Koinos is a blockchain built for freedom. It is fast, free-to-use and decentralized at its core.
If you are considering how to get involved in blockchain, there aren’t many good options for you, but Koinos can offer deep value for both newcomers and existing blockchain fanatics. Why?
In the search for deep value, I had to get to the root of why I and so many others spend time on this edge technology called blockchain. What I’ve learned after talking to many people is that the overwhelming majority of us have one ultimate reason:
We want exposure to the next hot technology so we can make money and open doors to new opportunities in our lives. Everything has pretty much boiled down to this simple desire.
This is the reason why billions of dollars were poured into the new Bitcoin ETFs and why many existing blockchain fanatics turn to new projects. As leading edge adopters, we are on the hunt for deep f***ing value and this is precisely why we must look at Koinos and compare it to the leading deep value blockchain, Solana. If the deep value existing in Solana, than it too must exist in Koinos.
Both Solana and Koinos are layer 1 smart contract blockchains with Solana as the more mature blockchain standing at #5 rank by marketcap, $80B at the time of this writing. Solana is fast, it's efficient and it's becoming a blackhole for crypto because it has fundamentally solved Ethereum. Basically, Solana is the Ethereum killer everyone has been waiting for.
But deep value doesn't come from the obvious work to kill Ethereum, rather it comes from solving problems that people think are impossible to solve. The added bonus is that when executed properly, they are worth trillions of dollars in both raw value and opportunity. Koinos has solved the impossible and it's executing it in a fair and decentralized manner.
The problem I’m talking about is accessibility. When Koinos says it is focused on Web3 freedom for everyone, they are saying that anyone in the world can get involved with blockchain with zero barriers. That's right, ZERO barriers. What does zero barriers look like? Lets make it clear what zero barrier doesn't look like on Solana first.
If you’re a developer launching a project on Solana, you still need to buy $SOL to pay for gas fees. Existing blockchain developers have less trouble overcoming this, but new developers aren’t any different from regular people. For the same reason we never bought BTC when we first heard about it, the slightest friction means makes us think “I’ll figure this out another day”. Bullshit. Another day never comes and it always feels like its too late, you know this feeling very well.
Thats why zero barriers with Koinos is so powerful. It allows developers to deploy smart contracts for free which requires zero token purchases whatsoever. So if you want to deploy a token for fun as a non-blockchain developer? Yes, you can do that, for free. Airdrop tokens to your community? Yes you can do that for free too (if you need help doing any of these things, just reach out to me).
In my search for deep value, I've found that nothing is more valuable than being able to effortlessly reach users around the world. The frictionless environment of Koinos means that more people can experience blockchain and have access to this powerful technology at a global scale. This is the true freedom that we want people to experience.
There is also a subtle but powerful feature for those who want to go the extra distance and own $KOIN rather than just use it. Since there are no gas fees, owning $KOIN gives you perpetual and proportionate access to the blockchain’s resources. In other words, when you own $KOIN, you own an actual piece of the blockchain because you never have to give it up for gas fees. This model is most comparable to owning physical land in a highly desirable area because land is finite.
If you think $SOL has killed Ethereum and still searching for deeper value, then $KOIN should be your next target.

Well, I heard back from Oonagh last night in response to the letter I sent to her and John about Clive’s abusive behavior toward me. I was hoping they just wouldn’t respond and I could peacefully move on with my life. But, Oonagh sent a response cc’ing John. Unsurprisingly, she was defensive, clearly in denial, and did the whole DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender) routine. She clearly was trying to find reasons to dismiss the things I said, and so she accused me of disclosing Clive’s private information, slut-shaming Clive, and being insufficiently understanding of neurodivergence. I just ignored the silly ad hominem nonsense, said I understood that neither of them had been through my experiences and naturally it would be hard to be objective in hearing my story of how Clive treated me, but I still hoped that speaking the truth of what happened could ultimately help, even if it might take them a while to process it. And I wished them well.
From growing up Mormon, I am very familiar with all the mental gymnastics people go through to cling on to untrue beliefs that seem to give stability to their lives. It’s the kind of thinking that keeps people in cults and toxic relationships, or lends itself to enabling and shielding abusers. It’s always sad to see it in action, but at least it isn’t even slightly mystifying to me at this point in my life in terms of how it operates.
So Oonagh is definitely an enabler, which is good information for me to know so definitively. I know that abuse thrives in silence, and abusers depend on their victims’ silence to enable them to continue being abusers. From Oonagh’s perspective, me speaking to her and John about Clive’s intimacy issues was a worse crime than Clive ignoring my consent and duping me into unwanted sex. She didn’t address the consent or emotional abuse issues at all, but said Clive wanted his friends to be happy, and if his attempt to make them happy didn’t work out, he was hurt. So, essentially, if Clive hurts someone, both Oonagh and Clive consider Clive to be the injured party and in their eyes, he is the person deserving of pity, instead of the person that he hurt. That was also his attitude - he viewed my grief as an injury to himself, which I think is pretty solidly narcissistic.
She kind of implied that Clive is on the autism spectrum and this is the cause of his communication difficulties, but that the difficulties were largely my fault - apparently I was supposed to magically know that he was autistic and magically be enough of an autism expert to understand him, and him being autistic also excuses lying to me to dupe me into sex and breaking up with me by telling me he’d never cared about me and was just using me the whole time. As if I hadn’t bent over backwards trying to understand him, and as if my efforts towards understanding hadn’t been largely one-sided.
It’s a pretty dizzying level of twisted illogic. Who knows if he is really autistic? That might explain some things, but so far as I understood, he has never had a diagnosis, or therapy, or professional help or treatment of any kind for his issues, despite the clear and undeniable fact that he has a long history of hurting women because of them. Definitely he is some type of neurodivergent, but behaviorally it looks more like pathological narcissism or even mild high-functioning nonviolent psycopathy.
And, if he really were autistic, why not just tell people that he is on the autism spectrum? Isn’t it a bit weird to be secretive about it, and yet expect people to just know, and to adapt to him, and accommodate him, and suggest that he doesn’t need to take responsibility for whether his behavior hurts others?
Yep. These people are a mess. And I am well shot of them.

"Why Did Jesus Die on the Cross?"

The main reason Jesus died on the cross was to defeat Satan and set us free from his oppressive rule. Everything else that Jesus accomplished was to be understood as an aspect and consequence of this victory (e.g., Recapitulation, Moral Influence, etc.).
This understanding of why Jesus had to die is called the Christus Victor (Latin for “Christ is Victorious”) view of the atonement. But, what exactly was Christ victorious from, and why? To find out the answers to these questions, we have to turn to the Old Testament, as that's what the apostles would often allude to in order to properly teach their audience the message they were trying to convey (Rom. 15:4).
The OT is full of conflict between the Father (YHVH) and false gods, between YHVH and cosmic forces of chaos. The Psalms speak of this conflict between YHVH and water monsters of the deeps (an ancient image for chaos) (Psa. 29:3-4; 74:10-14; 77:16, 19; 89:9-10; 104:2-9, etc).
The liberation of Israel from Egypt wasn’t just a conflict between Pharaoh and Moses. It was really between YHVH and the false gods of Egypt.
Regardless of whether you think the aforementioned descriptions are literal or metaphorical, the reality that the Old Testament describes is that humanity lived in a “cosmic war zone.”
The Christus Victor motif is about Christ reigning victorious over wicked principalities and Satan's kingdom, and is strongly emphasized throughout the New Testament. Scripture declares that Jesus came to drive out "the prince of this world” (John 12:31), to “destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8), to “destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Heb. 2:14) and to “put all enemies under his feet” (1 Cor 15:25). Jesus came to overpower the “strong man” (Satan) who held the world in bondage and worked with his Church to plunder his "palace" (Luke 11:21-22). He came to end the reign of the cosmic “thief” who seized the world to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” the life YHVH intended for us (John 10:10). Jesus came and died on the cross to disarm “the principalities and powers” and make a “shew of them openly [i.e., public spectacle]” by “triumphing over them in [the cross]” (Col. 2:15).
Beyond these explicit statements, there are many other passages that express the Christus Victor motif as well. For example, the first prophecy in the Bible foretells that a descendent of Eve (Jesus) would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15). The first Christian sermon ever preached proclaimed that Jesus in principle conquered all YHVH's enemies (Acts 2:32-36). And the single most frequently quoted Old Testament passage by New Testament authors is Psalm 110:1 which predicts that Christ would conquer all YHVH’s opponents. (Psalm 110 is quoted or alluded to in Matthew 22:41-45; 26:64, Mark 12:35-37; 14:62, Luke 20:41-44; 22:69, Acts 5:31; 7:55-56, Romans 8:34, 1st Corinthians 15:22-25, Ephesians 1:20, Hebrews 1:3; 1:13; 5:6, 10; 6:20; 7:11, 15, 17, 21; 8:1; 10:12-13, 1st Peter 3:22, and Revelation 3:21.) According to New Testament scholar Oscar Cullman, the frequency with which New Testament authors cite this Psalm is the greatest proof that Christ’s “victory over the angel powers stands at the very center of early Christian thought.”
Because of man's rebellion, the Messiah's coming involved a rescue mission that included a strategy for vanquishing the powers of darkness.
Since YHVH is a God of love who gives genuine “say-so” to both angels and humans, YHVH rarely accomplishes His providential plans through coercion. YHVH relies on His infinite wisdom to achieve His goals. Nowhere is YHVH's wisdom put more on display than in the manner in which He outsmarted Satan and the powers of evil, using their own evil to bring about their defeat.
Most readers probably know the famous story from ancient Greece about the Trojan Horse. To recap the story, Troy and Greece had been locked in a ten-year-long vicious war when, according to Homer and Virgil, the Greeks came up with a brilliant idea. They built an enormous wooden horse, hid soldiers inside and offered it to the Trojans as a gift, claiming they were conceding defeat and going home. The delighted Trojans accepted the gift and proceeded to celebrate by drinking themselves into a drunken stupor. When night came and the Trojan warriors were too wasted to fight, the Greeks exited the horse, unlocked the city gates to quietly let all their compatriots in, and easily conquered the city, thus winning the war.
Historians debate whether any of this actually happened. But either way, as military strategies go, it’s brilliant.
Now, there are five clues in the New Testament that suggest YHVH was using something like this Trojan Horse strategy against the powers when he sent Jesus into the world:
1) The Bible tells us that YHVH's victory over the powers of darkness was achieved by the employment of YHVH’s wisdom, and was centered on that wisdom having become reality in Jesus Christ (Rom. 16:25, 1 Cor. 2:7, Eph. 3:9-10, Col. 1:26). It also tells us that, for some reason, this Christ-centered wisdom was kept “secret and hidden” throughout the ages. It’s clear from this that YHVH's strategy was to outsmart and surprise the powers by sending Jesus.
2) While humans don’t generally know Jesus’ true identity during his ministry, demons do. They recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah, but, interestingly enough, they have no idea what he’s doing (Mark 1:24; 3:11; 5:7, Luke 8:21). Again, the wisdom of YHVH in sending Jesus was hidden from them.
3) We’re told that, while humans certainly share in the responsibility for the crucifixion, Satan and the powers were working behind the scenes to bring it about (John 13:27 cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-8). These forces of evil helped orchestrate the crucifixion.
4) We’re taught that if the “princes of this world [age]” had understood the secret wisdom of YHVH, “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (1 Cor 2:8 cf. vss 6-7). Apparently, Satan and the powers regretted orchestrating Christ’s crucifixion once they learned of the wisdom of YHVH that was behind it.
5) Finally, we can begin to understand why the powers came to regret crucifying “the Lord of glory” when we read that it was by means of the crucifixion that the “handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us [i.e., the charge of our legal indebtedness]” was “[taken] out of the way [i.e., canceled]” as the powers were disarmed. In this way Christ “triumph[ed] over” the powers by "his cross” and even “made a shew of them openly” (Col. 2:14-15). Through Christ’s death and resurrection YHVH's enemies were vanquished and placed under his Messiah's feet, and ultimately His own in the end (1 Cor. 15:23-28).
Putting these five clues together, we can discern YHVH's Trojan Horse strategy in sending Jesus.
The powers couldn’t discern why Jesus came because YHVH's wisdom was hidden from them. YHVH's wisdom was motivated by unfathomable love, and since Satan and the other powers were evil, they lacked the capacity to understand it. Their evil hearts prevented them from suspecting what YHVH was up to.
What the powers did understand was that Jesus was mortal. This meant he was killable. Lacking the capacity to understand that this was the means by which YHVH would ultimately bring about the defeat of death (and thus, pave the road for the resurrection itself), they never suspected that making Jesus vulnerable to their evil might actually be part of YHVH's infinitely wise plan.
And so they took the bait (or "ransom"; Matt. 20:28, Mark 10:45, 1 Tim. 2:5-6). Utilizing Judas and other willing human agents, the powers played right into YHVH’s secret plan and orchestrated the crucifixion of the Messiah (Acts 2:22-23; 4:28). YHVH thus brilliantly used the self-inflicted incapacity of evil to understand love against itself. And, like light dispelling darkness, the unfathomably beautiful act of YHVH's love in sending the willing Messiah as a "ransom" to these blood-thirsty powers defeated them. The whole creation was in principle freed and reconciled to YHVH, while everything written against us humans was nailed to the cross, thus robbing the powers of the only legal claim they had on us. They were “spoiled [i.e., disempowered]” (Col. 2:14-15).
As happened to the Trojans in accepting the gift from the Greeks, in seizing on Christ’s vulnerability and orchestrating his crucifixion, the powers unwittingly cooperated with YHVH to unleash the one power in the world that dispels all evil and sets captives free. It’s the power of self-sacrificial love.

Why Penal Substitution Is Unbiblical

For the sake of keeping this already lengthy post as short as possible I'm not going to spend too much time on why exactly PSA (Penal Substitutionary Atonement) is inconsistent with Scripture, but I'll go ahead and point out the main reasons why I believe this is so, and let the reader look further into this subject by themselves, being that there are many resources out there which have devoted much more time than I ever could here in supporting this premise.

"Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us:"-1 Corinthians 5:7

The Passover is one of the two most prominent images in the New Testament given as a comparison to Christ's atonement and what it accomplished, (the other most common image being the Day of Atonement sacrifice).
In the Passover, the blood of the lamb on the door posts of the Hebrews in the book of Exodus was meant to mark out those who were YHVH's, not be a symbol of PSA, as the lamb itself was not being punished by God in place of the Hebrews, but rather the kingdom of Egypt (and thus, allegorically speaking, the kingdom of darkness which opposed YHVH) was what was being judged and punished, because those who were not "covered" by the blood of the lamb could be easily identified as not part of God's kingdom/covenant and liberated people.
Looking at the Day of Atonement sacrifice (which, again, Christ's death is repeatedly compared to throughout the New Testament), this ritual required a ram, a bull, and two goats (Lev. 16:3-5). The ram was for a burnt offering intended to please God (Lev. 16:3-4). The bull served as a sin offering for Aaron, the high priest, and his family. In this case, the sin offering restored the priest to ritual purity, allowing him to occupy sacred space and be near YHVH’s presence. Two goats taken from "the congregation” were needed for the single sin offering for the people (Lev. 16:5). So why two goats?
The high priest would cast lots over the two goats, with one chosen as a sacrifice “for the Lord” (Lev. 16:8). The blood of that goat would purify the people. The second goat was not sacrificed or designated “for the Lord.” On the contrary, this goat—the one that symbolically carried the sins away from the camp of Israel into the wilderness—was “for Azazel” (Lev. 16:8-10).
What—or who—is Azazel?
The Hebrew term azazel (עזאזל) occurs four times in Leviticus 16 but nowhere else in most people's canon of the Bible, (and I say "most people's canon," because some people do include 1 Enoch in their canon of Scripture, which of course goes into great detail about this "Azazel" figure). Many translations prefer to translate the term as a phrase, “the goat that goes away,” which is the same idea conveyed in the King James Version’s “scapegoat.” Other translations treat the word as a name: Azazel. The “scapegoat” option is possible, but since the phrase “for Azazel” parallels the phrase “for YHVH” (“for the Lord”), the wording suggests that two divine figures are being contrasted by the two goats.
A strong case can be made for translating the term as the name Azazel. Ancient Jewish texts show that Azazel was understood as a demonic figure associated with the wilderness. The Mishnah (ca. AD 200; Yoma 6:6) records that the goat for Azazel was led to a cliff and pushed over, ensuring it would not return with its death. This association of the wilderness with evil is also evident in the New Testament, as this was where Jesus met the devil (Matt. 4:1). Also, in Leviticus 17:1-7 we learn that some Israelites had been accustomed to sacrificing offerings to "devils" (alternatively translated as “goat demons”). The Day of Atonement replaced this illegitimate practice.
The second goat was not sent into the wilderness as a sacrifice to a foreign god or demon. The act of sending the live goat out into the wilderness, which was unholy ground, was to send the sins of the people where they belonged—to the demonic domain. With one goat sacrificed to bring purification and access to YHVH and one goat sent to carry the people’s sins to the demonic domain, this annual ritual reinforced the identity of the true God and His mercy and holiness.
When Jesus died on the cross for all of humanity’s sins, he was crucified outside the city, paralleling the sins of the people being cast to the wilderness via the goat to Azazel. Jesus died once for all sinners, negating the need for this ritual.
As previously stated, the goat which had all the sin put on it was sent alive off to the wilderness, while the blood of the goat which was blameless was used to purify the temple and the people. Penal substitution would necessitate the killing of the goat which had the sin put on it.
Mind you, this is the only sacrificial ritual of any kind in the Torah in which sins are placed on an animal. The only time it happens is this, and that animal is not sacrificed. Most PSA proponents unwittingly point to this ritual as evidence of their view, despite it actually serving as evidence to the contrary, because most people don't read their Old Testament and don't familiarize themselves with the "boring parts" like Leviticus (when it's actually rather important to do so, since that book explains how exactly animal offerings were to be carried out and why they were done in the first place).
In the New Testament, Christ's blood was not only meant to mark out those who were his, but also expel the presence of sin and ritual uncleanness so as to make the presence of YHVH manifest in the believer's life. Notice how God's wrath isn't poured out on Christ in our stead on this view, but rather His wrath was poured out on those who weren't covered, and the presence of sin and evil were merely removed by that which is pure and blameless (Christ's blood) for the believer.
All this is the difference between expiation and propitiation.

The Content of Paul's Gospel Message

When the New Testament writers talked about “the gospel,” they referred not to the Protestant doctrine of justification sola fide–the proposition that if we will stop trying to win God’s favor and only just believe that God has exchanged our sin for Christ’s perfect righteousness, then in God’s eyes we will have the perfect righteousness required both for salvation and for assuaging our guilty consciences–but rather they referred to the simple but explosive proposition Kyrios Christos, “Christ is Lord.” That is to say, the gospel was, properly speaking, the royal announcement that Jesus of Nazareth was the God of Israel’s promised Messiah, the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The New Testament writers were not writing in a cultural or linguistic vacuum and their language of euangelion (good news) and euangelizomai would have been understood by their audience in fairly specific ways. Namely, in the Greco-Roman world for which the New Testament authors wrote, euangelion/euangelizomai language typically had to do with either A) the announcement of the accession of a ruler, or B) the announcement of a victory in battle, and would probably have been understood along those lines.
Let’s take the announcements of a new ruler first. The classic example of such a language is the Priene Calendar Inscription, dating to circa 9 BC, which celebrates the rule (and birthday) of Caesar Augustus as follows:
"It was seeming to the Greeks in Asia, in the opinion of the high priest Apollonius of Menophilus Azanitus: Since Providence, which has ordered all things of our life and is very much interested in our life, has ordered things in sending Augustus, whom she filled with virtue for the benefit of men, sending him as a savior [soter] both for us and for those after us, him who would end war and order all things, and since Caesar by his appearance [epiphanein] surpassed the hopes of all those who received the good tidings [euangelia], not only those who were benefactors before him, but even the hope among those who will be left afterward, and the birthday of the god [he genethlios tou theou] was for the world the beginning of the good tidings [euangelion] through him; and Asia resolved it in Smyrna."
The association of the term euangelion with the announcement of Augustus’ rule is clear enough and is typical of how this language is used elsewhere. To give another example, Josephus records that at the news of the accession of the new emperor Vespasian (69 AD) “every city kept festival for the good news (euangelia) and offered sacrifices on his behalf.” (The Jewish War, IV.618). Finally, a papyrus dating to ca. 498 AD begins:
"Since I have become aware of the good news (euangeliou) about the proclamation as Caesar (of Gaius Julius Verus Maximus Augustus)…"
This usage occurs also in the Septuagint, the Greek translations of the Jewish Scriptures. For instance LXX Isaiah 52:7 reads, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news (euangelizomenou), who publishes peace, who brings good news (euangelizomenos) of salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.'" Similarly, LXX Isaiah 40:9-10 reads:

"…Go up on a high mountain, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos) to Sion; lift up your voice with strength, you who bring good tidings (ho euangelizomenos); lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Ioudas, “See your God!” Behold, the Lord comes with strength, and his arm with authority (kyrieias)…."-NETS, Esaias 40:9-10

This consistent close connection between euangelion/euangelizomai language and announcements of rule strongly suggests that many of the initial hearers/readers of the early Christians’ evangelical language would likely have understood that language as the announcement of a new ruler (see, e.g., Acts 17:7), and, unless there is strong NT evidence to the contrary, we should presume that the NT writers probably intended their language to be so understood.
However, the other main way in which euangelion/euangelizomai language was used in the Greco-Roman world was with reference to battle reports, announcements of victory in war. A classic example of this sort of usage can be found in LXX 2 Samuel 18:19ff, where David receives word that his traitorous son, Absalom, has been defeated in battle. Euangelion/euangelizomai is used throughout the passage for the communications from the front.
As already shown throughout this post, the NT speaks of Jesus’s death and resurrection as a great victory over the powers that existed at that time and, most importantly, over death itself. Jesus’ conquest of the principalities and powers was the establishment of his rule and comprehensive authority over heaven and earth, that is, of his Lordship over all things (again, at that time).
This was the content of Paul's gospel message...

Justification, and the "New" Perspective on Paul

The following quotation is from The Gospel Coalition, and I believe it to be a decently accurate summary of the NPP (New Perspective on Paul), despite it being from a source which is in opposition to it:

The New Perspective on Paul, a major scholarly shift that began in the 1980s, argues that the Jewish context of the New Testament has been wrongly understood and that this misunderstand[ing] has led to errors in the traditional-Protestant understanding of justification. According to the New Perspective, the Jewish systems of salvation were not based on works-righteousness but rather on covenantal nomism, the belief that one enters the people of God by grace and stays in through obedience to the covenant. This means that Paul could not have been referring to works-righteousness by his phrase “works of the law”; instead, he was referring to Jewish boundary markers that made clear who was or was not within the people of God. For the New Perspective, this is the issue that Paul opposes in the NT. Thus, justification takes on two aspects for the New Perspective rather than one; initial justification is by faith (grace) and recognizes covenant status (ecclesiology), while final justification is partially by works, albeit works produced by the Spirit.

I believe what's called the "new perspective" is actually rather old, and that the Reformers' view of Paul is what is truly new, being that the Lutheran understanding of Paul is simply not Biblical.
The Reformation perspective understands Paul to be arguing against a legalistic Jewish culture that seeks to earn their salvation through works. However, supporters of the NPP argue that Paul has been misread. We contend he was actually combating Jews who were boasting because they were God's people, the "elect" or the "chosen ones." Their "works," so to speak, were done to show they were God's covenant people and not to earn their salvation.
The key questions involve Paul’s view(s) of the law and the meaning of the controversy in which Paul was engaged. Paul strongly argued that we are “justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law” (Gal. 2:16b). Since the time of Martin Luther, this has been understood as an indictment of legalistic efforts to merit favor before God. Judaism was cast in the role of the medieval "church," and so Paul’s protests became very Lutheran, with traditional-Protestant theology reinforced in all its particulars (along with its limitations) as a result. In hermeneutical terms, then, the historical context of Paul’s debate will answer the questions we have about what exactly the apostle meant by the phrase "works of the law," along with other phrases often used as support by the Reformers for their doctrine of Sola Fide (justification by faith alone), like when Paul mentions "the righteousness of God."
Obviously an in-depth analysis of the Pauline corpus and its place in the context of first-century Judaism would take us far beyond the scope of this brief post. We can, however, quickly survey the topography of Paul’s thought in context, particularly as it has emerged through the efforts of recent scholarship, and note some salient points which may be used as the basis of a refurbished soteriology.
[Note: The more popular scholars associated with the NPP are E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright. Dunn was the first to coin the term "The New Perspective" in a 1983 Manson Memorial Lecture, The New Perspective on Paul and the Law.]
Varying authors since the early 1900's have brought up the charge that Paul was misread by those in the tradition of Martin Luther and other Protestant Reformers. Yet, it wasn't until E.P. Sanders' 1977 book, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, that scholars began to pay much attention to the issue. In his book, Sanders argues that the Judaism of Paul's day has been wrongly criticized as a religion of "works-salvation" by those in the Protestant tradition.
A fundamental premise in the NPP is that Judaism was actually a religion of grace. Sander's puts it clearly:
"On the point at which many have found the decisive contrast between Paul and Judaism - grace and works - Paul is in agreement with Palestinian Judaism... Salvation is by grace but judgment is according to works'...God saves by grace, but... within the framework established by grace he rewards good deeds and punishes transgression." (Paul and Palestinian Judaism, p. 543)
N.T. Wright adds that, "we have misjudged early Judaism, especially Pharisaism, if we have thought of it as an early version of Pelagianism," (Wright, What Saint Paul Really Said, p. 32).
Sanders has coined a now well-known phrase to describe the character of first-century Palestinian Judaism: “covenantal nomism.” The meaning of “covenantal nomism” is that human obedience is not construed as the means of entering into God’s covenant. That cannot be earned; inclusion within the covenant body is by the grace of God. Rather, obedience is the means of maintaining one’s status within the covenant. And with its emphasis on divine grace and forgiveness, Judaism was never a religion of legalism.
If covenantal nomism was operating as the primary category under which Jews understood the Law, then when Jews spoke of obeying commandments, or when they required strict obedience of themselves and fellow Jews, it was because they were "keeping the covenant," rather than out of legalism.
More recently, N.T. Wright has made a significant contribution in his little book, What Saint Paul Really Said. Wright’s focus is the gospel and the doctrine of justification. With incisive clarity he demonstrates that the core of Paul’s gospel was not justification by faith, but the death and resurrection of Christ and his exaltation as Lord. The proclamation of the gospel was the proclamation of Jesus as Lord, the Messiah who fulfilled Israel’s expectations. Romans 1:3-4, not 1:16-17, is the gospel, contrary to traditional thinking. Justification is not the center of Paul’s thought, but an outworking of it:
"[T]he doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by ‘the gospel’. It is implied by the gospel; when the gospel is proclaimed, people come to faith and so are regarded by God as members of his people. But ‘the gospel’ is not an account of how people get saved. It is, as we saw in an earlier chapter, the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ….Let us be quite clear. ‘The gospel’ is the announcement of Jesus’ lordship, which works with power to bring people into the family of Abraham, now redefined around Jesus Christ and characterized solely by faith in him. ‘Justification’ is the doctrine which insists that all those who have this faith belong as full members of this family, on this basis and no other." (pp. 132, 133)
Wright brings us to this point by showing what “justification” would have meant in Paul’s Jewish context, bound up as it was in law-court terminology, eschatology, and God’s faithfulness to God’s covenant.
Specifically, Wright explodes the myth that the pre-Christian Saul was a pious, proto-Pelagian moralist seeking to earn his individual passage into heaven. Wright capitalizes on Paul’s autobiographical confessions to paint rather a picture of a zealous Jewish nationalist whose driving concern was to cleanse Israel of Gentiles as well as Jews who had lax attitudes toward the Torah. Running the risk of anachronism, Wright points to a contemporary version of the pre-Christian Saul: Yigal Amir, the zealous Torah-loyal Jew who assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for exchanging Israel’s land for peace. Wright writes:
"Jews like Saul of Tarsus were not interested in an abstract, ahistorical system of salvation... They were interested in the salvation which, they believed, the one true God had promised to his people Israel." (pp. 32, 33)
Wright maintains that as a Christian, Paul continued to challenge paganism by taking the moral high ground of the creational monotheist. The doctrine of justification was not what Paul preached to the Gentiles as the main thrust of his gospel message; it was rather “the thing his converts most needed to know in order to be assured that they really were part of God’s people” after they had responded to the gospel message.
Even while taking the gospel to the Gentiles, however, Paul continued to criticize Judaism “from within” even as he had as a zealous Pharisee. But whereas his mission before was to root out those with lax attitudes toward the Torah, now his mission was to demonstrate that God’s covenant faithfulness (righteousness) has already been revealed in Jesus Christ.
At this point Wright carefully documents Paul’s use of the controversial phrase “God’s righteousness” and draws out the implications of his meaning against the background of a Jewish concept of justification. The righteousness of God and the righteousness of the party who is “justified” cannot be confused because the term bears different connotations for the judge than for the plaintiff or defendant. The judge is “righteous” if his or her judgment is fair and impartial; the plaintiff or defendant is “righteous” if the judge rules in his or her favor. Hence:
"If we use the language of the law court, it makes no sense whatsoever to say that the judge imputes, imparts, bequeaths, conveys or otherwise transfers his righteousness to either the plaintiff or the defendant. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas which can be passed across the courtroom. For the judge to be righteous does not mean that the court has found in his favor. For the plaintiff or defendant to be righteous does not mean that he or she has tried the case properly or impartially. To imagine the defendant somehow receiving the judge’s righteousness is simply a category mistake. That is not how the language works." (p. 98)
However, Wright makes the important observation that even with the forensic metaphor, Paul’s theology is not so much about the courtroom as it is about God’s love.
Righteousness is not an impersonal, abstract standard, a measuring-stick or a balancing scale. That was, and still is, a Greek view. Righteousness, Biblically speaking, grows out of covenant relationship. We forgive because we have been forgiven (Matt. 18:21-35); “we love" because God “first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Love is the fulfillment of the law (Rom. 13:8, 10, Gal 5:14, Jam. 2:8). Paul even looked forward to a day when “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10), and he acknowledged that his clear conscience did not necessarily ensure this verdict (1 Cor. 4:4), but he was confident nevertheless. Paul did in fact testify of his clear conscience: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation [i.e., behavior] in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward” (2 Cor. 1:12). He was aware that he had not yet “attained” (Phil. 3:12-14), that he still struggled with the flesh, yet he was confident of the value of his performance (1 Cor. 9:27). These are hardly the convictions of someone who intends to rest entirely on the merits of an alien righteousness imputed to his or her account.
Wright went on to flesh out the doctrine of justification in Galatians, Philippians, and Romans. The “works of the law” are not proto-Pelagian efforts to earn salvation, but rather “sabbath [keeping], food-laws, circumcision” (p. 132). Considering the controversy in Galatia, Wright writes:
"Despite a long tradition to the contrary, the problem Paul addresses in Galatians is not the question of how precisely someone becomes a Christian, or attains to a relationship with God….The problem he addresses is: should his ex-pagan converts be circumcised or not? Now this question is by no means obviously to do with the questions faced by Augustine and Pelagius, or by Luther and Erasmus. On anyone’s reading, but especially within its first-century context, it has to do quite obviously with the question of how you define the people of God: are they to be defined by the badges of Jewish race, or in some other way? Circumcision is not a ‘moral’ issue; it does not have to do with moral effort, or earning salvation by good deeds. Nor can we simply treat it as a religious ritual, then designate all religious ritual as crypto-Pelagian good works, and so smuggle Pelagius into Galatia as the arch-opponent after all. First-century thought, both Jewish and Christian, simply doesn’t work like that…. [T]he polemic against the Torah in Galatians simply will not work if we ‘translate’ it into polemic either against straightforward self-help moralism or against the more subtle snare of ‘legalism’, as some have suggested. The passages about the law only work — and by ‘work’ I mean they will only make full sense in their contexts, which is what counts in the last analysis — when we take them as references to the Jewish law, the Torah, seen as the national charter of the Jewish race." (pp. 120-122)
The debate about justification, then, “wasn’t so much about soteriology as about ecclesiology; not so much about salvation as about the church.” (p. 119)
To summarize the theology of Paul in his epistles, the apostle mainly spent time arguing to those whom he were sending letters that salvation in Christ was available to all men without distinction. Jews and Gentiles alike may accept the free gift; it was not limited to any one group. Paul was vehement about this, especially in his letter to the Romans. As such, I will finish this post off by summarizing the letter itself, so as to provide Biblical support for the premises of the NPP and for what the scholars I referenced have thus far argued.
After his introduction in the epistle to an already believing and mostly Gentile audience (who would've already been familiar with the gospel proclaimed in verses 3-4), Paul makes a thematic statement in 1:16: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” This statement is just one of many key statements littered throughout the book of Romans that give us proper understanding of the point Paul wished to make to the interlocutors of his day, namely, salvation is available to all, whether Jew or Gentile.
In 1:16 Paul sets out a basic theme of his message in the letter to the Romans. All who believed, whether they be Jew or Gentile, were saved by the power of the gospel. The universal nature of salvation was explicitly stated. The gospel saved all without distinction, whether Jew or Greek; salvation was through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Immediately after this thematic declaration, Paul undertakes to show the universal nature of sin and guilt. In 1:18-32 Paul shows how the Gentile is guilty before God. Despite evidence of God and his attributes, which is readily available to all, they have failed to honor YHVH as God and have exchanged His glory for idolatrous worship and self-promotion. As a consequence, God handed them over in judgment (1:18-32). Paul moves to denunciation of those who would judge others while themselves being guilty of the very same offenses (2:1-5) and argues that all will be judged according to their deeds (2:6). This judgment applies to all, namely, Jew and Greek (2:9-10). This section serves as somewhat of a transition in Paul’s argument. He has highlighted the guilt of the Gentiles (1:18ff) and will shortly outline the guilt of the Jew (2:17-24). The universal statement of 2:1-11 sets the stage for Paul’s rebuke of Jewish presumption. It was not possession of the Law which delivered; it was faithful obedience. It is better to have no Law and yet to obey the essence of the Law (2:12-16) than to have the Law and not obey (2:17-3:4). Paul then defends the justice of God’s judgment (3:5-8), which leads to the conclusion that all (Jew and Gentile) are guilty before God (3:9).
Paul argues that it was a mistaken notion to think that salvation was the prerogative of the Jew only. This presumption is wrong for two reasons. First, it leads to the mistaken assumption that only Jews were eligible for this vindication (Paul deals with this misunderstanding in chapter 4 where he demonstrates that Abraham was justified by faith independently of the Law and is therefore the father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike). Second, it leads to the equally mistaken conclusion that all who were Jews are guaranteed of vindication. Paul demonstrates how this perspective, which would call God’s integrity into question since Paul was assuming many Jews would not experience this vindication, was misguided. He did this by demonstrating that it was never the case that all physical descendants of Israel (Jacob) were likewise recipients of the promise. In the past (9:6-33) as in the present (at that time; 11:1-10), only a remnant was preserved and only a remnant would experience vindication. Paul also argued that the unbelief of national Israel (the non-remnant) had the purpose of extending the compass of salvation. The unbelief of one group made the universal scope of the gospel possible. This universalism was itself intended to bring about the vindication of the unbelieving group (11:11-16). As a result of faith, all (Jew and Gentile) could be branches of the olive tree (11:17-24). Since faith in Christ was necessary to remain grafted into the tree, no one could boast of his position. All, Jew and Gentile alike, were dependent upon the mercy and grace of God. As a result of God’s mysterious plan, He would bring about the vindication of His people (11:25-27). [Note: It is this author's belief that this vindication occurred around 66-70 AD, with the Parousia of Christ's Church; this author is Full-Preterist in their Eschatology.]

Hello fellows,
I have coded the VBA function, but it keeps giving the #NAME? error, although I checked the sheet names and cell formats, everything is okay. Couldn't find any typos either. I am not sure where the reference is wrong. Can you please help solve this issue? Thank you!
The context:
There are multiple excel sheets with different values. Each sheet has a row (16) with dates and column (B) with string items. On the separate sheet, "Sheet1", I need to summarise the values from all other sheets that match the particular date and item from Sheet1. For example: if I type function in the cell at intersection of item "Sales" and date "01.01.2024", the outcome will be the sum of all the sales on this date from multiple sheets, inluding newly added sheets. Note: If one of the projects is altered and the value is moved to different cell, the summary automatically updates, without attaching it to the cell value but rather to the cell location.
The code:

Function SumSheets(item As String, targetDate As Date) As Double Dim ws As Worksheet Dim dateCell As Range Dim itemCell As Range Dim total As Double Dim dateCol As Long Dim itemRow As Long Dim addvalue As Double total = 0 ' Loop through each worksheet For Each ws In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets ' Check if the worksheet is not the summary sheet and is visible If ws.Name <> "Sheet1" And ws.Visible = xlSheetVisible Then ' Find the target date in row 16 Set dateCell = ws.Rows(16).Find(What:=targetDate, LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlWhole) ' If target date is found, get its column If Not dateCell Is Nothing Then dateCol = dateCell.Column ' Find the item in column B Set itemCell = ws.Columns(2).Find(What:=item, LookIn:=xlValues, LookAt:=xlWhole) ' If item is found, get its row If Not itemCell Is Nothing Then itemRow = itemCell.Row ' Get the value at the intersection of item and date addvalue = ws.Cells(itemRow, dateCol).Value ' Check if the value is numeric If IsNumeric(addvalue) Then ' Add the value to the total total = total + addvalue Else ' Handle non-numeric value Debug.Print ("Non-numeric value found at intersection of " & item & " and " & targetDate & " in worksheet " & ws.Name) End If Else ' Handle item not found Debug.Print ("Item " & item & " not found in worksheet " & ws.Name) End If Else ' Handle target date not found Debug.Print ("Target date " & targetDate & " not found in row 16 of worksheet " & ws.Name) End If End If Next ws Exit For SumSheets = total End Function 

Below is a list of Korean grammar (Beginner and Intermediate) and links to related videos.
The list below is a list of all videos explained in English.

We plan to continue uploading videos in the future.
Please refer to the video link of the basic Korean grammar uploaded so far ^^
I hope that the hard work material will be shared so that it can be helpful to many Korean learners.
Click on the channel address to view more resources, including practice for word and word order arrangement.
​
You can enjoy the Korean language on this channel

www.youtube.com/@o2100korean

​
1 How to read Korean1 (Korean alphabet - basic consonant, single vowel) https://youtu.be/uWBT0GYDB3g
2 Korean Alphabet 1 - single vowels, basic consonants https://youtu.be/AbPFKZRa1y8
3 Korean Alphabet 2 - double vowel 1, aspirated consonants https://youtu.be/9o9f6j50RAY
4 Korean Alphabet 3 - double vowel 2, double consonant https://youtu.be/rjeYdVI0HS8
5 Korean Alphabet 4 - Final Consonants https://youtu.be/XALwMLJ9YDY
6 Korean Grammar 1 - 이에요/예요 은/는 https://youtu.be/7KbNiRTyRUk
7 Korean Grammar 2 - 이/가, 은/는 vs 이/가 differences https://youtu.be/n7rMNbqHcqc
8 Korean Grammar 3 - 이/가 아니다 https://youtu.be/DrGZNivR7p4
9 Korean Grammar 4 - ㅂ/습니다, ㅂ/습니까? https://youtu.be/_tEEC7Ah_d8
10 Korean Grammar 5 - 입니다/입니까? https://youtu.be/mybPJ9XF7zw
11 Korean Grammar 6 - 을/를 object maker https://youtu.be/8QCP4oAw5Qc
12 Korean Grammar 7 - 도 also, too https://youtu.be/CRc-Y86FZfU
13 Korean Grammar 8 - 와/과, 하고 (N and N), (with someone) https://youtu.be/npQIul_ibU0
14 Korean Grammar 9 - 의 possession https://youtu.be/HH0VZR9JFzY
15 Korean Grammar 10 - -아요/어요/해요 https://youtu.be/sssUFEeHje0
16 Korean Grammar 11 - ㅂ irregular https://youtu.be/Dd-VcEQcEbA
17 Korean Grammar 12 - 안 / -지 않다 (not) https://youtu.be/jPVEq4uH5Cw
18 Korean Grammar 13 - 에게 / 한테 to (someone) https://youtu.be/ZrJBbkV26io
19 Korean Grammar 14 - 만 only https://youtu.be/0oP2ug8F420
20 Korean Grammar 15 - place N에 https://youtu.be/6MYyEEfmZ_M
21 Korean Grammar 16 - place N에서 + do something https://youtu.be/L0liQTZzy7c
22 Korean Grammar 17 - Numbers(based on Chinese character) https://youtu.be/Lz2p0oovuu8
23 Korean Grammar 18 - 았/었 past tense https://youtu.be/gpw_WD-E7qo
24 Korean Grammar 19 - (time noun)에 https://youtu.be/WZBvFvPgLXU
25 Korean Grammar 20 - ~부터 ~까지(from~ until~)(time noun) https://youtu.be/HMWXxwbhZLs
26 Korean Grammar 21 - 못 / -지 못하다 can not https://youtu.be/Ryrhpt1g4xI
27 Korean Grammar 22 - ㄷ irregular https://youtu.be/BFv7USR8ejo
28 Korean Grammar 23 - 고1(List up - and), (이)고 https://youtu.be/jdKQChT3qbg
29 Korean Grammar 24 - -(으)ㄹ까요? -(으)ㅂ시다 https://youtu.be/SRZ4ECOGhDI
30 Korean Grammar 25 - -아서/어서/해서 reason https://youtu.be/Idz8SpewFys
31 Korean Grammar 26 - 고 싶다(I want)/ -고 싶어하다(someone wants) https://youtu.be/MrgmJFvzCO0
32 Korean Grammar 27 - 지만(but, however) https://youtu.be/Y-19JLg-kLc
33 Korean Grammar 28 - 고2(after that) https://youtu.be/Ef4kv-eZOG4
34 Korean Grammar 29 - 고1vs고2 differences https://youtu.be/TLsKhs5EkAk
35 Korean Grammar 30 - 는 중이다 be+ing / middle of something https://youtu.be/pX73BFLsFqI
36 Korean Grammar 31 - 르 irregular https://youtu.be/uKuu8v9SCHo
37 Korean Grammar 32 - 보다(more than) https://youtu.be/vdjHjPPis88
38 Korean Grammar 33 - -고 있다 (be + ing) https://youtu.be/uFXhEGg_hsQ
39 Korean Grammar 34 - -(으)ㄹ 수 있다/없다 can / can not https://youtu.be/AzfUlqpH-rI
40 Korean Grammar 35 - 기 전에 with small tip! https://youtu.be/iRGIk3ce1Ms
41 Korean Grammar 36 - ㄹ irregular https://youtu.be/te3MVhsMJzQ
42 Korean Grammar 37(1) - -(으)ㄹ 거예요 / -(으)ㄹ 겁니다 guessing https://youtu.be/EKJQmjgMigI
43 Korean Grammar 37(2) - -(으)ㄹ 거예요 / -(으)ㄹ 겁니다 future tense https://youtu.be/tRS8hxUBf-Q
44 Korean Grammar 38 - (으)려고 https://youtu.be/lxAOR5iqElo
45 Korean Grammar 39 - 높임말 (honorific form) https://youtu.be/CpN23thH60Q
46 Korean Grammar 40 - -(으)세요 / -(으)십시오 order form https://youtu.be/s7MSFT4TiQg
47 Korean Grammar 41 - -(으)ㄴ 후에 after https://youtu.be/r-XRWZvjgWk
48 Korean Grammar 42 - -지 말다 https://youtu.be/wJq-ggwSMNw
49 Korean Grammar 43 - ~에서 ~까지(place noun) https://youtu.be/IeWjV-ejmZc
50 Korean Grammar 44 - -아야/어야 되다/하다(should / need to) https://youtu.be/0ffbafedJvM
51 Korean Grammar 45 - -(으)니까 because + -(으)니까vs 아서/어서 differences (reason meaning) https://youtu.be/Ac5ayHGr_d8
52 Korean Grammar 46 - (으)로 https://youtu.be/qOaoMyMma38
53 Korean Grammar 47 - (으)러 가다/오다/다니다 https://youtu.be/f041ty_86Sc
54 Korean Grammar - (으)면 if https://youtu.be/mufWaZ1qyGM
55 Korean Grammar - V/A지요? N(이)지요? rechecking https://youtu.be/C_gvzrrAP3Y
56 Korean Grammar - 고3(exceptional usage) https://youtu.be/oS2ERojTqo4
57 Korean Grammar - 아서/어서2 sequential https://youtu.be/PfIR_7xnpsk
58 Korean Grammar - 아서/어서 vs 고 difference(sequential meaning) https://youtu.be/pQssx_qFV7c
59 Korean Grammar 48 - -겠 guessing & future https://youtu.be/VxKflj5DWpA
60 Korean Grammar 49 - 네요 https://youtu.be/w1wd9s1Nkeo
61 Korean Grammar 50 - -아/어 보다 (try) https://youtu.be/CTul9S9xCoc
62 Korean Grammar 51 - 에게서/한테서 from Someone https://youtu.be/-Fog4PP_oi4
63 Korean Grammar 52 - A(으)ㄴ +N https://youtu.be/hesNReTx_ME
64 Korean Grammar 53 - V는 + N (present) https://youtu.be/Xvb2P2BZCxo
65 Korean Grammar 54 - V(으)ㄴ + N (past) https://youtu.be/RIcYq4jYISI
66 Korean Grammar 55 - V(으)ㄹ + N (future) & summary https://youtu.be/Dw4sy3ocH3M
67 Korean Grammar 56 - A(으)ㄴ데 / V는데 (background explanation) https://youtu.be/JvhHwnr8SfU
68 Korean Grammar 57 - 는 것 (V→N) https://youtu.be/JCo1Szax5M4
69 Korean Grammar 58 - (으)ㄹ 때 When (Someone do Something..) https://youtu.be/LO7TMXbkeuw
70 Korean Grammar 59 - (으)ㄹ게요 strong willingness / promise https://youtu.be/gNhJiRKcI-4
71 Korean Grammar 60 - 기로 하다/했다 I promise to… https://youtu.be/CPplszLn2vc
72 Korean Grammar 61 - (으)ㄴ 적이 있다/없다 I have an experience to… https://youtu.be/tx8bhdYHnxw
73 Korean Grammar 62 - 아/어 본 적이 있다/없다 (I have an experience to (try to)..) https://youtu.be/P7x2b75_6vE
74 Korean Grammar 63 - V/A게 (2 way to use) https://youtu.be/TW2TfLgv8P0
75 Korean Grammar 65 - (으)ㄹ래요? (으)ㄹ래요 https://youtu.be/yvyiRtRYQvE
76 Korean Grammar 66 - 밖에 nothing but, only / difference with 만 https://youtu.be/8TYRjbbTq6E
77 Korean Grammar 67 - (이)나 more than you expect https://youtu.be/m7NdHrJBCd8
78 Korean Grammar - 마다 every, each https://youtu.be/wwZL6cbxTPQ
79 Korean Grammar - 아/어 주다 asking for help / volunteer to help https://youtu.be/XrKLWtF2wz0
80 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄹ 수밖에 없다 to have no other option but to do something https://youtu.be/weYOLBMv8Ko
81 Korean Grammar - Numbers(based on Korean) https://youtu.be/MfEDe1se5Nw
82 Korean Grammar - 다가(action change) https://youtu.be/9VDBpPwGOuc
83 Korean Grammar - 기 때문에 reason, cause https://youtu.be/Iu0qNG6mGKA
84 Korean Grammar - 때문에 vs 이기 때문에 difference https://youtu.be/7HWM3vkVqVk
85 Korean Grammar - ㅎ irregular https://youtu.be/GCubnpvBAEc
86 Korean Grammar - 는 동안에 during / while https://youtu.be/IvRfhNO2vCk
87 Korean Grammar - (으)면서 to do two actions in a same time https://youtu.be/8lp2XBtwHG0
88 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄴ/는 데다가 something added https://youtu.be/dGTuxj1Dtnw
89 Korean Grammar - 처럼 like (something) https://youtu.be/h6csR_AomcM
90 Korean Grammar - 아/어도 되다 asking a permission / allow to do that https://youtu.be/XvLjAtkLfPc
91 Korean Grammar - (으)면 안되다 answering NOT allow to do that https://youtu.be/3ypnkg49y2Q
92 Korean Grammar - 게 되다 become changed https://youtu.be/futcFa-wT1M
93 Korean Grammar - 아/어지다 become changed https://youtu.be/EDV7PfgwO7g
94 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄴ 지 It's been ~ since ~ https://youtu.be/be6tL7SdXy8
95 Korean Grammar - V/A거나 / N(이)나 choose one https://youtu.be/P87yhwefgHw
96 Korean Grammar - A(으)ㄴ/(으)ㄹ 것 같다 V(으)ㄴ/는/(으)ㄹ 것 같다 (guessing) https://youtu.be/Ox0cPNK6tMY
97 Korean Grammar - (으)려면 If you want to do something https://youtu.be/fnM9cBoJBPc
98 Korean Grammar - 아도/어도 even though, although https://youtu.be/hn0ESmKoZs0
99 Korean Grammar - 잖아요 you know.. https://youtu.be/2asLO3W38mM
100 Korean Grammar - 아야/어야 essential condition to do something https://youtu.be/_tBR-GrfbFc
101 Korean Grammar - (으)나 however (formal way) https://youtu.be/yy-1ZXrWje8
102 Korean Grammar - 뿐 only https://youtu.be/g3OajdGjkRQ
103 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄹ뿐만 아니라 Not only But also https://youtu.be/xdXNVnAGHDs
104 Korean Grammar - 았/었으면 좋겠다 I hope - / I wish https://youtu.be/zMONNyYa1xM
105 Korean Grammar - 나 보다 (으)ㄴ가 보다 I guess https://youtu.be/-ZGQT9Nsfis
106 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄴ/는 걸 보니까 As I see... https://youtu.be/J5kBIULynEc
107 Korean Grammar - 더라/더군(요) Talking about something I've seen or listen then knew https://youtu.be/xL9lQtFelAM
108 Korean Grammar 았으면 좋겠다/었으면 좋겠다 I hope~ https://youtu.be/EJAFvpalhGA
109 Korean Grammar -느라고 Because I do something https://youtu.be/pieoAwR6REk
110 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄴ/는 대신에 in stead of, in return https://youtu.be/dBARMi887I4
111 Korean Grammar - 자마자 as soon as https://youtu.be/WnbF5_MKhBw
112 Korean Grammar - 는 대로 as soon as / comparison with 자마자 https://youtu.be/Qv4vx2RzkxQ
113 Korean Grammar - 아/어야겠 strong willingness https://youtu.be/HxhdVuDwdfI
114 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄹ 텐데 might https://youtu.be/lYpyWFdVE_o
115 Korean Grammar - 요 (don't need to repeat, emphasize) https://youtu.be/tQAcKKdVsn0
116 Korean Grammar - 은/는 탓에 comparison with 덕분에 https://youtu.be/9Qzp_9i9uBk
117 Korean Grammar - 았었/었었 had p.p https://youtu.be/ZrmMdoiqBjI
118 Korean Grammar - 아/어 보이다 It seems like https://youtu.be/8hxADyc6QVg
119 Korean Grammar - 거든(요) explain , change the subject https://youtu.be/4If3gHLRnIo
120 Korean Grammar - 같다 (like something) comparison with 처럼 https://youtu.be/_vHv_6qxSQU
121 Korean Grammar - (으)ㄴ/는 편이다 tend to https://youtu.be/dprJBcf3lJ4

Hello! I have been given a task to create an inventory sheet for my place of work. I want to preface that they use google sheets, so this ask may not be possible on that platform. I appreciate any advice though! For my inventory task, I have completed the inventory by building. I also need to create an inventory by category as well. I was wondering if it would be possible to use the drop-down menu to automatically add a row to a new worksheet?
For instance, I have 10 scissors in the East Building. This is office supplies. Could I use a dropdown menu to designate this as office supplies and have the row with scissors be automatically added to another workbook designated to office supplies? I am hoping that this is a possibility, and that if we update the original workbook to reflect a different number of scissors the office supply workbook would be updated as well.
Thank you!

Alright, you know the drill. its time to start completely new because #homelab.
On a serious note im coming from a Scale sever setup and with truecharts breaking everything and the containers breaking every update i need a new solution. Advice has sent me to starting fresh with Proxmox as my base os and from there i have questions so let me tell you what kinda data/apps/projects i wanna run and let me hear what you would do.

• SMB fileshare over LAN. this is crucial
• Plex with about 17TB. ideally would love to also access via SMB for corrections/easy additions.
• Nextcloud with WAN access (this was a nightmare through scale and im hoping someone has easier ideas here) also would love to be able to access data via SMB and have changes reflect in nextcloud if possible.
• complete backup (barely smart) nas at dad's office to be a complete clone of server 1 (roughly 24TB of data). planning to use 3x16tb for this in raid0 since it's just a backup of primary data. it has some ancient i3 processor with 8gb ram (grandma's old pc).
• Easiest way to have all the Servarr apps run and update without issues

so, primary server is an intel 6800k with 64gb ram and a 1650ti graphics card for plex transcoding. it has 3x14tb in z2 and 3x8tb in z2. Nextcloud isnt super fast but otherwise ive never had any issues via LAN or WAN with any services. so here are my known questions, and please feel free to ask some i may not have thought of/considered.

1. ive heard proxmox is great for adding drive pool space after the fact. true? any raid configs hindeblock this ability? should i run proxmox on server 2 to make adding more drives easy in the future?
2. drives are all attached to bare metal (ive read/watched that if this isnt the case it can be tricky with telling which VM/container can have access to what drives). would you recommend a virtualized scale instance for SMB or stick with whatever proxmox's equivalent is? or would that block access from other containers/VMs within proxmox from accessing said data?
3. server 1 has an OS drive (128gb) and an 1tb NVME for apps to run off of. server 2 just has 1 250ssd for OS and any clone-ing software to talk to server 1 for backup purposes. anything i'm missing or not considering here regarding OS and programs to run correctly? (excluding the HDDS)
4. as far as connecting server 1 to 2, across WAN, i think i wanna use tailscale... am i crazy or would that be pretty wise? i could do a personal VPN from my router but something about DCHP possibly changing( i dont have static IP) and how tailscale seems to get around that seems like its the best way to go, yeah?
5. with apps such as Plex, do you recommend in a VM or container? and is that VM a full OS with GUI or no? anything i should consider going one way or another? I am not super comfortable Shell/command-lining my way around so GUI is preferred. once is fine, but every update? no thanks!
6. similar to #5, nextcloud.... how would you set it up given i need WAN access? i pay for cloudflare and all that and had it set up via a tunnel connection as as to not worry about my DHCP situation and when it worked it was great but omg it took 4 apps to make it work, surely there's a simpler way?? again, big fan of GUIs so if there's a way to setup all the networking for WAN access via GUI let me know.

PRIMARY GOAL: get the best/most stable/easy to use OS running so adding anything on top is easier. trying to get a solid base that wont *need* to change in the future and enables me to build off of easier than Truenas Scale.
final note, i'd declare myself about a 5/10 overall techy-ness. so explaining your thoughts in a way a 10yr old can get it would be appreciated before going full tech jargon on me. fast learner but yeah, this isnt my primary hobby haha.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to read (or skim) this! Love this community and look forward to suggestions and personal experiences with your homelabs that lead you to choose X over Y, etc.
-B

Hi,
Im new to all this so go easy and ill try my best to keep it simple but dont think there is an overly concise way to summarise this. Im trying to produce a workbook which serves as a one stop shop for our orders recieved and dispatching side of the business whilst trying not to change too much aesthetically on the surface so the transition is smooth and embraced as currently there is duplication for this in 4 separate places as well as a POS portal, which as you can imagine is leading to a large amount of human error and poor productivity.
I wish to have two control documents (probably can be one if im honest) which is a list of our customers as a master list, then a list of the product lines which pack size and qty etc per customer depedant on which ones are applicable to them.
I wish to use the latter template as the daily order sheet which means i duplicate it for each day (sheets to be named by date ie. 010624). I then want to be able to pull that sheet through to a 'Load Sheet' where it removes all the lines where there is a qty of 0 so we can see how many orders we have got, how many pallets it equates to etc. Id like to be able to do this through a drop down list (which is auto populated by the sheet names as and when they are added)
Any help on the set up would be greatly appreciated :)
As mentioned, i then want to choose a named worksheet from a drop down list on the Load Plan sheet which will pull that sheets data through and filter out lines with 0 qty and then allow me to assign load numbers in a Load Number column to then slice view on the despatch page to assign pallet numbers etc. This is where im pretty fixed in method otherwise too much change, old dogs new tricks etc etc .
Thanks in advance

I have a Sheet in which I have a table of pharmaceuticals. Column G takes the string in column F and generates a scannable QR code. The issue I have now run into is that where the QR codes are stacked on top of one another, I cannot scan the codes nested within. For example, if I have a series of codes in cells 1-7, then a code missing for cell 8, I can scan only the codes in cells 1 and 7; codes 2 through 6 are not scannable since there is no spacing between the preceding and succeeding codes.
I thought I could possibly reduce the font size of column G, but that does not appear to work as these are images.
Any ideas on how I can get some padding/spacing between the codes in this column?
This worksheet utilizes various functions for automation, so manually adding an empty row between codes will not work, aside from being a labor-intensive, nonfeasible option.
There is no spacing between the QR codes in column G.

Streamlining Email Communications via Excel

Excel is not just a tool for managing data; it's a powerhouse for automating repetitive tasks, including sending emails. The capability to dispatch a worksheet as an attachment directly from an Excel workbook to a list of specified email addresses represents a significant efficiency boost for many professionals. This process not only saves valuable time but also reduces the margin for error in manual data entry or the process of attaching files. By leveraging Excel's built-in features or scripting capabilities, users can transform their workflow, turning intricate, time-consuming tasks into a seamless, automated process.
The importance of this functionality extends across various industries, from marketing to finance, where regular communication with stakeholders is pivotal. By automating the process of sending worksheets as email attachments, businesses can ensure timely updates are provided to clients, team members, or stakeholders with minimal effort. This introduction to automating email attachments through Excel will explore the essential steps, tools, and scripts necessary to implement this solution, making your Excel workbook an even more powerful asset in your professional toolkit.

Command	Description
Workbook.SendMail	Sends the workbook as an email attachment using Excel's built-in email functionality.
CreateObject("Outlook.Application")	Creates an Outlook Application object for email automation from Excel using VBA.
.Add	Adds a new email item to the Outlook Application object.
.Recipients.Add	Adds a recipient to the email item. Can be called multiple times to add multiple recipients.
.Subject	Sets the subject line of the email.
.Attachments.Add	Attaches a file to the email. The file path must be specified.
.Send	Sends the email.

Enhancing Workflow Efficiency with Excel Email Automation

Automating the process of sending emails from Excel not only streamlines a crucial communication channel but also introduces a higher level of efficiency and accuracy in the dissemination of information. This capability is particularly beneficial for businesses and professionals who regularly distribute reports, newsletters, or updates to a wide audience. The automation process can be customized to send emails at scheduled intervals, ensuring timely updates without the need for manual intervention. Furthermore, by integrating Excel with email, users can leverage the robust data processing and analysis capabilities of Excel, enabling them to send personalized and data-driven communications. This approach enhances the relevance and impact of the messages sent, as recipients receive information that is tailored to their needs or interests.
The technical foundation for automating email dispatch through Excel involves using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to script the email sending process. VBA allows for the creation of macros within Excel that can interact with email clients, like Microsoft Outlook, to automate the process of composing and sending emails. This includes dynamically adding recipients, subject lines, and attachments based on the content within the Excel workbook. Such automation not only reduces the time spent on repetitive tasks but also minimizes the potential for errors associated with manual email composition. As businesses continue to look for ways to optimize operations and improve communication efficiency, the integration of Excel's data management capabilities with email automation stands out as a powerful tool for achieving these objectives.

Automating Email Dispatch with Excel VBA

VBA in Microsoft Excel

Dim outlookApp As Object Set outlookApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application") Dim mailItem As Object Set mailItem = outlookApp.CreateItem(0) With mailItem .To = "example@example.com" .CC = "cc@example.com" .BCC = "bcc@example.com" .Subject = "Monthly Report" .Body = "Please find the attached report." .Attachments.Add "C:\Path\To\Your\Workbook.xlsx" .Send End With Set mailItem = Nothing Set outlookApp = Nothing 

Expanding Automation Horizons with Excel

Excel's capability to automate email sending tasks opens a new realm of efficiency for professionals across all sectors. This feature is not just about saving time; it's about enhancing the precision and personalization of communication. The integration of Excel with email clients, particularly through VBA, enables the automated sending of tailored messages and documents. This automation is pivotal for finance professionals, marketers, and project managers who regularly share updates, reports, and newsletters with stakeholders. The ability to dynamically attach Excel sheets as email attachments ensures that the latest data can be shared instantly, reducing the lag between data analysis and decision-making.
Beyond the immediate productivity gains, automating emails from Excel facilitates a more strategic approach to communication. Users can segment their audience within their Excel database, allowing for more targeted email campaigns. This level of customization ensures that recipients receive relevant information, increasing engagement and response rates. Moreover, the automation process can be fine-tuned to include conditional formatting rules, ensuring that emails are sent only when specific criteria are met, further enhancing the relevance and timeliness of the communication. As businesses evolve in an increasingly data-driven world, the ability to seamlessly merge data analysis with communication tools like email will become a cornerstone of efficient and effective operations.

Frequently Asked Questions About Excel Email Automation

1. Question: Can Excel send emails automatically?
2. Answer: Yes, Excel can send emails automatically using VBA scripts to interact with email clients like Microsoft Outlook.
3. Question: Do I need Outlook installed to send emails from Excel?
4. Answer: Yes, for the VBA approach, Microsoft Outlook needs to be installed and configured on your computer.
5. Question: Can Excel send an email to multiple recipients at once?
6. Answer: Yes, Excel can send emails to multiple recipients by adding them in the VBA script either directly or by referencing cells containing email addresses.
7. Question: How can I schedule emails to be sent from Excel?
8. Answer: While Excel itself doesn't have a built-in scheduler for emails, you can use Task Scheduler with a VBA script or third-party tools to automate the timing of your emails.
9. Question: Can I personalize the email content for each recipient?
10. Answer: Yes, by using VBA, you can customize the email content for each recipient based on the data stored in Excel.
11. Question: Is it possible to attach multiple files to an email from Excel?
12. Answer: Yes, the VBA script can be modified to attach multiple files by specifying the path of each file you wish to attach.
13. Question: Can I send emails from Excel without using VBA?
14. Answer: Yes, you can use Excel's built-in "Send as Attachment" feature, but this method does not allow for automation or customization.
15. Question: Are there any limitations to sending emails from Excel?
16. Answer: The primary limitation is the necessity of having an email client like Outlook installed, and potential security settings that may restrict automated emails.
17. Question: How can I ensure my automated emails don't end up in the spam folder?
18. Answer: Ensure your email content is clear, concise, and free of spam triggers. Additionally, having recipients add your email address to their trusted list can help.

Wrapping Up Excel's Email Automation Capabilities

The journey through Excel's email automation capabilities reveals a transformative approach to professional communication and data management. By leveraging VBA scripts, users unlock a powerful synergy between Excel's data analysis strengths and the efficiency of direct email communication. This not only streamlines the process of sharing vital information but also personalizes the way businesses interact with their stakeholders. From finance to marketing, the ability to automate email dispatches based on dynamic Excel datasets is a game-changer, ensuring that relevant, up-to-date information reaches the right audience at the right time. As we delve deeper into an era where efficiency and precision are paramount, Excel’s email automation stands out as a critical tool for professionals looking to optimize their workflows, enhance communication strategies, and drive decision-making processes with timely, data-informed insights.
https://www.tempmail.us.com/en/excel/automating-email-attachments-with-excel-workbooks

Since wattage seems to be not the best metric to decide an amp’s “loudness,” I was wondering if its worth to discuss decibel levels.
What decibel levels do you guys typically reach when playing at 1. home? 2. Club gig? 3. Jam sessions?
Consider an answer that includes your entire rig (pedals amps and all)
There’s an added nuance when you might be simply mic-ing your cab (i am guessing it need not be that loud then?!?)
Any softwares/apps that are trusty enough to keep a check on decibel levels without buying an actual decibel meter?
Share your thoughts! Have a great day ahead! Cheers :)
Edit: Some really great perspectives have been shared! Thanks for that. I am what you would call a bedroom guitarist. And I was simply curious how my teeny tiny 10w solid state Laney stacks up against rigs people use in their homes and gigs (in terms of loudness). Seems like it would not be loud enough for a gig, but if i do find myself jamming with others, it should be able to hold its own, all things considered. I am pretty happy with the sound/tone I have got right now (low-mid gain bluesy) and of course its more than plenty loud to play by myself.
So I guess I don’t need to feel left behind for lacking a fully stacked Marshall :p And just gotta keep practising.
Keep jotting down your thoughts and experiences, looking forward to it. Once again, Cheers!

Hi DJ’s
I would like to restart DJ’ing after almost 10 years.
I’m thinking of buying a used DDJ1000 for getting the most similar club setting possible for the least amount of money. I’ll be adding 2 cdj800mk2’s from back in the day.
Is it still worth buying a used ddj1000? Asking price is €1000 Are there elements to definitely test to see if it’s working perfectly?
Thanks Sander

Author's Note:
7700 words, broke Reddit's character limit, so you know the drill. Will be split into two parts, both posted today. Enjoy!
​
--
​
"Stop! STOP!"
The terror in Kismet's voice rose higher as death drew nearer. He fled from Rob's grasping hand, but a Purge Divinity-infused fingernail managed to graze him, carving out a scoop of divine essence as if flaying a mortal's skin.
Kismet let out a screech as the Purging energy added to his growing collection of scars. A dozen small holes now dotted the surface of his mana-body, looking like he'd been pockmarked by wasting disease. Each wound represented a moment where the god had narrowly escaped with his life.
If those injuries had been inflicted by any other ability, then he could have rejuvenated himself in the time it took to blink. Purging energy was not so kind as that. It was purifying wrath in the shape of a Skill; their vengeance given form. Whatever divinity it touched, it extinguished.
As if cleansing the universe of a sickness that had infected it for far too long.
The BERSERKER continued his unrelenting advance. In response, Kismet threw up a frantic barrier of mana. It was strong enough to deflect one of Ragnavi's Annihilation beams–
And Rob blasted through it like paper mache. His charge sent broken shards of energy scattering across the divine realms. More mid-air rifts tore open, the HUMAN's aura strangling the surrounding area in a vice grip of power. Purge Divinity seemed to glow with light emanating straight from the pits of hell.
None of which was anywhere near as unnerving as the murder contained within his piercing gaze. When Kismet met Rob's eyes, he saw the end of eternity fast approaching.
The god's next barrier was just as frantic. However, this one was not comprised of mana, but of solid matter. Kismet summoned the hardest, most dense substance known to the mortal realms, then transmuted it into something that otherwise could only have been forged inside the heart of a dying star. It was many times more durable than the impossibly tough walls of an aberrant Dungeon.
So when Rob demolished it with a single punch, he actually had to put a bit of elbow grease into his windup.
Another wall materialized in front of him. He crushed it, then the one after, and the one after that, lashing out with bestial ferocity. The BERSERKER plowed through Kismet's hastily-built defenses like a bulldozer of fists and savagery. Rob was knocking them down as quickly as the god could make them, relishing the sensation of being able to vent his anger on targets that weren't fucking running away.
Then the twelfth wall fell – revealing a monstrous, spiky, fanged behemoth concealed behind.
Rob paused, momentarily taken aback at the sight of a mundane creature within the divine realms. 'Mundane' in relative terms, anyway. This monster was on par with a newborn Blight, radiating power that would have sent ordinary fighters sprinting for the hills.
It was also barely cognizant of its surroundings. The monster stared at him with unblinking, vacant eyes, just the tiniest glimmer of awareness present in its gaze. Rob noted that segments of its flesh were bubbling, as if the creature was fresh out of the oven and still needed to settle.
He couldn't help but feel a modicum of pity. This was yet another thoughtless creation, condemned to existence by an uncaring maker. Even monsters deserved better than that.
Rob caved the beast's head in before it could realize that it was alive. Pity was not the same as hesitation, and this was the only mercy he could afford to grant right now.
Didn't matter. Kismet's pawn served its purpose. In the brief instant that Rob spent getting over his initial surprise, the god had teleported to safety. He was already planning his next stunt that could buy him a few precious seconds of survival.
The HUMAN grimaced as he turned to give chase, unable to suppress the burgeoning sense of unease growing within his chest.
It almost didn't seem fair to feel that way. Rob knew he was winning – at least on the surface. Any outside observer would've bet their life savings on him, especially after the show of overwhelming superiority he'd just displayed. Kismet had been at a disadvantage before Never Forget Your Rage's recent upswing, and now it was no contest. Rob was confident that he would still be stronger even if the eight gods merged into one super-deity.
He also knew that he was living on borrowed time.
Whenever he moved, or activated a Skill, or even breathed...the sensation was there. Strength accompanied by incongruous frailty. Like background noise that kept getting louder with every action he took. His body felt close to pulling itself apart, as if his very molecules were a hairsbreadth away from coming undone.
It was different from Soul Instability. Whereas that threatened to collapse his soul, this frailty was an affliction of the flesh. The longer he fought, the more his physical form was at risk of popping like a balloon.
Such was the price of constraining godlike power within a mortal shell.
"Stay back!" Unaware of the turmoil fermenting in his assailant's mind, Kismet threw up his hands and...inverted...space? Rob didn't have a name for what he was seeing. Rather than stopping to puzzle out this latest brand of divine bullshit, he sent out a pulse of Purge Divinity, canceling whatever esoteric effect Kismet had been attempting to produce.
His Purging energy scraped against the divine realms like a cheese grater. Five rifts immediately tore open near both Rob and Kismet, with the god anxiously retreating from one that appeared just inches away from him. A low rumble echoed around them, and for a moment, they felt struck by an abrupt feeling of vertigo – until the realms gradually stabilized, righting once more.
For now.
Rob eyed the rifts with a detached, clinical gaze. An endless sea of mana resided behind them; the bedrock of the system itself. While he recognized that the rifts tearing open was bad news, he also couldn't really muster the energy to care. Between his overflowing rage, overtaxed body, and overburdened soul, minor details like the impending destruction of reality were hard to give much focus.
There was a way to fix all of that, of course. Rob couldn't outright deactivate Never Forget Your Rage – not without losing its bonus stats. But he could attempt to ease the storm of fury in his heart. By lessening his anger to more reasonable levels, Never Forget Your Rage would put less strain on both his body and the divine realms.
The notion forced a peal of hideous laughter to claw out of his throat. Lessen his anger? He'd have better luck trying to douse a volcano with a garden hose. No. For a wildfire that had grown this out of control, the only thing to do was stand aside and let it burn, burn, burn.
Until naught remained.
"I said stay back!" Kismet bellowed. He lifted his arms into the air. "Begone!" One moment later, Rob's vision was filled with scorching light. An apocalyptic geyser of mana burst forth from underfoot, intense and searing. It stripped the flesh from his bones in no time flat, powering through Almighty Resistance with pure, unmitigated violence.
And it still wasn't fast enough. Rob flickered a Purge Divinity shield for just an instant, allowing him to escape the geyser with his upper body – and most of his HP – intact. Lifesurge swiftly patched him up, leaving both combatants right back where they'd started.
Slowly, Kismet lowered his hands. They were shivering. "What are you?" he whispered. "Why are all my efforts in vain?"
To be honest, Rob was mildly impressed that Kismet had held on for this long. The god's combat efficacy was increasing as time passed, improving from panic-spamming teleports to more inventive maneuvers – as if he was learning how to fight on-the-job. He'd also stopped draining the other gods to supplement his power, having found an alternative source of fuel: mana seeping out from the sporadically-opening rifts.
It was the one silver lining to fighting an implacable BERSERKER so powerful that he fractured reality. Whenever Rob utilized Purge Divinity, more rifts opened up in the realms, and more mana leaked out from inside. The gods had invested that energy into the system millennia ago, and it typically would've been off-limits until they closed up shop and left Elatra. Kismet was making use of it now, absorbing the extra mana to strengthen himself, like a lifeline barely keeping him afloat.
The god's tenacity was...calling it 'admirable' would be going too far, but it did warrant a sort of begrudging respect. As someone who'd tangoed with multiple Blights, Rob knew what it was like to square off against a frenzied beast that could end him with a touch.
Being the scary one was a nice change of pace.
In exchange, Kismet had graciously donned the role of their battle's Combat Class user; fragile, outgunned, and pulling improvised maneuvers out of his ass for a chance at victory. The god could finally feel what it was like to be vulnerable. How exciting! Rob was more than happy to assist. Learning experiences such as these only came around once an eternity or so.
Flippancy aside – while Kismet still possessed room for improvement, this was the most that could be asked of a deity who hadn't seen combat in literal eons. His biggest fuckup had been taunting Rob in the wrong ways, but he couldn't have known about Never Forget Your Rage, that was an excusable oversight. By all other accounts, Kismet was performing adequately.
Even so...
"YoU aRE noTHinG."
The sound of Rob's voice caused two fresh rifts to open up. Kismet flinched, casting a teleportation spell out of pure reflex. Without pause, the HUMAN resumed his hunt.
Nothing. Perhaps that statement was hyperbole – yet it rang true nonetheless. While Kismet may have been a creature of supreme divinity, on the field of battle, his pedigree meant nothing. In the face of an implacable, unstoppable foe, his power was worth nothing. Very soon, he would be nothing, consigned to oblivion by Purging energy.
Rob couldn't help but unfavorably compare Kismet to the final Blight. Weren't these supposed to be two sides of the same coin? Each one-half of an original transcendent Will? Yet the Second Will had brought Rob to the edge of despair...and Kismet was fleeing like a cornered rodent. It was difficult to reconcile the two divinities as theoretical equals.
Although he knew that was an unfair comparison. Rob had fought the Blight before learning Limit Break and Never Forget Your Rage. Kismet wasn't weak.
The HUMAN was just far too strong.
If he rematched the Second Will today, he would beat it to death with his bare hands.
"Look at what you've wrought!" Kismet swept an arm out, gesturing towards some of the many rifts that Rob's presence was tearing open. "Do you understand what will transpire if you persist in this folly?! If the divine realms shatter, then so will all of Elatra! You are on the brink of destroying everything which you have striven to protect! Cease this–"
"CAN'T."
In a flash, Rob dashed forward and scooped out a chunk of the god's mana-body with Purge Divinity. Before he could do more, Kismet shrieked with pain and teleported away, leaving the BERSERKER to crush his prize between five clenched fingers.
"FoRCed mY HAnD." He located Kismet again. "NO GOING BACK."
Stopping wasn't an option. If the divine realms crumbled and Elatra imploded...well, that would be a faster end than what the gods had in store for its people. At least this way their deaths would be quick and hopefully painless – and his friends wouldn't be turned into Skills tortured for all eternity.
Still, Kismet did have a point. Destroying reality wasn't exactly the ideal outcome. There had to be a way to speed up the conclusion of their fight. Rob was certain he would win if given enough time, but he couldn't guarantee it would be before either his body or the divine realms collapsed.
{Ascend.}
Like a snake slithering through a minefield, Leveling High skirted past the whirlwind of thoughts and emotions raging within Rob's mind. He attempted to tune out its voice, yet Humanity's curse refused to be denied, the static loudening until he was compelled to respond. Quit distracting me, he snapped. In case you haven't noticed, I'm FUCKING. BUSY.
{You seek to ensure victory over those who rule above,} Leveling High continued, without missing a step. {As do I.}
Then sit back, shut up, and–
{Ignoring your deficiencies will not make them disappear. This body is...feeble. Incomplete. Unfit to wield the power contained therein. Like a polished sword attached to a brittle hilt, liable to snap in twain at any moment.}
Rob grit his teeth. He couldn't deny Leveling High's assertions. Normally he'd just tell it to piss off, but considering how much was at stake here...
With a feeling like he'd sat down to deal with the devil, Rob sighed. Then what do you propose? That we upgrade my body somehow? I don't think putting more points into Vitality would help, even if I had any to spare. Me being so juiced up on stats is half the problem.
It shook its head. {You have far surpassed the limitations of mortality. Strengthening your power further would be akin to pouring water into an overflowing cup.}
So we...what, increase the size of the cup?
Static akin to laughter echoed inside his head. {We do away with it entirely.}
An icy chill began creeping up Rob's spine, as if the cold hands of fate were working their way towards his neck. He recalled a system notification from days before – 'Your Race has morphed from Human (?) to: Ascending HUMAN'.
Not Ascended. Ascending.
Weeks-old memories came surging to the forefront. 'The Heartkiller is closer to our form of life than those you call friends,' the Blight-child of Elysium had once said. 'As long as you continue to live, eventually, you will become an existence with the power to crush the Others and free the Skills from their shackles. You are no longer one of the Ephemeral. Now, you are a cocoon, metamorphosing into something grander. When you emerge, you will be as the Eternal.'
The Blight-child had laughed at him, then. 'After joining us, preserving these worlds will no longer be your desire.'
Rob grimaced. Denied, he flatly told Leveling High. Whatever you're about to suggest isn't happening.
It scoffed at him. {Your prejudices blind you. Do you think the gods have need of physical bodies? Does it hinder them in any capacity? No – the opposite. By definition, infinity cannot be constrained. Discard this useless flesh, and your conquest of the divine realms is assured.}
Maybe you didn't hear me when I said–
{By all means. Spurn my counsel...and condemn your friends to death. Shall their lives be worth it, in the end?}
Rob sucked in air through clenched teeth.
{Ascend.} Leveling High purred with anticipation. {You are bound by a prison of meat, bone, and blood. Break free. Finish what has already begun. Gaze upon the tapestry of infinity in all its dreadful splendor. Seize victory not as a Human, but as a completed, transcendent HUMAN.}
With a scream to drown out the static, Rob chased after Kismet again and again. The god was in full-on panic mode, eschewing offensive attacks in favor of perpetual retreat, focused wholly on keeping the BERSERKER as far away as possible. He would teleport the instant that Rob laid eyes on him, frantically stalling for his life.
It was – quite unintentionally – providing evidence to Leveling High's claims. If Kismet was on the defensive, catching him would take time they might not have.
I... Rob narrowed his eyes. How would I finish Ascending, anyway? It isn't like I can just flip a switch and make it happen.
{Incorrect.}
He blinked. WHAT?
{You have long since achieved the qualifications for true godhood,} Leveling High explained, in a lecturing tone. {There is no milestone that remains necessary to achieve. Rather than needing to overcome some hurdle of strength or power, the obstacle barring your path is more...arbitrary. Self-imposed.}
Humanity's curse seemed to peer into his soul. When it spoke next, its voice was filled with disgust. {You remain mortal because you wish to do so – both consciously and subconsciously. The Ascension of a nascent deity has been obstructed by cheap sentimentality.}
Rob almost started an argument over its usage of 'cheap', but he exercised restraint, keenly aware that there was bigger fish to fry. Can't do anything about the subconscious. I am \not* activating Melancholy Resistance.*
{Nor should you,} Leveling High remarked, shuddering at the prospect. {A grand statement of intent will be sufficient to shift your mentality. I believe...yes.}
The static churned like a hive of buzzing wasps. {When you next tear off a piece of the leader god's mana...even if just a sliver...devour it. Gorge yourself on their essence.}
Bile threatened to rise to the top of Rob's throat. Seems excessive, he mused, trying and failing to keep his tone lighthearted. To become a god, I eat a god? Wouldn't that make me a divine cannibal?
{You ARE a cannibal.} Leveling High's voice wavered, its veneer of helpfulness slipping to reveal the madness that lay beneath. {What do you think you've been DOING for nearly a YEAR? You kill, ingest your prey's Experience, and MAKE THEIR POWER YOUR OWN. This world is one of consumption and parasitism – devouring a god's essence is merely a more HONEST variant of THE SAME actions.}
...You clearly weren't paying attention during Diplomacy's PR lessons. Rob pursued Kismet once again, pressing his fingernails into his palms when the god hurriedly teleported away. There is such a thing as being too straightforward. If you want people to listen to you, then maybe dress up your words so they don't sound so horrifying.
{BUT AM I WRONG?}
Rob had no answer to that.
Bolts of divine mana peppered his skin. Kismet had barely managed to squeeze an attack in-between his escapes. The bolts ricocheted off Rob's skin like ping-pong balls, leaving minor scrapes and nothing more. It wasn't anywhere close to bypassing Almighty Resistance and his massive HP pool.
Yet it also reminded him of the mana-spears that Kismet had sent towards the rest of Riardin's Rangers. His Party members only possessed a shared, diluted version of Almighty Resistance, and their HP was a fraction of his. If Kismet aimed another attack of that caliber at them...how many would perish, right then and there?
Was Leveling High correct? What point was there to sentimentality if it just got his friends killed?
In truth, Rob knew that it didn't really matter if he completed his Ascension. Based on what he had planned for himself after the gods were dead, little would change either way. Still...he also knew that Ascending would be a one-way trip. No take-backs. If he went through with it, a fundamental part of him would be irrevocably altered.
Something twinged in a corner of his mind. It wasn't Leveling High, or his rage, or any of the other emotions currently dominating his headspace. This was a familiar friend; perhaps Rob's #1 most trusted confidant since he'd first set foot in Elatra. One that had rarely ever steered him wrong.
Paranoia.
And at the moment, it was telling him to be very careful before jumping into the deep end.
Ten teleports.
{What?}
Give it ten more Kismet teleports, Rob said. If I haven't dealt him a serious injury by then....I'll do what I need to do. He grimaced as Kismet vanished before he'd even finished the thought. Ten starting now.
Leveling High's static quieted. It resembled a patron at a restaurant who'd ordered their meal, and was waiting patiently for the main course to arrive.
Rob didn't waste time being offended over its nonchalance. Free of distractions, he immediately swept his gaze across the divine realms, pinpointing his quarry in a micro-instant. The BERSERKER dashed forward, pushing his body as far as he could, layering Rampages on top of Dexterity that made the laws of physics want to curl up and weep.
Kismet was prepared. He'd drawn more mana from the fractured rifts, quickening his speed and reactions. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep his head above water, not yet outpaced by their continually escalating arms race.
The HUMAN struck, the god fled, and both were left in the same position as before.
{One.}
Rob turned on a dime, charging without needing to look. He'd heard the moment that Kismet's teleport ended. It afforded him a split-second head start.
A gravity well suddenly appeared below his feet, as if a miniaturized black hole was weighing him down. Apparently, Kismet had set it up ahead of time as a just-in-case trap. Rob pierced through the spell's area of effect before it could ramp up to something dangerous, but his pace was slowed by a hair in the process, and his prey escaped.
{Two.}
You know what? Screw this. Rob whirled away from Kismet's newest location and blasted straight towards one of the lesser deities that his Party members were fighting.
He'd been too hung up on getting even with a hated foe – when there were seven other juicy morsels for him to play with. This way, Kismet would either sit back and watch as his allies were massacred, or the god would be forced to act instead of running like a goddamn cowar–
Sense Mana alerted Rob to magic gathering behind.
Pivoting, he leapt into the air. Rob superimposed himself in front of Kismet, bodyblocking the rainstorm of destructive mana that was about to be unleashed upon Riardin's Rangers.
Due to his swift response, the attack was released early. A simple Purge Divinity shield prevented him from incurring any damage. Rob still felt no sense of triumph as the mana dissipated around him. He just wasn't fast enough to kill the lesser gods and protect his Party at the same time – or at least not fast enough that he should gamble their lives on it.
Kismet disappearing a moment later didn't help matters either.
{Three.}
Frontal assaults weren't guaranteed to succeed, and targeting the other gods was a no-go. Could he take Kismet by surprise? Increase his Dexterity?
Rob contemplated mining Never Forget Your Rage for more stats, but swiftly vetoed the idea. His body was already struggling to hold itself together. Putting additional strain on a shaky foundation seemed...unwise.
Plus – at the risk of eating crow in the near future – he didn't actually think it was possible to feel angrier at the gods than he was right now. Seriously, what was left?
He hated them for sending him to a fantasy deathworld. He hated them for tormenting his friends and family. He hated them for being partially responsible for the Blight. He hated them for what they'd done to Elatra and Earth. He hated them for all the lives they'd stolen. He hated them for being the living embodiments of indifference and cruelty. He hated that they fostered good PR among the people they oppressed. He hated how monsters of such craven hypocrisy were also immeasurably powerful. He hated the sensation of divine mana crawling on his skin. He hated the unsettling sound of their voices. He hated their bizarre formless appearances. He hated them for being pompous pricks. He hated whenever they tried to relate to him. He hated whenever they didn't.
Most of all, he hated that they were still alive.
Even if he found out that they'd personally antagonized him since birth or some petty nonsense like that, it wouldn't measure up to the litany of transgressions they'd committed thus far. The blazing inferno within his soul could burn no hotter. Should burn no hotter. For his sanity's sake, if nothing else.
Kismet teleported. It wasn't in response to anything. He'd merely anticipated some sort of action – and was then baffled afterwards when he noticed the rampaging BERSERKER standing quietly in deep thought.
{Four.}
Rob advanced. While he didn't have a plan yet, he'd also learned that if he gave Kismet the slightest amount of breathing room, bad things tended to happen.
Can any of my Skills give me an edge? Unfortunately, he didn't think so. As usual, his lack of ranged options was biting him in the ass when it mattered most. Almost everything he could use required getting in close – which was the whole freaking problem – and none would be more effective than Purge Divinity, regardless.
Maybe I could set up a Waymark point, then catch Kismet's teleport with one of mine...no, that won't work either. The odds of him popping in next to a random Waymark point are slim. Could fill the battlefield with lots of Marks, but even then I have to consider the Skill's activation time. With my current Dexterity, it'd honestly be faster just to run at him.
The vast majority of his abilities simply weren't up to par in a clash with divinity. Limit Break, Purge Divinity, and Never Forget Your Rage had been specifically designed by the Skills to facilitate deicide. Something like Power Slash couldn't possibly compare to jailbroken stats and a touch of death.
As an act of defiance against his own logic, he cast Enmity, the only ability that could feasibly hit Kismet at range. The god casually shrugged off its effect before promptly escaping.
{Five.}
Like a frustrated animal, Rob snarled and gave chase. Just need to keep trying. Kismet isn't perfect.
{Six.}
Sooner or later, he's going to mess up.
{Seven.}
He's going to mess up.
{Eight.}
HE HAS TO MESS UP.
Suddenly, Kismet transformed his right hand into a blade of mana. With one harsh motion, he sliced open his own left arm.
By now, Rob had conditioned himself to never stop moving forward, even if something shocked him – which this sight very much did. His mouth dropped open, and Leveling High paused in the middle of eating its metaphorical popcorn. They still kept advancing without an iota of hesitation.
And ran straight into the mana cloud leaking out from Kismet's wound.
Rob blinked, opening his eyes to a wonderful day. The twisting plains looked dazzlingly beautiful, with fauna and plantlife lit by rays of effervescent light from the twin stars shining above. People cheerfully went about their day, happily shaking their trunks in shows of greeting, or rattling their scales to initiate merry games.
All was at peace.
Until – in unison – everyone froze. The tumult of life went quiet in an instant, replaced with pensive silence.
As if they'd been struck by the creeping, pervasive sensation of being watched.
A sound rang out. Half of them immediately fell over dead, fluids gushing from their ruined bodies.
The survivors could only lay there, crippled and in pain, as more people slowly rose into the air. Invisible fingers seemed to pluck them from the ground – and then began ripping off their limbs, one at a time, like a child dissecting butterflies–
Rob dragged himself back to the present.
It had taken much less time than before to recognize what was happening. Now that he knew what to expect, experiencing the remnant souls' lives wasn't so different from the dreamlike quality of an Attunement vision. Although...realizing that he'd witnessed the end of a world preceding Elatra did cause his thoughts to hitch for a single moment.
Which was just enough for Kismet to forge a spear of mana, then send it plunging through Rob's eye, skull, and brain. Its tip was forged to shred anything it touched, no matter how durable or Resistant.
The god whooped with glee – only to wince as the HUMAN's sole reaction was a long, drawn-out sigh. With an air of exasperation, he reached up and yanked the divine spear free with a nauseating splorch.
His eye had been reduced to a seeping red mess. He closed its eyelid. When he opened it again, the orb within had already Regenerated, now sporting an unamused glare.
It was something of a unique moment. Mid-battle events didn't typically leave both combatants feeling disheartened. The all-powerful god was losing faith that he could ever hope to stop Rob's onslaught...
And the BERSERKER didn't know if he could justify continuing on like this. His body still felt like it was pulling itself apart; if anything, the sensation was growing more pronounced as their battle progressed. While Kismet would make a fatal mistake eventually, Rob couldn't guarantee that he would last long enough to capitalize on it.
Unless he followed Leveling High's advice and–
With a howl that shook the divine realms, Rob launched his stolen spear at Kismet. His aim was true, yet it sailed through empty air, the god's afterimage tauntingly fading away.
{Nine.}
Final chance.
​
--
​
Link to Part 2

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