Cleft palate childrens coloring books

So this is my friend of 13 years, she’s always been pretty opinionated. She has a 5 year old and I have a 3 year old. She is alwaysss posting on facebook how good her daughter is.. which is awesome! but when i’m with her at the park, if a kid cuts in front of her daughter or does something their not supposed to she will say “it’s ok not every kid is as good as you” super loud so the parents will hear. Is that like.. normal or? I sent her a funny snap of my 3 year old coloring on her outdoor play house and i’m like ugh just painted this and it’s already getting colored on! 😂 she goes “oh hell no blank would never!” i’m like lmao it’s just chalk and yeah thankfully mine never really colored on walls & what not! and she just hearted it. It’s like girl, chill their children. I thought she would have laughed and been like “omg! these kids”or something lol Idk I needed to vent 🤣

So a lot of stuff that takes up room in my room is my collectibles, plushies, clothes, and some books.
A lot of this I have started to put up on eBay, Depop, Mercari, etc. but some of it is just not selling fast enough.
I want to donate the plushies and toys, but a lot of the Goodwills and other donation places around me don’t seem to these things! (The Goodwill for my state’s Donation Guide says they don’t accept stuffed toys) No one around me has children who want these, and those who do have kids say their kids already have enough toys.
The idea of throwing them out hurts me emotionally and I want to blame it on my anxiety disorder, but it’s just not an option at the moment. Like I mean I know I’m not the only one who has felt that way.
Do I just keep putting them up for sale and wait till someone buys? Should I maybe store them away in a box so they’re at least out of my room? I know it’s still something I have to deal with
I just wanna get rid of stuff like right now, and get the project of making my room have more space going, but I didn’t think getting rid of stuff would be so difficult

i’m usually pretty good at remembering books but this one is evading me. i even tried figuring it out with chatgpt but i just genuinely can’t find it. here is everything i can remember if you’re up for a challenge, but keep in mind some may be wrong.

• it’s a ‘kids’ book that i’m pretty sure had illustrations
  
• i would have read it between the years if like 2010-2015 but i dont know how old of a book it was at the time
  
• the book itself was large and had a matte cover, the art style was pretty woft and sophisticated, and the colors were relatively muted
  
• it was a collection of stories and i’m almost certain they all had to do with school
  
• huge maybe but i think whatever the characters were have their own books and this one was just a bunch of thise stories together
  
• the characters might have been mice? might just be confusing it with the rats of nimh bc i loved that book, but the characters i am 90% sure are animals
  
• one of the stories was about decorating eggs?
  
• one of the stories had something to do with gathering around a tree in the morning to either say a pledge or a prayer of something
  
• something to do with hay? either a party or a haunted house in a barn or something
  
• the one thing i can say for certain is that the book is NOT on the AR booklist bc i remember wanting to use it as my book but i couldnt
  

Which of these \"powerless\" is the most dangerous?
The Major: Like Dr. Garaki, Montina Max--aka "The Major"--lived in the early days of Quirk manifestations as a mid-ranking military officer. But where others were fearful of these new meta-humans that disrupted the status quo, The Major was delighted at the prospect of such a chaotic element. He then began to conceive of a dream he would work the rest of his life towards: a Superhuman War. In the present, he's made his preparations, gathered funds, resources, and an army of indoctrinated Quirk-users and plans to set out to fulfill his dream of a war that will literally shake heaven and earth. Ironically, the Major has never wanted his own Quirk, only to be the architect and conductor of the battles between the super-powered. But modifying himself into a cyborg so he can live longer? Fair game.
The Joker: One bad day. That's all it takes to turn a normal everyman into a monster. This is the nihilistic "truth" Joker wants to drill into the hearts of the blissful citizens and heroes who like to go out in their colorful costumes and put on a show with a happy ending. He concocts elaborate plans that torment the masses and push people to the brink with the intent of showing the world that, deep down, everyone's as crazy as he is. All the more so when even children have the power to potentially kill with their Quirks. With his terrifying presence and charisma, he bullies, blackmails, but in some ways inspires the scum of the world into following him. Physically, the Joker isn't much of a threat to professional heroes. Yet no matter how many resources they put into tracking him down, he somehow always manages to stay a step ahead of them, his laugh echoing in the distance.
Lex Luthor: The CEO of a global conglomerate who covets ruling the Quirk-saturated world in spite of being Quirkless himself. Like AFO, he believes putting Quirks to practical use is the optimal future and seeks to find a way to dominate the superhuman population. But unlike AFO, he goes about things much more discreetly and avoids letting his plans be traced back to him, because he knows that most anyone with a Quirk can easily subdue him physically. While he does indeed envy those with Quirks, he refuses AFO's offer to give him one, believing doing so would betray his conviction to take over the world without superpowers. He even looks down on AFO and considers him a "parasite" who didn't actually earn anything.
Junko Enoshima: Although confirmed to be Quirkless, Junko was nevertheless born with a superhuman power; the ability to analyze and understand everything she saw almost immediately. This caused her to develop a dangerously apathetic personality that gets board quickly, as nothing in the world stimulates her. The only thing that does get a rise out of her is despair, whether it's her own or that of others. Thus, she's concocted a plan so unspeakably abominable that even the narrative refuses to go into detail. And anyone who reads, or hears her talk about her plans becomes visibly horrified and sickened by just the fragmented details of her overarching plan to plunge the entire world into despair. Worst of all, she wins either way: either she succeeds in her plan and feels despair at having nothing left to accomplish, or she fails and feels the despair of never achieving her goal.
Sakyo: A sociopathic gambling addict who's considered a Marquess within underworld society (and is perfectly capable of climbing higher). He wants nothing more than the next big thrill that puts his and others' lives on the line. Having learned of the events in Japan and using his vast underground network, he's built his own "factories" to produce armies of his own Nomu. While he claims to his investors and associates that these Nomu will be sold as private soldiers to the highest bidder, his real aim is to make High Nomu on the same level as--or surpassing--Gigantiomachia and let them run loose in the world. For what could be more thrilling than living in a world where giant monsters are ravishing the planet and humanity's survival isn't guaranteed?
Dr. Bolivar Trask: Becoming fearful of humanity eventually being overrun by the newly developing meta-humans, the American military scientist began working on a plan to eliminate these "mutants"; The Sentinel Program. However, Trask knew the technology did not yet exist that could bring his vision of the Sentinels to life. Therefore, he created Master Mold; an A.I. that would continue to study the meta-humans and develop the technology needed to build the Sentinels long after Trask's death. Hidden in the deepest reaches of the internet, the Master Mold spent almost a century allocating global resources to a hidden facility where it continued working on prototypes. Eventually, after combining technology with the harvested "shapeshifting", "adapting", and "learning" Quirk-factors of kidnapped meta-humans, the Sentinels were ready to deploy. Now, the Master Mold prepares to unleash its bio-mechanical army to fulfill its long dead creator's goal: the extermination of the "meta-human" scourge.

Hi,
I’m traveling from Berlin to Luxembourg with DB. I’ll need to change train in couple of cities (e.g. Dortmund) a couple of time.
In these cities I have a approx 15 min to move from one Gleis to another and catch a connected trains.
I’ve booked seats in those trains since we are traveling as a family.
My questions would be: - I’ve heard that DB could be late. What would happen if any of my trains is delayed and I’m late for the connected train? (do I need to inform anybody or how that would work) - I’m not sure how big these Bhf stations are and how fast we can move from one platform to another with children. What to do in case that we are on time but we miss boarding on a connected train.
Thanks in advance

TL;DR go through my account history to see what I’ve said in the past about Flan. Bought one just to see. Happy with product. Would not buy again.
Here is a link to me saying I purchased an FD plated watch: Comment in BST thread
Here are photos of the watch compared to a stock VSF TT sub, after I received coast-to-coast 2 day shipping (minimum additional $25, no alternative shipping options, such as me buying my own label, were apparently possible): Comparison photos
Every photo was taken with the same iPhone 14 in 100% side-by-side exact same lighting conditions. I applied each and every filter that comes standard with the phone, current OS, to photos to show differences in each filter, as well as afterward took 4 different setting exposures from the same base standard filter, since this has been an accusation I’ve seen and clung onto in the past. The watches were not even TOUCHED from start to finish of the photos. The sub is dead so not running, but you can see the time progression on the DD. I will tell you that when I first looked through the lens (at the screen, more precisely) I was IMMEDIATELY aghast at how much more similar these gold tones appear through the camera. I’m telling you in my hands, or on this desk, these are SEVERAL tones apart in color. Even though I do believe the pictures show a difference, the Flan plated watch looks significantly different in color - lighter but also cooler, than shown. I am not a photographer, I do not care if you are critical of my photography.
First and foremost, I’m not a Flanfan. Never have been - haven’t really even been in the rep space long much at all. What I can say is the sheer volume of both praise/hate posts gave me a stinky feeling about the dude altogether and I avoided him for it. I’ve been skeptical of both sides of the argument, I’ve asked for and gotten (and NOT gotten) evidence for claims on both sides. I’ve seen what I believe 100% to be bots posting from both sides. Ultimately, I decided to chuck some cash into the ocean and see what I could catch.
The guy running the sales side through BST was extremely responsive, very polite, and very quick in dealings and shipping. His customer service is a 5/5 in my book. This was not Flan, and I still have not or ever spoken to him.
I have to say, premium considered ($725 paid total) I likely would not purchase again. Is the gold plating different? Yes, it absolutely is. Is it better in color? Yes, it absolutely is. Was my movement “dusted”? I’ve got no fucking clue, and I’m not cracking this bitch open on my desk to find out. Is the rotor “silenced”? Idk, but it is definitely a lot quieter than my other reps AND a gen, I’ll tell you that.
I do not care at ALL if you never buy from Flandad, or if you buy 100 reps from him. I have not, am not, and would not ever be compensated for a review of this kind. I just wanted to put out there to the world from a real person’s perspective, not one of these dipshit 17 year olds or the obvious bot accounts, what my purchasing experience and quality seen was in a Flandad plated rep.
Did I get what I paid for? Seems like it. If I had a criticism it would be: sell me the plated watch without the additional services - whether they’re legit or not, I can’t say, and for that reason I’d rather pay less for just the plating. I will tell you the plating on THIS PARTICULAR watch in my hand is superb.
Also, the tungsten DDs are heavy. I like titanium.
If you want to post flan hate, go fucking nuts. If you want to ride his dick, go fucking nuts. If you want to argue with me about something, I will just block you, then you can go nuts. If you want to ask me any questions about MY experience, which is all I can speak to, I am happy to engage with you. If you ask me a question that I am not sure may break the rules of this sub, if you don’t DM me first, I’m probably not going to bother.
Happy repping degens.

This is my first time writing anything like this about my life so I'm sorry if it's too long as there's a lot to unpack and I want to just lay everything out to get the best advice to help my decision.
I come from a family of 6. There was me, my mother, father and three sisters. I'm the youngest and there's an 8 year gap between me and my sisters, who only have around a one year gap between each of them. Growing up it was always World War 3 in our house with them as when they were in their teens the three of them shared a room. The sister in question, "Sarah", is the middle in age of the three, "Winifred" the oldest and "Mary" the youngest.
Sarah has always been the least like any of us, we're all very different, both in personality and looks, it's been pointed out multiple times by friends how different we all are from each other, but Sarah has always carried an air of superiority I've never seen in the rest of my family.
The one trait me and my siblings share would be we all have/had put ourselves first, which can be a good thing but can lean into selfishness pretty easily, a problem that plagued my personality until I met my husband who helped me see the difference in putting myself first and being a selfish AH.
Sarah has never been the type to let anything go. She always brings up things that happened when my sisters were teenagers (they're all in their 40s now) along with embellishing or completely fabricating things that have happened that make her out to be completely blameless. She retells these story's over and over until she genuinely believes them and then throws a tantrum when one or more of us correct her. I remember arguments Sarah would have with my parents that always ended up with her storming out of the house, she tends to run away from problems.
Sarah and my mother have never seen eye to eye. In many ways they're too similar, always need the last word, headstrong, never apologizing, the need to always be right and they obsess way too much about what people think (in different ways, Sarah cares about how people/ strangers perceive her and her families manners/ social status and success, my mother is particularly obsessive on people knowing details about her personal life and is a very private person). It's always been my view that Sarah has always lacked my mother's warmth and her honesty (mostly to a fault but she would always try and spare someone's feelings and bite her tongue when she really needed to). Sarah's name calling about my other sisters was always a main spark to her and my mothers arguments.
Her and Winifred got on well for the most part from what I remember, and when we all got older she was fine to talk to. There were even a few times when my father was sick, myself, Sarah and Winifred had some bonding time which was nice.
Several years ago Mary was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia ( severely effects her central nervous system, can cause wide spread pain and can easily cause fatigue) and a few years ago she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She had a full hysterectomy and the cancer seems to be a memory but this still wasn't enough for Sarah to not belittle Mary and her, what Sarah calls "life choices". Mary has struggled with her weight since she was a teenager and Sarah never held back in letting her know her opinions on it.
It's common knowledge in our family that Sarah has always been ashamed of where she comes from and would always be embarrassed by how my mother and Mary acted and spoke (little filter and Sarah considers this candour and how they speak "lower class" ). Mary has always Sarah's verbal punching bag, both to her face and behind her back but has always disliked when people, mainly my mother, would call her out and tell her to stop. The most recent example of this I was told about was that at my wedding, she made a nasty comment about the dress Mary was wearing. Months later my mother mentioned it in an argument to Sarah that her sister (my aunt) overheard Sarah's remarks and made a disapproving face. Sarah apparently just walked away from the conversation. The next day my aunt called my mother and asked that she "not be involved in my family's drama". My mother, confused asked her what she meant and my aunt said that Sarah drove (1.5 hours) to her house to confront her about it even though it happened just short of a year before.
For years our father had been desperately trying to get my mother to agree for them to move and downsize homes so they could enjoy their retirement with a little extra money but she was extremely reluctant to leave the family home due to a combination of leaving happy memories behind and being afraid of such a big change.
Then one day, Sarah offered to give up some of her land for them to live on as a cheaper option. I think we all agreed it was a good idea and we were all so surprised by what seemed to be generosity, it blindsided us all and we mistook it as her turning over a new leaf. Our father was all for the idea as him and Sarah agreed it was good to be near family in their golden years.
I replay my parents asking my advice on this over and over in my head, as in hindsight it was obviously an awful idea. But like Winifred and Mary, I agreed it would be the best move.
Their original idea was for them to get a tiny home and have it about 100 yards from Sarah's home. Sarah entertained that idea for a short while but convinced them a built small property attached to their home would be better.
The family home was nearly 2 hours drive away from Sarah's home so her and her husband took charge with contractors and overseen almost anything to do with the build if my parents couldn't make it.
The first quote, pre-build, they received was 50k. But in the end it tripled into 150k. Over the course of the build Sarah had changed things, the location of the front door, which was now facing the window to her home office (which is her main place of work), and back door, which changed to face the back of Sarah's house ( I know this all seems like major red flags but again, her and her husband convinced them it was to do with not damaging parts of her property and what seemed like other valid reasonings).
Cut to the house being built, selling the family home and them moving in, it wasn't long until our father became ill. First we noticed his memory wasn't as sharp as it was, then he had difficulty driving and had to stop completely. It was around this time and slightly after the sale of their house Sarah started pestering him for a loan. He told me this himself, at first it was suggesting they bring everyone on a big holiday, then it was saying it would be nice to give all their kids 20k and how it would be nice to see us enjoy it. She eventually wore him down and he loaned her 20k, I'm assuming to get her off his back. At some point after she booked a trip to New York, brought 2 suitcases, one of which was empty but came back with them both packed full. I know it was her business what she wanted the money for but even if it was for a shopping trip she could have had the decency to conceal it a bit better. She promised him time and time again she'd pay him back. He never seen a penny. Previous to this he offered Winifred the same amount as she was going through a divorce and it would have gone to a house for her to move out, she thanked him for offering but turned it down and said she'd be ok. She didn't tell him that it was because she thought it wasn't right to accept money from him knowing he was sick as he was a very proud man.
My father was the best man I've ever known. Incredibly down to earth, very open and friendly and could make friends at the drop of a hat. I remember a couple of vacations when we were kids. Thousands of miles from home he'd bump into old friends of his.
He was the kind of person who rarely got a cold so his decline was obvious to everyone. It was a year of being misdiagnosed until he was finally correctly diagnosed with stage four liver cancer, which had moved to his lung and towards the end, a part of his brain.
His last month was the worst time of my entire life. The arguments, the tears, My mother and one of my sisters (I can't remember who) caught covid so we had to juggle who could be where. It was also the first time in nearly 20 years all of us were together for longer than a day.
Myself and Winifred were lucky enough to have bosses that were very understanding and adjusted our schedules so we were given the month off to be with our family.
As I said Sarah works from home and sees clients from her home office. She maintained her regular work schedule while we were all meters away. I understand that was her choice but it seems like odd while our father was literally wasting away in his bed, especially since she works for herself so has a pretty good control of when she can work.
Our father was such a strong person. Every palliative nurse that came were more and more taken aback with each visit that he was still with us.
We all said our individual goodbyes and promises to look after each other when his condition had advanced too much not to, and the next morning, he passed.
He had a special relationship with all of us and things Sarah has said since his passing leads me to believe she thought hers was the only one that mattered.
The funeral ceremony was quick (as per his wishes). We elected Sarah to be the one to give the eulogy as the rest of us have anxiety issues with public speaking, but we read what she was going to say a few days before the ceremony. I was the first one to read what she wrote and noticed a bulk of the corrections were changing "My Dad" to "Our Dad", I wouldn't have mentioned it but there were even times even in conversation I would correct her on this, it may seem insignificant but it's just something that really bothered me. I mean when siblings talk about their parents to each other is normal to just say "mom" or "dad" to each other.
There was light food and drinks in a local bar afterwards. As there were so many arguments the previous month between Winifred, Sarah, Mary & my mother, me and my husband were really the only people making conversation with her and her husband, apart from the odd distant relative or two. A week or so later Sarah flew off to New York, something she tried to conceal from my mother but she forgot she mentioned it to her almost a year before. There was yet another huge argument between Winifred & Sarah when Sarah thought Winifred told my mother this big secret. This is another trait Sarah and my mother share, forgetting they say things and to whom. When asked why she was so mad if my mother knew she was going away was something along the lines of "Because I didn't want to give her any ammunition use and tell everyone at the funeral". My mother is a chronic complainer who has never seen the bigger picture in social situations, but she knows better than that. Plus she had just lost her husband of 46 years who was also her best friend of 50, something I think Sarah will never see
The last two years without our father have not gotten any better, Winifred was diagnosed with breast cancer, started chemo, then discovered it has spread to her other breast, all while looking after 2 teenagers with CF and going through a divorce to a deplorable human being who seems to take pleasure in making her miserable. When Sarah heard the news of the divorce she offered to attend court with her, Winifred told me she yelled at her and her representation for not saying enough in court and then later told my mother "I only helped her because she has cancer".
When going on vacation with her family Sarah told my mother days before there departure and I later found out her children caught chicken pox but she took them on the plane anyway. My mother does not drive and there is no stores that are easily accessible for her.
Sarah was also diagnosed with a cancerous tumor in her colon. Both have had treatments and they seem to be on the mend.
The relationship between Sarah and my mother did not get any better in fact Sarah's partner Billy became a reluctant go between for them both.
After our father passed, my mother asked Billy could her utility bills be altered as she was still paying half of everything, even though there was four people in their house (2 kids) and she was now on her own. His response was no and that her and our father agreed to split utilities evenly. We advised my mother to organize a pre-pay electric meter for her part of the house so she could manage it properly. Shortly after, Sarah and Billy stopped using the jacuzzi they recently purchased as it was too expensive for them to run.
One month my mother paid €400, the next month €200, 2 months later it was €500, there's no way a pensioner living on her own could rack up half of those bills (The average household here only gets their oil refilled once every 3-6 months). She also bought a free standing gas bottle heater in her main living area and had her upstairs radiators were turned off to try and limit the usage as she never really went up there. I will add that Sarahs business requires a somewhat constant use of energy so even a 50/50 split of bills seemed unfair. Since our fathers passing, my mother would also spend days at time either with me, Winifred or Mary, but she paid it anyway just to not have any arguments.
She made one small payment of about 4% of the total 20k to my mother before our father passed and laid out a payment plan to her about how much she'd pay each month. There were no further payments. A year later Sarahs family dog got seriously ill and needed a surgery that would cost 1300 and asked my mother to lend her this money & my mother, being soft hearted loaned it to her. She did make an attempt to pay my mother back but again, one small payment was made and no more. Each time my mother brought up the money she'd brush her off and not speak to her for a while. The longest was 3 weeks with zero contact, and remember, she lived right beside her and my mother doesn't drive and it would be impossible for her to walk to a store. If it weren't for Myself and Winifred constantly checking in my mother would have just rationed the food she had. We had suggested to arrange a food delivery in the past but Sarah and Billy didn't want strangers to know the code for the gate to the property, but knowing she hadn't spoken to our mother for 3 weeks and didn't care enough to ask if she needed anything in the store forced my hand to arrange one anyway.
Everything that's happened with Sarah has made us seriously re-think everything she said has happened in her life, and a pattern we've noticed is that she's pushed away all her serious partners family from them. Her first serious boyfriend of 7-8 years, then her ex husband and her current husband Billy. First it would start with their mother or sisters, small squabbles at here and there, then on a weekly basis, followed by a giant falling out which would result in her partners only seeing their family on occasion and eventually cutting contact. At the time we all took her at her word: their mothers didn't want their sons taken away, they were rude, they were jealous of her independence etc. But seeing her push us all away and seeing the same thing happen to us we all feel incredibly foolish.
Sarah has done and said some pretty horrible stuff over the years. I can't remember specific times or dates and some may seem trivial but these ones just stuck with me:
- When Winifred was fighting with my mother over something trivial, she suggested "keep your kids away from her (my mother), that will hurt her". She's always used her children under the guise of care anytime they had a disagreement, to try and manipulate the argument in her favour. On several occasions my mother would wave to them playing outside or walking by her window and they'd rapidly put their heads down as if being scolded, so god knows what Sarah has ben saying to them. While we were helping my mother was move out, my niece came inside and she was in tears because my mother was not there for her birthday a few weeks before. She asked her why she didn't come out to her, why she didn't see her on her birthday and asked why she was moving and if she still loved her. Taken aback when she heard this she said of course she told her she loved her and she always would, she told her once she has a phone she could call her every day if she wanted, she explained she needed to be somewhere she could go grocery shopping and have things close to her home. I wasn't thee for the whole interaction but when my niece left my mother said the things my niece said were things Sarah had said to my mother in the past verbatim.
- Bringing her kids on a plane to vacation while they (1 or both I can't remember) had chicken pox.
- Casually mentioning to my mother about money she has left from the sale of the house and what pension she’s getting and how much (some of my mothers post had gone missing)
- She once ran away from home when she was a teenager for several weeks because my parents gave her an 11PM curfew
- Always passing comment and keeping tally about how much her or her children received for birthdays or any kind of milestone event (most recently my aunt gave her son €30 and it was the first thing she mentioned when she talked about my aunt not staying until the end for her sons birthday, something along the lines of "€30? What can he buy with that?" He just turned 12 and we only see this aunt a couple of times a year. (Also I give all my nieces and nephews that amount for birthdays and Christmas so hearing this made me re-think all her past thank yous)
- Decades of berating Mary and putting her down, always about her weight or the way she acted (hyperactive, no filter etc)
- Admitting to Winifred that she decided to build a barrier at the end of her patio to make my mother take a less direct route and, in-turn, from "looking into her house" when she needed access the trash, but told us all it was a wind barrier. My mother has always preferred to keep her own blinds shut so she's usually adamant on not looking in other peoples houses.
- After divorcing her first husband my parents took her in until she had somewhere to live. Sarah was insistent on compensating them and our father eventually accepted as she wouldn't let it go. Months later during a heated argument she said they never cared for her, to which they argued that they recently asked her to live with them after her divorce, and without missing a beat she replied calmly "you were well paid for that"
-While our father was in decline he wasn't very verbal and his motor skills weren't the best, one time she brought her and her family out for waffles, she posted a photo of them in the car, and on inspection I noticed he is holding a knife, backwards trying to eat, I still think about this photo regularly because it just angers me that she mostly wanted to be seen taking care of him, without first seeing if he was even able to eat. She documents almost every activity her and her family do, which is fine, but it really calls into question if any of it is for the sake of the activity and trying to capture the moment for her family to remember, or just to be seen doing it. Another instance of this was each morning if it wasn't her turn to stay up for the night shift, the palliative care nurse would arrive Sarah would bring everyone breakfast, but if the nurse wasn't there there'd be nothing, which I know she didn't owe anyone and I shouldn't expect good deeds from people, but she'd also be in to see our father much later those days.
- Once my parents moved into the house, not a week had passed and her and Billy would say things such as "you know we're not your carers so if it comes to it you should have something arranged" and there was always snide comments about how they built their property on her kids play area, suggesting it was an inconvenience and big of her to let them build but I don't think she's ever thought how my parents chose to spend their retirement years with her and her kids. Both my parents had told me this and we were all appalled.
- While our father was unconscious towards the end, my mother just asked Billy about an additional €5 on her utility bill. He said the internet went up and my mother either just asked when or that she didn't know it increased. He left and then 20 minutes or so later, Sarah marched in and loudly exclaimed something like "Do you think Billly is a thief or something?!". This could normally be passed off as a somewhat regular family argument, but it was generally agreed between all of us that my father could still hear us. There were certain reactions when my mother would speak to him, or when I played him his favourite songs, so her choice to start a fight about this with our dying father inches away still infuriates me.
- My mother was an avid gardener, but when she got to Sarah's land she only allowed her to have 4 plant pots at the back of the house. So many times I remember waking up with her already outside, she'd have her visor on with dirt on her clothes waving to me in the kitchen. I've been asking her what plans she has for her garden now it's taking a lot of encouragement from the rest of us for her to get back into it now she has the space.
- When me and my sisters were alone while my father was sick, we were talking about my mother and how she would cope with life when my father passed. He was responsible for everything, bills being paid on time, insurance etc. Her finances came up and Winifred asked the room if she'll have enough coming in to live off. Sarah, with a combined covetous and grudging tone I'll never forget, listed off payments my mother would be getting and ended with a " so she'll be fine" and then scanned the room for our reactions. I immediately responded with "Oh thank god, I was so worried she'd be struggling", shocked by my relieved response she stared at me for a couple of seconds and then shifted to a softer tone "Oh yeah she'll be ok" then changed the subject. I know this is conjecture, but I know my sister. Her repeated mentioning of my parents money and her general obsession with how much people have, I know she was hoping for us all to join in on what I know would have been an acquisitive rant.
- Close to our fathers end, I could only bare to be at the top of his bed. It was too much for me too look at him. This shell of a person, who was so strong in life was now half his body weight and all my family in agony around him. When it got too much for me I'd ask someone (occasionally Sarah) to sit with him while I called my husband for support and to help me through it. I later found out she brought this up against me and said I was a wreck and kept running off and my sleep breaks were too long (I stayed up for 24-30 hours at a time so I was the only one to sleep more than 5 hours). Who is she to monitor how anyone grieves. She could go into Billy whenever it got too much so she had her support system right there.
I'm sure Sarah is a good mother to her children, as they're both always so happy and care free, but Sarah sees the rest of us all as this big stain on her life she's more than happy to wash out. She's said this in some form of another several times to my mother over the past few years, "I don't need any of you, I have my family, they're there for me". I've never been the most involved in all of my sister's life, but I always make sure to never miss a Christmas or birthday for them and I always send money or buy gifts for her children, I've sent her flowers when she was unwell and when she received her diagnosis, but with everything she's done even the idea of keeping up the pretence of civility puts a bad taste in my mouth.
My mother has recently bought a new house and looking at her it's like a light switch has turned back on. I haven't seen her so relaxed and happy since my father was alive. The years living on Sarah's land she barely decorated and never really got comfortable. But the same day of moving in the first thing she did was put up one or two stuffed animals and other trinkets. Our mother decided to keep buying a house a secret to not cause an argument with Sarah as it was too draining and Sarah would make an argument out of anything my mother said. When she had signed the papers she decided to message Sarah to tell her she was leaving (Sarah had decided to not speak with her at all and for months had only spoke to her through Billy, but if my mother was outside while Sarah was with a client she would wave and say hello to her) her response was very nonchalant with a "that's your decision" all of us expected a huge reaction as it was the norm.
A part of me thinks maybe this was her end game all along, not speaking to my mother, not helping her with groceries and never having time to knock on her door to see if she was even alive. Sarah's last words to my father while he was unconscious were that she was going to try and make it work with my mother and my mother promised the same. With 2 kids and a business to run she's always so busy so any text messages my mother would always sign off with "I'm her if you need me, you know I'm always here" and varying ways to let her know the ball was very much in Sarah's court. Myself, Mary and Winifred all have been visiting my mother from hours away so I don't know why she expects my mother to be the one walk 15 meters to her front door, one time my mother tried and she was greeted with Sarah's arm literally blocking the doorway to stop her from coming in. It's my view that Sarah's last words to my father were a complete and utter lie to him, a lie she can never take back or explain and I hope it haunts her.
The way Sarah has acted and the things she has said since my father’s passing it’s obvious she has warped the memory of who my dad was and it couldn't be more wrong. Being the youngest, quiet, and sort of on my own a lot growing up I was always a very observant person. My father worshiped my mother, they were best friends, did absolutely everything together, he always took her side about everything, every argument, every situation, he was her number one fan and it never faltered no matter what, they were always a united front. I know he would be incredibly ashamed and appalled of what Sarah and Billy have put my mother through, squeezing her for every penny, being incredibly cold and not even feigning that they care, although through outside sources she's painted a completely different picture, to which my mother and sisters have used pain remover each and every time. To Sarah, she lost her father and her father only. She is starting chemo soon and sources say things are looking better for her health wise but I'd still like advice.
Thank you.

Hi hello, long time lurker, first time posting here!
My fiancé and I got engaged earlier this year, and we've booked our venue, date (June 2025), and planner.
We have our first official meeting with our planner today. She's great, and I'm positive she's the perfect fit for us!
Still, though, neither of us have ever been involved in any sort of wedding planning. My parents never married, and we're both only children with single friends, lol.
So I raise you, wonderful people of Reddit, what do you wish someone had told you when planning your wedding?
Any and all advice, jokes, and critiques welcome!

Dear Heavenly Father, hear and bless the beasts and singing birds, and guard with all Your tenderness small things that have no words.
I remember it from childhood and came across it in a children's prayer book recently, but no author was attributed. Google didn't help.

I purchased the sheet music to all 3 of these albums in high school and somewhere in my college moves lost about half of my sheet music collection. Over the years I've been able to replace most of my favorites but have never found these again. Anybody know where I could get a copy?
Colors - Outside the Lines
https://www.amazon.com/music/playealbums/B003Z14JK8
Colors - Fallin In
https://www.amazon.com/music/playealbums/B000S5B6YQ
Colors - Standing on the Sun
https://www.amazon.com/music/playealbums/B000S59CQA

I have been asked to participate on a board for a not-for-profit. In fact, they’ve asked me to serve as chair. The organization supports art accessibility for children. They have after-school programming, camps, and a preschool. If I were to be on the books as part of this board, would I be exposing myself to personal liability? i.e. in the event of an accident with a child or staffing negligence in a scenario where something like that arises?

My spouse and I have a 1.5 year old son that we conceived with the help of a known donor. We found him and had many visits and conversations before deciding it was right for both of our families to move forward. He is married with 2 children and lives 45min from us. We have legal documentation in place and he has agreed to always keep us up to date with contact and medical information.
My question: assuming the donor is agreeable (which we strongly believe he will be) how often and in what ways would you think would be best to go about that. Would getting together once a year at a park be good, at least until our kid can express his own desires? What about time with his biological siblings (less than 10 years older than him)? Would it be good to ask the donor for letters or pictures for his baby book?
Thank you for this subreddit and making yourselves available to answer questions ♥ we consider your voices and experiences very valuable to our family.

I'm trying to create a download button that make a docx file with the contents of the tiptap editor. I got some styling working but not everything like bold, strikethrough, code block,... and some more. Does anyone know the correct method to serialize the tiptap styling content? This is the code I have right now.

import React, {useState, useEffect, useCallback} from 'react'; import {useEditor, EditorContent, Editor} from '@tiptap/react'; import StarterKit from '@tiptap/starter-kit'; import Underline from '@tiptap/extension-underline'; import FormatBoldIcon from '@mui/icons-material/FormatBold'; import FormatItalicIcon from '@mui/icons-material/FormatItalic'; import FormatUnderlinedIcon from '@mui/icons-material/FormatUnderlined'; import StrikethroughIcon from '@mui/icons-material/StrikethroughS'; import FormatListBulletedIcon from '@mui/icons-material/FormatListBulleted'; import CodeIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Code'; import UndoIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Undo'; import RedoIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Redo'; import DeleteIcon from '@mui/icons-material/Delete'; import { Color } from '@tiptap/extension-color'; import Text from '@tiptap/extension-text'; import TextStyle from '@tiptap/extension-text-style'; import { doc, updateDoc, deleteDoc } from 'firebase/firestore'; import { firestoreDB } from '../../services/firebase'; import { writeDocx, DocxSerializer, defaultNodes, defaultMarks } from "prosemirror-docx"; import { saveAs } from 'file-saver'; interface TiptapEditorProps { content?: string; documentId?: string; fetchDB?: () => void; title?: string; color?: string; onClose?: () => void; } interface Node { type: string; content?: string; children?: Node[]; } const nodeSerializer = { ...defaultNodes, hardBreak: defaultNodes.hard_break, codeBlock: defaultNodes.code_block, orderedList: defaultNodes.ordered_list, listItem: defaultNodes.list_item, bulletList: defaultNodes.bullet_list, horizontalRule: defaultNodes.horizontal_rule, strong: defaultNodes.strong, strikethrough: defaultNodes.strikethrough, image(state: any, node: any) { // No image serialization logic is provided here, which means the default behavior will be used state.renderInline(node); // Render the image node inline state.closeBlock(node); // Close the block containing the image }, }; const docxSerializer = new DocxSerializer(nodeSerializer, defaultMarks); // Define write function outside of the component conditionally const write = async (editor: Editor null) => { if (!editor?.state.doc) return; // Handle the case when editor.state.doc is not available const opts = { getImageBuffer(src: string): Buffer { // Type annotation for src return Buffer.from("Real buffer here"); }, }; const wordDocument = docxSerializer.serialize(editor.state.doc, opts); await writeDocx(wordDocument, (buffer: any) => { saveAs(new Blob([buffer]), "example.docx"); }); }; const Tiptap: React.FC = ({ content = '', documentId, fetchDB, title, color, onClose }) => { const [noteTitle, setNoteTitle] = useState(title ''); const [noteColor, setNoteColor] = useState(color '#ffffff'); const editor = useEditor({ extensions: [ StarterKit, Underline, Color, Text, TextStyle, ], content: content, editorProps: { attributes: { class: 'prose p-4 outline-none', } } }); if (!editor) return null; const handleColorChange = (event: React.ChangeEvent) => { const color = event.target.value; editor.chain().focus().setColor(color).run(); }; const handleNoteColorChange = (color: string) => { setNoteColor(color); }; const handleSave = async () => { const newContent = editor.getHTML(); try { if (documentId) { const currentDate = new Date(); const formattedTime = `${currentDate.getHours()}:${currentDate.getMinutes()}:${currentDate.getSeconds()}`; const formattedDate = `${currentDate.getDate()}/${currentDate.getMonth() + 1}/${currentDate.getFullYear()}`; const noteRef = doc(firestoreDB, 'notes', documentId); await updateDoc(noteRef, { content: newContent, date: formattedDate, time: formattedTime, title: noteTitle, color: noteColor }); console.log('Content updated successfully!'); if (fetchDB) fetchDB(); } else { console.error('Document ID is missing.'); } } catch (error) { console.error('Error updating content:', error); } }; const handleDelete = async () => { try { if (documentId) { const noteRef = doc(firestoreDB, 'notes', documentId); await deleteDoc(noteRef); console.log('Note deleted successfully!'); if (fetchDB) fetchDB(); if (onClose) onClose(); } else { console.error('Document ID is missing.'); } } catch (error) { console.error('Error deleting note:', error); } }; const handleWrite = async () => { await write(editor); }; return ( 
 
 Note Color:  handleNoteColorChange(e.target.value)} className="mr-4" />  setNoteTitle(e.target.value)} className="px-4 py-2 rounded-lg mr-4 bg-zinc-700" />   editor.chain().focus().toggleBold().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('bold') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().toggleItalic().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('italic') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().toggleUnderline().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('underline') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().toggleStrike().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('strike') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().toggleBulletList().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('bulletList') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().toggleCodeBlock().run()} className={`px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700 ${editor.isActive('code') ? 'bg-zinc-700' : ''}`} >    editor.chain().focus().undo().run()} className="px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700" >    editor.chain().focus().redo().run()} className="px-4 py-2 rounded hover:bg-zinc-700" >    Save     
 
  Download Word 
 
 ) } export default Tiptap; 

Hi Guys, Which are the best adult coloring books ? Im looking for some recommendations.
Need something in which I can fill wide range of vivid colours. looking to pass some quality time.
Thank you in advance!

I work in a clinical role in healthcare that is also a leadership role. I built a novel service line and supervise a few mid level clinicians. I took this position for the professional growth opportunity. About a year ago, things started to shift. My institution has a corporate culture that I find toxic. My admin staff has become more and more involved, despite the program doing well. I received a very good evaluation this year as well. There is a lot of toxic behavior (from one person in particular) that makes me uncomfortable. Lots of talking badly about providers, triangulation and other passive aggressive behavior bordering on bullying in my book. I’ve had my work taken and presented as theirs, and decision making capacities taken from me. I feel undermined and disrespected. It feels like the goal posts keep moving and I constantly feel unsettled.
I have reached out to leadership and have gone up the chain. Im not sure how successful this will be. I have started looking elsewhere, just to keep my options open. What holds me back from taking the next step is the flexibility. I can work from home, my schedule is pretty light. This has been great with two small children. Another position will likely be in person and longer hours. Pay would likely be about the same, although it is possible I could negotiate for more given what I’ve accomplished over the last few years. What are things you like to consider in these decisions?

The Tujunga Canyon Abduction Incidents - 1953
Sara would describe stepping into a “solid beam of light” that would lift her “about the same angle as an escalator” but with no steps. The humanoids would examine Sara, using what she believed to be an “X-ray-type device”.
****************
AUGUST 7, 1965, SAN PEDRO DE LOS ALTOS, MIRANDA, VENEZUELA
The object emitted a buzz which was compared with that of a swarm of bees. While making a slow movement of comings and goings, it came down to a distance of more or less 30 meters from the observers, while staying one meter and half above ground-level, without touching the ground. Its diameter was also calculated as being 30 meters. Below the spaceship, a kind of tube of light was projected. At once, when this pipe of light, projected by the lower part of the ship, reached the ground, two humanoids used it to come down, who were dressed in space suits which were a kind of brilliant silver plated blouse. They walked in the direction of the three men.
****************
JANUARY 21, MATIAS-BARBOSA, MINAS GERAIS, BRESIL, ERMINIO AND BIANCA REIS:
It re-ignited suddenly and directed a beam of light towards the car; which died out in its turn while the so-called balloon became motionless. Other version indicate that as the light neared, she screamed, believing it to be a plane about to crash. Her husband, now awake, had no time to say a word, as they felt a strange feeling of weightlessness, a sort of vacuum, and were "absorbed", still inside their car, into a bright beam of light, as if through a chimney, and into a kind of brightly lit circular garage.
***************
SEPTEMBER 23, 1978, VIEDMA, RIO NEGRO, ARGENTINA, CARLOS ACEVEDO AND MIGUEL ANGEL MOYA:
The light was now occupying the entire rear-view mirror and continued approaching at high speed, until the interior of the Citroën was filled with light. Acevedo reported what happened then:
"The light flooded the interior completely, and I couldn't see any farther than the hood of the car. It was very dense and bright, and its color was yellowish with a violet tint. At that moment the car seemed to be out of control. I looked through the window and saw that we were about two meters off the ground. I immediately thought that we had hit something, flying into the air, and started getting ready for the moment when the car would hit the road again."
But the car, instead of descending, seemed to continue its ascent out of control. Acevedo told:
"After a few seconds, perhaps 5 or 10, I realized that all that was completely abnormal. I tried to look out the window again but the only thing that I could see was that dense light. I remember that I started to shout 'What's the matter?,' but Moya didn't respond. When I looked to my right he wasn't there, or at least I couldn't see him. I couldn't even see the dashboard. I could only see the light, dense, it seemed like liquid, I don't know, kind of sticky."
(snip)
A few seconds later, the light retracted bottom to top, and the only thing that was left in view was a white / yellowish light, oval in shape, that continued its west heading until it disappeared in the distance."
****************
JULY 11, 1978, ALTO DA MOOCA, SAO PAOLO, BRAZIL, A WOMAN:
The humanoid closest to her caressed her head, while the other floated towards the UFO. The humanoid that had been standing next to her floated to the door of the UFO and removed an aluminum container from his belt. The container illuminated the yard in a bizarre yellow "coherent" light that appeared solid. The beam of light would enlarge, then decrease in size intermittently. The beam of light was directed towards the kitchen area, the yard and into the landed UFO.
(snip)
During the encounter, the woman perceived a total silence in the area, like a vacuum. Also during the encounter, she perceived a strong smell resembling ammonia and felt extremely cold.
*******************
October 1969 Enrique Castillo, Bogotá, Colombia:
The ships hovered about 100 meters from where I was. One of them silently moved behind the other. Now there was no more light, just a small halo surrounding the closest one [which] approached . . . Moving slowly and swaying slightly from side to side . . . it shot downwards two beams of light, strong orange in color [which] do not radiate like regular light does. [Later] I saw how the beams of light retracted until reaching the bottom of the craft, apparently ‘absorbed’, or reeled in. Two silhouettes slid down the beams until they disappeared behind the trees . . . A crackling of branches [and] dry leaves announced the arrival of the two beings.
(snip)
From the ship above, the orange light-beam was projected, which surrounded me about one meter around. I noticed how small leaves and dirt particles on the ground jumped at the contact with the light. A prickly sensation was felt through my whole body and my brain, like pins being stuck into my skin. I left the ground and slowly ascended. When the tips of the trees were passed, I could see the lake. I went up about 50 meters, feeling a terrible ‘vacuum’ sensation in my stomach. I moved my right hand, nervously, and felt that the light was ‘solid’, like glass . . . I kept on moving upwards. A gate opened above me, I entered, and the light ray softly dropped me onto the floor of the ship . .
(snip)
Castillo was astonished to discover that the craft had been in flight all the time he had been on board. He had felt nothing at all. ‘They took me to a special panel, where a visor opened like the lids of an eye, revealing a concave screen. I sat in front of the visor, on a fixed chair. One of my companions, who was operating the controls, adjusted them and invited me to look through them . . . I moved them somewhat, until I could see with perfect clarity . . .’ What he saw was his own house. I was dumbfounded; it was a sort of telescope, incorporating a beam of light, capable of penetrating the roofs and walls of buildings. I could see my family sleeping, and the dog seemed to notice something, barking and moving about nervously . . . When I moved the levers the wrong way, a neighbor’s house became visible . . . We kept on going at a steady speed. I could identify 68th Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Bogotá .
***********
1969, Oscar Bowles, a wealthy Bolivian businessman:
The disc stopped, hovered momentarily, and flashes of white light emitted from its underside like electricity jumping a gap, striking the sheep. This happened about 30 times in quick succession, and the sheep fell to the ground. As Stevens relates: As it became apparent that the flock was the target of interest, the shepherd picked up a stick and, raising it, started to run toward the slowing, shiny metallic disc. With his first threatening motion of raising the club, there was a flash of violet light and he suddenly was unable to continue the motion. It was like he was immersed in molasses. He could barely move, and then very slowly. He could roll his eyes and look around. He saw his helpers apparently in the same kind of paralysis . . . The stricken sheep did not move. As he watched, the silver disc-shaped craft, with a shiny dome on top, descended still more,
***********
1977 Columbia, South America
THE CURTAIN OF SILENCE
The craft reported at this time appeared to witnesses in different shapes and sizes; often shaped like helicopters or ray fish. Beams of light which emitted from them were capable of penetrating solid matter, such as the roofs of houses, and of targeting and paralysing people. By October 1977, the populace was thoroughly alarmed, particularly in Vigia, as this news report confirms:
*************
Pauline Delcour-Min, England, 1964 & 1996
Once at home, with Paulinne under regression, details of the journey to Scotland emerged. Paulinne recalled that as they drove along the road a “beam of light that slants diagonally from behind us” appeared. Within moments, they had driven directly into it causing the vehicle to be “drawn into it” and into the air. She further described it as being like a “tractor beam” and that upon entering it they were “frozen” and that “time had stopped” for the couple.
****************
The Buff Ledge Abduction 7th August 1968
The craft now moved directly overhead, and shot a beam at Michael and Janet. Grabbing Janet's shoulder, Michael pulled both of them on their backs on the dock. Suddenly, Michael was overcome with the fear of being kidnapped. He remembers screaming, "We don't want to go!" The light from the beam was so bright that Michael recalls being able to see the bones in his hand, like an X-ray. The two teenagers both later related that the beam had a "liquid" feeling to it, and gave them the sense of free floating.
************
1973, The Doraty Abduction, Houston, Texas
Some of Sprinkle's hypnosis session is included below:
Sprinkle asks, "Is there anyone around you?" There was this long, almost forty-five-second pause, and then she said: "two little men."
"[The two beings) were about three and a half to four feet tall; grey creatures with large egg-shaped heads."
"It's like a spotlight shining down on the back of my car. And it's like it has substance to it. I can see an animal being taken up in this. I can see it squirming and trying to get free. And it's like it's being sucked up."
***************
Brazilian Island of Colares - UFO Encounters of 1977
In describing their experiences with these light beams, most victims claimed that "They were immediately immobilized, as if a heavy weight pushed against their chest. The beam was about [seven or eight centimetres] in diameter and white in color. It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly.
"When they tried to scream, no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. The beam felt hot, 'almost as hot as a cigarette burn,' barely tolerable. "After a few minutes the column of light would slowly retract and disappear." Most symptoms usually disappeared after seven days. "
(snip)
One night several months later, on May 24 1978, a journalist and photographer, who had been sent to cover the local UFO encounters, were in their car when despite the heavy rain they were woken up "by a powerful beam of light which however unbelievable, it may seem passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle."
Not surprisingly they leapt out of the car to see that "a tube-shaped light beam, about [twenty-five centimetres] in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal panelling."
On this and other occasions, they managed to take numerous photographs which they claim that their newspaper later sold to "a North-American group."
On another night while trying to use flash equipment to photograph one of these craft "the UFO emitted such a vivid beam of light that it smashed the windscreen" of their car. (Giese, 1996)
*************
Denise Stoner , West Virginia - 1982
As she lay in bed in her room, a bizarre entity suddenly appeared as it walked right through the wall (we should note this is a detail of entities appearing through walls is found in many other similar encounters). She would claim to The Boston Globe that the entity “looked like a monk, he had a robe and was carrying a light”. The entity held its hand out toward her for her to take it. As she felt no fear, she did so, and they proceeded to walk out into the hallway. The figure lifted the light it was carrying and pointed it directly at the wall and then walked into it and disappeared. The next thing she knew she was inside a “large, dome-shaped room” and there were lots of other children around her.
**************
Gösta Karlsson UFO encounter - Sweden 1946
Years later, Gösta Karlsson described the object he saw to the Swedish ufologist Klas Svan:
“It was shaped like a disk and stood on two telescopic supports.
(snip)
On top of the cockpit, there was something thick, like a periscope four meters high. It had that bright purple light source that caught my attention. Light along a strange curved trajectory softly enveloped the entire object and pulsed slightly like water in a fountain.
The air smelled strongly of ozone.
************
April 4th, 1966 - Location: Burkes Flat, Victoria, Australia
Then gradually the top seemed to come to meet the bottom, They seemed to close in, making a transition of one light oval, similar to first view, everything then just disappeared. The last thing Sullivan saw of the light display was just a spot on the ground, a light spot, become smaller and smaller, to nothing.
Meanwhile, as he was driving, he observed that his car headlight beams suddenly appeared to be pointing in a direction off to the right in the direction of the strange light display and also seemed to be, bending back on an axis with the object in the pasture. As he got closer, the angle of bending of his cars headlight beams became more acute.
************
1949, Norwood, Ohio Searchlight UFO Incident
An additional photo was found in the possession of RAY STANFORD, who states: "This is several generations down from the original16 mm movie film, but it seems to rather clearly show that while the beam was projecting several degrees away from the object, when it got within a certain event horizon of the object, it was simply bent or 'pulled' the beam directly into the object, seemingly bending it about 26.5 degrees, as measured in the photo plane! This frame has always amazed me since I first saw it in the mid-'50s. Several persons, back then, who had seen the actual movie said that at one time the object seems, indeed, to 'suck' the beam squarely into it!
************
‘Piedro Viera 12 January 1997 Puerto Rico:
...an extraordinary mutilation case that occurred in Puerto Rico, the initial stages of which were witnessed by a security guard and former police officer, ‘Piedro Viera’, who recounted to Jorge Martín and me that while driving in the small hours of 12 January 1997 he had seen a large circular object coming from the direction of the El Yunque Rain Forest, then hovering above some cows in a pasture. A blue-green conical beam of light came down from the craft and engulfed two of the cows, one of which was ‘levitated’ towards the craft. ‘The cow vanished suddenly when it was about five feet from the underside,
*************
Nov. 08, 1954 dusk. La Tessoualle (France):
Andre Chaillou felt pricklings in his hands, "in spite of his gloves," when a blue disk came close to his motorcycle and his electrical system failed. He was unable to move or articulate a word for several minutes. As soon as the blue light was turned off, he started again and went near the light when it reappeared 200 m away. He saw the object, a cone 5.5 m in size, rise vertically with a soft whistling, then fly horizontally to the north. (98)
***************
Sep. 10, 1954 Quarouble (France):
A metal worker, Marius De-wilde, 34, came out of his house as a dog was barking and saw a dark object on the railroad tracks, then observed two dwarfs walking toward it. When he tried to stop them, he found himself paralyzed as a strong orange light was projected at him. The creatures were under 1 m tall, bulky, and wore dark diving suits. No face or arms were visible. Traces made by an object of estimated weight 30 tons were noted by French Air Force and police on the ballast.
*************
1965 — A couple is driving on a country road in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, when their car engine begins to fail, so they pull over in front of a tree. They notice an object behind the tree that emits a luminous ray toward them that bends at three places, vertically and horizontally, to avoid the tree. The woman’s cheek feels as if something is probing her. (Jean Bastide, La Mémoire des OVNI, Mercure de France, 1978; “Beam of Light with Three Corners,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec, 1983/Jan. 1984)

The humans had always had various ideas throughout their history of what alien contact would be like. The optimistic expected intellectual and friendly interactions in which they shared art and history and the secrets of the universe, science, math, and engineering. The pessimistic of course was that of hostile aliens bent on conquest. The fiction of the humans usually had it be something in between but leaning on the side of violence, on account of the fact that it needed to be an actual interesting story, but also to play into their own narcissism, so that the humans could always prevail in the end against any foe no matter what.
Unfortunately reality proved to favor the pessimistic outlook.
It was in the human year 2780 that the long awaited first contact happened. By then, the humans had explored their own system, not with themselves but with many of their robotic probes. By then, they had resigned themselves to the impossibility of faster than light travel and the infeasibility of colonies on other planets and eventually even being in space. Living things just weren’t meant for space, especially not when radiation hardened electronics equipped with AI was the competition. What was even the point.
So the aliens’ point of contact was through those devices, when all of a sudden they arrived in the Sol system apparently out of nowhere, having outrun any electromagnetic radiation that would have announced their approach. Because they had in fact done what the humans thought was not possible.
The humans on Earth, on monitoring the activity in their electrical children in space, were very excited about it at first. Until the aliens told them that the galactic council had decided they were going to be exterminated. It was very detached and harsh. They had detected the humans, they had taken a vote, and they had decided that Earth had to die. Or more precisely, its life did. Not just the humans. All Earth life. This galaxy wasn’t big enough for them and us. They had at first considered enslaving the humans but that too on taking a vote, had lost out. The problem was that the Oon had coerced the rest. They had their eye on the planet Earth and had plans of terraforming it to suit life of their kind already. They were the first ones to know about the humans. And they didn’t give a damn. And what’s worse, they were the galaxy’s manufacturers of the hyperdrive, as well as the secret of making them. If they didn’t get their way, the rest of the species of the galaxy would be cut off. And so they got support, even from many of the supposedly enlightened races that supposedly abhored violence and especially genocide. Their morals took second string to economics apparently.
But as was the galactic custom, the humans would be given one chance to justify their existence. They would be given the chance to send one representative to the council station to make their case, and hypothetically negotiate, but realistically they knew it would fall on deaf ears.
On Earth, a council of their own was convening about the matter. “We should send, him,” the leader of the black swans said.
Everyone knew who he was talking about.
“We can’t. We almost lost everything, the first time. I don’t know how, we got through it. There has to be a better way. Besides, can you even bring him back?” the most important man in the world said.
“Elie, would you come in?” the leader of the black swans said. In walked a woman. Tap, tap, tap, her dress shoes echoed on the marble floor. “Elie, has the gift,” he said when she came to a halt.
“Well why can’t we send her then?” the most important man in the world asked.
“I can only do it, with hours of concentration. And only one person,” Elie said in a tiny voice in the huge room.
“But can you get, him?” The most important man in the world asked.
“I think I found him,” she said.
A collective shiver propagated through the hall.
“Do we really want to do this?” the most important man in the world asked.
“Do you have any better ideas?” the leader of the black swans said.
So it was decided. And after much concentration, and a few failed attempts, he was there.
“Hello,” the man said, looking around.
“We need your help,” the most important man in the world said.
“Yes, I guess you do,” he said. He needed no further explanation.
The alien ship arrived a few weeks later to pick up the human representative.
An alien left the ship and looked at the humans in disgust. “You certainly are ugly,” it said.
“You are much more ugly,” he said.
“This is your representative?” the alien scoffed. “I guess it doesn’t matter, you’re all dead already.”
“You are a BAD alien,” he said.
“No, not here, not now!” the most important man in the world begged him.
“I guess not,” he said, in agreement.
He got on the ship and embarked for the galactic council ship.
Soon enough, he stood before the leader of the council. Who was also the leader of the Oon, the most powerful race in the galaxy, possibly the universe.
“Well, human representative. Justify your existence.”
“You want to destroy Earth,” he said.
“We will take Earth for ourselves. We will destroy your disgusting life that infests its surface.”
“You are a very bad alien,” he said. “And you are very disgusting. As disgusting as a slimy worm.”
The automatic translator struggled with that, because a specific animal that was found on Earth didn’t have a perfect translation, but creatures filling the same niche as worms were ubiquitous on inhabited planets, so it didn’t struggle that hard.
The Oon leader lowered his head and looked him close up. “I will enjoy seeing everything you love crushed into nothing.”
“How many planets do you have?” he asked.
The Oon scoffed. Over a, what would it be in base 10, over a hundred thousand.”
“This will take a while,” he said.
“No, it will be over very fast,” the Oon said before looking out the window with shock. For there was his home planet. “What, what is Oonoo doing here?” What was going on. (pronounced ooo nuu, not oh no)
“I have brought us there,” he said.
“That’s impossible!” the Oon said. “The council ship’s hyperdrive isn’t even active!”
“I read your minds to learn how it works. I can do it myself now.”
“…What?”
He looked out the window at the planet. And then it was gone.
“Where are we now?” the Oon leader asked.
“The same place as before. I made your planet go away.”
Sure enough, Oonoo’s star was still in the same place. Only the planet was gone.
“That’s, impossible!”
“Onto the next planet,” he said.
Over the next 12 days, the galactic council watched in horror as the human representative teleported them around the galaxy, and erased the entire Oon civilization, one planet at a time. Over that time, the Oon leader first was in denial. Then begged him to stop. Then prayed to its gods. The other species’ representatives also watched in horror, some of those who didn’t need sleep sat through the whole thing. And when it was done, he didn’t stop there. For he did the same for every planet of every race that had voted to erase life on Earth.
At the end, the only inhabited planets left in the galaxy among members of the galactic council, were the ones that hadn’t made themselves enemies of Earth, that had voted to spare Earth. After the horrifying ordeal was over, the Oon leader, perhaps the last Oon in existence, asked, “What are you?”
“I’m the human representative,” he answered.
“…Do you have a name?” the Oon asked. “I want to know, the name of the god, that erased, everything…”
“My name is Anthony. Anthony Freemont,” he answered.
Thus a new chapter has unexpectedly been written of a book once thought completed, of one of the galaxy's most special citizens. One Anthony Freemont, age 826, who comes from a planet called Earth. If you threaten this planet in any way, you do so at your own risk. But I also leave you with one additional warning. Should you visit this planet, or meet Mr. Freemont somewhere else, you might also want to try to only think happy thoughts. The other residents of Earth will certainly be doing so from now on.

"Hey, Himiko! Wanna go to the gym with me?" Tenko asked Himiko, who was laying down on her bed, reading a fantasy book. She wanted to groan, but she gave Tenko a small, drowsy smile, and began drumming her fingers against her book.

"Nyeh...no, thanks, Tenko," she replied. "Um...I'm not feeling well." She reached for her belly and sides. "Cramps," she said.
"Oh! Okay, then," Tenko replied sympathetically. "You want me to get you anything on the way back?"
"No, no, it's fine," Himiko assured. "I think a nap will make them go away. It usually does." Tenko smiled, and shook her head at Himiko.
"Oh, Himiko, you and your naps!" she said adoringly before heading out the door, and waving to Himiko. "Bye, Himiko!" Himiko waved back at her, feeling a small pang of guilt. The truth was that she wasn't actually cramping, she just didn't want to go to the gym with Tenko. Whenever Himiko had turned her down from going to the gym by simply not wanting to go, Tenko's countenance would go from enthusiastic to down-hearted, which would end up making Himiko change her mind and go with Tenko to the gym. Himiko always dreaded the gym because Tenko would make her train and do the more strenuous exercises that were too much for Himiko's noodle arms and legs. Himiko knew Tenko meant well, but she felt much safer not going to the gym with her. This time, even though it hurt Himiko a bit to do so, she had to lie about having cramps to keep herself from going to the gym, and to save Tenko's feelings. At the same time, however, she couldn't help but feel pleased with herself.
"Wow...I think I'm good at lying," she said to herself. Excitedly, she left her and Tenko's room, and rushed downstairs to Kokichi and Gonta's. Before she knocked on their door, she paused to stop and think. Hmm...maybe I should test my skills on Kokichi, she thought to herself. She giggled mischievously to herself, then cleared her throat as she tried to put on her best poker face. Then, she knocked on the door.
"Come IIII-IIIINNNNN!" Kokichi's voice sang from the other side. Himiko opened the door, and saw Kokichi sitting on his bed, playing video games. She sat down next to him. "Hey, Monkey Buns! What's up?" he asked, not taking his eyes away from the TV screen.
"Um, Kokichi? Can you pause it, please?" Himiko asked. "I have to tell you something." Kokichi paused the game, and turned to look at her.
"Yeeees?" he asked expectantly. Himiko opened her mouth, and began to panic. She hadn't thought of a lie to tell him. She began nervously drumming her fingers against her knee, and blurted out the first words that came to her mind.
"I need you to go to the store with me," she said. Kokichi merely stared at her, keeping his expression the same.
"Why do you need me to go?" he asked.
Oh, my gosh! It's actually working! Himiko thought excitedly to herself. "Well, because there's a dog on the loose outside, and I don't want to be out there by myself."
"I see," Kokichi said with a small smirk. "What breed of dog is it? A German Shepherd? A Golden Retriever? Or is it a rare breed of an imaginary dog that you come up with when you wanna lie to me for whatever reason?" Himiko's mouth dropped open.
"WHAT?!" she exclaimed. "H-HOW DID YOU KNOW?!"
"Nee-heehee...you're not a very good liar, Himiko," Kokichi replied. "Especially since you have a tell."
"I don't have a tail, you weirdo!" Himiko said.
"Not a tail, you bonehead, a tell," Kokichi corrected playfully.
"Oh..." Himiko replied quietly. "Well, what's a 'tell,' then?"
"A 'tell' is an indicator that someone is lying," Kokichi explained. "Like, when someone gets all fidgety, or if they stutter, or if their eyes shift around a lot. Lots of people have different kinds of tells, and sometimes, they're easy to spot. Other times, though, you have to reeeaaallly pay attention to a person to know their tell. But it comes easy to a liar like me! I always know when some is lying!"
"How is that even possible?!" she asked.
"Nee-heehee...a liar never reveals his secrets," Kokichi replied cheekily. "You of all people should know that, Himiko."
"Hummm..." Himiko groaned in annoyance, and frowned at him. "Well, could you at least tell me what my tell is?"
"You start drumming your fingers against either your body, or whatever it is that you're holding," Kokichi replied.
"Oh...I didn't realize that," Himiko admitted quietly. "But...now that you mention it, I do remember doing that when I came in here...and when I lied to Tenko before I came down here."
"You lied to Tenko, too?" Kokichi asked.
"Well, yeah, because she asked me to go to the gym, and I didn't want to," Himiko explained. "So, I told her that I had cramps so she wouldn't feel bad about me not going with her."
"Hmm...I see," Kokichi replied with a nod.
"But, Tenko didn't catch my tell," Himiko said. "Do you think she knew I lied to her?"
"Pfff...no," Kokichi replied promptly. "Tenko didn't notice because she's a moron, so she's easy to lie to." Himiko scoffed, and tilted her head admonishingly at Kokichi. "Well, it's true!" he said.
"Well...okay, but could you say it a little nicer? Jeez!" Himiko said.
"Sorry, babe, I don't sugarcoat things," Kokichi said. Then, he smirked at Himiko. "Is that why you tried to lie to me? Because you thought you were a good liar by successfully lying to Tenko, and so you thought you could lie to me?" Himiko's eyes bugged out of her head.
"How do...why is...ARE YOU EVEN HUMAN?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS STUFF?!" Himiko asked incredulously. Kokichi gave her a smug grin.
"You are just way too easy to figure out, Himiko," he replied, wiggling his brow at her. Himiko's face fell. Noticing her expression, Kokichi thought of a way to make her feel better. "Buuut...if you want, I guess I could share some tips with you about lying."
"Nyeh...really?" Himiko asked.
"Yup! After all, lying isn't a bad thing, y'know," Kokichi said. "Matter of fact, it can be very useful at times! Like, when you lied to Tenko earlier today. Not only did you get out of going to the gym with her, but you also made her feel better by saying that you weren't feeling well, rather than just flat-out telling her that you didn't want to go. If you told her that you didn't want to go, she'd get all upset, and you'd end up changing your mind to make her feel better. But as a result, you'd end up all hurt and sore in the end, right?"
"YES, GOSH!!" Himiko exclaimed, still flabbergasted at Kokichi's deduction skills. "How in THE WORLD-"
"Eh, Tenko's easy to figure out, too," Kokichi replied, nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders. "She's too clingy to you, and if you don't go anywhere with her, she gets all mopey. And, of course, you don't want her to feel bad, so you end up doing whatever she wanted to do. It's just...too easy."
"Pff...well, I'm so sorry we're too easy to figure out, your Majesty," Himiko scoffed sarcastically. Kokichi snickered, and poked her cheek in a teasing way.
"You'd better be!" he said. "Anyway, so want me to help you out?"
"Yeah," Himiko said. "I wanna play 'Two Truths and A Lie.'"
"Okie-dokie!" Kokichi said. They sat crisscross, facing each other. "Now, if you wanna lie, you gotta look me in the eye. If you wanna fib, you gotta know how to ad-lib. If you wanna-"
"Nyeh...Kokichi? You're teaching me how to lie, not rap," Himiko interrupted.
"I know, I know, it just sounded funny," Kokichi said. "Okay, but seriously, if you want to make someone believe your lie, you have to stay calm, y'know? Look someone in the eye as if you were telling the truth. To start things off nice and easy, you ever heard of K.I.S.S.?"
"Nyeh...th-the band?" Himiko asked.
"Nope! K.I.S.S. stands for 'keep it simple, stupid,'" Kokichi explained. "Don't overcomplicate your lie, just make it simple enough so that it sounds believable. You give it a try, tell me two truths and a lie."
"Um...okay, here I go," Himiko replied with uncertainty. "I...was born in December, I have b-blue hair, and I-" Himiko stopped abruptly when she noticed that Kokichi facepalmed. "WH-WHAT?!" Himiko exclaimed.
"Himiko, you don't lie about something that anyone can obviously see!" Kokichi laughed. "We can all see that you have red hair! Why would you lie about it being blue?!"
"W-Well, I panicked, okay?!" Himiko said. "It's kinda scary lying to you!"
"To me?" Kokichi asked, looking a bit flattered.
"Well, yeah! You can pick up lies so easily!" Himiko said.

"Well, I'm obviously going to notice that you don't have blue hair, Himiko!" Kokichi said.

"I dunno! Maybe you're color blind and you never told us!" Himiko said. Kokichi suddenly looked at her with a serious expression.

"I actually am color blind," he said. Himiko looked at him with uncertainty.
"N-No..." she replied quietly. "That's a lie."
"It's actually not a lie," Kokichi said. "Colors that you see normally, I see differently. Like, red to me would be more of a brownish color, or usually greens are a more...yellow-y color."
"B-But...you said that my hair was red just a few seconds ago," Himiko said with suspicion.
"Because that's what everyone says that's what your hair color is," Kokichi replied. "They'd have no reason to lie about that, right? Plus, I've memorized which colors are which based on what colors I see. So, every time I see something brownish, like how I see your hair color, for instance, I know that it's red."
"Oh..." Himiko breathed. "Kokichi, I never realized-"
"IT'S A LIE!!" Kokichi exclaimed triumphantly, and began laughing.
"WH-WHAT?!" Himiko exclaimed.

"Hahahahahahahaaa...you fell for my lie, Himiko!" Kokichi said. "Whoo! That was great!"

"Wait, so you're not color blind?!" Himiko asked.
"Haha, nope!" Kokichi replied. "Honestly, I have no idea what it's like to be color blind. I just made up a lie based on the very little knowledge I have about it."
"D'oh...but you sounded so convincing!" Himiko huffed in frustration.
"Mm-hmmmm..." Kokichi replied with a sly grin. "Did you notice that I didn't fidget, or shift my eyes, or anything like that. I looked you in the eye, and I was talking to you like I normally do, right? I was acting natural, and I didn't overwhelm you with a bunch of information; I just kept my lie nice and simple."
"Ohhh!" Himiko replied, giving him an impressed smile. Kokichi smiled back at her.
"Well, anyways, you can practice it in your own time, HimiCocoa Bean," he said, ruffling her hair. "But, you, personally, should only use lying when you absolutely need to. You don't wanna lose your friends to it, anyways." Himiko nodded.
"Um...Kokichi?" she began.
"Hmm?"
"Do you think I should have lied to Tenko earlier today?" Himiko asked. "I just...didn't want her to feel bad about going alone, but...I also didn't want to do the training that she does, since it makes me feel really sore afterwards."
"Well, lying did seem to work out for you, but you also could have been honest with her, Himiko," Kokichi said.
"How?" Himiko asked.
"You could have told her that her kind of training hurts you, and you two could come up with an agreement on doing what training works best for the both of you," Kokichi suggested. "That way, you wouldn't have to feel so bad about leaving her by herself, and you could get the workout that you need without feeling too sore."
"Oh! Nyeh...that's a great idea!" Himiko exclaimed. "Thanks, Kokichi!" She threw her arms around him, and gave him a kiss.
"No problem, Monkey Buns!" Kokichi replied, giving her a wink.
"Well, I'm gonna go ahead and test out my lying skills on the other...unsuspecting fools," Himiko said with a mischievous giggle while she tapped her fingertips together like a stereotypical villain. Kokichi smiled, and rolled his eyes at her.
"Nee-heehee...you do that," he chuckled. He picked up his game controller, and smiled affectionately at Himiko as he watched her run off to spread mischief.

The Tujunga Canyon Abduction Incidents - 1953
Sara would describe stepping into a “solid beam of light” that would lift her “about the same angle as an escalator” but with no steps. The humanoids would examine Sara, using what she believed to be an “X-ray-type device”.
****************
AUGUST 7, 1965, SAN PEDRO DE LOS ALTOS, MIRANDA, VENEZUELA
The object emitted a buzz which was compared with that of a swarm of bees. While making a slow movement of comings and goings, it came down to a distance of more or less 30 meters from the observers, while staying one meter and half above ground-level, without touching the ground. Its diameter was also calculated as being 30 meters. Below the spaceship, a kind of tube of light was projected. At once, when this pipe of light, projected by the lower part of the ship, reached the ground, two humanoids used it to come down, who were dressed in space suits which were a kind of brilliant silver plated blouse. They walked in the direction of the three men.
****************
JANUARY 21, MATIAS-BARBOSA, MINAS GERAIS, BRESIL, ERMINIO AND BIANCA REIS:
It re-ignited suddenly and directed a beam of light towards the car; which died out in its turn while the so-called balloon became motionless. Other version indicate that as the light neared, she screamed, believing it to be a plane about to crash. Her husband, now awake, had no time to say a word, as they felt a strange feeling of weightlessness, a sort of vacuum, and were "absorbed", still inside their car, into a bright beam of light, as if through a chimney, and into a kind of brightly lit circular garage.
***************
SEPTEMBER 23, 1978, VIEDMA, RIO NEGRO, ARGENTINA, CARLOS ACEVEDO AND MIGUEL ANGEL MOYA:
The light was now occupying the entire rear-view mirror and continued approaching at high speed, until the interior of the Citroën was filled with light. Acevedo reported what happened then:
"The light flooded the interior completely, and I couldn't see any farther than the hood of the car. It was very dense and bright, and its color was yellowish with a violet tint. At that moment the car seemed to be out of control. I looked through the window and saw that we were about two meters off the ground. I immediately thought that we had hit something, flying into the air, and started getting ready for the moment when the car would hit the road again."
But the car, instead of descending, seemed to continue its ascent out of control. Acevedo told:
"After a few seconds, perhaps 5 or 10, I realized that all that was completely abnormal. I tried to look out the window again but the only thing that I could see was that dense light. I remember that I started to shout 'What's the matter?,' but Moya didn't respond. When I looked to my right he wasn't there, or at least I couldn't see him. I couldn't even see the dashboard. I could only see the light, dense, it seemed like liquid, I don't know, kind of sticky."
(snip)
A few seconds later, the light retracted bottom to top, and the only thing that was left in view was a white / yellowish light, oval in shape, that continued its west heading until it disappeared in the distance."
****************
JULY 11, 1978, ALTO DA MOOCA, SAO PAOLO, BRAZIL, A WOMAN:
The humanoid closest to her caressed her head, while the other floated towards the UFO. The humanoid that had been standing next to her floated to the door of the UFO and removed an aluminum container from his belt. The container illuminated the yard in a bizarre yellow "coherent" light that appeared solid. The beam of light would enlarge, then decrease in size intermittently. The beam of light was directed towards the kitchen area, the yard and into the landed UFO.
(snip)
During the encounter, the woman perceived a total silence in the area, like a vacuum. Also during the encounter, she perceived a strong smell resembling ammonia and felt extremely cold.
*******************
October 1969 Enrique Castillo, Bogotá, Colombia:
The ships hovered about 100 meters from where I was. One of them silently moved behind the other. Now there was no more light, just a small halo surrounding the closest one [which] approached . . . Moving slowly and swaying slightly from side to side . . . it shot downwards two beams of light, strong orange in color [which] do not radiate like regular light does. [Later] I saw how the beams of light retracted until reaching the bottom of the craft, apparently ‘absorbed’, or reeled in. Two silhouettes slid down the beams until they disappeared behind the trees . . . A crackling of branches [and] dry leaves announced the arrival of the two beings.
(snip)
From the ship above, the orange light-beam was projected, which surrounded me about one meter around. I noticed how small leaves and dirt particles on the ground jumped at the contact with the light. A prickly sensation was felt through my whole body and my brain, like pins being stuck into my skin. I left the ground and slowly ascended. When the tips of the trees were passed, I could see the lake. I went up about 50 meters, feeling a terrible ‘vacuum’ sensation in my stomach. I moved my right hand, nervously, and felt that the light was ‘solid’, like glass . . . I kept on moving upwards. A gate opened above me, I entered, and the light ray softly dropped me onto the floor of the ship . .
(snip)
Castillo was astonished to discover that the craft had been in flight all the time he had been on board. He had felt nothing at all. ‘They took me to a special panel, where a visor opened like the lids of an eye, revealing a concave screen. I sat in front of the visor, on a fixed chair. One of my companions, who was operating the controls, adjusted them and invited me to look through them . . . I moved them somewhat, until I could see with perfect clarity . . .’ What he saw was his own house. I was dumbfounded; it was a sort of telescope, incorporating a beam of light, capable of penetrating the roofs and walls of buildings. I could see my family sleeping, and the dog seemed to notice something, barking and moving about nervously . . . When I moved the levers the wrong way, a neighbor’s house became visible . . . We kept on going at a steady speed. I could identify 68th Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Bogotá .
***********
1969, Oscar Bowles, a wealthy Bolivian businessman:
The disc stopped, hovered momentarily, and flashes of white light emitted from its underside like electricity jumping a gap, striking the sheep. This happened about 30 times in quick succession, and the sheep fell to the ground. As Stevens relates: As it became apparent that the flock was the target of interest, the shepherd picked up a stick and, raising it, started to run toward the slowing, shiny metallic disc. With his first threatening motion of raising the club, there was a flash of violet light and he suddenly was unable to continue the motion. It was like he was immersed in molasses. He could barely move, and then very slowly. He could roll his eyes and look around. He saw his helpers apparently in the same kind of paralysis . . . The stricken sheep did not move. As he watched, the silver disc-shaped craft, with a shiny dome on top, descended still more,
***********
1977 Columbia, South America
THE CURTAIN OF SILENCE
The craft reported at this time appeared to witnesses in different shapes and sizes; often shaped like helicopters or ray fish. Beams of light which emitted from them were capable of penetrating solid matter, such as the roofs of houses, and of targeting and paralysing people. By October 1977, the populace was thoroughly alarmed, particularly in Vigia, as this news report confirms:
*************
Pauline Delcour-Min, England, 1964 & 1996
Once at home, with Paulinne under regression, details of the journey to Scotland emerged. Paulinne recalled that as they drove along the road a “beam of light that slants diagonally from behind us” appeared. Within moments, they had driven directly into it causing the vehicle to be “drawn into it” and into the air. She further described it as being like a “tractor beam” and that upon entering it they were “frozen” and that “time had stopped” for the couple.
****************
The Buff Ledge Abduction 7th August 1968
The craft now moved directly overhead, and shot a beam at Michael and Janet. Grabbing Janet's shoulder, Michael pulled both of them on their backs on the dock. Suddenly, Michael was overcome with the fear of being kidnapped. He remembers screaming, "We don't want to go!" The light from the beam was so bright that Michael recalls being able to see the bones in his hand, like an X-ray. The two teenagers both later related that the beam had a "liquid" feeling to it, and gave them the sense of free floating.
************
1973, The Doraty Abduction, Houston, Texas
Some of Sprinkle's hypnosis session is included below:
Sprinkle asks, "Is there anyone around you?" There was this long, almost forty-five-second pause, and then she said: "two little men."
"[The two beings) were about three and a half to four feet tall; grey creatures with large egg-shaped heads."
"It's like a spotlight shining down on the back of my car. And it's like it has substance to it. I can see an animal being taken up in this. I can see it squirming and trying to get free. And it's like it's being sucked up."
***************
Brazilian Island of Colares - UFO Encounters of 1977
In describing their experiences with these light beams, most victims claimed that "They were immediately immobilized, as if a heavy weight pushed against their chest. The beam was about [seven or eight centimetres] in diameter and white in color. It never hunted for them but hit them suddenly.
"When they tried to scream, no sound would come out, but their eyes remained open. The beam felt hot, 'almost as hot as a cigarette burn,' barely tolerable. "After a few minutes the column of light would slowly retract and disappear." Most symptoms usually disappeared after seven days. "
(snip)
One night several months later, on May 24 1978, a journalist and photographer, who had been sent to cover the local UFO encounters, were in their car when despite the heavy rain they were woken up "by a powerful beam of light which however unbelievable, it may seem passed through the metallic structure of the roof of the vehicle."
Not surprisingly they leapt out of the car to see that "a tube-shaped light beam, about [twenty-five centimetres] in diameter, was coming down from above onto the roof of the car and passing through the metal panelling."
On this and other occasions, they managed to take numerous photographs which they claim that their newspaper later sold to "a North-American group."
On another night while trying to use flash equipment to photograph one of these craft "the UFO emitted such a vivid beam of light that it smashed the windscreen" of their car. (Giese, 1996)
*************
Denise Stoner , West Virginia - 1982
As she lay in bed in her room, a bizarre entity suddenly appeared as it walked right through the wall (we should note this is a detail of entities appearing through walls is found in many other similar encounters). She would claim to The Boston Globe that the entity “looked like a monk, he had a robe and was carrying a light”. The entity held its hand out toward her for her to take it. As she felt no fear, she did so, and they proceeded to walk out into the hallway. The figure lifted the light it was carrying and pointed it directly at the wall and then walked into it and disappeared. The next thing she knew she was inside a “large, dome-shaped room” and there were lots of other children around her.
**************
Gösta Karlsson UFO encounter - Sweden 1946
Years later, Gösta Karlsson described the object he saw to the Swedish ufologist Klas Svan:
“It was shaped like a disk and stood on two telescopic supports.
(snip)
On top of the cockpit, there was something thick, like a periscope four meters high. It had that bright purple light source that caught my attention. Light along a strange curved trajectory softly enveloped the entire object and pulsed slightly like water in a fountain.
The air smelled strongly of ozone.
************
April 4th, 1966 - Location: Burkes Flat, Victoria, Australia
Then gradually the top seemed to come to meet the bottom, They seemed to close in, making a transition of one light oval, similar to first view, everything then just disappeared. The last thing Sullivan saw of the light display was just a spot on the ground, a light spot, become smaller and smaller, to nothing.
Meanwhile, as he was driving, he observed that his car headlight beams suddenly appeared to be pointing in a direction off to the right in the direction of the strange light display and also seemed to be, bending back on an axis with the object in the pasture. As he got closer, the angle of bending of his cars headlight beams became more acute.
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1949, Norwood, Ohio Searchlight UFO Incident
An additional photo was found in the possession of RAY STANFORD, who states: "This is several generations down from the original16 mm movie film, but it seems to rather clearly show that while the beam was projecting several degrees away from the object, when it got within a certain event horizon of the object, it was simply bent or 'pulled' the beam directly into the object, seemingly bending it about 26.5 degrees, as measured in the photo plane! This frame has always amazed me since I first saw it in the mid-'50s. Several persons, back then, who had seen the actual movie said that at one time the object seems, indeed, to 'suck' the beam squarely into it!
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‘Piedro Viera 12 January 1997 Puerto Rico:
...an extraordinary mutilation case that occurred in Puerto Rico, the initial stages of which were witnessed by a security guard and former police officer, ‘Piedro Viera’, who recounted to Jorge Martín and me that while driving in the small hours of 12 January 1997 he had seen a large circular object coming from the direction of the El Yunque Rain Forest, then hovering above some cows in a pasture. A blue-green conical beam of light came down from the craft and engulfed two of the cows, one of which was ‘levitated’ towards the craft. ‘The cow vanished suddenly when it was about five feet from the underside,
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Nov. 08, 1954 dusk. La Tessoualle (France):
Andre Chaillou felt pricklings in his hands, "in spite of his gloves," when a blue disk came close to his motorcycle and his electrical system failed. He was unable to move or articulate a word for several minutes. As soon as the blue light was turned off, he started again and went near the light when it reappeared 200 m away. He saw the object, a cone 5.5 m in size, rise vertically with a soft whistling, then fly horizontally to the north. (98)
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Sep. 10, 1954 Quarouble (France):
A metal worker, Marius De-wilde, 34, came out of his house as a dog was barking and saw a dark object on the railroad tracks, then observed two dwarfs walking toward it. When he tried to stop them, he found himself paralyzed as a strong orange light was projected at him. The creatures were under 1 m tall, bulky, and wore dark diving suits. No face or arms were visible. Traces made by an object of estimated weight 30 tons were noted by French Air Force and police on the ballast.
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1965 — A couple is driving on a country road in Buenos Aires province, Argentina, when their car engine begins to fail, so they pull over in front of a tree. They notice an object behind the tree that emits a luminous ray toward them that bends at three places, vertically and horizontally, to avoid the tree. The woman’s cheek feels as if something is probing her. (Jean Bastide, La Mémoire des OVNI, Mercure de France, 1978; “Beam of Light with Three Corners,” CUFOS Associate Newsletter 4, no. 6 (Dec, 1983/Jan. 1984)