get to the airport and through security. We head to a lounge but there’s a line. We are 40th in line based on our QR code place. We decide not to wait and sit down for lunch at a random bar. I get a sausage and a beer ($20.66). We walk around some and get another message that our flight is delayed more, to 4pm. It’s finally our turn to get into the lounge at 2:30 (2 1/2 hour wait) so we go. I grab some water and a whiskey and coke but we just ate so we are not hungry. Around 3 we head to the gate. Unfortunately when we get there our flight is delayed more and will board at 4. They give us airport vouchers so we buy a book, beer, and some stroopwaffles ($1 after vouchers). We finally board and head off around 5.
On the flight we are served dinner. They have run out of chicken by the time they get to me, but eventually find one and bring it to me later. I have a wine too. I read, watch a movie, and try to sleep a little. We have a whole row of four to ourselves so we can spread out. Dinner is a French bread pizza.
8pm - We land around 7pm (love time zone math!), grab our bags, and get a taxi to my car ($27.09). I drop off my friend and get home at 8:30. I am exhausted but cuddle my cats for about an hour before going to bed. 15k steps today
After trip expenses - $225 cat sitting
Total expenses: $2149.75 (+49k points)
Flight: $255 + 49k points
Lodging: $804.88
Food/drinks: $531.38
Travel: $101.56
Activities: $221.10
Souvenirs/gifts: $ 231.93
Final parting thoughts - I think just over $2k for an almost-week long trip to Europe is a pretty comfortable number for me. I am glad I could use points for most of the flight. We definitely didn't try to cheap out on anything. We spent a lot of money drinking (neither of us drink this much usually). I hope this was helpful to anyone, and I look forward to reactions/comments!

Hi I have a large keloid on my ear that keeps growing. I waited 2 years for an appointment on the NHS with a dermatologist, only to fobbed off after 2 minutes and told I'd need to be referred to plastics who are 50/50 whether they'll deny my referral.
I've not been given any treatments, keep having a horrible stabbing pain and can't afford the £1k+ quotes to have it removed privately.
With this mind, any of my UK pals have any advice? Looking for free/affordable treatment/removal/general advice before I end up cutting my ear off and rocking the Van Gogh look.

The old wolf trotted over the hill with a little pink heart in its teeth. A pattern appeared in the snow— a trail made by paws and tail and drops of candy-colored blood— and that pattern could be read as if it were a fairy tale, although the night was much too cold for fairies.
From behind a surf of clouds, the moon skitted into view like a boogie board. Cautiously, glancing left to right, the wolf set its treasure down on a fallen tree trunk, raised its muzzle toward the sky, and through dandelion parachutes of its own frozen breath, issued a long wail that sounded like the siren on a 6000-year-old ambulance.
Suddenly, the moon howled back.
For a long moment, the wolf held itself so still it might have been a cardboard cutout in a theater lobby (a sequel to Dances with Wolves, told from the animal's POV). The hairs of its mangy pelt were as erect as toy soldiers. Its eyes turned radioactive. Its breath was no longer visible. Its lame leg ached. Involuntarily, it pissed in the snow, affixing a new and perhaps not-so-happy ending to the fairy story previously written there. The old wolf waited.
As for the moon, it too was still, at rest on a cloudtop like some buttered skillet in which Vincent van Gogh was frying an egg.
Gradually, the lunar silence reassured the wolf, for while it, like its ancestors before it, had spent its life addressing each full moon without fail, it had never once, not even when a cub, expected or desired a reply. If there was a response, it resounded in the blood, in the spinal fluid, in the wolf juice, not the ears. Wolves did the vocalizing. Among beasts, as among men, the moon was understood to be mute.
But was it? Had the moon merely been biding its time all these years, patiently waiting for the right moment to make itself heard?
The wolf was straining so hard to learn what might have finally loosened the moon's tongue that it very nearly missed the small, squeaky voice that piped up only a few inches from its nose.
"Well," said the little heart, which had unobtrusively begun to beat again, puffing itself out like self-blowing bubblegum, "now that you've gotten the news, don't you think you ought to return me to the breast from which I was ripped?"
And the next morning, my christening took place as scheduled.

Clair de Lune, by Tom Robbins.
And this christening from Dostoevsky.

"If I could have worked without this accurses disease - what things I might have done..." Dated May 2, 1890. A letter from Vincent V.G. to Theo Van Gogh. I find only translated versions, but no sign of the original writing, or perhaps even the handwritten scan of the original?
Please help me search, or guide me forward in my journey. Thank you.

I was 15 years old when i got diagnosed with schizophrenia and OCD. Since then I have struggled. I had high expectations for myself and i was very ambitious, I wanted to be a mathematician. Life has never been easy on me. I always cared about others and they didn't seem to care. I had this idea that others shouldn't suffer the way i did. I wanted to befriend everyone. I lost myself in the process and others always yell at me eben though i was caring. I think i resonate alot with Van Gogh, his story is similar to mine. No I'm still having battles after battles everyday because of my schezophrenic thoughts. I sympathized with everyone and if anyone felt alone or sad, i would rush to them and care about them. I don't know why life is treating me this way. I love my father and mother , i think that they are the best thing that happened to me. I don't have enough experience in life because i was occupied thinking about my illness for 7 years, every damn day i start venting. Im sorry mom and dad because you have to listen to me and suffer with me. Others always yell at me because I don't have social skills. I wanted others to care about me, they didn't know my struggle, they alienated me and i always felt that I don't belong. I always compare myself with others, because they were fortunate because they don't have this ilness. i always try....to keep hoping, but im slowly losing it....