Very long post so heres the tl; dr:
mother is a horrible person, extremely right wing and narcissistic, extremely controlling of me and I’m reaching my breaking point.
now the actual post:
Ok, this is kind of a vent post. It has more to do with narcissistic parenting than LGBT things, but it’s kind of related.
So my mom has always been a MAGA at heart. It was the way she was raised, in a small conservative town, where the church was where she made friends. Now this wasn’t really a direct issue for me until I realized I was queer, but beyond the MAGA ideology, she is an insane narcissist.
My grandma has agreed with me. She acts high and mighty, but as soon as you question her, she lets down her boiling rage unto you. Like, for example she has taken money for an award that I won, about $200, “for safekeeping” but when I asked about it a few weeks earlier we got into a screaming match about whether I even got money for it. When I showed her proof I did she grounded me and took away everything I owned.
Another time she wouldn’t let me drive 5 minutes to a track meet (I’m in track) as she was “worried I would crash” even though I’ve been driving for over a year. My father is no better. He allows for this to happen and when I question her, he says “just play the game”. As if to say that I must humor this horrible person who I’ve had the unwanted pleasure of living with.
However, this wretchedness of hers has recently ramped up because of the fascinating app named Facebook. What an amazing app, right? It turned a MAGA head into an even more right wing monstrosity. Now she’s an anti vaxxer, makes me plug my phone in outside my room in fear of the “5g”, won’t let me go into the sea in fear of “shallow-water sharks”, and won’t let me go thrifting (one of the few things that actually makes me happy) due to “them not washing the clothes” WHICH THEY DO!
I swear to god, she lives based on fear and then plays the victim card when you tire of her fucking bullshit. And then just recently she caught me wearing eyeliner and threw a hissy fit about how “no son of hers would be a fa*got”. I was able to convince her it was just one of my friends that put it on me.
This isn’t the first time she’s shamed me either, when I got caught SH’ing she screamed how “no son of hers would do something so horrible” and said that I was a “fucking idiot”. And then only after that did she try to comfort me asking what was wrong... She just fuels me with rage and then has the gall to come into my room and say some shit like “I feel like you don’t talk to me”. LIKE NO FUCKING SHIT I DON’T, YOU’RE THE REASON I WANT TO MOVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY AND CHANGE MY NAME. and not to mention im not exactly the most sociable person so I already have incredible mental health issues (hence the sh) but then she adds onto them by being a horrible person.
But then, after all this. she has the fucking nerve to come into my room and say she loves me? I’m pulling my goddamn hair out because of this hag and then she says she “loves me”. You don’t get to make me feel bad after ruining me like you did. Oh another thing, she is constantly invading my privacy, until recently shes had a parenting software on my phone (could look at my screen from her screen, block all apps, etc) and also has life360 to track me wherever I go. Like whenever i stopped by the dollar tree literally less than a minute away from my school and when I got home she screamed at me and took everything away from me, including my god damn door as if i have too much privacy.
I’m honestly reaching my breaking point and worried that I might do something i regret because oh my god i just can’t take any of her shit anymore.
anyone here relate 😘😘

The original "The Fast and the Furious" released in 2001, contains a biblical subplot. This isn't as farfetched as it seems, considering that this film was re-written before its release by David Ayer, who is considered "...one of the five most prominent Christians in Hollywood." The original screenplay was written by Gary Scott Thompson. His vision for the film was for an all Italian cast racing through the streets of New York City. David Ayer, rendered some rewrites that made the film what has become these 20-something years later. One of his changes sets the film in Los Angeles instead of New York. Scripturally, angels are messengers and there surely is a message in this film, which is a re-telling of Revelation 13 using the analogy of cars and street racing.
To sum up the message of Revelation 13 is this: The Roman Catholic Church represented by "the sea beast" (Revelation 13:1) unites with America represented by "the earth beast" (Revelation 13:11) to issue the Mark of the Beast (Revelation 13:16-18). Scripture supplies the most in-depth literature known to man and this film has become a pop-culture gem because of it. Let's look at some of the symbolism.
Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) is an allegory of the Roman Catholic Church. The name Dominic is derived from the Latin Dominicus and is a name given to boys born on Sunday. It is the root word for "Domingo" which is Spanish for Sunday. Contrary to the 7th Day Sabbath of the 4th commandment (Exodus 20:8), Catholics instituted their own day of worship, which is Sunday. Priest Brady, in an address, reported in the Elizabeth, NJ ‘News’ on March 18, 1903, stated, "It is well to remind the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and all other Christians, that the Bible does not support them anywhere in their observance of Sunday. Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who observe the day observe a commandment of the Catholic Church." Their are many pontifical orders in the Catholic Church and one of them is the "Dom-inican" Order. Pope Pius V was of the Dominican Order and he instituted the Inquisition. The Dominican monks are known for brewing beer and in the movie, Dom is constantly advertising "Corona Beer." Dominic Toretto drives a 1993 Mazda RX-7 FD. At the core of this car is a turbocharged Wankel motor, driven by rotors instead of pistons. The rotors are Releaux triangles and were prominent features on gothic style Catholic Churches. The Releaux triangle is also the basic shape for the triquetra which a symbol for the Trinity. The Trinity is never mentioned in Scripture as a name for God which is important. The Trinity is a Catholic invention. The Roman Catholic Church is named as such because it absorbed practices and traditions from the Roman Empire. It was Constantine that issued the first Sunday Law; an attempt to make Sunday holy. They used to hold races in the Coliseum to honor the Roman trinity known as the Captoline Triad or the Archaic Triad. The name Trinity was coined by Tertullian, a staunch Romanist. This is why Dominic uses three Honda Civics to pull of the heists, because Trinitarians believe the Holy Spirit is another being form that sits on the Throne of God; three on the throne. In reality, there are only two being forms, the Father and the Son, on the throne, with their Spirit being inherently there. Dominic's RX-7 has a Veilside body kit. The "veil" (Hebrews 10:20) is symbolic of Jesus Christ and the pope believes that He is an additional incarnation of Christ. In the beginning of Fast X, Dominic is portrayed as a defender of the Vatican and St. Peters. Dominic Toretto is the Roman Catholic Church.
Brian Spilner [O'Conner] (Paul Walker) is an allegory of American Protestantism. The name Brian means "noble" and nobility is defined as having "high morals standards and ideals." Brian is also a police officer or a keeper of the law. America was established as a Protestant Christian nation with the intent of upholding the Law of God. Most Protestants today have forsaken the Sabbath command and uphold the Catholic Sunday. Brian is also on the "wine of Babylon" and is seen drinking and distributing alcohol throughout the film. Protestant denominations now also believe in the Trinity, significantly compromising the strength of the Protest. Is this reflected in Brian's ride? Yes. Brian drives a 1995 Mitsubishi Eclipse. The Mitsubishi symbol is a trinity of diamonds or rhombuses. At the heart of the Eclipse is a PentaStar 4G63 built by Chrysler. Chrysler secured a $75 million war contract to aid in producing J. Robert Oppenheimers "Little Boy"; the atomic bomb dropped on, of all places, Japan. The codename for the first atomic bomb test was "Trinity", named for the Catholic triune god. The American symbolism for Brian's car doesn't stop there. The American rebadged version of the Mitsubishi Eclipse, is the Eagle Talon. There is also an abstract blue and white eagle on the side of Brian's car; the eagle being a prominent symbol for America. Brian's surname "O'Connor" is of Irish origin. Catholics have slandered the name of St. Patrick claiming that he used the shamrock to preach the Trinity, but in reality he was vehemently against, or protested, the Catholic doctrine or the Trinity. Revelation 13:11 says that America sprang up like a Lamb (a symbol of Jesus Christ) but began to speak as a dragon (a symbol for Satan.) This denotes compromise. Brian is seen sitting with Dominic many times drinking alcohol, a sure fire way to lower your inhibitions and compromise your integrity. Brian has illicit relations with Mia, Dominic's sister [who openly displays her devotion to the Catholic Church in the film], which seals his compromise. Brian then ends up lying to his superiors after sleeping with Dom's sister. Brian is an Apostate (Lawless) Protestant Church.
Brian loses his car to Dom in a street race, which transfers ownership of the American-powered Eclipse to Dominic. Eventually, America will be owned by the Roman Catholic Church and will "build an image to the beast" and issue the Mark of the Beast on their behalf. The Eclipse is destroyed. Is not America in such a a state of declension, that the calling of a moral leader seems like the only way to save this country? Remember, Pope Francis came to America in 2015 and addressed not only the nation from the White House, but also an active session of Congress. We are a constitutionally church and state separate nation. What was the Pope doing there? Dom and Brian start working on another car to replace the destroyed Eclipse; a 1994 Toyota Supra. Before 1990, there was no official symbol for Toyota. On October 2, 1989, the official logo was released. The symbol is a "T" comprised of a trinity of ellipses. The code name for a 1994-1998 Supra is the Mark IV(4). So the Toyota Supra contains as mark and a trinity.
So what is the Mark of the Beast? Sunday observance and worship enforced by law. Dominic's name associates him with Sunday and Brian, being a police officer, associates him with the law. When they united to build the Supra together, it symbolized a National Sunday Law aka The Mark of the Beast. Their union also is symbolic of the formation of church and state in America: the "image to the beast." By the way, all graphics for the cars in the film were supplied by "Modern Image." When this forms, we are in "Barney Rubble Trouble." We are a country built on ecclesiastical liberty, but when a Sunday Law is put into motion, those who accept the law, will lose their "Liberty of Conscience." No good. This is why when Pope Francis addressed an active session of Congress, where we pass laws, was not a good sign. In fact, Pope Francis chose a Fiat 500 to ride in when he came to America. The word "fiat" translates to "law." This was not a coincidence.
How does this movie end? After one final race, Dominic flips his car, receiving a "deadly wound" (Revelation 13:3). Dominic (the pope, the outlaw) is not captured and brought up on charges as he should. Instead, Brian (America, the law, the Image to the Beast) hands over the keys to the Supra, giving Dominic complete power and ownership. Scripture says that the Roman Catholic Church will come to an end and that God's true people need to "come out of her...lest ye be partakers of her plagues..."
The promotion of Sunday, the exaltation of the Trinity, the apocalyptic formation of the Image of the Beast (Church and State) and the fraudulent retelling of prophecy is all contained in a little movie about street racing released almost 23 years ago. The sequels, attractions, and merchandise have never ceased to roll off the assembly line. Sequels that point to Dominic as a Catholic Champion. Even in "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift", the first song to play is "Six Days" by DJ Shadow. [Refer to Exodus -11] This song puts Monday as the first day of the week making Sunday the Seventh Day, giving Sunday the appearance that it is the Sabbath of the Lord. Yes. The Fast and the Furious is arrayed against the Law of God. The sobering fact is, Revelation 13 is already being played out right in front of our eyes. This film, which could arguably be called "The Last Great Film Before 9/11", portrayed the various steps and phases that America, nay the world, was about to go through, with the audience unaware. Sadly, Paul Walker has passed, but the message lives on today, with the OG Fast and Furious still being the greatest effort in the series.
Thank you for your time and consideration. 🙏🏾🙏🏽
Please watch the video Swift to Mischief: A Prophetic Exposition of "The Fast and the Furious" for greater detail.

I’ve had two bettas die in the past month from dropsy. For both it came on quickly and treatment (Kanaplex- I tried epsom salt, but he started acting weird so I took him out) didn’t help- I didn’t try to treat the second one that got it because I caught it too late, and also because he had a massive tumor in his stomach- stomach was always huge from day I got him and he had an inability to gain weight. Both died within two weeks of contracting disease.
Info on both fish-
Both had heater and filter, 78 degrees. Both had large amounts of live plants. Tank sizes were both five gallons. I fed them 6 pellets of Bug Bites every day, fasting every 2 days since both had bloat problems. They both got weekly 30% water changes. Both lived with shrimp, who they seemed to not eat. No tankmates besides the shrimp and a bunch of MTS. Water was good during both of their deaths- Reddi had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 5 nitrate, iirc, and Daffodil had 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and 10 nitrate- I found Daffodil rather late, which may have contributed.
Extra info- Daffodil was a rescue from someone who could no longer take care of him- I think he was a Petsmart fish. Reddi was brought by me from Chard56 on Aquabid. I had Reddi, the first victim, for a year, and Daffodil, the second and the one with the tumor, for about 3/4ths of a year. Reddi also had many small tumors on his finnage, and constant bloating issues that didn’t seem to be curable by fasting. Both had fins longer than their body and spent a lot of time stagnant- both had trouble swimming and reaching the surface. I have since decided to no longer buy halfmoons as a result. I still take them as rescues from people who can’t take care of theirs, though.
What am I doing wrong? Please tell me. I’m terrified.

First / Previous
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Suzanne thought it was absolutely brilliant of me to put books on a flash drive for Sun. She explained that Sun wasn’t as sophant (her word, not mine) as she might seem, more of a repository of information, but she was fairly intelligent. It was how she was able to connect Andrew being in pain to the fact that I was friends with Andrew, and that I would want to know that he was in trouble. Apparently some of Sun’s species had given some ‘wisdom’ to others in the past and it had made its way into mythology.
The key fact was that she was not smart enough to protect herself and her kind from the clever, organized poachers. With that information in mind, it was fascinating for me to think of how Sun took in and organized what she learned. It was almost as if she was a walking, talking library.
On the topic of tours, my first one went wonderfully, and I’m almost hoping Suzanne lets me do more of them. I know not all the tourists are going to be as awesome as these people were, but Suzanne gave me a lot of slack when it comes to dealing with them. She actually said that being a smartass is not grounds for dismissal, and that if I’m sarcastic or facetious to guests who are being ‘daft’ and they complain, she really doesn’t care. Is this the perfect job for me or what?
There were four guests in this party, two adults who were sisters and two children of one of the women, brothers aged thirteen and seventeen. The tour was a birthday gift for the older of the boys from his aunt, since apparently he was passionate about animal protection and conservation.
When they arrived at the front gate, I was sitting at Andrew’s desk, going over the booklet of information one last time. When the visitors pressed the button that sounded the alert buzzer, I tucked away in a drawer and let them in. I did have a cheat sheet with information about the animals on my phone just in case, a brief notation of each of them and which enclosure they were in, but I really didn’t need to use it.
Exiting through the front door, I saw them walk up the path toward me. “Hi, I’m Ripley,” I said, holding out a hand toward the woman closest to me.
She shook it firmly. “I’m Denise. This is my sister Carla and my nephews, Wesley and Jason,” she said, motioning to each of them in turn.
“I heard it’s your birthday,” I said to Wesley, giving him a smile. “You’re interested in animal conversation?”
“Back where we live, yeah,” he said, nodding. “The animals that you’ve got here are incredible. I can’t wait to see them.”
“Well, I can’t wait to show them to you,” I said. “Right this way.”
I led them on the path around the building, toward enclosure one. Despite the horrific memories of the animal killing Stanley’s friends, I knew it was just an animal, and I had to push past my feelings on what had happened. Keeping a small smile on my face, I motioned to the enclosure. “Fiercely territorial and amazing hunters, despite their large size, they’re arboreal and known to dart from tree to tree with barely a sound. This is one of only about two thousand left in existence.”
“Two thousand, three hundred and fifty six at last count,” spoke Wesley, his eyes on the trees.
I blinked, surprised and impressed. “Well that was fantastic. Do you plan on stealing my job when you graduate?”
Wesley looked at me with a grin. “Nah, everyone knows Suzanne only offers humans this gig. And I want to help animals like this one get off the endangered species list. The zoos are great for awareness and fundraising, but then the money has to go somewhere. I want to be doing the real work.”
“That’s really great,” I told him. “I wish you all the best in that career path.” At that, we saw the animal climb down from the tree, wandering a few yards from the tree line. This was because 90% of the time, when humans were at their enclosure and making noise, whether it was speaking to each other or calling out to the animal, it was someone bringing them prey to eat. Or, in my case, enrichment toys to play with.
“Whoa,” Wesley whispered.
“How close can we get?” spoke up Jason.
“The warding starts at the fence,” I told him with a small gesture. “So, just there.”
Both boys wandered closer and I glanced at their parents. It seemed that Suzanne’s zoo had a serious reputation for high quality invisible walls, because they didn’t look worried in the slightest about the boys being hurt or killed.
“They prefer dense forest as their home and have been known to make their nests in trees up to twenty meter in the air,” I continued. “And when hunting, they’ve been seen dropping eight meters straight down. They have incredibly dense yet flexible musculature, which allows them to tackle their prey without injuring themselves.”
There was more information about the animal that I continued to rattle off, though Wesley chimed in at certain points with the info I was about to convey. That was highly entertaining and very cool. When I’d been in school, I’d never met anyone who had my level of passion about endangered animals. I wondered if things were better where these folks came from, but realized that considering there were so few of these animals left, I guessed not.
The animal paced a little bit, seemingly waiting to see if we were the kind of humans that came bearing food, before deciding we weren’t and climbing back up into the trees as easily as I would climb some stairs.
As we moved onto enclosure two, Jason spoke up. “Are there any animals here we can touch or feed or something?”
I sighed inwardly before slowing to a stop. “Well, can you show me your hands?” Jason looked bemused, holding out his hands. “I mean…they both look like they’re in great shape. You can stand to lose one.”
The two women chuckled and Wesley smirked as Jason shoved his hands into his pockets. “Very funny.”
Grinning, I started walking again. “The animals here are all carnivores and all predators. You get to see them, but that’s it.”
“Alright.”
When we reached enclosure two, I started on my next spiel. “We’ve got three reanimated dead in this enclosure,” I spoke. They were just coming out from the trees as we arrived, presumably having heard our approach. “Marissa, Connor, and Bradley. They were donated by families who knew where they would be exhibited. Their next of kin, whoever they are, can’t stand the idea of putting them down. But we need to make sure they don’t have access to corpses, because one of them plus one corpse equals two of them.”
“They eat flesh though, don’t they?” Wesley asked.
I nodded. “Oh, yeah, but it’s from bodies that have already been dismembered. There’s no chance of them being affected by the transformation because it’s all parts.”
“Oh, got it.”
The creatures with blueish-white skin had superhuman strength, which is why they qualified for the security of Suzanne’s zoo. They also were likely the source of any Earth tales of people being brought back to life as zombies, specifically draugr, according to my research. They smelled like rotting flesh, so even as I kept talking about them and giving a background to the people they used to be, we were quick to move on once Wesley had gotten a good, long look at them.
“Enclosure four’s animal is a vampiric spirit. He’s a small, hairy humanoid creature with pointed ears. He wears a hat, and if he somehow loses it, he freaks out,” I said.
“They eat horses,” Wesley noted. “Also anything that gives them the chance to sit on it, usually catching them by surprise while they’re sleeping.”
The creature came out from the brush, giving us a suspicious look. He wasn’t in his humanoid form though; for some reason, he’d chosen to shapeshift to a dog.
I nodded. “Yep, indeed. Once the prey is dead, then he’ll eat it, and he has a voracious appetite. We have two wolves and two bears in the forest, which is one of the reasons I’ve got some self-defense items,” I said, patting my belt where my pepper spray (rated for bear) and my taser. “But the wards keep them out of this area of the zoo, so it’s really not much of a worry. It’s also a known shapeshifter, preferring the form of a dog, as you can see, as well as a cat, a snake, or even white butterflies, though the last one is rare.”
“The white butterflies are supposed to be a sign of good luck,” Wesley said, glancing to me. “Too bad we got the dog.”
“Yeah, otherwise you might be able to talk your mom into getting scratch-offs on your way home, huh?”
Wesley smirked at me.
The next enclosure was Spike, and he was waiting for us, dripping wet from having just emerged from the lake. I gave the introductory information about him, which included his propensity for eating animal eyes, nails, and teeth. “Recently, I’ve given him some enrichment activities, and I learned he likes artichokes, pecans, and hazelnuts,” I said, taking a bag out from my cargo shorts. “Wesley, do you want to toss this bag into the enclosure?”
The boy’s eyes widened and he nodded excitedly. He took a look into the paper bag before wrapping down the top to make sure nothing would fly out. Then he chucked it underhand past the fence. It landed a few yards from Spike, who waddled over to it quickly and tearing the bag open, spilling out the prizes inside. As the animal ate the pecans and hazelnuts, Wesley asked, “How’d you figure out he likes those?”
“It’s not all about taste,” I told him. “It’s mainly the difficulty of getting them out of the shells. He’s used to having to work for the parts of his prey he likes the most, so this mimics that activity, and he enjoys the process. I tried a bunch of different foods to find a few he liked.”
“Cool,” Wesley murmured, staring at him.
We watched Spike eat until he’d finished and then he went back into the woods, leaving us to move onto enclosure five. Japanese camellia were plentiful here, a type of pink flower, and that was because they grew anywhere near one of his species made their den. “This girl spends most of her time in the lake also,” I said, as the creature made its way toward the fence separating us from it. “But as you can see, she’s just as curious as the rest about what we’re doing here and whether we have food for her. She eats fish mostly, but she also regularly gets live prey.”
This creature was a spider-like monster, having six legs with long claws on each, and the head of an ox with two sharp horns. She was capable of shapeshifting to look like a human, but I guessed that she wasn’t fond of it, since I hadn’t yet seen her in that form.
“She prefers the easy way of catching prey, so to speak, by hiding in the lake and pouncing when something comes for a drink of water,” I explained. “Apparently humans are some of her favorite prey. She has an advantage of being able to spit poison, which often hits her prey in the eyes. But it’s usually used in defense rather than offense, since it secretes a limited amount.”
“What kind of animal would even go after something like this?” Jason asked, staring at her.
“Never discount one of its own species when you’re thinking about what might attack an animal,” I replied. “There are places that are breeding all of the animals here, but competition for mates is common. That means an advantage in a fight, like poison or venom, can make or break who the winner is.”
“Ah, gotcha.”
“It can’t spit past the warding, right?” Carla suddenly asked.
“Oh, no,” I assured her. “We’re fine. The wards wouldn’t let anything cross over.” She nodded, appeased.
The animal in enclosure six was the ginormous seal-hippo, Fiona, and she was looking at us as if she was imagining sprinkling us with herbs and spices and stuffing us in an oven. “This girl is one animal I’m going to work on enrichment activities for next,” I told them. “She prefers to feed on crayfish, though she’s happy to eat any humans that wander into her territory. She’ll even make a sound like a baby crying to reel us in. I’ve heard it a bunch of times.”
“Can you get her to make the sound?” Jason asked, perking up.
I grinned. “Not on command, sorry.”
“What enrichment are you thinking of trying?” Wesley asked.
“Possibly food placed in puzzle feeders,” I told him, “since she has claws that are pretty dexterous. Maybe a piñata made out of newspaper with flour inside, or a scarecrow that mimics a human.”
“Awesome,” he muttered.
After a little more educational tidbits, we moved onto Yui’s enclosure. “What is that?” Wesley asked, smiling.
“I got Yui the closest thing I could to a ping-pong ball,” I replied. “She quite likes it.”
“That’s so funny,” he said as she came out of the trees in her spider form. “I mean, the idea of her being a bloodthirsty hunter who seduces men to their deaths and eats them alive, but then on the other hand, she likes playing with something like this.”
“It is a little funny,” I agreed. “But when it comes down to it, all the animals here enjoy activities besides hunting.”
“She can shapeshift to look human, right?” asked Jason, trying to be casual about knowing something factual like his nerdy brother.
I nodded. “She looks like a woman from a region of Earth called Japan. And she’ll use strategies like holding out a hand to shake to get you closer. She tried that on me when I first got here but, as you can see,” I said, holding up my hands and waving them, “I didn’t fall for it.”
The boys both laughed as they got closer to the fence, watching her slowly pace near the trees.
Next was Sun, but she didn’t make an appearance as I spoke about her species. “Well…unfortunately we can’t guarantee that every animal comes out to say hi,” I sighed. “But…oh wait, here she is.”
The green lion with several horns and many eyes along her flank came out from the forest. “Hello,” she spoke.
“Hi, Sun,” I replied. “We have visitors.”
“What’s that?” Wesley asked suddenly, pointing at the small plastic bag that was still where I’d left it.
“Oh! That is Sun’s enrichment,” I said with a smile. “I put dozens of books on a flash drive and found that she can read them just like she’d read a shelf of books.”
Wesley’s eyes widened. “Wow. I don’t think I’ve read about anyone trying that before. That’s really cool.”
“The books are new and interesting,” Sun spoke, drawing our attention. “I’m grateful for them.”
I nodded to her. “You’re quite welcome.”
The next animal, unfortunately, wasn’t there, and we waited around for ten minutes as we discussed him. He was large and reptile-like with red eyes, with its hind legs and tail making him look vaguely like a kangaroo. Then, enclosure ten was a terrifyingly disturbing creature, the not-a-centaur with no skin, that I’d only seen a few times while walking my route. It gave a good demonstration of its ferocity, showing its sharp teeth and snapping at us a few times.
“I’m thinking of trying salt licks and other horse enrichment like a big bouncy ball,” I told Wesley, whose eyebrows went up at that. “Maybe give him more things to forage like scattered grains or a box filled with pinecones and seeds. Foraging is a huge part of a horse’s life in the wild, and humans have to do a lot of activities like that to keep pet horses busy. Of course, he also loves the little salt-water lake that was built for him.”
We spent some time looking at the animal before moving past our last stop, the empty enclosure of the animal was stolen. Carla glanced at me with a sad smile, knowing what had happened, it seemed. I gave her a nod as we continued on our way, walking into the office. “So, I hope everyone enjoyed themselves!” I said with a smile.
“That was the coolest birthday present I’ve ever gotten,” Wesley said, looking to Denise. “Thanks so much, seriously.”
“It was my pleasure,” she said with a nod. “I’d never been here before, and knew I’d find it fascinating. Thank you for the educational aspect,” Denise said, glancing at me. “I learned quite a lot.”
“Happy to hear it,” I said, returning the nod.
As I escorted the guests out of the zoo and locked the door behind them, I reflected on how much I’d changed. The first time I’d seen Yui’s tarantula form, I’d nearly passed out from fear. Now here I was, walking tourists around like it was no big deal. Humans really can adapt to anything, it seems.
That afternoon, Suzanne had texted me that she was coming by after my shift, and I met her in Andrew’s office, shutting the door to the security room behind me. “How’s Andrew?” I asked first thing.
“He’s doing well,” she said with a wide smile. “Back on non-hospital food. He’s allowed to order food on his phone, and to hear it from him, that’s the best news he’d received in a long time.”
I chuckled. “I guess some clichés are true for a reason.”
“Indeed.” She took a breath. “All right. Ripley…I would like to discuss something with you.”
My face went slack at the serious tone in her voice. “I’m not… Am I being fired?”
“What? No!” she exclaimed. Then she chuckled softly. “No, it’s nothing like that. Just, here, let’s have a seat.” Suzanne walked over to the couch and sat at one end, and I took the other. “There’s something I need to tell you. Something I’ve kept from you, that I wanted to keep from you until you found your sea legs here.”
“Well…I have,” I said with a nod. “So, what is it?”
Suzanne took a breath. “I knew your mother.”
The words hung in the air for a moment before making their way to my ears. It was a perfectly logical sentence, and yet it didn’t make any sense. “What?” I finally managed.
“When you graduated college, I decided to move the zoo from Italy to within driving distance of your home,” she said softly. “Near enough to your town that you’d see the advert. We ignored any other applicants and I hoped you’d apply. Actually, I expected you’d apply. Not just for the money, but considering the field you wanted to go into. As soon as I’d found out your major, I knew.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I said, holding up a hand. I pinched the bridge of my nose. “How do you know Patricia?”
“She owned the zoo before I did,” Susan explained. “Fourteen years ago…she was working to track an injured animal that we could bring into the zoo and she was killed by poachers.”
My heart calcified in my chest and a lump lodged in my throat. As my breaths became shaky, I stared at her in shock. “She…she’s really dead?”
“You suspected?” she asked softly.
“It…” I swallowed hard. “We had her declared legally dead after…I don’t know, seven years I think. My dad wanted to go after her for child support, but the police said…they said they couldn’t find…” Tears came to my eyes and I blinked them back before I met Suzanne’s gaze. “She owned the zoo?”
Suzanne nodded. “It was her baby, you’d say. When Patricia passed, I inherited it, which we’d discussed beforehand, a legal just-in-case that I never expected her to need. I’m under the impression that you were told she went to Africa for her photography career, but she was in fact going to remote areas back in my home world almost every time.”
“But I-I saw the photos,” I said, my eyes narrowing. “You’re telling me she put on a show of getting pictures that someone else took for us to see every time she visited? Did my dad even know?”
“I suppose that’s an accurate way to put it, putting on a show. And no, your father was never told. It’s not the way of things to tell humans unless it’s necessary. I won’t bore you with the details, but us and humans, we’re distant relatives, so we can still have children. But it wasn’t planned. Your mother fell in love with your father despite herself; she hadn’t meant to find love. Then she became pregnant with you and…well, the rest is history.”
“I think she had a different definition of love than the one I have,” I said tightly. “You’d think she’d have put her survival as more of a priority. Put being with the man she ‘loved’ as a priority. Her kids needed her. I needed her. She signed up when she became a mom. She could’ve screwed up all the time but she couldn’t even manage that one job: be there. When I was in the hospital, I kept thinking, ‘Where is she?’ and now you’re telling me that she put these animals above being there for her kids, and this whole time she’s been dead.”
“The hospital?” she asked, furrowing her brows.
“Never mind,” I said tersely, averting my gaze.
Suzanne hesitated before she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry for your loss, and not just for her death, Ripley,” she told me. “Patricia was…well, a ‘free spirit’ would be putting it gently. She always assumed the world would be there for her whenever she needed it.”
Staring at her for a long moment, I shook my head. “Why? Why come here and hire me?”
“I thought that would be obvious,” she said, smiling. “Your mother was so passionate about this place and once I found out your college major, I figured you would be as well.”
“Did you know that I hate her?” At that, Suzanne’s expression froze on the edge of shock. “She…she left us,” I whispered. “Didn’t tell us who she was or what she really did for a living and gave us no closure. And even when she was here, it was just visiting. Her real home was her work. She could give me all the presents she wanted, but even when she was here, half the time she was still on her computer doing work. It’s not like that stereotype of never making it to my tennis practice or something; it’s that it always felt like she was only partially here, even when I was sitting next to her. I don’t even know if I appreciate her turning me into a wildlife fanatic because it…it…makes me feel like I’m close to her in a way that’s just infuriating. She loved the animals more than she loved us.”
“Oh, Ripley-”
“Don’t,” I said, shoving myself to my feet. “Don’t try to convince me otherwise.”
“I wasn’t going to,” she said quietly. I pursed my lips. “I was going to say that I’m sorry that was the case. Your mother was…flawed, just like any other person. She had two loves in this world: her family and her work. And often, her work overcame her, her zeal for environmentalism getting in the way of being a good mum. She left your father trying to fill the role of two parents, holding your family together. You and your brother and your father, you all deserved better than that.”
My lower lip quivered but I bit down on it hard. It would’ve been a lot easier for me if she’d been speaking from a place of clueless reassurance about all this. But everything she said was making sense and that meant I didn’t have someone in front of me to be angry with.
“Why didn’t you tell me when Andrew hired me?” I sighed, sitting back down on the couch.
“Well, like I said, I wanted you to find your sea legs,” she said with a small smile. “I didn’t want the truth affecting whether or not you wanted to work here, whether you wanted to stay here after finding out about what the animals are. It would’ve complicated things, the emotions you’ll have to work through now that you know the truth. Whether or not you decide to give another tour, you also know what they’re like. That’s the benchmark I wanted you to reach before you found out about who you are.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Who I-” My face went slack. “Wait.”
Suzanne nodded slowly. “You’re only half human. Your brother too.”
The room seemed to tilt on an axis for a moment. “That means I’m also half…what?”
“We call ourselves Eldritch, these days,” she replied.
My eyes bugged out. “What?” I exclaimed. “So you’re all, like, gods or something?”
Suzanne burst out laughing. “Oh no, goodness, no,” she chuckled. “It’s just a word. We live in a very different world from this one, and a few generations ago we discovered the word and it made its way into our lexicon. But it does mean you can see all the animals. Indeed you did, on the tour you gave.”
“Wait, no, I had the glasses that…” I stopped. “Did those glasses do anything?”
She gave a sly smile and shook her head. “Not a thing. You made incredibly quick progress, and then when it came time for the tour, all you needed was to expect to see the animals, and you did.”
Genetics. That’s what Andrew had said during our interview, that part of how many animals you could see was determined by genetics. I guess having a mother who was originally from the other dimension gave me all the genes I needed to see everything here. “Could I…visit your world?” I asked tentatively. “You said that my mom took photos of the animals there. Could I…” My voice trailed off, not even sure if or how I wanted to finish that sentence.
“Those who are half human, especially those who are raised on Earth, don’t come visit,” she said gently. “I could show you some photos of other animals, and I could loan you as many books as you’d like, but it’s simply not a place where you’d be safe.”
“Oh,” I said, leaning into the couch cushion as I pictured the animals in the zoo. “Yeah, actually that…makes sense.” I paused. “So, what now?”
“It’s up to you,” she said. “I wanted to wait until I was sure you were comfortable with your position here, and then put the ball in your court. And so it is. What do you want to do now?”
What did I want to do? It wasn’t that difficult a question, just a deep, serious one.
I wanted to thrive, as the animals did. This is my enrichment now, working at an incredible, wonderful, terrifying zoo. The experience so far hasn’t been perfect, and I know there are risks, but life isn’t about staying safe. It’s about learning new things and making a difference in the world. And, if you’re lucky, having a job that’s something really special.
​
THE END
​
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Hi I’m from the UK and I’m 51 bur ever since I was 19 it was my intention to work until I was 60 and then retire to the old town part of Benidorm. Unfortunately my health took a huge downturn when I was 38 and I had to stop working on health grounds and I can only walk short distances with a crutch otherwise I use my electric wheelchair. Last May my parents very kindly bought me a caravan and awning in Benidorm so that I just need flights and me and my carer can come here anytime. Obviously this has changed things and so has Brexit but I know that some day in the future I will be able to move over under a non lucrative visa because I can cash in my pensions at 55. But I’ve been looking at apartment prices around Benidorm old town and considering when I move I will need to pay for my own care I don’t know if I’m best staying in my caravan which costs about €450 per month in site fees but all of the campsites are in the new town and some people say you are just wasting your money paying site fees and not being allowed to let it out. I’m gay and Benidorm is very accepting but I also wondered if it’s still possible to get a cheap 2 bedroom apartment on the front line of a beach area in another part of Spain on the beach within a mixed community because I want to mix with the Spanish and learn their language. I think it’s a beautiful country. Are there any other areas that have some gay places to go and that has a beautiful sandy beach where you can still pay up to €100k maybe €150k for a 2 bedroom front line property where I can leave my windows open and fall asleep to the sound of the sea? Thanking you all for any suggestions on other places that I should check out.

Somethings we know:

1. The Ark is close to the ocean

We know the Ark is close to the ocean first of all thanks to the Sea You Again event having the Admiral use an elevator to get to the ocean, it can't be that far away from the ocean otherwise the tunnel would have to be super long if it were further in land.

1. The The Ark is close to volcanoes which is also in an arid environment We see volcanoes in the story in the desert or arid environments
   
2. They use English road signs There are many examples in the champain where they use Road signs in English, along with the sign pointing to the Ark being in English as seen in Over Zone
   

https://preview.redd.it/mzvjgioxqa1d1.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=3714453c32a6d8ebe31f59739ce0127d5fb0d6df
Along with this the Ark's Enterance can be seen with lush forests and green grass.
To put it simply I think the Ark is in Western America.
https://preview.redd.it/byaxcy5ura1d1.png?width=535&format=png&auto=webp&s=18240e272e12de79457ef413c61320533b4e6cb4
Specificly here as it has plenty of deserts, forests, volcanoes, and is relatively close to the ocean. The Northern Base is a little stretch, but there could have been some climate change considering how far into the future the game is.
Some holes in my argument

1. The Northern base might be too far away to get in foot like we see in game.
   
2. There could have been a massive climate uset which throws everything off.
   
3. This possibly could just not be Earth as we know it.
   

Note to the moderators: I suppose this post could be construed as seeking "recommendations"; however, the list will not fit within the character limits of the GDT, so I'm hoping y'all will tolerate it. At the very least, at nearly two hundred songs/bands, alphabetized and a couple weeks' work, I hope y'all will agree, this is not a "low-effort post!"
With the help of Metalcore as well as a big Deathcore/Metalcore FB group, I've compiled the following alphabetized playlist. Obviously it's incomplete, so please tell me who I'm missing (that is worth adding, obviously). Also, if there's a band you feel should be removed due to inappropriate categorization or a pick that is just blatantly wrong, please feel free to let me know!

1. Aborted - Dreadbringer
2. Abbie Falls - Pitch Black
3. Across the Sun – May Silence Keep You
4. After The Burial - Behold The Crown
5. All Out War – Into the Killing Fields
6. Allt – Paralyzed
7. All That Remains - This Calling
8. Alpha Wolf - Akudama
9. alt. - BACK TO EARTH
10. A Mourning Star – A World Beyond
11. Angelmaker- What I Would Give
12. Annalynn - Closer to the Edge
13. Annisokay - Coma Blue
14. Any Given Day – Savior
15. Architects - These Colors Don’t Run
16. As Blood Runs Black – In Dying Days
17. As I Lay Daying - The Sound of Truth
18. Asking Alexandria - A Single Moment of Sincerity
19. ATLVS – Comethazine
20. Atreyu – Crimson
21. Attack! Attack! – Killing for Sport
22. Avenged Sevenfold – Unholy Confessions
23. Aviana – Rage
24. August Burns Red - White Washed
25. AVOID - Whatever
26. Bad Omens - ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE
27. Before I Turn – Aglaeca
28. Being as an ocean - the hardest part is forgetting those you swore you would never forget
29. Bleed from Within - Alive
30. Bleeding Through - Revenge I Seek
31. Bloodywood - Machi Bhasad
32. Bodysnatcher – Exterminate
33. Botch – One Twenty Two
34. Boundaries – I'd Rather Not Say
35. Breakdown of Sanity – The Storm
36. Bring Me the Horizon - Shadow Moses
37. Bullet for my Valentine - Four Words (To Choke Upon)
38. Bury Tomorrow – Choke
39. Caliban – Memorial
40. Carnifex - Die Without Hope
41. Caskets - The Final Say
42. Chamber - Replacing Every Weakness
43. Chelsea Grin – Cheyne Stokes
44. Chimaira – Pure Hatred
45. Code Orange - Forever
46. coldrain - 2020
47. Conquer Divide - Afterthought.wav
48. Converge – A Single Tear
49. Counterparts - Whispers Of Your Death
50. Crimson Eyes – Serenity
51. Crown the Empire – The Fallout
52. Crystal Lake - Apollo
53. Currents - Better Days
54. Daedric - Alchemy
55. Dark Divine - The Fear
56. Darkest Hour - Goddess of War, Give Me Something to Die For
57. Darko US - Pale Tongue
58. Demon Hunter - Cross to Bear
59. Dying Wish - Enemies in Red
60. Earth Crisis – Forced March
61. Eighteen Visions – Reality Killer
62. Elwood Stray - Half Life
63. Emmure - When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong
64. Enterprise Earth – Reanimate // Disintegrate
65. ERRA - Lunar Halo
66. Esprit D’Air - Ocean’s Call
67. Every Time I Die - Map Change
68. Fallstar – When Justice Cracks the Sky
69. Fit for a King - Backbreaker
70. Fit for an Autopsy – Under a Serpent Sun
71. Flames of Betrayal – The Rain Reeks of Heaven
72. Foreign Hands - Separation Souvenir
73. For the Fallen Dreams – Sulfate
74. For today - Break the Cycle
75. Ghost Iris – My Dear Rat Kings
76. Gideon -- Bite Down
77. God Forbid - To the Fallen Hero
78. Greyhaven - Kappa (River Child)
79. Guilt Trip – Eyes Wide Shut
80. Hanabie - Otaku Lovely Densetsu
81. Harm’s Way – Become a Machine
82. Hatebreed – Own Your World
83. Heart of a Coward – Hollow
84. Heaven Shall Fall – Hunters Will Be Hunted
85. Holding Absence - Monochrome
86. Humanity’s Last Breath - Labyrinthian
87. Ice Nine Kills – The American Nightmare
88. If I Were You – System Failure
89. Imminence – Chasing Shadows
90. Impending Doom - There Will be Violence
91. In Heart’s Wake – Survival (The Chariot)
92. I Prevail - Deadweight
93. I See Stars - Running With Scissors
94. InChaos - Butterfly Effect
95. Ingested – I, Despoiler
96. Invent Animate - False Meridian
97. Jesus Piece - Fear of Failure
98. Job for a Cowboy – Sun of Nihility
99. Johnny Booth - The Ladder
100. Killswitch Engage - My Last Serenade
101. Kill The Lights - Dead From The Start
102. Knocked Loose - Deep in the Willow
103. Kublai Khan - The Hammer
104. Lamb of God - Descending
105. Left to Suffer – Overwhelming Power
106. LVNDMARKS - False Reality
107. Light the Torch - Die Alone
108. Like Moths To Flames - Dissociative Being
109. Loathe - Aggressive Evolution
110. Lorna Shore – Of the Abyss
111. Make Them Suffer - Uncharted
112. Misery Signals - Luminary
113. Malevolence – On Broken Glass
114. MIRE – Inside
115. Miss May I – Hey Mister
116. Motionless in White – Disguise
117. Mouth for War – Saturate Me
118. Norma Jean - Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes
119. Nora – I Should Have Sent Flowers
120. Novelists FR - Souvenirs
121. Of Mice and Men - The Depths
122. Ocean Sleeper - Your Love I'll Never Need
123. Opal In Sky - The Blight
124. Orthodox - Cave In
125. Paleface – Lights Out
126. Paria - The Absurdity of Solace
127. Parkway Drive – Dark Days
128. Patient Sixty-Seven - Hibbertia
129. Periphery - Stranger Things
130. Phinehas – I Am the Lion
131. Polaris - The Remedy
132. Pupil Slicer - No Temple
133. Reflections - Help
134. Reliqa – Tyrant
135. Renesans - Labor of Hate
136. Rings of Saturn - Senseless Massacre
137. Sail’s End - The Sound of Silence 3: Three
138. Sanction – The Prophet Who Saw Fire
139. SAVE US – Distance
140. Scarlet Horizon - Seed
141. Sea of Treachery – Unleash the Serpents
142. Serration – Simulations of Hell
143. Shadow of Intent – The Prelude to Bereavement
144. Shadows Fall – The Light that Blinds
145. Shai Halud - Solely Concentrating on the Negative Aspects of Life
146. Silent Planet - Antimatter
147. Signs of the Swarm – Amongst the Low and Empty
148. Silverstein - Your Sword vs My Dagger
149. Sion – More than Just Myself
150. Slaughter to Prevail - Viking
151. Sleep Token – The Summoning
152. Snapcase – Harrison Bergeron
153. Spite – led
154. Spiritbox - The Beauty Of Suffering
155. Spiritual Chaos - End
156. Suicide Silence - Unanswered
157. Sunami – Mind Your Business
158. Tenside - Come Alive Dying
159. The Acacia Strain - The Impaler
160. The Afterimage – Secrets
161. The Amity Affliction – Pittsburgh
162. The Black Dahlia Murder – What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse
163. The Browning - The End of Existence
164. The Chariot - David De La Hoz
165. The Devil Wears Prada - Danger: Wildman
166. The Dillinger Escape Plan - One of Us is The Killer
167. The Empire Shall Fall – Voices Forming Weapons
168. The Ghost Inside – Aftermath
169. The Ongoing Concept - Feel Again
170. The Plot in You - Crows
171. The Zenith Passage – Deus Deceptor
172. Thornhill - Casanova
173. Throwdown – This Continuum
174. Thrown - on the verge
175. Thy Art is Murder – Holy War
176. Times of Grace – Medusa
177. To the Grave – Terrorist Threat
178. Trivium - Down from the Sky
179. Undying – the Company of Storms
180. Unearth - This Glorious Nightmare
181. Upon a Burning Body – Extermination
182. Varials – Anything to Numb
183. Veil of Maya - Outsider
184. VEXED – X my <3 (Hope to Die)
185. Vision of Disorder - D.T.O.
186. Wage War - The River
187. War of Ages – Collapse
188. We Are The Empty – Carcass
189. We Came As Romans - What I Wished I never Had
190. Whitechapel - I Will Find You
191. While She Sleeps - The Plague of the New Age
192. Within Destruction – Void
193. Within the Ruins – Gods Amongst Men
194. Wolves at the Gate – Deadweight
195. World of Pleasure – Carbon Copy
196. Xibalba – Death Threat
197. Zao - Resistance

Indigenous knowledge has been vital to the Pacific Islands, keeping civilization alive and running with specific traditions. Indigenous knowledge can be explained as institutionalised local information, built-up knowledge, and stories passed from one generation to another by word of mouth that have impacted socialisation processes (Osunade, 1994). Although indigenous knowledge is vital to the Pacific, a lot of the knowledge has been lost over time. Through discussion, we will find why the Pacific has been through a loss of indigenous knowledge overtime.
Globalisation is one of the many reasons for the loss of indigenous knowledge. This is due to the increased connectivity, modernisation, and spread of Western lifestyles. These factors have created pressure on traditional Pacific communities. An example of how this has happened is through the allure of Western education, careers, and consumerism. These ideals have drawn Pasifika peoples away from their indigenous ways of doing things, as the traditional way may pay less or be less efficient. This has led to the gradual erosion of interest and investment in preserving cultural practices and knowledge.
Migration, driven by opportunities of higher paying jobs or jobs in general and climate changes like the rising of the sea level, has become a defining factor for many Pacific Island communities. A 1988 study on households of Tongan and Samoan residents in Sydney found that “only ten percent of respondents intended to return to their island countries” (Dickie, 2005). The attraction of better jobs and living conditions often draws young people away from their homelands, setting in motion a process that disrupts the vital transmission of indigenous knowledge. This migration disrupts the intergenerational passing down of indigenous knowledge, as young people become disconnected from the land, sea, and cultural practices that underpin traditional knowledge systems.
In the 1870s speaking Te Reo Māori in schools was forbidden because Māori at the time thought it would be best to be taught only English and ridding the use of Te Reo Māori. “supplement the law forbidding the speaking of Maori in class, or in the school grounds in school hours, no person or parent can engage a child in speaking Maori, and in such cases, any child can inform on that person or parent to the Committee, who shall be empowered to fine that person or parent the sum of five shillings.” (Native Schools Act, 1867) The empowered Māori put this law in place to civilise the Māori youth and integrate them into the English system, which in return caused a great loss in our language. Because of this act the children moved to adulthood with a trauma that followed them with speaking their native tongue which also played a part in making Te Reo Māori a dying language at the time.
Education is crucial when it comes to the topic of saving indigenous knowledge. Young Pacific Islanders can gain a greater understanding of their cultural heritage by incorporating indigenous knowledge into formal education systems. Efforts that back local craftsmen, fishermen, and farmers in safeguarding traditional practices that help in the growth of indigenous knowledge. By supporting language immersion programs, we can protect this part of our Pacific island's culture. Another way we can safeguard our indigenous knowledge could be through online platforms where stories and legends could be shared to keep them alive. Creating story books of legends for young ones to read and having social events focused on spreading awareness of the loss of indigenous knowledge to motivate the newer generations to keep it alive.
Altugan (2015) found positive outcomes when teachers taught children with the same ethnic background. Through their commonality, the students were more motivated to do their work and achieved greater grades as they could learn about their culture and understand work through their similar cultural backgrounds. Having Pasifika people teach Pasifika youth about indigenous knowledge could positively impact youth and keep this knowledge alive for future generations as they may be more motivated and understood when indigenous knowledge is passed on through Pasifika people.
These practices and forms of preserving and teaching indigenous knowledge may impact the identity of Pasifika peoples. According to Correa Charles (1983), we find our identity through the knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our environment. As someone who may not know much of the indigenous history they are related to, figuring out more indigenous knowledge may help them feel as though more of their identity is found. This loss of indigenous knowledge may also be a loss of some Pasifika’s identity.
Due to the appeal of more Western cultures, indigenous knowledge needs to be recovered and constantly recognized to revitalise its importance for future generations. As discussed, multiple threats are found, which are reasons for the loss of indigenous knowledge. These serve as significant indicators of what to watch out for and work on towards the preservation of cultural practices. As there is already a loss of indigenous knowledge, specifically among the youth, the disconnection from their culture must be acted upon. As the youth are our future, they also hold the ability to keep or lose more indigenous knowledge. This means many efforts need to be made to preserve and teach to keep indigenous knowledge going for future generations

I had this sermon yesterday, and it helped me collate my thoughts
For the everyone, Christianity isn't a self-help or a religion that makes you feel good. It is a faith that is real. Sharing the word and preaching may not turn the hearts of others. You need to clarify the non-believers' doubts. However, this is for everyone to read.
Science doesn't argue that God isn't real. God and science aren't enemies. They are in fact allies. God made science and science proves of God is existence.
1) Faith and science are complementary.
John 4:21-24 describes the Samaritan woman asking Jesus which is mountain/temple is the right place to seek God. Jesus instead tells her how God is spiritual. Heaven and hell are not physical locations, but a spiritual location. Therefore you need to connect to God spiritually.
Science cannot prove about why the existence of any number. For example, why is 7 seven and not 1 or 2 or 3? Science only assumes numbers. What about right and wrongs? We know that they are real things. We believe they are factual. But right and wrongs differ from person to person. Science can not scientifically prove what is right and what is wrong. Science is used to prove the physical and not physical world. But science also cannot prove science. For example science cannot prove where an atom is from. People say the Big Bang, but what caused it to happen(explained later)? God is beyond the physical world. So science is to study the physical world, whereas faith is to know the spiritual world.
2) Faith provides a basis for science
Science is to prove a principle of a law. But you need to assume that this law exists in the first place because if it doesn't then results are unattainable. This is a hypothesis. If the experimental results are achieved, then the law is true. However, when the results cannot be obtained, the law either is false or needs further proving. But He separated the dry land from water as can be seen in Psalm 105:5-9. The waters flowed over the mountains, went into valleys and He set a boundary they cannot cross and would never again cover earth. Same again in the story of Noah. And also can be seen in Genesis 1 when the world was just water. Before He made these boundaries, the waters were chaotic and with no order. God gave order.
In fact there are also many many famous scientists out there who used the Bible for their hypothesis and so far they are all correct. Johannes Kepler said that he was was merely thinking God's thoughts after Him. Isaac Newton said he studied the Bible to prove scientific theories. However, what the Bible says that is in the later part before the end, that cannot be proven yet. Other than that, God made the world follow a fixed law. Therefore, Christianity is a faith with science to prove that it is true. This leads to the last point
3) Science provides evidence for the Christian faith
Romans 1:18-20 says ‭" [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [19] because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. [20] For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse". This shows that there is so much evidence of God in the world like science and the miracles done. So how can God not have the rights to condemn someone to hell? It isn't because He remained hidden and they didn't have the opportunity to know Him. They closed their hearts and believe in His works but not Him. They have everything around them to prove God exists, but they do not heed.
Psalm 8:3-4 shows us the magnitude and power of God. But there would be critics who disagree because we jump into conclusions and "assume" it's right. What if there is an argument to prove that it is right and it in fact is God's powers?
Kalama Cosmological Argument states: 1. Everything must have a cause. 2. The universe began to exist 3. (if the first 2 points make sense which they do, then) Therefore, the universe must have a cause
The Kalam Cosmological Argument can be used on Islam and Christianity but the Christian God is the true God. In Islam, Muhammad was not the Son of God. He was just a prophet. Neither did he die on the cross for the people to redeem their sins. And I don't need to talk about the kids he married. It's pedophilia and there's no argument that that is very wrong. God is righteous and His son should be righteous as well. We know Jesus was righteous and has never sinned. He bored the cross for our shame and suffered to redeem us. This is the real Son of God. Therefore, only our Christian God is true. The gods of other religions cannot exist because of the Kalam Argument that we can agree is true.
The Big Bang, which people argue that this is how God doesn't exist, was only proven in 2003. Do I believe in the Big Bang? Yes. But you see, science is to study the physical world (definition: the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained). Science only can be used to study the physical world. So the world cannot make the world because the world is science but science cannot make science. In that way, something external must be making the Big Bang happen. So who is this Someone who is external?
Using the Kalam Argument, we can come to a conclusion that 1. The Creator must be extremely powerful to create the world. 2. The Creator has to be non-physical for the world cannot make the world reason. 3. The Creator must be eternal. If not something else would have made Him, thus He would have a beginning. But He cannot have a cause, but cause a cause unless the cause is a person which cannot be true. Complicated to read but try to understand. This sounds like our God that we read about in Gensis! People don't believe because they don't want to, not because they didn't have more than enough evidence to know of God's evidence.
Next, God can use something natural and unnatural to create something. For example, the Red Sea turning red was proven to be because of sediments in the water. And so were the rest of the plague. But the destroyer was a curse (a really bad miracle) and isn't natural. So was Jesus when He went around to heal the sick, blind, deaf, mute, lame, and the possessed. A miracle = cannot be proven by science and totally unrelated to science. Who else can create miracles but by Someone not in the physical world? The consistency in the miracles cannot be a chance. It is the God factor. This can be proven by the Teleolgical Argument.
The Teleolgical Argument says that: 1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to physical necessity or chance or design (proven by biology, physics or scientific experiments multiple times and would be explained after this) 2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance because unless the universe has a mind then it knows its necessities. And chances are so hard to come by (said later) 3. Thus the universe has to be designed (by God)
Like y=mx+c or other formulas with a constant inside. Gravity, speed of light in vacuum and other laws are also constant.
Now to answer "Can it be by chance?" The answer is 99.999999% no. But let me add that little 0.000001 to prove the God factor. Stephen Hawking said if time at the beginning slowed by 10¹⁰⁰ seconds, the universe would be dead. How can a chance be so accurate? How can there be a chance with such an unspeakable number without a design given? For example, you find an iPhone in the desert and you say its because the winds and weather conditions had assembled and put it together, and Steve Jobs picked it up. So with LOGICAL CONCLUSION, it can be said that there is a Designer to design the universe. According to the first law of thermodynamics, something cannot exist without being created from existing energy. The law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed and Einstein established that energy and mass (the two essense of existence) are essentially the same. But why does God not need a creator? Because the creator would be greater than God. Then won't we worship that creator instead? But thermodynamics only apply to our world. We often forget that God is of a spiritual world and He is eternal, hence, He doesn't need or have a creator.
In conclusion, science and faith are not compatible. That's too weak a word. Science and faith are complementary. Thus, do not disbelieve in God and only believe in science or vice versa. You need something that you can rely on that doesn't change. A constant. Then you might ask why do we believe in a book? We don't believe in book. It's the faith we believe in that is true. As science cannot prove science, the Bible cannot prove the Bible. But so far all the things the Bible was true, even before science had proven these. And those not of science are miracles or not proven yet. If you cannot debut these reasonings, then it only means God is true and that you should start believing in Him. Psalm 8:1-9 shows the magnitude and power of God. Science isn't something we should use to doubt God but to marvel and appreciate the works, even to the finest detail, of God and His designs. Gensis 1:26 says "[26] Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ". We have dominion over the world as through science and the manipulation of science helps us understand God at a deeper scale. Your faith must have a deeper intellectual evidence. What reflects God's words or existence? I know that all He has said and still says has come true and thus will also come true. I know this because I see His works through History, Science etc. Build a faith with facts and knowledge but also with belief. You can further read things to strengthen your faith, like Reasonable Faith(or William Lane Craig, his youtube channel if you hate reading a lot, but since you got this far then maybe you do like reading), or books from Timothy Keller and C.S Lewis.
I would say that faith by knowledge is to accept in God and faith by feelings is to strengthen our love for God. I pray that we would have more brothers and sisters as well who would come to God through all these factors and we would have the brothers and sisters we lost to come back to God. In Jesus's most precious name I pray, Amen.

I had this sermon yesterday, and it helped me collate my thoughts
For the everyone, Christianity isn't a self-help or a religion that makes you feel good. It is a faith that is real. Sharing the word and preaching may not turn the hearts of others. You need to clarify the non-believers' doubts. However, this is for everyone to read.
Science doesn't argue that God isn't real. God and science aren't enemies. They are in fact allies. God made science and science proves of God is existence.
1) Faith and science are complementary.
John 4:21-24 describes the Samaritan woman asking Jesus which is mountain/temple is the right place to seek God. Jesus instead tells her how God is spiritual. Heaven and hell are not physical locations, but a spiritual location. Therefore you need to connect to God spiritually.
Science cannot prove about why the existence of any number. For example, why is 7 seven and not 1 or 2 or 3? Science only assumes numbers. What about right and wrongs? We know that they are real things. We believe they are factual. But right and wrongs differ from person to person. Science can not scientifically prove what is right and what is wrong. Science is used to prove the physical and not physical world. But science also cannot prove science. For example science cannot prove where an atom is from. People say the Big Bang, but what caused it to happen(explained later)? God is beyond the physical world. So science is to study the physical world, whereas faith is to know the spiritual world.
2) Faith provides a basis for science
Science is to prove a principle of a law. But you need to assume that this law exists in the first place because if it doesn't then results are unattainable. This is a hypothesis. If the experimental results are achieved, then the law is true. However, when the results cannot be obtained, the law either is false or needs further proving. But He separated the dry land from water as can be seen in Psalm 105:5-9. The waters flowed over the mountains, went into valleys and He set a boundary they cannot cross and would never again cover earth. Same again in the story of Noah. And also can be seen in Genesis 1 when the world was just water. Before He made these boundaries, the waters were chaotic and with no order. God gave order.
In fact there are also many many famous scientists out there who used the Bible for their hypothesis and so far they are all correct. Johannes Kepler said that he was was merely thinking God's thoughts after Him. Isaac Newton said he studied the Bible to prove scientific theories. However, what the Bible says that is in the later part before the end, that cannot be proven yet. Other than that, God made the world follow a fixed law. Therefore, Christianity is a faith with science to prove that it is true. This leads to the last point
3) Science provides evidence for the Christian faith
Romans 1:18-20 says ‭" [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [19] because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. [20] For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse". This shows that there is so much evidence of God in the world like science and the miracles done. So how can God not have the rights to condemn someone to hell? It isn't because He remained hidden and they didn't have the opportunity to know Him. They closed their hearts and believe in His works but not Him. They have everything around them to prove God exists, but they do not heed.
Psalm 8:3-4 shows us the magnitude and power of God. But there would be critics who disagree because we jump into conclusions and "assume" it's right. What if there is an argument to prove that it is right and it in fact is God's powers?
Kalama Cosmological Argument states: 1. Everything must have a cause. 2. The universe began to exist 3. (if the first 2 points make sense which they do, then) Therefore, the universe must have a cause
The Kalam Cosmological Argument can be used on Islam and Christianity but the Christian God is the true God. In Islam, Muhammad was not the Son of God. He was just a prophet. Neither did he die on the cross for the people to redeem their sins. And I don't need to talk about the kids he married. It's pedophilia and there's no argument that that is very wrong. God is righteous and His son should be righteous as well. We know Jesus was righteous and has never sinned. He bored the cross for our shame and suffered to redeem us. This is the real Son of God. Therefore, only our Christian God is true. The gods of other religions cannot exist because of the Kalam Argument that we can agree is true.
The Big Bang, which people argue that this is how God doesn't exist, was only proven in 2003. Do I believe in the Big Bang? Yes. But you see, science is to study the physical world (definition: the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained). Science only can be used to study the physical world. So the world cannot make the world because the world is science but science cannot make science. In that way, something external must be making the Big Bang happen. So who is this Someone who is external?
Using the Kalam Argument, we can come to a conclusion that 1. The Creator must be extremely powerful to create the world. 2. The Creator has to be non-physical for the world cannot make the world reason. 3. The Creator must be eternal. If not something else would have made Him, thus He would have a beginning. But He cannot have a cause, but cause a cause unless the cause is a person which cannot be true. Complicated to read but try to understand. This sounds like our God that we read about in Gensis! People don't believe because they don't want to, not because they didn't have more than enough evidence to know of God's evidence.
Next, God can use something natural and unnatural to create something. For example, the Red Sea turning red was proven to be because of sediments in the water. And so were the rest of the plague. But the destroyer was a curse (a really bad miracle) and isn't natural. So was Jesus when He went around to heal the sick, blind, deaf, mute, lame, and the possessed. A miracle = cannot be proven by science and totally unrelated to science. Who else can create miracles but by Someone not in the physical world? The consistency in the miracles cannot be a chance. It is the God factor. This can be proven by the Teleolgical Argument.
The Teleolgical Argument says that: 1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to physical necessity or chance or design (proven by biology, physics or scientific experiments multiple times and would be explained after this) 2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance because unless the universe has a mind then it knows its necessities. And chances are so hard to come by (said later) 3. Thus the universe has to be designed (by God)
Like y=mx+c or other formulas with a constant inside. Gravity, speed of light in vacuum and other laws are also constant.
Now to answer "Can it be by chance?" The answer is 99.999999% no. But let me add that little 0.000001 to prove the God factor. Stephen Hawking said if time at the beginning slowed by 10¹⁰⁰ seconds, the universe would be dead. How can a chance be so accurate? How can there be a chance with such an unspeakable number without a design given? For example, you find an iPhone in the desert and you say its because the winds and weather conditions had assembled and put it together, and Steve Jobs picked it up. So with LOGICAL CONCLUSION, it can be said that there is a Designer to design the universe. According to the first law of thermodynamics, something cannot exist without being created from existing energy. The law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed and Einstein established that energy and mass (the two essense of existence) are essentially the same. But why does God not need a creator? Because the creator would be greater than God. Then won't we worship that creator instead? But thermodynamics only apply to our world. We often forget that God is of a spiritual world and He is eternal, hence, He doesn't need or have a creator.
In conclusion, science and faith are not compatible. That's too weak a word. Science and faith are complementary. Thus, do not disbelieve in God and only believe in science or vice versa. You need something that you can rely on that doesn't change. A constant. Then you might ask why do we believe in a book? We don't believe in book. It's the faith we believe in that is true. As science cannot prove science, the Bible cannot prove the Bible. But so far all the things the Bible was true, even before science had proven these. And those not of science are miracles or not proven yet. If you cannot debut these reasonings, then it only means God is true and that you should start believing in Him. Psalm 8:1-9 shows the magnitude and power of God. Science isn't something we should use to doubt God but to marvel and appreciate the works, even to the finest detail, of God and His designs. Gensis 1:26 says "[26] Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ". We have dominion over the world as through science and the manipulation of science helps us understand God at a deeper scale. Your faith must have a deeper intellectual evidence. What reflects God's words or existence? I know that all He has said and still says has come true and thus will also come true. I know this because I see His works through History, Science etc. Build a faith with facts and knowledge but also with belief. You can further read things to strengthen your faith, like Reasonable Faith(or William Lane Craig, his youtube channel if you hate reading a lot, but since you got this far then maybe you do like reading), or books from Timothy Keller and C.S Lewis.
I would say that faith by knowledge is to accept in God and faith by feelings is to strengthen our love for God. I pray that we would have more brothers and sisters as well who would come to God through all these factors and we would have the brothers and sisters we lost to come back to God. In Jesus's most precious name I pray, Amen.

Live Music

• ZaZa Flamenca, Casa Monica Resort & Spa, 11:00 am -- 3:00 pm
• Lis Williamson, Fish House & Oyster Co., 11:00 am -- 2:00 pm
• Gabe Valla, Fish House & Oyster Co., 11:00 am -- 2:00 pm
• David Watt Besley, Aunt Kate's, 1:00 pm -- 4:00 pm
• Vinny Jacobs, The Cellar Upstairs Wine Bar & Restaurant, 1:00 pm -- 4:00 pm
• Joe Targove, Backyard Island Cafe at Meehan's, 1:00 pm -- 5:00 pm
• Space Heaters, Pierre's Pub, 1:00 pm -- 5:00 pm
• Seedfromatree, Jimmy Hula's, 2:00 pm -- 6:00 pm
• Ian Opalinski, Ann O'Malley's Deli and Pub, 3:00 pm -- 6:00 am
• Dewey Via Band, Dog Rose Brewing Co., 3:30 pm -- 6:30 pm
• Crawford Boyd's Acoustic Anomaly, Tradewinds Lounge, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• Jesse Cruce, Mellow Mushroom --- Murabella, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• Brian Rowland, Crabby's Beachside, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• $5 Jack and The Dry Tortugas, Borrillo's Pizzeria & Beer Garden, 5:30 pm -- 8:30 pm
• Damon Slaughter, O.C. White's Seafood, 5:30 pm -- 8:30 pm
• Alanis Sophia, Pierre's Pub, 6:00 pm -- 10:00 pm
• Spade McQuade, Meehan's Irish Pub & Seafood House, 6:00 pm -- 10:00 pm

Game On! St. Augustine Beach Triathlon

• Game On! St Augustine Beach Triathlon will take place at Vilano Beach on Sunday, May 19, 2024, and the times vary.
• The Olympic Triathlon Relay, Olympic Triathlon, and Olympic Aquabike begin at 6:45 a.m. The Olympic Duathlon, Olympic Duathlon Relay, and Sprint Duathlon begin at 7:05 a.m. The Sprint Triathlon and Triathlon Relay begin at 7:20 a.m.
• This destination race will include an Olympic distance triathlon, duathlon, and aquabike, as well as the Sprint Triathlon and Sprint Duathlon.
• The swim will take place in the Atlantic Ocean, with a scenic bike course taking participants north on A1A through the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR).
• Triathletes finish with a run through the tropical "Keys-like" neighborhood and along the Vilano Beach Nature Boardwalk with amazing views of the wetlands and local wildlife.
• Registration: The Game On! St. Augustine Triathlon offers various events with prices as follows: the Olympic Triathlon, Duathlon, and Aquabike are priced at $149.00 each, with prices set to increase after April 17, 2024. The Olympic Triathlon Relay is $269.00, while the Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon cost $119.00 each. There's also a Sprint Triathlon Relay priced at $209.00.
• When: Sunday, May 19, 2024. The Olympic Triathlon Relay, Olympic Triathlon, and Olympic Aquabike begin at 6:45 a.m. The Olympic Duathlon, Olympic Duathlon Relay, and Sprint Duathlon begin at 7:05 a.m. The Sprint Triathlon and Triathlon Relay begin at 7:20 a.m.
• Where: Vilano Beach Oceanfront Park is located at 2750 Anahma Drive in Vilano Beach, Florida 32084.

Romanza Festivale Finale: Bold City Brass

• The Romanza Festival 2024 finale will be an outdoor concert in the Plaza de la Constitución, performed by the Bold City Brass band, on Tuesday, May 19, 2024, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
• From Jacksonville, the Bold City Brass Band has performed in Northeast Florida and beyond since 1980. The musicians are retired professional musicians, music teachers, and other accomplished players. They enjoy making good music together and often perform at celebrations, official functions, and special concerts.
• While the band is modeled on the traditional brass ensembles, all members currently perform on contemporary instruments: French horns, trumpets, trombones, and upright tubas.
• The band performs under the direction of Dr. Eric A. Becher who has expanded the band's repertoire to include music from several periods and genres. They can still belt out the more traditional marches and do so to the delight of their audiences.
• Admission: Free.
• When: Tuesday, May 19, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
• Where: The Gazebo at the Plaza de la Constitución, 170 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084
• This event is part of the Romanza Festivale of Music and the Arts, an annual festival of two weeks of historical, cultural, and creative events celebrating all things St. Augustine. From May 3 -19, the nation's oldest city will be jam-packed with music and dance concerts, living history events and historical tours, live theater, and art exhibits.

St. Augustine Music Festival Juneteenth Concert

• "New Orleans meets Harlem" featuring the Marcus Roberts Trio will perform on June 19 in Lewis Auditorium at Flagler College, 14 Granada St., downtown St. Augustine, Florida. The Festival Chamber Orchestra will join the Marcus Roberts Trio during the second half of the program to perform Rhapsody in Blue on the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's famous composition.
• The Juneteenth concert will be a ticketed event and more information will be provided at a later date. 2024 is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. This concert will be one of many events in St. Augustine during the year highlighting this historic legislation and highlighting the extensive history of Civil Rights in St. Augustine.

Yoga on the Lawn at Ximenez-Fatio House Museum

• 8 Am - 9 Am
• Enjoy yoga on the lawn at the historic Ximenez-Fatio House Museum. This one-hour vinyasa flow is perfect for all levels.
• Bring a beach towel or mat and water. Free parking behind the museum is available, but limited. Access the parking lot from Cadiz Street. Instructor will contact you by phone if class is canceled due to weather. Practice gets underway at 8 a.m. and lasts approximately one hour.
• Cost is $15 and registration is required.
• 20 Aviles St., St. Augustine.

Paella Sunday at Pesca by Michael's

• 3 Pm - 5 Pm
• Enjoy Paella Sunday on the Porch of Pesca by Michael's on Vilano Beach from 3-5 p.m. Tickets are $35 and feature Paella changes weekly, A favorite is is Garden Paella with Chicken Skewers and Shrimp with chorizo on the side (to accommodate all dietary restrictions).
• Salad, Bread, and one complimentary glass of Sangria or Wine are included. Purchase Tickets online or at the door.
• Pesca is located at Hyatt Place, 117 Vilano Rd., St. Augustine.

I am unable to post the sources because they are getting flagged as spam since they are all similar in name. So please visit this site for the list.
Written out urls here tinyurl.com/yjkw32kd

For future events please visit the Discord.

https://discord.gg/NG4eZSWAgR

Live Music

• ZaZa Flamenca, Casa Monica Resort & Spa, 11:00 am -- 3:00 pm
• Lis Williamson, Fish House & Oyster Co., 11:00 am -- 2:00 pm
• Gabe Valla, Fish House & Oyster Co., 11:00 am -- 2:00 pm
• David Watt Besley, Aunt Kate's, 1:00 pm -- 4:00 pm
• Vinny Jacobs, The Cellar Upstairs Wine Bar & Restaurant, 1:00 pm -- 4:00 pm
• Joe Targove, Backyard Island Cafe at Meehan's, 1:00 pm -- 5:00 pm
• Space Heaters, Pierre's Pub, 1:00 pm -- 5:00 pm
• Seedfromatree, Jimmy Hula's, 2:00 pm -- 6:00 pm
• Ian Opalinski, Ann O'Malley's Deli and Pub, 3:00 pm -- 6:00 am
• Dewey Via Band, Dog Rose Brewing Co., 3:30 pm -- 6:30 pm
• Crawford Boyd's Acoustic Anomaly, Tradewinds Lounge, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• Jesse Cruce, Mellow Mushroom --- Murabella, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• Brian Rowland, Crabby's Beachside, 5:00 pm -- 8:00 pm
• $5 Jack and The Dry Tortugas, Borrillo's Pizzeria & Beer Garden, 5:30 pm -- 8:30 pm
• Damon Slaughter, O.C. White's Seafood, 5:30 pm -- 8:30 pm
• Alanis Sophia, Pierre's Pub, 6:00 pm -- 10:00 pm
• Spade McQuade, Meehan's Irish Pub & Seafood House, 6:00 pm -- 10:00 pm

Game On! St. Augustine Beach Triathlon

• Game On! St Augustine Beach Triathlon will take place at Vilano Beach on Sunday, May 19, 2024, and the times vary.
• The Olympic Triathlon Relay, Olympic Triathlon, and Olympic Aquabike begin at 6:45 a.m. The Olympic Duathlon, Olympic Duathlon Relay, and Sprint Duathlon begin at 7:05 a.m. The Sprint Triathlon and Triathlon Relay begin at 7:20 a.m.
• This destination race will include an Olympic distance triathlon, duathlon, and aquabike, as well as the Sprint Triathlon and Sprint Duathlon.
• The swim will take place in the Atlantic Ocean, with a scenic bike course taking participants north on A1A through the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR).
• Triathletes finish with a run through the tropical "Keys-like" neighborhood and along the Vilano Beach Nature Boardwalk with amazing views of the wetlands and local wildlife.
• Registration: The Game On! St. Augustine Triathlon offers various events with prices as follows: the Olympic Triathlon, Duathlon, and Aquabike are priced at $149.00 each, with prices set to increase after April 17, 2024. The Olympic Triathlon Relay is $269.00, while the Sprint Triathlon and Duathlon cost $119.00 each. There's also a Sprint Triathlon Relay priced at $209.00.
• When: Sunday, May 19, 2024. The Olympic Triathlon Relay, Olympic Triathlon, and Olympic Aquabike begin at 6:45 a.m. The Olympic Duathlon, Olympic Duathlon Relay, and Sprint Duathlon begin at 7:05 a.m. The Sprint Triathlon and Triathlon Relay begin at 7:20 a.m.
• Where: Vilano Beach Oceanfront Park is located at 2750 Anahma Drive in Vilano Beach, Florida 32084.

Romanza Festivale Finale: Bold City Brass

• The Romanza Festival 2024 finale will be an outdoor concert in the Plaza de la Constitución, performed by the Bold City Brass band, on Tuesday, May 19, 2024, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
• From Jacksonville, the Bold City Brass Band has performed in Northeast Florida and beyond since 1980. The musicians are retired professional musicians, music teachers, and other accomplished players. They enjoy making good music together and often perform at celebrations, official functions, and special concerts.
• While the band is modeled on the traditional brass ensembles, all members currently perform on contemporary instruments: French horns, trumpets, trombones, and upright tubas.
• The band performs under the direction of Dr. Eric A. Becher who has expanded the band's repertoire to include music from several periods and genres. They can still belt out the more traditional marches and do so to the delight of their audiences.
• Admission: Free.
• When: Tuesday, May 19, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.
• Where: The Gazebo at the Plaza de la Constitución, 170 St. George Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084
• This event is part of the Romanza Festivale of Music and the Arts, an annual festival of two weeks of historical, cultural, and creative events celebrating all things St. Augustine. From May 3 -19, the nation's oldest city will be jam-packed with music and dance concerts, living history events and historical tours, live theater, and art exhibits.

St. Augustine Music Festival Juneteenth Concert

• "New Orleans meets Harlem" featuring the Marcus Roberts Trio will perform on June 19 in Lewis Auditorium at Flagler College, 14 Granada St., downtown St. Augustine, Florida. The Festival Chamber Orchestra will join the Marcus Roberts Trio during the second half of the program to perform Rhapsody in Blue on the 100th anniversary of George Gershwin's famous composition.
• The Juneteenth concert will be a ticketed event and more information will be provided at a later date. 2024 is the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Civil Rights Act on July 2, 1964. This concert will be one of many events in St. Augustine during the year highlighting this historic legislation and highlighting the extensive history of Civil Rights in St. Augustine.

Yoga on the Lawn at Ximenez-Fatio House Museum

• 8 Am - 9 Am
• Enjoy yoga on the lawn at the historic Ximenez-Fatio House Museum. This one-hour vinyasa flow is perfect for all levels.
• Bring a beach towel or mat and water. Free parking behind the museum is available, but limited. Access the parking lot from Cadiz Street. Instructor will contact you by phone if class is canceled due to weather. Practice gets underway at 8 a.m. and lasts approximately one hour.
• Cost is $15 and registration is required.
• 20 Aviles St., St. Augustine.

Paella Sunday at Pesca by Michael's

• 3 Pm - 5 Pm
• Enjoy Paella Sunday on the Porch of Pesca by Michael's on Vilano Beach from 3-5 p.m. Tickets are $35 and feature Paella changes weekly, A favorite is is Garden Paella with Chicken Skewers and Shrimp with chorizo on the side (to accommodate all dietary restrictions).
• Salad, Bread, and one complimentary glass of Sangria or Wine are included. Purchase Tickets online or at the door.
• Pesca is located at Hyatt Place, 117 Vilano Rd., St. Augustine.

I am unable to post the sources because they are getting flagged as spam since they are all similar in name. So please visit this site for the list.
Written out urls here tinyurl.com/yjkw32kd

For future events please visit the Discord.

https://discord.gg/NG4eZSWAgR

I had this sermon yesterday, it helped me collate my thoughts
For the everyone, Christianity isn't a self-help or a religion that makes you feel good. It is a faith that is real. Sharing the word and preaching may not turn the hearts of others. You need to clarify the non-believers' doubts. However, this is for everyone to read.
Science doesn't argue that God isn't real. God and science aren't enemies. They are in fact allies. God made science and science proves of God is existence.
1) Faith and science are complementary.
John 4:21-24 describes the Samaritan woman asking Jesus which is mountain/temple is the right place to seek God. Jesus instead tells her how God is spiritual. Heaven and hell are not physical locations, but a spiritual location. Therefore you need to connect to God spiritually.
Science cannot prove about why the existence of any number. For example, why is 7 seven and not 1 or 2 or 3? Science only assumes numbers. What about right and wrongs? We know that they are real things. We believe they are factual. But right and wrongs differ from person to person. Science can not scientifically prove what is right and what is wrong. Science is used to prove the physical and not physical world. But science also cannot prove science. For example science cannot prove where an atom is from. People say the Big Bang, but what caused it to happen(explained later)? God is beyond the physical world. So science is to study the physical world, whereas faith is to know the spiritual world.
2) Faith provides a basis for science
Science is to prove a principle of a law. But you need to assume that this law exists in the first place because if it doesn't then results are unattainable. This is a hypothesis. If the experimental results are achieved, then the law is true. However, when the results cannot be obtained, the law either is false or needs further proving. But He separated the dry land from water as can be seen in Psalm 105:5-9. The waters flowed over the mountains, went into valleys and He set a boundary they cannot cross and would never again cover earth. Same again in the story of Noah. And also can be seen in Genesis 1 when the world was just water. Before He made these boundaries, the waters were chaotic and with no order. God gave order.
In fact there are also many many famous scientists out there who used the Bible for their hypothesis and so far they are all correct. Johannes Kepler said that he was was merely thinking God's thoughts after Him. Isaac Newton said he studied the Bible to prove scientific theories. However, what the Bible says that is in the later part before the end, that cannot be proven yet. Other than that, God made the world follow a fixed law. Therefore, Christianity is a faith with science to prove that it is true. This leads to the last point
3) Science provides evidence for the Christian faith
Romans 1:18-20 says ‭" [18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [19] because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. [20] For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse". This shows that there is so much evidence of God in the world like science and the miracles done. So how can God not have the rights to condemn someone to hell? It isn't because He remained hidden and they didn't have the opportunity to know Him. They closed their hearts and believe in His works but not Him. They have everything around them to prove God exists, but they do not heed.
Psalm 8:3-4 shows us the magnitude and power of God. But there would be critics who disagree because we jump into conclusions and "assume" it's right. What if there is an argument to prove that it is right and it in fact is God's powers?
Kalama Cosmological Argument states: 1. Everything must have a cause. 2. The universe began to exist 3. (if the first 2 points make sense which they do, then) Therefore, the universe must have a cause
The Kalam Cosmological Argument can be used on Islam and Christianity but the Christian God is the true God. In Islam, Muhammad was not the Son of God. He was just a prophet. Neither did he die on the cross for the people to redeem their sins. And I don't need to talk about the kids he married. It's pedophilia and there's no argument that that is very wrong. God is righteous and His son should be righteous as well. We know Jesus was righteous and has never sinned. He bored the cross for our shame and suffered to redeem us. This is the real Son of God. Therefore, only our Christian God is true. The gods of other religions cannot exist because of the Kalam Argument that we can agree is true.
The Big Bang, which people argue that this is how God doesn't exist, was only proven in 2003. Do I believe in the Big Bang? Yes. But you see, science is to study the physical world (definition: the systematic study of the structure and behaviour of the physical and natural world through observation, experimentation, and the testing of theories against the evidence obtained). Science only can be used to study the physical world. So the world cannot make the world because the world is science but science cannot make science. In that way, something external must be making the Big Bang happen. So who is this Someone who is external?
Using the Kalam Argument, we can come to a conclusion that 1. The Creator must be extremely powerful to create the world. 2. The Creator has to be non-physical for the world cannot make the world reason. 3. The Creator must be eternal. If not something else would have made Him, thus He would have a beginning. But He cannot have a cause, but cause a cause unless the cause is a person which cannot be true. Complicated to read but try to understand. This sounds like our God that we read about in Gensis! People don't believe because they don't want to, not because they didn't have more than enough evidence to know of God's evidence.
Next, God can use something natural and unnatural to create something. For example, the Red Sea turning red was proven to be because of sediments in the water. And so were the rest of the plague. But the destroyer was a curse (a really bad miracle) and isn't natural. So was Jesus when He went around to heal the sick, blind, deaf, mute, lame, and the possessed. A miracle = cannot be proven by science and totally unrelated to science. Who else can create miracles but by Someone not in the physical world? The consistency in the miracles cannot be a chance. It is the God factor. This can be proven by the Teleolgical Argument.
The Teleolgical Argument says that: 1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to physical necessity or chance or design (proven by biology, physics or scientific experiments multiple times and would be explained after this) 2. It is not due to physical necessity or chance because unless the universe has a mind then it knows its necessities. And chances are so hard to come by (said later) 3. Thus the universe has to be designed (by God)
Like y=mx+c or other formulas with a constant inside. Gravity, speed of light in vacuum and other laws are also constant.
Now to answer "Can it be by chance?" The answer is 99.999999% no. But let me add that little 0.000001 to prove the God factor. Stephen Hawking said if time at the beginning slowed by 10¹⁰⁰ seconds, the universe would be dead. How can a chance be so accurate? How can there be a chance with such an unspeakable number without a design given? For example, you find an iPhone in the desert and you say its because the winds and weather conditions had assembled and put it together, and Steve Jobs picked it up. So with LOGICAL CONCLUSION, it can be said that there is a Designer to design the universe. According to the first law of thermodynamics, something cannot exist without being created from existing energy. The law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed and Einstein established that energy and mass (the two essense of existence) are essentially the same. But why does God not need a creator? Because the creator would be greater than God. Then won't we worship that creator instead? But thermodynamics only apply to our world. We often forget that God is of a spiritual world and He is eternal, hence, He doesn't need or have a creator.
In conclusion, science and faith are not compatible. That's too weak a word. Science and faith are complementary. Thus, do not disbelieve in God and only believe in science or vice versa. You need something that you can rely on that doesn't change. A constant. Then you might ask why do we believe in a book? We don't believe in book. It's the faith we believe in that is true. As science cannot prove science, the Bible cannot prove the Bible. But so far all the things the Bible was true, even before science had proven these. And those not of science are miracles or not proven yet. If you cannot debut these reasonings, then it only means God is true and that you should start believing in Him. Psalm 8:1-9 shows the magnitude and power of God. Science isn't something we should use to doubt God but to marvel and appreciate the works, even to the finest detail, of God and His designs. Gensis 1:26 says "[26] Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” ". We have dominion over the world as through science and the manipulation of science helps us understand God at a deeper scale. Your faith must have a deeper intellectual evidence. What reflects God's words or existence? I know that all He has said and still says has come true and thus will also come true. I know this because I see His works through History, Science etc. Build a faith with facts and knowledge but also with belief. You can further read things to strengthen your faith, like Reasonable Faith(or William Lane Craig, his youtube channel if you hate reading a lot, but since you got this far then maybe you do like reading), or books from Timothy Keller and C.S Lewis.
I would say that faith by knowledge is to accept in God and faith by feelings is to strengthen our love for God. I pray that we would have more brothers and sisters as well who would come to God through all these factors and we would have the brothers and sisters we lost to come back to God. In Jesus's most precious name I pray, Amen.

I love running my family through the old 1E Tales of the Outer Planes. It's the first D&D book I ever purchased, so the nostalgia is great, but some parts need more than just a stat update. Some need to be completely gutted and rewritten. Case in point: The Castle at the Edge of Time, an adventure for low-level PC's in the Deep Ethereal.
SUMMARY
Centuries ago, the legendary Sapphire Mage Aionias and his apprentice Montgomery built a castle in the Ethereal, near a color curtain to the Demiplane of Time. In this way, they could conduct experiments without interruption and warn unwary travelers away from the dangerous demiplane. Eventually, Aionias pronounced Montgomery's training complete, departed beyond the veil of Time, and hasn't been seen since. Montgomery assumed the mantle of the Sapphire Mage and continued his mentor's investigations.
Recently, the castle and the curtain have begun drifting towards each other, necessitating a change of address. The Sapphire Mage has decided that the city of Arabel would make an ideal headquarters and has offered a considerable sum for it. The party is sent as bodyguards of the mayor's envoy Lady Cheodot to decline as diplomatically as possible.
But Cheodot is secretly working for the The Zhentarim, and begins negotiations for the sale, hoping the Mage will enforce his condition that Arabel's citizenry be removed. It is up to the party to convince the Mage to withdraw his offer, simultaneously protecting him from Cheodot's treachery and increasingly murderous intrigues.
TAKEAWAYS
I love this setting, I love the focus on diplomacy (this adventure actually introduces the idea of a diplomacy 'proficiency'!) but the central plot engine of a well-meaning archmage asking a capital city to just up and move their populace is just psychotic. It's only exacerbated by having the negotiations take place alone in the castle, so that when "someone" alters the Mage's summoning circle in an attempt to kill him, the suspect list is exactly two people, one of whom has been acting extremely sketchy.
Once I realized a rewrite is in order, I knew I wanted a LOT of diplomats, with a full murder mystery among them. I like homages, it's practically a private game with me to keep as much of the original material as possible, so I'll probably keep Lady Cheodot and the Zhentarim as the villains. My oldest son's PC is a skilled diplomat (Order of the eel cavalier) so I'll have one of the parties tap him as their representative.
Other things I might want to keep:
• Ether golems - ten of them, color coded for convenience, one of them is a passable cook, but WHAT ARE THEY??
• Aionias' return - he's apparently some kind of human-shaped "hole in the ether"? Mute? No stats, all pathos? Portent of warning?
• Jacktooth - a battered short sword from a previous adventure that awakens to a powerful enchantment on the Ethereal plane, because...sure.
• The Castle - Needs a map, badly. And if Monty earned the name Sapphire Mage a century ago, why are Aionias' rooms still off limits?
• The Sapphire Mage: supposedly an important title that we've never heard of before or since. Since the color curtain is silver and pearl, the title has nothing to do with that. Maybe there should be a sapphire artifact that they attune to?
• Death by Sabotage: I like the idea of Cheodot using acid to ruin a summoning circle, leading to combat with summoned creatures.
Things I want to add:
• Chronomancy connection: this is way before the chronomancy book, so it can't be faulted, but the Sapphire Mage is obviously a chronomancer role.
• Context: there ought to be references to how others have exploited chronomancy recently, especially Vecna. For their own time travel, someone might direct the PC's to the tomb of Chronos.
• Variety: the other diplomats and visitors should include sphinxes, spellweavers, mercane, devils, modrons, time dragons, royal dimensionals, geniekind, etc.
• Suspects: the Ravenloft netbook adventure Feasting With Falcons did it best. It's really my go-to for how to do a murder mystery.
Most of all, I need something for them to debate about, but I have only the basic shape for that. Something that would draw lots of factions together, and get them debating hotly enough to create logical suspects when someone dies. My youngest boy is playing a machinesmith, and the EULA I created for one of his magi-techno devices mentions the authority of "Astral Sea, the Rock of Bral, the City at the Edge of Time, the Shadow Proclamation, The City of Doors, the Midnight Market," so I'd love to see the formation of a City at the Edge of Time as a result of these negotiations.
Finally...the Chronomancy manual says there IS no Demiplane of Time, and that previous references to it were mistaken. So, if that's the case, what IS this place with the pearl-and-silver curtain, and why would it be mistaken for a Demiplane of Time? Whatever it is, could it be a resource that could be shared by a variety of factions, necessitating the creation of a city? If some part of Aionias returns as in the original, could he work with his apprentice to create a bulwark against the expanding curtain, to protect the incipient City?