So like I have some friends online and like, we're good friends. We comfort each other and everything, so like I'm just like that one friend online that barely ever talks unless you have my number or something because this takes places on one of the live video games you chat in. So I basically meet people through my friends most of the time, and my girlfriend was telling me about our friends friend and how she thinks that they're secretly together and I had no idea who this friend of our friends friend was. But soon I meet them and stuff and they're actually cool so I become friends with them as well. So uh, I have another friend of my own that joined while I was with my other friends, my girlfriend wasn't there but I was with our friend and that friend's friend that I became friends with. So since one of them were afk, I went over to say hi to my friend that joined all happy like "HIII [name]!!!" And bro, they privet chatted me to tell me they liked me aka they confessed, not knowing I have a girlfriend and I didn't want to be rude so I just told them that I don't like them like that in the nicest way possible and said I still really wanna be friends with them because they're a good friend, which they agreed to. So, I was trying to talk to them and my two other friends that I had left to go talk to the friend that joined. So... keep in mind that me and my girlfriends one friend have never really seen me interact with anyone that's not them, like it's a very closed in space and then I met their other friend. So I joined them a few times after this, and I haven't really been on lately, which I was usually never really on, but one day my girlfriend texted me saying "[Friends name] thinks you're fake now..." And I was confused like "what?" and they explained that they were on with our friend last night and then they said that they think I'm starting to become fake and that they think that her and my girlfriend shouldn't hang out with me anymore and gave her all these random reasons that don't even add up to me and stuff like that and said she made an OC avatar thing for my birthday and said 'I guess I should delete this now' and deleted it. Also mind that my girlfriend is more of a person who stays in the sidelines and is just like 'oh okay' and just listens to people complain without giving their opinion or a yes or no. Like, this friend had been a good friend to me for like a year so I'm so confused because I don't think I've been acting any different. My girlfriend fr told me "I don't know what you did but [Friends name] is upset with you." Like I don't know if it's because I started hanging out with more people besides them but please, PLEASE tell me if you have any suggestions on what you think I did or if you have an idea of what I should do because I'm kinda nervous to just like join one day and start talking, like idk what'll happen.

Club Vlad sat near the confluence of Central Avenue and Washington Avenue, Albany’s two main thoroughfares. Two stories with blackout windows and a box office from when it used to be a movie theater, it was swarmed with people when Dom first spotted it ahead. He was somewhat familiar with it: He passed it every day on his way to work, and it was always busy around his time of evening, even on weeknights. Part of him always wanted to go inside and be a part of the scene, but he never did.
The man in sunglasses - his name was Joe - led Dom toward the club, and even before Joe spoke, Dom somehow knew that it was their destination. “There,” Joe said. “We’ll go around back.”
Dom and Joe had been walking for what seemed like an hour but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Dom stuck as close to Joe as possible as if for protection, and had become accustomed to his pungent smell. It was noticeable only at extremely close range, part sickly sweet and part…something else, something Dom could not place but still somehow recognized. They were two blocks from the club, maybe three, and Dom could hear the pulsing techo/house/whatever music as clearly as if he were standing in the middle of the dancefloor. He could hear the chatter of the people inside, or at least he imagined he could. He could smell them too: Beneath the odors of perfume, desperation, and spiritual rot was something richer, something blissful. Dom realized for the first time that he was parched - so parched - and drool filled his mouth.
A crowd of people waited outside Club Vlad, talking and laughing; some vaped, some stared down at their cellphones like Gollum with his precious ring. Dom’s first reaction was to avoid them. Perhaps sensing this…or perhaps feeling it himself…Joe ducked into an alleyway two doors down from the club. “We’ll go in the back,” Joe explained.
The back entrance to Club Vlad was a single door underneath a bare bulb. The music was so loud that Dom’s head began to throb. Inside, a dark hallway terminated in an archway filled with throbbing white light. Dread filled Dom as they approached it - he didn’t want to be around people - but thankfully they went into a room off the hall instead. An office. A cramped desk, a filing cabinet. A set of stairs disappeared into shadows.
“Sit,” Joe said.
Dom obeyed, sitting in the swivel chair.
Joe went up the stairs and Dom was alone. The deep coldness that had long settled into his bones made itself known again, and Dom leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his chest for warmth. The muffled music vibrated in his skull, setting his teeth on edge, and the various smells wafting in from the main room assaulted his senses. He was alternately repulsed and aroused by the crashing din of scents: The good, the bad, and the mouth watering. A sharp pain cut through his stomach like the killing edge of a knife, and Dom hugged himself tighter. Had his throat always been this dry? His throat felt like sandpaper; his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and getting it unstuck hurt so badly that tears sprang to his eyes.
Dom rubbed his arms with his hands and tried to still his chattering teeth. He looked around for a blanket, a discarded jacket, something to cover himself with, but there was nothing. Only drifts of glitter on the floor and walls. He supposed it came from a party or something. He’d never been to a night club but it seemed fitting.
A sound drew his attention to the door leading back into the hall. A woman - no older than a girl - stood there, looking confused and unsteady. She was dressed in black, wore glow sticks around her wrists and neck, and held a red solo cup. “I have to pee,” she said drunkenly and laughed. “I thought this was the bathroom.”
A cold wind washed over Dom, and Joe was standing next to him. “The bathroom’s up here,” he said.
“Oh, good,” the girl laughed, “I thought it was here but I didn’t know. This is my first time here.” She held her cup aloft. “Take me to it.”
Joe glanced at Dom. “Come on.”
They formed a party as they climbed the stairs, Dom in the tear and Joe at the head. The girl stumbled and held onto the railing, talking incessantly. Her voice hurt Dom’s head, but the hot smell wafting from her was intoxicating. Drool coursed down his chin and his breathing came in short, hot bursts. Another sharp pain rent his stomach, and he winced.
At the top of the stairs, where the lights were cold and white, a woman in black stood by a doorway, her back ramrod straight and her eyes vacant. Her face was gaunt, her white flesh pulled tight across her skull. She wore a black dress and her black hair long and straight. Dom only caught a glance at her before looking away again.
She looked like a ghost.
“Show her the bathroom,” Joe said.
The woman’s eyes slowly, ponderles, went from Joe to the drunk girl. Her expression, like Joe’s, was dead. She had no expression. “This way.”
She and the drunk girl disappeared down the hall, and Joe led Dom into a room. Though it was pitch black, Dom could still see; not very well…but he could see. Suddenly, a blinding white light flicked on in front of him, causing him to stop and fall back a step. Ahead, through an archway, sat a vaulted chamber, at the center of which sat a man. To Dom’s light dazzled eyes, he seemed a proud king perched upon a throne, the skulls of his many enemies piled around him. Dom blinked and turned his head slightly to the side. His eyes began to adjust, and the world came into focus.
The man was not, as it had first seemed, sitting on a throne. Instead, he was esconded in a motorized wheelchair. The piles of skulls were actually various pieces of machinery, the kind you’d find in a hospital room. A clear tube extended from one of them to the side of the man’s neck: Yellow liquid flowed from the machine and into the man. Another tube, this one in the other side of his neck, filtered out a mixture of what looked like yellow pus and black sludge. An infected malodor filled the air, and the machines whirred softly as they worked.
As for the man himself, his appearance was normal at first glance, Dressed in a flowing red velvet robe, a blue and green blanket with a plaid pattern draped over his shoulders, he was portly, about fifty, and had shoulder length grayish hair with a bald spot in the middle. If the local theater put on a production of Hamilton, they could cast a worse Ben Franklin than him.
On closer inspection, he was not normal at all. His complexion was yellow and waxy, like a statue, and his body was lumpy, misshapen, resembling an overfilled trash bag stuffed with cotton. His eyes were sick and yellow, and something about his posture seemed…off. It didn’t make sense, but the only thing Dom could think was: He looks impossible.
Joe stopped at the edge of the shadows, where the line between light and darkness lay. He seemed to stand up a little straighter, a general greeting his king. “Here he is,” Joe said.
The man squinted slightly against the glare of the light and motioned with one gnarled hand. “Step into the light,” he said. His voice was soft and kind, that of a senile though loving grandmother. Dom imagined he felt a pull toward the man, and did as he was bidden, wincing as the light stung his eyes.
For a moment, the man stared at him, his waxen features frozen fast as stone. Then, a subtle look of compassion flickered across his face. Dom did not believe in God, but he suddenly felt like a man standing before God, his every thought, feeling, and transgression laid bare. He had never felt so naked in his life, so exposed. He had the sense that the man before him could see everything, knew everything.
“You’ve been through a lot,” the man said. It was not a question, but a statement.
Everything Dom had been through over the past couple of days came back to him in a rush, and hot tears filled his eyes. He nodded.
The man nodded slightly, more to himself than to Dom. “Kneel down,” he said, “I want to look at you.”
Dom knelt without question.
The man lifted one hand and touched Dom’s face, tilting Dom’s head from one side to the other like a farmer appraising a horse. His fingers were long and bony, his nails ragged and unkempt; his touch was like ice. He brushed his knuckles over the purple bruise on Dom’s cheek, and there was such gentleness in that one act that Dom broke down sobbing. He leaned into the man’s touch like a cat and gave voice to his misery.
“Shhh,” the man said, “it’s all over now.”
“W-What’s happening to me?” Dom asked.
In his heart of hearts, however, he already knew.
“You died,” the man said patiently. “And you came back.”
Hearing it stated so plainly, Dom cried even harder.
“Only a handful of people throughout history can claim to have defeated death,” the man said, stroking Dom’s hair, “and you’re one of them. You should be proud.”
“How?” Dom asked between sobs. “What am I?”
The man stroked Dom’s cheek. “You’re the same thing I am.”
At that, Dom looked up at the man. “What are you?” he asked.
A little, knowing smile touched the man’s lips, and when he spoke, his canine teeth were longer and sharper than before. “I’m a vampire.”
“No,” Dom moaned and shook his head, “no, no, no.” He grabbed the man’s hand and held tight, his tears coming faster. He trembled like a frightened animal and squeezed his eyes closed, as if by doing so he could escape the hell his life had become.
But there was no escape.
“You have a lot of questions,” the man said, monologuing now rather than speaking directly to Dom, “I had the same questions when I was your age. I have spent the last forty-two years of my life trying to answer them, but every answer I find leads me to still more questions. There’s one thing I’m certain of, though.”
Dom blinked the tears from his eyes. The last of them had been squeezed from his dead tear ducts and he had no more to give. He simply stared into space, trying to come to grips with his situation.
“There is freedom in death,” the man said. “Death is easy. It’s simple. Once it’s over, you feel no pain, no sadness, no grief. It’s living that’s hard.”
As he spoke, he brushed his long nails across Dom’s scalp. It was a soothing feeling, and served to calm him. “People have so many troubles.” A note of revulsion crept into his voice. “So many needs, so many desires. People are complex but we’re not. We’re easy to please. A vampire wants only two things: A little blood and one more night.”
The combination of his touch and his voice had pacified Dom to the point of almost tranquility. “I’m scared,” Dom heard himself mumble.
Nodding almost reluctantly, the man said, “Fear is one of the only emotions a vampire can’t escape. Everything feels fear. Do you want to know a secret?”
Dom nodded.
“I’m afraid too,” the man confessed. “I’m afraid of death. Well…death as it were. I’m terrified that my body will rot away and leave me a pile of bones somewhere, unable to move but still aware”
A shudder went through Dom.
“As I’m sure you’ve seen yourself, the movies lied. We rot just like any other dead thing. Our flesh decays, our organs turn to sludge, and we go from rational men to monsters whose only thought is feeding.”
Now it was his turn to shiver.
“But…you’re not like that,: Dom said.’
The man smiled. “I’m lucky, I guess” A thin yellow fluid began to drip from his nostrils. He did not seem to notice. “What is your name?”
“Dominick,” Dom said.
“I’m Merrick,” the man said, “and this is my family.”
Dom realized that they were now surrounded by others, ten in all. They stood ramrod straight, their eyes vacant and their faces devoid of humanity. They were mainly men, though one was a woman. Some were pale, others were blue or black, and one was little more than a skeleton clad in withered brown skin, a white button up and jeans hanging from its frame.
A thought occurred to Dom. “You said my brain was going to rot…”
“Not necessarily,” Merrick cautioned, “though it’s possible.”
“Am I going to be…?”
“Like them?” Merrick asked. “Braindead and staring?”
Sheepishly, Dom nodded.
“Maybe,” Merrick allowed. “But these people are free of everything that troubles humanity. You were human just a short time ago. I’m sure you remember all too well what it was like. The constant politics, the moral quandaries, the philosophical pontificating. Human beings - and make no mistake, we are humans - were not meant for all of that. We’re animals. We were made to hunt, fuck, and sleep. Somewhere along the way, we got pretentious and started complicating things.” He looked at Dom, sizing him up, seeming to read him. “Things that animals take for granted, people work their entire lives to achieve. If an animal wants to fornicate, it fornicates. If a man wants to fornicate, he needs to be tall, handsome, rich, funny, progressive when it suits women but traditional when it doesn’t. If a man wants a home, he has to work thirty years for it. An animal has only to dig a hole in the ground.”
Every word struck a chord with Dom.
Because every word was true.
“Unfortunately, the living won’t allow us to live that freely, so we have to hide. These people here - my children - need a guiding hand, a protector, someone who can lead them. And I, an old man, need help.” Here he smiled playfully and patted his bulging stomach. “My body is mostly sawdust and cotton balls at this point, so I can’t do much. I share my wisdom and my knowledge with them, and they take care of me.”
“Why haven’t you…rotted?” Dom asked.
“Embalming fluid,” Merrick said. “Blood doesn’t sustain you. Embalming fluid does.” He smiled at Dom. “It can sustain you as well. If you’ll stay with us. We’re not the most attractive bunch, but we’re a family, and we really wish you’d join us.”
A family.
Dom’s parents had broken up and he lived with his mother. He had never had a family before, and had always wanted one, a real one, like in the movies. Even as a grown man, he sought the love, acceptance, and belonging that a family brings. He sought it in the wrong ways, but that - and not sex, not romantic love - is what he had really wanted all along.
This is what he had wanted all along.
“I want to,” Dom said.
Working quickly, Merrick slashed his wrist open with his thumbnail. An ugly mixture of stale blood, siphoned from someone else, and embalming fluid leaked out. “If you choose to drink, my blood will be in you. You will be my son and I will be your father. You will obey me as your father. You will do whatever is asked of you for this family, as this family will do for you. You will not reveal the secrets of this family to anyone outside of it. You will protect this family from all threats, both inside and out. Do you accept?”
He held his bleeding wrist out to Dom.
Dom did not question, nor did he hesitate. He grabbed the hand of his father, brought it to his mouth, and drank from the seeping wound. The fluid was cold, thick, and vile.
It tasted like belonging.
“Have you fed yet?”
“No,” Dom said.
“Before you do, I have a question for you. Who did this to you? Who made you?”
Dom thought. Everything was hazy. “Was it someone in this room?” Merrick asked.
Dom shook his head. “Her name is…” he wracked his brain. “Heather.”
Merrick nodded. “So there’s another out there.” He looked at Joe. “Did you turn her?”
“Yes,” Joe said.
Merrick looked annoyed. “I’ve told you not to go out and feed on your own. You have no self-control. You drink too much and create others, which creates headaches for the family. Tomorrow night, I want you and Dom to find her and bring her here.” “Okay,” Joe said.
Merrick looked over Dom’s shoulder. “Jess? Can you come here?”
The black haired woman from earlier came out of the shadows, the drunk girl with her, arms tied behind her back. The girl looked dazed. “Max,” Merrick said to the skeletal corpse-thing, “help her.”
Max, Jessie, and another vampire named Matt tied chains around the girl’s ankles and hoisted her aloft via a pulley system. Upside down, she swung back and forth. Merrick instructed the others to leave the room. “Max,” he said.
On his way out, the corpse-thing produced a knife and dragged it across the girl’s throat, slicing her skin; blood spurted out. Max leaned in to taste it, but Merrick shooed him away. When he and Dom were alone, Merrick told Dom, “Go to her.”
But Dom was already on his feet, his eyes transfixed by the crimson life flowing from her pumping throat. The hot, rich smell filled his nostrils and tantalized his senses. Saliva filled his mouth and his stomach panged with hunger. Some small, human part of his decaying brain screamed at him to stop, but he did not listen to it. He had been human for almost thirty years, and he had been miserable. Now, in this chamber of the undead, he gave himself over to his dark thirst. Like a man in a dream, he shuffled to her, inhaled the sweet scent of her blood, and shivered. He was so lost in lust that he hardly noticed the strange, cumbersome feeling of his descended fangs.
“Drink,” Merrick said.
Opening his mouth wide, Dom sank his teeth into the girl’s neck. Her blood filled his mouth and splashed down his throat. Warmth thawed the ice in his marrow and spread through him. His dead heart began to flutter, then to pound. His knees shook, his body trembled, and his mind rolled away on a tide of ecstasy.
As it was his first meal, he couldn’t drink much. Before long, his stomach was hard and distended and his body burned with fire. He collapsed to a heap on the floor and twitched as random nerve endings, stimulated by the blood, began to misfire. He felt full, warm, and drunk. He closed his eyes and let himself drift.
Dominick Mason had died.
And this…
This was heaven.
***
With all that was happening in the city of Albany, the last thing Bruce Kenner needed on Thursday morning was a visit from Bertha the bitch, but that’s exactly what he got. She flew into his office like she owned the place and instantly started in on him. Young man this and have you talked to Joe Rossi that. You’d think she was his boss. And if she were his boss, he’d quit and find another line of work. He heard McDonald’s was hiring.
Bruce almost snapped at her. He’d been up most of last night riding around Albany and looking for Dominick Mason. He and Vanessa expected him to drop dead somewhere close to the medical examiner’s office, but if he had, he’d done so in a super secret location.
“I’ve been busy,” Bruce said, “but I’m going to go by his place of work today.”
Tired and still confused over that bullshit from last night, he had no energy to argue with the old crone. He could spare a few minutes to talk to Joe Rossi, he figured. He assumed that Jessie was safe but he owed it to her to check. If he found the girl, he’d take her back to her grandmother (sorry, kid, really) and try to avoid arresting the guy. Unless he came off as a creep, then he’d bust his ass. See, people assumed that an older guy with a younger girlfriend was some master manipulator hell bent on evil deeds. Sometimes they were, but hell, his grandparents married when his grandpa was twenty-one and his grandma sixteen. They were married for fifty-five years and loved each other to the end. Maybe it was innocent, maybe not. It wasn’t his job to judge either way. Just gimme the girl so I can get her grandma off my back and no one gets hurt.
“It’s about time you started doing your job,” Bertha said, “I heard on the police scanner last night that you people lost a body. What kind of town is this? Your coroner is a drunk who makes up stories about bodies walking away. He probably sold it to black people.”
Bruce couldn’t help it; he snorted laughter.
“Now what would black people want with a dead body?”
“Probably to use it as a prop in one of their rap videos.”
Bruce didn’t know much about music videos, but he was pretty sure that the people who made them didn’t like the smell of corpse any more than the rest of us. “I’ll be sure to round up all the local rappers for questioning. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Luckily for him, there was not, and Bertha left shortly thereafter. Alone and able to hear himself think, Bruce sat back in his chair and went over his mental checklist for the day. First order of business, go to Club Vlad. Second, find Dominick Mason. There were others, but that was the most important. He wanted the body found so someone could get to work explaining this whole weird thing. There had to be an explanation. The thought that there wasn’t, that a dead guy literally rose from the grave and disappeared into the night, deeply disturbed Bruce, and the more this whole thing remained ongoing, the more disturbed he would become.
Needing some fresh air, he decided to hit up Club Vlad.
Outside, the day was hot and sunny. Waves of heat shimmered from the pavement and not a single breath of air stirred in the whole world. Bruce slipped on a pair of sunglasses and drove over to Club Vlad. It occurred to him that the place might be closed during the day; it was the only place Joe Rossi was associated with. His address in the computer system was Glens Falls, far to the north. The messages he sent Jessie indicated that he lived onsite at Club Vlad.
The build, wedged between a corner store and a check cashing place, was as grimy and dumpy looking as it had always been. The front windows were blacked out and covered with posters and fliers for punk concerts, house bands, and far left political organizations: The Albany Social Justice Center, something called Bash the Fash 2025, and Bruce’s favorite. ACAB. He caught some kid spraying that on the side of the police station once, and under extreme police torture (ie, a good tongue lashing), the kid told him it meant All Cops Are Barnacleheads.
Bruce shot the kid on the spot and planted a gun on him.
How's that for barnaclehead?
Calm down, he didn’t really do that. He made him clean the graffiti off with a toothbrush. LOL he was out there for hours.
The sidewalk in front of the former theater was empty save for some little. The box office was abandoned. There was no open sigh, but then again, there was no closed sign either. He parked his cruiser at the curb, killed the engine, and got out, sweat instantly springing to his brow.
To his surprise, the door opened. Inside, a couple steps led down to a dance floor. A bar lined the wall to his right, and a couple more sets led up to a railed platform filled with tables. Above, a huge balcony looked down on him. A giant disco ball hung from the ceiling like a pair of glittery nuts and there were cages here and there. Presumably where girls danced go-go style. Oh yeah, nothing hotter than a woman behind bars. Why do you think Bruce became a cop in the first place?
Speaking of glittery nuts, there was glitter everywhere. On the floor, on the tables, on the bar. It twinkled like flecks of diamond and swirled around your feet when you walked. Bruce imagined big buckets of the stuff raining down on the dance floor at midnight and he shuddered. Imagine having glitter stuck in your hair. That shit would never come out.
Music played from the sound system, not as loud as it would be during operating hours. It sounded like ‘80s metal, not exactly what he expected from a place like this.
Some say life she's a lady
Kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich
She's no lady, she's a bitch
Being morning, the place was deserted except for a man behind the bar, busy at cleaning the countertop in anticipation for the night’s events. He was tall, Hispanic or Italian, and feminine, with a single earring and a tank top.
Bruce moseyed over to the bar and the barkeep looked up, missing a beat when he realized the fuzz was here. He sat down his rag and walked over. “Can I help you?” he asked in a whispy voice.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “I’m looking for Joe Rossi. Is he here?”
“I don’t know,” the bartender said. He looked nervous. “I can check.”
Before Bruce could answer, he scurried off, leaving him alone.
They suck my body out
But friend there is no doubt
I'm gonna pay the devil his dues
Cause I'm sick of being abused
Bruce looked around, his fingers absently drumming on the countertop. Club Vlad was a clashing mix of grunge and glam that made his head hurt. He imagined what the place must be like at midnight, packed and noisy, and nodded to himself. Yeah, this was the spot, he guessed, the place all the cool kids went, if they went anywhere anymore. Hell, if he was thirty years younger, he might come here.
He had been waiting for almost twenty minutes when a voice spoke behind him. He turned with a start, and beheld the strangest man he had ever seen in his life. Short and plump - lumpy, even - he sat in a wheelchair, a red blanket draped over his shoulders and his hands resting on his knees. He was about fifty with sparse gray hair falling to his shoulders and a plastic-looking face. He looked like a wax statue of Ben Franklin come to life, and a deep sense of disquiet stirred in the pit of Bruce’s stomach.
Just can't fight the temptation
It's become my inspiration
Gonna get myself an axe
Break some heads, break some backs
It was only then that Bruce noticed the sickly sweet smell of death.
It seemed to come from the man in waves.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the man said, “my name is Merrick Garvis and I own Club Vlad. Maybe I can be of assistance.”
Bruce grew up in the south where manners and saving face were paramount. His mother and his grandmother both taught him that it was impolite to stare. Maybe he'd been in New York so long that he’d forgotten himself, or maybe Merrick Garvis was just the strangest looking man in the world. Either way, Bruce couldn’t help gaping at his strange appearance. Recovering, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I -”
Merrick smiled and waved one hand. Why was it so goddamn skeletal? “Don’t worry. I was injured in a fire a long time ago and this is the best they could do for me. To be honest, I’d stare too. What can I help you with, officer?”
“I’d like to talk to Joe Rossi,” Bruce said. “I understand he works for you.”
“He did,” Merrick said, “but I had to let him go. Did he do something wrong?”
Bruce sighed. “Well, yeah, he’s shacked up with a sixteen year old runaway.”
A look of concern crossed Merrick’s features, such as they were. “Oh, my, that is concerning. I haven’t seen him in several days. I assume he went home. He lives in Glens Falls.”
Bruce nodded, his mind working. If Rossi really was in Glens Falls, that meant the whole mess was someone else’s problem. He could send Bertha up there to bother some other poor barnacle head and be rid of her. Yet…he didn’t think Rossi was in Glens Falls. Bruce had a knack for knowing when people were lying, and he was certain that Merrick Garvis was doing just that. It couldn’t be a facial tick, as his features were largely unmoving, like clay. Maybe it was something in his cloudy eyes. Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Or maybe Bruce had the shining and knew things just for the hell of it. In any event, the certainty that Merrick Garvis was lying grew stronger with each passing second.
“Why’d you fire him?”
“He got drunk and hit one of the customers.”
“What did he do?” Bruce asked. “What was his position?”
“He was a bouncer.”
“Aren’t bouncers supposed to hit people?”
Merrick fumbled. “Well…not to punch them in the face for bumping into them.”
“How long did he work for you?”
“Six months.”
“Did you ever see him with an underage girl?”
“Of course not,” Merrick said, “you have to be twenty-one to get in. I make sure everyone’s ID is checked at the door.”
“What if she had a fake ID?”
“Then I guess she’d get in, but I’d assume she was of legal age.”
“You said he shoved someone, when did this happen?”
“Last week,” Merrick said.
“I thought you said he hit someone.”
Merrick again fumbled. “I did.” Now his face seemed to darken a little. A strange yellowish liquid, too thin to be snot, began to drip from his nostrils. Bruce barely suppressed a smear of disgust. “I understand you have a job to do but playing mind games with me isn’t going to solve anything. I can give you his address. Other than that, I can’t help you further.”
“Fair enough,” Bruce said. “But I’d like to see your ID please.”
Merrick glared at him. “I suppose you want my name, rank, and serial number as well.”
“Actually, yeah, I’d love that.”
Merrick drew a deep sigh. “Okay.”
In five minutes, Bruce had Merrick’s ID, social, and all other relevant information. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have bothered, even though he was well within his rights to ask for this information from someone he was questioning. But something about Merrick Garvis was off, and not just his weird face or strangely bulbous body. Bruce was just smart enough to realize that something was going on here, but not quite smart enough to even begin to imagine what.
When he had everything he needed and saw no reason to stick around, Bruce bid Merrick farewell and left the club. Before he could do anything else, he got a call from dispatch: Officer needed assistance in Pine Hills. Bruce slipped behind the wheel and went forth to help, momentarily putting Merrick Garvis out of his mind.
But soon or later, he would get back to him.
Oh yes he would.

whilst playing minecraft 1.20.6 i saw a few strange things happen, any thoughts?
so i just loaded up a world, and i spawned super close to a village, so after getting wooden tools i head to the village. NO VILLAGERS, and after further exploring the village a Iron Golem appeared OUT OF THIN AIR! i have no clue what happened, but also this was for a lets-play so i was recording, but every time I'm done the file would half corrupt! now this happens sometimes for me anyway because of my trashy computer, but never this much! I have the corrupt recordings, i prob only need the one to prove the point my game is cursed though. oh yeah! i also have this random video that i vaguely remember recording if you wanna check that out too, i cant click on it though for some reason.. it says i need admin perms to open it...?
https://reddit.com/link/1csrlf5/video/0y7wwjhnsm0d1/player
https://reddit.com/link/1csrlf5/video/w8qlkahnsm0d1/player

Hello everyone,
I currently work at Whole Foods as an order writer, and I have been in the organic food industry for 15 years.
My education history:

• I dropped out of high school and took my HSED (GED) 2001. I am open to answering questions about my life, but to keep it short here, my childhood was all over the map. My father died early, I moved often, had a few step-fathers, lived in an 18-child foster home at one point, etc. The point is that while I had bouts of doing well in school, I would eventually be displaced from moving, and by high school, I reached a point where I wanted it over and tested out.
• Graduated as a trained therapeutic massage therapist in 2002. I practiced this profession part-time for about ten years after graduating
• In 2008, I decided to return to school, at a community college, for nursing. This required close to 2 years of taking prerequisites, which I did do. I graduated with an Associate in Science and a 3.5 GPA, in 2012. I did not attend that nursing school (a long story related to my city).
• In 2014, I finished a 200-hour yoga teacher training and was certified with the Yoga Alliance. However, I have never become a yoga teacher. A fear of failure in front of others and some stage fright are contributing factors here, not a lack of passion for yoga or learning about it.

Throughout all those educational endeavors, I have worked at a food COOP or Whole Foods, where I have worked for six years.
Now, believe me when I say I could easily look at all this and consider myself a directionless screwup who never capitalized on a few opportunities I set up for myself. Again, I am more than willing to provide some context from my personal life to explain some of this, but I don't want to focus so much on the why, but rather what I can do from this point going forward.
A year and a half ago, I reached out to CSU Global and currently am enrolled in their Computer Science program. So far, I have finished nine credits with a 4.0 but am stuck trying to get through the College Algebra class and I am worried about my ability to finish this degree I a reasonable time to where I can start to transition out of Whole Foods.
All of this is to say that I have very few people to get advice from and would like this sub's perspective on what I should put my time and energy into going forward. One thing I have going for me is good time-managment around my full-time job and few commitments in my life outside of what I set for myself (no kids and single).
Careers and degrees I am considering:

• Computer Science, though honestly, I am not sure this is the best fit currently
• Accounting
• Human Resources
• Radiology. A friend studying to become a doctor advised me that I would be a better radiologist than a nurse based on my personality. I have already done a lot of prep for nursing, so I am thinking hard about this.
• An MBA to augment my career in retail since I at least have that job going for me at the moment.

I considering getting a CDL license and doing truck driving but I think that would be a mistake given that I am 6'8" and already have a few physical issues from the amount of driving I have done in previous careers. I am good at driving but I don't think my body can take it full time being this tall.
With all that said, I think I will leave it here as there are a lot of details already. At the end of the day, I want to put myself into education while being able to work full-time and realistically upgrade my career in the next two years. Making $75,000-$100,000 would be a significant step up for me and allow me to further invest in myself instead of just getting by. A lot of times I have had to pull back from investing time into getting into jobs because I just have not had enough money without keeping myself employed with jobs like Whole Foods.
Thank you to anyone who is willing to give me some advice here!

Hi all, so there will be a bit of background here, apologies if I miss anything but I’ll update if I do and it becomes relevant.
My wife and I have been married for 5.5 years, we have an almost 9 month old daughter who I adore, and 2 border collies whom I have trained extensively myself.
When we were dating, it was rocky now and then honestly I saw the red flags and tried to fix them and I guess out of fear of ending up alone, ignored them. We started in long distance living at the others apartment about 5 months of each year in her country and 5 in mine in usually 1-2 month stays. We had some fights but what couples don’t right? But there is one that sticks in my head. She blew up over something minor, we argued and she threatened to kill herself. I wanted to leave then and there, but I didn’t want to see harm come to her. When she got angry she would lose all control, she would hit herself, bang her head on concrete walls, throw things etc, so I to an extent, took her threat seriously, and my nature is to protect people.
I stayed, things calmed down, but unfortunately over our nearly 8 year relationship, this has become a pattern. She would lose her crap over small things and either threaten to kill herself (and on more than one occasion, our daughter also). She would self harm but nothing with knives, or anything, just banging her head and punching herself.
Partly for the above reasons I installed cameras in our home living spaces. I have since caught and archived video of her doing this as well as physically assaulting me.
Recently my brother came to visit, it didn’t go well, now my brother is a really picky person, completely inflexible and generally difficult to get along with unless you do everything his way, to the letter, without him telling you. The only right opinion or answer, is his. While here, we got into a fight because he didn’t like not being unloved when my wife changed plans after seeing a comedy show, ok fair enough, but he flew into exactly the same state as my wife did, completely unreasonable, threatening me (he is no longer welcome in my home), throwing a tantrum and just storming off leaving me to chase after him, until he attempted to physically assault me.
This made me realise that he and my wife are the same, and I’ve known for years that he is the same as my dad, and I really didn’t like my dad at all. This has been the catalyst for a few changes in my decisions recently.
So a few other key points, my wife and I make good money, we’re both on around $140k USD (converted from our local currency, we’re not in the us and are not American, but it’s an easier conversion), we pay sub 10% tax on that also. With that said, all my money goes to our bills and expenses, every last dollar. I have maybe $300 a month on my self and usually have less than $100 in my account at the end of the month, but all bills are paid. We own a h 700k usd house which is more than half paid off in the 4 years we’ve owned it, and a car (roughly 150kusd in my country), so we’re financially well positioned. Her salary supplements her spending and is meant to be our savings. I’ve tried to garnish my salary to create an exit fund if shit hits the fan, but I had to use the whole thing (about 15k) when our daughter was born (worth it though). I’m trying to rebuild this.
The house is in her name, as is the car, however I can prove payments on both.
My wife has a history of depression, which was referred to our local mental health services, so there is a history of this, but she refuses treatment, this only happened when I called the police on her when she was threatening to and trying to jump out of our 13th story window.
Since then she has: - pulled multiple kitchen knives on me and threatened herself (I took every sharp knife out of the house and took them to a friends apartment, she was keeper concerned with stopping me because she didn’t want our friends to know what was happening) - thrown and smashed almost every framed photo on the house, all of which I cleaned up - using said photo frame glass, threatened to and tried to cut herself - attempted to strangle me - shoved, punched and kicked me (only one instance I have on camera) - made me give up almost every hobby I enjoy - wanted our first dog, agreed to help train and care for him, never does - the same pattern is happening with our daughter, but I wanted a child so badly I accepted it would happen - regularly gaslights me - minimises everything I do - recently she has started with backhanded compliments and negging - she will project her fears and dark thoughts and say them as fact of what I think, when they are nowhere near any truth - forced out or alienated all my friends, now the only friends I have are our mutual friends or her friends. - gives me the silent treatment - asks me ambiguous questions and makes me guess what she means - gives me trapping questions which either I tell her what she wants to hear, degrading myself in the process, or tell her the truth, which she blows up over - starting a fight as I’m about to go out so I have to stay home and take care of her and miss what ever I arranged
Some minor things she has threatened to divorce me over: - leaving the aircon on - cleaning the house (we have a live in maid who’s job this is) - not cleaning the house in conflict to the above - working long hours - not earning enough money - being exhausted from taking care of our daughter at night then working a 9-10 hour day - not giving her a massage (she never gives me one but I give her 2-3 a week) - talking - sighing - walking the dogs (part of the maids duties) - not walking the dogs 🤷‍♂️ - snoring (I literally have no control over this) - not being able to remember things (I have a bad memory ok?) - being tired - doing something in her dream that never actually happened and wasn’t even me! (I’m not even joking) - having to go on a business trip - having dinner with my friends (I do this once or twice a year) - not inviting her to a guys night
I am realising that I need to start protecting myself. Aside from storing any and all video I have from these instances, what can I do? Would speaking to a divorce lawyer be of help? I am not yet ready to call it quits, but at the same time I’m not going to risk the rest of my life on her fucking me out of everything I’ve worked so hard to achieve. If we really wants a divorce in 5 days or 15 years, what can I do to protect myself ? Should I fully split our finances now? How do I do this without her catching on or is this a bad idea?
I know my wife is abusive, you don’t need to tell me that. She is quite clearly narcissistic, but I won’t taint your view further, you decide.
Sorry this is so long, but I’m really stuck here and need help, but have no one.

My husband and I (mid-30's, no kids) are looking to make a move in the next couple of years, and are looking to the PNW because if we're going to make a change, why not go big? We've lived on the east coast all of our lives in various states, both of us growing up in New England/New York and currently being in Florida. Florida is crazy though and despite our family being here, we are running out of the physical and mental energy to handle the weather, the politics, etc.
Our ideal wish list would be:

• Close to a location that offers motorcycle endorsement coaching courses/businesses. My husband owns his own digital marketing business but motorcycling (is that the word?? lol) is his passion and he loves to coach for folks looking to get their license/state endorsement. I assume these are likely all over, but it doesn't hurt to mention it because it's the only physical/in-person job requirement (I work remotely, as is his own business). His friend works for a company outside Seattle but jeez the COL seems crazy there.
  
• On that note, close to cool motorcycle routes, possibly general nature as I do like the occasional nature walk without being an intense outdoorsy person. I appreciate a nice view out my window while I read, haha.
  
• MCOL, most likely suburban to smaller town. I'd love to be near-ish to a cute/charming small-downtown, he'd like a reasonable sized lot. Hoping to find a 3/2 house for under 350k - is that a pipe dream? Reality check me if I'm way off base. We are used to 10-30 minute drives to most amenities/fun things to do - in a perfect world I'd like to be more walkable, but driving is not a deal-breaker as I know there are always compromises and that's an easy one to make.
  
• A place we can make friends. We are mid-30s, progressive liberal, no kids, kids-at-heart kind of adults who like board games, tabletop gaming, video games, reading (me), outdoorsy stuff (him).
  

We are not too picky and most wish list items have a fair amount of flexibility.
Open to suggestions for towns or areas to look at, or even reality checks/resetting expectations if the PNW might not be right for us. :)

TLDR: Listen to your favorite music while watching videos on any video app like YouTube or the Photos app.
How To Use: There is no TLDR for the "How To Use" section of this shortcut, unlike my other shortcut posts that have one. Please read the full How To Use section to ensure you don't encounter any inconvenience while using the shortcut.
Download it here (version 1.2):
https://routinehub.co/shortcut/14947/
Credit: TechyDudeYT (from GitHub & RoutineHub). I only provided some support to make the shortcut.
COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION

I. INTRODUCTION

Music While Watching can do the impossible: play your favorite songs while watching videos on any video-supported apps like YouTube, Instagram, or the iOS Photos app. It can play and automatically loop:

• A song (an audio file)
  
• A playlist of multiple chosen songs (multiple audio files)
  

The default number of looping times is 100, but you can open the content of this shortcut and edit the number of looping times in the text box to 200, 1000, or any number you want. But repeating the music 100 times is usually more than enough.

II. HOW TO USE

For Older iPhones (Without Dynamic Island):

Setting Up:
1/ Add this shortcut to the Home Screen as a widget so that the shortcut banner will not be displayed when the music is playing. If you don’t know how to add this shortcut as a widget on the Home Screen, here is the video tutorial: How to add a shortcut as a widget on the Home Screen
2/ Run the shortcut for the first time. It will prompt you to download the necessary resource (the music player content from GitHub). Proceed with the download. After the download is complete, you will see a notification to relaunch the shortcut.
Using the Shortcut:
3/ Tap on the widget on the Home Screen to run the shortcut. Choose one (or multiple) audio files from the Files app.
4/ Open any video-supported app like YouTube, Instagram, or the iOS Photos app and enjoy the music.
5/ To stop the music, tap on the shortcut widget on the Home Screen, which will stop the shortcut and end the music playback.
You only need to complete the setup steps (1 and 2) once. For all subsequent uses, just follow the usage steps (3, 4, and 5).
Note: The video linked in step 1 refers to "Gaming Music Player" because initially, this shortcut was focused on allowing music playback while playing games. Now, as most games support playing music in the background, this shortcut is more focused on watching videos on any video-supported apps where playing music simultaneously is not allowed. Therefore, the shortcut has been renamed to "Music While Watching".

For Newer iPhones (With Dynamic Island):

Setting Up:
1/ Run the shortcut for the first time in any way you prefer (e.g., from the Home Screen icon). It will prompt you to download the necessary resource (the music player content from GitHub). Proceed with the download. After the download is complete, you will see a notification to relaunch the shortcut.
Using the Shortcut:
2/ Run the shortcut in any way you prefer. Choose one (or multiple) audio files from the Files app.
3/ Open any video-supported app like YouTube, Instagram, or the iOS Photos app and enjoy the music.
4/ To stop the music, stop the shortcut in the Dynamic Island. Note: In some apps, when watching videos in full screen, the Dynamic Island turns black. You will need to minimize the video or close the app to reveal the shortcut in the Dynamic Island to stop it and end the music playback.
You only need to complete the setup step once. For all subsequent uses, just follow the usage steps (2, 3, and 4).
Credit: BIG CREDIT to TechyDudeYT (from GitHub & RoutineHub). He is the one who originally make this shortcut, but his original version cannot play multiple songs and cannot loop the music. I asked him to upgrade his shortcut with the requested features but he said he is too busy, so I added the requested features by myself. I also removed unnecessary features such as the banner appearing when playing music. Since TechyDudeYT is too busy, he gave me permission to post this shortcut to RoutineHub under my name (with his name in the credit section).

Hi Everyone!
This is my first write-up of any kind of unresolved mystery, on any platform, so I apologize for any formatting errors and my storytelling ability. Today I would like to hear your thoughts on the very mysterious death of Noah Presgrove, a 19 year old from Comanche Oklahoma. I have tried to be as thorough as possible with the details, but there is a great deal of conflicting information in the news reports, so I primarily used facts stated by Noah's family in interviews. With that said, let's begin...
Noah Presgrove was a handsome, athletic 19 year old from Comanche Oklahoma, which is located just south of Oklahoma City in the middle of the state. Noah had recently graduated high school in the spring of 2023 and was waiting for his cousin to do the same the following year so they both could enlist in the Marine Corp together and serve our country. By all accounts Noah was a ladies man, standing at 6'2" with an athletic build, in high school he was a 4-sport athlete with American Football and Wrestling among them. His family also says he was adventurous, kind and very much a jokester who would happily play pranks on his family. Last Labor Day weekend, the first weekend of September 2023, Noah was deciding between attending Rocklahoma, an annual 3-day hard rock and metal festival held in Pryor, Oklahoma, with family members or attending a 4-day Labor Day weekend bash/22nd birthday party of a friend. Noah considered going to Rocklahoma, but changed his mind when the family members he'd be attending with said they didn't think it was a good idea for Noah's 16 year old friend to join them there, since they didn't know this friend's family and Rocklahoma is big for consuming alcohol. With that, everyone went their own way to celebrate the holiday weekend.
The Labor Day/Birthday party was for a female friend of Noah's who was turning 22. It had been advertised on Snapchat, even containing the address, so quite a few people were expected to attend. Noah drove himself to the party on Saturday and by all accounts enjoyed himself. He did text his family member who was at Rocklahoma and express regret at not going with them, but it doesn't appear that this put too much of a damper on his attitude at the house party. After spending Saturday at the birthday girl's house, Noah returned home Sunday, probably to freshen up and take care of any outstanding errands or just check in with his grandmother, with whom he lived. Also, Noah's car was leaking from the oil pan, so it sounds like part of the reason to return home was to leave it there so he wouldn't have to worry about it. There are two stories about what happened next: The first is that one of Noah's friends picked him up from his house on Sunday, but took him to a truck stop so he could grab some food from the Sonic there. Oddly, the friend who took him there says he left him there and Noah was then given a ride to the party by the birthday girl, who had to come pick him up. The other story is that his best friend picked him up from his house and took him directly to the party, leaving him in the driveway. Either way, Noah was back at the party on Sunday and according to those present, was very much enjoying himself. There were videos from the party showing Noah and his friends doing "guy things" like the Slap Game, where two people try to slap each other across the face as hard as they can. Just "macho" drunken teenage guy things. There was also video from the party of the guests playing "classic" party games such as beer pong.
With all the drinking going on, some issues were bound to arise. A confrontation happened between Noah and his best friend. Noah had been in a corner with his best friend's girlfriend and apparently they had their backs to everyone else while talking. The best friend took exception to this and an argument ensued. Luckily, it did not become physical and they made up shortly after, but this event with the best friend and his girlfriend is important for later. A second confrontation occurred between Noah and a 16 year old guest that did become physical. The 16 year old accused Noah of hiding his phone, although the reasons why he thought Noah did it have not been stated. During the argument the kid "fishhooked" Noah and Noah returned the favor by biting his finger. It seems like the other people there were able to diffuse the situation and the kid's phone was found underneath another guest who was sleeping on a couch. As the day went on, things continued to become crazier as the people at the party drank more and more. At one point girls at the party started signing their names on Noah's torso and buttocks, writing things such as "Noah's hot!" and drawing a cartoon penis on his rear-end. Noah and the best friend he had the argument with even drove a John Deere "Gator" UTV "Side by Side" around the property, but stopped when Noah scrapped his hand almost flipping it over. Some people even say that Noah was tossed from the UTV, but he was checked out by a nurse at the party and she said he had nothing to worry about. Another event worth mentioning is that the birthday girl seemed to have a crush on Noah. Noah realized this, or was told this, and while talking to her about it called her a "fat, nasty b*tch". I assume that they were close friends and this is just a drunken teen being a drunken teen. An odd thing to mention is that this girl's mother, who also lives in the home, had told Noah's family that she believed Noah wanted her sexually. Whether this is true or not, I have no clue, but it seems a very weird thing to say to the family of a 19 year old your daughter is friends with.
So here's where the mystery comes in. Early Monday morning (September 4th, 2023), after 2:00am, the guests say that Noah was upset about something and that it might have had to do with sleeping in either the birthday girl's or her mother's bed. One of them either heard, or saw, Noah attempting to sleep in their bed and demanded that he go on the floor. This apparently upset Noah so much that he said he needed to go out for a walk, completely drunk, very early in the morning. The guests say Noah was wearing his best friend's shorts (we'll get to his clothes later) and could only find one of his shoes, so he grabbed another shoe lying around the house and took off out the front door. The house had a 1/2 mile long driveway that then went out to US-81, a major North-South highway that runs for 1,200+ miles through the central US. At 3:41am, a friend of Noah's posted a weird Snapchat: a photo of a girl at the party smiling, with the caption "well, Noah's missing". This was the last Snapchat posted by any of the partygoers after days of constant videos and pics. Around 5:00am, a semi-truck driving along US-81 saw something he believed to be a body lying on the shoulder of the road. After driving past, he became concerned and turned around to confirm what he saw. By the time he got back, two other vehicles had stopped in front of the lifeless body of Noah on the shoulder. He was completely naked wearing only 2 mismatched shoes and curled up in a fetal position. He appeared to have blunt force trauma to the back of his head. He had small scrapes on his left shoulder and left hip and his fingertips on both hands were reported as being "shredded", down to the bone. Noah's front top and bottom teeth had also been knocked out and they were found scattered at the scene. There was no blood found at the scene, other than a small amount around Noah's injuries. Very concerning was the fact that there was no writing on his body anywhere. Not on his torso and not on his buttocks. The shorts Noah was wearing were found folded up next him. The people at the party said "They must've been knocked off when he was hit.", which obviously does not make sense.
Around 6:00am, with the police already notified by the people who found Noah, all Snapchat's/social media from people at the party was deleted. His friends and acquaintances at the party say they have no idea what led up to his death and they were unaware of it. The police did not search the house because they said: "Noah wasn't found there.". They did eventually conduct a "mass" interview with all the partygoers. During this interview, Noah's best friend's girlfriend, the one that led to his first confrontation, told police she had never met Noah. She had wiped her phone so completely that even her boyfriend's number had been deleted. When the guests were asked about Noah being naked, the girls said they gave Noah a "shower", but Noah's mental state at the time, whether mildly drunk or completely inebriated, has been an area of dispute among the guests. Some say he was joking around and being himself while being showered, other accounts state that he was barely conscious. Noah's clothing he wore to the party that night has never been located. Police were told that after Noah showered his clothes were dirty, so he wore his friend's shorts. There is a rumor that his best friend's father found Noah's shirt from the party, which was then cut-up and distributed to the party attendees as a "memento". In addition to this event with his shirt, there is also information that his best friend's father had some of Noah's teeth in his pocket. He stated he "accidentally" picked them up from the crime scene. It's worth stating that this particular individual has been on Noah's family's Facebook memorial page for months, arguing with others on there. Just very odd behavior from an adult father who's son's best friend died mysteriously. But, on this same topic, NONE of the partygoers or their families have ever visited Noah's family to express their condolences. Never once.
Since Noah's friends and others at the party said they didn't know what happened, the police had their work cut out for them. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol obtained a "geofence" warrant covering a 1-1/2 mile radius around the party house. What they found was a bit disturbing. Around the time it is believed Noah died, 2 phones were traced as having left the house, heading to the location of his body. After briefly staying there, the two phones returned to the house. People at the party told a private investigator hired by Noah's family that they went out looking for Noah in the UTV/Gator that Noah and his friend had been on earlier. If they had really done this, they would have found him since the phones were at the spot Noah was found. It has not been released who exactly this was. Also revealed when police searched phones was a video of the birthday girl and her sister on their front porch, screaming at each other about Noah leaving the party. It is believed that this could be relevant. The Texas Rangers also became involved, due to the fact that two men at the party were from Texas. It is not known if these men are persons of interest. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also quietly issued a warrant for a "black pick-up truck" believed to have been used to dump his body, but it is unknown why they are looking for this particular vehicle. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has unequivocally stated that this was 100% NOT a hit-and-run. They have now also said that this is NOT a murder investigation. The Medical Examiner's report released on Monday, May 13th 2024 stated that Noah died from "Multiple Blunt Force injuries", but list the manner in which this happened as "unknown". His report also detailed extensive injuries to the teen's upper body, including 10 broken ribs, serious skull, neck, and spine fractures, internal bleeding, brain and organ damage, and cuts and grazes all over his body. The autopsy also revealed air in both his cranial cavity and spinal cord, extremely rare conditions only caused by massive head trauma. The family has heard rumors that a golf club from the set in his best friend's truck may have been involved, but nothing else has come of this.
The family has engaged with a private investigator, who did uncover previously unknown information, and gave that to the police. They have also said that there is much more which has not been publicly released and that the search of the phones did uncover good information. Also according to the family, some evidence has been covered-up or lost and that the day after the party, the birthday girl's house and property reeked of bleach. Despite this, his family says good things are going on behind the scenes.
So, with all of the above information, it doesn't seem to be a stretch to say that someone from the party knows something. It is my personal belief that this case will be resolved, but I think three things will have to happen: Time, Pressure and Guilt. At some point in the future, someone from the party will feel guilty, or media pressure will get to them and they will talk. Unfortunately, it may take some time unless the police uncover new evidence sooner. Thank you very much for reading this, but please let me know your thoughts on this case and feel free to ask questions.
Sources:
Podcast (Interview w/ Noah's family): https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jimny-carpenteepisodes/The-Suspicious-Murder-Of-Noah-Presgrove-Part-1-e2dchac
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13421341/Oklahoma-teen-Noah-Presgrove-beaten-death-gang-doctor-claims.html
https://kfor.com/news/local/m-e-releases-more-details-in-19-year-olds-death/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/oklahoma-teen-military-hopefuls-family-cant-imagine-was-murdered-offers-theory-about-last-hours

Hello everyone! I'm hoping someone on here might be able to help me!
My girlfriend absolutely adores Trixie and Katya. She listens to one of their shows every night to help her fall asleep, some she's heard over 100 times I'm sure of it :) For her birthday, I was hoping to get her a cameo from Trixie, or Katya, or both, that she could set as her morning alarm. She's been trying really hard to get up earlier and improve her quality of life by doing so, but it's hard and her alarms are all annoying/disheartening for her. I thought a cameo from them might be the perfect sound to wake up to!
Sadly, it looks like neither Trixie nor Katya are on Cameo right now. So, my question is, does anyone know of some videos they've been in where they've said something that could work as an alarm? Anything even close like "get up bitch!" or "you're not that lazy" or "it's a nice day why are you inside?". Just anything with a vibe like that which I could use to make an alarm for her :)

I'm venting but also seeking advice. Is it relatively normal for husbands to feel like they're generally the partner showing desire, seeking closeness with their wives, and having to "work for it" versus feeling desired back?
My wife and I have been together for nearly 20 years. In our first year together as 18 year olds, she was very sexually adventurous, seemed to desire me, we had a lot of fun. And then it started to plummet slowly over the years. I know this seems to be a common story and somewhat normal for a lot of people.
I've always had a very high libido and romantic/sexual desire for her. She's seemed to have a very low libido and interest in me that way. Over the years I felt like I often initiated sex, and she often turned me down, and she did say that she had low libido and wondered if it was her depression meds, stress, birth control, always different things. I started initiating much less and just accepting that is how it is between us, but I love her and desire her and want to be with her regardless. I got used to sex once a week being good, and often times once a month being common.
Over the years I gained weight, and she's gone up and down in weight. I think part of me wasn't that worried about my weight and how I looked because I felt like she didn't care anyway since she didn't seem all that sexually interested in me. I just masturbated and watched porn or old photos/videos she had made with me. I was content with this, as much as one could be.
We went on to have kids and were generally very happy. Overall we've had a very good, loving relationship and marriage. We've never separated or had to spend a night away from each other or anything like that.
In the past year, I ended up learning a lot of things about my wife (I won't get into how). I learned that my wife had cheated on me with her high school ex boyfriend in the first months we were dating (when we were 18). I learned that she had questioned our marriage a few years ago before we had kids, and she struggled with not feeling attracted to me at times, likely due to my weight gain (although I'm not sure if all of it was due to that). I learned that she still dwelled occasionally on her high school ex from 20 years ago who had cheated on her, and she would have sexual and romantic dreams about him and still felt hurt about their breakup, still hoped he felt bad about it and thought of her, even though this was all ancient history. I learned that she was "infatuated" with a work colleague a couple years ago, but never did anything inappropriate.
This all sent me in a cycle of depression, and reconciliation with her, where we had many conversations and talked through it all over months. I lost a lot of weight and now look and feel better than I have in 15 years. She insists that she loves only me, is attracted to me, but she had struggles and wasn't prioritizing the right things in life and vows to to better and love me better.
This is where I'm having trouble. I feel like we're on such different wavelengths and she doesn't put in much effort toward the things I ask.
When we were reconciling, she said one thing that would help her feel closer is having scheduled date nights, and she suggested we take turns leading them. I don't enjoy scheduling things as much, but wanted to do it for her. When we started the date nights, I took it seriously and tried to plan special, romantic things for her, tried to surprise her, wrote her a love letter, etc. Then when it was her turn to plan a date night, she didn't plan anything and said, "I was thinking we could play a board game together." This disappointed me the first time, but I didn't say anything, but then it continued. I put in effort, planned things, tried to be romantic, and she seemed to forget about them or come up with an idea at the last minute. So I stopped putting in effort, too, and then surprise, the date nights stopped.
I put care into my appearance all the time and try to look good for her. I keep my beard trimmed and shaved, cut my own hair, try to wear clothes she likes, and even started trimming my pubes because I like it and thought she might as well. She rarely acts like she notices the things I do, and she doesn't seem to really care much.
On the flip side, she gained quite a bit of weight from the birth of our children and hasn't lost much yet after quite a bit of time. I know from experience how hard that is and for women especially. But the part that bothers me is how she seems to not really worry at all about her appearance for me or looking good for me. She knows which clothes I like on her, how I really like her hair, how I like her pubic hair, whatever, and she doesn't do it. To her, it's because she doesn't have the time or is so busy. She'll fart near me or blow her nose really loud next to me constantly. I'll try to nicely hint that I don't like it, but she'll do it anyway.
The other day, my wife walked by me naked and made some flirtatious comment to me "hey, you didn't even try to sneak a peek." She'll do that occasionally, but then won't want to have sex or anything, it's just a comment. But it made me sad because I realized that over our 20 years together, she very rarely if ever looks at me sexually when I'm naked after a shower, she very rarely has come up to grab by butt or act like she wants me, but I've always done those things to her over the years. She'll on rare occasion make a comment about wanting to do something romantic or sexual, and then later when the time comes, she says nothing about it and acts like she completely forgot she ever said that.
I'm feeling less attracted to her overall, and for the first time maybe ever, I'm not really wanting to have sex with her as much. I've never been with any other woman in my life (she was with others before me), and I don't really want to be, but I do want to feel desired and like someone is really attracted to me and cares. I want to feel romantic and adventurous and not like an old man even though I'm still young.

Welcome back to my running series of WWF PPV Reviews from a ‘blind’ perspective (I have no idea what’s going to happen; the results, the feuds or how good any of the matches will be). I have always heard stories of the attitude era and golden age but never watched it myself so I set myself to watching every single PPV event chronologically. I am also watching Wrestling Bios ‘reliving the war’ series to keep me updated inbetween the events with the feuds, and to get excited about upcoming matches.
Before I review the matches, based on the past few episodes of raw and last PPVs I’ll let you know, going into the event, which match I’m most excited for and which feud I’m most excited to see.
Another stone cold vs Bret hart match has to steal my match im most excited for this time round.
And feud wise once again it’s Bret hart vs Austin you just simply have nothing close to this feud in the WWF right now.
WWF In Your House - Revenge of the Taker 1997 Match Ratings
LOD vs Bulldog & Owen Hart 2.75/5
Savio Vega vs Rocky Maivia 1.25/5
Jesse James vs Rockabilly 0.5/5
Mankind vs Undertaker 4.25/5
Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin 4.25/5
Tag team action in the wwf is majorly improving now; there’s a few teams I look forward to seeing, and the two teams in the opening match are both in this category.
I actually thought in terms of an opener this was a really well booked match. It had some unique drama; some very good moves by LOD and the new Hart Foundation and a good finish to continue the feud. Bulldog ends up getting pinned but as the illegal man so the match continues which I was very happy with as I was enjoying the match and the crowd was too! It usually takes a while for the crowd to get going but they were instantly into this bout and you can’t blame them. I really hope we get more of this duo of teams because they have some great entertaining chemistry. Bret hart ends up coming to the ring when LOD looks like they’re gunna win and the champions retain as a result of a DQ, I wouldn’t have minded a title change but it was a good heel finish. One of the better openers for the events I’ve seen so far. FINALLY making tag teams worth watching. Owen hart is playing the cowardly heel extremely well and it’s very easy to route for LOD as baby faces, just a great opener to the event.
Now I may have my bias but I’m really enjoying seeing Rocky’s intercontinental title reign, although the crowd aren’t really into his character he’s still an above average wrestler and still entertaining in my opinion, he’s still having some decent matches (maybe not this one) and I look forward to seeing him wrestle.
With all that being said, I don’t think this was a great match on either part. The crowd was quiet as either competitor never really seemed to get going or have any great chemistry in the squared circle. Usually I can find some enjoyment out of a Rocky match, and seeing the rock bottom for the first time was a pretty hype moment for me. The match had a really boring finish though, with Rocky being sent to the outside, hitting crush and being counted out, retaining the title. Really not much to say here, but to be fair to Rocky he didn’t really have much to work with the booking of this match. At this point the crowd didn’t care either way.
Man… the next match though oh boy I think the less said about this the better. This… is the pay off after months of the honky tonk man looking for his new prodigy, and how to kill a crowd 101 takes place right here. The gimmick of rockabilly just did not work at all for me and it was quite simply sh*t. I preferred him as a heel even if it wasn’t great it was better than… whatever this was. The actual wrestling was below average, and rockabilly should stick to tag team wrestling he just can’t do singles matches. I thought Jesse James was okay but if you listen to the crowd during this match it was silent, and that’s completely how I feel. Just avoid this one like the plague.
Mankind and the Undertaker are up next and we haven’t seen these two share a ring together in a while so I’m very excited to see what they can pull off. And with this promo video before the match that genuinely would’ve probably given me nightmares as a kid, HOPEFULLY this can reignite this event.
And it makes me so happy to see a great undertaker match, I really enjoyed this one and it had some brutal moments. Notably mankind going literally headfirst through a table which was a fu**ing mental bump to do. I have no idea why the ref didn’t stop the match when mankind smashed a glass cylinder on undertaker and blatantly headshot undertaker with a steel chair right in front of him, was it a no DQ match or not I don’t understand that. But it was genuinely entertaining. I loved this match it was a typically well paced match by undertaker, who’s able to slow it down whilst still keeping it entertaining which is something almost no one else can do (ESPECIALLY NOT SID). Mankind is just a lunatic with the bumps he sets himself up to take, he’s always been a very anticipated wrestler to watch simply because of how mad he is. Undertaker really showcased how good he is in this match and I’m really looking forward to this title reign, I hope it lasts a while because when he has the right opponent he can pull of some absolute bangers. This match didn’t overstay its welcome either at a nice 17 minutes it was just right. Also I want to note mankind hit two really good looking piledrivers in a row and being able to do that with someone as massive as undertaker is seriously impressive. It wasn’t a wrestling masterclass, it wasn’t pretty but it sure was entertaining and the crowd absolutely loved it. If you’re an undertaker fan and enjoyed the mankind feud it’s definitely worth a watch.
After the match undertaker FINALLY gets revenge on Paul bearer for all his bullst he’s been pulling by literally burning him with a f*ing fireball, the same thing that mankind did a couple of weeks prior. There was this weird segment after the match before this burn where undertaker was circling the ring and it looked like mankind was trying to put something on his finger I’m not sure what happened here, but as usual such a good feud. Great match great promo awesome feud.
Now we get the main event and what needs to be said, it’s Austin vs hart you’re gunna be excited especially after wrestlemania 13. I think the hart foundation is pulling off its heel angle really well and it brings a little more to an already fantastic feud. Let’s see what they’ve got for us this time.
First off I wanna say no one exchanges punches like stone cold and Bret hart, the way they do it just something about it is so f***ing awesome, the selling the characters the way the feet are positioned I have no idea but I LOVE IT! What I didn’t enjoy as much this time around was the complete focus of Bret hart on Austin’s knee. Let me elaborate, although it made sense with him as a technical and intelligent wrestler, and made even more sense for him as a heel it really slowed the match down for a while and there was a long section where it wasn’t really all too interesting, just Bret pulling the same moves to the knee over and over, but that’s just me personally. I know how good of a wrestler he was and I was more interested to see that classic style wrestling he’s so well known for, that’s all I’m saying.
The comebacks by Austin were such hype moments though, he’s just such a perfect character for the WWF and you can see why he became such a megastar. Austin really sold this match well though he never once forgot about the knee injury and pressure Bret had put on him, purposefully botching moves to show his knee giving out was super believable, I actually thought at points he would have to stop because his knee was really that injured.
The DQ finish was a little iffy for me because yet again we’re yet to see one of these legends truly lose, but if it means we get more of them then I’m all for it. After the match it looks like Austin is gunna get assaulted even more from the save from bulldog but Austin counters, smashing the chair into Bret, the crowd is going bonkers! Then Austin hits another shooting star press and the crowd is going even more nuts!! He’s getting some revenge for the last match at wrestlemania. It takes five refs to manage to pull Austin off and god this is such a great moment. I cannot get enough of these two in the ring their chemistry is just electric; a perfect rivalry. It ends with more iconic shots of Austin celebrating in the ring and he’s gone baby face at this point and I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!! What a blessed time to be a wrestling fan this was. While this wasn’t on the level of their classic survivor series and wrestlemania matches it was still a class act and well worth watching. Can these two miss??
Also as a side note what are the refs doing unless I’m missing something; multiple chair shots in what I thought were normal matches (DQs from chair shots) happened in more than one match. I’m assuming they’re just letting this stuff unfold because people popped for it? Either way it’s extremely entertaining just a little confusing.
Overall the event had a good opener, a really bad mid card, but finished very strong with two great main events. It’s nice to see tag team action getting some love and becoming interesting to watch. And undertaker really improving his in ring ability after he was able to gain a bit more freedom following the buried alive match, this makes him an attraction on his own already. Austin and hart continue to deliver in the main event scene (I’m calling their WM13 the main event) and I’m pretty sure at this point you can consider Austin as a superstar in the WWF. It’s been fantastic also seeing this rivalry and Bret hart wrestle as I’d never seen any of it before so it feels like a proper treat watching all this unfold.
Overall rating 3.5/5

Lol now ihub punk is asking “What is the current sales pipeline for Lightwave Logic's polymer modulators and other products? Can you share any details on the size and timing of potential deals with the 20+ major corporations that have viewed the technology demo?"
"When do you anticipate Lightwave Logic will achieve its first $1 million revenue quarter? What milestones need to be hit to reach that level of quarterly sales?"
"What is the company's plan to become cash flow positive and profitable? When do you expect Lightwave Logic to reach profitability?”
Punkin has come a long way, he used to say that it could never be done, now he keeps falling back, apparently trying to hold the line, lol, now he is asking questions about revenue and dang even invoking God to help humanity as his reason for posting in his credentials. Even if one thinks that they are right that is quite a statement, typically something that a reasonable person keeps to themselves a life's effort is something between them and their creator. I have no idea where this technology will lead or what it will solve, my goal is an investment, certainly not divine, I have no clue in the end who it will truly benefit but the medical thing does have potential.
Today I'm happy with thousands of modulators on a foundry produced wafer. And thousands of modulators from a few ounces of Perkinamine. These modulators Triple the speed, reduce the power and are 1/30 the size of today's modulators. Lebby will fill us in on what we need, he is far more intelligent than anyone on this board.
Read on folks.
Oh and do not forget about those that sold early (or didn’t sell early) that purport to be long and like to consistently complain every single time the price drops. Let me try to explain it this way, this is not a sports game, this is a technology, so unlike sports, points can be literally be taken of the scoreboard by simply borrowing and selling shares (shorts). Remember though that those shares must be purchased back and until then the actual score of the game is not known. So the shorts agenda is to sell it down then try and convince folks to sell them shares at that discounted price. Some longs do not understand that they are helping the shorts at their game. That being said, there are currently 17% more shares sold than exist. They have borrowed those shares and pay interest daily and have sold them to us with the hope of buying them back at a reduced price (Some purported longs even try to help them) apparently, they think that if they complain it will force an NVDA, Microsoft, IBM, Amazon to reach an agreement with Lightwave sooner. Well, it will not change the speed of the adoption of the technology, I’m all for doing a tier1 agreement, but a few quick little agreements could force their hand so the Tier1’s do not have to have to honor those agreements should the company be taken over. Some seam to forget that until now Silicon photonics could keep up, but no more and with AI we just entered a new world, where the pace set by Moore's Law for silicon photonics is leisurely compared to this new demand. AI is totally on a sprint, with its computational power doubling not every two years, but approximately every six months.
Let me look at what the shorts have said over the years basically throwing spaghetti at the wall and have been proven wrong. Patents were filed in 2020, 2021, ALD I think was 2022. Patents were not made public, the shorts were babbling meanwhile Lebby had not only solved it but wrote and submitted patents.
Here are the 10 top B.S. short myths, trying to suppress the stock so they could try and cover I also think that there are a few purported longs that sold prematurely that are now helping to push the shorts game forward, meanwhile with the next deal announcement the dam is about to burst.
I’d love to see Punkin hold a conversation with Lebby one on one for 5 minutes, it would be hilarious,
Shorts and those paid by the shorts to act like they “know something” won't even tell you when they are short, they just say, no not short just here to spend my life 7 days a week helping folks that I have never met. Well, here they are, you tell me guys.
1.) The shorts had worked for months to try and convince investors that Lightwave had a problem poling. Then low and behold Lightwave unveiled 2 patents they submitted years prior solving that issue.
2.) The shorts claimed for years Lightwave could not protect the device in anything other than a gold box, then Lightwave unveiled the ALD patent that they had acquired. Basically, hair spray over the finished chip is all that is needed. The foundries are using the same thing over the electronics side of the chip. Understand that even if someone else invents an EO Polymer Lightwave Owns the Patent on ALD over Polymers. Comprende?
3.) The shorts claimed Lightwaves material was not stable, Wham Bam blown out of the water yet again.
4.) Shorts said that Lightwave could never get this under 1 volt, well Lightwave did, in fact Lightwaves polymer is so sensitive that their modulators can function without the aid of driver to boost the voltage. Basically the electrons in the 1's and 0's rolling off the silicon can embed themselves into the laser using Lightwaves polymer. Oh and by the way, Lightwave also owns the patent on a driverless Polymer Modulator. Even if someone perfects a stable sensitive EO polymer when the want to do direct drive, they have to come knocking on Lightwaves door with cash in hand.
5.) For the 6 months leading up to last years annual shareholder meeting the shorts stated Lightwave could not close a commercial deal all the then like now trying to convince us that the sky was falling and once again Lebby delivered.
6.) For months the shorts said Lightwave could not use anything other than gold on their electrodes, well guess the F what, yup, once again (at the shareholders meeting) Lebby put up a slide of successful foundry runs and when asked by me if the contacts labeled AL on the slide stood for Aluminum Lebby said “yes, we use that any many other materials as well”. I asked about aluminum corrosion, the response was, X (you idiot) that is what the ALD will also protect.
7.) The Shorts were trying to convince longs that the foundry had not made progress on PDK’s, Lebby certainly blew them out of the water on that as well. As info PDK’s are process development kits, it is how the foundries make Lightwaves devices available to the public so when an NVDA’s, Amazon (AWS), Cisco or Fujitsu are designing devices they can check that box and add that to their device in the foundry. 2 weeks ago lebby said the foundries have thousands of modulators per wafer. On question that I need to understand is that with thousands of devices on a wafer how many of those thousands of modulators are affected by the kerf when dicing (sawing or scribing?)
8) The shorts used to say that it couldn’t me done now as you see Pumpkin is asking Yes but “What is the current sales pipeline for Lightwave Logic's polymer modulators? Can you share any details on the size and timing of potential deals with the 20+ major corporations that have viewed the technology demo? When do you anticipate Lightwave Logic will achieve its first $1 million revenue quarter? What milestones need to be hit to reach that level of quarterly sales? What is the company's plan to become cash flow positive and profitable? When do you expect Lightwave Logic to reach profitability?” Lol, Lol and again Lol It sounds like Pumpkin is finally being honest, perhaps it is by divine intervention on his posts
9) As info the institutions now own 26% of the shares, The shorts would have us believe that is irrelevant, wait what?
10) I like this, Ted who also has another ID said that he gets his info from the internet because everything on it is true. When asked why he does not use first-hand information he said that he is not good at reading people, lol and yet he watches every video with baited breath.
I know some do not see it but as evidenced by their latest efforts the shorts are worried and it is obvious that whomever they got their info from was consistently years behind making up issues that had in fact already been solved. I would not want to have been an advisor to the shorts.
Lightwave is finally at the stage where they have the patents in place, moved into additional lab space, hired additional lab personnel for making larger quantities of perkinamine, (a few fluid ounces can make thousands of devices) the new lab will be equipped to test larger quantities of chips coming back from foundries, work on new polymers for additional devices (they even have another polymer available for licensing) produce data sheets, standardize bulk testing, they have even hired a dedicated deal maker, oh also a V.P. dedicated just to working with foundries that are actively running wafers. Now they have added a former Intel deal maker to the board of directors.
Soon this thing will in fact snowball because the industry's "go to" good old silicon photonics has hit the wall it simply cannot run faster. Lightwaves material when added applied to Silicon triples the speed and because it is so sensitive it is 30times smaller and uses 1/10 the power all at a time when AI is pushing the amount of data processed by the data centers through the roof.
~Some of us were wondering why the Lightwave employees were still in town (apparently held over) for an extra 2 days over after the OFC San Frisco meeting, now we see that there were no less than 20 companies that apparently requested an unscheduled impromptu demo on a holiday week (good Friday) after the convention was over. Not only did Lightwave employees not go home but it sounds like a bunch of Tier 1’s and such saw it as important enough to see ASAP. And yes while many on here say that NDA’s do not exist, LOL I’ll bet that not only were NDA’s mandatory but I bet that every demo was “private” by scheduled appointment only and also attended by the various expert employees at Lightwave to get the most bang for the buck.~
Lightwave makes the thing that makes the component better anyone communicating using fiber optics needs it, the entire industry needs it. Think if BASF produces a chemical that makes paint last longer. Why would the paint manufacture tell its competitors what makes their paint so durable. Lightwave is going partner with many and they will simply sell devices that are faster and require less energy, those companies are not going to tell the competition what they do to make that happen. Lightwave will quietly market to the tier1's and they will insist on it in their data centers and devices. The one exception that I see is that if the foundry runs were paid for by Lightwave Logic (vs. say an amazon or facebook etc) Lightwave would do joint public PR of where the industry can order chips with Lightwaves Perkinamine on it (It is called checking the box on the PDK).
The shorting situation will be solved by additional Partnerships and look out when those Partnerships are accompanied by a dividend in a new 3rd party company licensing say the ability to develop the Lidar device market or for the biotech crowd a medical sensing partner, wham short situation solved in short order. Remember that currently they are only talking about Telcom 2km to 10km market but there are so many more.
Currently 1k difference between the buys and sells changed it 1 penny. Folks this is just normal trading without any pressure on the price. This time next week we’ll either be in the lab or in the meeting.
Still trying to digest the effects of T+1 on the shorts especially the foreign exchange rate, Fails To Deliver, Naked shorting etc. it is coming the Tuesday after Memorial Day (Holiday in the U.S., which is the weekend after the Shareholders Meeting), Finra Settlement Date 5/31 which then will mean a trade date of 5/30.
Short Game, Market Maker Game, Institution Game, changing technology
Check it out rainy day so I thought I’d look Punkin “I never said any of those things in that context. I’m just here doing Gods work” https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=174419282 That was in reply to JimJet218’s statement. 1. Couldn't be poled. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=169035142&txt2

1. Needed a gold case. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=170733222&txt2
   
2. Would never be less than 1 volt. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=144502197&txt2 Pumpkin claims to be doing “Gods Work”.
   

Xster Rainy day so I thought I'd spend few minutes today,
Getting spanked so far today.

I’m a diehard fan of J Cole since like 2010 , and since then I’ve been pretty sure that Cole was destined for greatness. Seeing his rise to the top was super satisfying for me, someone who’s spoken in his defense for a long time against those people who called his music boring, and sleepy.
Either way I don’t care what people think, his music has helped me through some tough times and he’ll forever have a place in my heart for that. After Cole’s FPS feature and even after listening to the ‘Scary Hours 3’ tape , they were clearly working together a lot. They were even on tour together (I think ? I’m not sure) But after these allegations against Drake, what does that say about the people who’ve worked with Drake. Did they know and turn a blind eye? J Cole seemed like he was in close quarters with Drake for a while , maybe they were in the studio together while recording FPS and ‘Evil Ways’ . They even recorded a video together.
But J Cole strikes me as someone who’s friends for everyone and just in it for the art and the craft… idk if it’s reasonable to say he’s complicit in all the stuff Drake is doing behind closed doors, especially if it involves Lucien Grange and the higher ups in Universal Music Group. But idk, what do yall think about this ?
TLDR : Kendrick alleges Drake is a pdf file and everything , but as someone who’s worked closely with Drake for a while , did J Cole know ? I’m a huge fan and am not on a mission to defame Cole but I just couldn’t help but wonder this

Everything happens for a reason; doesn’t it?
That’s what I seem to say when things go wrong at least. Is it just me or is it much easier to look for signs from the universe when things go tits up and thank skill otherwise? Anyway.
What I’m saying is that there must be cosmic power out there doing everything it can to prevent me from getting my hands on some Glastonbury festival tickets.
But that’s not the real problem; lots of people miss out on Glastonbury tickets every year. No, the real problem is that the same celestial being that is blocking my chances has also planted the deepest desire any human has ever had for it in my soul.
Now you see the problem?
Nice, well let me tell you how this rather irrelevant problem in the grand scheme of things led to some of the greatest moments of my life.
Before I jump in, you may be wondering what the point in this post is. Well, there are two reasons.

1. To inspire people who have repeatedly missed out on Glastonbury festival tickets too.
2. Perhaps putting this out there will play with those cosmic forces and direct me towards something as magical as the things I’m about to tell you about.

I’ll do my best not to make this sound like a LinkedIn post; loosely tying major events to some business mindset.
But here we go. Here’s how repeatedly missing out on Glastonbury festival tickets has made some unbelievable stories, and how being backed into a corner with nothing but desire can create yours too.

It begins on our fifth year of missing out on Glastonbury tickets

It should have been sooner, really, but there was a lack of confidence back then.
There was this realisation that it’s likely we could never go.
That time keeps ploughing forward and we retain our high score of being denied access.
It’s then that something kicked in. Have you felt it before?
It’s that burst of adrenaline that hits you like a kiss. You suddenly become a visionary. You’ve gone from being in a pit with no exit to becoming a library of ideas and possibilities. There’s this sense of eternal optimism and possibility.
Do you know how to get there?
By sitting on your problem for long enough that it starts to feel comfortable.
Y’see, it’s not what you have that brings you victory, it’s how you use it. When you have less you are naturally more inventive.
And when you’ve been battered repeatedly, you either get creative or die.
Here’s how the stars aligned themselves for us.
It was October 2019 when we missed out.
“There HAS to be another way?!”
After trawling through the Glastonbury festival website, we stumbled upon a third release of tickets. A set number of tickets that are released for the press and media outlets. This. This is it. This is our way in.
I remember it as clear as day.
I jumped on the phone and pitched the idea to the gang. Hesitant at first, but the energy made the sale.
No Taste was born. The reason you’re reading this now.
We spun up the website in days. Reached out for volunteers to help create content by reviewing gigs and going out ourselves most nights of the week. We had press and professional photo passes within weeks of starting and were churning out high-quality content at a rate that had us lined up for the media release in February.
Honestly, I’ve never felt more alive.
Here I was navigating a media site, with no real idea of the etiquette or any idea of how to do anything in this space for that matter.
Just weeks before I was slumped in bed after another failed attempt to buy tickets. Now we have something as big as Glastonbury, at least in my mind.
We had the logo tattooed on our chest to ink it into existence. (In the same place, which, of course, we later came to regret when going on holiday together.)
In February 2020, we submitted our press application.
In March 2020, everyone had No Taste and COVID-19 closed down the UK, cancelling the Glastonbury festival. For about two years, there was no live music and the festival that ignited No Taste paused.
No Taste still lives on, evidently, and I still get that buzz each time we review a show.
We’re yet to get in as press but watch this space.

And that’s not it. It gets better.

We missed out on tickets in 2023 as well — obviously. It should be fairly clear that fate doesn’t let me buy tickets.
But we were going and we were telling everyone that we were going.
“Oh lucky, you managed to get tickets”, people would say.
“Ahh…, we’re actually missing that part”, we’d confidently return.
There’d be an awkward, confused silence.
We’d then explain how we’re going to be there, we just don’t know how. And people just believed us.
It’s that conviction you get from having a clear vision. A visceral desire.
People might be sceptical, but they’re still going to watch.
And you just have this infectious vitality that opens up things you’ve never even dreamt of.
I’d watched a video beforehand that mentioned ‘throwing your bag over the fence’. It meant more metaphorically, but it works in reality in this context too. Essentially it’s saying that if you throw your bag over the fence, you’ve no other choice but to scale it to get it back.
On the big day, we set off with our packed bags and not one iota of an idea of how we’re getting in.
There’s a long, insanely serendipitous story of how we managed to walk in here, but that’s exactly what happened.
We just… walked in.
It may have taken us over ten hours, but we did it.
And it was easily one of the greatest moments of my life, all from being unable to buy tickets.
So not all is lost if you were also unable to get tickets. Hopefully, there’s been some inspiration in here.

• Find a problem you’re willing to stare at, head-on until the vision takes over you, don’t use AI as a shortcut to solving it.
• Throw your bag over the fence and go all in on it at least once.

Sometimes the ‘airy-fairy’, coincidental stuff hits you too hard to brush off. Trust persistence.
And guess what, it’s 2024 and that’s right, we missed out again.
We've already spent the same amount as the tickets on Tony's Chocolonely, started drinking at random times of the day with Brothers cider and lost half my friends by spamming them with instagram tags to no avail.
Sneaking in is off the cards as that was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but it hasn’t stopped the scheming and plotting.
In fact, as mentioned, this is part of the plot.
Maybe you, or someone you know, can help us this year? Or help us spread the word at least?
If not, follow us to find out what we get up to this year.

I swear I've heard this sound shift mostly among 20-30 somethings that are at least middle class and speak dialects closer to General American, hell I've found myself gradually picking it up in casual speech.
For reference, I've been spending summers at home in Connecticut and going to college in New York, where I've basically only heard this shift in white middle class folks like myself who speak GA English as opposed to a local ethnolect or variety of NYC English. I've also heard it spread throughout GA Internet speech within the same time span, so my current guess is that YouTube and other video/social media platforms might be a factor in this shift's gradual spread. This shift could be a unique innovation, or it could possibly be a result of increased contact with the many Brits/Australians that rack up numbers on YouTube and become close friends with Americans on Discord these days.
Thoughts? Has anyone else observed this shift?

I’m 24f and I have one more year of grad school left. It’s always been hard for me to make friends. Even the friends I do have, I just feel like they think I’m weird and they feel bad for me.
I immigrated here when I was in the 6th grade. All throughout middle & high school, I was picked up immediately after school (I joined sports, so immediately after practice), couldn’t have my phone with me at night (until the end of my senior year lmao), only hung out with people outside of school 1-2 times a MONTH, have only been able to “sleep over” at a friend’s place once or twice ever, it was “wrong” to bring people to my place bc it was my “family’s” place and my parents couldn’t “relax” if a friend was over (my parents and my friends have never been in the same house before bc I never could bring anyone over), I was expected to be in the living room at almost all times & couldn’t really be in my room with the door shut, I couldn’t even go to a 7/11 by myself. Idk I just remember telling people I had really really strict parents. I almost feel crazy writing this because I feel like they never actually told me any of that and I just chose to do all that. But the more I get older, the more I feel like my I just never got a chance to make friends and develop friendships. Thankfully I always had 1-2 close friends throughout middle-high school. And all throughout college, I mean I have some friends, but I have a hard time deepening friendships.
I get jealous when I see other people’s old videos of their childhood friends and them hanging out like normal kids. I wish I got to go outside my house more and hang out with people outside of school and sports more. I sound like such a baby, and I’m an adult now, but I just feel like it’s impacting me. I never thought it would, but I just wish I was normal.
I think I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that my family was not normal. I never wanted to admit it, but as much as my parents love me and tried their best, I do think they messed me up. From my parent’s overprotection to their anxiety that something was going to happen to me to my dad’s anger to getting berated for 6 hours straight for something small and pretending like it didn’t bother me, and I have never voiced this to my parents.
My parents are different people now. Much calmer, my sister is still in highschool and it seems like she live a more normal life, going out with friends, and I know I shouldn’t be but I’m jealous of that. My boyfriend thinks I should bring this up to them, but my parents and I just don’t have that kind of relationship. We don’t “talk” like that and I don’t want to hurt them especially because they tried their best. We were so poor when we first came to the US and we were going through it together along with getting familiarized to living in a whole new country.
But sometimes I just wish I could have the heart to just let this all out. I have literally never acted out against my parents. I just wish I had a more normal teenage life and just did whatever I wanted to do. I was always so scared of them. And idk I feel like I started writing about friendships and it came to this haha, but now mostly friendship is impacting me the most, I feel.
I have a boyfriend of like 2 years and 4 months. I’ve slowly been telling him stuff, but I’m scared to reveal my whole self. He’s probably gonna think I’m not actually the girl he thought I was.
It’s just hard because I try to tell myself affirmations and listen to audio books and keep telling myself these advice throughout the day to feel good. But why can’t I just be normal. I wish I just had a normal childhood.
I started seeing a free therapist a few weeks back and it’s been helpful a little, but eventually I want to find one I could pay for. Also, I moved out when I was 18 (dorms my first year, and apartments since then. I tried moving back in during COVID, and I left after 5 months haha), and see my parents 3-4 times a year. Just a random fact. I’m not sure if I’m looking for advice, but I don’t want people to feel bad for me. I just wanted to voice that I feel lonely, and I just wish I had a normal upbringing. Is anyone in a similar situation as me?

I’m 24f and I have one more year of grad school left. It’s always been hard for me to make friends. Even the friends I do have, I just feel like they think I’m weird and they feel bad for me.
I immigrated here when I was in the 6th grade. All throughout middle & high school, I was picked up immediately after school (I joined sports, so immediately after practice), couldn’t have my phone with me at night (until the end of my senior year lmao), only hung out with people outside of school 1-2 times a MONTH, have only been able to “sleep over” at a friend’s place once or twice ever, it was “wrong” to bring people to my place bc it was my “family’s” place and my parents couldn’t “relax” if a friend was over (my parents and my friends have never been in the same house before bc I never could bring anyone over), I was expected to be in the living room at almost all times & couldn’t really be in my room with the door shut, I couldn’t even go to a 7/11 by myself. Idk I just remember telling people I had really really strict parents. I almost feel crazy writing this because I feel like they never actually told me any of that and I just chose to do all that. But the more I get older, the more I feel like my I just never got a chance to make friends and develop friendships. Thankfully I always had 1-2 close friends throughout middle-high school. And all throughout college, I mean I have some friends, but I have a hard time deepening friendships.
I get jealous when I see other people’s old videos of their childhood friends and them hanging out like normal kids. I wish I got to go outside my house more and hang out with people outside of school and sports more. I sound like such a baby, and I’m an adult now, but I just feel like it’s impacting me. I never thought it would, but I just wish I was normal.
I think I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that my family was not normal. I never wanted to admit it, but as much as my parents love me and tried their best, I do think they messed me up. From my parent’s overprotection to their anxiety that something was going to happen to me to my dad’s anger to getting berated for 6 hours straight for something small and pretending like it didn’t bother me, and I have never voiced this to my parents.
My parents are different people now. Much calmer, my sister is still in highschool and it seems like she live a more normal life, going out with friends, and I know I shouldn’t be but I’m jealous of that. My boyfriend thinks I should bring this up to them, but my parents and I just don’t have that kind of relationship. We don’t “talk” like that and I don’t want to hurt them especially because they tried their best. We were so poor when we first came to the US and we were going through it together along with getting familiarized to living in a whole new country.
But sometimes I just wish I could have the heart to just let this all out. I have literally never acted out against my parents. I just wish I had a more normal teenage life and just did whatever I wanted to do. I was always so scared of them. And idk I feel like I started writing about friendships and it came to this haha, but now mostly friendship is impacting me the most, I feel.
I have a boyfriend of like 2 years and 4 months. I’ve slowly been telling him stuff, but I’m scared to reveal my whole self. He’s probably gonna think I’m not actually the girl he thought I was.
It’s just hard because I try to tell myself affirmations and listen to audio books and keep telling myself throughout the day to feel good. But why can’t I just be normal. I wish I just had a normal childhood.
I started seeing a free therapist a few weeks back and it’s been helpful a little, but eventually I want to find one I could pay for. I’m not sure if I’m looking for advice, but I don’t want people to feel bad for me. I just wanted to voice that I feel lonely, and I just wish I had a normal upbringing.

When I (31f) was younger, around 13/14 I made a friend in high-school, we weren't super close at first but quickly became pretty inseparable, we spent all of our free time at her house with her family and younger brother. We were all pretty close in age and would hang out all the time, I was a pretty bad friend and our relationship was rocky as she couldn't handle conflict and I was walking Conflict. She would shut down and we couldn't even communicate. Her brother however was infatuated. He was always sitting and talking with me, asking me questions and trying to spend more time with me. When we were older (18-19) one night we ended up in a pool alone together drunk and I ended up taking his virginity, I don't fully remember it or even really remember enjoying it, I was pretty drunk at the time and have horrible self esteem and confidence so I guess i let it happen. I felt pretty guilty but told my friend who had expected it and didn't seem to care. Years go by and in this time my friend and I help him get a girlfriend, he gets settled into a relationship and I move away. My friend and I ended up having a falling out about four years ago, though we are on speaking terms now but don't talk often. Her brother however, is constantly reaching out, for the last four years it has been almost daily, from random messages asking how I'm doing to selfies and dick pics. I didn't care too much, I had told my friend her brother was doing it (he's still with the girl we set him up with over 10 years ago) & she said she knew, that she has girls come up to her all the time and it's horrible and embarrassing. I figured there wasn't much I could do if everyone knew so I would just leave him on read and respond when he would ask questions etc. Until yesterday. He got drunk and sent me videos of him and his gf having sex, many many videos and pictures. He essentially told me that was what he wanted to do to me and I later found out that she had no idea. I don't know if she knows he's filming her but she absolutely doesn't know I'm getting them. He told me not to worry about her and just enjoy them. Telling anyone would result in drama I'm not prepared to deal with, I live nowhere near them now, they have kids and she hasn't ever listened to anyone warning her before. I have no desire to have sex with him, I haven't done anything with him aside from that one night and have never sent him a nude in response. He said I've been teasing him for years but most of the time I leave him on read. I don't know what to do, if she knew and was an active participant, this would be hot, but she isn't and I feel so gross.