1. Fremont Street Experience - 3 stages with Live bands, plenty of street performers, 2 OG casinos (1 of which lets you take a picture with $1,000,000) plus plentiful bars/restaurants. Spending money is not required. We didn't make it at night, but from what I understand it is a good show. During the summer there are more popular artists that perform in the area.
2. Buy a bus pass. $20 for 3 days of unlimited rides. Bus stops at most casinos on the strip as well as Fremont Street. It can get crowded, but it is far cheaper than Lyft/Uber or parking your own vehicle.
3. Plan on having cash on hand for tipping. They gave us a booklet with recommended tipping amounts for just about any potential service you could require. On a budget you don't want to be that tourist that doesn't tip when expected, but you also don't want to overdue it. Just a quick few (Bellhops $1-$3 per bag, Housekeeping $5-$10 per day you have them clean, Buffets $5-$10 per person)
4. Just about everything else can be purchased using Credit/Debit cards. Even a lot of the street performers take digital payments now (Zelle, CashApp, Venmo, Paypal)
5. High Roller observation wheel - If you are 21+, I would recommend getting the "Happy half hour" tickets (Cost a bit more but include unlimited drinks on your ride) which can be used at any time of the day, but definitely go at night. Pods are supposed to hold up to 40 ppl, but when we went we had about 12-15 people besides us. Plenty of room and plenty of time to get your drink on.
6. Wear comfortable shoes, When looking at a map it can be deceiving how far things are from each other. You will find out quickly that you will put some mileage on. My wife and I averaged about 9-10 miles of walking per day, and that was with us trying to avoid it due to medical issues.
7. Hotel - We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations, it's a very nice hotel. Our room was massive, included a full kitchen, dishwasher, dishes, washedryer, and an in wall safe. Be aware, they will ransack you with signing up for a sales presentation. If you are willing to sit through the presentation you will score some goodies, like free show tickets or free dinner, etc. You are under no obligation to buy anything, but if you want free... this is a good way.
8. Speaking of washedryer in our room, check your booking closely to see if you have one. If you do, make sure to not overpack. We stayed a week and probably could have packed for 3 days and been just fine.
9. Book a room with a full kitchen if possible. We went grocery shopping after checking in and stocked up enough basic foods for the week so we didn't have to eat out every meal. When every meal is going to cost you a minimum of $15-$20 per person basically everywhere, it can add up quick. Plus all of the dishes were included, we just had to wash them. They also provided dishwasher detergent.
10. Resort Fees - Be aware of the hotel charging resort fees. As far as I am aware, every hotel on the strip at least has resort fees. HGV had one at $30 per night (Which literally paid for our "complimentary"Wi-Fi, having a phone in our room, and being allowed to self park) Valet was $40 per night billed on our hotel tab.
11. Do not engage with the sales people on the streets unless you are truly interested. It is easy to get scammed and you aren't getting your money back. They also will hound you if you show the least bit of interest in what they are doing. If you bring kids, be aware that there is a TON of pornographic material/cards being handed out or offered in newspaper style machines. Not to mention the "showgirls" that are wandering around with very little on offering to take pictures with you (for a fee of course), there are also BDSM women that walk around and offer to spank you, in front of everyone of course.
12. If you are a people watcher, be aware there are limited areas to sit and just people watch unless you sit at a barestaurant. There are surfaces around to sit on in some places, but I wouldn't count on it.
13. Our 2 favorite restaurants on our trip. Margaritaville (Which we were informed will be closing down it's current location due to their lease expiring, but they are looking for a new location.) and Heart attack grill. If you don't know what either of those are, go on youtube and search. Heart attack grill is a themed restaurant and it is geared towards unhealthy eaters (or fat people if you will). Food was delicious though. Margaritaville had great food, great atmoshere, and great service.
14. Buffet - If you are tempted to spend $$$ on an expensive buffet, be aware they really aren't worth the cost if you are on a budget. We went to the Wynn buffet ($75/person) which included our non-alcoholic drinks. If I had known then what I know now, I honestly would have ONLY gone for dessert. While there is a large assortment of really good food, it is all designed to fill you up quickly and there is just about zero chance you get your $75 worth unless you are a professional eater (or eat like one). But going for desserts, you have so many different choices to try and the portions are smaller being desserts. If you were to buy these desserts at a normal restaurant, they would price between $5-$25. That means you can quickly get your $75 worth without overeating. As of this post, Wynn buffet is the 2nd most expensive buffet, behind bacchanal. We only ate at the Wynn buffet, but there are also more reasonably priced buffets around $30-$50 per person.
15. Blue Man Group - If you haven't heard of them, look them up. They are a comedy show, but not stand up comedy. It's skit based, involves lots of music and crowd interaction. There is NO TALKING from the members of the blue man group, they only act. Which just adds to the show, we loved it. It's a little pricey, I paid about $135 each for tickets... but it was pretty much the highlight of our trip.
16. Any restaurants you plan on visiting, make reservations. Most you can make online. It may not be needed, but if you show up and there is a line down the block, you get to skip the line. Well worth it, just make sure you are there on time or you lose your spot.
17. Avoid buying tourist trap excursions off websites claiming to give you a deal. 99% of them are either the exact same price as if you walk up to the venue or possibly even slightly more expensive. Not to mention, they are literally called a tourist trap for a reason. If you have money to blow, have at it. But on a budget, you won't miss out by not getting sucked in.
18. At basically every restaurant there will be a photographer walking around offering to take pictures. Don't be fooled into thinking these are free photos. They will give you one complimentry photo that is tiny, like as small as those instamax cameras (1x1 photos). They will offer you 2 larger photos (4x6) in a (not so) fancy cardboard photo frame. At the time of this post, it was $20 per photo. *Tourist Hack* If you want the photos, tell them you do not want them and they will offer you both photos without the cardboard frame for $20. This worked at every single restaurant that we hit. Although, we only purchased twice, because how many restaurant photos with logos and crap on it do you need?
19. If you really want to save money, do things OFF-strip. Everything on the strip is pricier, I do mean EVERYTHING.
20. All gift shops have basically the same things. We visited the "Worlds Largest Gift Shop" and also one called ABC gifts (or something like that). Honestly, the Worlds largest felt crowded and overwhelming. The ABC shop we went to had some nice things in it that we bought, I would recommend them.

*edit*
Look ladies and gents. This is not a TOP 20 list, it is not a must see/do list, it is not comprehensive nor complete. These are SOME suggestions based on experiences we had during our recent trip to LV. If you don't like them, that's cool. You do you, enjoy your life the way you want to enjoy your life. We didn't go to LV to gamble, we went to enjoy ourselves, and we did. If you have constructive criticism, I would be will to listen to your opinions and suggestions. Don't knock what my experiences were just because you don't like them. List your experiences, your sugestions, your opinions.. but don't put others down. But I digress, I hope each and everyone of you enjoys life the way you want to enjoy life. Don't take my word for it, make your own decisions and enjoy yourself.

Greetings, Huntsmen, Huntresses, and gender neutral Hunters! Welcome to another week of writing prompts! If you are new here, this is a community-driven weekly event, and the purpose is primarily to generate creativity and have fun while doing so (whether you are a 100% real-meat person or not, we don't judge).

What will be involved Special Note for Spoilers!:

Each week, three RWBY-related topics will be posted (subject to ties and special events!). Participants can write a short piece of fiction or dialogue based on that prompt. When writing, the suggestion is to aim for 1k-3k words, however, this is not a requirement. There is no goal - this is not a popularity contest - just write and have fun! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! :)
SPOILERS:
Reminder that the spoiler embargo for Volume 9 and the Justice League movie has been lifted! You are all now free to make posts about the two without needing to spoiler tag it.

Rules (gore, NSFW, spoilers etc.)

The rules are the same as the sub's posting guidelines. Nobody here wants to see your story taken down, so please refer to them before contributing! If someone chooses to ignore these rules, the post will be removed.

Additional information

Pre-writing is welcome! /rwbyprompts is a sub with writing as a focus - there you will find an archive of all the threads as well as a somewhat fleshed-out wiki with odds and ends. :) A detailed spreadsheet of WPW things is here! Keep in mind that this houses a lot of the old prompts, but it also has links and things like early participation to previous WPW threads. We're trying this whole week-to-week thing in the face of the bajillion prompts we had built up. We might do something with them, or people might cycle them back in, who knows what could happen??
Find us on Discord at The Qrow's Nest! The permanent invite has been deleted due to Discord bot shenanigans, so dm shand if you want an invite!

The Prompts!:

Surprise! We're doing them all this week - have fun! :D

• Team RWBY, plus Zwei, and Team JNPR play pirates.
• RWBY, except all songs are written by Sabaton.
• Atlas makes a space elevator near Vale and Vale is not happy with it. All out war resumes and the use of aerial drones are being used.
• As a joke, Yang sends pretend Valentines between the most random pairings of people she can think of. She’s shocked when all of them end up together.
• Team RWBY somehow travels back in time and encounters Team STRQ of the past.
• When Blake left her family to stay with the White Fang, she became the extremist, not Adam. Ozma agrees with Salem's plans to rule both humanity and the Faunus as the new Gods of Remnant, and has no regrets.
• After forsaking her mortal inheritance, Weiss is now eligible to be a Queen of the Winter Court of Fae, which is returning to Remnant for the first time since the Brother Gods abandoned it.
• "'s good as new. Maybe even a little better."
• "While bullets may wear your name, a hand grenade simply says 'to whom it may concern.'"
• An Atlas experiment accidentally fuses earth and remnant, hyjinks ensue.
• Free from Cinder, yet lost without a female figure to commit to, Emerald begins her quest for a new sistemothebestie/lover in Vacuo.
• The one time Port told a completely realistic and believable story.
• Yang and Blake discover another bonding point after realizing they both like a certain musician.
• Instead of Crocea Mors, Jaune has the Moonlight/Darkmoon Greatsword from any From Software Games you choose (boss fight included).
• Weiss and Ruby host a series of events to determine who has the best big sister.
• Instead of instilling fear into the hears of the people to make Beacon fall, Watts' hack sparked the Great Meme War!

Optional prompts that must be combined with one or more of the above:

Next Week's Poll:

[The Poll! is on vacation this week, see below!]()

Previously, on Writing Prompt Wednesday:

The thread
The Prompts:

• Blake tries to catch a mouse. Cue Tom and Jerry-esque hi-jinx.
• Nora and Ren get into a heated argument and start dividing team RNJR's camp in half with duct tape. Jaune and Ruby have to fix things.
• Glynda takes a day off, and comes back the next day to see Beacon in a state of...
• Jaune and Ruby have a Pokemon battle with NPR and WBY as their Pokemons.

Alternate-Secondary Prompts:

• Blake discovers all of "White Fang" had apparently redeemed themselves via "The Power of Friendship"
• [Insert character] establishes the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Black Army of Argus.
• The heroes react to finally learning what Headmaster Theodore looks like.
• The unfortunate way Yang learned that flammable and inflammable mean the same thing.
• An event from your fanfic/AU described in the style of the Armchair Historian.
• A Hero and Villain go out on a date. What happens during the date?
• A meeting between Signal Academy Instructors Qrow Branwen and Taiyang Xiao Long with Beacon Academy professors Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck to discuss Yang and Ruby as potential students at Beacon.
• Blake enters a dating show where Ilia, Sun, and Yang are vying for her affections.
• A comedy skit with the different Grimm as characters with different personalities as they discuss about their life and interactions with the Human/Faunus characters of RWBY.
• Domestic Team WTCH.
• A character mentally rehearses a conversation they imagine having with another character. They quickly blow things way out of proportion.
• Jaune, Salem, and Hazel reenact the scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where the title character is forced to drink the Blood of Kali.

Upcoming Events:

New Year, new events! And now we have the quarter of spring leading into summer and the 4th of July FFA, I hope you all had a great holiday!

Important Stuff and Things!

I have managed to rescue /RWBYFanfiction from an untimely demise! If you would like to share your fanfic or make recommendations, head on over there! I know that I've said something special was coming for this, but Ruby on Rails is hard and not cheap to operate. The fanfiction indexer that I was trying to set up just isn't working and probably needs someone with more experience in RoR programming/design. I haven't completely put it to bed, but it might be a while before I can circle back to it. In the meantime, the fanfic sub has actually had a decent amount of postings - head on over and say hi! :)
No matter how bad things may get, words will always have meaning. Now get out there and write something, but most importantly, have fun! :)

So in the most recent vlog, Tito says he’s going to Tokyo Japan. Why? He literally just came back from being a month in Canada and now he’s going to Tokyo. He came back from vacation just to take another vacation.
Before that he went somewhere to go see the eclipse and before that he went to New York to see the Macy’s parade and before that he went to Dominican Republic.
He’s going on vacation but what does he even do? He rarely uploads on his channel, recently he’s been uploading only one video per week but before that he was only doing one video per month. Dispute his YT banner saying he upload 2 videos per week. He’s not running his channel so what is he doing? He’s not doing any reactions because according to him and Logan they only have 2 reactions saved so far. He’s not helping the crew like he used to since he says he’s hasn’t seen Logan in forever prior to the Vlog. He’s not live-streaming, he hasn’t done that in a year He’s done nothing but take vacations
Does Tito even have a Job? How is he affording this lifestyle? His Channel is pretty much dead and his more recent livestream only has 300 viewers. Logan mentions he’s struggling financially so he’s not giving Tito money for doing nothing. We never see him at work.
You think someone who sees how much Logan is struggling would lend a hand but no, he’s going to Japan to do whatever he does. Tito has mentioned that he knows Logan has promised a lot of things that he can’t accomplish all of them but he actively does nothing to help. In fact he wines about doing anything.
Tito could run the Vlog channel but doesn’t for some reason. Tito and Logan say they got nothing to Vlog, their lives are boring, bruh, Tito’s going to motherfricking Tokyo!!!. That’s literally one of the most interesting place in the whole world. Tito doesn’t even need to put effort in the video, just make a video of him walking around and it will be a thousands times better than an a last minute vlog. But he doesn’t, WHY??!!!
I used to like Tito, he was hilarious with the skits. But of recently he’s just been useless and lazy.
Sorry for my Rant, I just wanted to let this off my chest.

As we are closing in to 50 days of BB6 and without a clear cut rayaavu, here is what I think about the show runners of this season.

1. JABRI - Without a doubt, Gabri and Jasmine takes the first spot with most of the discussions revolving around these two. Be it positive or mostly negative, these two have cemented their spots in the show by attracting the audience and most of the contestants to target them. Apart from controversies, both of them are good gamers too with decent conversation skills. One of them is sure to get into top 5 this season.
   
2. JINTO - I think Jinto started his game skillfully or organically by getting the mandan award from a10. Still being called as a mandan by most, he has garnered a lot of attention and discussion around him with his way of talking and the way he makes content in house. Though lacking conversation skills, he is a dedicated gamer and an entertainer, especially in physical tasks and is among the very few who can bring laughs to the audience. This guy has been able to avoid harsh criticisms or hate, which ideally should be more, due to the mandan aura. Another contender for the top 5 spot.
   
3. SIBIN - Though new to the house, Sibin has made an impact in the very first days itself. An entertainer, conversationalist, creep, manipulator, avid paradooshanist, Sibin has made himself part of most of the discussions around the show in just few days. Yet another contender for top 5.
   
4. NORA - Though not upto the level of the above 3, you just can't avoid NoraSqueals and NoraCries. Bold and beautiful, who can stand up to anyone and everyone in the house without fear, Nora has marked her spot in this show.
   

Apart from the above 5, I haven't seen anyone who is a potential top 5 contestant.
There was Apsara during the first 3 weeks, but she has herself lowered the graph exponentially. I have a bit of hope on Sai, Pooja and Sreerekha. Sai still gives the vibes of someone who has come on a vacation, and Pooja is nowhere to be seen after those first few days. Chaathan is visible only during morning tasks and weekends.
Sreejun is a top 5 contender for many just for the looks and the prospective innocent love angle. I don't consider them to be good gamers. Arjun had two moments, once when he was jail nominated and once when he acted as janmoni in the skit. Sreethu don't even have one.
Abhishek J and S gave hopes of good gamers in the beginning, but now stays as shadows. Ansiba just needs a bed and a 'vayya' cup, not the bb cup. Rishi is dependent on many and a toy for many but he is visible more during this week in the power team.
Jaanmoni, Saranya gives me no hope along with Nandana. Resmin is a people pleaser to the max.
I do have hopes on Sijo who might make a comeback understanding how the house and the show works.
Thoughts?

Hello everyone. Long time lurker, first time contributor here. I've wanted to write something like this out for a while but never felt sure about it until now. I grew up in the evangelical bubble and have been in therapy for several years now, working my way through it and trying to work toward a new phase in my life that I think I'm finally comfortably settling into.
My family raised me in a very devout, Baptist church where we were at the center of everything. My dad was actually raised by his parents in the same exact church and so he passed it on to my siblings and I (lucky me). So this place and world was all I knew from birth. My dad was a deacon in the church and my mom was a Sunday school teacher. We were there every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night, every Saturday afternoon/evening for choir practice, and attended every single event. My mom and dad were both on the women's and men's church baseball teams respectively and I and my sisters played on the church kids' teams. I participated in every holiday cantata, every skit, every children's choir event, every VBS, etc. We were heavily involved and it was my whole world. We had family friends who were so close to us that I referred to them as "Aunt" and "Uncle", and I had two best friends, one male and one female (I'm male), who were closer than any friends I had at school. I have a strange sort of disconnect with so much of it now because when I reflect back on it there are so many really genuinely happy memories that cause my heart to ache over the eventual loss. The rupture that eventually tore this whole world down around me ripped apart everything that made me feel like me and that's why I'm here now.
What I should say before going any further is that there was always a part of me that struggled to believe and was filled with constant doubt. I remember in fourth grade when the kids on the playground at school were teasing me because they knew I was a religious "goodie two shoes" and were goading me into saying a swear word. As the pressure mounted I finally let it out and yelled out the F word, the first time I'd ever sworn, and they all stared at me in shock and then started laughing and slapped me on the back like "yeah, this kid's alright after all." I remember waiting for the punishment to fall out of the sky but then...nothing. It was totally fine and no one cared. So I started letting it fly all the time at school while hiding it from the rest of my family. I mention this because that's when I started really compartmentalizing my life and I got pretty good at it until eventually I wasn't. I'd go to church on Sundays and hear the pastor say that if we weren't going out into the world on Monday and evangelizing to our friends then we weren't being good stewards of the faith because those people were lost souls in need of our guidance. Then I'd go to school on Monday again, see my friends there, and think "...but they're fine." I would then spend the next week feeling guilty and ashamed of myself only to have it reaffirmed the following Sunday once again that I was being a bad Christian. I was plagued with thoughts of dying and meeting God only to be told I was never a true believer and then being sent to hell for all of eternity. I got "saved" more times than I care to count. And then I'd go to school on Monday again and think "but my friends are fine" and so lather, rinse, repeat.
The real change started happening, however, when I was in sixth grade. The year prior my grandmother had died a few days before my birthday and that was the beginning of something I didn't quite understand. See, on Sundays after church my mom and dad would take my sisters and I to our grandparents for the afternoon since they lived down the road from the church and we'd hang there all afternoon with my aunts, uncles, and cousins until the evening service started. That was our routine every single Sunday, week in, week out. When my grandma died, it started to unravel. I never knew how much of a matriarch she was and after she passed the family dynamic immediately shifted and my aunts and uncles stopped showing up. My grandpa grew very quiet and depressed and eventually developed Parkinson's. Sundays suddenly started feeling a little strange and so - it quickly became apparent - did my parents. My mom began spending a lot of time with my sixth grade Sunday school teacher, who was a male, and she referred to him often as her best friend. My sisters and I used to say that everything that happened later took us by complete surprise, but I think that's how we chose to cope because looking back...it seems obvious. There were several moments over the course of that year that made my sisters and I uncomfortable each in our own way, but one stands out in my mind for me specifically.
We were at my dad's church baseball game on a night in July and my dad was standing at the pitcher's mound. The church had two separate men's teams and my dad was on one while my Sunday school teacher was on the other. My dad was having a rough night and had just walked the previous batter after a series of fouls when said Sunday school teacher approached the plate. He jokingly yelled out for my dad to "go easy on me" while some of the guys laughed in response. What I remember about this is how still my dad was. He was always very athletic and sure of himself, but his body language told a different story on this night. I remember that the catcher was signaling the pitch to my dad, but my dad was just standing there, unresponsive. Sunday school teacher took his batting stance and then my dad wound up for the pitch and let it fly, hitting his intended target and shattering the man's cheek bone instantly. I can still hear the man's screams of agony as he fell to the ground, but what I remember more is that amidst the men running to his side was my mother. She was right there with him and my dad...just stood there at the plate and watched. I was standing behind the fence and everything inside of me was screaming "something is wrong." My mom went to the hospital to go be with the man and when I asked my dad that night if it was an accident he let out a deflated "mhm." I would later find out that Sunday School Teacher had a metal plate put in his face and to this day that thought fills me with a weirdly spiteful sense of joy; a constant reminder he'll carry with him for the rest of his life. Sometimes I find myself hoping that something will remind him of the metal plate and that he thinks of us.
I remember that my mom started behaving very strangely whenever she was around this guy. We went on a family camping trip that summer with another family and Sunday School Teacher also went with all of us. I watched my mom interacting with him, thinking that she was acting like a teenage girl and how odd that was. My dad...just silently watched. My sister told my dad at one point "I don't like the way that man touches mommy" and my dad...said nothing. I started seventh grade and the feeling never went away.
For my part, I was somewhat distracted. You see, that female friend I mentioned above had become my best friend and I was secretly head over heels for her. I found out through a mutual friend that she felt the same way about me and I was on cloud nine. My sisters and other kids in the youth group picked up on the tension between us and would pick on us, calling us boyfriend and girlfriend while we denied it. The truth was, however, that even at a young age I just knew this girl was my first love. We connected in a profound way and there was a quiet understanding between the two of us that we were on the same wavelength on a number of issues. My male friend was like a brother to me and we'd have sleepovers and hang together on Wednesday nights when the other boys were running around playing sports. Neither of us were athletes so he'd run around wreaking havoc much to the chagrin of the adults in the room, and I'd gleefully follow. The three of us together were thick as thieves and it apparently caused the adults a lot of grief because they tried, on more than one occasion, to split us up to no avail. It was that whole quote at the end of Stand By Me about never again having friends like you did at twelve years old. Jesus, does anyone?
It all came tumbling down the first week of January in 1999. We'd just gotten back from our family Christmas vacation and had settled in on a Saturday night to watch a movie we'd rented from Blockbuster, My Giant. We didn't end up watching the movie until the following day because of what my parents had to tell us that night and I remember sitting there on the couch while it played as if through some fogged up window from very far away. To this day I irrationally hate the movie though I remember little to nothing about it. We were sitting on the couch in our basement when my mom said that they needed to tell us something. Things were going to be changing, she said. We went wide eyed, worried she was going to say someone had died again. Instead, she told us "your father and I are getting a divorce." This is a moment that has replayed over and over and over again in my head ever since and I wish so badly that I could make it go away. I've told other people that I vividly remember hearing or feeling glass breaking inside of my brain and thinking for about two seconds that this was some cruel, weird joke before reality set in and my sisters began sobbing. I followed suit and begged my father "why?!?" to which he responded angrily, "I don't want it, your mother does!"
Pro tip: never start off a divorce by telling your children this.
They informed us that not only would this be happening, but that we were also leaving the church. I immediately begged them no, please don't do this to me, as my thoughts drifted to my two best friends who meant the absolute world to me. And that's when they told me the thing that broke my brain and forever altered the rest of my life:
We couldn't stay at the church, you see, because we were no longer welcome. It turns out that my father, having been utterly crushed by the news my mother had apparently given him two months prior (we have this old video of my dad standing on the stage behind the pastor during that two month period as the pastor is talking about certain members of the church "suffering quietly" right now and my dad looks absolutely defeated), had reached out to my grandpa for support. My grandpa, being devastated for my dad, decided to reach out to one of his very best friends for some moral support of his own. The man he contacted, unfortunately, was one of the Church Elders. This man then took it upon himself to call the pastor, the other Elders, the Deacons, and members of the church to inform them of what was transpiring between my parents. Discussions were had and the decision was simple: my parents (and subsequently my entire family) were to be excommunicated by the church for living in sin. Unless my parents agreed to stand before the congregation to be judged, counted, and to then agree to work on fixing the marriage to stay together, we would not be welcome. A group of men attempted to confront the Sunday School Teacher about his relationship with my mother, as it was painfully obvious to anyone with eyes that something was going on there. Sunday School Teacher, the coward that he was/is I guess, tucked his tail between his legs and insisted they had it all wrong and that he was the innocent in all of this. My mom, they had to know, seduced him and he was just a little choir boy. The men, having given it the proper, rational amount of consideration, decided he must be telling the truth and walked away, referring to my mother as a jezebel. My parents then decided it was time for us to go. So in the end, Sunday School Teacher got to stay, and we were forced out. We were allowed one last Sunday service to see our friends, but we couldn't tell anyone that we were leaving. We sat down in the pew in our normal spot and the family that usually sat with us got up and moved away. These were some of the family friends I referred to as "aunt" and "uncle". I remember playing a game with my friends after the service wherein we were vampires and the daylight would turn us to stone. When it was time for me to leave, we were standing outside and they'd just "frozen" in place due to the sunlight and I kept repeating "goodbye" until my mom told me we needed to go. I climbed into the car and watched out the back window as they got further and further away until, I remember thinking, they looked like stick figures waving in the wind.
I had my first panic attack that afternoon when we got home, though at the time I had no idea what the hell it was. My family had all gone inside and I refused to join because I was devastated and just wanted to be alone. So I sat there in the car, banging on the back of the driver's seat and sobbing until my hands started to feel "fuzzy" and numb. My fingers had curled up into my fists until I couldn't move them and I suddenly was finding it very hard to breathe. That only made me panic more because I didn't understand what was happening to me and my whole body was shaking. I sat there out in the driveway with not a soul in sight, fearing that I was about to die. When it finally ended I sat there in a sort of stunned silence, terrified that something was physically wrong with me, and so I got out of the car, went inside the house, walked past my family members, and went to my room where I closed the door behind me. Sort of how I lived my life for a while after that actually.
I was eventually allowed to call one friend, I was told, to inform them that I wouldn't be returning. So I chose the girl and very cautiously explained to her that I wouldn't be seeing her again. She was confused, naturally, and repeated to me over and over again how sorry she was. Around Valentines Day, I went upstairs to my mom's room where she kept tons of various holiday cards and found a series of Valentines cards. I picked one that had a dog on the front and wrote a secret admirer letter to the girl, telling her how beautiful and kind she was. I put it in an envelope and sent it in the mail with no return address, forever wondering if it ever made it to its destination. I lost all contact with my male friend and never again replaced him. No one I ever met after that measured up.
I became quiet, barely spoke anymore, stopped taking care of myself, started failing classes where previously I'd been a straight A student, was bullied mercilessly, and eventually became suicidal. It just always felt like there was darkness lurking around every corner where once it felt like all I'd known was light. God was nowhere to be found. He wasn't saving me from this, from any of it. I was on my own. My mom's best friend from our old church, a woman I also referred to as "aunt" and who also lived down the street from us with her family, whose children I walked to school with every single day, came strolling down to our home one afternoon with a letter in her hand. My mom walked out the front door to greet her and she was handed the letter instead. The woman said a few words I couldn't hear and then turned around and left.
What I remember most about that moment is how long it seemed like my mom stood there with her back to us while we watched out the window. I remember how long it seemed like the woman was walking down the street, never to return. My mom looked down at the letter and read for a while. When she was finished, she stood a while longer and then came inside. We asked if she was okay and she didn't respond. She had tears in her eyes and, without saying a word, walked upstairs to her bedroom where it felt like the mother I knew never came back down from. She spiraled into a depression that left her lying in bed most days to the point that it became routine for my grandma (my mother's mom) to call in the morning to make sure my sisters and I were getting ready for school and to then have us hand the phone off to my mom in bed. I would later find out that my grandma would painstakingly walk my mom through getting out of bed, getting some clothes, taking a shower, eating some food, and so on and so forth. Former church "friends" began repeatedly calling our house and leaving hateful messages on our answering machine, telling my mother she was a sinner and needed to repent. They sent us letters that my dad would try to get to before we could and he'd rip them up and throw them away, telling us we needed to "just ignore it." My grandpa got too sick to take care of himself so he came to live with us for the last few months of his life. He slept in my bed while I was moved to the basement where I spent many, many long, lonely nights crying myself to sleep and trying not to let the panic attacks become unbearable. My grandfather passed that summer and very few from our old church said a single word to any of us at the funeral. My dad eventually moved out and on the day he said goodbye to us at the door I begged him to stay and he cried, telling me he had to go. I chased him down the street on my bike, but he was gone.
Eventually we moved to a new church with my dad (my mom stopped going for a while until she found one of her own where she could get a new start) and I settled in as well as I could. I found out through the grapevine that our old pastor had been arrested for running a bogus investment scheme involving a fake electronics company and was sent to prison for defrauding congregants out of thousands of dollars. One of the Deacons involved had fled from the FBI and was eventually found where he was tried for skimming $1.7 million in investments. At my new church, within the first year, our new pastor (who just so happened to be the former youth pastor from our old church) stood up before the congregation one Sunday morning and said that he'd done something bad and that the Elders were going to allow the church to put it to a vote as to whether he could stay or needed to leave. They didn't tell us, of course, what he'd done, but we were going to vote on it nevertheless. It would later be revealed that he a.) cheated on his wife with an underage teen and b.) was also secretly molesting his own daughter. And the Elders had us put it to a vote.
Over the years I'd also find out that certain men in the church were sexually assaulting women and children and getting away with it because "God forgives, people can change, etc." and these were men who'd been in my home. One of them was also a deacon and had been exposing himself to underage girls. When it was brought to the pastor's attention by parents of the girls, the pastor told them that he would take care of it and then he'd sweep it under the rug, giving them all the same old song and dance about forgiveness. Another man, someone I'd grown up with, was physically abusing his wife and kids. She would show up to church wearing sunglasses to cover up a black eye and everyone knew what was really going on, but nothing was ever done about it. She eventually divorced him, won her kids in the custody battle, and left...but he stayed there, in the church.
My parents both eventually remarried, which was its own deeply traumatic experience as they'd both started dating other people within a year of their separation. My sisters and I, being young preteens and teens, responded poorly and my father apparently spent his time telling members of the church how mean we were to his girlfriend and they judged us accordingly. I just sort of...coasted through all of it until I could get out. I was constantly at war with myself and was an absolute mess. I hid my suicidal tendencies from the rest of my family and hid my pain as well as I could.
At the end of my junior year of high school I attended a Christian summer camp with the youth group and one night during the altar call they were pushing heavily for us to commit our college years to a Christian university. The lights were dimmed, that old familiar emotionally manipulative music had been playing, the speaker got all emotional, the room was full of somewhere around a thousand crying teens, and I felt compelled to go forward and do it. So I made the stupid mistake of going to the front and making the commitment. At the end of my senior year I realized all too late what a mistake I'd made. All of my friends were excitedly discussing their futures and what state they were moving away to, and I...had nowhere to go. I had been accepted a to a small Christian college here in Michigan (Tyndale, which, ironically enough, closed down like a year later), but no longer wanted to go so I settled on a local community college where I'd commute to from home.
Feeling very low, I decided to go to my youth pastor at the time to ask if I could borrow his mini DV tapes he had of our youth group at a variety of events over the years. I had some of my own as well (I desperately wanted to go to film school) and wanted to edit a video together for my senior class. So he said yes and I went home and watched every tape. Every single one. You can probably guess where this is going. I stumbled on one tape that had been filmed by his brother, a guy who assisted in the youth group and played the guitar, in which he was zooming in on girls in the youth group...inappropriately, and was filming from all sorts of angles he shouldn't have been if you catch my drift. I sat there at my computer in this old, familiar, stunned silence. I started shaking like crazy and shut the camera off, having no idea what to do. I was eighteen. I was a kid. A week or so later I returned the tapes to the youth pastor's office where his brother saw me and asked what I was doing with those tapes. Youth pastor informed him what I was doing and the look on the guy's face said everything. Youth pastor asked if I got everything I needed and all I said was "Yeah...you have some interesting footage," and then I left. The following Wednesday I played the video for the youth group, and after the service the youth pastor approached me. His brother was standing behind him sort of looking off in the distance like he didn't know exactly what this was about, and the youth pastor asked me if there was anything more I felt like I needed to say because, you know, this is the end and next fall you're not coming back. Just making sure all you seniors are good, you know? Just making sure everyone here is happy. I was looking at him but just off in the distance I could see friends, my younger sister, other leaders...and they did look...happy. I felt sick to my stomach and said "no, all good." He slapped me on the shoulder and said "Great. Thank you." And that was it. I was out. My dad remarried that summer and, promptly, walked out of our lives. My sister was still in high school, but weekends with dad just stopped being a thing and that was that.
That fall I found out that there was no college leader at the church so the seniors from my class were just going back to the high school youth group each week to hang out together and I knew my presence would be potentially problematic, "this is the end and next fall you're not coming back" and all that, so instead I just sort of...went away. I disappeared for a long time. I'd hear about my old friends getting together for parties and bonfires and going on trips together and I...disappeared. The phone never rang. Everything got real quiet. I quit my job, and then started working at a Christian bookstore thinking "well I'll just replace those friends with the young people working here. I've done it before, I'll just do it again." My depression worsened and I went to some very dark places during that period of my life. The customers were awful. I met some of the worst people I've ever met in my life. The days were long and I skipped classes constantly, finding myself driving to nowhere and wishing I could just disappear. The youth pastor and his brother eventually moved to another church overseas and I was so...angry. And relieved. Had I known what it was called back then I would know that I was already deconstructing and I was doing it all alone.
Two long years went by and the girl from my childhood, my best friend, returned. She and her family were attending the church now and she got a job with me at the bookstore. We reignited the friendship and the flirting started not long after that. One night she and I went out to Starbucks where she told me that long ago when she was a kid she'd received this strange love letter from a secret admirer and she'd always wondered who it was from. I felt my tongue roll back and drop into my stomach and my heart stopped and everything felt very blurry. I then played stupid and said "oh really?" She offered to take me back to her place to show me. I said sure and then spent the drive there absolutely freaking out because I knew there was only one reason she wanted to show me this and that was because obviously she knew it was me. When she brought it out to me I had the most bizarre out of body experience and froze on the spot. Eventually I told her, "...You know what my handwriting looks like." She smiled at me and said yes, that she'd always known. I admitted how I felt about her and she said she felt the same way, that she'd always hoped.
We dated for almost five years before we got married. We have two kids together now, and we've been through hell and back. God I love her so much. The last few years she's been on a deconstruction journey of her own and it's only brought us closer. We're raising our kids without church (haven't stepped foot in one in about five years now) and their lives are already much different than my own. All those years, all that pain, all those people who walked away from me and my family. None of it is ever coming back and I just have to be okay with that now. I think that I am finally learning how to make a home in myself. Therapy has been so healing and I'm grateful every day that I get to choose to make this change, that I get to be the one to stand in the face of generational trauma and say "no more. This stops here with me."
This is a random tangent I guess, but I get frustrated about it every now and then. A while back my son asked out of the blue, “why do some people have two mommies?” My wife and I tell him “well some women just love women, buddy.” He says “oh” and then asks “but then they won’t have a daddy?” So we tell him “well no, but that’s not a bad thing, bud. Families all look different and all that really matters is that they love each other, right?” He thinks about it for like maybe half a second and then goes “Yeah. Okay.” Then he went back to drawing.
I’m frustrated because it’s just so simple. It’s so simple to love. When I was a kid, this unfortunately is not how I was raised. I lived in the evangelical bubble and was told from an early age that homosexuality was a sin and the people “practicing it” (like a job or preparing to play a baseball game or something) were living in sin. One of my uncles on my father’s side has a brother who is gay and if he ever happened to show up to an event with his husband, everyone would get all hush hush and my uncle would tell us that his brother was living in sin and that we needed to pray for him. Church members would come out or be outed and then they’d disappear. My father strictly taught me to believe that anyone in the LGBTQ community were living in hate because if they actively reject “God’s word” then they must also hate God and should be viewed as an infection. He believed in praying the gay away. He took me to a Promise Keepers rally as a little kid where I sat through countless speeches from men on the pulpit claiming to have “overcome” their desires while my father cheered. He has a step daughter now who is gay and the friction between them is palpable. I was raised to live in fear of the LGBTQ community, but the only fear I wound up living in was fear of myself because the truth was I never believed any of it.
I went to church, I memorized the verses and books of the bible, I sat through the sermons and choir practices, went to Wednesday night youth group with a bunch of male teachers who all taught me the same things, I prayed the words I knew my parents wanted to hear. But I didn’t believe any of it. Deep down I just knew I didn’t and that what I was being told was wrong. I privately believed to myself that if there was a God then that God would have to truly be merciful and just and loving and that there wasn’t some eternal hellfire waiting for anyone who refused to believe the same thing and live the same way. It just didn’t make sense to me.
When I got into junior high I met a kid that everyone would whisper about because there were “rumors” that he was gay and he was very quiet and, you could see it on his face, nervous and terribly lonely. When he did come out he began pushing back and took pride in himself and we became friends and I felt so ashamed inside that if he ever found out about my upbringing then he’d stop being my friend. That’s the fear I lived with when it came to just about everyone; that they would not only think I was weird but a symbol of hate. So I did live in fear, not of God but of literally everything else. It fucked with my head and impacted my relationships. It went on that way for years and years; just desperately trying to separate and compartmentalize parts of myself in the fear of being found out by my family and excommunicated, and in the fear of being labeled something I wasn’t by the rest of the world. I look back now on my teen years especially, during deep periods of depression, and regret so much of what didn’t have to be.
And so here I am, all these years later, sitting in the kitchen with my son as he asks about kids having two mommies and I tell him yes, and that’s okay. Everyone deserves love. And he just looks at me and says “okay” and goes back to coloring and I just get so furious inside over what my parents and their generation did to me and so many others like me. It’s this complexity my son will never have to grapple with as he grows up and that’s because the solution is so god damned simple. A life of handwringing, angst, fear, and hate or a space for everyone where there is love. I’m so fucking angry and I’m crying writing this and I’m sorry to make you all sit through all of this long novel of a post if you did.
There was this moment a couple summers ago when my son was sitting next to me on the beach. My wife was out in the water with our little girl and our family members were at a picnic table nearby. He had his beach towel over his head and he was just staring out at the water looking a little lost. I asked him if he was okay and he told me he was scared to go spend the night at my dad’s (a planned sleepover event with all of the cousins). I asked him if it was because of what “papa” says about hell (we’d had this problem before). My son nodded his head and told me he was afraid. He didn’t want God to send him to hell and didn’t know how to stop it. So I’m sitting there in my swimsuit and t-shirt in the warm sand, and an incredibly comforting silence I’ll never forget, next to my little boy with the towel over his head so scared of the future. I remembered what it was like to be in his position, looking for something no one would ever give me. I scooched closer to him and said out loud, for the first time in my life to any blood relative of mine, “Buddy…I don’t believe that.” He turned and looked at me to ask “you don’t?” and I shook my head no. I told him that I really tried when I was his age, but something about it just didn’t sit right with me. I asked him if he felt that way and he said yes. I asked him what it made him feel and he said it made him feel sick and he pointed to his stomach. I told him “me too, but if there is a God, and I don’t know for sure because I don’t think anyone really does, then if God is love a place like hell cannot exist.” I told him to look around at all the people in the park and how happy they were. “I don’t believe they deserve hell and so I don’t believe in hell.” I will never in my life forget the moment his face relaxed and he smiled up at me and said “I think I believe that too.”
God, what could be. It fucking breaks me.

pardon my photo-shop, skills, (i used photopea, it' kind of crappy, but In Persona 5 Arena I would like to see the Phantom Thieves go up against a Anarchical Terrorist organization known as the Chaos Collective , who seek to dismantle societal norms and create a world in which, people can act without fear of Judgement , utilizing a mockery of the Phantom Thieves, ideals of rebellion , The Chaos Collective , spread chaos and discord , through out Toyoko,
Personality , I think the whole Anarchy theme would fit , Persona 5 Arena perfectly (i mean (what are going to do with that A) , The game should have a urban aesthetic, imagine having fights in urban locations such as backstreet graffiti littered alley ways , and distored locations of real world locations , oh yeah speaking of which, the villans of the game have once again merged the Metaverse with the real world again, so imagine those alley fights having a red tint to them underneath a red sky.....
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instead of fighting shadow selves (kinda getting tired of that , I hope persona 6 tries something New this time) the main villains of the game serve as dark and twisted and reflections, of each member Phantom Thieves, (similar to how adachi is metaphorically Yu Narukami's shadow) each with their own dark and twisted definition of Freedom
In other words the Phantom Thieves gone to shit....
for example ,
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Riot (twisted foil to Joker)-
Leader of The Chaos Collective -
former cooperate executive who was bright and ambitious, however believed to had been mistreated by the company ,and desired revenge ,used his position to sabotage the company by manipulating finical records, embezzle funds, sabotage projects, his actions not only caused finical harm ,but also endangered the lives of innocent investors and employees
when he was found out he was arrested, during his time in prison he witnessed , and experienced the harsh realities of Prison , such as r*pe, violence , discrimination , degradation
upon his release from prison, he struggled to reintegrate into society, faced constant discrimination due to the stigma of criminal past, finding it impossible to find housing and employment, or acceptance from within communities , the constant rejection and isolation , took a toll on his mental health , eventually driving him insane, instead of taking responsibility for his actions and seeking redemption, he blamed society for everything that went wrong in his life and started to believe unfairly judged for his crimes
twisted definition of freedom: wants to create a "red sun over paradise " (metal gear rising reference and inspiration for character,) which is to him total anarchy and chaos, where individuals are free to do whatever they want without judgement ,consequences or restrictions from society or authorities
Unlike Joker, who fights for justice and freedom with a sense of morality , Riot believes in absolute Chaos above all else, he sees destruction as the ultimate means to create a world where people are free to whatever they want without consequence , even if it means sacrificing order and stability ,
Hell the guy even resembles Florida Joker....
Mirror- (Twisted Foil To Mona)
A former social media influencer who is obsessed with being noticed by others, well known for pulling insane stunts and saying controversial stuff ,filming himself committing crimes and engaging in depraved and debauch activities to get clout online , has been arrested numerous, believes that everyone trying to keep him from being spotlight, is known to get jealous, when not in the center of attention,
twisted definition of freedom- Mirror believes that freedom is the ability to be admired to and elevate oneself above others and prioritize his own image over anything else
while Mona , values authenticity, integrity and meaningful connections, Mirror values fame, attention and validation over any thing else - Inspired by The Sexy Vegan, and any other idiotic social media influencer who whiling to dumb sh*t online just to get clout and attention
Rancor ( Twisted Foil to Ryuji)
Rancor was once a promising athlete , and passionate advocate for justice however things took a dark turn when he became the victim of a criminal who ruined his reputation and framed him for a crime he did not commit, despite his efforts to seek justice through legal means corrupt law officials and enforcers failed him, and this lead to his arrest, is obsessed with getting revenge on those who destroyed his life , the injustice he faced drives him to dismantle the police system and takes matters into his own hands, violent vigilante who has been responsible for the death of numerous criminals and cops (who he see's as nuance and hindrance of getting his revenge ) , is the only member of the chaos collective's cause , only single mindedly focus on getting his revenge on the criminal who ruined his life and the police, see's his alliance with the chaos collective as strategic alliance , he also for reason hates being called the bad guy believing what is doing is justified
While Ryuji values , freedom, friendship loyalty and thrill, Rancor , only values vengeance and alliances and personal gain - inspired by the Punisher -and the F*ck the police slogan
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personal twisted belief of freedom: just wants the pesky cops out of his way and let be free to pursue his vengance
Vixen ( Twisted Foil to Ann)
Was once a promising celebrity and actress , who was desperate for fame, got involved with a higher up, who manipulated her, and convinced her to sleep with him, and abused her , when this scandal was revealed, the higher up, betrayed her, and made it look she was the one who manipulated him, in order to save his own skin, the believing his lies, sensationalized the news stories covering the scandals, .... this lead to her being fired and her career being ruined, the discrimination and isolation she received eventually would drive her insane, becoming obsessed restoring her fame and glory, b she joined the Chaos Collective , knowing full well what she doing is wrong, however believe that fame only that matters, is the most loyal member to the cause, however her loyalty stems from her own personal interest, and is ultimately self serving , and only sees the chaos collective and her leader as tool to regain her , fame is shown to exhibit Yandere traits towards her entire team, believing any one who threaten her team is a threat to her and her chances at regaining her fame..... and known to become violent and erratic however is literally willing to kill her underlings and shadows under her command just to keep the and main team alive
Twisted Belief of Freedom: Freedom is equated to fame and adoration , where individuals are free to do anything to gain attention and popularity even if means comprising their integrity and values , (and yes if Riot told her to sleep with some to gain information then yes she would)
Unlike Ann, how values her talents but not for fame's sake and was in an abusive relationship , Vixen only cares about fame and validation, and literally willing to abuse anyone who gets in the way of her fame....as well compromise her moral values - inspiration, Holly-weird , Cardi B, Sexy Red, I spice, overly sexualized female rappers and musicians in general, the Dan Schneider case/ controversy
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Obsidian (twisted foil to Yuseke)
A disgraced Doctor , who raised in house hold marked by death and tragedy, became a doctor to save lives, however failed, witnessing patients die to incurable diseases, this personally affected him and became fearful of failure this drove him insane, he became obsessed with saving lives and deviled into unethical procedures ,treatments and experiments to do so, is obsessed with saving lives no matter the cause, get frustrated when people die from his experiments believes that society is trying keep from making progress on his experiments
twisted view of freedom; to him freedom is the complete control over life and death, he sees mortality as weakness, and desires to be unrestricted in his scientific pursuits, and achieve progress no matter causes ,
unlike Yuseke who creates for the beauty of art, and lives strict code when comes to his art , and values consent (most of the time) and would not harm others, appreciates the metaphorical theme v of sacrifice and incorporates it in his art, Obsidian , disregards ethics , and achieving progress is the only that matters and sees sacrifice as a means to the end, and is literally willing to harm to keep them alive, - Inspiration, Batman Arkham Knight _Professor Pyg , any other immoral scientist such dr death, or John Money.....
Ok this next one going to kind of controversial due it being recent ...and also containing something that offend you but...
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Discordia (twisted foil to Makoto)
Discordia grew up and poverty as a child, and constantly bullied for it , due to being bullied for most of her life she became obsessed with crushing her bullies with her success, and she used the political arena in order to do so... while on the surface she seemed to be a promising candidate for mayor, she only cared about having power, so when she won the seat of mayor's office she showed her true colors, the moment she took office she started abusing her power, instead of using the money she received from the goverment , to develop her community, she used it on herself, using the money to fuel a lavish life style, of vacations, luxury dinners, mansions and ice skating ranks in order show off how successful was, when people started questioning her actions , she gave them her back story of poverty , and fact that she was a woman, to silence her critics, and when didn't she started using her authority over the police and personal connections the yakuzu from her time in poverty, to silence her critics through false crimes, blackmail, extortion , police brutality , and intimidation to get them to shut up... despite her efforts to protect her lifestyle she was found out , and arrested , however she broken out of prison by the Chaos Collective , she believes she was unfairly judged by society, and believe she is a princess who rightfully deserves everything due her experiences with poverty, and due to also being a women.......... is prone to throwing temper tantrums when she can't get her way despite believing herself as princess has a dominatrix aesthetic going on
Twisted view of freedom: freedom is viewed as complete control and dominance and control over others,where people have the power to dictate and enforcer their will over others, will over others, without opposition or dissent
While Makoto values, upholding the law and protecting others, and using her intelligence, to make a positive change, Discordia embraces authoritarianism, using power over others , to manipulate through fear , and submission prioritizing her own agenda over making a difference ,
_ Inspired by Mayor Tiffany A Henyard - Everyone's favorite super villain mayor - Ok is everyone nice and offended OK good next character
Chaser (Dark Foil to Futaba )
grew up on a farm, witnessed first hand the destruction of the environment, such as pollution, deforestation , and climate change, as a teen joined a activist group, and participating in peaceful advocating for stricter laws and sustainable practices ,but disillusioned with cause when she realized that she wasn't making much of a difference as people just didn't seem to listen and weren't interested in her cause and meeting resistance from those in power, this made her frustrated
desiring for drastic change , she joined an underground eco-terrorist group,known for its extreme methods in combating environmental destruction and belief in radical action then using words to achieve it's goal, during her time with terrorist organizations , she was introduced to the world of government cover ups, illegal environmental activities, begin exposed to this, caused her to go mad from revelations, and made become obsessed with uncovering conspiracies, and waking people up to the truth to all of the environmental issues , as she delved into her research she developed the ability to spot the differences, and identifying patterns in documents and media and spotting inconsistencies and spotting hidden agendas,
she using the internet to share her discoveries and gain cult like following, who shared her passion, however her obsession with conspiracies started to consume her life, and she started become openly paranoid about everything and everyone around her, and neglecting her health and partaking in extreme measures , such as entering restricted areas, hacking into confidential data bases and confronting individuals she believed where apart of the cover ups, all this stress lead to a decline in her mental health and started paranoia induced hallucinations ,anxiety attacks ,recurring delusions , that everyone was trying keep her from spreading the truth and where fascist, this ultimately lead to her be institutionalized, by friends and family , however was broken out by the Chaos Collective..
twisted view of freedom : true freedom, comes from uncovering the truth, conspires and hidden agendas, and challenging authorities even at the cause of sacrificing personal stability and well being and the ability to defy control and manipulation from those in power regardless of the consequences , she views as a crusader,
while both chaser and futaba, start as paranoid individuals who are obsessed with seeking out the truth , Futaba learned to confront her fears and paranoia , and adopt healthier coping methods, while chaser downward spiraled into her Paranoia and became insane -
inspired by people like "Good Ol" Alex Jones , or any other Red Pilled type people who are good enough for you to pull out the popcorn, and have a good chuckle at....
this one may be controversial too..
Vendetta ( Dark Foil to Haru)
A woman , who born into rival with a conglomerate, that fiercely, competed With Orkuma foods similar to Haru, was forced into a arranged marriage from a young age , spent years emotionally , and psychically abused, one night snap into a fit of rage and murdered her husband , realizing what she had done she went on the run and was forced to live on the out-skits and fringes of society , joined the chaos collective , for protection and promises of freedom from cnorms , due to her experience with domestic abuse , she developed an intense resentment towards men, and became obsessed with never letting them put their hands on her again, and being free and self reliant is wary of all the members of her team, and questions if she can truly trust them, Views Haru and the female phantom thieves , Bond with Joker, Mona, Skull and Fox, as a sign of weakness and that women should, not have to rely on men for protection or validation....
Twisted View Of Freedom : True freedom relies on complete independence and self reliance , without reliance on others, especially men, and the ability to break free from societies gender roles and live on her own terms and not have any one dictate her life, is willing to go to extreme lengths to protect her desire of freedom, even if it means rejecting help and support from others....
Both Haru and Vendetta , both experienced trauma in their lives, while Haru sought healing from friends and loved ones grew thanks to said relationships and empathy, especially with Joker, Vendetta was hardened and self-reliant and rejects the dependence on others especially men, and sees relying on a man as a weakness, and rejects societal norms all together...- inspired by fourth wave feminism and kill bill-ok everyone ok then....
Shade (Dark Foil To Sumire )
Shade is a young women who accidentally killed her family, when awakening to her persona powers ,back during the time of the Qliphoth incident, during an uncontrollable fit of rage and confusion ,haunted by fear and guilt over what she did, and facing consequences of her actions, she became reclusive seeking solace in solitude, believing she is danger to society and everyone around her... and just wants to be left alone...
Riot the leader of The Chaos Collective , saw potential in her persona powers and manipulated her promising protection, but in reality sees her as just another tool for his agenda of destroying societal norms , he manipulates her vulnerabilities and depression for the collective benefits , would rather avoid conflicts , only fights for self defense and if she absolutely has to
Twisted View of Freedom: True freedom comes from running from your problems , avoid confrontation, and living in isolation where she can't harm anyone else,
Unlike Sumire who, also dealt with mental health issues, and the consequences of her actions , learned to overcome her mental health issues and accept the consequences, while Shade let fear , remorse and guilt consume her , and decided to run from problems..
Ok with that being said, The Chaos Collective , openly challenge the phantom thieves ideals of freedom justice and rebellion, while also serving as cautionary tale to them of what they could had become or ended up like if they were not careful and made different choices in life that caused their lives to take a dark turn
I openly like the idea of The Chaos Collective trying to break the the Phantom thieves throughout the game, by psychologically tormenting them and turn them against each other the main question I would like for the game to explore is,
What Is Freedom,... How Much Freedom Is A Person Allowed To Have...and when is enough freedom enough...
Oh Yeah Forgot mention, Qliphoth is back this game and is the main setting of the game takes form of a Hellish- Tropical Environment under a Red Sun, " The Red Sun Over Paradise
please comment down what you think, about my concept for Persona 5 Arena...

I saw the post…and the clip of Sandoval acting out the whole scenario…
(which ironically…by DOCUMENTING it in such a way…is very VERY self serving dude!)
It was just SO strange and random…the guy can’t even finish a dam sentence! ( “like”… 1000 times)
Nothing Tim San made sense…so I commented that Tom Sandoval is a human (walking/talking) “non-sequitur”..
Verbally…Sandoval was completely out of left field…
Well…THAT reminded me of the old SNL skit “Deep Thoughts” by Jack Handey…which is as non-sensical as Sandoval.
So I inserted some ‘deep thoughts’ here and there Problem is…I had an emergency (my cat “Blackie”…🤦🏼‍♀️ to vet. Hosp.)
So I never had the chance to do “the REST of the story”
Now I can’t find the original post ANYWHERE! How bad did I eff up?
I’ll leave you with an apology and a “Deep Thought”

Too bad Lassie didn’t know how to ice skate, because then, if she was in Holland on vacation in winter, and someone said “Lassie, go skate for help”, she could do it.
Instead of studying for finals, what about just going off to the Bahamas and catch some rays? Maybe you’ll flunk, but you might have flunked anyway; that’s my point.

T Sandoval is ALWAYS SELF SERVING!…he can’t even PRETEND to NOT be self serving!
Anyway…sorry VPRaholics. 😕

This is for newbies, enjoy some lite reading 555
I have a vast history with Pattaya, I've been coming to Pattaya and enjoying it to the maximum for more that 10 years. I live here for 3 months consecutively of the year, I enjoy the finer sides of Pattaya, l don't live in Pattaya on a pension, or an expat that complains about the English breakfast costing too much, I could careless about Bar fines price increases or care about the infamous 1000 baht debate
I go to Pattaya for 90 day stays, my budget is 400-500 dollars a day, I fucking party like a rockstar, I MIGHT experience Pattaya differently than you, so don't try to ruin my Yum cause you think what I do might be excessive
the prices are for rolling in the dirt or playing chess with the girls and what it cost to spend time with them, You never purchase sexual services in Pattaya, you purcahse time and companionship
I REPEAT >>> YOU PURCHASE TIME AND COMPANIONSHIP <<<

Bar fines: they are for taking an employee away from the venue, employee is still on the clock, this payment isn't for sexual sevices and never will be, Its for loss of drinks that the employee might of sold
Time duration / companionship: ST, short time / LT, long time - this is a payment for time and companionship and nothing more, this isn't for sexual services, who fucking knows what its for, have her read you a bedtime story if you want, if sex happens it happens, definitely not because you bought it

Walking Street : it's a very long street leads to adult Disney world, it also has a couple of Soi's (soi means side street that connects to the main road)Walking street is the home of Pattaya's nightlife, it has everything, so expect to see gogo's, open air bars, live music bars, by the hour rooms, clubs, disco's, restaurants, freelancers, hotels, toilets, restaurants, ping pong venues, go cart tract, boutique stores, 7-11, street performers, even a fucking McDonald's and Burger King, it's really fucking amazing, you will see things, smell things, witness things, TAKE part in things you won't believe, fuck that movie hang over, they went to tame Bangkok not walking street, walking street has all the things below, did I mention it's amazing, you can " short time " and "Long time " here, some venues have on-site facilities, and also walking street is considered the gem of Pattaya nightlife so its gonna be more expensive for drinks and bar fines, and donations to girls college funds

1. you need deep pockets for walking street to engage with the girls
2. you'll have to buy lady drinks to engage, pay bar fines here, no negotiation here, these girls want the princess treatment so your it cost $$$$ to spend time with them
3. The Windmill, Sapphire
4. open around 7pm, best to go around 11pm or 12 am when various places forget where they put their panties, so expect all nude at some of the well known places
5. $$$$

Soi 6 : it's is a sight to behold, hot girls everywhere, sooo many girls vying to get your attention that it can be extremely overwhelming, just take a walk down this very long street and you'll be hooked, you can expect to mainly see open air bars and a few closed door gogo's, this is mainly a "short time " option area, usually if you choose a friend here you will use the venues on-site facilities, many like this area of Pattaya cause you don't have to necessarily buy lady drinks or play games, barely any ice breaking, you can quite literally see a girl that meets your fancy, tell her " short time " and in a few minutes you'll be upstairs or over in one of the by the hour rooms or pay a larger bar fine and take her out and go on an adventure

1. this is a much cheaper option because of it being a short time area with on-site rooms, which means you can skip the lady drinks and even your drinks, the bar fine is very cheap because it's for the on-site room rental
2. so many girls, I'm not kidding, all trying to get you to buy them a drink and take them upstairs or out of the bar
3. this should NOT be a area you go to if your not ready for girls constantly grabbing at your dick
4. Sexy in the City, Ruby Club
5. no negotiation here
6. open around 3pm
7. all girls usually wear a cute uniform with their bars name on it or bra and panties, their is no nudity here till you get upstairs
8. $$

LK Metro: it's a mini walking street and boasts all that walking street has to offer and just as amazing and spectacular to boot, everyone used to come here to get all the benefits of walking street at a cheaper price but currently LK Metro is exploding with new life,(which means the prices went up on everything, and so did the talent as well) and in my opinion is LK Metro is outshining walking street at the moment, so the days of buying NY strip for flank steak prices are a thing of the past now

1. Basically walking street
2. you have to buy lady drinks to engage, bar fines, no negotiation here
3. KINK, Sugar Sugar
4. open around 7pm, best to go around 11pm or 12 am when various places forget where they put their panties, so expect all nude at some of the well known places
5. $$$$

Soi Buakhao: the home of Tree Town Night Market, expect to see lots of street food and restaurants and other vendors and open air bars, Lots of freelancers here, if you like to get ripped with the expats come here, very friendly place to hangout as well, used to be tiny but became a behemoth during covid, its constantly improving trying to find its place in Pattaya's nightlife scene

1. It's a pretty cool concept, freelancer heaven
2. cheap, food, girls, won't break the bank
3. open during the day
4. being this is freelance heaven the girls here are in plain clothes, no nudity until you take her somewhere private
5. you have the option to buy lady drinks or even the girl a meal, but don't have to
6. you can negotiate
7. $

Soi Bonkot 8: Home of the Blow Job bars and more, this a row of venues that are very nice actually, they have full bars and usually cheap beers, usually full of 7's and on occasion a 10 (farm fresh girl that has yet to realize her value yet) they have on-site rooms for ST, these places have curtains if you don't want to use their on-site rooms, they call them BJ bars cause I lot of guys come her just for that and "forget" to close the curtain

1. BJ's and more, these girls are sex-sperts at BJ's
2. cheap, very cheap
3. if you have friends with you I recommend coming to these because you can usually have the entire place to yourselves
4. open early in the afternoon
5. bar fines, no negotiations
6. Pirates, Purple, 007
7. $

Soi Bonkot 5: gentleman's clubs here, they are gogo's with short time rooms, or you can close the curtain and play a wild game of peak a boo if you don't want to go upstairs, you can LT the girls her as well, some gentleman's clubs are known to have special shows, they usually have a drink policy, which is the more drinks you buy the more clothes come off, naughty stuff happens on the regular at gc's

1. on-site rooms
2. tiny bit cheaper than a usual gogo
3. clothes off drink polices
4. bar fines
5. no negotiations
6. Babylon, Miami
7. $$

Soi Bommerang: gentleman's clubs here, they are gogo's with short time rooms, or you can close the curtain and play a wild game of peak a boo if you don't want to go upstairs, you can LT the girls her as well, some gentleman's clubs are known to have special shows, they usually have a drink policy, which is the more drinks you buy the more clothes come off, naughty stuff happens on the regular at gc's

1. on-site rooms
2. tiny bit cheaper than a usual gogo
3. clothes off drink polices
4. bar fines
5. no negotiations
6. Heaven Above, Screamers
7. $$

Soi Chaiyapoon: gentleman's clubs here, they are gogo's with short time rooms, or you can close the curtain and play a wild game of peak a boo if you don't want to go upstairs, you can LT the girls her as well, some gentleman's clubs are known to have special shows, they usually have a drink policy, which is the more drinks you buy the more clothes come off, naughty stuff happens on the regular at gc's

1. on-site rooms
2. tiny bit cheaper than a usual gogo
3. clothes off drink polices
4. bar fines
5. no negotiations
6. Maggie Mays, High Rollers
7. $$

Beer Bar complexes: Huge area's with just open bars and freelancers, sit down, drink, usually doesn't take long for a freelancer to join you asking for a drink or if you want company

1. cheap beer
2. freelancers
3. no bar fines
4. you can negotiate
5. $

Clubs and Disco's: Places to... umm... dance, always free to get in these places, Freelancers are here in abundance, just pull up to a table order a drink, and usually a girl will come over to see if you want some company, if not just walk over to a girl at a table and offer to buy her a drink and see where the night takes you
1.Expensive drinks 2.freelancers 3.you can negotiation here
Ok, Are you still reading ???
Now for some terms and what they mean and what to expect as well
Bar fine: this is a fee you must pay the gogo to take the girl away from the bar, the girls in the gogo's and gentleman's clubs main job is to get you to buy lady drinks, therefore if you take her away from the bar the bar will lose revenue so changing you a fee will help them recover whatever she might of sold in her absence, bar fines vary and depend on the girls status in the gogo and what time you are bar fining her, usually 1500 to maximum of 2000 baht, example: girl is a stunne10 and you want to bar fine her at 9pm expect the bar fine to be really high, usually 2000, 3 hours later at 12 am it will be 1500, Walking Street and LK Metro will higher bar fines than a gentleman's club or Soi 6
Bar fine cost and variables

1. gogo bar fines on walking street: depending on the girl will start at 1000 and max out at 2000, at 12 am the usual bar fine will be 1500 for 8,9 and 10's, any higher might be for 2 reasons, either she's a spicy 10 or she doesn't really want to go with you and told a you high amount to scare you away
2. any place that has on-site rooms (which include gentleman's clubs, Soi 6, Bj bars) the bar fine will be cheaper, which starts at 300 and maxes out at 500, it doesn't matter what time or how hot the girl is, these prices never change
3. if you take a girl from a place with on-site rooms you will have to pay a higher bar fine which is usually 800-1000
4. Bar fines are the same for ST and LT
5. Bar fining isn't as prevalent as you might think it is, a girl might get bar fined for a ST 6 times on Monday and have 0 bar fines for the rest of the week, or get LT'ed and 3 days straight and return to the venue and get 0 barfines for the rest of the month,
6. why ??? Well, It's simple, money....$$$$ Pattaya isn't for the cheapo's anymore, 7 out of 10 guys you see in a venue are " tire kickers " they just have enough to get a girl 2 lady drinks and try to play ( feel her up, finger, lick, kiss) with her as much as they can before the girl realizes they have no money and walk away and never return to them

Times you need to know about :D
Short time: duration of companionship, 1-2 hours, usually 1 pop, but maybe 2 If she feels sorry if your a 5 pump chump, usually you play chess at the venue or at a by the hour room and sometimes if your hotel isn't far away she'll accompany you there, ST is usually the same everywhere in Pattaya either 1000 or maximum of 1500, since it's short time she doesn't expect much from you, she's not expecting you to take her dancing or drinking or even out to a nice meal at beefeaters, best to pick a girl with a quirky and outgoing personality for short time so you don't get a starfish or a phone checker
Long Time: duration of companionship, depending on the time you bar fined her, with long time she will definitely be coming with you anywhere you want to go and wake up with you in the morning, Long time price varies, usually 3000-4000 or maximum of 8000 baht, the amount is up to her not the venue so one guy she might say 4000 an another guy she might say 10,000, DONT FUCK UP THE QUESTIONS SHE ASKS YOU, she's going to expect some things, you most likely have her for the night and into the morning, she's been hungry since she clocked in, she wants to party, she picked YOU to party the night away with, so fucking live it up bro... show her your the king of Staten Island and you'll definitely be rewarded for it
the dreaded lady drink or LD for short :D
Lady drinks: special drinks that you buy for the girl your interested in, its her job to try her best to get you to buy as many as she can, she usually has a quota to meet each day, and sometimes a small commission from each drink sold, they are usually always a soda type drink if you don't specify what drink you want her to drink, if you want to drink shots with you, then her shots might be watered down cause a drunk gogo girl can't sell lady drinks or dance 555, you don't have to buy lady drinks if you don't want to, but if you don't you will be ignored, oh, and the more you buy her drinks the more she'll know your worth her time
555: its the Thai version of lol 😆
Freelancers: a freelancer is a sex worker that doesn't work in gogo, soi 6, or a gentleman's club, the have no boss, they are independent, they can be found in many different areas, such as " coconut babeach road " open air bars, clubs, and disco's and sometimes in hotel lobbies, you might find one in 7-11 or even Central Festival Mall, freelancers are significantly cheaper because there is no bar fine or lady drinks, it's just a quick negotiation and it off to your hotel room to play connect four, the majority of freelancers are on Thaifriendly.com, they usually have their own transportation if you use Thaifriendly.com to get them to come to your hotel, but if not a 100 baht tip for her travel expense is a nice thing to do, usually 1000-1500 baht to show her your box of crayons, some guys prefer freelancers because of cost and less interaction, but I'm just gonna give my two cents about freelancers, you could get a bad apple or a starfish going this route, there could be less safety when it comes to items in your room because this girl has no mamasan( a mamasan is the boss lady of the gogo/bar, she takes care of the girls and keeps them in line) so she might get sticky fingers
Online/app for freelancers is Thaifriendly.com Tinder is full of freelancers TFMI, if your a pro and in the know, detailed reviews including services
Coconut Bar: it's what everyone calls Beach road, Beach road is the road that leads to walking street, around dusk you'll start to see girls hang out under the palm trees, they ain't there for the shade, you'll also notice they have their phone in their hand probably checking Thaifriendly.com 555, if your interested in what you see, you most likely will need to make the first move, say sawa-dee-krab ( that means hello ) then Wai ( a Wai, put your hands together and make a slight bow ) then say " short time " then she will start negotiations, if you agree she'll follow you to your hotel if it's close by to her motorbike or might even take you to a by the hour room to help you fold your laundry
Gogo's: are indoor venues that have girls dancing on stage, every gogo is different, some gogo's have their girls wear skits with no panties, then there are some that are totally nude, some gogo's are more hands on and in these places the girls will be very friendly, the gogo girls main objective is to sell you " lady drinks " make her quota and hopefully get 1 or 2 " short times " if she's lucky in before 12am when they will be looking for a whale to " Long time " them, gogo's cost more for everything ( drinks, lady drinks, bar fines, college donation fee,) some gogo's have spectacular shows where a group of girls will do a choreographed pole show, some gogo's have a special part of the dance stage where some crazy shit happens, (toys) make sure to trim your finger nails and bring a napkin along to wipe your face if you know what I mean, 555
I rarely short time, I usually always long time, and I might spend more money than average but... Basically, this is what I always do in a gogo and have never once been told no, so follow these tips and your be wearing a panty crown by morning
gogo girls always expect the most money they can get for their services, and if their in a gogo they most likely know their value
rank of cuteness and b cups and what type of college donation they will quote you:
7's - 2000 baht 8's - 3000 baht 9's - 4000-6000 baht 10's - 5000- 8000 baht
Now, lets roleplay what you should do in a gogo to take Ploy home to meet your cat

1. Sit down and enjoy the scenery, don't be afraid to take in the views
2. After sitting for about a minute, a staff member will come over and ask you to buy a drink, buy a drink from the drink menu
3. If you see a girl you like, eye fuck her, or go up to the stage and tip her, or if your shy about doing that give your tip to the staff member to give to her, now she knows where she needs to go when she's done dancing
4. When she comes over to thank you for the tip, she will sit next to you, or even on your lap in some places
5. now the game begins, she will ask you to buy her a lady drink, you'll drink together and she'll ask you some questions to get to know you and understand what you want, in-between questions she'll ask for more lady drinks, buy'em, oh, and do some flirting, example: tell her how beautiful she is, talk about her kitty, tell her she has the cutest nipples you have ever seen, etc...
6. Eventually she will have to dance again
7. keep tipping her, keep being flirty
8. She will definitely come back to you when she's finished her dance set
9. Most likely she'll ask for another lady drink
10. Depending on what time it is, this might be when you tell her you want to bar fine her, you don't ask to bar fine her, asking is simps, you tell her " I barfine you" she will then ask "short time" or "Long time"
11. Tell her Long time, and if she agrees she will then tell you her price for long time, if you agree, (and don't you fucking dare try to negotiate a gogo girl, this isn't the coconut babeach road) she will tell you she'll be back in a minute, she has to go tell the mamasan of your intentions
12. The mamasan will come over to you and tell you what the bar fine is for her, if you agree she will take your money, then the girl will come back all smiles, she will then tell you she needs to go get changed, after 10 minutes she'll come out in her street clothes and you both can leave now
13. What you do now is up to you, you have her till the morning
14. Party time, go to a restaurant, go drinking, go clubbing, go to another gogo and pick her up a tag team partner, your the king tonight
15. Did you have eyes on other girls in her gogo ? Spend money on her, treat her well and those girls will Long time with you as well cause your LT will sing your praises

Soapy massage parlors: a venue with lots of girls that will give you a special and unique massage, I fucking love soapies, I have make sure to always have 2 regular girls I see, being a regular and treating them exceptionally well equals awesome experiences every time, my girls talk dirty and we bang before the massage and after :D
What to expect from a soapy massage and how it's done

1. When you enter the venue you will see what is referred to as the "fish bowl" beautiful girls on a stage or chairs, they are usually siting in colored sections, the colors are the prices for her services/rank
2. Sit down, enjoy the view, take a moment to say hi to the any girls waving to you trying to get your attention to pick them
3. A staff member will come by shortly to ask you to buy a drink
4. After the staff member drops off your drink he or she will ask you who you want, Pick your girl, advice.... pick the girl or girls that are going out of their way to get your attention and not the hot girl on her phone that could care less that your there cause she clearly saw you and is clearly passing on you, maybe she just got done a soapy and wants some alone time ?
5. The staff member then will take you to the front desk and you will then pay for massage 7.you might have to wait for a few minutes for the girl you picked to come over to you, she has to go get her tackle box full of soaps and stuffs 8.meet and greet time, she then will beckon you to follow her to a private room 8.when you walk into this room you will definitely notice some things
6. A tub 2.air mattress
7. A bed
8. In nicer venues, Mirrors on the walls and the ceiling

Ok, now here is what's gonna happen after you enter the room, she will control the pace of everything, she will start to draw the tub and make it soapy, around this time a staff member will come in a ask you to buy yet another drink and ask if you will buy the lady a drink as well, after the staff member comes back with the drink she will then close and lock the door, meet and greet time again, then she will tell or motion you to undress and she will undress as well, get in the tub, she will now rub a dub dub you now, depending on if she is in to you cause your a regular of hers and big tipper will decide if any hanky panky happens in the tub, if not, expect a good scubbing especially your naughty bits, after she's got you good and washed she will leave the tub and procede to get that air mattress good and soapy, she will take you out of the tub and on to the soaped up air matress, now its time for the soapy body to body massage, she basically will kneed your back, legs ect.. then body surf on you for a bit, she'll flip you over and body surf some more, then you'll stand up, a quick dip back in the tub then the final rinse off and towel off, now it's time to lay on the bed and wait for her to tidy up everything, when she's done she'll towel off and join you on the bed, time to play checkers, when you are done playing you'll get dress, kiss and a hug, tip 1000-2000, then tell her to message you again on Line when its best to come tomorrow for another session
Ping pong gogo's 🏓 : while walking on walking street you might encounter some guys with a very explicit posters and ask you if you want to see a live sex show, if you do just say yes and they will escort to a place that is doing it, the ping pong show is the live sex show, it is something wild to experience, a once in a lifetime thing to see, but... beware... you have to make a payment before you enter and then of course buy yourself a very overpriced and watered down drink, the show doesn't start until they get enough sales, when they do, the show will start.... 555 enjoy, by the way the show includes a hell of alot more than just ping pong balls, you'll see all kinds of things a pussy can do, shoot darts, pull out razor blades, can a pussy smoke a cigarette ? etc... after each "performance" a sexy girl will go around with a tip bucket, during the show their will be girls trying to get lady drinks off you, oh, and you can Short time the drink girls too if you so desire, most of these places have on-site rooms And for those that call it a rip off, its not a rip off, they gave you what you thought it was going to be, yes, the drinks sucks( really,who comes to Pattaya for the drinks) yes, your gonna see things you might not of wanted too, It's a once in a life time experience cause no girl your ever gonna meet is gonna just start popping balls out her coin slot
Open air beer bars: it's a open air bar, lots of seats and tables, sit down and order a drink and before you know it a girl will come over and sit with you, these girls are usually freelancers looking for short times, some of these bars have a colored sign or something like that for you to turn up or down to let the ladies know you want some company, they also have tvs and music playing, since it's open air of course there is no air conditioning but lots of fans instead, these bars fill up pretty quick when the sun goes down, beer here is usually reasonably priced, Expats come here to forget about their lives for awhile, people come here to people watch as well
BJ bars: these are venues where the specifically cater in one thing, what they do is... umm.... its in the name, most have private rooms or booths with curtains, when you go in you will see girls, if your not ready being you just came in from the heat their is usually a full bar with tvs so they dont mind if you get a drink and cool off first, when your ready, pick one and she'll take you to a booth or private room, sometimes you'll be asked to buy a lady drink, if not she'll motion for you to take off your pants and sit down, she will then take out some wet naps and clean your junk, she'll inspect it as well, when she's done she'll get to work on ya, don't worry, these girls could suck chrome off a bumper, lots of guys love these venues cause these girls are great at what they do and can go back to the bar and get some drinks and go back for seconds when their up for it again
How to pull off a successful threesome in Pattaya, This is a common sense question, you ask the girl if she eats pussy, like really likes it, you gotta make sure she's not just being ok with giving her "sisters" a few licks, but really likes it, she'll either say no or maybe send you to the girl that does, when you get that girl you start the game, then when the ice is good and broke you ask her who SHE wants to bar fine and have "fun" with tonight, either there is a girl or girls she has her eye on or she'll take you to a gogo that has lesbians and pick from there, when you get to the hotel pace yourself and do you best not to become the third wheel 555
Terminology : Butterfly - you prefer to go from flower to flower rather than enjoy just one bud or in other words - you want to bar fine other girls in the venue and not cause any issues with the first girl you bar fined
The girls know and understand and accept this terminology
During the courtship/ice breaking, she's gonna ask you "how long you stay in Pattaya" or "how long your vacation", within this conversation make sure to simply tell her that your a bit of a butterfly, say the word... she might even tease you a bit :D
Now that the girl knows your preference she will then be perfectly ok with you seeing other girls within the venue, no jealously, no loss of face, just make sure to be respectful and buy a lady drink for your past conquest if you see her again, ( she might even come over and be your wingman )
555
be a butterfly... and you'll be bouncing from one to another and having a blast in Pattaya
Some helpful websites:
Pattay-addicts.com : it's one of the most active Pattaya nite life forums on the planet, when you get membership status you get to access to TFMI
Thaifriendly.com : it's the freelancers best friend, this is where they post, its like them clocking in for their night shift
Smooci.com : this is a professional website that escort companies post their girls on, its specifically Bangkok area but throw in another 3000 baht and they'll take a 2 hour taxi ride to your Pattaya hotel
European/Russian girls: 1 hour- 10,000 baht, 2 hour- 18,000 baht, 8 hour- 25,000 baht Social apps the girls use to communicate with you, I only give this information out if I meet your personally
How to best use Thaifriendly: ThaiFriendly is easy mode, be honest...
if your not getting results YOU know why... its you, your profile sucks
as stated above the best ways to get results is:
Photos, a picture of you posing in front of a Pattaya landmark does wonders,(mine is me smiling in front of the Hilton Pattaya sign) a picture of you having fun even better(mine is me Partying at Insomina) these pictures gives her a heads up with what she might have to deal with (race,size,hygine) and also it could be proof that you might actually be in Pattaya, as stated their are a lot of tire kickers on ThaiFriendly, think of it from her prospective, you have no pictures, you might not even be real, if she gets a taxi and your not there she fucked, and also its probably scarry as fuck knocking on that door not having even the slightest idea what's beyond it so seeing sorta what you look like might get her to respond back to you
State in your profile that YOU ARE IN PATTAYA, why are you even on ThaiFriendly when your not in Pattaya ??? you might think to yourself that your making plans... hookups... 555, NOPE... you think she is making sure she is waiting for you on Feb. 12th when you arrive ??? 555 Stay off ThaiFriendly till your in the fucking airport, don't tease the kittens ! If you can't bare to stay off it then use TFMI, see the reviews, book mark them, and maybe...just maybe... she'll be around when you make your way back to the Kingdom 3-6 months later... LoL
Get the Premium membership, it's worth it, your responses are instant, and ThaiFriendly works more efficiently with it
Also State in your profile what you want, but don't go into too much detail, make it short and sweet, tell them your in Pattaya, you want to party, you want to boom boom, you want ST/LT, send Line #, anything else is wasted space, she's just glancing at your profile looking for words she understands, and when you send her a message it should be short and sweet as well, ST/LT (your hotel here) Line #, and that's all, it tells her what she needs to know, how long you want her for, your hotel tells her what its gonna cost her to get to you, and finally that you use Line, cause ThaiFriendly gets you in the door but Line seals the deal, as soon as she sends you her Line number that is when you text her your specific details such like CIM etc... Be specific, tell her exactly what you want and expect her to do, and always expect her to be at least 10-20 min late cause unless she is down the street she's gonna try to get a friend to drop her off before she spends her own money on a taxi
some say Thailand doesn't have a tipping culture, your right... but not when it comes to the service industry, ploy and bee do expect a tip if they see that you enjoyed their company, and you fucking know it.... I've never had any issues with starfishes (knock on wood) but I think to myself if I ever do I'll take the high road and pay her for the agreed time and kindly send her on her way and go on to the next experience
easy mode as follows
profile:

1. Photo's of you having fun in Pattaya
2. state your in Pattaya
3. party time, excellent ! boom boom, ST/LT
4. send Line #

Messages to her:

1. ST/LT, hotel, send Line #

Line messages to her:

1. be specific so she knows what you want and what she won't do

Do all this and you'll a golden god of ThaiFriendly
Line : they love this app, the use it for everything, phone calls, video calls
Facebook messenger : they use this app in junction with Instagram
Instagram: you know those selfies they been taking with you, yep... they are on her Instagram
Whats App : just like line, very international
The LT girls will INDEED take pictures of you... and post them to the socials, your their prize as well and they love to show off the whale they caught
YouTubers worth watching:
Le Pub : le pub is a beer bar across from the infamous Windmill, it's run by the legendary Mr. Egg, he's awesome and gives alot of information about the comings and goings happening in Pattaya
Rides 4 kicks: his name Is Lucas his content is like being on a tour of Pattaya and how to actually live in Pattaya
3-4 questions that every gogo girl asks you to figure out if your worth her time and effort and also for her safety as well, its sorta a ranking system
1.where you from ? = are you rich, what's your culture towards women and sex workers
2.where you stay ? = are you a cheap Charlie, are skimping on your hotel to save money and how far are you from the gogo and her condo
3.how long you stay in Thailand or how long you on holiday = are you Long Time material, if she puts the effort in does she have time to get you to buy her gold or a that new Iphone 15
Things to bring to Thailand:
Lube, Astroglide, for the love of God I hope your not thinking about raw dawging, this helps out alot, the Lube they sell in Pattaya sucks, latex friction is not nice on their kitties, the girls are always amazed when see how well it works, it might even end up in their purse.... 555
Condoms: I'm not fucking kidding, bring boxes, lots of them, the Asian market Condoms are smaller in width (very tight fit)and break easily, they suck
Terminology - Bin: it's a wooden cup for your bill, alway pay your bill as soon as you receive it, doing so will make sure no mistakes happen or if you forget how many drinks you ordered
Update: I'm definitely going to be in Pattaya March to May and plan on doing comprehensive reviews of everything with pictures and videos
Malls for Shopping: Central Festival Mall: excellent mall for all name brand things, they have everything, they even have an excellent supermarket called Tops, this place also has some really great restaurants, bowling alley and the best movie theater in all of Pattaya
Terminal 21: another great mall, has everything, has a section for Japanese collectable
Food Panda: a online website for food delivery
Bolt: its a taxi service app, you pay ahead of time with your credit card or baht, the price is determinded and firm before ride starts, cheaper and safer than motorbike taxis
restaurants: Horizon, Hilton Pattaya https://horizon.bafood-menu/ Outstanding views and cocktails Edge, Hilton Pattaya, It's the best all you can eat Buffet in Pattaya, does a 7 day 7 theme, so everyday it has a different cuisine, has breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Sunday brunch as well
Arno's, Terminal 21 https://arnosgroup.com/arnos-terminal-21-pattaya/ Outstanding Steak, you can even buy it packaged and take it home and cook it yourself, or have it delivered https://delivery.arnosgroup.com/
3 Mermaids, Kasetsin https://www.facebook.com/3MermaidsPattaya Outstanding views, great food
Smokin Joes, Soi Lengkee https://www.facebook.com/smokebbq777/ Best Ribs in Pattaya
Prime Burger, Central Festival Mall and Soi Buakhao https://www.primeburger.co.th/#pattaya hands down the best tasting burger in Pattaya
Bronx Pizza, Soi Buakhao, https://bronxpizzapattaya.com/ extremely good pizza
La Baguette Bakery Cafe, 1 Sukhumvit Road https://www.facebook.com/labaguettebakerycafe best pastries in all of Pattaya
temples: https://sanctuaryoftruthmuseum.com/ gun ranges: video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YGMYWwCxPY bolwing :central festival mall movies: central festival mall shopping : central festival mall, terminal 21 Helpfull websites : https://www.pattayaescortgirls.com/ https://www.thaifriendly.com/browse.ph/www.windmillpattaya.com/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gkj5AlcxmUE https://horizon.bafood-menu/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYGQBpOER8o https://www.atvtourspattaya.com/ https://www.lazada.co.th/ airlineshttps://www.namstaxiladydrivers.com/services https://www.primecarsrentalthailand.com https://www.pulse-clinic.com/ https://hellocleany.com/en/price/ https://www.axatravelinsurance.com/ https://ink.inc/locations/pattaya-studio/

The small, furry creature scampered along, exploring a darkened passageway chasing an even smaller, furry creature… but the hallway suddenly retreated from the creature in all directions, vacating into a vast, open sky. The creature was falling. Endlessly falling through the pale blue emptiness but it sprouted wings and soared away, screeching with an ear-splitting, horrible sound…
Grezzlthorp woke with a gasp, disoriented, dizzy, completely discombobulated and unable to recover from the strangeness of the visions that had interrupted the peaceful sleep cycle.
Grezzlthrop could not return to the peaceful rest.
-
Zendicarp was surrounded by strange beings, staring and pointing their strange, bony appendages. Each was making a hideous noise, their teeth fully exposed in an aggressive manner. Each wore a variety of colored exterior adornments, Zendicarp looked down and found that there were no such colorful adornments upon its body, that it was as hideous and gross as all the others, but without decor. Clearly, the horrendous noise and gestures were mocking the lack of adornment in a shame-inducing ritual. Zendicarp began to convulse and the imagery blurred, as if covered in moisture, as the sounds distorted and faded into another type of background cacophony; Zendicarp’s vision cleared, revealing a vast, unending field of some sort of green, short grass punctuated by a near-infinite number of stone protruding from the ground at regular intervals in every direction. Zendicarp looked down and falls into a gaping hole in the ground… dirt rains down upon Zendicarp, closing in a darkness from which there is no escape.
Zendicarp’s seven eyes flicked open, beholding the ceiling and walls of its small cabin. Everything was exactly where is should be, but the feeling of dread, of meaninglessness, of isolation and seclusion were a stench permeating the innermost regions of its psyche. Never had Zendicarp experienced such horror as that which had just invaded its resting mind.
-
Blantereen climbed the stairs. Blantereen had always been climbing the stairs. Blanetereen was almost to the top of the stairs but they never ended. Blantereen looked down, the down never ended, there was not bottom, just blackness. Blantereen looked across the emptiness to see the stairs, the stairs that were up but also down, from where Blantereen currently was… stairs that never ended nor began, just an endless effort to go nowhere, alone in the empty universe of nothingness.
Blantereen’s alarm cut through the eternal climb, ending it after years of toil and unending torment. The chronometer read that it was the correct time, but Blanthereen knew, at the core of its being, that it had been trapped on the unending stairway for a lifetime.
-
Frondiferous was drowning in color. So many colors. Colors swirling and colliding and forming new colors, eradicating old ones. The colors took forms and played out various skits in every direction, all demanding Frondiferous’ attention at once, but each skit dissolved into chaos the moment attention focused on it. Everything existed, but everything refused to stay existing. The swirls and chaos swallowed Frondiferous’ soul and spat out a tired worker who was ill-equipped to man their station for the requisite shift.
—
Each of the four members of the crew noted that the other three seemed off-kilter but each of them assumed it was a perception issue on their own part due to their terrible experiences during the rest cycle. Each presumed that they, and they alone, had had the adverse events permeating their rejuvenation and each was concerned that, should they acknowledge it to the others, they would be removed from duty and confined to their quarters. Each forced their way through the work shift and kept to themselves during the meals of the standard day cycle; each used their recreation time for quiet contemplation time, alone, not realizing that the other three were also avoiding socialization time.
Each retired for the rest cycle.
—
Each experienced more of the absurdity that intruded upon their unconscious mind.
The crew of the survey ship operated for a week, with decreasing efficiency, before any of them dared divulge their problem to the others.
All four were relieved to discover that their fate, their visions, their rest disturbances, were not isolated to themselves, but were a shared phenomenon.
They began to log them as much as they could for future assessment and study.
—
On the 9th standard day cycle the visions began to invade their conscious thoughts, too.
Zendicarp reported to the others that the entire work area was shifting colors and that a cacophony of hideous sounds could be heard echoing through the corridors of the ship.
Grezzlthorp declared a fire emergency before realizing that the horrendous smell of burnt flesh and hair, accompanied by the sound of screams of an ungodly natures, and the cackling of flames all around were naught but one of the illusions of the mind.
Frondiferous reported a small furry creature running through the halls, which vanished whenever attention was directed toward it.
Blantereen started coughing and gagging as a reflex to an imaginary wave rushing through the ship, trying to drown them all.
—
The core destination of their survey mission was only two more standard days away. As a crew, they decided to continue their mission and, if necessary, calibrate the ship to do an automated survey run upon arrival.
The crew endured another two days of ever-worsening delusions intruding on their waking, and resting, minds.
—
The survey ship arrived at the destination world. The crew, weary from their inability to rest and their uncertainty about the reality of anything before them, did their best to begin the requisite survey. None of them were certain that their findings, that there was already a colony of some sort present, were accurate until they all checked, double-checked, and triple-checked their readings; each seeing the same thing as the others all three times.
They conferred and determined that they had stumbled into a first-contact scenario and opted to follow protocol. They landed, donned their environmental suits, and debarked from their ship to wait for the curiosity of the colonists to win out and for them to approach the survey ship’s crew.
Zendicarp was the first to realize that the colonists were the type of people seen in the first vision, the people who stood and shamed Zendicarp for lacking the adorning colors worn by everyone else. Zendicarp conferred with the others and, collectively, they concluded that the interrupting visions must, somehow, be originating with these beings.
The meeting went well, and smooth. There were no visions to interrupt the excitement of the entire colony crowding around their first exposure to “aliens.”
It was only 10 hours later, when the survey ship was retreating from the world, that the first of the visions reinvaded the minds of the crew.
—--
A year later the first of the humans arrived on a diplomatic station to begin discussions about territories and ownership and participation in the grander galactic community and economy as a whole.
The humans, a small contingent of ten beings, maintained the standard shift schedule that the station was accustomed to, affirming that one-third working, one-third recreation, and one third resting is the universal pattern for all known sentient life in the galaxy.
It took only 3 days for the first report of intrusive visions. One of the rest-shift workers called for assistance in trying to locate a monster that had been seen roaming a deckway; only to find that there were no sensor logs or other witnesses and no surveillance footage to concur with the sighting.
After the first report others poured in.
Hundreds of beings on the station reported strange feelings or hallucinations during the rest shift; experiences ranging from neutral colors swirling around to horrendous experiences that the being wished to not relive, even to discuss it.
None of the humans reported anything out of the ordinary.
When asked, and given details, the diplomat looked quite puzzled and replied “so you all are having dreams?”
—-
Twenty nine years later humans were welcomed into the galactic community, spreading throughout all of the core worlds and many of the economic pillars of the galaxy. Many beings gave humans a wide berth, knowing that they transmit radical, strange, delusions when they sleep.
Many distrust humans during the waking hours, too; choosing to close their shops and hide rather than risk “contamination” from some human leaking their weirdness.
But all of the concerns were for naught as humans were required, by galactic law, to sleep in shielded quarters when not in a human territory. This worked well for humans as no other species was willing to violate a human sleep space for fear of visions; and it worked well for all of the other species as the shielding, quite simple when discovered, destroyed the outward transmission of the human dreams effectively and without incidents.
-
The humans, when awake, were adaptable beings who worked hard and generated valuable input to the overall civilization and economy, usually.
Jason, and three others, were brought into the interrogation room, manipulating limbs bound together and mobility limbs shackled loosely enough to walk. Collectively, they were suspected of a variety of criminal actions and were pending the formal evidentiary review dictated by law. The evidence should clear at least half of the suspects, allowing the remainder to stand trial for the crimes. The galactic law requires that all suspects be held until their trial, or preemptive dismissal of charges, without exception. Many individual planets, earth included, were not in agreement with this law but, when crimes happened in galactic governance spaces, this law is the one that must be followed.
Jason, greatly perturbed by his arrest and with insistence of his innocence, asked to be released to human quarters and placed under “house arrest” rather than interred in the prison. Jason’s request, per the galactic law, was denied.
Jason sat in the interrogation room, alone. Angry and feeling violated by his arrest when his plan to get transferred to his quarters arrived, fully-formed, in his head.
“Hello? I’m getting tired. I need to sleep soon. I’m just going to lay down here in this cell and take a nap right now.”
It was only a matter of minutes before Jason’s holding room door flew open. “The station commander has made a temporary ruling. You, because you are human, will be held in your quarters until the evidentiary hearing. Follow us.”
Jason smiled as he rose from the floor. If he was going to lose an unknown number of days’ worth of pay, he would, at least, get to do it in the comfort of his own home.

The Cult of inCharacter School of Ministry
Getting right to the point, inCharacter School of Ministry, or iC, is a cult and is headed by a charismatic cult leader. Do not attend this “ministry school.” Take your money and time to an accredited educational institution. The accreditation that inCharacter has is not sufficient for any kind of legitimate degree you might be looking for. In addition to that statement, the classes provided at iC are not intellectually challenging and will not help you in academia. You are better off going to your local pastor and getting instruction from them. If your goal is to pursue an academic degree in ministry, again, go to an institution that will teach you these things properly. If they approach your church to do ministry, do not let them into your congregation.
The above paragraph serves as the synopsis for what is to follow. It is to the point and is written to deter anyone from enrolling in iC. Below I will provide my experience at iC to further explain the above paragraph. Below are labeled sections. Feel free to skip a section if it does not interest you. The sections will be the following:
1. History (501 Words)
2. My Personal Experience (1771 Words)
3. Links
1. History
First, some history. inCharacter started out as a young adult program form the Assemblies of God called Master’s Commission or MC for short. MC was a way to train young people in ministry out of local churches. The idea was that these young people would learn ministry by doing ministry. They would also go off and live in dorms or be welcomed into the houses of church members’ houses. While enrolled at a MC, students would attend classes taught by the MC leader. They would also serve in the church by doing anything from cleaning toilets to preaching sermons. inCharacter began as one of these Master’s Commission programs. It was called Master’s Commission Mid-Atlantic and operated out of Hagerstown, Maryland. I do not recall the name of the church it started in.
The leader of this group was/is a man named Brian, or PB for Pastor Brian. PB is a charismatic and likable person. He has a love for theatre and implemented that into his program. MC Mid-Atlantic became known for their human videos, skits, and full production shows. They would travel to different churches in the area and perform for congregations. These performances always had a message in them. Depending on the set, people would either be doubled over in laughter or on their faces in tears, moved by the message based on the gospel. However, after many years, PB and the church MC Mid-Atlantic was based out of had a falling out, a trend that continues to this day. They then moved and took over a MC program in Lafayette, Louisiana. I do not recall the name they went by in Louisiana, but they were only there for a year before moving to Mobile, Alabama. In mobile, they went by the name of Sunbelt Master’s Commission. I do not recall how long they were there, but they soon moved again to Marianna, Florida.
With the move to Florida came both a name and organizational change. PB and his inner circle leadership felt that Master’s Commission had lost its passion and original mission. They decided to leave MC and create their own organization, a 501(c) they called inCharacter School of Ministry. iC still operated the same way PB had run his previous organizations, however this time with complete control and no oversight. iC made its home on the West Florida District Assembly of God Campgrounds. This site served as the headquarters of the West Florida District where district leaders lived and worked. This site was purchased by a local Assemblies of God church, Evangel Worship Center, after Marianna suffered significant damage from Hurricane Michael in 2018. PB saw this as a sign from God that it was time to move again. They moved to Punta Gorda, Florida to a church called Deep Creek Community Center Church or DC3 for short. To the best of my memory, I believe they were only there for three years before leaving and as of 02/19/2024 are still based out of Port Charlotte Methodist Church.
2. My Personal Story with iC
I was enrolled in iC for two years. At the time, it was still an immersive, on-campus experience. Students lived in dorms on the West Florida AG Campgrounds. (In the summer, these dorms would be used to house youth groups from around the district for Youth Camp.) We lived, ate, studied, and worked on this campus. A typical day would be breakfast, then class. After class we would rehearsal our set list that we would travel to churches with. In between would be lunch and dinner. We would also have prayer and all the typical church kind of things. However, it wasn’t typical. All the students were told that we were training to become elite Christians. Christians who thought creativity, outside the box of the status quo Christian. The rehearsals usually left everyone teary eyed as we looked within ourselves and realized how destitute we were without Jesus. We were taught to harness that raw emotion and pour it into our set list. It truly was some powerful stuff. But then again, the arts are powerful.
The leadership at that time was structured like this: PB and wife, ‘R’, were the leaders. PB was the main face while ‘R’ was rarely seen or heard from and worked mostly in the background. Then there was ‘J’ who was PB’s right hand man. ‘J’ had been a student in Master’s Commission under PB many years ago and had stuck with him ever since. PB was the founder and leader, but ‘J’ ran more of iC than PB did. Next to PB and ‘R’, ‘J’s’ authority was second, but he was still very much subservient to PB. Then there was ‘N’. ‘N’ was on the bottom and really had no power. However, she was still a leader and would help develop our sets and dances and such. I quickly gained the respect and trust of PB and the rest of iC leadership and was brought into the inner circle. I made my own opportunities to be close to leadership. I would be invited to PB’s house because I would purposely follow him there, all the while my fellow students would walk away without an invitation. If the team, (the ‘team’ is what the students were collectively call) was invited to come over to watch the game, I stayed behind while others left. I essentially brown nosed for the first year I was there. As funny as that is now, it was nonetheless true. But that is what PB would teach us to do. We were taught that the disciples of Jesus were his closest companions. They knew him better than the crowds. Yet Jesus even had an inner circle. It was this backdrop that we were immersed in every day. Everyone fought to win the approval of iC leadership. And the ones who got that approval got more attention.
For example, we would travel to churches on Sundays and Wednesdays to preach by performing. Before, the entire team would go. By the time I got there, only a handful of people got to go. The people with the best grades, who could act the best, and of course, the people who were closest to leadership or seemed the most ‘sold out.’ This team was called Travel Team. It was said at the beginning of each year that members of the Travel Team would be traded out often. But that did not happen. Once you were on the Travel Team, you were on it. And the people on the Travel Team got to spend even more time with leadership. The only time people traded hands on the Travel Team was when they were kicked off. One guy was kicked off because of his attitude. Another was kicked off because he was getting too close to one of the girls on the team. iC had a strict policy against dating. They claimed this was so that students could focus solely on Jesus, since that was the reason we all came to inCharacter. Leadership had instructed ‘E’ to stop his relationship with this girl. When he didn’t, he was “reassigned” to the newly developed, and less prestigious, Kid’s Ministry team. I had started to become good friends with ‘E’ during my first year. However, PB had a private conversation with me that ‘E’ was not a good influence because he was blinded by his carnal relationship.
To speak more on relationships, leadership would call the team in for a “Family Meeting” from time to time when someone really messed up. On two separate occasions a family meeting was called to discuss how a female member was campused. Campused meant that a student was on probation either due to a moral failing or an academic one. When someone was campused, they could not leave the campus unless on official iC business. Our off days were Fridays. We could do anything we liked within reason on Fridays but could not leave the city unless we had previously received permission. For someone who was campused, they could still go nowhere. If it was an academic campusing, they would spend most of their time studying. If it were a moral failing campusing, I really don’t know what they did. I just know they were regulated to the campus property and treated like scarlet letters.
In addition to our studying and rehearsing, Thursdays were our workdays. As part of the agreement between iC and the West Florida District, iC oversaw lawn care and cleaning of buildings on campus. iC was also obligated to help with District events to include set up, break down, ushering, and even as servers if there were a banquet. This served as payment for room and board on top of the $6,500 tuition each student paid to attend iC. (The school year was from August to May).
Getting back to me. After my first year, PB saw how committed I was to him (not only had I reduced my friendship with ‘E’, but I also gave iC $20,000 as a tithe. This money came from my father who died before I was born. I had been taught my whole life that not tithing on the money you have was a sin against God. So, I gave my tithe to the one thing I really believed in). PB, seeing that my money was where my mouth was, invited me to go on vacation with him, his family, and iC leadership to Disneyworld. He also secured for me an internship at DC3 that summer with their Youth Pastor ‘D’. ‘D’ was a Master’s Commission Alumni and one of PB’s inner circle, and He even served on the iC board. I later found out from ‘E’ that he was supposed to go to DC3, but because he kept pursuing that girl, the internship was given to me. ‘E’ is now happily married to that girl and they have a beautiful child together.
This was the beginning of my introduction to the iC inner circle. I was told a year and half before anyone else that iC was planning on moving to DC3. I would be the only student present when iC leadership would talk bad about other students. It was not surprising. iC leadership would talk bad about the West Florida District leadership directly to the team. iC leadership talked unfavorably about pastors in the region or how no one in the West Florida District did things right.
The leadership was also not to be questioned. When PB or his wife, ’R’, spoke, it was law. Even the other two iC leaders, ‘J’ and ‘N’, had to constantly check in with PB or ‘R’. I witnessed ‘J’ and ‘N’ being treated like children, berated, and belittled. They also were alumni who were chosen and accepted leadership positions in iC. They did all the work and received no compensation. ‘J’ most of all. ‘J’ was and is PB’s right hand man. He is incredibly loyal to PB. ‘J’ has forfeited his entire life to PB and his vision. ‘J’s’ entire adult life has been to serve PB, oh and Jesus.
I saw a lot of these red flags while I was brown nosing my way to the inner circle. But I was certain, like all the other students, that God had called me to inCharacter. I was slated to begin my third year at iC. But in April of my second year, my whole world changed. My stepfather was a pastor, so I grew up in church leadership. My life was the church. But that April, the truth came out about the man who for 20 years I called father. Without much more detail, it made me pause and really think about all the red flags I had stored away about iC. I decided not to come back for my third year. When I informed PB and his wife, they were livid. Surprisingly, ‘R’ did more talking and belittling to me while PB just sat there. I had seen her treat ‘J’ and ‘N’ this way as well. ‘R’ was hardly seen by anyone. She handled the money of the organization, taught their daughter, and cared for her dying mother. But this woman, who I really had no relationship with, talked to me as if she were God himself. I left that conversation fuming. I packed my bags that day and left.
Even though I left irate, we still had a friendly manner between us. I came back with supplies when they were trapped in Marianna from hurricane Michael. I would still go to their full productions and seek their approval. But what happened to me is exactly what happened to all other alumni who left, nothing. PB would tell us that we were family. That we should get close to leadership and depend on them, solely on them. But when I left, I realized that if you were not willing to be their subordinate, they would cast you aside. Once I realized this, I started to rid myself of their influence. After I married, they tried to contact me and send me marriage gifts. I declined the gift from them and made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with them.
I realize this is a long post. Thanks for sticking with me. There obviously is more, but I feel it is unnecessary to post it. However, I will reiterate my original thought: Do not attend this institution. In addition, if you found this post because you want iC or its leadership to come to your church, run. Cut all ties you have with them and save yourself the hassle.
3. Links
This section will have a few links to include: the inCharacter website, the Sunbelt MC website, and reddit post about this group.
inCharacter Link:
https://www.getincharacter.org/
Please only go here for research. Again, do not apply here.
Sunbelt Master’s Commission Link:
http://www.sunbeltmc.org/index.html
reddit Link:
LetMeBeADamnMedic’s post is what is relevant in this case. They were a part of inCharacter when it was in Mobile, Alabama and went by the name Sunbelt Master’s Commission.
https://www.reddit.com/exchristian/comments/imskn2/masters_commission/

Crazy Good Fishing (https://www.youtube.com/@CrazyGoodFishing)
Does filming prevent you from having fun while on a fishing trip?
Yes, there are times when it definitely happens. Someone has to be running the camera. Just a month ago we got a contraption, we can hook a phone up to a pole on a boat, so my hands can be free. Previously, we would hand it back and forth: “OK, it’s your turn to cast it”. But we just changed the fun of “can you get this on film?” For instance, in November we were in the Amazon jungle and I was getting a little video footage of a bird, and a jaguar came out of the bush. And we got this jaguar on camera swimming across the river. And that was an element of fun. It wasn’t there before. Also I broke the world record in the country of Brazil two months ago while fishing there. I happened to be filming a fish at a time. We didn’t know it was a world record. But not only did I break a world record, I happened to have the camera running. I was filming and we got the whole thing documented. So some elements of fun have surely disappeared, but we’ve replaced it with other types of fun.
Our idea is not to just show fishing, but to move into a story. It’s hard to fit a story into a shorts video. So we don’t do shorts much.
All the videos on your channel fall into 3 big groups: travel-and-fishing videos, how-tos and fishing report videos.
Those report kind of videos were an accident. We didn’t do that intentionally. We put out a couple videos about a year and a half ago. We had like 40-50 people watch. And I was surprised. I said: “That’s twice as many as I thought would watch this video.” And we thought maybe there was a spot for our voice in the market, in the community. As somebody who runs a fishing business for a living… I have 1500 customers coming every year, and I teach them about fishing, I help them with their fishing trip. They ask me about these things. One of them said: “We’d like to know what fishing is before we get out there.” So when we got back, we made a report. It was supposed to be a one report thing. We made the report, and 300 people watched it. And YouTube liked it. Our other videos, you couldn’t find them. I went on YouTube, put a title and I couldn’t find it. I tried searching incognito. They were just gone. My fishing report, I typed in the name of it, it came up. Like number two. Next week a lot of people tell us in person, face to face: “I saw your fishing report, it was so helpful.” So we tried it again and again and again. They always get the exact same range – 400-600 people watch them. It’s not the same people. It’s people who are coming to our area. Those fishing reports have allowed us to reach into a group of serious fishermen. We’re becoming credible to them. And now those people are watching our travel videos. So our fishing reports were an integral piece that we didn’t realize was going to happen. And now the resort association in our region, there’s 12 resorts, they put signs on their property about fishing reports on the YouTube channel. And they’re gonna encourage their customers to follow it. I would actually expect to have a significant jump in subscribers and followers this summer, because commercial businesses are going to start promoting our channel for that area as a place for unbiased information. So that was a big time evolution from what we thought we were going to do and it’s given us a chance to keep content coming on a regular basis in the summers, ‘cause that’s the time I’m so busy I can’t go fishing this much.
Storytelling became part of the evolution. We’ve just recently started doing voiceover rather than music. We found out that people who watch our videos are older. They’re 40-50-year-old males. They don’t wanna listen to rap music. They don’t wanna listen to Taylor Swift. They wanna know all sorts of details about our videos. So the voiceover has helped. Because I have personal relationship with my clientele, many people text me later. They’ll say: “Yeah, I loved that video. This happened.” I tell them: “Please, put a comment on YouTube.” But they don’t do it. They’re older. Most of them don’t understand how YouTube works. They don’t comment, they don’t like. But they watch.
I basically have 2 groups of people that watch the videos. The “how-to” people and the fishermen report are the same people. It’s a localized area, people are coming to one region of the United States to fish. And my travel videos – it’s a different group of people.
I didn’t stop making the report type videos. It’s just seasonal. Minnesota is northern United States. We have a very similar weather to Siberia. Extreme high temps in the summer, extreme low temps in the winter. Nobody goes on vacation to our location in wintertime. So my summertime videos are all how to and reports. Our winter videos are all travel, ‘cause there’s nothing to do back home. This seasonality is a problem. In summer our viewers are getting used to one kind of videos and then when winter comes it’s suddenly all travel videos.
The reason why fishing reports do poorer than travel videos is because travel videos are evergreen content. They never stop getting views. Whereas a fishing report is that weather pattern, that time of year. The odds that it’ll happen again are slight. The fishing reports do well, but then they just die.
Men watch fishing videos, women do not. The most popular fishing channels all have the same thing in common: they have a beautiful woman fishing in a bikini. We are a father and a son fishing channel, so we stay away from that. Sometimes we get comments like: “If you get your daughter or your wife out there, you’ll get more views.” But that’s not what we are. I don’t wanna lose the goal of spending more time with my son in order to get more subscribers.
Also we don’t sugarcoat things. If we make a video and it rains, we show the rain. I made a video about the Amazon jungle fishing, it’s the best video we’ve made, and we lost a whole day in a terrible storm. We showed it. We did a video reviewing a trip and the guy made some mistakes, and I talked about it. So, we stay authentic, even if it’s not fun.
To be successful in our niche means to be authentic, to know our audience, and to focus on creating content that they’re gonna come back to watch again.
I made a video last summer in August. I went up to Alaska. I go on a river, I catch nice fish. Two grizzly bears come walking into the river. I make this video. I thought it was a good video. No one watched it. Like, maybe, 85 people. Six months later I think I’m at 150 people. It’s one of our better videos.
Best posting days for me are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Nobody watches over a weekend. If we do two videos, we do Tuesday and Thursday. It all strongly correlates with the “When your viewers are on YouTube” chart.
My audience doesn’t want to watch a video every day.
I used to not edit very much. We just film and upload. Now, every hour of footage probably takes three hours to edit.
We had failures on our channel. We decided to make a funny skit one time. My son wrote a script. He’s like: “Dad, you’re gonna say this-.” And so we had me dressed up as four different types of fishermen. We went to a local fishing business and asked if we could film inside their store. They said: “Yeah, it’s fine.”, so we did one out there. It bombed terribly. Few people who watched it laughed at us: “Guys, this is not really you. You are a fisherman. And now you are what? A comedy actor?”
I own a fishing lodge. We’ve had people who’ve started coming to our lodge because they see our videos.
When people are traveling, what’s their number one worry? It’s safety. Except fishermen. Their number one worry is catching fish. When I take people fishing, we will be in the water with crocodiles, anacondas and other crazy things. True fishermen do not care. They only care about fishing. So those guys who watch our videos, they say about us: “Those guys catch fish. They care about fishing.” And so those people are coming to our business.
In my fishing report videos, we often show what tackle is best for that time. In our lodge, we have a tackle store. For the first 8 years of running the business I sold very little tackle. Now I sell a lot of tackle. We will say: “This lure right here is really good right now.” The video plays, and the next day I sell out that lure. People will come in and buy our tackle that we promote on a channel. We have surely seen an impact.
Thumbnails
Our thumbnail evolution has been serious. When we were making our first videos, we didn’t select the thumbnail. It was OK, I didn’t think anyone would watch our first videos. Then someone on NewTubers suggested that we should be doing separate thumbnails. I had to google the word “thumbnail”. My son started making thumbnails, and we had a whole bunch where he put a lot of words on it, in different colors but the same font. (He liked the font. Well, that’s his channel, so I said “sure”.) The we talked to some people and they said: “Your thumbnails are confusing.”
About 3 month ago we started changing our thumbnails to be just one fish. In the past we had a bunch of small fish in there, and it was hard to see on a phone. We also try to heighten the resolution and color of the image, so that the fish jumps out more and looks more colorful. We don’t change the natural colors, we just try to bring more definition, more shadow or vibrancy to it. And then usually we try to pick a nice background, like a sunset, and we put our fish on top of there. We have seen better CTR on those videos.
We experiment with average view duration a lot. For example, nobody wants to watch an hour of us cranking. It’s too boring. We cut out those parts.
There are some things that you must do in a fishing video. One of them is “You got to show the fish.” You need to hold the fish for people to see. Almost all of our fish get released in the water. We almost never kill, just once in a while for dinner. Sometimes we throw fish in the water too fast and they complain about it: “We wanted to see the fish.” In our initial videos I was very worried about the fish and I was like “Quick! Get it in the water! The fish needs to breathe water.” In our initial videos I didn’t hold it long enough.
We realized that when the camera is looking at me fishing it often gets boring. So now we’re trying to turn the camera so it looks in the water and you can see what I’m seeing.
The storytelling is a must. We used to only show us fishing in the videos. Then people started asking us: “How did you get there?” - “Well, we took a plane.” - “Why didn’t you show the plane?” It turns out they want to see a 3-second long clip of us getting on the airplane. People like stories. They want to feel like there’s arc: here’s the start, here’s the climax and here’s the resolution. They want the story, even if there’s a struggle.
Calls-to-action
I don’t have a strategy as to calls to action. Sometimes I remember to put them there. But then we have viewers who tell us they don’t like videos to say that, because it doesn’t change what they’re going to do. Another issue is that so many people, at least in the US, watch YouTube on their television, so they can’t click “like”. And they can’t subscribe on the TV.
We have tested things and found out that the only call to action that works for us is end cards. So we say: “Hey, if you like this video, here’s another one that’s very similar or goes more in depth, so go ahead and watch that video”
You’re not just a content creator, you’re a business owner. Do you try redirecting viewers to your business?
No, and I’m quite strong about that. I’ve discovered that even though I don’t promote my channel, other people and businesses do. So If I start promoting mu business, they will stop promoting me. We never wear apparel or merchandise that has a brand or a fishing company. We always wear a YouTube company apparel. Most people who are watching my videos, they don’t know that I own a fishing lodge. People have been surprised. I’ve had people in my hometown, there’ll be a tourist there, and they’re like “Hey, I saw you guys on YouTube”. And I say: “Oh, I live right over there.” They say: “But that’s a fishing lodge.” I say: “Yeah, that’s MY fishing lodge.” I don’t promote my fishing lodge in my videos, because the other lodges in my area are now promoting my fishing channel. So instead of having one business promote one channel, I’m trying to get a dozen of businesses to promote a channel. Along with spending time with my son, my goal as to my channel is to have people all over the world send me a message: “Hey Adam. We want you and your son to come here to us. We want you to film a video about what our lake is like, so people see and they’re gonna come too.” That would be awesome. And they’re not gonna do that if in my videos I’ll be saying “Don’t go there, go to me instead”. We have been invited to 3 locations already to film there because of what we do.
Filming
I’m not a camera person, I don’t usually talk much while I do something, I just do it. So before we go to a location, we try to think: “OK, here’s the fish we’re probably gonna catch. What might somebody want to know about this? They might wanna know how big they can get, what they eat, if it can hurt you.” So basically we do some research on what we’re gonna talk about.
We have tried now to find out where to best hang the camera. We found out if you hold the fish and the camera is lower looking up, the fish looks bigger.
Wind is a big problem for us. The camera picks it up and we have a lot of the background noise. When we’re talking, we put a muffler by the camera so that it doesn’t pick up the wind.
The other thing is we want to make sure we’re natural. Usually, when I catch a big fish, I’m all excited about it. We made some videos where we didn’t do it, we were like “Stay cool! Stay calm!” And people said they’re boring. Also, fishing has a bad reputation for a lot of bad language involved. We don’t do that, we mind our language.
We don’t use zoom when filming, we move the camera, otherwise it gets all jerky. Also, we used to move around too much. Now we stick to static shots but we choose them very carefully, because if the camera is too far away, you can’t hear us and if it’s this close, we cut off something.
Editing
We film on an iPhone and we used to edit with iMovie, because it was already on my phone. Now we use CapCut. We tried DaVinci Resolve, but it was too complicated. Too much time. I like editing on my phone, ‘cause we’re filming on the phone and while we’re on the plane flying back home I just sit there editing. We film on the phone, we edit on the phone, we upload from the phone.
Before editing, I watch all the footage. Then we put our storyboard and what do we want our video to say. We don’t necessarily worry about having chronological order. The story is what matters. We put all the footage in the order. Then I do voiceover. Make sure all the sound is good. We do music last. We don’t use music all that much though.
It takes me 3 hours to edit one hour of footage I take. So if I go out for a full day and I fish 6-8 hours, it’s gonna be twenty some hours of editing.
We only use our own footage. Occasionally I would find an image of a fish on Google or Wikipedia and use it, because it’s free, but we never use footage from other people’s videos.
I don’t do memes. We’ve gone away from a lot of crazy fonts. Our audience doesn’t like having crazy fonts.
Most of our talking is done in one take. We don’t reshoot, because it’s not authentic anymore. We’re not scripting out story.
Titles
With titles, initially we had this pattern: location – type of fish. Done. Only about 3 months ago we did a bunch of research and realized that we were doing a terrible job in terms of SEO. We had bad titles, no tags, description was one line. Now I use a tool called TubeBuddy. It gives me suggested titles based on keywords. We use the locations a lot in titles, because people are searching for that.
TubeBuddy is useful for me, mostly because we don’t know what we’re doing. When we started, we knew so little about YouTube. We were just floundering in the dark. Those tools have a lot of pamphlets, material for reading on why you do this or that. And I read them.
I try to stay away from clickbait. Out authenticity is part of what we do. The clickbait, if it’s simple and they’re gonna receive what they’re looking for, is fine. But we don’t do any kind of misleading clickbait.
My audience is very heavily male. 7 out of 8 of my viewers are male.
I have noticed that if my video performs very well in the first two days, it’ll double that amount of views by the end of the week.
Shorts
We used to try to make short videos, like 3 minute videos. Going on a fishing trip is very expensive. If my viewers are willing to spend that money, they are also willing to spend some time researching where they’re gonna go. So we realized that they’re not afraid to watch long YouTube videos. I have competitors who make fishing videos 60-90 minutes long.
Audience engagement
I don’t think my audience engages very much at all with me. I just started doing the community tab about a month ago. I didn’t even know it existed. I was reading a “how to” article about YouTube (I read those a lot) and it said: “Post on Community”. Now I post on there sometimes. We don’t have any comments on it, but the videos too. I don’t get comments on most of my videos. I get more people comment to me via text message or talking in person about the videos.
Many of my viewers have been my clients for years. They all have my phone number. I think many people watch my videos on television. They don’t watch on their phone. So they can’t comment from a television. Most people watching my videos are above average wealthy Americans. They have a big TV in their home and they watch it on their television.
We have been thinking about promoting fishing gear in our videos, but we are too small. And it needs to be done delicately. Something along the lines of: “In case you wanna know, this is the type of gear I’m using. The reason I chose it is such and such”.
As to audience retention, almost 40% of the people watch our videos until the end.

I remember a video from about 2013, I want to say in celebration of YouTube’s 8th anniversary but I might have the number wrong. It starts with a skit of a guy working at an office, and a second man comes up to him. The dialogue goes something like “wow I just got back from vacation for 8 years straight, what did I miss?” “Check this out it’s called YouTube”
they then break into song and montage through name dropping dozens of viral videos. I definitely recall one line of lyrics
”oh youuuu-tube, we can stay up late, watching [xxx xxx xxx] for 10 hours straight”

I say this as someone who has watched his videos for years, at least 7 years. I have watched all of his videos opening up about his hardships.
That said, I hold everyone to a degree of scrutiny. At the end of the day, he makes videos reading about random facts. And it's been just that now, for awhile. What rubbed me the wrong way is the advertising recently to now pay $4.99/month to see his bloopers. His bloopers to a video reading about facts he finds on the internet. Remember when DVDs had bloopers for fun? Or movies even put them at the end of the video? Well apparently, that's extra revenue now. I'm already paying for YouTube Premium, which I only actually signed up for the VSauce series Mind Field years back.
I felt this way about Rhett and Link when the GMM channel mainly became about watching them eating food. It wouldn't be as off putting if they didn't try to build this huge empire off it, with a Mythical Society (with even multiple tiers of membership), premium streams, constant limited time only merch.
I had a talk with a friend who wanted to get into streaming. I asked him - what will you provide that is unique, and new? Is it a new format? What will make your content quality content? It wasn't to put him down, but to try and help him. I had the same talk with another friend who wanted to start a podcast. If we did a podcast together, what would make us special? There's already a TON of podcasters out.
I feel for people like MeatCanyon, who point out the streamers who are making (sometimes lots) of money by ripping off other people via "reaction vids". The variance in workload between YouTubers is high, and there are people who are taking advantage of the system that doesn't always reward hard work. Shows on TV in the past, for example, stayed hot only with constantly staying relevant. Each show needed to be a piece of art, or were at risk of being replaced.
Love or hate his work, John Stossel continues to be a dedicated investigative journalist well into his 70s, and uses his YouTube channel to share it. 55 years into this career and he simply asks viewers to subscribe and share the video. In fact, he even posted recently he's hiring for help too. He's not trying to build more and more on top of this concept, trying every little way to profit more.
I've had a few YouTubers who started off by putting lots of work into their videos, but have transitioned into almost now all of their content being them reacting to funny videos, or any other videos. They are being paid to watch videos, and to look either cute, funny, or sexy while doing it. It's not necessarily their fault, per se, as I'm sure that's what the training calls for in modern marketing advise. This is not to say that being an analyst for other videos isn't helpful or worth watching, if you're really adding to the topic.
CallMeKris is hilarious, talented, gorgeous, and smart. Her skits are premium stuff. I have been a fan of hers for years, teared up during her videos opening up about depression, watched her video where she took a vacation by herself. I still can't bring myself to watch her videos of just her sitting pretty, watching other videos when she started doing that too.
Tyler Zed started his channel with doing the video analytics and conversations. Now he just watches videos with quick remarks. His podcast is him reading the weather, reading the news headlines, basically what you could get scrolling through Yahoo news. I tried to keep up with it, but I didn't see the point. He routinely talks about his subscribers count, and wanting to bump it up, telling people to go subscribe to his brother. There's a command but with little effort to sell the reason why. They ride on the "be a part of our little club" or "remember me from your past?" dedication that probably works because of our current problem of chronic loneliness in our society now because millions of people are physically alone in their house on the internet.
I say this must be an unpopular opinion because that's what so many "content creators" are doing, and keep doing, so it must be working. But in my opinion, it's the "content creator" version of this problem of tipping culture getting out of control, to the point of realizing this person really is not doing much work to ask for even more subscription money.

Hello Dr.K
I am not much of a put-yourself-out-in-the-world type of person so writing about my life publically is challenging. I used to be the straight-A top-of-the-school student with always the 1st rank next to my name. Yet I never had a clear goal for my future vocation. I wavered like a kite, if someone said medical school is great I'd follow and agree on that being my dream and if another argued engineering is better I'd support that and claim it's my dream. Looking back, I don't know if it was arrogance that my score could get me wherever I wanted. But one thing for sure I did sense loss of direction but just brushed it off. What blindsided me was during my senior year of high school. My mom and childhood friend got into a severe accident that resulted in taking my friend's life and rendering my mom's movement difficult. It happened in a span of a second, one second we were bickering, and the next thing she was gone. Needless to say, I flunked all of my college's admission exams. It was the cherry on the top. I did nothing for that summer other than sleep. I slept all day and night and only woke up when I was sure that everyone at home was asleep. I hated their questions and just cried whenever anyone even dared to look at me. So my family's approach was to let her be and she'll come around eventually. That year, my dad enrolled me in community college and, of course, I hated it. It was either I went but didn't enter class or pretended to go then went back home after dad went to work. I nearly went delulu xD. Until I found happiness in tv-shows. Growing up, my mom banned us from watching YouTube or TV unless it was summer vacation and she'd ban it again a couple of weeks before school started again. So I never had that urge to wait impatiently for an episode. Discovering this thrill gave me so much comfort at the time that no one could or tried to provide. Those funny shows and skits. That perfect main lead lifestyle that I so yearned for came as a pat on the back. I went from sleeping all day and night to staying awake for two days just watching and consuming content. Thinking that this is just a harmless phase. The problem was, I didn't know it'd follow me now five years later. I remember one time in my sophomore year in high school, my friend asked me how can I study just like that. And I remember telling her that I just do. When and if I need or have or want to study, I can just, like a snap of a finger, put on my phone, turn off wifi, and study, for hours with no problem. As if my flipping a switch. How can something so normal for me become such trouble to execute?
Well, after that one year in community college, I retried my luck and was able to enter a top national engineering college. I thought that this was it. Now that I'm studying at this well known with only top students and top teacher institutions, I have no reason whatsoever to continue in that streak of rabbit hole. But, to my surprise, I couldn't change it. It became a habit. Like flipping a switch. As soon as I entered my dorm, I'd turn on my laptop and fall down the rabbit hole.
I tried everything I found online. Read a self-help book (which quite honestly I found right now a waste of time and space), I watched thousands of different routines and tried to mimic them, I tried shaming and comparing myself, guilt-tripping, I tried it all. Yet to no avail. It never lasted more than 3 days.
Last year I came across Dr.K's videos and for the first time, I found in them what I was searching for in all of the above. Science. The way you explained what I was, and still I'm, struggling with medically and scientifically made me understand at least 50% of what I was fighting against. Even if I still could not implement what you advised for more than a week. ( which is an advancement compared to 3 days xD)
The problem remains I believe that I have no idea where to start even with all that knowledge I acquired thanks to your videos. Right now, I went from "I can't focus while studying" to I can't even focus while binge-watching" (which is presumably what I find happiness in). I have a ton of scheduled deadlines to meet and I have no willpower to work on them unless it's the day before. Also, add to that, I have been refuted from dozens of internships and interviews. What crushed my ego so much, was precisely an answer I got after my last interview where the recruiter wrote "We have chosen the second candidate even though they have a similar career, because they showed much more initiative than you". And that just was like a slap in the face. Adding the sprinklers of the arab household of "Look your cousin got 5 offers why didn't you receive any". And it's giving me immense stress since the school is pressuring me to find one by next month. (I admit until two or three weeks ago I wasn't that stressed but when I found out I was the only one who didn't find one, the alarm rang)
So please Dr.K, for someone whose life seems all over the place right now, what do you advise them to start with to make the pieces fall in place? I am so disoriented right now I desperately need something, anything to guide me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this <>

Or, how Español Con Juan's trying to discourage me for what lies ahead. lol. (Probably a little over-analyzed. I'm a software developer, I can't help analyzing things.)
I'm an hour or two away from 200 hours, and I'm pretty sure I should be in the intermediate level, but I'm not sure if I'm watching the correct videos. I've watched the DS videos up to "57" (the little number in the thumbnails - seems to be from 37-77). I don't have premium, so I'm trying to watch outside content. I stopped at 57, since I figured I'll watch them at level 4. So far, those videos were either 70-90% comprehensible, and others were 0-10% comprehensible. Here's what I've been watching right now (I feel like it's a hit-or-miss for early intermediate) -

• Espanol Si - The first 3 videos, I was a bit lost, but then something clicked at the end of the 3rd or 4th video on what they were doing. They had a skit, then a tutoring skit (a little cheesy), then a review of the grammar they used in the skit. I kind of get these now, and I like the style of these learner videos.
• CuriosaMente - I think I may stick to this one for vocabulary, since it covers many various topics that interest me. I even learned quite a bit from "¿De dónde viene tu ACENTO?". This one is my favorite of the list I have.
• Easy Spanish - Has subtitles in Spanish and English (But I can move the window to hide the subtitles). These are ok - if I compare it to Easy German, Easy German is well, mostly too easy, but Easy Spanish is getting there. I understand maybe 80-90% of the words, which I see a lot of people here say that's the ideal level.
• Hola Spanish - Speed sounds "normal" speed to me, but will use English here and there. But, I do like the teaching-style.
• Español con Juan - ok, now this is what's driving me nuts. Juan picks up the speed in B1 (was watching "El futuro en español Talking about the future in Spanish"), making it hard to catch words, especially if there's a string of 1-3 word particles (sounds like 1 word to me). It could be my hearing loss and/or learning disability that "gets stuck" on trying to decipher a word's syllable, which makes it lag behind the rest of the sentence. (This is why I had trouble taking notes in school when the class was in English, my native language). I had to pause a few times just to analyze what I was understanding, or not understanding. There was 1 part where he was talking about "3 things", and I'm trying to listen to the 3 things, and before I know it, he's onto the next topic, and I'm thinking, "Ok, what were the 3 things?". Now, here's my question about "getting the gist" vs. "understanding 95% of the dialog". How is "getting the gist" going to help me with new grammar? Even "getting the gist" on a few known nouns isn't going to tell me the context. For example, I'll show a sentence in English, then Spanish and German (did a quick Google Translate just for the example that I made up completely on the fly, so don't take it as grammatically correct). Highlighted words are words/grammar that I don't know.
  • English: I would have bought the book if I had known that my friend liked reading about cruises.
  • Spanish:Habría comprado el libro si hubiera sabido que a mi amigo le gustaba leer sobre cruceros.
  • German:Ich hätte das Buch gekauft, wenn ich gewusst hätte, dass mein Freund gerne über Kreuzfahrten liest.

In German, I understand 95% of the sentence, and there's only 1 vocabulary word to learn. The thing is, unless I see some context on what "Kreuzfahrten" is (a picture, someone describes the word as going on a vacation on a large boat, etc.), then it'll be hard to learn that word, and harder as more advanced words are encountered less and less.
Compare this to Spanish, and the sentence is roughly 50% comprehensible. The gist for me would be "the book if the friend likes reading it", or "book, friend, likes" if I were to hear this sentence in real time, giving me little time to process it, especially going at how fast Juan speaks at this level.
This might also be one of my subconscious expectations. I'm from the US, so language classes here focus on all of the grammar (7 German cases, for example) and 1500-2500 most common (that's debatable, really...) words within the first 2 or 3 years/semesters. So, you get your subjunctives and plusquamperfekts by yeasemester 3. (I had 3 years in high school - really 2, the last year I was the only student, and just read in German, and practiced writing to my grandmother's cousin in German, then 3 semesters of intermediate and "advanced" (on the ACTFL scale! That's late B1/early B2 on the CEFR) in college).
The problem I have in the sample sentence is that, if I only understand a few words, I don't understand what the book has to do with the friend who likes reading if I don't know the verbs and tenses and how those extra particles affect the sentence. Obviously, reading the sentence makes it more comprehensible than listening to it the first time. 95% comprehension feels too slow (I could still guess the new word maybe half the time based on context), but knowing 50% of the words while missing out on the grammar context makes it feel like 10% comprehension.
That being said, it does feel like around the 160 hour mark, I started becoming accustomed to the speed of intermediate videos. I'm just not sure if I should watch late beginner videos, or how many hours I should watch, and if that will throw off my actual level based on the timeline. I also see some people that say, "Oh, I can follow some advanced videos and I'm 200 hours in", or, "I totally understand Juan's videos at 240 hours", which makes me think I might be doing something wrong. However, it could also be Juan's accent when he speaks fast (I seem to understand Mexican accents better, probably because when I do hear Spanish spoken, it's usually Mexican, or somewhere from the Carribean).

UPDATE: I got 86rp LOLOLOLOLOL HERES ONE 🖕FOR CAMBRIDGE
ORIGINAL POST: As a J2 who finished As yesterday (2023), I would like to share my personal experience and tips which hopefully will be useful for those considering JC and for JC1s. In it you will find some tips and how to tackle A Levels. I'm a slightly above average student from a mid-high tier JC, taking PCME/gp (4H2+1H1)
DISCLAIMER: This is a PERSONAL experience and is NOT representative of the JC experience. Please take this with a pinch of salt. Extremely long post ahead

JC1

• Orientation

This was pretty fun and probably the most fun you will get in JC, DO NOT bring study materials because you will lose out. Take the time to make new friends and get to know each other well. Most importantly just HAVE FUN . This is an especially important time for JAEs where you can make a new name for yourself. Do not let the IP/JAE divide stop you from making friends with IP people. As an IP student, I had my own gang of IP guys to hang out with but we welcomed some JAE guys too, as long as they could vibe/connect with us. Try to be open minded and friendly and chill I guess?? Leaves a good impression.
I didn't think too much and really just went with the flow. As an IP student who came in early, we had 1 month as an OG to play, watch movies, eat etc. I know of some guys that also got their gf from the OG. My advice? Try not to date if you prioritise results. You will find it difficult to balance and closer to prelims/A levels, I have heard of breakups as they want to focus on studies. But if you can manage then go ahead by all means
As you transition from ori to your civics group (class), this is the best time to form or join cliques. DO NOT BE A LONER. A good and solid support system (aka your friends) is the BEST support you will need to last throughout JC. It will be a fucking wild ride
​

• CCA

When choosing CCA, consider: (in no order of importance)

Distance from school to home	Passion
Time management ability	Prior experience

I picked a pretty slack CCA as I knew I needed the time to pon and study since I live far away from school. I didn't pick any sports as I had no prior experience in secondary school and it was obviously very physically draining. Of the sports friends I knew, they often complained of being very tired after training and having no strength to do homework. Sometimes, training hours will be longer leading up to NSG and they really struggled to catch up. I remembered as a J1 staying late in school to have dinner with my OG and seeing some J2 sports ppl ending training at 8pm.
Yes its true that IP students get the unfair advantage when entering a CCA or getting EXCO positions. As a JAE student, you will really need to outshine yourself. For club CCAs, they tend to be more welcoming of people with zero prior experience. For sports CCAs, you will need to learn fast and prove your skills to make it to the school team (athleticism helps)
​

• ACADEMIC CONTENT (Overview)

DO NOT RUSH TO COMPLETE TUTORIALS. Do it properly. Here's how to learn:

1. Understand content well. Connect information with previous topics. Clarify immediately if unsure. Raising your damn hand to ask questions in class is the most efficient way as it saves a lot of time. Your teachers might be busy so consultations are harder to arrange but is equally if not more effective.
2. Tutorials are for you to practise content. Memorise content/explanation and formulas before doing tutorials. Discipline yourself by not referring to lecture notes. If you really forget, take a quick peek. I find this way to be the most efficient at learning + completing tutorials. Its hard but its going to be worth it trust me
3. For memorising specific definitions or explanation questions, I find writing it out multiple times to be pretty effective aka blurting. Retrieval of information from your brain multiple times strengthens that memory.
4. Have fun. Try to connect your knowledge to the real world, this makes it more interesting and not so mundane. The passion to learn will take you much further than just learning for the sake of doing it.

The above study techniques may or may not work for you so you need to experiment. Edit: see this post for more in depth explanation on how to study properly.
Don't worry. JC notes will start off relatively simple first and progressively build up in difficulty. There will be bridging notes to help you recall O Level content that is necessary for the topic
For the first few months, try to stay consistent in your work and at least be on track or a little behind. DO NOT let it snowball out of control. At the same time, strengthen your relationships with other people. For those trying for council, this is your opportunity to build PR and please be very careful about what you say or text. Rumours spread fast 👀
I didn't run for council because the commitment was too high for me and I prioritized my studies. When work was assigned to me, I just finished it by the next tutorial or lesson. Start work early and just do a bit everyday rather than nothing at all. Also don't blast through too fast you will run out of steam before As. DO NOT RUSH TO COMPLETE TUTORIALS EVEN IF YOU ARE BEHIND. If you want to do it, do it properly. Copying your friends answers and copying answers from lecture notes is as effective as not learning at all. Trust me on this. Discipline yourself.
I took a 1 week vacation in June and initially I brought work there to revise but end up didn't touch it at all haha. I took the opportunity to relax and take my mind off. Caught up with old friends or friends from other cliques/schools. I had 3 weeks or so to revise and practise. DON'T push too hard yet. I got B,C and Ds for most of my subjects in MYEs by just reading lecture notes and reviewing tutorials. 2024 onwards, I don't think there will be MYEs anymore. But that does not mean you completely slack and do zero work. Be CONSISTENT and do a bit everyday.
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• PROJECT WORK (PW) WRITTEN REPORT (WR)

Ah yes the dreaded PW. IMO it's just luck. Either you get good teammates or shitty ones. My group were all very smart. As a group leader, I had to recognise my teammates strengths early and delegate tasks accordingly. There were weekly meetings over Discord to make sure everyone was on the same page and were clear on what to do. It was also a time when we were our most efficient: weekly consistent progress on WR will get you far.
Yes the PW horror stories are real but not everyone will be unlucky enough to experience it. I knew some groups that had 1 hard fucking carry and 4 ultra slackers ; extreme micromanagement leadership ; teammates who had to WORK at night and really barely had to time to do PW at all. But these are not representative of the PW experience. In general most groups I heard of are quite alright: after all they are hard working students in a mid-high tier JC who want that A grade.
You can choose a topic that your senior did before and ask for their help (you know what I mean. Technically counted as cheating but shush shush PW has always been rigged. Do it the smart way and minimise unnecessary suffering). After the changes to Pass/Fail, I don't think you really need to do this. But for prior batches, that A was everything. I had a brilliant PW teacher so it wasn't too bad
We finished the WR right before promos (cus thats our schools schedule). Your school schedule might differ, I know of some that did it right after promos or very close to the national deadline.
IMO a solid WR is a good guarantee of a B or a PASS at least.
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• PROMOS

I did more practises instead of relying on reading lecture notes. Managed to get As and Bs for PCME and C for GP. Got 71rp /80 rp (exclude PW) and I was satisfied. I was above average in terms of quintile so I was not too worried. Promos are not that difficult if you studied. But of course there are some JCs that will scare their students
I heard of some students who had to retain as they caught COVID, missed the entire promos and scored straight Us for MYEs. 2024 onwards, there will not be MYEs so all the more you should be disciplined by doing enough practises.

• PW ORAL PRESENTATION (OP) and RESPONSE TO QUESTION (RTQ)

RTQ was the component where it determined your A grade. But for new batches honestly this is not vv important but at least try la. BE FAMILIAR with the syllabus document for 2024 batches onwards as the assessment criterion is different aka easier than ours (lucky you)
For OP, group presentation component, I recommend doing a video instead of a skit etc. There are easy to use video editors nowadays so all you need to do is to plan well before filming (storyboard, scripting etc.) For individual speech component, practise and practise in front of the mirroyour family members. Then as a Group go for as many dry runs as possible with other groups/ subject teachers. Builds confidence and hones your vocal ability. For eye contact, search for youtube videos (eye contact hardest difficulty) and recite your part while staring at them. Assert dominance by giving harder eye contact so they can't mark you down
For RTQ, now considered a group response from 2024, prepare extensively for questions from your schools question bank. Ask from your seniors. Go for depth of analysis rather than range
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• END OF JC1

Take the time to enjoy your holidays and revise on your content a bit everyday. This will be the last time to enjoy and you won't have time until after As. Finish your homework and don't snowball. Hone your JC1 content well because there will barely be time to revisit in JC2. If your promos results are shitty but still promote, its fine because JC1 results don't matter. I personally coped fine in JC1 and thought "hey this alright". And for those that thought JC1 was a breeze. Indeed it was, the REAL SHIT begins here. 💀💀💀
​

JC2

• ACADEMIC CONTENT (Overview)

In general, it is harder and more content heavy. It will build upon topics in JC1 so mastering JC1 content is crucial. The pace will pick up even faster now. Hang on now
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• PHYSICS (H2)

Not my forte but I feel it is grindable. Quantum and nuclear might seem daunting but these questions in As are usually quite okay. Most of the topics are grindable via TYS topical, meaning you will actually improve by doing more practises. Watch out for specific keywords in definition questions. Make connections to earlier topics e.g. electric field and gravitational field
More importantly, you don't have to hardcore memorise every single formula. Some can be derived or are given in the formula sheet in exams.
For practicals try to do it under time pressure. If in doubt can ask ur friends and teachers as it is the time for you to learn. Master the sf rule of course.
For planning (practical), you are blessed with a rigid framework to memorise and follow. Its where you score marks. So practising past year planning questions is useful. For safety details, can always use your creativity so long as it makes sense.
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• CHEMISTRY (H2)

hahahaha Organic Chemistry is the bulk of J2 content. DO NOT be scared. Every functional group aka topic will go through the same few characteristics: Physical Properties (b.p, m.p) and Chemical Properties (Reactions to form X, Reactions that X undergoes). To appreciate Organic Chem, learn how to link information between functional groups. This made Organic fun personally for me.
You might be daunted by the 60+? reagents and conditions, and equations that you have to remember. But apply the learning techniques as mentioned in JC1 section and you will be fine.
What makes Organic hard is the questions that can possibly come out. You will see novel (new and out of syllabus) functional groups and reactions in your exams but the same few principles still applies (e.g. the movement of electrons from electron rich regions to electron deficient regions, bond breaking and bond forming). The key here is to not panic and fall back to basics.
The physical chem topics in JC2 are not bad, especially transition metals which IMO are usually giveaway marks.
Dropping to H1 is the most "worth it" as the bulk of organic chemistry + practicals are excluded. I did not as I knew I could pull through.
For practicals, treasure each practical lesson and hone your skills (titration, weighing, QA etc.). Train for accuracy + speed. For planning, it will be harder than physics. Cambridge does not show the mark distribution so its a bit iffy.
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• MATH (H2)

My forte. I attended tuition since sec 1 so I had a solid foundation. I practised a lot so most of the formulas were at my fingertips. Pure math was not much of a problem. You don't have to hardcore memorise every single formula. Some can be derived or are given in the formula sheet in exams. Complex Numbers might be the hardest pure math topic as there are multiple ways to tackle a single qns, and multiple ways the qns can be set. Take note of the phrasing (e.g. rate) when doing Differential Equations.
Statistics will be new. Permutations and Combinations (PnC) will be, as agreed by most people, the hardest topic in H2 math. Try not to brute force your way until you get the correct answer in tutorials. Try to understand why the solution is like this and why your method is incorrect. You will have to use a lot of logic. Linear Regression is usually giveaway IMO
For Hypothesis Testing, DO NOT just blindly follow the rigid framework. Understand when to use it e.g. Central Limit Theorem (CLT) not needed when original distribution already normal. Be familiar with all methods as it is possible for questions to limit you to a single method only (e.g. 2023 A Level P2).
DO NOT blindly answer questions
E.g. The distribution is small. What assumptions must be made?
Wrong: The sample is sufficiently large according to CLT
Correct: The distribution is normal
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• ECONS (H2)

Macroecons is easily my favourite as well as for most people. It is very interconnected so as long as your explanation makes sense, it should be correct. To me, writing full length essays under timed conditions is the best way to train time management and memory work. It will be content heavy as you need to remember all the rigour if not your marks won't be high. To get exposure to various qns types, do essay plans from prelim and A level qns. Blurting is especially useful in this subject. I am sure you will remember the multiplier process after writing it 10 times.
DO NOT passively read lecture notes. It sometimes does not contain the full, proper elaboration required for essays so I recommend reading answer keys
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• GENERAL PAPER (H1)

There are a bunch of free notes on this subreddit. No advice. Good luck LMAO
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MYEs

After MYEs, I was extremely burnt out. Took me a month plus to recover and push through for prelims. I made the mistake of not doing any papers beforehand. I was extremely shocked by the time management for Chem and Econs. I could not finish and got a bunch of Ds for MYEs. Most shocking were the difficulty of the questions in Chem Paper 3. It demanded concepts at your very fingertips and very fast thinking. Econs Paper 2 required 6 essays in 2 1/2 hours and my hand was more than decomposed by the end of it. The mental stamina required to last for 2 weeks of exams was no joke.
But some papers were slightly modified as they excluded the last chapter like Trade and Transition metals. This made me all the more worried at the true difficulty of the real A level papers.
2024 batch onwards, I suggest trying MYE past year papers as a challenge only. They are usually (not always) the hardest papers as the intent behind the teachers is to "shock students into studying for prelims".
During this period of time was the most mentally difficult for me. Tremendous effort amounting to only a couple of Ds. Everyday studying the same fucking shit over and over. Everything was a copy of a copy of a copy. I fell off into a so called existential crisis. "Whats the point? Is it really worth it to try that hard? How is the content even useful in my life? Should I care about my results or not? Is A levels really that hard?"
I was not alone. Many of my friends shared the same thoughts. My class dimmed down during lessons. I personally didn't have the social stamina to even talk. Everyones faces became gloomy :(
I managed to pull through by adjusting the hormones and nutrients in my body. I started exercising regularly. Eating healthy regularly. Getting enough outdoor sunshine time. The rush of chemicals in my body helped to stabilise my mood. Binge eating and scrolling Instagram only made me feel more miserable so I reduced it as much as possible. A bit of studying everyday helped to build momentum slowly but surely. Eventually, I was in the right mind to clear my prelims.
Edit: when attempting ridiculously difficult papers, this helps: "Life is not a tragedy. Its a comedy." Laugh at how ridiculously hard it is. If you find it hard, 90% of SG students will too
Edit 2: By now you would have tried some papers. DO NOT worry about not completing the paper. Sometimes they will give you a super complex question for only 1m. Thats for you to throw away and save your effort for other questions. Point here is to score as many marks as you possibly can. Dont know then just leave blank already. Learn to compromise and let go!

Prelims

I only did ONE prelim paper in total and that was math P1. I did not even practise any papers at all. But I was not worried as I knew that Prelim questions are usually hard and very unlikely to come out in As (its true for most subjects). All I did was do topical TYS and MCQs to correct misconceptions.
Ideally you would want to start TYS as soon as possible (as early as June) within time constraints. Then move on to prelim papers which are usually harder.
DO NOT worry to much about your prelim results. At the end of the day only your A level results count. Lose the battle, win the war.
I got ABDD/C. I focused a lot on Chem and Math hahaha. I improved from 68rp in MYE to 73 rp in prelims. However I was still discouraged as fuck. The slackers that I knew suddenly mugged damn hard for prelims and got a good score, pushing me down an entire quintile. Again the negative thoughts came to mind ---- "Is it really worth it to try that hard? Why am I not smart enough?" Comparing results only made it much fucking worse.
I somehow figured it out. DO NOT compare with others. Everyone is different in terms of ability. Even if I fucking flunk As somehow, maybe I will succeed in the future. And for those 90rp mfers, they may not always be successful in life. The point is, everyone is on a single discrete path. Our paths may cross and intertwine but it certainly does not determine for sure how my story goes. I am the master of my own fate. I figured if I tried my best with my utmost effort and natural abilities, I will not regret it. I can enjoy my holidays in peace.

A Levels

To prepare for war, I did not touch prelim papers at all. I blasted through as much TYS as possible. Get a sense of what the British might set. For each subject, I glanced through each year and tried to see the style of setting. I noticed that the overall style of questions being set is changing, ever since 2021. There are lesser standard give away questions and more weird, non-standard questions. Weird may not mean hard but sometimes its drawing unexpected links between topics. Or asking questions you always wondered but never had the answer to. To get an accurate feel of the changing style, I recommend doing 2021 to 2023. Previous years still serve as good practise, just be aware of the syllabus changes. As you go about blasting, take the time to mark and do corrections, understand why you are wrong.
For 2023 overall, I say the mark distribution was fair? One paper hard, another paper easy. The hard papers were rather weird tho
Below are each subject in detail:

• PHYSICS

Very grindable. MCQs usually come out a few past year MCQs so it is worth grinding even for old syllabus (2016 and earlier). Paper 2s and 3s are worth practising too. Get enough exposure to data based qns for P2 as they tend to be rather higher weightage and hard to score. Practise highlighting relevant important info amidst the long ass extract. 2022 P2 and P3 were terrible for me...
HCI offers the best answer keys as their steps are easy to understand and include Cambridge markers report. RVHS also has some markers report for other qns too.
For 2023, P1 was a bit weird but fairly ok, P2 was rather easy (many standard qns), P3 was kinda weird, some non standard qns here and there. Overall not too bad. P4 came out nuclear planning qns (shock!) but it was pretty basic anyways. The second last portion which has always been "mini-planning" became a "plan and do".
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• CHEMISTRY

Expose yourself to as many organic questions as possible. DO NOT panic when you see a novel mechanism. 2019's P3 novel mechanism + elucidation takes sometime to figure it out but is relatively ok. 2022 P3 is the most demanding and the hardest I ever done. Throughout the years P2 are soso with last qns always being a real world context qns.
Edit: This isn't mentioned a lot but learn to let go aka leave blank for questions that you dont know, especially in Paper 3. Try to score elsewhere.
Sometimes for ONE MARK they will give a comples qns e.g. a novel, intramolecular reaction that involves wrapping part of a straight chain molecule into two or more cyclic structures and ask you draw the final structure. Obv it requires a lot of brain juice and its very easy to get it wrong. So choose your battles wisely
When choosing the last question in P3, try to read every qns part and decide. Lean towards your stronger topics. Reading the question when "checking the paper" saves you some time. Applies for physics P3 too
For 2023, P1 was so-so with some weird qns. P2 was disastrous and pretty hard. P3 will be the easiest I have ever done with many standard qns. P4 came out an organic planning (big shock!) but it was taken from 2011 A level. The rest were alright. QA mixed with transition metals was new.
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• MATH

P1 just practise. 2022 P1 was extremely easy for good reason. I heard 2018 was hard but didn't do. For P2, 2022 had a lot of explanation qns and in general hard. 2019 was same as 2022 but easier.
For 2023, P1 was quite ok just that some qns are non-standard. P2 was mostly alright except 2 qns
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• ECONOMICS

Remember how I said prelims are not a good gauge for As? This subject is a rare exception. Across the years, there was a steady rise in difficulty for P1 and especially P2. 2022 P2 is by far the hardest because each qns was part a easy part b hard vice versa. No advice but to look at prelim qns.
I recommend cross referencing ans keys from multiple schools. The ans key quality honestly varies a lot in quality and essay qns usually have more than 1 "correct" ans.
For 2023, P1 was hard especially the first CSQ. P2 will be the easiest I ever done (basic questions). The British directed us towards 3 specific qns to do to score well. One of them was really new (PPC) and in a sense, hard.
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• GENERAL PAPER

For 2023, being the first written exam, I expected it to be weird and yes it was. 12 questions and 10 of them rather niche topics, with only 2 or 3 being more general which majority geared towards. P2 AQ was weird because I have no idea how to compare the two passages. The last time a double passage came out was 2019.

Final Thoughts

Rest well traveller, you have made it this far. Would you like some water? 🥤
The JC experience is undoubtedly a daunting one and will challenge your mental resilience. I had a strong family support system and my friends were so-so. I had a roof over my head and didn't have to worry about the next meal. But I still found it very challenging. My heart goes out to those that struggle to make ends meet or to those with unstable family situations etc. A strong support system is key. Good habits like exercising and sleeping at least 7 hours will go a long way. Be kind to yourself and to others. When faced with adversity, your true self will start to show and you will understand yourself better. When everything fucking falls apart, what will you fucking do? You stay fucking hard.

Some quick facts to clear the air
As stated in a video of mine, joy of sex was a national Lampoon movie, but they paid money to remove the brand name to avoid harming the brand.
Oc and Stiggs was produced by mgm and national lampoon as oc and Stiggs were loosely based on characters from the magazine
Sex tax was distributed by natl lampoon I'm guessing on DVD, same with the almost guys, hard four
There's a new game show thing called Let’s Go, Atsuko! A (woke) Japanese Game Show. national lampoon teamed up with quibi to produce 8 episodes of this show
National lampoon's tooned-up is a DVD and psp UMD exclusive and its basically just animated skits from the national lampoons live DVDs
1 full episode of funny money. The game show by national lampoons is online. I can't find anything else. Speaking of game shows. I can't find any episodes of Greek Games.
A quick recap of national lampoon's lost media, for the people who don't know
Alright let's go
Frat chance from 2011. National Lampoon bought the rights and shelved the movie. No other information has been revealed
Dirty politics from 2009- a movie that national lampoons promised to distribute theoretically alongside 3 other random movies that Steve Esteb was to make. However, that never happened. And dirty politics remains partially lost as the director. Steve Esteb has a YouTube channel that has posted trailers and clips from the movie
Meet the parents 1992- no longer lost, the original movie that inspired the 2000s meet the parents. Why is it national lampoons? Because of one poster that says the first made for video national lampoons movie. That's it. I think the main reason is because I'm guessing the vhs was distributed by j2 communications which is also on the poster, and j2 owned national lampoons at the time
Cheerleaders must die/ pom pom massacre- a Kickstarter movie that national lampoons were in the works of distributing it, but it never went through. The company is still wanting to do the movie, but the movie has not been made
The guys from 1996 was made by Dakota films and was a indie pilot and national lampoons optioned it for a while, it's probably lost in the vault
American adventure from 2000 was also made by Dakota films and was a pilot made for possibly NBC and was made in spirit of national lampoon's vacation, it is most likely not a national lampoons property
Boobies from 2005 is probably another pilot or short. There's no other information on this one
Wannabes and professor peppers school of good stuff both from 2006 are 2 pilots made for national lampoons. Most likely not available.
There's a short called concentration camp from 2007, that's all I got
When old people attack from 2009 is made by mojoflo productions they also made legend of awesomest maximus and tv: the movie. - it was a made for TV movie about pranking people dressed as elderly. Well I have a theory and I'm 90 percent certain this isn't even a national Lampoon movie. It's just the production company has worked with the brand before, therefore, there was confusion online. Because on imdb, it doesn't even list national lampoons as a production company. So I'm going to stick with my theory.
Okay…that's over. Now for the good news
Episode 7 that was previously lost for the animal house spin off show Delta House has been found. It's currently online on YouTube.
I am still in the search of all the volumes of National Lampoon Strip Poker (Girls of National Lampoon)
I am also still on the great search to find National lampoon Crazy Holiday (Τρελές διακοπές του θηριοτροφείου)
I'm thinking about doing one big google drive preserving a lot of the lesser known Lampoon movies and shows. So nothing can get lost again. I don't want to get in trouble with uploading vacation, but i don't think anybody is going to care if I share Pledge This or Jake's Booty call. If anybody is interested in this idea. Let me know, maybe I can prevent the same struggle I had when I first tried watching these movies.
That has been the yearly update on National Lampoon Lost media. I was going to make it a YouTube video, but besides delta house. Not that much more information has been found. Thanks for reading

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