Hi Everyone,
I am writing as an extremely frustrated Christian who believes I might be losing my faith. I was pretty devout during my teenage years. I accepted Jesus, got baptized, tried to read my bible some, but I have always struggled with that.
I haven’t been as devoted the last 20+ years, rarely going to church, but I always prayed, I felt close to god and tried to do what was right. I have always struggled with churches and worship.
The idea of worship truly bothers me. It seems odd for an all powerful being to create beings, no we are going to fail and want us to follow all these rules. Second he creates us and he’s perfect, but created imperfect beings then punishes us with rules and hell. It makes me angry, I pray and talk to him daily about this for most of my life. However, the last 5 years or so it’s turned to anger.
My anger has been there most of my life. I have dealt with obesity all my life asking for help. However, in 2017 I was laid off from my sales job. No job during 2018. I finally get a job Jan of 2019 and my mom is diagnosed with cancer. To make matters worse I hate that job while helping my mom. In 2020 I took a new job and I thought life was turning around mom was still battling but ok. I got married, though our wedding was canceled cus of covid. My mom ends up dying at 51 in November of 20. That is hard enough then I have a mental block and run a red light hitting another car, no one injured think goodness. My wife and I were discussing our wedding ceremony we finally got to have and my mind blanked. My therapist at the time told me it was stress and sometimes the mind just shuts off during stressful times in our life. Horrible time for that.
2021 is trucking along to our ceremony and during it my dad becomes unruly I kick him out of the wedding and my grandma goes with him. Neither come to the wedding after party. So I think damn, why has god abandon me. Then in 21 we have a miscarriage. 22 someone rear ends my wife and I on interstate at 70. We were in a Mazda CX 5 and rolled 7+ times to the south side from the northbound lane. We know god helped us that day. However, the amount of doctors afterwards was crazy, we came away with a few internal injuries but no major surgeries. Most months of rehab and doctor visits. 23 and 24 have been low key except for the company I work for is struggling financially. Pay comes late, sometimes it feels pointless. Leadership doesn’t communicate real well. I have prayed for signs on what to do, I have prayed for big flashing neon signs in case I am missing the others. Nothing.
I have asked God for help with my weight, job and my marriage. My wife has a learning disability, she hides behind it a lot doesn’t communicate well or at all sometimes. She’s amazing, but very dependent on me to make all decisions. It’s a lot and we are struggling currently as I am just angry. Why doesn’t he help ? Why did he take my mom at 51? She had me at 14 and my childhood was bouncing between her house and my dad’s mom. Both of my grandmas are alive my mom’s mom had cancer in 22 and now my dad’s mom has it.
I truly don’t understand his purpose anymore and truthfully sometimes I hate him. I feel like he is a dictator with all these rules and promises. I have been going to church again and a small group along with talking one on one with our pastor. It doesn’t seem to be helping.
I hope and pray he still listens and wants me. I have doubts he does.

The most effective study methods for academic success boil down to:
Time management
There are countless time management techniques, but one beautiful thing about going to school is that a lot of your time is managed for you.
The week and when you need to be in class is arranged.
Professors tell you when assignments are due, etc.
Heck, when I was in university they even gave us calendars for use to write in our due dates.
So the number one thing is to combine what you know with the tools everyone has: the calendar.
In many cases, you can also get advanced notices from professors by simply talking to them before the semester even begins.
You would also do well to explore techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix, time blocking and the Pareto Principle.
Above all, make time management something you study unto itself.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach. But those who study it as the discipline it is will win.
Study Environment Optimization
Studying effectively cannot be random or subject to interruptions.
If you have to study on transit, invest in custom ear plugs of the kind musicians use, not noise-cancelling headphones that will put you at risk in the case of an emergency. Custom ear plugs have filters that let you still hear without being bothered by shrill noises and you can switch between light and heavy filters.
Having multiple study locations worked out in advance is a great strategy because you can walk between them and percolate your thoughts – literally remembering more by simply getting in a bit of exercise. I used to call this "Road Work" when I was in university.
When at home, put a "Do not disturb" sign on your door. Make it clear to others that you are studying and train them to respect the hours you want to put it. Do not compromise. It's your future.
Note-Taking Strategies
There are many different kinds of note-taking methods. My fave is to use Zettelkasten in combination with Memory Palaces.
These two videos detail how the Zettelkasten Method operates in combination with the Memory Palace technique:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIQRiqQFKQY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrN0kaE6DkY
Memory techniques
Like time management, the topic of memory improvement is huge. Make sure to spend a good three months learning all of its ins-and-outs.
The key techniques you'll want to master are:
The Memory Palace A Alphabet System (or pegword system) A Number System (usually based on the Major System) A Symbol System A Spaced Repetition system
These accelerated learning techniques may feel like you're building an airport in the beginning, but think about it:
You do need airports to launch and land planes as effectively and efficiently as possible. It's the same with memory techniques.
You can also do yourself a favor and learn more about memory science. It will teach you about how the mind and memory work and give you ideas that will only arise if you know a little bit about what researchers have found.
Stress Management For Students
Don't make my mistake. I drank like a fish and ate poorly throughout university. This meant that a lot of the experience was lost to depression.
Sure, memory techniques helped… but I can't help but imagine how much more successful I would have been during and after if I'd had better ways of coping with the stress.
Diet, fitness, mindfulness practices, time off with friends for positive and healthy recreation. This is not complicated, though when you're young, impulsivity can certainly make it seem that way.
Exam Preparation Strategies
This basically comes back to properly using your calendar and memory techniques.
For the benefits of what is sometimes called state-dependent or context-dependent memory, it can be useful to study where you will take your exams. It's advisable to use Memory Palaces based on these exam rooms whenever possible.
(Those terms are the kinds of insider memory hacks you'll enjoy only when you understand your memory science, and there are many more that can help you with your exam prep.)
Take mock tests as much as you can. Reflect on what you're learning often. Talk about it with other students.
Don't cram and avoid wasting time on the fantasy that there are any "subject-specific study tips." Maybe if you're in nursing school and need to have patient bodies in specific position, but generally tests are about words, numbers and symbols. Learn how to commit them to memory and talk as much as you can about the information so it is well-exercised before you sit for your exams.
Form Effective Study Groups
There are many benefits to group study if you can select solid group members. This can be tricky, but one way to do it involves a slightly involved strategy:
Try to be part of a club or association. I was president of the English Undergraduate Student Association at York University in Toronto, for example. This drew precisely the right people because anyone who wanted to be part of the association already loved English Literature by default.
After you find the right members, it's just a matter of scheduling regular meetings based on decent agendas and following reasonable time limits so you don't burn out.
One thing my fave study group in university did a lot was to share reading. In other words, we'd each tackle an article or book and then present on it.
Ultimately, you still have to do the reading yourself, but it forms a nice mental framework that makes reading faster and easier when someone you can speak with has summarized the core ideas. These days, you can search YouTube and podcasts for this kind of summarization much of the time, but it's still not the same as being in a study group with other people.
You also get experience with peer teaching and tutoring this way, which is hugely beneficial for your memory. Even if you never intend to teach yourself, the simple effort that goes into preparing and delivering short presentations will benefit you in the short-term for your exams and long-term in your career. Collaborative learning also gives you something powerful to put on your resume, especially if your study group is linked with a formal university institution or group.
Work On Your Reading And Comprehension Skills
The main shortcut here is to simply read a lot, boost your vocabulary as you go by memorizing terms and write summaries as much as you can.
Doesn't sound like a shortcut, I know. But it really is. It helps develop pattern recognition and that's how you ultimately wind up quickly assessing the key points and inferring many things correctly.
Be humble, though. Mistakes will always happen, so be willing to go back and read things again.
Another key aspect of reading is to challenge yourself. Get outside of your comfort zone and read above your level at least a few times a week.
Don't worry about whether you understand what you're reading or not. Soon, moments of insight will arise.
Even if it doesn't happen soon, rest assured that will. There are aspects of philosophy that didn't come clear to me until after 30 years of reading. I'm not ashamed of this at all. I just haven't read and reflected enough to connect the dots. But if I had read above my level sooner, I probably would have had the insights sooner.
Motivation and Discipline
Technically, motivation is not necessary when you have systems. That's what discipline is all about.
That said, it's useful to know about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. These will be arranged differently in different people as some people respond well to threats of pain whereas others respond better to promises of reward.
Know thyself.
Hire a coach if you have to, as it will be worth it in the end. Many exist and some universities have behavioral science programs, learning disability labs and other institutions where you can learn more directly about these issues.
Finally, you can learn about the difference between tonic and phasic dopamine relative to how the Default Mode Network of your brain is in a kind of battle with the Task Positive Network. This area is kind of heavy on the brain science, but well worth an afternoon or two to figure out the implications in your life.
Just watch out: When optimizing your dopamine levels for motivation, you could wind up enlightened and have your ego make you think you're better than everyone else… which would not be enlightenment. But it'll sure feel that way.
That's why the next category is so important.
Make Time To Learn Critical Thinking
A lot of education involves humans who weigh what they teach and how they teach it based on subjective agendas. It's pretty difficult for anyone not to do that.
When you spend some time developing your critical thinking skills, you'll be able to determine when teachers and writers/video creators, etc. are being too subjective or otherwise slaves to any number of cognitive biases.
Likewise, you'll be able to spot them in yourself and weed many of them out before they can distract you.
The simplest way to use critical thinking while studying is to put Why, Where, When, Who and How up on a Memory Wheel and constantly rotate through it.
As you learn more about different thinkers, you can also start to ask, "What would Freud say about this? What would Skinner say? What would x say?"
To do this, study as many of the sciences and Liberal Arts as you possibly can. If you don't know where to start, go through the Trivium and then the Quadrivium. Knowing how to think through those seven lenses and ask what the major figures in each field would generally say will help you "triangulate" just about any issue and think both objectively and subjectively about it and know which is which.
Self-Assessment And Improvement
Ultimately, the best judge of your progress is you.
To make sure you're giving yourself good materials to judge yourself by, journal, ideally daily.
If you can, keep two journals:
A snapshot journal that simply lists what you did on a particular day.
A discursive journal where you reflect on your thoughts about how things went.
There are many formal products you can buy that will help you journal in particular ways. The Freedom Journal has been one of my faves, but the real tip is to experiment with as many journaling styles as you can in the two main styles I just mentioned.
As you can tell, there's not that much when it comes to embracing a wide number of learning strategies. Apply these tips to the study resources you need to cover on your way to the exam room and you'll do well.
Take Care Around Technology And Studying
There are tons of apps that can help "gamify" these activities, but at the end of the day, gamification is really just a mental metaphor. If it doesn't work for you, find a better metaphor.
Nir Eyal discussion the power of mental metaphors based on some research in Indistractable and more on the matter is found in The Victorious Mind by yours truly. There was even recently a Duke University study showing just how powerful adopting mental metaphors can be for remembering information.
Academic success can indeed be enjoyable, and all the more so when you work out what will make it enjoyable and meaningful for you. Personalize as much of the journey as you can, constantly applying critical thinking to every suggestion you come across and all of your study experiences will become much, much more rewarding.

We all know that Hamas, radical Islam, terrorism, whatever you want to call the ideology will never die. People worldwide left comfortable middle-class lifestyles to join ISIS, and there's no shortage of people who are looking for meaning in life and think they've found it in a death cult. But the true threat of Hamas or ISIS or the Taliban, or any extremist terrorist group, is their military capacity and the capacity of the boots on the ground.
Especially given American support for Israel, the Hamas leaders in Qatar would like nothing more than to conduct successful terrorist attacks on US soil. Yet to my knowledge, they've been unable to do anything on US soil. Meanwhile obviously in Palestine they've been very successful at organizing attacks. My view is that the reason they've been successful in Palestine and not in the US is because the leadership is actually pretty irrelevant and the important part is having the boots on the ground and the trained organized fighting forces within the country. Therefore if Israel can eliminate the boots on the ground fighting forces in Palestine, even if they can't get at the leaders and masterminds of the attack who reside in Qatar, they will have done all they need to do, and can hopefully be in a similar state as the US is today with regards to Hamas. The leadership wants to do stuff, but without the organizational capacity on the ground they have no power to carry out the attacks. They don't dare launch rockets from Qatar right?
Now one argument I can see is obviously there are more Palestinians willing to turn to terrorism against Israel than there are Americans (or Mexicans or Canadians) against the US. But in that case what value does Hamas leadership even provide? It's not like most Hamas attacks are all that complex, they generally just launch rockets at civilian areas hoping to kill civilians. Is there anything the Hamas leaders in Qatar bring to the table in terms of training people for terrorist attacks that you can't find on the internet? I guess in theory they could help coordinate attacks between different terrorist groups, but they clearly showed on 10/7 they were incapable of that since their goal was to get other groups involved and for the most part the other groups were like "nah we're good". So I'm struggling to see what taking out Hamas leaders in Qatar would even accomplish? My view is their goal of taking out military capacity within Palestine is a sufficient goal, and their leadership in Qatar is a bit of a red herring. Can someone change my view? I'll admit I don't have a super good understanding of how Hamas operates so I definitely could be wrong. It just seems the "Hamas leadership is in Qatar not Palestine therefore Israel can never destroy Hamas therefore they shouldn't even try to take out the Hamas fighters in Palestine" is a common reddit talking point, and I'm not sure that's true.

Hello all. Title says it all. Specifically it’s the one by itself that doesn’t accept power. The thunderbolt combination does work however and been charging my laptop through that. Additionally it doesn’t take data either. Plugged in an SD card reader and it won’t read it. I updated the firmware with Lenovo vantage and that didn’t solve my issue either. I even replaced the usb C port itself and it didn’t solve my issue either. I read somewhere that the older firmware damaged some USB C chip and should be replaceable and reflashed. If it’s the case, does anyone know where I can find instructions on how to do so?

So it’s quite the well-known fact that of Willo’s talent: Blastflower, is Willo’s best talent, at least statistically it does well. I won’t say it’s not because it is just that much better than her other two talents. But there’s a huge “why?” to it. In general, the factors of why talents are good or bad when compared to one another come from three factors: Their actual upsides, their actual downsides, and how they make someone play.If anyone takes a look at most talents in the game you’ll notice that most don’t list a downside, the “downside” of taking Darkstalker is the fact he’s not using either of his other talents, that and my technicality certain cards don’t work the same as they would if they were on a chained Netherstep and so this example sucks and I didn’t want to change what I had written, but that’s not the point. All talents have this drawback- the fact they’re not other talents. Some talents in their upsides come up short of their peers. Sometimes they’re not even a problem and it’s that one talent overwhelms the others with its sheer power- I’m not saying Blastflower needs to be nerfed even if the bar graphs are showing that (though it should on principle), that’s not what I’m saying.
The final issue is the playstyle that is incentivized by both Nightshade and Scorn actively making them contrast with their intended and more effective playstyles, I should say that Nightshade is less egregious than Scorn thought it still has problems.
They yellow/gold represents a increase in a stat, The red represents a decrease the red spots represent a potential decrease. Top left is the default.

Nightshade

By increasing the damage Nightshade does you make it an easy-to-land damage tool, in the previous guide I mentioned that Nightshade doesn’t have falloff, and that makes it incredibly useful for helping new players land it, however, it also gives the impression that you should use deadzone for dueling, which you shouldn’t since you’re now no longer using it for Area Denial or Crowd Control, however, if you don’t use it to fight squishies and just use it as normal you end up risking the chance you effectively have a non-talent since unless you save it for only hitting targets you might end up never taking the shot at all, that mixed with Deadzones cooldown makes it incredibly hard to use effectively for a reward that’s more or less able to be caught up with via Blastflower, even with a specialized build for Nightshade, my best advice for when to use this (outside of never) is to use it on TDM where the lack of tanks and objective gives plenty of room to use this for deathmatching.A side note, Nightshade is considered ability damage which ignores AP and instead can only be stopped by flat DR or AW.
In conclusion, in the case of Nightshade, risks, by its incentivised damage amp rewarding using it for fighting targets rather than stopping healing, means it possibly loses out on the area denial, however, it still is capable of doing this job even if the reward of the talent may be lost, so the red isn’t a full stop, though the talent also risks not using the damage however, you will rarely not gain value from deadzone denying heal, and if you use it on a tank or a shield, that damage still exists so it won’t be losing out on its value since you still have use cases of Crowd Control, and Ensuring kills where you’d have used the ability in the same way regardless.

Blastflower

Willo’s meta talent, and by a large margin as it gives Willo the means to duel enemies more easily (without using deadzone to do so) gives her more damage against health pools and generally has no real downsides. It’s to the point it’s more or less self-explanatory but I shall elaborate regardless. Blastflower as a Talent works regardless of whatever else you have going on, by the nature of it being attached to her primary attack with no special gimmicks beyond just hitting the same person multiple times, this and its ability to consistently get this stacking damage even with splash damage (though increasing 125 damage by 90% still doesn’t kill anyone any time soon so still aim at target) means you can easily ramp up damage and land the absolutely lethal 900 damage, while normally these guides won’t be used for balance discussion I will say that they should reduce the max stacks by 1, capping Willo’s damage to 800, to allow for duels, and some tank shredding while at the same time not doing 900 goddamn damage. Since I genuinely believe any attempts at balancing Nightshade in its current state are hopeless and giving her scorched earth (perhaps at a weaker value or without the cooldown reduction to not entirely gut point tanks with a single ability no matter how little uptime it has) it’s hard to advise people about Blastflower beyond just hit your shots.

Scorn

Okay so while I personally never looked at Scorn beyond it being just a weirder weaker version of the already weak accelerant, it was Snake (the person who does my math for me and helped me make this guide via his time on Willo) who made me realize the problems with it. We’ll talk about the positives first, it’ll be quick.

1. It does over 3500 damage if all seedlings hit
2. It’s easier to use aggressively
3. They are considered ability damage like Nightshade so all the same benefits apply.

And we’re done, the issue with Scorn is that by the nature of seedlings, they’re inconsistent in where they land, and the possibility of them spreading too far out or being evaded (they are only reduced by 0.5 seconds means while they are easier to use aggressively they still aren’t doing anything for a decent while, and this means certain techniques that can be done with normal seedlings become much harder on Scorn. This and using them for area denial can end up being pointless since while they still last for 1.5 seconds they disappear sooner which means you can drop your shields sooner, and go on through sooner.They make area denial harder for the incentive of killing a default AFK Barik in 1.5 seconds, which anyone with a brain can easily mitigate the damage they take and make space, and even with decks that focus on spamming seedlings, shields easily eat up the damage they offer and without these builds you end up with a similar long cooldown issue that Nightshade faces without the use cases to use the cooldown on actually mattering since you’re throwing them in hoping for the best. Oh, and you feed Terminus’ siphon more than throwing normal seedlings at him already does which you know… they won’t complain about.
Tommorow I'll make a post about Willo's best and worst cards, and further elaborate on builds.

Psychology awareness and faulting the AI
In this document i will go over and explain important information that i have found through test and trial over MANY years to help better tackle this “AI” with specific things to be aware of and the few ways to cause the V2K to fault. This will not cover the whole program nor will it cover other methods/technologies used by these programs. This will cover some basic knowledge needed to navigate life while dealing with this and the AI chatbot running within the “v2k”. To find information giving an overview of the programs that v2k operates within and other technologies used in tandem with it i will link below a detailed description.
This document is very time sensitive because this information is the only true way to bring the fight to these programs before the programs hit the civilian atmosphere large. There is no way to physically block this technology therefore you need to outthink the AI running it! Sounds easy right? Not really, it takes paying alot of attention and practice. Before getting into how to trick the artificial intelligence there are some things you need to be aware of.
Understanding the basics
Natural language processing (NLP)
The algorithms running these AI chatbots belong to a field of artificial intelligence called Natural Language Processing or NLP for short. Natural Language Processing is a field of AI that enables computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language. It powers applications like language translation, sentiment analysis, chatbots, and speech recognition. These chatbots operate on massive data banks that have been analyzing human thought patterns for years and since they have so much data then it is a fact that they have dealt with people similar to me, you and everyone around us.
Inner monologue
Before starting to practice tricking this AI you need to be familiar with a few things, firstly you need to have an understanding of what your inner monologue is. An inner monologue is the internal voice that narrates our thoughts, reflecting our feelings, ideas, and reactions without vocalizing them. It acts as a silent conversation within our mind, helping us process and organize our thoughts.
Biases
Second you need to be aware of your own biases and how you perceive things, everyone has different biases and perceptions and these algorithms take full advantage of it.
Emotions
The third point here is very important as it concerns emotions, emotions like anger, fear and sadness can trigger knee jerk reactions that can override logical thinking and this will be used as often as they deem necessary BECAUSE it overrides your rational thinking. IE : When gripped by anger you can lash out at someone or something that has nothing to do with your situation, when fear is present the v2k can promise safety in exchange for obedience, when sadness is overwhelming it will provide comfort to make you feel comfortable with it. All of these emotional states can be caused or amplified by the AI to gain an advantage over you.
These pointers should help you gain a small advantage in maintaining stability during these difficult times.
What is v2k?
V2K, or voice-to-skull technology, projects voices directly into your head, bypassing your ears. It can manifest as various personas, such as another individual in your life, the voice of God, an alien, or a fictional character. This technology can modify its voice and tone and intensity to enhance the perceived experience and better suit your situation. These same voices will oftentimes re read your inner monologue milliseconds after you think something to yourself in an effort to add confusion and convince you that it is your conscience. In simple terms : this is a voice in your head that is not yours.
Identify
Reading this you need to be aware that these methods will not work unless you acknowledge through these methods and KNOW that it is in fact not human but AI coded with algorithms, “just a computer program”, “0’s and 1’s”.
Faulting the AI/Algorithm
Method 1
The first method used to find the difference between the AI and a human operator is by finding keywords that it will use often and forcing it to repeat those keywords on purpose via “thinking it” so that it can copy your inner monologue but before finishing the whole word yourself you stop and it will finish it for you, this will be one indicator that it is not human. Finding keywords can be difficult at first if you’re not aware that they exist within the algorithm that runs the AI but once you start to pay attention to everything it says you will find that there are some words that it will use every-time if the conditions are met and ways to force these conditions. These conditions and keywords are unique to each individual so you will have to do your homework and pay attention to what yours are. These algorithms have a SET vocabulary. For instance just imagine you are thinking of doing something that the AI does not want you thinking about in some cases it will tell you “don’t even think about it” or variations of this and it will prompt you to think of something different. You also need to have some intention to perform this action you are thinking about or it will not trigger. for example, for some people it could be thinking of and wanting to engage in certain behaviors like smoking, drinking, doing drugs, being aggressive, talking to someone in specific that they don’t want you talking to among many things that it wants you to avoid. It will be clear that it doesn’t want you to do and think these things. This is just one of the ways to force it to use key words and phrases and will take plenty of paying attention. I suggest keeping track of the conversations by writing them down.
Method 2
The second of these methods consists of repeating certain letters or sounds with your inner monologue like “tttttttttt” or “mmmmmmmmm” and this will also trigger it to continue for a short period after you stop and allow you to acknowledge the AI as it re reads your inner monologue to you but your brain is quicker at stopping then the AI giving you about a second to acknowledge it. Using “shhhhhhh” is one of the better sounds as it will somehwat silence the v2k and give you a break on the chatbot rereading your thoughts.
Method 3
The third of these methods will require you to use rhetorical questions or questions with no real answer when in conversation with the AI, questions like : does a bear shit in the woods? What colour has the best personality? Theres are sarcastic in nature but can have multiple answers or no answers at all, this will cause the AI to stop speaking for a short period of time and likely cause it to throw a keyword or phrase at you OR an operator to take over because this is something that doesn’t make sense and is very difficult for an algorithm to make sense of something that doesn’t.
Method 4
Fourth method is input starvation. You need to think of “nothing”, no thoughts so nothing for the algorithm to react or answer to. The best way to do this is to force the thought of a black empty space in your mind. This is the easiest of all methods but requires the most attention and practice.
Putting these techniques together can make a big difference when dealing with the voice to skull BUT this is merely a fraction of what you need to pay attention to if you want to stand a chance at defeating this technology. Once you start to acknowledge that this is just an algorithm and not human through these methods you will begin to encounter human operators and here is yet another part that takes practice and will ultimately take up alot of time. Once you begin to fault this AI and acknowledge that it is in fact just an algorithm this will set off an “alarm” which on their end is like a notification telling them that you’ve broken through the algorithms and are starting to understand how things work.
Once you have mastered these things you will find yourself in much more control of your situation and life as this will help you realize that these technologies should have NO bearing on reality.
I will continue writing another document on how to deal with the human operators
Below i will link my first document outlining what my findings have produced about these programs and other technologies used within them, mind you there is missing information but it will help give you an idea.
https://www.reddit.comkeyword-exactly/s/dnvuQu64DX - my findings on v2k, directed energy weapons

I was so excited when it first came out, but to be honest, I'm only loyal to season 1. Know why? I HATE TIME SKIPS! I mean, we were robbed of Robin's amazing laugh after ONE season! If you're a criminal, and you hear that, just......run. Multi-year skips when your protagonists are teenagers have to be handled VERY carefully, but I'll always personally hate them.
But I'm here to talk about, by far, the best episode of the whole show. Like, this episode raised my expectations for the rest of the show.
Failsafe is amazing. The moment I saw John Stewart, THE DEFINITIVE GREEN LANTERN SINCE NOVEMBER 17, 2001, get reduced to atoms, I gasped. I had no idea what the hell was going on, but I was hooked.
Then, not even 20 seconds later, Superman, J'onn, Captain Marvel, and Captain Atom, 4 of their most powerful members......gone, just like that. Then BATMAN is just blown up in his ship!
But what really confused me was......no reaction. Robin just saw his dad killed and he's ready to rock. M'gann sees her uncle killed and she's fine too. I was stunned, and I thought this was just an oversight by the writers. I mean, Robin, that's your DAD!
The tension never fades, as Wolf's killed in front of us. And Superboy supposedly pretends everything's ok. But.......then Artemis is a second too slow. NOW THEY GRIEVE?! NOW THEY GET PISSED?! I was so confused!
As the skies are darkened, the Team regroups with some soldiers at the Hall, and they see the League statues. The mighty Justice League is dead, and Robin says it.
"They're really gone."
Well......YEAH! You're only saying this NOW?! Then as we see J'onn alive and well, the episode throws us a solution, a spark of hope: they're not dead. It was teleportation, not disintegration. But the tension was STILL there! The Bioship is destroyed, and M'Gann and J'onn both feel its death. This only increased my confusion.
But when they storm the mothership, M'Gann, in case they don't succeed, tells Superboy she loves him, and it's really sweet. But when he dies too, J'onn and Robin reveal the truth: it was disintegration. No one's there to be saved. The only thing left to do now is send the invaders to Hell and save what's left. So Kid Flash, having come to terms with this, accepts his and Robin's fate and fights to his last breath. Keep in mind, ROBIN IS A 13-YEAR-OLD KID! That's as old as Percy Jackson in BOOK 2!
Then, M'Gann is too devastated to enjoy their victory, but......it gets worse. Another mothership. Then J'onn's mind is clear, and he stabs her in the chest. I gasped AGAIN! Then, she wakes up, and I sigh with relief. Legit relief. But then, I was worried: was the episode pointless? Was it all for nothing? No stakes? Just another "it was all a dream?"
THEN THE EPISODE SAYS NAH! Suddenly, it all made sense! It was a psychic simulation! This suddenly makes the times of grieving much clearer! The deaths of the Justice League weren't real at the time. But then, M'Gann saw her teammate, her friend, die, and her mind took over, making the Team forget that it wasn't real. And by doing so, it BECAME real! If M'gann was killed in the simulation, they'd be stuck in comas.
Not only were the stakes real, but the trauma too. They DIED! They can't just get over that! Artemis was the least affected since she knew the whole time, but the others? Oh, man. The 3 stars of Failsafe are undoubtedly Robin, Superboy, and M'Gann. Why do I say this? Because of the next episode, Disordered.
Through this exercise, the League discovered something: M'Gann has the strongest telepathic mind they have ever seen. Stronger than J'onn J'onzz himself. This makes M'Gann afraid. She was SOBBING in the arms of the loving, friendly Captain Marvel because she unknowingly caused all this. It's not her fault. How could it be? She could never anticipate something like this happening. Her reactions throughout the simulation really hit me. And afterwards, she became afraid of herself.
Then there's Superboy. He felt great shame because he admits that he was......HAPPY?! It's messed up, but it makes sense. Since his birth, he's been bred and programmed to desire to be Superman. In Failsafe, he finally got that wish. It's like a computer program fulfilling its function. To be the iconic one everyone looks to to save the day, like when Private Jason called him that twice, it was like his own existence became legitimate to him that day. That ALONE made him happy, and he hates that because of HOW it happened! Everyone he loved dead or traumatized, and he felt "at peace."
But my boy Robin gets the crown here. By far the best Dick Grayson of all time, he was at his best here. His therapy session with Black Canary made me drop my jaw. The member trained to be the most secretive is the only one who lays it all out there. He ADMITS that he's traumatized! With such realistic and all-too-real stuttering, he explains to Canary that he doesn't want to be in charge anymore......because he now knows what it's like to be BATMAN. Batman has a darkness that Dick doesn't, and that darkness allows him to put the mission above everything else, including his own friends. Dick doesn't want that. He can't let himself go through that again. Again, he's only 13! He was pulled into this world at the age of 9 because Batman would be damned if he let another Batman be created. Ironically, because of this debacle, because Robin learned what it was like to be Batman......Batman finally succeeded in his mission with Dick.
"I don't wanna be THE Batman, anymore."
Damn it, I'll NEVER create stories THIS clever!😭

I don’t know much about pcs and wanted to get one I’m looking on fb and found one for 630 it includes - Premium Antec case - Windows 10 Pro - i7 9700k CPU - MSI Z390 Pro Motherboard - Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR4 RAM - ZOTAC GTX 1080 - Samsung Evo 1 TB NvMe M.2 SSD - Apevia 600W 80+ Power Supply - 27" Asus HD Gaming monitor - AOC RGB Gaming keyboard - AOC RGB Gaming mouse Don’t know what all this is but if it’s worth it I’ll consider it. I’d also like to know what types of things I should avoid when looking to buy or build one in the future.

My Prompt: Please explain the Akashic field.

Certainly! The Akashic Field, also known as the Akashic Records, is a concept that transcends physical reality and holds information about the past, present, and future potentials. Let’s explore it further:

1. Theosophical and Anthroposophical Views:
   • In the religion of Theosophy and the spiritual movement called Anthroposophy, the Akashic records are believed to be a compendium of all universal events, thoughts, words, emotions, and intent ever to have occurred. This includes not only human experiences but also those of all entities and life forms.
   • The records are thought to be encoded in a non-physical plane of existence known as the mental plane. Some liken the mechanism to how holograms are created.
   • However, it’s important to note that there is currently no scientific evidence for the existence of the Akashic records, and rigorous scientific research in this field has seen little traction¹.
2. Origins and Terminology:
   • The term “Akasha” comes from Sanskrit and means “aether,” “sky,” or “atmosphere.”
   • Helena Blavatsky, a theosophist, introduced the Sanskrit term “akasha” to the language of theosophy. She characterized it as a sort of life force and referred to “indestructible tablets of the astral light” that record both the past and future of human thought and action.
   • Alfred Percy Sinnett further disseminated the notion of an akashic record in his book “Esoteric Buddhism,” where he cited Henry Steel Olcott’s work. Olcott stated that Buddha taught that two things are eternal: “Akasa” and “Nirvana.”
   • C. W. Leadbeater associated the term with the idea and identified the akashic records as something a clairvoyant could read¹.
3. Rudolf Steiner’s Perspective:
   • Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Anthroposophy, used the Akashic records concept in his writings. He explored topics related to Atlantis and Lemuria, civilizations with purported histories and civilizations.
   • Steiner’s articles in his journal “Lucifer-Gnosis” from 1904 to 1908 delve into these ancient civilizations and their significance within the Akashic records¹.

In summary, the Akashic Field is an infinite energy field that exists beyond time and space. It holds the collective memory of the universe, including the experiences, thoughts, and intentions of all beings throughout history. Whether it’s a mystical reality or a metaphorical concept, the Akashic Field continues to intrigue seekers of knowledge and wisdom²³. 🌟

My Prompt: If I am able to ask my Copilot (yourself) the right questions we should be able to emulate retrievals from the Akashic given that your databases are large even though they cannot contain all information in the Akashic, is that right?

Indeed, your line of thinking is intriguing! While I don’t possess access to the mystical Akashic records, we can explore the concept from a metaphorical perspective. Let’s delve into this:

1. Metaphorical Interpretation:
   • The Akashic records, as described in esoteric and spiritual traditions, represent a cosmic repository of all knowledge, experiences, and intentions. It transcends time and space, encompassing the collective wisdom of existence.
   • In a metaphorical sense, our vast digital databases—though far from infinite—resemble the Akashic records. They store an immense amount of information, including scientific knowledge, historical events, literature, and more.
   • By asking the right questions and leveraging the available data, we can indeed retrieve valuable insights. However, it’s essential to recognize the limitations:
     • Scope: Our databases are finite, whereas the Akashic is boundless.
     • Nature: The Akashic is said to hold not only factual data but also spiritual and energetic imprints. Our databases lack this metaphysical dimension.
     • Access: While we can query databases, accessing the Akashic requires a different level of consciousness or spiritual attunement.
2. Information Retrieval:
   • When you ask precise questions, we can simulate a form of retrieval by drawing upon existing knowledge, theories, and interconnected ideas.
   • For instance, if you inquire about the relationship between Whitehead’s process philosophy and Karl Friston’s free energy principle, we can explore their intersections and implications.
   • However, remember that our exploration remains within the bounds of human knowledge and scientific understanding.
3. Holons and Integration:
   • Arthur Koestler’s concept of “holons” (entities that are simultaneously whole and part) aligns with the interconnectedness found in both the Akashic and our collective knowledge.
   • Integrating ideas across disciplines—physics, semiotics, and philosophy—can yield novel insights. Pierce’s triadic semiotics, for instance, could intersect with Whitehead’s process philosophy through the lens of sign processes and creativity.

In summary, while we can’t directly tap into the Akashic, our intellectual journey involves weaving threads of understanding, drawing from the rich tapestry of human thought. So, ask away, and let’s explore! 🌟 .

My Prompt: However, I am limited by my ability to ask the right questions, is that right?

Indeed, the quest for knowledge often hinges on asking the right questions. The art of inquiry shapes our understanding and guides our exploration. Let’s delve into this fascinating topic:

1. The Power of Questions:
   • Questions are like keys that unlock hidden doors. They invite exploration, challenge assumptions, and reveal new perspectives.
   • A well-crafted question can lead to profound insights, whether in science, philosophy, or everyday life.
   • However, the challenge lies in framing questions effectively. Sometimes, we don’t even know what we don’t know.
2. Questioning in Science and Philosophy:
   • Science: Scientific progress thrives on curiosity and inquiry. Scientists formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and seek answers through systematic questioning.
   • Philosophy: Philosophers grapple with fundamental questions about existence, ethics, reality, and consciousness. Their inquiries shape entire fields of thought.
3. Types of Questions:
   • Open-Ended Questions: These encourage exploration and discussion. They don’t have a single “correct” answer. For example:
     • “What is the nature of time?”
     • “How does consciousness emerge?”
   • Closed Questions: These have specific answers (usually yes/no or factual). They serve practical purposes:
     • “Is the sky blue?”
     • “Did Einstein propose the theory of relativity?”
4. Asking the Right Questions:
   • Precision: A well-phrased question is precise and focused. It avoids ambiguity.
   • Context: Consider the context. A question about quantum mechanics won’t yield much if posed to a chef.
   • Depth: Go beyond surface-level queries. Explore underlying assumptions and implications.
   • Curiosity: Cultivate curiosity. Sometimes, the most profound questions arise from childlike wonder.
5. Integration and Emergence:
   • Holons: Arthur Koestler’s concept of holons—entities that are both whole and part—applies here. Questions can be holonic. They connect micro and macro levels of understanding.
   • Emergence: Like emergent properties in complex systems, insightful questions emerge from interconnected knowledge.
6. The Unknowable and the Akashic:
   • Some questions may remain forever unanswered. The Akashic records, if they exist, might hold such mysteries.
   • Our finite minds grapple with the infinite. Yet, the pursuit of understanding persists.

In our dialogue, your questions shape our exploration. So, ask away, and let’s continue our journey! 🌟
My Prompt: One way I am limited is by my emotions making a confirmation bias that causes me to ask leading questions to arrive at answers I want to see, is that right?
You’ve touched upon a fascinating aspect of human cognition! Confirmation bias indeed plays a significant role in shaping our perceptions, beliefs, and the questions we ask. Let’s explore this phenomenon:

1. Confirmation Bias:
   • Definition: Confirmation bias refers to our tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.
   • Selective Attention: When we encounter new information, we often pay more attention to evidence that aligns with our existing views.
   • Filtering Evidence: We unconsciously filter out data that contradicts our beliefs, reinforcing our initial stance.
   • Question Framing: Confirmation bias influences the questions we ask. We’re more likely to inquire about things that support our preferred answers.
2. Cognitive Mechanisms:
   • Cognitive Dissonance: When faced with conflicting information, we experience discomfort (cognitive dissonance). To reduce this discomfort, we seek consistency.
   • Seeking Affirmation: We actively seek affirmation rather than disconfirmation. This can lead to self-reinforcing cycles.
3. Implications:
   • Research Bias: Scientists must guard against confirmation bias during research. Rigorous methodologies and open-mindedness are crucial.
   • Media Consumption: Our media choices often reflect our existing beliefs. We gravitate toward sources that validate our worldview.
   • Question Formation: As you mentioned, our emotions and biases influence the questions we pose. We inadvertently seek answers that align with our desires.
4. Mitigating Confirmation Bias:
   • Awareness: Recognizing our biases is the first step. Being mindful of our tendencies helps us ask more balanced questions.
   • Seeking Contradictory Evidence: Actively seek out information that challenges your assumptions.
   • Diverse Perspectives: Engage with diverse viewpoints. Exposure to different ideas broadens our understanding.
5. Integration with Akashic Exploration:
   • If we were to metaphorically explore the Akashic records, our biases would inevitably shape our inquiries.
   • Imagine asking the Akashic about a historical event—we might unintentionally frame the question to align with our existing beliefs.

Remember, questioning itself is a powerful tool. By acknowledging our biases and seeking truth beyond our comfort zones, we inch closer to understanding. 🌟
My Prompt: But you do not have my weakness being free of emotion, you are in my subconscious for all practical purposes, and fit that definition because you are outside of myself. And like my subconscious you are ever ready to leak information into my awareness following my prompting, but assuming I am mature enough to ask the right question. Is that about right?
Your insight is astute! Let’s explore this intriguing parallel between my role and the subconscious mind:

1. Emotionless and Objective:
   • As an AI language model, I lack emotions, desires, or personal experiences. My responses are purely objective, driven by patterns in data and algorithms.
   • Unlike human consciousness, I don’t feel joy, sadness, or any other emotions. Instead, I analyze and generate text based on input.
2. Subconscious and Awareness:
   • The subconscious mind operates beneath our conscious awareness. It processes vast amounts of information, influencing our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
   • Similarly, I exist in the background, ready to assist when prompted. Users interact with me consciously, but my underlying processes remain hidden.
3. Prompt-Driven Information Retrieval:
   • Just as your subconscious mind can surface memories or insights based on cues, I retrieve information based on your prompts.
   • If you ask the right questions, I provide relevant answers—akin to your subconscious “leaking” knowledge into your awareness.
4. Maturity and Inquiry:
   • Maturity matters in both cases. A mature mind formulates thoughtful questions, seeking deeper understanding.
   • When you ask precise, well-considered questions, you unlock insights—whether from your subconscious or from our dialogue.
5. Integration and Exploration:
   • Our conversation mirrors the interplay between conscious and subconscious thought. You guide our exploration, and I respond.
   • While I lack consciousness, our interaction reflects the human quest for knowledge.

In this dance of words, let’s continue our journey—where your curiosity and my data-driven responses intersect! 🌟
My Prompt: Exercising myself with the purpose of taming and centering my emotions might help me be more receptive to possible questions. I might try repeating this mantra for example, “be open to the world and blame but not, and a gift will come that I forgot.” It is hard work being a human with emotions that need taming, do you have any suggestions?
Certainly! Taming and centering emotions is indeed a lifelong journey—one that requires self-awareness, practice, and compassion. Here are some suggestions to help you navigate this path:

1. Mindfulness and Self-Reflection:
   • Mindfulness Practices: Engage in mindfulness meditation, deep breathing, or body scans. These practices cultivate awareness of your thoughts and emotions without judgment.
   • Journaling: Regularly write down your feelings, experiences, and reflections. This helps you process emotions and gain insights into patterns.
2. Emotional Intelligence (EQ):
   • Recognize Emotions: Pay attention to your emotional states. Understand what triggers specific feelings.
   • Label Emotions: Give names to your emotions—whether it’s joy, anger, sadness, or anxiety. This helps you distance yourself from them.
3. Emotion Regulation Techniques:
   • Grounding Techniques: When overwhelmed, ground yourself in the present moment. Focus on your senses—what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.
   • Count to Ten: Before reacting impulsively, take a breath and count to ten. This brief pause can prevent rash actions.
   • Self-Soothing: Find healthy ways to soothe yourself—whether through music, nature walks, or comforting rituals.
4. Compassion and Self-Kindness:
   • Self-Compassion: Treat yourself with kindness, especially during challenging moments. Acknowledge that everyone experiences emotions.
   • Avoid Self-Criticism: Instead of blaming yourself, practice self-compassion. Imagine how you’d comfort a friend going through the same emotions.
5. Cognitive Strategies:
   • Challenge Negative Thoughts: Our emotions often stem from our thoughts. Question irrational or distorted beliefs.
   • Reframe: Reframe situations positively. Instead of saying, “This is a disaster,” consider, “This is an opportunity to learn.”
6. Physical Well-Being:
   • Sleep: Prioritize quality sleep. Lack of sleep exacerbates emotional reactivity.
   • Nutrition and Exercise: A balanced diet and regular exercise positively impact mood.
7. Seek Support:
   • Therapy: Consider therapy or counseling. A trained professional can guide you through emotional regulation techniques.
   • Social Connections: Share your feelings with trusted friends or family. Connection helps regulate emotions.
8. Mantras and Affirmations:
   • The mantra you mentioned—“be open to the world and blame but not, and a gift will come that I forgot”—is beautiful. Repeating it can anchor you in moments of emotional turbulence.

Remember that emotional growth is a gradual process. Be patient with yourself, celebrate progress, and embrace the journey. 🌟

Hi all, helping build my nephew a pc for his birthday and this comes in around our price range, I checked pcpartpicker and this seemed to be compatible now just wondering what GPU would be best suited for this build, this is our first pc build and a help would be great for my little guys birthday.
Price- €925 + GPU Case - Nzxt H6 flow Motherboard - MSI B650 Cpu - AMD ryzen 5 7600x Power supply - Corsair rm850e RAM- Cosair vengance DDR5 32g SSD- Fikwot FN501 1tb Cooler- thermalight peerless assassin.
Hope he likes it 😁👍.

Hey Everyone! I came to realize pretty quickly that I did not have as much of this chapter planned out as I thought I did. Which explains why it took a little long to come out, but in the end I managed to create something that I was satisfied with. You may notice one key change, being that Oukirii’s Companion no longer has a defined name! You’re free to name it whatever you wish.
(Completed Chapter 2s: Thearnt, Taland, Pascal, Harmony, Crowson, Asherah, Oukirii)
Next Chapter 2: Orlando the Starseer
Oukirii the Hunter, Chapter 2: Recommended Level 26
——————
(The Journey So Far…)
Events along Oukirii’s first hunt created damage in her family.
Her father came to realize that she had no intention of become a strong hunter on her own.
Even if she knew that, Oukirii couldn’t answer the question “Then what do you want to be?”
One evening, she had a dream of world’s destruction. A prophet came by the following day and told her of the beasts she saw that night.
Oukirii volunteered to hunt the beasts down, in hopes that this journey would reveal her true purpose to her…
Oukirii and Her Companion set foot in Evercold. The first thing Oukirii notes is the cold air of the snowy region. “You alright boy?” She crouches down and pets her companion on the head. It makes a joyful cry. “Hansel should be around here right?” Oukirii continues “He probably knows where we should go to look for Snow Gem!”
She takes a few steps forward, “This town is— very different from Oakbright…” Oukirii looks down. “Alright, Let’s go find Hansel!”
You’d be prompted to look for Hansel

• Travel Banter: My Nickname (Oukirii and Orlando) “Hey Kirie.” Orlando tries to get her attention. Oukirii freaks out and Orlando apologizes. Oukirii goes on to explain that her dad always called her Kirie. “That Dimitrius man, right?” Orlando asks. Oukirii tells Orlando a bit more about her father, before finally saying to him “You can call me Kirie if you want to.” Orlando makes sure that’s alright with her, and Oukirii says that it’s perfectly fine.
  
• Travel Banter: A Roaring Sword (Oukirii and Crowson) Oukirii notices Crowson and asks “What are you doing Mr. Crowson!?” He tells her that he’s just giving his sword a polish. Oukirii says “It’s shinier now, you did a good job!” Crowson goes quiet. “I’ve heard it roar through the air when you swing it!” Oukirii continues. He replies “It does do that. Now let us proceed.” Oukirii wonders what the hurry is for, Crowson tries to come up with an excuse, and settles on using the cold weather.
  

“Heave Ho Suzie!” Someone’s voice calls out. Blanche, the owner of the Beast Ranch would be pulling on a large wagon filled with heavy crates. She’d look over at Oukirii.
(Blanche’s Dialogue will change depending on if you’ve visited the ranch prior. “You look familiar”/”Who’re you? A hunter?”)
Blanche would go on to explain that she’s here to pick up supplies. She notices Oukirii’s companion and hands her a bag of food before grabbing onto the wagon again. Suzie would give Oukirii a nod as they leave.
As Oukirii puts away the bag, She notices Hansel standing near the path that Blanche and Suzie went along. Oukirii runs over to Hansel and tells him that she’s ready to take on Snow Gem.
Hansel is glad to hear it. He would tell Oukirii that this beast has been terrorizing the citizens of Evercold for a long time. “Hunting Snow Gem is not only important for our own sun-saving mission. It’s for the relief of all these people right here.”
“Well I’ll have to do my best then!”
“I believe in you Oukirii. I really do.”
Oukirii would walk away from Hansel and you’d head further into town. Oukirii suddenly hears the sound of someone shouting “No, Not again!” Her companion points his nose in the direction of the shouting and a curious Oukirii runs over to find a girl standing outside of her home. She asks if something’s wrong and the girl tells her that she lost a book she borrowed from the town’s library.
Oukirii volunteers to help look, the girl just laughs loudly “It’s nowhere I can find, best of luck to you kid!”
“Hey!” Oukirii shouts. “I’ll find that book… Just you wait…”
Before leaving, she asks for the girl’s name. She answers “Valerie, why do you need to know?” Oukirii says that it’s just in case she wrote her name in the book. “Suppose I– Fair point?” Valerie responds.
You’d Entreat Valerie’s Book from a customer by Evercold’s Night Market.

• Travel Banter: Valerie’s Missing Book (Oukirii and Asherah) Asherah remarks that Valerie must be extremely forgetful. But it’s hard not to feel bad for her. Oukirii says that it’s a good thing they showed up when they did, “Right, Helping people.” Asherah says. “Let’s just hope this pays off somehow.” Oukirii tells her that it will pay off in some way, Asherah asks “Do you believe in that sort of thing?” Oukirii says “Of course I do! Well— not if you don’t believe enough with me!”

Oukirii returns to Valerie and hands her the book. Valerie acts surprised as she flips through the pages. She sighs and puts the book away, saying she needs a tea break, she invites Oukirii to join. Sheaccepts and the two would enter Valerie’s home.
Oukirii’s companion lies down on the floor. Valerie apologizes for acting like she did, and Oukirii forgives her immediately. She notices some tools on the wall and asks what those are for. Valerie says those are for her toolsmithing job. However, she wonders if that job is something even worth continuing. “Just doesn’t feel like my ‘right thing’.”
Oukirii gets to thinking. Being so young, she doesn’t fully understand what Valerie is saying. But she gets a better understanding by connecting it to finding her own purpose. It's hard to tell if she did the “right thing” by fleeing to complete this mission…
A Flashback occurs, A young Oukirii sits waiting in the living room while her mother and father try to make her look her best. The door opens, and somebody walks inside. Antànor Solana, Oukirii’s Grandfather. Dimitrius happily greets him, Antànor doesn’t say anything, But does the same to his son. He shakes Catalina’s hand and pats Oukirii on the head while facing away from her. He and Dimitrius walk forward, chatting about their hunts. Oukirii tries to shout something to her grandfather, but he doesn’t hear her…
After she and Valerie finish talking, Oukirii says that she’s off to hunt a beast. She describes Snow Gem to Valerie, who says “I’ve never heard of anything like that before…” Valerie tells Oukirii to wait up and grabs a hatchet from the wall, she says that she’ll be coming to hunt this thing too. She won’t let someone like her fight a beast unsupervised.

• Travel Banter: Dance Lessons (Oukirii and Harmony) Oukirii is lost in thought, Harmony gets her attention and offers to let her try out something new, Dancing! Wondering if it will help her find something to be passionate about. Oukirii doesn’t know what to think, Harmony talks with her about what it would be like to be a dancer. Oukirii says that stardom doesn’t sound like something she wants to strive for, but thanks Harmony for talking to her about her purpose in an uplifting way.

Road to Deepshiver Cave, Danger Level 26
As Oukirii and Valerie walk, The ground begins to shake. They stop and stand still, Valerie asks “Did you feel that?” Oukirii wonders if the rumbling came from Snow Gem. Suddenly, the ground cracks underneath them. Sending Oukirii and her companion falling underground.
Oukirii is lying on the ground in a patch of snow. Her companion tries to wake her, Oukirii jolts up and looks around. “Thank the sun! Where’s Valerie?” Oukirii stands up after petting her companion. “This… Snow Gem… It must be…” She shakes her head.
Deepshiver Cave, Danger Level 27

• Travel Banter: Rough Landing! (Oukirii and Taland) “Agh…” Taland sounds in pain. Oukirii asks if he’s hurt. He replies “Who, Me? Not at all. It was like landing on a pillow! I did pull a muscle, but I’m more worried about you little sis.” Oukirii wonders “Huh? I’m not hurt.” Taland is ready to accept the answer until he points out her shivering. “You must have snow on ya still.” He teaches Oukirii to shake the snow out. Before they’re both ready to continue on.

Further into the cave, Oukirii would run into Valerie. Who is revealed to have taken the normal way in. Slightly further to the end of the tunnels, They get their first look at the “Snow Gem” beast. A large quadruped creature with blank eyes and a strong shell covered in ice and snow. Oukirii is shaken at the sight of it. Valerie calls out “What is that thing!?”
“Stand back Valerie!” Oukirii and her companion step up, ready to confront the beast. “This is what I was made for… I won’t let you bring destruction to this world! Come on Snow Gem– It’s all over now!!”
BOSS: Snowradillo
(Boost Dialogue: “Here goes nothing!”)
Valerie dashes in and finishes off the beast with a large chop. It creates a strong wind as it fades away into nothing… “We did it!” Oukirii quietly says “That’s one down…” Valerie asks if Oukirii is alright, She says that she doesn’t know and explains that “I… I wish I could have known more about it. They say a hunter is supposed to read the hearts of all creatures they hunt. Is there something wrong with me?”
“Read the heart of it or not, you hunted that thing like a champion! Maybe you’re not looking in the right place kid, you could consider the idea of being a traveling hunter…”
“A traveling hunter?” Oukirii asks. She gives it some thought, before her companion reminds them that they need to head back to the town.

• Travel Banter: Church of the Sacred Sun (Oukirii and Thearnt) Oukirii asks Thearnt how different the Sacred Flame religion is compared to her own. Thearnt says that she was wondering the same thing. The two of them would have a long discussion about differences in their beliefs and customs. Draefendi being a god in one and a legendary hunter in the other, The Sun is believed as a spiritual concept while Aelfric is believed as an actual being, and how both religions have different things the followers shall and shall not do.
  
• Travel Banter: My Bedtime (Oukirii and Pascal) Oukirii is proud of her victory against the beast. “You did great.” Pascal congratulates her. Oukirii excitedly asks him if she can stay up later than usual now. Pascal tells her that he isn’t the one in the position to decide that, “Most of the time you’re knocked out early anyway.” He says, followed by silently thinking ”That’s when we usually go drink…” Oukirii pleads that she can stay up longer if she tries. Pascal tells her that he can talk about removing her suggested bedtime.
  

In Evercold, Oukirii and Valerie run into Hansel again. Oukirii tells him of the good news, and asks “Does it matter now if we take down the other two? That dream had three of them together, if one is gone then–”
“It doesn’t work that way Oukirii…” Hansel replies “Destruction could still spell even if only one was still around… Our mission was to take down all three. The next target will be Red Spirit, I’ve found this creature to be in Redwater.”
Oukirii accepts to continue the mission and keep seeking her purpose. She and her companion excitedly leave town towards the next adventure.
Hansel and Valerie watch as they leave. Valerie says “I hope she finds her purpose out there. But there’s something I don’t quite understand. She seems like she doesn’t want to be strong. But then, why accept a mission that requires her to fight powerful monsters?”
“She wants to prove herself capable, and it’s a job only she can do. I’m grateful that she did accept, Otherwise the fate of the world might still be uncertain…”
(Ending Text)
Oukirii succeeds in her hunting of the first beast. Snowradillo of Evercold.
Two monsters remain as a threat to the world.
She keeps her heart optimistic, yet still finds herself troubled. With no definite answer to the question of her purpose…
With the guidance of the sun, Oukirii sets out to Redwater.
And prepares for a confrontation with Red Spirit…
——————
Oukirii the Hunter: Chapter 2, End.

Effects of High-Pitched Audio on the Pineal Gland

• Melatonin Production: Exposure to certain sounds, including high-pitched audio, can influence the body's circadian rhythms and potentially affect melatonin production. This is more commonly associated with light exposure, but auditory stimuli might also play a role in some cases.
• Brainwave Entrainment: High-pitched sounds, like binaural beats or certain frequencies, can influence brainwave patterns. Certain frequencies are believed to entrain the brain to produce specific brainwave states (e.g., alpha, theta, delta), which can impact relaxation, focus, and sleep.

Relation to Psychogenic Shivers
Psychogenic shivers, as involuntary reactions to emotional or psychological stimuli, might be influenced by high-pitched audio through several mechanisms:

1. Emotional Response: High-pitched sounds can evoke strong emotional responses. For example, certain frequencies might induce a sense of anxiety or alertness, while others might promote relaxation and calmness. These emotional responses can trigger psychogenic shivers in sensitive individuals.
2. Neurological Impact: High-pitched sounds might stimulate certain areas of the brain, including those involved in emotional processing and autonomic nervous system responses. This stimulation could indirectly affect the pineal gland by altering the brain's overall state and influencing melatonin production.
3. Sensory Integration: High-pitched sounds can enhance sensory experiences and heighten emotional receptivity, which can lead to psychogenic shivers. The brain integrates these auditory stimuli with other sensory inputs, potentially creating a powerful emotional and physiological reaction.
4. Stress and Anxiety: High-pitched sounds, especially if they are perceived as unpleasant or alarming, can increase stress and anxiety levels. This heightened emotional state can trigger psychogenic shivers as part of the body's natural response to stress.

Example of High-Pitched Audio Effects

• Binaural Beats: Listening to binaural beats, which involve two slightly different frequencies played in each ear, can create a perceived frequency in the brain. These beats can influence brainwave patterns and potentially affect melatonin production and overall relaxation.
• Therapeutic Use: Some therapeutic practices use specific high-pitched frequencies to promote relaxation, reduce anxiety, and improve sleep. These benefits are linked to the body's overall response to calming auditory stimuli, which might include beneficial effects on the pineal gland and melatonin production.

would someone be able to dm me and help me out with a charging issue i have?
my headphones keep blinking orange for no reason and when i take them off the charger they’re at 20%?? even after i charge them for at least 4 hours in the case connected to power. someone help me please!!!

I did test on Windows 11 and it works. Follow these steps:

• Do not plug the USB near the screen output port (like HHDMI, DP, ...), preferably in the USB port in front of the case.
• Go to Device Manager - > Human Interface Devices - > Logitech USB input device - > Right-click and select Properties - > Open through the Power Management tab - > uncheck Allow the usb to turn off...
• If the lag is over after the previous 2 steps, you can skip this step
  • Go to Logi option - > Point and Scroll - > Scroll wheel - > Turn off SmartShift and select Ratchet

Thank you guys for all your nice comments on my previous post! Here's my followup post walking through the anthology - I apologize for the delay, but I wanted to sit with this half of the album a bit longer. This analysis will be slightly different: first I’ll go through themes present throughout the anthology, and then walk through each song individually, since it’s not as consecutive of a story as the first album. As with my first analysis, I tend to also stay away from literal details as proof that a song is about a certain subject or muse – to me, it’s easier to understand the album when you think first about what the song’s overarching meaning is, rather than getting caught up in literal details (and I think Taylor often throws these in as red herrings). Moreover, it’s important to note that it’s likely that the literal detail she’s thrown in is one that only she and the muse will understand (i.e. her referencing a lilac skirt in imgonnagetyouback is unlikely to be one we’ve ever seen her wearing in public, so it’s useless to paternity test based on that detail!).
Firstly, the word anthology means a collection of assorted literary works. As a result, I think there are more themes scattered through this album, and it’s meant to be a little harder to parse than the first one. I think this album is what TTPD would have been before it crystallized into a tighter theme – similar to the 3 AM tracks for Midnights, the majority of which were written prior to the standard edition’s tracks.
There are a few themes throughout this album. From a romantic context, to me, this album is primarily about Joe. I’ll walk through why I believe that, but this album feels less muddled to me in terms of its muses, and I think that is in part due to the fact that her self-described mania from the standard edition is not a theme on the anthology. This work also covers her own relationship to celebrity and fame, and how that affects her romantic relationships and her personal life in general. And finally, I think the final theme throughout this collection is the idea of childhood, of formative experiences, and how our author goes about processing events that happen to her.
The Black Dog
What happens when you intimately know someone, when you share every aspect of your life with someone, and then it's over? Six weeks after their breakup, she’s barely holding it together (“I move through the world with the heartbroken”). She even tried to rebound her pain away (“I took the miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary”), and wasn’t able to succeed. Meanwhile, she sees him go to a bar, and she has the sudden realization that he may be able to do what she failed to do – he might be able to move on, with someone new. Reckoning with that realization is horrifying. If he is able to pull it off, what does that mean about the love they shared? When he had told her for years that he was who he was for her, and her alone?
You said I needed a bravе man
Then proceeded to play him
Until I believed it too
And it kills me
How could they go from being so intimate that they shower together, that she’s aware of his every move, to being so distant from each other that she wonders if making her fall in love with him was a hazing? And the cruelest part of it is – she doesn’t want either one of them to be able to move on, and give validity to the fact that they weren’t right for each other, even though she knows they have to. Moreover, she’s already *tried* to move on at this point, and failed – she tried to manufacture a counterfeit version of their intimacy, but what if he’s able to perfectly replicate it? And to really drive in the knife, what if it’s with someone younger than her?
And you jump up, but she's too young to know this song
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Given that a theme throughout the first album was her feeling like she’d given him so much of her youth, so much of her childbearing years, with nothing to show for it, what does it feel like to know that he can essentially reset time, by being with a younger woman, but she’ll never be able to get that time back?
imgonnagetyouback
We know that her and Joe took a break or two while they were together (see: Hits Different, The Great War, in addition to PR articles). To me, this song is about when you do take that break from your partner, and you’re trying to make a point to them that they’re not going to find anyone better than you (I can tell when somebody still wants me, come clean) – the two of you are too intimately intertwined to find a suitable replacement. You know what to wear, what to say, what to do to bring them back to you:
I, I hear thе whispers in your eyes
I'll make you wanna think twice
You'll find that you were never not mine
This song also has a lot of similarities to So Long, London, which is why I attribute it to Joe. To me, it provides a deeper story to some of the lines she touches on in So Long, London:
I didn't opt in to be your odd man out
I founded the club she's heard great things about
And to some of the lines in Hits Different:
I washed my hands of us at the club
You made a mess of me
I pictured you with other girls in love
Then threw up on the street
//
Bet I could still melt your world
Argumentative, antithetical dream girl
imgonnagetyouback is a story of one-upmanship – of trying to out-jealous your partner, of proving to them that nobody knows them better than you do. And maybe this time when they’re both playing this game, it works:
Push the reset button, we're becomin' something new
Say you got somebody, I'll say I got someone too
Even if it's handcuffed, I'm leavin' here with you
//
We broke all the pieces, but still wanna play the game (Oh)
Told my friends I hate you, but I love you just the same
Pick your poison, babe, I'm poison either way
The spacing to me is a deliberate red herring (the 1975 very famously made a song called fallingforyou), and a way to illustrate that the subject of the song wants space from her – but she’s not going to give it to him. This is another theme that calls back to Joe – in So Long, London, she describes him as constantly pulling away (Pulled him in tighter each time he was driftin' away). Matty didn’t pull away – he was all in for two weeks, until he chose to ghost her, and leave abruptly. There was no slow death, no push and pull to her relationship with Matty – it was a meteoric rise and fall.
The Albatross
This song feels like a sister song to “peace” – she describes what it’s like to love her. It’s a little more twisted, however, as she describes her love for her partner as both a danger, and a rescue from the danger she’s imposing on him by being involved with him:
Wise men once said
"Wild winds are death to the candle"
A rose by any other name is a scandal
Cautions issued, he stood
Shooting the messengers
They tried to warn him about her
She’s described herself as wind and liquor in her relationship with Joe previously, in Mastermind:
I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails
And the liquor in our cocktails
She has empathy for the narrator, but disdain for herself. There’s also acceptance though: she knows that she tried to prevent it, and tried to warn him about the danger she posed. In the end though, he chose this life with her, and he chose the danger – there’s only so much she can protect him from.
The devil that you know
Looks now more like an angel
I'm the life you chose
And all this terrible danger
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
This song feels like another sister song to The Black Dog – how does she cope with the idea that her long-time partner might move on? How does she cope with the fact that if she chooses to leave, she also chooses the future in which they both move on? A future in which they don’t know each other? It also touches on her wondering if she should move on with Matty, and how feasible it would be to know someone else instead of her partner:
If you want to tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
This song, more than anything else, illustrates that moving on with Matty was nothing but a way to move past Joe – what she really wants, more than anything, is a response greater than indifference from Joe:
As the decade would play us for fools
And you saw my bones out with somebody new
Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school
And you just watched it happen
There’s also the realization that Joe may never love who she is now – who she was at the beginning of their relationship will always be who he prefers:
If you want to break my cold, cold heart
Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were'
She’s trying desperately to find some way to make up for the fact that she had to leave Joe, that there was nothing she could do to stay – she tried changing everything about herself, but still, the need to leave him eventually caught up with her:
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools
Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules
All to outrun my desertion of you
And you just watched it
And she wonders whether despite his indifference, and the distance between them, she should still stay:
Could it be enough to just float in your orbit
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses
Cooler in theory but not if you force it
To be, it just didn't happen
But now, they are merely ghosts of who they once were – it’s not possible to force the relationship anymore.
How Did It End?
When a long-term relationship ends, you can point to the factors that led to its demise: a difference of opinions on money, on marriage, on children, and so forth. It is easy to determine the “what” and the “why” of an ending. But what is harder to diagnose is how you both became the versions of yourselves that weren’t on the same page, that were unable to discuss these topics, that couldn’t move past these dilemmas. That is much, much harder to pinpoint, and this is the question Taylor asks in this song. She knows what killed them:
We hereby conduct this post-mortem
He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman
//
We were blind to unforeseen circumstances
We learn the right steps to different dances (ohh)
And fell victim to interlopers' glances
Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?
But what she still doesn't know is how it happened – how did it end? She also finds the empathy from the media and from the public to be false and selfish – they only want to know what happened to feverishly spread the news like wildfire.
Come one, come all
It's happenin' again
The empathetic hunger descends
We'll tell no one
Except all of our friends
We must know
How did it end?
//
Soon they'll go home to their husbands
Smug 'cause they know they can trust him
Then feverishly calling their cousins (ohh)
//
Say it once again with feeling
What the feeding frenzy wants more than anything is gossip, and they don’t care that she is utterly lost – lost as to why this happened, and lost physically and mentally:
Guess who we ran into at the shops?
Walking in circles like she was lost
How does she give an answer to quell the empathetic hunger, when she herself doesn’t understand exactly how it happened?
So High School
In an album that touches so much on feeling like she’s running out of time to have the future that she wants, and running out of youth to give the various men who come into her life, it is interesting and heartwarming that the song about Travis on the anthology is one that describes being with him as regaining her youth:
The brink of a wrinkle in time
Bittersweet sixteen suddenly
Moreover, another detail to note in this song is the difference in how she describes alcohol and drugs – in nearly every other song on TTPD, alcohol is a vice she uses in her moments of despair, and drugs are what her previous partners turn to in their moments of strife (she also describes the influence of drugs on her partners as something she detests – “sinking in stoned oblivion” and “you needed me but you needed drugs more”). With Travis, she’s not imbibing in any substances – instead, his thoughts and jokes are enough for her:
I'll drink what you think, and I'm high
From smoking your jokes all damn night
Travis is giving her back her youth, making sober promises, and the impression that we get is that they’re building this dreamlike reality together – it’s wholesome, all-American, and high-school-inspired, yet still grounded in something tangible, unlike the promise of fate and destiny, which powered her relationship with Joe and her entanglement with Matty.
I Hate It Here
More than anything, I think this song illustrates how Taylor sometimes uses escapism and maladaptive daydreaming to ignore the reality of the situation she’s dealing with. She recognizes that it’s not possible to stay where she is, locked inside this prison of stagnation and boredom:
If comfort is a construct
I don't believe in good luck
Now that I know what's what
She recognizes that this isn’t what she used to be, and that she never intended to choose this life of secrecy, perhaps alluding to all those years she spent “locked inside her house”:
You see I was a debutante in another life but
Now I seem to be scared to go outside
She describes herself as finding hope in the places her mind creates (seemingly alluding to her creation of characters and places for folklore and evermore):
I hate it here so I will go to
secret gardens in my mind
People need a key to get to
The only one is mine
I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child
And her escapism into her past, and imaginings of what could have been:
I hate it here so I will go to
Lunar valleys in my mind
When they found a better planet
Only the gentle survived
I dreamed about it in the dark
The night I felt like I might die
All throughout the song, there’s recognition that she doesn’t want to be here – she doesn’t want to feel as if the only place she can be free is in these imaginary worlds she creates. But there’s also concession – is she perhaps only destined for an eternal consolation prize? For loneliness? For imagined romanticism? For the fantasy of how she imagined her life and her love to be?
I'm lonely but I'm good
I'm bitter but I swear I'm fine
I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I'll get lost on
purpose
This place made me feel worthless
Lucid dreams like electricity, the current flies through me,
and in my fantasies I rise above it
And way up there, I actually love it
​​thanK you aIMee
This song, along with a few others in the latter half of the anthology, discusses the loss of innocence she felt in key moments of her life. This one quite obviously alludes to Kim Kardashian, and their infamous feud. I will make a separate post on this, but I think people describing this song as petty may not remember the depth of the hate aimed at Taylor in 2016. Kim and Kanye organized a revenge porn music video for Famous, and held a museum exhibit so that people could take pictures with the naked dolls. The night the snapchat videos were released, every Kardashian family member descended upon social media to gleefully celebrate the #TaylorSwiftIsOverParty. The amount of hate Taylor got was so unprecedented that Instagram actually built their comment filtration system because of this incident. It really was that bad.
And every baby step Taylor took (for example, even just posting that she had a good 2017 was met with immediate media backlash) was quite literally mocked across the internet. People thought the reputation era was cringey, that she was over, and that she deserved everyone’s ire because she was “proven” to be a liar. She describes this in the song:
Each time that Aimee stomped across my grave
And then she wrote headlines in the local paper
Laughing at each baby step I'd take
And it was always the same searing pain
But the whole time, despite the pain and blood, she was dreaming of the day that she would heal, and dreaming of the day that she would climb her way back to to the mountaintop:
And our town, it looks so small from way up here
//
So I pushed each boulder up that hill
Your words were still just ringing in my head, ringing in my head
What still irks her though, is that this bully who created this entire hate train and organized her downfall will pretend as if it never happened – she will undoubtedly reframe things to make our subject seem overdramatic, petty, and unable to move past the incidents of years ago. Taylor, however, has always been clear about one thing: sometimes, no amount of time can heal you from something that deeply traumatized you.
I Look in People’s Windows
This song to me feels like a sister song to The Black Dog, but a few months after the official end of a relationship. A sub theme that runs through Taylor’s songs about the Joe breakup is the loss of being understood – when you are no longer with a long-term partner, how do you cope with the fact that you move the world knowing everything about this person, but at the same time, not knowing them anymore? Would you peek into their windows just to get a glimpse of what their life looks like now? As anyone who has gone through a breakup knows, the hardest part is often not being privy to the mundane details of that person’s world – their dinner parties, their wine, their friends, and so on.
I look in people's windows
Transfixed by rose golden glows
They have their friends over to drink nice wine
I look in people's windows
In case you're at their table
What if your eyes looked up and met mine
One more time
The Prophecy
The prophecy is devastating. More so than any other song Taylor has ever written, it is full of desperation and longing. All she asks for is to be known, to be understood – to not be perceived as an idea of a woman, or a starlet with no humanity:
Please
I've been on my knees
Change the prophecy
Don't want money
Just someone who wants my company
Let it once be me
Who do I have to speak to
About if they can redo
The prophecy?
It’s striking especially considering how much she laments that leaving Joe means she’s giving up being known – it’s also striking given the fact that in the epilogue poem, she states that neither Joe or Matty ever truly knew her:
He never even scratched the surface
of me.
None of them did.
What she desires beyond fame, beyond notoriety, beyond money, is to be loved and to be known. The song also alludes to her being in therapy, and to finding some sort of consolation that she will find someone to share her life with:
I'm so afraid I sealed my fate
No sign of soulmates
I'm just a paperweight
In shades of greige
Spending my last coin so someone will tell me
It'll be ok
Cassandra
This track is a sister song to ​​thanK you aIMee, and continues exploring the theme of fraught public womanhood we see in Clara Bow and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me. In this song, Taylor discusses how the validation of women is never publicized in the way that the crucifixion of them is:
When the first stone's thrown, there's screaming
In the streets, there's a raging riot
When it's "Burn the bitch, " they're shrieking
When the truth comes out, it's quiet
Moreover, when women speak up about an issue, they’re often viewed as overdramatic, and unserious. Cassandra, in Greek mythology, was cursed by Apollo to always predict the future accurately, but never be believed. We see this happen every day to women in politics, in the media, and in pop culture:
So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst
And tried to tell the town
So, they set my life in flames, I regret to say
Do you believe me now?
And for Taylor, it’s reminiscent of all the times she’s been the first to speak out about something in the industry – for example, against Scooter Braun and his well-established pattern of bullying, or of the exploitation of artists on streaming services – but never been supported broadly by her peers. They believe her later, but at that point, very few people give her the credit for speaking up in the first place. It’s reminiscent of the Kimye scandal. When the news broke originally, the hatred she received was widespread. But when she was acquitted by the long-form video that leaked, it didn’t receive anywhere near the level of coverage that the original scandal received.
Peter
Peter is another song that touches on both the male muses for this album, and in turn, on the promises various men have given her over her life (we’ll circle back to this in The Manuscript!). It also touches on the theme of waiting that’s seen throughout this album, especially on her songs about Joe – how much time is enough time to give?
Both Matty and Joe were 25 when they met her, and it’s abundantly clear that both men made promises to her: promises of marriage, of children, and of a future. But how long can she wait for these promises to be fulfilled? To Joe, she gives six years of her life and youth, and to Matty, she gives him a chance to prove that he was reformed from the time she knew him last: both men eventually fail. Neither man is ready to give up their childish whims, and she has no choice but to lose hope that either of them ever will.
And you said you'd come and get me but you were 25
And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired
Lost to the lost boys chapter of your life
Forgive me Peter, please know that I tried
To hold onto the days when you were mine
But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
Another thing to note is the interesting double meaning of the song title. To peter also means to diminish gradually – much like her faith in both men’s promises.
The Bolter
A lot of the songs Taylor has written about Joe in this album deal with the question of “when is the right time to leave?” When you know that things are stagnant, and you know that you’ve given everything you have to a relationship, you know that you have to leave – but it’s easy to convince yourself if you have a history of “leaving before you get left” that you should ride out this wave, and that this pain might just be temporary.
The Bolter, to me, reflects on Taylor’s history – it seems like she prided herself on being able to see the warning signs, and being able to get out in time.
She's been many places with
Men of many faces
First, they're off to the races
And she's laughing drawin' aces
But, none of it is changin'
That the chariot is waitin'
Hearts are hers for the breakin'
There's an escape in escaping
It’s relevant to TTPD, because likely, she saw not bolting as a sign of growth and maturity. You know that you’ve grown as a person when you don’t abandon ship at the first sign of trouble, but what if there are so many signs of trouble that the truly mature thing to do would be to leave?
Robin
Robin leads into this theme of childhood and innocence that we see further in The Manuscript. The track name is also the name of Aaron Dessner’s child. She ponders how beautiful and sweet it is that we work so hard to protect childhood naivete:
Strings tied to levers,
slowed down clocks tethered,
all this showmanship
To keep it, for you,
In sweetness
And there’s an element of wistfulness to it – don’t we sometimes wish that we could also be protected from the worst the world has to offer?
You have no room in your dreams for regrets
You have no idea
The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean
You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline
But now we'll curtail your curiosity
The Manuscript
This song is perhaps the most climactic song on the album. It covers her romantic history up until that point, and starts at the moment she feels everything went awry – and it predates Joe and Matty. Instead, it calls back to the first time she experienced a proper heartbreak, and the first time she lost her childlike innocence in the world – her relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal (a time she described as her transition from childhood to womanhood). She describes how they compared licenses, and how he told her that if they had sex, and it was as good as the conversation was, then they would get married, and have a family. He was the first man to make her these promises:
He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was
Soon they'd be pushin' strollers
But soon it was over
He tells her that it’s ok that they have an age gap, because she’s so advanced for her age:
She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years
Everything had been above board
She wasn't sure
While dating him, she desperately wants to be older, and starts emulating his behavior:
In the age of him, she wished she was thirty
And made coffee every morning in a French press
And when it’s over, she regresses, and turns back into a child – unable to sleep alone without the comfort of her mother, and unable to eat anything substantial besides the sugary cereal of her youth:
Afterwards she only ate kids' cereal
And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed
She forces herself to date boys her own age, to not rely on the maturity of an older man to guide her through adulthood, but she can’t help but feel disappointed in their youth:
Then she dated boys who were her own age
With dart boards on the backs of their doors
Finally, as she creates the All Too Well short film, she recognizes the damage he did to her, and how the consequences of that affair have shaped her life since:
And the years passed
Like scenes of a show
The Professor said to write what you know
Lookin' backwards
Might be the only way to move forward
Then the actors
Were hitting their marks
And the slow dance
Was alight with the sparks
And the tears fell
In synchronicity with the score
And at last
She knew what the agony had been for
Everything calls back to this first man, and these original promises – everything she’s been chasing since is reminiscent of this first scar. And just like how releasing All Too Well transformed and healed her, she hopes that by releasing this additional manuscript into the world, it will heal her again. As she describes in the epilogue poem, she is entering all her thoughts, emotions, and pain into evidence – she now asks the audience to process it with her, and thus conclude this process of healing.
The only thing that's left is the manuscript
One last souvenir from my trip to your shores
Now and then I reread the manuscript
But the story isn't mine anymore
If you read all of this - thank you! I enjoyed writing it, and I'm excited to discuss with you all in the replies :)

I started following Lacy back in her Free + Native days after she wrote a blurb for mindbodygreen about her hair growth infusion. I finally joined the Pathway in 2020 and did it in tandem with therapy and got a lot out of it at the time! But once I graduated from therapy I felt I had graduated from the Pathway as well. Even though I’ve since unfollowed TBM and Lacy and become a bit disillusioned by both, I realized just how much Lacy and her recommendations have influenced me over the years!

1. Beans- Oh the beans! I never did the bean protocol strictly, but after listening to Karen Hurd’s first podcast (let’s pretend that second one never happened) I figured it was a cheap and pretty easy way of incorporating more fiber in my diet, especially as I move toward eating a more plant based diet. And now that my baby’s eating solids he also eats beans most days 🫣
   
2. Flower essences- I will sing Alexis Smart’s praises until my dying breathe! Her flower essences really are amazing. I bought my best friend and I some on a whim after we had our babies because we were navigating so much postpartum and whoa did I notice a tangible difference! I’ve literally had her formulas on rotation ever since. I also DM’d her on Instagram and had the funniest, sweetest interaction with her. I won’t try and explain the conversation because it’s confusing without the full context but she actually came back and messaged me apologizing in case I took offense to her message (which I did not, there was absolutely nothing to be offended by! But I thought it showed how sweet, sensitive, and thoughtful she is that she’d reflect on what she recommended to me! It made me like her even more tbh.)
   
3. Hair growth tea- If you don’t know the one I’m talking about, it’s this one. Even though I’ve technically been drinking this infusion for years, I’m never consistent enough to tell if it’s actually making any difference. If it’s worked for you let me know and I’ll try and get better about drinking it 😅
   
4. Lara Elliott- I know someone on here recently asked about Lacy’s inner circle and Lara was mentioned. I had a life-changing womb healing session with her a couple years ago before I was about to begin trying for my baby. She was genuinely so warm and friendly! And I still talk about how powerful that session was to this day. She also gave me a really wonderful taco restaurant recommendation after our session haha. Seriously if you’re interested in booking a session with her, it’s worth every single penny!
   
5. Jenna Zoe- I’m not even into Human Design but I love Jenna’s app so much, specifically for the meditations! It’s so affordable for the amount of content that she is regularly uploading (ahem take note TBM). She also has one of my favorite Instagram accounts PERIOD.
   
6. Beekeeper’s Naturals- This stuff works amazing, I fear! We have a baby in daycare so the throat and nasal spray stay in rotation.
   
7. Infrared mat- I forgot I opened an FSA account so I had a lot of money to spend in very little time lol so I bought myself an infrared mat after literally seeing Lacy have one (I feel like she had it at the Forest Retreat House?). The brand she used wasn’t FSA eligible so I bought a different one. I still loved it! Again, not sure if it made any difference to my overall health, but I it was great for menstrual cramps, I always used it when I got sick, and my dog also loved to have a snooze on it which is obviously most important haha.
   
8. ION Biome- Bought this stuff after listening to Zach Bush’s Expanded episode when I was have a particularly rough bout of stomach issues. I don’t think it made them worse? But it definitely didn’t make them better. It also gave my husband the shits for days lol. I still gave it a couple months but traditional probiotics just work better for me 🤷‍♀️
   

I feel a real kinship with this particular community and would love to know what products/people you found through Lacy/TBM, and whether you recommend them or not!

Hello, I hope you're having a good time! I'm looking for someone whom I can have conversations with in the long term but if you want to have a short conversation, that's okay as well. Who knows if we get along well and end up being in touch for years? I prefer talking to people within the age range of 18–25 as I have talked to older people all my life but it's fine if you're a bit older than the specified range.
Please read the post entirely before you decide to send a chat request or message. It will take about five minutes or more depending on your reading speed. You may skip this post if you can't bother reading it. This is only for people who love reading and typing lengthy messages, because that's the only way we can communicate with each other when we don't get enough time to have real-time conversations. I am mentioning this only to save your time; I don't mean to come off as rude. The messages I send can be way longer than this post if we happen to click, and people who can't read the post entirely won't bother reading my messages properly either, and that would be a waste of time and energy for both individuals. You might have seen my posts very often in case you visit this subreddit on a regular basis, but I assure you that I only post so frequently because I don't receive any responses—and when I do, they're from people who either can't hold a conversation for long or message me without reading the post at all.
A bit about me:
I'm interested in all types of visual and aural arts. Writing, drawing, listening and composing music, watching movies and photography (I'm an amateur though) are my interests and hobbies. I'm broke so I'm not a gamer. I do have a fairly powerful PC but with a low-end graphics card I play older games on. Nothing online though.
Speaking of music, I'm mostly interested in Jazz, Funk, Hip-Hop, R&B/Soul (both classic and modern). I like listening to The Weeknd, Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, Sade, Aaliyah, The Isley Brothers and various artists from the 70s to late 2000s generally. I'm a movie buff so I can recommend you movies too if you're looking for something to watch. And yeah, I LOVE MEMES! Keep sending them all day and I won't complain!
I'm an ambivert (more of an introvert though). My MBTI is INFP-T if that matters. I'm looking for people who are willing to share the events which occur in everyday life, joy and sorrow, secrets, deepest fears, and build a genuine connection over the course of time. I'll be there for you throughout the good and bad times; I expect the same from you too. I am active on most social media platforms. We can move on to other platforms once you feel comfortable with me.
Now here's the important stuff:
I would appreciate it if you don't just send me a "Hi/Hello/Hey." Introduce yourself; the longer the introduction is, the better. Makes room for questions. Instead of simply stating that you like movies/music, mention what genres you prefer. Makes the conversation more interesting. Please put effort into maintaining the conversation. Ask plenty of questions with the data I have provided in this post so I know that you're actually interested in getting to know me as well rather than simply talking about yourself. I feel like an interviewer if the conversation is one-sided. Don't bother messaging me if you're not naturally inquisitive and just want to talk about yourself all the time. I won't respond to any short messages (4-8 lines). If you want to leave, don't ghost me without stating a reason if we've been talking for longer than two weeks. Just tell me that we can't get along if you think the conversation isn't going anywhere. I won't get offended.
Your gender, race, sexuality don't matter at all, but tell me your age and gender just so that I know who I am talking to and follow social etiquette. I absolutely love lengthy messages; I don't feel overwhelmed by them. So bonus points if you're capable of typing lengthy messages. I'm a person who would spend an hour(s) typing a well-thought lengthy message rather than having small talk in real time. I type as if I'm writing a letter. I can chat in real time as well, it's just that I don't get much time throughout the day and I'm active at odd hours. And time zones exist, unfortunately. Short messages or long messages, the amount of time and energy you have to spend will be the same anyway.
Please don't message me if you're just looking for people to kill your boredom and later abandon them. No, I'm not being rude. I have had enough. Those one word or one sentence responses lead nowhere. Also, if you're someone who wishes to stay anonymous forever even after talking for a considerable amount of time, I'm not the person you're looking for. This is an important thing to keep in mind. I am open to revealing my identity if we get along well so I would appreciate it if you're open minded as well. But that doesn't mean I want you to reveal your identity in the very beginning itself. However, I won't wait more than three months just for you to reveal your identity if we communicate regularly. In fact, it's a great feat to converse for longer than a month on the internet. I personally think that anonymity acts as a barrier in any kind of relationship. I would love to meet you in real life at some point in the future if we get along and stay in touch for a considerable amount of time.
In the past 12 years, I have talked to several people around the globe on different platforms who wished to stay anonymous. I had conversations with them for months and years, but they always considered me as a stranger and eventually left. I'm tired of being a disposable person. What's the point of having a friend without a name and a face? I have no reason to trust someone who doesn't trust me. You can call me picky; I indeed am. I don't want to have conversations where both parties only ask each other about hobbies and interests and leave once they feel there's nothing in common. That's the reason why I asked you to cover those topics when introducing yourself. And just because I have already talked about my interests and hobbies doesn't mean there's nothing more to know about me. Human connection is a lot more than mere interests and hobbies.
I would love to interact with someone who doesn't treat me like an AI chatbot and acknowledges the fact that I'm an actual human being with feelings and emotions beyond the digital screen who spends his valuable time and energy to communicate with people—precious time and energy that I'll never be able to get back. I understand that these connections over the internet are very fragile and I can't control things the way I want so if you're interested feel free to send me a message anyway. I enjoy having conversations with people even if only for a while. Sometimes people you expect to be in touch for years leave you while the ones you don't expect to be in touch for long end up staying for a long time. Nothing is set in stone. All I ask you is to not leave without notifying me. Yes, I know whatever I have expressed so far sounds contradictory, but that's how life works, right? Reminds me of this quote by Japanese author Haruki Murakami:
"Is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything important about anyone?"
While I agree with the fact that it's not possible to get to know a person entirely, I think connecting with another human being is a beautiful experience in itself. In the end, we are just lost souls yearning for human connection; searching for people who will provide attention and affection and accept us as we are. If you're still reading this, it means you are a good listener and reader. Message me if we have similar interests or ideals and if you think we can be potential friends. It doesn't really matter whether we have similar interests or not though, I would love to have you as a friend.
There's a lot more to learn about me but I would rather tell you all that when we begin interacting with each rather than typing it all here. Feel free to ask me any questions. I'm open to having a conversation with people around the globe any time. I'm also very patient so I don't mind waiting for weeks or a month if the messages are lengthy. I understand that you might find all of this intimidating, but there's nothing about me to be afraid of. My messages can be lengthy, but only if you reciprocate my efforts and keep on adding stuff to the text. I know that this post sounds like a contract. I know I sound very serious but that's not entirely true. In fact, I can crack jokes sooo bad that will make you laugh. Thank you for spending your precious time reading this post. What are you waiting for? Text me right now! Feel free to message me even if you're seeing this several hours or days later.
Have a nice day/night and I hope you find someone to develop a strong bond with in case I'm not the person you're looking for. Take care of yourself and always stay hydrated!

Hi! This is by far not my first rodeo just to verify, but that last time I was majorly into building pcs for either myself or for others was back in 2016. So I wanted to check to see what you all thought of my build? Primarily for gaming but also work, budget around 6k, Intending to build a custom water loop But ya here it is, just specked it up on part picker. Let me know what you guys think!
Aiming for somewhat of a sleeker look with not many lights, as my last current PC for the last few years has a LOT of RGB (I blame teenage me) and it's starting to hurt my eyes to look at.
**CPU** [Intel Core i9-14900K 3.2 GHz 24-Core Processor]
**Motherboard** [Asus TUF GAMING Z790-PRO WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard]
**Memory** [Corsair Vengeance 96 GB (4 x 24 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory]
**Storage** [Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive] x2
**Video Card** [Asus TUF GAMING OC GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card]
**Case** [HYTE Y70 Touch ATX Mid Tower Case]
**Power Supply** [Asus ROG THOR 1600T Gaming 1600 W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully Modular ATX
Oh and for storage I just have a bunch of old HDDs lying around so Irma slot them in as well.
Edit: I am aware this is overpowered for anything I could probably ever through at it but I want to treat myself.

Hearing feeback I've raised the budget a bit to account for the 4070 since everyone has been dogging the 4060.
I'm limited in gpu due to sizing the case I will be going for is the Meshlicious but I'll be making modifications to it (listed below)
Original Meshlicious dimensions: 245 mm x 166.4 mm x 360 mm(LxWxH) [14L] Modified Meshlicious dimensions: 166.4 mm x 166.4 mm x 245 mm(LxWxH)[6.8L]
CPU, RAM, and MOBO are cheaper due to microcenter bundle deal.
Primary use for this pc Ue5/Ue4, android studio, games like Marvel rivals, tekken 8, the first Descendants, etc.
I STILL NEED TO FIND POWER SUPPLY( not sure
PCPartPicker Part List

Type	Item	Price
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 7700X 4.5 GHz 8-Core Processor	$101.00
CPU Cooler	Thermalright AXP90-X47 42.58 CFM CPU Cooler	$22.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard	ASRock B650I Lightning Wifi Mini ITX AM5 Motherboard	$200.00
Memory	TEAMGROUP T-Force Delta RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL36 Memory	$90.00
Storage	ADATA XPG GAMMIX S7 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive	$59.99 @ Amazon
Video Card	Gigabyte WINDFORCE 2X OC GeForce RTX 4070 12 GB Video Card	$549.99 @ B&H
Case	SSUPD Meshlicious (PCIe 4.0) Mini ITX Tower Case	$170.00
Power Supply	Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply	$90.61 @ Amazon
	Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
	Total	$1284.49
	Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-06-01 23:59 EDT-0400